December 24, 2025 • 32 mins
This week on Rut Fresh, we’re catching up with hunters who recently had late season success or still out developing a late season game plan. Kyle Regis kicks things off with his Ohio late season big buck story and how it came together. Tommy Dickerson tells the story how he shifted late season cameras to put together a game plan to catch up with an Indiana buck. Wrapping things up, Jake Gaylord of the Hunters Advantage Podcast shares an Oklahoma perspective on finding prime food when there’s little to no agriculture ground.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
What is going on?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome back to Roughfresh. This is Jake Hoefer and we're
wrapping up the rough Fresh season as we close out
two thousand and twenty five. Hope you guys have enjoyed
this year and Roughfresh maybe helped you along the way,
whether it was hearing what was going on or what
to keep an eye on for the upcoming week. This
episode is no different. We have folks from Ohio, Indiana,
(00:23):
and Oklahoma telling us what they've been seeing and a
couple big buck stories that I hope you guys enjoy.
As you know, Roughfresh is brought to you by land
dot Com, the leading online real estate marketplace to find
your perfect rural, recreational agricultural hunting properties here in the US.
We're gonna go ahead and kick things off with Kyle
in Ohio. Here we go, all right, First up on
(00:47):
the line, we have Kyle, who just shot a big
buck in Ohio. Late season down to the end of
twenty five. We're getting very very close. How does it feel.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Oh man, it feels great. Honestly, I hunted this deer.
I you know, I hear people say grind all the time,
and I kind of hate that because, like it's not
a job, Like I hate going to my job and grind,
you know what I'm saying, Like this is fun. Like
I get the like it's just a metaphor or whatever.
(01:20):
But I mean I didn't really grind. Honestly, I only
hunted him like four times. I just I had to
pick and choose when I could.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Go in there.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, and so when so you hundred four times, what
were the reasons, you know, the three previous times, like
kind of broadstroke, what was the reason You're like, Okay,
I'm gonna go take a swing? And it was like
one in October or November December. I kind of what
that looked like.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
So it was two in October, and it was just
a year. It was prior history with the deer last
year on days that he uh daylighted and I was wrong.
I had so I had to get a sitter and
I had to either pick he daylighted on the eighteenth,
So I either had to pick the seventeenth or the
(02:05):
nineteenth to hunt or the eighteenth, and I picked the eighteenth,
and he was there on the seventeenth, and then I
was like, okay, he showed up again prior on Halloween,
so I was like, okay, I got a hunt. The
thirtieth was a Sunday. I think somewhere around there was
a Sunday. I was like, I'm gonna throw in that Sunday.
He didn't show up, showed up the next day, okay,
(02:27):
of course, and.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Then I hunted him.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I was like, you know what, no pictures really of
him in November or since that Halloween and then and
even the Halloween was one o'clock in the morning, so
it wasn't like he was daylight.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I was like, well, it's the rout. Anything can happen.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I just went sat there on November fifth, and then
I've just been waiting ever since.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, so I think that's interesting that the historical data
was pretty close to right. Yeah, Like, which is you know,
something for everyone to consider this year. Obviously you were
able to catch up with them late season, and we've
had awesome I mean every week I've been saying that
we've had you know, really strong, you know, late season
weather in December obviously it's a little bit warmer right now.
(03:16):
The day you stroke struck this buck, what was your
level of confidence and why were you potentially confident?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I was probably like I didn't want to oversell myself,
but I was probably internally I knew it was gonna
get a chance at him that this past Tuesday, just
because one, he was there last week a week ago,
same day Tuesday, we had shitty weather, like bad low
(03:47):
pressure Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Tuesday came last week we had
high pressure, nice sunny, cold day and he was there
early three point thirty and I was like, well, same
thing's going on, same thing. I was like, I'm gonna
get in there nice and early. And he showed up
right on time, four o'clock. That's super cool. What where
(04:08):
are you hunting over?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Like a primary food source, a place where you are yeah,
going cool, I'm not gonna I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
We're hunt I'm in Ohio hunting small you know, suburbs
and stuff. We're hunting corn and it's I bet if
they flew drone, there's probably fifty.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Corn piles, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
But uh, once it starts getting real cold like this,
like I mean, I mean it's been brutal, like honestly,
like this winter just came with an abrupt fist and
was like I'm here, yeah, and uh, a lot of
guys I think just quit and he was just run down.
I mean, he looked like he lost one hundred and
twenty pounds and lost an eye and I just found
(04:47):
out he's got a.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Big knot on his one leg. So like, I don't
know if everyone just quit.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Feeding around me or if that's where he's been, and
like it ran out and he's like, oh, there's corn
over here, but yeah, I'm not gonna stay. Oh yeah,
I put all this time, and you know I was
just dumping corn man.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, that's It's crazy what they go through in a year.
And I always wonder how many times a big buck
cheat's death. And clearly that deer probably cheated death a
handful of times, you know, from other deer and missing
an eyeball and you know, big lump on his leg.
And so last year, I'm trying to remember how frigid
(05:24):
December was. I don't remember it being real crazy or so.
I remember mild, really mild, honestly.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And so last year was he in there feeding in
December or so last.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Year I killed his running mate last year, and I
would have swore I was gonna kill this year. The
first day this year he was in there religiously, but
I again, acorns play a big part in it, and
it's not like I can just trump all over everyone's
private and see where acorns are dropping. You know, it's
not like it's a huge farm. So I just kind
(06:00):
of got to play it by year. But yeah, this
year he was I mean, dude, velvet. I got beautiful videos,
pictures all the way up him chadding bloody horned velvet.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And I'm like, I told my wife.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I was like, I'm gonna kill him the first day
and then you know he's gone.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, I think there's some lessons of sticking with it
and not giving up. I feel like that's that's probably
would you say that's one of the biggest pieces of
advice you can give someone for this time of years
is don't give up.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Don't don't give up one hundred percent. I could tell
another story where it was probably I don't know. When
I first moved to Ohio five years ago, I shot
under a buck. There was literally a week left in
the season. I told my wife, I'm like, screw this,
I'm done. I'm not going back out. It is what
(06:52):
it is. I'm terrible. I'm giving up for the year.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
And she was like, you know, you should really go.
He's like trying to push.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Me to go, and I just didn't go, And I
went and pulled that camera card and that deer was
there the next three nights, an hour before dark, just
sitting there and just you can't give up this time
of year.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You just got to ride it out.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
As much as it sucks hunting in this stuff. I
mean it's warm now, it's fifty five outside right now,
but I'm sure January is gonna get cold again, and
you just gotta find the food and just ride it out.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's really I mean, this is
the truth everyone like you if you're hunting this late
in the seasons because it didn't happen yet and you're's
like to your point last year, Like, no, I suck
and I just need to hang it up.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
But I think there's some pretty good advice in that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
So, like looking here, obviously, during the holidays, that might
be a super busy time for some people, it might
be a time where they might have an opportunity to
get out. Looking at the extent of forecast right now,
it looks like it's gonna you know, when this goes live,
it'll still be pretty darn mild, at least here in Illinois.
For those folks, do you have any words of advice?
Is that just maybe move cameras around and hang out
and wait for the next front, or would you have
(08:02):
enough conviction to go try a couple of times so
over the next seven days.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh man, it depends what your life situation is. Honestly,
so I have a nine month old, I have a wife.
You know, if you're single and you can you know,
kind of living the bachelor life will say, and you
can get away with hunting. I feel like, I mean,
it sounds crazy, but if you can get in with
a good wind, why not. I mean, you've already we're
(08:29):
two months into the season, ohios, until February first.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I mean, we're getting close to the end here.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Why not just go if you can get in and
out clean.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
But to the guy like me who's got a family,
it's holidays and stuff like that where you just kind
of have to pick and shoes.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I'm probably waiting for a front.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I'm probably gonna find a deer, or if I have
a deer that's like on the edge of daylight, I'm
probably gonna wait for that next front and harmy yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So with that's being said, scale one to ten, ten
being one of the best weeks of the year, one
being one of the worst weeks of the year. Next
seven days Christmas Eve Day to New Yor's Eve.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
One to ten. Where do you put it, all things considered.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I could say it could be feast or famine.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm gonna say I would put it right in the
middle of five, because if the weather's gnarling and it's
cold and the deer like got a feed, it could
be a ten. You know, it could go fifty to fifty.
But now it's fifty five and it's gonna be rainy,
and it's just the complete opposite of what I was
hunting in, you know, on just two days ago.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, yeah, well I think that's that's fair. And then
I'll ask you one last question, brand Newborn, any tips,
any tips for the guy that is, uh, I'm not
expecting anything, so I got for everyone. It's the stage
of life for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
No, yeah, it's it's it.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So a lot of my friends were telling me I
wasn't hunting enough. That's why I haven't killed him, and
you know, all this stuff. And granted, if I would
have hunted every day. Yeah, probably would have killed him
back in October. But now with a newborn, I gotta
get a sitter. I got to call in a favor
with my sister in law or my mother in law.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
My advice would be, man, just watch those cameras.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I know that, like people are like you kind of
have to get a pattern on a deer like rule
thumb for me. If he does something twice the third time,
I'm gonna be there. And this year was big proof
for that historical data. Man, really really like stave those
pictures from the year before. I know a lot of
(10:45):
guys just leave him in the app or whatever. But
I made a separate folder in my phone and I
store all those three and four year olds that maybe
in a couple of years I want to shoot for
the following next year, you can come back to that'll
save you so like then you can really plan. Okay,
I need to sit her on the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth.
(11:06):
I'm gonna hunt those three days and then my wife's
very understanding. Also, I don't have a ton of hobbies.
That's the other thing.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Guys that goll punt fish do all this stuff. I
pretty much just hunt.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I like it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, man, congratulations on connect with your buck here. I
hope you have an awesome, awesome Christmas. Appreciate it. And
good luck to your wife. I know she's still hunting Ohio.
And good luck if you venture out to Pennsylvania anymore.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah. Thanks, I appreciate it all.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Right. Next up we have Jake A. Lord with Hunters
of Vantaged podcast. Jake, how's it going?
Speaker 6 (11:39):
It's going good man, Jake, thanks for having me on absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And so we were just talking earlier this month. We
were ragging about how great the winter weather was now
and mother Nature hurt us because it's gonna be a
little toasty. So you're down in Oklahoma, what do you
what have you been seeing in what's been going on
in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 7 (12:00):
Yeah, so just put in a little context.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
I'm in northeast Oklahoma, so I don't know, probably thirteen
minutes or thirteen thirty minutes from you know, the Kansas border.
So around here we got a lot of pasture land
and so a lot of open areas and a little
bit of timber. And so you mix that with you know,
the two week gun season that just now happened here.
(12:22):
You can tell that the bucks and a lot of
the deer just kind of hanging tight to the timber
and so on. Camera wise, a lot of them aren't
usually coming out in those fields or you know, trying
to hit like your I.
Speaker 7 (12:37):
Guess food sources because it's open areas.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
But we don't have that ag that you know a
lot of the Kansas people do have. And so we
you know, utilize corn feeders, corn piles, whether people may
like it or not. Oklahoma's debate state. So that helps
at least for the private pieces. But like I said,
with all the pressure here lately, it's kind of of
(13:01):
not been pulling its weight, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's been tough in other words, Yeah, it's been real tough. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And so so we were talking beforehand before we started
recording about you know, there's two scenarios where late season
hunting can be really good. You mentioned a food or
a sanctuary, and so talk about that a little bit because.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Most people don't have that.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
If we really paint the broader picture of most white
tail hunters that are listening to this, more than likely
they don't have those two things. And why are those important?
And what can someone do without them?
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Yeah, kind of like I said a second ago.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
It you either need good sanctuary where the deer feel
safe after a long season and all the pressure, or
you need you know, that good food source, which you
know on my private piece that I have, we don't
have that because it's a permission piece. We can't do
much altering to the land. So no food plot, it's
no late season food sources. So that's why we stick
(13:51):
with corn. But I mean, it's it's okay if you
don't have those. It isn't like all hoops lost. But
the thing is, instead of just having it now, you
got to go find it. So you know, like I said,
the private's kind of out of the picture if I'm
still wanting to punch my tag, And so that moves
us to public where you actually can go put boots
on the ground and find those food sources. And so
you can't bait on public here in Oklahoma, which is okay,
(14:13):
But what you do need is that good natural browse
the food source, and so down here that's usually like
those oaks, red oaks, stuff like that, those late dropping ones.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
So that's kind of what we key in on.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
And you know, not all of them are obviously the ticket,
and especially now, it seems like all the deer during
this late season they're all getting like congregated again. I
don't know if that's just because they're all grouping back
up and you know, want to say hi to each
other after a long rut, or if that's just kind
of food centralized where the food's kind of making them
(14:44):
congregate in all this one area. But what we've been seeing,
and I mean, maybe not so much this late season
just because like I told you, Yester, I've been kind
of getting my butt kicked. But like years past and stuff,
if you can find those really good dropping oaks, can
find the deer. So you just want those food sources
where you get a whole lot of sign with the
up be droppings tracks, whatever you call your deer sign.
(15:09):
That's what you want to see around those oak trees.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
How challenging is it for someone uh to go find
you know, that congregation of deer?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Is it just putting on putting on miles.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
I mean, you could try to put cameras and just
maybe focus these, it'd be it'd be really hard to
try to I guess pattern the oaks with your cameras
to try to figure out which ones. I mean, if
you had enough cameras you might be able to, but
you you'd be checking at least ten plus different spots
or areas just try to find those those good ones.
(15:53):
And of course, as you know that natural brows and
acorns and stuff like that, everything's trying to hit them,
so it's like a it's like a.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Temporary thing even when you do find them.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
So it's just you got to you gotta find it
when it's hot, and you got to be there, and
if not, then it's just it just makes it a
lot tougher result.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, well that's I think a lot of people are
in that boat. If we're being honest, If you don't
have the right set up, it is, there's no doubt
about it.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It's very challenging.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And so how how hard do you think it would
be on a scale one of ten to go to
go find like two or three options for someone and
they just be honest. But I think there'll be someone
that's like, oh no, it can't be the hard, and
maybe it'll be reverse psychology to encourage someone to go
try this.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
I mean if if you want me to give motivation,
then it's not going to be very hard. But if
you want me to be realistic, then it's probably gonna
be like a I don't know. I'd probably say if
ten's the hardest, it'd be about a six or seven,
Like it's going to be more.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
Hard than not, like whether people want to admit it
or not.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
Like, unless you have that food source of sanctuary, the
best time of the year is over. And I don't
want to put damper in people's plans, but that's just
the reality of it. And I like looking at things
of kind of how they are, and uh that way,
you know, hunting is a metal game. You know more
than I do. And uh, if your if your mindset's
not there, then it's like you're gonna have a horrible
(17:11):
time out there, and more than likely you're just not
even gonna strap on the boots and go. So uh,
I think having that mindset of knowing like, hey, this
is going to be tough, but if I find the ticket,
like you're gonna have a great hunt. So it will
be tough, but if you can find that care at
the end of the stick, it will be well well
worth it.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
Just because you're going to see so many deer.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I might be jump with a gun here.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Uh would you say another added benefit is scown for
next year as well?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You're in there.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Yeah, that's actually what what we're doing a lot of
the time. So uh, when you are walking around looking
for those uh those good dropping oaks right now, like
that's you run into so much good sign So it
like again, it's not like you're just wasting time out
there because you are taking you know, that intel for
next year.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
And so no, that is that is a really good point.
I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, well, I'm trying to think here as far as
you know what you're anticipating here for the next week,
you know, Merry Christmas to everyone, and sometimes that makes
sometimes that might be one of the busiest times of
the year for some families, or maybe if they don't
have to travel for the holidays, it might they might
be able to get out there and do some of
the things that you just discussed. But looking at the
(18:24):
elevated temperatures for the majority of the country here, at
least on the start of it looks like there is
a front that's rolling in the later part of the week,
at least here in Illinois scale one to ten, ten
being the best week of the year, one being one
of the worst weeks of the year of twenty twenty five,
Where would you rank.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
It for the next you know, seven days?
Speaker 6 (18:44):
I mean, so we got Christmas obviously, so I feel
like more people are going to have that time off.
And that's kind of all it takes this time of
year is just if you have that extra time. Now granted,
obviously spend that with families, spend that with friends, but
if you have that time off, it can be really good.
Like I have a buddy here. His name's Cooper Hill.
(19:05):
He is the late season dude, and that's exactly the
strategy he does. He shot so Oklahoma season ends. I
know we're not all the way there yet, but it
ends January fourteenth or fifteenth, and he killed a super
nice bock on public doing that Oak strategy on January fourteenth,
and he said he's seen more bucks on those couple
(19:25):
sits than he has the whole entire the whole entirety
of the year.
Speaker 7 (19:29):
So not all hope is lost.
Speaker 6 (19:30):
It is just tougher to find those spots, but when
you do, it will pay off, So okay.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
To wrap that up, sorry, a number. Wise I would
probably give it.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
I'd probably still give it like a six, but I'm
going to say like a seven just because it's going
to be harder to find, like I said, but when you.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Do, it's good. I like it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well hopefully you know. I still feel to your point.
You know, depending on where you're what state you're in,
you know seasons, you know it's not over here just
because the calendar switches a twenty six, oh for sure,
and so and also next year we'll be here before
we know too, like believe it or not, knock on wood, dear.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Season happens every year.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So if you can still learn something that helps you
the next year, I think that's a really great piece
of advice.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Anything else here, Jake before we wrap it up, No, nope,
I just appreciate you having me on, Jake.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
It's always good to sit down and talk some deer
hunting with you.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So if people want to go and listen to your guys'
podcast too, where is the best place to do that
and what are you guys covering?
Speaker 6 (20:28):
Yeah, so it's me and my buddy Christian Babcock. You
can find us on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
It's just hundredsdvantage on all those things.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Awesome, Thank you so much, good luck the rest of
the season. Merry Christmas. Hope you have a Grete twenty six. Thanks,
shake you too, all right. Next up on the line
we have Tommy Dickerson. Tommy has helped out on the
white Tail podcast this past year, and you've had a
really exciting season and most recently you shot a buck
in Indiana.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
How does it feel feels good?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Jake?
Speaker 5 (20:56):
It feels really good, all right, any of it's a
fun state to get after it in different gun seasons
in Ohio where I'm from, Bordon Raids, So it's really
nice to.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
Be able to hop over there and get some gun
hunting in.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Essentially, I can home with a gun vow whenever I want,
you know, after November.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Fifteenth, or whenever their season comes in. So it's pretty exciting.
Love hopping the border and be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, So tell me a little bit about your planing
here to hop over to Indiana. Was the weather related,
intel related? Or you had some free time and you
wanted to go.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
So all my late season hunting is targeted around the weather.
Speaker 8 (21:34):
I won't go out if I don't think that there's
gonna be any decent weather. So that's a big temperature change.
This buck showed up late in the year.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
I didn't even know he really existed, and I found
him just because I was going to take down all
the cameras on this farm and take.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Them to Ohio and put them on our farm.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
And I just walked in Detember just when I was
pulling the cameras and saw a bunch of sign and
realized that, hey, there's actually a buck using this. So
got in there and got some new cameras out, found
the buck, and then waited for a temperature change.
Speaker 8 (22:06):
Last week we had a big temperature drop, as in.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
The negatives chased them around and couldn't make it happen.
And I saw a temptature drop on Friday and went
in there and saw them.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
And so tell tell me a little bit about the
sign that made you stick around, right, because I think
there's some some good advice there for really anyone for
the remainder of the season. Like I feel, you got
to keep staying nimble and if you're not on something,
maybe try to go find something. And that's kind of
what happened for you, What was the sign they got
you excited was a rub scrapes, just a bunch of tracks.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
So there were there's scrapes that were ahead and also
there's deer beds, but they were single beds. They were
I wasn't finding them, you know, right right next.
Speaker 8 (22:51):
To each other, like it was dozed betting. It was
more there spread out.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
There'd at least be a couple of hundred yards between
beds and just the thick, nasty part of this farm.
And so I kind of figured at that point that.
Speaker 8 (23:03):
There was a buck in there.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
There were there's multiple bucks into the age class of them.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
Once I once I got those cameras.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Out, then after I found that signed it took twenty
four hours when I found the dear. So after that
it was you know, just out of the small little
shift and my mindset of how to hunt the farm
and where the deer were enabled.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
Me to connect with the buck. So that was pretty
exciting to find.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, and so shows up on camera and then you
look at the weather temperature drop.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
What was your setup like?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Was he was he headed a cut cornfield, bean field,
alfalfa acorns.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
What was kind of his feeding pattern.
Speaker 8 (23:42):
So he he was in he was feeding cut corn,
and so on this form the former used.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
I think he's a hobby former, and so he has
all the older equipment and he doesn't kill the corn
under which is cute, especially in the late season. So
since he used the older equipment, it's not as it's
not as great picking up the corn when they're cutting it.
So there's a lot of corn that gets left. And
then when he doesn't till it under all that corn
stays out.
Speaker 8 (24:06):
And so that's why I think he's here.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
We're targeting this field that I had the ability to hunt.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
That old equipment is becoming a thing of the past
of farm country across the country, so that that's uh,
that's a really big benefit to have.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Basically a lot of food that gets left over.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Yeah for sure, I wish, I wish, honest they had
the the make the equipment drop more corn just to
help the g out across the states, are you know,
across him his west.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
I think we got bigger here just in general.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, yeah, no for sure. And so.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Over the cut cornfield this, how many deer did you
see that evening?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Was? It?
Speaker 8 (24:50):
Was?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It a full house was it was he the last
buck to come out? What what was that like? Uh?
Speaker 5 (24:54):
So I sold five that came out into the field
and then where I can see up into the woods
and this woods needs some serious ts. I work real open,
and I saw some deer up in there as well.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
But in the field, five different bucks came out.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Didn't see it though, which was pretty interesting to see
that they were all grouping together, especially from the sign
that I found saying that they weren't bedding together. I
think when I found those beds, it was still November,
and I think I killed it here on the nineteenth,
so I think at that point in the season they
probably all started to clump together a little bit more,
which was pretty beneficial. It's kind of cool to see,
(25:32):
like it almost was like a bachelor group where these
bucks were living together, but he was clearly the oldest,
and then there's a couple of two year olds and
then a couple of our.
Speaker 8 (25:41):
Year half shields as well.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah yeah, and so yeah, that's that's really awesome, man.
And I think for anyone out there, reshuffle those cameras
or find find the hobby farm corn field, or find
find the food for sure, and so kind of looking
here for the for the near future, I mean temperatures
here for warmed up just a little bit, and then
you know, looking at the extended forecast, it looks like,
(26:05):
you know, when this goes live, it's going to be
pretty warm, but there is another cold front.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
So for folks that are hopefully.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Going to get you know, maybe a little bit of
time over the holiday, maybe they don't have as much
commitments and they're going to be able to sneak out
for a couple of evenings, what would you tell those folks?
Speaker 5 (26:21):
So what I would tell them is if you have
green resources while it's warm, and you have the ability
to hunt. You know a lot of people do get
those couple of days off of the family and they
have access to you know.
Speaker 8 (26:31):
Different properties hunt. I would key and on group any
kind of green food source for when it's warmer, and.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Then once that tendency drop does hit, I would get
back on the ag.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
If you have skating corn, stay and beans.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Cut corn, whatever it is, I would get onto that
ag as soon as you can for that cold product
because they are going to be coming for it, especially
when you've got a long period of you know, it's.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
Real warm and then cuts down the real cold they're
going to hit.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
The ad mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, it looks like, you know, for that next week
is going to be warm, so hunt the greens on
the on the front part of that. And then it
looks like temperatures they're not going to be frigid, frigid
or as cold as what it has been earlier in
this month of December, but there's still going to be
a drop And so I think that's that's some really
good advice.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Are you Are you.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Throwing any morning hunts out this time? I know people
it's almost like that's a tongue in cheek question, but
there might be some people that have time they're like, well,
I'm gonna go out and throw a morning hunt. Where
where do you stand on this?
Speaker 5 (27:26):
So I do believe that there you can't fully x like,
you can't just cross it out of your strategy, right.
Speaker 8 (27:34):
I think that that'd be a bad.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
Approach to hunting as a whole, is just to exit
anything out of the strategy because of a certain time
of year. But obviously the evenings are significantly better for
access reasons and also getting them out in front of daylight.
But if you're able to run elcams. Sometimes if you
have a buck on a pattern, you can figure out.
(27:56):
So let's say he comes out right after dark and
then he might you know, or right after dark until
eleven o'clock at night.
Speaker 8 (28:04):
Team might come out.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Late in the morning, especially during a cool front, onto.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
That food and so you can get in there without.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Pumping all the deer off the food source, then you
probably will have a pretty decent hunt. But mature bucks
nine ninety five percent of the time, like you want
to be in any nay, just because if you bump
the doze off in the smaller box, like he's going
to notice that and it's not going to happen for you.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, I want to circle back to I know a
part of Ohio that you hunt.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
You know there was EHD.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I know that that's a very serious thing for a
lot of people, you know, in many pockets of the country,
but obviously Ohio got the most attention this year for
just the amount of carnage that quite frankly happened. What
have you been seen or maybe what you have not
been seen on cameras here uh in Ohio? And I
guess kind of like your boots on the ground report
regarding that.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
So on my Ohio farm, Western Ohio, we did not
get hit with the AHD at all, which is pretty incredible.
Speaker 8 (29:04):
But where I go to school in Athens, after Ohio,
Southeast Ohio.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Right in the central essentially of where EAHD hit hard,
it's been tough talking to different hunters. There's a lot
of people that are say they're not saying year that they.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
They're struggling.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
But I think this time of year, if you're in
an area they got hit with the HD hard the year,
are going to group together because this naturally essentially that's
what they do when they're food. So if you this
might be the best time of year if you did
have an HD break or outbreak to find a food
source and get a big buck killed, because that that
(29:42):
big buck is going to keen on the whatever primary
food sources in.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
His region and he's going to be in.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
There no matter what. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, I think that's uh, that's great advice, And I
think it'll be a great inventory to you to see
what survivors made it through and maybe what nextra my
look like too, because I mean, I think for a
lot of hunters too, next season's already started right now.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Too.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I know season is still open for the majority of
the country, but for a lot of folks they're already
thinking about next year, which I think is a totally
healthy thing to do and a holistic thing to look at,
and so I think that's good intel, just to see
what maybe made it through.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Now looking at the.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Weather here, Christmas time somewhat decent weather scale one to ten,
ten being one of the best weeks of the year,
one being one of the worst weeks of the year.
Where do you put the last seven days of twenty
and twenty five according to your intel, insight and gut feeling.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
I even though there is a big tempt to drop,
I don't think it's going to be a killer time
to be in the woods.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
Especially when there's no snow. We're all hoping for a
white Christmas. I don't think we're going to get it.
But if you have the time to go out.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
And want to go out with family's friends, whatever it is, give.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
It a set.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Okay, I think there is probability that you can get
it done. But overall, I think there could be better
times than year when you can be in there. I
don't want to discourage anyone from going out, Like, if
you still want to go.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Out and you have a year that you want to
get killed, go out and try and kill them. But
I think there could be better times.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Of this season still last for someone else to get
in there, but don't let that stop you from y'all out.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Well, congratulations Tommy on a great year. Merry Christmas to you,
and we'll see what happens for the rest of your season.
I know Ohio, Ohio goes late in comparison to many
other states, So good luck for the rest of the
season for Ohio and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 8 (31:40):
Awesome, Thanks Jake.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All Right, there, you guys have it.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I hope you guys enjoyed this season of ret fresh
I hope you guys have a very merry Christmas, a
happy New Year, and you get a chance to spend
some time with friends and family, maybe even sneak out,
do a little deer honey, or maybe just get outside
and enjoy some fresh air, because I think it's going
to be a little bit warmer here for the first
part of this upcoming week, so we will see you
(32:04):
and thank you.
What is going on?
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome back to Roughfresh. This is Jake Hoefer and we're
wrapping up the rough Fresh season as we close out
two thousand and twenty five. Hope you guys have enjoyed
this year and Roughfresh maybe helped you along the way,
whether it was hearing what was going on or what
to keep an eye on for the upcoming week. This
episode is no different. We have folks from Ohio, Indiana,
(00:23):
and Oklahoma telling us what they've been seeing and a
couple big buck stories that I hope you guys enjoy.
As you know, Roughfresh is brought to you by land
dot Com, the leading online real estate marketplace to find
your perfect rural, recreational agricultural hunting properties here in the US.
We're gonna go ahead and kick things off with Kyle
in Ohio. Here we go, all right, First up on
(00:47):
the line, we have Kyle, who just shot a big
buck in Ohio. Late season down to the end of
twenty five. We're getting very very close. How does it feel.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Oh man, it feels great. Honestly, I hunted this deer.
I you know, I hear people say grind all the time,
and I kind of hate that because, like it's not
a job, Like I hate going to my job and grind,
you know what I'm saying, Like this is fun. Like
I get the like it's just a metaphor or whatever.
(01:20):
But I mean I didn't really grind. Honestly, I only
hunted him like four times. I just I had to
pick and choose when I could.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Go in there.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, and so when so you hundred four times, what
were the reasons, you know, the three previous times, like
kind of broadstroke, what was the reason You're like, Okay,
I'm gonna go take a swing? And it was like
one in October or November December. I kind of what
that looked like.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
So it was two in October, and it was just
a year. It was prior history with the deer last
year on days that he uh daylighted and I was wrong.
I had so I had to get a sitter and
I had to either pick he daylighted on the eighteenth,
So I either had to pick the seventeenth or the
(02:05):
nineteenth to hunt or the eighteenth, and I picked the eighteenth,
and he was there on the seventeenth, and then I
was like, okay, he showed up again prior on Halloween,
so I was like, okay, I got a hunt. The
thirtieth was a Sunday. I think somewhere around there was
a Sunday. I was like, I'm gonna throw in that Sunday.
He didn't show up, showed up the next day, okay,
(02:27):
of course, and.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Then I hunted him.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I was like, you know what, no pictures really of
him in November or since that Halloween and then and
even the Halloween was one o'clock in the morning, so
it wasn't like he was daylight.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I was like, well, it's the rout. Anything can happen.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I just went sat there on November fifth, and then
I've just been waiting ever since.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, so I think that's interesting that the historical data
was pretty close to right. Yeah, Like, which is you know,
something for everyone to consider this year. Obviously you were
able to catch up with them late season, and we've
had awesome I mean every week I've been saying that
we've had you know, really strong, you know, late season
weather in December obviously it's a little bit warmer right now.
(03:16):
The day you stroke struck this buck, what was your
level of confidence and why were you potentially confident?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I was probably like I didn't want to oversell myself,
but I was probably internally I knew it was gonna
get a chance at him that this past Tuesday, just
because one, he was there last week a week ago,
same day Tuesday, we had shitty weather, like bad low
(03:47):
pressure Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Tuesday came last week we had
high pressure, nice sunny, cold day and he was there
early three point thirty and I was like, well, same
thing's going on, same thing. I was like, I'm gonna
get in there nice and early. And he showed up
right on time, four o'clock. That's super cool. What where
(04:08):
are you hunting over?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Like a primary food source, a place where you are yeah,
going cool, I'm not gonna I mean.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
We're hunt I'm in Ohio hunting small you know, suburbs
and stuff. We're hunting corn and it's I bet if
they flew drone, there's probably fifty.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Corn piles, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
But uh, once it starts getting real cold like this,
like I mean, I mean it's been brutal, like honestly,
like this winter just came with an abrupt fist and
was like I'm here, yeah, and uh, a lot of
guys I think just quit and he was just run down.
I mean, he looked like he lost one hundred and
twenty pounds and lost an eye and I just found
(04:47):
out he's got a.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Big knot on his one leg. So like, I don't
know if everyone just quit.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Feeding around me or if that's where he's been, and
like it ran out and he's like, oh, there's corn
over here, but yeah, I'm not gonna stay. Oh yeah,
I put all this time, and you know I was
just dumping corn man.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yeah, that's It's crazy what they go through in a year.
And I always wonder how many times a big buck
cheat's death. And clearly that deer probably cheated death a
handful of times, you know, from other deer and missing
an eyeball and you know, big lump on his leg.
And so last year, I'm trying to remember how frigid
(05:24):
December was. I don't remember it being real crazy or so.
I remember mild, really mild, honestly.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
And so last year was he in there feeding in
December or so last.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Year I killed his running mate last year, and I
would have swore I was gonna kill this year. The
first day this year he was in there religiously, but
I again, acorns play a big part in it, and
it's not like I can just trump all over everyone's
private and see where acorns are dropping. You know, it's
not like it's a huge farm. So I just kind
(06:00):
of got to play it by year. But yeah, this
year he was I mean, dude, velvet. I got beautiful videos,
pictures all the way up him chadding bloody horned velvet.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
And I'm like, I told my wife.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I was like, I'm gonna kill him the first day
and then you know he's gone.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Well, I think there's some lessons of sticking with it
and not giving up. I feel like that's that's probably
would you say that's one of the biggest pieces of
advice you can give someone for this time of years
is don't give up.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Don't don't give up one hundred percent. I could tell
another story where it was probably I don't know. When
I first moved to Ohio five years ago, I shot
under a buck. There was literally a week left in
the season. I told my wife, I'm like, screw this,
I'm done. I'm not going back out. It is what
(06:52):
it is. I'm terrible. I'm giving up for the year.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
And she was like, you know, you should really go.
He's like trying to push.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Me to go, and I just didn't go, And I
went and pulled that camera card and that deer was
there the next three nights, an hour before dark, just
sitting there and just you can't give up this time
of year.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You just got to ride it out.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
As much as it sucks hunting in this stuff. I
mean it's warm now, it's fifty five outside right now,
but I'm sure January is gonna get cold again, and
you just gotta find the food and just ride it out.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, yeah, that's uh, that's really I mean, this is
the truth everyone like you if you're hunting this late
in the seasons because it didn't happen yet and you're's
like to your point last year, Like, no, I suck
and I just need to hang it up.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
But I think there's some pretty good advice in that.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
So, like looking here, obviously, during the holidays, that might
be a super busy time for some people, it might
be a time where they might have an opportunity to
get out. Looking at the extent of forecast right now,
it looks like it's gonna you know, when this goes live,
it'll still be pretty darn mild, at least here in Illinois.
For those folks, do you have any words of advice?
Is that just maybe move cameras around and hang out
and wait for the next front, or would you have
(08:02):
enough conviction to go try a couple of times so
over the next seven days.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Oh man, it depends what your life situation is. Honestly,
so I have a nine month old, I have a wife.
You know, if you're single and you can you know,
kind of living the bachelor life will say, and you
can get away with hunting. I feel like, I mean,
it sounds crazy, but if you can get in with
a good wind, why not. I mean, you've already we're
(08:29):
two months into the season, ohios, until February first.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I mean, we're getting close to the end here.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Why not just go if you can get in and
out clean.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
But to the guy like me who's got a family,
it's holidays and stuff like that where you just kind
of have to pick and shoes.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I'm probably waiting for a front.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I'm probably gonna find a deer, or if I have
a deer that's like on the edge of daylight, I'm
probably gonna wait for that next front and harmy yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So with that's being said, scale one to ten, ten
being one of the best weeks of the year, one
being one of the worst weeks of the year. Next
seven days Christmas Eve Day to New Yor's Eve.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
One to ten. Where do you put it, all things considered.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
I could say it could be feast or famine.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
I'm gonna say I would put it right in the
middle of five, because if the weather's gnarling and it's
cold and the deer like got a feed, it could
be a ten. You know, it could go fifty to fifty.
But now it's fifty five and it's gonna be rainy,
and it's just the complete opposite of what I was
hunting in, you know, on just two days ago.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, yeah, well I think that's that's fair. And then
I'll ask you one last question, brand Newborn, any tips,
any tips for the guy that is, uh, I'm not
expecting anything, so I got for everyone. It's the stage
of life for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
No, yeah, it's it's it.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So a lot of my friends were telling me I
wasn't hunting enough. That's why I haven't killed him, and
you know, all this stuff. And granted, if I would
have hunted every day. Yeah, probably would have killed him
back in October. But now with a newborn, I gotta
get a sitter. I got to call in a favor
with my sister in law or my mother in law.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
My advice would be, man, just watch those cameras.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I know that, like people are like you kind of
have to get a pattern on a deer like rule
thumb for me. If he does something twice the third time,
I'm gonna be there. And this year was big proof
for that historical data. Man, really really like stave those
pictures from the year before. I know a lot of
(10:45):
guys just leave him in the app or whatever. But
I made a separate folder in my phone and I
store all those three and four year olds that maybe
in a couple of years I want to shoot for
the following next year, you can come back to that'll
save you so like then you can really plan. Okay,
I need to sit her on the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth.
(11:06):
I'm gonna hunt those three days and then my wife's
very understanding. Also, I don't have a ton of hobbies.
That's the other thing.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
I know.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Guys that goll punt fish do all this stuff. I
pretty much just hunt.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
So I like it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Well, man, congratulations on connect with your buck here. I
hope you have an awesome, awesome Christmas. Appreciate it. And
good luck to your wife. I know she's still hunting Ohio.
And good luck if you venture out to Pennsylvania anymore.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Yeah. Thanks, I appreciate it all.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Right. Next up we have Jake A. Lord with Hunters
of Vantaged podcast. Jake, how's it going?
Speaker 6 (11:39):
It's going good man, Jake, thanks for having me on absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And so we were just talking earlier this month. We
were ragging about how great the winter weather was now
and mother Nature hurt us because it's gonna be a
little toasty. So you're down in Oklahoma, what do you
what have you been seeing in what's been going on
in your neck of the woods.
Speaker 7 (12:00):
Yeah, so just put in a little context.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
I'm in northeast Oklahoma, so I don't know, probably thirteen
minutes or thirteen thirty minutes from you know, the Kansas border.
So around here we got a lot of pasture land
and so a lot of open areas and a little
bit of timber. And so you mix that with you know,
the two week gun season that just now happened here.
(12:22):
You can tell that the bucks and a lot of
the deer just kind of hanging tight to the timber
and so on. Camera wise, a lot of them aren't
usually coming out in those fields or you know, trying
to hit like your I.
Speaker 7 (12:37):
Guess food sources because it's open areas.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
But we don't have that ag that you know a
lot of the Kansas people do have. And so we
you know, utilize corn feeders, corn piles, whether people may
like it or not. Oklahoma's debate state. So that helps
at least for the private pieces. But like I said,
with all the pressure here lately, it's kind of of
(13:01):
not been pulling its weight, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's been tough in other words, Yeah, it's been real tough. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And so so we were talking beforehand before we started
recording about you know, there's two scenarios where late season
hunting can be really good. You mentioned a food or
a sanctuary, and so talk about that a little bit because.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Most people don't have that.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
If we really paint the broader picture of most white
tail hunters that are listening to this, more than likely
they don't have those two things. And why are those important?
And what can someone do without them?
Speaker 7 (13:28):
Yeah, kind of like I said a second ago.
Speaker 6 (13:30):
It you either need good sanctuary where the deer feel
safe after a long season and all the pressure, or
you need you know, that good food source, which you
know on my private piece that I have, we don't
have that because it's a permission piece. We can't do
much altering to the land. So no food plot, it's
no late season food sources. So that's why we stick
(13:51):
with corn. But I mean, it's it's okay if you
don't have those. It isn't like all hoops lost. But
the thing is, instead of just having it now, you
got to go find it. So you know, like I said,
the private's kind of out of the picture if I'm
still wanting to punch my tag, And so that moves
us to public where you actually can go put boots
on the ground and find those food sources. And so
you can't bait on public here in Oklahoma, which is okay,
(14:13):
But what you do need is that good natural browse
the food source, and so down here that's usually like
those oaks, red oaks, stuff like that, those late dropping ones.
Speaker 7 (14:22):
So that's kind of what we key in on.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
And you know, not all of them are obviously the ticket,
and especially now, it seems like all the deer during
this late season they're all getting like congregated again. I
don't know if that's just because they're all grouping back
up and you know, want to say hi to each
other after a long rut, or if that's just kind
of food centralized where the food's kind of making them
(14:44):
congregate in all this one area. But what we've been seeing,
and I mean, maybe not so much this late season
just because like I told you, Yester, I've been kind
of getting my butt kicked. But like years past and stuff,
if you can find those really good dropping oaks, can
find the deer. So you just want those food sources
where you get a whole lot of sign with the
up be droppings tracks, whatever you call your deer sign.
(15:09):
That's what you want to see around those oak trees.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
How challenging is it for someone uh to go find
you know, that congregation of deer?
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Is it just putting on putting on miles.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
It's a lot of walking. It's a lot of walking.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
I mean, you could try to put cameras and just
maybe focus these, it'd be it'd be really hard to
try to I guess pattern the oaks with your cameras
to try to figure out which ones. I mean, if
you had enough cameras you might be able to, but
you you'd be checking at least ten plus different spots
or areas just try to find those those good ones.
(15:53):
And of course, as you know that natural brows and
acorns and stuff like that, everything's trying to hit them,
so it's like a it's like a.
Speaker 7 (16:00):
Temporary thing even when you do find them.
Speaker 6 (16:02):
So it's just you got to you gotta find it
when it's hot, and you got to be there, and
if not, then it's just it just makes it a
lot tougher result.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Yeah, well that's I think a lot of people are
in that boat. If we're being honest, If you don't
have the right set up, it is, there's no doubt
about it.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It's very challenging.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
And so how how hard do you think it would
be on a scale one of ten to go to
go find like two or three options for someone and
they just be honest. But I think there'll be someone
that's like, oh no, it can't be the hard, and
maybe it'll be reverse psychology to encourage someone to go
try this.
Speaker 6 (16:34):
I mean if if you want me to give motivation,
then it's not going to be very hard. But if
you want me to be realistic, then it's probably gonna
be like a I don't know. I'd probably say if
ten's the hardest, it'd be about a six or seven,
Like it's going to be more.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
Hard than not, like whether people want to admit it
or not.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
Like, unless you have that food source of sanctuary, the
best time of the year is over. And I don't
want to put damper in people's plans, but that's just
the reality of it. And I like looking at things
of kind of how they are, and uh that way,
you know, hunting is a metal game. You know more
than I do. And uh, if your if your mindset's
not there, then it's like you're gonna have a horrible
(17:11):
time out there, and more than likely you're just not
even gonna strap on the boots and go. So uh,
I think having that mindset of knowing like, hey, this
is going to be tough, but if I find the ticket,
like you're gonna have a great hunt. So it will
be tough, but if you can find that care at
the end of the stick, it will be well well
worth it.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
Just because you're going to see so many deer.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I might be jump with a gun here.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Uh would you say another added benefit is scown for
next year as well?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
You're in there.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
Yeah, that's actually what what we're doing a lot of
the time. So uh, when you are walking around looking
for those uh those good dropping oaks right now, like
that's you run into so much good sign So it
like again, it's not like you're just wasting time out
there because you are taking you know, that intel for
next year.
Speaker 7 (18:00):
And so no, that is that is a really good point.
I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, well, I'm trying to think here as far as
you know what you're anticipating here for the next week,
you know, Merry Christmas to everyone, and sometimes that makes
sometimes that might be one of the busiest times of
the year for some families, or maybe if they don't
have to travel for the holidays, it might they might
be able to get out there and do some of
the things that you just discussed. But looking at the
(18:24):
elevated temperatures for the majority of the country here, at
least on the start of it looks like there is
a front that's rolling in the later part of the week,
at least here in Illinois scale one to ten, ten
being the best week of the year, one being one
of the worst weeks of the year of twenty twenty five,
Where would you rank.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
It for the next you know, seven days?
Speaker 6 (18:44):
I mean, so we got Christmas obviously, so I feel
like more people are going to have that time off.
And that's kind of all it takes this time of
year is just if you have that extra time. Now granted,
obviously spend that with families, spend that with friends, but
if you have that time off, it can be really good.
Like I have a buddy here. His name's Cooper Hill.
(19:05):
He is the late season dude, and that's exactly the
strategy he does. He shot so Oklahoma season ends. I
know we're not all the way there yet, but it
ends January fourteenth or fifteenth, and he killed a super
nice bock on public doing that Oak strategy on January fourteenth,
and he said he's seen more bucks on those couple
(19:25):
sits than he has the whole entire the whole entirety
of the year.
Speaker 7 (19:29):
So not all hope is lost.
Speaker 6 (19:30):
It is just tougher to find those spots, but when
you do, it will pay off, So okay.
Speaker 7 (19:36):
To wrap that up, sorry, a number. Wise I would
probably give it.
Speaker 6 (19:41):
I'd probably still give it like a six, but I'm
going to say like a seven just because it's going
to be harder to find, like I said, but when you.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Do, it's good. I like it.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well hopefully you know. I still feel to your point.
You know, depending on where you're what state you're in,
you know seasons, you know it's not over here just
because the calendar switches a twenty six, oh for sure,
and so and also next year we'll be here before
we know too, like believe it or not, knock on wood, dear.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Season happens every year.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So if you can still learn something that helps you
the next year, I think that's a really great piece
of advice.
Speaker 6 (20:13):
Anything else here, Jake before we wrap it up, No, nope,
I just appreciate you having me on, Jake.
Speaker 7 (20:18):
It's always good to sit down and talk some deer
hunting with you.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So if people want to go and listen to your guys'
podcast too, where is the best place to do that
and what are you guys covering?
Speaker 6 (20:28):
Yeah, so it's me and my buddy Christian Babcock. You
can find us on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast.
Speaker 7 (20:35):
It's just hundredsdvantage on all those things.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Awesome, Thank you so much, good luck the rest of
the season. Merry Christmas. Hope you have a Grete twenty six. Thanks,
shake you too, all right. Next up on the line
we have Tommy Dickerson. Tommy has helped out on the
white Tail podcast this past year, and you've had a
really exciting season and most recently you shot a buck
in Indiana.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
How does it feel feels good?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Jake?
Speaker 5 (20:56):
It feels really good, all right, any of it's a
fun state to get after it in different gun seasons
in Ohio where I'm from, Bordon Raids, So it's really
nice to.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
Be able to hop over there and get some gun
hunting in.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Essentially, I can home with a gun vow whenever I want,
you know, after November.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
Fifteenth, or whenever their season comes in. So it's pretty exciting.
Love hopping the border and be able to do that.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Yeah, So tell me a little bit about your planing
here to hop over to Indiana. Was the weather related,
intel related? Or you had some free time and you
wanted to go.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
So all my late season hunting is targeted around the weather.
Speaker 8 (21:34):
I won't go out if I don't think that there's
gonna be any decent weather. So that's a big temperature change.
This buck showed up late in the year.
Speaker 5 (21:42):
I didn't even know he really existed, and I found
him just because I was going to take down all
the cameras on this farm and take.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
Them to Ohio and put them on our farm.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
And I just walked in Detember just when I was
pulling the cameras and saw a bunch of sign and
realized that, hey, there's actually a buck using this. So
got in there and got some new cameras out, found
the buck, and then waited for a temperature change.
Speaker 8 (22:06):
Last week we had a big temperature drop, as in.
Speaker 5 (22:09):
The negatives chased them around and couldn't make it happen.
And I saw a temptature drop on Friday and went
in there and saw them.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
And so tell tell me a little bit about the
sign that made you stick around, right, because I think
there's some some good advice there for really anyone for
the remainder of the season. Like I feel, you got
to keep staying nimble and if you're not on something,
maybe try to go find something. And that's kind of
what happened for you, What was the sign they got
you excited was a rub scrapes, just a bunch of tracks.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
So there were there's scrapes that were ahead and also
there's deer beds, but they were single beds. They were
I wasn't finding them, you know, right right next.
Speaker 8 (22:51):
To each other, like it was dozed betting. It was
more there spread out.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
There'd at least be a couple of hundred yards between
beds and just the thick, nasty part of this farm.
And so I kind of figured at that point that.
Speaker 8 (23:03):
There was a buck in there.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
There were there's multiple bucks into the age class of them.
Speaker 8 (23:08):
Once I once I got those cameras.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Out, then after I found that signed it took twenty
four hours when I found the dear. So after that
it was you know, just out of the small little
shift and my mindset of how to hunt the farm
and where the deer were enabled.
Speaker 8 (23:24):
Me to connect with the buck. So that was pretty
exciting to find.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, and so shows up on camera and then you
look at the weather temperature drop.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
What was your setup like?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Was he was he headed a cut cornfield, bean field,
alfalfa acorns.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
What was kind of his feeding pattern.
Speaker 8 (23:42):
So he he was in he was feeding cut corn,
and so on this form the former used.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
I think he's a hobby former, and so he has
all the older equipment and he doesn't kill the corn
under which is cute, especially in the late season. So
since he used the older equipment, it's not as it's
not as great picking up the corn when they're cutting it.
So there's a lot of corn that gets left. And
then when he doesn't till it under all that corn
stays out.
Speaker 8 (24:06):
And so that's why I think he's here.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
We're targeting this field that I had the ability to hunt.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Mm hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
That old equipment is becoming a thing of the past
of farm country across the country, so that that's uh,
that's a really big benefit to have.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Basically a lot of food that gets left over.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
Yeah for sure, I wish, I wish, honest they had
the the make the equipment drop more corn just to
help the g out across the states, are you know,
across him his west.
Speaker 8 (24:40):
I think we got bigger here just in general.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, yeah, no for sure. And so.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Over the cut cornfield this, how many deer did you
see that evening?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Was? It?
Speaker 8 (24:50):
Was?
Speaker 1 (24:50):
It a full house was it was he the last
buck to come out? What what was that like? Uh?
Speaker 5 (24:54):
So I sold five that came out into the field
and then where I can see up into the woods
and this woods needs some serious ts. I work real open,
and I saw some deer up in there as well.
Speaker 8 (25:09):
But in the field, five different bucks came out.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
Didn't see it though, which was pretty interesting to see
that they were all grouping together, especially from the sign
that I found saying that they weren't bedding together. I
think when I found those beds, it was still November,
and I think I killed it here on the nineteenth,
so I think at that point in the season they
probably all started to clump together a little bit more,
which was pretty beneficial. It's kind of cool to see,
(25:32):
like it almost was like a bachelor group where these
bucks were living together, but he was clearly the oldest,
and then there's a couple of two year olds and
then a couple of our.
Speaker 8 (25:41):
Year half shields as well.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah yeah, and so yeah, that's that's really awesome, man.
And I think for anyone out there, reshuffle those cameras
or find find the hobby farm corn field, or find
find the food for sure, and so kind of looking
here for the for the near future, I mean temperatures
here for warmed up just a little bit, and then
you know, looking at the extended forecast, it looks like,
(26:05):
you know, when this goes live, it's going to be
pretty warm, but there is another cold front.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
So for folks that are hopefully.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Going to get you know, maybe a little bit of
time over the holiday, maybe they don't have as much
commitments and they're going to be able to sneak out
for a couple of evenings, what would you tell those folks?
Speaker 5 (26:21):
So what I would tell them is if you have
green resources while it's warm, and you have the ability
to hunt. You know a lot of people do get
those couple of days off of the family and they
have access to you know.
Speaker 8 (26:31):
Different properties hunt. I would key and on group any
kind of green food source for when it's warmer, and.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Then once that tendency drop does hit, I would get
back on the ag.
Speaker 8 (26:41):
If you have skating corn, stay and beans.
Speaker 5 (26:44):
Cut corn, whatever it is, I would get onto that
ag as soon as you can for that cold product
because they are going to be coming for it, especially
when you've got a long period of you know, it's.
Speaker 8 (26:54):
Real warm and then cuts down the real cold they're
going to hit.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
The ad mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Yeah, it looks like, you know, for that next week
is going to be warm, so hunt the greens on
the on the front part of that. And then it
looks like temperatures they're not going to be frigid, frigid
or as cold as what it has been earlier in
this month of December, but there's still going to be
a drop And so I think that's that's some really
good advice.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Are you Are you.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Throwing any morning hunts out this time? I know people
it's almost like that's a tongue in cheek question, but
there might be some people that have time they're like, well,
I'm gonna go out and throw a morning hunt. Where
where do you stand on this?
Speaker 5 (27:26):
So I do believe that there you can't fully x like,
you can't just cross it out of your strategy, right.
Speaker 8 (27:34):
I think that that'd be a bad.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
Approach to hunting as a whole, is just to exit
anything out of the strategy because of a certain time
of year. But obviously the evenings are significantly better for
access reasons and also getting them out in front of daylight.
But if you're able to run elcams. Sometimes if you
have a buck on a pattern, you can figure out.
(27:56):
So let's say he comes out right after dark and
then he might you know, or right after dark until
eleven o'clock at night.
Speaker 8 (28:04):
Team might come out.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
Late in the morning, especially during a cool front, onto.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
That food and so you can get in there without.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
Pumping all the deer off the food source, then you
probably will have a pretty decent hunt. But mature bucks
nine ninety five percent of the time, like you want
to be in any nay, just because if you bump
the doze off in the smaller box, like he's going
to notice that and it's not going to happen for you.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, I want to circle back to I know a
part of Ohio that you hunt.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
You know there was EHD.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I know that that's a very serious thing for a
lot of people, you know, in many pockets of the country,
but obviously Ohio got the most attention this year for
just the amount of carnage that quite frankly happened. What
have you been seen or maybe what you have not
been seen on cameras here uh in Ohio? And I
guess kind of like your boots on the ground report
regarding that.
Speaker 5 (28:57):
So on my Ohio farm, Western Ohio, we did not
get hit with the AHD at all, which is pretty incredible.
Speaker 8 (29:04):
But where I go to school in Athens, after Ohio,
Southeast Ohio.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Right in the central essentially of where EAHD hit hard,
it's been tough talking to different hunters. There's a lot
of people that are say they're not saying year that they.
Speaker 8 (29:20):
They're struggling.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
But I think this time of year, if you're in
an area they got hit with the HD hard the year,
are going to group together because this naturally essentially that's
what they do when they're food. So if you this
might be the best time of year if you did
have an HD break or outbreak to find a food
source and get a big buck killed, because that that
(29:42):
big buck is going to keen on the whatever primary
food sources in.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
His region and he's going to be in.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
There no matter what. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
No, I think that's uh, that's great advice, And I
think it'll be a great inventory to you to see
what survivors made it through and maybe what nextra my
look like too, because I mean, I think for a
lot of hunters too, next season's already started right now.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Too.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
I know season is still open for the majority of
the country, but for a lot of folks they're already
thinking about next year, which I think is a totally
healthy thing to do and a holistic thing to look at,
and so I think that's good intel, just to see
what maybe made it through.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
Now looking at the.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Weather here, Christmas time somewhat decent weather scale one to ten,
ten being one of the best weeks of the year,
one being one of the worst weeks of the year.
Where do you put the last seven days of twenty
and twenty five according to your intel, insight and gut feeling.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
I even though there is a big tempt to drop,
I don't think it's going to be a killer time
to be in the woods.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
Especially when there's no snow. We're all hoping for a
white Christmas. I don't think we're going to get it.
But if you have the time to go out.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
And want to go out with family's friends, whatever it is, give.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
It a set.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Okay, I think there is probability that you can get
it done. But overall, I think there could be better
times than year when you can be in there. I
don't want to discourage anyone from going out, Like, if
you still want to go.
Speaker 8 (31:12):
Out and you have a year that you want to
get killed, go out and try and kill them. But
I think there could be better times.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Of this season still last for someone else to get
in there, but don't let that stop you from y'all out.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Well, congratulations Tommy on a great year. Merry Christmas to you,
and we'll see what happens for the rest of your season.
I know Ohio, Ohio goes late in comparison to many
other states, So good luck for the rest of the
season for Ohio and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 8 (31:40):
Awesome, Thanks Jake.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All Right, there, you guys have it.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I hope you guys enjoyed this season of ret fresh
I hope you guys have a very merry Christmas, a
happy New Year, and you get a chance to spend
some time with friends and family, maybe even sneak out,
do a little deer honey, or maybe just get outside
and enjoy some fresh air, because I think it's going
to be a little bit warmer here for the first
part of this upcoming week, so we will see you
(32:04):
and thank you.
Host
Mark Kenyon
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