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. This is episode number one seventy two, and today we're back with another RUT Radio report in which we're sharing updates on current deer activity and behavior across the country this week, and we've got a very exciting story from one of our very own Wired to Hunt team members. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by sit Gear, and we're back today with a new episode of our RUT Radio series. It's early October, and as we do on each week's RUT Radio episod, so we're gonna be checking in with a handful of deer hunters from all across the country to hear about deer activity, dear behavior, the conditions that are present right now, tactics that are working right now, and and even thoughts on what we can expect in the coming days. So that's what we're gonna be talking about here over the next half hour or so. And with me, as he is on each episode of RUT Radio, is a guy that I used to like a lot a guy that maybe maybe he's making me very jealous though. Now this man is named Spencer new Hearth, and he is the man of the hour of the week. He is he is now reaching legendary status in my mind. Spencer, you pulled off a hunt of a lifetime, didn't you. Yes. I am in a good mood today, and I know we've got a bunch of guests that you have lined up that are going to talk about stuff all over the country, and I'm sure they're gonna be great. But I don't give a damn right now. I just want to talk to you. I want you to tell us what happened to you the other day? Um, what is your rut or what is your rut? Radio report for us today? Uh? Well, Mark, I shot a big book. Come on, that's like a that's like an under that's an understatement. If I ever heard you killed a you killed a buck of just unbelievable proportions, you killed a giant, you killed you killed the kind of buck that like makes me cry just a little bit. It's crazy. Even when you were the killer, you cry a little bit. Yeah, yeah, tell me everything. Tell me how how did this hunt, because when we talked last time, you had been talking about this public land western South Dakota hunt you were going on, and we had, you know, ambitions to share that in on Instagram and all sorts of stuff. So so maybe start there. Tell us what happened there, how your plans changed, and now how you ended up killing this buck in a totally different part the state. All right, Well, we talked about it a little bit last time. I was going to go west. My idea there was to pick out some public ground that would be overlooked, and I was in the heart of mule deer country, but I was gonna try to find some white tails. So I focused on some ground that just looked like textbook white tail habitat with river bottoms, um and hardwoods. Got there heading never seen in person, and was immediately pretty turned off because there was a lot of cattle on it, and I knew that was a possibility. Um, but until you see it, and uh, you scout a couple of times and hunted, it wasn't until then that I really lost confidence. Mm hmm. Man's exactly what happened to me in Montana. Yeah, Um, the area wasn't absent of deer. Um. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that they were all on private ground. Um, the public I just couldn't compete with the lush um grass and brush that was just on the other side of the fence. So they were dear there. And I suspect there will be in like three weeks when the cattle are out on the public um, but for now it just would not be a productive place to hunt. And so after like three days there, I cut the trip short and headed back east to where I'm from. And any time in the fall, you have three days. Uh, those three days are just too valuable to spend doing something that you don't have any confidence, And so that was why I decided to come back home. Makes sense. So what happened then, Well, you ended up in the tree again, right, yes? Um, So the stuff that I've been hunting for the last um, you know, five or six years since I've gotten really into archery hunting. Um, I decided I was gonna finish out my weekend haunting that stuff. Instead, we had um hard south wind for two straight nights, and so the first night was Friday night. UM got on the stand. I'm hunting, Um, I'm hunting a cornfield, and they was a lot of movement, and there was a lot of movement early. Um, enough that made me want to come back the next night. And I can do that in this area because with that corn I'm easy, d I'm able to get in and out very easy. And so the following night I came back and it was a lot less action this time. But can I can I interrupt? Can you tell me? Tell me about this specific setup. So you're on the edge of a corn field. But but why why do you think it would be a good spot early season? UM, give me a few more details. I want to paint this picture in my mind. Well, I like the idea of low risk CONTs right now. UM, I want to be out in the woods, but I don't want to mess anything up um for the end of October and the beginning of November. And so this is a place, like I said, I'm confident I can get in and out of easily. UM, I'm probably gonna see dear, I'm not gonna feel, like you know, on board out of my mind. And it's just a low risk area that I can hunt in an early season. It makes sense because there is a lot of corn there, and I have a low of hate relationship with corn um standing corn. That is. The pros of it is that it's a great insulator for the deer. Um. You know, there's roads around and and homes and they can be in that corner. I have no idea any of that stuff is going on. Like I said, I can't get in and out very easy with that standing corn. And the cons of it, though, are that um it's too good of an insulator. Sometimes the deer can find a low spot in there and they can bet in a slough and you know, they can eat the corn. You'll never see him until come harvest. The other problem is getting a shot in those situations. If that deer is even in the first drow of corn, he could be ten yards away, But I'm not gonna have a shot. It's just really hard to get an arrow in there. And so I picked the corn with not a lot of confidence, but I thought I would still see deer and that would be a nice change of pace from what I was just doing out west. Yeah, and did you know did you know that there was were there mature bucks in the area to your knowledge, did you have some deer on camera or that you'd scouted, that you new about or anything like that. So this was my year of minimalist scouting. I just got married in June, I moved into a new house in August, and so my scouting kind of by choice, and because I had no choice. UM was almost nothing in this area in particular. I didn't even have a camera up yet this year, and I was planning on hanging one this weekend. UM never got around to it, obviously, So I was just hunting this based off historical states. I knew there would be deer around, but no, to answer your question, I did not know there was a deer of this caliber there. So you're going it's a low impact hunt. It's a good general area for earlier season movement, but you weren't gonna mess better things up, you know, too early, and you're you're hanging in hunting based on historical data. And now it's day number two. Yes, and uh I did not have the same action that I had the night before. But it was seven twenty pm. Sunset was at seven, and uh so we were in that last you know, half hour of daylight and it was the golden hour and here comes this big buck up the ridge um far down the cornfield. When I first saw him, it was two yards. So I get my bionos on him and immediately I know this is a shooter. The problem is he's coming straight at me, um walking. Can you can you just you pull you pull your bionos up. You see this as a shooter. What else can you tell me about what this deer looks like? Can you describe this buck? Because he's he's he's worth describing. Um. So, although like I said, I didn't know that he was around this year, UM, I knew this buck from and when I pulled up the bionos, I knew who he was. And he has a very distinguished um kicker on his right G two and then he has these big bladed brown Italians and so I knew who he was right away. And and he just has um a really heavy and wide main frame four by four. So I knew this buck. And I didn't spend much time looking through the binoculars at him because he was walking right at me and I didn't want to make any extra movements. So I glassed him for a couple of seconds, but the banno was away and got ready, and I was just tore up watching him come in, because I mean, I like to think that buck fever doesn't get me, but he does. And yeah, I had to watch him for probably five or six minutes make his way towards me, and at any point he could have hit a trail and went into the corner and gone, And I thought he was going to do that the entire time, but he kept coming. He was at one fifty and then a hundred, and I thought, man, this might happen. And he keeps coming, and all of a sudden he's at twenty five yards. Same thing that he's coming right at me. So I don't have a shot, and he pauses and messes around, and then he's at twenty Still don't have a shot. Yes, so I'm just at this point, I'm gonna let him walk by me and see if I can get a shot after he's beyond me. I did not set this stand up with the intention of smoking a deer at eight yards, but that was what ended up happening. At eight yards, he finally turned. Uh. He gave me a quartering two shots, and I was able to sneak an arrow right behind his shoulder. But I knew it was a good hit. Um. I saw the arrow have a clean pass through, and and he turned and ran. The problem with the deer being at eight yards when you draw back, it's all body in your line of vision, and so uh, it can be hard to distinguish what was a good shot because the time between you releasing the arrow and pulling your head back to see where the arrow hits it's nothing. I felt confident though I saw the arrow go through, he takes off, he does a U turn and runs back about fifty yards. Uh. And I didn't see him come from beyond this tree, and so I I knew he at least bedded down there, or was maybe down altogether. I waited about fifteen minutes and grabbed my arrow because it was so windy, was like winds that night. Anyway, I could slip out of my stand, check the arrow and see what was going on. Well. I had dark blood, um that I thought it was a hard shot because I knew I hit him low, and so I gave him a little bit more time, and I snuck up to where I saw him going, and sure enough he was laying there. The problem was he picks up his head that I thought was I thought his head laying down was him dead? It was not. Picks up his head, looks at me, jumps out of his bed and runs over the ridge. Um, So then I was even more tore up. I knew, I knew I messed up. It was a very amateur thing to do, but I just had to deal with it. So I backed out, called a couple of buddies, gave him two hours, We came back, picked up blood, and found him within thirty minutes. He only went a couple of hundred yards and he is down, and he had been down for a while. I just should not have got him out of that first bed, but I was extremely relieved. So what end did the shot end up being where he thought it was and he just survived longer than you would have expected? Or were you a little farther back? Or what do you think it was low? Like I thought the problem with was quartering two shots? Um like this was I missed his heart by half an inch, but I caught so much of the rest of his body. I got lung, liver, and then on the exit it took some guts with it too. And so just missing the heart a little bit on a quartering two shot can result in you catching everything else so and probably probably just the one lung too, right, and those deer notoriously can can last longer than you would think it does. Yeah, luckily, Uh, everything inside of him was soup and it had pulled up, and he left me a pretty good train ill um, so I was able to pick up the trail and find him. I had to be more aggressive than I wanted to, though, knowing that after I jumped out of his bed it was a liver hit. You'd like to give those year ideally, you know, three or four or five hours. But we had rain coming at one am. So if I was going to find him based off blood, um, I was going to have to go in sooner than I wanted. But it worked out, thankfully. Yeah, he sure did. What was that moment like when you did walk up on him? Man, it was a happy moment. In the last year I've gotten married, I moved into a new house. I saw my favorite team, the Vikings play, I saw my favorite country artist, Garth Brooks playing, and just nothing can replicate this like that. There's just no other thing in the world that can give you this kind of feeling, like, don't let your wife hear that. Oh man, that is I'm so happy for you. Man. When you sent me that picture, I just freaked that he is. Uh. If if anyone listening right now hasn't seen this deer, he got a head over to either Spencer social media or the Wired Hunt Facebook page and check out this buck. Um. Just a beautiful, beautiful deer. I mean, and and just I mean, like you said, he's a he's an eight pointer basically with junk um. Just a monstrous, massive eight point with flyers off his twos and these crazy huge brave tins. And and not to mention maybe as impressive, I'm not more impressive is he he is so mature. I mean that one picture where you've got him pointed towards the camera, his his face just kind of smushes into his huge neck and chest. I mean, just a brahma bowl of a deer as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, and and so like I said, I knew this dear from h and at that time, I thought he was probably three and a half or four and a half, making him six and a half or seven and a half. Now, um, he scored one sixty six and two eighths and that was bigger than I thought when I when I locked up him, and I was thinking one fifties because he is an eight point where it's hard to you know, reach any higher than that. Um, but his width and in the extra stuff he had going on pushing to that point? Was that net or gross? That was his girls score? Was the one six to eight? Yeah, I was gonna say, shoot, I mean from looking at these pictures, I would have guessed bigger than that, Like when you you sent me an original estimation that was higher than that, and I believe you. I was like, holy smokes, this he had no doubt. This thing looks looks like a Booner plus some. But so I was surprised to hear when that when the final came in at one sixties. Either I mean that's gosh, just a giant deer sixty six in main frame eight point or you get kidding me? Um man, I'm just uh, I'm very happy for you, dude. Awesome, awesome hunt. Way to get it done. Um Now, this is RUT Radio and we are trying to figure out, you know, what's happening right now? Why are things happening right now? So? Can you do you have any like have you had time to analyze the situation at all? Why do you think movement was the way it was those two days you were hunting? That was pretty good? Why do you think you killed him? Was there any you know, outside condition or any other factor you can point to. I think it's a combination with a couple of things. UM. One of the big ones being is just the low, low pressure. UM. Typically i'd be in there in June hanging a camera or hanging you know, three or four cameras. Uh, I'd be in there in July hanging stands. I'd be in there in August checking cameras. And I didn't do any of that. I mean when I killed him, that was literally literally my second time on the property this year. UM. As far as why they were moving so well, other reasons. One, I think it's just been the stability and the mild conditions. UM. We have been in this long stretch now of like mid sixties for high and um like high forties for a low and and I think that just kept him on you know, any kind of pattern. It didn't mess with at all. We didn't have like any crazy rain storms or you know, a hundred degree days and stuff. Like that. And then the stability part, as you said, Um, all the crops in that area you have have kind of stayed how they are. We haven't had anybody cutting silage yet or taking it beans and taking out beans at this point. Um, so I think those tears just felt really comfortable moving around. Yeah. So, uh so, Spencer, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the deer activity that night, one sixty two days. Yeah, I think that's spot on. Well, uh, awesome, awesome stuff, dude. So I want to say two things here. Number One, I'm proud to say that I am forcing you into having a longer rut radio episode than you typically like you are now approaching. By the time this is all said and done, because I know how long the usual things go, you're gonna be approaching regular Wired to Hunt episode length, which I know you'd like to rag on us about. So I got you, I got you there, And second, would that be in the case, I guess we should probably move on to our our regularly scheduled programming. So, so what do we have in store? What we started in New York with David Grizzle from Tagg and Break, and then we go to northern Minnesota to talk to Mike Fitzgerald from Bow Hunter Die. Then we talked to Lindsay Thomas Jr. Of q d M A and Georgia, and then we go to Oklahoma to talk to Clay Forest of Stewart Ranch Outfitters. Awesome, Well, I'm excited to hear these. I I will give you a ten to fifteen second Michigan RUT Radio update. I guess since I'm here. Um, this past weekend was Opening weekend in Michigan. We had these decently cooler temperatures that we were, you know, seeing in the forecast is cold front finally draft from like the eighties into the mid sixties. It resulted in pretty good movement. Um. I've heard from a number of people across the state that movement was pretty decent, maybe not excellent, but pretty good. Um. I saw a lot of doze nobucks on Opening night, and UM, that's kind of what's looking like the rest of the week. It's kind of middling temperatures, mid sixties, some bumping up in the seventies. So I'm not expecting terrific hunting conditions, but I'm anxiously awaiting the next cold front. So so that's all I got. Sponsor. Well, uh, I will leave it with this. In on our intro, I had a friend of my dad tell me. He said, man, you shot a huge turkey this here, and shot a big buck and you got married. It's all downhill from here. Yeah, going to be a long fall. Now. I think you are absolutely right. So you don't even need to bother hunting anymore. You can just you can just record podcast episodes from here on Outkay alright, buddy, doculator doc you next week mark. Before we get to our first update, though, let's pause for a word from our sponsors at sitkot here and joining us this week is sick ambassador Alex Templeton, who tells us about some much needed tree stand therapy after a long week of elk hunting. So I was invited on a trip with one of my good friends out to Colorado for the month of September in two thousand and fourt teen, and our plan was to spend almost a whole month out there bow hunting elk. And this was my first experienced elk hunteam and um. After hiking many many miles up and down the mountains of Colorado, battling hot weather, cold weather, no bugles, and a bunch of other factors. Um, I never ended up killing an elk, and I was super disappointed in myself. Obviously, I wanted to go out there and get it done, and I couldn't do it, and came back home to Missouri, and on my very first sit back at home in a tree stand, I ended up killing the biggest year I had ever killed with my bow. Um it was a buck that I had been watching all summer named Brows, and he had nine and a half inch brow times on both sides. And you know it was I went from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs and a matter of one sit back in my stand. So it was great. On Alex's hunt, she was wearing sick As equinox pants and Celsie's jacket. If you'd like to create a sick of story over your one, or to learn more about sit because technical hunting apparel, visit sitka gear dot com. And joining us on the line first is David g Rizzo, the co founder of Tagg and Bragg, now David in New York. What would you say the deer activity has been on a scale of one to ten lately. Honestly, in the past week, I think it's gonna be like an eight or and eight and a half. And the only reason I don't push it a little higher than that is because we didn't see a ton of mature buck activity. But the deer were out all over the place the past couple of days for us UM, we had some great activity. The food plots were heating up UM and we saw some scrape activity, and we were seeing fourteen eighteen deer a night, and where we're typically seeing you know, five to six is gonna be a good night up there for the most part in New York. So UM this weekend, I mean, the deer activity was was extremely high with those sounding like some really productive sits. But is that what you would expect for early October? Is this? You've been an outlier for you guys, you know what, I think it's been a little bit of an outlier. Honestly, we don't typically see the movement pick up on our property up there in New York until probably mid the late October because it's a lot of thick cover, UM, so we kind of think of it as the breeding grounds. Once those bucks start cruising and start expanding their home ranges. We see a lot more deer activity in there. But it was really intriguing to see this much activity, you know, this early in the year. I think a lot of it had to do with the food plots that we've planted and really down on the those in UM. Given them cover for the food plots so they're not pressured from the road has definitely helped. But the weather conditions this week and absolutely perfectly with the cold drug that we saw having come through the Midwest and then hit us up in New York. You mentioned the food plots a couple of times. Now, what do you have growing there that you think that you've you know, been so attracted too. So we have we have a combination of a drasticist plan, a lot of turn ups um and then clover and we found that the deer were the turn ups, but ultimately they'd feed through the turn ups and spend a majority of their time in the clover um, which was you know, it's it's cool to see that because we were up on a redneck line just kind of observing a lot this weekend. We didn't really you know, get too aggressive. We just wanted to see what the deer movement was was about and where the deer were coming out and what they were feeding on. And it was pretty intriguing to see that they were they were pretty sanctioned on the clover once they kind of established themselves in the food clots. Is this a new pattern for them hitting the food plots so hard or is this something you've been seeing for the last month. It's uh, the last month. They're hitting the food plots pretty hard. I would say that the um daylight activity has really ramped up in the last week or so. And you know, once again, I think a lot of that is because of how much how colber uh it got over the last week. We we had two or three days in a row of a frost in the morning up in New York. So the deer the morning activity was extremely high, which which I was pretty surprised about. Actually, I mean, we were seeing a lot of beer between like seven thirty in the morning and and nine thirty. Seven thirty and nine thirty in the morning, we were seeing probably a peak a bulk of the activity for the day, and that you know, in that period of time, and then as it warmed up over the last couple of days, you know, the movement in the afternoon. You seemed to get closer and closer to dark um where you know, we we sat on Saturday just to fit, but it was it wasn't even the season yet. We we just jumped up, jumped up in the red muck um to to kind of, uh, just look over the food plots and see where the deer are moving for opening day on Sunday and um, we saw a kind of deer starting at like five thirty six o'clock in the afternoon, so they're on their feet pretty early. When it was pulled out, you mentioned that the deer activity has been great, but not so much for buck activity. What do you think those mature bucks are doing right now if you're not seeing them in daylight? You know, I think there's still than tight um. I think they're just that we're starting to see they're kind of just breaking off of the younger bachelor groups that they were they were um with throughout the summertime. So a lot of the mature bucks that we're seeing on timer now are by themselves, and a lot of the younger box are still together that we're seeing. You know that we've kind of observed over the weekend. So I think they're just kind of coming into their own. They're really starting to feel, you know, feel their hard horns. They're starting to feel their hormones and stuff. Um, and they're kind of mentioning themselves because you know, they know that they can feel with the next couple of weeks is gonna bring well going forward? David in New York, what do you expect the buck activity to be on the scale of one to ten in this coming week? Honestly, this week, um, I think it's the buck activity is going to go down to like a five or six. Especially with the warmer temperatures, I think you're going to start to see a lot more um night activity. You know, the box, especially the mature ones are gonna start and continue to be more nocturnal. Um. And you know, we're we're at this point we're going to kind of sit back and wait for that next little cold spell to come in or rain front or something just just to kind of change up the weather patterns a little bit, so hopefully starts something and get these ducks moving a little bit more well. I will be watching for some Tagg and Bragg videos and look forward the rest of you guys this season. Thanks for joining me, David awesome Sconcer. I appreciate you having a fun okay and joining us on the line. Next is bow Hunter Died team member Mike Fitzgerald. Now, Mike in Minnesota. What would you say that dear, activity has been on the scale of one to ten lately, I would say is this last week here, I would put it probably at a seven. Um. You know, we're kind of early October here approaching the quote unquote lull um. But I've been seeing some pretty good activity on my cameras and and talking with people around the state through our forums. It seems like guys are seeing some buck activity more so than than previous years. Well, Mike, I know you hunt in northern Minnesota. Just for reference to our listeners, will you explain the kind of um setups that you have there and what the properties look like that you hunt on. Yeah. Yeah, So I'm up here. I'm about fourteen miles from the Canadian border near eating Minnesota, UM, and we're the you know, definition of big woods wilderness hunting. Our densities aren't aren't that great compared to other areas of the state, but it's just a byproduct of the of the environment that we're in. Um. The closest thing that I have to concentrated food source up here would be a clear cut um that the forest service or private properties have done. Um. The deer survive entirely on natural prowls that are hardly even food plots around here. But if you take a drone shot or a satellite image of our area, it's, uh, it's all trees. It's mostly pine, but we have some aspen and berg in there, very very few um oaks. There's a couple of scrub oaks on the property that the our resort sits on here. Um. And when I say very few, I mean there's like four trees that I think I've ever found in that years. So they're uh, they have a lot of natural brows they like to feed on, you know, hazel nut. Hazel nut bushes is uh one of their favorite things this time of year, now that their leaves are dry dropping. Um. You know, those young aspen trees get hammered pretty hard from how through through the winter, really, so that's where those clear cuts come in handy a lot. Well, are you seeing any October sign yet? As far as scrapes and rubs. I'm finding a few of them. Um. No, no big concentrations UM in my area. And again with the dear density that I have a lot of the sign I see those scrapes and rubs have more to do with the bucks particular personality. I've had a buck in this area a few years back that was just a scrape making machine and come like the second week of October, through the ruts, you couldn't walk fifty yards in any direction without running into one of his scrapes. And ever since uh I shot him. He uh there, I haven't found nearly the concentration of scrapes that that I did when he was around. Um, but they're they're starting to show up. I'm seeing a little bit of activities. I'm actually seeing a lot more daytime UM buck activity this year than previous years, and so that that makes hopeful And that's probably why I said this timing a seven out of ten is uh, we're just not used to seeing mature bucks during daylight, So it's promising. Well, you talked about the randomness of food sources. UM, does that equate to a randomness in bed into or is that usually the same? Yeah? There for most of the season, they can essentially they can feed anywhere, they can bed anywhere they have you know, like whitetails, anywhere they like to have comfort of thick cover. But you can find that within a hundred yards circumference of just about anywhere that you're standing. Um, as the temperatures drop, you can find them bedding on self facing slopes a little bit more. Um if we have a hot um early fall week. UM. The opposite of that, you get them on those ridges facing north where they get a little bit more shade throughout the day. Um. But outside of that, it's it's hard. If you're gonna put some miles on to get back into the woods, you're gonna bump deer. There's just no way around it. How about going forward, what do you think that dear activity is going to be in a scale of one to ten in this coming week or so? UM, I would probably maybe drop it two of five or six. Um. We're kind of hitting that, you know, whether you buy into the Cobra lowell or not, we're hitting that time where they're really starting to adjust. Bucks are gonna start doing a lot of different travelings. So this is uh, you know, over the next week or two, you might start seeing some of these bucks that you haven't seen, you haven't been on your cameras, some new bucks, and the ones that have been there, Uh, they might be disappearing for a week or so. It seems as we started approaching towards that end of October, they get a little bit of anxiousness and then they'll they'll go for a few days and they'll take a big loop somewhere into a new area just to they're they're starting to get jones and for that first dough to come in, and no, they'll go anywhere where they think they might find that dough. All right, Well, thanks for joining me, Mike, and good luck in the big woods this fall. Hey, thanks that they appreciated. Before we get to our next color, they'll let's pause to thank our sponsors at White Tail Properties. And this week with white Tail Properties, we are joined by andrews Old, who's going to be telling us about what advice he has for buyers we're looking at land in a competitive market like Illinois. Yeah, there's all kinds of things to consider when buying a piece of property, but a few of the main things that I would definitely be thinking about our number one, have your finance and in order by doing that, your positions well to present offers to the seller and it proves that you're serious and ready to go. So that helps a lot. Um, you know what you're looking for in the property. Uh, there's lots of properties out there, but it's gonna help if you know specifics of exactly what you're looking for, what's attractive to you and what's unattractive. When you're buying a farm, remember first and foremost that it's an investment. It's easy to fall in love with the property, especially one that you seem to like. Um, but look for a return on that property. Look for the ability to reach sell it in the future if you need to. And uh that's going to be important as well when buying a farmer. If you'd like to learn more and to see the property that Andrew currently has listed for sale, visit white tail properties dot com backslash Schultz that's s h U l t z okay and joining us on the line. Next is Lindsay Thomas Jr. The director of Communications for q d M A. Now Lindsay and Georgia, what would you say that dear activity has been lately? On a scale of one to ten, Spencer, I'd say on a on a one of ten scale, We've got a couple of different things going on right now. I'd say the activity has been higher, more of a four to five in coastal Georgia where the rut is going to be happening sooner. We have a mid October to late October rut in our coastal counties, so things are already picking up there. Uh. In the rest of the state, I'm a little uh less optimistic in terms of activity, more of a two to three. Um, it's still fairly dry. We are still a few weeks off from the rut in most of Georgia, which is going to be in early to mid November, and some areas of the state, like Southwest Georgia, where it's even later into December. So right now in terms of rud activity, what that's on the coast where they're you know, approaching so soon. Um, But most of the rest of the state is still waiting. All right. Well, you talked about it being dry right now, is the whole state feeling that effect? Even where those deer running in Yes, Um, you know, the Hurricane Irmura passed through on September eleven, UH did a lot of damage, of course, and dumped a ton of rain. But that's the last rain we've had uh in Georgia, and there's not any in the forecast for the next several days, so things are starting to get dry again quickly. Uh. Folks who had already planted food plots, those food plots are going to be struggling here soon. And then I know a lot of people too that were waiting to plant until there was some more moisture on the horizon, and they're still waiting. Um, We've got a bumper acorn crop, so you know, there's plenty of food out there. It's not a critical situation. We're not back in serious drought condition, but it's definitely dry, and of course walking in the woods, you know, hunters know it's it's sounds like you're walking on potato chips getting into your tree stand But uh, not critical from a drought standpoint yet, but definitely getting dry well water hunters seeing in the area for your typical running sign as far as scrapes and robs again, seeing more of that right now. I was down at my family's land in southeast Georgia on September uh, and did some bow hunting. It was still very hot and in a lot of water still around from the hurricane. But there were um scrapes evident again like doubt. Like I said, down there in coastal Georgia, we have a mid October rut peak to to mid to late October, so the rubs and scrapes were already happening. Um. And you know a lot of scrapes that I saw had water standing in them, uh and did not appear to have been worked since Irma passed through on September eleven. I've talked to some other friends who have got lots of trail camera pictures of bucks working scrapes in coastal Georgia over the last week or two. Uh, even some folks who believed they saw bucks tending some doves already in coastal Georgia. Uh. So you know, we're approaching the peak on that in that area of the state. Um. Elsewhere I'm in't you know, where I live is in mid to North Georgia, and most hunters I've talked to in those areas are seeing what I'm seeing here, which is some very tentative early uh scrape activity just a few, you know, uh, a few scrapes here and they're being worked and only lightly uh in a few rubs out there. UM. Hank Forrester, who's our hunting heritage programs manager, was hunting this weekend with a person he was guiding who's a new hunter, and that was part of our field of fork program and they killed. Uh. Evan who was the hunter, killed his first dear. It was a nice two and a half year old buck here in North Georgia, and Hank said the buck was just sort of meandering around, feeding on acorns and no tarsal stainding whatsoever. Uh. Myself hunting this weekend, did not see any bucks, but didn't get a field that really much rud activities to speak of. Brian Grossman, who works with me, was hunting a public land hunt with his daughter this weekend in West Georgia. Same thing, very sparse, uh, scrape and rub activity right now. So again, we're looking at a early to mid November rut peaks, so we're several weeks out from really getting hot and heavy, but it is beginning to pick up. Lynda, Let's see what hypothetical. Let's see that, UM, the state gets an inch of rain here this next week. How does that change thing for hunters and change things for deer? For hunters, a lot of hunters a gonna be happy. They're either gonna be planning food plots that they were waiting to plant, or food plots that were in the ground are going to green up. Um. So that will certainly change the game in terms of hunting strategy around food food plots, particularly as we go into the approach of our opening of gun season around October one. Um. But we've got a bump for acorn crop, particularly white oaks, and generally, what I found is if you've got those in the woods and they're falling, deer are generally going to choose those before they're gonna shoose food plots. So I think from a strategy standpoint, you need to pay attention to that. Uh, if you've got white oaks in your area, and I think this would go for most of the southeast here, UM, don't continue to expect your food plot to be an attraction. Watch the brows pressure on the food plot. And if you're not seeing the brows pressure, I wouldn't be hunting there or hunting patterns around those plots until you begin to see pressure build there. Uh, the deer is gonna be where the acorns are falling. Well, we just talked a little bit about what the deer activity might turn into. But what do you think on a scale of one to ten that deer activity is going to be in the sex week or so. We've got some cool temperatures now where we did not have those before. Um, and I think, um, it's gonna be nicer to be in the woods, but it's gonna be We're gonna be seeing more rud activity coming on in the next week or two. I'm hoping you know, by next week we're gonna be looking at a uh five to six on deer activity, and in most of the Middle and North Georgia and coastal Georgia should be seeing uh up in in the sevens. I would guess, um by next week and then by the approach of opening day have gun season on the twenty one, should be you know eight or nine. That's gonna be right in the peak of of breeding for most of coastal Georgia. Well, Nzi, you're clearly is plugged in as anybody there, so thank you for joining me this week. And I hope you guys get that rain. Thanks a lot, Spencer, good luck to you too, and joining us on the line. Last is Clay Forest, the manager of Stuart Ranch Outfitters in Oklahoma. Now, Clay, what would you say the dear activity has been on a skille of one to ten lately. Uh, in the last week or ten days, Uh, it's picked up. I call it probably um, probably about four, maybe as five right now. Um. I'm in the southwest part of the state. And uh we uh, we had a really good summer as far as rainfall, and we weren't seeing a lot of deer movement coming to protein or or corn feeders all summer ubbily, just because of the natural vegetation out there. So um, in about the last week, we've had a week coming up. Uh, and that's really increased our hard gear movement in the last couple week or ten days previous to that weak coming up, what were the deer hitting for food sources? Uh? Just natural vegetation. Like I said, we uh we were. We have a lot of green barers pretty popular around here. Uh. We've got just a lot of just native grasses for lack of a better words, we don't have much of a mass drop here. So do you really stay in the CRP or big big native glass fields and that's kind of where the bed and live pretty much all summer long. Well, are those wheat fields what you will be queuing in on basically throughout the season or does that change? Uh? No, that's that's that's our main point of interest. Travel corridors coming in and out of wheat fields do a lot of glassing, you know, getting up on big big high points and glass and on wheat field. So that's that's definitely our our main focus. As far as trying to get big deer killed throughout the season. Are you see and he signed making papro right now. As far as rubs and scrapes, Uh, not really. Um it's kind of like I said in the beginning, Um he we really kind of struggled just to see deer in general. Uh this summer. So we had close to nine somewhere between nine and twelve inches rain from about May fifteen to basically last week. And uh, some of the grass out here is over our head, so really seeing a lot of sign Uh. It has been kind of detrimental as far as that, just because of what my mother nature did this summer. UM, so not really you know in a long rambling answer, Well, Clay at Stewart Ranch Outfitters there, I know you guys run a lot of cattle. How does that affect the deer movement? When you guys start moving those cattle around? Do you see the deer move into where those cattle just came off of? Uh? We do, you know? And and it's a really cohesive unit for us. UM as far as the cattle in the deer. I mean there are times where UM, cattle might kind of deter some deer hunting, but that's very very small percentage. So UM to your point, cattle coming off some a pasture where it's been graced down, we'll definitely see more dear sign uh in that pastures because it's been been graced off previous previous two. So UM, we really do try to do a good job as far as manage and where cattle are going to be UM in relat relation to UH where our deer hunting areas are, our primary deer hunting areas are at. So we try to run our cattle there in the summertime and to get them off for the fall of the winter. So we can hunt and not have any worries about a cow coming underneath the stand or something like that. But it really works well for us. We do try to do a good job of that. Now, going forward to the sext week or so, what do you think that dear activity is going to be in Oklahoma? On the skill of one to ten UM, I'm gonna probably put it down a four, maybe a five. Um. We're expect a little bit more rain this week like that week passers up. It's greened up pretty well. UM in the last like I said, about ten days, so I would expect to a lot of deer in those green fields. UM. Movement pretty decent. So I would probably put it about a four to five. Luckily, I look forward to seeing the pictures from Stewart Ranch and good luck this fall. Thanks Spencer, appreciate it. And that concludes this week's episode of Wire to Hunt's Brought Radio. We'd like to thank our sponsors at Sitka white Tail Properties, Matthews Yeti, Ontara, White Tail Institute, Maven and Trophy Ridge. And if you'd like to see that buckeend just harvested, check out my instagram at Spencer New Heart. We thank you all for listening, and as always, stay weird to hunt.