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 Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three and thirty. Today in the show, Spencer new Art and I are breaking down the top trends, environmental factors, and observations from the past hunting season that might help us as we move into the new year. All right, welcome to the Wired Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X. I am sitting here today with my pale and Wired to Hunt producer helper Outer, big bearded, low voiced friend of mine, Spencer new Hearth. We're in Montana and we're getting to do one of these rare in person podcasts which I like to do. So thank you Spencer for making time to do it. I was expecting you to say something like you're welcome. You know that you're welcome to have UM. So here's what I want to do today. It is now, we're in the new year, and we just recently wrapped up our two thousand nineteen rut Fresh radio series. As you know, what we do every fall is we check in with hunters every week during the hunting season to hear about the latest trends, the latest conditions, what's happened in the woods that week. So we do this week after week after week. And now what I want us to do is review that review. What trends did we notice? UM? What takeaways? What can we learn from this past season? UM? Are there any things that happened that might impact us in Is there anything that was surprising that is going to influence how we personally hunt next year or how other people might think about things. I want to kind of talk all that, UM. So I know you've kind of thought through some of the main takeaway from twenty nineteen. I've thought through a couple of things, UM. But first I want to talk about why I think this is important because every year, when the new year comes around, I'd like to try to take some time to review what's happened. Because there's this idea floating around, UM, in academic research and kind of around the idea of performance and how to get better or something. There's this ten thousand hours theory. Have you heard of this? Next? Yes, So, there's this this theory that if you spend ten thousand hours on something that will lead you to become an expert at it. But um, that was the popularized kind of sound bite version of it. The actual research and the actual studies that came um that led to that number in that popular line. Um, it was actually focused more so on deliberate practice. And so it's not just ten thousand hours of doing something will make you an expert's ten tho hours of deliberate practice will lead to you being an expert in something. So you and I and a lot of the guys and girls, we want to become an expert at deer hunting, or at least we want to become a successful deer hunter. So we'll call that being an expert. UM. To have deliberate practice, to do something deliberately, and to achieve that expertise requires that you have a thoughtful approach to doing things and a thoughtful approach to learning from them, which then allows you to take the next step and get better and better. So every time we hunt, we're essentially practicing hunting if we just keep on hunting over and over and just do our thing and go out there and never take time to sit and think about what happened and what do we learn from it, then we're never actually get better. So this is I try to do all year round, and we do this. We talk about this kind of thing frequently on the podcast, but I think taking an annual approach to it is particularly helpful, um because it's so easy during a hunting season, at least for me to just get wrapped up in, uh, what do I have to do today? What I have to do tomorrow? And then it's go, go, go, go go, and and like it's busy, and you make it through your hunt and then whatever happened that day, you come home and you've got work to do or family stuff to deal with, their chores around the house, and then it's the next hunt and on and on. If you don't take the time to sit and reflect back on it, I think you miss out on a huge opportunity. And I think that's a like cool, unique part of rud Fresh Radio. UM. Prior to doing that, my white tail thinking and planning and reflecting was often like very insulated that it was me and my buddies, um, you know, largely just around South Dakota. But with rud Fresh, we're doing an episode a week, like fifteen or sixteen episodes a year, we're talking to, um, you know, four guys a week. We're covering like thirty to thirty five states, And so I think that exposes me and hopefully the people that are listening to a lot of other ideas. And it might um like kind of force that reflecting on you that you have a weekend coming up here where you're going to hunt, and you think you're going to do this, but then maybe you hear something on the podcast that gets you to approach that differently, or at least consider approaching that differently. And I think also it you'll sometimes see your situation illustrating somebody else's. And I found this to be where I'll be listening to some random person in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania or something somewhere and they describe a situation and I say, oh, that happened to me, and then you hear how they dealt with it or what they learned from it, and that's very helpful to them apply to your own thing too. Um So, so yeah, that's I want to kind of try to do this now on a macro level. I want to try to synthesize everything we heard over the past four or five months and everything you and I personally learned from it too, and see if we can come away with some annual takeaways and some things that all of us can be thinking about and keep in mind as we head into preparations for the season. But before we do at, I want to first go micro and talk just about your season and my season personally. UM. First off, Spencer, and I'm gonna steal your methodology here from Frustrated. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your AH, how would you rate your satisfaction with your twenty nineteen deer hunting season? M hm Um, I would say like a six. Explain, So I didn't quite haunt as much as I wanted to UM for a few different reasons. One of the big ones was planning. I just didn't UM plan things out well enough in advance to like make all those states that I want to hit happen, or make these trips that I want to go on longer. So on the front end, it didn't plan well enough UM. And then as far as success went though on these shorter trips, the less hunting, probably the least that I've hunted in four or five years. UM. I was able to kill a few deer no giants. UM. I think I killed a three and a half year old white tail in South Dakota with my bow, a four and a half year old mule deer in Montana with my rifle. But then I failed on multiple muzzle loader haunts, one in South Dakota, one in Nebraska. Um And the outside of that, I also did not kill an elk. So that kind of factors into it, Like I could be a lot more satisfied with my deer hunting season when I'm sacrificing some of this time that it could be deer hunting the elk hunting if I did then kill an elk, so that that also plays a role in it. UM. So my satisfaction, I would say, is like slightly above average or slightly above mediocre. And that's largely on on me and my planning and this kind of how I prioritize my time this fall. Is there one thing that you can point to right now that you plan doing differently next year? Plan better for sure? UM. I was kind of sitting and waiting on a lot of limited draw tags this year for for different Western states, the Midwestern states, UM. And when a lot of those didn't come through. Then it you're like stood there left holding nothing and you're like, okay, what what can I do now to fill in on some of reasons? So that that made it harder. UM. So I think having a a pretty solid plan A and then a lot more solid plan B, C, D and stuff like that. UM, I'll go ahead and do the same exercise myself. UM, I would rape my satisfaction probably A I would guess if I was guessing for you, please, I would say, like A seven. What you're gonna say? That's exactly what I was gonna say. Now. Why I was I going to say a seven? Um? Because it was more fun for you killed on the back forty, which which had to be like incredibly satisfied was um, But then you didn't kill Tran. You uh didn't get to come to Montana, and this year you don't kill on your boundary waters Hunt or North Dakota. Um. But I think the back forty thing really makes up for that. And then on your Tran property you also elected to pass on other bucks. So it's not that you couldn't have killed, it's that you you chose not to. So I think all that balanced that would Landy, it like a seven. That's amazing. You go, that's that's exactly what I was gonna say, every every word to a tea got me nailed. Um, no, you're right, I think, Um I am. I'm really happy with being able to kill that buck on the on the back forty. Killing mature buck in Michigan is always a huge accomplishment. To have done it on that property that we were just kind of figuring out, and that so many crazy things were happening with so many different people out there, so many just it's just like a crazy situation out there, And to have been able to do that, I feel very fortunate, thankful. That was huge. But but then yes, like I really wanted to kill Tran on the back on not in the back for it, but on the other property. UM. Put a lot of time into that, had a lot of close calls, just didn't come together. Um that's disappointing. But to your point, I could have killed two other what would have been like two of my very best bucks in Michigan ever, but I chose to pass on them because I really wanted to get a shot train and and that I had basically one tag in Michigan that was allocating for the back forty, and then I was gonna have one more tag to play with than otherwise. So if I shot one of these other bucks, I was done. And I just couldn't bring myself to do that when I wasn't sure they were mature, and knowing Tram was still running around, and knowing that there's a chance these deer could make it, UM decided to roll the dice. And so it's funny though that is like the biggest the biggest thing for me coming out of this year was was and I don't have an answer to it, um, but my big internal struggle the whole season was around those decisions. Should I be so picky, should I be passing on these deer um, or should I just you know, they would have been great bucks. Um, it would have been really cool, but I kept on falling back on that. I would have felt a little disappointed. It would have been like a bitter sweet thing. If I would have shot anyone of those, dear, there would have been a part of me that's like and I don't think I ever want to shoot an animal and ever feel that way. I wanted to be a decision that one like yes, and so I keep on leaning back on if I'm not one yes on it, I shouldn't do it, so that even looking back, you you don't have regrets about that. I'm like nine no, Like I stand by my decision, not saying there's like some percentage of me, though it would have been, like there's a small part of me. Like, man, it would have been satisfying to be able to have killed a really nice another really nice buck in Michigan. I've never killed two really good bucks in Michigan in one year, like that would have been cool. Um. And I look back at the videos of that one buck like RB, who he's a he's a really nice buck. Um. You know, I've never passed on bucks like that in Michigan before. So part of the che that would have been that, you know, there's nothing to be shamed with shooting that deer. But then another side, he says, it's also kind of cool that you didn't, though, and that you have to watch that buck so many times close and you didn't. Like that's cool too, Like that's a new thing for me. Um. So I went back and forth like a million times though, and and we talked about on one of the episodes. I can't remember when, but on that buck RB that ten pointer that man, I'm still torn whether he's three or four. But because I wasn't sure, he came in and I drew back on him at twenty yards and I was on him and I was like I was ready, and I was in my hand like yes, no, yes, no, and then I ultimately came to the decision that just told you that if I'm not yes, I shouldn't do it. So I didn't. But then literally an hour and a half later he came back and this time like, damn it, I should shoot him. And then it's I got my bow and try thought about trying to get a shot him, and then he kind of like didn't give me a shot. So and then as he went up, like I'm glad he didn't, I shouldn't shoot him. So like that's been this whole back and forth thing for me. I'll season and just kind of left me with with the the closest. The closest than get to is what I just said. If I'm not a hundred percent, I'm not going to do it. But um, but it was kind of the defining debate of my year. And then where I do have maybe a regret. Is in North Dakota. So that was a public land hunt in a tough like It's been a tough place for me to hunt. Um hun another one year before I couldn't get on amature bucks and then this year we talked about it. But I'll just bring it up again. Um you know, I want I really wanted to kill a mature buck on the on this in this area. It's a really cool area. I wanted to kind of solve the puzzle. And on my second day of outing, I spotted a really really good buck, like a definite mature four or five year old type buck, hundred and fifty type class big ten pointer I'll invlvet just like a wow buck. And so I was like, I want to kill that dear, And so I went and made a move on him. Went in that first evening set up to get a shot at him. And early in the evening, I don't know, with an hour or two hours a daylight left, here comes this like nice a point comes trotten by at thirty yards and I had like a split second, do what I tell a crack or not? And I was like that big tent could be right behind him, I'm not gonna shoot I got the whole week still all this time, and so I passed on him and then filmed him with my phone off in the distance when he was in the grass and coming out of that in the moment that one I'm still torn on it was cool to have passed on. I don't know I would have shot him, I think looking back on him, if especially if you showed up on day three or four or five, no doubt about it was shot him. So the only thing there was that if I had shot him on the on the first night of hunting, second day of the trip, there probably would have been a little disappointment and that the trip was cut short. But standing here today looking back on it, I would have it would have been cool to have killed a public land about in North Dakota, in this really cool place that I've been trying to figure out. Um So, in in that lesson learned there was and I've I've always known this, and you always hear this, don't pass on day one, what you shoot on day seven. I've gone back and forth on whether I think that's a good approach or not. I still don't know where I stand, but I guess in this situation, it's easy to get too I don't know. I don't know what I think, Spencer, but I think like at a hell of a season in two thousand eighteen, and so I came into twenty nineteen feeling no pressure to like I don't have to, I don't need to. I don't know. I was riding high, killed four bucks the previous season, um, including my Mexican buck, and so I came in here feeling like I can be patient, I don't need to rush things. But now, sitting here months later, I kind of wish that I had taken that opportunity when it when it arose. So, I don't know, continue learning experience, I'll keep on figuring out what I want from a season. But I will tell you this coming season, I'm going to try to rethink my goals just a little bit, um, especially on public land stuff. I'm not gonna get too picky. I went through phase I was like, I want to kill any decent buck on public land, and I was like, you know what, now I want to see if I can kill like a really good, mature old buck on public land, and um, now I might say, you know what, it's okay to just kill a pretty dark, nice buck on public land. Maybe that's where I'm out in public stuff. And back to the saying that you referenced there, like they don't shoot something on the first day you've been shooting the last We've heard it said the other direction as well, but don't shoot something on the last day you would shoot on the first. Um. I absolutely hate both of those, Like I really dislike having some um witty saying like that dictate your hunt. And it's like almost allowing other people to tell you what to do, because it feels like a very outdoor channel snappy thing that people saying in moments where they didn't shoot a deer um. And I just really dislike that. I'm all about like moving the goal posts on your hunt. UM. I do it all the time. I go into a hunt and it's the first day and I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna hold out and kill amature buck. And then after a few days You're like, this is way tougher than I thought. I'm now willing to take any buck, or at some point it might evencome like I'll shoot a del because I just want to like have some kind of success and get the meat. UM. So I'm fine with that direction. I've also liked went into hunts where I said I'm going to shoot immature buck and then it's like the second day that This was the example of my archery hunts in South Dakota this year. It was second or third day. I was there for five or six days. It was a plan in three and a half year old came by and if you'd asked me if I had a shot at three and a half year old on the second day prior to that, I said no, UM, but I get super excited when this buck showed up, UM, and I shot him and I was stoked about it, and I don't regret it, and I don't. That's why I then don't like these um like witty sayings that almost like let somebody else dictate your hunt because somebody said that that elected to pass on a deer um. And it seems like those often don't come from somebody that's always hunting in like a real world scenario. It's like a super well manicured property in Iowa, or someone who is traveling to an outfitter, and once they leave that outfitter, they're going to another outfitter. It's easy to say those things in that situation. Um, So that's why I don't let those kinds of sayings like applied it to my style of hunting. Yeah, yeah, I think I keep coming back to. You know, here's my little wit witty saying I started. Now it's not terrible revolution was hunt your own hunt. I keep going back to, like, whatever's gonna make you happy in that moment, you should do. And so that's kind of where I settled on things like I passed on a buck the opening day buck in Michigan and passed on the buck, and people like, your nuts, you're crazy, you give me a lot of shit about it. I was like, you know, it made me happy, was what I want to do? The same? You know, flip side, you shoot a buck in some people like it's too small or too young, whatever ask you are you hunt your own hunt. That's kind of where I've settled. Everyone's gonna have your own personal approach and and that's okay. What I do think is helpful is to think about what your approach is going to be. That just is helpful because in the moment it will help you make the decisions. Because one thing that can be challenging is if you don't know what you want and you find yourself in the situations like I don't know, should I shouldn't I UM. Just having put some thought into what you want out of a hunt or what your goals are gonna be, I think we'll just make your experience a little bit more um achievable or something. But that's neither here nor there. That's that's one of my big hakeaways though from just what this season meant for me personally. But let's let's do back out now talk Macro. So that was our seasons are couple of the things that happened for us. Now when we look at the two thousand nineteen season from a big picture point of view, we've talked to a whole bunch of people this. I don't know if you can do this or not answer this question or not, but if you were to just put your finger on the pulse of the nineteen season, we we see a lot on social media. We talked to a whole lot of people. If you had to rate the twenty nineteen season in general on a one ten, one to ten scale, like how good of a year was it for White Tail? Hunters, What kind of number would you put on that. I would probably give a similar answer to what our own we're UM like a six or seven. And I think um the positives of the season were that there was like a lot of moisture, so in antler growth should be up. But with all that moisture is a delayed hard risks, which shouldn't make haunting really challenging for a lot of places that were standing crops during the rut, so that there's a pro and con there. Um we had like some well timed cold front, but if you want to compare that two years past, UM, I think it was two years ago where if you pulled out of calendar and you just circled the cold fronts that you wanted, like you gotta pick out three or four weekends where you wanted cold front, that's where they hit. Um, we didn't necessarily have that this year. We had something at a smaller scale, but we didn't have that UM. And there was also a lot less e h D than in years past, and there were some isolated places. I think Kentucky and Tennessee got hit with it, and then there's there's little pockets elsewhere. I think, UM, southern Iowa, northern Missouri, but for the most part, a lot of the country escaped e HD. So I think that's positive as well. Um, with all that, I would say like seven yea, I was gonna give us six six or seven, yeah, I feel that that's that's THEE in the right ballpark. I think one of the big things for me that stood out that was pretty true across a lot of the country at least, was during that peak of typical writing activity. Right let's say, last to go October through the first couple of weeks or the middle of November, it was generally cool temperatures across most of the country. We didn't have a warm spell in the middle of the route like some years you do, and I think that made a lot of people happy. There's nothing I liked less than a four day window from November four the ninth. That's like in the seventies. That's I'm sure some parts of the country are warmer than others, but in a lot of the country I knew were generally good conditions during that period. Now, let's unpackage it a bunch of those little things you mentioned. You talked about a lot of things there that I think are worth talking about. UM, moisture rain. That was a big thing for a lot of people earlier in the season, early in the year, sorry, because we got very wet spring, right, and then what we talked about or what kind of happened from there was a lot of farmers across the Midwest, across the nation weren't able to get crops in some places. I bet you, I don't know. Thirt of the farm fields and my neck of the woods maybe weren't planted as they typically would have been. UM. And a lot, maybe fifty percent weren't planted as soon as they usually are. Probably fifty percent went in late, or they put something in different than they never would have usually. UM. Like there was a lot of fields that didn't plant their typical grain um of corner beans instead put in like a winter week late in the summer, that kind of thing, which is different. UM. A lot of folks, not a lot, but some folks around us plant hemp um something totally different than whatever gets planted. UM. That was something you heard about, talked about a lot throughout the year, right. The impact of that many times, I think moisture would be like the number one theme from and that also might mean that that was like the number one factor for whether or not you killed this year. Um. It came up on almost every interview, and I think it affected most hunters across the Midwest and the West, and for those reasons that I kind of said, um, all of that moisture, it has that effect that when you have a super wet spring or summer, that carries over all the way into fall. For how deer hunters feel it, Like you said, things are gonna get planted and then things are coming out super super late. Um. Like I said before, a lot of those what you consider the best days of the rout um, those first two weeks of November, guys were hunting when there's still a lot of standing corn up um. And that certainly makes it challenging because that running activity can still be taking place, just not um in the open where a bow hunter could kill a deer. So I think that is like the biggest theme of Let's dive a little further into what comes out of that. So first let's talk the impacts in the spring. So you have a very very wet spring like we had this year, like uniquely what compared to some of your so much so that a lot of farmers conka crops him. So when that happens, you have then a very different situation the fall as far as available food source and stuff, and then you also have possibility of natural forage being better. Maybe right, So do we have this is something I really don't have an answer to. Um. I feel like I've read stuff about this, but I can't point my finger on a specific study. Um, but has it been proven or is the research that points to UM rain in this? Certainly? Oh gosh, I'm blinking how to say this? Right? There's is there a direct connection between antler growth and availability of rain or amount of rain in a spring or summertime period? That is one of those things that I hate when this sort of thing is repeated without somebody actually looking into it or knowing. And I'm doing that right now, And so I feel kind of guilty for like stating that earlier that we had this this moisture and so it equated to better antler growth. Um. But I don't know that's a fact. That might be something that that deer hunters have in their head. Um. It seems it sounds reasonable, it sounds possible, But we see nutrition play a factor in other ways with handler growth. If there's a super hard winter, um, then then bucks are dropping early. So I could see where um, a lot of rain and a lot of food available great nutrition could lead to that and antler growth and antlers are a U. This is a I should be reading my research text better more often. Um. But they're like a secondary trait or there are secondary importance to deer. So basically, resources won't go to antler growth unless the basic needs are already met. So if a deer isn't getting enough protein, enough of all the things that needs for its it's for its regular health and functioning, they won't be able to vote as much of that nutritional and energy needs to antler growth. So deer that has all of its needs met with lots of great food, that's a deer that's able to put more towards antler growth, which which makes sense right. That's why deer and you know along the Mississippi River corridor in Iowa and Illinois, et cetera, where there's just tremendous soil and food sources and all that, that's why these deer grow huge antlers. I'm not saying this is like the most important thing, but some people notice. UM, So it would seem reasonable to believe that if there's ton lots of rain, that could lead to more high quality natural forage, which could lead to you know, great nutritional content for with the deer eating blah blah blah, at least a better antler growth. But on the flip side, in this case, there were a whole lot of soybean fields that didn't get planted. Soybeans are one of the absolute, very best food sources for deer. So I'd be curious to I wonder if you could look and see, all right, we had ten fewer acres and soybeans this year, what impact that might have had unavailable food sources. I don't know. I'm just spitball in here and thinking, but it's something that would be worth looking two further So besides antler growth, assuming that's true, that was certainly a pro of all that moisture. A con or this could be pro depending on what sort of property you haunted, what kind of property you have, is how it altered deer patterns. Now, we've seen studies before, UM that show how deer respond to floods. If if something is flooding, what are those do you gonna do? They're gonna leave at some point and then are they going to return or not? Um. There was there was a great study dawn on I believe it was an island on the Mississippi River, and it showed that deer are incredibly loyal to their home range, almost to a point where it's fatal. They GPS tracked these bucks ranging from immature like one and a half year olds up to mature five and a half year old and they were all super dedicated to that island home range. As these waters were rising in the summer to the point where it killed a few of these deer that they didn't leave in time. Most of them left I think was like fifteen out of seventeen or something had left while the water was rising, and they already turned by the fall when that water receded. UM. But with some porsche with some parts of the country, that water never did recede. UM. I haunted a property in South Dakota that wind underwater in like May or June, and then the water is still there right now and it froze out with like a few feet of water on top of it. So in extreme cases that changed the deer movement bad for me, But the neighbors who have high ground just pushed those deer over there and they had then a better fall, right. So that's that's a big thing. With that extreme moisture that we had this spring and summer, how it could have changed your season. I definitely experienced that in some places too, Like one of my main Michigan spots, A lot of areas, like there's just a section where my two track usually goes back to the back of the farm and you can't take it right now because it's still flooded through the whole hunting season. Or I know in early October, there a lot of spots in Michigan they are super flooded. You know. The guys from the hunting public came out to Michigan and a lot of the spots they were trying to hunt north of me, Uh, we're super duper flooded. That totally changed what they had to do. Um shooting. When we did a week later, we were doing some public plan hunting for Field of Work program, we experienced that in some places. So yeah, it impacts people. Um. Now let's look at another pattern change with that, which would be back to when when crops came in or out. Um, you had another feast or family situation where you might typically have a crop field on a property you can hunt. What happens when they don't plan anything this year? What happens when the great big food source on your lease or the farm you have permission to hunt or whatever, or maybe even the property you own, and you try to plant it was a failure or you couldn't get it in or whatever. What happens when you don't have that food source. That changed a lot of people's seasons, I think. And if you had the food, you might have had a disproportionately better season. Because we're deer might have been more spread out to more places. This year, they're hyper focused in the areas where there was so I think I experienced us a little bit for different reasons. UM. But like on the back forty, for example, we had a farm that used to have food on it that we didn't have food on it this year, not because of the rain, simply because we couldn't get anything planted really with the time we had. But there was lots of great food all around us. UM, we saw much less deer activity than I would have expected if we would have had, you know, some crops in there, some food to hold them. I imagine that'd be a pretty frustrating frustrating thing for someone if you're used to having that farm field there. Um. The one thing that it kind of makes me think about as a takeaway from that, you hear this occasional critique of people that plant food plots in the Midwest or an egg land. It's like, why food plot when you're surrounded by farm fields all over the place. Why are you wasting your time and planning something when there's all these corn fields and being fields and all that kind of stuff. You're wasting your time. I've always thought that to be not true, because I think you've got an added level of um strategic benefits to planting something where you want it, the specific thing you want. You can plan something different than usual, you can plan something in a way that's unique, you can plant a spot that's unique, etcetera, etcetera. But I think in this case, here's a whole another thing. You can't always count on the egg You can't always count on you know, they're being these being fields and corn fields and whatever, because there's gonna be years like this, So for the folks that had the ability on the at least land or own land, when they had the ability to put their own thing in later they probably saved their season, while the person next door who couldn't in their farm or didn't get anything and they might have a really slow season. So that's I realized it's not an option for everyone, but it's it's just one more thing to think about when considering whether or not food plots are worthwhile if you have the ability to do so. This year, I think helps some people out. Um. And I benefited from that on one of my other Michigan properties where I did have food plots in and a neighbor didn't give their crops in that usually would have, And so I think I saw a little bit more activity because of it. Yeah. And I think though for most hunters, all those standing crops tend to be a negative um standing corn, Yeah, standing corn um, because there there can be all that running activity taking place just not anywhere in front of you. Those deer can bet out in those low spots. Um, they'll hang out on those fence rows and just areas that are really tough to bow hunt. But I know you have expressed in the past. How if the state has a lot of standing corn Michigan, for example, that a lot of deer survived the gun season, which is a pro for you. So it can be both sides there, But I think largely standing corn tend to be a negative for for guys. Yeah, I felt it was a negative on the back forty because we had a bunch of standing corn all around us, so that I definitely felt that there. But on the other Michigan property, I liked it because of what you just said, because we had standing corn the first week of the gun season through the opening weekend, you know, when a ton of people go out there, and and just like you said, I've always felt like I would rather sacrifice my success, uh for a little bit during gun season if it means that we'll have a better opportunity the next year. And this has happened a couple of years now in this area. We've had a couple of years with standing corn. Into this year we did, and I think the year before we did too. Um, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what I can attribute this to. This could be a little bit of the standing corner has helped. This could be a little bit to the wet spring maybe and this could be a little bit too, just um, changing culture in my little neck of the woods, in this neighborhood, we're kind of getting more people that are interested in passing on younger bucks. But for whatever reason, Um, and maybe you know, maybe a little bit of some of the stuff I've been doing this help too. Um, I'm seeing way more nice but bucks in this little area than ever used to, a lot more bucks making like a lot of nice two year olds. Used to be like the two year old were the best I ever saw around there, and then now we're now I'm passing on really nice three year olds. It was never a thing. And now this year, I think there are three bucks four or older or that will be at least four older next year if they make it through the winter and everything. But that made it through the end of the hunting season, which is like unheard of for this little area. Um, and you think you could credit standing corn during gun seasons is as a little bit as helping as helping, yeah, because I think, I mean, there's there's a lot of guys a hunting this area, and um, there was a lot of standing corn, So I think that helped a few and then like one more thing. Um. This doesn't warrant a lot of discussion for standing corn, but a property that is historically one of my toughest to enter an exit because I'm going through an open field that the deer want to be in at first light and last light, all of a sudden becomes the easiest property that I have for entrances and exits. Because I have that standing corn, you can be fifty yards from a deer and they have no idea. Um. There's so much movement and it's so dense, um that it makes getting to stand way way easier. So while most years in this year I curse that standing corn when I'm out there hunting, it certainly makes that way way better. It's a good point. That's a very good point. So what are a few things. Let's let's talk a little bit about how to deal with that. So we've got standing corn. Let's say it's the rut or whatever it's time period. We would usually I think it's down, but it's not. I have always approached it. Um, I would do I would take advantage of what you just said. I would be a little bit more aggressive with my entry and exit because I can use that corn field to my advantage as far as getting into out of places, whether it be walking straight through the corn field, something to do if you have if you own the land, um or if you know the farm or something. I know some guys will actually purposeful a um if they own it, plant with a small path through the middle of corn field. So plan on using the corn field as an access route going right to the middle of it, or just simply go in there in September or some period before you're gonna start hunting and just clear a path through one of the fine one of those UM I'm having to brain fighting roast. Find a corn row that you can kind of clear out of leaves and junk on the ground and just have a quiet path through it. Um. Yes, use the standing corn I've also found that edges of standing corn fields, especially when there's a little bit of space, has become it's gonna be a hot spot for scrapes. It's gonna be a spot that deer feel comfortable moving in daylight, So you can hunt those corn field edge as well. Still inside corners where corn field pushes into a big piece of cover is going to be a hot spot. UM. I've also always found whenever there's points or swells and extend into corn fields, that's always a really good place to hunt. Um. I was talking to another buddy this year who had started even just little grassy strips little um what do you calm ah uh, you know, a cup of coffee. There's there's some name for these little grass strips. They'll go out into the middle of like shelter shelter belts or I don't know, whatever it is, these little patches of cover that sometimes extend into standing corn fields. He's been actually pushing them and finding ways to just slip word just stock along these things, and you'll find these bucks better than these little grassy strips in the standing corn because they feel like they're surrounded by a jungle of cover, and you can take advantage of that sometimes. So it doesn't hurt to become a little bit aggressive when you have that situation when they're they're not gonna be in the typical places maybe you think you'd find them. Take advantage of the fact that, Okay, they're not maybe going to be in the places I thought otherwise as often, but maybe I'll focus it on these little points to extend into it. Maybe I'll try, uh you know, and some guys that actually walk cornfield rows with their bows and try to sneak up and shoot bucks in the standing corn. I would be an interesting thing to trap. So doesn't have to be a negative. Yeah, And I think it can help with some on the ground scouting. If you are trying to figure out where deer entering and exiting a field and the field has been picked, it's really challenging to figure out where these deer at. But if all the corn is standing, you'll find these places. And I think to a property that I haunt, there's like three saddles that hit this corn field, and in my mind, those deer could be using any of those saddles. They're all equal. But this year, when you have that standing corn, you'll see that one saddle specifically had um like corn that didn't get above your knees because the deer had just been destroying the corn in that area, but not so much by those other saddles. So on the ground scouting, I think it can make that easier when you have that standing corn to figure out where these deer are eating. I'll so I think it insulates some properties better. Um some places that I ordinarily wouldn't hunt when the corn is picked because it's too close to a road, or it is too close to um other like a lot of open space. But when you have all that corn there, I think those do you feel a lot more comfortable because they don't have people stopping on the road to look at them, or that they're not aware of all the vehicles that are traveling nearby. Um. So I think that that corn can just make them feel more comfortable and can lead this in better hunts. Then yeah, I think that's I think that's very true. And it just comes down to, all right, this is the situation we have before us. How do you make the best of it? And I think all those things are one way to approach standing corn. One other food source question. Um, and this didn't impact me personally a ton this year, but um, what about our production of acorns? What was your feeling on how acorns impact of the twenty nineteen season? What does that change at all how you think about moving forward? So I don't hunt around acorns a lot personally. Still a lot of my acorn intel comes from the people that we talked to on Red Fresh radio and in the past two years, it would come up every time I talked to somebody, they would reference the abundance of acorns that they had in an area, whether it was Arkansas or Kentucky, or Pennsylvania or Illinois. It seemed like much of the country these last two seasons seen had a lot of acorns and that changed their October hunts. This year that was not coming up near as much. UM. So I don't know if it was an average acorn season or below average acorn season, but I think that's notable because coming off of the last two years, there were so many acorns on the ground that it might have changed how you were hunting this year and you didn't realize that. Um if if you weren't paying attention, you could have been like, well, the deer, we're doing this in eighteen and seen they were hanging back and they cover a lot more. They were not visible at all the entire month of October, whatever that might be, And then you could have applied that to this year and screwed up on something because there was now like a lot less acorns. So while I don't think that that um effects everybody, it could affect the way you were hunting based off these last few years, and then it wasn't a great tactic to apply this year because all those acorns weren't there. That's a really good point when you you have to be careful with the assumptions you draw off previous year's observations, because he really need to think about the y to everything, and so let's just look at the specific why of a food source. The same thing could be applied to corn fields versus soybean fields on the rotation, or could be applied to this year we didn't have the crops, but last year we did. Um. So just thinking about what you saw in a given year and then think about what factors weren't played that year, and so carrying that forward into something I think that I'm always trying to do a better job of is is Let's okay, yeah, I know that this is what deer did in I know this is what happened. I know this is what happened twenty seventeen. What else is going on during those years? Okay? So nights standing corn twenty nineteen nights standing corn? Um? What about acorns? What were the acorn production these years? Okay? And see if you can start making any connections, and then this year getting the recent intel the importance of trying to get in the idea of what are the food sources now? So I know people like Johnny Aberhart really advocate for doing a speed scout. He'll go out like one day in September and walk all of his properties and check and see what apple trees are producing, what oak trees are producing. Is there any other food source that seems to be it's going to be good this year? Are you know ourbinians looking good? Whatever, So that he knows, Okay, this is the situation this year. You can't just depend on what every other year has told you. I think that's a big takeaway from me, um, because this year could have screwed a lot of people up with acorns with the whole crop than we've talked about. If you weren't paying attention to how things are different this year, like you said, you might have had a weird year. Yeah, it's got to be very in the moment um. Like historical deer patterns have helped me kill deer in the past, but I know they've also cost me dear because I've fallen in love with a certain tactic or a certain stand that if I would have been paying better attention and scouting in the moment like that, I would have known better than to do this thing or haunt this area based on what the conditions were that season. All right, another thing that was a little bit different this year. You alluded to this earlier. We had great coal friends every weekend, bing bang boom. You couldn't have picked it out any better. This year was different. Um, let's talk about the timing of Cold Friends and twenty nineteen and how that might have impacted things. And then did you learn anything from there? Is there anything based on You're You're kind of funny with Cold Friends. You've been a little bit contrarian when it comes to cold fronts. Your theory in the past has been that cold fronts really don't impact dear movement. Really, it's just hunters have more confidence because there's been so much hype about cold fronts, and that leads to folks having more success. Do you still feel that way? UM? I continue to like to lean on the science for these sort of theories. And that's what the science says, is that science is kind of sure because of the studies. I guess we can say the studies. Yeah, the studies don't necessarily they're not necessarily answering the questions that I'm wanting to answer them is how I will position why I still believe in the impact coal fronts, but nonetheless, So I like to lean on the studies that Penn State UM, Georgia q d m A, that that they regurgitate of these studies things like that. I like to lean on those studies. And they say that warm cold um neutral, the deer going to move, and that's only the deer movement is just going to increase as get closer to the RUD, and it's going to decrease that to get further from the RUD. And my argument be that they are just measuring total movement. They're not measuring is there more daylight movement They're not measuring, is there a greater amount of movement from the betting area into the open or different things that that that might impact hunting. Sure, So I'd like to lean on those studies and then say that I don't think cold fronts are the and all be all, because I like to use science or studies and in so many other parts of my life that I feel like I can't reject it here when it comes to cold front With that said, though, I'm hypocrite and that if I see a cold front coming, I get excited. I will, um, maybe haunt harder, like haunt a better stand, or if if I wasn't planning on going, I'll no, I'll now go. Um. There's so much buzz around cold fronts in the white tailed world that it can't be one wrong. It can be so I am hypocritical in that way that I still like cold fronts and pay attention to cold fronts. But I think a larger aspect of all of this is that cold fronts will give hunters confidence. Like I said, and like you said, that it might make you go sit in a better stand, um, because you think this is the kill hunt. Um. It will make you more alert, You're less likely to be on your phone. You'll get there earlier, you'll stay later, um, because you have that confidence. I think that is as large a factor as it is that it actually makes the dear move in front of you more. It could be a factor. I won't say it's more so, and I'll say it could be a portion of it. Um. So that's set, whether phantom or reality. Cold fronts where something that a a lot of people talked about this year. UM, lay it out for me, the most impactful cold fronts where when when did you narrow us down to this year? I would say the second weekend of October. It seemed a lot of them. Seemed like a lot of the country had a cold front that hit on like that Friday, stuck around through Sunday or Monday. And then the second big one was that very first weekend of November. I think it was like November one maybe that kind of hung around for a few days and then sort of plateaued into just like some consistent weather for the entire run. YEA, for like that long period of the first two weeks in November, at least in Michigan, it was just cold or really cold. But we never had like we talked about earlier. We never had the weird warm temperature. And I remember during that time here you and I were talking about is it is it it all going to be downside? There's no change, Because lots of times people talk about changing changes in weather sometimes spur a bumping movement. We just had a kind of consistent cold. Um. I wouldn't I wouldn't complain about that. I thought it was fine, um, but it was interesting. Yeah, And I certainly like when you get that consistent cold at that time of beard, that's great, But with that can often bring some stagnant winds. Um, something you really have to plan for. If if and I think this year's a lot of north winds for a lot of the country during that cold front, you've got to be aware that if you ever rutcation that nine days long, um, six of those days you might have to plan on hunting north wind and so then you really have to capitalize on the south winds haunts. You have to be more mobile to be able to set up and tear down to get you yourself some new options. If if this north windstand isn't paying off, or if you bump a deer and that one is no longer going to be relevant for a few days. Um, So that's stagnant whether I think has a downside in that way that you were then limited on some of your options. Um. Other things around coal fronts that I think are worth noting is that first big coal front came kind of mid October ish, which some might say is is a a slower time of movement. Um, I think we've pretty consistently talked about here that it's not any kind of biological lull. But there are changing factors in the woods that might influence deer to move less than daylight, possibly in some places, more hunting pressure, changing for food sources, um, Less cover out there as leaves come down. UM. So all that can change to your movement. Um. But then we had that cold front dropped into this same period, so there's a lot of different factors happened in mid October. Did you see any kind of big bump in success around that. My feeling was that I didn't see this monstrous um up swell of of success from people that you might have seen, like what happened when we had a really nicely timed coal front in late October and everyone was like, holy smokes, late October like that I remember from thirty one was banging like lots and lots of deer were hit in the ground during that time period. Um. This year, I didn't feel that happened during that time period nearly as much. And then when we did have that big coal front in like you said, like midish October, it wasn't. Man, Is that the sense that you got to Yeah, that's it's still hard to quantify because it seems like so much of it is is anecdotal. But you're right, it felt like we had that one it was like the fifth or the seventh in October, and then we had that one later in the season. It seemed like a lot of deer we're getting killed, especially that first one that was early in October. I can't remember the exact day. Somewhere between like the fifth and the tenth, I think we both saw we had guys on Red Fresh Radio that we're calling their shots, saying that I think it's going to be great. And then I think three out of four of the guys we had on on the one wins they went out and killed like that Saturday. And then just social media lighting up that same time period where it was early October, but it felt like it was early November from all the deer that were hitting the ground. Um and so, like I said, a lot of that tends to be an acdotal, but it certainly seemed like that happened for sure less less so it might take away from that as I continue to see this happened year after year, all the different variations and stuff if I had to. And again, this is is anecdotal. This is just like trying to put my finger on the pulse kind of thing. These are little, tiny observations I'm making, But I would just as as you try to one thing, A lot of hunters deal with, UM, you and I a little bit less. So we're fortunate with our jobs. Now we've got some wiggle room, but um still to a degree, with family life and everything else going on, we have to pick our times to hunt. And it's better to hunt than not hunt if you've got a limited schedule and you just gotta go and you gotta go do it. But if you have the ability to pick your shots, pick your times, and you're being selective about when you can do it, UM, I would say that there's varying levels of impact a cold front can have. I think I believe that most call friends can help a little bit. But I think that a cold front timed at specific parts of the season can have a disproportionate impact. So what I'm thinking here is that a a really early season cold front is a disproportionately special cold front. So if there's a cold front hits October one, I'm pumped about that one. I'm more pumped about the October one one then I am about the October twelfth, fourteenth one. I will second. I'll secondly say that a late October cold from I'm disproportionately excited about because that seems to be like that will kind of really kick things into gear a little bit more than they might otherwise. I'm slightly less excited though about a cold front that's like November ten, because it's gonna be pretty good no matter why. I like it, Like, I'm gonna be happy about it. But if if if you gave me like the ability to you gave me two cold friends, and I had to pick when I want them, I would either pick very beginning of the season, their end of October, or like a late season cold front. I think those are when it makes us has a special power maybe, And I'm just kind of this is like a high level thing. I'm thinking, I don't have any science, I have no studies I can point to purely ancdotal, but it's kind of that's the feeling I get after talking to so many people, hearing from so many people, um, it seems to be a slightly more impactful those times. And so with that um favored cold friend that you talked about at the very beginning of October, how does that change your tactics, like specifically your haunts. Are you getting closer to betting? Are you hunting more questionable winds? Are you going into areas that you you otherwise wouldn't like? Are you hunting a morning that time of year when you otherwise would not be hunting a morning? So in the super duper early season, I still wouldn't hunt a morning unless I had like an observation of trialcare and picture that told me, hey, he's moving in dayly, you gotta do it. Um. So that swing I would not take because I still just at least in a lot of spots of hunt, it's just really hard to get in these places early season in the mornings. Um. But I would get more aggressive in other ways, so I would I would push it. I would hunt my best early season locations, and I would find to try to find ways to do it, even if the winds were slightly more questionable, or if it would require me pushing a little deeper to a property I typically would. Um. Getting the cold from that time year, I've just seen so many times and again it's it's personal, it's ancidotal. But I've just seen so many times that when you got that cold weather the first few days of the season, one of the very very best chances you'll have all year. So this year, now, this this could be you know, this could be an example of not listening to what I just said. This season, Um, we had a cold front hitting, but it was hitting the second day of the season. So I opted for the first time in like ten years, not to hunt the first night of the season in Michigan. I just I was out there. I was scouting, though, So I sat an observation location far away from where I would to get a shot of deer, and I was just glassing the spot I wanted to hunt. So I wanted to see this long area and you know the story, I told you this, you know, five months ago, whatever it was. So I scouted the first night of the season because it was poor conditions, because I wanted to be more informed to hunt the second day when we had better and lo and behold, the first nio the season, my target about tran shows up right where I was going to hunt. If I would have hunted, even though the conditions weren't great. But the next day conditions were pretty good. I went and hunted there and I had a shot at, you know, a hundred and thirty class really nice three year old buck. I did have a shot at what it would have been my second biggest, you know, Michigan buck on this property. UM. So it paid to a degree to push in there that day. UM, I just chose to be more picky. I don't know what to take from that. That could you could You could look at it either way, I guess. But long story short, when you get those cold fronts at the right time of year, I get more aggressive. I'll you know, I will take more chances when I think conditions tell me that a buck is going to be honest, moving in daily a little bit more likely. Sure. Uh. And with that first weekend of November cold front that hit you also had the running moon right about that time. Something else that, UM, I don't pay much attention to you. I like to look every year we need to go in to be um and and with moon activity or with with moon dictating, do you act it for me? I've said this before. It's like bigfoot or aliens. UM, I don't believe in it. But if you have, like a good Bigfoot story or good alien story, I'm all in. I want to hear about it. Tell me about it. I will stop on a show that deals with those things. Every time I'm flipping through the channels, I'm fascinated by the subject. But ultimately, if you had to be like, do you believe in Bigfoot? Do you believe in aliens? I be like, now that's how I feel about with moon phases altering dear movement. But do you leave it open as a possibility? Sure, yeah, I could be convinced someday. I I lean on the studies, like I said about with Cold fronts. Um those studies show that moon doesn't change anything, But there could be a study that comes up that that changes that because um, as we've seen, like dear studies today are different than dear studies twenty years ago or forty years ago, And some new technology might come out that show us that like, oh no, we we were we were wrong about this, So my mind could certainly be changed. What I'm getting at is we had that rutting moon that fell in early November. Did you notice anything about that? What should hunters expect to see that time of year, and how is like this rutting moon different than other ones we might have. Yeah, so the rutting moon quote unquote is supposedly the second full moon after the autumn equinox, and the theory behind this is that when that occurs, that is kind of a trigger for running activity. This is a theory popularized by the late Charles Alsheimer and Wayne Laroche. I believe based off of a bunch of observations and studies they did. But to your point, almost everyone else, almost all other studies have pointed that not being true. Almost everything else points to the fact that the rut is triggered by photo period, which is the changing levels of daylight which are consistent year after year, which means that you have a consistent, relatively consistent peak of breeding activity year after year most places in the country. I used to pay more attention to the rutting moon. Um. I used to always see what it was and pay attention to seed I see something different, Is there something to it? Um. Honestly, the last couple of years, I haven't even really pay attention because anecdotally, I just haven't seen anything consistent enough to make me disregard the studies, so I personally don't take into account. The believers would tell you that you should pay attention to that, and that there are certain kind of like how I do believe that cold fronts at certain times that you can have an impact. They might say that when the rutting moon is placed in certain parts of the calendar, it will have an impact. So one theory is that if you have a very earlier late reading moon that falls outside of the typical window of writing behavior, we'll call it the first two weeks of November, if you've got a running moon that falls outside of that window, you might have what will be called a trickle rut where you don't see a real great burst and intensitive rutting activity. It is kind of a little bit here, a little bit. They're starting maybe mid out Ober and then continuing through mid November later. That's the that's the belief I don't subscribe to. I believe that, based off these studies again, that you're going to see the most breeding in Michigan starts around like the top of that. It's a bell curve, right, there's something earlier, there's some there later, but the highest number will be in that mid November time period. So I always look at the last week of October, in the first two weeks of November when I'm expecting to see the very most activity, not breeding, but writing activity leading up to breeding, and then you're gonna see some of the different behavior scattered throughout. I don't want the rutting Moon. I don't want the moon at all really impact my strategy too much anymore. The other rut related theory or the other activity relay theory around the moon is the red Moon. Um, there's a lot of folks to believe in that. I've got good friends that really believe in it. I know there's a lot of very successful hunters that really believe in it. I won't throw out I won't throw it out completely. The belief that the position of the moon at certain times of day might get you a little bit more daylight activity. Maybe there's a little bit of truth to that in some kind of way. I just I can't point to any definitive truth or change in my strategy around it, but it's it's there might be something too. But basically the red moon thing is, is there certain days or certain times when the moon is directly above or directly below, overhead or underfoot, which supposed we can impact a little bit of early movement. UM. One thing maybe worth noting is that in there was an evening red moon during that late October time period that also coincided with the cold front, which also coincided with what we both observed being a particularly high number of people killing mature bucks. This year, we didn't have that. We didn't have the red moon either. You can't connect the dots to the one thing or another, but it's it's an observation. UM. In when was that rotting moon? What should have people expected to see? So the running moon was October thirty one, which would have basically been right in line with one. I would expect writting behavior to be picking up regardless of the moon. So that's how I approach it. I just I'm gonna look at what's the calendar date, and I'll look at weather conditions a little bit to help me understand if I think there's gonna be a little bit more daily activity or not. Um. But I'm always blocking off those those dates. They should be pretty good, yum, the moon or otherwise. And I kind of just craped all over the moon stuff UM. And one of the reasons that I never, like really loved having a moon dictate your hunt is that I felt like it was something that deer hunters had invented to um like talk about why movement might be better or worse. And I thought this was like largely a white tail thing. And then I moved to Montana and I started L hunting. And the honest tell Us is former elkhunning guide. He's a great l con to right now. I was bouncing all kinds of questions often because I'm so green to it, and I would just um anytime something to come up by shooting a text or I would go bug him in the office and he would talk about how the moon affects l cunning and how a lot of guys that he worked with felt the same way that the moon affected elk hunting, and Yanni as someone who's l counting knowledge, I greatly respect. And so that kind of opened my eyes to something else as well, that well, it's not just um white tail hunters on manicured properties that think this is a thing. It falls outside of that with L hunters, UM fishermen talk about how the how the moon can affect things So that's also why I leave it open that I could be I could be talked into the moon affecting deer movement, uh someday, But until like that study comes out, you know, it's something that I'm not real concerned with. Yeah, I feel like if if anything else, because I said this mighty test before, I look at it as like a sweetener, it might give you just like a two percent better chance that I'm mature buck maybe is going to move in daylight a little bit Further, I won't complain if the moon is supposedly good for the day. I'm being a hunt, but I don't let it dictate too much of what I do. Yeah, if you were listening out like ten factors as to why this might be a good or bad hunt, that's not going to be in like your top three or four. No, it's gonna be lower on my list. It might be something I say, hey, I hope this helps. Yeah, but it's not going to be what I'm framing the whole plan around. Say, um, so we've talked about the time of cold from we talked about the time of the moon. We talked about how the wet spring and wet fall change things around. Is there any other major factor from twenty nineteen that is worth noting or that might impact us in twenty at all. I was less aware of this because I didn't deer hunt much in December. I think a hundred five days in December. But it seemed like most of the country had a pretty mild December. And so you know you you almost haunt you on December every year with success often as well. So maybe you can speak to this better on what a mild December means or what a December with a lot of snow means, and were December with a lot of cold means, But it felt like this year in uh there wasn't a ton of big snow uh experiences across the country. The temps never got super cold. We just kind of had a mild last month of the Yeah, And I think this goes back to some of the factors we've talked about. I mean all year, every year, we talked about these same things. Um. But again a review typical late season conditions that I'm looking for is I want a big coal front again, or a a significant weather event. Significant change in weather typically will spur some increased activity daylight activity, So a big major coal front like super fridgid temperatures. That's one of those things. They can get deer that might be less likely to move in daylight to be a willing to get on their feet. The second thing could be a big snow event. And for much of the Midwest we did get either one of those things for most of December. So I personally, I didn't see the late season activity I've seen in a year's past. And I saw plenty of deer, but I wasn't seeing the mature bucks like I thought I might be able to see. Um. I was waiting and hoping to take advantage of one of those fronts to go and try to take a late season crack at tran That buck I'm after never got it. Um. So I hunted regardless, but I just didn't get the movement that I thought would really happen. So I saw very few bucks on their feet and daylight coming out into the open. When I was seeing them, they were way back and cover in places I couldn't hunt, but I could just kind of see the distance. Um. The one time that my buck did come out to a food source in the late season, it was a cold day, just a few days, like a second day after snow, about as cool as we got all late season, and very high pressure. It was like a bluebird sky high pressure day, and it was one of those days that and you can just feel it. There's certain I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but I can predict an hour or two before the end of daylight the nights when I want to see a mature buckler when there's a really good chance, Like you can feel this is gonna be one of those nights. So there's a good chance as long as sometimes that doesn't get messed up, as long as some other hunter doesn't spook him, or coyote runs through, or I don't spook a deal, this is gonna be one of those nights. You can feel it, like you'll see more young bucks on their feet early, You'll see the does coming out earlier. Um you'll see especially here oftentimes in the late season, the places that I hunt, it'll either be like all dose or it'll be the night when you can see a bunch of bucks. But for some reason they right this time of year, the bucks kind of start regrouping back and store of pseudo bachelor groups to a degree, and if if I start seeing two year old bucks on their feet, I'm like, oh boy, this night could be a good night. And they happened one time the entire season, and that one time last year that came out. It was a big man and I couldn't get a shot at him. But um, but yeah, we didn't get the optimal conditions this year. I imagine there are a lot of people that had slightly less success than they would have hoped in late season because of it. Um. I guess what that means on the bright side, is that again, when I might have had a few more deer that made it through to the new year, so we might have, like in my case, I've got several mature bucks that I know made it through the guns, made it for the hunting season, um, when in past years he didn't. So glasses half empty would be that it didn't phil attack glass half full? Was that looks pretty exciting? Yeah? And in something um that we talked about with the average j corn crop, that's not always notable, but when the season before is so different than it becomes a notable thing. With the mild December, Um, that's that's not really like always notable thing when it comes to white tails shedding the ntlers. But last year there was a ton of evidence of deer shedding early in December and by early January. UM that it became something that wasn't really in Adota anymore. And I talked to Kip Adams about this in an article about this as to why it seemed like you were shedding early across the country last year. UM, and he had kind of pointed to like environmental stressors as to why those three things to be like crop failure, prolonged flooding, and prolonged cold. So when we didn't have like the prolonged cold this year, I think then you're not going to expect to see the same thing as where bucks were shedding a lot by Christmas day. UM, something you're probably not gonna notice this year. Interesting. So there's twenty nineteen in ah h was a nutshell. I think that's what they say, having one of those days, but every one of those days of the words just aren't coming to me. I couldn't sleep last night. I was up to like one thirty UM stewing on new ideas for the wire tunt podcast and us there that's what it is that might be it. UM. So that's our rear and review. We talked a little bit about some of the things we'll be thinking about differently. UM. But do you have to close this out? Do you have one New Year's resolution related to hunting or dear? Is there any one thing you're hoping to do differently, better change, um that you will be focusing on as you deliberately practice and prepare for season. Just do better than this year. That's that's largely it. Um. That's so generic, I know, but but I want to hunt more, I want to kill more. UM So I think that's that's really simply it is haunt more, kill more, and and there's a lot of things that go into that. Like I said, planning better, UM, maybe changing some tactics, not falling in love with historical things that have maybe worked. UM. So I think those are it. If if I had to get more specific, UM, this year, I killed my buck during the rout with my UM. You know part of this property that I had never really hunted in a stand, that I would never um in a tree, that I had never hung a standing before. UM. And it was because I forced myself to do something different during the ruts rather than relying on uh, these stands or these trees that I know I've worked in the past, and so I want to do more of that going forward. Stay more mobile, uh, stay more in the moment, like, Okay, this isn't working, so I have to do something differently. Um. That was why I was successful on that hunt. So I think I need to apply that to more of my hunt forward. Good that good stuff. I think for me, we haven't really talked about this at all today. UM, but one thing that I want to do or a shift is maybe be more maybe a little bit more conservative on when I hunt. I kind of went a little bit. I've been ebbing and flowing with this and this year I hunted a bunch in the same places because I figured out some ways to hunt these places with relatively impact. UM. And I've also gotten to the point where I know you can have some success in mid October, late October, etcetera. UM, So I got a little bit aggress more aggressive with when I hunted that I usually do. This coming year, I want to pull back there. I want to become a little bit more conservative with how often I go, but I want to get more aggressive with where I go. So I'm gonna hunt a little bit fewer days, but I'm gonna push in deeper to the cover. This past year, I did that to a degree, and I started hunting in a few of these spots a little bit more into the cover than I used to, and with some mobile stuff, I was shifting stands, I was moving thirty yards to a new spot, and I uncovered a couple of spots that I can hunt um where I was getting more opportunities than I ever have on one of these Michigan properties. And I think that can be applied to some of my public line stuff too. I want to just keep on pushing further and further. I've I've started out as a deer hunter, being very afraid to spook deer. I would I was, I was always airing towards I'd rather not bump them on it here. I'd rather wait and observe and hope to catch them making mistakes. I think that's still important to a degree, but I'm getting confident enough with knowing where that line is to now push it one step further in. So a little more conservad about when a little more aggressive about where is UH is something we'll be thinking about and I think all the things we talked about, the food sources, the cold fronts, the timing of whatever types of weather impacts might be out the rough Fresh Radio that until we're getting all of that definitely impacts my wends, which will allow me to determine the weares. So that's how I'm using ret Fresh Radio. I appreciate you helping do all that every year for us helping kind of break this down this year. Um, I personally find this show to be super helpful, like it's a selfish project. Every week. I listen as a consumer more than anything, and um man, I hope everybody else feel the same way. I enjoy doing it. Um It's one of my favorite parts of the week every year when I record those episodes. So I hope listeners liked season four and I'm already excited for season five because of these things we just talked about. Here we go off to the races, and that is a rap. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this one. As we broke down the trends and and observations from this past hunting season, I hope you'll all take some time to think through these questions for yourself, what you observed, what you learned um whether it be high level things like we talked about with whether and in different kind of environmental factors, or more personal like the mistakes you might have made or things you try that did or did not work out well. Take some time to reflect on that, take some time to think about how to do things differently the next year. That that deliberate, thoughtful approach to analyzing a past hunting season and preparing for the next hunting season in a new way. I really think that's the over bullet. That is the secret to taking your hunting to the next level. It's simple, but it simply works. So thank you again, appreciate your time, and until next time, stay wired to hunt.

Save this episode