Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your
Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and this episode is all
Speaker 1: about planning an out of state Turkey trip and how
Speaker 1: that can actually make you a better deer hunter. Listen.
Speaker 1: This might seem like a pretty weak thread tying two
Speaker 1: things together, but hear me out, Turkey hunting, which we
Speaker 1: are finally almost able to do, can make you a
Speaker 1: better deer hunter. This is no more true than when
Speaker 1: you decide to head out on a little over the
Speaker 1: road adventure in search of gobblers. Not only does this
Speaker 1: get you into unfamiliar territory, which is good for us
Speaker 1: as hunter, but it helps smooth out all the wrinkles
Speaker 1: of hunting, travel and camping, all that jazz. And even
Speaker 1: if you think there's no way in hell you travel
Speaker 1: for a stupid bird, give this episode of listen maybe
Speaker 1: I can change your mind. Back in January, I dropped
Speaker 1: a couple of episodes of this podcast that were dedicated
Speaker 1: to considering an over the road White Tailed Trip. If
Speaker 1: you haven't listened to them, I suggest you hop inside
Speaker 1: the way back machine and go give them some of
Speaker 1: your time. If you have and you're all on board
Speaker 1: with hitting the road, this episode is definitely for you.
Speaker 1: If you're on the fence and just kicking the tires
Speaker 1: while mind grinding over taking a trip. This episode is
Speaker 1: definitely for you if you are in the no way
Speaker 1: in hell I'm staying home. No matter what category this
Speaker 1: episode is, uh maybe maybe not for you, but give
Speaker 1: it a listen. Anyway, Hunters often take trips. This is
Speaker 1: no surprise. Traveling to hunt is so popular now and
Speaker 1: kind of appears like it's a simple thing to do,
Speaker 1: especially if you're just rolling through Instagram. And truly, we've
Speaker 1: we've never had more information than we do these days,
Speaker 1: so in some ways, putting together not a state trip
Speaker 1: really has never been easier. That doesn't make it easy, though.
Speaker 1: This is true for any trip, and it definitely is
Speaker 1: true if you're a first timer. In that case, if
Speaker 1: the trip involves big game and the big expenses that
Speaker 1: go with it and a lot of expectations, the potential
Speaker 1: for the whole thing to go south is real. Bad weather,
Speaker 1: I don't know, a truck that decides it doesn't like
Speaker 1: shifting out of first gear anymore, unexpected hunters in the field,
Speaker 1: poor game, animal numbers, you name it. The traveling hunt
Speaker 1: is a lonely ship out there in the ocean, and
Speaker 1: there are a pile of torpedoes heading in his general
Speaker 1: direction at any given moment. A great way to mitigate
Speaker 1: the risk of the whole thing blowing up and the
Speaker 1: ving you with a sour taste in your mouth is
Speaker 1: to travel for something a little less important to you
Speaker 1: than bucks, something like I don't know, a silly bird
Speaker 1: with a nutsack on his chin and a couple of
Speaker 1: knives on his ugly feet, a bird that makes a
Speaker 1: laughable call immediately turns on his fallen compadres and demonstrates
Speaker 1: less loyalty than a supervillain. And well, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's composed of the kind of meat that is perfect
Speaker 1: for making kid approved nuggets. The wild turkey. I could
Speaker 1: probably do an entire year's worth of podcast episodes just
Speaker 1: like these, but dedicated solely to hunting turkeys. I love them,
Speaker 1: I really do. I think turkey hunting is more fun
Speaker 1: than most hunting in general, except for maybe spotting and
Speaker 1: stocking meal deer, even if turkey success is a little
Speaker 1: less rewarding than it is with bigger game. I think
Speaker 1: that we are damn lucky to have this goofy bird
Speaker 1: in so many different places where we can hunt it.
Speaker 1: I also think we are damn lucky that there are
Speaker 1: so many states that will sell us a license to
Speaker 1: hunt that no matter where we call home. Even better
Speaker 1: those states, in those places you might travel to hunt turkeys,
Speaker 1: they're also home to white tales, often many of them,
Speaker 1: and surprise, surprise, the turkeys live where the deer live,
Speaker 1: or the deer live where the turkeys live. It doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter. They are all mixed up on the landscape,
Speaker 1: and that is a good thing for us. Now. I
Speaker 1: mentioned on this show about how my first out of
Speaker 1: state hunts involved turkey travel, and honestly quite a few
Speaker 1: of my current hunts due too. But I rarely had
Speaker 1: somewhere with the idea that the only thing I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about is how to arrow a gobbler or shoot one
Speaker 1: in the face with a shotgun. I'm always factoring in
Speaker 1: whether I want to hunt turkeys on ground that I
Speaker 1: also might want to hunt deer on I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example of how this played out in my life recently.
Speaker 1: After drawing deer tags in Iowa in two thousand nine
Speaker 1: and two, I decided it was time to save up
Speaker 1: my points until I could find a good unit to
Speaker 1: hunt public land. I messed around for a few years,
Speaker 1: and then took a trip to the southwest corner of
Speaker 1: the state to hunt turkeys and deer scout. The turkey
Speaker 1: hunting there was actually pretty sweet. The deer scouting was okay,
Speaker 1: but just not enough to convince me to cash in
Speaker 1: my points and buy that spending nonresident deer tag. So
Speaker 1: I kept looking and in en I decided to hunt
Speaker 1: turkeys in a different part of the state again with
Speaker 1: the idea that I had scout deer in the process.
Speaker 1: I picked a new area with a decent concentration of
Speaker 1: public land around, applied for a last season turkey tag,
Speaker 1: and made plans to go run and gun for a
Speaker 1: few days. I also booked a site at a campground
Speaker 1: and did a lot of east scouting. After getting down
Speaker 1: there and setting up camp, I hiked into my first
Speaker 1: spot during an afternoon hunt. This spot has a dreamy
Speaker 1: meadow on top of a bluff. While a few gobblers
Speaker 1: responded that evening nothing came in, So that night in camp,
Speaker 1: I opened up my on X app and I picked
Speaker 1: out another spot that looked like a good place to
Speaker 1: hike into for a long beard, but it was also
Speaker 1: an area that I really wanted to scout deer in.
Speaker 1: When I woke up that morning well before first light,
Speaker 1: it was crazy windy, and I never heard of gobble
Speaker 1: the entire time I hiked to the back of that
Speaker 1: property to set up, But as it got light and
Speaker 1: the morning progressed, I finally got to drive by from
Speaker 1: a hen who came into my calling, and a little
Speaker 1: bit later after that, I was kind of leaning back
Speaker 1: and I thought I heard a bird drumming against the
Speaker 1: NonStop hollow thirty mile pro winds. It was enough to
Speaker 1: get me to look at my decoy, and then it
Speaker 1: all made sense, because there was a monster tom chest
Speaker 1: bumping it. How he got into my spread without my
Speaker 1: knowledge probably says a little too much about my ability
Speaker 1: to pay attention. But the good news was that he
Speaker 1: never even hardly flopped after I lined up my bead
Speaker 1: on the base of his neck. Killing that old Tom
Speaker 1: was pretty sweet. But what was equally sweet it was
Speaker 1: after I killed him, I spent some time scouting. I
Speaker 1: found pounded deer trils, I found rub lines, and the
Speaker 1: general dear sign in the area was impressive. In fact,
Speaker 1: it was enough to get me to apply for a
Speaker 1: deer license the following season, which led to a great hunt.
Speaker 1: In fact, that first meadow I set up in for turkeys,
Speaker 1: that's the place I spent the second morning of the season,
Speaker 1: and I saw seven bucks in there, including one of
Speaker 1: the biggest bucks I've ever seen anywhere, let alone on
Speaker 1: public land. And later in that hunt, I came back
Speaker 1: down and I killed a great book in a spot
Speaker 1: that I had also scouted while turkey hunting. That same
Speaker 1: type of progression of events that's happened to me in Nebraska,
Speaker 1: it's happened to me in South Dakota. It's happened to
Speaker 1: me in Wisconsin. And the key to all of this
Speaker 1: is to realize that a turkey trip can really function
Speaker 1: as a trial run or a deer hunting trip. Whether
Speaker 1: you're camping or setting up in a motel or staying
Speaker 1: with a family friend or a relative, you get to
Speaker 1: figure out the logistics of a trip. How far is
Speaker 1: your campground from your best hunting spot. How much of
Speaker 1: a pain is it to get back to the hotel
Speaker 1: every night? How many hunters do you see during turkey season?
Speaker 1: How are they accessing the properties you're hunting as you're
Speaker 1: engaged in your over the road Turkey trip. Pay attention
Speaker 1: to these questions. You should be able to answer some
Speaker 1: of them, like I don't know that thirty five minute
Speaker 1: drive from the motel to the management area you want
Speaker 1: to hunt. That might not sound like much while you're
Speaker 1: sitting at home in January, but after three days of
Speaker 1: getting up two hours before dark and then hunting all day,
Speaker 1: that drive might feel like something a little different. You'll
Speaker 1: pretty much be the same thing during deer season. So
Speaker 1: pay attention. In fact, let me illustrate this by summarizing
Speaker 1: a conversation I recently had with Casey Smith from the
Speaker 1: Element podcast. Casey is a white tail killing stud who
Speaker 1: spends a lot of his time on public land chasing
Speaker 1: deer from Texas all the way up to the Midwest
Speaker 1: and the East. Suffice it to say, when he is
Speaker 1: in the deer woods, he has a good idea what
Speaker 1: he needs to do to be successful. He has enough
Speaker 1: experience to draw from that if something goes wrong, which
Speaker 1: is ways does he can reset and keep himself in
Speaker 1: the game. It's a little tiny speed bump. I feel
Speaker 1: the same way when it comes to white tilS for
Speaker 1: the most part. But Casey and I also got on
Speaker 1: the topic of elk and how neither one of us
Speaker 1: would claim to be anything but an eager novice when
Speaker 1: it comes to elk hunting. We talked about the difference
Speaker 1: in confidence from heading out on a mountain versus heading
Speaker 1: out on a management area in the Midwest, about how
Speaker 1: different it is to just find some dear versus finding elk,
Speaker 1: how different it feels to go from pretty confident to
Speaker 1: truly baffled. This feeling of not knowing what you're doing.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing for guys like us to be
Speaker 1: reminded of because we have a wide audience. Some folks
Speaker 1: who consume our stuff they're stone cold killers and they
Speaker 1: listen in or watch mostly just for entertainment or it
Speaker 1: seems to probably judge us on the things that we
Speaker 1: do wrong in their eyes. But others are trying to
Speaker 1: learn and really trying to glean any tips or strategies
Speaker 1: they can to try to get better at something. Some
Speaker 1: think they're not all that confident in now. There are
Speaker 1: plenty of ways to highlight this lack of confidence in ourselves,
Speaker 1: but one sure way is to take that first trip
Speaker 1: over the road. That's when you're gonna learn a lot
Speaker 1: about yourself, and you learn a lot about your ability
Speaker 1: to handle a little adversity while keeping a positive attitude.
Speaker 1: The thing about that is it's a hell of a
Speaker 1: lot easier to stomach when you've got a hundred dollar
Speaker 1: tag for a bird in your pocket versus a four
Speaker 1: or five tag for a white tail. Now, if you
Speaker 1: think that won't matter to you, it might not. But
Speaker 1: mixing deer tags with ego, which we all have in
Speaker 1: the deer world, can do weird things to us. It
Speaker 1: sucks going on a deer trip only to start to
Speaker 1: believe you're going to eat tag soup. And then I
Speaker 1: have to tell your wife, or your buddies or your
Speaker 1: co workers. They drove all the way out there, and
Speaker 1: you burned your vacation. You spend a ton of money
Speaker 1: only to kill the same amount of deer you'd have
Speaker 1: killed if you had never left at all. One of
Speaker 1: the best parts about this reality is that you can
Speaker 1: begin to develop that over the road confidence on a
Speaker 1: Turkey trip less at stake. That's going to feed your
Speaker 1: white tailed trips and possibly, I don't know, feed your
Speaker 1: desire to go travel for pronghorn or elk or meal
Speaker 1: deer or moose or whatever. It will help you really
Speaker 1: start to be comfortable with your plan of travel in
Speaker 1: all of your digital scouting efforts, the thoroughness of your packing,
Speaker 1: your gear setups, all of that stuff. When you do
Speaker 1: this enough, setting up a tent in the dark and
Speaker 1: forty mile pur winds becomes not such a big deal.
Speaker 1: Or I don't know, making coffee an oatmeal for yourself
Speaker 1: an hour before you hike into unfamiliar territory that becomes
Speaker 1: easy and just part of the routine. Staying away from
Speaker 1: home for four or five days and keeping yourself on
Speaker 1: task that kind of just suddenly becomes part of the
Speaker 1: trip and not something you really have to work on.
Speaker 1: It also helps you with the main component of a
Speaker 1: hunting trip, which isn't just killing something, but it's actual enjoyment.
Speaker 1: If you want to have a great experience, and I
Speaker 1: know you do, some level of been there, done that
Speaker 1: mixed with new adventure is the secret recipe for having
Speaker 1: a great hunt. Regardless of whether you fill a tag
Speaker 1: or not. A Turkey trip can give you the chance
Speaker 1: to learn about that type of hunting while you're simultaneously
Speaker 1: settling into the rhythm of the hunt, which I can
Speaker 1: tell you without question helps you find more success. And
Speaker 1: if you think finding more success on the road doesn't
Speaker 1: feed the desire to travel more, you're off your rocker there,
Speaker 1: Betty Crocker. There's nothing sweeter than traveling to a new state,
Speaker 1: to new ground, living in a tent for a few days,
Speaker 1: and filling a tag, even if that tag is only
Speaker 1: on a turkey, even if it's a jake, which, by
Speaker 1: the way, is as much of a trophy turkey as
Speaker 1: a six year old thirty pounder with two inch hooks
Speaker 1: and five beards. Well, okay, maybe maybe a jake isn't
Speaker 1: as good as that bird, but I can tell you
Speaker 1: I've been really happy, many many times to look up
Speaker 1: and see a group of short beards running into my spread.
Speaker 1: If I haven't convinced you yet, here's another benefit to
Speaker 1: a spring Turkey road trip. You really get to test
Speaker 1: out your gear instead of buying a new pack or
Speaker 1: maybe a new pair of boots and then waiting until
Speaker 1: some are scouting or the actual deer season to give
Speaker 1: them a real test run. You can actually hunt with
Speaker 1: that stuff this spring. This goes for hunting gear of course,
Speaker 1: you know, bows, accessories, whatever, but also for camping equipment.
Speaker 1: If you choose to camp, and believe me, getting to
Speaker 1: know your tent, cot, sleeping pads, sleeping bag, lanterns, cooking setup,
Speaker 1: and whatever else during Turkey season, that'll make your dear
Speaker 1: trips a lot easier to plan for and a lot
Speaker 1: more enjoyable. And on this note, which I fully admit
Speaker 1: I'm biased towards, I think you should consider camping if
Speaker 1: at all possible. You always have the backup of finding
Speaker 1: a motel somewhere if the camping thing doesn't work out.
Speaker 1: We don't always have the benefit of finding a motel
Speaker 1: with vacancy near where you want to hunt. You can
Speaker 1: often find campgrounds close by, or depending on the state
Speaker 1: and type of land you're gonna hunt, camp right where
Speaker 1: you're gonna be Jason those birds. This might be the
Speaker 1: case on public land and it might be the case
Speaker 1: on private land. If you tap your network and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out to South Dakota and hunt my
Speaker 1: long lost uncle's farm. He might let you pitch a
Speaker 1: ten in his backyard. Who knows. It's a great way
Speaker 1: to go about a traveling hunt because you're in control
Speaker 1: of your little home base. That's a huge win in
Speaker 1: my book, and it has absolutely changed the game for
Speaker 1: me as far as how I plan all of my
Speaker 1: over the road hunts. If I can't camp in close
Speaker 1: proximity to the ground I plan to hunt, I'm probably
Speaker 1: gonna look elsewhere. That's how important this is to me. Now,
Speaker 1: on a later episode of this podcast, I'll break down
Speaker 1: my whole white tail camping set up, but for now,
Speaker 1: suffice it to say camp if he can't for turkeys,
Speaker 1: and for dear, just do it. But now, to get
Speaker 1: back on the topic a little more, a turkey trip
Speaker 1: will not only help you familiarize yourself with your gear,
Speaker 1: but also tell you what you don't like about your gear.
Speaker 1: It's a better scenario to figure that stuff out in
Speaker 1: the end of April while your turkey hunting than during
Speaker 1: the second week in November when you're deer hunting. You'll
Speaker 1: also get an idea how much food to bring on
Speaker 1: a trip, how many of those little green propane tanks
Speaker 1: you might need to, I don't know, fuel your lanterns
Speaker 1: and your blind heater or whatever. You'll get to figure
Speaker 1: out what blind chairs squeak, which ones don't. How tolerant
Speaker 1: you are of temperature swings while sleeping in a tent.
Speaker 1: How likely you are to enjoy a trip with a
Speaker 1: hunting buddy who's snoring kind of sounds just like a
Speaker 1: wilderbies experiencing an especially painful birth of its calf. You'll
Speaker 1: learn how the locals might treat you, how well the
Speaker 1: roads are maintained, which is really important. It's places, what
Speaker 1: the tick numbers are, like, whether you can actually cross
Speaker 1: that river in knee high boots to hunt the promised
Speaker 1: land beyond the far bank, or if it's way too
Speaker 1: deep and it only looks like it's crossable when you
Speaker 1: look at it on satellite imagery. You'll learn a lot.
Speaker 1: You'll learn how much a trip like this really costs.
Speaker 1: How prone you are to ignoring the lunch meet in
Speaker 1: your cooler to drive to the nearest Arby's for some
Speaker 1: delicious curly fries and a roast beef sandwich. This is
Speaker 1: kind of like pitching in a minor league game to
Speaker 1: see if you really got the arm and the stamina
Speaker 1: and the mental pieces in place to jump up to
Speaker 1: the big show. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but you
Speaker 1: get my drift. All I'm saying is consider this. Consider
Speaker 1: it because taking a turkey hunting trip is just fun
Speaker 1: and it's a beneficial move if you intend to become
Speaker 1: more of a traveling hunter in general, and tune in
Speaker 1: next week. I plan to keep talking turkeys and white tails,
Speaker 1: but in a new way that will be relatable to you,
Speaker 1: whether you're going to drive ten thousand miles to Spring
Speaker 1: in search of your turkey slam, or you just want
Speaker 1: to stay at home in gobbler hunt a few days
Speaker 1: on your grandpa's farm. That's it for this week, my
Speaker 1: white tail obsessed friends. This has been the Wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, and I'm your host, Tony Peterson. As always,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening, and if you haven't
Speaker 1: got enough of your white tail fixed this week, head
Speaker 1: on over to the mediator dot com slash wired to
Speaker 1: check out deer hunting articles, or go look at our
Speaker 1: Wire to Hunt YouTube channel, where we dropped new videos
Speaker 1: every single week.