Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 613: Foundations - How to Make the Late Season Suck Less

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Ep. 613: Foundations - How to Make the Late Season Suck Less · 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
0:10
Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to
0:15
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.
0:17
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and this episode is all
0:21
Speaker 1: about dealing with late season hunting realities. Back when I
0:37
Speaker 1: had a simpler life as a magazine editor, you know,
0:40
Speaker 1: I realized something about the hunting industry. There's a lot
0:43
Speaker 1: of bullshit involved. Everyone is on a mission to present
0:46
Speaker 1: themselves as something pretty amazing, and in that process, an
0:51
Speaker 1: awful lot of the details seemed to just get left out.
0:54
Speaker 1: Lies of all mission a rampant and that's everybody's move.
0:59
Speaker 1: Now that social media is the delivery du jur for
1:02
Speaker 1: the updates on all of our lives, well, I get
1:05
Speaker 1: why people want to show only highlight real stuff about
1:07
Speaker 1: their lives, and I really do. The thing that always
1:10
Speaker 1: drove me nuts about the hunting industry was how late
1:13
Speaker 1: season hunting was always presented as this awesome time to
1:16
Speaker 1: kill a buck. No, no, no, to kill a giant buck.
1:19
Speaker 1: It's not and I think we should acknowledge that. And
1:23
Speaker 1: that's actually what this episode is all about. I used
1:37
Speaker 1: to like to travel. I mean I still do, but
1:40
Speaker 1: with kids in quite a few years of travel intensive
1:43
Speaker 1: work in the rear view mirror, you know, the shine
1:46
Speaker 1: is really off the old apple. These days. If I
1:49
Speaker 1: get on a plane, it's because my boss makes me,
1:52
Speaker 1: or there's something really appealing waiting for me at some
1:55
Speaker 1: distant airport. That's usually warm weather and ocean fish. But
2:00
Speaker 1: throughout my life I found plenty of reasons to book
2:02
Speaker 1: a flight and take some trips. What you find, as
2:05
Speaker 1: I'm sure most of you have at one point or another,
2:07
Speaker 1: is that if you're about to subject yourself to being
2:09
Speaker 1: a tourist, you're also about to subject yourself to some
2:12
Speaker 1: seriously misrepresented situations. Take the latest and greatest stage of
2:18
Speaker 1: destination lodging, where you stay in someone else's house instead
2:22
Speaker 1: of staying at a resort or a hotel. It's a
2:25
Speaker 1: great idea, right, You get a kitchen, as many bedrooms
2:29
Speaker 1: as you're willing to pay for, and pretty much whatever
2:32
Speaker 1: amenities you have at home. So you look through listing
2:35
Speaker 1: after listing, and they're all full of pictures and descriptions
2:39
Speaker 1: that pretty much build up a dream world. Scenario fu
2:42
Speaker 1: fu adjectives like cozy, roomy, cushy, picturesque, dreamy, and whatever,
2:48
Speaker 1: they'll all be there. Wide angle images of every aspect
2:52
Speaker 1: of the house will show you a distorted view, kind
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Speaker 1: of like long arming a buck in a grip and
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Speaker 1: grin photo. You won't see that the neighborhood where the
3:01
Speaker 1: house you're checking out is super trashy, or that the
3:04
Speaker 1: house is only really seven square feet when it looks
3:07
Speaker 1: like three thousand in the pictures. The folks listing these houses,
3:12
Speaker 1: they're selling you an image of something that is actually
3:15
Speaker 1: something else. Now, not everyone does that. You can find
3:19
Speaker 1: some sweet houses backed by real reviews to tell you
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Speaker 1: exactly everything all that you're paying for. The same goes
3:28
Speaker 1: for cities in Mexico, or cruise ships to hit a
3:31
Speaker 1: bunch of Caribbean islands, or that sweet ski resort in
3:34
Speaker 1: Colorado where you can go shreds and black diamonds or something.
3:37
Speaker 1: I don't know. If you can't tell, I don't ski.
3:39
Speaker 1: I do fall down on the ice fairly often and
3:41
Speaker 1: right on through it occasionally, so that's something. Anyway. If
3:46
Speaker 1: you get the chance to travel enough, you tend to
3:48
Speaker 1: develop a serious BS meter and figure out how to
3:51
Speaker 1: pretty quickly weed through the charlatan's. Do the same rules
3:55
Speaker 1: apply for hunting content. I feel like for many folks
3:59
Speaker 1: it does. If you have enough experience hunting, you probably
4:02
Speaker 1: know that someone who tells you the late season is
4:05
Speaker 1: the best time to kill a mature buck is probably
4:07
Speaker 1: leaving out about a thousand crucial details to how they
4:11
Speaker 1: came to that conclusion. But other folks with less hunting
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Speaker 1: experience might not be so quick to suss out the
4:17
Speaker 1: truth from the curated deceit. That's a shame, but there
4:22
Speaker 1: is hope if you're in that category and you think
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Speaker 1: that it's your fault for not killing a hundred and
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Speaker 1: seventy on a food source in December when they I
4:30
Speaker 1: don't know, the most prolific personalities on outdoor television do
4:33
Speaker 1: it with surprising regularity. Let me help you out. The
4:37
Speaker 1: late season kind of mostly sucks. Hunting for probably of
4:46
Speaker 1: deer hunters is worse now than any other time of
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Speaker 1: the season. Hell, it's probably like for anybody on pressure ground,
4:55
Speaker 1: the late season is probably way worse than the other
4:58
Speaker 1: worst times of the season, like the octo over Lowell.
5:01
Speaker 1: Now I have to say this because there's always a disclaimer.
5:05
Speaker 1: There are some situations where even pressured ground might have
5:09
Speaker 1: the right mix of terrain or food or whatever to
5:13
Speaker 1: produce enjoyable late season hunts. But for the most part,
5:17
Speaker 1: as Rick Astley, the very talented musician who has probably
5:21
Speaker 1: featured on several posters and Mark Kenyon's man Cave said,
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Speaker 1: you know the rules, and so do I, and the
5:28
Speaker 1: rules are that late season hunting is tough. What that
5:30
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you should give it up, even if it
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Speaker 1: lets you down, runs around, or I don't know, deserts.
5:36
Speaker 1: You sorry, I got caught up in a Rick Roll
5:39
Speaker 1: vortex there. Back to the subject at hand, the disappointing
5:43
Speaker 1: truth about late season hunting. It's just hard. Odds are low,
5:48
Speaker 1: it's usually pretty cold, and generally just requires a little
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Speaker 1: more planning, a lot more stealth, and a hell of
5:55
Speaker 1: a lot of faith. But it's not a loss cause
6:00
Speaker 1: I just got a text from my good buddy Clint
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Speaker 1: Campbell over there at the Truth from the Stand podcast
6:05
Speaker 1: with a video of him paddling a kayak through some
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Speaker 1: cold ass looking water with a great, big dead dose
6:12
Speaker 1: slung over the bow. He said, he just went hunting deer,
6:16
Speaker 1: and that's what he killed a deer. Also, it doesn't
6:21
Speaker 1: take much context when you see his video to realize
6:24
Speaker 1: he wasn't phoning it in. He wasn't walking a hundred
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Speaker 1: yards from his truck to get into a box blind.
6:29
Speaker 1: If you're paddling a kayak to bow hunt late season, dear,
6:32
Speaker 1: you're already out working just about everyone who is still
6:35
Speaker 1: out there hunting. And that, my friends, is an important
6:40
Speaker 1: point to pay attention to. We are sold from those
6:45
Speaker 1: disingenuous bastards in the outdoor media who are absolutely nothing
6:49
Speaker 1: like me, that this stuff is just going to get
6:52
Speaker 1: easier the colder it gets. But I have bad news
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Speaker 1: for you. It probably won't. It'll probably it harder. Maybe
7:02
Speaker 1: arctic conditions will roll in and the deer will have
7:05
Speaker 1: to eat to survive. But what they eat, where they
7:09
Speaker 1: eat it, and when they eat will be dictated almost entirely,
7:15
Speaker 1: not by those super frigid temperatures, but they're likelihood of
7:19
Speaker 1: walking too close to one of us. You see, Survival
7:24
Speaker 1: is survival to them. A full belly is pretty important
7:28
Speaker 1: when it's cold, but not any more important than not
7:31
Speaker 1: getting shot. They know this, even if they may be
7:36
Speaker 1: quite can't. Really, I don't know rationalize it the way
7:39
Speaker 1: the we can. That doesn't matter because their behavior shows
7:44
Speaker 1: their mentality pretty clearly. They also, since they are pretty
7:48
Speaker 1: tied into photo periodism, understand that the window to feed
7:52
Speaker 1: in the dark is much larger and much safer than
7:57
Speaker 1: the small window to feed in the day. Now, those
8:01
Speaker 1: deer that have been baby sat on premier properties, they
8:04
Speaker 1: don't learn those lessons very well. They learned that there's
8:06
Speaker 1: no danger to moving in daylight, so they do. But
8:09
Speaker 1: the deer that have been shot at all season and
8:11
Speaker 1: have walked through the woods in the fields every night,
8:14
Speaker 1: smelling hunters where they walked and climbed into trees and
8:17
Speaker 1: surface ship their way across the landscape, those deer know
8:21
Speaker 1: what's up. You have to acknowledge this reality and then
8:26
Speaker 1: figure out what to do to get the odds on
8:27
Speaker 1: your side. The first is to learn that hunting, even
8:32
Speaker 1: when it will most likely suck a lot, is still
8:36
Speaker 1: worth it. This and I know most people don't want
8:40
Speaker 1: to hear this is one of the lessons that becoming
8:42
Speaker 1: a runner taught me. Now, I hate running, just like
8:46
Speaker 1: about everyone who has four brain cells rattling around in
8:48
Speaker 1: their skull. But you can learn to appreciate what it
8:52
Speaker 1: does for you. That's the key. Every day, or at
8:57
Speaker 1: least every other day, when I lace up my arm clouds,
9:00
Speaker 1: choose a podcast, and set on the mean streets of
9:02
Speaker 1: the suburbs or on a treadmill at the gym, I
9:05
Speaker 1: hate it. I don't want to do it. And the
9:08
Speaker 1: first half mile or so, or the first mile, it's
9:11
Speaker 1: always kind of just torture. I don't think that's ever
9:14
Speaker 1: going to change for me. But then somewhere after that
9:18
Speaker 1: first mile, there is the inevitable acceptance that it is
9:21
Speaker 1: just going to happen because I'm not gonna let myself quit.
9:24
Speaker 1: Depending on the distance, it might be over an hour
9:27
Speaker 1: or a half hour or hour and a half, but
9:30
Speaker 1: even a half hour that's a Simpsons episode. You can
9:34
Speaker 1: get through that. The longer ones they're, you know, a
9:38
Speaker 1: physical grind, but not so much as a mental one,
9:41
Speaker 1: and that's what that teaches you. But finishing it, whether
9:45
Speaker 1: it's a four mile or ten, always feels good. It's
9:49
Speaker 1: always worth it at the end. Late season hunting is
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Speaker 1: just like that. It's not always fun, it's rarely easy,
9:59
Speaker 1: but it's always worth it, especially if you want to
10:01
Speaker 1: get better at being a deer hunter, you might as
10:03
Speaker 1: well go hunt the hard ones. Huh. You gotta understand that,
10:07
Speaker 1: because it's important. You've got to understand this. You have
10:12
Speaker 1: to figure out ways to enjoy it. Let's go back
10:14
Speaker 1: to running for a second. While I love listening to
10:19
Speaker 1: music when i'm lifting or at any other part of
10:21
Speaker 1: my life, really I hate it while I'm running. I
10:25
Speaker 1: figured that out and realized that podcasts were the best
10:28
Speaker 1: way to get myself to focus on something other than
10:30
Speaker 1: the misery of running and just kind of disassociate a
10:35
Speaker 1: little bit. Now, good shoes like those on Clouds, which
10:39
Speaker 1: don't sponsor me anyway, so I don't care what you buy.
10:41
Speaker 1: I just really like them. They're huge, too. Shitty shoes
10:45
Speaker 1: make running really suck, and there's no way around it.
10:47
Speaker 1: I've also figured out routes I like to run that
10:50
Speaker 1: might allow me to see a few deer or at
10:52
Speaker 1: least go up and down a few hills and some parks.
10:56
Speaker 1: I figured out that I don't need pre workout, but
10:58
Speaker 1: maybe just a little caffee before running. All of these
11:02
Speaker 1: little things don't make it totally suck free, but they
11:05
Speaker 1: make it much more tolerable for me personally. Now, when
11:09
Speaker 1: it comes to late season hunting, What can you do
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Speaker 1: to cut down on the suck to make it more tolerable.
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Speaker 1: You've heard me preach about lowering your standards plenty, so
11:19
Speaker 1: I won't keep whacking that dead pony. But I'll say this,
11:23
Speaker 1: if you struggle to kill whatever caliber of deer is
11:26
Speaker 1: that you kind of set your sights on throughout the
11:28
Speaker 1: earlier season, you're not likely to suddenly find tons of
11:32
Speaker 1: success on that same caliber of deer in the late season.
11:35
Speaker 1: Adjust accordingly and apologize to no one. What if you
11:39
Speaker 1: don't handle the cold well? Some people are like polar bears,
11:42
Speaker 1: some aren't. If you can layer up with the good
11:45
Speaker 1: stuff and use wind blocking outer layers, you're going to
11:48
Speaker 1: be better off. If you can't, maybe a pop up
11:51
Speaker 1: blind with a propane heater is the ticket for you.
11:54
Speaker 1: If you think that kind of hunting is for lesser men,
11:57
Speaker 1: go out in your loincloth and show us Pansy's how
12:00
Speaker 1: it's done. Maybe with a spear. If you would rather
12:02
Speaker 1: be comfortable enjoy your hunting, do what you have to do.
12:08
Speaker 1: And another way to make the late seasons suck less
12:11
Speaker 1: is surprise surprise to see more, Dear, you can file
12:15
Speaker 1: that under the most obvious statement ever made. But it's
12:18
Speaker 1: true at such a base level, and it's true at
12:20
Speaker 1: a different level. Of course. Seeing more dear makes hunting
12:24
Speaker 1: more fun. And if we could wave a magic wand
12:26
Speaker 1: to make that happen, we would, but we can't, even
12:29
Speaker 1: though the hunting industry tries to sell us stupid magic
12:32
Speaker 1: wands all the time. You have to figure it out
12:35
Speaker 1: for yourself. And here's the rub. You might have to
12:39
Speaker 1: get off the food. You might also have to scout
12:42
Speaker 1: right now for the most pounded trails, the freshest of sign.
12:46
Speaker 1: This is one of those times where you have a
12:48
Speaker 1: negative and a positive working for you. The negative is
12:52
Speaker 1: that wandering around and scouting now and then figuring out
12:55
Speaker 1: how to set up on those hotspots you find is
12:58
Speaker 1: often a lot of work. But the plus side is
13:02
Speaker 1: the sign of deer travel is usually pretty evident in
13:04
Speaker 1: the back half of December, whether you have snow to
13:07
Speaker 1: work with or not, you should be able to find
13:10
Speaker 1: concentrations of deer and specific routes that deer will take
13:14
Speaker 1: throughout the day. Pay attention to them, but also ask
13:18
Speaker 1: yourself whether you're looking at daylight sign or midnight sign.
13:22
Speaker 1: Kind of like every other part of the season. If
13:24
Speaker 1: you do find a trail that is pounded and you
13:26
Speaker 1: realize you're in a spot that needs to be hunted,
13:29
Speaker 1: try to really think through your setup. The first thing
13:33
Speaker 1: I do is take a long look around. How far
13:36
Speaker 1: away can the deer be and still know that I
13:39
Speaker 1: walked into that spot? Can you see for five yards
13:42
Speaker 1: through the open winter woods? If so, are the deer
13:45
Speaker 1: likely to be betted somewhere in that distance where they
13:48
Speaker 1: will see or hear you. That's the case. That hot
13:52
Speaker 1: sign is mostly just a tease. If you can't get
13:55
Speaker 1: in and hunt it without spooking deer, it's not good enough.
13:58
Speaker 1: Is there a way to walk that trail to find
14:01
Speaker 1: some better access? Does it dip through a steep ravine
14:04
Speaker 1: or maybe a little frozen creek. Does it head straight
14:08
Speaker 1: up a bluff where the ridge top bedding deer might
14:10
Speaker 1: not see you as you slip in below. Maybe what
14:13
Speaker 1: you thought could be an awesome afternoon setup isn't because
14:17
Speaker 1: the deer bedded just where they're going to see you.
14:20
Speaker 1: Yet you might be able to sneak in the back
14:22
Speaker 1: way long before first light and catch them coming into bed.
14:27
Speaker 1: Morning hunts are sometimes pretty damn good in the late season,
14:32
Speaker 1: even though most people advise against it. I hate those
14:35
Speaker 1: blanket statements because I think there's situations where you might
14:38
Speaker 1: be able to sneak in there. Think about it, and
14:41
Speaker 1: who is to say you don't have an amazing spot
14:43
Speaker 1: to hunt mornings in the late season. Travel routes are
14:46
Speaker 1: travel routes, my friends. And just because the deer off
14:49
Speaker 1: the fields at sunrise does not mean they're back to
14:52
Speaker 1: their beds already by the time you can shoot. They
14:55
Speaker 1: often all season long, get into the cover at first
14:58
Speaker 1: light or before first light, and then browsed their way through.
15:03
Speaker 1: Where I'm going with this is that confidence in your
15:06
Speaker 1: setups is key to enjoying the hunting and mitigating the
15:09
Speaker 1: suckier parts. Think about it this way. Have you ever
15:13
Speaker 1: gone hunting while believing that you wouldn't see a thing,
15:15
Speaker 1: and then surprise, surprise, you don't see a freaking thing.
15:19
Speaker 1: It's not much fun, right, That's the gun hunter's curse
15:23
Speaker 1: by about the third day of the firearm season. Now,
15:27
Speaker 1: have you ever gone into a sit knowing in your
15:29
Speaker 1: heart of hearts you're going to be snowed in with
15:32
Speaker 1: deer or you were for sure without doubt going to
15:36
Speaker 1: see a good buck and then surprise, surprise, you blanked.
15:41
Speaker 1: Which sit was more fun the one that was full
15:44
Speaker 1: of anticipation? I bet? I bet you hunted quieter, you
15:48
Speaker 1: sat longer, you glass more, and just felt like you
15:51
Speaker 1: were way more into the hunt than the one where
15:54
Speaker 1: you didn't believe it was going to happen. That ship
15:57
Speaker 1: is so important. It's also the stuff that keeps us looking.
16:01
Speaker 1: And while we might not kill every time, what if
16:04
Speaker 1: you do the work and you get into a late
16:05
Speaker 1: season setup you believe in, and while you're there you
16:09
Speaker 1: glass up a buck or a group of does doing
16:11
Speaker 1: something other than what you plan for. Did you hear that?
16:15
Speaker 1: It was the sound of another piece of the puzzle
16:17
Speaker 1: falling into place, and it was you realizing that there's
16:21
Speaker 1: still a chance that the hunt is still going on.
16:24
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite things about late season hunting. Honestly,
16:28
Speaker 1: the deer will tell you what they're going to do
16:30
Speaker 1: every day, and it's your job to get around them
16:33
Speaker 1: without making too big of a mistake. There's also just
16:36
Speaker 1: a little bit of a badass factor if you can
16:39
Speaker 1: get out there an arrow of fawn when most hunters
16:41
Speaker 1: have given up you're going to feel it. You're gonna
16:43
Speaker 1: feel it in your bones. If you shoot an old
16:46
Speaker 1: door or a buck, you might actually feel your chest
16:49
Speaker 1: hair grow a little bit as you level up in manhood. Now,
16:52
Speaker 1: if you're a woman, then I don't know what it
16:54
Speaker 1: will do for you, but I hope it doesn't prompt
16:56
Speaker 1: spontaneous chest hair growth. Your job, just like it is
17:00
Speaker 1: with most hunting, is to figure out the best way
17:03
Speaker 1: to enjoy it, and then make the work happen that
17:06
Speaker 1: will deliver the joy to you. Hell as Hallmark card
17:10
Speaker 1: like as that sounds, that's kind of the secret to
17:14
Speaker 1: having a decent life. Work towards something challenging and figure
17:18
Speaker 1: out how to make things tolerable while allowing for the
17:21
Speaker 1: work to open up a few doors, doors through which
17:24
Speaker 1: a late season dear might walk, for example. So don't
17:28
Speaker 1: give up, don't give into the false reality of white
17:32
Speaker 1: tail hunting. When the majority of the season is already gone.
17:35
Speaker 1: There's still time to get out there and fill a tag.
17:38
Speaker 1: There's still time to have fun and prove that you
17:40
Speaker 1: can do what most other hunters aren't willing to do.
17:43
Speaker 1: There's still the chance to get better at this stuff,
17:46
Speaker 1: which is something the late season will absolutely do for you.
17:49
Speaker 1: It will challenge you to be better and challenge you
17:52
Speaker 1: to find your own path as a deer hunter. That
17:54
Speaker 1: may be the biggest benefit to suiting up and facing
17:58
Speaker 1: the Arctic conditions. Keep learning and to keep your foot
18:01
Speaker 1: on the gas when every stoplight seems to be changing
18:03
Speaker 1: to yellow. So good luck, my friends. I hope you
18:07
Speaker 1: find your way to a buzzer, beat or buck or
18:09
Speaker 1: dough or fawn or whatever. And I hope you tune
18:11
Speaker 1: in next week when I talk about how to manage
18:15
Speaker 1: your personal hunting pressure when you're really down to the
18:18
Speaker 1: wire and simply hunting for a last minute deer. That's
18:24
Speaker 1: it for this week, my friends. I am your host,
18:27
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson, and this has been the Wired to Hunt
18:29
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
18:33
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you so much for
18:35
Speaker 1: your support. We really appreciate it here at meat Eater.
18:37
Speaker 1: And if you want more white till advice, you can
18:39
Speaker 1: head on over to the meat eator dot com slash
18:41
Speaker 1: wired see a bunch of articles by Market myself and
18:44
Speaker 1: whoever else, or you can visit our Wire to Hunt
18:47
Speaker 1: YouTube channel where Mark and I drop a pile of
18:49
Speaker 1: new videos every single week,