0:02

Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast,

0:05

your home for deer hunting news, stories

0:08

and strategies, and now

0:10

your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome

0:14

to the Wired to Hunt Podcast.

0:16

I'm your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number

0:18

one and today we're

0:20

back for our final RUT Radio

0:23

episode of the two thousand seventeen

0:25

season, and we're recapping what

0:27

types of things we learned, what were the themes and

0:29

trends from the past season, and we check in

0:32

with hunters from across the country to get their

0:34

perspectives too.

0:43

All right, welcome back, folks to another

0:46

episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast,

0:48

and we are here today

0:51

with our final well

0:54

you could say it's our first RUT radio

0:56

episode of two thousand eighteen, but it's

0:58

also our final RUT radio episode

1:00

of the two thousand seventeen season.

1:03

Um, it just so happens that's in the

1:05

new year, and today you know what

1:07

we're gonna do is we're going to kind of take

1:10

a high level look back at

1:12

the year, at the season, um,

1:14

and at the different trends and

1:16

um, oh geez, I

1:18

don't know. We've we've each week over

1:21

the last three or four months now,

1:23

right, we've talked different hunters all across the country

1:25

about what's happening in the White Tail was

1:28

what kind of activity they've seen, how the

1:30

conditions have been impacting dear behavior,

1:32

what types of tactics have been working. And we've

1:34

done that week by week by week by week, and

1:37

that's been interesting to follow, you know, on a

1:39

short term basis. But I think if

1:41

you pull back and look at this

1:43

from a from a thirty thousand foot overview,

1:45

there's some interesting things we can learn from

1:48

that as well, looking at the season and

1:50

the kind of it's an entire um

1:52

in its entirety, I guess, and that's

1:54

something I think we can learn from and then apply to

1:57

the next season in future years. So that's kind of

1:59

what I was hope and we could do in today's episode.

2:01

And of course, Um,

2:03

Spencer new Heart of Courses with us and

2:06

Spencer, you have been doing an awesome job

2:08

all season putting these episodes together.

2:10

So I just want to first off, thank you

2:13

for taking the time to do this, for

2:15

connecting with so many different people and getting their

2:17

their reports and insights on what's happening.

2:20

Um, I can say personally I've gotten

2:22

a lot from this, and I know our listeners have to so

2:25

so well done, my friend, thank you.

2:27

I appreciate that. Mark and I enjoy making

2:29

these and so I hope people enjoy listening

2:31

them as much as I enjoy producing

2:34

them. Yeah, So, so what are your thoughts

2:36

on today's episode? What are you what are we gonna try to achieve

2:38

here? Well, as you mentioned

2:40

in the past, all of our reports

2:43

that we received have been very immediate,

2:45

looking at what's happened in the last seven days

2:48

and looking at what's probably gonna be happy in the next

2:50

seven days. So

2:52

this episode is obviously very different. UM

2:55

when we step back and look at the themes for

2:57

the seventeen season and

2:59

so there are five things in

3:01

particular that I picked up on UM

3:05

kind of ending the season this year,

3:07

we we covered thirty three states for radio.

3:10

I believe we had was about fifty seven total

3:12

reports over fourteen episodes, and

3:14

so I spin all that,

3:17

Uh, there was about five things that stuck

3:19

out to me, and those five things all happened to come up

3:21

in today's episode when reflecting

3:24

on the fall of Seen and so

3:27

and actually spends it really quick before you jump

3:29

on those UM, just so

3:32

that our listeners know what's coming up to

3:34

right it's not just you and me talking today about

3:36

reflecting reflecting on the season, but we

3:38

also have some of our guest reporters

3:41

back to reflect on the entire season as well. Is

3:43

that right? Yeah? And kind of the same

3:45

idea we cover covering the

3:47

white tail nation. And we started Nebraska

3:49

and talked to Bryce Lamley from Sitka.

3:52

Uh, then we go to Illinois, talked to Alex Gillstrom

3:54

from white Tail Properties, and then in New

3:56

York from q d M as Matt Ross, and

3:59

then we talked to Tony Eaterson in Minnesota

4:01

with bow Hunter Magazine. Uh. These

4:03

guys have hunted all beyond the borders

4:05

of their states as well, and so UM,

4:07

bringing in these four kind of helped

4:10

us get a wide view of the entire

4:13

uh, you know, white tailed woods in

4:15

the the US. And so those

4:17

five themes that I had mentioned previously,

4:20

one of them being, um the e h

4:22

D recovery and a

4:24

lot of the US was hit in two thousand

4:27

twelve with e h D and kind

4:29

of we're still feeling, uh,

4:32

the aftershock of that, and and it varies

4:34

in the Dakotas. I feel like our deer

4:36

numbers are back. I wrote a blog post and wired to

4:38

hunt. I think a year ago saying

4:41

how this could be the glory days,

4:43

you know that we always want to talk about and reflect

4:45

on because right now the aide structure

4:47

is starting to develop again. Uh,

4:49

and we're seeing a lot of deer who had never

4:51

been pressured before because with that e h

4:54

D Uh, you get

4:56

typically a big cutback in tag numbers.

4:58

Um, there's hunters in the woods

5:01

for the period of time after. And

5:03

so what I've seen is that a lot of deer just

5:06

haven't been educated yet in my area,

5:08

uh, because there isn't a ton of hunters

5:10

out there chasing a ton of deer. And so we'll

5:13

talk about the e h D recovery today and

5:15

both sides of the coin Nebraska Brice didn't

5:17

feel like they're seeing as well. Where Tony who

5:19

hunted the Dakotas Uh, it feels

5:22

like those populations are really starting to come back. And

5:24

then we moved into October. UH,

5:27

and this year, I recalling

5:29

the last couple weeks of October

5:31

that there was a lot of optimistic reports

5:34

and the number one thing to attribute

5:36

that too were the cold fronts that seemed

5:38

to hit all the right notes. Uh. And

5:40

Alex had a quote something like this.

5:43

He said something if you were to pick out a calendar

5:45

and circle the dates that you wanted a cold front

5:47

in seen, it felt like we got

5:49

that this year, you

5:52

know. On that note, if I can jump in,

5:54

I kind of thought the same thing, like I thought,

5:56

oh man, we just have been We're

5:59

getting just the gift of all

6:01

gifts as far as the right weather at the right

6:03

time. Because I, at least here in Michigan and

6:06

Ohio, we had this big colt from the hit

6:08

like October twenty five where

6:10

it dropped like twenty or thirty degrees or something.

6:12

I just thought that was gonna blow the doors

6:15

off of things. Um.

6:17

And we did get that weather, which should

6:19

have been great now for my own

6:21

personal experiences, though I didn't see

6:23

the increasing activity that I was expecting,

6:26

um to to go along with that front.

6:28

Now. Of course, you know, we can't

6:31

make any big picture, um

6:33

takeaways from just a single person situation

6:35

from what I saw in Michigan and from Ohio

6:38

trail cameras and stuff. UM,

6:40

But that was one thing that I personally

6:42

experienced, it was the great weather, and then I

6:44

just didn't get the increased activity that I was

6:46

hoping for, and that even continued into November

6:49

a bit, because you know, as as we as

6:51

I'm sure you're mentioning here, that

6:53

that great October weather continued

6:56

all the way through like early November. I

6:58

can't remember a year that we've

7:00

had better weather during

7:02

the rut, at least in the places I was hunting. I

7:04

feel like every year, um,

7:06

at least for the last decade, when I've really been following

7:09

this closely during the rut, you always

7:11

end up. At least for me, it seems that there

7:13

always seems to be like a day or two or three or four

7:16

where you get these abnormally hot

7:18

temperatures and everyone's bummed

7:20

about a temperatures in early November

7:23

screwing up the best weeks of the rut. This

7:25

year, at least where I was at, we didn't get that. We

7:27

just had perfect cold to cool

7:30

weather from you know, like October twenty

7:32

straight on through in November. I mean, you couldn't ask

7:34

for anything more from that standpoint.

7:36

But I also wondered, because of that,

7:39

if we didn't have any huge

7:42

drops, like relative drops like it dropped

7:44

October sex somewhere

7:47

around there into like the forties. And

7:49

again this is where I was that, of course these temperatures

7:51

might be different across the country, um, but if I

7:53

remember right, temperatures just kind

7:55

of stayed steadily cool for the next

7:58

three weeks. That there wasn't any big ups

8:00

and downs from that standpoint, and

8:02

I wonder if that might maybe, well,

8:05

I guess I'd rather have this than have a bunch

8:07

of hot temps. It maybe we

8:09

didn't have those a huge bursts of cold

8:11

for an activity that sometimes you get when you get a twenty

8:14

or thirty degree temperature drop, um,

8:16

simply because it just kind of stayed steady

8:18

at that point. And again, like I've said several

8:21

times, and that was just what I experienced. I don't

8:23

know if you heard anyone else bring up something along those

8:24

those lines, but it was kind of an interesting

8:27

weather you're during the rut better

8:29

certainly way better than it could have been. But I wonder

8:31

if maybe the lack of like big changes,

8:33

um kind of led to a little bit

8:36

of a stagnant flow to some

8:38

of the running activity that we see. Does any of that

8:40

ring ring a ring a bell with you at

8:42

all? Well? I think bringing

8:45

up that those those cold fronts seemed well

8:48

timed. If at the very least, it

8:50

gives hunters some confidence. It'll

8:52

get guys in the tree stand if they feel

8:54

like they need to wait for a cold front. Um,

8:57

there was multiple, you know, small

8:59

ones, as you meant, and that seemed to hit all the way from

9:01

mid October all the way to the beginning

9:04

of November. And so if you were waiting on a cold front, you

9:06

likely got to haunt one at some point

9:08

during what you considered some good rutting

9:10

action. And I've always considered

9:13

that a potential factor in the past. Why guys

9:15

think that cold fronts uh

9:17

are so great from hunting, just because

9:20

maybe it gives them a little more confidence and it

9:22

focuses you when you're in the tree stand, and maybe you

9:24

pick one of your better tree stands on one of those

9:26

cold front days. And uh, it's not

9:28

always attributed to the deer movement

9:30

was potentially better, Um, but you

9:32

were just in a better spot and you

9:34

were more focused. Hm. So

9:37

you're Sam. So you're saying that maybe

9:40

even if the cold fronts aren't impacting actual

9:42

dear behavior, if if nothing else, just

9:44

because so many people in the deer hunting media preach

9:47

about cold friends, it just increases hunters

9:49

confidence and leads to better hunts

9:51

because of that. Yes, this is something

9:53

I've been work shopping for a while. I guess us

9:56

that if if you see a cold front

9:58

coming, you're gonna be more confident that the deer

10:01

movement is going to be there. And so,

10:03

as you said, there's more guys in the woods,

10:05

you're likely picking one of your better tree stands

10:08

for that hunt. You're probably more

10:10

focused because you're thinking, oh, you know, this

10:12

could be it. And so I think

10:14

we put a lot of stock into cold

10:16

fronts and what they dear to do to dear

10:18

movement. Um. And I think some of

10:21

that is appropriate, But I think the other half of

10:23

the coin is that, uh, guys

10:25

just find themselves in better positions

10:27

than they would be if, say, a cold front wasn't

10:29

there, you probably wouldn't be in that stand because

10:33

you wouldn't feel very good about

10:35

the deer movement in that area. It's an interesting

10:37

observation. I think there could

10:39

be some truth to that. Um.

10:41

I mean, I certainly love cold fronts. I think that there

10:43

definitely is something to it. But you

10:46

can't deny the fact that there is a ton of hype

10:48

around them these days too. Like especially

10:51

with social media and all the media

10:53

just regular outdoor media now

10:56

too. Like I remember that mid

10:58

Act or that late October when that big front

11:00

was coming through the country. If you look

11:02

to Instagram or Facebook or anything,

11:04

there were so many people posting memes

11:06

about it or all sorts

11:09

of articles talking about better be in the woods. Heck,

11:11

I made a YouTube video about it. I mean, there's

11:13

all sorts of people talking about the front. So

11:16

just the level, the level of talk about

11:19

these big things coming across

11:21

the country, the impact deer hunting these days, Like, I think

11:23

there's a level of buzz

11:26

about things, collective understanding

11:29

about things that there probably was

11:31

not ten years ago. You know, ten years ago,

11:34

nobody was talking about this stuff. You know, it's

11:37

such a high degree where

11:39

so many people are hearing about the same things. So

11:41

it's it's an interesting idea, and I think it's something

11:44

to think about. Um. But

11:46

I do love those could friends, Yeah, I

11:49

I love them as well. I'm always going to be a triet

11:51

if I get a chance on the cold Front. But I think

11:53

what we have is is potentially an echo chamber

11:55

of everybody say the same thing. As

11:57

you mentioned the media that you've got to be there in the cold front,

12:00

and then uh, that just gets repeated

12:02

and it becomes fact almost And then I know

12:04

you've discussed with some biologists,

12:07

uh, how whether fronts affect

12:09

your movement. I believe Lindsay might have touched

12:11

on this with you one time, that there's no science

12:13

that shows that cold fronts affect

12:16

dear movement. But I think he

12:18

might have may have even admitted that that goes

12:20

against some of his deer hunting um

12:23

beliefs as well. And so, like

12:25

I said, I think cold fronts appropriately

12:28

get some hype, but it might be too much that there

12:30

might be other factors involved there. Ye, speaking

12:32

of hype um. You

12:34

know, one of the things I noticed this here is I

12:36

was following the moon and

12:39

the different theories around the moon and seeing how

12:41

that tracked with my own observations. Now,

12:43

again, he can't make

12:45

too many claims or you

12:48

know, uh what am I

12:50

trying to stay here? Out of one

12:52

person's observations. You don't want to take too

12:54

much out of that. So what I'm about to say here, don't

12:56

take this as as fact across the board. This

12:58

is just one person's officer rations, not

13:01

even really data driven. This is simply

13:03

anecdotal. But I did try to track

13:05

the different moon theories, the red moon theories,

13:07

you know, when the moon's overheaded, underfoot, or

13:09

if the moon is rising or setting earlier

13:12

late in the day, um, and

13:14

seeing if that correlated with increased activities.

13:16

So on the days and the moon was good, did I also

13:19

see the activity bump that you're supposed

13:21

to? And I can't say that I really saw

13:23

anything noticeable. Um. I

13:25

didn't you know, go into those days and

13:28

and just get floored by oh my gosh, yeah,

13:30

this is incredible, and it was on those

13:32

right days. Um. But again

13:35

I wasn't tracking it so closely that I could

13:37

say that. You know, if I was really good

13:39

about this, I would have tracked how many deer I

13:41

saw per hour or something throughout

13:43

the entire season, and then look at the days

13:45

with the right moon conditions and I could tell you,

13:48

oh, well, on those days there was actually a four percent

13:50

increased you know, sight rating or

13:52

something like that. If I had that kind of data, then maybe

13:54

we could pull some conclusions. Um. I

13:56

don't. But just from my general observation

13:59

standpoint, it didn't feel like I saw anything

14:01

different on those good moon days. Um,

14:04

and I've been tracking it for a handful of days. I'm still up

14:06

in the air on it. UM. Again to

14:08

what you said, Spencer, the research

14:10

and science out there doesn't point

14:12

to any kind of correlation. They have not been able to find

14:14

a correlation. Um. But there's

14:16

a whole heck of a lot of good deer hunters that

14:18

still believe it. So that's that's an interesting

14:21

thing. UM. But I realized I'm

14:23

pulling things off the rail here, Spencer. I've totally taken

14:25

you off of your five trends,

14:28

So maybe we want to get back onto your your track.

14:31

Yeah, So back to the five trains. The first two that

14:33

we just covered was the the e h D recovery

14:36

and then the October cold front. Uh.

14:38

The third one, keeping that October theme,

14:41

was the huge acorn crop that

14:43

it seemed like everybody was dealing

14:45

with this year. And that was whether

14:47

you're in Arkansas or Wisconsin,

14:50

or Vermont or Nebraska,

14:53

there was just everybody was

14:55

talking about the acorns, and that

14:57

could be good and bad some guys.

15:00

Else it was suppressing the movement in

15:02

October that you had to, you know, work

15:04

harder to define the deer or

15:07

others were excited about it a little bit later

15:09

in the year. So, did you see a

15:11

large acorn crop in in Michigan or a lot

15:13

of your contexts you've talked to you uh

15:16

hit on that hot topic this year. Yeah,

15:18

I think that was something that I saw as well. And

15:20

I think, UM to that point, if

15:23

you were hunting in a situation where you were

15:25

kind of hoping for or dependent

15:27

on activities on egg related

15:29

food sources or food plots, that's

15:32

where the acorn crop maybe screwed things up

15:34

for it. Because if you had like all of your early season

15:36

or mid October setups, you know,

15:39

over food like a grain, food

15:41

source or food plot of some kind, Like I

15:43

had a couple of setups like that, UM,

15:45

I had very little activity on those

15:47

spots in daylight, UM,

15:50

especially mature bucks compared to past years.

15:52

And I think a lot of that can be attributed to what

15:54

you just said that a lot of these deer

15:57

they didn't need to go onto the fields during daylight

15:59

because they had food food in the timber

16:01

right next to their bedding, UM, which

16:04

you know, just makes it more difficult. You can't get in

16:06

there. It's very tough to catch use deer in daylight.

16:09

So so yeah, I heard a lot of people mentioned that same

16:11

thing, and I saw something that as well. Yeah,

16:13

I'd say the acorns uh in October

16:16

played a big role on how a lot of archers,

16:19

you know, whether they had success or not in seventeen.

16:22

So the fourth themed that I noticed

16:24

was the late harvest. As far as corn

16:27

and soybeans. It seemed like we

16:29

had a wet beginning of the

16:31

year and then pretty mild temperatures

16:33

that seem to keep farmers out of the

16:35

fields, and maybe some timely rains that um

16:38

kept farmers out of the fields as well, and that

16:41

can change things on a whole number

16:43

of different scales. UM. I guess

16:46

you could see deer that consistently

16:48

stay in fields that never come out,

16:51

you know. I find deer in South Dakota that will bed

16:53

and slows in the middle of a corn field and you won't

16:55

see them until harvest. Or

16:58

that could be good for you if you have some the only

17:00

food around. UM. So, if

17:03

you're dependent on corn or

17:05

soybeans, you had likely had a

17:07

late harvest seas here and that was something that you

17:09

were always game planning around. Definitely,

17:13

something impacts things here, specifically

17:16

in southern Michigan, we actually had early harvest.

17:19

Um, we had the crops coming out here

17:21

earlier than I ever remember. But that that could have been

17:23

unique to just write where I'm at, um,

17:26

But I saw like the opposite of what you just

17:28

said, and that with that early Um,

17:30

with the early harvest of the corn fields

17:32

and stuff, lots of times that standing corn

17:35

would keep deer in some of these areas

17:37

that maybe didn't have good cover otherwise.

17:39

So when those came down so early

17:41

in our case, it was like mid October that

17:44

these corn fields were coming down. Um, that

17:46

changed things up just a lot sooner than usual because

17:48

more often than not, I'm seeing you know, standing

17:51

corn fields coming down, you know in

17:53

the first second week ago in November maybe

17:55

around here. And it was almost a full month

17:57

earlier for me here, So that that

17:59

just changed things for me just in a different way.

18:02

But yeah, the time of the harvest, that's

18:04

a big one. Whether it's early or late. You

18:06

just need to stay on top of that if you hunt

18:08

in an area where where those things are happening,

18:11

right, And like I said, some guys were fired up about another

18:13

guys were down on If you were a

18:15

gun hunter and you know, you primarily

18:18

hunt a big, open cut

18:20

cornfield, and that cornfield wasn't cut

18:22

then obviously that made things difficult

18:24

for you. But if you UH came

18:27

upon you know, mid November and

18:29

your corn hadn't been harvested, you're an archer

18:31

and you had some of the only food around, uh

18:34

than than that might have been great for your

18:36

situation. So the late harvest UH

18:39

just played a role for everybody. It seemed like weather good

18:41

or bad. I always, selfishly,

18:44

I have always liked it when we get a late

18:46

harvest. I always root for

18:49

standing corn fields to still be standing

18:51

on November because

18:53

that's our opening day gun season. And I always feel

18:55

like if you've got standing cornfields

18:58

when a gun season opens up, there's just to be

19:00

more young bucks that make it through the next year. I've

19:02

always I wish I could saw how track that

19:05

UM to see if the rate

19:07

of bucks that reached maturity the year after

19:10

a late harvest year is higher,

19:12

because I gotta believe that those those standing

19:14

cornfields save a lot of young bucks if they're

19:16

present. UM. That definitely didn't

19:18

happen for us this year. Well.

19:21

And then the fifth theme, UH, it's

19:24

just the month of December and how

19:26

the weather was in It seemed like the first fifteen

19:28

days or the first half of December was

19:30

fairly mild, and uh that was

19:32

kind of frustrating and maddening

19:34

for a lot of guys who rely on those good

19:37

late season haunted. It didn't push the deer onto

19:39

the food plots that it normally would. It

19:41

didn't congregate them and didn't push

19:43

him into the winter bedding areas

19:46

where they'd maybe be seeking some better cover. And

19:48

so it seemed like the first half of December

19:51

was kind of frustrating with the mild weather that we had

19:53

for for deer hunters at least, and

19:55

then the second half of December brought some harsher

19:58

conditions, some snow, wind

20:00

and and some cold that uh

20:03

did end up helping guys out. People were excited

20:05

that their plots finally had some activity

20:08

or that their late season food source felt

20:10

like it was being treated like a late season food

20:12

source as opposed to you know, just

20:15

a couple of days prior in early December.

20:17

M hmm. Yeah, we definitely

20:19

definitely felt that. For sure, super warm

20:22

early December, super cold now in late

20:24

December, um, which which

20:26

leads me to a question which is

20:29

and I found myself in the situation in the past. Even this

20:31

year, I was thinking about a little bit. Right it was early December

20:33

and I wanted to wait for a good cold

20:35

front. Um. But then I was thinking

20:37

as December ticked along, and now it's the

20:40

seventh, eighth, ninth, Now it's the eleventh,

20:42

twelve, and you're

20:44

waiting for this great weather. Well, what happens if it

20:46

never comes? At what? At what point

20:48

do you need to say, Well, I just gotta start hunting

20:51

these late season, dear, because we're

20:53

not going to get that megic cold front. So do you

20:56

do you just start going because you can't wait

20:58

because the season could just slip by, or

21:01

or is the lesson learned from this year that

21:04

no, you should have stayed patient, because

21:06

if you waited until the twentie now you had

21:08

this incredible weather that did get the big bucks

21:10

all on the food sources in daylight um

21:14

versus. You know, if you had been pounding

21:16

it on the eighth, ninth, tenth

21:18

when it was kind of mediocre temperatures,

21:21

maybe you would have pressured those deer and now you

21:23

don't get to see them when they're really cold. Temperatures

21:25

hit Um,

21:27

I don't know. I I found myself struggle this

21:30

in the late season every year, like how long

21:32

do I wait until I start hunting? Because

21:34

you want that perfect weather, but you also you

21:36

also need to take some take some

21:38

opportunities to get out there in the woods. Um.

21:41

But it's that balancing at because you don't want to pressure them

21:43

too much of this time of year. Did

21:45

you hear anything along those lines from any of the other guys

21:47

or from your experience, Spencer, as far as you know, do

21:50

you did you go for it anyways? Or do you to keep

21:52

on being patient and wait and wait and wait until we

21:55

do get that primo weather. Nothing

21:57

like that came up specifically in this episode,

21:59

but just reflecting on um,

22:02

you know who we talked to in the month of December and it just

22:04

seemed like a lot of selective pressure.

22:06

And I remember talking to it might have been bred

22:08

Joy in the Northeast here a couple of weeks

22:10

ago, and uh, you know, their

22:12

season was like three days away from closing,

22:14

and I think I asked something about, you know, how aggressive

22:17

are you right now? And he said, well, there's three days of the

22:19

season left, so extremely aggressive. Um,

22:22

So that seems kind of obvious there that once

22:24

it gets down to the wire that

22:26

you have to be more aggressive. But then I remember talking

22:28

to some other guys who said, well, you know,

22:31

we have until January fifteenth, and so if

22:33

we bump a deer now, that might

22:35

be the last time we see him this season. So

22:38

just a selective pressure. And I guess I don't know

22:41

what the great answer is unless you have a crystal

22:43

ball to to see what the weather is coming.

22:46

Uh, just gotta roll the dice with those haunts.

22:49

It really is about being selective about picking

22:51

the right time to go in there. And it's

22:54

like you said, it's hard to make hard to know what's

22:56

coming. But I guess that's why deer

22:58

hunting is so much fun, because there's

23:00

a lot of unknowns and you gotta make

23:03

decisions, make some assumptions, work off of

23:05

them, and hope for the best and sometimes works

23:07

out, sometimes it doesn't. So those

23:10

are the five things that that I felt like, um

23:13

really were the theme of seventeen

23:15

across you know, the White Tailed Nation With

23:18

everybody this week, I asked him if there's something

23:20

that they felt like they picked up from

23:22

this last fall that they can use going forward,

23:24

Maybe a lesson that they learned in twenty seventeen

23:27

that they'll use inen and

23:29

seasons after that. So is there something you

23:31

mark that you feel like you learned in

23:34

seventeen that was really eye opening for you? Man?

23:38

Um, there's a lot, um.

23:42

But if I had to pick one thing to mention

23:44

now, I'll be expanding on

23:47

these in our next Wird Hunt podcast. But if

23:49

I were to offer one thing right now, um,

23:53

it might Heck, where

23:55

what do I want to say here? Don't

23:58

look at your phone too much. I'll keep it simple. No,

24:04

In all seriousness, I think, Um,

24:07

I think it's just been

24:10

a season where man

24:13

s, Yeah, I still haven't collected all my own thoughts on

24:15

things. It's still so fresh for me. A

24:17

lot of a lot of my lessons learned

24:20

this year were more related to my own personal

24:22

situation, you know, with my hunt

24:24

for holy Field, and that kind of consumed

24:26

everything that I did this year. So

24:29

I didn't necessarily get to have as many lessons

24:31

learned um outside of that one

24:33

experience, because so much of what I did was

24:36

revolving around that deer. Um. So

24:38

I do think that one big

24:40

lesson learned I had this year was just

24:43

about goal setting UM, and

24:45

sometimes UM,

24:47

putting all your eggs in one basket isn't

24:50

always as good of an idea. And I think doing

24:52

what I did kept me from

24:55

doing a lot of the other things that I think I would have enjoyed

24:57

and would have made for a great hunting season as well. But I

24:59

was so obsessed with this one thing. Um.

25:02

Now I realized this is not at all relevant

25:05

to the rest of the audience, who might be looking for

25:07

some kind of really high

25:09

level deer hunting insight. So maybe

25:11

I should just shut up and listen

25:14

to what your observation or lesson learned is, because

25:16

I'm sure it's more helpful than everything I've just been rambling

25:18

about. Well, my lesson learned

25:20

from seventeen was it goes back

25:22

to me killing that buck on September,

25:25

and I rarely have had much

25:28

for early season success to excuse

25:31

me to that point where I can kill a mature

25:33

buck like that. I think one of the biggest things

25:35

it was attributed to was just the

25:37

complete lack of pressure that I had put on that

25:39

property. UM. As

25:41

I said earlier this year, I got married

25:44

in June, and then I moved into a new house in August,

25:46

and so that really took

25:48

away a lot of my opportunities to be

25:50

out scouting and hanging cameras and uh,

25:53

doing things like that. And so I was just hunting

25:55

some historical movement on that hunt,

25:58

and that property hadn't

26:01

had my boots on it since I

26:03

don't know, six months prior

26:05

probably, and so I

26:07

think that just made a huge difference. Had I been

26:10

there, you know, multiple times hanging cameras

26:12

or you know, coming in and out on a four wheeler

26:14

or anything like that, I can't

26:16

imagine I would have had an opportunity at that booking.

26:19

So it's just showed me that less

26:21

is more, um for for that time

26:24

of year. It's made me rethink

26:26

potentially using some cell cameras or

26:28

you know, dialing way back

26:30

on cameras in general, so I'm not tempted

26:33

to go check them you know, September and

26:36

things like that. So it's

26:39

showed me that you can have some success early

26:41

season if you're just very, very

26:43

careful about it. Yeah.

26:46

Agree, I think that's a great point. Um

26:49

So, Spencer, if you were to look back

26:51

on the last four months

26:54

of hunting, how would you rate

26:56

the deer hunting on a scale of one to

26:59

ten for you, uh,

27:01

for me, I really couldn't have asked

27:03

for a better season, So it was a ten for

27:05

myself. Had the hundred

27:08

sixty six in September, and then I

27:10

killed the public Land

27:12

mule hero was very happy with, and then a

27:14

huck in in November.

27:17

So I was very satisfied when I put

27:19

together my season, you know, in in

27:22

the spring in summer. That's the kind

27:24

of Season nine vision happening. And so

27:26

I couldn't have asked for a better year. Do

27:28

we want to move on to the rest of the people. Yeah, we

27:31

just rambled for thirty minutes, so we've doubled

27:34

a normal radio episode, So

27:37

I will talk to you in sounds

27:40

good Spencer, thanks a lot for doing this, and thank

27:42

you everyone for listening, and uh

27:44

for those who participated to just for me

27:46

personally, UM, I appreciate you

27:48

guys working with Spencer. He can be a real bear

27:50

to work with. Good

27:53

stuff, All right, thanks part. Before

27:56

we get to our first update, though, let's positive think

27:58

our sponsors at sitki Gear. For

28:00

this week's story, we're joined by

28:03

sitcom Ambassador Alex Templeton, who

28:05

tells us about some exciting whitetail action

28:07

from early November. I had

28:09

been hiding consistently all season long

28:11

and Missouri with no luck, and at

28:14

the end of September I had the opportunity

28:17

to go to Illinois, which came at a

28:19

good time because the weather at home was really

28:21

warm and the deer weren't moving at all. So

28:24

after hunting a week in Illinois, coming

28:26

home and the handed, I was very determined

28:28

to kill a deer with my bow

28:30

before rifle season opened up in Missouri, which

28:33

is on November fifteenth every year UM.

28:36

At this point in the beginning of November

28:38

UM and the weather can be hit or mid this

28:41

time of the year as well, and

28:43

this is when the rut is starting to kick off

28:45

at the beginning of November, so I had pretty

28:47

high hopes for good deer movement. And

28:51

after a couple long days and

28:53

nights sitting on an evening time on my favorite

28:55

farm, I had a clean eight come

28:57

by and we offered me a perfect

29:00

side shot and I absolutely

29:02

smoked him and I was sorry to go a damn

29:04

about sixty away from my stand, and

29:07

I was super excited and pretty proud

29:09

of myself. On

29:11

Alexis hunt, she was wearing sicks

29:14

elevated to pattern in the women's line.

29:16

If you'd like to create a sikest story of your own,

29:18

or to learn more about Sitka's technical hunting

29:20

apparel, visit Sitka gear dot

29:23

com. Alright, and joining

29:25

me on the line first is Bryce Lamley

29:28

out of Nebraska with Sitka Gear.

29:30

Now, Bryce in Nebraska, what kind of

29:32

a season did you have this year? Well?

29:36

Pretty good. I had to work really hard.

29:38

I hunted seventy six times

29:40

before our guns season and ended up

29:42

killing about five

29:45

by five remark scrape

29:47

in October, and then two days before

29:50

rifle season killed a one thirty six um

29:52

inch buck um right in the evening,

29:55

just like I said, right before rifle season. But I had to work

29:57

really hard for him. And the one thirty six

29:59

was the second big year I saw. Bryce.

30:01

It sounds like a great year in UH

30:03

this past year. What are some

30:05

of the big themes that you noticed there in Nebraska

30:08

as far as you know, weather, timing

30:11

of their odd things like that. Well,

30:13

one of the things is I don't think Nebraska, at

30:16

least the eastern Nebraska has really recovered

30:18

totally from the h D epidemic we had

30:20

in two thousand twelve, and we've had a

30:22

little bit of a touch of it the last year or two

30:24

as well, But two thousand and twelve we've got hammered

30:27

pretty hard and it really knocked our

30:29

numbers back, and we're

30:31

still not back to where they were before

30:33

that, and I don't know if they ever will be back, because

30:35

I think the Game and Parts Commission UM felt

30:37

some heat from a lot of farmers about deer numbers

30:40

at that time. But deer numbers are still

30:42

rebounding, let's just put it that way.

30:45

Weatherwise, UM, the we

30:47

had extremely wet early

30:49

season and then it's like somebody

30:52

shut the water off about mid October, so

30:54

and it's been dry ever since. And

30:57

UM, I don't know if we've had an inchur brain

30:59

since probably mid October, and

31:02

it's still very dry right now. Well,

31:04

bryce to the conditions from

31:07

feel similar to anything else that you can

31:09

recall in years past. Well,

31:12

one of the um one of the interesting

31:15

things is we didn't get any We had one snow I

31:17

think in October in eastern Nebraska. It

31:19

lasted twelve hours, and then we really

31:21

didn't get any snow or cold weather

31:23

until just right here at the end the

31:26

lake I live on near uh In just

31:28

that west of Omaha, Nebraska is Um,

31:31

it didn't ice over until after Christmas. I

31:33

mean there were guys in their kayaks on Christmas Day

31:35

celebrating now, although the ice fishermen

31:38

haven't been real happy about it, but it's it

31:40

was really mild temperatures. And I just remember

31:42

one year and I couldn't tell you what year it was, but we

31:44

yet one year were the first mesa measurable

31:47

snow was December thirty one

31:49

and kind of a memorable hunt. I killed

31:51

the dough that day, but it was, uh, it

31:53

was just kind of like that. It was just an unusual year

31:56

with without a lot of precipitation throughout

31:58

what you would generally consider to be the best hunting

32:01

days and weeks. Well,

32:03

let's go back to talking about that moisture

32:06

and how do you think, um, that amount

32:08

of moisture that you guys received early season affected

32:11

things. Then how do you think in effective things come

32:13

the rout and then ultimately late season. Well,

32:16

I think the amount of rain

32:18

we had early on in some areas really

32:21

helped define dear movement to some extent

32:23

because it it made some areas, I

32:26

mean, deer can get through it. But they're essentially lazy

32:28

if they if they can be. And so

32:30

it's actually in some in some my areas

32:33

helped define the dear movement. But when

32:36

it started turning dry, I think it really

32:38

lead to less scraping activity, if that's

32:41

possible, because I didn't pick up as many

32:44

um or as much scraping activity um

32:47

that you know, in in the in the prime

32:49

time last half of October and so forth, and

32:52

as I usually do in the ground is just um,

32:54

you know, rock hard in many cases. And I've

32:57

heard that from some of my buddies over in eastern Iowa.

32:59

Two They just up staying, we need some water to get these

33:01

dear to to be more active in the scrapes.

33:04

And so I do think it had a little bit of an effect there,

33:06

um with the with the rut

33:08

just a little bit and our rut in eastern

33:11

Nebraska. It depends on who you talk to you. But for

33:13

me, I you know, I hinnd it really hard always

33:15

through um about November

33:17

twentieth and I was out of buck tags, and it

33:19

was it was not a really

33:22

there was never any really strong days

33:25

when I was just like, wow, this is a circus. In

33:27

most years, I'll get some of that. Um.

33:30

Now, I have a brother out in southwest Nebraska

33:32

and it's just as hard as I do. And he said

33:34

it was crazy out there combination

33:36

of white Town annual deer hunting. So I

33:38

think it probably depends on where you were at, but I know in eastern

33:41

Nebraska myself and several others

33:43

were a little bit disappointed in that. Well,

33:45

Bryce, you have a long resume of

33:48

successful white heil hunting with a bow,

33:51

But in ten do you feel like that you

33:53

learned anything new, or that the

33:56

weather, the ruts, anything changed

33:58

for you that that really, uh, something

34:01

you'll apply going forward. Well,

34:04

yeah, one of the I think one of our goals

34:06

should be to learn something every time we hunt. And

34:08

this year I dealt with a

34:11

property that had been basically

34:14

bulldozed, and uh,

34:16

it's just a passion. There's no cattle on it, and

34:19

it grew up in a lot of weeds, and so

34:22

I, you know, there's a learning experience

34:24

for me basically hunting a weed field. But

34:26

I did have a lot of activity

34:28

and then once the corn came out, there was a lot of deer

34:30

activity in the weeds and so forth,

34:33

And so maybe I'm getting a little bit of a feel

34:35

for for guys that hunt CRP quite

34:37

a bit. Um, I'm starting to get a feel

34:39

for that and maybe a newfound respect for

34:41

that because I was really depressed about what was

34:43

happening to this property, but now not so much.

34:45

And even after I killed my buck, Um,

34:48

I had a really close encounter with the biggest

34:50

year. I saw a year one forty on that

34:52

property and and I hope he made it.

34:54

I think he did, and so it'll be

34:56

interesting to match with with him again. Um.

34:58

It's a little bit different type of hunting. They can see

35:00

it coming a lot further away in many cases, but

35:02

I I think that there are some things you

35:05

can do with with a lot of grass

35:07

and a lot of weeds. And um,

35:09

I'm hopefully learning to adapt

35:12

to the changes. I guess. All right, Bryce

35:14

Fell, great intel, thanks for joining me, and

35:16

good luck in the season. I

35:19

appreciate. Thank you, Spencer alright

35:22

and joining us on the line. Next is Elik

35:24

Gilstrom out of Illinois with white tail

35:27

properties now Alex

35:29

in Illinois, what kind of season have you had

35:31

thus far? It's

35:34

been a it's been a blessed one, man, I gotta tell you.

35:36

Um, really good, uh, really

35:38

good hunting from really

35:41

from the word go. We

35:43

had really good, really good weather coming

35:45

in, really good a cold front steer movement's been

35:47

spot on. UM. We had

35:49

an awesome uh, an awesome rut here

35:52

in in early November. UM.

35:54

I actually killed a buck on the tent and

35:57

it was it was one of those mornings that we dream about, you know.

35:59

I mean it was. I was tucked in close to some security

36:02

cover. It was up against the Bedding Area transition

36:04

line along c RP. It was it was perfect,

36:06

just kind of wit kind of pinched down with this UM

36:09

with the terrain as well as the cover, UM

36:12

created a really just kind of good natural funnel and

36:15

I shot the bucket in the morning. He

36:17

was the eleventh buck that I saw that morning. Uh.

36:19

It's kind of one of those, like I said, one of those ones you just dream

36:21

about. So that was great. Well,

36:24

let's talk about that weather a little more that it

36:26

sounds like you think led to some of your successes

36:29

this year, starting in October

36:31

and then going in November December. How do you think

36:33

the weather affected buck movement

36:35

this season? I

36:38

think it was really good in in in the area

36:40

that I was hunting. Here in west central Illinois.

36:43

Um, that's where I spent months, where I lived,

36:45

where I spent most of my time. UM.

36:48

And it really it was it was

36:50

fairly mild, um,

36:52

you know, kind of throughout. But we had we

36:54

had just I mean, you couldn't you couldn't

36:56

pull up a calendar and point to where

36:59

you want cold front to fall any better than what they

37:01

did. I mean it really was um

37:03

awesome to see that. And and the

37:06

tempts fell at the right time. Pressure was high at the

37:08

right time, UM, and the dear movement

37:11

reflected that. UM. So

37:13

that was that was really great. And uh

37:15

so overall that it wasn't like we had

37:18

you know, unusually cold uh fall

37:20

as far as general temperatures go. UM,

37:22

I would say it was probably fairly average here

37:24

to slightly a little bit above average as

37:26

far as the standard temperature

37:29

we went. But um, like I said, you

37:31

know, we had those those anywhere from ten to

37:33

twenty degree drops situated

37:35

in the right times and by the right times. I'm talking

37:38

you know, UM that

37:40

the last ten days of October we

37:42

had a good one, um. And then the

37:44

first I'd say, you know, the first few

37:46

days of November a little bit warm. Then

37:49

it dipped off I think right around the

37:51

fifth or the sixth, if I remembmembering

37:53

correctly, we had another another good

37:55

front move in and and made you know,

37:57

the sixth to the twelve or thirteenth

37:59

from really really strong. So it

38:01

was it was awesome to see that. And like

38:03

I said, it just kind of you couldn't you couldn't point time point

38:06

on a calendar to have, you know, I want a cold front during

38:08

this time frame when you know their daylight movements

38:10

really picking up and they're getting really active. Um

38:12

as far as the mature bucks go, Uh, you couldn't

38:15

ask for any better. Really, well, from

38:17

talking to hunters all across the nation, uh,

38:19

this season, one common theme

38:21

that I heard from everybody was acorns and

38:24

how did acorns play role in Illinois and you're

38:26

hunting and specifically yeah

38:29

that Yeah, that doesn't surprise me that that

38:31

was a hot topic this year, just because um

38:34

it was they were,

38:36

they were everywhere. I mean, it was it was nuts

38:38

from I mean, it's it's always

38:41

cool. You get excited. You never see the white oaks. I mean, that's

38:43

that's a year at least, you know in the Midwest,

38:45

especially in western Illinois here. If you have white

38:47

oaks, the deer just love them. Um, they were

38:49

loaded this year. It seemed like pin oaks

38:51

and the red oaks were really good too. I mean, if you

38:53

had if you had good oak trees and and they

38:55

were definitely loaded up with acorns, there's no question.

38:58

Um, and I kind of had. Uh.

39:01

Again, it's kind of a bittersweet relationship

39:04

with acorns this year at one of my farms

39:06

that I'm I've got the privilege to hunt on and

39:09

it's I don't, I don't have any leases or anything like that, so

39:11

it's I've got permission on a couple of places

39:13

and and actually hunts some uh hunts of public

39:15

to quite a bit. So Um,

39:18

you kind of gott to pick and choose your your battles as

39:20

far as that goes. But um,

39:23

it's uh one of them in particular, it

39:26

was loaded with oaks. Um. Kind of these

39:28

had these you know, two big ridges that run through the property

39:30

and they were loaded with oaks. So it

39:32

kind of dispersed the gear a little bit because there was

39:35

so many oak trees. And then um, so

39:37

that made it really it made it tough. I mean, it makes it tough

39:39

when you have that too. It makes it tough for access because

39:41

you know, the deer aren't quote unquote where they're

39:44

supposed to be at the right times when you're trying

39:46

to get in and out of the property, and um, you

39:48

can always seems like you end up bumping more deer just because there's

39:50

kind of scattered out more and it changes their

39:52

patterns a little bit, especially when they're transitioning off

39:54

of the early seasoned food sources. Um.

39:58

But then you know, conversely, on the other side, do of a piece

40:00

of property where um, it's got

40:02

a bunch of ridges that kind of come together, and at

40:04

the point of where they all come together, that's where

40:06

there's kind of like a concentration of these

40:09

um of these oaks are. And actually that's the farm where

40:11

I ended up killing my Illinois deer. And I

40:13

was actually on one of the ridges

40:15

instead of on the concentration point. I

40:17

had hunted that these amount of times and hadn't had any

40:19

luck and moved off to a to a different ridge

40:22

and um, and

40:24

I'm I'm only kind of guessing that's where he

40:26

was headed. Uh, just in terms of

40:29

travel patterns and kind of figuring out what they were doing.

40:31

On this particular farm. Uh, he was kind

40:33

of headed to that back to you know, and then they bed

40:35

off farther away from

40:37

on beyond that that center point where the ridges

40:40

kind of come together. But he was definitely headed in

40:42

that direction. Um. And I attribute

40:44

a lot of that too, you know, to those acorns because having

40:47

that concentration of those oaks in that

40:49

particular you know, um, and then you do

40:52

you couple that with train features

40:54

of the ridges coming together. Um, they

40:56

made for an awesome combination. I mean you saw, like I

40:58

said, the morning I killed my up, there was

41:01

here in Illinois, there was a that was the eleventh buck I saw

41:03

that morning. You not to mention, you know, a dozen dolls

41:05

or so. Um. So it definitely

41:08

was cool because it concentrated the deer

41:10

in that area and then you know you talk to the

41:12

pre route and or the road on top of that. It just made

41:14

for made for really good. So I kind of stop both

41:16

ends of that spectrum. But yeah, I mean, if if

41:18

you had a lot of oaks or a lot of acorns and your hunting area

41:21

have no, it does not surprise me one bit that there was there.

41:23

You know, you kind of kind of gave you a headache this

41:25

year. Well, Alex, what is one

41:27

thing that you've taken away from this last ball

41:30

the season that something

41:32

you think you can apply going forward or something

41:35

that's really gonna stick with you and in the years

41:37

to come. Honestly, for me, I mean,

41:39

I've always been a huge proponent of postseason

41:41

scouting UM and I've done it

41:43

for for quite a while and it's and it just continues

41:46

to to add more confidence and more success

41:48

to each year. And I'm just gonna do even more of

41:50

that this year. I mean, when you can really go in

41:52

in the early spring before green up and and

41:54

shortly after snow melt, and you can kind of really

41:56

start to put the pieces of the puzzle together on betting

41:59

areas and feeding areas, travel routes, deer sign

42:01

I mean something buck sign in general, of deer

42:03

sign in general. Uh, it really can do wonders

42:05

UM to to really get a good understanding of

42:08

how the deer using its particular property

42:10

property you're hunting UM. And I'd say

42:12

that and coupled with one of the other really

42:14

really cool things I got to do this year was UM

42:16

and we're in western Illinois, you know, we're in We're in hill

42:19

country here. There's a lot of ridges and

42:21

and and you know, kind of rising terrain

42:23

and a lot of differentiation between terrain

42:25

and UM. I've hunted a let a little bit, just

42:27

kind of you know, sporadically in the past, but

42:29

you know, actually having a full you know season

42:31

here since I moved here to really dedicate

42:34

to to the to understanding

42:36

hill country hunting in terrain has been a lot of

42:38

fun. I've actually really enjoyed just kind of how the how

42:40

the deer, especially the mature bucks kind of used

42:42

the train to their advantage, everything from thermals in wind

42:44

direction to just general travel patterns. Um,

42:47

it's been really really cool from what I'm used to. I usually

42:49

I grew up in southwest Michigan and there just isn't

42:51

much terrain there, so uh, kind

42:53

of throwing that throwing that curve ball into the mix

42:55

has been a lot of fun to this year. As far as the h

42:58

D goes, you know, it's always a hot topic, especially

43:00

the last couple of years here, and I feel like you're in western Illinois,

43:02

you know what we call its historically known as the Golden

43:04

Triangle. We were definitely affected

43:07

in the two thousand twelves you know, die off. UM,

43:10

but now it's it's it's it's really exciting

43:12

looking for you know, thank god we've

43:14

had the relief the last couple of years. We

43:16

haven't been affected by it. But to

43:18

see the age structure, you know, I meantime h D,

43:20

it's kind of hitting that reset button. It's almost

43:22

like, but um, to see that age

43:25

structure really come back. UM, I think

43:27

the next year and especially two years from

43:29

now, barring any h D disasters,

43:32

UM, I think we're gonna see some of the best hunting that's

43:34

ever been here, or at least similar to what it was

43:36

in the late nineties, early two thousands, Like everybody talks

43:38

about UM, age structures

43:40

really come back and and it's and it's been an exciting

43:43

time to see, you know, a lot of great,

43:45

great three year olds. Awesome for you, I

43:47

mean, and then you're really getting you know, the quantity

43:49

of mature bucks has certainly coming back to so UM,

43:52

I think we're in good shape. All right,

43:54

alex Will, congrats on your seventeen successes

43:57

in good luck. Thanks for joining

43:59

me. Thanks, it's the same to you. Before

44:02

we get to our next color, though, let's positive

44:04

thing our sponsors at white Tail Properties

44:07

this week with white Tail Properties, we are

44:09

joined by Tom James, a land specialist

44:12

out of Central Indiana, and

44:14

Tom is going to be telling us about what the very

44:16

first habitat improvements should be for a land

44:18

manager. Good

44:21

question, Um. Some of the first

44:23

key things, the fundamentals that you want to

44:25

think about is when you think in

44:27

terms of what a deer requires, the food,

44:30

security, covering, water and

44:32

the q d m A has a great analogy of the thinking

44:35

about the lowest hole on the

44:37

bucket that you need to plug up to keep the water from

44:39

leaking out. So what

44:42

could be missing on your property that

44:44

the surrounding land may have, and

44:46

so you want to do a quick assessment. Maybe

44:48

it's food, Maybe it's water. Maybe if you can

44:51

maybe it's cover. If you can look through your woods and see

44:53

two hundred yards, then you've got an issue with

44:56

with too much shade, not enough

44:58

sunlight creating new potential

45:00

brows and cover for your deer. So maybe

45:02

it's a timber, a timber either

45:05

stand improvement or a harvest or a combination

45:07

of two that's gonna allow some more new growth

45:10

to come in and picking up your property.

45:12

Maybe it's as simple as you're not leaving an area

45:14

alone as a sanctuary. If you're trapesing

45:17

all over forty acres and pushing deer off every

45:19

time you go, then that's that's obviously

45:21

an issue. So maybe just an adjustment

45:23

in the way that you move around and

45:25

hunt the property and approach things. Uh.

45:27

If food is your lacking

45:30

ingredient or your lowest hole in the bucket, then

45:33

even in timber, it takes some work, but you can

45:35

certainly clear out some openings and

45:37

plant food. Um and I

45:39

would suggest considering both perennial

45:42

food and annual food stuff that you can leave

45:44

in like clover and chicory as a perennial

45:47

coming back every year and do some fall planted

45:49

cereal grains and brass tickets for the fall time,

45:51

so you've got a year round program going on. And

45:54

typically it's not an issue in the Midwest.

45:56

But if if water is a lacking ingredient,

45:58

then maybe you can create water hole or

46:00

even some of the new systems like the banks

46:03

water watering tanks

46:05

that you can set up that are mobile and fill up and

46:07

provide water sources for your deer so that they

46:09

don't have to leave the property to water. Again,

46:12

that's fairly rare, but that could be a consideration.

46:16

If you'd like to learn more and to see the properties

46:18

that Tom currently has listed for sale,

46:21

visit whitetail properties dot com.

46:23

Backslash James, that's j

46:26

A. M E. S alright

46:29

and joining us on the line. Next out of New York

46:32

is Matt Ross with q dm A. Now,

46:34

Matt, how is your season gone

46:36

thus far in New York? I

46:40

had a great season. Our season

46:42

typically opens uh as

46:44

most do, in early October, and it closes

46:46

about the third week in December. And I

46:49

got out of fair amount this year, more

46:51

so than in two thousand and sixteen, so

46:53

I call it chalk that up as a success.

46:56

Um. How does it deal with my

46:59

bow? Pretty early on, I

47:01

UM, I killed a couple of dolls during

47:04

rightful season as well. UM

47:06

pass on a lot of young bucks in New

47:08

York States, UH, one of

47:10

those states that is still has pretty

47:13

high proportions of young bucks and the harvest

47:15

and UM trying to be to do my

47:17

part and pass up some of those young bucks and trying

47:19

to student the older class age class year

47:22

and ended up without a uh an

47:24

empty buck tag. So I did not take

47:26

a buck this year, but I still had a very good season

47:28

regardless. Well, Matt,

47:31

what are some of your big takeaways from as

47:35

far as what are some of the big themes that you noticed,

47:37

whether related or crops related, or

47:40

food sources related or otherwise. I'll

47:44

tell you, at least where I haunt in the eastern

47:46

part of the state, prop related, there

47:48

was there was a lot of corn standing

47:52

late in the year this year. I think part of

47:54

the the process

47:56

with farming in this part of the country. There's a lot of dairy

47:58

farms, um, and it

48:01

really slowed things down

48:03

going into the into the mid

48:05

part of the season. Obviously, with all that standing

48:07

corn, the deer still the visibility

48:10

of them uh a little bit limited.

48:13

Um. It certainly helped to a degree,

48:15

but with some properties that

48:17

that may have been set up that way.

48:19

So crop wise, I saw corn

48:22

standing a lot longer than it had in the

48:24

past. Weather it was pretty standard as

48:26

in other years. I mean, there was no major

48:29

events that threw things off. I'll tell

48:31

you. Rut wise, though, the thing that I

48:33

did notice was we did have

48:35

a pretty good rot during

48:38

the archery season in the

48:40

southern part of New York. UM

48:42

there was a good activity, There was good chasing, a lot

48:44

of daylight activity, and it

48:46

seemed to trickle off and slow

48:49

down right before our firearms season

48:51

opened. So um, in terms of

48:53

saving some of those young deer, it was a good thing. It

48:56

probably changed

48:58

the dynamic in terms of what it were shot.

49:00

But um, overall it was a

49:02

good season. Nothing really out

49:04

of the norm though for what I

49:06

have experienced in the past. You

49:09

touched on some of the food sources in

49:11

Western New York with the cornfields. How

49:13

about some of those natural food sources, the acorns,

49:16

the apples, just generally in the Northeast

49:18

this season we

49:21

are soft mass production. This year

49:23

seemed like it was at a at a higher level

49:26

from what I personally experienced and saw,

49:29

especially apples, um, and from

49:31

talking to other people, I think we had one of those

49:33

years with the flowering and everything

49:36

kind of working in favor and having a lot

49:38

of apples on trees. Um. I

49:40

think it was like three years ago. Um,

49:43

we had a really crazy apple year.

49:45

So in that sense,

49:47

it seemed up acorns were spotty

49:50

though in beach nuts hadn't

49:52

heard any major regions,

49:55

at least throughout the New England, New

49:57

York area where there was just a lot

49:59

of acre worms on the ground. Um.

50:01

That certainly can throw a wrench in your plans

50:04

when it does happen. Spotty can be

50:06

good, especially first setting

50:08

up strategy finding trees that are good

50:11

producers and have a lot of acorns under them.

50:13

And uh, I personally did

50:15

not capitalize on that. But I have

50:18

a friend that really did capitalize

50:20

and shot a couple of good deer

50:22

based on acorn production on some trees.

50:24

So, um, it was spotty

50:26

this year in the Northeast as far as I could see. Well,

50:29

that is there any big takeaway that you had

50:31

from seen, maybe a lesson

50:33

that you've learned that you'd apply going forward into

50:36

seasons Beyond that, I

50:40

enjoyed my two thousand seventeen season,

50:42

uh greatly. Actually, I tried

50:44

to take a little bit different perspective

50:47

this year, enjoyed my time outside

50:49

and not get too serious about it. Um.

50:52

I get I have found myself in the past,

50:54

especially in the role I play with q m A, to

50:56

get, you know, really intense

50:59

about hunting. And I tried to

51:01

enjoy my time of field this year in a little bit

51:03

different mindset and going out there and just enjoying

51:06

being in the tree, and that could also come with age, um

51:08

as I get older. I kind of enjoyed that as well.

51:11

One thing I did do this year

51:14

was I have a close friend that's

51:16

a forrester as well as myself,

51:18

and he's been asking and enquiring about

51:21

hunting for a couple of years and I really

51:23

need time to take him out this year and getting his first

51:25

year and that made my season. And

51:27

I know it's cliche to say it, but for

51:30

the listeners out there, if you've ever

51:32

had a coworker or relative

51:35

or um spouses

51:37

relative, or somebody that is

51:40

in your periphery that has shown interest,

51:43

make sure you take some time out for them, because

51:45

it really was an amazing experience getting

51:48

my friend his first year, and I really

51:50

look forward to next season doing the same thing. I'm

51:52

going to try to make that a tradition for myself

51:54

is to introduce somebody new every year. Yeah.

51:57

I think that sounds like a great thing to work on,

51:59

not to for for you, but for all hunters.

52:01

So thanks for joining me, Matt, and good luck

52:03

in Thanks

52:06

Spencer, thanks for having me alright

52:09

and joining us on the line. Next out of Minnesota

52:12

is Tony Peterson with bow Hunter Magazine.

52:15

Now, Tony, I know you've been all over the Midwest

52:17

and the Great Plains this year, and how

52:19

is your season gone thus far? Man,

52:21

I had a good season. Um,

52:24

pretty good. I should say. I killed

52:26

four bucks in a couple of dos all bow hunting

52:29

this year. UM, most of

52:31

them were on public land. You know. My only hiccup

52:33

this year was Wisconsin was just absolutely kicked

52:35

my butt. But otherwise, UM,

52:37

just had a really solid season. What

52:40

Tony, did you notice anything on the public

52:42

land this year that was different than maybe

52:44

most years or something stuck out to you in UM?

52:48

I would say what I noticed this year

52:50

was a few more people. Um, I don't.

52:53

I don't think our hunter numbers are going through the

52:55

roof or anything like that, So I think it just must be more

52:57

people either hunting public land or taking

52:59

these trips, you know, similar kind of trips

53:01

that I take. But I definitely

53:03

had some company this year, and it felt like more company

53:06

than usual. How about

53:08

your rud hunting? Was anything unique

53:10

there as far as the activity that you saw

53:12

or the weather you experienced? Um,

53:16

the weather that I experienced during the rut, I I

53:18

spent about nine days hunting, Uh, northern

53:21

Wisconsin, mostly on public land,

53:24

and the weather was really cold, and

53:26

the activity was guys on four

53:29

wheelers going out to set their bait sites

53:31

up from what I could tell, Um,

53:33

so it was just difficult. Um,

53:36

it was not. I did see some chasing,

53:39

some activity. I saw a few really good

53:41

box um, just randomly,

53:43

but nothing that ever just felt like it

53:45

was clicking, like it showed during the rut. How

53:48

about the weather from the season,

53:51

either early season or you know up

53:53

until now late season. Um.

53:56

You know, our late season here has been stupid

53:59

cold that you know, almost painful

54:01

to go outside. I've been out trying to shoot a dough here in

54:03

Minnesota and um, it's

54:05

really not that much fun. Um.

54:07

You know, early season, you know, you get

54:09

your weather swings. And the worst

54:12

weather I probably had was in South Dakota and your

54:14

home state when I camped

54:16

in the downpour and hunted in the downpour

54:18

for three or four days. Um,

54:20

that was probably the worst weather I had. We

54:24

you've covered some diverse areas this year, from

54:27

Wisconsin to to South Dakota

54:29

and stuff. What have you noticed with different food sources

54:32

this fall? Um?

54:34

You know, I felt like there was quite a bit of food out there

54:37

here in Minnesota. And you know, I had

54:39

a different a few different properties throughout the

54:41

state and um, some places

54:43

I hunted, especially southeastern Minnesota,

54:46

I was around quite a few acorns, you know, the

54:48

acorn crop. The hard mass seemed pretty

54:50

solid. Up here where

54:52

I lived just north of the Twin Cities, it wasn't nearly

54:54

as good. Um. You know, we had a late corn

54:57

harvest in a lot of places that that affected

54:59

some things, for sure. I think it affected the gun hunters

55:01

more than anything. But you know, it was definitely a

55:03

factor. Um. But you know,

55:06

it's the stuff that you deal with every year in

55:08

one capacity or another. Well,

55:10

spending a lot of time in the Dakotas, I know

55:12

you were in some areas that were ravished by h D

55:15

in the last five or six years. What

55:17

have you seen for deer numbers this year as

55:19

opposed to maybe

55:20

twenty um,

55:24

you know, South Dakota. I hunted

55:26

South Dakota and North Dakota on public

55:28

land in in spots that had

55:30

been hit by h D, and

55:33

I still thought the numbers were pretty solid.

55:35

Um. I don't think there's as many deer where

55:37

I hunt in South Dakota as there was maybe

55:40

five or six years ago, but the population

55:43

is still pretty good. And where

55:45

I went North Dakota, they've been hit by h D

55:47

randomly, you know, a few

55:49

times over the last decade. And I saw

55:51

an awful lot of white tails and quite

55:53

a few meal deer, and um,

55:56

you know, the river bottom where those white tails lived didn't

55:58

seem to be affected too much. What

56:01

Tony, You're one of the best white tail bowl

56:03

hunters that I know, and I imagine having

56:06

that kind of title that you're learning

56:08

new things every year, is there's something in seen

56:11

that you picked up that you think maybe you can apply to ten

56:14

or other seasons going forward. Man,

56:18

I don't know if that title applies or not. If you just

56:20

saw me in Wisconsin, I'm not so sure. But

56:23

one thing I will say about this year,

56:26

and I've talked about this quite a bit, uh,

56:28

is man, I'm I'm to the

56:31

point now where I want to I want to scout fresh

56:33

sign and hang a news stand every chance

56:35

I can. And I'm just I'm

56:37

just going that kind of old school route

56:40

where you find a rub line hanging stand. If

56:42

it doesn't shake out, you move it, and

56:44

that that lesson is coming back

56:47

to me hard over the last few years. Well

56:50

it's Tony. Good luck in and

56:52

congrats some o your successes in seventeen.

56:55

Thanks for joining me often.

56:57

Thanks man. And that concludes

56:59

this week's episode and this season's

57:02

final episode of Wired Haunt's

57:04

Rut Radio. I want to thank our sponsors

57:06

at SITKA, Matthews, Trophy

57:09

Ridge, Yettie, Whitehail Institute,

57:11

Whitehail Properties, unt Terra,

57:13

and Maven, and we thank you guys

57:16

for listening. I also want to

57:18

thank everyone who contributed to this

57:20

year's episodes, all fifty

57:22

seven of you who provided reports

57:25

from New Hampshire to Louisiana

57:27

up to North Dakota. You guys have made

57:30

this podcast possible, so

57:32

good luck to everybody. Is we transition into

57:34

shed hunting and turkey hunting and summer

57:36

scouting and everything else until I talk

57:38

to you guys again next September. Until

57:41

then, if you want to follow along with some of my other

57:43

work, you can check me out on Instagram

57:45

at Spencer new Hearth, where you can see my website

57:48

where most of my writing and photography lives

57:50

roof Communications dot Com. I'll

57:52

talk to you guys again in season three

57:55

or rut radio, But until then stay

57:58

wired to hunt, but

58:00

to dot. Beca