Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your
Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and this episode is all
Speaker 1: about looking back on your deer season and taking a
Speaker 1: little time to digest the good, the bad, and ugly. Listen,
Speaker 1: I know it's not over for everyone. Hell, it's like,
Speaker 1: actually not really over for me yet. I'm heading to
Speaker 1: southwest Wisconsin in two weeks to go on a little
Speaker 1: dough hunting mission. So technically it's not a rap I guess,
Speaker 1: but let's just say it is for the hell of it.
Speaker 1: After all, even if the season is still open for
Speaker 1: quite a few hunters out there, quite a few hunters
Speaker 1: aren't really getting after it very are in the late season.
Speaker 1: So let's just say the curtain is closed, and the
Speaker 1: old sun is set, and first fistful of soil has
Speaker 1: rained down on the coffin that contains your deer season.
Speaker 1: What do you do now? That's what this episode is
Speaker 1: all about. I love saltwater fishing. It's a passion that
Speaker 1: I've come into over maybe like the last decade, and listen,
Speaker 1: this is maybe the biggest first world problem ever. But
Speaker 1: it's really not a great hobby to have as a
Speaker 1: Minnesotan who makes outdoor writer kind of money, because it's
Speaker 1: not like I can just catch a quick flight to
Speaker 1: somewhere beachy and warm anytime I had the urge to
Speaker 1: go fishing. It's more like once a year type of
Speaker 1: thing if I get lucky, and that's almost always paired
Speaker 1: with my family, a family that contains big and small
Speaker 1: people who like shopping and swimming and non fishing related activit.
Speaker 1: He's quite a bit that means, just like it is
Speaker 1: with mountain hunting, I know my time is limited for
Speaker 1: this thing that is pretty special to me, so I
Speaker 1: want to make the most of it. The few days
Speaker 1: a year where I get to saltwater fish, I just
Speaker 1: want them to be the best they can be. When
Speaker 1: I'm done with them, I think about how to make
Speaker 1: my next trip better so I could just be more
Speaker 1: efficient and enjoy it more. So let me break down
Speaker 1: my fishing this past March in Florida, the sea trout
Speaker 1: were biting the whiting or somewhat biting the hardhead catfish
Speaker 1: were definitely biting, so whore a bunch of random fish.
Speaker 1: It was pretty damn fun. But I also figured out
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff about saltwater fishing, or me specifically
Speaker 1: saltwater fishing. I figured out that instead of buying shrimp
Speaker 1: like crazy, I could neet some bait fish myself. That's
Speaker 1: a twofer because you get the fun of throwing a
Speaker 1: cast net, which is real addictive, but then you get
Speaker 1: the fun of using that catch to fish with. I
Speaker 1: also figured out that four inch swim baits paired up
Speaker 1: with ten pound floor carbon line will fool a lot
Speaker 1: of predatory fish in the ocean, and that was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. But I also figured out that if
Speaker 1: I trust my ten year old daughters to watch a
Speaker 1: rod that has some cut bait on it when the
Speaker 1: catfish are really eating right at sunset, I might hear
Speaker 1: the sound of a very expensive travel rod and a
Speaker 1: very expensive bait casting reel go pop right into the water.
Speaker 1: I also figured out that if I take a different
Speaker 1: expensive rod and leave it under a tie up cleat
Speaker 1: on a dock so that the fish can't pull it in,
Speaker 1: I might, like an absolute idiot, try to pick it
Speaker 1: up and snap it clean off. Every day in my
Speaker 1: life since that trip, I felt a sharp pain in
Speaker 1: the tip of my pointer finger. And do you want
Speaker 1: to know why, Well, because I tried to throw a
Speaker 1: little fish back into the water and it spined me.
Speaker 1: It was so very pain and full but sometimes fishing is.
Speaker 1: What I didn't realize is that no matter how much
Speaker 1: I rooted around in my finger with a sharp knife
Speaker 1: after that fish spine went in there, and maybe some
Speaker 1: very manly tears were threatening to form it any second,
Speaker 1: that freaking fish spine is destined to stay in my
Speaker 1: finger forever and remind me of how dumb I can be.
Speaker 1: The lessons I learned from that trip are mostly what
Speaker 1: not to do, but there are a few that showed
Speaker 1: me more of what I want to do with my
Speaker 1: limited time ocean fishing. Now, what does all this one
Speaker 1: percent or fishing talk mean about deer hunting? Well, let's
Speaker 1: reflect a little. The deer season, archery, gun, muzzleloader, whatever,
Speaker 1: might vary between a week or so to several months.
Speaker 1: That mitigates some of the mistakes because the sheer amount
Speaker 1: of time to get things right, you got a lot
Speaker 1: of it. Sometimes it also makes it seem falsely. I
Speaker 1: might add that you always have some time left, of course,
Speaker 1: until you don't. So what happened with your season? Scratch that,
Speaker 1: because I know we're going to think about the deer
Speaker 1: you killed and the deer you didn't. That's what we
Speaker 1: all do. A good season is one where we killed
Speaker 1: some deer, especially a big deer, and a bad season
Speaker 1: is one where we didn't. But that's all bullshit. Well
Speaker 1: it's not all bullshit, but it's partially bullshit. Here's why
Speaker 1: this lesson isn't supposed to make you a better hunter now.
Speaker 1: It could if you think back to some of your
Speaker 1: mistakes and make a plan to remedy them. I've talked
Speaker 1: about that on past episodes, so I'm gonna let that go.
Speaker 1: If you missed now, If you missed a buck, do whatever,
Speaker 1: practice more. If you got busted a lot, figure out
Speaker 1: how to set up better. If you didn't see a
Speaker 1: buck all season and you hate the world, it's time
Speaker 1: to get to work. If you thought you were going
Speaker 1: to have a major chest grabber dragging a dopon downhill
Speaker 1: and short grass, time to get to the gym. Some
Speaker 1: lessons are playing as day, others not so much. When
Speaker 1: I think about my season, actually my last three seasons,
Speaker 1: I'm reminded of a few things that I need to
Speaker 1: have to make it more fun for me in the field.
Speaker 1: And that's really the ticket, my friends, and it matters
Speaker 1: to every part of this. Sure, there is supposed to
Speaker 1: be some level of suck involved when you kill an animal.
Speaker 1: That's a given and a write of passage that really
Speaker 1: shouldn't be dismissed. But you should learn to love the process.
Speaker 1: You should love the act of figuring this stuff out.
Speaker 1: You should think back to what you enjoyed and what
Speaker 1: you didn't, and you should use that time of reflection
Speaker 1: to plan a better year this year. Now, let me
Speaker 1: explain this because it gets confusing for everyone, and I
Speaker 1: mean everyone. It's kind of like, if you don't work
Speaker 1: out and you want to start, what is your reasoning
Speaker 1: going to be? People, it's going to be to lose
Speaker 1: weight rate. That's an admirable goal, but it's the wrong
Speaker 1: one in my opinion. That goal means that if you
Speaker 1: don't shed the pounds by a certain point, it's a failure.
Speaker 1: If you don't shed enough pounds overall, it's a failure.
Speaker 1: That's a trap, it's a trap to think that working
Speaker 1: out that way is the only reason is you're gonna
Speaker 1: just lose some weight. The goal should be to get
Speaker 1: in shape and feel better. And I know that sounds dumb,
Speaker 1: but it's true. You should want to do it to
Speaker 1: feel better physically, of course, but also mentally. If you
Speaker 1: get into the habit of working out, that will happen,
Speaker 1: and you know what else will happen, You'll lose weight.
Speaker 1: With deer hunting, we always look at this type of
Speaker 1: mental exercise as a means to get us to kill
Speaker 1: more deer. We equate dead bucks with happiness, and believe me,
Speaker 1: I'm rarely sad when I kill a buck or a dope.
Speaker 1: But it's the wrong goal. The goal should be to
Speaker 1: enjoy hunting more in a way that makes it easy.
Speaker 1: Here to hunt in less than ideal conditions and when
Speaker 1: you're tired, and when you just don't think it's going
Speaker 1: to be very good. This is all about figuring out
Speaker 1: what you like. Maybe as an example, you've listened to
Speaker 1: me and a bunch of other industry dipshits drown on
Speaker 1: and on and on about how awesome all day sits
Speaker 1: are during the rut. So this past season you made
Speaker 1: some sandwiches and you brewed some strong coffee, and you
Speaker 1: went out in November for a dark to dark sit
Speaker 1: on some sweet funnel. Maybe you hated it because you
Speaker 1: got I don't know, two hours into the sit and
Speaker 1: didn't see a single buck and you could have done
Speaker 1: a million things more with your time. Maybe you realize
Speaker 1: that you're more of a three hours of night September
Speaker 1: kind of hunter. Or maybe you bought a saddle because
Speaker 1: every really cool guy you know is all about that
Speaker 1: saddle life. In fact, we could probably make a lot
Speaker 1: of money if we made saddle life window decals, like
Speaker 1: all those salt life decals you seat down in floorida
Speaker 1: on souped up trucks. Anyway, maybe you bought a saddle
Speaker 1: and you tricked it all out and then realize after
Speaker 1: a few hunts that you're kind of really more of
Speaker 1: a ladder stand kind of hunter. Maybe you didn't hunt
Speaker 1: much in October because everyone says it won't be good
Speaker 1: and you should save your best stands until the rut.
Speaker 1: But then the rut came and the kids got the flu,
Speaker 1: and your dumb boss made you work weekends, and suddenly
Speaker 1: you didn't get to hunt enough and you feel kind
Speaker 1: of like unfulfilled by the deer season. Is the fix
Speaker 1: as easy as saying next year, I'm going to hunt
Speaker 1: the early season as much as I can, or maybe
Speaker 1: October more than I did this year. Now, what about
Speaker 1: your standards for a shooter. Here's something we never talked about,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to talk about right now. I figured
Speaker 1: out I like shooting deer more than I like waiting
Speaker 1: for a very specific animal to walk by. That's just me.
Speaker 1: You do you, But for me, the best feeling as
Speaker 1: a hunter is when I slipped from the mode of
Speaker 1: an observer to someone who is going to try to
Speaker 1: kill a deer right now. I love that feeling. I
Speaker 1: love it so much that always holding out for a
Speaker 1: big deer doesn't do it for me, because I know
Speaker 1: those opportunities aren't going to come my way more than
Speaker 1: a few times each season, and when they do, the
Speaker 1: odds of me getting to actually shoot they're not that great.
Speaker 1: I know this about myself because I've been through every
Speaker 1: stage of a hunter from its brown it's down to
Speaker 1: antlers or everything, and I'm over the trophy stuff and
Speaker 1: I just want to have fun. But what do you want?
Speaker 1: Do you want the trophies but only see dinks. Maybe
Speaker 1: you're in a bad spot and should spend your off
Speaker 1: season looking for new ground with better potential, or better yet,
Speaker 1: you should do that while also scouting more and more
Speaker 1: and putting in some real work. The odds are pretty
Speaker 1: good that where you hunt there's a buck or two
Speaker 1: that would make you really happy if you and him
Speaker 1: didn't cross paths, that's on you. Maybe you hunt it
Speaker 1: in a way where you thought the rut would save you,
Speaker 1: or maybe a late season food plot would save you.
Speaker 1: Maybe that left you're feeling kind of cheated on the
Speaker 1: whole process, and next year you're going to do things differently.
Speaker 1: Maybe you decided you would scout your ass off in
Speaker 1: the summer and try to kill an opening night buck
Speaker 1: on a bean field and you got so close and
Speaker 1: you want more of that in your life. Or I
Speaker 1: don't know, you took your first trip and you loved it,
Speaker 1: so you want to plan another that's an easy one.
Speaker 1: Or maybe all of your buddies took a trip and
Speaker 1: you didn't because you couldn't afford it. And now you
Speaker 1: hear that we are in a recession, and you go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store in your billis twice what it
Speaker 1: was a year ago, and you think I'm never going
Speaker 1: to be able to afford to travel the hunt. And
Speaker 1: maybe that's true, or maybe now is the time to
Speaker 1: start planning and putting away a little bit of money
Speaker 1: each week. Some of the best deer hunting options out
Speaker 1: there are pretty cheap still, They just take some research.
Speaker 1: What is it that you personally want on your deer
Speaker 1: hunting besides buck with four drop times? What is it
Speaker 1: that you loved about last season that you want more of?
Speaker 1: What is it that you've never tried but you think
Speaker 1: you might like. This whole deer hunting thing is a gift,
Speaker 1: my friends, and it's not going to be around forever.
Speaker 1: We have such a cool opportunity to devote some time
Speaker 1: to these critters and see a world that most humans
Speaker 1: will never know about from this time and history forward.
Speaker 1: Instead of basing your hunts on what you think you
Speaker 1: should do to kill a big one, ask yourself what
Speaker 1: you do to just have more fun. I've been doing
Speaker 1: this a lot in my life. As I stare at
Speaker 1: a bunch of deer amounts on my walls and I'm
Speaker 1: reminded of a line in an old Counting Crows song
Speaker 1: that goes if dreams are like movies, the memories are
Speaker 1: films about ghosts, the deer of the past, and the
Speaker 1: hunts from the season and all before them. They're just memories,
Speaker 1: and that's great, but also a good reminder the next
Speaker 1: season will also be a memory, and hopefully many many
Speaker 1: seasons after that one. What are you going to do
Speaker 1: with them to make sure you think back fondly on them,
Speaker 1: or better yet, so that you look forward, and I
Speaker 1: mean really look forward to your time in the field
Speaker 1: so much so that you never look for an excuse
Speaker 1: to not go that you're so happy to put in
Speaker 1: the work to scout this winner and hang some stands
Speaker 1: this summer and just immerse yourself in it so that
Speaker 1: it fills your cup up, so to speak. Figuring out
Speaker 1: how to do that incrementally, because there's no wholesale way
Speaker 1: to do it, is a big step in becoming someone
Speaker 1: who really really loves deer hunting. And you know what
Speaker 1: happens to folks who really really love deer hunting. They
Speaker 1: get really really good at it. They tend to figure
Speaker 1: out how to hunt in a way that they love,
Speaker 1: and they tend to calibrate their standards in such a
Speaker 1: way that they are just as happy to not fill
Speaker 1: a tag as they are to fill, or at least
Speaker 1: the balance is pretty damn close. So let me tell
Speaker 1: you what I did the last two seasons that I
Speaker 1: won't do this year to sort of frame this whole
Speaker 1: thing up. I'm not going to skip the early season hunting.
Speaker 1: I've done that the last two years to save some
Speaker 1: tags for some projects, but I hated it, and I
Speaker 1: mean hated it. Some of my favorite hunting happens in September,
Speaker 1: and it normally takes the call of the Elk Mountains
Speaker 1: or a funeral to get me not to be in
Speaker 1: the deer woods. Then, during the last two seasons with
Speaker 1: this current Giga Matt, I haven't planned very well for
Speaker 1: that and it hasn't been that much fun. And I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna make that mistake again. In fact, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: work my ass off to get on some early season
Speaker 1: bucks here in my home state and see what I
Speaker 1: can do about filling my buck tag within the first
Speaker 1: few days of this season. And just the thought of
Speaker 1: that gets me excited because I love that early season
Speaker 1: stuff so much. And I'm also going to go back
Speaker 1: to the big Woods. I love the challenge of the
Speaker 1: big Woods, and I love the reality that killing a
Speaker 1: forkey on public land that is just miles of timber
Speaker 1: is more challenging than killing a much bigger deer in
Speaker 1: egg country. Least it is for me. I missed that
Speaker 1: process and I missed the ass kicking it delivers. So
Speaker 1: no matter what happens with this job and what I
Speaker 1: have to film, what I have to do, I'm going
Speaker 1: to spend some time in northern Wisconsin, where I tend
Speaker 1: to fill the least amount of tags but feel the
Speaker 1: best about my hunting. I'm also going somewhere new, and
Speaker 1: I don't know where yet, but I want to hunt
Speaker 1: some public land this year in a state or a
Speaker 1: part of a state that I've never been to. I
Speaker 1: think it might be in Oklahoma, but maybe somewhere else,
Speaker 1: and it really doesn't matter. I just want to feel
Speaker 1: that anticipation of the late nights on on X when
Speaker 1: the reality of loading up, you know, all the camping
Speaker 1: gear and heading out for five or six days to
Speaker 1: a new place for a little deer hunting adventure just
Speaker 1: hits home. I want that feeling again. I'm also going
Speaker 1: to start teaching my daughters how to actually hunt, not
Speaker 1: just kill in spots that I've set up for them,
Speaker 1: but to read sign and figure some things out. I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask them to start picking some spots to
Speaker 1: hunt and show them what this stuff is really all about.
Speaker 1: You'll be hard to not default to where I know
Speaker 1: they can kill. But I want this passion to stick,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it will, but I do
Speaker 1: know that putting in some work into a challenging task
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't always put the fire out. It often fuels it.
Speaker 1: Those are just some of the things I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: because I've spent a lot of time thinking about this
Speaker 1: past season. So what are you gonna do with yourself?
Speaker 1: What changes will you make this year so that you
Speaker 1: can enjoy the whole thing a little bit more? I
Speaker 1: hope a few things come to mind, and I hope
Speaker 1: your gears are spinning just a bit. We have, like
Speaker 1: I don't know, nine months to set the stage for
Speaker 1: a new, better season. That seems like a ton of time,
Speaker 1: and in some ways it is a lot of time.
Speaker 1: In other ways it's no time at all. It's cliche,
Speaker 1: I know, but it will be here before you know. It,
Speaker 1: So let's figure out how to make the next season
Speaker 1: better than the last, and come on back next week
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna switch things up and talk about how
Speaker 1: damn tough deer really are. That's it for this week, folks,
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peter. Since this has been the Wired to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: As always, thank you so much for listening and all
Speaker 1: your support. If you just haven't gotten enough white tail
Speaker 1: in full, feel free to check out our wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt YouTube feed that is chock full of how to videos,
Speaker 1: or visit dummy eater dot com slash Wired to read
Speaker 1: articles by white tail killers like Alex Gilstrom, Beaumarton, ak
Speaker 1: Toni Hanson, of course Yours truly, and the mustachioed madman
Speaker 1: Mark Kenny