00:00:01 Speaker 1: Hey guys, this is Mark Kenyon of Wired to Hunt, and we're here today for our final episode of Wired to Hunt's ut radio here in two thousand and sixteen, where we have been checking in every week for the past six or seven weeks now with hunters from all across the country to hear about running activity and reports, what's been happening, what's been working, and all that kind of good stuff. So, Spencer, you've been kind of leading the charge for us on this one, and I first and foremost want to thank you for doing such an awesome job with us and checking with people all over the place and getting this kind of intel I know, for me personally and from a lot of other people out there listening, this has been really helpful. So so where to go. Man, Thanks, I appreciate that. And uh, you know, it's it's not a chore. I mean, this is a ton of fun to talk to these people, and every week, you know, get to I feel like, you know, I'm sitting in there tree stands sometimes when I get to hear about the the encounters that they're having and stuff like that, and you know, take that as another piece of the pause as to how I should be hunting in my home state of South Dakota. Yeah. Yeah. So so you've talked to I don't know, dozens of different hunters now over the course of this kind of mini series, and you've been getting all that running intel and stuff. Do you think that you were you able to apply anything you heard from these other guys to your own hunts? You know, did you have any example where such and such was like, hey, you know, I really think it's starting to pick up or X was working and you thought about that in your own hunts. Were you able to do anything like that? Because I know, for me personally, I start picking up on some of the things I was hearing from guys and applying it to some shifts in my strategy. Yeah. I think one thing in particular was I've always kind of felt like, you know, the rut seems like it has these hard boundaries of when it starts, when it ends, when this phase is going, stuff like that. But this kind of made me learn that it's so so fluid. Um, not just across the nation, but even incredibly local. Um for me talking to these people at on North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, a Braska, stuff like that. UM, I would agree with him one week and then discreet the next week. Um. But then you know, it could be on both fronts where I would feel the movement was much better, but they would feel is a lot worse. UM. Stuff like that. It made me realize that you just have to be out there. I guess that there's no one amazing three days stretch all the time where you're gonna be out there and you're gonna kill a deer. Yeah. That that for me, like every year I'm reminded of it, but then the next year I go back into the season forgetting it. It's that the rut, it just it never seems to be as advertised, like it's never going to be two in two or three weeks of this NonStop action and incredible hunting. It sees, you know, long periods of you know, just nothing and then little bursts of that kind of activity. If you happen to be in the right place at the right time with the right deer, then you get that magic. But you know, it's it's really hard to guess when that's going to be. It's hard to be in the right place when it happens. So it really is for me that rut is just It's about perseverance. It's like, can you stick to it long enough for those special moments, because they will happen eventually if you're out there, but it's not always going to be like a TV show and it happens right away. Um. But I don't know, given the fact that you've been doing this now and talking to so many people, you've kind of had an interesting high level overview. Have you have you seen any big I don't know, have you taken away any big aha moments or lessons learned from this experience hearing from so many hunters over the course of this two thousand and sixteen run. Well from the podcast in particular, you know, I just talked about how I would find myself like disagreeing with the neighboring state, but at the same time I realized that this rut is really universal. Um, Like, some weeks I would add more in common with the people from New York or Oklahoma. Uh, then I would with like the Iowa or Minnesota or something like that. And it made me realize how close all this is happening. You know, I could be a thousand miles from one of these guys, but the peak breeding or the seeking and chasing phase for both of us might only be a couple of days apart, and so it's really made me open up my ears. I guess to two guys that I always felt like I had less in common with, but I really do. UM. So that's been one great thing. It almost feels like every one of these reports is relevant, even if I'm not near where they're hunting. There's a lot of truth to that because I think one of the major I mean the major factor that that determines at least when deer going to Estrius, when a doe comes into Estus is just daylight. Is the changing amount of daylight. And that is universal. You know, that's not something that's different between New York and North and North Dakota. That's happening at relatively the same time and anywhere in that part of the country. Now there are some differences north to south, but um, but that's something that I think lots of times we assume the rut is so regional, when in many cases it's it's a little bit closer than maybe we we think. And I think to your point, when we're hearing these types of updates, I think it kind of shines a light on that. So that's a really interesting observation. You were mentioning a couple other things, though, too, write in regards to when you thought the peak was and different things a on those lines. It wasn't necessarily podcasts related, but just some observations that I had myself. One of the one was that I feel like this was like the foggiest rut that I've ever been around. Um and we had kind of talked about this the whole year or the the whole you know, last month or so about in the podcast about how mild the weather has been. I think that mild weather has just like fallen in that absolute perfect zone for foggy mornings, and so like I hunt River Bottoms a lot, which is, you know, more likely to be foggy there than anywhere else. And there would be mornings where my end of October and beginning of November, SI's like for a week straight where I would haunt my first hour with you know, less than like a hundred feet of visibility or less than fifty feet of visibility at some point, and that has to really make you like scratch your head during that time and go May and you know what is going on that I'm not seeing. And at the same time, what is this tuning for? What is this doing for the deer movement? Like if a Bucky's out there looking for does he has to be moving almost extra you would think? Or was it the opposite, you know, is he moving less knowing that it's still foggy right now? The visually he can't you know, lay his eyes on anything. I don't know. Did you notice like an excessive foggy mornings this year or not? I definitely did, And I wonder that I had the same as that question as you had. You know, there were some of those hunts in early November for me, where like, for example, there's one two day stretch in particular I can think of right now where I hunted the same stand two mornings in a row. The first morning, you know, it's like November, I don't remember. It was like sixth or fifth or seventh summer around there, and that first morning it was clear, crisp, cool, and the deer were just everywhere. It was just chaos, all sorts of movement. I was back in there the very next day, same type of temperature, same type of everything, except for really thick fog and it was just dead. And I had gone in that more and thinking it was gonna be a great morning, and I saw hardly anything. And it wasn't one of those things where you know, I just wasn't seeing Dear, because I couldn't see a long ways. The day before, all the activity I was seeing, or at least like the activity I was seeing was within like forty yards of me, Like there was deer all over and right within range. And now the next day, same situation, but with fog, nothing close at all. So I was sitting there thinking that the exact same thing you're It's like, is the fog just keeping them from moving or what's happening here? I don't know, but it raised questions. And that's one of those things about the rut Is and really Dear Rye in general, is it's so fascinating to try to understand how these different factors influenced dear movement and behavior. And we can kind of guess and you know, put together different hypotheses, but we never really know, um. And that's I guess what keeps me going out there lots of times, just trying to answer those questions that that are tough to answer, sometimes. Yeah, I think the lesson there's somebody needs to car about the niche of fogginess deer movement on a scale somewhere, So we need that intel, that's for sure. Speaking of speaking of scales, you're you've become very good at asking the question of so and so, how has the deer activity been on a scale of one to ten. I want to turn that back on new Spencer for the two thousand sixteen rut, like your whole November late after over a period here, how would you rate the two thousand and sixteen rut for you personally? Add personally and this is like very personal. I'm just referring myself, not even just South Dakota's movement in general. UM, I would say it was like a seven. Um. I saw like the good movement you'd expect at the end of October group. But then my beginning of November was pretty disappointing. Um. But then what ended up what happening was I was able to get a rifle in my hands. Some of these seasons opened up for me that you know, kind of crossed over with the rut a little bit, and so then the hunting obviously got a lot better. For me. Um, had I had a bowl in my hands of it, it probably would have been worse and I'd be telling you was like a five or six. But I got lucky there. That was my saving grace this year was being able to pick up a rifle a couple of times and get out with that rather than sitting in a tree. Yeah, that that helps, definitely helps the odds, that's for sure. For me. If I were to try to give you my personal ranking, I would probably give it a maybe a seven as well, like a six and a half to a seven. Um, because I saw a really good early action, Like my best running action was from like that last week of October through the first week of November. That two week period for me, I was like in it consistently lots of activity, lots of chasing and seeking and all that kind of stuff bucks fighting. Um. But then from probably like the eighth through like the fifteen or sixteenth or seventeen sixteen, it was really low as far as trial camera pictures and actual in person sightings. UM. I mean, my time in Ohio was really pretty dead. The camera pictures here and there and in Michigan were pretty dead. Um. But what's interesting is then when I came back from Ohio very soon after that, prior round the sixteenth or seventeenth of the month, all of a sudden, the cameras like a flip switch, and I started getting more daylight and more pictures of mature bucks down there than I had all season. You know, before i'd been hunting down there, while i'd hunted down there after, this is by far the best. Um. So it seemed like for whatever it was, you know, that was when things were picking up down there, while for me in Michigan it was earlier. I don't really know what to make of that, but um but it was interesting to see. So, speaking of the best, you know, a couple of days stretch of hunting in South Dakota here, I thought it took place around like November, And this is a really strange thing to basis off of, but I'll tell the story. So I was hunting like the same area for like four straight days in western South Dakota, and from where I was staying to where I was hunting, it was about a half hour drive it every day. On the third day, I saw the rendering truck out on this stretch of interstate picking up dead deer um and it was about a five to ten mile stretch where there had been a lot of deer hit in that area. So the rendering truck had cleaned it up on like the fourteenth, you know, the interstate no longer had any carcasses. The fifteenth that was driving that stretch of interstate again and I saw like three bucks over one thirty that had been hit overnight. And then I saw another deer that had its head cut off that was hit the night. So that was under like a less than a twenty four hour period that all that took place. And so I mean it was incredible to me all those deer that got laid out, and you know, the odds of those things getting hit on the interstate, you know, against how many deal were actually probably moving. That had to you know be a significant portion of they're their best movement. That had to be when they took place there. So I think next year we need to start talking to like some rendering truck guys maybe houses and see when their activities picking up. Yeah, yeah, they're a friend of mine. Um. Craig Doherty always used to tell me that the way he tracked the progress of the rut in his area was he talked to his local UPS guy UM, I think it was UPS or FedEx or something like their post office guy. He would check with this guy UM, and then he would also check with I think it was a car repair person UM, like a you know, like a wrecking shop where they bring an accident cars that have been an accidents from roadkill type situations like that. UM. And those two people would give him the update on how much road kill there was and how many different cars have come in because of it, and he could actually track. He'd see it consistently certain times you see it peek up and towards mid November and then come back down. And so I think there's some interesting things you can pull from that type of that type of observational data. I guess, because, like you said, if there's that much row kill, you know that's obviously because there's been so much movement back and forth across the road that's of course going to result in a few kills along the way. That seemed as relevant is anything that my trailer camers were telling me or what I was seeing on stand. So November is is about gone? I think today is uh, I don't say is November twenty nine or no, and so that's basically the end of sweet November. But we do have one final set of reports from across the country, right, Spencer. Yeah, So we start off with Eric Long in Ohio of Drumming Log Wildlife Management, and then we have Clay Forest with Stewart Ranch Outfitters in Oklahoma, and then we have Mark Kaiser from Deer and Deer Hunting TV in Wyoming, and then we end with Bill Winkie in Iowa with Midwest white Tail. Awesome. Well, I'm looking forward to hearing what they've been seeing and what's happening here in this end of November period and then uh, I guess until next year. Spencer. Good luck with your hunts in these next coming weeks and you know, to another run and same to you, Mark. December is definitely no November, but at least we get to hunt. That's the truth. Should be fun. But quickly before we get to our first update, as all weird hunt podcasts are, this episode was brought to you by Sitka Gear. If you'd like to learn more about sick gears technical hunting comparil, you can visit sick of gear dot com and now onto the show alright, and joining us on the line first is Eric Long, the owner of Drumming Log Wildlife Management. Now, Eric in Ohio, what would you say the buck activity has been there on a scale of one to ten in this last week or so, within the last week or so, UM, I would say it's probably about a six to seven in some areas even higher. Um right now. Unfortunately, Ohio's gun season is in full swing as of yesterday, and so it's really just gonna disrupt a little bit of things, you know, uh, the activity, uh, in a sense of that. So but yeah, i'd stay within the last week. I mean, it's it's pretty good. It's still pretty good. So what phases the route would you then say that we're in in Ohio? Um, without a doubt, I would say here on a uh for sure. On the downside of it, um, you know, like a week and a half, two weeks ago, it was just absolutely insane. I mean it was the wonderful, wonderful activity, best I've seen in years. Um. But as a week went on, it was definitely dropping those older class white tails. You know, they came off those does and they were really on their feet and um, you know, those two year olds were just acting like bowling balls out in the food plot, just blowing everything up, you know. Um, but right now, um, you know it's like I was hunting the uh this past weekend and I had older class white tails three or four year olds in the food plot just concentrating on feeding and not any running activity. But they were still on their feet in plenty of daylight. And those younger bucks, those year and a halfs and two year olds were just constantly hounding on those year and a half year old does those dough fons that met that you know, weight requirement sixty plus pounds that that can't come into esters? So they were definitely hounding them. But it was very odd that those older class year weren't really messing with those just as younger bucks were, which is typical, just a bunch of teenagers trying to get a date for the dance, you know. So so yeah, what about with betting this time of year? Um, say, you haven't been out in a couple of weeks and you're just getting making this now, do you think the betting has changed a lot from like mid mid November till now? Yeah? I mean, as a season in the state of Ohio. You know, it's just it's a it gets pretty pressured anymore, um so, especially you know this week of Gunn and M. Yeah, it's but if you have a place that's you know, kind of remote and you know a special place where the pressure or you're in a cd M co walk where the pressure is not very you know, uh substantial, definitely, the betting areas definitely changed. To answer your question. You know, as the foliage comes off and you know, the quality dear, you know those bucks that you've got to think cover the equals food. I preach it a lot, you know, and that's where you know, doing some good quality deer management comes in producing those great quality betting areas that have food because those older bucks, you know, especially on a cd M program, you know, they have lost a lot of weight, but they want to feel secure at the same time, and you know, doing some teens all management and stuff like that produces that. You know, you're putting those weight, putting that weight back on those deer's like giving them a secure place. So you know, hopefully I answer your question, but yeah, you know, to do the foliage coming off and you know, feeling secure, So yeah, you just you know, I would concentrate myself on um, you know this food right now. Are there any food in particular that you think are better than others right now? Yeah? You know your car you know staregum corn obviously, you know obviously beans can you know it's protein, but they can you know, they have a the ability to get carve out of it. Um. You know your brassicas, your turnips, you know your adshes, you know stuff like that. But yeah, if you you know, did your your job, um and if you had the possibility of planning food plots, you know, see that's the thing. And I don't mean to preach a little bit, but doing just planning a food plots one thing this time, you know, having it available this time of year, but more importantly, because of the pressure you've got to produce habitat and that covered the equals food because those deer, especially in the state of Ohio, no matter where you're at in the stable Ohio, you know, we're there's a lot of people out there and those bucks that we're all trying to trying to kill, you know, they want to feel secure. And if there's quality betting areas next to those soups, food sources. You know, your chances of at least an opportunity of viewing um uh, if not killing them. You know, it is a great possibility. Yeah, that's that's a great point. But what about going forward in this next week or so, what do you think the buck activity is going to be then? On the scale of one to ten um next week or two um, I would say it's gonna be minimal because of the firearms season that's going on in Ohile. I mean, it's gonna be a lot of nocturnal activity. Just be patient, you know, it's it's and I say this jokingly, it's almost take a week off after gun season. And I say that jokingly obviously, but because those dear it's gonna take them a little bit to get back on their their their on their program, on your program because of all the disruption, you know, people doing deer drives or you know, just the activity that's normally not there. So it's gonna take them a while to get feel feel comfortable again to you know, utilize those food plots uh in daylight hours. All right, Eric, Well that's some great information and thanks for joining us. Yes, not a problem anytime you know that, all right, And enjoining me on the line next is Clay Forest, the operator of Stewart Ranch Outfitters now Clay in Oklahoma. What would you say the RUT activity has been there on the scale of one to ten in this last week or so? Uh, we are probably right around Uh, I'm gonna call it about an eight right now. Uh, We're we're experienced a little bit of lockdown, UM in the last couple of three or four days. Prior to that, right around Thanksgiving, it was it was really going pretty high here as far as h RUT activity. So we're we're kind of on the downhill swing as far as prime rut time here in southern Oklahoma. But I still I still think we're about an eight, seven and eight at this point. So do you think it's been better than that this year? Or is an eight the highest it's been for you guys? Um, I'm gonna say eight's kind of the high. Um, We've kind of had a weird year as far as just um overall RUT activity. The um for the most part, it's it's it's it's it. We've had days where it's been really really uh been a high number, you know, say, at nine or ten and then the very next day it's it's gone back down. So it's kind of been an up and down year as far as r I don't think it ever really just plateaued or anything to that nature. So um, I think I think it hates about as good as we got this year. How has that been translated to your clients and they're hunting for this last week? If it's net at and eight, have you guys gotten a lot of mature bucks on the ground, then Uh, yes, sir, but we've had to earn on the last last few days or really quite since Thanksgiving, We've we've got some good mature mature bucks on the ground, but they've definitely made us earn them as far as we're fortunate enough to be able to glass in our country and kind of make moves onto your if we need to, if they were to bet down at the dough and and that sort of thing. So um, even though I think it's uh, we're experienced a little bit of locked down and at some unseasonally warm warm temperature is kind of like we've been battling all year, still been able to get mature deer on the ground. What about with those mature deers specifically, Um, what kind of activity have you seen them have over these last few days. Do you think that they're showing any interest in the doughs? Are they focusing on food? Do you think it's lockdown with what's going on there? Um, Honestly, I'm gonna give you a fifty fifty answer. I think it's a little bit of both. We just got a mature deer down last night. He's go to school right at right at one fifty five and a half year old deer that has been chasing does for the last two or three days. We've had eyes on him, and that was kind of toward the north end of the ranch. We shot a buck two days ago, again, another five and a half year old mature buck who really was just coming to food. Uh, he came in off a big grain field or we feel that we've got and kind of funneled into a draw and we got a shot on them, but did not care too much about about does. So we're experiencing a little bit of both. Um. So it's kind of mate hunting a little interesting here in the last week and a half ten days or so, well, last i'ment talked to you in I think it was the end of October. We had talked about how the unseasonably warm temperatures had really suppressed the dear movement. Do you think that the weather right now plays as big a factor as it did two or three weeks ago in Uh, No, sir, I don't think so. We're still seeing a lot of movement, and it it's pretty close to normal. Um. As far as as weather, when I talked to you last we were fifteen degrees above normal. We're right now. It's it's pretty close to being right. So, uh, We've seeing a lot of deer funneling in the big fields and that sort of thing. So as far as overall activity, I think the weather is not really planning just a big part into it. We're supposed to get a big front here in the next couple of days, and I think in the next a little bit it should be should be pretty pretty good as fart dear movement. So, speaking of the next couple of days, what do you think that bucket activity is going to be in this next week or so? On a scale of one to ten, I'm gonna I'm not gonna call it a ten, but I'm gonna call it pretty close. We're we're gonna get our first two or three or four days stretch of cold weather. Um, we're supposed to have a little precipitation this weekend which might kind of done it a little bit. But um, I think the high for here on Saturdays like forty five, which is a little bit low normal. So really looking forward from about actually from about Thursday to Monday is looking We're looking really well, are looking good as far as uh uh deer movement and buck activity. So I really think if you're in southern Oklahoma in the next week, week and a half, it ought to be really really good. Alright, Clay Well, I love following the Facebook page and I'm excited to keep checking out over this next week or so with the best movement on its way. So thanks for your call, yes, sir, thank you, Spenser, appreciate it alright. And joining me on the line next is Mark Kaiser, co host of Deer and Deer Hunting TV and outdoor writer. Now, Mark had just talked to you last week about the rut activity in Nebraska, but lately over Thanksgiving, I know you were back in your home state of Wyoming. How would you say the bucket activity has been there on a scale of one to ten in this last week or so, I would say it's still rating at a sixth or a seven for white tails. But on the opposite spectrum, the mule deer spectrum, there's is winding down quicker, and I'm I wouldn't even rank that as a four probably, you know, three maybe, but a four, but not a five. The mules deer were already what we were seeing is they were banning up in bachelor groups, already not not at all mindful, worrying about having two or three bucks together in a group, whereas the white tails there were still some chasing going on. It actually impressed me how much activity was out there. So we're encroaching the beginning days of December here. What about a secondary rout in that area? Is that something that you ever witness I've witnessed it a lot. You know, I grew grew up and spent a lot of time hunting in the Dakota's, living here in Wyoming, hunting extensively in Montana. You do see that. The problem with so many of the states, and in the two I just mentioned Montana Wyoming, is there's no December hunting seasons, you've got to move back over to the Dakotas. And the research that I've read and and talked to the biologist stuff is you're looking at about a ten per cent uh group of dolls that haven't been bred yet, and and that seems like maybe not a lot, but when you're only get to have that little fling once a year, ten group of dolls coming back into asterisk can can spike the activity, albeit even for a brief time period. Yes, so in these coming days, if you were looking to fill a tag in the Dakotas or wyoming, or what would be your tactics would you be focusing on dolls are looking for food or different kind of betting. You've probably mentioned the three things and and it comes down to three things all the time. But a definitely find those dough groups fine where the bigger numbers of dos are congregating, and that's going to lead you to be which is food because these deer are just burnt down to the bone now, the bucks especially, but the doughs have run a lot too. Uh again stuff I've read they're they're burning of their body weight off during the rut. They've got to gain some of that back, they'll never gain it all back, so they're going to be going to the good food sources. And again that's where the doughs are gathering. And then the third thing to look for is sanctuary and refuge. In many of these states, these deer have been hunted non stop since September. Think about it. If you've been hunted and pursued for them any days on end, you know where all the good hiding spots are, or you're not alive. You've already taken a ride in a Coleman cooler somewhere. So you've got to know where the good safety zones are, where the good food is, and if you want to have that last um little fling on dating dot com, you've got to know where the doughs are. Well, Mark, I saw your son just killed a great buck there, and why coming over Thanksgiving break, why don't you tell us about that hunting, the deer activity you saw in those sits. And I just i'd just come back myself, so I hadn't had a lot of time to scout. I scouted one evening the night before Thanksgiving, and he was flying home late that night, and what I saw was some pretty good buck activity that night. It was cool. There was four or five bucks working a group of dos and they were definitely in pursuit. And I spotted another buck off on the stage brush. These are white tails. That was had a hot doll. He had pushed off out and away from all the other deer. So to me, it looked like it's going to be a good hunt. We we ran right into that exact factor. The next morning, a lot of deer moving. We were hunting some creek bottoms. The bucks were cruising, the dos were still wanting to get you know, and be chased by the bucks. And uh, we even spotted a hot doll that afternoon. And then driving out that day, we spotted a really big buck cruise in the middle of the day, ten or ten living in the morning. He walked right across the road in front of us. We tried to get on him, but we couldn't get on him. And uh, but the problem we ran into and this is the problem. You know, I'm no different than anyone else. Right, that was Thanksgiving, We hunted. Nobody was out the next day. Everybody had the three day weekend and people were everywhere. And I didn't have exclusive rights to this property. So we were sitting there waiting for the bucks to come to us. Well, there's other people hunting this property for the next two days wanted to do deer drive and they just totally pushed everything off the property. So I had to go to Plan B, which was to hunt where we've seen this bigger buck and hunt on the fringe areas where deer were going back and forth between property boundaries. And that gets a little sticky because then you've got to make sure that your shot is perfect dead on, because you don't want to deal with angry landowners of a buck, you know, jumps the fence and you got to track him on the other side. And uh, we stuck to our guns there and went after the big ones and out of a big one and Cole made a great stock on a buck that was on a hot doll. Another buck was there and another doll, so he had to crawl in close to these deer without being spotted with all these eyes, and he did it. He ground crawled right on his belly right there through some prairie graphs and and made a great shot at just under three yards on a buck that was running yet right at the end of November. Well, if you want to see some awesome pictures from that hot you can check out Mark Keyser's Facebook page. But Mark, going forward in this next week or so, what do you think the bucket activity is going to be then in that area, in this area and much of the white tailed zone, but specifically this area, it's gonna start dropping off fast and in some places. One of the other spots we looked at that very day shot that buck. I went to another property and last day it was almost night and day. Those white tail bucks were kind of laid up, not really want to run. So you're going to see in the next week it's it's gonna are shutting down fast. Now that doesn't mean you still can't get into some running, but what it will mean is the bucks that have done the majority of the running, especially the four and a half year old that you know, they're just the athletes, they're gonna be pretty darned tired. You're gonna see the two and a half year old still moving good, some of the three and a half year old, but four fives and up, those deer that are their dominant deer, they're they're tired and they're not gonna do any hard running unless they absolutely know what doe was an asterisk. Alright, Mark, well that's some great information and good luck on the rest of your season. Thanks for joining me. Thank you sir, all right and joining me on the line. Last is Bill Winkie, the owner of Midwest White Tails. Now, Bill, you have had an outstanding season thus far, taking two incredible bucks, but I know you're still on the hunt for some doughs in Iowa there. What would you say the buck activity has been on a scale of one to ten lately, so during the past week, Uh, I think it really starts ramping down, um during the week that we're in. So, you know, four or five days ago, I might have said it was a six, and now I might say that it's a three or a four. Um, you know, working its way downward just because of the distance we are from the the breeding cycle that you just get that trailing off a fact where you've got a few doughs that are still an asteris and then they start to get mopped up and then pretty soon you know, there's really not much left um to get those bucks on their feet. So my thinking is usually around they of November is more or less when the primary ruts starts to shut down to the point where you know, I don't hut mornings typically after about the November because the amount of daylight movement in the morning is pretty low among bucks. Um. There's always exceptions. Of course, individual deer can behave differently, and you can have you know, certain population dynamics where you've got maybe a higher number of doughs in a certain area where maybe you're gonna pick up a few more of them, you know, a few more bucks on their feet, you know, trying to find that last dough. But you know, on average, the November is kind of the closing date in my mind for the normal running activity. Do you think that the buck movement in general has declined or just the daylight movement. I think they're in bucks. I think the ball movement in general has declined. Um. But overall, if you're looking for deer, I think the amount of deer movement is actually up now because the dose kind of hide during the the peak of the breeding portion of the rut. They just get pastored so much, they just don't really come out and they opened very much like they do you know, other times of the season. So I'm seeing a lot more doughs, now tons of dos, and then the odd box still poking around. But it's not you know, it's it's not anything like which you would have seen even just a week ago. So you really alluded to evening sits there. Um, if you were hunting an evening still trying to get a buck on the ground, would you be more focused on their bedding or dose? Right now? We're looking for a food source. I've I've had pretty decent success at this time of the season um in the past, and I was always hunting on food. This year, I don't have a buck tag last We saw a pretty nice block last night while we were dough hunting, you know, so there was some activity and he wasn't really looking to eat. He came out, worked a couple of scrapes, made one loop through the field, and then went right back into the timber again. So you know, like I said, there's always going to be exceptions. But all the other bucks that we saw last night, which weren't a large number, were pretty pretty small number of bucks. They were all feeding. They weren't looking at the does at all, So that's I would say, that's sort of what you you get, You get the odd one that still acts like it's the rots, and then the rest of them are most interested in food. So with that in mind, you know, I'm almost focused on food sources now. I think you can probably get by with a little bit of morning hunting. Yet, if you if you're a hardcore and you don't have anything else that you have to do, you know, you don't have any other obligations that are going to keep you out of the field, then there's no reason not to hunt mornings. If you're gonna do that, you might as well poke around those do betting areas for a little bit longer, because you still get the odd buck. You know that it still does think it's the rut, But you know, like I said, it's it's really starting to slow down fast. And the best show in town right now is going to be sitting on the food. Well, you just talked about scrapes there a little bit, And do you think that there's any useful information you can get from deer sign right now, like scrapes and rubs, and do you think you'll find a lot of deer still hitting those? I don't know. I'm not really a big sign guy. Um. I used to try that when I was early in my hunting education. I tried to make sense out of all that stuff, and I just got more and more confused, and it led me down the wrong roads. So I don't really pay much attention to it. To be honest with you, UM, I don't know what I would gain from signed at this point. The only sign I think that's really relevant is stuff that you can identify. Um, the one that made the sign. I mean, everybody thinks, oh, there's a big rub, it had to be made by a big buck. I've just seen way too many year and a half whole bucks polishing up big trees. Um, you don't have to have a big buck to make a big rub. We've got telephone poles out here that are you know, probably an inch or or more, you know, in in circumference, smaller in the areas where the deer rubbing on, theyven rubbin on that hard and uh, you know, you see everything you know on the planet that's rubbing on those things. And it's not just you know, some some kind of gigantic buck that would take on a telephone pole. What about going forward in this next week or so, what do you think the buck activity will be then on a scale of one to ten, I think it's gonna start ramping back up again unless you've got hunting pressure. But it's gonna be on the food, and it's gonna be on feeding patterns. And you had this period when the rutt lays down, when the bucks are their their war out. They might be beat up, they might be even wounded and injured, you know, where they need to just lay down for for a week or so and and lick their wounds, and then they get back into the serious business of trying to you know, put the fat back on again or you know, put the weight back on again. That they lost her in the rut. So I would say that really starts going pretty pretty hard, you know, around the first of December or so. Uh, you really see that that called the flight to food, you know, where those bucks are really focused on eating. Um. So, as long as it's a little bit cold and the deer have been hunted real hard, you know, so that they're only nocturnal, you should actually see an improvement in the number of bucks, but they'll be on primarily feeding patterns. All right, Bill, Well, good luck with the rest of your season getting some dose down and if you guys haven't seen it yet, go to Midwest whitetail dot com to see the two awesome deer that Bill harvested this year. And thanks for your time, Bill, I appreciate it. Thank you, Spencer. And that concludes the final episode of Wired Haunt's Rut Radio. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review on iTunes and follow Wired Haunt on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Spencer new Heart. Thank so much to everybody who provided reports this season and everybody who listened to the podcast. This will not have been possible without you.