Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 715: Foundations - How to Build a Real Rut Hunting Plan

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Ep. 715: Foundations - How to Build a Real Rut Hunting Plan · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, presented by first Light,
0:09
Speaker 1: creating proven versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind.
0:14
Speaker 1: First Light Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host
0:19
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson.
0:20
Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wired Hunt Foundation's podcast, which
0:23
Speaker 2: is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:24
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about building a
0:27
Speaker 2: rut hunting plan and following through with it. I have
0:41
Speaker 2: a question for all you listeners. Why are you tuning
0:44
Speaker 2: into this podcast this week when you should be in
0:47
Speaker 2: a tree now? Maybe you're listening in the morning on
0:51
Speaker 2: the way to and all day sit And I can
0:53
Speaker 2: forgive you for that, In fact, I encourage it, But
0:56
Speaker 2: otherwise I don't know. This is the week of all weeks.
1:00
Speaker 2: You know, the great equalizer is upon us. The rut
1:02
Speaker 2: is here. Things are bust and loose. It's cold as
1:06
Speaker 2: hell in many places, and if you have time to sit,
1:08
Speaker 2: you better get out there and sit. But don't do
1:10
Speaker 2: it without at least a loose plant. That's what this
1:13
Speaker 2: episode is about. And while it might feel a little
1:15
Speaker 2: late to be talking about some of this stuff. It's
1:17
Speaker 2: not Listen up and you'll see what I mean. I'd say,
1:29
Speaker 2: I don't know. About eight years ago, I figured i'd
1:31
Speaker 2: do something nice for Mother's Day, which also happens to
1:34
Speaker 2: fall right around my anniversary. As a two for gift
1:37
Speaker 2: to my bride. I thought I had to address the
1:39
Speaker 2: dismal landscaping situation in our front yard. So instead of
1:43
Speaker 2: going fishing or turkey hunting, I waited for my wife
1:46
Speaker 2: to load up the girls and head up to the lake.
1:49
Speaker 2: I stayed home and went to one of those giant
1:51
Speaker 2: landscaping businesses with all kinds of rocks and pavers and
1:54
Speaker 2: decorative yard crap. Now our house isn't big, and it's
1:58
Speaker 2: you know, not exactly some kind of architect experiment to
2:01
Speaker 2: three bedrooms foot level, so it's basically a big rectangle.
2:05
Speaker 2: I thought I'd go buy some block to frame in
2:07
Speaker 2: two little rock beds in the front around our front steps,
2:10
Speaker 2: and then you know, spruce them up with some kind
2:12
Speaker 2: of flowers or shrubs or something. And since I did
2:15
Speaker 2: a little bit at a landscaping in my youth, I
2:18
Speaker 2: figured that it would be a simple job. And a
2:20
Speaker 2: lot of things are simple For some people, I don't
2:23
Speaker 2: like using a ratchet strap correctly. For others, those tasks
2:27
Speaker 2: are anything but simple. When I returned home from the
2:30
Speaker 2: first trip to the big shop of blocks and rocks,
2:33
Speaker 2: I framed out the two sections and realized I was
2:35
Speaker 2: short by a lot. No biggie, I just made the
2:40
Speaker 2: round trip back to the shop and swiped the credit
2:41
Speaker 2: card again. When I finally got the blocks truly framed out,
2:44
Speaker 2: I did some quick, terrible math and went back and
2:47
Speaker 2: bought a load of rock to fill the whole thing in.
2:49
Speaker 2: I undershot that by two trips worth, it started to
2:53
Speaker 2: become one of those projects that made me really miss drinking.
2:56
Speaker 2: I finally got blocks and rocks squared away and drove
2:59
Speaker 2: to a giant greenhouse to buy some plants. Now what
3:02
Speaker 2: I know about decorative plants couldn't max out the character
3:05
Speaker 2: length of a tweet, So after seeking some help, I
3:07
Speaker 2: drove home with seven perennials that were destined to be
3:10
Speaker 2: beautiful and produce flowers every year. And after planning them,
3:14
Speaker 2: I stood back to admire my work, which should have
3:17
Speaker 2: been a testosterone heavy moment where I should have been
3:20
Speaker 2: able to feel my manly chest hair growing After the
3:23
Speaker 2: ape task I had just completed became something else, mostly
3:27
Speaker 2: because it looked really bad. I didn't stake out the
3:30
Speaker 2: block so I could follow a truly straight line, and
3:33
Speaker 2: me eyeballing a line of block and getting it right
3:35
Speaker 2: would be about like Kenyon trying to shoot a booner
3:38
Speaker 2: on Michigan public land with a homemade recurve. Not going
3:41
Speaker 2: to happen, my friends. So I basically kind of redid
3:44
Speaker 2: the whole thing and it looked passable but definitely not professional.
3:49
Speaker 2: Any tradesmen listening to this, you're right to smirk or
3:52
Speaker 2: directly talk about me. I deserve it, and I totally
3:55
Speaker 2: get it. I should have had a plan. I should
3:58
Speaker 2: have actually measured things out and figured out the materials
4:00
Speaker 2: I was going to need, and then I should have
4:02
Speaker 2: followed that plan. What I did instead was assume I
4:05
Speaker 2: could do this thing that seems so simple on the
4:07
Speaker 2: surface but actually require some skill, and I dove headlong
4:11
Speaker 2: in without a plan. Now I'm pretty sure you know
4:14
Speaker 2: where I'm going with this. The rut is here, and yes,
4:17
Speaker 2: you should have a plan. Let me start with a
4:20
Speaker 2: part of the plan you should have taken care of
4:22
Speaker 2: a long time ago. But if you didn't. It's okay,
4:25
Speaker 2: you can still address this. Most of the hunters I know,
4:29
Speaker 2: they just kind of set stands and blinds for general
4:31
Speaker 2: deer movement throughout the season and that's what they hunt
4:34
Speaker 2: from September to December or whatever their season framework is.
4:38
Speaker 2: And that can work, but it often doesn't. I think
4:42
Speaker 2: a better bet is to hang rut stands or set
4:44
Speaker 2: out rut blinds. Here's why. If you think that field
4:48
Speaker 2: edge stand you've set a bunch of times is going
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Speaker 2: to be flushed with cruising bucks, it probably won't. You've
4:54
Speaker 2: probably educated some of the bucks and many of the
4:56
Speaker 2: doe to that ambush spot. If the does are onto you,
5:00
Speaker 2: they're not going to drag a buck by. You could
5:02
Speaker 2: still catch a random cruiser because it is still the rut,
5:05
Speaker 2: but the odds are less than if you had different
5:06
Speaker 2: setups to work with. This is a common mistake that
5:10
Speaker 2: hunters make, and they often know it. This is why
5:13
Speaker 2: it's so common to dip into the old bag of tricks.
5:16
Speaker 2: Start rattling or grunting or using a decoay or whatever.
5:20
Speaker 2: The stands they are hunting probably won't naturally funnel a
5:23
Speaker 2: bunch of rut crazy bucks by so they try to
5:25
Speaker 2: spruce them up with some get rich quick products. This
5:28
Speaker 2: is often one of those lipstick on a pig situations.
5:32
Speaker 2: Trust me on this. There are times when sitting a
5:34
Speaker 2: tried and true stand during the rut is plenty good enough.
5:37
Speaker 2: That's up for you to decide. But if you don't
5:40
Speaker 2: have other options, you won't have a choice. And that's
5:43
Speaker 2: no bueno. And you know how I feel about not
5:46
Speaker 2: giving yourself options. It's a bad move and they'll bite
5:48
Speaker 2: you in the ass every time. The truth is, there
5:53
Speaker 2: are some spots that are just rut spots. The pinch
5:56
Speaker 2: points and funnels and terrain traps are the place is
5:58
Speaker 2: to be, the soft edges in the big woods, great
6:02
Speaker 2: places to be, the high spine that bisects a swamp
6:05
Speaker 2: and allows deer to stay mostly dry while cruising through.
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Speaker 2: Great place to be, the place where the river bluff
6:11
Speaker 2: pinches up next to the bank. Well, you get it.
6:13
Speaker 2: You know this stuff. I know you know this. But
6:16
Speaker 2: do you do this? Do you have a setup or
6:18
Speaker 2: a plan to go into a spot like this for
6:20
Speaker 2: the rut? If not, you'd better consider it. I think
6:23
Speaker 2: that we view the rut as a situation where deer
6:25
Speaker 2: could show up anywhere, but mostly lots of deer show
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Speaker 2: up in very specific spots, while few deers show up
6:32
Speaker 2: wherever you want to be on one of those high
6:35
Speaker 2: concentration spots where lots of deer should go. It is
6:38
Speaker 2: that simple. Now, as I lay these words down on
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Speaker 2: a digital tablet, I'm packing up for a trip to
6:44
Speaker 2: North Dakota to hunt for six days. My plan, after
6:47
Speaker 2: almost too much time on on X, is going to
6:51
Speaker 2: be that I'm going to spend some time in three spots.
6:55
Speaker 2: I have three really interesting pinch points marked that should
6:58
Speaker 2: allow for all days sits if the wind cooperates. Now,
7:00
Speaker 2: I know that at least one of those spots will
7:03
Speaker 2: probably have other hunters around because it's public, so I'm
7:06
Speaker 2: not even counting on being able to utilize all three.
7:09
Speaker 2: But they are all three true rut spots. You probably
7:12
Speaker 2: wouldn't sit any of them in September or at least
7:15
Speaker 2: early October, but now you would. My plan is simple.
7:19
Speaker 2: There go hanging hunt where the wind is best and
7:22
Speaker 2: the sign is plentiful. And then comes phase two of
7:24
Speaker 2: the plan. This involves something that we talk about a
7:28
Speaker 2: lot but we don't break down very much, which is
7:30
Speaker 2: just watching deer. I know I've talked about this before,
7:35
Speaker 2: but if you have a buck knows his way through
7:36
Speaker 2: the woods, pay attention to it. I mean, if you
7:40
Speaker 2: don't maybe go golfing or something, because I don't know
7:42
Speaker 2: if bow hunting is the right sport for you. I've
7:45
Speaker 2: said this a lot, but every deer you see during
7:48
Speaker 2: the rut gives you an advantage. Obviously, the buck that
7:51
Speaker 2: crosses the down fence in the woods exactly where you
7:54
Speaker 2: expect him to is great. It's great affirmation for your strategy.
7:58
Speaker 2: But there's a benefit to watch and a buck cross
8:00
Speaker 2: one hundred yards farther down too. Or the dough that
8:03
Speaker 2: walked out into the alfalfa field at three in the
8:05
Speaker 2: afternoon all by herself. What she did today, she might
8:09
Speaker 2: do tomorrow, And you can bet your ass that eventually
8:11
Speaker 2: someone is going to want to give her a little
8:12
Speaker 2: sniff to see if she might swipe right. If you
8:14
Speaker 2: get my drift, the forky that crosses an open field
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Speaker 2: from one point of woods to another, or I don't know,
8:21
Speaker 2: the two year old it travels through the middle of
8:23
Speaker 2: a cat tail slew where you can see a small
8:25
Speaker 2: band of willows. All of that movement tells you something. Now,
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Speaker 2: you might be thinking that these sightings tell you to move,
8:32
Speaker 2: but they don't, at least not always. This is where
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Speaker 2: phase two the rut plan meets an old fork in
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Speaker 2: the road. Remember those get rich Quick products I just
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Speaker 2: made fun of a little bit ago, Well you might
8:44
Speaker 2: need them now if you have a pretty good rut setup.
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Speaker 2: But for some reason, the deer prefer to be seventy
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Speaker 2: five yards away instead of twenty. You have two options.
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Speaker 2: Move to them or try to move them to you.
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Speaker 2: Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's nothing more than pulling your
8:59
Speaker 2: set and moving fifty yards to a good tree where
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Speaker 2: the action actually is. This is my go to strategy. First,
9:06
Speaker 2: if I can put myself where the deer like to move,
9:08
Speaker 2: I've damn near won the game. But what if you're
9:10
Speaker 2: on the edge of that cat tail slew and you
9:13
Speaker 2: see that two year old and some other deer using
9:15
Speaker 2: that willow band. But you don't really want to wade
9:18
Speaker 2: in there and try to arrow one from the ground
9:19
Speaker 2: because you're not going to make that happen. In that situation,
9:22
Speaker 2: moving to them just might not be a viable option.
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Speaker 2: You might have to try to get them to come
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Speaker 2: to you. I ran into this I don't know, maybe
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Speaker 2: a dozen years ago in Nebraska during a public land hunt.
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Speaker 2: The bucks kept cruising and chasing through a small patch
9:36
Speaker 2: of pines in the CRP, but wouldn't come to where
9:38
Speaker 2: I could hang a stand. So I eventually used a
9:41
Speaker 2: feeding dough decoy one morning to see if I could
9:43
Speaker 2: get a deer's attention, and it worked. I had to
9:46
Speaker 2: call to him and I had to work him in.
9:48
Speaker 2: But the eight pointer I arrowed that morning he was
9:50
Speaker 2: following the exact script of several other bucks. I saw
9:54
Speaker 2: he wasn't going to come my way, but then he
9:56
Speaker 2: saw a deer, or he thought he saw a deer.
9:58
Speaker 2: Then he heard a deer, or he thought he heard
10:01
Speaker 2: it here. Well, it wasn't much for him to make
10:04
Speaker 2: a little bit of a detour, and it was like
10:06
Speaker 2: November sixth, so he swung in there. If I could
10:10
Speaker 2: have moved to the best patch of seaters there to
10:11
Speaker 2: set up, I would have, but it wasn't an option.
10:14
Speaker 2: So it was time to get a little crafty. This
10:16
Speaker 2: is important, my friends. If you're not right on the
10:18
Speaker 2: sweet spot, but you're close, read the situation. Read it
10:22
Speaker 2: really well, and make note of the wind in other conditions,
10:26
Speaker 2: Ask yourself why they're there and if they are likely
10:29
Speaker 2: to get to you. If you don't think so, ask yourself,
10:32
Speaker 2: what's my best move? Can you really locate to the
10:35
Speaker 2: action with a stand or a saddle, or maybe a
10:37
Speaker 2: natural ground line? If so, do that honestly, don't wait.
10:42
Speaker 2: Just get there and make it happen. But if you can't,
10:45
Speaker 2: which is pretty common, it might be time for a
10:47
Speaker 2: little calling or a decoy or some sense or whatever.
10:50
Speaker 2: Now I need to move on to phase three here
10:53
Speaker 2: of the plan, And it's one that I kind of
10:55
Speaker 2: wish didn't exist, but it just does. It's what to
10:58
Speaker 2: do when you're just not on deer, even though you
11:01
Speaker 2: believe you should be. Just one. Happens to me a lot,
11:03
Speaker 2: and I think it happens to a lot of us,
11:05
Speaker 2: more than we'd care to admit. I'm a firm believer
11:08
Speaker 2: that if I give a spot a full day's sit
11:10
Speaker 2: or one afternoon and then a morning sit and it
11:13
Speaker 2: doesn't produce, I'm probably gonna move. Scratch that, I'm at
11:16
Speaker 2: least going to consider moving. This is just a gut
11:20
Speaker 2: feeling type of thing. But if you believe the terrain
11:22
Speaker 2: is going to feed dear to you, at some point
11:24
Speaker 2: two days of sitting or even three, it just might
11:27
Speaker 2: be necessary, especially if you're in a low deer density area.
11:30
Speaker 2: It's all up to your confidence and faith in the spot,
11:34
Speaker 2: and you have to be real honest with yourself because
11:36
Speaker 2: this is when laziness can weigh in on the decision
11:38
Speaker 2: making process. It's far more work to go looking and
11:42
Speaker 2: try to find deer and the next best setup. In
11:45
Speaker 2: that case, it's much easier to keep sitting the same
11:48
Speaker 2: spot and trying to convince yourself that it's just a
11:51
Speaker 2: matter of time. This is a common mindset and it
11:55
Speaker 2: leaves a lot of tags unfilled. When I hit that
11:58
Speaker 2: moment where I'm just like, it is not happening here
12:00
Speaker 2: for some reason, my first instinct is to move. Unless
12:04
Speaker 2: my options are really limited, you know, like I'm hunting
12:06
Speaker 2: a small property, or the conditions for whatever reason won't
12:09
Speaker 2: allow for a fresh setup. I'm going to go to
12:11
Speaker 2: my next spot. This is kind of where we go
12:14
Speaker 2: back to phase one. If you did your homework, you
12:16
Speaker 2: should have a few other rut spots you believe in.
12:20
Speaker 2: They might not be your number one choice, but you
12:22
Speaker 2: should have faith in them. If the first setup doesn't
12:24
Speaker 2: produce and you have other options, it is just a
12:27
Speaker 2: matter of sitting somewhere else. If you don't have another
12:30
Speaker 2: site prepped and ready to go, don't fret. You can
12:33
Speaker 2: sneak in and scout around for some fresh sign. I
12:36
Speaker 2: like lots of RUPs, and if I can find it,
12:38
Speaker 2: big running tracks on trails in the woods. A spot
12:41
Speaker 2: with both of those that allows me to set up
12:43
Speaker 2: with a good wind. That's pretty much all I need
12:46
Speaker 2: when I don't have other options. Now, before I wrap
12:49
Speaker 2: this up, I just want to say a few things.
12:51
Speaker 2: The first is develop some kind of plan for yourself
12:55
Speaker 2: if you can. I mean that. The second is to
12:58
Speaker 2: understand when you're sabotaging yourself for some reason. This is
13:02
Speaker 2: most common when we decide not to hunt. I know
13:05
Speaker 2: I've said this before, but how many times have you
13:08
Speaker 2: heard someone saying it's just not worth sitting during the
13:10
Speaker 2: rut because it's too hot or too windy or whatever.
13:13
Speaker 2: There's no such thing. Don't make excuses to not hunt.
13:18
Speaker 2: The only thing you'll do is pretend that you're being
13:20
Speaker 2: a wise deer hunter while dumber deer hunters are out
13:23
Speaker 2: enjoying the woods and killing deer. This is maybe the
13:27
Speaker 2: most important part of the whole thing. Get your head
13:30
Speaker 2: ready for a real rut hunt. That's what a plan
13:33
Speaker 2: does for you. You know that that hunt where you're
13:36
Speaker 2: gonna blank and have the wrong wind and wash Hunters
13:38
Speaker 2: walk through the best betting areas, the one where you
13:41
Speaker 2: don't want to wake up and sit all day for
13:43
Speaker 2: another whole day when your bed is warm and cozy
13:45
Speaker 2: and you're a sleepy little bear, get up and go hunt.
13:49
Speaker 2: A plan. Having a good plan, you know that's going
13:52
Speaker 2: to help you with this, Like keep going, keep doing
13:54
Speaker 2: your thing, tell yourself that you're going to find a
13:58
Speaker 2: way to maximize all available time you have, because you
14:01
Speaker 2: know what, for most of us, at least who don't
14:05
Speaker 2: live too far south, it's already damn near over. In
14:08
Speaker 2: a couple weeks, the whole thing will fizzle down into
14:11
Speaker 2: that time of the season when it's just about impossible
14:13
Speaker 2: to see a deer bigger than a four ky. When
14:16
Speaker 2: we hit that point, will you look back on the
14:18
Speaker 2: rut and think about it in a positive way or
14:21
Speaker 2: will it mostly be a reminder of unmet expectations. You
14:25
Speaker 2: don't want that, do you? I know I don't, and
14:28
Speaker 2: I've lived it. Enough to try really hard to make
14:30
Speaker 2: sure it doesn't happen to me. Listen, I still have
14:33
Speaker 2: bad days and bad sits and bad weeks during the rut.
14:36
Speaker 2: I don't think you can get away from that if
14:38
Speaker 2: you hunt anywhere with a decent amount of pressure anyways.
14:40
Speaker 2: But I think you can always grind it out on
14:42
Speaker 2: the promise that a good one will eventually come down
14:44
Speaker 2: the trail, or that you might have one of those
14:46
Speaker 2: magical once per decade mornings where a hot dough brings
14:50
Speaker 2: the whole crew to your feet and the action you
14:52
Speaker 2: witness is so awesome it can erase tons of difficult
14:56
Speaker 2: sits and other bad deer hunts. Make a loose plan
15:01
Speaker 2: based around your existing setups and whatever potential setups you
15:03
Speaker 2: could have in the moment, pay attention to the deer.
15:06
Speaker 2: They'll tell you damn near everything you need to know.
15:09
Speaker 2: And lastly, put in the time. Don't be like your
15:13
Speaker 2: competition and phone it in, but really get out there
15:16
Speaker 2: and log in those hours. You won't regret it, I
15:18
Speaker 2: promise you that. And finally, come back next week because
15:22
Speaker 2: I'm going to talk about gun hunting for deer. Know
15:24
Speaker 2: I've covered this topic a few times, but I got
15:26
Speaker 2: a few things I want to talk about that I
15:28
Speaker 2: haven't covered before, so we can get into given our
15:32
Speaker 2: orange clad brothers and sisters a little bit of love.
15:36
Speaker 2: That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has
15:38
Speaker 2: been the Wired to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought
15:40
Speaker 2: to you by First Light. As always, thank you so
15:43
Speaker 2: much for listening and for all of your support. All
15:46
Speaker 2: of us here at meat Eater really really appreciate it.
15:50
Speaker 2: If you want some more deer hunting content, you can
15:52
Speaker 2: head on over to the meat eater dot com and
15:55
Speaker 2: you will see tons of articles, tons of podcasts, videos, series,
16:00
Speaker 2: you name it, and it's not just whitetail content over there.
16:03
Speaker 2: If you want to scratch that elkitch and plan for
16:05
Speaker 2: a hunt next year or whatever, it's all there at
16:08
Speaker 2: themeatheater dot com. Thank you again so much