Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all
Speaker 1: about getting your dear gear squared away. Now. I know
Speaker 1: plenty of you, dear junkies are out there still hunting somewhere,
Speaker 1: but even in the farthest southern states, the end of
Speaker 1: the season is coming. It's no longer a pinprick of
Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel. It's a freaking
Speaker 1: spotlight that's heading right at you. The natural reaction to
Speaker 1: the season closing, it's a little relief, a little sadness,
Speaker 1: and then the tendency to just kind forget about deer
Speaker 1: for a little while before it's time to really get
Speaker 1: into shed antlers and winter scouting, which is stuff I'll
Speaker 1: cover soon enough, but before then, think about your dear gear,
Speaker 1: all of it, and what you should be doing with
Speaker 1: it right now. If I were somehow able to run
Speaker 1: a film of my hunting exploits from now backwards to
Speaker 1: the year I turned twelve and could finally bow hunt.
Speaker 1: You'd obviously see me grow progressively younger, Benjamin Button style.
Speaker 1: You'd also see a lot of deer get killed, a
Speaker 1: lot of deer get missed, and a lot of boring
Speaker 1: time on tree stands watching squirrels. You'd also see me
Speaker 1: carry into and out of the woods a variety of
Speaker 1: tree stands, ranging from tiny, lightweight options to ridiculously heavy
Speaker 1: steel models. And if you went far enough backwards into
Speaker 1: my history, you'd see the death traps my father used
Speaker 1: to build that attached to the tree via a great
Speaker 1: big chain, and they were basically like spray painted plywood
Speaker 1: noise amplifiers that doubled his squirrel two toys. Now, forget
Speaker 1: those homemade stands and think about the various models of
Speaker 1: store bought tree stands that I just talked about. Most
Speaker 1: of those that I used, spanning nearly three decades of
Speaker 1: deer hunting, are out of business. That's not a coincidence.
Speaker 1: Manufacturing tree stands is a liability heavy business. If everyone
Speaker 1: uses your product correctly and they're smart about it. A
Speaker 1: lot of people don't, and a lot of people aren't,
Speaker 1: which means the opportunities to get sued out of business
Speaker 1: are many, and it has happened plenty of times. It's
Speaker 1: also happened where specific companies have gone out of business
Speaker 1: because hunters left their stands out for full seasons or
Speaker 1: full years, multiple years. And while we often think it's
Speaker 1: the straps that will give out, in this scenario with
Speaker 1: some stands and stand designs, was actually the cables that
Speaker 1: attached the platform to the seat stem that went out.
Speaker 1: A little rust in those cables, and over the winter
Speaker 1: months in spring and summer, the first time that a
Speaker 1: two pound hunter steps onto them after they've been sitting
Speaker 1: there rusting for a while, they might as well be
Speaker 1: jumping onto a trap door. This is not good. It's
Speaker 1: also avoidable. Take your tree stands down now, my friends.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to go in once a year and
Speaker 1: replace the ratchet straps. That's not a bad thing. But
Speaker 1: the reality is that Mother Nature is a sneaky lady.
Speaker 1: She does a great job of reclaiming everything that you
Speaker 1: leave to her. Now, this is probably a really dumb
Speaker 1: and totally irrelevant sidebar, but it's one of the things
Speaker 1: that drives me nuts about zombie shows and movies. Hell,
Speaker 1: I guess all kind of apocalyptic films, the towns in
Speaker 1: the yards and those humanity has fallen shows. They're always
Speaker 1: too well groomed. If I don't mow my yard here
Speaker 1: in Minnesota every week or so throughout the summer, it
Speaker 1: usually looks like you could flush pheasants out of it,
Speaker 1: which is a fact that my wife loves to bring
Speaker 1: up when I'm laid in my Yardboord duties, the weather plants,
Speaker 1: the undead brain eaters, they would all make those towns
Speaker 1: look so much different, so much faster than Hollywood production
Speaker 1: seems to believe. As a tree stand hunter, you better
Speaker 1: believe it. A little bit of water in the cables,
Speaker 1: it leads to rust or a board bushy tail that
Speaker 1: likes the feel of your ratchet straps on his rodent teeth.
Speaker 1: Now you're talking danger zone stuff. And if you still
Speaker 1: use screwing steps, the same rules apply. Trees don't respond
Speaker 1: all that well to stuff puncturing their bark in. Certain
Speaker 1: types of trees almost create like a soggy, not very
Speaker 1: desirable hold on the screwing steps that are left in
Speaker 1: too long. Of course, you got the other end of
Speaker 1: the spectrum, too, which is the logger's nightmare, where the
Speaker 1: tree just absorbs the step into its trunk over time,
Speaker 1: and then it sits there like a little time bomb,
Speaker 1: waiting for somebody with a chainsaw to coming along. It's
Speaker 1: not good, But when it comes to the steps that
Speaker 1: actually get looser, I had an experience I don't know,
Speaker 1: probably ten or twelve years ago, changed my whole perspective
Speaker 1: on this thing. It was the last stand of the season,
Speaker 1: and as I climbed up to pull it in late March,
Speaker 1: the top two steps pulled out of the tree at
Speaker 1: exactly the same time. While I was harnessed up. I
Speaker 1: was also in a weird position because I was working
Speaker 1: on that ratchet strap to get it loose, and I hit.
Speaker 1: I hit my side on the top of the stand
Speaker 1: by the seat. That was all I needed to know
Speaker 1: that broken ribs are absolutely not much fun. Every cough
Speaker 1: or sneeze just came with a moment of pure terror.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something, if you like to
Speaker 1: set the hook hard with seven and a half foot
Speaker 1: flipping sticks while you're bass fishing, you'll bring your fishing
Speaker 1: partners to tears with the girly screams you make every
Speaker 1: time you set the hook. Now, that's a minor injury
Speaker 1: compared to what can really go wrong with tree stands.
Speaker 1: Each season, roughly around two dozen folks fall and they
Speaker 1: don't go home to their families. About half of them
Speaker 1: happen from falls from ladder stands, and the lesson here
Speaker 1: is always to use your lifelines, Always use your lineman's belt.
Speaker 1: I always use good harness, always use common sense, and
Speaker 1: always always always pull your stands at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. Get them dried out, and get them and inspected,
Speaker 1: get them stored properly. It's also a good idea to
Speaker 1: take stock in the rest of your gear. I tend
Speaker 1: to throw most of my essentials in a tote so
Speaker 1: I know they're all together when I start getting ready
Speaker 1: for next bow season. Everything that might end up in
Speaker 1: my pockets or around my neck while and bow hunting
Speaker 1: goes into that tote. Everything I might use to shoot
Speaker 1: throughout the off season, like release aids, range finders, et cetera,
Speaker 1: goes in a different spot. It's not too long until
Speaker 1: Turkey season already, so keeping the things I need to
Speaker 1: shoot with handy makes the whole spring preseason work a
Speaker 1: little bit easier. I know this seems boring, but these
Speaker 1: off season details are part of what makes someone a
Speaker 1: successful hunter. We'll get into more exciting stuff soon enough,
Speaker 1: but for now, this process of getting everything from the
Speaker 1: past season squared away does more than just make you
Speaker 1: a more organized hunter. It helps you decide what to
Speaker 1: change for next year. A lot of hunters get stuck
Speaker 1: in serious ruts as far as stand choice, good enough,
Speaker 1: shooting whatever. The best hunters, the guys and gals who
Speaker 1: just play and get it done every season on pressure Deer,
Speaker 1: they don't really settle for the status quo. They keep changing,
Speaker 1: they keep evolving, keep trying new things, but most importantly,
Speaker 1: they don't settle. This is movie importante. My friends take
Speaker 1: something as simple as a grunt tube. Now I'm not
Speaker 1: much of a dear caller, but when I do call,
Speaker 1: I want a grunt tube that allows me to create
Speaker 1: a short, crisp, deep contact grunt. Very specific, I want
Speaker 1: something that is going to immediately get a box attention,
Speaker 1: because if I'm grunting, he's going to be big, and
Speaker 1: I want him to walk to me so I can
Speaker 1: shoot him. I don't want to produce a half ass
Speaker 1: grunt or figure out that the reed is frozen and
Speaker 1: the best I can do is produce the sound of
Speaker 1: a goose trying to honk with a big water grass
Speaker 1: stuck in its throat. If you have bad memories about
Speaker 1: a piece of gear that didn't perform well for you
Speaker 1: last season, this is the time to acknowledge that toss it,
Speaker 1: give it away, or put it in the maybe pile,
Speaker 1: the backup pile, whatever, replace it with something better. If
Speaker 1: you don't do it now, you'll forget about it by
Speaker 1: the time next season rolls around, and you'll find yourself
Speaker 1: in a familiar, avoidable position again. The same goes for
Speaker 1: clothing and boots. Much is made of camel patterns and
Speaker 1: the aesthetics of hunting clothing, but the true test is
Speaker 1: comfort in wildly variable conditions. Ask yourself. Did you freeze
Speaker 1: your ass off last fall when you shouldn't have. Did
Speaker 1: you get soaked to the bone when you thought you'd
Speaker 1: stay dry. Did you layer incorrectly for the mile walk
Speaker 1: into your favorite pub land honey hoole, only to find
Speaker 1: yourself shivering and covered with sweat not long after you
Speaker 1: got saddled up and settled in. Do you want to
Speaker 1: experience any of those things again? Probably not. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: got your clothing situation nailed down and own good enough
Speaker 1: stuff to layer up correctly from September to December. Maybe not,
Speaker 1: And I get it. Quality clothing is expensive. It's crazy
Speaker 1: these days. Building a suit for your needs might not
Speaker 1: be as easy as just swiping your credit card and
Speaker 1: waiting for the boxes to show up on the ups truck.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, make a plan to get the
Speaker 1: pieces you really think you need. Now I know what
Speaker 1: you're thinking. This asshole is pushing first Light because Mediata
Speaker 1: owns the company and he's hoping for a huge commission
Speaker 1: check so you can buy another Ivory backscratch or a
Speaker 1: solid gold toothbrush holder. Now listen, I get it. I
Speaker 1: get the skepticism. So I'll say this, there are very
Speaker 1: few things that I feel have made me a way
Speaker 1: better deer hunter. Some I can buy, most I can't.
Speaker 1: In a ladder category, working out and getting into better
Speaker 1: shape rank way at the top of the list for
Speaker 1: what you can buy. A subscription to on X and
Speaker 1: clothes that actually keep you warm, those rank pretty high
Speaker 1: on my list. They're just important and valuable. Now I
Speaker 1: hunt everything from gross super hot early season weather to
Speaker 1: the last days of the season at home in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: or over in northern Wisconsin. I also don't like to
Speaker 1: be overly uncomfortable, which probably doesn't come as much of
Speaker 1: a surprise because nobody does. Quality clothing will help you
Speaker 1: kill deer simply because you're far more likely to put
Speaker 1: in the hours if you're not cold or uncomfortable. It's
Speaker 1: a simple equation, but it's true. And while you're sorting
Speaker 1: through your hunting gear, consider how happy you are with
Speaker 1: your clothing choice. Is there maybe like a mid layer
Speaker 1: puffy you could add that would round out your rut
Speaker 1: hunting needs. Maybe you actually just need a lighter weight
Speaker 1: jacket or pants for the early season. Acknowledge this stuff
Speaker 1: now while you're going through the gear motions, and make
Speaker 1: a plan to fill those holes if it all posse stable.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to go broke buying hunting clothing,
Speaker 1: figure out where the where the major holes in your
Speaker 1: system are. Personally, quality base layers rank super high in importance.
Speaker 1: I think the right basse layers do a lot of
Speaker 1: the heavy lifting when it comes to the white tail
Speaker 1: comfort and are just an integral part of the whole thing.
Speaker 1: Mid and outer layers matter too, of course, but the
Speaker 1: foundation of comfort often comes with quality next to skin layers.
Speaker 1: Something to think about anyway. The same thing goes for
Speaker 1: your boots as well. Cold toes, hot spots on your heels,
Speaker 1: anything that goes wrong with your feet while you're hunting
Speaker 1: can really suck. Sometimes you can show up the cold
Speaker 1: thing with a better sock choice chemical toe warmers. And
Speaker 1: this is what I tend to do quite a bit,
Speaker 1: because I often opt for knee high rubber boots until
Speaker 1: it's bitterly cold. Now. I know plenty of folks don't
Speaker 1: believe that you can fool a buck's nose, but I do.
Speaker 1: I've messed with railing drills and well bred bird dogs
Speaker 1: a lot, and watching a dog that figures out how
Speaker 1: to track you is a real eye opener. The smart
Speaker 1: ones quickly learned that they don't need to hunt for
Speaker 1: the bumper or the planted bird or the shed antler.
Speaker 1: They can just shortcut it and follow your boot tracks
Speaker 1: to the prize. Knee highs sprayed down with sending, eliminating
Speaker 1: the spray versus just regular leather boots or shoes. They
Speaker 1: make it immediately obvious that those dogs can't just easily
Speaker 1: follow your tracks anymore, and if it fools a bird
Speaker 1: dog's nose and makes it more difficult for them to
Speaker 1: use their noses. I believe it has to have a
Speaker 1: similar effect on deer. But knee highs, even those options
Speaker 1: that are loaded with as many grams that the inclate
Speaker 1: as manufacturers can pack into them, still allow your little
Speaker 1: piggies to get icy. Cold toes lead a shorter hunts,
Speaker 1: which leads to fewer bucks killed, which is the opposite
Speaker 1: of our goal. Think about your hands too, Did they
Speaker 1: get cold last season or do the gloves you wear
Speaker 1: interfere with your shot cycle at all? Did you like
Speaker 1: your hat? I know this stuff seems trivial, but it's not.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is evidence of wonky wiring in my brain,
Speaker 1: but I absolutely hate the thought of hunting with even
Speaker 1: a hat that I don't like for some reason. As
Speaker 1: you put away your hunting clothing, consider everything you use
Speaker 1: last season and whether you were happy with it or not.
Speaker 1: Think about your backpack. I honestly don't know if I've
Speaker 1: ever loved a pack built for white tail hunting. I've
Speaker 1: used some mountain hunting packs for elk and meal deer
Speaker 1: that were worth every penny, and they were not cheap,
Speaker 1: but white tail hunting is different. My needs are probably
Speaker 1: different from yours, so this may or may not be applicable.
Speaker 1: Those elk packs they tend to go with me into
Speaker 1: the white tailed woods. Now, I got a lot of
Speaker 1: camera gear to carry, and I mostly do all day
Speaker 1: hunts throughout the season, so I'm carrying enough stuff to
Speaker 1: be out there well all day. This means I need
Speaker 1: more space, and it means those mountain appropriate packs are
Speaker 1: a good choice for me in the deer woods. Now,
Speaker 1: you might not need that, But may be you've been
Speaker 1: using a cheapie that has built like a middle schooler's
Speaker 1: backpack and not really ideal for attaching your mobile stand
Speaker 1: to or packing out a quarter deer or a hole
Speaker 1: deer in the right situation that might be boned out,
Speaker 1: or maybe your saddle hunting, but you just don't like
Speaker 1: the way your sticks strap to the back of your
Speaker 1: pack and how it causes the whole thing to pull
Speaker 1: down on your traps the entire hike into and out
Speaker 1: of the deer woods. Packs are a weird one because
Speaker 1: they mostly look the same, but they often function radically
Speaker 1: different from one another. Generally, adjustability is a huge factor.
Speaker 1: This goes for shoulder straps as well as the waist trap.
Speaker 1: If your pack doesn't have a waist trap, it's probably
Speaker 1: not a great option for packing heavy loads into and
Speaker 1: out of the woods. Being able to cinch that strap
Speaker 1: up and let the load right on your hips is
Speaker 1: something you can't really appreciate until you've got a dead
Speaker 1: elk on your hands or a dead white tail that
Speaker 1: is best quarter and packed out a mile or two
Speaker 1: on a solo adventure. I'm also pretty picky. I guess
Speaker 1: maybe I'm what obsessive about the pocket orientation on my packs.
Speaker 1: Has to fit my knees perfectly, headlamps, a jetti full
Speaker 1: of coffee, snacks, whatever I need to bring, there has
Speaker 1: to be space for it, and it has to be
Speaker 1: quietly and easily accessible. Not all packs offer that, and
Speaker 1: for some reason, a lot of tree stands specific packs
Speaker 1: don't really offer that. Think about it. Another aspect of
Speaker 1: deer hunting that can be great or awful depending on
Speaker 1: your gear choice is blood trailing and recovery. Good now
Speaker 1: scratch that. Great flashlights are worth the money and an
Speaker 1: absolute asset when the blood trail is sparse and you're
Speaker 1: looking at a long night of wears. Waldo in the woods.
Speaker 1: Cheap flashlights are a liability. Think back to your blood
Speaker 1: trailing adventures last season, where you're happy or not. Flashlights
Speaker 1: matter a lot. The same goes for knives. A good
Speaker 1: knife that holds its edge well is a gift. A
Speaker 1: shitty knife that doesn't isn't. This might not seem like
Speaker 1: a big deal if you only use your knife to
Speaker 1: gut a single deer a year, but if you ever
Speaker 1: need to piece out a deer in the field, a
Speaker 1: poor quality knife won't cut it. That's my best dad
Speaker 1: joke of the day. Folks. Think about your butchering process,
Speaker 1: think about your field dressing process, think about your needs
Speaker 1: in the field. Maybe you just need to pony up
Speaker 1: and get a good quality knife with some real blade
Speaker 1: to work with, or maybe you need to go with
Speaker 1: a replaceable blade option so you know you'll have scalpel
Speaker 1: sharp blades whenever your regular blade starts to get dull.
Speaker 1: This stuff matters. Now, you've probably noticed, if you haven't
Speaker 1: fallen asleep yet, I haven't talked about all the bows
Speaker 1: and arrows and broadheads and all the fun stuff yet
Speaker 1: that's coming. In some spring episodes were all devote some
Speaker 1: serious time to the right choices, But for now, it's
Speaker 1: time to shore up the more boring and often overlooked
Speaker 1: aspects of white tailed gear choice. You gotta clean this
Speaker 1: stuff up and get it stored away anyway, So why
Speaker 1: not take stock and what you own and how it
Speaker 1: treated you last season while the memories are still fresh.
Speaker 1: Maybe you realize that you had your circumstances dialed in
Speaker 1: and that you feel really good about where you're at
Speaker 1: as you feel totes and think about next season. But
Speaker 1: if you don't, if there's some piece of gear that
Speaker 1: reminds you of frustration or just pour unenjoyable performance from
Speaker 1: last year, consider calling it out and making a plan
Speaker 1: to replace it before next September. Little upgrades on gear
Speaker 1: and clothing can go a long way toward making your
Speaker 1: hunts more fun and comfortable. And when you bump either
Speaker 1: category up a notch, you'll be more inclined to sit
Speaker 1: for an extra day or two or stay out all
Speaker 1: day when previously you would have tapped out and drove
Speaker 1: the local cafe for a plate of pancakes. If you
Speaker 1: do this, I promise you that next week we'll talk
Speaker 1: about something more exciting, something like shed Anler's. Perhaps that's
Speaker 1: it for this show, my white tail loving brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast which has brought to you I first light.
Speaker 1: As I always, thank you so much for listening and
Speaker 1: if you want more white till advice, head on over
Speaker 1: to the metator dot com slash wired and check out
Speaker 1: our Wire to Hunt YouTube channel as well