00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number three and today we're back with another fresh radio focused episode in which we are hearing from deer hunters all across the country on current deer activity conditions, behaviors, and the tactics that are working right now. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by on X. We're here for a mid November edition of RUT Fresh Radio in which we are getting updates from across the country on deer activity, conditions, behavior, what's happening right now? And Spencer, what's happening right now is that you killed buck. Congratulations, my friend, thank you, thank you. Um and I can already tell there's a little bit more energy in this intro by you, Mark, because you also killed the buck. Yeah, man, we both did it. We finally got the job done. UM. I can't give too many details away because I'm gonna share the whole story on the next episode of the podcast, the full episode. But yeah, I killed the buck. I can tell you. It was on the Back forty. We had a great rutt hunt out there, so excited to share that story. And while we're talking back forty, I'll just plug it right now. The first episode of season two of The Back forty just dropped over the weekend, So go over to the Meat Eater YouTube channel check it out. Uh, we're getting good feedback on so far. I'm really happy how things have turned out. And um, this is gonna give you this episode. If you watch it, we'll give you some great background as to you what led to some of the success that I just recently had. So make sure you check that out before listening to our next episode of the podcast because it will give you some nice context. So yeah, I want more details on it though, like um, or episodes every Sunday? Is that correct? And like when do the episodes with hunting start? That's a great point. Thank you, Spencer, You're always on top of it. Um. Yes, the new episodes will be coming out every Sunday from now on through the next two months or so a month and a half or so, I guess. So yeah, this coming Sunday will be another episode and we're gonna have uh, several episodes of prep. So we've got an episode that's all about some of the new habit at work we did this summer. There's another episode about all the hunting preparations we did and some of the strategy behind why we're hunting, where we're hunting, how we're hunting. Uh. And then you're gonna see an episode with my dad. My dad and I had a really cool hunt out there, and as we talked about on a previous episode of the show, he killed his first deer with arshow equipment, his biggest buck ever. Then you're gonna see our rut hunt after that, um, and then one more or two more possibly later in the year. So lots to look forward to and uh so far shaped up to be a really a really cool season Digging Mark already loved episode one and I'm looking forward to the rest to come. UM, So thanks man. Like, what details can you share so far about the deer that you killed on the back forty? Well, how about I'll just tell you about the dear activity on the back forty which, um, over the last week while we were out there hunting, we were dealing with that warm spell that I'm sure a lot of people across the country. We're dealing with um. And so as we discussed the you know, last episode of this episode, last episode of this show, we talked about how it's probably in a slow deer movement, but the rut is still happening, right, They still have to breathe. The show will go al. It's just maybe not going to be quite as action packed during the middle of the day. And that's definitely what we experienced. We saw good activity the first couple of hours in the morning while it's still relatively cool, but then it died down dramatically. You know, once you got to I don't know what time it would be, would be like eight thirty somewhere around there. It slowed down quite a bit. And then really we saw very little evening activity till the last forty five minutes to half hour. A couple of nights it was the last ten minutes until we saw deer um. But during those little moments you would see flurries of chasing and running activity and all that kind of stuff. And and eventually I did have a morning where there was there was a whole bunch of good stuff going on. So that was last week, now, Yester, No today, a cold front hip. So um, you know, I'll tell you that over the past week, the deer activity in Michigan with that cold front or with that warm front sorry, was probably like a six. Right, It wasn't that great except for those flurries in the morning and evening. But now with the cold front, I think things have really snapped. And uh, I might maybe I'm jumping the gun here, Spencer, but I'm gonna give you a prediction for the next seven days. I think we're gonna see really good activity, um eight nine, that kind of level because you're getting you know, the great right activity mixed with a great cold front. Um, it's gonna unleash things at least until gun season or other things like that hunting pressure change stuff, which in Michigan. That's something that's happened this weekend. Yeah, you know, I think too often we think over the rut as like this lightbulb thing that you turn on and off, and that's not the case. But damn it, it really feels like it this year. Um, with the really warm weather that we had and then the like great cold front that came through during what is normally like you know, the maybe three or four best day stretch of the rout to begin with for the midwest. Um, it it felt like a lightbulb moment this year for just like turning it on and and deer movement happening across the country. Yes, so so is that what triggered your success? Well, I had been hunting for nine or ten days in South Dakota, UM and I was unsuccessful for the first um every day except for the last one. And what really triggered my success was picking up a rifle. Turns out that makes a big difference. I was bow hunting for the majority of that trip UM, and then the last two days when I picked up the rifle, that was when I ended up killing a deer UM. And I didn't see a ton of like textbook rutting activity during that period in South Dakota UM. But what I did see, and this is ultimately what really matters, is that bucks became quite visible in early in the day and late in the day. UM. You know, I didn't like witness the crazy uh knockdown, drag out fight or breeding a dough um or anything like that, but bucks had become highly visible, especially over this last three or four days UM, when like the weather cooperated a little bit more. And you know in the in the past, Mark, I did an article for the media dot com on the best day of the white tail rot and I asked ten of the best white tail hunters I know, including yourself, like, what is your favorite day of the rot um? And it was seven out of ten of them picked a date between November seven and November ten. And so when you you have that is like historically an amazing time with the great weather. That's why I say like this felt like that on and off switch this year. Yeah, so we we had that that passed not for a lot of people. Some people listen to this might there the cold from the east coast is hitting like right now, so they might be just a experiencing that in the coming hours or days. But what do we have to look forward to, Spencer, Um, We're coming into a new phase of the rut. Did anyone that we talked to as far as guests, um talk about this next phase that some people like to refer to as the lockdown? Yeah, a little bit, Um, And who we talked to you this week, it's key is Keith Robinson from the Hunting Public you know, Ohio. Michael Hans Sucker from Heartland bow Hunter in Colorado, Vince Bodiata in Tennessee, and then Dan Johnson in Iowa from Nine Finger Chronicles. Now, Dan is the last interview that you'll hear, and I asked him what his thoughts are on Lockdown and he did a great job of of summing up my thoughts as well. But Mark, I'd like to hear you talk about Lockdown a little bit, or what hunters referred to as lockdown in sort of the same way that hunters referred to you know, mid October is the October Lwell, is it more of a thing that like hunters have invented or is there some reality behind like this new phase of it are out that we're entering. Man, there's a little bit of both. Um. Basically, it's it's a fancy name for something that that happens to some degree. Right, If if you look at the number of does being bred or the numbers of bucks that are locked onto a dough and breeding her, that looks if you were to graph that out on a line chart, you would see the shape suchly of a bell where at some point in late October or in October, somewhere you'd start seeing a few deer getting bred, and then as you get closer and closer to mid November, more and more and more and more deer being bred, so that that curve is rising and rising and rising, and then eventually it's going to peak. And when that number of does being bred peaks, that means there's there's more active breeding pairs of deer kind of locked down than any other time of the year. And and any experience, dear that has seen this, we'll know what we're talking about when I say locked down. When a buck is with a dough and that dough is ready to breed, they don't go to They typically won't be running around all over the place doing the crazy stuff. Usually when a buck and a doll or coupled and they're going to start to breed or are, they move very little. Oftentimes these bucks will try to corral the dough into a little patch of cover and hunker down for a while, or they're standing in the middle of a field and try to keep her there. Many times he'll try to keep her away from other deers, so it will be in some weird off the wall place. Um. But when you get to the point in the season where the very most deer in that kind of state, you're naturally just going to see a little bit less dear movement because there's some number of bucks and doughs that are in this quote unquote lockdown. But I think the important thing to remember is that while that is a reality that every property, every part of the country, there will be some point in the year where there will be more bucks and does locked down than any other point. Right, We're all going to reach a peak at some point, and for most parts of the country, that happens in mid November, give or take a few days. Um, while that is happening, you've got to remember that it's not like they're all on a calendar and that when they see it's November or November or November six, all the bucks say, okay, guys, it's the lockdown. Let's all go hang out in our little patch of Russian olive and not leave for the next two days. No, there's gonna be some bucks that are locked down, there's gonna be others that are gonna be looking for does. There's gonna be other doughs running around. There's still gonna be stuff going on. Um, So you don't want to let your guard down or get lazy or give up on it just because somebody says, Oh, it's the lockdown, it's gonna be slower. Uh No. You can have days during the middle of November just as crazy as November seven. Um, you just gotta be out there because, as you mentioned, Spencer, the rut can be on and off. It can be a light switch, but it can also be here and there. You could be in one place and it's Nanna's and you could be four yards away and it could be dead. So there's so many different variables that the day on the calendar. While it could be indicative of what you might expect and what you um can predict a little, you still just never know. I mean it is every day is full of potential. So my thoughts during the lockdown are keep at it just as if it was any other time of the rut, because anything is still possible at that point. Um. There are certain things you can do. If you see a locked down dough and buck, Um, you kind of have a unique opportunity sometimes because those deer. If you see a bucket a dough there together in that kind of way and not moving a lot or that buck is not leaving that dough at all, or she's standing there and letting him breed. If you see that, you can make a few assumptions. One assumption you can make is that they're probably gonna stick to the same general area for a day or two. Um. I've found many times I've seen this and and I'll see him go out one way. In the next morning, I see him come back the same way or close to it. So usually a buck will be with a dough for something like twenty four or forty eight hours, give or take. So if I see that, I all of a sudden, no, okay, I need to super focus on this little zone and think, what's that. What's this couple gonna do. They're gonna maybe stay in this little off the wall piece of cover, or if I saw them leave a little patch of cover and go into a corn field, I'm gonna make a strong bet that'll be back into that little patch of cover the next morning. So you can take advantage of that. Other things we've talked on previous podcasts about you can get creative if you see a buck betted with a dough and it's windy and you've got open terrain and a little bit of cover, you can make a spot and stock on them because they're probably not going anywhere. Um. So there's certain things once you start to learn how dear behavior this time of year, they give you extra opportunities. Uh So the point being is that don't look at this is some kind of dead zone or this dreary part of the season. No, it can be great. Just know that it's a little bit different. Yeah. Um, like you described there, it's just largely misunderstood. And mid November is still a great time to be in the woods. Um. But if you're listening to this and you still wanted more information on like what to do in mid November, you haven't had success yet, but you're gonna be in the woods this weekend and you know you want to be more prepared. There's three articles on the mediator dot com that I would highly suggest reading and they're all written by Mark Kenyon. One of them is what is the white Tail Lockdown? That's exactly what it sounds like. It talks about this misunderstood phase of the rut. Another one is what I've learned watching Do Your Have Sex Um, which kind of touches on the scandalous title. Scandalous title, but informative article. Uh It's it's a great piece and it talks about what you have observed mark Um watching deer during this lockdown phase and how hunters can take advantage of it. And then the third one is one that you recently published, and that's how to Reap a White Tailed book, which is a topic that, as you talk about in the article, can be used when you witness a buck in a dough lockdown. Together. So those are three articles I would suggest checking out at the meat Eatter dot com. Those are some great recommendation, Spencer, and I'll tell you I forgot to mention it on the podcast whenever it was that I talked about my recent hunts chasing tran Um. I actually saw him, ah when it was a week or two ago. He was locked on a doll and I tried to stalk in on them, and while I wasn't able to get quite close enough, I did actually see him breeding her. Uh So that's the second time in three years that I've seen the big mature buck do that. Um. So I might be able to write an update to that article part two someday because it keeps unhappening. You're an expert in the subject matter now, but I think that's enough for mus Mark. Let's get to this week's interviews. Sounds good, Thanks Spencer. This week's interviews are is any by trophy Ridge. Head over to trophy Ridge dot com to check out there all new fore lineup of top of the line releases from T handles to risk releases. They have a premium option for everyone. That's trophy Ridge dot com. Alright, and joining us on the line first is Keith Robinson from the Hunting Public in Ohio. Now, Keith in Ohio, what would you say the buck activity is ben lately? On a scale of one to ten, Oh, I'd say, if you're in the right area, if you're in the most dear, I would say it was right around a seven or eight for us, something like that. But we also ran into spots where if we weren't running into the maximount of deer, it was like a zero in some places. So I mean, if you're finding the right stuff, it was still seven, eight, even nine in some spots. I'd say if you were to put a label on the phase of the rut that Ohio was currently in, what would you call it. I would say, I still want to say it's like kind of like a peak rut type of situation. It's just like, obviously conditions were so adverse for everyone in the Midwest, But um, I think the movement was affected for for the dos and for the cruising bucks in the time and terms of the time of day and everything. But I would say that the doughs are still going into their same cycles and peat on the same on the same time frame, So I would say it's it's still a peak rut type of type of rut time span, however you want to say it. But I would say with some weather change, it's probably going to spike up a little bit more within these next seven days going into the later November time frame. When you're doing some mean seasons scouting on public land during peak rut, what sorts of things are you looking for? Stuff we were running into We were running into a lot of a lot more scrapes than rubs actually, and we actually struggled to find sign. We were in a pretty unique area. It was a pretty low deer density area, which Ohio I think is pretty well known for having a pretty good deer herd um but we were in a pretty low dear population area, so we were struggling to find sign that we were used to finding in a lot of the areas. But we pretty much just focused on finding the the hottest sign that we could find and trying to interpret that and what that fign meant and where it's coming from, where the deer going to be close to, and so we're running into a lot more a lot more scrapes that seemed like we can train these deer back to what ridge they're betting on, where the does are betting at, and try to find those cruising routes of what those bucks are doing. Pretty much working around singular ridges where the deer are getting pushed into where the where those centralized food sources are, which is mostly the red oaks, scarlet oaks, and black oaks right now, I would say, when you're looking in a new place on on X and you're trying to find dough betting to haunt, what sorts of things are you looking for on that aerial imagery. Uh, the aerial imagery, I think if you go to the hybrid view the the oak stick out a bunch, you can you can kind of see the maple poplar. That brighter green stuff is a lot of that deadwood. We call it deadwoods, like the maple poplar stuff where the deer aren't spending a ton of time. And if you look for darker like the bigger tree canopy areas where you find in the darker colored trees, you find a lot more of the oak stuff. And if it's lower on the slope, it's going to be more likely it's going to be red oaks and everything, which is a lot of this area. At least the red oaks are still dropping very heavily right now. It's still a huge food source right now. And then higher on the slope, if you're still finding those oak canopies, they're probably gonna be scarlet oak, chestnut oak, black oak, and the scarlet oak we found is still dropping a lot, and the deer is still feeding pretty much on any oak stand you're gonna find, there's gonna be uh those betting within the area if if there's enough cover, if the pressure isn't being pushed into there. But there's plenty of food sources in these big woods areas. It's just a matter of finding where they're getting pushed into. Because there's going to be the certain feed trees as biggest, biggest producing oak trees that you're gonna find. And like I said, the red oaks seem to be kind of the ones that the beer focusing on the mostly we saw. We watched deer walking into these huge red oaks and you could tell it could be kind of a centralized feed tree. So it's just a matter of focusing on the best freshest feeding sign that you can find that is far away from whatever pressure you're receiving in that area. You and your brother and everyone else from the hunting pole looked as a lot of bow hunting from the ground. What do those setups look like in mid November? So this last week was obviously, as everyone knows, it's very hot and uh, pretty pretty weird time to be hunting on the ground because not so much because of the heat, but just because of how dry, how dry and still. It was. The November first hunt my brother Ben and I had was the perfect ground hunting. Ground hunting day. It was like winds and it was so easy. You can get away with moving and everything. You can make setups. You can still hunt through the woods and everything. You can move around, you can talk and pretty much everything the deer, I'm gonna know that you're even around. But as soon as like two days after that, we had seven days stretch of like seventy five degrees and two mile light variable winds, and you take one step in the woods and you have all those that those fresh leaves that had just fallen. You're crunching through the woods, and deer can hear you from four or yards away in the right scenarios. So it's uh. When Zack and I were hunting last week, we were pretty much trying to find buck intersecting trails where they're cruising, cruising along, just checking dough trails running back up into the big oak benches on the on those centralized ridges around water, and we pretty much just tried to set up on buck cruising areas and tried not to move around too much and that hot, dry stuff, because it's really hard to not be spooking deer. But we just have some success doing that, sitting those shadows, pinch points, those like classic ruts, set up areas and tried not moving around too much and tried doing just like calling sequences and sitting for a longer amount of time, which is it's tougher to do for us because it's harder to sit still for us, But I think making those setups is much more efficient when you're dealing with stuff that we're dealing with out there. It was pretty tough for us to do, but we did have some success doing it going forward. Then in the sinks week or so, what do you think that bucket TVT is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Ohio? I would anticipate pretty high, Like I would say nine or ten. I would think this next seven days is probably gonna be some of the hottest stuff in my opinion, just because we have we've had that hot weather leading up to this, that hot still consistent weather, and now right now there's that cold friends coming in. It's raining all day, and this next seven days looks like it's going to be some pretty awesome stuff. So I'm really looking forward to seeing if I'm right about that. But I would say right around and nine if I had to guess. Alright, Keith would like your optimism. Good luck to even the guys from the hunting public. Thanks for joining me, Thank you very much, you too, alright, and joining us online. Next is Mike on Sucker from Heartland bow hunter in Colorado. Now, Mike in Colorado, what would you say the buck activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten, Oh, man, I probably had to say it's been probably uh seven, six or seven. Yeah, I mean, um, you know, the rest dranking up and and the deer are definitely seeking, but it's been it's been kind of knocked back by some warmer weather, um lately and uh, you know, so the fortunately it cools off in the evenings of the morning. You know, overnights of the mornings have been a little more productive, but the evenings have been kind of basically the last you know, thirty minutes utes an hour movement. You tagged an awesome buck this last weekend. Tell us about that set up and about that hunt. So, yeah, it was. It was a pretty pretty awesome hunt. We're hunting, um, you know, basically river bottom ground, so nothing but cotton woods and that's about it. And so we actually had set up on a fence gap um, on the edge of a ag pivot and a bunch of cover to our to our south, food to our north, and um, you know, it's one of those deals we had been running cameras all along the levee to the river and just kind of monitoring movement, trying to see what areas bucks were using the most. Obviously it's the rout, so they're not crazy patternable, but um, we got got a big buck on trail camera the night before, so we decided to hang a set and hunt that fence gap. And wouldn't you know it, Uh, the sun started to go down. I looked over my shoulder back behind me, kind of not where I was expecting the deer to come from, and I saw a doe. She's running across the field and I was like, okay, we've seen this before. Uh, you know, just lait and waiting and all of a sudden, boom, Mary pops out and just worked out perfect. He was on the one side of the fence, she was on the other, and we were on the fence gap. So he came literally right right into our laps at like ten yards and uh, I was able to make a make a perfect shot and watch him crash and he didn't go probably fifty six yards. I know you're a big fan of decoy during pre rut and peak. Rutt tell us about those setups and how you use a decoy in mid November. Absolutely, Yeah. I get's been getting a ton of questions lately about decoys specifically, And yeah, I mean, if the ruts going in any sort of capacity, I think it's a a good viable option. And UM. I actually was utilizing the decoy quite a bit in Colorado. UM, just because it's open terrain, and that's one of my favorite places to use a decoys where you know, the odds of a buck seeing is high. So I don't like to use them in tight, tight, thick, you know, high cover, tense areas. UM. I use them in open areas, typically in areas where you can blind call without deer, you know, sneaking in, getting behind you, winning you easily. In mid November, What is your ideal rut set up like when you go and hit the woods tonight in Missouri? What is that going to look like for you tonight? I'm gonna be sitting over a food source. Um that it's it's a green food plot. Um, surrounded by a good, good cover, really secluded plot. Um. There's betting not not too far. The deer aren't really utilizing the plot that much. I mean those if they go there they're getting harassed by bucks. But it's one of those areas that if a buck doesn't already have a dough, um, that he might be you know, checking and frequenting just to see if you can pick one up. Have you noticed an increase or decrease in signmaking over the last week? You know, I haven't um noticed specifically, but I can imagine, um, you know, as the rug gets you know, towards the peak, they're you know, they're not going to be just frequenting those scrapes as much. I wouldn't think, um, as they get you know, most of them get with those are kind of isolated and pull trying to pull those away from the highly concentrated areas. But um, but I haven't specifically noticed noticing things. But I just know typically the time of your scrape activities start to be on the decline as gun seasons start opening across the Midwest. What is a strategy when you're still bow hunting during a gun season, Like, what sorts of setups are you doing? How is it different that when there's not that gone pressure. Yeah, yeah, dear definitely seek uh seek, you know for shelter. Once the Orange Army gets out into the woods and so, um, you may find better success sticking tighter to bedding areas, tighter to cover areas. They're not going to be you know, comfortable, you know, running through wide open fields and chasing deer. You know, obviously it's still the rud so they'll still do they'll still be crazy things, but um, yeah, you may have to be get a little tighter to cover and getting some of those spots that maybe you know better for those all day type sits going forward. Then in the six week or so, what do you think that bucket TV is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Colorado? Man, uh, in Colorado and pretty much anywhere across the Midwest. I think this whole cold fronts come through and boom, just flip the switch. I mean, obviously the weather, the warmer rather anything going to stop the rut from happening. But when the re the weather is right and it's time with the peak of the rats, it's hard to beat. So we're already seeing that through you know, cell cams and and whatnot here Missouri. Just see the activity instantly picked up the yesterday as the temperature dropping. The cold front came through, So it pushed through Colorado the day before, and uh, my buddies out there are seeing great buck activity as well. And um, actually almost got another one killed yesterday, So it's a good thing, a better time to get out there, all right, Mike, Well, congrats again on the great deer, good luck with the rest of your season, and thanks for joining me. Thank you alright and joining us online. Next is Vince Bodiana from Tennessee. Now, Vince in Tennessee, what would you say the buck activity is ben lately? On a scale of one to ten? Uh lately, I would say the activity is probably right around of six, maybe a six and a half, depending on where you are. Um, I've started to see a lot of mature buck start to pop up in daylight, Um, somewhere around the time between you know, anywhere from twelve to five. So I'd probably give about a six six and a half for the timing of Tennessee's rott. Do you think it's closer to states above you, like Ohio and Kentucky or state south of you, like Alabama and Georgia. I would say it's probably more for the states below me. I actually just had a conversation with another gentleman about that, and what what we've noticed is run in that last week in November into the first week of December is usually when I've typically seen the most running activity here in Tennessee. What are you seeing for signmaking right now? The biggest thing right now that I've started to see is a lot of scrape making, um, and then routine checking. I feel like, um, you know, I have a lot of my cameras on scrapes currently, and I just feel like they're hitting them NonStop and routinely checking them daily. Um. Like I said earlier, you know, I have getting a lot of daylight at two, Um, starting to see some you know, you see some still good rubs and stuff. But whatever reason, they're they're hitting the scrapes hard. So what phase of the rut would you say that most of the the Tennessee is in right now? I would say it's probably it's it's getting close to the rut. I would say we're still probably in the pre rut phase. Um. But like I said once, that last week in November hits it's gonna it's gonna crank up pretty hot. Do you do any calling or decoing in Tennessee. I don't do any d coining. I do do some calling, um, not so much on the rattling side um, you know, and it's nothing like the like how you would be out Midwest or Iowa or anything like that. I try to stay more towards the light side of calling a little bit um. I've just seen the word if you try to get on too aggressive, they just I don't know, it just seems like they're just they're not they don't want to partake in the game. And if you kind of just do it a little lightly, they're they're more a little more interested. As we approach peak RUTT in Tennessee, what's your ideal rutt set up? Ideal rut set up, I'm probably going to set up mostly on the fringe of doe betting areas, um. And that's really the strategy is just if I feel like if I'm on the outside of doe betting areas, there's going to be a concentration of the majority of of deer. If there's a lot of dose there, the bucks are going to be there. Now where they're going to be, you know, that's always a game during that time, But I feel like that's probably going to be the strategy that I'm gonna go with. What should hunters in Tennessee be focused on as far as food sources. Food sources, I would probably say if if you have something that that has a lot of acorns, you know, go go hit with the acorns. If you have any left standing corn, you know, anything like that. Um. And then as soon as we start approaching into you know, later in the year, into December, you know, the green stuff 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 Tennessee. I'm gonna go ahead and give it a seven a half to eight. And that's only because we've had that little bit of a warm spell, and I think a lot of people have. But going into this next week, it's not going to drop a lot, but it is going to be a little bit of a cooler spell. Uh I. Just for the time of year, in the phase, I think that's that's probably gonna kick it off. So alright, Vince, good luck with the rest of your season, and thanks for joining me, al buddy, thank you, Spencer. Alright, and joining us on the line next is Dan Johnson from nine fingers chronicles in Iowa. Now, Dan in Iowa, what would you say the buck activity is ben lately on a scale of one to ten. Well, for me, Um, I tagged out before this cold front hit, So before this cold front UM hit, I would say that the act, the buck movement, the activities during that warm weather period was really close to like a six. I mean, there was a lot of young deer on their feet, they were moving around, they were checking scrapes, and even some big dogs coming off of their first dough. We're on the move, But most of the movement was still in that morning and evening time frame. Now, but the reports that I've gotten today so far, after this cold front has come through, that's changed that the deer are moving there on their feet. My cell cams are blowing up, and it looks like that really triggered a little bit more more movement. So I would say probably closer to that eight. That's a slammerbuck you killed in Iowa. Tell us about that set up and about that hunt. Yeah. So you know, my grandpa always used to say, even the sun shines on a dog's ass, meaning you know it's okay. Everybody gets lucky once in a while, and I'll be honest with you, I got lucky. I parked my truck next to a pond, and next to this pond was a big block of really thick timber. And I was on the ground walking to where I was going to hang my tree stand that night, and I noticed some antlers coming up and uh, I shot him from the ground at twenty five yards walking to where I was gonna go. But where I was going to go was this little transition area that's really thick and typically holds a lot of doughs before they you know, they kind of bed there, but they also staged there before they head out to the big egg fields, So it was it was just kind of downwind of a good staging or betting area. You said, your cell cams have been blowing up today. If you were to hit the woods today November eleven, what would your ideal set up be. I'm going to where the does are, man. I'm going as tight to bedding with the best possible access as I can. Like I said, Man, this cold front just came through Iowa and it's one of those blue bird days out and it's cold. Now the deer are going to be moving uh, and so you find the dough groups and that's where you find the bucks and maybe even even some of us really unorthodox spots where maybe a big buck maybe I was pushed the dough that they're trying to breed and uh or looking for some of these spots where some of these bucks have just came off one of their first possibly second dough and they're looking for that next one to breed. So I'm getting as close to betting as possible. What have you seen for signmaking in the last week or so? Yeah, man, that's a real good question, because the sign activity from this this early, this first couple of days of October and the last couple of days or the first first couple of days in November, last couple of days of October when the scraping really starts to increase. My my scrapes have really kind of dried up, not necessarily all the way, but they're still you know, once a deer is passing by, he's not going out of his way to lay sign anymore unless he's right there. So I'm finding the active sign near the betting areas. We're coming into a phase of the rut that a lot of the hunters identify as lockdown. Do you put any stock into the lockdown phases? That's something that you care about when you're getting into the woods in mid November. Yeah, dude, it's the rut. I mean this, this lockdown phase is almost trickery to a hunter's brain. You know, it's like, well, it's lockdown, so I better stay out. It's ridiculous, just like the October lowell the deer or they're they're doing something and you need to get into your best stance. You need to have your access still needs to be great. You need to follow the wind direction, and you need to get into the pinch points, into those travel corridors, into those staging areas, into those betting areas, and hunt right. Lockdown is only good if you're hunting one specific buck, because there's a whole bunch of other bucks out there that are aren't breeding and they are looking for deer. So don't worry about any type of lockdown faith As we approach peak rut. Do you care about food sources at all on the state like Iowa? I mean, there's food all over, so it's never really a concern. I mean, it's never really a big point of interest unless I'm doing some October one tip hunting. So the only time I really focus on food is early season, in late season right now, again, just like broken record man, get into the betting areas, get into the travel corridors, those terrain features that hold deer, because do you're going to come through them at some point in the day, find the does, find what they're doing. Set up almost like you're hunting does, and you're gonna you're gonna find the box man going forward. Then in this next week or so, what do you think that BUCKETTT is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Iowa? So based off historical data from trail cameras and from my experience, it's gonna slow down. But because you know a majority of the does by the end of next week are going to start, you know, they're gonna be bread. But the big dogs, the mature bucks, the you know in Iowa, the four or five, six, seven year olds, they're gonna be on their feet. And there's this time frame when there's still maybe a handful of doughs that are are coming into heat where the biggest mature bucks are gonna be zombies and they're gonna be walking all over the place looking for that last dough before they stop running all together. The activity level between one and ten is probably gonna go down to a five, but you're gonna have your best chance of connecting on a big mature cruiser. All right, Dan, great intel, Congrats again on the buck, and thanks for joining me, absolutely man, And that concludes this week's episode of rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Keith, Michael Vince and Dan for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. As you heard Dan say in our last call there, don't put too much stock into the lockdown phase. Um, mid November is still an amazing time to be in the woods, so I hope you get a chance to get out and take advantage of it and some rot magic comes your way. For more awesome content like this, make sure you're checking out the meat Eator dot com or you're gonna see articles from people like me, Mark Kenyon, Tony Peterson, Dylan Tramp, Pat Dirkin, and more. And make sure you're subscribed to the white Tail Weekly newsletter, which comes out every single Monday and has exclusive content from the white Tail crew at Meat Eater. I'll talk to you guys, next week and till then stay wired to hot

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