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 this episode is all about honesty and
Speaker 2: kind of the dumb lies we tell around deer hunting
Speaker 2: and why we should all try to stop. I know
Speaker 2: this is a weird one, folks, but the idea, oh,
Speaker 2: I guess it was spawned by like a not too
Speaker 2: revolutionary thought, which is basically the sheer fact that we
Speaker 2: are constantly fed so much bullshit in our daily lives
Speaker 2: that lying is just an accepted form of communication. Our
Speaker 2: politicians are absolutely full of shit, but so are our bosses,
Speaker 2: our co workers, and so many of the people we
Speaker 2: interact with on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: Us too.
Speaker 2: Really partially, that's just how kind of like our social
Speaker 2: interactions have involved. It's really kind of bond when you
Speaker 2: think about it, And you know, deer hunting didn't escape
Speaker 2: this either, like the deer hunting realm.
Speaker 1: Is full of this.
Speaker 2: But I think we should acknowledge this, maybe try to
Speaker 2: lie a little less, which is what I'm going to
Speaker 2: talk about right now. The term Ponzi scheme gets thrown
Speaker 2: around a lot, but some people really don't seem to
Speaker 2: know what it actually means. We know that Bernie Madeoff
Speaker 2: ripped off a bunch of high rollers and celebrities a
Speaker 2: while back, and it was big news. We know that
Speaker 2: some people claim bitcoin is, but it's really not a
Speaker 2: Ponzi scheme. It's more of a greater fools theory type
Speaker 2: of thing, at least right now. You know, until you
Speaker 2: can broadly buy your groceries or whatever with bitcoins, it's
Speaker 2: sort of like you got to sell it to somebody
Speaker 2: who will pay more for it than you will. A
Speaker 2: Ponzi scheme is different, and it started with a guy
Speaker 2: whose name might not surprise you. Charles Ponzi. Old Chuck
Speaker 2: was an Italian immigrant who back in the nineteen twenties, when,
Speaker 2: if you know anything about our financial history, was a
Speaker 2: time when people were doing pretty well. The old Roaring
Speaker 2: twenties thing and all, oh the thirties would be a
Speaker 2: different story. But in the twenties there was some money
Speaker 2: to be thrown around and to be made, and one
Speaker 2: guy who figured out how to make a bunch of
Speaker 2: it was Charles Ponzie. He was a Grade A world
Speaker 2: champion at lying, which is a prerequisite to running a
Speaker 2: Ponzi scheme. Now, he came up with an idea to
Speaker 2: get New Englanders interested in investing into get this postage
Speaker 2: stamp speculation. Now, before I explain it further, for all
Speaker 2: of you young folks out there wondering how to catch
Speaker 2: the next big thing that might ten thousand ex your
Speaker 2: money in a few years, ask yourself if you understand
Speaker 2: what a highly speculative investment is. If you don't learn
Speaker 2: about it before you part with any of your money.
Speaker 2: Remember also, if someone comes to you with an amazing
Speaker 2: investment opportunity that they are literally offering to get I
Speaker 2: used some money they could take for themselves, And then
Speaker 2: ask yourself, why would they do that? If you can't
Speaker 2: come up with a good reason, like they are literally
Speaker 2: my dad and he loves me very much and wouldn't
Speaker 2: do that. Consider that the opportunity might not be as
Speaker 2: clear cut or as beneficial to you as you might
Speaker 2: think anyway. Ponzi promised investors a fifty percent return on
Speaker 2: their capital in ninety days, which I hate to do
Speaker 2: this again, but I feel an obligation to say. There's
Speaker 2: no real, big free money out there. If someone tells
Speaker 2: you they are in a dividends stock or ETF that
Speaker 2: churns out even eight or ten percent a year, it's
Speaker 2: probably not very safe. You can get ten percent a
Speaker 2: year in the S and P five hundred, but you
Speaker 2: have to give it many years to average the ups
Speaker 2: and the downs. It won't be an instant year to
Speaker 2: year guaranteed ten percent, let alone fifty percent in three months.
Speaker 2: The thing about a Ponzi scheme is that it has
Speaker 2: to grow forever because the money that it needs to
Speaker 2: return that fifty percent in three months has to come
Speaker 2: from somewhere, and it sure as hell isn't going to
Speaker 2: come from flipping stamps for a huge profit. So new
Speaker 2: investors have to show up with their money, and that
Speaker 2: has to go to the early in our investors. Now,
Speaker 2: when Ponsi was really humming along, he was bringing in
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty K a day, which would be
Speaker 2: about like three million or so today. Not bad for
Speaker 2: a day's work right, Well, it didn't take too long
Speaker 2: before the growth of new investors didn't outpace the needs
Speaker 2: of existing investors to get paid out. Predictably, he went
Speaker 2: to prison and a whole bunch of folks lost their
Speaker 2: life savings. His devious nature and attitude out lying ruined
Speaker 2: a lot of people. We generally despise dishonest people, at
Speaker 2: least we present that image, but when it comes to
Speaker 2: political tribalism, which just folks we like, we can overlook
Speaker 2: a lot of obvious bullshit. In the outdoors, we do
Speaker 2: this as well, with fishing and probably being the activity
Speaker 2: that is most tightly linked to outright lying. No one
Speaker 2: catches a big pre spawn smallly and actively tries to
Speaker 2: underestimate the size, just like any of the trout dorks
Speaker 2: here at meat Eater when they catch a cutty out
Speaker 2: west generally won't round down the length of it when
Speaker 2: they type out their Instagram caption to go along with
Speaker 2: the photos of themselves with a fly rod in their mouth,
Speaker 2: so you know that not only are they better than you,
Speaker 2: but also probably smarter and with just a little bit
Speaker 2: more impressive manhood than the pond scum who would catch
Speaker 2: a trout on a spinning rod. Is there harm in
Speaker 2: those lies? I don't know, not really. I mean, who
Speaker 2: cares if some Randos trout was closer to eighteen inches
Speaker 2: than nineteen it doesn't matter. The same could be said
Speaker 2: for rounding up the score of your bucks, antlers. Does
Speaker 2: it really matter that your buck is closer to one
Speaker 2: twenty than one thirty? Not really? But I will also
Speaker 2: say maybe the reason I say that is that, at
Speaker 2: least in my opinion, I hear this a lot, which
Speaker 2: is way too frequently. Someone will say something like, oh,
Speaker 2: that little one hundred and twenty inch buck or that
Speaker 2: scrubby one hundred and fifteen inch deer. While there are
Speaker 2: folks out there who look at deer that size as small,
Speaker 2: they are in a tiny, tiny little minority. What's worse
Speaker 2: is that most of the folks making hunting content seem
Speaker 2: to be in that tiny, tiny little minority, but general
Speaker 2: hunters find their way in there as well. To the
Speaker 2: rest of the hunters. Maybe that skews the perception a bit.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of really really good hunters, and
Speaker 2: I know very few people who pass up bucks that
Speaker 2: are bumping up on the pope and young minimum. I
Speaker 2: also know a hell of a lot of weekend warriors,
Speaker 2: and none of them are passing those bucks up. Those
Speaker 2: are big bucks to them, because one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: inch deer generally are not small deer. They just aren't.
Speaker 2: One thing I know is that we are most likely
Speaker 2: not going to start getting more honest about the size
Speaker 2: of bucks we want to shoot or the size of
Speaker 2: bucks we actually shoot. But I think that's a shame.
Speaker 2: I shoot a lot of little bucks for a lot
Speaker 2: of reasons, and a lot of people tell me that
Speaker 2: they really like that about me. Some tell me they
Speaker 2: hate me for that, but that's fodder for another podcast.
Speaker 2: I don't think we will collectively change on that front
Speaker 2: a whole bunch. But let me give you another example
Speaker 2: that I've probably talked about on here before. Several years ago,
Speaker 2: while hunting in western North Dakota with a couple of buddies,
Speaker 2: I crested a rise one evening and spotted a mule
Speaker 2: deer dough browsing away below me. I was a mule
Speaker 2: deer hunter in those days, which meant any meal deer
Speaker 2: was on the menu. Because I was not very good
Speaker 2: at getting close to them. Well, I got close enough
Speaker 2: to that one at least to shoot at her, and
Speaker 2: like I did a lot then and still do more
Speaker 2: than I'd like, I shot over her back pere buck
Speaker 2: fever or I guess doe fever, whatever, But she let
Speaker 2: me get another arrow knocked, and this time I shot
Speaker 2: under her, which doesn't happen to me very often, but
Speaker 2: surprisingly isn't much more fun than air bawling high, which
Speaker 2: is what my third arrow did before. So that MULEI,
Speaker 2: who must have been drinking a little bit too much
Speaker 2: of that polluted fracking wastewater out there, took off.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Earlier in that trip, my buddy and I were driving
Speaker 2: back from a morning of spotting and stocking when we
Speaker 2: saw some antelope in what looked like an approachable spot.
Speaker 2: I pulled over, I let him out, and kept driving.
Speaker 2: I knew it would take him a while to get
Speaker 2: to the goats because they were pretty far off the road,
Speaker 2: so I got quite a ways away and parked so
Speaker 2: that I could see them milling around in the distance.
Speaker 2: But I knew I wasn't going to spook them with
Speaker 2: my presence. Eventually I saw them all get nervous and
Speaker 2: start to peel away. I did not, I might add
Speaker 2: watch any of them tip over after catching an arrow
Speaker 2: to the lungs when they bolted, I drove back down
Speaker 2: to wait for my buddy, who, when he finally hiked
Speaker 2: all the way out, was sweating and not in a
Speaker 2: great mood. He mentioned that he blew the stock. That
Speaker 2: was that happens pretty often when you're bow hunting antelope.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until I got back from camp after whiffing
Speaker 2: that dough three times and the wild turkey was flowing
Speaker 2: that I told my story about how bad I had
Speaker 2: flamed out. And after I wrapped up my story, that
Speaker 2: buddy admitted that he too had whipped three times on
Speaker 2: those antelopes, and that he was too embarrassed to talk
Speaker 2: about it at first. Now you might be thinking a
Speaker 2: couple of things. First off, that my buddy and I
Speaker 2: need to hit the range more, and you'd be right.
Speaker 2: I can fall apart with the best of them, and
Speaker 2: so can my friends. But you might also be thinking,
Speaker 2: why lie about that? And you'd be right. But let
Speaker 2: me ask each and every one of you something. Have
Speaker 2: you ever just flat out missed a deer for no
Speaker 2: other reason than you just didn't aim? You just didn't
Speaker 2: do a good job of executing your shot, and instead
Speaker 2: of killing a gimme deer at twenty yards, you screwed
Speaker 2: it up. And that is that. If you can honestly
Speaker 2: answer no to that question, my advice to you is
Speaker 2: to keep hunting. That's coming for you, buddy. If you
Speaker 2: can answer yes to that question, think about the story
Speaker 2: that you tell around it. Does it go something like, man,
Speaker 2: I was sitting there as the light started to fade,
Speaker 2: and I heard a stick snap, so I stood up
Speaker 2: and got ready, and sure enough, here he comes right
Speaker 2: down the trail, right on my good side, totally oblivious
Speaker 2: to me. And when he got to my best opening,
Speaker 2: I drew, squeezed my eyes shut tight as can be,
Speaker 2: and shot without aiming at all. Then he ran out
Speaker 2: of my life, and I realized that not only am
Speaker 2: I not a good hunter, I'm actually pretty bad at
Speaker 2: this stuff. Or did you find a way to make
Speaker 2: yourself look better. Maybe he came in super quiet and
Speaker 2: didn't give you time to range, so you just guessed
Speaker 2: and it wasn't right, guess wrong, or more likely, he
Speaker 2: managed to duck the string matrix style, so that while
Speaker 2: you actually did do everything right, because you're very good
Speaker 2: at this, you were just dealing with a deer that
Speaker 2: had unparalleled arrow dodging skills. Maybe you hit an unseen twig,
Speaker 2: which is such a great excuse that it might be
Speaker 2: the most common. And we've all been there. And the
Speaker 2: reason we can coct a story like that is because
Speaker 2: we are driven at least partially by ego. It's okay,
Speaker 2: it's all of us, and I'm including myself in that
Speaker 2: big time. It's just something worth acknowledging. It's also just
Speaker 2: not fun to be a dumbass. Trust me, I've missed
Speaker 2: a lot of animals on film. I know all about it.
Speaker 2: Some of my biggest mistakes in the woods have literally
Speaker 2: been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe that's
Speaker 2: why I'm tired of the lying involved in hunting. But
Speaker 2: it's also because we all screw up way more than
Speaker 2: we let on. Most of the time, when big bucks
Speaker 2: or any dear we want to shoot get close to us,
Speaker 2: we screw it up or at least don't seal the deal.
Speaker 2: I think we'd be healthier as a group if we
Speaker 2: were all more honest about our mistakes. I think it's
Speaker 2: kind of like this, which is going to be extrain example,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to use it anyway. Remember not too
Speaker 2: long ago, like before and around Christmas, when the mystery
Speaker 2: drone thing was blowing up out in New Jersey and
Speaker 2: kind of all along the East Coast and actually kind
Speaker 2: of in the world. Honestly, it was a big topic.
Speaker 2: And if you talk to people about UFOs and you're
Speaker 2: kind of honest and receptive to it without being judgy,
Speaker 2: you often suddenly hear stories about weird shit that people
Speaker 2: saw in the sky that doesn't quite make sense. A
Speaker 2: lot of people have stories they don't want to tell
Speaker 2: for fear of judgment or social stigma. But why does
Speaker 2: it matter if you saw something in the sky that
Speaker 2: you can't quite explain as conventional aircraft? When you start
Speaker 2: talking about your failings as a hunter, people often relax
Speaker 2: and chime in with their own stories because they know
Speaker 2: most of us fail most of the time. There are
Speaker 2: a lot of lies in hunting around not wanting to hunt. Two,
Speaker 2: the most influential folks in our space and in our
Speaker 2: lives are the ones who present the image of the
Speaker 2: terminator level determined hunter. Nothing we'll stop them, nothing can
Speaker 2: keep them from scouting or hunting, or shooting their bows
Speaker 2: or tinkering with their gear. They are single minded in
Speaker 2: their pursuit and will stop at nothing. But those folks
Speaker 2: don't scout or hunt, or shoot their bows or tinkle
Speaker 2: with their gear every chance they can. They want you
Speaker 2: to believe that. So when you sleep in because you're
Speaker 2: tired from work or wrangling the kiddos and you just
Speaker 2: couldn't muster the motivation to go, sit on stand that.
Speaker 2: You know you're different from them, But a lot of
Speaker 2: that is wrapped up in outright lies. And for your part,
Speaker 2: if you do sleep in for some reason, don't you
Speaker 2: want to tell your hunting buddies it was for a
Speaker 2: very very good reason, as opposed to just being worn
Speaker 2: out by life and life's demands. Of course you do.
Speaker 2: It's okay to be realistic. We're not curing cancer here.
Speaker 2: We're hunting rabbits with antlers. And if you don't want
Speaker 2: to hunt someday or sometime or whatever, you don't have
Speaker 2: to lie about that. It doesn't matter, because all of
Speaker 2: us sometimes just don't want to go, and sometimes we
Speaker 2: just don't go when we could. Also, there's no need
Speaker 2: to lie about the deer we pass up either. I
Speaker 2: don't know why this one bothers me so much, But
Speaker 2: I have an inkling, and you know how it goes.
Speaker 2: Someone in your circle will casually mention that they passed
Speaker 2: up a young one hundred and thirty incher. This is
Speaker 2: often something you hear about after telling someone you shot
Speaker 2: a one hundred and ten incher, by the way, But
Speaker 2: when someone volunteers up information on all of the bucks
Speaker 2: they could have killed, I always wonder how much of
Speaker 2: it is true. Did that young one hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: inch buck walk by at fifteen yards and offer up
Speaker 2: multiple good shot opportunities or did he stay in the
Speaker 2: thick stuff at forty five yards and not really offer
Speaker 2: up any kind of actual shot. That happens a lot,
Speaker 2: and if the ego has a little too much say
Speaker 2: in how the story gets out, it'll clip out many
Speaker 2: of the pertinent details that would change a for sure
Speaker 2: filled tag situation to a cool encounter with almost no
Speaker 2: actual shot opportunity. We want people to know how dedicated
Speaker 2: we are to the big deal and how easy it
Speaker 2: would be to kill the kind of deer that almost
Speaker 2: everyone else would shoot and mount. But most of it
Speaker 2: is b s. Kind of like if Mark told you
Speaker 2: that he keeps getting hit on by supermodels, but then
Speaker 2: you find out that one time he was in the
Speaker 2: same city as one. Sure, buddy, Sure. I think that
Speaker 2: we should try to be more honest about what we
Speaker 2: have happen and how we screw up when we are
Speaker 2: out there hunting deer or hell catching fish, or hunting
Speaker 2: turkeys or whatever. I think that the more we are
Speaker 2: honest about ourselves in that way, the more we will
Speaker 2: find out that a hell of a lot of our
Speaker 2: hunting brothers and sisters are in the exact same spot.
Speaker 2: I think that might matter more than ever, as we
Speaker 2: were exposed to NonStop propaganda in our lives, and we
Speaker 2: are exposed to strangers who all seem to be living
Speaker 2: the dream and have amazing spouses and all make a
Speaker 2: couple million bucks a year while saving orphan penguins and
Speaker 2: Antarctica or whatever bs they want to pedal so they
Speaker 2: can make money off of you while reveling in your
Speaker 2: I think if we talk more about the misses and
Speaker 2: the times we just got caught snoozing when the big
Speaker 2: boys strolled through, or the times when the alarm went
Speaker 2: off and we just weren't feeling it and realized that
Speaker 2: another two hours of sleep was more important in the
Speaker 2: moment than heading out to the woods to probably not
Speaker 2: kill a big buck. Maybe we can't change the hunting
Speaker 2: community as a whole, but we can take that role
Speaker 2: on individually in our friend group or when we find
Speaker 2: ourselves chatting about hunting with whomever in our lives. That
Speaker 2: would be a start and kind of a relief for
Speaker 2: a lot of people to hear that not only are
Speaker 2: they not alone in their screw ups, but there are
Speaker 2: other people who are so comfortable with it they don't
Speaker 2: feel the need to hide it to lie about it.
Speaker 2: I don't think that'd be a bad thing, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of us would really benefit from being
Speaker 2: on both sides of that. So let's all be a
Speaker 2: little more honest, shall we, And let's come back next
Speaker 2: week because I'm going to talk about the spring Woods
Speaker 2: deer trails and why my scouting efforts now often yield
Speaker 2: good stand sites come full That's it for the week.
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired to Hunt
Speaker 2: Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
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