Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 443: Foundations - Do You Need More Boots-On-The-Ground Scouting?

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Ep. 443: Foundations - Do You Need More Boots-On-The-Ground Scouting? · 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.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: On this week's show, it's all about evaluating your scouting
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: efforts throughout the summer and deciding how much more boots
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: on the ground time you really need before the season opens.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: White town hunters, they often fall into two camps. I'd
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: call one super cautious and the other cavalier, or maybe
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: like just care free would be a better choice of words.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: This is no more evident than when we are in
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the midpoint of summer and it's close enough to both
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: season to consider the real damage you'll do by heading
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: into the woods, or at least the real damage you
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: could do at this time of the year. Some hunters
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: ensure they have a master plan laid out and it's
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: just good enough they're ready to go, but most don't,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: which means it's time to decide when or if you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: need to get out and do some more in person sleuthing.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: That dilemma along with what you should look for. If
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you do decide to get out there is what this
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: whole episode is about. So here's the big question. Should
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you play it safe or should you stay out of
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the woods right now? The biggest mid to late summer
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: question all of us deer hunters should ask ourselves is
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: how much more time should you spend in the woods
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: before the season opens. After all, you've got trail cameras
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: out there capturing intel, and you've been long range glassing
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: with an eye towards maximum observation with minimum dear disturbance.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Why go in and screw up their natural movement when
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: we are in a lot of cases, maybe only a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: few weeks out from the bow opener. And even if
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you live in a state with a later opener like
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Iowa or New York where you can't hunt until some
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: time in October, should you be playing it safe right now?
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I know you want a definitive yes or no answer,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: but that's not how this stuff works. This is an
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: interesting time of year for deer hunters because we no
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: doubt have somewhat of an idea of the bucks we
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: are likely to be hunting. And that's freaking exciting. But
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: it can do two things to us. The first is
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that we overplay our hand and spend too much time
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: dogging them in the hopes of really pinning down a
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: couple of good ones. Or we just go the other
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: way and we get too cautious and we decide that
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the knowledge of them just being there is good enough
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the hunt plan will fall into place and there's no
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: need to booger them. Both of these are worthy of consideration,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: but personally, I always wonder what I'm talking myself out
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of or into when it comes to deer. For example,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: at this time of year, if I have a spot
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: where I can watch a big one come out and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: feed in the evening, just about have to be in
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a hospital hooked up to life support to not go.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Even in that scenario, I might break free in my
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: little non butt covering hospital issued gown to take a
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: quick look. Self control has never been my strong suit,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and it might not be yours either. There's a saturation
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: point to pressure around deer, and you don't want to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: be the one who tips the balance just because you
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: really want to see that velvet racked one fifty every night.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: At the other end of the spectrum is the paralysis
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: that comes with any intrusion is bad, and it will
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: be a net loss in your potential hunting success. This
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: is a tricky one because extreme caution might be warranted.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: If you think you've got them dialed, and I mean really,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: really super dialed, then staying out might be the right choice.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: But how confident are you in your early season plan
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: or are you hoping to sit a few evenings randomly
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: while ramping up for more serious effort once it's a
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: little bit later, maybe in the end October. What are
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: you talking yourself out of there? For me? While I
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: love glassing deer and checking cameras, I don't particularly like
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: being in the woods in August. I'm not a huge
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: fan of nettles and other Bernie pokey types of plants
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: or omnipresent insects. I know this about myself, and I
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: know that August is a time of sweaty nastiness in
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the woods, So I can use that to keep myself
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: out while claiming it's all in the name of being
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: a very wise deer hunter who simply won't risk spooking
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a big one for silly reasons. This is a symptom
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of a curious thing that happens with deer hunters. We
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: often shout from the rooftops how much we absolutely love hunting.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: But then when the conditions aren't perfect, or we are
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a little tired, or we just don't think the big
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: bucks will be suicidal on any given day, we don't
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: go hunting. Well, the same thing happens with scouting. In fact,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: it happens more with scouting, because scouting isn't as much
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: fun as hunting. Typically. What this means is you've got
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: to evaluate where you're at and decide if you need
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to get out there and look around some more. But
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: how do you decide if you're ready for the season
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: or not. For some hunters, that might be a buck
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: or two that has patterned really well on a specific
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: chunk of private land. That's enough, they say, that's that's
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: good for me. For the public land hunter, it might
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: be a set of ten different well scouted spots that
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: all have a saddle friendly tree in them given themselves
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: some options. This is your hunting and it's your call.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Ask yourself if you're really comfortable with the work you've
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: put in so far and the plan you've got in place.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: If you're a little shaky and your conviction, that's okay.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: You've got time to head in the woods, but you
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: want to use your time wisely. For example, even though
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: just a few weeks ago you took note of the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: deer groceries and the property you hunt, you can really
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: dial them in now. How does the soybeans look? Has
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the alphalfa been cut lately? Are the acorns really shaping
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: up to be a factor this season. You can also
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: take a look at the water courses you might hunt.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Are they actually holding water? If so, what's the sign
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: look like around them? Where the deer eat and drink
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Now they'll probably eat and drink at in a few
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: weeks or a month down the road. Now this is
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: confirmation time, because you'll be prepping stand sites and making
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: your final plans for where to sit in the next
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: week or two. This is also the best time to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: consider how many hunting spots you've got. If you only
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: hunt one private forty acre chunk, you probably don't have
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: much white tail work left to do. But maybe you
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: can mix in some public even if you think it
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: won't be as good as your little private parcel. That's
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: probably worth figuring out. Giving yourself real options and not
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: writing off any ground you could potentially hunt is majorly important.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: It's one of the reasons some people feel a lot
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: of tags no matter where they go, while others have
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to tell you all about the bucks that they air
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: quote passed up for the seventeenth year in a row
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: because they can't actually kill anything. Get out there and
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: confirm the best parts of your plan, but also keep
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: an eye out for anything new or anything you might
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: have missed. The best deer hunters are also crazy good
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: at noticing changes in the woods. They noticed that the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: bucks that were like clockwork in the milo are now
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: showing up every few days. They noticed that the pounded
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: fence crossing that was going to be their number one
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: stand side on opening night showing a little less sexiness
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in August for some reason. Instead of walking through the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: woods just to confirm their deer hunting awesomeness, they're looking
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: for holes in their game, parts of the plan that
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: just don't seem to be built on a super solid foundation,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: if you will, the simple goal of scouting right now
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: is to fill as many of those holes as you can.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: In a couple of weeks, you'll have a maybe pile
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: of ambush sites and a list of absolute go to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: spots where each site ends up in the order will
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: be determined now. Most likely I'll really break this down
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: in the next couple of episodes, but for this week,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: think about your scouting efforts, like a final inspection on
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: a house purchase. Are you really ready to take this
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: big plunge? And hopefully you are. Hopefully when you head
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: out into the human summertime woods, you just confirm what
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you already knew and the whole thing is coming together
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the way you anticipated. But it's probably not. Probably just
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: won't work out like that. You might find that someone
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: else has decided to hang stands and your go to spots,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: or far more likely, you'll notice a new camera hung there,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: or three cameras on the field edge and other obvious
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: trail camera locations. This happens a lot, and it sucks,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: but it's also the way of the white tail these days,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: when more and more of us are pushed into the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: same open access ground. If you hunt where others hunt,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: this is going to happen, and you've got to adapt.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: You've also got to adapt. If you're out there sniffing
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: around and you find a new spot that is full
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of deer sign or I don't know, you jump a
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: bucker three in a specific spot. Both of those are
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: happy accidents, and they've put a few deer on my
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: walls over the years and really can be even more
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: valuable then confirming that there's still a bunch of deer
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: poop scattered all over your kill plot, indicating that yes,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: deer still eat clover when we grow it for them.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Now is the time to think about these locations, these
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: sightings the sign and start to flesh out where you'll sit,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: when and why. As you're walking around, you'll undoubtedly gravitate
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: toward thoughts about evening sits on food sources in the
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: early season. The next phase after that is the one
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: that matters if you hunt around other people. Where will
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the deer go a few days or a week into
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the season when the hunting pressure really close them into
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the fact that once again it's open season on them.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: This is what you're looking for now, when you're waiting
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: through neurpal high nettles, when you're sweating out there and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: generally hating the jungle like conditions, you're building a plan
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that will go four steps beyond the average hunter, who
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I might add is probably not out scouting much right now,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: besides maybe checking a camera every couple of weeks. You
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: have to outsmart the deer, of course, but you really
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: have to outwork the competition to be successful, and some
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of that happens right now. Make a plan to be
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: efficient and see what you need to see. This isn't
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: just walk along a field edge time. It's about targeted strikes.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Swing into the hidden cattle tank and look around before
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: looping up onto the oak ridge and then back through
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the most likely betting area. Look at what you need
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to see, not what is easiest to walk through or
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: what will guarantee you lots of deer sign and make
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: you feel good about your skills. If I'm on private
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: land for this task, I tend to carry a float
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: or camera or two. If I find something interesting sign wise,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: or I jump a buck in a weird spot, I
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: can leave a camera until the season opens, just to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: see what I was missing there. If I'm on public
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: land and either of those things happen, I drop away
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: point on my phone, I file it away in the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: interesting pile, and I crossed my fingers. You might be
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: thinking at this point, okay, fine, I'll spray down with
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: bugged dope and I'll head out there for a few hours,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: But is there a better time to go so I
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: won't screw up things too badly? Now, Assuming you don't
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: have unlimited free time because you're out there adult ng,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the best time to go is if you can hit
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the woods a few days after some rain, since it's August.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: These conditions don't always offer themselves up. If they do,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I like to head out maybe two or three days
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: after a good storm, so that I can see tracks
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: fresh tracks. In fact, if you are lucky enough to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: be Mark Kenyan's best friend, like I basically am, now,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: you'd hear him drown on and on about tracks and
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: how important they are. As annoying as it can be,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: He's not wrong. The thing is that when it's been
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: dry for weeks, most sign looks old and it's hard
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: to read. If you know that three days ago, half
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of an inch of rain fell, and now you're seeing
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: clear edged, big deer prints on a specific trail, that's actionable.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Fresh sign that allows you to pinpoint quantity of deer
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: visitors in a given time period is the recon that
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: should really get your spidy senses tingling. These often prompt
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: us to hang cameras, But when I find something that
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: is on fire deer. Wise, I often don't hang a camera.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: This is counterintuitive, but if the deer have been there
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: absolutely pounding a spot, I don't need to see them
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: if they've left enough clues in the mud. Plus, if
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I don't leave a camera, I won't be tempted to
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: come back and check it, and I know I won't
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: have a camera out there, potentially spooking the deer. When
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I hunt, I want to be around concentrations of deer,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and this type of finding qualifies. Even if I don't
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: have trail camera images of a specific trail, I know
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of deer are using it. That means there's
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: probably a good food source nearby and likely some kind
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: of appealing betting. Sure, there might be a pile of
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: dose traveling the trail, or a bunch of youngsters, but
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: there will also be a buck using the area that
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I want to shoot. That's almost a guarantee. And it's
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a different approach to summer scouting than identifying specific books
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: and haunting them anyway possible. This stylid talking about is
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: it's like a shotgun approach instead of a rifle approach.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: It's not so precise, but it will put you around
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of deer, and I don't know anyone who
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't want to see a whole bunch of deer from
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: stand whether they're on a freezer filler mission or looking
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: for a one seventy year bust. So ask yourself, are
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you comfortable with your level of scouting so far? Do
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: you have enough information on current buck movement to plan
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: your season at least up until the pre rut. If
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: you say yes, how sure are you? If you're not,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: You're goddamn right, I'm ready kind of hunter right now,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: then it's probably a good idea to get out and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: just take a last look around. If you don't want
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to spoiler, go to spot, spend some time walking on
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a backup spot. If you don't have a backup spot,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: find one walk that public that you know doesn't have
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: any good bucks because the rifle hunters drive the crap
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: out of it every November and they shoot everything. Keep
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: an eye out for question mark spots, and of course,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: look at your best areas to decide if they're still
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: your best areas. Keep an eye out for new information
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: that could change your plans for the better or the worse.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Take a targeted approach to the white tail jungle now,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: because the next time you come in it will be
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: time to set up ambush sites, and then it'll be
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: time to get out in the woods and actually go hunt.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: But before we get there, it's worth noting something. Even
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the best work you do now might fall apart through
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: no fault to your own. This is part of the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: reason I think why hunters don't scout as much as
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: they should. After all, some bucks will bail on your
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: property in the space between midsummer and the actual hunting season.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: They'll have a fall range that isn't anywhere near where
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you can hunt, and that sucks. Hopefully, some bucks move
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: in and fill their place, and it all kind of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: evens out. The food sources will change too, and someone
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: might get permission to hunt the same farm as you,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and the landowner's daughter might marry a guy who loves
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: big bucks more than anyone, and all of a sudden,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: your year long scouting efforts amount to mostly lost time.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: That stuff happens, but it's not a guarantee the bucks
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: patterning now, they might stick around, and you might get
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: to execute your plan without interference from anyone else. That's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the best you can hope for. And it's how you
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: should think about scouting. You should count on the deer
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: being there and the plan to work, because it doesn't
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: do you any good to worry about what might happen
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: that you just can't control. You're just gonna have to
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: react to that. But you can control scouting, and you
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: can control having all kinds of ambush sites ready to go,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: which is the topic of next week's episode. That's it
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: for this week, my white tail loving friends, be sure
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to tune in each week so you can keep improving
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: your deer hunting game. I'm Tony Peterson and this has
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast. As I always,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening. We will see you
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: here next week.