Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 538: Foundations - Shoot Smarter, Not Harder
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
- 0:11Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt
- 0:14Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you my first Light.
- 0:17Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all
- 0:20Speaker 1: about how to structure target practice sessions so that you'll
- 0:23Speaker 1: improve as much as possible before deer season. I know
- 0:36Speaker 1: last week I begged and I pleaded with you, find
- 0:39Speaker 1: folks to get your start shooting this year. I made
- 0:43Speaker 1: the case that you should do it now, even if
- 0:45Speaker 1: the season seems like it's really far away and there
- 0:48Speaker 1: are so many other things worth doing right now. I
- 0:51Speaker 1: hope you listened and you're at least kicking around the
- 0:54Speaker 1: idea of shooting a few airs each week or making
- 0:56Speaker 1: a monthly trip to the rifle range. Because that's good
- 0:59Speaker 1: and it put you ahead of your competition this season,
- 1:01Speaker 1: but it's not enough. There's still room for improvement in
- 1:04Speaker 1: time for implementation of a long game plan. I know
- 1:08Speaker 1: this isn't as exciting as sweet scouting tactics or I
- 1:12Speaker 1: don't know something that promises big dead bucks, but think
- 1:15Speaker 1: of it this way. The right shooting routine is as
- 1:18Speaker 1: good as any tactic I can tell you about. Actually,
- 1:22Speaker 1: it's honestly probably way more likely to put a buck
- 1:24Speaker 1: on your wall than any of that other stuff. For me,
- 1:38Speaker 1: it's not such a grind to get into the groove
- 1:40Speaker 1: of shooting all while thinking about white tails. This is
- 1:44Speaker 1: because I get most of my procrastination out of the
- 1:46Speaker 1: way when turkey season draws closer. Living in Minnesota, it's
- 1:51Speaker 1: just not much fun to go outside in February to
- 1:53Speaker 1: fling some arrows. I hate it. In fact, I don't know.
- 1:57Speaker 1: I must be just getting old because I hate and
- 2:00Speaker 1: cold unless there's a really really good reason to be cold,
- 2:03Speaker 1: like I don't know, the chance of a buck walking by,
- 2:06Speaker 1: or maybe the promise that a couple of roosters will
- 2:08Speaker 1: get up in front of my dogs. But talking myself
- 2:11Speaker 1: into going out into the yard to bust through snow
- 2:14Speaker 1: to shoot cold targets with cold fingers, that's hard. But
- 2:17Speaker 1: as February gives way to March and then April threatens
- 2:20Speaker 1: to show up, I forced myself to do it. Hitting
- 2:22Speaker 1: turkeys with a bow is a special skill that I
- 2:24Speaker 1: seem to only possess at random times, and in random seasons.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Some years, I'll go for for four on gobblers with
- 2:30Speaker 1: archery tackle and I'll be flying real high. Other seasons,
- 2:34Speaker 1: I'll go over four by the time I should start
- 2:36Speaker 1: breaking into my coffee and snacks on opening morning. I
- 2:39Speaker 1: guess you could say I'm consistently inconsistent, but I don't
- 2:43Speaker 1: want to be, so I force my happy ass to
- 2:45Speaker 1: go outside and get all the procrastination as the way
- 2:48Speaker 1: before turkey season. And now when turkey season ends and
- 2:51Speaker 1: I really want to focus on fishing for a while
- 2:53Speaker 1: instead of shooting targets and anticipation of the bow season,
- 2:56Speaker 1: I'm already kind of in the swing of things, so
- 2:58Speaker 1: it's not that hard. It's easy to get into a
- 3:00Speaker 1: couple of sessions a week when it really becomes a habit.
- 3:03Speaker 1: So that's what I do. But what about you? Did
- 3:06Speaker 1: you bow hunt turkeys this spring and force yourself to
- 3:08Speaker 1: get into some level of shooting routine. If not, did
- 3:12Speaker 1: I convince you last week to blow the dust off
- 3:14Speaker 1: your bow and get out there? I hope so. But
- 3:16Speaker 1: if not, listen again, listen to that episode, then come
- 3:20Speaker 1: back to this show, A show dedicated to shooting smarter
- 3:23Speaker 1: with each practice session so okay, we aren't going to
- 3:27Speaker 1: advance that fast because I'm not that good and probably
- 3:30Speaker 1: neither are you. Instead, let's think about a few things
- 3:33Speaker 1: that we can do to make us better. We can
- 3:36Speaker 1: work on now and in the weeks coming up by
- 3:39Speaker 1: focusing on first what we often do wrong with our
- 3:42Speaker 1: shooting sessions. Now, to do this, I'm going to assume
- 3:45Speaker 1: that your weapon is already sighted in. If it isn't,
- 3:49Speaker 1: do that first. Do it with your bow, Do it
- 3:51Speaker 1: with your rifle, your slug barrel, shotgun, your muzzleloader, whatever
- 3:54Speaker 1: you use to shoot deer. Take the time to make
- 3:57Speaker 1: sure that it is truly sighted in and not just
- 3:59Speaker 1: in a good enough category. Take care of that by
- 4:02Speaker 1: shooting dots, bulls eyes, bright orange stickers on your targets,
- 4:06Speaker 1: or whatever you have to in order to dial in
- 4:08Speaker 1: and understand where your accuracy is really at. Square that
- 4:13Speaker 1: away at short distances first, and then think about what
- 4:16Speaker 1: is next. And what's next should be mixed of shooting
- 4:20Speaker 1: bulls eyes and shooting targets that don't have bulls eyes
- 4:23Speaker 1: on them, while thinking about gradually increasing your shooting distance.
- 4:28Speaker 1: The first point is one that I really believe in
- 4:32Speaker 1: and I know I've said this a lot, and I've
- 4:33Speaker 1: written about it a whole bunch, but I'm going to
- 4:35Speaker 1: say it again. You need to own two targets for
- 4:38Speaker 1: archery practice. I said this last week. It's important gotta
- 4:42Speaker 1: have one with spots or diamonds or bulls eyes of
- 4:45Speaker 1: some kind, and you've gotta have one that looks like
- 4:47Speaker 1: a deer. This is because it's nice to shoot tight
- 4:50Speaker 1: groups on bulls eyes, and it's easy to shoot type
- 4:52Speaker 1: groups on bulls eyes, especially if you're stretching out your
- 4:55Speaker 1: effective shooting range. But dear don't have bulls eyes on
- 5:00Speaker 1: their sides. They just have hair and the vague definition
- 5:03Speaker 1: of muscles and bones and skeletal structure underneath. You want
- 5:08Speaker 1: to be able to aim at them as well as
- 5:09Speaker 1: you aim at a high contrast target face with super
- 5:13Speaker 1: visible aiming points. And this goes for all you gun
- 5:16Speaker 1: hunters out there as well. While your margin for error
- 5:20Speaker 1: is pretty big with a three away, bigger than it
- 5:22Speaker 1: is with a bow anyway, you still want to hit
- 5:25Speaker 1: deer in this sweet spot. Shooting paper targets that allow
- 5:29Speaker 1: you to center your cross hairs on a series of
- 5:31Speaker 1: concentric rings is great for seeing just how tight your
- 5:35Speaker 1: groups can get but even when you have a rifle
- 5:38Speaker 1: in your hands and you head out into the woods,
- 5:40Speaker 1: the deer won't have bulls eyes on them. Remember this
- 5:44Speaker 1: might seem like an exaggeration or that I'm collecting secret
- 5:47Speaker 1: payments from target companies, but I'm not. If you don't
- 5:51Speaker 1: believe that, do this for me. Take your chosen weapon
- 5:54Speaker 1: and just figure out how to shoot at one target
- 5:56Speaker 1: face that has nice colorful bulls eyes and that in
- 6:01Speaker 1: find a way to shoot at a three D target
- 6:02Speaker 1: of a deer or a photo realistic print of a
- 6:06Speaker 1: deer design for firearms. Shoot them at easy ranges, and
- 6:09Speaker 1: then start to back up. Pay attention to your groups
- 6:13Speaker 1: on the deer targets as you stretch out the distance
- 6:15Speaker 1: a little, Do they stay as tight as they do
- 6:17Speaker 1: on the bull's eyes? Okay, well, keep putting on a
- 6:21Speaker 1: little more distance. Eventually you'll get to a range you
- 6:24Speaker 1: might consider shooting at an animal at or maybe not,
- 6:28Speaker 1: but that your groups are different between the two targets.
- 6:31Speaker 1: This might not seem like much, but you also have
- 6:34Speaker 1: to remember that there's going to be some performance attrition
- 6:37Speaker 1: when you've got an actual buck out there in the
- 6:39Speaker 1: woods and the light is fading, and there's some twigs
- 6:42Speaker 1: hanging in your shooting lane, and it's the biggest buck
- 6:44Speaker 1: you've ever seen all season or all year, all your life.
- 6:46Speaker 1: And you'd really like to show your co workers a
- 6:49Speaker 1: photo of that trophy buck in your hands, that buck
- 6:51Speaker 1: you've been droning on and on and on about while
- 6:54Speaker 1: they pretended to care. This is the shot you're preparing for,
- 6:58Speaker 1: not the one that occurs at noon with tons of
- 7:01Speaker 1: sunlight while you're standing flat footed in your yard, or
- 7:04Speaker 1: snuggle up on a shooting bench with all the time
- 7:06Speaker 1: in the world and no pressure. Now, you can't really
- 7:10Speaker 1: simulate the real thing. You just can't, but you can
- 7:14Speaker 1: get a kind of close closer anyway in anticipation of
- 7:19Speaker 1: the real thing, so that if you do experience a
- 7:22Speaker 1: little bit of attrition in your cool headedness and accuracy,
- 7:25Speaker 1: you'll still do your job correctly and get to celebrate
- 7:27Speaker 1: a quick kill. This is what a couple of weekly
- 7:30Speaker 1: archery sessions or a monthly range session with your rifle
- 7:33Speaker 1: can help you do. Provided use the right targets. You
- 7:37Speaker 1: should also consider shooting in different conditions while using everything
- 7:40Speaker 1: you might use during the hunt. Now, I say that
- 7:43Speaker 1: with a great big asterisk attached to it, because I
- 7:47Speaker 1: know that you're not likely to suit up in your
- 7:49Speaker 1: full camel. Then hang a stand in your yard to
- 7:51Speaker 1: shoot from. Very few people actually do this, especially when
- 7:55Speaker 1: it's like eighty degrees out, but if you do at
- 7:58Speaker 1: any point of the year, you have my respect on
- 8:00Speaker 1: pure commitment alone. But we don't need to go that nuts.
- 8:04Speaker 1: You should shoot at different times of the day and
- 8:06Speaker 1: in different weather conditions, though. The easiest way to make
- 8:09Speaker 1: a practice session a little more valuable is to shoot
- 8:11Speaker 1: in low light when the mosquitoes are out. This is
- 8:14Speaker 1: one of those times when you realize how big of
- 8:16Speaker 1: a difference there is between aiming at a bright orange
- 8:18Speaker 1: dot versus aiming at a bunch of brown that represents
- 8:21Speaker 1: a dear side. Low light shooting will help you diagnose
- 8:25Speaker 1: a few issues with your gear as well. For bow hunters,
- 8:29Speaker 1: this might be a peep site that is too small
- 8:31Speaker 1: or doesn't come back to the eye perfectly square. It
- 8:34Speaker 1: also might just be that your side pins suck and
- 8:36Speaker 1: don't gather as much ambient light at the times when
- 8:38Speaker 1: deer should be moving as you really need them to,
- 8:41Speaker 1: or maybe just see that your rifle scope is a
- 8:43Speaker 1: bit of a cheapie, and it really doesn't gather the
- 8:45Speaker 1: needed light for a clear shot in the gloaming. Maybe
- 8:49Speaker 1: your scope isn't a cheapie, but it's adjustable, and you
- 8:52Speaker 1: realize that while you might like to keep it set
- 8:55Speaker 1: at say, I don't know six power for most hunts,
- 8:57Speaker 1: when you practice in low light, you shoot better with
- 9:00Speaker 1: it backed all the way out to three. This is
- 9:02Speaker 1: really good stuff to figure out before a monster. Once
- 9:05Speaker 1: in a lifetime, Buck steps out with five minutes of
- 9:07Speaker 1: shooting light left. Low Light shooting is also a great
- 9:11Speaker 1: way to figure out where your effective range really is.
- 9:15Speaker 1: But it's not just impending darkness that should get you
- 9:18Speaker 1: out to shoot, because you should shoot in different weather
- 9:20Speaker 1: as well. I've never really had a problem hitting during
- 9:23Speaker 1: the rain, and I hunt in the rain a lot.
- 9:26Speaker 1: In fact, it's the condition I like the most in
- 9:28Speaker 1: the early the mid season, which will be a topic
- 9:31Speaker 1: for a later podcast. But it's also not a bad
- 9:34Speaker 1: idea to throw on a rain jacket and shoot when
- 9:36Speaker 1: no one else will as the skies open up. I
- 9:39Speaker 1: do this a couple of times each summer, and while
- 9:41Speaker 1: I feel like an idiot and I'm probably regarded as such,
- 9:44Speaker 1: by my neighbors. It makes me feel like I'm putting
- 9:46Speaker 1: in real effort. It also makes me keenly aware of
- 9:50Speaker 1: what rain does to my site, my peep site, so
- 9:53Speaker 1: that when I'm out hunting, I know I'll be fine.
- 9:56Speaker 1: I want to know that, because, as I just mentioned,
- 9:58Speaker 1: I really really like hunting in the rain. In the
- 10:01Speaker 1: wind is another story. I can tell I'm getting old
- 10:04Speaker 1: because I get mad at the window a lot. I
- 10:06Speaker 1: curse under my breath at it, and I feel a
- 10:07Speaker 1: deep revulsion build up whenever I check the weather and
- 10:10Speaker 1: see that the wind will be blowing past like I
- 10:12Speaker 1: don't know fifteen miles truly long rifle shots bring the
- 10:16Speaker 1: wind into focus real fast, but even normally acceptable shot
- 10:20Speaker 1: distances can be affected by wind. Part of this comes
- 10:23Speaker 1: from what you'd expect as far as projectiles and the
- 10:25Speaker 1: influence of cross wind, but part of it comes from
- 10:28Speaker 1: just taking you out of the game mentally a little
- 10:31Speaker 1: bit during the shot. This is something worth learning about yourself,
- 10:35Speaker 1: because if you rifle hunt enough, you'll spend time out
- 10:37Speaker 1: there in the wind even better. If you use shooting
- 10:40Speaker 1: sticks or a tripod, you get bonus points for shooting
- 10:43Speaker 1: with your actual system in the wind. That's often a
- 10:46Speaker 1: telling experience for bow hunters. Practice in the wind is
- 10:50Speaker 1: a must. This is patently obvious to Western hunters who
- 10:54Speaker 1: target meal deer antelope on the prairie, where the wind
- 10:57Speaker 1: is always hocking and the shots are often far as
- 11:00Speaker 1: or than the ones we take in the white til woods.
- 11:02Speaker 1: But even at close range, wind can be trouble. It
- 11:04Speaker 1: might not blow your arrow off course for a twenty
- 11:07Speaker 1: yard shot, but it might blow your bow around while
- 11:09Speaker 1: you're aiming. Uh not forget that it will blow your
- 11:13Speaker 1: bow around while you're aiming. I'll never forget. In two
- 11:15Speaker 1: thousand and ten, sitting on a stand as a nasty
- 11:19Speaker 1: weather front blew through northern Wisconsin, I was watching a
- 11:23Speaker 1: melanistic dough, the only one I've ever seen, and one
- 11:27Speaker 1: that I thought was a bear at first. When I
- 11:29Speaker 1: glanced to my right and so a decent eight pointer
- 11:31Speaker 1: haad in my way. I switched gears from that black
- 11:34Speaker 1: dough to focus on the buck, and when he got
- 11:36Speaker 1: within range, I drew. But as the wind blew me
- 11:39Speaker 1: and my tree and the bow around, I watched my
- 11:42Speaker 1: pin go from his ass to his nose and back.
- 11:44Speaker 1: I let down and panic, thinking I wasn't going to
- 11:46Speaker 1: get a shot, so I drew again. He walked a
- 11:49Speaker 1: little closer, and I aimed as best as I could
- 11:52Speaker 1: until I hit just a moment where everything settled down
- 11:54Speaker 1: so that I could shoot. I'm sure that window was
- 11:57Speaker 1: only maybe like a couple of seconds, but it was
- 11:59Speaker 1: all I needed. That encounter went my way, but it
- 12:02Speaker 1: easily could have gone in a lot of undesirable directions.
- 12:06Speaker 1: Wind sucks, but it's just something you have to live with,
- 12:09Speaker 1: so practice in it. Shoot with your quiver on and
- 12:12Speaker 1: your quiver off. Like I talked about a few episodes ago,
- 12:15Speaker 1: shoot close, and definitely shoot far. Shoot with your bow
- 12:19Speaker 1: or your rifle or your spear or probably your air
- 12:21Speaker 1: gun or whatever. But make sure you practice in the
- 12:24Speaker 1: right conditions. I also think you should practice by standing, sitting,
- 12:28Speaker 1: and kneeling at least with a bow. Don't shoot off
- 12:31Speaker 1: hand at deer with a gun if you can help it, please.
- 12:34Speaker 1: Arrest is one of the main components to firearm accuracy,
- 12:36Speaker 1: and they are easy to have with you no matter what.
- 12:39Speaker 1: But bow hunters, on the other hand, should know how
- 12:42Speaker 1: well they shoot while standing, sitting, and kneeling. This is
- 12:45Speaker 1: easy to do during practice sessions and something that's worth
- 12:48Speaker 1: building into your routine. I tend to mix it up
- 12:51Speaker 1: with some practice sessions all spent just standing flat footed
- 12:55Speaker 1: and shooting for bull's eyes, but other times I sit
- 12:57Speaker 1: on a chair or I kneel down and it changes
- 13:00Speaker 1: the session. It also helps you figure out how to
- 13:02Speaker 1: shoot better in the positions you'll probably shoot from in
- 13:05Speaker 1: the field at some point. Repetition and familiarity lead to confidence,
- 13:09Speaker 1: and you really want as much shooting confidence as you
- 13:12Speaker 1: can get. It's also, regardless of weapon, important to think
- 13:16Speaker 1: about distance as a long game thing. Shooting long ranges
- 13:20Speaker 1: all the rage and it can be good, but there
- 13:24Speaker 1: are a lot of considerations to be made. The first
- 13:26Speaker 1: is that it takes time. This is just like training
- 13:29Speaker 1: a hunting dog. If you don't spend a year or two,
- 13:32Speaker 1: which is a significant portion of a dog's life, on
- 13:34Speaker 1: obedience and foundation work, you're not going to get that
- 13:37Speaker 1: dog to the next level hunting wise. They need the
- 13:40Speaker 1: basics down before we get to the sexy stuff. Yet
- 13:43Speaker 1: we consistently try to move them to triple blind retrees
- 13:46Speaker 1: and advance hand signals as fast as possible because it's
- 13:49Speaker 1: more fun. It's also generally a really bad move, and
- 13:53Speaker 1: we'll come back to bite in the ass when you're
- 13:55Speaker 1: hunting and you have no control over your dog, or
- 13:58Speaker 1: you figure out that your hot prospect doesn't really like
- 14:00Speaker 1: dummies anymore because he's had too much early exposure to
- 14:02Speaker 1: bird wings. Take your time and don't start with a
- 14:07Speaker 1: hard stop on distance. You should make rules about how
- 14:11Speaker 1: far you would shoot in the field, but not when
- 14:13Speaker 1: you're practicing. In fact, I think everyone should try to
- 14:16Speaker 1: expand their distance at the range through consistent sessions. Shooting
- 14:20Speaker 1: a boy at like eighty yards it's pretty fun, and
- 14:23Speaker 1: he'll tell you a hell of a lot about your
- 14:25Speaker 1: setup and your form and your shot execution. The same
- 14:28Speaker 1: goes for pushing the limits of your rifle out I
- 14:30Speaker 1: don't know, four hundred, five hundred yards or more. The
- 14:33Speaker 1: process of getting really good close and then incrementally shooting
- 14:37Speaker 1: farther in a variety of conditions will make you a
- 14:40Speaker 1: well rounded killer. It will show you what your weapon
- 14:43Speaker 1: is absolutely capable of and what you are absolutely capable of.
- 14:47Speaker 1: It will tell you, in no one certain terms that
- 14:50Speaker 1: you could shoot super far but shouldn't when you're dealing
- 14:54Speaker 1: with an actual animal. And it will also make those
- 14:57Speaker 1: close shots so much easier. But again, this stuff takes time.
- 15:02Speaker 1: That's why I wanted you to start shooting last week,
- 15:05Speaker 1: and why I really want you to think about how
- 15:06Speaker 1: you'll increase your skills by the week or by the
- 15:09Speaker 1: month from here on out. So shooting highlight and shooting
- 15:13Speaker 1: low light, shooting all kinds of weather conditions, shoot close,
- 15:18Speaker 1: shoot far, and shoot all the distances in between. In fact,
- 15:22Speaker 1: that's something worth wrapping this episode up on. I know
- 15:25Speaker 1: you've heard it before, but do you actually practice that
- 15:27Speaker 1: distances that are always in increments of ten yards with
- 15:31Speaker 1: your bow or fifty yards with your gun. For bow hunters,
- 15:35Speaker 1: those middle distance shots, they're going to happen on the field,
- 15:38Speaker 1: and practicing for them matters. As I've mentioned, I'm a
- 15:42Speaker 1: single pin mover kind of guy, so I tend to
- 15:44Speaker 1: just walk to different spots, take a range, reading dial
- 15:47Speaker 1: in my sight, and then shoot. This gets me into
- 15:50Speaker 1: the mindset of having to think about exact distances and
- 15:53Speaker 1: then dialing into them before every shot. The multi pins
- 15:56Speaker 1: shooters should absolutely do this as well. If you don't
- 15:59Speaker 1: practice gap or holding your forty yard pin high or
- 16:01Speaker 1: your thirty yard pin low or whatever you're not preparing
- 16:05Speaker 1: very well for the shots you'll actually get in the field.
- 16:07Speaker 1: And for the rifle hunter, these shots help understand hold
- 16:11Speaker 1: and drop. They also get you thinking about aiming top
- 16:14Speaker 1: heart or bottom lungs or whatever precision stuff, picking a
- 16:18Speaker 1: spot type of stuff. They forced all of us to
- 16:21Speaker 1: get into the headspace where we need to be thinking
- 16:23Speaker 1: about distance, point of impact, and what we need to
- 16:26Speaker 1: do to make perfect shots. And that's really the goal
- 16:29Speaker 1: with all of this stuff, and it is a good one.
- 16:33Speaker 1: All right, my friends. We got through a bunch of
- 16:36Speaker 1: gear and shooting episodes, and next week I'm gonna talk
- 16:39Speaker 1: about something more fun, taking inventory, or more importantly, I
- 16:44Speaker 1: guess I should say, taking summer deer inventory by using
- 16:48Speaker 1: mineral salt, blocks, cameras or whatever you have available to
- 16:51Speaker 1: you and what's legal. I'm gonna cover a whole bunch
- 16:53Speaker 1: of that stuff next week, so please tune in. Well,
- 16:57Speaker 1: that's all for this week, my white tail obsessed friends.
- 17:00Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wire to
- 17:02Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
- 17:05Speaker 1: As always, thank you so much for listening and for
- 17:07Speaker 1: supporting us. And if you want to get more white
- 17:09Speaker 1: tail content. Head on over to the meat Eator dot
- 17:12Speaker 1: com slash wired to read our latest articles, or visit
- 17:15Speaker 1: our wire to Hunt YouTube channel to see our weekly
- 17:18Speaker 1: how to videos.