Ep. 840: Whitetail Rut Game Plans and 39 Actionable Rut Hunting Tactics

of November with a few special deer hunting tunes. Two years ago we came out with our first white tail rout parody song of sorts, I guess you could call it. We called that the most Wonderful Time to Kill deer riff on a Christmas tune of course, and then last year we had a second one that one's called Big White Tails, going along with the tune of jingle bells. So we are going to bring those back for you to listen to this month. On each episode of the podcast.

Here so real quick, we're gonna play you our two rout hunting theme songs of the year. Enjoy them, and then we will get to our big old rut Hunting Extravaganza podcast shortly.

sound if I have a drop of the stuff. Also alerts the authorities, who in turn alert my parole officer. So there'll be none of that in the studio today, I promise you.

there we're going to share with you today. So I hope you're ready for that. Tony are you? Are you ready for that?

this podcast airs. It will be Halloween, October thirty first. I mean that's the kickoff, right.

So I do know you just got back from a hunt and you're about to leave for another hunt, So can you give us like the quick rundown of North Dakota and if there was anything from that? I know that was like a mid October hunt, but is there anything coming out of that that you're going to be keeping in mind as you lead into the rut stuff?

total like so freaking rad. And then caught up to that buck two miles away, and a couple days later had him raking a tree in front of me at twenty one yards, perfect opening to his lungs and just the way we were in separate trees and there was one cedar tree between us, and so I'm looking at it. I'm like, this is a dead buck. And the camera guy's like, I don't have him. But the way he's going to leave there, I'm like, the odds are pretty high. He's going to give me a shot. And he just

took a route where I couldn't find an opening. And so but I'll tell you what, I don't know what's happening to me, but I was I have never been I've never been more okay screwing up on a giant and just letting one walk. And I ended up, you know, I ended up, you know, finding a little success later. But it was like just the whole hunt was so fun and you just felt like you were in it. And I'll tell you what. So I got out there on I think October thirteenth, I saw a really good

buck chase hard. On October fourteenth, I saw another really cool six pointer that was like out to his ears. He just didn't have much for times I saw him chase.

it's not kicking in yet or whatever. I'm like, you know, you and I have talked about this this last week October, those first couple of days in November. Man, you know, everybody wants that like seven through the twelve through whatever, but this time of year.

are ready to go. It's like you've got all the bucks on their feet and nobody's locked down, or hardly anyone's locked down. They're all searching. It's just it can be great. I agree with you. I absolutely love it. And now I got to ask you a question though,

about your North Kota thing. Legitimately, you found that buck two miles away within just a few days, so, and I know this is a river you're hunting, so I know they travel up and down that but did you I mean, you must have been shocked when all of a sudden you're seeing the same buck so far away. Dude, it was wild.

there quick. I just got a glimpse of them through my spotter, and then I picked him up down river and so anyway, went in there, called him in the you know, the first morning I had to hunt there, screwed it up. He's gone shot hair off his back like time to recoup. And I ended up hunting my way the other direction down river to this area that has just some really good bedding cover, you know, like kind of that cedar scrub oak, you know, river bottom

flat type stuff. And what it was what happened to me, And this is like a good lesson for anyone who's not hunting like high deer densities is I had places where they were just like they were covering a lot of ground. I mean, we would watch these deer start in one spot and by the time you were you

couldn't see him anymore. They were like a mile away you know those those Western your cover ground, and so I was kind of playing that game at the beginning, and then I found I walked into this spot that has this little cattle guzzler in it that I know about, and it was getting hot, and I jumped like a one fifty and a two year old bedded right by it, and then yeah, and then it was yeah, and then a couple more I actually jumped five deer walking in there,

and so I'm like, okay, I'm on a concentration here in this.

like it's it's just the best stuff they had. And there ended up being so many deer in there because I don't I don't know if it was my pressure on the river bottom or it was just like the weather because it got you know, the weather changed a lot on us. But it was a good lesson because I was playing that travel game and then that died on me. And as soon as I moved to where it was like, we're creeping in right where they should be bedded, where you're like, I don't know if we're

going to get away with it. Then all of a sudden, there he is again, and you're like, and other deer too, Like it was he wasn't the only one, and I was like, man, so often on pressure deer or like low density spots, that's the game. It's like it's like an elk hunt, you know, where you're like, they're mostly not here, even though great and there might be old sign, but somewhere that concentration is and it actually reminded me of a big woods hunt where I can see.

wind for it coming up. The predicted wind is south for like seven days, so I'm not gonna be playing that changing wind game. But I also know it's gonna be pretty hot. It's gonna be like eighty three one day and so I'm like, should I Should I be hunting the river bottoms and the little stream spots that I have and then maybe some of the ponds, which would make a better show if I'm you know, moving

around and trying to figure stuff out. Or do I go take that DSD do up into that meadow and put her twenty yards out.

going on here? And I know I didn't because I remember dropping it when I was dropping some turkey pins and I was like, I gotta just look at that, like I just got to run in there when I'm running and gun in for turkeys and find it.

sounded like it and the exact same spot. I'm like, if that deer made it through, you're talking about a deer that like, you know, he said he thought it was one pint eighty. When I hit it, I was pretty confident in it was just a mainframe twelve that was pushing one seventy. And so you're like, if that's if that dear's still out there, it's kind of hard not to go put some time and see if he shows up.

do this thing. They're like, man, this could be this could be brutal just sitting here NonStop, but it also might be the best thing ever. And the decoy thing is gonna be so cool. And even if you don't see that buck, there's gonna be other bucks. They're gonna get cool interactions.

gonna be hard not to. Plus it's just a you know how it is, like it's just a really cool setup that you can get into in the morning if you do it right, Like you you gotta climb a big bluff and you gotta sneak in there a little bit.

so many bucks moving through here during the rut. So there's a couple of things, you know how those and then also sorry, one more edition also I'd love to know, like how you're gonna set up on this too, accounting for deer travel wind et cetera.

but doesn't get hunted like public land does. And so those deer they can bet on that ridgetop, they can they can leave their sign on that that meadow. There's visibility. They stage there morning and evening, and they can get to a private field that's totally walled in. On top of that, you can look at it on on X and see that like there's nobody's gonna see it from

the road, nobody's gonna mess with it. So I think they're just very comfortable and it's just far enough where it's like there's so much good stuff you kind of got to go by to get there, and like it's just not a it's just the right setup, man. And I haven't I haven't explored the whole area because every time I've been there, I've been hunting. But I have I've killed some turkeys in there and looked around, and it has it has probably the best betting cover aside

from that meadow. There's some like pine tree kind of scrubby hillsides in there, and so it has like if you were going to put a big buck in that area and he was going to find a place on public that was real safe, like just you know, like escape routes betting cover wise, he can he can move in daylight and not expose himself. He's probably not gonna get like overrun with people. I mean, I found cameras in there, and stands like it's not a total secret,

but it's just the right stuff. And you know how it is down there, even though there's quite a bit of woods where I'm hunting, like relative to a lot of Iowa, it's also that unbelievably beautiful deciduous forest that's pretty open. And so when you get to like a river bottom and you have that change and some of the you know a little more high stem count stuff, and you're like, okay, this is this is a different thing. Even though it's a small patch of cover, that's a magnet,

you know. And I think a lot of people walk in and there's so many good trees to set up in and it looks like beautiful woods that a lot of them sort of just like one layer in. I'm good because look at there's rubs here, there's scrapes. But when you want that all day sit and you want those the bigger deer there, you know how it is like you better get you better get somewhere with that security cover and it's not there's not a ton.

It's sort of like a wonky shape, so you can always get into a point or something and your sense generally gonna fall off because it's really bluffy, and so you just have and and there's a there's a fair amount of seedars in there too, so if you just got to tuck into the ground for whatever reason, it's

it's huntable no matter what winds you get. You know, it's if it would be different though, if you had to cross it, you know for a morning sit like I climb up to the edge, especially with a south or a wet wind, and I don't have to expose myself in it. If you if you had to, that would be a little different story. So you'd have to you'd have to play that game a little bit. But it's just just one of those areas, man, And you know they're visible enough so you can call to them.

They just there's just enough of that like sumac type

brush that they always just gravitate toward. And you know, like when you see them leave a field at first light or whenever they they start heading back to bed, they often hit those spots where they'll kill a couple hours, you know, just milling around, right, but they're not they're not visible visible, but they're kind of visible, and they're just like I think those deer they just sort of have that moment of dumb where they're like, I kind of I don't want to go back to bed, yet

I'm feeling it, like I'm making that rub. So when you call to those deer they catch sight of a decoy, they're like they're just sort of like more open to working. And that's like that's the beauty of those spots.

you're like, you know, those are littered with sign and deer crossing all over. But to get between them, you know, they might go halfway up the hill or something, but most of the time there's that banging trail right along the bottom, and your wind can blow over the river and you're like, everybody who's got us, who wants to see both places, is going to go through there?

I'm excited. I'm gonna be I fully intend to watch at least a couple of Bucks get shot on a decoy here in the next I don't know, three weeks.

talk some strategy. So since we last talked, you know, I killed mid October buck and then re examined some of my main Michigan stuff, did a hunt, did a kind of scouting day, moving cameras around, shifting some stuff around, trying to find the deer I have been after down in southern Michigan, and they've kind of disappeared off the map.

When we talked in August, I had two bucks that I was after, and they had been really consistent the two years prior and they were really consistent all summer, and then one of them disappeared on September third, nothing and then one of them stayed consistent until October third, and then he disappeared. That buck has still not shown up a single time on trail camera or in any of the times i've been out glass and I haven't seen that deer. That's this big, tall ten pointer that

we're referring to as bear, he's missing. The other one was this buck that's missing an eye. I found his match set the spring. He's a five year old, and he, you know, was so consistent years past, and he disappeared, like I said, September third, for six weeks, didn't see hide or hair of him, and then I got one trail camera video of him this past weekend and that's it. So I have one confirmation of life in a seven week period.

And I went back and looked at my pictures and observations, like my notes from last year, and from October through December, really through February of last year, almost every single day I had him on one of the properties I can hunt and a lot of daylight, a lot of activities all over the place for the last two years. And now he's just gone and I haven't. And it's not because I've been in there. Like I have not gone into the core of this property and this couple of

properties at all. I've not hunted it yet. So I have glassed from the road, I've hunted edge stuff and glass that done. Observation stands. I have a good number of cameras around in places that historically he's been hitting.

They were scratching the whole time. The amount of like fresh acorns that we were dealing with in there was like for this time of year. It really caught me off guard. And then where I saw that two year old chase in the other morning, I saw ten deer off the stand, which is a lot like usually I

don't see any deer on this property. Every one of them, three bucks, seven dozen fawns all hit like a small patch of oaks that I know they weren't hitting a couple weeks ago because I was in there and killed a deer. Like I'm like, it's crazy when something like that happens, where you're like, I don't factor acorns into this time of year ever, But last year in North Dakota on that film that just dropped, those deer were on specific trees, you know. I mean it's plain stuff,

so they're not that many trees. But those bucks were like it was clearly like that was the destination. It's not like there isn't a whole bunch of egg around there. There's a ton of it, you know, but they were like they weren't chasing last year during that blizzard, it was like they were going to that freaking tree or another tree to eat. And then I'm seeing it again now and I'm like, are we kind of like missing something like that? Where is it?

point there's there's no use hunting the stuff. I have been hunting where they are not, and they have been showing the places that I've been able to see to this point. So now I'm gonna start going and seeing these places that I have not observed yet. I'm just gonna I'm gonna explore and try to rEFInd them. So tonight tomorrow, this whole upcoming like four day, four five days, I'm gonna go and check out spots that I have

not touched yet this year. Search it out, look for signs, scout hunt spots where I can see a little ways, but be back and cover. I'm gonna start hunting mornings now, tight to the edge of some of these betting areas, back in some of these oak flats. And you know that should tell me something, hopefully.

very very slow up movement. But man, the deer are There's some big deer up there this year and a lot of I mean relatively for us, a lot of bucks, and so I just know it's a matter of time before it's gonna work out, and I'd really love to be up there with him. So I'm able to get up there for two days with him at the beginning of November. So we're gonna do that, hopefully get a crack for him. Do you do you have a spot

there where you could run that dough decoy? Yeah, but I mean yeah, we have, Like I just worry'd be so tight. I'd be worried about. You know, I've got like the biggest opening I could do it is our It's like a half acre food plot, maybe maybe three quarters of an acre, And I just I don't I've never thought about using decoys up there, just in a low deer density area. I don't know you've done that up north in northern Wisconsin. So you tell me, is

that crazy to try that? Would they come out of that thick stuff and come into this little opening and be shocked by that? Or do you think that might be I don't know.

dough over there, you know they're coming. Like if you get a buck that sees that, he's gonna go check it out.

you know. I mean, it's not like there's twenty deer all around that are going to get messed up.

seek kind of just explore the area. But I have this other possible situation that I'm torn, and that is this buck that I sent you pictures and videos of. He showed up for the first time the day I killed that really tall browton buck in mid October in a different area, and I was back scouting in this area the next I guess it would have been probably the next day I was glassing and saw this year, and so that was mid October. And since then, so the last almost two weeks now, he's been all over

these properties and daylighting and showing up a bunch. He wants to get shot, but I can't decide what to do about him because I'm I'm a little worried. He's three, and I don't like to shoot three year olds in this area because I know, like, if I don't, there's a decent chance they can make it to four or five. And that's usually what I'm the last handful of years, I've been just chasing five year olds, And so this deer is like a tweener. I'm like, is he three?

Is he four? Do I want to hold out for the deer I know armature and the hunt for a while, or is this is a pretty darn nice buck. I certainly wouldn't pass this deer if I was like traveling somewhere on a quick hunt, or on public land, or like you know, something where I was time limited. But in this situation where I know the area, I have time, I don't know what to do. Tony, what are your thoughts on that buck? In my situation? That son of a bitch who cares? I knew, I knew that's what

you were to say. First off, shoot.

be a great experience and a cool deer. But if one of those other two bucks all of a sudden showed up the next week and was like all over the place, then I'd be kicking myself and I'd be like, oh, man, I should have waited, because now this buck's back that I really really was wanting to get after. And then I'd be getting pictures of him all fall or I'd go out there two does and I'd be seeing these bucks and I'd be thinking, Ah, what an idiot. I

should have waited because look at that tank. He's a monster. And I don't know if that's how I feel or not. But that's what I'm worried about. So that's how I don't know. It's all gonna probably come down to if that deer shows up in front of me, how I feel and if it gets me freaking out excited or not.

But I do know every time when I've been out glassing and I've caught him in my bios a couple of times, and I've been out there and filmed him, saw him and both times I was like, HOA, whoa big buck, and the I'm like, oh, it's that one buck. But at first I'm always like whoa, So that's an impressive deer. I've been thinking about this a lot. H I don't think.

you and I are actually so different on this. You as you just described, like the most fun thing for you would be shooting a buck, you know that you get the chance at And I was kind of talking Togair about how I totally get that, but I'm kind of the opposite, and that I actually might enjoy the pursuit of the thing that I am, like, actually the thing I set my sights on originally for whatever reason, I'd be fine not killing anything but then pursuing that possibility.

So if I didn't feel any kind of pressure to fill a tag because of what we do and everything, I might not kill buck for years at a time, maybe if there wasn't the deer that I was really excited about in certain situations like this where I can do that. So I don't know, but I'm I'm, like I said, I'm very torn on this because sometimes you like a surpressed surprise is great, and you take a gift, you know, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

And then sometimes I'm like, gosh, I really do love the you know, try to figure this buck out kind of deal.

I'm wondering with you, like, do you think at this point you've got those deer figured out well enough where you know, like, you know, this buck if he's daylighting a whole bunch, and he's been there and he's on all your cameras, there's probably a pretty good chance you're going to go work that deer and kill him, right, And so is this one of those things where you're like, you've you've gotten to know these deer in this area so well that like there's just a miss, even though

that that buck would look amazing and like definitely would be a deer almost everybody would shoot, But for you, because of this specific circumstance and the amount of time you put in, you're like torn between trying to represent the person who would shoot that deer because most people would, but in your very specific situation, it's just not going to give you what you need out of a hunt for a deer.

to show back up. And then when I got proof of life of the five year old, I was like, oh, man, like that's the buck. I really want to get a crack app But I don't know if this deer. If this deer marches in front of me at twenty yards and just hangs out working a scrape tonight, who knows. Maybe in the moment, I'm just gonna have to send it. I don't know, but I mean, so there.

you just have to go. We're so focused on like got to kill whatever size of buck, and this is like just like across the board with hunters. But you get enough experience and enough time out there and you go, what is the thing that really like I want to go out there today for and you know, it changes. Like I was thinking about this when I missed that big one in North Dakota. I was like, that of

wrecked me. I mean when I you know, ten fifteen years ago, that would have been like a season ruining thing. And I was like, I don't even really care, like because I get to keep doing this thing I want to do so bad in a place I want to do it in. And so I think that the hard part that we have is we understand that there's that difference, right, like you understand what you're saying, like you know in

your heart what you want to do. You don't really want to kill this deer because you know you're going to kill him probably, and so it's like whatever, like I want that next thing. And that's a hard message to pass on to people because not everybody has that spot.

nuts if you don't kill that deer, you're stupid. And then if I don't kill a buck out here, then they'll think I'm doubly stupid because I passed on that super nice buck that anyone who's not a lunatic in Michigan would shoot. But what might actually be most fun for me might be passed on that deer. And just seeing if the possibility of one of these two older bucks coming back does pan out, that might end up being what's most fun for me would give me the

most joy. And I think I'm just gonna what I what I am gonna do is I'm gonna trust my gut and trust what is most enjoyable for me despite any outside pressures or outside perspectives that in saying that, that also might in the moment change and it might be man, that deer is awesome seeing him up close, and I got I you want to take a crack of that deer. Maybe that'll turn out to be the case. But maybe it'll be the opposite. Maybe I'll watch him

be like, man, that's a beautiful deer. I'd love to see him next year or late maybe even later this year. But for now, I want to kind of see how the next couple of weeks spans out, and maybe one of these other deer comes back, and and you know what, I you know, I've got enough meat in the freezer by the you know, by the two bucks I've killed already, and the doughs I'm going to kill in the coming

you know, month or two. And if I don't kill a second Michigan buck, I'll survive, or maybe I do, And then I'm sitting really pretty But I guess I kind of want to just get back to just making sure it's fun, you know, and do it for your own reason. Every one of us has a different little thing that we prefer. Like you just describe, You've got a certain thing that really hums for you. I've got a certain thing that really hums for me. Everyone's different.

And the more we can remove any outside noise and not worry about what our friends would think, or what the neighbors would think, or what anyone on social media would think. I think we'd be a lot happier hunters if we did.

hunt them. But also sometimes you just figure out the stuff that's just more fun. Like with my daughters, we've been in pop up ground lines their whole hunting career turkeys and deer up until last year just a little bit I started taking them out and just having them sit on the ground and we do a natural groundbline. And then this year they both killed deer in Wisconsin from just natural groundblines where you're way more exposed and

you see them coming. And both of my daughters were like, I don't ever want to get back in to pop up. This is better. And so we tend to kind of lean toward what is like what's like the easiest, most effective way, you know, and so like a like a box blind is a great example, right, Like I have a lot of buddies who they almost only hunt rednecks

or whatever, which are super effective. But that's you know, like you might like that for three four seasons and go, you know what, I need to get back out there and do something different. But trying that different stuff is such an easy way to sort of tap into what

you need out of it. And that stuff changes, you know, like your priorities changed depending on where you hunt, where you go, like how much time you have, like you said, how much meat you have in the freezer already none, you know, like and so I just think they hunt with my little girls that way. When they both said that afterwards, I'm like, that's like a it's like a key tenant of what we have to pay attention to. It's like so simple, but it's nice to be reminded of it.

so much pressure building up to this moment. And for some of us, I know we've both had moments like this. You end up being stressed out and not enjoying yourself during the rut and grinding yourself to a pulp. And then you know you're chasing this thing you think you want because you've built up to this moment, and then you end up not enjoying the process because you're so stressed out or upset about the things that went wrong or mistakes you made, or the fact that the deer's

not showing or whatever. And that's such a shame to have that Like this should be the most fun part of the year, and if you're doing anything that is taking the fun out of it, I think you got to reassess the situation and try to re level reset where you're at, because, at least as far as I'm concerned, the rut all season, but especially this time, this should

be like the most joyful celebration of hunting. This should not be you know, the suffer fast grind of misery, which which oftentimes it becomes if we are not careful.

and they'll come to me. And so often I still have to go to them, Like you still have to play the sign game. And if you see them all crossing through that one brushy fence or whatever, like you can try to call them over, you can try to decoy him over, but your best bet is to get right on top of them and work them. And the rut doesn't, like it does, doesn't reallyeve you of those responsibilities like you still have you still have.

But I want to just go back and forth with white tail rot tactics or strategies or ideas, and we'll go back and forth. Each of us share a quick tip, and then the next person shares a quick tip, and we'll go back and forth until until someone runs out of ideas or we run out of time. All right, So that's how That's how I'm thinking we're gonna get to thirty nine specific actionable rut hunting tactics, or maybe

it'll be more. I guess that's a question. Do you think will we be over under thirty nine?

they approach them. Some ponds out like out west are they'll be ringed with tracks, right, But a lot of ponds in the Midwest and the East, you'll find that one part where they just that's where they drop down to drink.

want all of these things compounding and layering. So give me like a layer cake stand, a stand that is downwind of a dough betting area where there's a pinch point and there's a creek crossing so there's like a double pinch, and there's a big inside the cover scrape that's within range, or there's a gap in the fence, or there's a oak tree that's dropping down acorns back in there too. I want layers for those locations where

I'm going to spend big periods of time. I love that kind of location in the rut, So I don't ever want to hunt somewhere just for one reason. I want to be like three or more things going for that spot right right. My next one would be.

gonna switch. You know, usually that's prefrontal, but it doesn't have to be or even like a little temperature drop or for some reason Thursday afternoon, there's gonna be just like intermittent rain, just a little bit, just gonna blow through.

Like when you get you sort of get those like fits and starts during the like the chasing and the like the activity, and it's like it doesn't really matter what time of day it is when something like that changes, especially if you've been in a holding pattern for a couple of days. It doesn't have to be that like forty degree temperature drop, just something it often gets them

on their feet. I mean even if you know, like if you sit out there in the rain all day like we did in one week in November a couple of years ago, and it just lightens up by like a few degrees, that puts them on their feet moving again. And so you can you can sort of be really targeted around weather and it doesn't have.

And and I say this because I came from like a history when I first started taking this really serious where I thought, you know, you kill deer with brute force in time in the stand, and you hunt every single minute of every single day. You hunt all day, every single day, and if you don't, you are not giving it one hundred and fifty percent, and you suck because of that. And that's an approach that can work.

But if you are not having fun anymore, or if you've done this for nine straight days and you are so worn down that not only are you miserable, but you're also losing focus and you're not with it and you're not really able to pay and execute well, you end up losing more opportunities because of that and not have fun along the way. So I would suggest at least what I have started doing is I have given

myself forgiveness. I'm forgiving myself for occasionally not hunting all day or occasionally, you know, looking at the weather forecast like you're saying and seeing like, ma'am, there's an eighty five degree day, you know, on November first, or October

twenty ninth, or whatever it is. And if you're hunting a whole big week or ten days or something, give yourself permission to sleep in one morning, or give yourself permission to come in midday a time or two and go do the breakfast with your friends, or do lunch with your friends, and do the things that make the whole experience fun. And that also kind of refill your energy tank, because if you don't, if you don't manage that, yeah,

more tree or more time the tree. You could say that's better, but if you're in the tree but miserable, or in the tree and not actually mentally there, it might not be worth it. So I have found giving myself a couple moments to recoup actually makes me a more effective hunter.

bucks for the rest of the time. Like that, if you're going to do an all day sit, unless you know, unless you're in the heart of it and I or something where you just have like a really good property and they could just be bouncing all over. For most people, you have to set yourself up for that all day sit.

It's not just go sit wherever you like to. It's like you got to be in that place that's just vibrating with dear activity, because that's if you if you don't have that, that second guessing comes in, sun comes up, you know whatever, Like you're you're gonna talk yourself into leaving. But if you're like I know, at some point today a buck is gonna run through this funnel, it's like

it's so much easier to stay. Plus, when you're in the cover, you hear squirrels and like there's just like there's like a different vibe to the whole thing where you're like a little bit more paying attention and it just feels more possible.

to a new spot. You know, I would, personally if I were to pick a time of day to do my move, I would typically say it's going to be after the midday, so it'd be like maybe two o'clock or three o'clock, because I like, you know, there's a course your first light movement, and then there seems to be that late morning cruising that happens somewhere between like ten in one. Maybe if I had to put a window, that seems to be a window when like a mature buck's going to get back on his feet and check

dough betting area. So I don't want to be leaving that if I don't have to. But it seems like if I had to pick a spot where there's oftentimes a lull, it'd be that one or two o'clock to three o'clock maybe somewhere in there. That's when I will typically, if I'm trying to do an all this but want to shift locations, that's a good time to do it.

And then it also sets you up well because that morning through the midday can be great back in the cover, like you're describing, but sometimes those spots slow down for the last hour of daylight, and so if you want to make a move at three o'clock, to a more evening specific location that might set you up for the best of both worlds.

like the the midday move thing like you said. One of the things that I did in North Dakota this year that was like a game changer, which is gonna sound dumb, is I brought my little elk stove and

I brought some of those peak refuels. So instead of making sandwiches to eat for seven days in a row, we get out of stand midday to move because we were out there all day and we go sit on the river bank, cook up some macaroni and cheese or whatever we had whatever, dude, and it was like you got some energy and you're like it was just like a nice break. We didn't leave where the deer are, but we just like that was like the way to

make it through. And I think, you know, I remember Eddie Claypoole talks about this a lot, or he used to, but I remember thinking, like, it would be insane to bring a book hunting, or it'd be insane to like have two thermoss of coffee, as if that's what you need.

I'm like, now, I'm like, take whatever you have to take if reading a book is what's going to keep you out there or whatever, because, like you said, when you actually get that buck that comes through at eleven o'clock or one o'clock or two o'clock, that you can live off of that for a long time, Like that's a powerful motivator to keep doing those all day sis and it's mostly not going to happen, but when it does, it's amazing. And so just figure out how to put that time.

able to parse them out on like a schedule. So of course I do, right, that's the most Mark Kenyon thing ever. But the way I do it is is I like a sign, like every hour I'm able to pick something else out of my snack bag, and then I know, like I have to look forward to all right, ten o'clock, I get the oreos, and then like, all right, eleven o'clock, if you can just make it to eleven, you're gonna get the bag of mang dried mangos or whatever.

And so just throughout the day, you've got these little one hour celebrations that you get to look forward to throughout that long day that just give you that tiny little bit of extra something. And that's all helped me the all days too. Dude.

all day sits. We'll talk about that, like I try to save it as late into the morning as I can because it's like this amazing reward.

So calling is different. But if you want to put out a cent wick with some dope on it, what's the risk that you're going to touch something or leave scent there or disturb that area that you're inviting deer in versus the reward like the likely reward of a buck getting down when turning in on it. Right, So I look at that stuff and I go, I don't ever do it. Like if I'm good enough to get a buck to smell that and come in, I'm good enough to just to get him right where I want

to shoot him anyway. But it decoy is different, and so I'm like that risk is worth it because I know I can call a deer in from very far away with that and in multiple directions. So it's always like I think people look at it, it's like it's kind of a safe play, right, Like I'm gonna put out some centwix down by that scrape or whatever. But it's like, you know, if that little four ky comes in you don't want to kill and he gets wiggy about it and blows, or you get a dough that

walks by. It's like was that worth it?

if I have to. But I am reading the deer's body language before shifting up a notch with each one, and if I can stop low on the escalator, I will. So what I mean by that is number one, if I can, I will start with just like a contact grunt first, just like a prop and hopefully get a buck's attention with that. And again this is if I

see a buck. I'm not doing that. I don't blind grunt really ever, this is only if I see a buck that I'm trying to call in the range, I will start with something relatively subtle, and if I can get him to hear that and get a reaction out of him, then I'll stop there if possible. So you're watching to see what he does. Does he turn does he pin his ears back, does he puff up? Does he start to come your way? Then anything like that,

I'm saying, okay, great, I'm done. If he doesn't hear it at all, well, then I'm going to try to turn up the notch next. Or if he kind of perks up hears it, but then just keeps on going his way, that I might try to escalate to the next level, which typically for me would be more of like a buck roar or growl, just like a more aggressive like ra bra something like that, And so that

would be my next step up. And then again I'm watching body language, trying to see what he's what he's gonna do, what does he think about this, And if at any point along this pathway or like up this path, I see him negatively react, which would be like tucking his tail and turning and walking away or in any kind of way showing like I don't like this, I just stop, you know, if you see anything like that. I've at least I have never once seen a buck react like that and then me keep pushing it and

then at turn him around. It's never worked for me, so it's almost always better to bail if he starts seeing something like that, and then the final thing would be a snort wheeze, So that would be the top

of my escalator. If he just hasn't heard it, or if he's kind of just like hanging out, or if he's kind of circling you but not coming in, you know, maybe then you throw the snort wheeds, which is like the final flipping him off, you know, challenging him to a fight, especially if this is like a big, old mature buck that you would think would want to dominate, like that's the final move. So that is my escalator

approach to calling during the rut. And what I would do if you see a buck that's out of range, want to get him in.

the moment thing this year. But I've been sitting on stands my whole life and watch deer do things where I'm like, why, like why didn't he just cross here below where this ravine blows out and it's like just a perfect pinch point, like what's up there one hundred and twenty five yards uphill that they keep using And you start to figure out like if you even if you see a four key, even if you see like just not anywhere near your target classic buck or whatever,

and they do something, they're not lying, like they're using that wind and they're using that terrain and they're giving you a glimpse into the future because another buck is going to do that.

And then that day I'm sitting there and then I see a buck do something back where I was or somewhere else, so then I race over to hunt over there, and then I see a buck do something different, so then I race over, and the I'm just bouncing around from place to place to place. Sometimes not always, but sometimes if you have a spot that you know, like historically, you know bucks will move through here, or you know this is the X, or you know there's a really

good reason for them to pass through. Sometimes it pays to volume hunt or to stick to a spot like that and just give it a little bit of time, because you know, if you just constantly are chasing, you never give any one spot enough time to actually produce. But if you give one of these spots, you know, twelve hours or two days, two days or whatever, it

is the appropriate amount of time. And if you know that yes, like this is this is a place where it will happen, sometimes it does pay to give it time and to not chase one offs, but to to to allow yourself to trust the process, trust the place. And it's like the trick is like balancing what you share it and what I share because there's value in both. You got to know when to do one and one to do the other.

worth the next couple of days? And you know, this is where trail cameras and the rut come in too, because people use trail cameras all the time to be like, oh, they're moving at night, or they're not moving at or you know, in the day or whatever, or they're chasing now and they weren't before, they're not chasing a day

or or something like that. But I look at it and I go, if I have some pictures of a good one going through a spot, even if it's nighttime, even if it was you know, sporadically over the last three weeks, nothing where you'd be like, I'm gonna haunt him and kill him.

six days, give myself that cushion and do that. But if I'm in there and on day three I've seen all of them go through somewhere else, it's time, you know.

they go into some patch of cover. And I know this might be different in certain areas of the country where the habitat is different, but at least in the places where I've seen this happen the most, like mixed timber ag kind of stuff like that I have oftentimes seen if you spot a buck that is actively locked on a dough, tending that dough, standing with the dough, they will oftentimes stick to a pretty small area of cover for a long time, you know, for a day

or two, a couple of days. And so if I see that, I will whenever the next opportunity is for me to move, I'm going to move as tight as I can into that zone where I saw them with a strong belief that they will be back the next day or the next that afternoon or that morning or whatever the situation is. I want to get as close and into that zone as possible, and then I will grind it out in that spot for you know, forty eight hours maybe, because that oftentimes can be a great

way to get one of these deer. They do not not most of the time. You're not gonna have a buck. That's again like not chasing it though. I'm saying like when you see them standing for four hours together in a thicket, you know that's going to be a spot They're probably gonna be back into that zone again. So so move on that. For sure. I've seen that, I've been I've had very I've had a lot of close calls on that, and a couple of times have killed deer because of that.

does definitely morph over time. But when we say like I think that patience kills big bucks, like I think, I think the more time you put in just the better. But it doesn't have to be dark to dark from November third to November seventh. Like you start on Halloween or whenever, the last week of October, and you know, you get a day here and a day there and a day there, and you can you can go deep

into November, deeper than a lot of people think. You know, you start getting into middle of November where everybody's like, oh, it's just not happening anymore because it's lockdown. It's like, I don't know, man, if you're ever going to kill that one sixty that lives in the swamp most of the time, he might be more vulnerable on November fifteenth

than he is on November first. And so it's like you don't have to just concentrate everything on that first week in November, like take the time that you can get and use it because you have a three week window maybe more to catch some level of the rut, and I think we I think we sort of like forget that sometimes that it's like it's very possible on November fifteenth, just as it.

absolutely dead in another. Like especially, I think this tends to happen a little bit earlier in the rut when there's like that first hot dough or the first few hot doughs on like every buck in the area is on that dough chasing around, right. I mean, how many days have you had where it is absolutely dead by you and then your buddy who's four hundred yards away it was like, dude, it was absolutely on fire, amazing, and the ruts cappen and it's on right. I mean,

it can just be that way. And so if you're hunting public or a new spot or an area that you just don't have that rock solid confidence in your zone. Sometimes you just have to go and find that hot spot and not be afraid to get on your feet and move around and aggressively push your way around until you find where that hot spot is. And oftentimes you can get away with being a little bit more aggressive, and maybe you do bump a few deer as you

go in there, but that's okay. If you find that rutfest where there's the hot dough and there's like four satellite bucks all around and stuff, and you bump one of those bucks, it's probably not the end of the world. You could probably slip in there, get set up, and there's gonna be action kind of rotate like a hurricane around the eye, like there's the eye of the hurricane that's your hot dough, and then there's gonna be the

spinning vortex of bucks around it for a while. And so if you're struggling and you've been in the dead zone for a while, get up find that and that can sometimes get you in the goods that you might not otherwise have if you were just waiting and wishing and don't have a really good reason to be waiting and wishing on that.

give myself a chance with these conditions. And I moved down there and I killed a buck almost instantly, like five minutes after I got set up. And it's like, yeah, he's gonna cruise still like he's still looking for doze, but he's gonna go where the deer are gonna be where there's some relief, and so you have to hunt those be like you have to hunt to the conditions. You know, you get super windy or dead calm or whatever. It's not just go out and sit your favorite stand

and rattle, because they're gonna come to you. Like, they're still going to react to all these external factors. And so when you're like, well, the rut's not on because I'm not on them, it's like the rut's absolutely on somewhere, like you said, But a lot of times it's tied to them finding some relief, not just from getting away from hunters, but just whatever the whatever mother nature tosses their way.

still running. The thing is happening. It's not like warm weather stops the rut. It just it suppresses the daylight activity, especially the midday or after doing activity when it's warmest. Right because they're wearing a it's like they're wearing a warm winter jacket. It's just not as comfortable to be out hiking around when you're wearing that. In it's eighty degrees. So still the mornings when they're cool, they're still gonna be getting after it. They're still getting after it all night,

probably the edges of the evening. So don't mail it in. Don't assume like because it's seventy five on November two, that that you shouldn't hunt. You absolutely still can have success and see running activity. It just might be a little slower in those warm parts of the day. But certainly take advantage of the cool mornings the end of the evening, and don't be surprised if something crazy still does happen, because it is the rut, and stuff can surprising.

We got time for one more tony, then we gotta wrap it up, everybody.

plan is. Changing tracks are so important to me during the rut, like fresh, big running tracks, or a big concentration of fresh tracks is like that to me, when I see that is a huge clue, Like if you can tell it's been made within the last day or so, or you can just see that track over track over track, trail whatever. That's so important because you want that concentration a deer, or you want that big one that crossed the fence right there. You're like, you have to see him.

You can look and see that he left, he left everything you need to notice to show you that he at least went through there at some point recently.

attitude right, keeps your energy high. And it's funny every time that I found myself leaning in that direction, going towards the choices or the trips to the destinations, or whatever it is that's actually going to make this thing fun. I ended up actually doing better too. So enjoy this thing. It's the super Bowl of the white tail season. It's Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter and every damn holiday I all rolled into one. Enjoy it, Celebrate it, spend time

with your buddies while you're doing it. Go help your friends track a deer, even if it means you're gonna miss a little bit of hunting time. That's the stuff that actually leaves a memory forever. Just soaking all the good stuff. That's my greatest suggestion. And I'm going to try to live by that same advice. And I tell you all this because I have been guilty of doing the opposite too often. So that's going to do it for us. Say Tony, thank you for making time here

before you take off. Good luck in Iowa, good luck up north. Can't wait to hear how it goes. And for all you listening, this is it. Have a great time, Be safe, hunt smart. Until next time, stay wired to hunt.