Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now
Speaker 1: your hosts, Casey Smith Tyler Jones. This is rut Fresh
Speaker 1: Radio powered by Vortex Optics, and today we are talking
Speaker 1: to hunters from around the country and the common theme
Speaker 1: seems to be taking care of family matters and finding
Speaker 1: hard mass. What's happening, y'all. This is rut Fresh Radio
Speaker 1: powered by Vortex Optics. Guess what, guys, It is hunting
Speaker 1: season almost everywhere right now, Like October is here. This
Speaker 1: is what we like to affectionately call the pre rut.
Speaker 1: That's exciting times, man. I love being to this time
Speaker 1: of the year. We're actually up in South Dakota right now.
Speaker 1: Been hunting in Nebraska and it actually is fall here.
Speaker 1: Back home in Texas, it's still summer. Like my kids
Speaker 1: swimming in the backyard, you know, like it's going down.
Speaker 1: But up here in the North Country these deer moving
Speaker 1: around and it isn't exciting. Tyler Jones is also here
Speaker 1: with me. Tyler, what is happening, dude? Oh, just you know,
Speaker 1: trying to chase deer around all over the country right now.
Speaker 1: Um actually been up in Nebraska we have and uh,
Speaker 1: we've had pretty good little chunk of success there, Chunky.
Speaker 1: I think it might even get better in the future.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we've you know, we actually started that hunt.
Speaker 1: I had a had a rough hunt man, and uh,
Speaker 1: you were having rust runs, had runt run and you're
Speaker 1: having a bunt hunt. Uh. The for me, I think
Speaker 1: the first two hunts that I had I saw says
Speaker 1: the morning and the evening, I had one deer, So
Speaker 1: I called that A was averaging a half deer per
Speaker 1: sit um. I decided to be pretty aggressive and hunt,
Speaker 1: you know, tree stand hanging saddles and being trees basically
Speaker 1: m on this hunt at least early on. Instead of
Speaker 1: glass and trying to figure something out right, you did
Speaker 1: a little more glass and type stuff and and had
Speaker 1: more success overall on that trip. I would call my
Speaker 1: strategy ground and pound strategy, where I wasn't glassing to
Speaker 1: learn things for like three days later. It was like
Speaker 1: try to put eyes onto your and make moves on
Speaker 1: them in that sense, and it and it does what
Speaker 1: it always does. It produces encounters, but they have a
Speaker 1: much lower odds of success than whenever you hang in
Speaker 1: a tree like you what you were doing. If you
Speaker 1: it's strange how like if you're in a tree and
Speaker 1: you encounter a buck, there's a real good chance that
Speaker 1: you can get a shot, whereas if you're on the
Speaker 1: ground doing that thing, there's a real good chance you
Speaker 1: mess it up real bad. So we kind of we
Speaker 1: employed different strategies early on there, and I think that was, um,
Speaker 1: you know, part of the reason I struggled as I
Speaker 1: was trying to find well then so I ended up
Speaker 1: actually doing what you were doing and found deer, saw
Speaker 1: quite a few deer that morning, but didn't see a shooter.
Speaker 1: And that's that. That was kind of the issue we
Speaker 1: run into, is like habitats kind of limited where we
Speaker 1: where we were at and starting out, and I ended up, uh,
Speaker 1: finding dear but not a shooter. And that's what you
Speaker 1: you know, that's the issue. There's your shooter may not
Speaker 1: be in a particular piece of cover, that particular piece
Speaker 1: of cover, So now it's time to move two miles
Speaker 1: over and do something different and find a different piece
Speaker 1: and see if he's there. And so I was really
Speaker 1: kind of you know, running thin on optimism at the time,
Speaker 1: and uh, you're over here just like having the time
Speaker 1: of your life, just boot spooking and doing all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff. Know if you would call it the time
Speaker 1: of your life, because I don't know that depends on
Speaker 1: what you call the time of your life, you know what.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty deep concept, right, But one would say that, Um,
Speaker 1: what makes a good vocalist is dynamic range, and maybe
Speaker 1: that's how hunting goes to like a lot of dynamic
Speaker 1: range in the hunt highs and lows are's a lot
Speaker 1: of people would say, right, And so that's definitely what
Speaker 1: I was experiencing. Um, this all this stuff that we're
Speaker 1: talking about here, guys will be on the Mediator Channel
Speaker 1: next summer. We're producing a white Tail travel top series. Um,
Speaker 1: and that's what we're doing right now in South Dakota too.
Speaker 1: But uh, which, by the way, we had we killed
Speaker 1: two bucks? Did I can't tell you too much more.
Speaker 1: We're actually gonna probably talk about that on our podcast
Speaker 1: here real soon, so you can jump over the element
Speaker 1: and listen to the story if you're interested. And speaking
Speaker 1: of killing bucks, there's other success in the Rough Fresh crew.
Speaker 1: As you would say, all right, Marcus Kenyon has done
Speaker 1: it again again. I think he's killed more than one, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: well this was his first buck. Okay, Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: good first buck, so um of the season. Sorry, Mark
Speaker 1: is going to talk about that on his main show too.
Speaker 1: But he he killed an opening weekend buck in Michigan.
Speaker 1: It's a nicety, it's a big deer man. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I was stoked for him. Um. We're actually up here
Speaker 1: right now, um, and we're gonna be hanging out some
Speaker 1: with Tony. Uh. You guys know Tony Peterson probably if
Speaker 1: you listen to this podcast, and uh, we're gonna do
Speaker 1: some South Dakota hunting together too and talk about that
Speaker 1: that's gonna be part of that same video series case
Speaker 1: he was talking about that the Nebraska Hunt will be
Speaker 1: on and that'll be three thing. So you got something
Speaker 1: to wait on and look forward to. Uh. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like Christmas, just a little bit farther out pretty much,
Speaker 1: That's right. And uh, guys, I know that it's exciting
Speaker 1: time of the year. There's all kinds of things going
Speaker 1: running around out there in your mind, tactics and all this,
Speaker 1: and it's actually a little cloudy because it's also the
Speaker 1: time of year that uh, the influencer crowd tends don't
Speaker 1: want to spit out a bunch of tips and tactics.
Speaker 1: Don't get too bogged down that stuff. Hunt your hunt,
Speaker 1: look at what's going on around you, perceive what the
Speaker 1: deer doing, and make moves to kill deer. And that's
Speaker 1: what rough fresh is all about. Right. We talked to
Speaker 1: people from different parts of the country to try to
Speaker 1: hone in on maybe a pattern that you also might
Speaker 1: see that will help you kill deer. Right, and um,
Speaker 1: optimism is high, but realism is important. Right. This is
Speaker 1: where this is actually the contrast that Tyler and Casey have.
Speaker 1: Casey's a little bit too much of an optimist. Tyler,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can be too much for
Speaker 1: realist because it is real, right, it tends to really
Speaker 1: too much realism actually turns to a negative context sometimes,
Speaker 1: I think. Or it's easy to do, so you can
Speaker 1: do that. We balance each other out with like a
Speaker 1: conservative optimism pretty much. Uh, and it works out pretty good.
Speaker 1: So be optimistic, be excited about deer season, right, but
Speaker 1: don't don't go in there saying it's an eleven out
Speaker 1: of ten on October tenth. Whenever you have a buck
Speaker 1: moving at three am on your trail camera, right, that's
Speaker 1: that's not what it is. You're just excited, you know.
Speaker 1: That's the thing is you definitely want to be I
Speaker 1: don't know, fomo is high this time of year because
Speaker 1: there are people killing deer. The thing is, you've got
Speaker 1: the right property, then the deer is just you know,
Speaker 1: he's just preseason hanging out on your property. If you
Speaker 1: don't have the right property, then you need to wait
Speaker 1: for the rut. That's what, plain and simple. You know.
Speaker 1: You know, there are a few guys that we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk to this week that have, um, I guess the
Speaker 1: right property or they're on the right property right. Michael
Speaker 1: Hunt Sucker from Harlan Bow Hunter. You guys will hear
Speaker 1: about his Ohio buck. Uh. Are your buddy Roy Stron
Speaker 1: h Academy workers. Uh, he's he's out of Texas. He
Speaker 1: has a really interesting story as well for you this week.
Speaker 1: Matt Ross from the n d A. He's up in
Speaker 1: the New York area for all the Northeasterners, He's gonna
Speaker 1: uh crush your hopes. And then uh, Christian Babcock, our
Speaker 1: buddy from Oklahoma. UM has a really cool story of
Speaker 1: a big old toad buck that he shot so hopefully
Speaker 1: this stuff will help you out. Let's give him a
Speaker 1: little extra here. As so we've hunted Nebraska this week, Uh,
Speaker 1: kind of give some of that like plain stuff. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you were to predict buck movement for Nebraska for
Speaker 1: the next week, what would you foresee it being like?
Speaker 1: And tell me why, Well, we've got a cold front
Speaker 1: coming in, and I think that what it's gonna do,
Speaker 1: uh for these deer. They've had pretty hot weather, hot
Speaker 1: evenings especially, and what I have seen is that these
Speaker 1: deer are moving literally ten minutes of shooting light left
Speaker 1: a lot of times. I think what you're gonna get
Speaker 1: is that when this front, when these fronts pushing in,
Speaker 1: not only cold weather, but overcast evenings, which is gonna
Speaker 1: make you know, make dear at least think that maybe
Speaker 1: it's later than it is. Right. Um, they're they're out
Speaker 1: there all the time, so they're not easily fooled in that,
Speaker 1: but they there is a couple of minutes there that
Speaker 1: can help you out if you're, you know, needing some
Speaker 1: extra time. You're that deer that you've seen is coming
Speaker 1: you know late, he's coming right after shooting light. So
Speaker 1: I would say scale one to ten, um based off
Speaker 1: of what my hunt was, I would say we're looking
Speaker 1: at probably somewhere in the five range with that weather
Speaker 1: coming in, because it's gonna change patterns and it's gonna
Speaker 1: make a move. You just gotta you just gotta find them.
Speaker 1: And that's what I was struggling to do. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that that was exactly the number I was going
Speaker 1: forward to, kind of right in the middle Man, Middle America,
Speaker 1: middle numbers. That's what Nebraska. Yes, yeah, that's right. Food
Speaker 1: sources are still gonna be huge. It's a dry, dry
Speaker 1: year up here in the plains. Uh, So find water,
Speaker 1: fine food, and you will find bucks. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: would say mornings still, I think that overall, I saw
Speaker 1: better action in the mornings. I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of the deer holding tight to bedding until the sun
Speaker 1: goes down. That can change, like you were saying, though,
Speaker 1: with some cooler temps, some overcast weather, it could get
Speaker 1: really really nice. And guys like I want us to
Speaker 1: be real about what these numbers mean to us. At least, Uh,
Speaker 1: a five is a really good number for why tel hunting. Like, Uh,
Speaker 1: the best rout day in my life was probably a nine,
Speaker 1: you know, And that's so like you can't personally, I
Speaker 1: can't throw out a seven or eight very you know,
Speaker 1: with much conscience because it's a little bit um that's
Speaker 1: those are kind of like sacred numbers, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, get up there high. So so feel good
Speaker 1: about it. Five for sure. We've got some seven or
Speaker 1: eights in this forecast for you. So let's listen to
Speaker 1: these guys. Tell us why you should be out in
Speaker 1: the woods. Okay, on the phone. Now we've got Michael
Speaker 1: hunt Sucker from Harlan Bow Hunter. Michael, you've been in
Speaker 1: Ohio recently and you've had some success, is that right? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just got back a couple of days ago, uh
Speaker 1: day before yesterday. Well, so how did this hunt go down?
Speaker 1: It it looked like it was a different kind of
Speaker 1: habitat or different type of country than you normally are hunting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely so. Um actually it was it was a hunt
Speaker 1: that we did a giveaway with Trophy Rock and the
Speaker 1: guys at Redmond Hunt and um, so we had a
Speaker 1: hunt winner. Um that that one the giveaway and we
Speaker 1: got them all out and then and um, we're basically
Speaker 1: going to do this hunt in Ohio, so we chose
Speaker 1: to do opening week um out there in Ohio and UM,
Speaker 1: some of the Redmond guys um you know, live out
Speaker 1: there in that area and have been hunting that area,
Speaker 1: and so they have a few different properties, but they
Speaker 1: hunt and UM it's kind of in the foothills of
Speaker 1: the Appalachian Mountains. UM, kind of in southeast Ohio there
Speaker 1: and uh so it was pretty cool. It was unique
Speaker 1: for me, just different than what, um, what I've hunted before.
Speaker 1: I want to hunt in Ohio one time before. UM,
Speaker 1: but a lot of reminded me of being from Missouri.
Speaker 1: Was hunting like down at the Ozarks and the Ozark
Speaker 1: Mountains as we call them here. So just a lot
Speaker 1: of steep terrain, a lot of timber um and for
Speaker 1: early season that can be extremely difficult, and it proved
Speaker 1: to be especially starting out. UM, just acorns dropping everywhere,
Speaker 1: and deer didn't really have to go far. You know,
Speaker 1: they love they love those acorns, even though they're not
Speaker 1: the most nutritional. So it's a comment scenario. A lot
Speaker 1: of hunters run into where it's feast or famine with acorns,
Speaker 1: where there's either just one good feet tree and it's awesome,
Speaker 1: or there's so many that you can't really target a
Speaker 1: specific spot. How did you navigate that? Yeah? So for
Speaker 1: us it was, um, you know it was it was
Speaker 1: a pretty um one of the areas that was not
Speaker 1: not affected by drought much. So really good acorn crop,
Speaker 1: it seemed. Um. So the red oaks and the white
Speaker 1: Oaks are like, we're both dropping like crazy, and so
Speaker 1: you know, we um, we hunted the first first few days.
Speaker 1: I always try to be I'm a pretty cautious white
Speaker 1: jil hunter. UM. I don't like just like bombing in
Speaker 1: and you know, just hiking around in the wood looking
Speaker 1: for an acorn tree, um and bumping deer. I it's
Speaker 1: not just not a fan of that. I kind of
Speaker 1: like this, you know, uh, start off, he'sing my way in.
Speaker 1: And so that's kind of what we did. And we
Speaker 1: just didn't weren't seeing the deer, and we hunted some.
Speaker 1: They had some small food plots and I'm talking small
Speaker 1: small half acre, quarter acre, little clearings in the in
Speaker 1: the woods. Uh um. And so you know we realized
Speaker 1: that like, okay, like if we're not seeing a beer here,
Speaker 1: you know they're they're not making it to the food
Speaker 1: plot before darker. It's got to be an acorn deal,
Speaker 1: and so you know, we we ended up doing a
Speaker 1: little bit of that, you know, kind of just on
Speaker 1: the boots on the ground scouting and um, you know,
Speaker 1: we found some spots, but but we ended up doing
Speaker 1: a hanging hunt on a on a big acorn flat
Speaker 1: that we found and just didn't see the deer. We
Speaker 1: just didn't didn't see the movement that we were hoping. So, um,
Speaker 1: it just kind of got to the point to where
Speaker 1: we were kind of scratching our heads. So at that point,
Speaker 1: how do you end up finishing this thing off? So
Speaker 1: you know, just about the point in time where I was,
Speaker 1: you know, questioning because is it is never gonna work out?
Speaker 1: We actually had our very first stand that we hung
Speaker 1: was on a ridge top basically, um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: a quarter mile from this food plot, and it was
Speaker 1: a good terrain feature. Um. You know, I was looking
Speaker 1: at the three D version of on X on the
Speaker 1: web browser and you could see you can exaggerate the
Speaker 1: train even on there, and so you could really see
Speaker 1: these little saddles in these ridges. And we hung a
Speaker 1: set on this ridge that kind of transitioned, um, from
Speaker 1: a couple of different food plots. Basically there was two
Speaker 1: food plots and there was a road system that kind
Speaker 1: of led to this this ridge. Well, um, we had
Speaker 1: a camera that I put on this old logging road
Speaker 1: below the ridge, below the stand that we hung. I
Speaker 1: checked that camera and the biggest deer that we I've
Speaker 1: had pictures of, um, and they were running cameras before,
Speaker 1: you know, before we got out there. But the biggest
Speaker 1: deer that we had pictures of was on that camera.
Speaker 1: Two nights in a row, and the first night was
Speaker 1: after dark, like the thirty minutes after dark, and then
Speaker 1: the second night was like thirty minutes before h or
Speaker 1: right at sunsets the thirty minutes before shooting time. So
Speaker 1: we were all pumped and got all excited and hunted
Speaker 1: that stand for two days straight and did not see
Speaker 1: the de here. Just like it was. It was the
Speaker 1: typical like uh, roller coaster of bow hunting, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: just like we're pumped to get there, got excited, I
Speaker 1: didn't see anything. We're kind of like, okay, we're kind
Speaker 1: of in the low, like this kind of sucks. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be a tough hunt. Then you get the
Speaker 1: trail camp pictures were ecksided, and then no, don't see
Speaker 1: anything um. But as we had hunted that other stand
Speaker 1: up the last few days, the buck I end up
Speaker 1: killing daylighted in the food plot that that we had
Speaker 1: hunted earlier in the hunt. And so I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: like this is it. Tomorrow's our last day, Like, let's
Speaker 1: see if we can get this deer killed. You know,
Speaker 1: Willie come back in the day like a second day
Speaker 1: who knows. But it's a pretty secluded food plot, like
Speaker 1: on top of the ridge, like back in the timber,
Speaker 1: so it's like, you know, close to close to bedding,
Speaker 1: close to plenty of acorns and stuff. So um. The
Speaker 1: only problem was the wind was sketchy, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I just don't look like we there
Speaker 1: were We had to stand on the food plot already,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I know that's not gonna work.
Speaker 1: Literally completely opposite wrong wind. And I was like, we
Speaker 1: could hang on the opposite side of the food plot.
Speaker 1: It's a small food plot, so literally a hundred yards away,
Speaker 1: and the wind is still gonna be marginal at best.
Speaker 1: But if they come from the you know, the direction
Speaker 1: I chinked the bucks for coming like it might work. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see if the wind doesn't swirl right. I mean
Speaker 1: that's like the the thing about that area, like with
Speaker 1: the train and like literally swirly as it gets. Man,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. So you ended up shooting an awesome deer there, man,
Speaker 1: and UH had a great time. I'm sure. Uh. Sometimes
Speaker 1: the challenging hunts are are like that. Man, they they
Speaker 1: they're tough when you're there, but after you look back
Speaker 1: at you're like, man, that was that was awesome. That's
Speaker 1: why we do this, you know, the challenge ourselves. So
Speaker 1: you know, if if based off of what you saw
Speaker 1: there and uh, and how your experience went and what
Speaker 1: you think, you know, the future weather patterns or whatever
Speaker 1: look like they're um on scale of one to ten,
Speaker 1: how would you feel like next week would be. Would
Speaker 1: it be even better or or do you think it'd
Speaker 1: be tougher? Um, you know, I think it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a little bit tougher early next week.
Speaker 1: It's the weather is just is not looking the greatest
Speaker 1: and so um, it's gonna be a little bit warmer
Speaker 1: the first early part of the week, but there is
Speaker 1: a good cold snap coming and um, so you know,
Speaker 1: I would say, if you're gonna if you only have
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time to hunt. I would key
Speaker 1: in towards that later later part of the week. But
Speaker 1: that being said, the deer moving, I mean they're they're
Speaker 1: moving in daylight, and they're you know, um, I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. That cold front and those you know,
Speaker 1: early October cold front is gonna be money if you
Speaker 1: kind of just be patient away for the right time.
Speaker 1: So I would say the end of next week. I
Speaker 1: put her at a probably a probably an eighty eight. Baby.
Speaker 1: That's good, man, and it gets me hot. That's cool, dude. Well,
Speaker 1: appreciate the time, Michael, and I hope you have a
Speaker 1: great the rest of the season. Man. Thanks, guys, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: On the phone, now we've got Matt Ross. He is
Speaker 1: the director of Conservation for the n DA. Matt, what's happening, dude,
Speaker 1: what's going on, Cassie. I'm doing pretty good up here
Speaker 1: in New York. Oh, well, it is a little rainy here.
Speaker 1: We're in South Dakota trying to chase the deer around.
Speaker 1: But I know you've been chasing around a few deer
Speaker 1: there in New York. Can you always have the tabs
Speaker 1: on the deer right? So by profession. You are a
Speaker 1: wildlife bologists. Correct, correct? Yeah, So what is going on
Speaker 1: in the deerwoods right now? Man? Well, where i I'm
Speaker 1: I live and work out of the Northeast. I've I've
Speaker 1: hunted New Hampshire, Massachusetts when I was living there, But
Speaker 1: right now in the New York State, across most of
Speaker 1: the Northeast anyway, UM falls is full on effect. I
Speaker 1: mean we're seeing leaves changing and food sources are changing.
Speaker 1: What deer doing is they're changing. This is this is
Speaker 1: a major time when their food availability is a major
Speaker 1: shift and people start seeing changes and what deerre doing,
Speaker 1: and they're really starting to focus on those changes of food. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of it is hard mass availability, UM. Some
Speaker 1: of its soft mass. This is when they're they're getting
Speaker 1: off of Forbes and trying to find those fruits, either
Speaker 1: hard foods or soft fruits. De're hitting acorns, the ones
Speaker 1: that are dropping beach snuts in some cases where you
Speaker 1: got beach um. And there was a lot of early
Speaker 1: drop of apples this year across the Northeast. A lot
Speaker 1: lots of apples were coming down early UM, and so
Speaker 1: they're they're focusing on that. So for a guy from Texas.
Speaker 1: What is early for apples? What is early for apples? Well,
Speaker 1: right now, like we're starting to see, um, some of
Speaker 1: the some of the apple varieties already started to hit
Speaker 1: the ground. That's that seems kind of early. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: so a lot of the wild apple trees will drop
Speaker 1: in September and early October across the Northeast. But there
Speaker 1: are some persistent varieties out there. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know all the names of the different apple trees, but um,
Speaker 1: the ones that are in the wild. But occasionally you'll
Speaker 1: find trees that will hold later, but most of will
Speaker 1: drop earlier this time of year. Yeah, so you actually
Speaker 1: had some success recently, and I'm interested in knowing if
Speaker 1: this was an apple deer or otherwise. No, it was
Speaker 1: a was an acorn beach nut. Dear. Our season just opened, Tyler,
Speaker 1: Uh this past weekend on Saturday. So I haven't really
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time a field, but um, I
Speaker 1: have got got luck. First set hour and a half
Speaker 1: into the to the first set, deer have been filtering
Speaker 1: through the woods, UM feed on these acorns and some
Speaker 1: beech nuts, and I knew that they were I have
Speaker 1: a camera out there and uh, dough family group came through.
Speaker 1: UM three to four individuals tried tried to shoot the
Speaker 1: big mammoth dough that have been trying to kill a
Speaker 1: couple of years, but she she was onto me, and uh,
Speaker 1: I just took took what what was you know was presented?
Speaker 1: So UH killed the nice three and a half year
Speaker 1: old dough on Sunday morning, Thank you very much. The
Speaker 1: kids were able to help track and and do all
Speaker 1: the things because we was right behind the house. Man
Speaker 1: is there? That's fun? So is that something like a
Speaker 1: perennial pattern that you see there behind the house and
Speaker 1: you can kind of always plan on targeting that, you know,
Speaker 1: hard mask there? Uh in early October? Yeah, and it
Speaker 1: I only really have about two weeks to do it. Um.
Speaker 1: Usually about mid October they completely abandoned that pattern and
Speaker 1: so UM, I had to hit it hard, hard and fast.
Speaker 1: So I have my plan and the weather is not
Speaker 1: bad this time of year. We actually had a freeze
Speaker 1: warning last night, but I didn't get that cold. Um.
Speaker 1: But in about two weeks, they really do abandon the
Speaker 1: back the back of our property and they shift to
Speaker 1: a different different parts. So so that I got it done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awesome, dude. Congrats you got meat for the fall now,
Speaker 1: and I would imagine that some focus after fulfilling that
Speaker 1: task would shift to Bucks. Correct correct correct, and UH
Speaker 1: been been paying attention to your uh foibles and uh
Speaker 1: journey that you guys. You guys had some success. So
Speaker 1: congrats to both of you. Thanks man, I appreciate that. Dude.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a weird time of year because bucks
Speaker 1: are holding tight, but if you can get on them, man,
Speaker 1: it's it's fun. So uh, now, looking forward to what
Speaker 1: you have going on, you know, say the next week
Speaker 1: there in New York as maybe some of these apples
Speaker 1: start to drop in the in the hard mass might
Speaker 1: start to kind of dry up. Um, what do you
Speaker 1: predict buck movement to be? Like? Uh going forward here?
Speaker 1: If if you can give me like a rating from
Speaker 1: one to ten, it's still going to be pretty low
Speaker 1: on on movement. You're not gonna start you won't see
Speaker 1: some of the activity where their home range you know,
Speaker 1: blows up and you start seeing a lot more visibility.
Speaker 1: And in fact, this is the time of year they
Speaker 1: get more reclusive or at least it feels like they
Speaker 1: begin becoming uh more nocturnal. Or going underground UM part
Speaker 1: of its food. UM testosterone is starting to go up.
Speaker 1: My plan is to continue to try to focus on
Speaker 1: where they're betting UM, but where they're betting closer to
Speaker 1: those new food sources. So abandon everything that you saw
Speaker 1: um late summer and the probably you know, September weeks
Speaker 1: and really try to go to where the food is
Speaker 1: now and then look for the closest betting to that
Speaker 1: food now. Up here is again those fruits I just
Speaker 1: talked about, and betting would be probably more of like
Speaker 1: your woodland swamps, cutovers, those kinds of places we've done
Speaker 1: something even each timber management on on one of the
Speaker 1: properties that I liked on And so those are two
Speaker 1: year old clear cuts. Um the deer, we're gonna still
Speaker 1: bet in those and just filter out and try to
Speaker 1: hit those acorns or apples cool, So one to tea
Speaker 1: and what do you think? All right? That's low? Honestly, man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate some realism here. I think guys tend to
Speaker 1: get kind of excited and they always want to throw
Speaker 1: out these hot numbers because season is starting. But you
Speaker 1: know that's that really is probably a pretty uh good
Speaker 1: number to look at there so appreciate the information. Matt.
Speaker 1: I hope you have a great rest of the season
Speaker 1: and good talking to you man. Thanks thanks for having me. Guys,
Speaker 1: great talking to you on the phone. We got Roy
Speaker 1: Straw and he has been hunting in Texas. Roy, how's
Speaker 1: it going man, Man, it's great. We're headed back to
Speaker 1: the house now with a couple of pooler school. I
Speaker 1: got my little boy finally finally passed out after the
Speaker 1: first couple hours of the drive, so we're doing real
Speaker 1: good year. That's cool, man, So big time in Texas
Speaker 1: this weekend. It's was the archery opener, so a lot
Speaker 1: of guys hit the woods or the heels or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. And you were one of
Speaker 1: those fellows. Got to go out and do a little
Speaker 1: hunting this weekend, right, yes, sir. We uh we hit
Speaker 1: the hill country this weekend. And uh the highways were
Speaker 1: packed on Friday, Thursday evening and Friday you getting uh
Speaker 1: everybody was heading out, so uh you couldn't ask the
Speaker 1: better weather. You know. We had um I thinking we
Speaker 1: were outpoards Spicewood on on far West Travis County, and
Speaker 1: and we saw attempts in the little fifties and then
Speaker 1: highs in the low eighties during the days. So I
Speaker 1: mean just absolutely gorgeous September, I mean October weather for Texas. So, um,
Speaker 1: great for an archery opener for sure. Yeah. Absolutely man. So,
Speaker 1: uh you have a little place out there that y'all
Speaker 1: get to hunt, and uh I know that, Uh the
Speaker 1: hill country could me a little challenges sometimes because a
Speaker 1: little bit like feast for fam and like where depends
Speaker 1: on acrons and water and all kinds of stuff. But
Speaker 1: what are the conditions like out there as far as
Speaker 1: you know for the deer. So we hud a small
Speaker 1: spread that's attached to um, you know, several other tracks
Speaker 1: anywhere from six acres and uh it's kind of a
Speaker 1: haven if you will. But um, you know, lots of
Speaker 1: lots of hill country oaks, lots of cedar, lots of
Speaker 1: the ski um and very very I um you know,
Speaker 1: we hunt a piece that butts up to the pardon
Speaker 1: Alis in the Colorado River where they come into make
Speaker 1: Lake Travis. And so there's a little bit of water nearby. Um.
Speaker 1: But by all means, I mean you're still up against
Speaker 1: you know, pretty much drought conditions. Um. You know, we've
Speaker 1: supplemented that with with a lot of protein cotton seed
Speaker 1: uh through the spring and summer. I think that helped
Speaker 1: us quite a bit. Um. You know, one thing that
Speaker 1: I do think, as far as gear movement, that's been
Speaker 1: really strange this year is running cameras, running both conventional
Speaker 1: and LTE cameras. Uh. We've had virtually no dose uh
Speaker 1: that we've seen until about two weeks ago. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: they're still very nocturnal, the does are, but we've had
Speaker 1: no dose on camera during the day. About me, we're
Speaker 1: from midnight at two o'clock in the morning. We've just
Speaker 1: started seeing them. Uh. And then last night I had
Speaker 1: a dope come in still during daylight, one by herself.
Speaker 1: And other than that, I mean, it's kind of strange,
Speaker 1: But I don't know if that's in relation to the
Speaker 1: drought or what. But typically where you see quite a few, um,
Speaker 1: we just hadn't had any on camera. So what do
Speaker 1: you assume is the reason that they're showing up all
Speaker 1: of a sudden? Usually you think of bucks this time
Speaker 1: of year start dispersing and going to different areas because
Speaker 1: of the rut um. Is it a is it a
Speaker 1: food thing? Or why are they showing up all of
Speaker 1: a sudden as does you know, Uh, Tyler, I think
Speaker 1: that's something that's kind of the theory I'm working is
Speaker 1: that you know, the dose that I have seen during
Speaker 1: the day, you know, um, just out looking at other
Speaker 1: pieces of property in the area have all had uh
Speaker 1: young yearlings with them. Uh seen a lot of twins,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know if they're holding to food
Speaker 1: sources tighter, uh, knowing that it's you know, a little
Speaker 1: a little scarcer than we've seen in years past, asked um.
Speaker 1: But about two miles down the road from where we
Speaker 1: were hunting this weekend, UM, I saw a group actually
Speaker 1: this morning. Uh. It was about six or seven doughs, um,
Speaker 1: and uh, probably about four of them. There are three
Speaker 1: mature doughs and four year lings. I would say one
Speaker 1: of them had twins, and they were all together not
Speaker 1: a bucket site. UM. So it's definitely an interesting compared
Speaker 1: to years past. So you mentioned earlier some full coolers,
Speaker 1: and I'm assuming that was meat and not liquid drinks.
Speaker 1: But uh, I know that since you're not seeing very
Speaker 1: many doughs, that has to mean that there is a
Speaker 1: buck involved somewhere in this man tell us the story
Speaker 1: about this hunt. So we have actually had a very
Speaker 1: large bachelor group at two of our locations. Um. Yesterday
Speaker 1: morning I hunted. It was absolutely beautiful morning, UM, and
Speaker 1: we uh had seven seven bucks at the theater. Um,
Speaker 1: both our shooters that we were looking for. We had
Speaker 1: three that we're looking for, and then uh two that
Speaker 1: we were going to call our I guess would be
Speaker 1: more of our management bucks, but we had all three
Speaker 1: of them. Were are the two two of the three
Speaker 1: shooters were there yesterday morning, and it was definitely a
Speaker 1: sight to see. I mean, you know, that's fourteen eyes
Speaker 1: an you and trying to make a move in that
Speaker 1: is is extremely difficult. UM. And uh so yesterday morning
Speaker 1: was not what happened, UM, although or yesterday morning wasn't
Speaker 1: idealist say that we ended up shooting the buck. Yesterday
Speaker 1: morning an absolute terrible, terrible miss, um. And what happened
Speaker 1: was the target buck. I was trying to shoot the
Speaker 1: deer we call high Tower. We've been chasing him for
Speaker 1: a couple of years. We've got him. We think he's
Speaker 1: a little over seven and just absolutely gorgeous dear, big
Speaker 1: gray hide, sway back, big full neck and very tall,
Speaker 1: narrow rack and his G two's we think we're gonna
Speaker 1: go fifteen to eighteen inches, um toad absolute matured one
Speaker 1: for the wall, for sure. And so he was we
Speaker 1: were playing a game of cat and mouse yesterday, and
Speaker 1: finally he was a little leary of of the hole
Speaker 1: in the blind, and so finally he looked away and
Speaker 1: I drew, and I had him at thirty five yards,
Speaker 1: and he had kind of circled back and stepped behind
Speaker 1: where he was standing, and uh there was a younger
Speaker 1: gear standing at his hip, and he had moved kind
Speaker 1: of behind him, and so I I just assumed he
Speaker 1: was at forty and dropped down and used my forty
Speaker 1: pen and he when I let go of that arrow,
Speaker 1: I mean hit the deck and just sailed right it
Speaker 1: over his back and smoked the younger buck. Just beautiful,
Speaker 1: beautiful shot. Absolute terrible, terrible, not not the way the
Speaker 1: plan was supposed to go. And uh so luckily it
Speaker 1: was a good shot. We recovered the deer um totally
Speaker 1: not the deer we wanted to kill, but hey, we'll
Speaker 1: take it um. And so luckily Travis County is a
Speaker 1: tubuck county. And so I climbed back in the stand
Speaker 1: licking my wounds at evening and same stand and not
Speaker 1: not expecting much due to the depth being around the
Speaker 1: smell of it. And so I'm back in and you know,
Speaker 1: we hunt a little bit of So it's a developing area,
Speaker 1: is what I'll say. And and because of that, you
Speaker 1: have to deal with a lot of you know, noises
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't typically deer with deal with in the deerwoods.
Speaker 1: And so what happened is there's a bar and grill,
Speaker 1: I don't know, probably about a half mile away on
Speaker 1: the water on the lake and they had a great
Speaker 1: live band last night. They were playing all kinds of
Speaker 1: great tunes and so we uh and of course it's
Speaker 1: echoing through the you know, the canyon of the lake
Speaker 1: and um uh. Then some some guy on a neighboring
Speaker 1: ranch decided that Sunday was for target practice, and he's
Speaker 1: out there just going and just burning up ammo like
Speaker 1: there's no tomorrow. And uh, I was just sitting there
Speaker 1: thinking to myself, I mean, I might I might as
Speaker 1: well go back to the house and watch college football.
Speaker 1: And uh So what what ended up happening is I figured, well,
Speaker 1: we'll sit here and if anything, it'll be an absolute
Speaker 1: last minute, you know, a few minutes a daylight and
Speaker 1: maybe something will come in and are our guy quit
Speaker 1: shooting And it got real quiet and you could still
Speaker 1: hear the music off in the distance. And then out
Speaker 1: walked a pretty mature dough and I was pretty shocked,
Speaker 1: and um, by all means, I was getting ready to
Speaker 1: make a shot on her, and um, so I got
Speaker 1: my bow up on my knee and uh was knocked
Speaker 1: up and uh she kept looking back to the brush,
Speaker 1: real nervous, and I was like, oh that we all
Speaker 1: know what that means. And so I said, we'll hold
Speaker 1: on a minute. And uh so my shot from from
Speaker 1: my seat to the feeder area is uh twenty yards
Speaker 1: on the dot and she's smelling around and then boom
Speaker 1: out bumps this Uh one of the younger, real attractive
Speaker 1: bucks we've had on camera, but he needs a few
Speaker 1: more years. Um. And I'm like, oh, hey, little guy.
Speaker 1: And of course they've all been running together, so I'm
Speaker 1: I'm waiting, and then boom outsteps we have an eight
Speaker 1: point Uh that he's an eight, but he's big, mass,
Speaker 1: dear and just solid throughout, very consistent in his mask,
Speaker 1: big body. Um, and we have him at we're saying
Speaker 1: he's a little over six and I mean he's just
Speaker 1: very mature looking dear on the hoof. And I had
Speaker 1: seen him yesterday morning two and when I saw him,
Speaker 1: you know, he was much more impressive in person than
Speaker 1: he had been on camera, which is always great. And
Speaker 1: uh so he steps out and none the wiser, and uh,
Speaker 1: he's milling around eating, puts his head down. It's a
Speaker 1: standing filled feeder. So he puts his head down and
Speaker 1: walks behind the feeder. Of course he can't see me
Speaker 1: at all. And so I've come to full draw and uh,
Speaker 1: we still have some protein left in our protein feters,
Speaker 1: and so he sticks his nose up in there and
Speaker 1: he's kind of slightly quartered away the way the feter sits,
Speaker 1: and um, I let a jackhammer fly and I'm I mean,
Speaker 1: just absolutely perfect quartered away right behind his shoulder, passed
Speaker 1: through and he jumps and mule kicks and you got that.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know how to describe it, but
Speaker 1: you can hear, you know how it sounds when they
Speaker 1: good shot goes but through both sides, arrow disappears and
Speaker 1: he mule kicks so big that his butt started coming
Speaker 1: over his shoulder kind of stumbled and then fell and
Speaker 1: took off the brush. And as soon as the dust settle,
Speaker 1: this super dry, so there's dust everywhere. And I grabbed
Speaker 1: my binoculars and I'm looking and I can see my arrow,
Speaker 1: and from my blind I can see just blood all
Speaker 1: over the arrow, and uh I uh, I'm of course
Speaker 1: I'm shaking, and uh, you know that's that's what's so
Speaker 1: great is I'm I'm in there shaking like a leaf
Speaker 1: on a tree and super pump no. And I just
Speaker 1: smoked this deer and so I don't even waste any
Speaker 1: time I get down. I go over there look at
Speaker 1: the arrow, and just you can tell. And I even
Speaker 1: uh I had a little help, a little uh humble
Speaker 1: video I made on Instagram and and of the bloody arrow,
Speaker 1: and uh it's just great. And so you know, I
Speaker 1: saw where he ran, so I made a few steps
Speaker 1: and there's just a beautiful blood trail. It's the hill country,
Speaker 1: so there's lots of rock, and which is great because
Speaker 1: you can just see the trail through the rock, and um,
Speaker 1: we end up getting down there and end up I mean,
Speaker 1: he wasn't twenty yards from where I hit him, and uh,
Speaker 1: I didn't go. That's that's so cool. So uh it
Speaker 1: was great. So recovered him quick and and um he
Speaker 1: was heavy, very very heavy. He's a good looking buck. Man.
Speaker 1: I understand it's not social official right now, so we're
Speaker 1: kind of getting the the pre uh you know story
Speaker 1: on this thing. So that's cool. Man, congrats on that deal.
Speaker 1: I know they're having the family out and everything. It's
Speaker 1: a big deal for you. So whenever you kind of
Speaker 1: look at what's coming forward in Texas for the next
Speaker 1: week or so, as far as weather goes and conditions
Speaker 1: and all that, if you had to rank what you
Speaker 1: predict the buck movement to be like, like within the
Speaker 1: next week, what would you say that he is between
Speaker 1: a one and a ten man, I think, to be honest,
Speaker 1: I think we're probably somewhere between the six and a seven. Um,
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. There's there's some talk of uh, some
Speaker 1: more weather coming I think right now. Um, the younger
Speaker 1: bucks we saw were or the especially the one I
Speaker 1: killed just day morning and he was a little wet
Speaker 1: and his tarsal already. I mean, the old country kicks
Speaker 1: off super early as far as right goes. Usually you
Speaker 1: get about two maybe three weeks if you're lucky in
Speaker 1: October and you get a little cold snap, and uh,
Speaker 1: those guys will will separate real fast and uh spread.
Speaker 1: And that's that's just what I've seen in my area. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's always been that way, I know growing up.
Speaker 1: If it was cold during Halloween, the rut was already over. Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's awesome stuff. Yeah, man, that's good stuff. We appreciate
Speaker 1: the uh you know, from the field info that you
Speaker 1: got there, man, And congrats on the bucks. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: thank you guys. There was a lot of fun for sure.
Speaker 1: I got to have my family with me for the
Speaker 1: for the laying down picks and and that just makes
Speaker 1: it all that much more special. Now we're talking to
Speaker 1: Christian Babcock from Hunter's Advantage. Dude, you have had some
Speaker 1: really awesome success here recently. Uh in Oklahoma. It looks
Speaker 1: like just a toad buck. Tell us about that, man, Yeah, no, hey,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about it the other day. This is
Speaker 1: the earliest buck that I killed by about two weeks
Speaker 1: opening day. Buck is is not the normal for me. Um,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I know had an awesome hunt down in
Speaker 1: southwest Oklahoma and property we've been we set it up
Speaker 1: on the summer, left it alone, and uh it is
Speaker 1: it is weird. Mature bucks do move when you stay
Speaker 1: out of the property. So it was it was just
Speaker 1: a great hunt. That's cold, and so you you left
Speaker 1: it alone after you set it up. Um, you think
Speaker 1: that's a key. That sounds like you're thinking that's a
Speaker 1: key piece of this whole equation. I think it is.
Speaker 1: I think for most people. I'm I used to be
Speaker 1: one of them. Our anxious to check trail cameras, do
Speaker 1: all these habitsat of improvements, and sometimes it's best to
Speaker 1: just let deer be dear and when you leave him alone,
Speaker 1: and it just seems like good results. I've shot a
Speaker 1: buck the first sit on that property the last two years.
Speaker 1: One was a seven and a half year old buck
Speaker 1: and the next one this one was a six and
Speaker 1: a half year old buck. So they move in daylight
Speaker 1: if you leave him alone. So is this a dear
Speaker 1: that you have some history with? I do. He was
Speaker 1: a five and a half year old buck last year
Speaker 1: and never got an encounter with him, actually tagged out
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma, and he started showing up int daylight right
Speaker 1: after that. He's probably a mid one forties buck last
Speaker 1: year and eleven and ended up sprouting to a thirteen
Speaker 1: this year, and I think I got him at his peak.
Speaker 1: He was he's a pretty cool buck. Yeah, dude, that's beautiful.
Speaker 1: So this area the country you're talking about, it's kind
Speaker 1: of diverse and habitat. What's the uh, the general you know,
Speaker 1: habitat of the area that you're hunting there? Yeah, this
Speaker 1: it's interesting because you got the witch Tom Mountain range,
Speaker 1: which is you know, peeking and awesome, beautiful to look at.
Speaker 1: But then the stuff I'm hunting's flat as crap, So
Speaker 1: it's weird. It's like you're sitting by the highest stuff
Speaker 1: in the area, and then I'm also sitting on this
Speaker 1: flat ac land it's just nine ft and native native grasses.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of what it lays out and looks like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's cool. So what was the patterns this buck was on? Man?
Speaker 1: It was awesome. He had been coming in fourteen days
Speaker 1: in a row, September morning and evening, and I was
Speaker 1: just kind of, you know, joking back and forth with
Speaker 1: my buddies. I was like, watch this October one, he'll stop.
Speaker 1: They know, he'll figure it out. And about seven fifteen
Speaker 1: and I've been in the stand, got eard an hour
Speaker 1: before shooting light just because I did not want to
Speaker 1: book him, and he showed have seven fifteen. So he
Speaker 1: read the script and that it worked out. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: what's the what is the key um to setting up
Speaker 1: in the way a deer out there? Man? Um, I'm
Speaker 1: a betting guy. I think there's a lot of different
Speaker 1: strategies you could use in there. A lot of people
Speaker 1: hunt wheat, you know, transition areas between betting and wet.
Speaker 1: I don't have any wheat under food him. I properly
Speaker 1: got to do run some corn, um, So I'm just
Speaker 1: hunting real close to the betting. Betting is a limited
Speaker 1: resource in the place that I'm hunting. So I get
Speaker 1: up in their chili and so I try to wait
Speaker 1: for the best wind, the most favorable wind conditions, get
Speaker 1: in early, and try to stay still. That's kind of
Speaker 1: been my recipes for success. That's awesome. So this buck
Speaker 1: is just a big, old, heavy, nasty Uh, thirteen point
Speaker 1: six and a half year old dear. He's got it,
Speaker 1: looks like to me his neck is already swelling pretty good. Uh.
Speaker 1: How close to rut action are these deer right now?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean I think that I think
Speaker 1: we're still a little ways off. Weirdly enough, he had
Speaker 1: some velvet still on his basis, so it was yeah,
Speaker 1: it's he's He's the definition of an early season Buck.
Speaker 1: I think we've still got two three weeks in this
Speaker 1: this area of the country until we're starting to see
Speaker 1: a little bit more of that big buck activity. As
Speaker 1: far as a lot of rubs, a lot of scrapes um,
Speaker 1: there's been some community scrapes on this property and they
Speaker 1: haven't really been that open. So I'm just waiting for
Speaker 1: that too. But I think we're so a few weeks out. Sure.
Speaker 1: So this is the property that you've monitored for quite
Speaker 1: a few years, and so it seems like you kind
Speaker 1: of have the calendar down as to what goes on here. Uh,
Speaker 1: looking at the conditions we have ahead, it's been pretty hot,
Speaker 1: but things are trying to change a little bit. And
Speaker 1: just some of the knowledge you have from seasons past,
Speaker 1: what do you predict buck that activity to be like
Speaker 1: over the next week and give us a rating like
Speaker 1: from one to ten. Yeah, so a couple of different
Speaker 1: things on this property. I'm thinking that I'm that mid range.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of four or five. The next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: We're still seeing highs in the mid to high eighties.
Speaker 1: I got sunburned trying to track, so I didn't I
Speaker 1: did not enjoy that. But we're actually headed up to
Speaker 1: Kansas and later part of this week and seeing some
Speaker 1: lows dropping from the mid fifties down to the high thirties.
Speaker 1: You know, where I'm hunting in the next week, I'm
Speaker 1: going to give that about a seven or an eight,
Speaker 1: But where I hunted on this particular buck, I'd say
Speaker 1: about a five, four or five. Got you, Well, that's cool.
Speaker 1: It's promising, man, to upen up is coming. We're getting
Speaker 1: closer to or to November, and uh man, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you hopping on the phone with this. Congrats on the
Speaker 1: big buck, and we will talk to you soon, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Guys. I hope you'll
Speaker 1: have a great opening week of deer season for many
Speaker 1: of the states out there. If you want to get
Speaker 1: hype about some deer hunting, we just released a new
Speaker 1: video on the Element channel that is all about South
Speaker 1: Dakota hunting from last year. Lots of big bucks going
Speaker 1: down down there, also be sure and check out the
Speaker 1: latest episode of Deer Country with Mark Kenyon over on
Speaker 1: the Meat Eater YouTube channel. And if you want to
Speaker 1: see something you might encounter this year, go check out
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson's most recent article about blood trailing deer on
Speaker 1: Wired to hunt dot com. This has been rot Fresh Radio, y'all.
Speaker 1: Keep it fresh.