Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts Rutt 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. I'm your host, Casey Smith,
Speaker 1: and today we're talking to hunters from across the country
Speaker 1: who are dealing with some adverse warm weather conditions, but
Speaker 1: they are hopeful for big bucks. This is Rutt Fresh Radio,
Speaker 1: brought to you by Vortex Optics. I'm Tyler Jones. One
Speaker 1: of your hosts. Casey Smith is the other guy you
Speaker 1: hear from every once in a while on this thing,
Speaker 1: and he's been hunting in Texas. Isn't that weird? Man.
Speaker 1: Tex has some deer, but they usually don't come out
Speaker 1: until like December, so I've been Actually, we have pretty
Speaker 1: good little cold front for early season in Texas, so
Speaker 1: I decided to try to capitalize on that. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about all that here in a little bit, but right now,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about how we refreshing. All right, It
Speaker 1: is like so fresh right Nowaday, because I'm feeling that
Speaker 1: refreshment suppens ash. You can see the clouds coming from
Speaker 1: the northwest. The wind is actually out of the east
Speaker 1: right now. It's sucking to that front. I think it's
Speaker 1: gonna switch taking one of the viral vortexas that go,
Speaker 1: you know in a cyclone that uh yeah, is this
Speaker 1: tornado alley. I believe we're at the stop sign at
Speaker 1: the end of Tornado Alley right now. If that's I
Speaker 1: guarantee you it will be a stop sign because Illinois
Speaker 1: wants to tell you what to do. You wanna be
Speaker 1: a yield, No, it won't be here. You just gave
Speaker 1: it away. We're in Illinois right now. Buck trucking Alright, guys,
Speaker 1: you all might have heard a little bit about this.
Speaker 1: You're gonna hear a whole lot more about it soon.
Speaker 1: But we've been buck trucking around the country, uh, doing
Speaker 1: some video and doing some buck slaying and having a
Speaker 1: ton of fun along the way. It can't wait to
Speaker 1: share that with y'all. Uh. We've been in Nebraska, South Dakota.
Speaker 1: Now we're headed to Illinois buck trucking around. Just some
Speaker 1: good friends, going hunting, driving around a truck, which is
Speaker 1: what all of us do. That the goal, that is
Speaker 1: the way it works, man. The goals to do that,
Speaker 1: plus have a couple old, big old just knocker heads
Speaker 1: in the back, you know what I mean, just big
Speaker 1: old suckers. So we're trying to find is uh some
Speaker 1: big bucks here in Illinois and this is a place
Speaker 1: where they live. Um. We've got some guys on the
Speaker 1: podcast today that have also been chasing some big old
Speaker 1: headed bucks running around and even a little bit of success. Man,
Speaker 1: you know, funny enough. Maybe it's because I've blocked this out,
Speaker 1: but I did not hear much about the October lull
Speaker 1: this year. Did you hear much about the October low
Speaker 1: people talking about that very much? I think there's been
Speaker 1: a little bit, you know. Uh, I think there's an
Speaker 1: article that Mark wrote recently about the October law. I
Speaker 1: think he thinks it's real. Um. And then there's also
Speaker 1: uh last all kinds of last week. You know, you
Speaker 1: were doing a lot of hunting. I did a lot
Speaker 1: of podcasts and with some fellers, and uh, there seemed
Speaker 1: to be uh not like they were calling at the
Speaker 1: October lew, but it definitely felt like it when I
Speaker 1: was talking to him on the podcast, like they were
Speaker 1: experiencing that low in action. So Tyler, uh, since you
Speaker 1: kind of did a little tongue in cheek thing there
Speaker 1: about the October law. You and I probably feel pretty
Speaker 1: similar about this, but I would like to ask you
Speaker 1: for your explanation of the perceived October law. I don't
Speaker 1: believe in Halloween. That's good me neither. Actually I do
Speaker 1: believe it exists, but I don't I don't celebrate it now.
Speaker 1: But um, I think that with that being said, ghosts,
Speaker 1: you know, are kind of not really a thing to me.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think that those deer are actually they
Speaker 1: don't disappear or turn into ghosts. I think they're actually
Speaker 1: deer living on the landscape somewhere, and that they have
Speaker 1: to be up during daylight hours at some point. Um.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean they're not difficult to kill. Right, Nothing
Speaker 1: is thing goes unexplained. There is an explanation for everything. Uh,
Speaker 1: And perception is reality. So there is no such thing
Speaker 1: as the lull, but you do perceive it sometimes. I
Speaker 1: believe it is It has something to do with there's
Speaker 1: is that a coudy or deer in the fat picture
Speaker 1: right there? Not? Okay, So it's either perceived as you're
Speaker 1: not adjusting to the new deer pattern quickly enough or um,
Speaker 1: I kind of had a thought the other day that
Speaker 1: these bucks go and readjust their home ranges, you know,
Speaker 1: after the velvet sheds and the test oscarone starts ramping
Speaker 1: up and all of a sudden, they're like, uh, just
Speaker 1: they got their little danger zone right here, right, and
Speaker 1: they don't want to venture out too far because they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to fight. But they don't want anybody in
Speaker 1: their zone either because they're gonna fight them, so like
Speaker 1: they just might not move as far. Cue the music,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the danger Zone, Welcome to it. That's right,
Speaker 1: Miles Teller. Right here, dude, We're going down gonna kill
Speaker 1: some big bucks in Illinois. Tyler. Who have we talked
Speaker 1: to this week about big old But around the country,
Speaker 1: the bobs that we've been that these guys been chasing
Speaker 1: um are very real, and they've been in a couple
Speaker 1: of states. We've been talking to Adam Kaufman from West Virginia,
Speaker 1: Jordan Barnes from Kentucky. We're gonna hear from Alex Comstock
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, and Johnny Stewart not to be confused with
Speaker 1: Johnny Morris from Pennsylvania. Stewart, that's correct, never mind. Uh So, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of good reports from across the
Speaker 1: country and actually some uh tactics that I appreciated learning
Speaker 1: more about, honestly because um, I kind of get in
Speaker 1: my groove of like the way I do things, and
Speaker 1: it is good to hear from other people about like
Speaker 1: the way they are hunting deer and how you can
Speaker 1: use that even if it's not the area you're from.
Speaker 1: You can take tactics used in elsewhere or in other
Speaker 1: parts of the country and apply them to your certain situations.
Speaker 1: So as a bonus this week, I'll tell you all
Speaker 1: about Texas. You tell them about it, Dude, tell them
Speaker 1: about it. Uh, Texas is a dust bowl right in
Speaker 1: that place where you'll just do whatever and they go
Speaker 1: running everywhere everywhere. They just actually put a high fence
Speaker 1: up around the whole state. Just keep all the deer
Speaker 1: in one spot. Now. Uh, there's actually some public ground
Speaker 1: in Texas and it's wild, doesn't always have the highest
Speaker 1: deer densities. And that's what I've been hunting. Uh. The
Speaker 1: there's this thing, okay where you start seeing scrapes pop
Speaker 1: up mid October, and I have decided that those scrapes
Speaker 1: are liars. Okay, those scrapes are not real. You're just
Speaker 1: imagining those things. Um, that's uh, that's a metaphorical version
Speaker 1: of what I'm actually trying to say is that those
Speaker 1: things can be misnomers or red herrings as some people
Speaker 1: like to say. Okay, they can lead you astray from
Speaker 1: the true reality of nature, and that is tiny bucks
Speaker 1: like to get out there and get all ambitious, right,
Speaker 1: But the big bucks they know exactly what they're doing,
Speaker 1: and they ain't getting out there and hitting them scrapes
Speaker 1: on October twelve. They're waiting, and you'll see a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of these little scrapes pop up and then you'll
Speaker 1: see them die. And that's because a little buck just
Speaker 1: got fired up. I wanted to do something there, but actually, uh,
Speaker 1: there will be a big scrapes somewhere and start to
Speaker 1: open up about this time of year, and I think that,
Speaker 1: like the twenties of October is when you can actually
Speaker 1: start looking and seeing which scrapes are staying active and
Speaker 1: make some moves according to that. But I think that
Speaker 1: I am going to start focusing on rubs more, which
Speaker 1: sounds weird because I've always kind of not been too
Speaker 1: big on that. But I learned this week. If you
Speaker 1: find a particular type of rub, like a rub on
Speaker 1: a big tree that looks like it has been hit
Speaker 1: multiple times. Uh PTRs particular types of rubs. All right,
Speaker 1: I like that too. We want to start using that.
Speaker 1: And so you peter out there and you will find
Speaker 1: that a shooter buck exists in the area and you
Speaker 1: need to make moves according to that. So going forward,
Speaker 1: I would say Texas is gonna be on the ramp up. Okay,
Speaker 1: I would have given it pretty low scores last week,
Speaker 1: but this upcoming week, I mean, we're looking at a
Speaker 1: solid six, I think, and I think that's a pretty
Speaker 1: good number, six out of ten man for East Texas
Speaker 1: at least. You know, Texas has about seventeen quadrants, which
Speaker 1: doesn't even make any sense if you actually think about it,
Speaker 1: But it's a it's a real big place. So one
Speaker 1: of your favorite things is when guys from different states
Speaker 1: other than Texas, especially smaller ones, that they'll be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: a's central you know whatever my state, and you're like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: and I know three area comes bigger than your whole state,
Speaker 1: so uh yeah, it's a big old spot. It's one
Speaker 1: of your favorite things man to talk about, is how
Speaker 1: these guys love to break those things down, you know,
Speaker 1: try man, But I appreciate the specificity of spec specific
Speaker 1: because it's so yeah, the specificness. Let's let's get to
Speaker 1: some of our fellers here and see what's going on
Speaker 1: around the country. I'm with Adam Kaufman of the Wild
Speaker 1: Turkey Alliance. This dude just slocked a big old buck
Speaker 1: in West Virginia. Adam, what's going on? Man? Well, it's
Speaker 1: mine day, so it's active work in reality. So well,
Speaker 1: you can't let the shine were off that fast, right, No,
Speaker 1: you know I did. I killed it Thursday evening, so
Speaker 1: I had the high all weekend and then it's BacT
Speaker 1: reality to day. I got you. That's cool though, Man,
Speaker 1: it looks like you've had a pretty good hunting season
Speaker 1: up there so far. Um, what has been going on
Speaker 1: in your neck of the woods, dear wise? Actually, it's
Speaker 1: it's been a it's been a really nice October. You know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys next thing or not,
Speaker 1: but my wife killed her first year, um the first
Speaker 1: back in September. Then the first day actually so wow,
Speaker 1: she really nicely living. So it was her first year
Speaker 1: palm pound bow. It was like it's it's been a
Speaker 1: good it's been a good season already. Boy, how do
Speaker 1: you I tell you what? So? Uh? With with that
Speaker 1: success already? I'm sure you kind of you know, you
Speaker 1: can go two ways with this. You could have a
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on yourself or you could just be
Speaker 1: hunting free. You know. So did you go into hunting
Speaker 1: this buck that you were after kind of with that
Speaker 1: free spirit or were you really trying to get after him?
Speaker 1: Actually it was her. It was her turn. I think
Speaker 1: getting grief from her, you know, because she wanted her
Speaker 1: first dear. And what's the cool thing about this for
Speaker 1: he is she she missed this here in two thousand
Speaker 1: nineteen is a three and a half year old. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this we were set up really trying to kill him.
Speaker 1: But when this big eleven come in in September, I said, honey,
Speaker 1: you can't pass this, dear, and she was like no,
Speaker 1: and all all on video it was I can't you know?
Speaker 1: That was my season then? And then this comes down
Speaker 1: Thursday and I just I I couldn't ask her season.
Speaker 1: But I don't go on vacation. I got on vacation
Speaker 1: Monday for two weeks. So I feel I feel free
Speaker 1: to be honest with that's cool. So what was the
Speaker 1: tactic you're using to capitalize on this big buck? Uh?
Speaker 1: Gets close to him as I could. He's he has
Speaker 1: been tough tactic man. Yeah, October, that's all you can
Speaker 1: do my opinion, I don't hunt mornings in October. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest, you not till late October, so I don't.
Speaker 1: I try hunt less out more. Yeah, and my tactics.
Speaker 1: So you were setting up close to bedding in the evening. Yeah, actually,
Speaker 1: you know, I wouldn't be surprised if I actually he
Speaker 1: had when I heard him coming. He wasn't out. He's
Speaker 1: bed for too long. But yeah, big calic on him.
Speaker 1: That's how I can always tell they still got that
Speaker 1: colic on their their rump, you know where they've kind
Speaker 1: of been sitting sideways. That's how you know you're opposed
Speaker 1: to bed Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool man. So
Speaker 1: how do you how do you find his bed? Well,
Speaker 1: I'd be scared to even know how many hours I
Speaker 1: put into this deer and trying to find him in
Speaker 1: and just getting my tail wiped by him. But I
Speaker 1: started finding really really big rugs and I lost him
Speaker 1: last year before he Rugby's help, so I've never seen
Speaker 1: him my fall. And then I caught back up to
Speaker 1: him as they usually doing the summer, and I started
Speaker 1: finding his rubs there just about ten days ago. Massive
Speaker 1: I knew he wasn't far. He's not going to go
Speaker 1: somewhere far and do all that kind of signs, so
Speaker 1: I knew it was close, and I started using seal
Speaker 1: cam's a little deeper and keeping my other cameras that
Speaker 1: I had to check further away from him, and I
Speaker 1: was kicking him up so and he actually showed up
Speaker 1: Thursday morning while I was at work, and I thought, man,
Speaker 1: I've got to get in their evenings, so I did,
Speaker 1: and the rest is history. Yeah, So so going forward,
Speaker 1: are you are you? Would you continue trying to get
Speaker 1: close two bucks like in the next week to their betting.
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like right now the light switch
Speaker 1: my cameras are really I'm getting bucks now that I
Speaker 1: have never seen already. So seems me like, uh, it
Speaker 1: seems like this is unfolding a little bit earlier in
Speaker 1: what I'm used to you. Usually by Halloween weekend is
Speaker 1: when this goes down, but it seems like it's starting
Speaker 1: now a little early for me that I'm accustomed to,
Speaker 1: and that's actually pretty exciting news. I know that. Uh,
Speaker 1: I've seen a little bit of that as well. It
Speaker 1: seems even with the hot temperature. I don't know if
Speaker 1: y'all been having unseasonally worn temperatures there in Westerns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have. We have the really cold mornings, the really
Speaker 1: pretty afternoons, but then by even the sundown it is
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're reaching for that coat, you know. Now.
Speaker 1: I know y'all are pretty far on the eastern side
Speaker 1: of of the country, but a lot of the country
Speaker 1: is gonna experience the weather front this week. Is that
Speaker 1: gonna get to y'all? It is, but it doesn't It's
Speaker 1: not going to be as big I like it if
Speaker 1: I can get a ten degree temperature change from one day.
Speaker 1: So it looks like Thursday for us is going to
Speaker 1: be that day. It looks like it's gonna seventy five
Speaker 1: or sixty three or something like that. But uh, if
Speaker 1: I could see that coming, I want to be in
Speaker 1: the woods that the next day for sure for sure.
Speaker 1: So with that looming, are you gonna be still trying
Speaker 1: to be close to bedding? You're hitting scrapes or what's
Speaker 1: your your major tech. They're gonna be going forward. Honestly,
Speaker 1: going forward. I'm gonna I'm gonna be uh trying to
Speaker 1: hunt these cruise right. So, we got a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, the big mountains and these these bucks like
Speaker 1: the runne is what we call skidting log roads. These
Speaker 1: these bucks like the thumb their horizontal around these mountains
Speaker 1: and that's the way they like to run. That's cool.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find how to find some big rubs,
Speaker 1: you know, and set up one of the scrapes and
Speaker 1: just wait, yep, man, sounds like you have got some
Speaker 1: stuff in store coming up. Dude. It's an exciting time
Speaker 1: of the year. If you had to rate the next
Speaker 1: week of deer hunting coming up, if you're gonna rate
Speaker 1: buck movement between the scale of one to ten, what
Speaker 1: would you call it? Honestly, this week come up, I
Speaker 1: think it's gonna be hot between eight and ten. I
Speaker 1: like this. I like this in my opinion and with
Speaker 1: my experience with this time of the year, this area
Speaker 1: coming up around Halloween is always I kill a deer
Speaker 1: every year this time of year. Yeah, buddy, it's almost
Speaker 1: in miss area. And now you know, when you start
Speaker 1: getting that lockdown and it seems like things slow down
Speaker 1: and you're really doing a lot of setting in the
Speaker 1: stain and not see anything. And I really really like uh,
Speaker 1: last of October. I do. I've always have man exciting times.
Speaker 1: And I love the confidence you got, dude. I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a great hunt and we appreciate the
Speaker 1: info absolutely. Thanks for having me, guys. M All right,
Speaker 1: right now, I've got Jordan's Barnes with close proximity. He's
Speaker 1: been hunting in Georgia. What's been going on, dude, And
Speaker 1: not much just logging some all day sets and the swamps. Um,
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of looking around, a lot
Speaker 1: of looking around every little noise. Yeah, and the squirrels
Speaker 1: will get you this time of year, man, yeahs turkeys um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I've been in the deer pretty good. Uh,
Speaker 1: pretty good so far this year. Just I'm just real
Speaker 1: close to get air in a nice bug just has
Speaker 1: been uh hadn't transpired yet, passed a lot of nice dear. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, cruising mid morning, um, the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: cruising down win a dough bet in Um, they're definitely searching. Cool.
Speaker 1: So this is this is like you're near the coast
Speaker 1: and this is this is pretty close to prime rut
Speaker 1: for you. I'm sending so you are you hunting like
Speaker 1: dough betting? A lot of times? Hunting that down wind
Speaker 1: side or what? What's your main tactic hunter all day
Speaker 1: every day? I don't. I don't care about sign really, Um,
Speaker 1: I don't take really a whole lot of importance. I
Speaker 1: mean this is crazy to some people, but it's how
Speaker 1: I find the big deer. Um. I don't pay attention
Speaker 1: to really hot sign freck sign. I pay attention to
Speaker 1: dough betting. Like everything revolves around dough bedding for me,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if there's bigger ups there or not. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm hunting down one side of the bedding, hunting to
Speaker 1: exploit the tendency, and that's where I'm I'm getting on
Speaker 1: all these big So in your neck of the woods,
Speaker 1: what is dough betting like? When you're identifying that, whether
Speaker 1: it's on a map or on the ground, how you
Speaker 1: finding that? It could be clear cut, it could be
Speaker 1: um tai tai bas uh, just any any change in
Speaker 1: habitat that. I mean a lot of times, to be honest, y'all,
Speaker 1: I'll walk um miles late season and identify where I'm
Speaker 1: jumping those family groups and that's all I need. And
Speaker 1: then I'll go back in there at the right time
Speaker 1: of year and just hunt down wind of it. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, we got a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: north stuff right now, so I've got you know, I'll
Speaker 1: get on the down wind signed out for north, and
Speaker 1: then if it switches on me and goes south, southwest, southeast,
Speaker 1: I'll just rotate to get on the down wind side
Speaker 1: of it on a different angle. Are you Uh, I'm
Speaker 1: really interested in this because we're about to go. You know,
Speaker 1: we're a little bit behind where we're headed of what
Speaker 1: you're talking about rut fast wise. Uh, but are you
Speaker 1: trying to sandwich those bucks between you and the dough bedding? Like,
Speaker 1: are you sitting up like twenty yards south of the
Speaker 1: trail you expect the down wind Let me say that
Speaker 1: of the trail you expect the deer to be on.
Speaker 1: Are you sitting up on the trail or up wind
Speaker 1: of it? Or how do you really configure that? So
Speaker 1: I'm just basically I've noticed that. Um. Sometimes you might
Speaker 1: have like the weather forecast might be let's say the
Speaker 1: weather forecast is well, let's just start off. I don't
Speaker 1: want to I'm not trying to take the fall y'all's time.
Speaker 1: But let me try to explain it this way. Um. So,
Speaker 1: let's say you get the weather and it says, okay,
Speaker 1: I want to go hunt down wind of this type
Speaker 1: said bay, and it pinches right next to a slue
Speaker 1: or something, or it's a kine thicket. It pinches next
Speaker 1: to a slue, all right, and I see there's like
Speaker 1: a I'm gonna I'm gonna say it's the north wind,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna hunt the south side of that, all right.
Speaker 1: Um Well, sometimes let's say it's it could be a
Speaker 1: south wind, and that's that might be the wrong wind.
Speaker 1: But the first four or five hours the day, if
Speaker 1: it's real calm, the thermals might suck to still pull
Speaker 1: down wind. So I sometimes I'll still hunt it that
Speaker 1: first portion and then I'll get down getting the boat
Speaker 1: or get down walk the bank out or something and
Speaker 1: get on the other side of it for lunch, like
Speaker 1: once the day when start. So it's just the main
Speaker 1: thing to grasp or that that I try to put
Speaker 1: a handle on. It's just making sure I'm down wind
Speaker 1: and just be down winded where those does are spending
Speaker 1: their time where there and that then that can change
Speaker 1: throughout the years sometimes, but typically wherever I'm jumping, if
Speaker 1: I walk late season, I'm jumping a bunch of Doe
Speaker 1: family groups. I'm jumping up early season in the summer,
Speaker 1: I'm jumping up late season. That's a perennial dough betting area,
Speaker 1: and that's going to get my attention more so than Oh,
Speaker 1: here's a bunch of rubs and scrapes somewhere. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: you don't hear many people talking about dough beatting right now,
Speaker 1: And it's definitely something I've used to kill deer on two.
Speaker 1: I like it a lot. So I'm glad you're talking
Speaker 1: about this now going forward in the next week or so.
Speaker 1: I know, you know in the South, the rut trickles
Speaker 1: a little harder than it does in the Midwest and
Speaker 1: up no Earth, But um, are you gonna still employ
Speaker 1: the same tactics? Do you like that going forward? And
Speaker 1: and do you feel comfortable saying that they're gonna be
Speaker 1: moving pretty good? Um checking with dough batting next week? Absolutely? Man,
Speaker 1: I mean that's that is the main sentences. Um. I
Speaker 1: mean that's what we're really trying to exploit. I think
Speaker 1: everybody's got different little ways that they you know, strategy
Speaker 1: they go about it. But to me, I mean that's
Speaker 1: the meat and potatoes of of of exploiting the bucks tendency. Yea,
Speaker 1: so fast majority of the year, got your different days
Speaker 1: will come in estres, you know everything. She didn't get bread,
Speaker 1: Like in the South, there's so many does. Everybody wants
Speaker 1: to pass the ten does to shoot the buck. So
Speaker 1: a lot of times what happens is if they don't
Speaker 1: get bread. Obviously you don't know this, they don't get
Speaker 1: bread that first cycle, they'll come in in about twenty
Speaker 1: eight days later. So it's it's just a trickle man.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm gonna keep hunting that that same tendency. Sure,
Speaker 1: so scale of one to ten, what do you say
Speaker 1: buck movement will be like they're on the coastal marshes
Speaker 1: of Georgia next week, Well, um uh, I guess Saturday
Speaker 1: I had a shooter, you know for down here, I
Speaker 1: mean mature buck, you know, probably hoping young on a
Speaker 1: dove like full all out. So I'm sure some of
Speaker 1: them bucks will lock down, But for the most part
Speaker 1: of me, it's gonna be a lot of cruising, a
Speaker 1: lot of late morning cruising all day, middle of the day,
Speaker 1: two o'clock and me it happened any second, um, and
Speaker 1: that pretty much stayed pretty consistent throughout. You know, I
Speaker 1: guess the rest of October, first part of November got you.
Speaker 1: So if you had to put a number on it,
Speaker 1: one to Tim, what do you think, I'd say? It's high?
Speaker 1: Like I mean, right now is the time of bend
Speaker 1: the woods. Ten. I mean, if you're in the middle
Speaker 1: of o you're in South Georgia and you're not in
Speaker 1: the trigger right now, you should be all right, dude. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for the report, man, and we'll be talking to
Speaker 1: you soon. Yeah, man, all right, I got Alex Comstock
Speaker 1: from whitetailed d n A. What's happening man, you've been
Speaker 1: in Minnesota lately? Huh. Yeah, I've been spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time in the woods here in Minnesota, but I've
Speaker 1: been seeing much dear. Yeah, you know, you ever heard
Speaker 1: of the Headless Horseman comes out around Halloween? You've you've
Speaker 1: been dealing with anything like that lately? You know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't really ring a bell, but oh man, I feel
Speaker 1: for you. Um, sometimes you find out that the big
Speaker 1: buck your chasing gets shot. I actually found that out
Speaker 1: last year around my house, So I know what it
Speaker 1: feels like. It's not a good feeling, but you've still
Speaker 1: been out there after him. What what exactly are you
Speaker 1: kind of focusing on right now when you think about
Speaker 1: tactically how to harvest a big buck in Minnesota right now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: i'men kind of you know, in the last week or so,
Speaker 1: been focusing on just areas, been trying to push close
Speaker 1: to bedding, trying to find scrapes that are you know
Speaker 1: what I would call close to bedding and not just scrapes.
Speaker 1: So I think we're getting hit at night. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: here we had a pretty good acorn crop, but being
Speaker 1: as far north as we are, the acorn is pretty
Speaker 1: much got decimated and I'll dropped for really early, like
Speaker 1: late September. Um, so um, I'm really just trying to
Speaker 1: focus in on getting pushing close to bedding. UM, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to find those scrapes, and it's been it's been
Speaker 1: tough because I haven't really been able to find um
Speaker 1: much as far as daylight activity has been going. So yeah,
Speaker 1: how how how are you finding or what do you
Speaker 1: assume you know, how are you making the assumption of betting?
Speaker 1: I guess, um a mix of just you know, I've
Speaker 1: where I hunt. It's uh, it's you know, a suburban area.
Speaker 1: And so I can do quite a bit of walking
Speaker 1: in the woods on types of trails um, stonebile trails,
Speaker 1: hiking trails without being invasive and can you know, for
Speaker 1: like example, I actually was out hanging camps last week
Speaker 1: and was walking a smobile trail and kicked up the
Speaker 1: buck that I one of the bucks up and after
Speaker 1: and he was betted, you know, four yards off the
Speaker 1: stomobile trail. So I didn't really do any harm. Um,
Speaker 1: but I boom Newers betted right there, and um, stuff
Speaker 1: like that essentially. Um, and then just trying to get
Speaker 1: into areas that you know, um finding if I can't
Speaker 1: find a type of food source and trying to you know,
Speaker 1: backtrack essentially. But um, that's pretty much what I've been
Speaker 1: doing up here in Minnesota. Given an old to effect
Speaker 1: into necting boom, you know I could play yet. So uh,
Speaker 1: that urban thing is really interesting because you're not like
Speaker 1: hunting backyard deer, but you're hunting deer that are Uh,
Speaker 1: you know in urban zones, right, and so pressure is
Speaker 1: just different in that stuff. And I kind of want
Speaker 1: to pick your brain about that just a little bit. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, you say, you bump that deer off the
Speaker 1: Snowbyville trail, but I'm sure he's used to people. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, you never know when some you know,
Speaker 1: memile has walked your dog down the same trail and
Speaker 1: it's bumped him like that day. So how do you
Speaker 1: kind of do you have specific days of the week
Speaker 1: that you feel are better in those type situations are
Speaker 1: like how are you navigating that? Yeah, it's it's a
Speaker 1: super tricky um topic of discussion. We could probably do
Speaker 1: an hour long podcast on it, but you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's so true. And the fact that you know,
Speaker 1: what I found is if you're on these trails, you know,
Speaker 1: deer so used to they know where the trails are,
Speaker 1: they're used to people going by. It's when you stop
Speaker 1: or if you venture off the trails is when they know.
Speaker 1: I me so that buck. We caught a glimpse of
Speaker 1: them as we were walking by them, were already passed them,
Speaker 1: And if we would have just kept walking, I guarantee
Speaker 1: he would not you know, given two cares in the world.
Speaker 1: The fact that we stopped backed up, We're like, ohly crap,
Speaker 1: looking at you and throw your bios up and then
Speaker 1: immediately you knew something was up and he just you know,
Speaker 1: out of there. So it's a kind of a catch
Speaker 1: twenty two. But it does also allow me to walk
Speaker 1: through and you know, I can scout by taking these
Speaker 1: trails and jump off the trail, checking herr out back
Speaker 1: on the trail. And it's just the pressure is the
Speaker 1: way way you put it is good is different. And
Speaker 1: I found that, you know, the early morning, late evening
Speaker 1: when the least time people are on the trail is
Speaker 1: one dear, you know, most active, they're most likely to
Speaker 1: get up and start you know, crossing some of these
Speaker 1: trails and whatnot. Yeah, makes sense, makes sense. So going forward,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna be focusing on in the next
Speaker 1: week or so. I'm trying to find as much deer
Speaker 1: sign as possible. I've been um pretty much every sit
Speaker 1: I've been in a different tree, just going with the
Speaker 1: saddle and you know, looking for signs and scrapes, and
Speaker 1: you know, until we've got a ton of cell cams
Speaker 1: out and they've just been dead. So as long as
Speaker 1: though stayed dead, I'm just hunting for scrapes right now,
Speaker 1: back where I believed you're embetted, not just you know,
Speaker 1: to translate to other people, You're not just like feel
Speaker 1: edge scrapes, you know, essentially, um, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: get back into the cover and if you can find those,
Speaker 1: you know, seemingly active scrapes, I think now. And obviously
Speaker 1: you're gonna start, um, you know, focusing on doors here
Speaker 1: pretty quick. So kind of that kind of combination. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, and weather and moon and
Speaker 1: whatever else you consider. Typically when you like to think
Speaker 1: about hyping for whitetail, what would you assume buck movement
Speaker 1: will be like based on a scale of one to
Speaker 1: ten in the next week. You know, I'm hoping we
Speaker 1: can get over a five, so I'm gonna go six. Um,
Speaker 1: it's been warm here, it's been pretty warm. I mean,
Speaker 1: we're we're pushing seventy yesterday, which where I'm at Northern
Speaker 1: Minnesota is really really warm. I don't know how to
Speaker 1: do it right, does sounds I mean, that does sound
Speaker 1: like it would be kind of a downer, uh for y'all.
Speaker 1: It's it's not it's not ideal. I mean, and but
Speaker 1: we've got in the next week. You know, we've got
Speaker 1: tempts pushing down where highs during the forties lows during
Speaker 1: the twenties. So yeah, i'd call that, you know, um,
Speaker 1: typical weather. It's not like below averages, I wouldn't say,
Speaker 1: but we're getting to get good weather and the timing,
Speaker 1: you know, the time of year, so I'm hoping with
Speaker 1: how bad it's Ben is bound to pick up. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and give her a six. All right, dude,
Speaker 1: Well that sounds like promising, you know, it's very realistic,
Speaker 1: but promising. It's that time of year. Man. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you getting on with us. I hope that this picks
Speaker 1: up for you and you get to get a crack
Speaker 1: at a deer up there, because I know it means
Speaker 1: a lot to you work really hard at it. Appreciate
Speaker 1: what you do, man, and and hopping on the phone
Speaker 1: with us as well. So uh, I hope things go
Speaker 1: well for you the rest of the season. Absolutely appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And good luck to you guys as well. All right,
Speaker 1: now on the phone, we've got Johnny Stewart not to
Speaker 1: be confused with the guy that owns bass pro shops.
Speaker 1: This is a guy in Pennsylvania who is a public
Speaker 1: land dear killer. He's a good unner, Johnny. What's been
Speaker 1: going on, man Um? Not much, trying to get a
Speaker 1: little hunting in. UM. Just kind of what's that time
Speaker 1: of year, wait and wait for the rut? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: talk about what kind of habitat you typically are hunting.
Speaker 1: Is it hill country or what's it look like? Actually Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: I live near Pittsburgh, I travel, I have a camp north.
Speaker 1: I've been putting a lot of time into there. But
Speaker 1: it's hard when you know you don't live close to
Speaker 1: where you're hunting. But it's mountain bocks. But actually the
Speaker 1: area UM, some people can get confused with mountains. Um
Speaker 1: it is the considered allegating mountain change. But kind of
Speaker 1: area I'm hunting this really flat gradual um kind of
Speaker 1: they called the plateaus. Makes it kind of difficult not
Speaker 1: having the terrain. I feel like it's easier to hunt terrain,
Speaker 1: not easier. It's all hard when you're hunting in the mountains.
Speaker 1: But UM, a lot of brows up in that area.
Speaker 1: No mask UM some areas of mass but no acorns
Speaker 1: this year, and the beach were produced in the last
Speaker 1: few years and nothing's happening. So it's pretty much hunting
Speaker 1: browsing deer that him a lot. So it's a it's
Speaker 1: a challenge, but I like it. Yeah, No, that sounds
Speaker 1: a lot like where we hunt. We hunt for real
Speaker 1: flat country too. If you see a if you if
Speaker 1: you hear somebody say, hey, over over on that ridge
Speaker 1: in our country. Um, it's like a six inch rise,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, It's like you can't really
Speaker 1: see it. You just gotta walk up on it. And
Speaker 1: there's no water there, you know. So I understand that
Speaker 1: flat roaming, uh brows country because we've got the same
Speaker 1: type of stuff down here and it makes it difficult
Speaker 1: and and like you said, the the elevation helps to
Speaker 1: kind of funnel deer. So let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about what you focus on. I mean, it sounds like
Speaker 1: beach was something you were looking at, um, But what
Speaker 1: do you typically focus on this time of year? So
Speaker 1: a big thing for me is hunting pressure. So they
Speaker 1: just had here in po Up where I hunt is
Speaker 1: that was a riffle bear or muzzle loader. There was
Speaker 1: an orange army out and they're hitting the clear cuts
Speaker 1: and pushing all the good habitat which a lot of
Speaker 1: people like to go to. But I kind of just
Speaker 1: I like that. I feel like the bigger deer that
Speaker 1: I'm hunting or going to just satellite them areas, maybe
Speaker 1: hit him at night. Um, they're just kind of like
Speaker 1: a different creature. They don't want to be bothered at all.
Speaker 1: And the weather was a little bit warm, so um
Speaker 1: getting down your creek bottoms sometimes that's tough with the
Speaker 1: winds maybe swirling. But um, I find a lot of
Speaker 1: these deer are always sent check in the areas, especially
Speaker 1: this time of year with those coming into heat and
Speaker 1: other bucks in their area. Um, like the biggest beer
Speaker 1: deer I find will be like the furthest down wind
Speaker 1: on a flat like I got like a flat dinner.
Speaker 1: Gradually there is elevation change. Maybe there yam at maybe
Speaker 1: a hundred feet UM, and then further downstream you can
Speaker 1: keep falling the creek to where you can get to
Speaker 1: four feet elevation, but that's like miles downstream. It's like,
Speaker 1: um from the top where um it's a watershed on
Speaker 1: each side of the flat. But they're just they're they're
Speaker 1: lazy and not lazy. I find how they're they're they're
Speaker 1: their navigation is just very efficient through the woods, not
Speaker 1: going at this time of year when the rut isn't
Speaker 1: happening yet. Um just kind of you think something. You
Speaker 1: see rubs on a flatness and that sign you think. Sometimes, Um,
Speaker 1: there are deer to travel a night A lot. I
Speaker 1: find deer to travel mouth checking the scrapes and different
Speaker 1: areas where they're gonna read those. And I'm like, this
Speaker 1: one deer I hunting. He's just I think he's hanging
Speaker 1: out right there and claiming that territory and not just
Speaker 1: kind of just getting He's just like a satellite. He's there,
Speaker 1: he knows what's going on. He's got a mile away.
Speaker 1: But like I said, all personality typing the deer itself.
Speaker 1: Some of them used to travel a lot, but sometimes
Speaker 1: the older ones kind of know where they want to
Speaker 1: be and just hang out and uh so, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: just been checking. I was. I just got home from
Speaker 1: up there, and I was up there. I've got a
Speaker 1: lot of cameras running and mainly in areas where I
Speaker 1: can check, um without bumping deer, where I'm kind of
Speaker 1: know where maybe he's feeding at night on my bump
Speaker 1: a dough here or there. But to gauge where the
Speaker 1: um you know, whether where they starting to daylight or
Speaker 1: are still nighttime. UM, So I just keep an eye
Speaker 1: and then when I hunt now, I usually hunt the
Speaker 1: four light um my most productive, and sometimes I go
Speaker 1: in at light. It's kind of like a toss up,
Speaker 1: which is better because sometimes, um, you're going before lighting.
Speaker 1: It's a calm, heavy frost and maybe they were hanging
Speaker 1: out right there since it's so flat and they roam
Speaker 1: and they're brows that you gotta be careful bumping them.
Speaker 1: Tough to get in. Sometimes going in after light, but
Speaker 1: I'll get out at noon or ten eleven whenever I
Speaker 1: feel I'll check cameras, studying my map, my sparting forward.
Speaker 1: I'm always looking at that and deciding just really fine
Speaker 1: tune it, always learning, never stopped scouting and finding. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm kind of looking for that dough that comes into
Speaker 1: heat around the end of October because I know there
Speaker 1: are very few of them. Yeah, I'm finding a And
Speaker 1: I asked the other hunters, you're seeing the scrape, you've
Speaker 1: seen it? Not yet? They just started. So what I've
Speaker 1: been scraping myer, So to me, that's telling me like
Speaker 1: going to happen. So yeah, man, we're coming up on
Speaker 1: that week for sure, and uh, that'll really look forward
Speaker 1: to that late October stuff. And I know you do too.
Speaker 1: If you were going to look at kind of what
Speaker 1: you had coming up, Uh you know, what's the one
Speaker 1: thing that you're going to concentrate on? And then if
Speaker 1: you could predict dear movement on a scale to one
Speaker 1: to ten over the next week, what would that look like?
Speaker 1: So I think the number one I'm gonna go back
Speaker 1: up and hunt this upcoming week. Um, whether they're gonna
Speaker 1: be a little warm, but I think I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: look with him scrapes, Um, see where the where the
Speaker 1: rubs are? I feel like that bucks close, staying tight,
Speaker 1: watch your wind. Um, they're still not out of your mind,
Speaker 1: out of their skull and and they're gonna be using
Speaker 1: that wind and you're gonna play the edge. You get
Speaker 1: sent free and and you know, get ready for him
Speaker 1: to start chasing. Does what from a scale to one
Speaker 1: to team, what's it gonna be? Man, I'd say about
Speaker 1: six and a half. Oh yeah, I got some hats
Speaker 1: he's in there, Johnny. There's a bunch of people that
Speaker 1: are mad at me right now because I said the
Speaker 1: owner of ass Pro is Johnny Steart. I realized that
Speaker 1: Johnny Morris. Uh, that's say, man, you can owns pro
Speaker 1: shops too, even though your name is there. Hey, thanks
Speaker 1: for it hopping on the phone with this man giving
Speaker 1: us a good report. Yeah, no problem. If you can't
Speaker 1: tell the big buck hype is real this time of year, guys,
Speaker 1: October is when things start happening, and it's super exciting.
Speaker 1: Things have happened for us lately. Actually, we had a
Speaker 1: buddy of ours kill a really big buck over a
Speaker 1: scrape in South Dakota that videos on the Element channel
Speaker 1: if you want to check out kind of how that went.
Speaker 1: And then we actually go in depth on the Element
Speaker 1: podcast as well and talk about some of those tactics
Speaker 1: involved with hunting scrapes in October. And by the way,
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon poses the question in a recent article on
Speaker 1: Wire to Hunt of if October is the new November
Speaker 1: for deer hunters. I don't know how I'm more with
Speaker 1: that I am. You might want to go read what
Speaker 1: Mark has to say about that these things can really
Speaker 1: help you as we push into November because guess what, guys,
Speaker 1: that's the rut. This is rout fresh, Keep it fresh.