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 episode number one and today we're back for our final RUT Radio episode of the two thousand seventeen season, and we're recapping what types of things we learned, what were the themes and trends from the past season, and we check in with hunters from across the country to get their perspectives too. All right, welcome back, folks to another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast, and we are here today with our final well you could say it's our first RUT radio episode of two thousand eighteen, but it's also our final RUT radio episode of the two thousand seventeen season. Um, it just so happens that's in the new year, and today you know what we're gonna do is we're going to kind of take a high level look back at the year, at the season, um, and at the different trends and um, oh geez, I don't know. We've we've each week over the last three or four months now, right, we've talked different hunters all across the country about what's happening in the White Tail was what kind of activity they've seen, how the conditions have been impacting dear behavior, what types of tactics have been working. And we've done that week by week by week by week, and that's been interesting to follow, you know, on a short term basis. But I think if you pull back and look at this from a from a thirty thousand foot overview, there's some interesting things we can learn from that as well, looking at the season and the kind of it's an entire um in its entirety, I guess, and that's something I think we can learn from and then apply to the next season in future years. So that's kind of what I was hope and we could do in today's episode. And of course, Um, Spencer new Heart of Courses with us and Spencer, you have been doing an awesome job all season putting these episodes together. So I just want to first off, thank you for taking the time to do this, for connecting with so many different people and getting their their reports and insights on what's happening. Um, I can say personally I've gotten a lot from this, and I know our listeners have to so so well done, my friend, thank you. I appreciate that. Mark and I enjoy making these and so I hope people enjoy listening them as much as I enjoy producing them. Yeah, So, so what are your thoughts on today's episode? What are you what are we gonna try to achieve here? Well, as you mentioned in the past, all of our reports that we received have been very immediate, looking at what's happened in the last seven days and looking at what's probably gonna be happy in the next seven days. So this episode is obviously very different. UM when we step back and look at the themes for the seventeen season and so there are five things in particular that I picked up on UM kind of ending the season this year, we we covered thirty three states for radio. I believe we had was about fifty seven total reports over fourteen episodes, and so I spin all that, Uh, there was about five things that stuck out to me, and those five things all happened to come up in today's episode when reflecting on the fall of Seen and so and actually spends it really quick before you jump on those UM, just so that our listeners know what's coming up to right it's not just you and me talking today about reflecting reflecting on the season, but we also have some of our guest reporters back to reflect on the entire season as well. Is that right? Yeah? And kind of the same idea we cover covering the white tail nation. And we started Nebraska and talked to Bryce Lamley from Sitka. Uh, then we go to Illinois, talked to Alex Gillstrom from white Tail Properties, and then in New York from q d M as Matt Ross, and then we talked to Tony Eaterson in Minnesota with bow Hunter Magazine. Uh. These guys have hunted all beyond the borders of their states as well, and so UM, bringing in these four kind of helped us get a wide view of the entire uh, you know, white tailed woods in the the US. And so those five themes that I had mentioned previously, one of them being, um the e h D recovery and a lot of the US was hit in two thousand twelve with e h D and kind of we're still feeling, uh, the aftershock of that, and and it varies in the Dakotas. I feel like our deer numbers are back. I wrote a blog post and wired to hunt. I think a year ago saying how this could be the glory days, you know that we always want to talk about and reflect on because right now the aide structure is starting to develop again. Uh, and we're seeing a lot of deer who had never been pressured before because with that e h D Uh, you get typically a big cutback in tag numbers. Um, there's hunters in the woods for the period of time after. And so what I've seen is that a lot of deer just haven't been educated yet in my area, uh, because there isn't a ton of hunters out there chasing a ton of deer. And so we'll talk about the e h D recovery today and both sides of the coin Nebraska Brice didn't feel like they're seeing as well. Where Tony who hunted the Dakotas Uh, it feels like those populations are really starting to come back. And then we moved into October. UH, and this year, I recalling the last couple weeks of October that there was a lot of optimistic reports and the number one thing to attribute that too were the cold fronts that seemed to hit all the right notes. Uh. And Alex had a quote something like this. He said something if you were to pick out a calendar and circle the dates that you wanted a cold front in seen, it felt like we got that this year, you know. On that note, if I can jump in, I kind of thought the same thing, like I thought, oh man, we just have been We're getting just the gift of all gifts as far as the right weather at the right time. Because I, at least here in Michigan and Ohio, we had this big colt from the hit like October twenty five where it dropped like twenty or thirty degrees or something. I just thought that was gonna blow the doors off of things. Um. And we did get that weather, which should have been great now for my own personal experiences, though I didn't see the increasing activity that I was expecting, um to to go along with that front. Now. Of course, you know, we can't make any big picture, um takeaways from just a single person situation from what I saw in Michigan and from Ohio trail cameras and stuff. UM, But that was one thing that I personally experienced, it was the great weather, and then I just didn't get the increased activity that I was hoping for, and that even continued into November a bit, because you know, as as we as I'm sure you're mentioning here, that that great October weather continued all the way through like early November. I can't remember a year that we've had better weather during the rut, at least in the places I was hunting. I feel like every year, um, at least for the last decade, when I've really been following this closely during the rut, you always end up. At least for me, it seems that there always seems to be like a day or two or three or four where you get these abnormally hot temperatures and everyone's bummed about a temperatures in early November screwing up the best weeks of the rut. This year, at least where I was at, we didn't get that. We just had perfect cold to cool weather from you know, like October twenty straight on through in November. I mean, you couldn't ask for anything more from that standpoint. But I also wondered, because of that, if we didn't have any huge drops, like relative drops like it dropped October sex somewhere around there into like the forties. And again this is where I was that, of course these temperatures might be different across the country, um, but if I remember right, temperatures just kind of stayed steadily cool for the next three weeks. That there wasn't any big ups and downs from that standpoint, and I wonder if that might maybe, well, I guess I'd rather have this than have a bunch of hot temps. It maybe we didn't have those a huge bursts of cold for an activity that sometimes you get when you get a twenty or thirty degree temperature drop, um, simply because it just kind of stayed steady at that point. And again, like I've said several times, and that was just what I experienced. I don't know if you heard anyone else bring up something along those those lines, but it was kind of an interesting weather you're during the rut better certainly way better than it could have been. But I wonder if maybe the lack of like big changes, um kind of led to a little bit of a stagnant flow to some of the running activity that we see. Does any of that ring ring a ring a bell with you at all? Well? I think bringing up that those those cold fronts seemed well timed. If at the very least, it gives hunters some confidence. It'll get guys in the tree stand if they feel like they need to wait for a cold front. Um, there was multiple, you know, small ones, as you meant, and that seemed to hit all the way from mid October all the way to the beginning of November. And so if you were waiting on a cold front, you likely got to haunt one at some point during what you considered some good rutting action. And I've always considered that a potential factor in the past. Why guys think that cold fronts uh are so great from hunting, just because maybe it gives them a little more confidence and it focuses you when you're in the tree stand, and maybe you pick one of your better tree stands on one of those cold front days. And uh, it's not always attributed to the deer movement was potentially better, Um, but you were just in a better spot and you were more focused. Hm. So you're Sam. So you're saying that maybe even if the cold fronts aren't impacting actual dear behavior, if if nothing else, just because so many people in the deer hunting media preach about cold friends, it just increases hunters confidence and leads to better hunts because of that. Yes, this is something I've been work shopping for a while. I guess us that if if you see a cold front coming, you're gonna be more confident that the deer movement is going to be there. And so, as you said, there's more guys in the woods, you're likely picking one of your better tree stands for that hunt. You're probably more focused because you're thinking, oh, you know, this could be it. And so I think we put a lot of stock into cold fronts and what they dear to do to dear movement. Um. And I think some of that is appropriate, But I think the other half of the coin is that, uh, guys just find themselves in better positions than they would be if, say, a cold front wasn't there, you probably wouldn't be in that stand because you wouldn't feel very good about the deer movement in that area. It's an interesting observation. I think there could be some truth to that. Um. I mean, I certainly love cold fronts. I think that there definitely is something to it. But you can't deny the fact that there is a ton of hype around them these days too. Like especially with social media and all the media just regular outdoor media now too. Like I remember that mid Act or that late October when that big front was coming through the country. If you look to Instagram or Facebook or anything, there were so many people posting memes about it or all sorts of articles talking about better be in the woods. Heck, I made a YouTube video about it. I mean, there's all sorts of people talking about the front. So just the level, the level of talk about these big things coming across the country, the impact deer hunting these days, Like, I think there's a level of buzz about things, collective understanding about things that there probably was not ten years ago. You know, ten years ago, nobody was talking about this stuff. You know, it's such a high degree where so many people are hearing about the same things. So it's it's an interesting idea, and I think it's something to think about. Um. But I do love those could friends, Yeah, I I love them as well. I'm always going to be a triet if I get a chance on the cold Front. But I think what we have is is potentially an echo chamber of everybody say the same thing. As you mentioned the media that you've got to be there in the cold front, and then uh, that just gets repeated and it becomes fact almost And then I know you've discussed with some biologists, uh, how whether fronts affect your movement. I believe Lindsay might have touched on this with you one time, that there's no science that shows that cold fronts affect dear movement. But I think he might have may have even admitted that that goes against some of his deer hunting um beliefs as well. And so, like I said, I think cold fronts appropriately get some hype, but it might be too much that there might be other factors involved there. Ye, speaking of hype um. You know, one of the things I noticed this here is I was following the moon and the different theories around the moon and seeing how that tracked with my own observations. Now, again, he can't make too many claims or you know, uh what am I trying to stay here? Out of one person's observations. You don't want to take too much out of that. So what I'm about to say here, don't take this as as fact across the board. This is just one person's officer rations, not even really data driven. This is simply anecdotal. But I did try to track the different moon theories, the red moon theories, you know, when the moon's overheaded, underfoot, or if the moon is rising or setting earlier late in the day, um, and seeing if that correlated with increased activities. So on the days and the moon was good, did I also see the activity bump that you're supposed to? And I can't say that I really saw anything noticeable. Um. I didn't you know, go into those days and and just get floored by oh my gosh, yeah, this is incredible, and it was on those right days. Um. But again I wasn't tracking it so closely that I could say that. You know, if I was really good about this, I would have tracked how many deer I saw per hour or something throughout the entire season, and then look at the days with the right moon conditions and I could tell you, oh, well, on those days there was actually a four percent increased you know, sight rating or something like that. If I had that kind of data, then maybe we could pull some conclusions. Um. I don't. But just from my general observation standpoint, it didn't feel like I saw anything different on those good moon days. Um, and I've been tracking it for a handful of days. I'm still up in the air on it. UM. Again to what you said, Spencer, the research and science out there doesn't point to any kind of correlation. They have not been able to find a correlation. Um. But there's a whole heck of a lot of good deer hunters that still believe it. So that's that's an interesting thing. UM. But I realized I'm pulling things off the rail here, Spencer. I've totally taken you off of your five trends, So maybe we want to get back onto your your track. Yeah, So back to the five trains. The first two that we just covered was the the e h D recovery and then the October cold front. Uh. The third one, keeping that October theme, was the huge acorn crop that it seemed like everybody was dealing with this year. And that was whether you're in Arkansas or Wisconsin, or Vermont or Nebraska, there was just everybody was talking about the acorns, and that could be good and bad some guys. Else it was suppressing the movement in October that you had to, you know, work harder to define the deer or others were excited about it a little bit later in the year. So, did you see a large acorn crop in in Michigan or a lot of your contexts you've talked to you uh hit on that hot topic this year. Yeah, I think that was something that I saw as well. And I think, UM to that point, if you were hunting in a situation where you were kind of hoping for or dependent on activities on egg related food sources or food plots, that's where the acorn crop maybe screwed things up for it. Because if you had like all of your early season or mid October setups, you know, over food like a grain, food source or food plot of some kind, Like I had a couple of setups like that, UM, I had very little activity on those spots in daylight, UM, especially mature bucks compared to past years. And I think a lot of that can be attributed to what you just said that a lot of these deer they didn't need to go onto the fields during daylight because they had food food in the timber right next to their bedding, UM, which you know, just makes it more difficult. You can't get in there. It's very tough to catch use deer in daylight. So so yeah, I heard a lot of people mentioned that same thing, and I saw something that as well. Yeah, I'd say the acorns uh in October played a big role on how a lot of archers, you know, whether they had success or not in seventeen. So the fourth themed that I noticed was the late harvest. As far as corn and soybeans. It seemed like we had a wet beginning of the year and then pretty mild temperatures that seem to keep farmers out of the fields, and maybe some timely rains that um kept farmers out of the fields as well, and that can change things on a whole number of different scales. UM. I guess you could see deer that consistently stay in fields that never come out, you know. I find deer in South Dakota that will bed and slows in the middle of a corn field and you won't see them until harvest. Or that could be good for you if you have some the only food around. UM. So, if you're dependent on corn or soybeans, you had likely had a late harvest seas here and that was something that you were always game planning around. Definitely, something impacts things here, specifically in southern Michigan, we actually had early harvest. Um, we had the crops coming out here earlier than I ever remember. But that that could have been unique to just write where I'm at, um, But I saw like the opposite of what you just said, and that with that early Um, with the early harvest of the corn fields and stuff, lots of times that standing corn would keep deer in some of these areas that maybe didn't have good cover otherwise. So when those came down so early in our case, it was like mid October that these corn fields were coming down. Um, that changed things up just a lot sooner than usual because more often than not, I'm seeing you know, standing corn fields coming down, you know in the first second week ago in November maybe around here. And it was almost a full month earlier for me here, So that that just changed things for me just in a different way. But yeah, the time of the harvest, that's a big one. Whether it's early or late. You just need to stay on top of that if you hunt in an area where where those things are happening, right, And like I said, some guys were fired up about another guys were down on If you were a gun hunter and you know, you primarily hunt a big, open cut cornfield, and that cornfield wasn't cut then obviously that made things difficult for you. But if you UH came upon you know, mid November and your corn hadn't been harvested, you're an archer and you had some of the only food around, uh than than that might have been great for your situation. So the late harvest UH just played a role for everybody. It seemed like weather good or bad. I always, selfishly, I have always liked it when we get a late harvest. I always root for standing corn fields to still be standing on November because that's our opening day gun season. And I always feel like if you've got standing cornfields when a gun season opens up, there's just to be more young bucks that make it through the next year. I've always I wish I could saw how track that UM to see if the rate of bucks that reached maturity the year after a late harvest year is higher, because I gotta believe that those those standing cornfields save a lot of young bucks if they're present. UM. That definitely didn't happen for us this year. Well. And then the fifth theme, UH, it's just the month of December and how the weather was in It seemed like the first fifteen days or the first half of December was fairly mild, and uh that was kind of frustrating and maddening for a lot of guys who rely on those good late season haunted. It didn't push the deer onto the food plots that it normally would. It didn't congregate them and didn't push him into the winter bedding areas where they'd maybe be seeking some better cover. And so it seemed like the first half of December was kind of frustrating with the mild weather that we had for for deer hunters at least, and then the second half of December brought some harsher conditions, some snow, wind and and some cold that uh did end up helping guys out. People were excited that their plots finally had some activity or that their late season food source felt like it was being treated like a late season food source as opposed to you know, just a couple of days prior in early December. M hmm. Yeah, we definitely definitely felt that. For sure, super warm early December, super cold now in late December, um, which which leads me to a question which is and I found myself in the situation in the past. Even this year, I was thinking about a little bit. Right it was early December and I wanted to wait for a good cold front. Um. But then I was thinking as December ticked along, and now it's the seventh, eighth, ninth, Now it's the eleventh, twelve, and you're waiting for this great weather. Well, what happens if it never comes? At what? At what point do you need to say, Well, I just gotta start hunting these late season, dear, because we're not going to get that megic cold front. So do you do you just start going because you can't wait because the season could just slip by, or or is the lesson learned from this year that no, you should have stayed patient, because if you waited until the twentie now you had this incredible weather that did get the big bucks all on the food sources in daylight um versus. You know, if you had been pounding it on the eighth, ninth, tenth when it was kind of mediocre temperatures, maybe you would have pressured those deer and now you don't get to see them when they're really cold. Temperatures hit Um, I don't know. I I found myself struggle this in the late season every year, like how long do I wait until I start hunting? Because you want that perfect weather, but you also you also need to take some take some opportunities to get out there in the woods. Um. But it's that balancing at because you don't want to pressure them too much of this time of year. Did you hear anything along those lines from any of the other guys or from your experience, Spencer, as far as you know, do you did you go for it anyways? Or do you to keep on being patient and wait and wait and wait until we do get that primo weather. Nothing like that came up specifically in this episode, but just reflecting on um, you know who we talked to in the month of December and it just seemed like a lot of selective pressure. And I remember talking to it might have been bred Joy in the Northeast here a couple of weeks ago, and uh, you know, their season was like three days away from closing, and I think I asked something about, you know, how aggressive are you right now? And he said, well, there's three days of the season left, so extremely aggressive. Um, So that seems kind of obvious there that once it gets down to the wire that you have to be more aggressive. But then I remember talking to some other guys who said, well, you know, we have until January fifteenth, and so if we bump a deer now, that might be the last time we see him this season. So just a selective pressure. And I guess I don't know what the great answer is unless you have a crystal ball to to see what the weather is coming. Uh, just gotta roll the dice with those haunts. It really is about being selective about picking the right time to go in there. And it's like you said, it's hard to make hard to know what's coming. But I guess that's why deer hunting is so much fun, because there's a lot of unknowns and you gotta make decisions, make some assumptions, work off of them, and hope for the best and sometimes works out, sometimes it doesn't. So those are the five things that that I felt like, um really were the theme of seventeen across you know, the White Tailed Nation With everybody this week, I asked him if there's something that they felt like they picked up from this last fall that they can use going forward, Maybe a lesson that they learned in twenty seventeen that they'll use inen and seasons after that. So is there something you mark that you feel like you learned in seventeen that was really eye opening for you? Man? Um, there's a lot, um. But if I had to pick one thing to mention now, I'll be expanding on these in our next Wird Hunt podcast. But if I were to offer one thing right now, um, it might Heck, where what do I want to say here? Don't look at your phone too much. I'll keep it simple. No, In all seriousness, I think, Um, I think it's just been a season where man s, Yeah, I still haven't collected all my own thoughts on things. It's still so fresh for me. A lot of a lot of my lessons learned this year were more related to my own personal situation, you know, with my hunt for holy Field, and that kind of consumed everything that I did this year. So I didn't necessarily get to have as many lessons learned um outside of that one experience, because so much of what I did was revolving around that deer. Um. So I do think that one big lesson learned I had this year was just about goal setting UM, and sometimes UM, putting all your eggs in one basket isn't always as good of an idea. And I think doing what I did kept me from doing a lot of the other things that I think I would have enjoyed and would have made for a great hunting season as well. But I was so obsessed with this one thing. Um. Now I realized this is not at all relevant to the rest of the audience, who might be looking for some kind of really high level deer hunting insight. So maybe I should just shut up and listen to what your observation or lesson learned is, because I'm sure it's more helpful than everything I've just been rambling about. Well, my lesson learned from seventeen was it goes back to me killing that buck on September, and I rarely have had much for early season success to excuse me to that point where I can kill a mature buck like that. I think one of the biggest things it was attributed to was just the complete lack of pressure that I had put on that property. UM. As I said earlier this year, I got married in June, and then I moved into a new house in August, and so that really took away a lot of my opportunities to be out scouting and hanging cameras and uh, doing things like that. And so I was just hunting some historical movement on that hunt, and that property hadn't had my boots on it since I don't know, six months prior probably, and so I think that just made a huge difference. Had I been there, you know, multiple times hanging cameras or you know, coming in and out on a four wheeler or anything like that, I can't imagine I would have had an opportunity at that booking. So it's just showed me that less is more, um for for that time of year. It's made me rethink potentially using some cell cameras or you know, dialing way back on cameras in general, so I'm not tempted to go check them you know, September and things like that. So it's showed me that you can have some success early season if you're just very, very careful about it. Yeah. Agree, I think that's a great point. Um So, Spencer, if you were to look back on the last four months of hunting, how would you rate the deer hunting on a scale of one to ten for you, uh, for me, I really couldn't have asked for a better season, So it was a ten for myself. Had the hundred sixty six in September, and then I killed the public Land mule hero was very happy with, and then a huck in in November. So I was very satisfied when I put together my season, you know, in in the spring in summer. That's the kind of Season nine vision happening. And so I couldn't have asked for a better year. Do we want to move on to the rest of the people. Yeah, we just rambled for thirty minutes, so we've doubled a normal radio episode, So I will talk to you in sounds good Spencer, thanks a lot for doing this, and thank you everyone for listening, and uh for those who participated to just for me personally, UM, I appreciate you guys working with Spencer. He can be a real bear to work with. Good stuff, All right, thanks part. Before we get to our first update, though, let's positive think our sponsors at sitki Gear. For this week's story, we're joined by sitcom Ambassador Alex Templeton, who tells us about some exciting whitetail action from early November. I had been hiding consistently all season long and Missouri with no luck, and at the end of September I had the opportunity to go to Illinois, which came at a good time because the weather at home was really warm and the deer weren't moving at all. So after hunting a week in Illinois, coming home and the handed, I was very determined to kill a deer with my bow before rifle season opened up in Missouri, which is on November fifteenth every year UM. At this point in the beginning of November UM and the weather can be hit or mid this time of the year as well, and this is when the rut is starting to kick off at the beginning of November, so I had pretty high hopes for good deer movement. And after a couple long days and nights sitting on an evening time on my favorite farm, I had a clean eight come by and we offered me a perfect side shot and I absolutely smoked him and I was sorry to go a damn about sixty away from my stand, and I was super excited and pretty proud of myself. On Alexis hunt, she was wearing sicks elevated to pattern in the women's line. If you'd like to create a sikest story of your own, or to learn more about Sitka's technical hunting apparel, visit Sitka gear dot com. Alright, and joining me on the line first is Bryce Lamley out of Nebraska with Sitka Gear. Now, Bryce in Nebraska, what kind of a season did you have this year? Well? Pretty good. I had to work really hard. I hunted seventy six times before our guns season and ended up killing about five by five remark scrape in October, and then two days before rifle season killed a one thirty six um inch buck um right in the evening, just like I said, right before rifle season. But I had to work really hard for him. And the one thirty six was the second big year I saw. Bryce. It sounds like a great year in UH this past year. What are some of the big themes that you noticed there in Nebraska as far as you know, weather, timing of their odd things like that. Well, one of the things is I don't think Nebraska, at least the eastern Nebraska has really recovered totally from the h D epidemic we had in two thousand twelve, and we've had a little bit of a touch of it the last year or two as well, But two thousand and twelve we've got hammered pretty hard and it really knocked our numbers back, and we're still not back to where they were before that, and I don't know if they ever will be back, because I think the Game and Parts Commission UM felt some heat from a lot of farmers about deer numbers at that time. But deer numbers are still rebounding, let's just put it that way. Weatherwise, UM, the we had extremely wet early season and then it's like somebody shut the water off about mid October, so and it's been dry ever since. And UM, I don't know if we've had an inchur brain since probably mid October, and it's still very dry right now. Well, bryce to the conditions from feel similar to anything else that you can recall in years past. Well, one of the um one of the interesting things is we didn't get any We had one snow I think in October in eastern Nebraska. It lasted twelve hours, and then we really didn't get any snow or cold weather until just right here at the end the lake I live on near uh In just that west of Omaha, Nebraska is Um, it didn't ice over until after Christmas. I mean there were guys in their kayaks on Christmas Day celebrating now, although the ice fishermen haven't been real happy about it, but it's it was really mild temperatures. And I just remember one year and I couldn't tell you what year it was, but we yet one year were the first mesa measurable snow was December thirty one and kind of a memorable hunt. I killed the dough that day, but it was, uh, it was just kind of like that. It was just an unusual year with without a lot of precipitation throughout what you would generally consider to be the best hunting days and weeks. Well, let's go back to talking about that moisture and how do you think, um, that amount of moisture that you guys received early season affected things. Then how do you think in effective things come the rout and then ultimately late season. Well, I think the amount of rain we had early on in some areas really helped define dear movement to some extent because it it made some areas, I mean, deer can get through it. But they're essentially lazy if they if they can be. And so it's actually in some in some my areas helped define the dear movement. But when it started turning dry, I think it really lead to less scraping activity, if that's possible, because I didn't pick up as many um or as much scraping activity um that you know, in in the in the prime time last half of October and so forth, and as I usually do in the ground is just um, you know, rock hard in many cases. And I've heard that from some of my buddies over in eastern Iowa. Two They just up staying, we need some water to get these dear to to be more active in the scrapes. And so I do think it had a little bit of an effect there, um with the with the rut just a little bit and our rut in eastern Nebraska. It depends on who you talk to you. But for me, I you know, I hinnd it really hard always through um about November twentieth and I was out of buck tags, and it was it was not a really there was never any really strong days when I was just like, wow, this is a circus. In most years, I'll get some of that. Um. Now, I have a brother out in southwest Nebraska and it's just as hard as I do. And he said it was crazy out there combination of white Town annual deer hunting. So I think it probably depends on where you were at, but I know in eastern Nebraska myself and several others were a little bit disappointed in that. Well, Bryce, you have a long resume of successful white heil hunting with a bow, But in ten do you feel like that you learned anything new, or that the weather, the ruts, anything changed for you that that really, uh, something you'll apply going forward. Well, yeah, one of the I think one of our goals should be to learn something every time we hunt. And this year I dealt with a property that had been basically bulldozed, and uh, it's just a passion. There's no cattle on it, and it grew up in a lot of weeds, and so I, you know, there's a learning experience for me basically hunting a weed field. But I did have a lot of activity and then once the corn came out, there was a lot of deer activity in the weeds and so forth, And so maybe I'm getting a little bit of a feel for for guys that hunt CRP quite a bit. Um, I'm starting to get a feel for that and maybe a newfound respect for that because I was really depressed about what was happening to this property, but now not so much. And even after I killed my buck, Um, I had a really close encounter with the biggest year. I saw a year one forty on that property and and I hope he made it. I think he did, and so it'll be interesting to match with with him again. Um. It's a little bit different type of hunting. They can see it coming a lot further away in many cases, but I I think that there are some things you can do with with a lot of grass and a lot of weeds. And um, I'm hopefully learning to adapt to the changes. I guess. All right, Bryce Fell, great intel, thanks for joining me, and good luck in the season. I appreciate. Thank you, Spencer alright and joining us on the line. Next is Elik Gilstrom out of Illinois with white tail properties now Alex in Illinois, what kind of season have you had thus far? It's been a it's been a blessed one, man, I gotta tell you. Um, really good, uh, really good hunting from really from the word go. We had really good, really good weather coming in, really good a cold front steer movement's been spot on. UM. We had an awesome uh, an awesome rut here in in early November. UM. I actually killed a buck on the tent and it was it was one of those mornings that we dream about, you know. I mean it was. I was tucked in close to some security cover. It was up against the Bedding Area transition line along c RP. It was it was perfect, just kind of wit kind of pinched down with this UM with the terrain as well as the cover, UM created a really just kind of good natural funnel and I shot the bucket in the morning. He was the eleventh buck that I saw that morning. Uh. It's kind of one of those, like I said, one of those ones you just dream about. So that was great. Well, let's talk about that weather a little more that it sounds like you think led to some of your successes this year, starting in October and then going in November December. How do you think the weather affected buck movement this season? I think it was really good in in in the area that I was hunting. Here in west central Illinois. Um, that's where I spent months, where I lived, where I spent most of my time. UM. And it really it was it was fairly mild, um, you know, kind of throughout. But we had we had just I mean, you couldn't you couldn't pull up a calendar and point to where you want cold front to fall any better than what they did. I mean it really was um awesome to see that. And and the tempts fell at the right time. Pressure was high at the right time, UM, and the dear movement reflected that. UM. So that was that was really great. And uh so overall that it wasn't like we had you know, unusually cold uh fall as far as general temperatures go. UM, I would say it was probably fairly average here to slightly a little bit above average as far as the standard temperature we went. But um, like I said, you know, we had those those anywhere from ten to twenty degree drops situated in the right times and by the right times. I'm talking you know, UM that the last ten days of October we had a good one, um. And then the first I'd say, you know, the first few days of November a little bit warm. Then it dipped off I think right around the fifth or the sixth, if I remembmembering correctly, we had another another good front move in and and made you know, the sixth to the twelve or thirteenth from really really strong. So it was it was awesome to see that. And like I said, it just kind of you couldn't you couldn't point time point on a calendar to have, you know, I want a cold front during this time frame when you know their daylight movements really picking up and they're getting really active. Um as far as the mature bucks go, Uh, you couldn't ask for any better. Really, well, from talking to hunters all across the nation, uh, this season, one common theme that I heard from everybody was acorns and how did acorns play role in Illinois and you're hunting and specifically yeah that Yeah, that doesn't surprise me that that was a hot topic this year, just because um it was they were, they were everywhere. I mean, it was it was nuts from I mean, it's it's always cool. You get excited. You never see the white oaks. I mean, that's that's a year at least, you know in the Midwest, especially in western Illinois here. If you have white oaks, the deer just love them. Um, they were loaded this year. It seemed like pin oaks and the red oaks were really good too. I mean, if you had if you had good oak trees and and they were definitely loaded up with acorns, there's no question. Um, and I kind of had. Uh. Again, it's kind of a bittersweet relationship with acorns this year at one of my farms that I'm I've got the privilege to hunt on and it's I don't, I don't have any leases or anything like that, so it's I've got permission on a couple of places and and actually hunts some uh hunts of public to quite a bit. So Um, you kind of gott to pick and choose your your battles as far as that goes. But um, it's uh one of them in particular, it was loaded with oaks. Um. Kind of these had these you know, two big ridges that run through the property and they were loaded with oaks. So it kind of dispersed the gear a little bit because there was so many oak trees. And then um, so that made it really it made it tough. I mean, it makes it tough when you have that too. It makes it tough for access because you know, the deer aren't quote unquote where they're supposed to be at the right times when you're trying to get in and out of the property, and um, you can always seems like you end up bumping more deer just because there's kind of scattered out more and it changes their patterns a little bit, especially when they're transitioning off of the early seasoned food sources. Um. But then you know, conversely, on the other side, do of a piece of property where um, it's got a bunch of ridges that kind of come together, and at the point of where they all come together, that's where there's kind of like a concentration of these um of these oaks are. And actually that's the farm where I ended up killing my Illinois deer. And I was actually on one of the ridges instead of on the concentration point. I had hunted that these amount of times and hadn't had any luck and moved off to a to a different ridge and um, and I'm I'm only kind of guessing that's where he was headed. Uh, just in terms of travel patterns and kind of figuring out what they were doing. On this particular farm. Uh, he was kind of headed to that back to you know, and then they bed off farther away from on beyond that that center point where the ridges kind of come together. But he was definitely headed in that direction. Um. And I attribute a lot of that too, you know, to those acorns because having that concentration of those oaks in that particular you know, um, and then you do you couple that with train features of the ridges coming together. Um, they made for an awesome combination. I mean you saw, like I said, the morning I killed my up, there was here in Illinois, there was a that was the eleventh buck I saw that morning. You not to mention, you know, a dozen dolls or so. Um. So it definitely was cool because it concentrated the deer in that area and then you know you talk to the pre route and or the road on top of that. It just made for made for really good. So I kind of stop both ends of that spectrum. But yeah, I mean, if if you had a lot of oaks or a lot of acorns and your hunting area have no, it does not surprise me one bit that there was there. You know, you kind of kind of gave you a headache this year. Well, Alex, what is one thing that you've taken away from this last ball the season that something you think you can apply going forward or something that's really gonna stick with you and in the years to come. Honestly, for me, I mean, I've always been a huge proponent of postseason scouting UM and I've done it for for quite a while and it's and it just continues to to add more confidence and more success to each year. And I'm just gonna do even more of that this year. I mean, when you can really go in in the early spring before green up and and shortly after snow melt, and you can kind of really start to put the pieces of the puzzle together on betting areas and feeding areas, travel routes, deer sign I mean something buck sign in general, of deer sign in general. Uh, it really can do wonders UM to to really get a good understanding of how the deer using its particular property property you're hunting UM. And I'd say that and coupled with one of the other really really cool things I got to do this year was UM and we're in western Illinois, you know, we're in We're in hill country here. There's a lot of ridges and and and you know, kind of rising terrain and a lot of differentiation between terrain and UM. I've hunted a let a little bit, just kind of you know, sporadically in the past, but you know, actually having a full you know season here since I moved here to really dedicate to to the to understanding hill country hunting in terrain has been a lot of fun. I've actually really enjoyed just kind of how the how the deer, especially the mature bucks kind of used the train to their advantage, everything from thermals in wind direction to just general travel patterns. Um, it's been really really cool from what I'm used to. I usually I grew up in southwest Michigan and there just isn't much terrain there, so uh, kind of throwing that throwing that curve ball into the mix has been a lot of fun to this year. As far as the h D goes, you know, it's always a hot topic, especially the last couple of years here, and I feel like you're in western Illinois, you know what we call its historically known as the Golden Triangle. We were definitely affected in the two thousand twelves you know, die off. UM, but now it's it's it's it's really exciting looking for you know, thank god we've had the relief the last couple of years. We haven't been affected by it. But to see the age structure, you know, I meantime h D, it's kind of hitting that reset button. It's almost like, but um, to see that age structure really come back. UM, I think the next year and especially two years from now, barring any h D disasters, UM, I think we're gonna see some of the best hunting that's ever been here, or at least similar to what it was in the late nineties, early two thousands, Like everybody talks about UM, age structures really come back and and it's and it's been an exciting time to see, you know, a lot of great, great three year olds. Awesome for you, I mean, and then you're really getting you know, the quantity of mature bucks has certainly coming back to so UM, I think we're in good shape. All right, alex Will, congrats on your seventeen successes in good luck. Thanks for joining me. Thanks, it's the same to you. Before we get to our next color, though, let's positive thing our sponsors at white Tail Properties this week with white Tail Properties, we are joined by Tom James, a land specialist out of Central Indiana, and Tom is going to be telling us about what the very first habitat improvements should be for a land manager. Good question, Um. Some of the first key things, the fundamentals that you want to think about is when you think in terms of what a deer requires, the food, security, covering, water and the q d m A has a great analogy of the thinking about the lowest hole on the bucket that you need to plug up to keep the water from leaking out. So what could be missing on your property that the surrounding land may have, and so you want to do a quick assessment. Maybe it's food, Maybe it's water. Maybe if you can maybe it's cover. If you can look through your woods and see two hundred yards, then you've got an issue with with too much shade, not enough sunlight creating new potential brows and cover for your deer. So maybe it's a timber, a timber either stand improvement or a harvest or a combination of two that's gonna allow some more new growth to come in and picking up your property. Maybe it's as simple as you're not leaving an area alone as a sanctuary. If you're trapesing all over forty acres and pushing deer off every time you go, then that's that's obviously an issue. So maybe just an adjustment in the way that you move around and hunt the property and approach things. Uh. If food is your lacking ingredient or your lowest hole in the bucket, then even in timber, it takes some work, but you can certainly clear out some openings and plant food. Um and I would suggest considering both perennial food and annual food stuff that you can leave in like clover and chicory as a perennial coming back every year and do some fall planted cereal grains and brass tickets for the fall time, so you've got a year round program going on. And typically it's not an issue in the Midwest. But if if water is a lacking ingredient, then maybe you can create water hole or even some of the new systems like the banks water watering tanks that you can set up that are mobile and fill up and provide water sources for your deer so that they don't have to leave the property to water. Again, that's fairly rare, but that could be a consideration. If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties that Tom currently has listed for sale, visit whitetail properties dot com. Backslash James, that's j A. M E. S alright and joining us on the line. Next out of New York is Matt Ross with q dm A. Now, Matt, how is your season gone thus far in New York? I had a great season. Our season typically opens uh as most do, in early October, and it closes about the third week in December. And I got out of fair amount this year, more so than in two thousand and sixteen, so I call it chalk that up as a success. Um. How does it deal with my bow? Pretty early on, I UM, I killed a couple of dolls during rightful season as well. UM pass on a lot of young bucks in New York States, UH, one of those states that is still has pretty high proportions of young bucks and the harvest and UM trying to be to do my part and pass up some of those young bucks and trying to student the older class age class year and ended up without a uh an empty buck tag. So I did not take a buck this year, but I still had a very good season regardless. Well, Matt, what are some of your big takeaways from as far as what are some of the big themes that you noticed, whether related or crops related, or food sources related or otherwise. I'll tell you, at least where I haunt in the eastern part of the state, prop related, there was there was a lot of corn standing late in the year this year. I think part of the the process with farming in this part of the country. There's a lot of dairy farms, um, and it really slowed things down going into the into the mid part of the season. Obviously, with all that standing corn, the deer still the visibility of them uh a little bit limited. Um. It certainly helped to a degree, but with some properties that that may have been set up that way. So crop wise, I saw corn standing a lot longer than it had in the past. Weather it was pretty standard as in other years. I mean, there was no major events that threw things off. I'll tell you. Rut wise, though, the thing that I did notice was we did have a pretty good rot during the archery season in the southern part of New York. UM there was a good activity, There was good chasing, a lot of daylight activity, and it seemed to trickle off and slow down right before our firearms season opened. So um, in terms of saving some of those young deer, it was a good thing. It probably changed the dynamic in terms of what it were shot. But um, overall it was a good season. Nothing really out of the norm though for what I have experienced in the past. You touched on some of the food sources in Western New York with the cornfields. How about some of those natural food sources, the acorns, the apples, just generally in the Northeast this season we are soft mass production. This year seemed like it was at a at a higher level from what I personally experienced and saw, especially apples, um, and from talking to other people, I think we had one of those years with the flowering and everything kind of working in favor and having a lot of apples on trees. Um. I think it was like three years ago. Um, we had a really crazy apple year. So in that sense, it seemed up acorns were spotty though in beach nuts hadn't heard any major regions, at least throughout the New England, New York area where there was just a lot of acre worms on the ground. Um. That certainly can throw a wrench in your plans when it does happen. Spotty can be good, especially first setting up strategy finding trees that are good producers and have a lot of acorns under them. And uh, I personally did not capitalize on that. But I have a friend that really did capitalize and shot a couple of good deer based on acorn production on some trees. So, um, it was spotty this year in the Northeast as far as I could see. Well, that is there any big takeaway that you had from seen, maybe a lesson that you've learned that you'd apply going forward into seasons Beyond that, I enjoyed my two thousand seventeen season, uh greatly. Actually, I tried to take a little bit different perspective this year, enjoyed my time outside and not get too serious about it. Um. I get I have found myself in the past, especially in the role I play with q m A, to get, you know, really intense about hunting. And I tried to enjoy my time of field this year in a little bit different mindset and going out there and just enjoying being in the tree, and that could also come with age, um as I get older. I kind of enjoyed that as well. One thing I did do this year was I have a close friend that's a forrester as well as myself, and he's been asking and enquiring about hunting for a couple of years and I really need time to take him out this year and getting his first year and that made my season. And I know it's cliche to say it, but for the listeners out there, if you've ever had a coworker or relative or um spouses relative, or somebody that is in your periphery that has shown interest, make sure you take some time out for them, because it really was an amazing experience getting my friend his first year, and I really look forward to next season doing the same thing. I'm going to try to make that a tradition for myself is to introduce somebody new every year. Yeah. I think that sounds like a great thing to work on, not to for for you, but for all hunters. So thanks for joining me, Matt, and good luck in Thanks Spencer, thanks for having me alright and joining us on the line. Next out of Minnesota is Tony Peterson with bow Hunter Magazine. Now, Tony, I know you've been all over the Midwest and the Great Plains this year, and how is your season gone thus far? Man, I had a good season. Um, pretty good. I should say. I killed four bucks in a couple of dos all bow hunting this year. UM, most of them were on public land. You know. My only hiccup this year was Wisconsin was just absolutely kicked my butt. But otherwise, UM, just had a really solid season. What Tony, did you notice anything on the public land this year that was different than maybe most years or something stuck out to you in UM? I would say what I noticed this year was a few more people. Um, I don't. I don't think our hunter numbers are going through the roof or anything like that, So I think it just must be more people either hunting public land or taking these trips, you know, similar kind of trips that I take. But I definitely had some company this year, and it felt like more company than usual. How about your rud hunting? Was anything unique there as far as the activity that you saw or the weather you experienced? Um, the weather that I experienced during the rut, I I spent about nine days hunting, Uh, northern Wisconsin, mostly on public land, and the weather was really cold, and the activity was guys on four wheelers going out to set their bait sites up from what I could tell, Um, so it was just difficult. Um, it was not. I did see some chasing, some activity. I saw a few really good box um, just randomly, but nothing that ever just felt like it was clicking, like it showed during the rut. How about the weather from the season, either early season or you know up until now late season. Um. You know, our late season here has been stupid cold that you know, almost painful to go outside. I've been out trying to shoot a dough here in Minnesota and um, it's really not that much fun. Um. You know, early season, you know, you get your weather swings. And the worst weather I probably had was in South Dakota and your home state when I camped in the downpour and hunted in the downpour for three or four days. Um, that was probably the worst weather I had. We you've covered some diverse areas this year, from Wisconsin to to South Dakota and stuff. What have you noticed with different food sources this fall? Um? You know, I felt like there was quite a bit of food out there here in Minnesota. And you know, I had a different a few different properties throughout the state and um, some places I hunted, especially southeastern Minnesota, I was around quite a few acorns, you know, the acorn crop. The hard mass seemed pretty solid. Up here where I lived just north of the Twin Cities, it wasn't nearly as good. Um. You know, we had a late corn harvest in a lot of places that that affected some things, for sure. I think it affected the gun hunters more than anything. But you know, it was definitely a factor. Um. But you know, it's the stuff that you deal with every year in one capacity or another. Well, spending a lot of time in the Dakotas, I know you were in some areas that were ravished by h D in the last five or six years. What have you seen for deer numbers this year as opposed to maybe twenty um, you know, South Dakota. I hunted South Dakota and North Dakota on public land in in spots that had been hit by h D, and I still thought the numbers were pretty solid. Um. I don't think there's as many deer where I hunt in South Dakota as there was maybe five or six years ago, but the population is still pretty good. And where I went North Dakota, they've been hit by h D randomly, you know, a few times over the last decade. And I saw an awful lot of white tails and quite a few meal deer, and um, you know, the river bottom where those white tails lived didn't seem to be affected too much. What Tony, You're one of the best white tail bowl hunters that I know, and I imagine having that kind of title that you're learning new things every year, is there's something in seen that you picked up that you think maybe you can apply to ten or other seasons going forward. Man, I don't know if that title applies or not. If you just saw me in Wisconsin, I'm not so sure. But one thing I will say about this year, and I've talked about this quite a bit, uh, is man, I'm I'm to the point now where I want to I want to scout fresh sign and hang a news stand every chance I can. And I'm just I'm just going that kind of old school route where you find a rub line hanging stand. If it doesn't shake out, you move it, and that that lesson is coming back to me hard over the last few years. Well it's Tony. Good luck in and congrats some o your successes in seventeen. Thanks for joining me often. Thanks man. And that concludes this week's episode and this season's final episode of Wired Haunt's Rut Radio. I want to thank our sponsors at SITKA, Matthews, Trophy Ridge, Yettie, Whitehail Institute, Whitehail Properties, unt Terra, and Maven, and we thank you guys for listening. I also want to thank everyone who contributed to this year's episodes, all fifty seven of you who provided reports from New Hampshire to Louisiana up to North Dakota. You guys have made this podcast possible, so good luck to everybody. Is we transition into shed hunting and turkey hunting and summer scouting and everything else until I talk to you guys again next September. Until then, if you want to follow along with some of my other work, you can check me out on Instagram at Spencer new Hearth, where you can see my website where most of my writing and photography lives roof Communications dot Com. I'll talk to you guys again in season three or rut radio, But until then stay wired to hunt, but to dot. Beca

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