Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
Speaker 1: First Light Go farther, stay longer, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, I'm Tony Peterson and this is the Wire
Speaker 2: to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which has brought to you by
Speaker 2: First Light. Today's episode is all about becoming proficient at
Speaker 2: building natural ground blinds for all types of critters. When
Speaker 2: I sit in my basement, which is, you know, kind
Speaker 2: of where all of my trophies have come to find
Speaker 2: a home, since my wife doesn't want them scattered throughout
Speaker 2: the house, you know, unlike all the dumb wall art
Speaker 2: she buys up those stupid stores she likes. I can
Speaker 2: easily look at white tail racks and meal deer racks
Speaker 2: and elk racks and turkey beards and antelope horns and
Speaker 2: think about how I ended up in pretty close proximity
Speaker 2: to all those critters. I'd say probably like thirty percent
Speaker 2: of them happened to be shot from the ground out
Speaker 2: of some type of natural ground blind. I've talked pretty
Speaker 2: extensively about how to set up stands and hubstyle ground blinds.
Speaker 2: But I think learning to blend into the vegetation that's
Speaker 2: available to you is a skill that just fills tags.
Speaker 2: So that's what I'm going to talk about today. If
Speaker 2: you were to take a look at one of those
Speaker 2: Kardashian ladies out there, the ones who say things like
Speaker 2: ew Chloe, you'd see some serious surface level beauty, you know,
Speaker 2: flawless looking skin, perfect hair, bodies that look like they
Speaker 2: were sculpted to dang near perfection. A passing glance at
Speaker 2: any one of those ladies would reveal what looks like
Speaker 2: some real beauty. Of course, we all know that there's
Speaker 2: a lot of bullshit tied up into their appearances. For example,
Speaker 2: they probably lean pretty heavy on the filters for their
Speaker 2: social media posts clean up their image. Hell, they probably
Speaker 2: employ full time photoshop experts to make them look super
Speaker 2: good when they are just casually posing at some random
Speaker 2: beach in the perfect evening light. If you were to
Speaker 2: dig a little deeper, and I can't prove this, so
Speaker 2: it's just my opinions, so don't sue me, Kim, you
Speaker 2: might find out that they've had some cosmetic surgery. I know, shocking, right,
Speaker 2: I'd bet a dozen of my favorite arrows that there
Speaker 2: have been a few, I don't know, nose jobs, Brazilian
Speaker 2: butt lifts, and a bunch of other surgeries that the
Speaker 2: one percenters pay for to look like one percenters. You
Speaker 2: might look at them in passing, as I said, and think, gosh,
Speaker 2: they sure are a genetically gifted bunch, But the truth
Speaker 2: is there's a hell of a lot of curation to
Speaker 2: their appearance. What you see is it what you'd actually
Speaker 2: get if they'd agree to be around a poor loser
Speaker 2: like you, which they absolutely would not do. You know what?
Speaker 2: This is kind of like golf. I'm so sorry. Hunting
Speaker 2: content the twenty one minute show on the Sportsman's channel
Speaker 2: that shows some face painted dork passing up one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty inch bucks all day long to eventually shoot
Speaker 2: a one sixty you know, probably a touch too far back.
Speaker 2: That's the hunting version of the Kardashians. Not all shows,
Speaker 2: of course, but a lot of them, because those deer
Speaker 2: in those spots are carefully curated to come together in
Speaker 2: a way that allows for easy filming. You know how
Speaker 2: it goes. There's always the perfect tree and the perfect access,
Speaker 2: and the bucks rarely get downwind and the doughs never
Speaker 2: look up, and it's all hunky freaking dory. But that's
Speaker 2: not any more real than the aesthetics of a reality
Speaker 2: TV family that it's famous for. Well some stuff. The
Speaker 2: truth is out there where you hunt. The perfect spot
Speaker 2: is pretty hard to come by. Sure, you probably have
Speaker 2: some locations on your hunting grounds that the deer like
Speaker 2: to use, and maybe a few spots that mature bucks
Speaker 2: are prone to travel through, at least when the weather
Speaker 2: gets right and the stars a ligne and the old
Speaker 2: boys start to feel a little tingle in theirnothers, you
Speaker 2: probably have a few spots with a perfect clumped bass
Speaker 2: trees that allows you to work on your Michael Jackson
Speaker 2: dance moves and not get busted by passing deer. The
Speaker 2: perfect setup does exist, it's just mostly created when you
Speaker 2: find it naturally. It's like a whole new level is unlocked,
Speaker 2: and you should enjoy it while you can. Because mother
Speaker 2: Nature is always in flux, and for some reason, the
Speaker 2: greatest setups for killing wild white tails seem to exist
Speaker 2: on a time scale that doesn't extend indefinitely into the future.
Speaker 2: The thing is a lot of the best spots I
Speaker 2: don't know, they don't have perfect trees in them. This,
Speaker 2: aside from being replaced by better options, is one of
Speaker 2: the reasons the popularity of climbing tree stands has gone
Speaker 2: right down the old shitter for a while quite a
Speaker 2: while ago. Now, you weren't allowed to buy a hunting
Speaker 2: license unless you knew how to use a climber. Well,
Speaker 2: that's not true. But what is true is that while
Speaker 2: climbing stands were great for straight trees with no limbs,
Speaker 2: nature doesn't really offer up tons of high traffic deer
Speaker 2: areas that also happen to feature straight trees with no
Speaker 2: limbs growing and then situate them about twenty yards down
Speaker 2: into the best deer trails. Now, I killed a fair
Speaker 2: amount of deer out of climbers over the years, but
Speaker 2: I also settled for not so great spots and awful
Speaker 2: lot just to be able to use them. It was dumb,
Speaker 2: and it led me right into the world of lightweight
Speaker 2: stands and sticks, which eventually led me into the world
Speaker 2: of lightweight stands and sticks and sometimes using a saddle.
Speaker 2: But even those, you know, even the best saddle set
Speaker 2: up money can buy won't do you much good if
Speaker 2: you hunt in an area that is low on trees,
Speaker 2: or you hunt an area that has plenty of trees
Speaker 2: but also a few good spots that don't offer up
Speaker 2: the best tree stand options. You can put out a
Speaker 2: hubstyle blind, of course, but you can also go on naturrel.
Speaker 2: This is a better option than most people think, especially
Speaker 2: if you're on private land. You know where you can
Speaker 2: cut some trees and trim some stuff and stack some
Speaker 2: lugs and create a nice little Heidi hole. You can
Speaker 2: just make something happen in a non traditional deer setup.
Speaker 2: And honestly, this isn't limited to white tails either. A
Speaker 2: natural blind on the edge of a wallow where a
Speaker 2: bull elk might come in is a good strategy too.
Speaker 2: It works for western critters, it works for turkeys. But
Speaker 2: there is an art to it. To understand that, let
Speaker 2: me first say what most people do wrong with natural blinds.
Speaker 2: They want to be comfortable and they want great visibility.
Speaker 2: Those are like one in one a right there. But
Speaker 2: that's wrong. We do this with tree stands and hubstyle
Speaker 2: blinds too, And what happens then is we make a
Speaker 2: choice to be more visible and often a little too
Speaker 2: close to the action because we just can't help ourselves. Instead,
Speaker 2: think about natural blinds as being like a really good
Speaker 2: place to truly hide, where approaching critters won't know you're
Speaker 2: there until it's too late, if they ever figure it
Speaker 2: out at all. To frame this up, consider this, how
Speaker 2: often do you find a random five gallon bucket on
Speaker 2: the edge of a field on public land somewhere? This
Speaker 2: was obviously brought in there to sit on so somebody
Speaker 2: could see better. The same goes for blind chairs. We
Speaker 2: want to be comfortable and we want to see, so
Speaker 2: we bring something with us that allows us to achieve both. Now,
Speaker 2: when you're dealing with an eye level encounter with pretty
Speaker 2: much anything but elk, because they just aren't as dialed
Speaker 2: into seeing danger that isn't moving, you're at a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 2: The bigger you allow yourself to be. Sitting on a
Speaker 2: bucket puts so much of your body in the visible
Speaker 2: plane of a critter, and then when you try to
Speaker 2: draw your bow you can just kind of forget about it.
Speaker 2: They're going to see you. The difference between that and
Speaker 2: just sitting directly on the ground on a cushion is
Speaker 2: the difference between so much of you being easily visible
Speaker 2: and directly in line with where your quarry will probably look.
Speaker 2: You can mitigate some of this by brushing things in
Speaker 2: really well and using the available vegetation and terrain, but
Speaker 2: I think it's better to sacrifice a little comfort and
Speaker 2: visibility to stay more hidden. This is very, very hard
Speaker 2: for most hunters to do. This is just like hanging
Speaker 2: a stand on private land and then starting the trimming process.
Speaker 2: It's so easy to overdo it when you want to
Speaker 2: be able to shoot three hundred and sixty degrees around
Speaker 2: the stand and have absolutely no chance of clipping a
Speaker 2: twig no matter where a buck approach is from. This
Speaker 2: is all well and good until a pressured buck does approach.
Speaker 2: The dance between being able to get a critter within
Speaker 2: range while making sure you have a clear good shot
Speaker 2: is an eternal one. It never ends. But think of
Speaker 2: it this way. You won't get a good shot if
Speaker 2: you get busted before your quarry gets into the red zone.
Speaker 2: You need them in range first, and the best way
Speaker 2: to do that is to hunt a good spot and
Speaker 2: not get busted. Simple, right, But it's not. You have
Speaker 2: to learn to trust your ability to find a spot
Speaker 2: where critters will walk through you have to believe it'll happen,
Speaker 2: so you don't constantly put yourself into a position to
Speaker 2: get spotted while sitting there. You want to keep a
Speaker 2: low profile and a lot of faith in your abilities.
Speaker 2: This isn't that easy, but some success from these setups
Speaker 2: is a great reinforcer. You also have to do this
Speaker 2: a lot to how to get it right. When I
Speaker 2: was growing up in bow hunting as a teenager, my
Speaker 2: dad bought this tree seat thing that was just a
Speaker 2: small cushioned seat that strapped to a tree trunk. It
Speaker 2: was kind of cool and I used it a lot.
Speaker 2: It was convenient, but I also quickly learned that I
Speaker 2: need to use it on good sized trees and sit
Speaker 2: facing away from where I thought the deer would walk.
Speaker 2: That made it a better tool for the job, but
Speaker 2: still not great because deer walk a lot of places
Speaker 2: I don't want them to when I'm hunting them, and
Speaker 2: with that seat you were just so exposed, too exposed
Speaker 2: for my taste. That led me to just sitting on
Speaker 2: the ground behind trees, which is a point that is
Speaker 2: so dumb, but I just I need to make it
Speaker 2: just like hanging a stand or using a saddle to
Speaker 2: hide behind the tree trunk is a better strategy than
Speaker 2: setting up where you expect the deer to come from
Speaker 2: where they're going to see you. Setting up on the
Speaker 2: ground requires the same consideration. If you can hide behind
Speaker 2: a tree and shoot around it as an animal passes,
Speaker 2: shouldn't you. After all, I haven't met a critter yet
Speaker 2: that can see through trees, and I sure as hell
Speaker 2: hope I never do. This is a good step if
Speaker 2: it's possible, but it's not always possible. Sometimes you have
Speaker 2: to be in front of the trees for a variety
Speaker 2: of reasons. Sometimes you have no trees to work with
Speaker 2: it all. Instead have to use cornstalks or cattails or
Speaker 2: some random shrubs or brush or deadfalls. Here's the key
Speaker 2: to this stuff. No matter whether you're hunting antelope or turkeys,
Speaker 2: or bears or deer or whatever, if you're going to
Speaker 2: go to the natural ground blind route, think about what's
Speaker 2: in front of you and what's behind you. This is
Speaker 2: so important because it allows you the opportunity to break
Speaker 2: up the human form. This is also the secret sauce
Speaker 2: to so many different camel patterns. It isn't necessarily always
Speaker 2: to hide you perfectly in a wide variety of environments,
Speaker 2: but instead to just make your human form look less
Speaker 2: well humany humanish human like here we go. It's also
Speaker 2: a good idea to think about sunlight and shadows when
Speaker 2: you're setting up a natural blind Shadows are your friend
Speaker 2: here and direct sunlight is not, although you do need
Speaker 2: sunlight to get shadows. I get that this is easy stuff,
Speaker 2: but the brushing in part often isn't. You have to
Speaker 2: think about depth. Obstructions in front of you and behind
Speaker 2: you create depth. You have to look at this like
Speaker 2: you're becoming a part of something natural. I want to
Speaker 2: give you two examples from hunts I did in Texas
Speaker 2: for turkeys and access to here. On the turkey hunt,
Speaker 2: which was a bow hunting canyon country where I got
Speaker 2: the impression not many people bow hunting turkeys.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The rios there where I hunted were pretty vocal and
Speaker 2: they were like easy ish to call in, but they
Speaker 2: sure as hell didn't tolerate a sloppy ground set up,
Speaker 2: like most turkeys won't. I had to carve my way
Speaker 2: into some cedar trees so that I was surrounded by cover.
Speaker 2: I also had to hinge cut some overhead limbs to
Speaker 2: give myself some shadows to hide it. When I did
Speaker 2: it right, I arrowed a bird It was maybe five
Speaker 2: yards away fighting my decoy, totally oblivious to me. Hey
Speaker 2: didn't even me draw, which is saying something when you're
Speaker 2: bow hunting turkeys without a blind. Now on the axis hunt,
Speaker 2: the outfitter that I hunted with told me to sit
Speaker 2: in a metal folding chair on the edge of a
Speaker 2: calichi quarry that had some water in it. I did
Speaker 2: it as I was told the first morning, but I
Speaker 2: realized pretty quickly that the thirsty critters weren't super dumb,
Speaker 2: and they'd eyeball me and just drink at the far
Speaker 2: side of the quarry if they came in at all.
Speaker 2: Either way, they stayed out of bow hunting range. Now,
Speaker 2: if you've never hunted access to here, let me say this,
Speaker 2: they are like turkey level, aware of their surroundings, and
Speaker 2: about as tolerant as some asshole in a poor setup.
Speaker 2: I asked the outfitter if I could borrow a brush
Speaker 2: trimmer and a saw, and I moved to the edge
Speaker 2: of the water where there were a couple of seedars.
Speaker 2: Once there, I just carved out a little cubby to
Speaker 2: tuck into and then I layered cedar boughs in front
Speaker 2: of me. I killed a really good axis the first
Speaker 2: time I sat it at maybe fifteen yards. The right
Speaker 2: natural ground blind forces critters to look through or passed you.
Speaker 2: That's the secret, well it's part of the secret. The
Speaker 2: other thing is you have to get low. The more
Speaker 2: of you that is below the brush line, the better.
Speaker 2: Then you have to make sure that you have cover
Speaker 2: in front of you and behind you, like sufficient cover.
Speaker 2: This puts you in the midst of a bunch of
Speaker 2: natural elements, and that means that you have your chance
Speaker 2: to become just another piece of the land. As dumb
Speaker 2: as it sounds, you just don't want to stand out
Speaker 2: in any way. Then at least if you're bow hunting,
Speaker 2: you have to be able to draw. This is the
Speaker 2: hard part from a natural groundline and something that you
Speaker 2: should consider as you settle in and make your blind.
Speaker 2: You can do the best brushing in job in the world,
Speaker 2: but if you can't get drawn without scraping a bunch
Speaker 2: of leaves with your bottom cam or having to move
Speaker 2: a lot, you're just out of luck. So what I
Speaker 2: like to do is set up so that I can
Speaker 2: stay low but still beyond my knees. When I draw,
Speaker 2: it's always when the critter is where I can kill them,
Speaker 2: because even if I get busted and they stop to stare,
Speaker 2: it's too late. Now this is a simplified version. Of course,
Speaker 2: you should work on drawing this way in one smooth
Speaker 2: motion as you elevate your body just slightly in getting
Speaker 2: the shooting position. I can't stress how important it is
Speaker 2: to be able to do this correctly. If you learn
Speaker 2: this skill, and it is a skill you can practice
Speaker 2: on at home, you're going to kill more deer and
Speaker 2: turkeys and antelope and elk and meal deer and whatever
Speaker 2: else you hunt. This is because a natural ground blind
Speaker 2: can give you a couple of distinct advantages that you
Speaker 2: can't often get from other setup styles. For starters, you
Speaker 2: can use this strategy just about anywhere. It doesn't require
Speaker 2: a bunch of extra gear, which is really nice. But
Speaker 2: it also allows you to hunt just about anywhere the
Speaker 2: sign tells you that you should hunt. That's so important
Speaker 2: because an awful lot of critters spend their time and
Speaker 2: places that aren't conducive to saddle and trees stand setups.
Speaker 2: They just aren't. And the more you can and adapt
Speaker 2: with natural blinds, the better you'll be. There are situations
Speaker 2: out west where this is the best strategy. There are
Speaker 2: situations in the Midwest and East, even where deciduous forests dominate,
Speaker 2: where it's still the best strategy. In the big woods,
Speaker 2: which is I don't know, full of trees and cover,
Speaker 2: there are still situations where this is the best strategy.
Speaker 2: The edges of swamps come to mind, and that's something
Speaker 2: that can work if you're up near Canada or down
Speaker 2: near the Gulf of Mexico. There's another benefit to this
Speaker 2: style of hunting too. The shot opportunities tend to be
Speaker 2: pretty sweet. If you manage to stay hidden and undetected,
Speaker 2: The ground level shots you earn are often close and
Speaker 2: pretty easy to make. I've had so many successful hunts
Speaker 2: where critters either didn't know I was right there, or
Speaker 2: when they did figure out something was up, it was
Speaker 2: like they couldn't quite believe it, and they let me
Speaker 2: get off a good shot as they try to figure
Speaker 2: out what was going on. So if you're out scouting
Speaker 2: this summer or finding yourself struggling this fall, about this.
Speaker 2: It's kind of the least limiting style of hunting, which
Speaker 2: allows you to take the high odds route of ambushing
Speaker 2: your quarry. I promise you that just about anywhere you hunt,
Speaker 2: there are locations that are ripe for a natural groundblne.
Speaker 2: But you have to do your part. Have to think
Speaker 2: about how visible you are, think about how blended into
Speaker 2: the depths of the cover you really are. Think about
Speaker 2: how you'll get into position to take a shot if
Speaker 2: something big comes under your way. But more importantly, just
Speaker 2: think about this as an option as you scout now
Speaker 2: and as we get into the season, because there are
Speaker 2: spots where this is perfect and a lot of people
Speaker 2: don't do this or they don't do it right. Don't
Speaker 2: be those people. That's it for this week, my friends.
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired to Hunt
Speaker 2: Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 2: As I always want to thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: We truly appreciate your support here at meat Eater. If
Speaker 2: you want some more way to content, some more podcasts,
Speaker 2: some more non whitetail content, phishing content, whatever, head on
Speaker 2: over to thumbediator dot com and you will see all
Speaker 2: of our video series from Cal and Giannis and the
Speaker 2: Element Boys and everybody you'll see all of our podcasts,
Speaker 2: and you'll see a ton of articles related to the outdoors.
Speaker 2: So go check it out.