Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about being a
Speaker 2: bad gun hunter but trying to get better. One of
Speaker 2: the weirdest things about this job of mine is the
Speaker 2: fact that at some point you have to talk about
Speaker 2: your flaws. I'm reminded of them on a more localized
Speaker 2: basis in my house from one particular person quite a bit,
Speaker 2: some would say more than maybe necessary. But to shout
Speaker 2: those same things from the rooftops to a large digital
Speaker 2: audience is kind of a different thing. But here it is.
Speaker 2: I am a bad gun hunter. I just am. I'm
Speaker 2: actually a pretty bad shot with guns too, but I'm
Speaker 2: working on that. I'm working on all of it. And
Speaker 2: this is what I want to talk about now, the
Speaker 2: truth about being bad at gun hunting and what can
Speaker 2: be done about it. I think there's something we need
Speaker 2: to get straight about the hunting world. It bothers me
Speaker 2: so much, and even though I talk about it a lot,
Speaker 2: I just want to drill this down because it's something
Speaker 2: like I truly believe. I don't think success is necessarily
Speaker 2: correlated with being good at hunting. You can buy a
Speaker 2: giant buck if you have enough money. In fact, you
Speaker 2: can buy a whole lot of them. There's a group
Speaker 2: of people in the industry who are chasing two hundred
Speaker 2: inch deer like crazy, and some of them have killed
Speaker 2: quite a few of them. You just don't do that
Speaker 2: without money. I'm sorry, you just don't. And are they
Speaker 2: good hunters? I don't know. I don't care. I've seen
Speaker 2: this so many times in the industry that I really
Speaker 2: believe a lot of the most successful hunters maybe aren't
Speaker 2: as skilled at hunting as you'd think, or maybe I'm
Speaker 2: just jaded. It's really hard to say at this point,
Speaker 2: and I'm kind of sick of thinking about it. We
Speaker 2: have this weird thing about us where we look at
Speaker 2: the result, which is a big buck, and we fill
Speaker 2: in the rest of the blanks. But there are some
Speaker 2: qualifiers out there. I'll think about it if you go
Speaker 2: on a high fence hunt, hunt in quotes, and kill
Speaker 2: a giant, most folks universally know that does not mean
Speaker 2: you're a good hunter. In fact, I think I can
Speaker 2: say this without too much black A lot of folks
Speaker 2: would look at that as a signal to the opposite.
Speaker 2: I do, But I'm not above being a judgmental prick either.
Speaker 2: The next level down is an outfitted hunt. Those are
Speaker 2: great for some people, but having someone else scout the
Speaker 2: deer and set up for the deer and tell you
Speaker 2: where to hunt those deer, you know, it takes a
Speaker 2: little off the top when you kill that deer. The
Speaker 2: hunting industry lived off of this type of hunting for
Speaker 2: a long time, and a large part of it still does.
Speaker 2: But then you go down a little bit more and
Speaker 2: you have the private land hunters with awesome spots. A
Speaker 2: really good spot can make up for a lack of
Speaker 2: high level skill pretty quickly. Then you have the rest
Speaker 2: of private land, permission based stuff, properties loaded with hunters leases,
Speaker 2: tiny properties with no cover. It starts to get muddier
Speaker 2: as we add in or take away variables. Then you
Speaker 2: have public land. I just did a public land hunt
Speaker 2: in Iowa, and while there was no shortage of hunters,
Speaker 2: there was also no shortage of deer. It was fun.
Speaker 2: I went right from there to northern Wisconsin, where I saw,
Speaker 2: on average almost one deer per day. Different story there. Now,
Speaker 2: the person who consistently kills in Iowa on public land,
Speaker 2: it's probably a pretty good hunter. With a person who
Speaker 2: consistently kills in the big woods where the deer density
Speaker 2: is abysmal is unquestionably good. There isn't any way around it,
Speaker 2: provided the rules are being followed. The thing you learn
Speaker 2: when you travel a lot and hunt different stuff across
Speaker 2: many different states is that the variables are so different
Speaker 2: from hunt to hunt. But one that isn't is that
Speaker 2: a lot of hunters feel like they are much better
Speaker 2: at this stuff than they really are. I don't know
Speaker 2: how often someone has casually mentioned to me they could
Speaker 2: tear it up on public land and such and such
Speaker 2: a state if only they had the time or money
Speaker 2: or whatever. Maybe they're right, but they could find that
Speaker 2: out and they won't. If that tells you anything. Now
Speaker 2: here's the thing. I'm one of those people too. There
Speaker 2: isn't a hunt out there. I don't think I could crush,
Speaker 2: but that's easy because I mostly won't ever do most
Speaker 2: of them. I'm not going to hunt sheep or mountain
Speaker 2: goats or moose or white tails wherever, or elk wherever.
Speaker 2: Most stuff isn't in the cards, and the opportunities aren't
Speaker 2: getting easier to come by. What I do know is
Speaker 2: that there is one kind of hunting that makes me
Speaker 2: feel like a beginner again, and I sort of hate
Speaker 2: it and sort of love it. It's gun hunting white tails.
Speaker 2: I've only really done it a handful of times, and
Speaker 2: while I've had okay success with it, I don't feel
Speaker 2: like I ever really had much of a good plan
Speaker 2: or really put in the right effort. I killed a
Speaker 2: big target buck of mine one time in northern Minnesota
Speaker 2: with a rifle. The second time I ever tried to
Speaker 2: hunt with a rifle. I just posted up in a
Speaker 2: cattail so that I knew that buck liked, and a
Speaker 2: dole led him to his demise. I killed a pretty
Speaker 2: decent one in Wisconsin the first time I rifle hunted there,
Speaker 2: but it was purely a good luck situation for me
Speaker 2: and a bad luck situation for that eight pointer. There
Speaker 2: have been a few others, but mostly I felt like
Speaker 2: I wasn't myself while rifle hunting. I was just doing
Speaker 2: rifle hunter stuff and it worked out. Maybe that doesn't
Speaker 2: make sense, so let me explain it. I think random
Speaker 2: chance does a lot of heavy lifting for a lot
Speaker 2: of gun hunters. There is a big group of hunters
Speaker 2: that hunts the property to the north of my buddy's
Speaker 2: land in Wisconsin, the place where we stay at when
Speaker 2: we're over there hunting. Every opening morning they show up
Speaker 2: in a bunch of different trucks and they set out
Speaker 2: to the same spots to stand in the field and
Speaker 2: push some large chunks of woods. The standers actually just
Speaker 2: stand right out in the open in a field, and
Speaker 2: we've yet to see one with any type of shooting
Speaker 2: sticks or bipod. So that tells you anything. It tells
Speaker 2: you they are shooting at running deer freehand. So that's
Speaker 2: something that's well not good. I have a feeling that
Speaker 2: fellas in that group all hope this is their year,
Speaker 2: just like last year, just like next season. It will
Speaker 2: be for a few of them, but that will be
Speaker 2: likely up to a lot of chance. It won't be
Speaker 2: because the deer drives they put on are suddenly a
Speaker 2: very good strategy for hunting. They're just random and they
Speaker 2: are pushing rabbits with antlers in a general direction. Some
Speaker 2: of those deer are just gonna get unlucky, though. I
Speaker 2: can't stand that type of hunting for myself. Now. I
Speaker 2: don't care if that's exactly what those guys want to do,
Speaker 2: and I don't care if they do it. I really don't.
Speaker 2: I'm happy for them, but for me, the fingers crossed
Speaker 2: type of hunting is just not fulfilling. It feels like
Speaker 2: a light version of hunting to me, and it bothers me.
Speaker 2: That's also how I've mostly rifle hunted, which is kind
Speaker 2: of dumb. I mean, it's dumb for a lot of reasons,
Speaker 2: mostly because I already went through this phase as a
Speaker 2: muzzloder hunter. When I started doing that, I thought the
Speaker 2: extra arrange meant I could just go put my back
Speaker 2: to a tree and kill them like I was spring
Speaker 2: turkey hunting. And you know what, I killed some those
Speaker 2: little bucks anyway, and only when the conditions allowed it
Speaker 2: to work. If the snow was crunchy or there was
Speaker 2: some other weather factor that made it more difficult, the
Speaker 2: tags did not get filled. Even though I had that
Speaker 2: extra range of that weapon. The moment I resigned myself
Speaker 2: to sitting my bow stands and trying to think through
Speaker 2: why I'd sit one place and not another. You know,
Speaker 2: given the conditions, my tag started getting notched pretty regularly.
Speaker 2: It's so dumb and simple. I'm almost ashamed to admit it.
Speaker 2: It turns out, if you hunt like a bow hunter
Speaker 2: who doesn't have the benefit of randomness or long range weaponry,
Speaker 2: you put yourself close to where deer like to walk
Speaker 2: and then you can shoot them. That's so hard to
Speaker 2: do with a rifle or a shotgun. You get that
Speaker 2: longer range gun in your hands and the gravity pulls
Speaker 2: you hard to those big views where you can just
Speaker 2: reach out and touch them. You know this, We've been
Speaker 2: over this. But what do we do about it? Well,
Speaker 2: I know what I'm gonna do about it. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: start hunting with a rifle like I do with my bow.
Speaker 2: I'm not a very good rifle shot anyway, so close
Speaker 2: is always better for me, and this might be a
Speaker 2: close range deal. But before that, I want to talk
Speaker 2: about something. I think we get married to tradition and
Speaker 2: we don't want to rock the boat at deer camp.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. If you want to be a
Speaker 2: successful gun hunter, you're going to want to think about
Speaker 2: your setups. This is where there is such a difference
Speaker 2: between bow hunting and gun hunting in general. With bow hunting,
Speaker 2: we obsess over where the deer should be right now,
Speaker 2: what they should be eating, where they should be chasing dose,
Speaker 2: what the wind is doing for this spot or that spot,
Speaker 2: or what our trail cameras show us we should do
Speaker 2: with some more set up somewhere. Then we act on
Speaker 2: that info. We try to see if we are right.
Speaker 2: Often we aren't, but we might see something that points
Speaker 2: us in a better direction. We might find some sign,
Speaker 2: We might encounter something that alters our plan and puts
Speaker 2: us in a better headspace to complete this whole thing.
Speaker 2: With gun hunting, we tend to go, well, I'm going
Speaker 2: to sit the ladder stand on the field edge again,
Speaker 2: or I'm going to post up on the shooting lane
Speaker 2: in the swamp, and that's it. We go, well, I
Speaker 2: have one option, or I have two or three. We
Speaker 2: might ride it out at our only spot, or we
Speaker 2: might file between a couple. But it's often not based
Speaker 2: on anything more than we either saw a deer when
Speaker 2: we sat one place, or we didn't. If we did,
Speaker 2: we go back. If not, we might, we might move.
Speaker 2: I'm planning to hunt Wisconsin this year, and the truth is,
Speaker 2: I feel real unprepared. I feel like I'm going to
Speaker 2: hunt just like that, you know, just go wherever. And
Speaker 2: I don't want to. In fact, I don't want to
Speaker 2: for two very specific reasons. The one I explained before
Speaker 2: that it simply just doesn't do much for me. I
Speaker 2: don't get out of it what I need. I don't
Speaker 2: know why. I guess I'm just a quirky fella. The
Speaker 2: other thing is that it's not a good way to
Speaker 2: kill deer, and I just really like shooting deer. So
Speaker 2: this year, I am going to force myself to avoid
Speaker 2: the familiar traps. Will I go sit a ladder stand
Speaker 2: that over looks a swamp on opening day? You betcha?
Speaker 2: But mostly because I just walked in there recently and
Speaker 2: found one of my neighbors setting up not one, but
Speaker 2: two ladder stands right on my property line to shoot
Speaker 2: into my land. You know why, Because they know I'm
Speaker 2: almost never there. Between their illegal bait piles and this
Speaker 2: kind of shit, it makes it very tough. I have
Speaker 2: a strong aversion to a grown man looking me in
Speaker 2: the eyes and lying to me. But that's what they
Speaker 2: did when I mentioned they were straddling the line and
Speaker 2: setting up in a way that makes it look an
Speaker 2: awful lot like they're gonna shoot into mine. I'm not
Speaker 2: great at letting stuff like that go. The assholes who
Speaker 2: sit those stands are going to have to look at
Speaker 2: me sitting mine this year. I'm not proud of the
Speaker 2: way I am, guys, but I'm too old to fight
Speaker 2: my nature. After that, though, where I hope to make
Speaker 2: a good point shoot one so they can watch it.
Speaker 2: I'm going hunting for real. I'm going to read the
Speaker 2: conditions and either go to setups I already have or
Speaker 2: hang something to sit. By the day, I will hunt private,
Speaker 2: but by Monday I might slip into some public just
Speaker 2: to see what I can do about finding some little
Speaker 2: honey hoole and watching over it. I have a few
Speaker 2: of those scouted out from bow hunting, and the advantage
Speaker 2: of a little range might help me with all of them.
Speaker 2: What I'm not going to do is sit around and
Speaker 2: just hope a deer comes by me for like five days.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go to them like I do with
Speaker 2: bow hunting, and I don't know if it'll work yet,
Speaker 2: but I'm hoping. It makes me feel like I'm leveling
Speaker 2: up and changing a little bit as a gun hunter. Now,
Speaker 2: let me ask you this. If you're going gun hunting
Speaker 2: this year, what's the plan? Are you going to do
Speaker 2: what you always do? If so, will that make you happy?
Speaker 2: If that answer is yes, then carry on, my friends.
Speaker 2: Do what blows the wind up your skirt? I say,
Speaker 2: or actually Mark says that so much though that I
Speaker 2: often wonder if he has petitioned First Light to make
Speaker 2: him a camo skirt. What if that's your plan? But
Speaker 2: you're wondering if this year is going to be a
Speaker 2: lot like a lot of the other years where the
Speaker 2: best you can do is hope that the randomness of
Speaker 2: it all chooses you as the big winner. Then it's
Speaker 2: time to think about your hunt now. As I mentioned before,
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't want to rock the boat
Speaker 2: with the group dynamics of a gun hunt. But that's
Speaker 2: a personal call. Maybe you love doing the deer drives,
Speaker 2: maybe you hate it. Maybe you don't care about being
Speaker 2: back at the cabin at noon for the chili cookout.
Speaker 2: Can you move stands midday to something tighter in the cover.
Speaker 2: Can you bring a mobile setup to the spot. You're
Speaker 2: just kind of curious about what can you actively do
Speaker 2: to hunt them when you have a high powered rifle
Speaker 2: in your hands or that scope shotgun. A lot of
Speaker 2: these questions don't have answers yet because a lot of
Speaker 2: folks listening to this haven't hunted yet. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of inputs to take in before you decide to be
Speaker 2: the guy who goes rogue and wade into the thickets,
Speaker 2: or skip the social stuff to spend the eleven ish
Speaker 2: hours of daylight. You have where the deer live and
Speaker 2: not where the beer disappears into bellies and the chili
Speaker 2: farts radiate off the cabin walls, like that scene in
Speaker 2: Blazing Saddles where the bad cowboys are sitting around the
Speaker 2: campfire eating beans. It's good to consider these things though.
Speaker 2: I believe this because if you aren't working on something
Speaker 2: in your head, you won't work on something in the field.
Speaker 2: It's easy to fall into the same patterns. There's comfort
Speaker 2: and familiarity. It's nice to not have to make a
Speaker 2: lot of decisions or really think something through. But if
Speaker 2: you want to kill deer every year with a gun,
Speaker 2: and you currently don't, or at least don't kill the
Speaker 2: deer you really want to kill. Ask yourself where you
Speaker 2: could improve on that program. The easy one is to
Speaker 2: hunt longer than everyone else. That one's so simple, but
Speaker 2: it's hard, and it's not like all day sits are
Speaker 2: going to always result in filled tags. The deer that
Speaker 2: won't cross the open you know, at sunrise, aren't likely
Speaker 2: to cross the wide open at noon, if you get
Speaker 2: my drift. This is why I'm an advocate for the
Speaker 2: midday move if necessary. Bull hunters do this all the
Speaker 2: time and it works a lot. There are setups where
Speaker 2: all day sits are money, but you have to believe
Speaker 2: in them, and if you don't, a still hunt from
Speaker 2: one stand to another during the midday hours is a
Speaker 2: nice break, and it's nice to have a different view.
Speaker 2: It's also a good idea to go looking. I think
Speaker 2: a lot of gun hunters like to walk around and
Speaker 2: look for deer, but a better bed is to really
Speaker 2: sneak around if you have to with another destination in mind.
Speaker 2: I mean, how often do you think you're going to
Speaker 2: walk up on a buck during gun season and shoot him?
Speaker 2: Probably not too often, unless you have a thousand acre
Speaker 2: ranch in one of the flyover states. I'm also not
Speaker 2: advocating huge moves here either. We are often off by
Speaker 2: so little that it surprises me so much. Maybe you
Speaker 2: saw a few deer in the cree bottom below you.
Speaker 2: A move of one hundred yards might get you some
Speaker 2: kind of different opportunity, you know, just to hunt better cover.
Speaker 2: That might be all you need. I kill a lot
Speaker 2: of deer after little moves while bow hunting, and I
Speaker 2: plan to kill some while gun hunting. I also think
Speaker 2: that when you approach it this way, you're more open
Speaker 2: to going off at instinct, and I think that shit
Speaker 2: is important. What if you're sitting there looking at wide
Speaker 2: open woods and not seeing deer on day three? Instead
Speaker 2: of just giving up and giving in, what does your
Speaker 2: gut tell you? Probably tells you the deer in some spot,
Speaker 2: And while you don't usually hunt it, you probably could
Speaker 2: right instead of trying to blind call one to a
Speaker 2: burned out area, go to where they might be and
Speaker 2: find out if they are there. If you jump some deer,
Speaker 2: which you very well might take note to where they are,
Speaker 2: there was a reason, and the reason is probably good
Speaker 2: enough for you to sit there today or tomorrow or
Speaker 2: the next day, think it through, try something different, go
Speaker 2: try to find them if you have to, and come
Speaker 2: back next week because I'm going to talk about making
Speaker 2: mistakes and giving ourselves a little grace because we are
Speaker 2: all flawed. That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which
Speaker 2: is brought to you by First Light. I just want
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