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October 1, 2025 42 mins

October is here, and so is another episode of Rut Fresh Radio! This week, Flint Koch (Kansas), Clay Mervar (North Carolina), Josh Teulker (Indiana), and Connor Lokar (New Hampshire) join the show to break down what deer activity looks like across their regions. From early October movement to changing conditions, you’ll hear fresh reports straight from hunters on the ground. Plus, we’ve got two big buck stories you won’t want to miss.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What is going on? Welcome back to Refresh. This is
Jake Koefer and we have an exciting episode because it's
October first. So if you're one of the many states
that have been sitting on the sidelines and have been
watching some of these other earlier opening states, it is
your time. This is October first, and the excitement and
anticipation is going to build every single week. And we

(00:21):
have a great episode with a variety of different guests
here that have already killed some really great bucks, filled
their dough tags, or one guest that has put together
a game plan for October first after many many curve balls.
So this week we're going to have Quint Coke from
Missouri in Kansas he killed a Kansas Giant, clay Murvar
from North Carolina, Josh Telker from Indiana, and Connor Lokar

(00:44):
from New Hampshire. So this is the start of the season.
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of reugh Fresh.
Here we go real quick before we get into the
episode with the guests, I want to let you know
that Roughresh is brought to you by land dot com,
the leading online real estate marketplace to find your perfect

(01:06):
rural recreational, agricultural or hunting properties here in the US.
All we got Josh with before the echo on the line,
what's going on in your neck of the woods here, Josh.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh, not a lot, man. We had a nice little
cool down come through. It's gonna warm up again here
before too long. But uh, yeah, I kind of fighting
off some EHD here in southern southern Indiana and uh
getting ready for October deer season.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Man, Well it's here, this is when this goes live.
This is October first, This is the kickoff of fall,
and you know it's gonna be hot. And I guess
before we get into that and looking at the exact
forecast and what your plan is for the next seven days,
I think that unfortunately, a lot of people can resonate with,
you know, EHD issues. Obviously, Ohio has been kind of

(01:53):
the center focus of a lot of these issues. But
you know, you're in Indiana and you're you're experiencing some
some issues. How how bad is it for you right now? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
So I live in Jackson County, Indiana. It's the second
worst county right now in Indiana. At least the last
time I looked, it's pretty bad. We you know, it's
all each He's always kind of central, you know, or
localized to certain areas. But you know, I found multiple
dead bucks and some of the properties I've hunted, and uh, Like,

(02:22):
someone came up to me the other day in the
grocery store and asked me about how you found any
dead bucks.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
I'm like, yeah, yees.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
He saw like three kids walking down the road with
a bunch of racks in their hands, you know, coming
out of a creek. And a buddy of mine that
lives in the county east of me, he's found twelve
dead ones on his four hundred acre farm. So it's
pretty bad locally here, but there's other other places around
to hunt.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Yeah, so how does that How does that change your
game plan? Obviously, you know, leading up to the season,
you're like, Okay, this is tentatively my loose plans and
then the rug gets pulled out underneath you and are
you in a stage of regrouping right now or what
is your strategy as we get deeper into the season.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, So, like the primary I hunt, like where you know,
if all things are being equal, is the area I
would be that that that's the area that really got
hit with with EHD pretty bad. I'll give you an example.
I got two cell cameras, it's all I got out
this year, and they're on some private pieces that I
can hunt, and they're over a mineral site. And I

(03:26):
haven't got a buck on that those cameras for like
twelve days now at all, not a one single buck.
So it's you know, I have a pretty low standard
over there, like I'm probably not gonna mess with it, just.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Leave it alone.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
But now like I get on those you know, I
got got on the Indy end as map of the
EHD outlook, and I mean you can tell where it
is and where it isn't, you know, pretty pretty quickly
on those maps. And luckily for me, some of them
the surrounding counties. I'm pretty familiar with the public land
in those counties too, and have some cameras running over there,

(03:59):
and I just just a matter of going and starting
from scratch over there essentially. You know, I didn't didn't
do any glassing over there this summer or scouting around
this summer. I did in the spring though, So there's
a little bit of me that's excited for this season
just because I'm going to get into some.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Some new stuff. Probably do a lot.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Of learning this year, and that's always exciting and sometimes
it's refreshing. Uh, you know, freshing part of hunting is
learning and getting into some new territory.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
That's a really positive outlook, uh, because I think it
would be easy to follow into the you know, the
trap of my season through and.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
I'm happy about it, Like I will know one would
be right, like just being optimistic, right, Like, yeah, ideally
I'd like to just go hunt with there I know
and know where there's some big deer at.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
But yeah, other plans.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
I mean, that's all you can do. I mean, that's
that's out of everyone's control and you just got to
roll with the punches. And unfortunately there's a lot of
people that are in the same boat. So with warmer
temperatures here for the kickoff of the and do you
plan on if you if you sneak out, what is
kind of your game plan or what's uh what are
you specifically going to try to key in on. You're
going to kind of what somewhat blind now because you've

(05:11):
basically called an audible at the line, we're gonna run
a different play. So what does that look like for
this first week.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
For me, I like to hunt in the first week
of season. I find that I see more you know,
daylight movement from mature deer and this is very centralized
to where I hunt at and the hills in Indiana
is like low areas where we have a uh now
and like an area where you're gonna have some white
oaks dropping. And those lower areas oftentimes have some water

(05:41):
in them, which is something we're lacking this time of year.
Uh and that's where all probably focus on the first
couple of weeks. Has hitting these little like thermal hub areas,
and I mean I've had I've been successful early season
in these areas. I've had buddies that had the same
kind of scenario where you know, deer living down low

(06:01):
in the cool and shaded areas where's there's some oaks dropping.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
As far as are you gonna throw a morning hunt
in the first week or your primarily evenings or what's
your what's the strategy.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
I'm not opposed to hunting mornings at all for me
usually early season, so like I just it's it's kind
of a time thing for me usually, like I can't
get out in the mornings a lot of times because
I got something going on with whatever, kids or other
other things going on in life where I can't hunt
in the mornings.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
But no, I would come out.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
I would get in there in the mornings early season.
I mean, you know, the more you talk to some
of these guys that have, you know, way more experience
than me deer hunting, it's like, I mean a lot
of guys like talk to John Eberhart the other day,
and you know he's killed a lot of deer in
the morning early season, you know, so I, yeah, that's
something that I'm not You're not scared to do it, No,

(06:52):
not at all. And that's something I want to do
more of. It's just right now with young kids and
it's hard to get out in the morning sometimes getting
people into school, and.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
You know, yeah, what is it. Let's say you're stuck
to an afternoon hunt first week. You know, temperatures are elevated.
You're going to go hunt a bottom. You know, you're
going to try to find a white oak with some
acorns and potentially you know, a thermal hub where sense
pulling down. There's likely betting nearby, and they're going to
come bet on some acorns and drink some water. What
is that entry or access point look like? How slow

(07:22):
are you going? And hopefully someone else might be able
to key in on on your approach and might help them.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
So what I like to do, Like ideally, if I
could set up the perfect scenarios where I would be coming,
you know, in from the mouth of the hub, and
you would have to either a you know, be really
good with mapping where you're going to be betting at,
which isn't always tried and true, but or be going
in and scouting it in the spring to know a
little bit about where maybe the bucks are going to

(07:48):
be betting up on the points, and then I would come
into the mouth from the mouth of the hub ideally,
and I will walk around no matter what, I do
not want to come down any of those points. One
of the huge disadvantages you have in hill country is
the amount of you know, space that a deer can
see see you coming from. It's so hard to get

(08:09):
close to deer, especially if you're up top silhouetting yourself.
I'll do everything I can not to come down a
point or come around the you know, the top of
a ridge that goes in down into a hub and
I'll a particular one I'm thinking of, maybe I'll go
hunting if there's any bucks in there. I have to
literally walk down the opposite ridge, come back, you know,

(08:30):
come back down the ridge, and back up into the
the second ridge where the hub is, and it makes
my walk essentially twice as far. But I can't come
up on top where you know, the ridge of those hubs,
because more than likely something's gonna see you, or you're
gonna jump dose, or just something's not gonna go right.

(08:51):
And in an early season, I just feel like they're
they're not you know, it's not the rut. They don't
have like a whole lot of reason to get up
and get going anyway, especially when it's hot, like it's
going to be. Like anytime you can avoid tipping them off,
you got to do it. So I'll walk around and
then I like when I come in, I like to
try to if there's a creek, I like to try

(09:12):
to stay in that creek. You know, I'm not saying
deer won't, but a lot of times they're not going
to walk down one of those little hub creeks. I mean,
there are a lot of times are rocky, and I
think they're I don't know if it's uncomfortable to them,
but it's just there's layovers in them and everything else.
But I try to stay in those to keep low,
keep my scent down on that creek to where you
know they're not going to be able to cross across

(09:34):
my centin trail, and then I just get into, you know,
as close as I can without feeling like I'm too
close or getting in bad thermals or wind switches and
all that kind of stuff, which is sometimes just unavoidable.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
I mean, thanks happening.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, Well, I think the key thing there is you're
not going from point A to point B. You're going
to point a A one, A two eight, three, A
four to get to be A. So I think that's
a really important thing is people, you know, map out
their access if they're gonna go, uh, go out and
enjoy it. Like uh, it's always a challenge right where
people are like, well it's hot, I'm not gonna go
And next thing you know, we'll be doing ret fresh

(10:12):
and we'll be like, all right, it's late season and
this is your last chance. Like it'll be that quick
because it goes it goes by really fast. Every year
yeah it does. So first week of October, little elevated
temperatures on a scale one to ten, what do you
think the deer activity is gonna be? Or you're how

(10:32):
excited are you? Ten? Being is man, I feel like
I'm gonna kill the best dear of my life. I
feel amazing. And and one is basically like, dude, I
don't even want to go. Yeah it's open, but I'm
I'm just gonna buy time right now, all.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Right, listen, Like my desire to go is like at
a ten because I'm ready to be buck hunting, Like
I'm ready to be out in the woods deer hunting. Now,
how likely I do I think I'm gonna kill a
big one if it wasn't a EHD year and I
had in all this information that I had collected all
spring and summer on these bucks that I knew were around,
you know, if that wasn't the case, I would probably

(11:06):
tell you, like the first few days of season like
an eight. I don't really care how hot.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
It is.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
This year, me going into some areas that are probably
going to be blind, Like I'll probably give.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
You like a six this year on like confident levels.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, fair enough, But as far as just going, I'm
a ten right now, dude, I'm ready to be out
there in the woods.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
I love it. Well, Josh, good luck the first week
and good luck the rest of the season. And I
wish you the very best. Thank you for hopping on here.
Thanks shake, have a good one man, all right. Next
up on the line, we have kind of locar from
New Hampshire and Connor. You've had some success, you've already
notched a tag. But I'm going to ask you this
question about New Hampshire because when I think of white too, Honey,

(11:51):
New Hampshire is not the first one that comes to mind,
and probably not even the fifteenth state that comes to mind.
How many archie deer do you think we're shot in
twenty twenty four or in the state of New Hampshire
archery deer archery only, I'm.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Going to say four thousand.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
That's an excellent guess. We did not I did not
give him even a range before we started recording. Three thousand,
five hundred and thirty deer. We're shot, okay, Yeah, with
with archery equipment. Last year in twenty twenty four, twelve
two hundred and seventy seven total deer harvested in the
state of twenty in the year of twenty twenty four,
there's eighteen thousand bow hunters and fifty six thousand bow hunters.

(12:29):
So when you look at that, there's there's not a
lot of deer hunters in the in the state of
New Hampshire. Or maybe maybe you can tell me differently.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
No, I mean that's you know, we're not quite Michigan,
are we, with the you know, off the cold and
you know, half a million bow hunters or whatever it is.
You know, you know, we're a small state, and you know,
we have a we have a great hunting culture, but
I don't know if it's quite as pervasive as some
of those Midwestern states.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
But I know the.

Speaker 5 (12:53):
Uh, you know, the bow hunters out here, they hold
their spots pretty deer. So I think they're all right
with the lack of competition. And I'll say I kind
of not cheated. But we have some state vilegests that
are really good about posting the total state harvest numbers.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
And I knew it was around that.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Twelvey mark for twelve or fourteen, so I got just
provide by you know, three, and that.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Was my guess. So excellent guess man. Awesome. Well, first off,
congratulations on notching tag. You shot a dough very recently.
That is often a debate of as the season kicks off,
everyone's really excited. They maybe want to get the dust
off their bow and their arrow and go through a
shot motion sequence replenish their venison. What was your strategy

(13:31):
to go ahead and get one down to kick off
the year.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
Well, for me, it was you know, I basically have
the same plan every year, which is chewed a doe
as early as I can and then focus on buck hunting.
And for those not familiar, we get two archery tags
here in New Hampshire, one either sex and then one.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Tag that's for bucks only.

Speaker 5 (13:49):
Some of the southern units you can get supplemental dough
only tags too, but I'm just north of that.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
So my plan every year is just on the either
sex tag.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
Get a dough, then hunt with for a buck with
the and it very rarely actually works out for me
as well as it did this year. But you know,
I just went classic early season low impact field edge.
You know what is what was left of my drought
ravaged clover anyway, just waited for them to come out,
had some pretty good game intel that they were doing
that early. And it was the first Saturday of the season,

(14:19):
a few days after the opener, and she came out
and didn't go twenty.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
As they say.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
So it uh, it was pretty unbentifual, but you know,
kind of kind of followed the script.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
And so it was perfect too because I was out.

Speaker 5 (14:30):
I'm out of Venison from last year. I got like
two packs left, so it's well timed.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, well that's that's how you want to start at.
How did it feel, because you know when this goes live,
Illinois will it's the opening day for Illinois, so I
mean you got a head start. You got to start
among many states throughout the Midwest. Give us, Give us
how it was, because if I feel that a lot
of people are probably out of venison and maybe they
need to shoot a dough depending on their deer numbers
and go through the motions, be full draw, just tell

(14:58):
us how it felt, because I bet it felt pretty good.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
No, I thought so good.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
You know, it's uh, you know, just being out there
even when the weather's not ideal. You know, that was
the first week this season for us, so like that's
saying weather condition like today two weeks later, I probably
am not hunting, but you know that that first week
you kind of you got to take your swings just
just to scratch the itch if anything else. And you know,
if it's a low impact stand where you're not going
to scrow too much. You know, it's just being out
there after nine months off. It's it's the best.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, So you know it's October one, and
it seems like temperatures are are somewhat elevated. What is
your game plan strategy for the next week here when
it comes you already have your dough down, so you're
focusing on a buck or or you know, potentially multiple
target bucks. What do you what's going through your mind

(15:45):
right now?

Speaker 3 (15:47):
Well, you know, it's so we have a September fifteenth opener.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
So like I feel like looking at some of the
local Facebook groups, you know, you know, I think a
lot of guys are in there October well already, even
though October is just barely getting started, you know, because
my opinion is that that's a pressure driven phenomenon. So
you know, I think a lot of guys have already
done some sits, taken their swings. You know, maybe bump
some deer maybe sent the things up, so right on
the first or second. So we've been so dry all

(16:13):
all year, you know, depending on the meteorologist, you read
like either the worst drought on record or close enough
that it doesn't really matter, Like as dry as I've
ever seen it. And we finally got a pile of
rain last week, and you know, eastern New York at
around X got it, Vermont got it, we got it,
Main got it, and we needed it so bad. But
it's brought humidity and heat, and my cams have been

(16:34):
pretty much toast and acorns are dropping. So you know,
for the first and the second, we've got a cool
from I'm not going to call it cold front yet,
but we're you know, we're like mid eighties humid right now,
like I wouldn't want to sit. But first and second,
we're going to get daytime highs in the sixties, lows
back in the thirties. So I think you've got a
real you know, even though that's not technically our opener,
but you've got a real couple of days if you

(16:56):
can hunt midweek here. But then after that we're going
right back to high seventies, low eighties, hot, dry, So
you know, Grouse opens up on the first, Ducks open
for us on the fourth. You know, this might be
a good weekend to you know, maybe hunt some other stuff,
maybe let yourself get dragged to the apple patch or
you know, funking patch or the apple orchard or whatever,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Maybe maybe bank some brownie points.

Speaker 5 (17:17):
But you know, after these quick cool days here, this
week doesn't look very good on the back side of it.
So I now that I have the dough, and I
don't really have any compelling buck cam intel right now
to tell me otherwise, I'm probably waiting out that first
good cold front, and I.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
Don't want to do anything stupid on October fourth.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
It's gonna screw me up if we get a nice
cold front on the tenth or twelfth, when those.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Pre you know, itches start to tickle in.

Speaker 5 (17:41):
So I'm gonna keep it passive here in the short term.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Now, if you magically could burn a vacation day on
the first or second and pretend New Hampshire opened on
the first rather than the fifteenth of September, you know,
like the cool front first day, second day, And so
this is more geared towards the state that it is
falling under these conditions, would you burn a vacation day
or jet out of the office or the job site

(18:06):
early for the afternoon on the first or second.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Absolutely, one hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (18:11):
You know Vermont right next door, they're in October first opener,
you know New York's October first opener, and they should
be still holding onto the tail.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
End of the cold front at least for the first
So one hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
I think, particularly if you've got unpressured deer to take
that first shot, this is a you know, take an afternoon,
take a day.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
I think you got it because I do.

Speaker 5 (18:29):
I think it's going to be genuinely good conditions because
I think the deer are going to be pretty bottled
up daylight activity wise.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Coming out of all this heat.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
So I think you're going to have a really good
shot whether you're doing afternoon food sorcery and if you
want to get kind of frisky and get close to
those betting areas.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
I really think that this this weather's is going to
be worth it for a couple of days that we have.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
If you had to pick that food source in this hypothetical,
what would you key in on specifically in Vermont? Or
New Hampshire or New York, or even go back to
your roots in Michigan.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
Yeah, I mean, if you ke in, you know, soft Man,
we've got some apple trees right now that are dropping,
and deer always have apples, but we're so dry. I
think that they are so keyed in on that moisture
content that I think they're struggling to get from browse elsewhere.
So if you have a lead on that or betting
close to it, you know, even if it's up by
somebody's house, but you know, you know, if you can

(19:18):
reverse engineer where, they're probably betting to get to that
right after dark because like they're they're coming to ours
by the road. Like again, we can't get daylight shot opportunities,
but they're they're coming every night.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
So i'd say, soft Mass.

Speaker 5 (19:29):
The storm knocked a lot of acorns down, and from
what I understand, the white acorn crop actually looks kind
of decent this year, which is always kind of hit
or miss for us. So if you can get on that,
or you don't keep it simple, I mean, I think
for you know, for me, hunting a water source has
never been something I considered because even in our dry years,
they're still generally water everywhere, but there's just no water

(19:50):
this year.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
I mean it's we've gotten a.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
Couple spots on our property, but it's I helped to
buddy track of dough opening night, and you know, we
look for in a swamp that like normal year, you
probably need hip waiters to go through. We could have
been skipping through there with tennis shoes on. I mean,
it's I've never seen it like this. So so I think,
you know, if you want to do some scouting and
if if you just find an isolated water source, then
it's all tracked up. I mean, like, you know, keep

(20:14):
it simple, stupid, just set up on it, blow your
win where you think it's least likely they're coming from.
But so, I actually think water source targeting is probably
more viable this year in our area than I think
it's ever been, at least in recent years.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Love it all right, Well, here's the big question. On
a scale one to ten for the next seven days,
where are you following this to be in the power
rankings from one being the worst week of hunting ever
and ten being the absolute best of the season.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
For those two cold days to kind of start the
week off, you're October one two, like I'd go a
hard seven.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
I think it's gonna be really.

Speaker 5 (20:48):
Pretty darn good early season opportunity, But I think it's
gonna be a hard too about thirty six hours later.
So it's either you know, take your shot and the
day off from work if you got it. Otherwise I'd
I would not be going out of my way this
weekend when the heat's back to screw anything up, you know,
go hunt something else, Go do something.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Else, scout a new spot.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
But yeah, so I.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
Think you've got a small window here of some high numbers.

Speaker 5 (21:12):
But I think you're gonna average out back into the
week and next week pretty poor.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Well wonderful. Yeah, well, good luck the rest of the
season here, Connor. I appreciate you hopping on way to
kick off the season. Make sure that you guys have
venison on the table until hopefully you should altally, absolutely
really really appreciating good luck the rest of the season.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Absolutely, Jake, you too, good luck and thanks for having
me on all right.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Next up, we have Clay from North Carolina. Clay's already
had some success this fall, and so a fun little
fact about the state of North Carolina. There was only
twenty four thousand deer shot with the bow in the
twenty twenty fourth season, and the state typical record is
one hundred and eighty one and seven eight inches of

(21:56):
shot in nineteen eighty seven. So just to set the
stage for the state of North Carolina, I want to
make sure they're represented here on retfresh clay.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
How's it going, man, I'm doing great. Off to a
good start in the season. Things have been hot down here.
I mean it's been hot and dry. Seems like it's
been that way most of the country. Right now, we're
sitting at eighty five degrees here. But I still think
if you got deers that are on a pattern, beans
are still green in most parts, acorns are starting to fall.

(22:28):
So with that, if you've got a deer that's showing up,
I think it's a good time to be in the woods.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah. So, and you've already had some success this year,
right I have.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
I was able to kill one on opening day off
of our farm, deer that was coming in to beans,
but he wasn't getting there till a lot later, so
I backed off and went in the timber and actually
kind of tag team that one with one of my buddies.
He was bedding in a big cutover and there were
beans on either side. I was about five hundred yards
in on one side, he was about two hundred yards

(22:58):
in on the other. And he came out early. I
mean I shot him about seven pm back in the timber,
once again, not sitting on top of the beans when
they're not hitting those till last light.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Interesting, so you dove in a little bit deeper And
do you think that is a key element to your
success there to get him, you know, intercepted once he
got about a bed in his bed, and I do
it within shooting light.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
I think it's a lot easier to see a bunch
of deer and maybe on camera get the deer you
want to see over a bean field or over any
kind of egg field right now. But I mean I
was able to shoot the deer an hour and a
half before last light being back in the timber, So
I think that definitely played in And it was kind
of a gamble, but our access was pretty good, little

(23:48):
to no wind, and I was in an almost bulletproof
spot for opening day, low pressure area.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Not many bow hunters where we're hunting.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
So we're very calculated down here. We're not going to
go just blow spots out. But if we think that
we got an opportunity to go in to kill, we're
gonna take advantage of that when we could kill them.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Absolutely, So you mentioned, you know, low pressure area and
also a pretty calculated game plan. Everyone talks about access.
Everyone's very nervous to blow up spots at this time.
You know, for a lot of people it's October first,
and there's seasons just starting. So you had a little
bit of a head start. Explain what your access looked
like to have that successful hunt. Did you walk two
hundred yards one hundred yards and just kind of paint

(24:31):
that picture so everyone can understand. Yeah, so just.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Kind of driving down the driveway a little bit further
than normal. The beanfields right there as you come in,
and that's where these deer are getting to.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
But they're not getting there till last light.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
I mean, at this point now we're sitting here September
twenty sixth, they're not hitting that until dark.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
So I was able to come in.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
I really only had to walk about two hundred yards
from the truck down an open oak flat. Acorns at
that point weren't dropping yet, so I was able to
get in there, didn't bump any deer. And in a
lot of these spots were hunting because we're back in
the timber back past where these dough betting areas are.
We're only going to see one or two deer, but
those deer that we're gonna see are gonna be the

(25:14):
deer that we're gonna want to kill. So I'm not
I only saw two deer the night that I went
out there, but the one was the one in it.
I mean he came straight from a cutover. Like I said,
we knew he was betted in that and he was
either going to come out and go right and go
towards Nathan, or he's gonna come out and go left.
He came out, came left and had a twenty five
yard broadside shot.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
And so remind me, are you still able to hunt
in North Carolina with an archery tag for another buck?

Speaker 4 (25:43):
Yes, we're two bucks state. So I mean I'll take
a back seat now. I got a six year old
with an itchy trigger finger. Youth Day comes in tomorrow,
so there's gonna be a lot of kids hitting the woods.
They're allowed to use rifle for the one day deer
on youth day. So I'll let him go, maybe try
to find another deer that we want to target. But yeah,

(26:05):
we are a two bucks state down here.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Got And so for anyone that's in your neck of
the woods, October first, your guys, the season has already
been kind of been rolling. If you had to tell
someone what's key in on or what to pay really
close attention to from October first to October seventh, for example,
what would you if there was one thing, what would

(26:28):
you tell him to pay attention to for that period.

Speaker 4 (26:32):
So acorns and percimmons are dropping. I was walking through
the woods earlier today. We had our first rain come
through in the past probably fifty days.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
It's been dry as can be. Food plots look horrible.

Speaker 4 (26:43):
So if you can get back and the acorns aren't
loaded this year, like last year, every single white oak
in the woods was completely full.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
I actually prefer it like this year.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
The trees that have acorns, they're loaded, but it's it's
few and far between, at least where I'm at. So
if you could find a good tree that's dropping, or
if you could find the per simmons, they were falling
yesterday all over that's where the deer are.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Going to be.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
If you can get there, kind of get back into
the timber a little bit instead of on those field edges,
and you got some type of a mass crop that's falling.
I think that's going to be the money for the
next week and a half.

Speaker 1 (27:18):
With the start of October first, it looks like, at
least here in Illinois still going to be pretty warm.
I assume that's probably gonna be the case for North Carolina.
How aggressive would you potentially suggest someone to be knowing
that the temperature is going to be somewhat elevated and
maybe not as forgiving. I mean, there's a lot of
touch and go here at this point in the season,

(27:39):
especially with a lot of people. With it just being
there opening week here, everyone's excited, they want to be out.
So what's your thoughts regarding that?

Speaker 4 (27:47):
My thoughts, if it's opening day and you got something
out there, get in the woods. I mean, I've killed
a lot of deer on days that weren't good.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
And if you got.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Something and you have the intel and you think you
could get in and get out clean, I'd take take
that advantage and I dive in there. Early bird gets
the worm, get out there and try to make it
happen down here. We actually do have a little bit
I say cold front, but it's gonna go from about
an eighty five degree high this weekend and by the
end of the middle of the end of next week

(28:16):
it's gonna be down to about a sixty five degree
high and lows in the lower fifties. So that's a
pretty good difference. If I could, i'd be out next
to next week. I know, I gotta look at the schedule.
I pitch for coach, pitch for my son. I got
a flag football team, so I'm busy, but I'm looking
at those best days and those afternoons I'm gonna be

(28:39):
in the woods. I'll probably stay out the mornings, like
I said, tomorrow with youth day, me and my son
we'll go.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
We'll go into spots.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
We're gonna see a lot of deer, probably not good deer,
but we'll see a lot of doze or younger bucks.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Maybe a couple of.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Those management deer. But I would definitely take advantage in
get in the woods near the later next week.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
What have you seen for just general intel for camera
activity here this week with elevated temperatures. I mean, have
you been seeing above average below average buck moving on cameras.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
Most stuff has been after legal shooting light. Now, I
do have a couple of people that have killed this
week and it's been the same thing. They are having
pictures of that deer late in the morning, maybe seven
or eight o'clock, and they're able to kill them in
that afternoon because they're not traveling too far. If they're
on your cameras in daylight in the morning and you
could get into that spot to hunt in the afternoon.

(29:36):
I've got two buddies that have success on that same thing,
and the morning that I killed it was the same.
He was on two of our cameras late into the morning,
eight on one, eight thirty on the other, so we
knew this deer is not far eighty five degree heat,
they're not traveling too far, they're staying in the shade.
They're running those creek bottoms. So if you have pretty

(29:58):
good access and you got a deer that's close by,
I think I think it's worth going into the woods
and trying to kill them.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's great advice. Honestly, that's great advice for anyone to
key in on. Now. On a scale one to ten,
so October one October seven, ten being you feel like
you're gonna kill the biggest deer of your life. One
being you're not sure if you even really want to go.
Where do you anticipate, Where do you predict next week's

(30:26):
movement to be?

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Man, I'm giving it. I'm going to be in the
woods regardless. Like I said, I'm going out. I'm gonna
give it a six. So it's not great, but it's
not horrible. We're right there in the middle. I'll give
it a six. With this little bit of cold coming
in and the first bit of rain that we've had
in fifty days, and we're going to have probably three
days of rain next week, so you're going to be

(30:48):
seeing some green up in the food plots, probably see
some more acorns and percimons hitting the ground. You're going
to see fifteen to twenty degree temp swing. So I
think a six is pretty solid for October. I'd be
out there if I had time available.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
I wouldn't take off.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
From work, but if you're available to get out there
in the afternoon, I think.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
It's worth a shot. I love it well. Clay, congratulations
on kicking off the season with success. Good luck to
your son this weekend for U season, and good luck
the rest of the season. I appreciate you hopping on
here today, Yes, sir, thank you, Jack. I appreciate it. Guys.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
Here's that one shot on opening day in North Carolina.
A little over a twenty inch spread, eight inch prow time,
just over one hundred and forty inches.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
So, man, not much you can ask for to kick
off the year in North Carolina. Man, there's a lot
of a lot of people that go the whole season
and might not see one of those. And you just
started it off just like that. Yep, yep. We like
I said, we were calculated.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
We're going in there and we're hunting when things are right,
and we're not being afraid to take a gamble.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
All right. Next up, we are calling from Missouri with
my good friend Flint. He just killed his personal best
buck Flint. How does it feel?

Speaker 6 (32:03):
Oh it feels great. It took it took a long time,
but I probably got a real big one.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, it starts with the two. Yeah you know that's yeah,
that's amazing.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
Yeah, I rough scored him at two twenty seven. I
was pretty shocked. But then last night. I compared him
to a buddy of mine so who killed at two sixteen,
and he had a lot more trash, same frames, so
it should be pretty close. It's up there way more
than I expected. I was just hoping he'd break two hundred,
and he definitely did that, I think.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
So yeah, well that's where I felt bad when he
texted me and I was like, that's got to be
like in the ballpark at two hundred. And then I
saw that you posted it was, you know, two twenty
five plus, and I was like, oh yeah, just incredible, man,
Well congratulations, tell us the story. What happened.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
I buy and so a lot of land. As you know,
I probably flipped maybe fifteen farms a year. Some might
buy and sell some My ten thirty one and a
bigger pieces. So I'm always watching the market. And I
got some counties in Kansas I love. I've sold probably
six seven hundred acres in Missouri, I had a big piece.
I've been buying up small pieces out there, just trying
to get better hunting. Missouri's qualities just keeps going downhill.
So I've been watching Missouri more, trying to buy stuff

(33:08):
on the east side because that's like it's the best
best not off his best area, but it's the best appreciation.
It's closest to us. So I've been watching a peace
come on mark. It was only seventy one acres, and
I usually stay away from them. I'd like to buy
eighties or one sixties for the landowner tag reasons, and uh,
it had one picture of one big shed on it
and that was it. No dear history, and it's just
growed up cattle ground. And I've been buying a lot
of grown up cattle ground and it's it's really good,

(33:30):
Like I think it's like the secret to Kansas right now.
I bought several places the last couple of years. I've
had a lot of bucks on it. They're just grow
up cattle ground, just locus cedar trees, brush, that's about it.
So I seen it kind of blew it off. The
price was pretty good, but I blew it off because
it wasn't an eighty. A few months went by and
I've seen the listing again and I thought, well, I'm
I was just called. I was kind of looking for
some deals. So I called her and she's like, yeah,

(33:51):
they don't have any history. It's just a couple that
inherited it and they're trying to sell it, and she's
like yeah, and I said, well, it's to deal with
the shed. You know, it looked like a pretty big one.
And he's like, yeah, I found it when I was
taking pictures. You know, if you like shd hunting, there's
probably more in there. I was like okay, So I said, well,
i'll be down there next week. I'll swing by and
look at it. So I showed up, looked at it.
That drained all night the night before. The grass was

(34:11):
all wet. They just pulled the cows out there before,
so it was all tall lespadissa and grass, and I
was soaked, and I was like, yeah, that's okay. You
just really can't tell much like that, you know, when
there's been cattle in there, you got cattle trails, and
you can't really tell what's deer what's not. So and
we kind of I kind of shot her price over
the phone before I looked at it, and she's like, yeah,
they'll be close to that. I said, well, before we
make a deal, i'll go look at it. So I

(34:32):
looked at it, didn't really do much with it, and
a couple weeks went by she called. She's like, hey,
they'll do your offer, your verbal offer, if you're good.
I said, honestly, I don't know if I want it.
I said, I'll tell you what I said. I'd buy
them for hunting. I said, why don't you let me
run a camera on it for a couple of weeks
over corn without even putting a contract on it. If
if they're fine, fat, you know, we'll do that. Like,
I'll do that, but I don't really want to buy
it and not know what's there. And she's like okay,

(34:54):
and back of mind, Like the only reason I was
extremely interested was that shit. And I was like, well,
there's a bunch of deer there, you know, it'll be
a nice piece. So I ran out there, threw out
a couple bags of corn, and like the second day
I had that buck on there and it was early.
He was just getting started, but he had like fifteen
points already, just had the main beams and the kickers
are ready. I was like, Oh, he's gonna be nice.
So we got under contract. We kind of went back

(35:14):
and forth again whenever they didn't have all the mental
rights they thought they did, went back and forth, and
we end up just closing like early September, so it
took all summer finally got it closed. And when we
first made a deal, I said, you know, I'll buy it,
but I want to be able to run corn feeders
and get a food plot going. And she's like, yeah,
that's fine. You guys do whatever you want. There just
wanting to get rid of it.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
So that's why I did.

Speaker 6 (35:32):
And I had them all summer there, and it really
isn't that hard to kill a big one if you
can just find a big one. So he was there
and I just kept him, kept him fed, and I
got a big food plot in there and for alized
it good and it's had a bunch of rain and
so the muzzlim season and my elk tag opened the
same day, the fifteenth, I think. So I had to
decide I was I going to go to South Dakota

(35:53):
or go to Kansas. So I decided to go to
South Dakota because I felt like I better kill a
big bull there before they got killed out.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
So that's why I did.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
Went there first morning, put my bull, and loaded the
family up. The next day we dropped down to Kansas
and hunted.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
That night.

Speaker 6 (36:07):
I took my son with me, and we had probably
twelve thirteen bucks come out to the feeder, and the
big boy never showed. My son was about to have
a fit. He's six, and he's like, Dad, if you're
not gonna shooting these nice bucks, let me do it.
I said, no, we're waiting for a big one. I said,
I got plenty of one to twenties at the house already,
you know, So we didn't get him. The wind was
gonna switch. And what I did, and it worked really good,
is I put my blind about two hundred and fifty

(36:29):
yards away from the food plotting feeder. This early season,
the winds always swirled so bad. I always I feel
like I burned me stands out, So I'm like, I'm
just gonna back it up. I had a blind on
a trailer, so I just backed it up and hunted
it and didn't see him but a lot of deer.
So the wind was gonna be out of the west,
which is dead wrong. So I came home for two
days and then ran back out. The wind was kind

(36:50):
of cheating it, but I kind of set it up
to where he could hint of south or a north wind.
I know he came out with a much other bucks,
much other bucks come out first. He was climbing back.
It was actually three or four other bucks more mature
than him pushing him off. He come across the food
plot pretty quick, and then he come back out and
it was probably like a two hundred and twenty five
yard shot. And finally, once the bucks kind of cleared
out of the way, there fighting and feeding. Once they

(37:12):
cleared out of the way, I shot and couldn't tell
really what happened to Smoke. I thought i'd seen him
run across with his leg up, but didn't know for sure.
So I got down. It was about dark, look for blood,
couldn't find anything, went back, got a good light, never
found a drop of blood. So I was talking to
a buddy, mind Sam, and he's like, I got a
guy with a good dog. By the time I was
talking to him on the phone, and I found one
speck of blood, and so I hung up with him,

(37:33):
and I found like three specks and then there's a deer.
He only went like fifteen yards out of.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
The food plot.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
But so it was it was pretty simple, it's just
find them. But the interesting part was how I kind
of found the farm and found the deer. Before we
even made a deal on it, which I've seen some
really good deer on listings. You know, if you just
watch in the summertime, not many other people really are,
and you can find some really good farms early season
like that I found.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, how were you nervous when you? Okay? So you
have a two hundred and some inch deer in your plot.
The plant's coming together finally, and it's like it's been
a dream of yours obviously. I mean that's why you've
worked so hard to put yourself in a position for
this opportunity, and you got other mature bucks hanging out
in there. Were you just cool as cucumber? Because that's
kind of the impression I'm getting is I'd be shaking

(38:19):
like a leaf properly. I wasn't.

Speaker 6 (38:20):
I wasn't as shook up as you would think, you know,
Like when I was a kid, you know, you always
dream of this giant buck coming out, and that's what
you hunt your whole life for. I was like, every
buck would come out, I could see legs and then
antler's and I was shook up on if that was him.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
You know.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
Every time a buck would come out, I was like,
is this sim as him and finally he did come out.
So I was more shook up on waiting for which
deer is gonna come out? But once he got out,
you know, like when I got you know what from
my hand. Usually when I'm already shoot, I get pretty yeah,
pretty cold and can just pull a shot off, not
too many problems.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
You know, it was okay, give it, give it. Give
a piece of advice for someone for staying calm in
the moment. Is that repetition from over the years or
do you have a thought process or are you just
like suck it up and focus.

Speaker 6 (38:59):
Yet a lot of killing a lot of deer.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Probably.

Speaker 6 (39:03):
Yeah, so I made a lot of bad shots when
I was younger with the bow by being too shook up,
but just timelessly, I guess time.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Okay, how what were the conditions like the night it
all came together? You had mentioned, you know, the setup
worked for like a north and the south. H you
were somewhat cheating the wind. But where the was that
somewhat of a cold front or was it just hey,
I'm gonna be here because the wind's right and he
may come out in time.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
Yeah, he'd been coming out like every other night and
the day before the night we hunted him, he didn't
show up, and the next night he did, and the
day before that he didn't. But it was about a
ten degree drop and it'd been like low eighties, high seventies,
and it was down to like low seventies that day
in Lorraine that morning, so everything seemed perfect like he
should show up, man, you know.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
But that's that is that is incredible. Shot a shot,
a bowl and two the same week, and that is
that is completely incredible. And obviously I've got to know
your story more, uh, since we've been connected and record,
you know, some episodes in the LAMB podcasts. So it's
so cool to see all this come to fruition with
a lot of a lot of hard work to put
yourself in this opportunity and have that chance. So October

(40:06):
one is the opening season, opening day for a lot
of states across the Midwest. Looking from October one to
October seventh, what would you suggest someone to pay close
attention to or what have you been able to pick
up over the years. Are you going to be hunting
in Missouri? What do you have in the pipeline here?

Speaker 6 (40:24):
Now I'm around to South Dakota, this week and chase
meal deer. Missouri. There've been deer been hitting the beans
pretty well right now, but they're starting to disappear pretty
quick back into acorns. So if the weather, you know,
he had a good cold front come through, uh, definitely
get after him. But I don't think i'd burn anything
out if the weather's not good, like right here, we're
getting up hi eighties again, so I think i'd be

(40:46):
pretty careful getting back out there for the white tails.
So I decided to go out through mual deer. They're
pretty easy to find. Them move every morning and evening,
so I'm going to chase them around a little bit.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
I like it, okay. So scale one to ten. What
do you anticipate October one to Octo over seventh for
deer activity, mature buck activity? Ten bean you shoot your
first two hundred, which you already did, or one bean,
it's gonna be really slow.

Speaker 6 (41:10):
I would think it's gonna be pretty slow.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
Here.

Speaker 6 (41:12):
It's gonna be pretty hot. Uh that first week of
like the middle of September, the first week of season
from Missouri Canvas, that's always pretty good. Like that first
week usually the bucks are moving well still. For me,
it always seems like you know, early October is pretty slow.
Uh the deer just back on acorn so bad in
Missari here do.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
You do you? Have you hunted that first week of October?
Have you hunted mornings very often? Are you typically hunting
primarily evenings?

Speaker 6 (41:37):
If you've got one, No, I'm just all evenings. I
mean I've got, you know, like everybody nowadays, twenty cell cameras,
and they're just not on camera in the mornings, you know,
and I don't want to push it in deep blow
them out, So I always just hunt the evenings. September
and October.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
I feel like I like it.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Well, f went congratulations on just like the start of
a dream season and hopefully you shoot a mule deer
and keep on rocket man. I really appreciate it. Congratulations
once again, Thanks Jake.

Speaker 6 (42:03):
Have a good luck this season.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
There you guys have it. Hope you enjoyed this week's
episode of ret Fresh. Get out there and enjoy it.
It's the season always goes by really fast, so you
heard it from Connor. If you're able to hunt that
initial cold front on the first or second it could
be really good. And if you aren't quite ready or
you need to get organized. Take this time to get
all your stuff together, make sure you're ready to rock
when the first cold front rolls in. Go out there,

(42:26):
or and maybe just sit and enjoy it and maybe
try to fill a dough tag. It is here, it's
October first. I hope you guys have a great first
week of season if you're one of the many states
that just opened, and we will see you next week.
Advertise With Us

Host

Mark Kenyon

Mark Kenyon

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