Ep. 1017: Foundations - The Never Ending Quest for New Deer Ground

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Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations Podcast.

Your guide to the fundamentals of better deer hunting.

Presented by First Light, creating proven versatile hunting apparel

for the stand, saddle, or blind.

First light.

Go farther.

Stay longer.

And now your host, Tony Peterson.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations Podcast.

This is Brought to you by First Light.

I'm your host Tony Peterson and today's episode is a reality check on hunting property.

And how when we get complacent about our spots, we sometimes end up having no place to go.

As I walk through a chunk of woods that literally shaped me as a deer hunter when I was younger,

and I watch my daughters just take in the whole scene,

I realized how lucky I have been to maintain permission on that same farm for over 30 years.

That doesn't happen very often.

And it is a good reminder to me to appreciate every place I can hunt,

but also not take it for granted.

That's what this episode is about.

And even if you think you have everything locked down and will never have to knock on another

door again or look up for another lease or maybe hunt public land,

you should listen.

The odds are that you might be wrong and you also might not need to do any of these things

right now, but you might find yourself wanting to anyway.

If you want to see a goofy looking trooper,

look up a fellow named Bertolt Brecht, which is actually a shortened version of his full name,

which is a lot of German names strung together, that this fellow with a bit too much Finlander

blood in him is not going to try to pronounce for you. Brecht was a German playwright who was born

in 1898 and who I know for a fact that none of you care about or interested in. And to be fair,

I'm not either. But he said some interesting things. And one of his quotes that I heard a long time

ago and thought would be one hell of a point of thing to say to set this podcast up goes like this.

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

Now you could take an ambiguous quote like that and apply it to anything.

In this case, I'm applying it to our hunting spots. I'm going to talk about finding new spots

later and how that has gone for me in the last year. But I want to point something out before I get

there. If you have your spot, maybe you own land, maybe you have family land, whatever that may be,

and you are very confident that you will have access to that land for a long time. That is great.

But that doesn't mean the neighbor's land will stay the same. That doesn't mean that you won't

have someone by the property that borders yours and decide they want to shoot every deer they can.

Maybe they take out the best cover on their place because they like the woods to look like they

are groomed. And so your deer that always bedded in that spot and come to your food plot when they

get the munchies don't anymore. Maybe you own land out of state like I do. And the state decides,

you know, one year that you just can't get deer tags anymore, which hasn't happened to me yet.

But I live in low grade fear of every single year. Things happen. Land titles change hands.

Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.

If you aren't at least passively keeping an eye out for some extra ground to roam,

that might catch up with you. And if you've been living the good life for a long time,

dear wise, it might not treat you very well to suddenly realize that you have to figure things

out again in a new spot. I have a buddy who is going through that right now and he's not having

a great time. His family had owned a beautiful chunk of land, I think just a shade over 400 acres

here since the 1930s. But his parents were getting old and facing long-term care. His siblings

didn't view the land the way he does. And his sister got power of attorney over their

parents finances and affairs. Guess who came calling pretty quick after that? Developers.

That property dwindled down to 80 acres in a matter of a few years. And while he still has some

deer and turkeys to hunt, almost all of them spend their days on bird feeders in the back yards of

million dollar homes. For 40 some years of his life, he had amazing hunting. Now he has something

else and that 80 acres isn't exactly set in stone anymore. Now the development has slowed down some,

but that chunk will be sold and he knows it. He also doesn't really know what he's going to hunt

and he's not exactly ready to go saddle up on public land and compete against the rest of the

hunters out there. You see, looking for new places to hunt isn't just something that is good for

the obvious reasons. It conditions you to think about the prospect of change and what you would do

to manage it. You probably won't be able to see into the future and know exactly how things would

change, but you can bet that they probably will. Think about it another way. Maybe this is just

biased thinking, but it often feels like change doesn't go in a positive direction with this kind

of stuff. Take that farm I mentioned in the intro. When I lose that, which is possible every

year as the landowner gets older, I'm just not likely to replace it. It's a thing of the past to

have a huge dairy farm to hunt simply from a phone call every March. The flow will go to smaller

properties probably with more hunting pressure, although I'm far from the only one on that farm

and I've always had to share it with plenty of bow hunters and lots of gun hunters, but it's big

and I can work with that to get away from the weekend warriors and the folks who mostly

post up on the field edges. That's not the case on every property and it's just how it goes.

Having more places to hunt is a good idea. When I talk about my hunting in northern Wisconsin

to certain types of whitetail hunters, they assume that I only ever hunt the private land that

I have access to, but I mostly hunt the public up there because it just allows me to hunt every

wind and every type of condition all season long and it gives me the options that I feel like I need

and don't get me wrong. The private is great and I feel real lucky to have what I have,

but I honestly wouldn't want to be limited to just that and that's the mindset that gets us into

trouble because most hunters think about hunting ground just like that. I hunt this farm. This is my

lease or this chunk of public land is where I hunt. Yes, but what else? When you're always in a state

of actively looking for more ground, which is not easy to do when you don't need it, you are always

thinking about your whitetail life rafts. Your main boat sinks and that sucks, but you have other

options. But most folks don't seem to think that way and once the old hull gets breached and the

water starts rushing in, they have to piece something together that generally won't be as good

and by good, I mean as easy as their original place. I think about this a lot with traditional

rifle camps here in the upper Midwest. A lot of those folks hunt public land and a lot of them are

fed up with a wolf situation and either stop going or go up for opening weekend to mostly play

poker and throw down some bush lattes. Look, nothing wrong with that if that's your jam,

but I also hear a lot of bitching about the deer situation. Then I think here in Minnesota,

you have to drive by and off a lot of public land with plenty of deer on it to get to the true

north country and that doesn't take into account heading west in our state or down south where the

deer numbers are really good. It sucks to have to compete with wolves, but it's not like it's the

only option on where to hunt. Most people don't really like going out of their way and trying to

find new areas to go to and most hunters won't even consider it. When what they are comfortable with

goes away, a lot of them just go away and we are seeing that reflected in firearms license sales

in several states. That's a shame in my opinion and not really necessary if you open yourself up to

the reality that this stuff is fluid and even though you have to figure out some new stuff,

you might actually end up in a better spot or at the very least you won't have to give up

hunting because an old, reliable area suddenly becomes a deer desert.

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So what do you do? Well, you'll look at your life realistically and then you factor in your time.

You're willingness to go outside of your comfort zone.

Your money situation and basically anything that might play into it.

If you happen to be a software engineer that hasn't been booted out by AI yet and you make

half a million bucks a year, you have lots of options.

The doors will open for you at some point because you can pay to open them.

For a lot of folks, it's not that simple. Buying land is an option, but not for a hell of a lot of

people. I will say this about it. I bought three properties, small properties from 2011 to 2015.

When I wasn't exactly rolling in the dough and it was penny-pitching time,

but the market was a buyer's market due to the housing market crash in the aftermath.

And boy, I am really happy that I did that. None of them good deer properties in any real way,

but they were all worth hunting and provided me with a hell of a lot of mental health benefits.

Just knowing that you have some place to go. Even if it's not likely, you'll ever see a big one

on it, let alone kill one. Matters a whole lot. Now, the only parcel I have left is 30 acres.

And I can tell you, I love that chunk of ground. I'd have to get real desperate, which is, you know,

possible before I'd sell it. But knowing at the very least, as long as I can make my property tax

payments every January, that I can hunt with my daughters and at least have a little chunk of timber

to disappear into when I need it, is something that makes me very happy. I also know what I paid

four or eleven years ago and what I'd have to pay now. And it's kind of hard wrap your head around.

Land, like every single thing we want or need in life, has not gotten cheaper and it won't.

The best deal you're likely to get on that 40 acres in a so-so area that you'd hunt if you absolutely

have to will look like an absolute steal a decade from now. That's one of the big problems people

have with thinking about buying land. They want ideal, but they can't afford it. I don't know how

many people in my life have said they were in the market for land that they just never ever bought

anything. But it's a lot. Getting your hands on some acreage, even if it's mostly swamp or just

not that dreamy southern Iowa deciduous forest and ag mix is worth it. But again, I understand

that's not for everyone. And with how much everything costs these days, it's not for most of us.

Leases, you know, they might be a different story. And I don't think that's a bad move,

but run the numbers. You might end up having to pay the equivalent per year for a lease that you

would pay actually buying something outright, although the time commitment to what you're paying will

be vastly different. Paying to play is a real viable way to get your hands on some deer ground.

And there are a pile of services out there like base camp leasing and others that can cut out most

of the due diligence on the front end of the process. The key to leasing is to really understand

what you're getting into. Are you going in solo? Are you going to round up some buddies?

How will that play out if one buddy wants to still hunt and shoot 85 inches when the rest of

you want to go hunt stands and hold out for one forties? Even if you're all interested in letting

them go so they can grow, what if someone works from home and can hunt three times as much as

everyone else? Be honest about where any bad blood could come from. Again, this is just my nature.

But I look at stuff like this as like I'd rather have 40 acres of lease ground to myself

than 200 that might result in lost friendships. Of course, there are more considerations than that.

The landowner sets the rules and you better follow them, you know, generally. When you can

hunt, what you can hunt, how you can hunt and who you can hunt with are all going to come up before

the agreement is signed. It's the name of the game, but it is a viable way to have some quality

ground to hunt and it's a good way for landowners to extract some money from one of their assets.

Buying and leasing are great for folks who have the money and the desire, but a lot of hunters

don't and that leaves permission based options in public land. The former being much more desired

by almost everyone. It is very common to hear hunters gripe that you can't get permission to hunt

by a door knock now and while cold calling landowners by walking up to their front door,

isn't as fruitful as it was 30 years ago, it is still possible. I have a coworker here at

meat eater who is definitely not afraid to knock on doors and he gets permission in places he

just wouldn't expect. That's an option, but most of the hunting ground I've gained access to

in the last 10 years has come from just somehow getting on the topic of it with someone in my life.

The spot I killed my last two Minnesota boxes a 25 acre piece owned by one of my daughter's

friends dads. He killed his first buck ever out of one of my stands this year and overall

that little property has been a low key life saver for me. Now I supply all the stands and the

scouting in the general direction of the hunts, but he owns the place and that's a real important part.

There are rules to follow there, but the truth is it was just a networking thing that worked out

for both of us. You'd be surprised who might let you hunt their place, but it's usually something

that you have to approach softly. If you find out someone in your circle has land and you

immediately ask like all you want to do is kill 170s out of box blinds, you're going to get shut

down. Most people who aren't a hard no right out of the gate want you to earn their trust.

Most of the time for me, that starts with turkey hunting or maybe a little shed hunting.

Then it morphs into maybe taking my kids deer hunting and eventually permission for me,

but I still have places where I can't shoot bucks, but the doves and the turkeys are open season.

That's how it goes, but one of the landowners who won't let me shoot bucks gave my daughters the

green light to shoot bucks this past season. And in one three day stretch last October,

they killed a forky and a two year old eight pointer and I can tell you we talk about those hunts

a lot. They mean a lot to my daughters and they were made possible by a friendly landowner who

I took turkey hunting a decade ago back when he wouldn't let me to hunt there at all.

Pay attention to your network to conversations and you might turn something up.

But of course, you also have public as an option and I promise you that if you're scared of

hunting public land or believe it won't be any good, you're probably wrong. It won't be easy,

but it can give you something meaningful, dear wise. And honestly, hunting isn't supposed to be easy,

not always and not in every way. And honestly, if you think that public land isn't worth it,

ask yourself what you know about the public land that is in a part of your state that you don't

hunt or frequent. Where I live, with four million people in my backyard, I just say that

public is generally pretty tough, but when I drive a couple hours to the western part of my state,

the public land is full of deer, even though it's still not easy. What we think we know about

everywhere, we often only know about a small region. And even then, we're probably wrong.

The key is don't get apathetic with your hunting spots. You don't know what the future will hold,

but it'll hold some type of change and that change is just as likely to be a negative as it is

a positive. Now, while you might not need a life raft spot right now, or even in the next five

years, if you do ever need it and you haven't done anything to facilitate it, you're in trouble.

This is a hard thing to convince people of until it's too late. Now, I don't want a fear monger too much,

but I believe that to be true, just as I believe the process of looking for new ground and then

learning something about new ground will make you better at hunting your old ground.

There really isn't a downside to trying to find a few backup spots and there isn't a better

of time of year to do this than right now. So do that and then come back next week where I'm

going to talk about something that I honestly think is the most overlooked and valuable thing a

whitetail hunter can do. That's it for this episode. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the

Where to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light. We're still stuck in

this stupid-ass month of March where there isn't a whole lot going on for a lot of us. So maybe

you need something to do. Go to the meateater.com, check out all of the new content we drop. We're

dropping new films. We are dropping tons of articles, lots of news out there in the outdoor space,

podcasts, you name it. Tons of content there. Education, entertainment, a great mix of both.

Go check it out at the meateater.com and thank you for your support.

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