Ep. 547: Foundations - Just Hunting Something Else

I know, I know, it's too expensive, it's too far, you don't have the time, the PTO, you don't have any good buddies, we'll make a drive with you, and on and on. That's not for everyone to travel to the west and hunt. But the good thing is, that's not what this episode is about. It's just about hunting other stuff, period, not just the glamour critters that demand kind of a big commitment. There's a word hold of hunting opportunities out there, and you should take advantage of them.

You know, they're fun in their own right and just about everyone will probably make you a little bit better of a deer hunter, which is what I'm going to tell you about right now. Last summer I dropped a whole bunch of these Foundations episodes that were all based on scouting, from the scouting to trail cameras to boots on the ground, I covered it all. I know you're already thinking about getting back into the deer scouting thing, and you should be, but let me lay out a

case for you on that front. Now, Dedicated dear time is important. There's there's really no substitute for it. It It really isn't. But dedicated dear time takes well dedication and I don't know time. Not everyone has tons of both, and not everyone wants to put in what it takes to nearly nearly guarantee success. And that's okay. There's a sneaky way to put in some deer time and level up your game and honestly just make your time outdoors

more fun. Gotta hunt something else now. Earlier this spring, I dropped a couple of episodes on how turkey hunting can make you a better deer hunter, and I firmly believe that. But I also firmly believe that you can become a better deer hunter by spending time in a duck blind or hunting squirrels with a seventeen or two, or by going bear hunting, or yes, taking that trip out west to finally chase screaming bowls through the mountains

while honking NonStop on a hoochie Mama call. This is going to seem like a stretch to a lot of people, but let me give you a few examples about how hunting other critters can help you actually become a better deer hunter. But before that, let me say this, deer hunting success doesn't come from where a lot of people

think it does. Sure, it comes from a good spot if you're lucky enough to have that advantage, and at any given moment throughout the season, it could come from something you bought, a call, a decoy, a bottle of dopez. At any moment, any one of those things could put a buck in your lap, even if mostly they won't. And any good encounter teaches you a lot, So I'm not minimizing that stuff. Use it, I don't really care.

But to be better overall, you've got to learn to think about why a deer would or wouldn't do something. Why is that buck on your kill plot only once every three days? Why do you always see does and scrappers on some trails but never mature bucks? Why on October sixteenth, during a heat wave, did you see the biggest buck of the season in a spot where you would have been real happy to just see a dope. The answer to those questions and many more might be discoverable,

or they might not. But the more you start to ask yourself why, the more you can start narrowing down your potential answers. This is a super valuable skill. That's some of the best public landbow hunters work real hard to sharpen. They do this through whitetail activities, of course, but also through experience hunting all the other critters that are available in One of these moments smacked me real hard in the face. A few years ago, as I was scouting out a spot in the mountains for the

Colorado elk opener. Like it is in many mountain ranges, there were stairstep meadows in the lower valleys surrounded by benched out black timber. As I walked those meadow edges trying to figure out what sign was left by cattle and what was left by elk I started noticing rubs on the edges of some of the meadows. They were facing towards the meadow, which I assume meant that the elk were feeding in the lush grass all night and then working their way up the mountains in the morning.

That's pretty simple elk behavior, and became even clear when I started walking a rough elk rub line that brought me right to a dreamy bench up there in that black timber, big ovals of matted vegetation s that some bowls have been using the bench for betting. Does that sound familiar to all you Bluff country white tail hunters or maybe some of you mountain hunters out east in southeast somewhere. My question of why are the rubs on the edge of the meadow or what does that really mean?

Ended with a pretty clear picture of a food to bed bed to food pattern. If I hadn't lost my ship on that trip and shot poorly, it would have also ended with me taking grip and grins on opening night. That's a different story. Let me give you another example. In two thousand and ten, when I was just starting to focus super hard on killing public land white tails, I had an any deer North Dakota tag in my pocket,

which was good for meal deer or white tails. Now I had some big white tails patterned pretty well, but I also had a half a day to kill before they'd be in play. So I went looking for meal deer, and the one I found, a beautiful velvet hundred and fifty class type buck, did what I see very few meal deer do in the bad ends. He betted in a real stalkable spot. So I took the long way around to keep the wind in my favor, and I hiked towards a series of pine trees I'd marked so

I could refined him. Now, if you've never spotted and stocked any critters, I suggest you give it a shot for this simple reason. That moment when you see them and you make your plan, it's almost always followed by the execution, which almost always takes your target animal out of your visibility. There's such an intense kind of anxious feeling that comes with that because you simply don't know what he's gonna do as you try to work your

way in. Well, I had that feeling, that kind of nervous feeling as I side held my way across the arid landscape as the lunchtime sun really started bacon And when I got to my landmark, I took off my boots and I started crawling. When peeking over that ridge, I saw the velvet tips of his antlers. He was oblivious, well within my range and position for a very nice shot angle. I had all the time in the world to make that shot, and you know what I did. I freaking rushed it like a total moron, and I

shot some hair off his back. I mean, I don't know. I probably had hours to take that shot, and I rushed it so fast that as I watched that big five by five bound off, my first thought was to just swan dive off the nearest cliff. Later that evening, I had switched to white tails, and I watched as a hundred forty and jade point across the river toward me. The thought that was going through my mind was, don't rush it. Don't rush it, Do not rush it, Antoine,

let him get here, Please, let him get here. I'm not going to tell you I made a perfect shot on that buck, because I didn't. It was a much better shot than I made on the mule deer, and my follow up shot to just end it all was one of the best I've ever made my life. Now, you don't think of mule deer as great teachers for white tail hunting, but there are so many things we do on other hunts that do teach us how to be better on white tails, because they teach us how

to be better hunters period. There's more, though, there's a little moments too that help you fill up the white tailed knowledge box. Maybe four or five years ago, I was following my lab around in October in north central Wisconsin. We were on the hunt for a few grouse for woodcock on a piece of public land, and I'm quite

fond of for bird hunting. I honestly don't remember if we found any birds, even though we probably did, But what I do remember is finding a patch of really thick brush on a hillside and a ridge top that was covered in rubs, and I mean covered in rubs. Two weeks later, I came back with a mobile set up and started bow hunting around that concentration of rubs.

The deer didn't make it easy, but I did manage to see some little box chasing and I arrowed one of the cagius does I've ever put in the freezer. It was honestly a pretty great hunt, especially for public land, and the genesis for most of it was just a chance encounter while looking for some woodcock. Uh, last one before I move on. I got tell you one more. When I was in college, I was far enough away from the ground I usually white tail hunted that I

focused on public land and just knocking on doors. I also trout fished so much it took me an extra year to get enough credits to graduate. Well that's my excuse. Anyway, there were a lot of other reasons I didn't fly through higher education in a normal time frame. Uh. Anyway, on one of the streams I fished a lot, I'd always take note of all of the crossings in that bluff country, the terrain and the water they often conspired to create perfect pinch points, and that property was no exception.

It finally got to me, so I just knocked on the door one day after fishing and asked if they mind if i'd hunt their place a little bit. And the woman who answered the door could not have been nicer, and she said yes. So I scrambled back to my place, swapped my fishing clothes for camel, and brought a standout

with me. I hung it over the best looking crossing, and I settled in and when a Doe came down to drink later that night, I Drew settled in and I made a good shot and it was revelatory on a few levels at that At that time in my life, arrowing any deer was a big, big deal, let alone making a really good shot on one. And I eventually killed a few deer on that property. That had a hell of a lot of fun hunting it, and it mostly resulted from trout fishing trips that took me to

the places where deer also like to live. That stuff happens to me a lot because I like hunting a lot of different critters, and I like fishing in cool places. The question I have now is do you are you a ride or die white tail hunter or more of an outdoor generalist. I don't really care if you answer yes to either of those questions, because it doesn't matter whether you only live in breeze white tails or are

happy to be out chasing whatever is available. You might want to think about all the opportunities that are actually available to you or not only what they offer in and of themselves, but how they can help you become a better deer hunter. Let's take that big Western trip for example, the scouting, the planning gear, organizing, anticipating all the things that can go wrong, and dreaming about the things that will go right. It's all going to make

you a better white tail hunter. It's gonna make you want to travel more for your dear adventures too, which is a sure fire way to have some fun and just force yourself to improve it this stuff. Maybe, like I said earlier, you don't have the means to make a western trip happen. Fair enough, it's not available for everyone. I get that we've got to look closer to home. Then what could you do this fall that you used

to do or are just curious about? Is that sitting on the edge of a small beaver pond, waiting on a few wood ducks or tealed a swing through. Maybe it's just a simple rabbit or squirrel hunt. Maybe it's a fall turkey hunt to fill the midday hours in between stand time. It honestly doesn't matter that small water duck hunt. You're gonna have to scout for it. Most likely you might find that you want to sit on

a little cattail point. But for whatever reason, the birds seem to want to swoop in low and landing in the other corner of the pond. Is it because they just do that or because of the wind direction? Is it because the bottom contour is more gradual and there are a bunch of saggy acorns in that corner. It's time to ask why and then see what you can do about finding the answer. The squirrels, are they concentrated on hard mass? If so, you know who else probably is?

Or I don't know. The bunny is living in that old homestead that has overgrown and supernarly and full of thorns? Do they share that security cover with anyone else? Get in there and find out. Now, this might be weird timing for this, you know, given the fact that it's early summer and all of our hunting is at least a couple of months off, But the time to plan is now. The time to scout, even for non deer

related hunts starting right now. Hell, you might just need those months to source out a couple of I don't know boxes the ammos so you don't have to throw rocks at rabbits or grouse this fall. And that's a joke sort of. Obviously, If you have the option to go west or travel for white tails, you should also be planning that right now, and if so, good for you. You're gonna have fun, You're gonna get better at hunting.

Too worthy outcomes any trip. If you're not sitting on an elk tag or researching how to get it over the counter meldeer tag or antelope tag, don't fret. Most hunters aren't. But most white tail hunters aren't also going out to hunt a bunch of other critters. Most white tail hunters, also, not entirely, not coincidentally, never get a whole lot better at this stuff. They do the same things from year to year to year to year, and they experience not surprisingly very similar year to year results

for a lot of people. That's good enough, and I'm not shipping on that. I'm really not. I don't care if people want to put in zero work to fill their tags, or if they obsess over it every day and devote tons of time and resources to it. I do care that the people listening to this podcast and reading our articles and watching our videos figure out how to have fun out there in the woods and find as much meaning and enjoyment out of this white tailed

challenge as they can. And there are a lot of ways to achieve that, and one of them is to open up your aperture so you can see a few more opportunities. And this is also a great way to get yourself to look at more ground, which might be the best thing a deer hunter can do. We really limit ourselves to spots, and I get it. It's easy,

it's familiar, just kind of in our nature. And you probably don't want to burn through your favorite deer ground in late September trying to flush some woodcock, which makes a lot of sense in the hierarchy of importance. White tails usually hold the top spot, and some little worm eating migrators tend to fall pretty low on the list, but they also land on public dirt to poke their long beaks into the soil and attempts to find some

slimy breakfast. Maybe you don't have to burn your best dear spots to have a little fun wing shooting with your pup, or you know, trying to shoot a couple of squirrels. Try out one of Steve's recipes. Maybe getting away from the ground you've set up for white tail and what you think you know so well to wander some unfamiliar properties is just what you need. To start answering some of the questions you have about the white

tails that you do think you know so well. Maybe on your dear spot, you never go into the swamp, because why would you. It's wet, full of mosquitoes and there's no way to set a stand in there. But the swamp edge on the public land down the road might be perfect to find a few woodcocker grouse. And when you go there and you walk around without caring if you spook any deer, you might learn a thing

or two about dear. And I can promise you I go into a lot of swamps and slews looking for critters that are not dear, and I almost inevitably learned something about dear. So really that's you know, that's kind of my case for this hunt. Some other stuff, my friends, big stuff, little stuff. Stuff you gotta travel for stuff that's available close to home. Have some fun out there in the woods doing non deer hunting hunts, see some

new ground, do something different. If you do and you pay attention, I almost guarantee that you'll find something that makes you a little better at figuring out white tails. And if not, I don't know. You can always buy a new call or a new decoy or I don't know, new bottle of the freshest dope on the market and see what happens. That's it for this week, my friends, thank you so much for listening. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, which

is brought to you by First Light. I know you want more white tailed content, so feel free to head on over to our YouTube channel to check out our latest videos and visit the meat eater dot com slash wired again. That's the meat eater dot com slash wired to read our latest articles.