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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, and now your host,

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,

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Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Light. On this

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Speaker 1: week's show, I'm going to wrap up all this ambush

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Speaker 1: site set up talk with one final plea to make

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Speaker 1: sure you're squared away for the season. I know you're

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Speaker 1: sick of it. Hell I'm sick of talking about it,

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Speaker 1: but this is important stuff. This episode is all about

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Speaker 1: stands and blinds and saddle hunting sites you just aren't

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Speaker 1: that excited about. I know that sounds weird, but bear

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Speaker 1: with me. There's a second layer of options that you

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Speaker 1: should be building in as a deer hunter, maybe a

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Speaker 1: third if you play some mobile strategy ahead of them.

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Speaker 1: Either way spots your on a curious about or you

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Speaker 1: think the bucks might possibly get pushed too with the

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Speaker 1: right amount of pressure. They're important, they matter, and even

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Speaker 1: if you don't get them fully prepped now, you should

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Speaker 1: be aware of them and you should have them built

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Speaker 1: into your plan. This is like the final, final, final

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Speaker 1: checklist before hunting actually starts, and it's time to switch

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Speaker 1: gears until then, listen to me begging, plead one more

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Speaker 1: time on this topic of ambush sites and how important

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Speaker 1: your work with them is right now. When I suggest

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Speaker 1: something to my wife that she fully knows she'll never

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Speaker 1: agree to, she often says that we should put it

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Speaker 1: in the maybe pile. In marriage, the maybe pile is

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Speaker 1: where my hopes and dreams and little ambitions go to die.

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Speaker 1: In deer hunting, or more specifically deer hunting ambush sites,

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Speaker 1: the maybe pilot is different. It can be a good thing.

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing so far. You're like, what the hell are

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Speaker 1: you talking about? Well, what I'm talking about is options.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons that mobile hunting has

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Speaker 1: gotten so popular in recent years. The public land explosion

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Speaker 1: has certainly helped. I never dreamed we'd get to a

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Speaker 1: point where not only would it be the cool thing

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Speaker 1: to do to hunt public land, but where we'd also

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Speaker 1: get so used to it that we'd allow this damaging

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Speaker 1: trophy deer obsession thing to leach into the point where

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Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal to kill a

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Speaker 1: pope and young buck on public land. That, my friends,

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Speaker 1: is bananas and totally off topic. In response to and

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Speaker 1: probably somewhat responsible for the mobile obsession is gear that

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Speaker 1: makes the whole process so much easier. We had saddles

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Speaker 1: for a long time before they got popular again, but

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Speaker 1: never the well designed, super lightweight options like we have today.

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Speaker 1: We had sticks and stands and steps and hang on

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Speaker 1: a variety of different stuff as well, all weights and sizes,

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Speaker 1: but never really the quality and the functionality of what

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Speaker 1: we have today. Either. It's a different world out there,

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Speaker 1: and I, for one freaking love it, but not solely

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Speaker 1: because the reasons you're likely guessing. I love it because

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Speaker 1: it gives us so many viable options for ambush sites.

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Speaker 1: And options are the whole point of this episode. Once again,

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Speaker 1: the best hunters they keep their options open, and they

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Speaker 1: give themselves lots of options for every hunt, every potential

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Speaker 1: sit for every piece of private and public ground they

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Speaker 1: set out to conquer. This is something every deer hunter

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Speaker 1: should emulate, and I'm going to tell you why. If

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Speaker 1: you remember, way back in some of the earlier episodes

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Speaker 1: of this podcast, I talked quite a bit about satellite

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Speaker 1: imagery and marking spots, but then also about walking in

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Speaker 1: and really evaluating those spots. We've covered that, and we've

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Speaker 1: covered trail cameras, we've covered glassing. All of this scouting

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Speaker 1: has one real goal, put us in a position to

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Speaker 1: shoot a buck. Of course, in some ways it's not

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Speaker 1: so simple, but in other ways that's it. That's all

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Speaker 1: there is to it. And the thing about this is

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Speaker 1: that the more options you've got for quality ambush sites,

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Speaker 1: the more likely you are to eventually be in a

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Speaker 1: position to catch a deer off guard and put an

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Speaker 1: arrow or a bullet through his lungs. But this doesn't

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Speaker 1: go just for your best stand sites. It goes for

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Speaker 1: the spots where you've got some signs, some inkling that

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Speaker 1: it might be decent, but you're not dying to hunt them.

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Speaker 1: Those are good backup spots, and you need them because

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Speaker 1: the weather and the other hunters and just the divine

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Speaker 1: whims of deer often don't allow you to effectively hunt

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Speaker 1: your best spots. Just because you want to fully set

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Speaker 1: up and ready to go as well as potential ambush sites.

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Speaker 1: Is where you want to have a deep bench as

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Speaker 1: a deer hunter. I know you're probably sick of hearing this,

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Speaker 1: and I promise we'll move on to something different next week,

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Speaker 1: but for now, consider your goal to be to have

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Speaker 1: a plan a B on through to Z so that

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Speaker 1: when you do have a night off and the wind

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Speaker 1: is blowing from the northeast, you've got a decent enough

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Speaker 1: spot to go into and either climb into a stand

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Speaker 1: or set up in better than that, consider this a

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Speaker 1: bigger quest. You should also be looking for backup ground.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it's just a chunk of public land you're not

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Speaker 1: super excited about because you've got some private down the road,

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Speaker 1: but it could provide a place to hunt when the

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Speaker 1: conditions keep you out of your best spots. Maybe you'll

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Speaker 1: have a chat with a coworker about how they've got

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Speaker 1: twenty acres around their house and the deer keep eating

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Speaker 1: their ornamental shrubs and they'd really like that to stop.

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Speaker 1: I got permission to hunt forty acres in the suburbs

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Speaker 1: one time by talking to the checkout gal at my

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Speaker 1: local grocery store. She saw me buying a hunting magazine

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Speaker 1: and mentioned that she used to bow hunt. Five minutes later,

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Speaker 1: after we were talking a little bit longer, she told

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Speaker 1: me swing on out and see if there is anywhere

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Speaker 1: I wanted to hang a tree stand and shoot a

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Speaker 1: few deer. Listen, I know that's a unicorn scenario, but

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Speaker 1: it happens. Having an extra standard two that you lump

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Speaker 1: into the maybe pile, that's a good thing. Having an

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Speaker 1: entire property in the maybe pile is a hell of

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Speaker 1: a lot better, and you better get after it now.

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Speaker 1: As we creep up to the bow season, this late

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Speaker 1: late summer time frame is about the last week to

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Speaker 1: really get in and bump deer and leave center around

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Speaker 1: before or I personally start to get really nervous. Now.

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Speaker 1: I know this is entirely dependent on when your state

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Speaker 1: opener is or the opener for the state you plan

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Speaker 1: to hunt is, but generally, when I'm a few weeks

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Speaker 1: or a month out, I try to stay out as

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Speaker 1: much as possible. Part of this is due to past

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Speaker 1: experience pushing it too much and hurting my hunting, and

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Speaker 1: part of it is due to the fact that I

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Speaker 1: know other hunters will be roaming the woods and setting

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Speaker 1: up the week before the season opens. This is an

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Speaker 1: absolute guarantee. Happens every single year, and I know I

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Speaker 1: can't do anything about them, so I have to take

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Speaker 1: care of myself. And since I know there is a

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Speaker 1: gap between when all last head into the woods without

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Speaker 1: a weapon and when all head and armed. I want

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Speaker 1: to make the most of it. In fact, just two

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Speaker 1: weeks ago I broke this down in pretty good detail

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Speaker 1: and told you to get your ship done out there

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Speaker 1: because it was time to be done. I lied then,

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Speaker 1: because now it's really the last time to get in

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Speaker 1: and get the work done. I promise. Last week we

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Speaker 1: covered the set up strategy for some of our ambush sites,

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Speaker 1: the gimmes, you know, like the field edge setups and

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Speaker 1: the deeper into the cover setups when sure gets to

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Speaker 1: the deer those staging areas. But this week it's a

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Speaker 1: good time to reflect on that work. How many stands

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Speaker 1: do you have up? How many trees do you have

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Speaker 1: prepped or at least marked for potential sits? What's the

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Speaker 1: ground blind count at. The fewer the number, the easier

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Speaker 1: it is to burn those stands and ambush sites out

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Speaker 1: to the point where you'll swear all the bucks are nocturnal,

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Speaker 1: and the lull is absolutely real, and that bucks have

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Speaker 1: a sixth sense, and the wolves have killed them all,

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Speaker 1: and your neighbor must be poaching them, and and and

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Speaker 1: and the more you hunt a spot, the more of

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Speaker 1: the spot is going to suck. I look at it,

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Speaker 1: this way. If I walked out of my door and

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Speaker 1: I went down the street and three months each year

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Speaker 1: I randomly ran into grizzly bears and one cul de sac,

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Speaker 1: I'd avoid that sucker pretty quick. I'd be like, you

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Speaker 1: know what, since it's September and I know those goddamn

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Speaker 1: yogis are going to be there, I think I'm going

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Speaker 1: to just head a few blocks over and avoid that

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Speaker 1: street because it's scary country. Dear, figure out where you

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Speaker 1: like to hunt. I promise you that the deer that

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Speaker 1: you really want to kill, the ones that you're gonn

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Speaker 1: put on the wall, they figure it out. Well. That

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Speaker 1: means that if you've got a few stands up and

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Speaker 1: that's good enough, well it's probably not unless you don't

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Speaker 1: hunt very much. Having some standbys and some stands you

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Speaker 1: really like to sit as awesome, just as it is

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Speaker 1: to have a perfect tree and a nice creek crossing

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Speaker 1: that you know you can show up to and either

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Speaker 1: saddle up or use a climbing stand on. Hell, if

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Speaker 1: you want to go sit a box blind on a

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Speaker 1: food plot for your sits, go nuts. But I understand

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Speaker 1: that the way we often hurt ourselves the most in

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Speaker 1: the deerwoods is by concentrating our pressure. We do this

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Speaker 1: because we either get lazy or we just don't know

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Speaker 1: any better. Now, you might think, but I've only got

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Speaker 1: thirty acres to hunt. How many setups can I get

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Speaker 1: on in thirty acres? I don't know. But I hunt

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Speaker 1: a lot of small properties, and I am continually amazed

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Speaker 1: at how many deer I can run into by moving

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Speaker 1: just a hundred yards. It's not always possible, and I

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Speaker 1: get that, but again, we have to evaluate what is

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Speaker 1: actually true versus what we want to believe. And it's

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Speaker 1: easy to believe a parcel is too small all for

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Speaker 1: any real options. But is that actually true? A twenty

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Speaker 1: acre chunk, if it's shaped like a lot of twenty

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Speaker 1: acre chunks, measures roughly two yards by four hundred yards.

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Speaker 1: If that's all woods are cover, you can bet there

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Speaker 1: are more than a few spots worth hunting at different

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Speaker 1: points throughout the season. And even then, if you don't

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Speaker 1: have that many options, this is why you try to

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Speaker 1: find that backup spot, give yourself more to work with. Look,

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Speaker 1: all I'm saying is it best to take some inventory

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Speaker 1: of your stand sites and you're hunting ground and look

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Speaker 1: for ways to expand upon them. This is one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons I love having four days to hunt some

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Speaker 1: new piece of public ground somewhere. I've got eight sets

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Speaker 1: to work with, and I don't want to waste a

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Speaker 1: single one. I also want to get in and get

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Speaker 1: in on the action fast, and if I don't, I

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Speaker 1: don't waste any time waiting to make a move. It's

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Speaker 1: hard to get complacent when you fork over the money

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Speaker 1: for a nonresident license and have a short window of

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Speaker 1: time to fill it. It's a different story with a

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Speaker 1: full season, and if you go two stands set up

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Speaker 1: and prepped. This makes it really easy to default to

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Speaker 1: the comfortable, to decide that maybe today will be a

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Speaker 1: good day and that one will walk by one of

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Speaker 1: your favorite stands, even though you've sat at six times

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Speaker 1: so far and haven't seen anything bigger than a spike. Now,

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Speaker 1: in fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna go a little Freudian

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Speaker 1: here on you and dive into the psyche of the

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Speaker 1: average hunter. I think we are burned out as general

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Speaker 1: adults on making decisions and mind grinding over stuff all

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Speaker 1: day long, our jobs and our families and our daily lives.

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Speaker 1: We make decisions by weighing consequences and trying to do

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Speaker 1: our best to come up with the right answers. When

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Speaker 1: we deer hunt, we often just want to go on

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Speaker 1: autopilot because it's supposed to be an escape, it's supposed

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Speaker 1: to be fun. This is one of the reasons why

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Speaker 1: it's a dream for a lot of hunters to have

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Speaker 1: that box blind over a sweet food plot that will

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Speaker 1: draw and deer from the opener to the closing bell.

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Speaker 1: There isn't a lot of mind grinding to do there.

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Speaker 1: If you're going hunting, you know where you're going to go,

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Speaker 1: you know where you're gonna sit. It's easy peasy, But

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Speaker 1: that's cruise control style of hunting, and it isn't available

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Speaker 1: for a lot of us. And even if it is,

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Speaker 1: it often isn't the best way to kill a big one.

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Speaker 1: It's comfortable and it's easy, But comfortable and easy rarely

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Speaker 1: exists on the path to accomplishing something really difficult, And

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Speaker 1: don't kid yourself. Targeting decent bucks and actually killing them

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Speaker 1: consistently isn't easy. This all goes full circle back to

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Speaker 1: deer and their home ranges and how well they know

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Speaker 1: their ground that and how good they are at seeing

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Speaker 1: hearing and definitely smelling us. You need to show up

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Speaker 1: where he doesn't expect you to be, and you're going

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Speaker 1: to have a tough time doing that if you've got

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Speaker 1: two stands up and no mobile strategy and nothing in

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Speaker 1: the maybe pile. Sure the first couple of sits might

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Speaker 1: catch him off guard, but after that all bets are

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Speaker 1: off until the rout or some random good fortune strikes.

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Speaker 1: When you're sitting and instead of waiting for mercury to

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Speaker 1: be in retrograde and the crystals to hill your or

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Speaker 1: enough to be a better hunter, take stock of what

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Speaker 1: you've got to work with now and what you'll need

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Speaker 1: to do if those ambush sites that you just love

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Speaker 1: flame out, or the wind doesn't cooperate for the first

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Speaker 1: three weeks of the season, or your three favorite spots

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Speaker 1: are also the favorite spots of other hunters. The way

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Speaker 1: I do this is sort of clump my ambush sites

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Speaker 1: into conditional categories. For example, if I've got three spots

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Speaker 1: that are perfect for south winds, those are my first

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Speaker 1: considerations for a hunt during a south wind. It's not

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Speaker 1: exactly revolutionary, right, of course, I'll have those ranked by

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Speaker 1: the likelihood of them producing given the proximity to food, water,

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Speaker 1: and of course just what my personal instincts say at

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Speaker 1: the given moment, knowing the weather in the time of

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Speaker 1: the season. If I've done my job right, particularly during

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Speaker 1: the last few weeks of really setting up these spots,

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Speaker 1: I should have confidence in all of those stands, just

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Speaker 1: as I should have confidence that if a front shows

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Speaker 1: up a day before the opener and brings with it

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Speaker 1: a north wind, then I've got places to go so

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Speaker 1: I don't miss a beat or worse, be forced to

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Speaker 1: settle because I want to hunt, but I don't feel

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Speaker 1: like I've got a good set up for the day. Settling,

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Speaker 1: whether in deer hunting or careers or spousal selection, it's

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Speaker 1: a bad idea. It's like stepping on a moving treadmill

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Speaker 1: in front of a gym full of strangers. You won't

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Speaker 1: enjoy it. I promise you take time to pour over

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Speaker 1: your scouting in aggregate all of the sightings, the images,

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Speaker 1: the boots on the groundwork, and then take stock of

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Speaker 1: your go to setups. What are you missing? What are

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Speaker 1: the conditions that will throw a wrench in your whole

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Speaker 1: plan and leave you scrambling address those now? You don't

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Speaker 1: have to go out and hang a bunch more stands

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Speaker 1: in a neurotic effort to cover every wind direction and

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Speaker 1: every potential move the deer going to make. You just

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Speaker 1: have to know how you do that and be comfortable

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Speaker 1: with whatever it will take. You should also consider that

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Speaker 1: some of your maybe pile stands or maybe pile hunting

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Speaker 1: spots will turn on at some point in the season

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Speaker 1: in a way that you just can't see coming. After all,

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Speaker 1: there's a reason you like them even a little bit now.

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Speaker 1: They might be cold during the summer or the early season,

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Speaker 1: but when the pressure gets to the deer, the overgrown

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Speaker 1: homestead far from the main wood lot might be where

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Speaker 1: the bucks relocate to when they're sick of getting pestered

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Speaker 1: by camel clad dipshits. Knowing where you're likely to go

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Speaker 1: when your best spots aren't huntable or they've just cooled

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Speaker 1: off is a huge step in the right direction. It

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Speaker 1: keeps you in the game, and it gives you my

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Speaker 1: favorite buzzword, which is options. And if the maybe pile

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Speaker 1: doesn't pan out, you can head out to look for

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Speaker 1: fresh sign and figure out something on the fly that

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Speaker 1: your pre plan setups just missed. This I'm absolutely convinced.

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Speaker 1: Is one of the things that a lot of the

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Speaker 1: best deer hunters handle really well. They're confident in their

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Speaker 1: ability to adapt, of course, but they're also really good

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Speaker 1: at anticipating failure and trying to find workarounds. They do

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Speaker 1: this in the space between their ears, and it's something

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Speaker 1: that can really only come from experience in the woods.

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Speaker 1: There's no work around for that. But the silver lining

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Speaker 1: is that you can accelerate the process by using that

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Speaker 1: three pound lump of fat and electricity between your ears

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Speaker 1: to really parse out your options and prepare for the unexpected. Now,

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Speaker 1: this might sound defeatist, or at least like I'm saying

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Speaker 1: there's no way you've got this right and you're destined

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Speaker 1: to realize you should have done more work. That's not

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying at all. If you've been putting in

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Speaker 1: the scouting in a setup time, you might be right

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Speaker 1: there on the doorstep of a phenomenal plan. And I

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Speaker 1: hope you are. But if you're not, or if it

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Speaker 1: just doesn't shake out right away the way that you'd expect,

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Speaker 1: then you'll have to accept complacency and cross your fingers

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Speaker 1: or adapt. The latter is the obvious choice, and it's

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Speaker 1: made so much easier when you've scouted quite a bit

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Speaker 1: and given yourself a wealth of dear knowledge to work with.

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Speaker 1: In a way, this is like two a day practicing,

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Speaker 1: watching film and just getting ready for the first game.

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Speaker 1: It's not as fun as playing, but without it, the

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Speaker 1: playing won't be nearly as fun because you'll lose bad

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Speaker 1: or the potential to lose is is going to be higher.

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Speaker 1: And the good news here is that we're on the

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Speaker 1: doorstep of season openers in several states, which means that

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Speaker 1: it's almost time to actually suit up and hunt. Before that,

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Speaker 1: take real stock in your ambush sites and your mobile

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Speaker 1: set up if you have one. Are you good with

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Speaker 1: the plan or do you need to change things up

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Speaker 1: a little bit. Do you have enough to work with

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Speaker 1: as far as potential wind directions and September conditions you

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Speaker 1: might face. If so, good, go golfing or fishing or whatever.

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Speaker 1: If not, you've got a tiny bit of time left

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Speaker 1: to set yourself up a little better before we get

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Speaker 1: into the actual hunting strategies for the early season, which

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Speaker 1: is the topic for next week, or more specifically, hunting

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Speaker 1: water for early season white tails. If you aren't afraid

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Speaker 1: to sweat to kill a big one, or have always

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Speaker 1: had your heart set on shooting a velvet buck, you're

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Speaker 1: definitely going to want to tune in. That's it for now,

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Speaker 1: my white tail loving friends. Be sure to tune in

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Speaker 1: next week so that you can keep outsmarting the deer

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Speaker 1: and out hunting the competition. I'm Tony Peterson and this

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Speaker 1: has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening and the support, and

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Speaker 1: we will see you right here