Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 495: Foundations - Building a Late-Season Bowhunting Strategy

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Ep. 495: Foundations - Building a Late-Season Bowhunting Strategy · 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.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Today's episode is all about the toughest time to arrow
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a deer for most of us, which is, of course,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the late season. There's a lot of conventional, typical white
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: tail hunting advice that makes me throw up in my
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: mouth a little bit. Nothing causes that involuntary wretching quite
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: like someone who manages a big chunk of primo private
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: ground who says something like, we just have to hunt
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the food sources for those rut depleted bucks. For most
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of us, see in the late December buck. That's a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: huge win, let alone seeing a mature buck out in
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: daylight with his nose to the ground in search of
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: some calories. When you deal with pressure deer that might
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: not happen in your entire life. Knowing that it's best
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to develop a realistic plan based on low, low, low standards,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: which is what I'm going to talk about right now.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: It happens almost every time someone at one of my
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: deer hunting seminars will ask me how do you hunt
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: late season bucks? The question, while not actually that specific,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: is really meant to get me to spill the beans
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: on how do I kill big late season bucks? Now,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I've disappointed a lot of people in my life, as
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: your listeners are probably pretty well aware of by now.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: But nothing causes people to lose their faith in me
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: quicker than when I answer that question with I don't.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I don't really hunt late season bucks specifically, at least
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I almost never do, and I never ever ever target
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: mature bucks in the late season. In fact, I'm not
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: sure that in my twenty eight seasons of bull hunting
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: white tails pretty hard, that I've ever seen a December
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: buck that would crack one thirty that wasn't eating corn
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: under a feeder in Texas. In my home state of Minnesota,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I can't recall ever seeing a big buck in December
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: while I was actually on stand. I've certainly never aarrowed
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: one here or across the river in Wisconsin, where I
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: spend the bulk of my late season time. In fact,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I think that for most of us this might represent
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: a challenge that is quite a bit harder than killing
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a bull elk in and over the counter unit in Colorado,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: which is saying something I know a lot of Western
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: hunters would probably scoff at that, but to be fair,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they probably don't know what the hell they're talking about either. Now,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I also know that some of the folks listening to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: this are in the Deep South and really only getting
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: into the good part of their season now, so understand
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: that a lot of this advice in this podcast just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: needs to be pushed back or maybe move forward a
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: little bit to fit into the world you live in.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But the same general rules kind of apply. I shall
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: also say this the late season food thing that every
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: TV show host or Instagram influencer is pushing right now,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: that's a real strategy. If you have the spot, low pressure,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: good food, and yep, you can sit out there in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the afternoon and shoot a deer, even a big buck.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But as I've said before, if you have that kind
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of spot, you probably don't need to listen to some
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: dude like me giving hunting advice. Deer hunting is a
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: wildly variable pastime, and some folks have a great option
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: to sit on a food plot or a cut cornfield
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and wait out the bucks that are down about twenty
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: of their body weight in the last five or six weeks.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Those hungry deer will come and life will be good
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: for them. For the hunters, I mean, not the deer.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: For the rest of us, the first thing is to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: really understand the challenge of arrowing a late season buck
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: on pressured ground after the general firearm season has blazed
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: on through. For starters, you're probably dealing with about eighty
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: percent of the deer you were just a few weeks ago.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And those deer that are left, they're not much into
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: making mistakes. They also understand that if they are going
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: to get shot at, it's most likely going to happen
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: during the hours when the sun is up. In some places,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: unscrupulous losers don't abide by that, but we can't factor
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: them in, even if in some regions the deer probably
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: have to. For most of us, we are just hunting
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: deer that have been conditioned to be as cautious as possible. That,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: coupled with the northern hemisphere tipping a little farther away
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: from the big nuclear generator in the sky every day,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: means that the amount of light in the deer woods
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't leave us much to work with. And doesn't leave
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the deer with a huge sacrifice to stay bedded or
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: at least deep in the cover when it's not dark out.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: That sucks, but it's a first world problem, and it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: something we can sometimes overcome. Infomercial voice here, But wait,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: there's more. It gets worse. You're also dealing with open woods,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: real see through from one end of the other. Open
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: woods and real cold snow can be a blessing to
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the late season hunter, but ice rarely is. If you've
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: never crunched your way through the woods on icy leaves,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: or post hold your way through the snowpack that was
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: topped off with the lid ice, let me tell you
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: haven't lived. Those conditions will allow you to spook the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: already spooky deer right out of the county. All right,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Have you had enough of the downer talk? Because I have.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: There are some positives to late season bow hunting. For starters.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: You might be the only one dumb enough to be
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: out there. I've seen this on private land. I've seen
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: it on public land, and while it's little consolation, it
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: is something. Having an entire property to yourself at least
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: gives you some options and another check in the plus
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: column is that the conditions often allow you to easily scout.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Snow is an obvious benefit here, but even if you
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: live down farther south, where it's a rarity to wake
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: up to a winter wonderland, you probably deal with wet
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: lacas and conditions. When I'm looking for a place to
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: arrow a last minute dear, as I've mentioned in many
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: of these recent episodes, I simply look four tracks. The more,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the merrier, and often the wintry conditions. Whether you're down
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: south or up here up north, we'll quickly reveal where
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: those spots probably are. That's a start, and it's not nothing,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: my friends. It's also something that helps you stay positive
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: as a deer hunter through just believing you're around some
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: deer activity. And while it's easy to glom onto the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: negatives and nearly invite failure with a piss poor attitude,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: this stuff all somewhat balances out, and looking at the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: positives as a gift surely helps. Now, the hunting is
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: going to be tough, but the scouting has never been easier.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: That's something. And better than that even is that if
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: there was ever a time to lower your standards and
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: just hunt deer. It's right now. If anyone gives you
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: shit about that, ask them how many late season public
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: landb booners they've killed. I promise you the answer will
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: be zero. And if you've got a buck tag, lower
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: your standards to whatever would make you happy. If that's
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: any buck spikes on up, target those deer and apologize
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: to no one. If you've got a dough tag left,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: target all the deer that don't have antlers. That's what
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I usually do in the late season, and honestly, it
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: makes the whole thing a lot fun, but it doesn't
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: make it easy. It can if you're only in it
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: for the does make it easier to find a private
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: place to hunt. This happened to me last season on
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a farm near my house. Now, while the owner and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: his son are nuts over big bucks, they really couldn't
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: care less about does. They're also, I'll put this delicately,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: not the most hardcore hunters I've ever met. If it
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't happen for them during pock on season, it doesn't happen.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: They give up, and that leaves the farm and the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: does on it to anyone willing to ask him. Now,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: last year, that's what I did and while I did
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: narrow a deer, I sure did have a lot of
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: fun getting busted by several of them. Everywhere I went
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I saw does, and actually quite a few bucks. But
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the does were my only green lit deer, and as
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: close as I got on several occasions, and never had
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a single one that didn't bust me drawing or maneuvering
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: into shop position. It was a good reminder that the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: dumb deer are dead by December, and if they aren't,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: they're hanging around with deer who are not dumb. Now,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: if you want any deer or any dough, the late
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: season might open up some doors for you. That's worth
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: asking if you have an inkling that a landowner might
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: let you in. This might be someone who manages for
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: good bucks, or a farmer who doesn't particularly like white
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: tails eating his crop, but who also gets together with
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: his friends and relatives to hunt the gun season. But
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: by the late season that farmer might not really care
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: who makes a pass said his late season dear, why
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: not let that be you? This strategy, I might add,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: can also get you into the good graces of a
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: landowner who could become a real friend. At some point.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: The person who says it's only doze this year might
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: also see you as a conscientious hunter who doesn't block
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: his field drives or leave his gates open, and who
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: really appreciates the gift that is hunting permission. It might
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: lead you to full on hunting privileges, which has happened
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: to me a few times in my life. And let
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: me tell you something, it's awesome. And if it doesn't,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the worst you've got is still a chance to hunt
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: some deer, and maybe you'll get to hunt some turkeys
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: in the spring or something. It's worth the ask. Now
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: this time of year, you might also find something else
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: that's pretty surprising and very welcome. You might find decent
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: hunting on public land. Well ah scratch that you might
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: find better than terrible hunting on public land. The secret
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to a lot of land that becomes public is that
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: it's not harmable. It's not tillable, which means it's often
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: covered in well cover. That's where late season dear will
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: often congregate to find geo thermal cover. While it might
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: seem like a ghost town the weekend after rifle season
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: rages through, by the time a month has passed, you
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: might see a different story out there. This happened to
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: me a long time ago, and the lessons stuck. I
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: was hunting public land in December in Minnesota while I
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was in high school. My goal then was to shoot
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: any deer, and it was no small task to make
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: that happen. With a fresh snowfall, a free afternoon, and
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: no real plan, I set out along a dried up
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: creek bed on some state land near the town of Lanesborough.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: After covering a couple hundred yards, I started to see
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: deep trails etched in the snow and more tracks than
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I could hardly believe. One spot, kind of a little bowl,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: was covered in fresh deer sign It also featured a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: bunch of green, reedy like plants poking out of the
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: snow that I'd later come to learn are scouring rush horsetail.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: This seasonal food source doesn't seem to be all that
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: appealing in September to the deer, but it's like the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: only green game in town for some wintering deer, so
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: they tend to pound it in the late season. I
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: set up behind a tree on a bank overlooking that spot,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and within a few minutes watched a fuzzy dophon walk
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: down the trail. Her hair was all puffed up in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the cold, and I managed to muster up a clean
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: miss at eight yards. Tack that up to fawn fever,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: my friends, which is an embarrassing condition to have. Honestly,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: I won't ship my pants in a grocery store as
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: an adult, and that was less humiliating than whipping on
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a fawn at a distance where I could have damn
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: near petted her. Anyway. I never got another shot that night,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: but I saw a lot of deer and I realized something.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I'd expected the hunting to be terrible, and it was
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: actually pretty awesome, and it was on public land. Since then,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I've randomly encountered enough winning cover and enough of the
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: right conditions on public land to lead is some really
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: fun late season hunting every once in a while. Now,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: mind you, it was never any good for giant bucks,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: but for fun hunting that at least promised and encounter
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: with a freezer filler, it was pretty damn good. The
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: key here is to go out and look around like
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I've been preaching all fall, Like I kind of preached
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: all last summer. You might think that the public land
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: down the road is worthless this late in the season.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: But do you really know that? If you don't, you
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: can find out with a quick walk through there. Of course,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: if you find Dear, you've got to hunt them. You've
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: got to hunt them. Well. Now, I'm going to cover
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: this a lot in next week's episode, but i'll say
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: a few teaser things now. First off, dead quiet conditions
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: are your enemy. Late season. Dear will hear you draw,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and they'll let you understand just how intolerant of mistakes
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: they really are. This is why distance to your likely
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: shot matters too close and too calm, and you'll watch
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: lots of white tails bound off through the woods too
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: far in your ability to make a good shot while
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: you're all bundled up and out of practice. You'll be
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: in trouble there too. Late season bow hunting is a
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: real challenge if you're not sitting in a box, blind
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: over a food plot with a heater running, sitting on
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the ground or in a saddle, or stand up in
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: a tree. Now it is a really great way to
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: find out how good you are at hiding yourself, how
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: good you are at moving like a ninja, and how
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: much you really operate in the fluid way versus clunky
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and loud and basically in a manner that gets you busted.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Now you're probably thinking, I know how tough it is, man.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I want you to tell me how to kill deer,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: not how to not kill deer. Fair enough, This is
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: what I do. I look for fresh sign around, real cover.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: The open woods are not your friend right now. So
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: anything that offers a little better, a little thicker cover,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: that's your friend. That's where the deer will bed, that's
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: where the deer will stage, and that's where the deer
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: will travel in the daylight hours. I do factor in
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: food because that's where the deer are going eventually, but
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I rarely set up over it unless I find something
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: similar to my opening night strategy, which means that once
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: in a while you will find a corner of a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: bean field that didn't get picked, or a cut corn
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: field that's tucked way back in below a hill and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: totally not visible to the road glasses and the hunters
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: who won't get out and work for deer. You do
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: find this occasionally, and when you do, it's pretty dangn cool.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: It's fun to sit there knowing the odds are really
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: good that some deer going to show up, and if
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: they do, you better make good on it because those
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: spots are great places to spook deer when you leave.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So you might only get two chances if you spread
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: them out, or if the spot is really hot, hunt
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: them back to back, but three or four times you'll
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: probably really be pushing it. Now if you don't find this,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: or you do and you burn it to the ground
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: right away and you still got a tag, you gotta
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: get in that cover. Always get to the best cover.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: You might be thinking that you hunt, I don't know,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the swamps or whatever, and finding cover really is and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the problem. You might be a big woods hunter and go, well,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: let's cover everywhere, man, but very few tracks of timber
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: or mono to the max. And what I mean by
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that is that there's a soft edge out there with
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: better cover, or there's a patch of tamaracks or an
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: old homestead, or there's something that offers the deer a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: better survival advantage. Over in the big Northwoods Wisconsin, I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: often find that the places where the grouse live now
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: so to do the deer. Both animals are on the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: menu of a lot of the animals over there. So
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: creek bottoms, the right age, clear cuts, or just certain
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: hillsides that receive a little extra sun and aren't canopied
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: out might just do it. All of this is a
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: big question mark until you get in there and you
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: start to look around. Now. Of course, just like every
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: other point of the year, you can spot deer and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: food sources, or see obvious tracks and do some sleuthing.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: You can also make use of observation sits, which is
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: a real option right now with a visibility as high
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: as it will be all year. I'm always surprised how
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: often I sit in December and I see deer filtering
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: through woods that look pretty open, but absolutely swallows them
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: up the moment they stopped. In fact, I probably eight
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: years ago I shot a little buck in December after
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: stumbling onto this fact. I had burned a small food
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: plot right out and just went looking on the twenty
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: nine acre property I was hunting. One dough on the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: edge of the wet land led me to a closer look,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and I realized they were about four acres of swampy
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: brushy willows and dogwood that looked to be a good
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: spot for betting and browsing and staging. The first night
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that the wind was right, I came in along a
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: busy highway and then hung a stand while the din
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of rush hour ramped up four hundred yards from me.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Soon after the dark, figures of deer browsing caught my attention,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and the first year to show up was a little
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: buck that made a big mistake of getting about three
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: yards from my stand a week earlier. And I'd have
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: bet you money that there weren't more than a few
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: deer on any given day they get within two yards
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of that property, let alone actually set hoof on it.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: But they were there, like they almost always are. I
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: just wasn't looking in the right spots now that night,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I had a strong north wind to cover my movement,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and in every case where I've ever arrowed a late
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: season white tail, I've had something conditionwise that gave me
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: an advantage. I also had a little luck, some fresh intel,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: and a willingness to just hunt deer, which is the
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: real crux of this episode. If you're in the true
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: late part of your bow season and you're not sitting
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: on primo ground, ask yourself what you really want to do,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: answer it honestly, and if you want to keep hunting
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: and enjoying it, that might involve lowering your standards and
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: accepting what little advantages this part of the season gives you,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: like concentrated deer, fewer hunters in the woods, and really
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the chance to keep hunting when everyone else has moved on.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: That's enough to keep going, but not enough to actually
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: get it done, which is what next week is really
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: all about. The fine details of a good set up
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and how to work through a shot opportunity so that
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it breaks your way and not the deers, which is
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: easier said than done. That's it for this week, my friends.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson and this is the Wired Hunt Foundations podcast.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: If you're interested in more white tailed wisdom, please check
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: out our Wired Hunt YouTube channel and visit the meat
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Eator dot com slash wired. As always, thank you so
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: much for the support.