Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 658: Foundations - Time and the Trail Camera Connection

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Ep. 658: Foundations - Time and the Trail Camera Connection · 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. Present it by
0:08
Speaker 1: first Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand,
0:11
Speaker 1: saddle or blind. First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and
0:16
Speaker 1: now your host, Tony Peterson.
0:19
Speaker 2: Hey, everybody, welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
0:21
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. Today, I'm
0:23
Speaker 2: going to talk about trail cameras and why time is
0:26
Speaker 2: your best friend when it comes to actually figuring out
0:28
Speaker 2: deer patterns. Now, I know it probably seems like a
0:44
Speaker 2: little bit too early for this, but I'm going to
0:46
Speaker 2: make a pretty strong case that it's not. We're kind
0:49
Speaker 2: of leaving behind the turkey season right now. We're thinking
0:51
Speaker 2: about fishing, maybe I don't know, shooting our bows a
0:54
Speaker 2: little bit. But we're not too serious about white tails
0:56
Speaker 2: right now. And that's okay. There's still quite a bit
0:59
Speaker 2: of time between here and the deer Opener, but there
1:02
Speaker 2: also isn't that much time. And time is the pretty
1:06
Speaker 2: much the whole damn point of this particular podcast, or
1:09
Speaker 2: more specifically, why you should use your time wisely this
1:13
Speaker 2: summer in relation to your trail camera strategies and your
1:16
Speaker 2: overall scouting style. Way way back in nineteen sixty four,
1:31
Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones recorded two versions of the song time
1:35
Speaker 2: Is on My Side. If you don't know that song,
1:38
Speaker 2: you're probably pretty young. If you do, you know that
1:41
Speaker 2: Mick Jagger sings quite a few times that time is
1:45
Speaker 2: on his side. Yes, it is now. I'd argue that
1:48
Speaker 2: it probably was nearly fifty years ago, but maybe isn't now,
1:52
Speaker 2: at least in his case, because he's getting up there
1:54
Speaker 2: in years. Most of us view this time of year
1:58
Speaker 2: in relation to white Tails, like there's sort of an
2:00
Speaker 2: incontrovertible fact that the time quite literally is on our side,
2:06
Speaker 2: since we have a few months to work with before
2:07
Speaker 2: even getting serious about deer. But I disagree, and I'm
2:11
Speaker 2: going to tell you why. But first I want to
2:13
Speaker 2: just kind of talk about how weird time really is. Like,
2:17
Speaker 2: for example, did you know that a day on Earth
2:19
Speaker 2: used to be a hell of a lot shorter than
2:21
Speaker 2: it is now, like six hours shorter because the Earth
2:24
Speaker 2: used to spin faster than it does now, And eventually
2:27
Speaker 2: the days will be even longer than they are right now.
2:31
Speaker 2: Although it's pretty likely that by the time there is
2:33
Speaker 2: any real appreciable change in the length of the day,
2:36
Speaker 2: we will have nuked ourselves right into non existence, or
2:39
Speaker 2: maybe gotten hit by a big old asteroid that clears
2:42
Speaker 2: out the space humans take up and leaves it for
2:45
Speaker 2: some other creatures to reign supreme for a couple million years.
2:49
Speaker 2: Time is also a matter of perception. We are living
2:54
Speaker 2: in the past ever so slightly. It's impossible for us
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Speaker 2: to perceive events that happen at exactly the same time
3:02
Speaker 2: they happen, so we are actually about eighty milliseconds behind
3:06
Speaker 2: no matter what we're doing or experiencing. This means that,
3:09
Speaker 2: in the strictest sense, there really is no now. We
3:13
Speaker 2: also experience time differently as individuals. Your brain, when it's
3:18
Speaker 2: fully immersed in a project, just has less horsepower to
3:21
Speaker 2: pay attention to time's passage, so time seems to move
3:25
Speaker 2: very quickly. Then, Yet if you happen to do something like,
3:28
Speaker 2: I don't know, bowhunt turkeys from a blind from sunrise
3:31
Speaker 2: to sunset, you might find there are certain parts of
3:35
Speaker 2: that day where you are painfully aware of every ticking second.
3:39
Speaker 2: Or better yet, go for a long run when you
3:41
Speaker 2: don't want to, you'll realize that time can move awful slowly,
3:45
Speaker 2: even though it's technically moving the same speed as when
3:48
Speaker 2: you're driving a go cart, or jumping on a trampoline,
3:50
Speaker 2: or catching a ton of fish, or doing anything more
3:53
Speaker 2: fun than a lot of the bs in life. Another
3:57
Speaker 2: wild thing about time that I'm far too dumb to
4:01
Speaker 2: really explain is astronomical time versus atomic time. Astronomical time
4:08
Speaker 2: is the one we are most familiar with, where one
4:10
Speaker 2: second equals one to sixtieth of a minute. This is
4:14
Speaker 2: also tied to how long it takes Earth to rotate
4:16
Speaker 2: fully on its axis. But then there is atomic time,
4:20
Speaker 2: where one second equals six hundred and thirty seven and
4:26
Speaker 2: seventy oscillations of a ccum one thirty three element. This
4:31
Speaker 2: is the most accurate way to track time, if you
4:33
Speaker 2: can figure out a way to use it without cracking
4:35
Speaker 2: your eggshell brain. Time is also relative, which we can
4:40
Speaker 2: thank Einstein for figuring out. This means the faster you're moving,
4:44
Speaker 2: the slower time moves. This is why astronauts Scott and
4:48
Speaker 2: Mark Kelly, who are twin brothers that were born several
4:51
Speaker 2: minutes apart, have actually become way closer in age, if
4:55
Speaker 2: that makes any sense at all. This is because Mark
4:58
Speaker 2: spent three hundred and forty days in space on the
5:00
Speaker 2: International Space Station, so when he returned he had gained
5:04
Speaker 2: enough on his big brother to actually be only about
5:06
Speaker 2: five milliseconds apart. Because the International Space Station is really
5:10
Speaker 2: cooking up there to the tune of like seventeen thousand
5:12
Speaker 2: miles per hour. Time is complicated, which you can experience
5:17
Speaker 2: if you work with people from multiple time zones in
5:20
Speaker 2: the US and Canada, for example, this is just a
5:23
Speaker 2: way of life. In China, which is a giant country,
5:26
Speaker 2: they don't have time zones. Everyone is on the same
5:29
Speaker 2: time zone, so people in certain parts of the country
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Speaker 2: will experience sunrise hours before people in other parts of
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Speaker 2: the country do, yet they're all operating off the same time.
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Speaker 2: Time is a lot of things, and it's going to
5:41
Speaker 2: keep marching right along, at least until we figure out
5:44
Speaker 2: how to travel at the speed of light. That if
5:47
Speaker 2: you know anything about space travel, is pretty far off
5:50
Speaker 2: in the realm of possibilities. So we are mostly stuck
5:53
Speaker 2: with our twenty four hour ish days and are roughly
5:55
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty five days a year. We are
5:59
Speaker 2: also facing a unique opportunity as whitetail hunters right now,
6:03
Speaker 2: because we can use the time between today and our
6:06
Speaker 2: season opener to learn an awful lot about what bucks do.
6:11
Speaker 2: And this is where trail cameras really shine. Before I
6:15
Speaker 2: get into the nitty gritty of that, I do want
6:18
Speaker 2: to talk about why I think this is valuable. I
6:21
Speaker 2: think we assume a traditional trail camera or a cell
6:23
Speaker 2: camera is going to give us enough intel necessary to
6:27
Speaker 2: decide where and when we should hunt. Of course they might,
6:31
Speaker 2: but they also might not. This all depends on the
6:34
Speaker 2: data we collect. And just like when you're making any
6:37
Speaker 2: informed decision, the more data you have, the better you
6:41
Speaker 2: generally are. Think about it this way. What if you
6:44
Speaker 2: want to buy a new boat. A lot of people,
6:47
Speaker 2: and these are people who find themselves in financial trouble
6:49
Speaker 2: throughout their lives. Go, I do want a new boat,
6:53
Speaker 2: and I want it on the lowest payment plan possible.
6:56
Speaker 2: I want the smallest payments I can get. Now, as
6:59
Speaker 2: someone who re simply bought a new boat, I can
7:01
Speaker 2: tell you that at least some places will allow you
7:03
Speaker 2: to finance a boat for fifteen years. You heard me right,
7:07
Speaker 2: So if you want low payments, you can certainly get them,
7:11
Speaker 2: but you're also going to pay a boat load, get
7:14
Speaker 2: it of interest in a loan on that lenk on
7:18
Speaker 2: an asset that is very, very unlikely to appreciate. If
7:22
Speaker 2: the only info you want is how can I get
7:25
Speaker 2: low payments, then you're likely to make a bad decision.
7:29
Speaker 2: If instead, you figure out what you can scrape together
7:31
Speaker 2: for a down payment, then figure out what you're comfortable
7:33
Speaker 2: with for an overall price, and what you're comfortable with
7:36
Speaker 2: for monthly payments, you have the framework to make a
7:40
Speaker 2: good decision. After that, you might want to get pre
7:43
Speaker 2: approved for a loan at your bank and then shop
7:45
Speaker 2: around for better rates on your loan at other banks.
7:47
Speaker 2: The more information you have, the more details you can
7:51
Speaker 2: squeeze out of all parties involved, the better off you'll
7:54
Speaker 2: be when you do pull a trigger. When it comes
7:56
Speaker 2: to deer hunting, the same rules kind of generally apply.
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Speaker 2: You want information, a lot of information, so you can
8:03
Speaker 2: make good decisions. This is why this time of year
8:07
Speaker 2: is a great time to start putting trail cameras out.
8:10
Speaker 2: This is the time when they shine, when they can
8:13
Speaker 2: do the heavy lifting for you when you're out doing
8:15
Speaker 2: your thing in your new boat or whatever you do
8:17
Speaker 2: this summer. The reasons for this are many, but let's
8:21
Speaker 2: start with the basics. The crops are coming up, the
8:25
Speaker 2: woods are all greened up, and the summertime patterns are
8:28
Speaker 2: absolutely falling into place. This matters because even a month
8:32
Speaker 2: and certainly two months ago, the patterns on the deer
8:35
Speaker 2: in your region might not have been anything like they
8:37
Speaker 2: are now. They probably weren't. But where we are now
8:40
Speaker 2: deer wise, is where we will largely be for the
8:43
Speaker 2: next few months, and for most folks, it's where we'll
8:46
Speaker 2: largely be when we slide right into the actual deer season.
8:50
Speaker 2: This is about as early as you can get in
8:52
Speaker 2: and start learning stuff that will directly benefit you when
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Speaker 2: the season opens, So acknowledge that because it matters. Having
9:00
Speaker 2: this much time allows you to start locating bachelor groups
9:03
Speaker 2: even if they aren't showing much in the way aheadgear
9:05
Speaker 2: yet it allows you to start dialing them in on
9:08
Speaker 2: specific food and water sources, and that's important. But it
9:12
Speaker 2: also allows you time to make mistakes. I can't stress
9:15
Speaker 2: how much this matters to a good trail camera strategy,
9:18
Speaker 2: and maybe calling them mistakes is like a little bit
9:20
Speaker 2: too harsh, But the truth is, you might march on
9:24
Speaker 2: out to a bean field that is just starting to
9:26
Speaker 2: sprout and hang your camera up in a corner of
9:28
Speaker 2: that field and think, well, you got them now. It's
9:31
Speaker 2: all over except for a short blood trail in a
9:33
Speaker 2: couple of months. Yet you might not get the pictures
9:37
Speaker 2: you want or expect to get. You might, and this
9:40
Speaker 2: is very very common, get like a tenth or a
9:44
Speaker 2: fifth of the pictures you expect to get. What if
9:47
Speaker 2: you put out a camera now and that's how it
9:49
Speaker 2: goes for you? Big deal? Right? You have time to
9:53
Speaker 2: move it and time to fine tune your scouting to
9:55
Speaker 2: figure out where the deer are more consistent than your
9:57
Speaker 2: original spot. You can leave that camera up and put
10:01
Speaker 2: out a few more to figure out what the camera
10:03
Speaker 2: is missing. This is a good strategy if you can
10:06
Speaker 2: swing it, because there's a big difference a lot of
10:08
Speaker 2: times on whether bucks come from one trail or another,
10:12
Speaker 2: and whether they feed right on the field edge or
10:15
Speaker 2: they're twenty rows deep, and your camera might miss them.
10:18
Speaker 2: In the wind and rain and sun and randomness of
10:21
Speaker 2: weather and bugs all affect who comes out and when
10:23
Speaker 2: and where. So one camera for a few weeks might
10:26
Speaker 2: not get you the information you need. But that's okay
10:29
Speaker 2: if you have time. You wouldn't. If you put out
10:33
Speaker 2: a camera in the end to August and your opener
10:35
Speaker 2: is in mid September, for example, you're going to get
10:38
Speaker 2: limited intel and then have to make your hunting decisions
10:41
Speaker 2: based off of that limited data. This is where hunters
10:44
Speaker 2: get into trouble because in that scenario, one picture of
10:47
Speaker 2: a buck in daylight might be enough to convince them
10:49
Speaker 2: to hunt a spot, mostly because they don't have a
10:52
Speaker 2: lot else to work with. This is dangerous ground and
10:55
Speaker 2: it saves a lot of bucks every year. It's way
10:59
Speaker 2: better to have three months of intel to sift through
11:02
Speaker 2: from a couple cameras in strategic spots. When you have that,
11:06
Speaker 2: you can start to see real patterns merge, and identifying
11:09
Speaker 2: a real pattern is the key to killing big bucks
11:11
Speaker 2: in the early season. But their patterns aren't as simple
11:14
Speaker 2: as we like to think. I mean, sure, sometimes you
11:18
Speaker 2: get on a bachelor group that's just like clockwork. They
11:21
Speaker 2: show up every night and they are reliable right up
11:24
Speaker 2: to the opener. Sometimes they use the same trail pretty
11:28
Speaker 2: much every day, but mostly they don't. Often, even what
11:32
Speaker 2: feels like a pretty tight pattern since they end up
11:35
Speaker 2: in the same spot, isn't and when it's not as
11:38
Speaker 2: tight of a pattern as we hope, we make mistakes
11:41
Speaker 2: like sitting on the wrong side of the field or
11:44
Speaker 2: hunting during the wrong wind or whatever. A better bed
11:47
Speaker 2: is to start now so that you have as much
11:49
Speaker 2: information as possible to work with, so you don't hunt
11:51
Speaker 2: on the wrong side of the field, or you don't
11:53
Speaker 2: convince yourself to hunt when the wind is wrong. And
11:57
Speaker 2: this isn't just a field edge or a food plot
11:59
Speaker 2: thing either. If you want to figure out how to
12:02
Speaker 2: kill bucks, figure out how to scout where they like
12:05
Speaker 2: to walk in the cover. You've heard me say that
12:07
Speaker 2: a lot, and it's because I believe it. Like a
12:10
Speaker 2: buck that beds on a specific ridge today to stay
12:12
Speaker 2: in the shade and catch a nice breeze it'll keep
12:14
Speaker 2: the mosquitoes down, is a buck that will probably bed
12:18
Speaker 2: there in early fall to stay comfortable while avoiding the
12:20
Speaker 2: gnats and deer flies. And when a buck does that,
12:24
Speaker 2: he is very likely to walk certain trails to get
12:26
Speaker 2: to certain spots to that betting from that betting. And
12:30
Speaker 2: if you know what those trails are in addition to
12:32
Speaker 2: those certain spots, and then you know how frequently he
12:35
Speaker 2: seems to do certain things. Then you're really getting onto
12:38
Speaker 2: a pattern. The time you have now allows you to
12:42
Speaker 2: run trail cameras on trails, and you should. The same
12:46
Speaker 2: goes for water sources and fence crossings, terrain traps in
12:49
Speaker 2: the big woods, and anywhere that might concentrate buck movement
12:53
Speaker 2: and give you a real advantage when it comes to
12:55
Speaker 2: sussing out travel patterns. In fact, I rank all of
12:59
Speaker 2: these spots in more as far more important than running
13:02
Speaker 2: cameras on the edge of a field, provided I can
13:05
Speaker 2: glass that field. I'd much rather watch deer where I
13:08
Speaker 2: can watch them and monitor them with trail cameras where
13:11
Speaker 2: I can't, And when you start getting pictures, try to
13:15
Speaker 2: keep track of them. There are different apps for this,
13:17
Speaker 2: but you can do it in a variety of different ways.
13:19
Speaker 2: What I like to do is just instantly delete every
13:23
Speaker 2: picture that really doesn't do me much good. This varies
13:26
Speaker 2: on where I hunt, so I'm gonna explain this the
13:29
Speaker 2: best I can. So let's say I'm heading to southeastern Minnesota.
13:34
Speaker 2: I know down there my goal is going to be
13:35
Speaker 2: to try to kill a decent buck, So then anything
13:38
Speaker 2: that isn't a decent buck isn't that important to me?
13:42
Speaker 2: As far as trail camera intel, so it's going to
13:43
Speaker 2: get deleted. I want a paired down look at all
13:46
Speaker 2: the images that matter to me in that pursuit. So
13:49
Speaker 2: the more I can get it whittled down to just
13:51
Speaker 2: bucks I'm interested in, the better it is for me
13:53
Speaker 2: to figure out how consistent they are and just sort
13:57
Speaker 2: of visualize those patterns better. Now, if I'm hunting northern
14:02
Speaker 2: Wisconsin with my daughters, my standards are vastly different. I
14:06
Speaker 2: want every deer picture because we're hunting all deer, the does,
14:11
Speaker 2: the fawns, the scrappers, the big bucks. They're all important
14:14
Speaker 2: to us there, so I want to know when the
14:16
Speaker 2: dough groups come through just as much as I care
14:18
Speaker 2: about any decent bucks. In fact, with them, I tend
14:21
Speaker 2: to really focus on the scrapper bucks because they are
14:24
Speaker 2: some of the most patternable deer and us Peterson's like
14:27
Speaker 2: to shoot spikes and four kis. Your mileage might vary,
14:31
Speaker 2: but the same rules apply. Figure out how to make
14:34
Speaker 2: your images work for you so that you can start
14:37
Speaker 2: to divine out of the many the patterns of the few.
14:40
Speaker 2: This takes time, which reminds me of one more thing
14:43
Speaker 2: I want to mention on this topic, how long to
14:45
Speaker 2: soka camera in a specific spot. This kind of all
14:49
Speaker 2: depends on how well the camera is performing. If I
14:52
Speaker 2: have a camera on a trail that is getting consistent
14:54
Speaker 2: images every day, it's a winner and I don't really
14:57
Speaker 2: see a whole lot of reasons to move it. But
14:59
Speaker 2: if the image are sporadic and inconsistent, at least over
15:02
Speaker 2: enough weeks, then I feel like it's time to move it.
15:05
Speaker 2: But that's why I like starting this process now. If
15:09
Speaker 2: I start in August, I can't give a potential dud
15:11
Speaker 2: a whole month because that might be a lot of
15:13
Speaker 2: wasted effort. But now I can, and I think a
15:17
Speaker 2: month is a really good timeframe to leave cameras out now.
15:21
Speaker 2: This is a little different when you're running cell cameras
15:24
Speaker 2: because they send pictures right to you. But with traditional cameras,
15:27
Speaker 2: if you start now, you'll have at least three one
15:30
Speaker 2: month windows to work with on your spots. With cell cameras,
15:34
Speaker 2: I tend to get a little impatient because I can
15:36
Speaker 2: see more or less in real time whether I'm getting
15:39
Speaker 2: any images. This is kind of a trap, though, and
15:42
Speaker 2: you got to be careful. You just try to avoid
15:44
Speaker 2: this because It's easy to believe that a spot is
15:47
Speaker 2: amazing or really shitty when you get pick sent to you,
15:50
Speaker 2: but you have to look at it the same way
15:52
Speaker 2: you look at a card pull on a traditional camera.
15:55
Speaker 2: What does the whole month tell you when you look
15:57
Speaker 2: at it objectively. This is kind of like what so
16:01
Speaker 2: many people get wrong about investing in for retirement. They
16:05
Speaker 2: pay attention to the daily ups and downs of the
16:07
Speaker 2: market and the good and bad news that floods their
16:10
Speaker 2: lives every day. But the best bet is to invest
16:13
Speaker 2: to just your risk tolerance and then stop paying attention,
16:16
Speaker 2: so you can cut out that daily emotion from seeing
16:19
Speaker 2: the ups and downs. Sure, you should check in every
16:22
Speaker 2: once in a while, maybe if you feel there's a
16:24
Speaker 2: good need to rebalance, but mostly you'll just take your
16:27
Speaker 2: emotion out of the thing and you can just trust
16:30
Speaker 2: the process so much better. The same kind of applies
16:34
Speaker 2: to trail cameras, so be careful with those cell cameras,
16:37
Speaker 2: but also don't be lazy. It's easy to believe we're
16:41
Speaker 2: going to get the whole thing right right away, or
16:44
Speaker 2: that we don't really need to do anything other than
16:46
Speaker 2: put up a camera on the edge of the Alfalfa
16:48
Speaker 2: and then wait for the big velvet bucks to walk by.
16:51
Speaker 2: But what we believe about ourselves is bad ass hunters
16:54
Speaker 2: often isn't reality. What we believe is a simple thing
16:58
Speaker 2: like monitoring a food source often isn't that simple, and
17:01
Speaker 2: it often doesn't give us a good enough look into
17:04
Speaker 2: a true dear pattern, and that brings us right back
17:07
Speaker 2: to making poor decisions based off of incomplete information. So
17:10
Speaker 2: don't do that to yourself. Get out there now and
17:13
Speaker 2: start collecting valuable intel while you still have lots of time,
17:17
Speaker 2: and then come back next week because I'm going to
17:19
Speaker 2: talk about some of the trends in hunting gear that
17:22
Speaker 2: are probably causing us more harm than good and how
17:25
Speaker 2: not to fall into those traps and instead outfit yourself
17:27
Speaker 2: to hunt the way you need to, which you guessed
17:31
Speaker 2: it will help you kill more dear. That's it, my friends.
17:35
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired to Hunt
17:37
Speaker 2: Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
17:40
Speaker 2: As always, thank you so much for listening and for
17:42
Speaker 2: your support. Really appreciate it. If you want some more
17:44
Speaker 2: whitetail content, you know you can head on over to
17:47
Speaker 2: them mediater dot com, slash wired read articles you Know
17:50
Speaker 2: by Myself, Mark Kenyon, Alex Gilstrombo, Martonic, Dylan Tramp, whole
17:54
Speaker 2: bunch of white tail killers. You can also head on
17:57
Speaker 2: over to the meat Eator YouTube channel and check out
18:00
Speaker 2: our latest white tail series that Casey and Tyler over
18:03
Speaker 2: at the Element dropped called The Buck Truck. And you
18:05
Speaker 2: might even see you know your favorite meat Eater guys
18:08
Speaker 2: like Mark or Clay or myself on one of the shows,
18:11
Speaker 2: So go check it out.