Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 456: Foundations - Seeking That Opening Week Glory

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Ep. 456: Foundations - Seeking That Opening Week Glory · 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 dear hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
0:15
Speaker 1: which is brought to you by First Light. Today's show
0:18
Speaker 1: is all about filling your buck hit. Today's show is
0:22
Speaker 1: all about filling your buck tag in the opening days
0:24
Speaker 1: of bow season. I guess I have a reputation for
0:41
Speaker 1: a few things. Being a hunting mentor and probably a
0:45
Speaker 1: hero to Mark Kenyan is definitely one of them. Hunting
0:48
Speaker 1: over water is another one, and of course killing bucks
0:51
Speaker 1: in September. This might seem like I've got some crazy
0:54
Speaker 1: strategy to make it happen right away, but really it's
0:57
Speaker 1: mostly for my own sanity, being a born and raised
1:00
Speaker 1: Minnesota hunter. I'll get to that in this podcast. But
1:02
Speaker 1: the reality is that in a state where you've got
1:05
Speaker 1: a mid September ish opener, you've got a hell of
1:08
Speaker 1: a chance to kill a good buck right away. In fact,
1:11
Speaker 1: it might be the easiest time to kill a big
1:13
Speaker 1: one until it suddenly isn't. And this this advice in
1:16
Speaker 1: this podcast, it doesn't just apply to the folks who
1:18
Speaker 1: live in states that have a mid September opener. This
1:21
Speaker 1: applies to opening week just about anywhere you hunt. For
1:37
Speaker 1: a lot of us, it's finally here. The bow opener.
1:41
Speaker 1: Mid September is the official kickoff for a pile of
1:45
Speaker 1: white tail states in the Midwest in the East, and
1:48
Speaker 1: that means it's time to get out there. After all,
1:51
Speaker 1: you've put in a pile of work this summer, and
1:53
Speaker 1: now you might as well go enjoy the fruits of
1:55
Speaker 1: your labor. This, in my opinion, is probably a better
1:59
Speaker 1: time to k of a buck for most of us
2:01
Speaker 1: than any other time of the season, including the Rut.
2:05
Speaker 1: Now I know that comes with a whole shipload of qualifiers,
2:08
Speaker 1: of course, but I'll get to them right now. Let
2:11
Speaker 1: me explain how I've come to this conclusion. I've mentioned
2:14
Speaker 1: in the intro here that I'm a born and raised
2:16
Speaker 1: Minnesota and what we've got here is a lot of
2:19
Speaker 1: great fishing and some okay deer hunting. We've also got
2:22
Speaker 1: one of the earliest gun seasons in the country, which
2:25
Speaker 1: means that if you want to bow hunt the rut,
2:27
Speaker 1: you might be out of luck. As someone who has
2:29
Speaker 1: pretty much always bow hunted either public land or private
2:32
Speaker 1: land through permission, the gun season has always represented a
2:36
Speaker 1: big old pause button to my season. Almost worse than
2:40
Speaker 1: having half of a million gun hunters out there on
2:42
Speaker 1: the first weekend in November is that the influx of
2:45
Speaker 1: guys getting the itch to hang stands and get into
2:47
Speaker 1: the woods to mess around starts a few weeks earlier.
2:51
Speaker 1: This reality has conditioned me to try to kill a
2:53
Speaker 1: buck in September and then move on to other states
2:56
Speaker 1: with more enjoyable season structures, and it's worked well most years.
3:00
Speaker 1: In fact, if I think back along the last seven seasons,
3:03
Speaker 1: I've killed homestate bucks during opening week five times. A
3:07
Speaker 1: couple of them were on opening Day. Now, that might
3:09
Speaker 1: not be appealing to someone who has a whole season
3:11
Speaker 1: to hunt and a good place to do it on,
3:14
Speaker 1: But if you're out there on pressure ground, wrapping up
3:16
Speaker 1: the whole thing early isn't a bad thing. But before
3:19
Speaker 1: we consider the factors working against you on this, let's
3:22
Speaker 1: talk about the good news for starters. The deer haven't
3:26
Speaker 1: been hunted by humans for like nine months. That matters
3:30
Speaker 1: on a lot of ground. It seems like by the
3:32
Speaker 1: end of the first week you're going to be back
3:34
Speaker 1: to deer that know exactly what is going on. But
3:37
Speaker 1: during that first week, or at least opening weekend, I
3:41
Speaker 1: can have you dealing with deer that aren't exactly on
3:43
Speaker 1: their A game yet. If you need all the help
3:46
Speaker 1: you can get, like I often do, take that as
3:48
Speaker 1: a blessing. You've also got the hope of a buck
3:51
Speaker 1: sticking to his summer pattern. This is a huge maybe
3:55
Speaker 1: in my experience. For example, in twenty nineteen, I it
4:00
Speaker 1: up on an opening night over now Falfa field that
4:02
Speaker 1: was a hot destination for several bucks. I knew from
4:05
Speaker 1: summer scouting that I had the chance to run into
4:07
Speaker 1: quite a few of them, and figured that my odds
4:10
Speaker 1: of killing one were as good as they'd be all season.
4:13
Speaker 1: Not only did I see a really solid buck this
4:15
Speaker 1: day out of range, but I had a familiar eight
4:17
Speaker 1: point step out of twenty yards to feed that eight
4:19
Speaker 1: point one, and he was a victim of predictability. It
4:25
Speaker 1: was also just a gift that none of the other
4:27
Speaker 1: hunters on the farm went in and messed up his
4:29
Speaker 1: pattern before opening night. Now, if there's one thing I
4:32
Speaker 1: know about pressure ground, it's that you don't get lucky
4:35
Speaker 1: twice in a row doing the same thing. I tried
4:37
Speaker 1: it anyway, because the trail camera images on the trail
4:40
Speaker 1: that Big Eight took were so encouraging the following season,
4:44
Speaker 1: several bucks used it right up until the season went,
4:48
Speaker 1: right right before it was just about to open. That's
4:51
Speaker 1: when I got a video of another hunter and his
4:53
Speaker 1: daughter walking in with Motley Crue blasting on his phone
4:56
Speaker 1: shout at the devil if you're curious. She pointed out
5:00
Speaker 1: a camera and they were just starting to talk about
5:02
Speaker 1: who's it might be when the clip ended. He hung
5:06
Speaker 1: a camera there anyway, and he put those deer totally down.
5:09
Speaker 1: He even went so far as to sit my stands
5:11
Speaker 1: without asking me, which is always a nice surprise to
5:13
Speaker 1: figure out later in the season. Anyway, that summer pattern
5:17
Speaker 1: died before the season even opened up, and I have
5:20
Speaker 1: to guess it was mostly due to the immediate preseason
5:24
Speaker 1: pressure from that hair metal fan, probably some other people too.
5:28
Speaker 1: You just can't count on a summer pattern lasting until
5:31
Speaker 1: mid September, but you should try. You should try it.
5:35
Speaker 1: If you live in a state like Illinois or Iowa
5:37
Speaker 1: or somewhere else where you might have an October open.
5:39
Speaker 1: You should try that bean field stand you hung in
5:42
Speaker 1: the summer. You might catch your target buck munching away
5:45
Speaker 1: opening night before he gets clued into the season. But
5:48
Speaker 1: what you got to be careful with here is hunting
5:51
Speaker 1: a spot you've been fantasizing about for months when the
5:54
Speaker 1: conditions aren't right. This is a lesson in discipline, and
5:58
Speaker 1: it's not easy. If you think the bachelor group now
6:01
Speaker 1: hard antlered, is going to pop out in that back
6:03
Speaker 1: corner of the field, it is so difficult not to
6:06
Speaker 1: go there on opening night, But going to your number
6:09
Speaker 1: one spot when the wind is wrong is a bad idea.
6:12
Speaker 1: It's also a lesson. Every deer hunter learns the hard way,
6:15
Speaker 1: at least once in a while. When this is the
6:18
Speaker 1: case in my world, I sometimes play defense and stay
6:22
Speaker 1: back to glass, or I just go to Plan B
6:24
Speaker 1: or see or D or whatever. I think one of
6:26
Speaker 1: the main problems a lot of hunters have is they
6:28
Speaker 1: can't say no to the easy setup or the setup
6:31
Speaker 1: that they really want to sit. But messing up a
6:34
Speaker 1: great spot with impatience is always a disaster. It's also
6:38
Speaker 1: really easy to talk to yourself into doing just that.
6:41
Speaker 1: So let's say you're a public land hunter. Your reasoning
6:44
Speaker 1: will be that someone is going to go in there
6:46
Speaker 1: and book the deer anyway, So why not have it
6:48
Speaker 1: be you? Well, maybe because that's not a guarantee. But
6:52
Speaker 1: what is is that if you hunt the spot the
6:54
Speaker 1: wrong way or at the wrong time, you'll definitely negatively
6:58
Speaker 1: impact it. This is I In the earlier episodes of
7:01
Speaker 1: this podcast, I preached about having multiple good options. That
7:04
Speaker 1: Big Minnesota bucka aired in tw he was in a
7:08
Speaker 1: spot that was my last choice for opening night. Other hunters,
7:11
Speaker 1: both small game and deer hunters, along with a straight
7:15
Speaker 1: south wind had me running low on spots, but I
7:18
Speaker 1: wasn't out of good spots, which is important. Had one
7:22
Speaker 1: place to go that was set up specifically for a
7:24
Speaker 1: south wind, and I thought from the truck's park where
7:27
Speaker 1: they were and the other hunter activity that no one
7:30
Speaker 1: had probably messed with those deer in the Alfalfa corner.
7:33
Speaker 1: They hadn't, and it worked out. But if I had
7:35
Speaker 1: had fewer options, I would have either decided to go
7:38
Speaker 1: mobile or I would have settled for a spot that
7:40
Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't have hunted. According to Dead Too Soon
7:45
Speaker 1: musician Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part for
7:48
Speaker 1: deer hunters. That's true, waiting for a spot to be
7:52
Speaker 1: right is important, and it can feel like a lost
7:54
Speaker 1: cause when you think you're the only responsible hunter in
7:57
Speaker 1: the woods, but you don't really have much choice in
8:00
Speaker 1: the matter. It's also important to trust your spidy senses
8:03
Speaker 1: on opening weekend. This is where things get tricky because
8:06
Speaker 1: you've been running cameras and you've been glassing. This means
8:09
Speaker 1: you've got weeks or months of intel showing you where
8:12
Speaker 1: the bucks are. But what if you're walking out to
8:14
Speaker 1: your go to stand and you cross a pounded trail,
8:17
Speaker 1: or you find an oak tree dropping nutty goodness by
8:19
Speaker 1: the ton, which is a real possibility this year, or
8:23
Speaker 1: an apple tree, or you just hit a saturation point
8:26
Speaker 1: with a sign that you cannot ignore, like a spot
8:29
Speaker 1: that boasts several visible fresh rubs or maybe a few
8:32
Speaker 1: September scrapes, all concentrated in one little area. Hunt there
8:37
Speaker 1: forget about that spot that had all the deer somewhat
8:40
Speaker 1: consistent throughout the summer. Fall is a time of transition
8:44
Speaker 1: in the woods, and there is nothing better than sign
8:47
Speaker 1: that shows you where the bucks are right now. This
8:50
Speaker 1: happened to me after I drove from Nebraska to southeastern
8:53
Speaker 1: Minnesota for Opening Day. Nebraska had kicked my ass and
8:58
Speaker 1: nearly melted me in my blast for an tent, and
9:00
Speaker 1: when I got to Minnesota the weather was just as
9:03
Speaker 1: hot and miserable. I figured a stand I had on
9:06
Speaker 1: a soybean edge was going to be the ticket, but
9:08
Speaker 1: on the way there I noticed how browsed down some
9:11
Speaker 1: of the alfalfa was. It was also littered with deer droppings.
9:15
Speaker 1: I had to stand there as well, but I hated
9:17
Speaker 1: it because it's only like two fifty yards from a road.
9:20
Speaker 1: I don't like when traffic can see the deer I
9:22
Speaker 1: am hunting, and I don't like sitting there watching people
9:25
Speaker 1: creeping down the road in their pickup trucks. So I
9:27
Speaker 1: tried to talk myself into walking on. But I had
9:30
Speaker 1: hung that stand for a reason and I couldn't shake it.
9:33
Speaker 1: And after what probably looked like a crazy man acting
9:36
Speaker 1: out a courtroom scene where I deliberated the pros and
9:39
Speaker 1: cons of abandoning a good plan over the sign I
9:42
Speaker 1: was on, I climbed into that stand and decided to
9:44
Speaker 1: give it a shot. The wind was right and the
9:47
Speaker 1: deer were clearly on that green field, which is often
9:50
Speaker 1: a solid choice when it's really hot and long before
9:54
Speaker 1: first light, two bucks stepped out with the bigger, a
9:57
Speaker 1: solid eight pointer with a cool dropper over his right.
10:00
Speaker 1: I I had him photographed and back to the truck
10:03
Speaker 1: before full darkness set in and the hordes of mosquito
10:05
Speaker 1: was washed over the land. Now understand that all of
10:08
Speaker 1: this summer scouting and work you've put in might have
10:11
Speaker 1: to be pushed aside in respect a fresh intel. This
10:14
Speaker 1: is the key to a lot of hunters white tail
10:17
Speaker 1: success because they know how to quickly change gears when
10:20
Speaker 1: new data becomes available. In fact, this might be just
10:23
Speaker 1: a single rub in September, which, by the way, it
10:26
Speaker 1: means a lot to yours truly. I like rubs all season,
10:30
Speaker 1: but the first ones I find always tell me that
10:32
Speaker 1: bucks are close. If I find one opening weekend or
10:35
Speaker 1: on opening week I tend to give its location some
10:38
Speaker 1: serious consideration. A buck that makes a rub on a
10:41
Speaker 1: field edge on September four is probably living close by,
10:45
Speaker 1: And if he makes a rub in the woods at
10:46
Speaker 1: that time, then I know I really want to hunt
10:49
Speaker 1: there now. For you later, opener hunters, this might not
10:52
Speaker 1: be as as important if you can't start till October.
10:55
Speaker 1: There's probably going to be more sign out there, so
10:57
Speaker 1: your standard for a good concentration enough sign might be
11:01
Speaker 1: a little bit different than mid September. And you guys
11:04
Speaker 1: might also be thinking, why the hell did you tell
11:06
Speaker 1: me to do so much scouting and stand prep work
11:08
Speaker 1: all summer long if you were just going to go
11:11
Speaker 1: full a d H D on me and just start
11:13
Speaker 1: hunting fresh sign the moment the bow season kicks in. Well,
11:16
Speaker 1: that's a fair question, my friends. All of that work
11:19
Speaker 1: that you did, it was the best you could do
11:22
Speaker 1: in the off season, and it might put you right
11:25
Speaker 1: on top of a buck that is on a summertime
11:27
Speaker 1: pattern right now, or it might put you on a
11:29
Speaker 1: buck that is already staging in the timber and moving
11:32
Speaker 1: his way toward being more nocturnal due to the added
11:35
Speaker 1: presence of people in the woods. That happens, and it's
11:38
Speaker 1: an important thing to set up for, but it doesn't
11:41
Speaker 1: negate the fact that no matter how much work you
11:43
Speaker 1: put in, there might be something going on that you
11:45
Speaker 1: didn't plan for. Or maybe you couldn't hang stands before
11:48
Speaker 1: the season because you don't own any, or you're a
11:50
Speaker 1: public land hunter who can't get them up before the season,
11:54
Speaker 1: or maybe I'm just trying to condition you to think
11:57
Speaker 1: about how mobile you might need to be no matter
12:00
Speaker 1: or what type of situation you hunt. Take that gimme
12:04
Speaker 1: field edge, Dan, you've been thinking about for two months.
12:06
Speaker 1: What if you go in to hunt that target buck
12:08
Speaker 1: you've given some cute nickname too, and he doesn't show
12:11
Speaker 1: up where he's supposed to, but instead down the woodline,
12:14
Speaker 1: a new buck pops out, and while he's not your guy,
12:17
Speaker 1: he's good enough. Do you come back and ride out
12:20
Speaker 1: the target buck program or do you go in the
12:23
Speaker 1: next night, conditions permitting, and set up where the new
12:25
Speaker 1: buck was. That's up to you, of course, But I
12:28
Speaker 1: know what I do. I go to that buck because
12:30
Speaker 1: he's there and he's huntable. Now he's shown you recent
12:34
Speaker 1: movement and giving you something to work with those bachelor
12:37
Speaker 1: groups from the summer. Some of those bucks might be
12:40
Speaker 1: three miles away now. Others might just be hard, antler
12:43
Speaker 1: and shy and not willing to go fill their bellies
12:45
Speaker 1: in broad daylight. Any deer that is good enough for you,
12:49
Speaker 1: that does show you a willingness to put himself in
12:51
Speaker 1: danger is the one you should be hunting for right now.
12:55
Speaker 1: You should also be thinking about mornings and one of
12:57
Speaker 1: our past episodes, I begged you to think about early
13:00
Speaker 1: season mornings and setting up for them if at all possible.
13:04
Speaker 1: That new buck that catches your eye, where did he
13:06
Speaker 1: enter the field, where did he go to when he did,
13:10
Speaker 1: Where did he likely come from? Is there a way
13:12
Speaker 1: to get on him going back in the morning. The
13:15
Speaker 1: key to most of this stuff is to think about
13:18
Speaker 1: what's going to happen next. That buck might come out
13:21
Speaker 1: again tomorrow night in the field, or he might not.
13:23
Speaker 1: If he doesn't, why not, what happened and how do
13:27
Speaker 1: you reset on him. While a lot of good hunters
13:30
Speaker 1: disagree with me on this, I think a pretty aggressive
13:33
Speaker 1: strategy for early season white tails is generally the right call.
13:37
Speaker 1: It might not be necessary for the hunter who has
13:39
Speaker 1: a private spot and three weeks to hunt during the rut,
13:42
Speaker 1: but for a lot of us, getting on the deer
13:44
Speaker 1: that will work with us right now is important. Waiting
13:47
Speaker 1: for the rut can be an option, but it's also
13:49
Speaker 1: the strategy that most folks rely on. If you're a
13:52
Speaker 1: public land hunter, remember that because it could come back
13:56
Speaker 1: to bite you right on your camo covered ass. Work
13:59
Speaker 1: with what you've got now, think about the food that
14:02
Speaker 1: might put a buck in front of you, but also
14:04
Speaker 1: the travel routes they'll take to get to the food
14:07
Speaker 1: and back to bed from it. If you see something
14:10
Speaker 1: actionable from one of your preset stands, use that. If not,
14:14
Speaker 1: keep hunting, keep looking. Now this can seem overwhelming, but
14:17
Speaker 1: I look at it this way. The deer out there,
14:20
Speaker 1: they're betting, they're moving around, they're eating every day. Where
14:24
Speaker 1: they do those things is up to you to discover
14:26
Speaker 1: and then fine tune. It's not easy, but there are
14:30
Speaker 1: some early season factors working in your favor. Oftentimes, you
14:33
Speaker 1: get some rain to work with, which is a gift.
14:36
Speaker 1: Deer moving the rain a lot. Hunters don't like hunting
14:39
Speaker 1: in the rain a lot. See where this is going.
14:42
Speaker 1: You also have a ton of cover to work with.
14:45
Speaker 1: Standing corn can be your ticket to accessing stand sites
14:48
Speaker 1: that will totally leave you exposed later in the season.
14:51
Speaker 1: In fact, a few years ago I used the strategy
14:53
Speaker 1: to arrow a nine pointer the second morning of the
14:55
Speaker 1: Minnesota season. I knew the field the bucks were feeding
14:58
Speaker 1: in and the potential route they take to get back
15:01
Speaker 1: to bed. I also knew it would be a long, hot,
15:04
Speaker 1: miserable walk through standing corn to get there. In the dark,
15:07
Speaker 1: and it was, but I also saw several dos and
15:10
Speaker 1: then narrowed a solid deer at ten in the morning
15:12
Speaker 1: as he worked his way back to bed in mid September.
15:16
Speaker 1: When it comes to opening week, whether that starts on
15:18
Speaker 1: September one or sometime in October, for your given state,
15:22
Speaker 1: use what you can to your advantage instead of focusing
15:25
Speaker 1: on the negatives. We hear so much about, focus on
15:27
Speaker 1: the positives. So what if your target buck moved on,
15:30
Speaker 1: someone knew will take his place. You can't hunt mornings
15:33
Speaker 1: because you're not supposed to prove those folks wrong by
15:37
Speaker 1: out working them and out thinking the deer. And even
15:39
Speaker 1: if you hunt pressured deer, they couldn't have possibly been
15:42
Speaker 1: pressured too much in the last nine months. So what
15:45
Speaker 1: rain has forecasted. It's transition time and you've got a
15:48
Speaker 1: good chance as any right now to make it happen.
15:52
Speaker 1: So get out there and make it happen. And if
15:55
Speaker 1: you don't, that's okay. You'll find out why in the
15:57
Speaker 1: next episodes. But as for now, really think about executing
16:01
Speaker 1: your opening week plan. Stick to it unless the deer
16:06
Speaker 1: or the sign shows you something that demands and in
16:08
Speaker 1: the moment pivot. This is what you've been working for,
16:11
Speaker 1: and it's a great opportunity if you blend that discipline
16:15
Speaker 1: with a little freelance hunting. That's it for this week,
16:20
Speaker 1: my white tail loving friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this
16:23
Speaker 1: has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is
16:26
Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. Be sure to check
16:28
Speaker 1: out our Wired to Hunt YouTube channel and visit the
16:31
Speaker 1: meat Eator dot com wired for more deer hunting tips, tricks, tactics,
16:35
Speaker 1: and strategies.