Ep. 734: Taking Advantage of Late Season Magic (Field Edges and Cold Temperatures 12.20.23 RFR)

Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rutfresh Radio, bringing you the latest reports from the Whitetail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay Longer, and now your hosts, Casey Smith and Tyler Jones.

This is rutfresh. I'm your host, Tyler Jones. And this week, as hunters are leaving the woods, those of you that stay the course will find hope in these reports as cold weather seems to be the catalyst for big buck daylight movement. It's the late season, y'all, and it's going to be great. This is Retfresh. Let's go. This is Retfresh Radio, brought to you by First Light. Hey, we are in different spots right now, case but we're both in Texas and we are what seven eight hours apart

Is?

It is insane?

And honestly, I didn't even We're not only about half a state of park right now.

Tell you the truth.

Yeah, I guarantee you that further distances to go than this, for sure. That's what people don't understand. We could do Texas about there every week if we wanted, and it would be like, you know, not too many people interested, but it would for sure cover different ruts and different uh dynamics within the herds.

You know.

It's like, uh, you know, what's the difference in doing uh Delaware in New Hampshire. You know, it's like, well, the same place.

It's like it's like interviewing somebody from Greenville and you interviewing somebody from texture Canna.

You know, it's like, well, that's the same place.

Yeah or not. It'd be like interviewing somebody from Ohio and somebody from Michigan. You know. Yeah, man, place, same same.

You get cheese curds there.

It's the same place.

Speaking of cheese, man, Uh, you're gonna beat some of that koheda pretty soon.

Uh yeah, I'm about to try.

So, you know, we're down here in the in the land of man Techi Eras and uh Takiris muchos as.

You'd say, So we're gonna do the tour. You know.

One of the things that we do down here is we come down here to eat Mexican food and we deer hunt in the morning in the evening while we're here so it works really well.

Yeah, that's it.

It's kind of like going to New Orleans. Man. You just go down there for the food, and you know, randomly there's things like duck hunting and other things you can do while you're down there.

That's true. That's true.

Step over people that are just passed down to the curb, you know, like it's a wild thing.

Yeah, that was Yeah.

I don't uh, I don't really want to go there, but.

You know, there are some nice places in this world you can get away from folks and find.

Some deer and Tyler.

Just to be reflective, this isn't the last episode of Refresh Radio.

Thanks for getting thankfully. Yeah, we got one more to do after this. I wish there was hundreds more to do, you know, but not only somebody to eight weeks in the year, you know.

I know it, man, I know it.

If you're listening and you live in a unique state and you want to do an interview on the twenty sixth of it, let us know, because it's gonna be a tough day to get some reports, but we're gonna do our best to get good reports around the country for everybody, and we've done it this week.

But man, if you're a Mexican big report, I can probably give you that.

Yeah, what do you what are you fixing to get there for lunch?

Well, I think this is a place that's known for its burritos, so.

I feel as if it's gonna be a little bit you know, text mix.

But if I had to imagine, I'm gonna get a l past door, which is roasted pork for the old of all that don't know, and it's pork that's flavored with.

Uh more chili powdered you can handle.

Yeah, it's like chili's are bullets or something like that.

You know, it's rehydrated chili's and pineapple, which is really really good. And then I'm probably gonna eat some people the guy with that and some sour cream.

Which I know you yellow, yeah, I see him.

Uh And then uh yeah, I might wash it down with a big old glass coke if I get the chance.

Dude, That's exactly what I yesterday, except for old Gordidas didn't really offer the pineapple up cell there, which I really am sad about. But it is a good It is a good thing to have. But the Mexican coke, you know, there's a lot of people probably listening don't understand the difference in a coke and a Mexican coke. And there's a difference.

Well, the main difference is in Mexican coke is made with cane sugar. It ain't made with corn SRP.

So yeah, and you know what diet cokes are made from Mexico? Oh, same thing. Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's called I think it's called coke light coke. Yeah. So they just put less sugar. Got one of those in here.

That sounds pretty good.

Yeah, I bet that sounds real good. Hey, so some cultures don't accept all this high fructose stuff. Man, red dyes, you know, I know red forty is one of your favorite ingredients.

But you know, I stopped at thirty nine. We'll go.

You're talking about Texas having diverse ruts.

Didn't you see some road action in East Texas yourself this week?

Dube? Like I said, we're seven something hours apart probably, And I was in a rut fest yesterday morning. Actually I was. I was hanging out in the swamp lands of East Texas. We were hunting hogs. I was, I was hunting hogs. Eric was filming and we make a loop down into the wind, come back up into the wind, and we're gonna work through these greenbrier thickets. It's kind of got the understory under the trees. It's fairly open. There's like some taller grass sections and stuff and and

A good sized deer. I mean that thing weighs one hundred and seventy pounds.

Maybe, Max. I don't think it weighs that because I think this deer might not be four. Oh really yeah, And so I mean he's he's he's he's three, but I don't know if he's four for sure. And he's just running like crazy, dude, just chasing these things, like I said, snortweez, and it was cool. We stayed there, like E said, for twenty five minutes, and he ran

So you should have drew on him just to see if he could do it, you know.

Oh yeah, No, that's what you do on TV, don't you. You know, he drawing on point at him, and even though you don't have the intention of killing that thing, if your bow goes off, it kills him.

So you know, a good friend of ours, Chris, Well, he thought he just wanted to draw back on a buck this year to see if he could do it.

And he drew back and he's like, you know what, yo.

Yeah, that's funny how that happens.

Yeah, you know, killer's killed. So you don't want to put yourself in that situation.

No, that's a that's a flirting with temptations. Not a good thing, you know. So that's it, man, that's it. That's it.

It sounds like you saw some exciting stuff this week. Who else did we get.

To hear from this week?

Well, there's a guy that's going to be a breed to Aida in that truck with you, old Greg and he uh he gave me the report from y'all's neck of the woods this week, so you'll be hearing that. Michael Morgan, brother of Levi. If you guys know Levi Morgan, he's a fairly popular bow hunter and bow shooter. Micah was in Mississippi with Levi.

I think is the one that throws it down on the footage most of the time.

That's right. He's usually videoing, but I think it gets about a week a year to hunt. And he killed him a good buck in Mississippi. He has a report for us there. We talked to Mark Haslam earlier this year from South Carolina. Got a really unique property and a unique area for deer hunting. Apparently there's lots of deer in that neck of his neck of the woods and uh, kind of a different rut. So we get

Man, I would love to bring it.

I've got Greg Latham, he's actually with the Element and he's in Texas. Greg, you have hunted Texas the last couple of weeks and you've been I don't know, hunting places that are seven hours from each other. So it's a big state. There's a lot going on. But let's talk about what you've been seeing recently in the deer hunting woods.

Yeah, I end up killing a buck in the hill country a couple of weeks ago, and he was on the cruise, called him on a bunch of trail cameras and I actually saw him that day before I killed him.

But he was.

Seemed like he was running laps around the property. And this was on what November twenty fourth? M hm, so like right about Thanksgiving? I mean he was he was cruising.

Hard, gotcha? So what I mean, like recently, what's been going on in the in the woods when you've been hunting Texas.

Now recently down in South Texas different rut dates, but uh, here the last couple of days, it's been they've been fired up. Like I've seen I've seen a bunch of young bucks cruising and right behind DOZ. But uh this morning, it seemed like seemed like the big seemed like the big bucks were on their feet cruising.

So doing seeing some cruising.

Uh.

I know you and I talked off air a little bit that seemed like there may be in I think k C was talking to me about some stuff that might be seeing some lockdown type stuff happening too.

Yeah, me in case, you're pretty close together this morning and we were both on lockdown bucks the whole time. I saw probably three bucks over three and a half years old. Just you know, you could tell they were doing the stair. They're on lockdown and things are starting to get fired up down to South Texas.

What do you focus on when you're like, I'm going to go in there this morning to see if there's some bucks around there.

I'm mostly just trying to, you know, ease my way in and get on a high point where I can see a long distance, and I'm just looking for when the sun comes up, they really light up. But I'm just looking for. You'll see satellite bucks cruising around and that usually points in the right direction where you need to be.

So just kind of following the satellite bucks until you get into a rut faster or some sort of lockdown situation.

Yeah, That's that's the basic idea of what I've been trying to do.

Gotcha, is there is there any Are they feeding on anything? Are they are you able to kind of see if there's a bed to feed pattern at all or is it just a lot of just brush country crewis and type stuff.

It seems to be a lot of brush country crews, and I mean it seems like they pretty much feed wherever, Like it's uh, there's tons of diverse plants and stuff to eat, so there they could be anywhere and they're everywhere.

M h. So do the dose seem receptive yet? Would you say that like there there's quite a bit of breeding going on or are we still are these bucks still waiting for the for the majority of the dose to be receptive if you had to guess, I.

Feel like it's it's right on the cusp, but it hasn't happened yet. But like the next two to three days, it's gonna be it's gonna.

Be crazy, gotcha. Okay, So in that next two to three days, are you still going to focus on getting up high and seeing deer or would you change your tactics at all? And what do you think the deer will do as things change a little bit.

It's I think the big bucks seem to push the doughs off into like weird spots that other bucks can't get down wind of them, And so I feel like getting up you know, say, maybe it's a clip for just a some kind of thicket that a buck will push a dough up in getting in an area like that, could really be beneficial.

Yeah, would you would you say a highway or a road would be a place that that would happen to maybe.

Yeah, highway road, any kind of just place where a deer is not going.

To be.

A big buck might push a dough up up again, something like that.

Gotcha, So checking out the spots that are kind of unsuspecting. So if you had to put a number on it, one to ten, what do you think buck movement will be like after? You know, basically I don't know the twentieth or so, I'd.

Say, where we're hunting right now, it's the next the next week or so. I given an eight. Oh yeah, like it's it's about to pop off down here.

Yeah yeah. So in your mind, is a ten is that is it? Does a ten happen every year? Or is it ten the best of all time?

I think a ten might be best of all time. A nine happens every year?

I think, Okay, I got you. See, when I think about it, I consider a ten is scale of one to ten is like the best day of the year. So I always I'm interested in how people perceive that. So anyway, I appreciate the report.

Greg.

I hope you get a mondo for the those who are interested. Greg actually hunted with you. Guys know him as Mark Kenyon on a hunt last year on the Buck Truck series and killed a buck on that video. You can see it on the Mediator channel, so check it out. Thanks a bunch, Greg, all right, no problem, All right, now I've got Michael Morgan on the phone. He's the brother of Levi as we talked about earlier off the air. Michah, what's been going on, man.

Oh, not much, just been chasing white tell us since September. Yeah, they start down a little bit.

I know the feeling, man, it's it's good to be homes at the end of the year, for sure, man, this time of year especially, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you've been in Mississippi recently and it looked like he had some success. I guess you get to get in front of the camera sometimes or that was there no cameras running?

Yeah I did. I get about maybe a week two weeks out of the year to hunt for myself and that was one of them. And yeah, we got it all on film. So it was a heck.

Of a week for sure.

Cool man, that's awesome. What what was what was the deer herd doing where you're at?

That was pretty peak rut down where we were at that time of the year.

Bucks were chasing little.

Bucks, were you know, surrounding the buck with the doughs, trying to get in on him, running them off. Just pretty much your peak rut activity.

Yeah, that's cool. So with the buck you shot, was he actually chasing or what was he doing? No?

He actually I'm assuming he had just left the dough because we had pictures of him about five days before I seen him and he was with a dough and we he completely disappeared, so we assumed he was locked down somewhere, and when I seen him, he was actually by himself, so he was off his dough, cruising probably for another one.

Gotcha were you since you're hunting a like an agfield or a food plot.

I wasn't. I was actually in the in the hardwoods and down there kind of where we hunt. You're hunting structure and like the ridge might only be five feet tall, but that's what they're on. They're cruising that ridge, you know, going from thicket to thicket. So I was kind of in between. I was on the edge of a field probably one hundred and fifty yards and that buck was just cruising. He had came out of one thicket and

So that's cool.

Cis pretty heavy.

Yeah, yeah, So those those ridges are just I guess you're you're hunting in pretty low land country. I'm guessing, is that right?

Yeah?

And so those ridges Mississippi okay, and those I'm guessing you know, in my experience, at least those ridges are kind of where some underbrush will grow because it doesn't flood as often as the other stuff. I'm guessing, right, So that's why the stick it's there. Okay. So are there oak trees in the area.

There are oak trees. Yeah, and uh, normally, like earlier in the season, that's what we're hunting around, is oak trees and any kind of for simon trees. But this time of year, they're not very interested in food, so you're really just hunting the structure.

I got you, Okay, So if things were, if you're hunting next week, with things change, would you still stay on the ridges? Do you think it's going to be still pretty rut heavy or what do you think is going to happen?

Yeah, I mean it is kind of hard to say. Now we've hunted down there for the last i'd say six years, and for probably the first three weeks in November or of December, it's pretty rut heavy. I mean, they're they're rutting and doing their thing up until really around Christmas the New Year's and even even after New Year's there's still a few doz in heat and they're still chasing. So I would probably be doing the same thing next week if I was, if I was hunting.

Gotcha, did you do any calling this past week?

I did a little bit normally. When I would see one and he was going the opposite way, that's when I would call. It's really hard to do any kind of blind calling down there, just because it's so thick. They can get in behind you, and most of the time, those big mature ones, that's what they're doing, they're coming down window.

You sure sure.

Did a little bit, though. I did do a little bit. If it got slow, I might hit the horns together.

But it's hard, not a whole lot. It's hard not to when you're sitting there, just like, man, I kind of want to make something happen right now.

Yeah, you know there's one clothes ain't seeing them.

But yeah, so would you do a whole lot? Would you still continue in the next week rattling? And would you do any blind calling at all? Does it change or is it pretty much the same tactics?

I honestly, I will do blind calling if I can back myself up to the Mississippi River and have that wind blowing over where they can't get down wind of me. Or if I'm hunting a spot where it's open down wind, where I can see them coming and I can potentially if they're trying to circle down, win, you can get a little more aggressive and potentially turn them before they get down win. But yeah, we'll probably what I would do.

Okay, So in the next week, if you had to put a number on the buck movement on a scale of one to ten, what would you rate it in the next week?

I would probably put it up to a seven or eight, all right, And that's going off of where we hunt down there. It's normally rolling pretty good still.

So okay, awesome, man, Well, I appreciate the report, dude, and I hope you guys have a blessed Christmas and a good rest of your season. Man. It's it's been good fun fun watching you guys, and it looks like you've had a great season you leave.

I both absolutely, man, I appreciate the time, and uh, I hope you guys have a blessed Christmas as well.

All right, I've got Mark Haslam. He's out in South Carolina and we had him earlier this year. Uh. Now we're on the opposite side of what the people traditionally think of the rut. Is it is that the case for you or or what is the rut like in your area? Mark?

That's right, Tyler.

Our our rut activity as far as breeding will start the third week in October. I'm in the midlands of South Carolina, but that's the portion of South Carolina Georgia.

It's going to start the third fourth weekends, gotcha.

So we're looking at pretty far removed from the rut. Probably a lot of post rut here. And you've been hunting the last week or so. What's that all look like for you?

Right now?

Most of our deer heard they are back just pounding food sources whether it's a late seasonal winter food plot or if maybe there's still some acorns on the ground or trying to hints hitting some remnants that's left in agricultural fields which are all harvested right now. But it's it's good and cold down here finally in the South, and we've gotten a lot of rain, especially as past this past week, tons.

Of rain with that cold weather.

So these deer, they've been out on my cameras earlier in the afternoon and just pounding food sources, which is what it should be doing. You know, they're burning bringing more calories right.

Now the cold.

And as far as read activity and bucks, we're still seeing in some some some some some fresh grapes and rubs, and you know that's from what my cameras are showing.

That's mostly younger bucks.

But if you are in an area we have a lot of if the dozed pot dough population is a little out of whack, you might have some doz of warm bread the first cycle or two that could be cycling back back in.

Gotcha, Are you seeing mature bucks showing up on that food before dark right now or not? Yes, yes, I.

Am I we haven't seen any mature buck rut type behavior.

They are back.

I've been running more cameras right now, kind of in the season, trying to see what, you know, what we have survey wise, because our season ends January first, and I am getting some nice up and comers. And there's a couple of shooters that have made it through the season that are coming out an hour before uh dark and they are just pounding that food, probably trying to put some weight back on.

Sure. Okay, so and you you guys have been killing some dose I guess lately.

Yes, we are.

We have been trying to hit our management number and we are I think on track to have a record year at the farm for for for total total total dos and actually took total deer killed.

And right now.

I've shot a couple last week, and you know, killing those right now, you've just got to be unpredictable because they've been they've been Deer across the board have been hunted hard in South Carolina since mid September, if not mid mid August.

They've seen it all.

So I've been concentrating on dough betting sites, and some of those betting sites can shift because right now we finally have some good frost and most of our leaves are off the ground finally, so some of the betting that was there in September October might have changed by now,

Sure. So you guys, part of this dough harvest, and what you what you can probably tell as a listener from this is that you're you're pretty intensive about the way you manage this. What are you learning from the dough harvest right now.

Tyler Man, we learned all kinds stuff.

We Uh.

Last week, my father killed a seventy seven pound fawn dough that was bred roughly November second, So that was a milestone for us. Wow, a fon dough that was born six months ago reached sexual maturity and she was bred November second, So that's told us that there's a lot more doughs that are going in the heat.

Late October early November.

Then we once thought that's a very that's a sign of a healthy, healthy dough. And right now you know killing dose. Whether you're on public land a private land, if you are able to take a dough, you can you know, look for that uh, reproductive track and you can pick up a very inexpensive feet of scale and you can open up and it's it's it's it's creative a biologist Joe Hamilton, and it will tell you pretty pretty precisely exactly when that dough is bred.

So if you can figure that out.

And you get a couple a couple of samples, like I said, anywhere in the country, as long as the dose are about thirty thirty five days post breeding, you'll know when they were bred. And then the week prior leading up to that, that's when the bucks are going to be on their feet, chasing on the.

Prow waiting for those doughs to have that receptive window.

Gotcha, gotcha, man, that's good information. So in the next week, would you would you change anything about what you guys are doing? Are you gonna stick with the plan? Pretty much?

We're gonna sit with the plan, Tyler.

I think the rest of the season that has been unpredictable, and I know that's obvious to all the listeners, but you've really got to understand that. You know, this is a it's a prey creditor relationship. They're trying to live and we're trying to fill tagged so they've seen a lot so far this season. I'm gonna be hunting very tight at bedding, trying to figure out where they're feeding

So in the next week, if you had to put a number on it for buck movement, let's just talk about bucks. On a scale of one to ten, what would you rate the buck movement?

I all say the buck movement, my opinion is gonna be about six or seven, all right.

And the reason why, the reason why.

I say that is that if someone's hunting smartly. A lot of our hunters, because our seasons start so early, they're done. They've already filled the freezer, so to speak. They've shot a buck or two, and we see a lot of hunters across the board. Just start taping you tailoring off hunting right now and is less people in the woods.

Duck season's open, so you know, the rut's over for the most part, and his bucks will be up moving.

Just hunt smart, figure out where they're going to be, and get after him.

Awesome, dude. Well, thank you for the report, Mark, and we'll be talking to you again next year.

I imagine, absolutely, Thanks Tyler.

All right on the phone, I've got Anthony Warren. He is a good buddy of mine. He's been on the podcast already once this year. He's been on it a couple of times in the last year, and it's because he's just a big buck killer and he spends a lot of time out in the woods. Anthony, what's been going on, dude? Oh? Not much, man.

I don't know if i'd be considered a big buck killer.

But uh you yeah, so you've been, uh, you've been spending some time in Kentucky. Correct, Yes, So what's uh, what's the what's the consensus? Man? How's the deer movement look out there right now?

Yeah? It's I think we're kind of in a slight transition right now.

We've kind of been dealing.

With some some warmer weather and we just kind of got into the last few days we've got some real good crisp cold weather, and so you know, it's been it's been slow, but traditionally around this date range, uh, you know, probably the last three.

Or so days and probably the.

Next three or so days, I've actually seen a pretty good movement historically.

Seems like some of these.

Younger dough fonds are coming into their first estrus, and you know, it seems like if you can be in the woods right now this time of year, you can generally find you know, know some kind of buck activity, you know, still doing some chase and maybe hitting some scrapes. I've had a lot of historical data around scrapes right now, just bucks are really scratching at the last last few opportunities out there and kind of really getting back to a food pattern.

So we're it's kind of a neat time of month for.

Me just looking back historically, and so I think right now it's been a little slow, but it's I'm thinking it might pick back up, especially if we can hold some consistently cold tempts.

Yeah, So what's a you think some of this kind of movement picking up, be could you attribute that to less people in the woods. Are you see any hunting pressure out there?

Yeah, I mean there's a few factors.

You know, really, once you hit Thanksgiving, at least in my neck of the woods, the hunting pressure kind of drops off significantly.

You know, you'll have you'll have some of the guys that are pretty serious that are still out.

There grinding, and uh, for the most part, I think that attributes some, you know, some of the movement. I also feel like this time of year you get a lot of deer who, you know, they just want to get back to food, and really the dose never leave that, but the bucks kind of do. And so I think, you know, the bucks kind of start getting back toward patterns.

I feel like you.

Can find some bucks that will just sh you know, they've showed, they've showed up, and maybe they're they're not necessarily in a historical home range, but they've kind of just ended up somewhere wandering looking for you know, the last few opportunities, and generally those are close to food sources. So and then of course, cold temperatures help really, especially if you want to get a buck on his feet

What kind of food sources do you like?

Yeah, so this time of year, a lot of our ag is picked, but you'll have you know, a lot of just like you know, green like weeds and stuff like that that will kind of start popping up in the fields, especially on these sunny days, and the deer will go out and you know they kind of you know, forage around on that stuff.

You know, you might have a few places.

Where there might be you know, some old standing beans left on the.

Back corner of a field.

Usually that kind of stuff I'll key in on.

And then you know a cornfield, you know, really around this time of year, you know, the deer might be finding a few corn kernels. The downside of technology is that a lot of these combines have gotten so good about not having a ton of spillage, is that there's really not a whole lot of corn left for these

Sure, So in the next week, does anything change for you tactically speaking, or does anything change for the deer?

Yeah, I will probably you know monitor, you know, a camera or two that I have near a scrape just to kind of see, you know, what level of activity. You know that I have most of most of the scrapes, so they're not going to be like the deep timber scrapes that I would historically hunt near the root. The would probably be closer toward you.

Know, those food food sources.

You know. For me, my strategy is really just trying to get between deer and you know, their.

Bed and food. So if I can be you know, just on the inside of a.

Corner of a field, you know, where I know a good trail is historically, or maybe even try to find like an area where a deer may kind of low for stage before they hit the big ag fields.

That's really where I want to be.

You know. Really, I'm not hunting a ton of mornings right now, but mornings are good, especially as cold as they've been So if you kind of if you can formulate a strategy to come in from like the back door and you know, get between that ag and you know, known betting areas, that's a pretty good strategy. But mainly, mainly if I can just cut them off between where they're betting and where they're feeding, that's pretty much my main strategy right now.

Gotcha. So in that next week, based off of weather or whatever you think you want to you want to consider in this equation, what do you guess that buck movement will be like on a scale of one to ten if you had to rate it.

Yeah, So it's a little tricky, you know.

I would say that if we hold cold temps, you know, it's probably going to be somewhere in that four to five range, just because they are going to get up and go eat. I would say it could spike to you know, a six, especially if you find like a dof on that has come into heat. But I'd say it's gonna probably be pretty steady at you know, mid to marginal movement somewhere around a five.

Gotcha.

For all, Like I said, a lot of that's going to be influenced by how cold we can we can you know, have the tempts and how hungry the bucks are after running on them.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well that's awesome, dude. Thanks for the report. Appreciate the honesty and all the tips and tactics throughout, man, and I hope you go get them this week.

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

Those are some great reports. I'm glad we got to talk about things like field edge hunting, cold fronts, cool weather, and just killing those because that's what's fun to do in the late season. Man. That's a good way to spend a late season afternoon is going out and shoot some dose. Greg has a video y'all that came out on our Element YouTube channel that's really cool. Shoots a nice buck on his family property. It's been his family for a long time and it's just a really cool

Uh.

In the meantime, guys, think about the season. The depth of what it means for us is humanity and UH, I appreciate you guys listening. This has been right fresh. Keep it fresh.