Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 441: Foundations - Treat Whitetail Glassing Sessions Like a Rifle Hunt

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Ep. 441: Foundations - Treat Whitetail Glassing Sessions Like a Rifle Hunt · 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 everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: This week, it's all about how to develop a glassing
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: plan and style that will allow you to gather the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: best intel possible. Now, it's it's not enough to just
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: spend time posted up on a hilltop glass in strips
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of egg in the hopes of building a sweet hit list.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: The reality here is that bucks, even lazy summertime bucks,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: don't really like to be visible. This is especially true
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: if they're in pressured states or live on pressure ground.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: This means that you might have to treat your glassing
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: sessions more like a rifle hunt so that you can
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: get to where the deer are and get out without
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: getting busted. This is one of my favorite summer scouting strategies,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and I really think it's one of those things that
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: separates the weekend warriors from the absolute killers. Hey, folks,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, brought to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you by First Light. This is episode number ten and
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I'm your host Tony Peterson. Last week we went big
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: on the reasons for why you should try to find
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: every opportunity to engage in some summertime glassing sessions. This week,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: it's all about how you get the most out of
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: your time spent on the spotter. To do this, it
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: pays to think about your glassing sessions like individual sits
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: during a rifle hunt. And I know, I know this
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: might seem weird, but stick with me on this now
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: before we get into that. Unlike a rifle hunt, you
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: should probably glass whenever you can. With hunting, you might
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: try to wait out perfect conditions, but they might not come.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: With glassing, it's just as valuable to see what comes
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: out on a hot, miserable night as it is when
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: a cold front has come through and it's perfect out
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: throughout the summer. You should go when you can, regardless
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of the conditions. Take note of the conditions, but don't
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: stay home because they aren't ideal. You'll want to think
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: about where you go more than when you go and
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: how you get there and how you get out. So
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: for starters, just like rifle hunters, long range glassers need
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  Speaker 1: to be able to see, actually scratch that they should
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: want to be able to see. We all want to
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: see when we're rifle hunting. More glassing. You can have
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: excellent rifle hunts in the thick cover, of course, especially
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: in seriously pressure ground, But in your heart, you know
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you want to be perched up in a tower blind
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: overlooking as much open shootable real estate as possible. With glassing,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the same rules of apply. Vantage points are huge, as
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: is your positioning in relation to the deer, or more simply,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: how far you will be from the likeliest deer activity.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: This is where things get tricky due to terrain and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: individuality of a situation. Some hunters do have a nice
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: hill that they can park on and glass the surrounding
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  Speaker 1: bottoms for bucks while not having to worry about a
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: single deer getting spooped. Most of us aren't so lucky,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: so we're going to have to get into the weeds literally.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: While you might not need to be any closer than
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a couple hundred yards, just like a rifle hunt, you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: do need to think how you get in. You do
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: need to think about how you'll get in, how you'll
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: get out, and where the wind will be. Just like
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: a rifle hunt, getting in is usually the easy part.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Most of the time, when you head out to glass
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: in the evenings, you're betting on the deer not already
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: being out. This means suiting up in camel, which you
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: should absolutely do, then slipping into your glassing point. Now
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: that might be at a knob over a river bottom.
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  Speaker 1: It might just be like a grassy waterway and a
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: vast network of row crops. But no matter what, think
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: about how you'll get in there, with the current conditions
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the way they are, especially the wind. Sometimes, at least
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: if you don't want to spook any deer, this isn't
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  Speaker 1: all that easy. Actually, I ran into this way back
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  Speaker 1: in two thousand and eleven when I stumbled across a
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  Speaker 1: legitimate booner living on public land in the Twin Cities.
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  Speaker 1: That buck had two buddies with him that were great deer,
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  Speaker 1: and together that trio frequented a winter rye field on
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: a piece of county land. The problem with the field
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  Speaker 1: was that if you walked into it through the most
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  Speaker 1: direct route, you'd let those bucks know you were going
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  Speaker 1: in every single time. To really glass it effectively, I
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: had to make a huge circle through the nettles and
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  Speaker 1: the swamps to get on the back side of the field,
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  Speaker 1: and then it was a matter of holding up and
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  Speaker 1: tucking in because the terrain didn't allow for visibility from
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  Speaker 1: too far away. I had to get pretty clo The
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: first time I went in there, I saw all the bucks,
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  Speaker 1: and after that it was hit or miss. It was
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  Speaker 1: also a giant pain in the ass, but I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to preserve their movement as much as possible. It was
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: also really really exciting sneaking in to watch a spot
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  Speaker 1: that held one of the biggest bucks I've ever hunted anywhere,
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  Speaker 1: living in a place he absolutely shouldn't have been living.
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  Speaker 1: And here's a spoiler alert, guys, I didn't kill him.
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  Speaker 1: He vanished on me. So maybe my long range glass
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: NG strategy didn't work very well. I don't know. I
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: do know that I arrowed his buddy, a great nine
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: pointer that was big enough for a call a taxidermists,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: which is an awesome consolation prize. Totally beside the point
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  Speaker 1: as well, but still proof that glassing effectively in the
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  Speaker 1: right situation and putting in some work can get you
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  Speaker 1: in a position to kill good bucks. But now back
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  Speaker 1: to the strategy. Just because you've got yourself into a
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  Speaker 1: sweet spot, doesn't mean you can get out without spooking deer.
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  Speaker 1: This is a big problem because it's easy to wander
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  Speaker 1: in a bit too close to see what you want
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  Speaker 1: to see, and then suddenly realize you got no exit strategy.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes you've got to take a different route to get out,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and sometimes you've got to bail early. I ran into
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  Speaker 1: this scenario in north central Minnesota years ago while summer scouting.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: The deer were using a secluded hay field. They'd often
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: come out of this cattail slew where they betted they'd
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: hit this little pond, grab some water, and then they
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  Speaker 1: come out in the far corner. To see the field,
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  Speaker 1: I had to get within four yards of where the
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  Speaker 1: deer would pop out, and they'd start out at the
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  Speaker 1: far side, but would always head in my direction, angling
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  Speaker 1: towards the neighbor's farm. That meant if they got past me,
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  Speaker 1: I would have to bust them on the way out.
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  Speaker 1: There was no way around it. What made that worse
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  Speaker 1: was that the bucks were usually last to show, like
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  Speaker 1: they often are. That meant there were times where I'd
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: see the bucks for a few minutes and then have
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: to leave as soon as it started to get good
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  Speaker 1: Because some dose or little bucks were closing the distance. Again,
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't ideal, but it did put me in a
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: position to kill a pope and young buck a week
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  Speaker 1: into that season, and that was a deer I had
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: watched many many times. Now, I keep telling you about
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: these deer I've killed, so you guys know how awesome
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: I am. But I'm not telling you about how many
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: deer I've spooped while scouting, which is why I've got
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: such a militant plan on how to glass. The answer
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: is a lot. I've cost myself so many deer by
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: getting greedy in this summer and just wanting to see
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  Speaker 1: them closer or more often than I really needed to.
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  Speaker 1: This part is hard, and it takes a lot of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: mistakes to just resign yourself to a little bit less
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  Speaker 1: fun but a more productive style of glassing. For someone
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  Speaker 1: like me with not a whole lot of self control
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  Speaker 1: and who really loves to glass, this is a hard
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  Speaker 1: lesson to learn and a harder path to stick to.
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  Speaker 1: The Idea that you can push it a little because
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  Speaker 1: there are weeks before the season is easy to believe,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a temptation best ignored. This goes for public
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  Speaker 1: land and private land, because in so many situations there's
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  Speaker 1: only one person who you can control, pressure wise, yourself.
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  Speaker 1: Even if three other hunters will check the spot you
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  Speaker 1: like on public land throughout the summer, the only one
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  Speaker 1: that you can control is you. It's the best you
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  Speaker 1: can do. So take this part seriously because long range
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  Speaker 1: glassing with a rifle hunter's mentality will reveal the obvious
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  Speaker 1: things to you, like who is feeding where and at
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  Speaker 1: what time, but will also help you see patterns and
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  Speaker 1: dear movement, like if they spend their whole time in
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  Speaker 1: the shady side of a certain field before the sun
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  Speaker 1: fully sets, or if randomly the whole bachelor group you're
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: looking for shows up somewhere unexpected. Those consistent habits, as
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: well as the anomalies, are important, and for the latter category,
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  Speaker 1: they probably really aren't actually anomalies. They probably represent some
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  Speaker 1: behavior in the books that you just don't expect. The
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: more of that behavior you see, which challenges your worldview,
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  Speaker 1: the better you'll become as a deer hunter. Believe me
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  Speaker 1: on that one. So ask yourself, why are the deer
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  Speaker 1: doing something you didn't expect? Is there some patch of
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  Speaker 1: cover that you've always ignored because it's too small or
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: too close to the farmyard. Is it such that on
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: the right wind, when the bugs are seriously annoying, that
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  Speaker 1: the bucks picked the grassy spoil to bed in. Or
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  Speaker 1: maybe they are there because a few hunters have been
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  Speaker 1: poking around in their usual haunts. There are accidents and
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  Speaker 1: one off events in nature, I'm sure, but buck behavior
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  Speaker 1: doesn't fall into either category very often. How many times
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  Speaker 1: have you heard about a two year that's some random
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  Speaker 1: hunter killed after seeing it standing in a place where
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  Speaker 1: deer just don't usually go. The lucky hunter walks in
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  Speaker 1: and sees a rub fest, complete with all the telltale
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  Speaker 1: signs that a giant lives there, or at least spends
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  Speaker 1: a lot of time there. And on the first set
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  Speaker 1: they beg the dear version of a unicorn. That happens
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  Speaker 1: from random sightings, and it certainly happens when you're out
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  Speaker 1: they're looking for a buck to reveal themselves. I'll never
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  Speaker 1: forget glass in a river bottom in North Dakota one
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  Speaker 1: morning to look for four bucks that I had watched
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  Speaker 1: the night before. After like an hour and a half,
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  Speaker 1: I realized they were nowhere to be seen in the
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  Speaker 1: willows in the cottonwood patches close to the water, and
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  Speaker 1: for some reason, I just randomly turned around, pulled a
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  Speaker 1: one eight, and scanned the breaks behind me where the
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  Speaker 1: mule deer tend to roam. That's when I picked up
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  Speaker 1: the four bucks, just before they dropped into a steep
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  Speaker 1: drainage that does not, in any way, shape or form
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  Speaker 1: look like white tail territory. And I know this because
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I've hiked in there many times and failed attempts to
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  Speaker 1: stock mule deer. The bucks dropped in there and bedded down,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: which gave me enough intel to realize why they had
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: crossed where they had crossed the night before. I went
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  Speaker 1: in there that afternoon and hung a stand, and I
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  Speaker 1: killed one of those bucks that evening as they left
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  Speaker 1: the drainage and trotted toward the river. Without a glassing plan,
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  Speaker 1: that velvet buck would have never worn my tag. He
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: also brings up something that no one talks about, which
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: is glassing in the morning out west on a river bottom.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: This is an absolute no brainer because you can see
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: so much. But does glassing in the morning make any sense?
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know. In Pennsylvania or Illinois or South Carolina.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: That's a big old maybe I've gone out in Minnesota
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  Speaker 1: on properties I know well many times to glass mornings
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  Speaker 1: and it has mostly been a lost cause. The bucks
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: have been off the fields by first light, and that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: meant that I was putting pressure on spots for very
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: little gain. But in other places, with other scenarios, I've
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: realized there is value of morning sessions. Watching CRP fields,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: for example, can be an amazing reason to set an
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: early alarm. You might have another situation where the bucks
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: leave the food and they filter through some kind of
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: scattered cover, which with the right glassing spot, can reveal
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  Speaker 1: a whole new world when it comes to understanding the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: local deer and how they travel to their betting areas. Now,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of people think that this is unnecessary because
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: hunting deer in the mornings during the early season is
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a lost cause. I'm not one of them. These deer
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  Speaker 1: aren't robots that go back to bed before first light
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: only to get up as the sun sets. They just
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: don't work that way, and believing something like deer hunting
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: in the morning is not worth it in the early
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: season is generally a bad idea because it's self limiting
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and probably not wholly applicable. To your specific hunting situation.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Morning glassing can sometimes help you make the decision that
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: you've got an opportunity where other hunters will say it
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: doesn't exist. If you don't want to make a big
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: production out of it, a morning drive past your hunting
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: grounds might just be enough. I do this occasionally, oftentimes
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: when I'm getting up early to go brook trout fishing
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: in northern Wisconsin. There are very few fields near the
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: public land where I hunt, but I can alter my
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: route to some of my favorite streams to take a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: look at them, and they almost always feature a few
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: deer bears in the early morning. I like seeing both,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and occasionally I'll see a buck or a bachelor group
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  Speaker 1: in a spot that causes a cart lightbulb to turn
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: on over my head. This is because every deer sighting,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: or at least every sighting near where you can hunt,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: is a little gift. You learn something if you look
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to each encounter as if it's a teachable moment. That
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: dough crossing the road in front of you as you
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: drive out of the farm after an evening lasting session
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: might not seem like a real big deal. Why is
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: she there is there a trail there that you didn't
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: know about, or a crossing or a little betting area
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the field that you just haven't
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: paid attention to. I'm convinced the reason little kids are
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: awesome and us adults are tiresome, predictable bores is because
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: kids are curious. They ask questions about the world because
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: they want to know, and they're not ashamed to question things.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: As we get older, that curiosity starts to wither on
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the vine, and we accept that what we know is
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: what we know, and unfortunately, often write about those things
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: in all caps when we're arguing with strangers about dumb
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: shit on social media. Kids have unfiltered curiosity because they
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: are learning machines, even the dumb ones. We can take
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: a lesson from that and ask questions about dear all
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the time, which is never easier to do than when
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the deer show us something we should be curious about.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: But how do we come to that point by watching them?
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Get out there? And think about your goal with glassing.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Think about how you'll get in and out without spooking deer,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: and what conditions will favor your chosen glassing spots. Pay
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: attention to all of the clues that the white tails
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: give you and ask yourself what is there to learn?
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I honestly feel that my public land white tail success,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: and certainly my private land success, is closely tethered to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a love of glassing and the willingness to engage in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: it whenever I can, even if I'm not planning on
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: hunting in early season pattern the time spent glassing in
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: August pays off in general buck knowledge that can't be
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: gleaned any better way. So there's that, and there's this.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Next week, it will be time to consider one more
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: stroll through the woods before you set your stands or
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you pick your most saddle friendly trees. Well that's it
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: for this week. My long range glassing friends, be sure
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to check out next week's show so you can keep
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: moving yourself in the right white tailed direction. I'm Tony
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Peterson and this has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: As I always, thank you so much for listening, and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: we will see you right here next week