Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 427: Foundations - Taking E-Scouting for Whitetails to a Granular Level

Transcript

Ep. 427: Foundations - Taking E-Scouting for Whitetails to a Granular Level · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
0:15
Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. Today's episode is all
0:18
Speaker 1: about taking what we learned last week about eat scouting
0:21
Speaker 1: and really getting down into the nitty gritty details to
0:24
Speaker 1: figure out where bucks should be on your chosen deer grown.
0:35
Speaker 1: The fun part of east scouting is just the promise
0:38
Speaker 1: of new spots. It's like a little treasure hunt that
0:41
Speaker 1: might show you something you've been missing, or show you
0:44
Speaker 1: spots on a distant parcel of public land that should
0:46
Speaker 1: be killer ambush locations for a run hunt. But you've
0:49
Speaker 1: got to know how to read the land and really
0:52
Speaker 1: understand what you're seeing to use the scouting in a
0:54
Speaker 1: really effective way. That's what this show is all about. Hey, everybody,
1:09
Speaker 1: welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast. I'm your host,
1:12
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. If you listen to the last two weeks
1:15
Speaker 1: of episodes, you heard me just beg and plead for
1:19
Speaker 1: you to develop not only a love of all scouting,
1:21
Speaker 1: but to consider how big picture EAT scouting can really
1:24
Speaker 1: set you up for better hunts. On this episode, we're
1:28
Speaker 1: gonna take East scouting to a more enjoyable level, because
1:31
Speaker 1: once you've developed an overall understanding of how the features
1:34
Speaker 1: of your dear ground tie together via satellite imagery, you're
1:38
Speaker 1: gonna want to fire up your scouting app and get real,
1:41
Speaker 1: real comfortable with the waypoints feature. Or more specifically, I'm
1:45
Speaker 1: going to cover where you really want to plant your
1:47
Speaker 1: digital flag versus the stuff you're better off ignoring, and
1:51
Speaker 1: how to do this in a way that will eventually
1:53
Speaker 1: let you pare down your research to spots worth scouting
1:56
Speaker 1: in person or if necessary, just showing up blind to hunt.
2:00
Speaker 1: And way points, which started out in the world of
2:02
Speaker 1: GPS so that when you left your truck or your
2:04
Speaker 1: camp you wouldn't die, are not commonplace on all mapping apps.
2:08
Speaker 1: On some like on X, you can choose all kinds
2:11
Speaker 1: of symbols that represent just about everything you're likely to
2:14
Speaker 1: encounter in the act of deer scouting and deer hunting
2:17
Speaker 1: because it was developed four hunters. Other broader use mapping
2:21
Speaker 1: apps aren't his user friendly for hunting specific scouting, So
2:25
Speaker 1: pay attention to what platform you choose, and at this stage,
2:28
Speaker 1: what I like to do when I've narrowed down a
2:30
Speaker 1: property I know I'm going to hunt is to scroll
2:33
Speaker 1: over it and mark every interesting location. In fishing, there's
2:37
Speaker 1: a saying that goes hook sets are free, which is
2:40
Speaker 1: a subtle way to insult someone who thought they might
2:43
Speaker 1: have had a bite but didn't swing on it because
2:45
Speaker 1: of indecision. In the same vein, waypoints are free to
2:48
Speaker 1: the digital scouter. You aren't going to run out of them,
2:51
Speaker 1: and no one is going to cap you at a
2:53
Speaker 1: certain amount. This is gonuts for donuts time. With all
2:56
Speaker 1: of those waypoints locked, loaded and ready to be dropped,
3:00
Speaker 1: it's time to just start with the easy stuff. Get
3:02
Speaker 1: on your app and zoom across the land you plan
3:05
Speaker 1: to hunt. Zoom into the back corners of fields. Look
3:08
Speaker 1: at the water hole tucked into a ridgeline, Look at
3:11
Speaker 1: the no question dear funnel that connects two wood lots,
3:15
Speaker 1: drop away point, make a few notes if necessary, and
3:18
Speaker 1: move on. The goal is to mark everything that might
3:21
Speaker 1: signify a potential hunting spot. Forget about the details like
3:25
Speaker 1: prevailing wind direction, access and all that other stuff that's
3:29
Speaker 1: white noise. Right now, treat it like you're an eight
3:31
Speaker 1: year old and you've got a toy store catalog in
3:33
Speaker 1: your lap and are tasked with making your Christmas wish
3:36
Speaker 1: list for your very very very wealthy parents. Shoot for
3:39
Speaker 1: the moon here, even if you might settle for hitting
3:42
Speaker 1: the barn. Do this. Whether you hunt on private ground
3:45
Speaker 1: or public land. Do this, whether you plan to hunt
3:48
Speaker 1: a specific property on opening week in September or during
3:51
Speaker 1: the rout in November. Just go big here, because what
3:54
Speaker 1: you want to do is create a visual representation of
3:57
Speaker 1: your white tail ambush site wish list. You want to
4:01
Speaker 1: look at your scouting app and laugh because it's nearly
4:04
Speaker 1: filled up with way points. I did this when I
4:06
Speaker 1: knew I was going to draw my nonresident Iowa tag
4:09
Speaker 1: last fall. For six months, I scrolled over thousands of
4:12
Speaker 1: acres of public land in my zone and I just
4:14
Speaker 1: dropped waypoint after waypoint on any terrain feature, on food sources,
4:19
Speaker 1: on water sources, anything that picked my interests got a
4:23
Speaker 1: pin on it. And just for ships and giggles. I
4:26
Speaker 1: counted my way points to see how many I ended
4:28
Speaker 1: up with, and in total it was just over sixty,
4:31
Speaker 1: spread out across about eight different parcels. Now, even if
4:34
Speaker 1: I lived in Iowa, I had loads of free time,
4:36
Speaker 1: both of which aren't true. I couldn't have hunted all
4:39
Speaker 1: of those spots in one season. What's worse is that
4:42
Speaker 1: I knew that I would go through a pretty harsh
4:44
Speaker 1: culling phase as the October one opener drew near. Most
4:48
Speaker 1: of those waypoints would eventually get deemed not good enough,
4:52
Speaker 1: and I knew I would delete them. And as sad
4:54
Speaker 1: as that is, it's necessary and it doesn't negate the
4:58
Speaker 1: crazy phase of dropping your wish list way points. That
5:01
Speaker 1: step is important because you're just looking for a little
5:04
Speaker 1: bit of everything that might be worth hunting. You've developed
5:07
Speaker 1: a picture of all the spots that might be worthwhile
5:10
Speaker 1: without going through them individually, to parce out the good
5:13
Speaker 1: stuff from the spots that just don't have the right
5:15
Speaker 1: access or won't play into the timing of your hunt.
5:19
Speaker 1: If this seems clear as mud, let me grab a
5:21
Speaker 1: big old stick and stir the whole thing up a
5:23
Speaker 1: little bit more. What you're really looking to do now
5:27
Speaker 1: is think about what's really going on under those way points.
5:31
Speaker 1: Think of them not just as a remotely interesting feature
5:34
Speaker 1: on the landscape, but as an actual physical place you
5:37
Speaker 1: will walk into with a stand on your back or
5:40
Speaker 1: a saddle on your butt, or maybe you'll just set
5:43
Speaker 1: up in the preseason if it's a private piece of ground,
5:46
Speaker 1: Is that waypoint a hunter yards from the parking area
5:48
Speaker 1: on the main trail a really good idea. Are you
5:50
Speaker 1: the kind of person who has the discipline to hike
5:52
Speaker 1: in two or three miles to a remote island in
5:54
Speaker 1: a swamp to hunt, or do you just kind of
5:57
Speaker 1: like the idea of finding a big buck better than
5:59
Speaker 1: nomad land? Do you really think a stand at the
6:02
Speaker 1: back corner of a public land hayfield is going to
6:05
Speaker 1: be your ticket to a decent buck? Maybe maybe on
6:08
Speaker 1: opening night, of course, But what about six weeks into
6:11
Speaker 1: the season, after seventy us have posted up there while
6:13
Speaker 1: thinking the same exact thing, What if you won't be
6:17
Speaker 1: hunting in their opening night? Do you really need to
6:19
Speaker 1: devote an ounce of brain activity to a spot like that?
6:22
Speaker 1: Probably not delete it. What if you've marked several water
6:26
Speaker 1: holes thinking that you'll be early season hunting and hydration
6:29
Speaker 1: is mouy importante to September bucks? Maybe, but how many
6:33
Speaker 1: water holes are there if you're in the swamps of
6:35
Speaker 1: Louisiana or Florida, where a buck could probably trip with
6:38
Speaker 1: his mouth open get a drink. Does it make sense
6:41
Speaker 1: to focus on water sources, or should you be looking
6:43
Speaker 1: for higher ground that might be loaded with brows or
6:46
Speaker 1: some other food source, or maybe just trying to find
6:49
Speaker 1: like a sweet little landing strip of ground between all
6:52
Speaker 1: that water that could feature a season long travel route
6:56
Speaker 1: because it's the only place where a deer can cross
6:58
Speaker 1: from one side of a pretty to the other without
7:00
Speaker 1: requiring a snorkele. What about if you're going to take
7:04
Speaker 1: a trip in search of a western white tail, should
7:06
Speaker 1: you really focus on way points that are out in
7:08
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere where antelope might even feel like
7:11
Speaker 1: it's a little too open. The waypoint revisiting stage is
7:15
Speaker 1: a great time to shed the excess spots that just
7:18
Speaker 1: don't give you the warm and fuzzies. But remember you
7:21
Speaker 1: don't have to get rid of anything at any point.
7:24
Speaker 1: Cutting just to cut is silly. Spend time with this phase,
7:29
Speaker 1: and if most of your waypoints nag you in a
7:31
Speaker 1: good way, keep them. This is not a point A
7:33
Speaker 1: to B strategy. It's up to the individual. That's why
7:36
Speaker 1: you have the initial cut loose stage so that your
7:39
Speaker 1: full waypoint whish list is entirely visible, and the odds
7:43
Speaker 1: are you just you won't get them all right, especially
7:45
Speaker 1: if you really get after it early on. But the
7:48
Speaker 1: worst thing you can do is to lead a waypoint
7:50
Speaker 1: just because you think you have to. There's there's an
7:52
Speaker 1: art to this stuff, and just like art, it's up
7:55
Speaker 1: to us to decide what we want to create and
7:57
Speaker 1: where we want to take the end product. You. Eventually,
8:00
Speaker 1: if you're honest with yourself and give the initial calling phase,
8:03
Speaker 1: sometime you'll be left with a more just actionable roster
8:08
Speaker 1: of potential stand sites. This is when you filter in
8:12
Speaker 1: your likely hunting dates as far as seasonal timing, and
8:15
Speaker 1: you start to look at how you'd get into and
8:17
Speaker 1: how of these spots. At this point, I like to
8:21
Speaker 1: try to focus on the way points that just scream
8:23
Speaker 1: to me, and instead of falling in love with them,
8:25
Speaker 1: I try to figure out what am I missing? What
8:27
Speaker 1: could happen in those spots that would make it so
8:30
Speaker 1: it was just a dud and not a producer. Try
8:32
Speaker 1: to pin down the details of your hunt and apply
8:35
Speaker 1: the most likely factors as far as weather and hunting pressure,
8:38
Speaker 1: and then to decide if it's still as promising as
8:40
Speaker 1: it feels, and while I don't have a formal style
8:43
Speaker 1: of ranking way points, I do end up through a
8:45
Speaker 1: little bit too much mind grinding knowing which spots are
8:48
Speaker 1: the most interesting to me. This happens to me when
8:51
Speaker 1: I travel out of state for public land hunt for
8:53
Speaker 1: a few days, or on some of the places I
8:55
Speaker 1: have permission to hunt in Minnesota that I've been on
8:57
Speaker 1: for years, and there's no time line for this. If
9:04
Speaker 1: you're a slow learner like I am, you might devote
9:07
Speaker 1: so much time to east scouting that your wife actually
9:09
Speaker 1: gets kind of pissed at you. You might if you
9:11
Speaker 1: forget to take your meds for the day, just start
9:13
Speaker 1: spontaneously east scouting at events where you should be focused
9:17
Speaker 1: on other things, like maybe your kids baptism, or yesterday
9:20
Speaker 1: when my wife was trying to explain to me that
9:21
Speaker 1: we need to fix the drain in our bathroom tub.
9:24
Speaker 1: Do everything you can to pare down your east scouting
9:27
Speaker 1: to the most likeliest of spots and then have some
9:30
Speaker 1: faith in them. Sometimes this process proves to be almost futile.
9:35
Speaker 1: Other times it can put you right on top of
9:37
Speaker 1: incredible dear action, even in pressured places, even on public ground.
9:42
Speaker 1: The latter happened to me a few years ago in
9:43
Speaker 1: North Dakota, after my truck decided it didn't want to
9:46
Speaker 1: run on my first trip out there to two more
9:49
Speaker 1: familiar stomping grounds. Had a long weekend in the beginning
9:52
Speaker 1: of November to spare because I just filled a tag
9:55
Speaker 1: and I thought, I'm gonna drive up there and see
9:57
Speaker 1: what I can do. So I fast tracked this east
10:00
Speaker 1: scouting approach to a massive chunk of federal land in
10:02
Speaker 1: the southeastern corner of the state that I'd never laid
10:05
Speaker 1: eyes on. By the time I was headed north and
10:07
Speaker 1: west to get there, I had only four way points left.
10:11
Speaker 1: Knowing that it was prime cruising time, I had marked
10:14
Speaker 1: only spots that I felt offered killer travel corridors and
10:17
Speaker 1: positioning that would allow me to hunt them with either
10:20
Speaker 1: north or west winds. When I showed up, I hiked
10:23
Speaker 1: a mile into my number one spot and within seconds
10:26
Speaker 1: realized that I probably wouldn't need to go anywhere else
10:28
Speaker 1: as long as I didn't have any other hunters creep
10:30
Speaker 1: in on me. The ridge I set up on over
10:33
Speaker 1: a tight river bottom was basically the only cover connecting
10:36
Speaker 1: two good sized wood lots. It was one of the
10:38
Speaker 1: most natural funnels I found in a lifetime of looking,
10:42
Speaker 1: and the only surprise what is it? And the only
10:44
Speaker 1: surprise was that it took me three days there and
10:47
Speaker 1: one slight hundred yard move to arrow a pope and
10:49
Speaker 1: young eight pointer that just wouldn't leave his girlfriend alone.
10:52
Speaker 1: Of course, hunting is kind of like investing. We all
10:57
Speaker 1: love to brag about our winners. No one talks a
10:59
Speaker 1: big game about how they went all in with their
11:02
Speaker 1: life savings in Kodak or Blockbuster. When it comes to
11:05
Speaker 1: East scouting, I've dropped an embarrassing amount of waypoints on
11:09
Speaker 1: spots that when I walked in to look at them,
11:11
Speaker 1: were absolute duds. In fact, I've hinged entire weeks and
11:15
Speaker 1: ten or twelve hours of drive time to get two
11:17
Speaker 1: spots where not only were my way points worthless, the
11:21
Speaker 1: entire property that I had chosen was a metaphorical kick
11:25
Speaker 1: square to the delegates. This happened to a hunting partner
11:28
Speaker 1: and I one time when we made the trek to
11:29
Speaker 1: southern Oklahoma. Aside from camping right on top of what
11:33
Speaker 1: I can only assume is the largest colony of fire
11:35
Speaker 1: ants in the Sooner State, our pre hunt research was
11:38
Speaker 1: mostly written in cryans, and we colored so far outside
11:41
Speaker 1: the lines that our moms wouldn't post them on the fridge.
11:43
Speaker 1: It was terrible. I saw more hunters on that parcel
11:46
Speaker 1: than I saw a deer by orders of magnitude. Sometimes
11:50
Speaker 1: we just get things wrong, but it's still better to
11:53
Speaker 1: start with a plan than to assume you're going to
11:55
Speaker 1: screw up the whole thing and not put in the
11:57
Speaker 1: East scouting effort. It's also important to know when to
12:01
Speaker 1: throw in the towel over confidence in EA scouting despite
12:04
Speaker 1: what you actually see in those spots when you're there
12:06
Speaker 1: is dangerous. Learn to love and let go and recognize
12:11
Speaker 1: there is value to getting things wrong even though it sucks.
12:14
Speaker 1: We left that Oklahoma spot and went rogue to a
12:17
Speaker 1: totally new area, found some public land, and managed to
12:20
Speaker 1: arrow three deer in three days. In this phase, if
12:22
Speaker 1: you eliminate the dead spots, you'll theoretically get closer to
12:26
Speaker 1: the good stuff. You'll also start your boots on the
12:29
Speaker 1: ground efforts around areas where you've established a base level
12:33
Speaker 1: of faith, which is real important. Maybe your waypoint on
12:37
Speaker 1: the loaner tree in the corner of the meadow isn't
12:39
Speaker 1: spot on, but just beyond the meadow is a real
12:42
Speaker 1: pinch point that funnels deer movement in a way that matters.
12:45
Speaker 1: If you believe in a spot, you'll find those things.
12:48
Speaker 1: Or maybe in the process of checking out your pre
12:50
Speaker 1: scouted options, you see that you should have paid more
12:53
Speaker 1: attention to the hybrid layers that show not only the
12:55
Speaker 1: satellite imagery, but a topographical line overlay signifying all the
13:00
Speaker 1: elevation changes. Perhaps the spot you thought was flat isn't,
13:03
Speaker 1: and that mistake is when you won't make again. This
13:06
Speaker 1: happened to me the first time I bow hunted South
13:07
Speaker 1: Dakota for white tails, where my plan was to hike
13:10
Speaker 1: into a water hole and set up my number one
13:13
Speaker 1: way point. Was loaded with promise, but as I pulled
13:16
Speaker 1: up to the access point, I realized how much I'd
13:19
Speaker 1: underestimated the rolling terrain along the Missouri River. I'd have
13:22
Speaker 1: needed a half a day to hike and do what
13:24
Speaker 1: I thought was most promising. It was out of the question.
13:27
Speaker 1: This is like falling in love with someone because they're attractive,
13:31
Speaker 1: even though they frequently hit you in the face with
13:33
Speaker 1: golf clubs. It's stupid. Just don't do it. Or maybe
13:38
Speaker 1: the pond you thought was an ideal set up is
13:40
Speaker 1: try as a popcorn fart. By the time you're there
13:43
Speaker 1: and you realize that the imagery you built your research
13:45
Speaker 1: on was taken in May when the spring rains had
13:47
Speaker 1: the whole thing flushed with frog habitat The key to
13:51
Speaker 1: East scouting is to use it to give yourself the
13:53
Speaker 1: best possible start and to keep learning. Pay attention to
13:58
Speaker 1: what your favorite spots look like on satellite imagery, and
14:01
Speaker 1: then in person, pay attention to the things you get wrong,
14:04
Speaker 1: because that's how you really learn to be a better
14:06
Speaker 1: white tail hunter. And I know making mistakes sucks, but
14:10
Speaker 1: that's the clay with which the best hunters are molded.
14:14
Speaker 1: It's not just the successes that create the consistent killers,
14:18
Speaker 1: it's the way they handled getting everything wrong by putting
14:21
Speaker 1: themselves in challenging environments and then striking out over and
14:25
Speaker 1: over again. In fact, I bet that most of the
14:28
Speaker 1: best hunters have become that way through years of stacking
14:31
Speaker 1: up failures at a rate that far exceeded their successes.
14:34
Speaker 1: Tossing a touchdown pass is great, but what sticks with
14:37
Speaker 1: you is the bone headed interception that cost the game.
14:40
Speaker 1: No one wants that feeling again, including all of us
14:43
Speaker 1: white tail junkies, and in the hunting industry, we've often
14:46
Speaker 1: idolized people solely on their track record of killing huge bucks,
14:50
Speaker 1: without much concern for how those bucks were killed or
14:53
Speaker 1: whether the hunter actually put in any effort to kill them.
14:56
Speaker 1: The truly talented hunters out there aren't the ones who
14:59
Speaker 1: are dead set on ling up their trophy room through
15:01
Speaker 1: the easiest means possible. They're the ones who accept that
15:04
Speaker 1: they're chosen path is a challenging one, and while it
15:07
Speaker 1: might dole out some sweet successes if you walk it
15:10
Speaker 1: long enough, most of the time it's just fraught with mistakes.
15:14
Speaker 1: So don't be afraid to screw up your scouting. Don't
15:16
Speaker 1: be afraid to drop a million way points until you've
15:19
Speaker 1: blotted out your phone screen, and then pare them down
15:21
Speaker 1: to an actionable amount. This will be variable on whether
15:25
Speaker 1: you have the time to individually scout each way point
15:27
Speaker 1: before the season, or you plan to show up for
15:30
Speaker 1: a four day hunt and give it your all. Then
15:32
Speaker 1: for the home game hunt, you might be able to
15:34
Speaker 1: file through fifteen or twenty spots. On any away game
15:38
Speaker 1: hunt through or four might be plenty. Either way, understand
15:41
Speaker 1: that you're probably mostly wrong in your waypoint placement, but
15:45
Speaker 1: that's okay. You only have to get this part right
15:47
Speaker 1: once in a while to have a hell of a season,
15:49
Speaker 1: and even the parts that you get wrong will shape
15:52
Speaker 1: you into someone who makes fewer slip ups in the future,
15:55
Speaker 1: which is a good thing. So to wrap this up
15:58
Speaker 1: and tie a nice bow on it, after you've taken
16:01
Speaker 1: a big picture look at the ground you plan to hunt,
16:05
Speaker 1: dive into this phase with away points or free mentality,
16:09
Speaker 1: go nuts and mark anything you want on the ground
16:12
Speaker 1: you plan to hunt. Then ease into this calling phase.
16:16
Speaker 1: Be honest about where you really want to hunt, when
16:19
Speaker 1: you'll hunt, and what the spots really look like, access
16:23
Speaker 1: wise and potential dear movement wise. Lastly, get serious when
16:28
Speaker 1: the calling phase gets rolling. What you're doing is committing
16:31
Speaker 1: yourself to time either spent scouting or actually hunting at
16:34
Speaker 1: these specific sites. You want to be careful here because
16:38
Speaker 1: this is the foundation of your hunt and it's a
16:40
Speaker 1: process that just takes time. And of course, all of
16:43
Speaker 1: the east scouting in the world doesn't save you from
16:45
Speaker 1: actually having to get out there in the woods and
16:47
Speaker 1: look around, which is next week's topic. So get ready
16:51
Speaker 1: because in the next episode, we'll be braving the mosquito
16:54
Speaker 1: infested woods to ground truth or digital efforts. That's it,
17:00
Speaker 1: my fellow dear junkies. Be sure to tune in next
17:03
Speaker 1: week to keep your white tail game moving in the
17:05
Speaker 1: right direction. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the
17:08
Speaker 1: wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast. As always, thank you so
17:12
Speaker 1: much for your support and we will see you right
17:14
Speaker 1: here next week