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 Radio,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Vortex Optics. I'm your host, Tyler Jones.
Speaker 1: And this week there seems to be a common sentiment
Speaker 1: that there's a lull happening in buck movement across much
Speaker 1: of the country. Does the October lull actually exist? I'll
Speaker 1: let you make your own decisions. Welcome to rut Fresh Radio,
Speaker 1: powered by Vortex Optics. I'm Casey Smith, this is Tyler Jones,
Speaker 1: and we are talking to your hunting guys. And get this,
Speaker 1: I always like to HiPE because it's hip season. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the deal. Whatever today is, whatever day you're listening
Speaker 1: to this, ma'am, it gets better tomorrow and better than
Speaker 1: next day, and better than next day. It just keeps
Speaker 1: getting better from here on out. Man. That's right. Alabama
Speaker 1: don't get better for a while. Mississippi or the good
Speaker 1: thing about those states down there, man, is like pretty
Speaker 1: much just the Bowl appearances actually interfere with the rut
Speaker 1: you know, because it's so that I was regarding you know,
Speaker 1: they're with the Alabama loss. It was very unfortunate for them.
Speaker 1: They family. But yeah, the uh January ruts are nice.
Speaker 1: But in most of the country, you're right, like every
Speaker 1: day it's getting better. It is. Man. We've been talking
Speaker 1: to people from all over the country and uh uh
Speaker 1: the further northego, the kind of more consistent this gets.
Speaker 1: I do believe we're actually fixing a hit up on
Speaker 1: another little swaying up through the north country to go
Speaker 1: chase some big old bucks. Uh. But um, it's still
Speaker 1: that way here in Texas where we got some cameras
Speaker 1: out hunting some Texas public land right now. Uh and
Speaker 1: uh kind of targeting these cold fronts that are moving
Speaker 1: across the country. And that's gonna be probably a pretty
Speaker 1: big theme from what we hear guys talk about. You know,
Speaker 1: depending on your opinion of deer movement. I know that
Speaker 1: their studies out there that bucks don't move anymore and
Speaker 1: for any other reason. Like honestly, if you listen to
Speaker 1: all the studies, they're gonna say that deer movement is
Speaker 1: a monotony and it never changes. But if you've been
Speaker 1: out in the woods some there is perceived reality and
Speaker 1: that perceived reality is that these things have some influence
Speaker 1: on deer. I can tell you one thing is when
Speaker 1: it I mean, there's no doubt like this time of year,
Speaker 1: and also on colder days, deer or more on my camera,
Speaker 1: and there are more bucks on my camera. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do except for just if
Speaker 1: I'm doing my own science, this is what I see.
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm going hunting if it's cold, and you know,
Speaker 1: guarantee you in November time to be in the woods
Speaker 1: even in late October right now. Yeah. Yeah, the guys
Speaker 1: if you haven't, By the way, if you like big
Speaker 1: Bucks and you don't, you should go check out just
Speaker 1: the breathtaking situation with Oklahoma buck that I killed last year.
Speaker 1: I just got a text message from the guy who's
Speaker 1: doing the euro for me, and he said, man, uh,
Speaker 1: I think his buck might be older than what we
Speaker 1: used him on his bottom jaw because he's like his
Speaker 1: teeth are falling out. He also had, he said, more
Speaker 1: bot flies than any other deer he's ever seen. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't show you the picture because you know that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. I've seen one that's all I need
Speaker 1: to see. It was gross. Um but uh, he had
Speaker 1: like an abscess, his teeth are falling out, like he's
Speaker 1: digging him out of the bottom of the of the
Speaker 1: bucket and stuff this old buck. I think, so it's
Speaker 1: that time. Uh he was he was cool man, and
Speaker 1: I'm ready to get that head back because, uh what
Speaker 1: a just epic thing for us. It kind of cemented
Speaker 1: the buck truck, you know as uh am I using
Speaker 1: that word right by the way, cemented that's the thing,
Speaker 1: right Yeah. Um uh I said that to our friend
Speaker 1: Mark Keny the other day and he didn't have anything
Speaker 1: too much just say about it. So you never know
Speaker 1: if he's just being Mark and he's like assuming you
Speaker 1: use words right, white, or if he's just like this
Speaker 1: guy's dummy from Texas. But anyways, uh, that deer after
Speaker 1: a shot him, just some pretty dramatic things happened. Um
Speaker 1: that just we're I don't know, kind unexplainable. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think we talked about it a little bit on this
Speaker 1: same show last last week. Uh. We do a lot
Speaker 1: of podcasts, and so between our The Element podcast and
Speaker 1: this podcast, we kind of get confused on what we
Speaker 1: talked about. But I think we did talk about it,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I saw another comment on the
Speaker 1: video about this um and you mentioned it, but like, um,
Speaker 1: when what happens to the deer is not a funny thing.
Speaker 1: But we were like about near holding our breath for
Speaker 1: thirty minutes, and what came out was this joy of
Speaker 1: watching it, dear fall, because it's a quick, ethical kill,
Speaker 1: right um, and this whole like, I can't believe it
Speaker 1: just happened. We had success, we got the shot we wanted,
Speaker 1: it was super lethal, and all this stuff and what
Speaker 1: it is and what ends up happening to that dear,
Speaker 1: it's not like a funny thing. It actually it's hard
Speaker 1: for me to watch, and that's the reason we didn't
Speaker 1: put it in the slow motion replay. But uh, we
Speaker 1: do laugh because it's you and me. We laugh a
Speaker 1: lot and we had a good time. And so if
Speaker 1: you've watched it and it was distasteful, we would probably
Speaker 1: apologize that it came off that way. We didn't intend
Speaker 1: it that way at all. We actually both highly respect
Speaker 1: and value all kinds of animals, probably more animals than
Speaker 1: most of your listeners. I can say that, especially about
Speaker 1: k C. Because this dude knows every bird under the sun,
Speaker 1: just about you know, he's you're a birder pretty much.
Speaker 1: And the ones at not too not jars, you know
Speaker 1: those are actually you were talking about one of the
Speaker 1: most sorry mark again where you know we we're not
Speaker 1: grouping here, so I apologize. It's twenty seven different species
Speaker 1: and night jars, uh, when they're all kind of grouped
Speaker 1: into that like nighthawk knock jar type thing. Right. But anyway,
Speaker 1: we just started out really, uh, whipper wheel It's not
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking, Okay, just making sure it's something.
Speaker 1: And we actually what we call whipper wheels here usually
Speaker 1: chuck widdows wheels, um, but we just hard to say
Speaker 1: yeah and not doesn't sound in nears cool. We already
Speaker 1: got plenty of syllables in the word whipple wheel owner.
Speaker 1: Then the song chuck didn't come out here don't Actually
Speaker 1: maybe it's probably somebody check that fact check that I
Speaker 1: used to keep up with things on the calendar something
Speaker 1: and I learned that from Pop, my granddad. He uh
Speaker 1: would always write down the first whipper wheel he heard
Speaker 1: in the spring. It was always like late March, early
Speaker 1: April something like that. Yeah, And I think that I
Speaker 1: should start do it with there a little more often.
Speaker 1: Like the first scrape I see open up in Texas.
Speaker 1: I'll keep up with that. I'll see you see what
Speaker 1: that is, because that's what we're starting to see around
Speaker 1: here right now. Uh got some cameras are gonna be
Speaker 1: doing some some hunting this week on the cold Front. Um.
Speaker 1: But I'm kind of thinking in concern and like, you know,
Speaker 1: just for a little hunting banter here is a lot
Speaker 1: of people are are hunting and thinking about this. In fact,
Speaker 1: that's why they listen to this podcast. Do believe? Are
Speaker 1: we in a weird time period in the mid October
Speaker 1: stages where mature bucks actually aren't hitting the scrapes yet
Speaker 1: and it's the young bucks kind of getting out there,
Speaker 1: getting fisty and taking care of that stuff. And should
Speaker 1: I be concentrating on the betting specific stuff still or
Speaker 1: with the coal front with the rain coming through, are
Speaker 1: there going to be big bucks on their feet doing
Speaker 1: that even in the teens of October? You know, because
Speaker 1: I affectionately call the twenty second through scrape week, it's
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, a thing that a lot of
Speaker 1: us kind of talk about, you know, but as well
Speaker 1: lead up to that is it's uh foolish to hunt
Speaker 1: the scrapes. Um, I would say, if you're asking me,
Speaker 1: I would say that you're you're if you get is
Speaker 1: this kind of a theory you're developing at as you
Speaker 1: watch the cameras and we just put out okay, So
Speaker 1: i'd say you're on the right track. I would say, Um, personally,
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, I like to h and
Speaker 1: this is just this is all coming to me right
Speaker 1: now as I'm thinking about it, because I mean, without
Speaker 1: thinking about too much, I would say, oh, yeah, it's coming,
Speaker 1: scrapes are gonna be hitting. But like, I think you
Speaker 1: might be onto something. I think that like when I
Speaker 1: think back to I killed the deer on a scrape
Speaker 1: in October on some public in Illinois, a big deer,
Speaker 1: mature buck. I watched the foot the trail camp footage
Speaker 1: of this yesterday. So he shows up on a cold
Speaker 1: front on the sixteenth, which is today when or this
Speaker 1: week or whatever essentially when we're recording this thing, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know that is his first time he shows up.
Speaker 1: But he shows up at night. It's fifty or something
Speaker 1: like that. So um, and then the next coal front
Speaker 1: that runs through that's on it's on the twenty three,
Speaker 1: he shows up that evening and I shoot him at scrape.
Speaker 1: So um, my thoughts are that what you're gonna end
Speaker 1: up doing potentially here on some of this pub around here,
Speaker 1: wherever you end up hunting is having I mean we
Speaker 1: saw where last night the weather came in and we
Speaker 1: saw the night for there was nothing, and then last
Speaker 1: night there was like what we assume were three year
Speaker 1: old bucks kind and uh, I think you may end
Speaker 1: up even seeing a decent buck um, but I think
Speaker 1: that it's still like a week away from those deer
Speaker 1: actually doing daylight things around that. I think they're going
Speaker 1: to be exploring, but it's gonna be nintime movement majority.
Speaker 1: But this is a major, major cold front, so uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. The colder the weather, I feel like
Speaker 1: the more willing those deer are to move. But all
Speaker 1: in all, like when I think about even the private
Speaker 1: here that I'm hunting, those dear, I'm not seeing dear,
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing bucks show up till literally the twenty
Speaker 1: ninth of October at least. So that is my house too.
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of thinking that, you know, my strategy
Speaker 1: in my mind has been let's go hunt these scrapes.
Speaker 1: But now I'm thinking I should go back to kind
Speaker 1: of what we did in South Dakota, where we hunt
Speaker 1: that transitional stuff between food and bedding in the mornings,
Speaker 1: and that be your best bet to have one on
Speaker 1: their feet. I think so too. I think it's a
Speaker 1: good idea. I know it kinda steps on all the
Speaker 1: stuff y'all did the other day. Well it just I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm glad we went and hung those cameras and kind
Speaker 1: of explored and learned things. And the foods there. Acrons
Speaker 1: are dropping over cups in particular, it's like it's the thing,
Speaker 1: but there's enough of them that it spreads them out.
Speaker 1: And also being creek bottoms in East Texas, it's just
Speaker 1: there's a lot of bedding cover and I haven't had
Speaker 1: the opportunity to go in there and just tear this
Speaker 1: thing up in the off season too, no like specific
Speaker 1: buck bedding, you know. So I'm thinking that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go look for big rubs that are way back away
Speaker 1: from roads and near some food and try to just
Speaker 1: get the wind right and hood. I think that's a
Speaker 1: good plan. I think that's I think you're on the
Speaker 1: right path, and it stinks to have to get way
Speaker 1: back away from things. But that's just part of shooting
Speaker 1: big bucks most of the time. It is most of
Speaker 1: the time of the year, I mean, outside the rut.
Speaker 1: That is just the way it is. Speaking of I
Speaker 1: need to grab the game cart while we're here, not
Speaker 1: because I'm optimistic, so you know I need that. So, uh,
Speaker 1: we actually talked to some other optimistic guys this week
Speaker 1: on the podcast. I love to get some guys on
Speaker 1: here who feel like it's time to kill man. And
Speaker 1: now I will give you this. Um, I feel like
Speaker 1: we had some realists here for the most part. Uh. So,
Speaker 1: like when you hear a number and it's not like
Speaker 1: up there and like the Chechen range, that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's bad, right, And we talked about this, but I
Speaker 1: want people to think about this from time to time. Right,
Speaker 1: So if you hear that, you know, five or six,
Speaker 1: that's a hunting number for sure, looking at pretty much
Speaker 1: better than good good. So down here we're talking to
Speaker 1: this week. So this week we're talking to Chris Nickerson
Speaker 1: of Maine, Greg Litzinger of New Jersey, marc OLiS of
Speaker 1: Moultri Mobile he's in Alabama, and Nate Crick of Identical Drawl.
Speaker 1: They were in South Coda and had some success recently.
Speaker 1: So let's get to the interviews. I've got Chris Nickerson,
Speaker 1: who is hunting in Maine on the phone right now. Chris,
Speaker 1: what's going on up there? Man? Uh? I am. I'm
Speaker 1: up here trying to try and invade uh, falling leaves,
Speaker 1: stream winds, some rain, h and all the things the
Speaker 1: big widths of Central Main hunt. That sounds cool. We
Speaker 1: actually have a little rain here too, which is a
Speaker 1: rarity as you can imagine, you know, for Texas because
Speaker 1: you're from here now. But you grew up hunting Maine,
Speaker 1: is that right? I did? So, you know I was interesting.
Speaker 1: I was. I was born in Texas. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: my family settled in Maine when I was a small child.
Speaker 1: So look most of my main and most of my
Speaker 1: time in Maine, and then you know, through my twenties,
Speaker 1: I was kind of your average gun hunter. You know.
Speaker 1: My whole time at Mains, I never took it too seriously.
Speaker 1: Now I'm living in Texas, been there for you know,
Speaker 1: seven plus years, and uh, you know, taking bow hunting
Speaker 1: super seriously, and had some opportunities to come back up
Speaker 1: here and hunt a private farm. But a friend of
Speaker 1: mine has worked, you know forever, you know, took him
Speaker 1: up on the offer, and uh, it's it's been a
Speaker 1: it's been interesting trips cell phone. Well you've seent me
Speaker 1: some pictures and it looks beautiful. What is the tactic
Speaker 1: going in Maine right now? Man? It just seems like
Speaker 1: a different world, you know, so I don't even know
Speaker 1: where to start. It is, you know, the best way
Speaker 1: I can explain Maine to someone who has not been here,
Speaker 1: it's it's almost like Alaska's little brother. A lot of
Speaker 1: the trades of Maine are very similar to Alaska, just
Speaker 1: not as quite on as steroids as Alaska. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of cedar swamps, you know,
Speaker 1: mossy bottoms, and then it can transition to hardwood flats
Speaker 1: almost instantly, so there's a lot of diversity. The deer
Speaker 1: population is quite small per acre, you know, compared to
Speaker 1: a lot of the states, especially when we're used to
Speaker 1: in Texas in the south, so you're not gonna see
Speaker 1: you all the time, which is you know, I think
Speaker 1: just from my experience talking other folks, it's fairly common.
Speaker 1: A lot of the northern cold weather states, you know,
Speaker 1: you don't see a lot of movement. You're not sitting
Speaker 1: out here seeing every single night. You know. It's it's
Speaker 1: nothing to go a couple of days and not see
Speaker 1: a deer and then all of a sudden a monster
Speaker 1: can walk out of nowhere and just take you by
Speaker 1: a total surprise. So that's kind of what I'm battling
Speaker 1: right now, is you know, I'm hounding a piece of
Speaker 1: land i've ever been on. I'm startain cold, I had.
Speaker 1: I've got a total of two weeks here and I'm
Speaker 1: about the halfway point. I've seen a couple of decent bucks,
Speaker 1: you know, handful of days, but no crazy movement. I'm
Speaker 1: out here, you know, trying to scout, you know, attactfully
Speaker 1: where I'm not just blowing the whole area out, you know,
Speaker 1: scouting hunting. I'm I'm I'm a saddle hunter, uh like
Speaker 1: you folks, And so I'm using that tactic, you know,
Speaker 1: to speak through be as quiet as I can without
Speaker 1: blowing this place up. And uh you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: I'm slightly discouraged at the moment, just because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm used to seeing so many deer um as we
Speaker 1: do in the South. But um, I'm hopeful that I'm
Speaker 1: definitely gonna get onto something pretty good here in the
Speaker 1: next handle of days. So you see you mentioned central Maine. Uh,
Speaker 1: what part of Texas do you live in? So I
Speaker 1: currently live in the Sticks Attack Just the closest to
Speaker 1: the city to b is is Austin, about an hour
Speaker 1: an hour east of Austin. I got a lot of
Speaker 1: deer down there, for sure, we do. Yeah. So, like
Speaker 1: I was just wondering because you mentioned central Maine and
Speaker 1: if you put you know, if you said central Texas,
Speaker 1: then you could fit all the main in that. And
Speaker 1: so I wonder if, like central Maine, why you're why
Speaker 1: you mentioned that? Is there something particular their habitat wise
Speaker 1: or deer wise or you know, what's the what's the
Speaker 1: dynamic there that you mentioned that? For sure, that's good, good,
Speaker 1: good question, because northern Maine. Um, when you when you
Speaker 1: come to Maine and you you talk to locals here,
Speaker 1: when they talk about northern main it's the part of
Speaker 1: Maine that is by most people's standards, uninhabitable due to
Speaker 1: the extreme cold. The largest county main is Gst County.
Speaker 1: That's typically the count of day. One of the first
Speaker 1: two is quote up north Uh, Central Main is is
Speaker 1: basically if you look at on the map geographically, it's
Speaker 1: kind of actually the southeast corner of Main you know,
Speaker 1: if you were to break it down on the map,
Speaker 1: but that's kind of princess central Main. Bangor is the
Speaker 1: biggest city that's close to where I'm at, which is
Speaker 1: considered Central Maine, and then from there you head towards
Speaker 1: the coast and that's quickly considered more of the down
Speaker 1: east main section. So so, so what are you focusing
Speaker 1: on right now there in central Maine as far as
Speaker 1: like what what I mean, are scrapes the thing? Or
Speaker 1: you know, what what are deer doing? Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: great question. What what I'm struggling with right now is
Speaker 1: we're in the leaf the leaf fall part of the
Speaker 1: fall app here, so the leaves are coming off the
Speaker 1: trees and there is a astounding amount of leaves on
Speaker 1: the ground right now. So when I'm scouting finding what
Speaker 1: you know to be a good deer path that you
Speaker 1: cannot see a fresh track to save your life because
Speaker 1: somebody leaves on the ground. Um. Part of what I'm
Speaker 1: optimistic about is in the next few days, were just
Speaker 1: going out of a pretty aggressive windy rainstorm, and most
Speaker 1: of most of the leaves are down in this area
Speaker 1: for the most part, and so those will start kicking
Speaker 1: away and we'll get a little bit more clearing, so
Speaker 1: I can see what's going on. Scrapes are almost impossible.
Speaker 1: Beds are impossible. I have I have scoured the woods
Speaker 1: here hard, and it's really tough to find. You don't
Speaker 1: find a handful of rubs, but there again, there's not
Speaker 1: a lot compared to other places I've hunted, so it's, uh,
Speaker 1: the sign is very sparse, so it's I'm having to
Speaker 1: work for this one, yeah, for sure. And I can
Speaker 1: see where as an archery hunter especially, that gets pretty tough,
Speaker 1: you know. I know those guys track up there a
Speaker 1: lot and cover ground. But whenever you can shoot, you know,
Speaker 1: seventy eight yards with open side riffle, I'm sure it
Speaker 1: adds a little bit of extra to it. But do
Speaker 1: you plan on like kind of things are really starting
Speaker 1: to get into swing, And from my experience, the more
Speaker 1: north you are, the more this stuff lines up on
Speaker 1: calendar days. And you're about as far north as you
Speaker 1: can hunt white tills in the States at least, So
Speaker 1: do you expect that, like we will, you will at
Speaker 1: least start seeing a good bit of buck activity as
Speaker 1: the next week pushes on, I think so that this
Speaker 1: next week, I feel like if I had to gage it,
Speaker 1: I think this next week that I'm gonna be there
Speaker 1: is kind of probably gonna be the start of the
Speaker 1: good part of October. Here. I wish I had another
Speaker 1: week because I think the very end of Uxtra is
Speaker 1: gonna be great here. Um, it's a little warmer than
Speaker 1: I would like to see right now this next week
Speaker 1: probably in um roughly around you know, fifty, mid fifties,
Speaker 1: high fifties, and the lowers we're only gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: thirty seven or four degrees. We did have one day
Speaker 1: that was pretty cold, but then it just popped right
Speaker 1: back up and it's been a warmer weather. So I
Speaker 1: wish it was a little colder that I think I
Speaker 1: would help a little. But I think you're right, we're
Speaker 1: coming into that part of season where it's gonna start
Speaker 1: taking up, So I do. I'm optimistic about that, good man.
Speaker 1: That's good to hear. So if you had rate like
Speaker 1: your next week that you're gonna be up there hunting
Speaker 1: um for a buck movement scale of one to team
Speaker 1: what would you think it's gonna be. I think towards
Speaker 1: the tail end of this next week it is probably
Speaker 1: gonna be close to that. I'd put it that probably six.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to increase a fair amount. I
Speaker 1: know that probably doesn't sound real high, but for this area,
Speaker 1: I think that's a assessment. It sounds realistic to me.
Speaker 1: I'd like to call that a killing six, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like, if you're a real hunter, you
Speaker 1: think that six is pretty good works every time for sure.
Speaker 1: You know, I've got a lot of pression on my
Speaker 1: friends from back in Texas. You know, they hear all
Speaker 1: these stories at these great giants on the north and
Speaker 1: they think I might come up here, and I just
Speaker 1: got world class buck and so I've got some I've
Speaker 1: got some heat on the perform good man. Well, we
Speaker 1: don't have any heat to push towards your way, but
Speaker 1: we do wish you well. Man. I hope you have
Speaker 1: some success up there and can't wait see the pictures.
Speaker 1: Thanks for time, Yeah, absolutely, thanks guys. All right, so
Speaker 1: now on the phone, I've got Greg let Singer. I
Speaker 1: like to call him lip Sinkers sometimes and even call
Speaker 1: him Greb. When I was talking to Ksey earlier. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you know what a grieb is, but
Speaker 1: that's a waterfowl. Uh, and some people call him grabs.
Speaker 1: So grab. What's been going on? Man? And I'm good,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to trying to taste some books. You know,
Speaker 1: same is everybody. Yeah, they marsh bucks? Are they different
Speaker 1: kind of country? Um? I'm doing three h the marsh
Speaker 1: in the Big Woods this year. Break it up a
Speaker 1: little bit, all right, dude, the way they can charge
Speaker 1: you more, right exactly? Oh that's cool, dude. You hunt
Speaker 1: some really interesting country. And um, I love following you man, um,
Speaker 1: and have known you for several years now. Man. We've
Speaker 1: we kind of text several times a year and talk
Speaker 1: about things and usually get up on the phone. And
Speaker 1: I like watching because you get after it, man, Like
Speaker 1: even in the offseason. Man, you're out there as much
Speaker 1: as you can, trying to be a good dad and
Speaker 1: and that kind of thing too, but you know, also
Speaker 1: spending some time out in the woods trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: like what these deer doing. You end up usually killing
Speaker 1: several big bucks throughout the years. Man. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk to you a little bit about what you've
Speaker 1: been seeing You've been hunting New Jersey quite a bit lately,
Speaker 1: and just see what you've been seeing and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know what the deer doing in the woods right now. Um,
Speaker 1: it was earlier Touber was really good. Um September was
Speaker 1: kind of a bus for me. But uh, a lot
Speaker 1: of deer pempic theer. But earlier Tober, the cameras are
Speaker 1: blowing up a lot of big deer hit scrapes. And
Speaker 1: it kind of died off this past week. We had
Speaker 1: to you know, with the hurricane and whatnot. And uh
Speaker 1: I checked some cameras, was like yesterday, and uh, they
Speaker 1: are starting to move still in the dark side, you
Speaker 1: know that last hour, like even close to bedding, the
Speaker 1: scrapes are starting to get fired up. You know, are
Speaker 1: you are you? Are you seeing? Does use those scrapes too?
Speaker 1: Or is it mostly bucks? Um? Some of the it's
Speaker 1: a mixture. Um. You know, I've run cameras scrapes and
Speaker 1: your buck betting and just general high traffic are scrapes.
Speaker 1: The does I mean they love scrapes. Man. The liting
Speaker 1: branches are always in their year round, so I let
Speaker 1: those cameras seem to be doing a little bit better,
Speaker 1: um with the buck movement now than the buck you know,
Speaker 1: I guess betting scrapes. Uh, so my cameras are on
Speaker 1: does the community scrapes are doing extremely well for bucks,
Speaker 1: So just a little late and uh for hunting purposes
Speaker 1: in the in the marsh world. So let's just say
Speaker 1: wetlands in general, because you know you're hunting marshes. Guys
Speaker 1: that swamps. Some guys hunting bogs, you know, but it's
Speaker 1: all kind of like wet ground. Uh, but dear make scrapes.
Speaker 1: It's the thing they do. So in that type of
Speaker 1: country year, are those you're actually going to find high
Speaker 1: ground to scrape or or like what does it look
Speaker 1: like in that wet country? Uh? Sometimes it's been dry
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years and now we've had
Speaker 1: that hurricane and feel the storms to some of the
Speaker 1: traditional scraping areas underwater. So they've just moved it to
Speaker 1: the next piece, um, like the one that's like a
Speaker 1: holly tree, Like they like holly trees, and they move
Speaker 1: the next holly tree on high ground that's where it's scraping.
Speaker 1: It's like twenty yards away, um, which is kind of
Speaker 1: nice because it's a better advantage for me getting in
Speaker 1: and out of that piece actually, So I got a
Speaker 1: good chance of seeing a good deer in that one.
Speaker 1: So when you're so, when you're uh, like, conditions change
Speaker 1: like that, change like that so much? Um does it?
Speaker 1: I mean is it pretty much? Just? Is it? You
Speaker 1: rely on just getting in the woods and tear it
Speaker 1: up during the season. Are you relying on past boot
Speaker 1: scouting or you know, how does that look? Or are
Speaker 1: you map scouting that stuff too? Or what? Mike sure
Speaker 1: of everything? You know? Cameras my time in the woods. Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean you can run a thousand cameras if you
Speaker 1: can't decipe to the deer side when you're walking in Uh,
Speaker 1: the timera think going to help you, because I call
Speaker 1: it you a death by data. You can have too
Speaker 1: much data. You overthink everything. So you just need to
Speaker 1: you need to know this week of October scrapes they
Speaker 1: start daywalking and you go sohanto scrapes and halftime you
Speaker 1: don't see anything. But when you do see something usually
Speaker 1: it's a really good dear. So it's a mixture of both.
Speaker 1: I use the trail camera stuff and I look at
Speaker 1: the moon and wind and stuff. Like that, but I
Speaker 1: try not get too bogged down with the data. I
Speaker 1: think you will definitely for me, I'm not. I can't
Speaker 1: process that too much data, Like I'll just go and
Speaker 1: saying think about everything I don't need to be thinking
Speaker 1: about and a second guess every move. So yeah, there's
Speaker 1: like a moon thing where you could definitely get bogged
Speaker 1: down on that. But it's interesting to me. And if
Speaker 1: I know you and you you know back this up.
Speaker 1: So if you could just give us high level like
Speaker 1: your thoughts on the moon, like what's like the thing
Speaker 1: if you're gonna pick out like okay, if you're just
Speaker 1: gonna barely pay attention to the moon, look for this,
Speaker 1: what would it be? It's first light, last light? Um,
Speaker 1: the middle of October seems to be like the fifteen
Speaker 1: through first light, last light, the first hour of light. Uh,
Speaker 1: the red underfoot matching, Um, your red underfoot first light
Speaker 1: got you? So you're sinking that up? Yeah? So so
Speaker 1: A you want the sun to be like ninety degrees
Speaker 1: from the moon pretty much if you can do that, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: directly overhead, directly underfoot. Um, And I've had success, you know,
Speaker 1: the early am like seven am. If you get those
Speaker 1: things to match up first light in the first hour,
Speaker 1: so overhead or underfoot, I seem to get they're coming
Speaker 1: back to bed later, bigger dear. Yeah, And I don't like,
Speaker 1: I'm not just they it's been deep a hun times,
Speaker 1: but I know a lot of my dear have been
Speaker 1: killed on those mornings hunting beds close to bedding. Well,
Speaker 1: so I was like, well, I'm gonna go with what
Speaker 1: works for me. Yeah, Well, you mentioned time period that
Speaker 1: is coming up to be that. So if you're looking
Speaker 1: forward as to like, you know what you think the
Speaker 1: next week will be in the deer woods for buck movement,
Speaker 1: what would you think that that's gonna look like? I think, um,
Speaker 1: it's been a slow start here in Jersey, um as
Speaker 1: in my buddy and Delaware is the same thing. Um
Speaker 1: script is kind of hot, kind of died off, and
Speaker 1: use when it happens we get around the eighteenth of October,
Speaker 1: it's gonna just really it's gonna be like a light switch. Uh.
Speaker 1: And like this week, I think choosing winds that we've
Speaker 1: got some cold weather, so I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see a lot more daylight movement. These bucks find out
Speaker 1: where the does are find out where the feet are,
Speaker 1: you know, and and does a buck say, might not
Speaker 1: be showing you you haven't seen it, just pop up
Speaker 1: for a few days and be gone. So it's a
Speaker 1: good time to be in the week, the time to
Speaker 1: be in the woods. Yes, sir, so buck movement one
Speaker 1: to ten. If you had to rate it next week,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it a six killing six man. That's
Speaker 1: good man. I get sixty percent of the time. It
Speaker 1: works every time. Alright, man, well thanks for doing this. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: all right, right here on the phone, I've got Mark
Speaker 1: OLiS He's from Moultrie Mobile and he's out in Alabama. Mark,
Speaker 1: you've been hunting a little bit. You'll just open the season, right.
Speaker 1: We just started Saturday was our archery opener. Uh and
Speaker 1: it it was hot. It was in the eighties. Uh
Speaker 1: and and we're one of the you know, last states
Speaker 1: to open. So we're always sitting here so anxious for season.
Speaker 1: As with social media, we see all our buddies out hunting,
Speaker 1: you know, for a month and a half sooner. So
Speaker 1: it was awesome to get in the woods. And and
Speaker 1: you know, I was able to harvest a dough so
Speaker 1: that that's part of our management plan. And it's it's
Speaker 1: meeting the freezer. So I had a good weekend. That's awesome, dude. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's always I don't know, dude, I can shoot a
Speaker 1: dough and still just be juiced. Man. It's like there's
Speaker 1: something about that moment of truth I guess they call it.
Speaker 1: But when you shoot something, you know, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a power ful thing. Man. You're taking the life of
Speaker 1: something and you don't want to mess it up, and
Speaker 1: you don't you want it to be quick and ethical,
Speaker 1: and there's so many different variables. So I'm glad you
Speaker 1: got to do that. Um. Absolutely, you know with that,
Speaker 1: why do you guys open so late? Is it because
Speaker 1: of different ruts and stuff like that? Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: know that's our season. So our rut is so late
Speaker 1: in the state as a whole. Um, we do have
Speaker 1: various rut dates throughout the state, but for the for
Speaker 1: the majority of the state, you're looking at uh a
Speaker 1: late December through January rut. Um. So it's a super
Speaker 1: late rut right now. Our deer are totally in an
Speaker 1: early season pattern. Um. And and in fact, you know,
Speaker 1: we still got deer that that are clinging to to
Speaker 1: velvet and it also has to do with our falling drop.
Speaker 1: Our our fawn drop is is later. You know, it's
Speaker 1: more in endo July into August, so it allows those
Speaker 1: um fawns to grow more and and and everything like that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's all a biological reason. Man. That's cool.
Speaker 1: It's it's super interesting. I'm I'm gonna have to swing
Speaker 1: out there at some point, you know, in the next
Speaker 1: couple of years, if not this year too, to check
Speaker 1: that out. You know that late rut stuff. Now you
Speaker 1: guys are you said you're in a preseason kind of pattern. Um,
Speaker 1: so how did you kill this dough? And you know,
Speaker 1: is it the same type of tactics you would use
Speaker 1: if you were trying to shoot a nice buck? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it can be so right now, the pattern is
Speaker 1: you know, food cover. That's that's what the deer doing
Speaker 1: bucks and does. Um. And so this particular set up, Um,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a really good wind, but uh we we
Speaker 1: just put a built a shooting house in this spot
Speaker 1: last year and it's so we're able to close the
Speaker 1: windows and everything. So that's what I did. I didn't
Speaker 1: have a great wind. I closed the windows. It was
Speaker 1: probably like eighty degrees and We had a feeder up
Speaker 1: in our food plot is also just starting to come up.
Speaker 1: We planted a couple of weeks ago, so they are
Speaker 1: starting to target and hit those food plot sources. But
Speaker 1: we had a feeder set up and and those deer
Speaker 1: came in. We're coming to that feeder. They fed around
Speaker 1: a little bit, and you know, I was able to
Speaker 1: open the window right before I needed to make the shot,
Speaker 1: so I didn't get my sin out there. So the
Speaker 1: whole plan worked well, even though it wasn't an ideal
Speaker 1: set up. Yeah, what kind of what kind of food
Speaker 1: you got in the food plot? So we've got a
Speaker 1: mixture of We've got oats, we've got triticale, we've got
Speaker 1: some peas, We've got various clovers. We've got some radishes
Speaker 1: in there. And I mean that stuff is all about
Speaker 1: two inches three inches now coming up. I mean it's
Speaker 1: that succulent new growth and they're really mowing on it.
Speaker 1: Cool man. So you know, being from multimobile, I imagine
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of cameras out. Are you seeing
Speaker 1: bucks in daylight right now? So what I'm seeing right
Speaker 1: out is kind of what you'd expect to see. It's
Speaker 1: it's the younger bucks. I'm seeing one and a half
Speaker 1: year old two and a half year old bucks. Um,
Speaker 1: they are on a heavy, very predictable pattern, hitting feeders,
Speaker 1: hitting food plots. They're out in the morning, they're out
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, plenty of daylight. Um. The mature dear, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I am not seeing any daylight activity. It's all the
Speaker 1: middle of the night, very late. Um. You know, even
Speaker 1: a couple hours after dark starting to see those. But
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing any daylight activity. Sure, I got you. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's good to know. So um with that, if you
Speaker 1: were hunting mature bucks in the next week, First of all,
Speaker 1: I'd like to know based off weather patterns, moon, uh,
Speaker 1: time of year, um, all these different things that you
Speaker 1: would factor in. Hey, I'd like to know what you
Speaker 1: what you kind of hYP hypothetical, what you think on
Speaker 1: a scale of one to ten, the buck movement will
Speaker 1: be like. And then also i'd like to you tell
Speaker 1: me how you would go about uh finding a mature buck. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. So if for next week it's it's
Speaker 1: looking not very good. Um. And this time of year,
Speaker 1: I go a lot off of the weather that dictates
Speaker 1: so much. We have a big cold front coming in tonight.
Speaker 1: If you were hunting in the next couple of days, man,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get some good cold weather. I bet the
Speaker 1: bucks are gonna be on their feet more so I'll
Speaker 1: be interested to see that on camera. But next week
Speaker 1: it's gonna be upper seventies to eighty. Later in the
Speaker 1: week it's gonna be very hot. And and to be
Speaker 1: perfectly honest, if you do have an area where there's
Speaker 1: a mature buck and and you know, it may be
Speaker 1: better to stay out of there and wait for better conditions,
Speaker 1: because there's a high probability of really boogering up a
Speaker 1: stand right now, and you don't want to bump that
Speaker 1: buck somewhere else. So I would I would tell guys
Speaker 1: in this area be leary about your spot. Unless you
Speaker 1: can sneez you can sneak out, and you've got the
Speaker 1: perfect win. Otherwise, I just don't think the daylight movement
Speaker 1: is going to be very good on mature bucks in
Speaker 1: the next week. Sure, so, uh, those are wise words
Speaker 1: for one scale of one to ten buck movement in
Speaker 1: the next week. Gosh, mature bucks, I mean three, I
Speaker 1: mean it's I feel pretty pretty low about mature buck movement.
Speaker 1: Next week. And and it's because of the early season.
Speaker 1: We have no rut activity here at this time like
Speaker 1: the rest of the country. Um. And and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be hot. Yeah yeah, those are I mean, that's a
Speaker 1: good number, realistic, man. We we appreciate that. We appreciate
Speaker 1: you hopping on giving us the rundown on Alabama. Uh.
Speaker 1: Maybe later this year into December area, when that rut
Speaker 1: kicks off, we might have to have you back on
Speaker 1: to talk about how those bucks are moving more on
Speaker 1: a seven or eight scale. So I appreciate you, Mark,
Speaker 1: and uh, I hope the best for you this season. Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot, same to you. We appreciate it all. Right.
Speaker 1: Now on the phone, we've got Nate Crick from Identical Draw. Dude,
Speaker 1: what's going on right now? You're in the truck. I'm
Speaker 1: in the truck. I'm driving through the great state of Kansas.
Speaker 1: Um Man, it's uh, it's starting to get real good.
Speaker 1: So we're Thomas and I are trying to spend as
Speaker 1: much time in the field as possible. That's exciting. So, uh,
Speaker 1: starting to get real good. So I guess you've been
Speaker 1: been all up in them lately. Huh yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we uh just got back from South Dakota last week
Speaker 1: and had a super successful hunt, one of our probably
Speaker 1: top three or top five public land hunts ever, which
Speaker 1: is saying a lot like we were pretty covered up
Speaker 1: in Deeter. So it was awesome. Man, that's cool. You
Speaker 1: end up, was it you or Tom that killed one?
Speaker 1: It was me? It was it was me day two? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we uh man, it was It was an awesome home
Speaker 1: in this In this one piece of public we spotted like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, probably five or six shooters and uh,
Speaker 1: eventually in the evening I was able to sneak into
Speaker 1: range of two white tails. One of them was a shooter,
Speaker 1: one of them was kind of young. Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I was in this this bottom of this draw, uh
Speaker 1: and made it happen. So it was it was an
Speaker 1: exciting hunt. That's awesome to congrats on that, And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm interested in and you know, learning a little more
Speaker 1: about kind of what you were focused on. I know,
Speaker 1: you know, at any time you can randomly see a
Speaker 1: deer and and go, um, you know, stalk up on him.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure you're in the area for a reason.
Speaker 1: What is that? Yeah, So basically the wind last week
Speaker 1: was insane. We were dealing with like gusts of like
Speaker 1: for like insane, Like we were both hunting in that
Speaker 1: and like most of the time a lot of the
Speaker 1: train like we couldn't even shoot it with our our
Speaker 1: tree equipment corners. Yeah, what we were looking for was
Speaker 1: like hills that and draws that would keep the deer
Speaker 1: out of the wind. So the wind was out of
Speaker 1: the west um, and so we're looking we kind of
Speaker 1: kind of those like uh, east facing hills where we
Speaker 1: knew that they kind of be tucked in there just
Speaker 1: like basically out of the wind um and deep draws
Speaker 1: and that's exactly where we found a deer. So hunting
Speaker 1: in those like hunting and our winds like sucks so bad.
Speaker 1: But man, if you can like the deer in like
Speaker 1: very very predictable spots. So yeah, we we focused on
Speaker 1: those deep draws, and like literally every time we found
Speaker 1: like similar stuff like that, man, we were we were
Speaker 1: finding deer pretty fast. And that's that's a good point.
Speaker 1: You know, anytime there's there's some kind of like outrageous condition,
Speaker 1: it kind of like it kind of for instance, like
Speaker 1: here locally we've got uh, we're in a pretty bad drought,
Speaker 1: and so we had we know, one of the best
Speaker 1: bass lakes in the country locally, and you know, technically
Speaker 1: there's a lot less places for these fish to hide,
Speaker 1: so you know, and so that that's kind of one
Speaker 1: of those things like you know, you can actually be
Speaker 1: successful if you get out there and do it same
Speaker 1: same thing on you know, fishing on windy days and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Like you're talking about hunting, So that's
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. Now if you were if you up there
Speaker 1: like saying this next week, um, what would you be
Speaker 1: focused on? Uh, just say the wind was out of
Speaker 1: the out of the mix here, Yeah, I would be
Speaker 1: focused on some pretty similar things, but I'd honestly be
Speaker 1: doing a lot more I don't know, we were doing
Speaker 1: a lot of glassing and scouting that way, but I'd
Speaker 1: be doing probably a lot more boots in the ground
Speaker 1: and like fresh sign, which we do still quite a bit,
Speaker 1: but like, I mean, you're gonna have bucks starting to
Speaker 1: get pretty amped up doing a lot of scrapes and stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: and in this area we're hunting like a lot of
Speaker 1: the white tail stuff. So I'd be looking for a
Speaker 1: lot of those that that sign kind of stuff and
Speaker 1: then just expecting buck movement to increase and just for
Speaker 1: them to start moving like just a lot more in
Speaker 1: daylight and stuff. I would be just hunting more predictable
Speaker 1: um DAWs and like travel areas where like you know
Speaker 1: those bucks are gonna start to kind of being interested
Speaker 1: and like moving a lot more and just those It's
Speaker 1: not like it's not full on the Vember up, but
Speaker 1: i'd be like kind of starting to tone in on
Speaker 1: some of those travel apps. Sure, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I got you. So, uh, scale of one to ten,
Speaker 1: what do you assume buck movement's gonna be like next week? Man?
Speaker 1: I would uh, I would assume it's probably whether it's
Speaker 1: like like moderately good. Nothing I can say, but I
Speaker 1: got to give it a six out of ten at
Speaker 1: least like it's over. So like i'd be I would
Speaker 1: be like looking forward to on that again. I mean
Speaker 1: right now actually they like we have seriously like good
Speaker 1: cold leather, but um yeah, I mean it's gonna be
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fine. Sometimes I feel like people give
Speaker 1: this time in October kind of a rough go, but man,
Speaker 1: it is one of my favorite times to get in
Speaker 1: the world. That's good man. We've had some very very
Speaker 1: much realistic people on this podcast so far this week,
Speaker 1: and uh, I appreciate that realism. I appreciate what you
Speaker 1: guys do, the messaging, you guys do, what you attempt
Speaker 1: to do with helping people out here maybe not as
Speaker 1: privileged as you guys. And yeah, man keep going, man,
Speaker 1: get after this season. I hope the rut goes well
Speaker 1: for you and we'll be talking to you sing. Yeah, thanks, Tyler,
Speaker 1: appreciate it well if it's em Old Mark Kenyon believes
Speaker 1: in the October law. According to a recent headline from
Speaker 1: an article on Wired to Hunt website, Tony has been
Speaker 1: writing some good articles over there as well about calling
Speaker 1: and hunting public land on our end. You should see
Speaker 1: our dude hunter Dickens get a shot at the South
Speaker 1: Dakota public Land toad on our YouTube channel this week.
Speaker 1: So go check all these out. This has been rough, fresh,
Speaker 1: Keep fresh, y'all,