Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 926: Foundations - Problems, Challenges, & the Truth About Whitetail Fails

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Ep. 926: Foundations - Problems, Challenges, & the Truth About Whitetail Fails · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all about reframing your
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: thought process around whitetail hunting failures, looking at this whole
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: thing in a different light. A couple of weeks back,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: when I was making the long drive from Nebraska to
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: my part of Minnesota, I listened to a Theovon podcast
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: where each added with a retired Las Vegas police officer.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: At one point, that police officer stated that he was
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: trying hard to course correct his language in real time,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: and one example he gave was that he doesn't consider
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: issues in his life to be problems, but instead challenges.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Now that might seem dumb or some wou shit that
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: my would post on Instagram, but it's not dumb. The
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: way we view ourselves in our world at large matters,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and it certainly can alter our courses deer hunters, which
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: is what I'm going to talk about right now. It's
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: almost as if whatever is running this simulation we are
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: in really wants to mess with me. While I was
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: in Nebraska a couple of weeks ago, I checked my
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Moultrie app to see what would likely be no deer pictures.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: But there was a deer picture, and it was a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: picture of a good one. The buck. You know, he
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: looked like he'll go about in the mid one thirties.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: He walked right past the stand of mine in northern Wisconsin,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: and two days later he walked by another camera I
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: have on the same property. Those cameras are mostly out
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: there to show me what spikes and four key's my
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: daughters will target this fall. But every summer, without fail,
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: a deer that really gets my attention walks by them,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and then that deer disappears, because that's what they always do.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: But I'm not going to forget about it, and I'll
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: think about him a lot and how I can be
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: there on that thirty acres if he manages to walk
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: through during the season. Now, is that a problem or
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: is it a challenge? Well, let's think about this what
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: is the difference between a problem and a challenge. For starters,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a challenge refers to some task or situation where determination,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: skill and effort can help you overcome it, Like I
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: don't know, if you enter a hot dog eating contest
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: and you really really want to win, I don't know
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: why they use that as an example. Problems, on the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: other hand, are generally viewed as negative or undesirable issues
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: that require a solution, like if you were in a
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: hot dog eating contest and you eate twenty nine hot
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: dogs and now your stomach is about to explode, and
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: maybe you're in danger of an embarrassing bathroom related situation
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: that is growing more urgent by the second. The nature
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: of problems and challenges differs, as does our perception of them.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Let me give you an example here. My dad, who
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: introduced me to hunting and fishing, and who put up
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: with a lot from me for a long time, has
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: all almost always viewed deer hunting through the problem lens.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: It was almost always something negative that flavored his whole
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: deer hunting meal. And while he killed plenty of deer,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: including a few good ones, he wouldn't really even give
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: himself credit for those moments because there was always something
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: he could have done better. Now, as you can imagine,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I adopted a similar mindset when I was first starting out.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I couldn't kill anything, and that was a problem in
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: my mind. But the problem of not killing deer isn't
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: all that easy to resolve for many of us, which
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: is why some of us get paid to produce podcasts
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: on this very topic. Now, this is a home game
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: issue a lot of times. But what I mean by
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: that is is easy to believe certain things about our
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: hunting when we are used to them going a certain way.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: If you mostly don't kill the size of bucks you'd
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: like to kill, you will generally expect that outcome. Now.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I certainly did for a long long time, and it
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: wasn't until I started to travel a little to hunt
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: that hunting became sort of a default challenge. Showing up
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: somewhere for a few days to try to fill a
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: tag in foreign country just feels like a challenge, an opportunity,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and not just a problem that needs to be solved.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: And what was bonkers was that it became easier for
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: me to fill my tags on the road than at home.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: And it wasn't solely because I was hunting better properties
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: or chasing after dumber deer I wasn't, and they weren't.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: In fact, most of them were on public land, which
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: by default should have been more difficult, you know, to
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: kill than at home on private But it didn't work
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: out that way. Most of the difference, at least, this
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: is what I believe to be true, came from an
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: unintentional mindset shift on those over the road hunts, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the lessons I learned there in my early years followed
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: me home. But I'm not a fully changed man, as
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: you can probably guess by how I talked about that
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: random big woods buck that walked by my camera a
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: few weeks ago, and who I expect to not walk
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: by again throughout the whole season, because you see, I'm
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: looking at that like it's a problem, the old you know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: where did you come from? Where did you go? Cotton
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: eyed buck? Thing? That always seems to that trick that
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: deer lives out there somewhere, he uses my land some,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: although it doesn't seem to be too frequently. That deer
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: is killable by someone, and it won't be me, most
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: likely if I look at it solely like it's a problem.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: If I look at it like a challenge, I might
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: try to find better ways to get him into range,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: like trying to get permission to hunt more land around me.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I did this last year, and while it was only
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: ten acres, that's a good addition when you're only hunting
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: thirty to begin with. But that deer has a bigger
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: home range than that, and the starting point might just be,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: you know, to make some phone calls and knock on
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: some doors to see if I can expand my hunting
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: territory to include some more stomping grounds. That challenge of
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: getting more dirt to work with would solve a few
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: of my problems in general. If that's a no go,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: which it very well might be since most of the
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: neighbors hunt, then the next challenge is to try to
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: get more information on that buck. More cameras will help,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: and so will more glassing in the neighborhood. Maybe, since
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: he's the big kahuna on the block, I should start
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: a mock scrape and leave a camera on it, just
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: to see if he'll show up at some point right there.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: If I look at killing that specific buck as my
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: challenge for the season, it can prompt me to find
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: more ground, scout more, and try a few tactics that
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I normally wouldn't use. Will it work, I don't know.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: But if I look at it like that, deer will
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: always do what I expect. That's a problem. I'm very
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: likely to accept my fate on that particular book. He's
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: going to beat me again because he always does. But
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: if I hunt him like I always do, then I'm
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: basically just handing him a win. This reminds me of
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: a hell of a lot of conversations I've had with
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: people who don't live in Elk Country, but who have
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: either haunted Elk a few times or would really like to.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: They look at the success rates, which here, at least
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I'm referring to public land over the countertags. Even though
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: over the countertags are like a bunch of dinosaurs staring
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: up at the sky as a giant flaming space rock
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: speeds its way toward what is now Mexico, if you
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: look at the archery success rates on Elk in that situation,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: it's easy to realize there's a big problem there. You know,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: like three out of every hundred hunters will fill a tag,
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: and that's not too encouraging. It leads to a lot
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: of defeated wandering in the mountains and half assed efforts
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: after the initial excitement wears off. But what about looking
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: at it differently. The challenge isn't just to kill an elk,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: but to actually be in that small percentage of hunters
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: who do fill their tags. And there is a difference there.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: The hunters who do kill, especially the ones who do
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: it consistently, they're not getting lucky. The one off tag
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: fillers might. But there are common traits to the folks
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: who can just kind of get it done. They don't
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: have something you don't, or at least don't have access to.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: If it feels like they do, they're just doing things differently,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: and their mindset is almost certainly different. They might challenge
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: themselves to get up super early and be on the
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: mountain in play all day long. That might be all
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: it takes. They don't let themselves go back to camp
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: it ten in the morning, when the thermal shift and
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: any chance to hear a random bugle has pretty much
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: been squashed for like seven hours. That might just be enough.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: They might challenge themselves to sit next to a water
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: hole all day instead of roaming randomly on the off
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: chance they'll bump into a workable situation, which they most
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: likely won't. Let me bring this back to white tails
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: that Ranchi scattered in Nebraska a couple weeks ago for
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: a rut hunter's fall. There's a spot there that looks
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: like it could be a big buck highway. There's a
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: fence line through a slough that allows for easy ish
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: parallel travel and also a chance for the deer to
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: get a drink of water. It's also a point A
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: to B type of thing that at least on one side,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: allows them to enter an interesting track of timber that
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: is covered in pounded trails. The spot is awesome, and
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: one of the bucks I've gotten pictures of in there
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: is an extremely wide deer that looks like he might
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: go one fifty or more. And all of that is great,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: but the spot sucks for access. It just does, and
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it sucks for stand trees. So I have two problems,
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: how to get in and where to set up at first,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: when I walked it, I thought those problems were enough
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to get me to abandon the location. But that's dumb.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: It's a good spot and it deserves some effort. So
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: instead I'll consider it a challenge to both get into
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: it and set up there. The setup situation is solvable
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: by sitting on the ground. That's not as ideal as
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: getting into a tree there, because if they come through,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: you're probably not going to know it until they're right
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: on top of you. That's okay. I'd rather be there
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: and haunt than not, you know. The access challenge is
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: different everywhere that we could approach from. Is it also
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: a route deer could take? The best route and by
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: that I mean the one that will require the least
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: amount of effort involves a lot of exposure to a
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: nearby pivot agfield for a morning entry, but it would
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: get you there. There's the possibility of being a little
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: sneakier and crossing an old beaver dam, but that one
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: comes with the possibility that you might go for a
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: little pre hunt swim. Not ideal either. Access is a
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: challenge there, but however I get in there, I can
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: mitigate some of the negative effects by having a really
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: good blind setup and the willingness to sit all day
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: to let the ripples of the early morning intrusion fade
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: away over time. Now that problematic spot is starting to
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: feel like something I'm far more optimistic about. In fact,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I'll be a little surprised if one of us doesn't
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: have an encounter with a big deer in there. Think
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: about this another way, are you a really good bowshot?
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: If not, that's a problem. And that problem can rear
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: its ugly head when you really don't want it to,
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: and boy will it. If you look at midsummer practice
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: sessions as a way to fix your shooting problems, it'll
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: affect your individual sessions and come into play on a
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: lot of your individual shot Like if you believe you
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: aren't a great shot and that shooting will make you better,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: but you shank a few during a session, the problem
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: is still there and you know it, and you feel
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: like the problem is not being remedied. But what about this?
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: What if you challenge yourself to shoot two hundred arrows
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: a week every week before the season opens. Instead of
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: viewing things in the micro where every shot is a
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: test of your ability and failure is just a high probability,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: the challenge is to be the kind of archer who
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: can shoot eight hundred to one thousand arrows a month.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: There is no doubt that that would likely make you
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: a much better shot, and it'll shift the focus from
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: any one individual shot around to a cumulative effort that
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: will increase your skill over time. Let me give you
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: another example here from my life. You guys know I'm
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: into bird dogs in a major way, and I play
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: in the sporting dog side of things a lot. This fall,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: well probably early this winter, I'm going to challenge myself
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: to do something that a lot of bird hunters think
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: you can't do, which is find some quail to hunt. Seriously,
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: I know that might seem stupid, but if you talk
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: to a lot of folks, especially Southern folks who live
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: in traditional Bob White country, you'll hear plenty of them
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: say flat out that there are no huntable quail populations left.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: They'll say it as if that's a problem, because to
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: them it is, and understandably so, because quail aren't doing
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: super well in a lot of places. But that doesn't
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: mean there are no quail to be found. That's silly.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: I killed a turkey in public land in Kansas this
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: spring and spent the whole time there listening to Bob
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: White's call. I also bumped into a couple of them
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: on my recent Nebraska trip too, So the challenge is
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: to go find some quail on public land, put my
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: dog in their vicinity, and hopefully shoot straight. And I
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: think we can do it. They'll just require a lot
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: of e scouting and a lot of driving and a
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: hell of a lot of walking with the dog. But
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: there are worse ways to spend my time, and why
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I don't really care if I kill a bunch of
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: quail this year or not. I do like the thought
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: of where that challenge will take Sadie and I. I
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: think we'll find some quail, and I bet when we're
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: looking for them, we'll find some prairie chickens or sharp tails,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: or maybe some roosters. I bet we also find a
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: few places that convince me to drop some way points
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: for deer. Two. If the problem is that there are
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: no quail and we believe that, then we're not going
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to do anything about it. But bitch, if the challenge
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: is to find quail, then our entire approach changes and
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: the effort will definitely yield positive results and make the
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: whole thing worth it. It's easy to be dismissive of
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: things that are difficult, but the goal isn't just to
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: kill something here, It's to take the ride my friends,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: and try to level up, because in that effort we
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: generally find the things we are looking for in this
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: whole lifestyle we have based around chasing rabbits with antlers
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: or whatever quarry has gotten under your skin. So what
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: are the problems you're faced with this off season or
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: you're facing this upcoming deer season? How can you turn
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: them into challenges? Is it something like not being comfortable
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: with mobile hunt When you know you need to get
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: out there and leave your favorite ladder stand behind and
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: start poking around in areas of the farm usually don't hunt.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: It's not a problem. It's a challenge to get really
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: comfortable with your gear. You can do that in the
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: backyard well before the season opens. Is the problem that
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: you never kill big bucks? Okay, challenge yourself to kill
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: one that's bigger than usual, but maybe not a one seventy.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: How will you go about that? My guess is that
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: it'll involve scouting more, hanging more stands in the off season,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: and just generally putting in some effort to ring the
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: most out of your time in the woods when you
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: do get out there. Sometimes just reframing what it would
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: mean to be successful matters and instead of focusing on
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: that one stupid big Woods buck that you got on
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: camera a few months ago as your only hit lister,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: maybe the challenges is just encounter one this season that
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: is probably a year older than your average kill or whatever.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Challenge yourself to have a few more good setups this
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: season might be that simple. That alone will get you
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: out there a little bit more to think through your
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: seat and prepare for it. But it'll also put you
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: where the deer live and you might find a trail
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: you didn't realize needed a trail camera on, or you
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: might jump a bachelor group somewhere that gets you thinking
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: about filling that tag on opening day. When we see problems,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: we often don't see solutions. We just see obstacles that
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: we aren't motivated to overcome. When we see something as
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: a challenge, we naturally start to wonder how to get
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: to a positive outcome, and we can break things down
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: into manageable winds. That matters so much in the way
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: to game, and it's something to think about right now
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: as we tip the balance of summer towards the back
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: half and start to think hard about what this deer
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: season might hold for us. So do that and come
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: back next week because I'm going to talk about how
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: to read trees for the best tree stand setups and
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: why this topic is way underappreciated when it comes to
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: killing all deer, but especially mature bucks. That's it for
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: this episode. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Wirre to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always, thank you so
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: much for listening. Head over to the mediater dot com
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: tons of articles. Maybe you need to train your dog
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: get them in shape for the season. Maybe you just
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: want to watch some good hunting films or listen to
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: some other podcasts on our network. It's all there. We
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: drop new content every single day. Go check it out
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: at the mediator dot com.