Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you
Speaker 1: the latest reports from the White Tail Woods, presented by
Speaker 1: First Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand,
Speaker 1: saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay longer, and
Speaker 1: now your hosts ca C. Smith and Tyler Jones.
Speaker 2: The year's final month is here, But do you have
Speaker 2: the information it takes to make it in December?
Speaker 3: To remember this is Retfresh. Let's go.
Speaker 2: Howdy everybody, Welcome to Retfresh Radio. Brock you a first
Speaker 2: slide year.
Speaker 3: I'm your host k C. Smith.
Speaker 2: Tyler Jones is riding in the Captain's chair.
Speaker 3: Captain Jones, that's him. We are headed out on it
Speaker 3: another deer hunt.
Speaker 2: See here's a little little refresh for the ret Fresh.
Speaker 2: Texas and the South in general is a wonderful place
Speaker 2: to be for many reasons, all right, But one of
Speaker 2: the ones in particular we're gonna discuss right now is
Speaker 2: that it's December.
Speaker 3: And we're still thinking about rutting deer. It's pretty cool, man,
Speaker 3: and I'm wearing shorts.
Speaker 2: You are wearing shorts, which I am surprised because it's
Speaker 2: it's not that warm. Honestly, we actually have a really
Speaker 2: good cold front that just came through and it's gonna
Speaker 2: the cold temps are gonna stick, which is really exciting
Speaker 2: for us.
Speaker 3: I mean, we're looking at mid fifties in the.
Speaker 2: Day and low's around frost, and that's that is some
Speaker 2: good hunting weather. And honestly, I'd say anywhere in the
Speaker 2: country that's pretty good hunting weather.
Speaker 4: I like it because if your rifle hunting, then it's good.
Speaker 4: If you're bow hunting, and you see just this nice, cool,
Speaker 4: high pressure days over and over again, a lot of
Speaker 4: times you just get them swirly little light and variables, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: and bow hunting in those conditions tough.
Speaker 3: I will say, what about your shotgun hunt, dude, or
Speaker 3: straight wall hunting?
Speaker 4: I want a shotgun hunt? How about all these I
Speaker 4: want to buck shot some deer that are running, dude.
Speaker 2: Baddy, that would be cool. That would be cool. I've
Speaker 2: done a little bit of it. It's pretty fun.
Speaker 3: We do, so we do.
Speaker 4: We pig hunt that way a lot. It's just kind
Speaker 4: of the way we do it most time. As we'll
Speaker 4: drive to find these big brier thickets. And that's what
Speaker 4: some people might call pushing pushing, Yeah, pushing pigs and
Speaker 4: shooting them with shotguns and buckshot, and it is super
Speaker 4: effective and super fun. Actually have a bunch of those
Speaker 4: videos on our channel or a few of them. Yeah,
Speaker 4: if you're interested in watching.
Speaker 2: Speaking of our channel, if you are interested in some
Speaker 2: deer hunting, we just put out a video that I
Speaker 2: would love to have you go watch. It's a it's
Speaker 2: a video where I shot a really great Texas buck
Speaker 2: during the Texas Rutt.
Speaker 3: Tyler Jones himself rattled this deer in for me. It
Speaker 3: was awesome.
Speaker 2: I shot it with a thirty thirty that my granddad
Speaker 2: bought for my dad's like eleventh birthday or something like that.
Speaker 2: It was, And it's just like a really cool legacy hunt.
Speaker 2: A lot of things really come together. It is a
Speaker 2: beautiful thing. So we'll link that in description below. But
Speaker 2: I think that that whole thing kind of goes to
Speaker 2: show that man, just because November is done does not
Speaker 2: mean that the deer action is done.
Speaker 3: Well, that's right, you killed that deer on what the twelfth, twelfth?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I realized we were in Texas in the south,
Speaker 2: but we were pretty far north in Texas. Honestly, Like,
Speaker 2: if you look at some if you were to draw
Speaker 2: a line straight east, we probably would be hitting Missouri
Speaker 2: at some point in time on that latitudinal line.
Speaker 3: So it's definitely not over.
Speaker 2: And there's some second rut stuff that maybe out there
Speaker 2: that we'll ask some guys about a little bit today,
Speaker 2: because you know, we're kind of all interested in that, everybody,
Speaker 2: you know, just like the deer, we don't want to
Speaker 2: miss out on the good opportunities to be able to
Speaker 2: still get a big buck on the.
Speaker 3: Ground, and there is a lot of them out there
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Tyler, Yes, just because you do, you know your way
Speaker 2: around a white tailed deer. How are you say you're
Speaker 2: a Midwest hunter right now? Are you swapping over to
Speaker 2: food yet? Are you still thinking about like buck stuff?
Speaker 4: I hunt food a lot man, so I wouldn't be
Speaker 4: afraid to to hunt food or deer moving to food,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't necessarily be on a field edge right now.
Speaker 4: I think if I was on private, I could be
Speaker 4: for sure. But I think if I was on public,
Speaker 4: i'd probably be. I would be sitting a closer to
Speaker 4: I'd be sitting closer to dough betting probably and and
Speaker 4: or buck betting. If I knew where bucks were betting,
Speaker 4: But I think that I would be hunting deer knowing
Speaker 4: that the main, the main angle for that deer that
Speaker 4: day is to go find food and then he's going
Speaker 4: to harass stoves while he's there or whatever, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, that sounds like a pretty good plan, man.
Speaker 2: And also like, because we had kind of warmer temperatures
Speaker 2: around the country, it would seem for the month of November.
Speaker 2: I know, I saw Mark post about it and how
Speaker 2: it's been a tough November for him, and I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: and I feel like there's some people out there that
Speaker 2: had tough Novembers. You and I particularly had great Novembers,
Speaker 2: and it kind of might just be kind of to
Speaker 2: lean towards the kind of the areas that we hunt
Speaker 2: and the deer that we hunt or whatever.
Speaker 3: But it was great for us.
Speaker 2: But the cold temperatures that December usually brings, it's almost
Speaker 2: guaranteed that we'll have some cold mixed with you know,
Speaker 2: the food sources that you're talking about is a recipe
Speaker 2: for success for sure, because those deer get on their feet,
Speaker 2: and deer a lot like humans. It seems like to
Speaker 2: me they acclimate a little bit so like if it's
Speaker 2: the first really good cold snap of the first you know,
Speaker 2: temperatures you're going to see in the teens, even if
Speaker 2: it's later in the year, then normal those deer really
Speaker 2: going to react to that. So it's a great, great
Speaker 2: time to make sure you can get out in the woods.
Speaker 3: I agree, I think that. I think you know.
Speaker 4: One thing to think about here is I don't know,
Speaker 4: I haven't kept too big of a pulse on what's
Speaker 4: been going on outside of this ret fresh stuff as
Speaker 4: far as like nationwide and what people have been doing.
Speaker 4: But if you've had if a lot of people you know,
Speaker 4: you know in your area have had a rough November
Speaker 4: because it was hot, then December could be the new
Speaker 4: thing to do right now, like get you know, if
Speaker 4: if November was tough, and then that means there's potentially
Speaker 4: a lot of stillure mature bucks still on the landscape, right.
Speaker 2: And then also you pair that with the fact that
Speaker 2: a lot of people have taken vacation time to go
Speaker 2: do their hunts already, So you're hunting public land or a.
Speaker 3: Piece of private that you don't have exclusive access to.
Speaker 2: You could have the woods potentially to yourself and there'd
Speaker 2: be a plethora of target animals.
Speaker 3: Still lands to.
Speaker 4: Do, for sure, those deer if you've got say you're
Speaker 4: hunting a place like we do. We have leases here
Speaker 4: in Texas, a lot of lease. It's kind of a
Speaker 4: cultural thing. And you'll lease it with mostly guys, you know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you'll lease it with people you don't know. But
Speaker 4: even if you got like, you know, six or seven
Speaker 4: guys on a place that you know, those deer in
Speaker 4: December can the big bucks can still be killed on
Speaker 4: that lease if they haven't been killed. And a lot
Speaker 4: of times they're going to be in the place that
Speaker 4: like you have to open the most gates to get there,
Speaker 4: you know, or the place that's the furthest back from
Speaker 4: the from the ranch house or the or camp or
Speaker 4: whatever you're staying, you know. So like think about especially
Speaker 4: as we gets later in the year, people get a
Speaker 4: little bit lazier. Sometimes the tiredness of the season starts
Speaker 4: to set in. And and if you work hard in December,
Speaker 4: especially after a warm November, I think it can be
Speaker 4: a recipe for good stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, man.
Speaker 2: And speaking of laziness, the guys that we have on
Speaker 2: the rough fresh today are not that they're.
Speaker 3: The guys that are still out there getting after it. Tyler,
Speaker 3: Who do we have on the go today?
Speaker 4: Man, We've got uh, you know, one of our former
Speaker 4: own Michael Stole up in Ohio. He's uh, you know,
Speaker 4: I thought he's gonna retire once he retired from the Element,
Speaker 4: but he has been doing some deer hunting up there
Speaker 4: in Ohio, which is a good place. I think a
Speaker 4: lot of people kill eate season deer up there too,
Speaker 4: because they allow corn and things like that. Uh, And
Speaker 4: there's just so many deer right up there. So we've
Speaker 4: got him. We've got Justin Henry. If you go way
Speaker 4: down south from there, from Ohio to the East coast
Speaker 4: and south, what's gonna see, You're gonna see Florida And
Speaker 4: Justin Henry's comments there and he's he's always out doing
Speaker 4: something down there in that nasty deer hunting country of Florida.
Speaker 4: And then uh, you know Michael Huntsucker, who usually we
Speaker 4: see him once or twice a year on retfresh. He's
Speaker 4: in Missouri, which is a place that you know, is
Speaker 4: just right in the mix of great deer hunting, has
Speaker 4: a great heritage there. And then another place where there's
Speaker 4: a lot of deer hunters, and a guy that's very
Speaker 4: familiar to a lot of people be cuz Strickland. Ronnie
Speaker 4: cuz Strickland been in Mississippi and he's been having some
Speaker 4: success with his grandchildren. So we'll get all those guys
Speaker 4: on the podcast this week.
Speaker 2: On the phone, I've got Element correspondents from Ohio. Michael Stole.
Speaker 2: He's been doing some hunting up there. Man, what are
Speaker 2: you seeing in the woods, Jim Christmas.
Speaker 5: I'm seeing a whole bunch of public land.
Speaker 6: Tiny's that's what are you? I sure? Am? Why didn't
Speaker 6: you never thought?
Speaker 5: I never thought i'd be the person to say I'm
Speaker 5: passing deer, But I've been passing some deer, have you?
Speaker 5: But I think I think you guys, I think you
Speaker 5: guys would agree on these passes.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm trying to give you art of a time.
Speaker 3: Good job. Just because you miss the spike doesn't mean
Speaker 3: you passed him.
Speaker 6: I didn't miss Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 7: True.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what I mean it's kind of later right.
Speaker 2: Ohio has a very traditional rut. But so what if
Speaker 2: you're seeing a bunch of deer, you're still on You're
Speaker 2: on something that's going on.
Speaker 3: What are they doing.
Speaker 6: A lot of a movement.
Speaker 5: Is it's starting to shift back at least I feel
Speaker 5: like to bed to feed. But I've kind of been
Speaker 5: hunting it all along, just because I'm hunting like either historical,
Speaker 5: like I.
Speaker 6: Know there's been a lot of deer in the area.
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to.
Speaker 5: Find the most like the highest concentration of deer and
Speaker 5: then just try not to screw the area up pretty much.
Speaker 5: I'm just trying to get a cruising buck to come
Speaker 5: through checking dose and.
Speaker 6: Hoping not to blow the entire area up. It's so
Speaker 6: much I've done to a couple of places.
Speaker 2: As access kind of the big thing then, I mean,
Speaker 2: that's probably got to be a big deal for public
Speaker 2: land in general, right.
Speaker 5: Access is it's kind of something that I'm I've I
Speaker 5: think I've kind of figured something out. And the bigger
Speaker 5: terrain stuff, which I've been using a lot of creek access,
Speaker 5: which has.
Speaker 6: Been helping a whole bunch.
Speaker 5: I feel like, I don't know if I was crossing
Speaker 5: a bunch of trails and some of the other big.
Speaker 6: Timber stuff is still kind of.
Speaker 5: Foreign to me, so I don't know exactly how the
Speaker 5: deer moving and the creek kind of lets me, you know,
Speaker 5: scout my way in still hunt. Really all the above,
Speaker 5: so water access has been kind of big for me.
Speaker 3: Are you doing that when you say creek? First of all,
Speaker 3: why aren't you saying creek? And second of.
Speaker 2: All, is that something that has a lot of water
Speaker 2: in it or is that like just like a drainage
Speaker 2: When you.
Speaker 6: Say that, I'm saying like you need knee highs.
Speaker 3: To go in? Gotcha? Okay? Cool?
Speaker 5: So not nothing like too crazy, but just enough, you know,
Speaker 5: water to wash away my scent pretty much. And I
Speaker 5: can really, I can really just walk kind of carefree
Speaker 5: through it as long as I'm staying quiet.
Speaker 3: Got you. But you're saying exactly so, uh, do you
Speaker 3: feel like mornings and evenings are still effective?
Speaker 5: I've shockingly enough seen I feel like usually my brain's
Speaker 5: working more in an evening type of thing, but I've
Speaker 5: been having a lot more encounters in the morning for
Speaker 5: whatever reason. I think it has something to do with
Speaker 5: the main area I've been focused on. I think it's
Speaker 5: just it kind of is harder to hunt in the
Speaker 5: evening just because it's further away from AG so in
Speaker 5: the morning it kind of gives them a second to
Speaker 5: come back into it, and I'm not, you know, walking
Speaker 5: in while they're in there.
Speaker 4: So if you're you're worried about blowing this place out,
Speaker 4: at what point do you get aggressive and just do
Speaker 4: what you need to do to get work.
Speaker 5: We're getting there, I mean we're I'm tonight, I'm going
Speaker 5: in for a more aggressive sit that could possibly blow
Speaker 5: it up. And that's the only reason I'm really getting
Speaker 5: more aggressive now is because I've gotten some trail camera
Speaker 5: pictures up a deer that I would one.
Speaker 6: Shoot, and he is.
Speaker 5: He's been decently consistent, not saying he's he's gonna get
Speaker 5: shot tonight.
Speaker 6: But I feel pretty.
Speaker 5: Good about getting more aggressive now that I know there's
Speaker 5: for sure a shooter in the area.
Speaker 3: Gotcha.
Speaker 4: So as you get more aggressive, is that because things
Speaker 4: are changing on the deer's end, or just that you're
Speaker 4: getting to the point where something needs to happen.
Speaker 6: I feel like the clock is ticking, not.
Speaker 5: You know, on Deer season as a whole, you can
Speaker 5: shoot deer in the in the later seasons, but I
Speaker 5: just feel like as November is winding down, it's just
Speaker 5: it's time to get you know, start throwing some hail.
Speaker 5: Mary's out and if I I burn the spot, go
Speaker 5: find a different spot that's on a more traditional bed
Speaker 5: to feed type pattern.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So you're saying that deer deer is still on their
Speaker 4: feet really well right now, and that it's it's going
Speaker 4: to start winding down here and being a lot more.
Speaker 4: They're gonna be a little more reclusive in December.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's how I feel They're just gonna keep I
Speaker 5: feel like as December goes on, I feel like they're
Speaker 5: just gonna keep getting closer and closer in on food.
Speaker 5: And then that makes your access even even more to
Speaker 5: some of these areas well.
Speaker 2: If it makes you feeling better your frid your Saturdays
Speaker 2: are going to clear up some with.
Speaker 6: Another you're definitely gonna have to worry about watching. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's right. Okay.
Speaker 2: So uh seriously, though, as we look forward to the
Speaker 2: next week, you know, you definitely have a pulse on
Speaker 2: it because you you feel like there's like a chicken
Speaker 2: time bomb here. What are you going to give buck
Speaker 2: movement on a scale of one to ten for the
Speaker 2: next week in Ohio?
Speaker 5: If I was to say ten is the best day ever,
Speaker 5: probably six point five.
Speaker 6: Yeah, man, I gave it a six.
Speaker 2: That's it's just well you just being more precise, kind
Speaker 2: of like the age. We call them six, but they're
Speaker 2: actually six and a half. Yeah, I hope that's what
Speaker 2: you kill out there. Man, appreciate the report for Ohio.
Speaker 6: Yes, sir, all right.
Speaker 4: We've got our Florida correspondent justin Henry here, and he's
Speaker 4: been hunting there in Florida where it's the wild East Man,
Speaker 4: and there's all kinds of different ruts and all kinds
Speaker 4: of different habitats and all that kind of stuff and
Speaker 4: weather patterns and everything. Justin tell us a little bit
Speaker 4: about what's been going on in your neck of the
Speaker 4: woods in Florida and what the deer been doing.
Speaker 7: I think they've actually been on the freaking out a
Speaker 7: little bit. We've gotten some cold weather, though we don't
Speaker 7: normally get this early in the year. Usually it's about
Speaker 7: January before it breaks forty degrees. And we've had a
Speaker 7: couple or high thirty low forty degree tempts back to back.
Speaker 4: So man, it's been interesting, so interesting, And has that
Speaker 4: done good things to the deer movement or bad?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 7: I think it's a fifty to fifty truthfully, especially down
Speaker 7: here in this South. I mean, uh, I think the
Speaker 7: first day or two of the cold front, I think
Speaker 7: it kind of freaks them out a little bit. Maybe
Speaker 7: on that third day, once the temperatures are a little
Speaker 7: more Uh, I don't know, maybe predictable, I guess, you know,
Speaker 7: because it warms up pretty good in the afternoon still,
Speaker 7: I mean it's sixty five seventy degrees, mornings are in
Speaker 7: the forties.
Speaker 4: So so what uh, what would the what would be
Speaker 4: the biggest change when that stuff happens, in your opinion,
Speaker 4: into your movement.
Speaker 7: I just think back to food. I mean, I don't
Speaker 7: think there's any different than out in the Midwest. You know,
Speaker 7: they get a little cold, they get hungry, you know,
Speaker 7: and our rut, as you said before, rut balances back
Speaker 7: and forth in between. I mean, the best is still
Speaker 7: to come up in the Panhandle of Florida. You know,
Speaker 7: they still got another couple of weeks and it'll fire
Speaker 7: up from them. But where I'm at, where pretty much
Speaker 7: we're over it, back to that bed to food pattern
Speaker 7: for the most part.
Speaker 2: So are you hunting mostly evenings? Then are you hunting
Speaker 2: some mornings too?
Speaker 7: Or is this kind of depend on what you got
Speaker 7: on depending on schedule.
Speaker 8: Really, I mean, mornings are always good.
Speaker 7: I don't ever steer away from mornings, even in any
Speaker 7: part of the year. I don't steer away from mornings,
Speaker 7: especially down here on public land, big woods.
Speaker 8: You know, it's not that big of a deal.
Speaker 7: Maybe on some more managed area properties it might make
Speaker 7: a bigger difference, but I don't see a difference in
Speaker 7: the mornings.
Speaker 2: Do you have to adjust for hunting pressure on that
Speaker 2: public stuff down there?
Speaker 7: Yeah, especially since gun season rolled in. The Orange Armies
Speaker 7: out in full, so it's it's definitely the pressure's in there.
Speaker 7: So just you know, I mean the sign is still
Speaker 7: there a little bit off and on. I mean you
Speaker 7: can still see, you know, more just left over acorns
Speaker 7: are starting to hit. Cameras are fired up on some
Speaker 7: of those old acorns that are still on the ground. So,
Speaker 7: like I said, food bed getting there tight to them
Speaker 7: and catch them in between.
Speaker 2: How much in season scouting are you having to do
Speaker 2: right now to to find deer.
Speaker 8: I'd say not that much. I'm at least recently.
Speaker 7: I mean I do think, I mean, I know, I said,
Speaker 7: with the colder temps that kind of freaks them out.
Speaker 7: But I do believe that with just the coolish temps,
Speaker 7: it does keep them on their feet a little bit earlier,
Speaker 7: or getting on their feet a little bit earlier in
Speaker 7: the evenings.
Speaker 4: What what other food sources besides acrens, anything that you've seen.
Speaker 7: Uh, there's I don't know the name of this, these bushes,
Speaker 7: but I can't I need to figure it out. There's
Speaker 7: a bush that I've noticed quite a few deer chewing on.
Speaker 7: It's more like it's almost like a vine, uh, single leaf,
Speaker 7: single leaf vine on the ground around the pine trees
Speaker 7: I've been noticing. Uh, I probably ought to do some
Speaker 7: research and figure out what that is. But just browse
Speaker 7: does it have thorns? It does have thorns, which is shocking. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 7: that may surprise me. Yeah, that may give give somebody a.
Speaker 3: Yea, yeah cool. So in the next week, do you
Speaker 3: expect anything to change? What's the weather?
Speaker 4: You know, you have an idea what the weather is
Speaker 4: going to look like, and if that's an effect dear
Speaker 4: movement in your area.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean we got another big cold front pushing in.
Speaker 7: I think I want to say Tuesday, Tuesday ish, So.
Speaker 8: Just cold weather. I don't know if it's really going
Speaker 8: to change much of anything.
Speaker 4: Okay, So in the next week or so, if you
Speaker 4: had to rank buck movement on a scale of one
Speaker 4: to ten, what would.
Speaker 3: You put it at?
Speaker 8: Probably go with a solid four and a half.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, not bad. It's worth being out there then.
Speaker 8: You think absolutely anytimes it's a good time.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, justin thanks so much for the report. I
Speaker 4: look forward to maybe hearing from you from a different
Speaker 4: state in the southeast at some point before the year's
Speaker 4: over with.
Speaker 8: Sounds good, Thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 4: Now on the phone, I've got Mike Hunt Sucker and
Speaker 4: I can call him Mike this time around because I
Speaker 4: heard his voicemail and he introduced himself as Mike on
Speaker 4: his voicemail this a second ago. So really, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: So he's from Hartland bow Hunter and he's been up
Speaker 4: in Missouri. Tell us how the deer movement is looking
Speaker 4: at Missouri there, Mike, Man.
Speaker 9: It's been pretty good this last week. Seems like a
Speaker 9: lot of deer. It seems like, at least, you know,
Speaker 9: the places I've been hunting. The rut was a little
Speaker 9: bit later, and so it seems like they're coming off
Speaker 9: a lockdown this past week and still see some running
Speaker 9: activity for sure, but definitely seeing a transition to food
Speaker 9: sources as well.
Speaker 4: So when you say the food source transition, you would
Speaker 4: be including like mature but in that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely, especially mature bucks that are that are run
Speaker 9: down and have been just just abusing their bodies the past,
Speaker 9: you know, six weeks.
Speaker 3: So what kind of food sources are doing best right now?
Speaker 9: You know, I tell everybody that corn is no matter
Speaker 9: what time of the year, Like in Missouri, we can
Speaker 9: manipulate a crop. So we leave standing corn, we can
Speaker 9: mow it whenever we want it. Uh and uh, there's
Speaker 9: just not a single thing that competes with it. But
Speaker 9: that said, standing beans are great right now. We just
Speaker 9: got about three inches of snow today here in Missouri,
Speaker 9: and so having that food above the above the snow
Speaker 9: is crucial as well. So I really like grains late
Speaker 9: season obviously, you know, we do a lot of eagle
Speaker 9: seed fall plots as well. It's been it's been an
Speaker 9: interesting year, several years, I should say, for the fall plots.
Speaker 9: You know, just we've had just terrible late summer droughts
Speaker 9: and so our plots have been pretty brutal. But we
Speaker 9: got a bunch of rain in October and into November,
Speaker 9: and a bunch of my plots have just exploded the
Speaker 9: past few weeks, and so excuse me, they're not gonna
Speaker 9: have like the you know, the big bulbs, you know,
Speaker 9: like like they would have had they matured into proper
Speaker 9: time of year. But nonetheless it's some some green tonnage
Speaker 9: in the deer being those pretty good too.
Speaker 2: So you're talking about mature bucks who run down their
Speaker 2: bodies and then that in turn, you know, makes you
Speaker 2: really hunt food sources, which uh kind of sounds a
Speaker 2: lot like October type stuff. Do you shift back to
Speaker 2: kind of even evenings only at this point in the year.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean definitely more key, more on the evenings,
Speaker 9: but I do have some spots that are great morning
Speaker 9: spots where you can catch them coming back off those
Speaker 9: food sources if they are kind of lingering into the
Speaker 9: daylight hours, you know, with it's really similar to the October,
Speaker 9: like you said to where those mature bucks, you know,
Speaker 9: they're starting to care about food, but they still know
Speaker 9: that they might catch you know, one of those later
Speaker 9: doughs that are that are still an asteris and so
Speaker 9: same thing as the pre run you know, early when
Speaker 9: they're their number one spot to check is going to
Speaker 9: do those those food sources that are holding a bunch
Speaker 9: of does. So anytime I've been hunting this past week,
Speaker 9: the does, man, they just I feel so bad for them.
Speaker 9: They come out, they want to get some food, and
Speaker 9: then they just get harassed by every single Buck in
Speaker 9: the area. And so we watch Bucks, you know, chase
Speaker 9: does in and out, in and out, in and out
Speaker 9: of the plots, you know, the past, the past few
Speaker 9: hunts for sure.
Speaker 4: So talk about like access and set up and all
Speaker 4: that is. I mean, I would assume with the snow,
Speaker 4: are these going to be betting closer to those food
Speaker 4: sources in all overall? Are they going to still be
Speaker 4: uh generally in the areas they've been kind of spending
Speaker 4: time in during the early run.
Speaker 9: Yeah, they like to be closer to the food sources.
Speaker 9: And obviously we have over the years strategically placed those
Speaker 9: food sources you know near you know, known solid betting
Speaker 9: area areas that we work in, trying to improve the
Speaker 9: habitat and try to make it more attractive as well.
Speaker 9: So you know, you want those those high quality betting
Speaker 9: sources close to the food if you want to see
Speaker 9: good daylight activity, and a lot of them primarily are
Speaker 9: set up on the south wind side or of the
Speaker 9: south side of that betting area. So you're, you know,
Speaker 9: we're we're banking on north wind coldfronts this time of year.
Speaker 2: So are you thinking at all about any type of
Speaker 2: rut activity or are you kind of looking forward to
Speaker 2: a second rut or what's that look like?
Speaker 9: Yeah, actually, somebody who's asking me about the second rut
Speaker 9: just just the other day, and like, you know, I
Speaker 9: don't think I've ever like banked on any sort of
Speaker 9: second rud activity, Like even on these farms. You know,
Speaker 9: there's these farms that we have in Missouri. A lot
Speaker 9: of them are higher deer densities to where some of
Speaker 9: the does don't get bred for sure, And so I
Speaker 9: always see some sort of you know, a buck lockdown
Speaker 9: with a dough in December that time of year. But
Speaker 9: it's just like you're not banking on it and the majority,
Speaker 9: you know, you're focusing your efforts on the majority of
Speaker 9: the deer movement. But that being said, sometimes you know,
Speaker 9: if you do catch a buck that is locked down
Speaker 9: that time of year, it might you know, be a
Speaker 9: susceptible window to you know, get aggressive on him and
Speaker 9: and you know, do something spot in stock or or
Speaker 9: you know, set up you know where he's he's dough
Speaker 9: kind of pushed away from the major herd.
Speaker 4: So in the next week or so, do you expect
Speaker 4: that like bucks, will you know, the buck movement will
Speaker 4: be essentially very similar to what it is in the
Speaker 4: last week or is it gonna change much You're still
Speaker 4: gonna see that rut in action that's going to be
Speaker 4: very similar or is it gonna Is it gonna start
Speaker 4: to dwindle?
Speaker 9: No, I think it'll be good. I think it'll stay good.
Speaker 9: Especially we got a cold front coming through. We've had
Speaker 9: a couple of nice, nice little cold snaps and so
Speaker 9: we had a crazy mild fall in the Midwest, and
Speaker 9: uh so getting this cold weather now is really really
Speaker 9: nice in the deer, Like I said, I've used to
Speaker 9: wandering around aimlessly during the daylight. So you'll see that
Speaker 9: morning activity die off a little bit, I feel like,
Speaker 9: But man, if we get some good cold weather, it
Speaker 9: just it's timed perfectly. You're not gonna see like, you know,
Speaker 9: the super early like best piration late season movements you
Speaker 9: see of like deer that have to feed but like
Speaker 9: you know, if you get that cold weather, they still
Speaker 9: they still definitely need to feed and and they're working
Speaker 9: on building bodies back up like I was saying, So
Speaker 9: it can be a great time to capitalize on one
Speaker 9: for sure.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 2: So we do have a little bit of cold weather here,
Speaker 2: uh coming up in the in the next week. Uh
Speaker 2: So taking that and applying what you just talked about,
Speaker 2: what would you rank the Bug movie on a scale
Speaker 2: of one to ten for the next week in Missouri?
Speaker 9: Man, I think it's gonna be like a nine.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be Wow.
Speaker 9: It's gonna be as good as I think, as good
Speaker 9: as you know Dayanaire, as good as it gets. It's not,
Speaker 9: like I said, not that crazy late seasons that, but
Speaker 9: I think it's gonna be great. You know, just a
Speaker 9: combination of you know, bucks need to need to rebuild
Speaker 9: like I was saying, but also a chance of potentially
Speaker 9: catching a dough that's still in heat.
Speaker 2: Awesome.
Speaker 4: Well, I look forward to some slow motion you know,
Speaker 4: arrow entering deer during a snowstorm in the next you know,
Speaker 4: year or so, So I hope.
Speaker 9: So, Man, I'm heading out. I'm getting ready to head
Speaker 9: out now. The snow literally just stopped. And the buck
Speaker 9: I've I was hunting that I'm hunting late season is ancient,
Speaker 9: just an ancient old buck that I literally have never
Speaker 9: laid eyes on ever in my life. But he's like
Speaker 9: ten or eleven years old. And I saw him just
Speaker 9: two nights ago and had him come in and we
Speaker 9: did not have that cold front, you know, we was
Speaker 9: just starting to hit and so we had a little
Speaker 9: rain come through and he came in and we had
Speaker 9: twenty minutes left of legal light, but he was thirty
Speaker 9: five yards and just too dark. I just wasn't comfortable shooting.
Speaker 9: And he ended up getting to twenty and there was
Speaker 9: still like four or five minutes left, and it was
Speaker 9: but it was like basically pitch black, and I was like, man,
Speaker 9: I'm just there's a bunch of doughs in the plot
Speaker 9: and he was moving around bumping them and it just
Speaker 9: wasn't wasn't one of those situations. But obviously we had
Speaker 9: Thanksgiving and then I went to tick the family to
Speaker 9: the Chiefs game yesterday, and I'm just kicking myself, you know.
Speaker 9: We had all these plans and like, he daylighted both nights,
Speaker 9: but I knew to night was going to be just
Speaker 9: just as good, not better with the snow coming in,
Speaker 9: so hopefully didn't miss my window of opportunity.
Speaker 4: Well I bet you, I bet you find a way, man,
Speaker 4: go get him and have great rest of your season.
Speaker 3: Mike.
Speaker 9: Yeah, thanks, thanks, guys, good catching up.
Speaker 4: I'm talking to a very familiar guy for a lot
Speaker 4: of you hunters out there, Ronnie Couz Strickland. Ronnie, what's
Speaker 4: going on?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 10: Well, you know, we got our first official cool snap
Speaker 10: down here. And this is of course in Mississippi. We
Speaker 10: have two seasons summer in February.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you, hey, we get you on that.
Speaker 10: The low last night was twenty five and oh man,
Speaker 10: it's just an awesome and we just got there with
Speaker 10: Thanksgiving and after the big spread, my oldest granddaughter, who's
Speaker 10: a senior in Mississippi State, that's how old I am,
Speaker 10: we went and sat in a ground line that I've
Speaker 10: had up for three years on food plot, seeing we
Speaker 10: could get her to get her a dough and a
Speaker 10: ten point walked out at four point fifteen and I
Speaker 10: was in absolute utter shop and she ten ringed it
Speaker 10: with a crossbow and then all three grandsons, you know,
Speaker 10: blood trailed it and kept loaded up and all. So
Speaker 10: I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good stuff, man.
Speaker 4: I tell you, we're here in kind of northeast Texas
Speaker 4: and we have had some decent weather as well, good
Speaker 4: cold morning temps and stuff. And I have seen so
Speaker 4: many dead deer on the road, and it seems like
Speaker 4: it's in the South and the Gulf States. It's starting
Speaker 4: to pop off a little bit. How's that cold weather
Speaker 4: affecting the deer movement for y'all.
Speaker 10: You know, I got out my little pass this morning
Speaker 10: and I got an electric buggy I can ease around on.
Speaker 10: I don't have a ton of trail cameras, but I
Speaker 10: can get to them all with that buggy, so I
Speaker 10: don't have to get out and leave scent and all
Speaker 10: that stuff. And I saw eight or ten scrapes. I've
Speaker 10: only seen one in the last couple of weeks, So
Speaker 10: you're will aware. In Mississippi, depending on where you're at,
Speaker 10: the root can be different. Right here on my farm,
Speaker 10: I'm kind of a straight north a little bit northeast
Speaker 10: of the state, and it's always the same. It's generally
Speaker 10: the week before Christmas.
Speaker 8: So the four.
Speaker 10: Biggest deer we've killed on this place since I've had it,
Speaker 10: three of them ron Christmas Eve, and uh, these these.
Speaker 8: Bucks are just different.
Speaker 10: And I know everybody says that, but I'm telling you
Speaker 10: the terrain, you know, is so thick, the ruts less
Speaker 10: defined if you would, and uh so that that December
Speaker 10: the fifteenth to the end of the month is uh,
Speaker 10: it's when you're gonna probably get some daylight pictures. I saw,
Speaker 10: Like I said, I was stunned when that that ten
Speaker 10: point walked that the other day. I was like, what
Speaker 10: are you kidding? But it's it's just now when you
Speaker 10: start seeing scrapes like I saw some this morning, which
Speaker 10: fired me up. But it's uh that cold weather I
Speaker 10: think helps them, uh and get them up on their
Speaker 10: feet a little bit. And it's, uh, it's a different
Speaker 10: deal in Mississippi. You know, you see all the pictures
Speaker 10: on Instagram and all this or these giants there hitting
Speaker 10: the ground and where you go, where are these guys
Speaker 10: hunting out?
Speaker 2: So speaking of that cold weather that you're talking about,
Speaker 2: you know that twenty five is going to kill a
Speaker 2: lot of the native brows and stuff, and those deer
Speaker 2: I'd imagine they're going to be really looking for some
Speaker 2: of those green food sources. How are the food plots
Speaker 2: and how are the deer hitting them right now?
Speaker 10: Well, food plots was just drama for me because we
Speaker 10: were in a drought, and you guys in Texas, you
Speaker 10: know all about droughts. Anyway, I saw a big rain
Speaker 10: event coming in late August, which is really early for
Speaker 10: us to plant down here. But I rolled the dice
Speaker 10: and I planted all my food plots and got four
Speaker 10: inches of rain on them. And they wow, nothing short
Speaker 10: of magnificent. And I left to go to North Carolina,
Speaker 10: made a little run up there, dropping food and stuff off,
Speaker 10: and came back and I checked them before I left,
Speaker 10: and when I got back, I checked them thirty four
Speaker 10: days later. This would have been I don't know. They
Speaker 10: were four or five inches high, absolutely demolished by the
Speaker 10: army worms. Everyone up except one. It was nothing but dirt.
Speaker 10: But I redrilled. I just drill this time with a
Speaker 10: cheaper seed, and they popped right back up and they.
Speaker 8: Look really, really good.
Speaker 10: And I saved managed to save some of the turnips
Speaker 10: and stuff. And that's a big deal. You get, you know,
Speaker 10: you get turnips and stuff like that when they get
Speaker 10: a heavy frost. A couple of days in a row,
Speaker 10: they started getting that sugar content up. So I'm getting
Speaker 10: at Lancey to see if they're gonna start hitting it.
Speaker 10: I'm pretty excited.
Speaker 4: That's awesome, man. So here in the next you know,
Speaker 4: a week or so, is it? Do you expect any
Speaker 4: any weather or anything to affect the deer movement and
Speaker 4: positive trajectory as we get a little bit closer to rut.
Speaker 4: I know we're still gonna be early for you if
Speaker 4: your Christmas Eve is your kind of your date.
Speaker 10: Yeah, the extended wather for cass has has it cold
Speaker 10: the next two days and then I'm sure it'll warm up.
Speaker 10: You know where I'm at the same way in Texas,
Speaker 10: I mean Christmas Day you can be in shorts and
Speaker 10: a T shirt. It may be eighty so you never know.
Speaker 10: And these deer, yeah, I don't know. If you're ever
Speaker 10: hunted in Alabama and what they call the Black Belt,
Speaker 10: those are the most weather fickled deer on the planet.
Speaker 10: You just absolutely will not see really any buck movement
Speaker 10: until it starts getting down low. And these are about
Speaker 10: as bad. You know, my farm isn't gigantic, so I
Speaker 10: don't put a lot of pressure on it, and I
Speaker 10: wait for the exact right wind. And I don't have
Speaker 10: a ton of cameras out, so I missed some of it.
Speaker 10: But I can tell you if we get any cold
Speaker 10: weather and I hadn't looked at the past ten days,
Speaker 10: they're extremely affected by that word down here, they will move.
Speaker 10: And I've got my calendar wide open. I ain't going
Speaker 10: anywhere between now January the first.
Speaker 2: Okay, So if we're looking at the next week here,
Speaker 2: with all that in mind, if you had to rank
Speaker 2: buck movement on a scale of one to ten, what
Speaker 2: would you call.
Speaker 10: It this coming week? Yes, sir, on my farm, I
Speaker 10: on a scale of one to ten, I put it
Speaker 10: at about a six or seven.
Speaker 3: That's pretty good.
Speaker 6: Sounds like it's getting close.
Speaker 10: And my little place doesn't get a lot of pressure,
Speaker 10: so they keep I keep plenty of dose around. That's
Speaker 10: a whole nother you know podcast saying about you know,
Speaker 10: get getting your buck to dough ratio down. I believe
Speaker 10: in keeping everything here, farm sanctuary, food, water cover, and
Speaker 10: plenty of doors so they don't have to go far.
Speaker 10: So the dose come to the food plot. So I'd
Speaker 10: say I'm getting close to that seven mark.
Speaker 8: Next week.
Speaker 10: I'm I'm I may be a little apprehensive, but I'm
Speaker 10: I'm telling you about to get there, all.
Speaker 4: Right, man, Well cause I appreciate it. Sounds like you
Speaker 4: got it going on, dude, and I appreciate you coming
Speaker 4: on and sharing all that information with the listeners.
Speaker 10: Well, thank you guys, Happy Thanksgiving, task and happy Mary Christmas.
Speaker 10: I appreciate you giving me a holler and good luck
Speaker 10: on your road trips.
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, thank you.
Speaker 2: Still some pretty encouraging reports from around the country if
Speaker 2: you haven't tagged out yet.
Speaker 3: Believe me, I know I say this all the time.
Speaker 3: There's like two motives for what I do. It's like
Speaker 3: deer seasons almost here and then it ain't over.
Speaker 2: You know. There's like this thing that gradiates from the
Speaker 2: element that's called optimism, and sometimes it's you know, a
Speaker 2: little bit naive, but it's kind of fun being naive from.
Speaker 3: Time to sure.
Speaker 4: You know, I've forgotten how much I love Michael stole Man,
Speaker 4: funny guy. I feel bad for him with that OSU
Speaker 4: loss Man. Do you yeah I had it coming? Do
Speaker 4: you think I'm actually really glad that they did? Because
Speaker 4: my ponies were at number nine last week? And I'm
Speaker 4: interested to see where they end.
Speaker 3: Up this week. Well, my eggies didn't even show up
Speaker 3: for the biggest game of the decade, so I know
Speaker 3: guys were there. Hey it makes all better, thanks Ty,
Speaker 3: But I do love those guys too. But yeah.
Speaker 2: Anyways, guys, if you do need some inspiration, some optimisim
Speaker 2: maybe even some naivety, go check out the links below.
Speaker 2: We have got a really awesome hunt from last.
Speaker 3: Year that I talked about earlier. It's gonna be linked
Speaker 3: in the stuff below.
Speaker 2: And there is an article from Tony on how to
Speaker 2: kill a buck from a natural ground blind, which I
Speaker 2: think is pretty applicable for a lot of people.
Speaker 3: You know, if you're running gun hunting.
Speaker 2: One of the things about that needs to be that
Speaker 2: you need to be okay with hunting on the ground
Speaker 2: too sometimes and oftentimes natural cover is really great.
Speaker 3: So good article. Go check out as well. Did Greg
Speaker 3: read that.
Speaker 2: Article Maybe not yet, but I'll make sure he gets
Speaker 2: the link to the podcast he.
Speaker 3: Does, Manny Hunting.
Speaker 2: One this week he showed me, dude, he had like
Speaker 2: shooting windows that were the size.
Speaker 3: Of great fruits.
Speaker 2: Man, I'm like, oh, my goodness, that gives me anxiety,
Speaker 2: bad but I bet you Tony gives.
Speaker 3: You a little bit more clue into that kind of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 3: for sure. He's a really knowledgeable guy. For sure.
Speaker 4: It's worth going and checking out, guys. I hope you
Speaker 4: guys have a great week. It's a good week to
Speaker 4: be in the woods. I think we're all getting a
Speaker 4: little bit colder weather and we're gonna have a good
Speaker 4: shot at killing deer this week, including k C and myself.
Speaker 4: We all remember this is ret fresh, Keep it fresh.