Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 462: Foundations - Staging Areas and Overlooked Whitetail Hotspots
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
- 0:11Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Today's episode of Foundations, which is brought to
- 0:16Speaker 1: you by First Light, is all about staging areas and
- 0:19Speaker 1: the places bucks go to after the opening week pressure
- 0:23Speaker 1: gets to them. Now, a lot of you find folks
- 0:40Speaker 1: out there might be thinking that this is a terrible
- 0:43Speaker 1: time in the season to be focused on killing a buck.
- 0:45Speaker 1: After all, it's the beginning of October, the lull is hit,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and the rut is close enough, we're waiting just a
- 0:51Speaker 1: few weeks. Seems like a solid plan. Now, Look, we
- 0:55Speaker 1: aren't married, so I don't want to get into a
- 0:57Speaker 1: pointless argument with you, but I'll just say this. There
- 1:00Speaker 1: are plenty of reasons to hunt right now. This is
- 1:02Speaker 1: true for all white tail hunters, but especially true for
- 1:06Speaker 1: those of us who specialize in pressure deer. The very
- 1:24Speaker 1: day of this episode's drop, October five, is a special
- 1:28Speaker 1: one for me. Way back as a college freshman, I
- 1:33Speaker 1: was chatting with a childhood friend of mine. It was
- 1:36Speaker 1: a Monday, and the Vikings were playing a game that evening.
- 1:39Speaker 1: He wanted to go home to watch it. With his dad,
- 1:41Speaker 1: so I bummed a ride from him, knowing that instead
- 1:43Speaker 1: of watching football, I could head out to the woods
- 1:45Speaker 1: and sit a side note. This strategy of not caring
- 1:49Speaker 1: about football but caring a lot about deer hunting has
- 1:52Speaker 1: treated me really well, particularly across the river in Wisconsin
- 1:56Speaker 1: when the Packers play. If you want public land to yourself,
- 2:00Speaker 1: that scenario will get you there, I promise. Anyway, my
- 2:04Speaker 1: buddy Nolan dropped me off and then drove away to
- 2:07Speaker 1: go cheer on the Purple People Eaters with his old man.
- 2:10Speaker 1: I suited up to go sit a stand tucked into
- 2:12Speaker 1: the bottom of a ravine where the draws splay out
- 2:16Speaker 1: into kind of a wooded flat. It's just a natural
- 2:18Speaker 1: hub spot. It's almost always good for a deer encounter
- 2:22Speaker 1: or two mornings evenings anytime in the season. That made
- 2:25Speaker 1: it a good choice for an early October sit. Now,
- 2:28Speaker 1: up to that moment, I had exactly two button bucks
- 2:32Speaker 1: to my credit in six years of bow hunting. So
- 2:34Speaker 1: when I saw a mutant five point headed my way,
- 2:37Speaker 1: it was all systems. Go the buck with a tenant
- 2:41Speaker 1: spike on one side and a turkey cloth type of
- 2:43Speaker 1: aniler on the other side, walked by at twenty yards
- 2:46Speaker 1: and he caught an old aluminum eastern in his spine.
- 2:49Speaker 1: When he dropped, I panicked and I shot him in
- 2:51Speaker 1: the hip. The third shot actually went where it was
- 2:54Speaker 1: supposed to, and I had my first antler buck. It
- 2:58Speaker 1: was an ugly performance on my It sucked, taught me
- 3:02Speaker 1: a lot, but it also solidified something that already existed
- 3:05Speaker 1: pretty deep inside of me. There is no bad time
- 3:08Speaker 1: to sit in the woods, As is so often the
- 3:11Speaker 1: case with bow hunting milestones. That little buck opened up
- 3:14Speaker 1: a world to me where the size eventually ramped up
- 3:17Speaker 1: to deer that I would occasionally put on the wall.
- 3:19Speaker 1: Several of those earlier decent deer all died in late
- 3:22Speaker 1: September or early October. Instead of backing off to wait
- 3:26Speaker 1: for the rut, I hunted it as hard then as
- 3:28Speaker 1: I did on opening week. I didn't know any better
- 3:31Speaker 1: and wasn't much for believing general dear advice anyway. Chalk
- 3:34Speaker 1: it up to my age or whatever, but I didn't
- 3:37Speaker 1: just I just didn't care. I wanted to hunt, and
- 3:40Speaker 1: I was seeing and killing deer when you're not supposed to. Today,
- 3:45Speaker 1: as primarily a public land bow hunter, I leaned into
- 3:48Speaker 1: that even harder, but with a lot more strategy. I
- 3:51Speaker 1: didn't know it at the time, but that spot where
- 3:53Speaker 1: I arrowed my first buck and quite a few after,
- 3:56Speaker 1: it's just an amazing staging area. It's a spot covered
- 3:59Speaker 1: in cover that allows deer to use the wind and
- 4:03Speaker 1: the terrain to their advantage. While they are usually headed
- 4:06Speaker 1: through it, they tend to stop there to pick up
- 4:08Speaker 1: a few acorns, make a rub, or just browse and
- 4:11Speaker 1: kill time. They don't have to poke their noses out
- 4:14Speaker 1: into the open, but they can be up moving around
- 4:17Speaker 1: during shooting hours, which is what they do in that
- 4:20Speaker 1: spott a lot over the years. I don't know how
- 4:23Speaker 1: many deer my dad and I killed there, but it
- 4:25Speaker 1: was a lot. He killed his personal best buck there
- 4:28Speaker 1: on Halloween and I killed a great ten pointer there
- 4:31Speaker 1: in That's a pretty big spread in years and conditions
- 4:36Speaker 1: and hunting pressure on that farm. But the thing that
- 4:39Speaker 1: it stayed consistent is that the deer like the stage there. Now.
- 4:42Speaker 1: Staging areas really are the key to October bucks. They
- 4:46Speaker 1: tend to involve a lot of scouting. If you think
- 4:49Speaker 1: back to like the first twelve episodes of This Foundation's podcast,
- 4:52Speaker 1: I talked a lot about scouting too much, according to
- 4:55Speaker 1: some listeners, who probably couldn't kill a fork if he
- 4:57Speaker 1: staked it down and gave him a dozen shots. Anyway,
- 5:01Speaker 1: a lot of that scouting that you should have done
- 5:04Speaker 1: probably cluded you into staging areas, or at least where
- 5:07Speaker 1: staging areas should or could be. Simply put, staging areas
- 5:12Speaker 1: often exist between food and bedding. That's it. This is
- 5:16Speaker 1: pretty easy to nail down and egg heavy regions with
- 5:19Speaker 1: limited wood lots, but a lot tougher not to crack
- 5:22Speaker 1: in the big woods, where your average piece of timber
- 5:24Speaker 1: might encompass thousands of acres. If you want to shortcut
- 5:28Speaker 1: to identifying staging areas no matter where you hunt, I'm
- 5:31Speaker 1: gonna give you two. The first I've talked and written
- 5:36Speaker 1: about a million times, but here it goes. I call
- 5:38Speaker 1: them cluster rubs. Look for rubs that don't really relate
- 5:42Speaker 1: to an edge of some sort. It's fun to find
- 5:45Speaker 1: rubs on field edges or on logging roads, but the
- 5:48Speaker 1: ones that will really benefit the october hunters they're on
- 5:51Speaker 1: ridge tops overlooking food sources, or in a ravine bottom
- 5:54Speaker 1: surrounded by benchy bluffs. In the big woods, they might
- 5:58Speaker 1: relate to a soft edge, but they won't just consists
- 6:00Speaker 1: of a rubbed line. They'll be random ish looking. What
- 6:05Speaker 1: I mean by that is rubs here, rubs there. Some
- 6:09Speaker 1: alder's absolutely shredded in a half circle. I think a
- 6:12Speaker 1: lot of people find these spots and they assume they
- 6:15Speaker 1: might be standing in a Bucks betting area. Now that's possible,
- 6:18Speaker 1: because Bucks will get up they'll make some rubs around
- 6:20Speaker 1: their betting area. But it's also possible that they are
- 6:23Speaker 1: just in a staging area. Now, the other way to
- 6:26Speaker 1: really identify a staging area is to watch deer do
- 6:29Speaker 1: what deer do. Any of the season bow hunters out
- 6:32Speaker 1: there have probably experienced a very specific kind of encounter
- 6:37Speaker 1: with lots of deer. It's the one where you look
- 6:39Speaker 1: up and see some deer dose or bucks, doesn't matter,
- 6:43Speaker 1: walking or browsing through. They get out of sight and
- 6:46Speaker 1: you think, well, that was cool, at least I saw something.
- 6:49Speaker 1: Then forty five minutes later you see movement and you
- 6:52Speaker 1: realize those deer never really left your vicinity. They've been
- 6:55Speaker 1: there the whole time. Then at last light they all
- 6:59Speaker 1: kind of drift off in same general direction, oftentimes with
- 7:02Speaker 1: new deer following suit right at last light. Now, there
- 7:05Speaker 1: might be some other reasons besides staging, like a killer
- 7:08Speaker 1: acorn drop or some type of soft mass coming on
- 7:11Speaker 1: at that point. I don't really care what's bringing them there,
- 7:14Speaker 1: as long as I know they are there and spending
- 7:16Speaker 1: a lot of time in the area during shooting hours.
- 7:19Speaker 1: And I know we've always focused on mature bucks. But
- 7:22Speaker 1: if there's one lesson I hope you can take away
- 7:24Speaker 1: from this, it's at the movement of every deer. All
- 7:28Speaker 1: the deer in the herd can teach you something. Writing
- 7:31Speaker 1: off the travel habits, staging habits of a forkey or
- 7:36Speaker 1: a family group of does it's shortsighted what deer like
- 7:40Speaker 1: to do, other deer will like to do. Count on
- 7:43Speaker 1: that now. Just like with betting areas and feeding areas,
- 7:47Speaker 1: staging areas aren't set in stone. Sometimes they are close
- 7:50Speaker 1: because of limited cover, but in an awful lot of places,
- 7:53Speaker 1: they'll change by the season according to destination, food sources,
- 7:56Speaker 1: and hunting pressure. I watched the most consistent big staging
- 8:00Speaker 1: area I've ever found evaporate from one year to the next.
- 8:04Speaker 1: Do I think solely to hunting pressure. There might have
- 8:08Speaker 1: been some wolves or something else that contributed to it,
- 8:11Speaker 1: but it was fast and noticeable and accompanied by a
- 8:14Speaker 1: whole bunch of new tree stands in that area. In
- 8:17Speaker 1: other situations, one field going from corn to beans in
- 8:20Speaker 1: a year could change how dear stage. But the best
- 8:23Speaker 1: you can do is work on preseason scouting intel and
- 8:27Speaker 1: what you're in season scouting and observations offer. You combine
- 8:30Speaker 1: those two, and it doesn't do you any good to
- 8:32Speaker 1: assume a staging area that was hot last year will
- 8:34Speaker 1: suddenly cool off this season, because it very well might not.
- 8:37Speaker 1: If it does, it's time to relocate, but not before
- 8:40Speaker 1: you try to figure out why. Ask yourself, is there
- 8:44Speaker 1: an obvious change in food sources or is there a
- 8:46Speaker 1: bunch more hunting pressure than there was last year? Are
- 8:49Speaker 1: you hunting a staging area with a questionable wind. That's
- 8:52Speaker 1: a big one, and it's an action killer. Deer, especially
- 8:55Speaker 1: mature books, stage in places where they have a huge
- 8:58Speaker 1: visual and olfactory. At manage, they often set up in
- 9:01Speaker 1: places where they can smell their final destination. See quite
- 9:05Speaker 1: a bit and probably hear other deer snorting and alarm
- 9:08Speaker 1: at the hunters who are still sitting on the field
- 9:10Speaker 1: edges right now, If you slip into a rubbed up
- 9:13Speaker 1: chunk of cover. There's position between a suspective betting area
- 9:16Speaker 1: and a known destination food source, and the wind is
- 9:19Speaker 1: blowing the wrong way. It's over my friends. Instead on
- 9:23Speaker 1: somewhere else, or stay way back to observe from a
- 9:26Speaker 1: safer location. Now I realized I still haven't really said
- 9:30Speaker 1: how to hunt a staging area. So here that goes.
- 9:34Speaker 1: When you find a spot where the deer are staging,
- 9:37Speaker 1: look to the terrain first. If you've got up and
- 9:40Speaker 1: down to your hunting spots, you've got a huge advantage.
- 9:43Speaker 1: As I said, bucks love staging on ridges, on knobs
- 9:47Speaker 1: and other places where you can use a drop in
- 9:49Speaker 1: terrain to your advantage. Windwise, you can usually get in
- 9:53Speaker 1: pretty tight here and kind of play it like you
- 9:55Speaker 1: would during the rut where you're looking at it going.
- 9:58Speaker 1: They're going to approach from that direction dobably and believe
- 10:01Speaker 1: the wind is in their favor. But if you've got
- 10:03Speaker 1: some kind of nice drop off behind you, you can
- 10:06Speaker 1: play that wind close enough where they're confident, but you
- 10:10Speaker 1: can get away with it. This is this is so
- 10:12Speaker 1: important to hunting deer. Anywhere where you've got some terrain.
- 10:17Speaker 1: Now when it comes to flatter ground, the whole thing
- 10:19Speaker 1: gets a lot tougher. Take note where you saw a
- 10:22Speaker 1: deer come from where they went, and then start factoring
- 10:26Speaker 1: in the wind. In this situation, I tend to use
- 10:28Speaker 1: a creep closer approach if I have the time, and
- 10:32Speaker 1: this is one that involves an observation and maybe a move,
- 10:35Speaker 1: and then an observation and maybe a move type of strategy.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Same thing I do on public land in a lot
- 10:40Speaker 1: of places just to get on deer In general, if
- 10:43Speaker 1: I don't have the time, I just play the wind,
- 10:46Speaker 1: cross my fingers, and move in as tight as I
- 10:49Speaker 1: think I can get away with. The problem we often
- 10:53Speaker 1: make as bow hunters while using sign or sightings is
- 10:56Speaker 1: that we do get in a little too close to
- 10:59Speaker 1: the deer. Even a difference of being fifty yards away
- 11:02Speaker 1: versus fifteen matters. This often allows you to fine tune
- 11:06Speaker 1: your setups, and because of the nature of browsing and
- 11:09Speaker 1: hanging out in staging areas, often puts deer in a
- 11:11Speaker 1: really good position for you to shoot them. This isn't
- 11:14Speaker 1: an exact science, but the more you keep hunting and watching,
- 11:18Speaker 1: the more you'll see how to play each specific spot.
- 11:21Speaker 1: I should also say, since hunting deer on staging areas
- 11:24Speaker 1: is an inexact science, that oftentimes I get close and
- 11:28Speaker 1: I just rye to stand out if I if I'm
- 11:30Speaker 1: a little cagy about the wind and I think I've
- 11:32Speaker 1: got something that's working that lets me see dear, I'm
- 11:35Speaker 1: not always looking to move into the spot on the spot,
- 11:38Speaker 1: because sometimes that doesn't exist. Oak flats are often a
- 11:42Speaker 1: great example of this. If you've got several trees dropping
- 11:45Speaker 1: on one ridge, there might not be one exact spot
- 11:47Speaker 1: to sit where all the deer moved through. I've seen
- 11:50Speaker 1: this in clear cuts in the big woods as well.
- 11:52Speaker 1: The movement sometimes isn't super concentrated to a tight spot
- 11:56Speaker 1: and doesn't seem to follow any sort of point a
- 11:59Speaker 1: to be pattern. In those situations, get near the edge,
- 12:02Speaker 1: play the wind, wait and watch. It's amazing how many
- 12:06Speaker 1: different deer you can see in a few days when
- 12:08Speaker 1: you find a spot like that and you don't blow
- 12:11Speaker 1: it out. Now, if you're still not convinced you shouldn't
- 12:15Speaker 1: hang up your saddle for a few weeks, consider this.
- 12:18Speaker 1: If you're a public land hunter, or at least a
- 12:20Speaker 1: pressured ground hunter, speculate on what your competition is doing
- 12:24Speaker 1: right now. They aren't hunting probably, or they aren't hunting
- 12:28Speaker 1: very hard. Do the opposite of your competition, and you'll
- 12:31Speaker 1: succeed on public land. I promise now. If you think
- 12:34Speaker 1: the deer don't notice the decrease in pressure and react
- 12:36Speaker 1: to it, they do. This is one of my favorite
- 12:39Speaker 1: times to be a public land hunter because I know
- 12:42Speaker 1: that now, more than almost any other time of the season,
- 12:45Speaker 1: I'll be left alone to simply beat the deer. That's
- 12:49Speaker 1: no small thing, my friends, and can get even better.
- 12:52Speaker 1: If you hunt somewhere where baiting is legal, like I
- 12:55Speaker 1: sometimes do, then you'll see a decrease in baiting this
- 12:58Speaker 1: time of the season. I notice this where I hunt
- 13:00Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, and I freaking love it. I don't want
- 13:03Speaker 1: a bait because it's just doesn't do anything for me,
- 13:07Speaker 1: but I also hate having to contend with others bait sites.
- 13:10Speaker 1: I know on opening week there'll be tons of corn
- 13:13Speaker 1: and apples dumped into the woods, but that will ebb
- 13:16Speaker 1: as the season progresses. As the rut approaches and the
- 13:19Speaker 1: gun hunters start getting a jump on their bait piles,
- 13:21Speaker 1: the whole thing ramps up and it reeks, havoc on
- 13:24Speaker 1: the natural movement that I like to hunt, But the
- 13:26Speaker 1: sweet spot is right between. Right when the outdoor TV
- 13:30Speaker 1: experts who have never hunted a challenging deer in their
- 13:32Speaker 1: lives will tell you that you're better off going golfing
- 13:35Speaker 1: than sitting in a stand because the big bucks will
- 13:37Speaker 1: all be nocturnal. That's bullshit, my friends, And the easiest
- 13:41Speaker 1: way to see if that's true is to go out
- 13:43Speaker 1: and keep hunting, but don't sit your field edge stands anymore.
- 13:46Speaker 1: Get deeper into the cover where the bucks feel safe. Actually,
- 13:50Speaker 1: I take that back. Sit field edges if you want
- 13:52Speaker 1: to shoot a doll or just happy to kill any buck.
- 13:55Speaker 1: There are real opportunities there and it can work out
- 13:58Speaker 1: great for you. Early October, while it gives you chances
- 14:01Speaker 1: that big bucks if you work hard enough, is also
- 14:03Speaker 1: a great time to just go hunt deer. While a
- 14:05Speaker 1: lot of hunters will say the best time to shoot
- 14:07Speaker 1: antler lists deer and fill the freezer's late season, that's
- 14:10Speaker 1: a terrible option for most public land hunters. I know
- 14:13Speaker 1: it is for me, but early October is a great
- 14:16Speaker 1: time to encounter dos and younger bucks in some gimme spots,
- 14:19Speaker 1: it's also a really pleasant time to be sitting on
- 14:22Speaker 1: stand and if you should get so lucky, have a
- 14:25Speaker 1: dead deer to work with. Now, some folks will say
- 14:27Speaker 1: you shouldn't kill your doughs before the rut, because that's
- 14:30Speaker 1: what the bucks will key on, But I say, saving
- 14:32Speaker 1: deer when you're on pressure ground is largely a lost cause.
- 14:35Speaker 1: It's also not always about killing big bucks and doing
- 14:38Speaker 1: everything possible to make that happen. When I hear hunting
- 14:42Speaker 1: stories from strangers, which happens a lot, so much of
- 14:47Speaker 1: the mistakes, so many of them that they mentioned that
- 14:51Speaker 1: cost them dear come from inexperience. Folks with no dear
- 14:55Speaker 1: or only a few deer under their belt are going
- 14:57Speaker 1: to screw up a lot. It takes real world experience
- 15:01Speaker 1: to be able to execute a shot well on a living,
- 15:04Speaker 1: breathing deer. This might not seem like much, but to
- 15:08Speaker 1: think about your chosen state in the season structure. Let's
- 15:11Speaker 1: say you get six weeks of bow season to hunt
- 15:13Speaker 1: before gun season comes in. Half of that or more
- 15:16Speaker 1: will likely be in the dead zone where you're not
- 15:19Speaker 1: supposed to hunt and won't be able to kill a
- 15:21Speaker 1: big buck. If you take that time off or most
- 15:25Speaker 1: of that time off. You're missing out on a huge
- 15:27Speaker 1: portion of the season. Do that for years and you've
- 15:30Speaker 1: given up half of your best huntable time and not
- 15:34Speaker 1: racked up any real experience. Do you think the best,
- 15:37Speaker 1: most well known public land big buck killers do that.
- 15:40Speaker 1: They don't. You shouldn't either. It's also just fun to
- 15:44Speaker 1: hunt knowing the goal is to sit in the pleasant
- 15:48Speaker 1: October woods with the standards of procuring some venison and
- 15:50Speaker 1: just figuring out some dear stuff. The value of a
- 15:53Speaker 1: low standards hunt doesn't come up much in the hunting media,
- 15:56Speaker 1: but it should because it's freaking fun. I know I
- 15:59Speaker 1: mentioned it last week, but it's still important right now.
- 16:03Speaker 1: Ditching the constant trophy hunting mentality to just be a
- 16:06Speaker 1: plain old deer hunter is like waking up one day
- 16:09Speaker 1: to realize that you finally kick the flu and you
- 16:12Speaker 1: feel safe to eat without the potential of destroying your
- 16:14Speaker 1: boxers or horking out your recently nomed on pop tarts.
- 16:18Speaker 1: All I'm saying is that this is the time of year.
- 16:21Speaker 1: It's a bad rap, but it really shouldn't if you
- 16:24Speaker 1: give early October a chance. By focusing on staging areas
- 16:28Speaker 1: and hunting when others won't. You'll probably see that, surprise, surprise,
- 16:32Speaker 1: the deer are still out there doing their thing. They're
- 16:35Speaker 1: going to eat, they're going to drink, they're gonna walk around,
- 16:38Speaker 1: they're gonna leave some sign and, quite frankly, eventually they're
- 16:42Speaker 1: going to offer up the hard working bow hunter a
- 16:44Speaker 1: chance to put an arrow through their lungs. Why not
- 16:47Speaker 1: let that hunter be you? Plus, as an added bonus
- 16:51Speaker 1: to hunting right now, you'll be the first to key
- 16:53Speaker 1: in on scrapes in the time period where they really matter,
- 16:57Speaker 1: which is the topic of next week's show. Yeah, that's
- 17:01Speaker 1: it for this week, my white tail obsessed brothers and sisters.
- 17:04Speaker 1: As I always, thank you so much for listening. I'm
- 17:07Speaker 1: Tony Peterson and this has been the Wired to Hunt
- 17:09Speaker 1: Foundations podcast. If you want more deer hunting information, visit
- 17:14Speaker 1: them eatater dot com slash wired to check out my articles,
- 17:18Speaker 1: marked articles, and a whole bunch of other good articles,
- 17:21Speaker 1: or head on over to our Wired Hunt YouTube channel
- 17:24Speaker 1: and check out all of our how to videos.