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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 Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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Speaker 2: which is 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 a long

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Speaker 2: blood trail I ended up on just before the past season,

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Speaker 2: ended up here in the North Country and.

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Speaker 3: What that taught me.

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Speaker 2: What I love about deer hunting, at least some kinds

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Speaker 2: of deer hunting, is that there's just so much mystery

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Speaker 2: to it. You know, at least if you know where

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Speaker 2: to look for it, and you understand that there's just

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Speaker 2: like a lot of stuff.

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Speaker 3: You don't really know out there.

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Speaker 2: I often feel like I have this whole thing pretty

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Speaker 2: well understood, but then something happens and it makes me

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Speaker 2: realize that I just don't And man, do I love

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Speaker 2: that stuff? Well, I'm going to tell you on this

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Speaker 2: whole episode is about something that just kind of rocked

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Speaker 2: my dear world recently, and it was probably one of

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Speaker 2: the most educational and humbling white tail experiences of my life.

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Speaker 2: And speaking of life in all of its big changes,

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Speaker 2: you crafty listeners might have noticed that this particular episode

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Speaker 2: is not only number nine ninety eight, but nine ninety nine.

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Speaker 2: That's because the high ups here at media to realize

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Speaker 2: that anything I do is worth about twice what Mark does,

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Speaker 2: so they're finally giving credit where it's due. Just kidding,

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Speaker 2: that's not going to happen. But what is going to

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Speaker 2: happen is that you're going to hear a special episode

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Speaker 2: a wire to Hunt this week where our favorite mustachioed

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Speaker 2: butterfly enthusiast is going to emerge from his cocoon with

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Speaker 2: some big news. Give it a listen, and I mean

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Speaker 2: this without being a smart ass at all, for real,

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Speaker 2: give Mark a little love this week for reaching his

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Speaker 2: one thousandth episode. That's a lot of shit, oh a

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Speaker 2: lot of work, and a hell of a lot of

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Speaker 2: white tail hunting insights, which is pretty cool. While it

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Speaker 2: seems like everyone is just speed running right into a

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Speaker 2: style of white tail hunting that strips away as much

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Speaker 2: mystery as possible to make things as predictable as possible.

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Speaker 2: You know, at least without putting up ten foot fences,

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Speaker 2: there's still a hell of a lot of stuff out

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Speaker 2: there we don't really know. The kicker is that we

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Speaker 2: don't need to know a lot about white tails to

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Speaker 2: kill them. We really don't. We mostly just need to

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Speaker 2: know where they like to eat, and that covers a

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Speaker 2: hell of a lot of it. Of course, learning where

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Speaker 2: they like to bed and drink and travel and leave

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Speaker 2: sign and all of that stuff is obviously important and

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Speaker 2: great too, but it's actually not that necessary. Well, I

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Speaker 2: guess it is if you want to be a better hunter.

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Speaker 2: So in a way, it just depends what you're looking

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Speaker 2: to get out of this white tail thing, and it

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Speaker 2: goes beyond that too, at least in my opinion. I

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Speaker 2: also think that you kind of just need to learn

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Speaker 2: what deer do to avoid predation from us, from toothy critters,

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Speaker 2: from whatever. For a lot of hunters, figuring that last

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Speaker 2: one out would actually be a hell of a lot

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Speaker 2: more beneficial than knowing they like to eat clover in

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Speaker 2: September and corn in December.

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Speaker 3: You can't really learn what deer do.

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Speaker 2: To avoid us or other predators without being with them

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Speaker 2: as much as possible, and I'll tell you what. I'm

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Speaker 2: going to tell you a story right now about being

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Speaker 2: with a little buck in northern Wisconsin for a twenty

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Speaker 2: four hour period and what he taught me and my daughter,

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Speaker 2: because I haven't stopped thinking about it since then.

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Speaker 3: So here it goes us.

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Speaker 2: Peterson's just don't like unfilled tags, and we don't like

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Speaker 2: any empty space in the freezer at the end of

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Speaker 2: the year. So when one of my daughters told me

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Speaker 2: she really wanted to try to fill her buck tag

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Speaker 2: in Wisconsin before the clock ran out, I did what

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Speaker 2: a dad does.

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Speaker 3: I drove a couple.

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Speaker 2: Hours over there, put up some cameras, picked a few

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Speaker 2: spots to sit on the ground after scouting around, and

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Speaker 2: then cross my fingers and toes. I knew it wouldn't

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Speaker 2: be easy because it almost never is over there, and

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Speaker 2: I also knew i'd definitely green light her for a

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Speaker 2: dough if we got the chance. You know, the focus

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Speaker 2: on bucks it is mostly just because the deer population

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Speaker 2: over there is pretty sparse, So instead of killing one

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Speaker 2: of the baby makers, I wanted to try to make

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Speaker 2: a play for a buck at least if it was possible.

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Speaker 2: But mostly it was just a late season deer hunt

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Speaker 2: in the If it's brown, it's down fashion Now, with

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Speaker 2: the wind forecasted to go from south to north to

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Speaker 2: south in the three days we had, I made a plan,

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Speaker 2: and then the morning we were destined to head over there,

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Speaker 2: I got a picture of a scrapper buck in daylight

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Speaker 2: and a certain spot. So I changed all my plans

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Speaker 2: and we drove over there, bundled up and slipped into

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Speaker 2: a row of pine trees to post up and see

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Speaker 2: if that little buck or someone else would show up.

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Speaker 2: I know this because I texted my buddy an update.

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Speaker 2: But we had only been sitting for twelve minutes when

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Speaker 2: I looked up and guess who was trotting in? It

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Speaker 2: was like an absolute gift. The wind was totally in

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Speaker 2: our favor. We were brushed in real well, and that

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Speaker 2: little buck was on a path that went nowhere but

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Speaker 2: the danger zone. I was just about to start filming

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Speaker 2: with my phone when he stopped at maybe tw twenty

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Speaker 2: five yards, and for reasons only known to a fourteen

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Speaker 2: year old girl who I truly loved with all of

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Speaker 2: my heart, but who also took a terrible shot. I

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Speaker 2: watched as the buck trotted off with a clearly messed

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Speaker 2: up front shoulder. She just rushed it, and I knew it.

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Speaker 2: She knew it, The squirrels knew it. You now know it.

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Speaker 2: I couldn't tell where the hit was exactly, only what

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Speaker 2: angle the buck was standing when the shot went off.

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Speaker 3: He was clearly hit, not.

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Speaker 2: Doing all that well, and since she's been really, really

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Speaker 2: solid at making good shots, I talked myself into thinking

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Speaker 2: the buck was probably toast, but to play it safe,

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Speaker 2: we backed out. We waited around for two hours, and

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Speaker 2: then went in to see what the initial sign would

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Speaker 2: show before it got too dark. Now here's where I

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Speaker 2: made my first mistake. I looked at the blood trail

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Speaker 2: through the snow, which always amplifies things, and I figured

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Speaker 2: he was toast at about two hundred yards into the trail.

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Speaker 2: I knew that I was wrong. I was standing in

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Speaker 2: the swamp with the sun setting and a very good

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Speaker 2: blood trail to follow if I needed to, but also

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Speaker 2: that not so good feeling in my gut saying back out.

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Speaker 2: That's when I looked up and saw him standing in

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Speaker 2: the woods, staring away from us. I couldn't see through

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Speaker 2: my binos what the hit looked like because of the brush,

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Speaker 2: but he didn't look like he was doing that well,

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Speaker 2: so we backed out again and gave it five hours

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Speaker 2: this time. But here is where I should give you

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Speaker 2: a disclaimer. I know that the best move was to

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Speaker 2: give that buck the night to die, but this was

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Speaker 2: one of the few situations where I felt like the

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Speaker 2: coyotes and wolves would have a real edge on us.

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Speaker 2: And also I just talked myself into believing he wasn't

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Speaker 2: long for this world. I was so confident of that

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Speaker 2: that I hauled my big ice fishing sled out there

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Speaker 2: when we went back into the woods, figuring i'd need

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Speaker 2: to use it to get him out.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: The blood trail was ridiculously easy to follow, but I

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Speaker 2: turned on my tracker on onex just in case. A

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Speaker 2: couple hundred yards from where we left him, we found

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Speaker 2: two beds, including one with a clot in it. We

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Speaker 2: followed that buck for one one point three miles before

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Speaker 2: I realized once again that I had jumped the gun

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Speaker 2: and we were pushing a for sure living deer ahead

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Speaker 2: of us. Anyone who has been on enough blood trails

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Speaker 2: knows the feeling I had when I made the call

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Speaker 2: to make the long hike out to leave him overnight.

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Speaker 2: So so far that buck had gone, you know, basically

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Speaker 2: straight away from us from the spot where she had

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Speaker 2: shot him. I had started that trail thinking we had

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Speaker 2: about a ninety percent chance of finding him dead when

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Speaker 2: we got back to the truck, felt more like a

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Speaker 2: coin flip. For when we came back in the morning

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Speaker 2: and at first light, we followed our tracks back to

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Speaker 2: the spot where we left the trail and got on

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Speaker 2: it again. Now that little buck had gone and bedded

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Speaker 2: down again during the night, but had also gone through

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Speaker 2: several spots where the deer were rooting around through the

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Speaker 2: snow for acorns, and it almost looked like, from the

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Speaker 2: pattern of his blood and his tracks, that he had

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Speaker 2: been feeding with him. I honestly don't know, but I

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Speaker 2: do know that we followed that trail for a long

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Speaker 2: long ways and got to a spot where it started

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Speaker 2: to get much harder to follow the blood. At this

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Speaker 2: point I made two mental mistakes. The first was that

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Speaker 2: I could hear crows going nuts on a nearby ridge,

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Speaker 2: and I dropped a pin as close as possible at

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Speaker 2: that location, because I knew I was probably gonna end

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Speaker 2: up going over there and looking around. The second was

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Speaker 2: that I started to believe we weren't going to find him.

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Speaker 2: So when we hit another patch of high ground between

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Speaker 2: swamps where there were a few oaks and I finally

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Speaker 2: lost the blood, I wasn't surprised. We were maybe one

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Speaker 2: hundred yards from the crow spot and I just found

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Speaker 2: a set of very fresh wolf tracks. Now we marked

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Speaker 2: that last blood and made a big circle around it. Nothing,

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Speaker 2: So we moved farther out and circled the whole thing

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Speaker 2: again and found nothing. I told my daughter it wasn't

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Speaker 2: looking good, but that we needed to check the ridge

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Speaker 2: with the crows on it, and when we did, we

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Speaker 2: found nothing. I turned off my tracker on on X

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Speaker 2: and we had a little conversation about shot angles and

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Speaker 2: started the long hike out. Now about two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty yards into our retreat, I crossed a log and

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Speaker 2: looked down and saw blood splattered all over the snow

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Speaker 2: like a roar shark test. It was clear from the

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Speaker 2: lack of bootprints that we hadn't already been on this

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Speaker 2: part of the trail, so I backtracked it, and I.

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Speaker 3: Realized a couple of things.

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Speaker 2: The wolf had clearly bumped the buck into a run,

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Speaker 2: and I had missed the blood trail by about six

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Speaker 2: feet twice while circling around to pick it up. You see,

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Speaker 2: I had already talked myself into thinking that it was

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Speaker 2: a lost cause. And guess what, I missed some very

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Speaker 2: easy clues on where he might have gone. And that

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Speaker 2: did not make me feel great. And we can talk

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Speaker 2: ourselves into a lot of shit in life and in

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Speaker 2: deer hunting. And if you were on a blood trail

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Speaker 2: and you go from maybe to it's not going to happen,

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Speaker 2: But I'll keep trying. It's so easy to not keep

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Speaker 2: trying very hard. Now, almost as soon as we picked

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Speaker 2: it up again, the signs showed that the buck had

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Speaker 2: peeled off of a ridge and headed straight for a

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Speaker 2: small alder thicket. I'm talking maybe an acre of alders

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Speaker 2: that were so close together. I was on my hands

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Speaker 2: and knees following him through there. It was gnarly, and

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Speaker 2: he didn't go straight through, you know, probably because you couldn't,

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Speaker 2: but also because it sure felt like he was trying

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Speaker 2: his best evasive maneuvers in there. Now, without snow, it

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Speaker 2: would have been impossible to follow. I promise you that

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Speaker 2: with snow, not only could I follow the blood in

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Speaker 2: his tracks, but the wolf that was clearly between us

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Speaker 2: and the deer follow his tracks too. Now, before I

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Speaker 2: continue to let me break this down a little, because

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Speaker 2: we hear people all of the time confidently proclaim to

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Speaker 2: know what deer know, and what deer do you know?

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Speaker 2: Like old Goalpost always beds in the thicket by the river,

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Speaker 2: and he doesn't rut like other bucks because I never

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Speaker 2: get picks of him chasing, and during gun season he's

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Speaker 2: a ghost who travels four miles away to hang out

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Speaker 2: on the edge of town fill in the blank stuff.

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Speaker 3: But you know, we mostly I don't know now.

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Speaker 2: Before this blood trail, i'd have told you very confidently

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Speaker 2: that this little buck has a home range that's maybe

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Speaker 2: a square mile, and he's probably going to keep circling

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Speaker 2: to stay in that range, since it wouldn't make much

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Speaker 2: sense to run three sections away to deal with that

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Speaker 2: unknown after you've not only taken a fixed blade broadhead

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Speaker 2: through your chest somewhere, but now have two humans and

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Speaker 2: a wolf on your tail. But this buck knew where

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Speaker 2: he was, I promise you that, and he was a

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Speaker 2: long long ways from where she shot him. When he

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Speaker 2: finally broke from that older patch, he backtracked for a ways,

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Speaker 2: paralleling his original trail, and then he took a hairpin

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Speaker 2: turn and just kept going away. When we would hit

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Speaker 2: a patch of open woods, he'd go straight through it.

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Speaker 2: Then at some point he'd take a ninety degree turn

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Speaker 2: into some swamp. We could walk at a pretty fast

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Speaker 2: pace follow him, because, you know, the blood was so obvious.

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Speaker 2: He clearly had been hit hard in some muscles that

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Speaker 2: were doing a lot of the work to keep him going,

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Speaker 2: and so any movement produced more blood. Now, eventually we

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Speaker 2: were a long, long long ways from the shot site

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Speaker 2: when the buck took another ninety degree turn into another

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Speaker 2: alder thicket. This one was worse than the first, and

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Speaker 2: as we crawled into it, I saw that the wolf

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Speaker 2: tracks split off and the buck's blood was still wet

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Speaker 2: and very fresh, you know, because when blood hit snow,

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Speaker 2: it freezes pretty quickly. And this showed me a couple

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Speaker 2: of things. The first was that we had been on

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Speaker 2: the bucks trail and the wolf's trail throughout at least

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Speaker 2: part of the morning. The second was that he was

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Speaker 2: very very much alive, and he was showing us his

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Speaker 2: best moves, which I'm telling you were pretty good. That

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Speaker 2: alder thicket was a nightmare. I can tell you without

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Speaker 2: doubt that if a big buck hold up there in

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Speaker 2: gun season for the daylight hours, you wouldn't see him

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Speaker 2: and you wouldn't get him out. If a year and

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Speaker 2: a half old six pointer can figure that out, imagine

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Speaker 2: the spots of mature buck knows about that are just

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Speaker 2: like that.

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Speaker 3: As I was.

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Speaker 2: Crawling through that shit, I started to think about all

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Speaker 2: the places I've hunted deer where they just kind of

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Speaker 2: had those options, and I realized it was most of

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Speaker 2: the places I've hunted, you know, not all of them.

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Speaker 2: And I honestly think that is one of the secrets

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Speaker 2: to states like Iowan Kansas being just kind of a

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Speaker 2: little bit easier to hunt. I'm not saying there isn't

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Speaker 2: easy cover in other states. I'm not saying that it's

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Speaker 2: only easy cover in those states. There's a hell of

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Speaker 2: a lot of variables at play beyond that stuff too.

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Speaker 2: But I've spent quite a bit of time in certain

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Speaker 2: states in various bots, and it's just not the same

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Speaker 2: game cover wise generally any Huski. When we got to

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Speaker 2: the middle of the Alders, I looked at my daughter,

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Speaker 2: who was definitely not having a good time I just said,

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Speaker 2: this is a lost cause. Following a live buck that

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Speaker 2: doesn't want you to follow him is not only insanely frustrating,

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Speaker 2: but a total crash course on what they do to

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Speaker 2: stay alive even when the odds are stacked against them.

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Speaker 2: I didn't feel great about giving up on that deer,

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Speaker 2: but I didn't know what to do. But let me

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Speaker 2: put this into perspective. I didn't start either of my

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Speaker 2: on X tracks on the actual hit site. We were

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Speaker 2: already several hundred yards into it when I started the

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Speaker 2: first one, which measured one point three miles. The second one,

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Speaker 2: which I started after losing the bucks trail and picked

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Speaker 2: it up down the road. That one measured three point

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Speaker 2: two miles. While he didn't go in a straight line,

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Speaker 2: he went in a continuous direction away from where we started.

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Speaker 2: So when I say that we trailed that buck for

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Speaker 2: five miles, I mean it. And I know that sounds

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Speaker 2: like when your meth head cousin says that they see

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Speaker 2: mountain lions all the time in the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee,

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Speaker 2: or whatever, But this one is true. To frame it

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Speaker 2: up another way, I don't take my pheasant hunting lightly.

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Speaker 2: I'm not just a lazy stroll through the grass kind

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Speaker 2: of fella, if you get my drift. So two days

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Speaker 2: after that blood trail, I met up with a buddy

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Speaker 2: and we hunted roosters almost all day long, and my

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Speaker 2: step count for that whole day was slightly lower than

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Speaker 2: what my daughter and I had racked up by ten

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Speaker 2: am the morning we went after her buck. What the

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Speaker 2: little deer did and what we put him through, and

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Speaker 2: how even a wolf couldn't quite bring him down in

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Speaker 2: that moment, just it left me with like a weird feeling.

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Speaker 2: We say they're survival machines, but they are survival machines,

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Speaker 2: no doubt. But we also look at them, especially a

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Speaker 2: little bucks, and honestly, any deer that isn't whatever we'd

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Speaker 2: call a shooter, as something kind of less than, and

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Speaker 2: that they are easier to kill and so on. And

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Speaker 2: they can be, but that's because we have so many

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Speaker 2: advantages over them. But they are also something else. Not

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Speaker 2: three hundred yards from where she shot that buck, I

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Speaker 2: shot a nice buck in mid November that had a

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Speaker 2: relatively recent arrow wound through his chest. Two holes, a

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Speaker 2: whole bunch of us, the whole thing. The area is

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Speaker 2: covered in predators, and the hundred density over there is

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Speaker 2: really hot, yet they survive. Yet a scrapper buck in

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Speaker 2: December and shake off a hit that definitely didn't do

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Speaker 2: him any good and then spend twenty four hours avoiding

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Speaker 2: us and a wolf. It just blew me away. And

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Speaker 2: maybe I'm wrong here and it was just survival instinct

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Speaker 2: and nothing more. But what he took us through felt

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Speaker 2: like intention. It felt like he was thinking through his moves,

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Speaker 2: and if he wasn't, his moves were good. It made

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Speaker 2: me realize why we have such a desire to try

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Speaker 2: to make hunting easier, because if we really did it

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Speaker 2: on their terms, we'd kill a lot fewer of them

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Speaker 2: and have to work a hell of a lot harder

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Speaker 2: for it.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if that buck made it because my

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Speaker 2: camera's over there are all dead and I don't really

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Speaker 2: have any other way to figure it out. I don't

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Speaker 2: know if that buck made it because my cameras over

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Speaker 2: there are dead and I don't really have any other

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Speaker 2: way to figure it out. I don't really know whether

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Speaker 2: I believe he's alive or not, because I genuinely believed.

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Speaker 2: You know that not only had we killed him, but

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Speaker 2: that when we left, he was probably compromised enough to

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Speaker 2: draw the attention of someone else, you know, big and toothy.

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Speaker 2: But I also know what he survived from us, and

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Speaker 2: it was just so damn impressive. So even though it

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Speaker 2: doesn't matter to him or anyone else, I really hope

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Speaker 2: he made it. I doubt he did, you know, or

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Speaker 2: will throughout the long winner up there, but he proved

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Speaker 2: me wrong a lot my brief time with him, So

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Speaker 2: who knows. I know that he taught my daughter a

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Speaker 2: lesson on shot selection, and I know he taught me

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Speaker 2: more about deer than I've probably learned from any one human,

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Speaker 2: and I've been lucky enough to spend time with some

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Speaker 2: of the best hunters out there. I don't know anything

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Speaker 2: else to say about this one other than it was

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Speaker 2: just humbling, crazy and one of those things that just

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Speaker 2: changes you as deer hunter. That's it for this week.

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Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wire to Hunt

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Speaker 2: Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.

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Speaker 2: As always, thank you so much for listening, and thank

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Speaker 2: you for all of your support. Maybe you don't see

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Speaker 2: it enough, maybe we don't say it enough, but I

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Speaker 2: truly mean this without you guys, you know, showing up

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Speaker 2: to watch the films and listen to the podcasts and

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Speaker 2: read the articles. We don't have anything, so thank you

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Speaker 2: for that. Thank you for showing up for us. If

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Speaker 2: you want some more content, you know, if you want

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Speaker 2: to kill these long winter hours and entertain yourself a

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Speaker 2: little bit or learn something, the mediater dot com has

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00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:22,800
Speaker 2: you covered. We literally drop new content there every single day,

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Speaker 2: so go check it out at the medeater dot com