Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 500: Foundations - It's Time For a Little Deer Hunting Self-Reflection

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Ep. 500: Foundations - It's Time For a Little Deer Hunting Self-Reflection · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Wire to Hunt
0:15
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
0:17
Speaker 1: Today's episode is all about watching the memory reel from
0:21
Speaker 1: last season to make goals for the upcoming year. I
0:39
Speaker 1: love bow hunting for all kinds of critters. Western bow
0:43
Speaker 1: hunting is some of my favorite kind of hunting to do,
0:46
Speaker 1: and while there are plenty of differences between I don't
0:48
Speaker 1: know hunting elk and hunting white tails, the one that
0:51
Speaker 1: I disliked the most is that a lot of western
0:53
Speaker 1: bow hunting is not really a year round thing. Now
0:56
Speaker 1: you've got the fitness aspect and you've got shooting, of course,
0:59
Speaker 1: but it's far as like dedicated hunting activities. It's much
1:03
Speaker 1: more kind of in the moment than deer hunting is.
1:06
Speaker 1: Because white tails, on the other hand, that can be
1:08
Speaker 1: like a year round obsession that allows you to do
1:10
Speaker 1: something every week in order to be more successful this
1:13
Speaker 1: coming season. This is something we should all acknowledge as
1:17
Speaker 1: our season's closed and we reflect on last year and
1:19
Speaker 1: start to think about what we want out of this year,
1:22
Speaker 1: which is the entire crux of this week's show. For
1:37
Speaker 1: a lot of us, the dear season is over. For others,
1:40
Speaker 1: it's circling the drain and we'll wrap up soon enough. Now.
1:44
Speaker 1: I know for many of you this is a sad time.
1:47
Speaker 1: It's going to be like months, nine months, something like
1:50
Speaker 1: that before you can hunt again. For others, it's probably
1:54
Speaker 1: somewhat of a relief. To me, it's a lot of both.
1:58
Speaker 1: If you're doing things correctly, you've probably put a lot
2:01
Speaker 1: of work into your white tail season, and work is
2:03
Speaker 1: usually not that much fun. It is rewarding, which is
2:06
Speaker 1: super important, but fun not so much. Having a break
2:11
Speaker 1: from that work and the early alarms, it's something that
2:14
Speaker 1: can provide some relief. I used to feel guilty about
2:17
Speaker 1: feeling that way, but I don't anymore. It's kind of
2:20
Speaker 1: like what my wife wants to go off for a
2:21
Speaker 1: girl's weekend somewhere and drink Margarite's with her friends and
2:24
Speaker 1: have pillow fights or whatever they do. I love her
2:27
Speaker 1: and all that jazz, but I'm not sad to see
2:29
Speaker 1: those tail lights heading down the street, knowing I've got
2:31
Speaker 1: a weekend to myself. With deer season, that relief that
2:35
Speaker 1: it's over is mixed heavily with sadness that it is
2:38
Speaker 1: indeed over. When you get to a certain age, you
2:42
Speaker 1: become real cognizant of passing time. I think this might
2:46
Speaker 1: happen to all of us, but it certainly happens when
2:48
Speaker 1: you have kids. They're just constant reminders that time is
2:52
Speaker 1: flying by and there's nothing you can do about it.
2:56
Speaker 1: What that means to all of us is that the
2:58
Speaker 1: amount of deer seasons we have left is a finite resource.
3:02
Speaker 1: There might be many, or there might be a few,
3:05
Speaker 1: and we will never know how many we are dealing
3:07
Speaker 1: with until it's too late. If you can't tell. So far,
3:11
Speaker 1: this isn't the most upbeat Foundations episode, but it'll get cheerier,
3:14
Speaker 1: I promise. But for now, I want all of us
3:17
Speaker 1: to recognize the true gift that we have with deer hunting.
3:21
Speaker 1: While many folks are weekend warriors whose life wouldn't be
3:24
Speaker 1: greatly affected if the white tail ceased to exist tomorrow,
3:27
Speaker 1: that's probably not you. It's definitely not me. This stuff
3:30
Speaker 1: is important to us, and there's something about being wired
3:33
Speaker 1: for it kind of just changes your perspective it should
3:37
Speaker 1: also prompt each of us to look at deer hunting
3:41
Speaker 1: for what it is, for what it means to us,
3:43
Speaker 1: and for how we can make next season even more
3:46
Speaker 1: enjoyable than the past season was. That's what I really
3:49
Speaker 1: want to drive home with this episode. To be honest,
3:52
Speaker 1: this is because there's something that a lot of us
3:54
Speaker 1: do in the immediate aftermath of the hunting season. We
3:58
Speaker 1: think back to the successes and the failures of the season,
4:01
Speaker 1: and we fall in love with the idea of doing
4:04
Speaker 1: something different next year. We think things like I'm gonna
4:07
Speaker 1: scout more, I'm gonna shoot my bowl a lot more,
4:11
Speaker 1: I'm going to figure out what the big deal is
4:12
Speaker 1: about tree saddle so that can be truly mobile. But
4:16
Speaker 1: then we get sucked into seasonal depression as winner hangs
4:18
Speaker 1: over us without a few weeks or months passed by,
4:21
Speaker 1: and then we focus on the upcoming fishing opportunities and
4:24
Speaker 1: maybe when the turkeys will be gobbling. In short, we
4:27
Speaker 1: kind of just forget. It's kind of like when you
4:29
Speaker 1: get tore up from the floor up as a younger
4:31
Speaker 1: person or hell, at whatever age, and the room is
4:34
Speaker 1: spinning and your late night taco bell splurge is threatening
4:36
Speaker 1: to make a violent escape from your body. When you say, hey, God,
4:40
Speaker 1: it's me again. If you can keep me from dying,
4:42
Speaker 1: I promised to never do this again. In the following morning,
4:45
Speaker 1: you dig in your heels even more as you pray
4:47
Speaker 1: for a merciful death, and you say to yourself, there's
4:49
Speaker 1: not a chance that this ship happens again. But guess what.
4:53
Speaker 1: The misery fades and we forget and suddenly at someone's
4:57
Speaker 1: birthday or whatever, and bam, you're hollering at your d
5:00
Speaker 1: D in the drive through that you want extra hot
5:02
Speaker 1: sauce with your cholupa. We are masters at falling in
5:06
Speaker 1: love with ideas but then reverting to our old patterns
5:10
Speaker 1: and behaviors. We do this in our relationships, We do
5:14
Speaker 1: this with our jobs, with tequila on random Saturday nights,
5:17
Speaker 1: we do it with fad diets and workouts, and we
5:20
Speaker 1: definitely do it with deer hunting. When it comes to
5:23
Speaker 1: the ladder, the best thing you can do is take
5:26
Speaker 1: a deep dive in your recent deer hunting season and
5:29
Speaker 1: make a realistic plan to change things up for the
5:32
Speaker 1: coming year. Now, I'll give you a few examples from
5:35
Speaker 1: my life where I've gone into deep reflection mode and
5:38
Speaker 1: come out the other side of better hunter. The first
5:41
Speaker 1: and one of the biggest things that happened to me
5:44
Speaker 1: involved shooting. I always think back to the shots I
5:48
Speaker 1: took throughout the season. How many worked out perfectly? I mean,
5:52
Speaker 1: how many went right through the lungs or the heart
5:54
Speaker 1: and did exactly what I always hope happens. How many didn't?
5:59
Speaker 1: Were there any guts shots? Were there any shoulder shots?
6:02
Speaker 1: How about flat out misses? How did any of those happen?
6:07
Speaker 1: This exercise over the years has really forced me into
6:10
Speaker 1: a specific spot as a white tail bull hunter. I
6:14
Speaker 1: freaking hate missing dear and I really really hate making
6:18
Speaker 1: bad shots on deer. I don't want it to happen,
6:21
Speaker 1: but I know will. So every year I think about
6:24
Speaker 1: my recent track record and I try to figure out
6:26
Speaker 1: what went wrong. Did I rush my shots? Like last
6:30
Speaker 1: season I missed a nice eight pointer in Wisconsin, absolutely
6:34
Speaker 1: rushed it, no question. I know that I'm not going
6:38
Speaker 1: to do that again, I swear, Or maybe some other time,
6:43
Speaker 1: did I talk myself into shooting through a little bit
6:45
Speaker 1: too much brush? Were the deer alert or farther away
6:49
Speaker 1: than I should have been shooting? Was it just bad
6:52
Speaker 1: marksmanship or bad shots selection. Whatever the answer is or
6:57
Speaker 1: the answers are, I'm gonna vout to do better. This
7:02
Speaker 1: will come in two parts, which I'll get into later
7:04
Speaker 1: this spring, but really boils down to quality practice with
7:06
Speaker 1: top notch equipment and shot selection, which doesn't come into
7:10
Speaker 1: play until this season. And shooting is a important one.
7:14
Speaker 1: This is because you can largely control it by your
7:17
Speaker 1: off season actions. If I sound like I'm beating a
7:20
Speaker 1: dead horse here, let me tell you a little bit
7:22
Speaker 1: about the season I had in two thousand and eight.
7:25
Speaker 1: It was my first year as a freelance writer, right
7:28
Speaker 1: after I got fired from Peterson's Bow Hunting along with
7:31
Speaker 1: the company's staff, so I was starving. I also felt
7:36
Speaker 1: an immense pressure to kill a big bucker three to
7:39
Speaker 1: not only have something to write about, which is how
7:41
Speaker 1: I got paid, but to also prove that I belonged
7:44
Speaker 1: in that role, because I definitely didn't believe that was true.
7:48
Speaker 1: I started this season out on a high note, killing
7:50
Speaker 1: a public land spot and stock antelope on my first
7:53
Speaker 1: stock of the season. The shot on that speed goat
7:56
Speaker 1: was the farthest I've ever taken on a game animal,
7:59
Speaker 1: and about twice as are as I'm confident to shoot today.
8:02
Speaker 1: But then I shot a lot, and I mean a lot,
8:05
Speaker 1: and I was confident until I wasn't. Then things went south.
8:11
Speaker 1: Then I couldn't hit a deer to save my life,
8:13
Speaker 1: and then when I did, I hit them poorly. I
8:17
Speaker 1: was unraveling at the seams. And the final straw was
8:20
Speaker 1: a brute of a hundred and thirty class Northern Minnesota
8:23
Speaker 1: buck that posed up perfectly for me, and I still
8:27
Speaker 1: shoulder shot him after putting in a ridiculous amount of
8:31
Speaker 1: stand time. It was my worst season ever, and it
8:34
Speaker 1: prompted me to take a long look at my entire
8:37
Speaker 1: bow set up, as well as my practice style, my consistency,
8:41
Speaker 1: my overall regiment, and my attitude. I vowed after that
8:46
Speaker 1: season to change a lot, and it largely worked to
8:50
Speaker 1: dig me out of my shooting hole, although I definitely
8:52
Speaker 1: fall back into it once in a while. Now, why
8:55
Speaker 1: do I tell you this, It's just a cautionary tale.
8:59
Speaker 1: Think about your shot on deer last season and be
9:01
Speaker 1: really honest about them. If you feel that something needs
9:04
Speaker 1: to change, then it does and you should plan for that.
9:09
Speaker 1: I also try to take a deep dive in the
9:11
Speaker 1: other moments when I was really frustrated throughout the season.
9:14
Speaker 1: One particular memory from this past season was when I
9:17
Speaker 1: got to a spot I absolutely love in North Dakota,
9:20
Speaker 1: to glass a big old public river bottom after an
9:23
Speaker 1: evening in a morning session on the spot or I
9:26
Speaker 1: realized that those late September bucks were not going to
9:28
Speaker 1: do what I expected. They were pressured, really pressured, and
9:33
Speaker 1: they weren't about to go into the open during daylight hours.
9:36
Speaker 1: The game had changed from previous years, and as much
9:39
Speaker 1: as I tried to push a dead program, I knew
9:41
Speaker 1: I'd have to change too. I also knew I'd have
9:44
Speaker 1: to lower my standards if I wanted any venison for
9:46
Speaker 1: my efforts. And while I did get one really good
9:49
Speaker 1: opportunity at a solid buck, the only buck that I
9:52
Speaker 1: felt I had a real chance with, I got beat
9:54
Speaker 1: by the thermals, and this no bullshit knows. It was
9:58
Speaker 1: frustrating to believe I only had one deer to work
10:00
Speaker 1: with and he busted me. I ended up shooting a dough,
10:03
Speaker 1: which at that time felt kind of like a letdown,
10:05
Speaker 1: but now it feels like something different. I'd rather have
10:09
Speaker 1: that experience and that meet in my freezer than not.
10:13
Speaker 1: What that initial frustration taught me, or I should say,
10:16
Speaker 1: reminded me of, is that hunting is always changing, at
10:21
Speaker 1: least for those of us who don't on a thousand
10:22
Speaker 1: acres in southern Iowa, it's always changing. While I expected
10:26
Speaker 1: a similar hunt to years past because that's what I wanted,
10:29
Speaker 1: it's not what I got. I did get a hell
10:32
Speaker 1: of a lot more challenge, and I did get forced
10:34
Speaker 1: into hunting where I didn't expect to, both of which
10:37
Speaker 1: were actually good things, even though they didn't feel like
10:39
Speaker 1: it at the time. But what's even better is the
10:42
Speaker 1: deer hunting lesson about how ship is going to go wrong,
10:45
Speaker 1: and you've got to deal with it in real time.
10:48
Speaker 1: There's no way around it. And the more you accept that,
10:50
Speaker 1: the easier the whole thing gets. You just got to
10:53
Speaker 1: deal with that stuff. Think back to your last season.
10:56
Speaker 1: What really frustrated you, was it, I don't know, bumping
11:00
Speaker 1: into other hunters. If so, could you have worked harder
11:03
Speaker 1: to get away from them? Could you have researched different
11:05
Speaker 1: access points or employed different access options like maybe a
11:09
Speaker 1: kayak or an ebike or something. Did you do enough
11:12
Speaker 1: to get away from people or did you end up
11:15
Speaker 1: only hunting weekends out of choice or necessity. Can you
11:18
Speaker 1: start laying the ground work now at your job or
11:21
Speaker 1: at home to remedy that for the upcoming season? Or
11:24
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know, did you have a long string
11:26
Speaker 1: of unproductive sits have had? This happened to me in
11:29
Speaker 1: northern Wisconsin, and it sucks. I've gone three weeks over
11:32
Speaker 1: there in the big woods without seeing any dear, and
11:35
Speaker 1: now my friends leaves a mark. It's also largely avoidable
11:39
Speaker 1: if you're willing to do some in season scouting and
11:42
Speaker 1: keep looking for fresh activity. Did you do that or
11:45
Speaker 1: did you default to your favorite stands because they're convenient?
11:49
Speaker 1: Did you just kind of get sick of hunting the
11:51
Speaker 1: same ground? That happens a lot. And the cure is
11:54
Speaker 1: something I've preached about on here a million times, which
11:56
Speaker 1: is find more ground. You can make that plan right now,
12:00
Speaker 1: and if you stick to it, you'll never ever regret it.
12:03
Speaker 1: This is the time to try when it comes to
12:06
Speaker 1: securing new hunting spots. You gotta try to find those
12:09
Speaker 1: spots now. If you've never hunted public land, go check
12:13
Speaker 1: some out. It's a low risk, low reward proposition right now.
12:16
Speaker 1: But you might turn something up. If you can't stand
12:19
Speaker 1: that idea, and I know a lot of people can't,
12:21
Speaker 1: you'd better start tapping your network for connections to more
12:24
Speaker 1: deer ground, or maybe start researching some leases, however you
12:28
Speaker 1: go about it. If your frustrations from last year stem
12:30
Speaker 1: from not having enough ground, you know what your job
12:33
Speaker 1: is during the next nine months. Or maybe I don't know.
12:37
Speaker 1: Did you have some serious fomo after you checked out
12:40
Speaker 1: Kenyan's instagram and saw him hunting all over the country
12:43
Speaker 1: while you were stuck on your gramma's farm for the
12:45
Speaker 1: twenty six year in a row. Could you have traveled
12:47
Speaker 1: somewhere to hunt new deer but didn't? Was it too expensive?
12:51
Speaker 1: Or do you just not have the time or the confidence.
12:54
Speaker 1: All that stuff can be acknowledged and addressed now. It's
12:58
Speaker 1: also something I plan to cover a whole bunch of
13:00
Speaker 1: future episodes. So you want to have to curse out
13:03
Speaker 1: that lucky bastard Mark for all those sweet hunts in
13:05
Speaker 1: his rock star celebrity lifestyle. Of course, you don't want
13:09
Speaker 1: to just reflect on the frustrating aspects of last season.
13:13
Speaker 1: Humans are really good at focusing on the negatives. In fact,
13:17
Speaker 1: it's a genetic hardware that keeps us alive or I
13:20
Speaker 1: don't know, at least kept us alive when we climbed
13:22
Speaker 1: out of the trees and started roaming around, eating random
13:24
Speaker 1: roots and bugs and waiting to figure out how to
13:26
Speaker 1: make crude tools and eventually harness fire. We know that now,
13:30
Speaker 1: so we don't have to focus solely on the negatives.
13:32
Speaker 1: We can make the choice to use the negatives to
13:34
Speaker 1: guide us for next year, so hopefully there'll be few
13:37
Speaker 1: of them. But we can and also should look in
13:40
Speaker 1: the review mirror and think about what made us happy.
13:44
Speaker 1: Did you kill the buck you were after, or at
13:46
Speaker 1: least kill a buck that was of a caliber you
13:48
Speaker 1: were interested in? If so, hell yes, good job. What
13:53
Speaker 1: went into that success? Can you replicate it next season
13:56
Speaker 1: or expand on it? For example, did you finally take
13:59
Speaker 1: the plunge into mobile hunting and kill your buck that way?
14:02
Speaker 1: Then keep at it, learn your gear better, scout more
14:05
Speaker 1: suitable trees this winner, lean into that style. Or did
14:08
Speaker 1: you kill your first buck from the ground or your
14:11
Speaker 1: first buck during the lull? Whatever? What did you learn?
14:14
Speaker 1: What did that success teach you? Did it teach you
14:17
Speaker 1: that you love killing bucks but have no idea how
14:19
Speaker 1: to butcher them, there's a good offseason topic to study.
14:23
Speaker 1: Or did you not kill a buck but still have
14:25
Speaker 1: a great season? Why were you around deer and most
14:28
Speaker 1: or all of your sits. That's a great way to
14:30
Speaker 1: enjoy your season, even if you end up munching on
14:33
Speaker 1: tag soup after the time runs out, Or did you
14:36
Speaker 1: just stumble across the time of the season, or a
14:38
Speaker 1: hunting strategy that made you enjoy things more. That stuff happens,
14:42
Speaker 1: and if it calls to you, listen up. There's nothing
14:46
Speaker 1: that says you have to follow a Dan in Fault
14:48
Speaker 1: style strategy to be a great hunter, or more importantly,
14:51
Speaker 1: to enjoy it. But if buck beds and swamps get
14:55
Speaker 1: you going, then by all means listen up, because guys
14:57
Speaker 1: like Dan have a lot of solid advice to offer
14:59
Speaker 1: in that category. But there's something else that makes you happy.
15:03
Speaker 1: Understand that's what you can lean into for the upcoming season. Now,
15:08
Speaker 1: while I'm sure a guy like Mark actually sits down
15:10
Speaker 1: and writes his goals out, probably in a spreadsheet with
15:12
Speaker 1: encouraging phrases and doodles on it, you don't have to
15:15
Speaker 1: do that. You should spend a little time reflecting on
15:18
Speaker 1: last season and thinking about not only what you feel
15:20
Speaker 1: like you should do, but how you actually can accomplish
15:23
Speaker 1: those things. And that's the hard part. Thinking about goals
15:27
Speaker 1: is easy, Actually accomplishing them it's difficult. This is one
15:32
Speaker 1: of the reasons why most folks love the idea of
15:34
Speaker 1: eating right, or maybe running marathons, or having a well
15:38
Speaker 1: trained hunting dog, climbing Mount Everest, whatever. But most folks
15:42
Speaker 1: will never do any of those things because they are hard,
15:46
Speaker 1: just like deer hunting is. But those things can be
15:49
Speaker 1: fun and rewarding as hell, just like deer hunting. So
15:53
Speaker 1: start your phone off, sit back, and do a little
15:55
Speaker 1: old fashioned thinking, run through your past season, or hell,
15:59
Speaker 1: your last five years if you've got them to call upon,
16:02
Speaker 1: and start planning for the new year. This is a
16:04
Speaker 1: good exercise and it brings up something that I want
16:06
Speaker 1: to wrap this episode up with. You think you have time,
16:10
Speaker 1: but you don't sure. In the space between right now
16:13
Speaker 1: and the next bowl opener, you could grow an entire
16:16
Speaker 1: human baby if you had the right organs and stuff.
16:18
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not a doctor. That seems like
16:20
Speaker 1: a lot of time, but if you've ever slipped one
16:22
Speaker 1: past the goal, you know those nine months fly by.
16:26
Speaker 1: The off season will too, and the windows in which
16:30
Speaker 1: you really need to take advantage of different things in
16:32
Speaker 1: the deerwoods they'll close to You'll see this in upcoming
16:36
Speaker 1: episodes that focus on shadow antlers and hunt trip planning
16:39
Speaker 1: and winter scouting, the ladder of which is the most
16:42
Speaker 1: important time you can spend in a wild except maybe
16:46
Speaker 1: maybe for the time you spend actually hunting. So I
16:48
Speaker 1: don't say this stuff lightly, my friends, I really mean it.
16:51
Speaker 1: There's work to be done, and while I'm giving you
16:53
Speaker 1: a week to reminisce on past failures and successes, it's
16:57
Speaker 1: nearly time to get back out there, to start fresh,
17:00
Speaker 1: to start the process all over again. That's what next
17:03
Speaker 1: week is all about, and it's going to kick off
17:06
Speaker 1: a long list of episodes dedicated to getting you out
17:08
Speaker 1: there doing what your competition mostly won't be doing. You'll
17:12
Speaker 1: also be learning about the deer when most folks aren't.
17:15
Speaker 1: In other words, you're going to start earning that filled
17:18
Speaker 1: tag soon, so don't miss out on next week. That's it,
17:24
Speaker 1: my friends, Thank you so much for listening to the
17:26
Speaker 1: Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast. I'm your host, Tony Peterson.
17:29
Speaker 1: If you want more, white Tail Wisdom, check out our
17:31
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, and visit the metator dot com, slash Wired