Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 973: Foundations - How to Go For Broke During the Rut

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Ep. 973: Foundations - How to Go For Broke During the Rut · 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 Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
0:22
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:24
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and in today's episode is all about call
0:27
Speaker 2: sense decoys and when you should use or get rich
0:30
Speaker 2: quick products during the run.
0:34
Speaker 1: This is it.
0:36
Speaker 2: All those days you didn't hunt because it was a
0:37
Speaker 2: better idea to stay out of the woods, you know,
0:39
Speaker 2: and get in there when they getting should be good. Well,
0:41
Speaker 2: that's right now. This is the time for dark to
0:44
Speaker 2: dark sits, or at least for some folks to pretend
0:46
Speaker 2: that's what they do. It's the time for hostess cupcakes
0:49
Speaker 2: and tree stands, selfies and every damn trick you can
0:53
Speaker 2: use to bring a big one into bowt range. Those
0:55
Speaker 2: tricks in when you should use them are what I
0:58
Speaker 2: plan to talk about right now. So buckle up because
1:00
Speaker 2: it's time to dive into the fun part about rut hunter.
1:09
Speaker 2: I've talked about this a few times, so I'm just
1:11
Speaker 2: gonna give you a quick recap here to sort of
1:13
Speaker 2: frame this up. Back in twenty twenty three, I drove
1:15
Speaker 2: one of my daughters over to north central Wisconsin for
1:18
Speaker 2: a week into rut hunting, and we had a Dave
1:20
Speaker 2: Smith dough in the back of the truck and a
1:22
Speaker 2: simple plan just put the dough out somewhere visible and wait.
1:26
Speaker 2: My reasoning, besides it being the run, was that the
1:29
Speaker 2: deer density was so low there that any buck that
1:31
Speaker 2: laid eyes on that fake lady would probably come in.
1:34
Speaker 2: It took about ninety two percent of an all day
1:36
Speaker 2: sit for that to happen. When it did, it was
1:38
Speaker 2: one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed it, and
1:40
Speaker 2: I can promise you it changed my daughter as a
1:42
Speaker 2: deer hunter.
1:43
Speaker 1: Now.
1:43
Speaker 2: A week later, I did the same thing with that decoy,
1:45
Speaker 2: and when that roly poly swamp buck laid eyes on
1:48
Speaker 2: the decoy was like watching a carbon copy of my
1:50
Speaker 2: daughter's hunt, but was just like a little bit bigger
1:53
Speaker 2: deer going two four two with a decoy was incredible.
1:57
Speaker 2: And then I took that sucker home and had a
1:59
Speaker 2: little bucks circle it on my first hunt back home,
2:01
Speaker 2: when I put the decoy out in Minnesota, it was crazy.
2:04
Speaker 2: I felt like I had unlocked a rout cheat code
2:07
Speaker 2: with that decoy, to the point where last year when
2:10
Speaker 2: I went down to Iowa to hunt some public land,
2:12
Speaker 2: I took it with me, thinking that it was going
2:14
Speaker 2: to be a big part of it. I put it
2:16
Speaker 2: out on a river bottom and eventually I had a
2:18
Speaker 2: buck commit to it who put on a real show
2:20
Speaker 2: and it was one of the coolest things I've seen,
2:23
Speaker 2: which by the way, you can see too because we
2:25
Speaker 2: filmed it and now it's up on the med Eater
2:26
Speaker 2: YouTube channel. But in between those successful hunts, I got
2:31
Speaker 2: so confident in that decoy that I used it in
2:33
Speaker 2: places where it just didn't make as much sense, like
2:36
Speaker 2: one stand in the woods on a pond here in Minnesota,
2:39
Speaker 2: where I just tried to force it. I even had
2:41
Speaker 2: bucks walk by and see it, but they didn't commit.
2:45
Speaker 2: There is not only a right time, but a right
2:47
Speaker 2: place for rut tricks, And to take that a step further,
2:51
Speaker 2: you got to try to put yourself in a buck shoes,
2:53
Speaker 2: mostly to make up for the reality that it wouldn't
2:56
Speaker 2: work every time with the decoy, I tried adding scent
3:00
Speaker 2: on the ground behind it. I tried calling, but what
3:02
Speaker 2: I realized what there was just spots where that decoy
3:05
Speaker 2: would work, you know, like I was hunting on easy Moon,
3:08
Speaker 2: and there were other times where it was just like
3:09
Speaker 2: I was hunting with no decoy at all. This was,
3:13
Speaker 2: you know, kind of like the decoy version of blindly
3:16
Speaker 2: rattling on a field edge every ten minutes during the rut,
3:19
Speaker 2: when you're just trying to force something to happen. It's
3:21
Speaker 2: just not always the right situation for it. And the
3:24
Speaker 2: deer will tell you this probably saves more big bucks
3:27
Speaker 2: than anything, and I can almost promise you that it'll
3:29
Speaker 2: save a pile of them this season, especially on pressured
3:32
Speaker 2: ground as panic hunters try to make something happen. I'm
3:36
Speaker 2: a firm believer that one of the ways to get
3:38
Speaker 2: better at decision making is to give yourself time to
3:40
Speaker 2: think about stuff. I know that might sound dumb or simple,
3:44
Speaker 2: but ever since I started running a lot, I realized
3:46
Speaker 2: that it's one of the few times my brain isn't
3:48
Speaker 2: totally distracted by just constant stuff. I can work through
3:53
Speaker 2: problems when I'm running and just sort of live out
3:55
Speaker 2: scenarios to see where different outcomes would take me. And
3:58
Speaker 2: when it comes to using send calls or decoys or whatever,
4:02
Speaker 2: we often don't put a lot of thought into them
4:04
Speaker 2: past a simple criteria, which is, well, it's the right
4:08
Speaker 2: time of the year because it's the rut and I'm
4:10
Speaker 2: going to one of the spots I like, that might
4:13
Speaker 2: just be it. But think about this example. Steve Vernella
4:17
Speaker 2: texted me a few weeks back about a rut hunt
4:19
Speaker 2: we're doing in Nebraska this year for a show. He
4:22
Speaker 2: wanted to know what I thought about rattling down there,
4:24
Speaker 2: and I told him he can rattle all he wants,
4:26
Speaker 2: I just don't think he'll be very effective. Here's what
4:29
Speaker 2: happened there. He's been hunting Texas quite a bit for
4:32
Speaker 2: white tails and to kill them in a cool way
4:34
Speaker 2: on film. They've been rattling and using decoys a lot.
4:37
Speaker 2: But Texas, especially private land that has managed for big
4:41
Speaker 2: deer and lots of them, just a different world. It's
4:44
Speaker 2: a high density of a deer down there, like a
4:46
Speaker 2: really high density in a lot of places. Ii've hunted
4:49
Speaker 2: Texas in some of those places, and it's kind of
4:51
Speaker 2: hard to describe how thick the deer really are. They
4:54
Speaker 2: have a lot of competition. The bucks bump into each
4:57
Speaker 2: other all the time, and the terrain is just such
5:00
Speaker 2: that there's like a lot of openings and pockets in
5:02
Speaker 2: between those mosquite flats and oak mots. At least in
5:05
Speaker 2: a lot of the state, it's like that, you know,
5:07
Speaker 2: not all of the state. Rattling where he rattled makes sense.
5:11
Speaker 2: Those deer have to fight a lot, and they are
5:13
Speaker 2: in constant competition with each other for doze and for territory.
5:17
Speaker 2: On the Nebraska ranch we're hunting, the deer numbers are
5:20
Speaker 2: scary low, like scary low. The bucks are going to
5:23
Speaker 2: be looking for dos sure, but I don't see a
5:26
Speaker 2: world in which they'll be conditioned to charge into a
5:28
Speaker 2: buck fight at the drop of a hat. Could they Sure,
5:32
Speaker 2: deer fight everywhere at some point, and it's not crazy
5:35
Speaker 2: to think they might. But a far better strategy than
5:37
Speaker 2: offering up the appearance of two angry bucks, at least
5:41
Speaker 2: in my view, is to offer them what they are
5:43
Speaker 2: looking for, what they're lacking, Because you know, a fight
5:47
Speaker 2: can cause them to lose their eyes or their dignity,
5:50
Speaker 2: but a dough won't. So I told him he can
5:54
Speaker 2: rattle all he wants, But I'm going to live and
5:55
Speaker 2: die by pinch points, and if I have to, I'm
5:57
Speaker 2: gonna put out a dough ecoy. Those bucks down there,
6:00
Speaker 2: I don't have a lot of options. If a doe
6:02
Speaker 2: comes into Astris, it's gonna be a big deal. They're
6:04
Speaker 2: gonna have to cover ground, They're gonna have to work
6:07
Speaker 2: to find a girlfriend. The game will just be different
6:09
Speaker 2: there because of the low density. Will I have rattling
6:12
Speaker 2: antlers with me, I don't know, probably, But will they
6:16
Speaker 2: stay in my truck most of the time. Probably? I
6:19
Speaker 2: will have some deer calls with me, because there's just
6:21
Speaker 2: a different vibe when you're dealing with a soft contact
6:23
Speaker 2: grunt or some tending grunts versus trying to make it
6:26
Speaker 2: sound like two bucks are fighting. And before I move
6:29
Speaker 2: off of that notion, let me say what I've said
6:31
Speaker 2: many times before. If you're going to rattle, consider what
6:34
Speaker 2: you're trying to convey. This isn't the time of year
6:37
Speaker 2: for light sparring. This is like bar clothes at two am,
6:40
Speaker 2: and all the vodka red bull fueled dudes who never
6:43
Speaker 2: left your hometown are keyed up and ready to prove
6:45
Speaker 2: why they wear affliction t shirts make it sound like
6:48
Speaker 2: a fight. And if you've never heard too actual real
6:51
Speaker 2: bucks fight, it's eye opening. It'll change the way you
6:54
Speaker 2: think about rattling. I've only seen a handful of bucks,
6:57
Speaker 2: you know, really fight, but every one of them was
6:59
Speaker 2: a complete soundscape, and not just disembodied racks clashing and
7:04
Speaker 2: grinding together. They break sticks, they crash around, and they
7:08
Speaker 2: sound like a pair of two hundred pound animals who
7:11
Speaker 2: are trying to kill each other. If you want to
7:13
Speaker 2: rattle and sell the ruse, make them believe what they
7:16
Speaker 2: expect to hear. Now, with this style of rattling, and
7:19
Speaker 2: honestly all of calling, you really want to think about
7:22
Speaker 2: where you are, where the deer should be, and what
7:25
Speaker 2: they'll do if they commit, and also what will happen
7:29
Speaker 2: if they commit but do so on the downwind side,
7:31
Speaker 2: which is very very common with all kinds of calling.
7:35
Speaker 2: So let's think about this. If you're making the noise
7:37
Speaker 2: of a deer, the deer are expecting to well see
7:41
Speaker 2: a deer. In this case of rattling, they expect to
7:43
Speaker 2: see two. Now, what if you're in a wide open
7:46
Speaker 2: river bank out west, perch in a cottonwood tree and
7:49
Speaker 2: you see a buck about to pass at one hundred
7:50
Speaker 2: yards and you instinctively grab those antlers. Well, that dear
7:54
Speaker 2: is definitely going to hear you. He's definitely going to
7:57
Speaker 2: look over at your tree, and he's definitely going to
7:59
Speaker 2: see no bucks, and probably that little warning light on
8:03
Speaker 2: the dash of his brain is going to light up.
8:06
Speaker 2: That deer is a more prime candidate for some soft grunting,
8:09
Speaker 2: or better yet, just to be left alone because the
8:11
Speaker 2: scenario is not in your favor. But that buck sees
8:15
Speaker 2: a decoy in your game changes. Now head on into
8:29
Speaker 2: the thick shit wherever you hunt, and you better leave
8:31
Speaker 2: that decoy at home. But remember that the calling game
8:34
Speaker 2: is now going to change. Let's say you're on a
8:37
Speaker 2: washed out ravine on the side of a bluff where
8:39
Speaker 2: they can only cross in a few spots, and a
8:41
Speaker 2: buck decides to cruise on the next crossing above you.
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Speaker 2: That deer's looking for doze. He needs something to happen,
8:48
Speaker 2: and if he hears a grunt, he can't immediately decide
8:51
Speaker 2: that there's no buck there and something is fishy. He
8:55
Speaker 2: is much better candidate for that contact call of some sort.
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Speaker 2: You know, whether it's actually a hunter, a bleach, or
9:00
Speaker 2: a snort wheeze. But again, this is something to think through.
9:04
Speaker 2: But the main point is he's a callable deer because
9:08
Speaker 2: he's already where he kind of wants to be, and
9:10
Speaker 2: he can't immediately decide that the noise he heard came
9:13
Speaker 2: from the ether and not from some deer standing there
9:16
Speaker 2: that he just can't see. Now, if you're hunting where
9:18
Speaker 2: the pressure is high, you can bet your ass that
9:21
Speaker 2: every one of the other folks who hunts out there
9:24
Speaker 2: is going to at least have a grunt too, for sure.
9:27
Speaker 2: It's just kind of the go to for everyone. And
9:29
Speaker 2: you know, if you have a three year old buck
9:31
Speaker 2: crossing through, that deer might have already been grunted to
9:34
Speaker 2: a dozen times this season. Now, when I'm in this situation,
9:38
Speaker 2: I either try to go big with a snort wheeze
9:40
Speaker 2: a lot of times because most hunters are just too
9:42
Speaker 2: scared to use them, or I go the other direction
9:45
Speaker 2: with a dobe bleed. This is sort of a no harm,
9:48
Speaker 2: no fall type of call, because a bleap means they
9:51
Speaker 2: just potentially aren't going to get their ass kicked at least.
9:54
Speaker 2: It's also what they are generally looking for during the run.
9:57
Speaker 2: Remember earlier when I said we all need to take
9:59
Speaker 2: some time to think through various scenarios in life so
10:01
Speaker 2: we are better prepared when they manifest into reality. That's
10:05
Speaker 2: the stuff I think about when I go into a
10:07
Speaker 2: stand or a blind I have a pretty good idea
10:10
Speaker 2: of the tricks I'll use if I happen to see
10:11
Speaker 2: a buck. I don't blind call, at least hardly, ever,
10:15
Speaker 2: so I'm not going to talk about that because I
10:16
Speaker 2: just don't have much faith in blind calling anywhere ever.
10:19
Speaker 2: Your mileage may vary on that front. But when I
10:23
Speaker 2: sit in that stand, on that washed out ravine before
10:26
Speaker 2: it even gets light out, I have a pretty good
10:28
Speaker 2: idea how I'll make contact with a buck before I
10:30
Speaker 2: see him. If he's really cruising, he's going to get
10:33
Speaker 2: that bleep because I know his mind is on a dough.
10:36
Speaker 2: If he's not given me a point A to B
10:39
Speaker 2: you know right now kind of vibes, he either gets
10:41
Speaker 2: a grunt or more likely a snort wheeze, because that's
10:44
Speaker 2: a year who isn't sure what he's looking for. But
10:46
Speaker 2: if someone insults him, he can often be talked into
10:49
Speaker 2: a fight. Where we get squirrely with this stuff, is
10:52
Speaker 2: that mostly these products work against us when we encounter bucks,
10:57
Speaker 2: we use them like we see in deer hunting con
11:00
Speaker 2: But I promise you that if you're listening to this,
11:02
Speaker 2: you're probably not hunting the kind of ground that most
11:04
Speaker 2: deer hunting shows are filmed on. You have to pay
11:07
Speaker 2: attention to what your success rate is when you try
11:10
Speaker 2: these tricks, and what the body language of the buck
11:12
Speaker 2: shows before and after contact. And you have to consider
11:16
Speaker 2: what works on your home farm that you leave alone
11:20
Speaker 2: all season until the rut, and that that might not
11:22
Speaker 2: mirror what will work when you head out on the
11:24
Speaker 2: road for your first public land deer hunt. When you
11:28
Speaker 2: think about why you sit where you sit, and when
11:31
Speaker 2: you hunt this spot not that one, and what you
11:33
Speaker 2: think the deer should be doing right now, you're taking
11:36
Speaker 2: into account a ton of variables. That's how good decisions
11:39
Speaker 2: are made, pros and cons and all that jazz. But
11:43
Speaker 2: just using a deer call or a decoy because it's
11:45
Speaker 2: the rut doesn't really work like it should because that's
11:48
Speaker 2: a decision that should be made around the right variables
11:50
Speaker 2: as well, and so should the use of sense. There
11:53
Speaker 2: was a long time in my hunting career where I
11:55
Speaker 2: used a hell of a lot of different sense. When
11:57
Speaker 2: I was at bow Hunter Magazine, I used to get
11:59
Speaker 2: sen boxes of sense from all the major players, and
12:03
Speaker 2: let me tell you, I tried pretty hard to make
12:05
Speaker 2: them work in a lot of different situations. You know
12:08
Speaker 2: what I found. Let me put it this way, I
12:10
Speaker 2: can't remember the last time I used scent other than
12:12
Speaker 2: they give my daughters a little extra confidence. Scents and
12:16
Speaker 2: lures were all of the rags for a long long
12:18
Speaker 2: time in the bow hunting industry, and I can remember
12:20
Speaker 2: countless times when my dad would set up to drag
12:23
Speaker 2: a rag as it's called, to give bucks a chance
12:25
Speaker 2: to run across the scent of a hot dough and
12:27
Speaker 2: follow it right into a setup. It worked, you know,
12:31
Speaker 2: once or twice, but mostly didn't. Is there really any
12:35
Speaker 2: danger in trying, though, I'd say maybe. When you invite
12:40
Speaker 2: a deer to go where you go, you invite them
12:41
Speaker 2: to smell you, and they will. Mostly. Most of the time,
12:45
Speaker 2: we use scentwix loaded with the good stuff to try
12:47
Speaker 2: to bring in a buck, and most of the time
12:49
Speaker 2: it just won't. A better bet is to use it
12:51
Speaker 2: as guardrails for a hunt you believe will already produce
12:54
Speaker 2: a close encounter. So instead of hanging nine cent wiks
12:58
Speaker 2: in a tree on a field edge like you're decorating
12:59
Speaker 2: a pea Christmas tree, think about your setups in relation
13:03
Speaker 2: to the wind and the predicted deer travel. You know
13:06
Speaker 2: what trails can you shoot and what trails can you
13:08
Speaker 2: not shoot. A buck that is set to pass by
13:10
Speaker 2: at forty seven yards and eventually get down wind of
13:12
Speaker 2: view might get a whiff of a cent which can
13:14
Speaker 2: close that crucial yardage to get into range at that point.
13:18
Speaker 2: It's really a cost benefit thing, and the downsides are
13:20
Speaker 2: probably low. Maybe you expect them to cruise through your
13:23
Speaker 2: shooting window in record time because it's just too tight
13:26
Speaker 2: and you're worried you won't get a shot or won't
13:28
Speaker 2: be able to stop them without having them freak out.
13:31
Speaker 2: Then the right scent there can buy you enough time
13:33
Speaker 2: to shoot them while they are preoccupied with suddenly smelling
13:37
Speaker 2: estros dopey four feet up in a tree. The idea
13:40
Speaker 2: that a buck will smell a scent trap you've laid
13:42
Speaker 2: out from far away and come to it is mostly flawed.
13:47
Speaker 2: They just aren't going to smell it from all that
13:48
Speaker 2: far away, So instead it's better to look at your
13:51
Speaker 2: setups and see if you can influence their behavior when
13:54
Speaker 2: they already get close to the red zone. But again,
13:56
Speaker 2: if you can predict that, you probably don't need to
13:59
Speaker 2: lean too head beyond extra stuff since you're already almost there.
14:03
Speaker 2: But there are variables that come into play with every
14:05
Speaker 2: setup where it might make total sense to refresh a
14:08
Speaker 2: scrape near your stand or hang a sentwick in a
14:11
Speaker 2: strategic location to change a buck's behavior when he gets close.
14:15
Speaker 2: I guess what I really want to highlight with this
14:17
Speaker 2: episode is this, don't just use rut tricks, because it's
14:20
Speaker 2: the rut that's a lost cause reality that could very
14:24
Speaker 2: well work against you. You might think that blindly rattling
14:27
Speaker 2: during primetime is sort of a net neutral because the
14:31
Speaker 2: bucks should be fighting. That is not how it works,
14:34
Speaker 2: because what bucks and where what type of fighting are
14:37
Speaker 2: you mimicking. The best way to use this stuff correctly
14:40
Speaker 2: is to think about it beforehand, and then when you
14:42
Speaker 2: get into your spot, really read the situation to decide
14:45
Speaker 2: what would be best, and then lean on those decisions
14:48
Speaker 2: when he actually does show himself. And remember this, when
14:52
Speaker 2: you do use calls or sense or decoys, you're asking
14:56
Speaker 2: for his attention and you will get it. There is
14:59
Speaker 2: a difference, you know, from a buck just naturally cruising
15:02
Speaker 2: through on his way to find some ladies and a
15:04
Speaker 2: buck that goes from that mode to one where he
15:07
Speaker 2: sees a deer or he smells a deer or he
15:11
Speaker 2: hears a deer. Suddenly, he's got a different mentality about
15:15
Speaker 2: it because he has expectations in that spot that he
15:18
Speaker 2: didn't have a second ago. And you just don't want
15:20
Speaker 2: to surprise a buck too much because they're like middle
15:23
Speaker 2: aged dudes who are beat down by life and quietly
15:25
Speaker 2: just want to fish and hunt pheasants until the grim
15:27
Speaker 2: reaper shows up one day. They don't like surprises. And now,
15:31
Speaker 2: as a last point, let me say this, if calling
15:35
Speaker 2: or using sense or running a decoy keeps you out
15:37
Speaker 2: there longer it just makes you happy, then by all
15:40
Speaker 2: means donuts for donuts. Every one of those things can work.
15:44
Speaker 2: And whatever it takes to enjoy your time out there,
15:46
Speaker 2: or lift your confidence a little, or just get you
15:48
Speaker 2: to spend a few extra hours in a tree when
15:51
Speaker 2: you want to go home and take a nap, it's
15:52
Speaker 2: not a bad thing. Just think about that, and good
15:56
Speaker 2: luck out there this week. This truly is the time
15:58
Speaker 2: to make something happen, and I hope he too, because
16:00
Speaker 2: it's freaking sweet when it does. But if it doesn't,
16:03
Speaker 2: come back next week, because I'm going to get into
16:05
Speaker 2: the reality of finding big Bucks when all the shine
16:07
Speaker 2: is off the old rut apple and it's down to
16:09
Speaker 2: the pere grind phase of the rut. That's it for
16:13
Speaker 2: this week. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the
16:15
Speaker 2: Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which has brought to you
16:17
Speaker 2: by First Light. As always, thank you so much for
16:19
Speaker 2: listening for all your support. I truly hope you're out
16:22
Speaker 2: there right now shooting some big Bucks during the rut.
16:25
Speaker 2: If you're not, if you're stuck in your office, maybe
16:27
Speaker 2: you're stuck on your commute, maybe you're driving somewhere and
16:30
Speaker 2: you need some entertainment. You know, a podcast, or maybe
16:33
Speaker 2: you need a recipe at home to cook up the
16:34
Speaker 2: backstraps you got in the freezer or whatever. The mediator
16:38
Speaker 2: dot com has you covered. You can go there and
16:40
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