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Wired To Hunt

Ep. 312: Rut Fresh Radio 10/30/19

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

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37m

This week on the podcast we're back with our Rut Fresh Radio mini-series in which we hear from hunters all across the country about current deer activity, conditions, and the tactics that are working right now.

States/guests featured:

Darton Harwick | Flatline Whitetails | New York

Matt Petersen | MDL Outfitters | Iowa

Parker McDonald | Southern Ground Hunting | Alabama

David Giarrizzo | Tag N' Brag | Ohio

Connect withMark KenyonandMeatEater

Mark Kenyon onInstagram,Twitter, andFacebook

Seeomnystudio.com/listenerfor privacy information.

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 three, d and twelve, and today in the show, we're back for another episode of our rut Fresh radio mini series in which we're getting the latest and greatest intel on what deer doing right now, the conditions that are present in how to kill a buck? All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx. We are here for another rut Fresh radio episode. This is our weekly mini series during the hunting season in which we chat with hunters from across the country about what's happening right now, how current conditions are impacting dear behavior, what the activity levels are, what the progress of the rut is, and then ultimately, how can we kill a buck right now? That's what we're in chat with all these different guys about Spencer, you know, is running the show as far as getting those interviews done, and he is with me. Now, what's the word, Spencer? Things cranking out? Yeah, across the country, hunters are excited because of all time of year is late October. You can't go wrong. And then we also have a cold front coming in, and uh, my job gets even harder this time of year and for like the next three weeks because guys are tougher to track down. Everybody is in a tree stand, or somebody is helping a buddy blood trailer deer, or somebody is camping at some lodge where they don't have service. And so you can always tell when hunters from our podcast get more excited about the rut because they are harder to track down. Have you had to interview anyone in a tree stand yet? Like, is anyone called in from the tree? No. Over the four years of doing this, we've done a lot of interviews, like in vehicles on the way to a hunt, but we haven't done that yet. I think that should be your goal for this year is try to get someone to give you a from the tree report. That'd be good, that would uh, that would make season for unique for sure. You know, maybe maybe you can get it in the field report from me. I'll be on the phone and then part way through a conversation, as I'm whispering to you, my target bucks gonna show up. And I'm gonna spook him. That would be part of the course with me. So maybe I should just keep that trend going, you know, or we could title it watch Mark Screw Another hunt up. Have you been out since our last chat? You did a little bit of South Dakota Hunt or something last time we talked. Anything since Um, I participated in Montana's rifle opener killed a mule deer in full velvet. Yet he was a stag buck cactus book jever term you prefer um, I think the technical term would be like cryptosism, And I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that, sorry to any biologists out there who would know otherwise. But he had UM two underdeveloped tests that never dropped, and so his testosterone would never rise, and he did not participate in the ruts. Uh. And it was just a really cool deer. That's cool. It's it's kind of cool, uh, in particular for you to have shot that, because I feel like you've written a few articles about that. I remember seeing you talking about this and like a couple of years ago, right. Yeah, I'm always fascinated with the odd ball deer, the ones that uh develop an extra main beam or the ones that never shed their velvet or the ones that never dropped, the rattlers, and I feel like I've covered all of those at some point in my writing career. So to see a deer like that in the field is is kind of surreal to be like, oh, I know what's going on here? Um, And so that was a fun hunt. Yeah. Does something about those deer resonate with you? Can you relate to them in some way? A little bit of an oddball tests that never dropped. You wouldn't call me the the baritone whatever otherwise, I guess that's a good point. Oh, going off the rails here. Um. You know, last time we talked, I kind of called it. I thought over the next week I'd have a good chance at had a good buck and just has not materialized. Um. We had a three day hunt on the back forty that was ridiculously slow. Between me and Doug during we saw mm hmmm, one dough, one year and a half old buck, and one button buck during shooting ours. Um over the course of three days. So that was brutal. And then um, I've been out handful more times trying to get after Tran that four year old eight porn m after and that hasn't been working out. Um, just seeing doze and a few young bucks. Um, so you know that could. I'm not saying that there's a quote unquote lull or anything that was going on. I think simply we just weren't in the right places. Um. You know, trying to be somewhat conservative with the wind direction and making sure I'm not taking stab unless I've got the right conditions. Uh. I thought I'd have some opportunities, but didn't happen. But we had a cold front, like you said, coming through today raining At the moment, I'm hoping it's going to be like a light, misty drizzle. If that's the case today and tomorrow would be really good and then just cold weather from here and out into November. So so I think things will be getting much better here soon. But for me at least, it's been like a four out of ten. Um. But any day now, any time now, it's going to change. Yeah. And this time of year, probably more than other times a year, hunters become concerned with moon phase and there it's a full moon or a new moon or whatever. Um. I don't dabble in that stuff too much, Mark, but I know that even if you don't, you still like pay close attention to it. This year, we have a rutting moon on November twelfth, which is very similar to when it was on November. In theory, that should create a trickle rut. Can you explain if what that means if you're somebody who believes in the running moon. Okay, yeah, so I'm I'm not someone who puts too much into that, um, but I do kind of keep tabs on. I'm intrigued to buy all the moon stuff, but I don't live and breathe by it at all. UM. So yeah, that this running moon is basically that the theory goes um that the second full moon after the autumn equinox, I think supposedly triggers peaking or the peak of running activity. That's the theory. Um. And so in this case, with that November twelve running moon, that would indicate a later peak of running activity and usual um, which then can lead to something that has been termed this trickle rut, which essentially just means uh, slow ebbing and flowing of running activity. That will You'll get a little bit of it in late October, and then it'll be contrickle off, and then you'll get a little bit more in mid November and it will kind of trickle off. Basically, it's a it's a poor rut. The theory goes when you have that kind of timing. Now, the consensus across most biologists is that the moon does not trigger actual breeding behavior. The changes in daylight trigger breeding behavior, so that happens at the same time every year in most places across the Midwest and the northern half of the United States. That means that we're getting a give or take typical mid November ish peak of actual breeding. Would that be in the case, then the couple of weeks, the three to two to three weeks before that peak are usually when you're seeing the running activity. The hunters want to see the running around, the fighting, the chasing, scraping, etcetera, etcetera. That's usually hamp happening as we ramp up towards that point when the most does are ready to breed. Um. So, no matter what the moon tells me, I always know that the last week of October in the first two weeks of November should be pretty darn good. Um. Now, maybe could something with the rut or with the moon, you know, impact the intensity of daylight activity during those periods that I might be a little bit more open to maybe there's some connection with daylight movement versus nighttime movement and the intensity that we see as hunters. There maybe could be something there. I'm not gonna say that. I don't know that's the case, so I keep tabs on it. Um. I have not seen any strong correlation with my own hunts and those timings, but you know, if there's a good moon phase that correlates with when I'm out there hunting, I'm I guess, I'm like, hey, I'll take it if it helps me a little bit. Another moon thing that people pay attention to this time of year is the red moon. Again, this is a theory that I'm not bought into myself, but I'm you know, open to look at it and intrigued by it. Um. Adam Hayes always talks about this. A number of pretty darn good hunters, you know, point to the moon as as some kind of influencer. And I guess it's worth noting that we do have a red moon set of conditions coming up over the next few days. UM. Basically, what this quote unquote. Red moon is is when the moon is directly overhead or directly underfoot. That means the moon is right up above you in the sky, are all the way beneath us, And that supposedly triggers a little bit more movement during daylight. And so when that overhead or underfoot period coincides with the usual peak of movement, which is as you know, dawn or dusk, when you got the right moon that coincides with that usual good time anyways, supposedly that's going to help you see a little bit more. And we have have that coming up. So Halloween tomorrow, we've got a red moon time of four forty pm UM, at least in in my neck of the woods. Friday November one, five nine pm Saturday, the second, two Sunday the third. So these are supposedly really good times to see a little extra daylight movement during those evening sits. I can't attest to it. I'm not vouching for I'm simply telling you it's something some people pay attention to. Um And like I said, if it leads to me killing Tran tonight or tomorrow, I'm a happy camper. Yeah. And even if you are a hunter who doesn't necessarily believe in the moon phase or think that a trickle rut is a reality. Um, you probably do pay attention in cold fronts and looking ahead at the extended forecast. Here kind of after these next few days we get a really long bout of stagnant weather. And so I was looking ahead to the dates for my rudication, which is November one through ten, I believe, um, And it seemed like there was no significant cold front or warm front during that time. And so what that tells me in something that we saw a few years ago. It might have been twenty seventy, and I can't remember for certain, um, when you get that stagment, whether you often get a consistent wind direction. And so this is notable because if you're a hunter who has a small property or limited setups um or hasn't necessarily got into run and got hunting yet, that you might burn out all of your for example, north west wind stands when you have this kind of stagnant weather, And so that's something to start planning for right now. So it doesn't get to be November four and you're looking at like the three day forecast and you say, every day is a north wind, and then you get to November seven and it's the same thing. Um, So that's certainly something to plan for as we get into those long stretches of guys hit in the woods. That's a good point. It's looks like a lot of cold weather, which is good. But to your to what you just said, there a whole lot of west, northwest or west winds at least as I'm looking here in southern Michigan. So it's a great reason to try to get a little bit mobile and try some kind of running gun set allows you to switch things up or hopefully people planned for those westerly winds or whatever it is they've got in their neck of the woods and and it will be ready for it. But I only have I just looked at my tender I have it only got one day where it switches out of the east for a little bit, so it'll be interesting. I planned for that, so I've got a lot of westerly stands. But it is nice when you can flip flop around with those changes. And we've always talked about it. It seems like changes and weather often trigger a little bump, and so it'll be interesting even though what we have is good, it's stagnant, and sometimes that's I think it'll be less. I'm guessing whether it will be less of an influence or this rut simply because there's not a lot of changes, it's probably gonna be. We've got pretty good, decent weather conditions and then it's just when do those dolls coming to heat and being in the right spot. So that's my guess. We'll see. I'm not gonna try to call my shots this week. Who the hell knows what's going to happen on my hunts, but I'm gonna try hard and uh see what happens. So we'll beside from two of us this week, you're gonna hear from Darton Harwick in New York from Flat Line White Tales, and we go to Iowa and talk to Matt Peterson from MDL Outfitters, and then in Alabama from Southern Ground Hunting, we talked to Parker McDonald, and then we interviewed David Grisolt from Tagg and Brigg in Ohio. Cool, Well, should we wrap this up, let people hear these interviews and then get him off to the tree. Yeah, we'll talk to you next week. Mark sounds good alright, and joining us on the line. Next is Darton Hardwick from Flat Line, White Tales in New York. Now Darton in New York. What would you say the buck activities been lately on a scale of one to ten, No, I would say it's it's been about a five, increasing by the day. Um. Over the last week, we've definitely seen more daylight activity from younger bucks and them getting antsy and ramped up um to start running. UM. I don't think we're quite at peak activity yet, as the mature buck still are kind of lurking in the night, um, waiting for the time to get right. But with each day we're getting closer to prime time. You just killed the good buck there in New York with your bow. Tell us about that set up and about that hunt. Yeah. So the piece I'm hunting is about a forty acre slice and it runs up a mountain side. UM. I'm kind of towards the bottom of the mountain side because of the access to the piece. Um. But basically my stand location is set up um in the open hardwoods, kind of between the thick bedding and food source. It's on the other side of some railroad tracks, um and trying to play the play the deer coming coming to this food source. Uh. The way the hunt played out, A dough came down off the mountain side, and uh, nice New York bunck was right on her, pushing her, and everything happened pretty fast. So I had a twenty five yard poring away shot as he passed by me, and uh put one in the in the good zone. You said there's still a lot of standing crops in New York. Are acorns steel factoring in your decision making this time of year? Then? Uh, for certain pieces, this one not so much, just because of how much crops are on the bottom of the mountain. Um. The farmer hasn't been in the cut any of the standing corn or the beans that are down there yet. So I haven't played as much a role in New York with the acorns, but definitely in some of my other areas acorns are playing a big factor. Are you seeing much for signmaking in New York? And how does that factory in due decisions sign making? The scrapes are definitely heating up. A lot of bucks are checking those. I'm still seeing mature bucks coming in during the night. Um, so they're not daylight active yet, but yeah, with being late October, it's it's prime time to focus on scrapes and pay It's more attention to the sign. Do you and the guys from flat Land? White Tail has used many really aggressive tactics this time of year, like calling or blind calling or decoying between your haunts and New York and Pennsylvania. Uh. I would definitely say we're pretty big once it gets to this time of year. On calling, UM, Nick's been using calling this week, UM to try and get one of those territorial mature books that I think something's going on in his neck of the woods to show his face. Um. We've had a couple of encounters this week with some some nice dear and we just haven't had a chance to close the deal. But with each day it's getting closer to prime time, so more encounters should be coming going forward. Then, in the six week or so, what do you think that Bucket TV is going to be on a scale of one to tend in New York. I think we're headed towards UH eight and the nine. UM. I'm thinking that next week, probably around November four through the eight, it's going to be about prime time up here in northeastern part of the United States. Our done, Congrats on the autome do you. Good luck to you and everyone else for flat and white tails, and thanks for joining me. Yep, no problem, thanks guys all right Enjoining us on the line now is Matt Peterson from MDL Outfitters in Iowa. Now, Matt in Iowa, what would you say the bucket activities been lately on a scale of one to ten, bluck activity has been in an average four and a half out of ten. So what we've seen is your your stereotypical pre rod activity. However, it's being influenced with our rather unique systems systematic Southern Iowa agricultural system going on where we have a lot of crops that are still standing in a lot of our great areas UM. And so those areas are obviously, you know, hiding a lot of visual sightings that we normally would be seeing. UM. However, with the standing corn here, love to flock to it. UM. It's colder town. The deer coming out heading towards beans, de feed and hitting on greens this time of year. It's everybody talks about palatability. Um. All of our green plots are getting hit rather consistently. But with the snow that came in here over the last twenty four hours, in the future snow coming in those cold attempts, we are looking at a lot of being activity, which is somewhat unusual for this part of October. So if normally we'll be looking at about you know, five and a half to seven out of ten as far as blocked activity right now, um, especially the last year las year would have been about seven or eight, and uh this year with this, with the crops and other factors as well, eh D numbers possibly being lower in certain areas, it's just it's just not as good as what it could be. So walk me through one of your ideal setups would look like this time of year when the crops are in versus when the crops are out. So were the crops are in, we play the trail camera game because there's so much that we can't see, you know, with the field obolusly being full of corn um, we have to assume there's deer in it. We like to hunt the timber edges um. You know, travel out on a pinch, maybe a creek system um. Pretty much you know where there is a normal timbered or CRP betting area. We like to get between that and the corn where we are seeing heavy deer traffic. UM. If that's withstanding beans, obviously that does not have any cover influence whatsoever. Um So, therefore we can rely a little bit more on those trails, those funnels, those pinch points. Said this time of year, catch some big deer coming to check for dose out the food source in the evening. Um so, and I should say that it's all evening sets right now, and there's no there's no one benefits for us to get into the sand in the morning, um especially one of our better stands. We save those for the upcoming week. Um. Now invert now versus the crops are out. Now, there's a lot of food on the ground. There's a lot of stubble left over from the harvest. Um, whether they be corner beans. Every neighborhood is different, every farm is different with different variety of of seed. So we have sometimes we have round up ready beans. Sometimes we have the post liberty variety where deer have they do have a taste for different different types of corn and beans. We've see deer absolutely avoid corn, corn and beans that you know, they just don't like taste off and they'll go right next door to you know what looks to us as it seem seem kind of soybean. But they're all over there um for no other reason than taste. UM. So we with the crops out, we have to rely a lot more so on our trail cameras and our visual scouting UM to figure out a set up. So setups don't necessarily change because we kind of have a wide variety of setups UM, but the approach is a little bit different. And how we're finding with deer and choosing which of the setups to go to. What are you seeing for signmaking right now? And how does that influence your decisions and making a set up right now? Over the last I'll go back in the last ten days, UM. Scrape activity um as well as rubs are picking up on all of my farms in the last you know, five to seven days. UM. Going about ten days back, we were looking at a one seemed like slow activity. They were just weren't scrapes firing like normal, even though we had the good weather. UM, we were just seemed a little bit behind the schedule. UM. But here in the last week, scrapes have fired up like crazy. Rubs are picking up all over the place. And that's we're going from the small little field that drugs that are just periodic um all the way up to your you know, your big community rubs that are deep in noptember, which I tried to avoid looking at, even though they're pretty cool cool, they're pretty cool to find. UM. You don't need to invade on any better areas this time of year. But the sign is all picked up. And that's that's not just talking about trails and scrapes and rubs. It's all talking about trail can't activity. UM. A lot of the activity that I'm seeing on camera is still nocturnal, especially with our mature deer. UM. I've only had two or three mature bucks actually out in daylight. UM. I run cameras pretty much where we're hunting, right. I have no benefit to run a camera in the betting area. I'll never go back there um to hunt, order to scout, but we we want to know when the deer are there where we're hunting, so we're checking that. And the activity is just picking up. And now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and that with that light being the run it is, it is coming going forward. Then in the six week or so, what do you think that buck activity is going to be on a scale of one to tend in Iowa, I would expect here over the next week it would jump up to possibly seven or eight out of ten. Given the weather stays good, crops continue to get harvested occasionally here and there. Um. The only reason that would stay lower is if the you're staying into the crops and those standing cords and remain hidden. All right, Matt, Well, good luck to you and your clients at MTL Outfitters. Thanks for joining me, all right, Thanks, Man's have a good one alright. Enjoining us on the line. Next is Parker McDonald from Southern Ground Hunting in Alabama. Now, Parker in Alabama, what would you say the buck activities ben lately on a scale of one to ten, Yeah, I would say probably right now, it's gonna be about a about a five. Um where I'm at and in a lot of the state I haven't haven't seen just an overwhelming amount of um, big mature bucks being killed. There have been a few, but just in my experience so far, up scene, quite a few young bucks out on the feet and feeding on achins and stuff. Um. And then of course I had a I had a good encounter with a buck I killed last week, a mature buck on Alabama public plan And a lot of it was because I was I got right in between his his food and bedding. But he was definitely on his feet in daylight hours. And so I would say five because it's not you know, it's not the absolute worst, but um, I think it's only going to go up from here. Like other Southern states, Alabama has a variety of stages of the rut going on at all times in the fall. Can you walk us through what different do your groups and what different phases that route we currently have in Alabama. Yeah, So in Alabama on a lot of a lot of pieces pretty close to where I hunt, do you have a strain of deer that was brought in from Michigan years ago, and so your experience with those, dear, you'll experience a rut that is typical to probably the rest of the United States, really that early November UM type rut. And so you could be out in the woods, you know right now, NBC and some UM good pre run activity, and probably in the next week or so, you might you know, you might see bucks chasing does like crazy. Um. But then in that same block of timber, you could have a buck that's not even close to being in the rut at all. He's still up a couple of months to a month away from even being close to starting the pre rut. UM. So it really is all over the place, UM, where I hunt, And then you can go put some parts of the state, UM, Southern Alabama. There's a lot of parts of the state out there where they won't even run until February. UM. And then some parts of northern Alabama they're not gonna you're gonna have RUD activity in in February. So it really is truly just dependent on where you're at. UM. I would say, for where I'm at the majority of the time, UM, right now, you're still going to experience a lot of that bet the food pattern. UM, you're not gonna see a ton of rud activity. Of course unless you see those UM you get haven't encounter with one of those Michigan strained deer. UM. But like the buck I killed the other day, he wasn't he wasn't even anywhere close to it. So, um Man, this cold front though that is about to hit. I think it's hitting a lot of the United States. I know it's hitting a lot of the South. And in the next in the next couple of weeks, man, it's gonna be um probably the cold front that really gets the deer on the scene. I think I think you're probably gonna start seeing a little bit more movement and that number, you know, it could it could go up drastically here this this upcoming weekend for sure. So how do you balance your aggressiveness in an area like that where you have so many different phases of the ruck going on at once. For my style, UM, you know, I'm using I'm using a lot of water access pretty much. Um all the time is what I use. And UM, I kind of stay aggressive, you know. It's just really depends for me, Like during the rut that early early December is the rut that I really try to key on, key in on in my area. And I'm gonna be as aggressive as I can be. I'm gonna go into um a lot of the areas where I know is is good dough betting, and I'm going to get really, really close to that. And that's all that's since I started doing this, That's been the most um beneficial thing I've done, is that right there in the middle of that, and I'll get as close to those dough betting areas that I possibly can. Now what I'm trying to do is, um, I'm not getting I'm not proud of betting too much of these bucks. UM. I am trying to get in between the beds and the food and UM, A lot of the bed A lot of the betting, I know, is there some of the betting I don't know is there. I use this time of year when um, you know, the majority of the area that I'm hunting isn't so much, isn't so close to the rut Um. I'm going to use a lot of this time to go in really aggressive to areas that I've never been into before. So just I use a lot of it for going and blind into brand new areas. You just killed that buck doing water access. Is that a tactic that you'll use year round? Is that something that you think it can be applied to all of the others days? Yeah, So, you know, since I started doing this, I would say my encounters and deer have gone up drastically, like it's not even it's not even close really to what I was experiencing before. And uh, and a lot of that is because I'm going into areas where I mean, the majority of the time, there's nobody in there. I don't think I've ever run into a single person, um, you know, and especially here in Alabama, I haven't run into a whole lot of people that are doing the same thing. And uh, if I do run into anybody, it's usually because they're coming off of private land and they've been hunting that same piece of public land their whole life, you know, because it's close to their property or whatever. Um. But you know, I have a whole lot of encounters with deer. I get to, um see a lot more dear on these these pieces of property than a lot of people in the South. UM. And I think that's just getting back far into those places where people aren't going into very often. What food sources are you focused on this time of year in Alabama? So right now, um, obviously the aprons are falling like crazy, and we've had a really good year here everywhere I've been, um here in Alabama and Tennessee, um. Even in Kentucky I hunted there and everywhere I've been it seems like there's a really solid agin crop and so that that that really makes it difficult to um find where the deer are actually hitting because they got aprons all over the place. UM. One of the things I really try to key in on is um going into a place that has those white oats UM that's dropping a lot of aprons, but also has a lot of the native brows that is um that that deer really tend to like. So that with this buck that I killed last week, I really keyed in on a transition area that had a pine ticket and then they had a UM a couple of year old clear cut and those were on the private land, and then on the public land there was there was a lot of acrons falling, and so I figured in that clear cut, UM, there's gonna be a ton of brows out here. Those are basically just like a big thick food plot that are just it's just covered with all types of food for deer. And so if you can be close to one of those and a lot of times that ticket for this time of the season going forward. Then in the sext week or so, what do you think that Bucket TV is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Alabama? And I think this cold front that's pushing through here, um this weekend is going to be uh. I really think it's gonna get deer on their feet. Um, that's one thing I've noticed. The most deer activity I've seen that this point has been in those those little cold fronts that come through. You know, that drops the tent down to forty or so degrees and the deer activity gets really high. And so this weekend um is supposed to get down into the thirties. And I think you're gonna see a lot more people down here in the South, um posting on on social media, You're gonna see a whole lot more big bucks being killed. So I'm gonna say it's probably gonna go up to maybe even a seven or an eight. All Right, Parker Will, congrats on that awesome Alabama public land buck. Thanks for joining me. Thanks Spencer alright in joining us on the line. Next is David g Rizzo from teen Tagg and Brigg in Ohio. Now, David in Ohio, what would you say the buck activity is been lately on a scale of one to ten, I think the buck activity has been about a six. And the reason I say that we're seeing a lot of small box cruising daylight hours and seeing some new box pop up on our trail cameras, but the mature buck activity, at least where we're at, we have not seen you know, daylight active yet. It's been close, um, but we haven't seen a ton of mature buck activity yet. Although they are working scrapes at night, it seems like they're branching out throughout the last couple of months on our trail cameras box that we've never seen before or um and and the younger deer are moving in daylight. It just doesn't seem like that mature buck activity has you know, really gone out into like an all out seeking phase where they're moving you know, a lot during the daylight hours these last few days of October. Do acorns still factor into your decision making when you're making a set up? Yeah, I I I was actually set up tonight on an acorn flat and I had three does come in and they were literally nose to the ground feeding the whole time. I mean I was, I was actually pretty surprised that there wasn't a buck with them or at least coming into check. Um. So you know, I think the acorns definitely still play a factor, you know, at least case in point tonight where the does were feeding. I mean, I really wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else it just the buck wasn't in the area tonight. What are you doing this time of year when you find some fresh signmaking and at what point do you kind of start to ignore that and move off the rubs and scrapes. I think right now, at least for us in Ohio, is just is peak time where they are just hammering the scrapes. I mean, yesterday I said, I I watched three bucks, three different bucks, clear the same scrape. One buck in particular, cleared it, went back and cleared it three different times, and they were all kind of chasing each other around, just trying to figure each other out. So I think the scrape activity right now is is peaking, and especially over the next couple of days. I mean that's where really we're gonna be honing in a lot of our time and energy is hunting, you know, on scrapes or at least somewhere close you know paths leading up to scrapes, because I really believe that these mature bucks are gonna get on their feet. We got a cold front coming in end of the week, and I think that's gonna spur some activity and we're gonna get some good action, especially scrape action. You know, by the time the week's over with, When you're hunting scrapes, do you have a preference for morning versus evening. I'm hunting them any time of day. I prefer the morning time. And you know, so we literally just started and hunting mornings pretty hard over the last couple of days. UM. And it's and it's paid off for us, and I'll be in the woods again tomorrow morning. To UM. It seems like a lot of the buck activity that we're observing on trail cameras that we you know, that we're not seeing when we're sitting is starting to switch, you know, to that morning movement. I mean case in point, this morning, a new buck popped up on one of our trail cameras, one of our cell cameras that we've never seen before at ten thirty UM. So, you know, extending those sits, I think a little bit farther in the end of the end of the late morning. I think is uh is absolutely necessary because you just never know when when he could take a walk. It sounds like most of your cameras are facing scrapes right now. How does that change when we get into the road. Do they stay there? Do you move them to someplace else? No? We typically keep them, you know, we just try to keep them on any active scrapes. Honestly, once once like the peak chasing comes around, not that the trail cameras are irrelevant, but it's just time to just go log a lot of hours into the woods and you just I mean, the deer become kind of unpatternable at that point, at least in my opinion. So we which we tend to keep the keep the cameras on the scrapes that are active because you just never know what new bucks are gonna move into the area. Um and especially if there's a hot doing there, if he's hitting that scrape, you know, a couple of times, you never know, you could you could have a day or two day window to get in there, you know, and try and kill them. So we keep the keep our cameras on scrapes, let them kind of take that inventory for us when we're not sitting directly on you know, on those main scrapes anymore, and we just get in the woods, getting you know, getting a timber somewhere and try and log as many hours as we can if we can catch up to something going forward. Then in the sex week or so, what do you think that bucke activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Ohio? I I really think it's gonna be you know, an eight to and eight and a half. I think, Um, like I said, the end of this week, we got a cold front coming in. It's been sixty degrees all week. It'll be like that through Thursday, and then highs on Friday go down to forty with lows in the thirties and that continues for the next probably four to five days, I believe. So I really think end of this week, early next week, you know, this movement is gonna be eight eight to an eight to and eight and a half. The mature bucks are gonna be on their feet, and I'm really looking forward to being in the woods. I think this is gonna be, you know, one of the best week just that we have throughout this year. All right, David, good luck to you and your brother team tagging Bragg. Thanks for joining me. Appreciate it, Spencer, And that concludes this week's episode of rut Fresh Radio. Makes It Darton, Matt Parker, and David for joining me, Thank you guys for listening. Good Luck to everyone who has a rut cation planning up here. I hope you're season goats just like you imagine, and I'll be on a rut cation in my own So the next time I talk to you, guys, oh be coming off of a lot of days of tree stand time and I hope it's the same thing for you. Until next week, stay wired to Hunt.

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