Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1024: Foundations - The Pros and Cons of the Social Aspect of Whitetail Hunting

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Ep. 1024: Foundations - The Pros and Cons of the Social Aspect of Whitetail Hunting · 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,
0:22
Speaker 2: which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host,
0:24
Speaker 2: Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about who you
0:26
Speaker 2: keep in your white tail circle and whether you're better
0:29
Speaker 2: off hunting alone. As I get older, I find my
0:36
Speaker 2: tolerance for most people get smaller. I don't say that
0:39
Speaker 2: to sound like some edgy dude who wants to impress
0:41
Speaker 2: strangers with my loaner status. I say it because I
0:44
Speaker 2: feel like we're exposed to too many people you know,
0:47
Speaker 2: online of course, but also in our real lives. Although
0:50
Speaker 2: that line is certainly blurry these days. It doesn't take
0:52
Speaker 2: too many people to be too many people in life
0:55
Speaker 2: and in hunting. And that's what I want to talk
0:57
Speaker 2: about in this episode because it's something that has been
0:59
Speaker 2: a part of white tail hunting for a long long time,
1:01
Speaker 2: and of course our history as hunters for much much longer.
1:10
Speaker 2: For most of our history, we lived in small hunter
1:13
Speaker 2: gatherer groups. Archaeologists have found evidence of our ancestors living
1:16
Speaker 2: this way as far back as two million years ago.
1:19
Speaker 2: Although when you think about it that way, that was
1:21
Speaker 2: just life and survival. It wasn't really a choice to
1:25
Speaker 2: live in small nomadic tribes. The way we think about it,
1:27
Speaker 2: there wasn't a choice. Really. If you wanted to survive,
1:30
Speaker 2: you needed a group of people that were capable of hunting, fishing,
1:33
Speaker 2: and foraging as a loose unit to the benefit of
1:36
Speaker 2: all members. Getting booted from the tribe meant that you
1:39
Speaker 2: were likely to starve forget eaten by something. The hunter
1:42
Speaker 2: gatherer lifestyle required quite a bit of land to be
1:44
Speaker 2: a feasible way to make it through the days, and
1:47
Speaker 2: they were always on the lookout for danger and for calories.
1:50
Speaker 2: Long term settlements weren't the answer, and they didn't become
1:53
Speaker 2: the answer until the Neolithic Revolution that happened about twelve
1:56
Speaker 2: thousand years ago, when we started to develop some agricultultural practices.
2:01
Speaker 2: All of that seems abstract and it's hard to imagine,
2:04
Speaker 2: but the crazy thing is there are still hunter gatherer
2:07
Speaker 2: tribes in the world today. You know that live off
2:10
Speaker 2: of spearing animals, trapping animals, catching fish in a variety
2:13
Speaker 2: of ways, scrounging around for roots and nuts and fruit
2:16
Speaker 2: and honey, and just living in a way that we
2:18
Speaker 2: did as a species for thousands and thousands of years.
2:21
Speaker 2: Hunter gatherer groups of the past topped out at around
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Speaker 2: one hundred individuals and could have been as small as
2:27
Speaker 2: single extended family groups. The bottom line there is that
2:31
Speaker 2: there was a pretty hard limit to the mouths that
2:33
Speaker 2: could be fed and the order that could be maintained,
2:36
Speaker 2: and if groups got too big, trouble was soon to follow. Today,
2:41
Speaker 2: at least here in the US, we know an average
2:43
Speaker 2: of six hundred and eleven people by name. If for
2:47
Speaker 2: the sake of simple math, we round that up to
2:49
Speaker 2: eight hundred so that it works with the eight billion
2:51
Speaker 2: people on earth a little easier, you might know about
2:54
Speaker 2: one hundred thousandth of a percent of the people on Earth.
2:57
Speaker 2: I don't know why I included that, but I read
2:59
Speaker 2: it while research this podcast and thought it was interesting.
3:02
Speaker 2: I think we can all agree that knowing eight hundred
3:04
Speaker 2: people by name is like knowing maybe about seven hundred
3:07
Speaker 2: and forty three people too many. What makes that even
3:10
Speaker 2: weirder is that a twenty twenty one survey show that
3:12
Speaker 2: Americans have between three and five good friends. I did
3:16
Speaker 2: some quick math and realized that's pretty close to accurate
3:18
Speaker 2: in my case. That survey also showed that almost half
3:22
Speaker 2: of people have fewer than three close friends, about forty
3:25
Speaker 2: percent have anywhere from at least four to over ten,
3:28
Speaker 2: and twelve percent have none. That sucks, and I hope
3:31
Speaker 2: if you're listening to this you do have a couple
3:34
Speaker 2: of good friends, and if you don't, that you make
3:36
Speaker 2: a few soon, because it's important. It's somewhat safe to
3:39
Speaker 2: say that if you're listening to this, you like deer
3:41
Speaker 2: hunting a whole bunch, and that you have that common
3:44
Speaker 2: ground with a lot of people, which is a great
3:46
Speaker 2: way to make friends. There has to be some undercurrent
3:49
Speaker 2: that you and your buddy are both riding on for
3:52
Speaker 2: your friend thing to work, though, and a shared love
3:54
Speaker 2: of white tailed deer is a pretty good way to
3:56
Speaker 2: get there. But there is a cat there that I
3:58
Speaker 2: want to talk about. A shared love of hunting can
4:01
Speaker 2: be a pretty thin thread to hang a friendship on,
4:04
Speaker 2: which I think a lot of people get wrong, especially
4:07
Speaker 2: younger hunters who are really trying to just figure things
4:09
Speaker 2: out for the first time. I'm reminded of this often
4:12
Speaker 2: when certain people find out that not only do I
4:14
Speaker 2: work for Meat Eater, but that I also know Steve Ranella.
4:17
Speaker 2: The amount of people who almost instantly say, man, I'd
4:20
Speaker 2: really like to hunt with him is kind of bonkers. Now,
4:24
Speaker 2: some people do that with me too, but as you
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Speaker 2: can imagine, there's not quite as many folks in that camp.
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Speaker 2: But what it says is that they view him as
4:31
Speaker 2: the kind of hunter they'd like to hunt with and
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Speaker 2: don't think about anything else, you know, like maybe they
4:37
Speaker 2: aren't really into Western rifle hunting or something that he's
4:40
Speaker 2: very into. They don't think about it to any level
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Speaker 2: of depth at all, which is okay because they aren't
4:45
Speaker 2: going to get to hunt with him anyway, or me
4:47
Speaker 2: for that matter, and that's good because they probably wouldn't
4:51
Speaker 2: like hunting with either one of us. Most people don't,
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Speaker 2: and it's not because of what you're thinking. It's because
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Speaker 2: we all go to the woods for different reasons, even
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Speaker 2: though we tend to share the end goals, you know,
5:02
Speaker 2: quite often, but the end goal is the smallest part
5:05
Speaker 2: of being a hunter, at least for most of us,
5:07
Speaker 2: and it's how we try to achieve that that really
5:09
Speaker 2: fosters a connection to someone else. Let me give you
5:12
Speaker 2: a simple example. It is very hard for me to
5:15
Speaker 2: relate to someone who will say I don't have any
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Speaker 2: big ones on camera, so I'm not going to hunt
5:20
Speaker 2: until one shows up. That's a perfectly fine way to
5:23
Speaker 2: live your hunting life if that's what you want, But
5:25
Speaker 2: to me, it's totally unrelatable. I just want to hunt,
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Speaker 2: and if I have to lower my standards or go
5:31
Speaker 2: hunt public three hours away to get a fix, I will.
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Speaker 2: But I'm not going to not hunt because I don't
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Speaker 2: think my odds of killing a big one are there.
5:38
Speaker 2: For a lot of people, the primary reason to ever
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Speaker 2: set foot in the woods is to kill a big one,
5:43
Speaker 2: and if they don't think they have a chance, they
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Speaker 2: won't go. Now, if you are a young hunter and
5:47
Speaker 2: just love being in the woods and seeing deer and
5:49
Speaker 2: trying to get one killed, then being around someone who's
5:52
Speaker 2: default is to hunt trophies only, it's probably going to
5:55
Speaker 2: be a bad match. When I first started hunting deer
5:58
Speaker 2: at twelve years old, my dad was like, you better
6:01
Speaker 2: shoot whatever deer gets near you. This was a time
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Speaker 2: when the deer population was a lot lower than it
6:06
Speaker 2: is today, and we didn't have nearly the technology or
6:09
Speaker 2: the information. It was hard in a way that someone's
6:12
Speaker 2: starting today probably couldn't really understand. And what was worse
6:16
Speaker 2: is that I wanted to shoot every deer that got closed,
6:18
Speaker 2: because they almost never did, and when they did, I
6:22
Speaker 2: couldn't hit them at all. But I also didn't want
6:24
Speaker 2: to shoot a doe because some of my dad's buddies,
6:28
Speaker 2: you know, they talked about shooting doughs like you just
6:30
Speaker 2: weren't a real man. If you did it, it sucked,
6:33
Speaker 2: And being around those guys kind of ruined a lot
6:35
Speaker 2: of the early hunts for me. This is one of
6:38
Speaker 2: the things that has always bothered me about pushing the
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Speaker 2: public land things so much like I have in my career.
6:43
Speaker 2: My instinct, which is really just a cute way to
6:46
Speaker 2: say my ego talking is to show the big bucks
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Speaker 2: and talk about the big bucks and focus on that aspect.
6:52
Speaker 2: But I'm choosing to hunt public sometimes when I don't
6:55
Speaker 2: need to, for reasons that are both business and pleasure.
6:59
Speaker 2: I hate the thought of some hunter out there who
7:01
Speaker 2: has to hunt public because he has no other choice,
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Speaker 2: thinking that the big buck rules somehow apply to everyone,
7:07
Speaker 2: even if they share heavily pressured ground with the masses.
7:11
Speaker 2: I also kind of hate the thought of that hunter
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Speaker 2: going on that journey alone if he'd really like someone
7:16
Speaker 2: to share in his misery and success, because having some
7:19
Speaker 2: good hunting buddies matters. And I talking about the folks
7:22
Speaker 2: on social media who are in the same Facebook groups
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Speaker 2: as you, or who follow the same hunting influencers or
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Speaker 2: hunting brands as you. That part of the social circle
7:30
Speaker 2: is a tough one because you can get some good
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Speaker 2: information and some level of appreciated support through online interactions.
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Speaker 2: But we also know the opposite is very true. I'll
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Speaker 2: never forget arrowing the first decent buck of my life
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Speaker 2: on public land in Nebraska a long time ago, which
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Speaker 2: is a story I've told a million times, but I'll
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Speaker 2: say it anyway. It was a cool ass hunt for
7:50
Speaker 2: me and my buddy Hawk. We had so much fun.
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Speaker 2: We camped, we bow hunted, I killed a decent buck,
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Speaker 2: and we had one hell of a blood trailing experience
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Speaker 2: because of it. It was an ass kicker and it
8:01
Speaker 2: was awesome. I was so proud of that deer. But
8:04
Speaker 2: I also remember when G five Outdoors put a picture
8:07
Speaker 2: up on their Facebook page because I had killed it
8:09
Speaker 2: with a prime bo and the very first comment was,
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Speaker 2: damn that's small. No context, no idea of where that
8:18
Speaker 2: buck was killed, just an instant shitty reaction because it
8:21
Speaker 2: wasn't a big enough deer for someone. And that shit
8:24
Speaker 2: has rampant and I think about it a lot when
8:27
Speaker 2: I see people post stuff like that, because I'm like,
8:29
Speaker 2: you don't have to do that. You could not make
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Speaker 2: the world a little worse of a place and just
8:34
Speaker 2: keep that to yourself. But for some reason, some of
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Speaker 2: us can't keep that to ourselves. There's danger in expanding
8:40
Speaker 2: your deer hunting circles on social media, but having real
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Speaker 2: hunting buddies is a different thing. I have a few
8:47
Speaker 2: who will always grab the flashlights and lace up their
8:49
Speaker 2: boots if they get the call that it's time to
8:51
Speaker 2: go blood trail one that matters. While I don't really
8:55
Speaker 2: have a problem getting a deer out of the woods
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Speaker 2: by myself because of how often I do it in
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Speaker 2: places where I just have to drag them or cart
9:00
Speaker 2: them out, or more often than not, piece them out
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Speaker 2: and pack them out, there is a quiet ritual to
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Speaker 2: all of that that I love when I'm by myself,
9:08
Speaker 2: But it's also really nice when you make a bad
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Speaker 2: shot or just have the opportunity to call up a
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Speaker 2: buddy or two and bring in the troops. There's nothing
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Speaker 2: that sucks quite as much as being on a long
9:29
Speaker 2: slog of a bloodshell by yourself, knowing that you screwed up,
9:32
Speaker 2: and it might be one of those wave the white
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Speaker 2: flag nights that haunts you for quite a while. Those
9:38
Speaker 2: happen when you have friends around, too, but the extra
9:40
Speaker 2: eyes and the extra help, it's all nice. Good friends
9:44
Speaker 2: matter to hunting in a lot of ways. And what
9:46
Speaker 2: I've come to realize at my age is that I
9:48
Speaker 2: have a couple of buddies who are just reliable. I
9:51
Speaker 2: have others who are doing their own thing, but the
9:53
Speaker 2: minute a shot looks wonky, they'll call, or the minute
9:56
Speaker 2: they get the impression that my daughters need a place
9:58
Speaker 2: to hunt, the offers show. And I really feel bad
10:02
Speaker 2: for hunters out there who don't have that. But it
10:03
Speaker 2: takes effort, and there is sort of a lifelong filtering
10:07
Speaker 2: process that happens with good hunting buddies. The ones who
10:10
Speaker 2: are there when you need them deserve the same from you. However,
10:13
Speaker 2: you can provide it. When someone takes too much, the
10:16
Speaker 2: wheels fall off, just like in every relationship. This is
10:20
Speaker 2: probably a weird analogy, but I'll use it anyway. The
10:23
Speaker 2: good friends the couple of people you know at most,
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Speaker 2: who you're cool with and who are cool with your process,
10:30
Speaker 2: and who will pick up the phone when they know
10:32
Speaker 2: you're driving back to your house after a late October
10:34
Speaker 2: sit They sort of show themselves over time. I think
10:38
Speaker 2: about it this way. I've worked in the hunting industry
10:41
Speaker 2: in some capacity since two thousand and three. I've seen
10:44
Speaker 2: a lot of people come and go, and I've seen
10:46
Speaker 2: a lot of people who got into some positions of
10:48
Speaker 2: power who couldn't stand not being in the spotlight. I
10:52
Speaker 2: worked on a show in a past life where a
10:54
Speaker 2: c suite fella who is a whiz with business and
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Speaker 2: numbers but just doesn't have an on camera persona put
11:01
Speaker 2: himself on as the host of a show. There wasn't
11:04
Speaker 2: anyone who could say no to it because he had
11:08
Speaker 2: the power. So that's what happened, and it was a
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Speaker 2: train wreck because the audience could see through that shit.
11:14
Speaker 2: They do so fast. If the world wants you to
11:17
Speaker 2: be in front of the camera hunting deer or whatever.
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Speaker 2: The audience will let it be known. The person who
11:22
Speaker 2: is supposed to be your hunting buddy will just sort
11:24
Speaker 2: of rise to the top. If you do your part,
11:27
Speaker 2: you'll know it by how. When it's time to cut
11:29
Speaker 2: some trees down or clear some shooting lanes, they'll show
11:32
Speaker 2: up with a chainsaw, some chaps, or they'll invite you
11:35
Speaker 2: over to shoot your bow all summer long. Of course,
11:39
Speaker 2: there is another side of the social aspect that a
11:41
Speaker 2: lot of us love, which is like the traditional deer camp.
11:45
Speaker 2: When I mentioned earlier about my dad's buddies when I
11:47
Speaker 2: was young and how they didn't think shooting does was manly,
11:50
Speaker 2: I also should say that hanging out with them and
11:53
Speaker 2: being a part of the group at that cabin, or
11:55
Speaker 2: being on a blood trail together, or just hearing everyone's
11:58
Speaker 2: stories as they all got out of the woods at
12:00
Speaker 2: night is something I wouldn't trade for anything. The camaraderie
12:04
Speaker 2: around hunting can be frickin' awesome, And it's weird because
12:07
Speaker 2: I never really had a traditional rifle camp to go to.
12:10
Speaker 2: But I'm sad to see that that way of life
12:12
Speaker 2: is kind of going away. I think it's partially due
12:15
Speaker 2: to the fact that we value trophy hunting so much
12:17
Speaker 2: and the traditional rifle camp is just not a great
12:20
Speaker 2: way to have a chance at a trophy. But it's
12:22
Speaker 2: also that we just all got so busy with so
12:25
Speaker 2: much stuff in our lives. It's hard for people to
12:28
Speaker 2: justify a weekend up north or the six hour drive
12:30
Speaker 2: to the deer shack when the kids have tournaments every
12:33
Speaker 2: weekend and all of our jobs has suddenly figured out
12:35
Speaker 2: a way to slowly take over our lives like some
12:38
Speaker 2: creeping vine, where now our coworkers can text us and
12:42
Speaker 2: email us and slack US and fire signal US and
12:44
Speaker 2: morse code us and reach us a million different ways
12:47
Speaker 2: at any time of the day. But that social aspect
12:50
Speaker 2: built around hunting that brings together friends and relatives over
12:53
Speaker 2: the shared pursuit of some fresh venicon is important, and
12:57
Speaker 2: I hope we kind of figure out a way to
12:58
Speaker 2: relax a little and get it back. Maybe we will
13:02
Speaker 2: when most of us simply can't afford to travel anywhere
13:05
Speaker 2: to hunt and the tags are no longer available for
13:07
Speaker 2: us anyway. I don't know, but I kind of doubt it,
13:10
Speaker 2: But I hope so. I do know that issue, and
13:12
Speaker 2: about any issue related to the social aspect of deer hunting,
13:15
Speaker 2: could be made better with individual effort. I can see
13:19
Speaker 2: now how rare it is to spend time deer hunting
13:21
Speaker 2: or scouting or shed hunting with my really good buddies,
13:24
Speaker 2: and I'd be hard pressed to blame that on all
13:26
Speaker 2: of them. I'm part of that problem too, and I
13:29
Speaker 2: know how easy it is to blame my schedule or
13:32
Speaker 2: just give into the fact that I'm not super excited
13:34
Speaker 2: to drive a couple hours anywhere these days, considering much
13:37
Speaker 2: of my life consists of driving lots of hours and
13:40
Speaker 2: often enough queuing up at an airport somewhere to get
13:43
Speaker 2: on a plane for my job. But that's dumb, because
13:47
Speaker 2: a little effort goes a long way, and it's worth it.
13:49
Speaker 2: And I know that, like many of the things in
13:52
Speaker 2: life we all know to be objectively good for us,
13:54
Speaker 2: we avoid them anyway because in the short term it's
13:56
Speaker 2: easier to not put in the effort. I'm sure there
13:59
Speaker 2: is a greater life less than there, and maybe also
14:02
Speaker 2: something that points to our fifty percent divorce rate as
14:04
Speaker 2: a society. There's a lot to unpack with this stuff,
14:08
Speaker 2: but I guess my main point is that if you
14:10
Speaker 2: have some good hunting buddies, put the effort in. If
14:14
Speaker 2: you don't try to figure out what it would take
14:16
Speaker 2: to get a couple and then put the effort in,
14:19
Speaker 2: or if you're kind of a stone faced loner who
14:21
Speaker 2: can't stand to be around people because you're just fed up,
14:24
Speaker 2: or a little too deep of a thinker, go your
14:26
Speaker 2: own way. The social aspect is great, but so is
14:29
Speaker 2: time in the woods alone. I think we all probably
14:31
Speaker 2: need that as much as we need a buddy who
14:33
Speaker 2: will be there for the tough blood trails, because it's
14:36
Speaker 2: also nice to be in charge of all the decisions
14:38
Speaker 2: and just get to do things your own way. I
14:41
Speaker 2: have no doubt that throughout the history of hunters and gatherers,
14:45
Speaker 2: our ancestors often felt the need to slip away from
14:48
Speaker 2: camp to scout out a water hole or maybe sit
14:50
Speaker 2: for a few hours along a well used trail and
14:52
Speaker 2: wait for something to come walking down, just as I
14:56
Speaker 2: have no doubt that those same ancestors felt a great
14:58
Speaker 2: sense of relief and they walk back into camp at
15:01
Speaker 2: the end of the day, perhaps with something to show
15:04
Speaker 2: for their efforts in the form of fresh meat or
15:06
Speaker 2: a hide packed full of nuts or tasty grubs or whatever.
15:10
Speaker 2: Or maybe they didn't and the only thing they brought
15:12
Speaker 2: back with them was a story worth sharing with some
15:14
Speaker 2: people who really wanted to listen. That's a trophy in
15:18
Speaker 2: its own way and something we are all still hunting for.
15:24
Speaker 2: That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has
15:26
Speaker 2: been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast. As always, thank
15:29
Speaker 2: you so much for your support. Truly means the world
15:31
Speaker 2: to us here at meat Eater, so thank you for that.
15:34
Speaker 2: If you need some turkey hunting advice, maybe you need
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15:54
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