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Ep. 447: Foundations - The Last Essential Work of the Pre-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, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
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Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Light. On this
0:18
Speaker 1: week's show, I'm going to wrap up all this ambush
0:21
Speaker 1: site set up talk with one final plea to make
0:24
Speaker 1: sure you're squared away for the season. I know you're
0:38
Speaker 1: sick of it. Hell I'm sick of talking about it,
0:41
Speaker 1: but this is important stuff. This episode is all about
0:44
Speaker 1: stands and blinds and saddle hunting sites you just aren't
0:47
Speaker 1: that excited about. I know that sounds weird, but bear
0:50
Speaker 1: with me. There's a second layer of options that you
0:53
Speaker 1: should be building in as a deer hunter, maybe a
0:55
Speaker 1: third if you play some mobile strategy ahead of them.
0:58
Speaker 1: Either way spots your on a curious about or you
1:01
Speaker 1: think the bucks might possibly get pushed too with the
1:03
Speaker 1: right amount of pressure. They're important, they matter, and even
1:07
Speaker 1: if you don't get them fully prepped now, you should
1:09
Speaker 1: be aware of them and you should have them built
1:11
Speaker 1: into your plan. This is like the final, final, final
1:14
Speaker 1: checklist before hunting actually starts, and it's time to switch
1:17
Speaker 1: gears until then, listen to me begging, plead one more
1:21
Speaker 1: time on this topic of ambush sites and how important
1:24
Speaker 1: your work with them is right now. When I suggest
1:38
Speaker 1: something to my wife that she fully knows she'll never
1:40
Speaker 1: agree to, she often says that we should put it
1:43
Speaker 1: in the maybe pile. In marriage, the maybe pile is
1:46
Speaker 1: where my hopes and dreams and little ambitions go to die.
1:49
Speaker 1: In deer hunting, or more specifically deer hunting ambush sites,
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Speaker 1: the maybe pilot is different. It can be a good thing.
1:56
Speaker 1: I'm guessing so far. You're like, what the hell are
1:59
Speaker 1: you talking about? Well, what I'm talking about is options.
2:03
Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons that mobile hunting has
2:05
Speaker 1: gotten so popular in recent years. The public land explosion
2:08
Speaker 1: has certainly helped. I never dreamed we'd get to a
2:12
Speaker 1: point where not only would it be the cool thing
2:13
Speaker 1: to do to hunt public land, but where we'd also
2:16
Speaker 1: get so used to it that we'd allow this damaging
2:19
Speaker 1: trophy deer obsession thing to leach into the point where
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Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal to kill a
2:24
Speaker 1: pope and young buck on public land. That, my friends,
2:27
Speaker 1: is bananas and totally off topic. In response to and
2:31
Speaker 1: probably somewhat responsible for the mobile obsession is gear that
2:35
Speaker 1: makes the whole process so much easier. We had saddles
2:39
Speaker 1: for a long time before they got popular again, but
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Speaker 1: never the well designed, super lightweight options like we have today.
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Speaker 1: We had sticks and stands and steps and hang on
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Speaker 1: a variety of different stuff as well, all weights and sizes,
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Speaker 1: but never really the quality and the functionality of what
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Speaker 1: we have today. Either. It's a different world out there,
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Speaker 1: and I, for one freaking love it, but not solely
3:01
Speaker 1: because the reasons you're likely guessing. I love it because
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Speaker 1: it gives us so many viable options for ambush sites.
3:07
Speaker 1: And options are the whole point of this episode. Once again,
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Speaker 1: the best hunters they keep their options open, and they
3:14
Speaker 1: give themselves lots of options for every hunt, every potential
3:17
Speaker 1: sit for every piece of private and public ground they
3:20
Speaker 1: set out to conquer. This is something every deer hunter
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Speaker 1: should emulate, and I'm going to tell you why. If
3:26
Speaker 1: you remember, way back in some of the earlier episodes
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Speaker 1: of this podcast, I talked quite a bit about satellite
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Speaker 1: imagery and marking spots, but then also about walking in
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Speaker 1: and really evaluating those spots. We've covered that, and we've
3:39
Speaker 1: covered trail cameras, we've covered glassing. All of this scouting
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Speaker 1: has one real goal, put us in a position to
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Speaker 1: shoot a buck. Of course, in some ways it's not
3:47
Speaker 1: so simple, but in other ways that's it. That's all
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Speaker 1: there is to it. And the thing about this is
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Speaker 1: that the more options you've got for quality ambush sites,
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Speaker 1: the more likely you are to eventually be in a
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Speaker 1: position to catch a deer off guard and put an
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Speaker 1: arrow or a bullet through his lungs. But this doesn't
4:02
Speaker 1: go just for your best stand sites. It goes for
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Speaker 1: the spots where you've got some signs, some inkling that
4:09
Speaker 1: it might be decent, but you're not dying to hunt them.
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Speaker 1: Those are good backup spots, and you need them because
4:16
Speaker 1: the weather and the other hunters and just the divine
4:19
Speaker 1: whims of deer often don't allow you to effectively hunt
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Speaker 1: your best spots. Just because you want to fully set
4:25
Speaker 1: up and ready to go as well as potential ambush sites.
4:29
Speaker 1: Is where you want to have a deep bench as
4:32
Speaker 1: a deer hunter. I know you're probably sick of hearing this,
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Speaker 1: and I promise we'll move on to something different next week,
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Speaker 1: but for now, consider your goal to be to have
4:40
Speaker 1: a plan a B on through to Z so that
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Speaker 1: when you do have a night off and the wind
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Speaker 1: is blowing from the northeast, you've got a decent enough
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Speaker 1: spot to go into and either climb into a stand
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Speaker 1: or set up in better than that, consider this a
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Speaker 1: bigger quest. You should also be looking for backup ground.
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Speaker 1: Maybe it's just a chunk of public land you're not
5:01
Speaker 1: super excited about because you've got some private down the road,
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Speaker 1: but it could provide a place to hunt when the
5:06
Speaker 1: conditions keep you out of your best spots. Maybe you'll
5:09
Speaker 1: have a chat with a coworker about how they've got
5:11
Speaker 1: twenty acres around their house and the deer keep eating
5:13
Speaker 1: their ornamental shrubs and they'd really like that to stop.
5:16
Speaker 1: I got permission to hunt forty acres in the suburbs
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Speaker 1: one time by talking to the checkout gal at my
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Speaker 1: local grocery store. She saw me buying a hunting magazine
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Speaker 1: and mentioned that she used to bow hunt. Five minutes later,
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Speaker 1: after we were talking a little bit longer, she told
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Speaker 1: me swing on out and see if there is anywhere
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Speaker 1: I wanted to hang a tree stand and shoot a
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Speaker 1: few deer. Listen, I know that's a unicorn scenario, but
5:38
Speaker 1: it happens. Having an extra standard two that you lump
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Speaker 1: into the maybe pile, that's a good thing. Having an
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Speaker 1: entire property in the maybe pile is a hell of
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Speaker 1: a lot better, and you better get after it now.
5:51
Speaker 1: As we creep up to the bow season, this late
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Speaker 1: late summer time frame is about the last week to
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Speaker 1: really get in and bump deer and leave center around
5:59
Speaker 1: before or I personally start to get really nervous. Now.
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Speaker 1: I know this is entirely dependent on when your state
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Speaker 1: opener is or the opener for the state you plan
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Speaker 1: to hunt is, but generally, when I'm a few weeks
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Speaker 1: or a month out, I try to stay out as
6:12
Speaker 1: much as possible. Part of this is due to past
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Speaker 1: experience pushing it too much and hurting my hunting, and
6:17
Speaker 1: part of it is due to the fact that I
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Speaker 1: know other hunters will be roaming the woods and setting
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Speaker 1: up the week before the season opens. This is an
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Speaker 1: absolute guarantee. Happens every single year, and I know I
6:28
Speaker 1: can't do anything about them, so I have to take
6:31
Speaker 1: care of myself. And since I know there is a
6:34
Speaker 1: gap between when all last head into the woods without
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Speaker 1: a weapon and when all head and armed. I want
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Speaker 1: to make the most of it. In fact, just two
6:41
Speaker 1: weeks ago I broke this down in pretty good detail
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Speaker 1: and told you to get your ship done out there
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Speaker 1: because it was time to be done. I lied then,
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Speaker 1: because now it's really the last time to get in
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Speaker 1: and get the work done. I promise. Last week we
6:52
Speaker 1: covered the set up strategy for some of our ambush sites,
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Speaker 1: the gimmes, you know, like the field edge setups and
6:58
Speaker 1: the deeper into the cover setups when sure gets to
7:00
Speaker 1: the deer those staging areas. But this week it's a
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Speaker 1: good time to reflect on that work. How many stands
7:05
Speaker 1: do you have up? How many trees do you have
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Speaker 1: prepped or at least marked for potential sits? What's the
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Speaker 1: ground blind count at. The fewer the number, the easier
7:15
Speaker 1: it is to burn those stands and ambush sites out
7:18
Speaker 1: to the point where you'll swear all the bucks are nocturnal,
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Speaker 1: and the lull is absolutely real, and that bucks have
7:24
Speaker 1: a sixth sense, and the wolves have killed them all,
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Speaker 1: and your neighbor must be poaching them, and and and
7:28
Speaker 1: and the more you hunt a spot, the more of
7:31
Speaker 1: the spot is going to suck. I look at it,
7:34
Speaker 1: this way. If I walked out of my door and
7:36
Speaker 1: I went down the street and three months each year
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Speaker 1: I randomly ran into grizzly bears and one cul de sac,
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Speaker 1: I'd avoid that sucker pretty quick. I'd be like, you
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Speaker 1: know what, since it's September and I know those goddamn
7:47
Speaker 1: yogis are going to be there, I think I'm going
7:49
Speaker 1: to just head a few blocks over and avoid that
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Speaker 1: street because it's scary country. Dear, figure out where you
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Speaker 1: like to hunt. I promise you that the deer that
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Speaker 1: you really want to kill, the ones that you're gonn
8:00
Speaker 1: put on the wall, they figure it out. Well. That
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Speaker 1: means that if you've got a few stands up and
8:04
Speaker 1: that's good enough, well it's probably not unless you don't
8:07
Speaker 1: hunt very much. Having some standbys and some stands you
8:11
Speaker 1: really like to sit as awesome, just as it is
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Speaker 1: to have a perfect tree and a nice creek crossing
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Speaker 1: that you know you can show up to and either
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Speaker 1: saddle up or use a climbing stand on. Hell, if
8:20
Speaker 1: you want to go sit a box blind on a
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Speaker 1: food plot for your sits, go nuts. But I understand
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Speaker 1: that the way we often hurt ourselves the most in
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Speaker 1: the deerwoods is by concentrating our pressure. We do this
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Speaker 1: because we either get lazy or we just don't know
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Speaker 1: any better. Now, you might think, but I've only got
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Speaker 1: thirty acres to hunt. How many setups can I get
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Speaker 1: on in thirty acres? I don't know. But I hunt
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Speaker 1: a lot of small properties, and I am continually amazed
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Speaker 1: at how many deer I can run into by moving
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Speaker 1: just a hundred yards. It's not always possible, and I
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Speaker 1: get that, but again, we have to evaluate what is
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Speaker 1: actually true versus what we want to believe. And it's
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Speaker 1: easy to believe a parcel is too small all for
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Speaker 1: any real options. But is that actually true? A twenty
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Speaker 1: acre chunk, if it's shaped like a lot of twenty
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Speaker 1: acre chunks, measures roughly two yards by four hundred yards.
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Speaker 1: If that's all woods are cover, you can bet there
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Speaker 1: are more than a few spots worth hunting at different
9:13
Speaker 1: points throughout the season. And even then, if you don't
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Speaker 1: have that many options, this is why you try to
9:20
Speaker 1: find that backup spot, give yourself more to work with. Look,
9:25
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is it best to take some inventory
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Speaker 1: of your stand sites and you're hunting ground and look
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Speaker 1: for ways to expand upon them. This is one of
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Speaker 1: the reasons I love having four days to hunt some
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Speaker 1: new piece of public ground somewhere. I've got eight sets
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Speaker 1: to work with, and I don't want to waste a
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Speaker 1: single one. I also want to get in and get
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Speaker 1: in on the action fast, and if I don't, I
9:47
Speaker 1: don't waste any time waiting to make a move. It's
9:50
Speaker 1: hard to get complacent when you fork over the money
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Speaker 1: for a nonresident license and have a short window of
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Speaker 1: time to fill it. It's a different story with a
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Speaker 1: full season, and if you go two stands set up
10:00
Speaker 1: and prepped. This makes it really easy to default to
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Speaker 1: the comfortable, to decide that maybe today will be a
10:07
Speaker 1: good day and that one will walk by one of
10:10
Speaker 1: your favorite stands, even though you've sat at six times
10:12
Speaker 1: so far and haven't seen anything bigger than a spike. Now,
10:16
Speaker 1: in fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna go a little Freudian
10:18
Speaker 1: here on you and dive into the psyche of the
10:20
Speaker 1: average hunter. I think we are burned out as general
10:24
Speaker 1: adults on making decisions and mind grinding over stuff all
10:29
Speaker 1: day long, our jobs and our families and our daily lives.
10:32
Speaker 1: We make decisions by weighing consequences and trying to do
10:35
Speaker 1: our best to come up with the right answers. When
10:38
Speaker 1: we deer hunt, we often just want to go on
10:40
Speaker 1: autopilot because it's supposed to be an escape, it's supposed
10:43
Speaker 1: to be fun. This is one of the reasons why
10:45
Speaker 1: it's a dream for a lot of hunters to have
10:47
Speaker 1: that box blind over a sweet food plot that will
10:50
Speaker 1: draw and deer from the opener to the closing bell.
10:53
Speaker 1: There isn't a lot of mind grinding to do there.
10:55
Speaker 1: If you're going hunting, you know where you're going to go,
10:57
Speaker 1: you know where you're gonna sit. It's easy peasy, But
11:00
Speaker 1: that's cruise control style of hunting, and it isn't available
11:03
Speaker 1: for a lot of us. And even if it is,
11:05
Speaker 1: it often isn't the best way to kill a big one.
11:08
Speaker 1: It's comfortable and it's easy, But comfortable and easy rarely
11:12
Speaker 1: exists on the path to accomplishing something really difficult, And
11:15
Speaker 1: don't kid yourself. Targeting decent bucks and actually killing them
11:18
Speaker 1: consistently isn't easy. This all goes full circle back to
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Speaker 1: deer and their home ranges and how well they know
11:26
Speaker 1: their ground that and how good they are at seeing
11:29
Speaker 1: hearing and definitely smelling us. You need to show up
11:32
Speaker 1: where he doesn't expect you to be, and you're going
11:34
Speaker 1: to have a tough time doing that if you've got
11:37
Speaker 1: two stands up and no mobile strategy and nothing in
11:39
Speaker 1: the maybe pile. Sure the first couple of sits might
11:43
Speaker 1: catch him off guard, but after that all bets are
11:45
Speaker 1: off until the rout or some random good fortune strikes.
11:49
Speaker 1: When you're sitting and instead of waiting for mercury to
11:52
Speaker 1: be in retrograde and the crystals to hill your or
11:54
Speaker 1: enough to be a better hunter, take stock of what
11:57
Speaker 1: you've got to work with now and what you'll need
12:00
Speaker 1: to do if those ambush sites that you just love
12:03
Speaker 1: flame out, or the wind doesn't cooperate for the first
12:06
Speaker 1: three weeks of the season, or your three favorite spots
12:08
Speaker 1: are also the favorite spots of other hunters. The way
12:11
Speaker 1: I do this is sort of clump my ambush sites
12:14
Speaker 1: into conditional categories. For example, if I've got three spots
12:18
Speaker 1: that are perfect for south winds, those are my first
12:21
Speaker 1: considerations for a hunt during a south wind. It's not
12:23
Speaker 1: exactly revolutionary, right, of course, I'll have those ranked by
12:28
Speaker 1: the likelihood of them producing given the proximity to food, water,
12:31
Speaker 1: and of course just what my personal instincts say at
12:34
Speaker 1: the given moment, knowing the weather in the time of
12:36
Speaker 1: the season. If I've done my job right, particularly during
12:39
Speaker 1: the last few weeks of really setting up these spots,
12:43
Speaker 1: I should have confidence in all of those stands, just
12:46
Speaker 1: as I should have confidence that if a front shows
12:48
Speaker 1: up a day before the opener and brings with it
12:50
Speaker 1: a north wind, then I've got places to go so
12:53
Speaker 1: I don't miss a beat or worse, be forced to
12:56
Speaker 1: settle because I want to hunt, but I don't feel
12:58
Speaker 1: like I've got a good set up for the day. Settling,
13:02
Speaker 1: whether in deer hunting or careers or spousal selection, it's
13:05
Speaker 1: a bad idea. It's like stepping on a moving treadmill
13:08
Speaker 1: in front of a gym full of strangers. You won't
13:11
Speaker 1: enjoy it. I promise you take time to pour over
13:15
Speaker 1: your scouting in aggregate all of the sightings, the images,
13:19
Speaker 1: the boots on the groundwork, and then take stock of
13:22
Speaker 1: your go to setups. What are you missing? What are
13:25
Speaker 1: the conditions that will throw a wrench in your whole
13:27
Speaker 1: plan and leave you scrambling address those now? You don't
13:31
Speaker 1: have to go out and hang a bunch more stands
13:33
Speaker 1: in a neurotic effort to cover every wind direction and
13:36
Speaker 1: every potential move the deer going to make. You just
13:39
Speaker 1: have to know how you do that and be comfortable
13:42
Speaker 1: with whatever it will take. You should also consider that
13:45
Speaker 1: some of your maybe pile stands or maybe pile hunting
13:48
Speaker 1: spots will turn on at some point in the season
13:50
Speaker 1: in a way that you just can't see coming. After all,
13:53
Speaker 1: there's a reason you like them even a little bit now.
13:55
Speaker 1: They might be cold during the summer or the early season,
13:58
Speaker 1: but when the pressure gets to the deer, the overgrown
14:01
Speaker 1: homestead far from the main wood lot might be where
14:04
Speaker 1: the bucks relocate to when they're sick of getting pestered
14:07
Speaker 1: by camel clad dipshits. Knowing where you're likely to go
14:11
Speaker 1: when your best spots aren't huntable or they've just cooled
14:13
Speaker 1: off is a huge step in the right direction. It
14:17
Speaker 1: keeps you in the game, and it gives you my
14:18
Speaker 1: favorite buzzword, which is options. And if the maybe pile
14:22
Speaker 1: doesn't pan out, you can head out to look for
14:24
Speaker 1: fresh sign and figure out something on the fly that
14:27
Speaker 1: your pre plan setups just missed. This I'm absolutely convinced.
14:32
Speaker 1: Is one of the things that a lot of the
14:33
Speaker 1: best deer hunters handle really well. They're confident in their
14:37
Speaker 1: ability to adapt, of course, but they're also really good
14:42
Speaker 1: at anticipating failure and trying to find workarounds. They do
14:46
Speaker 1: this in the space between their ears, and it's something
14:48
Speaker 1: that can really only come from experience in the woods.
14:51
Speaker 1: There's no work around for that. But the silver lining
14:54
Speaker 1: is that you can accelerate the process by using that
14:57
Speaker 1: three pound lump of fat and electricity between your ears
14:59
Speaker 1: to really parse out your options and prepare for the unexpected. Now,
15:04
Speaker 1: this might sound defeatist, or at least like I'm saying
15:06
Speaker 1: there's no way you've got this right and you're destined
15:09
Speaker 1: to realize you should have done more work. That's not
15:11
Speaker 1: what I'm saying at all. If you've been putting in
15:13
Speaker 1: the scouting in a setup time, you might be right
15:16
Speaker 1: there on the doorstep of a phenomenal plan. And I
15:19
Speaker 1: hope you are. But if you're not, or if it
15:21
Speaker 1: just doesn't shake out right away the way that you'd expect,
15:25
Speaker 1: then you'll have to accept complacency and cross your fingers
15:28
Speaker 1: or adapt. The latter is the obvious choice, and it's
15:32
Speaker 1: made so much easier when you've scouted quite a bit
15:34
Speaker 1: and given yourself a wealth of dear knowledge to work with.
15:37
Speaker 1: In a way, this is like two a day practicing,
15:40
Speaker 1: watching film and just getting ready for the first game.
15:43
Speaker 1: It's not as fun as playing, but without it, the
15:45
Speaker 1: playing won't be nearly as fun because you'll lose bad
15:48
Speaker 1: or the potential to lose is is going to be higher.
15:51
Speaker 1: And the good news here is that we're on the
15:54
Speaker 1: doorstep of season openers in several states, which means that
15:57
Speaker 1: it's almost time to actually suit up and hunt. Before that,
16:02
Speaker 1: take real stock in your ambush sites and your mobile
16:05
Speaker 1: set up if you have one. Are you good with
16:06
Speaker 1: the plan or do you need to change things up
16:08
Speaker 1: a little bit. Do you have enough to work with
16:11
Speaker 1: as far as potential wind directions and September conditions you
16:14
Speaker 1: might face. If so, good, go golfing or fishing or whatever.
16:18
Speaker 1: If not, you've got a tiny bit of time left
16:20
Speaker 1: to set yourself up a little better before we get
16:23
Speaker 1: into the actual hunting strategies for the early season, which
16:26
Speaker 1: is the topic for next week, or more specifically, hunting
16:29
Speaker 1: water for early season white tails. If you aren't afraid
16:32
Speaker 1: to sweat to kill a big one, or have always
16:34
Speaker 1: had your heart set on shooting a velvet buck, you're
16:37
Speaker 1: definitely going to want to tune in. That's it for now,
16:42
Speaker 1: my white tail loving friends. Be sure to tune in
16:45
Speaker 1: next week so that you can keep outsmarting the deer
16:47
Speaker 1: and out hunting the competition. I'm Tony Peterson and this
16:51
Speaker 1: has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always,
16:55
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening and the support, and
16:58
Speaker 1: we will see you right here