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 Rutt Fresh
Speaker 1: Radio powered by Vortex Optics. I'm your host, Casey Smith.
Speaker 1: The duldrums of December can be a downer. However, there
Speaker 1: is a glimmer of hope, and that hope is big bucks.
Speaker 1: Welcome to rut Fresh Radio powered by Vortex Optics. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Casey Smith. Your other host, Tyler Jones is
Speaker 1: here as well. And we have the one and the only,
Speaker 1: the distinguished Arkansas and Clayton not Clayton, clay that I
Speaker 1: always want to call and call you clay because Clayton,
Speaker 1: because it's my whole life. Casey, I know you asked
Speaker 1: me to not. My name is just for so now
Speaker 1: him if if people call them Casey, yeah, Casey yeah
Speaker 1: actually yeah, but that's all right. Uh Um. It's names
Speaker 1: are fun, man, because you know, if you take yourself
Speaker 1: too seriously, you get mad about stuff like that. But
Speaker 1: if you don't, then you just we're killing name though
Speaker 1: you think, Yeah, I think the barbecue, I mean like,
Speaker 1: I mean nothing against Matt or yeah, the mass of
Speaker 1: the world. Yea, yeah, I mean, I know you're talking
Speaker 1: about Josh's killers, but I just don't think the the
Speaker 1: world right, the marks of the world we gott But yeah,
Speaker 1: we actually are on a hunt in Arkansas together right now,
Speaker 1: having a good time being Meat Eater Crew members. Let's
Speaker 1: let the cat of the bag here. Uh, Tyler and
Speaker 1: myself have joined the Meat Eater Crew stuff officially, we've
Speaker 1: been uh working together for a while. We're gonna keep
Speaker 1: doing that and uh, but all the Elements stuff that
Speaker 1: you've seen us do is still gonna be about the
Speaker 1: same as it always has been. We're gonna keep on
Speaker 1: chasing deer around and having fun. And so you guys
Speaker 1: are first of all, that's this is incredible. Um, this
Speaker 1: is great. But just for everybody out there, like everything's
Speaker 1: gonna stay the same, y'all. It's still gonna be pumping
Speaker 1: stuff on the YouTube channel are still gonna be and
Speaker 1: White Tails Pigs doing the Element podcast. You're just uh,
Speaker 1: you're just on the meat of your team now, that's right.
Speaker 1: That's great. Team Clay, Team Clay. That's right. Hey, I
Speaker 1: I kind of no one gave me permission to do this,
Speaker 1: but like I claim, where I live as meat eater
Speaker 1: south Okay, yeah, but I mean now that you are
Speaker 1: further south than me, you meet your southwest. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Yeah. I mean if East Texas is southwest,
Speaker 1: I don't know southwest where you are. It's all about perspective,
Speaker 1: And so is the white tail rut. That is that
Speaker 1: is so across the country, the rut is doing all
Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. We talked to guys today who have
Speaker 1: every opinion of the rut and we did something weird
Speaker 1: this year. And maybe you have uh insight to this,
Speaker 1: but it seemed like across the country is about two
Speaker 1: weeks late, which is a large discrepancy, uh for you know,
Speaker 1: what's something that's supposed to be controlled by diurnal cycles, right,
Speaker 1: so or however you say it, you know, the sun
Speaker 1: and the moon and stuff. So, um, what do you
Speaker 1: think about that? Well, that would be pretty close to
Speaker 1: what I experienced, and I would have attributed it to weather.
Speaker 1: Like the most intense white tail hunting I did was
Speaker 1: the first eight day is of November, and typically in
Speaker 1: the places I'm hunting, that's a really incredible time to hunt,
Speaker 1: and it really wasn't. And at the time we were
Speaker 1: like man, it's it's kind of like it's a weak delayed.
Speaker 1: So that's actually the first time I've heard that. But
Speaker 1: I feel like as hunters, we always have some anomaly
Speaker 1: every year that makes it different, and so like, is
Speaker 1: there really a standard rut? That's kind of my thing
Speaker 1: because we're sure hadn't had one anytime. I mean, you
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying that there's always a reason for
Speaker 1: something to be squirreling. Absolutely. I feel like, um, I've
Speaker 1: said this before, but a lot of the white tail
Speaker 1: hunting information kind of radiates from Iowa out in general.
Speaker 1: That's where a lot of the stone Co killers of
Speaker 1: the past lived and killed. Michigan some yet too, But
Speaker 1: those northern Midwest latitudes, I think things are still pretty
Speaker 1: consistent there, but start getting further and further from that nucleus,
Speaker 1: like things get different. And I understand that the weather
Speaker 1: cannot have an effect on a dose extra cycle. I
Speaker 1: get that, um, but it has an effect on perceived
Speaker 1: movement absolutely, and we've seen that this week. Actually it's
Speaker 1: real hot. First time first day we got here and
Speaker 1: didn't see as much as what we probably did today. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's almost everything when it comes to
Speaker 1: why tell hun you know, like it's it's such a
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say overlooked um detail, but it's it's just
Speaker 1: so commonplace that we just kind of accepted without really
Speaker 1: putting emphasis on, like, uh, maybe paying attention to some
Speaker 1: of the small discrepancies that can make a big difference.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Wind direction is gonna be a different one.
Speaker 1: First to Mara, we've been having a pretty consistent wind,
Speaker 1: and then now it's going to change in the morning
Speaker 1: and we have to kind of decide what we're gonna
Speaker 1: do with that. Well, I think I think any kind
Speaker 1: of change is gonna be good because up unto this
Speaker 1: point what's been happening hadn't been working. So somewthing changing
Speaker 1: is gonna be good. We needed you to show us
Speaker 1: how to kill deer in Arkansas, man, I might as
Speaker 1: well be hunting white tail deer in Spain. Like this is.
Speaker 1: We are in my home state, which I love, but
Speaker 1: I've never hunted in the delta. You know, we're in
Speaker 1: the eastern side of the state, and uh, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just Arkansas is very much so divided, like almost equally
Speaker 1: in half from the northeast corner to the southwest corner
Speaker 1: and then the northwest Big triangle for Arkansas is a
Speaker 1: square is for the most part mountainous and the the
Speaker 1: other The other triangle is influenced by the Mississippi River delta,
Speaker 1: so just different. You're familiar much more with the mountainous. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you've told me before this hunt
Speaker 1: that you're really excited about it because you always want
Speaker 1: to get down here? Yes? Um, do you feel like
Speaker 1: you're more adept at hunting the mountain white tails even
Speaker 1: though maybe it's a better hunt down here as far
Speaker 1: as what people can you know? Would consider? Like, are
Speaker 1: you saying would I would? I know that better if
Speaker 1: I gave you five days and said hey, Clay and
Speaker 1: picked the mountains, you would? Yeah? I just I mean
Speaker 1: because we've we've struggled down here in big time. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have just trying to figure out I mean, the
Speaker 1: things that I have deeply ingrained in me in terms
Speaker 1: of topography and cover of what these dey are gonna do.
Speaker 1: These deer don't at all, not even remotely. And so
Speaker 1: it's kind of like, uh, I tell I texted Brent
Speaker 1: Reeves and I said, this is like learning a different language.
Speaker 1: It's like, does a deer walk through this stuff? Like
Speaker 1: the deer that I know don't walk through this stuff.
Speaker 1: They go around it. And it's just it's just you
Speaker 1: mentioned several times that you wouldn't call something thick if
Speaker 1: you were back home. Yeah, so it's thicker back home,
Speaker 1: that's what you're saying. Yeah, I mean, so not to
Speaker 1: get into the weeds. I guess the pun was, but
Speaker 1: the everybody said, we gotta find thick stuff down here.
Speaker 1: And thick is a relative term. I mean, back home,
Speaker 1: thick means like you can't walk through briars. Like down here,
Speaker 1: it's like thick is Donald Trump's hair, Yeah something like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's uh, it's relative. You know. At home for us,
Speaker 1: we live in fairly similar habitats yours more mountainous, but
Speaker 1: same kind of right weeds and stuff, right, Like, it's
Speaker 1: pretty similar. And um like, there's stuff that's so thick
Speaker 1: that you don't hunt there because it's not great hunting.
Speaker 1: The deer don't really go up in there very much.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a it's a monoculture of sorts, you know.
Speaker 1: But here it's really gone more than three yards, yes exactly.
Speaker 1: I don't really have that here you have these little
Speaker 1: pockets of uh cover uh. And I think that's probably
Speaker 1: has to do with the you know, open hardwoods, top terrain.
Speaker 1: That's the that's a hard thing to learn. How to
Speaker 1: hunt bigwood stuff is tough, and you gotta see deer.
Speaker 1: Like right now, I'm walking through the woods and I
Speaker 1: don't have this database in my mind going oh, I've
Speaker 1: killed a deer in the spot like this. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: so meaningful, so meaningful. And I walked through the woods
Speaker 1: and I go, I don't know if I should hang
Speaker 1: in that tree or not. There may not have been
Speaker 1: a deer walking by this in the last five years.
Speaker 1: You know. That's the woods are the woods anywhere are
Speaker 1: difficult for that reason. I feel like, you know, it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter where you are if you cannot observe deer
Speaker 1: during your hunts, you're you're learning curve is and we're
Speaker 1: and we're not seeing deer while we're even scouting. We're
Speaker 1: covering big ground that I know of, and and yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying, like, we're not just if you're
Speaker 1: if you're sitting and seeing you know, three or four
Speaker 1: deer sightings, you can kind of be like, Okay, and
Speaker 1: and we've probably had that. But I mean, i've seen
Speaker 1: one deer during a hunt on this trip i've been.
Speaker 1: I've seen one deer from a stand. Yeah, so to
Speaker 1: yesterday from the ground walking in the casey hunted it
Speaker 1: from the ground a few times. So I've seen a
Speaker 1: few here, but it's never it's and I saw two
Speaker 1: from the stand first evening and they looked they were
Speaker 1: the color of the woods. I don't know if I've
Speaker 1: seen dear match as good as he's deer. It's wild, yeah,
Speaker 1: strange and so um. That kind of adds a whole
Speaker 1: another complexities to things of like, h just they not
Speaker 1: stick out very good, you know, and uh, they're smaller
Speaker 1: bodied animals and all. This just makes it a little
Speaker 1: difficult something that deer in the South into Dudes get
Speaker 1: real gray in December. I feel like we see it
Speaker 1: in Texas a lot. And um, in this habitat and
Speaker 1: in Texas and other habitats, December is gray and the
Speaker 1: habitat is gray. The dirt is gray. The leaves of
Speaker 1: you know, broken down and they're gray. Like I mean, dude,
Speaker 1: it's hard to see, dear man, it is. You know
Speaker 1: how I knew those deer were there. I heard an
Speaker 1: acorn crunch. That's how I knew that deer was there.
Speaker 1: I heard an acorn crunch, and I was like, what
Speaker 1: was that? Because it's actually was too late for squirrels
Speaker 1: to be out, so I was like, well, that's not squirrel.
Speaker 1: I turned around in fifty yards away they were two does.
Speaker 1: The only way I could I could just see their legs,
Speaker 1: you know, white leg It's all I could see. Um,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I had a but though I saw the
Speaker 1: night was real light colored, and I still struggled to
Speaker 1: see her. But I was in a little bit lighter habitat,
Speaker 1: was in more of a wetland with that yellow grass
Speaker 1: and stuff. But the only reason I knew she was
Speaker 1: there is like I thought I heard some footsteps and
Speaker 1: she was at That happened not exactly where I thought
Speaker 1: I heard the foots. I heard a little something. I
Speaker 1: turned around. There was deer tonight. It's like, man, crazy
Speaker 1: Clay as a native Arkansas, and um, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you the honor of given us a scale of one
Speaker 1: to ten for Arkansas? Is it honorary? Um? This is
Speaker 1: a lot of responsibility. What do you think the buck
Speaker 1: movement is gonna be going forward, well, I mean back home.
Speaker 1: I would say it would be very low in the
Speaker 1: mountains right now, except for you know this quote unquote
Speaker 1: second rut when some of these funds come back in
Speaker 1: the mid December, which is real and happens. I see
Speaker 1: a little spike buck activity this time of year. So
Speaker 1: it's real, but hard to capitalize on in the in
Speaker 1: the lower lower regions of Arkansas, the flood prone regions
Speaker 1: of Arkansas. This is is the tale, the legitimate tale
Speaker 1: of the main part of the rut. And uh, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't know that from experience. That's just what I have
Speaker 1: been told. We though have seen. The first day I
Speaker 1: was here, like the first hundred yards that I walked
Speaker 1: was the was the highlight of my week so far,
Speaker 1: when I jumped a bucking a dough and then I
Speaker 1: jumped some other dos and two bucks and so like
Speaker 1: all of dear I saw had dose that I saw,
Speaker 1: I had bucks trailing them. Tonight, coming out of the
Speaker 1: woods after dark, we saw a big buck and a
Speaker 1: doubt well you guys did, and um, yeah, sure enough.
Speaker 1: And uh and so it feels like that we're there
Speaker 1: is some rut activity down here Eastern part of the
Speaker 1: state flood prone regions. Yes, it's so. Did you give
Speaker 1: us the number the whole state? Well, that's what the
Speaker 1: idea is. We're going to be three because in the
Speaker 1: Ozarks would basically be one, and here it would be
Speaker 1: a six, so it would be the average of the
Speaker 1: three six. I like it. I like it, so Tyler, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk to some other people around the country
Speaker 1: who got a little bit of experience in the woods
Speaker 1: right now who were talking to Yes, sir, we got
Speaker 1: a few people lined up. Lucas Psycho, good friend ours. Uh,
Speaker 1: he's in North Dakota, and the dude kills Big Dear
Speaker 1: every single year, every multiple sometimes it's it's unbelievable, really,
Speaker 1: so definitely worth listening to. Nate Crick from Identical Draw.
Speaker 1: He hasn't been in Nebraska, give us a report there.
Speaker 1: They spent a lot of time there. Brian Shirts is
Speaker 1: a good friend of ours from Texas down local to us.
Speaker 1: He's he owns on Target Archery, which is our local
Speaker 1: archery shop, and they take care of us. They're super
Speaker 1: good people. He's been up in Iowa where he's from,
Speaker 1: has a lot of experience there over the years and
Speaker 1: went and did a d pop hunt that like, they
Speaker 1: shot all kinds of deer on that hunt. And then uh, lastly,
Speaker 1: we had Parker McDonald who's been uh in Alabama as
Speaker 1: he usually is and hunts the many different ruts of Alabama,
Speaker 1: and one of those I think is coming up here
Speaker 1: pretty soon. So we can check in with those guys
Speaker 1: and see what see what those ret movements are. Why
Speaker 1: across sounds good. Hopefully I can get a little inspiration
Speaker 1: as to what to do in the morning, because right
Speaker 1: now I'm at a loss. Let's see if these guys
Speaker 1: got some good ideas. On the phone, I've got the
Speaker 1: one and only Lucas Psicho don't pronounce it keiko. What's up, man?
Speaker 1: How are you doing? Appreciate that? Hey, man, it's it's
Speaker 1: going well up here. How you guys doing. We're doing good.
Speaker 1: We we feel like we're cold, but I'm sure we're
Speaker 1: not um compared to where you are because you live actually,
Speaker 1: like on the Arctic Circle. I think it's probably then
Speaker 1: it comes your way first. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on
Speaker 1: the southern edge of the Arctic Circle. Yeah, well you're
Speaker 1: in North Dakota. Been doing some hunting up there, man,
Speaker 1: and it looks like you may have found one. Yeah yeah, yep, yep,
Speaker 1: bumped into one here this past weekend. Um, I've had
Speaker 1: the uh, I've had the last nine days off. It's
Speaker 1: straight to hunt and uh, it's been a while since
Speaker 1: I got to hunt this later season and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: lo and behold, the rut actually wrapped up welt the
Speaker 1: November really it really, I guess it was always going,
Speaker 1: but daylight activity really rapped up that that latter part
Speaker 1: of the rut there. So, um, what a coincidence that
Speaker 1: you mr uh just knows how to hunt deer happened
Speaker 1: to take a late you know, vacation to hunt deer
Speaker 1: in the in the rut ramped up. Did you have
Speaker 1: any insight as to like that was gonna be the way? Well,
Speaker 1: so it was. It was actually the muzzleloader tag. I
Speaker 1: had a muzzleloader tag. I drew it. Spent thirteen years
Speaker 1: since I drew it, So it kind of put me
Speaker 1: in that time frame right there to hunt that that
Speaker 1: that two weeks anyways, So um, but not knowing knowing
Speaker 1: what what I went through this now in this last
Speaker 1: two weeks, it's like I'll definitely push them back a
Speaker 1: little further because we get a lot of the nighttime
Speaker 1: activity in the rut here now through like through November,
Speaker 1: and there was there was obviously them daylight activity you
Speaker 1: know here and there, but it wrapped way up. There
Speaker 1: was way more people talking about bucks running all over
Speaker 1: the place that that right at the end of November,
Speaker 1: first week in December up here. Yeah, that man. We
Speaker 1: saw some similar things really and have talking to people
Speaker 1: across the country on this thing over the last few
Speaker 1: weeks about how the rut you know, really was just
Speaker 1: so different this year than it's ever been. You know,
Speaker 1: it seems like it's it's odd. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the factors are or why that that happens, but how
Speaker 1: how has the weather been like is it Is it
Speaker 1: average as far as like your tamps and stuff like
Speaker 1: that in the last week, Yeah, it's it's been a
Speaker 1: little on the colder side. Okay, we got we got
Speaker 1: into the sub subzero temps here in this last last
Speaker 1: week and a half a couple of times. So does
Speaker 1: that do you feel like the weather has much effect
Speaker 1: on the perceived rut? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Well what I
Speaker 1: what I've seen is any time any time that that
Speaker 1: weather takes a hard dip like that when when generally
Speaker 1: it's not not to be expected, it locks the deer
Speaker 1: up a lot. It just it's just there's just not
Speaker 1: a lot of movement. It's weird. They just it's like
Speaker 1: they just hunkered down and waited out, you know. So
Speaker 1: so when I when I've seen it, it was hitting
Speaker 1: and and deer movement was way low the two days
Speaker 1: that was sub zero temps out there, and uh so
Speaker 1: I stuck it out. I didn't have any choice, you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna not hunt. So um, it was brutal.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it definitely, it definitely puts it puts a
Speaker 1: damper on it. Yeah, that's interesting that that definitely we
Speaker 1: saw the same thing. I saw the same thing in
Speaker 1: Oklahoma during the run as well, or like, we got
Speaker 1: some pretty cold temps and weren't seeing much movement, which
Speaker 1: is interesting for sure. So, uh, you know, I would
Speaker 1: assume that this time of year, you guys are liable
Speaker 1: to have a just brutal weather front at any moment um.
Speaker 1: If that happens in the in the saying the next
Speaker 1: week or so, how would you how would you go
Speaker 1: about trying to kill a buck? You have to get
Speaker 1: super tight to bedding. I guess right, lo and behold,
Speaker 1: we have a massive front moving in right now. We're
Speaker 1: we're supposed it like anywhere from six to fifteen inches,
Speaker 1: you ever take. Sounds like a good time to have
Speaker 1: a field tag right right. It just perfect. Anyways, My my, uh,
Speaker 1: my dad is still after one of the bucks that
Speaker 1: that I was after, you know, along with this one
Speaker 1: that I got, and so um he had. He he
Speaker 1: was just frequent and frequenting the area a little bit
Speaker 1: as well where where I killed this one. And so
Speaker 1: he and I were already going over a game plan
Speaker 1: for hum for tonight, because it's the night before these
Speaker 1: fronts move in. It's it's always fire man like up here,
Speaker 1: if you, if you, and and sometimes the day as
Speaker 1: it hits, as it's hitting, it's good. But then once
Speaker 1: it sets in, it's gonna go dead for the time
Speaker 1: period of it's a will it's here, and then it's
Speaker 1: gonna be that first sixth eight hours after that snow
Speaker 1: stops and it calms down a bit, and then them
Speaker 1: you're gonna be right back up and rolling again. So
Speaker 1: it sounds like an exciting week, man. So if you
Speaker 1: had to rank it, on a scale of one to
Speaker 1: tea and for buck movement, what would you rank the
Speaker 1: upcoming week? So I'd say this this day and then
Speaker 1: so today tomorrow, I'd say ten, ten to ten, because
Speaker 1: it's it's just everything's gonna be moving today and tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and then then it's gonna take a massive dip down
Speaker 1: to like a two or three for like whatever. However
Speaker 1: many hours twenty four, thirty six hours, while that thing's
Speaker 1: here on top of us, it will take a massive
Speaker 1: dip and then it is gonna fire right back up
Speaker 1: to that that seven eight nine range, probably right that
Speaker 1: first day after it. So um and then in general,
Speaker 1: right now the deer movement is really well because they're
Speaker 1: they're on that bed, defeed, they're they're trying to regroup,
Speaker 1: you know, from from running that rut real hard. So
Speaker 1: it's pretty good. You know, this is trustworthy information, guys,
Speaker 1: if you're listening, this guy knows what he's talking about. Man,
Speaker 1: that is forced you to proof is in the pudding
Speaker 1: Man Psycho knocked down big ones every year, So du
Speaker 1: congrats another big buck and congrats on't getting the tag
Speaker 1: field before the sub zero TIMPs. And uh man, I
Speaker 1: hope that y'all have any of firewood stocked up? Oh yeah, definitely. Man,
Speaker 1: definitely appreciate you guys. You know it's always cool. Lucas.
Speaker 1: Thanks Man, see you yep. Thanks on the phone. Right
Speaker 1: now we have got the man, Parker McDonald. He I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. I will take a sick Parker over
Speaker 1: most guys when it comes to the deerwoods and they
Speaker 1: can find ears. They can find ears, Parker, give us
Speaker 1: the truth. How are you feeling, I'm not feeling too great. Um.
Speaker 1: We'll up this morning at two thirty to go out
Speaker 1: my dad's here. We do a rutcation every single year
Speaker 1: here in Obamma. And um, we've hunted a couple of
Speaker 1: days not seeing a ton. We've seen a little bit,
Speaker 1: but not a ton. And uh woke up this morning
Speaker 1: had the first north wind that we've had and probably
Speaker 1: a week and a half, maybe more than that, it's
Speaker 1: just been rainy and hot here and so we finally
Speaker 1: get this north wind and I'm jacked up going into
Speaker 1: some of these really good spots that I've been waiting for.
Speaker 1: And Uh, I got hit with the kidney stones this
Speaker 1: morning and me and Dad spent from two thirty till
Speaker 1: about seven with me crying on the floor in the
Speaker 1: in the living room, and then he took me to
Speaker 1: the er and I got some pain pain killers. And
Speaker 1: if I didn't have these pain killers right now, dude,
Speaker 1: I'd probably be still on the floor crying. It's about
Speaker 1: the worst. It's about the worst pain you could possibly imagine.
Speaker 1: I I don't know any way to you'll you'll normally
Speaker 1: do a buck movement um to the one at ten.
Speaker 1: And I was about a fourteen on Yale this morning.
Speaker 1: But m M, I'm gonna keep grinding, dude. It's it's
Speaker 1: uh my November rut. I was supposed to be gone
Speaker 1: to Kentucky and Tennessee for sixteen days and I got
Speaker 1: kidney stones then as well, and it knocked me down.
Speaker 1: My my trip ended up being about four days. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: These are different than the rolling stones, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: these are very much They don't really win any awards.
Speaker 1: And well, we'll see what else, Sailly we can get
Speaker 1: you to say, since you're on some of your pain killers.
Speaker 1: But uh, let's let's talk about some of the rut
Speaker 1: movement stuff. You know, Alabama's notorious for a late rut
Speaker 1: and probably some interesting rut dates around the state. Um,
Speaker 1: what are you seeing right now? Well, right now, I'm
Speaker 1: seeing all my Facebook memories pop up of all these
Speaker 1: books that I've killed from December one ish and uh
Speaker 1: and so far it just really hasn't hasn't happened. I
Speaker 1: killed a buck um on the second of December out here,
Speaker 1: and he was chasing the dough. But the interesting thing
Speaker 1: about it was he um his tarcels weren't didn't even
Speaker 1: look like they were used. The dough that he was
Speaker 1: chasing was like legitimately trying to get away from him,
Speaker 1: and she still had a faun um I can. I
Speaker 1: can tell you I've planted man, probably seventy of the
Speaker 1: last weeks of the days and yet to see a
Speaker 1: hot dough. I've seen a lot long does. I've seen
Speaker 1: bucks checking scrapes um, smaller deer checking scrapes um. But
Speaker 1: if I'm being honest, is the biggest This is crazy.
Speaker 1: The biggest deer I have seen in Alabama this year
Speaker 1: is a big frame four point that I saw a
Speaker 1: few days ago. And Man, usually by this time of
Speaker 1: the time of the year, I've got a couple of
Speaker 1: bucks around, if not being tagged out. The last probably
Speaker 1: two or three years I've been I've got all three
Speaker 1: of my bucks in Alabama by this point. So do
Speaker 1: you expect things to change in the next week or so? Here? Man,
Speaker 1: I hope I've been wrong every single time this year.
Speaker 1: Um about when the when it's finally gonna kick off.
Speaker 1: We've had a couple of a little cold ish days.
Speaker 1: When I say cold in the South, I mean you know,
Speaker 1: mornings in the forty degree range and then getting up
Speaker 1: to five or sixty degrees um, And I've thought like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is gonna kick it off, This is finally gonna
Speaker 1: kick it off. And then we get hit with another
Speaker 1: four days of muggy, hot weather and rain and it
Speaker 1: just hasn't happened. But um, start Wednesday Tomorrow is supposed
Speaker 1: to be about the same. It's supposed to be, you know,
Speaker 1: fifty degrees and the winds coming out of the north.
Speaker 1: Wednesday we got a lot of rain coming, but cold
Speaker 1: weather with that rain, and so um, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: Sunday and then all next week are supposed to be
Speaker 1: like fairly clear and very cold. So I really do
Speaker 1: think that's gonna kick it off. And everybody in the area.
Speaker 1: I know, you guys have talked to a lot of
Speaker 1: people and other states that have seen late ruts this
Speaker 1: year for whatever reason. Um, but you know, typically the
Speaker 1: w m A and and the public area that I hunt,
Speaker 1: by this point, it's produced a bunch of really nice
Speaker 1: here and and you're just not seeing it. There's been
Speaker 1: a couple here and there, but it's just not it's
Speaker 1: not been there. And usually the State of Alabama their
Speaker 1: Facebook page absolutely promote the crap out of this place.
Speaker 1: So going forward, like in the next week, are you
Speaker 1: gonna be are you gonna be just going you know what,
Speaker 1: it's time, the weather's there, We're gonna focus on rut tactics, hunting, pinches,
Speaker 1: those kind of things. Absolutely, I'm I am. Uh, I've
Speaker 1: been doing that. That's the bad thing is I've been
Speaker 1: doing that and just not seeing it. So a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago, got in really really tight to some
Speaker 1: thick bedding cover, like like really tight, and I've been
Speaker 1: holding off on getting that tight. And um, when I
Speaker 1: was walking out, I ended up bumping a buck to
Speaker 1: my dad. He couldn't get a shot, but I found
Speaker 1: I finally found the sign that tells me that it's
Speaker 1: at least close, like big huge at rubs scrapes every
Speaker 1: twenty yards you know that hadn't been hit in a minute, um,
Speaker 1: which to me, I don't know what you guys, how
Speaker 1: you guys feel about it, But whenever those scrapes are
Speaker 1: not getting hit as much or as often, to me,
Speaker 1: it tells me those bucks are are looking for that.
Speaker 1: I hope that's the case because right now I'm seeing
Speaker 1: some of that stuff too, and I just feel like
Speaker 1: they just don't give a hoot. So I like that
Speaker 1: there is some optimism in the future here, man. And
Speaker 1: we know the pain scales of fourteen? Can you tell
Speaker 1: us what the buck scale is gonna be and the
Speaker 1: next week on a scale of one to ten? Man,
Speaker 1: I really think when you get into I think Thursday
Speaker 1: and Friday are gonna be pretty good. But I think
Speaker 1: when you get into that, you know, third day of
Speaker 1: the front and on is gonna be probably the best
Speaker 1: deer hunting that we're going to get to have the problem.
Speaker 1: The problem for me is that we gotta go to
Speaker 1: Florida for Christmas break. I'm like, I'm gonna be out
Speaker 1: there in that cold rain. You know, I'm just with
Speaker 1: kidney stones and all. It's it sucks and it's unfortunate
Speaker 1: that I gotta deal with it, but um, it's not
Speaker 1: a good enough excuse for me to stay home. Well,
Speaker 1: way to be tough, Parker. I can't wait to see
Speaker 1: what you produce. A lot of times adversity makes some
Speaker 1: pretty cool stuff happen, man, So get out there and
Speaker 1: get after. We appreciate the report, man, Yeah, absolutely, Man,
Speaker 1: Thank you guys, and good luck to y'all. Also for
Speaker 1: the rest of the season. On the phone, now, I've
Speaker 1: got Brian's shirts from on Target Archery, our local archery shop.
Speaker 1: We love this guy and he shoot some big deer. Brian,
Speaker 1: you've been up in Iowa recently. It sounds like you
Speaker 1: had a pretty good hunt. Yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a great time, he really was. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: I guess, explain what you're doing. You were shotgun hunting.
Speaker 1: I guess. Yeah. It was first shot first gun season,
Speaker 1: which is shotgun or three fifty or four fifty uh
Speaker 1: straight cartridge that you can use legally, or a muzzle
Speaker 1: utter but it has to be a straight wall uh
Speaker 1: type shell yep. Basically a slug gun. You can't use buckshot.
Speaker 1: But but it was in southern I where we're at.
Speaker 1: So you're you're doing drives. I guess yep, we're doing Uh,
Speaker 1: we'd put people on stand and then people would walk
Speaker 1: through the we drive hunt to be walker. We call
Speaker 1: them walkers. So the standards are actually standing or they
Speaker 1: on a like a tree stand or a platform or something.
Speaker 1: Oh no, we just standing. We stand against a tree.
Speaker 1: Basically you're on You're on the ground the whole time.
Speaker 1: So how do you how do you decide how to
Speaker 1: like where the where there is gonna be bucks and
Speaker 1: and how to push them out and everything. Okay, so
Speaker 1: basically what you have is you have a lot of
Speaker 1: agg I mean it's primary agg fields that we're walking
Speaker 1: is in. It's like drainage. Dittess that we're walking is
Speaker 1: heavy timber, really brushy, thick, nasty, crawl on your knees
Speaker 1: through stuff to get through when you're when you're the
Speaker 1: when you're there, we're considered the pusher or the walker.
Speaker 1: And then uh, and then they push those draws and
Speaker 1: they've done it so many years, I mean twenty plus
Speaker 1: years they've done this same. I guess it'd be like
Speaker 1: almost like six farms that that the landowners want us
Speaker 1: to reduce the dear population because it's such a detriment
Speaker 1: to the agg poppet, to the egg that goes on there.
Speaker 1: That's cool, man, So how do you determine what is
Speaker 1: a shooter in that? Are you still trying to go
Speaker 1: and shoot a big buck when that's going on, or
Speaker 1: y'all just meat hunting? Or what's it looked like? It's
Speaker 1: pretty much a meat hunt. Now, we will run across
Speaker 1: some rather large animals because yeah, a few a few
Speaker 1: of those there. Uh, you know, it's just it's just
Speaker 1: one of those things where you're that's so thick, you'll
Speaker 1: walk right by you know, you know, five or six
Speaker 1: year old. But because they've done that so many times
Speaker 1: that they just noticed stay still and guys that know
Speaker 1: how to push push that push it will get them up.
Speaker 1: But like newbies or guys that haven't done it much
Speaker 1: will walk right by the big bucks because they just
Speaker 1: don't understand where they've bet down. I know, this whole
Speaker 1: tight until you walk by. What's the uh the strategy
Speaker 1: on actually getting a shot off? Are you doing something
Speaker 1: to make the animal stop or you're running shots or
Speaker 1: what's that look like? It's a little bit of both. Uh,
Speaker 1: when you're used to shooting the bowl a lot like myself. Uh,
Speaker 1: it takes a little while to to get you know,
Speaker 1: you try to lead them. You shoot way over and
Speaker 1: or way under, you know, way under and a way
Speaker 1: in front of them, because you don't realize the bullets
Speaker 1: gonna get there faster than what a narrow would. So uh,
Speaker 1: it takes a little while. But a lot of times
Speaker 1: they'll actually stop and they'll they'll come into you know,
Speaker 1: because they'll run into a draw and just kind of
Speaker 1: stop thinking, oh I'm out of the pressure now, and
Speaker 1: they'll stop right in front of you. You'll get some
Speaker 1: decent shots that way too, got you. Most most of
Speaker 1: them are there, you know, kind of you know how
Speaker 1: a deer. You spoke them and they'll kind of look
Speaker 1: back at you after you do it, and that's when
Speaker 1: they normally get a good shot. That's where the mess
Speaker 1: up happens for them for sure. So uh kind of
Speaker 1: going forward there then, uh, you know, if is that
Speaker 1: gun season over? Is that still something that's going on
Speaker 1: up there right now? They have the first shotgun and
Speaker 1: then they have a second shotgun, and your second shotgun
Speaker 1: is going on right now? I just got back from
Speaker 1: the first one. If you if you weren't trying to
Speaker 1: do the push thing, and maybe you're a solo guy,
Speaker 1: what's the uh what's the outlook look like for that?
Speaker 1: Are you thinking that you know, hunting evenings or or
Speaker 1: what what's gonna be kind of the key? Well, I
Speaker 1: was I was fortunate enough I have some property I
Speaker 1: can hunt up there, and so we push The first
Speaker 1: two days I went with them and did the whole
Speaker 1: drive thing, and then I set on my own property
Speaker 1: and uh set just like a regular hunter, you know,
Speaker 1: he just basically setting a setting to stand and just
Speaker 1: kind of played it. You know, are they gonna come
Speaker 1: to agg fields or you know, come to eating and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But what I've seen was the evenings
Speaker 1: were phenomenal. Uh, the mornings weren't so when you set,
Speaker 1: the mornings weren't that great. I mean there was a
Speaker 1: little bit of activity, but it was just kind of
Speaker 1: getting out of the bed and just browsing around the
Speaker 1: betting areas what they were doing. Yea. But but the evenings,
Speaker 1: they were definitely coming to agg fields. I mean it
Speaker 1: was crazy to see how many were in the fields
Speaker 1: after the hunt. You know, you drive and you see
Speaker 1: them out in the middlefield after shooting legal shooting time,
Speaker 1: and it was just like, oh my god, there's a
Speaker 1: hundred deer out in the cornfield. Didn't was there any
Speaker 1: particular aggs or food source that they preferred? Well, uh,
Speaker 1: a lot of them in the corn fields. Uh, but alfalfa,
Speaker 1: like inn alfalfa field. That was a good alfalfa. Man.
Speaker 1: They were like stacked like cordwood and those really yeah,
Speaker 1: And it was nuts how much how many they were
Speaker 1: in there? Uh, in my particular area. I mean, it
Speaker 1: could be different somewhere else, but it seemed like the
Speaker 1: agg fields and the corn fields and not much in
Speaker 1: the beans. If they were standing beans, you might see something,
Speaker 1: but most of the time the corn that was down.
Speaker 1: Of course, on the in rows where they knocked down
Speaker 1: some corn, there's you know, there's corn there. So okay,
Speaker 1: well that's good information. Man. So if you were gonna
Speaker 1: be hunt in Iowa, especially southern Iowa, you're at in
Speaker 1: the next you know, week or so. On a scale
Speaker 1: of one to ten, what do you think the buck
Speaker 1: movement would be? Like? I've talked a lot of my
Speaker 1: friends up there and relatives and stuff, and uh, what
Speaker 1: I see is get on the edge of some agg
Speaker 1: fields and get some funnels. Get those funnels where they're
Speaker 1: coming out to feed on those indros and things like that,
Speaker 1: because that's premium. I mean, they're they're definitely off of
Speaker 1: off of those. Now I would what I see, uh Now,
Speaker 1: the bucks and those were out in the field together
Speaker 1: at night when I was driving around, you could see them.
Speaker 1: I mean after the season was over. It was over
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, and I went out, Like any any hunter,
Speaker 1: if you go out and look and see what's out there,
Speaker 1: you know, and you're going like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: should have hunt it over here. You know, what if
Speaker 1: what if if? Yeah? Yeah, exactly the scale of one
Speaker 1: to ten, what would you give it for the next week?
Speaker 1: Next week, I would say, I would say it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a good solid seven. That's pretty nice, man, exactly.
Speaker 1: I think the pressure will come off on those bucks,
Speaker 1: will come out more because they're I mean, they pushed
Speaker 1: a lot of places push up there, and so after
Speaker 1: they get past this last gunning season, I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna relax and come to feed because they're gonna be
Speaker 1: they're gonna be held up in the woods. I mean,
Speaker 1: because there are feeling a lot of pressure right now. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well perfect man. Well, thank you for the report, and
Speaker 1: that's good helpful information and we'll be talking to you
Speaker 1: again soon. All right, it sounds good man, good luck. Okay, Here,
Speaker 1: I've got Nate Crick from Identical Drawl. Nate, you've been
Speaker 1: in Nebraska lately? Has it been cold up there? It's
Speaker 1: been pretty cold, but it's also kind of been uh,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess i'd say it's been pretty average
Speaker 1: for this time of year in December. Nothing uh, nothing frigid,
Speaker 1: but um yeah, it's been mornings in uh, I mean
Speaker 1: mid twenties and thirties and then it's actually warmed up
Speaker 1: to two forties lately. So yeah, kind of kind of average. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's uh, I mean, you guys spend some time there,
Speaker 1: so you know, that's that's kind of average. And have
Speaker 1: you had any snow? Um? No snow really yet. We
Speaker 1: have in the mile back, but I think I'm seeing
Speaker 1: some on the forecast, but it's been uh yeah, not
Speaker 1: a whole lot of pre sip. Yeah, So you know
Speaker 1: here in this like second wink of December. Um, I mean,
Speaker 1: what have you been focusing on when you're hunting up
Speaker 1: there in Nebraska, and what should or you know, what
Speaker 1: would you have been trying to kill bucks doing? Right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So this last weekend I was out Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Speaker 1: and I actually saw several pre decent bucks. Um. This
Speaker 1: was private land I was hunting. But man, I feel
Speaker 1: like after November leaves, everybody kind of forgets about um,
Speaker 1: like kind of the Doe movement and like doesn't really
Speaker 1: care about that much anymore. Which hey, it's definitely less
Speaker 1: than a few weeks prior in November. But man, every
Speaker 1: single buck that I saw, UM was still with some
Speaker 1: does I saw Okay, I saw a couple of spikes
Speaker 1: that were off by themselves, but I saw at least
Speaker 1: a couple UM I saw at least like an eight
Speaker 1: point um and then maybe at eight to ten point
Speaker 1: for they're off and they were actually like falling string
Speaker 1: of dolls still, So that is something to definitely consider
Speaker 1: still this time of the year. UM, and they were
Speaker 1: actually maybe it was maybe it was kind of dependent
Speaker 1: on um where I was hunting, but we were hunting
Speaker 1: pretty close to some bedding cover and I was seeing
Speaker 1: those bucks still following a couple of dolls. That's cool.
Speaker 1: So was that mornings or evenings when you saw those
Speaker 1: bucks with those doughs. I think I saw both in
Speaker 1: the evenings, still had really solid dough moving in the morning,
Speaker 1: but I saw both of those bucks moving with probably
Speaker 1: within that last hour of the day. Got you. Were
Speaker 1: they headed to some like agricultural food source or what
Speaker 1: were they? What were they really doing? Yeah, so they
Speaker 1: were in this this area in the brass where I
Speaker 1: was hunting. Is like these bucks, man, all these deer
Speaker 1: just travel a ton um and the sources actually were
Speaker 1: on this property were pretty limited. So yeah, they were
Speaker 1: actually moving quite a way to get to that food source,
Speaker 1: which I think was actually helping maybe get them up
Speaker 1: on their feet a little bit earlier to get to
Speaker 1: that food source. Uh. But yeah, they were, They were
Speaker 1: on their way. Every single time I saw them. They
Speaker 1: were pushing to an act field that was probably half
Speaker 1: a mile or so. Got you, So, if you were
Speaker 1: gonna kind of maybe target Bucks still right now, would
Speaker 1: you be I guess you're you know you mentioned betting cover.
Speaker 1: Would you be hugging and talk to that betting cover,
Speaker 1: especially on the colder days, like you know, because a
Speaker 1: lot of guys burn vacation and stuff during November, and
Speaker 1: then if they don't have a buck tag field, they
Speaker 1: kind of have to pick and choose what days they use.
Speaker 1: So how would you navigate that? Yeah, first, man, if
Speaker 1: I still have a buck tag to feel actually this wintered,
Speaker 1: all right, So let me ask you the question personally. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So what I'm gonna be doing is I'm going to
Speaker 1: keep you waiting for extremely cold tempts um just basically
Speaker 1: as cool as we can get, and then I'm going
Speaker 1: to honestly be be working those travelers, like I always say,
Speaker 1: people during this year, Man, get back to your scouting
Speaker 1: mentality that you kind of have early season, because they
Speaker 1: are kind of beginning starting to get predictable again as
Speaker 1: time you're working the foods worse is a little bit
Speaker 1: more betting in certain areas, more kind of settling down
Speaker 1: from the rut. And so I'm like, man, spend a
Speaker 1: few days really figuring out where that deer movement is centralized,
Speaker 1: and then go hunt it tight like I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get I'm gonna hug that betting cover real tight.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's an aggressive mentality, but I'm still like, man,
Speaker 1: if I only got a few weeks in December to kill.
Speaker 1: To kill a buck, I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: scout it hard for a few days. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: in and really try to kill one. So so um,
Speaker 1: as you look forward for the next week here, I
Speaker 1: haven't real looked at the forecast for Nebraska, but you,
Speaker 1: being a current tag holder, I bet you have it
Speaker 1: on your mind. Do you foresee that cold temperature coming
Speaker 1: up in the next week, and what do you expect
Speaker 1: the deer to be doing? Then yeah, it is, Um,
Speaker 1: We've actually got a real good drop Tuesday to Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I think Tuesday's temps are mid fifties and I think
Speaker 1: Wednesday's got a high in the thirties, uh, bringing some
Speaker 1: bringing some north winds. So yeah, Wednesday and Thursday are
Speaker 1: actually looking pretty primo. And then honestly through the weekend,
Speaker 1: which got of course, I've got a bunch of family events.
Speaker 1: But but I'm gonna definitely be hunting um some Thursday
Speaker 1: and Friday, just because I know though, those cold temps
Speaker 1: will really get those bucks moving. Um. And like I
Speaker 1: just said, I'm gonna be really primarily focusing in on
Speaker 1: where they're getting to that food source from so Okay,
Speaker 1: So if you had to guess, with that cold weather
Speaker 1: coming up in the next week, what buck movement would
Speaker 1: be and make an estimate on a scale of one
Speaker 1: to ten, what would you rank it? Man, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: rank it actually pretty high. I'm I'm talking like probably
Speaker 1: eight or nine out of ten. Yeah, man, I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be real good marking down for eight point five, sir,
Speaker 1: that's perfect alright. December has been so mild. I'm like,
Speaker 1: as soon as this big tim drop comes, I think
Speaker 1: everything that has been chilling out the last few weeks
Speaker 1: can be moving. So yeah, yeah, they've been getting used
Speaker 1: to that easy stuff. Man, it's right, fix and get hard.
Speaker 1: You know. Well, dude, I hope you do well with
Speaker 1: that tag. It sounds like you have the optimism it takes.
Speaker 1: You just gotta go out there and put it into place,
Speaker 1: and do you know you will? Man? Yep, for sure. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thanks guys, all right, dude, thanks, yep.
Speaker 1: I hope that y'all are still in pursuit of white
Speaker 1: tail do because dear season is not over. It's a
Speaker 1: great time of year to kill a big buck and
Speaker 1: It's also a great time of year to capitalize on
Speaker 1: maybe a little less hunting pressure and a little more
Speaker 1: insulation because it's the holiday season and you get to
Speaker 1: eat a lot and go hunt and there's nothing better
Speaker 1: than that, guys. Uh So, if you want a little
Speaker 1: extra inspiration or something fun to do, you should go
Speaker 1: check out uh the newest video on the Element YouTube
Speaker 1: channel where our very own Greg Latham shoots an awesome
Speaker 1: Texas hill country buck on his family place. It's really
Speaker 1: cool hunt self film by him, first self film hunt ever.
Speaker 1: There's also a good article by Mark Kenyon on corner
Speaker 1: cutting winds to kill big Bucks. And then I want
Speaker 1: to make sure and give my special friend here Clay
Speaker 1: a little plug for the bear bear Grease I'm sorry
Speaker 1: Bear Grease podcast. Little podcast out there. Uh Supposedly on
Speaker 1: the day that this podcast, there's also one of the
Speaker 1: most compelling and interesting Beargrease podcasts ever produced will be released,
Speaker 1: So you'll be sure and check that out. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you anything more about it. That's how truck Clay
Speaker 1: treats us. He says you gotta listen, so we'll listen. Um. Remember, guys,
Speaker 1: this is rough fresh, Keep it fresh.