Ep. 581: Rut Fresh Radio 10/5/22 - Falling Mast, Finding Bucks, and Involving the Family

season almost everywhere right now, Like October is here. This is what we like to affectionately call the pre rut. That's exciting times, man. I love being to this time of the year. We're actually up in South Dakota right now. Been hunting in Nebraska and it actually is fall here. Back home in Texas, it's still summer. Like my kids swimming in the backyard, you know, like it's going down. But up here in the North Country these deer moving around and it isn't exciting. Tyler Jones is also here

with me. Tyler, what is happening, dude? Oh, just you know, trying to chase deer around all over the country right now. Um actually been up in Nebraska we have and uh, we've had pretty good little chunk of success there, Chunky. I think it might even get better in the future. But yeah, we've you know, we actually started that hunt. I had a had a rough hunt man, and uh, you were having rust runs, had runt run and you're

having a bunt hunt. Uh. The for me, I think the first two hunts that I had I saw says the morning and the evening, I had one deer, So I called that A was averaging a half deer per sit um. I decided to be pretty aggressive and hunt, you know, tree stand hanging saddles and being trees basically m on this hunt at least early on. Instead of glass and trying to figure something out right, you did a little more glass and type stuff and and had

more success overall on that trip. I would call my strategy ground and pound strategy, where I wasn't glassing to learn things for like three days later. It was like try to put eyes onto your and make moves on them in that sense, and it and it does what it always does. It produces encounters, but they have a much lower odds of success than whenever you hang in

a tree like you what you were doing. If you it's strange how like if you're in a tree and you encounter a buck, there's a real good chance that you can get a shot, whereas if you're on the ground doing that thing, there's a real good chance you

mess it up real bad. So we kind of we employed different strategies early on there, and I think that was, um, you know, part of the reason I struggled as I was trying to find well then so I ended up actually doing what you were doing and found deer, saw quite a few deer that morning, but didn't see a shooter. And that's that. That was kind of the issue we run into, is like habitats kind of limited where we where we were at and starting out, and I ended up, uh,

finding dear but not a shooter. And that's what you you know, that's the issue. There's your shooter may not be in a particular piece of cover, that particular piece of cover, So now it's time to move two miles over and do something different and find a different piece and see if he's there. And so I was really kind of you know, running thin on optimism at the time, and uh, you're over here just like having the time of your life, just boot spooking and doing all kinds

of stuff. Know if you would call it the time of your life, because I don't know that depends on what you call the time of your life, you know what. That's a pretty deep concept, right, But one would say that, Um, what makes a good vocalist is dynamic range, and maybe that's how hunting goes to like a lot of dynamic range in the hunt highs and lows are's a lot of people would say, right, And so that's definitely what

I was experiencing. Um, this all this stuff that we're talking about here, guys will be on the Mediator Channel next summer. We're producing a white Tail travel top series. Um, and that's what we're doing right now in South Dakota too. But uh, which, by the way, we had we killed two bucks? Did I can't tell you too much more. We're actually gonna probably talk about that on our podcast here real soon, so you can jump over the element

and listen to the story if you're interested. And speaking of killing bucks, there's other success in the Rough Fresh crew. As you would say, all right, Marcus Kenyon has done it again again. I think he's killed more than one, right, yeah, well this was his first buck. Okay, Yeah, it's a good first buck, so um of the season. Sorry, Mark is going to talk about that on his main show too. But he he killed an opening weekend buck in Michigan. It's a nicety, it's a big deer man. Yeah, I'm

I was stoked for him. Um. We're actually up here right now, um, and we're gonna be hanging out some with Tony. Uh. You guys know Tony Peterson probably if you listen to this podcast, and uh, we're gonna do some South Dakota hunting together too and talk about that that's gonna be part of that same video series case he was talking about that the Nebraska Hunt will be on and that'll be three thing. So you got something

to wait on and look forward to. Uh. It's kind of like Christmas, just a little bit farther out pretty much, That's right. And uh, guys, I know that it's exciting time of the year. There's all kinds of things going running around out there in your mind, tactics and all this, and it's actually a little cloudy because it's also the time of year that uh, the influencer crowd tends don't want to spit out a bunch of tips and tactics.

Don't get too bogged down that stuff. Hunt your hunt, look at what's going on around you, perceive what the deer doing, and make moves to kill deer. And that's what rough fresh is all about. Right. We talked to people from different parts of the country to try to hone in on maybe a pattern that you also might see that will help you kill deer. Right, and um, optimism is high, but realism is important. Right. This is where this is actually the contrast that Tyler and Casey have.

Casey's a little bit too much of an optimist. Tyler, I don't know if you can be too much for realist because it is real, right, it tends to really too much realism actually turns to a negative context sometimes, I think. Or it's easy to do, so you can do that. We balance each other out with like a conservative optimism pretty much. Uh, and it works out pretty good. So be optimistic, be excited about deer season, right, but don't don't go in there saying it's an eleven out

of ten on October tenth. Whenever you have a buck moving at three am on your trail camera, right, that's that's not what it is. You're just excited, you know. That's the thing is you definitely want to be I don't know, fomo is high this time of year because there are people killing deer. The thing is, you've got the right property, then the deer is just you know, he's just preseason hanging out on your property. If you don't have the right property, then you need to wait

for the rut. That's what, plain and simple. You know. You know, there are a few guys that we're gonna talk to this week that have, um, I guess the right property or they're on the right property right. Michael Hunt Sucker from Harlan Bow Hunter. You guys will hear about his Ohio buck. Uh. Are your buddy Roy Stron h Academy workers. Uh, he's he's out of Texas. He has a really interesting story as well for you this week.

Matt Ross from the n d A. He's up in the New York area for all the Northeasterners, He's gonna uh crush your hopes. And then uh, Christian Babcock, our buddy from Oklahoma. UM has a really cool story of a big old toad buck that he shot so hopefully this stuff will help you out. Let's give him a little extra here. As so we've hunted Nebraska this week, Uh,

kind of give some of that like plain stuff. Uh, if you were to predict buck movement for Nebraska for the next week, what would you foresee it being like? And tell me why, Well, we've got a cold front coming in, and I think that what it's gonna do, uh for these deer. They've had pretty hot weather, hot evenings especially, and what I have seen is that these deer are moving literally ten minutes of shooting light left

a lot of times. I think what you're gonna get is that when this front, when these fronts pushing in, not only cold weather, but overcast evenings, which is gonna make you know, make dear at least think that maybe it's later than it is. Right. Um, they're they're out there all the time, so they're not easily fooled in that, but they there is a couple of minutes there that can help you out if you're, you know, needing some extra time. You're that deer that you've seen is coming

you know late, he's coming right after shooting light. So I would say scale one to ten, um based off of what my hunt was, I would say we're looking at probably somewhere in the five range with that weather coming in, because it's gonna change patterns and it's gonna make a move. You just gotta you just gotta find them. And that's what I was struggling to do. Yeah, I think that that was exactly the number I was going forward to, kind of right in the middle Man, Middle America,

middle numbers. That's what Nebraska. Yes, yeah, that's right. Food sources are still gonna be huge. It's a dry, dry year up here in the plains. Uh, So find water, fine food, and you will find bucks. Uh. And I would say mornings still, I think that overall, I saw better action in the mornings. I think that a lot of the deer holding tight to bedding until the sun goes down. That can change, like you were saying, though, with some cooler temps, some overcast weather, it could get

really really nice. And guys like I want us to be real about what these numbers mean to us. At least, Uh, a five is a really good number for why tel hunting. Like, Uh, the best rout day in my life was probably a nine, you know, And that's so like you can't personally, I can't throw out a seven or eight very you know, with much conscience because it's a little bit um that's those are kind of like sacred numbers, you know what I mean, get up there high. So so feel good

about it. Five for sure. We've got some seven or eights in this forecast for you. So let's listen to these guys. Tell us why you should be out in the woods. Okay, on the phone. Now we've got Michael hunt Sucker from Harlan Bow Hunter. Michael, you've been in Ohio recently and you've had some success, is that right? Yeah? Yeah, I just got back a couple of days ago, uh day before yesterday. Well, so how did this hunt go down? It it looked like it was a different kind of

habitat or different type of country than you normally are hunting. Yeah, absolutely so. Um actually it was it was a hunt that we did a giveaway with Trophy Rock and the guys at Redmond Hunt and um, so we had a

hunt winner. Um that that one the giveaway and we got them all out and then and um, we're basically going to do this hunt in Ohio, so we chose to do opening week um out there in Ohio and UM, some of the Redmond guys um you know, live out there in that area and have been hunting that area, and so they have a few different properties, but they hunt and UM it's kind of in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. UM, kind of in southeast Ohio there

and uh so it was pretty cool. It was unique for me, just different than what, um, what I've hunted before. I want to hunt in Ohio one time before. UM, but a lot of reminded me of being from Missouri. Was hunting like down at the Ozarks and the Ozark Mountains as we call them here. So just a lot of steep terrain, a lot of timber um and for early season that can be extremely difficult, and it proved to be especially starting out. UM, just acorns dropping everywhere,

and deer didn't really have to go far. You know, they love they love those acorns, even though they're not the most nutritional. So it's a comment scenario. A lot of hunters run into where it's feast or famine with acorns, where there's either just one good feet tree and it's awesome, or there's so many that you can't really target a specific spot. How did you navigate that? Yeah? So for us it was, um, you know it was it was a pretty um one of the areas that was not

not affected by drought much. So really good acorn crop, it seemed. Um. So the red oaks and the white Oaks are like, we're both dropping like crazy, and so you know, we um, we hunted the first first few days. I always try to be I'm a pretty cautious white jil hunter. UM. I don't like just like bombing in and you know, just hiking around in the wood looking for an acorn tree, um and bumping deer. I it's not just not a fan of that. I kind of like this, you know, uh, start off, he'sing my way in.

And so that's kind of what we did. And we just didn't weren't seeing the deer, and we hunted some. They had some small food plots and I'm talking small small half acre, quarter acre, little clearings in the in the woods. Uh um. And so you know we realized that like, okay, like if we're not seeing a beer here, you know they're they're not making it to the food

plot before darker. It's got to be an acorn deal, and so you know, we we ended up doing a little bit of that, you know, kind of just on the boots on the ground scouting and um, you know, we found some spots, but but we ended up doing a hanging hunt on a on a big acorn flat that we found and just didn't see the deer. We just didn't didn't see the movement that we were hoping. So, um, it just kind of got to the point to where we were kind of scratching our heads. So at that point,

how do you end up finishing this thing off? So you know, just about the point in time where I was, you know, questioning because is it is never gonna work out? We actually had our very first stand that we hung was on a ridge top basically, um, I don't know, a quarter mile from this food plot, and it was a good terrain feature. Um. You know, I was looking at the three D version of on X on the web browser and you could see you can exaggerate the train even on there, and so you could really see

these little saddles in these ridges. And we hung a set on this ridge that kind of transitioned, um, from a couple of different food plots. Basically there was two food plots and there was a road system that kind of led to this this ridge. Well, um, we had a camera that I put on this old logging road below the ridge, below the stand that we hung. I checked that camera and the biggest deer that we I've had pictures of, um, and they were running cameras before,

you know, before we got out there. But the biggest deer that we had pictures of was on that camera. Two nights in a row, and the first night was after dark, like the thirty minutes after dark, and then the second night was like thirty minutes before h or right at sunsets the thirty minutes before shooting time. So we were all pumped and got all excited and hunted that stand for two days straight and did not see

the de here. Just like it was. It was the typical like uh, roller coaster of bow hunting, right, I mean, just like we're pumped to get there, got excited, I didn't see anything. We're kind of like, okay, we're kind of in the low, like this kind of sucks. This is gonna be a tough hunt. Then you get the trail camp pictures were ecksided, and then no, don't see

anything um. But as we had hunted that other stand up the last few days, the buck I end up killing daylighted in the food plot that that we had hunted earlier in the hunt. And so I was like, okay, like this is it. Tomorrow's our last day, Like, let's see if we can get this deer killed. You know, Willie come back in the day like a second day who knows. But it's a pretty secluded food plot, like on top of the ridge, like back in the timber, so it's like, you know, close to close to bedding,

close to plenty of acorns and stuff. So um. The only problem was the wind was sketchy, and so I was like, man, I just don't look like we there were We had to stand on the food plot already, and I was like, I know that's not gonna work. Literally completely opposite wrong wind. And I was like, we could hang on the opposite side of the food plot. It's a small food plot, so literally a hundred yards away, and the wind is still gonna be marginal at best.

But if they come from the you know, the direction I chinked the bucks for coming like it might work. Well, we'll see if the wind doesn't swirl right. I mean that's like the the thing about that area, like with the train and like literally swirly as it gets. Man, that's awesome. So you ended up shooting an awesome deer there, man, and UH had a great time. I'm sure. Uh. Sometimes the challenging hunts are are like that. Man, they they they're tough when you're there, but after you look back

at you're like, man, that was that was awesome. That's why we do this, you know, the challenge ourselves. So you know, if if based off of what you saw there and uh, and how your experience went and what you think, you know, the future weather patterns or whatever look like they're um on scale of one to ten, how would you feel like next week would be. Would it be even better or or do you think it'd be tougher? Um, you know, I think it's gonna be.

It's gonna be a little bit tougher early next week. It's the weather is just is not looking the greatest and so um, it's gonna be a little bit warmer the first early part of the week, but there is a good cold snap coming and um, so you know, I would say, if you're gonna if you only have a certain amount of time to hunt. I would key in towards that later later part of the week. But that being said, the deer moving, I mean they're they're moving in daylight, and they're you know, um, I think

it's gonna be good. That cold front and those you know, early October cold front is gonna be money if you kind of just be patient away for the right time. So I would say the end of next week. I put her at a probably a probably an eighty eight. Baby. That's good, man, and it gets me hot. That's cool, dude. Well, appreciate the time, Michael, and I hope you have a great the rest of the season. Man. Thanks, guys, appreciate it. On the phone, now we've got Matt Ross. He is

the director of Conservation for the n DA. Matt, what's happening, dude, what's going on, Cassie. I'm doing pretty good up here in New York. Oh, well, it is a little rainy here. We're in South Dakota trying to chase the deer around. But I know you've been chasing around a few deer there in New York. Can you always have the tabs on the deer right? So by profession. You are a wildlife bologists. Correct, correct? Yeah, So what is going on in the deerwoods right now? Man? Well, where i I'm

I live and work out of the Northeast. I've I've hunted New Hampshire, Massachusetts when I was living there, But right now in the New York State, across most of the Northeast anyway, UM falls is full on effect. I mean we're seeing leaves changing and food sources are changing. What deer doing is they're changing. This is this is a major time when their food availability is a major shift and people start seeing changes and what deerre doing,

and they're really starting to focus on those changes of food. UM. A lot of it is hard mass availability, UM. Some of its soft mass. This is when they're they're getting off of Forbes and trying to find those fruits, either hard foods or soft fruits. De're hitting acorns, the ones that are dropping beach snuts in some cases where you got beach um. And there was a lot of early drop of apples this year across the Northeast. A lot lots of apples were coming down early UM, and so

they're they're focusing on that. So for a guy from Texas. What is early for apples? What is early for apples? Well, right now, like we're starting to see, um, some of the some of the apple varieties already started to hit the ground. That's that seems kind of early. Um. You know, so a lot of the wild apple trees will drop in September and early October across the Northeast. But there

are some persistent varieties out there. I mean, I don't know all the names of the different apple trees, but um, the ones that are in the wild. But occasionally you'll find trees that will hold later, but most of will drop earlier this time of year. Yeah, so you actually had some success recently, and I'm interested in knowing if this was an apple deer or otherwise. No, it was a was an acorn beach nut. Dear. Our season just opened, Tyler,

Uh this past weekend on Saturday. So I haven't really spent a lot of time a field, but um, I have got got luck. First set hour and a half into the to the first set, deer have been filtering through the woods, UM feed on these acorns and some beech nuts, and I knew that they were I have a camera out there and uh, dough family group came through.

UM three to four individuals tried tried to shoot the big mammoth dough that have been trying to kill a couple of years, but she she was onto me, and uh, I just took took what what was you know was presented? So UH killed the nice three and a half year old dough on Sunday morning, Thank you very much. The kids were able to help track and and do all the things because we was right behind the house. Man

is there? That's fun? So is that something like a perennial pattern that you see there behind the house and you can kind of always plan on targeting that, you know, hard mask there? Uh in early October? Yeah, and it I only really have about two weeks to do it. Um. Usually about mid October they completely abandoned that pattern and so UM, I had to hit it hard, hard and fast. So I have my plan and the weather is not bad this time of year. We actually had a freeze

warning last night, but I didn't get that cold. Um. But in about two weeks, they really do abandon the back the back of our property and they shift to a different different parts. So so that I got it done. Yeah, it's awesome, dude. Congrats you got meat for the fall now, and I would imagine that some focus after fulfilling that task would shift to Bucks. Correct correct correct, and UH been been paying attention to your uh foibles and uh journey that you guys. You guys had some success. So

congrats to both of you. Thanks man, I appreciate that. Dude. It's a it's a weird time of year because bucks are holding tight, but if you can get on them, man, it's it's fun. So uh, now, looking forward to what you have going on, you know, say the next week there in New York as maybe some of these apples start to drop in the in the hard mass might start to kind of dry up. Um, what do you predict buck movement to be? Like? Uh going forward here?

If if you can give me like a rating from one to ten, it's still going to be pretty low on on movement. You're not gonna start you won't see some of the activity where their home range you know, blows up and you start seeing a lot more visibility. And in fact, this is the time of year they get more reclusive or at least it feels like they begin becoming uh more nocturnal. Or going underground UM part of its food. UM testosterone is starting to go up.

My plan is to continue to try to focus on where they're betting UM, but where they're betting closer to those new food sources. So abandon everything that you saw um late summer and the probably you know, September weeks and really try to go to where the food is now and then look for the closest betting to that

food now. Up here is again those fruits I just talked about, and betting would be probably more of like your woodland swamps, cutovers, those kinds of places we've done something even each timber management on on one of the properties that I liked on And so those are two year old clear cuts. Um the deer, we're gonna still bet in those and just filter out and try to hit those acorns or apples cool, So one to tea and what do you think? All right? That's low? Honestly, man,

I appreciate some realism here. I think guys tend to get kind of excited and they always want to throw out these hot numbers because season is starting. But you know that's that really is probably a pretty uh good number to look at there so appreciate the information. Matt. I hope you have a great rest of the season and good talking to you man. Thanks thanks for having me. Guys, great talking to you on the phone. We got Roy Straw and he has been hunting in Texas. Roy, how's

it going man, Man, it's great. We're headed back to the house now with a couple of pooler school. I got my little boy finally finally passed out after the first couple hours of the drive, so we're doing real good year. That's cool, man, So big time in Texas this weekend. It's was the archery opener, so a lot of guys hit the woods or the heels or whatever you want to call it. And you were one of those fellows. Got to go out and do a little hunting this weekend, right, yes, sir. We uh we hit

the hill country this weekend. And uh the highways were packed on Friday, Thursday evening and Friday you getting uh everybody was heading out, so uh you couldn't ask the better weather. You know. We had um I thinking we were outpoards Spicewood on on far West Travis County, and and we saw attempts in the little fifties and then highs in the low eighties during the days. So I mean just absolutely gorgeous September, I mean October weather for Texas. So, um,

great for an archery opener for sure. Yeah. Absolutely man. So, uh you have a little place out there that y'all get to hunt, and uh I know that, Uh the hill country could me a little challenges sometimes because a little bit like feast for fam and like where depends on acrons and water and all kinds of stuff. But what are the conditions like out there as far as

you know for the deer. So we hud a small spread that's attached to um, you know, several other tracks anywhere from six acres and uh it's kind of a haven if you will. But um, you know, lots of lots of hill country oaks, lots of cedar, lots of the ski um and very very I um you know, we hunt a piece that butts up to the pardon Alis in the Colorado River where they come into make Lake Travis. And so there's a little bit of water nearby. Um. But by all means, I mean you're still up against

you know, pretty much drought conditions. Um. You know, we've supplemented that with with a lot of protein cotton seed uh through the spring and summer. I think that helped us quite a bit. Um. You know, one thing that I do think, as far as gear movement, that's been really strange this year is running cameras, running both conventional and LTE cameras. Uh. We've had virtually no dose uh

that we've seen until about two weeks ago. Um. You know, they're still very nocturnal, the does are, but we've had no dose on camera during the day. About me, we're from midnight at two o'clock in the morning. We've just started seeing them. Uh. And then last night I had a dope come in still during daylight, one by herself. And other than that, I mean, it's kind of strange, But I don't know if that's in relation to the drought or what. But typically where you see quite a few, um,

we just hadn't had any on camera. So what do you assume is the reason that they're showing up all of a sudden? Usually you think of bucks this time of year start dispersing and going to different areas because of the rut um. Is it a is it a

food thing? Or why are they showing up all of a sudden as does you know, Uh, Tyler, I think that's something that's kind of the theory I'm working is that you know, the dose that I have seen during the day, you know, um, just out looking at other pieces of property in the area have all had uh

young yearlings with them. Uh seen a lot of twins, and so I don't know if they're holding to food sources tighter, uh, knowing that it's you know, a little a little scarcer than we've seen in years past, asked um. But about two miles down the road from where we were hunting this weekend, UM, I saw a group actually this morning. Uh. It was about six or seven doughs, um, and uh, probably about four of them. There are three

mature doughs and four year lings. I would say one of them had twins, and they were all together not a bucket site. UM. So it's definitely an interesting compared to years past. So you mentioned earlier some full coolers, and I'm assuming that was meat and not liquid drinks. But uh, I know that since you're not seeing very many doughs, that has to mean that there is a buck involved somewhere in this man tell us the story about this hunt. So we have actually had a very

large bachelor group at two of our locations. Um. Yesterday morning I hunted. It was absolutely beautiful morning, UM, and we uh had seven seven bucks at the theater. Um, both our shooters that we were looking for. We had three that we're looking for, and then uh two that we were going to call our I guess would be more of our management bucks, but we had all three of them. Were are the two two of the three shooters were there yesterday morning, and it was definitely a

sight to see. I mean, you know, that's fourteen eyes an you and trying to make a move in that is is extremely difficult. UM. And uh so yesterday morning was not what happened, UM, although or yesterday morning wasn't idealist say that we ended up shooting the buck. Yesterday morning an absolute terrible, terrible miss, um. And what happened was the target buck. I was trying to shoot the deer we call high Tower. We've been chasing him for

a couple of years. We've got him. We think he's a little over seven and just absolutely gorgeous dear, big gray hide, sway back, big full neck and very tall, narrow rack and his G two's we think we're gonna go fifteen to eighteen inches, um toad absolute matured one

for the wall, for sure. And so he was we were playing a game of cat and mouse yesterday, and finally he was a little leary of of the hole in the blind, and so finally he looked away and I drew, and I had him at thirty five yards, and he had kind of circled back and stepped behind where he was standing, and uh there was a younger gear standing at his hip, and he had moved kind of behind him, and so I I just assumed he was at forty and dropped down and used my forty

pen and he when I let go of that arrow, I mean hit the deck and just sailed right it over his back and smoked the younger buck. Just beautiful, beautiful shot. Absolute terrible, terrible, not not the way the plan was supposed to go. And uh so luckily it was a good shot. We recovered the deer um totally not the deer we wanted to kill, but hey, we'll take it um. And so luckily Travis County is a

tubuck county. And so I climbed back in the stand licking my wounds at evening and same stand and not not expecting much due to the depth being around the smell of it. And so I'm back in and you know, we hunt a little bit of So it's a developing area, is what I'll say. And and because of that, you have to deal with a lot of you know, noises that you wouldn't typically deer with deal with in the deerwoods.

And so what happened is there's a bar and grill, I don't know, probably about a half mile away on the water on the lake and they had a great live band last night. They were playing all kinds of great tunes and so we uh and of course it's echoing through the you know, the canyon of the lake and um uh. Then some some guy on a neighboring ranch decided that Sunday was for target practice, and he's out there just going and just burning up ammo like

there's no tomorrow. And uh, I was just sitting there thinking to myself, I mean, I might I might as well go back to the house and watch college football. And uh So what what ended up happening is I figured, well, we'll sit here and if anything, it'll be an absolute last minute, you know, a few minutes a daylight and maybe something will come in and are our guy quit shooting And it got real quiet and you could still

hear the music off in the distance. And then out walked a pretty mature dough and I was pretty shocked, and um, by all means, I was getting ready to make a shot on her, and um, so I got my bow up on my knee and uh was knocked up and uh she kept looking back to the brush, real nervous, and I was like, oh that we all know what that means. And so I said, we'll hold

on a minute. And uh so my shot from from my seat to the feeder area is uh twenty yards on the dot and she's smelling around and then boom out bumps this Uh one of the younger, real attractive bucks we've had on camera, but he needs a few more years. Um. And I'm like, oh, hey, little guy.

And of course they've all been running together, so I'm I'm waiting, and then boom outsteps we have an eight point Uh that he's an eight, but he's big, mass, dear and just solid throughout, very consistent in his mask, big body. Um, and we have him at we're saying he's a little over six and I mean he's just very mature looking dear on the hoof. And I had seen him yesterday morning two and when I saw him, you know, he was much more impressive in person than

he had been on camera, which is always great. And uh so he steps out and none the wiser, and uh, he's milling around eating, puts his head down. It's a standing filled feeder. So he puts his head down and walks behind the feeder. Of course he can't see me

at all. And so I've come to full draw and uh, we still have some protein left in our protein feters, and so he sticks his nose up in there and he's kind of slightly quartered away the way the feter sits, and um, I let a jackhammer fly and I'm I mean, just absolutely perfect quartered away right behind his shoulder, passed through and he jumps and mule kicks and you got that.

You know, I don't know how to describe it, but you can hear, you know how it sounds when they good shot goes but through both sides, arrow disappears and he mule kicks so big that his butt started coming over his shoulder kind of stumbled and then fell and took off the brush. And as soon as the dust settle,

this super dry, so there's dust everywhere. And I grabbed my binoculars and I'm looking and I can see my arrow, and from my blind I can see just blood all over the arrow, and uh I uh, I'm of course I'm shaking, and uh, you know that's that's what's so great is I'm I'm in there shaking like a leaf on a tree and super pump no. And I just smoked this deer and so I don't even waste any time I get down. I go over there look at

the arrow, and just you can tell. And I even uh I had a little help, a little uh humble video I made on Instagram and and of the bloody arrow, and uh it's just great. And so you know, I saw where he ran, so I made a few steps and there's just a beautiful blood trail. It's the hill country, so there's lots of rock, and which is great because you can just see the trail through the rock, and um, we end up getting down there and end up I mean, he wasn't twenty yards from where I hit him, and uh,

I didn't go. That's that's so cool. So uh it was great. So recovered him quick and and um he was heavy, very very heavy. He's a good looking buck. Man. I understand it's not social official right now, so we're kind of getting the the pre uh you know story on this thing. So that's cool. Man, congrats on that deal. I know they're having the family out and everything. It's

a big deal for you. So whenever you kind of look at what's coming forward in Texas for the next week or so, as far as weather goes and conditions and all that, if you had to rank what you predict the buck movement to be like, like within the next week, what would you say that he is between a one and a ten man, I think, to be honest, I think we're probably somewhere between the six and a seven. Um, it's pretty good. There's there's some talk of uh, some

more weather coming I think right now. Um, the younger bucks we saw were or the especially the one I killed just day morning and he was a little wet and his tarsal already. I mean, the old country kicks off super early as far as right goes. Usually you get about two maybe three weeks if you're lucky in October and you get a little cold snap, and uh, those guys will will separate real fast and uh spread.

And that's that's just what I've seen in my area. Um, but it's always been that way, I know growing up. If it was cold during Halloween, the rut was already over. Yeah. That's awesome stuff. Yeah, man, that's good stuff. We appreciate the uh you know, from the field info that you got there, man, And congrats on the bucks. Yeah, man, thank you guys. There was a lot of fun for sure. I got to have my family with me for the for the laying down picks and and that just makes

it all that much more special. Now we're talking to Christian Babcock from Hunter's Advantage. Dude, you have had some really awesome success here recently. Uh in Oklahoma. It looks like just a toad buck. Tell us about that, man, Yeah, no, hey, I was thinking about it the other day. This is the earliest buck that I killed by about two weeks

opening day. Buck is is not the normal for me. Um, But yeah, I know had an awesome hunt down in southwest Oklahoma and property we've been we set it up on the summer, left it alone, and uh it is it is weird. Mature bucks do move when you stay out of the property. So it was it was just a great hunt. That's cold, and so you you left it alone after you set it up. Um, you think that's a key. That sounds like you're thinking that's a key piece of this whole equation. I think it is.

I think for most people. I'm I used to be one of them. Our anxious to check trail cameras, do all these habitsat of improvements, and sometimes it's best to just let deer be dear and when you leave him alone, and it just seems like good results. I've shot a buck the first sit on that property the last two years. One was a seven and a half year old buck and the next one this one was a six and a half year old buck. So they move in daylight if you leave him alone. So is this a dear

that you have some history with? I do. He was a five and a half year old buck last year and never got an encounter with him, actually tagged out in Oklahoma, and he started showing up int daylight right after that. He's probably a mid one forties buck last year and eleven and ended up sprouting to a thirteen this year, and I think I got him at his peak. He was he's a pretty cool buck. Yeah, dude, that's beautiful. So this area the country you're talking about, it's kind

of diverse and habitat. What's the uh, the general you know, habitat of the area that you're hunting there? Yeah, this it's interesting because you got the witch Tom Mountain range, which is you know, peeking and awesome, beautiful to look at. But then the stuff I'm hunting's flat as crap, So it's weird. It's like you're sitting by the highest stuff in the area, and then I'm also sitting on this flat ac land it's just nine ft and native native grasses.

So that's kind of what it lays out and looks like, yeah, yeah, that's cool. So what was the patterns this buck was on? Man? It was awesome. He had been coming in fourteen days in a row, September morning and evening, and I was just kind of, you know, joking back and forth with my buddies. I was like, watch this October one, he'll stop. They know, he'll figure it out. And about seven fifteen and I've been in the stand, got eard an hour before shooting light just because I did not want to

book him, and he showed have seven fifteen. So he read the script and that it worked out. Yeah, So what's the what is the key um to setting up in the way a deer out there? Man? Um, I'm a betting guy. I think there's a lot of different strategies you could use in there. A lot of people hunt wheat, you know, transition areas between betting and wet. I don't have any wheat under food him. I properly got to do run some corn, um, So I'm just hunting real close to the betting. Betting is a limited

resource in the place that I'm hunting. So I get up in their chili and so I try to wait for the best wind, the most favorable wind conditions, get in early, and try to stay still. That's kind of been my recipes for success. That's awesome. So this buck is just a big, old, heavy, nasty Uh, thirteen point six and a half year old dear. He's got it, looks like to me his neck is already swelling pretty good. Uh. How close to rut action are these deer right now?

I don't know. I mean I think that I think we're still a little ways off. Weirdly enough, he had some velvet still on his basis, so it was yeah, it's he's He's the definition of an early season Buck. I think we've still got two three weeks in this this area of the country until we're starting to see a little bit more of that big buck activity. As far as a lot of rubs, a lot of scrapes um, there's been some community scrapes on this property and they

haven't really been that open. So I'm just waiting for that too. But I think we're so a few weeks out. Sure. So this is the property that you've monitored for quite a few years, and so it seems like you kind of have the calendar down as to what goes on here. Uh, looking at the conditions we have ahead, it's been pretty hot,

but things are trying to change a little bit. And just some of the knowledge you have from seasons past, what do you predict buck that activity to be like over the next week and give us a rating like from one to ten. Yeah, so a couple of different things on this property. I'm thinking that I'm that mid range. I'm thinking of four or five. The next couple of weeks. We're still seeing highs in the mid to high eighties. I got sunburned trying to track, so I didn't I

did not enjoy that. But we're actually headed up to Kansas and later part of this week and seeing some lows dropping from the mid fifties down to the high thirties. You know, where I'm hunting in the next week, I'm going to give that about a seven or an eight, But where I hunted on this particular buck, I'd say about a five, four or five. Got you, Well, that's cool. It's promising, man, to upen up is coming. We're getting closer to or to November, and uh man, I appreciate

you hopping on the phone with this. Congrats on the big buck, and we will talk to you soon, I'm sure. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Guys. I hope you'll have a great opening week of deer season for many of the states out there. If you want to get hype about some deer hunting, we just released a new video on the Element channel that is all about South

Dakota hunting from last year. Lots of big bucks going down down there, also be sure and check out the latest episode of Deer Country with Mark Kenyon over on the Meat Eater YouTube channel. And if you want to see something you might encounter this year, go check out Tony Peterson's most recent article about blood trailing deer on Wired to hunt dot com. This has been rot Fresh Radio, y'all. Keep it fresh.