Ep. 813: Rut Fresh Radio - High Optimism for Deer Season

Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh 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 case Smith and Tyler Jones.

This is Rotfresh Radio, brought to you by First Light Gear. I'm your host Ksey Smith. And guess what optimism is riding high? The bucks are in velvet, They're going everywhere, and guys are super optimistic. But you still have to hit the right winds, the right weather, and just the right moment to capitalize on a big bug. This is Retfresh. Let's go. This is rot Fresh Radio. I'm your host,

I am just very very excited because I know that when rut Fresh Radio is hitting the airwaves, that means on the seasons here like the thing we've been looking forward to all year.

Is here finally.

So I'm just I'm glad that's true. I'm glad that this show is still going. This is like season I don't know, we've been doing this long time. Now first to Spencer. Now you guys on the Helm now for your third season of rut Fresh Radio. I think that's great.

So yeah, I'm just I love it. It's something that I have.

Enjoyed consuming every year since we've started putting this out there, which is kind of unique because I don't like to listen to you know, the regular why we're done episodes with me on there. But I like this show because I get to listen to different people you guys, yourselves, but then also all these different guests every week. So it's good stuff. I'm excited we've got another season going.

And I don't know about you guys, but I'm just to do this thing.

I guarantee you.

There's a running joke on our podcast where I say, dear, season is getting close, and it's you know, may or something. You know, So there's a little truth to it, of course, but it is kind of funny, right, But it's like a way we approach what we love to do is hunters.

Me.

I have it to congress. I appreciate it.

But you two, on the other hand, I know Tyler's guy him a little early season thing going on.

Mark, are you hitting somewhere early?

Sort of?

I am heading somewhere early, but it's different because it's not a regular well it's not a white tail hunt at all. I'm going to go on a black tail hunt up in Alaska. Now we'll be kind of talking about white tails and looking for white tails a little bit, which which I'll I'll say, I'll just kind of tease that and then describe more details on a later podcast.

But yeah, it's going to be a different kind of early season for me.

I'm excited, but I'm also a little sad because I absolutely love early season white tail hunting, Like September early September white tail hunting is I honestly have a hard time not picking that as my very favorite time of white tail hunt. Actually, really not getting to do that this year will be disappointing.

But you know, the Alaska thing is kind of a special.

Opportunity, so that's awesome. Though.

Yeah, for me, I love the early season stuff, but I think the main thing for me is just getting out of the heat. You know, it's just for leaving Texas and heading north. You know, it's just a it's a nice thing this time of year. It gets really stale around here, and it's it's more than anything.

I would say.

I still love probably the rut better, but the early season stuff is something I look forward to again. The anticipation is just something that I used to I used to be a crazy about duck hunting when I was in high school in college and I always used to say, man, that the like when I scouted and found ducks and I was like, oh, tomorrow morning, it's going to be money. Like that anticipation was almost better than actually hunting, you know what I mean, It's just something I really live for.

So uh, but you know that anticipation thing. We are anticipating this start. But what makes it so exciting is the fact that the deer are not anticipating.

That's true.

So that's why that's why there's early days of the season are so special because they don't know we're coming, and you get some extra special opportunities because of that.

So you feel as if the surprise component to early season deer hunting gives you an age and then that's the in turn, the thing that makes it so enjoyable for you.

One hundred per one hundred percent, these deer in early September or whenever your opener.

Is, they've yet to feel the full force of hunting.

Pressure, and they're still on that summer bed to feed pattern, so they're pretty consistent, they're pretty comfortable. They're more daylight active in many cases, so you can see deer doing deer things before they're.

Doing the oh I'm afraid i'm gonna get.

Killed things, and it gives you just a fun hunt and then you know, a great chance to have success.

Yeah, Mark, how do you feel about the opportunities of early season that seem to be slowly going away?

What do you mean by that?

So a lot of states are going to limited tags draw systems that kind of thing, and even states like out West that have white tails have become much harder to draw. It's not an every year draw or every other year draw in some states.

Yeah, man, I mean that's that's a good point, and it is a downer, and it's it's probably just a function of the fact that more and more people are catching onto these opportunities, right.

So.

The popularity of traveling to hunt is on the way up. And when there's a lot of supply for something and usually some sort of limited or sorry, when there's a lot of demand but a limited supply, they're going to start putting restrictions on that. And you know, that's a bummer. But at the same time, if it's what's needed to keep the resource, you know what it is and what we've come to enjoy, you know, I guess it's a necessary evil.

Sure.

My hope is that we don't get to a point where these the things are as hard to get as a you know, elk hunt.

New Mexico or something, right.

I hope we never get to that point, but it's just I think is just gonna require a new level of planning and thoughtfulness, probably from us. In the past you could just kind of plan on going somewhere on a whim, and now we're just going to have to start approaching it with a certain level of premeditated thought that is a little bit more inconvenient but not impossible.

Gause.

So, you're a what I would call intelligent individual, and in particularly a BookSmart guy. You read a lot, right, and and a lot of that I think you enjoy, and then a lot of it's you know, has a function as well. But you know through your studies is do you think that there's any biological reason to not have early season, meaning like a September one opener in more States.

No, I can't think of any reason why there would.

Be, you know, I can think of no biological.

Argument against starting hunting season at that point. You know, you're really not the Only thing I can think of is that you know, in many cases, some of the original hunting seasons were put in place to protect the ability for Dose to raise fawns, right, and to not hunt them during those periods of the year. Once you get to September, you know those almost every faun is going to be pretty darn close to being out of spots and have a coat, you know, a solid coat.

We have more deer than we can handle, and not enough of them are getting killed.

So, for example, in the state like Michigan, where that is the case, in the bottom half of the state, probably we are overpopulated with deer, We're not killing enough deer. I would love to see an earlier season opened up, just to give more opportunity for those of us who are willing to get out there and hunt these deer and work on that dope population. That wouldn't be a

Sure, Yeah, we don't all get along, you know, some people can try, for sure.

You know.

One thing I've I've kind of noticed is, you know, some states, like I don't know, for instance, Nebraska or some of the more western states, they'll lump in their deer tags as as just deer, so it's mule deer and white tail. And one thing I would love to

So usually it's actually in verse function, you know, like you would like to impact the waite tail population numbers.

Yeah, so I would.

I would kind of like to see that in the future too, But I don't write budget lines and that kind of thing either, so you know, it's not my responsibility. But anyway, we uh, you know, we're definitely so Case has got kind of lackluster plans for earlier season. You've got some good, awesome plans for early season, but it's going to be different than anything probably you've ever done.

It depends on my efficiency.

So the road trip could could extend out to two states if I was if I was quick enough to get one killed. And and I really well, thank you, and I really like like the spot that I want to go. That I'm getting a cold front which is actually potentially adversely affecting my plan because of the north wind, but I should have a south wind by the second day, so we may have.

Can you tell us?

Can you tell us where you're going at least the state?

Yeah, I'll be starting in North Dakota, yep. So that's the first time i've I mean, that's it's like Canada from here. That's a long ways, but it'd be the first time I've ever even it's the only state West Mississippi I haven't been to, so not necessarily hunted, but you know, actually traveled to so pretty excited.

It's pretty excited to go do that.

Man, that's I'm jealous of that. I absolutely love getting up there for this time of the year. So you're gonna have a blast.

Thanks man. Tyler, how much does a velvet wattail mean to you? Oh, doesn't mean that much.

You know.

It's a motivating factor for a lot of people to be able to go hunt early seasoned year.

Yeah, I'm not like, in fact, it almost makes it. It almost gives me the anxiety to think about because if you shoot a velvet buck, then you got to kind of take care of that velvet and that is a hard thing when you're traveling out of state to do.

So I'm in the same boat with you, Tyler.

I actually don't want to shoot a velvet buck because kind of the same thing.

Like I'm like, ah, geez, it's gonna be a hassle to deal with. And even though I love.

Watching summer white tails like velvet white tails, I thoroughly enjoy.

Watching them in summer for whatever reason, I just love hard.

Antler, like I just I don't know, I just like the look of them better.

I like the idea that I can.

Grab a euromount and hold it and feel like this slick, hard surface of those antlers, and it's got some kind of weird something there.

I don't know if it's smr like you.

No, I get what you're saying. Yeah, I get what you're saying. I have a I have a little spike side that was like I found it in like early March. Is a fresh dropped spike side that I found which is also, by the way, the hardest shed defined, you know. So uh, but it's like a stress reliever I have in my truck. I think it's down into my seat right now, but like I'll just grab that thing and

It's probab the same thing I have an axis nubbing. It's like a one inch long, you know, and like amazed that I found it right and it's like a little fidget thing for me in the truck, you know, just kind of messing around with it or whatever. It might be like a whole uh thing where it's like, all.

Right, this is what they feel like.

I won't more. I want to find some more, maybe a double you know that they're still connected to the skull, you know what I mean. Speaking of watching big velvet bucks, Mark you you seem to be cool with letting the social media world know what you got going on there, Michigan.

I don't know.

You know, you have got some nice velvet deer that you're watching.

I do, And I think the key thing is they're like, you know.

It's the summer, so none of these things are none of these deer guaranteed deer that I'll be able to hunt.

But I do like to get.

Around, drive around the road, see bucks in the summer, film them if I can.

I don't mind, you know, sharing pictures and stuff. They're all they're all deer anyone could hunt. I'm not going to hoard them.

To myself, I'd say, like the summer is more like hype time, right, It's just like a time to celebrate getting excited about deer season again and like the possibility of deer season.

So so yeah, I like.

To I like to get excited with folks on social media, with my buddies and everything. But yes, there are some good dear in some of the spots I've got to hunt. I've got some new permissions I picked up this year just asking around, picked up a few other little spots, and then some of the spots that have hunted for a long time. I've got a couple of good ones running around again this year. So, you know, Michigan, I

Share as well.

Yes, sir, I was about to roll into that.

You know, we hunted with Mark Kenyon one time in Texas and he passed a bunch of bucks.

You're never gonna You're never gonna.

Let me, man, I'm not Maybe maybe you won't pass one this year, and then that I can die.

But I think he's going to from what I understand, He's right, he's looking full foot trophy.

Hunter on this one.

Right, I'm actually a vegetarian in disguise.

He's just killed him for fun. I guess.

We're joking everyone where Joe all this is a joke, But Mark, I don't know.

We got real busy. Well, let me back up.

We were hanging out together this summer and we're like, hey, we haven't hunted together in a few years, let's figure.

Out a way to hunt together. And you were like, I'd love.

To go to a big buckstay and like do the thing on a good property.

And so we put our heads together.

I think you took a water break and I started calling people, and I UH through.

A friend of a friend, found a couple of.

Smaller properties in uh in Illinois that we could get permission to hunt on. And it was like an amazing thing, like gif from God's like, whoa, this is exactly what we wanted, you know. And so we put a plan together, like in a minimal amount of time to go do a like blazing camera drop where you and I met up there and did a little bit of that work

Have you been keeping up with the elements cameras.

Mark I have, it's really easy to keep up with our cameras a little.

I guess, yeah, there's like nothing on them.

Well, uh yeah, nothing on yours.

We got a pretty good buck.

Yeah, one buck.

I mean, I guess I guess I'm sounding uh jaded or something, because yes.

That is that is a real That's a nice buck, for sure, a good buck.

I guess you're just counting out because you know I'm gonna kill him, and so we're kunding another one.

Well, I just know that, like all the properties we have permission on, I know that at least like two to four of them will get completely burnt out by you just sprinting around to doing create.

That's why you're trying to bling me up there, I think you.

So, I'm gonna approach this hunting season down there in Illinois as if I'm hunting public lan like, just assuming that most of the stuff is gonna get trashed by Casey. A couple of little pockets away that Casey might never know about, and that's where I'm gonna get Yeah, that's a good idea.

I like it, But I don't even know where these properties are.

I haven't even given tylering you on xpense.

He doesn't know it's perfect, man, But I'm excited to get to do that with you.

Man.

We're gonna try to spend some time in November up there, like doing the rut thing sharing camp and just power out and having a good time. We talked about how we're gonna decide who gets to hunt ware, and it was we figured we draw straws.

Uh.

The good thing is I am the straw coordinator, so that should go well for me.

Uh man, But I'm pumped. Man, it's gonna be fun.

Like you said, cameras are a little lackluster, but you put them over a lot of mock scrapes and places that deer don't go.

So I think that, Yeah, that was a joke.

Do you do go eventually?

Yeah?

They do.

That actually is a good point to bring up.

Go ahead, but yeah, you know, the place is you can't put you can't put any.

Kind of a tract and out or anything down there.

And so and we're not able to go down there and move cameras around a bunch. So it didn't make sense to put everything like on a soybean field or something. So at least all the cameras that I set up, I set up where there was intersections of travel where there will be some kind of eventual traveling deer movement,

Side of the betting aar.

So these things are.

There's go these are going to be concentrations of buck activity eventually.

And then I also made sure that there was.

A scrape or mock scrape at each of those locations too. So I'm really confident that eventually going to heat up.

But you know, right now early summer, if you're not right.

By like some dynamite soybeing or alf healfa field or something, it's gonna be a little bit slower.

And so that's what we've experienced.

I still thought we would see more deer activity just because like all these spots, if there was a lot of deer in the area like these would be. Like the place I would pick is to expect to see a decent amount of activity, and it hasn't happened yet, but I.

Still think eventually it will.

Yeah, Yeah, the rut's gonna The rut's gonna help that out for sure. So as we get more into October, we'll definitely look for those cameras to light up case. We've got a few people that we're gonna be talking to this week to try to figure out, you know, what the early season deer are doing, and maybe it'll give us a t up in Illinois as well.

Who are we talking to this week.

We're gonna be talking to Alex Compstock in North Dakota, Nate Creek in Nebraska, Mark has them all the way over in South Carolina, and then finished out with Lane Hausner hunting up in Delaware. I know these fellas are rip roaring and ready to go, so let's get the reports from him on the phone.

Right now.

I've got Alex Comstock. He's a good old friend of mine. We're from opposite ends of the world, and he is in North Dakota. He's a waite tail DNA. It's his brand. He's got a lot of cool stuff out there, dude, what's happening.

We're just grinding away in North Dakota and shooting some bucks while we're at it.

Yeah, I guarantee you man. I've been following along on social with a serious fomo. Y'all are killing them.

Yeah.

We had a pretty good start the first couple of days putting. I think we put four bucks down in the first two days of the season.

Oh.

I didn't even realize it was that many. I got so lost in the sauce. I thought, y'all killed two, you've killed four?

Four?

Yeah, I mean four in Camp one was not like our crew per se, but they were with us.

So I mean it's four camp Yeah, that's six? Are y'all video? And all those are?

Those all on film?

Two out of the.

Four were I'm nice man. Two of the guys were on White Tail DNA film and so.

That's cool, looks like. And so your cousin Caleb was one of those guys.

Right, Caleb did not care? Oh he didn't, okay, so he it was close. But we had team member Luke Ellison and the team member Jeremy Lopez both shot bucks.

I've seen the look keel some stuff on your stuff, and sure enough, I guess I got the deer kind of confused. But I know I saw a couple of hammers in there, and they're velvet bucks, which is awesome.

How many deer?

I know you're doing a lot of observation and so you probably put eyes on a lot of bucks, But how many or what's the percentage of deer that you feel are still in velvet right now?

I go about fifty to fifty.

Yeah, a few shed pretty early, and then there's still, like Lukes was perfect pristine velvet, So I'd give it right about fifty.

Fifty, gotcha.

I know that that's a big motivating factor for a lot of guys who hunt the early season, but you know, sometimes people don't care about it as much, but it's a neat thing for sure. Do you feel like you're seeing those bucks still in the bachelor groups or once they shed, are they solo or what's the herd dynamic?

Like I would say, definitely still bachelor groups. Even Jeremy's buck that he killed was hardhorned, but he was in a bachelor group of five bucks and the other four had velvet still, so he was still running with them, so I'm they're still pretty bachelored up.

Gotcha.

Now are you hunting a lot of bid to food and are you just hunting just evenings?

Are you mixing it up with some mornings in there too.

We attempted to do a little morning stuff, just mainly drive around Glassing and our plan was if we found a buck we would make a plan from there, but that has proved to be not worth it as we have not been seen deer in the morning, so we've been just sticking to evenings.

Gotcha. Gotcha?

Are those deer hitting ag fields or what are you usually keying in on?

Yeah?

I think out of the four bucks, I believe three of them are killed on meanfield.

Wow, it's a pretty consistent thing this time of your soybeans are where it's at?

How do you feel exactly?

You know, you've hunted North Dakota for quite a few years and have a lot of experience, particularly in the early season. Out there are the crops in good condition this year? Or is there just a few really good spots?

They seem to be generally speaking, in really good condition. I know they had a super wet spring, so there are some fields that typically would be good that actually didn't get planted, that are just like nothing. Other than that, the fields that are planted or the craft seem to be doing pretty and good.

Gotcha, that's cool.

You and I were talking off air for a second will Ago, and it sounds like you're doing some run and gun hanging hunt or you actually have to go pull a set here in a second, right?

Is that going to be?

Kind of the key for having success is being versatile and being mobile.

Yeah, exactly, just moving, I mean, just trying to stay up on them. I'm going to a spot where I've seen from this tree, I've seen bucks the last two nights. Last night i had one at forty five yards that worked his way to the spot. So I'm determined with the wind and where they're going to be, I need to be there and I need to pull a set and move around and go there. So it's going to be it's a lot of mobile, I mean, bounce around, you know, kind of going with the flow pretty much.

So do you feel like buck movement's pretty good right now?

It has been. I mean we had a really we had a stellar cold front. Hit attempts are generally speaking lower than they are the time of year, so a Buck movement, I mean, with what we've had our success, it's been pretty good.

That's awesome, man.

Yeah, I'm super stoked to see all the succests that y'all have had up there. If someone's trying to think about planning a trip within then went next week, or trying to decide if it's worth getting out, what would you rate the Buck movement your prediction for the next week on a scale of one to ten.

I'm going to just you know, I'm a guy likes the base things off, you know, the most recent data and we have. It's gonna warm up here for about the next couple of days. I think tomorrow it's gonna do about ninety, and then it's going.

To drop off.

For Thursday, I think the highest like sixty one. Wow, and then ranging in the next week it's pretty low. So I'm gonna say it's probably gonna be low for the next couple of days and probably Thursday on. I'm gonna give it a seven.

Dude, just seven in September. That's some killing ratings right there. I like it, man. Well, I appreciate the good information, Alex. I know you're out there in the field hustling. I appreciate how hard you work, and I hope you find success to that.

Man.

Appreciate Casey, Thank you a lot.

I've got Lane Hausner within the presence if you want to find him on YouTube, it's in the presence hunt search that he is hunting in Delaware, which is pretty unique because you think of early season watt Hill states and you don't think about the Northeast too much, but Delaware does have an early opener.

Man, what are you seeing out there?

Oh? Man, I'm seeing a bunch of deer. Man, that's cool overfields.

Man. Yeah.

So you know, for folks who aren't familiar with the concept out there, are you looking at a lot of like corn and bean country and Delaware?

Yeah, pretty much.

And then it's a lot of like just blocks of timber two kind of sporadic through out there too, gotcha.

It's a lot.

It's a lot of pine and you'll find some oaks too.

Mm hmm. Okay, So are do you have oaks that are dropping so far?

Yeah?

I found so far.

I found one way tree that's dropping and they're hitting pretty heavy.

Gotcha. And so you're you're kind of in the hills.

There's not as much of that swamp stuff there in Delaware or any of that kind of stuff.

Oh no, man, it's there. There ain't no hills in Delaware.

Flat Okay, gotcha, got you? Got you. So I know you went out tonight and hunted.

Are you Are you you seeing bucks in bachelor groups still or are they split up or what's the dynamic?

Like it's it's pretty much still bachelored up. You got some some bucks that are soldo right now, but it's for the most parts bachelored up.

I've seen I've seen all dose to night unfortunately. But the other night I seen a.

Bachelor group of bucks and there was two pretty decent ones in there.

That's cool. So in Delaware, do you get multiple buck tags or yeah? Okay, so you can shoot a buck in early season and still be able to hunt later in the year. So are you being super picky and trying to find one specific buck or you just trying to look for a good encounter.

I'm just trying to look for a good encounter, man, experience. I mean, I'll shoot a doe. I could have shot those tonight if I really wanted to, But man, I was like a mile and a half of the truggle. I don't feel like that.

You know, that's a long back out, for sure.

That's a lot for a dough. That's a long back out.

Yeah.

Man.

As far as buck wise, I'm not picky.

Man.

I've never shot a velvet buck before, so honestly, if a nice elbow buck presented itself, give me a good opportunity, man, I'd slain one.

That's cool.

How many how many bucks do you feel like, on a percentage wise are still in velvet up there Delaware?

I'd say majority of them, I'd say, yeah, got you cool?

Yeah, so, uh, you know it kind of makes sense because it's so far north. But you know, you have a what I would think is a different weather pattern then a majority of the country. You know, a lot of the country depends on or isn't dependent, but the weather is affected by how the air moves down out of Canada down through you know, the West and the Midwest. But y'all are on that pretty much eastern seaboard, right, so you're encountering different weather fronts all together. Like, are

I mean, it's a little bit of a thing, But you know, I only got a week to hunt down here before I go to Nebraska and Kansas, so I gotcha.

You know, it's like I'm pretty much just hunting whenever.

Like it's a last week, and a couple of weeks before they were in a huge drought and it was real hot, and then right before the opener they had a huge storm and it kind of brought the temperatures down, so like it's been first day, I think it was like low eighties and then it rained, and then today it was like high seventies, and pretty much the rest of the week it's going to be I think tomorrow the corn for like low seventies, and then rest of.

The week it just gradually climbs.

And then there's supposed to be another weather system coming in Friday and Saturday.

Okay, cool. Yeah. So do you spend a lot of time scouting the summer?

Yep?

So are you making moves off of thing that you found this summer right now?

To be honest with you, I haven't really scouted Delaware in the summer. Most of my stuff I scouted and Delaware was in the winter, So I kind of came down here a day early and just checked a couple of good.

Spots that I thought might be cool, you know, I mean, might be dropping acorns or whatnot, and not one of them.

That was so I went in there again and I didn't see anything.

To be honest with you, do you ever still in there? You know what I mean?

Trow cams on public and Delaware, so it may tough.

Yeah, yeah, so you know you'd really it's kind of just you gotta hunt it and you gotta, you know, try your luck.

To be honest with you, Yeah, it makes sense, man, it sounds it sounds kind of fun, you know. It's it's kind of like, guys, you went with a tread bow or whatever it may be. You know, some restrictions like that, you know, might affect the way you usually hunt, but at the same time it can make things a little sporting, you know. So if you're if you were just kind of gonna guess right now, how do you

I feel like it's pretty good.

I mean, my buddy's been like I know, two of my buddies down here already killed one another one missed, you know what I mean. So I'm dude, there's there's bucks moving, and I mean, if you if you're on any of like the pages on Facebook, you know people are posting bucks pretty much left and right yems like, so people are killing them.

That's cool, man. How many more days you got left before you leave?

Oh?

I got to probably Friday, and then I'll probably swing over to Maryland because Maryland.

Opens on Friday. And I got self camp.

I got like a couple of self cams over there, and one's just been going off non stop. So I want to slide in that spot and try to kill one before I got a roll.

Nice. That's cool. So this next question I'm going to ask you is really pertinent to you.

Uh, if you had superdict buck movement over the next week on a scale of one to ten, what do you think it's going to be and why?

I think it would probably get a little better.

You probably got all the people coming down for the first weekend with it being labored and stuff.

People I've off like today, you know.

What I mean.

So you'll probably Sunday Monday tour it up down here and then I guarantee you, at least what I'm seeing, most of the campers and stuff are pulling out. It seems like, so I guarantee you. You know, Bucks will kind of feel the pressure is kind of changing a little bit, and he's back off, and you know they'll be hitting once once all the corn and beans come down. You know, they'll be hitting acorns hard once they start like actually dropping dropping heavy.

You know. So I feel like it'll only.

Get better to be so for in this week, what's the what's the number from one to ten?

I'd say this week probably like six seven.

Yeah, that's pretty optimistic, man, I like it. Well, if you're calling six or seven, you better kill one, you know better?

How better put my money around my mouth?

That's right, dude.

Well, hey, really appreciate the good report there and look forward to talking to you the rest of the season.

It sounds like you got a lot going on.

Yeah, man, I appreciate you having me on. Thank you.

This is Mark Haslam with Southeast Wide Tail.

He is in the great state of South Carolina most of the time.

At least, Mark, what's happening man.

Now much?

Man?

Case? I just got back from the farm.

Have the kids up there labor the weekend and it was hot, but I'm I'm already ready to get back up there.

I bet dude again. Y'all, y'all get after it real hard.

It's always fun too to to kind of watch how things progress with you on social media because y'all are always killing stuff way earlier than anybody else, and you've got to beat on them.

So it's very cool.

But I have a big question for you, For us that don't know, It's might be a little confusing, but is the whole state of South Carolina the low Country or is that a specific area?

And are you there?

So the low Country is a specific region?

Gotcha?

It runs It really starts down and Runswick, Georgia, but in South Carolina it runs all the way to Charleston, South Carolina, from the Georgia side sept from the Savannah River.

It's about Charleston and it goes inland.

How far it goes to inland Some people will say it's very tight, like in our state ninety five. Other people will say it'll go as far as inland is like an hour hour and a half. So we are we are just across the line in the Midlands Midges.

Okay, gotcha, Yeah, what did the beer doing in the Midlands right now? Man?

Right now they are.

We're starting to see them shifts, starting to see them shift pretty well. The majority of the state opened up August fifteenth.

The very top part of the state opens September fifteenth.

But they right now most of these deer low country Midlands areas games down three and four. They have been hit hard for the past three past you know, over over two going three weeks now, with with with folks hunting, people putting up trail cameras and food plots and feeders and deer stands and trimming, so all of a sudden, the woods were kind of sitting idle for the most part, except for foresters and farmers.

And now all of a sudden they've been bombarded.

So if you have some isolated fields or food plots or some airs that you know haven't been touched yet with human presence, it's going to be golden.

Uh.

Some of these deer are still on some summer patterns, but for the most.

Part, bucks in velvet they have been They typically start peeling the third week in.

August, and right now, if you see a buck in velvet.

It is probably gonna be a one year old, you know, a spike or a real small six seven eight point got you.

So they're starting to they're starting to.

Shift, yeah, sure. So are those deer still eating agriculture? Are they kind of moving over to acrons? You'll have me acrons dropping.

No acorns for the most part dropping.

Yet we'll have the folks that plant saw tooth salt sawtooth oaks and start dropping pretty soon for people. We've got some of those, But right now they are still pounding ag fields and food plots. But if you had that human presence out there already hunting them or start kind of messing around them, they're gonna shift back a little bit.

And then I'm gonna come.

Out two hours before last light and in the heat of you know, of the sun. They're they're gonna wait till that right last light, Yeah, and slip out.

So I know that in the past, I've talked to you and some people that have hunted with you, and y'all actually find success in the mornings, oftentimes in early season, which is a little different.

Is that a thing that you're you're still targeting right now?

Absolutely?

I haven't done.

I haven't done much of that because I've been taking my kids so far this year. But this weekend I'm going solo. We got some cool temps down in the eighties, which is cool for us.

Yeah, I understand this.

In the mornings, that's right just center seventy.

So with these bucks, I'm gonna be hanging and climbing right outside some betting areas. And so what I found is cooler mornings early season. Yeah, these bucks, they're gonna be out of the open fields. They're gonna be out, you know, of the open areas by great light. But they're gonna be drifting back to betting and they're gonna take their time because they're gonna eat.

They're gonna eat.

All the way there, and so just kind of find some good, tight areas where they can feel safe.

Yeah, that's cool. So how do you feel like the buck movement is right now? I mean, i'd say it's about seven. Yeah, it's about seven.

And the reason why I wouldn't say it's more, it's just because if you're hunting those open fields, open areas is there have been gunshots everywhere and they are I mean, there's just people out about hunting and dear, it's it's an initial shot that I see, you know, to where they're not leaving your property, but all the sut all of a sudden they get hit hard with presents. So they're still moving around, but they're but they are now shifting around the hunters.

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, man, that's cool, dude.

Well seven is pretty good, you know, Like that makes me optimistic about wanting to get in the woods. So I think if anybody's in your general region, then it's still the getting time, I would imagine.

And I know you're gonna be getting after it too.

Man. I can't wait to see how the rest of it your season plays out. I know you all gonna lay some down.

That's the plan.

That's the plan, and and then the and the real fun part starts September fifteenth across the state when we can start laying down doors. And that's that's what the fun is.

Yeah, feeling the freezer and everybody he gets to shoot some stuff.

That's that's a good time, man.

Sure.

Yeah, well, Mark, we appreciate the report, man, and I'm sure I'll be reaching back out to you again.

Sounds good.

This is Nate Creek with identical draw. Him and his brother get after it a lot of times in some of the more Western stuff. But y'all hunt practically all over the country. What's up man, Hey, not much.

It's hunting season.

Yeah, that's right, man, it's like whatever. You're just general temperament was it's like plus two from here until the end of December. Yeah, that's right, that's right. Just just more smiles in general. So that's great man.

Uh.

So you've been doing some hunting in Nebraska and that Nebraska's home for you?

Correct, Yes, Yeah, Nebraska's home.

So it seems like usually start up right here because they have an early opener, so it works out pretty well.

Yeah, man, for sure.

You actually get to just see a whole bunch of out of state hunters, uh, you know, come into your state exactly.

It's perfect.

Yeah, for sure. So in general, how is Nebraska this year? We're looking at a wet year, a dry year. What's going on?

Uh?

You know, I feel like there's pockets of dryness, but I can't complain. We had a ton of moisture from what's typical this summer. Our fall plots are doing well. We got those in like we I mean in the last couple of weeks, we've had some I mean some heavy rains whether we're getting over a couple of inches, So yeah.

I really can't complain. It's that I feel like.

The summer was I mean, we had our hot, dry stretches, but overall it was pretty good on things. So we saw some pretty good deer growth. I feel like there's a bunch of big ones around this year. So yeah, it's the summer went pretty well here, So that's cool.

Yeah, So you're talking about planting plots and stuff.

And I can only imagine in a state that is defined by agg fields full of beans and corn, that you have to be creative with food plots. What are you planting and what are you targeting to draw deer over from just that general good feed they get from the agriculture, right.

So you know, it kind of depends.

So like on our family place in Kansas, we do a bunch of management stuff and like our prescribed fire in the off season is truly the best food plots that we have in the whole property. We don't plant anything, it's just that new growth. We have cameras on our new growth, and we have cameras on our bean plots, our new growth with that green like just leafy material, like those plants that the deer are in that more than our food plots, which is honestly insane.

And but yeah, we play a ton of like right now, our fall plots.

We just put in a.

Bunch of clovers and peas and brass cus and things that are going to last and stay green throughout the winter season. But right now, like what we're focusing on is this this early week September.

I mean it's basically still summer. I mean it is, it's.

Fall seasons here, but I mean we're still hunting Nebraska. We're lucky you can still hunt some of those summer bucks on their patterns and so a lot of the times we're finding them in those big green bean fields. But we hunted Opener this last Sunday, and I watched several does get up from their beds brows the field edges just on natural brows.

Just what was coming up.

There's some poison ities just different natural food sources.

Didn't even touch the.

Bean field, just worked around through like the timber that there are some sunlight in some green popping up. And I thought that was really interesting because I feel like right now is just a ton of emphasis on that. But man, there are just these niche food sources that deer honestly prefer more than our perfectly pristine food plots that we try so hard.

So I think that's.

Honestly a huge thing scouting this time of the year, not really going for that big act, but just finding that little pockets of.

Preferred, dear, dear food that they're going to be hidden.

So yeah, I mean, the how visual deer are in the early season is always a bit fit. And then I think that too, especially living in a more western state. You know the benefit of the rolling terrain and being able to use your glass and your benefit. Yeah, it has to be a huge part of your hunting, right for sure.

Yeah, for sure, Like we we uh, we were hunting the spot that this week that I mean we could see I mean like pretty much miles.

I mean in one direction.

We have tons of good visibility in other directions and that and that kind of sit is it's a hunt, you got the.

Bow locked and loaded, but it's it's also just like a big time observation.

Sit just trying to hone things in.

I mean, that's that's sometimes the best thing you can do this time of the year. Obviously you can use some some trail cameras depending on your property and things like that. But man, if you can get eyes on deer kind of doing some similar things a couple of days in a row and then be able to go in and strike, I feel like that's one way to really kill a buck.

Yeah, I absolutely agree, man, and y'all see to be pretty good at it. Dude, how many of the deer or what percentage of the deer still have velvet?

You know?

I was just talking to a buddy about that today. I feel like they are shedding so early. I there's only a handful of bucks that I've seen a camera in the last week that's still a velvet, most of the big ones that we were chasing.

I just got.

Pictures last night of a deer just in northeast Kansas and he was completely shed, hard worn. Most of the deer on Nebraska stuff that we've been hot and have been all hard worn, which I feel like some years it's like that, But I feel like some years you also get the first seven to ten days of September where they're going to be holding Velvet's hard pretty so it's like, I don't know, it's I think most of them have shed which kind of makes things a little

When they're shedding.

Yeah. Yeah, yep, I could see that for sure. Man. Well cool if as you look forward to the next week.

With some weather fronts moving through and other things, you know, I know that plays a lot into it. If you were going to rate the buck movement on a scale of one to ten, what are you predict it to be?

You know, I think buck movement is going to be pretty good for this first week. Yeah, like you said, there's.

Some weather moving in, I think you could probably see six or seven out of ten on the buck movement, which for this time of the year, it's pretty good. I've hunted most most early season weeks. I mean, I feel like you're outing ninety degrees and movement could just be the last minute of the day.

But I mean, we're we're seeing in some low seventies this this late this week. Those are highs. So those are for high wow.

Yeah, dipping into like upper forties for lows and highs in the seventies.

So I think on those days, i'd be in a treat.

I think that they're going to be moving early and you could have a really good shot.

Oh man, that gets me pumped. I'm excited for y'all. I'm on a little bit of a hiatus here in early September, but I know y'allre going to get after it. And I'm living vicariously through you, man, So I appreciate the good report and I just can't help but wish you well this season.

Man.

I know it's going to be a lost one.

Yep, it's gonna be last things dude.

As you can tell, hunters are riding high on optimism and there's good reason for it.

Right.

That's early season. The bucks are in velvet, they're moving around. It's a ton of fun to get out there, but there's some critical things you need to consider. And over on the wire to Hunt feed, Tony Peterson has an article called how to call in early season Bucks, which I think is super intriguing. Oftentimes guys are sitting there in ambush waiting on deer, but if you can manipulate their move ments, man, that is such an as in the hole for you. Also, go over the Element YouTube channel.