Dr. Stephen Ditchkoff has studied whitetails since 1992 and has spent the last 26 years as a professor at Auburn University, where his team runs a 430-acre deer research facility built to follow which bucks actually breed, which does they breed, and how that changes over a deer's life. We sat down with him for the second time to talk about the rut: why the peak is the worst time to hunt, why the Southern rut runs longer, what does are looking for in a buck, and how mature bucks change the whole breeding season.

Our first episode with Dr. Ditchkoff - https://youtu.be/QZncXOxHpfI

In this episode:

- Why the peak of the rut is the worst time to hunt

- 26 years at Auburn and the 430-acre deer research facility

- Are antlers an honest signal of a buck's quality?

- How many does one buck can breed in a season

- Why Boone and Crockett symmetry isn't what a deer sees

- Do does choose which buck breeds them?

- Why bucks may be choosy too

- Do mature bucks get harder to kill in the rut?

- The windows on either side of the peak

- "They're running" days vs. actual peak breeding

- Why the Southern rut is longer and bucks can't run as hard

- Late-born fawns: once behind, always behind

- The age bucks breed most successfully

- Good mothers vs. bad mothers: a third of does raise most of the fawns

- What a doe wants from a buck: immune system genetics

- The white T-shirt study

- How deer learn: 8,760 hours a year in the classroom

- How a grandmother's condition shows up in her grandfawns

- What last year's acorn crop means for bucks 4–5 years from now

- How mature bucks shorten the rut and move it earlier

- Post-rut mortality

- Why culling "management bucks" doesn't work

- Listener question: where did all the mature bucks go?

- What solunar charts actually show

- Counting deer with thermal drones

- Flying drones over hunters to see how deer react

- The buck that walked within 50 yards of a hunter, unseen

- The new research he can't talk about yet

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

Jacob's back from his honeymoon! We've interviewed a lot of slip hunters this season, so Andrew finally tried it himself. He used what Zach Ferenbaugh taught us about moving through cover, crouched under a cedar with a recurve, and had two bucks walk to 12 yards without ever knowing he was there. We also answer your questions on late-season quota hunts, whether deer know it's the weekend, rattling in high-pressure woods, and hunting Alabama's SOAs, then talk through our first early-season hunts together.

In this episode:

- Late-season quota hunt in middle Georgia: clear cuts, water oaks, and green browse

- Why so few Southern hunters hunt the late season

- Don't overthink low-pressure deer

- Do deer know it's the weekend?

- Getting help with your property through Circle and the Hunter Hangouts

- Listener tip: don't check your phone at last light

- A misfire at 20 yards: is the stand burned?

- Yes, rattling works in high-pressure Southern woods

- How Alabama's SOA draw hunts work, and how to hunt them

- The perfect thermal hub with no deer in it

- Why big bucks on draw hunts die in the fallow wildlife openings

- Jacob's first hunt back and climbing a tree by phone light

- Stingy white oaks: hunting mountain oaks, red oaks, and water oaks instead

- A spike drinking from a spring seep (have you ever seen a deer drink?)

- Slip hunting the edge between the pines and the hardwoods

- Two bucks at 12 yards, on the ground, with a recurve

- Why early season is the time to slip hunt

- Getting winded in a creek-bottom bowl

- Why bottoms need calm mornings

- Morning spots vs. evening spots

- Resting a drainage so you don't burn it out

- Hunting the last hour from the ground

Mentioned in this episode:

- Stand Hunting Is Riskier Than Hunting on the Ground | Zach Ferenbaugh - https://youtu.be/_wN0QG2BIQM

- Travis Murray on setting up on the ground - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Eib99ax8k

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

At 76, Ron Poole has been shooting bows for 70 years. He grew up running wild on a game management area along the White River in southeast Arkansas. He has 5 Boone and Crockett bucks and about 27 Pope and Young bucks, and he's never run a trail camera for deer. We drove to his place and sat down in his trophy room to talk about how he finds big bucks: hot feed trees, fresh sign that only lasts a week, open-woods bedding, and leaving a target buck alone until it's time to kill him.

In this episode:

- Shooting bows since age 4

- How he met Richard Fought, after passing nine bucks before 9 AM

- Why every feed tree tastes different and the sign only lasts 6–7 days

- Why bucks skirt feed trees downwind, and where to set up

- Grunt calls that sound like a deer, not a hog

- Rattling: tangle the antlers, don't bang them

- The 233-inch Iowa buck, runaway mules, and a blowing doe

- Why big bucks bed in open woods, not thickets

- How a river can split the rut

- Leaving your target buck alone until the pre-rut

- Finding acorns in the mountains by elevation

- Red oaks vs. white oaks in a dry year

- Persimmons, locusts, mimosas, and other overlooked deer food

- Fertilizing a white oak to make deer pick it first

- The doe figure-eight: where to hang during the rut

- Reading bottomland timber on an aerial map

- Why killing big deer consistently isn't luck

- The only scrapes worth hunting

- Walking in like a squirrel hunter

- Waiting for daylight to walk in, then hunting all day

- Carrying a climber and walking until it feels right

- Finding one tree in the dark with no GPS

- Trapping as a kid and the $27 possums

- Hunting with knapped chert heads

- Self bows, bamboo bows, Osage, and hickory

- Tuning arrows to a stick bow, arrow weight, and broadheads

- The 85-pound recurve that outran the compounds

- Shooting compounds with no sights at the world championships

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

Kyle had gone almost 20 years without killing a mature buck with a bow. Then, on Alabama's opening weekend, he jumped one out of his bed at 12 yards in an old cattle catch pen. Instead of leaving, he sat down in the grass, and the buck came back 15 minutes later. With Jacob on his honeymoon, Kyle and Thomas Myers join Andrew to break down that hunt, how to hunt a Black Belt cattle farm, and your questions.

In this episode:

- Hurricane knocked green acorns to the ground: will deer still eat them?

- What can you learn from seeing deer at night?

- HOT TAKE: bow shots past 60 yards aren't bowhunting

- 20 years of bowhunting without a mature buck, and why

- The shooter buck Jacob missed for his wedding

- A cold front at the wedding and why Kyle had to go

- Slipping into an old catch pen on a high-wind day

- Jumping a bedded buck at 12 yards

- Overhead cover when you're set up on the ground

- Why less gear makes you a better woodsman

- Moving through cover: shade, shadows, and stopping every few steps

- How a Black Belt cattle farm lays out

- Do cattle ruin your deer hunting?

- Why bucks on a farm live on 15 to 40 acres

- Will a buck come back to a bed you bumped him from?

- Hunting pastures like Midwest funnels

- The trail camera that missed three giants

- When white oaks aren't dropping: mountain chestnut oaks and water oaks

Mentioned in this episode:

- Travis Murray on setting up on the ground - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4Eib99ax8k

- 23 Years of Data Reveal the Only Days Worth Deer Hunting | Dr. Bob Sheppard - https://youtu.be/8VhjagGAfgE

Grab a wild game cookbook from Thomas at the Hunt Kitchen here - https://thehuntkitchen.com/shop

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Check out Plot Lock from Whitetail Hill here - https://linkly.link/2xhlw

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

Tim Knight put the rifle down for good in 1985, and he killed most of the bucks on his wall the same way: rattling from a climber with his antlers on the ground. We sat down in Tim's trophy room in Georgia to get into his yo-yo rattling method, why he wants to sound like two small bucks sparring instead of a buck fight, and why his favorite week to rattle comes before the does are ready.

In this episode:

- Going bow-only in 1985

- The "scout hunt": why a climber beats lock-ons and ladders

- Why your first sit in a spot is your best one

- What a 3 AM trail camera photo really tells you

- Calling deer the way you call turkeys

- How a snagged antler string led to yo-yo rattling

- Sound like two small bucks sparring, not two giants fighting

- Why the last week of October is his favorite week to rattle

- The snort wheeze: the most underused call in the woods

- Why he hunts evenings, and taking time off in hours instead of days

- Setting up within 50 yards of thick bedding cover

- The scrape transplant trick to challenge a buck's dominance

- Learning your hard and soft mast trees

- Using the tree for cover

- Calm evenings and swirling wind

- Why small antlers, and making ground noise from the tree

- How often he rattles and why he waits for the sun to set

- The conditions that give him the most confidence

- Yelping like a turkey on a noisy walk in

- Why 3D targets teach you to aim too high

- His 1991 Pope & Young full-body mount

- Paper tuning and broadhead flight checks

- Sharpening and oiling broadheads for penetration

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

In this listener Q&A, we walk through a day of post-hurricane scouting: six and a half miles of acorns on the ground and only one spot worth hunting, plus the three-reason test that made the call. Then we run through your questions, hot takes, and some Circle marriage advice before Jacob ties the knot.

In this episode:

- A hurricane knocked every acorn down at once: where do you hunt when the feed is everywhere?

- The bench pinch point: bedding cover, feed sign, a funnel, and two fresh scrapes

- Jumping deer on purpose to learn where they're bedding

- Thermals busting you on a field edge in Kentucky hill country: go low, get on the ground, or move

- Getting ready for the pre-rut: doe groups, cover changes with leaf drop, and travel routes between bedding

- The risk of a mock scrape on a public land rut funnel

- Hunting a buck that shows up on the same December dates two years running

- HOT TAKE: rifles don't belong in "primitive weapon" seasons

- HOT TAKE: does Alabama even need a muzzleloader season?

- Hot tips: annual patterns plus annual weather, and electrical tape over the muzzle in the rain

- HOT TAKE: find grouse without a dog and you're one of the best woodsmen around

- Why every spot needs three reasons to hunt it

- HOT TAKE: is .223 enough for deer?

- HOT TAKE: carbon suits and ozone units

- Hot tip: plan how you'll carry your mobile setup, not just which one you'll buy

- HOT TAKE: "feed trees" are overrated, and browse is the real baseline

- Marriage advice for Jacob from the Circle community

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

Asher Kight found a mature buck in his bed in late summer, filmed him from 20 yards, then set up 184 yards away and killed him early season. We get into how Asher finds and targets individual mature bucks in the Arkansas mountains, why he scouts far more than he hunts, and how he plans to kill a target buck in four sits or less.

In this episode:

- Going from a "brown is down" deer lease to targeting mature bucks

- Why dog-hunted ground can hold more big deer than you think

- Pine beetle kills and why they make perfect buck bedding

- Where mountain bucks bed: ridge points, finger knobs, and thermal hubs

- North face vs. south face bedding through the season

- Reading big sign: licking branches, tall rubs, and why low scrapes are night sign

- Hunting from the bottom up and waiting on the thermals

- The cane thicket buck and the mock scrape set to blow scent into his bed

- Homebody bucks vs. nomadic bucks, and how to tell which one you're after

- Reading nighttime trail camera photos and moving cameras closer

- Why bumping a buck isn't the end of the world if he doesn't smell you

- Giving the deer the wind and still beating his nose

- Why big bucks hook downwind of scrapes instead of standing in them

- Tracking doe groups to stay on a buck through the rut

- Early season browse, oaks, privet, and late season food in the mountains

- What "killing sign" looks like, and why your first sit is your best sit

- Rechecking spots midday on out-of-state hunts

- Why squirrels, turkeys, and bears make you a better deer hunter

- Learning from hunters who have the wall to back it up

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear

In this listener Q&A, we get into whether your wind actually pushes a buck out of his bed, or whether it's the walking in that does it. Then we run through your questions, hot takes, and hot tips as Alabama's opener closes in.

In this episode:

- Bucks bedding off WMA roads on gun days, and why your wind may not move them out of a thicket

- Bumped a buck from the same thicket two years running: is he really bedding there?

- Short on time in thick north Louisiana woods: finding bedding on onX, hunting sign over cameras, and why a saddle helps

- How to hunt a 70-acre cutover that's thick with hard access

- Making the most of five acres surrounded by ag

- Where the big 8 goes when his bachelor group shows up without him

- This year's mast: what a "loaded" tree looks like, and why lone white oaks may not pull deer

- HOT TAKE: no mobile setup beats a pre-hung set with a perfect access route

- HOT TAKE: slip hunters ruin more stand hunts than they kill bucks

- Hot tips: cup your ears, terry cloth for beggar lice, a treble hook for dropped gear, and talk to the old-timer at the gate

- Acorn field reports from Georgia, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania

- HOT TAKE: fewer gun weekends on Alabama WMAs

- Keeping deer meat out of ice water, and what actually makes venison gamey

- New alloy-case ammo and the cartridges it could help most

- Why every hunter should take a Stop the Bleed class

- Early scrapes and licking branches showing up well before the Alabama rut

Join our Circle Community here - https://linkly.link/2o0Sn

Grab some Southern Outdoorsmen merch here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aK

Join Woodsman Wire - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1u4aR

Use code "SOUTHERN" for a discount on Whitetail Hill food plot seed & trees - https://linkly.link/2myBP

Use the promo code "southern" for a discount on your OnX Hunt membership here - https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tyfm

Check out Latitude Outdoors for your mobile hunting gear - https://2ly.link/1zVDI

Use code TSOP15 for a discount on Mossy Oak - https://linkly.link/2ERb8

Use code SOUTHERN20 for a discount on all Vortex apparel, including eyewear