Rut Survival

This episode is just about rut surviving the rut. Concepts, life tactics, hacks to all make the grind of the rut better. Things from vehicle prep and meals to make before this heavy hunting time in your life. I give some thoughts around what I like to do with my PTO to keep hunting all of the rut. I talk about the good buck encounter in late October. I talk about

the scouting I have done and the tactics I am going deploy on a few bucks I have history with. I wrap up with some good thoughts I have heard on recent podcasts.

Topics Discussed:

- Rut Survival

- 3-4 week grind

- multiple sits

- morning vs evening

- food prep

- truck prep

- mental side of the rut

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[00:00:00] All right, this is the Whitetail Experience podcast getting this in late. I'm sure Dan is mad at me, but we had a little urgent care thing, we had the kids explosion last night, and I did not get this done in time. I'm currently sitting here with a bruised sternum. I think that does end my stick bow adventure here.

I have not been able to shoot that stick bow in about 8 days. And so confidence wise, that's pretty shaken up. I think the compound, I've shot it a little bit here in the middle part of October. It's time to bring that bad boy out. I was able to shoot that doe earlier. Not sure how much practice shooting I'm gonna shoot this week.

Just cause that sternum, it's a weird injury. I have bruised. It hurts to cough. It hurts to sneeze. I can't do a girl push up. I was still hunting, but if I shot one, I'm not sure how I'd get it out of the woods. But those are type 2 problems you figure out after that happens. So I I actually feel really good going in here to the final few days of October and early November because I spent the [00:01:00] last four A couple days ago, I had spent four straight days in the woods as far as getting some scouting in, getting some hunting in, not all dayers or anything but I was moving and pulled a couple cards, did a little poking around, finding some does, finding some buck sign.

So I, I definitely feel now it's okay, I think I know where a couple good ambush points are, that it is now a game of hunt hard, you know the information, and it's up to the buck to walk by me at this point. It's a cool year for me because I have three to four bucks I have history with chasing at this point, both public and private, and...

That's exciting, I have some detail on these guys, and it would be cool to catch up with one of them if you will at this point. And... I've never I'm not hunting just one deer, that's for sure. Now, I guess on my private pieces, there's potentially two deer there. I don't know, I haven't seen the second one.

There's one deer there I'd shoot for sure. [00:02:00] And I've got good history with, but generally there's a second deer, the last two ruts has shown up. And he also may get an arrow, because I didn't shoot anything last year. So that trigger finger, it's feeling a little itchy, if you will. I saw Moose had a nice buck and it killed and he talked about when you don't shoot one for a year, it's nice to come back to the winning squad is what he said and I like that quote.

I like that a lot. Had a really good encounter on Monday, actually. I found a pretty good size rub, came up to the shelf that I knew historically held a scrape was opened up and on my way in there, I actually noticed a good amount of just track travel on the leafs and I was like I think they're in here right now.

And I was hearing some stuff too, where I might've either kicked a deer or there's deer on their feet. And it was early and it was like the warmer. We just got done with a colder ish front, and it was a warmer day, and I ended up hunting this scrape, I was like 7 yards off it with the stick, 5 o'clock, [00:03:00] 2 hours before legal, 130 140 class buck comes down to the level I'm on.

And I thought the way he came down, I was like, he's coming to this scrape. Like I am going to get my chance. And he mills around, works around like behind me at 25 yards. I think the encounter is almost 90 seconds to two minutes. And he's about 25 yards. And I don't know if I could have shot him with the compound because it's a very thick area.

So I won't like fully say I could have killed him. But I remember looking at his vitals a few times in that 25. Maybe even 20 yard type range. Now that being said, if I was hunting with the compound, I might have picked the tree that was a little more favorable to, let's just say, cover a bigger area, versus like I picked the one tree to shoot the scrape.

And tuck that tree stand in nice, like I was definitely set to kill the scrape, if you will. So that was encouraging and that play was based on some other scouting I have done and located bucks that even though there was no chair cam on the scrape, that thing kicked open. I [00:04:00] said, I've got the confidence to hunt this.

So pretty cool encounter. Just didn't go my way. This podcast though, all about rut survival, like this is a period in time that I think I do well at as far as continuing to hunt, finding more ways to hunt, maximizing my hours. It is here folks. I look at these next three to four weeks and it's a game and I feel is can you get max amount of morning hunting?

And I just think you're almost better to hunt three or four mornings than one full day at times. Because you're bound to catch the weather, you're bound to catch the hot dough. I like the ability to spread out and especially here in Ohio where we have no gun season interruption. Two or three bit like weekday days the first week, two to three bit weekday days the second week, and even then you can almost have two weekday days the third week in November.

You throw in [00:05:00] Thanksgiving where you're off Thanksgiving, Black Friday, that weekend. You can almost hunt. Sporadically, 20 out of the next 30 days with only burning about 8 days of PTO, especially if you can take half trunk chunk increments or whatever. I believe too this time of year what separates the ability to keep going, the ability to...

Okay, you had a shitty hunt, get up the next day and go again. You got out late, can you get up and go again? It's almost just a marathon type... mental approach to it and, did you physically prep for continuous miles or hikes in if you're, somebody hunting the public land where a physical is part of the game.

I do think I've messed up in years past about not sitting a tree multiple times. I've recently listened to a few podcasts from Tony and Mark on the latest wired to hunt talk about sometimes it's okay this time of year to sit the same street [00:06:00] multiple times. So I definitely plan to do that. I've got my ambush points marked for certain wins and I know there's bucks in the area.

So it's just okay. And I know there's those it's like. Okay. If I sit this tree, I can sit it three or four times between now and the end of the month. It's okay. Exodus did a podcast with a guy talking about that a little bit. Bobby Worthington talks about it. There is a tree in the woods that multiple big bucks walk by.

Or if you're hunting one deer, there is a tree in the woods that deer walks by more than any other tree. And he might be bop and do different things. And I do think this works at maybe a touch better in bigger type habitats. I don't know. I guess I haven't grinded out a lot of ruts in a farm setting where, yeah, this is the best pinch point or one of the best pinch points.

Let's just sit this for three or four days. If you will, I think I, I might've been the X to this podcast. Give the tree a chance. Give the ambush point. It's, I think that was Tony. Give the [00:07:00] tree its full ability. Let it play out, let it tell you to move on. So I think that's a cool thought or something I've been doing over the years, Bill Winky actually was on Wired to Hunt and he talked about he favors mornings too, especially where we get some warm conditions here the next three days.

And that, those cooler temps last way longer in the morning. And I feel you get two surges of movement. Obviously, it's pretty well documented that they get up and move in those first couple hours. And then there's an hour or so that the does go bed down and the bucks get up and go looking for them.

And yeah, if you're hunting a morning till 11 or noon, you get two flourishes of movement, which I always like over, over the evening. I have not killed an evening buck in November. I've in November now, October, I think both sides of the coin. They're definitely favor the morning hunt come November.

One thing I think is so stupid I hear is guys talk about if [00:08:00] you need a break, sleep in. I think that is a terrible thought because I think if you're tired, you gotta go to bed early. So don't hunt in the evening. Get up the next morning. Feel refreshed. Or, hunt till eleven, go take a two hour nap, stay in that evening, and then get up the next morning to hunt.

I definitely think it is so stupid to sleep in during the rut. I just think that is the time to kill them in the morning. I'll say this too, I'm a big proponent of one o'clock comes around if you're doing it all day, or come down to the base of the tree and catch you a nap, dude. You got up at two, three in the morning, hiked in, hung your stand, been sitting in the cold for five hours at this point.

Yeah, come down at one o'clock. Take a nap base of the tree. You will feel so much better after a half an hour nap in the woods. And then you'll climb right back up in your stand, hunt the evening or make a move. I've done that a couple of times where come down, sleep, go make a move for an evening post.

All about it. Have your truck organized. I think that's a [00:09:00] key aspect to this whole thing. You want certain things in there this time of year. Recovery lights, different layers, extra pair of boots, backup release, a organized hunting rig. Very underrated. And it takes multiple hunts to get that thing dialed.

Just like your mobile system, just like your backpack for hunting. I don't get flowing until I got about 6, 8, 10 hunts in me. But I thought that was worth noting is get that truck organized as far as some other things to organize and get ready I think some pre made meals and I will start here breakfast.

I hate guys stopping at gas stations for breakfast because You are literally delaying forward progress exponentially when you stop. You're going 60 miles an hour and all of a sudden you've gone to zero. And okay, the coffee's got to be ready. You got to grab breakfast sandwich. You're in and out your bebop like you blink.

You've delayed your commute. Let's say it's an hour. One stop is about 15 to 20 minutes. So now your commute is now an hour and 15 hour [00:10:00] and 20. If you got to go two hours, forget it. When I do my big drives to. Iowa and Wisconsin and stuff like that. It's like a nine hour drive. If I stop every three hours to piss, it adds a whole hour onto my commute time.

So I may or may not pee in a bottle if you will. So I can just keep hammering down and get home some truck organization thoughts here. Have you a case of water? If you're going to recover a bug, you're going to want extra water. This means you also don't have to stop at the gas station on a morning hunt after.

And get water. I actually have some Ignite, Mountain Opposite, and I I think Working Class has a code if you want to pick that up on a discount. But that has 100 mg, I got the light, so it's 100 mg's of caffeine. And my thought there is if I shoot a buck in the evening, or if I, even if I shoot one midday, I'm about to pull her out, I could take a scoop or two of that and be caffeinated and ready to dominate.

Which I think's important if you got a late night or a heavy drag out. [00:11:00] And so I know Aaron Snyder does that. He has a little couple scoops of pre workout in his go bag. And I remember him on a podcast quoting, like he goes, if it's a shitty conditions, you're tired as shit and you got to get back to the trailhead.

He says, you pop two scoops of this. You're good to go. And so he must have some heavy dose stuff. But I think that's worth talking about because you can mix that pre workout in your case of water, bottled water and be rockin and rollin And you don't have to make coffee, you don't have to mess with it.

I definitely think that's a good option. Also, water consumption before your hunt in the morning. Kevin Bistison talked about it. Putting a little electrolytes in your water to just kinda get you going a little higher. Especially if you're having beers the night before. And slightly dehydrated. I think electrolyte mix is definitely a good aspect.

And obviously this whole time of year comes down to time. You've got to have spent some time. You can erase some lack of effort and some mistakes if you're just out there. I know I killed a buck one time. Where I dropped [00:12:00] a stick on a rock. I banged my tree stem with a buckle or something. Like it was not a clean setup, but I was just out there.

And so time in the woods is super important right now. And I think that's just part of the game, but also realize 90 percent of the time it's not the Primos rut grunting videos. But you go enough days, you're gonna see it. I can remember a day last year, I hadn't seen much buck action, and I got to see the full show.

This buck came into the holler brrat, like I thought it was another hunter, and then I seen him. It was some of the loudest grunting of my life, I seen chasing, like I saw nine, ten deer that day, it was on fire. So yeah, you just gotta, you gotta go to hope to catch your glimpses, cause not every day is glamorous, if you will.

And then I'm gonna leave you with this phrase and saying and talk about it a little bit. And this is something Dave Ebright said to me years ago, and it just sticks with me. You gotta do what's hard and do what's right. And what [00:13:00] that means is, if you see a hot dog cross a ridge or do something, yeah, pull down your stand, go over there and set up.

It's a pain in the ass, it is a pain in the ass to get up 30 more minutes early, but it can be worth it. You build in those little buffers of... Pluses on your rut tally sheet that creates the opportunity. So doing what's hard, doing what's right is still important. You chinch yourself, you talk yourself into going to a B minus spot instead of what you think is better because it's a, it's an easier hunt.

I don't know. I think this is the time of year you just grit down. You have that inner David Goggins tell you to stop being a bitch. So do what's hard, do what's right guys. Good luck in the woods.

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