WEBVTT - Ep. 772: Foundations - Repeating Deer Patterns That Actually Repeat Themselves

0:00:01.280 --> 0:00:05.120
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:08.920
<v Speaker 1>to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,

0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.600
<v Speaker 1>creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.

0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:18.680
<v Speaker 1>First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host

0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:19.919
<v Speaker 1>Tony Peterson.

0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.200
<v Speaker 2>Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.000
<v Speaker 2>which is brought to you by a first Light. I'm

0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.280
<v Speaker 2>your host, Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about

0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:32.360
<v Speaker 2>patterning deer and how we often get this task so

0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:39.320
<v Speaker 2>very wrong. When I was in high school, I got

0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:42.680
<v Speaker 2>permission to hunt this dairy farm where quite a few

0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.839
<v Speaker 2>people had permission to hunt. One of the other hunters

0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.360
<v Speaker 2>was maybe, I don't know, like ten years older than me,

0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.720
<v Speaker 2>and he had a reputation for being a big buck killer.

0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:56.000
<v Speaker 2>I randomly bumped into him walking out one morning and

0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:59.920
<v Speaker 2>he showed me some pictures, actual printed photographs, not self

0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.120
<v Speaker 2>CAMPI since it was like nineteen ninety six, there were

0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.240
<v Speaker 2>just several big bucks that he had killed. He then

0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:09.000
<v Speaker 2>pointed to a valley on the farm and said they

0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.000
<v Speaker 2>usually bet in there and dropped down on the hillside

0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.600
<v Speaker 2>to go feed in the evening, And I remember thinking

0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.040
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. I've hunted that hillside a lot and

0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.720
<v Speaker 2>that's just not been the case. But it turns out

0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.640
<v Speaker 2>that he was right, so was I. And now I'm

0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:28.959
<v Speaker 2>going to tell you how that can be true. Do

0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:32.920
<v Speaker 2>you know why we love music so much? Part of

0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.480
<v Speaker 2>the reason is that we have a long history, like

0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:40.760
<v Speaker 2>two million years of history, where recognizing patterns helped us

0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.440
<v Speaker 2>either fill our bellies or keep us from filling something

0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.480
<v Speaker 2>else's belly. In fact, our creation of music and our

0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.960
<v Speaker 2>hunting abilities are intertwined, even if that's hard to believe

0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:54.800
<v Speaker 2>because you're I don't know, as tone deaf as a

0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:57.600
<v Speaker 2>fence post, but you love to hunt. Now, whether you're

0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.920
<v Speaker 2>talking melody in the form of a catchy core rhythm

0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:02.600
<v Speaker 2>in the form of a guitar riff that just makes

0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:05.720
<v Speaker 2>you feel all warm and fuzzy, music is built on

0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:10.120
<v Speaker 2>a foundation of repetition. In that latter case, the key

0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.079
<v Speaker 2>to a good riff is that it involves playing notes

0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:17.200
<v Speaker 2>or chords, but also utilizes the silence in between. This

0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.400
<v Speaker 2>gives you, the listener, a chance to anticipate the next

0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.680
<v Speaker 2>notes and gives the song kind of this feeling that

0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.560
<v Speaker 2>it's progressing. Take one of the best songs that has

0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.280
<v Speaker 2>ever been written. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.

0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.600
<v Speaker 2>I'm teaching my daughter to play the rhythm for this

0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.880
<v Speaker 2>song on her acoustic guitar, and she's pretty good, but

0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.800
<v Speaker 2>her timing sucks. While she might play every note in

0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.280
<v Speaker 2>the right order without the right spacing, it doesn't work.

0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.600
<v Speaker 2>The pattern falls apart, and our brains don't like it

0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:52.360
<v Speaker 2>one bit. Now, with music, it's pretty easy to identify patterns.

0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:56.440
<v Speaker 2>It happens damn near naturally to all of us. Our

0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.080
<v Speaker 2>brains just do the work, and we know what sounds

0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.720
<v Speaker 2>good and what sounds off. Disability is a bit more

0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.040
<v Speaker 2>subdued out there in the wild, where we might be

0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.600
<v Speaker 2>clued into super obvious patterns, but not into the subtle

0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.120
<v Speaker 2>ones and allow us to hunt deer or other critters

0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.680
<v Speaker 2>more effectively. This is kind of wild, considering our ability

0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.880
<v Speaker 2>to recognize patterns came from our continual quest to survive

0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.440
<v Speaker 2>and thrive as a species. Of course, you have the

0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.520
<v Speaker 2>patterns in nature that keep you alive but don't help

0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:31.120
<v Speaker 2>you hunt. Take honey, for example. That delicious bee puke

0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.600
<v Speaker 2>is one of our most ancestrally consistent foods. It can

0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.800
<v Speaker 2>be found all over the world, or at least in

0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.600
<v Speaker 2>most of the parts that people can actually live, and

0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.160
<v Speaker 2>it has been eaten by us for a long long time.

0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:48.440
<v Speaker 2>That's one of the reasons natural honey is also really

0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.360
<v Speaker 2>good for you. Your body knows what to do with honey,

0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.960
<v Speaker 2>unlike I don't know, say, a package of gushers or

0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:57.080
<v Speaker 2>some other junk food that was created in a lab.

0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.600
<v Speaker 2>We like the look of hexagon stack on top of

0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.080
<v Speaker 2>one another, which is a pattern that can be found

0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:06.760
<v Speaker 2>where honey is often found. We also don't like the

0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:09.119
<v Speaker 2>look of two hundred bees forming a single spot, which

0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:13.040
<v Speaker 2>makes us run. A few bees is a different story. Now.

0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.160
<v Speaker 2>I read a line in an article about this that

0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:22.120
<v Speaker 2>goes evolution necessitates economical and reliable brain mechanisms in some

0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:27.200
<v Speaker 2>environmental context. Take a couple of caveman hunters looking to

0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:30.400
<v Speaker 2>throw a spear into something big and meaty. Here they

0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.520
<v Speaker 2>head out to hunt, but on the trail ahead of

0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.760
<v Speaker 2>them they see some wolf tracks, or maybe the tracks

0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.640
<v Speaker 2>of a short face bear. They have learned that a

0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.359
<v Speaker 2>lot of wolves big trouble, but a few might be manageable.

0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.960
<v Speaker 2>They have also learned that one short face bear that's

0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.880
<v Speaker 2>having a bad morning can reduce their little family group

0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.440
<v Speaker 2>by several members in a matter of seconds. The pattern

0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.000
<v Speaker 2>of the wolf tracks would mean they need to investigate

0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.200
<v Speaker 2>to determine how many there are. Maybe there are just

0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:01.560
<v Speaker 2>two distinct sets on the trail, but old Ugg and

0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.720
<v Speaker 2>Cronk or whoever, swing low and high, and they find

0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.599
<v Speaker 2>two more sets. They have learned that wolves don't always

0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:11.480
<v Speaker 2>travel in single file, and underestimating the amount of toothy

0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.120
<v Speaker 2>dogs they could run into can be very costly. There's

0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.480
<v Speaker 2>a pattern to the wolve's behavior which shapes human behavior

0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:22.080
<v Speaker 2>into patterns. Just like the presence of one single big

0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.320
<v Speaker 2>danger like the short face bear, cause humans to change

0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.920
<v Speaker 2>their behaviors a lot. Then you have other connections that

0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:34.640
<v Speaker 2>result in us recognizing patterns. Say a certain tree bears

0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:36.599
<v Speaker 2>fruit during a few weeks of the year when the

0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.719
<v Speaker 2>weather is just right, and not only is that fruit

0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:41.839
<v Speaker 2>good for you to gather up and bring back to

0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:45.080
<v Speaker 2>the tribe, but it also draws in deer who understand

0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:48.160
<v Speaker 2>the same pattern you do. Now you have a plant

0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.599
<v Speaker 2>pattern that's tied into a weather pattern and also a

0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.040
<v Speaker 2>certain geographical pattern that causes humans to learn a new

0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.839
<v Speaker 2>pattern of behavior while being exposed to certain prey animals

0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.640
<v Speaker 2>and their behavior around the same kind of pattern, which

0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.200
<v Speaker 2>undoubtedly causes the deer to be a little more cautious

0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.760
<v Speaker 2>because well, we know that they're patterning us too. There

0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.279
<v Speaker 2>are songs that are created with nothing more than an

0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.600
<v Speaker 2>acoustic guitar and a singer, than there are songs created

0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.440
<v Speaker 2>by whole teams of folks playing a multitude of instruments

0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:23.000
<v Speaker 2>and using every single technological advancement they have to add sounds.

0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.920
<v Speaker 2>Patterns can be simple, and they can be complicated. As

0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.960
<v Speaker 2>hunters in today's world, we strive to make them simple.

0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.400
<v Speaker 2>We put in a food plot and hope the bucks

0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.800
<v Speaker 2>just decide it's a good place to eat every day,

0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.279
<v Speaker 2>or at least the doe do, and then we leave

0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:44.560
<v Speaker 2>them alone about, you know, until Halloween, and then the

0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:49.200
<v Speaker 2>bucks start coming in. Simple, we don't really have to

0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.640
<v Speaker 2>know where they bed, or where they travel or what

0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.839
<v Speaker 2>they do when they don't come in. We just need

0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.400
<v Speaker 2>to know that the pattern contains at least some level

0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.080
<v Speaker 2>of them entering the food plot, so we volume hunt

0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:06.480
<v Speaker 2>it once it should turn on. It's actually pretty simple

0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.760
<v Speaker 2>until it's not. How often have you had a good plan, now,

0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.680
<v Speaker 2>I mean one where you just had so much confidence,

0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.720
<v Speaker 2>and then you executed and you didn't see anything. What happened?

0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.200
<v Speaker 2>Did you not understand the pattern to their deer movement

0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.840
<v Speaker 2>or did they understand your pattern better than you thought?

0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.040
<v Speaker 2>Was it just bad luck. I'm convinced that one of

0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.920
<v Speaker 2>the reasons people struggle so much with elk hunting isn't

0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:36.720
<v Speaker 2>that there is a ton of pressure and the bulls

0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:40.240
<v Speaker 2>are quiet. Sure that happens, But I also think it

0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:42.040
<v Speaker 2>has to do with the fact that most of us,

0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.840
<v Speaker 2>and by us, I mean residents and non residents in

0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:49.280
<v Speaker 2>Western states and you know, Midwest and East who just

0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.080
<v Speaker 2>show up in the mountains to hunt. All of us,

0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.520
<v Speaker 2>It's hard to really scout elk. It's hard to really

0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.800
<v Speaker 2>see elk, it's hard to pattern them, and they live

0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.760
<v Speaker 2>in a world that is much larger than the white tails,

0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.600
<v Speaker 2>which means even if there is a repeatable pattern, observing

0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.360
<v Speaker 2>it directly or figuring it out from sign alone just

0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.840
<v Speaker 2>a tough proposition. White tails are different, But we've also

0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:20.080
<v Speaker 2>been conditioned to believe that they are super patternable. They

0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.880
<v Speaker 2>generally aren't, at least if they live in a place

0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.040
<v Speaker 2>with a moderate level of hunting pressure. Now I know,

0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:29.160
<v Speaker 2>I've talked about this a thousand times. But the advice

0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.120
<v Speaker 2>you've been hearing forever on white tails often comes from

0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.520
<v Speaker 2>a place where they are very patternable because they don't

0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.800
<v Speaker 2>have a lot to fear. I heard a story about

0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.080
<v Speaker 2>a giant like one hundred and ninety ish whitetail that

0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.800
<v Speaker 2>got shot on film by someone on one of the

0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.320
<v Speaker 2>most popular shows out there, and they managed to capture

0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.120
<v Speaker 2>two different angles of the kill with two different cameramen

0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.560
<v Speaker 2>because they knew how much they had of that buck's

0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:01.679
<v Speaker 2>pattern coming into a certain food plot very consistent. Now,

0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:06.600
<v Speaker 2>imagine trying that putting a hunter and a cameraman on

0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:08.720
<v Speaker 2>one side and then a cameraman on the other side

0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.720
<v Speaker 2>of the trail, and even killing a four key in

0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.160
<v Speaker 2>most places be pretty tough, let alone a deer that's

0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.560
<v Speaker 2>bumping up on two hundred inches. You don't have that,

0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.520
<v Speaker 2>But that's okay. There are still plenty of patterns out

0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.720
<v Speaker 2>there for you to recognize and use during your hunting

0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.600
<v Speaker 2>season and for every season for the rest of your life.

0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:31.199
<v Speaker 2>This is where the advice is gonna get a little tricky,

0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.680
<v Speaker 2>but I'm gonna do my best. When we talk of

0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.160
<v Speaker 2>patterning deer, we tend to default to the thinking that

0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.240
<v Speaker 2>concerns a single buck, or at least mature bucks. We

0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.439
<v Speaker 2>think about finding a giant bed, getting trail camera photos

0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.560
<v Speaker 2>of the deer in a food source, and then working

0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:48.760
<v Speaker 2>with that info to fill in the blanks. And that's

0:09:48.760 --> 0:10:01.720
<v Speaker 2>certainly one way to start patterning deer. The other is

0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.200
<v Speaker 2>to pattern deer in general. This is where most of

0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.319
<v Speaker 2>your big buck public land hunters have a huge advantage

0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.720
<v Speaker 2>over most folks. They understand that the task does involve

0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:17.400
<v Speaker 2>finding some big bucks and patterning them, but they are

0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:21.040
<v Speaker 2>starting first with the knowledge of what patterns are most

0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:25.040
<v Speaker 2>likely in the environments they'll be hunting. What I mean

0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.640
<v Speaker 2>by that is they scout and scout and hunt and hunt,

0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.360
<v Speaker 2>and pretty soon when they walk into a place that

0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.280
<v Speaker 2>they've never been before, they start to recognize terrain features

0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.199
<v Speaker 2>that mirror other terrain features they've been around a lot.

0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:42.640
<v Speaker 2>They start to see sign in specific spots. They enter

0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.760
<v Speaker 2>the deer's world with an understanding of how deer used

0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.320
<v Speaker 2>that world, and so much of the work they've put

0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:52.400
<v Speaker 2>in in other places becomes directly applicable to the task

0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:56.000
<v Speaker 2>at hand in a new spot. This goes for someone

0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.360
<v Speaker 2>hunting a different chunk of land in the same county

0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.480
<v Speaker 2>they always hunt and for somebody I don't know, traveling

0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.920
<v Speaker 2>from Pennsylvania to Kansas, or from South Carolina to Tennessee.

0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.120
<v Speaker 2>This is a hard thing for people to really grasp,

0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.800
<v Speaker 2>but it's true. Part of the problem here is that

0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.840
<v Speaker 2>we all have, you know, kind of local bias where

0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.680
<v Speaker 2>we think we are hunting the hardest killed deer out there.

0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.719
<v Speaker 2>This is always wild to me as someone who has

0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.800
<v Speaker 2>traveled a lot, because over time you find areas that

0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.000
<v Speaker 2>are just really difficult, and you hunt areas even on

0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.600
<v Speaker 2>public land, where the hunting is so much easier than

0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.320
<v Speaker 2>other spots. But what is consistent throughout is that a

0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.679
<v Speaker 2>lot of the locals think they are hunting the toughest

0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.640
<v Speaker 2>to kill deer. That gives them a built in excuse

0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.719
<v Speaker 2>for failure, and it also changes how they view patterns.

0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.000
<v Speaker 2>Think about it this way. If you hunt, say Michigan

0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:49.640
<v Speaker 2>public land, and you just know you have more hunting

0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.960
<v Speaker 2>competition than anyone, you might find some rubs all clustered

0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.320
<v Speaker 2>together on the edge of a small creek, and you

0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.320
<v Speaker 2>might immediately think, well, there's a decent one around, but

0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.400
<v Speaker 2>he's going to be not because all of the bucks

0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.559
<v Speaker 2>here are nocturtle because we have so much pressure. Then

0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.720
<v Speaker 2>you take that same hunter and he finds a similar

0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.439
<v Speaker 2>setup in Iowa after waiting six years to draw a tag.

0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.439
<v Speaker 2>Do you think he's going to write that spot off

0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.360
<v Speaker 2>as a lost cause? In Iowa, the sign and the

0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.400
<v Speaker 2>environment are pointing him in the exact same direction, but

0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:23.360
<v Speaker 2>the difference is how he views the situation. Or take

0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.320
<v Speaker 2>that Iowa hunter who has no idea how easy is

0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:28.800
<v Speaker 2>hunting has ben while growing up on grandma's farm and

0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.040
<v Speaker 2>having a couple hundred acres to himself. That person has

0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.439
<v Speaker 2>developed an understanding of patterns around a high deer population

0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.400
<v Speaker 2>and you know, relatively easy to kill deer. Then he

0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.600
<v Speaker 2>goes to the swamps of Louisiana or northern Wisconsin, where

0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.200
<v Speaker 2>the deer population is ten percent of what he's used to.

0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.240
<v Speaker 2>He sees a bench on a hillside with a single

0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:50.600
<v Speaker 2>bed on it, you know, a few scattered rubs here

0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.440
<v Speaker 2>and there, and he thinks this is like back home.

0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.320
<v Speaker 2>But the sign just doesn't do it for me. There

0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.800
<v Speaker 2>isn't enough to work with. But has he calibrated himself

0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.520
<v Speaker 2>to the environment or is he taking what he's used

0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:03.280
<v Speaker 2>to and applying it to a world in which it

0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:08.559
<v Speaker 2>doesn't really apply same pattern. It just appears less impactful

0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.320
<v Speaker 2>due to the fact that there are so many fewer deer.

0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.560
<v Speaker 2>Now you don't have to travel anywhere to get tripped

0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.880
<v Speaker 2>up by this. Take your home, farm, your lease, the

0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.320
<v Speaker 2>public land, you hunt whatever. You probably believe you understand

0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.680
<v Speaker 2>the deer movement really well. But does your hunting reflect that?

0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.280
<v Speaker 2>I mean, do the results of your efforts reflect a

0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.760
<v Speaker 2>deep understanding of what all the deer do, or what

0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.080
<v Speaker 2>the big deer do. Maybe, but I'll bet that they

0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:40.240
<v Speaker 2>often don't. They don't for me, And honestly, one of

0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.480
<v Speaker 2>the things that's the hardest for me is to kill

0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:46.000
<v Speaker 2>a big deer on places I know really well, you know,

0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.640
<v Speaker 2>places that also allow other hunters in, or places that

0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:51.320
<v Speaker 2>are public. I feel like I know what the deer

0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.599
<v Speaker 2>do on paper, But in the woods, I'm often subjected

0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:59.040
<v Speaker 2>to a reality I don't expect. Sure, we know the

0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.360
<v Speaker 2>bucks bet up on a ridge, and we know they

0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.720
<v Speaker 2>are going to get to the beans to feed, But

0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.680
<v Speaker 2>why do they so rarely follow that script? How do

0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.959
<v Speaker 2>we get it wrong so often? Well, for starters, as

0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.079
<v Speaker 2>much evolution as we have relating to the patterns of

0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:19.840
<v Speaker 2>our environment, the deer have the same advantage they've evolved

0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.360
<v Speaker 2>or recognize patterns too. I talked about this recently, but

0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:25.680
<v Speaker 2>I think a good way to look at it is

0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.920
<v Speaker 2>that if you're not happy with your hunting in general,

0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.240
<v Speaker 2>it's probably because you think you understand their patterns better

0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:37.320
<v Speaker 2>than you do, while also underestimating how good they have

0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:42.160
<v Speaker 2>you patterned. With the first part, it's best to treat

0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.320
<v Speaker 2>it like a scientist. What do you believe the deer

0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.760
<v Speaker 2>are doing, and how do you believe you'll cross paths

0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.320
<v Speaker 2>with the deer that you want to kill. Do that

0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.840
<v Speaker 2>and ask yourself how well it worked out. Are you

0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.320
<v Speaker 2>consistently surprised that you don't see mature bucks even though

0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:01.040
<v Speaker 2>you seem to be hunting in a way that should

0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.000
<v Speaker 2>produce at the very least some sightings. Then there's a

0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.200
<v Speaker 2>hole in your game. That's okay, there are holes in

0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.080
<v Speaker 2>all of our games. We mostly won't see big bucks

0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.120
<v Speaker 2>on any given day, but we also shouldn't let that

0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.160
<v Speaker 2>stop us from trying harder. And there's also another reality here.

0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.600
<v Speaker 2>If you want to actually pattern big bucks and kill them,

0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.520
<v Speaker 2>you might need to rethink when you hunt and where

0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.720
<v Speaker 2>deer start the season as patternable as they'll be all year,

0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.120
<v Speaker 2>and if you don't take advantage of that, things get

0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:36.280
<v Speaker 2>difficult in a hurry. The earlier the opener, say, you know,

0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.600
<v Speaker 2>a September first opener versus a mid September opener or

0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.720
<v Speaker 2>even in an October one opener, provides a huge advantage.

0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.600
<v Speaker 2>A good percentage of the bucks I have in my

0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.800
<v Speaker 2>walls died in September because a summer pattern is an

0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.200
<v Speaker 2>easy pattern to recognize. Now, I also have quite a

0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.680
<v Speaker 2>few bucks that I killed in mid October because they

0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.640
<v Speaker 2>tend to slip into a pattern. Then as well, they

0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:01.520
<v Speaker 2>react to the pressure move into the cover, and they

0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.320
<v Speaker 2>get harder to see for a lot of hunters who

0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:09.280
<v Speaker 2>stay outside the cover. But the great leveling agent there

0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.080
<v Speaker 2>is you know, those October bucks leave more and more sign,

0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.880
<v Speaker 2>So instead of direct observation to build a pattern, it's

0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.000
<v Speaker 2>often more a matter of finding sign and maybe running

0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.640
<v Speaker 2>some cameras. Even then you're still just playing the odds

0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:27.240
<v Speaker 2>because most dear at least after a week or two

0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.640
<v Speaker 2>of the season. They don't do the same thing over

0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.080
<v Speaker 2>and over again. I firmly believe that. Think about how

0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.120
<v Speaker 2>often you have checked a trail camera and has shown

0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.520
<v Speaker 2>a certain buck using a certain trail a couple of

0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.640
<v Speaker 2>times in one month. There's a loose pattern there. You know,

0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:44.600
<v Speaker 2>it's just diluted by a hell of a lot of

0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:49.240
<v Speaker 2>days where the buck did something else. This happens all

0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:54.000
<v Speaker 2>the time, and even consistent bucks are somewhat inconsistent and

0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.360
<v Speaker 2>that they are definitely not going to do the same

0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:59.560
<v Speaker 2>thing every day. You know, they might get thrown off

0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:03.280
<v Speaker 2>by the press, some predators, or the weather changes or whatever,

0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.080
<v Speaker 2>but they have a pattern they adopt when those things

0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:09.359
<v Speaker 2>happen too. We just might not know what the hell

0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.520
<v Speaker 2>that means. We also know that prey animals that make

0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.879
<v Speaker 2>their daily habits a little too well known are ripe

0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.920
<v Speaker 2>for predation. The deer that vary up their schedule make

0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:25.320
<v Speaker 2>themselves less patternable, which makes them more likely to survive.

0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.120
<v Speaker 2>I think this is where the lesson matters the most.

0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:32.359
<v Speaker 2>Just like when you're writing a song, an instinctively no

0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:34.840
<v Speaker 2>to give some space at certain points in the rhythm

0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:38.960
<v Speaker 2>or the melody, the patterns deer follow often have a

0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.600
<v Speaker 2>lot of dead air in between the movements. We want

0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:44.919
<v Speaker 2>bucks that do the same thing every day, but the

0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.879
<v Speaker 2>bucks that do that often get shot when they're a

0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:49.520
<v Speaker 2>year and a half old or two and a half

0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.439
<v Speaker 2>years old. The bucks that make it to maturity, you know,

0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:58.159
<v Speaker 2>either consciously or probably unconsciously, engage in a lifestyle that

0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.400
<v Speaker 2>isn't point a to be cookie cutter stuff. Every day.

0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:06.439
<v Speaker 2>They change up their routine often and bed here or

0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:08.919
<v Speaker 2>there and take this trail and not that one. But

0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.760
<v Speaker 2>over time, if you do your job, you'll see a

0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.359
<v Speaker 2>pattern in the conditions and the location that comes together

0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.720
<v Speaker 2>to give you higher odds of running into the deer

0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:20.920
<v Speaker 2>that you want to run into. That's what's so damn

0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.320
<v Speaker 2>fun about this stuff. You can get it dialed or

0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.800
<v Speaker 2>think you have it dialed, and still fail miserably. But

0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.080
<v Speaker 2>you can also get it dialed and wash it work

0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:33.480
<v Speaker 2>out in real time. And there are very few feelings

0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.399
<v Speaker 2>in hunting that rival that accomplishment because it's just so

0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.160
<v Speaker 2>dang rare and so special. So think about this as

0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.680
<v Speaker 2>your scouting right now, and as your turkey hunting, and

0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.760
<v Speaker 2>you know, you watch some shedbuck hop a fence in

0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.320
<v Speaker 2>a certain spot and drop into a valley, and as

0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.720
<v Speaker 2>you're thinking about getting some cameras out, you know, in

0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.240
<v Speaker 2>the next couple of months, think about this stuff and

0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.120
<v Speaker 2>their patterns. Think about coming back next week because I'm

0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:01.800
<v Speaker 2>going to talk about regrets in life and in hunting.

0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:05.800
<v Speaker 2>That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has

0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.080
<v Speaker 2>been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought

0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.359
<v Speaker 2>to you by First Light. As always, thank you so

0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.679
<v Speaker 2>much for your support everybody here at Meat Eater. We

0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.600
<v Speaker 2>are nothing without you, so it truly means the world

0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:20.520
<v Speaker 2>to us that you show up and you support us.

0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.320
<v Speaker 2>If you're dying to get more of a fix on

0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.440
<v Speaker 2>some content, whether that's an article, maybe you know Clay's

0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:29.360
<v Speaker 2>podcast or the Element Boys or whatever, or you want

0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.960
<v Speaker 2>to watch some hunting videos, head on over to the

0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.440
<v Speaker 2>meeteater dot com tons of content there. Maybe you'll find

0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:37.919
<v Speaker 2>a recipe for that gobbler you're gonna kill this week, whatever,

0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:46.280
<v Speaker 2>go check it out. Thank you