Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your
Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, just brought to you by First Leg.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all
Speaker 1: about covering all of the things you can cover. Now.
Speaker 1: If you decided this is your year to travel for
Speaker 1: white tails, maybe you said I'm doing it. I'm going
Speaker 1: to some state somewhere and I'm going to experience deer
Speaker 1: hunting in a different environment. Maybe you're still on the
Speaker 1: fence with one leg straddled on the stay home forever
Speaker 1: side the one hanging over there in unfamiliar territory. Which
Speaker 1: way are you going to jump? That's up to you.
Speaker 1: But I try to make a good case last week
Speaker 1: that if you've got the itch, scratch it. This week
Speaker 1: I'll build on that, but mostly push the perspective that
Speaker 1: the decision has been made and now it's time to
Speaker 1: figure out how to just make that trip happen. I
Speaker 1: know everyone is doing it, and that makes it kind
Speaker 1: of uncool. At least it does if you're a contrarian
Speaker 1: at heart, like I am, but some things are just
Speaker 1: worth it, even if it seems like everybody feels the
Speaker 1: same way. I mean, I don't know. You wouldn't stop
Speaker 1: listening to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd just because they've
Speaker 1: been popular for like fifty years, right, And no one
Speaker 1: stops eating ice cream because we all think ice cream
Speaker 1: is freaking delicious because it is. People shouldn't stop bringing
Speaker 1: home adorable Labrador Retriever pups just because they are the
Speaker 1: most popular sporting breed. You also shouldn't skip out on
Speaker 1: the over the road hunting craze right now just because
Speaker 1: every flat Brimmer with fifty seven YouTube subscribers is doing it.
Speaker 1: That's the real case I laid out for you last week.
Speaker 1: So let's just assume you're on board with the idea.
Speaker 1: You don't have to commit fully yet, but you certainly could,
Speaker 1: and in some ways you really should. Now. I know
Speaker 1: I'm being super evasive here, so let me explain. We
Speaker 1: all know that some states will sell you over the
Speaker 1: counter licenses. That phrase, coincidentally comes from a time when
Speaker 1: we actually did have to go into the local wally
Speaker 1: World and buy our licenses at the counter in the
Speaker 1: sporting goods section. Now, in most states that's been replaced
Speaker 1: by your phones and the good old Internet. But some
Speaker 1: states don't sell those over the counter licenses, so to speak.
Speaker 1: Some make you apply. Others will word their nonresident restrictions
Speaker 1: like you have to apply, and that implies that you
Speaker 1: might not draw, but it's essentially a guarantee. And still
Speaker 1: other states, you'll learn through a little research they're not
Speaker 1: just going to sell you at HAG. Just like it
Speaker 1: is with Western critters and high priority animals like sheep
Speaker 1: and mountain goats and now elk, you'll have to play
Speaker 1: the points game. I know this sounds like a lot,
Speaker 1: and it sounds intimidating, but it's really not. The first
Speaker 1: step is to just make a plan and decide on
Speaker 1: your priorities. Now, last week I asked you to decide
Speaker 1: on what's important to you out of a hunt. Fun
Speaker 1: maybe a big deer. Maybe usually it's somewhere in between
Speaker 1: the two. That's very likely. Now hopefully you've parsed that
Speaker 1: out a bit for yourself, But also caution you with
Speaker 1: something I've learned after visiting a lot of different states
Speaker 1: for white tails, try to lean toward the experience, not
Speaker 1: the big, antler thing. The odds are really good. You're
Speaker 1: not going to kill a monster book out of state
Speaker 1: on your first trip. Just remember that the odds are
Speaker 1: you could lower your standards and have more fun. It's
Speaker 1: just something to think about, because as awesome as traveling
Speaker 1: to hunt is, it's a lot of work and there
Speaker 1: are a lot of parts that aren't any fun. To
Speaker 1: illustrate this, let me pull out I don't know two
Speaker 1: random names out of a hat. The first I draw
Speaker 1: will call him Marcus, and he wants big bucks number
Speaker 1: one on his list of priorities, and he's going to
Speaker 1: build a plan around that right away. Barring an awesome
Speaker 1: relative who owns tons of good land in a premier state,
Speaker 1: it's mostly going to be about developing a long game
Speaker 1: plan and possibly for him sitting out I don't know,
Speaker 1: a year or two or more. Marcus is definitely going
Speaker 1: to buy an Iowa point every year while researching the
Speaker 1: best units in the state and trying to estimate how
Speaker 1: many points or years it's going to take him to
Speaker 1: draw the premier unit that he wants. And he might
Speaker 1: say I'd love to hunt southern Iowa Bucks, but I
Speaker 1: think it's going to take five years to draw. He
Speaker 1: looks at his calendar and he says, well, I guess
Speaker 1: I'll book that for then. There's a lot of time
Speaker 1: between here and there. So he starts re searching Kansas
Speaker 1: and Illinois to other big buck states. Now he finds
Speaker 1: something to work in an easier to draw a sense,
Speaker 1: so he can start picking units in Kansas and he
Speaker 1: can work toward them and then fill in with hunts
Speaker 1: in Illinois or maybe certain parts of Ohio. Every year
Speaker 1: he can hunt a state that very well could serve
Speaker 1: him up a booner. And while those states might be
Speaker 1: a little more expensive than others, the opportunity is absolutely
Speaker 1: worth it to him. Not only does he get to
Speaker 1: hunt every year, he gets to plan for some really
Speaker 1: good states and really good parts of really good states
Speaker 1: throughout his next five or ten year plan. There's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with that. It's a good way to go about it.
Speaker 1: But let's take this other guy. We'll call him I
Speaker 1: don't know Antonio. Now, this dude he likes big bucks,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't care about them as much, and he
Speaker 1: really just wants to enjoy every second of his time
Speaker 1: in the woods. He just wants a good chance to
Speaker 1: see a lot out of deer fill his coolers and
Speaker 1: camp with his buddies. Now, this totally made up guy
Speaker 1: who loves the band tool and bird dogs and anything
Speaker 1: that's filled with sugar, he might look at Iowa and say, well,
Speaker 1: I could wait several years and spend elk tag type
Speaker 1: money to hunt when I draw, or I could hunt
Speaker 1: two states every year for the same price. So he
Speaker 1: looks to Nebraska because they'll sell him a tag every year,
Speaker 1: because he loves that so much and can do an
Speaker 1: early season hunt there. He also makes a plan to
Speaker 1: hunt Oklahoma during the rut because they'll sell him a
Speaker 1: bunch of tags and they have a high deer density
Speaker 1: and much of the state and as a bonus, he
Speaker 1: might run into a pig down there in public land
Speaker 1: as well. Now, the following year, Antonio, he says, you
Speaker 1: know that early season Nebraska hunt was really crowded. I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna try in North Dakota this year. He says,
Speaker 1: I liked Oklahoma, but the spiders were disgusting and competing
Speaker 1: with the automatic deer feeders and private land around the
Speaker 1: public wasn't that much fun. So he looks and he says, hell,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go east or south to Kentucky. He has options,
Speaker 1: so it really doesn't matter, and you have options too.
Speaker 1: The sooner you figure them out and lay them down
Speaker 1: in a plan, the sooner you can get to the
Speaker 1: good stuff like east scouting. We got a ways to
Speaker 1: go before that happens. You've still got to decide on
Speaker 1: your state and the likely timing of your hunt. Now,
Speaker 1: I generally encourage first timers to hunt closer to home.
Speaker 1: If that's an option. That might mean not driving twenty
Speaker 1: hours to a premier state, but it will need more
Speaker 1: time to hunt, and getting the first one out of
Speaker 1: the way is pretty important. When you start to really
Speaker 1: narrow down your state, remember this, don't fall in love
Speaker 1: too quickly. Take some time to really research the season
Speaker 1: dates in that state. Take enough time to dive fully
Speaker 1: into the rules and regulations. Maybe the week you choose
Speaker 1: because it lines up so well with your favorite time
Speaker 1: sound at home, maybe that's the week of the general
Speaker 1: firearms opener in your destination state. Now, if you're plan
Speaker 1: to go gun hunting, carry on. But if you want
Speaker 1: a bow hunt, that could be a huge conflict, a
Speaker 1: huge problem. Now, maybe there isn't a general firearm season
Speaker 1: going on during the dates when you want to hunt there,
Speaker 1: but there is a youth gun season or maybe a
Speaker 1: pheasant opener. And even though you don't think that's a
Speaker 1: big deal because your state has like seven wild pheasants
Speaker 1: in total left, the state you're going to is a
Speaker 1: huge destination for upland hunters. That's going to kill your
Speaker 1: public land dear movement and change the game in a
Speaker 1: negative way. If you're competing for the same acreage as
Speaker 1: those rooster junkies. Maybe the state that you want to
Speaker 1: hunt doesn't allow you to leave stands up on public
Speaker 1: land or use trail cameras. This might be a deal
Speaker 1: breaker depending on your style of hunting. It's not just
Speaker 1: about figuring out what you want out of a state,
Speaker 1: like an example would be, I don't know an awesome
Speaker 1: hunt in a big buck. It's also about what you
Speaker 1: bring to the table. This is just choosing a new
Speaker 1: hunting dog breed. We often say stuff like, man, I
Speaker 1: love the looks of those German wire hairs, or I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to own a Chesapeake Bay Retriever because it's
Speaker 1: got that badass sea duck pedigree. That's great, but do
Speaker 1: you know how to train a breed like that? And
Speaker 1: do you know if they're really a good fit for
Speaker 1: your family, your work schedule, you're hunting style, and your
Speaker 1: hunting environment. When it comes to traveling for white tails,
Speaker 1: ask yourself what are you willing to do for work
Speaker 1: and for fun? Are you willing to camp for a
Speaker 1: week or are you more of anita hot shower every
Speaker 1: night kind of guy or gal? Are you willing to
Speaker 1: saddle up every day morning and evening for a week
Speaker 1: to go truly mobile and find a book or would
Speaker 1: you be happier carrying in a heavier hang on and
Speaker 1: riding out one or two spots for the same amount
Speaker 1: of time. If you've only ever ambushed white tails, are
Speaker 1: you prepared to go spot in stock them in the
Speaker 1: plane somewhere? Have you ever dodged a rattlesnake or pulled
Speaker 1: cactus finds from your ass while you're hunting? Buddies died
Speaker 1: of laughter? Again, my friends, ask yourself what you're willing
Speaker 1: to bring to the table, and be really honest about it,
Speaker 1: because all of this should influence your decision of where
Speaker 1: you'll travel to and when you'll do it. I know
Speaker 1: I sound kind of like a nagging spouse here, but
Speaker 1: the truth is I want you to have a good hunt,
Speaker 1: and I have experienced a million different ways to screw
Speaker 1: this process up. A good way to not screw this
Speaker 1: up is to decide on a state that is close
Speaker 1: enough to allow you to take a scouting trip. This
Speaker 1: is something I'll get into more of this spring as
Speaker 1: we get closer to Turkey season, so I'm gonna gloss
Speaker 1: over it a little bit now. But it's also one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I try to encourage people to consider
Speaker 1: hunting a closer state for their first go at this stuff.
Speaker 1: But this can also be a double edged sword, my friends.
Speaker 1: On one side, you've got the very obvious benefit of
Speaker 1: boots on the ground now e scouting is freaking awesome,
Speaker 1: but it only takes you so far. Seeing ground in
Speaker 1: person is huge. As you've probably heard me say a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of times last summer in this podcast when
Speaker 1: I was talking about scouting scouting, scouting scouting. This is
Speaker 1: no small thing, and it's also a great way to
Speaker 1: familiarize yourself with the logistics of a trip. How far
Speaker 1: is it really, how will the camping actually go in
Speaker 1: your chosen spot, or how far away from the motel
Speaker 1: is it from where you plan to hunt, What does
Speaker 1: the habitat actually look like? What's the dear population really
Speaker 1: like in your chosen spot? All of these things can
Speaker 1: be learned, at least to some extent, by just a
Speaker 1: long weekend of scouting. Now, the other side of the sword,
Speaker 1: the one that will cut you deep, is the one
Speaker 1: that allows the self doubt to creep in. What if
Speaker 1: the properties you found through eat scouting aren't all that great.
Speaker 1: What if the camping area you had picked out is
Speaker 1: closed and now you need to drive forty five minutes
Speaker 1: to get to the woods. What if the deer sign
Speaker 1: isn't really you there, but the people sign is. What
Speaker 1: if you find yourself looking for the escape hatch partially
Speaker 1: because you ask yourself that, if a scouting trip is
Speaker 1: this much of a pain in the ass, what's it
Speaker 1: going to be like to try to hunt here? That's
Speaker 1: a fine line to tow. I've driven to a lot
Speaker 1: of places over the years to scout, and I never
Speaker 1: drove to a single one of them thinking it was
Speaker 1: gonna suck, But a lot of them have. I've driven
Speaker 1: to places I fully thought would be amazing for white tails,
Speaker 1: only to walk them for hours and days and come
Speaker 1: away convinced that I wasn't really going to enjoy hunting
Speaker 1: there for one reason or another. This has happened to
Speaker 1: me a lot in Missouri. It's happened to me in
Speaker 1: the Dakotas. It's happened to me in Oklahoma, in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: It's happened to me dozens and dozens of times. In
Speaker 1: my home state of Minnesota. It's inevitable but also somewhat
Speaker 1: of a false reality. Now. How I know this is
Speaker 1: because I've committed to hunts in a bunch of different
Speaker 1: places site seen. I've shown up to those places and
Speaker 1: have been absolutely stoked by my first impression or absolutely
Speaker 1: bummed by my first impression. But I've also only given
Speaker 1: up on maybe three or four spots in my entire
Speaker 1: lifetime of traveling to hunt because they just sucked so much.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, even when my initial reaction is
Speaker 1: not so great, the deer show just enough of their
Speaker 1: hand to keep me in the game and playing. And
Speaker 1: what I do, I find myself having fun and forgetting
Speaker 1: that I was about ready to hit the eject button.
Speaker 1: I've said this a lot, but the things that hold
Speaker 1: us back mostly live in the space between our ears.
Speaker 1: If we decide to hunt is not going to be good.
Speaker 1: Based on initial impressions, it probably won't be any good.
Speaker 1: We won't put in the effort necessary, our attitude will suffer,
Speaker 1: and what do you know, the hunt we expected to
Speaker 1: be shitty ends up being shitty. Deer hunters are massed
Speaker 1: tears of this. I encounter it often here in my
Speaker 1: home state, where we have more wolves than any other
Speaker 1: state except Alaska. I challenge you to talk to anyone
Speaker 1: who hunts the northern third of Wisconsin and just time
Speaker 1: how long it takes for the topic of wolves to
Speaker 1: come up once you're in a deer hunting conversation. Usually
Speaker 1: it's not more than a few seconds. And I get it,
Speaker 1: at least to some extent. I've hunted around wolves a lot.
Speaker 1: They are my favorite competition. Other hunters aren't either, but
Speaker 1: we aren't likely to get a season on them. The
Speaker 1: thing is, the wolves are just a part of it.
Speaker 1: And even if that sucks, it doesn't mean there aren't
Speaker 1: deer anywhere out there. You just might not be able
Speaker 1: to sit the same wooden stand that your grandpa shot
Speaker 1: is first buck in. You might have to go, I
Speaker 1: don't know, find where the deer are now some of
Speaker 1: them know where to hide, so the wolves don't eat them.
Speaker 1: Where is that? It's out there somewhere, and it's probably
Speaker 1: changing from year to year, But no matter what, you're
Speaker 1: going to leave you some sign there and give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of a clue. But the worst part
Speaker 1: about this, aside from the fact that the wolves definitely
Speaker 1: don't make deer hunting easier, is that their existence gives
Speaker 1: so many hunters an excuse to phone it in. After all,
Speaker 1: why would you work hard if you're not going to
Speaker 1: see any deer? To that, I say, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Could you see some deer if you work harder? Most likely?
Speaker 1: So why not try that? And if it doesn't work out,
Speaker 1: that sucks, But it's a hell of a lot better
Speaker 1: than not trying and giving up before you really know
Speaker 1: what you're capable of. The same rules apply to out
Speaker 1: of state trips, especially when you've just returned from a
Speaker 1: so so scouting trip. The good news here is that
Speaker 1: you just got some things wrong. We make mostly the
Speaker 1: wrong decisions when we hunt, and if we didn't, there
Speaker 1: wouldn't be very many deer left out there. But there are,
Speaker 1: and it's partially because we make a lot of mistakes,
Speaker 1: we make a lot of poor hunting decisions. The best
Speaker 1: way to address this in your own life, if you
Speaker 1: have a so so scouting trip, or even if your
Speaker 1: hunt planning isn't going all that well, is to understand
Speaker 1: that it really doesn't matter. You should still go. Maybe
Speaker 1: not to that first spot you picked, maybe not to
Speaker 1: that first state you kind of fell in love with,
Speaker 1: but you should go. You should just stuff some cash
Speaker 1: in your underwear drawer every week from now until the
Speaker 1: fall and just go now. If you keep things simple,
Speaker 1: a white tail trip can be very cheap, and if
Speaker 1: you plan a hunt based around your preferred hunting strategy
Speaker 1: and goals, you can have a hell of a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. In fact, unlike elk hunting trips and on
Speaker 1: a state, white tailed trip will almost always lead to
Speaker 1: another one. Elk trips, at least for probably half of
Speaker 1: the first timers out there end up being the only
Speaker 1: elk trip those people take a lot of Folks underestimate
Speaker 1: the mountains and the difficulty of most elk hunts while
Speaker 1: they overestimate their own abilities with white tails. All those
Speaker 1: sharp edges are dulled, white tails aren't nearly as difficult
Speaker 1: to hunt. His OLK, the numbers are higher, the populations better,
Speaker 1: and if you're willing to do the requisite amount of
Speaker 1: pre hunt planning, you can usually get away from people.
Speaker 1: Even if you hunt public land WITHOLK, all of those
Speaker 1: things are harder to come by. Now, of course, we
Speaker 1: aren't finished with this topic. I do plan to take
Speaker 1: a little break in the next couple of weeks to
Speaker 1: get into shed antlers when you're scouting an offseason gear.
Speaker 1: But for now, plan that hunt, do the research. You
Speaker 1: won't regret it. Next week we'll take a hard turn
Speaker 1: into the science of shed antlers and the reality of
Speaker 1: being a mediocre shed hunter. That's it for this show,
Speaker 1: my white tail loving brothers and sisters. I'm Tony Peterson
Speaker 1: and this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast,
Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Light. As always,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening, and if you want
Speaker 1: more white til advice, head on over to the mediator
Speaker 1: dot com slash wired and check out our Wired to
Speaker 1: Hunt YouTube channel as well.