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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

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Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

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Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,

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Speaker 2: which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about training yourself

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Speaker 2: to think more like a buck when your job every

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Speaker 2: week consists of creating content and you're not a guy

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Speaker 2: like Mark Kenyon who thinks butterflies are the coolest thing ever,

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Speaker 2: and you just lean into that even though the audience

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Speaker 2: couldn't care less about monarchs. You just find inspiration in

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Speaker 2: weird places. I'm most recently found some of that good

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Speaker 2: stuff after not being able to find one of my

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Speaker 2: dogs in the house. I know that doesn't make any sense,

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Speaker 2: but trust me, it will if you keep on listening.

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Speaker 2: My wife doesn't drink a whole lot, but occasionally she'll

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Speaker 2: tie one on. Recently, while watching the women's Final four

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Speaker 2: game to see if Caitlin Clark could make fifteen or

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Speaker 2: twenty three pointers from half court. My bride went pretty

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Speaker 2: deep in her celebratory libations for my slower listeners, I mean,

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Speaker 2: she had three drinks, which is a lot for her.

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Speaker 2: She was so keyed up after that Hawkeye's win and

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Speaker 2: knowing they were going to make it to the championship

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Speaker 2: that she stayed up after I went to bed, since

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Speaker 2: I was planning on getting up bright and early to

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Speaker 2: go to Wisconsin to do some deer work. Now, before

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Speaker 2: I went to bed, I let the young dog outside,

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Speaker 2: and then I gave my bride specific instructions to let

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Speaker 2: Sadie back in. And then I went back and I

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Speaker 2: gave her specific instructions to let Sadie back in again, which,

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Speaker 2: if you're paying attention, is twice. I told her to

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Speaker 2: let Sadie back inside. Well. When I woke up in

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Speaker 2: the morning, it was pretty clear during feeding time that

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Speaker 2: one of my dogs was definitely sleeping in. I checked

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Speaker 2: my daughter's room, where Sadie usually snuggles up, and while

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Speaker 2: I was squinting in the dark, trying not to wake

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Speaker 2: my daughter and see a black dog in the black dark,

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Speaker 2: I realized something. My dog was probably still tied up

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Speaker 2: outside and I might need to have an intervention with

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Speaker 2: my wife, which would be real ironic given my history. Now,

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Speaker 2: that poor little dog was so happy to see me,

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Speaker 2: it was almost worth leaving her outside all night. I'll admit.

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Speaker 2: As a dog lover, my first instinct was to run

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Speaker 2: into the bedroom and wake my wife up to let

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Speaker 2: her know what she had done. I was pissed, but

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Speaker 2: then I thought, well, it's not like I'm batting a

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Speaker 2: thousand in life, and it's not like I never made

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Speaker 2: any really stupid decisions when I drank. So I did

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Speaker 2: the grown up thing and I let her off easy.

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Speaker 2: Plus I knew she'd feel terrible since she loves that

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Speaker 2: little black lab so much. Now I got to thinking

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Speaker 2: about Sadie's night tied up in our front yard. I

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Speaker 2: have no doubt she heard some coyotes, because we hear

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Speaker 2: them often. I wondered if any of the neighborhood foxes

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Speaker 2: or deer walk by at some point. I wonder what

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Speaker 2: she smelled throughout the night, sitting there in the dark,

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Speaker 2: wondering why she got stuck with such shitty owners. Now

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Speaker 2: that got me thinking about a fellow I interviewed a

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Speaker 2: few years ago when I had a podcast dedicated to dogs.

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Speaker 2: The show was about a guy down in Texas who

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Speaker 2: trains dogs to sniff out in dangered sea turtle nests

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Speaker 2: so they can help the little turtles hatch and survive

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Speaker 2: the journey into the ocean. Now, that trainer also adopts

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Speaker 2: quite a few dogs, including dogs that are blind or deaf,

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Speaker 2: or in a couple cases both. Now I asked him

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Speaker 2: how he trained to blind and deaf dog, and he said, well,

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Speaker 2: with a lot of treats, which makes sense. He also

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Speaker 2: told me about how his blind and deaf dog reacted

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Speaker 2: the first time they visited the beach together. Basically, that

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Speaker 2: dog stuck its snout in the air and started running

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Speaker 2: circles down the beach, obviously enjoying his time in that environment.

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Speaker 2: The crazy thing is that the dog did that because

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Speaker 2: that dog maps out the world just with its nose.

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Speaker 2: In its eternal silence and darkness, the best way to

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Speaker 2: interact with the world is with its sniffer, and on

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Speaker 2: a beach, it quickly knew that nothing was blocking the

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Speaker 2: wind for miles, which in its head meant it wasn't

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Speaker 2: going to run into anything. Now, there's something pure about

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Speaker 2: a dog just running because it wants to run, but

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Speaker 2: also a blind and deaf dog getting to run freely

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Speaker 2: because it figured out it's in a safe place to

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Speaker 2: run freely. The trainer and I talked about this, and

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Speaker 2: he basically said he can watch that dog avoid trees

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Speaker 2: and plants and cars and garbage cans and whatever else

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Speaker 2: because it travels with the wind at its face. If

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Speaker 2: it all can, I'll imagine that it's pretty hard for

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Speaker 2: us to relate. But think about if your nose provided

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Speaker 2: as much intel about the world as your eyes do.

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Speaker 2: That's the way it is for dogs, And you guessed

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Speaker 2: it giraffes. Just kidding. Well, technically I have no idea

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Speaker 2: how good giraffe noses are, but it doesn't matter because

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Speaker 2: I'm talking about deer here. I think this is something

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Speaker 2: to acknowledge, and it's something to try to understand. In fact,

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Speaker 2: I think at least thinking about how deer map their

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Speaker 2: world with their noses and how they see the world

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Speaker 2: is something that can help you level up as a

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Speaker 2: deer hunter. What they hear, you know, that matters too.

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Speaker 2: But it's pretty easy to figure out how to be quiet.

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Speaker 2: So I'm not gonna dwell on that one. So let's

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Speaker 2: start with something blatantly obvious. We can't even grasp what

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Speaker 2: it's like to be able to interpret the world the

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Speaker 2: way deer do. We have to make a guess, we

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Speaker 2: have to fill in the blanks and just kind of

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Speaker 2: roll with it. But how well you do that matters,

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Speaker 2: and it's something I think we can all benefit from.

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Speaker 2: Let me give you an example. The morning I figured

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Speaker 2: out that my wife had basically tortured my poor scared

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Speaker 2: dog all night long by leaving her outside to fend

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Speaker 2: for herself in the mean streets of the suburbs, I

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Speaker 2: drove to Wisconsin. The goal was to cut a trail

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Speaker 2: on a property, scout out some trees for bow stands

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Speaker 2: and rifle stands, and if I had the time, put

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Speaker 2: up a stand or a blind. One thing that happens

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Speaker 2: to saw blades around me is that they get real dull.

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Speaker 2: This happens over there a lot, because you know you'll

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Speaker 2: be happily zoned out swinging that brushcutter around when the

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Speaker 2: blade will whack into a rock and send a shower

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Speaker 2: of sparks. When you do this enough, your sweet tree

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Speaker 2: cutting saw blade turns into mostly a giant pizza cutter.

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Speaker 2: When that happened, I ran to town to buy a new blade,

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Speaker 2: but they were sold out. That gave me a has

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Speaker 2: to carry a stand into a spot I set up

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Speaker 2: a few weeks ago and get ahead of the game

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Speaker 2: a little bit. When I was up there in that tree,

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Speaker 2: you know, covering my hands and sap and setting the

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Speaker 2: stand in just such a way so that I won't

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Speaker 2: even have to stand up to shoot a mature buck

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Speaker 2: when he cruises through the big Woods this fall, I

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Speaker 2: realized the wind was blowing straight out of the west.

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Speaker 2: That direction in that spot means any buck walking into

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Speaker 2: it along the slight elevation line I talked about a

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Speaker 2: few weeks ago will think he's good. He'll think that

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Speaker 2: the danger in front of him is going to be

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Speaker 2: discovered via his nose long before he gets into the

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Speaker 2: red zone. This only gets a little better because the

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Speaker 2: elevation line doesn't sit on a perfectly east west line.

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Speaker 2: It comes in slightly from the north, which means the

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Speaker 2: buck's traveling it will actually be giving me an even

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Speaker 2: better edge, and they'll believe they are safe. When that

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Speaker 2: stuff comes together, the kind of stuff that makes big

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Speaker 2: bucks believe they have the upper hand when they don't.

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Speaker 2: You have the makings for an amazing spot. Now here's

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Speaker 2: where things get a little wonky. When I was running

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Speaker 2: a camera in that spot for the last few years,

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Speaker 2: or grouse hunting at last fall, or walking it out

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Speaker 2: this winter while scouting, I wasn't thinking about what bucks

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Speaker 2: think about. I was thinking about what a hunter who

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Speaker 2: wants to kill bucks thinks about. You know, things like, man,

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Speaker 2: there's a sweet rub there and a sweet rub there,

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Speaker 2: and since my camera's over there and shows me this travel,

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Speaker 2: I just need to pick a good tree and the

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Speaker 2: rest is history. Yet we do that a lot and

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Speaker 2: a lot of times, we don't kill big bucks. I

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Speaker 2: think this is because we don't put ourselves in their shoes,

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Speaker 2: so to speak. We don't think about how walking through

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Speaker 2: the woods for them is a matter of life and death.

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Speaker 2: Now I realize, at any given moment, you or I

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Speaker 2: could be strolling down the sidewalk listening to German death

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Speaker 2: metal on our earbuds when a bus could veer off

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Speaker 2: course and pancake us right into the side of a

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Speaker 2: quick trip. But we don't fear that kind of thing

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Speaker 2: a whole lot. You know, we know it's possible, but

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Speaker 2: not very likely. A big buck walking through the woods

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Speaker 2: knows that he could run into a hunter two legged

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Speaker 2: or four, and that when he does, it's highly likely

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Speaker 2: his life is in danger. What probably reinforces this a

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Speaker 2: hell of a lot is that he can also smell

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Speaker 2: when predators have been through in the last few days.

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Speaker 2: The entire world of Scent is a matrix of animals

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Speaker 2: and plants coming together in his environment. For him to

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Speaker 2: travel a certain elevation line, at least a lot of

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Speaker 2: the time, he's going to want to do it when

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Speaker 2: his nose could save his ass. It's actually pretty simple.

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Speaker 2: And while I realize they don't always follow the rules,

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Speaker 2: especially when it's the rut, I believe they follow those

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Speaker 2: rules a lot. I think they're far more aware of

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Speaker 2: us than we'd like to believe, and a way to

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Speaker 2: bridge this gap is to try to think like a deer.

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Speaker 2: I know this probably sounds a little crazy, but hear

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Speaker 2: me out. Nature is on a survival mission, and there

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Speaker 2: are two ways creatures survive. One is the obvious way,

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Speaker 2: which is that they don't die if they can help it.

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Speaker 2: The other is by passing on their jeans so that

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Speaker 2: even when they are dead and gone, some part of

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Speaker 2: them is still out there on the landscape. Giving a

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Speaker 2: new generation of hunter's hope. We don't think about our

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Speaker 2: own survival a whole lot because we don't have to.

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Speaker 2: We have the luxury of not fretting over getting killed

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Speaker 2: at any given moment. We don't have to look at

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Speaker 2: the woods as a source of total danger, but instead

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Speaker 2: a source of enjoyment. What we hunt doesn't have that

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Speaker 2: same luxury, and it matters how you think about that.

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Speaker 2: Take bed hunters like Dan Enfhalt, for example. A guy

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Speaker 2: like that isn't just trying to figure out where a

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Speaker 2: big buck beds on a high spot in a swamp.

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Speaker 2: He's trying to figure out why. On a surface level,

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Speaker 2: I guess we could say every big buck bed is

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Speaker 2: in a spot where big bucks think they are safe.

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Speaker 2: But that only works if you ignore all of the

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Speaker 2: other conditions. That big buck bed on the edge of

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Speaker 2: a swamp in Louisiana or Georgia might be ideal for

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Speaker 2: some type of south wind, But what if a cold

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Speaker 2: front blows in and the wind switches to the north.

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Speaker 2: Is the bed still is valuable? Probably not. You see,

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Speaker 2: when we think of wind and conditions, we think about

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Speaker 2: how favorable they'll be to us. We have stands that

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Speaker 2: are ideal for south winds or west winds or whatever.

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Speaker 2: But what does that mean to the deer. It might

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Speaker 2: mean they have to give up some degree of danger

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Speaker 2: detection to travel to or through your spot, and that

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Speaker 2: means that some big, old, mature deer just aren't going

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Speaker 2: to go there. The risk reward is out of whack

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Speaker 2: for them. So while we know it's best for us,

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Speaker 2: that doesn't really matter. Imagine they're thinking on this, however,

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Speaker 2: whatever level they can reason to. I guess they know

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Speaker 2: they want to go somewhere to drink or fill their

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Speaker 2: belly or sniff a doze, but that's great. But they

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Speaker 2: know getting there is the real battle. And if they

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Speaker 2: can't map the unseen world in front of them with

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Speaker 2: their noses, some deer aren't gonna make that move in

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Speaker 2: daylight because it's just not worth it. They also know

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Speaker 2: that if they can use their nose first, they will

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Speaker 2: instead of poking their head out into a wide open field,

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Speaker 2: they'll most likely send check it from the safety of

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Speaker 2: the cover first. When hunters understand this part of the game,

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Speaker 2: they really start to understand how to use it against deer.

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Speaker 2: This is part common sense and actually part visualization. Take

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Speaker 2: a random rub in the woods. For example, Let's say

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Speaker 2: you stumble across it while running and gunning for turkeys.

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Speaker 2: It's a cool fine, and you drop a waypoint before

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Speaker 2: moving on, because after all, waypoints are free, and that's

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Speaker 2: something you want to remember. But what's better than doing

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Speaker 2: just that is to stop and take a long look

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Speaker 2: around an actual three hundred and sixty degree You know

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Speaker 2: which way the buck was standing by the way he

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Speaker 2: rubbed the tree, so you can place him there in

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Speaker 2: your mind. Now ask yourself where did he come from?

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Speaker 2: Ask yourself where's he likely going? If he traveled to

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Speaker 2: this tree in the same direction he made the rub.

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Speaker 2: What wind would have been best for him to make

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Speaker 2: that move? Why would a buck think he was safe

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Speaker 2: to do that, especially if you believe he did it

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Speaker 2: in the daylight? Where else did he leave clues for you?

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Speaker 2: What does it all mean in the grand scheme of things?

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Speaker 2: And by that I mean what other info do you

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Speaker 2: have about the area and potentially that buck. Did you

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Speaker 2: get any trail camera images of a big win around

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Speaker 2: there last year? When did you find a big old

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Speaker 2: bed on a bench one hundred yards away? Did you

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Speaker 2: get down into that bed and take a long look around.

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Speaker 2: Can you see the rub from the bed or not?

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Speaker 2: Where is the nearest destination food source? And how would

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Speaker 2: a buck go from there to that bed? Why does

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Speaker 2: he feel safe there? And how how can you make

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Speaker 2: him unsafe without letting him know you're onto him. I

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Speaker 2: know I'm throwing a lot of stuff your way, but

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Speaker 2: there's something I want to highlight here. If you think

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Speaker 2: about what a buck might be thinking about, you start

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Speaker 2: to be able to predict when he might move and where.

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Speaker 2: You'll mostly get it wrong. But this is a learning process,

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Speaker 2: and that's okay. The best hunters are built upon a

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Speaker 2: foundation of countless mistakes, thousands of them if you stick

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Speaker 2: with this stuff long enough. But over time you start

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Speaker 2: to realize why bucks choose the beds and the trails

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Speaker 2: in the staging areas they do. They're not random, They're

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Speaker 2: their best spots for survival. That's it. This is something

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Speaker 2: that is largely subdued with low pressure deer, which is

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Speaker 2: why they are just so much easier to hunt. The

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Speaker 2: more pressure the deer get, the more likely they are

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Speaker 2: to make their daily decisions around not taking unnecessary risks.

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Speaker 2: By the way, old does are masters of this too.

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Speaker 2: If you can figure out a way to consistently get

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Speaker 2: in range of old does, especially old does with fawns,

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Speaker 2: you can figure out a way to get around mature bucks.

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Speaker 2: We don't talk about that aspect enough, but I believe

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Speaker 2: it in my heart. Outwitting old deer is outwitting old deer,

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Speaker 2: whether they have antlers or not. Think about this as

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Speaker 2: you're out there, you know, maybe wrapping up your winter

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Speaker 2: and spring scouting efforts, or more likely poking around the

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Speaker 2: woods trying to shoot a gobbler. The tracks you find

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Speaker 2: in the mud that show a big deer walk through

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Speaker 2: last night, they offer you a chance to think about

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Speaker 2: the why of it all. You know, the button heead

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Speaker 2: crew of bucks leaving the alfalfa and jumping a fence

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Speaker 2: to go into the woods while you stare at some

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Speaker 2: turkey decoys. They're telling you a lot too. Ask yourself

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Speaker 2: which way the wind is blowing. Ask yourself, why would

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Speaker 2: they cross there and not somewhere else? Where are they going?

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Speaker 2: Where will they go when they get up to leave

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Speaker 2: their beds later in the day, What are they thinking about?

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Speaker 2: I know that seems dumb, you know, mostly because it's

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Speaker 2: easier for us to think about them subconsciously making decisions

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Speaker 2: and not deliberate on the pros and cons of jumping

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Speaker 2: the fence where it SAgs or slipping between the strands

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Speaker 2: in a different spot. We just think they don't think

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Speaker 2: like us, which is probably true. But even if they

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Speaker 2: aren't devoting tons of mental horsepower to making the best

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Speaker 2: decisions given to any set of circumstances, they are operating

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Speaker 2: off of a base level risk reward thought process. They

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Speaker 2: know when they bed with a dead fall to their

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Speaker 2: back that no coyotes are going to sneak up too

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Speaker 2: close from that direction, just as they know when they

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Speaker 2: bet on a ridge they can see down into the

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Speaker 2: valley where danger is likely to approach from. Since we

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Speaker 2: know they know that, we can use it to our

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Speaker 2: advantage by just trying to get inside their heads as

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Speaker 2: much as we can. As I get older and try

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Speaker 2: to keep hunting new places and find new experiences out

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Speaker 2: there in the white tail world, I think about this

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Speaker 2: stuff a lot. It's something that comes from a lot

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Speaker 2: of scouting, and it's something that shapes my season long plans.

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Speaker 2: It's also probably the biggest contributor to us trusting our instincts,

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Speaker 2: which is the only way we might ever get on

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Speaker 2: the level of a mature buck. So do this come

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Speaker 2: back next week because I'm going to talk about why

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Speaker 2: we all need to get outside and touch a little grass.

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Speaker 2: That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has

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Speaker 2: been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought

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Speaker 2: to you by First Light. As I always, thank you so

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Speaker 2: much for listening and for all your support all of

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Speaker 2: us here at Mediatter, we truly truly appreciate it, so

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Speaker 2: thank you for that. Maybe you want a little more

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Speaker 2: turkey hunting content. Maybe you want some other deer hunting content,

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Speaker 2: Maybe you just want to listen to one of Clay's

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Speaker 2: podcast whatever, head on over to the mediator dot com.

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Speaker 2: You're gonna find tons of articles, tons of videos, tons

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Speaker 2: of podcasts. You know, maybe you need a recipe, whatever,

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Speaker 2: it's all there The medeater dot com