WEBVTT - Ep. 616: Foundations - Tread Lightly, Sooooo Lightly 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:05.720 Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:10.360 to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:14.440 host Tony Peterson. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Wire to 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.120 Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.079 I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and this episode is all 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.360 about keeping your presence to an absolute minimum while trying 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:39.199 to kill a buzzer Peter Deer. It's bitter sweet. It 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.840 just is watching another deer season screeched to a halt. 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.120 Hopefully you had a good one. Maybe have a full freezer, 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:50.040 and I don't know what taxidermy bill If you don't, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:52.479 or you're just out there trying to fill one last tag, 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.480 I feel for you. I'm in the same boat. While 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.080 I love late season hunting, sometimes I mostly kind of 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.200 hate it for one reason. I have to be so 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.440 damn careful. You probably do too, and if not, you 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.760 probably either have an amazing spot or never kill anything. 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:13.560 This episode is kind of just all about that reality, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.200 you know, the reality of treading real lightly, and honestly, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.240 it's a pretty good lesson for any part of the season, 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.520 although it's most noticeable during the last gasps of a 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:39.560 dying season. Many of you find folks are probably a 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.039 little bit too young to be married yet, so you 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:45.040 probably think life is going to be pretty sweet for 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:47.760 a long time, and that I don't know, you'll be 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.080 the master of your domain. Now, I'm sure the older 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:56.120 already married and maybe unmarried crowd is laughing at you 0:01:56.640 --> 0:02:00.640 as I am. All of us beaten down wise old 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.120 married folks. We're having a good hearty chuckle at your expense, 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:08.720 our best ah, Count Dracula laugh perhaps, Now, why do 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.880 we do this, this mocking laugh of ours, you might ask, Well, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:16.160 because we know better. We've been in the trenches dodging 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:18.640 sniper fire and looking for grenades that were lobbed in 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.480 our direction, and I don't know, just trying to keep 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:25.880 our heads down and weather the old firefight. Now, some 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.240 of you might argue that I'm being a bit too dramatic, 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.160 and you'd probably be right, but I don't care. The 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:34.079 thing about being married is that sometimes your spouse will 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.200 get a little spicy, and not in a good way either. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.079 They'll decide that today when you should be able to 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.200 lay around and watch football, or maybe tinker with some 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:46.280 of your old fish and tackle, or take a goddamn nap, 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.000 because you're forty two and you're tired, and you should 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.440 be able to partake in an afternoon siesta if you 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:55.359 so desire. They'll decide that today you have some chores 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:59.520 to do. You'll be volunteered for cleanup of the gutters 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.960 or some other crappy homeowner task you should have already done, 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:04.680 but you spent too much time in a tree standard 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:06.639 maybe following the labs around while trying to shoot a 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:11.480 limited roosters. In this situation, you are done for. The 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.040 crosshairs have not only settled on your forehead, but the 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.400 sniper has slowed her breathing down and started squeezing the 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.760 old trigger puff right into your stupid head. Goes another 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:27.520 honeydew list bullet. That's a bummer. But there's an almost 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.520 scarier time in marriage. That's when the spiciness sounds like 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.080 it's coming on, but it isn't quite there. Kind of 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.160 like when you're standing on a beach of a I 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.360 don't know, some island somewhere and all the water sucks 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.240 away and you go, I think I've heard about this before, 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.720 and you realize there's potentially a tsunami coming. It's that 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:50.720 time where you know one wrong move and suddenly you're 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:52.880 getting the ladder out of the garage to go scoop 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.480 leaf slop out of the gutters. This is tiptoe through 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:59.480 the old living room tulips time, my friends, and if 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.320 you have kids, they'll also learn pretty quickly to recognize 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:11.400 this danger zone. The key here is discretion, subtlety, subterfuge, submarines. 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:13.280 If you can find one to take you on an 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:18.159 underwater escape, you have to choose every move wisely. You 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:22.080 have to look busy and look productive without actually being either. 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:27.520 You get bonus points and often overlooked. If that business 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:31.960 involves putting your little allies to pretend work too, everyone 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.919 must be careful not to tip their hand. It's not 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:37.520 a dance as old as time, but I'll bet we've 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:39.719 been doing some version of it ever since we left 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.840 one too many clubs out in the corner of our cave, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.600 and our hairy but lovely Neanderthal wives grunted and grunted 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.320 at us until we organized them in the corner. Do 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.000 you know what this has to do with late season 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.839 deer hunting? A lot? Take the moment when your lovely 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.120 spouse is at peak spiciness. I mean, I don't like 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:03.599 ghost pep per level spiciness. It's too late for you. 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.599 You have to accept your fate and get to work. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.919 That's like ignoring how crunchy the snow is, or that 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:10.920 the wind is blowing right into the main bedding area 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.120 and walking into hanging hunt without thinking for one second 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:16.680 about how much noise you'll make, or how visible you are, 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:19.160 or how you keep clanking every piece of metal you 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.400 can on different pieces of metal until it sounds like 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:23.560 a high school shop class out there in the woods. 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.080 Instead of going bowl in the china shop here, you 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:31.520 should consider it red zone time. How are you going 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:33.320 to sneak in and seal the deal when you know 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.000 the deer are prone to peak spiciness at any hint 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.280 that some camel clad asshole is out there trying to 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:43.560 kill them subtly sneakiness ninja moves. You have to keep 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:45.919 your presence to an absolute minimum when you're dealing with 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:50.080 late season deer. How do you do that for starters? 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.320 I actually think the late season might be the best 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.920 time to run trail cameras aside from the early season. 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:57.960 If you want to know who is walking by without 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.400 having to be there to see them the it's kind 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.360 of your moment. I'd also say don't be afraid to 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:06.919 hide your cameras this time of year. I hunt some 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.360 places where deer never ever, ever, ever look at cameras, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.839 and other places where they not only almost always look 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:19.159 at them, but often obviously spook from them. To keep 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:24.080 your felt presence, even lower cell crammers are a pretty 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.160 sweet option for this time of year. Now. You can 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.800 hide your cameras by blending them in with some sticks 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.040 or maybe a few pine boughs or red oak limbs, 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.559 or you can hang them high and point them down. 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.200 That's my go to strategy, but I also think this 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.800 keeps some of the deer from getting photographed. Keep this 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:43.839 in mind if you go this route, because it's likely 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:46.080 that your cameras are missing some deer, especially if you're 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.000 mounting them high. Now, the next step in this whole 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.640 subtle late season hunter thing is to accept that you 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:58.240 can only control your pressure. Maybe you have a spot 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.560 to yourself, then great things are gonna be pretty easy 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.000 for you. A few hunt public land or permission based 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.719 ground that you have to share, You're gonna have to 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:09.840 forget what the other people might be doing and focus 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.360 on your own hunting. Now, this is tough, but it 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.080 is what it is. Now. It does require surgical timing 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.520 for your hunts and an eye towards resting spots. I 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:24.200 know this. It's really tough because for most of us, 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:28.040 we just have to hunt when we can. I also 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.080 know that I've bitched a lot about the advice of 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:32.400 resting spots because it mostly comes from people who have 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.760 primo ground and kind of a special hunting situation. I mean, 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.560 how often have you watched some unfortunate hundred and seventy 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:41.400 in or walk into a food plot on the Outdoor 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:45.120 Channel after the host said or whispered into the camera 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.440 that they have it on this plot all season. You 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.360 don't have that, but you also have the chance to 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.120 be a better hunter for it. Those folks won't get 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:58.120 any better despite having a wall full of booners, So 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:00.000 I don't know, take some solace in that, I guess 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.200 us anyway, As much as I hate to be a hypocrite, 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.760 the idea of resting spots and only hunting them when 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.960 the conditions line up is something I hate for every 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.080 part of the season, but the last couple of weeks 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:17.320 that's when I stop hating it. Now. I've said this 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:20.360 a lot because I've seen in action my whole life. 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:25.400 But white tails now in most places are as intolerant 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.840 of our mistakes as they will be at any point. Now. 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:30.480 I know we say stuff like that all the time, 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.400 especially when it comes to mature bucks, but I don't 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:37.920 actually believe that mature bucks are that special compared to 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.280 the rest of the deer. Right now, I don't think 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.560 that mature bucks are nearly as cagy as we like 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:44.920 to say, and I don't think they behave like a 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.120 different species, which is something I've heard from a lot 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.200 of outdoor communicators. This often comes from people who have 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:56.040 a knack and the opportunity to keep bucks dumb all 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.240 through their lives until they choose to kill them. But 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.840 who wants to say I hacked nature and made what 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.920 could be a crafty animal into the equivalent of a 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.080 lobotomized moron type of deer, so I can kill it 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.080 easily and show the world how skilled by them. In 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.959 a way, those high fence without defence deer prove my point. 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.559 If you leave them alone, they'll get easier to kill. 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:21.280 This goes for five years of their life and five 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:26.320 days in the late season. Now, even though even those 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.920 bucks you know that aren't on primo ground, I just 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.200 think they're mostly rare and they live a selfish life 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.000 where they look out for numero uno. So we tend 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.000 to think of them as cagier than everyone else. But 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.120 that's a mind trick we play on ourselves instead of 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:46.960 factoring in their general rarity. I think those deer have 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.679 mostly witnessed how the general hunting public tends on them, 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.720 and they've altered their lives to avoid our patterns. I 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.760 think it's pretty simple example, a prey animal, you know, 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.960 just reacting over and over to a specific type of 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:04.000 predatory behavior until beneficial habits become ensconce in their being. 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.560 And then I think when you take that in a 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.800 deer that's of a caliber that there might only be 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.120 one or two in a section, or one or two 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.400 on the property, and it can seem like they are 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.480 pretty special at avoiding us. I also think that when 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.240 it comes to all dear in the herd, they just 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.200 tend to be less tolerant of our presence the later 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.000 it goes into the season. But this is an ebb 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.920 and flow thing which can work to your advantage. If 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.120 you can leave them alone for a few days or 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.320 a week in a specific spot, they're more likely to 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:38.360 give you a chance than if you hunt them every day, 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.720 because the more they hear, see, and smell us, the 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.760 more they react. The less they hear, see and smell us, 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.600 the less they react. So your job is to keep 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.840 the times when they see here smell you to a minimum. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.680 But here's the thing. These rules don't apply to just 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:02.920 mature bucks. I'll give you a real world example. I 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.280 have permission to hunt late season doughs on a farm 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.439 by my house that is a sad example of urban sprawl. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.080 What was four thirty acres a few years ago is 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.640 now just over a hundred. The rest of the land 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:17.680 is full of mc mansion's that will cost you seven 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.800 fifty k just for a big house on a tiny lot. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.240 This property still holds dear the remaining part of the 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.720 property anyway, But the landowner and his family and his 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.600 buddies big time shotgun hunters. Someone hunts that farm every 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.920 day of the shotgun season, and often lots of people hunted. 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.880 And that season here where I live is almost the 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.960 entire month of November this year, when they wrapped up. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.239 It was my turn to go out there with a muzzleloader. 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.280 Do you know how nice it felt to pick up 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.680 a scoped gun after like eight years of only bow hunting. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.920 I honestly felt like I was going grocery shopping. I 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:59.079 felt bad that it was going to be so easy. Well, 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:03.080 deer hunt likes to remind us that we often don't 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.360 understand reality until it's kicking us right in our asses. 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.560 With fresh snow and a weapon that I can really 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:12.600 reach out and touch them, I headed out to sit 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.760 on a beautiful, icy cold afternoon after resting that property 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.160 for I guess about six days, since the gun season 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.920 had ended that night. I mostly watched turkeys, which will 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.280 be real trouble this spring, but we're not the reason 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.040 I was out there now. I also saw a few deer, 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:34.320 but nothing anywhere near the best cover. The cover you know, 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.320 with all the box blinds and ladder stands in it 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.600 that have witnessed a revolving cast, a blaze, orange clad 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.679 characters over the last four weeks throughout all parts of 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.880 the rut. When I drove out that first night, the 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.960 bean field on the farm was covered, and I mean 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:57.840 covered in dear they were all feeding right next to 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.120 rush our traffic. It's so I figured i'd cut them 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.560 off the next night by going in really sneaky like 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.400 into an area that I figured they just had to 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.680 be staging to get to where they were when I 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.640 saw them, But they weren't. As soon as I settled 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:14.680 in that next night, I could see six of them 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.840 across the highway on a property that might as well 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:20.560 have been on the moon. The only deer I saw 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.920 that night was at eight pointer that stood up out 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.160 of a little cedar thicket and walked right past me. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:29.960 I even texted the landowner that there was a good 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:31.960 one coming to see if maybe he'd feel a little 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:34.000 charity towards the guy who guides all of his kids 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.320 on the farm to turkeys and is the primary supplier 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.560 of slightly used bows to his family members. But his 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:45.040 response was a hard no, okay. I also realized that 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.719 night that the deer I was hunting, after one night 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.400 of my pressure, were I was pretty sneaky, had reverted 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.760 back to a less quality property across the road, where 0:13:55.120 --> 0:14:00.319 not coincidentally, no one can hunt them. But with nothing 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.040 to lose and the muzzle over season coming to a close. 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.560 I went back out there the next night, deeper into 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.080 the timber to see if I could pick up a 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:11.360 straggler that wasn't on the main herd program. While out there, 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.000 the landowner texted me that if a scrapper buck came by, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:16.880 I could shoot it. Now. That might not seem like 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.280 a big deal in this podcast and too many of 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:23.560 you find listeners, but it made me really really happy. 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.960 I was hunting hungry on a burned out property in 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.640 single digit temperatures in Minnesota. And what made me even 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.960 way happier was that the only deer that came out 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.440 that night to wind his way through the cat tails 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.440 was a three pointer that might break twenty inches if 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:41.040 I give him a bonus half a foot or so. 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.440 That book, a year and a half old, obviously was 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:47.960 one of the few deer that didn't get the pressure memo, 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.360 and he made a bad mistake of walking by the 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:52.480 only outdoor writer in the industry who has a soft 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.040 spot in his heart for shooting sports and a never 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.960 ending desire to see the white packages with shitty handwriting 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:02.080 pile up in his freezer. The takeaway from this story, 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:04.520 because I'm probably not making it all that clear, is 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.080 that even careful pressure can be too much pressure. In 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.600 the late season. If you're not paying attention to the details, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.000 and I mean all of the details, you have a 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.320 great opportunity to push the deer out of most of 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.760 your hunting area or send them back to their old 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.000 nocturnal ways. Now a good way to look at this 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.360 is to be honest about the deer you're seeing and 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:29.080 what dear you think are around. What what's showing up 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.720 on your camera when you go hunt. Are you seeing 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.680 anything or is it totally dead? Is the sign still there? 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:40.320 What's going on right now? Not? What should they be doing? 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:44.960 What are they doing now? If you're not seeing them, 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.960 they know you're there. Most likely they know where you park, 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.600 they know how you walk in, and they know where 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:54.720 you sit. This means you have to get tricky with 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.080 your presence when you do finally hunt. You know, take 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.680 a few days off, lull them into a false sense security, 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:05.040 but then do something different. Park in a different spot, 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.240 if you can walk in from the north instead of 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.120 the south, if you can take some calculated risks, depite 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.040 despite what you think you know, because if the deer 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.640 aren't showing then it doesn't matter your best laid plans 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.800 are burned. It's time to show them something they haven't 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:27.960 seen before, and please pay attention. I mean, really pay attention. 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.280 I don't know how many of my late season deer 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.920 kills have come from seeing something, some glimpse of brown 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.840 hide in the timber or the swamps, and then sneaking 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.360 in later at a different time for a closer look. Now, 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.480 of course, this is also the time when a lot 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.480 of us should just be hunting deer. I recently accorded 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:50.680 a Wired Hunt episode with Alex Gilstrom, and this came up. Actually, 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.240 it always does when I talked to Alex, for a 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.880 simple reason. It's crucial. If you can't find daylight movers 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.520 of any variety, you sure as hell won't kill a 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:03.360 mature uck. Now, a lot of hunters have a problem 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.280 with this in a late season because they can find 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.879 daylight movers in the other parts of the season. But 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.360 this isn't the early season with those barely hunted deer 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:15.359 on their soybean field pattern. It's not those stages in 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:17.560 October they are looking for acorns in a good place 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:20.520 to make a scrape back in the timber. It's not 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.800 the rut and all the goodness that that brings. It's 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:28.200 the last gasp part of the season with cold weather 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:32.160 that amplifies sound, a diminished deer herd due to so 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.480 much hunting, and that post apocalyptic feel of the whole 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.719 thing where the four legged survivors duck and move and 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.720 make decisions based solely on not wanting to be anywhere 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.960 near us. The most basic tenant of finding success right now, 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.080 whether that is measured in a mature dough for the freezer, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.040 an unlucky sport who thinks he's got the whole place 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:57.280 to himself, or a hundred seventy buck with double drop times, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:00.280 is to not let them know you're in the woods 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.080 with them. No, this is a good move all season, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.560 but an absolute necessity now. Without that veil of secrecy, 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:09.679 you're going to have a hell of a time with 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:14.119 those buzzer beat or deer. So keep hunting, but tread lightly, 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.240 my friends. There's still time, but it's dwindling away right now. 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.840 And be sure to tune in next week because I'm 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.200 going to do kind of a seasonal recap and talk 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.159 about how to analyze your past season and what to 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:28.720 do if you're like me and you feel like it 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.560 was kind of a clunker type of hot garbage season. 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.119 That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.520 been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always, thank 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.120 you so much for listening, and if you want more 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.800 white tail wisdom, check out the metator dot com slash 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:48.359 wired and visit our Wired Hunt YouTube feed to watch 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.399 how to videos. Until you're sick to death is seeing 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:52.280 Mark and I spouting off about how to kill the 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:52.760 big ones.