Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 900: Foundations - How to Find a New Deer Hunting Property Right Now

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Ep. 900: Foundations - How to Find a New Deer Hunting Property Right Now · 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,
0:23
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 you
0:27
Speaker 2: can find yourself a new chunk of ground to hunt
0:30
Speaker 2: and why that should always be a focus. It really
0:35
Speaker 2: wasn't I don't know too long ago when the topic
0:36
Speaker 2: of finding a new spot to hunt was prevalent in
0:38
Speaker 2: outdoor media. You know, those were the cold call, knock
0:41
Speaker 2: on doors days, which a lot of people think are
0:44
Speaker 2: totally dead. Now it's, you know, generally about rounding up
0:47
Speaker 2: enough scratch to buy your way into a spot, which
0:49
Speaker 2: is just how things go. But there are ways to
0:51
Speaker 2: go about this that can yield you a new white
0:53
Speaker 2: tail spot that you might not have to pay for.
0:55
Speaker 2: You just need to get a little creative, and that's
0:57
Speaker 2: what this episode is all about. A couple of weeks ago,
1:04
Speaker 2: I made my yearly call to a landowner in southeastern Minnesota.
1:07
Speaker 2: He sounded rough, and considering he was no spring chicken
1:10
Speaker 2: quite a few years ago, I shouldn't have been surprised.
1:13
Speaker 2: He's an old dairy farmer, you know. He was always
1:16
Speaker 2: tough as nails, as a lot of dairy farmers are,
1:19
Speaker 2: or at least were or when I was growing up.
1:21
Speaker 2: But he informed me that he was on the tail
1:23
Speaker 2: end of a round of chemotherapy, which wasn't his first
1:27
Speaker 2: go with cancer or the treatment that brings people to
1:29
Speaker 2: their knees. It was a sobering reminder that age waits
1:33
Speaker 2: for no one, and the only constant in the universe
1:36
Speaker 2: that we can really sus out is that there is
1:38
Speaker 2: creation and decay. And as the old Tracy Lawrence song
1:41
Speaker 2: goes time marches on, that farm will go to his son,
1:45
Speaker 2: who has been positioned to take over the whole business
1:48
Speaker 2: since I was in grade school with him, and who
1:51
Speaker 2: not coincidentally changed the arc of my entire life by
1:54
Speaker 2: casually letting me know during study hall in eighth grade
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Speaker 2: that I could hunt his farm if I wanted to.
2:00
Speaker 2: Now that wasn't just like a door opening for me.
2:03
Speaker 2: It was like a paradigm shift. In my existence. And
2:07
Speaker 2: I say that with the least amount of hyperbole I
2:09
Speaker 2: can muster going from being a public land hunter to
2:13
Speaker 2: having access to a couple hundred acres of private ground
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Speaker 2: not ten minutes from my parents' house was like going
2:18
Speaker 2: from a hand me down skateboard to a fresh off
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Speaker 2: the lot Mercedes S Class as you're bumming around vehicle.
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Speaker 2: I don't know how many hours I spent on that farm,
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Speaker 2: hunting and scouting and just getting into nature and away
2:29
Speaker 2: from people, but it would be definitely in the thousands,
2:33
Speaker 2: for sure. So in other words, that permission has been
2:37
Speaker 2: one of the greatest gifts of my entire life. And
2:40
Speaker 2: I can assure you that you'd be listening to someone
2:42
Speaker 2: else right now if I hadn't had that just land
2:45
Speaker 2: in my lap when I was fourteen and had no
2:48
Speaker 2: clue what the scope of that permission would really be.
2:51
Speaker 2: Now you might think, well, if I could go back
2:53
Speaker 2: in time to the mid nineties and luck into a
2:55
Speaker 2: great opportunity, I would, But I can't, so what now?
3:00
Speaker 2: And you know what, that's totally fair. You can't. But
3:04
Speaker 2: the good old days of getting hands shake permission aren't
3:06
Speaker 2: totally dead. They just don't look like they used to.
3:11
Speaker 2: It wasn't that long ago, although it was long enough
3:13
Speaker 2: now where I probably don't need to keep saying that.
3:16
Speaker 2: Where you could pull into a farmyard and introduce yourself
3:18
Speaker 2: and make the case that you are the kind of
3:20
Speaker 2: person who doesn't leave gates open and who will always
3:23
Speaker 2: pull far into the ditch to let the farm machinery through,
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Speaker 2: and who just wants to spend you know, some time
3:29
Speaker 2: in the woods trying to kill a couple of crop
3:31
Speaker 2: eating deer, and the landowner might just say, all right, now.
3:35
Speaker 2: There would always be qualifiers, of course, because when you
3:38
Speaker 2: break every interaction down where you want something from someone,
3:43
Speaker 2: it's generally just a negotiation. Maybe you were going to get,
3:47
Speaker 2: you know, bow hunting specific permission because the landowner's family
3:51
Speaker 2: and some close friends gun hunt every year on it.
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Speaker 2: That's fine, don't push it. Maybe this is really common.
3:59
Speaker 2: There is already somebody else out there hunting and he
4:02
Speaker 2: really likes to hunt a certain part of the farm,
4:05
Speaker 2: or he's an old college buddy who comes down to
4:07
Speaker 2: bowhunt the pre rut, and so maybe you just need
4:10
Speaker 2: to stay out of there during a certain timeframe. I've
4:13
Speaker 2: started to look at this kind of thing like it's
4:15
Speaker 2: just the tax we have to pay to do something cool.
4:19
Speaker 2: I'd take hunting permission with many qualifiers over no hunting
4:23
Speaker 2: permission almost every time. In fact, I recently took my
4:27
Speaker 2: daughters to a property by my house that I recently
4:30
Speaker 2: started hunting. I've mentioned it on here a few times.
4:33
Speaker 2: And even though it's only twenty five acres and I
4:35
Speaker 2: can't run trail cameras there and the landowner sits, my
4:38
Speaker 2: stands in my blinds a lot, and I have to
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Speaker 2: call every time I plan to go out there, it's
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Speaker 2: still one hundred percent worth it. I managed to arrow
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Speaker 2: a doe there on my first sit last year, which
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Speaker 2: I gave to him since he wanted venison. And I
4:52
Speaker 2: also managed to arrow an eight pointer there during the rut,
4:55
Speaker 2: which I gave to me because I wanted venison. And overall,
4:59
Speaker 2: having that place to hunt has been pretty much a
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Speaker 2: net benefit to my daughters and myself, And they are
5:04
Speaker 2: the reason I'm hunting there at all, because his daughter
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Speaker 2: and my daughters are friends, and that led us to
5:10
Speaker 2: meeting each other, and you know the usual small talk
5:13
Speaker 2: that led to hunting, which led to the invite. It
5:16
Speaker 2: wasn't your classic go knock on a door situation, but
5:19
Speaker 2: it ended up with me expanding my hunting options by
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Speaker 2: twenty five acres. Now, I know that might not sound
5:24
Speaker 2: like a lot to a lot of you folks, depending
5:26
Speaker 2: on where you live, but where I live, that is
5:29
Speaker 2: a huge score. I've also been taking my girls to
5:33
Speaker 2: another property here near my house that has treated me
5:37
Speaker 2: very well turkey wise, since I got permission to hunt
5:39
Speaker 2: it about seven years ago. And again, that started with
5:43
Speaker 2: me just being a turkey guide for the landowner. Then
5:46
Speaker 2: he softened up just a little bit and he let
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Speaker 2: me take my daughters out. Then he softened up more
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Speaker 2: and let me turkey hunt. I've guided his friends and
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Speaker 2: their kids many times, and my friends and their kids
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Speaker 2: many times. Quite a few kids have killed their first
6:01
Speaker 2: turkey on that farm because of his generosity, and quite
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Speaker 2: a few adults too. Now, it was four hundred and
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Speaker 2: thirty five acres not very long ago, and it is
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Speaker 2: now eighty, which is definitely not a move in the
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Speaker 2: right direction, But eighty is better than forty and a
6:17
Speaker 2: lot better than zero. The deer hunting permission on that
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Speaker 2: farm has been dozed mostly, but he did take pity
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Speaker 2: on me one year and let me shoot a buck
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Speaker 2: with my muzzleoder, and he has given my daughters the
6:29
Speaker 2: green light to shoot whatever after the gun season is over.
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Speaker 2: There are hoops to jump through, for sure, but it's
6:36
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot better than not hunting. And
6:39
Speaker 2: that permission came from a conversation I had with the landowner,
6:42
Speaker 2: who I didn't know was the landowner at the time.
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Speaker 2: And while it wasn't immediate, yes, it was the jumping
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Speaker 2: off point to a whole bunch of hunting and shed
6:51
Speaker 2: hunting that has been really nice to have. So how
6:54
Speaker 2: do you find that kind of permission? I don't know.
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Speaker 2: I don't know you or whether you were socialized enough
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Speaker 2: as a pup to actually approach people and engage in
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Speaker 2: a conversation, But I'd say that's a great way to
7:05
Speaker 2: start think about your interactions with people in your daily
7:09
Speaker 2: life that have nothing to do with hunting. Now, I
7:12
Speaker 2: wouldn't say you should go to the DMV to get
7:14
Speaker 2: your license renewed and ask the lady behind the plexiglass
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Speaker 2: if she happens to own a need good deer ground.
7:20
Speaker 2: But one thing that I do, which kills me a
7:23
Speaker 2: little but also comes kind of natural, is just try
7:25
Speaker 2: to talk to a whole bunch of people. I once
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Speaker 2: got permission to hunt forty acres here in the Cities
7:30
Speaker 2: by talking to the woman working the checkout counter at
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Speaker 2: the grocery store down the road from my house. Now
7:35
Speaker 2: that doesn't happen every day, of course, and it all
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Speaker 2: went south when I realized that I'd be sharing the
7:40
Speaker 2: spot with her nephew, who didn't really think any game
7:43
Speaker 2: laws applied to him. But the point stands that the
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Speaker 2: permission came from a conversation with a stranger that turned
7:50
Speaker 2: to the topic of bear hunting, of all things. I
7:53
Speaker 2: kind of look at those interactions like long shots that
7:56
Speaker 2: generally won't net me sweet places to hunt. But then
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Speaker 2: there are the people in your life who are just
8:02
Speaker 2: a little bit closer than strangers. The next level in
8:06
Speaker 2: you know, the basketball parents that we know, you know
8:09
Speaker 2: whose daughters play with my daughters. They're like the next
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Speaker 2: layer closer, and those are a better bet. So if
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Speaker 2: approaching random strangers and engaging in conversation makes you want
8:19
Speaker 2: to hit yourself in the face of the brick, maybe
8:21
Speaker 2: a better option is to think about the folks who
8:24
Speaker 2: you're forced to engage with because your wife is obsessed
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Speaker 2: with your daughters becoming WNBA superstars and they are in
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Speaker 2: basketball like eleven and a half months each year, and
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Speaker 2: you and the other dads who are in a similar
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Speaker 2: situation can commiserate on life, and maybe when you do,
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Speaker 2: the topic of deer hunting comes up. Most of the
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Speaker 2: people who I talk to in that level of interaction,
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Speaker 2: you know they're a lost cause too, But you never know.
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Speaker 2: Round here anyway, a lot of them already hunt and
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Speaker 2: have their own spots locked up, but you never know
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Speaker 2: when you're going to find someone who has some acreage
9:09
Speaker 2: it wouldn't mind an ethical bow hunter thing out the
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Speaker 2: local herd, or maybe they wouldn't mind you taking your
9:15
Speaker 2: kids out there for a turkey hunt, or maybe they
9:18
Speaker 2: want to learn how to hunt and you could fill
9:20
Speaker 2: that role. There are a lot of ways to skin
9:23
Speaker 2: this cat, but they never happen without that initial conversation,
9:29
Speaker 2: and you have to expect that it's never going to
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Speaker 2: be that cut and dry, you know, that thing where
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Speaker 2: they're just like, yep, here are the property lines, now
9:37
Speaker 2: go nuts. It doesn't work that way generally, but as
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Speaker 2: I said before, that's okay. That's how the game goes
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Speaker 2: these days. Unless you figure out a way to pay
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Speaker 2: for access, which is another route you can take. Pay
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Speaker 2: to play is extremely prevalent out there, as I'm sure
9:53
Speaker 2: you're well aware. But while we look at that as
9:56
Speaker 2: you know, kind of a transactional reality, it's off not
10:00
Speaker 2: most of the folks who lease their land don't really
10:03
Speaker 2: need your money. They do it because they can make
10:06
Speaker 2: extra money, set specific rules about land usage, and then
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Speaker 2: hopefully not deal with a bunch of bullshit. You can
10:14
Speaker 2: use services like base camp leasing to find properties, which
10:17
Speaker 2: isn't a bad route at all, or you can tap
10:20
Speaker 2: your network. Now I know this varies a lot from
10:22
Speaker 2: Texas to Florida, to the Upper Midwest and out east. Primarily,
10:27
Speaker 2: you know, involves the culture of leasing in your local region,
10:31
Speaker 2: but a lot of leasing opportunities come up through someone
10:34
Speaker 2: being unhappy with their current land use situation. A lot
10:39
Speaker 2: of people, a lot of hunters, don't like to follow
10:42
Speaker 2: the rules, and they'll push it when it comes to
10:44
Speaker 2: paying for access on someone's ground. That can lead to
10:48
Speaker 2: predictable results, And if you have conversations with people enough,
10:52
Speaker 2: you might find someone who leases their ground and is
10:55
Speaker 2: sick of the current hunters. You know, somebody who could
10:58
Speaker 2: put you at the front of the line for the
11:00
Speaker 2: phone call when that leases up. That's a good place
11:04
Speaker 2: to be if you want, you know, to find some
11:06
Speaker 2: pay to playground, and if you need some acreage to
11:08
Speaker 2: work with, you know, there you go. It's also almost
11:11
Speaker 2: always a good idea to have some level of personal
11:14
Speaker 2: relationship with whoever you're leasing from, although the opposite can
11:18
Speaker 2: be true if it's pure business. The thing about that
11:21
Speaker 2: personal relationship stuff is that the people who own good
11:25
Speaker 2: deer ground often know people who own good deer ground.
11:30
Speaker 2: If you are the kind of hunter who pays on time,
11:33
Speaker 2: follows all the rules, and generally appreciates the opportunity, then
11:37
Speaker 2: you might get offered something bigger and better down the road.
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Speaker 2: Or they might take sympathy on you and relax some
11:42
Speaker 2: of their original rules. Or they might just offer up
11:46
Speaker 2: something down the road that you can't take, but one
11:48
Speaker 2: of your hunting buddies can. And I want to say
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Speaker 2: something on a point I made just now, do not
11:54
Speaker 2: underestimate the power of appreciation. I truly mean that a
12:00
Speaker 2: lot of landowners have a deep connection to their dirt,
12:03
Speaker 2: and they want someone out there who feels, at least
12:06
Speaker 2: some way like they do about it. When we go
12:09
Speaker 2: into a conversation and all we can talk about is
12:12
Speaker 2: the one hundred and eighty inch deer that we have
12:14
Speaker 2: on camera and how good he will look on our walls,
12:17
Speaker 2: we are selling the whole thing short, and someone might
12:21
Speaker 2: look at that like the average non hunter looks at
12:23
Speaker 2: someone going to Africa to shoot an elephant or a lion.
12:27
Speaker 2: They most likely won't know anything about the actual hunt,
12:30
Speaker 2: but that won't matter because they'll have their initial impression
12:33
Speaker 2: and it probably won't be positive. This goes for leasing,
12:38
Speaker 2: of course, but also for just handshake spots, which I
12:41
Speaker 2: guess I should actually say especially for handshake spots. Someone
12:46
Speaker 2: who is kind enough to give you free access wants
12:49
Speaker 2: to know that you are thankful for that access and
12:52
Speaker 2: that you truly appreciate it. It's often that simple. Being
12:56
Speaker 2: genuinely grateful in life is not only the right thing
12:59
Speaker 2: to do in an awful lot of situations, but it's
13:03
Speaker 2: also a way to open up some doors to enjoyable hunting,
13:06
Speaker 2: or to keep the doors open to enjoyable hunting. Now,
13:10
Speaker 2: when it comes to leasing, you'll find ground through services
13:12
Speaker 2: that offer it or word of mouth, but that green
13:15
Speaker 2: light handshake hunting if you want to go. That route
13:17
Speaker 2: can still happen. You can still knock on doors, but
13:20
Speaker 2: you should think about what you're doing first. So let's
13:24
Speaker 2: look at this an easy way. Imagine you own a
13:27
Speaker 2: farm in the Black Hills of South Dakota, right on
13:30
Speaker 2: the doorstep of all that national forest with those gobblers
13:33
Speaker 2: that will sound off all day long. Now you have
13:36
Speaker 2: a feed lot and the birds winter there. Now everyone
13:40
Speaker 2: who hunts a certain part of the Black Hills drives
13:42
Speaker 2: by and eyeballs the fourteen strutters in your yard, and
13:45
Speaker 2: enough of them decide that it's a no harm, no
13:47
Speaker 2: foul situation to pull into the driveway to ask for permission.
13:52
Speaker 2: After a few springs, you'd probably be pretty sick of
13:55
Speaker 2: looking out your window and seeing another decal covered truck
13:58
Speaker 2: creeping in with some sheepish, campclad mustachio dude strolling up
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Speaker 2: to your front door. The likelihood of getting a yes
14:06
Speaker 2: there pretty low, especially because anyone with that many birds
14:11
Speaker 2: also likely has friends or relatives who like the turkey
14:13
Speaker 2: hunt too, and they'll beat you to them every time.
14:17
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's better to look for the opportunities that might
14:20
Speaker 2: not get a ton of attention. Use on X to
14:23
Speaker 2: look around get to know the property a little before
14:25
Speaker 2: you approach someone. Instead of being like, hey, I saw
14:29
Speaker 2: some turkeys in that field there, and I figured you
14:31
Speaker 2: might own it and you might let me go and
14:34
Speaker 2: try to shoot them, introduce yourself and say that you know,
14:38
Speaker 2: you noticed how beautiful their property was and looked up
14:41
Speaker 2: who owned it and realized that it was one hundred
14:43
Speaker 2: and twenty acres of just gorgeous creek bottom. And you're
14:46
Speaker 2: wondering if there's any chance at some point if you
14:49
Speaker 2: could take a couple of days to run back there
14:51
Speaker 2: to hunt for some turkeys or deer. Now, if it's
14:53
Speaker 2: a hard no, which it often is, thank them for
14:56
Speaker 2: their time and leave them alone. If it's not, pay attention,
15:01
Speaker 2: they'll give you everything you need to work with. If
15:04
Speaker 2: they have someone out there already, Ask how you could
15:06
Speaker 2: hunt and not bother them, What times, when, where any
15:11
Speaker 2: of that stuff. If they have a dog, petit, if
15:14
Speaker 2: they have a flower garden, compliment it. I know that
15:17
Speaker 2: sounds kind of sleazy, but you're asking them for something
15:20
Speaker 2: for free, and they don't want to give that to
15:22
Speaker 2: a prick or someone who just seems laser focused on
15:26
Speaker 2: killing a few of their deer and moving on, you
15:29
Speaker 2: have to play the game. And I'll say this because
15:31
Speaker 2: I believe it. Giving people compliments is never a bad
15:35
Speaker 2: thing if they are at least genuine adjacent. I think
15:38
Speaker 2: we have an obligation to compliment people in general, and
15:41
Speaker 2: getting in you know that habit makes it more natural
15:45
Speaker 2: and it will never hurt you in life. It's a
15:47
Speaker 2: net benefit through and through, and it may make you
15:50
Speaker 2: the kind of person who gets hunting permission more readily
15:54
Speaker 2: than some of your competition. So what does all of
15:57
Speaker 2: this really mean. Well, you won't get permit, you know,
16:01
Speaker 2: to a lot of places without making the first move,
16:04
Speaker 2: so to speak. You have to talk to people for real.
16:07
Speaker 2: You have to engage with them. And if you find
16:09
Speaker 2: an opening to talk about your love of being in
16:12
Speaker 2: nature and trying to put a few deer in the freezer,
16:14
Speaker 2: that's all the better. Present yourself as the kind of
16:17
Speaker 2: hunter in person you really want to be, and then
16:20
Speaker 2: see where the conversations take you. Most of them are
16:23
Speaker 2: going to be dead ends, but that's okay. They don't
16:26
Speaker 2: cost you anything and they can at least leave a
16:29
Speaker 2: positive impression. But a few of them, you know, maybe
16:32
Speaker 2: once every couple of years, might turn into something truly special.
16:36
Speaker 2: That might just be access to a pond to shoot
16:39
Speaker 2: a couple of woodies, or maybe a few days to
16:41
Speaker 2: take your kids out turkey hunting somewhere. Or you might
16:45
Speaker 2: get a chance to deer hunt a property right by
16:47
Speaker 2: your house where you can shoot a dough and an
16:49
Speaker 2: eight pointer and still be home ten minutes later for dinner.
16:53
Speaker 2: Think about that and think about coming back next week,
16:55
Speaker 2: because I'm going to talk about human behavior and how
16:58
Speaker 2: understanding it always helps you kill more big bucks, even
17:03
Speaker 2: if you're on private land, and of course if you're
17:06
Speaker 2: on public or any pressure ground. That's it for this week.
17:10
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired to Hunt
17:12
Speaker 2: Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
17:15
Speaker 2: As always, thank you so much for all your support.
17:18
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how much it means to us.
17:20
Speaker 2: It's just truly special, so thank you for that. If
17:23
Speaker 2: you need to see some more turkey hunting videos, maybe
17:26
Speaker 2: read some articles, maybe you want to find a recipe,
17:30
Speaker 2: listen to a podcast where you're driving out somewhere to
17:33
Speaker 2: kill your first Miriams. Whatever thumb meat eater dot com
17:37
Speaker 2: has you covered. Head on over there. New content every
17:40
Speaker 2: day check it out