Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 672: Foundations - How to Become a Better Hunter in the Off-Season

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Ep. 672: Foundations - How to Become a Better Hunter in the Off-Season · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, your guide
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to the fundamentals better dear hunting. Present it by First Light,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: host Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about how
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: to work on becoming a better hunter during the off sit.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Do you know why the rud is considered the easiest
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: time to whitetail hunt? Of course you do. It's because
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the whole thing gets dumbed down by all those bucks
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: out there looking to pass on their jeans. But it's
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: more than that. It allowed us as hunters to take
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the easy route to set the obvious spots. It brings
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the burned out stand sites back into play, and it
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: offers even the dimmest stump sitters in our hunting camps
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: a fighting chance at a good encounter. That's great, But
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: if you'd rather not just be a finger crossing type
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: of hunter who is hoping for a little divine intervention
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: in the deer woods. There are some things you can
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: do now to make yourself a little bit better this season.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And this goes for your rut hunts, this goes for
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: your early season hunts, and it goes for you as
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: a person. Here's how you do it. Have you ever
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: listened to a podcast with that fellow David Goggins or
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: seen some of his social media posts. He's the shredded
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Navy seal dude who is always swearing at the camera
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: and yelling at the voices in his head about how
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: no one can hurt him. Or maybe you've heard Jocko Willing,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: another shredded Navy dude who preaches the message that suffering
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: is good for you and that you better get your
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: ass out of bed at o dark thirty to be
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: a productive person. A lot of the retired Special Forces
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: folks go on to become motivational speakers. They go on
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: to start businesses and run mountain marathons and generally make
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: most of us look like the kind of lazy losers
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: who are basically just skin sacks stuff with lumpy pudding,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: and who should probably hide away in caves so we
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: don't bring the whole human race down with our dumpy frumpiness. Now,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: maybe that's too harsh, but there is a unique phenomenon
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: in modern culture where we are just absolutely drawn to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: individuals who have done really hard things like earning their
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: tried in after hell week, or I don't know, free
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: soloing outcap or surfing waves that are so tall they
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: dwarf a pretty good sized building. We are in awe
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: of people who do difficult stuff, and you can't help
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: notice that the people who do stuff like that, aside
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: from the adrenaline junkie factory, what happened to accomplish a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: lot of difficult things in just their daily lives. They
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: seek out challenges and you might think it's purely in
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: their hardwiring, but I don't believe that a lot of
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: them have a rough start and some event, often traumatic,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: pushes them to change and to do things differently. Sometimes
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: something hard and over time challenges their motivator and they
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: lean into it into those hard things. Look at it
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: this way. If you have the discipline to run I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: don't know, one hundred miles in the mountains in a
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: twenty four hour time period, how hard can it be
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: to start your own business? Or I don't know, do
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: enough deadlifts where you look like an underwear model after
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: a while. Now think about yourself. What challenges have you
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: had in life? The answer to that will vary a
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: lot by the person. We've all had our own challenges,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: but how many did we choose? This is where things
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: get a little squirrely. Life can throw a real shit
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: sandwich rite down your gullet at any point, and that
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: can be totally unrelated to any choices you've made in
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: your life. Maybe you had a child born with some
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: serious issue. Maybe you got laid off from a job
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: you really needed and you found yourself on the verge
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: of absolute poverty. Maybe someone in your support network, a
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: family or friend, died suddenly. All of those and a
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: million more examples from everyday life can prove how challenging
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: things can be. And I don't mean to be depressing here,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: so stick with me, because you might think all of
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: those things can happen, or something like that did happen
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: to me, and it sucks. You might also think, since
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: all of those things can happen, or one of those
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: things did happen to me, I'm sure as hell not
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: going to seek out more difficult things to do in life. Instead.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: You'd like two scoops of the easy route, poor fevour.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: And yet despite all you have been through and all
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: that you might go through, you still choose to hunt.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And probably if you're listening to this, bowhunt, and probably
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: yet bowhunt mature deer or good enough elk or some
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: other standard of animal that's just not that easy to
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: come by. In fact, for most of us, hunting is
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: one of the most challenging activities we can think of.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: This is why the hunting industry is chock full of
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: products that promise you easier success, and it's absolutely jam
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: packed with folks who love to tell you how to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: do it while hawking these products in their personal brands.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: The truth is, there is a disconnect between what we
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: think hunting is and what it actually is. We think
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: it's just this relaxing thing that rewards us just by
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: delivering a little disconnect from our daily lives. It is
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: that thing, but it's also really hard, too hard for
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: most of us to actually be successful in any given year.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Think about that, most of us who don't have Navy
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: seal pedigrees choose to do this one thing for fun
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: that is mostly going to show us how bad we
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: are at it. It's weird, but something to think about
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: is this, Why why do we choose to engage in
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: a hobby or passion or whatever you want to call
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: it that is so difficult? Failure is the most likely
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: outcome because the reward is so damn sweet, and there
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: are many layers of rewards. Killing a big buck or
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: bull those are obvious ones, But seeing a big buck
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: or bull it's pretty rewarding too. Just spending a badass
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: morning watching the woods and all that happens there it
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: can be pretty rewarding too. And the truth is we
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: do this hard thing for many reasons, and all of
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: them are good. It's also true that for many of us,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: this is one of the few things we choose to
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: do with our free time that is real challenging In
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: this way and a whole bunch of others. We are
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: not like retired Navy seals. We can get a little
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: closer to our mentality, however, which will help us accomplish
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: more things in life, things like, oh, I don't know,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: being one of the few hunters to cross the Colorado
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: state line and shoot a public land elk when most
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: people just won't, or maybe arrow a solid buck in
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: the swamps of the southern United States when oh, I
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: don't know, most hunters won't. We are wired for challenge,
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: but also to try to make life as easy as possible.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: This is a rough dichotomy in our heads and in
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: our bodies. It's the urge to stay inside in the
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: air conditioning and eat a calorie dense snack the moment
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: hunger strikes. We are fighting a hell of a lot
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: of years of human struggles, and it's easy to give
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: in when the living is good. But if you're a hunter,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: and you are, because otherwise you wouldn't be listening to
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: me ramble on. You've chosen one really difficult thing to do,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: and you know how to get better at that difficult thing,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: don't you? Yeah, do something else difficult. Yeah, you didn't
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: see that coming to jo. You don't have to start
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: a business or run one hundred miles in the mountains
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: in one shot. You can start small. Maybe you don't
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: work out at all, fine, Maybe you hate running. Fine? Walk?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: What's your step count like on a daily basis? Can
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: you beat that next week? Can you hit twenty thousand
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: steps a day for a month. It's not the one
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: off success. You're shooting for one day at twenty thousand
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: steps is great, but it doesn't really mean a thing
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: to your life. Doing that for days on end or
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: a certain amount of days per month. That's what you want.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: You want to set a difficult goal that forces accountability
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: every day, or at least every week, maybe most days.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: That's the key. Maybe you run a little and you
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: want to do a half marathon, great, sign up for one.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Then make a plan for how you'll get there. It's
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: not easy, but that's the point. You'll be working toward
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: a goal you can feel damn proud of, and that
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: will help you become a better hunter, because guess what,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: when you hunt, you're working toward a goal you can
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: feel damn proud of. And if you have to go
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: for a run five times a week for months to
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: run a half marathon, you can also scout once a
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: week in the summer to have better hunts this fall.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: If you're like man, I'm pretty sick of hearing all
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: these slimy influencers preach about getting in shape when I
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: have a really demanding job and seven young kids at
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: home and just don't have the bandwidth or the time. Great,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: what else could you do? How about something like expanding
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: your effective range with your bow or whatever weapon you
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: choose to hunt with. If you're a bow hunter, let's
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: say you're a forty yards an undershooter. Can you set
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: a goal to get really good at fifty or sixty
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Because if you get really good at ranges you think
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: are too far to shoot, then you're onto something. You're
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: taking something challenging that will make another challenging task a
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: little bit easier. And I'm not talking about how being
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: able to shoot accurately at sixty yards mean you should
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: be flinging away at sixty yards in the woods. I'm
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: talking about the work it takes to become a really
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: competent longer range shooter and how that will give you
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: confidence on shorter shots. It'll make you realize that if
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: you can hit a little spot at sixty, a hole
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: deer's vitals at twenty is pretty easy. So maybe the
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: goal should be to get to a point where you
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: can step outside and shoot a four errow group into
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: the vitals of a three D target at ranges that
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: are double what you're comfortable shooting an actual animal at.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Do you know what That'll take? More range time and
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: a keen sense of your shooting form. It'll take daily
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: or at the very least weekly commitment. It will require
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: a process of ramping up the shot distance in small increments,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: and that you're building on something because you are. What
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: if you're like man, I can shoot the wings off
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: of a gnat at eighty yards in low light while
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: someone blasts German death metal in my ear and someone
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: else tries to hit me square in the knackers with
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a Roman candle, like you see on social media posts
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: sometimes of those young people, usually men who probably aren't
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: likely to reach middle age with all their fingers or
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: both their eyes in working order. What if you can
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: shoot like that and you can run marathons without breaking
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: a sweat. Are you good for the season? What else
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: could you do? How about this? Add in a few
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: really good spots to hunt, Not properties, not properties, but spots,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: stand sites, blind sites. I've preached this message a lot,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: but I think the off season hunt for good spots
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: is as important as the in season hunt for big bucks.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: In fact, it's probably way more important, but we can
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: give it equal weight if that makes you feel more comfortable.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: The best hunters out there don't settle, and that's a
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: lesson that matters a lot. They are always looking for
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: new spots, new stand sites, new places to sit, no
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: matter what time of the season it is. This is
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: a challenge in and of itself, and it takes you
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: from being a typical hunter who scouts a little bit
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: in the summer but mostly realizes on cameras to someone
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: who is actively working to find places to actually kill
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: bucks in September or December or whenever the season is open.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: This sounds obvious, but how many people actually do this?
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Not that many in my experience. Think about it this way.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: What if you make a goal to scout a certain
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: amount of time each week and then ground truth your
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: findings at some point on the weekends. Now, I'm not
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: talking about dropping seventy five way points and then death
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: marching into them for a quick scan around before heading
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: to the next one. I'm talking about building a plan up,
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: just a hit list of potential spots, and then going
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: in to actually figure them out, to figure out if
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: they are worth hunting, and if they are, how you'd
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: actually hunt them, and when you'd actually hunt them. If
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: that's a weekli er monthly thing, your benefit during the
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: season is going to be very real. It's also work
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: and not that much fun. But that's the case with
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: most of the stuff we have to do to accomplish
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: difficult things. There are little rewards along the way and
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: eventually some big ones, and it never ever ends. And
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: that's a good thing. Actually, it's a great thing. To
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: keep challenging yourself throughout life is one of the few
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: ways to ensure you'll live some form of good life
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: no matter what happens that is out of your control
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: or hell in your control. Now, I've used some examples
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: that are relevant to me, but the overall sentiment here
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: is that if you want to be a better hunter
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: who enjoys his or her time in the field more,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: you have to condition yourself to challenge and then condition
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: yourself to accomplishing things, finishing things, getting the freaking job done.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: My friends, think about some of the unfinished stuff in
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: your life that gives you anxiety. Maybe you're rebuilding an
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: engine in your garage and it has been three years
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: and your wife reminds you twenty seven times a day
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: about it. Maybe you're embarrassed by the landscaping in your yard,
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: and you know a dayre two some weekend with some
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: sweat equity would get it to a place where you
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: wouldn't want to blindfold your house guests when they come
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: over so they don't see the mess you've allowed at
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: your house. Getting things done is good for the soul.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Accomplishing challenges is good for the soul. Working towards something rewarding.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: It's good for the soul embracing this stuff, whether it
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: is directly related to hunting, you know, like scouting or
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: shooting really well, or if it has nothing to do
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: with actually hunting is a good thing if you condition
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: yourself to see it through. This is the real key here,
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: not enough to recognize the holes in your life and
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: hunting game, but to actually work to shore some of
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: them up. You won't do this by buying a product
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: anymore than you'll do this by putting in three hours
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: of effort on some random Saturday in July. It's just
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: not that easy, and I am sorry for that. You know,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: maybe in the future, when Elon gets ZAC together, you'll
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: be able to program your Tesla robot to go out
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: in the woods and scout for you and hang your sets.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: But until then, you're mostly responsible for your success and
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: your enjoyment in the woods. Maybe someday on X will
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: add in a layer that uses decommissioned military satellites to
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: beam the exact locations of all the deer in the
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: woods to your phone right now, But we're not there yet.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Hunting is still difficult, and it should be, But you
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: can make it less difficult by working on making yourself
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: the kind of person who leans into challenges. That's the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: secret sauce to making life better and to making hunting
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: something that is more than just some time in the woods,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: more than just a finger crossing attempt at being in
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: a spot where a deer might walk by. It becomes
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: something else. And the more you do difficult things, the
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: more you want to do difficult things. If you figure
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: out how to shoot better through a long game, somewhat
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: disciplined approach, you might find yourself itching to go hunt
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: antelope just once. If you hold your nose and scout
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: the public land down the road so you can add
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: one new spot to your roster, you might realize that
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: what you thought public land was and what it is
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: can be vastly different. That might be all you need
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: to buy that non resident tag somewhere else and go
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: take that first trip with your buddies, which is another
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: decision that means you're probably not taking the easy way
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: out and you'd better put in some work to enjoy it.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: There's a snowball effect to this stuff, and it feeds
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: into so many aspects of life. It doesn't have to
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: be couched in this overwhelming message that you're a lazy
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: pos who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: some super athlete or some other individual who is on
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: things most humans don't think are possible. It can be
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: much simpler than that. It can just be something that
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: you know you have trouble with, so you're going to
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: make a concerted effort to get better at it. It
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: can be as simple as finishing some projects you procrastinated on.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: It could be a matter of getting to one really
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: good group of arrows, or getting to the end of
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: a five k without throwing up, or taking an accidental
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: dump right in your workout shorts. It can be a
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: lot of things, all of which will help you be
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: more successful in the woods. And the best part is
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: you can start right now in the off season. You
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: can also come back next week, and I hope you do,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: because I'm going to talk about how to set your
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: hunting standards in a way that is actually going to
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: make you happy. That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: is brought to you by First Light. As always, thank
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: you so much for listening and for all your support
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: here with the Wired to Hunt and all the meat
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: eat or stuff that we're doing. Truly truly appreciate it.
• 17:59
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• 18:01
  Speaker 2: want to see some more of the stuff that the
• 18:02
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