Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: This week's episode is dedicated to understanding one of the
Speaker 1: key factors that dictates nearly every day of a buck's life, hunger.
Speaker 1: One of the things I've noticed is I get deeper
Speaker 1: and deeper into my white tailed career is that I
Speaker 1: find myself thinking about dear food more and more. This
Speaker 1: is probably because I usually don't wait for the rut
Speaker 1: to solve my unfilled tag problems, which means most of
Speaker 1: what I've concerned with deer wise is what are they
Speaker 1: going to eat on a daily basis and where are
Speaker 1: they going to do it in a way that keeps
Speaker 1: them safe. That's what this week's show is all about,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a good one because no matter
Speaker 1: where you hunt them, understanding what's on a buck's menu
Speaker 1: throughout the season is usually the key to staying in
Speaker 1: the game and having more encounters. Hey, everybody, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, brought to you by
Speaker 1: First Light. I'm your host, Tony Peterson. Today's show is
Speaker 1: all about the groceries. We're right in the middle of
Speaker 1: the summer when there is more dear food out there
Speaker 1: than there will be at any time of the year.
Speaker 1: This is a prime time to take a good look
Speaker 1: around to see what the deer in your neighborhood should
Speaker 1: be mowing down on during various parts of the hunting season.
Speaker 1: These groceries will play into your scouting plans, your hunting plans,
Speaker 1: and just about every decision you make dear wise. It's
Speaker 1: also intel that you can build off of in future years.
Speaker 1: If you know or suspect a banging ache on crop
Speaker 1: this season, for example, you've been there and done that
Speaker 1: in the year's past, and ever evolving understanding of current
Speaker 1: deer food, along with past experiences and how deer used
Speaker 1: available calorie sources, will really help you round out a
Speaker 1: higher level hunting game. This is because bucks live by
Speaker 1: their stomach for like forty nine weeks each year, while
Speaker 1: the will to live and they drive to pass on
Speaker 1: their genes can override their immediate needs for some calories.
Speaker 1: Nothing is as constant in a deer's life as food.
Speaker 1: He might alter the time of day he eats due
Speaker 1: to hunting pressure, but he's going to eat. The only
Speaker 1: time he might go really hungry for a few days
Speaker 1: or longer is during the heart of the rut, But
Speaker 1: for most of the hunting season, you've got to understand
Speaker 1: the food sources you're dealing with, and even during the rut,
Speaker 1: the does aren't going to step out of the buffet line,
Speaker 1: which means you know where the bucks will often concentrate
Speaker 1: some of their searching. Concentrate some of their searching because
Speaker 1: it's gonna be around food sources, even if their motivation
Speaker 1: isn't about getting a belly full of clover or corn.
Speaker 1: To start with this process, it's a good idea to
Speaker 1: break down food sources into two meaningful categories, destination and seasonal,
Speaker 1: or you could say primary and secondary. I guess destination
Speaker 1: food sources are the easiest to understand, especially if you
Speaker 1: hunt anywhere near agriculture, but it's not as simple as
Speaker 1: driving along the edge of your chosen hunting grounds and
Speaker 1: eyeballing a nearby soybean field or a corn field. You've
Speaker 1: got to consider all the big food options available and
Speaker 1: then factor that into what it means later on. For
Speaker 1: actual hunting. This is going to very depending on the
Speaker 1: region that you hunt. We all know the typical egg
Speaker 1: offerings in the Midwest and much of the East, but
Speaker 1: what about western white tails. This might be a giant
Speaker 1: irrigated alfalfa field, or maybe just a hay field that's
Speaker 1: cut a few times a year for horses. Maybe you've
Speaker 1: got access to a mile o field or sorghum. Maybe
Speaker 1: sunflowers will factor into your hunt. What if you're down south,
Speaker 1: maybe peanuts will factor into your hunt. Understanding what you
Speaker 1: have to work with at home and when you head
Speaker 1: out on the road matters a lot when it comes
Speaker 1: to hunting white tails. For example, there's nothing I love
Speaker 1: personally more than green soybeans in early to mid September.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't think there's a better draw for bucks,
Speaker 1: and nothing sets you up for an opening weekend kill better.
Speaker 1: If you've got access to a soybean field, then you
Speaker 1: know that in the early season it is highly likely
Speaker 1: that the bucks will end up there throughout the night.
Speaker 1: But what if the neighbor has a nice, lush alfalfa field,
Speaker 1: And what if you've planned a food plot that's full
Speaker 1: of white clover or some other deer munchies. Then it's
Speaker 1: all about the effort it takes to get to various
Speaker 1: food sources and how much pressure will be concentrated on them.
Speaker 1: Deer are browsers, which means they eat a lot of
Speaker 1: different stuff and they seem to like options in their diet,
Speaker 1: just like us. This means that with that soybean field,
Speaker 1: if there are other quality early season food sources around,
Speaker 1: that field might go from like a ten to a seven,
Speaker 1: which is still pretty good. You know that it's very
Speaker 1: likely the bucks on your farm are going to end
Speaker 1: up there at some point and probably a from there
Speaker 1: in the morning. That's a good thing to know. But
Speaker 1: if that soybean field is the only field within three miles,
Speaker 1: that's a different story. Now you can turn it up
Speaker 1: to eleven. You might as well get ready to call
Speaker 1: your tax it or missing prepay for a shoulder mount.
Speaker 1: But that dynamite opening weekend field will yellow up, and
Speaker 1: I don't care what anybody says, a yellow field is
Speaker 1: less of a draw. You can often find low spots
Speaker 1: or shady areas in the field that will stay green longer.
Speaker 1: It's this is a short window situation, though, and it
Speaker 1: can be unbelievable for concentrating bucks. But either way they
Speaker 1: will feed in the yellow soybeans, but just not the
Speaker 1: same level of intensity as if they were green. But
Speaker 1: again this is affected by availability of other food sources.
Speaker 1: The good news is that yellow stage dies pretty quickly
Speaker 1: and they turn brown and dry up. Brown beans are good,
Speaker 1: and they only get better if you've got a nice
Speaker 1: drizzle to hunt them in. Deer really seem to like
Speaker 1: their brown soybeans soggy, which sounds weird, I know, but
Speaker 1: trust me on this. And of course, the whole time
Speaker 1: that hypothetical soybean field is matureing, the season is moving
Speaker 1: right along. This is an important consideration because rock solid
Speaker 1: destination food source can go downhill and then spring back up,
Speaker 1: or it can completely be abandoned for a secondary food
Speaker 1: source that is either coming on strong do the timing,
Speaker 1: or showing up in the form of master browse. One
Speaker 1: source that varies wildly and seems to come and go
Speaker 1: is corn. When corn is in its milky stage, often
Speaker 1: in the late summer, the deer will walk along and
Speaker 1: rip the stocks off, eating a bite here or there
Speaker 1: and generally driving farmers nuts with this behavior. You see
Speaker 1: this a lot when you're glassing row crops in the summer.
Speaker 1: You might also see black bears doing this if you're
Speaker 1: anywhere near them, because they really really love the milky
Speaker 1: stage of corn, and they are a special kind of
Speaker 1: destructive during this stage. By the time the bow season opens,
Speaker 1: that milky corn stage is often gone, and the deer
Speaker 1: will still eat corn, especially if it's the best choice
Speaker 1: they've got, but that depends a lot on how mature
Speaker 1: the crop is. Sometimes corn remains a huge draw throughout
Speaker 1: the season. Other times it tends to ramp up in attractiveness,
Speaker 1: with the peaks occurring as soon as it's combined, and
Speaker 1: then throughout the later season when the temperatures drop. The
Speaker 1: good news about this, just like with a food plot
Speaker 1: you plant yourself, is this is easy stuff to see
Speaker 1: and to file away for later. Use. One good walk
Speaker 1: right now out there on your hunting grounds can tell
Speaker 1: you everything you need to know about the agriculture you're
Speaker 1: dealing with. Take note of the fields and the properties
Speaker 1: you can hunt, and any you can see on places
Speaker 1: you can't hunt. This base level destination food source knowledge
Speaker 1: will factor into your stand locations all season long. But
Speaker 1: what do you do if you aren't anywhere near a
Speaker 1: big soybean field or a cornfield. What if you hunt
Speaker 1: up in wolf country by Canada or some of the
Speaker 1: giant chunks of timber down south, then you've got your
Speaker 1: work cut out for you. But that's okay. Nothing is
Speaker 1: more rewarding than taking a big woods buck that you
Speaker 1: patterned yourself while competing against a litany of two and
Speaker 1: four legged predators. Food sources in those read gents tend
Speaker 1: to fall into the brows category, and brows is a
Speaker 1: moving target. It's also the kind of secondary food source
Speaker 1: that you need to be aware of. The big ease.
Speaker 1: Those destination food sources that we already talked about, they're
Speaker 1: the easy ones. The secondary food sources this here today
Speaker 1: gone to moral food sources. They're different, and knowledge of
Speaker 1: them really separates the deer killers from the squirrel watchers.
Speaker 1: Where I hunt in northern Wisconsin, for example, I've come
Speaker 1: to realize that it's not as important for me to
Speaker 1: know exactly what plants the deer keying on as much
Speaker 1: as it is to know where they'll be keying on. Brows.
Speaker 1: Soft edges and clear cuts are huge for this. Just
Speaker 1: about any spot where two types of cover meat. Typically
Speaker 1: new growth and old growth will feature a brows line
Speaker 1: of some sort. These are also just natural travel routes
Speaker 1: and often used as betting areas as well. They are
Speaker 1: also often visible on satellite imagery, but it's always worth
Speaker 1: getting in to see them in person. The same goes
Speaker 1: for areas with slight elevation changes. Low swampy ground that
Speaker 1: buts up to the higher woods will usually feature a
Speaker 1: brows line, or at least have the potential to become
Speaker 1: a browsing area at some point in the fall. Satellite
Speaker 1: imagery is huge for identifying these spots, but you gotta
Speaker 1: get in, you gotta walk them again. This isn't necessarily
Speaker 1: about identifying the perfect to die for food source that
Speaker 1: comes in on October five and disappears a week later.
Speaker 1: It's about identifying the places bucks are most likely to
Speaker 1: spend time during daylight in a quest to quite the
Speaker 1: rumble in their bellies and not become a food source themselves.
Speaker 1: I personally think deers that live off of mostly brows
Speaker 1: are the toughest to kill because they tend to be
Speaker 1: low density, low visibility critters that don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of predictability to them. But when you hunt areas where
Speaker 1: the primary food sources, whatever is blooming or appealing this week.
Speaker 1: Then you really learn to focus on areas that deer
Speaker 1: generally like to be. Eventually you find those spots that
Speaker 1: are also the places where big bucks prefer. And that's
Speaker 1: the foundation of developing a big woods pattern. A lot
Speaker 1: of times that's based around the groceries. And you're probably thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: but what about mass Can I just find a few
Speaker 1: oak trees and wait for them to rain nutty goodness down?
Speaker 1: H Yes and no. You should scout for oak trees
Speaker 1: if they're available or in your area. You absolutely should.
Speaker 1: You should know how to identify white oaks with their rounded,
Speaker 1: low beleaves versus red oaks with their pointed leaves. And
Speaker 1: you should understand why white oaks could be on fire
Speaker 1: in October while the red oak acorns with their increased
Speaker 1: tannin levels might not factor in until December when it's
Speaker 1: time to munch on the table scraps. Understand that specific
Speaker 1: trees don't drop every single season. This means that throughout
Speaker 1: your summer scouting, you should pay close attention to which
Speaker 1: oak trees are actually filling up with acorns versus the
Speaker 1: ones that aren't masked. Investigation is something you can do
Speaker 1: right now, and you can file away that data for later,
Speaker 1: like early October when you're wondering where the hell the
Speaker 1: bucks have gone. Mast can be unbelievable, especially on public
Speaker 1: land where destination food sources either don't exist, or if
Speaker 1: they do exist, they get hunted so hard no self
Speaker 1: respecting deer bigger than a button buck would step out
Speaker 1: on it in the daylight. I think for the hunter
Speaker 1: who shares the woods with a lot of other hunters,
Speaker 1: keeping your finger on the pulse of mass, both hard
Speaker 1: and soft mass is the best bet for having good
Speaker 1: productive sits all season long row crops and typical agriculture
Speaker 1: those are low hanging fruit pun intended. Anyone with a
Speaker 1: common sense God gave a toad knows that deer will
Speaker 1: come to a bean field to eat that oak ridge
Speaker 1: that draws in deer only for a short time frame.
Speaker 1: Or maybe the pattern where maple leaves fall after a
Speaker 1: hard frost and they get gobbled up by the deer.
Speaker 1: That's a different story. You've got to know when and
Speaker 1: where that is likely to happen, and then take advantage
Speaker 1: of it in the moment, Just like the deer do.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of woodsmanship that does really separate
Speaker 1: the folks who can fill tags from the folks who
Speaker 1: want to. It's also the best evidence in the strong
Speaker 1: argument that paying attention while you're on stand and glass
Speaker 1: thing a lot is a better way to spend your
Speaker 1: time than sliding into some strangers instagram d ms like
Speaker 1: a creeper. The hard part about all of this is
Speaker 1: looking at the woods in August, looking at it right now,
Speaker 1: and then shining up the old crystal ball to decide
Speaker 1: when some oaks or apple trees will be the ticket,
Speaker 1: or when the persimmon situation is going to be on fire,
Speaker 1: or maybe the grapes or the elder berries or some
Speaker 1: other soft mast right now. You probably can't know that.
Speaker 1: You can know where those spots are, which is a
Speaker 1: good start. You can also head your bets on seasonality
Speaker 1: of some of the masked food sources acorns, for example,
Speaker 1: and at least much of the white tail range will
Speaker 1: be a September October option. Maple leaves will come into
Speaker 1: play much closer to the rut when the hard frost
Speaker 1: really start to get consistent. And aside to all of this,
Speaker 1: mass talk is something that I'm just absolutely convinced of
Speaker 1: is that both hard and soft masked options often contribute
Speaker 1: to that feeling that the October lull is real. There
Speaker 1: are other factors going on there, of course, But when
Speaker 1: the fields have been hunted hard, the leaves are falling in,
Speaker 1: the woods are becoming more open by the day, and
Speaker 1: there is a bounty of here today gone tomorrow food
Speaker 1: back in the security cover, it only makes sense that
Speaker 1: the deer would eat where they feel safest. Just like
Speaker 1: with water sources, food sources that allow the bucks to
Speaker 1: stay in their comfort zone are always better ambush sites.
Speaker 1: The goal with all of this is to plug in
Speaker 1: various pieces that could come into play with natural deer
Speaker 1: movement come fall. Understand the biggias like destination food sources
Speaker 1: and when they should be the biggest attractions for the deer.
Speaker 1: That'll tell you where the deer are going to end
Speaker 1: up at night and start from in the morning. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that's all you need to know to fill a tag,
Speaker 1: but that's also just a starting point for a lot
Speaker 1: of us. The secondary seasonal food sources are the ones
Speaker 1: that really allow you to pin down season long ambush sites.
Speaker 1: These are the ones that you should be looking at
Speaker 1: right now that you can really wrap your head around
Speaker 1: those areas are most likely to hunt when the hunting
Speaker 1: gets tough, and and even if they aren't season long,
Speaker 1: like a good funnel or a pinch point, if you
Speaker 1: have a series of them, or you have enough of them,
Speaker 1: you can fill up an entire season. Even though this
Speaker 1: one food source will will be hot this week and
Speaker 1: not next week, you have something to move on to
Speaker 1: throughout that entire season. And as you're out there right
Speaker 1: now and you're wandering around looking for these spots, take notes.
Speaker 1: Not only have the primary food sources out there, but
Speaker 1: especially of the potential secondary food sources. Drop some way points,
Speaker 1: give yourself a chance, give yourself a picture of what
Speaker 1: it's likely to be available to the deer throughout the season,
Speaker 1: so you can call up in the moment strategy, or
Speaker 1: at least have enough information to go do a little
Speaker 1: in season scouting to see if your food source hunches
Speaker 1: were spot on or not. This gives you the chance
Speaker 1: to make better decisions throughout the season based on what
Speaker 1: could be drawing in the bucks this very week or
Speaker 1: that very week. This is a crew shul strategy for
Speaker 1: public land hunters as well. As anyone who hunts private
Speaker 1: ground with plenty of competition. But it's also something worth
Speaker 1: considering even if you own your own piece of dirt
Speaker 1: or have exclusive access to some ground through a lease
Speaker 1: or through permission. In fact, these two scenarios right there,
Speaker 1: they're the ones that often give us license to be
Speaker 1: a little lazy because we think that we only need
Speaker 1: to wait for the deer to come to the destination
Speaker 1: food and then it's over. Anyone who has hunted mature
Speaker 1: bucks for a few years knows that's far from a
Speaker 1: sure thing. Even on really good deer ground, those private
Speaker 1: land bucks will sit back and they'll eat white acorns
Speaker 1: just as much as a public land deer would. And
Speaker 1: you can bet if there's one little patch of right
Speaker 1: per Simmons, they're going to know about it. They'll know
Speaker 1: about the apple tree that's dropping, and they'll get in
Speaker 1: there after a front blows through and the gusty winds
Speaker 1: shake a bunch of granny smiths free. This is their world,
Speaker 1: even if we have the key to the gate, and
Speaker 1: knowing how they fill their bellies by the day, it's
Speaker 1: real important. So get out there now and start making
Speaker 1: a grocery list and keep listening to this podcast, because
Speaker 1: next week is all about trail camera recon and what
Speaker 1: to do with all of those images and videos you've
Speaker 1: been capturing all summer long. That's all I got for
Speaker 1: you this week, my white tail loving friends. Be sure
Speaker 1: to tune in next week as we move from dear
Speaker 1: groceries back into the world of trail cameras to decide
Speaker 1: how to use all of the images and videos we're getting.
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson and this has been wired to Hunt
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast. As always, Thank you so much for listening,
Speaker 1: and we will see you right here next week.