00:00:01 Speaker 1: What is going on? 00:00:02 Speaker 2: This is Jake Hofer, and welcome to another episode of Rot Fresh presented by Moultrie. We're on the heels of one of the first very strong cold fronts in October, and there was a lot of success across the country. We're going to be diving into that with some of the guests, but a quick shout out to Jack Houston, who was a previous guest two weeks ago. He tagged his target buck on Friday, and here across the Midwest, Friday evening seemed to be a magical, great evening for a lot of hunters. And Phil, who's our first guest this week, recaps what it was like with the great weather, the first good cold front, and hunting over a freshly picked cornfield. And so this week we have Phil Tuttle from Illinois. We have Jordan Budd from Nebraska. 00:00:42 Speaker 1: And we have Josh Henson from Florida. 00:00:44 Speaker 2: Texas and so we have a wide variety of guests here and i'm going to jump into the weather report for this week from october 21st to the 28th the main story this week is warmer and drier weather across much of the midwest high pressure will keep temperature above normal with widespread 60s and 70 degree days with limited precipitation through the weekend winds will generally shift south to southwest as the week progresses by late weekend into early next week a system moving across northern u.s could bring increasing winds following pressure and a frontal boundary into the upper midwest further east Unsettled weather and stronger winds remain possible along portions of the East Coast. And overhead, the moon continues building toward the full Hunter's Moon on Sunday, October 25th. That's your Whitetail Weather Report through next Wednesday. We're getting into the time of year where the calendar carries more and more weight, more so than the weather, in my opinion. But the weather is still by far the most important factor into this. So that's my two cents for this week before we jump into our first guest with Phil Tuttle. Here we go. All right, kicking off this week's episode, we have Phil, who just had maybe one of the most remarkable weekends or memorable weekends a guy can have, a whitetail hunter can have. 00:01:56 Speaker 1: Is that right? 00:01:58 Speaker 3: Oh, my goodness. I don't know how it could have gotten any better, man. 00:02:03 Speaker 4: I'll tell the story in a minute, but I was able to take my biggest buck with a bow. 00:02:07 Speaker 3: In just a crazy cool scenario. 00:02:09 Speaker 4: And then the next night, my wife took her first deer and first buck, both on the ground. Uh, mine with a bow, hers with a crossbow. And I mean, just how it played out is it's still, still hasn't hit me really. 00:02:24 Speaker 1: Yeah. So, yeah, no. So I I've, I've known you for a while here, Phil, and, uh, you've been on a heater. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and say this. 00:02:30 Speaker 2: You've been on a heater with big bucks and, uh, you know, we stay in touch throughout the year. You're sending me pictures and, uh, the last few times, like, Hey, what do you think of this buck? And the next thing I know, like a week later, the deer's dead. So, uh, you're, you're a big buck killer. And I think anyone listening. should pay attention to kind of this unique approach that put it together because it's super cool. Yeah. 00:02:51 Speaker 4: So, I mean, yeah, end of last year ended with a bang, getting a big deer on the ground in late season. And this year I was really hoping to kill with my bow because I'm a bit of a, I'm a bit of a killer with the gun. And if you ask my buddies, everyone's like, oh yeah, he just went gun season, you know, loves to kill with the gun. I don't have a lot of big bucks down with the bow that changed obviously on Friday. 00:03:12 Speaker 3: But I would say, yeah, First thing is like, gotta have a lot of properties. 00:03:16 Speaker 4: And so like I spread myself and spread cameras over a lot of farms and I'm not wasting time on places that aren't, they don't have, um, what I'm looking for. 00:03:25 Speaker 3: So this, this piece is unique. 00:03:27 Speaker 4: Um, it is a lease and, uh, came across it, uh, from the landowner of, I have two leases with the same landowner and he basically was like, Hey, I own another farm. 00:03:37 Speaker 3: Uh, and I said, great. I'm very interested, was able to get it leased quickly. 00:03:43 Speaker 4: Get cams out and right away knew that there was, I mean, three or four deer that I would shoot on it right away. And so went for a bit of an observation sit last Wednesday, kind of the beginning of that cold front. 00:03:54 Speaker 3: Wasn't really great yet. 00:03:56 Speaker 4: Sat a inside corner field edge stand and did not take good access looking back. Kind of learned quickly about the property, but watched all the deer dump out from the north of me and cut across this cut bean field to this half cut, half standing cornfield, basically about 400 yards away. And, you know, I got to looking at it, snapped a picture of it from the tree stand. And later that night, I was like, man, if I could just tuck into that strip of standing corn right there with the right. 00:04:25 Speaker 3: Wind, like it's still a lot. It's always a long shot until it happens. Right, Jake? It, you know, it doesn't until it happens. 00:04:31 Speaker 4: So I looked at the forecast, saw Friday coming, was like, oh man, I got to clear the deck, baby. 00:04:36 Speaker 3: That is the day to be there. Super windy. 00:04:39 Speaker 4: Um, and then I have this buddy of mine who's been pushing this mirror ghost blind on me and says, you know, he's got to try this blind. So I went to Blaine's and picked up a mirror ghost blind and again, long shot, right? So I brushed into the standing corn strip, had a stiff Northwest wind and the deer just started dumping out of the timber and making this long walk. 00:05:00 Speaker 3: And, um, I probably saw 30 to 40 deer on. 00:05:04 Speaker 4: Friday night and some deer, some does got uh, downwind of me, unfortunately, and busted hard. 00:05:10 Speaker 3: It's like, crap, this is there. 00:05:11 Speaker 2: Right. 00:05:12 Speaker 4: And, um, but for whatever reason, the bachelor group that was behind them, probably about 200 yards did not bust and they just kept coming. And, you know, we don't usually see mature, mature bucks, like as the lead in the bachelor group, but he was leading and he cut it to came all the way in from 400 yards to 23 yards. I stopped him slightly quartering too, and just punched it through his front shoulder. 00:05:36 Speaker 3: And immediately I'm like, oh, no, I hit him high. 00:05:38 Speaker 4: Right. 00:05:38 Speaker 3: Worst case scenario. I didn't hit him high. 00:05:40 Speaker 4: He ran 50 yards, turned back around, did like a little bit of that wobble, shaky look and then just crashed. 00:05:47 Speaker 3: And man, I freaked out. 00:05:49 Speaker 1: I lost it. 00:05:50 Speaker 3: And the phone call started. The FaceTime started. 00:05:52 Speaker 4: Always call my wife first and then FaceTime and the buddies and a long shot came together. 00:05:59 Speaker 3: It was insane. 00:06:02 Speaker 2: That is really, really cool. From the ground with a compound bow and staining corn. And so my question for you is, why was it half-picked? Was it weather-related? 00:06:14 Speaker 1: Farmer was busy. 00:06:15 Speaker 2: What were some of the conditions that lined up so perfectly for this? 00:06:19 Speaker 3: I got to assume it was weather-related. I mean, we had that rain that moved in, right? 00:06:22 Speaker 4: I think we had rain Wednesday night into Thursday, and it was just kind of a It's another message that I'm learning here is like, take what the farm gives you. And the farm gave me a half picked cornfield because of the rain. I'm sure that farmer would have loved to have gotten it all out, but it basically handed me a ground blind that wouldn't be there. It's probably already picked for all I know. And so, and then not to mention, you know, after we got that deer taken care of, I've been hoping to get my wife her first deer and we've got other spots to go. 00:06:52 Speaker 3: You know, we've got a farm of our own, thankfully, but I was like, we got to get back in there. 00:06:56 Speaker 4: I mean, this is the spot. We saw a ton of deer. So my wife and I got back in there the next day, next night. And we saw a ton of deer, more deer than I saw. And she was able to take a nice, uh, two-year-old eight pointer, um, with her crossbow. And it was just, like I said, it doesn't get any better. 00:07:14 Speaker 1: That is so cool. 00:07:14 Speaker 2: How, um, what was her reaction shooting her first buck? And obviously you were there with her and like, what an intense way to shoot your first buck to from the ground, uh, behind, you know, a mirror, you know, like so, so intense. 00:07:27 Speaker 1: Of a hunt, man. 00:07:29 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:07:29 Speaker 3: I'm going to keep it real. 00:07:30 Speaker 4: We love spending time together and it's like more, more, more a thing of spending time together. And it was our date night and we've got five kids under nine. So she had so much fun having deer all around her. Uh, so she had a blaster in that when, after she pulled the trigger, uh, she wouldn't mind me saying that she, she got a little sad. 00:07:48 Speaker 3: So this might, she got a little sad about killing the deer. 00:07:51 Speaker 4: And so, uh, this might be her, her last year that she shoots, but we had a blast together and she had really enjoys coming with me. She's came with me many, many, many times, but first time getting one down. So we'll see TBD. 00:08:04 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:08:05 Speaker 2: I think that's, that's a fair, it is a, it's a, it's a lot of emotions to process. Honestly, uh, even, even, even for you, I'm sure you're emotional and like you still, you know, it's just, it's a lot to process when you work so hard and everything comes together. 00:08:19 Speaker 1: It's just, It's an emotional and adrenaline dump. 00:08:22 Speaker 2: That is very hard to describe. And obviously that's what she got to experience for the, for the first time. So, you know, you, one of the messages is, you know, take what the farm will give you or take what opportunities are in front of you and seize it. So looking here over the next seven days, you know, the 21st to the 28th, what opportunities do you see that people could pay, you know, pay attention to or consider as they plan out the, you know, the next week of hunting? Yeah. 00:08:48 Speaker 3: I mean, it's warm. Anybody who's looking at the same forecast I am, it's warm. 00:08:52 Speaker 4: We're looking at highs in the low 70s. And even the lows are not that low. I'm seeing like mid to high 40s for the lows. And so I'm not saying you can't get it done in the morning. But if I had two tags in my pocket and I was just still ripping and roaring, I would be evenings on food. And so hard to beat cut corn, honestly, as I just saw. And I saw a ton of deer, Jake. So I would say evenings on food sources are with conservative access so that you're not ruining weeks to come or even your hunt that night, I would take real conservative access. And, um, I'm not a huge, um, observation, sick guy, but after seeing and doing what I just did, like I would be doing some scouting and glassing and then seeing where deer coming out and taking conservative approaches on food at night, you're going to see bucks bumping does around more. 00:09:44 Speaker 3: So the young bucks. 00:09:45 Speaker 4: But, man, it's not before too long we're going to have big boys in there pushing does around. 00:09:50 Speaker 3: Could happen this week, probably more like next week. 00:09:58 Speaker 2: Is there any day that sticks out to you that you're most excited? about over the next seven days, 21st to the 28th? Because it looks like maybe the barometric pressure rises a little bit towards the 24th and 25th and a little bit of a drop, like a tiny bit of a drop on Tuesday the 27th and the 28th. 00:10:19 Speaker 1: Is that enough to get you a little bit excited? 00:10:22 Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. If I had two tags, I would be, I mean, obviously it all depends on family, work, and everything else, right? But if I didn't just scratch the edge, we'll call it, I'd be out every night I could, but conservatively. And yeah, it might be warm, but definitely some high-pressure days. So we're not seeing like Magic X stuff necessarily with that high-pressure temp drop that we had Friday night. But if I wanted to go, and if I was trying to kill a buck, I would absolutely be hunting each evening over food. 00:10:51 Speaker 3: Um, ideally cut corn if you got it. So. 00:10:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it. 00:10:57 Speaker 2: And then the, uh, most important question scale, scale one to 10 over the next seven days, 10 being the best week of the year, one being one of the worst, where does it fall? Yeah. 00:11:06 Speaker 3: So, okay. 00:11:06 Speaker 4: I got a two part answer for you. I know you love, you know, circumstantial answers. If you have Intel, on a buck you want to shoot, a mature buck moving in daylight, whether that's from like your own eyes of scouting or like straight up trail camera pictures, a 10 out of 10, if he's moving in daylight, like why would you not go kill him if you can? 00:11:24 Speaker 3: If you are. 00:11:25 Speaker 4: Just taking, if you're like, oh, what are my spots going to turn on? When are these deer going to start moving? The cameras are slow. I would say five out of 10, be conservative. Don't ruin the weeks to come. There are better days to come. Scrape week coming up next week. Uh, so I would say 10 out of 10, if you have deer on, on camera in daylight, five out of 10, if you're kind of in a spot where you're playing wait and see game. 00:11:50 Speaker 1: I love, I love that answer. 00:11:51 Speaker 2: Well, Phil, I, uh, I always give people the opportunity to get tracked down if they wanted to. Uh, is there a way for people to reach out to you if you want that? 00:11:59 Speaker 4: I'll just link my email address, um, to you and you can embed it however you want. 00:12:04 Speaker 3: Um, but no, I'm not really on socials. Maybe I'll start filming my hunts here. Seriously. 00:12:07 Speaker 4: Although man, as bad as I want to be a film guy, uh, I can't imagine doing anything else other than like knocking on range finding in the moment. 00:12:15 Speaker 3: I don't know how those guys do it. 00:12:19 Speaker 2: I don't, I have the utmost respect for him because there's so much for it to go for everything to come together. And then you throw that into the mix, but congratulations once again. And I assume you are a firm believer of the ghost blind now. 00:12:32 Speaker 4: Oh man, absolutely. It's another tool in the tool belt, man. I will be busting it out later. I can see it working really well in late season food sources too, for sure. 00:12:40 Speaker 2: So. 00:12:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. Well, congratulations once again, Phil. 00:12:45 Speaker 3: Thanks, man. Appreciate you. 00:12:47 Speaker 1: All right, next up we have Jordan Budd in Nebraska. How's it going? Hey, Jake. 00:12:52 Speaker 3: Doing good here. 00:12:53 Speaker 5: It's kind of warm, but, yeah, better days are ahead. 00:12:56 Speaker 1: Better days are ahead. 00:12:59 Speaker 2: What was this last cold front this last weekend like for you guys, for activity? Was it everything you guys dreamed of or about what you expected, a little worse? 00:13:07 Speaker 1: What did you see? 00:13:08 Speaker 5: It was a– we don't have hunters in right now, so I don't have like anybody out in the stands, but cameras, you know, monitoring cameras activity was definitely up. It's been so hot here that, um, even the bachelor groups of bucks that I had early in September had, I don't want to say they moved on, but they were just not active like at all. And that, that picked up activity a little bit in the daylight. Um, but now we're back up into the seventies and it's shut back somewhat shut back down again. But I think that from here on it's just going to get better every day. 00:13:42 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:13:43 Speaker 1: So what's kind. 00:13:46 Speaker 2: Of, if you had to jump in the brain of a mature buck in Nebraska right now over the next seven days, like what, how could someone intercept them with, you know, it being a little bit more stagnant temperatures, a little bit warmer, drier. What, what would you say to anyone listening that's, you know, following similar conditions wherever they're at in the country and maybe they have, you know, this upcoming weekend they're available or maybe a couple of evenings. 00:14:09 Speaker 1: What, what would be your game plan for them? 00:14:12 Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's all about trails and trying to catch them close to here anyways. Uh, like edges of cornfields, they'll be walking those edges and I still don't think they want to get out and get like really exposed, you know, but, um, but they're, they're still going to get up and feed. So I think, as close as you can get to like the corn edges and those there's alfalfa out there now. So there's some of that kind of stuff anywhere that's, I mean, just try to catch them bedding to feeding really and hunt those edges. Or if you know they're bedding and then they're going into the feed that night right now, there's so much standing corn. I think they go in there and lay down and they don't, they don't really come back out. So that, that makes it really tough. But if you know that there's like a thick spot that they're bedding, Try to get in there. Definitely make sure your wind's right. I'm looking at the wind for the next week, and it's kind of erratic, actually. But make sure you have a good wind and get in there quiet. I would try to get close because the shot that you're going to get probably is going to be pretty late. 00:15:30 Speaker 1: That's the challenge at this time of year. 00:15:32 Speaker 2: Um, as far as rut sign getting laid down and, and you can draw this from your show cameras, but have you over the last, this last cold front, was there any newcomers that showed up? Um, or have you seen any sparring where they, you know, hammering the scrapes at night? 00:15:48 Speaker 5: Uh, some sparring with this cold front. 00:15:50 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:15:50 Speaker 5: Some sparring and bigger bucks sparring like with each other, not just the little, you know, the little bucks have kind of been messing with pushing each other around for a while now, but. the bigger bucks, there's a little bit of activity there. Um, I feel like those, that group of deer that I had earlier that kind of, I literally like for three weeks, I just didn't see them. Um, they, they're back and they're like starting to hit same like licking branches and stuff. Like they're just getting more consistent on that. So that's another thing too, is get out and try to find something like that, like, and sit over that. Cause yeah, I mean, they might hit it in the middle of the day. These bucks are hitting it real late. 00:16:33 Speaker 2: Late isn't like middle of the night late or like right at shooting time. 00:16:37 Speaker 5: Yeah, right at dark, like right after shooting time. And then I really don't see them in the middle of the night, so I don't know. 00:16:44 Speaker 2: If you had to pick corner or alfalfa for this upcoming week, knowing the conditions and temperature, if someone had two different options, which one would you pick? 00:16:53 Speaker 1: And we're going to break it down a little bit more. 00:16:56 Speaker 2: Standing corn and freshly cut corn too. 00:16:58 Speaker 1: So you have really kind of three options. 00:17:00 Speaker 5: Freshly, freshly picked corn would be definitely, yeah, I think so. And then I would, and then alfalfa is probably second. Standing corn is just so hard. So, I mean, they go in there and it's like they just shut a door. Not a chance. 00:17:17 Speaker 2: Where, where is Nebraska at where you're, you know, where you're located in terms of, are they on time with harvest? 00:17:24 Speaker 1: Are they behind harvest? 00:17:27 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:17:27 Speaker 5: So we're in the Northwest corner. We're a little bit, we're always a little later than like the Eastern guys. Um, but there's people that are, they're starting now. And the other thing to think about too, with corn, some people might be chopping it like green chopping it this year where they haven't before, just because of it's dry everywhere and like feed that might, and corn's not worth anything right now. So it might be worth more as silage. So there's some of that going on too. They're getting it out earlier. We're experiencing a a little bit of that. And I think because of how dry it's been, it's, I think that they're going to be getting it out a little early earlier this year. Um, so yeah. 00:18:07 Speaker 2: What would be your advice for someone that, um, they're just like, man, I'm, I'm a little lost right now. I know it's late October. I really need to get my butt in gear. I need to get a game plan. Um, what would be your action items for the next seven days? Like hang camera, scout observation, hunt, uh, you know, give them, give them a slap on the back and say, go tell. 00:18:29 Speaker 1: Them what to do here. 00:18:30 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:18:30 Speaker 5: I think I would definitely get out and scout. And even I love cameras. I run a ton of them, but man, running a ton of them, you still miss stuff all the time. I go out and sit and I'm just like, Holy cow. I haven't seen that deer before. And, uh, you know, right in the same area, they're just walking on the other side of the tree probably. Um, So yeah, I think, especially where you can actually hunt now, like you can have your tag and bow in hand. I would get out there and at least scout, like you could do observation sits, but, um, I think this time of year, especially like, you know, obey your wind and try to be cautious of that. 00:19:09 Speaker 3: But it, I don't know. 00:19:10 Speaker 5: It's just going to, it's just going to get, it's just going to start getting better. I've last year, I was so, I was really hunting a buck hard and I was so down and out this time of year last year because I'm like he's only going at night and I'm still doing I'm still sitting and like hunting really hard but it's and then it seemed like that last two three days of October it just was like a light switch it just like he started daylighting and just moving so some of it's patience but it's also like there's a lot of people that have a lot of things going on and you also have to take advantage of the time you have And not just sit there and overanalyze... weather. 00:19:52 Speaker 1: Everyone is guilty of that. 00:19:53 Speaker 2: Everyone becomes a meteorologist and can read deer's mind this time of year or feel like they can at all and it gets demoralizing. And so I think there's a lot of truth to what you just said, though. It's like this could be either... a really, really fruitful, you know, seven day period for someone that has a deer, the right food source, maybe the right scrape. And even though the weather is not perfect, it could be a great opportunity to connect with one. If you're not in that camp, I anticipate these next seven days to be a little frustrating to where, you know, you feel like you're just throwing stuff at the wall and it's not sticking. And in your neck of the woods, what is your favorite period of time? So for people that are like, man, I'm probably the latter of the the two where I'm throwing stuff at the wall and it's not sticking. 00:20:39 Speaker 1: You're telling me things are going to get better. When is that for you? 00:20:42 Speaker 5: I think, well, for us, it's, I mean, just November, you know, I would say that first through the fifth, we've had some really good luck. Recently in Nebraska, you have a rifle season that runs right during the rut. So I feel like last year we actually tried, usually we don't even try calling that period. It's so open here. that we just don't have any issues with rifle season. But last year I had a new guide come guide for me and he took, he took rattling antlers and they had a crazy time. And that was, that timeframe was like right in the middle of November, probably 15th through the 18th right in there. But they had crazy luck. But I, I like for our archery hunters anyways, that like November 5th ish is just, I don't know. It just seems like we get right at the end of October, we'll get some new bucks moving through and they'll be running a scrape line and really consistent. 00:21:42 Speaker 3: And that's, I like. 00:21:43 Speaker 1: That a lot too. 00:21:44 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:21:45 Speaker 2: Which I think, um, another action item for this timeframe is if you have your cameras, make sure they're dialed, make sure you have batteries and they're about to die, go in and switch them out. 00:21:55 Speaker 5: Dude, that's on my list. 00:21:57 Speaker 1: I read your mind. 00:21:58 Speaker 2: And so like the next, the next, uh, I would say, you know, two weeks of Intel, uh, is going to set up your November. You could feel really frustrated if your camera dies three days from now and you're like, I don't know, I don't think I missed much. To your point, what shows up is probably going to be running around in November and you got to know what shows up. 00:22:18 Speaker 5: Yeah, at least around here. I mean, it's pretty slow, September, October, until we get, like I said, to that last little bit of October and then we get new bucks show up and they start spreading out. And I think now this year, if they start getting corn out a little early, well, that's just going to disperse everything a little bit quicker or more. And, um, yeah, it's, it's a time to be, you need to be on it. 00:22:41 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:22:41 Speaker 1: Get, get dialed. One question I have for, you know, so, you know, cutting the corn. 00:22:46 Speaker 2: For grain, you know, I assume there's, you know, there's spillage. Uh, I was out in Nebraska, a handful, a lot of gleaners out there. It's a different farm, a farm country. Uh, but And then also, so you have that style of harvesting corn and then the other of getting it for, you know, cattle. 00:23:02 Speaker 3: It's like a silage. 00:23:03 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:23:04 Speaker 2: Is it, is it different of how the deer interact with that type of harvest with, with corn? 00:23:08 Speaker 1: Does that make sense? 00:23:09 Speaker 5: Yeah, I know you're, I know what you're talking about. I wouldn't think it'd be that much different cause they're still picking up kernels of whatever's dropped. Like there's going to be a little bit of waste no matter what. And, um, That's a really good question. I haven't had like, they pretty much pick all the corn around here. Um, instead of like, yeah, doing the green chop stuff. I think that there's just going to be waste no matter what. And the deer picking up those kernels. So I'm not sure that there, there would be any real difference. 00:23:39 Speaker 1: Got it. Got it. Well, okay. 00:23:41 Speaker 2: So scale one to 10 over the next seven days, 21st to the 28th of October in Northwest Nebraska, 10 being the best week of the year. One being one of the worst weeks of the year. 00:23:51 Speaker 1: Where does it, where's it at? 00:23:53 Speaker 5: I bet we're going to hit a six probably. It's for the 21st or the 23rd, it's supposed to be real hot, 70 to 80 degrees every day. And then we're going to get a little shift down into the 50s, which will probably help. But man, our cold temperatures, they're just not, they're just not here. Like our, you know, the lowest in that timeframe is still mid 30s. It'll be lower on the river bottom, but up high, I mean, that's not, freezing, obviously. So that's interesting too. It's like, it's not really getting cold, but I just think the overall drop in temperature is going to help movement a little bit. Um, and I don't know when it's really, really cold. I'm not sure that that makes a huge difference either sometimes. So I don't know. 00:24:45 Speaker 1: Are you going to be out hunting and scouting over the next seven days? Like, is that your personal plan? 00:24:49 Speaker 5: Yeah. Once this, uh, once, once it drops off a little bit, we're supposed to get a little rain shower coming through. And once it goes down to those fifties, yeah, I'll bump things up a little bit. I want to go, uh, hang some more cameras. I need to go check. Like we just run mostly lock-ons. I need to go check lock-on straps and just kind of get that, get that thing set. Um, make any movements. That's kind of what I like to do. We don't take any hunters, um, until, that November timeframe, kind of that early November, it's just when we get the most activity, it's easiest to keep people in the tree that time of year. It's hard keeping people going right now. And, uh, so yeah, we saved that till November. So I'll get, I'll get some more cameras up probably today, tomorrow, start looking at what that is looking like just for deer movement and stuff, make any stand changes I need to. And then we're pretty much, we're locked in, but I'm, yeah, I'm glassing every morning and every evening until then. 00:25:45 Speaker 1: I love it. 00:25:47 Speaker 2: Jordan, where can people follow along with your season and reach out or have any questions? And maybe they want to hunt Nebraska. 00:25:54 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:25:54 Speaker 5: Just Instagram at jordan.bud. Throw me on there. We're on Facebook as well. And our outfit is Running Water Hunting here in Northwest Nebraska. 00:26:03 Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, good luck to you and good luck to all your hunters. I appreciate it. 00:26:07 Speaker 2: Cool. Thanks, Jake. All right. 00:26:08 Speaker 1: Next up, we have Josh Henson down in Texas. 00:26:12 Speaker 2: Josh, Texas is a ginormous state, only second to Alaska in size. 00:26:17 Speaker 1: Where about in Texas are you? 00:26:19 Speaker 6: So I'm west of the Dallas-Fort Worth region. So north central Texas. 00:26:25 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:26:27 Speaker 6: About 30 miles west of DFW. 00:26:33 Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. 00:26:34 Speaker 2: So we're kind of recapping this cold front this last weekend. It almost felt like a playoff game. It was the first cold front of October that, you know, it's just to the point where it's getting really exciting. I think some people got overly, overly excited. There's going to be guests here on today that had a lot of success throughout this weekend, but you know, expectations versus reality. Where did this last front land for you? 00:27:00 Speaker 6: And it did everything that we needed it to do. Big 30, 30 plus degree temperature swing downward North winds. Just, high winds, knocked a lot of acorns down, everything that we needed it to do. 00:27:16 Speaker 2: I don't know. 00:27:17 Speaker 6: The deer didn't do their job. I didn't do mine, but I'm not going to be one of those people with a success story, unfortunately. 00:27:23 Speaker 1: That's okay. 00:27:24 Speaker 2: I hunted this weekend and I did not connect either, so don't feel bad. 00:27:28 Speaker 1: But man, it was good. 00:27:30 Speaker 2: It felt so good to be out there with that cold front and seeing some bucks do what they're supposed to do. And it's a fun time to run show cameras. I'm curious, from a deer observation standpoint, what did you see them doing uh, in the DFW area of Texas? Um, are they laying down some sign? What, what kind of was your observation? 00:27:52 Speaker 6: Pretty good bed to food pattern, uh, primarily, um, not as much nighttime movement as I expected, uh, but definitely starting to open up scrapes. I found, uh, two or three really good scrapes that were dug down six inches into the ground and found some new really big, big buck rubs yesterday afternoon as I was going around checking my spots, filling feeders, changing batteries and stuff like that. So definitely, definitely starting to lay down some more signs. So love to see that. 00:28:26 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:28:27 Speaker 2: What kind of acorns are dropping in that And do you know what type. 00:28:32 Speaker 1: Of oak tree they are? I'm just curious. 00:28:33 Speaker 6: So right now. 00:28:34 Speaker 1: Because you sent a picture. They look tiny, like the world's tiniest little acorns. Yeah, yeah. 00:28:38 Speaker 6: So we have a lot of post oaks in this area. It's primarily post oak and live oak. Post oaks are starting to shed a lot of really small acorns. I'm not sure if it's really a drop or if it's more of aborted acorns from this drought that we had. that are just now starting to get dry enough to fall out. Um, but primarily, uh, I do have a couple of white oak trees on the property that are starting to trickle down just a little bit. Um, but I just, I don't know if it's really, if they're dropping yet or if it's just due to the wind event that we had. 00:29:11 Speaker 2: So, um, what, um, like here, here in the Midwest, I would say there's a lot of sun getting laid down, uh, you know, scrapes, rubs, bucks sparring. Um, What stage would you say the deer are at in Texas right now? I mean, they're not bachelored up at all, I would assume. 00:29:35 Speaker 6: Well, I'm actually I'm actually watching a group of about six bachelor bucks that are still together primarily. And from everything that I can tell, I have two large deer, big bucks that are what I would consider to be target deer that seem like they're kind of still satelliting around the bachelor group. Um, both mornings, Saturday morning, as well as yesterday morning, as I was sitting in the tree, I could hear, uh, bucks sparring in the distance. Uh, in one scenario, they're actually very close to me and came in and sparred in front of me a little bit. Um, so they're just, they're starting to size each other up. The big bucks are starting to put on a little bit of mass in their neck. Um, so they're, they're definitely getting ready. They're feeling a little frisky. 00:30:19 Speaker 1: I like it. 00:30:19 Speaker 2: And so looking here over the next seven days, we just came off this, you know, incredible October cold front that though we've all been waiting for this this past weekend with this cold front. Looking at the weather here, looking somewhat more stable, what's your take here over the next seven days? What's your strategy for someone listening that's in the south and maybe they got a couple clues during this last cold front, but they still feel like they need some action items to consider, just to put together a game plan for the next weekend? 00:30:51 Speaker 1: Or later this week? 00:30:52 Speaker 6: Uh, next seven days, uh, looking at it here, I think, uh, with the lows being in the low fifties highs here being anywhere from 80 to 85, I'm actually kind of excited to see that more mild transition. Um, because right now, uh, with the bed to food pattern being so consistent, uh, I think that that mild temperature is going to kind of extend that a little bit and keep, keep the deer a little bit more predictable and killable. So I think that, uh, Well, for me, I mean, this week's my anniversary shout out to my wife. So, and then next week's Halloween, I got a three-year-old. So for me, uh, it's not looking like the greatest odds just due to personal stuff. But I think that over the next seven days, I think a lot of people are going to have good opportunities at very predictable deer. Um, after that, who knows what that. 00:31:41 Speaker 2: Yeah. So would you say primarily, uh, evening hunts, um, In transition to a food source or on a food source is going to be someone's best bet. 00:31:50 Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely. Travel corridors in between bed and food, definitely, definitely in the evening. I think being on the food in most scenarios, it's going to be tough to kill them in the evenings just because they're going to be staged up and they're going to wait until dark to come into that big, hot food source. But mornings, you know, a lot of people don't like to hunt these mornings in October. If the wind's right and you can get in there good and get out good, I don't ever shy away from hunting in the morning in October. 00:32:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the big thing, this is my opinion projecting here, but it comes down to how good is your access for that morning hunt. I think it could be good if you have good access, just like you said. For everyone listening, that's a little bit curious. So for that region of Texas, when would you say is the peak rut, the peak rut activity, I should say, not necessarily the actual peak date of breeding, but if you were to schedule off a couple of days of work, you know, just looking at a calendar for you, what is, what are some of those dates? 00:32:51 Speaker 6: Uh, I think for me, um, I think I'd be looking to extend a long period of time off that I'm already going to have. Um, so, uh, our peak rut generally speaking is somewhere in the third or fourth week of November, uh, into the first and second week of December here. So I'm going to be looking to get in there, schedule some time off just before just after Thanksgiving to extend the overall period of time that I'm going to have off with my recognized holidays. So that's that's what I'd be looking at doing. I'm planning on I'm planning on getting pretty much the entire last week in November is going to be when I'm going to I'm not going to be in this office. 00:33:37 Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it. I like it. 00:33:39 Speaker 2: OK, so then all that considered scale one to 10. Over the next seven days, 21st to the 28th, 10 being the best week of the year, 1 being one of the worst weeks of the year, where do you rate this next week for where you're at? 00:33:53 Speaker 6: I'm going to say probably with the temperatures as mild as they are, I'm going to say probably like a 6, maybe a 7. Just kind of going to depend on what the wind does and how much rain and cloud cover we get. But it's definitely not gangbusters, but it's a really good sign to be in the woods. 00:34:14 Speaker 2: Yeah. Before, before all chaos ensues, capitalize on some, some form of a pattern. And, um, I mean, gosh, we're, we're already two thirds of the way over with October. And by the time the next rough, fresh episode comes out, it'll be the end of October. So it's flying by. So go, go take, go throw some hunts out there. Uh, Josh, if people want to track you down, where is the best place to do that? 00:34:35 Speaker 6: Probably Instagram. Uh, my name on Instagram is just Josh Henson and there's only one H in the middle. Instead of having an H at the end of Josh and an H at the beginning of Henson, it's just one H in the middle. 20-year-old me thought that was cool, so we're just riding with it. Feel free to check it out. 00:34:50 Speaker 1: I love it, Josh. Well, thank you so much. Good luck the rest of the season, and happy anniversary. Thanks, Jake. You too, man. All right, there you guys have it. 00:34:57 Speaker 2: I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode of Refresh once again. If you'd like to jump on here, we're trying to represent as many states as possible. Shoot me a message on Instagram at Jake Hofer and look forward to everyone's success as we march through the tail end of October. 00:35:11 Speaker 1: It's crazy. 00:35:12 Speaker 2: The month is wrapping up and when we flip that calendar, it's going to be November and game time. But hopefully you have a buck and hopefully you listen to Phil's advice because I think his two pronged approach to the one to 10 scale rating is a perfect way to summarize a potential strategy that makes the most sense for the next seven days. 00:35:30 Speaker 1: We'll see you next Wednesday.