Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 776: Foundations - To Kill The Buck, You Must Become The Buck (Sort Of)

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Ep. 776: Foundations - To Kill The Buck, You Must Become The Buck (Sort Of) · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
0:09
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
0:14
Speaker 1: First Light, Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
0:19
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
0:23
Speaker 2: which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:25
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about training yourself
0:28
Speaker 2: to think more like a buck when your job every
0:45
Speaker 2: week consists of creating content and you're not a guy
0:48
Speaker 2: like Mark Kenyon who thinks butterflies are the coolest thing ever,
0:51
Speaker 2: and you just lean into that even though the audience
0:54
Speaker 2: couldn't care less about monarchs. You just find inspiration in
0:57
Speaker 2: weird places. I'm most recently found some of that good
1:01
Speaker 2: stuff after not being able to find one of my
1:03
Speaker 2: dogs in the house. I know that doesn't make any sense,
1:06
Speaker 2: but trust me, it will if you keep on listening.
1:28
Speaker 2: My wife doesn't drink a whole lot, but occasionally she'll
1:31
Speaker 2: tie one on. Recently, while watching the women's Final four
1:36
Speaker 2: game to see if Caitlin Clark could make fifteen or
1:38
Speaker 2: twenty three pointers from half court. My bride went pretty
1:42
Speaker 2: deep in her celebratory libations for my slower listeners, I mean,
1:46
Speaker 2: she had three drinks, which is a lot for her.
1:49
Speaker 2: She was so keyed up after that Hawkeye's win and
1:52
Speaker 2: knowing they were going to make it to the championship
1:54
Speaker 2: that she stayed up after I went to bed, since
1:56
Speaker 2: I was planning on getting up bright and early to
1:58
Speaker 2: go to Wisconsin to do some deer work. Now, before
2:01
Speaker 2: I went to bed, I let the young dog outside,
2:03
Speaker 2: and then I gave my bride specific instructions to let
2:06
Speaker 2: Sadie back in. And then I went back and I
2:10
Speaker 2: gave her specific instructions to let Sadie back in again, which,
2:13
Speaker 2: if you're paying attention, is twice. I told her to
2:16
Speaker 2: let Sadie back inside. Well. When I woke up in
2:20
Speaker 2: the morning, it was pretty clear during feeding time that
2:22
Speaker 2: one of my dogs was definitely sleeping in. I checked
2:26
Speaker 2: my daughter's room, where Sadie usually snuggles up, and while
2:29
Speaker 2: I was squinting in the dark, trying not to wake
2:31
Speaker 2: my daughter and see a black dog in the black dark,
2:34
Speaker 2: I realized something. My dog was probably still tied up
2:38
Speaker 2: outside and I might need to have an intervention with
2:41
Speaker 2: my wife, which would be real ironic given my history. Now,
2:45
Speaker 2: that poor little dog was so happy to see me,
2:48
Speaker 2: it was almost worth leaving her outside all night. I'll admit.
2:52
Speaker 2: As a dog lover, my first instinct was to run
2:54
Speaker 2: into the bedroom and wake my wife up to let
2:56
Speaker 2: her know what she had done. I was pissed, but
3:00
Speaker 2: then I thought, well, it's not like I'm batting a
3:03
Speaker 2: thousand in life, and it's not like I never made
3:06
Speaker 2: any really stupid decisions when I drank. So I did
3:09
Speaker 2: the grown up thing and I let her off easy.
3:11
Speaker 2: Plus I knew she'd feel terrible since she loves that
3:14
Speaker 2: little black lab so much. Now I got to thinking
3:18
Speaker 2: about Sadie's night tied up in our front yard. I
3:21
Speaker 2: have no doubt she heard some coyotes, because we hear
3:24
Speaker 2: them often. I wondered if any of the neighborhood foxes
3:27
Speaker 2: or deer walk by at some point. I wonder what
3:30
Speaker 2: she smelled throughout the night, sitting there in the dark,
3:32
Speaker 2: wondering why she got stuck with such shitty owners. Now
3:35
Speaker 2: that got me thinking about a fellow I interviewed a
3:37
Speaker 2: few years ago when I had a podcast dedicated to dogs.
3:41
Speaker 2: The show was about a guy down in Texas who
3:43
Speaker 2: trains dogs to sniff out in dangered sea turtle nests
3:46
Speaker 2: so they can help the little turtles hatch and survive
3:48
Speaker 2: the journey into the ocean. Now, that trainer also adopts
3:52
Speaker 2: quite a few dogs, including dogs that are blind or deaf,
3:56
Speaker 2: or in a couple cases both. Now I asked him
3:59
Speaker 2: how he trained to blind and deaf dog, and he said, well,
4:03
Speaker 2: with a lot of treats, which makes sense. He also
4:06
Speaker 2: told me about how his blind and deaf dog reacted
4:09
Speaker 2: the first time they visited the beach together. Basically, that
4:13
Speaker 2: dog stuck its snout in the air and started running
4:16
Speaker 2: circles down the beach, obviously enjoying his time in that environment.
4:21
Speaker 2: The crazy thing is that the dog did that because
4:24
Speaker 2: that dog maps out the world just with its nose.
4:28
Speaker 2: In its eternal silence and darkness, the best way to
4:32
Speaker 2: interact with the world is with its sniffer, and on
4:35
Speaker 2: a beach, it quickly knew that nothing was blocking the
4:38
Speaker 2: wind for miles, which in its head meant it wasn't
4:41
Speaker 2: going to run into anything. Now, there's something pure about
4:45
Speaker 2: a dog just running because it wants to run, but
4:48
Speaker 2: also a blind and deaf dog getting to run freely
4:51
Speaker 2: because it figured out it's in a safe place to
4:53
Speaker 2: run freely. The trainer and I talked about this, and
4:57
Speaker 2: he basically said he can watch that dog avoid trees
5:00
Speaker 2: and plants and cars and garbage cans and whatever else
5:03
Speaker 2: because it travels with the wind at its face. If
5:06
Speaker 2: it all can, I'll imagine that it's pretty hard for
5:10
Speaker 2: us to relate. But think about if your nose provided
5:14
Speaker 2: as much intel about the world as your eyes do.
5:18
Speaker 2: That's the way it is for dogs, And you guessed
5:20
Speaker 2: it giraffes. Just kidding. Well, technically I have no idea
5:25
Speaker 2: how good giraffe noses are, but it doesn't matter because
5:27
Speaker 2: I'm talking about deer here. I think this is something
5:30
Speaker 2: to acknowledge, and it's something to try to understand. In fact,
5:35
Speaker 2: I think at least thinking about how deer map their
5:38
Speaker 2: world with their noses and how they see the world
5:40
Speaker 2: is something that can help you level up as a
5:42
Speaker 2: deer hunter. What they hear, you know, that matters too.
5:46
Speaker 2: But it's pretty easy to figure out how to be quiet.
5:48
Speaker 2: So I'm not gonna dwell on that one. So let's
5:51
Speaker 2: start with something blatantly obvious. We can't even grasp what
5:55
Speaker 2: it's like to be able to interpret the world the
5:57
Speaker 2: way deer do. We have to make a guess, we
6:01
Speaker 2: have to fill in the blanks and just kind of
6:03
Speaker 2: roll with it. But how well you do that matters,
6:06
Speaker 2: and it's something I think we can all benefit from.
6:10
Speaker 2: Let me give you an example. The morning I figured
6:13
Speaker 2: out that my wife had basically tortured my poor scared
6:16
Speaker 2: dog all night long by leaving her outside to fend
6:18
Speaker 2: for herself in the mean streets of the suburbs, I
6:21
Speaker 2: drove to Wisconsin. The goal was to cut a trail
6:25
Speaker 2: on a property, scout out some trees for bow stands
6:27
Speaker 2: and rifle stands, and if I had the time, put
6:30
Speaker 2: up a stand or a blind. One thing that happens
6:34
Speaker 2: to saw blades around me is that they get real dull.
6:38
Speaker 2: This happens over there a lot, because you know you'll
6:40
Speaker 2: be happily zoned out swinging that brushcutter around when the
6:43
Speaker 2: blade will whack into a rock and send a shower
6:46
Speaker 2: of sparks. When you do this enough, your sweet tree
6:49
Speaker 2: cutting saw blade turns into mostly a giant pizza cutter.
6:53
Speaker 2: When that happened, I ran to town to buy a new blade,
6:57
Speaker 2: but they were sold out. That gave me a has
7:00
Speaker 2: to carry a stand into a spot I set up
7:02
Speaker 2: a few weeks ago and get ahead of the game
7:03
Speaker 2: a little bit. When I was up there in that tree,
7:06
Speaker 2: you know, covering my hands and sap and setting the
7:09
Speaker 2: stand in just such a way so that I won't
7:11
Speaker 2: even have to stand up to shoot a mature buck
7:14
Speaker 2: when he cruises through the big Woods this fall, I
7:17
Speaker 2: realized the wind was blowing straight out of the west.
7:21
Speaker 2: That direction in that spot means any buck walking into
7:25
Speaker 2: it along the slight elevation line I talked about a
7:28
Speaker 2: few weeks ago will think he's good. He'll think that
7:31
Speaker 2: the danger in front of him is going to be
7:33
Speaker 2: discovered via his nose long before he gets into the
7:36
Speaker 2: red zone. This only gets a little better because the
7:40
Speaker 2: elevation line doesn't sit on a perfectly east west line.
7:46
Speaker 2: It comes in slightly from the north, which means the
7:48
Speaker 2: buck's traveling it will actually be giving me an even
7:50
Speaker 2: better edge, and they'll believe they are safe. When that
7:54
Speaker 2: stuff comes together, the kind of stuff that makes big
7:57
Speaker 2: bucks believe they have the upper hand when they don't.
8:00
Speaker 2: You have the makings for an amazing spot. Now here's
8:04
Speaker 2: where things get a little wonky. When I was running
8:07
Speaker 2: a camera in that spot for the last few years,
8:09
Speaker 2: or grouse hunting at last fall, or walking it out
8:11
Speaker 2: this winter while scouting, I wasn't thinking about what bucks
8:17
Speaker 2: think about. I was thinking about what a hunter who
8:20
Speaker 2: wants to kill bucks thinks about. You know, things like, man,
8:25
Speaker 2: there's a sweet rub there and a sweet rub there,
8:27
Speaker 2: and since my camera's over there and shows me this travel,
8:30
Speaker 2: I just need to pick a good tree and the
8:31
Speaker 2: rest is history. Yet we do that a lot and
8:35
Speaker 2: a lot of times, we don't kill big bucks. I
8:38
Speaker 2: think this is because we don't put ourselves in their shoes,
8:40
Speaker 2: so to speak. We don't think about how walking through
8:54
Speaker 2: the woods for them is a matter of life and death.
8:58
Speaker 2: Now I realize, at any given moment, you or I
9:00
Speaker 2: could be strolling down the sidewalk listening to German death
9:03
Speaker 2: metal on our earbuds when a bus could veer off
9:06
Speaker 2: course and pancake us right into the side of a
9:08
Speaker 2: quick trip. But we don't fear that kind of thing
9:11
Speaker 2: a whole lot. You know, we know it's possible, but
9:13
Speaker 2: not very likely. A big buck walking through the woods
9:18
Speaker 2: knows that he could run into a hunter two legged
9:21
Speaker 2: or four, and that when he does, it's highly likely
9:25
Speaker 2: his life is in danger. What probably reinforces this a
9:29
Speaker 2: hell of a lot is that he can also smell
9:32
Speaker 2: when predators have been through in the last few days.
9:35
Speaker 2: The entire world of Scent is a matrix of animals
9:38
Speaker 2: and plants coming together in his environment. For him to
9:42
Speaker 2: travel a certain elevation line, at least a lot of
9:45
Speaker 2: the time, he's going to want to do it when
9:47
Speaker 2: his nose could save his ass. It's actually pretty simple.
9:50
Speaker 2: And while I realize they don't always follow the rules,
9:53
Speaker 2: especially when it's the rut, I believe they follow those
9:56
Speaker 2: rules a lot. I think they're far more aware of
10:00
Speaker 2: us than we'd like to believe, and a way to
10:03
Speaker 2: bridge this gap is to try to think like a deer.
10:07
Speaker 2: I know this probably sounds a little crazy, but hear
10:09
Speaker 2: me out. Nature is on a survival mission, and there
10:12
Speaker 2: are two ways creatures survive. One is the obvious way,
10:17
Speaker 2: which is that they don't die if they can help it.
10:20
Speaker 2: The other is by passing on their jeans so that
10:23
Speaker 2: even when they are dead and gone, some part of
10:25
Speaker 2: them is still out there on the landscape. Giving a
10:27
Speaker 2: new generation of hunter's hope. We don't think about our
10:30
Speaker 2: own survival a whole lot because we don't have to.
10:33
Speaker 2: We have the luxury of not fretting over getting killed
10:35
Speaker 2: at any given moment. We don't have to look at
10:38
Speaker 2: the woods as a source of total danger, but instead
10:40
Speaker 2: a source of enjoyment. What we hunt doesn't have that
10:44
Speaker 2: same luxury, and it matters how you think about that.
10:49
Speaker 2: Take bed hunters like Dan Enfhalt, for example. A guy
10:53
Speaker 2: like that isn't just trying to figure out where a
10:54
Speaker 2: big buck beds on a high spot in a swamp.
10:57
Speaker 2: He's trying to figure out why. On a surface level,
11:01
Speaker 2: I guess we could say every big buck bed is
11:04
Speaker 2: in a spot where big bucks think they are safe.
11:06
Speaker 2: But that only works if you ignore all of the
11:09
Speaker 2: other conditions. That big buck bed on the edge of
11:12
Speaker 2: a swamp in Louisiana or Georgia might be ideal for
11:15
Speaker 2: some type of south wind, But what if a cold
11:18
Speaker 2: front blows in and the wind switches to the north.
11:20
Speaker 2: Is the bed still is valuable? Probably not. You see,
11:24
Speaker 2: when we think of wind and conditions, we think about
11:27
Speaker 2: how favorable they'll be to us. We have stands that
11:30
Speaker 2: are ideal for south winds or west winds or whatever.
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Speaker 2: But what does that mean to the deer. It might
11:36
Speaker 2: mean they have to give up some degree of danger
11:38
Speaker 2: detection to travel to or through your spot, and that
11:42
Speaker 2: means that some big, old, mature deer just aren't going
11:45
Speaker 2: to go there. The risk reward is out of whack
11:47
Speaker 2: for them. So while we know it's best for us,
11:50
Speaker 2: that doesn't really matter. Imagine they're thinking on this, however,
11:56
Speaker 2: whatever level they can reason to. I guess they know
11:59
Speaker 2: they want to go somewhere to drink or fill their
12:01
Speaker 2: belly or sniff a doze, but that's great. But they
12:05
Speaker 2: know getting there is the real battle. And if they
12:07
Speaker 2: can't map the unseen world in front of them with
12:10
Speaker 2: their noses, some deer aren't gonna make that move in
12:13
Speaker 2: daylight because it's just not worth it. They also know
12:17
Speaker 2: that if they can use their nose first, they will
12:20
Speaker 2: instead of poking their head out into a wide open field,
12:22
Speaker 2: they'll most likely send check it from the safety of
12:25
Speaker 2: the cover first. When hunters understand this part of the game,
12:29
Speaker 2: they really start to understand how to use it against deer.
12:34
Speaker 2: This is part common sense and actually part visualization. Take
12:38
Speaker 2: a random rub in the woods. For example, Let's say
12:41
Speaker 2: you stumble across it while running and gunning for turkeys.
12:44
Speaker 2: It's a cool fine, and you drop a waypoint before
12:47
Speaker 2: moving on, because after all, waypoints are free, and that's
12:49
Speaker 2: something you want to remember. But what's better than doing
12:53
Speaker 2: just that is to stop and take a long look
12:56
Speaker 2: around an actual three hundred and sixty degree You know
13:01
Speaker 2: which way the buck was standing by the way he
13:03
Speaker 2: rubbed the tree, so you can place him there in
13:06
Speaker 2: your mind. Now ask yourself where did he come from?
13:10
Speaker 2: Ask yourself where's he likely going? If he traveled to
13:13
Speaker 2: this tree in the same direction he made the rub.
13:16
Speaker 2: What wind would have been best for him to make
13:18
Speaker 2: that move? Why would a buck think he was safe
13:22
Speaker 2: to do that, especially if you believe he did it
13:24
Speaker 2: in the daylight? Where else did he leave clues for you?
13:28
Speaker 2: What does it all mean in the grand scheme of things?
13:31
Speaker 2: And by that I mean what other info do you
13:34
Speaker 2: have about the area and potentially that buck. Did you
13:37
Speaker 2: get any trail camera images of a big win around
13:39
Speaker 2: there last year? When did you find a big old
13:42
Speaker 2: bed on a bench one hundred yards away? Did you
13:45
Speaker 2: get down into that bed and take a long look around.
13:48
Speaker 2: Can you see the rub from the bed or not?
13:51
Speaker 2: Where is the nearest destination food source? And how would
13:54
Speaker 2: a buck go from there to that bed? Why does
13:57
Speaker 2: he feel safe there? And how how can you make
14:00
Speaker 2: him unsafe without letting him know you're onto him. I
14:05
Speaker 2: know I'm throwing a lot of stuff your way, but
14:07
Speaker 2: there's something I want to highlight here. If you think
14:10
Speaker 2: about what a buck might be thinking about, you start
14:14
Speaker 2: to be able to predict when he might move and where.
14:17
Speaker 2: You'll mostly get it wrong. But this is a learning process,
14:20
Speaker 2: and that's okay. The best hunters are built upon a
14:23
Speaker 2: foundation of countless mistakes, thousands of them if you stick
14:27
Speaker 2: with this stuff long enough. But over time you start
14:30
Speaker 2: to realize why bucks choose the beds and the trails
14:32
Speaker 2: in the staging areas they do. They're not random, They're
14:36
Speaker 2: their best spots for survival. That's it. This is something
14:40
Speaker 2: that is largely subdued with low pressure deer, which is
14:43
Speaker 2: why they are just so much easier to hunt. The
14:45
Speaker 2: more pressure the deer get, the more likely they are
14:48
Speaker 2: to make their daily decisions around not taking unnecessary risks.
14:53
Speaker 2: By the way, old does are masters of this too.
14:57
Speaker 2: If you can figure out a way to consistently get
14:59
Speaker 2: in range of old does, especially old does with fawns,
15:04
Speaker 2: you can figure out a way to get around mature bucks.
15:07
Speaker 2: We don't talk about that aspect enough, but I believe
15:10
Speaker 2: it in my heart. Outwitting old deer is outwitting old deer,
15:14
Speaker 2: whether they have antlers or not. Think about this as
15:17
Speaker 2: you're out there, you know, maybe wrapping up your winter
15:19
Speaker 2: and spring scouting efforts, or more likely poking around the
15:22
Speaker 2: woods trying to shoot a gobbler. The tracks you find
15:25
Speaker 2: in the mud that show a big deer walk through
15:27
Speaker 2: last night, they offer you a chance to think about
15:30
Speaker 2: the why of it all. You know, the button heead
15:32
Speaker 2: crew of bucks leaving the alfalfa and jumping a fence
15:35
Speaker 2: to go into the woods while you stare at some
15:37
Speaker 2: turkey decoys. They're telling you a lot too. Ask yourself
15:41
Speaker 2: which way the wind is blowing. Ask yourself, why would
15:43
Speaker 2: they cross there and not somewhere else? Where are they going?
15:47
Speaker 2: Where will they go when they get up to leave
15:49
Speaker 2: their beds later in the day, What are they thinking about?
15:53
Speaker 2: I know that seems dumb, you know, mostly because it's
15:56
Speaker 2: easier for us to think about them subconsciously making decisions
15:59
Speaker 2: and not deliberate on the pros and cons of jumping
16:01
Speaker 2: the fence where it SAgs or slipping between the strands
16:04
Speaker 2: in a different spot. We just think they don't think
16:08
Speaker 2: like us, which is probably true. But even if they
16:10
Speaker 2: aren't devoting tons of mental horsepower to making the best
16:14
Speaker 2: decisions given to any set of circumstances, they are operating
16:18
Speaker 2: off of a base level risk reward thought process. They
16:21
Speaker 2: know when they bed with a dead fall to their
16:23
Speaker 2: back that no coyotes are going to sneak up too
16:26
Speaker 2: close from that direction, just as they know when they
16:29
Speaker 2: bet on a ridge they can see down into the
16:31
Speaker 2: valley where danger is likely to approach from. Since we
16:35
Speaker 2: know they know that, we can use it to our
16:37
Speaker 2: advantage by just trying to get inside their heads as
16:39
Speaker 2: much as we can. As I get older and try
16:42
Speaker 2: to keep hunting new places and find new experiences out
16:44
Speaker 2: there in the white tail world, I think about this
16:46
Speaker 2: stuff a lot. It's something that comes from a lot
16:50
Speaker 2: of scouting, and it's something that shapes my season long plans.
16:54
Speaker 2: It's also probably the biggest contributor to us trusting our instincts,
16:59
Speaker 2: which is the only way we might ever get on
17:01
Speaker 2: the level of a mature buck. So do this come
17:05
Speaker 2: back next week because I'm going to talk about why
17:06
Speaker 2: we all need to get outside and touch a little grass.
17:11
Speaker 2: That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has
17:13
Speaker 2: been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought
17:15
Speaker 2: to you by First Light. As I always, thank you so
17:18
Speaker 2: much for listening and for all your support all of
17:21
Speaker 2: us here at Mediatter, we truly truly appreciate it, so
17:24
Speaker 2: thank you for that. Maybe you want a little more
17:26
Speaker 2: turkey hunting content. Maybe you want some other deer hunting content,
17:29
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17:31
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17:35
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