Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 712: Foundations - Rut Shot Realities

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Ep. 712: Foundations - Rut Shot Realities · 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 Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast,
0:23
Speaker 2: which is brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:25
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about how to
0:28
Speaker 2: make a high pressure shot. If you're in the cliches,
0:42
Speaker 2: pay attention to hunting media right now. With us Northerners
0:46
Speaker 2: knocking on the door of the rut, it's time to
0:48
Speaker 2: hear them all about you know, like how it's the
0:50
Speaker 2: most wonderful time of the year. You know how I
0:53
Speaker 2: feel about that. So I'm not going to sugarcoat it
0:55
Speaker 2: as much as those folks who hunt primo ground in
0:58
Speaker 2: southern Iowa, and you know they'll be sorted through boomers
1:01
Speaker 2: looking for just the right one, unlike us. The truth is,
1:06
Speaker 2: you know, the rut is tougher than we let on often,
1:09
Speaker 2: which is something I've talked about plenty. But one thing
1:11
Speaker 2: I haven't talked about, and that's real important is that
1:15
Speaker 2: shots during the rut are often the most difficult you'll
1:18
Speaker 2: take all season. So buckle up, buttercups, because it's time
1:22
Speaker 2: to dive into this episode. I'm sick of driving, you know.
1:31
Speaker 2: I don't envy the general European lifestyle a whole lot,
1:35
Speaker 2: but the thought of living in a place where I
1:37
Speaker 2: could bike just about everywhere kind of has a little
1:40
Speaker 2: bit of an appeal, mostly probably because I don't actually
1:43
Speaker 2: live there and don't actually have to bike to get
1:45
Speaker 2: my groceries or whatever. Here in good old America, we
1:48
Speaker 2: drive a lot. We live in a big country, and
1:51
Speaker 2: things are far apart. We also have a culture of
1:54
Speaker 2: car ownership and often don't emphasize public transportation outside of
1:59
Speaker 2: metro areas. I can't prove this about driving, but I
2:04
Speaker 2: think it stands to reason that it's a numbers game
2:08
Speaker 2: as far as something going wrong. I've been in a
2:11
Speaker 2: couple accidents in my life. The first was entirely my fault,
2:15
Speaker 2: and if I'm being totally honest, I was eating pieces
2:18
Speaker 2: of a muffin off of my shirt and I was
2:20
Speaker 2: also super hungover, and I rear ended a car at
2:23
Speaker 2: a stoplight while I was going about seven miles per
2:25
Speaker 2: hour and she was going about three. It was probably
2:29
Speaker 2: the slowest car accident since people were driving Model T's around.
2:33
Speaker 2: Other than a slight crack on her fender, that was
2:35
Speaker 2: about it. The cop who wrote up the report gave
2:38
Speaker 2: me a general speeding ticket because mostly he kind of
2:40
Speaker 2: just wanted to punish me for ruining her morning. Fair enough,
2:43
Speaker 2: I guess. Another time, a couple buddies and I ended
2:46
Speaker 2: up upside down in a ditch, which is a story
2:48
Speaker 2: that I'm not going to tell two thousands of strangers.
2:51
Speaker 2: And the last accident was during rush hour in the Cities,
2:54
Speaker 2: while my boss at the time was driving and someone
2:57
Speaker 2: in front of us made a really stupid decision that
2:59
Speaker 2: resulted in a reaction to cars hitting cars, with us
3:02
Speaker 2: taking a minivan on at about fifty miles an hour.
3:06
Speaker 2: I guess, in the span of nearly thirty years of
3:08
Speaker 2: driving and a lifetime of riding in vehicles, that's not
3:11
Speaker 2: too bad could have been a hell of a lot
3:13
Speaker 2: worse multiple times. That's part of the reason I'm sick
3:16
Speaker 2: of driving. In perfect conditions, when you're wide awake in
3:20
Speaker 2: the traffic is light to nonexistent, driving is pretty safe,
3:24
Speaker 2: you know, I'll probably as safe as walking anywhere. Add
3:27
Speaker 2: in some kind of confounding factor, though, like a blizzard
3:31
Speaker 2: or rush hour, or the fact that you haven't slept
3:33
Speaker 2: a whole lot in days because you've been hunting elk,
3:35
Speaker 2: and the odds of something going wrong just increase. The
3:38
Speaker 2: odds are making a mistake go up. I feel acutely
3:42
Speaker 2: aware of this as I get home from one hunt
3:44
Speaker 2: and head out on the next, especially if I'm driving
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Speaker 2: my kids somewhere. The odds of something going wrong are
3:50
Speaker 2: just a little higher, and it pays to be aware that.
3:53
Speaker 2: It keeps you paying attention a little more, which is
3:55
Speaker 2: a good thing when you're in heavy hunk of plastic
3:58
Speaker 2: and metal that is powered by the refined remnants of dinosaurs. Focus.
4:03
Speaker 2: Being mindful of the conditions and being honest with yourself
4:06
Speaker 2: about what's going on, I'll keep you from making dumb
4:09
Speaker 2: decisions on the road, or at least mitigate the chances
4:13
Speaker 2: of making a dumb decision. You know, you can't always
4:15
Speaker 2: protect yourself against other drivers. And speaking of that, any
4:19
Speaker 2: of you folks out there that drive during rush hour somewhere,
4:22
Speaker 2: have you noticed the dudes, and yes, it's always dudes
4:25
Speaker 2: who drive like they're in a NASCAR race. They're the
4:29
Speaker 2: ones going twice the speed of the general traffic who
4:31
Speaker 2: weave in and out of lanes and treat the whole
4:33
Speaker 2: thing like a sport. Don't you just want to murder
4:36
Speaker 2: those pricks? I do when I see them, and where
4:39
Speaker 2: I live, I see them a fair amount. I dive
4:42
Speaker 2: pretty deep into elaborate fantasies about torture. I also think
4:45
Speaker 2: about what it would be like to have a Fulliatto
4:47
Speaker 2: fifty col mounted to the top of my truck and
4:50
Speaker 2: immunity from spraying random bullets into the inner state to
4:53
Speaker 2: take those guys out. They're the worst anyway, rant over,
5:00
Speaker 2: I better tie this whole thing to hunting before everyone
5:02
Speaker 2: starts to fall asleep. That's Sunday drive when the conditions
5:05
Speaker 2: are perfect. That's like taking a shot at a relaxed
5:09
Speaker 2: buck that're just feeding in the beans or your food
5:11
Speaker 2: plot in the early season. You know that buck that
5:14
Speaker 2: doesn't have anywhere to be. He isn't all keyed up,
5:16
Speaker 2: and the shot is likely to be just a lower
5:18
Speaker 2: pressure affair. You know what's not a low pressure affair
5:24
Speaker 2: Shooting at the biggest buck of your life as he
5:26
Speaker 2: chases a dough around your stand while grunting his head off.
5:29
Speaker 2: That's the opposite, and you know what that means. A
5:32
Speaker 2: lot of bad shots happened during the rut, and I'm
5:35
Speaker 2: not picking on anyone here. I recently had a very
5:38
Speaker 2: embarrassing miss while filming a Mediater episode, so trust me
5:41
Speaker 2: when I say that I get it that things can
5:43
Speaker 2: go wrong in that situation. Mister Ronella and I were
5:47
Speaker 2: hunting any deer in Oklahoma on some public land. Well
5:51
Speaker 2: the first morning any deer happened to show up, and
5:54
Speaker 2: while I thought I was pretty calm when that spike
5:58
Speaker 2: came in, I had something happened that threw the whole
6:01
Speaker 2: encounter off the buck. And I'm talking a scrapper. Little
6:06
Speaker 2: tiny spike was sixteen yards away, happily nosing the ground
6:10
Speaker 2: for some per simmons when I drew and murped him.
6:13
Speaker 2: What he did, instead of stopping and looking around like
6:16
Speaker 2: a normal buck should, is that he jumped about six
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Speaker 2: feet forward. So I just leaned a little farther out
6:22
Speaker 2: of my tree, put my pin on him, and shot.
6:25
Speaker 2: And what I didn't realize was that my window wasn't
6:28
Speaker 2: as open as I assumed, and my arrow deflected off
6:31
Speaker 2: some brush and missed him completely. All it took was
6:34
Speaker 2: that little deer reacting differently to my attempt to stop him,
6:37
Speaker 2: and I went from what I'm pretty sure was a
6:39
Speaker 2: sure thing to a total whiff. As cagy as he was,
6:44
Speaker 2: he made a huge mistake when he let me get
6:45
Speaker 2: a redemption shot on him. But the lesson still stands.
6:49
Speaker 2: Even in scenarios where we should be able to make
6:51
Speaker 2: the shot a thousand times out of a thousand, we
6:55
Speaker 2: often don't. This happens on public land spikes, and it
6:59
Speaker 2: happens on private land one hundred and eighty inches. It
7:01
Speaker 2: happens all season long, but it happens the most during
7:05
Speaker 2: the rut. This is the reality that no one really
7:08
Speaker 2: talks about. But I'm confident in saying that, well, my
7:11
Speaker 2: odds of getting a shot at a buck might be
7:13
Speaker 2: highest during the rut. Outside of at least some specific
7:17
Speaker 2: early season situations, my odds of getting a high pressure
7:20
Speaker 2: shot during the rut are highest. There's no other time
7:24
Speaker 2: of the season where it's almost a guarantee that things
7:26
Speaker 2: are going to unfold pretty quickly and often in ways
7:29
Speaker 2: I don't anticipate. Does that sound familiar if not just
7:34
Speaker 2: keep hunting during the pre rut and the chase phase.
7:36
Speaker 2: In the lockdown period, you'll see that while your encounters
7:39
Speaker 2: with good deer might increase with the seasonal timing, that
7:42
Speaker 2: your chance of putting an arrow right where it needs
7:44
Speaker 2: to be starts to decline a little bit. The first
7:47
Speaker 2: thing to acknowledge about this is that it's mostly in
7:50
Speaker 2: your head. The pressure of most shot opportunities is largely
7:55
Speaker 2: a self made deal, and it's dumb. It's also nearly inevitable.
8:01
Speaker 2: This begins with the fact that we have high expectations
8:03
Speaker 2: for this time of year. We have real high hopes.
8:06
Speaker 2: You know. With all that unfettered optimism comes heightened senses,
8:11
Speaker 2: increased anticipation. We know that we can go from sitting
8:15
Speaker 2: in a dead woods for six hours to suddenly having
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Speaker 2: the buck of a lifetime in our laps. We expect
8:20
Speaker 2: that to happen, but when it does, we are rarely
8:23
Speaker 2: ready because how would you get ready for that? There
8:27
Speaker 2: really isn't a way to target practice that allows you
8:30
Speaker 2: to simulate that situation. For most of us, we might
8:34
Speaker 2: have a couple of good encounters during the entire rut,
8:37
Speaker 2: or hell, the entire season. This adds to the problem.
8:41
Speaker 2: I know this won't do you much good until you
8:42
Speaker 2: screw it all up, So let me say this. You
8:45
Speaker 2: probably have more time than you think, but every second
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Speaker 2: of warning or lead time you can get is also
8:52
Speaker 2: a big benefit. Seeing a buck one hundred yards out
8:56
Speaker 2: is a hell of a lot better than suddenly noticing
8:57
Speaker 2: him when he's thirty. In cruising, it's hard to pay
9:01
Speaker 2: attention the whole time, though, but you gotta try. Get
9:04
Speaker 2: into the rhythm of looking up from your phone a lot,
9:07
Speaker 2: or better yet, shutting it down and putting it in
9:09
Speaker 2: your pocket for blocks of time. Look everywhere glass often.
9:14
Speaker 2: Remember no believe that a buck could show up at
9:19
Speaker 2: any moment from anywhere, because it's true. Work on your mindset,
9:23
Speaker 2: and remember you probably have time. It takes most of
9:28
Speaker 2: us like three to seven seconds to execute a shot.
9:32
Speaker 2: That's not that much time. Even a cruiser who is
9:35
Speaker 2: going to arc into and out of your life in
9:36
Speaker 2: a matter of twenty seconds is going to give you
9:39
Speaker 2: everything you need to work with to make that shot.
9:42
Speaker 2: And the key to making any shot, especially a high
9:45
Speaker 2: pressure one, is to do your best job possible to
9:48
Speaker 2: tamp down the panic. This starts with lead time Like
9:52
Speaker 2: I mentioned, it also helps when you acknowledge that you
9:54
Speaker 2: just need to pick a shooting lane or window and
9:57
Speaker 2: make sure your pin gets to where it needs to be.
10:00
Speaker 2: The moment you start to rush it is the moment
10:03
Speaker 2: you've lost control. It's kind of like when you're driving
10:16
Speaker 2: down an icy road and suddenly the ass end of
10:18
Speaker 2: your truck stops going forward and starts going sideways. Now
10:21
Speaker 2: you need to steer into the fishtail or accept your
10:23
Speaker 2: fate with white tails. There isn't a great way to
10:27
Speaker 2: correct your steering, so to speak, So the best bet
10:30
Speaker 2: is to not let the whole thing start to spin
10:31
Speaker 2: out in the first place. Tell yourself that he's there,
10:35
Speaker 2: his vitals are big, and you know exactly where to
10:38
Speaker 2: shoot him because you do. If he follows the script
10:41
Speaker 2: and you stop him, the hard part's over. Just settle
10:44
Speaker 2: that pin and shoot. You have enough time, trust me.
10:48
Speaker 2: If he doesn't follow the script, this is when it
10:50
Speaker 2: gets dicey. I don't know how many big bucks I've
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Speaker 2: whiffed on during the rut that I had dead to rights,
10:56
Speaker 2: but then suddenly something I didn't expect happened. But I
10:59
Speaker 2: know what's happened enough, and every time that it did,
11:03
Speaker 2: the odds of me filling a tag plummeted. Here's the thing.
11:09
Speaker 2: It's better to not rush a shot and watch a
11:11
Speaker 2: buck walk away than it is to rush a shot
11:13
Speaker 2: and watch him run away. This might be one of
11:16
Speaker 2: the hardest things to do, and it might be one
11:19
Speaker 2: of the most advanced skills a deer hunter can develop.
11:23
Speaker 2: Knowing when to pump the brakes and not make a
11:25
Speaker 2: potential mistake that could result in a lot of unnecessary
11:28
Speaker 2: suffering on your part, and certainly the deers is huge.
11:32
Speaker 2: This is why I'm such an advocate for giving yourself
11:35
Speaker 2: as much time as possible to hunt. If you know
11:38
Speaker 2: you'll only get one afternoon a week and that ruddy
11:40
Speaker 2: buck comes in on a tear, the odds of not
11:43
Speaker 2: panicking pretty low. After all, when will you get another chance.
11:48
Speaker 2: I get that we all live different lives, have different priorities,
11:52
Speaker 2: so this doesn't work for everyone. But the more time
11:54
Speaker 2: you have to sit in a place you're confident in,
11:56
Speaker 2: the better off you'll be. When a shot presents itself,
11:59
Speaker 2: you'll panic that and you'll make better decisions more. It's
12:02
Speaker 2: not easy, trust me. It's also important to pay real
12:05
Speaker 2: close attention when you do release an arrow not only
12:08
Speaker 2: to whether you deflated his lungs or instead tested your
12:11
Speaker 2: broad head on some leaves and dirt, but also to
12:13
Speaker 2: the entire encounter. Did he run off or just simply
12:18
Speaker 2: trot through a few better shooting lanes. Did you aim
12:21
Speaker 2: or just kind of close your eyes and pray to
12:23
Speaker 2: the deer gods? What did you do right? What did
12:26
Speaker 2: you do wrong? Was he on your weak side when
12:29
Speaker 2: you saddled up, making it more difficult to draw and shoot?
12:32
Speaker 2: Or did he come through just like you planned? What
12:35
Speaker 2: could you have done different with your setup to make
12:37
Speaker 2: it easier? How about the timing of your draw. Did
12:41
Speaker 2: you feel confident in your shot when you took it,
12:43
Speaker 2: or did your initial instincts tell you that you were
12:47
Speaker 2: kind of taking one of those things where you're like,
12:49
Speaker 2: I'm going to cross my fingers and pray those are bad.
12:52
Speaker 2: Confident shots are obviously better, or I don't know. Did
12:56
Speaker 2: you get caught looking at your phone when he was
12:57
Speaker 2: closing in? There's a pretty good lesson there. Did you
13:00
Speaker 2: take a marginal shot that came your way when you
13:03
Speaker 2: knew he'd probably stick around. Did you murp him before
13:07
Speaker 2: you even had a chance to draw? Because you were
13:09
Speaker 2: totally melting down. What happened, What happened? What happened? And
13:15
Speaker 2: be honest, even if he did everything right and he
13:18
Speaker 2: ran seventy five yards and piled up, there are things
13:21
Speaker 2: to learn from that encounter about the next encounter. And
13:25
Speaker 2: if he didn't, there's a lot to learn. Those adrenaline
13:28
Speaker 2: fueled shots teach us a lot about not only dear behavior,
13:32
Speaker 2: but our behavior. They tell us whether our setup was
13:35
Speaker 2: solid or maybe not. They tell us that the confidence
13:38
Speaker 2: we got on the range flinging arrows with no pressure
13:42
Speaker 2: didn't really prepare us for a once per season meet
13:44
Speaker 2: up with a four and a half year old buck.
13:47
Speaker 2: They tell us that if we don't do our job
13:49
Speaker 2: of anchoring correctly and executing the way we absolutely know
13:53
Speaker 2: how to, that all kinds of things can go wrong.
13:57
Speaker 2: They tell us that we should have been paying attention,
13:59
Speaker 2: but we weren't, and how much of a disadvantage that
14:03
Speaker 2: puts us at is real. It happens a lot, learn
14:06
Speaker 2: from it. Don't make any excuses. This is important stuff,
14:10
Speaker 2: my friends, because we think our job is to learn
14:12
Speaker 2: about deer, and sure that's crucial. If you can't pick
14:16
Speaker 2: the right funnel for the rut, you probably aren't going
14:18
Speaker 2: to have to worry about shooting at too many deer.
14:21
Speaker 2: But the truth of it all is that learning deer
14:23
Speaker 2: isn't really as tough as it sounds. They kind of
14:26
Speaker 2: just do what deer do, and you can figure that
14:28
Speaker 2: out really well over time. Learning about ourselves is a
14:32
Speaker 2: different story, and this is no more obvious than when
14:35
Speaker 2: you finally get a shot opportunity at a big deer.
14:38
Speaker 2: This is when you learn what your adrenaline situation is
14:40
Speaker 2: really like, when you get to see that you actually
14:44
Speaker 2: do get buck fever despite what you tell yourself and
14:46
Speaker 2: your hunting parties when you're not hunting. This is when
14:50
Speaker 2: you learn whether you can keep your act together enough
14:52
Speaker 2: to do your most important job as a hunter, or
14:55
Speaker 2: what little details need to suddenly change to take you
14:58
Speaker 2: right out of the zone. I know personally I have
15:02
Speaker 2: a high level of confidence in making most white tail shots.
15:05
Speaker 2: Too much. Probably, Then I go out and a spike
15:09
Speaker 2: buck flips the script a little, and I miss like
15:11
Speaker 2: I'm twelve again and desperately want any deer to die
15:14
Speaker 2: in front of me. This stuff is humbling and it's hard,
15:19
Speaker 2: but it gets a hell of a lot more humbling
15:21
Speaker 2: and a hell of a lot harder if we don't
15:23
Speaker 2: work to get better at making good shots. This is
15:28
Speaker 2: a really good all season goal, but is most obvious
15:32
Speaker 2: during the rut. That's when you get to test yourself
15:35
Speaker 2: against the high pressure situation, and that's when you learn
15:37
Speaker 2: if you're calm, cold blooded assassin or more likely a
15:41
Speaker 2: not so calm, warm blooded, mass quivering idiocy who can
15:45
Speaker 2: miss a whole deer at ranges you could probably somewhat
15:48
Speaker 2: accurately throw a spear at it's rough. But you can
15:52
Speaker 2: help yourself. Tell yourself this rut, you're gonna pay attention
15:56
Speaker 2: to more. You're gonna glass your surroundings more, and just
15:58
Speaker 2: tune into the frequency of the woods a little more
16:01
Speaker 2: then you tune into the frequency of your iPhone, for example,
16:04
Speaker 2: envision those shots. Learn your shooting lanes and windows while
16:08
Speaker 2: you're up there in the downtime, draw your bow aim
16:11
Speaker 2: through them, even if you're on an old favorite stand
16:14
Speaker 2: that you've sat dozens of times, or especially if you're
16:17
Speaker 2: saddled up in a new area going for the element
16:19
Speaker 2: of surprise on a public land cruiser, Remind yourself when
16:23
Speaker 2: he's not running in and certainly when he is that
16:26
Speaker 2: you have time. If you can get him stopped, you
16:30
Speaker 2: have time. He'll give you the few seconds you need.
16:34
Speaker 2: Just do your job then, and if he doesn't stop
16:37
Speaker 2: or he does something that you don't expect, learn to
16:39
Speaker 2: let it go instead of trying to force something. This
16:43
Speaker 2: is so hard, but sometimes when you make that call
16:46
Speaker 2: and it threatens to eat your soul alive while you
16:48
Speaker 2: watch him work away from you, the dear gods take
16:51
Speaker 2: pity and they deliver another opportunity to you. This happens
16:54
Speaker 2: a lot during the rut, So give yourself as much
16:57
Speaker 2: time as you can and get ready. My friends, a
16:59
Speaker 2: shot up oportunity is probably heading your way and it's
17:02
Speaker 2: destined to be a wild one. But you can do this.
17:05
Speaker 2: You truly need to believe that. And you should also
17:08
Speaker 2: listen next week because I'm going to break down my
17:10
Speaker 2: rut hunting strategy to hopefully give you some ideas on
17:13
Speaker 2: how to keep up on the deer movement even when
17:15
Speaker 2: it seems like you're the only one who's not experiencing
17:18
Speaker 2: a chase fester on your stand. That's it for this week.
17:22
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wire to Hunt
17:24
Speaker 2: Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
17:27
Speaker 2: As always, I want to thank you so much for
17:29
Speaker 2: your support for tuning in and really all the sport
17:33
Speaker 2: for our Meat Eater content and our brands. We truly
17:37
Speaker 2: appreciate it. If you want to check out maybe some
17:40
Speaker 2: more podcasts, maybe some videos, a ton of articles on
17:44
Speaker 2: all kinds of hunting topics, go to the meat Eater
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Speaker 2: dot com and you will see more than you probably
17:51
Speaker 2: ever need to. You're going to be busy for a
17:53
Speaker 2: long time, so check it out.