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 Wire 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 thinking for yourself.
Speaker 2: This white tail season, we are finally on the cusp
Speaker 2: of it. Hell, a few states already open, and the
Speaker 2: velvet bucks have been hitting the ground in the Midwest, East,
Speaker 2: and down south. Most of the whitetail opportunities will be
Speaker 2: open within a couple of weeks, and that's great news.
Speaker 2: But the bad news is that a lot of folks
Speaker 2: won't fill their tags then, and they won't have a
Speaker 2: very enjoyable season. The reasons for both are many, but
Speaker 2: one that I think we really don't understand as a
Speaker 2: whole is prevalent and pretty damaging. And that's something I'm
Speaker 2: going to talk about right now. Way back in nineteen
Speaker 2: sixty eight, many of the world's best athletes descended on
Speaker 2: Mexico City to compete in the Summer Olympics. It was
Speaker 2: an event of first including being held at higher elevation
Speaker 2: than the Summer Olympics had ever been held at before
Speaker 2: or since, at seventy three hundred and fifty feet above
Speaker 2: sea level. The athletes, especially the flatlanders, felt it It
Speaker 2: was the first time that a synthetic all weather surface
Speaker 2: had been used for track and field events. The track
Speaker 2: surface was developed by three AM for horse racing, but
Speaker 2: it must not have been all that great because it
Speaker 2: never really caught on. This was also the first year
Speaker 2: that doping tests were introduced, and the first person to
Speaker 2: get the boot from a failed test was a kidish
Speaker 2: pentathlete who consumed several beers before one of his events,
Speaker 2: making him, at least in my opinion, in honorary wisconsinight
Speaker 2: as well. The nineteen sixty eight Olympics also featured a
Speaker 2: fella who won the gold medal in the high jump
Speaker 2: using an unconventional technique instead of running up toward the
Speaker 2: bar and jumping over so that he was faced down
Speaker 2: as he went over. It kind of I guess, like
Speaker 2: how a dolphin might jump along behind a boat. Dick
Speaker 2: Fossburry went over back first. He called it the Fosbury flop,
Speaker 2: And while it might seem dumb to us now, at
Speaker 2: the time, he changed the game by simply jumping just
Speaker 2: a little bit of a different way. And who knows
Speaker 2: how he figured it out or how many other athletes
Speaker 2: had tried it but decided they wouldn't do it because
Speaker 2: everybody does it a certain way. We know that he
Speaker 2: did figure it out, and no one else at that
Speaker 2: point had at least developed enough confidence to use that
Speaker 2: move in any major competitions, let alone the Olympics. Now,
Speaker 2: imagine working your whole life, which for Olympic athletes is
Speaker 2: usually not that long because they're all damn near kids,
Speaker 2: except for that Turkish dude this year who shot that
Speaker 2: pistol even while looking a hell of a lot like
Speaker 2: a professional hitman, or the infamous breakdancer who calls herself
Speaker 2: a ray gun and who really colored outside the lines
Speaker 2: with their dance moves. Anyway, imagine working so hard to
Speaker 2: make the Olympics, no matter what your age, and then
Speaker 2: you compete like everyone else, and then you get beat
Speaker 2: by some dude who just decided to, I don't know,
Speaker 2: reinvent the jumping style. It's pretty wild. But we see
Speaker 2: this in sports. Sometimes we see it in other things
Speaker 2: too that aren't really sports, like golf, but also deer hunting,
Speaker 2: which actually takes some real skill instead of just hitting
Speaker 2: a ball into a hole while driving a little electric
Speaker 2: car around and drinking with your buddies while wearing polo shirts.
Speaker 2: The way things have changed in the whitetail world is interesting.
Speaker 2: We went from figuring out where deer like to walk
Speaker 2: to changing the landscape to make deer walk to us
Speaker 2: in like the last twenty years. Not everyone does this,
Speaker 2: of course, but a lot of folks do. We kind
Speaker 2: of figured out how to hack white tails, and with
Speaker 2: enough money or land, which usually go hand in hand,
Speaker 2: you can do this too, and a lot of people do.
Speaker 2: Here's where things get a little squirrely, though. Just because
Speaker 2: other folks engage in some type of tactic that results
Speaker 2: in a lot of big dead deer doesn't mean that
Speaker 2: it means anything to you, or that you should be
Speaker 2: doing things the same way. An obvious example here is
Speaker 2: the difference between hunting public land and hunting good private land.
Speaker 2: They aren't the same thing in almost any way, and
Speaker 2: yet it's pretty common for people to try to adopt
Speaker 2: some of the private land techniques to use in the
Speaker 2: public land space. Now, is there some crossover? Sure, you're
Speaker 2: both just hunting deer. A cold front might be as
Speaker 2: good for you as it is for them. The acorns
Speaker 2: might just be the ticket for you and for them.
Speaker 2: The rot happens at the same time the public land
Speaker 2: as it does on the private There are similarities, but
Speaker 2: it seems like a lot of hunters try to draw
Speaker 2: connections where there are none, or the thread connecting the
Speaker 2: two is so thin that a slight puff of wind
Speaker 2: could split it. I've started to think of this as
Speaker 2: a not you, not now situation. Let me give you
Speaker 2: an example that i've You know, I've brought it up
Speaker 2: a few times, but it really kind of stuck with me,
Speaker 2: and I want to use it one more time. Last season,
Speaker 2: a buddy of mine texted me that he was headed
Speaker 2: to his farm to hunt a Brassica plot in early October.
Speaker 2: His reasoning was that he saw an Instagram post about
Speaker 2: one of the big whitetail names killing a very big
Speaker 2: deer in the Brassicas Now, the difference in available land
Speaker 2: between my buddy and that fella is literally thousands of acres.
Speaker 2: They are also in different states, and while my buddy
Speaker 2: stuff is really good, you know, it's Wisconsin land and
Speaker 2: it's top not stuff, it's not really, really really good
Speaker 2: southern Iowa Land. I don't know the details of the
Speaker 2: big buck in the social post, and I don't care.
Speaker 2: I can fill in the blanks enough to know that
Speaker 2: deer might have been in there to eat brassicas, or
Speaker 2: he might have been in there to walk through the
Speaker 2: Brassicas to go eat something else. I will bet good
Speaker 2: money that the guy who killed that buck gets paid
Speaker 2: by a food plot seed company and honestly might even
Speaker 2: own one. That entire hunt might have been built around
Speaker 2: selling people food plot seed, and might not have had
Speaker 2: anything to do with how much deer like brassicas. I
Speaker 2: don't know. What I do know is that my buddy
Speaker 2: didn't go in and shoot a two hundred inch buck
Speaker 2: off of his brassicas. It doesn't work like that. Let
Speaker 2: me frame this up another way. When Dan Infault started
Speaker 2: getting a lot of attention for killing big bucks on
Speaker 2: a betting pattern, I thought it was great a bullshit.
Speaker 2: The reason I thought that was because I couldn't figure
Speaker 2: out how to use it in my life. It just
Speaker 2: didn't click for me, and while I tried to scout
Speaker 2: beds and try to make some sort of effort to
Speaker 2: understand that part of a deer's life better, I failed badly.
Speaker 2: Instead of becoming a stone cold killer around bed patterns,
Speaker 2: I got frustrated. But I've also paid a lot more
Speaker 2: attention to beds in the last ten years or so
Speaker 2: and have just tried to acknowledge that in my hunting strategy.
Speaker 2: It's just not really my style at all. It's just
Speaker 2: a hole in my game. The lesson in there is
Speaker 2: maybe a little hidden, but it goes like this. When
Speaker 2: you take a really good hunter and they work really
Speaker 2: hard to develop a hunting style or some set of skills,
Speaker 2: you probably won't be able to emulate it very well.
Speaker 2: That's not to say that you shouldn't try, because you should.
Speaker 2: Doing different stuff is important, especially if that stuff is challenging.
Speaker 2: I think that every private land hunter out there would
Speaker 2: benefit greatly from going on one public land hunt. The
Speaker 2: world that that opens up can never fully be closed,
Speaker 2: and that's a good thing. I think you should try
Speaker 2: new stuff, and you should pay attention to what other
Speaker 2: people are doing, but you should also try to understand
Speaker 2: how it's relevant to you or how it might not
Speaker 2: matter at all to your hunting situation. So let's look
Speaker 2: at this another way. Hit listers are all of the
Speaker 2: rage right now. Right it seems like everyone is naming
Speaker 2: bucks and passing bucks and talking like they are a
Speaker 2: celebrity power couple on the Sportsmouth channel. You might really
Speaker 2: aspire to that lifestyle too. And I get it. I mean,
Speaker 2: after all, who doesn't want to be able to pass
Speaker 2: up four year old bucks so they can shoot them
Speaker 2: when they are five? Who doesn't want years of history
Speaker 2: with certain deer to a point where they just become
Speaker 2: giants and are worthy of a tag. But here's the thing.
Speaker 2: There are only two kinds of hunters who hunt this style.
Speaker 2: People who have really good spots to hunt, or people
Speaker 2: who really don't understand that they don't have very good
Speaker 2: spots to hunt. If you're able to pass up three
Speaker 2: year old bucks at all, that's incredible. If you can
Speaker 2: do it and expect that some of them will come
Speaker 2: back next year, you probably have a good spot to hunt.
Speaker 2: There's no way around that. Now. If you're out there
Speaker 2: trying this style and your basis for it is that
Speaker 2: a lot of other people do it, and you're just
Speaker 2: using trail cameras to build your hit list off of
Speaker 2: nighttime buck images, you know when they swing through once
Speaker 2: a month. I have bad news for you. That's a
Speaker 2: not you, not now a situation. Maybe you'll get a
Speaker 2: spot where that's entirely possible someday, and I hope you
Speaker 2: do if that's what you want, but you have to
Speaker 2: be honest about what you're working with. Now. Where this
Speaker 2: gets even muddier is let's say you hunt a state
Speaker 2: that is known for having a lot of hunters. You
Speaker 2: got your Pennsylvania's and your Michigan's whatever, or you hunt
Speaker 2: a state that just generally isn't known for having booners
Speaker 2: behind every tree, like some of the southern states, you know,
Speaker 2: South Carolina, Mississippi, whatever. There are generalities that apply to
Speaker 2: all states and all regions. But the white tail is
Speaker 2: a small ground kind of critter. Even the biggest home
Speaker 2: ranges of white tails, according to a hell a lot
Speaker 2: of studies, might top out at around nine hundred acres.
Speaker 2: That's a big home range, and a lot of bucks
Speaker 2: live on less land than that. In other words, a
Speaker 2: deer born on a section of land might spend his
Speaker 2: entire life there, or he might, as a young buck,
Speaker 2: end up in a section of land when he's a
Speaker 2: year and a half old and spend the rest of
Speaker 2: his life from that point on there. Someone who owns
Speaker 2: or leases that section or maybe half a section, has
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot better chance of naming deer
Speaker 2: and keeping tabs on them until they are mature. They
Speaker 2: can do that in the most pressured state out there,
Speaker 2: because it's about the land they have access to, and
Speaker 2: that's it. You can take a terrible hunting state and
Speaker 2: create a little oasis because it really doesn't take that
Speaker 2: much land, and suddenly you don't have typical Michigan or
Speaker 2: South Carolina hunting. But is that your situation. Probably not. Again,
Speaker 2: it's not like you shouldn't try this if you want to. Hell,
Speaker 2: you could go try to build some inventory on public
Speaker 2: land and target specific bucks. The key point I'm trying
Speaker 2: to make here is you might not really be able
Speaker 2: to do this at all, or more likely, you might
Speaker 2: be able to just borrow a few key elements from
Speaker 2: this style and apply them to your own hunting. Now,
Speaker 2: this is something I can't stress enough and is really
Speaker 2: kind of the gist of this whole podcast. You don't
Speaker 2: want to follow someone else's path, and most likely you
Speaker 2: couldn't even if you tried. Being aware of what other
Speaker 2: people are doing in their techniques is a great thing.
Speaker 2: It's a great thing, but you have to figure out
Speaker 2: where the line is between you and them. This is
Speaker 2: a good strategy on many levels, but maybe the most
Speaker 2: important is that it mitigates some of the frustration. Most
Speaker 2: of us know how frustrating it can be to scroll
Speaker 2: through Instagram the first week in November and just see
Speaker 2: grip and grin after grip and grin after grip and grin.
Speaker 2: It can pretty easily feel like you're you're the only
Speaker 2: one not posting photos of one hundred and forty inches.
Speaker 2: But you're not, and it's not even close. The truth
Speaker 2: is that there are very few hunters who are really
Speaker 2: unbelievably good at hunting. Most of the best hunters you
Speaker 2: know of have access to really good properties, which is
Speaker 2: the key to consistent success for most folks. That's just
Speaker 2: the way it is, but we don't want to look
Speaker 2: at it that way. Now. I'm not saying the folks
Speaker 2: with great land can't be great hunters, but the way
Speaker 2: we look at It is just kind of silly to me.
Speaker 2: It would be like someone only fishing private farm ponds.
Speaker 2: If you saw them posing with ten pound large mouth
Speaker 2: every year, it would be easy to assume they are
Speaker 2: really good at bass fishing. But are they? I don't know.
Speaker 2: They might be good fishermen, but there's no denying the
Speaker 2: huge benefit to fishing where no one else can fish
Speaker 2: and where the bass are babiesat their entire life, so
Speaker 2: they grow real big. You know, that's not the same
Speaker 2: thing as going out on Lake of the Ozarks and
Speaker 2: catching a ten pound er you know, every season, or
Speaker 2: let alone any given season. Ever, It's just a different beast.
Speaker 2: And hunting is like that, and your hunting is highly
Speaker 2: specific to you and your region. Your effort, your access
Speaker 2: to ground, your experience level, and your commitment to the
Speaker 2: whole thing. All of these factors should feed into your
Speaker 2: goals and your decision making process. I'll give you an easy,
Speaker 2: relatable one here. Everyone wants to kill big bucks for
Speaker 2: obvious reasons, and almost no one kills big bucks for
Speaker 2: obvious reasons. There is a huge disconnect in that department
Speaker 2: for an awful lot of hunters. Most of them would
Speaker 2: be way better off calibrating their goals to their actual
Speaker 2: hunting situation. But that's hard. We tend to lean into
Speaker 2: our egos here, but that just leads us down a
Speaker 2: frustrating path. So we think, well, this guy kills big
Speaker 2: bucks this way, so I'm going to try it. But
Speaker 2: you don't have the time, or the skills, or the
Speaker 2: spot or the understanding of the tactic, and so it
Speaker 2: doesn't work well. Instead of meeting your hunting self you're
Speaker 2: at at the moment, you try to cheat the system
Speaker 2: and make it happen, but it usually doesn't, and it
Speaker 2: almost never does with any level of consistency. Now I
Speaker 2: want to make this clear. Now I'm not advocating for
Speaker 2: making excuses. I'm really not. I think hunters love making
Speaker 2: excuses for not hunting and for not killing big ones,
Speaker 2: and for missing when they shouldn't and on and on.
Speaker 2: Don't do that doesn't do you any good. In fact,
Speaker 2: what I'm really talking about is doing the best you
Speaker 2: can to have some fun and challenge yourself and hopefully
Speaker 2: succeed at a realistic level given your situation. You know,
Speaker 2: in spite of the fact that you could point to
Speaker 2: ten reasons in your life why you shouldn't be able
Speaker 2: to kill a big buck today or this week or
Speaker 2: whatever this season. Everyone has those excuses and a lot
Speaker 2: of us use them, but you shouldn't. Instead pivot, don't
Speaker 2: be like everyone else. Look at the actual effort you're
Speaker 2: willing to put in. Ask yourself, what the odds are
Speaker 2: that the bucks you really want to kill? You know,
Speaker 2: the ones you have on camera occasionally, are they actually
Speaker 2: in play? Like are they maybe? Or maybe they were
Speaker 2: and they aren't now. Or maybe the one big buck
Speaker 2: you have on camera is super inconsistent and you don't
Speaker 2: have much land or time, but there are a few
Speaker 2: scrappers who show up a lot more. Maybe that's just
Speaker 2: it for you, And maybe killing them from a tree
Speaker 2: stand during the rut isn't much of a challenge and
Speaker 2: that doesn't appeal to you. So go kill one from
Speaker 2: the ground, or kill one some other way. Maybe use
Speaker 2: calling or a decoy or something. Use whatever you have
Speaker 2: to get better at hunting, instead of hunting someone else's
Speaker 2: way and never really leveling up because you've used success
Speaker 2: as black and white. Dead big buck or no dead
Speaker 2: big buck. That's a bad way to look at it,
Speaker 2: because it's a great way to keep hunting someone else's hunt.
Speaker 2: This is the final point I really want to drive home.
Speaker 2: As we slide into the actual deer season here, you
Speaker 2: probably have some stands out, you probably have some deer scouted,
Speaker 2: You have some pieces in place to fill your tag.
Speaker 2: But reality will set in and that rock solid pattern
Speaker 2: and those bachelor bucks can die in an instant. One
Speaker 2: wind shift and it might be over. You might be
Speaker 2: planning to kill one on a pond, but the weather
Speaker 2: is going to be cooler than ever, maybe super rainier both.
Speaker 2: Maybe you plan once again to wait for the rut
Speaker 2: to hunt because you think that's your best chance, and
Speaker 2: that's what all of the big voices in the outdoor
Speaker 2: space preach. But it hasn't worked well most of the
Speaker 2: time for you. That might be a not you, not
Speaker 2: now reality. When the season actually it's and our preseason
Speaker 2: plans tend to die, we often turn to scramble mode.
Speaker 2: We panic and try to do what we see working
Speaker 2: for other folks, but that often just doesn't work well
Speaker 2: for us. There are too many variables that create real
Speaker 2: differences between us and them, you and him. You know
Speaker 2: you get my drift. Changing your mindset now is a
Speaker 2: good start. It'll help you navigate the reality of dear
Speaker 2: season and help you make choices that are the best
Speaker 2: for you, even if someone else says you should never
Speaker 2: hunt mornings in the early season or never snort we
Speaker 2: he's at two year old Bucks in September. Run your
Speaker 2: own race, my friends, because that's how you're going to
Speaker 2: have the most fun in this stuff, and that's how
Speaker 2: you'll end up getting a lot better at it, which
Speaker 2: is pretty fun. Borrow what you need, Absorb some influence
Speaker 2: from others, but be careful about trying to be too
Speaker 2: much like other folks, or worse, sacrificing your own identity
Speaker 2: and a loss cause attempt to be like someone who
Speaker 2: you really have nothing in common with except a love
Speaker 2: for deer. Do that and come back next week because
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about acorns and apples and all
Speaker 2: kinds of mess. 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'm so happy
Speaker 2: that you guys are checking in every week and listening
Speaker 2: to this podcast and watching market and Ize White Tailed
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