October 22, 2025 • 56 mins
It's only getting better! This week on Rut Fresh Jake Hofer is joined by Arron Bleise of the Fall Podcast, Christian Babcock of Hunters Advantage, and Benny Schuman of Moultrie share their plans for the next 7 days of sesaon. Folks are packing their bags and are ready to make the most of the next seven days. Tune in to hear what's on the top of their mind for hunting tactics as we creep into the best time of the year for chasing whitetails.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's going on. Welcome back to refresh. This is Jake
Hoefer and we have a great episode here for you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We have Aaron Blasey from Michigan.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Who connected on a big buck during the October ul
You get to hear the whole story and progression and
game plan on how we pull that together. We have
Christian Babcock from Texas who's also hunting in Oklahoma. We
have Benny Schuman from Minnesota who's actually.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Packing his bags and headed to Illinois.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So we are at the time of year now where
things are going to get more exciting. The opportunity is
likely going to increase. This is a very special window.
You've been sitting on the sidelines to feel like you're
behind the eight ball. Things are likely going to start
bouncing in your favor. There's a lot of change that
is going to happen over these seven days. There's going
to be a lot of sign that is laid down.
If we get a cold front. We're recording this a
(00:46):
little bit early, but if the weather cooperates and you
have an opportunity to potentially shoot a buck before things
go completely haywire in the month of November, there's a
really good chance you're going to have a big deer
show up this week on a scrape entre camera. So
grit down. This is going to be an exciting week
from here on out, it's gonna get a little bit better.
(01:06):
So I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode of
Rough Fresh. As you know, Roughresh is brought to you
by land dot com, the leading online real estate marketplace
to find your perfect rural, recreational, agricultural, or hunting properties
here in the US. We are going to kick things
off here with Aaron Blyse is a little bit longer
interview because there's a lot of good information that I
think will help you guys as you developed a plan
(01:27):
for the next seven days.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So here we go.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Here's Aaron Blyseie all right, First up on the line,
we have Aaron Blisee. Aaron always finds a lot of
success in the month of October, in the October little
when everyone else struggles. Everyone else is saying that deer
aren't moving, it's too hard. I'm just gonna sit on
the couch and watch football. You over the last few years,
(01:49):
it's like October is your time to shine.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I don't know what the deal is, I guess. I well,
first of all, thanks for having me on, Jake. I
appreciate it and getting to catch up with you and everything.
But I will say, you know, since twenty twenty one
October thirteenth, that's kind of been my day, I guess.
But you know, I really feel like that like quote
unquote October lull the last I would say, probably the
(02:15):
last five. You know, about five years ago I started
looking into like my cameras really started having deer like
good bucks that I'm looking for daylight on scrapes. It
seems like it seems like in that timeframe even this
year with the deer I did kill just a couple
of days ago that he like he has a running
(02:35):
mate with him, and then all of a sudden in
this timeframe, a flip switches. He's opening scrapes and he
doesn't have a running mate with him, so it's like
he's almost starting to put you know, they're starting to
feel a type of way I feel like, and you're
starting to get these deer almost like in a sense
of like how the later October is like they're starting
to move a little bit more and in.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Daylight a little bit more that's what I see.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And I've been able to capitalize a couple of years,
three different times, you know, in the last couple of
years on the same.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Type of deal.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But the window is really small, like I'm saying two
three days. It seems like, you know, later October could
be eight days, you know, it could.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Be a little bigger. But this is like a real
tight window.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And if you can get in there and get the
right conditions, I feel like I've done that a couple
times in it the stars can align.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
But we're going to dive into that because I think
if if the window is only three days, you know,
for the middle part of October, and it's much wider
for the later part of October, we want to try
to help everyone capitalize on that. But before we get
into this, I've been torturing all the guests with the
trivia questions, So yours is going to be a little
bit different here. So Michigan Pennsylvania, right, those are two
states that come to mind. There's a ton of ton
(03:46):
of hunters in both states. So my question for you
is who has more gun hunters, Michigan or Pennsylvania. And
then I'm gonna ask the same thing for archer, and
I'm going to tell you how many of each.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Oh my gosh, that's a great question. Boy, I'm gonna
have to say that it's Michigan.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I'm gonna go with Michigan. With gun hunters, Okay, you're
gonna be shocked. Here in Pennsylvania, there is six hundred
and eighty nine thousand gun hunters in the state of Michigan.
There's five hundred and seventy nine thousand, So I mean,
still hass.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Of an amount, but so many people.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
One hundred and ten thousand hunter delta between the two
you know, let's say one point one and some change
million gun hunters between those two states, which is just
absolutely crazy. So I'll ask you the same question. So
for bow hunters, who has more Michigan or Pennsylvania. Knowing
knowing that stat now, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
My gosh, I think I'm gonna stay with Michigan. I
think I'm gonna go with Michigan on this one.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Okay, you are correct. There's three hundred and twenty two
thousand bow hunters in the state of Michigan and there
are two hundred and sixty five thousand in the state
of Pennsylvania. And just for folks to get an idea,
like I just flip the page here, Kansas thirty three
thousand to put that in respective, yes.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You know, and it's like I even think about Iowa too, like,
you know, the the zone in the county that I
hunt in Iowa, I don't even know what the number is,
but there are like more bull hunters in the state
of Michigan then people live in that county. Like it's
(05:25):
you know, and I would even probably loop in a
couple counties around there. It's wild just how the population,
you know, with Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
There's such rich tradition there.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I love to see it, you know, I really do,
because I still get really thrilled on the deer that
I get to hunt, and uh, you know, so it's
still running strong, which is good. I'm gonna guess what
is Wisconsin third or fourth right in there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Let's just I'll.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Flip over here, let me find it really quickly. Wisconsin
obviously a very rich tradition state when it comes to that.
But Wisconsin as six hundred and nineteen thousand gun hunters
and two hundred fifty three thousand bow hunters.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I mean Michigan, And yes, I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Have the full spreadsheet of all of them, but yeah,
those are three states that come to mind when it
comes to the deer camp and tradition and everything else.
But looping back to knocking down an awesome buck in Michigan,
you were, you know, one of three hundred some thousand
bow hunters had success here. Man, what how did so
just dive into a little bit more so? I mean,
(06:23):
I feel that time of the year it's a little
there's a lot of people that just ultimately kind of
struggle or kind of have like a melancholy approach to
deer hunting where it's like, yeah, you know, I don't know,
you seem to be very methodical with that approach. So
kind of what made you key in on what was
the feature that you set up? I mean this kind
of break down the tactics or I guess the nuts
(06:44):
and bolts of how it came together. Yeah, so real quick,
last year, he was you know, I knew about him
last year and he wasn't you know, he was like
just kind of an up and comer.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You know. I felt he was a really good two
year old.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I felt just had a lot of promise, but I
never seeing him from on the hoof one.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Time last year.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
But I did have a lot of camera pictures and
videos of him, but he really wasn't on the radar,
to be honestly, So coming into this year, he showed
up and you know, and he was still there, and
it was like, man, he's really made a big jump,
and you know, I was just super excited to get
after him. And I figured he was a three year old,
(07:22):
but he was just such a big body deer that
I just love those big body deers so and honestly,
he's probably the biggest deer I.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Have to hunt this year on any farm in Michigan.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
So I'm like, well, I'm gonna put a lot of
time into him, but I will say the biggest common
denominator on and how I got to kill him early
like this is that the farm is corn this year,
so the standing corn really played a big role. I
did put in two acres of food plot. So basically,
when the corn stops, I took twenty four feet from
(07:54):
the farm field to the timber, and I aligned twenty
four feet all the way around the farm of food
and I used the vitalized stuff and I did the
night tribute in the spring and then came to the
carbon load and everything. So that was like the biggest
common denominator because which I didn't know at the time,
but knowing looking back now, you know, I encountered this year.
(08:16):
I hunted him seven times. It's the only farm I've
hunted this year. I hunted him for seven times and
I encountered him five times.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And every time I seen him, he was just like
he would never break that sixty yard you know, barrier,
but like every time I seen him, I feel like
he's never seen a human before. So my entry and
exit really was really key in this, and so I
think the biggest common denominator. We had a huge acorn
(08:45):
crop this year. I don't have a ton of acorns
on this farm, there are some, but he and he
had three, well two for sure, different beds for south
and east winds because that's what we had. And that's
that's kind of what I what I kind of honed.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
In on there.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
But yeah, I mean that was the biggest thing, being
able to and then laying off the farm like there
was you know, I hunted him the first two nights
a season, and I laid off him for like five
days because I'm like, well, I'm really want to like
methodically just kind of like go in when I'm be
really patient.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
None of that's hard for me, but really be patient.
And it really paid off.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, so you hunted seven times, he's seen him five times,
and you know, it sounds like there were semi close encounters.
What was he feeding in that green food source adjacent
to the grain or do you think he was betted
in the corn or betted on a ditch or a hedgerow.
I'm trying to picture kind of what it is in
my head here and I'm kind of piecing it together.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So actually night number one, I went in and I
bumped him out of his bed. He was thirty yards
off my walking trail and I was doing a hanging
hunt that night. Well, that kind of like gave me
another card to you know what he was playing. Well,
we had some east wins to start the year and
or some north northeast winds, and he was betting on
(09:59):
some set aside. There was some set aside coming from
like the timber. There was like a ten foot you know,
ship with set aside, and then the green source and
then the grain and on those east winds the way
the farm lays out.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
He was betting on and just inside.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
The timber on a little knoll, and he was bulletproof
there he was looking into the timber. He had the
wind coming over his back from the grain, and he
had a great escape route. And I bumped him that night,
thought it was over. Actually kept going in. I did
a I was thinking bump and dump kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well I had.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Actually he did come out last night and I saw
him at sixty yards, so that was his east wind bend.
But then we started getting some south winds and he
shifted to the corn a lot like. So he had
a sea of corn and he was betting in the
middle of nowhere, in the sea of corn. And two
times that I hunted him my walking path through the
(10:54):
corn through a windrow. I had to walk by him
as he was betted somewhere around me, and I never
spooked him. He walked over my boot path twice, wow,
to get to the green in those So he was
he was, he was shifting beds. But this deer's core
area was forty acres or less. Like he was so
(11:15):
tight and hold up so tight right there. And ultimately
I think that's what helped too. But the entry and
exit was was really key there. Yeah, no, I think
that's that's super helpful. And so when it came together,
what was the setup for that evening and just kind
of the breakdown, because I mean, it's pretty awesome to
(11:35):
knock down your target bucket October thirteenth, Like that's you're
doing something right. It doesn't typically happen by accident at
that time of year.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
So well, actually to go back a week before I was,
I did a hanging hunt on him on where I
hunted him on opening night. When I was getting into
the tree, I tore my moniscus. So that was a
bad night. And I actually did encounter him that night too,
and then so I did I hunted the next morning,
(12:03):
kind of moved in tighter, never seen him, but then
to kind of go to the kill night. That day,
I went to the doctor to get all this stuff
done and found out it actually was torn at two
o'clock that day and I'm like, well, I had all
the stuff in the truck, I'm going to the farm.
My plan was is to walk through the corn no
wind at all, but it was out.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of you know, it was it was a south wind.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
It was a southwest when it actually my wind was
blowing at him where he was bedded. But in that corn,
you know a lot of that wind can do some
funky stuff, and I think it really helped me out.
But when I was walking in that night, I cut
a big track and I thought it was his track
coming out of the corn. And I'm like, I thought
to myself, I'm like, maybe he's already kind of come
through here, but I'm still gonna try it. So I
(12:46):
got in that night, and you know, that was the
key with the entry and exxit, and I will say,
I'm gonna go back the one. I encountered him five
out of seven sits, so one night, I think it
was encounter.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Three or four.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
He he came out into the green source and I
waited a long time after dark until I watched him
walk off. And that's something that I think a lot
of people don't really take into consideration, is the exit
has to be just as good, if not better, as
the entry, you know, when you get pinned in, and
I had to. I had I waited a while. I'm
(13:19):
talking maybe forty five minutes to an hour before I
could lose him.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And binocular light.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Basically before I snuck out, And actually I didn't walk
through the corn. I walked right through the plot all
the way back. Because of where he went, I couldn't
go in the corn. So it was just you know,
those things go through your head of like, man, he
could come out and get my boot track and then
backtrack me to this blind and but that's what I
had to do. And it really paid off because every
(13:45):
time I seen him, he's like, didn't even know I
existed kind of thing. So, uh, tearing my meniscus. I
was kind of like, uh, confined to a box blind
octagon box bind you shoot a bow out of well
in this in this plot as it kind of turns
around the timber, so I have like a square piece
of timber and then the food kind of like turns
(14:06):
right here. It's like a it's like an inside corner.
I had a blind right here facing like a tear
drop of timber if that yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And I had a scrape tree there.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Well, it was perfect to be able to It's like
a Mark Drewy thing, you know, walk through the corn,
pop up the blind and then get out at night
and going through the corn.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So it was like, really really nice to be able
to do that.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
And that night I got in, I cut his track
and saw deer early. It was the last night of
the Red Moon. I am a Red Moon guy. I'm
a Moon guy, But I don't think it's the end
all be all. I just think it's another common denominator
that might be able to get a deer that you're
looking for up on his feet a little earlier. Peak
times were like seven forty that night, so it was
(14:47):
actually after shooting light and saw deer early. Didn't see
anything for two hours, and I was watching some doze
down one side and I looked over and he was
popped out of the corner at forty yards already, and
it was a little, you know, a little after seven,
and I'm like, holy crap, it's him. And this is
the fifth encounter I had with this year. I'm like,
how I'm like, when is my luck gonna run out?
(15:08):
That's kind of what I'm thinking, Like this never happens
to me, you know, And he was kind of starting
to work away a little bit. I actually went to
full draw on him one time and he was at
forty four yards and I'm like, no, let's just I
was fully like accepting if I don't get a shot
at this year tonight, I'm okay with that because I've
(15:29):
seen him so much and there's so much of season left.
You know, before I probably would have forced something, and
I'm like, let's not do that. And but I was
fighting the sun going down too, is fighting all that.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's darker in the blind. You know that you're playing
that game.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
And so I waited probably five six minutes, and he
turned and he's starting to walk kind of to me.
And he got to a point where I'm like, okay,
I think I can take a shot there. And he
he went. He went broadside eating he was going to
come into a scrape tree.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I had a scrape tree right there. He was just
kind of making his way.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
But I will say three, I think it was three
out of the five encounter or no, two out of
the five encounters.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
He had a running mate with him. Well, he slowly
lost that running mate.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And the morning that I shot him, I finally got
him on camera opening up a scrape. It was the
most rut I guess, you know behavior I've seen him do.
He came into a scrape that hadn't been open and
actually destroyed it, and so he was kind of getting
to feel a different way. And when I got that
that morning, I'm like, we're dealing with a different animal now,
(16:37):
Like he's gonna switch thee yeah, the bed to food.
The pattern might be changing really quick here. And where
I actually got that picture was a ways away from
where I ended up killing him. He was going off
the farm, so I'm like, you know, maybe he's not
gonna be there anyway. So he's working into me and
he gets to a point he's you know, fully broadside
(16:58):
and eating away and I put the pin on him.
It was thirty eight yards and shot him and rest
is history.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I think there's a lot of brilliant key lessons there.
One of them is not not forcing it, and you know,
you end up getting a better shot opportunity. I think
that's something that a lot of people should have in
the back of their mind, you know, throughout the fall.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And the other one is not having a rigid plan
on your entry or.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Exit too, because I feel like a lot of people like,
this is my entry and this is my exit, Like
that is rigid. That is the rules, and I don't
break the rules, and like you know, you had to
play an audible, which seemed to, you know, play into
your favor, you know, A couple of days later on.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
The next few months.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, I will say that one night that I there's
one night that I encountered him. He came out the
same same runway out of the corn that I ended
up killing him on, and he goes in the timber
and I'm like, I can't go through the plot now,
I have to go by where he was. It started
porn Rain, and I'm like, it's dark as heck. I
don't want to use a head lamp because he's he's
in the timber. He's within one hundred yards of me,
(17:56):
and I'm like, porn Rain. I'm like, I do not
want to go back to this corn there, And you know,
Tormentiscus too, some hobbling everywhere, and I'm like, so I
got in the corn, I get out of that corn.
I looked like a wet bear.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Like I am just.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Stopping wet, you know. And I'm like, this is what
you got to do, though, you know. And the next
Nightey does this or not. The next night, but the
next time I hunt him does the same path, and
I'm like Okay, that really it was a light bulb.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Thing that really that really worked.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And on a deer like that, you know, I think
he was a three year old, possibly a four year old,
but with a caliber of deer like that in this area,
those are those are the things you have to do
to be able to kill that. And the other thing
I want to say, going in that night there was
hardly any wind, so walking through the corn was really loud.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It took me. I had to go about three hundred yards.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It took me forty minutes to go three hundred yards
because I'd only walk two or three steps in the
corn to make sure I wasn't hitting any corn to
make and I had to walk right by him.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So that ended up working as well. That's a really
good piece of advice.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So it's October twenty second now, and you already have
a Michigan buck down, and you had mentioned that you're
headed to Iowa, and so you know, I think the
I guess the approach is probably somewhat similar. So October
twenty second to the twenty ninth, I feel is a
really exciting time to run trail cameras, to be in
the woods like it's it's time, Like, if you've been
(19:29):
sitting on the sidelines, it's time to get serious and
get going. So what are you specifically most excited about
or what are you keen in on. Obviously it's an
out of state hunt, so your style might be a
little bit different. But what has he fired up here
for the next seven days other than the dates and
other being in Iowa too.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Well, yeah, you nailed both of them. The dates are
really good and we're in Iowa.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
So what's really got me excited about it is, actually
is this farm.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I've never set foot on it.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I was going to go out and scout at this spring,
but I did, and I have a buddy that lives
there that kind of helped me out or actually not
kind of helped me out a lot with this. I
sent cameras out to him. The cameras have all died.
Like I am literally going into this with a clean state.
That is the exciting part to me, because I don't
I almost wish I didn't set cameras out there because
I don't want to be like that mental state of like,
(20:19):
oh there's nothing to hunt, or I want like so
I have no idea my plan for the next seven
days is the weather.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
The Red Moon is hitting on.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I think the twenty third or twenty four, so that
is both of my Iowa trips that I've planned this
year are around the Red Moon. It's the first time
I've ever done that. And the weather, we're looking at
mid to upper sixties as a high and then we're
looking at mid forties to low fifties as a low.
(20:49):
So I don't mind the weather. It could be a
lot worse. We could be in eighties and sixties in
as a low. I don't mind the weather at all.
My plan is to hunt, you know, like I normally
would end of October and you nailed it the scrapes.
My plan is to get there and do speed tour,
(21:10):
just kind of a delicate speed tour, find as many
scrapes as I can. I might even do some mock scrapes,
and I'm gonna deploy cameras. The cameras need to be moved,
and I want to get an inventory. And honestly, my
next trip is planned for the fourth of November, so
I'm kind of using this trip as like gearing up
for that rot trip to see what deer here.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
All the deer I think have should have moved on.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
The corn just got cut the other day, so three
acres of corn was left as well. So we're gonna
be dealing with like something really exciting. No, And my
favorite thing about it is there's never been no pressure
on this farm. That is like my mo I don't
like to have pressure on it. So I'm gonna push
in a little bit, find as many many scrapes as
I can, start putting cameras out, start doing some observation sets,
(21:56):
and then once I see that deer, I'm gonna move in.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That's my plan.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Like I said, the red moon, the moon phase, everything
is lining up. The weather is going to be good
enough in the dates are going to be awesome. So
I am taking a decoy with me. I don't know
if I'm going to deploy that end of October. I
think the grunner in the rattling antlers could be a
true benefit. This is a farm that is a big
(22:20):
seedar thicket and there's not a lot of timber around it,
so longlining deer. Long lining is a true thing in
this time of year because they're going to be trying
to find that first you know dough that comes into heat.
I think there's a good chance that I might pick
up bucks that I you know, normally wouldn't pick up
in this timeframe, and you got a little window when
(22:41):
they're there, They're going to be there.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So I'm ready to jump on that.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So for someone that does not pay attention to the
red Moon, that's me. What does that mean? Like so like, okay,
it's the peak of the red moon and this is
the peak activity does a change where you sit or
set up? Because I know there's I know just enough
to ask this question, and that's where it ends, like
because I know there's like feeding time, Like what does
it mean?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Uh? And how is it impacting your strategy?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, so I will say, like it's just it doesn't
really impact it a ton as far as uh, I'm
not saying like all the red Moon's here, like I'm
gonna kill a big one tonight. Like it's just one
of those tools like you still like have to play
the wind, you have to do all the things. It's
just another factor to be able to put into the
(23:28):
equation that like that pressure is building. So the red
Moon in a nutshell is just when you know, I'm
not great with it either, but the you know, the
under undertoe and the overhead of you know, the moon
and everything lining up and the pressure is the greatest.
You know, it's the you know, that's what moves the
(23:48):
tides and everything in the oceans and stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So it's got a big pulling factor.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
And you know, as I look at as I look
at the dates right now, like we're looking at the
twenty fourth, like the peak time is you know, the
first day is three for so the peak pressure, the
peak time where the deer it could help get the
deer get up and moving is isn't a good time.
And I'm like I said, I like the red moon.
(24:16):
I think I've killed like sixty two percent of my
bucks on a red moon. So I feel like that's
a pretty good number in the white tail world. So
in I don't think it'll Jake, I really don't think
it'll change what I do. It's just happening as I'm there,
you know what I mean. I'm still gonna I'm not
(24:36):
gonna be like, oh, it's a you know, it's saying
to do be on a field edge, So I better
go on a field edge.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, I'm I'm gonna read the farm and read the deer.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Still It's just one of those things that just like, hey,
he might get up a little earlier. And I will
say the Red Moon on this deer that I killed
the first night of the Red Moon on the ninth,
I encountered him.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
The peak.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
The peak time was, I want to say it was
four fifteen. He showed up at four o'clock in the
afternoon on the night.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So it's like your Eastern time, Yeah, Eastern times down
there for folks too.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
So I had just got in the gotten the blind
and he showed it up. I'm like, oh my gosh,
like we got four hours until dark, and like here
he is.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know. So I do put a little validity in it,
but it's not the end all, be all factor for me.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, let me run a quick scenario pass you that
it's probably gonna be relatable to a lot of folks.
You get a picture of a big deer that you
haven't seen before, and maybe your cameras are dead, or
maybe you put him out late, or maybe it's a
new one that just showed up.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
This is deer that just showed up on a scrape.
It was eleven o'clock a night it was one o'clock
in the morning. You know, what what would be your
next two or three day strategy if and when that
happens on the Let's say it's the twenty second or
the twenty third, when you get that first picture on
a scrape, you're like, I want to kill.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Him, and it's after dark, that's what you're saying. It's
not daylight. Not daylight.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I would, I would for sure, you know, knowing he's
in the area.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I mean a lot of factors going to that.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Do I have any other dar on camera too that
I'm chasing or any of those daylighting you know, Honestly,
I don't know if it would change much of what
I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Depending on the time.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
If he's just after, you know, shooting hour or shooting
light or just before, that might change something, but I
would probably just honestly, I need more information than that personally.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I need I need.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I need some different data points I need If he's
just on one camera, I need some more, Like I
need to know that he's roaming the farm. If he's
just kind of showing up, I'm just gonna kind of
keep playing my playbook and maybe I'll catch him on
his feet or maybe catch him on another camera daylighting
or something like that. It probably wouldn't change too much.
I would just keep running everything that I thought would
(26:46):
be working, and then kind of I don't want to
say hope, but just kind of stay in the game
because if he's there, that's all I need to know.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
If he's there.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Before years ago, if I had a night a night picture,
I'd be so down in the dumps, like, man, he's
not coming to night.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I really don't care anymore.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Even at that time of year or even early season,
like the year that I just killed in Michigan, I
don't have a ton of daylight pictures him. This year,
I actually had more eye sightings of him than I
do have pictures. He just was never on camera. Yeah,
but I encountered him way more. So, you know, I
really feel like the daylight or night, I just need
(27:26):
to know he's there, and then I'm going to kind
of work back from there and just kind of have
my instincts take over and just keep running the plays
that I know I like it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
So, okay, next next seven days, October twenty second of
the twenty ninth ten being this is the best week
of the entire season. For opportunity, one being this is
the worst week of the entire season.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Where are you gonna put it with right now?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Where the where the weather is, how the moon's lining up,
and the state and the area I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I mean, we're putting it. We're putting it. We're like
a nine to two right now, we're going we're going high.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Like I'm putting a lot of I'm putting a lot
of emphasis on this trip because you know, just as
well as I do, when when that calendar flips November,
the shackles are off and you have no idea, you
can get into that lockdown sphase.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You can get down where deer just blown by you
at eighty mile an hour and you're like, what the heck?
Speaker 3 (28:22):
You know, it's like, I'm putting a lot of pressure,
not pressure, but a lot of validity on this.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Trip to to see the biggest year in the area.
And that's that's kind where we're at.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, semi controlled environment, great, great opportunity. Encourage everyone to
go out there and make the most out of it.
And good luck in Iowa. Congratulations once again on your
Michigan buck If someone if are you did you film
that hunter is there any opportunity with people.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Okay, so where will be Where will people be able
to watch that?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
So it'll be like next year probably on our Grit
series for Latitude the Grit there and then probably after
that gets then I'll have it on my YouTube channel,
the Fault podcast tube channel eventually, but that nobody will
probably be able to see it until next year.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
But yeah, it's it's filmed and we're good to go.
But uh, yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come on here
and talk a little bit. I'm no expert by any means,
but i do like to talk.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
So you have the light right line of work.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, awesome, Eron, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Congratulations once again, thank you, Jake.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
All right, next up on the line, we have Christian
Babcock from Texas and Oklahoma, mainly hunting Texas right now,
but we got it. We have representation from what would
you what would you consider Texas and Oklahoma the South,
the Plain States, the South Plains, the South desert. Yeah,
it feels like a desert about ninety percent of the year.
But I'd say we'll just call it at the South.
(29:49):
I'll identify with the Southern hunter some rep Okay, all right,
so from the South, and have we been kicking off
a trivia question or a fun fact for the state
that the folk is joining us from. I'm going to
tell you the amount of total deer that were harvested
in the state of Texas last year, and you're going
to have to guess how many of them were archery,
(30:09):
so you can give it and it's in the number
of thousands. It could be tens of thousands, could be
hundreds of thousands. There was eight hundred and thirty seven
thousand deer tagged in the state of Texas in twenty
twenty four. How many of them were archery bucks or
archery deer? Excuse me, archery deer? How many archery out
of eight hundred and thirty seven thousand, man, we have
(30:30):
like a two week or a two month long rifle season,
so I'm going to say the majority of them were
probably rifle. I'm going to say like one hundred and
fifty thousand or archery.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
That's that's pretty darn good.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Seventy five thousand, So seventy five thousand, seven hundred and
sixty one thousand deer were shot with a firearm.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
In the state of Texas.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
So bow hunting is a pretty small minority in Texas,
or at least that's what it looks like.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
When you can rifle hunt the majority of this season,
it's like put that struggle stick away and let's do
some let's do some gun hunting.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So that's how people are done here. I like it.
So what.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Have you been seeing down there in Texas with some
of your hunts here recently? Yeah, so I've been hunting.
I've been hunting five times since the beginning of October
when our season opened, I think it opened actually the
in there of September. But pretty slow movement overall. I've
been hunting some travel corridors, throwing up a bunch of
mock scrapes, and I've been averaging like three to five
(31:29):
deer sit right there at the end, primarily hunting evenings
right there at the last fifteen minutes of light.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
So not a ton of movement.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I know, we had a really really good acorn crop
and there was a bunch of good brows, so I
haven't been seeing a whole lot of movement from that perspective.
But I went out on Wednesday saw five doughs a
in a bobcat. So any set that you're not getting
an absolute goose egg this time of the year when
it's ninety.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Three degrees is a really good set.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
The rainfall this summer, was it above average? Below average?
Not sure? I would say it was above average until
the last part of the of the of the summer,
like the end part of the summer, and we haven't
had rain here and it feels like over a month,
so it's been pretty dry as of late. But man,
in the spring, in that early part of the summer
where we're getting a ton of rain, so I thought
(32:20):
we're gonna have a great antler season. And I've got
several really good bucks down here, so I think the
antlers grew really well.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's just got pretty dry the end of the summer. Yeah, well, we're.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Getting into the exciting time of October deer season. This
is when everyone starts to get really excited and you
know it's October twenty second. What for the next seven days?
What are you kind of looking at potentially as far
as where you're sitting and what are you keen in on.
Are you looking for scrapes, are you looking for a
specific food source. Are you looking for those two things
(32:52):
in tandem. What's on your what's on your game plan?
Because it's you know, late October, and this is the
time when it's it's getting more exciting by the day,
like we're getting to the part of the season where
it's going to get better and better and better and
better for quite some period of time. So breed some optimism.
The unders that have been struggling throughout them month of October, well,
(33:15):
if they still can afford their water bill because all
the laundry detergent they spent in the first half of October.
With all the heat, I mean, we're still looking at,
you know, some temperatures in the nineties for the highs,
so but I'm seeing some shifting down towards the low
eighties and then we're you know, looking at fifties in
the mornings. So that that's you know, that last week
of October. I'm really looking at those really cold days
(33:37):
where it's a you know, where it's shifting downwards. I'm
monitoring a bunch of spots with mock scrapes, and I'm
seeing more and more bucks hitting those towards the end
of daylight hours. Huge typically in the evenings. But I'm
trying to still get them between bed and food right now,
but giving them a reason to stop alongside where I'm at,
which is usually a mock scrape. So I'm getting pretty
tight to bedding as they're laying more and more signed down,
(34:00):
especially the rubs and scrapes.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I'm keying in on that.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
And then one spot in particular, I just saw a
farmer end up playing in a winter wheat field, so
I was pretty happy about that. But you know, we're
hunting in the south here, so there's a lot of
corn on every property line, and if you can get
in between some of that, find some good sign, maybe
lay down your own mock scrape. I think as we
start to trend to the lows and in the fifties,
we're going to see some really, really good deer activity.
But it's been pretty slim, so I think we got
(34:25):
some pent up demand with all the heat we've had.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
I think these are going to bust loose. I really do.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And I think as soon as we get that front
whenever we you know, here in Illinois looks like there's
the temperatures are getting back the closer to I guess normal.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
It's been it's been unseasonably warm up here too.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
But when you say tight to betting, so we're picturing
October twenty second to October twenty ninth, is your plan
to still be somewhat tight to betting on a scrape
maybe a mock scrape within one hundred yards of where
you're anticipating them betting or is it two hundred yards
or sixty yards?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Is it like a rule of thumb for someone to
have in the back of their mind.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yeah, I'm I would say less than a coup one
hundred yards For me, I can only speak to my
situation where I'm hunting down here. It's very small permission pieces,
so a lot of these properties are long, kind of
skinny flagpole access type pieces, and so there's not a
whole lot of width, but a lot of them have
some depth. So I'm hunting pretty close to betting on
(35:19):
those scrapes. So I want them to move, obviously, and
like you said, it is going to bust loose. So
but I don't want to ask too much. Right three
four or five hundred yards away from my betting area
to a mature buck right now, that's still a long ways.
When we're talking still in the eighties for the high
So I want to ask him to do something, but
just not ask him to do too much. So for
(35:47):
the later part of October, are you bringing ratoin anilers
or you're bringing a call? Are you are you pulling
out a bag of tricks? Are you still just trying
to hunt natural movement for this time period? So primarily
in Texas, I'll hunt natural movement, but I do have
a least in southwestern Oklahoma, a lot of mature bucks,
pretty low pressure around in that area. That's a spot
that I'm definitely going to bring out, bring the decoy out,
and definitely do some rattling. What I've noticed is this
(36:10):
big boss buck decoy that I like to use down
here in Texas. That's about the biggest buck you would
ever see body wise, But uput open Oklahoma, he looks
a little more like a familiar face. So I don't
want to scare off my Texas bucks, but for the
Oklahoma ones, I'll absolutely break out the decoy and start
smashing that black rack together. Yeah what real quick base
(36:31):
give us a rundown on what the strategy would be
for southwestern Oklahoma with the decoy, with rattling like, what
are the conditions, how far are you putting the decoy?
Kind of break that down For someone that has the
decoy in their garage, they like, yeah, I'm I'm gonna
try using that. Oh yeah, So I actually set up
a mock scrape in the middle of this kind of
travel corridor on this river bottom piece that I'm hunting
(36:54):
southwest Oklahoma. So I'll put that buck too, not too
far from that mock scrape, because I'm getting a ton
of inventory and trail camp pictures around that spot, and
I feel like that's a spot where if a buck
that hadn't been in the area before just popped up
at it, it would look pretty normal, right, like, oh, this
buck's kind of gum and lay down some sign here,
So I would I'm gonna put mine kind of face
(37:14):
in the bedding area. And then obviously I like to
put him twenty twenty five yards in a kind of
in a posture looking away in a sense, And so
I want that buck to have to kind of swing
around and get even closer to me to end up
checking out that decoy. Obviously, you got ground sent You've
been touching the decoy, so you kind of got a
crapp er get off the pot in a sense of
when that buck decides to come in, he's either going
(37:36):
to spook or get shot. But hopefully it's a mature
buck when he comes in to do that. But I'm
setting my decoy up right there near that mock scrape,
so it looks pretty natural in terms of a new
buck cruising into a you know, established area. Do you
feel that, you know, looking at knowing the time of
year and kind of looking into the weather for the
you know, call it twenty second to the twenty ninth.
(37:58):
Do you have pretty high X expectations or are you
trying to keep them in check or where? Where's your
level of excitement based off of all the factors that
we know as of right now.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm pretty excited overall.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I feel like we've been at such a low even
average feels high at the moment. So we've been sitting
at like a one or a two confidence level, and
now as we're seeing you know, some fifteen degree wings
in temperature, I'd say that get me up to a
five or six. Like it's not going to be unseasonably
cold though that last week of October. It's just it's
still going to be right in line with probably expectations.
(38:32):
But when it's been as unseasonably warm as it's been,
average feels like exceptional right now, right So I'm I'm
feeling pretty confident about that, but I'm not expecting it
to break loose, just in an extraordinary way.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
That's fair.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, when is your if you had to say, over
the years, what is your favorite time of year of where?
What pretend you only had, you know, the five days
to hunt? Like, what time period are you most excited
and amped up about it? Is it late October? As
are deeper into November or even deeper than that because
you're in the South, man, I really like that Halloween
(39:07):
to about the fourth of November. I feel like the
rut hasn't really busted loose, but you still got those
bucks on that cruising pattern, right, so they're a little
more susceptible to calling their home. Rangers are expanding a
bunch more so I feel like they kind of start
to expose themselves more as they start to lay down
sign and move around. But they're not in that rut
craze zombifide area where when they're running by you can't
(39:30):
get them to stop and when you're bow hunting, you
need them to stop and you need them to be close.
So that little five day period right there, Halloween to
about the fourth or the fifth, that is my favorite
time to hunt all year, especially here in the South.
What are you keen in on through the twenty second
twenty ninth to have the most success in the octogon
Halloween to that fourth, Because I feel like for someone
that listens to that now, like I'm just gonna wait
(39:51):
until Halloween, until the fourth. That's when Christian says it's
the best. But I think a lot of times it
has something to do with throwing some hunts, throwing some CITs,
doing maybe a little bit of scouting, and kind of
building up a case to make a good plan from
Halloween to the fourth. So, if you were someone that
just wanted to key in on and develop a really
strong plan for for that weekend, what are you specifically
(40:13):
laser focused on over the next seven days from a
scouting perspective or in inventory perspective. Yeah, I'm looking. I'm
looking for scrapes and I'm looking for just natural travel corridors.
As the as the uh you know, the temperatures get
lower and lower. I just think since we've I feel
like we're gonna have this pent up demand similar like
you see in the markets, right, I mean, these bucks
want to move, they want to lay down sign. But
(40:33):
it's like, dude, I'm sitting here wearing a winter coat
right now. I don't want to be cruising all around
hundreds and hundreds of yards. So I'm just looking for
those places, like I said, in between food, bed and
bed and food and places where they're laying down signed.
Like so if you can find natural scrapes sentting over,
maybe a scrape line or a rub line, something like that.
And the thing is, man, you can't kill them from
the couch. So although maybe it won't be the best
(40:55):
time because it's not going to be unseasonably cold, some
deer definitely going to get killed and you can't kill
them sitting at home. Like I know, we've been saying
hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. But when
we start getting in the October twenties, it's time to
hurry up and get in the woods, you know, even
if it is warm, because they're definitely thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Well, so you had put it one to ten. You're
at like a five or six for the next seven days,
then I would.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Say about a five or six.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, which when you're going from a one or two, man,
it feels great.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
That's a good way to look at it.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Well, Christian, good luck, good luck in Texas, good luck
in Oklahoma. And if people want to tune in on
how your guys this season progresses, where.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Can they do that?
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yeah, just check us out on YouTube Hunter's Advantage and
we also have the podcast on Apple and Spotify, so
you can just stay up to date with us there.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Awesome, good luck, Christian, I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Next up on the line, we have Benny from Minnesota
with Moultrie.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
How's it going, Yes, sir, I'm happy to be here.
Thanks for having me on. Things are going great, man.
I mean, the deer aren't moving as much as I'd
like them to be, but we're We're hearing of guys
and deer all over the country, so that's that's fun
to hear. And I'm hoping that that happens to me
before too long.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Well, I think when this goes live, we're at the
stage of the season where it's only going to get
more exciting in the time that We've been waiting for,
you know, really since last year, but I got to
kick it off with a trivia question here about the
state of Minnesota. I'm putting you right on the spot,
just like everyone else. Yep, And so I'll give you
I'll give you this question. Okay, what year was there
(42:32):
the highest total harvest of whitetail deer in the state
of Minnesota. So the amount the most amount of deer tagged,
whether it was archery or their firearm season.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
I'm gonna I'm gonna roll with something in the early
two thousands. I'm gonna say two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
You're close.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
So actually, last week we had they guess two thousand
and three and it was two thousand and seven. You
guts two thousand and seven. This is actually two thousand
and three. There was two hundred and ninety thousand shot
of two thousand and three, and for reference, there was
only one hundred and seventy thousand shot in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Wow. Unbelievable, Yeah, so unbelievable. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
So, anyhow, it's late October, and what are you most
excited about or what are you keen in on for
the next week?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Here?
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Oh man, So so this week finally had bucks that
were starting to move on to our properties. So I'm
to kind of give you a rundown. I'm hunting a
lot of egg land. It's preferably for rifle hunters, the
gun hunters of the world, but it's it's what I
have access to, and I enjoy bow hunting it a lot.
It's a challenge, but I absolutely love it. Finally this
(43:43):
week the deer kind of started moving. They're hitting scrapes
a little bit more. I sent you a couple of
videos this morning of deer that have been coming around,
and it's it's looking up. But actually in two days
I'm headed to Illinois for a hunt, and nice from
what those guys are saying, the deer are moving and
there's a good cold front hu the way, so really
(44:03):
hoping that we can connect with one. Hanging out with
the stay grounded boys down there, and so yeah, the
next week, it's just hoping that nothing daylights on camera at.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Home when I'm gone.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
But I'm really looking forward to getting back and just
hopefully having some deers start to move in a little
bit more, be a little bit more consistent, and then
hopefully connect with one before rifle season.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
So you leave for Illinois in two days. How long
are you planning the state down there?
Speaker 2 (44:31):
So I'll be in Illinois?
Speaker 4 (44:33):
I mean realistically, I told them I can be there
for about six days, about a week, and then I
got to get home to the wife. And so it's
either a shoot one right away and come home or
I'm there all six days and get skunk and then
come home.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
So okay, So what is your mental game plan going
into that? You know you're traveling, so you got to
figure out things kind of on the fly. I'm sure
they've done some scouting. I'm sure they have cameras up.
But as you're you know, you have some time to
think about it. What are you What are you gonna do?
You got six days to trying to.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Make it happen. Yeah, oh absolutely. So obviously at home
it's been slow.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
So I'm like, you know what, man, I got to
kind of just get my mind on Illinois. Just look
forward to being out there hanging out with some of
our partners multi partners that is. And I mean like
they shared their cameras with me through the app, and
I'm looking on there, I mean every single day and
I'm like dude, this just brings my self confidence down
(45:28):
so much about hunt that.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
So many big deer in Illinois.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
There's just and I mean, they set up the properties
perfect for what they're doing, and so they've got a
lot of a lot of blinds. I don't know how
many like actual stand setups they have, but I know
they've got a lot of great blinds that will probably
be hunting out of hunting egg fields for the most part.
But yeah, they've They've had a couple of really nice
(45:54):
dear come off of those properties already this year, and
so I'm really looking forward to getting out there.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Are most are you anticipating most of those blinds? Are
they set up on falt food plots, like green food sources,
staining beans, sanding corn, Like, what's kind of that setup
look like to focus on food?
Speaker 4 (46:09):
Yeah, as far as I know, basically, I was on
the phone with Tanner yesterday and he was telling me
like they had just cut like a strip of corn,
so they're leaving some standing corn and whatnot, and then
they've got a couple mock scrapes set up right out
in the middle of these cut fields, and I mean,
like it is prime set up for deer hunting like
(46:29):
it's the best of the best.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Sweet.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
So if you were staying in Minnesota from October twenty
second to October twenty ninth, you know, historically, what are
some things that you're really paying close attention to looking
at the extended forecast, I mean, you know, temperatures are
seeming to get back closer to normal. But what would
you be if someone was struggling right now and they're
(46:52):
in Minnesota, you know, agland, hedgerows, fence rows, What has
you most excited for the next seven days?
Speaker 4 (46:59):
Yeah, so right now, I mean honestly, right now, it's
waiting for harvest to be over, and we're probably if
I had to guess, sixty percent through corn harvest now,
and it seems like the bucks have just all kind
of moved over and they're they're hanging out in the corn,
getting as much as they can before it's off. And
then so if you're hunting egg land, I mean I'm
(47:22):
sitting in sometimes rows of like four trees and like
you got to just get lucky. I mean, I'm sitting
in white oaks, and they're typically coming over, these deer
coming over to feed on the acorns because there's not
that many food sources or standing food sources left that is.
And then you talk to I mean buddies. I have
(47:44):
buddies that are hunting hardwoods in southern Minnesota and then
eastern Minnesota and uh northern Minnesota, like different areas all
over the country, and it seems like those guys that
are hunting hardwoods, the deer are hitting scrapes like crazy,
whereas like over in the more open egg land where
I'm hunting right now, a little bit slower. But then
(48:06):
once things start heat up, right around Halloween is typically
when it's like guns are crazy, and for us it's
just so good. It seems like the deer are starting
to cruise a lot more, maybe got that pre rud
activity going on. And then I mean like first week
in November and then into rifle season, it's that's typically
when the deer are on the move. And so honestly,
(48:29):
I would say just be in the stand, like if
you can get work off, if you can time a
cold front right, if you can be on a food
source that's still standing, find where the food is, if
you've got a water hole, I mean, that's probably even better,
especially during the rut. But yeah, go to those key
sources and then just get in a high traffic area
(48:51):
for the rut.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
How far I mean, over the years that you've hunted,
I'm just pictured. I've never hunted there, but I'm just
pictured in my head. You know a lot different parts
of the Midwest. How far do you think the line
of movement is for some of these bucks for the
later part of October where there's maybe not a ton
of betting opportunity and they're laying downsign on these edges,
I mean, do they do how far can you see it?
Speaker 2 (49:13):
How far do they move? And so?
Speaker 4 (49:15):
So Okay, so to give you kind of a visual,
So I'm hunting, probably the typical spot that I'm hunting
is about eight hundred acres and there's probably I don't
know ten acres of wooded area on that piece, but
it's basically around a whole swamp. And so the deer,
(49:37):
I mean, they cruise it hard during the rut, and
that's typically the only time we see the deer cruising
on her property. So if you're a rifle hunting, you'll
see them from a far away. But when you're bow hunting,
you're just sitting there anticipating that hopefully they're going to
come to that food source that you're sitting on within
those four trees, or you're hoping that they're going to
come and sit in within those trees in the betting
(49:58):
areas that I'm sitting and by so I'm trying to
sit pretty close to the betting areas.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah, I have spooked coupled year before.
Speaker 4 (50:08):
But I mean at that point you're just trying to
risk it for the biscuit and get in there, and
all day sits can be super beneficial for those reasons.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, when I think back over the years, you know,
for these next ten days October twenty second to the
end of October, so call it nine days has been
a really productive time for trail camera inventory. Buck showing
up And what was one tip or trend you have
noticed with a buck that shows up this time of
(50:39):
year on a camera on a scrape that you maybe
haven't seen before earlier in the year. What advice do
you have or what things would you tell someone to
key it on.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, yeah, so this is this is actually wild.
Speaker 4 (50:51):
So the deer that I sent you this morning, he
has only been on camera three times throughout this year.
He showed up like once in July, once late September,
and then just this morning. And so he's a deer
that showed up last year mid October, same exact timeframe.
So really it's if you have trail cameras, and if
(51:12):
you don't, I recommend you get them. Just get them
out there. Put them on scrapes, put them on high
pass routes. Go look for trails that you you can
clearly tell that deer are traveling. And I mean, you
really never know when these deer are going to show up,
especially during the rut. So get those trail cameras out.
Don't don't I would say, don't, don't mount them too
(51:37):
high or anything like. Put them put them on a
spot where like you know you're gonna get that camera
to trigger.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
I've seen a lot of guys where they're like, man,
I put a.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Camera out and it hasn't triggered at all, and then
you end up seeing like it's at about human head height,
where it's like it should be at about waste height.
And that can ruin a guy's season because he's like, well,
I'm basing it up off my trail cameras.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
There was nothing there.
Speaker 4 (52:02):
I didn't go out so it's like, get as many
trail cameras and as he can out there, pay attention
to those obviously, but then also get in the stand,
because I mean, you could have a trail camera right
there and the deer could walk behind that tree and
you're never gonna know that that deer existed. So I
would say, yeah, get the trail cameras out, but also
(52:22):
get in the stand.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
And one thing I would say too is don't be
discouraged if you get in the next when you listen
to this today, maybe you got a picture of a
deer last night that was one o'clock in the morning,
eleven o'clock at night, three o'clock in the morning, and think, oh,
he's two miles away. He might be, but a lot
of times in the next ten days, twelve days, oh yeah,
pretty good chance can be run around there in daylight somewhere.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
And so that's the excited thing of that.
Speaker 4 (52:46):
Yeah, And that's where I sit here too. I'm like,
I'm going to be in Illinois for allegedly six days.
So if I get one of these bucks daylight and
the shown up in the mornings, I know he's going
to bed not far away. I mean that just eats
at because you know that that deer is somewhat close
and he might daylight at night. Not a guarantee, but
I'm hoping that that doesn't happen. But at the same time,
(53:07):
it'll be reassuring and it'll definitely make me want to
get home. But yeah, I mean the property is out here,
the egg land. There's a bunch of egg land that
I'm hunting. And then of course these bucks are pretty
honed in on basically a twenty to thirty acre piece
on our neighbor's property, and they just they feel safe there.
(53:28):
There's pines all over it, there's everything they need, and
it's just once the rut gets here, then they start
traveling trying to look for does a little bit more
and that's where I can hopefully find my luck.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
I like it so looking at the weather and also
time of year, because I think that's a factor. Now,
on a scale one to ten, where do you put
this next seven day stretch, and let's say ten is
the best week of the entire year, one being the
worst week of the entire year, where do you put it?
Speaker 4 (53:59):
I would say next seven days would be I would
rate it as like a as like a four. It's
more like I would take it as like an observation
sit leading up to uh, basically Halloween week and in
the rut, see what the deer movement's like, see how
they're acting, seeing if if the doors are acting any different,
(54:20):
if there's any bucks that are kind of starting to
detail dose a little bit.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
It's possible.
Speaker 4 (54:26):
I've seen guys sharing trail camera photos and videos right
now that have bucks and stuff kind of dog and dos,
which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
But I'd say probably about a four.
Speaker 4 (54:38):
And then I mean leading up to Halloween Halloween week,
I would say you're getting closer to that nine to
ten range.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Well, Benny, good luck in Illinois and good luck in Minnesota.
It was a pleasure, and I encourage everyone to pay
really close attention to their cameras. If the batteries are dead,
go get some batteries and put a solar panel them.
Do what do you need to do? Because wait all year?
Where there intel? And you mentioned the deer showing up,
you know a year later. Really important to get key
intel this time of year because it might help you
(55:07):
next year too.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
If it doesn't help you this year, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Here you guys have it. I hope you guys enjoyed
this episode. And this is my last piece of advice
and tip from hunting white tails and scouting and being
out and about this time of year. Have a floater
trail camera or two. What I mean by that is,
if you find hot sign, you find a scrape that
you have not seen before. Maybe it's in a bottom,
maybe it's on an edge of betting, maybe it's on
(55:31):
a field edge.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
I'm telling you that it's going.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
To be a key place for intel throughout the month
of November through the remaining part of October. That might
be one of the most important pieces of scouting that
you can do passively by hanging a camera. So make
sure you have a floater camera with you when you
go out and hunt, you scout, switch batteries, whatever you do,
have one or two floater cameras and put it on
hot sign and it's going to help you.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
That is it.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
We will see you next week on Rough Fresh.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Good luck,
What's going on. Welcome back to refresh. This is Jake
Hoefer and we have a great episode here for you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We have Aaron Blasey from Michigan.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Who connected on a big buck during the October ul
You get to hear the whole story and progression and
game plan on how we pull that together. We have
Christian Babcock from Texas who's also hunting in Oklahoma. We
have Benny Schuman from Minnesota who's actually.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Packing his bags and headed to Illinois.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So we are at the time of year now where
things are going to get more exciting. The opportunity is
likely going to increase. This is a very special window.
You've been sitting on the sidelines to feel like you're
behind the eight ball. Things are likely going to start
bouncing in your favor. There's a lot of change that
is going to happen over these seven days. There's going
to be a lot of sign that is laid down.
If we get a cold front. We're recording this a
(00:46):
little bit early, but if the weather cooperates and you
have an opportunity to potentially shoot a buck before things
go completely haywire in the month of November, there's a
really good chance you're going to have a big deer
show up this week on a scrape entre camera. So
grit down. This is going to be an exciting week
from here on out, it's gonna get a little bit better.
(01:06):
So I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode of
Rough Fresh. As you know, Roughresh is brought to you
by land dot com, the leading online real estate marketplace
to find your perfect rural, recreational, agricultural, or hunting properties
here in the US. We are going to kick things
off here with Aaron Blyse is a little bit longer
interview because there's a lot of good information that I
think will help you guys as you developed a plan
(01:27):
for the next seven days.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So here we go.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Here's Aaron Blyseie all right, First up on the line,
we have Aaron Blisee. Aaron always finds a lot of
success in the month of October, in the October little
when everyone else struggles. Everyone else is saying that deer
aren't moving, it's too hard. I'm just gonna sit on
the couch and watch football. You over the last few years,
(01:49):
it's like October is your time to shine.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I don't know what the deal is, I guess. I well,
first of all, thanks for having me on, Jake. I
appreciate it and getting to catch up with you and everything.
But I will say, you know, since twenty twenty one
October thirteenth, that's kind of been my day, I guess.
But you know, I really feel like that like quote
unquote October lull the last I would say, probably the
(02:15):
last five. You know, about five years ago I started
looking into like my cameras really started having deer like
good bucks that I'm looking for daylight on scrapes. It
seems like it seems like in that timeframe even this
year with the deer I did kill just a couple
of days ago that he like he has a running
(02:35):
mate with him, and then all of a sudden in
this timeframe, a flip switches. He's opening scrapes and he
doesn't have a running mate with him, so it's like
he's almost starting to put you know, they're starting to
feel a type of way I feel like, and you're
starting to get these deer almost like in a sense
of like how the later October is like they're starting
to move a little bit more and in.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Daylight a little bit more that's what I see.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
And I've been able to capitalize a couple of years,
three different times, you know, in the last couple of
years on the same.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Type of deal.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But the window is really small, like I'm saying two
three days. It seems like, you know, later October could
be eight days, you know, it could.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Be a little bigger. But this is like a real
tight window.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
And if you can get in there and get the
right conditions, I feel like I've done that a couple
times in it the stars can align.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Man.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
But we're going to dive into that because I think
if if the window is only three days, you know,
for the middle part of October, and it's much wider
for the later part of October, we want to try
to help everyone capitalize on that. But before we get
into this, I've been torturing all the guests with the
trivia questions, So yours is going to be a little
bit different here. So Michigan Pennsylvania, right, those are two
states that come to mind. There's a ton of ton
(03:46):
of hunters in both states. So my question for you
is who has more gun hunters, Michigan or Pennsylvania. And
then I'm gonna ask the same thing for archer, and
I'm going to tell you how many of each.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Oh my gosh, that's a great question. Boy, I'm gonna
have to say that it's Michigan.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
I'm gonna go with Michigan. With gun hunters, Okay, you're
gonna be shocked. Here in Pennsylvania, there is six hundred
and eighty nine thousand gun hunters in the state of Michigan.
There's five hundred and seventy nine thousand, So I mean,
still hass.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Of an amount, but so many people.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
One hundred and ten thousand hunter delta between the two
you know, let's say one point one and some change
million gun hunters between those two states, which is just
absolutely crazy. So I'll ask you the same question. So
for bow hunters, who has more Michigan or Pennsylvania. Knowing
knowing that stat now, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
My gosh, I think I'm gonna stay with Michigan. I
think I'm gonna go with Michigan on this one.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Okay, you are correct. There's three hundred and twenty two
thousand bow hunters in the state of Michigan and there
are two hundred and sixty five thousand in the state
of Pennsylvania. And just for folks to get an idea,
like I just flip the page here, Kansas thirty three
thousand to put that in respective, yes.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
You know, and it's like I even think about Iowa too, like,
you know, the the zone in the county that I
hunt in Iowa, I don't even know what the number is,
but there are like more bull hunters in the state
of Michigan then people live in that county. Like it's
(05:25):
you know, and I would even probably loop in a
couple counties around there. It's wild just how the population,
you know, with Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
There's such rich tradition there.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I love to see it, you know, I really do,
because I still get really thrilled on the deer that
I get to hunt, and uh, you know, so it's
still running strong, which is good. I'm gonna guess what
is Wisconsin third or fourth right in there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Let's just I'll.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Flip over here, let me find it really quickly. Wisconsin
obviously a very rich tradition state when it comes to that.
But Wisconsin as six hundred and nineteen thousand gun hunters
and two hundred fifty three thousand bow hunters.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I mean Michigan, And yes, I don't.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Have the full spreadsheet of all of them, but yeah,
those are three states that come to mind when it
comes to the deer camp and tradition and everything else.
But looping back to knocking down an awesome buck in Michigan,
you were, you know, one of three hundred some thousand
bow hunters had success here. Man, what how did so
just dive into a little bit more so? I mean,
(06:23):
I feel that time of the year it's a little
there's a lot of people that just ultimately kind of
struggle or kind of have like a melancholy approach to
deer hunting where it's like, yeah, you know, I don't know,
you seem to be very methodical with that approach. So
kind of what made you key in on what was
the feature that you set up? I mean this kind
of break down the tactics or I guess the nuts
(06:44):
and bolts of how it came together. Yeah, so real quick,
last year, he was you know, I knew about him
last year and he wasn't you know, he was like
just kind of an up and comer.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
You know. I felt he was a really good two
year old.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I felt just had a lot of promise, but I
never seeing him from on the hoof one.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Time last year.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
But I did have a lot of camera pictures and
videos of him, but he really wasn't on the radar,
to be honestly, So coming into this year, he showed
up and you know, and he was still there, and
it was like, man, he's really made a big jump,
and you know, I was just super excited to get
after him. And I figured he was a three year old,
(07:22):
but he was just such a big body deer that
I just love those big body deers so and honestly,
he's probably the biggest deer I.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Have to hunt this year on any farm in Michigan.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
So I'm like, well, I'm gonna put a lot of
time into him, but I will say the biggest common
denominator on and how I got to kill him early
like this is that the farm is corn this year,
so the standing corn really played a big role. I
did put in two acres of food plot. So basically,
when the corn stops, I took twenty four feet from
(07:54):
the farm field to the timber, and I aligned twenty
four feet all the way around the farm of food
and I used the vitalized stuff and I did the
night tribute in the spring and then came to the
carbon load and everything. So that was like the biggest
common denominator because which I didn't know at the time,
but knowing looking back now, you know, I encountered this year.
(08:16):
I hunted him seven times. It's the only farm I've
hunted this year. I hunted him for seven times and
I encountered him five times.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And every time I seen him, he was just like
he would never break that sixty yard you know, barrier,
but like every time I seen him, I feel like
he's never seen a human before. So my entry and
exit really was really key in this, and so I
think the biggest common denominator. We had a huge acorn
(08:45):
crop this year. I don't have a ton of acorns
on this farm, there are some, but he and he
had three, well two for sure, different beds for south
and east winds because that's what we had. And that's
that's kind of what I what I kind of honed.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
In on there.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
But yeah, I mean that was the biggest thing, being
able to and then laying off the farm like there
was you know, I hunted him the first two nights
a season, and I laid off him for like five
days because I'm like, well, I'm really want to like
methodically just kind of like go in when I'm be
really patient.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
None of that's hard for me, but really be patient.
And it really paid off.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, so you hunted seven times, he's seen him five times,
and you know, it sounds like there were semi close encounters.
What was he feeding in that green food source adjacent
to the grain or do you think he was betted
in the corn or betted on a ditch or a hedgerow.
I'm trying to picture kind of what it is in
my head here and I'm kind of piecing it together.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So actually night number one, I went in and I
bumped him out of his bed. He was thirty yards
off my walking trail and I was doing a hanging
hunt that night. Well, that kind of like gave me
another card to you know what he was playing. Well,
we had some east wins to start the year and
or some north northeast winds, and he was betting on
(09:59):
some set aside. There was some set aside coming from
like the timber. There was like a ten foot you know,
ship with set aside, and then the green source and
then the grain and on those east winds the way
the farm lays out.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
He was betting on and just inside.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
The timber on a little knoll, and he was bulletproof
there he was looking into the timber. He had the
wind coming over his back from the grain, and he
had a great escape route. And I bumped him that night,
thought it was over. Actually kept going in. I did
a I was thinking bump and dump kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well I had.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Actually he did come out last night and I saw
him at sixty yards, so that was his east wind bend.
But then we started getting some south winds and he
shifted to the corn a lot like. So he had
a sea of corn and he was betting in the
middle of nowhere, in the sea of corn. And two
times that I hunted him my walking path through the
(10:54):
corn through a windrow. I had to walk by him
as he was betted somewhere around me, and I never
spooked him. He walked over my boot path twice, wow,
to get to the green in those So he was
he was, he was shifting beds. But this deer's core
area was forty acres or less. Like he was so
(11:15):
tight and hold up so tight right there. And ultimately
I think that's what helped too. But the entry and
exit was was really key there. Yeah, no, I think
that's that's super helpful. And so when it came together,
what was the setup for that evening and just kind
of the breakdown, because I mean, it's pretty awesome to
(11:35):
knock down your target bucket October thirteenth, Like that's you're
doing something right. It doesn't typically happen by accident at
that time of year.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
So well, actually to go back a week before I was,
I did a hanging hunt on him on where I
hunted him on opening night. When I was getting into
the tree, I tore my moniscus. So that was a
bad night. And I actually did encounter him that night too,
and then so I did I hunted the next morning,
(12:03):
kind of moved in tighter, never seen him, but then
to kind of go to the kill night. That day,
I went to the doctor to get all this stuff
done and found out it actually was torn at two
o'clock that day and I'm like, well, I had all
the stuff in the truck, I'm going to the farm.
My plan was is to walk through the corn no
wind at all, but it was out.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of you know, it was it was a south wind.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
It was a southwest when it actually my wind was
blowing at him where he was bedded. But in that corn,
you know a lot of that wind can do some
funky stuff, and I think it really helped me out.
But when I was walking in that night, I cut
a big track and I thought it was his track
coming out of the corn. And I'm like, I thought
to myself, I'm like, maybe he's already kind of come
through here, but I'm still gonna try it. So I
(12:46):
got in that night, and you know, that was the
key with the entry and exxit, and I will say,
I'm gonna go back the one. I encountered him five
out of seven sits, so one night, I think it
was encounter.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Three or four.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
He he came out into the green source and I
waited a long time after dark until I watched him
walk off. And that's something that I think a lot
of people don't really take into consideration, is the exit
has to be just as good, if not better, as
the entry, you know, when you get pinned in, and
I had to. I had I waited a while. I'm
(13:19):
talking maybe forty five minutes to an hour before I
could lose him.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
And binocular light.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Basically before I snuck out, And actually I didn't walk
through the corn. I walked right through the plot all
the way back. Because of where he went, I couldn't
go in the corn. So it was just you know,
those things go through your head of like, man, he
could come out and get my boot track and then
backtrack me to this blind and but that's what I
had to do. And it really paid off because every
(13:45):
time I seen him, he's like, didn't even know I
existed kind of thing. So, uh, tearing my meniscus. I
was kind of like, uh, confined to a box blind
octagon box bind you shoot a bow out of well
in this in this plot as it kind of turns
around the timber, so I have like a square piece
of timber and then the food kind of like turns
(14:06):
right here. It's like a it's like an inside corner.
I had a blind right here facing like a tear
drop of timber if that yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And I had a scrape tree there.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Well, it was perfect to be able to It's like
a Mark Drewy thing, you know, walk through the corn,
pop up the blind and then get out at night
and going through the corn.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So it was like, really really nice to be able
to do that.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
And that night I got in, I cut his track
and saw deer early. It was the last night of
the Red Moon. I am a Red Moon guy. I'm
a Moon guy, But I don't think it's the end
all be all. I just think it's another common denominator
that might be able to get a deer that you're
looking for up on his feet a little earlier. Peak
times were like seven forty that night, so it was
(14:47):
actually after shooting light and saw deer early. Didn't see
anything for two hours, and I was watching some doze
down one side and I looked over and he was
popped out of the corner at forty yards already, and
it was a little, you know, a little after seven,
and I'm like, holy crap, it's him. And this is
the fifth encounter I had with this year. I'm like,
how I'm like, when is my luck gonna run out?
(15:08):
That's kind of what I'm thinking, Like this never happens
to me, you know, And he was kind of starting
to work away a little bit. I actually went to
full draw on him one time and he was at
forty four yards and I'm like, no, let's just I
was fully like accepting if I don't get a shot
at this year tonight, I'm okay with that because I've
(15:29):
seen him so much and there's so much of season left.
You know, before I probably would have forced something, and
I'm like, let's not do that. And but I was
fighting the sun going down too, is fighting all that.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
It's darker in the blind. You know that you're playing
that game.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
And so I waited probably five six minutes, and he
turned and he's starting to walk kind of to me.
And he got to a point where I'm like, okay,
I think I can take a shot there. And he
he went. He went broadside eating he was going to
come into a scrape tree.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I had a scrape tree right there. He was just
kind of making his way.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
But I will say three, I think it was three
out of the five encounter or no, two out of
the five encounters.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
He had a running mate with him. Well, he slowly
lost that running mate.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And the morning that I shot him, I finally got
him on camera opening up a scrape. It was the
most rut I guess, you know behavior I've seen him do.
He came into a scrape that hadn't been open and
actually destroyed it, and so he was kind of getting
to feel a different way. And when I got that
that morning, I'm like, we're dealing with a different animal now,
(16:37):
Like he's gonna switch thee yeah, the bed to food.
The pattern might be changing really quick here. And where
I actually got that picture was a ways away from
where I ended up killing him. He was going off
the farm, so I'm like, you know, maybe he's not
gonna be there anyway. So he's working into me and
he gets to a point he's you know, fully broadside
(16:58):
and eating away and I put the pin on him.
It was thirty eight yards and shot him and rest
is history.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
I think there's a lot of brilliant key lessons there.
One of them is not not forcing it, and you know,
you end up getting a better shot opportunity. I think
that's something that a lot of people should have in
the back of their mind, you know, throughout the fall.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And the other one is not having a rigid plan
on your entry or.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Exit too, because I feel like a lot of people like,
this is my entry and this is my exit, Like
that is rigid. That is the rules, and I don't
break the rules, and like you know, you had to
play an audible, which seemed to, you know, play into
your favor, you know, A couple of days later on.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
The next few months.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, I will say that one night that I there's
one night that I encountered him. He came out the
same same runway out of the corn that I ended
up killing him on, and he goes in the timber
and I'm like, I can't go through the plot now,
I have to go by where he was. It started
porn Rain, and I'm like, it's dark as heck. I
don't want to use a head lamp because he's he's
in the timber. He's within one hundred yards of me,
(17:56):
and I'm like, porn Rain. I'm like, I do not
want to go back to this corn there, And you know,
Tormentiscus too, some hobbling everywhere, and I'm like, so I
got in the corn, I get out of that corn.
I looked like a wet bear.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Like I am just.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Stopping wet, you know. And I'm like, this is what
you got to do, though, you know. And the next
Nightey does this or not. The next night, but the
next time I hunt him does the same path, and
I'm like Okay, that really it was a light bulb.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Thing that really that really worked.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And on a deer like that, you know, I think
he was a three year old, possibly a four year old,
but with a caliber of deer like that in this area,
those are those are the things you have to do
to be able to kill that. And the other thing
I want to say, going in that night there was
hardly any wind, so walking through the corn was really loud.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
It took me. I had to go about three hundred yards.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It took me forty minutes to go three hundred yards
because I'd only walk two or three steps in the
corn to make sure I wasn't hitting any corn to
make and I had to walk right by him.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
So that ended up working as well. That's a really
good piece of advice.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
So it's October twenty second now, and you already have
a Michigan buck down, and you had mentioned that you're
headed to Iowa, and so you know, I think the
I guess the approach is probably somewhat similar. So October
twenty second to the twenty ninth, I feel is a
really exciting time to run trail cameras, to be in
the woods like it's it's time, Like, if you've been
(19:29):
sitting on the sidelines, it's time to get serious and
get going. So what are you specifically most excited about
or what are you keen in on. Obviously it's an
out of state hunt, so your style might be a
little bit different. But what has he fired up here
for the next seven days other than the dates and
other being in Iowa too.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Well, yeah, you nailed both of them. The dates are
really good and we're in Iowa.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
So what's really got me excited about it is, actually
is this farm.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I've never set foot on it.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I was going to go out and scout at this spring,
but I did, and I have a buddy that lives
there that kind of helped me out or actually not
kind of helped me out a lot with this. I
sent cameras out to him. The cameras have all died.
Like I am literally going into this with a clean state.
That is the exciting part to me, because I don't
I almost wish I didn't set cameras out there because
I don't want to be like that mental state of like,
(20:19):
oh there's nothing to hunt, or I want like so
I have no idea my plan for the next seven
days is the weather.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
The Red Moon is hitting on.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
I think the twenty third or twenty four, so that
is both of my Iowa trips that I've planned this
year are around the Red Moon. It's the first time
I've ever done that. And the weather, we're looking at
mid to upper sixties as a high and then we're
looking at mid forties to low fifties as a low.
(20:49):
So I don't mind the weather. It could be a
lot worse. We could be in eighties and sixties in
as a low. I don't mind the weather at all.
My plan is to hunt, you know, like I normally
would end of October and you nailed it the scrapes.
My plan is to get there and do speed tour,
(21:10):
just kind of a delicate speed tour, find as many
scrapes as I can. I might even do some mock scrapes,
and I'm gonna deploy cameras. The cameras need to be moved,
and I want to get an inventory. And honestly, my
next trip is planned for the fourth of November, so
I'm kind of using this trip as like gearing up
for that rot trip to see what deer here.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
All the deer I think have should have moved on.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
The corn just got cut the other day, so three
acres of corn was left as well. So we're gonna
be dealing with like something really exciting. No, And my
favorite thing about it is there's never been no pressure
on this farm. That is like my mo I don't
like to have pressure on it. So I'm gonna push
in a little bit, find as many many scrapes as
I can, start putting cameras out, start doing some observation sets,
(21:56):
and then once I see that deer, I'm gonna move in.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
That's my plan.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Like I said, the red moon, the moon phase, everything
is lining up. The weather is going to be good
enough in the dates are going to be awesome. So
I am taking a decoy with me. I don't know
if I'm going to deploy that end of October. I
think the grunner in the rattling antlers could be a
true benefit. This is a farm that is a big
(22:20):
seedar thicket and there's not a lot of timber around it,
so longlining deer. Long lining is a true thing in
this time of year because they're going to be trying
to find that first you know dough that comes into heat.
I think there's a good chance that I might pick
up bucks that I you know, normally wouldn't pick up
in this timeframe, and you got a little window when
(22:41):
they're there, They're going to be there.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So I'm ready to jump on that.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So for someone that does not pay attention to the
red Moon, that's me. What does that mean? Like so like, okay,
it's the peak of the red moon and this is
the peak activity does a change where you sit or
set up? Because I know there's I know just enough
to ask this question, and that's where it ends, like
because I know there's like feeding time, Like what does
it mean?
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Uh? And how is it impacting your strategy?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, so I will say, like it's just it doesn't
really impact it a ton as far as uh, I'm
not saying like all the red Moon's here, like I'm
gonna kill a big one tonight. Like it's just one
of those tools like you still like have to play
the wind, you have to do all the things. It's
just another factor to be able to put into the
(23:28):
equation that like that pressure is building. So the red
Moon in a nutshell is just when you know, I'm
not great with it either, but the you know, the
under undertoe and the overhead of you know, the moon
and everything lining up and the pressure is the greatest.
You know, it's the you know, that's what moves the
(23:48):
tides and everything in the oceans and stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So it's got a big pulling factor.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
And you know, as I look at as I look
at the dates right now, like we're looking at the
twenty fourth, like the peak time is you know, the
first day is three for so the peak pressure, the
peak time where the deer it could help get the
deer get up and moving is isn't a good time.
And I'm like I said, I like the red moon.
(24:16):
I think I've killed like sixty two percent of my
bucks on a red moon. So I feel like that's
a pretty good number in the white tail world. So
in I don't think it'll Jake, I really don't think
it'll change what I do. It's just happening as I'm there,
you know what I mean. I'm still gonna I'm not
(24:36):
gonna be like, oh, it's a you know, it's saying
to do be on a field edge, So I better
go on a field edge.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, I'm I'm gonna read the farm and read the deer.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Still It's just one of those things that just like, hey,
he might get up a little earlier. And I will
say the Red Moon on this deer that I killed
the first night of the Red Moon on the ninth,
I encountered him.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
The peak.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
The peak time was, I want to say it was
four fifteen. He showed up at four o'clock in the
afternoon on the night.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So it's like your Eastern time, Yeah, Eastern times down
there for folks too.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
So I had just got in the gotten the blind
and he showed it up. I'm like, oh my gosh,
like we got four hours until dark, and like here
he is.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know. So I do put a little validity in it,
but it's not the end all, be all factor for me.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, let me run a quick scenario pass you that
it's probably gonna be relatable to a lot of folks.
You get a picture of a big deer that you
haven't seen before, and maybe your cameras are dead, or
maybe you put him out late, or maybe it's a
new one that just showed up.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
This is deer that just showed up on a scrape.
It was eleven o'clock a night it was one o'clock
in the morning. You know, what what would be your
next two or three day strategy if and when that
happens on the Let's say it's the twenty second or
the twenty third, when you get that first picture on
a scrape, you're like, I want to kill.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Him, and it's after dark, that's what you're saying. It's
not daylight. Not daylight.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I would, I would for sure, you know, knowing he's
in the area.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
I mean a lot of factors going to that.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Do I have any other dar on camera too that
I'm chasing or any of those daylighting you know, Honestly,
I don't know if it would change much of what
I'm doing.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Depending on the time.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
If he's just after, you know, shooting hour or shooting
light or just before, that might change something, but I
would probably just honestly, I need more information than that personally.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
I need I need.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I need some different data points I need If he's
just on one camera, I need some more, Like I
need to know that he's roaming the farm. If he's
just kind of showing up, I'm just gonna kind of
keep playing my playbook and maybe I'll catch him on
his feet or maybe catch him on another camera daylighting
or something like that. It probably wouldn't change too much.
I would just keep running everything that I thought would
(26:46):
be working, and then kind of I don't want to
say hope, but just kind of stay in the game
because if he's there, that's all I need to know.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
If he's there.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Before years ago, if I had a night a night picture,
I'd be so down in the dumps, like, man, he's
not coming to night.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
I really don't care anymore.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Even at that time of year or even early season,
like the year that I just killed in Michigan, I
don't have a ton of daylight pictures him. This year,
I actually had more eye sightings of him than I
do have pictures. He just was never on camera. Yeah,
but I encountered him way more. So, you know, I
really feel like the daylight or night, I just need
(27:26):
to know he's there, and then I'm going to kind
of work back from there and just kind of have
my instincts take over and just keep running the plays
that I know I like it.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
So, okay, next next seven days, October twenty second of
the twenty ninth ten being this is the best week
of the entire season. For opportunity, one being this is
the worst week of the entire season.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Where are you gonna put it with right now?
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Where the where the weather is, how the moon's lining up,
and the state and the area I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I mean, we're putting it. We're putting it. We're like
a nine to two right now, we're going we're going high.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Like I'm putting a lot of I'm putting a lot
of emphasis on this trip because you know, just as
well as I do, when when that calendar flips November,
the shackles are off and you have no idea, you
can get into that lockdown sphase.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
You can get down where deer just blown by you
at eighty mile an hour and you're like, what the heck?
Speaker 3 (28:22):
You know, it's like, I'm putting a lot of pressure,
not pressure, but a lot of validity on this.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Trip to to see the biggest year in the area.
And that's that's kind where we're at.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, semi controlled environment, great, great opportunity. Encourage everyone to
go out there and make the most out of it.
And good luck in Iowa. Congratulations once again on your
Michigan buck If someone if are you did you film
that hunter is there any opportunity with people.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
Okay, so where will be Where will people be able
to watch that?
Speaker 3 (28:51):
So it'll be like next year probably on our Grit
series for Latitude the Grit there and then probably after
that gets then I'll have it on my YouTube channel,
the Fault podcast tube channel eventually, but that nobody will
probably be able to see it until next year.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
But yeah, it's it's filmed and we're good to go.
But uh, yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come on here
and talk a little bit. I'm no expert by any means,
but i do like to talk.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
So you have the light right line of work.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, exactly, Yeah, awesome, Eron, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Congratulations once again, thank you, Jake.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
All right, next up on the line, we have Christian
Babcock from Texas and Oklahoma, mainly hunting Texas right now,
but we got it. We have representation from what would
you what would you consider Texas and Oklahoma the South,
the Plain States, the South Plains, the South desert. Yeah,
it feels like a desert about ninety percent of the year.
But I'd say we'll just call it at the South.
(29:49):
I'll identify with the Southern hunter some rep Okay, all right,
so from the South, and have we been kicking off
a trivia question or a fun fact for the state
that the folk is joining us from. I'm going to
tell you the amount of total deer that were harvested
in the state of Texas last year, and you're going
to have to guess how many of them were archery,
(30:09):
so you can give it and it's in the number
of thousands. It could be tens of thousands, could be
hundreds of thousands. There was eight hundred and thirty seven
thousand deer tagged in the state of Texas in twenty
twenty four. How many of them were archery bucks or
archery deer? Excuse me, archery deer? How many archery out
of eight hundred and thirty seven thousand, man, we have
(30:30):
like a two week or a two month long rifle season,
so I'm going to say the majority of them were
probably rifle. I'm going to say like one hundred and
fifty thousand or archery.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
That's that's pretty darn good.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Seventy five thousand, So seventy five thousand, seven hundred and
sixty one thousand deer were shot with a firearm.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
In the state of Texas.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
So bow hunting is a pretty small minority in Texas,
or at least that's what it looks like.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
I'm telling you.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
When you can rifle hunt the majority of this season,
it's like put that struggle stick away and let's do
some let's do some gun hunting.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So that's how people are done here. I like it.
So what.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Have you been seeing down there in Texas with some
of your hunts here recently? Yeah, so I've been hunting.
I've been hunting five times since the beginning of October
when our season opened, I think it opened actually the
in there of September. But pretty slow movement overall. I've
been hunting some travel corridors, throwing up a bunch of
mock scrapes, and I've been averaging like three to five
(31:29):
deer sit right there at the end, primarily hunting evenings
right there at the last fifteen minutes of light.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
So not a ton of movement.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I know, we had a really really good acorn crop
and there was a bunch of good brows, so I
haven't been seeing a whole lot of movement from that perspective.
But I went out on Wednesday saw five doughs a
in a bobcat. So any set that you're not getting
an absolute goose egg this time of the year when
it's ninety.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Three degrees is a really good set.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
The rainfall this summer, was it above average? Below average?
Not sure? I would say it was above average until
the last part of the of the of the summer,
like the end part of the summer, and we haven't
had rain here and it feels like over a month,
so it's been pretty dry as of late. But man,
in the spring, in that early part of the summer
where we're getting a ton of rain, so I thought
(32:20):
we're gonna have a great antler season. And I've got
several really good bucks down here, so I think the
antlers grew really well.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
It's just got pretty dry the end of the summer. Yeah, well, we're.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Getting into the exciting time of October deer season. This
is when everyone starts to get really excited and you
know it's October twenty second. What for the next seven days?
What are you kind of looking at potentially as far
as where you're sitting and what are you keen in on.
Are you looking for scrapes, are you looking for a
specific food source. Are you looking for those two things
(32:52):
in tandem. What's on your what's on your game plan?
Because it's you know, late October, and this is the
time when it's it's getting more exciting by the day,
like we're getting to the part of the season where
it's going to get better and better and better and
better for quite some period of time. So breed some optimism.
The unders that have been struggling throughout them month of October, well,
(33:15):
if they still can afford their water bill because all
the laundry detergent they spent in the first half of October.
With all the heat, I mean, we're still looking at,
you know, some temperatures in the nineties for the highs,
so but I'm seeing some shifting down towards the low
eighties and then we're you know, looking at fifties in
the mornings. So that that's you know, that last week
of October. I'm really looking at those really cold days
(33:37):
where it's a you know, where it's shifting downwards. I'm
monitoring a bunch of spots with mock scrapes, and I'm
seeing more and more bucks hitting those towards the end
of daylight hours. Huge typically in the evenings. But I'm
trying to still get them between bed and food right now,
but giving them a reason to stop alongside where I'm at,
which is usually a mock scrape. So I'm getting pretty
tight to bedding as they're laying more and more signed down,
(34:00):
especially the rubs and scrapes.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I'm keying in on that.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
And then one spot in particular, I just saw a
farmer end up playing in a winter wheat field, so
I was pretty happy about that. But you know, we're
hunting in the south here, so there's a lot of
corn on every property line, and if you can get
in between some of that, find some good sign, maybe
lay down your own mock scrape. I think as we
start to trend to the lows and in the fifties,
we're going to see some really, really good deer activity.
But it's been pretty slim, so I think we got
(34:25):
some pent up demand with all the heat we've had.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
I think these are going to bust loose. I really do.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And I think as soon as we get that front
whenever we you know, here in Illinois looks like there's
the temperatures are getting back the closer to I guess normal.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
It's been it's been unseasonably warm up here too.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
But when you say tight to betting, so we're picturing
October twenty second to October twenty ninth, is your plan
to still be somewhat tight to betting on a scrape
maybe a mock scrape within one hundred yards of where
you're anticipating them betting or is it two hundred yards
or sixty yards?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Is it like a rule of thumb for someone to
have in the back of their mind.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Yeah, I'm I would say less than a coup one
hundred yards For me, I can only speak to my
situation where I'm hunting down here. It's very small permission pieces,
so a lot of these properties are long, kind of
skinny flagpole access type pieces, and so there's not a
whole lot of width, but a lot of them have
some depth. So I'm hunting pretty close to betting on
(35:19):
those scrapes. So I want them to move, obviously, and
like you said, it is going to bust loose. So
but I don't want to ask too much. Right three
four or five hundred yards away from my betting area
to a mature buck right now, that's still a long ways.
When we're talking still in the eighties for the high
So I want to ask him to do something, but
just not ask him to do too much. So for
(35:47):
the later part of October, are you bringing ratoin anilers
or you're bringing a call? Are you are you pulling
out a bag of tricks? Are you still just trying
to hunt natural movement for this time period? So primarily
in Texas, I'll hunt natural movement, but I do have
a least in southwestern Oklahoma, a lot of mature bucks,
pretty low pressure around in that area. That's a spot
that I'm definitely going to bring out, bring the decoy out,
and definitely do some rattling. What I've noticed is this
(36:10):
big boss buck decoy that I like to use down
here in Texas. That's about the biggest buck you would
ever see body wise, But uput open Oklahoma, he looks
a little more like a familiar face. So I don't
want to scare off my Texas bucks, but for the
Oklahoma ones, I'll absolutely break out the decoy and start
smashing that black rack together. Yeah what real quick base
(36:31):
give us a rundown on what the strategy would be
for southwestern Oklahoma with the decoy, with rattling like, what
are the conditions, how far are you putting the decoy?
Kind of break that down For someone that has the
decoy in their garage, they like, yeah, I'm I'm gonna
try using that. Oh yeah, So I actually set up
a mock scrape in the middle of this kind of
travel corridor on this river bottom piece that I'm hunting
(36:54):
southwest Oklahoma. So I'll put that buck too, not too
far from that mock scrape, because I'm getting a ton
of inventory and trail camp pictures around that spot, and
I feel like that's a spot where if a buck
that hadn't been in the area before just popped up
at it, it would look pretty normal, right, like, oh, this
buck's kind of gum and lay down some sign here,
So I would I'm gonna put mine kind of face
(37:14):
in the bedding area. And then obviously I like to
put him twenty twenty five yards in a kind of
in a posture looking away in a sense, And so
I want that buck to have to kind of swing
around and get even closer to me to end up
checking out that decoy. Obviously, you got ground sent You've
been touching the decoy, so you kind of got a
crapp er get off the pot in a sense of
when that buck decides to come in, he's either going
(37:36):
to spook or get shot. But hopefully it's a mature
buck when he comes in to do that. But I'm
setting my decoy up right there near that mock scrape,
so it looks pretty natural in terms of a new
buck cruising into a you know, established area. Do you
feel that, you know, looking at knowing the time of
year and kind of looking into the weather for the
you know, call it twenty second to the twenty ninth.
(37:58):
Do you have pretty high X expectations or are you
trying to keep them in check or where? Where's your
level of excitement based off of all the factors that
we know as of right now.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm pretty excited overall.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I feel like we've been at such a low even
average feels high at the moment. So we've been sitting
at like a one or a two confidence level, and
now as we're seeing you know, some fifteen degree wings
in temperature, I'd say that get me up to a
five or six. Like it's not going to be unseasonably
cold though that last week of October. It's just it's
still going to be right in line with probably expectations.
(38:32):
But when it's been as unseasonably warm as it's been,
average feels like exceptional right now, right So I'm I'm
feeling pretty confident about that, but I'm not expecting it
to break loose, just in an extraordinary way.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
That's fair.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, when is your if you had to say, over
the years, what is your favorite time of year of where?
What pretend you only had, you know, the five days
to hunt? Like, what time period are you most excited
and amped up about it? Is it late October? As
are deeper into November or even deeper than that because
you're in the South, man, I really like that Halloween
(39:07):
to about the fourth of November. I feel like the
rut hasn't really busted loose, but you still got those
bucks on that cruising pattern, right, so they're a little
more susceptible to calling their home. Rangers are expanding a
bunch more so I feel like they kind of start
to expose themselves more as they start to lay down
sign and move around. But they're not in that rut
craze zombifide area where when they're running by you can't
(39:30):
get them to stop and when you're bow hunting, you
need them to stop and you need them to be close.
So that little five day period right there, Halloween to
about the fourth or the fifth, that is my favorite
time to hunt all year, especially here in the South.
What are you keen in on through the twenty second
twenty ninth to have the most success in the octogon
Halloween to that fourth, Because I feel like for someone
that listens to that now, like I'm just gonna wait
(39:51):
until Halloween, until the fourth. That's when Christian says it's
the best. But I think a lot of times it
has something to do with throwing some hunts, throwing some CITs,
doing maybe a little bit of scouting, and kind of
building up a case to make a good plan from
Halloween to the fourth. So, if you were someone that
just wanted to key in on and develop a really
strong plan for for that weekend, what are you specifically
(40:13):
laser focused on over the next seven days from a
scouting perspective or in inventory perspective. Yeah, I'm looking. I'm
looking for scrapes and I'm looking for just natural travel corridors.
As the as the uh you know, the temperatures get
lower and lower. I just think since we've I feel
like we're gonna have this pent up demand similar like
you see in the markets, right, I mean, these bucks
want to move, they want to lay down sign. But
(40:33):
it's like, dude, I'm sitting here wearing a winter coat
right now. I don't want to be cruising all around
hundreds and hundreds of yards. So I'm just looking for
those places, like I said, in between food, bed and
bed and food and places where they're laying down signed.
Like so if you can find natural scrapes sentting over,
maybe a scrape line or a rub line, something like that.
And the thing is, man, you can't kill them from
the couch. So although maybe it won't be the best
(40:55):
time because it's not going to be unseasonably cold, some
deer definitely going to get killed and you can't kill
them sitting at home. Like I know, we've been saying
hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. But when
we start getting in the October twenties, it's time to
hurry up and get in the woods, you know, even
if it is warm, because they're definitely thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Well, so you had put it one to ten. You're
at like a five or six for the next seven days,
then I would.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Say about a five or six.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, which when you're going from a one or two, man,
it feels great.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
That's a good way to look at it.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Well, Christian, good luck, good luck in Texas, good luck
in Oklahoma. And if people want to tune in on
how your guys this season progresses, where.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Can they do that?
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Yeah, just check us out on YouTube Hunter's Advantage and
we also have the podcast on Apple and Spotify, so
you can just stay up to date with us there.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
Awesome, good luck, Christian, I appreciate it all right.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Next up on the line, we have Benny from Minnesota
with Moultrie.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
How's it going, Yes, sir, I'm happy to be here.
Thanks for having me on. Things are going great, man.
I mean, the deer aren't moving as much as I'd
like them to be, but we're We're hearing of guys
and deer all over the country, so that's that's fun
to hear. And I'm hoping that that happens to me
before too long.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Well, I think when this goes live, we're at the
stage of the season where it's only going to get
more exciting in the time that We've been waiting for,
you know, really since last year, but I got to
kick it off with a trivia question here about the
state of Minnesota. I'm putting you right on the spot,
just like everyone else. Yep, And so I'll give you
I'll give you this question. Okay, what year was there
(42:32):
the highest total harvest of whitetail deer in the state
of Minnesota. So the amount the most amount of deer tagged,
whether it was archery or their firearm season.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
I'm gonna I'm gonna roll with something in the early
two thousands. I'm gonna say two thousand and seven.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
You're close.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
So actually, last week we had they guess two thousand
and three and it was two thousand and seven. You
guts two thousand and seven. This is actually two thousand
and three. There was two hundred and ninety thousand shot
of two thousand and three, and for reference, there was
only one hundred and seventy thousand shot in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Wow. Unbelievable, Yeah, so unbelievable. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
So, anyhow, it's late October, and what are you most
excited about or what are you keen in on for
the next week?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Here?
Speaker 4 (43:20):
Oh man, So so this week finally had bucks that
were starting to move on to our properties. So I'm
to kind of give you a rundown. I'm hunting a
lot of egg land. It's preferably for rifle hunters, the
gun hunters of the world, but it's it's what I
have access to, and I enjoy bow hunting it a lot.
It's a challenge, but I absolutely love it. Finally this
(43:43):
week the deer kind of started moving. They're hitting scrapes
a little bit more. I sent you a couple of
videos this morning of deer that have been coming around,
and it's it's looking up. But actually in two days
I'm headed to Illinois for a hunt, and nice from
what those guys are saying, the deer are moving and
there's a good cold front hu the way, so really
(44:03):
hoping that we can connect with one. Hanging out with
the stay grounded boys down there, and so yeah, the
next week, it's just hoping that nothing daylights on camera at.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Home when I'm gone.
Speaker 4 (44:15):
But I'm really looking forward to getting back and just
hopefully having some deers start to move in a little
bit more, be a little bit more consistent, and then
hopefully connect with one before rifle season.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
So you leave for Illinois in two days. How long
are you planning the state down there?
Speaker 2 (44:31):
So I'll be in Illinois?
Speaker 4 (44:33):
I mean realistically, I told them I can be there
for about six days, about a week, and then I
got to get home to the wife. And so it's
either a shoot one right away and come home or
I'm there all six days and get skunk and then
come home.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
So okay, So what is your mental game plan going
into that? You know you're traveling, so you got to
figure out things kind of on the fly. I'm sure
they've done some scouting. I'm sure they have cameras up.
But as you're you know, you have some time to
think about it. What are you What are you gonna do?
You got six days to trying to.
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Make it happen. Yeah, oh absolutely. So obviously at home
it's been slow.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
So I'm like, you know what, man, I got to
kind of just get my mind on Illinois. Just look
forward to being out there hanging out with some of
our partners multi partners that is. And I mean like
they shared their cameras with me through the app, and
I'm looking on there, I mean every single day and
I'm like dude, this just brings my self confidence down
(45:28):
so much about hunt that.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
So many big deer in Illinois.
Speaker 4 (45:33):
There's just and I mean, they set up the properties
perfect for what they're doing, and so they've got a
lot of a lot of blinds. I don't know how
many like actual stand setups they have, but I know
they've got a lot of great blinds that will probably
be hunting out of hunting egg fields for the most part.
But yeah, they've They've had a couple of really nice
(45:54):
dear come off of those properties already this year, and
so I'm really looking forward to getting out there.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Are most are you anticipating most of those blinds? Are
they set up on falt food plots, like green food sources,
staining beans, sanding corn, Like, what's kind of that setup
look like to focus on food?
Speaker 4 (46:09):
Yeah, as far as I know, basically, I was on
the phone with Tanner yesterday and he was telling me
like they had just cut like a strip of corn,
so they're leaving some standing corn and whatnot, and then
they've got a couple mock scrapes set up right out
in the middle of these cut fields, and I mean,
like it is prime set up for deer hunting like
(46:29):
it's the best of the best.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Sweet.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
So if you were staying in Minnesota from October twenty
second to October twenty ninth, you know, historically, what are
some things that you're really paying close attention to looking
at the extended forecast, I mean, you know, temperatures are
seeming to get back closer to normal. But what would
you be if someone was struggling right now and they're
(46:52):
in Minnesota, you know, agland, hedgerows, fence rows, What has
you most excited for the next seven days?
Speaker 4 (46:59):
Yeah, so right now, I mean honestly, right now, it's
waiting for harvest to be over, and we're probably if
I had to guess, sixty percent through corn harvest now,
and it seems like the bucks have just all kind
of moved over and they're they're hanging out in the corn,
getting as much as they can before it's off. And
then so if you're hunting egg land, I mean I'm
(47:22):
sitting in sometimes rows of like four trees and like
you got to just get lucky. I mean, I'm sitting
in white oaks, and they're typically coming over, these deer
coming over to feed on the acorns because there's not
that many food sources or standing food sources left that is.
And then you talk to I mean buddies. I have
(47:44):
buddies that are hunting hardwoods in southern Minnesota and then
eastern Minnesota and uh northern Minnesota, like different areas all
over the country, and it seems like those guys that
are hunting hardwoods, the deer are hitting scrapes like crazy,
whereas like over in the more open egg land where
I'm hunting right now, a little bit slower. But then
(48:06):
once things start heat up, right around Halloween is typically
when it's like guns are crazy, and for us it's
just so good. It seems like the deer are starting
to cruise a lot more, maybe got that pre rud
activity going on. And then I mean like first week
in November and then into rifle season, it's that's typically
when the deer are on the move. And so honestly,
(48:29):
I would say just be in the stand, like if
you can get work off, if you can time a
cold front right, if you can be on a food
source that's still standing, find where the food is, if
you've got a water hole, I mean, that's probably even better,
especially during the rut. But yeah, go to those key
sources and then just get in a high traffic area
(48:51):
for the rut.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
How far I mean, over the years that you've hunted,
I'm just pictured. I've never hunted there, but I'm just
pictured in my head. You know a lot different parts
of the Midwest. How far do you think the line
of movement is for some of these bucks for the
later part of October where there's maybe not a ton
of betting opportunity and they're laying downsign on these edges,
I mean, do they do how far can you see it?
Speaker 2 (49:13):
How far do they move? And so?
Speaker 4 (49:15):
So Okay, so to give you kind of a visual,
So I'm hunting, probably the typical spot that I'm hunting
is about eight hundred acres and there's probably I don't
know ten acres of wooded area on that piece, but
it's basically around a whole swamp. And so the deer,
(49:37):
I mean, they cruise it hard during the rut, and
that's typically the only time we see the deer cruising
on her property. So if you're a rifle hunting, you'll
see them from a far away. But when you're bow hunting,
you're just sitting there anticipating that hopefully they're going to
come to that food source that you're sitting on within
those four trees, or you're hoping that they're going to
come and sit in within those trees in the betting
(49:58):
areas that I'm sitting and by so I'm trying to
sit pretty close to the betting areas.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah, I have spooked coupled year before.
Speaker 4 (50:08):
But I mean at that point you're just trying to
risk it for the biscuit and get in there, and
all day sits can be super beneficial for those reasons.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
Yeah, when I think back over the years, you know,
for these next ten days October twenty second to the
end of October, so call it nine days has been
a really productive time for trail camera inventory. Buck showing
up And what was one tip or trend you have
noticed with a buck that shows up this time of
(50:39):
year on a camera on a scrape that you maybe
haven't seen before earlier in the year. What advice do
you have or what things would you tell someone to
key it on.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah, yeah, so this is this is actually wild.
Speaker 4 (50:51):
So the deer that I sent you this morning, he
has only been on camera three times throughout this year.
He showed up like once in July, once late September,
and then just this morning. And so he's a deer
that showed up last year mid October, same exact timeframe.
So really it's if you have trail cameras, and if
(51:12):
you don't, I recommend you get them. Just get them
out there. Put them on scrapes, put them on high
pass routes. Go look for trails that you you can
clearly tell that deer are traveling. And I mean, you
really never know when these deer are going to show up,
especially during the rut. So get those trail cameras out.
Don't don't I would say, don't, don't mount them too
(51:37):
high or anything like. Put them put them on a
spot where like you know you're gonna get that camera
to trigger.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
I've seen a lot of guys where they're like, man,
I put a.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Camera out and it hasn't triggered at all, and then
you end up seeing like it's at about human head height,
where it's like it should be at about waste height.
And that can ruin a guy's season because he's like, well,
I'm basing it up off my trail cameras.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
There was nothing there.
Speaker 4 (52:02):
I didn't go out so it's like, get as many
trail cameras and as he can out there, pay attention
to those obviously, but then also get in the stand,
because I mean, you could have a trail camera right
there and the deer could walk behind that tree and
you're never gonna know that that deer existed. So I
would say, yeah, get the trail cameras out, but also
(52:22):
get in the stand.
Speaker 2 (52:23):
One hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (52:24):
And one thing I would say too is don't be
discouraged if you get in the next when you listen
to this today, maybe you got a picture of a
deer last night that was one o'clock in the morning,
eleven o'clock at night, three o'clock in the morning, and think, oh,
he's two miles away. He might be, but a lot
of times in the next ten days, twelve days, oh yeah,
pretty good chance can be run around there in daylight somewhere.
Speaker 2 (52:44):
And so that's the excited thing of that.
Speaker 4 (52:46):
Yeah, And that's where I sit here too. I'm like,
I'm going to be in Illinois for allegedly six days.
So if I get one of these bucks daylight and
the shown up in the mornings, I know he's going
to bed not far away. I mean that just eats
at because you know that that deer is somewhat close
and he might daylight at night. Not a guarantee, but
I'm hoping that that doesn't happen. But at the same time,
(53:07):
it'll be reassuring and it'll definitely make me want to
get home. But yeah, I mean the property is out here,
the egg land. There's a bunch of egg land that
I'm hunting. And then of course these bucks are pretty
honed in on basically a twenty to thirty acre piece
on our neighbor's property, and they just they feel safe there.
(53:28):
There's pines all over it, there's everything they need, and
it's just once the rut gets here, then they start
traveling trying to look for does a little bit more
and that's where I can hopefully find my luck.
Speaker 1 (53:41):
I like it so looking at the weather and also
time of year, because I think that's a factor. Now,
on a scale one to ten, where do you put
this next seven day stretch, and let's say ten is
the best week of the entire year, one being the
worst week of the entire year, where do you put it?
Speaker 4 (53:59):
I would say next seven days would be I would
rate it as like a as like a four. It's
more like I would take it as like an observation
sit leading up to uh, basically Halloween week and in
the rut, see what the deer movement's like, see how
they're acting, seeing if if the doors are acting any different,
(54:20):
if there's any bucks that are kind of starting to
detail dose a little bit.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
It's possible.
Speaker 4 (54:26):
I've seen guys sharing trail camera photos and videos right
now that have bucks and stuff kind of dog and dos,
which is crazy.
Speaker 2 (54:35):
But I'd say probably about a four.
Speaker 4 (54:38):
And then I mean leading up to Halloween Halloween week,
I would say you're getting closer to that nine to
ten range.
Speaker 2 (54:44):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Well, Benny, good luck in Illinois and good luck in Minnesota.
It was a pleasure, and I encourage everyone to pay
really close attention to their cameras. If the batteries are dead,
go get some batteries and put a solar panel them.
Do what do you need to do? Because wait all year?
Where there intel? And you mentioned the deer showing up,
you know a year later. Really important to get key
intel this time of year because it might help you
(55:07):
next year too.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
If it doesn't help you this year, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (55:10):
Here you guys have it. I hope you guys enjoyed
this episode. And this is my last piece of advice
and tip from hunting white tails and scouting and being
out and about this time of year. Have a floater
trail camera or two. What I mean by that is,
if you find hot sign, you find a scrape that
you have not seen before. Maybe it's in a bottom,
maybe it's on an edge of betting, maybe it's on
(55:31):
a field edge.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
I'm telling you that it's going.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
To be a key place for intel throughout the month
of November through the remaining part of October. That might
be one of the most important pieces of scouting that
you can do passively by hanging a camera. So make
sure you have a floater camera with you when you
go out and hunt, you scout, switch batteries, whatever you do,
have one or two floater cameras and put it on
hot sign and it's going to help you.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
That is it.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
We will see you next week on Rough Fresh.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Good luck,
Host
Mark Kenyon
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