WEBVTT - Ep. 574: Foundations - Dealing With Failed Plans 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:05.720 Welcome to the wired to hunt foundations podcast, your guide 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:10.760 to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host, 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.760 Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to hunt 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.080 foundations podcast, which has brought to you by first light. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.360 I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today I'm going to 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.400 talk about kicking off the bow season and what you 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.200 should do if your early season hunting doesn't go as planned. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.680 The thing about white tails, hunting white tails anyway, is 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:42.200 that it rarely goes as plan. That's why the best 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:44.879 of the best scout so much. They know it's a 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.519 necessity and if they do, they might find one of 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.840 those magical in the moment spots where they can point 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.680 to the stands, Babe Ruth Style, and call their shots. 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.040 Most of the time, when you do that, White Tail 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.800 wise you don't end up taking a slow jog around 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.200 the aces while the crowd showers you in adoration. Instead, 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.760 you do that kind of sad Charlie Brown walked back 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.360 to the dugout after a strikeout, and I used that 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.240 example specifically because I saw a guy named Aaron Foreman 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.480 do that in Little League one time, and that sucks, 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.160 but it happens what you do when it does happen. 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.840 That's what matters, though, and usually pretty common during the 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:24.080 first week of the season. So that's what this episode 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:38.360 is really all about. One of the things I enjoy 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.400 most in life is something that I just didn't see coming. 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.720 I mean, if you went back in time and asked me, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.000 I don't know ten years ago, if I'd ever coach 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.760 any sport for any reason, I would have said you're 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.040 off your rocker there, Betty Crocker. But now, with my 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.760 little girls in basketball and softball, I love coaching. Maybe 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.520 it's is my competitive nature, something else, I don't know, 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.960 but I just enjoy it so much. Well, most of 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:11.280 the time. Last year, after a regular Basketball House League 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.880 where we did pretty well, my wife mentioned that she 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.400 wanted the girls to do a taste of travel league. Now, 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.160 I'm sure this is the case in an awful lot 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.800 of places, but if you're a suburb dweller in the 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:26.880 twin cities like I am, people take traveling basketball very, 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:32.200 very serious, even with third and fourth graders. I didn't 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.240 know this until we went to our first tournament, and 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:37.960 there we actually managed to get third place out of 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.040 six teams. But we played some teams that were pretty bad, 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.679 which helps a lot. We also played one team that 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:46.920 was so much more advanced than us it was a 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.320 freaking miracle that we scored it all, and I mean 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.760 we barely did score. And then we went to another 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.280 tournament and like every team there was that good. Then 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:01.760 we went to another and again we got stomped. We 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:07.480 got smote. We didn't stand a chance. Now I don't 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.400 mind playing up to see some real competition and to 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.400 learn a thing or two, but I'm also forty two 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.160 and I've dealt with a fair amount of loss and 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.080 failure and a hell of a lot of different forms 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.440 in my life. For Nine and ten year olds staring 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:23.560 down the barrel of an absolute ass whooping, it was 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.680 a lot to handle. You could see during warmups the 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.200 look on the girls faces as they watched the opposing 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.440 teams exhibit a level of basketball skills that would just 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:37.440 beyond our crew. Our girls were defeated between their ears 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:39.680 before the ref ever blew the whistle and lined up 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.720 the teams to kick off the game with a jump ball. And, 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.640 to be fair, the girls really weren't wrong. We were 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.600 outclassed mostly, but not all the time. We had a 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:54.200 few games where we could have stayed in there and maybe, maybe, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.800 squeaked out a win, but we didn't and we didn't 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.960 even get close because they expected failure and they leaned 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.680 right into it. I bet you might be able to 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.080 guess where I'm going with this. White Tail hunting is 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:13.120 a game of failure. Hell, all hunting usually is, and 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.719 if it isn't, it's actually not that fun. I know 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.080 a sure thing sounds amazing. Put an awful lot of 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.920 folks who have a sure thing, or as close as 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.360 you can get to a sure thing hunting. Wise they 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.640 tend to give up hunting after a while. We need 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:32.800 a challenge, we need hard but achievable goals, but we 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.080 also need to recognize how we deal with the inevitable 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:40.800 failure that comes along with white tail hunting. It's everywhere 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:45.080 in the woods, just waiting for you. Failure gets carried 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.800 in on the breeze right into a deer's waiting nose. 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.040 It's in the slight squeak and your stand, that squeak 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:52.680 that you should have taken care of before the season, 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:53.920 but you didn't because you didn't think it'd be a 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.800 big deal. It's in the panic of the moment when 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.400 you just are compelled to draw your oh at the 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:03.159 wrong time, when he's looking up at you, facing your way. 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.839 Failure is the devil on your shoulder that convinces you 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.400 to hit the snooze button or, worse, just roll over 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.719 and go back to sleep, because you talk yourself into 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.200 believing that, since it's, I don't know, a full moon, 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.280 or since it's pretty windy or whatever, that there are 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:20.839 better uses of your time than hikings through the woods 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:23.440 in the dark to sit in a stand and probably 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.880 not kill a deer. Failure is the best friend of 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.599 that little deer hunting devil perched on your shoulder holding 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:33.159 a mini pitchfork, who says that maybe tonight the good 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.680 one you had on camera in August will just magically 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.120 show up in front of the field edge stand that 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:40.839 you've already sat seven times and you've burned right to 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.839 the ground. If you think I'm being facetious, I'm gonna 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.279 let you in on a little secret. The whole reason 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.920 I'm any good at white tail hunting, which really seems 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:52.000 to vary by the day, in the sit in the season, 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.920 is that I've failed so much. When I turned fifteen, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.480 I got permission to hunt a farm in Minnesota that 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.680 was a hung buck factory. Now I can't remember the 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.359 exact number of four keys and basket rack sixes and 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.600 eights that I missed that season, but I'm confident it 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.680 was in double digits. That was a lot of failure 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.960 crammed into a small season. Or, more recently, I spent 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.440 some time hunting in northern Wisconsin for a deer, just 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.520 a deer, dough buck whatever. I had tags for both 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:25.719 and I had some space in my freezer and over 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.480 the course of three weeks I sat probably, I don't know, 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.040 nine or ten times, or at least part of nine 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.480 or ten days over there, mostly on public land but 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.480 some on private, and I never saw a deer during 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.839 that whole span. And when I say I never saw one, 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:45.160 that's what I mean. I wasn't passing on dear, I 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.279 wasn't watching them browsed to the far side of a 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.200 clear cut, I mean I never saw a single freaking deer. 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.560 That's a shot to the old deer hunting ego, my friends. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.440 When that bad spell finally broke, I managed to Arrow 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.000 an old long nose dough on a track of public land. 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.039 End that has mostly kicked my ass, and I'll tell 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:07.479 you what it was so wheat another time. If you 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.280 want another example how bad I can be. Happened in 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.160 South Dakota while trying to kill a dough in a 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.440 buck on public land. I sat six times in spots 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.920 that I fully believed in, fully believed in. You know 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.280 what I saw? I saw mostly cows and one day 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.200 I had five coyotes coming through together. I don't know, 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.160 maybe I saw crow or a blue jay or something too, 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.440 but I didn't see any deer. I couldn't lay eyes 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:32.840 on a deer, and that was in a place with 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:38.080 good visibility and a great dear population. But on the 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.840 fourth day I did see a deer. In fact I 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:43.480 saw a dough in a buck and I killed both 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.840 of them within ten minutes one another. It happens like that. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:52.160 This is mostly failure, with these random little bouts of success. 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.200 That's what makes deer hunting deer hunting, and you might 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.760 be experiencing that right now with many of the White 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.440 Tail seasons open up across the country, and I think 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:03.480 the first week or two of this season is really 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.840 the best time to address failure for what it is 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.800 and just move on. You want to know why? Because 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.800 all summer long, you know, we run cameras, we scroll 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.480 through photos of velvet racked bucks. We build a plan 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.240 around those images. We Scout. We scout more than any 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.880 other time of the season. We eat, Scout, we walk 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:29.480 our dear spots, we get into the freaking preseason groove 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.559 and we shoot a lot more than any other time 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:36.000 of the season. We organize our gear, we pack our packs, 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.240 we wash our clothes, we prep and we prep and 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.960 we prep. We hang stands, we brush in blinds. We 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.640 do all of this work so that we can hit 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.800 the ground running. But you know what mostly happens? We 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.960 don't kill deer. Oftentimes we don't see dear or we 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.600 don't see the dear we are really hoping to see. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.280 So in that way we fail, and you know what 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.000 that failure in finds us off all the past seasons 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:08.760 where we've had similar results, the anticipation is so high 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.880 that the letdown, if it comes, it's pretty bad. The 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.360 best laid plans turn out to be turd sandwiches and 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.760 that old familiar feeling comes creeping right back in. Do 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.199 you know what's almost worse than not seeing dear or 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.520 killing a buck when you have put in so much work, 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.680 actually having him come in and then either spooking him 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:32.000 or missing him. That's a big time failure in a 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.400 lot of ways. Now, when you're in the I don't know, 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:38.240 shoot a scrapper stage, yeah, a mishurts, but at least 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.760 you know that another dink six pointer might walk down 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.080 the trails through this season. Probably will. When you have 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:45.880 your heart set on a I don't know, a hundred 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.360 forty inch or and he shows up and then he 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.959 buss you or you shoot over him, it's not so 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:55.360 likely that he or another bucket his caliber is going 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.360 to show up for the rest of the season. In 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.000 my experience it's not so were likely, even if you 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.320 have tons of time to put in one or two 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.480 good encounters throughout the season is often all we can 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.480 ask for. And boy does it staying when you piss 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.760 that right down your leg. But you know what's crazy 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:19.680 about that? It happens. It happens all the time. It 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.679 happens to weekend warriors with one bow season under their 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.959 belt and it happens to seasoned veterans with a whole 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.800 trophy room full of mature public land buck mounts. It 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.080 might happen to the last category of hunters a little 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.760 less than the former, but that doesn't mean it doesn't 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.680 still happen, because it does. But you know what's different 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.880 about those hunters, though? They understand that it's a part 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.000 of the deer hunting game. They understand that their job 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.080 is to mitigate the ways in which they cause their 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.640 own failures, because there are enough variables out there that 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.560 aren't in their control that will tank the best of 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.040 deer hunting plans. They understand that cliched statement that goes 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:03.800 something like failing to plan is planning to fail. Except 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.679 in a way, they do plan to fail in the 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.560 big picture sense, but they also plan to win on 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.360 a smaller scale. With every sit with every scouting trip 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:16.280 and every hunt, they're hoping to learn something, something that 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.200 can be put to good use now or in the future. 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.560 Enough of those some things and you guess what, you 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:25.360 have a hunt that is not a failure on the 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.760 big picture scale. Let me frame this up a different 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.960 way to drive this point home. Let's say it's time 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.840 for you to pick up a new Labrador retriever puppy. 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.920 So your research and pedigrees, you do your due diligence 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.319 and you settle on a litter that should have the 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:43.480 kind of blood you're really looking for. At eight weeks 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.680 you pick up an adorable little sausage legged pupster. You 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.360 take it home and you think about all the birds 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.200 will shoot over him, all the ducks and the roosters, 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.520 the GROUSE, woodcock whatever. You think about all the shed 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:57.800 antlers you'll train him to vacuum up during those winter 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:02.680 scouting trips. But that a puppy doesn't know anything other 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.520 than what his instincts tell him. He knows he likes 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.240 to pick up stuff in his mouth, he likes to 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.960 run around a little chew on stuff, he likes the 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.480 smell of a rooster or grouse feather, but he doesn't 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.040 know what you want out of him yet. In fact, 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:20.280 he's mostly just an adorable idiot. My Wife's uncle likes 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.040 to say that you can look right into a puppy's 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.200 eyes and see all the way to its asshole, because 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:28.240 there's nothing in between. But there is, and there is 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.040 the chance to help him learn simple behaviors that can 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:35.920 be daisy chain to bigger, more desirable, more complex behaviors. 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:40.840 Take a simple retrieve, for example. A good dog is 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.959 a steady dog with rock solid recall and the understanding 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.320 that if he is to hold an object, he is 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.040 to hold an object. There's no spitting it out to 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.160 sniff where other dogs Pete. There's no dropping at three 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.600 yards from your feet. It's delivered a hand or nothing. 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.080 So you start with some steadiness with that puppy, maybe 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.959 some healing work. You make the pup wait a few 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:06.160 seconds to eat so he learns a little patience. You 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.680 encourage retrieving desire, but really only to stoke the flames 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.840 and keep him wanting more. You don't want to Overdo 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.760 it and you work on recall with a check cord 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.120 and a handful of Kibbl in a way, you're working 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:23.079 on several different behaviors that eventually will all coalesce into 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:28.000 the kind of retrieve you want. Eventually that PUP will 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.720 be a dog that heals at your side and marks 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.000 the bumper, waits for the release, takes a straight line 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:37.440 to it, comes back to heal and waits until you 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.840 say drop or give before he gently places the bumper 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:45.320 in your hand. Deer hunting is like that in a 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.680 weird way. You have to fail at setting stands to 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.640 learn how to set them better. You have to fail 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:54.800 at timing your draw when a deer is closed to 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.600 learn how to read when exactly you need to get 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.080 that bow back to your face. You have to rattle 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.520 at the wrong bucks to know what might make the 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.720 right bucks come in. You have to cheat the wind 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.120 a little, a little too much, to listen to a 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.920 bunch of snorts from some Mama does to learn what 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.959 you can get away with and what you can't. You 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.319 got to shoot under a few and over a few 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:20.400 more to learn where to aim and how to aim 0:14:20.480 --> 0:14:21.960 during the moment of truth and how to read a 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.800 buck that might jump the string. You have to develop 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:30.040 a Badass no way can this fail, opening week plan 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.480 only to have it fizzle and sputter out right before 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.080 your eyes, to learn how to develop a better plan 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:38.880 for next year and how to cope with that failure 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.160 and how to just move on from it to week 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.840 two of the season and then week three or whatever. 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.920 And this part, this is one that is most important, 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:54.040 you have to learn to let those failures just go, 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.960 like a toxic person in your life who always drags 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.840 you down, even though you want to like them, or hell, 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.240 you even love them so much. But you gotta let 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.960 that ship go, my friends. You have to learn from that. 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.240 You have to use it to inform better decisions in 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.600 the future. Failure in the woods it's like that. It's 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.760 actually valuable. In fact, it might be the most important 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.520 aspect of becoming a good deer hunter. And listen the 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.320 big winds. They're sweet too. The first big buck you kill, 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.200 that one is going to stick with you in an 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.760 awful lot of ways, and man is it nice. But 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.960 developing as a deer hunter is an awful lot like 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:38.920 how we use and view social media. No one posts 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.600 the boring stuff, the little stuff on instagram. Alright, some 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:45.040 people do, but they are freaking psychos. They are the 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.360 people who post every meal they eat, as if anyone 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.680 in the world cares what a stranger head for breakfast. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:53.280 They're the ones who post, I don't know, pictures are 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.920 they're freshly painted toenails. are a stupid selfie while fishing, 0:15:57.400 --> 0:15:59.600 of every single bass they catch, even if it's an 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.960 eight in sure that couldn't barely pulled out a bobber. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.080 Aside from those looney tunes folks, social media is mostly 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:10.680 the curated big winds of life. That people post. You know, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:15.280 the weight lost journey, the personal best cutthroat trout, Ahem 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.800 Mark Kenyon, the enormous buck, where they sit cross legged 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.760 style and gaze longingly into its dead eyes while someone 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.560 frames up the image with some soft focused vegetation in 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.800 the foreground and maybe, I don't know, maybe the setting 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:31.760 sun in the background. Most of life isn't social media worthy, 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.040 just as most of hunting isn't a big event one 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.720 way or the other. Most of the time we scout 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.320 and hunt, it's not really going to result in one 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:42.840 of our worst days, anymore than it will be the 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:45.080 day that we finally air a two inches so we 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.200 can see our smiling faces on the cover in North 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.560 American White Tail magazine. It's the middle of the road, 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:54.040 boring stuff that makes up most of life and most 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.920 of deer hunting, and in that stuff there's an awful 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.440 lot of failure, but that's also an awful lot of 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:06.280 opportunities to improve. It's good to get comfortable with that failure, 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.800 invited in for a nightcap, have a little conversation, just 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.760 tease out the value with it and then send it 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.320 on its way. I guess I really want you to 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.240 think about that as we slide into this most wonderful 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.679 time of the year, the time of year when we 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.080 finally get to do more than scout and more than shoot, 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:26.880 more than just think about what the deer are doing 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.280 out there. We get to hunt them, we get to 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.000 go sit in trees and we get to watch the 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.720 sunrise and hopefully hear a stick crack in the distance 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.280 or see that too big to be a squirrel movement 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:38.879 in your peripheral vision. That tells you a deer has 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.080 entered the game and it's time to focus on what 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.639 could become the next best few minutes of your life. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.479 And if it goes wrong, which it mostly will, who cares? 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.040 There's a lesson there that will help you the next 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.679 time and the time after that. And at some point 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.200 that buck that surprises you by showing up when you're 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.160 not paying attention, he's going to go for a at 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:02.000 home in the back of your truck and you'll get 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.080 to shoot some hero photos and post them up for 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.400 the world to see to show them you're not a failure, 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.760 at least not today, and that's pretty freaking sweet. My friends, 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:16.480 learn from your failure, accept it. It's okay. You're gonna 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.400 get better because of it, and we're all going through 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.639 it now. Next week I'm going to get into the 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:26.800 topic of hunting one target buck, of setting your sights 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.200 on a rider didear that's the only one you're going 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.760 to pick up your bowl rifle for, and how that 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.080 can make for a great season or an absolutely miserable fall. 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.959 That's IT, folks, I'm done for this week. This has 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.200 been the wire to hunt foundations podcast, which has brought 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.440 to you by first light. I'm your host, Tony Peterson, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.080 and I just want to say thank you so much 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.440 for listening and for your support. I really appreciate it. 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.320 And if this episode didn't quite scratch the itch enough 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.679 for you, feel free to head on over to the 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.720 meat eater dot com slash wired to read some articles 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.720 written by myself for mark or whole slew of White 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.440 Tail Killers, and you can also drop into our ware 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:08.240 to hunt YouTube channel to check out the weekly how 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.320 tube videos that we throw up every single week to 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:12.440 help you become a better hunter.