00:00:00
Speaker 1: All right, folks, welcome back to another episode of the Wired to Hunt podcast, and we are back for another season of our rut Fresh radio mini series. This is like season eight, maybe it’s been a long time running. It’s a fan favor every season. Come the fall, we do this extra drop, which if you are not familiar, I want to give you a very fast rundown of what this show will entail this week and every week from now on through the rest of the season.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: What we’re doing is.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: We are chatting with a handful of different deer hunters from across the country every single week to find out what they’ve been seeing in the woods, what kinds of behavior they have been noticing, how recent weather factors or conditions or atmospheric conditions, whatever be, how that stuff’s impacting deer movement, how the changing habitat out there is impacting deer movement, deer behavior and hunting strategy, and how all of this can help you he was a hunter in your coming hunts over the next three, four or five, six, seven days. That’s what we do, quick hits with people all across the country to get the most recent relevant information to help you as a deer hunter.
00:01:12
Speaker 3: This week.
00:01:13
Speaker 2: So that’s what the show is.
00:01:15
Speaker 1: And it’s been like that for like I said, seven or eight or nine years now. Now what is different this year is that we have a new captain for the rough Fresh ship. This year, my good buddy mister j Koefer is taking the reins from our palace Tyler and Casey, who’ve ran the show for the last two or three years. Jake just ran an awesome mini series called the Back forty Podcast, which hopefully you heard, that is wrapping up and now rutfresh is kicking off. So Jake, great work with a Back forty and welcome to rot Fresh Radio.
00:01:48
Speaker 4: Hey, it’s great to be here, and it’s gonna be an exciting fall and it’s gonna be a roller coaster. There’s gonna be things that we can predict and there’s gonna be things we can’t predict, and it’s gonna be great to get and idea what’s going on across the country. And I would say this too, key weather fronts. You can listen to a guy that’s maybe further west and what was he seeing just a couple of days ago, and how can it apply to your neck of the woods or north to south.
00:02:12
Speaker 2: So really excited for it.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so you’ve heard this episode, You’ve heard this show as a listener, you’ve tuned in as a listener of the year, so you know what it’s all about. But you’ve never been in the captain’s seat having to find these people, talk to these people, extract useful information from them. How are you feeling about this new responsibility that you bear, having to be the conduit for tens of thousands of people to get the information they need this week to have success in the field.
00:02:40
Speaker 4: Do you feel that pressure maybe a little bit now. I mean, I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun. It’s going to be great to hear the success of you know, people having throughout the season, or maybe the struggles or just the anticipation of the season builds up. I mean, I feel like it’s going to be contagious and I’m looking forward to it. I Mean, we have some really good guests here for this week, and we actually have one if a guy that shot a really wide, awesome buck and so as a as a deer hunting fan, I’m excited to hear the story firsthand and see what he keyed it on. And so it’s great to be here, grateful for the opportunity, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.
00:03:15
Speaker 1: So is there anything new that we should be watching for this year? With you running the show? And you know, I’m here this episode, but I’m I probably won’t be around for most of the episodes. You’ll be running the whole show from here on out. I’ll drop in as a guest here and there. But do you have any changes you’re wanting to make? Is there anything new coming down the pipeline that we should be watching.
00:03:35
Speaker 4: For The plane is gonna get built in the air, so as it sits expect some really good information.
00:03:45
Speaker 2: You know why. It’s been a favorite in the past.
00:03:47
Speaker 4: And I feel like once I get my sleeves up and maybe ankle deep in some mud, there’s very possible there’s gonna be some audibles or some different approaches here. So that’s that’s my foreshadowing without an idea of what the foreshadowy really is. And there that’s fair.
00:04:04
Speaker 1: Now.
00:04:04
Speaker 2: One thing, though, am I right?
00:04:06
Speaker 1: Are you still planning on having video for all of these interviews?
00:04:09
Speaker 2: This is that right?
00:04:09
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:04:10
Speaker 2: All of them are still gonna be video.
00:04:11
Speaker 4: There’ll be some challenges, yeah, there’ll be some challenges throughout here, so that is one of the biggest changes. And I feel sometimes it’s crazy just how many people watch podcasts on YouTube now. And I think that audio is great. But to see the excitement or maybe see the dark circles under my.
00:04:27
Speaker 2: Eyes or guest eyes.
00:04:30
Speaker 4: They’ve been out, you know, in the in the woods chasing deer for three weeks, four weeks or a week solid, it’s going to be fun to look at my face. I guess week one here in September, September, and then by the end of December, see what I look like.
00:04:44
Speaker 1: Well, you know what you should try to do. Here’s a little stretch goal for you. If we could somehow get some of our successful guests, you know who just kill the deer. We got to get some of these guys to like take us out to the truck or to the barn or to wherever they’ve got there. Did I want to see some of these deer in real life. That’d be pretty fun, a great story. So if that works for anyone, try to get that. I’d love to see some video of these deer that we’re getting the recent stories and recent information from or another good one. Maybe we can get someone to report to us from a tree. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. We’ve never hit anyone calling before from a hunt where they can actually show us what things are looking like right now.
00:05:28
Speaker 2: I don’t know.
00:05:28
Speaker 1: Maybe that won’t work because it’ll be whispering on a podcast, which doesn’t sound ideal.
00:05:32
Speaker 2: But brainstorming here I’m supposed to do.
00:05:35
Speaker 4: I might be hosting from the tree at one point, so we’ll see what happens.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: I love it, so okay, so that’s the game plan. That’s what we have to look forward to. What else do you want to cover here before we get to the interviews?
00:05:51
Speaker 2: I think that’s that’s the premise. I’m excited.
00:05:53
Speaker 4: Hopefully everyone is just chomping at the bit for this upcoming season. I know some folks are still waiting for that October one date to hit the calendar, but there’s people that are up and going and we’ve been talking with them, and uh, that’s pretty much all the housekeeping I can think of for the time being. And I know you recently just got back from a trip and I haven’t I don’t know how it went, and so I’m really eager to hear your Western adventures slash fishing trip too, like hunting and fishing trip.
00:06:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, the cast and the last we’re going to be doing a full podcast on it, so I won’t give away too much, but I can tell you that probably one of the big things that we experienced on this trip is something that a lot of folks are going to be experiencing over the next week as they’re listening to this, which is still a lot of these hot and dry conditions. And I’m really curious to hear from the other guests that you have on the show today about how they are dealing with this weather, don’t I don’t think this is unique to me. I think that this has been a very dry, hot, you know, late summer and early fall for a lot of people, and I gotta believe that’s going to be impacting deer and deer hunting strategies. I’m I’m you know, seeing this with my food plots. I’ve never had a worse food plot year. I don’t know if you had the same problem, but it has been horrible by us. So I’m just very curious how is that going to impact people’s food plots and they’re hunting strategies around green plots and stuff like that. How is this dry weather going to impact people with mass crops this year? Are the mass crops going to be impacted by that? What about water sources? Are the little isolated water holes maybe people usually depend on in the early season, are those going to be dried up and not you know, available for us to hunt over?
00:07:33
Speaker 2: What about EHD?
00:07:34
Speaker 1: I’ve been hearing more and more reports of EHD in certain parts of the country. Is that going to be popping up and really impacting people’s seasons? All of that is very much on my mind right now, based on what I’ve seen and heard. I don’t know if you’ve heard any of this with your interviews so far, but I’m curious.
00:07:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, that’s that’s already been a common occurrence. EHD has been brought up the just the level of dryness from failed food plots, potentially acorn dropping maybe a little bit earlier. In some parts of the country, crops got in late, so they say that crop’s going to be out, you know a little bit later this fall, and obviously that can change things.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: And then.
00:08:11
Speaker 4: For some of it too, it’s so dry that some of the crops are going to come out early. So it’s it feels like we’re getting a little shaky start to the season, like the stage is not set as of right now to be.
00:08:22
Speaker 2: This amazing thing. We had a really wet July.
00:08:25
Speaker 4: You know, It’s like there was a lot of things that we’re setting up a really exciting year, and now mother nature seems to be even the playing field as we get closer to a lot of these season openers.
00:08:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I’m I hate I feel like many seasons we’re kicking it off with a lot of excitement, and for some reason, I’m kicking off this season with like some apprehension. Yeah, because of some of those things we just talked about. So I just don’t know. I’m a little bit nervous. I’m feeling nerves from people right now given some of that, especially the EHD thing, I think, yeah, it’s getting that’s getting scary for a lot of folks.
00:08:58
Speaker 4: So I actually I call I called my local game boarden yesterday just to see have you heard any rumblings of a BHD in this area, and he said no, not at this time. I talked to not in regard to refresh, but just talk to some folks where not you know, southern Ohio, places outside of there that are experiencing them some EHD or people getting nervous that deer are disappearing. And then you know, we did that podcast on the back forty about failed food plots and I had I had bragged that I typically had don’t have failed food plots. I do have a failed food plot here where I live. And I went out there last week and I said, why is there no germination? But on some of the other ones, they’re they’re coming up, okay, But man, we need we need some rite.
00:09:35
Speaker 1: We need rain so bad, so bad. Well, I’ll be doing rain dances over here. I hope you’ll be doing the same. And maybe between all of us here, uh listening to the Wired Hunt podcast and deer hunters all over the country, of all of our rain dances are done at the right times, enough times, maybe we’ll finally get some of that pre sip that we so desperately need. So, uh, Jake, who who are we hearing from today?
00:09:59
Speaker 2: Who are we hearing from?
00:10:00
Speaker 1: Where are they from?
00:10:01
Speaker 2: What’s coming up next? We have Cameron Dirt.
00:10:04
Speaker 4: He had success in North Dakota earlier this month, and he’s gonna be You had to listen on how excited he is about the Ohio opener.
00:10:12
Speaker 2: We have Joe Cater from Missouri.
00:10:14
Speaker 4: Their season opened up September fifteenth, and his approach and what he’s keen in on. He’s had success in the early season when when conditions are right, and it doesn’t sound like he’s as bullish as it sits right here now. And then we have our gentleman from Wisconsin who killed a beautiful deer is and his name is Mitch Stam and the Deer Society posted recently it’s a very very impressive frame deer and he shot that on the first sit of the season. So we’re gonna hear how all that came together, and it’s gonna be a great kickoff to Refresh, and I hope everyone tunes in every single week because it’s gonna get it’s gonna get more exciting. We’re gonna things are gonna fall into our lap and there’s gonna be some positive bounces along the way.
00:10:53
Speaker 2: And I’m very, very excited. So we have some great guests.
00:10:56
Speaker 1: Awesome, well, Jake, thank you for taking my baby and stewarding it into this next phase of its life. I’m excited for the Jake.
00:11:05
Speaker 2: Kofer era of Retfresh Radio. And let’s get to those interviews. Thanks. Let’s do it.
00:11:17
Speaker 5: All right.
00:11:17
Speaker 4: We got Cameron Der on the line. He recently tagged a buck in North Dakota. He’s back home in Ohio and your season is opening up this weekend. But you kicked off the season. How everyone dreams with a buck tagged out on an out of state trip.
00:11:33
Speaker 2: Where were you and what were you doing?
00:11:36
Speaker 5: I was in Minnesota. No, I’m just kidding. I was in North Dakota. Went out there for the archery opener this year. It opened earlier than it’s ever opened. August twenty ninth was the opener. So we were like, man, we could really honing in on a deer doing something consistency, with some consistency, And I actually took a trip out there in July, at the end of July to cameras and kind of figure out what the deer we’re doing. The way it goes is when you take those trips out early and think you have something pinned down, you get out there to hunt at that time deer shedding and they start doing crazy things and you lose them. So it was a game of game of glass and a game of time, and I was able to connect.
00:12:23
Speaker 4: What was one or two key things that puts you an opportunity But to be you know, sub twenty yards with with a buck that you’re happy to shoot, you know, target buck.
00:12:32
Speaker 5: So we’ve been going out there for five years and I learned a lot in those progressions. But out in those scenarios, glasses, the time behind glass and really figuring out what deer are doing. It’s so open that it may seem like a deer doesn’t have a trail or a pattern or something that you can hone in on. But if you spend enough time behind the glass watching them, there are areas where they’re vulnerable. They’re will be some type of terrain pinch or some type of something that you can take advantage if you spend enough time behind glass. If I watch this deer do something one time and I was like, Okay, well I’m gonna go kill him, I wouldn’t get it done. And I learned that over the time of being out there. So watch them do the same thing on camera three times, physically watched them with glass twice, and then I made my strategic move.
00:13:25
Speaker 4: You come from a tree, comeing from the ground. What is your strategy If it’s really open. I have to imagine traditional Midwest. I’m going to be getting a tree or wise off twenty feet up. It’s probably not in your playbook.
00:13:37
Speaker 5: No, No, this area, it doesn’t have This particular farm that we were on, there are no trees. There’s not a tree on the farm. It’s a fourteen acre piece that does not have a single tree on it. There’s some shrubby brush things that would be like head high that if they were in the right position, you could make a hide out of it. But in this particular area, I had a standing corn field behind me, standing beans in front of me, and I had a draw that was going down into a lake below me. In between the beans and the corn, there’s a bunch of sage. So the sage is like if you get into it, it’s like head high strategy we’ve used in the past. Is taken like a t post or a fence post or something in there with us and like zip tying some of that sage to it, just to give you some sort of structure in front of you. And then the standing corn was kind of like my backdrop and some sage. So it’s a fantastic hide. It’s worked for me twice in the same exact little sage pinch. When you get that crop rotation of corn and beans, you have that edge out there, it’s just dynamite And below me was a cattail slew. If you have cattails standing corn, standing beans in the first week of September in Dakota State, you’re in a pretty good situation.
00:15:00
Speaker 4: What about you know, we’re near the end of the month of September, would you say, beast, same strategy and advice would ring true if someone had a tag in their pocket and they’re in the Dakota’s or they’re in a plain state, you know, ready to go this weekend.
00:15:14
Speaker 5: If there are trees in the area, like oak trees and stuff, oaks are dropping and deer are are going to prefer the oaks. But in those ag areas where the beans are still green, the Dakota’s were wet this year, so they got a really good stand crop stand. If the beans are still green, Yeah, that’s that’s exactly what I would still be doing it. But if you are in other areas that are going to have oaks, oaks are dropping and bucks are switching for sure.
00:15:42
Speaker 4: Hm. Okay, So now Ohio is going to be opening this weekend. What’s your what’s your strategy? You know you already have one down, right, so what is your strategy? An outlook over the next seven days for Ohio’s opener, A lot of people are excited. I’m sure there given to be a lot of people that are going to go out there and scratch that edge. They’ve been waiting a long time to hunt for the first time in their respective home state. If it’s Ohio, what would you say or what are you paying attention to as the season is about to open.
00:16:14
Speaker 5: Temperatures and oaks for this weekend? But depending on what part of Ohio you’re in right now, I severely feel for you. If you’re in the southeast portion, I don’t know what you do down there, don’t I don’t know what you plan to do. Do you even hunt this year?
00:16:32
Speaker 3: I don’t know.
00:16:34
Speaker 2: Is that Have you heard it being that severe?
00:16:36
Speaker 5: Yeah? There was a report it’s like on Facebook and I didn’t validate it, but they said they were over seven thousand deer reported reported in ten Times. Gosh, that’s not what hasn’t been reported or hasn’t been found. So it’s really ugly in the southeast portion right now. So you probably are going to get yourself in a situation where you’re going to travel or go somewhere, And if you’re in that boat right now, I would be paying attention to oaks. Oaks are starting to drop. It’s been so dry there seems like they’re dropping a little earlier then maybe typical, So yeah, oaks. For me, I’m gonna pay attention to the weather. I have that tag filled, so I’m not itching or dying to get out there. And right now the outlook doesn’t look too great for temperatures mid mid to high seventies. A couple of weeks ago it was in the sixties and feeling right, and then we had this warm spell pop up. So in the outlook that I have right now, there’s not that cold front. But when we get that cold front, if you have a deer still doing some sort of pattern on on some oaks, or if you still have green beans, they’re yellowing up really quick. But right now it’s all bed to food and temperatures.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: If you had to put a scale one to ten for the next seven days with your guys season opening Saturday, ten being electric best it’s ever been, and one being you’re not going to probably send an alarm on Saturday.
00:18:16
Speaker 2: Where does it fall.
00:18:17
Speaker 5: Time of year plays into a lot of this, But I’m gonna say like a five. I’m in the middle. I don’t feel great about it because you’re not getting the most optimal temperatures. But if you’re in a position where you have a deer doing something with some sort of consistency, he’s not been pressured yet. This first week of the season, for a lot of people is go time. It is the time to take advantage of that. So for me personally, I don’t have that situation. The deer are switching into smokes and I got to move some ultary cameras around and figure them out a little bit more, spend too much time focusing on North Dakota. But yeah, I would put it at like a five. But if you’re in a situation where you have a deer pinned down and you know what he’s doing, it’s probably a little higher on that scale.
00:19:05
Speaker 3: For the first week of the season.
00:19:06
Speaker 2: I love it.
00:19:07
Speaker 4: Well, the time is here, congratulations once again on a successful Dakota’s buck. It’s always great to It’s almost like, is the sun going to come up? Is camera going to shoot a buck in the Dakota’s it’s almost you shoot it, you shoo it in. So congratulations with that. Awesome, awesome to hear that story. And good luck this season, good luck this weekend if you head out, and thank you so much, thank you.
00:19:28
Speaker 2: All Right, we got Joe Cater on the line.
00:19:31
Speaker 4: He’s in Missouri and their season has already been opened. How is everything going in Missouri? It’s a little hot, it’s a little dry. What have you been seen or not seen?
00:19:44
Speaker 6: So it’s kind of been all over the place. I’ve got a couple of shooters that have been on my dad’s form, but it’s one of those spots where it’s it’s a duck hunt farm. He’s a duck hunter, so he’s always up there being retired and doing whatever he wants, scaring the hell out of everything. But so I haven’t those deer have not been regular in any way, shape or form. And I’m really concerned that you know that three letter word we all fear when the drought comes is EHD. So I haven’t had pictures either one of those deer for three weeks, two three weeks at least, and haven’t had any rain of any measurable content over there.
00:20:29
Speaker 3: For probably six weeks. I want to say, yeah, six weeks. My fault plot’s over there, complete loss.
00:20:35
Speaker 6: So here at home, we had a half inch the other day, but again before that, it was I mean I haven’t had any rain since July. So I redrilled fault plots Saturday. When cereal grains because they just I mean it’s hard, you know, unless you have a.
00:20:56
Speaker 3: Really good way to irrigate.
00:20:57
Speaker 6: And I’m busy trying to married and reason my family, so that’s uh, that’s priority number one. So uh, it’s just been kind of tough. Uh had one years, probably a shooter here at my house at least one, and there’s another one that it’s kind of hard because at my home home farm there, you know, I’m I’m kind of in the hills off of the river bottoms, and until they cut those crops in the bottom, I don’t see a whole lot of activity as far as mature bucks go.
00:21:27
Speaker 3: So that’s kind of that’s kind of where we’re.
00:21:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, what would you say, are you anticipating crops to get out on time this year? If you had a guess when they might eventually get out? I mean, what’s kind of your prediction for that? If if for folks that have similar situation.
00:21:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, they’re gonna be a little bit behind of where what we would consider normal.
00:21:46
Speaker 3: Here in north central Missouri.
00:21:48
Speaker 6: We had a rotary club dinner Monday night, and I’m surrounded by farmers of that thing, and you know, they’re probably gonna start cutting here this weekend. Is the word on the street. As far as cutting. There’s you know, because a lot of those crops. We had a very wet spring and summer. We had a very wet springing summer, and you know, they didn’t get a lot of those crops in the time that they normally do.
00:22:15
Speaker 3: So that’s just kind of what the cars that we’re dealt right now.
00:22:20
Speaker 4: So so looking you know, looking at the extended forecast, looks like it’s still going to be warm this upcoming weekend. You know, your season at that point had been open for you know, almost two weeks or so. Are you are you gonna be out and doing dope patrol? Are you gonna be sitting back and waiting? What is your strategy going into this upcoming weekend? You know, like the twenty fifth or twenty sixth of September.
00:22:45
Speaker 3: Un left, I got a deer that’s doing something.
00:22:49
Speaker 6: Silly on a fault plot that’s doing well the first few weeks of the season. I’m just kind of a hurry up and wait kind of guy. I mean, if you’re one of those guys that’s got a deer on camera doing something in daylight, I mean, get after him, because uh, well the deer on the wall behind me. I killed him on September twentieth. You just got to have you just got to have the right cards played, and you know, the deer have to exist and be in order to be able to hunt mature buck. So you know, if you’re if you’re getting consistent pictures of one, even though it’s hot, I mean, get out there, you know. But that’s that’s kind of what’s you know, I’ve had limited early season success only because the opportunity was there. And if the opportunity is there and you got cameras out or any MRI, you know, get after him. But but I’m kind of My farm’s mostly CRP and it got sixty acres September, but it’s that’s my home form. But it’s just kind of one of those spots to where once I get those crops out, it really picks up. After the first of October, tenth of October, that’s kind of when things start getting real. I just took my electric fence down off my beans last week, so and there the beans did, I mean the crop, the spring plots did incredible.
00:24:03
Speaker 3: I think we I don’t want.
00:24:05
Speaker 6: To speak for the whole entire area, but I loft something like twelve and fourteen inches of rain in July in Missouri. It is like crazy, it’s crazy, it’s you know, so my soy beans are not up to my chin, but you know, they’re incredible. And those were late ones, just because I had I had a wrong variety of beans and I messed up and spray two four D on them. But just I when in the spring, I’m like super busy with all the different plots and things, and.
00:24:41
Speaker 3: Grabbed the wrong bottle. That’s all it was to it.
00:24:44
Speaker 6: So I smoked them and had to replant them. I replanted some for a buddy on July fourth, and they’re up almost up to my waist. So just because I how much moisture and that’s not very good dirt either. So but just go go ahead.
00:25:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you had to for someone listening, if there was one specific food source with you know this warm temperatures that’s been dry or I guess one one terrain feature, one one focal point to fill a tag on a buck and you had to and you had to look at it over the next seven days. You know, twenty second on what is the one thing that you’d be keenan on the most.
00:25:23
Speaker 6: Pay attentionally history in years past. If you’ve got that white oakridge that dropping acorns, do not overlook that without any MRI. If you’re just one of those guys that’s got to get in the woods, even though you don’t have any intel, gost it gostit and white overridge or something were historically you’ve had acorns drop.
00:25:42
Speaker 3: Because even though around here anyway.
00:25:45
Speaker 6: Even though we didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of rain recently, you know we are still going to have a really good acorn drop on timber farms. I don’t have a ton of timber on my form, but I’ve got some permission spots to do. And if I get a wild hair and the family’s all good, you know, I’ll still go sit in eighty five degrees on a white oak bridge on a spot that I got and which is actually up very far from where that deer came from behind me. So yeah, that’s that’s kind of something I would key in on if you’re somewhere that just got to get in the tree without the MRI.
00:26:19
Speaker 2: So love it all right.
00:26:21
Speaker 4: So in the next seven days, ten being the best week of hunting of your entire life and one being yeah, you’d be just fine if you don’t go h that would be one one to ten.
00:26:33
Speaker 2: Where does the next seven days fall.
00:26:35
Speaker 3: For me or for everybody, or for you?
00:26:37
Speaker 4: For you and for Missouri. You’re you’re speaking for the state of Missouri right now?
00:26:43
Speaker 6: I mean three maybe? Yeah, you know, I mean I did. I did get into recurve a little bit. I got a recurve a few months ago, and I’ve been jam and arrows into the haybial with that.
00:26:55
Speaker 3: I might get a whild hair to go try and spek a dough.
00:26:58
Speaker 6: But other than that, I’m kind of I’m kind of laid back in the early season. You know, if something shakes out to where I got some MRI, I got to make sure that Jesus is worth the squeeze when I leave the family, you know, with a four year old and an eight year old to to Finn for my wife fends for so well.
00:27:16
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
00:27:17
Speaker 4: Joe, Well, good luck, appreciate the insight, and uh, it’s gonna get better. So if so, hopefully someone doesn’t get discouraged. It’s a long season and we’re gonna get some cold fronts. You know, everything’s gonna happen the way it’s supposed to do. But you know, we’re in the very first leg of the race here.
00:27:33
Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, I still got gear there, packing velvet, so I mean, it’s not you know, it’s kind of one of those things that where you know, hurry up and wait and then go like hell when it gets you right for you in your particular situation.
00:27:43
Speaker 3: Love it.
00:27:44
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Joe. Good luck this season.
00:27:46
Speaker 3: You bet you too, buddy.
00:27:47
Speaker 4: Next up on the line, we have Mitch, and Mitch is fresh off killing a giant in Wisconsin. How does it feel, Mitch, You’re kicking off the season with a lot of intensity.
00:27:59
Speaker 7: It feels pretty incredible and not gonna lie like getting her done on eighty three degree weather is almost unheard of without a cold front or anything that early. But got lucky that he was still sticking to that summer pattern.
00:28:12
Speaker 1: Kind of and got after him.
00:28:15
Speaker 4: I love it, so give us set the stage for us. So it was eighty eighty some degrees and he was sticking to a summer pattern. Where was he going to? How far do you think he was coming out of a bedding area? And I’d love to hear those those details.
00:28:29
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:28:30
Speaker 7: So actually the night before I was filming a wedding that Saturday of opening day, and he came through on daylight about an hour before like last legal shooting light. So I’m sitting I’m like, oh man, he’s still moving an eighty three degree weather. So that’s it’s good to know. I will get up there and maybe try to hunt him. So the next day we had a birthday party and I was trying to get my dad to go all day. I was like, Dad, I think they should go after him.
00:28:53
Speaker 1: He’s like, yeah, maybe we’ll go.
00:28:55
Speaker 7: And then after a while it kind of got hotter and hotter out He’s like, you can go out if I want to go.
00:29:00
Speaker 1: I’m like, well, I’m gonna go after him. He’s like all right, well, good luck, and we went up.
00:29:05
Speaker 7: The spot is actually where I’ve killed my last couple of bucks. It’s up on top of a ridge. This is in Buffalo County, so the infamous bluffs and everything around is pretty much right on the top of one of those. Got a water hole up there, and we have probably about a half acre food plot, and actually a tree just went down in that food plot. We had a big storm like a month ago or so and a huge oak tree fell over. So we had a gate up there and reconstruct that whole food plot. I think it was like August twenty second or something like that. So we went in there and planted a bunch of rye and clover and got it coming up pretty well, and he was on it almost immediately and got pretty excited right after that because at Young Rye they love that this time heere, especially when I mean the opening week and there’s a bunch not only that acorn or oak tree, there’s a bunch of other oak trees around. And that night when I was sitting out there, there was six Sols probably fifteen yards away from me, just launching on acorns. So I’m sure that had quite a bit of a draw as well, because I could hear him the whole night when I was sitting there, just falling and hitting my blind.
00:30:13
Speaker 1: The whole night.
00:30:13
Speaker 7: It was pretty pretty comical just hearing them just continue to hit the blind too.
00:30:18
Speaker 4: Man, so it was raining acorns, you had fresh, tender new growth. How far do you think that buck went from when he got up out of his bed that evening if you had a.
00:30:25
Speaker 7: Guess, Well, there’s a huge cornfield on the neighbors to the south there, and I’m almost positive he came from out of there, And I wouldn’t say if he was betting in there somewhere. I don’t think he traveled less than one hundred yards. He just better than that cornfield. And I kind of rolled the dice. Normally we have a pond setup that we normally sit like early season or whatever, but seutheast wind is.
00:30:53
Speaker 1: Almost dead wrong for that spot.
00:30:56
Speaker 7: So because of winds blowing right to that pond, and normally they like to come out on that point more. But I from the pictures the night before, it looked like he was coming from the corn the other way instead of that point. So I’m like, well, by go and sit in this blind instead of down by that water hole. I’ll have a good shot at maybe seeing him, and the wind would be perfect for that.
00:31:15
Speaker 1: And ended up getting lucky and.
00:31:18
Speaker 7: Came out and then within the daylight and had a quite the hassle getting drawn back in that blind. I had to draw back three different times before I shot him.
00:31:28
Speaker 2: But what was going on?
00:31:30
Speaker 7: Well, I was in this blind, It’s well, this is pretty much my gun stand that I only sit in, and we have a tree stand probably fifteen yards away from it.
00:31:39
Speaker 1: But it’s hard to sell film out of. So I was like, I don’t know if on a roll.
00:31:43
Speaker 7: The dice go up there and it’s a little bit more self and the wind would have been a little bit more wrong.
00:31:49
Speaker 1: So I was like, I got a chance it out of that blind.
00:31:51
Speaker 7: And as soon as I got in that blind that night, I wanted to practice drawn back and everything. But twenty minutes, probably after I got in, a dough in a fawn came to that food lot and didn’t give me a chance to mess around with anything or draw back, and that kind of screwed me over. But man, I got lucky that I was able to finally draw back and release an arrow at him.
00:32:12
Speaker 4: No, that’s that is amazing what you’ve had success early. So for someone listening, you know, let’s just say for the last eight days of September. So you know, picture the last eight days of September, last nine days of September. What’s one thing that you think would be very important for people to key in on hopefully have a you know, similar success to yourself.
00:32:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, definitely, Uh, this time of year, a lot of times those Braskas are holding so much moistury yet in those leaves, and they don’t really need to go to the ponds to get all that water, but because they can just get it right from the Braska leaves. And actually Friday night he was out daylight and a whole different food plot munched in front of a big old Braskt plot that we had. So I’d say definitely keying on those Braskas especially. I think there’s a cold front i’ment through here in the next couple of days, so I’m sure they’ll be moving pretty well there. And definitely the acorns were a drawing card on Sunday night when I killed my buck too.
00:33:10
Speaker 4: How risky did the hunt feel based off of access? Were you were you nervous about going in there or did you feel that was a pretty bowlproof setup?
00:33:18
Speaker 7: I thought, I mean I was a little nervous because of where he was coming from the corn I kind of got to well, I literally got to drive our ranger all the way up that bluff and come around from the opposite side. We park up kind of on this hillside and walk in that way. But I knew it’s kind of hidden from the top of the cornfield. It’s probably like thirty forty feet down below, so you can’t really see the ranger if they’re betting in that corn there. And I had multiple different times.
00:33:46
Speaker 1: We’d be out working this year.
00:33:48
Speaker 7: We made a new pond for him and put in a blind, and he seemed to not care at all. He came out a couple hours after we were all messing around and digging in a new water hole. So I think he got pretty used to the ranger over time because he just still come up and daylight and ACKed like nothing was new. But uh, yeah, I think it was kind of risky, but I figured I had to give it a chance because the night before he was out there broad daylight.
00:34:15
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you know, conventional wisdom would say, man, it’s eighty some degrees, don’t even bother. But you went out there and made it happen. You had really good intel that you had. You had a really real chance and you made it happen. How have you measured the inside with it that deer yet?
00:34:28
Speaker 1: I did?
00:34:29
Speaker 7: Actually I took it over to a good friend of mine, Shane Innerbow. He does a lot of antler stuff with sheds and scores a lot of deer, and he I think he got it at twenty five and seven.
00:34:39
Speaker 1: A’s Oh my god, yeah, pretty unreal. I called him.
00:34:45
Speaker 7: I had nicknamed him the two footer last year when I first got pictures of him, I’m like, holy crap, that’s got to be the widest deer I’ve ever had on camera. And I guess I was underplane how wide he was. It was pretty awesome getting that tape on him. After we got them all tracked down and got them out of the woods. That’s the first thing we were We got to get a tape on him. See how why this guy is?
00:35:07
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:35:07
Speaker 7: Unreal?
00:35:08
Speaker 4: H No, totally totally unreal. Uh congratulations. If you had to skit, you know, give a scale one to ten on what the last eight days of September may look like, ten being to kill a deer’s widest two feet wider than two feet wide, and one being it’s gonna be really tough. Where would you rank that one to ten.
00:35:32
Speaker 1: September?
00:35:32
Speaker 7: I mean, they’re still kind of in their summer patterns before they start breaking up, and normally around this time here we get new bucks that are showing up from I don’t know, a mile a mile and a half away, kind of getting out of their summer ranges. But it seems like there’s another drawing card that I was on. I put a mock straight uh rub and got a couple oak branches hanging off there too, And he was coming e b lined right for that scrape tree too, and I kind of noticed some trail camera pictures that he was certain his dominance. Whenever he’d come up to the plot, you get all a little bristled up and show off the other younger bucks what he’s made of. And yeah, he game be lined right for that scrape tree too. So those scrapes are starting to.
00:36:12
Speaker 1: Heat up now too, now that all the belt’s.
00:36:14
Speaker 7: Gone, and I don’t know, that’s one thing that I know everybody’s starting the key and on more is those scrapes, because they’re not only good for pictures and hunting over, but they’re just yeah, they’re a game changer.
00:36:27
Speaker 2: So one to ten. You got to give us a number.
00:36:31
Speaker 7: If you get a cold good cold front in late October, late September, I give it’s high up or I give it a probably a eight or nine.
00:36:39
Speaker 1: I really liked late September.
00:36:42
Speaker 2: Awesome, man.
00:36:42
Speaker 7: Well, I hadragulations. I had another buck that I shot a couple of years ago. I probably had one of my best hunts ever and that was on September twenty second in a clover field on a cold front and probably saw fifteen to twenty deer that night, including that giant buff.
00:37:00
Speaker 1: Never got a shot at him that night, but it was awesome night.
00:37:04
Speaker 4: Oh that’s that’s super cool. Well, those great advice. Congratulations once again, and yeah, just an incredible deer. And I encourage everyone to go check out that they have to see this deer to believe it, because when I saw it, I said, I got to talk to Mitch and congratulating.
00:37:18
Speaker 2: So thank you so much and good luck the rest of the year.
00:37:21
Speaker 1: Appreciate it, Jake, thank you here.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: You guys have it. Welcome back to retfresh.
00:37:26
Speaker 4: We had some common advice of if you have a buck that is doing the same thing, you can take advantage of it. Go out and do it even if the conditions aren’t perfect. Mitch is the example of this and I hope you guys have a great week and if you’re waiting on the sideline for October First, your time is coming. Stay strong, keep scouting, and get ready to enjoy a fun and exciting fall. We will see you next week on Retfresh.
00:37:51
Speaker 2: See you
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