00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to Wired to Hunts rutt Fresh Radio, bringing you the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now your hosts Casey Smith Tyler Jones. This is rut Fresh Radio powered by Vortex Optics. I'm your host, Casey Smith, and one of the most anticipated weeks of the year is here. We talked to hunters this week across the country who are doing their best to deal with the hot weather and still get on big bucks. Welcome to the rut Fresh Radio podcast, brought to you by Vortex Optics. On the phone. Right now. I've got the one and only Mark Kenyon. We have not been able to spend much time with him lately, as you can imagine. We've all been in different directions, and I've got sitting here on the couch with me Casey Smith. We are just chilling and fixing to go out again on the road. Mark, You're out somewhere in the middle of nowhere, is what I hear? Yeah, yeah, buddy, I am in Parts Unknown, Nebraska, all right, excited Unknown Destination Stern movie from Mecca in the nineties and then what that was called Parts Unknown or something like that. Yeah, it might be it's private parts, um, but yeah, you guys. I'm I'm about to kick off my vocation here and we're filming season two of one week in November, so I'm excited about that. We just got here like half hour hour ago something like that, so we're just kind of unpacking, organizing our gear. We're gonna get out and do some scoulting this evening and then start hunting tomorrow. So look deary right now, Mark, Yes, it's like it's you know, it's you know what Nebrassa is like. There's a lot of places that don't look deary, like at least white tailly right. I'm in an area where there's a lot of open country where you're thinking, oh man, there's you at least here. But I don't know about why tales, But as soon as you find these little patches of cover, these little Heidi holes, these little rivers and creeks and stuff like that, you're in some good white tail stuff. So um, that's that's what I'll be hunting here. Um. But I gotta tell you guys something real quick before you before you ask me anything else. I haven't I haven't been on rough Fresh in a while, because you guys have been traveling over the world doing all this stuff, and I just want to publicly say it feels great that my baby has been in good hands. You guys have been doing a good job. I've been listening every week like that parent who's like got their ear to the door and listen to what the kids are doing in the room next door. You know that's what I do. And you guys haven't been breaking anything, you haven't been fighting, you have been doing anything too bad. Um, so parental parental approval is here. Are the next Wisconsin guy that comes up behind me in a dark camp will for though, So let's not let that head. It's uh, it's been it's been fun. I'm enjoying what you guys are doing, and uh, I'm glad to be back. They'll gladdy back on here and get the chat with you guys before all sorts of exciting stuff breaks loose. Because guess what. I don't know if you guys realized it, but it is November. The podcast drops right O. Man, it's the best time of a year. Man, It's like, you know, they wrote that song the most wonderful time of the year. They wrote about Christmas, but they should have written in about the first two weeks in November for sure, for sure, And if if only I knew a musician who also loved the deer hunt, who might be able to write a song like that? Do you know anyone like that? I'm blanking, man, I'm blanking on it. Who also has recording equipment at the house? Right, so we should be listen. I'm an ex musician, Okay, I don't get to play guitar anymore, right us the Most Wonderful Time of the Year edition, Dude. I've I've thought about this, actually thought about, you know, making a music catalog for deer hunting shows on the outdoor networks you know, um TV, because I could do it easy, dude, and it would be you know, you just gotta write corny songs about trucks, just like country music, but you gotta put a little bit of some deer you know, anecdotes and and uh references in there. So it's it's easy. Man. I think a bone collector did at one point, you know, and I think I could do the same thing. Yeah, yeah, I mean it sounds like, ah, I think something we should release on the Wired to Hunt platforms for sure. Sure, Yeah, you know what you catched me on the right day, I might say it so that in all seriousness, Bone Collector did release an album like that, right, There's this called the Bunk collect Brotherhood or something like that, and I had I have it downloaded back when it came out ten years ago. I downloaded it and pie it or did you you know, I legitimately legitimately downloaded. So and still this is on top of my mind though right now, because my two year old and four year of boys are like all eight up with anything hunting, and so they to hear some hunting music. So like I put on like the Dirty Point Buck, and I put on fred Bear and uh, and then I pulled up that one. And there's a song on that album called bucks Fever, and it's a good old you know jam about buck fever and stuff. And my kids love it. But my son for some reason, thinks it's called deer Sick. So instead of buck Fever, called it dear Sick. So from now on, if I ever like miss a deer get to Jinger, I'll like, oh man, guys, I got some I got some beer sick. We also we have another musician on the staff now, I don't know if you know that or not. But Greg, the guy I've been running around with, he is uh it was a tearing musician and kind of the uh, I don't know what you call the genre, but definitely rocking out real hard, you know. And uh he's also um one of the guys hard progressive. He's gonna be hunting with this down in Texas when you come down with us and him and I've been scheming on how to get you on buck man. So I'm excited. Yeah, we're pretty excited too. Yeah. Supposedly deer sightings are gonna be good and so pretty much from here until the end, we just see deer every day, dude, can you believe it? But well, the thing is, Mark, you're gonna you're gonna think, Man, why are these guys seeing so many deer and I'm not seeing anything but goats. That's what you're gonna think, because they're gonna be about your buddy. Josh just sent us some trail camera pictures of like I think they're moose, but they have whitetail antlers and white tails. Um from Kansas. No in uh, Michigan. I just can't believe the size of the animals up there. Man, it's so cool to travel the country and just see the discrepancies, you know, in in white tail. But then they're all especially in Marks book, they're all just white tails. So just deer. Yeah, I mean you're deer, just dear too. They're all the group. When you guys make these lumpers and splitters, do you think anybody knows what in the world they're talking about? But it's okay, inside jokes of the best jokes they are. We do this for us, Mark, not for thee. Yeah. So are we talking about We're talking about hunting bucks in the rut man. That's uh, that's what's going down right now. Everybody is hype. We've had a lot of people, uh just go wild about the numbers that they want to give for what kind of week it's gonna be. And I understand, right because hyping is fun. I know that you're probably participating in some of it. We're doing quite a bit of it right now, honestly, we Uh, I think a lot of us are in the mode of like the buck who's been chasing like crazy and had to stop and take a break for a couple of hours and then just get right back after it. You know, that's kind of how I feel at least, Um, have you heard much. I don't know how many guys you've gotten to talk to you yet so far, But have have folks been talking about this forecast though that we've got for a lot of country because at least up in the Midwest, in my neck of the woods in Michigan or even here in Nebraska, it's really hot. It's early part of November. Um, And I'm always, you know, bummed out when I see that, because that's not ideal. But then I gotta remind myself it's still the rut. We're still doing the thing. You don't need to get too crushed about it. Um. But is that something that is a theme this week? In fact, we talked to Uh, you're a good friend, Josh with first lot up in Michigan. He is actually mentioned that quite a bit. Uh. We talked to Michael Hunt Sucker in Colorado. Uh, he's talked about the weather a little bit as well. Play nucom who you were about to UH be doing some texting with for the next week for one week, I'd imagine. We talked to him about Arkansas, and then we talked to Chris B. About Ohio and whether it is a um big factor in all that because it's like the it's this is when he's one of your favorite words here where it's a balancing thing. Uh, it's the first week in November, so they're going to do the thing. But it's not ideal weather. So what does that look like? And there's some really interesting theories in there of just you know, how guys hunt around the weather because say it's late October, you can just say, oh, it's not worth it, but right now it's worth it. Like no matter what the temperature is, what the weather is, it's worth being in the stand, which is exciting, right, but you there's certain ways to to manipulate that to your favor. And I would be interested in Mark Kenyon's first impulse when it comes to maybe a hot weather situation in early November. You know, it's it's mostly sticking to the normal plan, right. I mean, mornings especially are going to be just as good as any other time. You know, mostly that's the coolest part of the day. You're gonna have a longer stretch of time that's gonna be cool and comfortable. So those bucks are the cruise and there will be chasing right, and whatever they would have been doing, they should still be doing in the morning. So I'm hunting the same kinds of spots in the morning. Um, I think the gas place at the hot weather impact by rut hunts is that mid day kind of action, because you know, when you've got like a twenty or thirty degree thirty degree super cold day, I can hunt the betting area and feel pretty confident there's gonna be bucks cruising through that, you know, late morning, midday, early afternoon. When it's on November three or fourth, you know, I'm gonna have much much lower expectations for that kind of thing happened, So you know, I might feel honestly a little bit less bad about taking a mid day off and get some lunch or doing something creative midday, like you know, take advantage of mid days if you're not gonna sit all day because there's not much moving at noon. You know, maybe then you do some more scouting and walk around and check out stuff, or you know, one of the things I'm gonna do here in open country is I'm not gonna stre sit at noon or one o'clock, but I'm gonna get out of the tree, and I'm gonna go drive around and walk around and glass in this open country and see if I can't get eyes on a buck with a dough you know better with the dough locked on a dough, do that kind of thing, and see if I can't, you know, get lucky and spot something to make a move on it. Um. So, So that's the way I'm gonna try to take advantage of those hours that might be slower because of the temperatures. And then the evening. You know, I think you know you're gonna see on average, you know, that action is going to be closer to dark than maybe it would be on a nice cold day in November, but it's still gonna happen. So I would say my biggest takeaway for the hot rut time period is stay the course, keep the faith. It's still possible. There's still rutting. You know, if you've got some water sources, like some little water holes ponds back in the cover, that kind of thing can be particularly good on these hotter days. Um. I know, those things would be pretty good even a normal weather days, let alone a hot day during the rut. So he's got that. That's one of the things to think about adding to your stand set up kind of rotation. But that's my quick two sense and I planned, dude, you really put this thing together. Oh I'm I've been chomping at the bit man for a while. So yeah, I'm ready to make it happen. I'm ready to uh, I'm ready to just dive into November full force and see what happens. Listen. I um, I know Casey, you know it's pretty teasy with his pictures, but I don't need any of I don't have time for any of that. So when you shoot Buck in Nebraska, just straight up to send me the hero shot. That's all I want. Well, I absolutely oh Casey back though, so like Casey that I'm not going to send it to the group, direct to you and then to Casey like I'm gonna send him a foot and send him a pale. I'm gonna send him like a haunch because not only has been like one of those, but you guys have killed like nineteen deer this year, done that every single one of the tiers, So I've got a lot of payback, that's true. Definitely send that to you know his way, um first, that way, you know, I don't have to. I don't want him to be sitting in the truck with me and me like, oh Mark killed the buck, you know, and then he's gonna make me show him. So yeah, go to him first for sure. So yeah, man, it's it's it's an amazing time. I'm super excited. I'm I'm sorry for you guys and for everyone listening. Uh, this is you know, these are some of the best episodes of Rough Fresh every year, because you know, stuff changes so fast this time of year two. Everyone's excited. Everyone's just hoping to hear that a little bit of good news. So well, I'm ampt to get into it. I'll be listening here. Yeah cool, dude. Well, I hope that things go well for you out there in Nebraska. And like I said, Sindis pics whenever you get done, and um, we'll get to the interviews now. Sounds good? All right? Now on the phone is Cris b everybody's favorite YouTuber at least mine. What's going on? Chris, Well, I pay you to say that. Yeah. Yeah, it's the first one I've been paid doing that kind of hunting stuff. Good, it's good man, just just traveling around shooting box trying to at least. Yeah, dude, you've been shooting him lately a couple of different states. Uh, recently. Actually, we just found out, like today pretty much that you shot a deer in Ohio and he looks like a toad? Is he a toad? Yeah? He's really nice. He's he's goofy. I really don't even know how he's you know, score wise, not that I really care, but he's just so goofy. I don't know. Yeah, but he's cool. He's big, dude, So what what kind of tactics were you using to get close to this book? Um? So there's these rare um yellow acorns that drop, you know, these really weird piles. No, but my tax case really went back to Um. I picked up this new piece of property like during season uh end of September, and it was just like time to get intel. So in Ohio obviously you can you can bait and it can be for you sometimes it can be against you. Like it definitely hurt hurt me earlier in the week hunting because it just kept getting busted and stuff. But I got some intel and uh, there's sparks showed up and kind of hung around. But he daylighted for the first time three days ago. So I actually jumped in the truck, drove all night, hunted that morning that night, didn't see him. Hunted yesterday morning and night didn't see him. And I think my access is bad. Um. So there was like some clear cuts and weird stuff going on, and I was kind of bombing through it on my e bike and thinking that I could just like ripped through it and it'll be different than walk in and they won't really scare. But I like totally flipped my my whole perspective over access from a completely different area but still hunting roughly the same spot. And um, yeah, man, he came in like right at first light this morning. Um, and I think I was ten minutes past legal time. Like I was like checking my phone, you know, and being like okay, well, like I'm good, there we go, you know. And it was it was good man. He uh shot him, found him about an hour later, and it was just kind of textbook it all happened. That's awesome, dude. Congrats on that. By the way. Um Man, I've always appreciated your just candidness with the the abating thing because a lot of people think it's taboo and um, you know, people from from states that don't do that, don't you know, they have their opinions about it. But as you know, we're from Texas and uh we are probait, um and you know, pro whatever you however you want to do it. Man, it's deer hunting. It's fine, it's legal, you know, so um yeah, but that's also always seems like that, like what you said, it's like Kentucky, Ohio, everyone's a hundred percent for it. But as soon as it's like a guy born and raised in you know, Michiganaigan and even you know, it's just like they just put people down about it, and I'm just I'm just not about that man. Um. It's a really good way to get on deer, particularly in a place that, um, it can be difficult otherwise. You know, whether it's like the weather that's going on or the access or what have you, you can make a deer move in ways that maybe they wouldn't if you're just hunting travel outs and stuff. Uh. And I know, like with the upcoming weather for the first week in November, everybody is really concerned. How do you feel like, um that you know this hot streak we're gonna have the first week in November is going to translate your honey woods. So that's kind of why I So I live in Iowa, and that's kind of why I left because the weather wasn't great there, and I left and came to Ohio, um to kind of wait out the weather back home. Um, But you know, I'm taking these days to kind of get some more cameras out, maybe hang a couple more stands, um, and still like utilizing those days and and still hunting, but really not getting my hopes up too much. But it's November now, dude, Like it's just anything can happen, um, And it's just you gotta you gotta, you know, use those warm days, warm windy days in your advantage. But maybe reset or you know, get more intel and just don't get down about it because I think I'm like the fifth, it's gonna like freaking turn right back on and it's gonna be hot. So yeah, so you're you're gonna hunt just guessing here you're gonna be sitting in funnels in Iowa on the fifth. Yeah, just you know, pinches and and just all everything rut related. Man, it's just it's just game on. So a lot of be bopping around and try and trying to make it happen, rattling and just dude, it's just everything next week. That's awesome. I'm so excited. Um, we're a guy who had like semi flexible schedule, and you're trying to decide if you're gonna take your your long weekend here safe November one through seven, or if you're gonna wait later in hope that a front room moves in. Would you rather push it and try to make it happen in the first week or wait and see next week. I for sure would push it if I if I had one week, I'd wait till like seven, seven through fifteen, somewhere in that window. Just these first few days, you know, and they start getting lockdown like to like getting those local doughs bread and I mean first few days or good and then as soon as they get on that lockdown and and and chill out, it's not until you know, the ninth or ninth or fifteen when they really started back up. Yep, those are good dates. Man. Well, I appreciate you, Um, congrats on that big buck, dude, and uh, hopefully we'll be able to check back with you sometime this season to see how things are going. First, before we get out of here, though, I want you to give me a one to ten rating on buck movement. You're predicted buck movement in the next week. Beginning of the week like a three. End of the week is going to be ten. Oh yes, man, I'm telling you. Yeah. Remember remember the fifth November. That's right. I've killed on the fourth A couple of dayre on the fourth, I think so. Yeah, it's good dates in there. Man, All right, well, best of luck this year, dude. Thanks man, appreciate you. Guys. We're on the phone with one and only Clay Nukem. He's been doing a little unting up in Arkansas. I do believe Clay. What's going on? Man? Hey man, I'm doing good and yeah, you're right, I've I've been in Arkansas going to Oklahoma today. Actually we actually were just told about a little bit of that to uh. We're trying to decide where to head because it's such a good time of year. Things are right for the picking. But we we do want to talk about what's going down in Arkansas. What have you been seeing up there in the uh in the hills. Man. Yeah, so this week I hunted I think three mornings and afternoons, and I saw bucks, let's see four four of six sits. I saw bucks cruising, just just moving through with their heads down. And I saw I saw a buck that was a good buck, I mean a three and a half year old plus type buck that was chasing those at three o'clock in the afternoon when I was walking into a stand. So, I mean, I would I would say that it's that it's the last week of October here in the Ozarks. Is really just really good? Man, It sounds like, man, yeah, yeah, it is. And uh that being said, I've also got cameras on on some feed and that's always really interesting because you you start losing pictures of bucks when they start roaming, you know, they're kind of like it on a feed pattern, and then they then when you quit getting pictures of deer on your feed, usually that means they're really cruising and that that seems to that happened really last week. Yeah. So I have some friends at hunt up in the Arkansas area. Stuff kind of south you though, but uh, for them, bears are an issue when it comes to uh, you know, dear fee and they mess up their situations up there. But you know, for a guy like you, that might be a dual purpose feed situation. Is that how you treat it? Or do you have problem with bears? Man? Where I where I'm deer hunting, we don't really have many bears at all? Really? How about that? Yeah, because you took care of already, didn't you. Well, my situation where I'm I'm doing most of my deer hunting is really kind of like suburban hunting. Honestly. A lot of what I'm doing up here where I live now. Now I go to and and there's just not bears right here. But I do quite a been hunting in in on big public land, you know, and there's definitely bears there, but you can't hunt a feed so on the private land parcels where they're small parcels, which is what I'm hunting a lot of. I mean, it's hard to be successful without being in the feed game when every everybody's got feed out, you know. So it's kind of a necessary evil in some ways if you want to if you want to play, sure, Yeah, So what when when the bucks kind of you know, get to roman like this, What are you focused on? Do you still stay on the feet and just hope there's enough does around or what are there other attributes are different kind of uh landscape features. No, I'm not. I'm not hunting the feet as much as I am just natural pinch pinch points and funnels. And you know, there's just places over the years where in the Ozarks, you know, you're just using topography that's funneling the here. You know, back edges of fields with hollas that come up. I mean, there's just every little spot that I do hunt like that that's just a funnel, transition area, travel area. Each has its own little unique reason why they're coming through there, you know. And and really some of those places to you would never in your I wouldn't pick them out on on and think, man, that is gonna be a good travel area, But just having hunted places for a long time, you're just like that's where they're going to be. Sure, it's sometimes not as distinct as we'd like to hope that a travel area would be. So with that, like are their native food sources that you look at in the next week or so that are going to be really a good thing for you know, keeping those around when you're looking at funnels between maybe betting or uh feeding areas for those, man, it's it's all about the acorns right now for us and and probably for almost everybody in the eastern deciduous. For us, the white oaks are gonna be starting to tail out about right now, even though they are white oaks on the ground that are good. But if there's red oaks that have made the red oaks seem to hold a little bit longer. And so yeah, acorns are big, man, and acres it'll pretty widespread this year. Just to me, like at least for a Hunton, it's seems to be we were up in Illinois and it was the same thing going on up there, man, Just lots of acrens on the ground. So if you were gonna focus on one tactic for the next week, man, what's it gonna be? Just funnels, just places where you're gonna see deer movement does and then if you can, you can grown them in this time of year or two, you know, yep, yep. So if you're if you're in a funnel that's a little wider, and some of the places I hunt, it feels like you know, within about seventy yards where they're gonna be. And uh, but this time of year that works pretty good because if you can see them, you know they're around. Sometimes you can grown them in yep. So if you're gonna rank deer movement for this first week in November, buck moving in particular from a scale of one to ten. In Arkansas what you're gonna call it the Northwest Arkansas, it's as good as it gets the first week, but the temperatures are gonna be seventy three degrees, so that's gonna put a damper on it. But they're still gonna be doing it. Just early in late it's gonna be good. Probably mid day is gonna be good too, because there yeah, yeah, I think sometimes when the daylight movement isn't real good, mid day is good because they've been bedded since earlier in the day. Real cold, it's real cold. They might be really move until ten o'clock, just kind of on their natural pattern. But you know, if it's warm and they they've got a belly full of food and the does aren't moving much, they might bed down closer to daylight and then but then get up in the middle of the day, so man, you know in all days good too, even when it's hot. Sorry, scaled one of team. What is it perfect? I'm not saying all right now a whole on case. Are we talking about with the specifics of the weather, or just in general the first seven days of November, whichever answer is the most optimistic, like just I want to go with it, man, it's personal, man, my man, Clay Nucom thanks for the report from Arkansas. Dude, you bet all right now on the phone, I've got Michael Hunt Sucker from Hartland bow Hunter. We recently talked to you. But you're in a different state here that not many people hunt for white tails. This is Colorado you've been in recently, right, you had some success there? Yeah, man, we had a I mean a picture perfect trip. You couldn't couldn't draw it up any better, to be honest, Man, it's awesome. That's uh. That buck looks awesome. He's so heavy, dude, And just I love when this is one of the nd measurables. But like when a deer has times that are thick and heavy, you know, like you don't you can't measure that, but it's shows for sure when you look at a buck and that's one of those bucks like that. Man. Yeah, I mean definitely, you know, a deal of a lifetime, this unbelievable character, and um, the whole story behind it really is what makes it even more special. Yeah yeah, So, um, what kind of what kind of patterns were you hunting while you're out there? So when we got there, you know, I used to get there and I'll run cameras and check, um kind of see what's been going on. And um, it's it's kind of a river river system, and so there's a lot of natural pinch points and so that's where the cameras kind of are all in national natural pinch points. Um, you know, fence crossings, gate gaps, levy crossings, just stuff that kind of funnels them down more so than they already are, you know, being on the river channel. And so um, a big thing for me was right when I got there, was to start shifting some of those two scrapes because I realized, you know, right when I got there, I mean, scrapes was blown up everywhere. It seemed like the bucks were starting to you know, lay down scrapes, check those scrapes and just kind of getting Nancy for the for the rut to come. Yeah. So were they were big deer you in those scrapes? Yeah? Yeah, absolutely they they Once we did find some of these scrapes, I put a camera on one of them and there was probably I don't know five six bucks using it and two of them two or three maturity are using the same scrape. So a little bit territorial in this going on there or whatever you whatever you want to call it. Technically they're not territorial. I guess we're scrapes, but you know what I mean. Yeah, those uh, those communal scrapes get they get hot this time here. Yeah, so were they you Did you actually shoot your buck over a scrape? Uh? Yeah, I only just made after I called him in Oh my good. So I know that's a big part of what you'll do in general, is the calling thing, right, is it? Uh? Did you have to kind of adjust that song because of it being late October when you're out there? Is it the normal? You know, just see a button getting to hear you. Yeah. So, I mean I'm a huge fan of calling in certain areas Colorado, Eastern Colorado, Western Kansas. Little they kind of similar, um, you know, really good, really competitive rep situations. They got great buck the door ratios and good good age structure, um naturally such as it makes for a great time, um, you know, for for calling and grunting. But yeah, so it was like, you know, we're hunting that basically last you know, oh ken days or so of October, and it's got one of those deals. I think we got there like the eighteenth or something like that. So really you know, the third week of October really and so it could be you know a little little early for a ton of activity. But um, so I'm not blind calling by any means, but um definitely had the rattling was packed and definitely had they grunt to with me, and um it's what it's what killed my dear. Um you know, I I I've seen him just kind of creeping through We we basically hunted this this basically known betting thicket area that that we thought, okay, you know a lot of your bed here blocks are going to be cruised through here, um, kind of checking for dos. And we were able to sneak in um to that spot, uh you know, early in the morning, catch him kind of coming back in there. And actually that deer was literally the first year we saw. It was the first thing in the morning, and he was actually heading away from us. Um and so had I not grunted got his attention and he was interested in come check it out. He actually probably a hundred yards away, walking kind of you know, catty corner away from us, and I hit the ground two. We put this head up and looked our way, and it started stiffly walking right to us. He got halfway and he held up in the trees and he was kind of out of sight from us, and I'm watching him and I'm looking for him, looking for him, listening for him. I'm like, what the heck, I don't hear him, I don't see him. But he slipped out on us. What happened? I only hit him again with the grunt two, so really soft, just a couple of grunts and doing here he came. And so he came be lined right to us. And it was one of those mornings, super calm, and so you hate to call too loud or overcall, because I mean he literally pinpointed exactly where that grunt was. Luckily it's super you know, that area is super thick, and so they were you know there there would be a situation where you know, he could hear the ground but not see the deer. Dude, that's insane. So if you were going to be up there again this week, would you be using similar tactics or would you hunt different spots? Would you use different tactics and your calling or you know what do you think that you would use? Yeah? Pretty similar, Pretty similar tactics, maybe a little more aggressive. I mean it's getting to the points where, um, I running camera's notice and the deer starting to break break some times. And actually, so after I shot my buck, you know, one of the biggest year, and when you were talking about the giant with the double drop times, you know, we we would really obviously he had been super regular all year, and my buddy Tony, Um, you know, he actually had some history with this deer, so he had shot him last year. So I I kind of stayed stayed clear with that deer, go to the hunt I got. I was able to kill my buck, you know, the third day of our hunt, and then he was coming in like the fourth day or fifth day, and so I got to hunt with him, um the next few days, and we actually decoyed that buck in with the with the decoy and so um, it's just seemed to be that time man, we had we had seen him. We hunted the night before and Brandon was scouting um and he Brandon laid eyes on him, um, and he came out and like bumps and does made a scrape. Um. He ended up meeting up with a little spike buck and kind of got progressive towards him, and then the spike buck obviously back down and then they were kind of just being buddies. But it's it was just like I told brand I was, we're gonna sit there where you saw him last night. We're sitting there with the decoy. Um. And mainly because he was coming out and doing alfalfa field and it's a just a big field and so the odds of him like walking right past us. I was like, I don't really like our odds is our last night going to be there? And so we we deployed the decoy, and I didn't didn't work textbooks to the to the decoy, you know what the decoy situation would normally work. But it worked. So that's awesome. So if you were gonna put a number on it on a scale from one to ten, for eastern Colorado for the first weekend November coming up here? What's the buck movement gonna be like? Man, I honestly haven't looked at the weather, but I'm gonna say I'm gonna give it an eight right now. And I want to give it a zero because I'm a bow hunter and I can't hunt. But it's hilarious, all right. If you got a tag for rifle out there, you know it's a zero. Mon Sucker said, there's no reason to go. It's hilarious. Man. Yeah, it's a great time of the year. We're all excited about it. Mike. Thanks for the great information, dude. Yeah, you bet. We have got Josh Hilliard with First Lot on the phone right now. He has been hunting in Michigan. Josh, what's been going on date? Well, hey, guys, thanks for thanks for having me on first Um. Man, it has been uh, it's been slow going for me here in Michigan. Um last week or so, um hunting a hunting a few times under last week and finally started to see some uh, some young bucks starting to cruise and and and moving, um, you know, a little later into the morning. But other than that, man, it's been it's been real slow for me here in Michigan. St. Yeah, I can sympathize with you. Had some slow hunts here in the light October two, and I think that's the way it goes. But traditionally, do you see good movement in light October in Michigan. I think it's pretty car. I think it's UM. I think it just kind of depends on on where you're at. Like I've seen some some good movement in late October on this little piece that I hunt, and it's also been slow like this um as well. So I think it's all just kind of dependent on you get a if you get a dough that comes in to ask just a little early and you can really kind of get them get them picked up. But UM, with that being said, I've actually had a couple of different um mature bucks move into my little, my little lease here in the last like two days. So that's that's a positive that I'm just kind of buying my time to get out. Um just with family stuff going, I haven't been able to get out the last two days unfortunately, So UM tomorrow tomorrow, start hitting it hard on some of these some of these beers. First couple of shooters I've had in cameras since like September one, So it's just been a wittle year for for this little piece of property that a hunt. But there's usually a good, good one or two that that strolled through here this time of year. So looks like it's starting to happen. That season long date is is very healthful, I would imagine, and I bet that there's some benefit to Michigan being a high pressure state. From what we hear from everybody, I don't know, you all seem to kill a bunch of big bucks, so I feel like it's a lot of fluff because Mark killed a big one my first weekend. But all things considered, you staying off the property because there's not a ton of shooters there early I bet can benefits you later as November pushes on. Yeah, I think that's kind of been my game plan. I always tell myself every you're like, okay, I'm gonna be aggressive, like early season. Um, there's there's quite a few years that get killed um in that neighborhood, like early October. Um. So every year I tell myself I'm gonna do that, and then this year, of course, I'm gone on a on a trip first week of October, so I really only hunted a handful of times, just been pretty selective about when I'm going out there. Um you know, it's it's a small piece of forty acres, so it can get blown up pretty quickly and a lot of hunting pressure around. So I've just tried to do my best to be patient and stay often until I know, um, you know, either time frame like this time of year, um with the rut kicking off, or if I've got one that's that's consistently showing up kind of that late October and then make a strike. But I just haven't had that, so I've tried to just be selected when I'm going out there. Right, So in this next week, the first week in November, here are you what are you focusing on? Like what tactics are you gonna be using to try to get in front of bucks? So I'm just trying to get between some betting areas and this this piece of property I've got like um a standard like Conifers that's like ten acres and it's some of the best betting in the area. Um. But there's a couple of other betting areas on neighboring properties. Um. And there's a couple of different travel corridors that these bucks traditionally used to get back and forth between these these betting areas. So I'm just trying to get on the downland side of these these betting areas pretty pretty standard, you know, rut um tactics, trying to get trying to get myself between these betting areas where there's these bucks are gonna be traveling. Um. It's kind of a it's kind of a piece of property that has some good topography for like southern Michigan, um, so it kind of dictates some of the travel There's I've got a couple of stands where a couple of different ridges kind of converge and dump into uh, pretty heavily used travel corridor. Um. To get into this this pine stand. That's I've had multiple opportunities that here and that spot and a couple other spots too, um that are very similar. So they seem to be from from some of the data I've got with cameras out there right now, they seem to be hitting one side of these pines pretty heavily right now. So I'm just I was going to go this morning, but I had a horrible win for that location. So trying to trying to be patient and get out there tomorrow and get after him when things kind of turn him off. Favor smart man making smart moves. I like it, dude. So we'll see. We'll see how it plays though. Uh we like to say we'll see what happens. You know, we actually have a role where that costs you five dollars if you said so, way to go, Josh. You avoided that. Um, So looking forward, Um, the first week in November, we all know is to be like this is what we want to hunt, right, yeah, for real? The Super Bowl, the World Cup, whatever you call it, right, World Series? Man? That the Astros World Cup? Is that? Is that the way you look at it too? In Michigan with yeah, I think for sure, Like it's kind of first two weeks in November are are just usually pretty darn good up here, and you're kind of running up against our rifle season starts November first, No, so you're kind of down to the wire here. Um, if you're gonna get it done with the bow, like now now is the time, you know it's it's once those done start cracking off here in Michigan, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of them out there in the woods from November, so it just gets exponentially harder. Um. So yeah, these these first two weeks in November specifically, I I really like the first week. Um, start to get a little later in the November, you start to experience in the lockdown all that good stuff. So now now is the time and and uh, man, if you can get out in the woods, be in the woods right now, well put a number on between one and ten, which you expect buck movement to be like this week? Man, Um, I hope it's a ten, right. Uh. I don't think it will. I mean, we're I don't know about you guys. Um, I don't like this time of year. I'm not as concerned about weather and temperatures. But man, we're supposed to be up into the seventies, um, like high sixties, low seventies by the weekend, which is you know, abnormally warm for up here this time of year. So um, you know they're still gonna be rotten, they're still gonna be moving. I think that may impact a little bit about like daylight movement, what you're seeing, Um, just just with the competrys I'm gonna say, like a seven point five alright, ill like it still passing grade. Sounds good, dude, I used to I used to shoot for that in college a lot man. Yeah, that's good stuff, Josh hoping you went up on a big one out there. Man. We appreciate the info. Well, thanks, guys. Appreciate you guys having me on. It is time to make this a November to remember. Guys. The deally is the bucks are gonna chase the doughs and they're gonna do the thing, no matter what the weather, what the pressure, what's going on. So be excited because we live for this time of year. It is the most exciting time of the year as a deer hunter. If you need some motivation or some inspiration of what you should be doing in the woods or why you should get in the woods at all, you should check out episode five nine one of the Wired to Hunt podcast. It's about patterning bucks during the rut. And then also Tony Peterson has a cool article about five mistakes that hunters make during the rut. If you want to see some hot Texas pre reaction, the Element went down to some good old river bottoms here in East Texas and actually try to scratch one out. Got really close. You just need to watch the video and see what that's about. We'll put the links to that stuff in the description below. This is rough fresh, Keep it fresh.