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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 deer hunting, and now your

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Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to

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Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.

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Speaker 1: Today's show is all about the most important thing you

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Speaker 1: can do as soon as gun season ends. I realized

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Speaker 1: the gun season is still going on in many states

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Speaker 1: and some others hasn't even started yet. The important thing

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Speaker 1: is that no matter what state you hunt, gun season

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Speaker 1: does eventually end. When it does, you're going to want

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Speaker 1: to do a couple of things so that your bow

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Speaker 1: season can wrap up the way you want, and more importantly,

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Speaker 1: you can enter the next gun season with the knowledge

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Speaker 1: of where that you are going to hide out. Any

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Speaker 1: of you folks out there who are hardcore gun hunters,

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Speaker 1: please don't take this the wrong way, but there is

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Speaker 1: a lot of half assuri in the gun hunting world.

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Speaker 1: There just is. It's okay, and it's not endemic to

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Speaker 1: the firearm toting crowd because a lot of bow hunters

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Speaker 1: are prone to half assuri as well. This is just

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Speaker 1: a reality. A lot of hunters don't want to put

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Speaker 1: in much effort and it shows. And here's a side

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Speaker 1: note for all you white tailed lovers. I know you

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Speaker 1: think your state has the good hunters and the folks

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Speaker 1: who come in from out of state are the bad hunters.

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Speaker 1: That's silly. If you don't believe that, just go travel

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Speaker 1: a few times to kill a deer or some other critter.

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Speaker 1: You'll soon see that a lot of the less desirable

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Speaker 1: traits hunters can exhibit. They're kind of ubiquitous across our numbers,

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Speaker 1: no matter where you live or how much you hate

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Speaker 1: non residents or even just people who aren't local. Now,

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Speaker 1: if you're listening to this, what you are, I'm comfortable

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Speaker 1: saying that you're probably interested in above average effort and

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Speaker 1: above average results. While most of this podcast has been

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Speaker 1: dedicated to bow hunting, I want to talk about the

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Speaker 1: aftermath of gun hunting and how you can use it

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Speaker 1: to be a better deer hunter, no matter what your

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Speaker 1: weapon choice is. For starters, let's think about gun season

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Speaker 1: and what it does to the deer. Essentially, it positions them,

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Speaker 1: at least during daylight hours, in the places where they

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Speaker 1: feel safest. That's it. Bow hunting does this as well,

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Speaker 1: but usually not to the scale of gun season. Pray.

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Speaker 1: Animals figure out where to go to avoid predators, and

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Speaker 1: if they don't, they die. They don't want to die,

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Speaker 1: so they seek out the spots that are most beneficial

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Speaker 1: to them and their survival. You can see examples of

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Speaker 1: all kinds efficient game choosing perfect spots in which to

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Speaker 1: conduct some part of their life. Elk their masters at

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Speaker 1: this hell, even wild pheas, and know exactly where to

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Speaker 1: sit so they can catch the sun, see approaching predators,

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Speaker 1: and have just enough overhead cover to keep a set

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Speaker 1: of talents from descending from the heavens and crunching them

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Speaker 1: into rooster patties. Any of you river bass fishermen out

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Speaker 1: there probably know what a little tiny sand drop can

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Speaker 1: do to position a school late summer bronze backs so

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Speaker 1: that if your cast is off ten ft one way

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Speaker 1: or the other, it's no bueno. You know, runner whopper,

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Speaker 1: plopper over, or a swim jig through the sweet spot, however,

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Speaker 1: and it's on. They're there for so many reasons, all

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Speaker 1: of which keep them safe, keep their batteries charged, and

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Speaker 1: keep them in a perfect position to whack a couple

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Speaker 1: of shad that drift a little too close to their

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Speaker 1: ambush site. Nature has this stuff figured out, and white

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Speaker 1: tails are no exception. There is no greater highlighter of

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Speaker 1: this than the general gun season, which puts more deer

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Speaker 1: hunters in the woods at any given time than any

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Speaker 1: other event of the entire season or the entire year

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Speaker 1: for that matter. This is when bucks and does hit

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Speaker 1: the panic button and they go into hiding, and where

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Speaker 1: they hide matters to you. What also matters here is

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Speaker 1: that you understand that your job is just getting started

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Speaker 1: the day the gun season ends. I honestly think the

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Speaker 1: most important couple of days for a gun hunter and

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Speaker 1: if you want to be a better bow hunter, are

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Speaker 1: those you can spend walking your ground right after the

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Speaker 1: gun season ends. But you can't walk the easy stuff,

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Speaker 1: or you'll just confirm false suspicions that all of they

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Speaker 1: are gone. They aren't. Most likely anyway, They're probably just

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Speaker 1: in places we don't like to go, and often they

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Speaker 1: need to be stepped on to get them to move.

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Speaker 1: This is a point worth reiterating because we talk about

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Speaker 1: it a lot but rarely experience it. Deer often sit

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Speaker 1: real tight when danger is close, and if we don't

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Speaker 1: make them nervous enough to show themselves, they won't and

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Speaker 1: we won't know they were ever there. Case in point,

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Speaker 1: personal homestate pheasant hunting tends to really start the week

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Speaker 1: after our deer season ends in mid November. I've talked

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Speaker 1: about this a lot, but I'll say it again. The

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Speaker 1: amount of bucks my dogs and I put up on

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Speaker 1: public land every year is incredible. They are also often big,

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Speaker 1: so big, in fact, that I'll bet a lot of

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Speaker 1: the local deer hunters would never believe they existed in

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Speaker 1: the county, let alone on tracks of public land that

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Speaker 1: don't feature a single tree taller than about fifteen feet.

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Speaker 1: Those willow thicket and cattail dwelling bucks do one of

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Speaker 1: two things when we walk in. They either bust out

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Speaker 1: the far side right away, usually with a few roosters

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Speaker 1: flying overhead, or they sit so tight that we either

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Speaker 1: walk past them, or we make them nervous by how

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Speaker 1: close we get. Usually that's within maybe ten or twenty

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Speaker 1: ft tops. Every season, I just about have a major

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Speaker 1: chess grabber from bucks that wait until I'm right next

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Speaker 1: to them before they leave. This is not something that

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Speaker 1: happens to me every few years. It happens every year.

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Speaker 1: Multiple times. Those bucks give me and my hunting partners

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Speaker 1: a perfect look at the spots they chose to ride

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Speaker 1: out the gun season, which always involves patches of cover

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Speaker 1: and escape routes. It's honestly so consistent that we're really

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Speaker 1: no longer surprised when a crashes his way out of

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Speaker 1: our lives and makes us nearly piss ourselves. I can

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Speaker 1: promise you that most deer hunters would not believe those

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Speaker 1: caliber of bucks would be in those places at that time.

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Speaker 1: But they are there, and I know it because we

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Speaker 1: go in and we see them. I'd also bet there

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Speaker 1: are plenty we don't see as well. And this is

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Speaker 1: not just a gopher state buck thing either. I'm a

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Speaker 1: certified pheasant loving lunatic, and I see this behavior in Iowa.

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Speaker 1: I see it in the Dakota's, I see it in Nebraska.

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Speaker 1: It's a white tail survival thing. And if you're not

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Speaker 1: in there with them, it probably seen is like random

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Speaker 1: behavior at best, but it's not. Now. The deer in

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Speaker 1: your woods, I promise you they do this too, even

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Speaker 1: if your state has six hundred thousand or hell gun hunters.

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Speaker 1: Radio collar studies have shown this even on public land

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Speaker 1: bucks and states like Pennsylvania that has no shortage of

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Speaker 1: orange clad deer hunters. The first step to this is

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Speaker 1: to accept that what we know about dear isn't always true.

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Speaker 1: The bucks you think hop three fences to get into

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Speaker 1: the peda members would lot, probably don't. They probably don't

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Speaker 1: leave the section. It might not even bail on the

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Speaker 1: sixty acres that you hunt. They just slip into a

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Speaker 1: little patch of broom grass, or drop down a bluff

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Speaker 1: to hold up next to a deadfall halfway between the

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Speaker 1: bottom and the top. How do I know this? By accident?

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Speaker 1: Mostly I never set out to assess the damage a

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Speaker 1: gun season and find little hidy holes of hidden bucks.

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Speaker 1: I set out to shoot some roosters with my labs

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Speaker 1: or a doteg with a muzzle looader. I set out

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Speaker 1: to do other things because I'd rather hunt than not.

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Speaker 1: What I found along the way is that there's some

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Speaker 1: real actionable intel to be had if you can get

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Speaker 1: into the woods right after the gun season ends. But

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Speaker 1: you've got to go where it's going to be a struggle.

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Speaker 1: The good news is if you do, it doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: if you jump dear hell. That's kind of the goal

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Speaker 1: when I head out now, to see where the best

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Speaker 1: sanctuaries are where I hunt. I hope I jumped, dear.

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Speaker 1: I want to see proof of life, and I want

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Speaker 1: to know right where they are. So you're probably thinking,

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Speaker 1: all right, fine, I'll go walk around after the season

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Speaker 1: is over and intentionally try to bump some deer. That's

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Speaker 1: the first step, but it's not the only thing. You

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Speaker 1: have to go in with a plan. Just like any

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Speaker 1: random scouting trip or even a shed hunting trip. If

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Speaker 1: you go in just thinking you'll walk until you see

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Speaker 1: some white flags bounding away, you'll probably default to familiar routes.

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Speaker 1: This is something that happens all the time, and it

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Speaker 1: never ceases to amaze me. When I set out to

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Speaker 1: scout in this style, or even follow bird dogs around

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Speaker 1: the grousewoods, how often I see the exact same landmarks

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Speaker 1: I saw last time I hunted or scouted those spots.

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Speaker 1: When you don't have a real plan, it's easy to

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Speaker 1: go where you've gone before because the terrain funnels us,

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Speaker 1: just like it funnels big bucks during the rut. Acknowledge

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Speaker 1: that understand that it will help you be more efficient.

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Speaker 1: But this requires a little strategy. To think thick, think

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Speaker 1: small here, Even in big wood situations, where there's cover everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Good cover is not everywhere. Advantageous betting areas aren't everywhere either,

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Speaker 1: they're in the spots that are well. I don't know advantageous.

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Speaker 1: I guess one of the best examples would be a

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Speaker 1: little island in the swamp. I don't care if that

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Speaker 1: swamp is in northern Wisconsin or the deep South somewhere.

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Speaker 1: A swamp is a swamp, and the dear love them,

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Speaker 1: particularly when there is a small island high ground that

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Speaker 1: is almost approachable. Look at those spots, even if you

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Speaker 1: have to wade to them. In fact, think about really

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Speaker 1: good cover as islands, whether they are actually islands or not.

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Speaker 1: The patches of willow, as we so often bump those

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Speaker 1: Western Minnesota box out of their islands a cover, the

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Speaker 1: patch of multiflora rose or raspberries or briers and otherwise

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Speaker 1: deciduous forest also kind of like an island. Consider as well,

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Speaker 1: checking out the patches of cover that look like good

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Speaker 1: places to hunt cotton tails. Those are the spots where

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Speaker 1: deer will hold up. They'll also just utilize the land

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Speaker 1: left unmolested by hunters. Sometimes this is just a hillside

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Speaker 1: right next to the cabin. Sometimes it's a plum thicket

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Speaker 1: close to the highway, Take a long look at your

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Speaker 1: on X and make a plan to walk those places

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Speaker 1: you don't usually walk or where you don't usually hunt.

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Speaker 1: If you have to break this up into a few

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Speaker 1: different trips, so be it. But pay attention to the

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Speaker 1: deer sightings. Pay attention to the freshest sign. If you

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Speaker 1: bump a buck or a dough for that matter, investigate

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Speaker 1: exactly the location that it came from. Make a little

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Speaker 1: note on the wind direction to deer hiding places with

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Speaker 1: wind as a primary driver, and that can come into

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Speaker 1: play next year. So if you're out there walking around

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Speaker 1: and you jump a big buck out of a little

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Speaker 1: patch of cover, was the wind out of the west,

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Speaker 1: was it out of the north? Why was he there?

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Speaker 1: And if you don't bump any deer, or at least

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Speaker 1: aren't aware that you have, the next best thing you

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Speaker 1: can do is identify smoking fresh sign. I'm not talking

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Speaker 1: rubs and scrapes here, but instead tracks and beds. I

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Speaker 1: love fresh tracks when I can find them after the

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Speaker 1: gun season because they point to deer concentrations. A deer

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Speaker 1: concentration in a small thicket is a big deal because

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Speaker 1: it tells you a lot. Even if the deer got

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Speaker 1: out three minutes before you got in, they will have

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Speaker 1: left clues and they will come back to that spot

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Speaker 1: tomorrow and next year. For your bow hunters out there,

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Speaker 1: this is important stuff too, even if you abhor gun

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Speaker 1: hunters and think that gun hunters are lower than weasel

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Speaker 1: spit while holding your own team a little higher than

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Speaker 1: the drafts balls. Where those vile gun hunters push the

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Speaker 1: deer is a place you want to be aware of.

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Speaker 1: This can help you put together a late season plan

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Speaker 1: if you need to, or just file away a sanctuary

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Speaker 1: for next bow season. If this seems crazy, just go

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Speaker 1: out and give it a shot. You'll find something that

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Speaker 1: is remarkably consistent in my world, and that is these

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Speaker 1: guns season save zones are often full of rubs and

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Speaker 1: other bucks signed as well. It's no secret that the

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Speaker 1: top dog in your woods is also going to occupy

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Speaker 1: the safest places, and there's no time he needs security

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Speaker 1: more than gun season. If you hunt a place with

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Speaker 1: even mild pressure, this can come into play. If you

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Speaker 1: hunt public land or other super pressure ground, it's almost

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Speaker 1: a guarantee the bucks are going to use the spots

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Speaker 1: that keep them alive, and the best way to find

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Speaker 1: them is often to put on some miles right now,

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Speaker 1: of course, you might run into something that doesn't do

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Speaker 1: you much good. Probably six years ago, I was walking

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Speaker 1: a small property during US at older season here in

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Speaker 1: my home state of Minnesota, when I bumped a good

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Speaker 1: buck out of a patrick broom grass. The whole thing

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Speaker 1: was maybe the size of a pickup truck, and I

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Speaker 1: just happened to walk right next to it on my

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Speaker 1: way to look at a spot. That buck busted outa

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Speaker 1: there on the other side and took off. He wasn't

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Speaker 1: huge by like Iowa standards, but he was a stud

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Speaker 1: for this this part of Minnesota, and he was bettered

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Speaker 1: in a stupid little patch of grass that did me

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Speaker 1: absolutely no good as far as I could tell. No,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I take that back now. When I

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Speaker 1: see a patch of grass, I think about him every

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Speaker 1: single time, and often send my dogs into them to

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Speaker 1: see if there's any Chinese chickens hiding in there. Oftentimes

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Speaker 1: there are, because good cover is just good cover. So

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Speaker 1: that buck did teach me a lesson, even if his

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Speaker 1: spot on that property didn't do me a whole lot

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Speaker 1: of good as far as actually killing him or any

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Speaker 1: other deer there. That's the real lesson here, my friends.

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Speaker 1: I know I've painted this as a move that will

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Speaker 1: get you in the long game with deer in a

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Speaker 1: better way, but it also gets into the woods at

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Speaker 1: a time when most folks aren't in the woods. Most

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Speaker 1: bow hunters have largely packed it in for the year,

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Speaker 1: and of course all gun hunters have unless they are

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Speaker 1: poachers who don't think the season dates apply to them.

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Speaker 1: Time in the woods doing what others won't. That's the

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Speaker 1: key to filling more tags. It's also the key to

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Speaker 1: enjoying hunting more because it allows you to make better

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Speaker 1: decisions at your home farm and when you're on the road.

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Speaker 1: But why is that experience? Experience is the difference maker

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Speaker 1: from the hunter who says, I don't know they're all nocturnal,

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Speaker 1: or they're all dead in someone's freezer, versus the person

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Speaker 1: who says, I bet there are a few deer down

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Speaker 1: along the river in that old homestead, or the person who,

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Speaker 1: instead of hunting two days of gun season waving the

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Speaker 1: white flag, goes to a backup stand midweek that is

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Speaker 1: positioned over a gnarly thicket and allows for only close shots.

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Speaker 1: It's the secret to becoming a better hunter versus hoping

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Speaker 1: just enough time on the same stands, or maybe a

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Speaker 1: bottle of fresh dope will bring a buck in. If

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Speaker 1: you know where they go to feel safe, you are

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Speaker 1: never out of the game, even if you can't easily

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Speaker 1: hunt that spot, which is almost a given now again,

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Speaker 1: except that for what it is, and use it as

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Speaker 1: best you can. Maybe there is only one wind direction

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Speaker 1: that allows you to hunt them when they are all

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Speaker 1: bunched up and mostly not willing to move. Or maybe

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Speaker 1: you can use that as an origination point for the

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Speaker 1: best remaining deer on your property as you slide into

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Speaker 1: the late season and hope for a buzzer beater buck.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how you individually would use that information

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Speaker 1: if you don't gather it in the first place. So

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Speaker 1: oil up that rifle, put it in the gun safe,

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Speaker 1: but don't set your boots on the shelf yet. Make

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Speaker 1: a plan to walk your ground, and if you're really ambitious,

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Speaker 1: walk some of the public land you're just curious about hunting.

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Speaker 1: Take note of deer sightings, take note of fresh sign

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Speaker 1: build yourself a picture of what happens when the going

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Speaker 1: gets really tough for the deer and they enter toe

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Speaker 1: survival mode. Those places that allow them to exist when

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Speaker 1: the masses are trying to shoot them are the key

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Speaker 1: to the whole pressure dear thing. And you can get

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Speaker 1: a giant jump on the competition right now by trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out exactly where those places are. And as

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Speaker 1: a side no, let me say something else. If you

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Speaker 1: do this, you're very likely to find some dead deer

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Speaker 1: where I hunt. In Minnesota, deer drives are very popular.

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Speaker 1: This means I find dead heads quite often when scouting

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Speaker 1: right after the gun season. I personally really don't bother

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Speaker 1: with them for a couple of reasons. The main one

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Speaker 1: is that the deer head count in my house is

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Speaker 1: already nearly at the point where it's going to get

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Speaker 1: me divorced. The second is I don't want to go

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Speaker 1: through the hassle of getting a possession tag now. Laws

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Speaker 1: vary from state to state on this. In fact, Mark

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Speaker 1: covered this in a topic on the wire to Hunt

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Speaker 1: YouTube channel earlier this year. While a lot of folks

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Speaker 1: think they can just go saw the head, skull plate

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Speaker 1: or antlers off and take those things home, that's not

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Speaker 1: the case. In many states. This is good information sation

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Speaker 1: to know before you head out to cover some miles

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Speaker 1: in the days following the gun season, because that's the

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Speaker 1: best time I've ever seen to run across recently killed bucks. Lastly,

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Speaker 1: if you're a muzzleloader hunter who has a late season

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Speaker 1: tag left in your state, you might just put together

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Speaker 1: a real winning strategy to become a hero with a

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Speaker 1: front stuffer, which is actually the topic of I don't

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Speaker 1: know the next week, maybe two foundations, so you're gonna

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Speaker 1: want to tune in for those. That's it for this week,

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Speaker 1: my friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the

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Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always, thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for listening. If you want more deer hunting advice,

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Speaker 1: please check out our YouTube videos at the wire to

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Speaker 1: Hunt channel and visit the media here dot com slash

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Speaker 1: wired to read our latest and greatest articles.