Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1048: Foundations - How to Start Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Whitetail Season

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Ep. 1048: Foundations - How to Start Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Whitetail Season · 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, everybody, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
0:23
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:25
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about starting to
0:28
Speaker 2: plan for your fall success right now. Look, I have
0:35
Speaker 2: to admit I actually really, really like the months of April,
0:38
Speaker 2: May and June. You know, April and May for all
0:40
Speaker 2: the time spent in Jason turkeys and trying to catch
0:43
Speaker 2: future out and June for the big smallies in large
0:45
Speaker 2: mouth and just good weather. But really those three months
0:48
Speaker 2: are a relief because I don't have to think about
0:50
Speaker 2: white tails too much. I know that sounds weird because
0:52
Speaker 2: I love deer and so do you, But deer are
0:54
Speaker 2: a lot of work and a lot of stress, and
0:56
Speaker 2: honestly a great source of anxiety. Sometimes a three month
0:59
Speaker 2: break from that isn't so bad. But it's over and
1:02
Speaker 2: it's time to start trying to figure them out. Before
1:05
Speaker 2: the new season is upon us. This generally requires a
1:07
Speaker 2: plan with about a million inputs, a lot of work,
1:10
Speaker 2: and a lot of hope. That plan will be a
1:12
Speaker 2: multi stage affair. But you have to start somewhere, which
1:15
Speaker 2: is what I'm going to talk about right now. Where
1:23
Speaker 2: do you even start? It might seem simple, I suppose
1:27
Speaker 2: if you're hunting the place you always hunt, the place
1:29
Speaker 2: you've hunted for years that always has, you know, one
1:32
Speaker 2: of two crop rotations going on, and the deer always
1:34
Speaker 2: bed wherever and feed wherever. You know, why stress about
1:37
Speaker 2: a known situation? Well, maybe you hunt a place where
1:41
Speaker 2: history repeats itself and things are pretty simple. You probably don't, though,
1:45
Speaker 2: or at the very least, don't always hunt a place
1:48
Speaker 2: where the deer is predictable as the phases of the moon.
1:51
Speaker 2: If you don't have that situation, you have something that
1:53
Speaker 2: probably requires more thought, more planning, and well more what ifs,
1:59
Speaker 2: more question marks. That's the case with most of us,
2:02
Speaker 2: and either way, it's time to start thinking about this stuff.
2:05
Speaker 2: How I start before I ever go into the woods,
2:09
Speaker 2: Although I say that without being too serious, because I've
2:11
Speaker 2: been in the woods plenty already, and you probably have
2:13
Speaker 2: two But for the sake of sounding wise and keeping
2:15
Speaker 2: this podcast pointed in the right direction. Let's say you're
2:18
Speaker 2: looking for a step one. No matter where or how
2:21
Speaker 2: you hunt, here's mine the regulations in the states I
2:26
Speaker 2: plan to hunt. Now. For me, this might look different
2:28
Speaker 2: from you. Between my work schedule, hunting with the girls,
2:32
Speaker 2: and getting in a few personal hunts, I have to
2:33
Speaker 2: think about you know, probably four or five states to
2:36
Speaker 2: start with, and every one of those states has different regulations,
2:39
Speaker 2: different timing for their youth seasons, different bag limits and
2:42
Speaker 2: tag allocations. And some of those will be the same
2:45
Speaker 2: as they've been for decades, but others aren't going to
2:49
Speaker 2: be so consistent. More than a few hunters get burned
2:52
Speaker 2: every year not brushing up on the regulations in their
2:55
Speaker 2: home state or wherever they hunt, you know, so they
2:57
Speaker 2: buy a license a day before the opener and realize
2:59
Speaker 2: they can't shot as many dos as they hope, or
3:01
Speaker 2: that there's now antler point restrictions in certain counties. Something.
3:05
Speaker 2: The easiest thing you can do to start planning your
3:07
Speaker 2: twenty six season is to give the regulations a good look.
3:10
Speaker 2: When it comes to home state hunting, there usually aren't
3:13
Speaker 2: too many big surprises But what if you decided this
3:16
Speaker 2: year is the year you're going to not always hunt
3:18
Speaker 2: Gramma's farm, but are going to try your hand at
3:21
Speaker 2: a hang and bang hunt on public land? Simple right, Well,
3:25
Speaker 2: what are the laws on trail camera usage on public
3:28
Speaker 2: screwing steps or bow hagers? Are there different limits or
3:31
Speaker 2: tag allocations for shooting antler list deer on the public
3:35
Speaker 2: The one thing I know after hunting lots of different
3:37
Speaker 2: states on private and public land, is that we often
3:40
Speaker 2: assume the rules are the same from one situation to
3:42
Speaker 2: the next, but we are often wrong. This is simple stuff,
3:46
Speaker 2: and you might not think it's all that important, but
3:48
Speaker 2: it is. How I hunt. Any given situation is highly
3:52
Speaker 2: dependent on what I can get tags for, what types
3:54
Speaker 2: of standard blinds I can use, whether I can use
3:57
Speaker 2: trail cameras, stuff like that. In the state, it's where
4:00
Speaker 2: big changes happen and you've been living under a rock
4:03
Speaker 2: and aren't aware of them. You're going to want to know,
4:05
Speaker 2: you know, crossbow legalization, earn a buck, new youth, or
4:08
Speaker 2: early gun seasons, whatever. You just want to know, And
4:11
Speaker 2: you definitely want to know if you plan to hunt
4:13
Speaker 2: some other state for the first time. Let's say you
4:16
Speaker 2: have the rules in the rags squared away, you're good
4:18
Speaker 2: to go. Well, what's next? Well, for me, the next
4:22
Speaker 2: step is to flesh out a loose plan for when
4:24
Speaker 2: I'll hunt. This isn't just when to plan my rut cation,
4:28
Speaker 2: although that's part of it, but it's also you know,
4:31
Speaker 2: when are the long weekends going to happen? When you
4:34
Speaker 2: can string together multiple sits. Is there a part of
4:37
Speaker 2: the season where you should be able to, you know,
4:39
Speaker 2: hunt every morning for a week, or where you could
4:41
Speaker 2: bail from work early to get into stand for every
4:44
Speaker 2: afternoon for a while. When will your hunt windows open up?
4:48
Speaker 2: For me, it's kind of all about when I am
4:50
Speaker 2: going to get a couple of weekends with the girls
4:52
Speaker 2: where they won't have five thousand activities that can actually hunt,
4:55
Speaker 2: because I want to prioritize those. So I want to
4:58
Speaker 2: know before we get too deep into summer, whether that's
5:01
Speaker 2: going to happen in mid September or early October whenever.
5:05
Speaker 2: Knowing when I can take them and we will have
5:07
Speaker 2: mornings and evenings to hunt for a few days is
5:10
Speaker 2: really important to me because my strategy in mid September
5:13
Speaker 2: is going to be a lot different from even earlier
5:15
Speaker 2: late October. When I know when the girls can hunt,
5:18
Speaker 2: I can also figure out a little bit more about
5:20
Speaker 2: my own schedule. Now I realize my whitetail life might
5:23
Speaker 2: be a little more complicated than a lot of folks.
5:26
Speaker 2: But the truth is that all of these inputs dictate
5:28
Speaker 2: where I hang stands and where I set blinds, and
5:31
Speaker 2: they should for you too, Which leads me to the
5:33
Speaker 2: next thing, which actually involves starting to figure out the deer.
5:38
Speaker 2: Most people this time of year will go about this
5:40
Speaker 2: task the easiest way possible, which is with trail cameras.
5:44
Speaker 2: But how you start this process will inform a lot
5:46
Speaker 2: of your hunting decisions, so you want to choose wisely.
5:49
Speaker 2: Let's start with a simple question here. Do you plan
5:53
Speaker 2: to hang cameras for mostly inventory or are you trying
5:56
Speaker 2: to learn something about deer travel at a specific spot.
6:00
Speaker 2: There's a big difference, and it seems like a lot
6:01
Speaker 2: of hunters don't really differentiate much, probably because it feels
6:05
Speaker 2: like we have a hell of a lot of time
6:06
Speaker 2: left before we can actually hunt them. Inventory gathering's fine,
6:11
Speaker 2: everyone wants to build that hit list, But are you
6:13
Speaker 2: gathering this intel by putting on a mineral block for
6:16
Speaker 2: the summer bucks. Maybe you put new batteries in the
6:19
Speaker 2: camera on your kill plot, and that's good enough. If
6:22
Speaker 2: what you want to learn is who is in the
6:23
Speaker 2: area now and how bigg he might be, then that's
6:26
Speaker 2: easy enough. Just don't expect to learn much more than that.
6:30
Speaker 2: And if you do use something to draw them in,
6:33
Speaker 2: expect even less because that mineral block or whatever you
6:36
Speaker 2: use is going to give you kind of a false
6:38
Speaker 2: read on fall movement. You've already influenced their summer movement
6:42
Speaker 2: to see who's there, But that doesn't mean that's going
6:44
Speaker 2: to hold up by fall. Understand that, because it matters now.
6:48
Speaker 2: If you want to start figuring out where deer move
6:50
Speaker 2: naturally and begin to build a pattern on them, you
6:53
Speaker 2: have a different task ahead of you. For me, because
6:56
Speaker 2: I like to hunt early and I like to hunt often,
6:59
Speaker 2: especially with a girls, I focus my camera work this
7:02
Speaker 2: time of year on a couple of different things. You know,
7:04
Speaker 2: first off or the easy ones, soybean's alfalfa. You know,
7:08
Speaker 2: if either is available where I can hunt. Both are
7:11
Speaker 2: prime early season food sources, and the bucks hitting the
7:14
Speaker 2: alfalfa today are likely to be there, and hitting the
7:17
Speaker 2: alfalfa in September. This isn't always the case, but it's
7:20
Speaker 2: consistent enough where I'm comfortable betting on those odds. What
7:24
Speaker 2: are the most popular early season food sources where you hunt,
7:27
Speaker 2: because if they'll still be out there in the early
7:29
Speaker 2: bo season, then you have the opportunity to build a
7:32
Speaker 2: pattern on it. Right now, it's simple stuff, but not
7:35
Speaker 2: that simple, and it does take some effort. Think of it,
7:38
Speaker 2: not like taking inventory on that growing beanfield out there,
7:42
Speaker 2: but actually developing a strategy for figuring out when the
7:46
Speaker 2: deer will hit those beans and where they are most
7:49
Speaker 2: likely to hit them. This is a big problem with
7:52
Speaker 2: a lot of hunters where they know a food source
7:54
Speaker 2: will draw a deer, they put a camera up on
7:56
Speaker 2: the edge, and then they get enough buck picks all
7:59
Speaker 2: summer to start their chickens before they hatch. We all
8:02
Speaker 2: know the early food sources and that bus will hit them.
8:06
Speaker 2: So it's much better to try to figure out the
8:08
Speaker 2: real specifics on that pattern, not just confirm basic knowledge.
8:13
Speaker 2: But you can take this a step further too. What
8:26
Speaker 2: if you don't have one of those early season food
8:28
Speaker 2: sources on your ground, then it's time to figure out
8:31
Speaker 2: where the closest ones are what's in them, and how
8:34
Speaker 2: you can gather as much intel as possible with the
8:37
Speaker 2: land you have to work with. This is where cameras
8:39
Speaker 2: really shine because now you're monitoring individual trails mostly and
8:45
Speaker 2: you're playing a game where you have to figure out
8:47
Speaker 2: when and why the travel happens, what wind or weather
8:52
Speaker 2: is it tied to, and why are there stretches of
8:54
Speaker 2: time with lots of activity on other times where it's dead.
8:58
Speaker 2: Take that alfalfa example. That might be as simple as
9:01
Speaker 2: the farmer coming in and cutting and raking and baling
9:04
Speaker 2: as crop. There might be three days or maybe a
9:07
Speaker 2: week there of extended activity by humans which can slow
9:11
Speaker 2: down the deer visits. Sell Cameras can tell you a
9:14
Speaker 2: lot about this kind of thing, and this knowledge will
9:17
Speaker 2: play into your strategy come fall, or at least it should. Again,
9:21
Speaker 2: I'll reiterate this because it matters. Ask yourself what you're
9:24
Speaker 2: trying to learn with your summer camera work, what's your
9:27
Speaker 2: intention with each and are you doing what you need
9:30
Speaker 2: to in order to really learn what you want? And
9:33
Speaker 2: also remember that it's not always about food. In the
9:36
Speaker 2: early season, you know, I love to hunt water and
9:39
Speaker 2: there is no time I love to hunt water more
9:41
Speaker 2: than when I know it'll be hot and there will
9:43
Speaker 2: be fewer hunters out in the woods summer. Camera work
9:46
Speaker 2: on water is a no brainer. And if there's one
9:49
Speaker 2: thing that can talk any hunter into heading out when
9:52
Speaker 2: it's ninety degrees on the opener, it's when they've been
9:54
Speaker 2: running a camera on a water hole all summer. I
9:58
Speaker 2: know this is simple stuff, but the goal, well for
10:00
Speaker 2: me and what it maybe should be for you, is
10:03
Speaker 2: to not have to count on the rut to have
10:05
Speaker 2: a chance at a buck. I want to hunt all
10:08
Speaker 2: parts of the season with my daughters or when I'm
10:10
Speaker 2: solo or with my buddies or whatever, and I want
10:13
Speaker 2: to hunt with the belief that I'm onto something. When
10:16
Speaker 2: I rely on the rut, it relieves me of my
10:19
Speaker 2: responsibilities in the early season. But those four or six
10:22
Speaker 2: weeks or whatever provide one hell of an opportunity to
10:26
Speaker 2: not only kill a buck, but also just spend some
10:28
Speaker 2: much needed time in the woods doing what I love
10:31
Speaker 2: to do. Now again, what if you don't have any
10:34
Speaker 2: water where you hunt, or maybe you have water now
10:37
Speaker 2: that will be all dried up by September. Where is
10:40
Speaker 2: the nearest water source they're drinking out there somewhere, but
10:43
Speaker 2: where you can pull up on X and toggle through
10:46
Speaker 2: a couple layers to see this. If you don't know,
10:49
Speaker 2: and even if you think you do know, you should
10:51
Speaker 2: probably do this anyway. Most of us look at the
10:54
Speaker 2: ground around us on satellite imagery, but the Toppo layer
10:57
Speaker 2: will very clearly show you water. That little pond on
11:01
Speaker 2: your neighbor's land that you've never seen in person will
11:04
Speaker 2: pop instantly in this layer. If there is a way
11:07
Speaker 2: for you to play off of that movement, you know
11:09
Speaker 2: that to and from of the pond, you should know
11:12
Speaker 2: that is there something that shows up on your ground
11:15
Speaker 2: where you didn't even know there was water. I think
11:17
Speaker 2: we all think we know what is going on in
11:19
Speaker 2: the places we hunt, but every once in a while,
11:22
Speaker 2: you just find something you didn't even know was there.
11:24
Speaker 2: On a farm I hunt in southern Minnesota, this happens
11:26
Speaker 2: to me occasionally, and it always throws me for a loop.
11:30
Speaker 2: One time, it was a seep on a hillside, just
11:32
Speaker 2: a tiny little gusher of cold spring fed water that
11:36
Speaker 2: was covered in buck tracks and almost got me a
11:38
Speaker 2: shot at one hundred and forty inch year the first
11:40
Speaker 2: time I sat there. Another time, after quite a bit
11:44
Speaker 2: of years of hunting there at least two decades. I
11:47
Speaker 2: found a small sinkhole in a bedding area while I
11:49
Speaker 2: was shed hunting, and that sinkhole sometimes holds water, and
11:54
Speaker 2: it draws every deer in the freaking county to it
11:56
Speaker 2: because of where it's located, although it is a real
11:59
Speaker 2: pain in theame has to hunt this spring. While shed
12:02
Speaker 2: hunting and scouting, I found another small sinkhole in a
12:05
Speaker 2: spot that is going to have a blind on it
12:07
Speaker 2: for the girls come September, because it's going to be
12:10
Speaker 2: an amazing morning spot that should allow for really solid access.
12:14
Speaker 2: I guess the lesson here is that it's easy to
12:16
Speaker 2: believe we know everything we need to about the spots
12:19
Speaker 2: we hunt, but it's really easy to miss something small
12:22
Speaker 2: and important in the woods that the deer will definitely
12:24
Speaker 2: not miss. So let's take stocks so far. You know
12:28
Speaker 2: the rules in the rigs, you have a plan to
12:30
Speaker 2: figure out the local crops and the water sources, and
12:34
Speaker 2: you have some fresh batteries plugged into your cameras. It's
12:37
Speaker 2: time to hit the woods. But here is where a
12:39
Speaker 2: lot of folks make their first real big mistake of
12:41
Speaker 2: the year. They just hike in or drive their side
12:45
Speaker 2: by sides in turn the cameras on and head out.
12:49
Speaker 2: Their primary thoughts here are conscious and unconscious. The conscious
12:54
Speaker 2: thought is that you're going to go put up a
12:56
Speaker 2: camera in a good spot and then get out so
12:59
Speaker 2: you can let the woods get back to normal and
13:01
Speaker 2: intel to start rolling in. The unconscious thoughts are the
13:05
Speaker 2: woods are you know a jungle? The heat sucks, the
13:08
Speaker 2: bugs are terrible, and we all want to be kind
13:11
Speaker 2: of lazy about this stuff, especially when it's the early
13:14
Speaker 2: innings of a long game. But what do you miss
13:17
Speaker 2: when you walk or drive in, drop a camera or
13:20
Speaker 2: a couple off, and then get the hell out? Potentially
13:23
Speaker 2: a lot. If the camera work well works, then you're
13:27
Speaker 2: going to want to hunt those spots. How will you
13:30
Speaker 2: access them? Probably not the way you do right now
13:33
Speaker 2: when you go in to drop the camera off or
13:35
Speaker 2: check it. How long will that new access route take
13:38
Speaker 2: you to get in and out? And well, where will
13:41
Speaker 2: it take you? Where will you hang a stand or
13:44
Speaker 2: put up a groundbline to play off that trail camera data?
13:47
Speaker 2: There's no harm in walking in now, looking for tracks,
13:50
Speaker 2: making notes of other trails, maybe food sources like hard
13:54
Speaker 2: or soft masks that might come in you know, three
13:56
Speaker 2: months and really just getting a feel for where you're
13:59
Speaker 2: going to hunt. I think one of the biggest problems
14:02
Speaker 2: a lot of us have is that we focus our
14:05
Speaker 2: scouting and preseason work on finding the spots we should hunt,
14:09
Speaker 2: but not putting in a lot into how we will
14:11
Speaker 2: actually hunt them and how they will actually hunt as
14:15
Speaker 2: a spot. I do this to myself all the time,
14:18
Speaker 2: and it's a sure fire away to get me to
14:20
Speaker 2: hate myself some I'm convinced that the best mindset of
14:23
Speaker 2: way till a hunter can have is to always be
14:25
Speaker 2: looking for stand in blind setups, and to always be
14:28
Speaker 2: thinking about how to get in and out in all
14:30
Speaker 2: of the logistics around them. You know, always think about
14:34
Speaker 2: the conditions in which a spot would be huntable or
14:36
Speaker 2: when it would be a bad idea. This is a
14:39
Speaker 2: big one. And if you're going to head out and
14:41
Speaker 2: hang some cameras and take a look around and you know,
14:43
Speaker 2: start to formulate a hunting plan, you have to think
14:46
Speaker 2: about this stuff. You might put a camera on a
14:48
Speaker 2: little water hole and start getting tons of picks, but
14:51
Speaker 2: then ask yourself, where am I going to hang a stand?
14:53
Speaker 2: Where am I going to sit? What wind directions would
14:56
Speaker 2: allow you to hunt there and which ones would get
14:58
Speaker 2: you busted. Do the event ailable stand trees and the
15:01
Speaker 2: best wind directions work together or not. Something that saves
15:04
Speaker 2: a lot of bucks every year is the disconnect between
15:07
Speaker 2: hunters finding really good spots and those same hunters not
15:10
Speaker 2: really thinking about how to hunt those spots, you know,
15:13
Speaker 2: before it's time to suit up and head out. I
15:16
Speaker 2: know this doesn't seem that important now, but it is.
15:19
Speaker 2: I think one of the biggest things I've learned about
15:21
Speaker 2: hunting all white tails, and definitely when focusing on big bucks,
15:25
Speaker 2: is that the spots they frequent rarely come with airtight
15:28
Speaker 2: access and perfect stand trees. The thing you're solving for
15:32
Speaker 2: now with this early season work is a multi layered
15:36
Speaker 2: problem that doesn't just get solved simply by identifying the
15:39
Speaker 2: best spots. That's a good start, but it's just the
15:42
Speaker 2: start of it. And the more time you have to
15:44
Speaker 2: suss things out, the better off you'll be because you'll
15:47
Speaker 2: be less likely to settle, you know, for a stand
15:50
Speaker 2: setup where you might get busted, or hunt when you
15:53
Speaker 2: know you probably shouldn't because you don't have better options.
15:56
Speaker 2: Figuring them out seems you know too risky and too
15:59
Speaker 2: daunting because you're already in the season. This is really
16:02
Speaker 2: the stuff that separates people who fill a lot of
16:04
Speaker 2: tags versus the people who just don't. So get out
16:08
Speaker 2: there and start building your own plan for this fall
16:12
Speaker 2: and come back next week because I'm going to talk
16:13
Speaker 2: more about these critters we love and how to go
16:15
Speaker 2: about getting close to them when it's finally fall. That's
16:19
Speaker 2: it for this episode. I am Tony Peterson. This has
16:22
Speaker 2: been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought
16:25
Speaker 2: to you by First Light. I want to thank you
16:27
Speaker 2: so much for all of your support. I've never ever
16:30
Speaker 2: worked at a place like this where we have such
16:33
Speaker 2: an amazing audience. If you want more of our content,
16:37
Speaker 2: I know you know where to find it. I know
16:39
Speaker 2: you see the Instagram posts and stuff all the time,
16:41
Speaker 2: but I gotta say this, if you don't every once
16:43
Speaker 2: in a while pop into the mediater dot com, you're
16:45
Speaker 2: probably missing out on something. We drop new podcasts, new films,
16:50
Speaker 2: new articles, you know how to stuff, conservation minded stuff,
16:54
Speaker 2: the latest news on who's trying to take away public land, whatever.
16:57
Speaker 2: It's all at the medeater dot com. Tons of hunting content,
17:01
Speaker 2: tons of education, tons of information, a lot of entertainment.
17:05
Speaker 2: Go check it out at the media dot com, and
17:07
Speaker 2: thank you once again for all of your support.