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Wired To Hunt

Ep. 254: Rut Radio 11/28/18

Silhouette of hunter holding deer antlers at sunset; text 'WIRED TO HUNT with Mark Kenyon'; left vertical 'MEATEATER PODCAST NETWORK'

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36m

Today on the show we’re back with another episode of Wired to Hunt‘s Rut Radio. We’ll be gathering whitetail reports from across the country regarding deer behavior, current conditions, and the tactics that are working right now. Joining us is...

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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 Kenyon. This episode number two d and fifty four and today we are back with another episode of Rut Radio in which we're hearing from hunters all across the country on the latest with the White Tail Rut, with deer activity, current conditions, and with the strategies and tactics can help you right now. All right, welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx and back today for radio, which is our weekly mini series during the season where we're talking to hunters all across the country to get the latest on what happening out there in the white tailed woods, the progress of the rut, different conditions that are impacting deer and deer hunting, what kind of tactics are working right now? And um, I gotta say I made a huge mistake last week, but because of with schedules, I could not make it for the Rut Radio show last year or last week. The intro that is so I said, Spencer, you know what, you're a mature adult. You can handle RUT Radio all by yourself this week. And then and then he goes off the rails talking about all sorts of crazy stuff which I actually really got to kick out of Spencer. I really enjoyed you speaking as my proxy. UM, well done, my friend, thank you. It would only be fair then if you just did this whole week solo for the intro, just to level things out. Yeah, I should have thought that ahead of time. UM. But but yeah, we're it is good to be back on here here about what's happening across the country. UM. I don't have a whole lot to myself because I've kind of taken the last week off to get caught up on family. Um, of course, the holidays and different things going on. After I've been out basically the last month hunting NonStop. I need to get requainting with my wife and son. So UM, that was good. But it sounds like you just keep on hunting. Um, your wife doesn't seem to care, so that's good. UM. I don't think we've talked on the podcast at least at least not about your Kentucky hunt. Are you interested in sharing about that because that was just a few days ago or last week, right, Yeah, that was pretty much exactly a week ago. Um, that property that I was hunting kind of sets up for like really good field edgies, and so it's kind of tougher in the mornings, but usually better in the evenings. And I was seeing all sorts of doughs on those hunts, like sometimes twenty two, two thirty to your total, with only a handful of bucks and usually small bucks. Um. Now, I don't think that's like really unusual, because I think Kentucky has one of the higher deer populations in the country, so seeing like thirty deer there might be like seeing you know, five or six somewhere else. So I was seeing a ton of deer, but just not the quality bucks that I know exist in that area. So I reached out to a few locals actually, including an outfit or a few hours south of there, and he had said that everyone in their camp was struggling as well, and it seemed like lockdown and some warmer weather had kind of shut things down for that week. So I was there for three days going into the last hunt. The last evening, I was like, I'm just gonna shoot the first thing. I want to go home. Um with some meat, because I don't kill a handful of d this year. And Adio happened to step out in the bean fields. I'm like, perfect, I'll take her, be happy with her and beyond the road to South Dakota. So it's gonna let her get a little bit closer and right behind her. The buck that I ended up killing stepped out. Happened to be the biggest book that I saw a week. It just came in the last twenty minute to the hunt, so it just about didn't happen. But um, that was the deer that I didn't see, you know, for all three days, and and the biggest year that I ended up seeing, Uh, just stepped out at that last moment. What do you think was he like stepping out in there like locked on that dough or what was he What was he doing? Do you think? Yeah? He was he was short behind the dough. He was right behind her, and so um, had I not let that doll getting closer and I just would have, you know, shot her right there, I would have never seen that buck because he was he was right on her tail. Um, So I think there was still some really quality running activity going in going on in Kentucky last week, but you maybe had to be uh in a little bit thicker timber or just you know, be there a few days earlier, a few days later to catch some of those cruising bucks. So was that consistent with what you've been hearing from other folks this week? Yeah? I think this week, you know, we're not hearing anything about lockdown released, so that was that kind of information is probably seven to eight, seven to ten days old, uh for most of the country, but we're still hearing about some like trickling post rout activity and so specifically with those mature bucks. This is something you'll hear talked about in this week's episode and something that you even wrote about Mark for the Meat Eater last week about how for the rut the younger bucks, it seems to be a sprint, but for the older bucks it's more of a marathon. And so you can still find them cruising, uh, moving around at midday even into December because they have the I guess, the knowledge to to look for some of those last remaining willing does all the way through the end of the month. Yeah. And I've also seen and this is something that you know, it's sometimes overblown like people talk about the quote unquote second run like it's this huge thing, and at least from my experience, I'm talking a lot of people, it's it's not something I usually planned for or really count on or anything like that. But I have seen a couple of times during that, sometimes the first or second week of December. So for people listening right now, you know, coming up here, maybe the first few days of December. Sometimes you'll get these fawns that reach sexual maturity by that, you know, thirty days after when most doughs are coming into Estra. So let's say that is, if most of those in Michigan are coming into Estrius somewhere around the first couple of weeks of November, then you might get some of these really super healthy, more mature fauns might come in the first week or two of December. And if you happen to catch that, and again I'm saying, this is usually pretty rare, at least where I hunt, But if you happen to catch it, you might get one of these funds that gets hot and she might pull in a bunch of bucks. You could have a little mini rutfest. Um I had this happened to me last year in Ohio where there's one little faun that happened to be, you know, ready to go, and she pulled like seven or eight bucks run around bucks fighting, like full blown November type action on December seven. Um, so I would just say, you know, I wouldn't necessary plan for that, but if you happen to see that kind of thing, don't dismiss it as some random anomaly that just happened to happen tonight. You know, realize that that dough is probably in heat, that fawns probably in heat, and try to take advantage of that over the next couple of hunts. Keen on that. Just like you would if you saw a hot dough on November seven, you'd want to get right back in there because it's probably gonna be you know, bucks a rounder. Um, the same thing could possibly happen right now. So that's just something that I do keep in mind and keep an eye out for. And on that point, I would say probably the biggest factor if you are having a strong secondary road or even a witnessed secondary road, is what that age classes like in your area. Now. Talking to Bryce Lamley and Nebraska a few times this year, he has mentioned how there's hardly any fawns around um because there's tons of coyotes in the air, tons of predators. Uh, the coyote help prices or way down. And so with his record keeping link over the last thirty years, this is the least amount of fonds that he's ever seen. And so in an area like that, if that's what your herd looks like, you're probably not going to see any kind of a secondary rut now. Like in Illinois this week we talked to Alex Gilstrom. He mentioned that their age structure seems to be back and recovered from the two thousand twelves e h D and so he is predicting a stronger secondary rut in his area. Are there any other factors marked that you think would attribute to like a strong or weak secondary rut or would you agree with that? No? I think um. I think also just available nutrition is another thing too, because I believe this to be true from what I understand that right, if you have dough excuse me, if you have fawns that are you know, being born at the right time, and then I have the necessary nutrition to be really healthy and to be at the you know, to be able to be sexually mature and healthy enough to be able to come into estrus at this time period. I think those things are not going to be the case in all areas, So in northern Michigan where the very little food and maybe there's a really screwed up buckador ratio or age structure where maybe you're gonna have fawns dropping at different times in the spring and they're not gonna get a lot of great food. I'd imagine that's scenario where you're less likely to see that second run because you're not going to get those doughs. That excuse me, I keep saying that these fawns that are going to be mature and healthy enough to cycle. Um. On the flip side, like you said, a situation like what Alex might have in Illinois, that's probably the opposite. It's the best case scenario where you might get these funds ready to go. So UM, something to something to keep in mind, And I'd be interested to see, you know, as we talk to people next week, um, in the week after that, I'll be really curious to to see who does see any kind of secondary run and then what their scenario is. I wonder if we'll be able to point to any consistencies there. But like I said before, we talk to Alex Gilstream this week from dream Chaser's Helen in Illinois, and then in New Jersey from Red Hand Outdoor Company is Pet Cutter. That in Texas we talked to Tyler Jones from the Element podcast, and then in North Dakota from Ultimate Outdoor Adventures TV is John Arman. It sounds like a good group of folks. Um, I commend you, Spencer C. You don't need to commend yourself. And with that, UM, I'm good to go if you are. Yep, let's get to the first color. Before we do that, though, let's pause for word from our sponsors at white Tail Properties. This week. With white Tail Properties, we are joined by Tom James, a land specialist out of Indiana, and Tom is going to be telling us about looking at properties that advertise with cash rent opportunity. Cash remant opportunities can mean a lot of things, and it all relates to the productivity of your soils on on the on the tillable ground. And one thing you might want to make yourself familiar with is what's called the n C C T I rating, which stands for the National Commodity Crop Production Index and that number usually as as arranged up to about a hundred, So you'll see n ccp I ratings of anywhere from say forty or fifty on the low end, all the way up to eighties and nineties on the good productive farmland. What that means it's too good baseline to compare your productivity of your soils on a national level. So you always want to get bids on your crop ground from from farmers. If you're not comfortable, you need to educate yourself on what the going rates are. I mean, sometimes the farmer has been paying historically low rant for long long times just because you had a relationship with the previous landowner. But you want to make sure that the current rates that you could get on that property are up to date with what the standard going rates are. Those change from year to year hundred and fifty dollars all the way up to three dollars in the past, you know, per acre on on ground. So make sure you're in tune with the going rates and don't cut yourself short. If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties that Time currently has listed for sale, visit white Tail Properties dot com. Backslash James, that's j A. M. E. S alright, and joining us on the line first is Alex Gilstrom from dream Chaser's Hunt in Illinois now Alex in Illinois. What would you say the bucket activities been lately on a scale of one to ten? If I had to rank it on one to ten, all right now, it'd be a strong, a strong seven to and eight with an asterisk, and and the asters would be just in the last couple of days, we've actually had a pretty nasty front move through with a bunch of high wind and and really cool temperatures, and it kind of seemed to actually we even get some snow, a couple inches of snow, and it seemed to kind of put them in a little bit of a freeze or a whole pattern where the movement hasn't been great the last couple of days, at least from from what I've seen, But before that it's been, i mean, just in the last week and and and even prior, it's been unbelievable, really really good movement. We've had great weather pretty much all of of late October and November, really good consistent movement and even building movement as it's gotten into later later November here, So i'd have to I'd have to give it a pretty pretty high score with a with a seven or eight um with the exception of maybe the last couple of days here you touched on seeing great movement, But does that mean you're still seeing a lot of rutting activities well, and if so, what phases the route would you say? Illinois in yeah, I think we're yeah, So it's great rutting activity, um. And I think it's been a little bit slow to start as far as the high number of bucks that I've seen really really cruising. It's been getting better and better as it's gotten later in the month, especially as the potension in November. And uh, I would have to give it, like I said, a really high score ranking there and then it's it's been kind of funny with the mature buck activity. It's certainly increased, and I think that's just indicative of kind of moving into the post rut. It's I would definitely give it a late rut classification into the post rut um with that have seen increased movement from mature books. Though having that better movement out of mature Bucks. If if you were targeting uh, one of those mature white tails, what kind of areas to be focused on right now at the end of November, I would start to transition a little bit. What I have been doing and seeing a little bit more movement as a result, is transitioning a little bit out of the corridors and getting a little bit closer to like, you know, your funnels are, you're you're you're traveling between the funnels and transition areas, between betting areas. They're still really great and in good movement, but I've been seeing with with obviously the end of the rut coming and and and Bucks, looking for the last receptive does or the dwindling number of receptive those folksing along those food sources and getting a little bit closer to the security cover that kind of transitions or parallels the food sources has been. Um I've been seeing a little bit increased sightings there. It seems like that's really where the congregation or the concentration of movement has kind of been moving to over the last week week and a half, and I kind of expected that to continue to even increase as we as we get closer into December here and those areas between and in food does that set up better for a morning hunter in evening hunt? Personally, I I've always had better luck in the late this this at this period of the rut and moving into the late season in the evenings and those areas. Uh. And then obviously UM noncessary obviously, But what I've what I've experienced and had better success with was is still honing in throughout the end of the November here and even into the early December. Is um the betting you know, close to the security cover, close to the betting areas of the transition areas between betting areas for mornings. You touched on that the rut has gone on a little longer and a little stronger this year in November. Uh. Does that give any signs or point towards anything for how the secondary route might look? Is we're about ten days outer, So from that it's kind of everybody goes back to you know, talks about two thousand twelve at from h D, especially here in the Midwest nil and there is no different, especially in this area. They had a pretty pretty significant die off. One of the exciting things I think in the last two years especially and and certainly for this year, has been seeing faun recruitment. The faun increased, the increased number of fonds, dough group sizes, and the age structure among those groups has been really really strong. And I think as a result, we will probably see better post rut or secondary rut activity than we've seen in a long time UM. And I think that's because the age structures have kind of recovered. Uh, they've come back kind of hit the hit mother Nature hit that reset button, and UM had a few years a hardship there. But I think it's really starting to come back strong. And and because of faund recruitment and good you know, a lot of twin fawns and UM seeing multiple fonds with does I think that, uh, we're probably going to have a fairly decent um fairly decent activity here for for the second rudder or post rut. As some of our hunting shifts to focusing on food sources, Uh, do you find any value in some of those natural food sources like acorns as we get into December. You know, I haven't really spent a lot of time trying to target UM as far as acorn is particularly like a mask goes for uh for late season. Um, if you can find a good green browse uh that deer like to target, you know, back in the temper in cover for sure. I mean those can be still be great staging areas. But here living in farm country like I do, it's you know, anytime you can get close to grain or be being corn beans or corn or even if there's a cover crop somewhere with brass. Because I hunt, you know, I hunt exclusive public ground here in Illinois, so don't have the luxury of planning food pots. But um, when you can get close to those food sources that are existing either on the public ground or close to it, that are grain here here in farm country, that that seems to be it works pretty well for us going forward. Then in a six week or so, what do you think that bucket ativity is going to be on a scale of one to tend in Illinois. I think it's gonna stay, you know, like I said, with the exception of the last couple of days in this weird front came through, Um, I think it's gonna be right there at a at a strong seven to an eight. There's gonna be a little bit of a warm snap looks like moving into some some clear weather, higher pressure coming in, and I think it's gonna be really strong. I think we're gonna continue to see mature bucks on their feet looking for those last available dose or receptive dose, and as the herds continue to pile in closer to the food food sources, trying to get ready for the winner. I think that it's gonna be a higher concentration of that. Even so, I think it's gonna be a great time to be in the woods. Well, Alex, I like you're optimism. Good luck with what's left in the season, and thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer, I always appreciate it, buddy, alright and joining us on the line. Next is pet Cutter from Red Hand Outdoor Company now pet in New Jersey. What would you say the bucket activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten? Uh lately? Well, Um, yesterday our muggle Or season just opened up. We have a two day muggle Or season. Um. I did go out last night. I shot a dough last night. Um. But I'd say as for buck activity the past a couple of days, it's been it's been pretty mediocre. Um. I think the ruts definitely dwindling down, and you know food is gonna start to pick back up a little bit. Um. One of one of my buddies did shoot a nice buck last night, though, Um, I think I'm pretty sure he was a four and a half year old beer bustled off his name being but nice dear. Um. But I would I would probably give it about a five out of ten. I think across much of the Midwest, harvest is just wrapping up, so there's still some standing crops up. How about in the Northeast, Yeah, I mean my farm, about my my least that I'm hunting right now. Usually the crops are out by the beginning of November, but it's been so wet lately. Um, this whole fall pretty much that he still has him up. He hasn't really had the time to get in there to get him out with, you know, without ruining the field. So I I still have crops standing, and I think that's hurting me from getting pictures right now. Um, I'm actually about to go check two cameras right now. I'm gonna hunt tonight since it is the second day of our two day muzzle order. I'm gonna hunt regardless but um, I'm gonna check two cameras. I can hunt on a west wind and pick a spot real quick and jump in. So what's your strategy with those cameras? Then, knowing that it's post rut and there's still a lot of standing corn, I still have some over some scrapes that are getting touched once in a while, and then I do have some that I just started put to put out feed for late seeds to help to help get pictures. Um, it is legal debate here in Jersey, and UM, you know it's a great It's a great way to get an inventory come a late season. And then if you know, if you want to hunt over it, you can. You can hunt over it too. So do you ever notice a spike in that signmaking as we get towards that secondary rot er? Do you think after this point it's pretty much irrelevant. I don't. I don't really notice much. I mean, if you do get that that um bill coming into her set around, UM, you can get lucky, definitely. UM. I usually don't have very much luck with it, but I know it does happen. So as we get into early December, are there any weather patterns or moon phases that you think positively or negatively will thank the buck movement. Um. Yeah, I think, Um, if we can get some cold weather and we can get some snow to cover up all the brows and stuff like that, acorns and you've got you know, corner beans, you know cut cut cornfield or standing beans. I still have some standing beans here. Um, if we can get some snow on the ground, I think that would help out a lot. Um. But I don't see any of the near future. So um, it's kind of just a waiting game. Now. How about with like that late morning or mid day movement, is that all but over at this point in New Jersey as far as I can tell? Uh, Yes, Um, I'm sure they're still You're still getting a couple of big bucks. There are cruising for those late those. I talked to a buddy, I want to say, three days to go, and I think it was um he had a buck on a on a doll early afternoon. Um. But from what I've seen, pretty much, it's it's it's it's out. What about with mornings, it's typically as we get into late season, guys started doing more evening hunts. Do you have any strategies to to kill them ature buck in the morning. Um, I mean if you if you've got good access and you could sneak in into their bedroom or just outside their bedroom on you know, down one side, I wouldn't. I wouldn't rule it out. I don't have a great place to really do that. I could potentially do that, but I wouldn't really risk you know, blowing him out of there unless I thought that was that was the only way I could kill him. Um, I mean, you can do it, but I probably put him. It wouldn't really risk it going forward. Then, in the sixt week or so, what do you think that Bucket ATV is going to be on a skill of one to ten in New Jersey. I'd say it's gonna be pretty stagnant. The weather's really not doing much. We probably have average temps and moon phase is getting getting dark. I would call it a four or five out of ten. All right, Pat, Well, good luck to you and the guys at Red Hand out Door Company. Thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer, all right and joining us on the line. Next is Tyler Jones from the Element podcast in Texas. Tyler in Texas, what would you say the buck activities been lay on a scale of one to ten and it's probably a seven. Uh, I would think it loose, was quite a bit of cruising and uh, it's it's not just messing around at all, you know, it's on a fast walk. So, um, if you're in, if you're in a funnel, it's a good place to be this time of year. What phase of the route would you say you're part of Texas is in? Then? Uh, well, in in East Texas, we're uh, you know, Northeast Texas, and it's it's the rude. I mean we uh, we start kind of with the traditional dates where everybody else is and and we're still going strong this time of year in late November and it really until December. Um, we consider it pretty much the rut. Still. So how do your strategies change when you're hunting a place like Northeast Texas versus a place like Kansas in late November? What are your how do you set ups differ from those two areas? Yeah, I mean when I'm in in Northeast Texas, I'm gonna be seeing this time of year, I'm sitting in a rut funnel of some sort, some kind of a pinch. Uh. And in particular where I've been sitting in the last few a few days that I've been hunt in Texas. Um is basically creek with a bunch of junk in it, a bunch of trash, uh you know, boat ark trees and stuff that kind of blocked away, and then a big creek. Um that that creek feeds into. Um come. You know, there's a pretty pretty narrow like sixty yards pinch up against the big creek, and uh man, there's a great trail. So I mean, if you see a good trail this time of year, um, that's kind of between betting areas obviously. I mean that sets up well. Uh you know, if I was hunting somewhere in the Midwest where you have more traditional run and you're starting to get more post rud at this time, I'm gonna be sitting a little closer to food sources. Probably you just hoping that cold weather brings the dose out and and uh that the bucks will follow up before dark. How about with signmaking Texis, are you still seeing some active rubs and scraps? Oh yeah, definitely, UM seeing seeing quite a few rubs, uh and scrapes are still um still being worked. Definitely I've got a on a private piece that I've got I'm actually made a box grape and broke a limb over and they've they've been hammering. It's uh even up until I guess a couple of days ago when I last suck that, Uh, it's still fresh. So uh that's exciting. It's good to have your cameras on and be monitor ring um as those big dear kind of monitoring to see which does might be coming in late or decoying. Is that a strategy that you'd be using right now in Texas? Uh, It's it's not really. I've been rattling a little bit. But as far as decoyin goes, we don't, uh, we don't use a lot of decoys where we're at. Our dear densities um are probably a little lower uh than most areas compared to the amount of uh just brush that we have. Essentially, you would think there'd be more dear, but they tend to walk in on a decoy pretty close range and it's not a good thing, uh sometimes, so we hold off on the decoys. But I have been rattling a little bit, uh, usually starting out pretty light because stick covered and just making sure, nothing's too close before I really get into it. And UH actually rattled uh a little one year old inn the other day, which is something to be since it doesn't sound crazy cool to most people, but that's something to be talked about. In East Texas, for sure, we don't rattle too many deer and very often, so I think it's definitely a tactic that could work right now for sure. Last time I talked to you a few months ago, I believe you brought up the big acorn crop that you're experiencing in that part of Texas. Is that still a factor or not? It is? Um. We actually had I think most of the most of the Midwest got hit with us some pretty good snowstorms and that kind of from last few days. And that was mainly just I mean, it was a little bit of cold weather, but it's a lot of wind and um, I actually uh living in a metal roof house right now, and so I can hear the anchors falling on my on my roof all night. And basically we had a heavy wind or high winds and early in the night it's just like raining down all the rest of the acrons on top of them, on top of the roots there and then by the morning it was still blowing, but there was nothing's hidden. So I think, um, that you're gonna see that pretty much all acrons have fallen at this point out of the trees here northeast Texas, and that, uh, it's something that you can keep him on for the next few weeks until maybe a rain kind of spoils them or something like that. So, um, and we have been seeing we've been hunting near smoke flats up against that particular pinch I was talking about earlier. Um, it's got a old flat right next to the creek there and and uh, those those are coming in there, and I mean it's it's like it would be like hunting. The feet are just about uh they're coming in there and and staying there for a while in the mornings. So it's definitely something to to key in on. I think until we get a little more rain or just gets real late in the here going forward, then in this sext week or so, what do you think that bucket activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten and texts, I think that if we continue to get some pretty chilly weather, it's gonna be it's gonna be good for sure. Last year our trail camera showed late November is being one of the best times for for buck travel during daylight hours. It seemed like so um, I think with that a couple of with some cold tempts um our deer here in North these Texas a pretty thin skin. So um, they definitely like to hit the food sources. If you have any agg we've built that kind of thing. Um, definitely be close to those in the next few weeks for sure. Al Right, Tyler, good luck with what's left at the rut. Thanks for joining me. Alright, thanks all right and joining us on the line. Next is John Armand from Ultimate Outdoor Adventures TV in North Dakota. Now John in North Dakota. What would you say the bucket activity has been lately on a skill of one to ten. I would say in the past week it's been added abount of five. You know what we've seen is in in the last week things have really tapered off. It seems like our rut was really kicking in hard um that November nine at that time where the deer were really going at it hard. And in this past week we were just out in Montana hunting bill beer and whitetail, and saw a very few of the buck still on doors. There was an occasional mature buck that was on a door, but for the most part, we have seen things really taper off in the last week. So how will that change your strategy going forward? What are you gonna be focusing on as we get in December. Well, for us, we've you know, we've always been we are usually rifle hunting during the rut, so um it's not as crucial for us. But now we're getting back into the bow and with the rut tapering down, all these deer are run down and the temperature I look at the forecast next week is supposed to get cold. They're going to be hitting the food sources and that's where we really can trade on. If we have any standing corn, um, sunflower or anything like that, we're gonna be sitting up on, you know, cutting them off. They're gonna be getting on their feet a lot earlier. They're gonna be moving because they have to, they have to refuel. The bucks that we have taken in the past few weeks have zero body fat on them, and that usually is the case. So we're gonna be hitting those food sources. Do you do any morning sits during that time? Absolutely, we do a lot of morning sits. This is probably one of the times we do more than in the past, just because our deer are they're staying out later. It seems like this time of year they will be hanging in those food sources and meander and their way back to the bedding area. Usually we have deer moving all the way into nine o'clock this time of year with the cold temperatures, and so with those morning sits on those corn fields or sunflower fields, are you sitting on a field edge or you're catching them somewhere between that field and the betting We do a lot in the evening. We're usually sitting up on the food sources, um, you know, waiting for them to to get to the food sources. And most of our food sources are right at the end of draws, so we're able to do that. And it seems like the deer we hunt, they go to our food sources and they keep going south into the neighbors and other food sources. So we will set up in between then um in the morning, so we'll kind of set up between two corn fields and it seems like they're um, they're never happy with the food source you have for them, and they go to the next one. So we will get set up in between them and hopefully catch them on the way back. Do you notice the change in bedding as we get into December and some of that colder weather and snow rolls and um, we do. And one of the things that has hurt us this year is our corn fields are still up. We had quite I would say six of the fields around us. We're up a lot of the deer we're bedding in the corn and um not going into the the you know, the dance cover because of UM. You know, they just feel safer there with those fields coming off and the temperature is dropping. UM. With our northwest winds coming and those little Berta clippers coming, those deer are going to be looking for those places that are out of the out of the wind. They'll be going into those coolies and draws. UM. A lot of times ours will start betting a lot closer to the food source than normal. They'll move up, you know, maybe halfway between them, just so they don't have to travel further and burn that energy they need. You just mentioned that the winds may be affecting some movement, But are there any other weather patterns or moon phases in early December that you think positively or negatively affect your movement. Well, I think it's one of those deals we've We've always said we hunt no matter when, and um, doesn't make a difference what the moon phase is because we all work full time and if it's a full moon and we have a day off, we're hunting. But it definitely makes a difference. Um, you know those deer do. It seems like no matter what, there's always those two or three days out of that month that are absolutely phenomenal. But we see more of those days. Um, the cold of the temperatures get because, um, if you're starving and you're hungry, you have to get on your feet. You gotta move and you're not gonna wait for the moon phase or the barometric pressure you're gonna go by that you need to get fuel in your system. So I think those deer will be a little bit more vulnerable all this time of year. Now we're probably about ten days or so away from that secondary rout. Is there anything that changes for you guys to to get some of that secondary rutting action. Um, No, we really don't. We don't really change any kind of tactics. We're still sitting on the food sources because if the doors are coming to the food source, the buck um is right behind them, and then you get that activity and then you can be you might be able to catch them um on their feet a little bit longer and chasing. But nothing really changes for us. We're still hunting those food sources because that dough is gonna be hitting those food sources and then she's in heat and cycle. The buck is going to be right behind her going forward. Then in this next week or so, what do you think that bucketivity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in North Dakota. I'm gonna say the bucket activity is going to be as far as rutting goes, probably in that three to four. I think you're still gonna catch that occasional one out there. But I think the deer activity is going to be good because of the colder weather and they're gonna be hitting those food sources. All right, John, Well, good luck to the north, Thanks for joining me, Thank you buddy, have a great day, and that concludes this week's episode of Wired to Haunts wrote Radio. Thanks to Alex, pat Tyler, and John for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. As always, make sure you're following Wired to Haunt on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and follow me at Spencer New Heart and my blog at rut Fresh on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well. The next time I talked to you guys is going to be December, so get the long John's out and get ready for some late season, cold season haunts. Until then, stay Wired to Haunt

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