00:00:01 Speaker 1: Hey, what is going on? 00:00:02 Speaker 2: This is Jake Hofer and welcome to another week of Rut Fresh. It's October 28th and unfortunately the weather conditions aren't what we dreamed of. And so we have guests from Texas, Wisconsin, and another one from Michigan and Northern Indiana giving their two cents, their takes here. on above average temperatures and how that coincides with a game plan and strategy. As we get into some more exciting days that we're all, we've been looking forward to October 28th or Halloween or November 1st, second or third, whatever the case may be, but the conditions aren't great. And we're going to give you some insight on how to handle that. The real quick weather report this week is it's going to be hot. We're going to have some rain. And I truly believe from now until the next rut fresh episode, some of the most impactful and important trail camera data is you can gather for years to come and for this season. As you know, Rough Rush is brought to you by Moultrie. So make sure your cameras are rocking. Make sure you have batteries in them because I truly believe the next seven days are some of the most important when it comes to trail camera intel. So to kick things off, we're going to start with Casey Smith from The Element down in Texas. Here we go. All right, we have Casey Smith with The Element sitting in his truck in the rain. 00:01:19 Speaker 3: In Texas. 00:01:20 Speaker 2: How we doing? 00:01:21 Speaker 1: We're doing well, man. 00:01:22 Speaker 4: I'm fairly optimistic, which you and I share that often. 00:01:28 Speaker 1: We're both optimistic type people, you know? 00:01:30 Speaker 4: But, you know, I like to say that around about the 20th of October on, every day just gets better. 00:01:38 Speaker 1: So, like, what do you have to be upset about? 00:01:40 Speaker 4: You know, it's just every day, every 24 hours makes such a difference right now. 00:01:44 Speaker 3: So it's good. 00:01:45 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it does. I feel we are all spoiled with some pretty good, there's two, I would say, pretty decent fronts in the earlier part of October. Everyone loves late October and the beginning of November, and looking at the extended forecast, the calendar is going to say late October and early November, but the weather is not going to be matching up to probably what we remember over the last five or six, seven years of some good fronts in that timeframe. So What's your advice? What's your take on anyone that is looking at this calendar like, man, I'm jonesing to get out there, and it's pretty hot? 00:02:19 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:02:21 Speaker 4: My advice would be understand that deer season is long, so wait on good days to do your most risky things. 00:02:32 Speaker 1: But we like to hunt, so go hunting. Have fun. 00:02:37 Speaker 4: Just don't do something that you're going to regret in two weeks because your deer got shot because he bumped to a different property. 00:02:42 Speaker 2: Right? 00:02:42 Speaker 4: I mean, that's... And public and private is going to make a big difference on that, right? But there are definitely some things. Me and some other people that I know are having some really good hunts right now doing a couple interesting concepts. I mean, oaks here in Texas are dropping, and if you can find the right ones or the deer that are using the right ones, then it's good. 00:03:05 Speaker 5: Also. 00:03:06 Speaker 1: hunt mornings. I know people don't hunt mornings in October. Well, when you're in the South. 00:03:11 Speaker 4: Or even Southern Midwest, probably even, I don't know, we've got cameras all over the Midwest and the mornings are where it's at right now. 00:03:17 Speaker 1: Cause it's the coolest temperatures. 00:03:19 Speaker 4: Um, you know, we have a very much a Indian summer that we're entering into right now. 00:03:24 Speaker 1: And I don't know if there's any even. 00:03:26 Speaker 4: Reprieve for it on the 10 day forecast, but so what's going to happen is the deer are going to do the thing that they do. And if you want to see them on their feet in daylight, uh, morning is a time to do it you just got to be really careful about your access i think this is the big thing on that because they're also out in the middle of the night right now so when you're walking in in the dark be really detrimental to your cause. 00:03:52 Speaker 2: The last couple hunts in the morning let's say how often are you bumping deer going in. 00:03:59 Speaker 4: Not often actually okay uh i've been hunting a little bit in a unique way, hunting on the ground, glassing quite a bit. Um, so I, I bumped deer walking around, but I'm actually, this plays really well into my hand cause I kind of run late. Uh, I'm actually walking in at the beginning of shooting light. So I can see, I can kind of feel my way around. I'm also, the last stuff I've been hunting, the deer are feeding far from bedding. which is sometimes unique. You know, a lot of times this time of year, the deer are finding the closest proximity bedding, if they can, that is safety. And sorry, my counterpart tried to interrupt me just then. You know, but these deer are specifically spending a lot of time far from where they're feeding. 00:04:56 Speaker 1: So if you're there. 00:04:59 Speaker 4: At a decent time, you can then capitalize on that. It's around 845 or so, if I'm going to be really specific. You can almost feel it as a hunter. If you're sitting there, the sun's starting to hit you, you still feel good, and then there's like this switch. It's like, oh, I have on a light jacket. I need to take that off. The deer feel the exact same thing. And that's whenever you'll start seeing them really getting back to where they're bedding. So, yeah, to answer your question, I'm not bumping deer a ton in the morning in that scenario. Now, if you were going to go in and hunt... a food source like a persimmon tree or acorns or something like that pretty decent chance that you could bump deer off of that absolutely i mean we have some you know i live in texas it's a feed state and i have some feeders there uh and they're absolutely your deer on those feeders 15 minutes before shooting a lot you know so kind of risky. 00:05:49 Speaker 2: What um you guys like to call you guys like to rattle you guys like to hunt pretty aggressive For this next seven days, the 28th to the 4th of November, if you were going to dial the throttle of aggressiveness with some of those tactics, where does that dial fall? Is it maxed out halfway? 00:06:09 Speaker 4: I tend to like to experiment. So I want to see what those things will do. I don't have as much confidence in them as I would a week from now. But I will say I rattled in a two-year-old four days ago, and he came to 10 yards just drooling. Now, not everyone is trying to shoot a two-year-old. I wasn't at that moment either. But if you want to shoot that deer, some of them are responsive right now. And I also think it would work on older deer. But I was talking to Tyler about this this morning, and I feel like right now, depending on what smells those bucks have encountered or some other factor I don't understand, different bucks are doing different things. I was out scouting this morning and I saw two mature bucks bachelor together still. And I think that 600 yards from there, there was likely a different mature buck who was full on, ready to find a doe, working scrapes, making rubs, doing the whole thing. 00:07:14 Speaker 1: And so I just think we're in a strange period because we don't. 00:07:17 Speaker 4: Have the weather where deer are doing a lot of different stuff. So, Uh, maybe don't give you a more pointed answer to that question. Um, I'm going to experiment with that stuff. I don't have a ton of confidence in it working, especially rattling and snort wheezing. Grunts are a little different just because deer grunt all year long. So like, I'm not going to blind grunt right now, but if I see a deer, um, I think there's a decent chance that he'll come at least investigate. 00:07:46 Speaker 1: And that's when it's good to make sure you have shots downwind. 00:07:48 Speaker 4: You know, people are always thinking about when you're sitting up in a tree, having a shot, you know, to your upwind side or to your 90 degree side. But you, if you're going to do some calling, you need a shot to the downwind side as well, because that's where the buck's going to circle into. And sometimes it's 60 yards and that's tough. Sometimes he comes into 30 trying to see what's going on, especially when it's not like they're not super fired up right now. 00:08:12 Speaker 2: Right. 00:08:12 Speaker 4: He's going to, he's going to smell check you. He's not just going to come likely. You're not going to just run right in looking for a fight. 00:08:18 Speaker 1: Right. So I don't know if that answers your question great or not, but. 00:08:23 Speaker 2: I think that provides, uh, some direction for folks. What about, you know, with, with these temperatures and each day truly getting a little bit better. Uh, so if you listen to this on Wednesday or Friday, it's going to be a little bit better from Wednesday to Friday, for example. Um, but for someone that is, you know, maybe they're hunting a specific deer or maybe, you know, like how, how productive is it to be cautious over these next seven days versus, um, there's a lot of FOMO in the world of white sharks right now. There's a lot of FOMO. I'm not hunting this morning and I have FOMO. Um, and so, you know, that's kind of the root of this question. Like, uh, being calculated for a cold snap when it comes, cause we're going to get a cold snap. We're going to get a cold front. It's going to be much better than, you know, what it was before. But how do you, how do you thread that needle personally? 00:09:13 Speaker 1: Um, it depends on the nature of my, my week of hunting. 00:09:18 Speaker 4: So like, A lot of times I am just, I have a section blocked out on the calendar. I'm going hunting and my aggressiveness is going to ramp up throughout that five day stretch. 00:09:30 Speaker 1: And, and I have. 00:09:31 Speaker 4: To do things, especially start getting to the afternoon of day three on, you got to do some like pretty substantial things to make sure that you can get in the way of one. If you're hunting a specific deer or you have a really good farm and you feel good about your late season opportunities, you have one buck tag, whatever the case may be. I think absolutely anything. there is zero reason to push it this week until you start the, the change of the month. I mean, I have for the past two years, uh, killed deer there's one really good deer not on the cold front uh i think that was on halloween last year uh one of the biggest bucks i've ever killed it was like short sleeve weather but i i blind rattled at this buck because i knew where he was bedded And he got up and started raking a tree, and then I grunted at him, and he just came in like a bulldozer. 00:10:26 Speaker 1: And that was on Halloween. But it was like. 00:10:28 Speaker 4: 64 degrees, 65 degrees at dusk. 00:10:32 Speaker 5: So I. 00:10:34 Speaker 4: Would say there's even such a big difference from the 28th to the 31st, especially when you're looking at the Midwest. But even here in Texas, because we have a lot of deer that do rut earlier in the month. I would say that it would be good to really meter your enthusiasm the first part of this because those good dates are coming, right? 00:11:01 Speaker 1: And like you just. 00:11:01 Speaker 4: Said, the best thing you can do right now is stay off of Instagram, honestly, because there's guys that have one pattern on a place that nobody goes into. They've had a cell camera with a solar in there all year on a scrape, and they're going to first time in kill that thing on the 28th. And it's going to be awesome. And you're going to think, I can go do that too. And maybe you can, likely you can't, because. 00:11:24 Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that. I don't have one that's doing that right now. 00:11:28 Speaker 4: So I would say it's good to be very cautious these last few days of October, because no matter what, November 7th is going to be a good day. 00:11:41 Speaker 2: I like that. Yeah, I think that's great advice. Anything else to put a bow on this, Casey? 00:11:47 Speaker 4: Um, food sources are a big deal right now, uh, especially because it's been so dry. 00:11:54 Speaker 1: Like overall, I don't think we've had a terribly dry year. 00:11:58 Speaker 4: Um, but the past three weeks have been very dry in a large portion of the country and a large portion of Texas. And so like, if you can find hot food sources and look for unconventional food sources, if you have had a little bit of rain, there's little tiny Forbes that are popping up. it'll look like the deer grazing in open doo-doo pastures, but they will be with their noses touching the ground, picking these little bitty forbs out of there, things like that. Uh, I, I saw there's a tree called, um, gumbo Melia, which is kind of random. I don't even know if they have it in the Midwest. We have it here in Texas. It's kind of in the, uh, in the plum family. Uh, it has, uh, like oblong, uh, oval-shaped leaves and needles on it, and it puts off a little extremely sweet melon-flavored berry about this big. The deer and hogs are tearing that up where you can find it right now, along with persimmons. Acorns, if you can find specific acorn trees, if you've got an acorn flat that is 30 acres, guess. 00:13:05 Speaker 3: You know how it is. 00:13:06 Speaker 1: But I would say absolutely food sources are a big deal. 00:13:09 Speaker 4: Even, you know, like, mid-morning food sources. If you can find it close to bedding, I think those deer are getting up mid-morning and hitting that stuff. Maybe you're even bedding in close proximity to that stuff. But again, only do that if you're really wanting to hunt. If you got public land that you want to go hunt and do stuff on, do that. But if you're hunting a specific deer, then if you want to kill him, just pump the brakes. 00:13:36 Speaker 3: A little bit. Okay. 00:13:38 Speaker 2: I think a lot of people need to hear that. 00:13:39 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:13:40 Speaker 2: Yeah. The crazy thing is, here where I'm at, typically we've already had a hard frost by now, too. I think we're not going to get our first hard frost until who knows when in November, too. There's a lot of cover that changes throughout that period, too. 00:13:56 Speaker 4: Yeah, and food sources. Right now, I know there are a ton of deer that are still eating goldenrods. all that kind of stuff, because it's still green. As soon as that hard frost happens, those soft forbs, they go from like the food source to unpalatable. 00:14:12 Speaker 1: And those deer have to do completely different things. 00:14:13 Speaker 4: And we don't have that hard frost anywhere in the foreseeable future. In fact, a little bit of moisture is going to make it more difficult as opposed to less at this point in time. I will say though, that there's beans already coming out in a large portion of the Midwest, I think, which is probably attributed to the dryness. Uh, and so that's, causing some deer to shift around and do some different things that I've seen. Last year, the corn came out before the beans in the places that I hunted, and this year it seems like the beans are coming out before the corn. You probably have more insight into the reasoning on that kind of stuff, but I would rather the corn come out first, personally, because there's deer out there living in that, and you can't do anything with them. 00:14:55 Speaker 2: Yeah, well, they've been picking corn and beans like crazy here where I'm at in the last week, and they keep going. Well, Casey, good luck. the rest of the season. Good luck this next week. And, uh, uh, for everyone that wants to check out, you guys have been dropping some amazing, amazing videos for anyone that hasn't checked out, you know, your guys' most recent post, uh, encourage them to do that. Where can they find everything that you guys have going on? 00:15:18 Speaker 5: Thanks, dude. 00:15:18 Speaker 1: I appreciate the opportunity. 00:15:19 Speaker 4: So the element YouTube channel is a great place to find our content. Uh, the element hunting.com is a notice, but it's our website. 00:15:28 Speaker 1: Uh, you know, we'll have, uh, you know, a content feed there as well. And then search us on Instagram or. 00:15:34 Speaker 4: Facebook, the element, um, on YouTube, I will say search the element hunting, uh, because our name's a little bit ambiguous. Uh, if you search the hunting part, you'll, you'll find us pretty quick. 00:15:43 Speaker 2: You guys need to do a collaboration, Bam Margera. I think that'll help when people type in the element. Hey, that would be sick, dude. 00:15:50 Speaker 1: Can you imagine dropping a high five with Bam? That would be bad to the bone. Dude, skate brand meets hunting brand. 00:15:57 Speaker 5: I would love it. 00:15:58 Speaker 4: You do such a good job man thank you very much for for having me on appreciate it. 00:16:02 Speaker 2: All right next up we have dalton dalton you've been enjoying this weather. 00:16:07 Speaker 6: Uh yeah but not for hunting it's it's been nice to do some other things. 00:16:13 Speaker 2: Yeah so you know it's late october and um i think everyone is more excited than the bucks about where where things are at um what um what have you been seeing or not seeing here as of recent? 00:16:30 Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, recently it's been a lot of like evening hunts. 00:16:35 Speaker 6: Um, I did hunt a few mornings there, middle of October when we got the cold front coming through. Um, but recently it's just been evening hunts and kind of what the deer have been doing around here is, you know, last hour or so they're really hitting that, you know, the food and, um, With this warm weather and dry here in Indiana, it's a lot of farmers getting beans out. 00:17:00 Speaker 3: And so we still got a lot of standing corn around the area. So more like, you know, deer in the bean fields. 00:17:08 Speaker 6: If you got food plots with this warmer weather, you know, hitting clovers and alfalfas. But just a lot of deer out feeding. A little bit of kind of pre-rut activity. The smaller bucks have been kind of checking does, bumping does. We have been scraping here, but a lot at night or right there in the morning is when I've been seeing the bigger bucks scraping right now. 00:17:37 Speaker 2: Looking at the extended forecast, it's a lot of what we've been already seeing, a lot of southerly winds. What do you say for everyone out there that's chomping at the bit? They see the calendar. They also see the weather and temperature and just not... super favorable conditions. Um, what, what do you say to them that are listening? Man? 00:17:59 Speaker 6: Yeah, not super favorable conditions at all. Uh, really what I got to say to people is, is be, be patient. Um, because I, I do think, you know, November 1st is, you know, right around the corner, uh, the 7th, 8th, 9th of November, which is, you know, one of my favorite times to hunt is right there. So it's just like, just be patient because, uh, I really think we're that cold front away or the weather changing away from things just being blown wide open. 00:18:33 Speaker 2: Do you think, you know, we're about to, you know, there's this perception that once November hits, anything can happen. The deer you've had on camera is going to magically disappear. I have somewhat of a different opinion of that. I know there's variances for everyone out there, but for someone that's like, man, you know, it's going to be November and, uh, that buck's going to disappear. And I want to kill him before, before that happens. What's your opinion or take regarding, you know, capitalizing before a quote unquote buck disappears and runs 20 miles away. 00:19:04 Speaker 6: Nah, I mean, that's, that's true to a case. Um, but there's also cases where like, kind of, that's the opposite. I mean, people, uh, only see certain bucks during, you know, the rut time during when November comes around and, Uh, you know, similar case to me, you know, the buck I'm kind of chasing right now is, you know, he's not living on my property, live there all summer. And he, uh, he's kind of been visiting throughout October, like he has in the past. Uh, but last year, once November 1st hit, you know, October 30th, November 1st, uh, I mean, he's, he. 00:19:41 Speaker 3: Stayed on the property for probably about. 00:19:43 Speaker 6: 15 days, you know, through, the middle of November. And so, I mean, yeah, October is a great time to kind of hone in on a specific buck and try and get him killed. But you can also have the flip side on November and a buck that you only saw last year or other bucks coming in are going to come in November and you might get your chance then. 00:20:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. Do you, do you have any, uh, concern for someone that's, you know, been tiptoeing, you know, maybe through a couple of hunts throughout those earlier fronts in October and now they're looking at the calendar and like, man, we're not going to get this front on around Halloween or the 28th or 29th. They're like, those are just pretty synonymous dates that a lot of people like October 28th to Halloween. Like a lot of people really like that. And the weather's just not going to be awesome. Um, do you, do you have concern for those folks that maybe wait? for this next front whenever it comes as we look at the extended forecast? 00:20:43 Speaker 3: No, I mean, I don't really have much concerns. 00:20:46 Speaker 6: I mean, I think if you're getting pictures of bucks and you got, I mean, because we got east winds coming up, south winds, east winds, you know, not very favorable. But if you have stands that you can hunt with those winds, I would definitely still be hunting them. If you can get in and out, to those stands without bumping or educating deer, I would still be hunting those spots in the evenings because deer are, they're just starting to do deer things during this time of the year. And so they're going to do those things. They've got to feed. 00:21:23 Speaker 3: It doesn't, even though the weather is warm and. 00:21:27 Speaker 6: Not ideal conditions for what we think as hunters, I mean, deer still have to do deer things, and that's kind of what you're going to see, I feel like, until we hit that cold front that we've been waiting for. 00:21:41 Speaker 3: I would. 00:21:52 Speaker 6: Say the next. 00:21:55 Speaker 2: Episode, five or six days could be some of the most important trail camera data dates of the entire, entire year. I see it time and time again. So don't be, uh, don't be discouraged, but make sure you have batteries. 00:22:11 Speaker 6: Yeah. Make sure all your, all your cameras got batteries in them. They're all, you know, at a, at a good, good battery life because, because that's the thing. If you, you got a big buck showing up on camera and hitting scrapes, maybe he's close to daylight hours. just because ideal, you know, weather isn't here, that, that doesn't mean don't go in and kill this deer because, you know, he's got to do what he's got to do. He's got to do those deer things. And so you might catch him slipping in these next five days and, you know, you could really capitalize on a couple evening hunts over scrapes and everything. 00:22:46 Speaker 2: Yeah. What, so you mentioned hunting evenings and over food sources. What are, what are some key food sources you're going to be keying in on over the next seven days? 00:22:54 Speaker 6: Yeah, right now, again, we got cut soybean fields a lot here. Not as much corn, especially on my farm that I hunt. 00:23:04 Speaker 3: It's all soybeans around it. 00:23:07 Speaker 6: And all but the southern part of the property, the beans are off. 00:23:15 Speaker 3: Those beans will stay on until a little later, which is fine. 00:23:19 Speaker 6: But I got a lot of green food sources on the farm, too, where I went in. broadcasted, uh, you know, brassicas and rise and wheat and stuff into the beans. And so that stuff looks really good right now, especially since the beans are off. 00:23:34 Speaker 3: And so I'm kind of honing in on those like new. 00:23:37 Speaker 6: Growth plans, the brassicas, the rise, but still, I mean, you're going to have your soybeans laying around in the field that they're picking through. 00:23:45 Speaker 3: And that the combine left behind. 00:23:47 Speaker 6: So I'm kind of seeing that the deer are working through those fields, uh, picking those. 00:23:52 Speaker 3: And then kind of ending up in those green food sources. 00:23:56 Speaker 6: And then also, um, you got a bigger clover plot on the farm that they've kind of been between those two, they either hit the clover, uh, or work through the fields of soybeans into the younger, greener plots. 00:24:11 Speaker 2: This is, um, what if someone right now they're like, man, I don't have the fall food source. There's a chance of rain, pretty good chance of rain coming up later this weekend. I know it's late October and early November. Is it too late to throw out some winter rye or some winter wheat or some sort of green food source at this time of the year in the upper half of the United States, in your opinion? 00:24:34 Speaker 3: No, not at all. Not at all. 00:24:35 Speaker 6: So I do a lot of run a land management company as well. And so I do a lot of food plotting and land management. And you can plant, I mean, winter rye, winter wheat all the way into, you know, like November. I mean, I've done it into middle of November already. If you're getting warmer spells, you know, in those months, and sometimes all you need is like that morning dew to get some germination. 00:25:00 Speaker 3: And the biggest thing is, yeah, you know, your rye and wheat. 00:25:03 Speaker 6: I mean, it's not going to grow inches and inches, but really all you need is just something growing just to give them a green food source to go to. 00:25:13 Speaker 3: So it's not too late at all. I mean, with the weather we're having. 00:25:17 Speaker 6: If somebody, especially right now, if you got fields that you are allowed to, you know, broadcast some of that into and crops are off, even if it's standing soybeans, right now with this weather we're having, I would definitely go out and broadcast some rye or wheat because you got warmer temps, you got rain coming in later in the weekend, beginning of next week. 00:25:41 Speaker 3: I mean, that's just a. 00:25:41 Speaker 6: Great recipe for a, you're setting the stage for your November hunting. 00:25:47 Speaker 3: So I, I think absolutely. 00:25:49 Speaker 6: If somebody has got the, the time and the access and can go get the seed, uh, do it. 00:25:57 Speaker 2: I like it. What would be one of the most obscure approaches over the next seven days that you're considering? So against the grain. 00:26:04 Speaker 3: Uh, I, I, a couple of times. 00:26:09 Speaker 6: My wife probably gets tired of hearing me kind of like, you know, I'm, I'm thinking out loud, talking to her on this kind of stuff. And, Um, you know, considered a couple of times going a little bit deeper into the woods into what I feel like is the best stand on the farm. 00:26:25 Speaker 3: Uh, it's just the stand I shot my buck out of last year just. 00:26:29 Speaker 6: Because of, of the winds and where, where I'm seeing deer come out into the field. 00:26:37 Speaker 3: Um, but I've kind of, I kind of pulled back. 00:26:40 Speaker 6: I'm like, okay, I'm not ready to jump in there yet and hunt that stand. Um, But it's definitely been a consideration to try and kind of get ahead of this buck I'm chasing. 00:26:55 Speaker 2: Yeah. So on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best week of the year, 1 being the worst week of the year, next seven days, October 28th to November 4th, a lot of guys love these dates. Where do you rank it? You're going to break some hearts, I have a feeling. 00:27:11 Speaker 3: I am, but I'm going to give it kind of like a two-part. 00:27:15 Speaker 6: So like right now through like Sunday, November 1st, I'm probably going to give it like a 6.5 to 7. Evening hunts really are kind of what's going to be your best. But I'm going to say once that rain comes in and that front comes in, at the beginning of next week. So like that second, third, fourth of November. I mean, I'm going to bump it up to maybe an 8.59, depending on if it cools down a little bit more than what they're saying. Because, I mean, we're right there on pre-rut action. Colder temps are just going to blow things open. And I think we're like teetering on that time frame. 00:28:03 Speaker 3: And that's all we need is just the weather to kind of turn for us. 00:28:06 Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I like it. Well, Dalton, where, where can people follow along with, with everything that you have going on? 00:28:12 Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, Instagram's the biggest one. 00:28:14 Speaker 6: You can get on there and follow me at Dalton C Tunis or, uh, Bone Boss Outdoors. 00:28:19 Speaker 3: I do have a Facebook page. 00:28:21 Speaker 6: Uh, I've got a website, bonebossoutdoors.com, but yeah, jump on there and give me a follow on Instagram and, uh, check out what we're doing and follow along on this season, uh, hunting. 00:28:32 Speaker 3: So. 00:28:33 Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, good luck to you. I hope, um, I hope greener pastures and better weather is ahead of us, but gosh darn it, this is the time of year we've been waiting for, so we've got to make the most of it. 00:28:42 Speaker 5: Yep. 00:28:43 Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having me on, Jake. I appreciate it. 00:28:46 Speaker 2: Alright, we've got Thomas, and it's late October, and by the time for this Raw Fresh episode, it will be in November. So, what do you have cooking right now, all things considered? 00:28:59 Speaker 5: I mean, I'd like to I'd like to say I've got a lot going on. I have a lot that has happened. But as far as what's cooking right now, I'm not even really sure. That's what I'm trying to figure out today. To bring you up to speed, I guess on my season so far, I circled back on my target buck that I had last year. I don't know if you remember that buck that I screwed up on early October, hit him high in the shoulder. And he stuck around. He shifted from his summer range to his fall range last year and He was a homebody. I tagged out and I just crossed my fingers that he would survive. the season because everyone in the area was trying to kill him and he survived. Now this year, I had an encounter with him my first hunt opening weekend here in Wisconsin. It would have been September 14th, I believe. Had him inside 30 yards. Dead, calm, on a food plot and my chair creaked from the ground blind that I was in and it was over. I mean, there's so many reasons that that went wrong, but ultimately it came down to, I always prioritize client projects. And when it came down to putting this blind up on this particular plot where I thought I could kill this deer, it got pushed off till the last minute. I literally went in there seven days before that hunt and just set a box blind on the ground. and kind of brushed it in a little bit is it right tucked it right in the edge of the cornfield but there's a couple mistakes i made there i mean i picked a spot where the corn was bad i shoved it in there if i would have went where i wanted the blind 20 yards to the north of there the there's a little bit of elevation in the edge of this cornfield and i probably would have been sitting high enough where i would have seen him coming in a little bit better but the food plots a mixture of sorghum and brassicas and peas and clover wrapped around the outside. And he was on top of me before I knew it. And I, I mean, we got another excuse, I guess, but I was trying to get it all on film. If I would have just went for the kill, I probably could have gotten him, but I was trying to get good video of it, which I did, but it cost me. And when I leaned, when I leaned to move the camera, the chair just made this little, and it was just enough where he locked into that location and came walking forward, saw this blind or something he didn't like. And then he just kind of lurked backwards and disappeared. But that was potentially strike number three in that location, which I was unaware of. And I say that I always kind of in my head figure I can get three strikes on these bucks or these bucks will take three strikes before they get pressured out of an area. Well, that same day that I went and put that box plant on the ground and this food plots down on this bottom, it's kind of, one level up from the lowest point in the valley, which would be the creek bottom marshy area. When I was down there, I set that blind on the skid steer. I drove the skid steer over to the edge of this plot where I had a camera on a tree. It's been there for almost 10 years. And I stood on top of the skid steer and mounted a cell camera. And I could get cell service. From the ground, you can't get cell service. But from top, I could get cell service. It was basically the same view, but a slightly different vantage point as that camera on the ground. And after I had that encounter with that buck, I went back in there a few days later. Well, there was all sorts of commotion in that Valley. I should back up, you know, on the pressure sides of things, there's a road that goes through that Valley to the back Ridge where there's a 60 acre ag field. And they actually harvested the corn or 50% of the corn off that Ridge three days before I had my encounter with that buck, but they collapsed a culvert, a steel culvert while doing so. So, The week after I had the encounter with that buck, they were down in there with an excavator, ripped out the culvert, put a new one in, dump trucks, hauling in breaker runs, cement trucks, all sorts of commotion over the course of three, four days. And then on top of that, one of the dogs, I won't name names, but someone's dog on the farm has been roaming. And all this pressure just kind of came together. And again, myself included, I played a role in that at some capacity, but all this pressure kind of came together and that buck seemed to just kind of squirt out of this fall range. It was to the point, actually, I went out, when I acknowledged that he was picking out these cell cameras, I went out and I pulled all these cell cameras. I didn't completely remove them all, but I backed them way off of the locations that I had all tailored. You know, if he's avoiding that camera, even just in a small bubble, the last thing I want him to do is avoid the mock scrape or the water hole that's set up for me to shoot at 30 yards, right? Or 25 yards. So I did that. That's actually where I just came from. I went back out to adjust some stands and rotate some cameras and such. And this non-cell that I had over this water hole and mock scrape, literally the day that I swapped it out, got rid of the cell camera and put the non-cell in there, that buck showed up and came over and drank out of the water hole. But a week and a half prior to that, I had a picture and a video of him coming in and that camera went off, that cell camera went off. And when it went into video mode, he was not having it, not at all. So he's very much dialed in. Okay, so that was, that was the end of September, early October, you know, kind of the same thing. I'm just like anticipating where he's going to be. He was pretty active on camera still. I just had to, you know, again, regroup and shuffle some cameras around. And some of these cell cams that I've had out for a few years in the same spot, he doesn't seem to mind. It's just when I put new things in these places, he picks them out, including that one that was 10 feet up. 00:34:42 Speaker 4: In the air. 00:34:43 Speaker 5: But, uh, I went in and kind of reshuffled and got him on camera again and just kind of been chasing him with the wind. No, like, slam dunk moves. But, oh, this should be good. You know, my highest odds sit. Well, I was anticipating this week, towards the end of this week here, and I got the phone call that no one ever wants to get on Saturday, which was that the neighbor stuck an arrow in this buck on Friday night. So. 00:35:15 Speaker 5: Well, actually, it would have been Saturday night he shot him. Sunday morning is when I got the phone call. So as it turns out, they found the deer with a drone. Actually, he hit the deer almost in exactly the same spot I did, high and maybe slightly forward. They found the deer with the drone that night, alive. The next day, still alive. They came back in the following evening, and the buck was already up chasing does. And he's got a two-inch gaping wound right above his shoulder. It looks like it should be high lung shot, but apparently it's not. And he was bumping does. So I came back to the farm that Sunday and shifted a couple cameras around again, just kind of thinking, what's this deer going to do now that he's feeling pressure here and doing these things? And I got about as close as I was comfortable getting to where I think I have my best chance of killing this deer, which is where I'm heading to hang this stand and potentially hunt tonight. I've just got to see how it feels with the wind I have. it's more of a north wind and we've got kind of a northeast wind but i hung a camera and got out of there took my son hunting and sure enough that buck showed up on that camera right after dark but he picked that damn camera out right away right away well he walked by and then the second picture is him turning and face right in the camera and i haven't had a picture of him on there again since now I don't know, you know, that camera actually, I had it set to take just pictures, no video and a 15 second delay. So I'm hoping, I'm hoping, you know, he hears something, he sees something, but it wasn't enough, like, you know, kind of pulsing or anything like that to push him away, but that's where I sit. So this morning I've kind of just went back to my general process or my philosophy of hunting outside in, and I'm trying to look at this from a positive side of things. I think it's, in some way, at least that buck getting shot on the far east side of the farm is a good thing because that seemed like it was kind of the fringe of his range. And the neighbor even admitted, he said it was basically total luck. He'd never seen the deer before. He didn't have him on camera at all this fall. He went out to shoot a doe and that was the only deer he saw. He's never seen the buck, like I said. So it came in and now the last known location of that buck was actually that cell camera picture I had, but when they found him with the drone, every time they found him, he was on our farm in, in the hell hole that I like to refer to as the buck nest out of our farm, which is that spot where I had to stalk that buck that year to kill. Once they get in there, they don't leave. And I, I, my gut tells me he's probably holed up in there right now, licking his wounds. 00:37:56 Speaker 4: Right. 00:37:56 Speaker 5: But I'm trying to get positioned on all the sides of that so that when he is up and moving, I can anticipate that. So that's where I sit right now. Like I said, I, A lot going on, but I don't, you know, I don't really actually have that next breadcrumb that I'm looking for that leads me to pursue this deer. But this morning I hunted the far east side of the farm, kind of ruled out that corner. I pulled a couple of trail camera cards from some non-cell cams over there. I did not bring my laptop with me, so I'll check those when I get home tonight, but I'm going to go hang this other stand in kind of an observation location. And like I said, if I could find the spot that makes sense where it's observe and hunt in the coming days, then I'm going to hang there. But I just want to play it safe right now, not putting any pressure on this deer because I know he's obviously feeling the pain and the pressure. So, you know, the next couple of weeks here, this is what I have to remind myself. It seems like a lot has happened early this fall. And I don't know if that's just me, but the few times that I've hunted mornings, I've seen a ton of rut activity and some mature buck's pushing does pushing younger bucks around now i'm not saying that the rut's going to happen early by any means but i don't know if it's the weather i don't really buy into the moon phase a whole lot maybe on daily movement but as far as like rut activity i don't really look into it much but i don't know something just seems off a little bit now we're hitting this warm spell again and you know rain towards the end of the week here i one way or another you know again this is what i was going to say is i always have to remind myself you know it's only today when we're talking, it's only what, October 26th, right? Things are going to get, hopefully get really good in the next couple of weeks. The last two years in a row, this pinch point that I'm going to scout here in a minute, the buck that I'm after has cruised through there in the October 28th, October 29th timeframe. This pinch point, it's an interesting location. If you kind of visualize a north-south running ridge, the top of that ridge is all ag. And at the end of that ridge, it's a pretty wide ridge, probably a quarter mile wide or so. And at the very end of that ridge, it transitions to all timber, and it probably goes out another 150 yards, and then it drops off pretty steep. And the neighbors, that's on the neighboring property, they logged that all a few years ago, so it's real thick on the end of that. On the east side is that buck nest. On the west side is more of this buck's core range where I've been seeing him a lot. And he's been hitting the food plots down that valley quite a bit. Right now, I think he's somewhere in between there, right? He's either in that buck nest or there's another little hidey hole that those bucks like to bed in and then navigate. But this pinch point is, you know, it's basically stuck in between two really good bedding areas and An alfalfa field, so obviously a really good food source, and it's a back corner that drops down, so it's kind of blind from the farm itself. And then at the bottom of the hill are some food plots of mine. So it's a really good spot. The challenge with pinch points on this farm, and I've learned this over time, we look at it and we're like, oh, that's a really awesome pinch point. But these mature bucks don't like these really narrow pinch points. You know, they come into them, they're real apprehensive and real cautious. If they have the wind perfect, then they seem to be fine. But the last pictures I had of this buck going through that pinch point was on a north wind about eight days ago. And he was really, really nervous when he came through there. And I had not been in there in a while, but I did circle like 100 yards upwind of there. So I'm like, I don't know, you know, is he smelling something? 00:41:34 Speaker 3: I don't know. 00:41:35 Speaker 5: But I know that these really narrow pinch points make these bucks a little bit nervous. So it's hard to set up in these, you know, topography and property lines, fence lines and stuff. They all kind of choke together in these spots. So it's hard to get set up in them in a way that these bucks don't, you know, get a leg up on you. You know, they circle down or they drop down on the bottom of the hill and they come back up around. So that's why I'm trying to, again, play it safe because I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. If this deer gets bumped again or feels any more pressure, I don't know if he's going to come back to his home range or if he's going to squirt off the farm entirely. You know, this is something I think about all the time too, as we've probably talked about this in the past, my advantage that I have, I think, you know, beyond anything else is the, this farm itself, right? If I were only hunting this 80 acre Valley, if I only own this 80, I would have no idea what's going on with that deer when he's off of it. 00:42:30 Speaker 4: Right. 00:42:30 Speaker 5: And, And for a long, long time, it was that way. We'd have kind of, you know, a buck over here and he'd be gone and a buck over there and he'd be gone. And now the last couple of years, the habitat's really starting to pull together in so many spots. And it seems like you get these bucks where they just kind of volley back and forth between these valleys or kind of bounce around. So that's a good thing, right? He's still on the farm at some capacity, but you only know what you know. So once he squirts out, who knows where he goes? And, you know, just like this neighbor putting an arrow in him. Who knows how many times he's been over there and that neighbor never really knew, right? How far does he circle to the south? So all sorts of things come together like that. 00:43:08 Speaker 2: So with the next seven days with not really great late October, early November weather, for people listening, what's your elevator pitch on how to approach the next seven days? 00:43:23 Speaker 5: Well, I'm a big fan of historical information, right? So this time of year, I mean, really, today is kind of the last day that I'm looking at, okay, can I get ahead of some of these bucks? Can I see a pattern? And honestly, I just pulled a bunch of trail camera cards on Sunday that there's pretty good south wind here, so I was trying to take advantage of that, and the farm was all stirred up. Next year, right on the calendar, next year, need to be more proactive in this, like, October 13th through 17th, 18th range. It seems like every little small food source I was monitoring had a pretty good buck consistently hitting it during daylight during that stretch. But I was so focused on this one deer and that's fine because it's the only deer I'm trying to kill. So that's all, you know, it kind of goes in your back pocket for next year with that historical information, like I was saying, but then the same, you know, now they shift off of these tight food to bed patterns and, you know, the quote unquote October lull, which really, again, they're just kind of narrowing down their range of movement because they're food sources have changed and pressure's increasing, but ultimately we get towards the end of the month here and it seems like maybe it's not the specific buck that I'm paying attention to, but very specific pinch points adjacent to very specific doe bedding areas. You know, anywhere you have a good anchor of a food source in some adjacent bedding areas, I mean, we're coming into the rut, right? Or more of the pre-rut phase where those bucks are really just bouncing around and trying to find those does. So my strategy is, is always getting one of those pinch points. And if I have the historical information that proves this area is generally good during this three- to five-day range, that's where I'm going to focus if the wind is good for that location. 00:45:04 Speaker 2: On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best week of the year, 1 being the worst week of the year, where do you anticipate buck activity to be over the next seven days, 1 to 10? 00:45:16 Speaker 5: Based on the weather, I mean... got halloween coming up right halloween in the first week of november i was just on a client property yesterday helping him with some stuff and he was asking me about running a decoy my first ever decoy hunt i killed a buck on halloween day over this decoy and it was 85 degrees out you know it was like 45 50 in the morning it started out cool but it got up to like 85 and i remember i After I got that buck out of the woods, we were up here on the top in the field, taking pictures, talking, celebrating, you know, but it was like middle of the afternoon. Cause I shot him in the morning. And during that time we saw two or three other bucks cutting across the fields, cruising all over. It was 85 degrees. So I say that because you reach a point in the year where the weather really doesn't matter that much. The deer are going to move one way or another. Now they might only move for the first couple hours, you know, last half hour daylight, but hey, at some point they're going to move, you know, with the rainy weather, I think that's going to help. Even if it's a little warmer, you know, it kind of gives the illusion of it being a little bit cooler when it's overcast and rainy. But today, you know, today we've got a 20 degree temp drop from 36 hours ago. And looking at the weather app, it looked like it should have been a pretty good day, but we also have this low pressure system that's coming in and the barometer is just dropping. And those deer just don't seem to want to move much when, when you have that low pressure system in there like that. So, you know, a good cold front, late October, early November, we've got that high pressure system, that kind of bluebird skies, the thermals are all rising today. The thermal has been dropping pretty much steadily the entire day. So as far as a scale of one to 10, I'd say, I mean, you're probably looking at seven to eight is what I would say. I mean, you know, again, it's getting to the rut timeframe. So the deer are going to be moving. You just got to pick the right spot and You know, I've been there before where you're in the wrong spot and all the activity is 200 yards away and maybe you can see it, maybe you can't. 00:47:16 Speaker 2: Right. 00:47:16 Speaker 5: But it just is what it is. So you got to get out there. You got to suffer. And eventually it all comes together. 00:47:24 Speaker 2: I like it. Well, Thomas, where can people follow along with everything you have going on and for the rest of the season? 00:47:30 Speaker 5: The Untamed Ambition, Instagram, or I guess Facebook's connected to that as well. That's where I'm the most active. You know, I'm a little apprehensive posting too much for pictures because now I know there's at least a handful of people in the area that know about this deer. But I give teasers once in a while. I'm not overly concerned. Most of the people, like I said, the neighbors and everything, we've got a good relationship and good mutual respect for one another. So I'm not worried about that. But I just don't want any more pressure on the farm. That's all. 00:48:01 Speaker 2: Well, fair enough. Well, good luck the rest of the season. And things are going to get better before they get worse here. 00:48:06 Speaker 5: Absolutely. Absolutely. Hang in there. Thank you. 00:48:09 Speaker 6: All right. 00:48:10 Speaker 2: There you guys have it. Hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode of Rough Fresh. Once again, if you'd like to be on Rough Fresh, shoot me a message on Instagram at Jake Hofer, trying to get a wide variety of states. I'm hoping that we'll have a break in weather coming soon. And regardless, this is the time of year we've been waiting for all year. So make the most of it. Be smart and good luck. We'll see you next week.

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