Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 483: Foundations - Wrapping up the General Firearm Season

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Ep. 483: Foundations - Wrapping up the General Firearm Season · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt
0:16
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, brought to you by First Light. Today's episode
0:20
Speaker 1: is all about strategies to fill a tag in the
0:23
Speaker 1: last days a gun season when it feels hopeless. When
0:37
Speaker 1: you look at the success rates for general gun seasons
0:40
Speaker 1: across the board, when do you are killed during these
0:43
Speaker 1: general gun seasons. The bulk of the filled tags happen
0:47
Speaker 1: in the first two days. After that, success rates just
0:51
Speaker 1: dropped like a rock. In some states. That's something like
0:55
Speaker 1: the deer killed are killed in the first two days
0:59
Speaker 1: of season. That is some serious front loading, my friends.
1:04
Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean you don't have a chance as
1:06
Speaker 1: the gun season drags on you do. You're just gonna
1:09
Speaker 1: have to figure out how to hunt like others won't hunt.
1:23
Speaker 1: Any deer hunter, regardless of chosen weapon except for maybe
1:27
Speaker 1: muzzle loader, is probably feeling the heat right about now.
1:32
Speaker 1: Last week I broke down a bow hunt with a
1:33
Speaker 1: gun strategy to kill more dear and pressured states, but
1:38
Speaker 1: in a lot of areas, a single week of gun
1:40
Speaker 1: coverage doesn't cut it. You know, some states like Iowa
1:43
Speaker 1: have shorter gun seasons, of course, but others like New
1:46
Speaker 1: York have weeks of rifle hunting. But even along guns,
1:51
Speaker 1: he's intend to convince the majority of rifle hunters that
1:53
Speaker 1: they should sit the same stands and do the same
1:56
Speaker 1: drives they've done since Grandpa bought the land right after
1:59
Speaker 1: he made it home from Europe, or the Pacific Theater
2:01
Speaker 1: in the forties. And as I said last week and
2:04
Speaker 1: about I don't know seventeen other weeks so far with
2:06
Speaker 1: this podcast, you don't want to do what others do.
2:10
Speaker 1: You don't want to hunt the way others hunt because
2:13
Speaker 1: that nets you typical success rates which are not that great.
2:17
Speaker 1: You want to be different, and hopefully you're hunting thicker
2:21
Speaker 1: cover and giving up the range of your rifle to
2:23
Speaker 1: sit where the bucks are right now. But what if
2:26
Speaker 1: that's not working? After all? If all hunting advice worked
2:30
Speaker 1: for everyone, I wouldn't have to give it anymore, and
2:33
Speaker 1: I'd be laying side somewhere or asking you guys, if
2:35
Speaker 1: you want any sauces with your chicken nuggets, if you've
2:39
Speaker 1: got a tag left. I don't care if it's a
2:41
Speaker 1: buck or a doughtag. This is low standards fourth quarter
2:45
Speaker 1: stuff here, and you've got to figure out what should
2:47
Speaker 1: you do to get around? Dear. The times that I've
2:50
Speaker 1: been in this situation, I've almost always defaulted right back
2:54
Speaker 1: to my public land roots. Now this goes for when
2:56
Speaker 1: I'm hunting public land, of course, but also even if
2:59
Speaker 1: I'm on private land. And what I mean by that
3:02
Speaker 1: is the deer that have survived the gun season so
3:04
Speaker 1: far are totally clued into what's going on. There's no
3:09
Speaker 1: wondering on their part. They're not thinking, I wonder if
3:12
Speaker 1: the gun season is really going on right now. They absolutely,
3:15
Speaker 1: without doubt, no, they know it's going on, and they
3:18
Speaker 1: react accordingly. But they are also in tune to the
3:21
Speaker 1: entirety of the season and more importantly, the day to
3:25
Speaker 1: day fluctuations in pressure. Now. Just think, for example, about
3:30
Speaker 1: like a three year old buck that has his gun
3:32
Speaker 1: season hideouts. He knows he's going to get into them
3:35
Speaker 1: before first light, and he's gonna lay up in a
3:37
Speaker 1: couple of acres until total darkness. You can try to
3:40
Speaker 1: drive him out, but unless you're gonna step on him
3:43
Speaker 1: or he really lock eyes with him, He's probably not
3:45
Speaker 1: going to blow out like some dumb, panicky cotton tail.
3:49
Speaker 1: He also probably doesn't stay better all day long in
3:53
Speaker 1: that cover. He probably stands up and repositions himself if
3:56
Speaker 1: the saun or the wind changes, or he just us
4:00
Speaker 1: to browse a little bit and get some calories in
4:01
Speaker 1: his belly. Hell, he might walk to the edge of
4:04
Speaker 1: security cover to poke his nose out and sniff for
4:06
Speaker 1: late cycling ladies. After all, he wants to survive, But
4:10
Speaker 1: those biological urges are strong ones, and he's not above
4:13
Speaker 1: trying to sneak in a last run at any dose
4:15
Speaker 1: that might be willing to give him a shot. The
4:18
Speaker 1: odds of him doing that, or any of this stuff,
4:21
Speaker 1: which all offers you a chance, go way up when
4:24
Speaker 1: he thinks there are fewer deer hunters in the woods.
4:27
Speaker 1: And actually I should put that a different way. Bucks
4:30
Speaker 1: probably aren't out there counting the amount of a TV
4:33
Speaker 1: s they hear puttering into the woods each morning. They're
4:36
Speaker 1: probably just aware of pressure levels saturation. They probably just
4:41
Speaker 1: know that today seems more relaxed than yesterday and that
4:44
Speaker 1: there have been fewer reasons for their stress levels to rise.
4:47
Speaker 1: Think about it this way out there somewhere, probably up
4:50
Speaker 1: in Alaska, there's some unlucky dude who probably has to
4:53
Speaker 1: buy new underwear frequently because he's been charged by three
4:56
Speaker 1: grizzlies in one day. Now. Even bluff charges that come
4:59
Speaker 1: up or leave a mental mark. That guy probably really
5:03
Speaker 1: appreciates every day he spends in the woods where grizzlies
5:06
Speaker 1: don't make grounds slapping snarley threats at him. Although he
5:10
Speaker 1: probably never lets his guard down too much. He probably
5:13
Speaker 1: just knows that today was more fun than that one
5:15
Speaker 1: day where it was like he was a bear magnet.
5:18
Speaker 1: Even though he's always on the lookout for a patch
5:19
Speaker 1: of blonde fur in the brush, he probably isn't as
5:23
Speaker 1: keyed up as he was that one day. Dear, are
5:25
Speaker 1: probably kind of like that guy on the days when
5:27
Speaker 1: the gun pressure is lower than usual. That's important because
5:31
Speaker 1: you want to be there when the bucks think you
5:33
Speaker 1: aren't when they're relaxed. This goes for all members of
5:37
Speaker 1: the deer heard honestly and can be fairly pronounced. Later
5:41
Speaker 1: in the gun season. This is all due to the
5:43
Speaker 1: fact that there are usually fewer people out and the
5:46
Speaker 1: effort is not quite as pronounced as opening weekend. Most
5:49
Speaker 1: hunters just don't have the mindset to keep going. I've
5:53
Speaker 1: had a couple of experiences that have absolutely hammered this
5:56
Speaker 1: through my skull. The first one when I had a
5:58
Speaker 1: muzzle or tag in Minnesota, probably a decade ago, in
6:01
Speaker 1: the part of the state I was hunting. The first
6:03
Speaker 1: two days of muzzle or season overlapped with the last
6:06
Speaker 1: two days of the general firearm season. Now, normally I
6:09
Speaker 1: would have just waited until Monday to hunt when the
6:11
Speaker 1: gun season was over and it was just muscle or season.
6:13
Speaker 1: But I had a tag, had an evening free, and
6:16
Speaker 1: so I just decided to drive out to a farm
6:18
Speaker 1: I've got permission to hunt. Now, this dairy farm is
6:21
Speaker 1: usually covered in hunters, but there weren't any trucks parked
6:24
Speaker 1: in the ditches or in the fields where I wanted
6:26
Speaker 1: to hunt. Now, keep in mind, this is a property
6:29
Speaker 1: where the landowners party. Just one party on the ground
6:32
Speaker 1: shot nine bucks on opening day one year. It gets
6:36
Speaker 1: piss pounded by multiple shotgun groups. But that evening, deep
6:40
Speaker 1: into the gun season, it was mostly empty. Now, there
6:43
Speaker 1: were some trucks parked on the bordering properties, but I
6:46
Speaker 1: didn't think that would do anything to hurt my already
6:47
Speaker 1: low odds, and what I didn't expect to see as
6:50
Speaker 1: I was driving towards my usual parking spot for that
6:53
Speaker 1: part of the farm was what looked like a deer
6:55
Speaker 1: standing in the pick bean field in the farthest corner
6:57
Speaker 1: of the farm. I was headed there anyway, but that
7:00
Speaker 1: gave me a little extra incentive to not phone it in.
7:03
Speaker 1: When I got to the highest spot that would allow
7:05
Speaker 1: me to see to that corner and eventually shoot it,
7:08
Speaker 1: I started to crawl along the edge of the wet
7:10
Speaker 1: field so I could keep my profile low. That's when
7:13
Speaker 1: I realized that there were actually four fonds and a
7:16
Speaker 1: little nursery herd feeding right there, and they were all
7:19
Speaker 1: headed my way. Those youngsters, not exactly the Mensu members
7:23
Speaker 1: of the white til herd, fed past that ten yards
7:26
Speaker 1: while I got cold and wet trying not to move
7:27
Speaker 1: in that late November mud. Now, as soon as they
7:30
Speaker 1: were far enough below me, I crawled into the edge
7:33
Speaker 1: of the woods and posted up on an oak tree
7:35
Speaker 1: that I had picked out. It felt like a good
7:37
Speaker 1: omen to have deer moving in the open then, and
7:40
Speaker 1: it turned out to be true the next year. To
7:42
Speaker 1: poke his head out was an eight pointer that was
7:44
Speaker 1: about sixty bigger than I would have needed, and I
7:48
Speaker 1: ended up killing him right there when I probably shouldn't have.
7:52
Speaker 1: I honestly think that the shotgun parties on that farm
7:54
Speaker 1: had wore themselves out early, and the deer knew it.
7:57
Speaker 1: I can't think of any other reason for that buck
7:59
Speaker 1: to out in the wide open that late in gun season.
8:03
Speaker 1: He shouldn't have been there, He shouldn't have made that mistake,
8:05
Speaker 1: but he did, and I was able to capitalize on
8:07
Speaker 1: it because I was out there hunting when a lot
8:09
Speaker 1: of people had already given up. Now fast forward five
8:12
Speaker 1: or six years to a northern Wisconsin hunt on a
8:15
Speaker 1: property where the landowner, his dad, and his brother had
8:18
Speaker 1: hunted all opening weekend. This is not a very big property,
8:22
Speaker 1: so they had covered it pretty good and they had
8:25
Speaker 1: all blanked. And he told me that the hunting was
8:28
Speaker 1: a lost cause. The deer movement, even in the heart
8:31
Speaker 1: of their Tamarack swamp was non existent, he said, So
8:35
Speaker 1: when we showed up the place that had a few
8:38
Speaker 1: days to rest, I thought maybe something might be back
8:41
Speaker 1: to normal. So I ended up slipping into a stand
8:43
Speaker 1: that was on the edge of a field corner. But
8:45
Speaker 1: that wasn't what I was hunting. I didn't expect any
8:47
Speaker 1: deer to be in the field. I was facing into
8:49
Speaker 1: the swamp in the direction of a high ground island
8:52
Speaker 1: that has always rubbed up every time I go in there.
8:54
Speaker 1: The winners scout it. I didn't want to go super
8:57
Speaker 1: deer hunter on my first evening. I want to play
8:59
Speaker 1: it safe, so I stayed back on that edge where
9:02
Speaker 1: I could watch a hundred yards or so the thick stuff,
9:04
Speaker 1: and I figured maybe get clued into something. As the
9:07
Speaker 1: sun settled on the horizon, I just randomly turned around
9:10
Speaker 1: to look into the little field behind me and realized
9:12
Speaker 1: that I had been staring in the wrong direction. A
9:15
Speaker 1: big old dough was feeding back there, and it was
9:17
Speaker 1: almost unfair to shoot her at like fifty yards with
9:19
Speaker 1: a rifle. But I did it anyway because I'm a
9:22
Speaker 1: hunter and I really like to eat deer. Now, if
9:26
Speaker 1: you're keeping score, there's a couple of noteworthy things about
9:28
Speaker 1: those two kills I just talked about. The first is
9:32
Speaker 1: that they came about after other hunters had mostly waved
9:34
Speaker 1: the white flag and left the woods and created a
9:37
Speaker 1: scenario I could work with. The second is that they
9:40
Speaker 1: totally contradicted last week's advice of getting into rabbit cover
9:44
Speaker 1: and staying there, considering I killed both of those deer
9:46
Speaker 1: in the wide open. Here's the thing. The deer are
9:50
Speaker 1: where they are. I know that's not that great of
9:52
Speaker 1: a revelation, but it's true. Sometimes they are in the cover,
9:55
Speaker 1: sometimes they are in the open. And what you can
9:57
Speaker 1: do is gauge the day to day Huney pressure and
10:00
Speaker 1: hunt accordingly. This means that a Saturday evening hunt at
10:04
Speaker 1: the beginning of gun season, for example, might truly demand
10:08
Speaker 1: a boasts style hunt where you're far the shot at
10:10
Speaker 1: forty yards, but a Wednesday morning hunt when most of
10:14
Speaker 1: the gun crowd is back at work for the week,
10:17
Speaker 1: might allow you to sit one of those wide open
10:19
Speaker 1: view stands and make something happen at a longer range.
10:23
Speaker 1: Ditto for that November rain that makes it hard to
10:25
Speaker 1: hold a candle in. That's for you hair band lovers
10:28
Speaker 1: out there versus the perfect twenty degree still day. In fact,
10:32
Speaker 1: a good rule to follow when hunting with a lot
10:34
Speaker 1: of pressure around, and you'll have a lot of pressure
10:36
Speaker 1: if you're in a general gun season on most properties,
10:39
Speaker 1: is to do the exact opposite of what a lot
10:42
Speaker 1: of TV hunters say you should do perfect dear, weather
10:46
Speaker 1: does not override boatloads of hunting pressure, So try to
10:50
Speaker 1: time your hunts for when others won't or don't think
10:53
Speaker 1: they should go, even if they have the chance. But
10:57
Speaker 1: mainly what I'm saying here just go. If you spend
11:01
Speaker 1: enough time hunting, you'll see that your success is not
11:03
Speaker 1: guaranteed to come on any day, but could also come
11:07
Speaker 1: on any day. I know opening day is fun, and
11:10
Speaker 1: the thirteenth day of the gun season is a freaking drag,
11:14
Speaker 1: but there are still a lot of white tails out
11:16
Speaker 1: there after the gun season has burned his way through
11:18
Speaker 1: the countryside and still giving off a little smoke. You
11:21
Speaker 1: just don't want to do what others do when others
11:24
Speaker 1: do it. You gotta let the tendencies of the masses
11:27
Speaker 1: work in your favor instead of just playing along with
11:30
Speaker 1: them and sitting the same old stand, getting more and
11:32
Speaker 1: more frustrated as you watch human pumpkins on the neighbor's
11:35
Speaker 1: farm do the same deer drive they've done every day
11:37
Speaker 1: for ten days straight. And don't dig into your bag
11:41
Speaker 1: of tricks now. I know you feel desperate, I know
11:43
Speaker 1: you want to, but this is not the time for
11:46
Speaker 1: a full body decoy or three gallons of deer p
11:49
Speaker 1: in the woods. It's not the time for a knock
11:51
Speaker 1: your socks off rattling session. This is the time for
11:54
Speaker 1: stealth mode, Ninja mode and super quiet hunter Guy or
11:58
Speaker 1: galmode all rolled into one, and with a side order
12:01
Speaker 1: a kitten mittens just to shore things up. You don't
12:04
Speaker 1: want to draw attention to yourself, now, that's all I'm saying.
12:07
Speaker 1: You want whatever dear you're hunting to believe he or
12:11
Speaker 1: she has the all clear to go where they want
12:13
Speaker 1: to go and do what they want to do. You
12:16
Speaker 1: don't want to give them the slightest amount of suspicion
12:19
Speaker 1: because this isn't September. They aren't dull from nine months
12:23
Speaker 1: of basically human hunter free life. They are in the
12:26
Speaker 1: trenches and the ship has been blowing up all around
12:29
Speaker 1: them for a long time, and it's really intensified lately.
12:34
Speaker 1: Think about it like hunting public land turkeys with a
12:36
Speaker 1: bow in the late season. That's a real challenge. If
12:40
Speaker 1: you've got a gobbler coming in, he'll probably do it silently.
12:44
Speaker 1: He's probably not going to gobble his head off and
12:46
Speaker 1: give away his position. He's also probably gonna stop at
12:49
Speaker 1: fifty yards and stare at your blind He's gonna take
12:51
Speaker 1: in your decoys, and he's gonna really watch the whole
12:54
Speaker 1: thing before he commits. If at this point, or any
12:57
Speaker 1: point after he starts to close in, you make even
13:00
Speaker 1: a tiny little mistake, it's probably over one nearly imperceptible
13:06
Speaker 1: tink of your arrow on the blind pole, squeak of
13:09
Speaker 1: your blind chair, or just a flash a movement as
13:11
Speaker 1: you dip down to look through the window. Doesn't matter.
13:15
Speaker 1: His tolerance for mistakes at that time of the season
13:17
Speaker 1: is zero. Now he might not spread away or fly away,
13:21
Speaker 1: but you will hear some putting, and he'll watch as
13:23
Speaker 1: he gives you a wide berth, or turns around and
13:26
Speaker 1: fades away into the brush, beady eyes looking back in
13:29
Speaker 1: your direction to see just what not so sneaky asshole
13:32
Speaker 1: try to trick him into range. White tails that have
13:35
Speaker 1: dodged arrows and now rifle bullets are shotgun slugs for
13:39
Speaker 1: days or weeks. They have the same low tolerance for mistakes.
13:44
Speaker 1: This goes for walking into getting hutier stands. This goes
13:47
Speaker 1: for playing the wind. This goes for the amount of noise,
13:49
Speaker 1: you make movement on stand anything that might reveal your
13:54
Speaker 1: presence to them. I tend to treat these hunts like
13:58
Speaker 1: my only job is to be a non existent as possible.
14:01
Speaker 1: I don't even carry calls. I don't want to draw
14:04
Speaker 1: attention to myself, and I sit longer in the morning
14:07
Speaker 1: and go back out earlier in the afternoon than I
14:09
Speaker 1: think I have to. Even though it seems like most
14:12
Speaker 1: of the movement it's going to be tied to those
14:14
Speaker 1: low light situations, which it is, you just never know.
14:18
Speaker 1: And there's another benefit of that. So while you might
14:21
Speaker 1: not think that like an all day sit is the
14:24
Speaker 1: right idea, it's really not that appealing this time of year.
14:27
Speaker 1: There are a couple of things to think about as
14:29
Speaker 1: far as sitting longer, and first one is while the
14:32
Speaker 1: rut and much of the country is mostly over, there's
14:34
Speaker 1: always a chance for a late cycling dough to to
14:37
Speaker 1: stir things up. And secondly, the days are short. You
14:42
Speaker 1: don't have that many hours a daylight to work with,
14:45
Speaker 1: and since you're going hunting anyway, just go hunting. Spends
14:48
Speaker 1: as much time in the woods as you can handle,
14:51
Speaker 1: and that will put you there when others aren't there.
14:53
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie and say that I ever expect
14:55
Speaker 1: to see midday movement right now, but sometimes I do.
14:58
Speaker 1: And more importantly, I feel like the strategy reduces the
15:01
Speaker 1: chances of spooking one going in or coming out at
15:03
Speaker 1: the wrong time, because it allows the woods a chance
15:06
Speaker 1: to settle down. This is no small thing. When all
15:10
Speaker 1: the leaves are down and you might be dealing with
15:12
Speaker 1: a layer of crunchy snow, you often have relatively calm
15:16
Speaker 1: wind conditions. If you can hear and deer walking a
15:19
Speaker 1: hundred yards away, they can hear you walking from a
15:21
Speaker 1: lot farther than that. That means it's best to get
15:24
Speaker 1: in and stay put so that those alarm bells you
15:27
Speaker 1: set off sneaking in have a chance to fade away
15:29
Speaker 1: and hopefully be forgotten. So keep hunting, my friends, Go
15:35
Speaker 1: where the conditions tell you to go, and hunt like
15:38
Speaker 1: you're a ghost. Keep at it when the rest of
15:41
Speaker 1: your party has given up, because there's still a chance
15:44
Speaker 1: to fill a rifle tag when the odds seem really low.
15:47
Speaker 1: And whether that happens or you strike out, you're gonna
15:50
Speaker 1: want to listen to the next week's episode of Foundations
15:53
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna tell you how to never have a
15:56
Speaker 1: boring gun season again, because even though your two seventy
15:58
Speaker 1: is oiled up and put away now, the best work
16:01
Speaker 1: a gun hunter can do will be the work that
16:03
Speaker 1: happens the week after the season ends. That's it for
16:09
Speaker 1: this week, my friends, Thank you so much for listening.
16:11
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wire to
16:13
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast. Be sure to visit them eatater dot
16:16
Speaker 1: com slash wired to check out all of our white
16:19
Speaker 1: tail content, which includes articles, other podcasts, and a whole
16:24
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