Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 709: Foundations - Gambling Versus Investing In The Deer Woods

Transcript

Ep. 709: Foundations - Gambling Versus Investing In The Deer Woods · 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,
0:23
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:26
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about the right way
0:29
Speaker 2: to approach long game whitetails. If there is a white
0:43
Speaker 2: tail time that teaches you whether you did things right
0:45
Speaker 2: this year, it's probably the end of October, after all,
0:50
Speaker 2: you know, the pre ruts kicking in kind of you're
0:53
Speaker 2: starting to hear people say they saw bucks chasing. You know,
0:56
Speaker 2: at least if you live in the North Country, the
0:58
Speaker 2: promise is real and this year it's the year for you.
1:03
Speaker 2: But what if it's not, Or what if you go
1:05
Speaker 2: out and it's supposed to be awesome and it sucks.
1:08
Speaker 2: What if the bucks don't come running when you're blowing
1:10
Speaker 2: on your Phelps grunt call or you're doing your best
1:12
Speaker 2: buck fight impression with their rattle bag, Well you might
1:16
Speaker 2: be what I'd affectually refer to as a deer hunting
1:19
Speaker 2: gambler when really you should be an investor. Allow me
1:22
Speaker 2: to explain myself as a sober dude who would rather
1:30
Speaker 2: not set fire to his money. I can't think of
1:33
Speaker 2: a worse place to be than a casino. It's not
1:36
Speaker 2: my jam. And even though I kind of actually like
1:39
Speaker 2: playing blackjack and poker, I'm not very good at either
1:42
Speaker 2: one of them. You have to be able to think
1:44
Speaker 2: about numbers beyond the level of a toddler to be
1:46
Speaker 2: any good at cards, and I can't, so I'm not.
1:50
Speaker 2: Casinos are a big case study in human psychology. People
1:55
Speaker 2: go in with the promise that they might win big,
1:58
Speaker 2: and almost always they don't. In fact, the truth is
2:02
Speaker 2: that every casino game is designed to give the house
2:05
Speaker 2: better odds than the player, every single game. Now, blackjack
2:10
Speaker 2: players have pretty good odds, well compared to other games.
2:13
Speaker 2: You know, the odds of winning blackjack are slightly less
2:16
Speaker 2: than a coin flip. The folks sitting down thinking they
2:19
Speaker 2: are due for a face card and an ace are
2:21
Speaker 2: mostly destined to lose via a war of attrition against
2:24
Speaker 2: the house. Craps has nearly the same odds, maybe slightly better,
2:29
Speaker 2: but again not good enough to get your mortgage paid
2:32
Speaker 2: on a consistent basis. Roulette offers roughly the same deal.
2:37
Speaker 2: The odds is sitting down at a slot machine and winning.
2:40
Speaker 2: They're far worse, although it depends a little bit on
2:42
Speaker 2: the game. You don't really have to even go to
2:45
Speaker 2: a casino to gamble. You can bet on sports these days.
2:48
Speaker 2: You can eat gas station sushi and then go powerlift
2:51
Speaker 2: at the gym an hour later. You can buy a
2:53
Speaker 2: puppy and not tell your significant other. Or you can
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Speaker 2: listen to the financial media and buy a bunch of
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Speaker 2: stock and some company that is bound to be the
3:00
Speaker 2: next Google or Apple. This one might be the worst
3:04
Speaker 2: because that doesn't really feel like a gamble after all.
3:07
Speaker 2: How could a company that makes cutting edge artificial intelligence
3:11
Speaker 2: that is going to change our lives for the better
3:13
Speaker 2: ever really go down in value? Or I don't know,
3:17
Speaker 2: how could a company that is three D printing rockets
3:20
Speaker 2: to send a space to bring down the cost of
3:22
Speaker 2: delivering satellites into orbit and not succeed. Well, a lot
3:27
Speaker 2: of companies are working on AI and there will only
3:29
Speaker 2: be a few really big winners, And I don't know,
3:32
Speaker 2: rockets explode on the launch pad all the time. High
3:36
Speaker 2: level employees em bezel money or do worse things. Pandemics happen,
3:40
Speaker 2: Disruptive technologies you won't see coming show up on the scene,
3:43
Speaker 2: and quite often our own impatience and ignorance gets us
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Speaker 2: to buy in after the hype train has already gone through,
3:50
Speaker 2: and then sell as soon as the euphoria fades and
3:53
Speaker 2: reality sets in. Buying individual equities also known as stock
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Speaker 2: and publicly traded companies is amble. It can make you rich,
4:02
Speaker 2: probably won't. Buying ETF some mutual funds that hold the
4:06
Speaker 2: entire domestic market or the entire international market, or an
4:10
Speaker 2: equal way to every company in the s and P
4:11
Speaker 2: Five hundred is a different story, provided your timeline is
4:15
Speaker 2: sufficiently long and you're patient enough. It's also boring, But
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Speaker 2: if you want to get rich kids, or at least
4:22
Speaker 2: be wealthy enough to potentially retire early, this is the way.
4:26
Speaker 2: It's not fun, it's not quick, but it is the
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Speaker 2: best way to do it. Start early, invest more than
4:32
Speaker 2: you think you can, and let the power of time
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Speaker 2: and compounding do its thing for you. Check back in oh,
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Speaker 2: I don't know, thirty years and feel free to send
4:41
Speaker 2: me a healthy tip, you know, because I'm the guy
4:43
Speaker 2: who convinced you to be responsible with your money. There
4:46
Speaker 2: are other ways to do it. You know. You can
4:48
Speaker 2: invest in real estate. That's a big one right now.
4:51
Speaker 2: But that's something that sounds easy and can come with
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Speaker 2: a whole bunch of risks and other headaches. Essentially, if
4:57
Speaker 2: it's popular and sexy and sounds exciting, probably a bad route.
5:02
Speaker 2: Stick to boring and time tested when it comes to
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Speaker 2: your money. Now, I know you won't fully listen to me,
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Speaker 2: so let me give you one example of how I
5:10
Speaker 2: have come to be so wise. When I first started investing,
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Speaker 2: I was super duper clueless. I also found myself in
5:17
Speaker 2: a conversation with a buddy of mine who does marketing
5:20
Speaker 2: work for a whole bunch of outdoor companies. At the time,
5:23
Speaker 2: which was probably about fifteen years ago, those companies were
5:27
Speaker 2: all in on magnets, on packs and clothes and biny
5:30
Speaker 2: harnesses and such. He and I were talking about this,
5:33
Speaker 2: and he mentioned that he was investing heavily into rare
5:37
Speaker 2: earth mineral companies, you know, the miners and the processors.
5:41
Speaker 2: His spiel was impressive. After all, rare earth minerals have
5:45
Speaker 2: to be rare, and they are used in all kinds
5:47
Speaker 2: of things like hunting, backpacks and smartphones. So I did
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Speaker 2: something really dumb. I went out and found a company
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Speaker 2: that was all about this rare earth mineral life and
5:56
Speaker 2: better yet, their stock was like thirty cents of share cheap, right,
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Speaker 2: So I dumped a grand into it, and then started
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Speaker 2: learning that rare earth minerals aren't that rare, and nearly
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Speaker 2: the entire market is controlled by China. I also learned
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Speaker 2: that the company I had staked my future on didn't
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Speaker 2: have much of a future, and when they went belly up,
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Speaker 2: I got an expensive education. We are hard wired to
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Speaker 2: gamble because we love surprising rewards. This makes us susceptible
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Speaker 2: to our own psychology, and that's bad news and so
6:28
Speaker 2: many different things in life. One of those things is
6:31
Speaker 2: you freaking guessed it windsurfing just kidding. Well, I don't know,
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Speaker 2: Maybe that does seem like kind of a gamble, but
6:38
Speaker 2: obviously here I'm talking about deer hunting. As I mentioned
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Speaker 2: in the intro, you're probably as optimistic now as you'll
6:45
Speaker 2: be all season. The best couple of weeks of the
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Speaker 2: season are upon us, and there's nothing standing between you
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Speaker 2: and a giant dead buck. But you know, a little
6:54
Speaker 2: time in the saddle are a blind. Now, that might
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Speaker 2: be true, but it's probably not. It's far more likely,
7:01
Speaker 2: because the odds don't really lie, that you'll be one
7:04
Speaker 2: of the eighty percent issh or so of bow hunters
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Speaker 2: who don't kill a deer this year. Factor in mature bucks,
7:11
Speaker 2: and it's far more likely that that number is probably
7:13
Speaker 2: closer to ninety seven or ninety eight percent of people
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Speaker 2: don't kill one, maybe even a little higher. You know,
7:19
Speaker 2: I'm not a math guy. I remember that. But here's
7:21
Speaker 2: the thing, though. You can gamble on deer hunting, or
7:25
Speaker 2: you can invest in your success. You can do a
7:27
Speaker 2: little both, actually, or a little one and a lot
7:30
Speaker 2: of the other. But I don't want to go there yet.
7:33
Speaker 2: I want to explain this concept first. Investing in your
7:36
Speaker 2: success involves a lot of things. It involves scouting. You know.
7:41
Speaker 2: Of course, if you don't scout enough, you're not going
7:43
Speaker 2: to be very good at deer hunting without having you
7:47
Speaker 2: know the keys to an amazing spot. I keep saying
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Speaker 2: this and people keep asking me what the secret is
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Speaker 2: to being more successful. It's scouting, you know, as if
7:56
Speaker 2: I'm keeping something secret to myself here. Believe me, I'm not.
8:00
Speaker 2: It's not complicated. Scouting is like setting that automatic withdrawal
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Speaker 2: from your paycheck every pay period. At first you go
8:08
Speaker 2: with ten percent because that's a nice round number and
8:10
Speaker 2: allows you to take advantage of your employer match. Then
8:12
Speaker 2: you get a five percent raise, so you bump up
8:15
Speaker 2: your contributions by two or three percent. It's boring, not
8:19
Speaker 2: fun at all, but it is a great way to
8:21
Speaker 2: stave off lifestyle creep wile also investing in your future.
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Speaker 2: Scouting is that move, It's that strategy. The time spent
8:30
Speaker 2: walking the winter woods in March, that's an investment. Your
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Speaker 2: summer glassing sessions, the mid morning sneaky session you make
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Speaker 2: into a spot right now this week, just to see
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Speaker 2: what it looks like. That's responsibly investing in your deer
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Speaker 2: hunting future, maybe the immediate future, or maybe three seasons
8:47
Speaker 2: down the road. And it goes beyond that. Every shot
8:51
Speaker 2: you take at the range, every arrow you index to
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Speaker 2: a specific broadhead, every time you pack your gear specific
8:58
Speaker 2: way so you don't forget any thing. Every time you
9:01
Speaker 2: sneak in to check a camera and pay close attention
9:04
Speaker 2: to making as little disturbance as possible. All of this
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Speaker 2: stuff is mostly mundane but highly necessary. Think of the
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Speaker 2: boring stuff you do or should do, and look at that.
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Speaker 2: Look at each thing like it's a little investment in
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Speaker 2: your future. This is because it's true, and this does
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Speaker 2: a couple things for you. It makes you a better
9:27
Speaker 2: hunter because you're getting the work done. That's a simple one.
9:31
Speaker 2: But it also conditions you to do the work and
9:33
Speaker 2: to be mindful of the details, to be disciplined. It
9:37
Speaker 2: puts you in the mindset of someone who takes care
9:39
Speaker 2: of business. And that's not nothing. My friends. There are
9:43
Speaker 2: patterns to our behavior in ways we can either encourage
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Speaker 2: the right ones or lean into the negative ones. Get
9:50
Speaker 2: into the right ones. Condition yourself to be the kind
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Speaker 2: of hunter who takes care of this stuff all year long,
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Speaker 2: because when it's the last week of October, your chances
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Speaker 2: of success will be so much higher than folks who
10:02
Speaker 2: don't do this. Just like the person who puts away
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Speaker 2: fifteen percent of their gross pay for three decades or
10:08
Speaker 2: somewhere around there is going to be so happy to retire,
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Speaker 2: while the person who buys lottery tickets each week and
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Speaker 2: doesn't save is going to have an ugly moment of
10:17
Speaker 2: reckoning at some point. The other thing this does for
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Speaker 2: you is keeps you from gambling irresponsibly. And what do
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Speaker 2: I mean when I'm talking about this with deer hunting? Well,
10:38
Speaker 2: it's something I've mentioned a lot, but let's make this personal.
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Speaker 2: Do you own any deer calls? How many bottles of
10:45
Speaker 2: dope have you bought for this season? When you go
10:48
Speaker 2: out hunting? Do you always put out a cent wi
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Speaker 2: with some dope on it? Are you always trying to
10:53
Speaker 2: add something extra to your sits to increase your odds?
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Speaker 2: Let me ask you, why is it? Because you believe
11:01
Speaker 2: that this stuff is mostly harmless? So why not? Well?
11:05
Speaker 2: Is it mostly harmless? If you go out and put
11:08
Speaker 2: a cent wick up or three of them, you probably
11:11
Speaker 2: have to walk where you intend to shoot a buck.
11:14
Speaker 2: Is that risk free? I'd say it's not. You're inviting
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Speaker 2: a deer to go right where you just were, if
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Speaker 2: you planned to rattle or grant you or both in
11:24
Speaker 2: blind calling sequences? Is that risk free? There's movement associated
11:29
Speaker 2: with it, but that can be mitigated. There's also the
11:32
Speaker 2: reality that when bucks come to a call, they often
11:36
Speaker 2: swing down wind. It's not risk free. There's another truth
11:39
Speaker 2: here too, and it's that dose don't like hearing calling
11:43
Speaker 2: a whole lot, and some bucks are real spooky about it.
11:47
Speaker 2: How about running cameras this time of year, there's some
11:50
Speaker 2: major risks there. The obvious is not hunting because bucks
11:53
Speaker 2: aren't showing up on your camera. There's no greater risk
11:56
Speaker 2: to your hunting success than gambling that the bucks aren't
11:59
Speaker 2: moving because there is one tiny glimpse of the woods
12:02
Speaker 2: that is somewhat unreliable tells you the deer aren't there
12:06
Speaker 2: doing their thing. Now, I'm not saying to not do
12:10
Speaker 2: these things. Blind calling sessions are fun, trail cameras are fun.
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Speaker 2: This stuff can be useful. A lot of this extra
12:18
Speaker 2: stuff is just enjoyable. But I want you to ask
12:20
Speaker 2: yourself when you head out hunting in the next week,
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Speaker 2: why you think you need any of those things, and
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Speaker 2: what is the risk of doing any of that stuff
12:30
Speaker 2: on any given hunt. Are you talking yourself into trying
12:34
Speaker 2: to make something happen because you have very little faith
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Speaker 2: in your setup, or are you convinced that the conditions
12:39
Speaker 2: are right to rattle Because there's a huge difference between
12:43
Speaker 2: the two. The investing part of white Tail hunting does
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Speaker 2: this for you. It gives you faith in your setups
12:49
Speaker 2: and you're hunting plans. It's reassuring because you know that
12:53
Speaker 2: the rubs were thick on a ridgetop after last season,
12:56
Speaker 2: and you know that you haven't been in there yet
12:58
Speaker 2: this season, and the odds are real good that a
13:00
Speaker 2: buck is going to be doing now what a buck
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Speaker 2: was doing last year in there. Or maybe you found
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Speaker 2: a huge community scrape last spring in a travel hub
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Speaker 2: and haven't been in there yet this season. But you
13:10
Speaker 2: go in with the idea that the wind is right
13:12
Speaker 2: and the scrape is there, the exact tree you'll hunt
13:15
Speaker 2: is prepped and ready to go. This is a far
13:18
Speaker 2: cry from going into one of your old stands that
13:20
Speaker 2: you've been sitting since the opener and deciding the pre
13:24
Speaker 2: rud is going to revive the spot, especially if the
13:27
Speaker 2: neighborhood bucks hear some grunning or antler smashing together, or
13:31
Speaker 2: maybe they just need to get a whiff of dopey
13:32
Speaker 2: that is supposed to be fresh. But it also only
13:35
Speaker 2: cost six dollars for a bottle, and there were hundreds
13:37
Speaker 2: of bottles in the store you just went to, and
13:39
Speaker 2: there must be thousands and thousands of them in other stores,
13:42
Speaker 2: so how could they really be fresh do and estrascent.
13:47
Speaker 2: Here's how you know whether you've invested in your success
13:49
Speaker 2: or not. When you get set up, do you have
13:53
Speaker 2: confidence to not do anything extra? I mean, do you
13:57
Speaker 2: believe that without any get rich quick stuff full faith
14:01
Speaker 2: that the deer will go through, including the type of
14:03
Speaker 2: deer you probably want to shoot. If so, you've invested. Well,
14:08
Speaker 2: if not, you probably haven't. This is where it gets
14:11
Speaker 2: weird for me and maybe you. People often look to
14:15
Speaker 2: me to give them the answer for right now, the
14:18
Speaker 2: short term green light on some strategy or style or
14:21
Speaker 2: decoy usage or whatever. Instead, I want you to think
14:25
Speaker 2: long term and use the next couple of weeks to
14:28
Speaker 2: catalog how you feel about the work you've put in
14:31
Speaker 2: and what you would maybe do differently in the future.
14:34
Speaker 2: I do this a lot, and honestly, it sucks, but
14:38
Speaker 2: it also puts me in a headspace to make better decisions.
14:41
Speaker 2: Let me give you a quick example from my season
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Speaker 2: so far. I killed a solid ten pointer on the
14:47
Speaker 2: fourth day of the Minnesota season. Since I knew I
14:49
Speaker 2: was going to hunt early season bucks and I needed
14:52
Speaker 2: morning and evening sits for a variety of wins. I
14:54
Speaker 2: couldn't just phone it in. With the help of a
14:58
Speaker 2: good buddy, we tackle the process, scouting and hanging stands
15:01
Speaker 2: and running cameras and developing a good plan to kill
15:05
Speaker 2: just such a buck. In the first four days of
15:08
Speaker 2: the season, when the wind didn't cooperate and other hunters
15:11
Speaker 2: came into some of my spots and one housecat hosed
15:14
Speaker 2: up a good opportunity, I didn't really panic. I didn't
15:17
Speaker 2: run to my bag of tricks. I just kept hunting
15:19
Speaker 2: good spots based on the conditions. The buck I killed
15:23
Speaker 2: was simply a result of investing into that hunt so
15:26
Speaker 2: that I wouldn't be tempted to gamble. Of course, it
15:30
Speaker 2: doesn't always work that way. Oftentimes it doesn't. Those rascally
15:34
Speaker 2: deer are tough, and fates are fickle for all of us.
15:37
Speaker 2: But you can head your bet on a bright future
15:40
Speaker 2: by taking note of what you're not doing that you should,
15:43
Speaker 2: and then instead of forgetting about it, by about January
15:47
Speaker 2: actually doing that stuff. So I'll wrap it up this way.
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Speaker 2: Just pay attention to yourself for the next couple of weeks.
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Speaker 2: When you rattle, ask yourself, why is it because you're bored?
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Speaker 2: Is it because you don't have faith that anything is
16:02
Speaker 2: going to come by? Is it because you've sat the
16:05
Speaker 2: same blind for four days and you know the whole
16:07
Speaker 2: area is probably burned, but there is a shot that
16:09
Speaker 2: something will come running in any way. Or are you
16:13
Speaker 2: sitting over a sweet pinch point near a gnarly bedding
16:15
Speaker 2: area and it's first light and it's cold and you
16:18
Speaker 2: know there have been some big cruisers in your area
16:22
Speaker 2: because there's a world of difference there which treats the
16:25
Speaker 2: get rich quick stuff as complimentary to a well planned
16:28
Speaker 2: and well executed hunt, not as the savior for poor
16:32
Speaker 2: planning or low confidence sits because you don't have anything
16:35
Speaker 2: better going on. Be honest with yourself as we slide
16:38
Speaker 2: into the rut. Take note of how you feel during
16:41
Speaker 2: your sits. What's your confidence level? Like? Are you stoked
16:45
Speaker 2: to wake up and get into a specific stand because
16:47
Speaker 2: you believe it's going to be full of action or
16:49
Speaker 2: are you kind of dreading walking out for another sit
16:51
Speaker 2: where you need to cross your fingers and toes and
16:53
Speaker 2: just hope and pray something will come by. How often
16:56
Speaker 2: do you have one experience or the other? How much
16:59
Speaker 2: fun are you having going out to sit that might
17:02
Speaker 2: be the true litmus to us because anticipation and the
17:05
Speaker 2: expectation that you'll see something, they're the true heroes of
17:08
Speaker 2: deer hunting. They make everything better and when either wanes
17:12
Speaker 2: or disappears completely, it's a powerful motivator to start gambling
17:16
Speaker 2: on a good outcome, and we know how that works
17:19
Speaker 2: out unfortunately. So do this come back next week because
17:24
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about midday hunting and why it's
17:26
Speaker 2: both overrated and underrated at the same time. That's it
17:32
Speaker 2: for this week, folks. I'm Tony Peterson and this has
17:34
Speaker 2: been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast. I honestly, truly
17:39
Speaker 2: cannot tell you how much I appreciate your support. So
17:42
Speaker 2: many of you guys and gals out there have been
17:44
Speaker 2: awesome to us. You know, you're buying some first light stuff,
17:47
Speaker 2: you're watching our videos, you're listening to our podcast. It
17:51
Speaker 2: really makes this all feel pretty amazing, So thank you
17:54
Speaker 2: for that. If you need more whitetail hunting content, if
17:58
Speaker 2: you want to, check out Clay's podcast. If you want
18:00
Speaker 2: to you know, check out some mediat or trivial whatever,
18:03
Speaker 2: go to the medieater dot com and you will find everything, podcast, video, series, articles,
18:12
Speaker 2: you name it. You can get your fix over and
18:13
Speaker 2: over and over and over again over at the medeater
18:16
Speaker 2: dot com.