00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three and eight and we're here today with another Fresh Radio episode in which we are getting the most recent intel from deer hunters all across the country about what's happening now, how our conditions at pacting deer, and how can you get one killed? Right now? Welcome to wire Hunts Love Fresh Radio. I'm your host. Spent a new more flying soul. This week is Mark Kenyon heads for the Boundary Waters in Minnesota and I had to South Dakota on a Musloder hunt. If you're not familiar with this show, each week I talked to different hunters from across the nation get the latest intel on buck movement in their area. The idea is then for hunters to then take that info and apply it to their strategies, to their setups, to their properties to help them get a buck on the ground. Now. Ordinarily Mark and I would open up the show with a bit of banter and talk about some big picture themes. For this time, of year and sort of preview what you're going to hear from our guests. If Mark were here, I think we would touch on the October Law because it's October and if you think of like the October Law date, that's what you would have in your mind. And I'm not going to break down the entire October Law for you, but Mark Kennyon just wrote an article for the Mediator dot com titled why the October Law is Real. As a defender of science, it bothers me to kind of say that, yes, the October Law is real, but you need to go and read Mark's work like I did, and you'll see what point he's making about how what hunters are seeing and what the science is reporting are different things. So I think there's a lot to be learned from that article, and that's kind of a good precursor for hunting this time of year. We have four guests for this week's show, and we start off with Josh Smith from wildcaret Sinse in Tennessee. Then we talked to Kevin Mistison from the Deer Hunter Podcast in Michigan, and then we talked to Beaumartinic in Pennsylvania from East meets West Hunt podcasts, and then we go to Kansas and talked to Nate Craik from Identical Draw for this week's show. We've got a mix of public land hunters and private land hunters, and Southern hunters and northern hunters, and aggressive hunters and passive hunters. So I think there would be something for everybody on this episode of rut Fresh Radio. Now we're gonna kick it to the interviews alright, and joining us on the line first is Josh Smith in Tennessee from wildcaret Sense. Now, Josh in Tennessee, what would you say the bucket activities been lately the scale of one to ten, I'd say lately we've probably been at a three. Uh. I would go even lower than that, Um, if it weren't for a little bit of cold front we had pushed over this past weekend. I got the year up on their feet a little better. So that was nice to see. Um. Other than that, we just had some really hot temperatures and it's suppressed dear movement overall. Um, I've been seeing dose out and about a little more UM than the box obviously, so, but overall it's been pretty slow. Just with the heat with the exception of this past weekend where we had about a twenty four degree drop Saturday night, so uh it made for a little better hunting Saturday Eve and Sunday morning, but still pretty well as far as buck movement, What do your strategies look like this time of year? Kind of an awkward time of year when you don't want to be too aggressive, but you should still be in the woods because bucks can still be caught moving. Yeah, for sure, um, mostly right now. Um, keeping tabs on acorns. Um, that's a big thing for me. Uh, you know, just singling out any white oaks that I can find and hunt those as hard as possible. We don't have a lot of agriculture, so that's the best bet for right now. There's not really any any sort of rud activity taking place yet obviously, so uh, just figuring out where the best food sources are and sticking tight to them. As somebody who owns a dear year in company, what is your strategy with sense this time of year and how does that evolve as we get into the rud. Sure, well, right now I'm using a buck basic bucking doll urines as a cover. With the heat that we've got it's pretty hard not to be stinking up the area, so I want to use those in the cover, um, just kind of cover my tracks basically, you know, I'm sweating him stinking, So that's very helpful. And as we start to close in on pre Rod a little more, um, I'll get a little more addressive with do estris and some of our rutting buck lures, and I do use those right now, uh while I'm making mock scrapes. Uh, we do have quite a few cameras out um sitting over mox scrapes, just kind of keeping inventory. So I'll use our sense that way right now. Um, but I'm not really doing much as far as a drag or anything like that yet. I say that for a little bit later, probably a week or ten days from now, maybe I'll start, uh start to utilize those a little more. You probably run more trail cameras than most hunters. Where those trail cameras at this time of year? And how does that change over these next few weeks. Do you have any specific mock scrape sites that you find or security others right now? Any any mock scrapes that I've set up are generally gonna be on any corridor going from bad food, anywhere that I can find a high traffic area where deer coming out of the thick petting area and moving towards U. Those those oak ridges, like I talked about, those are primarily where cameras are set up, you know, and I'll have some random thrown out there just to maybe catch something I'm unaware of. But as far as target those are, those are my hot spots, trying to catch a good high traffic area, maybe a bottleneck of some sort between a betting area and food, which is primarily the acorns. Are you concerned with moon phases it all the time of year? Yeah, I am. You know, we just kind of approach the full moon. I think deer tend to move quite a lot more in the evening hours, you know, at night. Um, they're not up under feet as much in the daytime because they don't have to be. They feel a little more security curson around at night. Uh So, yeah, I think it does have an effect. Um. I'm excited to see as we taper off into a little cooler weather here in the next week. I'm excited to see what takes place as far as you know, having a new Moon, and hopefully they'll be up on their feel little more in a day like going forward. Then in the sext week or so, what do you think that buck activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Tennessee. Oh, I think we'd get up to probably a six a little higher after that as prey up picks up a little more. But we're Wednesday night, this is where gonna drop down to lows in the upper thirties. Thursday is gonna be uh high in the low sixties as opposed to like the upper seventies. We're averaging right now, so I think that's gonna help a little bit. So I'm I'm optimistic. I think traffic, deer traffic is gonna pick up a little bit and hopefully bucks get to move in a little bit more. Ore Joshua, good luck to you and everyone else from Wildcare since thanks for joining me. Thank you sir, all right and joining us on the line. Next is Bow Martinic from East meets West Haunt Podcasts in Pennsylvania. Now Bow in Pennsylvania. What would you say the bucket activity has been lately on the scale of one to ten. I would say that the buck activity is somewhere around a five currently. And the reason why I say is it's been if we've had some good some cold mornings, some things that a corn crops have been good, and a little bit of movement. But still I think here in the coming ones, it's it's going to get better as as scrapes and rugs or start and to pop up, as well as my drope cameras are starting to light up a little bit more. And you just briefly touch on food sources, but tell me about what kind of food you're focused on this time of year. So right now, the hot ticket item is the acorns. The red oaks have done really well dropping in this this part of the state. Um white oaks for a little bit, uh, you know, harder to come by, but acorns have been the ticket. Apple trees seem to have lost a lot of apples early and but nonetheless acorns have been the hot ticket item right now. What are your strategies in mid October as a public land bowl hunter in Pennsylvania. So honestly, I'm trying to, you know, be close to the food source in this case being acorns. In the in that that I'm hung there's not a whole lot of food plots of other food sources besides in the timber. And to do that, I'm trying to set up as close as I can to cover where they're potentially betting and and start to utilize scrapes and the scrapes right on the edge of the cover going in some of these sources will really start to the late up in the next week will be my strategy going forward with signmaking increasing and the abundance of acorns. What is your trail camera strategy like right now? So I run probably of my cameras on scrapes, and they and I mean they'll use the licking branches year round, but really starting to potter ground and start, you know, working in scrapes like you typically see in October. So that's where I'm getting the best intel is on those scrapes. When you see an approaching cold front like we have coming in a few days here in that part of the country, how do your strategies change on public land? So I'm really gay. What that's really gonna change for me is I'm gonna try to get into some of my with the cold fronts. I don't like to put any unnests or pressure in spots that, you know, with the warmer weather, when I have, you know, a bundant locations to go to, but really they're cold front. Would would make me go into, you know, some of my better areas going forward than this next week or so. What do you think that bucket activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Pennsylvania? I think they're the buck activity. If we get the cold front like we're supposed to, I think it's gonna jump to around the seven. I would say, still, don't think it's gonna be, you know, anything great, but I think it's going to start to increase and as we start getting towards the latter part of October. Our Bob, good luck in Pennsylvania. Congrats on your ELK success in Idaho, and thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer alright enjoining us on the line. Next is Kevin musus In in Michigan from the Deer Hunter podcast. Kevin in Michigan, what would you say the bucket activities Familey, on the scale of one to ten, one to ten, I'm gonna go uh, I'm gonna go two to three. The only reason I'm not saying one or zero is because it is deer season, and anything can happen. The reason I'm going two and three and staying really low is because I think, uh, incomplete honesty right now, you know, potentially the past week and this coming week are probably as hard a time as possible as you're going to have getting on a buck here in Michigan, because they are now pretty much off their summer patterns. They're fully off their summer patterns. Everything's hide hard, horned, and the small game hunters are out, waterfowl guys are out. The deer are very alert to that it is hunting season, and they're basically going to be in their beds before daybreak. And most of these deer, yes, they're gonna stand up out of their beds during the course of the day and maybe shift their beds, but they're not going to move, you know, likely more than twenty five to seventy five yards outside of their primary bed in daylight. So unless you're um slipping in right in too tight to their bedding area, it is your season. Anything can happen to coyote can bump the bed, but they're not getting up in the middle of the days going on now, there's just no reason to be doing that um buck movement is that, I would say pretty low from what I've seen over the course of the past week, and I expect that to continue through the next week. Do you think this is a tough time of year for all Michiganders or do the guys that private land have it that much better? Uh? You know, to be honest with you, I don't know that too many private landowners have a big advantage um over public land hunters here in Michigan. Sometimes the public land hunter actually are the guys that are switched on and understand potentially how to hunt these parcels a little bit better because they're used to dealing with the pressure. But here in Michigan, we have a lot of small parcels you might be dealing with, uh, you know, five to forty acres, And as much as you like to think you can control what happens on that private property, there's elements that are outside of your control. For instance, last weekend, one of our neighbors his his young son shot a dough They didn't think before they acted, and they just went and looked for it and then notified us later that would probably be on there. They'd probably be on our trail cameras, and so you know these deer, they just there's people in the woods and they know it. And sometimes those big public parcels are much larger tracks with bigger betting areas than what you could even have on a small private land parcels. So I think either one has their challenges this time of year here and in any other pressure state as well, knowing that these next few weeks you're going to be really tough in a state like Michigan. Uh, say you did have the ideal conditions you were looking for and whatever that might be for a cold front, parametric pressure and moon phase, what would your strategy then be to get a buck on the ground. So it's um very similar to what it is the the rest of the year. I'm getting in tight to um to cover, you know, thick cover, betting cover, stick, dense understudy. The deer are browsing, just natural brows. There's still a lot of green foliage in the under story, so the deer are very much just feeding where they are betting. They're not really moving to destination food sources until under the cover of darkness. Also, we have a lot of acorns on the ground, so these dear, you know, they'll bed in proximity to where they can visually see where they're gonna, you know, be feeding before they move out to destination feed. And it's pretty tough to get in and on them. I mean, they're they're very savvy when they bet, they put everything in their favor and against you. But being a mobile hunter, being adaptable, and then what I really love this time of year, uh is just being able to get out there too and hike around and check out some new spots and you're you're kind of doing some in season scouting. Um. I try to stay out of my historic places that I know are going to be red hot come the beginning of November. I don't want to put human intrusion in those spots right now, so I'll let those dear kind of have those spots. And by staying out of those spots, other people that are hunting and applying pressure to other areas are just gonna force more dear into of those spots so that when the time is right come you know a few days before leading up the Halloween all the way to the opener of our gun season around November. You know that that will be my highest opportunity spots that I'll save for now. So right now, Uh, just being open minded, being flexible, looking at new stuff. Uh, whend is your friend and rain is your friend this time of year, because everything's getting crispy and crunchy, and the deer, like I said, are on high alert. It's pretty hard to get within their you know, their safety zone without alerting into your presence. So if you get a good windy day or a good rain where you can slip in somewhere quiet more, you know, with less intrusion than what was normal, and those deer can't pick you up. I think that's a pretty major asset to be able to get right in and on top of them this time of year. As someone who does a lot of mobile haunting, There anything with your setup or your gear that changes from now until that November gun season. Uh, the only thing that will change for me is that basically my layering. You know, right now, it's been pretty warm. We've had temperatures all the way up you know, to seventy. The lowest we've really seen when I've been out hunting is you know, upper forties. So I'm pretty much wearing what I'm hunting in but I'll be adding a lot of layering. I'll keep a pair of bibs in my bag as well as a puffy jacket and a shell and some thicker gear so that when I do get into my spot and I get my stand situated, I go in and very light clothing, just some hiking pants typically or a light pair of hunting pants, and maybe a hood, a sweatshirt or even just a bass layer top. And then when I get to my stand and I get everything situated, I'll give myself five minutes to kind of cool off before I put my warmth and layers on and climb up and and other than that, Um no, not really, not much changes for my gear set up for being a hunt or other than you know, stuff that I need to stay warm. And you know we can be single digits come here in November, so you'd almost have to be trusted for two separate things to hike in and out and then the set going forward. Then in this next week or so, what do you think that bucket activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Michigan. I think we're gonna stay low. Um, we do have a cold front moving in that I believe that will uh definitely definitely help. So you know, coming by next weekend, we could be up you know, two or five or six. But I don't think it gets good until, you know, October ish, when some of the foliages down and those first dose you know, and start coming into ask. So those more mcture deer are aware of that and start to have a reason to get up on their feet a little bit earlier and uh go against their better judgment on uh traveling through the woods that they know people are hunting in. All right, Kevin, I'm looking forward to following in hunts this fall. Good luck this season. Thanks for joining me, Thanks Spencer Alight and joining us on the line. Next is Nate Crick in Kansas. Now Nate in Kansas. What would you say the buck activities been lately? On a scale of one to ten, I would say the buck activity has been around a six or seven um. It has been hired though Kansas and part has been getting pretty good cold fronts. We've had actually some a few bounts of really cool weather and so during we had won during the beginning of October and then justice last weekend, and during those cold fronts, I've seen significant increase in gear movement, and I would say during those cold fronts it could be even up to an eight or nine out of ten. Now, you guys just recently a new property there in Kansas, how is your strategy? Uh, kind of hunting a property for the very first time in mid October, you aggressive where you sit back and waiting for the end of the month. We've been we've been sitting back pretty heavy. Um. We have a soybean plot with some radishes nix in there as well, and that's on just the west side of our ground, so we can access that pretty easily without worrying about bumping deer getting their betting. UM. We also set up cameras in the summer months when we were doing some some other work in there, and we've read a lot of cameras actually just just keep going throughout the year that we haven't even touched in the middle of our ground where we know those deer betting. UM. So we've been we've been hanging out on the edges really not pushing in deep. UM. We got lucky just the beginning of October with UM my brother killing a nice candice buck and we were just hunting that that bean field. Um, it was kind of interesting. Our beans were a lot more green than the properties around us. Think I was a big help with killing that. He was still kind of focused on those beans. But um, yeah, we've been hanging out on the perimeters and we're lucky we have some cell cameras that are kind of doing the work in the middle of our property. But yeah, we're really hanging out until we really see that that buck activity increase. Are you seeing a lot of signmaking right now? And what do you do with that info when you find an area on that property that has a lot of rubs and scrapes. Yeah, So we actually didn't have like any sign until um this last weekend when we hunted that cold front and when I was walking she stands a few times, I was seeing a lot more rubs, a ton more basically just flipped on in the last week. So, um that with that info, I've been moving some some cameras around from food sources to like more of the timber on our property. Um. Just this last weekend, I moved one of our cell cameras to creek crossing with a lot of rubs around it. Um. And since I've put that camera out. It has just been it and lit up all the time by a lot of dos and bucks using it. So I've really been moving to cameras around. Um, I haven't been seeing a bunch of scrapes on our ground more more of the rubs, and that's been really good info. Um Again, right now, we haven't really been hunting those areas. We've really been letting the cameras do the work, like I said. But um, we know that eventually, once, once it really starts to amp up and and the russ is gonna be here before we know it, then we'll be we'll be hanging the new stands and hunting those rugs and scrape lines, hunting an area that's so heavily dominated by big agri culture. How do you say the food source has changed from now until the rut. Yeah, so we've got we've got corn and beans around us, a lot of it. Um. We have a small and plover and turn up a little food plot, and then we have a bean and radish plot. And we're gonna leave our beans and rashes go let them stay all the way through the winter. But the corn and beans will get harvested, and there's always a little shift in the deer movement when that happens. But really, the majority of the property that we hunt cans is timbered besides our couple acre bean plus, so we're really gonna be hunting the thick timber. Um. We have a stream that works through our property as well, and we know that mature gear bucks will want to use that as well as to travel travel routes. So we're really going to move off of the food sources and into that that thicker, bigger timber where the the does will be, the betting will be in those bucks will be uh in there trying to find some doughs. Um. We also do have um a few stands in the timber just off of that being field a little bit because I know big big Bucks won't necessarily want to be opened in that being field. They want to be in the timber a little deeper, um, but they want to get a nose on that being filled for the doughs that are out there feeding and things like that. So Yeah, definitely gonna be moving more into the timber in the next few weeks going forward. Then the next week or so, what do you think that Bucket TV is going to be on a scale of one detend in Kansas. You know, over next week, looking at the weather, it's not going to be anything crazy for this time of the year, so I I I'm gonna keep it at probably about a six or seven. UM. But again, if if that weather does change, if we see some cold weather come in and they'll be moving, Um, that's that. Like I said, that's that first cold front that that came through early October. Ya, my brother killed a nice buck, and then just this last weekend there were a lot of big bucks on the the move and I saw I saw a really nice buck in our neighbor's field on on a tree edge. Um, just out in the daylight. So I don't see it being crazy this week. UM. I know a lot of guys can't get out and hunt during the week, but UM, if if it was up to me, I'd say, hey, this might be a good week to kind of stay off the ground if you're not seeing crazy buck movement because I don't see um any super cold tempts and it might be a good week to leave that pressure off there for later October and into the rut. All night. We'll congrat see you guys for that awesome Kansas Buck he already got down. Good luck with the rest of the season and filling another tag. Yeah, thanks, Man's appreciate. And that concludes this week's episode of Wired Haunts rot Fresh Radio. Thanks it, Josh, Bo, Kevin and Nate for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. Good luck to everyone out there trying to kill wondering this quote unquote October Lowell, I'll be in the woods and I'm really excited for some of my first white tail haunts of the season. We'll talk to you guys next week, but until then, stay wired to hunt.

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