Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better dear hunting, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
Speaker 1: which was brought to you by First Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson, and today we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: first year of this podcast, the next year this podcast,
Speaker 1: and what it means to you as a deer hunt.
Speaker 1: I know it's hard to believe the full year has
Speaker 1: passed since it dropped the first episode of this Foundation's podcast.
Speaker 1: That's fifty two weeks of white tail talk, roughly a
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty thousand written word to go. The whole
Speaker 1: thing started with a bunch of shows about scouting, and
Speaker 1: then we moved on to hunting Technics, The Winner, scouting,
Speaker 1: and some random offseason stuff and now here we are
Speaker 1: full freaking circle. And I'm happy you're here with me
Speaker 1: today because I want to talk about you and our
Speaker 1: future together and how we are going to tackle this
Speaker 1: dear problem as a team. The next year is going
Speaker 1: to be different, my friends. While the last year was
Speaker 1: loosely a chronological week by week breakdown of different deer activities,
Speaker 1: you should be considering. This year won't be quite like that.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be all about the stuff we never really
Speaker 1: got into last year, and I'm going to cover a
Speaker 1: wide range of topics in the next fifty two episodes,
Speaker 1: from I don't know blood trailing to the ethics of
Speaker 1: certain kind of hunting to really understanding Dear sign hunting
Speaker 1: in the rain and so on. This year is going
Speaker 1: to be fun. But before that, I really want to
Speaker 1: talk about you. This last year has kind of been
Speaker 1: all about me, talking strategies and styles and aspects of
Speaker 1: hunting that should have helped you kill some more, Dear,
Speaker 1: should help you kill some more, Dear, I guess I
Speaker 1: should say. But the dirty little secret in all of
Speaker 1: this is that it's really on you. It really is.
Speaker 1: I've got a role in this, maybe, I guess, just
Speaker 1: like other people in the hunting industry that you listen
Speaker 1: to or read or watch or whatever do as well.
Speaker 1: But we don't really need to get into that yet.
Speaker 1: We need to get into your relationship with hunting and
Speaker 1: how it affects your success. Because no matter what I say,
Speaker 1: or what the Jury Brothers do on their show, or
Speaker 1: what you read about white tails and white tail hunting,
Speaker 1: the decisions you make are yours and years alone. You
Speaker 1: can't become a significantly better hunter through osmosis, unfortunately. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you could, Mark would have bucks on his walls
Speaker 1: and you'd have to hunt with a rock just to
Speaker 1: challenge himself. But he doesn't need to do that because
Speaker 1: hunting is still pretty challenging for him, despite the fact
Speaker 1: that he has access to the most successful white tail
Speaker 1: hunters in the world and has racked up more hours
Speaker 1: of conversation on the topic than just about anyone out there,
Speaker 1: and he hunts a lot. What really kills big Bucks
Speaker 1: is experience and confidence, at least if you don't have
Speaker 1: a ton of money or a really good spot. In fact,
Speaker 1: not only does experience and confidence kill big Bucks, it
Speaker 1: also helps you enjoy hunting more. It's more fun to
Speaker 1: not be paralyzed by the second guessing, or to scroll
Speaker 1: through the Graham during the season only see every other
Speaker 1: person in your feed post in grip and griend photos
Speaker 1: with Bucks, you couldn't even dream of shooting. And I've
Speaker 1: said it's many times before, but enjoyment of hunting will
Speaker 1: lead you to hunt better. So you're probably thinking, all right, well,
Speaker 1: where the hell, are you going with this, dude? A
Speaker 1: settle down. You're starting to sound like my bride. Just
Speaker 1: let me get there. That's where I'm going with this
Speaker 1: is that I actually have faith in you. I truly do.
Speaker 1: I believe that people are capable of great things, just
Speaker 1: as they're capable of consistently killing deer that make them happy.
Speaker 1: I think that you've got this, and I want to
Speaker 1: tell you why. It's because this is not as hard
Speaker 1: as you think it is. Now Listen, I'm functionally a dipshit,
Speaker 1: and I killed deer, including big bucks, fairly frequently. And
Speaker 1: if you think I'm being falsely humble, here, let me
Speaker 1: give you a few examples. One time I rear ended
Speaker 1: a lady and her daughter who were on their way
Speaker 1: to church because I was eating a muffin and some
Speaker 1: of it broke onto my shirt while we were stopped
Speaker 1: at a red light. When all the other traffic started
Speaker 1: to go, I was still thinking about the crumbs from
Speaker 1: that muffin, and I drove right into the car ahead
Speaker 1: of me. It was the only time I ever got
Speaker 1: a speeding ticket for going like three miles per hour.
Speaker 1: In fact, I might be the only person to ever
Speaker 1: get a speeding ticket for going as fast as a
Speaker 1: slow turtle. Another time, I went to load my boat
Speaker 1: on a trailer and I didn't pull up the trolling motor. Now,
Speaker 1: it's a bass boat, so you have to powerloaded by
Speaker 1: driving right up on the trailer. But when your trolley
Speaker 1: motor is in the way, it doesn't work very well.
Speaker 1: And buying a new expensive trolley motor because of a
Speaker 1: bone head move like that sucks, but it teaches you
Speaker 1: a valuable lesson um. Another time, I stepped on a
Speaker 1: moving treadmill in a full gym, which still haunts me.
Speaker 1: And I mean I think about that moment at least
Speaker 1: ten times a day every day, and I have no doubts.
Speaker 1: If I'm lucky enough to get really old, I'll probably
Speaker 1: still be thinking about that stupid moment when I stepped
Speaker 1: on a moving treadmill in a full gym. Uh last March,
Speaker 1: I was fishing in Florida and I snapped an expensive
Speaker 1: travel rod on a tie down cleat on a dock,
Speaker 1: only to lose a different expensive rod the next night
Speaker 1: by not paying attention when a baff and top catfish
Speaker 1: took off with my bait. That little series of idiocy
Speaker 1: there cost me nearly six d dollars in fishing gear
Speaker 1: in two days, and it was nobody's fault on my own.
Speaker 1: In fact, I still have a mullet spine stuck in
Speaker 1: my pointer finger from that trip, from another stupid move
Speaker 1: that I'm still suffering from months later. I've missed so
Speaker 1: many deer it's it's kind of hard to believe. I
Speaker 1: trip randomly quite often. Twice as an adult. I've shipped
Speaker 1: my pants in situations where you definitely don't want to
Speaker 1: shoot your pants. And I still kill deer quite often,
Speaker 1: so often in fact, that people pay me to talk
Speaker 1: about it, which is really bizarre. But my point is,
Speaker 1: if I can do this, you can do this. You
Speaker 1: have the skills, the curiosity, the dedication to make this happen.
Speaker 1: But you've got to remember that it takes time. It
Speaker 1: takes time to be consistently successful, and there really aren't
Speaker 1: any shortcuts. You can't send me a d M or
Speaker 1: some other hunter who you think holds the real secrets
Speaker 1: to deer hunting success and asked them to look at
Speaker 1: a mappier farm and tell you where to hang a stand,
Speaker 1: and then bam, you're gonna kill big bucks. You can't
Speaker 1: visit a forum or read an article and uddently clear
Speaker 1: the hurdle that has been keeping you from frequently filling tags.
Speaker 1: Now you can glean some ideas from that stuff and
Speaker 1: maybe put some advice to practical use, which is a
Speaker 1: good thing. But even so, that's you doing it, that's
Speaker 1: you taking the time to make something happen. That's yours.
Speaker 1: You get out there more and you'll get better, you'll
Speaker 1: have more fun, and you'll develop more confidence. But do
Speaker 1: it at your own pace, at your own comfort level,
Speaker 1: and accept the fact that it will take seasons upon
Speaker 1: seasons to become happier with your day to day performance
Speaker 1: throughout the fall. Now, listen, I know this sounds like
Speaker 1: raw rab bs, but it's not. I've got two buddies
Speaker 1: who I hunt with quite a bit that have come
Speaker 1: so far in ten years that it blows my mind.
Speaker 1: And I know ten years is a long time, but
Speaker 1: in a way, it's really not. Both of them got
Speaker 1: into bow hunting at about the same time serious bow
Speaker 1: hunting anyway, and both of them took very different paths
Speaker 1: through their career so far, but they both started out
Speaker 1: hunting any type of deer not very well. I might
Speaker 1: add killing those or little Box was a real challenge
Speaker 1: for both of them. Even though they were full grown
Speaker 1: adult men by the time they really started hunting hard,
Speaker 1: what they had going for them was an awful lot
Speaker 1: of desire to be in the woods. They liked scouting,
Speaker 1: they liked hunting, and they were game for at least
Speaker 1: one trippy year they made it happen. That meant that
Speaker 1: they were getting valuable home field experience on private farms,
Speaker 1: but that they were also heading out on the road
Speaker 1: to hunt with me on public land in various states.
Speaker 1: They hunted white tilles, obviously, but they also hunted Western
Speaker 1: game whenever they got the chance, and small game in
Speaker 1: turkeys and whatever was open. They hunted when they could hunt.
Speaker 1: Whatever they could hunt. They stacked up some meaningful experience
Speaker 1: throughout the years, and while they randomly would kill stuff
Speaker 1: in those early years, it took them i don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe seven or eight years before they started putting it
Speaker 1: all together, and I mean really putting it all together.
Speaker 1: And now when we travel, I'm not surprised at all
Speaker 1: when either one of them kills a good one at home.
Speaker 1: It's damn near a given that throughout the season, at
Speaker 1: some point I'll get a text or a phone call
Speaker 1: telling me that their tag is filled and it's time
Speaker 1: to call the taxidermist. It's honestly so impressive because not
Speaker 1: that long ago, neither one of them could hit a
Speaker 1: deer to save his life. I got to watch them
Speaker 1: go through the starvation years and emerge out the other
Speaker 1: side as good hunters, and I feel like some of
Speaker 1: you might be stuck in those early years as well,
Speaker 1: or maybe stuck in third gear where you can kill
Speaker 1: some deer, but the big bucks really ellude you. Listen,
Speaker 1: everyone moves at their own pace, so sometimes it's a
Speaker 1: matter of struggling through the lean years. I think everybody
Speaker 1: pretty much goes through them, and that sucks, just like
Speaker 1: it sucks to be a twenty year old right now,
Speaker 1: or honestly, just about any time in history where you
Speaker 1: see what the world could offer you, but you broke,
Speaker 1: depressed and unsure what to do with yourself, and honestly
Speaker 1: not feeling too peachy about this whole adulting. For most people,
Speaker 1: there are just phases of life that kind of suck.
Speaker 1: And while it's a little comfort to hear that from
Speaker 1: some stranger, it's true. And the same goes for hunting.
Speaker 1: It rarely starts out easy, and if it does, it
Speaker 1: won't mean anything to you in the long run. To
Speaker 1: gamify hunting or to shortcut the whole thing if you
Speaker 1: have the means, it's a great way to find success
Speaker 1: but not really enjoy it a whole lot. It's a
Speaker 1: great way to minimize this gift we have, and that's
Speaker 1: certainly future generations probably won't. So you know what I
Speaker 1: want you to do. I want you to treat this
Speaker 1: year like it's your chance to level up somehow. Set
Speaker 1: some goals, achievable goals that will make you put in
Speaker 1: the extra time you need to put in a little
Speaker 1: bit of extra effort, and don't set them around big bucks.
Speaker 1: Well I guess you can, but don't solely focus on
Speaker 1: a goal like that and saying something, well, I've I've
Speaker 1: killed a buck that scores a hundred and five inches now,
Speaker 1: so I really want one that is bigger. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but you're selling the whole thing pretty short
Speaker 1: if that's the sole focus. I look at it a
Speaker 1: different way. I set goals based around a few different
Speaker 1: things I want to tell you about, just to kind
Speaker 1: of give you some ideas. The first goal for me now,
Speaker 1: which is more important than trophies when I wasn't always
Speaker 1: that way, believe me, but it's it's where I'm at now,
Speaker 1: is to fill the freezer. I go into the season
Speaker 1: and I want five to seven deer because I know
Speaker 1: that my family can eat that all and I probably
Speaker 1: won't run out or have to ration venison. I love
Speaker 1: that feeling. It's a big one, but it's doable because
Speaker 1: I know a hund a bunch of states and get
Speaker 1: enough antlerless tags and have zero qualms about lowering my
Speaker 1: standards to make it happen. But along with that goal,
Speaker 1: my main objective is to take five to seven good
Speaker 1: shots to get those deer in my freezer. Now, actually
Speaker 1: I said that wrong. It's to make, not take make
Speaker 1: five to seven good shots. If it takes me six
Speaker 1: dear to fill the freezer, I want six double lung
Speaker 1: or heart shots in my rear view mirror. That's my goal.
Speaker 1: I want six short, easy to follow blood trails that
Speaker 1: make me feel like I did a good job as
Speaker 1: a hunter. I don't want those marginal hits got's liver spine.
Speaker 1: I don't want them. I don't want missus. I want
Speaker 1: to draw my bow every time and know that my
Speaker 1: arrow is gonna go where it's supposed to go. And
Speaker 1: if it doesn't, and it often doesn't, then I know
Speaker 1: I've got work to do, but it's something I will
Speaker 1: work on. So what will your goals be? Are you
Speaker 1: dead set on getting your first dear or maybe your
Speaker 1: first buck, maybe your first pope and young buck, your
Speaker 1: first two dear season? How about the kind of shots
Speaker 1: you'll plan to take and make? What about how frequently
Speaker 1: you'll hunt? Do you have a goal to hunt x
Speaker 1: amount of days every week regard as a weather that's
Speaker 1: a good one. I don't use that goal anymore because
Speaker 1: I don't need it. I hunt when I can always.
Speaker 1: Do you do you remember last season? Did you take
Speaker 1: days off because it was too hot or too cold,
Speaker 1: or too rainy or too whatever. Maybe don't do that
Speaker 1: this year. Maybe motivate yourself to hunt when you don't
Speaker 1: want to hunt, just like you would make yourself go
Speaker 1: for a run even though you don't want to, because
Speaker 1: very few people ever actually want to go for a run.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're going to take a trip this year and
Speaker 1: hunt somewhere else. What are your goals around that trip?
Speaker 1: Kill A big one? Kill a little one, just enjoy
Speaker 1: some time in a new place. How are you going
Speaker 1: to make this stuff happen? That's maybe the most important
Speaker 1: part of this because that's on you. What are you
Speaker 1: gonna do to make sure you get the most out
Speaker 1: of the summer scouting window and then this season that's
Speaker 1: what matters. And remember again, it's on you. Hunting is
Speaker 1: a personal thing, and even though we have good friends
Speaker 1: who hunt, or at least most of us do, it's
Speaker 1: still an activity mostly done in private. This is probably
Speaker 1: the best point to wrap this episode on because I
Speaker 1: really believe it. I say this often on podcast, and
Speaker 1: it's always good for a laugh if I'm giving a
Speaker 1: dear seminar somewhere, But no one really cares about what
Speaker 1: you shoot. They really don't. Now, your wife might pretend
Speaker 1: she does, a few co workers might think it's kind
Speaker 1: of cool one way or another, and you might be
Speaker 1: blessed to have a few good hunting buddies who actually
Speaker 1: kind of do care. But it's not going to make
Speaker 1: or break anyone's day. If you finally arrow that hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty inch or you've been after or if you
Speaker 1: eat tag soup. For the seventeen season, in a row.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter to anyone but you. It really really
Speaker 1: doesn't as a matter to your Instagram followers, or your
Speaker 1: Facebook friends, or the strangers on your favorite hunting form
Speaker 1: that you like to visit. It wouldn't change their lives
Speaker 1: one iota if you filled your tag or not. Now
Speaker 1: I want to reiterate this because I really want to
Speaker 1: drive this point home. Hunt for yourself. Do not apologize
Speaker 1: to anyone for doing this legally in a way that
Speaker 1: makes you happy. Your time in the woods is yours,
Speaker 1: and it's important. The decision on when to shoot or
Speaker 1: what to shoot, that's really important too, but only to you.
Speaker 1: And I don't know. I guess I suppose the deer
Speaker 1: but they don't really get to say in it. Well
Speaker 1: sometimes they do, but you get my meaning. This is
Speaker 1: your time and your passion, your hobby or whatever own it.
Speaker 1: Treat it like something that matters to you, because it does,
Speaker 1: and just get out there. Set some goals. Forget about
Speaker 1: what other people think about deer hunting or big bucks
Speaker 1: or who should shoot what, and you do you make
Speaker 1: your decisions, hunt your way, follow your hearts. My friends,
Speaker 1: and I know this sounds like a bullshit pepper rally,
Speaker 1: but it's not. The key to happiness might not exist
Speaker 1: seventeen feet up a tree, or it might at that
Speaker 1: time in the woods watching nature do what nature does.
Speaker 1: That's good for the soul. My friends, try to leave
Speaker 1: as much excess baggage behind as you can. You go
Speaker 1: there and just try to learn how to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: And lastly, remember that everyone is in the same boat.
Speaker 1: If you want to go on Instagram and small buck
Speaker 1: shame a stranger, don't. Don't be a dick. It's not
Speaker 1: that hard. Try to be happy for people's success, because
Speaker 1: as weird as this, maybe we need other folks out
Speaker 1: there enjoying the world of a white tale and advocating
Speaker 1: on our behalf. Even if they just killed the buck
Speaker 1: you've been watching for three years, or they happen to
Speaker 1: kill a forky every year when you desperately want them
Speaker 1: to let them go so they can grow, Just do
Speaker 1: you and try to love every second of it, because
Speaker 1: the ability to go out and hunt these magnificent creatures,
Speaker 1: it is a gift that we won't have forever. Now.
Speaker 1: I know I've been like a poorly qualified life coach
Speaker 1: in Therapist the last few episodes, but I got one
Speaker 1: more in me. Next week, I'm gonna get vulnerable and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you about the decisions I've made in
Speaker 1: my life that made me a way, way better hunter.
Speaker 1: And it's probably not what you're expecting to hear, but
Speaker 1: you should listen in. There might be a lesson in
Speaker 1: it for every one of us. That's it for this show,
Speaker 1: my fellow dear addicts. I'm Tony Peterson, and this has
Speaker 1: been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought
Speaker 1: to you by First Light. As always, all of us
Speaker 1: here at Meat Eater truly thank you for your support.
Speaker 1: It means the world to us. And if you want
Speaker 1: more white tail content, please do not hesitate to head
Speaker 1: on over to our Wire to Hunt YouTube channel or
Speaker 1: visit the mediator dot com slash wire