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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 dear hunting, and now your host,

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,

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Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. On this week's show,

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Speaker 1: we're going to take a deep dive into setting up

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Speaker 1: tree stands, prepping stand and saddle sites, and getting blinds

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Speaker 1: out and ready for the upcoming season. Anyone who knows

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Speaker 1: me knows I'm a big believer in having lots of

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Speaker 1: options when it comes to whitetail hunting. I think the

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Speaker 1: thing that holds a lot of hunter's back is committing

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Speaker 1: to just one property, or committing to just a couple

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Speaker 1: of stand sites on a certain property, than riding out

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Speaker 1: their season with those limited options. If you're in, like

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Speaker 1: I don't know, Southern Iowa and heavily managed ground, that

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Speaker 1: might be all you need. For most of us, it's

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Speaker 1: just not it's going to fall short. The work we

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Speaker 1: do in the late summer and how we really fine

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Speaker 1: tune our ambush sites matters so much because it gives

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Speaker 1: us options. And that's the topic of this week's show.

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Speaker 1: While it might be ridiculously hot out in the midday

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Speaker 1: right now there is just a little hint of some

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Speaker 1: cooler weather at first and last light. If that doesn't

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Speaker 1: give you the warm and fuzzies as a deer hunter,

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Speaker 1: you might want to check your pulse. We're getting closer

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Speaker 1: by the day as the last weeks of summer given

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Speaker 1: to fall, and now is the time to get really

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Speaker 1: serious about your ambush options. We're talking tree stands, ground blinds,

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Speaker 1: and just potential spots that you might hunt public land,

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Speaker 1: private land, you name it. Now is the time to

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Speaker 1: figure out where you're likely to sit throughout the season

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Speaker 1: and get those spots as well, set up and prepped

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Speaker 1: as poss sable. This is obviously going to look different

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Speaker 1: for folks who have access to private ground versus the

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Speaker 1: run and gun public crowd, but I'm going to cover

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Speaker 1: both approaches because there is some overlap in both and

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Speaker 1: it's useful to know how to approach both styles because

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Speaker 1: you never know when you'll get permission in a new

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Speaker 1: spot or find yourself out of an old stand by

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Speaker 1: parcel and suddenly stuck hunting public land. The best way

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Speaker 1: to do this is to think through the entirety of

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Speaker 1: your season, at least up until I don't know maybe

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Speaker 1: the rut is over. If you have to reset for

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Speaker 1: some later season hunting, there's plenty of time for that.

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Speaker 1: But for now, I look at the season and phases

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Speaker 1: and try to evaluate whether I've got enough options to

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Speaker 1: get me through most days, knowing that whenever I need

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Speaker 1: to go mobile, I can easily fill in those gaps.

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Speaker 1: So let's start with stand basics in the early season.

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Speaker 1: Anyone who spends a lot of time on public ground

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Speaker 1: either knows how amazing it would be to go into

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Speaker 1: a private spot with a truck full of stands and

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Speaker 1: a limbsa in August, or can envision it. It's a

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Speaker 1: different world old Even if you only set up a

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Speaker 1: few stands, they offer a vastly different experience than walking

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Speaker 1: into public dirt hanging and hunting. For starters, one of

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Speaker 1: the biggest differences. You can trim access routes and shooting

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Speaker 1: lanes on private land. That's no small thing, and it's

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Speaker 1: a huge part of making a spot really hum As

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Speaker 1: mostly a public land hunter myself, I'd say my biggest

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Speaker 1: pet peeve with just being a public land hunter is

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Speaker 1: usually not having the ability to trim anything. I don't

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Speaker 1: know how many trees I've walked up to to only

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Speaker 1: realize that there's no way I would be able to

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Speaker 1: shoot anything if it walked by, or how many times

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Speaker 1: I've climbed up seventeen ft and realize I got no

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Speaker 1: options to work around the limbs that didn't look so

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Speaker 1: intrusive from ground level, or have no shooting windows out there.

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Speaker 1: It's frustrating, but it's part of the public land game. Now.

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Speaker 1: If you've got private ground, probably don't need to worry

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Speaker 1: about that stuff. You can get out there and look

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Speaker 1: at the spots you've chosen for early season hunts. Look

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Speaker 1: at the gimme stuff here, because on the field that

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Speaker 1: stands they're fun. That stand on the beachs you go

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Speaker 1: to opening night, get that sucker up now, make sure

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Speaker 1: you have the shooting lanes you need and that you

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Speaker 1: have some cover to hide in, because you might not

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Speaker 1: only sit that stand on September seventeen, but swing back

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Speaker 1: around on October five, and then Halloween and then maybe

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Speaker 1: for a rut hunt on November three. The likelihood of

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Speaker 1: getting busted with those sits increases with the passage of

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Speaker 1: time throughout the fall, both because of the leaves falling,

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Speaker 1: of course, and the woods getting more open, but also

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Speaker 1: because the deer get wiser to your setups, especially when

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Speaker 1: you sit them over and over again, and it's something

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Speaker 1: worth considering now to mitigate the odds of watching dose

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Speaker 1: that are wise to your presence, turn inside out and

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Speaker 1: take off and clear the field before the bucks even

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Speaker 1: get there. These stands are fun because you know you'll

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Speaker 1: see deer during the first couple of sits, and they're

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Speaker 1: easy to get to. But this is guilty pleasure stuff

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Speaker 1: and has the tendency to die pretty quickly if you're

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Speaker 1: not the only one going after the deer on the property,

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Speaker 1: or even if you are, if you over hunt a

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Speaker 1: spot now, even with an easy field edge set up,

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Speaker 1: whether you're putting up a ladder, standard install a hang on.

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Speaker 1: One thing that's really beneficial is if you can talk

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Speaker 1: somebody into giving you a hand. Having a partner here

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Speaker 1: is extremely beneficial. Obviously it should cut the physical work

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Speaker 1: and half for you, but just as importantly, you've got

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Speaker 1: someone to be your eyes on the ground as you

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Speaker 1: find tune your stand sites. While you're up there at

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Speaker 1: stand level getting everything set up, your hunting partner can

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Speaker 1: walk around the stand on trails and out in the

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Speaker 1: field and let you know where your shots are likely

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Speaker 1: to occur and what you should trim. Plus, they can

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Speaker 1: trim from the ground level while you're up in the tree.

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Speaker 1: This allows you to really carve out some quality shooting lanes.

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Speaker 1: The person on the ground is also the judge of

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Speaker 1: how much should be trimmed, because he's looking up from

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Speaker 1: a deer's eye view while walking three sixty degrees around

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Speaker 1: the stand. He can see what you'll look like up

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Speaker 1: there and how likely you are to get busted at

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Speaker 1: different points of the season. Be on the ground trimmer

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Speaker 1: should also consider what it looks like right now, but

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Speaker 1: also figure out what it's really going to look like

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Speaker 1: in a month or two or three. It's easy when

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Speaker 1: you're up in a tree to want to trim a lot,

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Speaker 1: but taking out too much cover is generally a bad idea.

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Speaker 1: This is one of the reasons why starting with a

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Speaker 1: multi trunk or a multi limbed at stand height tree

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Speaker 1: is a good idea. If you've got the option, leaves

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Speaker 1: will fall, but the limbs probably won't, which means you'll

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Speaker 1: have some cover throughout the season. Red Oaks are another

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Speaker 1: great option for this, just for how long they'll hold

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Speaker 1: their leaves same thing with pine trees. One thing that

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Speaker 1: you'll face with this part of the process is just

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Speaker 1: how much should you trim? In my experience, it's real

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Speaker 1: easy to go overboard and cut too much. We think

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Speaker 1: we need six ft wide shooting lanes, when in reality

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Speaker 1: we could probably get away with like basketball sized holes

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Speaker 1: in the brush, maybe a little bigger than that, but

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Speaker 1: not to the point where we could drive a full

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Speaker 1: size pick up through them. While this is up to

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Speaker 1: personal preference, I try to air on the side of

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Speaker 1: caution when it comes to creating shooting lanes because the

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Speaker 1: deer I'm going to shoot are going to be close

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Speaker 1: and shouldn't be too hard to hit. Shouldn't be I

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Speaker 1: realized that's not always the case, but rarely is it

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Speaker 1: due to the size of the shooting lane when compared

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Speaker 1: to the degree to which our brains melt. When a

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Speaker 1: buck walks in during this cutting and trimming phase, some

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Speaker 1: folks get real wiggy about the limbs and brush that

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Speaker 1: they've cut. I don't. I don't carry them out or

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Speaker 1: stack them up, or I don't even worry about them. Really,

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Speaker 1: if a buck walks in after you and a buddy

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Speaker 1: set a stand, he's gonna know you were there. You

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Speaker 1: can't hide it, and honestly, I don't think it bothers

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Speaker 1: them that much, especially by the time the sun has

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Speaker 1: risen and said a few times after your intrusion, and

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Speaker 1: while you're cutting away and fine tuning field at stand sites,

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Speaker 1: it's also worth considering at this point whether your stand

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Speaker 1: should face the field or not. In my world, the

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Speaker 1: ants that is almost always point that s ob away

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Speaker 1: from the open stuff. Most hunters face their stands right

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Speaker 1: at the deer, but pressure deer will pick you off

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Speaker 1: more easily when you do that simple It goes against

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Speaker 1: our nature, but set your stands almost directly away from

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Speaker 1: where you feel the deer will be. Instead of facing

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Speaker 1: eighty degrees straight away, shave maybe like degrees off your

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Speaker 1: angle off to the bow arm side to give yourself

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Speaker 1: a solid opportunity to shoot around the trunk of the tree.

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Speaker 1: This is one of the reasons saddles have gotten so popular,

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Speaker 1: because they allow you to easily hide yourself from approaching

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Speaker 1: deer and then shoot them as they go past. That's

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Speaker 1: not nothing, my friends, when you're dealing with pressure bucks

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Speaker 1: and speaking of saddle hunters, while private land hunters are

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Speaker 1: sawing and pruning away on their gimme setups over destination

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Speaker 1: food sources. What are all these public land hunters to do?

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Speaker 1: In some states you can hang and leave stands on

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Speaker 1: public land, but an awful lot of them you can't,

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Speaker 1: especially before the actual season is open. I tend to

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Speaker 1: look at field edge stand sites or climbing stand or

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Speaker 1: saddle tree sites on public as one and done options.

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Speaker 1: I'll make note of them, and if there is something worthwhile,

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Speaker 1: try to get in right away or when the conditions

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Speaker 1: absolutely favorite lots of deer movement. There often isn't much

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Speaker 1: you can do with this scenario except scout out good

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Speaker 1: trees and make a plan for how you get in

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Speaker 1: and get out. To really stay in the action on

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Speaker 1: public land, it's best to think about the next layer

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Speaker 1: back from the food. This is also a good strategy

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Speaker 1: for private land hunters who know they'll put pressure on

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Speaker 1: the field edges and other obvious food sources because the

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Speaker 1: bucks they are hunting, just like the public land dear

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Speaker 1: will back up into the cover and reduce their movement

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Speaker 1: in the open easy to hunt stuff. If you have

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Speaker 1: the option, have that next layer covered with a stand

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Speaker 1: or a couple of saddle trees that are marked. I

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Speaker 1: can't stress this enough, and I'm sure you're going to

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Speaker 1: get sick of hearing about it. But even though those

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Speaker 1: field edges exist a bit of major gravity on us.

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Speaker 1: To be successful, we've got to anticipate where the deer

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Speaker 1: going to go next. Generally, this means the next layer

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Speaker 1: back in the cover off of the easy to reach

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Speaker 1: field edges, power lines, and clearings. There have been GPS

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Speaker 1: studies on hunters on public land in the past that

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Speaker 1: showed most of your competition is going to hit a

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Speaker 1: wall at about one third of a mile from the

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Speaker 1: easy access. Research has also shown that turkeys can figure

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Speaker 1: that out, which means a three or four year old

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Speaker 1: buck on public land is going to be pretty keyed

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Speaker 1: into where the hunting pressure is going to go. In

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Speaker 1: addition to just distance from access, the pressure on both

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Speaker 1: private and public land is often concentrated around the easiest,

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Speaker 1: most obvious places to hunt. If a two track leads

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Speaker 1: to a food plot, so will go the hunters. The

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Speaker 1: next layer in matters, and that's where you should hang

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Speaker 1: your stands or scout out stand sites for the reality

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Speaker 1: that opening week might not pan out with an easy kill.

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Speaker 1: This is something I learned totally by accident growing up

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Speaker 1: in Minnesota. Because we can't bow hunt the rut without

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Speaker 1: sharing the woods with half a million gun hunters. I

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Speaker 1: dedicated my entire season as a young man to killing

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Speaker 1: deer in September and October. I also only had one

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Speaker 1: stand for a good portion of my early career, so

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Speaker 1: in some ways I was actually ahead of this mobile

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Speaker 1: hunting curve by a lot. I'd carry that heavy steel

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Speaker 1: chain on stand in hanging somewhere interesting, and then promptly

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Speaker 1: burned the spot out. Then I'd move on and repeat

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Speaker 1: the process. I also learned pretty early on while bow

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Speaker 1: hunting a hunter filled dairy farm, that while we were

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Speaker 1: jockeying for position on the field edges, the bucks, even

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Speaker 1: the scrappers I was trying so hard to kill, would

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Speaker 1: hang back in the woods until last light or after.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes they'd be just I don't know, hundred yards off

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Speaker 1: the field, sometimes more. But what was obvious to me,

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Speaker 1: even as an idiot teenager, was that I was mostly

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Speaker 1: out of luck on field edges by the second week

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Speaker 1: of the season. Had to move back to those staging areas.

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Speaker 1: Give yourself a chance to react to the pressure the

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Speaker 1: way the deer will by setting up some secondary stands

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Speaker 1: in the cover or knowing where you'll drop back to

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Speaker 1: when that pressure hits on public land. You've already scouted

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Speaker 1: these spots, you know where some of the deer activity

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Speaker 1: is concentrated. And really it's not that much more work physically. Mentally,

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Speaker 1: it's a little bit tougher. After all, you just set

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Speaker 1: yourself up to kill a buck on a destination food source.

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Speaker 1: Why would you have better luck moving into the woods

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Speaker 1: to kill the same deer that are going to that food.

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Speaker 1: Because you need to be where the deer want to

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Speaker 1: be at all points of the season. This means that

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Speaker 1: you can pretty much break down your setups and ambush

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Speaker 1: sites to the food, to the staging spots when the

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Speaker 1: pressure gets to them, and then the rutt honey hooles

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Speaker 1: that are almost always built around pinch points and funnels.

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Speaker 1: There's three layers there that you've got to pay attention to.

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Speaker 1: Throwing up stands right now in these spots. Even if

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Speaker 1: you only give yourself one option for each layer, gives

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Speaker 1: you something to work with throughout each phase of the

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Speaker 1: bow season. You'll still want to keep that saddle or

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Speaker 1: that lightweight hang on handy because the deer will toss

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Speaker 1: you a few curveballs on private land. On public land

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Speaker 1: without being mobile, you're just not very likely to be successful.

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Speaker 1: A lot of this mainframe set up work should happen now,

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Speaker 1: and as you're doing it, drop way points and take

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Speaker 1: notes on wind direction. Nothing kills a stand quicker than

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Speaker 1: hunting it with a questionable or just playing wrong wind nothing.

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Speaker 1: This goes back to the options thing. If you only

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Speaker 1: have a couple of options, you might default to hunting

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Speaker 1: them even when the conditions aren't that great because you're

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Speaker 1: gonna talk yourself into it because you want to go hunting.

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Speaker 1: Be careful with that. This is also why I prefer

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Speaker 1: to dive in a little deeper into the cover to

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Speaker 1: take advantage of deer that are getting wise to the

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Speaker 1: dangers around the easy stuff. Oftentimes, when pressure deer do

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Speaker 1: enter a field, they're going to do it in a

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Speaker 1: way where the wind really favors their direction of travel.

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Speaker 1: This can be tough to play if you're dead set

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Speaker 1: on being in the field edge back in the woods.

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Speaker 1: You might be able to key in on a well

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Speaker 1: used trail or a season long funnel that will allow

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Speaker 1: you a better chance to take advantage of how they're

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Speaker 1: chill was in travel route doesn't always perfectly give them

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Speaker 1: the chance to play the win. Now, while you're getting

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Speaker 1: your work done this week, you might be thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I've got these stands up, or I've got five different

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Speaker 1: trees picked out for saddle honting. That's good stuff, but

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Speaker 1: can be limiting if you're always thinking about ambush sites

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Speaker 1: solely from an aerial perspective. Do you have any reason

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Speaker 1: to brush in a hubstyle ground blind somewhere, maybe on

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Speaker 1: an overgrown fence row or along a cattail slew if

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Speaker 1: you do do it now? And when I say brush

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Speaker 1: it in, I don't mean cut three pencil thin pine

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Speaker 1: boughs and lay them on top. I mean brush that

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Speaker 1: son of a bit in deer over time will get

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Speaker 1: real used to a ground blind pretty much anywhere. But

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Speaker 1: why take the risk of having something so out of

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Speaker 1: place in their home? Brush it in well, give it depth,

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Speaker 1: give yourself a chance to really hide in the shadows.

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Speaker 1: As I've started taking my little girls out with me,

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Speaker 1: I much prefer tree stands in the view they offer,

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Speaker 1: But for getting away with sitting with fidgety hunting partners,

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Speaker 1: ground blinds are money. They're also awesome to shoot from.

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Speaker 1: When you're at the deer's level, you don't have to

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Speaker 1: think about your up and down angle. It simplifies the

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Speaker 1: whole shot process and gives a nice look at their

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Speaker 1: vitals in a way that you usually don't fully get

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Speaker 1: from stands or saddles. And if you do decide to

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Speaker 1: put a ground blind out, now do a couple of

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Speaker 1: things besides brushing it in really well. Stake it down

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Speaker 1: like a tornado could come through at any day. Better yet,

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Speaker 1: stake it down and then tie it down. Then prop

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Speaker 1: up the top hub, either with just a stick that

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Speaker 1: you cut at the right height or a store bought

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Speaker 1: telescoping blind accessory that allows you to keep the blind

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Speaker 1: standing up and not cave in from rain or wind.

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Speaker 1: Trust me on this, you'll thank me later if you

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Speaker 1: do this right. But what if you don't have a blind,

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Speaker 1: can't stand sitting them or hunting public dirt where you

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Speaker 1: just can't leave a blind out. You can also either

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Speaker 1: build natural blinds now or mark spots where a natural

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Speaker 1: blind is a possibility and private ground own I don't

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Speaker 1: sit natural blinds much because I can usually set up

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Speaker 1: stands and hubstyle blinds. Beforehand on public land, I set

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Speaker 1: them a lot, both to observe and often to kill.

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Speaker 1: In fact, I probably average one public land buck of

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Speaker 1: season while tucked into a dead fall or some other groundcover,

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Speaker 1: and have killed some of my biggest bucks that way.

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Speaker 1: This is due to a couple of reasons. The first

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Speaker 1: is that if you take a trip to public land

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Speaker 1: somewhere and you find a good spot, you've only got

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Speaker 1: a couple of days to hunt there, regardless of wind

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Speaker 1: direction or suitable stand trees. Pure necessity dictates that you

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Speaker 1: might just need to hole up in a dead fall

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Speaker 1: across your fingers. The second is that the deer often

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Speaker 1: live and cover that just doesn't have a lot of

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Speaker 1: suitable trees. I actually think in heavily hunted areas they

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Speaker 1: gravitate towards these types of brushy, grassy spots because of

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Speaker 1: the fact that they are harder to hunt there. To

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Speaker 1: take this a step further, which might be total b s,

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Speaker 1: but I'm going to say it anyway, there's often a

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Speaker 1: real surprise factor to a natural blind hunt. You can

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Speaker 1: get a first hunt in a place they just don't

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Speaker 1: see to expect people. Even better, these blinds are free

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Speaker 1: and they give you options, which is really important. As

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Speaker 1: I've mentioned seventy three times so far. It's also going

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Speaker 1: to be the topic of next week's episode, or at

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Speaker 1: least play into it pretty heavily. So get out there now.

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Speaker 1: Head into your go to spots and get your stands

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Speaker 1: and blind set up if you can, if you can't,

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Speaker 1: take a walk through and make note of not only

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Speaker 1: where exactly the trees are that you'll climb up in,

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Speaker 1: but how you'll get to them and out of them.

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Speaker 1: Familiarize yourself with the process so that when you do

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Speaker 1: saddle up there won't be any hiccups when it's go time.

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Speaker 1: Get the work done now, not in the last few

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Speaker 1: days before the season opens up, but now there's still

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Speaker 1: time to make a big impact and given spot and

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Speaker 1: get out so that things can return to normal even

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Speaker 1: if you haunt to State with an early opener. That's

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Speaker 1: it for this show, my fellow dear junkies, be sure

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Speaker 1: to tune in next week so you can keep your

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Speaker 1: white tail game moving in the right direction. I'm Tony

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Speaker 1: Peterson and this has been a Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast.

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Speaker 1: As always, thank you so much for listening, and we

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Speaker 1: will see you right here next week m m m

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Speaker 1: hm