Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 757: Foundations - Activate Your Whitetail Goblin Mode

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Ep. 757: Foundations - Activate Your Whitetail Goblin Mode · 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 by first Light. I'm your host,
0:24
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about goblins kind of,
0:28
Speaker 2: but also really not. It's mostly about deer hunting, but
0:31
Speaker 2: a little about goblins. I guess I firmly believe there
0:43
Speaker 2: are just certain traits that good hunters possess. Discipline is
0:46
Speaker 2: a big one. Without discipline, you better have a hell
0:49
Speaker 2: of a lot of money, otherwise your trophy room is
0:52
Speaker 2: destined to be pretty sparse. I guess, you know, being
0:55
Speaker 2: motivated as a trait that a lot of hunters possessed too,
0:57
Speaker 2: But truthfully, that's just more of that discipline stuff. Curiosity
1:01
Speaker 2: is another one, and I don't think this one gets
1:04
Speaker 2: enough love, but it's pretty much an across the board
1:07
Speaker 2: trait for hunters who figure things out in a wide
1:10
Speaker 2: variety of environments and who tend to fill tags at
1:13
Speaker 2: a pace higher than the average hunter. That's what this
1:16
Speaker 2: podcast is mostly about, even though I'm going to take
1:19
Speaker 2: an unlikely path to get there. I come from a
1:29
Speaker 2: long line of nut jobs, so I'm interested in all
1:32
Speaker 2: kinds of paranormal stuff and UFOs and strange Earth types
1:36
Speaker 2: of topics, and probably only really bog my brain down
1:40
Speaker 2: more than I should with stuff that doesn't matter. I
1:43
Speaker 2: can go pretty deep on topics about cryptids, although unfortunately
1:49
Speaker 2: I think the last of the sasquatch has died off
1:51
Speaker 2: a long time ago. One mythical creature that I really
1:54
Speaker 2: haven't thought about at all until recently is the good
1:57
Speaker 2: old goblin. If you whind back the time clock nearly
2:01
Speaker 2: a thousand years, you can find references to goblins in
2:05
Speaker 2: French literature and medieval Latin writings. The Germans and the
2:11
Speaker 2: Greeks and the English all had references to goblins at
2:14
Speaker 2: some point a long long time ago as well. Multiple
2:17
Speaker 2: European cultures and their respective folklores featured goblins as small,
2:22
Speaker 2: grotesque creatures that were always up to no good. They
2:27
Speaker 2: ranged from mischievous little tricksters to outright malicious beasts that
2:31
Speaker 2: apparently you wouldn't want to have encountered in a dark
2:35
Speaker 2: alley on your way home from grabbing a pine of
2:37
Speaker 2: ale or whatever they called the night of bar hopping
2:39
Speaker 2: in Europe in like the fourteenth century, it wasn't just
2:43
Speaker 2: the Europeans that dealt with these mythical creatures. South Korea
2:47
Speaker 2: had their own version Bangladesh, South Africa, and it seems
2:51
Speaker 2: like some Middle Eastern cultures also had their own version
2:54
Speaker 2: of a goblin. No, then you had the spinoffs like hobgoblins, dwarves, brownies,
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Speaker 2: gnomes in seleprechauns, and a few others. A lot of
3:02
Speaker 2: them supposedly lived in caves and would not treat you
3:05
Speaker 2: very well if you disturbed their peaceful lives communing with
3:08
Speaker 2: the bats and the bugs that shared their subterranean abodes.
3:12
Speaker 2: Their legend lives on to this day, and goblins still
3:15
Speaker 2: find themselves in books and movies quite frequently. This has
3:19
Speaker 2: absolutely nothing to do with anything, really, but there is
3:23
Speaker 2: also a modern movement called goblin mode, which is one
3:26
Speaker 2: of those phrases that made it into our zeitgeist and
3:30
Speaker 2: ended up being the Oxford Word of the Year in
3:32
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. Although to this writer Goblin mode sounds
3:36
Speaker 2: a hell of a lot like two words. Anyway, Goblin mode,
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Speaker 2: in a nutshell describes someone who has had enough a
3:44
Speaker 2: normal life, or who has rebelled against the bullshit disingenuous
3:48
Speaker 2: world that we see presented in social media all the time.
3:51
Speaker 2: I guess I can get behind that. But there's another
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Speaker 2: thing related to goblins that I really want to talk about,
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Speaker 2: which is a goblin shelf. We all know about the
4:01
Speaker 2: bug eyed cave dweller in Lord of the Rings and
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Speaker 2: how fascinated he was by shiny objects, which actually is
4:09
Speaker 2: not that different from humans if you think about it.
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Speaker 2: We're pretty interested in oddities too, And if you're the
4:16
Speaker 2: kind of person who will pick up random things you
4:18
Speaker 2: find interesting, you know, while you're on the beach or
4:20
Speaker 2: in the woods wherever in nature, you might have yourself
4:24
Speaker 2: a little goblin shelf. This is a spot in your
4:27
Speaker 2: office or living room, trophy room, wherever, where you just
4:31
Speaker 2: display the things you like. Now, I've never been to
4:34
Speaker 2: Spencer Newhart's house, but I promise you it's loaded with
4:38
Speaker 2: goblin shelves. I have been in Steve Vanella's house, and
4:42
Speaker 2: while it's pretty organized, it also gives off a strong
4:45
Speaker 2: goblin shelf vibe. That's probably no surprise to you listeners,
4:50
Speaker 2: because those guys are just curious by nature. One of
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Speaker 2: my daughters is too, which is how I got onto
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Speaker 2: this whole goblin kick in the first place. I noticed,
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Speaker 2: after helping her and her sister moved their fish tank
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Speaker 2: from one bedroom to the other in I guess like
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Speaker 2: a shared custody situation, that she had several shelves in
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Speaker 2: her room that are just cluttered up with stuff she
5:10
Speaker 2: finds interesting. On one shelf, she had a small painted
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Speaker 2: turtle shell that I found while blood trailing a deer
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Speaker 2: in Oklahoma this past fall. I knew she'd like it,
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Speaker 2: so I stuffed it in my pack and brought it
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Speaker 2: home to her. That turtle shell sits right next to
5:26
Speaker 2: a swamp rabbit skull, which was a strange gift from
5:30
Speaker 2: the world's greatest small game hunter, Kevin Murphy, when we
5:32
Speaker 2: did a live event for Meat Eater last year. My
5:36
Speaker 2: daughter has fossils and a small bird's nest, and spent
5:39
Speaker 2: shotgun shells from successful turkey hunts, and a host of
5:43
Speaker 2: other little trinkets that are, you know, truly one of
5:45
Speaker 2: a kind in some way, and if I'm being honest.
5:49
Speaker 2: I love that so much about her. I think that
5:52
Speaker 2: curiosity is the key to a better life. I truly
5:55
Speaker 2: believe that if we stop learning, if we stop trying
5:59
Speaker 2: to find interesting things, I think we atrophy in ways
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Speaker 2: that ripple through our lives in a lot of negative ways.
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Speaker 2: My daughter's goblin shelves portend a life of looking for
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Speaker 2: things that are interesting to her. And you know what,
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Speaker 2: she'll find those things, probably wherever she's at, and she'll
6:18
Speaker 2: hopefully always keep looking for them. Now, what does this
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Speaker 2: have to do with deer hunting. Well, we've taken the
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Speaker 2: curious element damn near out of it. For starters. The
6:29
Speaker 2: goal for so many hunters is to lock up a
6:32
Speaker 2: hunting spot, you know, where the questions are already answered,
6:35
Speaker 2: and the formula for success is damn near written stone.
6:39
Speaker 2: This is also, I might add, a movement that actively
6:43
Speaker 2: convinces us to not hunt until the timing is just right,
6:47
Speaker 2: so we can slip in, execute our plan and leave
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Speaker 2: the woods with a dead buck. Look, if that's what
6:54
Speaker 2: you're into and what you're looking for out of your hunting,
6:57
Speaker 2: great chase that dream and I hope you catch it.
7:00
Speaker 2: I truly do. But a lot of people who get
7:03
Speaker 2: that aren't really all that happy. It often leads to
7:06
Speaker 2: way less time hunting, which sucks, even if it helps
7:09
Speaker 2: you kill more big deer. Sitting in a tree watching
7:13
Speaker 2: nature do its thing is a gift, and while there
7:16
Speaker 2: are a lot of times you could do that with
7:19
Speaker 2: very little chance to kill a big buck, is it
7:22
Speaker 2: still not worth it for the act in and of itself.
7:26
Speaker 2: That's up for you to answer, but I know what
7:28
Speaker 2: my personal answer is. The strategy of locking up a
7:32
Speaker 2: spot and staying out often leads to a single minded
7:36
Speaker 2: focus on the best way to kill a big one,
7:38
Speaker 2: which is a great way to get frustrated and disappointed
7:41
Speaker 2: in any activity that should provides you with the opposite feelings.
7:45
Speaker 2: You know, when the neighbor shoots your target buck, it
7:48
Speaker 2: doesn't make hunting more fun, But it's not his fault
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Speaker 2: for taking a good opportunity anymore than it's your fault
7:54
Speaker 2: for pinning your season on the fate of a wild
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Speaker 2: animal with a brain and four legs that can carry
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Speaker 2: it to wherever it wants to go. Can also lead
8:02
Speaker 2: to a worse scenario, which is something you hear often
8:06
Speaker 2: enough to know it's a real thing. Which is where
8:09
Speaker 2: someone will say, you know, I don't have any bucks
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Speaker 2: to hunt this season. Imagine that for a second. We
8:16
Speaker 2: come up with an age class or antler size that's
8:19
Speaker 2: our standard, and if you know they aren't out there
8:22
Speaker 2: according to our trail cameras, We're not going to hunt
8:25
Speaker 2: until something worthwhile shows up again, you do you? But
8:30
Speaker 2: on paper, that sounds pretty dismal to me. I've talked
8:34
Speaker 2: to quite a few people who have good spots to
8:37
Speaker 2: hunt who seem allergic to the idea of setting foot
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Speaker 2: on public land. I mean, after all, why go chase
8:43
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty inch year when you can wait
8:45
Speaker 2: out a one point fifty. You know, in some ways
8:48
Speaker 2: that's pretty hard to argue against. But there is a
8:51
Speaker 2: challenge out there that can't be had with certain hunting spots.
8:55
Speaker 2: And there is the reality that some people feel being
8:57
Speaker 2: in the woods is damn near medicine and taking it
9:00
Speaker 2: as often as possible only does the body and mind
9:03
Speaker 2: good count me in that camp. I guess now there
9:08
Speaker 2: is an intersection here that will allow me to stop
9:10
Speaker 2: shitting on certain styles of white tail hunting while glorifying
9:13
Speaker 2: others totally on an arbitrary basis. I might add, this
9:17
Speaker 2: is where the desire to kill more and bigger deer
9:20
Speaker 2: meets the reality of not having a great spot to
9:22
Speaker 2: do that on. This is the gray area world that
9:26
Speaker 2: most hunters probably live in. The desire to fill those
9:30
Speaker 2: tags is real high, but the reality on the ground
9:33
Speaker 2: they hunt is that consistent success won't be easy and
9:38
Speaker 2: it won't follow the path you're being sold by a
9:41
Speaker 2: lot of hunting hunting, this is where a goblin shelf
9:54
Speaker 2: comes into play. As crazy as that might sound, but
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Speaker 2: a relatable way to think about this as how many
10:01
Speaker 2: of you shed hunt? Most of you, at some point,
10:04
Speaker 2: I would guess, go out. But why shed hunting is
10:08
Speaker 2: a strategy for actually killing more bucks come fall is
10:13
Speaker 2: connected by a pretty weak thread. You know, there's no
10:17
Speaker 2: doubt that finding sheds can help you confirm proof of
10:19
Speaker 2: life obviously and show you where bucks spend at least
10:22
Speaker 2: some of their time in the winter. Neither of those
10:25
Speaker 2: are bad things. But we also just like sheds because
10:28
Speaker 2: we want to possess them and put them in our
10:30
Speaker 2: man cave and look at them, admire them. They represent
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Speaker 2: a curiosity to us, a one of a kind find
10:39
Speaker 2: that is our own little precious. If you will. I
10:43
Speaker 2: think we all have a little goblin in us, the
10:45
Speaker 2: task of going out into the woods to find something
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Speaker 2: that you can bring home with you, to deepen your
10:50
Speaker 2: connection to the outdoors and remind you of the things
10:52
Speaker 2: you love while you're in your house getting yelled at
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Speaker 2: by your wife, you know, because you took the dogs
10:57
Speaker 2: out to do some retrieves and they got wet and muddy,
10:59
Speaker 2: and then before you can wipe them off, one of
11:01
Speaker 2: them jumped up on the couch where your wife was
11:03
Speaker 2: watching Netflix. And honestly, she can feel free to work
11:06
Speaker 2: the dogs anytime, but no, it's always your job and
11:09
Speaker 2: you're just supposed to magically keep them clean in a
11:11
Speaker 2: Minnesota winter. Anyway, Sorry about that tangent. Ask yourself why
11:18
Speaker 2: you like chad antlers. It's pretty hard to put into words.
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Speaker 2: They are the representation of something that's a little beyond
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Speaker 2: an easy explanation, just like a dried out turtleshell that
11:29
Speaker 2: comes home with you from Oklahoma, or a shark's tooth
11:32
Speaker 2: scrounge up on the beach in Florida while you're on
11:35
Speaker 2: a family vacation. So am I encouraging you to start
11:39
Speaker 2: a goblin shelf of your own, No, I am not.
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Speaker 2: It wouldn't be a pere pursuit if you specifically set
11:46
Speaker 2: out to find interesting things in nature to display in
11:49
Speaker 2: your house. It's not a shopping trip. That would be like,
11:52
Speaker 2: I don't know, kind of like high fenced deer hunting.
11:54
Speaker 2: I guess. Sure, you can have an impressive shoulder mount
11:58
Speaker 2: on your wall, but what's the story already behind the deer?
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Speaker 2: For most of us, that's what matters the most. What
12:05
Speaker 2: I'm arguing for instead is to try to stay curious
12:09
Speaker 2: about what the outdoors can provide for you. We tend
12:13
Speaker 2: to focus on the big picture stuff like finding that
12:15
Speaker 2: match set from your target buck, or you know, locating
12:18
Speaker 2: that patch of sumac that has just rubbed up to
12:21
Speaker 2: no end and shows you pretty clearly where some bucks
12:24
Speaker 2: spent some real time staging in late October. That stuff's great,
12:29
Speaker 2: but the singularity of focus there keeps us from a
12:32
Speaker 2: lot of things. Now, maybe this is a bad example,
12:35
Speaker 2: I don't know, but the first buck I ever shot
12:38
Speaker 2: that I mounted was a two and a half year
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Speaker 2: old that came in during a mid October hunt when
12:42
Speaker 2: I was I think twenty or twenty one, A long
12:46
Speaker 2: time ago. Either way, that deer was moving on a
12:49
Speaker 2: night that was hot and buggy, and when he betted
12:52
Speaker 2: down facing me at thirty yards, I nearly lost my
12:55
Speaker 2: mind from the no sums and the mosquitoes that I
12:57
Speaker 2: couldn't swat, and the uncertainty of what was going to
13:02
Speaker 2: happen next. Well, he got up and I eventually livershot
13:05
Speaker 2: that buck while he drank from a tiny knot hole
13:08
Speaker 2: at the base of a tree that I didn't know
13:10
Speaker 2: was there until I went to look for my arrow
13:12
Speaker 2: and found blood splattered the whole way down the trunk,
13:16
Speaker 2: that little tiny drinking fountain at the base of the
13:18
Speaker 2: tree that produced my first buck that wasn't a one
13:21
Speaker 2: and a half year old anyway. It made me realize
13:24
Speaker 2: how much of the whitetails world was barely accessible to me,
13:29
Speaker 2: and that there are little features of the landscape out
13:32
Speaker 2: there like that all over that will never find or
13:35
Speaker 2: probably never understand. I think that's one of the coolest
13:39
Speaker 2: things about deer hunting. I also think keeping your eyes
13:43
Speaker 2: open for interesting things while you're in the woods it
13:46
Speaker 2: just kind of puts you in a special place as
13:48
Speaker 2: a hunter, developing and fostering a real level of curiosity
13:52
Speaker 2: about nature. Leads to hunting on easy mode, at least
13:57
Speaker 2: to some extent, because you never have to talk yourself
14:00
Speaker 2: into going out. That's a bigger deal than most of
14:03
Speaker 2: us realize, I would guess. So think about it this way.
14:08
Speaker 2: Do you know a single weekend warrior or a hunter
14:11
Speaker 2: who just spends a few days at the deer shack
14:14
Speaker 2: who also spends a lot of time just being in nature.
14:19
Speaker 2: Probably not. Most deer hunters go into the woods with
14:22
Speaker 2: the explicit task of learning something that might help them
14:27
Speaker 2: kill deer, or actively engaging in the act of trying
14:31
Speaker 2: to kill a deer. They don't do a lot of
14:34
Speaker 2: watering in march to maybe scoop up a shed antler
14:38
Speaker 2: or find a fossil or whatever. They aren't going to
14:42
Speaker 2: find that tiny knot filled with water at the base
14:44
Speaker 2: of the tree that some buck might drink out of
14:47
Speaker 2: someday after he gets a little thirsty from eating some acorns.
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Speaker 2: They aren't going to get distracted by all the exposed
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Speaker 2: rock and some ravine that might offer up a few
14:57
Speaker 2: fossils from a time when the earth looked a lot
14:59
Speaker 2: different from what it does today, and that ravine might
15:03
Speaker 2: offer up something cool for the goblin shelf, or it
15:06
Speaker 2: might get you to a spot where the deer cross
15:09
Speaker 2: it simply to go from one side to the other
15:11
Speaker 2: in the easiest route possible. Look, I know this is
15:15
Speaker 2: a hard strategy to sell because it's so random, but
15:19
Speaker 2: I'll give you another example before I sign off on this.
15:21
Speaker 2: One last year, while setting up some blinds in the
15:25
Speaker 2: summer in northern Wisconsin, my daughters and I walked out
15:28
Speaker 2: of a property that I own, and we just took
15:31
Speaker 2: a route that I often don't walk. This property was
15:35
Speaker 2: farmed at one point a long time ago, and one
15:38
Speaker 2: of the remnants of that activity is a big old
15:41
Speaker 2: rock pile. I never pay much attention to it because
15:44
Speaker 2: it really doesn't mean anything to me. But while crossing
15:47
Speaker 2: it with my girls, I spotted a garter snake sunning itself,
15:51
Speaker 2: so we try to catch it, which is what we
15:53
Speaker 2: do with snakes and frogs and most little critters. He
15:56
Speaker 2: was too fast, though, but we did find a rock
15:59
Speaker 2: with a shed snake skin stuck to it, so that
16:01
Speaker 2: ended up on my daughter's goblin shelf as well, and
16:04
Speaker 2: since we were on a snake pattern, got a little distracted,
16:08
Speaker 2: we checked the entire rock pile over to see if
16:10
Speaker 2: we could catch a different one. During that process, I
16:14
Speaker 2: realized that, well, it wasn't a heavy traffic trail. There
16:17
Speaker 2: was a deer trail going right around that rock pile.
16:20
Speaker 2: I guess deer don't like walking on loose rock, which
16:23
Speaker 2: makes sense now. That trail was just interesting enough to
16:27
Speaker 2: get me to put a camera on it, and I
16:29
Speaker 2: got pictures of bucks last summer there that I just
16:33
Speaker 2: never knew existed, and I got to peek into a
16:35
Speaker 2: world of deer travel that I had totally overlooked. In
16:39
Speaker 2: that little process, I also found an apple tree I
16:41
Speaker 2: never knew existed, and discovered a tiny bird nest that
16:45
Speaker 2: my daughter also wanted for a goblin shelf. I guess
16:48
Speaker 2: this is the real message I'm trying to drive home
16:50
Speaker 2: with this one, And even though I've said it before,
16:53
Speaker 2: I want to say it again. I have to find
16:56
Speaker 2: reasons to be in the woods that go beyond the
16:57
Speaker 2: idea of winter scouting or checking a cam or just
17:00
Speaker 2: trying to find a shed outner. It's important for us
17:03
Speaker 2: to be in nature for a lot of reasons that
17:05
Speaker 2: go far beyond killing deer with more frequency. But that
17:09
Speaker 2: is a welcome side benefit. Not only is it generally
17:12
Speaker 2: a good practice to stop looking at your phone and
17:14
Speaker 2: start looking at nature. But staying curious and keeping an
17:18
Speaker 2: open mind while you're out there will get you to
17:20
Speaker 2: go places you wouldn't normally go if you had, you know,
17:24
Speaker 2: different goals about deer. It'll get you into the micro
17:29
Speaker 2: environment instead of staying stuck in the macro, and that
17:32
Speaker 2: is as important as anything if you want to learn
17:34
Speaker 2: about what deer do and what a hell of a
17:37
Speaker 2: lot of other critters do. This goes for just a
17:40
Speaker 2: short walk with the family on your deer lease, you know.
17:43
Speaker 2: It goes for deciding to go troutfish a stream you've
17:46
Speaker 2: always ignored for whatever reason, maybe taking a few hours
17:49
Speaker 2: to walk some public land you have no intention of hunting,
17:52
Speaker 2: but you also have nothing better to do because it's March. Whatever.
17:56
Speaker 2: Find the reasons you need to go where the deer
17:59
Speaker 2: live and some time with them. Fill up that goblin shelf,
18:03
Speaker 2: go hardcore goblin mode, throw a pair of middle fingers
18:07
Speaker 2: up to what you're supposed to do, and have some
18:09
Speaker 2: fun with this stuff. And come back next week because
18:13
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about the logistics of traveling to
18:15
Speaker 2: scout while not going broke. Doing the whole process. That's
18:21
Speaker 2: it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been
18:23
Speaker 2: the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought to
18:25
Speaker 2: you by First Light. As always, thank you so much
18:27
Speaker 2: for listening, and thank you for all of your support.
18:30
Speaker 2: Everybody here at meat Eater we truly appreciate it. Without you, guys,
18:33
Speaker 2: we have nothing, so thank you for that. Now, if
18:37
Speaker 2: you're real bored and you got some time to kill,
18:39
Speaker 2: you want to head over to the medeater dot com
18:42
Speaker 2: and you're going to find tons of articles, tons of podcasts,
18:46
Speaker 2: video series dropping all the time, more than enough entertainment
18:50
Speaker 2: to get you through until we can start catching a
18:52
Speaker 2: few more trout and maybe call in a turkey