Ep. 839: Rut Fresh Radio - The Rut Approaches

Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you the latest reports from the white Tail 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.

Things are heating up around the country in the deer woods, but it's unseasonably warm out there as well. Is it time for you to get in the stand? Who knows this is Retfresh, Let's go.

Welcome to Retfresh Radio, brought to you by First Light Gear. I'm Casey Smith and Tyler Jones is here with me.

I'm playing Copol today and he is navigating us to where the bucks are.

I think it's all right, super nav.

Navigator, and uh, we're heading out on a hunt trip and I'm pretty excited about it.

Tell you the truth, Tyler, how do you feel? I feel increasingly good as we had the direction we're heading.

It's as funny as you as you head more towards no northern latitudes, you feel better about the deer.

Hunting you do. And pretty hard to not going north when you're in Texas. I'm guarantee you unless you got some money, you can head south north. It's the inference that's good. We we do.

Have some good reports from around the country, uh, from some different folks. A lot of deer already hitting the ground, which is very exciting. And uh man, this time the hype this time of year is uh. I don't know if I can say this word right. Palatable is that how do you say the word palpable? I'm trying to say, like you can you can like taste it, right or something like That's kind of how the context of that, it's palatable.

Yeah, palatable.

That's what them bucks be doing in the scrapes right now, just helping or tasting.

It in them taste But it's all right, yeah, Tyler.

We have been talking some strategy here as to what we're gonna do. We're gonna just go on a ten day just deer sleigh fest.

And I don't mean like saying in a sleigh you know what I'm saying.

But it's a good time of year to do a lot of different things, maybe even some aggressive things. We've been talking a lot about rattling, and I think the jury is out on when is a good time to rattle And that might just be kind of my personal perception because I've had successes and failures at all times of the year doing it, maybe depending on where I'm at in the country. So let me just ask you a very pointed question, when is a good time to rattle?

Like what dates are you thinking about rattling?

And when is it like still borderline but worth doing, and like what's your strategy on it?

Man, I don't know. I'm not the rattling guy by any means. I'd like to hear your two cents on it, for sure, because you probably do it more than I do, but that doesn't mean it works. Yeah, yeah, yeah, had some experience, though, I would say, you know, right now, it is probably a pretty good time to rattle. I don't know that I would get super knockdown drag out with it. I would try to sound like a couple

And maybe you brought this to my attention a few years back, like rattling is somewhat weird to deer at the beginning, because they just have it, hurt it in a while or whatever, and then they kind of get used to hearing it around or something.

So I thought that was interesting.

I have a couple of anecdotal things to mention here, because I do rattle a decent amount and I have had some success, but I mean I've had a lot of failures rattling because you don't rattle deer in very often.

It's not a thing.

I mean, maybe you go to South Texas and you hunt a really nice place that has a ton of whitetail deer and you're rattling in quite.

A few bucks. It might even be high fence, Yeah, it might be.

And so like there's this there's this thing. And that's where rattling became a tactic, right. It was those guys are in the seventies and eighties that kind of made that popular, that were doing it in South Texas because there's a ton of deer per acre or per square mile down there, and that's why it's the thing.

But it works everywhere.

All deer, all white tail deer, bucks fight and so they do experience that. Last year, I killed a deer, not by rattling, but right after he fought another deer and that it was like the knockdown dragon.

I mean there was dust fly. I could see the dust flying naked eye from over.

A mile away, a very wide open country if you can't tell, right, Like, they were trying to kill each other, and it lasted I would say twelve to twenty seven or something like that like that, the true knock. There was no like let's push on each other first. You know, it was like they knew that it was. They were

And it's in in the streets. Yeah, and David Bowie, but those deer were the former.

They were street fighting, and that was November fifteenth, and it was absolutely insane.

I mean, they were trying to break each other's necks right.

And by the way, that video is going to be on the Element channel pretty soon.

It's insane, So go check it out if you y'all. I'll say this, it's supposed to be out the twenty ninth. I don't know if it's gonna be out the twenty ninth because we're, you know, we're on the way to some deer country and those don't those the Wi FI and deer country don't always mix, so that'll be the thing. But that's what we're trying to get it out, you know.

And I'm really thankful to have been able to document that one and I want to share it with you. But I will say that I have observed this time of year, deer very much do the let's push on each other thing, and then as we're doing it, we're gonna kind of ramp up a little bit and and fine, and then maybe even at the end of it, there can be like a little bit of a hey, I want I'm gonna run you off type thing because there's

Uh.

You know, testosterone is ramping up continually until it peaks.

In you know, November for most of the country.

Uh you know, illogist actually tend to not have too high.

Yeah, but.

I think that I found success during this the other day, get fired up, laughing and we drive off the road.

That's good.

I did rattling a buck on October twenty fifth.

He was a two year old a deer.

I decided to not shoot, and he did come in down wind, or tried to be down windy, and he missed her wind just a little bit, and he was cautious, so he just kind of stayed there looking around, and I played with him a little bit. I snort wazed at him, and he he like locked it up real hard and then he did it again. He ran off, But it was fun. I love rattling in here, and I did that tactic. I didn't really start out super slow, and I didn't tickle antlers too much.

I went ahead and.

Got them together, but I was doing the said a clack clack, It's much more of a cranking them together, you.

Know what I'm talking about kind of they're kind of like you said, pushing on your So it's kind of a grind more than it is a hit exactly. And I think it like bighorn sheep, you know what I mean, they don't do that.

Deer put their heads together and then they and and that's the sound that you get all a lot of times when you're thinking about natural rattling. And I did that. It's actually really hard on your arms. It makes you tired, you know, but you're just putting in as much pressure back and forth as you can, or a large amount at least you don't want to break them.

And it worked.

So I think that that could be kind of the go to on the rattling this time of year.

And they don't have biceps like you. Well, it's all forearms, you know. Whenever you're doing that, you got some good for I've been doing things, man, I've been doing.

A lot of farmers walk lately because I feel like functionally that's like a very big thing.

And I think it a because you can be a Mennonite.

Yeah I'm trying to be a farmer, but you know, well, men nights, they don't walk. They got cars and stuff, so well true, I just thought they farmed. They do a lot of farming, but not all of walking. We're gonna do some rattling this week. I think it's gonna be a tactic that really works soon. It also sounds like there are some other taxes tactics that are really working well for some of the guys that are hunting around the country this week.

Tyler, who do we got. We got Chandler Barnes from Kentucky. He's a guy who known for a few years. He's out there, you know, shooting deer like he always does every year, something that makes us jealous. We got Gordon Dalton from Virginia out there in East Virginia doing the thing. Funny how we met him, but I won't talk to you that story some other time. Michael Huntsucker from Heartland bow Hunter. He's been out in Colorado. He is the man for us in Colorado for some reason. We don't

Awesome, let's see what they got to say. This is my buddy, Chandler Barns. He's been hunting in Kentucky and has had some success.

Chandler, how you doing, man?

Good?

How you guys doing all?

We're doing real well. Congrats on the big eight point dude. It seems like you always getting done about this time of year.

Thank you so much.

Yes, October, late October is my favorite time to be in the woods. I've killed a couple on October twenty seventh, and it's a great time to key in on scrapes.

Okay, So do you think that scrapes are the key right now in Kentucky?

Huh?

Yes, Yes.

What I've had luck in over the years is trying to move my cameras.

To scrapes in late October.

And I use this little stuff called white lightning. It's a pure white tail powder and I try to I don't know if that's in my head or if it works, but I put that stuff in the scrapes and they seem to really be active and check them a lot.

That's cool.

So are you waiting on a deer to show up in daylight on that scrape before you move in?

I will, But it's such it's been so consistent over the years. Anytime in the tree that I can get in late October, the week before Halloween.

Is it's go time.

Hey, tell me a little more about that white lightning. Man, I don't it's a powder.

Form, he said, So, yes it is.

I found it through a buddy a few years ago, and I just you can order it online or anywhere. But it's a it is a little white can and now it might be clear now, but it's blue baby powder looking stuff and you pour it in your scrape and it's a white lightning. Is the peak dough in estras, you know, so it's ready to be bred. Well, when the dough PE's in there, he's thinking that there's a hot dough in the area, and he comes back a

That's pretty sick. See, I thought you Kentucky boys are about your bourbon. But you like the white lightning to yourself. You know, you're a pretty good trick them. And you don't paying it yourself right, because you wouldn't win any alphab.

I have done that before, And I don't know, you know, but I've seen people do it and say.

It works, so I'm not opposed to it.

I'm not the type that, you know, if I got a p all pe out of the stay and it doesn't bother me.

Yeah, you just got to watch which way you're facing when the trail cameras around, that's for sure. Are you are.

These mock scrapes or scrapes that are naturally made by No I have.

I've never actually made my own scrape. I just over the years of consistency, they'll use a lot of the same scrapes. So I just kind of go in there on their scrapes that they've started in early October, and then I started about the first week of October. I'll start every time I go to check my cameras or stuff.

Like that, all throw a little bit of that powder in the screen.

So what are your cameras showing right now? Do you have daylight movement yet?

Yes, I've had a lot of I've had a lot of bucks moving in daylight. It's been very dry here in Kentucky. We haven't had rain in several weeks, but it's just the leaves are falling and they're they're feeling theirselves. You know, they're getting there, they know what's coming.

So yeah, it's just that time of year. Man, It's it's super exciting. No matter if it's cold, whatever, we you know, the deer have to do the thing. I'm glad for it. So you think that it's time to start hunting mornings yet or are you going to concentrate on evenings.

So I've had several buddies hunting the mornings that I've had and I've had buddies that have success in the mornings, But me personally, I'm not gonna lie. I've never killed a buck in the morning. And it's not that I don't like hunting mornings. I love hunting mornings, but I just a lot of my spots I have more luck in slipping in in the afternoon without bumping deer.

You know.

Yeah, it's hard not to bump them in the mornings, but I hunt them wide open.

I like to hunt them too. Yeah, that's how I am too, man. I had killed a lot of deer in the evenings. But yeah, yeah, so.

It's kind of like a thing.

I want to get that off my chest. Yeah, but I just have so much more success in afternoons.

Yeah, it's easier to make a game plan sometimes in the afternoons. Man, So I hear you on that. Well, if you're looking at at trail camera photos and having success and and just knowing what's coming up, how do you feel about buck movement? What would you rate it on a scale of one to ten in the next week.

You know, I'm gonna be optimistic and I'm going to give it a seven to eight. I think it's it's really going to amp up here, seeing that we'll be seeing a lot of deer hit the ground in Kentucky, I would say all right.

I would too, man, I think those are valid numbers, especially looking at what time of year we're in.

Chandler. Thanks for the report, man, and congrats a big buck. Hey, thank you guys so much. This is our good buddy, Gordon Dalton with blue Ridge Hunting. Gordon. The story of how we met is pretty wild, but it's been a few years that we've known each other, and you are a guy that stays on big Bucks in a unique part of the US. You've been out hunting in Virginia is where I'm guessing.

Yes, sir, Western part of Virginia.

All right, man, And so tell us real quick what that country looks like.

And it's steep, steep and thick.

This is the Blue Ridge Mountains, western central Virginia. So it's east coast standards, pretty steep, pretty rugged where I am at.

Least got you a lot of oaks around, a lot of oaks.

And we're having a pretty good oak year here with the white oaks, chestnut oaks especially.

Of course the red oaks are good. But yeah, it's a.

Pretty pretty heavy white oak acorn crop this year.

I would say, not like we had.

A couple of years ago, but it's it's definitely, you know, thick enough that they're they're staying tight up in.

There, gotcha. So are the Are the oaks the key right now that you've been seeing lately or are there other things at play that you're hunting from?

From what I see, Yeah, it's all about, you know, the oaks being up high on those ridges.

With the oaks, especially.

In the Mountain Laurel, which is where we usually find you know, there's the oaks and Mountain Laurel often kind of go together in the shady parts.

Or up on the ridges.

Yeah, exactly that Laurel is betting, I'm guessing or I.

Think so, yeah, betting and cover. I am not seeing a lot down in the fields, you know, even at night when I'm driving home, I don't. I'm not seeing them down in the low grassy areas. They're up in the up high in the oaks.

Yeah.

H So from following you on social and just kind of seeing the hunt you're doing, it looks like you've already got a decent amount of rut movement. Where do you think the deer are in the scale of the road. Is it like a normal Midwest you know, first and second, wait to November?

Are you ahead of that or what's it like?

I think we're right on track, you know, Like the more I do this, the more I see this last part of October.

I think today's what the twenty eighth when we're talking.

And this seems to be like when it when the older bucks kind of start to pick up.

And that's what I've seen on the ground, you know.

I saw a little bucks chasing the previous week, and then last Friday, I don't know if you saw it. I posted a video just on my way to work of a pretty good buck chasing a dough. I didn't even realize there was a dot at first. But yeah, so he started, you know, he was in the game. And then Sunday I let a really nice buck go and I'll probably regret that.

That's what I.

They're just starting to get into the game.

Yeah, So are you transitioned to pinch points yet? Are you still trying to hunt sign and find places where dere are?

Lately I've been getting up you know, like I say, in the oaks. This is the time of year where I start, you know, looking at those scrapes for sure. I know a lot of people don't want to hunt over a scrape.

I've had good.

Luck this time of year, specifically, like last couple of days of October. Maybe in the next you know, into the first part of November. Yeah, that's that's been my plan so far. That you're staying tight up in those oaks.

So you'll you'll do you think in the next week you'll stay with those scrapes in the tight cover or are you gonna move.

Out As we get into next week, I would be looking for for some pinch point, trying to catch things cruising because I don't think you know, that many doose are coming in yet, but maybe yeah, trying to look at I mean, I'm always looking for those little terrain pinch points in terms of in the oaks, like narrow parts of ridges and little gullies that come up to the ridges. That's that's what i was doing last last weekend.

So are you are you using those more than you're using like a certain I guess quote unquote feed tree, like one that they prefer for whatever reason.

So this year I've been hitting areas that have historically been really really good, you know, with with the oaks and not so much specific feed trees. Last year when we had fewer white oaks, that specific tree kind of thing that seemed to work better. It seems like a prett a uniform crop this year. But they seem to like to feed in certain parts.

Of the ridges.

So that's kind of like what I've been looking at places I've found in the past just from boots on the ground, you know, just finding those that spot that they like to be, which I think is more specific.

To like bedding. You know, they're bedding.

In this little oak laurel clump and then they're coming out to different oak trees near the bedding. I think it's probably what's really happening there. I like to get a site near the bedding, but where they come out, you know, they'll bed down and then they'll get up and feed a little bit, you know, near their bed and that's often what the kind of place I'm in cool.

So with the you know, the the good oak acorn crop and then with just the good dates that we have coming up here, I know you're excited about getting out there and hunting. And if you had to rank it on a scale of one to ten for big buck movement during the daylight, what are you going to call in the next week.

For next week, man, for big bucks, I would have to say probably getting up near eight. Yeah, in terms of the you know, the year long scale. Yeah, in terms of movement that that helps us as hunters, Yeah, seven or eight.

I agree, man, for sure.

Awesome, dude, Well, thanks for the report from Virginia and I can't wait to see what you put on the ground.

Yes, they're the same same to you guys. Good luck.

M m m H.

We're talking to Michael Huntsucker from Heartland bow Hunter and he again has been he's our correspondent in Colorado pretty much. So, uh, if we know any y tail hunters in Colorado, it is Michael Huntsucker. That's the only one. Michael has it doing. How's it going, man, it's going good.

I'm happy to be happy to be the Colorado of correspondent.

Man, It's it's real pretty out there this time of year. It looks like every every year. I'm like, man, the colors out there are amazing. You know, as we get into this late October time period, it seems like you're out there a lot in October, but you usually having to go back in November. Do you feel like October is the time to be out there?

You know, it's really depending on the weather, and you know it also is delegated by the rifle season opening up. So you know this year, archery season ran until October twenty fifth, So I always hunt that last full week of archery. That's gonna be the best, you know, opportunity you had before rifles. So I always hunt that last week. And it's really really dictated by weather. If you don't get the cooler weather and stuff, you don't see the

Yeah, I got you. So what's what's the hot ticket in the last week or so there? What were you where you finding bucks?

I was, you know, hunting either you know, kind of pink points between you know, thick cover, bedding cover, or hunting some pretty active scrapes that had blown up in the past week. That was kind of my focus. We you know, weren't getting a whole lot of daylight activity, and so I just wanted to be somewhere close to where I thought they were bedded. That way, when they did move, you know, right before dark that hopefully we Las Island.

What was there any cruising or anything going on or were you mostly seeing just a bed to food movement.

We did see a little bit of bucks kind of cruising a little bit. We saw one buck kind of following a dough type bumping her and then we actually rattled.

The buck in as well.

So I was doing a doing kind of a blind rettle on the on the edge of the river there, and you know, those bucks seem to be fighters, man, they always you know it seems early to rattle, but they always bust their racks and bust their times early. And that's so when that first dough comes into heat,

So can you go in a little bit more about the sound of the rattling that you're doing, you said, imitated that. Are you really trying to make it sound like two mature bucks you're trying to kill each other?

Or are you do it more with a tickle?

So I actually usually i start out with, you know, kind of a softer rat all kind of more like a spar and then I'll take a break, you know, for five ten minutes whatever and see if anything comes to investigate, and then if if nothing does kind of investigate, then I'll then I'll bang them together a little harder.

The week went on closer to the end of the week for sure, So a lot of people like to think about the moon and how it relates back to deer, and I know that there's quite the gambit of different opinions on it. As we looked towards this last week of October, here that we're in the hunting, it's going to be a new moon. Do you think that affects deer movement or you know, when you may or may not see deer on their feet. I don't.

I don't put a whole lot of you know, faith into the moon phases. As much as I do like the moon rise and the moon set and the timing of that, I seem to correlate more deer movement with that. I don't know what the scientific you know, reasoning is behind or if there is scientific proof behind deer movement moon other than obviously ambient you know, light and that type of thing. But we're also just getting closer and closer to the rut and those first doughs are going

Is the weather. So in the next week, would you change up your tactic, Sarah.

Yeah, I definitely would probably get a little more aggressive and be honting more of the kind of rut style stuff. Obviously, it's like I said, it's rifle season. So if you're rifle hunting, you would obviously, you know, be probably areas where you can see more to where if I was

Gotcha. So in the next week, what do you think buck movie is going to be like? On a scale of one to ten.

Man, I think it's going to be a nine nine and a half.

All Right, it looks good.

We're finally over this little hump of warm weather and this cold front's coming in on Halloween. Everybody wants to kill a Halloween buck. I'm gonna be hunting in Iowa trying to kill a Halloween buck. But yeah, this next week looks phenomenal. It does look a little wet, especially you know across the board in Colorado, in the Midwest and so but the temperatures drop, they stay down and you got some good fluctuations of you know, storms coming in,

Awesome, dude. Well, thanks for hopping on man. I hope you have a great hunt in Iowa. Appreciate it. Michael, Yeah, thanks for having me. We're talking to Scotty Lego. He is a former Olympian and now he's an Olympian deer hunter because that's all he does all day, right, Scotty.

Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm just trying my best to live the dream, you know, as much as I can, and you know, avoid a real life job, you.

Know, don't we all, man, aren't we all? That's awesome. So you've been in Massachusetts recently? Had some success?

There, is that?

Right?

I did?

Yeah?

I actually killed my biggest buck with a bow today.

Oh dude, way to go, wait to go, Thank you you kill it? What was the what was the key tactic there? Man? I?

Uh, I just I found his little hiding hole, okay, And I would say decently pressured area.

For acquired some.

Different tactics and some permission. I'll just leave it at that. But I saw him coming out of the swamp about forty five minutes before before dark, and he was walking away from me. He was about one hundred yards out and it was decently windy day, and I grabbed my grunt call grunted out of him like three different times, pretty aggressive because I wasn't sure if he was walking he'd be able to hear or you know, could hear over the wind. And he came in. He circled cut

And I didn't give them too much.

Time to hang out when I had it, when I had a twenty.

Yard so I stuffed him and way to go. That's awesome. That's incredible, man. So this this deer, you were close to his bed, so you think betting has been kind of key. Is the weather going to change and change anything for you in the woods in Massachusetts anytime soon?

You think, yeah, I mean it's been good. It's been a it's been you know, decently cold, really cold mornings these last two days. We are getting some crazy warm weather coming up. I guess it's going to be like close to eighty, which you know, it's pretty insane because it's you know, it's low forties right now. So I have no clue what that's going to do for deer movement. Obviously it's not going to be good. But given like you know, the time of year, October twenty ninth, I mean,

So I don't know, I feel like it's we're in the heart of it. It's getting really good.

So uh, since you have you know, the rut days are coming.

Uh, Are you gonna have your grunt call on hand throughout this whole time?

Is that? Is that a tactic?

If you see a deer that's not range, are you gonna grind into ringing closer?

Yeah, definitely, gotta gotta gotta give it a shot.

I have it pretty handy. I have it.

I run a little fanny pack, so I got it right here pack And yeah.

Man, what about blind calling anything that you do there?

I have dabbled with that before in the past. I've had no success with it, but it really made me think when I when I grunted that end the other day, I'm like, you know, that was like almost one hundred yards away, and I'm like, geez, I'm like, maybe I should do some blin some blind calling. But no doubt he you know, he went directly down wind, so I it would have to be a pretty strategic location.

Yeah, definitely makes sense. So as you look forward to the next week, we got really good dates.

There's some hot weather clothes, but there's a cold front that's going to hit pretty much most of the country later on in the weekend. With all that in mind, on a scale of one to ten. If you're going to give Buck Movement a rating there in Massachusetts, what would you rate it?

Man?

I gotta go.

If if you're if you're in the box, if you know where where they're at, and have a basic idea of maybe a loose pattern, I would I would give it an eight, all right. I think I think it's you know, pre damn good.

And if you have no.

Clue clue where they're at, you know, and you're kind of waiting for the right, I would give it, you know, five with this this warm weather gotcha?

Well that's awesome, man, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, that did make No that makes sense for sure. So Scotty, are the Celtics gonna win the championship again next year?

Uh?

You know I'm rooting for them, honestly, I know I was. I was.

I was with him for you know, their all their winds, and now I just have kind of faded off and I haven't been paying attention to dear season.

Man.

You know, you got to go out there it was and you just forget everything else going on. Man, So I appreciate you hopping on, Scotty, and uh go get you another one man? All right? Man? I appreciate it. Thank you, brother.

I'm fired up about some deer Hunting Brothers stories. These reports are good and it's nice to uh to feel like we're in that time.

Of year, and it for sure is. Man.

We're driving across the country right now, the leaves are falling off of trees. I'm seeing yellows and reds and and corn getting harvested, and there's deer in the fields in the evenings like this is the time of year that I look forward to every year.

I know it, man, I like to hype about it a little bit.

If you need a little bit of hype in your life and you need even some in depth tactics, I'm going to give Mark King a little nod here.

Mark does a really good job on.

His podcast to getting good guests on the show to really deep dive into deer hunting tactics. And this time of year actually is a really good time of year to tune in for this kind of stuff.

So if you haven't seen.

Mark's episode with Steve Pinkston, you should definitely go to listen to that. They do a deep dive into tactics for killing big bucks, and that's what we are here for. Kill big Bucks. There'll be a link for that below. Also, the Element podcast is well.

We'll link to that.

Tyler and I give a lot of our thoughts and tactics and tried and true ideas for hunting white tailed deer as well.

Yeah, a lot of that comes from us just being out in the field and we just talked about what happened to what we saw the week before. So it's pretty up to date too. It's almost like a retfresh just a little bit different, only you know our perspective. There's also one last thing we talked about earlier that you need to go do as soon as this podcast is over before you listen to other podcasts, and that's go to our YouTube channel and check out what we've

This is Reugh Fresh, Keep it Fresh.