Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 763: Foundations - How to Hunt Pressured Long Beards

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Ep. 763: Foundations - How to Hunt Pressured Long Beards · 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, presented by first Light,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: First Light Go farther, stay Longer, and now your host
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about how to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: hunt turkeys that have already been hunted real hard. All right.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: It is the last of the bonus turkey content that
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: I'm going to give you this week. Now, if you're
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: feeling a strong desire to go out and shoot a
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: tom in the face of your twelve gage, or maybe
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: try to run an arrow through his midsection, feel free
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: to head on over to the meteater dot com to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: check out a bunch of other turkey hunting content, or
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: take advantage of our Turkey Week sale that is going on.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: You're gonna find steep discounts on a ton of good stuff.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: But also see that that's going to end real soon,
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: so if you want some new gear, you better get
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: over there now, all right. This podcast is a fun
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: one for me, and I hope you enjoy it too.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I think that there is such a variability and the
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: difficulty of hunting different creatures that it pays to seek
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: out something that is closely related to your reality, if
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: that makes any sense at all. Well, when it comes
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: to spring turkeys, the whole thing often looks so easy
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: because it often is. Turkeys are dumb and unpressured turkeys
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: are dumber than dumb. They're wonderful to hunt because they
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: act like we hope turkeys will act. But there are
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: also birds that just know how to survive due to
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: hunting pressure, and while they don't act like dumb birds,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: they do have plenty of weaknesses you can exploit. That's
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: what this episode is all about. So here we go.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: The weirdest thing that exists, at least in my opinion,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: in hunting, is the general belief that most of us
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: are good at this stuff, or I guess you know,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: to put it in another way, there doesn't seem to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: be a general understanding of the talent differential in hunting
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: that there are in so many other pursuits. I'm sure
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: you have all met someone who is naturally athletically gifted
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Some people just are, and they excel through their careers
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: until they start to meet more and more people who
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: share their gift. Then it boils down to discipline, to
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: have hard work ethic that you know it's going to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: help you outshine the rest of the talent pool. We
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: accept that in football and baseball and hockey and basketball
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: and cricket and probably golf and a whole bunch of
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: other sports. We accept it in academics too. Some people
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: have a brain for maths and some people have, you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a brain for not math, like me. Some people have
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: a gift with words, others it's music. I've been playing
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: guitar for like thirty years at this point in my life,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and I can watch ten year olds on YouTube who
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: are way better than me. Life isn't fair in this way,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: but I guess since there is always someone better than
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: us at everything, maybe it is fair. Since almost every
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: one of us isn't all that exceptional at any one task.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: But that's okay. Though. We don't need to be Tom
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Brady level good at something like hunting. We just need
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to recognize what we're dealing with, and if it bothers us,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: try to figure out how to get better. It doesn't
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: do us any good to focus on someone else's success
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: when all that brain power could go toward elevating ourselves. Now,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: this is going to make me sound real cringey, as
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: my daughters would say, but it's true. For some reason,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I just gotta have a natural gift for killing turkeys.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I always have, and I promise you it is not genetic.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Because my father probably holds the record for the most
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: unfilled turkey tags. Ever. He started applying for tags in
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Minnesota when the seasons first opened up, like back in
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: the eighties I think late eighties anyway, and he hunted
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: them pretty hard for a lot of years. He traveled
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to Missouri to hunt them, too, and he almost never
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: ever killed one. Part of his problem is a lot
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: of hearing damage and the reality that he can't tell
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: where a bird gobbles. Ever, as a counterpoint, my hearing
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: sucks too, But I still managed to kill a lot
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of toms anyway. Ever since I drew my first tag
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: at fourteen, I've pretty consistently stacked up turkeys, spring birds
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: with a shotgun, no problem. When I figured out the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: archery thing, no problem, fall birds, ah, no problem. And
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: now that you know how awesome I am. Let me
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: tell you something, I kind of believed I was truly
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: gifted at turkey hunting for a long time. The more
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: time I spent hunting really pressured birds, which came from
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of public land hunting and from hunting places
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: where generational pressure stacked up over years as hunting spring
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: birds exploded in popularity, it made me realize that I
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: can be humbled pretty quickly out there in the spring woods.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: The more I traveled and the more ways I try
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: to challenge myself at turkey hunting, the more I realized, oh,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: this is just like deer hunting. The more pressure on
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: the birds, the harder they are to kill. It's just
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: a simple equation, and it dominates hunting throughout our country
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: and i'd guess probably the world. Now. I don't think
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: turkeys are as smart as deer, but I do think
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: they can be generally more cautious. They don't have the
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: curious thing that deer do, even mature bucks, and that
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: saves a hell of a lot of birds from dying.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: They also generally have more predators than deer, which means
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: they might find themselves a dish on the old menu
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: at any given point in their lives. Deer experienced this too,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: but it's less consistent if you consider a lot of
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: mature deer don't have much to fear aside from coyotes
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: and people in an awful lot of places. Turkeys have
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: more to fear out there, and it's reflected in their behavior.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: This is a good point to parallel this to deer
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: hunting one more time. To drive this whole thing home.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: The truth is that if you hunt really pressure turkeys
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: the way conventional turkey hunting advice tells you to hunt,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: you're going to mostly fail, just like you'll fail by
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: going out on public land in Pennsylvania or Mississippi during
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: the heart of the rut, rattling every ten minutes. Pressure
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: turkeys are certainly callable and certainly killable, but they won't
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: be called in and killed the same way birds on
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: unpressured ground will be. Well, that's not entirely true, but
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: it kind of is. While you might just post up
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: on a pitcornfield on private and call birds into your decoys,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: that same kind of open field on public dirt might
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: be a total loss cause just to the concentration of
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: pressure around openings that our turkeys might be using Here's
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: the deal. If you happen to hunt birds that get
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: hunted a lot, your first and best choice is to
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: differentiate yourself from the competition. Look at it this way,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: what are most people most likely to do, Say, on
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: a chunk public land in southern Wisconsin, if they want
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: to shoot a tom for starters, They're mostly going to
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: be running and gunning with a shotgun. They'll be out
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: there at first light when the birds are most likely
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: to gobble off the roost. Since they're going to be
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: running and gunning, they might have a decoy or two.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: They are very likely to try to get close to
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: a bird on the roost if they are lucky enough
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: to hear one, and that is a great way to
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: spook a certain amount of birds off the roost. They
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: are also most likely to get antsy if their original
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: plan doesn't work out. They'll either sit for a short
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: time and then move, or not sit at all while
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: they sneak around trying to get a bird to sound off.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: They're going to have a big presence in the woods
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: and most likely not kill a bird while letting lots
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: of birds know they are around. There will be far
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: more of them on the first day of the season
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: than the last, and far more of them on a
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Saturday than a Tuesday. They'll be there before work and after,
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: but not as much in the middle of the day.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: If it's snowy, windy, super rainy, cold, there will be
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: fewer of them out. I think this would be true
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: for hunters in every state, and that means the opportunity
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: to be different and capitalize on what the birds don't
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: expect you to do is kind of universal when it
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: comes to pressure turkeys. Now are there differences in this
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: when it comes to subspecies. Sort of, Easterns seem to
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: be the most susceptible to changing their behavior due to pressure,
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: but that just might be my bias. It might also
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: be because some of the states with Easterns have been
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: hunting turkeys a hell of a lot longer and with
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: more intensity than some places with Rios or Miriams. I
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: can't really speak to Osiola's on that front because I've
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: never hunted them, so I guess my point is this,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: if you hunt where lots of people hunt, don't hunt
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: in scout like lots of people hunting scout. That's the
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: secret to whitetails too, but it's still hard enough, where
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: folks keep looking for a magic bullet they can buy
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: or some kind of revolutionary strategy they can adopt. I
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: don't think either exists really, So let's take pressure turkeys
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: and look at what they are most likely to do.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: They are going to be quieter than unpressure turkeys. This
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: is just like public land over the counter elk. The
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: more you make noise and predators come running, the less
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: likely you are to keep making lots of noise. This
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: goes for bull elk as well as tom turkeys and hens.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: There is subtlety to turkey language on pressure properties that
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: cannot be ignored. This seems to be heightened around times
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: of mass movement, like during the first two hours of
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the morning and the last two hours of the evening.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: The more the birds have to move across the landscape
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: to get where they plan to feed, the more likely
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: they are to try to be quiet when they do it.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: They are also more likely to approach slowly and quietly.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: This is where a lot of hunters fail. On one hand,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: you have a tom that might go check out a Hennyhear's,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: which might be you. But if he takes his time
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: to get there, say forty five minutes he doesn't gobble
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: on the way in, how likely are you to be
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: there and not moving when he shows up? To get
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: a visual, Pressured birds require patience, and that's really hard
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: when they don't talk, but it is the truth. They
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: also often require library voices when you're calling to them.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: One of the things I've noticed on public land birds
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: in multiple states is that I have pretty good success
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: ratio of calling them in versus blanking on a setup,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: but that they almost always end up close without me knowing.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Rarely do you get that bird that gobbles with every
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: step and just has to commit suicide by running in
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: with zero caution. They almost always end up really committing
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: to my decoys when I see them too, and I
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: think this speaks to good decoys, but also them just
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: seeing what they expect to see. It can be fun
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: to run a gun without decoys, but if you are
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: struggling on pressure birds, sometimes more is better when it
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: comes to decoys. Now, again, I can't prove this, but
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: I think this has to do with the fact that
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: most folks aren't running a big spread when they run
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: a gun, if they are running any decoys at all.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: I think that the other aspect of this is that
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: it's often far easier to call in birds in the
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: woods when they are pressured. They like the cover, and
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: because of the cover, they tend to need to get
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: closer to see what's going on. If they come in
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: silent and see a few hens and a jake in
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: the spot they heard calling, they are seeing what they
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: expect to see and where they expect to see it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: They are also seeing something that a lot of hunters
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: won't do because it's kind of a pain in the ass.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: What they will see though, if you're not careful, is
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: you This is a big one for hunting pressure birds.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: But the truth is got to hide yourself. Simply leaning
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: up next to the trunk of a tree and hoping
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: the birds will ignore you is a low pressure turkey
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: hunting strategy. Can it be done, sure, but mostly you're
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: going to get picked off enough to convince the birds
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: to stay out of range. Dead Falls, brush piles, the
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: depth of shadows, and some cover in front of you
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: and behind you are the key to the whole thing.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: I like to always try to tuck into down trees
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: somehow so that if I need to reach for my
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: slate call or make some kind of movement. I can
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: do it behind the trunk of a dead tree. It
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: is that simple. It's also important to give yourself the
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: option to be comfortable. You know, the right cushion goes
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a long ways here. Clearing out a little spot to
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: sit if you can, and then assessing your ability to
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: sit there still for two hours is really important. Discomfort
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: amongst hunters saves an awful lot of animals every year.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Really hiding yourself while staying comfortable and then setting decoys
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: far enough away to draw attention well away from yourself
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: just a good idea. When I'm hunting really pressure birds,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: I kind of stick to like the twenty five to
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: thirty yard range out there, especially if I'm running and gunning.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: It feels too far when you're setting those decoys up,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: but when a bird does commit, it feels like a
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: really nice distance for having a little leeway with movement
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: but still being able to harness the full potential of
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: your turkey loads. So in other words, when they get
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: into the spread, they are almost always dead, dead dead.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: It also seems to be consistent that pressure birds are
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: most likely to respond to calling in the middle of
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: the day. I have experienced this a lot and it's
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: almost to the point where I wonder why I bust
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: my ass to get out there before first light when
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I know I probably won't be in the game until lunchtime.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: If you don't believe this, give it a real try.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: You will hear more birds at sunrise, but you will
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: call in more birds at noon. This is often true
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: on lightly pressure birds as well. But when you have
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: a lot of competition, you can take advantage of the
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: windows of time during the day when most folks bow
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: out and go eat some pancakes take a nap. Sounds
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: a little like public deer hunting, doesn't it. Here's another
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: thing that parallels deer hunting. If you're going to hunt
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: pressure birds and you have all day to hunt, plan
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: to hunt all day. That can be tough when the
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: daylight is like sixteen hours long. But the truth is
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: that when you're out there, you have a chance. If
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: you plan to go home mid morning, you know it's
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: easy to call it early. If you don't commit to
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: the hunt, the odds are sticking around long enough for
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: something to happen. It's kind of low. This lesson was
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: drilled home to me over and over and over. When
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I really started traveling to hunt public land turkeys in
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: various states. Since I didn't have anything else to do
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: but go back to camp and sit around, and since
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: you're always in the game with turkeys even when it
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: feels like you're not, it was easy ish to stay
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: out all day. The birds that I had killed often
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: were the first birds I heard or saw, you know,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: hours into the day already, But they eventually worked into
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: the calls and ended up getting slung over my shoulder
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: for the walk home, which in heavily transfers you know,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: a few ticks from them to me and almost always
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: covers my camel pants and blood from the bird's head
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: wapping into my ass in the back of my legs
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: the whole way back to the truck. Being out there
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: for more hours also does something else. It clues you
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: into the birds that aren't coming into your calling. Some
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: birds have a very specific strutting zone, and they keep
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: you know, pretty tight hours of operation. Even pressured toms
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: might end up on a specific ridge at midday to
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: flaunt their stuff. And while it might seem random to
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: watch one you know or hear one in a specific spot,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: it's probably not random. If you can hear a bird,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: you have something to work with. If you can see
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: a bird, even hens, you really have something to work with.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Turkeys often do the same thing day after day until
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: the weather or the predators convince them to alter their routine.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Watching a silent tom follow hens through a wood lot
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: today means you might want to get out there tomorrow
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: at about noon and just sit tight. Now. There are
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: no guarantees, of course, kind of like when you see
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: a buck do something during the rut, but that intel matters,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: even if it doesn't immediately help you fill a tag.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Turkeys are the same way, and the best way I
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: found to get clued into them when they've been pressured
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: is by getting out there and spending as much time
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: as possible with them while trying to keep my presence
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: or my felt presence to an absolute minimum. Keep that
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: in mind the spring come back next week because I'm
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: going to get back into the world of white tails. Now.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: That really is it for this week. That was a
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: lot of episodes, a lot of stuff to drop on you.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: But I hope you learned something about turkeys. You know,
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: maybe you went over to the mediater dot com and you,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: you know, listen to a few podcasts checked out some articles,
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: maybe bought yourself some new calls or something. Whatever, This
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Turkey Week campaign is almost over, so if you want
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: to take advantage of those discounts going on over there,
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: you better get over there now. And as always, thank
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: you so much for listening and for all your support.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Can't tell you how much it means to us here
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: at Meat Eater. We are nothing without you guys, so
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: thank you so much for that. We truly appreciate it.