00:00:00
Speaker 1: Seth.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Refresh. This is Jake Hoefer and this week we are doing this a little bit from a mobile studio. I’m just wrapping up a new Mexico ELK trip and we have a great episode with a variety of guests Ohio, Pennsylvania, Who’s going to New Jersey? And we have Mark Kenyon kicking off the episode. Before we get into all the guests and all the intel, I want to say that Refresh is brought to you by land dot com, the leading online real estate marketplace you find your perfect rural, recreational, agricultural, or hunting properties. Here in the US. It’s been hot, it’s been a little bit stagnant, but there’s still been some big bucks that have been shot. And we have a little bit of a front moving throughout the country this week. And so if you’re excited and you want to go out and make a play, you’re going to get some great intel from folks that either have already shot a buck or developing a plan to hopefully connect with one. Let’s go ahead and kick things off with Mark Kenyon. Here we go, all right, First up on the line, we have Mark Kenyon and I’m still in my mobile recording studio here, Mark, how’s it going.
00:01:05
Speaker 3: It’s good, It’s really good.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: I guess I’m not as good as you coming off of an incredible LK hunt, but I felt like I was flying pretty high. The white tail season is kicked off here in Michigan. I’ve had a fun start to it, so I have no complaints. Well good, well, good. So what constitutes a fun start? Well, I have been out three times since the opener. So I went out the first two nights, and then I took off two days, and then I hunted again on Sunday. And two of those hunts are on my own, like you know, really getting after the buck I’m going after. And those were good hunts. And then the last hunt was more of a family hunt. I took my two sons they’re five and seven, out four hunt with me, and that was an adventure of a different kind, but very fun, fun to have them out there with me. So so yeah, the uh, you know, the good times were had with the kids. And I saw very good activity on the first couple nights, which I can tell you about if you want.
00:02:04
Speaker 3: On those early October hunts, what.
00:02:06
Speaker 2: Did you see the deer doing and let’s hear a little bit about your setup, because those are some of the first swings of the year, so they’re usually maybe the most calculated.
00:02:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know what I did the first couple nights of the year was hunt a place where I had pretty darn good chances of seeing the deer I was after, but it was actually a.
00:02:26
Speaker 3: Low risk place to get into and to get out of.
00:02:29
Speaker 1: And you know, given the fact it was the first night of the season, if there was reason to be a little bit.
00:02:35
Speaker 3: More risky, I would have.
00:02:37
Speaker 1: But actually my intel was showing me that the buck I was after was coming out to this kind of low risk spot in daylight still, so I thought, Man, I don’t need to do something crazy if he’s coming here already.
00:02:48
Speaker 3: So I decided I’m gonna hunt.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: I had a perfect wind for a rare easterly wind for this zone. I was hunting a tiny green food plot right on the edge of a betting area with oaks dropping as well, so it was kind of like dual food source that’s in cover, surrounded by standing corn and tall early successional habitat and then tight to his bedroom.
00:03:10
Speaker 3: And that was a setup for those first couple.
00:03:13
Speaker 1: Nights it was, you know, a little bit cooler than previous for a lot of people.
00:03:17
Speaker 3: He had like mid eighties.
00:03:18
Speaker 1: And then October first and second came and we got that slight drop in temperature down to.
00:03:22
Speaker 3: Like the seventies. So I saw a decent bit of movement.
00:03:26
Speaker 1: It was still pretty late the first night, but the second night, so October second, you know, an hour and a half or so before dark, I really started seeing a lot of deer movement. And I saw seven different bucks that night and maybe fifteen to twenty dos. A couple things stand out to me as far as the activity I’ve seen.
00:03:46
Speaker 3: Number One, the bucks are.
00:03:48
Speaker 1: Definitely feeling their oats like they’re starting to just like you know, get after just a tiny bit. And by that I mean almost every time I saw multiple bucks together they were there was almost always two of them sparring. I’ve seen so much sparring, both in person on these hunts and then also on my trial cameras. Lots and lots of bucks just kind of locking up, lightly tickling times, pushing each other back and forth, you know, nothing aggressive, but just kind of saying, hey, how strong are you? Here’s how strong I am? You know, just kind of getting a little bit of that angst out and that got me thinking that, man, a great reminder that this time of year, some very light rattling, some very light, little kind of time tickling can be an effective way to signal, hey, there’s another buck over here.
00:04:36
Speaker 3: You’re curious, come on over again.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: Nothing aggressive, but just that very light little tinkle tinkle tick tick. That’s what I was hearing a lot of this week, and I think that’s something that will probably continue in the future.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, so were you able to lay eyes on your target buck on those hunts where you saw you know, twenty dos and seven different bucks.
00:04:56
Speaker 1: I did not see my target buck. I did see mostly year.
00:05:01
Speaker 3: And a half folds.
00:05:01
Speaker 1: I saw several two and a half folds, and I saw one three and a half. Now I will tell you that I do have daylight pictures of my target buck.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: He showed up at another food.
00:05:15
Speaker 1: Plot of mine that I was not at on the first night, like two minutes after dark. So he was, you know, in daylight opening night, about two hundred yards away from me.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: And then he has.
00:05:26
Speaker 1: Been moving in the morning in daylight three different times this week. So the unfortunate issue has been that I can’t get into hunt this zone with the winds we’ve had and kind of the food set up, just like the property layout, to get in there and try to hunt a morning without blowing things up. So I’m on the fence about maybe I should try something with this cold front coming up this next week. Maybe there’s a way with the wind we’ve got coming in that I might be able to pull off a morning hunt because he’s definitely he’s been moving that last hour of daylight in the morning, So that’s a possile stability, but I’m sure we’ll get to it. But with this weather coming in, I think there’s you know, going to be several different opportunities.
00:06:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we can jump right into the weather because I think that you know, it’s been elevated attempts here above average temperatures. You know, across the board throughout the country. It looks like there’s a weather front rolling in Monday or Tuesday. So with this list, people are listening to this on Wednesday, you know, there’s a lot of people that really like hunting. Obviously, a front after a pretty good rainstorm, like creating a pretty good storm for opportunity. With all that in mind, are you seeing that weather in your forecast, and that’s what’s kind of helping you shape your plan.
00:06:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, it’s gonna be a little bit different for everyone depending on where they are in the country. So for me in Michigan, the front is hitting Tuesday, and then we have that cool weather Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then it heats back up Friday. You’re east of me, so if you’re on the East coast, you might not be getting that cold front till Wednesday. You might have a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday front. So you know, if you’re listening right now, I’m sure you’re all checking your own weather. So I don’t need to tell you to do this, but think about what I’m telling you and what the other people are telling you today in relation to that. You know, somebody might say, well, Monday is going to be the best day, but that might be because they are in Minnesota, but actually their Monday might be what you will have on your Wednesday or whatever it might be. So keep that in mind. So we’ve got this big front coming through. As you mentioned, rain’s going to come in for me on Tuesday. Temperature is going to drop about twenty degrees for the highs it’ll be like mid eighties today, it’s going to be mid to low sixties. It’s a high tomorrow, and then the low temperatures are going to drop all the way into the thirties by Thursday, with like a frost warning on Thursday. So because of that, and because i also am looking at my extended forecast and I’m seeing that this is the only three day window like this, This is the only nice front at least for my zone. It goes right back up to kind of warm and stable weather for the next fourteen days after that. So I’m looking at this as like, hey, this is like mine, this is my mid October front. This is gonna be the shot, and then it’s probably gonna be late October until we get the next you know, change in weather patterns that might trigger a little bit of extra movement. So I’m I’m gonna be a little bit more aggressive here and look at this as like this is one of my big swings, and then it’s gonna be I’m actually taking off next week for a different trip somewhere, so I’m not gonna hunt my Michigan spots anyways. So all that said, I am in the process right now of deciding where the best opportunities would be to take a serious swing at this buck. So I’m gonna, you know, maybe get tight tight in the cover right on some oaks that are adjacent to his bedroom.
00:08:37
Speaker 3: That’s one idea I’ve had.
00:08:39
Speaker 1: I’m debating do I want to do like one more kind of like pseudo safe but still in the game hunt and if that doesn’t work out, then the second day do the big swing.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: Those are the things I’m thinking about. But the two options would be, you.
00:08:54
Speaker 1: Know, either hunting in the oaks right adjacent to his bedroom or just one layer back from that, closer to the food sources in between, well the planted food sources, so I can be in a transition between food and bed, or I can be tight to the bed. In particular, there’s one spot where this buck is beded a lot. Now, I these bucks bed in you know, multiple locations, so you never know exactly where they’re gonna be, but I know that this one, you know, several acres zone is a spot that he spent a lot of time in the past. There’s a big scrape right on the edge of it that he’s hit a ton over the last couple of years. That I have a tree prepped pretty close to it that I can get to. It’s just a tough spot to get into if it’s you know, if it’s super dry and still, you’re gonna bump deer getting in there. But if it’s wet from rain in the morning and there’s some breeze, I could probably get there. So that might be what I do for me. Tuesday could be the wet, windy day. It might be worth getting in there. So I’m I’m weighing those cost benefits right now.
00:09:54
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
00:09:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, that’s it’s crazy that this might be one of the better opportunities here in October. Obviously the weather can change. And the other benefit to this time of year too that no one’s mentioned yet, but we haven’t had daylight savings time. So if you get off work a little bit early, this is potentially an opportunity to sneak out the stand after work. Maybe jet out of work a little bit early. Because it’s gonna be super stagnant for fourteen days. You’re probably gonna wish you at least went out and took a swing.
00:10:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s what I’m looking at. I’m just not seeing a lot of that. You know, those changes and changes on a dynamic forecast is often going to lead to dynamic movement stability, you know, like like a monoculture. This is everything right, Like a monoculture of habitat usually not great. A monoculture of weather forecast not ideal. Not that they’re not going to move, but you’re just going to have things kind of stagnate a little bit. So I like the fact that, hey, here’s an opportunity where things are shifting up big time. It’s going to lead to some kind of shift with a deer. Might as well take a swing of swing for and worst scenario, it doesn’t work out, and then you still have several weeks until late October when a lot of us are gonna get really serious anyway. So it’s it’s kind of a low risk situation this point as far as I’m concerned.
00:11:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, I mean, with all that being said, we got to put a scale one to ten on it. Where do you think the next seven a’s are going to fall? And we’ll say eight for you, will include Tuesday. I didn’t do that for anyone else, but we’ll throw that in here for you. So two day, the following Wednesday.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: So if you’re gonna let me include the day before people are listening that, I’m gonna give this like a like a.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: Like a seven.
00:11:35
Speaker 1: Like I think it’s pretty good, I mean pretty darn good for like a mid October ish time period. It’s, like I said, it’s worth a swing. I don’t think it’s going to be the same that on October twenty seventh, twenty degree cold front would be, but I think that there will be deer moving. I think that having a little bit of rain and wind and switching things up is going to be really nice, not just forgetting deer moving, but also allowing us that access. It’s been so dry here, I know that’s been the case over so many parts of the country. Finally getting a little bit of moisture, some wet leaves, that’s going to give you a chance to do something that maybe you couldn’t do over the last week because it’s so still, so loud. This is a chance to take advantage of those things. So I’m giving you a solid seven. I’m very excited about these next three days. I’m I’m planning on hunting Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then probably pull back a little bit be more conservative, go out to some safe spots with the kids where I’m just trying to, you know, show them a good time, or see some doughs or shoot a dough But I’m looking forward to Yeah.
00:12:37
Speaker 2: One last question for anyone that is not they’re looking at this weather front, they’re hearing, man, I should be pretty excited. I should go take a swing. They’re also the person that says, man, I just haven’t had any deer show up yet, or I’m still waiting on a buck, or I’m still waiting on one to show up. What would you be your suggestion or of one piece of advice for them to take somewhat of advantage of this opportunity, even though they don’t feel like they’re ready to make a calculate choice and they’re just kind of going with the flow at the moment.
00:13:03
Speaker 1: So I think I would say if I did not have any you know, if I didn’t have a deer I was after, or feel confident that there was some bucks in the air that I wanted to hunt now and I kind of hadn’t dial to some degree, I wouldn’t take a big swing. I wouldn’t be taking like an early to mid October big swing even with this front, unless I was doing it in a calculated way. If I’m in search mode right now, I would still hunt, of course, but I would probably be hunting somewhere. That’s you know, number one, going to give me opportunities to learn. That’s probably the biggest thing. I would be in search mode, in observation mode, in scout mode. So hunt observation stands, hunt places where you can see along ways. If you have rain or wind, you might want to take advantage of that to do some scouting actually on the ground right now. This especially given the fact that we haven’t been able to do that quietly for several weeks because of how I mean, it’s just so crunchy out there right now. If we finally get rain, what a great opportunity to go check some stuff out quietly. Of course, be careful about wind, still be smart about it, but you can go cover some ground real quick. Take an afternoon and say, you know what, I’m not gonna hunt tonight. I’m just gonna scout the heck guy this place. Try to find a concentration of bucks sign. You know, I have seen a lot of big rubs already. I’ve been seeing bucks really starting to rub in my zone and some pretty decent sized ones, so that starting scraping is obviously starting. I’m seeing, you know, the target buck I’ve been after has been visiting scrapes relatively frequently. So now is a great time to get out there. If you don’t already have this intel, take advantage of this moment, this opportunity to go find that try to find a buck or several bucks, or concentration of activity that then you can hunt in a more calculated way next time you have the day off, or next time the wind and the weather.
00:14:44
Speaker 3: Looks a little better.
00:14:46
Speaker 1: So I would say there’s plenty of things you can do now even if you don’t have something picked out that’s chasing wonderful.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: Well, we have a Jeeven Mullet who shot an awesome Ohio buck. We have Zach Kaim who shot at to get a couple of Ohio guys because I know there’s a lot of people that have major heartache there, so I wanted to bring in a couple of Ohio success stories. And then we have Aaron Hepler from Pennsylvania who opened the Hunted That opener in Pennsylvania and is headed to New Jersey. So we have an exciting episode. I hope everyone has a great week and good luck to you. I’m hopeful that this plan comes together for you.
00:15:20
Speaker 3: Thanks buddy, I appreciate it.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: Next step we have Javid Mullett with Whitetail Edge, who connected on a great Ohio buck with no food plots, no nothing, just intel and the good game plan. Here we go. Congratulations, you tagged a big deal to kick off the season. How’s it feel?
00:15:39
Speaker 4: Thank you, man, I really appreciate it. Thanks for the innight here. I am humbled for the opportunity and just to keep grinding here, but it feels great. I love killing early, especially for the situation that I’m in with filming Ben, for Whitetail Edge and everything else. Like the sooner I can kill, the more that pressure is off of me, in a freeze, everything up for me to be able to really do what I need to do here.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: For White Till Edge, yeah, your your tag is filled, but your season is just getting started still exactly everyone else.
00:16:11
Speaker 4: Yep, my wife, my wife. Everybody’s telling telling my wife, oh, yeah, you know he killed early and you should be good, and she’s like no, no, yeah.
00:16:21
Speaker 2: No, that that’s awesome. So here, let’s hear the story and and kind of how you’re able to develop a plan. Everyone’s always waiting, you know, killing a buck early there is a sense of relief, like, man, it all my plan, my preparation, my scouting plan A came together. Uh how did you put together a solid plan that came together so smoothly? Yeah.
00:16:41
Speaker 4: So basically over the years, I’ve kind of learned that I I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself, or I’m pretty relaxed, and and oh I can’t find a dear, I can’t do this or I can’t do that. Like I’m just like I do my thing and if it works great, if not, I’m just out having fun. And and so I did. I also killed Opening Morning. Actually I think it was back in twenty two with the exact same strategy. And basically this this is on a on a permission property that a couple other guys can hunt, neighboring neighboring guys hunt, and so I have to I have to bounce around between you know, their spots, Like I stay await from spots that I know that they have stands and stuff. And basically my strategy is mock scrapes and sell cameras, and I just I get them in spot and transition zones that I feel like are close to their bedding, and and then I I find points where I can put those cameras and make make scrapes, and and then I just wait it out and whether the deer is going to move in and use that or not. It’s it’s, you know, kind of just up in the air. But like I said, I just wait then for my cameras to tell me what they’re doing and if a deer moves in and uses that.
00:17:57
Speaker 2: So talk a little bit more about that set up with the mock scrapes, intead cameras. Are those in conjunction with food sources, betting mass crops? What did that setup look like?
00:18:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, so all that stuff comes into play this particular farm. Obviously I did not there’s no food plots or anything on that I did on this farm wasn’t feeding or anything. And so it’s ag. It’s it’s a mix of of of timber and ag. And it’s pretty steep rough terrain as well. So so that stuff comes into play as far as for movement and travel. But in this particular instance, usually obviously everybody says food to you know, bed to food, bed to food, and that it is accurate. But I think in this instance it was maybe a little bit opposite from what people typically think, Like like usually a deer beds in the woods, right, and then it goes into the agfield to feed. Well, this deer was actually bedded in extending cornfield and he was going into the woods into the end of the hardwood timber for feeding in the oaks. And so I killed him between the standing corn field and the hardwood timber.
00:19:05
Speaker 2: That’s interesting. That’s that’s the polar opposite of what most people liked me planned on. And there’s there’s the debate if they bed in corn or if they don’t bet in corn, will hear the story for you?
00:19:14
Speaker 4: And I guess I don’t know for one hundred percent certainty that he was. I should actually go out and walk that field, because I know there are some areas that are maybe a little bit grassy or the corn didn’t come up as much, and I just I kind of assumed that he did. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t have a drone out look or anything like that, So I don’t know for sure. But that’s where he came from. If he wasn’t betted in the corn, he was betted ride on the edge, you know, across the corner from me.
00:19:41
Speaker 2: What made you anticipate him betted, you know, in the corner, on the edge of corn to set up that play.
00:19:47
Speaker 4: So this camera wasn’t necessarily I didn’t really have it in mind that, okay, this these deer are going to bet in the corn. It was just the hillside that I had to hunt. And again this is my strategy of just I try to pick the best spots that I can, and I scatter cameras all throughout the farm in these spots, and I try to tell people like if I if I get a twenty five to thirty percent success rate on these cameras, mockscrapes, setups, I should have two or three spots that are gonna work for me, like because I try to usually do my roll of thumb is about a camera per twenty acres. Is what I like to is what I like to do, And then I just try to pick these spots. But this particular spot was so this permission property was timbered seven eight years ago and it’s really really thick in a lot of the lot of the wooded areas. And this spot was a pretty steep hillside, west facing hillside, And I often like to look for the east facing or the north facing hillsides and try to monitor those spots a little bit more for the south or west prevailing wind a five on. So many deer like to bed on those on those north and east facing hillsides with the south through a west wind. They can watch down the hill and they can smell from anything behind them. But and this is another another key factor that that was going on here is this particular spot was on the west facing hillside, and it was I saw there was a trail that was kind of coming coming to the standing to the big oak timber, and and I was I was fairly close to a property line here. The neighboring timber is mature. There’s there’s big oak oak flats on the neighboring timber, and then my side is is timbered. There is some oaks throughout, but a lot of it is just thick shrubby brush stuff. And so this deer was headed to the neighbor’s oak flat, and so I was a little bit limited with I may not have put the camera where I did. Obviously, if I probably would have gone over to the actual oak flat and made a mock scrape, but I obviously couldn’t do that because that’s on the neighbors. So this scenario was just trying to get that travel because I knew that’s what they would do once those those oaks start dropping, those acorns start dropping, And that’s why I put the camera where I did. And now it ended up we’ve been having quite a few north northeast winds and that’s what happened. He moved into this spot. I feel like because of that northeast wind was on a west facing hillside, and that’s what I capitalized. Then Monday night, that was the last predicted northeast wind that we were going to have for a while, So I knew that if I wanted to kill him there, I would.
00:22:41
Speaker 2: Have to do it. Yeah, do you think there’s strategy looking out into the calendar for the next seven days or so? Do you think the same type of strategy and idea is something that people should have in their mind.
00:22:51
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean, obviously I think anymore if I I try to have these cameras and mock scrapes put out, Uh, it’s I’m still trying to figure that out. Just whenever you have time. It comes down to whenever you can get to it, because you can still do it in season. It’s just it’s it’s a little bit it’s harder because obviously, if you’re going into timber in these sensitive spots and and and you know, essentially scouting your way through and figuring it out, then you’re blowing your deer out like you’re that’s just inevitable now if you can. I would say in season, I’m a little bit more cautious about that unless you’re okay with just blowing your deer out and then and then probably your cameras be dead for you know, a few days or a week or whatever until those deer all move back in or in some cases the you know, you might blow deer out and he might be there that night.
00:23:44
Speaker 2: It just depends.
00:23:45
Speaker 4: But uh, in season, I’m usually a little bit more cautious, and I usually try to just stay on the edges field edges where you can drive to or run your e bike or whatever is is often you know, an easy, easiest way to do it, and then hang your cameras on actual live scrapes if they’re already showing. Unless I will say, unless you can’t shoot to one of those scrapes. I usually try to make so that I can shoot to the scrape that my camera’s hungover. And then another big thing that I do is is I try to point the camera and find the route that a deer will take, regardless whether there’s a scrape there or not. So the more factors that you can put right and the more exes I guess you could call it, that you can put right in front of your camera, the likelihood of you getting that deer if he comes through is a lot higher, even if he’s not checking the scrape. So that’s something that I always keep in mind. And then obviously if you do do mock scrapes, then I’m as I’m scouting, I’m looking for trees for me to be able to hunt with different winds that I can kill right if a deer travels that or is hitting that scrape.
00:25:02
Speaker 2: Man, that’s some really good insight because I feel that, you know, there’s been some really good deer get that have been shot and uh, you know, doing reugh fresh now it’s like you kind of start hearing this commonality or this theme of scouting and developing you know, a plan to your point, maybe it works twenty percent of the time thirty percent of the time, but dang when it does, oh man, well, And.
00:25:22
Speaker 4: That’s the way I look at it, Like, dude, I have I think I have seven cameras on on this particular piece over over mock Scrapes, and I, like I said it in a video that I took, like, if if twenty percent of these spots work, like I’ll still have some good spots like and that’s the way that’s and and and the more the more you do this and the longer you do it, I’m like, especially mock Scrapes, the more successful you get. Like it’s just it’s just experience. And you can sit here and listen to all the different types and different ways that that people do it, and and sure you can learn a lot from that, but until you actually go put boots on the ground and just just start figuring it out yourself, like you’re going to fail and you just have to expect that.
00:26:17
Speaker 2: Looking, you know, here in the next seven ish days for weather, it looks like there might be a front rolling in for folks that still have a tag in their pocket. And this front rolls in. I mean, do you think this is going to be a time that they should really prioritize to be out there. Yeah?
00:26:32
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean I think obviously my favorite times are are small cold fronts of October, and I just proved that again. You know, the other night was a little bit the same. The pressure was rising a little bit. I have a hard time sitting in because a lot of my spots are are deep in and their access is tough. So I have a hard time sitting in those spots if I don’t know that the deer is around at least, Like I don’t just go blindly hunt these these these scrapes just because the weather’s good, like I would. I would rather, you know, go hunt a different property, or hunt on the fringe to kill some doze, or maybe do an observation, sit on a big egg field.
00:27:16
Speaker 2: Or something like that.
00:27:17
Speaker 4: But I’m not diving into any spots until I know that the deer is in the area at least. And then then is when if the conditions are right with a with a cold front moving in, then just go even go sit Even if maybe he didn’t hit your camera, maybe he hit a different camera. A couple hundred yards away. You just if you know he’s in the area and you get these cold fronts, absolutely you know it’s it’s time to go in.
00:27:43
Speaker 2: I love it all right, Scale one to ten. Where do you think the next seven days will be? You know for October? Uh October bear with me here? Uh sure October, October eighth, October fifteenth, Scale one to ten. Where do you put it? Oh?
00:28:01
Speaker 4: Probably I would say a five or six.
00:28:05
Speaker 2: Okay, I wouldn’t.
00:28:07
Speaker 4: I wouldn’t be in a hurry. Don’t don’t haunt just to haunt. I mean, if you do haunt just to haunt, then go sit a spot that that you know, you don’t care if you mess it up. Unless unless again you get that and get that fake picture you know that he’s there, then then for sure, like go go go in after him. But I I don’t get super excited early October, especially coming into the wall like this. It’s unless the camera tells you that that you need to go, then then I would be hesitant.
00:28:39
Speaker 2: I like it.
00:28:39
Speaker 5: Well.
00:28:39
Speaker 2: Congratulations once again. I have a feeling you’ll be behind the camera of some more big bucks dropping this fall, so really appreciate it. Congratulations once again.
00:28:49
Speaker 4: Thank you, I appreciate for the offer. Thanks Jake.
00:28:52
Speaker 2: All Right, next up on the line, we have Aaron Heppler from Pennsylvania. How’s it going this morning.
00:28:57
Speaker 5: What’s up, dude? It’s good to be here.
00:29:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, so your guys is state wide PA season opened very recently and you got the jitters out and a shot of dough.
00:29:10
Speaker 5: I did, Man, I’m very excited.
00:29:13
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:29:13
Speaker 6: It’s always good to like knock the cob webs off and like, you know, get a shot out of his saddle, and it was a really good shot at twenty yards, So that makes you feel it makes you feel good for the rest of the season, you know.
00:29:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think there’s a lot of wisdom to that for anyone that’s maybe doesn’t have like for a lot of guys, bucks show up later in the year, and so if you’re in that boat, I feel like that’s such a great opportunity to go through your draw cycle, pick a hair on the deer, squeeze off the shot, because realistically, we all work really hard for that one opportunity throughout the whole fall. And it was that kind of your thought process or were you just out of Venison You’re like, hey, I want to get the free throw a little bit old for.
00:29:53
Speaker 5: I mean, you know how much I love my venison.
00:29:56
Speaker 6: But that’s right, Chef Aaron at the You know, no, man, you know I always go through this thing where you get bucks on camera and you want to start out by immediately hunting that buck because you think it’s your best opportunity, and there is sometimes there’s opportunity to shoot that buck on the opener, but really you’re kind of setting yourself up for failure a lot of times, like if you’re not ready for that. There’s been years where I haven’t practiced enough archery out of a saddle or out of whatever I’m planning on hunting on in and I spent a lot of time doing that. I spend a lot of time doing that right before the season, like get up in the saddle, do some offside shooting. You know, my wife was helping throw the arrows up to me in the tree the other day, and that kind of thing really helps. But actually putting an arrow through a deer once or twice is to me, is so key to making a successful shot on a buck later on, because I get buck fever so bad, man, And it really really does help make the shot process when a deer in front of you kind of more of a second nature if you can make it happen a few times.
00:31:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that’s that’s a great piece of advice. So looking here in the next week, I know you’re you’re gonna hunting out of state. What’s your game plan with the weather and you know this current time of year, I feel like October progresses pretty quickly. Where like the excitement of opening day and then it’s like, man, we’re all the deer, so like, where are you at in your strategy and expectations and where are you headed?
00:31:29
Speaker 6: Well, the October law is happening early here, man. I mean there’s no acorns anywhere. Everything’s been so dry, so the mountaintops and stuff are are are just there’s nothing, not a lot happening. And that’s across the board. Like anybody who talked to here is like, I’m not my cameras are dead. I haven’t seen any deer in fields.
00:31:48
Speaker 5: Nothing.
00:31:49
Speaker 6: And so I’ve been wanting to do this little Jersey bear hunt kind of thing for a while. I’m gonna be going there with with some friends locally, with Mitt Shirk and group of guys. But there the Jersey bear population is pretty big, so we’re gonna be bow hunting. They have a bow hunting season that has a couple of day overlap with a flintlock, a flintlock muzzloader type thing. The weather there is it’s it’s a little on the warm side and it’s a lot of invasive plants there, so it’s really going to be like hunt the edges of the cover because it’s so thick you can’t really get into it. Even if you got into it, it would be literally sitting under tunnels of brush. But I’m pretty excited. There’s a lot of deer showing up on camera there. We got some permission on some just knock on door stuff kind of kind of thing, and there’s a couple pieces of public that we’ve actually found some pretty decent bears on. In fact, we were there last week and bumped into a mom with a sow with cubs. Now in Jersey you can’t shoot a sow that has cubs with her, but you know, just kind of speaking of bears in the area, it’s kind of kind of cool but made for a hairy situation.
00:33:04
Speaker 2: Are you gonna buy a Are you gonna buy a white tail? Tag when you’re there too, in case you run across on.
00:33:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, the cool thing is is.
00:33:11
Speaker 6: When you buy your bowl license for Jersey, you get a buck and a dough tag right away. It’s a pretty inexpensive tag, and the bear permits are like two bucks apiece for non residents. They don’t they want to then the bear hurts, So it should be a pretty fun hunt, you know. And as far as deer goes. These farmers that we knocked on, we’re like, please shoot dear if you have an opportunity, like we like, have fun trying to kill a bear. But if you have the opportunity, like police harvest the deer because it’s a they do some pretty serious damage on these farms.
00:33:46
Speaker 2: So so with that in mind, kind of an opportunistic hunt where it’s like, Okay, if a bear comes through, I’m gonna be able to shoot a bear. If a dough or a buck comes by, I’m gonna be ready to go. Does that change how you’re anying on setting up to some regard, I mean, the edge of habitat sounds like a great spot for setting up for a deer too. Is that kind of what’s in your mind?
00:34:07
Speaker 6: Yeah, it seems like the bears and the deer are using kind of the same because everything, like I said, everything’s so tight. The bears are a little bit more prone to going through that, like the thick stuff, but a lot of the deer are getting funneled through any little shoots that come out of the woods there. They’re using old logging roads a lot on these farms. There’s a lot of I’ve noticed there’s a lot of like those old fence line rock piles that mark the border, and if there’s any low spot, the deer crossing over that stuff. So that’s I’m I’m hoping there’s a couple spots like that that I’m hoping to get to hunt, you know, just kind of pinch points like that fence lines. They’ve been crossing a lot of that kind of stuff. So looking looking forward to just kind of whatever comes first. Man, I’m not going to be I’m not going to be picky.
00:34:56
Speaker 2: I love it so looping back to Pennsylvania with the lack of acorn production on the mountaintops, I mean, I know you have a lot of experience hunting that type of terrain. For someone that’s struggling right now and looking into the next week, knowing that if you can find a tree for you know, dropping some acorns, like what is what would you tell someone that’s like, hey, man, I have a couple of days off next week and I know we’re quote unquote creeping into the lull and there hasn’t been much activity on my cameras. What would be your suggestion to that type of person and what’s key in on?
00:35:29
Speaker 6: So there are there are acorns in places, they’re just really not up high and they’re very isolated. So if you can find the acorns or beech nuts or something like that, I know, very stereotypically it’s like hunt the upper third of the of the hills or whatever. I’m not really finding that. I’m finding that deer are in the lower quarter of the hills at the current moment. So if you can find a thermal that that will they’re really you know, the wind is not happening right now. Normally you have a lot of wind right now too, but everything is very thermal based. So if you can find a creek that you can get a longer stretch from a downward thermal and make it more predictable for yourself and find something that’s like halfway or lower up the hill that’s producing some kind of nuts, or if you can find a brows line where they’re eating um, some kind of buck brush, or if there’s berries still around stuff like that light food sources. Or if you can find an acorn tree down in a bottom like that and focus on deer that are coming up and down to feed on that that those acorns that would be pretty clutch.
00:36:39
Speaker 5: But the water is pretty important.
00:36:42
Speaker 6: I’ve been seeing a lot of deer in that area, and I think it’s the areas that you know still have creeks that are spring fed, they have like a little trickle, and even that is attractive right now.
00:36:54
Speaker 2: So those are some key things. And so basically that lower quarter is where I assume you’re finding most more signed than what you typically would find up top. So it seems like it might be a benefit to some regard from based off what you’re saying is like you can almost rule out some of the tops or upper thirds where people traditionally have hunted and focus more lower.
00:37:14
Speaker 5: Yeah right now.
00:37:15
Speaker 6: I mean I’ve even spent some time just kind of driving around and.
00:37:19
Speaker 5: If there’s service roads that are open and stuff.
00:37:21
Speaker 6: PA doesn’t the game Commission actually in Pennsylvania puts out seasonal roads. I think on X has some marked, but you can actually find them on their like interactive web page and find where the seasonal roads are. They could drive on them because it’s there are occasionally areas where they’re coming out on tops like that.
00:37:39
Speaker 5: But if you’ve got something that goes through.
00:37:41
Speaker 6: A bottom that you can drive and kind of just observe without being too invasive, that’s been really helpful. I’ve done that a couple times, and it’s fun to do with the family too, like let’s count the deer kind of thing, you know.
00:37:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think those are some really key pieces there. And so, you know, looking at all things considered the weather, the time of year, what do you anticipate the next seven days to be as far as potential hunting opportunity On a scale one to ten.
00:38:12
Speaker 6: I would say it’s probably about a six right now, other than we’re going to have a first cold snap on Friday morning. We’re supposed to get our first forty degree morning, which is pretty historically here. That’s one of the times where you’ll get bucks and any deer really, like, if you’re looking for any deer, that’s one of the times where you do get some movement up top, even if it’s dry. I’ve had years where you have, like I mean, it’s going to be eighty five degrees today and then it’s going to be high seventies to mid eighties until Thursday, and then we start to have a little bit of a drop. So I’ve seen that a couple of times, where that very first cold front you’ll get some stuff moving in to just kind of see what’s going on. As far as as like I said, as far as tops go, there’s really not a lot of sign happening right now, so you could key on some of your good spots probably towards the end of the week here. I think it’s kind of pretty trendy for the whole for these you know, a couple of states like Jersey, PA, Delaware, kind of the same weather pattern with a little bit of variance. But I think that would probably be something you could do. Is kind of get I wouldn’t go to your best spot that day, but you could get close to the edge of it and actually maybe catch something or learn something that you’ll you’ll want to use later on towards maybe the twentieth of October.
00:39:39
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah, that’s I appreciate the out East report. I know you have your ear to the ground, and I really wish you the best of luck this season, and I hope the New Jersey Hut is going to be I mean, you’ve got three tags in your pocket. Anything can happen.
00:39:54
Speaker 6: I’m excited, man, I have, like, I have twelve deer tags this year, so I’m judged seriously. Yeah, a PA put out quite a few tags this year. We have a pretty cool program too. In specific units they might put out like, for example, the Special REGs area they put out seventy thousand dough tags a year, and then inside some of those areas that haven’t even higher density, they put out Deer Management Assistance Program tags. And some of those A lot of those are like state forests and that kind of thing on areas like that, and those are above and beyond your tag allotment. They’re a little bit they’re like three dollars more or something like that. Nothing crazy, But I bought a couple of those for up north because I like to use those when for the PA rifle season. It’s pretty fun to just kind of walk around and you know, last year we had snow for that kind of thing. So it’s kind of kind of fun to do that kind of thing.
00:40:53
Speaker 2: Awesome, man, Well, good luck, good luck the rest of season. Appreciate you ouping on here and give an any time report.
00:40:59
Speaker 5: Thank you.
00:41:00
Speaker 2: We have Zach Kaim who is now part of the two hundred inch club because you have the shirt to prove it.
00:41:06
Speaker 3: That’s right, it’s coming man, good good, how about you.
00:41:09
Speaker 2: It’s going great man. I ran across your post here and you tagged a magnificent white tail and you had a bunch of history with this deer, and let’s just dive right into it. How kind of like the condensed version of the multiple years of history and then how it ultimately came together, you know, really quick here in Ohio.
00:41:29
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:41:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, So in twenty twenty two, this buck was on my radar. I knew he wasn’t a shooter at this point, but I actually have a phone video of him walking underneath my tree stand in November. Fast forward to the next season. He ballooned into like a mid one sixties class buck as a four year old, and I ended up missing him. I misarranged him. He was a little bit further than I thought he was. I thought I knew how far he was, and he was just a little bit further and so so that was pretty brutal, I thought. But then it got worse because I did the same thing the next year, which would have been this past season, when he was a five year old. He would have been I actually have his match set from last year. He would have been about a one hundred and ninety eight inch buck depending on his spread. So that and I had several other encounters with him last year too. He caught me drawing back on him at thirty yards at one point. There was another time he was like fifty yards over the property line during gun season.
00:42:44
Speaker 3: Obviously he didn’t take.
00:42:45
Speaker 7: That shot, and so he was just Yeah, he was teasing me the last few years. But then then yeah, fast forward to this year, it was kind of hard to tell how big he was. His rack changed slightly, he lost a decent side drop time, but he did look like he got he put on some inches. But I was I was estimating him probably in the one nineties. But yeah, I tried to trade to tried to stay out of his core area. He actually didn’t really live on our farm, or he never really bettered on our farm.
00:43:24
Speaker 3: I should say.
00:43:27
Speaker 7: Nine percent of the time, I’d say he bettered on the one of the neighbors.
00:43:31
Speaker 3: And so.
00:43:33
Speaker 7: Fast forward to opening day this year, we had kind of tried to stay out of his area with choke cameras and whatnot, just we have enough history now, we kind of have an idea of what’s going on, and he would be kind of camera shy if he saw a camera. And so opening day, he actually did walk past one of the cameras that we had down there in his area, and he was actually walking onto our farm just before daylight, which was highly unusual. I talked to my dad about it that morning. We’re both like that that actually might be the first time ever that he was walking onto our farm in the morning that closed to daylight.
00:44:18
Speaker 3: And so so he.
00:44:20
Speaker 7: Was headed there’s a small there’s a small creek drainage that goes up into the interior of a cornfield. It’s like a seventy five yard wide strip of woods. And so we’re talking about it, and it’s like, well, if he is better than hours, like he could have easily went back over to the neighbors, but if he is better than hours, that’s where he’s going to be. Because we knew, we knew deer beded in there before, h just never him. But so I actually set up a tree stand this summer thinking it would be more of a rut spot, just because it’s kind of in a travel corridor, and wh in there, snuck in there and set up, and seven o’clock here he comes, and yeah, the rest is history.
00:45:09
Speaker 2: That’s that’s amazing. And so how many times do you think this deer cheated death? Because obviously you cheated death of you multiple times, and then how many other times have happened that that you’re not well?
00:45:22
Speaker 7: The crazy thing is so like a six year old buck, a lot of times when you skid him out, you’ll see your old wounds and stuff.
00:45:28
Speaker 3: And we didn’t really find anything.
00:45:31
Speaker 7: And I know he was a popular year because even before this, but I’ve had six different neighbors contact me about having pictures of them, and some of them are like a mile away. So how how he didn’t die ever is amazing.
00:45:49
Speaker 2: But that’s crazy, so going, so you just make sure I understand. So you guys had intell of I’m opening morning going in and betting on you guys, and then it was that evening when he went in there and hunted him to try to go back out where he’s going to feed that evening.
00:46:03
Speaker 3: Is that right?
00:46:04
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don’t know that it was necessarily where he was trying to go to feed. I mean there’s right now, at least where we’re a lot of red oaks are dropping, so there’s, you know, plenty of acorns. I kind of assume he was coming to acorns. I was actually sitting in a red oak, like that’s the tree I was sitting in. I got pretty tight to where I thought he was bedded, so I think he literally had just within a couple hundred yards. I think he had just gotten out of bed and was making one of his first scrapes of the evening.
00:46:36
Speaker 2: Probably what was that like seeing him, Like, oh my gosh, just plants coming together. I’ve screwed up on this deer in the past, and he had come man like it’s about to happen.
00:46:50
Speaker 7: Honestly, at that point, like I definitely had buck fever, but it was more of like a like a dude, let’s just get this over with, Like I don’t I don’t have time to like sit here and look at his antlers, Like let’s just lock in here and try to get this over with, Like, let’s not go through the bs again. I was so tired of that, that feeling of screwing it up.
00:47:15
Speaker 3: So yeah, when I first.
00:47:17
Speaker 7: Seen him, I knew immediately which bucket was. I seen that flyer off of his G two and I told myself, Okay, we’re not going to look at the antlers anymore. Try to limit the buck fever.
00:47:29
Speaker 2: But yeah, so that’s and so you said last year he would have been in the nineties, is you know, estimating with the spread? What did he what did he end up taping out to. I know a lot of people don’t care, but I do, so I’m going to ask you. Yeah, because he’s a giant. Yeah, he is a giant. He taped out to two thirteen and two eighth. Wow, so pretty darn good jump. Yeah, and yeah, I think I think the last two seasons he jumped twenty to twenty five inches both years.
00:47:59
Speaker 3: So yeah, which we had anomaly. We had a really wet.
00:48:03
Speaker 7: Spring this year, which I’ve heard is good for antler groove. But whether whether that’s the case or not, he grew a lot. He grew more than I thought I thought he’d be in the one nineties. This year he blew that out of the water.
00:48:18
Speaker 2: And what was it like when you put your hands on him finally, like after all the years of history and everything else, Like was there a sense of like the story’s over now? Or or was it rejoiced right right.
00:48:29
Speaker 7: When I seeing it, Like right when I walked up to him, like a sense of relief, very relieved.
00:48:36
Speaker 3: I was by myself.
00:48:37
Speaker 7: I nelt down, said a little prayer, thank God for letting me finally get him, lay my hands on him.
00:48:46
Speaker 3: And so yeah, I was just very relieved and very grateful.
00:48:50
Speaker 2: I would say, yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. Congratulations. So for let’s let’s pretend you didn’t shoot this buck and it’s October eighth, and you’re looking over the next seven days. What would you what would you tell yourself or what would you tell someone that that might be struggling a little bit or trying to get together a game plan. Maybe they know of something of a buck that’s kind of hanging around the area. And now we’re getting into, you know, the the first quarter of October and you know, creeping deeper into the month. What what would you tell them to pay attention to, at least in our area.
00:49:21
Speaker 7: I would say, acorns, acorns and water, probably because it was it’s been really dry here in Ohio where we’re at, Like it’s only rained a couple of times in the past, I don’t know, a month and a half or more. So acorns and water and uh, like you know, seemingly, you know, the October October lil is kind of like around that time frame or around this timeframe. So but I generally try to just look for hot time. Like there’s right now where we’re at, there’s so many acorns dropping that it would be hard to like hee in on a specific tree that you should hunt. But if you can find a white oak, at least on our farms, there’s not a lot of white oaks, so I would assume they are preferring the white oaks, But try to find a white oak. Try to get tight to betting would be my biggest tip, height to betting.
00:50:22
Speaker 2: Find some white oaks. And when you mentioned hot sign, you know, I think a lot of people could potentially confuse that, what do you if you could paint real quickly, what is hot sign in your mind that gets you excited versus just some general dear sign.
00:50:37
Speaker 3: Scrapes?
00:50:38
Speaker 7: Actually, when this buck came in, which you know it’s it was opening day, which was September twenty seventh, and he he came in. The first thing he did was make a scrape at twenty five yards that he’s already you know, doing buck stuff.
00:50:53
Speaker 3: So if you can find the scrape, and yeah, call me crazy.
00:50:56
Speaker 7: But the week before season actually I went out and I made a couple of mock drapes here and there, just to see if you would potentially hit those early seasons, because with our history of the deer, we kind of knew he would be around early season, like early early, and then he kind of disappeared, like mid October into the rut, and then it would come back late season. So I was really hoping I would get him before he leaves because I was afraid somebody else would shoot him.
00:51:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that’s it. Look, you made it happen. So if you had to put a scale one to ten for the next seven days, what would you put at ten? Bean? Best week ever? One bean? I think I’m gonna seen it out.
00:51:42
Speaker 7: I definitely wouldn’t sit it out. Like the weather conditions were not ideal for opening day. I mean it was eighty degrees, so I don’t. Yeah, I mean I think it just depends on Yeah, it can very soil like if if you know where a year is betting, Uh, nothing would keep me from going hunting, no matter the conditions or time of the year. So I mean, for me, if I was still hunting this buck and you asked me that question, I’d give it like a six or seven.
00:52:18
Speaker 3: Probably not.
00:52:20
Speaker 7: It’s not like perfect conditions, so it’s not a ten, but it’s also not a one, so somewhere in the middle.
00:52:27
Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough. Well, yeah, congratulations sac on an incredible deer and I putting a ribbon on the top after you know, multiple years of history. That’s that’s really special. I hope you have been enjoying the moment and congrats once again.
00:52:41
Speaker 3: Oh I’ve been thank you, Thank you very much.
00:52:44
Speaker 2: There you guys have it. Hope you guys have a great week. We’re going to see you next week here for Reughfresh. And with this front, I have an anticipation that there’s going to be a variety of big bucks that connect with hunters and their plant come together. So I hope you guys tune in next week on Reugh Fresh. We’ll see you then.
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