Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 674: Foundations - How to Know if Your Hunting Standards Are Out of Whack
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
- 0:09Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
- 0:14Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
- 0:19Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
- 0:24Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
- 0:26Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and this episode is all about how to
- 0:29Speaker 2: know if your hunting standards are set wrong. Well, it's
- 0:41Speaker 2: that time a year again when everybody starts sharing pictures
- 0:43Speaker 2: of giant velvet box and starts talking about hitlisters, and
- 0:46Speaker 2: on and on. The world of white tails tends to
- 0:49Speaker 2: take I don't know, a nice little breather during Turkey
- 0:52Speaker 2: season and then you know about through June, but once
- 0:55Speaker 2: we get past the midpoint of the summer, it seems
- 0:57Speaker 2: like it's just pedal to the old whitetail metal. This
- 1:00Speaker 2: is also a time when a lot of hunters decide
- 1:02Speaker 2: what their standards are for the upcoming season, both with
- 1:05Speaker 2: deer and any Western trips they might take. And I
- 1:08Speaker 2: think a lot of us get this wrong for a
- 1:10Speaker 2: lot of reasons and I have a few ideas on
- 1:12Speaker 2: how to keep your standards in line with your hunting reality,
- 1:16Speaker 2: which is what I plan to talk about right now.
- 1:29Speaker 2: A few years ago, my brother in law and I
- 1:31Speaker 2: got into a boat and headed out onto a lake
- 1:33Speaker 2: in north central Minnesota. It was pouring rain, and our
- 1:38Speaker 2: goal was just to catch some walleyes. Now, most of
- 1:41Speaker 2: you probably know that I'm not much of a walleye guy.
- 1:44Speaker 2: I don't really understand chasing a fish that bites with
- 1:46Speaker 2: a timid little tap tap tap and fights like it
- 1:49Speaker 2: has never been to the gym. Ever, I prefer sportier fish,
- 1:52Speaker 2: if I'm putting it very nicely, I don't mind fishing
- 1:55Speaker 2: for walleyes if I have someone who wants some filets,
- 1:58Speaker 2: and that was what we had going on that day.
- 2:01Speaker 2: It also just happened to be a miserable early June day.
- 2:04Speaker 2: But my brother in law and I both have young kids,
- 2:07Speaker 2: so we take any chance we can to go out
- 2:08Speaker 2: on the water, even if we know we're going to
- 2:10Speaker 2: get soaked. Well, no one told the walleyes that day
- 2:13Speaker 2: that it was crappy because they were eating. I mean,
- 2:17Speaker 2: we ran out all of our bait and we brought
- 2:19Speaker 2: in a limited piece, which on the lake we were
- 2:22Speaker 2: fishing on isn't really all that easy. We also happened
- 2:26Speaker 2: to see a bunch of other people out, mostly in
- 2:28Speaker 2: really nice deep V type of boats, trying to catch
- 2:31Speaker 2: the same walleyes in the same rain. Later we learned
- 2:35Speaker 2: that there was a walleye tournament going on on the lake,
- 2:38Speaker 2: and the results of that tournament showed us that we'd
- 2:40Speaker 2: have been right there in the money and potentially in
- 2:43Speaker 2: the running to take home a trophy for our man caves.
- 2:46Speaker 2: My brother in law commented on that multiple times, saying
- 2:49Speaker 2: we should have been in the tournament. I mean he
- 2:50Speaker 2: actually regretted that we weren't. But we weren't, and so
- 2:54Speaker 2: we didn't have the same rules. We got to go
- 2:56Speaker 2: out on the water when we wanted to, We got
- 2:59Speaker 2: to leave when we wanted to. We weren't subject to
- 3:02Speaker 2: a schedule that would lead to disqualification if we didn't
- 3:05Speaker 2: stick to it. We didn't have to launch from a
- 3:08Speaker 2: specific spot in a specific order and potentially erase another
- 3:12Speaker 2: boat to our best location. We weren't in the tournament,
- 3:15Speaker 2: so our day on the water didn't really compare. It
- 3:18Speaker 2: was just a good day of fishing and I've run
- 3:21Speaker 2: across a hell of a lot of people who fishes
- 3:23Speaker 2: specific lake their whole lives, probably because I live in
- 3:26Speaker 2: a state where everybody has a cabin on a lake somewhere.
- 3:29Speaker 2: Those people think they'd be able to beat the best
- 3:32Speaker 2: tournament fishermen in the country on their lakes. And the
- 3:35Speaker 2: reason is their lake is their lake, and who's going
- 3:38Speaker 2: to know it better than them? Except that's pure silliness.
- 3:42Speaker 2: The pros are a pros for a reason, and they'll
- 3:45Speaker 2: whoop up on most average fishermen, even when those average
- 3:48Speaker 2: fishermen have four decades of experience on a specific lake
- 3:51Speaker 2: or river or reservoir. They're just better overall, and that
- 3:54Speaker 2: shows over time. It just does. Now, that doesn't stop
- 3:58Speaker 2: a lot of folks from fantasizing about winning fishing tournaments
- 4:00Speaker 2: on their home lake, or worse, actually believing that they would.
- 4:05Speaker 2: This is because they won't actually go out and test
- 4:07Speaker 2: their beliefs in actual competition. Reality doesn't have to meet fantasy,
- 4:12Speaker 2: and that's a comfortable spot to live in. A similar
- 4:16Speaker 2: thing happens with a lot of hunters, except that when
- 4:18Speaker 2: you hunt, reality is going to meet your fantasy over
- 4:22Speaker 2: and over and over again. Every season until you're dead.
- 4:27Speaker 2: Hunters set their standards by whatever whims and inputs are
- 4:31Speaker 2: available than they actually go hunting. When they do, their
- 4:34Speaker 2: standards often prove to be a bit too lofty, but
- 4:38Speaker 2: maybe not in the ways you're thinking. Now. Sure you
- 4:41Speaker 2: know someone with two years of experience setting his sights
- 4:43Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty class buck or nothing, Or someone
- 4:47Speaker 2: who has logged some serious couch time for a few
- 4:49Speaker 2: decades who decided that he's going to only shoot three
- 4:52Speaker 2: hundred inch or bigger bulls in Colorado and over the
- 4:54Speaker 2: counter unit. Those are both pretty easy examples of people
- 4:57Speaker 2: who are inclined to outdrive their hunting headlights, so to speak.
- 5:01Speaker 2: But it's usually not that egregious, and it's not as
- 5:04Speaker 2: simple as deciding on a class of animal and then
- 5:06Speaker 2: just sticking to it. It's about whether you're enjoying the
- 5:09Speaker 2: hunt and feel good about the challenge you've set for yourself.
- 5:12Speaker 2: This is tricky, and it gets worse because we often
- 5:16Speaker 2: take one example of our hunting and import the standards
- 5:19Speaker 2: from that hunting into other endeavors. The easiest way to
- 5:22Speaker 2: look at this is to take someone who has a
- 5:24Speaker 2: sweet white tail spot close to their home This person
- 5:27Speaker 2: might not have much trouble encountering a few one forties
- 5:30Speaker 2: or one fifties over the season and always gets a
- 5:33Speaker 2: shot or two if he puts in the standtime in
- 5:35Speaker 2: late October or early November. That same hunter on the
- 5:38Speaker 2: road on a public land hunt, for example, would be
- 5:41Speaker 2: wise to understand and acknowledge the advantages of his home
- 5:45Speaker 2: state property, but most of us don't quite get that
- 5:48Speaker 2: until we hit the road. The same goes for adopting
- 5:51Speaker 2: standards based on hunting industry perceptions. The elk world is
- 5:56Speaker 2: ripe with this, and I think it sucks. Unless if
- 6:00Speaker 2: you're in a premier unit or have paid really really
- 6:03Speaker 2: good money for a landowner tag or outfitted hunt, you're
- 6:06Speaker 2: most likely in for a rude awakening on an elk hunt,
- 6:09Speaker 2: especially if you're not all that experience in mountain hunting
- 6:11Speaker 2: for elk. The truth is, getting any elk into shooting
- 6:14Speaker 2: range in a lot of situations is so difficult. Never
- 6:19Speaker 2: mind that you've watched three hundred and thirty inch bulls
- 6:21Speaker 2: march across open meadows while bugling their heads off on
- 6:24Speaker 2: YouTube shows for years and on network TV and DVDs
- 6:28Speaker 2: before that. Sure easy elker out there, but they are
- 6:32Speaker 2: expensive and probably not available to most of us. So
- 6:35Speaker 2: if you hear someone say something like, I don't know,
- 6:38Speaker 2: we let a bunch of two fifties and two sixties
- 6:40Speaker 2: go while waiting on a good one, you're hearing someone
- 6:43Speaker 2: who is either full of shit or hunting someplace that's
- 6:46Speaker 2: real good. If you see people carrying elk quarters over
- 6:50Speaker 2: their shoulder in a perfectly lit social media image, you
- 6:52Speaker 2: can rest assured that the elk is dead by a
- 6:54Speaker 2: side by side and the price tag on its head
- 6:57Speaker 2: might get you a full year of tuition at a
- 6:59Speaker 2: state universe. And the white tail world is full of
- 7:02Speaker 2: this stuff too, And I don't really need to dive
- 7:04Speaker 2: into this because I've covered it a ton. No game
- 7:06Speaker 2: animal is easier to hack, and no game animal is
- 7:09Speaker 2: easier to produce larger specimens with than our good old
- 7:12Speaker 2: buddy the whitetail. This leads to a skewed view of
- 7:15Speaker 2: the whole thing and convinces a lot of folks that
- 7:17Speaker 2: the whole thing is generally easier than it is. That's
- 7:20Speaker 2: a trap, though. The truth is we are all on
- 7:24Speaker 2: our own hunting journey and it doesn't matter at all
- 7:27Speaker 2: if the most popular whitetail hunter in the country happens
- 7:29Speaker 2: to own four thousand acres of deer ground in Middle America,
- 7:32Speaker 2: or if the most popular Western hunting personality is spend
- 7:34Speaker 2: a couple hundred thousand dollars a season to kill big,
- 7:37Speaker 2: unpressured bowls. What matters is how you hunt and what
- 7:41Speaker 2: would mean something to you, What challenges you set for
- 7:45Speaker 2: yourself as we lead into the season, and how they
- 7:48Speaker 2: make you feel when you succeed and when you fall
- 7:50Speaker 2: flat on your face and fail. Let me give you
- 7:53Speaker 2: an example from my life. As I record this, I'm
- 7:56Speaker 2: waiting to see what tags I'll end up with for
- 7:58Speaker 2: the season. I know all that I have a bear
- 8:00Speaker 2: tag for Wisconsin, and I'm kind of a shitty bear hunter,
- 8:04Speaker 2: so my standards are probably going to be an illegal yogi.
- 8:07Speaker 2: This goes from my daughter as well, and she'll get
- 8:09Speaker 2: first crack at them. There's no real reason for me
- 8:12Speaker 2: to trophy hunt bears when I'm not very good at
- 8:14Speaker 2: the whole thing and probably won't have a ton of
- 8:16Speaker 2: time to do it. I just want to enjoy the
- 8:18Speaker 2: process and give myself a chance at success.
- 8:21Speaker 1: Now.
- 8:22Speaker 2: I'm also hoping to get down to Nebraska for an
- 8:24Speaker 2: early season velvet hunt on public land for white tails.
- 8:27Speaker 2: That hunt will probably be anything two and a half
- 8:31Speaker 2: years or older that gives me a good shot is
- 8:34Speaker 2: on the menu. Of course, that might change if I
- 8:37Speaker 2: get down there and the deer plentiful, or more likely
- 8:40Speaker 2: the hunters are plentiful. I might adjust my standards up
- 8:43Speaker 2: or down, depending on a ton of variables. Hell, it
- 8:46Speaker 2: might rain for a few days and destroy my water
- 8:48Speaker 2: hole plan. That might be enough to get me to
- 8:51Speaker 2: adjust what would make me happy. Now, if the conditions
- 8:54Speaker 2: are hot as hell and the pressure isn't absurd, my
- 8:57Speaker 2: standards might go up because that favors the possible of
- 9:00Speaker 2: having a mature buck come into a tank or a pond.
- 9:03Speaker 2: In that case, the young bucks are safe now. On
- 9:06Speaker 2: the other end of the spectrum, I've got northern Wisconsin.
- 9:09Speaker 2: I haven't had them too much time in the last
- 9:11Speaker 2: two seasons to hunt the big woods, and I miss
- 9:13Speaker 2: it a lot. I miss it so much that I'm
- 9:16Speaker 2: going to hunt public land in a place with low
- 9:18Speaker 2: deer numbers and high hunter numbers instead of going to
- 9:21Speaker 2: southwestern Wisconsin to hunt private land where there are fewer
- 9:24Speaker 2: deer hunters and a ton of deer, including a high
- 9:28Speaker 2: percentage of big bucks. It sounds dumb, I know, but
- 9:32Speaker 2: I don't care about putting myself in a spot to
- 9:34Speaker 2: have the best chance to kill big deer because I
- 9:36Speaker 2: just want to hunt certain places, and one of those
- 9:38Speaker 2: places of the big Woods and my standards there, They're
- 9:42Speaker 2: going to start awful small and could stay that way
- 9:45Speaker 2: depending on the action. The big Woods is often pretty
- 9:48Speaker 2: stingy in my experience, so there might not be an
- 9:51Speaker 2: antler buck that is safe in my vicinity. But that'll
- 9:55Speaker 2: depend on my scouting and how much time I'm going
- 9:57Speaker 2: to get to hunt, and what I feel like when
- 10:00Speaker 2: some deer do walk down the trail pass one of
- 10:01Speaker 2: my setups. I'm also at a place where I don't
- 10:04Speaker 2: feel like I have a lot to prove. You might
- 10:06Speaker 2: not be there yet, and that's important to acknowledge. You
- 10:10Speaker 2: might use that as a motivator to set high standards
- 10:13Speaker 2: and then chase them all season. Now. I know that
- 10:16Speaker 2: sounds like I'm being negative, but I'm not. Drive is important,
- 10:20Speaker 2: and it leads to discipline and patience and sometimes the
- 10:23Speaker 2: kind of success that brings you to a new level
- 10:25Speaker 2: as a hunter and as a human. That's a good thing.
- 10:29Speaker 2: Some people thrive on big challenges and it lifts them up.
- 10:31Speaker 2: Others meet a big challenge and it treats them like
- 10:33Speaker 2: a sucker punch to the old schnas their eyes start
- 10:36Speaker 2: to water, their lips start to quiver, and they slouch
- 10:38Speaker 2: their way home while muttering under their breath about how
- 10:40Speaker 2: stupid life is. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but people are individuals,
- 10:46Speaker 2: and what drives someone to be better might not be
- 10:48Speaker 2: what drives you to be better. Or what some people
- 10:51Speaker 2: enjoy others might view as pure torture. The high standards
- 10:56Speaker 2: that cause one person to scout more and hunt harder
- 10:58Speaker 2: might cause another to stay home and rake leaves since
- 11:01Speaker 2: it's nearly unachievable and therefore not really worth it. So
- 11:06Speaker 2: what kind of person are you? Be? Honest or better? Yet?
- 11:11Speaker 2: What kind of person are you? On each kind of
- 11:13Speaker 2: hunt you might do? Do you like the season long
- 11:16Speaker 2: challenge of targeting a rare age class of buck in
- 11:19Speaker 2: your woods? Or maybe a hunt a southern state with
- 11:21Speaker 2: a stupid long rifle season and not a destination food
- 11:24Speaker 2: source in sight, and you're only on public land and
- 11:27Speaker 2: you need to target any illegal deer. Maybe you've only
- 11:30Speaker 2: aired a few deer, and while your ego wants big
- 11:32Speaker 2: bucks and nothing else, your experience and skill level and
- 11:35Speaker 2: time available and hunting situation says that does and young
- 11:38Speaker 2: bucks are probably a much more realistic goal, and they're
- 11:41Speaker 2: still challenging. Maybe you're like me, and for some reason,
- 11:45Speaker 2: every dear you see looks delicious and makes you kind
- 11:47Speaker 2: of want to shoot it, and you can't really describe why.
- 11:50Speaker 2: Maybe you just love the feeling of settling your pin
- 11:53Speaker 2: and watching your fletching disappear into hide and ribs and vitals.
- 11:56Speaker 2: If that's the case, maybe your goal should involve some
- 11:58Speaker 2: antler list dear, maybe several. If you're a big fan
- 12:01Speaker 2: of venison, what you set your standards at, whether we're
- 12:06Speaker 2: talking white tails or elk or antelope or whatever, it's
- 12:10Speaker 2: up to you. It's your journey, and it's not over
- 12:14Speaker 2: just when you settle on the exact type of animal
- 12:16Speaker 2: that would provide an amazing challenge but also a realistic
- 12:19Speaker 2: chance for you to succeed. It goes beyond that, because
- 12:22Speaker 2: this stuff is mostly a moving target. My friends, the
- 12:26Speaker 2: standards you set five years ago will probably be different
- 12:29Speaker 2: today for several reasons. You've grown and changed as a hunter.
- 12:33Speaker 2: Somehow that's a given. But maybe you've moved to a
- 12:37Speaker 2: new city or a new state and that's a big change.
- 12:40Speaker 2: Maybe five years ago you didn't have any kids and
- 12:42Speaker 2: you had lots of time, and now you have two little,
- 12:45Speaker 2: adorable twin girls who demand a lot of your time,
- 12:47Speaker 2: and you have to be back home during some of
- 12:49Speaker 2: the best parts of the season for dance recitals and
- 12:51Speaker 2: trigger treating or whatever. Should your hunting standards stay the
- 12:55Speaker 2: same when your life is vastly different. I don't think so.
- 12:59Speaker 2: I think you should do your best to set some
- 13:01Speaker 2: goals it will work for you right now, and then
- 13:04Speaker 2: you should reflect on how well you did not at hunting,
- 13:08Speaker 2: although that's important too, but on how well you set
- 13:11Speaker 2: your specific goals and then how well you followed through
- 13:14Speaker 2: on trying to meet them. Maybe you really regret not
- 13:17Speaker 2: shooting that cow elk on day one year hunt. Maybe
- 13:20Speaker 2: that basket rack six pointer feeding in the beans on
- 13:22Speaker 2: opening night who gave you a stupid easy shot and
- 13:25Speaker 2: was full of delicious venison was your best chance you
- 13:28Speaker 2: had to fill a tag all season. Does it bother
- 13:31Speaker 2: you that you let him walk? Do you feel good
- 13:33Speaker 2: about your decisions? The key here is honesty with yourself.
- 13:37Speaker 2: If it didn't nag at you at all to do
- 13:40Speaker 2: what you did, then your standard's probably pretty spot on.
- 13:44Speaker 2: If you didn't have much fun hunting and you regret
- 13:46Speaker 2: a lot of your decisions, it's probably time to recalibrate.
- 13:50Speaker 2: A lot of times this happens because we set our
- 13:52Speaker 2: standards just too damn high, and that can suck the
- 13:55Speaker 2: fun right out of this whole thing. Or real quick
- 13:58Speaker 2: only you can decide if this is true in your
- 14:00Speaker 2: case or not. If it is, it's time to figure
- 14:04Speaker 2: something better out. If you don't like eating tags, or
- 14:07Speaker 2: you don't feel you have enough time to be a
- 14:09Speaker 2: real trophy hunter, or you just don't have it in
- 14:11Speaker 2: your heart to pass up a young buck even though
- 14:12Speaker 2: you feel social pressure to do so, it's time to
- 14:15Speaker 2: be real. It's time to decide for yourself what to
- 14:18Speaker 2: do and why to do it now. I know some
- 14:21Speaker 2: of this stuff really doesn't become relevant until the season opens,
- 14:25Speaker 2: or I don't know, sometimes when you're halfway through the season,
- 14:28Speaker 2: but it's worthwhile to think about it now. As the
- 14:30Speaker 2: bucks really start to show their racks and the western
- 14:32Speaker 2: hunt plans all kind of start to come together. Now
- 14:36Speaker 2: is as good of time as any to start the
- 14:38Speaker 2: process of thinking about yourself as a hunter in an
- 14:41Speaker 2: honest way and decide what it'll take for you to
- 14:44Speaker 2: get to a spot where you'll look back on this
- 14:46Speaker 2: season with fond memories and not the sting of regret,
- 14:50Speaker 2: which I might add can be from taking the easy
- 14:53Speaker 2: way out and not challenging yourself at all. If you've
- 14:56Speaker 2: shot one hundred and twelve year and a half old
- 14:58Speaker 2: bucks on opening weekend and they just don't really do
- 15:01Speaker 2: it for you anymore, I don't know, it might be
- 15:03Speaker 2: time to go from sixty inches to one hundred inches.
- 15:06Speaker 2: Sometimes we rebel against trophy hunting so much that we
- 15:09Speaker 2: put ourselves in a position where there isn't much of
- 15:11Speaker 2: a challenge at all. And while some folks love that
- 15:14Speaker 2: and that's great, others don't and they might not even
- 15:17Speaker 2: realize it. So again, let me say this, hunting is
- 15:21Speaker 2: your journey, yours alone. Figure out what you want out
- 15:25Speaker 2: of it, and then work toward that goal. Do this
- 15:28Speaker 2: in spite of what everyone else in the hunting community
- 15:30Speaker 2: seems to be doing, because their journey doesn't matter to
- 15:33Speaker 2: you at all. And I mean that it doesn't matter
- 15:36Speaker 2: at all, who does what with their hunting season Because
- 15:39Speaker 2: you're on your own and that's the way it should be.
- 15:42Speaker 2: Embrace it and enjoy it, and come back next week
- 15:46Speaker 2: because I'm going to talk about how to really break
- 15:49Speaker 2: down on an ambush site to understand how to hunt
- 15:51Speaker 2: it most effectively. That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson.
- 15:57Speaker 2: This has been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which
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