Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 518: Foundations - The Finer Details of Winter Scouting

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Ep. 518: Foundations - The Finer Details of Winter Scouting · 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
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all
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  Speaker 1: about the finer details of winter scouting. Now, last week
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  Speaker 1: I covered winter scouting and kind of a big picture sense,
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  Speaker 1: but this week is all about digging into the details,
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  Speaker 1: getting into the nitty gritty here, which basically means, dear sign,
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  Speaker 1: there are so many clues out there in the woods
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  Speaker 1: right now. They can help you put together a great
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  Speaker 1: season this year as long as you really know how
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  Speaker 1: to find them and how to read them. Winter scouting valuable,
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  Speaker 1: so valuable. So if you're not doing it, do it.
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  Speaker 1: If you don't know what to do, go back to
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  Speaker 1: last week's episode. You give that a listen first, and
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  Speaker 1: then give this one your attention. I promise you it'll
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  Speaker 1: be worth it. Who doesn't get excited when they run
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  Speaker 1: across a concentration of buck signed I know I do,
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  Speaker 1: and I know you probably do too. The thing about
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  Speaker 1: this is it gets even more exciting at least to
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  Speaker 1: me when I don't expect to find it. When I
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  Speaker 1: think I've got things all figured out in a specific property.
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  Speaker 1: I love being shown that there's a lot that I
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  Speaker 1: don't know. Now, Dear, Why is this happens all year
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  Speaker 1: long in a variety of ways, But it really happens
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  Speaker 1: a lot when I'm winner scouting. Probably the best example
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  Speaker 1: of this is rubs. Now, I love rubs. You guys
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  Speaker 1: know I love rubs. I mean other than hounded trails
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  Speaker 1: in a funnel or a pinch point. I think my
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  Speaker 1: favorite sign by far as rubs. I like how they
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  Speaker 1: show us so many things. A rub, if you know
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  Speaker 1: how to read it, can show you whether a buck
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  Speaker 1: likely made it in the morning or the evening, just
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  Speaker 1: by how they are positioned on a tree, in relation
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  Speaker 1: to food and likely betting. I love that rubs can
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  Speaker 1: show you where a buck staged. I love that they
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  Speaker 1: can show you the direction he traveled when he left
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  Speaker 1: his bed. I love that they are definitive evidence of
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  Speaker 1: a buck using a little patch of sumac in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, in a place you'd never think to hunt.
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  Speaker 1: And right now rubs are more visible than they are
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  Speaker 1: at any other time of the year except for maybe
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  Speaker 1: right in the heart of the hunting season, and even
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  Speaker 1: then you likely aren't seeing all of the rubs that
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  Speaker 1: are available for your viewing pleasure. But now you can
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  Speaker 1: see them all. When I head out to winter scout.
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  Speaker 1: In addition to what I talked about last week is
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  Speaker 1: US terrain and edges. I'm looking for every rub I
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  Speaker 1: can find, from field edges to the middle of swamps.
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  Speaker 1: I want to see every spot a buck took the
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  Speaker 1: time to make a rub. This information can tell you
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  Speaker 1: so much about deer usage because you know almost without
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  Speaker 1: question that every rub was made during a time period
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  Speaker 1: when you could hunt those specific deer. Now, in some
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  Speaker 1: cases with later bow openers, some of the rubs probably
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  Speaker 1: showed up before you could hunt. This is the case
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  Speaker 1: definitely in states with an October one or later opener,
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  Speaker 1: But remember even so many of them were made during
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  Speaker 1: the actual season no matter when you're opener is whatever
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  Speaker 1: state you live in. That's important because the more rubs
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  Speaker 1: you find in a specific area, the more likely there
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  Speaker 1: are to be bucks there next season making rubs. This
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  Speaker 1: is because those places offer bucks an advantage not only
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  Speaker 1: from the perspective of leaving signed for other deer to
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  Speaker 1: interact with. But from a vivability perspective as well, a
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  Speaker 1: buck is just not that likely to make a hundred
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  Speaker 1: rubs in three acres of cover if he's constantly getting
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  Speaker 1: harassed by predators or other hunters. There a buck, or
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  Speaker 1: more likely a whole bunch of bucks, they're not going
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  Speaker 1: to leave their calling cards on the side of saplings
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  Speaker 1: along a specific ridge without being awful confident that's an
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  Speaker 1: area they are generally safe, and there's a reason they're
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  Speaker 1: there to begin with. Now, I know what you're thinking,
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  Speaker 1: What if they're making all those rubs at night? Well,
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  Speaker 1: some of them are made at night, for sure. The
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  Speaker 1: field edge rubs you find are more likely to be
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  Speaker 1: made in the dark than probably in the daylight. But
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  Speaker 1: any random rub could have been made in the nighttime,
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  Speaker 1: so you just have to use your best judgment on this.
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  Speaker 1: I generally look at rubs like this. If they are
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  Speaker 1: in a really obvious spot, like a field edge, I
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  Speaker 1: can probably write them off as giving me much intel
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  Speaker 1: to work with because they are probably made at night.
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  Speaker 1: But there is a catch. Sure, a field edge rub
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  Speaker 1: is what it is. Bucks make them in the dark
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  Speaker 1: a lot of times, but they also make them during daylight.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a coin toss at best. But take a
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  Speaker 1: look beyond those field edge rubs to see if you're
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  Speaker 1: not seeing a one off spot where a buck challenge
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  Speaker 1: a young tree to a fight, maybe there's more going on.
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  Speaker 1: Oftentimes I see rubs maybe ten or fifteen yards off
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  Speaker 1: of a definitive food source. When I walk to those rubs,
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  Speaker 1: often see other rubs in well a rub line. If
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  Speaker 1: you follow those bucky breadcrumbs, you'll see his likely direction
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  Speaker 1: to travel in the morning as he had it back
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  Speaker 1: to bed. Reverse course on those rubs leading up to
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  Speaker 1: the food, and you'll see how he got there from
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  Speaker 1: his betting or a staging area. This isn't an exact science,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but that's helpful information either way. You've also
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  Speaker 1: got to find those rubs in the woods, the ones
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  Speaker 1: deeper in the cover a rub or a whole bunch
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  Speaker 1: of rubs in a thicket or a wood law. Now
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  Speaker 1: we're onto something. It's likely that the thicker the cover,
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  Speaker 1: the more remote the spots. Well, rubs in those places
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  Speaker 1: have a way higher likelihood of being made in daylight.
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  Speaker 1: Those are the spots where you might just kill a
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  Speaker 1: buck next year that's actionable intel, my friends, and worth
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  Speaker 1: the effort to get out there right now. When you're
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  Speaker 1: scouting in the rub connection only gets better when you
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  Speaker 1: realize that the random rub you found along your access
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  Speaker 1: trail in October is actually part of a rub line,
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  Speaker 1: just like those rubs leading off of the food source
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  Speaker 1: I just talked about. When you can stand in one
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  Speaker 1: spot and see a series of rubs descending down into
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  Speaker 1: a draw, you are looking at a buck's line of travel.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me that's not important. Or imagine, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: You're hiking up out of that bottom in a different
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  Speaker 1: spot and you hit a benchy area that is two
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  Speaker 1: yards from the egg fields on top, and it's just
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  Speaker 1: covered in rubs. Now you've found either a betting area
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  Speaker 1: or a staging area. Uh, Are there more rubs leading
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  Speaker 1: up to the field or back down to the bottom.
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  Speaker 1: Look around sixty degree style to see what other clues
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  Speaker 1: are there. And another thing that I love about rubs
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  Speaker 1: is how many I find now that I wouldn't really
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  Speaker 1: care about or maybe wouldn't even notice during the actual
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  Speaker 1: hunting season. For example, let's say you have a route
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  Speaker 1: to one of your favorite stands. You know the route
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  Speaker 1: well you travel it often, you might easily not look
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  Speaker 1: down into the timber as you travel that road, and
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  Speaker 1: you might miss a great big rub tucked into the cover.
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  Speaker 1: And even if you did notice it as you were
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  Speaker 1: making your way in for an afternoon sit, how likely
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  Speaker 1: are you to veer off of your hunting plan to
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  Speaker 1: check it out? Probably not too likely. Now go check
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  Speaker 1: it out, you should. You should go check out those rubs.
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  Speaker 1: I look at every rub I find, and I look
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  Speaker 1: to see if it will lead me to another one.
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  Speaker 1: I also look to see if there are any beds
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  Speaker 1: close by, or if there isn't any snow. Some scrapes.
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  Speaker 1: The thing about this sign, whatever sign you find, is
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  Speaker 1: how you use it to figure out, dear travel. This
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  Speaker 1: is different from what we kind of conventionally think about
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  Speaker 1: with sign. So let me explain this by using scrapes
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  Speaker 1: as my example. If you head out and you have
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to find last season scrapes, that's a good thing,
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  Speaker 1: But what you do with it matters more. And what
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  Speaker 1: most of us do try to find the biggest community
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  Speaker 1: scrape we can, and then we just kind of plan
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  Speaker 1: to hunt over at next October and listen. That strategy
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  Speaker 1: alone kills bucks sometimes, But I look at it a
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  Speaker 1: little differently when it comes to scrapes, especially great big
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  Speaker 1: scrapes with a good licking branch that are located in
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  Speaker 1: the cover. You know you're probably looking at some type
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  Speaker 1: of a hub of dear movement. Scrapes are Dear communication devices,
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  Speaker 1: and it would be pretty stupid trying to establish a
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  Speaker 1: communication device were very few dear travel You see where
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  Speaker 1: I'm going with this. This would kind of be like
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  Speaker 1: if you were single and looking for a new lady
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  Speaker 1: friend and you decided to devote your time to the
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  Speaker 1: public library and not the nearest club, or hell, even
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  Speaker 1: the nearest target. You got to play those odds. Guys, Dear,
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  Speaker 1: they play the odds too, and they established the best
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  Speaker 1: scrapes for you to hunt over in areas where lots
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  Speaker 1: of deer traffic converges. What do you do with this discovery?
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  Speaker 1: You can just pick out a tree twenty yards away
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  Speaker 1: that is worth setting up in and call it good.
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  Speaker 1: Or you can start to look at the terrain around
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  Speaker 1: you and the rubs and the trails and try to
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  Speaker 1: figure out how the deer getting to the scrape. You
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  Speaker 1: might not be able to easily hunt over a specific
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  Speaker 1: scrape because of the wind or available access or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: But figuring out not only where those scrapes are, which
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  Speaker 1: is valuable, but likely how the deer get to them,
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  Speaker 1: and then where they go once they visited them is
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  Speaker 1: the key to putting together a real hunting pla. And
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  Speaker 1: when I walk up on a no brainer scrape, my
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  Speaker 1: first thought is why is it here? And usually where
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  Speaker 1: are the other ones? The more deer that spend time
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  Speaker 1: in a specific spot, the more sign that is likely
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  Speaker 1: to be there. It's simple stuff, but it's true, and
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to the scrape that's worth hunting, do
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  Speaker 1: yourself a favor and try to figure out where the
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  Speaker 1: deer are going to travel around that scrape. How would
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  Speaker 1: a buck approach down wind of it? Where would dear
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  Speaker 1: likely be coming from if they want to check it
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  Speaker 1: in the morning? How about in the evening? Is it
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  Speaker 1: in such a spot where there's a high likelihood of
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  Speaker 1: daylight visitors or is it closer to a field edge
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  Speaker 1: or a bigger opening where maybe more of the deer
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  Speaker 1: using it at night. When I find a scrape like this,
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  Speaker 1: or maybe some rubs that get me really interested, I
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  Speaker 1: drop a pin on on X with some notes on
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  Speaker 1: the sign and what my initial impression is of the area.
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  Speaker 1: This does two things for me. The first is it
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: just simply ensures I don't forget about the discovery when
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  Speaker 1: summer kicks in and I'm thinking about other things. The
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  Speaker 1: second is that lets me use satellite imagery to start
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  Speaker 1: to make some connections on a given property. To illustrate this,
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  Speaker 1: consider how bluff country terrain works. You're likely to find
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  Speaker 1: rub lines going up and downhill and big community scrapes
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  Speaker 1: in the bottoms. Now, knowing what we know about deer
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  Speaker 1: in sign, you could start to make a plan for
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  Speaker 1: the early season to about mid October just based off
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  Speaker 1: some of those rubs and scrapes. When mid October hits,
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  Speaker 1: you could start looking at where you found the bigger
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  Speaker 1: community scrapes last winter and play the wind and the
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  Speaker 1: conditions to start hunting those bottoms as bucks start to
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  Speaker 1: feel the first whispers of the rut. If you don't
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  Speaker 1: have your tag filled by Halloween, you can pull up
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  Speaker 1: your on X and look where you found those big
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  Speaker 1: clusters of rubs. The more sign you find in the winner,
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  Speaker 1: the more options you give yourself during the season. I
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  Speaker 1: know this seems like a lot, but it's not. If
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  Speaker 1: you learn to read the sign and mark only the
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  Speaker 1: most promising locations. This is most easily accomplished right now,
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  Speaker 1: and in addition to working this rub and scrape angle,
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  Speaker 1: you should also be paying attention to tracks and trails.
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  Speaker 1: But you should also acknowledge the reality this type of
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  Speaker 1: sign in the winter might not really mean a whole
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  Speaker 1: lot to you when it comes to fall deer movement
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  Speaker 1: in the upcoming season. Take a pounded trail leading from
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  Speaker 1: a swampy bottom to a standing cornfield, for example, if
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  Speaker 1: you run across that right now, it might very well
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  Speaker 1: look like a deer highway there. The problem with it
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  Speaker 1: is that next October the deer aren't going to be
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  Speaker 1: nearly as desperate for carbs, nor are they as likely
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  Speaker 1: to take one route day after day after day after
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  Speaker 1: day to go from bed to food, food to bed,
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  Speaker 1: kind of like they do in the winter. On the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, a trail etched through the snow right now
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  Speaker 1: that curls blow a rocky outcropping and crosses a drainage
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  Speaker 1: on a side hill might be a different story. This
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  Speaker 1: is what I covered last week to some extent, but
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  Speaker 1: it's really important ask yourself if the deer have to
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  Speaker 1: use a certain trail because it's the only route or
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  Speaker 1: the best route from point A to B all season
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  Speaker 1: or just right now. If you think, by looking at
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  Speaker 1: the terrain that they almost have to use it, then
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  Speaker 1: you're onto something. If you think it might just be
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  Speaker 1: the result of winter and wintry conditions, it might not
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  Speaker 1: be so great. But you can take this a step
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  Speaker 1: further and ask yourself, are there rubs along the trail?
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  Speaker 1: How many? If you can walk a winter trail now
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  Speaker 1: and see plenty of rubs, then you know, damn well, bucks,
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  Speaker 1: we're using it last season, and that's what Daddy likes.
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  Speaker 1: If that trail that goes through a specific pinch point
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  Speaker 1: is marked by rubs and also happens to lead to
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  Speaker 1: the bottom that has a big community scrape in it, well,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You might just want to start saving
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  Speaker 1: up for next season's taxidermy bill. Now do you see
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  Speaker 1: where this is going. It's not enough to just walk
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  Speaker 1: around and and some of last seasons sign, although that's
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  Speaker 1: a great start, but a better strategy is to try
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: to look at every acre you can and ask yourself
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  Speaker 1: a lot of questions, analyze the sign no matter where
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: it is you're looking to answer the why as it
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: relates to dear movement, because the more you can do that,
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  Speaker 1: the more you'll be able to predict where bucks should
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  Speaker 1: move next season and honestly in ten seasons from now.
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  Speaker 1: As I've stated, this is a valuable exercise, and I
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: really think winner scouting is one of those things that
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: separates the weekend warriors from the die hard white sail
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: hunters who just get it done season after season. The
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  Speaker 1: more miles you put on doing this, the more time
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: you spend in the woods obviously helps, but it's also
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: about seeing every dear clue you can and putting it
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  Speaker 1: to use to understand big picture dear movement during the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: time when you can actually hunt them, So use this
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  Speaker 1: month for that. Make sure to drop plenty of way
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  Speaker 1: points and make sure to go out of your way
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  Speaker 1: to look at areas of the properties you hunt you
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: typically don't go in during the season. The sign in
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the places we like to hunt just reinforces what we know,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: or we think we know about white tails. But the
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: sign we find that makes us ask questions. That's the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: stuff that will get you thinking new thoughts about where
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to set up and just how the deer avoid you,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and how they avoid other hunters, and why they choose
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to travel where they want to travel. After all, what
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: else do you have to do this month? Probably not much,
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  Speaker 1: So this is my call to action for all of
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: you listeners. Go win or scout your go to spot,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: really dive in and see if you are missing something anything,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: And then go win or scout a spot you've never hunted,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: which will likely be a chunk of public land somewhere.
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  Speaker 1: Go look at a place that you've never been all
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: that interested in, or that you've made up your mind
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: and said, there's no way this place is worth my
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: white tailed time. You might find that to be absolutely true.
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  Speaker 1: Or you might look through the bare woods to see
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  Speaker 1: a plane is day rub line snaking its way through
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  Speaker 1: a creek bottom where clearly a buck spent some serious
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: time last fall. Either way, winner scouting is just a
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: good use of your time. Also, be sure to tune
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: in next week, where I'm going to make a pretty
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: good case that you should plan an out of state
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: scouting trip that may or may not involve trying to
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: shoot a turkey in the face while you're out there.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: That's it for this week, my friends, I'm Tony Peterson
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: and this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Light. As I always,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening and if you want
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: to get more of a white tail fixed, head on
• 16:33
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• 16:36
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• 16:39
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• 16:42
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• 16:44
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