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 Casey Smith and Tyler Jones.
Christmas time is here, but there's still time to kill it the year. This is Retfresh. Let's go. Welcome to Refresh Radio. I'm your host, Casey Smith. This is Tyler Jones. We're brought to you by first Slight Gear and Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Jimmy Christmas. That's right to commemorate one of the ogs of outdoor television, shooting Big Bucks on film. Man, you're raggling, Yeah, Roger ragling outdoors. He
was doing it way back. You know, it's easy to be critical of some of the things that happened in early outdoor TV, but you got to realize that those guys are pioneers doing something no one had ever done.
Before, creating a dust ball.
It's western expansive, way faster than I am right now, but I'm kind of moving the speed of the deer right now, just moving kind of slow, you know what I mean. I think people across the country are either real hype because deer seasons just getting going, or real sad because it's over.
It depends on where you're at.
It's weird, how like, you know, everybody up north kind of gets all hype about this early season white Tail and then you know.
Remember you're talking to Mark's fan base. Listen, I can speak that language. My mom's from Minnesota.
But you know, around December tenth, that's all like, oh, it's over, you know whereas Like, dude, I mean, even in our backyards here in Texas, December we're in pretty far in North Texas, December tenth is still a good date, you know. And well we're looking at December today is this will come out Christmas Day, Okay? And you can actually, even in North Texas have good hunts at this point in the year if you've got good food or you
know where betting is. And we're gonna talk to some different people around the country, a lot of more southern latitudes this week, but I thought it might be a good time because this is the last episode of Retfresh for the year, guys, to kind of reflect on some of the good interviews that we've had this year. I do believe we had our first perfect ten this year. Really, yes, we did. Someone I can't, I can't was it Alex Comstock that called up perfectly? Was like Parker or something.
Might have been Parker. I don't know. Parker killed a big o' deer.
There is a trend on Retfresh, okay, And I think that this is a good trend that a lot of people do a Refresh interview and then kill deer the next day.
Oh for sure.
Michael Huncker did it. Mike Hunsucker, Alex Comstock did it, Parker did it?
Who else? Someone? Charry Larson does it every year Cheryl Larson. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, So if you want to kill a deer, just try to get on a re Fresh interview.
Then there haven't been a few messages trying to get on who's our friend from Minnesota?
That other guy he killed right away? Yeah, yeah, he killed right away too. So like it's a thing. And I've found that, you know, people actually enjoy the information they get from Refresh, and that's not because of us. I'm a terrible interviewer, I think sometimes because I just asked the old mornings or evenings, you know. But you know, a lot of times it's pretty cool to actually talk
to the boots on the ground folks. And you know, because I don't know what's going on in Maryland, you'll want to listen to me, but you do want to listen to Grant Forniy or whoever it may be up there hunting.
That's uh, you know, knows what's going on in the woods for sure. Sure, man. Yeah, No, it's been fun. It's been it's been good. You know. I I I think I get a little bit maybe I don't know, jaded or whatever, a little underappreciative of the information that I get from this podcast, being so tightly connected to it that I don't sometimes see how much that information helps me on a week to week basis when I'm hunting. So, uh, it's good to kind of know that and talk to
people and get a get a good you know idea. Uh. You know, for instance, one thing you said at one point was when you killed in Nebraska, you did a light rattling sequence once you hadn't really been doing and you talked to Mike Huntsucker about it, and he said he had done that Colorado, that week, So you try it and it actually works, you know, stuff like that, you're like doing the thing that Mike talked about. Yeah, it's pretty cool for sure. It's uh, that's the thing,
man is It's like, it's not you. It's not like you haven't heard that before or heard somebody talk about doing that before. It's just how how event and how like how you know recent have you heard that information?
You know?
And that's why this is good because whether you're hearing the same things or not week to week or even you know, things that you've heard before. When you hear that that week and then go out in the woods and maybe try that and be like, oh, yeah, that was the thing I used to do two years ago. Whatever, you try that thing again. It works. It's like, man, that was worth listening to. So I find it valuable in that way.
Yeah, absolutely, man, I mean it's it's it's cool, and there's there's some value to having things top of mind, you know, like you might know something, but being reminded of it it is worth a whole lot too. You know that we as humans tend to have a problem with pride, and one of the pride things is that we think that we know all the right answers, and if you can just tell yourself, hey, you know, maybe I should listen to someone else and take their advice because they kill big deer too.
Works out pretty well. Yeah, we also have a problem with top of mind stuff right now in our culture, just because of the smartphone. In my opinion, you know, it's like this is a thing that as soon as soon as your mind is at the least but not just fully entertained or you know, busy, it's like, let me grab my phone and look at the phone, and then there's not a whole lot of top of mind
going on except for what you're being fed. So it's potentially good to sit there and listen to stuff, think about stuff, and have some things like rattling lightly be top of mind critical thought. Man, it's important thing I know how to do.
Guys, I would be remiss if I didn't say something about it being Christmas time. I mean, Christmas is awesome for a lot of different reasons. If you believe that Jesus came to earth. I mean, it's a great time to celebrate that, it's a great time to be with family, and it's a great time to absolutely reflect on all the blessings that we have here as just you know, inhabitants of this world and to be able to chase these creatures around. And it's a lot, a lot of fun.
And there are some guys that are out still hunting. We got some dudes to talk to you this week about some hunting around I would say the South, the semi South. We got actually some pretty good reports, right, Tyler, who are we talking to?
We got a couple of good reports, a couple of bad reports, you know, or the reports weren't bad, it was just the numbers that year.
Well, you know, honestly, it's important to be realistic, Yeah, one hundred percent.
That's part of the whole deal, right, that's knowing what to expect, when to take some time off, when to you know, spend time away from family or job or whatever. So this week, you know, we had our friends Scott Harness, which plug he's he's on this episode, but he's also on the Element podcast this week. So I think you know, what I talked to Scott about on the Element podcast this week was a lot of stuff about being a good kind of being a good hunting partner or hunting
buddy or whatever. And then also we talked a lot about like what it's like to hunting Arkansas and what kind of tactics work. And I think that can and that can expand to you know, East Texas and Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and Tennessee and some of that stuff, because you've got kind of that south thing there, you know, that kind of a south or southeast thing there. So anyway, that was our podcast this week on the Element podcast.
Feel free to go over there here and just a little bit probably plug it again at the end, but I talked to him and or we talked to him this this week. We also talked to our buddy Rob Mendoza. He's been in Missouri. I think he had a pretty much resident there nowadays because of how big of the deer he's chasing and what he's been after all year. Rob's got a great report for us. Our own guys helped us out this week as well. Greg Latham, who is just a connoisseur of Texas deer hunting. I mean,
he is just all about it, everything about Texas. You know. Greg likes he likes him some SpaceX, he likes him some hill country deer hunting. He likes axis deer. In fact, he shot it access tore and so Greg has given us a report here in Texas, and I think there's not hardly a more worthy guy to do that. And then Casey Knight, who we call Cuppy Cup or Cupcake, he's on his way to Kentucky right now and has been there his whole life learning about the Kentucky Way.
So we're gonna get that report from him as well. Awesome, let's get him on the phone. Now.
I've got my brother, Scott Harness. He's hunting Arkansas. Actually he's in a grocery store hunting up some good old Christmas food. But he's been out in the woods in Arkansas. Scott, what's happening, man?
Man?
Just having a good time getting ready for Christmas. The hours are, they're just melting away. It's almost time, I guarantee you, dude.
Well, if a feller was still trying to fill an Arkansas tag, is it a good time right now?
You know you're on the backside of it. I would say this.
Just looking at my cameras and visiting with my friends, I'm still seeing a few people killing some nice deer and it some nice dear encounters, but it's it's not like it was. There's a lot of nighttime movement and they've moved back to food. The rut for the most part of the state is over. Now there's some there's some pockets where there will be some late rud activity, and I know a lot of people that capitalize on
that and they swear by it. I have not had success doing that, but I know if you can find an acorn tree dropping, and a lot of times I hear that if you'll have like a year ling or something come in, or a dough that hadn't been bred. A lot of times they're pretty dumb. And that big old buckle just follow men late. He's not as he's not as on his guard as what he is other parts of the year.
And they say they'll come in they make a kill.
I personally can't witness to that.
I would say, if you're going to kill a deer in Arkansas right now, I would shoot whatever comes by, because that's gonna be probably your best bet.
A lot of your brethren there in Arkansas they go by the same thing. You know, to shoot whatever comes by. But do you do you would you hunt? Betting or food right now. If you had the options, well, I would hunt food.
That's that's close to to to cover. If you want to see a buck, I think you can probably get a little a little bit away from the cover if you're if you're you know, trying to just put some meat in the freezer.
But if you're trying to see a buck, you gotta you gotta go.
You're gonna to be close to where he's he feels secure.
And I move that far you think now.
They're not moving far and they're not moving hardly any during the daylight. It's that that that testosterone is already diminished and they're they're back to their weary you know selves. And so unless there's a but here's the thing, you know as well as I do, there's that there's that group of doughs didn't get bread. They'll come back in and and if you find that, absolutely you might have a big buck, just one around right in the middle of the day.
But it's just not like it was. Does the type of cover matter, like any particular vegetation or or you just think anything thick? I think anything thick.
I think you know if you're if you're in a like a thick grassy field. A lot of times this time of year, that stuff's laid down. So it might been thick early, but it's not thick now. So you need to find something that's got some you know, high stem count. But it's got to be it's got to be robust because we've had some decent weather and some of that places that used to be thick, the grass is laid down and it's not near stick. They like it thick, thick, I'm talking thick.
Okay.
So Arkansas is a state you can put corn on the ground, and I know a lot of people do it, and I ain't above it either, you know, especially if you're trying to fill a late season tag. It's a great way to do it. Do you have any tips for hunting around bait in the late season.
Yeah, it's absolutely effective, really really effective. And I do it as well on some private land. I have a couple of pieces that I did on and if I was gonna do corn, the one thing that I don't see happening, and I'm not seeing it never happens in another somebody gonna say, well, I see it all the time, like feeders or mechanical devices. I just find that that bucks with any age on them at all, they just don't go around them.
You're better off putting it on the ground.
Back to that is is that it doesn't last long when you take all the raccoons and everything else. You know, you gotta be you gotta lay it on the ground, and you gotta be ready to hunt it, you know, pretty quick, or it's gonna be it's gonna be eating up. But I find much better success killing a buck with any age class late season by putting it on the ground and not not depending on some type of mechanical feeder.
Yeah.
Cool, all right, So with all that in mind, and you know the discrepency and rup dates and all that, but it being pretty late. If you had to give buck movement daylight buck movement a scale of one to ten rating in the state of Arkansas, what are you gonna.
Give it over the next week?
Man, I'm gonna I hate to be Debbie of the Downer, but I'm gonna say five.
Hey, I mean that's bad. That's bad. I ain't this neither down or up. Honestly, it's right.
In the middle, you know.
So that's pretty good. Yeah, I appreciate the report. Scott and appreciate you so much.
Brother. Merry Christmas. Yeah, absolutely, Merry Christmas.
On the phone, I've got my buddy Rob Mendos with tether. He is down hunting in Missouri and he's just giving us a hard time. Honestly, he's just being a goofball. So, dude, what's happening?
Not much, guys, how are you? How you been?
Good man?
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you too and everybody out there listening.
Thanks, dude.
I think it's cool that, like you're figuring out how to hunt on Christmas Eve.
Yeah, you just have to have a family with a farm and then get your your father in law down there, and it's like you're still with family, but you're kind of not.
Yeah, easy enough.
Yeah it works, man, that's cool. So you've been doing some hunting in Missouri. What are you doing right now?
Man?
They're moving, they're moving in the daylight. Mark, I get a lot of activity the first two hours of daylight, obviously, and then last night I had five bucks within thirty yards or three of them at the same time, and all of them within an hour of each other, about an hour left the daylight, and they were crushing the some acorns?
Really? What are those? Oh? Yeah, I got you? Okay, I got you.
Now I forgot my dialog.
Yeah you're in the South, now, bro, you gotta say it right when you're Missouri. I don't know about that.
Well, he's in South Missouri. Yeah, uh spit. But I kind of to actually play off of that a little bit. What kind of acorns are those that that the deer's still eating?
These are actually where I was? Are the runnants of the white oaks?
Really?
Yeah?
How about that?
Was there a big surprise that I replaced some camera batteries, not really expecting much out of this one particular camera. But this ridge system is just getting hammered, it's getting lit up.
Was it was there a big drop? I mean, was there a ton of acorns that dropped earlier this fall? Or was it just not a normal thing and they just, you know, they're they were especially heavy? Yeah?
Okay, okay, yeah, probably i'd be looking for the was red, you know. But yeah, they seem to have enough left over that they're hitting them or at least scavenging them.
Do you is there any sort of retin action that you can see or have seen on camera?
I had two little bucks just messing around a lot of active scrapes, and I thought that it was probably just the dose, but the camera's told me otherwise, and watching him make a scrape yesterday, but it was probably, you know, a two and a half year old deer doing it. Let me two and a half year old deer battling each other for a minute.
Let me ask you this the So I've seen late season scrapes where deer don't even scrape the ground, but they'll use the licking branch. Still, did you actually see this deer scrape the ground with his hoofs?
So the mega that I'm after it did was doing what you were talking about, just hitting the licking branch. The two and a half year old yesterday was digging in the scrape.
Gotcha.
So what kind of inferences are you making off of that show camera data? Are you just trying to inventory and see where that big Bucky is or are you kind of using that to backtrack him to betting?
Now I'm trying to backtrack him to betting so that I can figure out where he's coming from, where he's going to. I thought last night was definitely one of my more high probability just based on what he was doing leaving the property the night before the wind and then his routine.
Of coming back on the property. So he just didn't read the script. Are you are you? Do you have any agg around or is it pretty much just fully reliant on white oaks? No, there's not.
I don't think, Well, your neighbors aren't farming anything right now. I don't think there's much eg around here. There's a couple little food plots in a neighboring property.
So would you if you had food plots you think that'd be more effective than acorns right now?
Yeah, I feel like that might give some give a man an advantage.
Really, So if you were if you had that on on a on the uh neighbor's property, you would you would be hunting deer that were moving to that as opposed to finding places that there's still white oak a white oak acorns on the ground.
If I wanted to kill any buck, I'd probably be hunting over a food plot. If I wanted to kill a smart, mature animal who's been a hunted hard all season by all my neighboring properties, I'd probably be on on acorns.
M Yeah, would you would you prefer to shoot this deer this year or have a chance out of next year?
Oh, I'm letting that God decide that one.
There you go, gotcha, gotcha? Very cool to you. Well, it sounds like you're on the deer. Uh.
And it's you know, honestly a pretty uh. I don't know, just optimistic outlook on things. So I'm ready to hear what your number is on a scale of one to ten for buck movement in Missouri?
What are you going to give it over the next week based off the.
Past three days of having my cameras alive again, I'm gonna put it out a nine.
Whoa, that is way up there.
Yeah, it's not a nine for everybody? Then, thank you Jesus.
There you go, dude.
That's awesome.
Well, hey, y'all go have a merry Christmas, have some phone family, and I appreciate the report.
Dude, Hey, take care of guys.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year everybody.
My good friend and guy who films me a lot, Greg Latham has been hunting in Texas, hunting like a maniac.
Actually, Greg, what's happening, bro? Uh?
No much, just trying to get a deer killed before the end of the Texas season.
Hey, I have a question for you. Is this the latest that you haven't filled a Texas tag ever?
Uh?
Well, the first deer I ever killed, I kill him December twenty sixth.
Gotcha, you possibly will be.
You got a few days. You might kill a deer tonight. So that's uh, that's kind of cool. But the wind cooperates, yeah, ooh, yeah, that's a whole nother thing right at the weather. So let's talk about that in in in Texas right now?
Whatater deer doing?
Uh in Texas right now? The deer we're going everywhere this past week, but uh, the weather's not really cooperating neither cold front for deer to get really going. But it's a it's been pretty good.
Yeah, yeah, gotcha.
So do you have cameras that are looking pretty good and you still have some pretty good suspects on the ground.
Yeah.
I do have a giant buck I'm after right now, and he's been daylighting almost every day. Kind of it doesn't even matter what the weather is, but he's been showing up.
Gotcha. That's cool. So what's it take weather wise? Are you trying to find a cold front? Are you trying to find just the right wind, or like, what's the deal?
Why is he so hard to kill?
Well, I've been waiting for a cold morning to like a frost, but I don't know if we're gonna get it. But I think I'm gonna get some lower forties here that next week, and I think that's when I'm gonna go in and try to kill him.
Why do you need colder weather.
Well, he seems to daylight mostly on the coldest day.
He for sure daylight's on the coldest day.
So if I can get that weather front, I'm probably gonna go in and try to kill him.
So when he daylights on days that aren't cold, you're afraid that it's too aggressive and you might spook him, like once he gets in there, or what he's coming in or after you know it's dark and you leave or what.
Yeah, if I go in there, I want to kill him. I don't want to mess around. Like sometimes on hotter days he's gonna show up, you know, the last few minutes of daylight. But on the cold, colder weather day, he usually shows up with good daylight.
Got you so can you still in Texas? You know kind of use rut top tactics. So you're gonna be able to rake trees or rattle or whatever to kill deer.
Right now in this particular part of Texas, I don't think so. But there are other parts of Texas it's like it's going down right now.
Got But how would you determine if that's if you are in the zone on that, I.
Mean judgment from trail camera data. I mean, you can kind of tell if the deer fired up or not. But I just know from history that this particular part of Texas is not the it's not going down right now, but there's still a little bit of red activity, but it's not as far as up fired up as they were like a month ago.
So are there any Are there any food sources outside of corn that you you could focus on if you were in that part of Texas that had a little less red action going on.
Yeah, I mean, if you had wheat or oats planted, it would be it would be on. Like you're you're seeing a ton of deer and I'm kind of worried that my neighbors down the road have oats planted, and I'm worried that this buck might end up down there.
So would you if you had, say you had a food planted like that, or or you had a wheat field planted on the neighbors next to you, would you hunt closer to the betting or closer to the food if you had an idea where the betting.
Was, I would hunt closer to the food. Right now, deer seemed to be hammering food. We've had a couple of frosts and it seems like everything's dead. So they're hammering food right now.
Gotcha? Gotcha?
Is there any way that you could hunt a deer on a morning right now or is it just too risky?
It's possible, but it's just it's just hard to know where they're coming from. In the evenings, it's like you kind of identify where the betting is and slip in and like get between them and the food, and it's not that hard. But in the in the mornings, you don't know where they're at, and they could be out cruising around and.
Giving the left.
I think, yeah, give me this.
So in the next week, if you had to put a number on buck movement in the daytime on a scale of one to ten, what are you gonna give it? Uh?
Where I'm hunting right now, it's gonna be about a six.
Gotcha? What about it? What about elsewhere where? You say it's going on.
Elsewhere, there's place in Texas that's going down. I'd say the next week is an eight or nine.
All right, good numbers out there, sir Well. I have full confidence that you're gonna get it done this week.
Man. Uh, Merry Christmas to kill a big buck. Yeah, Merry Christmas. This is the Element's own Casey Night.
He is currently in root to the second greatest state in the country, Kentucky, to get you know, some of that home cooking, but also to do a little deer hunt. Right You've been kind of conversing with friends and family and and looking at Chuck Hard and pictures and stuff.
Man, what's going on in Kentucky right now?
Casey Well, I think you know the party's pretty much over. You know, it's I think it's time to just start going back to hunting.
Bed to food.
You might have a little bit of rud action if you have a hot dough in the area for some stupid reason, but other than that, you know two words corn pile. That's probably what what if you have that option, you need to be focusing on because some some kind as you can't bait anymore. So, but if you have that option to hunt over you know, a bait pile or just a good food source in general, I'd say that's probably your best bed.
Corn pile is one word Eese Texas In case you're wondering, So what if you don't have that option? Is there like cut agfields or something that deer using, you know.
I'd say yeah, probably if I mean, you know, if you have you know, act like a cut cornfield or something that you know, some corns left over from the harvest.
I've seen them, like on my lease.
That happens quite a bit when there's corn, you know, the farmer hill cut and then there's quite a bit of corn just scattered on the ground and I'll see him beating on it up until like late January or whenever the seasons, I guess.
So, do you think that you could hunt mornings still or is it pretty much gonna be evenings only at this point in time?
I mean historically when I hunt this time of yere, I'm seeing most of the action in the evenings for sure.
What's the what's the weather looking like in the next week, Are we gonna get any cold weather?
From what I saw, I don't think it's going to be super cold. I think I mean most of the days are going to be in the forties or fifties, which I feel like is a little bit warm for this time of year. Usually usually I think by this time we're seeing like thirties. I mean, sometimes we'll get in the twenties. But I think it's gonna be pretty warm in this next coming week.
Yeah, for those northern latitudes. So you expect that deer movement is going to be late in the evening or is that going to depend on any other variables.
I would expect late in the evening.
I know last year I was on quite a bit in like late December early January, and I wasn't really seeing much until the last I mean the last hour a lot pretty much.
So that that would mean that if you had a bunch of holiday stuff going on, but you're only able to get out for the last hour or so, that it would still be worth going out. Probably.
Yeah, I'd say if you've got a buck on camera that you know is hitting food consistently and you kind of know what he's doing, I'd say it's definitely still worth getting.
Out there, gotcha. Gotcha.
Okay, So are you going to spend much time glassing and observing or since you have kind of like a short amount of time here, you're just going to hop in in a place that's historically good.
Probably, I'm just gonna hop in a place that I know I've seen him use in the past. That's probably. I think that's going to be my best option at this point.
Yeah, gotcha. Do you have decent targets that are still showing up on uh camera? I know, you know, we kind of talked like Kentucky doesn't have a lot of a gun season, but you said their gun season is in the heart of the rut, So I would imagine that kind of puts an impact on how many are still around.
Yeah, it's definitely noticeable.
Uh you know, you have all these deer on camera before gun season, then once getting season, it's all disappear because they're probably all there.
But yeah, I don't I have a like maybe two.
On camera that I might shoot, but the pretty time, I pretty love steam.
So are they going to be would you be closer to betting or would you be closer to food in this situation, Well.
I probably I like being close to bedding because you have a better chance of seeing him earlier on in the evening if you're closer to bedding, catching them going from the bed to food.
So I like to be closer to bed.
Gotcha, gotcha, we know that. Yeah, we know you like sleep.
All right, guys, I'm gonna use his nickname because that's how we actually know him. And this is Cupcake, Cuppy or cup and so cup. If you had to rank buck movement daylight buck movement on a scale of one to ten in the state of Kentucky over the next week, what would you give it.
I'm gonna have to give it a three. Three.
There's still a chance you might catch a little bit of ruddy Buck, but I think chances are pretty slim.
Hey, I appreciate the honest number three is a very realistic number I would imagine.
So a way to go, dude.
Hey, I hope you still get it done up there, man, and I appreciate you, dude.
Merry Christmas.
Yeah, y'all too, Merry Christmas.
Man.
Those are better reports than I expected for the last retfresh of the season. There's still a lot of optimism and a lot of reason to be in the woods. I hope everybody gets what they wanted for Christmas, and what you should have wanted was just some time with your family and friends and to be thankful for the stuff that we get and bucks. Yeah maybe you maybe you did get something that you really wanted, like a new Element T shirt or something.
Who knows, Yeah you didn't because.
But anyways, guys, thank y'all so much for listening throughout this season. It's been a blast getting to talk to everybody and to actually hear from folks who said that Refresh helped them out. And I'm thankful that, uh, the effort that we can put in can actually be useful for you all to get some good information.
From Hey, quick tip, don't just focus on your family. There are people out there that can be kind of lonely this time of year, So make sure that you send a text to somebody if you think they might not have a whole lot of family goings on. Might just be the thing that helps them optimistically get through
this season. So do that real quick, and then also head on over to the Element podcast here in just a second and check out the episode that I did with Scott pre Christmas here this week on the Element podcast about Arkansas hunting and just live stuff and appreciate all the support on the Element podcast as well here on the Wire to Hunt podcast. You guys keep the lights on and make this thing a possibility for us and we're blessed by you guys for sure. Marry Christmas.
This has been rough, fresh, keep it fresh.