December 25, 2024 • 32 mins
Welcome to the SEVENTEENTH episode of Rut Fresh Radio for the 2024 Season! In each episode, K.C. and Tyler interview deer hunters from across the country in search of the latest information on whitetail buck movement and hear stories of hunting success. This week we talk to Scott Harness in Arkansas, Rob Mendoza in Missouri, Greg Latham in Texas, and Casey Knight in Kentucky. Powered by First Lite Gear
I Hunted the Biggest Buck on the River
How to Kill a Buck from a Natural Ground Blind - Tony Peterson
Connect with K.C. and Tyler via Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Connect with Wired To Hunt and MeatEater
MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips
MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Christmas time is here, but there's still time to kill
it the year. This is Retfresh. Let's go. Welcome to
(00:48):
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
(01:09):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Before, creating a dust ball.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
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
(01:39):
sad because it's over.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It depends on where you're at.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Remember you're talking to Mark's fan base. Listen, I can
speak that language. My mom's from Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
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,
(02:20):
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
(02:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Might have been Parker. I don't know. Parker killed a
big o' deer.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
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.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Michael Huncker did it. Mike Hunsucker, Alex Comstock did it,
Parker did it?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Who else? Someone? Charry Larson does it every year Cheryl Larson. Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, So if you want to kill a deer, just
try to get on a re Fresh interview.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Then there haven't been a few messages trying to get
on who's our friend from Minnesota?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
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,
(03:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
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
(04:23):
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
(04:46):
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?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You know?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
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
(05:48):
because they kill big deer too.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
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
(06:10):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
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,
(06:48):
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?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well, you know, honestly, it's important to be realistic, Yeah,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
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,
(07:39):
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
(08:00):
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
(08:22):
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
(08:42):
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
(09:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
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?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Man?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, if a feller was still trying to fill an
Arkansas tag, is it a good time right now?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You know you're on the backside of it. I would
say this.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
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,
(10:13):
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
(10:33):
not as on his guard as what he is other
parts of the year.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And they say they'll come in they make a kill.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
I personally can't witness to that.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
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.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
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.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
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.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
But if you're trying to see a buck, you gotta
you gotta go.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
You're gonna to be close to where he's he feels secure.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
And I move that far you think now.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
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
(11:41):
a big buck, just one around right in the middle
of the day.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
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.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
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
(12:14):
it thick, thick, I'm talking thick.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
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.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
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
(12:54):
bucks with any age on them at all, they just
don't go around them.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
You're better off putting it on the ground.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Give it over the next week?
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Man, I'm gonna I hate to be Debbie of the Downer,
but I'm gonna say five.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Hey, I mean that's bad. That's bad. I ain't this
neither down or up. Honestly, it's right.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
In the middle, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So that's pretty good. Yeah, I appreciate the report. Scott
and appreciate you so much.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Brother. Merry Christmas. Yeah, absolutely, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
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?
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Not much, guys, how are you? How you been?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Good man?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Merry Christmas to you too and everybody out there listening.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Thanks, dude.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I think it's cool that, like you're figuring out how
to hunt on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, easy enough.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah it works, man, that's cool. So you've been doing
some hunting in Missouri. What are you doing right now?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Man?
Speaker 6 (14:41):
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
(15:04):
some acorns?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Really? What are those? Oh? Yeah, I got you? Okay,
I got you.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Now I forgot my dialog.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yeah you're in the South, now, bro, you gotta say
it right when you're Missouri. I don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
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?
Speaker 6 (15:28):
These are actually where I was? Are the runnants of
the white oaks?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Really?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
How about that?
Speaker 6 (15:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
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?
Speaker 6 (15:56):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Do you is there any sort of retin action that
you can see or have seen on camera?
Speaker 6 (16:13):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
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?
Speaker 6 (16:45):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
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?
Speaker 6 (17:07):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
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.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So would you if you had food plots you think
that'd be more effective than acorns right now?
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Yeah, I feel like that might give some give a
man an advantage.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
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.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
M Yeah, would you would you prefer to shoot this
deer this year or have a chance out of next year?
Speaker 6 (18:36):
Oh, I'm letting that God decide that one.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
There you go, gotcha, gotcha? Very cool to you. Well,
it sounds like you're on the deer. Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
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?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
What are you going to give it over the next
week based off the.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
Past three days of having my cameras alive again, I'm
gonna put it out a nine.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Whoa, that is way up there.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
Yeah, it's not a nine for everybody? Then, thank you Jesus.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
There you go, dude.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Well, hey, y'all go have a merry Christmas, have some
phone family, and I appreciate the report.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Dude, Hey, take care of guys.
Speaker 7 (19:22):
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
My good friend and guy who films me a lot,
Greg Latham has been hunting in Texas, hunting like a maniac.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Actually, Greg, what's happening, bro? Uh?
Speaker 8 (20:00):
No much, just trying to get a deer killed before
the end of the Texas season.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Hey, I have a question for you. Is this the
latest that you haven't filled a Texas tag ever?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Well, the first deer I ever killed, I kill him
December twenty sixth.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Gotcha, you possibly will be.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
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?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Whatater deer doing?
Speaker 8 (20:33):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
So do you have cameras that are looking pretty good
and you still have some pretty good suspects on the ground.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (20:57):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
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?
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Why is he so hard to kill?
Speaker 8 (21:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Why do you need colder weather.
Speaker 8 (21:32):
Well, he seems to daylight mostly on the coldest day.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
He for sure daylight's on the coldest day.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
So if I can get that weather front, I'm probably
gonna go in and try to kill him.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
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.
Speaker 8 (21:59):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
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.
Speaker 8 (22:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Got But how would you determine if that's if you
are in the zone on that, I.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
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
(22:58):
were like a month ago.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
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.
Speaker 8 (23:09):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
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.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Gotcha? Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Is there any way that you could hunt a deer
on a morning right now or is it just too risky?
Speaker 8 (23:57):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Giving the left.
Speaker 8 (24:17):
I think, yeah, give me this.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
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?
Speaker 8 (24:31):
Where I'm hunting right now, it's gonna be about a six.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Gotcha? What about it? What about elsewhere where? You say
it's going on.
Speaker 8 (24:38):
Elsewhere, there's place in Texas that's going down. I'd say
the next week is an eight or nine.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
All right, good numbers out there, sir Well. I have
full confidence that you're gonna get it done this week.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Man. Uh, Merry Christmas to kill a big buck. Yeah,
Merry Christmas. This is the Element's own Casey Night.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Man, what's going on in Kentucky right now?
Speaker 9 (25:19):
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.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Bed to food.
Speaker 9 (25:31):
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
(25:51):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
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.
Speaker 9 (26:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
I've seen them, like on my lease.
Speaker 9 (26:26):
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.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
So, do you think that you could hunt mornings still
or is it pretty much gonna be evenings only at
this point in time?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I mean historically when I hunt this time of yere,
I'm seeing most of the action in the evenings for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
What's the what's the weather looking like in the next week,
Are we gonna get any cold weather?
Speaker 9 (26:59):
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.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
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.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
I would expect late in the evening.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
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.
Speaker 9 (27:57):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Out there, gotcha. Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
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.
Speaker 9 (28:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
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.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, it's definitely noticeable.
Speaker 9 (28:46):
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.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
But yeah, I don't I have a like maybe two.
Speaker 9 (29:00):
On camera that I might shoot, but the pretty time,
I pretty love steam.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So are they going to be would you be closer
to betting or would you be closer to food in
this situation, Well.
Speaker 9 (29:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
So I like to be closer to bed.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Gotcha, gotcha, we know that. Yeah, we know you like sleep.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
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.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
I'm gonna have to give it a three. Three.
Speaker 9 (29:54):
There's still a chance you might catch a little bit
of ruddy Buck, but I think chances are pretty slim.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Hey, I appreciate the honest number three is a very
realistic number I would imagine.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So a way to go, dude.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Hey, I hope you still get it done up there, man,
and I appreciate you, dude.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yeah, y'all too, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
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
(30:36):
you did get something that you really wanted, like a
new Element T shirt or something.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Who knows, Yeah you didn't because.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
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
(31:23):
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
(31:45):
and we're blessed by you guys for sure. Marry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
This has been rough, fresh, keep it fresh.
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.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Christmas time is here, but there's still time to kill
it the year. This is Retfresh. Let's go. Welcome to
(00:48):
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
(01:09):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Before, creating a dust ball.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
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
(01:39):
sad because it's over.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It depends on where you're at.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Remember you're talking to Mark's fan base. Listen, I can
speak that language. My mom's from Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
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,
(02:20):
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
(02:42):
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.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Might have been Parker. I don't know. Parker killed a
big o' deer.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
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.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Michael Huncker did it. Mike Hunsucker, Alex Comstock did it,
Parker did it?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Who else? Someone? Charry Larson does it every year Cheryl Larson. Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, So if you want to kill a deer, just
try to get on a re Fresh interview.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Then there haven't been a few messages trying to get
on who's our friend from Minnesota?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
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,
(03:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
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
(04:23):
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
(04:46):
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?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You know?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
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
(05:48):
because they kill big deer too.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
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
(06:10):
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.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
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,
(06:48):
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?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well, you know, honestly, it's important to be realistic, Yeah,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
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,
(07:39):
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
(08:00):
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
(08:22):
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
(08:42):
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
(09:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
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?
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Man?
Speaker 5 (09:35):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, if a feller was still trying to fill an
Arkansas tag, is it a good time right now?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You know you're on the backside of it. I would
say this.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
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,
(10:13):
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
(10:33):
not as on his guard as what he is other
parts of the year.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And they say they'll come in they make a kill.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
I personally can't witness to that.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
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.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
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.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
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.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
But if you're trying to see a buck, you gotta
you gotta go.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
You're gonna to be close to where he's he feels secure.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
And I move that far you think now.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
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
(11:41):
a big buck, just one around right in the middle
of the day.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
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.
Speaker 5 (11:52):
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
(12:14):
it thick, thick, I'm talking thick.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
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.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
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
(12:54):
bucks with any age on them at all, they just
don't go around them.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
You're better off putting it on the ground.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
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.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Give it over the next week?
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Man, I'm gonna I hate to be Debbie of the Downer,
but I'm gonna say five.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Hey, I mean that's bad. That's bad. I ain't this
neither down or up. Honestly, it's right.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
In the middle, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So that's pretty good. Yeah, I appreciate the report. Scott
and appreciate you so much.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Brother. Merry Christmas. Yeah, absolutely, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
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?
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Not much, guys, how are you? How you been?
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Good man?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Merry Christmas to you too and everybody out there listening.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Thanks, dude.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I think it's cool that, like you're figuring out how
to hunt on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
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.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Yeah, easy enough.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah it works, man, that's cool. So you've been doing
some hunting in Missouri. What are you doing right now?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Man?
Speaker 6 (14:41):
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
(15:04):
some acorns?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Really? What are those? Oh? Yeah, I got you? Okay,
I got you.
Speaker 6 (15:11):
Now I forgot my dialog.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yeah you're in the South, now, bro, you gotta say
it right when you're Missouri. I don't know about that.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
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?
Speaker 6 (15:28):
These are actually where I was? Are the runnants of
the white oaks?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Really?
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
How about that?
Speaker 6 (15:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
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?
Speaker 6 (15:56):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Do you is there any sort of retin action that
you can see or have seen on camera?
Speaker 6 (16:13):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
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?
Speaker 6 (16:45):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
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?
Speaker 6 (17:07):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
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.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So would you if you had food plots you think
that'd be more effective than acorns right now?
Speaker 6 (17:56):
Yeah, I feel like that might give some give a
man an advantage.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
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.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
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.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
M Yeah, would you would you prefer to shoot this
deer this year or have a chance out of next year?
Speaker 6 (18:36):
Oh, I'm letting that God decide that one.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
There you go, gotcha, gotcha? Very cool to you. Well,
it sounds like you're on the deer. Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
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?
Speaker 3 (18:57):
What are you going to give it over the next
week based off the.
Speaker 6 (19:01):
Past three days of having my cameras alive again, I'm
gonna put it out a nine.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Whoa, that is way up there.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
Yeah, it's not a nine for everybody? Then, thank you Jesus.
Speaker 7 (19:16):
There you go, dude.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Well, hey, y'all go have a merry Christmas, have some
phone family, and I appreciate the report.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Dude, Hey, take care of guys.
Speaker 7 (19:22):
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year everybody.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
My good friend and guy who films me a lot,
Greg Latham has been hunting in Texas, hunting like a maniac.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Actually, Greg, what's happening, bro? Uh?
Speaker 8 (20:00):
No much, just trying to get a deer killed before
the end of the Texas season.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Hey, I have a question for you. Is this the
latest that you haven't filled a Texas tag ever?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Uh?
Speaker 8 (20:11):
Well, the first deer I ever killed, I kill him
December twenty sixth.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Gotcha, you possibly will be.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
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?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Whatater deer doing?
Speaker 8 (20:33):
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.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yeah, yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
So do you have cameras that are looking pretty good
and you still have some pretty good suspects on the ground.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (20:57):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
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?
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Why is he so hard to kill?
Speaker 8 (21:17):
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.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Why do you need colder weather.
Speaker 8 (21:32):
Well, he seems to daylight mostly on the coldest day.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
He for sure daylight's on the coldest day.
Speaker 8 (21:40):
So if I can get that weather front, I'm probably
gonna go in and try to kill him.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
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.
Speaker 8 (21:59):
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.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
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.
Speaker 8 (22:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Got But how would you determine if that's if you
are in the zone on that, I.
Speaker 8 (22:37):
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
(22:58):
were like a month ago.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
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.
Speaker 8 (23:09):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
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.
Speaker 8 (23:36):
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.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
Gotcha? Gotcha?
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Is there any way that you could hunt a deer
on a morning right now or is it just too risky?
Speaker 8 (23:57):
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.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Giving the left.
Speaker 8 (24:17):
I think, yeah, give me this.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
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?
Speaker 8 (24:31):
Where I'm hunting right now, it's gonna be about a six.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Gotcha? What about it? What about elsewhere where? You say
it's going on.
Speaker 8 (24:38):
Elsewhere, there's place in Texas that's going down. I'd say
the next week is an eight or nine.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
All right, good numbers out there, sir Well. I have
full confidence that you're gonna get it done this week.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Man. Uh, Merry Christmas to kill a big buck. Yeah,
Merry Christmas. This is the Element's own Casey Night.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Man, what's going on in Kentucky right now?
Speaker 9 (25:19):
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.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Bed to food.
Speaker 9 (25:31):
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
(25:51):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
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.
Speaker 9 (26:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
I've seen them, like on my lease.
Speaker 9 (26:26):
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.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
So, do you think that you could hunt mornings still
or is it pretty much gonna be evenings only at
this point in time?
Speaker 4 (26:45):
I mean historically when I hunt this time of yere,
I'm seeing most of the action in the evenings for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
What's the what's the weather looking like in the next week,
Are we gonna get any cold weather?
Speaker 9 (26:59):
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.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
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.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
I would expect late in the evening.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
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.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
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.
Speaker 9 (27:57):
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.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Out there, gotcha. Gotcha.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
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.
Speaker 9 (28:20):
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.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
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.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Yeah, it's definitely noticeable.
Speaker 9 (28:46):
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.
Speaker 4 (28:56):
But yeah, I don't I have a like maybe two.
Speaker 9 (29:00):
On camera that I might shoot, but the pretty time,
I pretty love steam.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
So are they going to be would you be closer
to betting or would you be closer to food in
this situation, Well.
Speaker 9 (29:13):
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.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
So I like to be closer to bed.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Gotcha, gotcha, we know that. Yeah, we know you like sleep.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
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.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
I'm gonna have to give it a three. Three.
Speaker 9 (29:54):
There's still a chance you might catch a little bit
of ruddy Buck, but I think chances are pretty slim.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Hey, I appreciate the honest number three is a very
realistic number I would imagine.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
So a way to go, dude.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Hey, I hope you still get it done up there, man,
and I appreciate you, dude.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Merry Christmas.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Yeah, y'all too, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Man.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
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
(30:36):
you did get something that you really wanted, like a
new Element T shirt or something.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Who knows, Yeah you didn't because.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
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
(31:23):
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
(31:45):
and we're blessed by you guys for sure. Marry Christmas.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
This has been rough, fresh, keep it fresh.
Host
Mark Kenyon
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com