Ep. 542: Foundations - Rabbits With Antlers

but I also believe it. I don't think dear are really as mysterious as we like to make them out to be, And in fact, we've probably demystified the white tail more than just about any other critter out there, just just through its popularity. Now, I'm not saying they're not fascinating wonderful animals, because I really think they are. In fact, if you take the Labrador Retriever off the list,

I don't know. White tales are probably my favorite animal, but they are still kind of like rabbits with anilers, and that's what this whole episode is really about. Listen, folks, I'm gonna go in a weird direction with this one at first, so I ask you just to bear me out for the next couple of minutes. Okay. Now, I often hear from hunters who are frustrated that they can't kill big bucks. Hell, I don't. Quite often I hear from hunters who are frustrated that they can't kill little

bucks or dose or fawns. Deer hunting can be tough, It can be really difficult. But to frame this up, I want to talk about something that I geek out over space. Remember I asked you to stay with me here. I love space. In fact, I love space so much that my wife and I have a running joke who you lay down in bed at night? Where she'll turn to me and say, you get one space fact, make

it good. So I have to think really hard about I don't know how stars are formed, or what actually happened to make planet Earth, or what we know about black holes or the sheer distance between us and anything else in the cosmos. And then I plucked some tasty morsel out of there to feed her with. And she's usually unimpressed, but that's okay. She's kind of largely stuck with me until something better comes along. Anyway, I love space,

and right now something amazing is happening out there. There is a telescope, the James web Space telescope that is sitting at a point in space called L two or Lagrange to. This point in space is the sweet spot between huge celestial bodies and their gravity. In other words, objects in L two tend to just kind of sit there because the gravity from the nearest object cancels out

the gravity from the other nearest object. A fellow named Joseph Lagrange figured that out using math that I couldn't possibly even come close to be able to understand or describe to you. The cell two point is nearly a million miles from Earth, and the James Webb Telescope has been sitting out there for months now, just cooling off and calibrating itself, you know, with the help of course,

of a whole team of people at NASA. This telescope, which weighs roughly fourteen thousand pounds and features a gold covered sun shield that measures roughly the size of a tennis court, is out there in temperatures of negative three

hundred and seventy five degrees fahrenheit. It had to cool off to that point and was designed to do so so that there would be no interference with its imaging capabilities because it will be looking for infrared heat signatures as it searches for some of the first galaxies to form after the Big Bang. This telescope is designed with a ton of rubber shock absorbers to keep it from vibrating even slightly so that it will be able to take crystal clear images of galaxies and stars that are

far away. Is thirteen point six billion with a b light years. The light travels had a hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second, or about six trillion miles per year. The light that the James Webb Telescope is going to look at at least some of the light and and take infrared photography of has been traveling for thirteen point six billion light years. Essentially, this thing is looking back in time at light that has been on the move since what we think is probably close to

the beginning of the universe. But light doesn't stay constant for that long, and it does something called red shifting. To really understand red shifting, you have to be familiar with Einstein's theory or relativity, or at least recognize that it's coming into play when the objects in the universe like galaxies, keep moving farther and farther away from each other, which is what's happening to see this. That James Webb Telescope is built with four instruments designed to detect this

specific type of light. Scientists will also use this telescope to try to determine how galaxies form, how stars form, and to look for physical and chemical properties of planetary systems to investigate the potential for life. Yeah you heard that right. Today scientists have discovered thousands of exoplanets, but we haven't been able to very accurately observe them to see whether they have an atmosphere, and if they do, what that atmosphere consists of. The James web Telescope will

use spectroscopy to do just that. By observing when a planet passes in front of its host star, the telescope will be able to analyze their atmospheres to decipher what types of elements and molecules are present. Some like methane could indicate life. It's wild stuff, and you know what, people built it, people like you and I. Well, people probably a lot smarter than you and I, but still.

They set out years ago to create a telescope that could be launched into space a million miles from Earth and conduct amazing experiments on world so distant we will never have a chance to even consider visiting them, no matter how advanced we get in our space travel. They designed, tested, bill, tested, redesigned, tested, and eventually completed this sucker. And then they launched it into space and are now controlling it a million miles away.

It's out there, getting ready to send back the best images we will have to date of a part of the universe we've never seen. Think about that. Now, think about this. We are trying to kill rabbits with antlers. That's it. They may be good at surviving, but in the thinking department, even the dullest podcast listener Mark has ever reached is orders of magnitude smarter than the smartest buck.

Take the hardest, hunted, sick and a half year old buck on public land in Pennsylvania, and he's basically a paint chip eating toddler when compared to even the lowest bandwidth human out there. So why is it so hard? Well, there are a few reasons, but you know, I don't know. You might not want to hear them. For starters, pray, animals are just good at not getting eaten. That's basically the main component of their job description. It's point number one.

Just don't get eaten every day, every week, every year. Now they die in other ways, I know. But to them, when we walk into the woods, we are as scary as the scariest bear or coyote or a wolf. We are level I'm possibly above those predators on the fear scale. And so when they're thinking about not getting eaten, they're thinking about us in that way. They don't want us to kill him, So they engage in a few tactics that work. They hide a lot, they're good at it.

They don't move a ton during day light. They trust their eyes and their ears quite a bit, and they fully believe their noses. If after a few years of getting lucky, they tend to be pretty intolerant of our bullshit, they just learn how to beat us, and they do it easily. They do it because most hunters aren't putting in a lot of work to kill them. You know, we aren't out there seven with empty stomachs and pointed

canine teeth the way a pack of wolves is. We aren't out there all spring long, constantly covering ground in search of food, like newborn fawns. The way your average yogi is. We mostly swoop in for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening, and then we leave. We stink, we are allowed. We stare at our phones too much. We announce our presence through calling when we should just shut the hell up. We do a lot of this stuff wrong. That's why

it's hard for a lot of us. And they know us, they know us better than we know them. But they are still rabbits with antlers. They have basic needs in those need tell us a lot about them. They need to eat, they need to drink, They gotta take a little snooze here and there, and when the leaves fall off the trees and the moon is just right, they feel a strong urge to make some new deer. And

that's about it. Well, it's not because they are highly adapted surviving machines, but on some level it is pretty easy to distill it down to that level. And so why do we struggle? Oftentimes We actually just don't give ourselves enough credit. That's a big one, and it's what I'm going to talk about next week. And we also do something worse, which is we give the deer too much credit. They aren't some magical beasts that you'd read about in Harry potter book Hiding Away in Haggard's Hut.

They don't have a sixth sense. They can't read minds, They can't really outthink us. They don't have the mental horse power. They just do what it takes to survive given what they know about us as predators. And that right there is the key, because it tells you everything you shouldn't do, even if not doing those things is hard for us. We have to respect the white tail because he deserves it, but we don't have to give him extra credit because we aren't good enough to consistently

shoot him in the lungs. I know, if you're starting out, this is probably tough to believe. Hell, it might be tough if you've been at it a long time and only have shitty spots to hunt, or you don't give very much time in the woods. There are a lot of things that conspire against your success. But let me tell you something. The deer are pretty consistent. Now. I know.

There is a pretty big gap between deer that are babysat their whole lives from deer that grow up in the mean streets of public Land, USA, where hunting pressure is high. But even those deer, they're just doing what they need to in orders five and they grow up fast. In those conditions. They have plenty of negative encounters that shape their behavior. But again that's something that can be used to your advantage if you understand it. Now. This this is kind of a raw, raw speech, but also

I want you to think about it this way. The deer they are just out there doing their thing. If you do your thing in a way that's different from most hunters, or frame it up most predators, eventually you'll cross paths with them. Eventually you'll see the unkillable deer do something that puts himself into a position for you to kill him. And that is a moment worth experiencing. I've talked about that moment with me in a really cool non typical buck that just screwed up royally and

let me shoot him at eight yards. I've talked about it many times. That mid one fourteen pointer changed my whole deer hunting perspective. I went from wanting to kill one so bad to suddenly having killed one and he just waltzed right into that bean field and then right into my best shooting lane. And it wasn't like he was a survival machine. Then, it was like he was a hungry animal in the early season who happened to

like to eat soybeans in the rain. Maybe the other hunters out there don't hunt the rain as much, and he was banking on that. Maybe his grumbling stomach just got the best of him. It doesn't matter. He didn't pull any big buck high jinks to survive there, and he didn't survive. He gave me my opportunity, and other bucks followed, and the lesson became much clearer. And it really hit home when I started shooting big bucks on public land. Those dear should have been invincible. They weren't.

The first pope and young buck I killed on public land walked by me at twenty yards when I was hiding behind a big cottonwood tree like a little kid. That's not exactly a master class on survival, if you ask me. And later that same season, I walked out on a public property in the suburbs of the Twin Cities to sit in a morning, and I had to run to my stand because I was late. I got in right after I watched a doe walk through, and I didn't even have anything ready to go when I

saw a buck on her tail. I killed that book less than a minute after climbing into my stand, and he made Pope and Young minimum as a clean six pointer with the body of a horse, even though it was the rut. He made a lot of stupid moves to get shot by me then, and either of those deer and lots more could have been shot by anyone. They were being reckless to me because I was there to take advantage of it. But that happens all over all season long. Well, I take that back. It doesn't

happen NonStop because that's not how they operate. But there are times when the advantages ours and definitely not in theirs. Remember that believe that understand that there are a deer out there, Dear, you'd be happy to tag that aren't so smart and crafty that they won't make mistakes. Hell, they probably make several mistakes every single day of their lives, but they are forgiven because there's no one there to

make them pay. Now, I'm going to switch gears for a second to give the dear sum credit and frame this whole thing up pressure dear, you know, especially pressure deer who have been lucky enough to make at least three or four laps around the sun. They're not tolerant of our mistakes too much. Moving in the stand, they're gonna get you. They get down wind. Do you forget it? Your stand platform creaks a little when you stand up. Now you're in trouble. That desperate grunt you throw his

way when he's at fifty yards and facing you. Now you've given him the advantage. It doesn't take much to set off their bullshit meter, and when you do, they suddenly get real concerned over their well being. But if you don't set it off, they're dumb. Set it off and they become something else. They trust their instincts, and I think that is something we don't understand very well. Most of us live in a nerfed up world where real danger is more rare than an original social media post.

We don't have grizzlies trying to munch on us, most of us anyway, or big striped cats that might rush out of the tall grass to make a meal out of us. We don't have to listen to our instincts

very often because we don't need them much anymore. Now, that's not to say you shouldn't trust your gut around people or even situations with animals like certain dogs, because if something feels wrong, it most likely is we question it because most of the time we don't need our instincts much not It's not the case with prey animals. They quite literally live off of their instincts. The slightest tink of an arrow on an aluminum riser is a sound that nature doesn't make. It's unnatural. If a prey

animal here's that, the threat level is raised instantly. You can go from a buck that was totally content to walk through the woods mowing down on acorns or rubbing random saplings, to a deer with only one thing to think about, where did that unnatural, potentially danger signaling sound come from. He has nothing but time and his survival

to think about in that moment. Just by one little mistake, we've taken a typical rabbit with antlers and made him into a survival machine that is always just to blow the surface, waiting to come out. And without that tiny, nearly insignificant mistake, he's ours. But is he The whole thing about getting a drawn on a deer, or moving into position to shoot your rifle in the stand. It's it's just wrought with potential mistakes. It's right for us to create the anser for the deer to show us

how much he wants to live. You know. The same goes for the branch we touched with our bare hands on the way in. If a deer never gets close enough to sniff it, who cares. But the deer that does understands how long ago we were there due to the evaporation of our scent. Just like how a bird dog knows instantly which way a rooster is running in the grass, even if you ran through thirty seconds or two hours ago. That little moment can tip the advantage from us to them, and we do it all the time,

tons of little moments like that. Now I want to help because this is easy to explain but hard to fully implement in the woods throughout the entire deer season. So over the last few months, I've been interviewing wildlife biologists who hold all kinds of advanced degrees. These are the people who am always a little scared to interview because they often make me feel like I'm not quite

as evolved as them. These interviews, which will air as a regular Wire to Hunt podcast throughout the whole month of June, which you know we're dubbing the white Tail Science Month, should help you under dan white tails better, and we cover a wide range of topics like truly understanding how dear c to the complexity of dealing with chronic wasting disease too, how often fawns get turned in a little spot it's next by bears in various parts

of the country. Each guest is a true student of the white tail as well as a dedicated researcher and scientists. Each episode is an ode of sorts, too Dear, and what we've learned and what we haven't learned, and what we might never learn about them. It's just really cool stuff, folks,

and I hope you listen in. I also hope you realize that the white deal deserves a lot of credit for being a really badass animal that we are real lucky to get to hunt, but also is not so cool and adaptable and smart that we can't outmatch him. We can, We all can. And next week I'm going to tell you how you should think about yourself as a hunter so you can make filling tags more of a foregone conclusion than a roll of the weighted dice.

That's it for this week, my friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this is been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light. As always, thank you so much for listening and for your support.

If you need more white tailed goodness, head on over to dummy theator dot com slash wired to read articles by Mark myself, Beau martinac Alex Gilstrom, and a whole host of white tail killers, and you can also check out our Wire to Hunt YouTube channel, where we dropped new videos every single week