Ep. 816: Rut Fresh Radio - New States Mean New Hunting Opportunities

Published Sep 11, 2024, 9:00 AM

Welcome to the second episode of Rut Fresh Radio for the 2024 Season! In each episode, K.C. and Tyler interview deer hunters from across the country in search of the freshest, most current information on Whitetail Buck movement and hear stories of hunting success. This week we talk to Nick Gonzales in Arkansas, Dakota Wellman in Kentucky, Grant Forney in Maryland and Mitchell Johntson in North Carolina. 

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Welcome to Wired to Hunt's rut Fresh Radio, bringing you the latest reports from the whitetail Woods, presented by First Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light Go farther, stay longer, and now your hosts Case Smith and Tyler Jones.

Seasons are continuing to open up around the country in the early season. Hive ain't slowing down, no time soon. This is Retfresh. Let's go. Welcome to Refresh Radio, brought to you by First Light Gear. I'm your host k C. Smith and Tyler Jones is here from Afar. He has joined us from the Netherlands. I come from Afar. I gotta I got a joke. Actually do you let's hear it's a man now, I forgot it. It's something like, how do you know the three wise men were firefighters? How do you know? Because as they said, I come from Afar, Afar as southern firefighters. Yeah, that's it. I like it. I like it a lot. Well. This episode of Refresh Radio, of course, is filled with some good reports from around the country. I feel really good about like our zones, you know, because early season it's hard to get different states because there's only a few states open, but I think this week we have all new states. I'm excited about that. But before that, Tyler Jones, you yourself have actually been doing some early season hunting career.

I have, Man, I have.

It's been Uh, it's been a learning experience. And what I learned was that I don't want to hunt early season anymore.

Yeah. I can kind of empathize with that a little bit, I think. Yeah, I mean there's some there's definitely some deeming qualities to it. I think early season, to me, it just seems that if you have something figured out, it's gold. But if you go try to figure something out and you can't figure a thing out, could be the worst thing in your life. Huh. Yeah.

And I think you see, you know, it gets harder and harder to find people that are hunting deer in early season. I think every year it feels like you and I at least talked about that the day. And I think a lot of it is people are understanding that, you know, traveling to hunt early season is very tough. And again, if you have the spot, if you have you know, if you live in Kentucky and you have a corn pile, and it's working for you, and you get in daylight, great, it's going to be awesome early season for you. Outside of that, it can be kind of tough. And I think a lot of people would rather go spend some time in the elk wood and try to catch one bugle in and I think that's what.

I want to do next day. It sounds like a lot of raw tags. So you went to North Dakota, yep, And can you give us a quick synopsis about what you saw, what differences you made, and how close you got to a deer.

Closest I got to a deer was probably seven yards and she looked right into my eyes until I closed them and then uh, then she just looked at the front of my eyelids. And I would say the things that the report there from North Dakota is one million mosquitoes. Deer movement in the evenings is consistent at a certain within a certain time towards dark. And uh, we noticed a pretty consistent pattern of it seemed like deer bedding before daylight.

In the mornings. That's not good. No, it wasn't, No, it wasn't.

Uh.

We we had a really close encounter or you know, fairly close encounter the last couple of days we were we were working in on a buck. Finally that had been we had patterned a couple of days before. You can hear the the more expansive story of this on the Element podcast, our podcast, but for now, I won't tell the whole story because it's uh, there's a.

Lot that happened.

But we did squeeze in on a buck and eventually got to a couple of fairly close calls with him. But never it never was like never was really probably within eighty I probably was within one hundred yards of him at one point. So employed the ground game, Yeah, no, less, we did so, but I you know, that morning he had to get out of his bed I believe, and browse some corn for a little bit before we were able to see him.

It was eight o'clock before we saw him. Yeah, So what was like your number one limiting factor? I would say corn being in It was always going to happen early season too.

It's just the way it is your hunt if you're hunting egg country, for sure, you know, and I think that if it was like one one pivot with corn in it next to a bunch of grasslands or something like that. It would be potentially okay, right, but there was a lot of ag I didn't hunt a place that Like, if you watch people hunt North Dakota, like publicly in on video on YouTube, you probably haven't seen a whole lot of hunts from this area.

You've seen them from a different part of the state. So it was a tough deal.

I was going somewhere where I didn't really know a whole lot of people had been before. I ended up finding out after i'd planned this hunt that somebody else had been to this area before that I knew. But I don't make a habit of asking them too much about spots or you know, where they go or nothing. I'll ask them some kind of general questions about, you know, how many deer per acre kind of things or whatever. But anyway, yeah, I think that corn being in heard us because I think the deer were just in and out of that corn a lot.

So getting eyes on deer kind of limited you.

Well, yeah, and I would say another limiting factor to the that is the fact that they were betting before daylight in the mornings, so I couldn't glass them up. And if you weren't sitting and hunting in the evening, then you weren't going to shoot one. And so it's hard for me to just sit and just try to observe, especially if you don't like there's a lot of trees in this area, so you're just not gonna observe a whole lot anyway. So yeah, ultimately seeing seeing deer because of corn and vegetation and them betting before daylight, I think it was the hardest part.

So not to get to pinpointed here, but if you were going to go for a opener next year, how would you what attributes to the country would you look for to kind of change success? Like on public you're saying, yeah, just to say, you know, say you're gonna go to a state and you're like, hmm, this didn't work out well here, Where can I go that looks different that's going to be better?

Yeah, I think probably like if your limited resources ag like and that's what like, you've got very little agriculture, but you can find some then that that helps a lot. So whatever that looks like, right, it could be in West Virginia in the mountains and you've got one person that has a you know, field of something up top or whatever it might be. Or like if you're hunting somewhere where there's not a whole lot of oaks, but there are some bands of oaks, then maybe you know you're able to sit near those oaks, blow your wind off of them, observe, see if anything comes in, you know, go to another band of oaks, observe those for the night.

Whatever.

But limiting that ag I think helps a lot, because there's a thing with big ag beans and corn. Is the country where those things are prevalent. When they cut it, they ain't nothing on the landscape anymore, right, And so that landscape year in and year out, in an annual year, it really doesn't produce. It's not like, oh we're going to overproduce a bunch of deer in six months. Because there's that vegetation. It's going to hold what it can hold in the winter, really, especially up north, right, so whenever the summer comes and they spread out, it's really like there's not a whole lot deer per square mile. Yeah, so it makes it really tough.

So I can see that well, I think that's good information that's pertinent throughout the next couple weeks, because yeah, the opener of an early September is good if you want to go chase velvet deer deer, they don't have any pressure. But we have new seasons opening up constantly now and so that's same scenario will play itself out essentially until we hit pre rut where they're taking crops out and deer starting to do different things, right, scrapes and all that. So cool. So, speaking of seasons opening up, we have some interviews today, some reports, Yeah, from quite a few guys who are hunting new seasons that are opening up right now. Tyler, who are we talking to.

We've got Ticnick Gonzales, he's out there, he's been in Arkansas. We've got Dakota Wellman in Kentucky who shot a monster by the way, Grant Forny out in Maryland, and our good buddy Mitchell Johnston with that end game calls from North Carolina.

Awesome, man, Well, let's get to it and hear what those guys have to say. This is our friend Nick Gonzales. He has been hunting white tail deer in the state of Arkansas in the Mosquito fest. Nick, what's happening, man?

Oh no, muss, just go back and very itchy. Yeah, lots of mosquito? How many to get back or definitely not so.

Arkansas has an early season buck only hunts. What you went hunting?

Yeah, yeah, it's a new thing this year for him. Yeah, and you've had some success in Arkansas in the past I have. Did you go in and target those? Seem similar tactics? And what are those I did? Uh, it's just a bed to food patterns. What I was after I this time That's what I've done in times past two but didn't have much success this time around. I went to a different spot and uh, yeah, no success.

What kind of food were you targeting?

Uh?

There was a lot of.

Beans in certain parts of this of this public. Uh there were some per simmons and lots of acorns dropping too. So uh just trying to key in on those simons hitting the ground. A couple of them, but most of them not. They're still too ripe.

Gotcha. So, uh did you have deer hidings? Uh? I did? What were those deer doing? Well, most of them were betted.

Yeah, well, while scouting around, they were just in some like mulberry thickets stuff like that. So a lot of funds and a lot of does. Yeah, I think maybe one buck, but I didn't get a good look at it.

Gotcha. Cool? Uh. So do you feel like you should have gone to a new place or do you think that historical data would have benefited you more?

I think it's I enjoyed the challenge of going to new places, and so that's kind of why I went to this spot. And not all the pieces of public in Arkansas participate in this early book only weekend, and the place that I've hunted in the past wasn't open for this, gotcha.

Gotcha? Yeah, that makes sense.

So when you say mulberry betting, like mulberry trees, the thickets, like the little what do they look.

Like like a beauty berry?

I don't know what they call it.

Oh, okay, they're the ones that had the purple yeah, clumps on them.

Okay yeah, and just like crp fields and stuff like that is what they were in.

I got you. So, did you see, dear, why you're actually hunting?

No?

Man, that's tough. Yeah. Do you think that what was the temps? Like? It was really good?

Actually yesterday morning was I think fifty three, so pretty good cold front.

But yeah, I just did you think that they negatively affected you.

The temperatures, I don't think so, I don't think that I really I don't think I hunted in the very best spot.

I only had like a day to scout.

I didn't want to go in there and just blow everything out, and so I feel like I probably should have pushed a little bit closer to betting for the buck stuff.

Yeah, I saw the same thing this week. Deer we're not.

Moving far in daylight at all, and I think that that would be like a commonality that you're what you're saying. And what I saw was that deer is still very much. They have a lot of stuff to eat, and they even though we had some pretty cold temperatures as well, still we're not seeing like movement till the very end of the day. Saw bucks bedded before daylight and that kind of thing. So did you see any bucks at all?

I think I might have jumped one, but I didn't get a good look at it.

But other than that, No, Yeah, did you hunt wine? H? Yeah? I did? Yeah. Yeah.

My trip got cut a little bit short because I had to get back for some work things. So I was planning on hunting today, but I just didn't get to I did some scouting yesterday afternoon. I found some stuff I think was really good buck but Habitat just real thick stuff, and it's a pretty good sign in there.

Just find some rubes, like fresh rubes. I didn't, surprisingly, so potentially all the bucks are still velveted up. Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah. So as we look forward, you know, things are going to heat up again before the next cool front comes through. There is a tropical storm brewing out in the golf. I don't know if that's going to affect Arkansas too much, but sometimes you know, those things can push up overall in the next week. How do you feel Buckwo's going to be on scale of one to ten?

Mm hmm, I'd still I'd still probably keep it pretty low. I'd probably give it.

Like a three. Yeah, yeah, that's good and realistic. Yeah, I agree with you. I think that's going to be right on the money. Yeah.

Yeah, so you would, you would, you would push closer to buck betting to see that movement happen though.

Yeah, just like what you were saying, I don't think they're moving very far during the day, So if you're going to catch them, I think it's going to be you know, right as the sun's going down or right as the sun's coming up morning.

So cool man. Appreciate the report. Yeah, no problem. I'll you find more success in this in the future. Appreciate it. This is Dakota Wellman. He's a Kentucky hunter and has recently aired a giant buck. Dakota, congratulations, man.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Yeah, you're welcome. Dude. So we were talking off air well ago, and it sounded like you kind of had a little history with this deer, which means that you probably have been plotting and scheming and trying to understand what to do to have success in the early season, and you got it done. Now, tell me what is the main tactic that you used to shoot this big deer in early season Kentucky.

It was a lot of history, that repetitive history on a deer.

They will normally do, especially early season, before the pressure hits, they'll do the same thing over again.

I seen him opening day last year and seeing him again this year.

How about that? So you shot this deer opening day, yes, working day, Very cool dude. So that deer is starting to shit his velvet and you see it in the photos. Do you see that the deer when they start to shed their velvet kind of disperse and do different things in that area.

I have deer that will completely vanish from the area until January, if not February.

That year in particular, never left that area. That was his home and that's where he stayed.

So why was Opening day like when you needed to get it done?

Toll front hit here in Kentucky and it was a major cold front, something really unexpected this time of year. I think the temperature dropped thirty degrees. The high was seventy when it was used to be in the nineties ninety five, and it got down into the forties at night, and it was really time to get in.

There and get it. Are these deer that you're hunting relating to agriculture in the early season or are you hunting deer that are just way back in the thickest stuff.

Well, this year they will. There's a lot of beans, but the beans have turned early this year won a severe drought, and I think that a lot of the beans are out of the question or have been out of the question before Opening day this year, unless they were planning super late. But you could find, you know, pockets of beans that are still green. But most of what I've been on and seeing the sweet beans have turned. But as far as natural brows and all that, that's all still there.

What natural brows would you say was most key in this moment?

I would say I was this year come into some clover which was barely hanging on due to the drought.

But it was a green food source and that's what got him up.

The weather got him up before dark, and the green, green food source made it happen.

Okay, So looking forward to the next week, I would assume that you know, any of these early season cold fronts kind of have a warming trend afterward, is that going to affect the buck movement?

I'm going to say for a couple of days afterwards, when it heats back up, it's going to slow down because they just kind of got shocked by the cold front. But once they kind of get warm back up, and it's been hot all summer, it's not nothing uncommon to them to continue to do their normal routine when it heats back up.

But I think for a few days after they're going to have a little bit of effect to lay down and not move.

A whole lot, just do the fact they hit a huge coal front, they moved a bunch and then it gets hot again, so they're going to take a few days to adapt back to the heat after the cold frunt.

So on a scale of one to ten, what would you rate buck movement in the next week.

I'm gonna say it's gonna be probably around a five until they get used to.

The heat again. Got my favorite number, man, Yep, I like it. It's it's realistic. You know, everybody this tiny year seems to be real high. But you know, sometimes you do need to take a step back and be like, Okay, let's not get too crazy. You know, November November, they're.

Not ripping scrape yet and doing that kind of stuff. Yet, it's going to be uh, it's gonna be moderate. It's gonna be around yeah.

Cool to Got to appreciate the report, man, and congrats on the giant bug.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Now I've got Grant forty with the Everyday at Doorsman YouTube channel. He's been doing some hunting in Maryland. Grant, what's happening, bro, Not.

Too much, just really excited here at the start a hunting season. So that's pretty much my main focus right now. Got the season started and looking forward for what's the company.

Yeah, man, I was falling along on social looks like you got a freezer, queen, So that's good. You got your meat secure? Congratulations?

Yeah, yeah, bang. So it was a good opening day for me, good opening weekend. Was able to put a dough down, so that's always a nice way to start the season.

But a little bit of meat in the freezer, yeah for sure. So you're hunting in an area that I just absolutely am not familiar with from on a hunting scale, right, So what's the move in Maryland this time of year?

Yeah, it's early season like this. It's the food sources in the area that I'm hunting are pretty much corn, beans and acorns, So hunting public land that buffs up to a lot of private so you can hunt here, you know, going into the crop fields and then lots of oaks. So we've got a good acorn crop this year, so that's another big food source. So that's kind of the strategy is you know, figure out where they're feeding, try to catch them between betting areas and feeding areas, and then another major thing is just trying to stay away from hunting pressure.

So oh yeah, that's.

Kind of the strategy.

Do you find that there's a lot of pressure there because it's kind of one of the few are you seasons open in September in the Northeast?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. There's a lot of guys that take advantage of that early opener. Maryland always starts the Friday right after Labor Day, and then you get a lot of guys coming in from PA, just like me, to get some hunting in down there before PA opens, because PA doesn't start till usually October. So it's, uh, yeah, it's it's pretty pretty heavily hunted in the early season.

I would say, do you find that opening weekend that you're able to hunt closer to those food sources or that the deer less kind of panicked before everybody enters the woods, or is it pretty similar to the way you would hunt normally during the season.

So I would say the first day of the season, you could get away with hunting pretty close to the food sources and still still be able to get the deer coming in there, you know, not too pressured, But honestly, by like this second day, they're starting to feel the pressure already, and you're probably not gonna have as much success hunting right next to the food sources. That's what I've noticed. That's how quickly the deer are adapting to the pressure.

Gotcha, are you you spend time hunting in the mornings at all?

I do? Yeah, Yeah, I do still hunt the mornings. We've we've had some success doing that. Especially if you get a cool morning, it can be pretty good. I did not hunt any mornings here to start the season, yet shot my dell the first evening, and then I was able to get out the evening after that Saturday evening morning. Yet morning can be good.

What is a cool morning? Like? What temperature range you looking at? There?

A cool morning this time of year. If it's fifty five or lass, that's that's pretty solid. Like we've we've had really good, really good hunts fifty degrees or less, like this morning would have been a great morning to be out. We had great temps this morning, but yeah, anything under fifty five is pretty solid.

Do you consider those oak trees that are dropping a food source or more of like a staging food source, like a destination or a staging food source.

Some of both honestly, there are some some big oak flats that we hunt in and around that are I would say a destination food source where the deer might be all night long or at least close to them all night long. And then there's other ones that are in between betting areas and crop fields that are definitely used as more of a staging area. So some of both. You know, you just got kind of I guess, gotta know everything that's around and be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Yeah, that's cool, man. So after your experience, you know, this weekend and seeing how pressure is effective the deer, and you know, considering weather and all that into account. Here as we look forward to the next week, on a scale of one to ten, what do you think that you'd rank the buck movement in Maryland?

Well, I always hate to be negative. I don't. I don't think it's gonna be very good. I gotta be honest, I don't think he'll be very good this next week. I would I guess I would probably rate it a free. It's that there's gonna be a lot of hunting pressure, and the temperatures are gonna be pretty warm and even warmer than average. I would say I think are highs the next week. A lot of the days the highs are in the low eighties, so it's gonna be warm, and the deer still feeling the hunting pressure from opening weekend and opening week here. So unfortunately, I don't think he'll be very good. That doesn't mean that you can't get it done. You still can get it done. It's get close to betting if you're getting away from hunting pressure finding a way to do that, getting close to bedding, or when it's really warm, if you have a good spot to hunt over water, that could be a good ticket as well. But overall, I don't think. I don't think it'll be very good, so I probably have to give it free.

Hey man, I appreciate a realistic rating as opposed to just you know one that's in blind optimism, so I think our listeners will as well. So thanks a lot, grant.

Yeah, yeah, hey, thanks a lot for having me on. Guys really appreciate it.

This is Mitchell Johnson with Dead End Game Calls my brother in Christ. How are you today, sir?

I'm great, brother, I hope you guys are.

We are, man, it's it's a good day around these parts. Deer season has started and you've been doing some hunting North Carolina. What is the deer hunting like right now?

Man, dear, that's pretty good right now. Deer are moving in daylight hours. A lot of great bucks are being killed throughout North Carolina. You know, I'm from the mountain region, which is kind of different from the Piedmont region in the coastal region. We have a dramatic difference in elevation and change as far as the topography goes. But you know, deer moving great, and it's great time to be in the woods.

So are you hunting mountain deer? Then where you're at.

We are we're kind of the mountains and the foothills, And honestly, it depends on where a hunt. I could drive forty five minutes one way or the other and you kind of throw me into the foothills, and then if I'm around home, I'm in the mountains.

So in that area of the country, I'm assuming that that natural brows is a big deal deer, big deal, excuse me. And you could be having acrons at any point in time because you have a variance in elevation, right, So are you seeing acrons already or when does that come about?

Acrons was dropping already, yes, sir. As a matter of fact, I was in the woods yesterday and that was one of the things that I noted around the home. They started dropping probably seven or eight days ago, and so definitely the deer patterns are changing, that's for certain. You know, in North Carolina is legal to bait deer, so a lot of people throw out their bait and mostly deer corner peanuts, and they hunt over that bait. But the deer's activity is getting ready to flip. That switch is flipping. When those white oak acorns start hitting the ground. Man, it's a game changer. So you got to come off of that bait and start hunting those transition areas to those white oat flats.

Mitchell, we've been seeing some pretty brisk temperatures around Texas the last week or so. Has anything been abnormal for you guys? There's pretty pretty normal temps.

Well, I think this morning it was forty nine degrees when I woke up, and so that's yeah, it's very nice. And honestly, you know, I hunted opening day. Our opening day of deer season was light. This past Saturday, and I took a young man that was a good friend of my son's, mister Levi Webb, and he and Mason and his dad, David. We're all gathered together in our ground blind together was tight quarters, to say the least. We had an awesome hunt. Levi actually ended up missing a nice seven pointer and then just literally like two minutes later, he missed a great eight pointer. And yeah, you know, sad for him because you hate that he missed the deer. At least he didn't want the deer. But man, he's in high spirits. When I went back yesterday afternoon and had a great hunt, just didn't see the bucks I was wanting to see. Seen a couple of dos, but definitely these temperatures, it's probably the coolest opening day. I think it was seventy six degrees when we went to the ground blind if I remember correct. And man, that's one of the cooler opening days I can remember here North Carolina.

Man. So I mean, if you had to choose peanuts or corn.

That's a hard choice. Buddy, I'm gonna go. I love. There's a mineral and a corn attitude that I throw out a lot.

It's called right white tail.

Mineral, and I throw that out quite a bit. They have a tendency to love it just almost as much as acorn. So you know, you can't go wrong with any of the three.

So y'all have been seeing quite a few bucks. Are any of those bucks telling velvet or they all mostly shed?

They are? So the seventh pointer that Levi missed, it was shed, and then a few minutes later the eight pointer that he missed was just a beautiful basket rat and full velvet.

Oh cool. It's a little bit of both. And when those deer shed, do you kind of see them shift their kind of their core area?

Oh, they shift their core area. Well, I'll say this, it usually takes them a week or two to start making that shift and they start to break apart a little bit more, you know, two or three weeks into our season. That's what we see typically here in North Carolina. I am seeing some bucks by theirself now more so than what I have in the past.

Our opening week.

The TIMPs are going to be increasing for us next week and we're going to see some nineties and stuff like that. Are you guys anticipating that to happen where you're at.

To be honest with you, I don't have a clue.

Okay, Well, if you were to say, based off your hunting the last day here or a day or two, what would you what would you think that buck movement is going to be in the next week on a scale of one to ten, So.

I think bunck moving on a scale of one to ten. One would depend upon temperatures, but also will depend on that moon. You know, the moon phase is changing, you know right now we you know earlier in September was in that new moon pattern. Then I think tomorrow is supposed to be in the first quarter, and then sept I think on the seventeenth we're supposed to have a full moon, and that full moon will change things dramatically. You know, deer will go to that midday feeding pattern or nighttime feeding feeding pattern. And no doubt that moon phase plays a huge role and movement of white tails. So I think you're going to see the white tailed move as far as hunting times go, decrease over the next week just because of that moon pattern.

Okay, so scale of one to ten, if you had to give it a number, what do you think.

Next week you're going to look at about a four to five.

Gotcha, all right? I thought of that. Yeah. Well, you know down here in Texas they discourage you hunting them, not in daylight ours. I don't know if North Carolines like that. Mitchell appreciate you always, man, thank you so much.

Yeah, we appreciate you guys.

Man, I appreciate the realistic expectations for the next week. You know, I think that I'm excited right now. I haven't got to do any hunting yet, so even the threes and fives kinda get me a little bit pumpedy, because at least you could get being the bow or being the tree with a bow in your hand. But I understand that it can be difficult. So I think the overall synopsis from this week is that if you have something figured out, be careful, go in there and kill that deer. But if you don't, there's no reason to go in there and mess it up too bad.

Right now, Hey, you got interviewed for an article recently by Adam Moore.

I did.

Yeah, So that's on the Wired Hunt website. It's called Unpacked Case Smith's Early season gear set up Man. And then we also did a video recently. Well, we put this video together and released it recently. The last hunt from last year Arkansas. We spent some time doing some buck boating and it's called Trailer Park Troubles. You should go check it out on our YouTube channel, the Element YouTube channel.

What else, anything else? That's it, man. I am just ready to get this month going that way. I can get to some hunting here pretty soon. I know you've got some a truck to clean and some wings lick a little bit, and then I think you're gonna kill White Town on September. Still, really I did? I do? I think so, man, and I'm excited to see it happen. Guys, have some optimism, be realistic about your expectations, and don't burn that PTO too quick. This has been Reugh Fresh Radio. Keep it fresh,