Speaker 1: Hey guys, real quick, before we get to your rough
Speaker 1: Fresh Radio episode for the week, I want to give
Speaker 1: you an update because if you're listening when this comes
Speaker 1: out the week of October tenth, too, you got to
Speaker 1: know that it is white Tail Week over at Mediator.
Speaker 1: That means a whole bunch of stuff is on sale.
Speaker 1: All of the First Light Specter apparel, the white Tail gear,
Speaker 1: the Solitude Kid I Wear, the Sanctuary, the Wick Bass Layers,
Speaker 1: Source Jacket, all my favorites twent off this week. Here's
Speaker 1: another thing. If you buy that Source jacket, you get
Speaker 1: a free f h F chest rig That is a
Speaker 1: sweet little tool. Here's another one. You buy a Tethered
Speaker 1: Predator platform. That's the platform I use for all my
Speaker 1: saddle hunts. You buy that and you get a fifty
Speaker 1: dollar first Like gift card. All sorts of cool stuff
Speaker 1: like that is going on over at the Mediator website,
Speaker 1: over at the First Light dot com website. F HF
Speaker 1: check it out October ten through. Got some good stuff
Speaker 1: cooking all right, Now to the show. Welcome to Wired
Speaker 1: to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you the latest reports
Speaker 1: from the White Tailed Woods and now your hosts, Casey Smith,
Speaker 1: Tyler Jones. This is rut Fresh Radio powered by Vortex Optics.
Speaker 1: This week, the common theme seems to be tough conditions
Speaker 1: in mid October. However, if you can find a limited resource,
Speaker 1: you can for sure find the bucks. This is rut
Speaker 1: Fresh Radio, brought to you by Vortex Optics. I'm Tyler Jones,
Speaker 1: your host, and Casey Smith is with me as well.
Speaker 1: Everybody's favorite dude, and this whole this whole space, man,
Speaker 1: just like my little tiny space over in the corner.
Speaker 1: Thanks man, I appreciate that. Um. So, we just got
Speaker 1: back from a trip, A long trip. Can you call
Speaker 1: it just one trip? Goodness? Michael Schagen's head, yes, he
Speaker 1: says that I was gone for three weeks. We spent
Speaker 1: a greater part of ten or eleven days maybe more
Speaker 1: out and um, we ended up hitting Nebraska and South Dakota.
Speaker 1: We talked about it last week. Nebraska was really successful
Speaker 1: and South Dakota ended up being also successful. Pretty excited
Speaker 1: about that because, um, that's another one of those episodes
Speaker 1: that we talked about. UM going on the Mediator Channel,
Speaker 1: which is UH series that for now is called The
Speaker 1: buck Truck and UH it's a it's a series that
Speaker 1: we're producing that should come out next year in UM,
Speaker 1: so it'll hype you up next year. But uh, in
Speaker 1: the meantime, we're sharing pictures on our Instagram. Uh some
Speaker 1: success we've had. And we're gonna talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about South Dakota here, but the full story goes down
Speaker 1: in the Element podcast, so you can definitely check that
Speaker 1: out if you want to go over to the Element
Speaker 1: check that out. UM, we would very much appreciate that.
Speaker 1: So with that said, UM, what are your takeaways from
Speaker 1: South Dakota. Don't ever assume something is easy in the
Speaker 1: hunting world, because we found us South Dakota a few
Speaker 1: years and felt like it was like a dreamland, and
Speaker 1: this year it was most definitely not a dream land.
Speaker 1: It was somewhat complicated and difficult because of the tough conditions.
Speaker 1: Just like the guys that we're gonna talk to today.
Speaker 1: We've got Sam Hogan in Michigan, Jonathan Moreland from Arkansas,
Speaker 1: Jason red in North Carolina, and Jake Hoefer in Illinois.
Speaker 1: And there's a real common theme across the country right now,
Speaker 1: and that is tough conditions. And that's what we were
Speaker 1: met with in South Dakota as well. Particularly drought. I
Speaker 1: think that is something that's kind of fairly consistent across
Speaker 1: the country, even these places that I've had, you know,
Speaker 1: some hurricane type rains and stuff, we're dealing with drought.
Speaker 1: You know, you can't just break a drought with one
Speaker 1: weather instance, right, It's got to be sustained rainfall, and um,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what we dealt with. The deer were on
Speaker 1: food sources, hardcore. It's weird because you think a drought
Speaker 1: as a water thing, right, And we had you know,
Speaker 1: the King of Water, Tony on the trip with us
Speaker 1: in South Dakota. Tony Peterson. You guys know him probably
Speaker 1: pretty well. He's that guy that's on the Little Mermaid
Speaker 1: that has like the trident and stuff right the water. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's Tony, aqua man, and uh he's been uh, he's
Speaker 1: been killing deer off water holes forever. Well. The drought
Speaker 1: plays into that, you think, right, and certainly I think
Speaker 1: deer could have been killed on water. We actually focused
Speaker 1: on that early as well, and then we realized throughout
Speaker 1: the trip, which this this is part of the story
Speaker 1: we probably won't tell a whole lot about, but I
Speaker 1: had a lot of scouting time on this trip, and
Speaker 1: I realized as these guys were out hunting and setting
Speaker 1: up in these things, that I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: deer on food, which, um, you know, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think of when you're thinking about drought, but
Speaker 1: really what ends up happening in a drought is there's
Speaker 1: a lot less food on the landscape, and a deer
Speaker 1: can't just sit there and eat on an agg field
Speaker 1: all night. Um, so it needs those native forage food
Speaker 1: sources to expand its diet, to just have better digestive
Speaker 1: process and all these things that are good for it, right,
Speaker 1: different protein uh balances and these kind of things. So
Speaker 1: with that, these deer are definitely having to eat native brows,
Speaker 1: but there's a lot less of it on landscapes. They
Speaker 1: can't you sit there and hammer this stuff. They have
Speaker 1: to go to these eggs, egg food sources that are
Speaker 1: man man made essentially. And we noticed corn was like
Speaker 1: the deal, which is weird because you know, also uh
Speaker 1: with then some of these corn fields they plant beans
Speaker 1: and the beans were hammered to you just didn't see them.
Speaker 1: You didn't notice the things out there. They were on
Speaker 1: their tier tube food source, which was the corn because
Speaker 1: the beans already gone. You know, like the at some
Speaker 1: point in time there was even some I don't mean
Speaker 1: green beans, but like green leaf soybeans. Um, there was
Speaker 1: some of that still there, but you could tell that
Speaker 1: the leaves were gone, like they weren't dead yet. You know,
Speaker 1: that's part of their water intake. I would imagine it's
Speaker 1: like a deer's water intake comes from its food. Like
Speaker 1: we were talking about this either not animals in general
Speaker 1: don't treat water the way that humans do. Our dehydration
Speaker 1: is the animals like they're hydrated at that point. You
Speaker 1: look at this, the way a buck uses a scrape
Speaker 1: and what is coming out of him excrement wise, like
Speaker 1: it's dark, right, and the way it's nasty. The way
Speaker 1: it's getting that way is it is viscous as they say, okay,
Speaker 1: so it's big um so uh. You know, they just
Speaker 1: kind of have a different take on hydration and it's
Speaker 1: it's very much more impulsive. Uh, and they will drink water.
Speaker 1: In fact, I killed a really nice Oklahoma buck over
Speaker 1: water last year in a drought situation. That video actually
Speaker 1: is on the YouTube channel for the Element just went out,
Speaker 1: if you wanna go check that out. See what you
Speaker 1: can do over a water source. Uh particularly actually that
Speaker 1: was the late season, but all year long you can
Speaker 1: have some good opportunities over water source. But don't think
Speaker 1: that drought means water source. Let me just say that
Speaker 1: video is insane. I'm just gonna go ahead and say
Speaker 1: that because I can say because I just because you
Speaker 1: had the thing happen to even man it is you're
Speaker 1: also there, well I was, and I and when like
Speaker 1: the title is jaw dropping footage, and I think of
Speaker 1: that because my jaw I'm not liking a dramatic person
Speaker 1: and my draw jaw was drowned. It was one of
Speaker 1: those times where we didn't know how to react after
Speaker 1: I shot. And this is a thing too, and y'all
Speaker 1: are a captured audience, so we can talk about this.
Speaker 1: It comes out as laughter sometimes, but it's just like
Speaker 1: a relief relief exactly. You know, it's like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: I don't it's overload century overload, and it's just it's
Speaker 1: worth going to see. But um anyways, um, water is
Speaker 1: only the like one of the things that you have
Speaker 1: to have. Right. In fact, I had success in South
Speaker 1: Dakota over natural brows, but it was on a like
Speaker 1: food to bed pattern, as the deer were loafing on
Speaker 1: their way back to where they were going to bed
Speaker 1: that day, which is how I killed last year South Dakota.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. So that's a that's an effective thing
Speaker 1: that not many people talk about, is the like native
Speaker 1: brows coming back. It's like uh, staging before bad pretty
Speaker 1: much as opposed to like staging before they go to
Speaker 1: a food source. And we were dealing with pretty warm
Speaker 1: tempts and deer that did not want to move in
Speaker 1: the evenings much at all, uh, and some vwts even uh.
Speaker 1: So uh, you add all that up together and you
Speaker 1: get a kind of um abstract train of thought in
Speaker 1: the white to world that hey, mornings are actually pretty
Speaker 1: good right now. You know, Like we're actually texting with
Speaker 1: her friend here before we get on the podcast, and
Speaker 1: he's talking about how he loves hunting mornings, and you know,
Speaker 1: the common thought is that mornings are bad in October.
Speaker 1: And I wouldn't say that you should just barrel off
Speaker 1: in somewhere and hunting morning without any information, but if
Speaker 1: you know something good, like particularly us, uh, we were
Speaker 1: seeing deer movement for the first hour and a half
Speaker 1: a daylight, but only like the last fifteen minutes in
Speaker 1: the evening, Like there's a lot more time to kill
Speaker 1: a deer. And also they're further away from their beds
Speaker 1: in the morning and you can get into a place
Speaker 1: without disturbing stuff, whereas in the evening. I mean, what
Speaker 1: hunter had some success in the evening and uh, but
Speaker 1: they had to be like sixty yards from the deer's
Speaker 1: bed and and they couldn't set up in a tree
Speaker 1: because they were so close to bed exactly. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's all well and good, and that's cool to be
Speaker 1: close like that. Uh, And it's like a neat thing
Speaker 1: to talk about as a hunter, like oh, shot shotting
Speaker 1: from his bed or whatever. But you're gonna mess that
Speaker 1: up more than you're gonna get right. That's right. There's
Speaker 1: there's some stuff that's fun and cool in the white
Speaker 1: to world, but you're gonna mess it up a lot,
Speaker 1: you know. And with that, sad man, I think, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, these are these are thoughts about how to
Speaker 1: beat the October laws. Some of the things we're trying
Speaker 1: to give you right now in the way that we've
Speaker 1: seen it beat been beat in the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks as we've gone through early October in Nebraska and
Speaker 1: South Dakota. So with that, we've got a couple of
Speaker 1: guys that have some thoughts about what's gonna come up
Speaker 1: this week. Uh scale of one to ten type stuff
Speaker 1: that you guys live for, right, and that gives you hope,
Speaker 1: and I think you're gonna enjoy some of these interviews.
Speaker 1: So Tyler, before we get to that, give me you're
Speaker 1: one to ten for South Dakota over the next week. Man. Um,
Speaker 1: So this is obviously my experience, this is this is
Speaker 1: um with the way we are hunting. Um. It might
Speaker 1: be different on private because this was on public land,
Speaker 1: but UM, I think uh when I left, it was
Speaker 1: twenty nine degrees and the deer were crawling. From what
Speaker 1: I heard from people who stayed back a little bit
Speaker 1: and saw that morning, I think that if we continue
Speaker 1: in South Dakota continues to get that kind of weather
Speaker 1: where you got frosty mornings, Um, I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be really good because that just increases their need for food.
Speaker 1: UM as they get colder and there's only so much
Speaker 1: food on the landscape because of the drought, right, so
Speaker 1: they're going to be very much focused in and concentrated
Speaker 1: on that food. So I think if I was gonna
Speaker 1: say one to ten, i'd put it like six to seven. Probably,
Speaker 1: that's kind of I was in the six range. Um.
Speaker 1: There is a decimal thrown out in this episode, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hold off on the decimals and land let
Speaker 1: that guy have, But I would be in that and maybe,
Speaker 1: you know, after you talk about it, I might be
Speaker 1: close to a seven. I just hate to give it
Speaker 1: that high and number because it's that takes a lot,
Speaker 1: but it could be close because of the scrape activity
Speaker 1: we also saw. I think there's a there's a factor
Speaker 1: in there of like your potential to kill as opposed
Speaker 1: to just deer movement. Yeah, I think the potential to
Speaker 1: kill a lot of people think it is like when
Speaker 1: they think of that one to ten number, to think of, here,
Speaker 1: what is my potential to kill? And so it's more
Speaker 1: more than like it being a nine or eight out
Speaker 1: of ten, and on the ultimate day movement or deer
Speaker 1: movement day, it's really like they're factory and some of that, Like, well,
Speaker 1: I kind of have them figured out right now. So
Speaker 1: I'm pretty feeling pretty good, you know, Yeah, exactly and
Speaker 1: that's actually what we're trying to do here is to
Speaker 1: help you get them figured out before you even get
Speaker 1: to the woods. That's what rough Fresh is all about.
Speaker 1: But I think that combine the food aspect with the
Speaker 1: scraping activity. I killed over a scrape. The deer wasn't
Speaker 1: on the scrape, but the scrape was there. So you know,
Speaker 1: bucks are around and they're they're doing bucky things. Hunter
Speaker 1: killed near scrape. Uh, came and checked the scrape right,
Speaker 1: he was trying to think, so, yeah, he hadn't made it.
Speaker 1: He didn't let him make it there that you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to just watch channel. That's right, Spooky City Halloween
Speaker 1: before Halloween. It is, dude. But we also we ran
Speaker 1: a decent amount of cell cameras while we're up there,
Speaker 1: and we were seeing a lot of scrape activity there too,
Speaker 1: and some of that stuff was right at legal shooting lot.
Speaker 1: And I think as temperatures progress, uh to get a
Speaker 1: little colder, you will see those dear being there in
Speaker 1: shooting lot and that's exciting because we like to shoot them.
Speaker 1: As they say. So, let's talk to a few guys
Speaker 1: who actually have maybe been doing a little shooting and
Speaker 1: see what's going on around the country? Okay, now we
Speaker 1: now on the phone. On the phone now, Sam Hogan.
Speaker 1: He loves making fun of me. But you know what,
Speaker 1: at least I call taco shells taco shells, that's right,
Speaker 1: not Peter. We both didn't do it, right, No, No,
Speaker 1: we didn't. We didn't. Hey, what's been going on? Man,
Speaker 1: Michigan been treating You're right, it has been. Uh seasons
Speaker 1: off to a pretty good start. And uh, I'm just
Speaker 1: happy to be in a tree again. Do you get
Speaker 1: paid guide fees when you take your friends out and
Speaker 1: the shoot deer? You know? Um, I have yet to
Speaker 1: profit on any of that, but I'm sure there's some
Speaker 1: sort of business man problem. You're pretty entrepreneurial, so I
Speaker 1: mean it's just fun. Yeah, dude, flip this deer. Stand
Speaker 1: you know what, let's go. We got the new h
Speaker 1: TV video going here. Man, with the prices of some
Speaker 1: of these mobile rings, now I probably could yeah, telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you well, so uh on that note, you're
Speaker 1: a pretty mobile guy. You get out, you get after it,
Speaker 1: You hunt a lot of public and private. Um every
Speaker 1: once in a while. You sent me a picture of
Speaker 1: a big deer. You're after and uh, A lot of
Speaker 1: times you send me picture of dead bucks that you've
Speaker 1: killed as well. You're a good hunter, very humble, and
Speaker 1: so we just want to pick your brain a little
Speaker 1: bit about what Michigan is like recently. Uh, you had
Speaker 1: some success recently, right, Yeah, I actually shot a dough
Speaker 1: last night. Um, and and that's been that's been good.
Speaker 1: I've been on a pretty good buck, especially by by
Speaker 1: Michigan standards, probably around the one mark, which is uh
Speaker 1: the biggest I've had the luxury of chasing around here.
Speaker 1: But the dough was on a different piece of private
Speaker 1: that I could get the truck to, um a little
Speaker 1: easier than packing the dougheut too terribly far. So well, yeah,
Speaker 1: so what was that? What was that dough doing? The
Speaker 1: dough was working a kind of a your typical terrain
Speaker 1: feature break uh and uh hitting a couple of these
Speaker 1: apple trees that are right on the edge of these
Speaker 1: these uh thick kind of crp areas with some oaks
Speaker 1: in them, and they browsed around on oaks, but they
Speaker 1: really love the apples, so we'll pop out every once
Speaker 1: in a while. I passed a couple of different uh,
Speaker 1: younger bucks yesterday and um all kind of coming to
Speaker 1: this apple tree and then feeding out to kind of
Speaker 1: the main the main food source there is a giant
Speaker 1: apple orchard, so it's a it's a little pre snack.
Speaker 1: I have listen to Mark Kenyan's podcast a few times
Speaker 1: and more in the Michigan pass actually just means they're
Speaker 1: too far to shoot, just what I understand. So yeah, yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: it got pretty warm. So I ended up dropping this
Speaker 1: one off at a processor and I looked around. I said, yep,
Speaker 1: it's Michigan. That's cool though, Man, congrat some the early
Speaker 1: season's success and being able to get a little bit
Speaker 1: of a little bit of meat. What do you think
Speaker 1: is going on in the woods of Michigan right now
Speaker 1: or do you're still really hitting you know some of
Speaker 1: the egg food sources and stuff. Yeah, they're they're corn
Speaker 1: has started to become hot early season when it's all
Speaker 1: green that it doesn't really have the draw beans are
Speaker 1: beans are definitely winded down a little bit, but I
Speaker 1: still see him standing out there every once in a while.
Speaker 1: But acorns or shoot, I'm saying it wrong, they just
Speaker 1: do it just the acorns are are still a lot um.
Speaker 1: But like I said, the apples are kind of tailing off.
Speaker 1: But but if you've got a fresh apple tree there,
Speaker 1: h they're still eating them. Um. But but yeah, the
Speaker 1: the beans are beans are slowing down woody brows. I
Speaker 1: cut a couple of um shooting lanes on one of
Speaker 1: my private pieces, and I had two little bucks come
Speaker 1: in just mowing down them maple leaves. So they've been
Speaker 1: eating those two um seeh it's it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: transitioning to your typical fall food sources. So will they
Speaker 1: be uh, like in the next week or so, they
Speaker 1: you think they'll start really focusing on those egg worns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those acorns will be a real big hit, um, especially
Speaker 1: if you can. I mean everybody knows this, but the
Speaker 1: the white oaks have the best decorns. But but in
Speaker 1: some of these swampy spots, uh, some of the pin
Speaker 1: oaks dropped and uh and they love that too, so
Speaker 1: they don't. Actually it's hard to and where I'm from
Speaker 1: in southwestern Michigan, it's hard to pin down um, a good,
Speaker 1: good old acorn tree just because just because there's so
Speaker 1: many of them. Yeah, it's it's hard to uh, it's
Speaker 1: hard to figure it out. But they've been starting to
Speaker 1: put down a little more sign um. Obviously rubs have
Speaker 1: been popping up since they've been losing velvet or since
Speaker 1: they've lost velvet, and uh, it's it's just getting hotter.
Speaker 1: So uh, you know, right now is a full moon
Speaker 1: time and it's kind of gonna start waning a little
Speaker 1: bit here. But do you see much of that affecting
Speaker 1: any of the October movement that that you're looking at
Speaker 1: for bucks. I'll be honest, I I have not paid
Speaker 1: too much, uh too much attention to it. Um. I
Speaker 1: will say it was a very full moon uh last
Speaker 1: night and I saw okay, I saw every book that
Speaker 1: I've ever gotten on that trail camera on his feet.
Speaker 1: Um so so that I mean, that's a testament to
Speaker 1: how nonproductive by trail camera has been. I shot a
Speaker 1: dough but but they've all been they've all been moving.
Speaker 1: So Uh, Michigan, I'm assuming he's a like a lot
Speaker 1: of the rest of the country. It's had pretty dry
Speaker 1: summer and early fall, but I know Michigan has a
Speaker 1: ton of water. Um our mosquito is bad right now.
Speaker 1: And do you does that actually affect dear movement? They
Speaker 1: were pretty bad early, but it's actually been pretty uh
Speaker 1: pretty cold here this morning with eight degrees thirty nine
Speaker 1: degrees and uh, and we have not had a mosquito
Speaker 1: problem in the last It seems like when it gets
Speaker 1: that cold, they're they're gone. Now right now, I'm sitting
Speaker 1: in the truck at sixty seven degrees, So when I
Speaker 1: go out tonight it uh, it might be uh, I
Speaker 1: might change my tune on that, but last night was great.
Speaker 1: M Yeah, So coming up this week, looking at the
Speaker 1: moon affecting your truck camor movement, uh, potentially cold fronts
Speaker 1: that are that are coming in, uh, different food sources
Speaker 1: like acorns dropping in, those kind of things and and
Speaker 1: all that. What would you say, on a scale of
Speaker 1: one to ten, what would you predict the buck movement
Speaker 1: to be like in the next week or so. We've
Speaker 1: got that cold trunk coming in on Thursday, so it'll
Speaker 1: be the day after this this releases. Um, we're recording
Speaker 1: this today and it's it's about to it's about to
Speaker 1: get pretty warm, but then it drops back down. So
Speaker 1: we're after the release of this, it's only gonna get better.
Speaker 1: And I love how October plays out. It seems to
Speaker 1: get better than the time goes on. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give it a I'm gonna give it a six and
Speaker 1: a half. We're throwing halves in here. This is a
Speaker 1: second decimal of this this whole podcast, and both have
Speaker 1: coming this week. So congrats on that, dude. You're you're
Speaker 1: very extraordinary. Man goes to the extra lengths man, that's
Speaker 1: what it is. Hey, thank thanks for hopping on in.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you'll get a crack at that target buck you've got, man,
Speaker 1: and we'll have to get you back on and talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about what you're seeing at that time.
Speaker 1: So best of luck this season. Man. Alrighty appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You guys too. I've got Jonathan Morland on the phone.
Speaker 1: He is a hunter in Arkansas. Man, what has been
Speaker 1: going on? Dude? Man, we've just uh, just trying to
Speaker 1: kick it, get the season kicked off. So bending a
Speaker 1: little bit of hunting and mostly scalting, not a whole
Speaker 1: lot of time on the tree, but a lot of
Speaker 1: time on the boards in the last week or so.
Speaker 1: I guess you see, you're pretty accomplished hunter, particularly a
Speaker 1: traditional hunter, so I know that that us actually make
Speaker 1: a little bit of difference to you as far as
Speaker 1: the way you scout and hunt. I would imagine what
Speaker 1: are some things that you're really keen in on right now,
Speaker 1: trying to make sure you can get close range of
Speaker 1: these deer right now. It's a little different for the
Speaker 1: South for what I normally try to do. We've got
Speaker 1: abnormally dry conditions down here this year. It hasn't rained
Speaker 1: in almost three weeks. So normally this time of year,
Speaker 1: I'm focusing on a hot feeed tree, whether it be
Speaker 1: up for simmon or water oak or early dropping pin oak.
Speaker 1: But this year, the deer, they are really keen in
Speaker 1: on the water. So anywhere I can get closer to
Speaker 1: a water source, I'm I'm saying quite a few deer
Speaker 1: actually killed a doll the other day coming to an
Speaker 1: old lake bed that's normally the full of water, which
Speaker 1: is which is starting to drop now. So anywhere you
Speaker 1: can get near waters, it's just pretty good right now.
Speaker 1: That's cool. Do you feel like deer use running water
Speaker 1: and sanding water all the same, or do you have
Speaker 1: a particular type of water soorce you like the key
Speaker 1: in on? You know us to this where I'm at
Speaker 1: right now is standing because the record low river levels
Speaker 1: right now, so it's just pockets of water. But you know,
Speaker 1: typically did when it's down here in the south, We've
Speaker 1: got a lot of lush vegetation, so normally they can
Speaker 1: they can kind of get it throughout the woods, but
Speaker 1: right now they're having to come to it. Um. Also
Speaker 1: with this dry weather, I'm noticing a lot of early
Speaker 1: dropping mass crops also, so like some of these acres
Speaker 1: are dropping earlier than normal. Um. But yeah, it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know, as far as buck activity, so far, I've
Speaker 1: seen a few bucks, but it's it's still pretty pretty
Speaker 1: slow right now. What about scrapes? You're looking at scrapes
Speaker 1: this time of year when you're out there scouting. Made
Speaker 1: a big loop yesterday Sault. I think seven or eight
Speaker 1: scrapes yesterday, So they're just now kind of start getting
Speaker 1: going there. Will you focus Will you focus on that
Speaker 1: going forward? Are you still gonna be on the water? No? No,
Speaker 1: I don't typically start focusing on that until later on
Speaker 1: in the year. Right now, it's still it's still food
Speaker 1: sources and water right now with the with the and
Speaker 1: dry Yeah, is your is your right a typical rut
Speaker 1: compared to everybody else in the country. Um, So down here,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that magic week is is around that
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving week down here at the prime time. Got you
Speaker 1: so a little bit later, so that would make sense
Speaker 1: for some of the rud activity you pushed back a
Speaker 1: little bit later to what do you think about the
Speaker 1: moon stuff? You pay much attention to the moon. I
Speaker 1: know we're kind of coming off a big full moon
Speaker 1: right now and a lot of guys are thinking about it.
Speaker 1: You know, I'll pay attention to it just because I'm curious,
Speaker 1: and I do try to document, you know, where the
Speaker 1: moon's at and what the what the direct to what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. But uh, typically, you know, when I have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to hunt, I'm just you know, I'm hunting regardless.
Speaker 1: I don't really plan my hunts around the moon. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I understand that. It's exactly, and I've got an opportunity
Speaker 1: to hunt, I'm gonna Yeah. It's just it's like a
Speaker 1: confidence booster, right, like all the moon's doing something good.
Speaker 1: I feel good about this huthing. But you're still gonna
Speaker 1: go out there, and I mean you're in the South,
Speaker 1: so you know, And this is how I feel too,
Speaker 1: Like it's a game and numbers sometimes, right, you just
Speaker 1: gotta have your hangs in the tree and sooner or
Speaker 1: later it's gonna work out. Yeah. So, uh what did
Speaker 1: you Uh, how'd that set up go for that dough
Speaker 1: that you killed? Man? Where you hunt over food sources
Speaker 1: or you said there's over water? Right? Was there any anywhere? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: whether there's some ag not far. But uh, now I
Speaker 1: just caught her coming to an old lake. Uh there
Speaker 1: there's a willow flat in there, and just had a
Speaker 1: just had a really good setup, uh, some really good
Speaker 1: cover there on the edge of the lake bank and
Speaker 1: there was a main trail coming where they're coming down
Speaker 1: there to hit that water, and just just called her
Speaker 1: off go or coming up right to that water. You
Speaker 1: get a lot when the setup works perfect. Rights. So
Speaker 1: a lot of the country is talking about cold fronts
Speaker 1: and stuff coming uh in the next week. Now in
Speaker 1: the South, we kind of get cool fronts more than
Speaker 1: cold fronts, you know, And I think we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to like a three or four degree cooler morning the
Speaker 1: normal here in this next week. I don't know if
Speaker 1: things are much different where you're at. But with all
Speaker 1: that stuff can centered in kind of compiling the information
Speaker 1: that you've already gained from scouting in previous experience, what
Speaker 1: do you expect the bug movement to be lot like
Speaker 1: over the next week. So we have here in the
Speaker 1: south which I'm in South Arkarsas, we've got some we've
Speaker 1: got some fronts moving in. I believe it's Wednesday or Thursday. Uh,
Speaker 1: cool front is that's supposed to produce a precipitation. So
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, it hasn't rained down here
Speaker 1: in over three weeks, so you know, if we do
Speaker 1: catch a little rain, I would expect that to really
Speaker 1: to really get some there up on their feet. So um,
Speaker 1: you know, I expected to to increase just a little
Speaker 1: bit compared to last week. Got you. So if you
Speaker 1: had to rate it between one and tim, what would
Speaker 1: you rate it. I'm gonna give it about a about
Speaker 1: a six. Okay, that's a good conservative number. I like
Speaker 1: it though. But things are ramping up and kind of
Speaker 1: gearing towards that in the magic November we've got coming, man.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate the time they today, dude, and I
Speaker 1: hope you have a great rest of the season, y'all.
Speaker 1: Tell good luck y'all. Okay, So now on the phone,
Speaker 1: we've got Jason Red from timber Ninja. You've been in
Speaker 1: the timber being in ninja lately out in North Carolina, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. And I've been a trip to Illinoise for
Speaker 1: four or five days, the scouting slash hunting trip. Nice man, So, uh,
Speaker 1: you do some pretty cool stuff. This is kind of
Speaker 1: what UM originally calls you to create a super lightweight stick.
Speaker 1: But you spent a lot of time hunting deer really
Speaker 1: deep in kind of mountainous country which people don't think
Speaker 1: of maybe when they think of a coastal um area
Speaker 1: like that out of east. But there's some pretty pretty
Speaker 1: crazy hills. Um, what have you been seeing in the
Speaker 1: hills lately and and how the deer kind of moving
Speaker 1: around and reacting to mc coole fronts and what's going
Speaker 1: on right now? Well, I mean I live in a
Speaker 1: very low deer instity area, so I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we have one one of two deer first square miles.
Speaker 1: So activity this year has have been about normal. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been focused on two target bucks this year, and
Speaker 1: but we have had some really unseasonally cool weather, but
Speaker 1: we also have had a really big mass crop. This
Speaker 1: year's severer are pretty spread out. They don't have to
Speaker 1: move very far, but been seeing fairly good movement for
Speaker 1: this time of year, and uh, you know, getting closer
Speaker 1: and closer to one of my targets here, I feel,
Speaker 1: you know, you know how you get that gut feeling
Speaker 1: you just know you're getting there. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: with this weather that we have and being mid you know,
Speaker 1: coming in to mid October, it's looking pretty positive. How
Speaker 1: are you How have you been hunting that deer? Are
Speaker 1: you hunting him based off of like movement patterns to
Speaker 1: and from oaks or what are you looking at? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: he he traditionally I've been hunting for a few years.
Speaker 1: He traditionally travels. He's a home range beer in this area,
Speaker 1: so he likes that you stay inside on this big
Speaker 1: long ridge and you know, he's a couple of miles back,
Speaker 1: and uh so I've been I know where his primary
Speaker 1: that is, which is private unfortunately, so I'm trying to
Speaker 1: intersect him there. And he runs down the ridge and
Speaker 1: comes off a finger ridge and hit some public private
Speaker 1: land aggs. So I've been trying to get as close
Speaker 1: as I can to his primary bed. Obviously I'm kind
Speaker 1: of restricted there, but honestly, it's trying to cut him
Speaker 1: off in between right now. So we've actually spoken with
Speaker 1: a guy recently who seem to think green food sources
Speaker 1: were pretty key when it comes to you know, private
Speaker 1: land agg. Is that theag that he's uh inhabiting right
Speaker 1: now or is he more on like corn or grain
Speaker 1: type stuff. We don't have much corn, so yeah, it's
Speaker 1: all green pasture ground that he's on, you know. And
Speaker 1: I'm a proponent, like you know, if we have a
Speaker 1: really big mass crop the year and they can't just
Speaker 1: live off eight forms like they need that greene to
Speaker 1: balance off the diet. So that's why I've been kind
Speaker 1: of honed in on him where I am right now.
Speaker 1: But you know, he's laid some some of his primary
Speaker 1: scrapes that he normally does. I mean, our deer don't.
Speaker 1: There's not as much competition, so they don't leave as
Speaker 1: much sign as you know, some of the others. So
Speaker 1: but he kind of comes back to his home range
Speaker 1: and and you know, the interesting thing is, like I
Speaker 1: was talking about this weekend about this, is you can
Speaker 1: really instigate a buck here by this open up a
Speaker 1: mock scrape and his his home range. He will not
Speaker 1: excelent time I can get. I can get a mature
Speaker 1: buck that I'm after if I know it's home range.
Speaker 1: But I'll open up, you know, march straight myself. Within
Speaker 1: a couple of days, he'll be in there. Man. I
Speaker 1: do love mock scrapes. It's just it gives me hype
Speaker 1: just knowing that I can do something like that to
Speaker 1: kind of manipulate dear, and as uh, you know, one
Speaker 1: thing that's kind of synonymous across the country right now
Speaker 1: is the moon face. Right Like, people have different conditions
Speaker 1: all over the place, and I know a lot of
Speaker 1: guys put a lot of different weight on moon. Right now,
Speaker 1: we just are pretty much right on a full moon,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna start waning as the next week goes on.
Speaker 1: Do you think about moon much at least in October
Speaker 1: when it comes to dear movement, I'm not as go
Speaker 1: on moon phases. I am moon position, okay, I do.
Speaker 1: I do like noon position and like you know, you
Speaker 1: had the mooner eyes where it's been right there close
Speaker 1: to you know, with an hour dark, it's usually pretty
Speaker 1: promote um. And this morning, like I just the only
Speaker 1: thing I can count the day was a morning punt.
Speaker 1: So I just you know, you can't kill them if
Speaker 1: you're not after them. So I was in there, but
Speaker 1: but coming out out of that, I really like that time.
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, you know, into this week, next week
Speaker 1: started looking pretty good, guys, you man, so let's let's
Speaker 1: talk about the next week here, alright. So, like you
Speaker 1: were saying, there's some cool funds starting to move across
Speaker 1: the country. You know, moon's kind of waning a little bit,
Speaker 1: uh de, You're starting to get a little more ruddy,
Speaker 1: and you know for for some of North Carolina stuff
Speaker 1: that you've been hunting, let's just kind of focus on that. Um,
Speaker 1: what do you predict the buck movement to be like
Speaker 1: over the next week on the scale from one to ten,
Speaker 1: I think from one tin for this time of year,
Speaker 1: we should be somewhere around the eight because like next week,
Speaker 1: I just looked at the well or you know, if
Speaker 1: we were talking, and we're supposed to get down in
Speaker 1: the high twenties next week, which is unseasonally cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're having lows there and you know, I don't
Speaker 1: run a lot of cell cameras, but I gotta had
Speaker 1: buddies that do around here. And the buck movement just
Speaker 1: continues to increase. So I think it's looking pretty good
Speaker 1: for next week. Man, that killer cole Front's headed this
Speaker 1: way is gonna definitely rock some bucks worlds and have
Speaker 1: a lot of hunters in the woods. Man, it's exciting
Speaker 1: time of year, Jason. We really appreciate the update, dude.
Speaker 1: And uh, I hope you have some success out there, man,
Speaker 1: thank you. Alright. We've got Jake Hoefer from Exodus. He
Speaker 1: is up in Illinois. He does a bunch of hunting
Speaker 1: up there. Shoots really old bucks. Sometimes they're big, sometimes
Speaker 1: they're kind of medium, but they're always old. Man, not much,
Speaker 1: not much excited to be on here, and I appreciate
Speaker 1: that intro um. Sometimes everyone drags like, oh, I'd rather
Speaker 1: shoot an old deer over a big deer. You know,
Speaker 1: I'd rather shoot a big deer this point. I don't care. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all man. It's like, I really do like shooting
Speaker 1: old deer. But I've shot a bunch of them, and
Speaker 1: sometimes they tend to be like, you know, and all
Speaker 1: the people around you are shooting like one sixties and
Speaker 1: you're like, hey, he's old. Don't forget about me over here,
Speaker 1: you know, And that's funny, funny and so true. So
Speaker 1: how has the last you know, a couple of days
Speaker 1: of hunting here in Illinois been for you a lot better?
Speaker 1: Because we had a really good cold front here rolling Friday,
Speaker 1: and so on a Friday morning, uh, kind of tight
Speaker 1: to betting on a mock scrape on a ridge with
Speaker 1: a lot of oaks, and I saw six bucks that morning,
Speaker 1: a lot of sparring, a lot of rubs, um, and
Speaker 1: it was just kind of it's great to feel the
Speaker 1: would to be alive with you're doing cool things. So
Speaker 1: that was really good. And then I actually have a
Speaker 1: couple of buddies, Um, one gentleman shot a really nice
Speaker 1: buck Friday evening on green food source. And then I
Speaker 1: had a buddy missing giant Saturday on a green food
Speaker 1: source as well. So it's uh, it was it was
Speaker 1: good if you're in the right location, you had a
Speaker 1: buck that you're chasing. Um, it was a really good opportunity.
Speaker 1: You make a point about the green food sources. You
Speaker 1: talked about oaks, but um, can you talk about what
Speaker 1: the green food source is and why that's important right now? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So it really it seemed like Clover was the king here.
Speaker 1: I know, um, personally, some some more younger bucks for hitting,
Speaker 1: you know, the tops of Braska's but clover definitely seemed
Speaker 1: to be the powerful food food source. And then in
Speaker 1: particular this one form that I'm familiar with, the gentleman
Speaker 1: that missed a really big beer. They came in ate
Speaker 1: the clover um kind of staged up in there, and
Speaker 1: then they headed onto a cut cornfield. So that seemed
Speaker 1: to be the perfect recipe. Is they eat takecorns all day.
Speaker 1: They want a little bit of moisture content in the evening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't blame them. I would not be very happy
Speaker 1: about eating necks all day. Feel like you just got
Speaker 1: a mouth of meal man. Right, So when knowing you,
Speaker 1: I know that scrapes are on your mind, especially in
Speaker 1: October with these cold friends rolling through, Um, when do
Speaker 1: you start to shift that focus and do you think
Speaker 1: that that's something that's coming soon? It's definitely coming soon.
Speaker 1: Um yeah. So I mean a lot of these new
Speaker 1: bucks are starting to show up on some of these farms.
Speaker 1: And then looking into the future here of a really
Speaker 1: good cold front coming through next weekend like Sunday is
Speaker 1: kind of when it hits, I'll definitely be posted up
Speaker 1: scrapes here in the next seven eight nine days. I
Speaker 1: think right now it's a really good idea to get
Speaker 1: an inventory on what bucks are kind of frequently frequently
Speaker 1: a scrape and kind of try to line up an
Speaker 1: opportunity with the cold front rolling in. And last year
Speaker 1: the six seventeen eighteen was actually really good for bucks
Speaker 1: hitting scrapes. It's always it's always seems to be in
Speaker 1: coordination into a cold front, but that seems to be
Speaker 1: one of the first opportunities if you don't have a
Speaker 1: buff living right on you, it's when they start to
Speaker 1: venture out a little bit and you still have a
Speaker 1: legitimate crack at them, um, and they feel just a
Speaker 1: little less random to the time being. So with that
Speaker 1: coming up, scaling one to ten, looking at weather moon,
Speaker 1: if you do that kind of thing, whatever, you look
Speaker 1: at all the variables and what you saw last year
Speaker 1: and everything, how how would you rank this next week
Speaker 1: in your mind the potential of shooting a shooting a
Speaker 1: nice buck one to ten. Man, it's it's up there.
Speaker 1: I'd say, gosh, eight point two. I mean it's gonna
Speaker 1: be it's gonna be really good. Decimals. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: decimal club first time. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, no rookie scores here,
Speaker 1: so I would I would say, you know, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be one of the best fronts of the year, I
Speaker 1: really do think. So. I hopefully we'll get another front
Speaker 1: closer to the end of October, which will be fantastic,
Speaker 1: and then, um, you know, obviously that first really good
Speaker 1: front in November is gonna be awesome too. But I
Speaker 1: mean this is gonna be a top three or four
Speaker 1: front in my opinion. Man, that's exciting. Wow. Okay, so
Speaker 1: now I'm like looking at my calendar to reorganize things. Man. God, leave,
Speaker 1: that's wild. That's the time, Jake. Last time I listened
Speaker 1: to you about a cold front in October, I shot
Speaker 1: a really big eight point man. So I'm gonna listen again.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, stay tuned. I think you guys are
Speaker 1: gonna find you because I can find it. Dear killing them.
Speaker 1: That's still been pretty hard for me. Whatever, dude, you're
Speaker 1: a killer. You're a killer, humble killer. Man. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we appreciate the good info, Jake, Thanks man, and I
Speaker 1: hope you do get after that big buck this week.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it. Thanks guys. The October lull can be a
Speaker 1: little spooky, but if you have the right information, you'll
Speaker 1: be able to throw it down on a big buck.
Speaker 1: So if you are interested in big bucks and you
Speaker 1: might want to watch some things to either get you
Speaker 1: hip or to help you learn how to get closer
Speaker 1: or to stay more comfortable you're in the woods, you
Speaker 1: should check out the Oklahoma public land buck video that
Speaker 1: The Element has on its channel. There's also a piece
Speaker 1: on layering that our friend Mark Kenyon put out to
Speaker 1: help you stay warm while you're out there chasing those
Speaker 1: big dogs. And then Tony has a pretty cool Foundations
Speaker 1: podcast that's all about hunting to kill as opposed to
Speaker 1: hunting to just hunts. So be sure and check that
Speaker 1: stuff out. Keep it fresh, This has been rough. Fresh