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 today's episode is all
Speaker 1: about the deer hunting ideas that we love, but how
Speaker 1: most aren't really what they appear to be. This is
Speaker 1: kind of like a weird concept this week, my friends,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna have to bear with me because I
Speaker 1: think it's important to overall deer hunting success and really
Speaker 1: the reality of rutt hunting, which is coming up awful
Speaker 1: damn quick here. You've probably picked up on this already
Speaker 1: from some of these episodes, but I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: that a lot of our deer hunting success comes from
Speaker 1: two places, hard physical work and the three pound mass
Speaker 1: of fat and electricity between our ears. The latter is
Speaker 1: what this week is really all about, and I think
Speaker 1: you'll get something out of it as we all buckle
Speaker 1: in for what should be the best part of the
Speaker 1: deer season. There are three definitions for the word idea.
Speaker 1: The first is something such as a thought or conception
Speaker 1: that is the product of mental activity. The second is
Speaker 1: an opinion or conviction or principle. The third is a plan, purpose,
Speaker 1: or goal. Now maybe it's the English geek in me,
Speaker 1: but honestly don't know why I listed those out for you.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you already knew what the hell an idea was,
Speaker 1: and if you didn't, you should probably be hunting squirrels
Speaker 1: for a few years before you tart your white tails.
Speaker 1: Another thing about ideas is that we fall in love
Speaker 1: with um. If you were to take a walk through
Speaker 1: my house and rummage around every closet, you'd find evidence
Speaker 1: that the Peterson's are prone to this very problem. One
Speaker 1: in particular, one member of my family, I should say,
Speaker 1: who shall remain nameless, has all kinds of physical evidence
Speaker 1: of ideas that she has fallen in love with. Where
Speaker 1: fantasy land met reality and the whole thing follow the
Speaker 1: sky like a goose that has just soaked up the
Speaker 1: brunt of a three and a half inch load of
Speaker 1: steel yoga mats, an easel for painting random crafty things
Speaker 1: meant to be turned into some kind of kitchy home
Speaker 1: to core stuff. You'd find them all tucked into our
Speaker 1: closets covered in dust, shoved into the back corners away
Speaker 1: from the light, and you'd probably think we aren't very
Speaker 1: good at seeing things through, and you'd be right, And honestly,
Speaker 1: I'm not immune. If you poked around all the random
Speaker 1: de tritus of my life, you'd find all kinds of
Speaker 1: things like this. You'd find more fly tying and lure
Speaker 1: making material than I could use in ten lifetimes. Hell,
Speaker 1: you'd find old pots, plastic jig trailer molds, and squeeze
Speaker 1: tubes full of goo that are supposed to be heated
Speaker 1: into fishing plastics. Now, let me tell you, I loved, loved,
Speaker 1: past tense, the idea of making my own stuff in
Speaker 1: my own colors so that the outdoor big box stores
Speaker 1: wouldn't get all my money every spring and summer when
Speaker 1: I wanted to fish. But it took me just one
Speaker 1: session where I heated the plastic compound up on the
Speaker 1: kitchen stove to realize that inhaling burnt plastic fumes is
Speaker 1: a great way to nearly pass out and also have
Speaker 1: a hazy conversation with God. That was the second worst
Speaker 1: experience I've had with the kitchen stove. The first was
Speaker 1: when I decided to try to try to boil a
Speaker 1: buck skull on it when my wife was gone for
Speaker 1: the day. Now, if you can't imagine the smell of that,
Speaker 1: I'd say that my house kind of stunk like if
Speaker 1: you let a skunk spray a road kill deer in
Speaker 1: August in Death Valley. Then it marinated for a few
Speaker 1: hours before he started adding discarded undergarden. It's from our
Speaker 1: less personal hygiene, concerned members of society. If after that
Speaker 1: you soaked it in dog diarrhea, you'd be in the ballpark.
Speaker 1: It wasn't my finest moment, and neither was nearly sending
Speaker 1: myself to the Great Tree standing in the sky to
Speaker 1: save four dollars a bag on flipping jig trailers. In
Speaker 1: other words, not all the ideas are great, and falling
Speaker 1: in love with ideas is generally a bad idea. Take
Speaker 1: an obvious example here, the all day sit with the
Speaker 1: rut speeding right at us right now. All day sits,
Speaker 1: they should be pretty common, but are they. Let's break
Speaker 1: this down for a second. As an idea, the all
Speaker 1: day sit makes near perfect sense unless you absolutely have
Speaker 1: to leave the woods to attend to life or the
Speaker 1: conditions switch up on you, and your stand situation changes,
Speaker 1: most likely with the wind. But all days sits are
Speaker 1: a major, major biz nacho, my friends. They are hard
Speaker 1: most But I know and I know a lot of
Speaker 1: hunters with pretty solid track record of killing big deer rarely,
Speaker 1: if ever do them. I think this is one of
Speaker 1: those things that has talked about so much in the
Speaker 1: hunting space, kind of like I don't know, bivy hunting
Speaker 1: for elk at twelve ft elevation and thirteen miles from
Speaker 1: the nearest trailhead. Does that happen? Sure, I guess do
Speaker 1: all days it's happen. They sure do. But the frequency
Speaker 1: in which they are discussed and the frequency in which
Speaker 1: a dark to dark sit actually happens are not the
Speaker 1: same number. They're not even close. Why Because the idea
Speaker 1: of never leaving the woods when bucks should be running
Speaker 1: around crazy is a good one. That idea makes sense,
Speaker 1: And you can kill a midday buck. You absolutely can.
Speaker 1: Last year, while hunting for a one week in November show,
Speaker 1: I killed the Wisconsin buck at one pm. I knew
Speaker 1: from sunrise on that morning that I had a really
Speaker 1: good chance of doing just that. This confidence in your
Speaker 1: set up and in the conditions is a huge mode
Speaker 1: of waters. Sit all day, at least it is for me.
Speaker 1: I like all day sits. But that doesn't make it easy,
Speaker 1: and that's the problem. Most of us decide that since
Speaker 1: it's November seven and there is a super cold front
Speaker 1: rolling through that the eleven ish twelve ish type hours
Speaker 1: of daylight we can hunt would be best utilized by
Speaker 1: planting our butts on stand and staying. Yet that cold
Speaker 1: front brings well cold weather, and cold weather is often
Speaker 1: an all day sit killer, especially when it comes with
Speaker 1: some wind. And then there is the unfortunate reality of
Speaker 1: the rut, which means that while we expect tons of action,
Speaker 1: it's mostly a weight and not see anything kind of game.
Speaker 1: I relearned this lesson every single season, and at this
Speaker 1: point I should understand it, but I don't. I always
Speaker 1: think the rut is going to be amazing, and it
Speaker 1: tends to be the same deer hunting grind as the
Speaker 1: rest of the season, except it sprinkled with more optimism
Speaker 1: and occasionally a day where the dear Gods do smile
Speaker 1: upon us, but mostly they don't. Mostly they frown or
Speaker 1: flip us off or whatever, and mostly you are uncomfortable
Speaker 1: board and racked with doubt on whether you are using
Speaker 1: your time wisely. The idea of all day sits crashes
Speaker 1: headlong into the reality of all day sits, and guess what,
Speaker 1: it's so easy to get down. It's so easy to
Speaker 1: fall into the mind grinding, the second guessing, and to
Speaker 1: talk yourself into leaving. Now, if this sounds about right,
Speaker 1: if this sounds a little familiar, you really have two options.
Speaker 1: Acknowledging that you're more of a three or four hour
Speaker 1: at a time hunter, or you've got to change things
Speaker 1: up so that you can tolerate sitting from dark to dark. Now.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this several times, but for me, it
Speaker 1: takes a few things. I need to be in a
Speaker 1: spot that has some kind of all day feature that
Speaker 1: should draw deer, or more appropriately, I guess I should say,
Speaker 1: should funnel them through. If I'm not on a banging
Speaker 1: terrain trap or some water source tucked into the cover,
Speaker 1: I have a hard time with all day sits now.
Speaker 1: If I'm not fully loaded with food and coffee and candy,
Speaker 1: I'm also in trouble. And if I don't have a
Speaker 1: book or something to distract myself with I'm in trouble too.
Speaker 1: The physical aspect of an all day sit is real,
Speaker 1: but it's nothing compared to the mental side of things.
Speaker 1: Think about that as we get closer to the rut.
Speaker 1: Another idea that we love but often doesn't work out
Speaker 1: too well for us is the hunt the does during
Speaker 1: the rut strategy. Now, if you're not around does during
Speaker 1: the right you might be in trouble. That's pretty elementary stuff.
Speaker 1: But where do we usually find does on food sources
Speaker 1: that cut corn field or kill plot or whatever source
Speaker 1: of groceries you like to hunt? Who visits it most
Speaker 1: often probably does and fawns. Then the rut comes around
Speaker 1: and we think, well, I need to be around the does.
Speaker 1: Then I know I need to be around the food
Speaker 1: source that has the does on it. Now I know
Speaker 1: you can watch bucks sprint across corn fields at noon
Speaker 1: in some places, but for the most part, you aren't
Speaker 1: going to have doze feeding in the wide open in
Speaker 1: the midday. And if you don't, why would the bucks
Speaker 1: be there. The idea of being around the dose to
Speaker 1: kill a buck it's a great one, especially if you
Speaker 1: have a badass dough betting area, But you have to
Speaker 1: filter that idea through your hunting reality. A much much
Speaker 1: better bet, like I said, is to say, do I
Speaker 1: know where the does are going to bed? Where are
Speaker 1: they going to be? Maybe from sunrise to sunset? Where's
Speaker 1: a better odds? Because I know they're not going to
Speaker 1: be out in that cut cornfield all day. Getting downwind
Speaker 1: of a spot like that during the rut, especially if
Speaker 1: that spot is tucked into some cover, It's a much
Speaker 1: better bet than posting up all day on a hunter
Speaker 1: acre alfalfa field. For most of us, I think an
Speaker 1: even better bet is to make an educated guess on
Speaker 1: where a couple of different dough betting areas are and
Speaker 1: then look for the terrain traps between them. Now you
Speaker 1: have bucks that should be coming and going, and you
Speaker 1: have the makings of catching a cruiser at any point
Speaker 1: of the day. Now, another idea that we fall in
Speaker 1: love with during the rut, and I've talked about a lot,
Speaker 1: is get rich quick products. We just can't help ourselves.
Speaker 1: And honestly, it's such a situationally variable thing that I'm
Speaker 1: kind of nervous about even addressing it. So I'll say this,
Speaker 1: pay attention to the deer you are hunting and how
Speaker 1: they react and pay attention to how often these things
Speaker 1: work for you. If you love the idea rattling like
Speaker 1: crazy because it's the pre rut in the bucks should
Speaker 1: be feeling a little froggy, great, go nuts, But pay attention.
Speaker 1: If you rattle in a buck even once every five sessions,
Speaker 1: you're doing pretty well. If you rattle all day and
Speaker 1: nothing shows, or if you rattle for a full week
Speaker 1: right at first light and it doesn't work, then acknowledge
Speaker 1: that the idea isn't really matching reality. The same goes
Speaker 1: for decoys or grunt calls or whatever. A lot of
Speaker 1: hunters view them as a net neutral type of strategy
Speaker 1: during the rut, but I don't. I think every book
Speaker 1: can be grunted in at the right time, but that
Speaker 1: window is small. I think most bucks can be decoyed into,
Speaker 1: but again, the odds of getting the timing right they're
Speaker 1: not great. Now, this doesn't mean you shouldn't try any
Speaker 1: of these, because you should, just don't overplay your hand.
Speaker 1: If the deer show you in your area that your
Speaker 1: idea of what should happen during the rut is vastly
Speaker 1: different from what is actually going to happen, or what
Speaker 1: actually does happen now. Another category in white toil hunting
Speaker 1: that is right for this problem is the traveling hunt.
Speaker 1: We romanticize the over the road adventure, and if you're
Speaker 1: on social media at all, you're probably inundated with images
Speaker 1: and stories from hunters who traveled to a different state
Speaker 1: shot an enormous buck. Most of these posts tell a
Speaker 1: surprisingly sparse story on the actual hunt. I bet that
Speaker 1: at least of the people who travel have a hell
Speaker 1: of a good spot to travel too. Whether that's an
Speaker 1: outfitted property or a lease, or a grandparent on a
Speaker 1: homestead farm that is loaded with deer and devoid a
Speaker 1: hunting pressure, it doesn't matter. Those situations are everywhere, and
Speaker 1: they are almost always left out of the story or
Speaker 1: glossed over in a major and I might add not
Speaker 1: unintentional way. Now, there are plenty of people out there
Speaker 1: doing d i y hunts, many of which occur on
Speaker 1: public land. Some of those people are killing good deer too,
Speaker 1: and in a similar but different way, are also kind
Speaker 1: of glossing over the realities of their hunts. This is
Speaker 1: because when we see success, we focus on it and
Speaker 1: we assign it a way heavier weight than it deserves.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a dumb example. In September, I took
Speaker 1: one of my daughters to Wisconsin to hunt opening weekend.
Speaker 1: The weather was hot, like mid sixties overnight, like eight
Speaker 1: in the day kind of hot. It was hazy, muggy,
Speaker 1: and not that much fun to sweat while hiking a
Speaker 1: couple of hundred yards to our blinds. And the blind
Speaker 1: we did sit because it was our best opportunity. In
Speaker 1: a south wind was full of spiders, and I mean
Speaker 1: full of spiders. Now, listen, I'm pretty manly, as you
Speaker 1: guys probably all know, but when it comes to spiders,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I hate them. There's some ancestral memory in
Speaker 1: my jeans of distant slope foreheaded grunting and butt scratching
Speaker 1: pre Peterson type of people who dealt with venomous, disgusting spiders.
Speaker 1: I know it because when I see a spider, I'm
Speaker 1: filled with revulsion. When I see like fourteen of them,
Speaker 1: big bastards too in a small blind that I need
Speaker 1: to climb into, it's not that much fun for me.
Speaker 1: It's also not that much fun. I learned for a
Speaker 1: ten year old girl who screams if a ladybug is
Speaker 1: in her room. A couple of those eight legged bastards
Speaker 1: with hot weather in eight hours of hunting without seeing
Speaker 1: a deer, and you have the makings of a full
Speaker 1: day that really wasn't that much fun. Now, the second
Speaker 1: morning of the season, however, with attempts still stupid high
Speaker 1: in the humidity at roughly a hundred and twelve percent,
Speaker 1: we managed to have a spike buck walk right in
Speaker 1: and pose up at like twelve yards. He ran maybe
Speaker 1: fifty yards before piling up, and is honestly a perfect
Speaker 1: first buck for my daughter. So now the hunt looks
Speaker 1: like it was amazing, and in that one specific way
Speaker 1: it sure was, But in many other ways it honestly
Speaker 1: wasn't that much fun. The same goes from my elk
Speaker 1: hunt in September. People see a gripping and granted with
Speaker 1: a good bull from public land and they think, well,
Speaker 1: that must have been like a vacation. It wasn't, and
Speaker 1: elk hunting for most of us common folks never is.
Speaker 1: Traveling hunts are a great idea. I actually wish everyone
Speaker 1: could and would do them. I wish they could. The
Speaker 1: rewards are worth it, and there is nothing better in
Speaker 1: life than cool experiences. There isn't but that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that there won't be a ship ton of work to
Speaker 1: do on those hunts, and it won't mean that they
Speaker 1: aren't expensive, And then you know, maybe there's going to
Speaker 1: be some added pressure to kill you. I p camping,
Speaker 1: which is something that everyone says they love, but I
Speaker 1: suspect that they just haven't camped enough. I used to
Speaker 1: camp like forty to fifty days a year on all
Speaker 1: my public land hunts, and I can tell you that
Speaker 1: the shine wears off the old camping apple after a while.
Speaker 1: It's still my favorite way to go about d I
Speaker 1: Y hunts, but camping is something that can be a
Speaker 1: whole lot of no fun, especially if you don't have
Speaker 1: a really good system down and at least marginally decent gear.
Speaker 1: In fact, this is a really bad comparison, but I'll
Speaker 1: do it anyway. I think camping is the man's version
Speaker 1: for childbirth, not in the pain and suffering aspect or
Speaker 1: anything like that. It's just something that we get this
Speaker 1: weird amnesia over. Anyone who has witnessed or gone through
Speaker 1: birthing a child wouldn't say the act itself is a nice,
Speaker 1: easy thing that is no big deal. But is it
Speaker 1: worth it? Of course, but fun and relaxing sure didn't
Speaker 1: look like it camping for us, dudes, It's kind of
Speaker 1: like that. We go through it, we remember how much
Speaker 1: it can suck, especially if it's super hot or rainy
Speaker 1: or a gear suck, and we swear it off never again,
Speaker 1: we say, than a few months pass and the next
Speaker 1: year season is coming up and we start to forget
Speaker 1: the misery and decide that, you know what, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to go camping. Camping is a great idea and
Speaker 1: I'm super stoked for it. Lather rents repeat. So what's
Speaker 1: the lesson in all of this That everything sucks and
Speaker 1: we should probably stay home and watch football. Nope, the
Speaker 1: lesson is to be realistic about hunting and about ourselves,
Speaker 1: to find that homeostasis, that equilibrium between what we think
Speaker 1: about hunting and what hunting actually is when we do it.
Speaker 1: The more you acknowledge that there are a lot of
Speaker 1: sucky parts to hunting, but they are worth wading through
Speaker 1: for the experience, the easier it is to tolerate the
Speaker 1: not so fun parts. When you do that, you'll hunt more,
Speaker 1: you'll hunt smarter, and you'll enjoy the whole process a
Speaker 1: hell of a lot more. And when you do that,
Speaker 1: when that happens, you feel more tags, which makes those
Speaker 1: all day sits or the seventh night in a row
Speaker 1: in a small tent so much more palatable because it's
Speaker 1: not the idea of what we do that matters, it's
Speaker 1: the reality of what we do. While that reality isn't
Speaker 1: quite as rose colored as our fantasies about craze bucks
Speaker 1: chasing at noon, it's still pretty damn good. It's worth
Speaker 1: it every single time you can go. Now, next week,
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about the rut. I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk about how often we kind of look for all
Speaker 1: the deer when we should be looking for the right Dear.
Speaker 1: That's it for this week, my friends. I'm Tony Peterson.
Speaker 1: This has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which
Speaker 1: has brought to you by First Light. As always, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your support, and if you want
Speaker 1: more of a white tail fix, feel free to check
Speaker 1: out Mark's new show on the meat eat Or YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: which is called Deer Country. You can also visit the
Speaker 1: wire to Hunt YouTube channel for our how to videos,
Speaker 1: and go to the meat eator dot com slash wired
Speaker 1: to read all kinds of white tail related articles,