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, everybody, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about muzzleoder hunting and
Speaker 2: why it's such an underrated option for a lot of
Speaker 2: deer hunters. As I sit here, you know, slaving away
Speaker 2: so Steve Vanella can go on another sweet spear fishing
Speaker 2: trip somewhere tropical, you know, while I'm stuck in this
Speaker 2: arctic wasteland that's basically Canada South, I can look a
Speaker 2: pile of hunting gear on my floor. It's an embarrassment, honestly.
Speaker 2: But tucked into all of my stuff is a gun
Speaker 2: case with a muzzler in it. I'm heading out very
Speaker 2: soon to tote that gun around on some public land
Speaker 2: and a part of Minnesota I almost never deer hunt.
Speaker 2: I know it's going to be quite a learning experience,
Speaker 2: which I'm excited about. But I'm also going to have
Speaker 2: quite a bit of public land to myself, quite a
Speaker 2: bit of fire power, you know, in my hands, more
Speaker 2: than I'm used to carrying anyway. Honestly, I think musclader
Speaker 2: hunting is probably one of the most underrated opportunities to
Speaker 2: have a good deer hunt around and to figure out
Speaker 2: a few things about yourself. So that's what I plan
Speaker 2: to talk about right now. I don't know why you would,
Speaker 2: but if you were to ask me what i'd do
Speaker 2: for a living, I'd answer that I'm a writer. Now,
Speaker 2: this isn't a lie. Really. For years, that's almost all
Speaker 2: I did for my job, you know, along with plenty
Speaker 2: of photography to support it. In the last decade or so,
Speaker 2: our attention spans have shrunk to the point where we
Speaker 2: have less focus than the average meth addicted chihuahua, and
Speaker 2: that job that I miss every day morphed into something else,
Speaker 2: you know. Obviously, I still write articles, and of course
Speaker 2: I write podcasts, and there are a few more books
Speaker 2: in various stages of completion as well, so it's not
Speaker 2: like I'm not pounding on the keyboard. There's also a
Speaker 2: hell of a lot of hunt filming too, which is
Speaker 2: not something I actively chased in my career. It just
Speaker 2: sort of came on a little more and a little
Speaker 2: more and a little more, like eating a couple of
Speaker 2: twinkies every night, not really exercising, and then suddenly one
Speaker 2: day you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror
Speaker 2: in just the right light, and you realize that you're
Speaker 2: not quite as sexy as you used to be. The
Speaker 2: thing about me personally when it comes to filming hunts
Speaker 2: is that I don't think of myself as a TV guy.
Speaker 2: In fact, my first reaction when someone mentions a TV
Speaker 2: hunter is not a positive one. It gives me a
Speaker 2: little bit of the feeling I had recently while walking
Speaker 2: to a stand in northern Wisconsin in the dark and
Speaker 2: stepping in a giant pile of fresh bear shit, and
Speaker 2: just knowing that's what happened, even though I couldn't see it.
Speaker 2: If you're wondering if we finally have the answer to
Speaker 2: the old adage about whether Yogi drops a dou ski
Speaker 2: in the woods or not, the answer is embedded in
Speaker 2: the tread of my knee high lacross boots. The problem
Speaker 2: with thinking this way is that well I am a
Speaker 2: TV guy. It's a bummer. I know no one is
Speaker 2: more upset about that than me, trust me, but I
Speaker 2: just don't think of myself this way. I also don't
Speaker 2: think of myself as a gun hunter. When it comes
Speaker 2: to big game. The odds of catching me out in
Speaker 2: the field with a high powered rifle are almost zero
Speaker 2: in any given year. In fact, I haven't carried a
Speaker 2: rifle to hunt big game in like eight years, and
Speaker 2: in total have maybe done that like four seasons in
Speaker 2: my life. It's just not my jam. I'm, you know,
Speaker 2: a bow hunter through and through. Except that's just what
Speaker 2: I think about myself as I actually loved a muzzle
Speaker 2: or hunt, and even though I took a few years
Speaker 2: off to mostly chase pheasants, I've rediscovered my love of
Speaker 2: muzzleloder hunting. Last year, on the last weekend of the
Speaker 2: season in Minnesota, I filled my buck tag with one.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, Bobby, it was freaking awesome
Speaker 2: to sit in a ladder stand overlooking a small cattail slough,
Speaker 2: an island of cedars in a corner of a pick
Speaker 2: beanfield while being able to reach out and shoot in
Speaker 2: any direction for quite a ways It was pretty dang
Speaker 2: fun to not have to pick the spot on the
Speaker 2: spot where a buck might go through the cattails or
Speaker 2: the trail he might use to get into the beans.
Speaker 2: This is kind of a relief. I had the opportunity
Speaker 2: to stay back, observe, and still be actively in the game.
Speaker 2: When deer showed up a football field away, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: The thing about this is that style of hunting is
Speaker 2: like a hybrid hunt between a rifle hunt and a
Speaker 2: bow hunt. It's a happy medium, and it meant that
Speaker 2: I could get away with hunting some spots that I
Speaker 2: just wouldn't be able to hunt with a bow. But
Speaker 2: I didn't need to do it during a season when
Speaker 2: there were half a million peace out had the woods
Speaker 2: mostly to myself. So by the time you're listening to this,
Speaker 2: I will have spent some time on that public land
Speaker 2: in Minnesota that I'm going to muzzloorder hunt. I haven't
Speaker 2: convinced myself to bowhunt there with any real effort yet,
Speaker 2: because I don't have a real strong grasp on how
Speaker 2: the deer used that type of terrain. Well, I kind
Speaker 2: of do, but I also know that bowhunting them and
Speaker 2: slews and in prairie grass is a different beast altogether,
Speaker 2: one that I'm just not that confident in. Honestly, this
Speaker 2: is where my full on endorsement of muzzleloder hunting comes
Speaker 2: into play. Having a weapon that can reach out to
Speaker 2: my max which is one hundred and fifty yards, opens
Speaker 2: up a new world to me. Instead of going into
Speaker 2: an environment that will undoubtedly kick my ass if I
Speaker 2: carry a bow, I can go take the easier route
Speaker 2: and use a muzzleloader. The deer afresh out of a
Speaker 2: general gun season, so they aren't going to be easy,
Speaker 2: but they should be somewhat visible. Because I have a
Speaker 2: weapon that allows me to shoot farther, I can use
Speaker 2: that to learn how they get into the slus and
Speaker 2: out of them, how they travel the land at first
Speaker 2: and last light, and hopefully run into a decent bucket
Speaker 2: some point. And I can't wait. It's not just because
Speaker 2: it feels good to carry a scope gun around after
Speaker 2: a whole season of toting about. It's because muzzle ar
Speaker 2: season is an opportunity to try some new things and
Speaker 2: learn a little bit about the deer and still have
Speaker 2: a chance to kill one. Now why is that important? Well,
Speaker 2: every season I come to a few separate realizations a
Speaker 2: little bit more. The first stems from how many people
Speaker 2: send me emails about how they can't kill big bucks
Speaker 2: on a specific property. It's often accompanied by a very
Speaker 2: long paragraph free email and a screenshot of a piece
Speaker 2: of ground that is covered in waypoints, and their hope
Speaker 2: is that I'll magically be able to point them to
Speaker 2: the tree where the big guy is going to walk.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. The truth is that
Speaker 2: you either need an unbelievable property so your chances will
Speaker 2: just happen and eventually you'll get it right, or more likely,
Speaker 2: you just have to get better at deer hunting in
Speaker 2: a significant way. Honestly, most of the folks I hear
Speaker 2: from would benefit greatly from just lowering their standards and
Speaker 2: learning how to deer hunt from A to Z. But
Speaker 2: most people don't want to hear that they want big bucks.
Speaker 2: They just don't understand what that actually entails. The other
Speaker 2: realization is that we have been spoon fed a whole
Speaker 2: bunch of bullshit from the hunting industry that has trickled
Speaker 2: down into the general deer hunting population and made a
Speaker 2: mess of this whole thing. If you look at most
Speaker 2: of the voices in the whitetail space. They have worked
Speaker 2: their way into a situation where they have relatively easy hunting,
Speaker 2: even for really big deer. White tails are not hard
Speaker 2: to hack if you have the means to control even
Speaker 2: a marginally sized chunk of ground. The blueprint is pretty
Speaker 2: much always the same. Put in some food, work on
Speaker 2: the cover, and leave it alone till the deer think
Speaker 2: they are safe. I have a couple of good buddies
Speaker 2: who now have properties like this. They have food plots
Speaker 2: and box blinds and bulldozer dug ponds, and there is
Speaker 2: really about timing more than anything. They don't need to
Speaker 2: actually scout these properties. They can just run a few
Speaker 2: cameras and wait until the movement is right. They also
Speaker 2: don't seem to be having as much fun as you'd expect.
Speaker 2: When you walk out to the Redneck over and over
Speaker 2: to sit over a beautiful patch of clover that you
Speaker 2: know the deer going to come to. That's great donuts
Speaker 2: for donuts, but over time, that's not that exciting. For
Speaker 2: a lot of people, easy doesn't make you good, and
Speaker 2: often isn't that rewarding. For some that doesn't matter, and
Speaker 2: that's great, but for a lot of us, it's a
Speaker 2: goal we actually don't want to achieve. Well, let me
Speaker 2: put this another way. Would you rather have really easy
Speaker 2: hunting for the rest of your life or would you
Speaker 2: rather get really good at hunting? There is no wrong answer,
Speaker 2: But if you're listening to this podcast, I have a
Speaker 2: sneaking suspicion what you probably want. The thing is, we
Speaker 2: don't know how to get better. We don't know how
Speaker 2: to weather several seasons in a row where it feels
Speaker 2: like we aren't getting better. The whole thing can get
Speaker 2: real frustrating in a hurry. This is why I'm such
Speaker 2: an advocate for hunting with lower standards until you get
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of experience under your belt.
Speaker 2: It's why I think learning all parts of the hunt,
Speaker 2: from scouting to killing the butchering is important. It's why
Speaker 2: I think you should find new ways to hunt, new
Speaker 2: places and get outside of your comfort zone. I honestly
Speaker 2: think the worst thing to happen to most of us
Speaker 2: is to decide that we have one place to hunt
Speaker 2: and that's it. As soon as you commit yourself to
Speaker 2: just one property, then you're limiting your growth as a hunter.
Speaker 2: Now you might get really good at that property, but
Speaker 2: eventually that might not be enough to keep your cup full.
Speaker 2: So where am I going with this? Right? Muzzleloader hunting.
Speaker 2: When I first started muzzloader hunting, I realized it was,
Speaker 2: you know, bow hunting adjacent, but definitely easier. It gave
Speaker 2: me the chance to try new things like tracking deer
Speaker 2: in the fresh snow. I'd have never ever done that
Speaker 2: with a bow, at least not successfully, but I did
Speaker 2: it with an open sighted muzzle dround a monster dough
Speaker 2: and it's one of my favorite hunting memories. Even on
Speaker 2: properties I think I know really well the difference between
Speaker 2: bow hunting before the general gun season and muzzle order
Speaker 2: hunting after it's pretty big. I have to start fresh,
Speaker 2: and there's no way around that. It's all about fresh sign,
Speaker 2: understanding where the deer hold up, and observation. It's a
Speaker 2: blank slate every season, and it's a low participation hunt
Speaker 2: in most places. That means you have the advantage of
Speaker 2: the gun while mostly just working against the deer and
Speaker 2: not a lot of other hunters. There's a whole lot
Speaker 2: of education that can be packed into that scenario. There's
Speaker 2: an opportunity to break away from your comfort zone. You
Speaker 2: know the stands you always sit or the access routes
Speaker 2: you always take, and you need to try something different.
Speaker 2: This is your chance. You can still hunt or stalk
Speaker 2: or just set up to observe while having a real
Speaker 2: chance to kill. You don't have to be an tree
Speaker 2: and can work on your natural ground blind game. Now
Speaker 2: we should do this with bows too, but we mostly don't.
Speaker 2: We need an excuse to do something we wouldn't normally do.
Speaker 2: This is why I like to travel the New States
Speaker 2: and hunt public land that I've never seen before. I
Speaker 2: like the feeling of just going to hunt deer and
Speaker 2: not being worried about a certain size of buck. It
Speaker 2: helps me enjoy the process because it's a low stress
Speaker 2: way to learn about deer and how to hunt them.
Speaker 2: A lot of us are missing that opportunity. I know
Speaker 2: you might be thinking that you can't travel all over
Speaker 2: and hunt every week in a new state, which is
Speaker 2: totally valid. But I'll bet you could hunt your home
Speaker 2: turf in a new way. I'll bet if you burn
Speaker 2: yourself out bow hunting, you could find a way to
Speaker 2: have a hell of a lot of fun with a muzzleloader.
Speaker 2: If your state has a decent season, it's worth a
Speaker 2: shot because most states have a general muzzloder season after
Speaker 2: their rifle or shotgun season. What that means is that
Speaker 2: you're going to go out after deer that have been
Speaker 2: hunted real hard and they have moved into places where
Speaker 2: the general gun probably didn't go. There's a lesson on
Speaker 2: how deer react to real pressure built into most muzzlar seasons,
Speaker 2: and if you want to get better at it being
Speaker 2: a deer hunter, no matter what weapon you choose to carry,
Speaker 2: learning how white tails react to pressure is like half
Speaker 2: of the battle. We often think it's about figuring out
Speaker 2: the food they are on, or they like to bed
Speaker 2: to catch the thermals, but for most of us, the
Speaker 2: really important thing is to understand how deer do the
Speaker 2: things they do to avoid us. Hunting pressure from a
Speaker 2: huge shotgun hunting party or just yourself as you sneak
Speaker 2: into the woods over and over is going to be
Speaker 2: a major factor in everything the local deer do. There
Speaker 2: is no motivating force quite like staying alive. Hunger and
Speaker 2: thirst are a distant second, because they're going to find
Speaker 2: a way to take care of those, and while making
Speaker 2: new deer can top the survival instincts from time to time,
Speaker 2: it mostly doesn't. There's another thing to consider when it
Speaker 2: comes to whether you want to go through the hassle
Speaker 2: of buying a muzzleloader and then sighting in and trust
Speaker 2: me on this, learning how to clean it properly. It's
Speaker 2: that how serious do you take bow hunting after the
Speaker 2: general gun season. I know that my drive to get
Speaker 2: out there diminishes in a major way. Knowing that maybe
Speaker 2: twenty percent of the deer are now dead and that
Speaker 2: the rest are going to be super cagy doesn't make
Speaker 2: me as excited to get out there as I am
Speaker 2: before the gun season. I mostly wouldn't hunt right after
Speaker 2: the gun season, if I'm being honest. The advantage of
Speaker 2: a muzzleloader and the freedom it offers when compared to
Speaker 2: archery tackle, provides a convincing enough argument to keep going.
Speaker 2: It is just persuasive enough to get me out there
Speaker 2: in the woods when I'd mostly rather be pheasant hunting
Speaker 2: or doing something else. It makes the effort seem worth
Speaker 2: it because it's just enough an advantage to make the
Speaker 2: whole thing seem possible. Again, this gets even sweeter if
Speaker 2: you have a dough tag and a little corner of
Speaker 2: your chest freezer still empty enough to fit some packages
Speaker 2: of venison in it. I guess this is a good
Speaker 2: place to tie a bow on the whole thing. I know,
Speaker 2: on average most of you probably aren't interested in muzzle
Speaker 2: or hunting. That's fine, you don't have to go. What
Speaker 2: the real lesson here is is find a way to
Speaker 2: go hunting. Find a way to keep motivated to hunt
Speaker 2: when it seems mostly like a lost cause. Give yourself
Speaker 2: a reason to be out there. Try to understand why
Speaker 2: you don't want to go right now, or why you
Speaker 2: won't want to go in the near future, and mitigate
Speaker 2: those feelings by giving yourself a reason. It might just
Speaker 2: be as simple as wanting one more deer to eat,
Speaker 2: Or it might be that you want to hunt a
Speaker 2: side of your home state you never really hunted deer at,
Speaker 2: and you're excited at the prospect of leaving the confines
Speaker 2: of the woods to be in a place with huge
Speaker 2: views and more visible deer. Maybe you're sick of getting
Speaker 2: busted drawing your bow, or in a slump where you
Speaker 2: made a bad shot or seven in a row. Oh,
Speaker 2: and it would be nice to just lay the crosshairs
Speaker 2: on a deer's shoulder as he feeds seventy five yards
Speaker 2: away and dump him. Maybe just need to shake off
Speaker 2: a rough bow season and spend some time slipping through
Speaker 2: the woods with a real advantage in your hands. You know,
Speaker 2: I thought i'd end this here, but I just realized something.
Speaker 2: I think maybe the biggest problem most of us have
Speaker 2: is we think about hunting in the wrong way. We think,
Speaker 2: I hunt here, I do this, I don't do this,
Speaker 2: And we think about a whole bunch of stuff that
Speaker 2: we're sure will happen one way or another. But you
Speaker 2: don't have to hunt there or do that or not
Speaker 2: do that. And you know, a bunch of stuff that
Speaker 2: you're sure always happens is probably absolutely not true. If
Speaker 2: you break a few of those habits, you might find
Speaker 2: a world of white tails you've shut yourself out of
Speaker 2: just by thinking things go a certain way when they
Speaker 2: don't have to. We don't only have to hunt differently
Speaker 2: from our competition. We have to try to hunt differently
Speaker 2: from ourselves, at least if we want to get better
Speaker 2: at this stuff. So for me, that means taking a
Speaker 2: muzzle order out and trying to find a deer in
Speaker 2: an unfamiliar environment. But what does it mean for you?
Speaker 2: Ask yourself that answer it, and then go do it,
Speaker 2: my friends, and come back next week because I'm going
Speaker 2: to talk about deer densities and how they should shape
Speaker 2: our strategies and hunting styles. That's it for this week.
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. It's been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. As always,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for listening and for all your support.
Speaker 2: Everybody here at Mediator truly appreciates it, so thank you
Speaker 2: for that. If you want some more white tail content,
Speaker 2: some more podcasts, some more articles, some more video series, whatever,
Speaker 2: head on over to the meadeater dot com and you
Speaker 2: will find so much stuff to keep you entertained while
Speaker 2: you're sitting at work or sitting at home wishing it
Speaker 2: was I don't know, spring fishing season or something. Anyway,
Speaker 2: if you're bored and you want to get a little
Speaker 2: bit better at hunting and retain yourself and educate yourself,
Speaker 2: the medior dot com is the place to go. M
Speaker 2: HM