Ep. 634: Foundations - Learn To Look, Really Look

I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today I'm going to talk about how shed antler hunting helps you learn to really look for details, which is a skill all deer hunters should work to development. This is actually my favorite

time of year to shed hunt. The snow is sort of looking like it might kind of sort of almost melt away soon, and that means every day that the old sun is shining, there's a chance for me to look past the bootprints of all the other shed hunters to maybe see some times poking out of the snow. It's that sweet window where the ticks come out, and

it's usually comfortable to walk for quite a while. With the most productive shed days happening between now and Turkey season, it's also a good time to work on your war's waldo.

Looking skills which not only benefit you as a shed hunter, obviously, they really come into play when you're actually hunting, Dear, in the fall, When I'm driving somewhere with my family, like many of you, I'm sure if we are near fields or woods and not right in the old concrete jungle, I'm always looking for critters, dear, mostly, but you never know what you'll see, and I suspect most of you

probably do the same thing when you're driving. If you also happen to have a wife who grew up in the cities and two daughters who are following that regretful life path that I try every day to change, you'll notice they can't see for shit. No, no, I mean their vision is fine technically, but their ability to see

animals is pretty rough, really rough. I remember driving up north to the lake about four years ago and looking out my driver's side window to see a pretty good black bear standing in a hay field not very far off the highway. Like any good dad, I freaked out and yelled for everyone to look at the bear, and it was the miracle of all miracles, but my entire family saw the bear. Now last year, after leaving Lake Malax with the whole family. I spotted another bear at

the back of another hayfield. Now it wasn't as visible as the first bear, but it was still a real dark, dark like a shadow kind of spot in a bright

green field, and pretty obvious to the trained eye. To the untrained eyes of my family members, that bear was like the predator when that dude who dry shaves during the movie is sneaking up to kill him, only to get And this is a spoiler here bested by the most invisible intergalactic trophy hunter kind of guy out there, which the whole series is based on, the same thing happens when we're in the woods. Hell, it happens all the time on the water. In fact, maybe that's a

better example to highlight this. I've spent most of my life looking into water to see what finned creatures might be looking back from site fishing bass like a fiend, to fly fishing crystal clear trout streams, and even bow fishing a variety of water across the Midwest. I've stared into a lot of fish's eyes, and when I fish with people who haven't, which is pretty often, they seem

like they can't see a freaking thing. It's not that I'm so much more awesome than them, although that could be the case, the reality is that they just haven't spent hundreds and hundreds of hours honing that skill. Learning to look for specific details is one of the cornerstones

of being a good hunter. I'll never forget being in Argentina several years ago and staring at the sky looking for rose bills and other random Southern Hemisphere ducks, only to be totally humiliated by the guides with us, some of whom weren't born yet when I was already finishing college. It was humbling. But those dudes grew up on those rivers that carry waters through the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

They also stake their paychecks and more importantly, their tips from clients on the ability to see birds as early as possible so they can work the right calls or tell they're clueless clients to get down and get ready to shoot. This is a learned skill. But you're not going to sit in the woods every day trying to spot deer before they spot you. That's just not going

to happen. So you have to fill in the gaps and guess what you can do that right Now, my friends, this is the time to go out and find some antlers anyway, since you have nothing else to do. But don't just go for a walk in the woods hoping to stumble across a match set. You should shed hunt

with a purpose. And now I probably should explain that it sounds like I'm advocating guerrilla warfare or style el shed hunting, which I'm sure is the go to strategy for someone out there somewhere, probably someone who I would have a hard time being friends with. A good day of shed hunting should make you feel it, but not the way an elk hunt, or maybe pouring concrete all day would make you feel. It's fun and should be

viewed as such. But you should also do some things while you're shed hunting, to work that muscle that allows you to pick up details, important crucial little details before you walk right on buy and miss them. Now, before I tell you how to do that, I'm going to tell you how you should shed hunt to learn you're not as good at seeing those details as you think. Remember at the beginning of the podcast, when I not so humbly told you how awesome I am at seeing

bears and fish and other assorted creatures. Well, I miss a lot too. I was filming a shed hunting episode for bow Hunter TV about a million of years ago when I stop to talk into the camera, which is something you're supposed to do often, but it feels kind of like taking a bath with your grandpa. I guess in some circles that would be acceptable behavior, but mostly

it just feels weird and gross. Anyway, as I started imparting serious wisdom to the audience, I realized that I was standing right on top of an antler, and I mean literally right on top of it. Not only had my dog missed it, I had missed it too. If I hadn't stopped there to take a break and address the old audience, I might have never scooped that antler up. Another time, I was shed hunting with a good buddy of mine named Eric. Eric is pretty good at spotting critters,

and that's what makes him good at spotting antlers. We're in one of my spots scouring the snowpack when he found a really solid five point side you know, the kind of shed that makes your shed hunting partner really jealous. And the only thing that made that a little bit worse was when he found another antler not long after that, and we figured, with the dear sign and the reality that we had already found two, we should be able

to match up the big shed. So we criss crossed an area that was littered with trails and beds, and eventually I turned around on one of the trails and reverse my route and you know what I found there, laying right off the trail, poking out of the snow, a golf club. Just kidding. It was the other side to the first big antler Eric had found. My tracks were all around it, but I had missed it a

few times before getting lucky. I love when stuff like that happens because it makes me realize that what I think about myself versus how I am is actually pretty different, and usually not in a good way. It happens to you too, trust me. You walk by sheds just like you miss seeing deer walking through the woods during certain conditions, or maybe when you're scrolling through social media. I can't help you with the last part, but I can't help you see more deer. Here's how you have to look more.

How's that for disappointing? Okay, I'll elaborate on it. When it comes to shed hunting, you're looking for something that doesn't quite fit into the woods. You see sticks all over, down trees, leaves, snow, other elements of the forest. Which you don't see in the woods too often is the specific pattern of tines. You don't see something that is pretty white in a brown and gray world very often.

Either even a hint of white or gray out there should be interesting to you, particularly if you're not shed hunting in the snow. You also don't see a nice shiny curve in the woods very often. A lot of antlers land tines down and they are hard to spot, but they also, especially in nice even light during cloudy type days, kind of just pop. It's kind of like when you're on stand and you see the white throat patch of a deer or the flicker of a tail,

maybe the line of a deer's back. That's another one. For some reason, there aren't a lot of horizontal lines in the woods about three and a half feet off the ground. That detail gives away deer quite often when you're in summer scouting mode, for example, And maybe your glass and bean fields are just a slightly reddish patch in an otherwise see a green often reveals itself to be a part of a deer. Their camouflage is good, but it's not predator good. It does get a hell

of a lot better when they don't move. That's when that simple brown or gray that they are covered with really does a good job for them. And often if they aren't moving and we are looking for them, we do our camel a disservice by not moving, providing the advantage to them. And they have a lot of advantages despite all of our technology. But the way to get ahead of them is to learn to look. So you go out shed hunt and that's that podcast over. Not quite.

Once you've learned that you're not the antler spotting machine you tell your buddies you are, especially when you're about seven bush lattes deep in the night, you have to acknowledge how to get better. An easy way to do that when it comes to shed hunting is just to slow down. Now, anyone who knows me or better yet, who is shed hunted with me is probably laughing hysterically right now, slow walker, I am not. I don't know

what to do about it, but I'm trying. People think it's hard to lose weight, and it sure can be, or maybe to start running or whatever. I think it's hard, at least as hard as anything else to just walk slow. It's almost as hard for me as it is to get a song that's stuck in my head unstuck. I recently started listening to a band called bad Omens, and man, oh man, is my family sick of hearing me sing their songs. Fortunately, they are just as annoying as me,

so it all kind of shakes out pretty evenly. We all just annoy each other in this nice little family. Anyway, Try to walk slow, even if you're a born speed walker like I am. Slowing things down allows you to take in your surroundings. Now. Sure, if you're shed hunting and alfalfa field, you can probably book it pretty fast. But if you're in the woods or even the CRP, slow is better. Treat it like a speedy version of a still hunt. Walk slow stop, look, walk slow stop, look,

take your time. The best way to do this is to shed hunt spots where you know there's a concentration a deer. Now, I know you're thinking, no shit, dude, I wasn't going to shed hunt where there are no deer, But that's not what I mean. Spend your time in spots where there could be an antler anywhere, betting areas, staging areas, travel hubs, Walking a cut cornfield's great, but it's not the same hunt as one that occurs in

an overgrown homestead. If you get yourself into a place where the deer activity is all around, you slow way way down and look around, not just on the trail ahead of you, but the spots where a buck would peel off to nibble some brows or bed down by a deadfall. We get kind of laser focused on the trails, but the trails aren't the only places dear travel. This is the strategy that has put a lot of antlers

in my backpack on public land. Honestly, I feel like a lot of shed hunters walk trails quickly, and they rarely look around for the antlers that didn't fall right on the deer highways. And you need to glass too. I know I've talked about this a lot, but glassing is an art that isn't solely destined for the world of a Western hunter. White Tail hunters who are more proficient with their binos than others see more deer obviously, they also kill more deer as they see more deer.

Think about it this way, would you rather know a buck as coming your way when he is one hundred and twenty five yards out or when he's suddenly at forty When it comes to that skill, shed hunting provides a pretty unique opportunity. Now, I'm not going to say that just because you bring your binos along, you'll be spotting match sets half a mile away. But there are two times when you're shed hunting where a little glass goes a long way. The first is that open field

situation I keep talking about. Sometimes you scan a field and spot something that looks awful. Ant lery out there, ant luri ant lurie looks like an antler. This happens to me rarely, but it does happen. I shot a buck in twenty nineteen that was one hundred and forty three in eight pointer with really tall bladed tines. He was a cool deer. But what was extra cool about it was that two years earlier I was standing on the edge of the wood shed hunting and I looked

into a wide open alfalfa field. The only break up in the field was a couple of small terraces and drainage ditches. I glassed them anyway, just for the hell of it, and in one I saw what looked like a ghost given me the middle finger. It turned out after I walked over there to be the G two of the buck that i'd eventually shoot. I would have never seen that antler with my naked eye, and I didn't see any reason to go walk that part of

the field until I glassed it. The other situation where you're shed hunting and binos come in handy is when you're in the woods and something just catches your eye. It might be twenty feet away or seventy five yards away, but it's usually something white that just doesn't quite look right. Binos will tell you a lot in that situation, and you can pretty quickly eliminate white branches or styrofoam cups or whatever, or see that it is actually an antler.

Eyeglass objects in the woods all of the time that aren't antlers, but sometimes they are. The good thing is that's an exercise in getting better, just going slowly through the woods looking for details like a tine or a main beam, getting binos to your eyes and focusing quickly to assess your finding is part of the skill, and if you think that won't come in handy sometime in the fall, you're sadly mistaken, my little embrace. Shed hunting also teaches you how to look at the woods under

different conditions. There are times when the light is even and those times I've talked about where shed hunting is kind of magical and the deer easy to spot. Other times, like during sunny days with plenty of shadows mixed in, were an antler or I don't know, a perfectly still deer is really tough to get a visual on. You can also use binos to assess the best routes to walk.

That might seem weird, but think about it this way. Sometimes, usually when I'm in bluffy country, I don't want to drop all the way down to the bottom just on a whim. But if I suspect I can see a creek crossing that has pounded, or some other deer trail with heavy usage, it's binos to the rescue time. Maybe the trail, upon closer inspection, isn't really that beat down, or maybe it shows that it's covered in tracks and I better get down there. Maybe you're not sure, you

want to do the work to check it out. But you follow that trail and you see that it intersects an old fence in the woods that deer have to jump. Now your bino work has convince you to go because you have to look at a spot like that. Do you see where all this is going? View an act like shed hunting as kind of like this point A to B transaction. I go into the woods without antlers. I come back to my truck with antlers ring that register.

But it's usually not like that. You mostly won't find antlers when you shed hunt, at least if you're anything like me. But you should be looking because it's more than just about finding some bone. It's about woodsmanship. It's about developing your skills as a hunter, one of which is being able to pick up the tiniest details that might lead to the discovery of a eighty three and six point side or in about sixty seven months, a real live buck standing fifty yards away from your stand

while he surveys the woods in front of him. So get out there, my friends, and know that even if you don't find any antlers, you're getting better as a hunter. And that's not nothing. And listen in next week because I'm going to talk about the stuff you'll never learn no matter how much or what kind of hunting content you consume. That's it for this week, my friends. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast,

which has brought to you by First Light. As always, thank you so much for listening, and if you want some more whitetail content, you can check out our Wired to Hunt YouTube channel where we have a whole bunch of how to videos, or you can visit them meat eater dot com, slash Wired to Read articles by myself, mark dudes like Beaumartonic and Alex Gilstrom, and see all kinds of how two strategies on whitetail hunting, basically articles that cover everything you need to know