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 presented by on X. This is episode three seventy seven. This is rot Fresh Radio, but this is not Mark Kenyon. Instead, you're stuck with just me this week, Spencer new Hearth. Mark and I were not able to hop on the computers and record an intro this week because yesterday October six, I killed a book in Wyoming and dealt with that for most of the day. And today October seven, Uh, I'm not gonna give you all the details, but I'll tell you that a buck was killed on the back forty So you're gonna have to tune into future episodes and check out Mark social to see exactly what happened. Now, the last time we talked, I told Mark I was on my way to Wyoming. I'd be there for five days and I was looking for a mule deer or a white tail on public land. And as Mark would say, I'm going to give you a cliff notes version of what happened in the Cowboys State. The first couple of days there, I was looking for a mule deer, and I was really struggling to do so. Um, what I didn't know about this part of the state that I was going to is that it was wildly dry. There were often times where I was glass in an area, and uh, I had this realization that there was more water in my backpack than there was for like a mile in any direction. And why that's important when it comes to me feeling my white tail tag is that I realized the green food sources are also where you'd find water, which is also where you'd find deer. And it's also very telling that that area has a high prevalence of c w D because despite it being big country, most of the deer are just stacked on top of each other and focused on these green food sources. When I had switched gears and started looking for white tails, then I went and looked for pieces of private ground that would have the ideal food that were someplace near public where I could intercept these white tails going to feed in this big egg And ultimately that was the difference maker between me killing a deer and not killing a deer. Um. Although I was hunting public ground, I had the benefit of accessing it through this private which left behind basically hunters that would ever be on that property. When it comes to the actual killing of the deer, um, when I found while I was there is that the deer were quite predictable. They were sort of on patterns that you would expect to see in like mid to late September. So the buck that I ended up killing, which is a five by five that you can go see on my Instagram at Spencer New Hearth, he was a deer that I had seen Monday morning and then I had seen Monday night. Um and using that information, I went to the area where he was entering this field that morning and that evening, and I ended up killing him on Tuesday morning. If you recall on last week's episode, Mark and I talked about how killing a deer this time of year, so much of it comes down to being aggressive and really weighing that risk versus reward factor between bumping a book and not seeing him for another three weeks and killing a buck. Now, for me, I didn't have much of a choice but to be aggressive. This was public land. This was the last day of the haunt, on a trip that I had already extended by a day. Because I thought I might be able to get it done. Um So when you're weighing those factors, you're out of state public ground. Final day, I was more aggressive than I typically would be on October six, and that's how I killed this white tail. So that's the theme that you're gonna hear in this week's episode and future episodes of rod Fresh Radio as we get into what most hunters consider the law. Now this week, we're gonna talk to Adam Bold's in Indiana, Kyler Mopper in Louisiana, just In Michelle in New York, and Clifford Martin in Iowa. If you take anything away from this week's episode of rout Fresh Radio, I wanted to be something that Mark and I have covered in a few seasons in the past, and it's that if you think about buck movement as a line graph, it's going to start to increase in like early September, and then it's going to peek around early to mid November, and then it's going to start to decrease after that. Now, that's a very rudimentary way to think about how bucks are moving in daylight, but within that rise and fall, you also have these little ebbs and flows of more movement and less movement. What I think we're at right now is these last like five days, we had more movement and so that line graph would be up, uh, and we're currently leveling out now, coming back down to what you'd expect to see this time of year. So while the hunters that we talked to you this week um sound pretty pestimistic, just know that it's going to swing the other way and things are going to get better, but that this next week or so is going to be a difficult time to kill a mature white tail. It can still absolutely be done, although the hunting was probably better five days ago and it's going to be better again in ten days or so. But that's enough for me for this week. Let's get to our first interview alright, and joining us on the line next is Adam Bolds from Hunt the Wild Now Adam in Indiana? What would you say the buck activity is ben lately? On the scale of one to ten, I would say about as five. I'm gonna go to the mid level. I think a lot of it has to do with the weather right now. As far as buck activity during the nighttime hours, it's tire, But like during the day, hunting hours, last light, anything like that. It's just gosh, the weather, it's just been a killer ninety degrees constant. Yeah, just looking for a cold front. As a public land hunter, what are you looking for when you go in in early to mid October when you're trying to kill a buck early to mid October, I'm usually looking for all around here public lands a little bit smaller, so we kind of hunt corn field, bean field stuff like that. Um, there's a couple areas around here that are a little bigger, so I'll try to get on, you know, a corns or something, uh for simmon, something of that nature. But mostly I'd say it's it's gonna be crop fields and some of them are starting to come out now, so it's working in our favor. How did things change for you when those crops start to come out? Oh? Man, Uh, it's usually good for about the first week. There's usually a lot of deer out on the field. And then, um, if you're not a running gun hunter, I mean, if you just gotta set up staying on that field. Um. Usually she usually just kind of luck or or something like that until the it I mean, you got to get get back in the woods, I think because they started hitting acorns and seven around here. Are you seeing any signmaking yet in Indiana? Uh? Not as much as normal. Actually, I've seen a few rubs, um, but that's really about it. I haven't haven't stumbled on any any scrapes. Um. Yeah, it's the crops are coming out a little bit earlier, it seems like. But for some reason I'm not seeing all the normal sign that I see, which is kind of weird. It could be weather related this time of year. Are you doing any morning setups? Yeah? Yeah, I actually killed killed a doe see two two or three weekends ago. It was morning, early early morning, about seven o eight in the morning. Um. And that evening there was I was actually hunting in a different area, but I had on camera out evening. A couple of smaller bucks came through, um pretty early. But I said, mature bucks are still They're still staying pretty nocturnal for the most part. So what does a morning set up look like for you? In mid October? A morning setup is usually on some toin of food source, pretty far away. Um. Sometimes if you can get away from other hunters, umn't really high up twenty Usually hunt about twenty ft because it feels safer that way. Smell and everything. But yeah, I mean I go in quiet. I very rarely will use a light. UM use a red light. So yeah, food source and sit tight. I try to sit tight as as long as I can because those deer can come through ten eleven o'clock even going forward. Then, in the next week or so, what do you think that bucket activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Indiana. I think it's gonna probably about a seven. Okay, So it's really hot right now. It's gonna rain all weekend into the middle or beginning Monday Tuesday of next week. Um, then the temperature is gonna draw up a little bit, not a whole lot. And then as we get into like next weekend, um, a cold front is gonna hit. And I I know how those cold fronts are. I get the deer moving so um by by next weekend, you better be in the woods if you if you front in Indiana, because they're gonna be on their feet. All right, Adam would like your optimism, good luck with your haunts, and thanks for joining me. Yeah, thank you all right and joining us on the line. Next is Kyler Moppert from Louisiana. Bow Hunter in Louisiana, Now Kyler in Louisiana, what would you say the buck activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten scale one to ten, I would put it so far this season about an eight uh. And you know, we've had a really interesting season so far. We typically don't have as cool a weather as we've had. Open Day and opening weekend. We're in the high forties, low fifties on Thursday and Friday, and um that I think got a lot of bucks on their feet. And not only that, but the most interesting part was a lot of them were in velvet. We're getting a lot of velvet pictures, which is really unusual for us. A lot of times deer would have lost all their velvet by now. But I've probably got fifteen or twenty velvet pictures of not very nice bucks that were killed last week. Now, Louisiana has one of the stranger white tail herds in the country, with biological clocks that are all over the map. So can you walk us through what hunters should be expecting for rut timing in the state this year. So the southwest portion of the state is usually the earliest rut. Um. We've got some deer um in an area called Avery Island where carasca sauce is made that were rut in late July and early August before the season even opened, so they were rut end before the season opens on September fifteenth. But we've been receiving a few pictures of bucks killed um in rut, big swollen necks and and um really nice the year from southwest Louisiana. But unfortunately Hurricane Laura destroyed a lot of that area and the people in that area are just aren't hunting right now, and we've got another hurricane coming down the pipe right now as we speak. But um uh, you know, for the for the rest of the state, not a whole lot of rut action. We won't get much until the very beginning of November. For the other portions, like the northern northeast portions of the state, that that kind of kick off what what we refer to as early which probably is more in line with the typical Midwest rut mid November UM, and then we we run all the way up and through until the middle of February in some areas, so um We're still very early and a lot of those other those other areas you mentioned as a hurricane on the way for that area. How does the hurricane change things for dear movement in the south they move about a hundred and thirty miles. Uh, they're in a hurricane. They the Cameron Prairie area, which is the southwest portion of the state, just got almost totally flattened. Um and uh I've I've been sending pictures of some really nice bucks that were killed in in floodwaters and and um uh storm surges. Um even seeing pictures of trees that that fell down on deer and killed them. So uh, like I said, that part of the state is going to be hard hit for a while. And and I'm very uh, very interested as to why the state hasn't closed those three deery areas down yet for that reason because in the past, when an area flooded really bad, such as Baton Rouge, they'll they'll close it down for the season so that nobody is putting any excess pressure on the deer. Heard. So I don't think many people are gonna be hunting in southwest of Muisiana this year unless they live there and go hunt somewhere else. One of the most popular food sources for early to mid October for most of the eight Most of them say it's gonna be acorns. Um. You need to be finding your white oak trees that are just now starting to drop. Um. Hunt hundreds of oat groves over the weekend where there might be twenty five or thirty white oaks on it, and there's only two of them dropping. Um. I haven't been back since the weekend, so the others might have caught up or started dropping by now, But right now is going to be focusing on your white oaks, um and uh, and trying to set up in between the travel routes are the betting areas and the white oaks themselves and catch them pass them by. That's gonna be your best food source currently. You were successful on some recent haunts since openers. Tell me about those setups for getting those deer on the ground. Oh man, you know how Babe Ruth used to point to left field with his bat. I. Uh, that's that's how I feel. That's how I fell over the weekend. I I've quite literally pointed at three places on a map and said this is where it's going to happen, and I killed three deer and five hunts in uh in four days. UM my camp. The guys in my camp, we killed one deer every day, all in public land. UM. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I got a call by the w A manager asking where we were hunting because out of thirty efforts on that w n A, we were the only four people to kill the ear. And so you know, I'm feeling pretty good about myself right now as far as locating dear. But that was all to do with UM. I was combining travel routes and transitions, uh and mean and what transitions? Meaning? Um, I was crossing a swamp or a body of water, so I was blocking off one side and then I was hunting the south wind south wind side of an oak ridge or oak flat. And um, early season like that, when I said, all those trees aren't dropping yet, it's really easy to hone in on the one that is. And just I mean they come to it like a bug to a light. And uh, I mean it was the best opener I've ever had. I was feeling very confident right out going forward. Then in this next week or so, what do you think that buck activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Louisiana. I think it's going to normalize so about a six or probably six. Wenna call it a six. Um. It's gotten hot, um. The pressure is gonna get real high with the storm. Even if you don't get hit by the storm, I think it's gonna shut down a lot of dear, dear activity just from the heat, um and the fact that there's a lot of people in the woods this year. From COVID and we talked about this um a lot recently, where you've got people that are laid off or working from home, and to a lot of people working from home is the same thing as working from a deer stand and they might be over pressuring their areas. So it's something we all need to watch out for this year. But I think it's gonna go down to a six because because of the weather primarily. Alright, Kyler, congrats on your successful opener. Good luck on the rest of your haunson. Thanks for joining me, appreciated, Sencer, have a good day alright, and joining us on the line next is Justin Michelle from New York. Justin in New York, what would you say the bucket activities been lately on the scale of one to ten, I'd probably give it about a five. I think, Um, the activity that I've seen has been somewhat standard for that end of summer going into fall. Um still food patterns, But I did uh have a sit that I that I did the other night where there was some sparring. You could tell that these bucks are getting just a bit more, you know, edgy and um trying to push around a little bit. So I think that I think we're on our way. We just had New York's opening about a week ago. Typically how aggressive are you for those opening haunts? Typically I'm not that aggressive. I like to take those first few sits and kind of do more observation. But um, I had a box that I got on camera once and a buck that I have the same buck I had seen him mall couple of times from about June on and kind of figured it out somewhat of his core area. But you know, cameras didn't help me out much on that. So, UM, I, with my work schedule and the cold front that hit, I thought I was just going to take a bit of an educated guest and I dove in on him that first night sit and um, I saw a thirteen gear that night and one of the deer was him. I actually had him come by. He has a drop time on his left side, so I he was pretty easy to pick out. And I had him come by and he was at five yards, and uh, it was one of those situations where I kind of kind of hoped it wasn't him when I saw him, because he looked a bit different. Um when I actually got my eyes on him, So I let him get about twenty third yards and grunted him back, got eyes on him in and UM, I decided I was gonna probably let him go another year. So uh, I think that between that cold front and the lack of pressure that had been in the woods so far, I was able to capitalize at least on you know, connecting some dots. Even though it didn't turn into anything on the ground, the opportunity was there. Are you seeing any signmaking yet in New York? As of right now, it's still seems a bit dry. Um. You know, from from the time that I've been out and even a couple of weeks before, you know, I'm not seeing what I feel like I typically do and I'm not sure if that's you know, temperature related or um, if things just aren't heating up yet. But yeah, I'm not I feel like by now I'm typically seeing more scrapes and rubs pop up, but as of now, it's you know, still seems maybe a little bit early. What food sources are you focused on in early to mid October in that part of the country, Well, that depends on, um, what's actually going on. I mean, I I've actually seen uh, you know, I've noticed that in a well, mainly green sources. But as I say that, you know, if if they come through and they do a cut on the alfalfa, uh, there seems to be a bit of a switch over to that because of that fresh growth. So they're still at this point from what I'm seeing hitting the greens. Again, it's a little bit early. Um, but all of the deer that I've seen, I've got winter wheat that um that I've seen pop up and they're hitting that. It's really right now. I would say it's all that new fresh growth. So whether it be something that was planted late that's just popping or um. Yeah, same with the with the alfalfa, And I have a small plot in and have seen the same thing a significant amount of deer and does and fawns um in that green source. Uh that I'm getting on camera now, if you're doing a morning set up over these next couple of weeks, what do those situations look like? Well, I typically don't like to do mornings this early, but again with work, with my work schedule, I've had to get a little bit more creative. So um, right now, you know, I have a couple of spots in mind. Um. I have done one so far and it was a bit you know, I noticed transition back from food to bed, which is you know, pretty typical for for this early time of year. But I do have a spot that I've kind of been keeping an eye on that I'm really pumped to get in. Uh when when I get a little bit of a switch and weather here where it's a corn field that got put in fairly late, and it's uh and and it has a couple of little fingers of timber that come right out into the corn field that has oaks on it. So and I know that those oaks typically produce a good amount of acorn. So I when I my next sit I think will be Uh, in that spot. So I'll either get them coming in coming in from the corn headed back to bed if they're not betting in the corn for those acorns, or I just think there's gonna be great movement in that area because of the the amount of food there going forward. Then in the next week or so, what do you think that bucket TV is going to be on a scale of one to ten in New York? Well, naturally, I would say it's probably gonna at least move move up on the scale. So, like I said, it was probably a five. I think we'll start to squeak up a bit, maybe six. I don't know if we'll get to a seven. But you know, I've been away from home for a few days, so you know it does and take long for that signed to start to pop up. And uh, I would say, I would say we're going to start, you know, moving in the right direction here, all right, justin a good luck of those haunts we can get back in the woods. Thanks for joining me, Thanks Spencer all right in joining us on the line. Next is Clifford Martin from Sticking Pick in Iowa. Now, Clifford in Iowa, what would you say the buck activities been lately on a scale of one to ten, I would say it's probably been uh. In the last week, it's probably been uh eight to nine. It's been very very good for early season and obviously, um, we've had a good front come through, high pressure, cooler temperatures and normal for the first of the seasons and uh it's uh been about as good as it gets for the first of the season. Now you and your family have put down some awesome bucks lately in Iowa. Tell me about the setups for those successful haunts. Yeah. Absolutely, Um. For the my two boys, obviously, they get to hunt in youth season uh in Iowa, so that starts mid September and runs to the first of October, and that can be kind of a tricky time of the year to hunt. But the first year, um, my oldest son killed was on uh standing beans that were still pretty green, which is can be pretty good at that time of the year if they're not too yellow. And so we were able to capitalize on a great deer on day one of youth season, obviously to the green soybeans. And then um um about a week ago my youngest son killed his on we focused in on more of a green turn up plot classic a plot. UM. The beans were getting pretty yellow, so anything green was basically um starting to really turn on for white tails. So we really started focusing on and more something green, greener, and that's where we found the deer. And yeah, we were able to knock down some great deer on the youth season. And then for me, first of October, I was lucky enough to harvest the one of my target bucks and I focused on green clover plot. So first of the season there, right around the first of October, if everything's dried down, it's definitely focused to focus on anything green. That's where we normally do our best the first of the year or the first of the season. I'm sorry, now, how deep into fall are you focused on the green food sources? From here forward, all the way to the rut, I really focus on green um. And you know, then you know your rut comes in food is not quite as important. And then obviously after uh you know, third week of November, then it's back on green and then from there it's you know, um, later into December, you know your grains will be better or do better UM. Obviously if you have standing beans or corn um that's what we look into all the way into December. Are you seeing any signmaking yet in Iowa? Yea, it is definitely picking up obviously, you know with the rising moon pressure. Um, you know, the sign has been just you know, just exploding. We do have a warm snap right now, so I think that will probably slow it up a little bit. But you know, give it a week or two and it should be rolling. But as far as for this time of the year, it's definitely really exploded. Do you have any tricks for killing a mature buck over these next couple of weeks when a lot of them go nocturnal. That's a good question, and I don't know if there's a record right answer for me. Um, it is definitely a tougher time of the year. Um, probably, you know, I think they're just not walking around as much in the daylight. For me, I try to get real close, and obviously I have the luxury of doing a lot of pots here in Iowa. I try to get real close to their bedding this time of the year. They they're usually moving late, so the closer you can get to their bedding this time of the year, or any food source that's real close they're betting that's probably you know, last minute when they wander out of their bedroom is probably the the biggest thing for me is trying to get as close to them as you can that time of the year. Do you notice the shift in bedding it all in the month of October? Um? Not really No, I mean, um, there's definitely here in Iowa, we you know, the harvest is in full blast right now, so that usually changes a lot of things. You'll have some new bucks show up. Bucks you know definitely are moving around a little bit as far as adjusting their bedding areas and so on. So and I think a lot of that here in Iowa anyway, where we don't have just a southern Iowa, we don't have just a ton of timber. Some areas we do, but where I hunt, I don't have as much timber. So um, I say, the harvest bumps a lot of pushes, a lot of deer that we're living in the crops and uh are now transitioning to you know, where there's more cover as they get pushed out of the corn fields and so on, as the harvest going forward. Then in this next week or so, what do you think that Bucke activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Iowa. I would say it's probably gonna be uh five. Just it's not gonna be very hot here in the next week or two. Alright, Clifford, congrats on the awesome dear thanks for joining me. Thank you appreciate it. And that concludes this week's episode of rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Adam Kyler, Justin and Clifford for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. As always, make sure you're following at Wired to Hunt on Facebook and Instagram and following at Spencer new Hearth on Instagram. Also, I hope you're subscribed to the White Tail Weekly newsletter. It goes out on every single Monday, where you're gonna see tons of content from folks like me, Mark, Tony Peterson, Daniel Pruett, Pat Durkin, and more. I'm stoked that it's October. I hope you guys are getting in the woods this week again and beating the October law, improving me and Mark and all of the Hunters that we talked to on this episode wrong by filling a tag. I will talk to you guys next week, but until then, stay wired to hot

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