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, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about thinking about
Speaker 2: dear and wealth and why it can change how you
Speaker 2: hunt them all. Right, before I get into this, I
Speaker 2: gotta do a couple things. I gotta apologize for having
Speaker 2: this voice of mine. I am fighting off a cold
Speaker 2: that someone delivered to me, probably somebody with kids at
Speaker 2: the Meat Eater store opening in Minneapolis, and I am
Speaker 2: waiting through this thing. But you gotta suffer through my voice.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry for that. The other thing I want to
Speaker 2: talk about quick here, I got to put in a
Speaker 2: little plug for a fishing show I put together called
Speaker 2: side Quests. It's a fun take on fishing that plays
Speaker 2: off my public land hunting style and episodes are dropping
Speaker 2: every Sunday on the Mediat YouTube channel. I know you're
Speaker 2: leaning into hunt mode right now, and I get it,
Speaker 2: I am too. But if you want to check out
Speaker 2: a unique fishing show that covers a whole ton of
Speaker 2: different species in different states on different water, go check
Speaker 2: out side Quest. And if you do check it out,
Speaker 2: I thank you in advance because that makes you pretty
Speaker 2: awesome in my opinion. All Right, I might be wrong
Speaker 2: on this, but I think a lot of the problems
Speaker 2: that hunters have with deer is they don't really think
Speaker 2: about what motivates deer. And I know that might sound
Speaker 2: kind of stupid, but what I mean is that they
Speaker 2: are survival machines who are highly driven to pass on
Speaker 2: their genes, you know, like pretty much all of life.
Speaker 2: But how they do it is what matters, though, And
Speaker 2: while we have an entire industry built around exploiting their weaknesses,
Speaker 2: the hunters who figure out what bucks have that are
Speaker 2: true strinths, but how they can work around that, those
Speaker 2: are the guys who usually fill their tags. Now, I
Speaker 2: know that might not make much sense, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to clear it all up right for you can. Now,
Speaker 2: unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard
Speaker 2: about how billionaires are bad and people who aren't billionaires
Speaker 2: by default are good. This refrain is the rallying cry
Speaker 2: of a lot of people these days, and it's interesting
Speaker 2: to watch it play out. The idea that no one
Speaker 2: should have that much money, and since they do, we
Speaker 2: should take more of it to do good things with
Speaker 2: it is very prevalent, and what a beautiful concept until
Speaker 2: you hit the part where the people taking it and
Speaker 2: deciding where it goes are the same folks who have
Speaker 2: us sitting at around forty trillion dollars in debt as
Speaker 2: a nation. They also mostly happen to be multimillionaires themselves,
Speaker 2: but they would rather we didn't pay too much attention
Speaker 2: to that part. This class war that's being waged on
Speaker 2: social media is at least partially the result of something
Speaker 2: called a K shaped economy. Maybe you heard it mentioned somewhere,
Speaker 2: but what it means is that essentially there's a midline
Speaker 2: for wealth where if you're on the top side of it,
Speaker 2: the current economy is going to reward you your wealth
Speaker 2: is increasing, but if you're not, you're going in the
Speaker 2: opposite direction and your wealth is decreasing. One person works
Speaker 2: from a home where they are paying a mortgage on
Speaker 2: They dump money into their four oh one K and
Speaker 2: their HSA every month, and they are generally viewed as
Speaker 2: valuable enough to get a raiz or a bonus you know,
Speaker 2: pretty much every year. Their house goes up in value
Speaker 2: while their principal O drops, their investments go up in value,
Speaker 2: and their trajectory is generally upward and favorable. Then you
Speaker 2: have someone else I don't know who doesn't work in
Speaker 2: it works in hospitality or something they rent, and their
Speaker 2: employer is actively trying to automate parts of their job
Speaker 2: to cut hours and save money. They can't pile money
Speaker 2: away to allow it to grow, and through all of that,
Speaker 2: the dollar becomes worthless and the prices of everyday goods
Speaker 2: and services steadily creep upward. Both people could be living
Speaker 2: in the same city but experiencing vastly different economies. One
Speaker 2: could be watching the real estate market and the stock
Speaker 2: market just blode and celebrate that rising tide, while the
Speaker 2: other slips further into debt by the day from the
Speaker 2: same economy that is rewarding the other folks. Essentially, if
Speaker 2: you're in a good position to start with, things will
Speaker 2: only get better for you, But if you're not, things
Speaker 2: will only get worse. Now, neither will last forever because
Speaker 2: it doesn't work that way. But it's pretty telling and
Speaker 2: pretty frustrating for a lot of folks. It makes sense. Now,
Speaker 2: let me put you in the minds of a couple
Speaker 2: of bucks. One is a six and a half year
Speaker 2: old ten pointer with an eighteen inch spread, plenty of mass,
Speaker 2: and he weighs two hundred and forty pounds on the hoof.
Speaker 2: The other is a two and a half year old
Speaker 2: ninety seven inch eight pointer who tips the scales at
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty pounds when he's soaking wet. They
Speaker 2: live in the same section of land which has let's
Speaker 2: say two dozen other deer, and of those deer, five
Speaker 2: of them are bucks that are somewhere between our two
Speaker 2: example deer in both range and size. The ten pointer
Speaker 2: knows them all, and they all know him. Now the
Speaker 2: eight pointer knows them all and they all know him too.
Speaker 2: He just has a different experience with them, particularly in
Speaker 2: the fall. Every deer in the herd is wired to
Speaker 2: survive and pass on their genes, and how they do
Speaker 2: that is by muscling their way up into the best
Speaker 2: spot in the hierarchy and then making do with what
Speaker 2: that affords them. They literally gather wealth, but not in
Speaker 2: the way that you think, although it's closer to our
Speaker 2: experience than most of us would probably acknowledge. For starters,
Speaker 2: they need food and shelter. Basic stuff probably sounds pretty familiar.
Speaker 2: Without either, we as humans, we're in trouble. And the
Speaker 2: same goes for deer. Food is a tricky one because
Speaker 2: in times of plenty, it's not worth fighting over or
Speaker 2: wasting an extra calorie to protect. In the summer and
Speaker 2: early fall, in most of the whitetail habitat out there,
Speaker 2: food is pretty plentiful. But as food gets less plentiful,
Speaker 2: it becomes more important. This is only amplified you know
Speaker 2: when a certain food source is limited, which you know
Speaker 2: most of them are, and also, you know, chock full
Speaker 2: of the things that bucks need to be big and
Speaker 2: strong and pass on their genes high value food. But
Speaker 2: think about this. I took the dogs to the park
Speaker 2: the other day. That park has a row of twelve
Speaker 2: burrokes in it. Nothing unusual about that in my part
Speaker 2: of the world. But one of those, and I mean
Speaker 2: just one, was dropping acorns like matt. Now, if those
Speaker 2: trees were on a ridge in the home range of
Speaker 2: our two example bucks, who do you think could show
Speaker 2: up at any time and eat as many acorns as
Speaker 2: he wanted. Not the two year old, because in that
Speaker 2: case he might be within a few feet of a
Speaker 2: buck who can kick his butt and will definitely posture
Speaker 2: him right off of that hard masked gold mine. He
Speaker 2: still wants to eat those acorns, so he has to
Speaker 2: figure out when he can get there when other bigger
Speaker 2: and more dominant bucks won't be there. This puts him
Speaker 2: at a disadvantage because he's most likely to find that
Speaker 2: oak without competition in daylight. The big ten pointer can
Speaker 2: show up just after dark, claim his spot and load up.
Speaker 2: The two year old eight pointer has to be far
Speaker 2: more careful, and in doing that he gives up an advantage. Now,
Speaker 2: look at that tech worker making two one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars a year, and you know has plenty
Speaker 2: of cash to invest at the end of every month.
Speaker 2: He isn't at a disadvantage going to whole foods and
Speaker 2: buying healthy groceries. The extra cost of organic avocados isn't
Speaker 2: even a consideration. It's just a healthy choice, and that
Speaker 2: doesn't add extra stress to his daily life, but makes
Speaker 2: him do a little bit better, and that other person
Speaker 2: you know who's working in hospitality for forty five grand
Speaker 2: a year just can't afford to eat as healthy. There's
Speaker 2: a disadvantage there resource wise that could play out in
Speaker 2: a variety of negative ways, and likely will over a
Speaker 2: long enough timeline. It doesn't seem fair when it comes
Speaker 2: to humans, but we don't think about that with deer.
Speaker 2: We just accept it as natural. We can take this
Speaker 2: a little bit deeper too. The dominant buck never has
Speaker 2: to move when he doesn't want to. I know, a
Speaker 2: wolf or a coyote or a small game hunter or
Speaker 2: something could get him moving at any time, but that's different.
Speaker 2: What I mean here is that dominant buck doesn't have
Speaker 2: to think about getting to the food early or getting
Speaker 2: into the field to sniff some doze before everyone else
Speaker 2: gets there. He can not only eat better than his competition,
Speaker 2: he can keep himself safer by going to eat and
Speaker 2: drink and check doze on a schedule he's learned will
Speaker 2: keep him from getting shot. He can wait until dark
Speaker 2: to travel when his biggest concern is already headed back
Speaker 2: to the truck and then back to the house. After
Speaker 2: a night of not shooting big bucks. The tech worker
Speaker 2: can work from home, which means no commute in rush
Speaker 2: hour traffic, no stress from driving around and other folks,
Speaker 2: no extra time commitment, no worry that his vehicle might
Speaker 2: break down, no realizing that he forgot to fuel up
Speaker 2: the night before. No making a lunch or planning to
Speaker 2: grab some fast food for breakfast or lunch. The other
Speaker 2: worker not so much. They deal with all that stuff
Speaker 2: at least five days a week. It puts them in
Speaker 2: danger of experiencing more stress and being forced into more
Speaker 2: unhealthy choices. Then at the end of the day, they
Speaker 2: have to return to an apartment complex where the neighbors
Speaker 2: are always noisy, the hallways are always cluttered with other
Speaker 2: people's crap, and half the appliances work half the time.
Speaker 2: Their sleep suffers, their mental well being suffers, and the
Speaker 2: spiral just continues. While that tech worker living in the
Speaker 2: suburbs is going to go home or stay home, I guess,
Speaker 2: grill out, go to sleep in a comfortable bed with
Speaker 2: no outside noise creeping in, and their spiral goes the
Speaker 2: other way. Our young buck, he's living that apartment life.
Speaker 2: He beds close to the access where most of the
Speaker 2: hunters walk in. He does have as good of an
Speaker 2: option to win them before they get there. That stress
Speaker 2: has got to be real for him. It's also true
Speaker 2: that since more people start where he spends more time,
Speaker 2: he gets bumped around more often. There are times to
Speaker 2: lay low and let danger pass, but other times where
Speaker 2: he just has to run. This is a move that
Speaker 2: protects him in the short term, but leaves him more
Speaker 2: exposed when he's escaped you know the original threat. Now
Speaker 2: he has to get back to his preferred bedding area
Speaker 2: or hole up somewhere else. He's left more scent for
Speaker 2: the coyotes and wolves and whatever else, and he's given
Speaker 2: up a strategic advantage by having to leave his bed
Speaker 2: more stress, more danger. That dominant buck, on the other hand,
Speaker 2: spends his days in the high spot in the swamp
Speaker 2: if the wind is out of the north or the west,
Speaker 2: or he beds next to a dead fall on the
Speaker 2: highest bench on the ridge when the winds come in
Speaker 2: the other way, you know where he can smell anything
Speaker 2: coming over the top and see and hear anything approaching
Speaker 2: from below. If a hunter does enter his world, he
Speaker 2: knows it well before he has to totally panic. He
Speaker 2: can slip out to a backup spot if necessary, or
Speaker 2: decide if he just needs to stay put and monitor
Speaker 2: the situation. He just has better options and less stress
Speaker 2: because he can afford the best real estate. He's at
Speaker 2: the end of the cul de sac, you know, with
Speaker 2: a gated yard and a security system that allows him
Speaker 2: to sleep well at night or I guess sleep well
Speaker 2: in the day. Who has the higher odds of survival
Speaker 2: or who is the harder buck to kill? We all
Speaker 2: know the answer, but it's not because the old buck
Speaker 2: is just super cagy and the young buck is super dumb.
Speaker 2: You know. Granted, six years in the woods teaches you
Speaker 2: better survival than two years in the woods, but it's
Speaker 2: not so simple as peer experience levels dictating survival. The
Speaker 2: advantages a deer has for being more wealthy than all
Speaker 2: the other deer are no joke, and if you want
Speaker 2: to kill them, you have to think about that, and
Speaker 2: we do. But what we think about is how to
Speaker 2: exploit a weakness in their game and take advantage of
Speaker 2: it somehow. And this works sometimes, but it doesn't generally
Speaker 2: make us well rounded hunters. Waiting on the rut to
Speaker 2: get that big deer moving does work, but that's a
Speaker 2: short window. Whell you'll have tons of competition trying to
Speaker 2: call him in or decoy him in or whatever. They're
Speaker 2: all fleeting opportunities that when done blind, rank very low
Speaker 2: in the success category, and when done with him in sight,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're lucky enough to see him in daylight,
Speaker 2: rank pretty low in the success category as well. This
Speaker 2: is mostly because you were asking him to do something
Speaker 2: he wasn't planning on doing, and if you've ever hung
Speaker 2: around old guys, you know that's just not their favorite pastime.
Speaker 2: A better bet is to try to learn what he
Speaker 2: chooses to do and then exploit that. This puts you
Speaker 2: in the running all season long, so that if you
Speaker 2: do strike out in the earlier the midseason, you can
Speaker 2: still get out there during the run and wait him
Speaker 2: out on some terrain trap. But before that, think about
Speaker 2: what he will choose to do in the early season,
Speaker 2: which is coming up on us real fast. Here, he
Speaker 2: will bed someplace where the bugs aren't bad, but he
Speaker 2: also isn't getting messed with by hunters. He will generally
Speaker 2: have a death Nation food source he's going to end
Speaker 2: up in. He will also have other food sources, often
Speaker 2: tied to mast that he will hit on a daily basis,
Speaker 2: he will have water to think about as well. The
Speaker 2: movement tied to almost all of this stuff will happen
Speaker 2: at night. This means that you need to be close
Speaker 2: to where he beds or close to where he feels
Speaker 2: comfortable moving in daylight, which is usually the same thing.
Speaker 2: This means you need to not only think about where
Speaker 2: he's going to start his day in the evening, but
Speaker 2: how he's going to end it in the morning. It
Speaker 2: means that the two year old eight pointer you don't
Speaker 2: want to shoot, but who came into the apple tree
Speaker 2: in the meadow that's two hundred yards off the neighbor's
Speaker 2: alfalfa field is telling you something really important and you
Speaker 2: should listen. Maybe the big boy won't come into that
Speaker 2: apple tree in daylight, but you drop a camera there
Speaker 2: and realize that he will definitely come in after dark.
Speaker 2: Do you just hunt that tree over and over and
Speaker 2: over until the mass dries up and the program dies,
Speaker 2: hoping he slips up and comes in during daylight, or
Speaker 2: do you try to catch him on his way to
Speaker 2: the apple tree. This is one of the hardest things
Speaker 2: to do because we really like ambushing critters at their destination,
Speaker 2: but not necessarily along their travel routes, but that big
Speaker 2: buck doesn't need to get there super early. He might
Speaker 2: be excited to get there ten minutes after dark, which
Speaker 2: will put him on the move in the cover while
Speaker 2: there is still some shooting light. This idea speaks to
Speaker 2: something that plags hunters without them ever knowing, which is
Speaker 2: that we've been conditioned to hunt in ways where we've
Speaker 2: pen our hopes on them screwing up, on them moving
Speaker 2: when it's dangerous, or responding to a call when they
Speaker 2: should probably ignore it. Think about it differently, though, and
Speaker 2: try to acknowledge the advantages those target bucks have and
Speaker 2: how that can be used to predict the movements when
Speaker 2: they'll be vulnerable. This is the crux of good woodsmanship
Speaker 2: and the cornerstone of most successful big buck hunters, who
Speaker 2: have to hunt where the pressure is high and the
Speaker 2: land isn't in their control. They have to learn the
Speaker 2: animals and then work with what the animals give them
Speaker 2: in the context of their hunting situations. They don't just
Speaker 2: hope the bucks show up on the f field edge.
Speaker 2: They try to figure out not only why he doesn't,
Speaker 2: but where he is likely to show up before he
Speaker 2: hits the field edge or where he waters in the
Speaker 2: cover on his way back to bed, where he feels
Speaker 2: safe and comfortable moving because he can do what he wants,
Speaker 2: and what he wants is to have his needs met
Speaker 2: in a safe way where he's confident nothing will mess
Speaker 2: with him. This is also why it's a little insane
Speaker 2: to me that folks who hunt public land or pressure
Speaker 2: private ground subscribe to the idea that they have sanctuaries
Speaker 2: they will leave alone and you know, total no go
Speaker 2: time periods throughout the season where they won't hunt. That's
Speaker 2: the best way to give the deer a pass. And
Speaker 2: it's like admitting that you really need to hunt only
Speaker 2: when the deer are most likely to screw up, and
Speaker 2: not when you can most likely figure out how to
Speaker 2: get close to them when they're just doing their daily
Speaker 2: thing with a head full of confidence. I'll be deep
Speaker 2: into this process in Nebraska by the time the next
Speaker 2: episode drops, and the whole plan there is going to
Speaker 2: be to speed scout water tanks until I find fresh
Speaker 2: buck sign and then figure out how to pin down
Speaker 2: a bachelor group either at the water or somewhere in
Speaker 2: relation to how they get there or leave. I'll be
Speaker 2: thinking about big Bucks, white tails and meal deer, and
Speaker 2: I'll be thinking about what the terrain offers them as
Speaker 2: an advantage and how they'll use that to avoid me
Speaker 2: and a whole bunch of other hunters who are likely
Speaker 2: to be out there looking for the same deer as me.
Speaker 2: I hope that I can find a cozy, nice, just
Speaker 2: little buck filled suburb back off the road a mile
Speaker 2: or two with cold water, fresh greenery, and well just
Speaker 2: nice enough digs for a couple of lazy bucks to
Speaker 2: hang around in. I have some pins dropped on on
Speaker 2: X already, with tanks close to some serious up and
Speaker 2: down terrain that should be conducive to buck betting, and
Speaker 2: all in all, I'm just looking for those gated communities
Speaker 2: that only the richest of deer can live in, and
Speaker 2: then I'm going to get in there and see if
Speaker 2: I'm right. You should do the same as you're gearing
Speaker 2: up for the fall. Don't just think about big Bucks
Speaker 2: out there and what you think you know about them.
Speaker 2: Try to figure out where they are likely to be
Speaker 2: and why you know based off the fact that they
Speaker 2: can choose any bedding area, any food source, any travel
Speaker 2: route that they feel is best for their survival because
Speaker 2: they can do that and come back next week because
Speaker 2: I drop some more dear knowledge right here on the
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt Network. That's it for this episode. I'm
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson. I just want to thank you guys for
Speaker 2: your support. Man. I worked this meat Eater store grand
Speaker 2: opening in Minneapolis recently. In the amount of people who
Speaker 2: showed up kind of renewed my faith in the hunting
Speaker 2: community for real. It was incredible to talk to so
Speaker 2: many people who just love the same thing that I do.
Speaker 2: So thank you for showing up for that. Thank you
Speaker 2: for listening. If you need more content, you know where
Speaker 2: to get it. The meadeater dot com. New articles, new podcasts,
Speaker 2: new films, all kinds of stuff showing up there every day.
Speaker 2: Go check it out and thank you once again for
Speaker 2: all of your support.