00:00:01 Speaker 1: 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. 00:00:20 Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, welcome to the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast, which has brought to you by first Light. I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all about who you keep in your white tail circle and whether you're better off hunting alone. As I get older, I find my tolerance for most people get smaller. I don't say that to sound like some edgy dude who wants to impress strangers with my loaner status. I say it because I feel like we're exposed to too many people you know, online of course, but also in our real lives. Although that line is certainly blurry these days. It doesn't take too many people to be too many people in life and in hunting. And that's what I want to talk about in this episode because it's something that has been a part of white tail hunting for a long long time, and of course our history as hunters for much much longer. For most of our history, we lived in small hunter gatherer groups. Archaeologists have found evidence of our ancestors living this way as far back as two million years ago. Although when you think about it that way, that was just life and survival. It wasn't really a choice to live in small nomadic tribes. The way we think about it, there wasn't a choice. Really. If you wanted to survive, you needed a group of people that were capable of hunting, fishing, and foraging as a loose unit to the benefit of all members. Getting booted from the tribe meant that you were likely to starve forget eaten by something. The hunter gatherer lifestyle required quite a bit of land to be a feasible way to make it through the days, and they were always on the lookout for danger and for calories. Long term settlements weren't the answer, and they didn't become the answer until the Neolithic Revolution that happened about twelve thousand years ago, when we started to develop some agricultultural practices. All of that seems abstract and it's hard to imagine, but the crazy thing is there are still hunter gatherer tribes in the world today. You know that live off of spearing animals, trapping animals, catching fish in a variety of ways, scrounging around for roots and nuts and fruit and honey, and just living in a way that we did as a species for thousands and thousands of years. Hunter gatherer groups of the past topped out at around one hundred individuals and could have been as small as single extended family groups. The bottom line there is that there was a pretty hard limit to the mouths that could be fed and the order that could be maintained, and if groups got too big, trouble was soon to follow. Today, at least here in the US, we know an average of six hundred and eleven people by name. If for the sake of simple math, we round that up to eight hundred so that it works with the eight billion people on earth a little easier, you might know about one hundred thousandth of a percent of the people on Earth. I don't know why I included that, but I read it while research this podcast and thought it was interesting. I think we can all agree that knowing eight hundred people by name is like knowing maybe about seven hundred and forty three people too many. What makes that even weirder is that a twenty twenty one survey show that Americans have between three and five good friends. I did some quick math and realized that's pretty close to accurate in my case. That survey also showed that almost half of people have fewer than three close friends, about forty percent have anywhere from at least four to over ten, and twelve percent have none. That sucks, and I hope if you're listening to this you do have a couple of good friends, and if you don't, that you make a few soon, because it's important. It's somewhat safe to say that if you're listening to this, you like deer hunting a whole bunch, and that you have that common ground with a lot of people, which is a great way to make friends. There has to be some undercurrent that you and your buddy are both riding on for your friend thing to work, though, and a shared love of white tailed deer is a pretty good way to get there. But there is a cat there that I want to talk about. A shared love of hunting can be a pretty thin thread to hang a friendship on, which I think a lot of people get wrong, especially younger hunters who are really trying to just figure things out for the first time. I'm reminded of this often when certain people find out that not only do I work for Meat Eater, but that I also know Steve Ranella. The amount of people who almost instantly say, man, I'd really like to hunt with him is kind of bonkers. Now, some people do that with me too, but as you can imagine, there's not quite as many folks in that camp. But what it says is that they view him as the kind of hunter they'd like to hunt with and don't think about anything else, you know, like maybe they aren't really into Western rifle hunting or something that he's very into. They don't think about it to any level of depth at all, which is okay because they aren't going to get to hunt with him anyway, or me for that matter, and that's good because they probably wouldn't like hunting with either one of us. Most people don't, and it's not because of what you're thinking. It's because we all go to the woods for different reasons, even though we tend to share the end goals, you know, quite often, but the end goal is the smallest part of being a hunter, at least for most of us, and it's how we try to achieve that that really fosters a connection to someone else. Let me give you a simple example. It is very hard for me to relate to someone who will say I don't have any big ones on camera, so I'm not going to hunt until one shows up. That's a perfectly fine way to live your hunting life if that's what you want, But to me, it's totally unrelatable. I just want to hunt, and if I have to lower my standards or go hunt public three hours away to get a fix, I will. But I'm not going to not hunt because I don't think my odds of killing a big one are there. For a lot of people, the primary reason to ever set foot in the woods is to kill a big one, and if they don't think they have a chance, they won't go. Now, if you are a young hunter and just love being in the woods and seeing deer and trying to get one killed, then being around someone who's default is to hunt trophies only, it's probably going to be a bad match. When I first started hunting deer at twelve years old, my dad was like, you better shoot whatever deer gets near you. This was a time when the deer population was a lot lower than it is today, and we didn't have nearly the technology or the information. It was hard in a way that someone's starting today probably couldn't really understand. And what was worse is that I wanted to shoot every deer that got closed, because they almost never did, and when they did, I couldn't hit them at all. But I also didn't want to shoot a doe because some of my dad's buddies, you know, they talked about shooting doughs like you just weren't a real man. If you did it, it sucked, And being around those guys kind of ruined a lot of the early hunts for me. This is one of the things that has always bothered me about pushing the public land things so much like I have in my career. My instinct, which is really just a cute way to say my ego talking is to show the big bucks and talk about the big bucks and focus on that aspect. But I'm choosing to hunt public sometimes when I don't need to, for reasons that are both business and pleasure. I hate the thought of some hunter out there who has to hunt public because he has no other choice, thinking that the big buck rules somehow apply to everyone, even if they share heavily pressured ground with the masses. I also kind of hate the thought of that hunter going on that journey alone if he'd really like someone to share in his misery and success, because having some good hunting buddies matters. And I talking about the folks on social media who are in the same Facebook groups as you, or who follow the same hunting influencers or hunting brands as you. That part of the social circle is a tough one because you can get some good information and some level of appreciated support through online interactions. But we also know the opposite is very true. I'll never forget arrowing the first decent buck of my life on public land in Nebraska a long time ago, which is a story I've told a million times, but I'll say it anyway. It was a cool ass hunt for me and my buddy Hawk. We had so much fun. We camped, we bow hunted, I killed a decent buck, and we had one hell of a blood trailing experience because of it. It was an ass kicker and it was awesome. I was so proud of that deer. But I also remember when G five Outdoors put a picture up on their Facebook page because I had killed it with a prime bo and the very first comment was, damn that's small. No context, no idea of where that buck was killed, just an instant shitty reaction because it wasn't a big enough deer for someone. And that shit has rampant and I think about it a lot when I see people post stuff like that, because I'm like, you don't have to do that. You could not make the world a little worse of a place and just keep that to yourself. But for some reason, some of us can't keep that to ourselves. There's danger in expanding your deer hunting circles on social media, but having real hunting buddies is a different thing. I have a few who will always grab the flashlights and lace up their boots if they get the call that it's time to go blood trail one that matters. While I don't really have a problem getting a deer out of the woods by myself because of how often I do it in places where I just have to drag them or cart them out, or more often than not, piece them out and pack them out, there is a quiet ritual to all of that that I love when I'm by myself, But it's also really nice when you make a bad shot or just have the opportunity to call up a buddy or two and bring in the troops. There's nothing that sucks quite as much as being on a long slog of a bloodshell by yourself, knowing that you screwed up, and it might be one of those wave the white flag nights that haunts you for quite a while. Those happen when you have friends around, too, but the extra eyes and the extra help, it's all nice. Good friends matter to hunting in a lot of ways. And what I've come to realize at my age is that I have a couple of buddies who are just reliable. I have others who are doing their own thing, but the minute a shot looks wonky, they'll call, or the minute they get the impression that my daughters need a place to hunt, the offers show. And I really feel bad for hunters out there who don't have that. But it takes effort, and there is sort of a lifelong filtering process that happens with good hunting buddies. The ones who are there when you need them deserve the same from you. However, you can provide it. When someone takes too much, the wheels fall off, just like in every relationship. This is probably a weird analogy, but I'll use it anyway. The good friends the couple of people you know at most, who you're cool with and who are cool with your process, and who will pick up the phone when they know you're driving back to your house after a late October sit They sort of show themselves over time. I think about it this way. I've worked in the hunting industry in some capacity since two thousand and three. I've seen a lot of people come and go, and I've seen a lot of people who got into some positions of power who couldn't stand not being in the spotlight. I worked on a show in a past life where a c suite fella who is a whiz with business and numbers but just doesn't have an on camera persona put himself on as the host of a show. There wasn't anyone who could say no to it because he had the power. So that's what happened, and it was a train wreck because the audience could see through that shit. They do so fast. If the world wants you to be in front of the camera hunting deer or whatever. The audience will let it be known. The person who is supposed to be your hunting buddy will just sort of rise to the top. If you do your part, you'll know it by how. When it's time to cut some trees down or clear some shooting lanes, they'll show up with a chainsaw, some chaps, or they'll invite you over to shoot your bow all summer long. Of course, there is another side of the social aspect that a lot of us love, which is like the traditional deer camp. When I mentioned earlier about my dad's buddies when I was young and how they didn't think shooting does was manly, I also should say that hanging out with them and being a part of the group at that cabin, or being on a blood trail together, or just hearing everyone's stories as they all got out of the woods at night is something I wouldn't trade for anything. The camaraderie around hunting can be frickin' awesome, And it's weird because I never really had a traditional rifle camp to go to. But I'm sad to see that that way of life is kind of going away. I think it's partially due to the fact that we value trophy hunting so much and the traditional rifle camp is just not a great way to have a chance at a trophy. But it's also that we just all got so busy with so much stuff in our lives. It's hard for people to justify a weekend up north or the six hour drive to the deer shack when the kids have tournaments every weekend and all of our jobs has suddenly figured out a way to slowly take over our lives like some creeping vine, where now our coworkers can text us and email us and slack US and fire signal US and morse code us and reach us a million different ways at any time of the day. But that social aspect built around hunting that brings together friends and relatives over the shared pursuit of some fresh venicon is important, and I hope we kind of figure out a way to relax a little and get it back. Maybe we will when most of us simply can't afford to travel anywhere to hunt and the tags are no longer available for us anyway. I don't know, but I kind of doubt it, But I hope so. I do know that issue, and about any issue related to the social aspect of deer hunting, could be made better with individual effort. I can see now how rare it is to spend time deer hunting or scouting or shed hunting with my really good buddies, and I'd be hard pressed to blame that on all of them. I'm part of that problem too, and I know how easy it is to blame my schedule or just give into the fact that I'm not super excited to drive a couple hours anywhere these days, considering much of my life consists of driving lots of hours and often enough queuing up at an airport somewhere to get on a plane for my job. But that's dumb, because a little effort goes a long way, and it's worth it. And I know that, like many of the things in life we all know to be objectively good for us, we avoid them anyway because in the short term it's easier to not put in the effort. I'm sure there is a greater life less than there, and maybe also something that points to our fifty percent divorce rate as a society. There's a lot to unpack with this stuff, but I guess my main point is that if you have some good hunting buddies, put the effort in. If you don't try to figure out what it would take to get a couple and then put the effort in, or if you're kind of a stone faced loner who can't stand to be around people because you're just fed up, or a little too deep of a thinker, go your own way. The social aspect is great, but so is time in the woods alone. I think we all probably need that as much as we need a buddy who will be there for the tough blood trails, because it's also nice to be in charge of all the decisions and just get to do things your own way. I have no doubt that throughout the history of hunters and gatherers, our ancestors often felt the need to slip away from camp to scout out a water hole or maybe sit for a few hours along a well used trail and wait for something to come walking down, just as I have no doubt that those same ancestors felt a great sense of relief and they walk back into camp at the end of the day, perhaps with something to show for their efforts in the form of fresh meat or a hide packed full of nuts or tasty grubs or whatever. Or maybe they didn't and the only thing they brought back with them was a story worth sharing with some people who really wanted to listen. That's a trophy in its own way and something we are all still hunting for. That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wire to Hunt Foundation's podcast. As always, thank you so much for your support. Truly means the world to us here at meat Eater, so thank you for that. 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