Ep. 712: Foundations - Rut Shot Realities

feel about that. So I'm not going to sugarcoat it as much as those folks who hunt primo ground in southern Iowa, and you know they'll be sorted through boomers looking for just the right one, unlike us. The truth is, you know, the rut is tougher than we let on often, which is something I've talked about plenty. But one thing I haven't talked about, and that's real important is that shots during the rut are often the most difficult you'll

take all season. So buckle up, buttercups, because it's time to dive into this episode. I'm sick of driving, you know. I don't envy the general European lifestyle a whole lot, but the thought of living in a place where I could bike just about everywhere kind of has a little bit of an appeal, mostly probably because I don't actually live there and don't actually have to bike to get my groceries or whatever. Here in good old America, we drive a lot. We live in a big country, and

things are far apart. We also have a culture of car ownership and often don't emphasize public transportation outside of metro areas. I can't prove this about driving, but I think it stands to reason that it's a numbers game as far as something going wrong. I've been in a

couple accidents in my life. The first was entirely my fault, and if I'm being totally honest, I was eating pieces of a muffin off of my shirt and I was also super hungover, and I rear ended a car at a stoplight while I was going about seven miles per hour and she was going about three. It was probably the slowest car accident since people were driving Model T's around. Other than a slight crack on her fender, that was

about it. The cop who wrote up the report gave me a general speeding ticket because mostly he kind of just wanted to punish me for ruining her morning. Fair enough, I guess. Another time, a couple buddies and I ended up upside down in a ditch, which is a story that I'm not going to tell two thousands of strangers.

And the last accident was during rush hour in the Cities, while my boss at the time was driving and someone in front of us made a really stupid decision that resulted in a reaction to cars hitting cars, with us taking a minivan on at about fifty miles an hour. I guess, in the span of nearly thirty years of driving and a lifetime of riding in vehicles, that's not too bad could have been a hell of a lot worse multiple times. That's part of the reason I'm sick

of driving. In perfect conditions, when you're wide awake in the traffic is light to nonexistent, driving is pretty safe, you know, I'll probably as safe as walking anywhere. Add in some kind of confounding factor, though, like a blizzard or rush hour, or the fact that you haven't slept a whole lot in days because you've been hunting elk, and the odds of something going wrong just increase. The

odds are making a mistake go up. I feel acutely aware of this as I get home from one hunt and head out on the next, especially if I'm driving my kids somewhere. The odds of something going wrong are just a little higher, and it pays to be aware that. It keeps you paying attention a little more, which is a good thing when you're in heavy hunk of plastic and metal that is powered by the refined remnants of dinosaurs. Focus.

Being mindful of the conditions and being honest with yourself about what's going on, I'll keep you from making dumb decisions on the road, or at least mitigate the chances of making a dumb decision. You know, you can't always protect yourself against other drivers. And speaking of that, any of you folks out there that drive during rush hour somewhere, have you noticed the dudes, and yes, it's always dudes

who drive like they're in a NASCAR race. They're the ones going twice the speed of the general traffic who weave in and out of lanes and treat the whole thing like a sport. Don't you just want to murder those pricks? I do when I see them, and where I live, I see them a fair amount. I dive

pretty deep into elaborate fantasies about torture. I also think about what it would be like to have a Fulliatto fifty col mounted to the top of my truck and immunity from spraying random bullets into the inner state to take those guys out. They're the worst anyway, rant over, I better tie this whole thing to hunting before everyone starts to fall asleep. That's Sunday drive when the conditions

are perfect. That's like taking a shot at a relaxed buck that're just feeding in the beans or your food plot in the early season. You know that buck that doesn't have anywhere to be. He isn't all keyed up, and the shot is likely to be just a lower pressure affair. You know what's not a low pressure affair Shooting at the biggest buck of your life as he chases a dough around your stand while grunting his head off.

That's the opposite, and you know what that means. A lot of bad shots happened during the rut, and I'm not picking on anyone here. I recently had a very embarrassing miss while filming a Mediater episode, so trust me when I say that I get it that things can go wrong in that situation. Mister Ronella and I were

hunting any deer in Oklahoma on some public land. Well the first morning any deer happened to show up, and while I thought I was pretty calm when that spike came in, I had something happened that threw the whole encounter off the buck. And I'm talking a scrapper. Little tiny spike was sixteen yards away, happily nosing the ground for some per simmons when I drew and murped him. What he did, instead of stopping and looking around like a normal buck should, is that he jumped about six

feet forward. So I just leaned a little farther out of my tree, put my pin on him, and shot. And what I didn't realize was that my window wasn't as open as I assumed, and my arrow deflected off some brush and missed him completely. All it took was that little deer reacting differently to my attempt to stop him, and I went from what I'm pretty sure was a sure thing to a total whiff. As cagy as he was, he made a huge mistake when he let me get a redemption shot on him. But the lesson still stands.

Even in scenarios where we should be able to make the shot a thousand times out of a thousand, we often don't. This happens on public land spikes, and it happens on private land one hundred and eighty inches. It happens all season long, but it happens the most during the rut. This is the reality that no one really talks about. But I'm confident in saying that, well, my odds of getting a shot at a buck might be

highest during the rut. Outside of at least some specific early season situations, my odds of getting a high pressure shot during the rut are highest. There's no other time of the season where it's almost a guarantee that things are going to unfold pretty quickly and often in ways I don't anticipate. Does that sound familiar if not just keep hunting during the pre rut and the chase phase.

In the lockdown period, you'll see that while your encounters with good deer might increase with the seasonal timing, that your chance of putting an arrow right where it needs to be starts to decline a little bit. The first thing to acknowledge about this is that it's mostly in your head. The pressure of most shot opportunities is largely a self made deal, and it's dumb. It's also nearly inevitable. This begins with the fact that we have high expectations

for this time of year. We have real high hopes. You know. With all that unfettered optimism comes heightened senses, increased anticipation. We know that we can go from sitting in a dead woods for six hours to suddenly having the buck of a lifetime in our laps. We expect that to happen, but when it does, we are rarely ready because how would you get ready for that? There really isn't a way to target practice that allows you

to simulate that situation. For most of us, we might have a couple of good encounters during the entire rut, or hell, the entire season. This adds to the problem. I know this won't do you much good until you screw it all up, So let me say this. You probably have more time than you think, but every second of warning or lead time you can get is also a big benefit. Seeing a buck one hundred yards out is a hell of a lot better than suddenly noticing

him when he's thirty. In cruising, it's hard to pay attention the whole time, though, but you gotta try. Get into the rhythm of looking up from your phone a lot, or better yet, shutting it down and putting it in your pocket for blocks of time. Look everywhere glass often. Remember no believe that a buck could show up at any moment from anywhere, because it's true. Work on your mindset, and remember you probably have time. It takes most of us like three to seven seconds to execute a shot.

That's not that much time. Even a cruiser who is going to arc into and out of your life in a matter of twenty seconds is going to give you everything you need to work with to make that shot. And the key to making any shot, especially a high pressure one, is to do your best job possible to tamp down the panic. This starts with lead time Like I mentioned, it also helps when you acknowledge that you just need to pick a shooting lane or window and make sure your pin gets to where it needs to be.

The moment you start to rush it is the moment you've lost control. It's kind of like when you're driving down an icy road and suddenly the ass end of your truck stops going forward and starts going sideways. Now you need to steer into the fishtail or accept your fate with white tails. There isn't a great way to correct your steering, so to speak, So the best bet is to not let the whole thing start to spin

out in the first place. Tell yourself that he's there, his vitals are big, and you know exactly where to shoot him because you do. If he follows the script and you stop him, the hard part's over. Just settle that pin and shoot. You have enough time, trust me. If he doesn't follow the script, this is when it gets dicey. I don't know how many big bucks I've whiffed on during the rut that I had dead to rights,

but then suddenly something I didn't expect happened. But I know what's happened enough, and every time that it did, the odds of me filling a tag plummeted. Here's the thing. It's better to not rush a shot and watch a buck walk away than it is to rush a shot and watch him run away. This might be one of the hardest things to do, and it might be one of the most advanced skills a deer hunter can develop.

Knowing when to pump the brakes and not make a potential mistake that could result in a lot of unnecessary suffering on your part, and certainly the deers is huge. This is why I'm such an advocate for giving yourself as much time as possible to hunt. If you know you'll only get one afternoon a week and that ruddy buck comes in on a tear, the odds of not panicking pretty low. After all, when will you get another chance. I get that we all live different lives, have different priorities,

so this doesn't work for everyone. But the more time you have to sit in a place you're confident in, the better off you'll be. When a shot presents itself, you'll panic that and you'll make better decisions more. It's not easy, trust me. It's also important to pay real close attention when you do release an arrow not only to whether you deflated his lungs or instead tested your broad head on some leaves and dirt, but also to the entire encounter. Did he run off or just simply

trot through a few better shooting lanes. Did you aim or just kind of close your eyes and pray to the deer gods? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? Was he on your weak side when you saddled up, making it more difficult to draw and shoot? Or did he come through just like you planned? What could you have done different with your setup to make

it easier? How about the timing of your draw. Did you feel confident in your shot when you took it, or did your initial instincts tell you that you were kind of taking one of those things where you're like, I'm going to cross my fingers and pray those are bad. Confident shots are obviously better, or I don't know. Did you get caught looking at your phone when he was closing in? There's a pretty good lesson there. Did you take a marginal shot that came your way when you

knew he'd probably stick around. Did you murp him before you even had a chance to draw? Because you were totally melting down. What happened, What happened? What happened? And be honest, even if he did everything right and he ran seventy five yards and piled up, there are things to learn from that encounter about the next encounter. And if he didn't, there's a lot to learn. Those adrenaline fueled shots teach us a lot about not only dear behavior,

but our behavior. They tell us whether our setup was solid or maybe not. They tell us that the confidence we got on the range flinging arrows with no pressure didn't really prepare us for a once per season meet up with a four and a half year old buck. They tell us that if we don't do our job of anchoring correctly and executing the way we absolutely know how to, that all kinds of things can go wrong.

They tell us that we should have been paying attention, but we weren't, and how much of a disadvantage that puts us at is real. It happens a lot, learn from it. Don't make any excuses. This is important stuff, my friends, because we think our job is to learn about deer, and sure that's crucial. If you can't pick the right funnel for the rut, you probably aren't going to have to worry about shooting at too many deer. But the truth of it all is that learning deer

isn't really as tough as it sounds. They kind of just do what deer do, and you can figure that out really well over time. Learning about ourselves is a different story, and this is no more obvious than when you finally get a shot opportunity at a big deer. This is when you learn what your adrenaline situation is really like, when you get to see that you actually do get buck fever despite what you tell yourself and

your hunting parties when you're not hunting. This is when you learn whether you can keep your act together enough to do your most important job as a hunter, or what little details need to suddenly change to take you right out of the zone. I know personally I have a high level of confidence in making most white tail shots. Too much. Probably, Then I go out and a spike buck flips the script a little, and I miss like I'm twelve again and desperately want any deer to die

in front of me. This stuff is humbling and it's hard, but it gets a hell of a lot more humbling and a hell of a lot harder if we don't work to get better at making good shots. This is a really good all season goal, but is most obvious

during the rut. That's when you get to test yourself against the high pressure situation, and that's when you learn if you're calm, cold blooded assassin or more likely a not so calm, warm blooded, mass quivering idiocy who can miss a whole deer at ranges you could probably somewhat accurately throw a spear at it's rough. But you can help yourself. Tell yourself this rut, you're gonna pay attention

to more. You're gonna glass your surroundings more, and just tune into the frequency of the woods a little more then you tune into the frequency of your iPhone, for example,

envision those shots. Learn your shooting lanes and windows while you're up there in the downtime, draw your bow aim through them, even if you're on an old favorite stand that you've sat dozens of times, or especially if you're saddled up in a new area going for the element of surprise on a public land cruiser, Remind yourself when he's not running in and certainly when he is that you have time. If you can get him stopped, you have time. He'll give you the few seconds you need.

Just do your job then, and if he doesn't stop or he does something that you don't expect, learn to let it go instead of trying to force something. This is so hard, but sometimes when you make that call and it threatens to eat your soul alive while you watch him work away from you, the dear gods take pity and they deliver another opportunity to you. This happens a lot during the rut, So give yourself as much

time as you can and get ready. My friends, a shot up oportunity is probably heading your way and it's destined to be a wild one. But you can do this. You truly need to believe that. And you should also listen next week because I'm going to break down my rut hunting strategy to hopefully give you some ideas on how to keep up on the deer movement even when it seems like you're the only one who's not experiencing a chase fester on your stand. That's it for this week.

I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which is brought to you by First Light. As always, I want to thank you so much for your support for tuning in and really all the sport for our Meat Eater content and our brands. We truly appreciate it. If you want to check out maybe some more podcasts, maybe some videos, a ton of articles on all kinds of hunting topics, go to the meat Eater dot com and you will see more than you probably

ever need to. You're going to be busy for a long time, so check it out.