Ep. 584: Rut Fresh Radio 10/12/22 - Find the Limited Resource to Find the Bucks!

another thing. If you buy that Source jacket, you get a free f h F chest rig That is a sweet little tool. Here's another one. You buy a Tethered Predator platform. That's the platform I use for all my saddle hunts. You buy that and you get a fifty dollar first Like gift card. All sorts of cool stuff like that is going on over at the Mediator website, over at the First Light dot com website. F HF check it out October ten through. Got some good stuff

cooking all right, Now to the show. Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you the latest reports from the White Tailed Woods and now your hosts, Casey Smith, Tyler Jones. This is rut Fresh Radio powered by Vortex Optics. This week, the common theme seems to be tough conditions in mid October. However, if you can find a limited resource, you can for sure find the bucks. This is rut

Fresh Radio, brought to you by Vortex Optics. I'm Tyler Jones, your host, and Casey Smith is with me as well. Everybody's favorite dude, and this whole this whole space, man, just like my little tiny space over in the corner. Thanks man, I appreciate that. Um. So, we just got back from a trip, A long trip. Can you call it just one trip? Goodness? Michael Schagen's head, yes, he

says that I was gone for three weeks. We spent a greater part of ten or eleven days maybe more out and um, we ended up hitting Nebraska and South Dakota. We talked about it last week. Nebraska was really successful and South Dakota ended up being also successful. Pretty excited about that because, um, that's another one of those episodes

that we talked about. UM going on the Mediator Channel, which is UH series that for now is called The buck Truck and UH it's a it's a series that we're producing that should come out next year in UM, so it'll hype you up next year. But uh, in the meantime, we're sharing pictures on our Instagram. Uh some

success we've had. And we're gonna talk a little bit about South Dakota here, but the full story goes down in the Element podcast, so you can definitely check that out if you want to go over to the Element check that out. UM, we would very much appreciate that. So with that said, UM, what are your takeaways from

South Dakota. Don't ever assume something is easy in the hunting world, because we found us South Dakota a few years and felt like it was like a dreamland, and this year it was most definitely not a dream land. It was somewhat complicated and difficult because of the tough conditions. Just like the guys that we're gonna talk to today. We've got Sam Hogan in Michigan, Jonathan Moreland from Arkansas, Jason red in North Carolina, and Jake Hoefer in Illinois.

And there's a real common theme across the country right now, and that is tough conditions. And that's what we were met with in South Dakota as well. Particularly drought. I think that is something that's kind of fairly consistent across the country, even these places that I've had, you know, some hurricane type rains and stuff, we're dealing with drought. You know, you can't just break a drought with one weather instance, right, It's got to be sustained rainfall, and um,

that's exactly what we dealt with. The deer were on food sources, hardcore. It's weird because you think a drought as a water thing, right, And we had you know, the King of Water, Tony on the trip with us in South Dakota. Tony Peterson. You guys know him probably pretty well. He's that guy that's on the Little Mermaid that has like the trident and stuff right the water. Yeah, yeah, that's Tony, aqua man, and uh he's been uh, he's

been killing deer off water holes forever. Well. The drought plays into that, you think, right, and certainly I think

deer could have been killed on water. We actually focused on that early as well, and then we realized throughout the trip, which this this is part of the story we probably won't tell a whole lot about, but I had a lot of scouting time on this trip, and I realized as these guys were out hunting and setting up in these things, that I've seen a lot of deer on food, which, um, you know, you know, you don't necessarily think of when you're thinking about drought, but

really what ends up happening in a drought is there's a lot less food on the landscape, and a deer can't just sit there and eat on an agg field all night. Um, so it needs those native forage food sources to expand its diet, to just have better digestive process and all these things that are good for it, right, different protein uh balances and these kind of things. So with that, these deer are definitely having to eat native brows, but there's a lot less of it on landscapes. They

can't you sit there and hammer this stuff. They have to go to these eggs, egg food sources that are man man made essentially. And we noticed corn was like the deal, which is weird because you know, also uh with then some of these corn fields they plant beans and the beans were hammered to you just didn't see them. You didn't notice the things out there. They were on their tier tube food source, which was the corn because

the beans already gone. You know, like the at some point in time there was even some I don't mean green beans, but like green leaf soybeans. Um, there was some of that still there, but you could tell that the leaves were gone, like they weren't dead yet. You know, that's part of their water intake. I would imagine it's like a deer's water intake comes from its food. Like we were talking about this either not animals in general don't treat water the way that humans do. Our dehydration

is the animals like they're hydrated at that point. You look at this, the way a buck uses a scrape and what is coming out of him excrement wise, like it's dark, right, and the way it's nasty. The way it's getting that way is it is viscous as they say, okay, so it's big um so uh. You know, they just kind of have a different take on hydration and it's it's very much more impulsive. Uh, and they will drink water. In fact, I killed a really nice Oklahoma buck over

water last year in a drought situation. That video actually is on the YouTube channel for the Element just went out, if you wanna go check that out. See what you can do over a water source. Uh particularly actually that was the late season, but all year long you can have some good opportunities over water source. But don't think that drought means water source. Let me just say that

video is insane. I'm just gonna go ahead and say that because I can say because I just because you had the thing happen to even man it is you're also there, well I was, and I and when like the title is jaw dropping footage, and I think of that because my jaw I'm not liking a dramatic person and my draw jaw was drowned. It was one of those times where we didn't know how to react after I shot. And this is a thing too, and y'all are a captured audience, so we can talk about this.

It comes out as laughter sometimes, but it's just like a relief relief exactly. You know, it's like, oh my goodness, I don't it's overload century overload, and it's just it's worth going to see. But um anyways, um, water is only the like one of the things that you have

to have. Right. In fact, I had success in South Dakota over natural brows, but it was on a like food to bed pattern, as the deer were loafing on their way back to where they were going to bed that day, which is how I killed last year South Dakota. That's exactly right. So that's a that's an effective thing that not many people talk about, is the like native brows coming back. It's like uh, staging before bad pretty much as opposed to like staging before they go to

a food source. And we were dealing with pretty warm tempts and deer that did not want to move in the evenings much at all, uh, and some vwts even uh. So uh, you add all that up together and you get a kind of um abstract train of thought in the white to world that hey, mornings are actually pretty

good right now. You know, Like we're actually texting with her friend here before we get on the podcast, and he's talking about how he loves hunting mornings, and you know, the common thought is that mornings are bad in October.

And I wouldn't say that you should just barrel off in somewhere and hunting morning without any information, but if you know something good, like particularly us, uh, we were seeing deer movement for the first hour and a half a daylight, but only like the last fifteen minutes in the evening, Like there's a lot more time to kill a deer. And also they're further away from their beds in the morning and you can get into a place

without disturbing stuff, whereas in the evening. I mean, what hunter had some success in the evening and uh, but they had to be like sixty yards from the deer's bed and and they couldn't set up in a tree because they were so close to bed exactly. And you know, that's all well and good, and that's cool to be close like that. Uh, And it's like a neat thing to talk about as a hunter, like oh, shot shotting from his bed or whatever. But you're gonna mess that

up more than you're gonna get right. That's right. There's there's some stuff that's fun and cool in the white to world, but you're gonna mess it up a lot, you know. And with that, sad man, I think, uh, you know, these are these are thoughts about how to beat the October laws. Some of the things we're trying to give you right now in the way that we've seen it beat been beat in the last couple of weeks as we've gone through early October in Nebraska and

South Dakota. So with that, we've got a couple of guys that have some thoughts about what's gonna come up this week. Uh scale of one to ten type stuff that you guys live for, right, and that gives you hope, and I think you're gonna enjoy some of these interviews. So Tyler, before we get to that, give me you're one to ten for South Dakota over the next week. Man. Um, So this is obviously my experience, this is this is

um with the way we are hunting. Um. It might be different on private because this was on public land, but UM, I think uh when I left, it was twenty nine degrees and the deer were crawling. From what I heard from people who stayed back a little bit and saw that morning, I think that if we continue in South Dakota continues to get that kind of weather where you got frosty mornings, Um, I think it's gonna be really good because that just increases their need for food.

UM as they get colder and there's only so much food on the landscape because of the drought, right, so they're going to be very much focused in and concentrated on that food. So I think if I was gonna say one to ten, i'd put it like six to seven. Probably, that's kind of I was in the six range. Um. There is a decimal thrown out in this episode, so I'm gonna hold off on the decimals and land let that guy have, But I would be in that and maybe, you know, after you talk about it, I might be

close to a seven. I just hate to give it that high and number because it's that takes a lot, but it could be close because of the scrape activity we also saw. I think there's a there's a factor in there of like your potential to kill as opposed to just deer movement. Yeah, I think the potential to kill a lot of people think it is like when they think of that one to ten number, to think of, here,

what is my potential to kill? And so it's more more than like it being a nine or eight out of ten, and on the ultimate day movement or deer movement day, it's really like they're factory and some of that, Like, well, I kind of have them figured out right now. So I'm pretty feeling pretty good, you know, Yeah, exactly and that's actually what we're trying to do here is to help you get them figured out before you even get to the woods. That's what rough Fresh is all about.

But I think that combine the food aspect with the scraping activity. I killed over a scrape. The deer wasn't on the scrape, but the scrape was there. So you know, bucks are around and they're they're doing bucky things. Hunter killed near scrape. Uh, came and checked the scrape right, he was trying to think, so, yeah, he hadn't made it. He didn't let him make it there that you're gonna have to just watch channel. That's right, Spooky City Halloween

before Halloween. It is, dude. But we also we ran a decent amount of cell cameras while we're up there, and we were seeing a lot of scrape activity there too, and some of that stuff was right at legal shooting lot. And I think as temperatures progress, uh to get a little colder, you will see those dear being there in shooting lot and that's exciting because we like to shoot them. As they say. So, let's talk to a few guys who actually have maybe been doing a little shooting and

see what's going on around the country? Okay, now we now on the phone. On the phone now, Sam Hogan. He loves making fun of me. But you know what, at least I call taco shells taco shells, that's right, not Peter. We both didn't do it, right, No, No, we didn't. We didn't. Hey, what's been going on? Man, Michigan been treating You're right, it has been. Uh seasons off to a pretty good start. And uh, I'm just happy to be in a tree again. Do you get paid guide fees when you take your friends out and

the shoot deer? You know? Um, I have yet to profit on any of that, but I'm sure there's some sort of business man problem. You're pretty entrepreneurial, so I mean it's just fun. Yeah, dude, flip this deer. Stand you know what, let's go. We got the new h TV video going here. Man, with the prices of some of these mobile rings, now I probably could yeah, telling you, I'm telling you well, so uh on that note, you're a pretty mobile guy. You get out, you get after it,

You hunt a lot of public and private. Um every once in a while. You sent me a picture of a big deer. You're after and uh, A lot of times you send me picture of dead bucks that you've killed as well. You're a good hunter, very humble, and so we just want to pick your brain a little bit about what Michigan is like recently. Uh, you had some success recently, right, Yeah, I actually shot a dough last night. Um, and and that's been that's been good.

I've been on a pretty good buck, especially by by Michigan standards, probably around the one mark, which is uh the biggest I've had the luxury of chasing around here. But the dough was on a different piece of private that I could get the truck to, um a little easier than packing the dougheut too terribly far. So well, yeah,

so what was that? What was that dough doing? The dough was working a kind of a your typical terrain feature break uh and uh hitting a couple of these apple trees that are right on the edge of these these uh thick kind of crp areas with some oaks in them, and they browsed around on oaks, but they really love the apples, so we'll pop out every once

in a while. I passed a couple of different uh, younger bucks yesterday and um all kind of coming to this apple tree and then feeding out to kind of the main the main food source there is a giant apple orchard, so it's a it's a little pre snack. I have listen to Mark Kenyan's podcast a few times and more in the Michigan pass actually just means they're too far to shoot, just what I understand. So yeah, yeah, uh, it got pretty warm. So I ended up dropping this

one off at a processor and I looked around. I said, yep, it's Michigan. That's cool though, Man, congrat some the early season's success and being able to get a little bit of a little bit of meat. What do you think is going on in the woods of Michigan right now or do you're still really hitting you know some of

the egg food sources and stuff. Yeah, they're they're corn has started to become hot early season when it's all green that it doesn't really have the draw beans are beans are definitely winded down a little bit, but I still see him standing out there every once in a while. But acorns or shoot, I'm saying it wrong, they just do it just the acorns are are still a lot um. But like I said, the apples are kind of tailing off. But but if you've got a fresh apple tree there,

h they're still eating them. Um. But but yeah, the the beans are beans are slowing down woody brows. I cut a couple of um shooting lanes on one of my private pieces, and I had two little bucks come in just mowing down them maple leaves. So they've been eating those two um seeh it's it's it's kind of transitioning to your typical fall food sources. So will they be uh, like in the next week or so, they

you think they'll start really focusing on those egg worns. Yeah, those acorns will be a real big hit, um, especially if you can. I mean everybody knows this, but the the white oaks have the best decorns. But but in some of these swampy spots, uh, some of the pin oaks dropped and uh and they love that too, so they don't. Actually it's hard to and where I'm from in southwestern Michigan, it's hard to pin down um, a good, good old acorn tree just because just because there's so

many of them. Yeah, it's it's hard to uh, it's hard to figure it out. But they've been starting to put down a little more sign um. Obviously rubs have been popping up since they've been losing velvet or since they've lost velvet, and uh, it's it's just getting hotter. So uh, you know, right now is a full moon time and it's kind of gonna start waning a little bit here. But do you see much of that affecting any of the October movement that that you're looking at

for bucks. I'll be honest, I I have not paid too much, uh too much attention to it. Um. I will say it was a very full moon uh last night and I saw okay, I saw every book that I've ever gotten on that trail camera on his feet. Um so so that I mean, that's a testament to how nonproductive by trail camera has been. I shot a dough but but they've all been they've all been moving. So Uh, Michigan, I'm assuming he's a like a lot

of the rest of the country. It's had pretty dry summer and early fall, but I know Michigan has a ton of water. Um our mosquito is bad right now. And do you does that actually affect dear movement? They were pretty bad early, but it's actually been pretty uh pretty cold here this morning with eight degrees thirty nine degrees and uh, and we have not had a mosquito problem in the last It seems like when it gets

that cold, they're they're gone. Now right now, I'm sitting in the truck at sixty seven degrees, So when I go out tonight it uh, it might be uh, I might change my tune on that, but last night was great. M Yeah, So coming up this week, looking at the moon affecting your truck camor movement, uh, potentially cold fronts that are that are coming in, uh, different food sources like acorns dropping in, those kind of things and and

all that. What would you say, on a scale of one to ten, what would you predict the buck movement to be like in the next week or so. We've got that cold trunk coming in on Thursday, so it'll be the day after this this releases. Um, we're recording this today and it's it's about to it's about to get pretty warm, but then it drops back down. So we're after the release of this, it's only gonna get better. And I love how October plays out. It seems to

get better than the time goes on. So I'm gonna give it a I'm gonna give it a six and a half. We're throwing halves in here. This is a second decimal of this this whole podcast, and both have coming this week. So congrats on that, dude. You're you're very extraordinary. Man goes to the extra lengths man, that's what it is. Hey, thank thanks for hopping on in.

Hopefully you'll get a crack at that target buck you've got, man, and we'll have to get you back on and talk a little bit about what you're seeing at that time. So best of luck this season. Man. Alrighty appreciate it. You guys too. I've got Jonathan Morland on the phone. He is a hunter in Arkansas. Man, what has been going on? Dude? Man, we've just uh, just trying to

kick it, get the season kicked off. So bending a little bit of hunting and mostly scalting, not a whole lot of time on the tree, but a lot of time on the boards in the last week or so. I guess you see, you're pretty accomplished hunter, particularly a traditional hunter, so I know that that us actually make a little bit of difference to you as far as

the way you scout and hunt. I would imagine what are some things that you're really keen in on right now, trying to make sure you can get close range of these deer right now. It's a little different for the South for what I normally try to do. We've got abnormally dry conditions down here this year. It hasn't rained in almost three weeks. So normally this time of year, I'm focusing on a hot feeed tree, whether it be up for simmon or water oak or early dropping pin oak.

But this year, the deer, they are really keen in on the water. So anywhere I can get closer to a water source, I'm I'm saying quite a few deer actually killed a doll the other day coming to an old lake bed that's normally the full of water, which is which is starting to drop now. So anywhere you can get near waters, it's just pretty good right now.

That's cool. Do you feel like deer use running water and sanding water all the same, or do you have a particular type of water soorce you like the key in on? You know us to this where I'm at right now is standing because the record low river levels right now, so it's just pockets of water. But you know, typically did when it's down here in the south, We've got a lot of lush vegetation, so normally they can they can kind of get it throughout the woods, but

right now they're having to come to it. Um. Also with this dry weather, I'm noticing a lot of early dropping mass crops also, so like some of these acres are dropping earlier than normal. Um. But yeah, it's uh, you know, as far as buck activity, so far, I've seen a few bucks, but it's it's still pretty pretty slow right now. What about scrapes? You're looking at scrapes this time of year when you're out there scouting. Made

a big loop yesterday Sault. I think seven or eight scrapes yesterday, So they're just now kind of start getting going there. Will you focus Will you focus on that going forward? Are you still gonna be on the water? No? No, I don't typically start focusing on that until later on in the year. Right now, it's still it's still food sources and water right now with the with the and dry Yeah, is your is your right a typical rut

compared to everybody else in the country. Um, So down here, I'm gonna say that magic week is is around that Thanksgiving week down here at the prime time. Got you so a little bit later, so that would make sense for some of the rud activity you pushed back a little bit later to what do you think about the moon stuff? You pay much attention to the moon. I know we're kind of coming off a big full moon right now and a lot of guys are thinking about it.

You know, I'll pay attention to it just because I'm curious, and I do try to document, you know, where the moon's at and what the what the direct to what I'm saying. But uh, typically, you know, when I have the opportunity to hunt, I'm just you know, I'm hunting regardless. I don't really plan my hunts around the moon. Yeah, yeah, I understand that. It's exactly, and I've got an opportunity

to hunt, I'm gonna Yeah. It's just it's like a confidence booster, right, like all the moon's doing something good. I feel good about this huthing. But you're still gonna go out there, and I mean you're in the South, so you know, And this is how I feel too, Like it's a game and numbers sometimes, right, you just gotta have your hangs in the tree and sooner or later it's gonna work out. Yeah. So, uh what did you Uh, how'd that set up go for that dough

that you killed? Man? Where you hunt over food sources or you said there's over water? Right? Was there any anywhere? Yeah? No, whether there's some ag not far. But uh, now I just caught her coming to an old lake. Uh there there's a willow flat in there, and just had a just had a really good setup, uh, some really good cover there on the edge of the lake bank and there was a main trail coming where they're coming down there to hit that water, and just just called her

off go or coming up right to that water. You get a lot when the setup works perfect. Rights. So a lot of the country is talking about cold fronts and stuff coming uh in the next week. Now in the South, we kind of get cool fronts more than cold fronts, you know, And I think we're looking forward to like a three or four degree cooler morning the normal here in this next week. I don't know if

things are much different where you're at. But with all that stuff can centered in kind of compiling the information that you've already gained from scouting in previous experience, what do you expect the bug movement to be lot like over the next week. So we have here in the south which I'm in South Arkarsas, we've got some we've got some fronts moving in. I believe it's Wednesday or Thursday. Uh,

cool front is that's supposed to produce a precipitation. So you know, like I said, it hasn't rained down here in over three weeks, so you know, if we do catch a little rain, I would expect that to really to really get some there up on their feet. So um, you know, I expected to to increase just a little bit compared to last week. Got you. So if you had to rate it between one and tim, what would you rate it. I'm gonna give it about a about a six. Okay, that's a good conservative number. I like

it though. But things are ramping up and kind of gearing towards that in the magic November we've got coming, man. So I appreciate the time they today, dude, and I hope you have a great rest of the season, y'all. Tell good luck y'all. Okay, So now on the phone, we've got Jason Red from timber Ninja. You've been in the timber being in ninja lately out in North Carolina, right, Yeah, North Carolina. And I've been a trip to Illinoise for

four or five days, the scouting slash hunting trip. Nice man, So, uh, you do some pretty cool stuff. This is kind of what UM originally calls you to create a super lightweight stick. But you spent a lot of time hunting deer really deep in kind of mountainous country which people don't think of maybe when they think of a coastal um area like that out of east. But there's some pretty pretty

crazy hills. Um, what have you been seeing in the hills lately and and how the deer kind of moving around and reacting to mc coole fronts and what's going on right now? Well, I mean I live in a very low deer instity area, so I mean, you know, we have one one of two deer first square miles. So activity this year has have been about normal. I mean, I've been focused on two target bucks this year, and but we have had some really unseasonally cool weather, but

we also have had a really big mass crop. This year's severer are pretty spread out. They don't have to move very far, but been seeing fairly good movement for this time of year, and uh, you know, getting closer and closer to one of my targets here, I feel, you know, you know how you get that gut feeling you just know you're getting there. And uh, you know, with this weather that we have and being mid you know, coming in to mid October, it's looking pretty positive. How

are you How have you been hunting that deer? Are you hunting him based off of like movement patterns to and from oaks or what are you looking at? Yeah, well, he he traditionally I've been hunting for a few years. He traditionally travels. He's a home range beer in this area, so he likes that you stay inside on this big long ridge and you know, he's a couple of miles back, and uh so I've been I know where his primary that is, which is private unfortunately, so I'm trying to

intersect him there. And he runs down the ridge and comes off a finger ridge and hit some public private land aggs. So I've been trying to get as close as I can to his primary bed. Obviously I'm kind of restricted there, but honestly, it's trying to cut him off in between right now. So we've actually spoken with a guy recently who seem to think green food sources were pretty key when it comes to you know, private

land agg. Is that theag that he's uh inhabiting right now or is he more on like corn or grain type stuff. We don't have much corn, so yeah, it's all green pasture ground that he's on, you know. And I'm a proponent, like you know, if we have a really big mass crop the year and they can't just live off eight forms like they need that greene to balance off the diet. So that's why I've been kind of honed in on him where I am right now. But you know, he's laid some some of his primary

scrapes that he normally does. I mean, our deer don't. There's not as much competition, so they don't leave as much sign as you know, some of the others. So but he kind of comes back to his home range and and you know, the interesting thing is, like I was talking about this weekend about this, is you can really instigate a buck here by this open up a mock scrape and his his home range. He will not excelent time I can get. I can get a mature buck that I'm after if I know it's home range.

But I'll open up, you know, march straight myself. Within a couple of days, he'll be in there. Man. I do love mock scrapes. It's just it gives me hype just knowing that I can do something like that to kind of manipulate dear, and as uh, you know, one thing that's kind of synonymous across the country right now is the moon face. Right Like, people have different conditions all over the place, and I know a lot of

guys put a lot of different weight on moon. Right now, we just are pretty much right on a full moon, and it's gonna start waning as the next week goes on. Do you think about moon much at least in October when it comes to dear movement, I'm not as go on moon phases. I am moon position, okay, I do. I do like noon position and like you know, you had the mooner eyes where it's been right there close to you know, with an hour dark, it's usually pretty

promote um. And this morning, like I just the only thing I can count the day was a morning punt. So I just you know, you can't kill them if you're not after them. So I was in there, but but coming out out of that, I really like that time. So I'm thinking, you know, into this week, next week started looking pretty good, guys, you man, so let's let's talk about the next week here, alright. So, like you were saying, there's some cool funds starting to move across

the country. You know, moon's kind of waning a little bit, uh de, You're starting to get a little more ruddy, and you know for for some of North Carolina stuff

that you've been hunting, let's just kind of focus on that. Um, what do you predict the buck movement to be like over the next week on the scale from one to ten, I think from one tin for this time of year, we should be somewhere around the eight because like next week, I just looked at the well or you know, if we were talking, and we're supposed to get down in

the high twenties next week, which is unseasonally cool. Yeah, so we're having lows there and you know, I don't run a lot of cell cameras, but I gotta had buddies that do around here. And the buck movement just continues to increase. So I think it's looking pretty good for next week. Man, that killer cole Front's headed this way is gonna definitely rock some bucks worlds and have a lot of hunters in the woods. Man, it's exciting time of year, Jason. We really appreciate the update, dude.

And uh, I hope you have some success out there, man, thank you. Alright. We've got Jake Hoefer from Exodus. He is up in Illinois. He does a bunch of hunting up there. Shoots really old bucks. Sometimes they're big, sometimes they're kind of medium, but they're always old. Man, not much, not much excited to be on here, and I appreciate that intro um. Sometimes everyone drags like, oh, I'd rather shoot an old deer over a big deer. You know,

I'd rather shoot a big deer this point. I don't care. Yeah, that's all man. It's like, I really do like shooting old deer. But I've shot a bunch of them, and sometimes they tend to be like, you know, and all the people around you are shooting like one sixties and you're like, hey, he's old. Don't forget about me over here, you know, And that's funny, funny and so true. So how has the last you know, a couple of days of hunting here in Illinois been for you a lot better?

Because we had a really good cold front here rolling Friday, and so on a Friday morning, uh, kind of tight to betting on a mock scrape on a ridge with a lot of oaks, and I saw six bucks that morning, a lot of sparring, a lot of rubs, um, and it was just kind of it's great to feel the would to be alive with you're doing cool things. So that was really good. And then I actually have a couple of buddies, Um, one gentleman shot a really nice

buck Friday evening on green food source. And then I had a buddy missing giant Saturday on a green food source as well. So it's uh, it was it was good if you're in the right location, you had a buck that you're chasing. Um, it was a really good opportunity. You make a point about the green food sources. You talked about oaks, but um, can you talk about what the green food source is and why that's important right now? Yeah? So it really it seemed like Clover was the king here.

I know, um, personally, some some more younger bucks for hitting, you know, the tops of Braska's but clover definitely seemed to be the powerful food food source. And then in particular this one form that I'm familiar with, the gentleman that missed a really big beer. They came in ate the clover um kind of staged up in there, and then they headed onto a cut cornfield. So that seemed to be the perfect recipe. Is they eat takecorns all day.

They want a little bit of moisture content in the evening. Yeah, I don't blame them. I would not be very happy about eating necks all day. Feel like you just got a mouth of meal man. Right, So when knowing you, I know that scrapes are on your mind, especially in October with these cold friends rolling through, Um, when do you start to shift that focus and do you think that that's something that's coming soon? It's definitely coming soon.

Um yeah. So I mean a lot of these new bucks are starting to show up on some of these farms. And then looking into the future here of a really good cold front coming through next weekend like Sunday is kind of when it hits, I'll definitely be posted up scrapes here in the next seven eight nine days. I think right now it's a really good idea to get an inventory on what bucks are kind of frequently frequently a scrape and kind of try to line up an

opportunity with the cold front rolling in. And last year the six seventeen eighteen was actually really good for bucks hitting scrapes. It's always it's always seems to be in coordination into a cold front, but that seems to be one of the first opportunities if you don't have a buff living right on you, it's when they start to venture out a little bit and you still have a legitimate crack at them, um, and they feel just a

little less random to the time being. So with that coming up, scaling one to ten, looking at weather moon, if you do that kind of thing, whatever, you look at all the variables and what you saw last year and everything, how how would you rank this next week in your mind the potential of shooting a shooting a nice buck one to ten. Man, it's it's up there. I'd say, gosh, eight point two. I mean it's gonna be it's gonna be really good. Decimals. Welcome to the

decimal club first time. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, no rookie scores here, so I would I would say, you know, it's gonna be one of the best fronts of the year, I really do think. So. I hopefully we'll get another front closer to the end of October, which will be fantastic, and then, um, you know, obviously that first really good front in November is gonna be awesome too. But I mean this is gonna be a top three or four front in my opinion. Man, that's exciting. Wow. Okay, so

now I'm like looking at my calendar to reorganize things. Man. God, leave, that's wild. That's the time, Jake. Last time I listened to you about a cold front in October, I shot a really big eight point man. So I'm gonna listen again. I think, Yeah, stay tuned. I think you guys are gonna find you because I can find it. Dear killing them. That's still been pretty hard for me. Whatever, dude, you're

a killer. You're a killer, humble killer. Man. Yeah. Well, we appreciate the good info, Jake, Thanks man, and I hope you do get after that big buck this week. Appreciate it. Thanks guys. The October lull can be a little spooky, but if you have the right information, you'll be able to throw it down on a big buck.

So if you are interested in big bucks and you might want to watch some things to either get you hip or to help you learn how to get closer or to stay more comfortable you're in the woods, you should check out the Oklahoma public land buck video that The Element has on its channel. There's also a piece on layering that our friend Mark Kenyon put out to help you stay warm while you're out there chasing those

big dogs. And then Tony has a pretty cool Foundations podcast that's all about hunting to kill as opposed to hunting to just hunts. So be sure and check that stuff out. Keep it fresh, This has been rough. Fresh