00:00:01 Speaker 1: Hey, what is going on? This is Jake Hofer and welcome to another episode of Route Fresh. It's October 7th. And before we get into the episode, I'm going to give you the quick whitetail weather forecast for the following seven days. The big weather story this week is the return of unusually heavy rain. warm October temperatures across a large portion of the Midwest from Iowa and Minnesota through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Temperatures are running above normal with 70s widespread in some locations pushing into the upper 70s and low 80s. Wind across portions of the Midwest turns south to southwest as the warmer air moves in before shifting more westerly as we get into Wednesday. Pattern here remains relatively dry across much of the Midwest with high pressure playing a major role in limited widespread precipitation and the forecast silver lining with all of this farmers should be able to get in and get the crops out after having some wet weather the last seven days further east cooler air is working through portions of the great lakes and northeast behind a frontal boundary creating a noticeable temperature contrast from warmer conditions further west and overhead The moon continues to get darker. We'll have a waning crescent this week as we move towards the new moon on Saturday, October 10th. That's your whitetail weather report for this week. And in case you missed it last week, Meat Eater has a great deal. With First Light, where you can get a chance to win the ultimate whitetail giveaway featuring over $ 23, 000 in prizes, including an incredible whitetail package. The more you spend at FirstLight.com, the more entries you earn for a chance to win this incredible prize package. One lucky winner will be going on a fully guided muzzleloader whitetail hunt at Running Water Hunting, hosted by Outfitter.com. Jordan Budd and hunting alongside Mark Kenyon. Visit First Light contest page at firstlight.com and fill out the entry form to get started. You'll automatically be entered for a chance to win the gear and hunt packages. Plus earn additional entries with every purchase you make at firstlight.com. This giveaway ends October 12th, 2026 at 1159 Mountain Time. So be sure to check that out. Get loaded up on some First Light gear. You get a chance to win some really cool prizes. This week we have a handful of really interesting guests ranging from Missouri with Jack Houston. Scott Peasney from Michigan who connected on a upper Michigan public land buck. And we have Christian Babcock who shot a mountain Oklahoma deer. So a wide variety of guests giving their insights and providing some help for this upcoming seven days. My take, weather's not that great. If you have a buck, it might be worth trying, but I do believe better days will be coming here with this next front. So I'm spending time doing a little bit of scouting, moving some cameras around, observing and trying to get prepared for this next front. So I hope you guys enjoy this week's episode of Rut Fresh presented by Moultrie. Let's go ahead and jump right into it. All right, Jack, welcome to this week's episode of Rut Fresh. We have Jack Houston from Midwest Deer Surveys. How's it going? 00:03:00 Speaker 2: It's going great, Jake. Excited to talk today and it's almost mid-October. Fun time of year. 00:03:06 Speaker 3: I know. 00:03:07 Speaker 4: I know. 00:03:07 Speaker 1: It's opening day's boom here, and now we're like, the season just marches faster and faster each week from here on out until, call it Thanksgiving or maybe even the first week of December, but you're in Missouri. What have you been seeing here? I know you hunted this past weekend. What was going on in your neck of the woods in Missouri? 00:03:27 Speaker 2: Last Friday was unbelievable. We got that big temperature drop. I mean, I saw four Four deer over four and a half, all within 150 yards that night. A couple we were going after and just couldn't close the deal, but we were right where they were bedding, really where we were hunting. I know that hillside, I mean, we were within 300 or 400 yards, and I think even with great weather, that's just such a huge key this time of year. 00:03:57 Speaker 1: You've got to be close. What were the deer eating on Friday night? 00:04:03 Speaker 2: So that's really interesting as well. We had a great bean field. It's fully defoliated. And then we overseeded some turnips in it that really didn't come up well, except in a few spots where the beans really weren't there, you know, in July and August. And all of those deer were in the brassicas. 00:04:23 Speaker 1: Beating the tops of the brassicas. 00:04:25 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:04:25 Speaker 2: You got fully defoliated beans that I would think they should be starting to kind of get back on, but they had zero interest in them. 00:04:34 Speaker 1: Interesting and so then this uh was it last night you hunted and had you know you're hunting a specific deer and his running mate was in there last night was the same deal were they in the eating the tops of brassicas. 00:04:45 Speaker 2: No i wish i had good food plot plot setups where i was uh hunting this guy but this was a little inside corner uh had a pond right there cut cornfield and really the reason i'm hunting there is actually hunting on the ground it's just been getting trail camera pictures got a little scrape there and just that's kind of where he's been so well. 00:05:12 Speaker 1: All right so tops of brassicas inside corners terrain features scrapes rolling into uh call it october 7th to the 14th what changes or doesn't change over these next seven days with your strategy. 00:05:26 Speaker 2: Bill Winky always says there's a little false rut once you get to like the 13th, 14th, 15th, where you can get a few does that come into estrus like a month early. I feel like I've seen that once or twice. I don't know how true it is, but if he says it, it's got to be a little bit of something. 00:05:44 Speaker 3: Going on there. 00:05:45 Speaker 2: So that's exciting. I mean, it looks like kind of middle of next week, the weather gets into the 60s here. You know, if you hunt weather... And you're close to their bedding. Hunt those temperature drops. Good things are going to happen. 00:06:01 Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Which, you know, what's your take on, you know, mid-October, this time frame right now, a lot of people in the last two weeks of Rut Fresh, the chant has been acorns. Acorns, acorns, acorns. What's your, I mean, do you think, like what have you observed in knowing, I don't know exactly where you're at, Missouri. I wish I did. I'm just kidding. But, I mean, is that something that you're accounting for? Or maybe if someone's like, man, I'm not really getting much on camera right now, maybe they're in the oaks. Or do you think it's not as prevalent from your observations and where you're at? 00:06:42 Speaker 2: I would say, you know, my best camera two weeks ago was a big white oak. And the activity has definitely died on that. Now, did it just run out on that individual tree? You know, the deer I was hunting on Friday I talked about, this is a big old cattle farm, and so maybe half of it has a lot of big timber and oaks, and the other half is just old cattle pasture, locusts, stuff like that, really no acorns. Those deer could have easily all been in the woods, but they were out in this cattle pasture stuff. They weren't eating acorns, and they totally could have. I think there's big individual deer preference issues. on food sources just like with us um but if if acorns were that favorable for those guys they certainly wouldn't have been where they were i don't i don't take i don't hold uh you know i think every deer is different you got to see what they're doing and go hunt that. 00:07:42 Speaker 1: Yeah i think there's a lot of truth to that and i think it's easy to easy to shoebox or hamstring yourself for like i have to be hunting this because of why information or whatever the, um, information where you have to be very self-aware of what is going on with where you're hunting and, um, what I'm curious with your, your gut instinct here. If you had to get into the psychology of a mature buck over the next seven days for seven to the 14th, do you think it's still just relatively bed to food and lay down some signs? I would say so. 00:08:21 Speaker 2: I mean, it's gradually going up, right? And then that last week, October, just everything changes. But, you know, I'm seeing more fighting on trail cameras. I think all that stuff's just going to amp up. But I'm not seeing them move a whole lot yet, even at night. 00:08:41 Speaker 1: Yeah. Today's the 5th, and I had first two, like, I don't know, three- and a four-year-old sparring games. on an edge of a food plot. And you're right, like you can almost feel the testosterone rise in the woods with these bucks. And what, another question for you with, you do a ton of different research and you fly, you survey farms and everything else. And I know right now it's a hard time to survey with foliage up, but is there any observations on just general deer behavior for this like quote unquote October lull? 00:09:19 Speaker 2: I mean, I have a lot of clients all scattered, you know, throughout the country. And then the last week I've gotten a lot of, a lot of big deer sent to me. So, you know, dead big deer. So they've been dropping, people are dialed in, the weather's been okay. And, um, this is the time of year where you succeed if you prepare during the off season a lot. And you can't do that for every deer all the time. I'm, you know, I'm kind of chasing one guy right now that I wish I was more prepared for, but. 00:09:48 Speaker 1: Uh, Yeah. Deer dropping. It's happening. Yeah. Which, you know, kind of looking at the weather here briefly for, you know, the 7th to the 14th you're right it does look like closer to the 14th here there's you know the 13th 14th looks like there's a little bit of a weather front and it is eerie and and anyone that likes to hunt deer you'll be driving down the road middle of the day There's going to be some big deer to die tonight. You watch the temperature on your truck just go down, down, down. You're looking at the weather, and it's like really oftentimes when the front comes in, it's like, I don't know who's going to kill a big deer tonight, but someone's going to kill a big deer tonight. And I think next Tuesday, Wednesday, it looks like it could be one of those days. 00:10:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would encourage people to, you know, you want to hunt a cold front, yeah, but if you're really close to where they're bedding and they're on a pretty consistent feed pattern, If it's 80 degrees one night, they might just get up 20 minutes later and you can still have a chance at them at dark. I would let that, if you got the right wind and stuff, I would still be out there. I know I'm going to do that this week. The weather's not great, but I'm still going. Probably every day other than Saturday. 00:11:05 Speaker 1: Why Saturday? Too hot Saturday or you got plans? Too hot Saturday. It looks 85. 00:11:10 Speaker 2: It's a. 00:11:13 Speaker 1: Little warm for me. Yeah, that's good insight. So get tighter to bedding and know your window of opportunity might be shorter. The distance of travel might be less. If you're hunting almost every evening this week, are you going to be hunting on the ground again, on the inside corner, or are you going to be observing the defoliated beans and tops of brassicas? 00:11:37 Speaker 2: I hate hunting on the ground, but it works. I'll be doing both. I'll be hopping around. If the wind's right for one setup, I'll be there hunting one deer. If it's not, I'll be somewhere else with somebody else hunting another deer. 00:11:52 Speaker 1: I like it. 00:11:53 Speaker 2: One other thing I'd add, Jake, is this week, I think it was Wednesday, I went and changed a bunch of cameras, spread out some wheat seed before rain. All this disturbance in a pretty low-cover farm. That guy daylighted. The guy I'm hunting on Friday at 6 p.m. and all those spots. So we think don't pressure deer. You just got to be smart about it. You got to go get what you got to get done done. But all that disturbance and that guy was still right back there. 00:12:27 Speaker 1: I think so if someone right now is like, man, there's a few things I still need to get done. I might be able to sneak out of work early or Saturday is going to be super hot. Making some of those midday trips. last-minute moves could prove to be, you know, fruitful if it puts you in a position when the next front rolls in or next opportunity rolls in. So what you're saying is don't be scared to get done what you need to get done, but be smart and efficient about it. 00:12:54 Speaker 2: I would do it 100% of the time, yeah. 00:12:57 Speaker 1: Yeah. And so, Jack, I wish you the best of luck, and I anticipate some success later on this year. But for everyone that is in Missouri or even the Midwest, you have a recovery business and also a survey business. So how can, tell us quickly what that is and how they find you. 00:13:17 Speaker 2: Midwestdeersurveys.com is the website. You can find me there, and that's probably the best spot. 00:13:25 Speaker 1: Awesome. Thank you so much, Jack. Good luck. Thanks, Jake. All right, we got Scott Pisanee from Michigan who just shot a Northwoods Michigan buck. How does it feel? Incredible. 00:13:38 Speaker 6: First buck for me ever on opening day. 00:13:42 Speaker 4: So it was a very, very special hunt. 00:13:45 Speaker 1: Pretty, pretty cool. That's really neat. And so you have a beautiful backdrop here behind you. You can undoubtedly in the Northwoods here. Opening day, was it opening morning, opening evening? What was the plan going into it? 00:14:00 Speaker 6: Yeah, so it was opening evening. 00:14:01 Speaker 4: We got a big rain system here in West Michigan that pushed through. 00:14:07 Speaker 6: Let's see. 00:14:07 Speaker 4: Opening day was Thursday. So it would have been Wednesday evening all night and basically all day on Thursday, our opening day. So I didn't go out in the morning. 00:14:16 Speaker 6: I mean, it was raining. 00:14:17 Speaker 4: I hate missing any hunt on opening day. I like to get out there in the mornings, even in October. But in this case, I slept in through the rain and just didn't have any camera activity all night long into the morning. So I had a pretty good feeling if there was going to be a break in the rain, they'd be moving pretty good. In the evening, so I jumped in a spot that I had kind of had eyes on for the last few years. It's an acorn flat that's between, well, between. 00:14:47 Speaker 6: The lake right behind me and another swamp. 00:14:51 Speaker 4: And then to the west of it, it has an old clear cut, but it's still fairly thick with kind of autumn olive, good cover. And I'd gone in there last Sunday, put in a cell camera on a fresh scrape, that was on an old two track, just a good travel corridor that I know deer are using and just a ton of fresh sign in there. Not necessarily buck sign, but just deer sign in general and figured that would be a good spot for a camera. And I, I got this buck that I ended up shooting on opening night a couple of times. He was, I mean, you know, for, for up here on public land, that's as much of a pattern as you're going to get on a deer. If he's there two or three times in less than a week, that's, that gets my interest big time. So, um, I jumped in the saddle and of course, I'm sure you've had this where you go in scout, you pick a tree. You're like, Oh yeah, that's a great tree. And then you get back out there. You're like, what were you thinking? I mean, I picked a tree that had very little cover. I'm on pins and needles the entire hunt and ended up having at about seven 20, which is like 30 some minutes before legal light ends. 00:15:58 Speaker 6: But it was dark because it was still raining. It was still drizzling. 00:16:02 Speaker 4: So by seven 20, uh, when, when this buck showed up kind of, um, pushing some fawns off of his acorns, uh, he ended up pushing those fawns right back toward me where, uh, where mom was standing. And I couldn't tell that it was this buck, but I knew it was a good buck. You know, I'm not a guy that hunts one buck exclusively. I just saw that it was, he had a lot of bone up top and, um, luckily I was able to, to thread a shot through. He stopped in a great spot for me and not a great spot for him. 00:16:33 Speaker 1: That's super cool, man. That's a way to, way to make it all come together in a short amount of time. And, uh, you know, right after that weather front and rain, everyone talks about it, the importance of that sit after, you know, a weather front and you pre-scouted all the things, all the things when a plan comes together, man, it's sweet and it's awesome. And I think you have that deer for everyone watching on YouTube. Um, you have a deer, so you could, you give us a quick, uh, sneak of this Michigan buck. 00:17:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:17:00 Speaker 6: So pretty, pretty cool. 00:17:02 Speaker 4: I mean, you know, for, for up here, I've been hunting up here on public land 15 years and my uncle's more like 40. Um, this is, you know, this is one of the better ones that we've, that we've harvested in, in 40 years. And that definitive crab claw there, I had a coworker name him, Mr. 00:17:19 Speaker 6: Krabs. 00:17:19 Speaker 4: I know that's probably been used a million times, but, um, yeah, super cool to have a little, even though a short history, just have a little bit of a history and actually feel like I, I had a beat on, on a mature. 00:17:31 Speaker 6: Buck and, and then have it come together was real special. 00:17:36 Speaker 1: Man, that's what we're all chasing. And you were able to accomplish that opening day, first sit of the year, which, you know, the work in previous Intel of years, like for anyone listening, like don't get discouraged because it all came together from a long time, but you were able to make it happen and for it to all to unfold. That's super cool. And you guys have like an actual traditional wall tent camp, right? 00:18:00 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:18:01 Speaker 4: Yeah, so we have a wall tent with a wood burner. We all pitch individual tents. Again, my uncles and I have been doing this for, they've been doing it for a long, long time. I've been doing it for 10 to 15 years up here. And yeah, traditional old school, we call it Camp Two Fires up here in the middle of the National Forest. 00:18:21 Speaker 6: And there's no better place to be. 00:18:37 Speaker 1: That's super cool. So imagine, which I guess technically you still, you still have a tag from the sounds of it. You know, looking here for the 7th to the 14th of October, I know, I know you'll have to get back to reality at some point, but imagine you're able to stay for the next, you know, nine days, let's say. What would be kind of your game plan for anyone listening to give them a sense of direction over the next, you know, call it seven days? 00:19:00 Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's traditionally, this is a tough seven days to hunt. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The hunting pressure, is apparent already, just driving around, seeing a lot of trucks, seeing a lot of guys, so it's a tricky situation traditionally up here for that second week of October, I think you have a good window early on, but now I would say, you know, I'm definitely going to want to be in an area with acorns, they're still dropping, I don't know if you've been able to hear through my phone audio, but they're still dropping up here, and I was just hunting a tree, two or three nights ago that still had green acorns on it. 00:19:35 Speaker 6: So I think they're going to be dropping for another few days. 00:19:38 Speaker 4: So I'd definitely be somewhere where there's at least acorns in your area. And I would be close to bedding. I love clear cuts, you know, from maybe three years to seven years. or somewhere in there depends it varies but something that deer can see through a little bit and walk through not so thick that they can't get through it but areas where they're not going to be seen is is probably something that i would key on right now. 00:20:09 Speaker 1: What um So you had a couple of yearlings that came in and then you had that one buck. Um, what else, who, I guess in camp, you have multiple eyeballs and every night, I'm sure you guys are sharing hunting stories and what you've seen. What has been, is it pretty much has been a sole focus upon finding acorns that are getting, getting ate in the evenings? Yeah. You know, it's a variety. 00:20:32 Speaker 4: Um, there, you know, some of my uncles have been hunting the same spots for, for up to 40 years, you know, and, And things change throughout those years. And they've had some oaks near some of their best spots for early season die. And we're not seeing as many deer in those areas right now. You know, it's hit or miss. It seems like the deer movement overall has been slow. I've been out a couple more times. I have not seen another deer since opening night. 00:21:04 Speaker 3: And.... 00:21:06 Speaker 4: You know, some of it could be because opening day fell on a Thursday, probably not as much pressure on that Thursday, but come Friday, Saturday, Sunday, now, you know, the deer are feeling that that's kind of speculation, but overall, you know, camp as a whole has not, we're not seeing deer running all over the place, but we are seeing, um, another one of my uncles had, uh, Uh, probably a two and a half year old, nice six point actually kind of, kind of chasing a doe around. I know they'll, they'll, you know, start messing around a little bit early if it gets chilly in early October, but that's overall not, not a ton of deer movement right now. 00:21:45 Speaker 1: Got it. Looking at the weather for the next seven days, what, what can you deduct from that? 00:21:51 Speaker 4: Looks like there's, uh, some warmer temperatures or average to warmer temperatures here for the next like four days. And then after the weekend, we were going to see a cold front hit. And I do think that that would be a good day or two, like Monday, Tuesday. I think we were talking that that's coming through. That could be, that could be a good time. Again, I still think you're going to need to be on public land up here in West Michigan. I still think you're going to need to be close to a bedding area. I don't see a mature buck moving more than 200, maybe, maybe 300 yards in legal light. So, If you have a little bit of a pattern, if you're getting some pictures, you're getting some cell cam data on a good trail coming out of bedding, maybe to some acorns or some type of oak flat, some type of food source, that could be a good time to strike. 00:22:42 Speaker 1: I like it. Any other sage advice for everyone out there listening for the next seven days? 00:22:48 Speaker 4: You know, maybe not for the next seven days, but just a life in general thing. 00:22:55 Speaker 6: I lost a friend. 00:22:56 Speaker 4: On Saturday and, and, and our deer camp for, for November is, uh, is going to be missing him. And we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we, we put a lot of time and effort into trying to fill a tag or trying to fill multiple tags or trying to get after a mature buck. And you know, what, what you realize is that it really isn't that important. You know, what's important is making memories with, with your loved ones, with your friends and family and, and. 00:23:28 Speaker 6: Don't lose sight of that. 00:23:29 Speaker 4: Make sure that you are really, you know, enjoying every season. You don't know when your last season might be or, or when your best hunting buddy might have his last season. 00:23:39 Speaker 6: So enjoy it. And if you can, if you can fill a tag, you know. 00:23:44 Speaker 4: That's obviously special, but it's really about the people you share that with that, that matters. 00:23:50 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:23:50 Speaker 1: Sorry to hear, sorry to hear about your loss. That's always tough. And I think there's a lot of, that's timely advice. Cause you're right. We all get worked up and we all, uh, we all get a little selfish. Uh, anyone that says otherwise is lying. And I think that's a very important message. So I appreciate you sharing that. And once again, sorry to hear about that. Um, I guess our takeaway here, but like, as far as, you know, if someone wants to track you down and share words of encouragement or anything like that, um, what is the best way to do that? 00:24:20 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:24:20 Speaker 6: Shoot me a follow on Instagram. Shoot me a DM. 00:24:22 Speaker 4: It's at the American wild or the underscore American underscore wild. I keep it pretty light. You know, I don't take things too seriously. I really do try to live by what I just said. It's about the people. It's about friends and family for me. It's about sharing stories, having fun. Don't take your, your mistakes too seriously because success might be falling right behind, you know, and, for me, maybe most people would probably say it was a fluke. If you look at my track record, I've screwed up way more than I've had success. But every time you screw up, you learn from it and it all can come together in a flash. I was in my tree for like an hour and a half and had filled a tag on a beautiful Michigan public land box. So you're never as far away from success as you might think. 00:25:12 Speaker 6: Don't be too hard on yourself. 00:25:14 Speaker 4: Have fun, laugh off the mistakes and That's kind of what my Instagram is all about. 00:25:20 Speaker 1: I love it. Well, congratulations once again. Thanks for hopping on. Good luck the rest of the season, and certainly appreciate it. 00:25:26 Speaker 6: Yeah, thanks, man. Love the show. 00:25:28 Speaker 4: Love what Wired to Hunt and you're doing at Ruff Fresh. You and Mark are two guys I definitely look up to, so I'm thrilled to be on the show. 00:25:36 Speaker 6: Thanks so much for having me. 00:25:37 Speaker 1: Christian, welcome to Ruff Fresh. How's it going? Good, man. 00:25:41 Speaker 3: Doing great. 00:25:42 Speaker 5: I appreciate you having me on. 00:25:43 Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I have a feeling I know why you're doing great. A lot of people say I'm doing good, but you're doing great and for good reason. You connected on a beautiful buck this past weekend. How does it feel? 00:25:54 Speaker 5: Oh, fantastic, dude. 00:25:55 Speaker 3: Yeah. To have a great season, at least in my mind, you got to start off early. You got to start off hot. So I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. It feels like I've opened up the curtains and now we're just walking slowly through it. 00:26:08 Speaker 5: So it's good. 00:26:08 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:26:09 Speaker 1: And you have the skullcap of the buck you shot in Oklahoma, right? 00:26:12 Speaker 2: Yep. All right. 00:26:13 Speaker 1: Let's see it. 00:26:14 Speaker 5: All right. 00:26:15 Speaker 3: Here we go. 00:26:18 Speaker 1: Beautiful. Not bad. Beautiful. 00:26:21 Speaker 5: Beautiful. He's a framey sucker. 00:26:25 Speaker 1: So give us the breakdown where, what was your setup that evening? What, what was your gut feeling going into it? Why were you there? All the fun stuff. 00:26:33 Speaker 3: Yeah, man, we've had a, I got an, actually got a piece of permission, um, property this last season. Um, it's a, it's a good buddy who, who lives down in, uh, in Western Oklahoma, but it's a really cool mountain piece. And you hear mountains like people think that's like unfathomable but it's the Wichita mountains down there there's some elk habitat and a bunch of good whitetail stuff so we were hunting a big old mountain pass in between you know a couple hundred feet of elevation goes down into some giant wheat fields kind of down in the bottom my buddy hunted it that morning and he saw six bucks and seven does kind of come through that pass and it's so funny as the pictures on his video on his phone of those whitetails traversing the mountain and they were like walking up there like goats and stuff it's crazy Um, so he passed a couple really good four-year-olds that morning. And one of our other buddies had a, uh, a wedding rehearsal that night. And, uh, he was like, you know, you're going to kill a buck tonight, but I think you should go where I went this morning. I sat to the South of them on a food plot, uh, that morning. And so went up in that pass and he was like, dude, have your phone on you. Cause you're going to kill one. And I was like, I want to know when you kill one. And, uh, so I sat there, uh, that night and I seen like four does and about About 545, I look over, and it's just this giant pass that dumps into some milo on the far side, and there's weed on the other, on the east side. And this buck comes out of the bottom, jumps the neighbor's fence. He's in a bunch, like kind of a mesquite flat down at the bottom. And I just see that rat jump the fence. It's like from 200 yards. It's like, yep, grab the bow. 00:28:07 Speaker 5: He comes walking up that trail, and you know how it is. 00:28:10 Speaker 3: When you get to watch him come in for a long ways, you're just like, I just need to look the other direction. 00:28:15 Speaker 2: This is like painful. 00:28:17 Speaker 3: So he walks in, and he's pretty much directly below me. He walks behind a cedar, and I'm like, as soon as he gets behind that cedar, and I drew. And he was just steady walking, and I was like, I really don't like stopping him, but he was going to step. 00:28:30 Speaker 5: In out of my lane. 00:28:31 Speaker 3: And I was like, Matt, and looked up. That frame turned at me. Eyes got about twice as big. 00:28:37 Speaker 5: I was like, here we go. 00:28:37 Speaker 3: And it was– gusting like 19 20 miles an hour and my freaking pins all over him like just pulled this shot and i pulled and hit him a little bit high he ran 80 yards and stopped and kind of looked back and i was loading up another arrow and then by the time i looked back at him again all four legs were up in the air and i was just like oh. 00:28:55 Speaker 1: Let's go so that you can't it was just picture perfect yeah i love that that is awesome so was he headed to a food source that evening or like kind of you know There's. 00:29:06 Speaker 5: A few things going on there. Yeah. 00:29:08 Speaker 3: We've got some like feeders throughout the property. There's one deeper in that pass. And then, like I said, down in the bottom, there's some wheat that just got planted. And then this past weekend, me and my buddy planted like a wheat and chicory mix and radish. 00:29:23 Speaker 5: And so there's some wheat that's starting to poke through down in the bottom. 00:29:27 Speaker 3: But we've kind of got some feeders throughout the property as well. I mean, they're on some pretty natural movement paths. But there's a few different reasons, I think. I think he was probably going to hit some food Man, did you think he'd come together like that? 00:29:40 Speaker 5: No, absolutely not. 00:29:42 Speaker 1: No, I'm a pessimist. You can't do that in deer hunting. It's tough to be a pessimist. Man, that's super cool. Were you nervous at all when you saw him at 200 yards away? Were you concerned, like, is he going to come within bow range? Or was it how the terrain was? It was tight enough where it's like he's going to come through here. 00:29:59 Speaker 3: Man, this pass is fairly wide. Like it's probably 120 yards wide. And it kind of concerned me earlier because I saw some does like halfway up the face of that mountain. And they looked like they just popped out of the mountain, like out of a freaking. 00:30:12 Speaker 5: Hole behind these rocks. And I'm like, man, where did they come from? 00:30:16 Speaker 3: And so I had a doe walk right in front of me and I had a north northeast wind. She was about to catch my wind, but she worked back that same trail that he came back towards me off the neighbor. She had went into about 30 minutes before. And as he was headed up that trail, it wide, it was going to wide to go behind my cedar or left to kind of follow, fall down into the pass even more. And thank God he went left in the bottom. Cause I was like, Oh no, I'm going to have to shoot him at like 10 yards downwind. I was like, there's no way this is going to happen. And you're in a cedar that's four inches of diameter and you got to cut it out to have a good stand in there. And so it's, I was like, there's no way this is going to come together, but thankfully he took the right trail. 00:30:57 Speaker 1: That's super cool. What, uh, So the tree you were in was tiny. Oh yeah. 00:31:02 Speaker 5: Up, up in the top. It was, it was probably that big around. 00:31:05 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:31:05 Speaker 6: Was it shaken? 00:31:06 Speaker 1: Was it shaken when, when you saw him? You had the wind to cover your, your shakes. Uh huh. 00:31:12 Speaker 5: No, for real. Yeah. 00:31:13 Speaker 3: It was, I was only like eight feet off the ground. Like it was not a big cedar, but it was just in the perfect spot. And you're like, it's gotta be right there. So, um, they had hung that stand, my buddy and a couple of buddies earlier in the year, but yeah, no, it was, it was perfect. 00:31:26 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:31:26 Speaker 1: Well, I think there's some, some good insight in that. So for anyone that's in similar terrain, which probably not a ton of people, but I'm just curious, looking at the weather and everything else over the next seven days, the 7th to the 14th, what advice would you have for someone that's listening to this and they're trying to plan the upcoming weekend or maybe Friday or even early next week? What do you tell them with the weather, time of year, all these different things? 00:31:53 Speaker 5: Set your expectations accordingly. 00:31:56 Speaker 3: Um and we had some high 50s lows uh this last week and that's that's very low for the south right now i mean i was looking at it before we got on this call and we're looking at highs in the upper 80s some lows in the upper 60s to low 70s so i just don't think you're going to see a whole lot of daylight movement there's a lot of things changing right now there's some crops coming out if where we're hunting there's a lot of winter wheat going in so it's starting to kind of poke and so we actually went and hung a trail camera on another bedding area location. This is right off the edge of a big destination wheat fields, but I think you gotta be tight to bedding right now. And you're probably going to have some light and variable winds, which is super annoying. And I just don't think they're going to move a whole lot. So you're gonna have to be tight to where they're bedding. I think they're going to be moving really close to daylight and dark. I mean, it's 86, 87 degrees. That's not, that's not the weather you dream of as a bow hunter. That's when you, cancel your PTO request and go back to work. Yeah. 00:32:55 Speaker 1: Yeah. So, you know, with that being said on a scale one to 10, where do you, where do you put it? 10 being the absolute best week of the year. One being not, not excited at all. 00:33:05 Speaker 5: It's going to be in that two or three range. It's going to be pretty low. 00:33:09 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:33:09 Speaker 5: It could happen, but I wouldn't be pumped about it. 00:33:12 Speaker 1: For people who have time, what would you say? Would you say go hunt, tight to bedding hope for the best would it be to scout would it be to move around cameras what do you think would be the best use of time over the next seven days. 00:33:22 Speaker 3: I'd be looking for some for fresh shine um and and stuff that's tight in bedding um so you're seeing some scrapes popping up that buck had a bunch of cedar in his brow so they're they're obviously laying down rubs um and and that sort of thing and like i said there's a lot of food changing like down here and i shot that buck in oklahoma but in central texas i got six live oaks in my backyard and they're just raining right now Um, I'm sure some white Oaks, post Oaks, that sort of stuff are, are dropping as well. So I'd be looking for, you know, food source sign, but all of that tight to bedding. If I found sign that was 500 yards off of bedding area, I wouldn't even put any pain in mind to it at this point. He's not going to get there before dark. So I'd be looking for fresh sign near bedding probably or food. 00:34:06 Speaker 1: I think that's fair. Anything else that you can think of? I mean, we're, it's like, um, October low is, uh, it's, uh, a very combative statement. Like some people are like, ah, you know, it's, it's, you know, you can still kill them. And there's research that shows that activity only gets better throughout October. And then there's other people with a lot of experience and maybe even a touch of gray hair that, uh, say good days are coming. Uh, just, just be patient. Where do you fall in that camp? 00:34:34 Speaker 3: I don't call it the October law. I call it the October hot. I mean, if it's hot, I'm not, I'm not too excited about the hunting. If it was October 12th and it was, a 50 degree cold front. I don't care what they say about GPS collars or the lull. I'm going to be in a tree and I expect to see some deer movement, but all weather dependent, man. Um, as there, I just think it's 86 degrees is a tough time to be a deer moving around. So I wouldn't, I just, with the weather, I wouldn't be worried about the lull, but, uh, I think you're going to see some, if you believe in the lull, you're going to see some lull type movement in the next seven days. Probably cameras are probably going to die. 00:35:10 Speaker 1: Um, so yeah. 00:35:12 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:35:12 Speaker 1: Well, I like it. Well, congratulations once again, Christian. And if people want to follow along, you have a podcast, YouTube channel, where is the best place for them to follow along with everything that you have going? 00:35:21 Speaker 3: Yeah, no, we're a, we're a hunter's advantage on all platforms, Instagram, Facebook, uh, YouTube, all that stuff. 00:35:28 Speaker 5: So you can find us there. 00:35:29 Speaker 3: Awesome. 00:35:29 Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Congratulations once again. Thanks man. All right, folks, there you guys have it. I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode of Rut Fresh. Next time you'll hear from us is October 14th. And if you're in a state that hasn't been represented here on Rut Fresh yet this year, be sure to send me a message on Instagram at Jake Hofer. Would love to get you on the show and share what you've been seeing or maybe not seeing. So hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week. Be sure to check out the Whitetail Week giveaway at firstlight.com. The more you spend, the more entries you get. And that will be going till October 12th, 1159 Mountain Time. We'll see you.