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. Today in the show, we're here for Fresh Radio, in which we're getting updates from hunters all across the country on the latest deer activity, current conditions, and the tactics that can work for you Right now, all right, welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you by onyx Or. Here for what will be basically our first December edition of Fresh Radio, we're gonna hear from a group of deer hunters from across the country on what's happening right now, what they've been seeing in the woods, how dear behaving, how can conditions are impacting how they're hunting, and and what they and you can be doing over the coming days to fill that tag. I know there's still a lot of you out there grinding a way, still trying to get a buck, or still trying to fill a freezer, so we want to help you do that. Uh, there certainly are still opportunities to do that. So Spencer, Uh, what's what's the game plan for today. Where's your head at You've still got some kind of post rout hunts ahead of you, right, Yeah, I'm headed to Kansas after we finish recording this. I'm gonna be hunting with Tom and Nate Craig from Identical Draw. Uh. And I'm stoked because it's Kansas, it's landed giants, and I'll be carrying a rifle. So I'm really excited. Um, But typically this time of year, I'm not that excited. I'm not someone who has had a lot of success in December. Um, so December makes me sad. But you mark, you have had a lot of success in December. I think you've killed probably your biggest year ever in December. What was that two years ago? Yeah? Two years ago. Yeah. And and one of the fact actors that I think catches the interests of a lot of hunters, and it's it's maybe like a bigger topic than it is like a reality for most white tailors. But that's the secondary rot. Can you talk to us this week about like what is the secondary rot, what factors go into it, how you should hunt it? Um, what sort of determines if you see a strong secondary rot or no secondary rout? At all. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So the second rut, the secondary rut, whatever you wanna call it, is typically a product of dough fawns. So dear that are about six months old coming into estrus and and these deer are reaching sexual maturity about a month later than the rest of the adult those in the population. So if you have a healthy, balanced population that you know, has all the nutrition needs and everything, these dear need to to be healthy and to reach that maturity at this point. If you have that, you're gonna get these faunds coming into esther some a few. If you don't, if you've got a wildly out of balanced deer herd, if deer lacking nutrition, uh, if if things have been skewed in one way or another, you very well may not have any of these doughs coming into heat late. Um. But maybe where you're heading Spencer to Kansas, there's lots of great food, lots of good cover. You know, the cricks are managing their deer herd well, it's probably relatively balanced. I'm betting that there could be some young fawns that are just gonna be hitting it now. And this is one of those things that I don't go into the year planning on it. I don't go into December like, oh man, it's the second rout, I'm gonna be hunting all day. It's gonna be crazy. No, it's one of those things that I have a regular December late season plan in place, and then I'm gonna keep my eye out for one of these little flurries. If I'd happen to see this flurry of writting activity in the first or second week of December, I'll know in my head. I'm like, oh, this might be one of these magical doe fons is coming into heat, and now i want to take advantage of it because I've got a day or two where things might be extra special. Um, but it's quick. These are little blips on the radar that you can take advantage of if you notice them. But I wouldn't plan my whole, you know, strategy around it. This is this is one of those bonus things that you may or may not see, but if you do, you gotta jump on it. And if you see it, if you see a little doephon running around with a bunch of bucks chasinger, now you have a twenty four or thirty six hour window where your things might be, like the rut was on November seven. So if I see a dough with a buck locked on her or a bunch of bucks chasing her, I'm gonna move right in on that, and I'm going to try to be in the middle of that running activity, or I'm going to try to reposition to be along the route that that dough took when she comes back to wherever she came from. Um, just like I might have done in November seven. Let's say there's a buck locked on a dough. If I saw that in November seven, and I wal that dough, you know, head out, or maybe maybe I watched her in the morning head into a bedding area, I would then think to myself, based off of wind, based off of you know, all the different things you think about when trying to plan an evening hunt after seeing something like that. My best guests lots of times if I see a buck locked down a doze that that dough doesn't want to travel a whole lot, she'll probably come back out in a somewhat similar way that evening to feed in that food source. If it's if there's a food source that she was coming off of, it you can hunt. This is exactly what happened. Like you mentioned a couple of years ago, I spotted this great, big ten pointer locked on a dough in the morning, I watched him go back to bed. So for the evening hunt, I slipped in there and and got pretty aggressive. It was a bad wind. I would never hunt this area with that wind, but I knew that they were in there. I knew they weren't moving far, and I knew that I had this little brief window where there was a buck that I wanted to kill locked on a dough. Is December, I don't know, eighth or ninth or something somewhere in that window, and I knew he was gonna be with her. So I found I figured out a way. I cut the wind just right to cut down this creek, and I thought I could probably get away with it. It was it was a swing for the fences kind of move. I normally wouldn't do that in late season December unless you have something like this where you know there's this disproportionately high chance of the buck you're after popping back out. And so that's what I did, and that's what he did. So my suggestion for people out there hunting right now is go into your December hunts with a typical late season plan. What that means for me is keying in on the very best food source. Late season is all about food. They are needing to put on the feedbag recuperating from the main rut, so they want to eat, and then they also typically want to avoid people. They want to avoid all the hunters that have been out there crazy chasing them for weeks and weeks and weeks. So if you can somehow find that magical combination of an unpressured area or some kind of sanctuary where these dear feels safe. I just wrote an article about this on the Mediator webs like, um, if you can some off find that sanctuary, whether that's literally a property where no hunting is allowed, or maybe it's a pocket of a swamp where nobody ever goes into, but but something that keeps these deers safe. If you can find that and find an attractive food source that's close to it, you've got the the ingredients for high quality hunts at this point. So focus on that kind of thing, but keep an eye out for the second rut. Keep an eye out for that doll that comes into heat and adjust based off of that. That's that's the kind of thing I'm thinking about this time of year. If I'm trying to fill a buck tag, um and I mean keeping out for that yourself, Spencer, I think you're gonna have the ingredients for a great hunt. Knowing what I know about this place you're gonna go to. There's good food, there's good cover, there's good deer. I know they're smart about how pressure has been applied. So who, I'll tell you what I Uh, I'd be pretty excited if how were you hopping in the truck here soon? Very excited? Um And I think it's important to stress when we talk about the secondary rut just how local of a thing this can be. Right. It can be happening literally on one property, but not the next property over. It can be happening, um, a couple of places in one county, but then have a wide swath of ground where there's not any secondary rut, and then there's you know, some secondary rout some other place. UM. So this is rarely like a regional or national event. With that said, last year, Mark, you and I hypothesized that there would be sort of a strong secondary rut for much of the Midwest because there was such a late crop harvest, um, and so what that created in early in mid November was a rut that was not very visible. And we figured that with that that meant that there was, um, you know, a better chance that some does went on bread and would cycle a secondary time. I say that because if last year this was something that you really witnessed and uh, you know you it's like, oh man, how have I missed this in the past, that all these bucks are chasing in mid December and there's this great rutting activity. Um, if you were an area that had standing corn that made it, you know, to Thanksgiving or whatever, you may not witness that again. In Yeah. Yeah, that's it's a really important point. This is something that is it's it's few and far between, so that that's that's like the more of this whole story is don't count on it, but keep an eye out for it, and if you see it, you gotta pounce. You've got this little window, jump on it, get aggressive, take advantage of it. But don't be disappointed if you never do see anything like it, because there will be plenty of you listening that will not see this at all, but there might be a couple that do. And I want to make sure the couple of you that do know how to handle it and jump in there and get a crack at the deer you're after. So that's what I'm counting on, and I'm hoping for all of you. I'm I'm tagged out here in Michigan as far as bucks, so I won't be taking advantage of that, but I do want to get out and try to kill some doughs. Uh. So I'm looking forward to finding some unpressured pockets near good food, but using this to uh fill an antler, this tiger too. It's great advice. Mark. Who we talked to you this week is Tyler Shepherd from Indiana White Tails in Indiana, Andrew Maxwell and Alabama from the Southern Outdoorsman, Dylan Tramp from the Outdoor Forum in South Dakota, and then in New York from Tagging Brigg is David g Rizzo. Excellent. All right, man, Well let's get to it and get you on the road so you can go fill that Kansas tag. I'm jealous. I wish I was heading to uh the Big Back, big Buck fantasy Land like that, but I'll be watching from afar and cross my fingers for you. I'm still thank you Mark, and I'll talk to you next week, see you alright and joining us online. First is Tyler Shepherd in Indiana from Indiana White Tails now Tyler in Indiana. What would you say the buck activity has man lately on a scale of one to ten, lately has been probably about a six. Um been seeing quite a few bucks on different property. It just depends on what property you're on, um and what kind of food you're haunting over the ruts really about about over um. But we we connected this weekend. All had to do with food. Yeah, not not bad, but upcoming the next few hunts here when you get on all food, it's gonna be real good. That was a great buck that you just killed in Indiana. Tell us about that set up. We were hunting in the redneck easy access, not going deep hunting the edges um with hunting over a clover and uh corn food plot and he, I mean we were pretty close to the bedding, but he was going going to the food real quick, checking for dose whatever is left and uh I took him out there probably the first half hour of Saturday morning. So came in looking for those and and never made it out of the field. What are the best food sources that hunters in that area should be focused on right now? I mean, if you got food plots like we do, um, go go hunt those. If you've got grains, they're not really hitting my turn ups or anything right now. Um. But but if you got cut corn, I'm I'm always a sucker for cut corn. If you can go on a cut cornfield, I've been seeing tons of deer in them. So if you got those, access to them. Whatever, hunt the edges and and get those cut corn fields. Have you been seeing any signmaking since Thanksgiving? Um? No, I have seen no signmaking, No new scrapes, rubs, nothing trull cameras is I had to move all my all my cameras off of scrapes and rubs last week or two weeks ago or so, transitioning them back all the food Historically in Indiana, do you see any kind of a secondary rut? I mean, you see not really a rut, I don't usually, Um, but I see a lot of cruising around. They're still with those, but I've never seen actually chasing, you know, no breeding or anything going on after I mean, i'd say after this last weekend there, you're pretty well done with the breeding cycle. As we get into December, what does a morning set up look like for you? Strictly me, I I don't hunt mornings come December unless I got something on camera daylight. Uh, I'm pretty much November late October morning hunting and then I back off and let's the deer feel safe and I don't want to spook anything, so I stay off of it until evening hunts. So what would it take for you to go do a morning hunt. I'd have to get at least consistent pictures in the morning of a buck showing up. That's the only way I'd go in the morning going forward. Then this next week or so, what do you think that buck activty is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Indiana? Buck activity of the weather. It all depends on weather right now. But if it stays cold and those bucks gotta get up on their feet sometime to go eat, so be where the to be, where the doughs and the food are and they I mean, your luck should be really good, all right, Tyler, congrats again on the great buck. Good luck with the rest of your season, and thanks for joining me. Thank you alright and joining us on the line. Next is Andrew Maxwell from The Southern Outdoorsman in Alabama. Now, Andrew in Alabama, what would you say the buck activity is ben lately? On a scale of one to ten, I would say it's probably a seven. Um, We've had, um, I mean some encounters lately in my friend group. Um, of course I killed one, uh two days ago, and our cameras have been showing a pretty decent amount of daylight movement. I mean, of course in the thick cover you know where they're supposed to be quote unquote Um, but yeah, I mean I would say a seven. There's there's actually a decent amount of nice bucks that hit the grounds on the w mail. It's hunting this weekend, So it's looking pretty good for my particular area. Congrats on that great buck that you just killed. Tell us about that setup. So that particular buck I was hunting a basically a giant thicket. I mean down here we have like almost we have we have mostly thickets with little strips of hardway was running through them. Uh. And so I got up to the head of this draw that runs up into a large cutover and I basically got at the very tip of that, picked out a tree on the very edge and the trees in front of it, and got up and I was watching a like what we call a compounding feature. We talked about it all the time on our show. Is like a like a saddle with like another saddle running into it, or like a bench running into a saddle or something like that. So that's what the spot was. It was a compounding feature. There's multiple terrain funnels going to this one spot within a thicket. Um. And not only was it in a thicket, but there was also kind of habitat diversity in the thicket itself. Um. So there's edges in front of me out in the cut that I'm watching, and this buck he came through right at prime time, I mean right when they're supposed to come through, like right at sundown. You got that last thirty minutes of light. He walked out and he was basically just working uh an edge within that cutover coming right through the saddle like he was supposed to. And uh he was actually I think he's getting ready to make a scrape when I shot him. He was actually uh being on his tarsels. So it was a great hunt. Um of course, like I said, in a thick cover. And another interesting spot, uh, an interesting like little tidbit about that spot is that he was only two hundred yards off the road. I mean, there's people driving right past me. But the way that you have to access that you kind of have to swing in through more thick cover. And and we're finding more and more that those spots just right off roads that are overlooked and hard to get to because of terrain and or vegetation or some of the best spots. So what phase of the route would you say that you're part of Alabama is in as well as the rest of the state. From my particular part here in central Alabama, we're definitely kind of on the edge of pre rut and rutt Um. We're at the point now where bucks had been fighting for like a week, week and a half, two weeks um. Some of the small all our bucks are out cruising kind of doing their thing, and we should have some of those that are already starting to come in right now. I mean pek rutt should be I mean around December tenth round at it's really like primetime December tenth is like that day where a lot of guys kill nice bucks that weekend. Um. So yeah, we're right on the edge. Now. The rest of Alabama, the vast majority of the rest of Alabama is still, as a minimum a month out. A lot of places they are a month and a half out from the rut. So, um, I mean where we're at, we're seeing a lot of sign popping up already, Scrapes are getting opened up, lots of fresh rubs. There's a lot of fresh rubs where I killed this buck two days ago. Um. But for the rest of the state, I think it's gonna be more of your typical I mean, it's not really early season, but it's kind of like that same mindset. I mean in some places, you know, bucks might even still be together. Uh, they're they're leaving a lot of sign in the daytime areas that they're hanging out, but they're not they're not doing anything related to the rut whatsoever. Across most of about Bama. You mentioned that the buck that you just killed was hitting a scrape. How much do signmaking factor into your decision making this time of year in Alabama? A lot um A lot of these areas that we're hunting. We have past history with like, for instance, this spot last year, we ran cameras in it, and we had a lot of bucks uh in this area last year at the same time in daylight. So we figured that you know, this year would be good. And sure enough, the first time I went in there was able to get him. But there's a lot of sign in there, I mean right now. When we go into spots, usually we have an idea that there should be deer in there, just based off you know, the map or past history with the spot, but we definitely want to see rubs and scrapes this time of year and there. I mean, if I had gone in there yesterday and not seeing the amount of fresh road, if I if I go intore yesterday and not seen a single fresh road, my confidence level would have dropped tremendously. Um. And if I if I wasn't too late getting in, then I probably would have bounced and went to a different spot. But thankfully the sign was there. Um. So yeah, I mean it plays a huge part for us right now. I mean, we wanting to see those those scraps and fresh rubs popping up, um and tracks two tracks or really in a way of tracks for us are more relevant than anything else because we've got so many dirt roads to go through, all these cutovers and thickets, and and being able to walk down that road and read those tracks and see how fresh they are and get really the best representation possible of like, are there deer in the thicket right now? You know, you find a track that looks extremely fresh, there's a really good chance that that deer is laying within two hundred yards of you. And that's that's probably one of the more useful tools that we've used here lately. I mean, that's how I killed the buck out there last year. And um, I mean we've used similar tactics this year and they're probably gonna continue to do so. So I mean, for me, tracks are actually kind of number one. Now as we approach peak rut, will you do any calling or decoin? Probably won't do any decoin just because it's so thick here. There's really not many places where you can put a decoy where they would be able to see it outside of like ten yards. Um. Calling, Yeah, I'm actually already doing a lot of calling. Um, We've been grunting and rattling a good bit I haven't had any success yet. Um, several years ago, I killed a nice buck actually on Thanksgiving rattling around here, and I've done it since then. I just haven't had much luck with it, but I'm gonna keep doing it. Um right up, I mean right up, thus the right, just because I think it's a I think it'll work. We've talked to a lot of people lately who swear by it, and I haven't had success with it in a while, but I'm gonna continue to do it going forward. Then, in a sex week or so, what do you think that BUCKETTVT is going to be on a scale of one to ten in Alabama? From my area, I'm gonna say it's gonna be like a nine or a ten. I mean they they're gonna be doing it this week for sure. We got really cold weather rolling in the rut is supposed to be here, and the conditions just look absolutely perfect. So I'm gonna say it's gonna be I mean, this next canna have two weeks is gonna be as good as it gets, uh, in my part of Alabama. For the rest of Alabama, I'd say it will probably be still be pretty good. I mean, with this weather front we have coming in and right now we're kind of in a transition period where pretty much all of our leaves just dropped. And for us in the South, that's kind of when our major shift happens because things that were once really really thick are now a lot less thick, and the deer tends to kind of abandon areas, and uh, when the leagues call, they kind of get concentrated into more specific betting areas that that keep that visual obstruction as opposed to like a sweet gum thicket or something which you know, two months ago you couldn't see ten yards in two and now you can see slap across it. So that's a that's gonna be a big factor for everybody. So I think I think the hunting actually gets a little bit better when that happens. So that, combined with the weather that we're having, I think that it'll be a great upcoming weekend to get out in the woods wherever you're at in Alabama. Alright, Andrew, congrats again on the great white tail, good luck with the rest of your season. Thanks for joining me. Thanks bencor alright and joining us on the line. Next is Dylan Tramp from Outdoor Forum in South Dakota. Now, Dylan in South Dakota, what would you say the buck activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten, I would say just in the last few days, it's been fairly decent, probably maybe as high as the seven. The rut seems to be winded down a little bit, but I have seen a few bucks chasing those that might be the last few to go on the heat through this first cycle, and gun seasons are winding down, So it's activity has been pretty good now year in far western South Dakota. What label would you put on this phase of the rout for that area? It's not quite totally post rut. I would just say the last phase of the normal ruts. Whatever title you want to put on that. No, I know you just killed a great book yesterday. Tell us about that set up and about that hunt. Ah. Well, we were just covering some ground and the bucks and were on dose. They were not quite locked down, it seemed like yesterday, but they were just keeping an eye on them and filling their bellies getting ready for winter, and they were feeding in It seemed to be clearings, clear cuts, cattle pastures, kind of open timber, so I think they were feeding on the grasses. Um. So the setup was just pretty much eliminating. It's just all public national forest out here, and so I was just eliminating all the easy access areas places that you saw a bunch of bootprints at the trailheads, just crossing those off, finding funnels next to send my open terrain where there's grasses and feed and just kind of still hunting through the timber works out our grass is the primary food that you're focused on this time of year, or there are other food sources in the Black Hills in forest, it seems like there's a lot of different food sources, but grasses and just any sort of greenery it seems to be the key. And this this time of the year things are starting to die off. So it seemed definitely like the grasses and the pastures, we're definitely the place to be over the last few days. That area has a pretty mild weather lately. Historically, as we get in December and things get colder, do you notice a shift in bedding at all in the Black Hills, I don't think so. In the in the conifers, I think the betting will just mainly be dictated by hunting pressure, which should be winding down, but I think they just want to get away and be in the thickest cover available, which isn't. It's kind of monotonous timber in most places, so it's heavy. Cover is kind of hard to come by. So if you find it and it's secluded, it's probably gonna be pretty consistent throughout the year. Do you normally expect to see any signmaking at the end of November in the Black Hills? Signmaking out here isn't. It doesn't get laid down too heavy. I don't know if it's because needle in the haystack. It's a big forest and the deer concentrations are pretty high. The sign that I did see this weekend was definitely a few weeks old, so I don't I don't really see it picking up a whole lot, but if you do find it, he's probably pretty close. With that high deer density, you expect some sort of secondary rot. Is that something that you typically witness in that area, just just like anywhere else. I think the last few that trickle in the heat, or even the fonds that are older, old enough and put on enough weight to reproduce the first year, they're probably going to trickle in. I don't think it's a whole lot different out here than any other part of the state. So if you're in the right place and you've happened to be by that feeling that comes into heat, if your activity could be a ten going forward, then a six week or so. What do you think that buck ACTV is going to be on a scale of one to ten in South Dakota buck activity well, since the gun season is winding down across the whole state, the rut will also be winding balance those night offset, I would expect still decent buck movement if you have the food and you have unpressured relatively on pressured ground, I'd put it maybe a strong six. All right, Dylan, congrats again on yesterday's five by five. Good luck with the rest of your season. Thanks for joining me, Thank you as well. All right, enjoy a sunline. Next is David g Rizzo in New York from tagging brigg Now. David in New York, what would you say the buck activity has been lately on a scale of one to ten. The past week, it's probably been about a three. I think, um, I think the bucks really ran hard up here for three to four weeks, maybe a little bit longer. We saw a lot of good run activity at the end of October early November, and quite honestly, I just think that the war out at this point, the scrape activity, the trail camera activity has literally come to a halt for us. And honestly, right now we're just trying to gear up for late season. So you haven't seen much running activity since Thanksgiving, not much running activity at all. And and in the past that's been completely different. We usually see a pretty solid like second run activity, you know, in between like and of November, and for the past week or so, it has just been completely dead up here. What are the food sources that hunters in New York should be focused on as wegin in December? You know, right now, it it seems like a lot of the deer, especially like the doe groups, are shifting to the grain. So whether it be beans or corn um. We're getting a lot more colder weather in as of lately, and we're supposed to get a huge snow front um tomorrow and Wednesday, So I think the shift to the grain, to that late season food source is gonna be uh is gonna be necessary in the coming weeks when that snow and cold is rolling into the northeast. How does that change things for you as far as your setups go deer hunting in New York. You know, we've shifted all or a majority of our trail cameras back onto food sources. So, like I said, between the beans, the corn, and even the turn ups, we've switched all of our all or most of our cameras to food sources because we just really weren't seeing scrape activity at all. Um. Moving forward, you know, entry in and in and out of the stands are gonna play a huge part in keeping the deer on your property. We're gonna be hunting food sources. We're probably gonna be hunting a lot from elevated box f lines because of the inclement weather, and and it's gonna shift to more of an evening hunt will probably focus less and less on morning hunts as we move into December. Are you doing more mornings or more evening setups right now? You know what, we're kind of coming off that like late rut swing where we're still we're still hunting. Both I hunted this morning. I actually saw seven deer in the pouring rain this morning, which I was a little bit surprised of, um, But it seems like a majority of the deer movement is kind of shifted to that last hour before dark and and I mean it's it's rightful season up here now too, So the human and the hunting pressure definitely plays a part in that as well. Do you historically see some secondary rutting activity in New York? We do. We do the past couple of years, Like I said, late November even into early December, we've we've seen some um, some late run activity and and even from the fonds over the past couple of years, Like there's still two fonds on our property that we see pretty regularly that have spots like and the November I mean, so you can only imagine when that dough was bred last year. So there's definitely some second run activity for whatever reason this year, it just seems like this past week, the later part of November and and moving into December has been very very dormant as far as the deer and and specifically the big buck movement. Even on our trail cameras, it has come to a complete halt after the rout and when gun seasons are happening, do you notice a shift in bedding in your area. Definitely, the deer, at least by us up in this big hardwoods, they typically will will flock to the hemlock tickets for the thermal cover. So I mean they'll spend the majority of their day in those hemlock thickets. We've got some beaver swamps and stuff, some real gnarly thick stuff that they'll go into also, But definitely kind of focus our attention on the food and then the hemlocks because if it seems like you know, the travel corridors between the two are are great also because that's where the deer are stage and going forward. Then in the six week or so, what do you think that buck activity is going to be on a scale of one to ten in New York? I think in New York, you know, we'll see a shift to like six or seven. And that's basically just because of the weather. As soon as the snow hits up here, these deer are gonna be you know, their main focus is going to shift to the food. I think we're gonna see a lot more activity on our food plots, specifically with with the bucks coming out of their little holes and stuff for the last week or so and shift into to try and recoup and revitalize themselves from the rot. So with the major weather front that we have coming in, I would say the buck activity up in New York is going to be a six or seven in the coming week. All right, David, great info, Good luck with the rest of your seed. Thanks for joining me always I appreciate the time. And that concludes this week's episode of rout Fresh Radio. Thanks to Tyler, Andrew, Dylan, and David for joining me, and thank you guys for listening. I hope you get to witness some of the secondary rot action that magically appears in early December. And as that Mark Kenyon has said in the past, the late season can be the great season. I will talk to you guys next week. Stay warm, good luck, and until then, stay weired. Hut

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