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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

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Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

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Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about shot selection

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Speaker 2: in the field when the bucks are chasing and the

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Speaker 2: things have gotten a little hectic. It's the time of

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Speaker 2: year that should make your giblets quiver, my friends. And

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Speaker 2: if it doesn't, might I suggest nine holes of golf

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Speaker 2: instead of dark to dark sits seventeen feet up a tree.

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Speaker 2: The cool thing about this time of year is that

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Speaker 2: if you put in the time, you should get your chance.

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Speaker 2: But when you do, you don't get your chance. The

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Speaker 2: question of whether you can make good on it is

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Speaker 2: very real. There are some things you can do to

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Speaker 2: ensure a higher odd shot opportunity even when the bucks

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Speaker 2: seem held bent on covering ground.

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Speaker 3: That's what I'm going to talk about right now.

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Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, I dropped an episode of

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Speaker 2: this show about dealing with change in the deer woods,

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Speaker 2: you know how it's inevitable and all that jazz. Change

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Speaker 2: isn't limited to deer hunting, though, and I often think

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Speaker 2: about how lucky I was to hit the last real

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Speaker 2: window of pheasant hunting in southeastern Minnesota before the CRP

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Speaker 2: went away mostly and the birds kind of just disappeared

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Speaker 2: off the landscape. Now there are populations of pheasants down

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Speaker 2: there still, but they are the babysat kind of birds

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Speaker 2: that probably get pretty lonely at certain times of the year.

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Speaker 2: When I was in high school, it was a different story,

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Speaker 2: and we hunted those roosters pretty hard. My dad loved

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Speaker 2: a peasant hunt, so we often set out to pinch

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Speaker 2: ditches and walk waterways and small slews and whatever we

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Speaker 2: could do to see if we could get a rooster

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Speaker 2: to fly in front of our shotguns. We didn't have

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Speaker 2: a dog, if you're wondering, because my mom wouldn't allow it,

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Speaker 2: so I was basically the dog. One thing that I'll

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Speaker 2: never forget from those days was why my dad shoot.

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Speaker 2: He grew up in south central Minnesota, right close to

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Speaker 2: the Iowa border, so he has more pheasants under his

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Speaker 2: belt than most folks, and he can swing a shotgun

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Speaker 2: really well. Ingrained into my brain as a core memory

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Speaker 2: for some reason, probably because it highlighted a lesson I

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Speaker 2: really needed to learn. Was one time when I watched

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Speaker 2: a rooster get up right at his feet. Now, he

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Speaker 2: shouldered his little browning pump twenty gage, which was his

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Speaker 2: weapon of choice for anything that flew, as well as cottontails,

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Speaker 2: and then he waited. I had enough time to think

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Speaker 2: one thought, which was, why the hell isn't he shooting?

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Speaker 2: Then the report of that shotgun came, and the instant

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Speaker 2: crumpling of that rooster registered in my brain at the

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Speaker 2: exact same time, and I realized that he was simply

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Speaker 2: letting the bird get out far enough to not destroy

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Speaker 2: it with a load of sixes, and that trigger control

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Speaker 2: was absolutely amazing to me. I would have been three

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Speaker 2: shells deep on that rooster by the time that he

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Speaker 2: shot once, no question about that. So I'd have either

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Speaker 2: missed because my pattern would have been about baseball size

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Speaker 2: on the first shot or two, or I would have

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Speaker 2: a spaghetti fied that poor ring neck as if he'd

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Speaker 2: been sucked past the event horizon. Of a black hole.

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Speaker 2: I watched my dad shoot a lot of birds as

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Speaker 2: a youngster, but I remember that one the most. It

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Speaker 2: was a picture of confidence in knowing the situation and

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Speaker 2: understanding his capabilities. I think there are a lot of

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Speaker 2: lessons in there, most of which live in stark contrast

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Speaker 2: to bow hunting white tails, the average white tail hunter,

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Speaker 2: I would venture to guess, doesn't necessarily wait for the

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Speaker 2: right shot opportunity during certain encounters, and will instead try

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Speaker 2: to force something to happen, you know, as quickly as possible.

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Speaker 2: Those certain encounters, you know, they usually involve big bucks.

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Speaker 2: That forcing of a quick shot that is the result

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Speaker 2: of buck fever that none of us will admit to having.

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Speaker 2: But buck fever is just fight or flight panic mode,

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Speaker 2: which involves your brain letting you know that the thing

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Speaker 2: you really really really want is about to walk out

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Speaker 2: of your life forever and you had better shoot right

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Speaker 2: freaking now or he's going to get away. Buck fever

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Speaker 2: is a topic for another podcast, but if you're listening

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Speaker 2: to this, just assume that you might be afflicted by

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Speaker 2: some variation of it.

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Speaker 3: This fall.

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Speaker 2: If amature buck happens to walk in on you, and

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Speaker 2: when he does The best thing you can do is

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Speaker 2: try to identify your truly best shot opportunity, and you

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Speaker 2: should take that. But here's the thing. The general advice

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Speaker 2: on this is to take the first good shot you

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Speaker 2: can get. But what does that mean. Does it mean

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Speaker 2: that you should sneak one into his shoulder? Because the

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Speaker 2: first good shot he gives you is when he is

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Speaker 2: quartered hard in your direction and walking in Probably not.

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Speaker 2: What about if he shows up on a rainy late

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Speaker 2: October morning and surprises you and you realize he's at

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Speaker 2: thirty five yards and it looks like he's about to

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Speaker 2: keep going. It's not so simple that the first good

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Speaker 2: shot is the one we should take, because are we

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Speaker 2: so sure it's a good shot or are we talking

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Speaker 2: ourselves into a shot and then using that rule to

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Speaker 2: justify it. So let's back up. You know how, I'm

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Speaker 2: always telling you to watch more deer in real life,

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Speaker 2: you know, and glass them in the summer, Really pay

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Speaker 2: attention to the non target deer that show up around

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Speaker 2: your stands and blinds, you know that kind of thing.

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Speaker 2: Part of the reason for that is it because it

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Speaker 2: helps you see into the future.

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Speaker 3: Sort of.

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Speaker 2: Let's use an easy one here and talk about a

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Speaker 2: river crossing, for example. You know I love river crossings

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Speaker 2: because they are just awesome if you like to shoot deer,

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Speaker 2: and I do so. Imagine a twenty yard wide river

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Speaker 2: that's shallow and rocky. You could wade the whole thing

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Speaker 2: with you know, knee high boots. A deer can cross

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Speaker 2: that river just about anywhere. But you're on a spot

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Speaker 2: where they carved a nice trail on both banks, and

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Speaker 2: they use it a lot, So you post up over

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Speaker 2: it and a couple of dose approach the far bank.

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Speaker 2: They'll often mill around, take a good look, and then

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Speaker 2: drop down the bank. And once they do, they often

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Speaker 2: drink cross and then usually go up the far bank

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Speaker 2: fairly quickly. They don't like to not be able to

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Speaker 2: see what's in front of them. Now, as soon as

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Speaker 2: they get all four hoofs on flatter ground above the bank,

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Speaker 2: they usually take another good look around. In that behavior

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Speaker 2: is the behavior of all deer, even if they don't

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Speaker 2: all always do it one percent of the time. Now,

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Speaker 2: imagine the starts and stops of that dough group and

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Speaker 2: how they approach that crossing. Then you see a scrapper

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Speaker 2: six pointer coming. He stops on the far bank too,

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Speaker 2: to look around. But once he commits to crossing, he

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Speaker 2: drops down, wades the river, and climbs your bank in

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Speaker 2: one sequence of events where he doesn't really stop. He's

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Speaker 2: on the hunt for the ladies that just crossed, while

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Speaker 2: they were on the hunt for some water and some

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Speaker 2: food and mostly safe travels to get there. Those non

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Speaker 2: target deer might show you exactly when a big buck

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Speaker 2: would stop on his route through the same crossing. Now

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Speaker 2: that's simple enough, But now imagine a shit crossing with

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Speaker 2: two or three trails on your side of the river,

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Speaker 2: so that when they get to the bank they could

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Speaker 2: choose any one of them. Now things get a little

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Speaker 2: diceier because you're expecting a fifteen yard shot and it

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden becomes a thirty yard shot opportunity.

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Speaker 2: Will they climb the bank and stop for a few

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Speaker 2: seconds on one trail but not the other? How could

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Speaker 2: you predict that? Well by watching deer? What deer do

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Speaker 2: other deer do? My friends? I say that a lot

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Speaker 2: because I mean it. I think it's important. Now you

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Speaker 2: might be thinking, what does any of this matter since

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Speaker 2: I'm going to stop them anyway, Well, I'd say it

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Speaker 2: matters because if you don't have to stop them.

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Speaker 3: You probably shouldn't.

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Speaker 2: If you watch any of My Dear episodes, you'll see

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Speaker 2: me stop all of them pretty much every time. But

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Speaker 2: that's because I'm filming and I have to make sure

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Speaker 2: my cameraman can get on them. But it's not always

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Speaker 2: the best idea because stopping them can break bad in

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Speaker 2: a lot of different ways. You're giving them an intentional

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Speaker 2: sound to raise their nerves, and then most likely the

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Speaker 2: other sound of your bow going off that will change

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Speaker 2: the dynamic of the encounter. They'll tolerate one morp, maybe more,

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Speaker 2: but generally one is enough, but a merp followed by

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Speaker 2: a bow going off is definitely going to spook about

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Speaker 2: ninety nine point seven percent of the deer out there.

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Speaker 2: Not having to stop them buys you a slight cushion

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Speaker 2: on them, not quite wigging out if for some reason

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Speaker 2: you don't get a shot off, or you do and

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Speaker 2: you whiff. The other thing that makes murping them something

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Speaker 2: a little more dangerous is that the second you make

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Speaker 2: that sound, the clock starts ticking. Between your ears. You

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Speaker 2: know that buck stops, he looks around, and in your

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Speaker 2: brain you realize that it's t minus. Not too many

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Speaker 2: seconds until he's going to walk again. What can make

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Speaker 2: this far worse is when you murp them and they

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Speaker 2: instantly look at you with eyes the size of dinner plates,

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Speaker 2: and you know that he's like, look at that ass

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Speaker 2: in the tree. Now I need to run away, and

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Speaker 2: I'm going to very very soon. What do you think

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Speaker 2: that does to your brain when those precious seconds tick

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Speaker 2: away and he tenses up and your whole experience boils

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Speaker 2: down to trying to get that right pin to float

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Speaker 2: across the right spot on his body. The more you

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Speaker 2: can anticipate exactly what a buck should do and then

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Speaker 2: shoot him when he does it, the less likely you

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Speaker 2: are to put yourself in a situation where you have

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Speaker 2: to rush it to make something happen. This is easiest

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Speaker 2: to do in a spot where the deer have to

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Speaker 2: go through, which is often the best spot to be

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Speaker 2: this time of year when they start cruising. But what

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Speaker 2: if you're not in one of those sweet pinch points

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Speaker 2: or funnels. What if you're not posted up over a

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Speaker 2: perfect fence crossing where they'll all walk up, stop for

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Speaker 2: a few seconds, jump it, and then trot on.

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Speaker 3: Then again, you just have to pay attention.

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Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, I slipped into a chunk

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Speaker 2: of public land in northern Wisconsin that I'm bound and

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Speaker 2: determined to shoot a good deer in, And I saddled

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Speaker 2: up over a spot where an old logging road tees

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Speaker 2: up to two more logging roads. The main logging road

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Speaker 2: runs perfectly through a maybe fifty or sixty yard wide

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Speaker 2: swath of higher ground between two marshes. It's a great funnel,

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Speaker 2: but it's wide enough that depending on how they approach it,

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Speaker 2: they don't have to follow the logging road, especially through

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Speaker 2: the tee. They just come off the bluff and cut

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Speaker 2: corners to get through. And this hadn't really occurred to

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Speaker 2: me until I watched a dough do exactly that. Where

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Speaker 2: I had hung my set was where they were most

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Speaker 2: likely to cut the corner on either side, and I

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Speaker 2: should have been on the far side of the funnel,

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Speaker 2: where the whole thing actually next down. Now that dough

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Speaker 2: wasn't a one hundred and thirty five inch swamp bruiser,

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Speaker 2: but she showed me what a buck might like to

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Speaker 2: do there. The next time I'm there, pay attention to

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Speaker 2: the deer at all times, and believe them when they

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Speaker 2: show you something. It'll help you select better shot opportunities. Now,

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Speaker 2: another aspect of this that really relies on way too

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Speaker 2: many variables.

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Speaker 3: To list is when you should draw.

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Speaker 2: A lot of people will tell you stories about, you know,

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Speaker 2: drawing their bow and holding it for like three minutes

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Speaker 2: before shooting, but those people probably have no idea how

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Speaker 2: long their encounter really lasted. They also probably could not

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Speaker 2: draw their bow in their backyard and hold it at

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Speaker 2: full draw for three minutes, even if you put a

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Speaker 2: million dollars down and told them they you know, they

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Speaker 2: can have it all if they can hit one hundred

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Speaker 2: and eighty second mark. Drawing too early happens because sometimes,

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Speaker 2: you know, the deer just stop shy of your shooting lane,

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Speaker 2: or sometimes they just decide to zig when they were

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Speaker 2: supposed to zeg.

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Speaker 3: It happens.

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Speaker 2: But drawing too early also happens because we get paranoid

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Speaker 2: that they'll bust us, so we see them coming and

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Speaker 2: get that string back to our faces and wait. Over

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Speaker 2: the last several years, I've started to actually go the

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Speaker 2: other way with getting drawn. I tend to wait now

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Speaker 2: until they are right where I can kill them, at

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Speaker 2: least if I think there is a chance they'll hear

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Speaker 2: me or see me draw, and they hear and see

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Speaker 2: me draw a lot if it's calm and they are close. Essentially,

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Speaker 2: whatever light sound I have to make to get that

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Speaker 2: bow drawn is my surrogate merp. Now this brings me

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Speaker 2: back to rushing the whole thing. When they look you

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Speaker 2: dead in the eyes and signal that they know you

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Speaker 2: we're there. Almost every single deer out there will give

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Speaker 2: you more than enough time to aim and shoot in

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Speaker 2: that situation, but it's really hard to believe that until

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Speaker 2: you've done it a lot. This is one of the

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Speaker 2: reasons I try to preach the reality of learning to

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Speaker 2: hunt deer first before you focus solely on booners. A dead,

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Speaker 2: calm night where you draw on a dough at twelve

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Speaker 2: yards knowing full well she's going to bust you is

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Speaker 2: a different thing than hunting for three years to finally

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Speaker 2: get that same shot opportunity at one hundred and forty

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Speaker 2: inch buck on a Halloween.

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Speaker 3: What deer do other deer do, guys? And if you.

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Speaker 2: Learn when to draw on deer in general during very

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Speaker 2: specific conditions, you'll be better prepared in the future for

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Speaker 2: drawing on those different deer in those same specific conditions. Now,

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Speaker 2: there's one more thing I want to touch on with

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Speaker 2: this episode, and that is a follow up shot, your

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Speaker 2: second shot. I can look around my basement right now

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Speaker 2: and see a few shoulder mounts of good bucks that

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Speaker 2: I missed with the first shot and killed with my second.

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Speaker 2: I can also think of quite a few that I'm

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Speaker 2: missed that I tried to get a second shot on

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Speaker 2: but didn't, and those sting a lot.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: It's not very common, but sometimes you get a redemption chance,

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Speaker 2: and sometimes you even get two of them if you

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Speaker 2: need them. In my experience, if I'm three arrows deep

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Speaker 2: in my quiver, i might as well throw my bow

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Speaker 2: at them and hope it knocks them out, because I'm

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Speaker 2: not likely to suddenly get my shit together and make

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Speaker 2: a good shot. But it happens, I'd rather have the

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Speaker 2: chance than not anyway. This is a situation that reminds

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Speaker 2: me of a common sentiment around owning a self defense

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Speaker 2: gun of some sort, where the idea is that you

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Speaker 2: probably won't ever need it, but if you do, it

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Speaker 2: had better be handy and you had better know how

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Speaker 2: to use it. I'm a pretty big fan of the

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Speaker 2: old Second Amendment and a big fan of that general advice.

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Speaker 2: So with a follow up bow shot, your second arrow

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Speaker 2: had better be handy or you might not get to

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Speaker 2: use it. Let's look at this from something that has

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Speaker 2: happened to me a few times, which is that I

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Speaker 2: get into stand and I hang my packup so it's accessible.

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Speaker 3: When I'm seated.

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Speaker 2: I take my quick off every time, and I strap

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Speaker 2: it to my pack so that it's easy to reach.

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Speaker 2: That's all smart and great and all that shit, but

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Speaker 2: I almost always prefer to stand up when a buck

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Speaker 2: walks in that I want to shoot.

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Speaker 3: Why you might ask.

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Speaker 2: Well, because as much as I'd like to be able

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Speaker 2: to predict dear behavior, they often don't do what I expect.

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Speaker 2: If I'm seated and anticipating a perfect shot on my

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Speaker 2: left side because I'm a right handed shooter, and suddenly

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Speaker 2: the buck walks behind my tree to my off side,

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Speaker 2: now I need to stand up to spin around. That's

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Speaker 2: big movement stuff when they are close, and I don't

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Speaker 2: like that. So I generally stand ahead of time. But

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Speaker 2: if I'm all stood up and I miss for some reason,

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Speaker 2: I now have to bend over and wrestle out an

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Speaker 2: arrow from the height of my knees. And that's a

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Speaker 2: big movement after a noisy miss. Not ideal. Now, you

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Speaker 2: could hunt for five seasons and never have that happen,

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Speaker 2: but when it does, it's really not ideal. You want

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Speaker 2: easy access to your arrows in the moment of truth

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Speaker 2: because you know that if you do miss a good

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Speaker 2: one but he sticks around, you're going to be in

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Speaker 2: panic mode. Sure it helps if it's super windy or

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Speaker 2: there is something else to distract them, like a hot dough,

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Speaker 2: but in your brain you're going to be redlining real hard,

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Speaker 2: and anything that keeps you from easily grabbing a follow

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Speaker 2: up arrow and getting it knocked quickly will only exacerbate

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Speaker 2: that panic. Now, you probably won't need a second arrow

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Speaker 2: on any given encounter with a toad, but on one

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Speaker 2: eventually you will. One of my favorite mounts is a

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Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty inch velvet buck that I whiffed

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Speaker 2: on at twenty yards only to double lung at thirty five.

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Speaker 2: And I can tell you that it wasn't a relaxing

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Speaker 2: situation to go through, even if it really worked out

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Speaker 2: for me.

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Speaker 3: Figure out how to.

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Speaker 2: Anticipate what the buck should do around your stands. Get

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Speaker 2: yourself in a position to shoot them naturally if at

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Speaker 2: all possible, and then understand how to grab another arrow

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Speaker 2: quickly and redeem yourself if the opportunity arises.

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Speaker 3: Do that.

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Speaker 2: Come back next week because I'm going to talk about

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Speaker 2: volume hunts in the rut and why if this might

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Speaker 2: be the hardest strategy to implement but also the best

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Speaker 2: strategy if you want to kill a really big one

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Speaker 2: in the next couple of weeks.

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Speaker 3: That's it for this episode. I'm Tony Peterson.

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Speaker 2: This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which

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Speaker 2: has brought to you by First Light. I want to

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Speaker 2: thank you so much for your support for listening to

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Speaker 2: this podcast, for listening to our new back forty series

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Speaker 2: with Jake, for listening to Mark's episodes every week, or

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Speaker 2: maybe checking out Clay's Bear, Grease Sprents, This Country Life, whatever.

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Speaker 2: We truly appreciate your support. If you want more content,

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Speaker 2: and I know you do, you can go to the

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Speaker 2: mediater dot com, where we drop new films, new podcasts,

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Speaker 2: new articles every single day of the year. Just about

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Speaker 2: There's always new content going up there, a lot of

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Speaker 2: great stuff. Go check it out at the mediator dot

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Speaker 2: com and thank you once again