00:00:01 Speaker 1: Alright, what's up, guys and girls. This is Mark Kenyon of Wired Hunt and you're here for what I believe is our fifth episode of Wired Hunt's Rut Radio and with me is our producer Spencer new Hearth Hi doon Man. Good. Uh. Excited to see the photos that you had from Ohio there? Yeah, yeah, maya my rut excitement finally turned on. I finally had something good happened during the rut um and filled the tagon Ohio. So that was exciting. I It's been kind of a grind this past three weeks or so really since we started recording this little mini series. I've been hunting every single possible day I could, and lots of close calls as you know, but just couldn't quite close a deal till till this past Sunday. So how good do you think the dear activity was there when when you were in Ohio? Because talking to my context this week, it's like the best of times and it's the worst of times because lockdown might be upon it. So what did you see in Ohio? Yeah? I would say that's That's what I was experiencing, was that worst of times. Um, it was deathly, deathly slow. Um. I hunted five full days, um, and four and a half of those days, you know, hunting the entire day, every hour of the daylight was just dead. I mean I was seeing like two deer a day, you know, in twelve hours, I see two total deer, three total deer, a spike, a forky yearling dough. Um. It was really really tough. UM. No chasing, no real cruising. I think I saw I saw two bucks that were two or three years old, maybe um, off in the distance the first day and the second day, um, and they were kind of cruising, I guess. But that was basically the extent of the running activity I saw until that very last night, when I finally did see a buck on a dough and was able to call him in to my decoy actually and kill him over a decoy. So that was cool, um. But it was one of the situations where you just had to just power through it, just grind through the slow times, and I just kept telling myself it can change in any second if you just stay out here. It's the rut, it can change anytime. And uh, finally it did one thing that I didn't discuss it all with any of the context this week was the moon situation. We had the supermoon here, um, and I'm curious if you noticed anything with that. You know, I went out hunting this morning and we're past the supermoon now, but the moon was so bright, like I had a definitive crisp shadow on the ground and it was crazy like it it was really eye opening that those deer could move all night super efficiently. Did you notice anything in Ohio that might have been moon related? You know, I don't know. Um, I've heard so many different theories on the moon. You know, there's the there's the one theory that says during the full moon there's gonna be less daylight movement because of what you just said, because it's so bright at night. You know, they'll move more in the daylight and bed down, or they move more at night bed down during the day light. Then there's a lot of other guys who say that's complete hogwash. I mean, Mark Drewry's one guy who says that's completely not true. He thinks that the very best movement every year or every month is around the full moon. The few days living up to the full moon he believes are going to be great for evening activity a few days after the full moon. Who believes our best for morning activity? UM? So, I don't know. I don't know what's what's what, but I kind of try to pay attention to it to see if I can correlate any of my own observations to those kinds of theories. But at this point, I think, UM, I don't know if necessarily have any real profound UM I guess realizations. So I don't know. That maybe could have been why the movement was slow, but I think more likely it was just that lockdown period UM had really put a lot of those bigger deer down with dose. There was some increased hunting pressure around our property to UM different than other years that I wonder if maybe just had a general negative impact on deer movement. UM. So, those are a couple of things that I think maybe influence what I was seeing. But from a lot of guys I'm hearing, it does seem like that lockdown is happening for a lot of people. And I think in that kind of situation, at least from my perspective, you need to go into those hunts knowing that it's going to be relatively slower, that you'd like it to be during the run. You know, there's gonna be a lot of dead time, But like I said, it can change in a flash. I mean, those bucks are going to be coming off of doze every once in a while and they're gonna be looking for new ones. And you just need to be out there and already when that big boy does roll through. If you're too busy bumming out or playing on your cell phone or whatever and you're not paying attention when that one opportunity does show up, well then there goes your whole season or your trip or whatever it might be. So I think my big takeaway for this time of year is just to try to stay focused, try to stay positive, because eventually good things should happen. Yeah, you know, the reports this week sounded very similar to like what we were hearing in I don't know, mid October. You know, it can be great, Like I think somebody told me it was an in entertain and then the next person told me it was like a three or four, And so I just gotta be out there, you know, I guess, And it could switch at any time. Yeah. Yeah, Now what about you, what kind of rut activity have you seen? In South Dakota. So I'm in the Black Hills right now, which is the very western part of South Dakota. It's it's very different white tail hunting here because you're in like what is typical elk country, and so there's a lot of white tails, um, but they do act slightly different. There's not much for agriculture here, and so the food sources are sporadic and stuff like that, and signmaking is sporadic. They don't do much for scrapes and rubs. But the bucks that I have been seeing have been chasing really hard. And I think with this cold front coming, uh, it's it's gonna get really really good. And then I'm just imagining beyond that it's gonna like fall off the table lockdown. If it's not already here. It's definitely this time of year, give or take a few days or a week or so, around most parts of the country, you're gonna start to see that kind of thing happening. Peak breeding tends to peak around this this part of the month for at least the northern half or two thirds of the country. Yeah, and you'll hear some of that on on our podcast this week. We have a variety of reports, and we started off with Ron Spolmer with Winchester's World of white Tail and he has a report from Idaho, and then John Armand of North Dakota with Ultimate Outdoor Adventures TV. And then we go to Wisconsin and talk to Derrick Nelson from Matthews Archery, and then we have Matt Jury and Missouri from Drewy Outdoors. Nice. All right? Well, uh should we should we quit beating around the bush and just get to these reports? Yeah? Definitely, between you and a couple of our contexts. This week there was a lot of inches of antler that hit the ground. Nice. Well, I'm excited to hear about it. All right, have a good old mark you too. But quickly before we get to our first update. As all Weired podcast are, this episode is brought to you by Sitka Gear. If you'd like to learn more about Sitka Gears technical hunting apparel, you can visit Sitka gear dot com. And now onto the show, all right, Enjoining me on the line first is Ron Spomer, freelance writer and photographer, and you can find his work at Ron Spomer Outdoors dot com. Ron is that address correct? Yeah, that's it. Ron schomer outdoors dot com. They can also find my YouTube channel just like the Ron's Bomer Outdoors on YouTube. And let's they look up phone apps. I've got one called Everything white Tail and it is literally everything about white tails, firearm and recoil levels, trajectory, realistic, you name it. If a white tail is that, it's in there. Sure. Well here's something white tails that we have not talked about you in the podcast, and that's the very western white tails like in Idaho. So on a scale of one to ten, what would you say the buck activity has been there recently? Well, you know, it's a little bit. It's slow. The weather has been extraordinarily warm, haven't even had a frost yet. So I observed two bucks showing some routing activity. One was a good three year old four by four and he gave the bums rush to a couple of dos, pushed some otoesome cover and then lipt girls. So he was trying, but I kind of expect that from a younger buck. The older buck I saw, and this was a good spot to five year old bucks from what I could tell, had him in this bonding scope a pretty eye power. He was a five by five with an extra point off of one time. So it was a beautiful one fifty one sixty class buck and he was not showing any interest in the doves. There was a dough close to him with a fawn and he was just proposing a little bit snooping around. Now, he may have been working that dough in some brush before I saw him. I had for about a minute in an opening at about nine hundred yards, and then he disappeared into the brush and never came out again all morning. And there were those in the area, so I'm thinking if he'd have been running, he'd have been after those doughs. So would you say the rut is a little bit later than this year. Yeah, you know, the ruts are always determined by the sun, but I think it gets influenced by a few days based on the temperature. I'm not one of the guys just as well. I'm waiting for cool snap for the rug to start, because that's just set off by the by the sun and the daylight hours. So around the tents through the fifteenth of Novembers will not usually see the bucks end of the chase phase when that first dough comes into eat and it really start getting after him. Then the main breeding I think happens from about the fifteenth through Thanksgiving, and after that it starts to taper off pretty quickly, so they could break any time. Sure, And so are you still seeing some signmaking? And you know, are they still active with scrapes and rubs right now? We're not. I don't know. I never saw a single scrape or rub. It's not unusual where I huh um, he's Idaho mountain deer are not as quite as traditional as down at home deer you're used to do in the Plain States. For instance, in the Midwest, they will often migrate several river valleys in winter, the moss the mountains and across a valley that go up the next mountain drop into the next valley. So that usually happens when the snow gets during the rut. So even if they're scrape they might not be in their territory. Didn't do anything about that's great. So I'm generally just glass hunting, as if I were looking, you will do. I'm not really paying it that much attention to sign. But along the logging roads and things where I was hiking, and I was doing about three miles a day down in these canyons. I never saw a single rub or a single scrape. And so if you don't get that traditional signmaking, what about for your traditional calling, you're grunting, rattling stuff like that. Is is that in play in Idaho? Yeah, I've had good luck rattling bucks up here, grunting and all the rest of them. It's just you can't depend on territorial signs necessarily to locate them. Now. They're probably is some on the other side of the canyon where this really big buck was, because it was a really dense cover area, and I see big bucks over there every year. I've been hunting this place for about five or six years, and I know it's a good hot area, but it's a real difficult place to get into because it's so steep and rocky all around it. You have to make a major climb down one side of the canyon five feet at the bottom across the creek, and then go up the other side almost to the top. So I don't go over there unless I've really got a feeling I can get a drop on a bucket because it covers so thick, So I usually wait until that ruts broken. If I were going out there this weekend. I would cross over there and rattle on it that I could get that guy in. I could have probably gotten him this weekend with a rattle because he's looking for something to do in the doad weren't ready yet, but I didn't have enough time to cross that canyon. I had to get out of there. My hunt was over in two hours, so it would have taken me three hours just to get to him. Sus it sounds like you think the best hunting is yet to come that area. On a scale of one to ten, what do you think the buck activity will be there in this coming week boy, I think by this weekend it's going to be pushing nine. I would be surprised if it wasn't. I would definitely get up there to Hottie if I weren't having to go to Nebraska for another hunt right now. Sure, well, I I hope you can get back there in time and maybe catch some of that action. So thanks for joining me on the phone. Run hey, my pleasure. Good luck with your hands and joining us on the line. Next is John Armand of Ultimate Outdoor Adventures TV. Now, John, I've seen on the Facebook page your team has had an incredible last week on a scale of one to ten. What do you think the bucket activity has been then? And would you tell us about those hunts? Yeah, I would say that you know, we have we were hunting south central North Dakota and on our place, UM, I would say our buck activity was probably a seven UM to and a nine UM. We have. Our place consists of big draws um some river bottoms, and it seems even with the above average temperature UM our bucks were cruising pretty much all day long. And my other team member who was east about two hundred miles on some flat ground, would probably put his buck activity at a two UM. He said it's probably the worst he's ever seen. The rut activity, he said, a few smaller bucks that were sniffing around, but all the big boys he had on camera, he was still getting on camera, but it wasn't seeing any rut activity whatsoever. The deer he ended up taking UM a hundred five by five UM was actually chasing the dough and that's how he killed it. But he said it was kind of slow out east. And so you saying it's, you know, like a nine, and your buddy saying it's a two. What do you think the big differences there on on why the such a great variation. You know, the only thing I can think of was that, know, we're fortunate where we the property we have, we have these draws that they kind of intertwined and connect um. So these deer can you know, it seems like just cruising those areas, um, and they feel pretty safe because they'll cross from draw to drop. But it's not a long stretch of open country and where he's at, he's pretty much flatland where it is just um bare ground crop land and some slews. And you know, he said, unless he gets super um wound up, he said, you just don't see a lot of the deer. And he just said it was one of those things, he said, he can't really explain. It's just one of those um times that the activity um was not good for him. And I was expecting him to tag out right away because he had four or five mature deer on camera that were on daylight hours. And again for us, we we got lucky. We killed two deer that we have not had on camera. Um. One of them we haven't had on camera since last December, and um we've killed them both in the same area on the river bottom UM where they can kind of cruise UM. The one stretch of woods that we have, it's um, you know, kind of a bigger chunk. And we got both of them in the same area, probably within um a couple hundred yards of each other, and still hunting more of your stereotypical pasture land. Like it sounds like that you're in. What techniques are you using there this time of year, if you're doing any calling, are you hunting over any sign of what's going on there? Well, for us, what we do is we sit on vantage points and just in the areas that we've been hunting this piece of property ours um, you know for thirty years, and we know the food sources and the deer going out UM in the evenings and going to these food sources and then they come back in pretty much in the same areas. And because we have these big draws UM, we just sit advantage points and we're just looking for bucks cruising and UM and then sometimes we'll catch them even if they're locked down, we're able to spot them and make our move on them. And the other gentleman out east where it's really flat land, I'm kind of doing the same thing, hunting some food sources and they can do a little bit more calling and radeline. But again he didn't have a lot of success up there with that. But the report, I just talked to a buddy of mine, UM, another team member who's um in between, you know, he's probably a hundred fifty miles east of us, and he said that yesterday that it seemed like they were at activity for him, just turned on and they were struggling the first week and a half also, And so what about going forward here in this next week or so, what do you think the Buck ACTV is going to be then? On a scale of one to ten, well, I think it's gonna I think. Um, I'm hoping we're gonna be at a ten because we have a cold snap coming in. It's us to drop um on Thursday evening, Um all weekend. We'll have a chance of snow and there's a front coming through and UM, I think that could um. You know, he sings up quite a bit just giving these um, these deer, you know, the conditions they liked a little colder so they can be going all day long. And from the activity that we've had, it's been on a steady in plane. And for them guys out east where it's been pretty dead, but now they have bumped it up a notch. They're thinking that they're gonna be hitting it just right for the last weekend of the season for rifle. Well, congrats on the awesome last week. You've had John of Antler between three guys. That's uh, that's an incredible week of hunting. So we'll stay in touch and thanks for your time. All right, buddy, thank you and good luck to you guys all and joining us on the line next is Derek Nelson, the content manager for Matthews Archery. Now, Derek in Wisconsin, what would you say the buck activity has been there on a scale of one to ten um, I would have to put it out about a six um as of as of lately kind of the consensus. I've been talking to a lot of the guys you know, HQ have been hitting it really hard lately and um, you know, sitting all day and really not seeing mature deer on their feet. Um, for the most part, there's been you know a good number of people who are still getting nighttime photos of deer and seeing some younger bucks cruising during the day. But for the most part, it's been a slower rut. Um. It kind of seems like across the board for a lot of the guys. And so do you think that we're in lockdown right now? We're we coming up on that, yet it certainly seems like it. Um. You know, just the fact that you know, when people are seeing big deer, they're seeing them like pending a dough and really not not moving around much. Um. And you know that's obviously affecting. You know, it's a lot of reason why people aren't seeing them moving around, you know, when they when they do see them there, they're pretty stationary and staying in a pretty small core area with a dough. And you know, the bucks that we are seeing are the small ones kind of bouncing around trying to pick some off. But um, yeah, it's been it's been pretty tough, right and in that area. You know, if you think we are in the lockdown phase like right now, how aggressive are guys? Are they still going after these bucks harder? Are they taking a break for a little bit and waiting for gun season to open? Um? Yeah, I mean most obviously, the most of the guys that I'm you know, I'm tight with and work with are pretty aggressive and are trying to be getting out there and fill this tag before gun season hits. Um. You know, in Wisconsin, we've got one of the like like the nation's largest militia on an opening day of rifle season. So a lot of people are still trying to get that tag filled before kind of the masses come out and you know, a lot of good deer end up getting shot. Um, But a lot of people, um, you know that I've been tight with are really trying to right as as close as they can get to some dough betting areas too, you know, kind of up there chances of catching one of those those you know, mature bucks that's locked down with a dough in those areas. And you know, we've we've had a couple of guys have encounters, but it's definitely been down this year kind of across the board, right. And so if the buck activity is down right now, does the signmaking show that, like, are the scrapes still active and still seeing robs that are getting hit right now? Um? A lot of the scrapes that have been pretty active for you know, for most of the year have seemed to shut down in the last you know, week and a half to two weeks from what I've seen. UM, you know, I had a one of my one of my good buddies had you know, a scrape that he had like consistent mature gear on um, you know up until, like I said, a week and a half ago, and they've kind of disappeared. In the last couple of weeks, He's had a few a few bucks show up that he hadn't you know, hasn't really seen it all the whole season. UM, and you know, just been cruising through, which is expected for the rut. You know that it kind of always happens. You have you have deer pop up that you've never seen before. But um, most of the scrape activity and you know, rub activities kind of stimmered down the last week. They kind of you know, shifted dot though there's so many doughs and asters at this point in time that they don't you know, kind of scrapes have lost their importance um, and a lot of instances so definitely slowed down, UM and stopped really counting on being able to haunt a scrape line. Um, you know, picking up those deer cruising so sure and So you guys who are you know, pure archery coming up on gun season here, how do your tactics then change and what do you see the bucket activity you do? Then? Um, well, definitely it definitely gets harder. Um. You know if you you know, we've been experiencing that most of the mature deer are still seeming to move, you know, pretty nocturnally, um, even as of an out and that's only going to get obviously worse when pressure, you know, like goes up exponentially in the next week. Um, and most of us guys will be out, you know, like I said, on the first day a gun season with our bows still trying to make it happen, which obviously stacks the odds not in our favor. But um, you know, just kind of what we love to do. And you know, every now and then it comes together, so um, trying to play pressure. There's a there's a you know, a handful of us who will you know, have have private pieces that will still be able to stay on you know, when gun season opens, a few people who have properties that other people gun hunt and they have to get off of. And then a few others who you know try to hunt public land, um, you know in Wisconsin on the rifle opener, which always gets a little bit shady, but you know, I can also come up with some pretty good stories. So, um, trying to just get where people aren't going to be on this first weekend is going to be kind of the key. And you know, switching up strategy knowing where people are going to be moving into and where those deer are going to try to get away from him is where you know we're going to try to be. And so with that said, what do you think the bucket activities are going to be in this coming week on a scale of like one to ten, Um, I would definitely say it would it would go up. I be thinking we're gonna be around you know and eight this coming weekend just um, you know, knowing a with this time of year and be we're getting a big gold front that's supposed to hit you know on Saturday, which is the opener up here, um, which I think is going to get a lot of bucks up on their feet. They're going to be moving around and it's I think we're gonna see a lot of deer killed this weekend in Wisconsin. Alright, Well, I'll be following along in Matthews Facebook page and hope to see what kind of damage those newen bows can do. Thanks deerk yep, I have a good one, Spenser, appreciate it alright and joining us on the line. Next is Matt Drewy, the general manager of Drewy Outdoors now Matt in Missouri. What would you say the buck activity has been there? On a scale of one to ten, I think I think it's two things you're looking at. If you're looking for the mature buck activity, I think it's it's pretty low. The last few days, this past you know, the past weekend three four because they're locked down. I saw a lot. I was at Dad's this weekend hunting. I saw a ton of great movement, but it was mostly younger bucks, the most you know mature bucks being three um so um. I think the mature bucks had already locked down. They were with their does and it was very tough hunting. That being said, I did catch an old bruiser um looking for a new you know, the next available though Sunday morning, and and kind a good opportunity and put a good shot on him and and gotta wrap my tag around. And but that being said, I think this next cold front coming up um here in the next few days, probably three four days, I think it could get really really good. I'm saying maybe a seven eight for buck activity, mature buck activity, because they're getting ready to you know, they're they're finishing up with their their first dough and they're gonna go start looking for their second dough. So I think it could get really good with that cold front that's kind of going through the Midwest coming up. Yeah, if we are in lockdown right now, then what kind of techniques are you guys using hunting wise? What you know, what areas are you in? Are you doing any calling mornings or evenings? Yeah, So I was sitting and now over the weekend it got really cold this past week and it was the first and second frost that we had in the in the Kirksville area in Missouri, and so we were sitting close to food sources beans specifically standing beans, and that drew every dough in that area to that food plot to those you know, those food plots, and from there, I think it drug that you know, the bucks out because they were just going where the does were, and I mean I did see chasing and all that good stuff. And actually we filmed two breeding encounters in two days, so it shows you what phase they were in. But it was so cold over that two day period and it and it warmed up since, but that two day period was so cold all the does went out to those bean fields. Um. I had sat one other sit uh, I was in a morning set. I'm trying to think back. I think it was a morning sit um where I sat next to a pond. And the theory there is, hey, if the if the bucks are chasing you know, all day, all night, more so than food, they need water. And sure enough we had a nice three year old come to the pond and drink for a while. And I mean we got good footage of that. So in theory that was you know, that was working. Calling didn't work whatsoever. They could care less for me and my personal experience the last few days. They couldn't care less about calling. Um. That being said, I think coming up in the next few days, especially with that cold front, and if they're looking for the next dough rattling specifically, will be the ticket because they're gonna want to go and look and search out what's going on. You know, why are why are the bucks fighting and the other mature bucks are gonna want to come in and and see, especially if they're looking for a dough, So rattling coming up could be a good tactic. So if you think calling will help coming up here? What about hunting around side? Do you think scrapes and rubs are goodness start getting hit again or not? Yeah? I do. I think check your cameras, you know, leading into that cold front. I think scrapes are getting ready to get hot again, and that for me, they had cooled off pretty badly on my lease. But I think you're gonna see him start picking back up as the bucks are looking for their next you know, next dough, they're they're kind of asserting their dominance in the area. So I think scrapes will be good again. Sure, And so how long do you think lockdown is gonna last for? And going for don a scale of one to ten, What do you think that buck activity is going to be in these next couple of days? Well, for you know the show thirteam that that Mark and Terry and and and us here drew the outdoors that we've come up with the date range, you know, it varies a little bit. But for us, we had the date of lockdown, the date range. This is not a science by any means. I mean, it's based on our visual you know, what we've noticed over the years, and specifically what Mark and Dada noticed. But we had an ending yesterday actually today being a new a new a new phase. Um, so i'd say, you know, like I said, check your cameras. But any day here, I think lockdown is good getting ready to end because they're gonna get on their feet and you're gonna see some of your best outside of Buck Parade, which is right before lockdown. I think this coming up this period in the next few days, especially the cold front, you're gonna see a lot of midday movement from from Bucks. You're gonna see a lot of daylight activity. So I wouldn't be afraid to sit, you know, some long hours in the coming days. Well that's some exciting intel. Matt, and congrats on the awesome dear. I appreciate it, Thank you man. And that concludes this week's episode of Wire to Hunt's Radio. Make sure you follow wire to Hunt on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Spencer new Heart. Good luck, with your mid November hunts, and thanks for listening.

Save this episode