00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number two four and today, like we are every week on Wednesday's, we're back with another RUT Radio episode in which we're catching you up on the latest deer and RUT related reports from across the country, getting you the info on the conditions, the dear behavior and the tactics need to know right now. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx, and we are here for our weekly RUT radio mini series. It's me and Spencer and we're gonna do what we do every Wednesday, which is walk you through a series of reports from hunters across the country to get us an idea of what's happening right now in the White Tail woods. What kind of deer activity um, what kind of tactics are working, How is the weather and other conditions present influencing deer movement and hunting. Basically everything you need to know to make sure that your next few hunts are going to be successful. That's what we're gonna try to get you today, and Spencer, I don't know about you, but anecdotally looking across the country, just from like my social networks and stories and then also a little bit of my own observation, I feel like the last seven to ten days have been one of the better mid October time periods that I can remember. Do you feel the same way. I feel like I've seen a lot of deer hitting the ground. Um, I don't know if I've seen it like super isolated to a couple of days stretch like we did, uh two weekends ago, so like I think it was October fourteen. In that time period. The episode before that, people were predicting that there'd be a lot of deer moving around because of the approaching cold front, and that seemed to happen. There were a ton of deer killed that weekend. Since then, I'd agree that I've seen a lot of bucks killed, But I don't know about like that really tight couple day window like we maybe saw a few weeks ago. Yeah, that was definitely the best. I think that that when that front hit, that was awesome. But from that like about to about like a couple of days ago, it just seemed like it seemed like my Facebook feed looked like November compared to most of towers octobers, you're just not seeing that many of them hitting the ground. It just seemed like, Wow, people were having a lot of success, So that was exciting to see. Um, what what are we hearing? Though? Do you have any can you give me any kind of trend as far as what your reports have given us for this coming week or what they've been hearing. So let's back up, Like two episodes ago, people were really excited for the approaching cold front, so we were hearing some super optimistic numbers. Last week things that kind of tapered off in what you'd expect for mid October as far as predicting on a scale one to ten what they think the buck activity would be. And this week we're climbing back up again where people are optimistic. However, I wouldn't say it's like it was a few episodes ago where uh people were feeling that the cold front coming through and we're excited about the pressure changes and stuff like that. And it's also not like last year. If you recall last year, Mark, Uh, we had some just perfectly time cold fronts if you took your calendar and circle days where you wanted cold fronts, we got them. Um, this year is not the same thing. I don't see any cold fronts in like the Great Planes approaching anytime soon. And uh, the hunters that we talked to this week don't address that either. So the optimism that you're gonna be hearing and the confidence that people feel about the buck movement picking up, that's because we're approaching November, not so much because there's a specific moon phase, weather pattern, pressure change, UM, food stay it is something like that that's kind of driving those deer to get on their feet. Yeah, that's an interesting point. And UM to that point, I just looked at my like two week forecast for here in Michigan, and what we have coming up is very stable weather. It doesn't seem now. Of course, this could change drastically, but as of right now, they're predicting almost the same general temperatures for highs and lows for the next two weeks. So that typically would be something that I wouldn't be as excited about, right because sometimes we tend to see that there's some some increases in movement around those changes in temperature around those fronts moving through and you'll get this burst of activity, um for the next two weeks. I'm not seeing that. But on the bright side, at least here where I'm at, it seems like that temperature is going to be holding below average temperature the whole way, So we don't have any of these warm fronts like these dreaded late October early November warm fronts that we seem to get every year where there's a few days there, you know, for us here Michigan, if we get a couple of days over seventy or in the high sixties, that's like a huge suppressor of writing activity. At least right now, knock on wood, I don't see that coming that way. So, UM, it's gonna be interesting to see how that influences things. If we're just gonna have this kind of steady movement that slowly tapers up as writting activity tapers up, um, since we don't have a big front that's going to come through and hit you know, the accelerator. UM. But I guess I guess, as I'm saying all this, I'm not going to complain because I'll take forty five to fifty degrees any day of the week. Um, any time of year usually it's not too bad. So, um, what's the point of me saying all this? I don't know. I'm just kind of rambling as I think about this weather. It's got me excited. Um for forty five degrees on October thirty one, I'll be hunting the Holy Field property next to that point. I think there's a few things you can take away from that. One is that, uh, you don't have to feel pressure to like be out there on a weekday necessarily where uh if we did have a cold front coming up, like next Wednesday, you'd feel super guilty for not being enter tree stand on October thirty one with a cold front coming through. You know that. Uh you know, October November three are probably gonna hunt very similar to you know, like a midweek day when there's no cold front. The other thing to consider is that as you look ahead of these forecasts, if we see that stable weather, we're probably seeing stable wind as well. You're gonna get a lot of uh, you know, four or five days in a row with the exact same wind. And so keep in mind that do a checklist if you have enough stands to support like a ton of consecutive same wind days, so you're not burning an area out before we get to the best hunting of the year in early November. It's a very good couple of points. They're spencer. UM. I have had situations like that happened before, so that's a great thing to keep in mind. UM. So that said, then we've got pretty stable weather patterns coming up. We're moving into late October, which generally is that time when the pre rut is picking up. We're starting to see bucks, mature bucks starting to move a little bit earlier in the day or move a little later in the morning, so we're gonna see that daylight activity picking up. Signmaking is definitely picking up. UM. I can give you a little Michigan report if you're okay with that. I pulled camera as a handful of days ago. And they've also been observing a lot um on a couple mainly my my holy Field property been sitting on the hill doing a lot of observing. There's been a lot of daylight activity from kind of young mature issue bucks, so like two year olds, three year old tons of activity right now. The scrapes are just getting blown up, um, including you know, like I said, even in the daylight, fence fence line scrapes in the daylight even are getting hammered by like pretty nice Michigan bucks. So that's been interesting to me. Uh. And I think I've been testing most of that to the front, the cold front. The cold weather pushed through. I think got these deer a little more comfortable. And these are very unpressured dear where I'm at, or at least I've been keeping this specific little chunk as unpressure as possible. Haven't hunted at all. Um, So that's kind of what I've seen. I give it like a higher end of the one to ten scale for my last few days just from what I've been seeing, like a like a seven maybe. Um, I have seen three year old, a couple of bucks that I've been on the fence at the three or four seeing those deer moving in daylight the last like three or four days. Even so, um, that's my Michigan report across the board. I also did here, and I know we're going over the time limit, Spencer, so I'm started to keep doing this to you. Um. But I had another friend who was out three days ago, so this would have been like the nineteenth maybe, and he saw two mature bucks fighting, he saw nine bucks total, He saw bucks chasing, he saw like full blown running action on that day. I think it's the morning of the nineteent um, So that was interesting. I think it's an anomaly, right I'm not claiming that there's some kind of like the Ruts happening right now, but it was an interesting anomaly to see that. Every once in a while, you see something that happened this time May year, and um, it caught my attension. So that's what I've been seeing. Do you have anything you personally should share? Uh? Not personally. I have been kind of taking it easy lately because once we hit this weekend, I'll have about a month straight where I'll be hunting. I mean literally every day for about a month, I'll be hunting. So until then, I haven't been doing too much so I don't burn myself out or burn my wife out from being gone so much. So nothing personally, but as far as who we talked to you this week, we have Josh McDaniel in Indiana from Shooters Archery, and then Philip Vanderpool in Arkansas from the Virtue TV. Then we talked to Justin Michael from ever Wild Collective in New York and then from Captured Creative Taylor Coleman in Minnesota. Do you have one takeaway from the conversations we've had so far, um, or anything else as far as something that people should think about over the next six or seven days. UM, I don't know about from who we talked to today, I guess one thing is referencing last year's episode again, is that every single person we talked you brought up acorns, and this year, unless I prompted and ask them about acorns, that doesn't really come up. And so acorns are not similar to it's an issue of an issue this season. You can probably look to some of those more traditional food sources, food plots, uh, agriculture, that kind of thing. Okay, I like it. I will give a quick one to UM, and that being this next week, the last week of October typically is one of your best chances of the year if you're trying to kill a specific deer, because once you get into November, once you're in the peak of the rut, lots of time these mature bucks they get off of their usual patterns and they just start going Willie NAILI they're chasing does or cruising larger areas looking for a female. It's willing and ready to go. So he's not going to be doing what he typically does. But if you have a specific buck that you've learned a lot about, maybe you've got a few years of history with you know some of the places he generally beds, you know some of the places he generally feeds, and you think you know how to get in between those two. If you have that information, this might be your very best chance to get that shot. Because he's still going to be generally on that pattern, but because we're ramping up to the pre rut time period, he might be moving in daylight just a little bit more. So this might be that period to catch him moving daylight, but still in a place that you understand him and you know about him before he starts going crazy in November. Now, not all deer like that. I've had bucks that, you know, stay consistent in a tight area during the rut year after year, even in the first or second week in November. But something to keep in mind as a lot of mature bucks tend not to do that. Yeah, and for some guys who target specific books, this is literally their favorite time off year to be hunting. They would take uh, you know, the October twenties over the November you know, signaling digit days. So if if there's a deer that you've been after that he's been nocturnal for the most part, this might be your time to catch him moving before he completely breaks away from that uh and loses his mind come early November. Yeah. So if that's you, I'm gonna cross all my fingers and toasts for everyone listening. If you've got a specific buck, hopefully, uh, hopefully you can get after him, So Spencer, anything else before we get on with the reports. One nice thing while you were giving that last bit of information about talking a specific deer, I did check out the forecast for wind direction, and twelve of the next fourteen days are predicted to be north winds. And so, like I said before, keep that in mind. Uh, maybe don't burn out those north winds stands quite yet. Or if you have a south wind stand that you really love to haunt that you've been you know, holding off for early November or something, get in those as soon as possible because you might not have any chances to hunt it before the best action gets here. Yeah, I'll add one more thing now. Um. I can't personally say that I paid attention to this as much myself, but Mark Jury always talks about if you've got a long consistent spell of north winds, the first south is going to be really good. That change could be one of your better days. So we've been talking about this stable weather. Well, if there's a shifting wind direction, that might be one of those sparks that changes things. So if you're looking for a time to switch things up or time to dive in, um, that first south might be something to take advantage of. Just a thought. All right, let's get out of here with it and go to our first color. Sounds good, alright, But before we get to our first color, let's pause for a word from our sponsors at white Tail Properties. This week with white Tail Properties, we were joined by Justin Mason, a land specialist out of Illinois, and Justin is gonna be telling us about what some things are to consider when looking at a property that frequently floods. I think the biggest thing to consider when looking at a property that floods, there's a misconception that flooded ground doesn't hold beer and I have found that personal on my own farm to be false. Um, I had perfect video of this just a couple of weeks ago. The river got up less than forty eight hours later that there, we're back in there. So I think, what if you have property that plugs you need to try to identify a kind of that high ground and make sure you know that the high ground has as much food and cover on it as you can get. That way, when it pushes those deer out, they have a place to go, and hopefully you can still keep them on your property without losing them to your neighbor. If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties that Justin currently has listed for sale, visit whitetail properties dot com. Backslash Mason that's m A S O N alright, and joining me on the line first is Josh McDaniel from Shooters Archery in Indiana and Josh in Indiana. What would you say? The bucket activity has been lately on a skill of one to ten? All right now, I'd say we're looking at it probably a six, you said, I said six, because I'm not really seeing a lot of mature bucks walking during daylight. A whole lot yet, especially from from the hunts that we've been on and what the camera's telling me, I am seeing a lot of two year old you're an a half year old bucks. Um, definitely getting out about a little bit more so, I guess if you know that buck activity is definitely rubbing up. It's it's a little bit of higher scale, but the caliberty or we're looking for, it's still a lot of nighttime activity. But I am getting getting a lot of pictures of them starting to cruise around a little bit and purchase scraper growth quick. Are you finding a lot of signmaking in the woods right now? Oh? Yeah, right now. This is the last few days I've been out checking cameras and moving some cameras. This time year, I like to really start to uh, either put cameras on scrapes or start to make my own MOX scrapes where I've aloys seen existing scrapes in the past, and a lot of times they're just on the edges of food sources where I can get in and out just kind of get an inventory. And um, yesterday, I think it was yesterday, and the day before I was out and man, I tell you what it's it's kind of this last cold front really got them repped up, and there's rubs and scrapes everywhere right now, especially all long food sources with a lot of these big dog groups are I'll find a lot of those big, those big hood South size scrapes everywhere. So, um, I definitely think it's in the right direction that all my cameras are still telling me it's a lot of nighttime activity for them true bucks. But you know, you know what comes next, so kind of definitely exciting. Do you use that information for any hunting purposes? And what I mean is when you find all those scrapes lit up along a food source, will you set up and hunt there or are you just using that for inventory on what bucks are around? You know, for the most part, I'm kind of using that for inventory. But every once in a while, you know, we get these cameras on, you'll get one of those bucks are just super killable over those scrapes, and um, you know, especially you get a lot of these big dog groups that are all in this food spurts. Uh, these bucks, these mature bucks are going to keep an eye on them, and they want to be the first when one of those dude, But those inside of pop so um. You know, if I get one of those mature bucks that are showing me he's there every other day, every every day during daylight, you know about what means, I'll slip right in there and try to kill him, um um. And you know this time of year, I'm really trying to be careful. I don't want a whole lot of morning yet. I can get lucky, but I just feel like myself, I'm doing a lot more harm than good. And I just let those cameras and and you know, observation sets and I'm sitting and kind of tell me what's going on. And as soon as I start to get one of those bucks that are show them, they're killed. But we'll kind of dive in with the right wind. But yeah, those those those scrapes are mostly from inventory lots camera that got on them. But like I said, one out of one out of ten will show you there's a buck that you won't be shot down. You know, we'll dive right in there and shoot him if we if we can. What would get you making a morning set up sooner than late October for example tomorrow, if if we had the correct moon phase or cold front, or you know, rising pressure. What might that be to get you haunting some morning sooner? Uh? Yeah, you know, if if if I got that cold front coming in now that we're into the twenties of October, Um, you know, now if I get that the high pressure morning with uh you know, we're down in the in the thirties and uh, you know, and these cameras, you know, like I said, they're telling me, they're all it's all still pret nocturnal stuff. So it really takes something good for me to to get out there. But now that, like I said, now that we're getting into the twenties and November or October, sorry, um, it's about that time. Yeah, well I'm looking forward to that first morning and it's definitely take a good cold front for me to the high pressure morning to get out there. What are your calling strategies for this time of year? Will you do any blind calling or do you for sure have your grunt tube with you? Oh? Absolutely, Yeah. This is my favorite time of year to call, uh because you know a lot of these bucks, these mature bucks are just starting to get ripped up, and it does aren't quite ready yet. Um. You have occasional dough a little popular in there, but for the most part, the majority of the does are. You know, they're not ready, but a lot of these bucks are, So you get on some of these food sources, especially if a lot of my sets. If I'm not dove, if I haven't dove right into where I need to be yet, I'm still kind of an observation set. But I'm still in a spot that I can kill one. You know, big dude comes out into a field and he's pretty far away out. You know. Sometimes all it takes a few few tending grams and he's on his way and can you can see the deal automatically. Um. But they're like I said, they're really they're really fired up, a lot of them and that's all it takes. They're looking, you know, they're so frustrated, and uh, you know, a lot of bucks are still kind of pushing each other around, trying to um find out who the domino ones are over um for the for the rest of the rut, and I'll even tickle the horns a little bit. This time of year. I usually get too crazy with it, but I have been seeing a lot of spawning already with a lot of these two year olds and sometimes that might be all it takes to entice one of those big dudes that we're gonna come out after dark might be enough to get him, you know, thirty minutes before last shooting light, to get on his feet and give you the shot you're looking for. Going forward, then the six week or so, what do you think that bucket activity is going to be on the scale of one to ten in Indiana? Uh? This next week? Um, as far as mature bucks again, I think we're going to be at a seven on its way to an eight. As long as the weather cooperates. I'd love to I'd love to get after it that last week of October at least last three or four days for Halloween tip the weather's right, and then obviously we started rolling the sweet November, so that anything happened is just gonna go up a little bit every day again as long as the weather is good. UM, really looking forward to, like I said, probably seven going into an eight this next week. Ali, Josh, I'm sure you and Kristin will have a bb D here very soon. So good luck and thanks for joining me. Good luck to you too, good Man, Thanks alright and joining us on the line. Next is justin Michelle from New York, from the ever Wild Collective, justin in New York. What would you say the bucket activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten, uh, buck activity has been around a six. I would say, I think we're beginning to see quite a bit more movement with these bucks. And I know that past two or three times we've been to the woods. Uh, there's quite a bit of sign that's popping up. So we got rubs and scrapes that are, um, you know, traditionally where we thought they would be, but even some popping up in new spots. And we've been getting a decent amount of rain. So going out after those and even going out during those rain showers to check cameras, you could definitely tell that that these bucks are kind of on the move with you know, making sure that those are updated and and uh and freshened as as the rain passes through. I think in a lot of the country that signmaking has peaked. But what do you guys do with that information? When you find a bunch of rubs or scrapes somewhere, are you setting up on that to hunt or you just putting cameras on there to to get inventory of what deer around. Yeah, we we're using the scrapes that are that are popping up. We will throw a camera on those as well. But we also have some mock scrapes that we've started that the box are using as well. Um, but yeah, we're we we don't typically set up on those, although, um, it seems that we have a few that have popped up near stand locations that we prefer, um, you know, typically where we are we get a traditionally west uh northwest winds. So um, some of those are actually gonna be pretty beneficial. Last night I sat and saw probably a three and a half year old buck on its feet right before dark, which was the best encounter I had had so far. He had a busted off rights right side already, but he kind of followed the plan. He came down a trail that had a scrape on it, and and I watched him go over to uh, a scrape that popped up near one of our stand locations, and he you know, he scraped and freshened, and then as soon as he was done, there were six doughs probably third in your forty yards from him. He immediately took off after one of those does chased her, and um, so I think we're beginning to see, you know, a bit more of that aggression and frustration that's uh, that's peaking now. And you know the dough got away a couple of minutes later, he was doing his best to take a tree down. So I think we're beginning to see a little bit more of that, uh, that movement and that activity that we're all looking for. What does what do the food sources look like in New York right now? Well, we have a fair amount of acorns, but traditionally the spots that we hunt don't have a lot of of oaks, so we're still seeing um does coming out to green fields. Um. You know, we have a fair amount of alfalfa here and a lot of the corn that that is around the areas that we're able to access is been down now for a month. Uh yeah, about a month, so those have have dried up with activity for the most part. So I'm sure there's some brows in the woods. But yeah, last night, even coming out, there were does out in the field in yafalfa. What strategies do you have for calling this time of year for the most part, we stay fairly quiet. Um. You know, New York is a pretty heavily pressured area, so we we tend to stay quiet until another week or two when things start beat up a bit and uh, and more of that talking is you know acceptable. Um, there's just so many guys in the woods and um, we we try our best to keep the calls in the bag until you know, if you know, I was ready last night, had it had a deer popped up at that scrape or whatever, that if I could have pulled him over just a bit, then I probably would have done that. But we're not really doing much blind calling at all at this point. How about with morning setups? U is the time of year when people tend to get a little more aggressive and doing a lot more mornings. It's how about you guys in New York. Yeah, we we typically hold off on those, at least this year. We have a lot of our setups are just hard to access in the mornings. Again, there's so much farmland around us, and it just seems that most every good spot that we need to get to is uh. You you know, you're exposing yourself while they're out feeding. So we're just not to a point where the does are you know, kind of hiding from the books and and they're out there and we're trying to keep them as uneducated as possible up to this point. Going forward, then the six week or so, what do you think that budget activity will be on a scale of one to ten in New York? I think it's kind of I think it's kind of increase. As yesterday I would have said somewhere around a four or five. But after last night sit and uh and talking to a friend with who had killed a pretty nice buck day before yesterday, it does seem like it's ramping up. So I think by you know, a week from an hour, within the next week, we could be, you know, closer to a seven. All right, justin well, good luck to even the guys from ever Wild Collective. Thanks for joining me, Thanks so much, Spencer, alright and joining us on the line. Next is Taylor Coleman from Captured Creative in Minnesota. Now, Taylor in Minnesota, what would you say the buck activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten. I would say the buck activity in Minnesota here has been a solid six to seven out of ten in the last week. Um, before before the middle of this past week, it was probably down at like a three, But just in the last five days or so, it's really been picking up. Um. We're seeing mature bucks on their feet before before the end of light and and actually there's been a few sightings of them tailing was already as well. Is there any reason specifically that you think the buff move has gotten so much better some weather front or crop status, or just because we're getting closer to November. So typically for us, the rut hits the first two weeks of November. Um, but this year it seems like it's been a little earlier. I mean there's even guys hunting the first week of October that we're seeing deer movement that they typically don't see until the end of October. And I think all that is because of the few cold fronts that we had sort of hit us early. Even we had one major cold front hit us already at the end of September, and then there was another big push that came through the first weekend of October, and those were those kind of caught us off guard. Um. We even had temps down into into the twenties, which is very uh unlike the norm for Minnesota at the first of October. I think that that is pushing some of the buck to start chasing a little earlier. And then on top of that, in the last few days here with the rud activity really picking up, we've had some really strong pressure spikes that I think is aiding that as well as the moon phase. What are the food sources like right now in Minnesota? M are there still a lot of steaming crops around And how's the acorn crop look this year? So the acorn crop is is very strong this year. Um, it seems like everybody that is able to hunt over acorns has said that there's this acorns covering the ground. Unfortunately, I'm not able to hunt over any acorn crops, but um, where I am hunting, I'm hunting a lot of egg fields. And the soybean harvest is probably around out right now. Seems like there's guys rolling every day and soybeans out, and then there's actually some that have moved on to corn and pulled some corn out and probably probably say the corn harvest is around twenty out right now and in the next week that's going to change a lot. So by the by the middle of rut. Like the first week of November, we should be seeing a lot of egg fields already being harvested. It sounds like you're hunting a lot of field edgese right now on those field edgies. What does the signmaking look like lately? Do you think we've we've hit peak rubbing and scraping it? Yeah, I would say it's on at the peak of of the bucks in their pre rut action. Um. There's every scrape that I walk past on the way that my deer stands is freshened up every single day. Um. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to be sitting next to one of those when a buck actually comes in to check it out. But um, or a mature buck, I should say. Last night I was actually sitting over in about twenty yards from me, and I had two year and a half old bucks both come in and they were pond at the ground and and working that scrape. So and the and the ruts, it seems like the rubs, I should say, are really active and showing up on all the little trees right now in the last week going forward, then it's next week or so. What do you think that buck activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Minnesota, I would I would put the next next week of buck activity out of ten. So I think this next week is going to be the best time to be in the woods. Um As gun hunting starts the first two weeks of November, So leading up to that gun hunting, um, this is going to be the best time for bow hunters to hit the woods. All Right, Taylor will like your optimism in Minnesota. Thanks for joining me in good luck. Thank you alright and joining us on the line. Next is Philip Vanderpool from the Virtue TV in Arkansas. Now, Philip in Arkansas, what would you the buck activity has been lately? On skill of one to ten, I'd say the buck activity has probably been about a seven or an eight. It's it's starting to happen. Yeah, starting to see a lot of movement. Uh. New bucks are showing up. A matter of fact, a buckeye nicknamed o j Um probably jumping the gun here a little bit showed up this morning and daylight right in front of my three stand the covert trail cameras is telling me the story right there on what's going on. That's that's the good thing. I'm kind of doing it from those LTE cameras to sell camps. They're really helping out. Well, Philip, let's back up a few days, because you just killed a monster buck in Arkansas, and that dear is a world class white till no matter what part of the country you to kill it in. So tell us a little bit about that buck and a little bit about that hunt, just you know, the short version of it. This is a book I nicknamed Obsession. This has been a three year quest. He had a range of about five miles us. Um. I'm finding out from the neighbors there was more people hunting than I thought, and nobody has showed me a daylight picture yet. This deer was totally a nocturnal deer from what we've seen. But uh, I put in a big time buck brunch food plot. I had the covert trail cameras out and just hand planted this plot. And this last Saturday, I was fortunate enough to get an arrow on this big guy. And it's the first time I had really ever seen him in daylight. Right there, I self video the hunt and uh with my new ritual bow. That's a bow that's not Uh. The R thirty that's just now getting Letty to be released, and that makes my second hundred and seventy class white tail that I've taken this this fall. I've been truly blessed um And like I said, this is probably maybe the highlight of my career because this is I shot this buck less than fifty yards or where I shot my very first pope in young white tail by in that I actually won the Arkansas Big Buck Classic in the archery division and one third overall. But to take a buck of this caliber, he is just I believe he has the biggest frame of any white tail that ever taken in and I think I've got over eighty amounts now and all bow kills, and he's just unbelievable. My emotion, and then having my granddaughter who was four years old is wanting to go hunting with her papa all the time. She was right there when we've done the recovery. Uh Ronda was there, my wife, and we just it was just a big buck celebration totally. That was simply off the charts. I've been truly blessed this year. Was there something specific about that day you killed that buck on October? Was there some sort of condition about October twenty that made you go after him, or do you think you had him pegs so good that you would have had you kill him? Uh? You know all throughout the end of October here. Uh no, the deer. I think the whole key to this was the food plot. It just seemed to be right in his travel pattern. For one thing, He's coming out of this big thicket. I had found shed antlers of him from from actually three years ago when I started really putting the time in it. But I think the weather conditions. The day before it rained all day. I couldn't hunt, and I mean it was just pouring down all day. And then right before dark I actually went out to hunt a ground blind where I had an encounter with him the evening before, which was the very first time I'd ever laid eyes on the deer. But he was within bow range. He got within fifteen yards of me, and I could not get the shot. He bumped a spike off and I couldn't get the shot. The next day it rained all day and then I knew I needed to be in that tree stand, but I because of the weather conditions with all the camera gear and me self video, and I decided that I'm gonna stay out. I'm gonna hunt the ground one because I can stay dry. He didn't show up ahead of another buck, or to show up in front of the ground line. But that buck showed up that evening right in front of my trail camera again in the pouring rain. I couldn't believe it. And he's after in the food plot and a my heart just sink because of the next day was muzzle at the season. And then I knew I had to get in there. So I got in there the next day and I hunted all day. Okay, I got in that. I got in that tree stand all hour, hour and a half before daylight, and I stayed and I had some four small small bucks come in, but he didn't show. And then right a six thirty prime time that last thirty minutes to light. I'm an emotional person anyway, but I could not control my emotion. I was literally in a in a world to myself. I mean, and I give God all the glory. I mean, without him, I couldn't be doing this. And uh, but I was blessed. I had a feeling. I got this overwhelming feeling before I blew that stretch back grunt. Call that something good? What's gonna happen? Dwell any how, two would have been emotional having that happened, even someone who has eighty months on the wall. So I'm gonna back up even further out to last season, Philip. When I talked to you then you had talked about the overwhelming acorn crop in Arkansas? Is that the case again this season? Not not so? Uh from what I've been out and seeing their very spotty this year. So people out there looking. Uh, where I'm finding most of my acorns this year, for sure is around those edges of fields or openings where they where they're getting more sunlight, if if that makes sense. Um, and uh there again now on the property that I'm hunting here, what I am finding is some of those I don't know for sure. I think it's a red oak variety tree. Uh. They're little, their little bitty acrons and and I say akrons here. I'm sorry, I'm from the south. Down here, we can't pronounce right most of the time, but Bacon's down here. They're small on these big trees, and they're along this fence line, and they are absolutely bent over and I think that's another reason. And they're just now starting to fall, and so I'm gonna see more buck or more dear activity. I think on the proper I'm hunting because of that, and they're starting scrapes are starting to open up. I'm not seeing a lot of big bucks signed yet as far as rubs and scrapes. A matter of fact, obsession the buck I just shot, I don't think he has rubbed a single tree. Now. I've seen some good rubs, but it's it's those other bucks around that's doing it. And uh another buck I call obsession Junior. He's already broke off. He's he's really a big frame deer. He's gonna take after his daddy, I assume. And he's already broke off a G two right on the base of of of his uh main beam there, he's already snap one off. He's he's really an aggressive deer. It's funny how they all are different. Going forward. Then, in this next week or so, what do you think that Bucket TV is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Arkansas? I think it's gonna be about an eight or nine. Because we're gonna have the weather conditions, and if we continue to get this this cold snap in these cool temperatures, I think you're gonna see a lot of rud activity, especially when that broometer of pressure is a moving, especially on the rise. I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be exceptional myself. These muzzleloaders, it's a Muzzleloaders season right now. They're gonna tear it up. Art Film Will congrats again on the awesome deer. I'm sure you'll have a few more this season that go down. Thanks for joining me, Thank you appreciate the time. And that concludes this week's episode of Wire to Hunt's wrote Radio. Thanks to Josh, Philip Taylor, and Justin for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. As I always make sure you follow Wire to Haunt on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. And follow me Spencer New Heart and my blog rut Fresh on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well. And like you'll see in those reports and we talked about in this week's episode, the best time of year is approaching, so make sure you get some tree stand time in and good luck to everyone out there. Stay Wired to Hunt,

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