00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this episode number one seventy and today in the show, we're back with another RUT Radio episode in which we're getting real time updates from hunters across the country on current dear behavior, activity and the tactics that are working right now. All right, welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Sitka Gear, and we're back today with this week's installment of our RUT Radio series. And for those new to the show, each week during the your hunting season, we're going to be publishing a new RUT Radio episode in which we're checking in with deer hunters across the country for real time updates on what's going on in the field, how dear behaving, what kind of activity and conditions we're seeing, and what tactics are aren't working right now. So it is Monday, September two thousand and seventeen as we're recording this and with me as our producer and the host of RUT Radio, Spencer new Hearth and Spencer tell me this, how pumped are you for your hunt that's coming up here in like a day or two in South Dakota. I am very excited, um. And one of the big reasons because it got pushed back. I had planned to go out for our opener, which was on Saturday, but the weather just looked pretty nasty for what I was looking to do. And I was gonna backpack in and I was gonna be tenting it and staying out there for like a week. But um, a lot of rain and a lot of wind and cool or temperatures kept me from going out there. So I'm gonna take off after we finished recording. But in some areas out there, like a half hour from where I plan to be hunting, they were getting snow yesterday and I think there's too many white tail hunters right now that are hunting and snow and and so I decided I didn't want to be either. I'm not a badass like Dan Johnson. So yeah, exactly, that's good. That's good. Um. So, so this sounds like a pretty awesome hunt, the backpacking in and everything. What are the conditions going to be? Like? You know now that you you waited out the worst of the weather. What are you expecting to have over the course of this week hunt? It is pretty mild. Um When I talked to some of the other people in the podcast, there's a couple extremes of cold and hot across the country right now, but this will be pretty mild and highs in like the low seventies, lows in the forties. Um So, it'll be good um weather for the end of September. Um at least as good as you could ask for this time of year. Cool and do you We didn't really talk about this last week when on Wired Hunt, But what's like your goal? Are you? You know? Are are you just gonna shoot the first buck you can get a shot at, or are you looking for a certain age or type or anything like that? Um So? In South Dakota we are pretty liberal with our deer tags. Um So, I can hunt on the east side of the river and the west side of the river with an archery tag. Now, I don't get to the west very often, and this could very well be my only trip out there this year. And with that, this is a piece of ground never hunted before, I've never seen in person. Even so, I will likely not be picky. I don't have very high standards or very high expectations. So over two and a half year old comes by, um, I will definitely take him. Yeah, well, I'm at a public land hunt this kind of deal, um, plus it being a brand new place. I think, you know, being able to shoot a two and a half year old or old or anything like that is quite an achievement. So I'd be I'd be right there with you yet now in in your hunt in Montana, Mark, this feels kind of similar because it's hunting white tails and what's you know typically thought of this me with your country, you probably felt a similar sense of urgency as me in that you're there for a short period of time, and so you would be a little more aggressive. And with that, were you hunting mornings at all when you were there? And if still, what did you see? Yeah, that's a good question, um, because you know, usually nine percent of the time I don't hunt mornings in the early season. But just like you mentioned, because of the very short amount of time I had, um, I decided, yeah I was going to hunt mornings. So I saw pretty good, pretty good movement. Um, you know, I got in there I tried to make sure I was in there between a half an hour and an hour before daylight, um, just to make sure that, you know, the chances of spooking something on my way in were as low as possible, and I tried to make sure that my route in there wasn't going to be going close to food sources. So as I think I achieved that because a couple of the mornings that I was in this little good piece of landlocked public, I found I saw a lot of activity that lasted for probably at least an hour half after daylight for that first like you know, ninety minutes of daylight, a lot of deer moving through, including you know, potentially mature bucks. I mean like two to three year old type bucks. UM. I don't think I ever saw anything older than three, but there were a couple of those like bucks. I was like, oh, that could be a three year old um that we're rolling through, you know, an hour after daylight, right through you know the relatively secluded but but somewhat open too. So I think if you've got a situation like that, you could be seeing that movement. And this was the conditions that were present, you know, were super hot it was like degree highs so in the morning, you know, that was the coolest part of the day. Um, but we're still not talking really cold. I mean it was probably in the upper sixties or something, you know, early in the morning. Um, And we did see good, good activity, So it might be it might be similar for you there in South Dakota. But I know, you know, I do think if I had continued to do that day after day after day after day for like seven days or something, I imagine that pressure would have changed things. Eventually I would have aren't educating deer getting in and out. Um. But for like the four days that I did do that, Um, it worked out. Okay, Well, that will definitely be a unique fun part of this one, because, like you said, that's not a typical setup that that guys who are really into white tails will do at the end of September. But I'm looking forward to those morning sids right now. Yeah. It's it's nice to watch the world wake up, that's for sure. So, UM, I know you've got a whole slate of people were be hearing from from across the country, but I kind of might if you're well, you host the RUT Radio Spencer, so you can give me permission or not whether or not you want to hear about this. But are you interested in what's coming from Michigan because our opening day comes up this weekend. UM, This Sunday, October one is Opening Day in Michigan. So this will be the last what Rut radio episode for people who listen to before that. UM, do you have anyone from Michigan already talking about what's coming? Or should I touch on that? I don't have you one yet, So Mark, you had permission to be our Michigan contact this week. All right, Well, then here's what's coming down the road. It's been really, really hot. We've had like crazy high temperatures over the past week up until the mid nineties even this past weekend, and that hot weather is continuing through Wednesday, and then Wednesday the beginnings of a cool front is hitting and we're gonna drop from like mid to high eighties down into like the seventies on Wednesday and then down to the low sixties at least for me down in southern Michigan. UM, low sixties from Thursday all the way through Monday. So that opening Day and Sunday, we're gonna have pretty decent temperatures. Looking it's looking like highs only up until the mid sixties, so like twenty degrees lower than it was, you know, just a couple of days beforehand, um lows down into the forties. So I think that's gonna be a good thing for bow hunters out there. You know, in a perfect world, I would have liked to see opening day, you know, open up like the day after the front, not three or four days after the front. But it's certainly better than eight degrees. So I think Sunday is gonna be a good day to be in the woods. Monday it's gonna be um decent temperatures as well, but rain down by us. And I've always believed that some light rain, scattered rain can be really good for deer activity when you're in an area that you know, maybe has a lot of hunting pressure, like Michigan. For whatever reason, that just seems to make dear, especially mature bucks from my experience, UM, it seem to be a little more active and on their feet. So I'm gonna be out there on Monday as well. UM, and I'm stoked. I'm really excited to get out. Well, what you talked about their mark. Sounds a lot like what I heard this week from my context. From north to south and east to west, it's all been about the weather. And we start off with Trent Segel and Kansas from Hartley and bow Hunter. Then we go to Kentucky with Josh Smith of wildcaret Sense, and then we have Levi miighting Or of Powder River Outfigures in Montana. And we end with bowl more Tonic of the Journal of Mountain Hunting in Pennsylvania, and they all talked about the weather. Um, Kentucky, Kansas, Pennsylvania, it's been a squirt lately. And then Montana is just at the beginning of that front that we were talking about, um where Levi talks about that colder weather making a big difference in their dear activity. And uh, as far as the other state, it's like Trent and Josh actually gave you know, specific dates. They're looking at this cold front, how it starts on Thursday in their areas, and they're very excited for this weekend of haunting. Yeah, awesome, Well let's stop beating around the bush and and maybe we should get right to it. Huh, we'll do. I'll talk to you next week. Mark sounds good good luck in South Dakota. Before we get to our for this update, though, let's pause for a moment to thank our sponsors at Sitky Gear and for this week's sick of Story, we're joined by SITKA Ambassador Jess de Lorenzo, who tells us about punching her archery antalope tag for the second straight year. So this year I went out to Montana again my good friend Amanda Caldwell, and we we're trying for two years in a row to get our archery analope tags punched, and we headed out together and camped out some nights. We had lots of from of stocks, some unsuccessful, some completely interrupted by things out of our control. One time I was stalking, I heard with a coyote and I didn't even know about it, and we both busted them at the same time. UM, and we continued to put on stalk after stalk after stalk, and finally we found a really great spot where we could kind of inch up along the side of a field with some overgrown grass. UM. Amanda was doing ranges for me, and as soon as the biggest buck out on the end, she gave me a range and he was at seven yards. I settled my pen and we were able to get a good shot off on him. Um. Once we got him back and feel dressed and all that, we spent the rest of the time and trying to get Amanda one as well. Unfortunately we just didn't have enough time. So hopefully maybe next year we'll go out for our third annual Girls Hunt and I get her tag punch together. So it was really nice to be able to do it two times in a row. She was wearing sick a sub alpine women's big gear. If you'd like to create a sick of story of your own, where to learn more about Sita's technical hunting apparel, visit sitka gear dot com. Are and joining us on the line first this week is Trent Siegel of Kansas, a host of Heartland bow Hunter Now Trent in Kansas. What would you say the bucket activity is men on a scale of one to ten? Lately, this past week's been pretty low. I'd say like the tour, it's been extremely hot, ninety degree tempts and beans are starting to change, and so it's just cameras that slowed down. It's it's hasn't been very good for daylight activity, that's for sure. And so with that heat wave you guys have had, do you think the deer have been changing patterns where they're on the same patterns, they're just moving in darkmore. Yeah. I think it's a combination of both. Um, I think some of it is the change in the lengths of the day is causing them to change patterns a little bit. But definitely the heat we've had the low temperatures in the upper seventies this past week and the highs and then up in the upper nineties, So it's definitely caused them to to be moving a lot more at night. All right, Well, we're going to back it up a little bit here. I know Kansas Head an unusually early opener this year, like September eleven. Now, did you get a chance to take advantage of that down there? And if still, what was the dear activity like then? Yeah. I didn't personally get out in hunt myself that first week. I have been running some cameras and and kept scouting, and um, it was warm again, it was like upper eighties temperatures that opening week, and I did have a couple of nice bucks on camera that opening week right at last light light last week, a light where probably could have hunted him. But um, again it's just I don't know. There's something about hunting the rut in Kansas that Uh, I kind of missed it last year, shooting a buck in early October and trying to hold out a little bit, um to get out there and see that road activity against something that we all dream of and and look forward to all year long. We just talked about trail cameras there for a little bit. Um, where are your cameras placed at right now? And are those gonna start changing where you put them as soon as we had October here? Yeah, So throughout the summer I've had him mostly on silly beans and mineral sites. Um. But just this last week with the heat, they flowed down so much and the beans are changing here. Um, they're starting to cut corn of I've been moving actually moved a bunch today on scrapes and mock scrapes. Uh. Starting to see a lot more of that activity um here in the last week or so, We're bucks are laying out scrapes and seeing some rubs show up. So um, that's definitely where I started, folks, and my cameras for the next month a month and a half basically and try to figure out some patterns on them. Now, what does an early season set up look like for you, Trent hunting in Kansas at the end of September. Well, it's for me, it's weather de tendant and and kind of camera detend And I mean I really rely on my trail cameras to to scout for me. So, um, if they're telling me that, you know, some deer using an area or hitting a scrape line or something like that at least September. UM, and there's a deer that I want to hunt and it's it's out there, and then definitely I'll go after it. Um. Next week, we do have a big weather front coming in tomorrow and I uh, the high today is like ninety here and then the high tuesdays like or something like that. So huge weather fronts coming. Um. I have set some stands and and some Haybay all winds up the past couple of days, getting ready to to maybe make some moves on some nucks next week if if everything works out, so probably check some cameras on Wednesday midday and see see what's going on and maybe trying to get out late next week with with those weather fronts coming, well, it sounds like you're out to miss it going forward. But what would you say, the dear, activ is going to be on a scale of one to tend in Kansas over this next week or so. I think it's gonna be good personally. I mean, with it being so bad the past week, I think it can only get better. I think it's gonna be like a seven or eight with the cooler attempts. I think they're gonna really flip the switch from this past week and and be be moving a lot and in dayline with corn fields of being cuts. So that's always a good um good place to get out there right after that corn comes out, dear trying to tick that what the combine missed. So it's I think it's gonna be really good. Well, good luck going forward, Trent, and I know that you're deadly down the no matter what time of year it is. Look forward to hearing from you. To you very much. That's you're good to talk to you too, man. And joining us on the line next is Josh Smith, the founder of wildcaret Since now Joshing and Tucky, what would you say the dear. Activity has been on a scale of one to ten lately. Well, if you had to average um UM that group of time, I'd say it's probably been a five. But we've had significant activity coming in the last hour and a half or two hours of daylight, and that's pretty much where all of it it has taken place. Um. It's been like excruciatingly hot to be sitting in the stands UM and I can't imagine what it would be like to be out there covered with fur. So I don't think there's been a lot of movement going on, definitely not in our experience, UM, in the earlier hours of the day. Uh, nothing until you know, evening hours. So that movement that you are seeing, where is that taking place in bean fields or in the timber whereat Well, we've seen a lot of activity in the bean fields are our property. UM has significant egg on it, a lot of soybeans, UM, and we're getting a lot of tear coming out into the beans. And we've got some that are still green and some that are brown, and some they're yellow, and just kind of depends on where on the property the fields are located. We've got about a hundred foot or so elevation change, um, from top to bottom, with the lower portion having a bean field that's basically surrounded by a creek, so it's still quite green and they're tearing it up. And then on the upper portion of the farm, it's it's a lot of brown beans just from getting scorched out by the sun and and they're getting in there pretty good as well. Well. Josh, you own a scent company, and this time of years seems like not many people would be using any kind of urine or attracting to or anything like that. Um, are you using anything like that early season like this when it's hot out and uh, there's no running activity going on yet. Yeah, we are. UM, we've been really researching and and just kind of spent as much time in the woods as we can, just observing how things are responded to our products before we launched. We're just launching this year. UM, so we've been using a lot of basic buck, just regular buck and Doe year and UM early season and it in our experience, it really seems to comfort the year around us. Like for instance, last night, I sat in the stand and it was ninety four degrees and I was, you know, like a quarter mile hike into there and just sweat rolling off of me. And I wasn't really anticipating much because I didn't have a great win where I was sitting and it was just so hot. Um. But I did drag in uh buck and a doe flure and hung them on a tree right down from my stand about linking branch height, and I had eighteen year come within arts and none of them spooked at my set um. Several of them came up and we're sniffing around the moors, but not one of them ever spooked. I actually had a buck come in and lay down about fifteen yards out in the beans and just sit there for about an hour, and I got some good video on him, So that was pretty cool. And will your scent game change uh anytime soon? Or will you kind of do that all the way through until pre rod hits us. We'll probably do that all the way through until pre Rut hits, but I really don't know, to be honest. We're trying some different things right now because I actually had um, well, we had a couple of bucks, uh, two different couples of buffs that were kind of fighting a little bit, just kind of sparring like that earlier run type activity, which is way too soon for that, I think, but they were obviously doing it. Uh, I don't know, you know what's causing that. I think it maybe just practicing for the big game type of thing. But we're gonna definitely be using a regular lucking dough just to keep that comfort level high among the herds so that they're smelling recent travel from deer and not smelling us um. But yeah, as the rut approaches, we had will be using an asteris dough and rutting buck for sure. We've had great luck with those in the past, just using them amongst ourselves. Now going forward in this next week or so, Josh, what do you think the buck activity will be on a scale of one to ten in Kentucky? Well, I really have high hopes for this upcoming week. I think I think we're gonna have a lot of activity really on a scale and one to ten, I'd put it at about a seven or and eight as far as you know with with peak ten um, just because we're gonna have about a twenty degree drop and uh, I really can't wait for that because we've had such good activity. Now I'm really excited to see what goes on. I think about Thursday, this upcoming week is when when the drop is supposed to start, So we'll see what happens, all right, Joshua, I hope you get a chance to take advantage of that cooler weather and good luck. Man. Thank a lot and thanks for the invite. I appreciate it. Before we get to our third update, though, let's pause for a moment to thank our sponsors at White Tail Properties. We are joined by Justin Mason, you land specialists out of Kentucky, and Justin is gonna be telling us about his approach to hunting early October in the Midwest. You know, I think my philosophy in October is, uh, if you don't know, don't hunt. So um, if I haven't had an opportunity to scout much, the first thing I'm gonna rely on our trail cameras. Seems like as bucks go from August to September into October, they're transitioning from their bachelor groups and their summer patterns being primarily on you know, soybeans, key food sources, and they're starting to change back into their fall patterns. They kind of dispersed from one another and established new grounds. So I really reli heavily on trail cameras. Just to tell me if a bucket shifted from summer to fall, and usually that starts to happened in October. If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties that Justin currently has listed for sale, visit whitetail properties dot com. Backslash Mason that's M A S O N. And joining us on the line next is Levi Mightinger, Montana, who is the head guide at Powder River Outfitters now Levi in Montana. What would you say the deer activity has been on a scale of one to ten lately? Um, lately with these uh, these rains and these weather fronts coming in, it's been you know, it's been probably a six or seven. I wouldn't call it a ten just because you know it's getting around, but it really has put the deer back on their feet. Um. Earlier on we were in that really big drought, so it was, you know, the deer we're moving real late. Um now there with these rains and stuff, they're they're kind of feeding all day. So it's been really really good. Now when you say feeding all day, where do you see those deer hitting right now for food sources. And has that changed in the last couple of weeks or not. Yeah, So, you know, I mean typically then white tails, well you know, they'll feed at night, um, and then go to bed, especially when it's warm. Um. But these rains in this like jury overcast of days um and two where some of the farming in between these storms where you're getting these these hay meadows cut. Um. We've had some corn fields that have been cut. And now with these colder days, it's putting these deer you know, back on their feet. Um. They're trying to you know, to sustain and be warm, you know, so they're out, they're out feeding, you know during the day. Um. I had a deer the other day at four o'clock in the afternoon that was probably a hundred and sixty inch white tail and he was out at four o'clock, you know, browsing, which is is really uncommon this time of year where they're going, you know, then bigger deer usually going nocturnal. So I've seen on the Powder River Facebook page that you guys have had like seven kills in the last week or so, and that's incredible. But what is the typical setup look like on those haunts? Are you hunting any mornings yet or is it strictly evenings and strictly food sources. That's you know, that's a typical thing. Like what we do here is it's strictly afternoon. Um. You know these white tails, you try to hunt the morning sets where you're going through the bedding area, you're trying to get into you know, through where they're going. It just puts that aspect of human, you know, human in there and it really ruins these sets. So we like to hunt them afternoon sets. Um of course early on food source. But now we're getting later, you know, we even we pushed the bed just a little bit where you're catching them the bigger, more mature deer you know, you know later because they're moving later. But with these like I said, with these storms, we've we've not had so much of that problem where we're still you know, we're killing off the field edges still. Well, would you say that the buck movement then, is um unique this time of year in late September versus other years or is this what you'd expect to see in late September. No, this wouldn't be what I would expect to see. This is kind of an odd year because I guess maybe the drought effected it early and then with this colder weather come in. But usually these especially these bigger mature deer, you know, they're they're day near to whether they're nocturnal where you know, you're you're only able to get them right on the edge of that that betting area. And so yeah, it's it's above you know, kind of an odd year as far as for it well, going forward in the next week or so in Montana, what do you think the dear activity will be a scale of one to tention, I think, you know, it would probably stay it's gonna stay average. I'd say about a five or six. You know, it's hard to tell right now with just because we're still getting this rain, which has been good for us as far as keeping them deer up. But if it decides to you know, change and warm up, you know, it could change that pattern. I mean, all of us know as it gets later like this, the bigger deer, you know, not till rout do they they really really show their show their you know, themselves into the shooting light periods. So I would say it's probably gonna stay about a five or six right there. All right, LEVI will thanks for joining me, and good luck the rest of fall, and I'll look forward to seeing more pictures from Powder River, all right. Thanks man, all right and joining us on the line. Last is Bow Mortonic, Pennsylvania, who's the field editor with the Journal of Mountain Hunting. Now Bow in Pennsylvania there, what would you say the deer activities men on skill of one to ten. Honestly, with the hot weather that we've been having recently, I would say it's around a four. Personally. It would be off of scouting and trail kim activity, with the reason being in Pennsylvania, so the most in the state. The season hasn't opened yet. It will open this Saturday, September, but in the area I live in currently in southwestern Pennsylvania there around the Pittsburgh area, it opened a couple of weekends ago. And although I haven't been out in the tree, Um after being on an elkin out west. Um. Everyone, I've talked to you that's coming to the archery shop I work at, and everything is is that has been extremely slow and a lot of hot weather I think has been Um. Pard to that. So, now, have you had any reports of e h D in that area or anything previously that's going to change your plans for fall? Yeah, it won't. It won't affect me as much. But in this area e h D has has seemed to hit a lot of a lot of the customers at the at the bow shop have came in and showed pictures of dead deer, They've founded water sources, and there's also been some some news articles in the in the local media talking about an e h D sweep through Washington in Allegheny Counties and and even in the Beaver County here in southwestern Pennsylvania. But where I personally hunt in uh north central Pennsylvania, that it won't It shouldn't affect me too much. So when you do get a chance to get out bowl, what is one of your typical setups look like right now? Um, as far as late for I'll talk a little bit about early season here. As far as what I'm gonna be doing for the opener because of where I normally hunting in the big woodsetting, there's no food plots or anything like that, even in the area on through limited oak trees, So I'll be focusing on apple trees. UM that will be the main focus here early in the season. And UH also a big crop that's in specific to north central Pennsylvania's cherry trees. So these cherry trees produced black cherries, and from what I've noticed this year, there's only been small areas and small bashes that are produced these little black cherry and the deer love them. Trial cameras are showing that there they're they're feeding in these areas quite a bit. Well. Both living in Pittsburgh, do you have any contexts that do any hunting UH in city limits or do you yourself do any urban hunting. I don't personally, I haven't received any permission yet to hunt some of these small plots of land inside the city limits. But I talked to a lot of guys that that do do that and do do it regularly with success, and recently it's been they haven't had any luck yet early in the year where where normal. It takes some pretty extreme weather to UH to screw up some of those hunting situations, but so far it's been it's been too hot and not a lot of deer move and not a lot of sightings. So do you hear that their season progress is kind of similar to yours as far as the deer activity and the rut patterns, or is it very different than what you see? It depends. There's uh, it's it is like that they have a little bit more success earlier in the season than than I typically do. As far as um hunting a big wood setting versus more urban hunting, they once you get any kind of cold fronts, it seems like in the in the urban settings that they're moving a lot more, and since they're in such a smaller concentrated area, the sightings in the close encounters seem to amplify. Where in the big woods setting it's it's still unless you're extremely close to the to the betting areas, you're not seeing too much movement until mostly the latter part of October starts to heat up. There seems to be a good good swing there. Now going forward in Pennsylvania, what do you think the dear activity is going to be in this next week or so on a scale of one to ten, Well, looking at the weather, we are supposed to get a little bit cooler weather here coming up for the for the opener, So I'm hoping that's gonna gonna jump things up, but I don't see it. I don't see it's spiking in any way. I would still say no better than a sex all right, bull Well, good luck and I hope that colder weather comes. Hey, thanks, good luck to you, Spencer. And that concludes this week's episode Wired Hunt's Rout Radio. We'd like to thank our sponsors at Sitka, white Tail Properties, Matthews, Yetti, white Tail Institute, Maven Trophy Ridge, and haunt Tera. We thank you all for listening. We will talk to you next week and as always, stay Wired Hunt