Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 520: Foundations - Turkey Road Trips and the Whitetail Connection
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your
- 0:10Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to
- 0:14Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
- 0:17Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and this episode is all
- 0:20Speaker 1: about planning an out of state Turkey trip and how
- 0:23Speaker 1: that can actually make you a better deer hunter. Listen.
- 0:38Speaker 1: This might seem like a pretty weak thread tying two
- 0:41Speaker 1: things together, but hear me out, Turkey hunting, which we
- 0:45Speaker 1: are finally almost able to do, can make you a
- 0:48Speaker 1: better deer hunter. This is no more true than when
- 0:51Speaker 1: you decide to head out on a little over the
- 0:53Speaker 1: road adventure in search of gobblers. Not only does this
- 0:56Speaker 1: get you into unfamiliar territory, which is good for us
- 0:59Speaker 1: as hunter, but it helps smooth out all the wrinkles
- 1:02Speaker 1: of hunting, travel and camping, all that jazz. And even
- 1:06Speaker 1: if you think there's no way in hell you travel
- 1:08Speaker 1: for a stupid bird, give this episode of listen maybe
- 1:11Speaker 1: I can change your mind. Back in January, I dropped
- 1:25Speaker 1: a couple of episodes of this podcast that were dedicated
- 1:28Speaker 1: to considering an over the road White Tailed Trip. If
- 1:32Speaker 1: you haven't listened to them, I suggest you hop inside
- 1:34Speaker 1: the way back machine and go give them some of
- 1:36Speaker 1: your time. If you have and you're all on board
- 1:39Speaker 1: with hitting the road, this episode is definitely for you.
- 1:42Speaker 1: If you're on the fence and just kicking the tires
- 1:45Speaker 1: while mind grinding over taking a trip. This episode is
- 1:48Speaker 1: definitely for you if you are in the no way
- 1:51Speaker 1: in hell I'm staying home. No matter what category this
- 1:53Speaker 1: episode is, uh maybe maybe not for you, but give
- 1:56Speaker 1: it a listen. Anyway, Hunters often take trips. This is
- 2:02Speaker 1: no surprise. Traveling to hunt is so popular now and
- 2:06Speaker 1: kind of appears like it's a simple thing to do,
- 2:09Speaker 1: especially if you're just rolling through Instagram. And truly, we've
- 2:12Speaker 1: we've never had more information than we do these days,
- 2:15Speaker 1: so in some ways, putting together not a state trip
- 2:17Speaker 1: really has never been easier. That doesn't make it easy, though.
- 2:22Speaker 1: This is true for any trip, and it definitely is
- 2:25Speaker 1: true if you're a first timer. In that case, if
- 2:28Speaker 1: the trip involves big game and the big expenses that
- 2:31Speaker 1: go with it and a lot of expectations, the potential
- 2:34Speaker 1: for the whole thing to go south is real. Bad weather,
- 2:39Speaker 1: I don't know, a truck that decides it doesn't like
- 2:41Speaker 1: shifting out of first gear anymore, unexpected hunters in the field,
- 2:45Speaker 1: poor game, animal numbers, you name it. The traveling hunt
- 2:49Speaker 1: is a lonely ship out there in the ocean, and
- 2:51Speaker 1: there are a pile of torpedoes heading in his general
- 2:54Speaker 1: direction at any given moment. A great way to mitigate
- 2:57Speaker 1: the risk of the whole thing blowing up and the
- 3:00Speaker 1: ving you with a sour taste in your mouth is
- 3:02Speaker 1: to travel for something a little less important to you
- 3:04Speaker 1: than bucks, something like I don't know, a silly bird
- 3:09Speaker 1: with a nutsack on his chin and a couple of
- 3:11Speaker 1: knives on his ugly feet, a bird that makes a
- 3:13Speaker 1: laughable call immediately turns on his fallen compadres and demonstrates
- 3:18Speaker 1: less loyalty than a supervillain. And well, I don't know.
- 3:21Speaker 1: It's composed of the kind of meat that is perfect
- 3:23Speaker 1: for making kid approved nuggets. The wild turkey. I could
- 3:28Speaker 1: probably do an entire year's worth of podcast episodes just
- 3:31Speaker 1: like these, but dedicated solely to hunting turkeys. I love them,
- 3:36Speaker 1: I really do. I think turkey hunting is more fun
- 3:40Speaker 1: than most hunting in general, except for maybe spotting and
- 3:43Speaker 1: stocking meal deer, even if turkey success is a little
- 3:46Speaker 1: less rewarding than it is with bigger game. I think
- 3:49Speaker 1: that we are damn lucky to have this goofy bird
- 3:52Speaker 1: in so many different places where we can hunt it.
- 3:55Speaker 1: I also think we are damn lucky that there are
- 3:57Speaker 1: so many states that will sell us a license to
- 3:59Speaker 1: hunt that no matter where we call home. Even better
- 4:03Speaker 1: those states, in those places you might travel to hunt turkeys,
- 4:07Speaker 1: they're also home to white tales, often many of them,
- 4:10Speaker 1: and surprise, surprise, the turkeys live where the deer live,
- 4:14Speaker 1: or the deer live where the turkeys live. It doesn't
- 4:16Speaker 1: really matter. They are all mixed up on the landscape,
- 4:19Speaker 1: and that is a good thing for us. Now. I
- 4:23Speaker 1: mentioned on this show about how my first out of
- 4:24Speaker 1: state hunts involved turkey travel, and honestly quite a few
- 4:28Speaker 1: of my current hunts due too. But I rarely had
- 4:31Speaker 1: somewhere with the idea that the only thing I'm thinking
- 4:34Speaker 1: about is how to arrow a gobbler or shoot one
- 4:37Speaker 1: in the face with a shotgun. I'm always factoring in
- 4:40Speaker 1: whether I want to hunt turkeys on ground that I
- 4:42Speaker 1: also might want to hunt deer on I'll give you
- 4:45Speaker 1: an example of how this played out in my life recently.
- 4:50Speaker 1: After drawing deer tags in Iowa in two thousand nine
- 4:54Speaker 1: and two, I decided it was time to save up
- 4:57Speaker 1: my points until I could find a good unit to
- 4:59Speaker 1: hunt public land. I messed around for a few years,
- 5:02Speaker 1: and then took a trip to the southwest corner of
- 5:04Speaker 1: the state to hunt turkeys and deer scout. The turkey
- 5:07Speaker 1: hunting there was actually pretty sweet. The deer scouting was okay,
- 5:12Speaker 1: but just not enough to convince me to cash in
- 5:14Speaker 1: my points and buy that spending nonresident deer tag. So
- 5:17Speaker 1: I kept looking and in en I decided to hunt
- 5:20Speaker 1: turkeys in a different part of the state again with
- 5:23Speaker 1: the idea that I had scout deer in the process.
- 5:25Speaker 1: I picked a new area with a decent concentration of
- 5:28Speaker 1: public land around, applied for a last season turkey tag,
- 5:31Speaker 1: and made plans to go run and gun for a
- 5:33Speaker 1: few days. I also booked a site at a campground
- 5:37Speaker 1: and did a lot of east scouting. After getting down
- 5:40Speaker 1: there and setting up camp, I hiked into my first
- 5:43Speaker 1: spot during an afternoon hunt. This spot has a dreamy
- 5:47Speaker 1: meadow on top of a bluff. While a few gobblers
- 5:50Speaker 1: responded that evening nothing came in, So that night in camp,
- 5:54Speaker 1: I opened up my on X app and I picked
- 5:56Speaker 1: out another spot that looked like a good place to
- 5:58Speaker 1: hike into for a long beard, but it was also
- 6:00Speaker 1: an area that I really wanted to scout deer in.
- 6:03Speaker 1: When I woke up that morning well before first light,
- 6:06Speaker 1: it was crazy windy, and I never heard of gobble
- 6:10Speaker 1: the entire time I hiked to the back of that
- 6:12Speaker 1: property to set up, But as it got light and
- 6:16Speaker 1: the morning progressed, I finally got to drive by from
- 6:18Speaker 1: a hen who came into my calling, and a little
- 6:21Speaker 1: bit later after that, I was kind of leaning back
- 6:24Speaker 1: and I thought I heard a bird drumming against the
- 6:26Speaker 1: NonStop hollow thirty mile pro winds. It was enough to
- 6:30Speaker 1: get me to look at my decoy, and then it
- 6:32Speaker 1: all made sense, because there was a monster tom chest
- 6:35Speaker 1: bumping it. How he got into my spread without my
- 6:37Speaker 1: knowledge probably says a little too much about my ability
- 6:40Speaker 1: to pay attention. But the good news was that he
- 6:43Speaker 1: never even hardly flopped after I lined up my bead
- 6:46Speaker 1: on the base of his neck. Killing that old Tom
- 6:49Speaker 1: was pretty sweet. But what was equally sweet it was
- 6:52Speaker 1: after I killed him, I spent some time scouting. I
- 6:55Speaker 1: found pounded deer trils, I found rub lines, and the
- 6:59Speaker 1: general dear sign in the area was impressive. In fact,
- 7:02Speaker 1: it was enough to get me to apply for a
- 7:04Speaker 1: deer license the following season, which led to a great hunt.
- 7:08Speaker 1: In fact, that first meadow I set up in for turkeys,
- 7:11Speaker 1: that's the place I spent the second morning of the season,
- 7:14Speaker 1: and I saw seven bucks in there, including one of
- 7:16Speaker 1: the biggest bucks I've ever seen anywhere, let alone on
- 7:18Speaker 1: public land. And later in that hunt, I came back
- 7:22Speaker 1: down and I killed a great book in a spot
- 7:25Speaker 1: that I had also scouted while turkey hunting. That same
- 7:28Speaker 1: type of progression of events that's happened to me in Nebraska,
- 7:32Speaker 1: it's happened to me in South Dakota. It's happened to
- 7:34Speaker 1: me in Wisconsin. And the key to all of this
- 7:37Speaker 1: is to realize that a turkey trip can really function
- 7:41Speaker 1: as a trial run or a deer hunting trip. Whether
- 7:45Speaker 1: you're camping or setting up in a motel or staying
- 7:49Speaker 1: with a family friend or a relative, you get to
- 7:51Speaker 1: figure out the logistics of a trip. How far is
- 7:54Speaker 1: your campground from your best hunting spot. How much of
- 7:57Speaker 1: a pain is it to get back to the hotel
- 7:59Speaker 1: every night? How many hunters do you see during turkey season?
- 8:04Speaker 1: How are they accessing the properties you're hunting as you're
- 8:08Speaker 1: engaged in your over the road Turkey trip. Pay attention
- 8:11Speaker 1: to these questions. You should be able to answer some
- 8:14Speaker 1: of them, like I don't know that thirty five minute
- 8:17Speaker 1: drive from the motel to the management area you want
- 8:19Speaker 1: to hunt. That might not sound like much while you're
- 8:21Speaker 1: sitting at home in January, but after three days of
- 8:24Speaker 1: getting up two hours before dark and then hunting all day,
- 8:27Speaker 1: that drive might feel like something a little different. You'll
- 8:30Speaker 1: pretty much be the same thing during deer season. So
- 8:33Speaker 1: pay attention. In fact, let me illustrate this by summarizing
- 8:36Speaker 1: a conversation I recently had with Casey Smith from the
- 8:39Speaker 1: Element podcast. Casey is a white tail killing stud who
- 8:43Speaker 1: spends a lot of his time on public land chasing
- 8:45Speaker 1: deer from Texas all the way up to the Midwest
- 8:48Speaker 1: and the East. Suffice it to say, when he is
- 8:51Speaker 1: in the deer woods, he has a good idea what
- 8:53Speaker 1: he needs to do to be successful. He has enough
- 8:56Speaker 1: experience to draw from that if something goes wrong, which
- 8:59Speaker 1: is ways does he can reset and keep himself in
- 9:03Speaker 1: the game. It's a little tiny speed bump. I feel
- 9:06Speaker 1: the same way when it comes to white tilS for
- 9:08Speaker 1: the most part. But Casey and I also got on
- 9:10Speaker 1: the topic of elk and how neither one of us
- 9:13Speaker 1: would claim to be anything but an eager novice when
- 9:15Speaker 1: it comes to elk hunting. We talked about the difference
- 9:18Speaker 1: in confidence from heading out on a mountain versus heading
- 9:21Speaker 1: out on a management area in the Midwest, about how
- 9:24Speaker 1: different it is to just find some dear versus finding elk,
- 9:29Speaker 1: how different it feels to go from pretty confident to
- 9:32Speaker 1: truly baffled. This feeling of not knowing what you're doing.
- 9:37Speaker 1: That's a good thing for guys like us to be
- 9:39Speaker 1: reminded of because we have a wide audience. Some folks
- 9:42Speaker 1: who consume our stuff they're stone cold killers and they
- 9:45Speaker 1: listen in or watch mostly just for entertainment or it
- 9:49Speaker 1: seems to probably judge us on the things that we
- 9:51Speaker 1: do wrong in their eyes. But others are trying to
- 9:53Speaker 1: learn and really trying to glean any tips or strategies
- 9:56Speaker 1: they can to try to get better at something. Some
- 10:00Speaker 1: think they're not all that confident in now. There are
- 10:02Speaker 1: plenty of ways to highlight this lack of confidence in ourselves,
- 10:06Speaker 1: but one sure way is to take that first trip
- 10:09Speaker 1: over the road. That's when you're gonna learn a lot
- 10:12Speaker 1: about yourself, and you learn a lot about your ability
- 10:15Speaker 1: to handle a little adversity while keeping a positive attitude.
- 10:19Speaker 1: The thing about that is it's a hell of a
- 10:21Speaker 1: lot easier to stomach when you've got a hundred dollar
- 10:23Speaker 1: tag for a bird in your pocket versus a four
- 10:26Speaker 1: or five tag for a white tail. Now, if you
- 10:30Speaker 1: think that won't matter to you, it might not. But
- 10:33Speaker 1: mixing deer tags with ego, which we all have in
- 10:36Speaker 1: the deer world, can do weird things to us. It
- 10:39Speaker 1: sucks going on a deer trip only to start to
- 10:41Speaker 1: believe you're going to eat tag soup. And then I
- 10:43Speaker 1: have to tell your wife, or your buddies or your
- 10:46Speaker 1: co workers. They drove all the way out there, and
- 10:49Speaker 1: you burned your vacation. You spend a ton of money
- 10:52Speaker 1: only to kill the same amount of deer you'd have
- 10:54Speaker 1: killed if you had never left at all. One of
- 10:57Speaker 1: the best parts about this reality is that you can
- 11:01Speaker 1: begin to develop that over the road confidence on a
- 11:04Speaker 1: Turkey trip less at stake. That's going to feed your
- 11:08Speaker 1: white tailed trips and possibly, I don't know, feed your
- 11:11Speaker 1: desire to go travel for pronghorn or elk or meal
- 11:13Speaker 1: deer or moose or whatever. It will help you really
- 11:17Speaker 1: start to be comfortable with your plan of travel in
- 11:21Speaker 1: all of your digital scouting efforts, the thoroughness of your packing,
- 11:26Speaker 1: your gear setups, all of that stuff. When you do
- 11:29Speaker 1: this enough, setting up a tent in the dark and
- 11:32Speaker 1: forty mile pur winds becomes not such a big deal.
- 11:35Speaker 1: Or I don't know, making coffee an oatmeal for yourself
- 11:37Speaker 1: an hour before you hike into unfamiliar territory that becomes
- 11:41Speaker 1: easy and just part of the routine. Staying away from
- 11:45Speaker 1: home for four or five days and keeping yourself on
- 11:48Speaker 1: task that kind of just suddenly becomes part of the
- 11:51Speaker 1: trip and not something you really have to work on.
- 11:55Speaker 1: It also helps you with the main component of a
- 11:57Speaker 1: hunting trip, which isn't just killing something, but it's actual enjoyment.
- 12:02Speaker 1: If you want to have a great experience, and I
- 12:04Speaker 1: know you do, some level of been there, done that
- 12:07Speaker 1: mixed with new adventure is the secret recipe for having
- 12:11Speaker 1: a great hunt. Regardless of whether you fill a tag
- 12:14Speaker 1: or not. A Turkey trip can give you the chance
- 12:17Speaker 1: to learn about that type of hunting while you're simultaneously
- 12:21Speaker 1: settling into the rhythm of the hunt, which I can
- 12:24Speaker 1: tell you without question helps you find more success. And
- 12:29Speaker 1: if you think finding more success on the road doesn't
- 12:31Speaker 1: feed the desire to travel more, you're off your rocker there,
- 12:33Speaker 1: Betty Crocker. There's nothing sweeter than traveling to a new state,
- 12:37Speaker 1: to new ground, living in a tent for a few days,
- 12:40Speaker 1: and filling a tag, even if that tag is only
- 12:43Speaker 1: on a turkey, even if it's a jake, which, by
- 12:46Speaker 1: the way, is as much of a trophy turkey as
- 12:48Speaker 1: a six year old thirty pounder with two inch hooks
- 12:50Speaker 1: and five beards. Well, okay, maybe maybe a jake isn't
- 12:54Speaker 1: as good as that bird, but I can tell you
- 12:56Speaker 1: I've been really happy, many many times to look up
- 13:00Speaker 1: and see a group of short beards running into my spread.
- 13:04Speaker 1: If I haven't convinced you yet, here's another benefit to
- 13:07Speaker 1: a spring Turkey road trip. You really get to test
- 13:11Speaker 1: out your gear instead of buying a new pack or
- 13:14Speaker 1: maybe a new pair of boots and then waiting until
- 13:16Speaker 1: some are scouting or the actual deer season to give
- 13:18Speaker 1: them a real test run. You can actually hunt with
- 13:22Speaker 1: that stuff this spring. This goes for hunting gear of course,
- 13:26Speaker 1: you know, bows, accessories, whatever, but also for camping equipment.
- 13:31Speaker 1: If you choose to camp, and believe me, getting to
- 13:34Speaker 1: know your tent, cot, sleeping pads, sleeping bag, lanterns, cooking setup,
- 13:39Speaker 1: and whatever else during Turkey season, that'll make your dear
- 13:43Speaker 1: trips a lot easier to plan for and a lot
- 13:46Speaker 1: more enjoyable. And on this note, which I fully admit
- 13:51Speaker 1: I'm biased towards, I think you should consider camping if
- 13:54Speaker 1: at all possible. You always have the backup of finding
- 13:58Speaker 1: a motel somewhere if the camping thing doesn't work out.
- 14:01Speaker 1: We don't always have the benefit of finding a motel
- 14:03Speaker 1: with vacancy near where you want to hunt. You can
- 14:07Speaker 1: often find campgrounds close by, or depending on the state
- 14:10Speaker 1: and type of land you're gonna hunt, camp right where
- 14:13Speaker 1: you're gonna be Jason those birds. This might be the
- 14:16Speaker 1: case on public land and it might be the case
- 14:19Speaker 1: on private land. If you tap your network and you're like,
- 14:21Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out to South Dakota and hunt my
- 14:23Speaker 1: long lost uncle's farm. He might let you pitch a
- 14:25Speaker 1: ten in his backyard. Who knows. It's a great way
- 14:28Speaker 1: to go about a traveling hunt because you're in control
- 14:30Speaker 1: of your little home base. That's a huge win in
- 14:33Speaker 1: my book, and it has absolutely changed the game for
- 14:36Speaker 1: me as far as how I plan all of my
- 14:39Speaker 1: over the road hunts. If I can't camp in close
- 14:42Speaker 1: proximity to the ground I plan to hunt, I'm probably
- 14:45Speaker 1: gonna look elsewhere. That's how important this is to me. Now,
- 14:49Speaker 1: on a later episode of this podcast, I'll break down
- 14:53Speaker 1: my whole white tail camping set up, but for now,
- 14:56Speaker 1: suffice it to say camp if he can't for turkeys,
- 15:00Speaker 1: and for dear, just do it. But now, to get
- 15:04Speaker 1: back on the topic a little more, a turkey trip
- 15:06Speaker 1: will not only help you familiarize yourself with your gear,
- 15:09Speaker 1: but also tell you what you don't like about your gear.
- 15:12Speaker 1: It's a better scenario to figure that stuff out in
- 15:14Speaker 1: the end of April while your turkey hunting than during
- 15:17Speaker 1: the second week in November when you're deer hunting. You'll
- 15:20Speaker 1: also get an idea how much food to bring on
- 15:22Speaker 1: a trip, how many of those little green propane tanks
- 15:25Speaker 1: you might need to, I don't know, fuel your lanterns
- 15:28Speaker 1: and your blind heater or whatever. You'll get to figure
- 15:33Speaker 1: out what blind chairs squeak, which ones don't. How tolerant
- 15:38Speaker 1: you are of temperature swings while sleeping in a tent.
- 15:42Speaker 1: How likely you are to enjoy a trip with a
- 15:44Speaker 1: hunting buddy who's snoring kind of sounds just like a
- 15:47Speaker 1: wilderbies experiencing an especially painful birth of its calf. You'll
- 15:53Speaker 1: learn how the locals might treat you, how well the
- 15:56Speaker 1: roads are maintained, which is really important. It's places, what
- 16:01Speaker 1: the tick numbers are, like, whether you can actually cross
- 16:05Speaker 1: that river in knee high boots to hunt the promised
- 16:08Speaker 1: land beyond the far bank, or if it's way too
- 16:11Speaker 1: deep and it only looks like it's crossable when you
- 16:13Speaker 1: look at it on satellite imagery. You'll learn a lot.
- 16:18Speaker 1: You'll learn how much a trip like this really costs.
- 16:21Speaker 1: How prone you are to ignoring the lunch meet in
- 16:23Speaker 1: your cooler to drive to the nearest Arby's for some
- 16:25Speaker 1: delicious curly fries and a roast beef sandwich. This is
- 16:29Speaker 1: kind of like pitching in a minor league game to
- 16:30Speaker 1: see if you really got the arm and the stamina
- 16:33Speaker 1: and the mental pieces in place to jump up to
- 16:36Speaker 1: the big show. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but you
- 16:39Speaker 1: get my drift. All I'm saying is consider this. Consider
- 16:44Speaker 1: it because taking a turkey hunting trip is just fun
- 16:47Speaker 1: and it's a beneficial move if you intend to become
- 16:50Speaker 1: more of a traveling hunter in general, and tune in
- 16:53Speaker 1: next week. I plan to keep talking turkeys and white tails,
- 16:57Speaker 1: but in a new way that will be relatable to you,
- 17:01Speaker 1: whether you're going to drive ten thousand miles to Spring
- 17:03Speaker 1: in search of your turkey slam, or you just want
- 17:05Speaker 1: to stay at home in gobbler hunt a few days
- 17:08Speaker 1: on your grandpa's farm. That's it for this week, my
- 17:12Speaker 1: white tail obsessed friends. This has been the Wire to
- 17:15Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, and I'm your host, Tony Peterson. As always,
- 17:18Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening, and if you haven't
- 17:20Speaker 1: got enough of your white tail fixed this week, head
- 17:23Speaker 1: on over to the mediator dot com slash wired to
- 17:25Speaker 1: check out deer hunting articles, or go look at our
- 17:28Speaker 1: Wire to Hunt YouTube channel, where we dropped new videos
- 17:31Speaker 1: every single week.