Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 486: Foundations - Assessing the Deer Damage and Working Towards Next Season
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your
- 0:10Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to
- 0:15Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Today's show is all about the most important thing you
- 0:22Speaker 1: can do as soon as gun season ends. I realized
- 0:37Speaker 1: the gun season is still going on in many states
- 0:40Speaker 1: and some others hasn't even started yet. The important thing
- 0:43Speaker 1: is that no matter what state you hunt, gun season
- 0:46Speaker 1: does eventually end. When it does, you're going to want
- 0:49Speaker 1: to do a couple of things so that your bow
- 0:51Speaker 1: season can wrap up the way you want, and more importantly,
- 0:55Speaker 1: you can enter the next gun season with the knowledge
- 0:57Speaker 1: of where that you are going to hide out. Any
- 1:11Speaker 1: of you folks out there who are hardcore gun hunters,
- 1:13Speaker 1: please don't take this the wrong way, but there is
- 1:16Speaker 1: a lot of half assuri in the gun hunting world.
- 1:19Speaker 1: There just is. It's okay, and it's not endemic to
- 1:22Speaker 1: the firearm toting crowd because a lot of bow hunters
- 1:24Speaker 1: are prone to half assuri as well. This is just
- 1:27Speaker 1: a reality. A lot of hunters don't want to put
- 1:29Speaker 1: in much effort and it shows. And here's a side
- 1:32Speaker 1: note for all you white tailed lovers. I know you
- 1:35Speaker 1: think your state has the good hunters and the folks
- 1:38Speaker 1: who come in from out of state are the bad hunters.
- 1:40Speaker 1: That's silly. If you don't believe that, just go travel
- 1:43Speaker 1: a few times to kill a deer or some other critter.
- 1:46Speaker 1: You'll soon see that a lot of the less desirable
- 1:49Speaker 1: traits hunters can exhibit. They're kind of ubiquitous across our numbers,
- 1:53Speaker 1: no matter where you live or how much you hate
- 1:55Speaker 1: non residents or even just people who aren't local. Now,
- 1:58Speaker 1: if you're listening to this, what you are, I'm comfortable
- 2:02Speaker 1: saying that you're probably interested in above average effort and
- 2:06Speaker 1: above average results. While most of this podcast has been
- 2:09Speaker 1: dedicated to bow hunting, I want to talk about the
- 2:12Speaker 1: aftermath of gun hunting and how you can use it
- 2:15Speaker 1: to be a better deer hunter, no matter what your
- 2:17Speaker 1: weapon choice is. For starters, let's think about gun season
- 2:22Speaker 1: and what it does to the deer. Essentially, it positions them,
- 2:27Speaker 1: at least during daylight hours, in the places where they
- 2:30Speaker 1: feel safest. That's it. Bow hunting does this as well,
- 2:34Speaker 1: but usually not to the scale of gun season. Pray.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Animals figure out where to go to avoid predators, and
- 2:39Speaker 1: if they don't, they die. They don't want to die,
- 2:42Speaker 1: so they seek out the spots that are most beneficial
- 2:44Speaker 1: to them and their survival. You can see examples of
- 2:49Speaker 1: all kinds efficient game choosing perfect spots in which to
- 2:52Speaker 1: conduct some part of their life. Elk their masters at
- 2:57Speaker 1: this hell, even wild pheas, and know exactly where to
- 3:01Speaker 1: sit so they can catch the sun, see approaching predators,
- 3:04Speaker 1: and have just enough overhead cover to keep a set
- 3:07Speaker 1: of talents from descending from the heavens and crunching them
- 3:10Speaker 1: into rooster patties. Any of you river bass fishermen out
- 3:13Speaker 1: there probably know what a little tiny sand drop can
- 3:17Speaker 1: do to position a school late summer bronze backs so
- 3:20Speaker 1: that if your cast is off ten ft one way
- 3:22Speaker 1: or the other, it's no bueno. You know, runner whopper,
- 3:25Speaker 1: plopper over, or a swim jig through the sweet spot, however,
- 3:29Speaker 1: and it's on. They're there for so many reasons, all
- 3:33Speaker 1: of which keep them safe, keep their batteries charged, and
- 3:37Speaker 1: keep them in a perfect position to whack a couple
- 3:39Speaker 1: of shad that drift a little too close to their
- 3:42Speaker 1: ambush site. Nature has this stuff figured out, and white
- 3:46Speaker 1: tails are no exception. There is no greater highlighter of
- 3:50Speaker 1: this than the general gun season, which puts more deer
- 3:53Speaker 1: hunters in the woods at any given time than any
- 3:56Speaker 1: other event of the entire season or the entire year
- 3:58Speaker 1: for that matter. This is when bucks and does hit
- 4:01Speaker 1: the panic button and they go into hiding, and where
- 4:04Speaker 1: they hide matters to you. What also matters here is
- 4:09Speaker 1: that you understand that your job is just getting started
- 4:13Speaker 1: the day the gun season ends. I honestly think the
- 4:16Speaker 1: most important couple of days for a gun hunter and
- 4:19Speaker 1: if you want to be a better bow hunter, are
- 4:21Speaker 1: those you can spend walking your ground right after the
- 4:24Speaker 1: gun season ends. But you can't walk the easy stuff,
- 4:27Speaker 1: or you'll just confirm false suspicions that all of they
- 4:30Speaker 1: are gone. They aren't. Most likely anyway, They're probably just
- 4:34Speaker 1: in places we don't like to go, and often they
- 4:38Speaker 1: need to be stepped on to get them to move.
- 4:41Speaker 1: This is a point worth reiterating because we talk about
- 4:44Speaker 1: it a lot but rarely experience it. Deer often sit
- 4:49Speaker 1: real tight when danger is close, and if we don't
- 4:52Speaker 1: make them nervous enough to show themselves, they won't and
- 4:55Speaker 1: we won't know they were ever there. Case in point,
- 5:00Speaker 1: personal homestate pheasant hunting tends to really start the week
- 5:03Speaker 1: after our deer season ends in mid November. I've talked
- 5:08Speaker 1: about this a lot, but I'll say it again. The
- 5:10Speaker 1: amount of bucks my dogs and I put up on
- 5:12Speaker 1: public land every year is incredible. They are also often big,
- 5:19Speaker 1: so big, in fact, that I'll bet a lot of
- 5:21Speaker 1: the local deer hunters would never believe they existed in
- 5:24Speaker 1: the county, let alone on tracks of public land that
- 5:28Speaker 1: don't feature a single tree taller than about fifteen feet.
- 5:32Speaker 1: Those willow thicket and cattail dwelling bucks do one of
- 5:35Speaker 1: two things when we walk in. They either bust out
- 5:38Speaker 1: the far side right away, usually with a few roosters
- 5:41Speaker 1: flying overhead, or they sit so tight that we either
- 5:45Speaker 1: walk past them, or we make them nervous by how
- 5:48Speaker 1: close we get. Usually that's within maybe ten or twenty
- 5:52Speaker 1: ft tops. Every season, I just about have a major
- 5:56Speaker 1: chess grabber from bucks that wait until I'm right next
- 5:59Speaker 1: to them before they leave. This is not something that
- 6:02Speaker 1: happens to me every few years. It happens every year.
- 6:05Speaker 1: Multiple times. Those bucks give me and my hunting partners
- 6:08Speaker 1: a perfect look at the spots they chose to ride
- 6:11Speaker 1: out the gun season, which always involves patches of cover
- 6:16Speaker 1: and escape routes. It's honestly so consistent that we're really
- 6:20Speaker 1: no longer surprised when a crashes his way out of
- 6:24Speaker 1: our lives and makes us nearly piss ourselves. I can
- 6:27Speaker 1: promise you that most deer hunters would not believe those
- 6:30Speaker 1: caliber of bucks would be in those places at that time.
- 6:34Speaker 1: But they are there, and I know it because we
- 6:37Speaker 1: go in and we see them. I'd also bet there
- 6:40Speaker 1: are plenty we don't see as well. And this is
- 6:44Speaker 1: not just a gopher state buck thing either. I'm a
- 6:47Speaker 1: certified pheasant loving lunatic, and I see this behavior in Iowa.
- 6:52Speaker 1: I see it in the Dakota's, I see it in Nebraska.
- 6:55Speaker 1: It's a white tail survival thing. And if you're not
- 6:58Speaker 1: in there with them, it probably seen is like random
- 7:00Speaker 1: behavior at best, but it's not. Now. The deer in
- 7:04Speaker 1: your woods, I promise you they do this too, even
- 7:07Speaker 1: if your state has six hundred thousand or hell gun hunters.
- 7:12Speaker 1: Radio collar studies have shown this even on public land
- 7:15Speaker 1: bucks and states like Pennsylvania that has no shortage of
- 7:19Speaker 1: orange clad deer hunters. The first step to this is
- 7:23Speaker 1: to accept that what we know about dear isn't always true.
- 7:28Speaker 1: The bucks you think hop three fences to get into
- 7:31Speaker 1: the peda members would lot, probably don't. They probably don't
- 7:35Speaker 1: leave the section. It might not even bail on the
- 7:38Speaker 1: sixty acres that you hunt. They just slip into a
- 7:41Speaker 1: little patch of broom grass, or drop down a bluff
- 7:43Speaker 1: to hold up next to a deadfall halfway between the
- 7:45Speaker 1: bottom and the top. How do I know this? By accident?
- 7:49Speaker 1: Mostly I never set out to assess the damage a
- 7:52Speaker 1: gun season and find little hidy holes of hidden bucks.
- 7:57Speaker 1: I set out to shoot some roosters with my labs
- 7:59Speaker 1: or a doteg with a muzzle looader. I set out
- 8:02Speaker 1: to do other things because I'd rather hunt than not.
- 8:05Speaker 1: What I found along the way is that there's some
- 8:08Speaker 1: real actionable intel to be had if you can get
- 8:11Speaker 1: into the woods right after the gun season ends. But
- 8:15Speaker 1: you've got to go where it's going to be a struggle.
- 8:18Speaker 1: The good news is if you do, it doesn't matter
- 8:21Speaker 1: if you jump dear hell. That's kind of the goal
- 8:24Speaker 1: when I head out now, to see where the best
- 8:26Speaker 1: sanctuaries are where I hunt. I hope I jumped, dear.
- 8:29Speaker 1: I want to see proof of life, and I want
- 8:31Speaker 1: to know right where they are. So you're probably thinking,
- 8:35Speaker 1: all right, fine, I'll go walk around after the season
- 8:38Speaker 1: is over and intentionally try to bump some deer. That's
- 8:40Speaker 1: the first step, but it's not the only thing. You
- 8:43Speaker 1: have to go in with a plan. Just like any
- 8:45Speaker 1: random scouting trip or even a shed hunting trip. If
- 8:48Speaker 1: you go in just thinking you'll walk until you see
- 8:50Speaker 1: some white flags bounding away, you'll probably default to familiar routes.
- 8:56Speaker 1: This is something that happens all the time, and it
- 8:58Speaker 1: never ceases to amaze me. When I set out to
- 9:00Speaker 1: scout in this style, or even follow bird dogs around
- 9:03Speaker 1: the grousewoods, how often I see the exact same landmarks
- 9:06Speaker 1: I saw last time I hunted or scouted those spots.
- 9:10Speaker 1: When you don't have a real plan, it's easy to
- 9:13Speaker 1: go where you've gone before because the terrain funnels us,
- 9:17Speaker 1: just like it funnels big bucks during the rut. Acknowledge
- 9:21Speaker 1: that understand that it will help you be more efficient.
- 9:24Speaker 1: But this requires a little strategy. To think thick, think
- 9:28Speaker 1: small here, Even in big wood situations, where there's cover everywhere.
- 9:33Speaker 1: Good cover is not everywhere. Advantageous betting areas aren't everywhere either,
- 9:39Speaker 1: they're in the spots that are well. I don't know advantageous.
- 9:43Speaker 1: I guess one of the best examples would be a
- 9:46Speaker 1: little island in the swamp. I don't care if that
- 9:48Speaker 1: swamp is in northern Wisconsin or the deep South somewhere.
- 9:52Speaker 1: A swamp is a swamp, and the dear love them,
- 9:55Speaker 1: particularly when there is a small island high ground that
- 9:59Speaker 1: is almost approachable. Look at those spots, even if you
- 10:03Speaker 1: have to wade to them. In fact, think about really
- 10:06Speaker 1: good cover as islands, whether they are actually islands or not.
- 10:09Speaker 1: The patches of willow, as we so often bump those
- 10:12Speaker 1: Western Minnesota box out of their islands a cover, the
- 10:15Speaker 1: patch of multiflora rose or raspberries or briers and otherwise
- 10:19Speaker 1: deciduous forest also kind of like an island. Consider as well,
- 10:23Speaker 1: checking out the patches of cover that look like good
- 10:25Speaker 1: places to hunt cotton tails. Those are the spots where
- 10:29Speaker 1: deer will hold up. They'll also just utilize the land
- 10:32Speaker 1: left unmolested by hunters. Sometimes this is just a hillside
- 10:36Speaker 1: right next to the cabin. Sometimes it's a plum thicket
- 10:38Speaker 1: close to the highway, Take a long look at your
- 10:41Speaker 1: on X and make a plan to walk those places
- 10:43Speaker 1: you don't usually walk or where you don't usually hunt.
- 10:47Speaker 1: If you have to break this up into a few
- 10:48Speaker 1: different trips, so be it. But pay attention to the
- 10:51Speaker 1: deer sightings. Pay attention to the freshest sign. If you
- 10:55Speaker 1: bump a buck or a dough for that matter, investigate
- 10:58Speaker 1: exactly the location that it came from. Make a little
- 11:02Speaker 1: note on the wind direction to deer hiding places with
- 11:05Speaker 1: wind as a primary driver, and that can come into
- 11:08Speaker 1: play next year. So if you're out there walking around
- 11:10Speaker 1: and you jump a big buck out of a little
- 11:12Speaker 1: patch of cover, was the wind out of the west,
- 11:14Speaker 1: was it out of the north? Why was he there?
- 11:17Speaker 1: And if you don't bump any deer, or at least
- 11:19Speaker 1: aren't aware that you have, the next best thing you
- 11:21Speaker 1: can do is identify smoking fresh sign. I'm not talking
- 11:26Speaker 1: rubs and scrapes here, but instead tracks and beds. I
- 11:30Speaker 1: love fresh tracks when I can find them after the
- 11:32Speaker 1: gun season because they point to deer concentrations. A deer
- 11:37Speaker 1: concentration in a small thicket is a big deal because
- 11:40Speaker 1: it tells you a lot. Even if the deer got
- 11:43Speaker 1: out three minutes before you got in, they will have
- 11:45Speaker 1: left clues and they will come back to that spot
- 11:48Speaker 1: tomorrow and next year. For your bow hunters out there,
- 11:52Speaker 1: this is important stuff too, even if you abhor gun
- 11:55Speaker 1: hunters and think that gun hunters are lower than weasel
- 11:58Speaker 1: spit while holding your own team a little higher than
- 12:01Speaker 1: the drafts balls. Where those vile gun hunters push the
- 12:04Speaker 1: deer is a place you want to be aware of.
- 12:07Speaker 1: This can help you put together a late season plan
- 12:09Speaker 1: if you need to, or just file away a sanctuary
- 12:12Speaker 1: for next bow season. If this seems crazy, just go
- 12:17Speaker 1: out and give it a shot. You'll find something that
- 12:19Speaker 1: is remarkably consistent in my world, and that is these
- 12:23Speaker 1: guns season save zones are often full of rubs and
- 12:26Speaker 1: other bucks signed as well. It's no secret that the
- 12:29Speaker 1: top dog in your woods is also going to occupy
- 12:32Speaker 1: the safest places, and there's no time he needs security
- 12:36Speaker 1: more than gun season. If you hunt a place with
- 12:39Speaker 1: even mild pressure, this can come into play. If you
- 12:42Speaker 1: hunt public land or other super pressure ground, it's almost
- 12:45Speaker 1: a guarantee the bucks are going to use the spots
- 12:48Speaker 1: that keep them alive, and the best way to find
- 12:50Speaker 1: them is often to put on some miles right now,
- 12:54Speaker 1: of course, you might run into something that doesn't do
- 12:55Speaker 1: you much good. Probably six years ago, I was walking
- 12:58Speaker 1: a small property during US at older season here in
- 13:01Speaker 1: my home state of Minnesota, when I bumped a good
- 13:03Speaker 1: buck out of a patrick broom grass. The whole thing
- 13:07Speaker 1: was maybe the size of a pickup truck, and I
- 13:09Speaker 1: just happened to walk right next to it on my
- 13:11Speaker 1: way to look at a spot. That buck busted outa
- 13:14Speaker 1: there on the other side and took off. He wasn't
- 13:17Speaker 1: huge by like Iowa standards, but he was a stud
- 13:20Speaker 1: for this this part of Minnesota, and he was bettered
- 13:23Speaker 1: in a stupid little patch of grass that did me
- 13:25Speaker 1: absolutely no good as far as I could tell. No,
- 13:28Speaker 1: I don't know. I take that back now. When I
- 13:30Speaker 1: see a patch of grass, I think about him every
- 13:33Speaker 1: single time, and often send my dogs into them to
- 13:37Speaker 1: see if there's any Chinese chickens hiding in there. Oftentimes
- 13:40Speaker 1: there are, because good cover is just good cover. So
- 13:43Speaker 1: that buck did teach me a lesson, even if his
- 13:46Speaker 1: spot on that property didn't do me a whole lot
- 13:49Speaker 1: of good as far as actually killing him or any
- 13:51Speaker 1: other deer there. That's the real lesson here, my friends.
- 13:54Speaker 1: I know I've painted this as a move that will
- 13:56Speaker 1: get you in the long game with deer in a
- 13:58Speaker 1: better way, but it also gets into the woods at
- 14:02Speaker 1: a time when most folks aren't in the woods. Most
- 14:05Speaker 1: bow hunters have largely packed it in for the year,
- 14:07Speaker 1: and of course all gun hunters have unless they are
- 14:10Speaker 1: poachers who don't think the season dates apply to them.
- 14:13Speaker 1: Time in the woods doing what others won't. That's the
- 14:17Speaker 1: key to filling more tags. It's also the key to
- 14:20Speaker 1: enjoying hunting more because it allows you to make better
- 14:23Speaker 1: decisions at your home farm and when you're on the road.
- 14:26Speaker 1: But why is that experience? Experience is the difference maker
- 14:32Speaker 1: from the hunter who says, I don't know they're all nocturnal,
- 14:35Speaker 1: or they're all dead in someone's freezer, versus the person
- 14:38Speaker 1: who says, I bet there are a few deer down
- 14:40Speaker 1: along the river in that old homestead, or the person who,
- 14:43Speaker 1: instead of hunting two days of gun season waving the
- 14:45Speaker 1: white flag, goes to a backup stand midweek that is
- 14:49Speaker 1: positioned over a gnarly thicket and allows for only close shots.
- 14:53Speaker 1: It's the secret to becoming a better hunter versus hoping
- 14:57Speaker 1: just enough time on the same stands, or maybe a
- 15:00Speaker 1: bottle of fresh dope will bring a buck in. If
- 15:02Speaker 1: you know where they go to feel safe, you are
- 15:05Speaker 1: never out of the game, even if you can't easily
- 15:08Speaker 1: hunt that spot, which is almost a given now again,
- 15:12Speaker 1: except that for what it is, and use it as
- 15:14Speaker 1: best you can. Maybe there is only one wind direction
- 15:18Speaker 1: that allows you to hunt them when they are all
- 15:19Speaker 1: bunched up and mostly not willing to move. Or maybe
- 15:22Speaker 1: you can use that as an origination point for the
- 15:25Speaker 1: best remaining deer on your property as you slide into
- 15:28Speaker 1: the late season and hope for a buzzer beater buck.
- 15:31Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how you individually would use that information
- 15:34Speaker 1: if you don't gather it in the first place. So
- 15:37Speaker 1: oil up that rifle, put it in the gun safe,
- 15:40Speaker 1: but don't set your boots on the shelf yet. Make
- 15:43Speaker 1: a plan to walk your ground, and if you're really ambitious,
- 15:46Speaker 1: walk some of the public land you're just curious about hunting.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Take note of deer sightings, take note of fresh sign
- 15:54Speaker 1: build yourself a picture of what happens when the going
- 15:57Speaker 1: gets really tough for the deer and they enter toe
- 16:00Speaker 1: survival mode. Those places that allow them to exist when
- 16:04Speaker 1: the masses are trying to shoot them are the key
- 16:06Speaker 1: to the whole pressure dear thing. And you can get
- 16:08Speaker 1: a giant jump on the competition right now by trying
- 16:12Speaker 1: to figure out exactly where those places are. And as
- 16:16Speaker 1: a side no, let me say something else. If you
- 16:18Speaker 1: do this, you're very likely to find some dead deer
- 16:21Speaker 1: where I hunt. In Minnesota, deer drives are very popular.
- 16:25Speaker 1: This means I find dead heads quite often when scouting
- 16:28Speaker 1: right after the gun season. I personally really don't bother
- 16:31Speaker 1: with them for a couple of reasons. The main one
- 16:33Speaker 1: is that the deer head count in my house is
- 16:36Speaker 1: already nearly at the point where it's going to get
- 16:38Speaker 1: me divorced. The second is I don't want to go
- 16:40Speaker 1: through the hassle of getting a possession tag now. Laws
- 16:43Speaker 1: vary from state to state on this. In fact, Mark
- 16:46Speaker 1: covered this in a topic on the wire to Hunt
- 16:48Speaker 1: YouTube channel earlier this year. While a lot of folks
- 16:51Speaker 1: think they can just go saw the head, skull plate
- 16:54Speaker 1: or antlers off and take those things home, that's not
- 16:57Speaker 1: the case. In many states. This is good information sation
- 17:00Speaker 1: to know before you head out to cover some miles
- 17:02Speaker 1: in the days following the gun season, because that's the
- 17:04Speaker 1: best time I've ever seen to run across recently killed bucks. Lastly,
- 17:09Speaker 1: if you're a muzzleloader hunter who has a late season
- 17:12Speaker 1: tag left in your state, you might just put together
- 17:15Speaker 1: a real winning strategy to become a hero with a
- 17:18Speaker 1: front stuffer, which is actually the topic of I don't
- 17:21Speaker 1: know the next week, maybe two foundations, so you're gonna
- 17:25Speaker 1: want to tune in for those. That's it for this week,
- 17:30Speaker 1: my friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the
- 17:32Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast. As always, thank you so
- 17:35Speaker 1: much for listening. If you want more deer hunting advice,
- 17:38Speaker 1: please check out our YouTube videos at the wire to
- 17:40Speaker 1: Hunt channel and visit the media here dot com slash
- 17:44Speaker 1: wired to read our latest and greatest articles.