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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. Today's episode is all about muzzleoder hunting and

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Speaker 2: why it's such an underrated option for a lot of

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Speaker 2: deer hunters. As I sit here, you know, slaving away

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Speaker 2: so Steve Vanella can go on another sweet spear fishing

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Speaker 2: trip somewhere tropical, you know, while I'm stuck in this

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Speaker 2: arctic wasteland that's basically Canada South, I can look a

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Speaker 2: pile of hunting gear on my floor. It's an embarrassment, honestly.

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Speaker 2: But tucked into all of my stuff is a gun

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Speaker 2: case with a muzzler in it. I'm heading out very

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Speaker 2: soon to tote that gun around on some public land

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Speaker 2: and a part of Minnesota I almost never deer hunt.

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Speaker 2: I know it's going to be quite a learning experience,

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Speaker 2: which I'm excited about. But I'm also going to have

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Speaker 2: quite a bit of public land to myself, quite a

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Speaker 2: bit of fire power, you know, in my hands, more

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Speaker 2: than I'm used to carrying anyway. Honestly, I think musclader

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Speaker 2: hunting is probably one of the most underrated opportunities to

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Speaker 2: have a good deer hunt around and to figure out

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Speaker 2: a few things about yourself. So that's what I plan

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Speaker 2: to talk about right now. I don't know why you would,

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Speaker 2: but if you were to ask me what i'd do

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Speaker 2: for a living, I'd answer that I'm a writer. Now,

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Speaker 2: this isn't a lie. Really. For years, that's almost all

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Speaker 2: I did for my job, you know, along with plenty

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Speaker 2: of photography to support it. In the last decade or so,

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Speaker 2: our attention spans have shrunk to the point where we

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Speaker 2: have less focus than the average meth addicted chihuahua, and

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Speaker 2: that job that I miss every day morphed into something else,

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Speaker 2: you know. Obviously, I still write articles, and of course

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Speaker 2: I write podcasts, and there are a few more books

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Speaker 2: in various stages of completion as well, so it's not

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Speaker 2: like I'm not pounding on the keyboard. There's also a

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Speaker 2: hell of a lot of hunt filming too, which is

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Speaker 2: not something I actively chased in my career. It just

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Speaker 2: sort of came on a little more and a little

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Speaker 2: more and a little more, like eating a couple of

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Speaker 2: twinkies every night, not really exercising, and then suddenly one

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Speaker 2: day you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror

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Speaker 2: in just the right light, and you realize that you're

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Speaker 2: not quite as sexy as you used to be. The

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Speaker 2: thing about me personally when it comes to filming hunts

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Speaker 2: is that I don't think of myself as a TV guy.

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Speaker 2: In fact, my first reaction when someone mentions a TV

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Speaker 2: hunter is not a positive one. It gives me a

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Speaker 2: little bit of the feeling I had recently while walking

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Speaker 2: to a stand in northern Wisconsin in the dark and

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Speaker 2: stepping in a giant pile of fresh bear shit, and

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Speaker 2: just knowing that's what happened, even though I couldn't see it.

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Speaker 2: If you're wondering if we finally have the answer to

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Speaker 2: the old adage about whether Yogi drops a dou ski

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Speaker 2: in the woods or not, the answer is embedded in

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Speaker 2: the tread of my knee high lacross boots. The problem

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Speaker 2: with thinking this way is that well I am a

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Speaker 2: TV guy. It's a bummer. I know no one is

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Speaker 2: more upset about that than me, trust me, but I

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Speaker 2: just don't think of myself this way. I also don't

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Speaker 2: think of myself as a gun hunter. When it comes

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Speaker 2: to big game. The odds of catching me out in

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Speaker 2: the field with a high powered rifle are almost zero

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Speaker 2: in any given year. In fact, I haven't carried a

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Speaker 2: rifle to hunt big game in like eight years, and

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Speaker 2: in total have maybe done that like four seasons in

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Speaker 2: my life. It's just not my jam. I'm, you know,

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Speaker 2: a bow hunter through and through. Except that's just what

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Speaker 2: I think about myself as I actually loved a muzzle

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Speaker 2: or hunt, and even though I took a few years

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Speaker 2: off to mostly chase pheasants, I've rediscovered my love of

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Speaker 2: muzzleloder hunting. Last year, on the last weekend of the

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Speaker 2: season in Minnesota, I filled my buck tag with one.

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Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, Bobby, it was freaking awesome

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Speaker 2: to sit in a ladder stand overlooking a small cattail slough,

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Speaker 2: an island of cedars in a corner of a pick

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Speaker 2: beanfield while being able to reach out and shoot in

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Speaker 2: any direction for quite a ways It was pretty dang

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Speaker 2: fun to not have to pick the spot on the

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Speaker 2: spot where a buck might go through the cattails or

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Speaker 2: the trail he might use to get into the beans.

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Speaker 2: This is kind of a relief. I had the opportunity

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Speaker 2: to stay back, observe, and still be actively in the game.

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Speaker 2: When deer showed up a football field away, I enjoyed it.

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Speaker 2: The thing about this is that style of hunting is

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Speaker 2: like a hybrid hunt between a rifle hunt and a

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Speaker 2: bow hunt. It's a happy medium, and it meant that

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Speaker 2: I could get away with hunting some spots that I

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Speaker 2: just wouldn't be able to hunt with a bow. But

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Speaker 2: I didn't need to do it during a season when

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Speaker 2: there were half a million peace out had the woods

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Speaker 2: mostly to myself. So by the time you're listening to this,

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Speaker 2: I will have spent some time on that public land

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Speaker 2: in Minnesota that I'm going to muzzloorder hunt. I haven't

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Speaker 2: convinced myself to bowhunt there with any real effort yet,

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Speaker 2: because I don't have a real strong grasp on how

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Speaker 2: the deer used that type of terrain. Well, I kind

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Speaker 2: of do, but I also know that bowhunting them and

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Speaker 2: slews and in prairie grass is a different beast altogether,

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Speaker 2: one that I'm just not that confident in. Honestly, this

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Speaker 2: is where my full on endorsement of muzzleloder hunting comes

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Speaker 2: into play. Having a weapon that can reach out to

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Speaker 2: my max which is one hundred and fifty yards, opens

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Speaker 2: up a new world to me. Instead of going into

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Speaker 2: an environment that will undoubtedly kick my ass if I

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Speaker 2: carry a bow, I can go take the easier route

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Speaker 2: and use a muzzleloader. The deer afresh out of a

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Speaker 2: general gun season, so they aren't going to be easy,

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Speaker 2: but they should be somewhat visible. Because I have a

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Speaker 2: weapon that allows me to shoot farther, I can use

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Speaker 2: that to learn how they get into the slus and

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Speaker 2: out of them, how they travel the land at first

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Speaker 2: and last light, and hopefully run into a decent bucket

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Speaker 2: some point. And I can't wait. It's not just because

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Speaker 2: it feels good to carry a scope gun around after

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Speaker 2: a whole season of toting about. It's because muzzle ar

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Speaker 2: season is an opportunity to try some new things and

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Speaker 2: learn a little bit about the deer and still have

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Speaker 2: a chance to kill one. Now why is that important? Well,

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Speaker 2: every season I come to a few separate realizations a

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Speaker 2: little bit more. The first stems from how many people

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Speaker 2: send me emails about how they can't kill big bucks

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Speaker 2: on a specific property. It's often accompanied by a very

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Speaker 2: long paragraph free email and a screenshot of a piece

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Speaker 2: of ground that is covered in waypoints, and their hope

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Speaker 2: is that I'll magically be able to point them to

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Speaker 2: the tree where the big guy is going to walk.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. The truth is that

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Speaker 2: you either need an unbelievable property so your chances will

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Speaker 2: just happen and eventually you'll get it right, or more likely,

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Speaker 2: you just have to get better at deer hunting in

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Speaker 2: a significant way. Honestly, most of the folks I hear

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Speaker 2: from would benefit greatly from just lowering their standards and

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Speaker 2: learning how to deer hunt from A to Z. But

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Speaker 2: most people don't want to hear that they want big bucks.

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Speaker 2: They just don't understand what that actually entails. The other

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Speaker 2: realization is that we have been spoon fed a whole

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Speaker 2: bunch of bullshit from the hunting industry that has trickled

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Speaker 2: down into the general deer hunting population and made a

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Speaker 2: mess of this whole thing. If you look at most

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Speaker 2: of the voices in the whitetail space. They have worked

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Speaker 2: their way into a situation where they have relatively easy hunting,

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Speaker 2: even for really big deer. White tails are not hard

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Speaker 2: to hack if you have the means to control even

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Speaker 2: a marginally sized chunk of ground. The blueprint is pretty

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Speaker 2: much always the same. Put in some food, work on

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Speaker 2: the cover, and leave it alone till the deer think

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Speaker 2: they are safe. I have a couple of good buddies

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Speaker 2: who now have properties like this. They have food plots

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Speaker 2: and box blinds and bulldozer dug ponds, and there is

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Speaker 2: really about timing more than anything. They don't need to

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Speaker 2: actually scout these properties. They can just run a few

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Speaker 2: cameras and wait until the movement is right. They also

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Speaker 2: don't seem to be having as much fun as you'd expect.

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Speaker 2: When you walk out to the Redneck over and over

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Speaker 2: to sit over a beautiful patch of clover that you

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Speaker 2: know the deer going to come to. That's great donuts

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Speaker 2: for donuts, but over time, that's not that exciting. For

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Speaker 2: a lot of people, easy doesn't make you good, and

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Speaker 2: often isn't that rewarding. For some that doesn't matter, and

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Speaker 2: that's great, but for a lot of us, it's a

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Speaker 2: goal we actually don't want to achieve. Well, let me

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Speaker 2: put this another way. Would you rather have really easy

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Speaker 2: hunting for the rest of your life or would you

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Speaker 2: rather get really good at hunting? There is no wrong answer,

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Speaker 2: But if you're listening to this podcast, I have a

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Speaker 2: sneaking suspicion what you probably want. The thing is, we

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Speaker 2: don't know how to get better. We don't know how

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Speaker 2: to weather several seasons in a row where it feels

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Speaker 2: like we aren't getting better. The whole thing can get

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Speaker 2: real frustrating in a hurry. This is why I'm such

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Speaker 2: an advocate for hunting with lower standards until you get

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Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of experience under your belt.

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Speaker 2: It's why I think learning all parts of the hunt,

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Speaker 2: from scouting to killing the butchering is important. It's why

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Speaker 2: I think you should find new ways to hunt, new

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Speaker 2: places and get outside of your comfort zone. I honestly

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Speaker 2: think the worst thing to happen to most of us

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Speaker 2: is to decide that we have one place to hunt

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Speaker 2: and that's it. As soon as you commit yourself to

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Speaker 2: just one property, then you're limiting your growth as a hunter.

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Speaker 2: Now you might get really good at that property, but

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Speaker 2: eventually that might not be enough to keep your cup full.

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Speaker 2: So where am I going with this? Right? Muzzleloader hunting.

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Speaker 2: When I first started muzzloader hunting, I realized it was,

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Speaker 2: you know, bow hunting adjacent, but definitely easier. It gave

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Speaker 2: me the chance to try new things like tracking deer

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Speaker 2: in the fresh snow. I'd have never ever done that

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Speaker 2: with a bow, at least not successfully, but I did

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Speaker 2: it with an open sighted muzzle dround a monster dough

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Speaker 2: and it's one of my favorite hunting memories. Even on

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Speaker 2: properties I think I know really well the difference between

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Speaker 2: bow hunting before the general gun season and muzzle order

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Speaker 2: hunting after it's pretty big. I have to start fresh,

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Speaker 2: and there's no way around that. It's all about fresh sign,

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Speaker 2: understanding where the deer hold up, and observation. It's a

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Speaker 2: blank slate every season, and it's a low participation hunt

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Speaker 2: in most places. That means you have the advantage of

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Speaker 2: the gun while mostly just working against the deer and

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Speaker 2: not a lot of other hunters. There's a whole lot

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Speaker 2: of education that can be packed into that scenario. There's

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Speaker 2: an opportunity to break away from your comfort zone. You

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Speaker 2: know the stands you always sit or the access routes

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Speaker 2: you always take, and you need to try something different.

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Speaker 2: This is your chance. You can still hunt or stalk

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Speaker 2: or just set up to observe while having a real

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Speaker 2: chance to kill. You don't have to be an tree

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Speaker 2: and can work on your natural ground blind game. Now

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Speaker 2: we should do this with bows too, but we mostly don't.

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Speaker 2: We need an excuse to do something we wouldn't normally do.

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Speaker 2: This is why I like to travel the New States

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Speaker 2: and hunt public land that I've never seen before. I

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Speaker 2: like the feeling of just going to hunt deer and

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Speaker 2: not being worried about a certain size of buck. It

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Speaker 2: helps me enjoy the process because it's a low stress

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Speaker 2: way to learn about deer and how to hunt them.

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Speaker 2: A lot of us are missing that opportunity. I know

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Speaker 2: you might be thinking that you can't travel all over

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Speaker 2: and hunt every week in a new state, which is

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Speaker 2: totally valid. But I'll bet you could hunt your home

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Speaker 2: turf in a new way. I'll bet if you burn

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Speaker 2: yourself out bow hunting, you could find a way to

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Speaker 2: have a hell of a lot of fun with a muzzleloader.

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Speaker 2: If your state has a decent season, it's worth a

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Speaker 2: shot because most states have a general muzzloder season after

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Speaker 2: their rifle or shotgun season. What that means is that

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Speaker 2: you're going to go out after deer that have been

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Speaker 2: hunted real hard and they have moved into places where

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Speaker 2: the general gun probably didn't go. There's a lesson on

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Speaker 2: how deer react to real pressure built into most muzzlar seasons,

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Speaker 2: and if you want to get better at it being

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Speaker 2: a deer hunter, no matter what weapon you choose to carry,

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Speaker 2: learning how white tails react to pressure is like half

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Speaker 2: of the battle. We often think it's about figuring out

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Speaker 2: the food they are on, or they like to bed

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Speaker 2: to catch the thermals, but for most of us, the

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Speaker 2: really important thing is to understand how deer do the

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Speaker 2: things they do to avoid us. Hunting pressure from a

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Speaker 2: huge shotgun hunting party or just yourself as you sneak

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Speaker 2: into the woods over and over is going to be

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Speaker 2: a major factor in everything the local deer do. There

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Speaker 2: is no motivating force quite like staying alive. Hunger and

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Speaker 2: thirst are a distant second, because they're going to find

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Speaker 2: a way to take care of those, and while making

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Speaker 2: new deer can top the survival instincts from time to time,

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Speaker 2: it mostly doesn't. There's another thing to consider when it

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Speaker 2: comes to whether you want to go through the hassle

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Speaker 2: of buying a muzzleloader and then sighting in and trust

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Speaker 2: me on this, learning how to clean it properly. It's

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Speaker 2: that how serious do you take bow hunting after the

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Speaker 2: general gun season. I know that my drive to get

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Speaker 2: out there diminishes in a major way. Knowing that maybe

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Speaker 2: twenty percent of the deer are now dead and that

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Speaker 2: the rest are going to be super cagy doesn't make

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Speaker 2: me as excited to get out there as I am

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Speaker 2: before the gun season. I mostly wouldn't hunt right after

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Speaker 2: the gun season, if I'm being honest. The advantage of

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Speaker 2: a muzzleloader and the freedom it offers when compared to

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Speaker 2: archery tackle, provides a convincing enough argument to keep going.

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Speaker 2: It is just persuasive enough to get me out there

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Speaker 2: in the woods when I'd mostly rather be pheasant hunting

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Speaker 2: or doing something else. It makes the effort seem worth

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Speaker 2: it because it's just enough an advantage to make the

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Speaker 2: whole thing seem possible. Again, this gets even sweeter if

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Speaker 2: you have a dough tag and a little corner of

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Speaker 2: your chest freezer still empty enough to fit some packages

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Speaker 2: of venison in it. I guess this is a good

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Speaker 2: place to tie a bow on the whole thing. I know,

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Speaker 2: on average most of you probably aren't interested in muzzle

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Speaker 2: or hunting. That's fine, you don't have to go. What

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Speaker 2: the real lesson here is is find a way to

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Speaker 2: go hunting. Find a way to keep motivated to hunt

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Speaker 2: when it seems mostly like a lost cause. Give yourself

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Speaker 2: a reason to be out there. Try to understand why

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Speaker 2: you don't want to go right now, or why you

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Speaker 2: won't want to go in the near future, and mitigate

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Speaker 2: those feelings by giving yourself a reason. It might just

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Speaker 2: be as simple as wanting one more deer to eat,

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Speaker 2: Or it might be that you want to hunt a

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Speaker 2: side of your home state you never really hunted deer at,

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Speaker 2: and you're excited at the prospect of leaving the confines

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Speaker 2: of the woods to be in a place with huge

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Speaker 2: views and more visible deer. Maybe you're sick of getting

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Speaker 2: busted drawing your bow, or in a slump where you

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Speaker 2: made a bad shot or seven in a row. Oh,

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Speaker 2: and it would be nice to just lay the crosshairs

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Speaker 2: on a deer's shoulder as he feeds seventy five yards

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Speaker 2: away and dump him. Maybe just need to shake off

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Speaker 2: a rough bow season and spend some time slipping through

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Speaker 2: the woods with a real advantage in your hands. You know,

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Speaker 2: I thought i'd end this here, but I just realized something.

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Speaker 2: I think maybe the biggest problem most of us have

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Speaker 2: is we think about hunting in the wrong way. We think,

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Speaker 2: I hunt here, I do this, I don't do this,

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Speaker 2: And we think about a whole bunch of stuff that

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Speaker 2: we're sure will happen one way or another. But you

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Speaker 2: don't have to hunt there or do that or not

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Speaker 2: do that. And you know, a bunch of stuff that

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Speaker 2: you're sure always happens is probably absolutely not true. If

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Speaker 2: you break a few of those habits, you might find

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Speaker 2: a world of white tails you've shut yourself out of

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Speaker 2: just by thinking things go a certain way when they

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Speaker 2: don't have to. We don't only have to hunt differently

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Speaker 2: from our competition. We have to try to hunt differently

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Speaker 2: from ourselves, at least if we want to get better

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Speaker 2: at this stuff. So for me, that means taking a

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Speaker 2: muzzle order out and trying to find a deer in

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Speaker 2: an unfamiliar environment. But what does it mean for you?

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Speaker 2: Ask yourself that answer it, and then go do it,

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Speaker 2: my friends, and come back next week because I'm going

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Speaker 2: to talk about deer densities and how they should shape

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Speaker 2: our strategies and hunting styles. That's it for this week.

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Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. It's been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,

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Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. As always,

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Speaker 2: thank you so much for listening and for all your support.

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Speaker 2: Everybody here at Mediator truly appreciates it, so thank you

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Speaker 2: for that. If you want some more white tail content,

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Speaker 2: some more podcasts, some more articles, some more video series, whatever,

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Speaker 2: head on over to the meadeater dot com and you

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Speaker 2: will find so much stuff to keep you entertained while

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Speaker 2: you're sitting at work or sitting at home wishing it

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Speaker 2: was I don't know, spring fishing season or something. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: if you're bored and you want to get a little

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Speaker 2: bit better at hunting and retain yourself and educate yourself,

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Speaker 2: the medior dot com is the place to go. M

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Speaker 2: HM