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Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to Live Wild podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. Now for those that don't know, Mountain Tough is an online based training app that's designed for hunters to train you both mentally and physically for the mountains. So you can go on. And there's programs designed with workouts that are specifically made to get you ready for the things you're going to encounter out there in the wild. And while a lot of you probably know that their programs are designed to get you ready, they also have programs designed to keep you ready during the season. It really is a year round process to help you be the best you can be on the hunt. For me, a big part of the hunt actually comes after I get out of the field. It's that cooking process of wild game, whether back at camp or at home. And my Yeti cast iron skillet is one of my favorite ways to cook. I'm actually personally a big fan of cooking on cast iron, but it has to be high quality cast iron and there is a big difference. The Yeti cast iron skillets are actually made here in America in Wisconsin and they use that vintage casting method. So what that does is that it yields a hyper smooth finish and you get that non stick barrier. They're also a lot lighter than other cast irons, making them a lot easier to handle. Each skillet comes pre seasoned by hand so it's ready to use right out of the box. And there's four different sizes available ranging from 8 to 14 inches. I've been cooking on mine for a while and I highly recommend it to anyone. Welcome back to Live Wild Podcast everyone. It's November and what that means for most of the country is that deer are on the minds of many hunters as those temperatures start to drop and that rut really starts to crank up. So today we're going to dive into and look at the stages of the deer rut and how to really choose tactics based on whatever stage the deer are active in. And this is going to go for nearly any deer species you hunt. It could be blacktails, whitetails, mule deer, and can really be translated to your area or your specific hunt tactics. So we're going to dive in this week to the Rut rundown. But before we do that, I want to share the story of last week's deer hunt where I went out with my brother Jason and my good buddy Ross as we headed into some steep snow, snow covered mountains in search of a hard earned buck. So this past week, I got to chase mule deer. And one of the things that made this particular hunt special was the fact that I got to go out with my brother Jason and our good buddy, Ross Baker. Ross and us all kind of grew up together. We all hunted together growing up, and as we kind of graduated high school and after high school and it was just something we just did all the time. And then as life happens, of course, it's like everybody kind of goes their separate ways and just getting together and being able to hunt together becomes more and more rare as time moves on. I was thinking, you know, Jason, my brother and I used to do nearly every hunt together for years. And then with families and work and all the other stuff, it's like we started looking at it like, man, it's been a while since we've had tags together and been on the same hunt or at least been both hunting together. You know, we've jumped in on special tags or Jason jumped in on my sheep hunt a couple years back or whatever. But, you know, just getting the time to hunt together, it's been few and far between. And so our buddy Ross, we've been talking about doing a mule deer hunt together for a while, and he's just a mule deer fanatic. He ended up filling, he had a tag as well, but he ended up filling his tag at the beginning of the season on a, on a, just a hammer buck, what we'd like to call whammer jammer. So Jason and I still had tags and Ross was able to take some time off work to go out with us. And my goal really for this hunt was to just help my brother Jason get a buck. You know, I wanted, I, I told him because, you know, as things go sometimes, like work starts to get busy and life starts to get busy. And I told him, I'm like, dude, you gotta go. You're. You're up, man. We're getting you a buck. We're, we're focusing on your hunt first, and then I'll just do whatever after, you know. And so we made it out. He had, he had a few days to hunt. I think I planned on five hunting the last Five days of the season. So we went out and. And so the. The first night we got in, you know, fairly early that first day, the season was open, but it's more just like a scouting mission. And so we went out. Ross had been scouting a little bit before we got there and went out and just started doing a little bit of glassing, making a plan for the next day. We got set up and just, you know, started picking apart the mountain. Found quite a few deer. You know, nothing. Nothing crazy, but we were seeing does. We were seeing bucks with does, and that was a good sign. Mostly younger bucks. There's a couple, you know, we saw, like, some decent looking bucks moving along. They weren't bad, and it gave us a play for the next day. One of the things that. There was one buck that we saw that evening that was like, toward the top of the mountain. And it just. We. I saw it. I was like, it had, you know, decent back fork. It looked like maybe a four point. Probably a potential shooter. So for this. For this tag, think of it as just like a general area type tag. Not. Not a limited entry kind of thing. What the. Like, the potential for big deer could be there, but also the reality of a giant buck, like the one Ross got. It was, you know, it's one of the things you hope for and dream for. But, you know, we weren't gonna be super picky. We were looking for just the nice, mature deer or a good. A good meal deer buck. Really the point of the hunt was to share deer camp to get after it and to have a good time and hopefully find success for Jason. Have Jason fill a tag and. Cause he didn't fill his elk tag this year. He's like, my freezer's getting pretty lean. And so he definitely wanted to come home with some meat. But also we wanted to look for, you know, a good buck. So we. We make a plan, and Ross is like, we're gonna go in. And we're just like, there's a lot of dudes hunting this. This particular week. It's the end of the season. Everybody's trying to fill their tag. So we're just gonna try to get away from the crowds and do that by essentially a lot of vertical climbing. The other thing that I will mention is we had a storm right before we showed up. So, like, the weekend before, it just dumped snow. I don't know how much snow there was, but it was like. We'll call it like top of the boots. Eight inches or more. Maybe more at the top. Pretty deep Pretty fresh snow. And then the temperatures, the clouds are gonna kind of clear out and then we're gonna get those cold temps, like 15, 20 degrees, maybe even a little colder, like 10 degrees at the top of the mountain, Fahrenheit. So that next morning, our plan is to try to get pretty high up the mountain well before daylight. So we started about 4am sunrises at like, what was it, 7:30 or something like that. Seven something maybe shooting time was seven, sunrise was 7:30 or somewhere in there. And so we had many hours of climbing ahead of us. We're going to do about 3,500 vertical and just get up on the top of the mountain to kind of start the day. So we start hiking. We're climbing, climbing in the dark, up through the snow, just trudging, you know, as it is, it feels good to get out and get moving. And nice thing is like, it's cold, but literally you were just straight up climbing. I mean, for like my. This is one thing that I probably should talk about. It's like start cold. I mean, and I've talked about that on this podcast before. But what I was hiking up in, like, I just had my first like kiln hoodie, which is just like their midweight kind of heavier, like wool base layer. And I think I had that thing unzipped all the way. Like zip down is like a quarter zip kind of thing. And then I had my like their late season, they're the 3 8, like lined pants. I had those on, no thermals and just vented. And it's probably, man, it couldn't have been much more than 15 degrees out. Like, but when you're climbing, the last thing you want to do is have all these layers on and then just start sweating. So when you stop, you freeze, you get pretty warm, marching up a pretty good slope to the top of the mountain. So that's one thing that I always tell people is like, you know, I've got that late season gear that kind of cuts the cold, especially when you stop. So you aren't always putting things on and off. But then when we stop is like, man, I just throw on like the biggest puffer jacket that I own and be ready to rock and roll. So I was like, I had like the Chamberlain jacket in my pack and I just throw it over my. Over everything, leave my binos on, not swap it out, just throw it on over, put the hood on and then hand warmers in my gloves and just go. And the gloves come on and off as you're hiking. But the key is like just don't overdress and don't sweat it up too much when you're. If you know you're going to be moving, start, start cold. Big late season tip because as a guide I see it all the time. People just throw on all their layers and start marching up the mountain and then they never take them off. Everything's soaked and they're freezing all day. Little sidebar. So we get to the top of the mountain and right now the sun's just starting to crack over the mountains. It's like this epic, beautiful snow covered trees. Icicles like sun poking through the trees. And we get out to this glassing vantage and start looking down into this basin where we'd seen a decent looking. It's like a little three point with a little cheater on it. But maybe thinking maybe there's some other bucks in here. Start glassing. You can really glass for tracks. So we're just kind of glassing for tracks and I saw some tracks that went into this little pocket of timber. So I kind of started watching that and sure enough a group of does and a small or like a small four point popped out. And it was one of those boxes like it's a great buck as far as the shape. Like deep forks, everything. I think it had little eye guards but just a miniature four point. Like when you sight, I mean it's the first morning, first day, not it, not a shooter buck in our opinion. Like inside its ears. Just a small buck. Like a nice looking buck but too small. And we saw Ross spotted another little deer down in the bottom below us. And the thing I first realized about this country is we're looking down there and you're going God, that deer looks like this area looked like across the canyon should be 400 yards and it's like 1500 yards. And some places are like that especially it seems more when your mule deer hunting. But it's like there's places where you go and across the canyons are always kind of in that 400 to 600 yard range. And you're used to looking at something of that size. The size of this area was just the canyons, everything was just bigger. Didn't like look as big. But when you climb to the top you've got this panoramic view of just incredible mountains. And you're looking down in your canyon below you and you're like that's a mile and a half away. Whoa. Like we really got to pick this apart. The snow helps but still everything was kind of smaller in proportion, Just really big country. So we end up working down the ridge and we worked out that way, but we didn't really see any other deer. And we had two options. We could go up, even just like peek out on the highest part, which is gonna take a little bit longer. We had maybe 500 more feet of vert to get to that. And then hunt our way back down or continue out the direction of those deer, but kind of run out of country per se. So we ended up going down cause we'd seen more bucks in this like kind of sage topped area. So we end up working down the ridge or up to the top of the ridge, rest of the way the top of the ridge and then start working down. When we were up there, we ended up there was another guy hunting up there. So we just dropped down a little bit and skirted going to the next basin. We get to that next basin and it's now midday. So like everything's kind of stowed up, bedded. You'd almost think as cold as it was, they'd want as much snow there was. They'd want to be out in the sun. And there were a few does and other things out in the sun. But the deer sighting kind of definitely dwindled after that first part of the morning. So we're glassing and just moving, glassing, moving, glassing, checking the basins. And by this point it's like mid afternoon, probably like three o'. Clock. We don't have much time left. And we get to the kind of end of where we want to hunt and we're glassing and the wind, like on the one side where the wind's blowing, it is just absolutely freezing. And then on the backside where the wind's not, you get some of that sun and it's not too bad. Like the day had warmed up. I don't know if it ever cracked above freezing. But man, that wind chill makes a big difference. So we're kind of glassing both sides, like the windy side and the non windy side. And there's this spot on the windy side where it's like these aspens came up toward the top of the mountain and there was this little, little bit of sage and I mean deep snow. But it just looked, it looked awesome. It was like, you know, we kind of pointed out like, man, this just looks like a place where a buck could be hanging. And so Jason and I end up popping back over on the not as windy side. And we glassed it for a while and now it's at that point of the day where it's like, all right, it's evening time. We don't have many plays. What should we do? Should we make a move or whatever? Maybe go back and check some of the stuff that we were glassing? Middle of the day, right? Stuff's gonna start popping out. There's a thousand tracks on this hillside below us. So we're thinking maybe that's kind of where the deer are moving. So we go back to where Ross was set up at, and we're kind of debating talking, like, all right, let's make our move back the other way. And I just do one last glance down below us, and I catch, like, the top of a back of a deer. And I'm like, deer, deer, get down. It's fairly close. Probably like 250 yards, something like that, I'm guessing. And the way the hill's so steep and below us, I can just see a piece of its back. And, like, just above the sage and snow. And so I keep eyes on it, and I can see. I'm like, it. I can't see its head, but I'm like, I'm pretty sure this is a buck based on its body. And then it picks its head up, and I'm like, all right, it's a. For what we're looking for, pretty much. I think Jason would be stoked on this buck. It's an ears wide, four point, you know, just nice forks, fairly tall, like just a standard. Nothing huge, nothing small. Just like a really nice, nice buck. The kind of buck that we're out here for. And I'm like, jay, dude, here's a shooter. So the wind's blowing up the hill, and we are just freezing, but now we're kind of locked in. This buck's not far, and we're looking at maybe our other approach. It'd be nice to be able to, like, get across the canyon. But I range it because, like, across the canyon is almost 700 yards. We're 200 yards from this buck. Let's just hang out and let him feed. So the buck starts feeding, and I can see we're like sitting there for forever. And he's starting to slowly feed up, and so he starts to slowly feed up and. And he's just, like, moving up the mountain. He ends up like we're sitting there. And I mean, it's just like, it's cold. We're getting ready, the bucks coming up, but, like, the slope of the hill, I'm like, I don't know if you'll be able to. You might be able to see him in the scope, but how steep it is, like, I think you're just gonna hit the hill in front of you. I don't know. We're kind of debating whether the bullet, if the buck steps out, is even gonna reach the deer, because you'll see, like, the top of it, but the hill is real steep, and you can never actually see. It's like, all of its body. Buck ends up working up, and, like, it just. It doesn't work out. Buck goes off, and we end up moving down the ridge, trying to relocate him, spot him across the way with some does, and make that, like, how much time you got left? All right, there's 45 minutes of shooting light left, and he's a mile away now. So we dropped down the mountain. Thankfully, it was in the direction that we needed to go. Drop down the mountain, try to move in. But just the same thing happens as the topography of the hill. It just. The. The topography of the hill got us. And we just couldn't get eyes on him again. All the does ran up and came across at, like, 400 yards, but the buck never showed up with him. He must have just, like, I don't know, ducked out of there or maybe stayed where he was and just couldn't see him. And then day was over, and now we had a long way back to the truck, so we dropped down and headed out. It was kind of a bummer. Like, we had seen a good buck. It was a perfect setup. The buck was close, and it didn't come together. So now it's the next day, and we decide. We're like, all right, it was good where we were, but we just felt like. I think the plan is, like, we're gonna continue just check as many places as we could. So same process. Starting at 4am hike up the canyon to our glassing spot and get into position. And it's like, today, this day is even colder. You know, it's like this day. I think I actually started with my puffer jacket on, because until I started to warm up a bit, because, I don't know, it was, like, probably. It felt like it was zero degrees out. Maybe it was a little more than that, but it was cold. So we start hiking up. We get to our glassing vantage, and as the sun starts to come up, we start picking up deer. We're kind of all spread out because there's a little more timber, and it's just real steep, rugged country. So we're glassing, picking up does picking up small bucks, nothing too interesting. Then a few hours later, I'm glassing up high where these guys are glassing it. You know, there's like this pocket of does and some smaller bucks fighting and everything. And I see this four point cruising. Like you can tell he's, he's on, on the move, just cruising, looking for does. Like there. Well, there's a four point. It wasn't as big as the four point the day before. It wasn't as small as the, the first four point we saw. It was kind of in between the two. Nothing to really get crazy excited about. But also Jason was like, I'd shoot that buck. And the rest of us are like, okay, yeah. But I was like, it's a long ways away. And it was on the move and kind of disappeared. So we're like, well, let's just keep going up our ridge, see if we can get eyes on him, maybe put him to bed and figure it out and then decide from there. So we get up, hike up a little bit higher up the ridge. And Jason gets down and gets in the glass and he's looking at those does, kind of scanning for that four point again. And he's like, I got a buck. Like, I think I found that four point, but. And as he said that, I'm like, I'm looking at the four point up at the top. He's like, no, no, this one's down with the does. It looks, it looks like a good buck. So we all adjust our glass and, and start looking. And I'm like, that's a good buck. We all look at each other like, that is not a deer that we'd seen earlier. That's a, that's a big frame deer I'm looking at. It's a three by four, but just that like big buck frame. Nothing. I mean, it's got a good back forks, it's front forks. A little crabby. But I would say the frame of it, like if you're just going off of the size of the body like this just beast of a body. Just an old mature deer. Probably had like a 170 type, maybe better frame on him. Probably just didn't have the time, length to score. You know, it's just like, just a solid buck. Heavy, had everything. So we're watching the buck and he ends up moving down the mountain and bedding up behind a tree with a bunch of does. There's some does lower, some does higher, and he's a ways away. So we decide we're gonna make A play on him. We're gonna drop back down the way we came. Another. I don't know what it was. 1700 vertical feet and then climb back up another 1700 vertical feet and try to get a shot across. I pulled out my onyx and just did the, like, range tool. Like, here's where we're going to get to. Here's where that deer is. I was like, it's going to be 3 or 400 yards cross canyon. Like, absolute perfect opportunity. This is. This is right here. Classic meal deer hunting. Find a buck, put the buck to bed, sneak in and get a shot. So Ross ends up staying there just in case the buck moves. He can signal us and keep eyes on him. And then we're going to move in. So we drop down, start climbing up the other side. You know, we're trying to make good time. We get up to the top, and the bucks just bedded. I mean, it's perfect. Bedded in the. On the shadier side of the hill. We start crawling over the top and get eyes on him. And he's, like, laying down, sleeping up against the street. We saw the does, but he's actually hard to see because he couldn't see his head. He was, like, tucked in this little pocket. The hillside had a bunch of. I guess it'd be Cinna loathus. It's like, looks like manzanita or some people maybe call it Indian tobacco brush. Like, after is in a burn. So after the burn, that stuff comes back. And deer do like to get into that because they're pretty well hidden in it, too. They just feel kind of safe in it. It's noisy. And so we're. We're there. We range. He's like 300 yards away. And we just crawl into position. And Jason gets the gun set up, and we're set up. He's 300 yards across the canyon, but he's just bedded, like, facing away. And. And we're debating. He's like, dude, I think I can sneak one in there. You know, right over his back leg into his vitals. And I'm like, man, it's. You know. But we're both discussing it. We're like, it's not a great shot, but also, who knows what happens? And we. He decides. And we both kind of come to the conclusion, like, this is. We should wait. Like, if he stands up, it's going to be perfect. So we're laying there. It's kind of an awkward. Like, his feet are above. Shooting downhill like that on a slope where Your feet are above you. Laying down is awkward. But we just had all the time in the world, so sun's shining on us. We're pretty good. The bucks bedded. They don't know we're there. We're just gonna wait. And so we're actually set up, and, you know, everything's. Everything's good. And then I don't know if the buck heard something. It was like, as the hill started to heat up, like, snow was falling and trees, I think, were even, like, expanding because of that cold. Freeze and expand. So it. The trees were cracking pretty loud. Almost, like, not quite. I know it happens when it gets super cold, where the tree freezes super fast and then they explode, which I think I heard that a few days later. But, like, the trees were definitely making a lot of noise. Stuff was falling, whatever. So I don't know if something fell or if just maybe us up there caught a glimpse of something. Whatever it was, you know, we were almost skyline, but not really. Like, I think we were just out of. High enough above him, out of his field of view. But he whips his head back and is, like, ears pinned, and there was some noise down below, so I thought maybe he heard that. And then it's like, all right, it's go time. The buck stands up, and it's. He looks like he wants to get out of there, but it just also, he turns, he's got his ears pinned, and I'm like, so it's a nice buck, the buck kind of. He waits for a second for the buck to stretch out, puts it right where he wants it, and boom. Shoots. Hammers the buck like, it runs down the mountain. And, I mean, the mountain's pretty steep. It collapses, and it's just tumble city, essentially, down to the bottom, which is great. You didn't have to walk up aside to get him and buck down. So it was awesome. You know, Jason had mentioned he's like, oh, well, when we go over there, because that other four point was there. He's like, I'll shoot that smaller four point, and then you shoot this bigger buck. I was like, no, dude, this is your buck. Like, you know, he's just so nice. He's like, man, then we could both tag out. You know, he felt like the opportunity the day before was blown, and that was his opportunity. And I'm like, no, man, this is your deer. Like, this is why I'm here. I want to see you get a good deer. And we walk up to the buck, and it was actually one of those deer where it was the opposite of ground trunk. It actually got way bigger as we got closer because, you know, I looked at him, you know, on the hoof, it looked like, yeah, it's a nice three by four. When we got up to it, I mean, this is just an old ancient buck, like, just massive head body on it. Honestly, the body on this deer was like a small cow elk, like a yearling cow elk. I swear, it was like a calf elk. Huge body. And the body was so big, it actually made the antlers look a little bit smaller. I mean, the head on this thing was huge. And when we got to it, I was like, this is a heavy. Like, it was a. A. It was a tank of a deer had that, like, where it looks like it's growing around a beach ball, you know, that old bucks do. Just a beautiful three by four deer. And. And so we got him cut up and, and got him packed out, and what a. Just an awesome, epic hunt. Jason got his buck, and then we still had. I still had three days to hunt. So the. The rest of the story I'll share next week of. Of my portion of the hunt. But the hunt with Jason was really kind of the. The whole reason that I wanted to be there. And it was. It was awesome to have our buddy Ross there. Like, we were all just so pumped. It was just like. It was one of those things we got. He got a good deer, but I think. I don't know, there's just some hunts that you kind of have that special memory of. And this was definitely one of those hunts in that. That moment, because I felt like earlier this archery season, he had a rough go, like hit a stick when you're shooting at a bull. And he's had just like a string of bad luck where it seems like anything that could go wrong did go wrong the last couple years. And so just to be there and all of us hunting together, it just felt like the good old days, the good times. Let the good times roll. It just reminded me of when we used to go out and have those tags and hunt together. Whether it was just ducks in the marsh or on someone's archery deer hunt or whatever. It just so much fun to be hunting together and then just sharing that success. You know, I do a lot of hunts where I might be solo hunting or whatever, but to have that, like, shared camaraderie and success on the hunt, like, it's just. It's such a memorable and fun experience to be a part of. And what a. What an awesome way to kick off the deer rut and my deer season with Jason getting a really good deer. So this week what I want to do is kind of a rut rundown. You know, the buck Jason ended up getting was, was kind of a mature type buck that had come in to check the does. And my guess is at this kind of stage in the rut that it was at that buck probably was, was going cruising, checking does and then moving on. If nothing else was there, a lot of the younger bucks probably would have been. Or what we noticed was a lot of younger bucks and more immature bucks mixed in with the does, getting busy and active, you know, pushing them around. But the does really weren't in a stage where they're going industrious. So more of a little bit of a pre rut. But as we start moving into November, things start progressing and getting more active every day. Like every day, the phases of the rut start to change and you start to see different activities. And with these activities, you can kind of start to adjust your hunt plan accordingly and it doesn't really matter what kind of deer you're chasing. So I, I've, I've kind of noticed a similar pattern amongst or like a similar rut pattern amongst mule deer, white tail deer, Sitka, black tailed deer, Columbia black tailed deer, even fallow deer in New Zealand. Right. Like I've hunted fallow deer during the rut and it, it's pretty crazy because you go, man, they have some of the same like rut activity tendencies that you encounter with white tail deer and mule deer. Now it's a little bit different. They have like croaking pads and other things. But the primary phases through the rut are very, very similar through a lot of deer species. So what you can do is like, maybe you're a guy that's, hey, I'm white tail hunting in wherever, Texas, or I'm white tail hunting in the Northeast or Northwest, or a mule deer hunting in who knows where, Wyoming, Montana, whatever, Nevada, you know, instead of just saying like, here's when these kind of things happen. It's different for whatever you're hunting. But I thought it'd be good to kind of do a basic rundown of the types of activity that you might see throughout the course of the route, like what the cycle that it goes through. And then you can start to really play that chess game of, okay, what kind of strategies are best to exploit this particular behavior that's going on. It also helps you understand when you're out there, maybe what you're looking for or what you're encountering while you're out there and how to play it right. So the first kind of phase of the rut, we're going to call it the pre rut. And this is kind of, you know, like in the rocky mountain west, this generally starts in that mid October timeframe. Also, like a lot of the whitetail stuff also, I would say, kind of starts in this time frame. So what ends up happening in this pre rut is the rut's coming on, okay. Everything's just starting to kick off. So that bucks are gonna really start to increase that daytime activity, and they're gonna begin kind of preparing. This is that time where they're moving around, they're creating rubs, they're, you know, maybe making scrapes, really kind of getting that. Everything kind of starting to go. You'll notice, like, the bucks, their. Their necks are starting to swell up at this time. They're get the scent of rut in the air, and then they really aren't intensely focused on chasing does, but they are focused on, like, the does are going to start to be more and more a part of the attention of the deer. So one of the things that you're going to notice in this timeframe is, like, smaller bucks will start to be around the does because they're kind. Think about it like elk as well. Like, the young ones, like, they aren't going to get into the rut later on, but they think that they're kind of in the action. They feel the air shifting. They're kind of changing toward that, like, rut behavior. And so they might be in there pestering the does. The does aren't generally going to be going into estrus or being bred, but the smaller bucks are kind of like, thinking that they're cool and controlling the zone, right? The bigger bucks later on are going to come in there and just. Just wreck their world. But right now, it's like smaller bucks are starting to pop around. Does are starting to see some activity, I would say, in the pre rep phase. The big mature bucks are off on their lonesome. They aren't in their bachelor groups. They're coming out of hiding. And honestly, their body conditions are pretty good. The buck that my brother shot, he had a ton of fat on him still. He was. His neck was swollen up. He was just starting to morph into that rut phase where he's just going to be cruising probably 50 miles a day, you know, from this point on and really, like, getting crazy rutting and his body condition that Fat, and everything's going to start to dwindle. He's going to kind of be running on reserves for the most part, and just focused on chasing. But at this point, the pre rut phase, the big bucks Are probably still in secluded, hidey holes. The mature bucks, they're. They're a little bit away from the does, but then they also might kind of check and encounter does in the pockets that are creating activity around it with the smaller bucks. So you'll have. One of the things about the rut that I like to think of Is that you really focus on does this time of year, what are the does doing, and then how are the bucks kind of interacting with those does? So this time of year, pre rut phase, does are grouped up. They're doing their kind of normal thing. Now. Smaller bucks are going to start getting in there and start pestering them and maybe making a magnet. Bigger bucks are going to be. Maybe be cruising more or starting to cruise more. But for the most part, they're going to be in their isolated pockets, Kind of prepping and waiting for those, like, the rut to really start to kick in, into that next phase, which is going to be the seeking phase. So once this kind of seeking phase kicks off, this is when you see a lot of. A lot more big buck, mature buck activity. So what you're going to get is this is, I like to call it the cruising phase. This is where those deer in those isolated pockets, as the smaller bucks start to kind of jump in with the does, and things start going on. Nothing's really too crazy. This is probably, like, the end of October and beginning part of november, the bucks really start searching for those does that are going to go into estrus. So they're going to start following does trails, other bucks. And the young bucks Are really starting to show that daytime activity. So you're gonna go from, like, kind of pre rut, where you're seeing a little bit of, like, smaller bucks moving around, maybe jumping in with the does, where now the smaller bucks are really pestering the does. And a lot of deer are starting to cruise. They're moving, they're following trails, they're checking does. This can be a really good time to kind of turn up, I would say, like, turn up a big buck as they're cruising. The hard part about this is sometimes they aren't stopping. They're just moving. They get on a trail, Their nose is to the ground. Their nose is in the air. They're moving around the mature bucks. What they're gonna do is they're gonna just keep moving. They're gonna go, they're gonna be. There's gonna be a pocket of does that's getting pestered by little bucks. He's gonna go in there, he's gonna sniff them all around. Maybe he'll spend a little bit of time with him and he's gonna bounce and he's gonna go to the next group and check those does and check the next does. He's really just, just taking the temperature of all the does around, seeing if there's anything interesting. One thing that you're going to start to notice in this time is there might start to be some more activity around certain groups of dough. So larger groups of does without a lot of fawns. Those ones might have quite a few younger bucks that's putting like a different kind of scent out there. They're working around and the bucks will like. More bucks will be starting to get attracted to those groups. And if there's nothing they like, then they're going to move on the mature deer. And the bigger bucks aren't really going to be spending a lot of time in energy yet. They're just moving. I've heard like some studies of collared deer this time of year, like they might be putting on 50 to 75 miles a day. They aren't necessarily going that far linearly, but just moving around. Think of like a bird dog. When you're hunting. You might go five miles. We've done this like on the bird dog. You like checker hunting and you do an 8 or 10 mile and you look at the dog's collar and they did like a 45 mile day. Right. They're back and forth, up and down, checking tracks, running around, checking beds, getting deer up, seeing what's going on. So that's kind of the, what I like to call the cruising phase. Now as this starts to get more active, more deer start cruising trails, the does start to get closer to that site when they're going to go into a cycle to be bred. That's like what we're going to call the chasing phase. Okay. And then this is more like the peak rut. And what we're talking about, peak rut is this is like typically that early to mid November. And this is when those does actually become receptive. So the bucks are now going from looking around, kind of more solitary moving moving, to being intensely pursuing does. They're really focusing on does. This is where they're going to fight each other. This is where a bigger buck might Hold a group and fend it off from other deer. They're going to be more focused on these does groups, and the doe groups are going to be more likely to hold the bucks longer. So this phase is really, you know, focusing on. It's kind of, I would say, this phase before it's. I like to think, let's say it's mule deer. Like, you're thinking of catching a cruising deer, Checking does. On this phase, you're now focused intently on the does because you know that the bucks, like the bucks, are going to be in with those does, Focused solely on the does. They're going to be the ones that are wanting to check does, hang with does does, and try to breed those does, especially the more mature bucks. Now, after this particular phaser, they've kind of started to sort it out. They fought for dominance. They're using a lot of energy. They're really locked into pockets that are attractive to the deer. You'll start to notice there will be maybe does here. Does there, like a group of does with two does and four fawns. And it's like, yeah, it's kind of maybe a little buck in there, and little buck disappears. And then you'll find this pocket of does. It's got like. Like 10 does, maybe no real fawns, six or seven bucks around it, and then one big mature buck. Those are what I like to think of as the buck magnets, the ones that are probably going to be the most receptive, the ones that are really active. And you can see the activity level of bucks around a certain group or certain area does increasing, you're going to kind of increase your likelihood of attracting other kinds of bucks to that. And then after that, we kind of go into what I like to call the lockdown phase. And this is the. This is a harder phase in some ways to hunt, but depending on what you're hunting, right, like if you're in that thicker country where you've got, let's say, white tails, black tails, and, dude, we were hunting what we thought was going to be the peak rut for coos deer down in Mexico. Many years ago, my brother and a bunch of friends of ours went down, and it was like we were expecting just. Just wild bucks chasing does, crazy action. And we hit it in what I would consider the lockdown phase. And what we were noticing is, like, they weren't out, they weren't moving. A buck would just find a doe in the morning. It'd be like one buck with a single doe, and then they Would just be bedded all day. Like could barely get these things up, just lockdown. And so what they're doing in this lockdown phase is they're gonna stay with a single estrus dose to, to breed that doe. And they're, they're going to be both like a lot less mobile. They're going to be locked into a particular area and it can make it seem like you're like, man, the, the rut was crazy and now it's over. Well, that's this lockdown phase where they're, the bucks have pulled away and they're doing a lot of the, the actual breeding. They fought for the dominance. They've got their dozen estrus. Now those bucks are that, that 24 to 48 hour window of like locking down with this doe and then maybe moving on to another doe. And this, this part of the rut can be tough. But also if you've got prior knowledge of good areas that contain good bucks, the deer are moving around a lot less. So as we look at the different stages of the rut throughout, like you've got your, your pre rut where it's really good to kind of focus on pockets, isolated pockets where bucks can be protected and kind of really prepare for the rut, you can focus on that. Then when we get into that cruising phase. But say I'm mule deer hunting, I'm really like stepping back and getting as much glass on the mountain as I can Because I know anything can show up anywhere. Like it's a great time to catch deer that aren't necessarily locked into a particular area. The hard part is, yeah, they might be moving. You might see a deer once and never see it again. If you're hunting big mountains you like, he could be in this canyon. You could be ten canyons away tomorrow. If you're hunting whitetails in places like he could be on your property today and on the neighbors, the next right. But it gives you a chance to maybe intercept a buck that you normally wouldn't get. Then once you get that peak rat phase, you can focus on the pockets of does and really hunt those doe pockets efficiently as like live bait. Then you get to the lockdown phase. And what that lockdown phase is, allows you to do is concentrate on a particular area. So like when I get to that lockdown phase, I concentrate on a lot smaller area and I really focus on looking for those bucks that are locked down. Because oftentimes those bucks that are locking down with does are those mature deer. And so it gives you that Ability to kind of hunt a small area really intently with the opportunity of potentially getting in on something. Maybe you see him, like, at night, let's say, meal. You're hunting, man. We found this buck over here. Okay, cool. He's in that area. Odds are he's going to be in that area for a couple days. So you can really focus in on a particular area and pinpoint a buck because he's not moving as much. It can be more difficult to find deer, but it can be sometimes easier to kill deer. Some of the best mule deer that I've guided, like a couple of bucks over 200 inches, have been in that lockdown phase where we're hunting these. These kind of tighter areas. We know that there was good activity in there, like a lot of deer earlier. And then you just turn up that one buck kind of locked down, bedded off, you know, off outside of the kind of open with one doe, and you've got a lot of time to make your play, to stock in, to maybe spot them from a ways away, go in later, and then the next day and relocate that buck. It seems like the rut dies, but also, if you hunt it correctly, you can really pinpoint those mature deer during that phase of the rut. And then after this, then there's kind of that. After that main breeding period, let's say it's like late November, maybe even December. We call it like a post rut or second rut. Any of those remaining does that haven't been bred, they start to focus on, you know, regaining their energy, and they're kind of going more to that nocturnal activity. So they will be searching. Sometimes you'll. You'll get these pockets of does where bucks get in there. It's like, oh, they're. All of a sudden, it's like the rut ends and it starts back up again. And what's happening is, after they've been locked down, those deer are going to kind of look for those secondary does to breed. One thing that I've noticed just in my glassing and guiding is bucks will actually kind of start to chase those younger does a little bit more in that second phase, because it seems like those. Some of those younger does might go into estrus a little bit later. And so they're probably, you know, looking at those deer. Maybe deer that had a fawn and maybe are in a little bit different body condition, might get kind of gone after. In that secondary rut phase. It can be good. I've. I've done a lot of hunting in that December timeframe on certain and, like, archery tags and other tags. And it's like one day it's like, whoa, the rut's still going. And the next it's off. And the next you find a little pocketed does. It just happens to be active, and it just becomes a buck magnet. So you can kind of treat it like, in some ways, that peak rut phase a little bit. And I kind of like it's a combination of lockdown and peak rut, where you try to find an active pocketed does and then use that. But you're also going to kind of notice a lot less daytime activity, whereas the bucks are going to be tired, wore out, bedding a lot during the day. So when I get to that secondary post rut, I'm really trying to turn up bucks that are probably bedded and resting their energy, but still going after does early mornings, late evenings, and in the middle of the day just looking for that glassing to just find those. Those deer that are resting. So by looking at kind of those phases of the rut, we can start to build out our strategies. And I know last year I did a lot of in depth on one of these phases and some of the hunt tactics like to do looking for mature bucks, maybe just looking for any buck. Right. You can kind of build out your hunt plan, too, based on what you're looking for. If you're looking for the biggest, baddest buck, the Whama Jama Big Daddy Slammer only. Okay, well, you're gonna have to really focus on what are mature deer doing this particular time of year. And one thing that I will mention, if you haven't checked it out, my outdoor class series, I really dive into on my first one about hunting mule deer, I really dive into each one of these phases and like, how I would hunt mule deer in these specific times. And in some ways, it can translate to whitetail because the. The types of rut are the same, but, like, the tactics are so different. Right. But that was the one thing that I wanted to mention in this podcast, is when you're looking at, you're. Let's say you're out there and you're like, all right, well, what's going on? Like, it should be the rut. And I'm seeing, I'm just like, if you start see just bucks cruising only and like, no bucks with does, well, you know, you're in that cruising phase. So now let's build a strategy based on cruising, and I'll do it for a couple different different ways. So let's say it's me. Deer, right? Cruising phase, What? The way that I like to hunt that cruising phase is I like to get a really good glass advantage and kind of sit back and cover a lot of country with the glass. Now, here's the. Here's the bad part, Right? Right. You see a deer moving, and sometimes they don't stop. They're just moving. You're never going to catch them. So when I get set up, I like to set up on a big face that has a lot of country to cover, Where I'm almost, like, within range of it. I'm 4 to 500 yards, 600 yards away, where I can make a play. When I see a deer coming, like, okay, I can move into this spot. I can move into this spot. And I'm generally, like, targeting areas that are good funnels for deer. Like, maybe it's within a migration route. Maybe it's within an area where, hey, there's a bunch of does in this kind of country. And the bucks are probably in this more isolated stuff in that prerequisite phase. So now I can watch over these kind of open air, these kind of travel corridors, and be within striking distance to kind of cut one off or make a play. Now, let's say it's like whitetail hunting, right? Same thing. I'm really kind of focusing on travel routes. What are the ways that you travel through? It's a topography game. Okay. Well, they're probably cruising from this kind of country to this. Maybe they're going from this particular land feature, agriculture, whatever, to this. What are the choke points? What are the travel routes? And then hunting those travel routes where you're getting more activity of deer movement. Then when I get into that, like, rut phase, peak rep, I'm really saying, where are the does? And literally hunting the does. I'm checking different pockets of does. I'm checking different pockets that hold does, and I'm solely focused on does. Now, sometimes, like on this hunt with my brother, we were in kind of, you start to transition from one thing to another, and it changes every day. We're still looking for does. We're looking for does, because also, the type of buck that we were looking for Would be the type of buck that would be with does. Right. Or move in and check them out. So every day can be a little bit different. So I'm still always focusing on does and finding does those during the rut. But as the. The rut progresses, I'm kind of altering my tactics a little bit. And then when it comes to lockdown phase, well, I'm looking for those pockets where, okay, I knew there was good activity here or areas that have kind of hold. You know, like, this is an area that has the potential for good deer or had a lot of red activity or holds does. I'm not seeing as many, but I'm just kind of focusing on these tighter areas and these little pockets where I kind of think of it as, like, places where I can see into but hold enough cover that the animals, the deer feel like they're secluded. Like a doe's gonna go into those secluded pockets when she's in the estrus. So I'm gonna maybe still hunt a little bit more, get into those pockets where I'm kind of tight glassing. I'm glassing real, real intently in those more covered areas and just trying to turn up bedded deer. Cause they're gonna be real hard to find. So now if I was like, translate that to whitetail hunting, man, I'm gonna pick those. I'm gonna pick those locations where those deer are gonna be locked down in, you know, so as I. As I pick the locations for where I'm hunting, it's based on the phases of the rut and where I expect those bucks that I'm looking for to be. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. It's always fun to be in mule deer season and talking about deer or, you know, thinking about deer season. I've got a couple hunts coming up where I'll be chasing whitetails with some family. And then I actually ended up taking a buck on that same hunt, which I'll share the story next week. A little bit different tactics. So next week we're talking about tracking, like a little bit different strategy. Think about mule deer hunting and glassing and all that. But we're going to talk about still hunting and following tracks, especially in the snow. It's a fun story and just an exciting way to hunt. So I don't want to give away too much, but I. Let's just say I got my buck well within bow range sub 20, like 15 yards. So just a. Just a cool way to hunt and a lot of strategy and tactic involved as well, but can be a very successful way to hunt. And then the other thing I wanted to mention too, for those of you that, you know, send out, I've been getting a lot of messages of, hey, man, I use this tactic. Thanks so much. Or, you know, even just dropping the ratings in the comments on the podcast, I always appreciate that if you aren't subscribed to my YouTube channel, make sure to do that. Hopefully have. I've got a lot of stuff that's probably going to be coming out in the beginning of the year and other things. But we've got a few things that we're going to work on here getting out. And I released my moose hunt video last week. So if you haven't checked that out, that's, that's an epic one to check out and make sure you guys subscribe to that, that, that channel. Another thing that I wanted to mention, a great support of this podcast, Montana Knife Co. As you guys know, they, they've got some incredible knives, some incredible blades. There's a lot that are in stock right now. Of course they're doing their, their Thursday drops. But one of the things that I thought was really cool that they got going on, they're giving away a pretty badass hunting rig. It's free to enter. You know, just go to their website, montana knife company.com. you got all the info to enter there. I mean it's got. But it's a, a pretty sweet truck. I think it's like it's the exact truck that I would get for my next truck. If I end up getting a new vehicle, that's what I would get. Like it's loaded down too. Ton of different accessories built for off road. It's got the GFC on the back. Like it's rad, man. I mean somebody's, somebody is walking away with that truck. So it's worth going over there and getting your name in the hat, you know, I don't know. I'm always the type of like as somebody that applies for draws and I saw my wife draw a mountain goat tag this year. Right. So you can't win if you don't apply. So that's something to check out like if you guys are. I mean they've got some incredible knives and other things, but hey, they're giving away a free truck. Like it'd be awesome if one of you wins it and let me know like, dude, I heard that on the podcast. Thanks man. Cause now I'm riding in a vehicle with about $100,000 worth of accessories and gear. So that's on their website. You can check that out. And also they've got a bunch of co apparel and other things. I got this, I was just looking through it today. They got the, the trapper hats, like the, like the old school rabbit style hats with the flaps. I think I'm going to pick one of those up for this late season. I don't know why, but I just feel like it's going to be cold this year. Maybe because I've been trudging in snow for the last week. But yeah, I'm excited for this, this season and to hear your guys success and other things. It's. It's always fun for me to do that. We'll do another call in Q and A here probably toward the end of the month. So just check my social media Instagram for that. People always ask like how do I get on that? I literally just the day before posted on my stories. I don't know. There's probably some way you can get notified when I don't do a lot of stuff on the stories but I do put that there and I put a post out. So if you want to try to jump on those, just kind of pay attention to that. I kind of just do it right before and because the lines fill up pretty quick either way. Having done one last week, people were asking about it. So yeah, it's just kind of. You just got to see it and then call when the line's open. It's funny because there's. There's some people that you know have been on multiple times or some people that you know call multiple and haven't been on. And then there's people just first time even trying and get in and win a prize. You never know. So I'm going to have those coming up as well and I'm going to say until next week. Right on. We'll catch you guys later. Sam.