Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #117: John Dudley On Improving Archery Accuracy and Decoying Whitetail Bucks

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #117: John Dudley On Improving Archery Accuracy and Decoying Whitetail Bucks · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wire to Hunt podcast, your home for
0:06
Speaker 1: deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host,
0:11
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wire to Hunt Podcast. I'm
0:17
Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan. This episode number one hundred and
0:20
Speaker 1: seven Team Tay. In the show, I'm joined by the
0:22
Speaker 1: one and only John Dudley, and we're diving into how
0:25
Speaker 1: we can improve our archery accuracy and how to decoy
0:29
Speaker 1: white tail box. All right, welcome to the Wired to
0:50
Speaker 1: Hunt podcast, brought to you by SI Gear. And today
0:54
Speaker 1: in the show, I'm joined by John Dudley. He is
0:56
Speaker 1: a champion tournament archer and outdoor writer, the whole most
1:00
Speaker 1: of the knock On TV show and the knock On Podcast,
1:03
Speaker 1: and a serious white tail nut. And when he gets
1:06
Speaker 1: on the line here with me in a minute, we're
1:07
Speaker 1: going to dive into a couple really fascinating topics. First,
1:11
Speaker 1: given his expertise on archery, we're going to talk about
1:13
Speaker 1: a number of different things related to improving our accuracy
1:16
Speaker 1: with archery tackle. We're gonna cover things like dealing with
1:19
Speaker 1: target panic, improving our shot sequence, how to practice better
1:24
Speaker 1: with our bows leading into the season, and lots of
1:26
Speaker 1: stuff along those lines. And then from there we're gonna
1:28
Speaker 1: talk white Tails, specifically how John has had so much
1:32
Speaker 1: success Decoin Bucks, and that is filled with some very
1:36
Speaker 1: interesting stories and really rock solid tactics. So long story short,
1:41
Speaker 1: there is a lot of interesting stuff in this episode,
1:43
Speaker 1: but before we get into that, we need to pause
1:46
Speaker 1: briefly to thank our partners at Sick of Gear for
1:49
Speaker 1: their long standing support of this podcast. And as we
1:52
Speaker 1: do every week, we've got a sick of story, which
1:54
Speaker 1: today comes from Brad Christian, a member of the marketing
1:57
Speaker 1: team at SICA, and Brad just joins earlier this year,
2:01
Speaker 1: and when I spoke within the summer about why he
2:03
Speaker 1: made that move, a lot of what he said resonated
2:05
Speaker 1: with me, and it seems like a lot of the
2:07
Speaker 1: reasons he wanted to work for this company we're also
2:10
Speaker 1: the same reasons for why I wanted to wear this
2:12
Speaker 1: company's gear and p part of that tribe. So I thought,
2:15
Speaker 1: today we just listened to Brad discuss this very topic.
2:21
Speaker 1: It's a great question, um, you know Sitka To me, Um,
2:26
Speaker 1: it's about disrupting the status quo. It's about it's about quality,
2:31
Speaker 1: it's about it's about um taking an experience that is
2:37
Speaker 1: the most one of the most important things to me
2:40
Speaker 1: in my life, which is, you know, bow hunting and
2:42
Speaker 1: being in wild places and making those wild places significantly
2:49
Speaker 1: better through gear. There's a lot of products on the
2:52
Speaker 1: market that are just their deadweight, their gimmicks there there whatever.
2:56
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't have an emotional connection to them.
2:59
Speaker 1: But with with Sitka Gear, I I genuinely, from the
3:03
Speaker 1: bottom of my heart, have an emotional connection to the
3:06
Speaker 1: company because of what it has meant to me before
3:10
Speaker 1: I worked here. You know, um, I remember the first
3:13
Speaker 1: time I ever tried the clothing on. It was just this,
3:17
Speaker 1: I mean mind blown to me. It's this mix of
3:19
Speaker 1: like this is gonna be amazing slash. I feel like
3:22
Speaker 1: a ninja slash, you know. I you know, it's just
3:27
Speaker 1: on the white tail side. It's just when I when
3:29
Speaker 1: I'm packing my gear up, I've been just I'm looking
3:31
Speaker 1: at a storm coming and I'm like, I got this.
3:35
Speaker 1: We're gonna do war and I'm gonna win, you know.
3:37
Speaker 1: And and knowing that I can go into the field
3:40
Speaker 1: with the sick year and and be totally comfortable is
3:45
Speaker 1: super important to me. I mean, that's why I say
3:47
Speaker 1: there's this this deeper connection because it's genuinely, uh drastically
3:52
Speaker 1: improving my experience and just what the brand stands for.
3:56
Speaker 1: UM I see every day. UM. You know we're talking
3:59
Speaker 1: about fits use. You know, if a product is not
4:01
Speaker 1: fit for use, UM, we don't. We don't put it up.
4:04
Speaker 1: We don't test our products on the consumer. We test
4:07
Speaker 1: them in the field and figure out if they're not perfect,
4:10
Speaker 1: and we will we will scrap a project, you know,
4:14
Speaker 1: spend a bunch of money on something just because it's
4:17
Speaker 1: not perfect. And I just I know how much time
4:20
Speaker 1: I invest in my hunting. I'm I'm building a bunch
4:22
Speaker 1: of arrows right now for hunting season, and it's painstaking
4:25
Speaker 1: what I go through and building my arrows because I
4:28
Speaker 1: want to try to remove every little, you know, ounce
4:31
Speaker 1: of question that I can. And knowing that my technical
4:36
Speaker 1: apparel has gone through that same process, it's just that's
4:40
Speaker 1: what I need to know to feel confident and and
4:45
Speaker 1: and then good. I couldn't agree more so. If you'd
4:49
Speaker 1: like to enjoy that same kind of connection with your
4:52
Speaker 1: gear and a brand and maybe feel like a ninja
4:54
Speaker 1: once in a while, to check out sick at products
4:57
Speaker 1: at sick of gear dot com. And now let's get
5:00
Speaker 1: back to the show and welcome John Dudley onto the podcast.
5:04
Speaker 1: All right, joining us now is John Dudley. Welcome the show. John,
5:09
Speaker 1: Hey buddy, how's it going. It's going well, although I
5:13
Speaker 1: gotta said, just just a second ago offline, I found
5:16
Speaker 1: out that I'm between you and checking your trail cameras,
5:19
Speaker 1: so I know you've got good stuff come up here
5:21
Speaker 1: pretty soon. Huh oh, yeah, I hope. So. I mean,
5:25
Speaker 1: to be honest, I've been so busy this year. I
5:27
Speaker 1: was really late getting my cameras out. I always I
5:31
Speaker 1: always like to get him out a little bit later,
5:34
Speaker 1: just so that I'm getting velvet pictures. But I'm not
5:37
Speaker 1: like putting too much pressure in the area. I don't
5:40
Speaker 1: really I don't really personally care about getting pictures of
5:44
Speaker 1: basses and then brow times and stubs, you know. I
5:48
Speaker 1: kind of like to get get a picture of something
5:51
Speaker 1: in that almost mature phase that's still in velvet, and
5:55
Speaker 1: then obviously start to try to utilize the cameras a
5:58
Speaker 1: little bit for from a pattern aspect once they are
6:01
Speaker 1: hard horns. Leading up to the start of the season,
6:04
Speaker 1: so I was a little bit late. I haven't checked
6:07
Speaker 1: my cameras yet, So this is gonna be the first
6:10
Speaker 1: time I'm actually seeing what I may or may not
6:14
Speaker 1: be getting to go after this year. Oh man, that
6:17
Speaker 1: is the ultimate, Like just before this is this is
6:20
Speaker 1: your Christmas Eve right now? Isn't it just dying to
6:23
Speaker 1: know what's going to be there? Yeah, yep, in a way,
6:26
Speaker 1: it is, for sure. I can relate. I I was
6:31
Speaker 1: in I live in Michigan, in Hunt, Ohio, Michigan, bunch
6:34
Speaker 1: of these states from the Midwest, but I was out
6:36
Speaker 1: in the West for the past two months, so I
6:38
Speaker 1: haven't been able to check cameras at all. So I'm
6:40
Speaker 1: itching to get down to Ohio. Here's a couple of
6:43
Speaker 1: days for the same thing as you first pull of
6:45
Speaker 1: the of the summer. So I can definitely relate to
6:47
Speaker 1: that anticipation. Um yeah, it's tough, just waiting, no doubt,
6:54
Speaker 1: no doubt. Um, sorry ahead, I was gonna I was
6:58
Speaker 1: gonna say, John if you could. Um, you know, I've
7:02
Speaker 1: actually I actually first think I was introduced to you,
7:05
Speaker 1: I don't know, eight or nine years ago, maybe, um,
7:08
Speaker 1: when I heard an interview with you on a podcast
7:12
Speaker 1: way back I think it was called bow Cast maybe. Um.
7:16
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Wow. Yeah, yeah, that was like Live from
7:20
Speaker 1: the Bird or something probably back then that was before
7:23
Speaker 1: the the big Well now they've changed the name of it.
7:28
Speaker 1: It used to be a different tournament out in Utah.
7:30
Speaker 1: But yeah, those guys were That was very That was
7:33
Speaker 1: probably the first podcast in archery. Yeah, I think it was.
7:37
Speaker 1: It was I remember running on the treadmill, um, working
7:40
Speaker 1: out in the summer and stuff, getting ready for hunting season,
7:42
Speaker 1: all the other things, and I just needed something to
7:44
Speaker 1: listen to and that was the one thing out there. Um.
7:48
Speaker 1: And so I, you know, start following your work since
7:50
Speaker 1: then and was reading your articles and over the years,
7:54
Speaker 1: You're a guy who I've always been really intrigued by
7:56
Speaker 1: both your your skill set and expertise in the archery world,
7:59
Speaker 1: but then also how that translated into your bow hunting
8:02
Speaker 1: success and some of the things you did with from
8:04
Speaker 1: a white tailed perspective. So I've I've really enjoyed everything
8:07
Speaker 1: you've been putting out there, and I'm excited to share
8:10
Speaker 1: to kind of share your expertise now with our audience.
8:12
Speaker 1: But I guess before we get too far, could you
8:15
Speaker 1: could you give our listeners a little bit of background
8:17
Speaker 1: into who you are and how you got to this
8:19
Speaker 1: point today. UM, yeah, sure, so really, I guess to
8:25
Speaker 1: go back. I started out just being a country boy
8:28
Speaker 1: in Mississippi started bow hunting UM just before I was
8:32
Speaker 1: ten and made a lot of mistakes. UM played a
8:38
Speaker 1: lot of sports through high school and always really tried
8:42
Speaker 1: to bow hunt whenever I could on the weekends, and
8:45
Speaker 1: UM made a lot of mistakes and I ended up
8:48
Speaker 1: getting her right at the beginning of my college career.
8:53
Speaker 1: And while I was rehabbing, I was actually just driving
8:57
Speaker 1: down the road and I saw a sign that said
8:59
Speaker 1: archery tournament. So I kind of thought, well, I can
9:01
Speaker 1: hobble along and do that. So I jumped out and
9:05
Speaker 1: with my hunting bow and literally went into my first
9:09
Speaker 1: like local three D shoot, and I was so poor
9:14
Speaker 1: at it. I was out of arrows after about twelve
9:17
Speaker 1: or fifteen targets, and it was the first time that
9:22
Speaker 1: I had ever felt defeat like that. And it just it,
9:26
Speaker 1: you know, it really just created this passion to not
9:31
Speaker 1: fail at something. So I went to a local archery
9:34
Speaker 1: shop the next day and just started following around the
9:38
Speaker 1: people that I had seen at the tournament and watched
9:42
Speaker 1: them uh shoot and started to see target bows and
9:47
Speaker 1: then really just jumped head first into local tournaments, local
9:54
Speaker 1: tournament competitions, and uh probably meanwhile I was working at
10:01
Speaker 1: an archery shop part time, and a year and a
10:05
Speaker 1: half later, I was in the pro class. Just had
10:09
Speaker 1: kind of discovered that I had a natural talent to
10:12
Speaker 1: compete in archery, and um started shooting professionally right at
10:17
Speaker 1: the age of eighteen. And then during that time, I
10:21
Speaker 1: UM one of the first well, my first sponsor was
10:25
Speaker 1: Matthews when I was professional, and I met him while
10:29
Speaker 1: helping him at a trade show and got to meet
10:33
Speaker 1: him face to face and get some personal time. And
10:37
Speaker 1: about a week after that trade show, I got a
10:39
Speaker 1: call from for Matthews. They're asking if I would come
10:42
Speaker 1: there to be a regional sales guy. So I went
10:47
Speaker 1: there and was one of the first four salespeople at
10:50
Speaker 1: Matthews and just one thing led to another. Just all
10:56
Speaker 1: I did was archery from there on out. I've worked
10:59
Speaker 1: in the biggest bow companies in the world and been
11:02
Speaker 1: part of companies like Easton for twenty years. And um
11:06
Speaker 1: obviously growing up literally growing up through all of my
11:12
Speaker 1: late teens and all through my twenties in matt McPherson's
11:16
Speaker 1: test lab just let me learn a lot of stuff
11:20
Speaker 1: by watching and by you know, Matt was designing. I
11:25
Speaker 1: was really the only um. Well, myself and Derek Phillips
11:29
Speaker 1: were both at the factory for a few years. Then
11:32
Speaker 1: Derek moved out of the factory. So for probably seven years,
11:37
Speaker 1: every time Matt built a bow, I would be part
11:40
Speaker 1: of taking that bow, setting it up, shooting it, and
11:43
Speaker 1: then giving feedback. So I was just able to see
11:49
Speaker 1: the small things with bows that made big differences, and
11:52
Speaker 1: just my technical knowledge just like grew, like fired, just
11:57
Speaker 1: because I was observing and I was I was more
12:01
Speaker 1: or less a test dummy. I wasn't an engineer, but
12:04
Speaker 1: I was just seeing all this stuff and seeing how
12:08
Speaker 1: changes affected archery equipment. And then obviously because I'm in
12:12
Speaker 1: a manufacturing facility, I just learned everything about testing, you know,
12:19
Speaker 1: everything down to the fibers and a bowstring or the
12:23
Speaker 1: types of you know, POxy and the glass or the
12:26
Speaker 1: types of glass or the type of fiber and limbs,
12:28
Speaker 1: I mean every single thing. I just you know, almost
12:32
Speaker 1: got a college in archery. So during that time I
12:38
Speaker 1: was still shooting professionally, shot professional three D for a
12:42
Speaker 1: while got bored with that, decided to jump into target
12:46
Speaker 1: archery UM shot professional like target indoor archery and outdoor
12:50
Speaker 1: fet us, you know, thirty fifty stuff outdoors. Uh, then
12:55
Speaker 1: just really got engulfed in UM highly technical field archery
13:01
Speaker 1: feed a field archery with unmarked and marked distances, very
13:05
Speaker 1: serious terrain, and you know, just shot professionally. And the
13:10
Speaker 1: whole time I was doing that, it was all part
13:13
Speaker 1: of my very first The first reason I pulled off
13:17
Speaker 1: that road at the very beginning was because I thought, oh,
13:20
Speaker 1: that'd be a good way to practice to be better
13:22
Speaker 1: at bow hunting. And so really bow hunting was always
13:26
Speaker 1: my biggest drive. I competed because I loved it, but
13:29
Speaker 1: I also competed to be a better bow hunter. And
13:33
Speaker 1: it actually back in the last year that I was
13:36
Speaker 1: on the US team, UM, I walked away from my
13:40
Speaker 1: sabbat simply because they told me that if I they
13:47
Speaker 1: made everyone on, there's three members for the team that year.
13:50
Speaker 1: And they said, okay, if you guys have to agree
13:54
Speaker 1: that you're going to compete in all four World Cups
13:56
Speaker 1: as well as the World Cup Final, which will be
13:59
Speaker 1: at the end of September. And I just said, um, well,
14:06
Speaker 1: even if I'm in the World Cup Final, which at
14:10
Speaker 1: the time, based off rankings, I would feel pretty confident
14:14
Speaker 1: with that. I said I would not go, and they're
14:16
Speaker 1: like why, and I said, it's Elks And I said,
14:21
Speaker 1: and you know white Tail, Yeah, I said, I said,
14:24
Speaker 1: white Tail's open September fifteenth in Wisconsin and I normally
14:29
Speaker 1: hunt a week and then I'm heading out west for Elk.
14:32
Speaker 1: So I'm out. And that was it. I mean, that
14:37
Speaker 1: was pretty much my defining moment. I you know, I
14:40
Speaker 1: went back to what I really loved about archery to
14:44
Speaker 1: begin with, and that was being a bow hunter. And
14:47
Speaker 1: so since then, John Wright, You've you've been been writing
14:51
Speaker 1: quite a bit, and then the knock On TV show
14:54
Speaker 1: and the knock On podcast. You're you're putting a lot
14:56
Speaker 1: out there when it comes to bow hunting and archery
14:59
Speaker 1: type ta Dix. I mean, is that what you're doing
15:02
Speaker 1: full time now? Oh? Yeah? Yeah. So in in two
15:06
Speaker 1: thousand and six, I actually left Matthews after just under
15:11
Speaker 1: ten years and just went out on my own and
15:16
Speaker 1: just started freelancing because honestly, um Matthews had made a
15:21
Speaker 1: decision to not allow employees to travel anymore. So I
15:26
Speaker 1: was also given UM an ultimatum between either giving up shooting,
15:33
Speaker 1: which I hadn't left shooting at the time, so either
15:36
Speaker 1: I had to leave shooting or I had to leave
15:38
Speaker 1: the company. So I left the company UM. So I
15:42
Speaker 1: just started working independently and acting as a consultant for
15:46
Speaker 1: different companies in the archery industry and started I was
15:51
Speaker 1: already writing. I started writing in UM. Actually had a
15:55
Speaker 1: column for Three D Times magazine, which was kind of
15:58
Speaker 1: the first competitive magazine seen for competition archery. I had
16:03
Speaker 1: UM a monthly column called The Rookie on Tour, and
16:08
Speaker 1: I pretty much just documented my whole rookie season, like
16:12
Speaker 1: the things that I learned each tournament and the mistakes
16:16
Speaker 1: I made and the friends I made, or you know
16:19
Speaker 1: things the things I did well or the things that
16:21
Speaker 1: didn't do well, and pretty much documented that whole year,
16:26
Speaker 1: which worked out pretty good because I ended up winning
16:29
Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year UM. And then the next
16:34
Speaker 1: year I met Denise Parker, who had you know, Denise
16:37
Speaker 1: Parker's UM a great figure for archery, and she had
16:43
Speaker 1: a magazine called Archery Focus. So she called me and said, John,
16:47
Speaker 1: I'd really really like to have someone that has good
16:50
Speaker 1: technical knowledge that can write some articles that are specific
16:55
Speaker 1: to like tuning and form. So I started writing for
16:59
Speaker 1: Archery Focus magazine. And then not too long after that,
17:04
Speaker 1: I got a call from uh Chris White, who was
17:08
Speaker 1: a really good shooter from England. Chris White's dad had
17:12
Speaker 1: a major archery publication called Bow International that he had
17:15
Speaker 1: just started in England, and he said, can you write
17:19
Speaker 1: some technical articles for me? So I said yeah, And
17:23
Speaker 1: then within that same year, the next UK magazine, The Glade,
17:26
Speaker 1: called me, and then then Bogan Sport called me. Um,
17:31
Speaker 1: then tier Art called me, and before I knew it,
17:34
Speaker 1: I was writing for nine different languages. Um, literally writing
17:39
Speaker 1: writing articles in fifteen countries and nine languages, and I
17:43
Speaker 1: publish about two fifty pages a year. People don't know that,
17:47
Speaker 1: but I do. Yeah, so a lot of it. I
17:51
Speaker 1: can't a lot of it. I don't have rights to
17:54
Speaker 1: actually put on my websites for people to see for free,
17:57
Speaker 1: which is kind of unfortunate. But yeah, I've got article
18:00
Speaker 1: was written in Slavonian, Croatian, Um, Russian. I mean they're
18:06
Speaker 1: all over the place. It's really really cool. Um. And
18:11
Speaker 1: then obviously I started the company knock On really as
18:16
Speaker 1: a way I really wanted to brand one. I've always
18:21
Speaker 1: filmed my own hunts. I've filmed my own hunts since
18:24
Speaker 1: I started at Matthews. I mean, I've got hunts that
18:27
Speaker 1: I filmed on the old big VHS tapes, and I've
18:30
Speaker 1: always self filmed or filmed with a buddy. And I
18:35
Speaker 1: wanted to start a show that wasn't I mean, I
18:37
Speaker 1: would have the products that I personally like, but I
18:40
Speaker 1: really wanted to start a brand that wasn't specific to
18:45
Speaker 1: like Hoit or specific to Matthews or bow Tech, like.
18:48
Speaker 1: I didn't want to corner myself that way. I wanted
18:51
Speaker 1: and I wanted to brand that was for all archers,
18:55
Speaker 1: whether they're hunters, whether their target archers, you know, whether
18:59
Speaker 1: they're new, whether their advance, it doesn't matter. And I
19:01
Speaker 1: really just wanted to show that allowed me to just
19:06
Speaker 1: educate and really just bring to life what I write about.
19:12
Speaker 1: And at first the network they were really they were like, okay, listen,
19:20
Speaker 1: you need to have maybe three minutes tops about this,
19:23
Speaker 1: and that's you know, that's about it. You know, people
19:26
Speaker 1: aren't going to tolerate much more than three minutes about
19:29
Speaker 1: talking about stuff. And I was like, I think you know,
19:33
Speaker 1: I think this is really what what people want. I said,
19:36
Speaker 1: because Lee and Tiffany kill awesome bucks. You know what
19:39
Speaker 1: I mean? Uh, Michael Watt l kills all you know,
19:42
Speaker 1: those people kill great animals all the time. Like if
19:45
Speaker 1: you want to see something big guy, that's that's what
19:48
Speaker 1: you that's what you watch. But you know, I hunt
19:51
Speaker 1: on a very very limited budget. My budgets Probably a
19:56
Speaker 1: lot of these hunts that I see people going on
19:58
Speaker 1: would be my entire year's budget. Like I said, I
20:01
Speaker 1: filmed myself. I filmed with equipment that the average guy
20:05
Speaker 1: can buy. Um. I produce and edit myself. I have
20:10
Speaker 1: my finished editing done with a good friend of mine
20:12
Speaker 1: that I met in archery that now is pretty much
20:15
Speaker 1: my kind of my my media manager, so to speak.
20:20
Speaker 1: And then my wife Sharon pretty much supports everything on
20:23
Speaker 1: the the business side of knock On. But it's just
20:27
Speaker 1: an information highway and now um, people have have really
20:33
Speaker 1: shown that the hunts are great, but learning is what
20:37
Speaker 1: it's all about. And that's just you know, six years
20:41
Speaker 1: later into my show, I'm now at three informational segments
20:46
Speaker 1: during the show with you know, much less hunting. My
20:51
Speaker 1: hunts are much more compressed. You know, I don't have
20:55
Speaker 1: b roll a leave blowing or a grunt tube on
20:59
Speaker 1: my pocket it or you know, I don't feel time
21:03
Speaker 1: with that. I feel time with education. Yeah, so go ahead,
21:09
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. I think one of the things
21:11
Speaker 1: that I've enjoyed about both your show and your articles
21:14
Speaker 1: too is that it's it's digestible. You know. There there's
21:19
Speaker 1: if to your point. First off, most media out there,
21:21
Speaker 1: whether it's articles or TV shows, most of it is
21:24
Speaker 1: just focused on, you know, the big animal getting killed.
21:27
Speaker 1: So then you've got a pretty small segment then that's
21:29
Speaker 1: actually really educational. Even smaller of that is focused on
21:33
Speaker 1: you know, technical stuff related to archery and everything like that.
21:36
Speaker 1: And then even a smaller number of of those types
21:39
Speaker 1: of articles and things are actually like understandable by the
21:41
Speaker 1: average guy or girl who maybe isn't an expert in
21:44
Speaker 1: this yet. And what I've always been impressed by with
21:46
Speaker 1: your writing and your videos and and anytime I hear
21:49
Speaker 1: you talking about this type of stuff is that you're
21:51
Speaker 1: able to communicate in a way that I think anyone
21:54
Speaker 1: can kind of wrap their head around and then like
21:55
Speaker 1: apply to their own situation. Um, So that's something that
21:59
Speaker 1: I that I found that you uniquely do really well
22:01
Speaker 1: that I'm glad you're able to do in the TV show,
22:04
Speaker 1: even though it's different than maybe the norm for the network,
22:07
Speaker 1: because there's really a need for that. I mean, I
22:09
Speaker 1: think you've you've probably seen it too. There there's not
22:11
Speaker 1: a whole lot of While there's lots of information out there,
22:15
Speaker 1: quality education that's digestible, I think is increasingly rare. Yep. Yeah. Well,
22:23
Speaker 1: you know what's funny is, for the longest time, I
22:26
Speaker 1: struggled finding editors that wouldn't change my way of writing,
22:31
Speaker 1: UM because a lot of especially someone that's a very schooled,
22:41
Speaker 1: an educated UM editorial person or as a degree in editorial.
22:48
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like first year college type communication. You know,
22:55
Speaker 1: I'm not a theosaurus um. You know, I would probably
22:58
Speaker 1: say I saw a lot of bucks and say instead
23:01
Speaker 1: of saying there was a plethora, you know what I mean. So,
23:06
Speaker 1: and most of well, in fact, everything of what I've learned,
23:12
Speaker 1: I've experienced. So it's easy for me to talk about
23:19
Speaker 1: target panic because I've had it, I've beat it, I've
23:23
Speaker 1: come back from it, you know, and I've and I
23:25
Speaker 1: also coach some of the best you know, some of
23:29
Speaker 1: the best archers and teams in the world. UM. So
23:34
Speaker 1: from a coaching aspect, I'm able to one I'm able
23:39
Speaker 1: to deliver a message that I think people can somewhat grasps,
23:43
Speaker 1: mainly because I know what they're feeling. A lot of
23:45
Speaker 1: times when I watch people shoot, I can see by
23:50
Speaker 1: how their demeanor is, what their brain is thinking, or
23:54
Speaker 1: maybe some of the anxieties or anticipation that they're feeling.
23:59
Speaker 1: And and because I'm an athlete, and I really i've
24:05
Speaker 1: been I've been blessed to be able to do a
24:08
Speaker 1: lot of things well. So if I'm working with someone,
24:15
Speaker 1: I try to relate it to something that may not
24:17
Speaker 1: just be archery, and I'll just use for example, UM
24:22
Speaker 1: for the last six months or so, I've been working
24:25
Speaker 1: with Joe Rogan. And because I'm kind of a big
24:30
Speaker 1: advocate in how the body functions and meditation, and I
24:36
Speaker 1: also have a small martial arts background and I'm a
24:39
Speaker 1: fan of martial arts, There's certain things that that I
24:44
Speaker 1: could tell Joe in an archery way that he didn't
24:48
Speaker 1: really he knew what I was trying to say, but
24:50
Speaker 1: he didn't grasp it. But then I would say, Okay,
24:54
Speaker 1: you know. It's like it's like when you're doing um
25:00
Speaker 1: forms competition and martial arts. It's a it's a movement,
25:04
Speaker 1: it's a flow. It has to be systematic. You can't
25:07
Speaker 1: and then all of sudden he's like, oh, okay, I
25:11
Speaker 1: get I get it. So some people need to have
25:15
Speaker 1: a relation to something that they might do outside of archery,
25:18
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm good at that just because
25:21
Speaker 1: I really I personally like to try a lot of
25:24
Speaker 1: different things. So I might be able to, you know,
25:28
Speaker 1: it's just going out there, but I might be able
25:29
Speaker 1: to say, well, if you're a bungee jump to four,
25:32
Speaker 1: because it's kind of like, you know, when your strings
25:34
Speaker 1: are stretching out and then they do what's called a rebound,
25:37
Speaker 1: you know, and then people are like, oh, yeah, okay,
25:40
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's easy to get people to understand
25:43
Speaker 1: if you're able to give an analogy that's maybe not
25:46
Speaker 1: specific to the sport, definitely makes sense easy to make
25:51
Speaker 1: it a little more relatable. So I want to I
25:55
Speaker 1: want to kind of rewind something you talked about a
25:57
Speaker 1: little while ago when you're mentioning some of your background
26:00
Speaker 1: at Matthews and when you're able to work you know
26:03
Speaker 1: pretty closely with with the team that's actually developing this
26:06
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. I think one of the things that
26:08
Speaker 1: a lot of bow hunters today are faced with is
26:11
Speaker 1: just kind of almost a paralyzing number of choices when
26:15
Speaker 1: it comes to gear. I mean, there's so many different bows,
26:18
Speaker 1: so many different accessories. I mean you could just walk
26:20
Speaker 1: down Aisles and Cabela's are Best Pro and just be
26:24
Speaker 1: shocked and overwhelmed. What's what given your experience with so
26:28
Speaker 1: many of these different types of products and seeing what
26:32
Speaker 1: really matters in the testing facility, what details are actually
26:36
Speaker 1: the most important when it comes to some of these
26:39
Speaker 1: pieces of gear as bow hunters. I mean, when when
26:42
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a bow, is brace site really that important?
26:45
Speaker 1: Or when I'm looking at my release, you know, do
26:47
Speaker 1: I really need to be paying attention to you know,
26:50
Speaker 1: how adjustable the caliber calipers or something like that. I mean,
26:52
Speaker 1: what are the details and a couple of these maybe
26:54
Speaker 1: most important times you can think of that really are
26:57
Speaker 1: worth paying real close attention. H Yeah, Well, you know,
27:04
Speaker 1: I worked for and I'm I'm I'm fortunate that I
27:07
Speaker 1: that I worked for Matthews for a long time, but
27:10
Speaker 1: I'm also equally as fortunate that I've worked for HOY
27:13
Speaker 1: for actually, well next month, it will be longer. Um.
27:19
Speaker 1: And there's a real there's a real difference in the
27:22
Speaker 1: two philosophies because that Matthews, matt was the designer and
27:26
Speaker 1: the creator, and and really the design and creation stopped there.
27:32
Speaker 1: If you know, if it was his idea, it got implemented. Um,
27:37
Speaker 1: if it wasn't most of the time, you know it
27:41
Speaker 1: it was math ideas or that or or probably wasn't
27:45
Speaker 1: gonna come to life. So whereas that HOY, it's an
27:50
Speaker 1: entire engineering team that is comprised of some of the
27:57
Speaker 1: most knowledgeable and technical minds that I've ever been around.
28:02
Speaker 1: And if I've ever if I'm ever stumped on something,
28:06
Speaker 1: i have people there that I know specialize in certain
28:10
Speaker 1: things that will give me a better understanding of what
28:15
Speaker 1: I'm finding. And it's just a real different there were
28:19
Speaker 1: two really different ways of of looking through it. So
28:24
Speaker 1: at HOY, you know, they have people that really specialize
28:29
Speaker 1: in materials. So you know, even if even if um,
28:35
Speaker 1: you know, at at Matthews, even if we really wanted
28:39
Speaker 1: to go down and say the road of carbon, because
28:42
Speaker 1: there's really not engineers there with full degrees in that
28:46
Speaker 1: type of material, I don't know if it would have
28:48
Speaker 1: progressed the way that it has with Hoyt, whereas with
28:52
Speaker 1: hoy And I can tell you as well. What I
28:55
Speaker 1: really like is that the engineers are almost all of
29:00
Speaker 1: them are hunters that hunt one of the toughest areas
29:03
Speaker 1: there are up on the Wasatch. I mean, that's a
29:06
Speaker 1: very that is the very demanding hunt. Those guys that
29:10
Speaker 1: leave work, you know, they'll they'll hike thousands of feet
29:14
Speaker 1: for an afternoon hunt and Chase Meally is up there
29:17
Speaker 1: and Elk and those same guys will be in Vegas,
29:20
Speaker 1: those same guys will be in Reading, those same guys
29:23
Speaker 1: will be on World Cup teams, and they just have
29:26
Speaker 1: a real appreciation of target accuracy and also the dependability
29:31
Speaker 1: for traveling versus what we also need in the field
29:36
Speaker 1: for durability. So for me on a bow, what I
29:41
Speaker 1: really look for is I really like to find a
29:45
Speaker 1: bow that has minimal flex and also has I do
29:50
Speaker 1: believe that brace hite is important. I personally don't like
29:53
Speaker 1: to go much under a seven inch brace hight. Ever,
29:57
Speaker 1: um I feel that a huge part of accuracy with
30:00
Speaker 1: any compound bow comes from having a proper string angle
30:05
Speaker 1: that allows your head to be in a vertical position
30:09
Speaker 1: where the string can be at the tip of your nose,
30:12
Speaker 1: and that the peep site is not overly far from
30:15
Speaker 1: your from your eye. I feel like the further you
30:19
Speaker 1: take your peep from your eye, the the worst off
30:24
Speaker 1: your accuracy will get. And I've experienced that, you know,
30:28
Speaker 1: we've had there was I've been through a lot of
30:31
Speaker 1: generations of design with bows that came to the market
30:35
Speaker 1: that were much much, much different before they came to
30:39
Speaker 1: the market, And a lot of times brace height was
30:43
Speaker 1: a factor because obviously, when it comes to at least
30:49
Speaker 1: our industry, marketing is everything. So if Hoyt's got a
30:53
Speaker 1: bow that's shooting three thirty and they put it out
30:56
Speaker 1: in October, then obviously Matthew is gonna want to have
30:59
Speaker 1: a bow that shooting come November. And you know what's
31:04
Speaker 1: funny is eccentrics and cam designs have really they've really plateaued.
31:11
Speaker 1: There is about as efficient as you can possibly get.
31:16
Speaker 1: So speed now it really comes from brace heights or
31:23
Speaker 1: ultimately the power stroke on the arrow. So how long
31:27
Speaker 1: that string is actually pushing the arrow four before it
31:31
Speaker 1: leaves and That's why I like, you see a lot
31:34
Speaker 1: of these crossbows that are much faster now, but they're
31:37
Speaker 1: also shooting on a r rails that have much more
31:41
Speaker 1: power stroke than they've ever had in the past too,
31:43
Speaker 1: you know. So you're typically with a compound bow, for
31:47
Speaker 1: every inch of drawing, you're going to get about eight
31:50
Speaker 1: pounds more speed. So um, you know, a lot of
31:53
Speaker 1: companies played with that too until the A t A
31:55
Speaker 1: stepped in and drew the line of this is the
32:00
Speaker 1: requirement if you're going to advertise speed. This is how
32:03
Speaker 1: we measure draw length up to Before that point, I
32:07
Speaker 1: think it was plus or minus an inch and three
32:09
Speaker 1: quarters that companies could actually fudge. So like some of
32:13
Speaker 1: the very first um some of the very first like
32:16
Speaker 1: Black Night Bows and the bow tex UM. Kevin Struthers
32:22
Speaker 1: was was pretty notorious for sending out bows that were
32:26
Speaker 1: well over an inch and a half beyond true draw
32:30
Speaker 1: length measurement. And you would get a bow that was
32:33
Speaker 1: shooting three forty when if it's got if it's drawing
32:38
Speaker 1: thirty one and a half inches of true draw, well,
32:42
Speaker 1: if you take that twelve to thirteen ft per second
32:46
Speaker 1: off your back down to a bow, the steven So.
32:50
Speaker 1: And then the other thing too is you know you
32:52
Speaker 1: take a bow, so you're comparing it to ahoyit with
32:56
Speaker 1: a seven inch brace height. That's that and Hoyt is
32:59
Speaker 1: not reously they were the ones that fought for the
33:02
Speaker 1: for the standardized draw length measurement because they were always
33:06
Speaker 1: so true on their draw length. Um, they really want
33:13
Speaker 1: to see the comparison for like apples apples. So if
33:18
Speaker 1: you're if you've got a bow that's a seven inch
33:20
Speaker 1: brace hythe in it and you know it's shooting and
33:23
Speaker 1: a thirty inch bow shooting three thirty, Well, of course,
33:27
Speaker 1: if you're going to compare it to um, even even
33:30
Speaker 1: another bow, like even a bow within the same category
33:35
Speaker 1: or within the same brand, like a Turbo model, if
33:38
Speaker 1: it's got an inch shorter brace height, well it's going
33:40
Speaker 1: to automatically be eight foot per second faster. Now, there's
33:44
Speaker 1: a lot that goes into play for cam design. UM
33:48
Speaker 1: certainly hoy or Matthews or bow Tech or anybody else.
33:52
Speaker 1: They could make bows that are pushing the limits for
33:57
Speaker 1: speed with you know, having a cam that feels very
34:00
Speaker 1: aggressive to hold back, like for example, like a ps
34:03
Speaker 1: omens or something that's not something that a hunter is
34:08
Speaker 1: really gonna feel comfortable drawing back and holding back at
34:12
Speaker 1: full draw now, is its screaming fast? Yeah, it'll be
34:14
Speaker 1: screaming fast. But accuracy tends to to fall apart. I'm
34:19
Speaker 1: just when it comes to the bow. I like a
34:23
Speaker 1: bow that allows people to have a respectable braceythe, which
34:27
Speaker 1: in my opinion is seven inches. It is a great number.
34:31
Speaker 1: It allows you to have good clearance of your sleeve,
34:33
Speaker 1: especially if you have some bulkier clothes on as a
34:36
Speaker 1: bow hunter. Um. And then also for the most part,
34:39
Speaker 1: unless you're shooting a very very short acts axele bow
34:42
Speaker 1: with a seven inch braceythe and a bow like for
34:44
Speaker 1: example mine, I'm shooting a thirty four inch axel axel bow. Um,
34:49
Speaker 1: I've got a thirty one inch draw and with a
34:51
Speaker 1: seven inch braceythe bow, I feel totally comfortable at full draw.
34:56
Speaker 1: The peeps close enough to my eye. I have really
34:59
Speaker 1: really at accuracy. Now, if you start buying a model
35:03
Speaker 1: that that peeps further from your eye or you're starting
35:07
Speaker 1: to hit your arm on occasion, then automatically you're you're
35:11
Speaker 1: going the wrong direction. And the other thing, too, is
35:14
Speaker 1: buying a bow that you can pick off the shelf,
35:17
Speaker 1: raise your bow arms straight up pointed at a target,
35:21
Speaker 1: and then with only your drawing arm, be able to
35:24
Speaker 1: pull that string back to your face until you get
35:27
Speaker 1: to full draw. If you're having to lean back or
35:30
Speaker 1: hit your hips, or push and pull or lift the
35:33
Speaker 1: bow above your shoulder to draw it back, then you're
35:37
Speaker 1: also either pulling a cam design that's too aggressive for
35:41
Speaker 1: you um or you're pulling too much draw weight. I
35:45
Speaker 1: think those those things, specifically on a on a compound bow,
35:50
Speaker 1: are really going to help improve your accuracy. And it
35:54
Speaker 1: sounds like that's something that not that. It sounds like
35:58
Speaker 1: it's just obvious. So many people today want that high speed,
36:02
Speaker 1: so they crank up their pound draw because they want
36:06
Speaker 1: those numbers. They think that that matters so much to given,
36:09
Speaker 1: like you said, the marketing we see today, everyone's talking
36:12
Speaker 1: about super fast bows and how great that is. But
36:14
Speaker 1: to your point, in the end, if that's gonna if
36:17
Speaker 1: that's gonna damage your accuracy, it doesn't really matter a
36:19
Speaker 1: whole lot. But another thing that I think a lot
36:21
Speaker 1: of people struggle with is draw length. Can you talk
36:24
Speaker 1: a little bit about the possible risks of stretching that
36:28
Speaker 1: draw length too far because I hear a lot about
36:30
Speaker 1: how that can impact our accuracy. To Yeah, so withdraw
36:34
Speaker 1: length you really want to have you want to be
36:37
Speaker 1: able to maintain um proper posture. And you know, the
36:43
Speaker 1: basis to any sport is the proper foundation, the proper technique.
36:49
Speaker 1: With archery, it's a T formation. So when I look
36:52
Speaker 1: at an archer perfectly from the side, I'm really looking
36:55
Speaker 1: for someone that has their feet directly under their hips,
36:59
Speaker 1: their hips under their shoulders, and then when they're at
37:01
Speaker 1: full draw, I'm looking for their shoulders um, front, elbow,
37:06
Speaker 1: front wrist to be in an even line. Now, as
37:11
Speaker 1: soon as you start to overdraw, then what will happen
37:15
Speaker 1: is you'll have to start leaning back um, which you know,
37:21
Speaker 1: your your tea will start to bend backwards away from
37:25
Speaker 1: the target, or you'll start to overdraw in what you'll
37:29
Speaker 1: find is the rear elbow starts to come down below
37:32
Speaker 1: the shoulder in order to get the release hand um
37:37
Speaker 1: back to an anchor position, which for a lot of
37:41
Speaker 1: people they end up like putting their thumb behind their
37:43
Speaker 1: neck or something like that. Um, you really want to
37:46
Speaker 1: maintain that T formation, and you also want to have
37:50
Speaker 1: your head in a perfectly erect position, and you want
37:55
Speaker 1: to just imagine that someone is holding one little hair
37:58
Speaker 1: on the top of your head and that you're just
38:00
Speaker 1: barely pivoting your head towards the target. UM, in order
38:05
Speaker 1: to look at it. You don't want to have to
38:07
Speaker 1: take your head forward to the string because if you're
38:11
Speaker 1: doing that, you're immediately going to be falling into improper form.
38:17
Speaker 1: And you know, really, withdraw length, there's UM there's a
38:21
Speaker 1: couple of different ways to measure it. UM I actually did.
38:26
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure if you look at the knock On
38:29
Speaker 1: Archery YouTube channel, UM, I did one specific to measuring
38:36
Speaker 1: draw length. I'm just kind of looking it up here.
38:40
Speaker 1: I just did a quick search, yep. So if you
38:44
Speaker 1: do a Google search or a YouTube search for proper
38:49
Speaker 1: draw length with John Dudley of knock On, uh, it's
38:53
Speaker 1: on the knock On Archery. UM I'll show you that
38:57
Speaker 1: t formation and also how to properly measure yourself. And
39:00
Speaker 1: then if you've watched that on my YouTube channel. Right
39:04
Speaker 1: beneath that is actually another video called n R t
39:10
Speaker 1: R five, which is the knock and Ready to Rock,
39:13
Speaker 1: a segment that I did on bow building and UM
39:17
Speaker 1: number five was how to address adjust your draw length,
39:22
Speaker 1: so you would literally be able to um see how
39:26
Speaker 1: to measure yourself properly and then also be able to
39:30
Speaker 1: see how to adjust your boat. Really with those two
39:33
Speaker 1: videos alone, that's perfect. I'll make sure link to those
39:35
Speaker 1: in the blog post for this one. UM, I'm sure
39:38
Speaker 1: that that's helpful to be able to actually see that.
39:40
Speaker 1: You know, hearing it's one thing, but actually seeing someone
39:43
Speaker 1: doing some of these things and visually indicating what's what
39:46
Speaker 1: that that's super helpful. So thanks for calling those out now.
39:50
Speaker 1: In addition to issues of draw length or draw weight, UM,
39:55
Speaker 1: what are a couple of the other most common mistakes
39:58
Speaker 1: that you're seeing bow hunters making, um that are impacting
40:02
Speaker 1: their accuracy? I know there's a lot, um, but could
40:04
Speaker 1: you tackle a couple more that you think most of
40:07
Speaker 1: our listeners need to make sure that they are double
40:09
Speaker 1: checking and making sure they're not doing these things. UM.
40:13
Speaker 1: For sure, drawing too much weight and then um drawing
40:21
Speaker 1: probably overdrawing the bow I think for sure are all
40:25
Speaker 1: certainly things that are gonna affect that big time. UM,
40:29
Speaker 1: you really need to follow those steps that I just
40:33
Speaker 1: talked about, and they're going to greatly help your accuracy
40:36
Speaker 1: for sure. Um. And the other thing too is really
40:41
Speaker 1: striving to have a surprise shot and you know, really
40:47
Speaker 1: focus on your ability to hold your pin on the
40:51
Speaker 1: target and actually covered the bull's eye while you're slowly
40:56
Speaker 1: um squeezing or pulling through that. You say, until you
41:01
Speaker 1: have a completely surprised shot. If you can do that,
41:06
Speaker 1: then you're gonna be leaps and bounds ahead of people. Now,
41:10
Speaker 1: most people today, they're unfortunately, they're at the mercy of
41:14
Speaker 1: their their local dealers who sometimes are trying to just
41:20
Speaker 1: sell a boat that's on the rack and it may
41:23
Speaker 1: not fit them the right way. And if you don't
41:25
Speaker 1: know going in what type of fit you should have,
41:28
Speaker 1: then you're pretty much at their mercy. So overdrawing is
41:32
Speaker 1: very common. Also, people anchoring with an anchor position that's
41:37
Speaker 1: too low. Um. I'm not a big fan of thumb
41:41
Speaker 1: behind the neck because what happens is when you have
41:45
Speaker 1: your thumb behind your neck, oftentimes your string has to
41:48
Speaker 1: be further on your face. You'll see that the string
41:52
Speaker 1: is kind of more on the side of your nose.
41:54
Speaker 1: It comes as it comes to its full drop position,
41:58
Speaker 1: the triangles act really past the corner of your mouth,
42:02
Speaker 1: and then because your thumb is behind your neck um,
42:06
Speaker 1: your your hand is actually lower on your body rather
42:10
Speaker 1: than having it up more on the side of your face,
42:14
Speaker 1: and you put that that arrow shaft and what I
42:18
Speaker 1: call a danger zone of the face, and that's along
42:21
Speaker 1: the chin line. If you have the shaft of the
42:25
Speaker 1: arrow along your chin line, then any type of head
42:30
Speaker 1: movement that you make, especially if you turn your head
42:33
Speaker 1: towards the right, which a lot of people the longer
42:35
Speaker 1: they're the longer there at full draw, they slowly start
42:39
Speaker 1: to turn their head to the right. And that's mainly
42:42
Speaker 1: because when you're standing facing a target, you know, your
42:47
Speaker 1: your feet are parallel and they're you know, you're literally
42:51
Speaker 1: looking over your left shoulder. So the longer your full draw,
42:56
Speaker 1: your head naturally just starts to straighten to look, you know,
43:00
Speaker 1: directly in front of your body. So as your head straightens,
43:03
Speaker 1: it's actually pushing on the back of that aeroshaft and
43:07
Speaker 1: you'll just start to get really poor aero flight and
43:12
Speaker 1: very erratic results because of your chin pressure. So I
43:17
Speaker 1: think if people work on those things, you're going to
43:19
Speaker 1: be in really really good shape. One of the things
43:23
Speaker 1: you mentioned there, you know, giving that surprise release. I
43:26
Speaker 1: feel like this is something that we hear about all
43:28
Speaker 1: the time, Like it's one of those like, yeah, I'm
43:30
Speaker 1: supposed to a surprise release, but so many people I
43:33
Speaker 1: talked to it's one of those situations that everyone knows
43:35
Speaker 1: you need a surprise release. But I feel like most
43:38
Speaker 1: of people, even if they know that, they're still not
43:39
Speaker 1: really doing it. Myself included, sometimes I still sometimes struggle
43:43
Speaker 1: with that. How how do you help someone take that
43:47
Speaker 1: and actually apply it in real life? Someone who struggles
43:49
Speaker 1: with target panic or punching, punching the trigger? How can
43:53
Speaker 1: you mean it's it's a lot easier talk to talk
43:55
Speaker 1: than to walk it. How can you fix that in someone? Well,
44:00
Speaker 1: it's it's nothing that's going to happen quickly. I mean
44:04
Speaker 1: that I can tell you. Um, a lot of people
44:08
Speaker 1: want to try to rush through it, and that's when
44:14
Speaker 1: things start to get frustrating. Um, it's really a baby
44:18
Speaker 1: step process. You have to really focus on one thing
44:22
Speaker 1: at a time, and UM, you really have to start
44:27
Speaker 1: to eliminate all these little demons that have conjured up
44:30
Speaker 1: over normally a vast amount of time. So you know,
44:36
Speaker 1: I when I'm working with people that have TURNU panic.
44:40
Speaker 1: That process is often a two or three week process,
44:45
Speaker 1: and a lot of times even people that understand that
44:50
Speaker 1: what they need to do to make a really good shot,
44:53
Speaker 1: they end up trying to quickly go back towards their
44:56
Speaker 1: old style of shooting or or you know, especially if
45:00
Speaker 1: they put themselves in any type of a pressure situation
45:03
Speaker 1: too fast, they'll jump on um, they'll jump on the
45:08
Speaker 1: trigger pretty quick again. You know. I think it's critical
45:13
Speaker 1: that people try to really get their mindset and dedication
45:20
Speaker 1: to knowing that this is a that this is not
45:23
Speaker 1: something that just changes overnight. It's gonna take work, and
45:27
Speaker 1: you also need to try to do it during a
45:30
Speaker 1: time that you know you're not UM. For example, there
45:35
Speaker 1: was a guy that I was working with here locally
45:39
Speaker 1: UM and he wasn't like a full time student, but
45:41
Speaker 1: he just said, I've got target panic. Do you think
45:44
Speaker 1: he could help me? So I showed him a few
45:45
Speaker 1: things and I said, all I want you to work
45:48
Speaker 1: on is this. That's it. It's gonna be tedious, but
45:52
Speaker 1: this is what I want you to work on. And
45:54
Speaker 1: I gave him a few things, and about three or
45:58
Speaker 1: four days later, I to the Archer range and he's
46:01
Speaker 1: in there shooting bouncing, you know, like ping pong balls
46:05
Speaker 1: on a vacuum cleaner with another guy at the range,
46:09
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, well that was a waste of
46:13
Speaker 1: my time. Because if you're gonna go and try to
46:17
Speaker 1: do novelty shoots that make you shoot it, like swinging
46:22
Speaker 1: objects or moving objects, all these types of things are
46:26
Speaker 1: going to incorporate you to make a shot happen, which
46:31
Speaker 1: ideally the best You know that, and it's proven the
46:34
Speaker 1: best target archers in the world are the ones that
46:37
Speaker 1: let shots happen. Um. Even the best archers in the world.
46:42
Speaker 1: For example, Mike Schulzter is from the Netherlands. He shot
46:47
Speaker 1: um the first ever perfect six hundred you know, indoor round,
46:52
Speaker 1: a world record that will never be broken, and he
46:55
Speaker 1: shot that two years ago. Well a year later, he's
46:59
Speaker 1: a Vegas. He in the shoot off and people are
47:03
Speaker 1: expecting him to win, and he literally you know, he's
47:06
Speaker 1: on camera, the camera's on and and zoomed in, he
47:10
Speaker 1: pulls back and just does this huge punch the trigger
47:14
Speaker 1: thing um, And so it just goes to show you
47:18
Speaker 1: that those moments can bring the worst out of anybody.
47:25
Speaker 1: So if you're trying to overcome that. You have to
47:29
Speaker 1: mentally tell yourself, Okay, I'm gonna focus on I'm gonna
47:34
Speaker 1: stay close, I'm gonna keep the targets big. I'm my
47:38
Speaker 1: focus is going to be on the execution of this
47:41
Speaker 1: release and continuing to slowly pull and squeeze through this
47:46
Speaker 1: release until the until the release goes off without me
47:50
Speaker 1: knowing um, and then also having less value on score
47:57
Speaker 1: and less value on how you're actually grouping if you're
48:02
Speaker 1: trying to overcome target panic. UM. When I'm shooting with
48:08
Speaker 1: students and we're working on these types of things, I'll
48:11
Speaker 1: sit there and shoot with them and never even look
48:15
Speaker 1: down the range because you know they're like, oh that one,
48:19
Speaker 1: that one's a little bit out, sorry, and I just
48:21
Speaker 1: tell them listen, I'm I am no care whatsoever where
48:25
Speaker 1: these arrows are going. Because if you can't execute a
48:29
Speaker 1: shot right here with me looking directly at you, like
48:33
Speaker 1: I'm judging your shot based off your execution within your
48:36
Speaker 1: three foot box, I'm not judging your shot based on
48:41
Speaker 1: the fact. You know, if you shoot a six hunderground,
48:44
Speaker 1: but I'm watching you punch the trigger ten out of
48:47
Speaker 1: you know, sixty times, then it's not impressive. To me,
48:52
Speaker 1: I mean I could. I could go watch a I
48:55
Speaker 1: could watch a world class arctor right now that would
48:58
Speaker 1: go and shoot four perfect days in Vegas, and if
49:02
Speaker 1: he's punching the trigger, I would probably turn the channel
49:06
Speaker 1: after watching the third or four shot. It's just it's
49:10
Speaker 1: nothing that I wanna in grain or in bed in
49:14
Speaker 1: my memory bank. You know. I just think that I've proven,
49:18
Speaker 1: and my students have proven that being able to pull back,
49:22
Speaker 1: put your pin on the target and then manipulate a
49:25
Speaker 1: release or pull through the shot or slowly squeeze release
49:30
Speaker 1: until it just goes off, you'll put way more arrows
49:34
Speaker 1: in the middle. Even if your front pin is floating around.
49:38
Speaker 1: Then if you're just trying to freeze perfectly still on
49:42
Speaker 1: the target and then punch the trigger or make it happen.
49:47
Speaker 1: Do you have like a specific shot sequence or thought
49:50
Speaker 1: process that you're going through as you go through this
49:53
Speaker 1: whole sequence of events. Yeah. I I coach a systematic
49:58
Speaker 1: routine that pretty much starts from the ground and then
50:02
Speaker 1: flows up towards the target. UM. It's a step by
50:06
Speaker 1: step routine that pretty much puts um certain aspects of
50:11
Speaker 1: my shot sequence in check UM and it's almost like
50:15
Speaker 1: a checklist, but it's very it's minimal in what you're
50:20
Speaker 1: actually thinking about. A lot of people, Um, they make
50:26
Speaker 1: a shot routine that's like load arrow, um, grab release,
50:33
Speaker 1: put arrow on you know, put an arrow on rest
50:37
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like there's almost so many steps
50:40
Speaker 1: to where I've already forgot what we're even doing by
50:44
Speaker 1: the time you get the bow up to the target.
50:46
Speaker 1: You really need to focus on what matters. And that's
50:53
Speaker 1: for me, it's my stance, my grip, my shoulder position,
50:57
Speaker 1: my anchor, my peep and then in caging the trigger
51:01
Speaker 1: and pulling through. If I can do that, then my
51:05
Speaker 1: shots do and go where they need to go. If
51:10
Speaker 1: I if I change any of those five aspects of
51:15
Speaker 1: my shot routine, it immediately has an effect on my
51:18
Speaker 1: form and on my posture. And really, posture and bone
51:24
Speaker 1: alignment are critical to making good shots go off easy
51:32
Speaker 1: or if your postures incorrect, you're you're um. Bad shots
51:39
Speaker 1: are going to really be the hardest ones to get
51:41
Speaker 1: to happen. You know. I've just found that when you're
51:45
Speaker 1: doing everything right and you're in perfect posture without even
51:49
Speaker 1: knowing it, you pull back, you get your pin on
51:53
Speaker 1: the target. And you just start to think about activating
51:56
Speaker 1: or getting your finger by the trigger, and also different
51:59
Speaker 1: it goes off and you're like whoa, and then you
52:01
Speaker 1: kind of look down there and there it was, right
52:03
Speaker 1: in the middle. That's what a good shot should be.
52:07
Speaker 1: A good shot should be. We should require the least
52:10
Speaker 1: amount of effort, the least amount of energy because you're
52:14
Speaker 1: utilizing bone structure, alignment and rhythm for the shot. Versus
52:21
Speaker 1: if you have to push and pull and you're hitched
52:24
Speaker 1: at the waist and you're trying to dig that thumb
52:27
Speaker 1: behind your neck and you're aiming and your pins sitting
52:31
Speaker 1: still under the target, but you can't get it on
52:33
Speaker 1: the target, and you're sitting there just holding like a
52:35
Speaker 1: rock and your bow creased sword and you jerk it
52:38
Speaker 1: back again and then you sit there and then finally
52:41
Speaker 1: you lift up and punch the trigger. I mean, that
52:44
Speaker 1: is an incredible amount of work to get a bow shot.
52:48
Speaker 1: You know, you're just you're just that's not the way
52:51
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be, and and likely a really crappy
52:55
Speaker 1: or flight. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. That's I mean, that's
53:01
Speaker 1: the things that you need to focus on is having
53:05
Speaker 1: that posture measuring that draw lengths properly and having a
53:10
Speaker 1: bow fit that's proper to you UM, and really putting
53:17
Speaker 1: all those little puzzle pieces together and really going after
53:22
Speaker 1: making good shots be the easy ones now, you know,
53:28
Speaker 1: with with so many people ramping up now towards hunting
53:31
Speaker 1: seasons with openers in a few weeks or a month,
53:34
Speaker 1: month and a half something like that, how do you
53:36
Speaker 1: recommend people go about their final weeks of practice? Hopefully
53:39
Speaker 1: people have been shooting all year or at least for
53:41
Speaker 1: a while now, but one way or the other, how
53:44
Speaker 1: should most people handle these final three weeks, four weeks,
53:47
Speaker 1: five weeks. Are you just practicing normally like you do
53:49
Speaker 1: all year or do you have something that switches as
53:52
Speaker 1: you get closer to actually getting out there? Well, I
53:57
Speaker 1: do what I call selective cycling, and what that is
54:03
Speaker 1: is I'd like to focus on different aspects of my
54:08
Speaker 1: shooting throughout the year, and certainly right now I've got
54:12
Speaker 1: way more emphasis on um making sure that I've got
54:19
Speaker 1: twelve arrows that are built perfectly and match perfectly, and
54:23
Speaker 1: I'm really focused on making sure my broad heads are
54:26
Speaker 1: are um sited in properly, and that my my hunting
54:30
Speaker 1: bow is really focused on shooting with intention of having
54:37
Speaker 1: UM is accurate of broad heads as I possibly can
54:42
Speaker 1: versus UM. You know, a month or a month ago,
54:46
Speaker 1: I had a single pin sight on my bow. I
54:49
Speaker 1: was just focused on UM, getting high numbers of reps
54:53
Speaker 1: and just going out and shooting UM. I think for
54:55
Speaker 1: like for me, most of June, UM I shot right
54:59
Speaker 1: at about I think three arrows a day was was
55:03
Speaker 1: my average UM. And I just really focused on shooting
55:09
Speaker 1: like six arrows at a time, and you know, I
55:12
Speaker 1: I probably shot I think I didn't shoot every day
55:15
Speaker 1: because I think I shot just somewhere around eight thousand
55:18
Speaker 1: arrows UM for for June. But it was really a
55:22
Speaker 1: month focused on repetition and just building my stamina and
55:28
Speaker 1: shooting a lot of arrows and just getting a lot
55:31
Speaker 1: of practice in. And then now as I'm getting closer
55:35
Speaker 1: to season, I kind of want my my subconscious UM
55:41
Speaker 1: to be able to go through the motions of making
55:44
Speaker 1: a good shot. I don't want to feel sore and
55:47
Speaker 1: all that from from pulling my bow and UM. And
55:51
Speaker 1: now I'm just really focused on spending a lot of
55:53
Speaker 1: my practice time just making fine tweaks on my equipment
55:58
Speaker 1: or building you know, build holding new arrows when I
56:01
Speaker 1: have time, and like I said, just shooting my fixed
56:04
Speaker 1: pen sights and and really focusing. You know, I'll go
56:08
Speaker 1: out and I'll shoot four to six arrows, but I'm
56:11
Speaker 1: not shooting them at the same spot. You know, I'll
56:15
Speaker 1: I'll just kind of go right down my pens. I'll
56:18
Speaker 1: shoot one at twenty one, at thirty one, at forty one,
56:21
Speaker 1: at fifty one, at sixty you know. And I really
56:24
Speaker 1: like to practice a lot on animals on three D
56:27
Speaker 1: targets um. Come June and ur July and August um.
56:32
Speaker 1: But like in the middle of the winter or during
56:36
Speaker 1: the downtime, you know, that's a great time for people
56:39
Speaker 1: to focus on execution with like uh like blank bail
56:45
Speaker 1: shooting or just shooting up close. You know, even if
56:48
Speaker 1: you can just shoot five or ten yards in the house,
56:52
Speaker 1: just focus on having a big target that's up close
56:55
Speaker 1: where you're not really aiming at any spot. You're just
56:58
Speaker 1: trying to go through the yield of you know, making
57:02
Speaker 1: a shot with a surprise release, um. You know. And
57:06
Speaker 1: then once outdoors, you know, once it gets nice enough
57:09
Speaker 1: to be outdoors, I like to start just shooting at
57:12
Speaker 1: some bigger bulls eyes, some like field faces, and just
57:16
Speaker 1: kind of working my way into getting used to being
57:19
Speaker 1: outside and starting to shoot a little bit longer distances,
57:22
Speaker 1: and you know, I just kind of build on it.
57:25
Speaker 1: I don't like to just do the same thing all
57:28
Speaker 1: the time each month. I try to say, Okay, I'm
57:30
Speaker 1: gonna focus on numbers, or I'm gonna focus on one
57:35
Speaker 1: arrow at each target. You know, I'm gonna just empty
57:37
Speaker 1: my quiver. I'm gonna shoot one arrow at this target,
57:39
Speaker 1: one arrow with this target, one arrow with this target,
57:42
Speaker 1: and just focus on being able to make good shots
57:45
Speaker 1: each and every shot makes sense. That's it's easier said
57:51
Speaker 1: than done, though in a lot of ways. And you
57:52
Speaker 1: mentioned specifically I'm curious about when you talked about trying
57:56
Speaker 1: to make that happen, make each shot count when you've
57:58
Speaker 1: got those broadheads on there. That's a big shift for
58:01
Speaker 1: a lot of guys and girls. I think is once
58:03
Speaker 1: you put a broadhead on things, in many cases change.
58:06
Speaker 1: How do you go about getting that tuned in just
58:08
Speaker 1: before or you know, whatever it is that you start
58:11
Speaker 1: practicing with broadheads. How do you make that shift from
58:14
Speaker 1: field tips to broadheads and make sure you're tuned in
58:16
Speaker 1: but not have to change things so much from what
58:18
Speaker 1: you've been practicing with the rest of the year. Well,
58:23
Speaker 1: broadheads are funny, and oftentimes they're not. You know, they'll
58:27
Speaker 1: advertise them. A lot of people say field point accurate,
58:32
Speaker 1: and it's just that's really not the case. Most of
58:35
Speaker 1: them are not field point accurate. Um, they a lot
58:41
Speaker 1: of and and that's kind of a padded statement too,
58:44
Speaker 1: because some of them are quote unquote field point accurate.
58:49
Speaker 1: Because you can get broad edged to group just as
58:52
Speaker 1: good as field points, just not in the same place
58:56
Speaker 1: as a field point. And you know, so for me,
59:00
Speaker 1: me that is really important. If I can get if
59:06
Speaker 1: my broadheads are grouping as good as my field points,
59:09
Speaker 1: then I'm okay with that. I'll sight in for that. Now,
59:13
Speaker 1: if they're planing, meaning you know, they're shooting perfectly center
59:17
Speaker 1: at twenty and then they're you know, eight inches left
59:22
Speaker 1: at forty and then you know, and then I go
59:25
Speaker 1: out to seventy and they're fifteen inches left, Well, then
59:29
Speaker 1: there that's an issue for me. You know, I don't
59:32
Speaker 1: want to move my site every single distance, but if
59:38
Speaker 1: I'm shooting you know, for example, I had this question today,
59:42
Speaker 1: someone to send a question for my podcast, and they
59:45
Speaker 1: were talking about how with their fixed blade broadheads, they
59:51
Speaker 1: we're shooting really really close to their field points until
59:55
Speaker 1: about sixty yards then they really started to hit much lower.
59:59
Speaker 1: And the reason being is a dexter drag. You know,
1:00:02
Speaker 1: there's blades on there. So the more drag you have,
1:00:05
Speaker 1: the faster that arrow is gonna start slowing down compared
1:00:09
Speaker 1: to a field point. So you really have to make
1:00:13
Speaker 1: sure you are sighting in for broad heads, even if
1:00:18
Speaker 1: you have the best flying or best grouping mechanical head. Um.
1:00:25
Speaker 1: I personally really like rage hypodermics and they're a very
1:00:31
Speaker 1: good flying head, but even a rage hypodermic hits lower
1:00:37
Speaker 1: than my field point at a hundred yards because there
1:00:41
Speaker 1: is more blade. You know, there's more drawing air and
1:00:46
Speaker 1: you know, sucking air around that as it's flying through
1:00:51
Speaker 1: uh those hundred yards. So you know you have to
1:00:55
Speaker 1: you can't be too frustrated because you do have to
1:00:58
Speaker 1: do a little homework when it comes to broadheads. To
1:01:01
Speaker 1: too few of people actually buy an extra pack of
1:01:05
Speaker 1: broadheads and then go out and see for themselves where
1:01:08
Speaker 1: they hit. And that's you know, ethics wise, we really
1:01:12
Speaker 1: need to make sure we're doing that as bow hunters. Um.
1:01:16
Speaker 1: But if a bow is if it's grouping as good
1:01:20
Speaker 1: with broadheads as it is with field points, then I'm
1:01:22
Speaker 1: okay with it. I'll just site in for where my
1:01:25
Speaker 1: broadhead's hit, and I can tell you every broadhead is
1:01:30
Speaker 1: going to have a little bit different flight characteristic. I
1:01:34
Speaker 1: personally like to shoot some of the shorter, more compact
1:01:39
Speaker 1: fixed blade heads. I just feel like they fly really well. Um,
1:01:43
Speaker 1: Like I shoot a Muzzy tro Car flies awesome. Um.
1:01:48
Speaker 1: I know that, like a grizz Trick or a solid
1:01:52
Speaker 1: or a G five striker. Um. You know, all these
1:01:55
Speaker 1: are heads that are short, compact, They've got good designs
1:01:59
Speaker 1: and they fly really well. Um. But you know, again,
1:02:03
Speaker 1: when it comes to a mechanical, not all mechanicals are
1:02:06
Speaker 1: made the same. And another thing you have to think about, too,
1:02:09
Speaker 1: is the longer that mechanical. A lot of mechanical heads
1:02:14
Speaker 1: have a very long ferrel. Some are getting really long,
1:02:18
Speaker 1: especially ones that now are kind of have two different
1:02:21
Speaker 1: types of blades on them. The longer the ferreal, the
1:02:26
Speaker 1: more that that will start to affect how your arrow
1:02:32
Speaker 1: is flexing. It will start to affect the spine because
1:02:35
Speaker 1: you know, you're taking weight further out towards the end
1:02:39
Speaker 1: of that object that is flexing in a paradox. So
1:02:44
Speaker 1: you know, I've just found that keeping ahead that is,
1:02:49
Speaker 1: is close to the length of my field point or
1:02:52
Speaker 1: my practice point is really really critical. The broadhead thing,
1:02:57
Speaker 1: I think is something that well, obviously it's some thing
1:03:00
Speaker 1: that people debate about it all the time. There's so
1:03:02
Speaker 1: much you know, back and forth between fixed blade or
1:03:05
Speaker 1: mechanical this way or that way to etcetera, etcetera. For
1:03:08
Speaker 1: someone who's relatively new to bow hunting, who maybe hasn't
1:03:11
Speaker 1: been able to dive into this deep and look at
1:03:13
Speaker 1: all the nuance, what would you recommend as like the
1:03:17
Speaker 1: safe bet, like for your new bow hunting buddy, for
1:03:20
Speaker 1: the average deer hunter. Well, you know, if you had
1:03:23
Speaker 1: to pick just one that's a safe bet for the
1:03:25
Speaker 1: average new bow hunter, what would you say is the
1:03:27
Speaker 1: safest bet, just to make it a simple, simple for
1:03:30
Speaker 1: this person, what would you say? Well, I just know
1:03:33
Speaker 1: for me and for me and my family, and you know,
1:03:36
Speaker 1: I've got i've got a son, and i've got a wife,
1:03:39
Speaker 1: and I try every kind of broad head on the market.
1:03:43
Speaker 1: But when it comes to a broadhead that I can
1:03:47
Speaker 1: screw on that's sharp, that penetrates good with low poundage
1:03:51
Speaker 1: to high poundage. And also UM one that has very
1:03:55
Speaker 1: sharp blades out of the pack and it is fairly compact. Um.
1:04:02
Speaker 1: You know, right now, I'm I'm shooting on my setup.
1:04:05
Speaker 1: If I shoot a fixed plade head, I'm shooting a
1:04:07
Speaker 1: muzzy tro car. If I'm shooting mechanical, I'm shooting a
1:04:10
Speaker 1: rage hypodermic or that rage hypodermic plus P, which is
1:04:15
Speaker 1: a half inch less cutting diameter than the original rage
1:04:19
Speaker 1: hypodermic UM, so it has and in the blade angles
1:04:23
Speaker 1: a little, it's not as steep, so it's actually better
1:04:27
Speaker 1: for penetration on say a bigger animal like moose or elk.
1:04:32
Speaker 1: And those are two that are just their fool proof
1:04:36
Speaker 1: they work. Are there other heads that fly like that
1:04:39
Speaker 1: in different categories? There are, um, But you know, if
1:04:45
Speaker 1: you're gonna make me pick one of each, I'm just
1:04:47
Speaker 1: gonna tell you those are the two that I'm shooting,
1:04:50
Speaker 1: and I could shoot any brand I on it. Well,
1:04:54
Speaker 1: I like your answer, John, because I shoot a troke
1:04:56
Speaker 1: car too, So thanks for validating me. Yeah, Now here's
1:05:02
Speaker 1: the one question that I have about your answer there.
1:05:04
Speaker 1: Why would you shoot one or the other. Is it
1:05:06
Speaker 1: like certain animals you're gonna shoot the expandable, certain animals
1:05:09
Speaker 1: you're gonna shoot the fixed Or is it just something
1:05:12
Speaker 1: that you like to try both and and test out
1:05:15
Speaker 1: the two different things, or when would you pick the
1:05:17
Speaker 1: rage versus the troll car in your own hunting situations? Um,
1:05:22
Speaker 1: I personally, I just really am a favor of the rage.
1:05:27
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a favor of and I should I'm a
1:05:31
Speaker 1: big favor of the hypodermic. I mean, if I'm gonna
1:05:34
Speaker 1: pinpoint it, um, and be honest, the hypodermic is I've
1:05:40
Speaker 1: I've probably I've probably taken twenty or more animals in
1:05:46
Speaker 1: the last few years with that head. UM, And I
1:05:50
Speaker 1: can tell you that I just, personally, the only reason
1:05:57
Speaker 1: I would shoot a fixed blade head is if that
1:05:59
Speaker 1: I'm if I'm really worrying about hitting against bone mass, um,
1:06:06
Speaker 1: really solid bone mass, just because the blades slide backwards,
1:06:11
Speaker 1: so they have to travel an inch before they're fully deployed. UM.
1:06:16
Speaker 1: A lot of those shorter, more compact head like that trocar.
1:06:19
Speaker 1: I mean, that's gonna that's gonna bust some stuff. But
1:06:23
Speaker 1: the thing is, if I'm going to hit that main
1:06:28
Speaker 1: front arm on an elk or on I mean, or
1:06:32
Speaker 1: on something really big, you're really talking about maybe five
1:06:38
Speaker 1: to eight percent of the area of that animal. You know,
1:06:44
Speaker 1: your likelihood of hitting it. You know, it's like probably
1:06:46
Speaker 1: only eight you know, five or eight percent of the size. Um.
1:06:52
Speaker 1: Anywhere other than that five or eight percent, I would
1:06:55
Speaker 1: way rather have a large cutting expandable getting in there
1:07:01
Speaker 1: and causing more damage because even a poor shot, you're
1:07:05
Speaker 1: going to have a better opportunity than just punching an
1:07:09
Speaker 1: inch in an eighth or an inch and a quarter
1:07:12
Speaker 1: fixed blade head through there. Now, if the arrow lodges
1:07:17
Speaker 1: in and it's stuck in there and as the animals moving,
1:07:22
Speaker 1: it's continually working, um, then in that case a fixed
1:07:27
Speaker 1: blade can be better because the mechanical will start to shut.
1:07:33
Speaker 1: So there's there's so many you know, you we could
1:07:39
Speaker 1: start a discussion or the debate on broadheads and we
1:07:43
Speaker 1: could still be talking about it this time next year.
1:07:47
Speaker 1: It's just one of those deals that keeps going. I personally, um,
1:07:53
Speaker 1: I just I kind of switch off, you know, I
1:07:56
Speaker 1: switched around. There's just times where maybe I don't want
1:07:58
Speaker 1: to go with the mechanic goal. And it's certainly if
1:08:01
Speaker 1: you're shooting lower poundage. A lot of people now are
1:08:04
Speaker 1: starting to shoot around sixty pounds. UM. All those sixty
1:08:10
Speaker 1: pounds is enough if you're you know, behind the shoulder
1:08:13
Speaker 1: in a proper spot. But I can just say that
1:08:16
Speaker 1: if I was, if I was shooting sixty pounds myself, UM,
1:08:20
Speaker 1: I would probably be shooting a fixed blade broad head
1:08:23
Speaker 1: because you know, with a four green arrow or something
1:08:28
Speaker 1: like that, at you know, sixty to sixty five pounds,
1:08:32
Speaker 1: you know you're probably gonna be shooting UM somewhere around
1:08:36
Speaker 1: the mid sixties or something for kinetic energy, depending on
1:08:40
Speaker 1: your airroweight. And that's just a really good, UM, a
1:08:45
Speaker 1: really good level to to have a fixed blade head.
1:08:49
Speaker 1: That's kind of a perfect situation. Or for example, my
1:08:52
Speaker 1: wife and my son, UM, they both shoot fixed blade
1:08:56
Speaker 1: heads because they both shoot UM. One shoots forty pounds,
1:08:59
Speaker 1: one shots forty five pounds, So they just need that
1:09:03
Speaker 1: fixed blade head that's kind of cutting sooner and going in. UM,
1:09:09
Speaker 1: it just seems like the penetration and having that immediate
1:09:14
Speaker 1: cut or if it's lodged in their halfway, UM, it's
1:09:18
Speaker 1: it's still doing work for you and they've just had
1:09:22
Speaker 1: great success with that. Whereas someone that's shooting seventy year pounds,
1:09:29
Speaker 1: a big mechanical is going to have a lot of
1:09:32
Speaker 1: advantages for sure, especially when you get the higher speeds. UM,
1:09:38
Speaker 1: it's just going to be important that you have something
1:09:40
Speaker 1: that has better ballistic characteristics UM for better aero flight
1:09:46
Speaker 1: at a higher speed so to speak. All right, well,
1:09:51
Speaker 1: we are about to shift gears away from talking archery
1:09:53
Speaker 1: and over to talking white tails. But before we do that,
1:09:57
Speaker 1: speaking of white tails, we need to thank our partner
1:10:00
Speaker 1: at the white Tail Institute of North America for supporting
1:10:03
Speaker 1: this podcast. And if you're listening to this right now
1:10:06
Speaker 1: at the beginning of September, there is possibly still time
1:10:09
Speaker 1: for you to get a food plot in the ground.
1:10:11
Speaker 1: And if that's something you're trying to do, annuals are
1:10:14
Speaker 1: probably what you want to be planting. So to help
1:10:17
Speaker 1: us better understand what annuals are and how you can
1:10:19
Speaker 1: use them, here's White Tail Institute employee John Cooner Right.
1:10:24
Speaker 1: Annuals are probably the most the most diverse in terms
1:10:28
Speaker 1: of what you can do with them. Uh, if you
1:10:30
Speaker 1: have a smaller property, some folks will plant perennials. Some
1:10:34
Speaker 1: folks will plant just annuals, and you can really do
1:10:36
Speaker 1: well on just annual plannings, especially on smaller properties. Uh,
1:10:41
Speaker 1: the annuals tend to grow. And this is just a
1:10:44
Speaker 1: big macro statement. They're not all like this, but most
1:10:48
Speaker 1: annual deer forages will grow more quickly because they're designed.
1:10:52
Speaker 1: Rather than the designed to last for multiple years, they
1:10:57
Speaker 1: just spend everything they have during the period for which
1:11:01
Speaker 1: they're designed to be planted. Uh. That could be spring
1:11:03
Speaker 1: and summer for ant ord growth. And you've got a
1:11:05
Speaker 1: fall fall is that you can put it in the
1:11:07
Speaker 1: fall that will be there. Uh. Some well some components
1:11:10
Speaker 1: will run probably into the following summer. But they're really
1:11:13
Speaker 1: designed to just hammer that certain time of year and
1:11:17
Speaker 1: and uh that that could be early fall through late
1:11:20
Speaker 1: hunting season. Another case it could be early fall through winter,
1:11:24
Speaker 1: and another one early fall and then well into the
1:11:26
Speaker 1: spring and probably has something left in the summer. So
1:11:30
Speaker 1: there to answer your question, they are a great way
1:11:32
Speaker 1: to target a specific time of year when you're trying
1:11:36
Speaker 1: to deliver either attraction or nutrition or both to the deer.
1:11:41
Speaker 1: So for me up here in Michigan right now is
1:11:43
Speaker 1: one of the very best times to plant one of
1:11:45
Speaker 1: my favorite annuals. White Tail Institutes a variation of oats
1:11:48
Speaker 1: which I just recently got in the ground here on
1:11:51
Speaker 1: my main Michigan property. So if you'd like to try
1:11:54
Speaker 1: to get a last minute food plot or learn more
1:11:56
Speaker 1: about White Tail Institute's food plot options, you can visit
1:11:59
Speaker 1: Whitetail Institute dot com. And now back to the show. Yeah,
1:12:04
Speaker 1: like you said, it's one of those topics that we
1:12:06
Speaker 1: could we could go around circles and talk about for
1:12:08
Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours, but that's definitely helpful. I think, um,
1:12:11
Speaker 1: those two options, they are the hypodermic where the tro
1:12:14
Speaker 1: car are great places to start for someone who's just
1:12:17
Speaker 1: starting to wrap their head around this whole topic. But
1:12:20
Speaker 1: I want to shift gears now two deer, because I
1:12:24
Speaker 1: know that's what your where your heads at probably here
1:12:26
Speaker 1: momentarily when you need to check those cameras. And one
1:12:29
Speaker 1: of the favorite things I've ever one of one of
1:12:32
Speaker 1: my favorite stories I ever heard might be your story
1:12:37
Speaker 1: about a decoy incident. You had a hunt with a
1:12:40
Speaker 1: decoy where you actually were walking away from a crappy
1:12:45
Speaker 1: tree stand, carrying your decoy back to the truck. I
1:12:48
Speaker 1: want to hear about your decoy strategy, but first, can
1:12:51
Speaker 1: you give us like a short version of that story
1:12:53
Speaker 1: and then kind of go into detail about how you
1:12:55
Speaker 1: typically use decoys to have success, because I love that
1:12:58
Speaker 1: story and how you seemed to be doing pretty well
1:13:01
Speaker 1: with that tactic too. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny because I'm
1:13:04
Speaker 1: actually standing right next to that deer right now as
1:13:06
Speaker 1: you're saying that I was walked into my archery room. Um.
1:13:10
Speaker 1: But yeah, UM, so what happened was I was I
1:13:14
Speaker 1: was hunting with a friend of mine, um, actually here
1:13:19
Speaker 1: in Iowa. Um it was before I lived here, and
1:13:23
Speaker 1: I went out and I had had several times were
1:13:27
Speaker 1: they sent me the tree stands that were definitely less
1:13:31
Speaker 1: than preferred. Um. Some were just hung crooked somewhere didn't
1:13:36
Speaker 1: seem safe to get into. So UM, I had kind
1:13:39
Speaker 1: of got to the point where I had just said, listen,
1:13:42
Speaker 1: I just want to go somewhere where I can sit
1:13:45
Speaker 1: and be comfortable for the day. You know, just just
1:13:48
Speaker 1: I don't even care if it's a good spot. Just
1:13:50
Speaker 1: put me in a spot where it's safe to get
1:13:54
Speaker 1: in the tree and I can sit there for a
1:13:56
Speaker 1: long period of time. Did you have seats falling off
1:14:00
Speaker 1: a tree stands and stuff happening on some of your
1:14:02
Speaker 1: earlier hunt. Well, it was actually that the well they said,
1:14:08
Speaker 1: they said, we'll send you to a stand that anybody
1:14:13
Speaker 1: can hunt out of it. He said, a matter of fact,
1:14:14
Speaker 1: a girl hunted out of it last week. And I said, okay,
1:14:20
Speaker 1: well that's fine. So I went there and he kind
1:14:23
Speaker 1: of told me, you know, you're gonna go across this
1:14:26
Speaker 1: You're gonna go along this crp field and across this
1:14:30
Speaker 1: alfalfa field. And then when you get across the alfalfa field,
1:14:34
Speaker 1: you know, the timber makes a point and right where
1:14:36
Speaker 1: that point is, there's a tree stand right in there.
1:14:39
Speaker 1: And he said, you know those deer like the come
1:14:42
Speaker 1: around that point as they're feeding along in the alfalfa.
1:14:46
Speaker 1: So I said all right, And I also told him,
1:14:49
Speaker 1: I said, well, you know, based off of what I'm seeing,
1:14:51
Speaker 1: I really want to take a decoy too. And that
1:14:54
Speaker 1: was part of why, you know, we picked this spot,
1:14:56
Speaker 1: because um, you know, putting the decoy in the area
1:15:00
Speaker 1: where they're visible is important. So you know, I went
1:15:03
Speaker 1: out there and it was probably a good half mile
1:15:05
Speaker 1: walk or more so had my you know, and it's
1:15:10
Speaker 1: it's November tenth and fifteen somewhere in there. Um, and
1:15:17
Speaker 1: it's cold, and I've got a ton of clothes on
1:15:19
Speaker 1: and I'm going in for the day. So I've got
1:15:23
Speaker 1: my decoy, camera gear, my bow. You know, I'm I'm
1:15:28
Speaker 1: loaded down. I'm trying to to walk and carry this
1:15:31
Speaker 1: plastic decoy and not make noise. And you know, I
1:15:36
Speaker 1: literally get out there and I kind of look up
1:15:39
Speaker 1: and I see this old this stand up there, and
1:15:44
Speaker 1: he had told me, he said it's he said, this
1:15:45
Speaker 1: stands nice. It's one of those api s has a
1:15:48
Speaker 1: twister seat on it. So I'm just like, okay, I
1:15:51
Speaker 1: looked it had a twister seat on it, but like
1:15:55
Speaker 1: it wasn't the round ones that they come with. I
1:15:58
Speaker 1: could tell it was squares, So I thought, you all right,
1:16:01
Speaker 1: you know they improvised. But you know, I got my
1:16:04
Speaker 1: decoy out, went over the tree, put all my clothes on, uh,
1:16:12
Speaker 1: you know, went up the tree, kind of got my
1:16:15
Speaker 1: bow up there, and you know, tied off all my
1:16:17
Speaker 1: camera gear to the cords, went up the tree, and
1:16:22
Speaker 1: as I was grabbing the seat to pull myself on,
1:16:26
Speaker 1: the whole seat ripped off in my hand and I
1:16:30
Speaker 1: was just like, you've got to be kidding me, because
1:16:33
Speaker 1: then it's just a post sitting there. So I'm like looking,
1:16:37
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, am I gonna stand the you know,
1:16:41
Speaker 1: the whole hunt. And so I had just kinda I
1:16:46
Speaker 1: had had it. It had been you know, because back
1:16:49
Speaker 1: then I had one week of vacation time at at work,
1:16:56
Speaker 1: and by this point, for four days I had had
1:17:00
Speaker 1: watch hunts. Because this you know, I was at the
1:17:04
Speaker 1: mercy of someone else's tree stand hanging and I ended
1:17:10
Speaker 1: up getting out of the tree. I was just like,
1:17:14
Speaker 1: that's it. I need to just go take a deep
1:17:17
Speaker 1: breath or hang my own stand somewhere or something. So
1:17:20
Speaker 1: I just, um, I kind of grabbed the deer and
1:17:26
Speaker 1: I pulled the stakes out, and I, you know, laid
1:17:29
Speaker 1: the deer down. I went over and got my backpack
1:17:32
Speaker 1: and I started taking my gear off again so I
1:17:35
Speaker 1: wouldn't sweat so bad walking out. And I was just
1:17:39
Speaker 1: starting to leave, and as I started to leave, I
1:17:41
Speaker 1: looked up on a tree that was actually right on
1:17:46
Speaker 1: the edge of that point and there's like a brand new,
1:17:50
Speaker 1: perfectly good, um api tree stand right there. So I
1:17:57
Speaker 1: was like, oh, I picked the wrong one. So I
1:18:01
Speaker 1: went back and put the decoy back up, got dressed again,
1:18:05
Speaker 1: went over the tree, and then literally, as I'm going
1:18:09
Speaker 1: to get on the tree, I look and there isn't
1:18:13
Speaker 1: a single tree peg or stuff or nothing like Evidcity.
1:18:19
Speaker 1: Someone had put that tree stand up and either took
1:18:23
Speaker 1: their pegs or whatever. So I was just like, you
1:18:26
Speaker 1: got to be kidding me, And this is you know,
1:18:29
Speaker 1: this is like the middle of the day. So I
1:18:33
Speaker 1: ended up this time, I ended up taking my crap off,
1:18:38
Speaker 1: jamming it in my pack, and I walked up and
1:18:41
Speaker 1: I literally grabbed the decoy around the waist and just
1:18:44
Speaker 1: ripped it out of the ground. And I was walking.
1:18:47
Speaker 1: I was like stomping mad across the south southa field
1:18:51
Speaker 1: with four steaks dangling out of the bottom of a
1:18:54
Speaker 1: plastic flamboy decoy. So I mean they're rattling around and
1:19:00
Speaker 1: and clunking around, and I mean I'm just carrying this
1:19:02
Speaker 1: thing with like the steaks hanging out of its feet.
1:19:06
Speaker 1: And as I'm going I look over and right in
1:19:09
Speaker 1: the crp, you know, maybe seventy eight yards here's this
1:19:14
Speaker 1: buck and it's like looking at me. And I mean
1:19:19
Speaker 1: it's looking right at me. So and it was big.
1:19:23
Speaker 1: It's you know, twenty two inches wide, it's you know,
1:19:26
Speaker 1: it's a hundred mid one fifties, upper one fifties deer.
1:19:30
Speaker 1: And I look. I'm like, well, there's a good deer.
1:19:34
Speaker 1: And I turned and just kept walking because I'm like, yeah,
1:19:37
Speaker 1: that's how you know. I figured I had stood him
1:19:39
Speaker 1: up or something. So I walk a couple more steps
1:19:41
Speaker 1: and then I looked back and he's like almost to
1:19:45
Speaker 1: the edge of the alfalfa, just coming right at me.
1:19:48
Speaker 1: So I stopped and I look at him, and I
1:19:51
Speaker 1: can see his ears are pinned back. So I'm like,
1:19:54
Speaker 1: holy crap, eat, you know, he thinks I'm here. So
1:19:57
Speaker 1: I set the I literally se at the decoy on
1:20:01
Speaker 1: the ground, and you know, because the stakes were still
1:20:05
Speaker 1: like through its feet, it wasn't real stable. So I'm
1:20:09
Speaker 1: like leaning against my shoulder and I'm digging through my pack,
1:20:13
Speaker 1: like throwing jackets and shirts out of my pack in
1:20:16
Speaker 1: order to get figure out where the heck I put
1:20:19
Speaker 1: my release. So I get in there and I'm like
1:20:22
Speaker 1: throwing this stuff over my shoulder. I get in there
1:20:25
Speaker 1: and find my release. I put my release on. I
1:20:27
Speaker 1: look over the decoy and he's like fifty yards, I
1:20:32
Speaker 1: mean like fifty yards just ears pinned back, hairs bristled up.
1:20:37
Speaker 1: He's posture and coming in sideways. So I tell myself,
1:20:43
Speaker 1: you know, you can't, like you need to stay behind
1:20:46
Speaker 1: the decoy, because I'm in my mind, I'm thinking, do
1:20:48
Speaker 1: the same thing as when you're antelope punting. You know,
1:20:50
Speaker 1: you stay behind the decoy even though you are behind it.
1:20:54
Speaker 1: They don't put two and two together. So I try
1:20:57
Speaker 1: to draw my bow while I'm behind the decoy, and
1:21:01
Speaker 1: about the time I get the three quarter draw, I
1:21:04
Speaker 1: pushed the decoy and it literally falls straight over and
1:21:10
Speaker 1: hits the ground. And I should have just ripped my
1:21:13
Speaker 1: bow back and shot, but I was literally at full draw,
1:21:17
Speaker 1: and when that thing was going I let up and
1:21:21
Speaker 1: like threw my bow down and like tried to grab
1:21:23
Speaker 1: it to like, you know, to like not let myself
1:21:26
Speaker 1: be sitting in the middle of the field as if
1:21:29
Speaker 1: all this other stuff was making any sense anyway. So
1:21:34
Speaker 1: then I grabbed the decoy, picked it back up, and
1:21:39
Speaker 1: the buck then started like slobbery, and he's licking his
1:21:43
Speaker 1: nose and now he's like twenty five yards coming, I mean,
1:21:47
Speaker 1: like he's coming to ram this thing. So I took
1:21:51
Speaker 1: my bow, I put it over the top of the decoy,
1:21:54
Speaker 1: I drew back, and when I drew back, I could
1:21:58
Speaker 1: only get to about three quarter full draw, and the
1:22:02
Speaker 1: decoy was just smashed between my string and my body
1:22:06
Speaker 1: and I could not lean my body in any way
1:22:10
Speaker 1: to get my bow to full draw. And I lived,
1:22:15
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm like going through this and by
1:22:18
Speaker 1: the time I realized, like I'm looking down trying to
1:22:21
Speaker 1: figure out what the string stuck on. And by the
1:22:23
Speaker 1: time I realized, listen, I'm not going to get this
1:22:26
Speaker 1: bow to full draw and there's no way I can
1:22:29
Speaker 1: like redo any of this. So I look up at
1:22:32
Speaker 1: the deer and the buck was at fifteen yards. He
1:22:37
Speaker 1: was just literally quartering, like quartering pretty hard, or like
1:22:43
Speaker 1: quartering to me to broadside side, stepping in with his
1:22:47
Speaker 1: head like load to the ground, fully turned ears pinned back,
1:22:53
Speaker 1: and I just just raise my release aid right up
1:22:57
Speaker 1: to the side of my eye and just looked right
1:22:59
Speaker 1: down arrow and just let it and it freaking stuck
1:23:07
Speaker 1: him and he went like he just literally kind of hot,
1:23:11
Speaker 1: started hobbling and went like I don't know, maybe fifteen
1:23:15
Speaker 1: yards and then just fell over right there in that field,
1:23:20
Speaker 1: and it was the only time. You know, normally, I
1:23:22
Speaker 1: don't like it. I personally don't like it when I
1:23:26
Speaker 1: see people on TV that are like screaming when they
1:23:29
Speaker 1: shoot something. You know, I think a lot of it
1:23:32
Speaker 1: might might be a production type, you know, a lot
1:23:34
Speaker 1: of it could be dramatized. But this was legitimate. Like
1:23:41
Speaker 1: I just said, oh my god, did you see that?
1:23:45
Speaker 1: Like as if anyone was out there, And I was
1:23:48
Speaker 1: just like screaming, like thank you Lord. I can't freaking
1:23:55
Speaker 1: believe it. I'm like yelling, I'm just like, did anyone
1:23:58
Speaker 1: see that? And yeah? That was it? That was That
1:24:02
Speaker 1: was probably the craziest decoy um encounter I've ever been
1:24:10
Speaker 1: part of. Certainly, I gotta believe it's it's got to
1:24:13
Speaker 1: be right up there towards the craziest decoy encounters or
1:24:15
Speaker 1: any kind of connor maybe that anyone's had. I mean,
1:24:18
Speaker 1: that's that's crazy. That is an absolutely crazy situation. Now,
1:24:24
Speaker 1: how do you usually pull off a decoy hunt? How
1:24:27
Speaker 1: do you usually? I don't think this is your typical setup, right, No? No, yeah,
1:24:32
Speaker 1: that was more of like a moose like a moose encounter. Um.
1:24:37
Speaker 1: So typically what I do is with and I have.
1:24:41
Speaker 1: I actually have three designated decoy areas here where I
1:24:48
Speaker 1: hunt on some of the different places I've got here
1:24:51
Speaker 1: in Iowa. And what I really look for is I
1:24:56
Speaker 1: look for an area that allows me to be in
1:24:59
Speaker 1: cover m and also allows the decoy to be in
1:25:05
Speaker 1: a high visibility area that is also a high traffic
1:25:12
Speaker 1: area during the rut, like for example, UM. One one
1:25:18
Speaker 1: situation that I'm thinking of is I've actually got this
1:25:22
Speaker 1: food plot that is, you know, it's just a regular
1:25:26
Speaker 1: food plot. It's kind of a rectangular shape, two acres
1:25:32
Speaker 1: on the one long end, and I actually have a
1:25:35
Speaker 1: decoy set up for both ends of this field. So
1:25:40
Speaker 1: what I'll wait for is a wind that would put
1:25:42
Speaker 1: the wind directly into my face, which for this particular field,
1:25:48
Speaker 1: and east wind, which is fairly uncommon, but UM, for
1:25:52
Speaker 1: this particular if I do have an east wind, when
1:25:55
Speaker 1: the timing is right, this has been notoriously my best
1:25:58
Speaker 1: spot because this food plot is built up on a crown,
1:26:03
Speaker 1: and there's on one side of the crown there's a
1:26:08
Speaker 1: deep draw that goes into a big cedar thicket, and
1:26:11
Speaker 1: then on the other side of the crown there's also
1:26:14
Speaker 1: another draw that feeds all the way through like a
1:26:17
Speaker 1: timber system that runs way off through my neighbors and
1:26:20
Speaker 1: everything like that. So really what's happening is these bucks
1:26:26
Speaker 1: when they start covering ground, they're coming up out of
1:26:29
Speaker 1: these draws and they're just like they just kind of
1:26:32
Speaker 1: appear into food plot. They look around a lot of times.
1:26:35
Speaker 1: They're not eating, you know, they're not eating. They're just
1:26:37
Speaker 1: the crossover and they'll go into the next area. You know,
1:26:40
Speaker 1: you have those spots where you always see bucks just crossing.
1:26:44
Speaker 1: They're never staying there, but they're crossing. These are really
1:26:47
Speaker 1: good areas for decoys because you know that there's going
1:26:50
Speaker 1: to be traffic and you know you have the ability
1:26:53
Speaker 1: to put it in an area where you're able to
1:26:57
Speaker 1: to see or the you know, the you're able to see.
1:27:01
Speaker 1: And from there, what I do is I really focus
1:27:03
Speaker 1: on putting the decoys um about thirty yards in front
1:27:08
Speaker 1: of me with their wind blowing directly towards me, and
1:27:14
Speaker 1: I'll face them facing directly towards me and my tree.
1:27:19
Speaker 1: So what that does is when these bucks will come
1:27:23
Speaker 1: up and they'll pop into these these open pockets, they'll
1:27:28
Speaker 1: see that deer and then what they'll do is they're
1:27:31
Speaker 1: gonna try to get down wind of that decoy. I mean,
1:27:35
Speaker 1: they're always going to try to get down wind first.
1:27:38
Speaker 1: And they also really like to approach a decoy at
1:27:42
Speaker 1: the direction that they're facing. So a lot of times
1:27:46
Speaker 1: when they come up and they'll see that decoy and
1:27:48
Speaker 1: it'll be like kind of facing you know, it'll be
1:27:52
Speaker 1: like looking directly under my stand into the timberline or
1:27:56
Speaker 1: the field that's behind me. A lot of times the
1:28:00
Speaker 1: year just going to assume that that decoy has the
1:28:03
Speaker 1: attention of maybe a bedded dough or something in that
1:28:06
Speaker 1: fence line, or maybe even a dough that's bedded in,
1:28:10
Speaker 1: you know, the field behind me. And what they'll do
1:28:13
Speaker 1: is the bucks just always just go right to the
1:28:16
Speaker 1: edge of the food plot and they'll follow that taller
1:28:20
Speaker 1: grass along the edge of the food plot, and then
1:28:22
Speaker 1: they'll button hook right around and they'll really utilize the
1:28:28
Speaker 1: edge of that cover um and try to split the
1:28:32
Speaker 1: difference kind of between me and the tree and that decoy.
1:28:37
Speaker 1: They'll kind of come in right on the outer edge
1:28:40
Speaker 1: of that that cover. They feel safe, like they can
1:28:43
Speaker 1: jump in there and and be gone if they don't
1:28:46
Speaker 1: like something about it. And as they button hook around
1:28:49
Speaker 1: you the entire time, they're gonna be looking right at
1:28:53
Speaker 1: that decoy. They're looking at it, and until they hit
1:28:56
Speaker 1: the wind of that decoy, you have a great opportunity
1:29:00
Speaker 1: entity to be able to to make a shot as
1:29:04
Speaker 1: long as you know that that wind is blowing directly
1:29:07
Speaker 1: to you. So as long as that that buck is
1:29:10
Speaker 1: button hooking around, you've pretty much got until that that
1:29:15
Speaker 1: deer gets directly down wind of your decoy, um for
1:29:19
Speaker 1: you to make your shot. And it's it's worked incredible. Um.
1:29:23
Speaker 1: You know, I really like to focus on the times
1:29:27
Speaker 1: of year. Um when the first like when the first
1:29:30
Speaker 1: part of the ruck gets going, like where you have one,
1:29:33
Speaker 1: maybe one or two does that have come into heat,
1:29:36
Speaker 1: um and you know it seems like, you know, you
1:29:39
Speaker 1: maybe see that first dough get bread and every buck
1:29:42
Speaker 1: in the country's honor um. Normally, right after that things
1:29:46
Speaker 1: kind of break loose and these bucks are really going
1:29:50
Speaker 1: to be looking for does. And you also find out
1:29:53
Speaker 1: that during that first part of the rut, most food
1:29:59
Speaker 1: plots are like vacant, like does are gonna come out
1:30:03
Speaker 1: and show themselves because they know they're gonna get harassed.
1:30:07
Speaker 1: So when a buck comes out and sees the dough
1:30:10
Speaker 1: and it's standing there. They're gonna do that same thing.
1:30:15
Speaker 1: So during the first part of the rut, I'll decoy
1:30:18
Speaker 1: with the dough. But then once you get into the
1:30:22
Speaker 1: middle of the rut, or and then towards the tail
1:30:25
Speaker 1: end of the rut, I really like having a buck decoy,
1:30:29
Speaker 1: or I like having a buck decoy during the pre rut.
1:30:32
Speaker 1: You know, there's a time where that velvet comes off
1:30:35
Speaker 1: and right before the scrape start getting made. Um, a
1:30:38
Speaker 1: lot of you know, a lot of bucks will start
1:30:41
Speaker 1: to kind of they'll start to fight a little bit,
1:30:44
Speaker 1: and you know, you might be in the woods and
1:30:45
Speaker 1: start to hear your first fight of the of the
1:30:49
Speaker 1: of the year. And that's a good time to try
1:30:52
Speaker 1: a book decoy as well. But really the recipe is
1:30:55
Speaker 1: always get it um about thirty yards in front of
1:31:00
Speaker 1: yea with it facing you, wind blowing right directly towards you.
1:31:05
Speaker 1: You want to be in some cover, um. You know,
1:31:08
Speaker 1: it's nice to have. You know, a lot of times
1:31:11
Speaker 1: I like to be towards one end of a food
1:31:13
Speaker 1: plot or another. That way, if deer come in the
1:31:15
Speaker 1: food plot, um, you know they can even if that
1:31:19
Speaker 1: things down there on the end. A lot of times,
1:31:21
Speaker 1: if it's facing out of the food plot, the other
1:31:26
Speaker 1: animals won't get all freaked out by it. If it's
1:31:29
Speaker 1: just staying there, you know, they don't pay attention. Now
1:31:32
Speaker 1: if it's if you're facing away from you and it's
1:31:34
Speaker 1: looking into the middle of the food plot and stuff
1:31:36
Speaker 1: comes out, well, everything is just gonna start looking right
1:31:39
Speaker 1: at it, and when it doesn't move, they're going to
1:31:42
Speaker 1: have a problem with it. So that's kind of why
1:31:45
Speaker 1: I like to keep it off to the side. And
1:31:49
Speaker 1: you know, it might not be as noticeable, but if
1:31:52
Speaker 1: you have a grunt tube, you can always seem to
1:31:54
Speaker 1: at least get something to look that way, and and
1:31:57
Speaker 1: and then once they're looking that way, they're gonna they're
1:32:00
Speaker 1: going to take notice. It seems like, you know, decoy
1:32:04
Speaker 1: is kind of one of those higher risk, higher reward
1:32:06
Speaker 1: types of moves where it can definitely help be that
1:32:09
Speaker 1: kind of closing deal that or that helps connect the
1:32:14
Speaker 1: dots to finally bring in that buck that might be
1:32:15
Speaker 1: out of range. But also there's the risk you could
1:32:17
Speaker 1: spook dear. I mean, if you had to put a
1:32:19
Speaker 1: percentage on how often this sends up spooking dear versus
1:32:24
Speaker 1: helping you, you know, risk versus reward. How would you
1:32:27
Speaker 1: break it down? Is it like at kind of thing
1:32:29
Speaker 1: or is it more one way or the other? Well,
1:32:34
Speaker 1: I can tell you, um, if you're really serious about it. Uh.
1:32:42
Speaker 1: I made an investment years ago in I made an
1:32:49
Speaker 1: investment to to buy an actual stuffed decoy and it
1:32:56
Speaker 1: has made a huge difference and how it makes or
1:33:04
Speaker 1: breaks a hunt for whatever reason. Um, if it has
1:33:09
Speaker 1: hair on it, like if it's a natural you know,
1:33:12
Speaker 1: and you can get a mounted deer for about a
1:33:15
Speaker 1: thousand bucks and you know, and it's it's double what
1:33:20
Speaker 1: a normal decoy is. Um. But I can tell you
1:33:23
Speaker 1: if it has hair on it, it's not gonna scare anything. Um,
1:33:29
Speaker 1: they come out. I mean I've had fawns bed around it,
1:33:33
Speaker 1: you know. They it's like, for whatever reason, it's like
1:33:36
Speaker 1: a totally different world. Now next in line is going
1:33:40
Speaker 1: to be my Dave Smith decoy. I've killed a lot
1:33:44
Speaker 1: of bucks over my Dave Smith decoy. Um. Obviously, what's
1:33:50
Speaker 1: nice about that is it just I think the posture
1:33:54
Speaker 1: of it and the realism of it. You really need
1:33:58
Speaker 1: to use it as a buck decoy or so than
1:34:00
Speaker 1: the dope because of the position of it. But um,
1:34:05
Speaker 1: it is plastic, so it's much easier to travel with.
1:34:09
Speaker 1: I mean, you can jam it, you can put it
1:34:11
Speaker 1: in the back of your truck and pile a bunch
1:34:13
Speaker 1: of other year around it. And if it's raining, you're fine.
1:34:18
Speaker 1: Or if you take it through a real wet field,
1:34:21
Speaker 1: you know, or if you want to lay it down
1:34:22
Speaker 1: and leave it overnight. Um that's kind of the advantage.
1:34:26
Speaker 1: See what I have is I've actually got like I said,
1:34:30
Speaker 1: I've got three designated decoy spots, and over the years,
1:34:34
Speaker 1: I've acquired different decoys that try different ones. And what
1:34:38
Speaker 1: I do is like on some of my areas where
1:34:41
Speaker 1: I know, I'm really going to focus on using a
1:34:43
Speaker 1: buck decoy. My David Smith decoy just stays there because
1:34:47
Speaker 1: you know it, I think your scent is off of
1:34:51
Speaker 1: it after a few days of being outside and it's
1:34:54
Speaker 1: just kind of laid down in a spot and has um,
1:34:58
Speaker 1: you know, kind of have has a cover over it
1:35:00
Speaker 1: to where it's not um really exposed. But then I
1:35:04
Speaker 1: can just go to that stand, put it up, and
1:35:07
Speaker 1: it's ready to go. It doesn't matter if it gets
1:35:10
Speaker 1: rained on. It's just much more durable and friendly, you know,
1:35:14
Speaker 1: for use, whereas the stuffed ones there you know, it's
1:35:20
Speaker 1: like having a deer mount. You know, you can't just
1:35:23
Speaker 1: beat it around. You have to you really have to
1:35:26
Speaker 1: be careful with it. So but I can tell you
1:35:29
Speaker 1: that those two are probably among the best. Now, that
1:35:32
Speaker 1: decoy story that I told you earlier was with the
1:35:36
Speaker 1: Flamboat Flambeaux decoy UM, and it was a buck decoy.
1:35:43
Speaker 1: And like I said, I think that was UM for
1:35:46
Speaker 1: sure late in the second week of November. So you know,
1:35:53
Speaker 1: I've I've had good luck with them. I mean, if
1:35:56
Speaker 1: you're if you're a specific troph the buck hunter, UM,
1:36:04
Speaker 1: and I'm talking you know, like that that buck I
1:36:07
Speaker 1: killed is um could be one of the bigger bucks.
1:36:11
Speaker 1: Well no, I actually I shot a little bit bigger
1:36:15
Speaker 1: dear than that off the Dave Smith decoy. UM. But
1:36:21
Speaker 1: for the most part, if you're if you're really a
1:36:26
Speaker 1: supermature buck hunter specifically, then sometimes you know you might
1:36:32
Speaker 1: have trouble fool in a seven year old. You know
1:36:35
Speaker 1: a lot of those seven year old bucks they're just
1:36:38
Speaker 1: they're not going to play those kinds of games for
1:36:40
Speaker 1: the girls. But you know, you're talking you know, for
1:36:44
Speaker 1: the longest time, and even now, you know, if the
1:36:47
Speaker 1: right three and a half year old comes by me,
1:36:48
Speaker 1: I shoot it. I mean, I'm not. I'm not. I'm
1:36:53
Speaker 1: not a year, five year, six year seven only guy.
1:36:57
Speaker 1: That's just me. Um. You know, there's there's certain deer
1:37:01
Speaker 1: that I that I just like. And you know, if
1:37:04
Speaker 1: I do a lot of homework and I'm doing it
1:37:07
Speaker 1: and I don't own enough property to where I can
1:37:11
Speaker 1: tell you that if I pass that deer up, he's
1:37:13
Speaker 1: gonna be there next year. Um, you know, I can
1:37:17
Speaker 1: tell you those kinds of deear three and four year
1:37:19
Speaker 1: old deer, you can certainly kill over a decoy. But
1:37:24
Speaker 1: I think once you get to six and seven year
1:37:27
Speaker 1: old bucks, they're just way more likely to have their
1:37:31
Speaker 1: designated little areas where they where they kind of always
1:37:35
Speaker 1: go round up their dough. They take them there, and
1:37:38
Speaker 1: then they kind of protect their little area. They kind
1:37:41
Speaker 1: of you know, do their little bullfighting technique. They'll get
1:37:45
Speaker 1: that dough in the middle of their little area that
1:37:47
Speaker 1: they like and then they kind of just you know,
1:37:49
Speaker 1: protect other bucks from coming within that area. And then
1:37:53
Speaker 1: a lot of the more mature doughs over the years
1:37:56
Speaker 1: of being with that local buck. They kind and know
1:38:00
Speaker 1: that routine. You know. I've had a few, Uh, I've
1:38:04
Speaker 1: had a few different books that I've encountered that I've
1:38:08
Speaker 1: really always tried to get. But during the rut, they're
1:38:12
Speaker 1: just kind of always in those little pockets where they're
1:38:15
Speaker 1: kind of in the middle of nothing. But they're there
1:38:18
Speaker 1: all the time, and it just seems like the only
1:38:20
Speaker 1: time they're not in those areas where they can kind
1:38:23
Speaker 1: of see everything here everything, Um. Then there they're on
1:38:28
Speaker 1: their feet. They kind of make their pass through the timber,
1:38:31
Speaker 1: and you know, they'll make a run through a place
1:38:33
Speaker 1: and as soon as they find a dough they'll kind
1:38:35
Speaker 1: of hurt her out and try to get her out
1:38:36
Speaker 1: in that open um. So those bucks are just a
1:38:40
Speaker 1: lot tougher for this. But I can certainly tell you
1:38:43
Speaker 1: if you're just a person that just loves hunting and
1:38:46
Speaker 1: shooting and have an action, you can certainly have action.
1:38:50
Speaker 1: My best day ever, um was actually in that field
1:38:56
Speaker 1: that I talked about, UM, a rectangular field. It was
1:38:59
Speaker 1: a first time I ever hunted it. I went in
1:39:02
Speaker 1: with a decoy. UM. I knew that I had an
1:39:05
Speaker 1: east wind, which kind of sucked, UM, but I knew.
1:39:10
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, that's an Actually it's a good decoy
1:39:13
Speaker 1: spot on east wind. There's a stand there. I'm not
1:39:16
Speaker 1: gonna I didn't have any any like uh stands in
1:39:21
Speaker 1: the timber or any thick stuff for an east wind.
1:39:25
Speaker 1: This My stand was actually on a fence line, which
1:39:29
Speaker 1: normally would kind of stink. But I knew that it
1:39:32
Speaker 1: was a crossover area, so I kind of thought, well,
1:39:35
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get my decoy there. Face it, bucks aren't
1:39:40
Speaker 1: gonna use his fence line to travel, but if they
1:39:42
Speaker 1: hit this field, they're probably gonna swing. They'll use the
1:39:46
Speaker 1: fence line to swing under downwind of this decoy, and
1:39:49
Speaker 1: let's see how it works. And I remember I decoyed
1:39:52
Speaker 1: two bucks and one day, and I'm talkings there was
1:40:00
Speaker 1: a hot dough that was just zip zipping up and
1:40:02
Speaker 1: over that field constantly, and every time a new buck
1:40:05
Speaker 1: would come up, you know, especially when I think there
1:40:08
Speaker 1: was one buck fighting off several smaller bucks. So as
1:40:13
Speaker 1: all that would happen, as soon as the deer would
1:40:15
Speaker 1: kind of follow that old scent trail of hers, they'd
1:40:17
Speaker 1: come into the field and then all of a sudden
1:40:19
Speaker 1: they look and boom, there's a buck staring into the
1:40:22
Speaker 1: fence line, so they're just assuming, okay, that does right
1:40:25
Speaker 1: over there, and they just come right in read the tech.
1:40:28
Speaker 1: I mean, it'd be perfect. Every one of them worked
1:40:31
Speaker 1: the edge of the field, came in, ended up broadside
1:40:35
Speaker 1: fifteen yards right underneath me, and then as soon as
1:40:37
Speaker 1: they'd hit the wind of the decoy, they you know,
1:40:40
Speaker 1: the younger bucks would kind of look around like what's
1:40:44
Speaker 1: going on. The more mature bucks as soon as they
1:40:47
Speaker 1: hit the down wind they're gone. But there was always
1:40:50
Speaker 1: that time where you could have got a shot because
1:40:53
Speaker 1: of the layout. Now, currently, if I'm wrong, as I've
1:40:58
Speaker 1: always understood it and seen from some of my own
1:41:00
Speaker 1: experiences to it, seems like this is one of those
1:41:03
Speaker 1: types of tactics that's going to work better in areas
1:41:06
Speaker 1: of relatively lower hunting pressure with a better age structure
1:41:10
Speaker 1: mature bucks like this could work in a property in Iowa, Kansas,
1:41:13
Speaker 1: Illinois where there's a lot of older deer and a
1:41:15
Speaker 1: little bit fewer hunters, but maybe upstate New York or whatever,
1:41:19
Speaker 1: where there's tons of guys and lots of young bucks.
1:41:21
Speaker 1: This is gonna be something that's not going to work
1:41:23
Speaker 1: as well that's what I've seen. Have you heard or
1:41:25
Speaker 1: seen similar things? Well, I think it's a lot of
1:41:30
Speaker 1: that comes down to, you know, what your local deer
1:41:34
Speaker 1: heard is experiencing. You know, if if if a lot
1:41:38
Speaker 1: of people are putting decoys out, and especially people that
1:41:42
Speaker 1: are getting in the habit of like aggressively calling at
1:41:45
Speaker 1: deer um and then the deer come over and realize, okay,
1:41:50
Speaker 1: well the decoy stinks and something's not right, then yeah,
1:41:54
Speaker 1: I mean they start to get educated and kind of crazy.
1:41:59
Speaker 1: But I can tell you that younger dear are going
1:42:02
Speaker 1: to fall fall for this way more often than mature dear.
1:42:08
Speaker 1: So I mean, if you're in Pennsylvania and you're totally
1:42:11
Speaker 1: cool shooting the four corn, I mean this is like,
1:42:16
Speaker 1: you know, four corns, the basket racts. It's a guarantee,
1:42:21
Speaker 1: you know it. Now you have to the more mature
1:42:26
Speaker 1: dear three four years old. The timing needs to be right,
1:42:30
Speaker 1: you know, they need to be in the mood for fighting,
1:42:35
Speaker 1: sniffing or fighting again. You know, that's that's the mood
1:42:40
Speaker 1: that a mature deer will be in. Now, a lot
1:42:42
Speaker 1: of the younger deer, at least in my experiences, a
1:42:46
Speaker 1: lot of deer come to deer, and if a younger
1:42:50
Speaker 1: buck hasn't experienced the decoy yet, you're more You're way
1:42:53
Speaker 1: more likely to have them come in and smell it
1:42:57
Speaker 1: and kind of run off and then look back at
1:42:59
Speaker 1: it with the hell and yeah, I think stinks like
1:43:03
Speaker 1: a person, but it looks like a deer, and then
1:43:07
Speaker 1: they may go back. I mean that's what I found. Um.
1:43:11
Speaker 1: You know another thing is I really like to uh,
1:43:16
Speaker 1: I really like to get fresh hawks. You know, if
1:43:20
Speaker 1: you can, if if you do shoot a dough like
1:43:25
Speaker 1: right during the peak of the rut, you know, before
1:43:28
Speaker 1: you get those things bloody your tainted, cut those hawks off,
1:43:32
Speaker 1: put them in a bag and I normally just kind
1:43:35
Speaker 1: of I normally set them just use my gloves, but
1:43:38
Speaker 1: set them right on the forehead of of my decoy.
1:43:43
Speaker 1: And that works really really good. And I use buck
1:43:45
Speaker 1: ones too. If a buddy of mine shoots a buck
1:43:49
Speaker 1: during the rut, I'll be like, hey, can I get
1:43:51
Speaker 1: those hawks, and I'll cut the hawks off because obviously, um,
1:43:56
Speaker 1: you know, obviously it really really helps if you leave
1:43:59
Speaker 1: it ecoy out where it's getting a lot of unnatural
1:44:04
Speaker 1: scent washed off it naturally and then you are able
1:44:07
Speaker 1: to set it up and put those on there. It
1:44:09
Speaker 1: makes a huge difference for how long the deers sit
1:44:11
Speaker 1: there and think about it. And I've had times where
1:44:15
Speaker 1: even mature, you know, three year old deer, I've seen
1:44:18
Speaker 1: him go up and like sniff the decoy's forehead like god, damn,
1:44:24
Speaker 1: you use your forehead smells like this, you know, and
1:44:28
Speaker 1: kind of back up and look at them and be like, wait,
1:44:33
Speaker 1: yeah it was that his forehead. Yeah, let me go
1:44:35
Speaker 1: in again and smelling. I mean, Um, but certain areas,
1:44:40
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, I grew up. I grew
1:44:42
Speaker 1: up in the Mississippi Delta, so uh redneck having it's
1:44:49
Speaker 1: you know, you you hunt anywhere from there over to Alabama,
1:44:54
Speaker 1: it's you know, there's deer that are that are just
1:44:57
Speaker 1: so smart they don't even see day like because they've
1:45:01
Speaker 1: grown up having read next chasing around. Um. But I
1:45:06
Speaker 1: can tell you I've had success in Mississippi. Um, I've
1:45:10
Speaker 1: had success all through the Midwest, um with the decoy,
1:45:15
Speaker 1: and I don't know I've had I've had success. You know,
1:45:19
Speaker 1: I wear a decoy hat when I elkhunt. I wear
1:45:22
Speaker 1: one when I mule deer hunt. And I'm I'm a
1:45:26
Speaker 1: believer in it, you know. I think if you're if
1:45:30
Speaker 1: the decoy is not moving and a mature doe comes out,
1:45:34
Speaker 1: you're gonna wish you you were able to shoot that dough.
1:45:39
Speaker 1: They're always the ones to get you in trouble. I
1:45:42
Speaker 1: can agree, but I can tell you mature if you
1:45:46
Speaker 1: have a fully stuffed decoy. I've had mature dough. I've
1:45:50
Speaker 1: got Actually, last year I took video. I had fourteen
1:45:54
Speaker 1: does within ten yards of my stuff decoy. Last year, Um,
1:45:59
Speaker 1: I put a decoy out I think around October, and
1:46:05
Speaker 1: all the does came out fed all the way around
1:46:08
Speaker 1: the decoy three n sixty degrees. A couple of fonts
1:46:12
Speaker 1: like stray fonds came into the field later on, and
1:46:15
Speaker 1: I think two or three of them ended up bedding
1:46:18
Speaker 1: down right underneath it. So that that makes the world
1:46:23
Speaker 1: of a difference. If it would have been like a
1:46:25
Speaker 1: fully erect alert looking plastic one, then that wouldn't have
1:46:31
Speaker 1: gone over too good. Yeah for sure. Now one quick
1:46:36
Speaker 1: clarifying question. When you were mentioned you're cutting off the
1:46:38
Speaker 1: hawks on a deer, you're talking about the Tarska blands, right, Yeah,
1:46:42
Speaker 1: so that that land on the back of the leg
1:46:43
Speaker 1: just for anyone who wasn't following there, and then one
1:46:46
Speaker 1: and more piece on the on the decoying thing. Is
1:46:49
Speaker 1: there any certain type of calling that you'd like to
1:46:52
Speaker 1: pair with the decoy. Do you rattle a lot when
1:46:54
Speaker 1: you've got the decoy out there or are you a
1:46:56
Speaker 1: little more aggressive or passive with that type of thing? Um,
1:47:01
Speaker 1: I'll I will, I will rattle, um, especially if I
1:47:08
Speaker 1: know nothing can see me. I'm not a big like
1:47:12
Speaker 1: if if it's a buck, I for sure want to
1:47:16
Speaker 1: to get the attention of I'll rat if I ever
1:47:19
Speaker 1: see a deer that I you know, if a decent deer,
1:47:22
Speaker 1: but one I will not shoot, comes up into that
1:47:24
Speaker 1: field and happens to walk across and not look at
1:47:27
Speaker 1: the decoy, there's no way I would grunt at it
1:47:30
Speaker 1: or rattle to like get it to come over to
1:47:33
Speaker 1: watch it, because you're just That's what makes your decoying
1:47:39
Speaker 1: in your area way, because they will start to associate
1:47:43
Speaker 1: your rattle patterns with that decoy, especially if they come
1:47:47
Speaker 1: in and smell human association with the decoy. So ideally
1:47:52
Speaker 1: you really want something to come in, that's that's what
1:47:56
Speaker 1: you really want to shoot. Um. But yeah, I do.
1:48:00
Speaker 1: During the rut, I always have my horns and in
1:48:04
Speaker 1: a grunt tube. I mean, probably every hour if it's um.
1:48:11
Speaker 1: If it's calm and I'm not I haven't seen a dear,
1:48:14
Speaker 1: and I don't think a deer's within earshot of me, UM,
1:48:18
Speaker 1: I will rattle, you know, I do. I'm a big
1:48:21
Speaker 1: advocate of rattling, But if I know deer close by,
1:48:25
Speaker 1: and certainly deer that aren't relative to me, I just
1:48:29
Speaker 1: don't want to bring attention to myself and don't want
1:48:32
Speaker 1: tend up freaking some stuff out um to where they.
1:48:37
Speaker 1: You know, if they end up blowing through, blowing out
1:48:40
Speaker 1: of there, you really don't know what they'll pick up
1:48:41
Speaker 1: on their way out. So if there's deer around me
1:48:45
Speaker 1: or doze bedded around me, as much as I want
1:48:48
Speaker 1: to rattle or something like that, I'll just hold off
1:48:53
Speaker 1: and kind of save it through a lull when nothing's
1:48:56
Speaker 1: nothing's around nice. I think at all that seems in
1:49:00
Speaker 1: line with with a lot of the things we've heard
1:49:02
Speaker 1: from other folks, and it's it certainly sounds like I mean,
1:49:07
Speaker 1: I mean, it's certainly is true that this type of
1:49:10
Speaker 1: thing ends up with an exciting hunt one way or
1:49:12
Speaker 1: the other. You definitely have a little more action and
1:49:14
Speaker 1: something to look at. I don't know about you. John.
1:49:16
Speaker 1: One thing that I do a lot whenever I use
1:49:18
Speaker 1: a decoy is I'll have that decoy out there and
1:49:21
Speaker 1: then I'm sitting for an hour or two and I'm
1:49:23
Speaker 1: looking at my phone or something, and then all of
1:49:25
Speaker 1: a sudden, all of a sudden, I see a buck
1:49:27
Speaker 1: out of corn mine. I jerked my head up and
1:49:29
Speaker 1: my heart jumps on my chest, and then I realized
1:49:31
Speaker 1: it's my decoy. It's happening so many times. Yep. I agree,
1:49:38
Speaker 1: It's happened to me a ton as well. I'm a
1:49:41
Speaker 1: I'm a big I'm a big believer in sitting all day.
1:49:48
Speaker 1: So there's there's definitely the time where I'm catching a
1:49:54
Speaker 1: cat nap and I'll kind of realize I'm sleeping and
1:49:59
Speaker 1: kind wake up. And then yeah, times where you kind
1:50:03
Speaker 1: of forgot that that decoys are okay, Yeah, and uh,
1:50:08
Speaker 1: but there's also been times where I've kind of nodded
1:50:11
Speaker 1: off and open my eyes and there's just something right there,
1:50:15
Speaker 1: like on it, you know, just knows knows on it.
1:50:20
Speaker 1: That's awesome. I I've yet to kill one on decoy,
1:50:24
Speaker 1: but I'm hoping it's gonna happen here soon. I'm I
1:50:28
Speaker 1: loved kind of set up you've described here and how
1:50:32
Speaker 1: you put all these pieces together. It makes a lot
1:50:34
Speaker 1: of sense to me, So I think it's something that
1:50:35
Speaker 1: can work for a lot of people. So I appreciate
1:50:37
Speaker 1: you sharing that with us. And there's there's so much
1:50:40
Speaker 1: more I really wanted to talk to you about, but
1:50:42
Speaker 1: I know I've taken a lot of your time already
1:50:43
Speaker 1: and you've got to get you gotta go check those pictures.
1:50:46
Speaker 1: So John, thank you, Thank you for taking all this
1:50:48
Speaker 1: time and chatting through these things with us. If if
1:50:50
Speaker 1: people want to learn more from you, and there's a
1:50:52
Speaker 1: lot to learn, I think especially you know what we're
1:50:55
Speaker 1: talking about the beginning in relation to archery issues. You
1:50:59
Speaker 1: know we're and they go to watch a show, listen
1:51:01
Speaker 1: to your podcasts all that stuff. Um, so yeah they can.
1:51:07
Speaker 1: They can go if they want to listen to the podcast.
1:51:09
Speaker 1: You can either look up the knock On podcasts on
1:51:13
Speaker 1: pod Bean and it's n O C k O n
1:51:17
Speaker 1: um not don't use a K. Some people are using
1:51:21
Speaker 1: a K, but yeah, it's n O C k UM
1:51:25
Speaker 1: knock On podcasts and UM. Otherwise. For Facebook, it would
1:51:30
Speaker 1: be knock on TV for the Facebook page UM or
1:51:35
Speaker 1: my Instagram account would also be knock on TV. Otherwise,
1:51:39
Speaker 1: the YouTube channel is knock on Archery UM, and certainly
1:51:45
Speaker 1: check out the the if you follow the knock on
1:51:49
Speaker 1: Facebook page then right now I'm doing a lot of
1:51:53
Speaker 1: UM are starting to do a lot of live feeds
1:51:56
Speaker 1: with UM. If I'm actually in the hard working on
1:52:01
Speaker 1: UM someone's bow or working on something particular, or sometimes
1:52:05
Speaker 1: even if I'm with a student, I may just decide
1:52:07
Speaker 1: to go live UM and you'll get a notification to
1:52:10
Speaker 1: see that and then UM. You know a lot of
1:52:14
Speaker 1: people are really finding that helpful because a lot of
1:52:17
Speaker 1: these things that I talked about their kind of difficult
1:52:21
Speaker 1: to understand UM without seeing it. So it allows me
1:52:27
Speaker 1: to to kind of UM show you a little bit
1:52:31
Speaker 1: better UM what it's like. So awesome. I saw you
1:52:36
Speaker 1: doing one a little while back when you were growing
1:52:39
Speaker 1: off some elk and then also talking about some of
1:52:41
Speaker 1: the different things, and that was pretty cool. So definitely
1:52:44
Speaker 1: recommend people check that stuff out. John. All right, well,
1:52:47
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us, and hopefully we'll
1:52:50
Speaker 1: see some stories from you this fall with another big
1:52:53
Speaker 1: buck down under the decoy or something like that. Yeah,
1:52:56
Speaker 1: I hope so too awesome. Well I be sure everyone,
1:52:59
Speaker 1: it's check out what John just mentioned on YouTube, Facebook,
1:53:03
Speaker 1: the website, Instagram and all that, and good luck this season, John,
1:53:06
Speaker 1: all right man, appreciate it. Thanks smart absolutely all right.
1:53:11
Speaker 1: So there you have it another episode of the Wired
1:53:14
Speaker 1: Hunt Podcast. But a few quick reminders before we let
1:53:17
Speaker 1: you go. First, if you haven't yet, please take a
1:53:19
Speaker 1: couple quick minutes to leave us a rating or review
1:53:22
Speaker 1: on iTunes. It makes a big difference. It doesn't take
1:53:25
Speaker 1: very long and we would really appreciate it. Secondly, our
1:53:29
Speaker 1: Wired Hunt gear store was shut down for the summer,
1:53:31
Speaker 1: but it's back up online now, so if you want
1:53:33
Speaker 1: a Wired Hunt hat, shirt or decal, visit wired to
1:53:37
Speaker 1: hunt dot com, slash shop and rock that Wired Hunt gear.
1:53:41
Speaker 1: And finally, we need to thank our partners who helped
1:53:43
Speaker 1: make this podcast possible. So thank you to Sick a Gear, Redneck, Blinds, Hunt,
1:53:48
Speaker 1: ra Maps, Ozonics, Yetti, Carbon Express, Maven Optics, and the
1:53:52
Speaker 1: White Tail Institute of North America. And finally, thank you
1:53:56
Speaker 1: all for joining us today. Hopefully this one got you
1:53:59
Speaker 1: pumped to get the ball out and maybe tests in
1:54:01
Speaker 1: decoying this fall, and of course I hope you'll stay
1:54:05
Speaker 1: wired to hunt. M h m hmmm