Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host, Tony Peterson. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light. I'm your host, Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all about getting your dear gear squared away. Now. I know plenty of you, dear junkies are out there still hunting somewhere, but even in the farthest southern states, the end of
the season is coming. It's no longer a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. It's a freaking spotlight that's heading right at you. The natural reaction to the season closing, it's a little relief, a little sadness, and then the tendency to just kind forget about deer for a little while before it's time to really get into shed antlers and winter scouting, which is stuff I'll cover soon enough, but before then, think about your dear gear, all of it, and what you should be doing with
it right now. If I were somehow able to run a film of my hunting exploits from now backwards to the year I turned twelve and could finally bow hunt. You'd obviously see me grow progressively younger, Benjamin Button style. You'd also see a lot of deer get killed, a lot of deer get missed, and a lot of boring time on tree stands watching squirrels. You'd also see me carry into and out of the woods a variety of tree stands, ranging from tiny, lightweight options to ridiculously heavy
steel models. And if you went far enough backwards into my history, you'd see the death traps my father used to build that attached to the tree via a great big chain, and they were basically like spray painted plywood noise amplifiers that doubled his squirrel two toys. Now, forget those homemade stands and think about the various models of store bought tree stands that I just talked about. Most of those that I used, spanning nearly three decades of
deer hunting, are out of business. That's not a coincidence. Manufacturing tree stands is a liability heavy business. If everyone uses your product correctly and they're smart about it. A lot of people don't, and a lot of people aren't, which means the opportunities to get sued out of business are many, and it has happened plenty of times. It's also happened where specific companies have gone out of business because hunters left their stands out for full seasons or
full years, multiple years. And while we often think it's the straps that will give out, in this scenario with some stands and stand designs, was actually the cables that attached the platform to the seat stem that went out. A little rust in those cables, and over the winter months in spring and summer, the first time that a two pound hunter steps onto them after they've been sitting there rusting for a while, they might as well be jumping onto a trap door. This is not good. It's
also avoidable. Take your tree stands down now, my friends. It's not enough to go in once a year and replace the ratchet straps. That's not a bad thing. But the reality is that Mother Nature is a sneaky lady. She does a great job of reclaiming everything that you leave to her. Now, this is probably a really dumb and totally irrelevant sidebar, but it's one of the things that drives me nuts about zombie shows and movies. Hell, I guess all kind of apocalyptic films, the towns in
the yards and those humanity has fallen shows. They're always too well groomed. If I don't mow my yard here in Minnesota every week or so throughout the summer, it usually looks like you could flush pheasants out of it, which is a fact that my wife loves to bring up when I'm laid in my Yardboord duties, the weather plants, the undead brain eaters, they would all make those towns look so much different, so much faster than Hollywood production seems to believe. As a tree stand hunter, you better
believe it. A little bit of water in the cables, it leads to rust or a board bushy tail that likes the feel of your ratchet straps on his rodent teeth. Now you're talking danger zone stuff. And if you still use screwing steps, the same rules apply. Trees don't respond all that well to stuff puncturing their bark in. Certain types of trees almost create like a soggy, not very desirable hold on the screwing steps that are left in
too long. Of course, you got the other end of the spectrum, too, which is the logger's nightmare, where the tree just absorbs the step into its trunk over time, and then it sits there like a little time bomb, waiting for somebody with a chainsaw to coming along. It's not good, But when it comes to the steps that actually get looser, I had an experience I don't know, probably ten or twelve years ago, changed my whole perspective
on this thing. It was the last stand of the season, and as I climbed up to pull it in late March, the top two steps pulled out of the tree at exactly the same time. While I was harnessed up. I was also in a weird position because I was working on that ratchet strap to get it loose, and I hit. I hit my side on the top of the stand by the seat. That was all I needed to know that broken ribs are absolutely not much fun. Every cough or sneeze just came with a moment of pure terror.
And let me tell you something, if you like to set the hook hard with seven and a half foot flipping sticks while you're bass fishing, you'll bring your fishing partners to tears with the girly screams you make every time you set the hook. Now, that's a minor injury compared to what can really go wrong with tree stands. Each season, roughly around two dozen folks fall and they
don't go home to their families. About half of them happen from falls from ladder stands, and the lesson here is always to use your lifelines, Always use your lineman's belt. I always use good harness, always use common sense, and always always always pull your stands at the end of the season. Get them dried out, and get them and inspected, get them stored properly. It's also a good idea to
take stock in the rest of your gear. I tend to throw most of my essentials in a tote so I know they're all together when I start getting ready for next bow season. Everything that might end up in my pockets or around my neck while and bow hunting goes into that tote. Everything I might use to shoot throughout the off season, like release aids, range finders, et cetera,
goes in a different spot. It's not too long until Turkey season already, so keeping the things I need to shoot with handy makes the whole spring preseason work a little bit easier. I know this seems boring, but these off season details are part of what makes someone a successful hunter. We'll get into more exciting stuff soon enough, but for now, this process of getting everything from the past season squared away does more than just make you a more organized hunter. It helps you decide what to
change for next year. A lot of hunters get stuck in serious ruts as far as stand choice, good enough, shooting whatever. The best hunters, the guys and gals who just play and get it done every season on pressure Deer, they don't really settle for the status quo. They keep changing, they keep evolving, keep trying new things, but most importantly, they don't settle. This is movie importante. My friends take
something as simple as a grunt tube. Now I'm not much of a dear caller, but when I do call, I want a grunt tube that allows me to create a short, crisp, deep contact grunt. Very specific, I want something that is going to immediately get a box attention, because if I'm grunting, he's going to be big, and I want him to walk to me so I can
shoot him. I don't want to produce a half ass grunt or figure out that the reed is frozen and the best I can do is produce the sound of a goose trying to honk with a big water grass stuck in its throat. If you have bad memories about a piece of gear that didn't perform well for you last season, this is the time to acknowledge that toss it, give it away, or put it in the maybe pile,
the backup pile, whatever, replace it with something better. If you don't do it now, you'll forget about it by the time next season rolls around, and you'll find yourself in a familiar, avoidable position again. The same goes for clothing and boots. Much is made of camel patterns and the aesthetics of hunting clothing, but the true test is comfort in wildly variable conditions. Ask yourself. Did you freeze
your ass off last fall when you shouldn't have. Did you get soaked to the bone when you thought you'd stay dry. Did you layer incorrectly for the mile walk into your favorite pub land honey hoole, only to find yourself shivering and covered with sweat not long after you got saddled up and settled in. Do you want to experience any of those things again? Probably not. Maybe you've got your clothing situation nailed down and own good enough
stuff to layer up correctly from September to December. Maybe not, And I get it. Quality clothing is expensive. It's crazy these days. Building a suit for your needs might not be as easy as just swiping your credit card and waiting for the boxes to show up on the ups truck. If that's the case, make a plan to get the pieces you really think you need. Now I know what
you're thinking. This asshole is pushing first Light because Mediata owns the company and he's hoping for a huge commission check so you can buy another Ivory backscratch or a solid gold toothbrush holder. Now listen, I get it. I get the skepticism. So I'll say this, there are very few things that I feel have made me a way better deer hunter. Some I can buy, most I can't. In a ladder category, working out and getting into better shape rank way at the top of the list for
what you can buy. A subscription to on X and clothes that actually keep you warm, those rank pretty high on my list. They're just important and valuable. Now I hunt everything from gross super hot early season weather to the last days of the season at home in Minnesota, or over in northern Wisconsin. I also don't like to be overly uncomfortable, which probably doesn't come as much of
a surprise because nobody does. Quality clothing will help you kill deer simply because you're far more likely to put in the hours if you're not cold or uncomfortable. It's a simple equation, but it's true. And while you're sorting through your hunting gear, consider how happy you are with your clothing choice. Is there maybe like a mid layer puffy you could add that would round out your rut hunting needs. Maybe you actually just need a lighter weight
jacket or pants for the early season. Acknowledge this stuff now while you're going through the gear motions, and make a plan to fill those holes if it all posse stable. If you don't want to go broke buying hunting clothing, figure out where the where the major holes in your system are. Personally, quality base layers rank super high in importance.
I think the right basse layers do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to the white tail comfort and are just an integral part of the whole thing. Mid and outer layers matter too, of course, but the foundation of comfort often comes with quality next to skin layers. Something to think about anyway. The same thing goes for your boots as well. Cold toes, hot spots on your heels, anything that goes wrong with your feet while you're hunting can really suck. Sometimes you can show up the cold
thing with a better sock choice chemical toe warmers. And this is what I tend to do quite a bit, because I often opt for knee high rubber boots until it's bitterly cold. Now. I know plenty of folks don't believe that you can fool a buck's nose, but I do. I've messed with railing drills and well bred bird dogs a lot, and watching a dog that figures out how
to track you is a real eye opener. The smart ones quickly learned that they don't need to hunt for the bumper or the planted bird or the shed antler. They can just shortcut it and follow your boot tracks to the prize. Knee highs sprayed down with sending, eliminating the spray versus just regular leather boots or shoes. They make it immediately obvious that those dogs can't just easily follow your tracks anymore, and if it fools a bird dog's nose and makes it more difficult for them to
use their noses. I believe it has to have a similar effect on deer. But knee highs, even those options that are loaded with as many grams that the inclate as manufacturers can pack into them, still allow your little piggies to get icy. Cold toes lead a shorter hunts, which leads to fewer bucks killed, which is the opposite of our goal. Think about your hands too, Did they get cold last season or do the gloves you wear interfere with your shot cycle at all? Did you like
your hat? I know this stuff seems trivial, but it's not. Maybe this is evidence of wonky wiring in my brain, but I absolutely hate the thought of hunting with even a hat that I don't like for some reason. As you put away your hunting clothing, consider everything you use last season and whether you were happy with it or not. Think about your backpack. I honestly don't know if I've
ever loved a pack built for white tail hunting. I've used some mountain hunting packs for elk and meal deer that were worth every penny, and they were not cheap, but white tail hunting is different. My needs are probably different from yours, so this may or may not be applicable. Those elk packs they tend to go with me into the white tailed woods. Now, I got a lot of camera gear to carry, and I mostly do all day hunts throughout the season, so I'm carrying enough stuff to
be out there well all day. This means I need more space, and it means those mountain appropriate packs are
a good choice for me in the deer woods. Now, you might not need that, But may be you've been using a cheapie that has built like a middle schooler's backpack and not really ideal for attaching your mobile stand to or packing out a quarter deer or a hole deer in the right situation that might be boned out, or maybe your saddle hunting, but you just don't like the way your sticks strap to the back of your pack and how it causes the whole thing to pull
down on your traps the entire hike into and out of the deer woods. Packs are a weird one because they mostly look the same, but they often function radically different from one another. Generally, adjustability is a huge factor. This goes for shoulder straps as well as the waist trap. If your pack doesn't have a waist trap, it's probably not a great option for packing heavy loads into and
out of the woods. Being able to cinch that strap up and let the load right on your hips is something you can't really appreciate until you've got a dead elk on your hands or a dead white tail that is best quarter and packed out a mile or two on a solo adventure. I'm also pretty picky. I guess maybe I'm what obsessive about the pocket orientation on my packs.
Has to fit my knees perfectly, headlamps, a jetti full of coffee, snacks, whatever I need to bring, there has to be space for it, and it has to be quietly and easily accessible. Not all packs offer that, and for some reason, a lot of tree stands specific packs don't really offer that. Think about it. Another aspect of deer hunting that can be great or awful depending on your gear choice is blood trailing and recovery. Good now
scratch that. Great flashlights are worth the money and an absolute asset when the blood trail is sparse and you're looking at a long night of wears. Waldo in the woods. Cheap flashlights are a liability. Think back to your blood trailing adventures last season, where you're happy or not. Flashlights matter a lot. The same goes for knives. A good knife that holds its edge well is a gift. A
shitty knife that doesn't isn't. This might not seem like a big deal if you only use your knife to gut a single deer a year, but if you ever need to piece out a deer in the field, a poor quality knife won't cut it. That's my best dad joke of the day. Folks. Think about your butchering process, think about your field dressing process, think about your needs
in the field. Maybe you just need to pony up and get a good quality knife with some real blade to work with, or maybe you need to go with a replaceable blade option so you know you'll have scalpel sharp blades whenever your regular blade starts to get dull. This stuff matters. Now, you've probably noticed, if you haven't fallen asleep yet, I haven't talked about all the bows and arrows and broadheads and all the fun stuff yet
that's coming. In some spring episodes were all devote some serious time to the right choices, But for now, it's time to shore up the more boring and often overlooked aspects of white tailed gear choice. You gotta clean this stuff up and get it stored away anyway, So why not take stock and what you own and how it treated you last season while the memories are still fresh. Maybe you realize that you had your circumstances dialed in and that you feel really good about where you're at
as you feel totes and think about next season. But if you don't, if there's some piece of gear that reminds you of frustration or just pour unenjoyable performance from last year, consider calling it out and making a plan to replace it before next September. Little upgrades on gear and clothing can go a long way toward making your
hunts more fun and comfortable. And when you bump either category up a notch, you'll be more inclined to sit for an extra day or two or stay out all day when previously you would have tapped out and drove the local cafe for a plate of pancakes. If you do this, I promise you that next week we'll talk about something more exciting, something like shed Anler's. Perhaps that's it for this show, my white tail loving brothers and sisters.
I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast which has brought to you I first light. As I always, thank you so much for listening and if you want more white till advice, head on over to the metator dot com slash wired and check out our Wire to Hunt YouTube channel as well