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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Foundation's podcast. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson, and this episode is all about where our

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Speaker 1: hunting opportunities are going and why we should all think

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Speaker 1: about planning a bird hunting trip with our pups before

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Speaker 1: it's too late. It was an attempt to buy turkey

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Speaker 1: tags that spawned the idea for this podcast, although if

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Speaker 1: I'm being totally honest, this is a topic I think

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Speaker 1: about all of the time, not just in the bird

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Speaker 1: hunting world, but in the big game world as well.

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Speaker 1: Taking a hunting trip with your dogs to experience something

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Speaker 1: you can't get at home. Think about it all the time,

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Speaker 1: and it seems so simple and quite honestly, something that

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Speaker 1: a lot of us have taken for granted. But that's

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Speaker 1: a bad move in my opinion. I'm going to tell

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Speaker 1: you why right now, and tell you why this should

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Speaker 1: be your year to do something out of your comfort

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Speaker 1: zone with your four legged hunting partner for it's too late.

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Speaker 1: It was during one of those rand him off season

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Speaker 1: phone calls with a hunting buddy where we got on

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Speaker 1: a topic of spring turkeys. That conversation prompted me to

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Speaker 1: look up when the deadline to buy a tag for

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Speaker 1: Nebraska was going to be this year because I love

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Speaker 1: hunting turkeys down there. In fact, I love hunting a

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Speaker 1: lot of stuff in the corn Husker State, which is

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Speaker 1: something I'm going to get into later on this episode

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Speaker 1: any Huski. When I looked up when the window would

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Speaker 1: open to buy one of the ten thousand tags that's

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Speaker 1: offered up to non residence in a first come, first

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Speaker 1: serve format, I saw, to my surprise that it was

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Speaker 1: that very day, an hour and a half from the

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Speaker 1: moment I looked it up. Maybe it was coincidence, or

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Speaker 1: maybe it was something in my reptile brain that reminded

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Speaker 1: me to look it up after doing pretty much the

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Speaker 1: same thing. I don't know. Ever, since they went from

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Speaker 1: over the counter licenses to limited license, it doesn't matter

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Speaker 1: because I knew that i'd get a tag since I

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Speaker 1: had remembered in time, and when I logged in a

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Speaker 1: few minutes before the window opened, the virtual queue showed

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Speaker 1: that I was nine hundred and ninety eighth in line.

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Speaker 1: I ended up getting my tag and then had a work,

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Speaker 1: so it slipped from my mind. But after that meeting ended,

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Speaker 1: I texted two of my good buddies who liked to

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Speaker 1: hunt turkeys as well, to remind them not to miss

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Speaker 1: their chance if they want to go to Nebraska. One

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Speaker 1: of them got back to me almost instantly with a

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Speaker 1: screenshot showing that the tags were sold out. It was

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Speaker 1: less than four hours later. Now that might not mean

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Speaker 1: much to you, guys, but only a few years ago

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Speaker 1: you could buy three tags in Nebraska over the counter.

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Speaker 1: And now, if you're not quick enough to get into

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Speaker 1: the virtual line, you won't have the option to spend

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Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty bucks on a turkey tag. What

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Speaker 1: does that have to do with going on an upland

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Speaker 1: hunting trip. Probably a lot more than you might think.

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Speaker 1: The trend in non resident opportunities is not your friend

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Speaker 1: unless the only thing you're concerned about is reducing non

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Speaker 1: resident pressure in your home state. That's a thing, and

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Speaker 1: it's understandable, but that mentality is contributing to something that

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Speaker 1: will reduce opportunities for all of us eventually. Now, while

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Speaker 1: I started hunting out of state when I was in

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Speaker 1: high school, you know, those rooster trips to i Iowa

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Speaker 1: or turkey trips to Missouri were just close to home

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Speaker 1: affairs that didn't cost hardly anything and opened up a

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Speaker 1: world of possibility to somebody like me who never really

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Speaker 1: even considered traveling hunting as an option as a kid.

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Speaker 1: People just didn't do it that much, or at least

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Speaker 1: the people who I grew up with didn't. It lit

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Speaker 1: a spark, though, and eventually I started doing budget bow

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Speaker 1: hunts to as many places as I could afford. They

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Speaker 1: involved analope hunts, elk hunts, mule deer hunts, and white

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Speaker 1: tail hunts. Those trips brought me to a lot of

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Speaker 1: places where I found, kind of accidentally, a hell of

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Speaker 1: a lot of upland opportunities, and that spawned a whole

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Speaker 1: nother reason to travel for hunting adventure. Those experiences shape

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Speaker 1: me as a hunter and largely as a person, because

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Speaker 1: I think the antidote to a lot of our societal

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Speaker 1: issues is spending time with new people in unfamiliar places.

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Speaker 1: Most of those hunting opportunities happened on over the countertags,

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Speaker 1: and nearly every one of them is gone now. Some

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Speaker 1: were removed because of resource issues like declining antelope populations,

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Speaker 1: for example. Others were removed from social pressure by residents

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Speaker 1: looking to protect what they view as rightly theirs, but

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Speaker 1: the end result is the same and it doesn't bode

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Speaker 1: well for us in the long run. It's also just

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Speaker 1: the direction we are headed. The thing that scares me

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Speaker 1: the most about it is that it's kind of trend

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Speaker 1: you might really not care about, or you might cheer for,

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Speaker 1: until it affects something you care about, and by then

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Speaker 1: you realize that you didn't even notice the paper cuts

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Speaker 1: adding up to a thousand and resulting in a surprised

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Speaker 1: death of an opportunity you assumed would be there forever.

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Speaker 1: It started with high dollar, super rare hunting opportunities like

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Speaker 1: big horned sheep and shyris moves and critters that most

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Speaker 1: of us will never lay eyes on in the wild,

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Speaker 1: let alone actually hunt for, and most of us didn't

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Speaker 1: care because most of us weren't willing or able to

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Speaker 1: fork over forty thousand dollars to hunt sheep. But that

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Speaker 1: also put in place. It's a template for how to

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Speaker 1: manage game in a new way. Instead of just thinking

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Speaker 1: about overall healthy animal populations, which state game agencies actually do.

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Speaker 1: They also realize that a state's resource can be very

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Speaker 1: lucrative cash cow, simply because enough people will pay a

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Speaker 1: lot of money to try to mix it up with

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Speaker 1: them that trickled down through more available animals like western

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Speaker 1: big game and whitetails and now turkeys, and guess what

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Speaker 1: it's happening with upland birds and waterfowl too. It just

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Speaker 1: hasn't happened at the magnitude of those higher demand big

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Speaker 1: game animals yet. But the trend is here, and there

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Speaker 1: is a saying in investing that goes the trend is

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Speaker 1: your friend. In this case, the trend is not to

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Speaker 1: your friend. The truth is that it's not going to

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Speaker 1: get easier to find opportunities unless you live in a

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Speaker 1: place where the bird hunting opportunities allow you to be

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Speaker 1: fully content. This should at least be a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a concern. And even then, even if you do

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Speaker 1: live in a place where you have tons of bird

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Speaker 1: hunting opportunities, the truth is that populations fluctuate, habitat can

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Speaker 1: change quickly, and what you might assume is a feathered

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Speaker 1: fixture on the landscape in your neighborhood now might be

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Speaker 1: far more fleeting than it appears at the moment. In

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Speaker 1: my life, I've watched native brook trout populations totally disappear

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Speaker 1: from the streams I grew up fishing in most of

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Speaker 1: southern Minnesota. We used to run into Hungarian partridge pretty

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Speaker 1: regularly too, and now if I see one, it's almost

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Speaker 1: always when I'm in Montana for work, and never when

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Speaker 1: I'm ount peasant hunting. I shot a lot of grouse

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Speaker 1: and pheasants where I grew up, and now I can

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Speaker 1: hardly find either. You know these are anecdotal, of course,

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Speaker 1: but you don't have to talk to any bird hunter

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Speaker 1: with too many years under his or her belt to

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Speaker 1: hear stories about what once was. If you don't believe that,

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Speaker 1: figure out a way to talk to a southern quail

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Speaker 1: hunter ask about how many covees their pointers run into

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Speaker 1: in any given season compared to what used to be

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Speaker 1: standard now. I don't want this to be all doom

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Speaker 1: and gloom, because it shouldn't be. We are constantly exposed

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Speaker 1: to negativity because it's an amazing way to divide us

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Speaker 1: and keep our attention on our phones, where we are

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Speaker 1: fed NonStop advertisements, which is a big part of the

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Speaker 1: whole equation and a huge driver behind developing more and

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Speaker 1: more addictive platforms. I hate that, and I'm sure you

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Speaker 1: do too, and one of the ways that I force

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Speaker 1: myself to stay away from that shit is by loading

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Speaker 1: up my lab and going someplace where upland birds live.

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Speaker 1: And even though you're going to hear this after the

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Speaker 1: trip is over, while I'm writing this, I'm excited because

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Speaker 1: That's what I'm going to do next week and I

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Speaker 1: can't wait. I have a very rough plan laid out

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Speaker 1: to hit the eastern part of Nebraska for pheasants and

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Speaker 1: maybe a few quail first before I drive down into

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Speaker 1: the left throughout the state to see what we can

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Speaker 1: do about finding some bob whites, prairie chickens, and maybe

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Speaker 1: some sharp tails. I know we will find some birds

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Speaker 1: throughout the week, but I'm not sooner concerned with filling

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Speaker 1: up my game bag. I just want to walk behind

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Speaker 1: my dog on her first hunt for all those birds

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Speaker 1: except for roosters, and just to see how it unfolds.

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Speaker 1: And I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity. I mean that truly.

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Speaker 1: Here in Minnesota and cross the river in Wisconsin, our

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Speaker 1: bird seasons are all closed. January here is the official

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Speaker 1: start of the off season, which really sucks because January

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Speaker 1: here in Canada South is a special kind of low

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Speaker 1: grade torture. If you love to hunt the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: drive three hundred miles and then start hunting public land

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Speaker 1: all across a different state in search of some flushes

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Speaker 1: is real important to me. I did this a handful

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Speaker 1: of times with my older lab Luna, and every trip,

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Speaker 1: even the ones where the birds were hard to come by,

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Speaker 1: just became a core memory that I wouldn't trade for anything.

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Speaker 1: And it's not because of the birds I get to

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Speaker 1: kill either, but because it's an excuse to do something

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Speaker 1: cool with my dogs. That's it. I think. One of

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Speaker 1: the most amazing things about owning a bird dog is

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Speaker 1: that they are a ticket to adventure, and to what

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Speaker 1: extent that's true is entirely up to us. If we

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Speaker 1: use them as a reason to plan and pack and

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Speaker 1: strategize and then get out there on some unfamiliar ground

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Speaker 1: for a few days, there is a high likelihood that

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Speaker 1: we will get to watch them figure out some new

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Speaker 1: things on the fly, as well as watch them enjoy

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Speaker 1: the shit out of life, which is honestly one of

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Speaker 1: the best parts about good dogs. They show up to

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Speaker 1: the party and they want nothing more than to run

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Speaker 1: through some tall grass with you. Think about that, because

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Speaker 1: it's true, and it's also true that we all want

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Speaker 1: our dogs to be better behaved, better at bird hunting,

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Speaker 1: and well just generally a little more badass than they

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Speaker 1: already are. How do you get them there? Well, one

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Speaker 1: way is to travel with them, put them in situations

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Speaker 1: that are fair but new and challenging, and then give

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Speaker 1: them some grace, you know, the same grace you'd give

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Speaker 1: yourself the first time you did something new. Get them

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Speaker 1: those bird contacts, watch them learn real time, celebrate the

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Speaker 1: crap out of their winds, and celebrate yours. Now. I

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Speaker 1: know this sounds like raw raw bullshit, but think about life.

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Speaker 1: How often do you do something you're truly excited about?

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Speaker 1: How often do you immerse yourself into the world where

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Speaker 1: the prairie chickens or the rough grouse or whatever live.

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Speaker 1: How often do you think about when you used to

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Speaker 1: go to South Dakota to hunt pheasants, or your dad

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Speaker 1: used to hunt bob whites every day after work. There

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Speaker 1: are still a lot of good opportunities out there, opportunities

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Speaker 1: on public land even, that are waiting for you and

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Speaker 1: your dog. And like I said before, they won't be

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Speaker 1: there forever. Now they aren't cheap compared to at least

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Speaker 1: you know, staying in state and hunting, I guess, but

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Speaker 1: they don't have to be super expensive. You don't have

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Speaker 1: to go to an outfitter to kill a limit of roosters.

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Speaker 1: Trust me, you don't need to know some old timers

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Speaker 1: secret spot in the northwoods of Michigan to go kill

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Speaker 1: some grouse would cock in October. Either. You don't need

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Speaker 1: to believe most folks when they say there are no

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Speaker 1: quail left, because there are plenty of quail left in

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Speaker 1: certain places. They just might not be where you can

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Speaker 1: hunt them close to home. And look, I get it.

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Speaker 1: Not everyone can afford and over the road trip, even

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Speaker 1: when it involves public land and cheap motels in the

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Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, But a lot of out of state

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Speaker 1: bird hunting can be had for really reasonable In fact,

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Speaker 1: most of the bird trips I take that involve a

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Speaker 1: few days of hunting and motels costs less than my

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Speaker 1: average tags for an out of state bow hunt for

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Speaker 1: big game. Now, and it's all relative. But using cost

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Speaker 1: as an excuse before you know the cost of an

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Speaker 1: actual trip is kind of a bad idea. It might

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Speaker 1: be out of reach, but doing a little research to

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Speaker 1: see if that's true before you write off an opportunity

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Speaker 1: might surprise you, and that part's free. It's one of

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Speaker 1: my favorite pastimes during the off season because it turns

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Speaker 1: up some cool opportunities and gives me something to think

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Speaker 1: about and look forward to. This time of the year

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Speaker 1: sucks for a lot of us, but conducting some due

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Speaker 1: diligence on potential hunts for this fall is better than

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Speaker 1: just doom scrolling Instagram or TikTok. It's also a good

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Speaker 1: way to motivate ourselves to get in a little better shape,

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Speaker 1: and certainly to think about how well our dogs are trained.

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Speaker 1: This is because when you actually decide it's time to

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Speaker 1: take that rooster road trip, or to drive half of

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Speaker 1: a day to see what the north Woods is all about,

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Speaker 1: your commit it. No one wants to do a trip

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Speaker 1: like that and come home with an empty cooler and

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Speaker 1: a sad dog. Humans do well with goals as long

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Speaker 1: as they are the kind of goals we can actually

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Speaker 1: stick to and try to achieve. You know. While that

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Speaker 1: varies by the individual, the one common theme here is

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Speaker 1: the dogs. If you decide this is the year, then

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Speaker 1: you'll be far more likely to put in whatever you

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Speaker 1: think you need to in order to make a hunt

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Speaker 1: happen and in such a way that it's just not

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Speaker 1: a total bust. And you know what, if it is

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Speaker 1: a total bust, you'll fall into one of two camps.

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Speaker 1: Either you'll swear off traveling hunts forever because they're stupid

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Speaker 1: and dumb and you hate them, or you'll step up

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Speaker 1: your game for the next one. I don't feel that

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Speaker 1: way again. I think fear of failure is the biggest

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Speaker 1: driver for a lot of folks to not take a

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Speaker 1: doable trip. That's understandable, but the alternative is just failure

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Speaker 1: in a different way, a way that causes us to

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Speaker 1: fail a lot and focus on the wrong stuff instead

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Speaker 1: of thinking about what it would be like to drive

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Speaker 1: seven hundred miles, spend some decent money and mostly blank

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Speaker 1: on birds. Think about what it would be like to

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Speaker 1: watch your dog point a prairie chicken for the first time,

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Speaker 1: or maybe a covey of quail. Think about what it

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Speaker 1: would be like to leave the suburbs and spend every

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Speaker 1: day for five days walking two tracks and swamp edges

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Speaker 1: in a county where black bears out number people ten

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Speaker 1: to one. There's more to this than dead birds, and

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Speaker 1: every trip will change not only you as a hunter

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Speaker 1: and as a person, but your dog as well, and

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Speaker 1: it'll change your relationship with your dog. Now I've given

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Speaker 1: you the pep talk. I've made the case for why

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Speaker 1: this time of year is the best time to at

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Speaker 1: least do some harmless research. What does it hurt to

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Speaker 1: google how much a non resident small game tag is

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Speaker 1: in some random place, or what you really need to

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Speaker 1: buy in order to drive up to Maine for some

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Speaker 1: grouse hunting this year. Maybe you find that the license

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Speaker 1: cost isn't a big impediment, and you pull up on

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Speaker 1: X you know, just take a look around, and you

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Speaker 1: see all those national forests or national grasslands or state

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Speaker 1: WMAs or private properties that are open to the public,

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Speaker 1: and you realize the whole thing starts to look a

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Speaker 1: hell of a lot more doable. Maybe your motivation is

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Speaker 1: the same as mine when you realize you know that

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Speaker 1: your home state is going to end at some point,

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Speaker 1: but you're just not going to be ready to pack

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Speaker 1: up the shotgun and let the dog lay around and

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Speaker 1: get lazy when just a few hours away, the whole

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Speaker 1: thing just keeps rolling along for another month, an extra

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Speaker 1: long weekend or two spent somewhere New might be just

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Speaker 1: what the doctor ordered to not go totally nuts from

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Speaker 1: cabin fever. Now I've given you the pep talk, the

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Speaker 1: sad story about how you really should do it for

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Speaker 1: your dog. But I'm going to go full circle here

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Speaker 1: to say what I really want to say about it.

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Speaker 1: Life moves fast. I read a quote by Charlie Munger

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Speaker 1: the other day Warren Buffett's you know right hand man,

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Speaker 1: former right hand man at Berkshire Hathaway. He said something

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Speaker 1: to the effect of, you know, the biggest mistake most

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Speaker 1: people make is thinking they have time. Life does move fast.

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Speaker 1: Our whole timeline lately seems to have shifted in recent

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Speaker 1: years to where the whole thing's just zipping past us.

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Speaker 1: We actually aren't getting any younger, and we really aren't

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Speaker 1: working too hard to make a whole lot of habitat

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Speaker 1: that will bring back bird populations in some areas that

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Speaker 1: are just gone we're not going to return. We aren't

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Speaker 1: working to lower license costs or generally increase hunting opportunities

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Speaker 1: for non residents in most places either in fact residents

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Speaker 1: either for that matter. The clock is truly ticking on

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Speaker 1: this thing. And while it might seem like your favorite

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Speaker 1: opportunities are here to stay, they probably aren't built on

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Speaker 1: as solid as a foundation as you think. Change is coming.

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Speaker 1: Change is always coming, and change rarely results in less

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Speaker 1: expensive hunts or game populations with such sudden abundance that

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Speaker 1: states lay out the welcome matt and beg us to come.

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Speaker 1: You know, throw some six shot in the air doesn't

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Speaker 1: work that way, and it's never going to use that

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Speaker 1: as motivation to consider what you could do this year

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Speaker 1: with your dog and then dig in a little, do

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Speaker 1: some research. Understand that if you go to a forum

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Speaker 1: and ask, you know, random strangers for advice, you'll probably

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Speaker 1: get terrible advice. Just plan it yourself, take the plunge

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Speaker 1: if it's possible, if not for yourself, for your dog,

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Speaker 1: because you know that even if it's expensive or scarier,

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Speaker 1: just seems like a huge headache. Their only vote on

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Speaker 1: whether to do it is a resounding hell yes, and

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Speaker 1: you know what, they're right. That's it for this week.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been The Houndation's podcast. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for all of your support here at

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Speaker 1: Meat Eater. We got a lot of really cool stuff

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Speaker 1: planned for this year, some really neat coming out, a

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Speaker 1: lot of stuff I think you're gonna absolutely enjoy. But

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Speaker 1: I want to say thank you to you first, because

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Speaker 1: without you, none of that stuff would matter. Our audience

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Speaker 1: is everything to us, So thank you for the support.

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Speaker 1: If you're bored out of your freaking minds right now

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Speaker 1: and you need a little more entertainment or some education,

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00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,120
Speaker 1: go to the mediater dot com. We drop new content

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Speaker 1: literally every single day. Articles, recipes, news stories, tons of podcasts, films,

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Speaker 1: all kinds of stuff, and honestly, if you're like a

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Speaker 1: little hesitant or whatever, go check out Jordan Siller's new

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Speaker 1: Blood Trails podcasts. I do it as a journalist at heart,

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Speaker 1: and he has put together some of the best podcast

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Speaker 1: Mediater has ever put out. Murder mystery stuff based in

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Speaker 1: the outdoors, really cool. Go check out Blood Trails at

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Speaker 1: the mediator dot com and thanks again for all your support.

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Speaker 1: He rested him the back the Troop in with the

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Speaker 1: Doctor s Man