Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 580: Foundations - Go Ahead, Get A Little Cocky
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
- 0:05Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better dear hunting, and now your
- 0:10Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to
- 0:15Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.
- 0:18Speaker 1: I'm your host Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all
- 0:21Speaker 1: about how confidence helps you kill deer. I know, I know,
- 0:38Speaker 1: being confident helps you kill white tails. We all know
- 0:41Speaker 1: that it also helps you get the girls and make
- 0:44Speaker 1: the team and get a raise and win a fight
- 0:47Speaker 1: or a thumb wrestling match or whatever that helps in
- 0:49Speaker 1: a lot of ways. Having a little swagger is a
- 0:52Speaker 1: good thing, but it's kind of like respect. You have
- 0:55Speaker 1: to earn it. Confidence doesn't just come from some divine
- 0:59Speaker 1: finger snap and suddenly infect your being so that you're just, like,
- 1:03Speaker 1: I don't know, a stone cold killer or an unstoppable
- 1:06Speaker 1: ladies man. And this episode is all about that. I mean,
- 1:09Speaker 1: the first part, you're on your own with the second part,
- 1:12Speaker 1: and you sure as hell don't want to listen to
- 1:13Speaker 1: me if you want to become a ladies man. And
- 1:15Speaker 1: you really don't want to listen to Mark if you've
- 1:17Speaker 1: seen his mustache so you know he's not the guy.
- 1:20Speaker 1: Listen up if you want to learn about how confidence
- 1:23Speaker 1: can help you kill some bigger deer. As many of
- 1:37Speaker 1: you know, the baby making phase of my life was
- 1:40Speaker 1: short and sweet. I got a two fur out of
- 1:42Speaker 1: the deal, a deal where I saw my wife only
- 1:45Speaker 1: a couple of times during Turkey season over a decade ago.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Those little girls born in the middle of December. They
- 1:52Speaker 1: have changed my life in a lot of ways, too
- 1:55Speaker 1: many to count. And while the obvious stuff of parenthood
- 1:59Speaker 1: should be obvious, they've taught me so many things that
- 2:03Speaker 1: I did not see coming. One that really surprised me
- 2:06Speaker 1: is a lesson on confidence one of my daughters. Now
- 2:10Speaker 1: keep in mind, if you're one of my slower listeners,
- 2:12Speaker 1: that these girls are twins, so theoretically we should kind
- 2:16Speaker 1: of expect them to behave in similar ways. One of
- 2:19Speaker 1: my daughters, she's pretty self conscious. She worries too much
- 2:23Speaker 1: about what other kids will think, and that is a
- 2:25Speaker 1: factor in so many of her decisions. Her sister, on
- 2:28Speaker 1: the other hand, has probably the most unearned confidence I've
- 2:32Speaker 1: ever seen in a person. She's like a ten year
- 2:35Speaker 1: old girl. Version of Kenny Powers, the main character from
- 2:37Speaker 1: the Masterpiece series that is eastbound and down. Honestly, that
- 2:42Speaker 1: daughter of mine believes in herself so deeply that I'm
- 2:45Speaker 1: kind of jealous. I think most of us harbor I
- 2:48Speaker 1: don't know a fair level of anxiety and self doubt,
- 2:51Speaker 1: and as adults we just kind of learned to hide
- 2:53Speaker 1: it better and learn to avoid situations where it will
- 2:56Speaker 1: be obvious to casual observers. Now, this girl, or my daughter,
- 3:00Speaker 1: she doesn't really operate in that world. She knows, and
- 3:04Speaker 1: I mean absolutely knows she can do things that she
- 3:07Speaker 1: literally cannot do. Imagine that she has full faith in
- 3:12Speaker 1: herself in an astounding way. This was truly evident to
- 3:17Speaker 1: me as we coach the girls in a false offtball
- 3:19Speaker 1: league recently, my not so confident twin daughter, she wouldn't
- 3:24Speaker 1: pitch in those early years of player pitch, all eyes
- 3:27Speaker 1: are on the picture and mostly they are terrible. And
- 3:30Speaker 1: it's not a great place to be if you're not confident.
- 3:33Speaker 1: And you know, honestly, all those kids are terrible, But
- 3:36Speaker 1: that doesn't make suffering through the personal experience of being
- 3:39Speaker 1: the terrible picture right now in front of everybody is
- 3:42Speaker 1: something I don't know less mortifying, I guess. So she
- 3:45Speaker 1: wouldn't pitch. Her sister, though, the confident one, was bagging
- 3:50Speaker 1: us to pitch. Even though she was mostly terrible at it,
- 3:55Speaker 1: she had some bright spots, maybe possibly because the batters,
- 3:59Speaker 1: I don't know, they couldn't hit a beach ball off
- 4:01Speaker 1: at tea if he gave them tense swings at it.
- 4:03Speaker 1: But she also got shelled a few times. And when
- 4:06Speaker 1: those girls would get into a batting groove, it often
- 4:08Speaker 1: didn't make the defense look too good. And during those times,
- 4:12Speaker 1: my daughter would walk off the field and honest to God,
- 4:14Speaker 1: she said this to me, I guess it just wasn't
- 4:16Speaker 1: my day to pitch. She shook that shipped off like
- 4:19Speaker 1: an NFL quarterback, and it made me jealous. I couldn't
- 4:23Speaker 1: imagine not mind grinding over that for at least a
- 4:26Speaker 1: couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks or months.
- 4:29Speaker 1: Her confidence in herself, it's going to be a life
- 4:32Speaker 1: changer for her. Your confidence in yourself could be too,
- 4:37Speaker 1: if you learn how to develop it properly. Around hunting,
- 4:40Speaker 1: I know this sounds easy, like maybe you should go
- 4:43Speaker 1: out and just shoot a few more big bucks and
- 4:46Speaker 1: really get your swagger on when you stop into the
- 4:48Speaker 1: local watering hole with fresh blood stains on your first
- 4:51Speaker 1: light camo and a few times periscoping their way out
- 4:53Speaker 1: of the edge of your pickup bed. But it's not
- 4:57Speaker 1: so simple because to kill a good one or I
- 5:00Speaker 1: don't know, seven or eight for that matter, you've got
- 5:03Speaker 1: to get more than lucky. You have to make a
- 5:06Speaker 1: lot of the right decisions and string them all together,
- 5:09Speaker 1: sometimes over a matter of quite a long time, and
- 5:12Speaker 1: that's just not easy. Instead, i'd take a long, honest
- 5:18Speaker 1: look at what parts of hunting caused you to have
- 5:20Speaker 1: that nagging feeling of anxiety. An easy jumping off place
- 5:25Speaker 1: here is with shooting. And I covered this quite a
- 5:28Speaker 1: bit earlier in some episodes, so I won't go down
- 5:30Speaker 1: that rabbit hole again. But I'll say this, there's really
- 5:33Speaker 1: no excuse not to be a good enough shot at say,
- 5:36Speaker 1: I don't know sub forty yard ranges. At least if
- 5:39Speaker 1: you're shooting a somewhat modern compound, there isn't that's really
- 5:43Speaker 1: on you. Now, I know, shooting foam targets is a
- 5:46Speaker 1: different deal than shooting living, breathing antler, sporting deer. If
- 5:50Speaker 1: you have all of the confidence in the world that
- 5:52Speaker 1: you can shoot spots on a target well, but you
- 5:55Speaker 1: don't really have that closer mentality when a deer walks in.
- 5:58Speaker 1: The ugly truth is that you don't have confidence in
- 6:01Speaker 1: your ability to make that kind of shot happen. Now,
- 6:04Speaker 1: your confidence extends as far as the shooting range boundaries
- 6:09Speaker 1: go in that situation, but not any farther, like into
- 6:13Speaker 1: the woods. This is a huge problem with a lot
- 6:16Speaker 1: of bow hunters, and they intentionally hamstring themselves by targeting
- 6:20Speaker 1: low odds deer and getting to go through the moment
- 6:23Speaker 1: of truth motions only maybe once or twice a season.
- 6:27Speaker 1: I've said this a lot, and I'll say it again.
- 6:30Speaker 1: You can't get good at shooting deer correctly without shooting
- 6:33Speaker 1: quite a few deer. If you go to YouTube, you
- 6:36Speaker 1: can see plenty examples of this on different platforms. Shaky arms,
- 6:42Speaker 1: poor form, and just a general sense of someone who
- 6:46Speaker 1: is about to lose his freaking mind. Now, all of
- 6:49Speaker 1: us should get excited when we shoot a deer, so
- 6:51Speaker 1: I'm not dogging on anyone for that. Hell, I do
- 6:55Speaker 1: to like an embarrassing level, but you should work to
- 6:58Speaker 1: have the confidence to make good shots, knowing full well
- 7:02Speaker 1: you'll be functioning largely off of your reptile brain, and
- 7:06Speaker 1: that's one of those moments where confident shines. Or how
- 7:10Speaker 1: about another example that sort of plays off of the
- 7:12Speaker 1: shooting thing. How confident are you shooting off of a stand?
- 7:17Speaker 1: What about a saddle? I think one of the biggest
- 7:20Speaker 1: disservices we have done to the bow hunting masses is
- 7:23Speaker 1: not talk about how long it takes to get confident
- 7:26Speaker 1: using a saddle and then not only hunting out of one,
- 7:30Speaker 1: but being mindful enough of your shooting form from one
- 7:33Speaker 1: to not send your point of impact way off when
- 7:37Speaker 1: you're taking shots from them. There are plenty of examples
- 7:40Speaker 1: of this on YouTube. Now how do you fix that? Well,
- 7:44Speaker 1: you practice from one a lot. You make it second
- 7:48Speaker 1: nature to check your form while shooting around the tree
- 7:51Speaker 1: on both sides and hanging off and shooting directly away
- 7:55Speaker 1: from the platform. Really, these rules apply to any type
- 7:59Speaker 1: of act tool hunting shot. How many hunters do you
- 8:02Speaker 1: know who have shot the side of a blind while
- 8:05Speaker 1: turkey hunting or deer hunting? I have, and I can
- 8:09Speaker 1: tell you one thing. It sucks. Not only do you
- 8:12Speaker 1: definitely not get the critter you're shooting at, you scare
- 8:14Speaker 1: the living shite out of yourself and you have a
- 8:16Speaker 1: hole in your blind. If you're really unlucky, you might
- 8:20Speaker 1: even hit a support pole and have some carbon fiber
- 8:23Speaker 1: slivers in your future. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm
- 8:27Speaker 1: a certifiable nut case, but I used to practice shooting
- 8:30Speaker 1: from blinds a lot, and I used to set up
- 8:32Speaker 1: a tree stand in my yard or shoot from my deck.
- 8:35Speaker 1: Now it's not always easy, but it's always worth it
- 8:39Speaker 1: to have a bend there done that attitude. You have
- 8:43Speaker 1: to be there and do that a lot. I guess
- 8:47Speaker 1: I'll give you another example of confidence. You can't replace
- 8:52Speaker 1: it with someone else's experience. In September, a good buddy
- 8:56Speaker 1: of mine was looking at hunting Wisconsin's deer opener. He's
- 8:59Speaker 1: an Iowa guy, born and raised in Iowa, so he's
- 9:03Speaker 1: used to two things. An October opener and having the
- 9:07Speaker 1: entire rut to bow hunt, literally the best state in
- 9:10Speaker 1: the Union. As the opener loom closer. I started getting
- 9:15Speaker 1: these anxiety ridden texts from him about the weather. It
- 9:19Speaker 1: was supposed to top out around eighty in the day,
- 9:21Speaker 1: and he was bemoaning the fact that we wouldn't have
- 9:24Speaker 1: the right weather to kill a big buck with he
- 9:27Speaker 1: had no confidence in hunting that hot weather, and he
- 9:30Speaker 1: talked himself into going fishing more than he sat on
- 9:34Speaker 1: a stand. If you've listened to me for any length
- 9:37Speaker 1: of time, you know how that probably drove me nuts.
- 9:41Speaker 1: I don't care about hot weather at all, and I
- 9:44Speaker 1: honestly don't think it kills deer movement enough to keep
- 9:47Speaker 1: me home ever, especially if I have something green to
- 9:51Speaker 1: sit over, or better, something wet to sit over, and
- 9:54Speaker 1: it happens to be the early season when the deer
- 9:56Speaker 1: are pretty accustomed to hot weather. That with my buddy
- 10:01Speaker 1: was that he just didn't have any confidence in hunting
- 10:04Speaker 1: those conditions. He's used to being able to wait for
- 10:08Speaker 1: better weather, so that's his default. But how the hell
- 10:12Speaker 1: do you think you learn to kill September white tails,
- 10:16Speaker 1: or really any month white tails if you don't hunt
- 10:19Speaker 1: them in the conditions that are thrown your way. You've
- 10:22Speaker 1: got to shoot your shop, my friends, And you know
- 10:24Speaker 1: what happens when you do and you make it well,
- 10:28Speaker 1: you get confidence. I have so much confidence in my
- 10:32Speaker 1: September abilities that it's probably bordering on kind of danger
- 10:37Speaker 1: zone territory, which is another component of confidence that we
- 10:41Speaker 1: should be aware of. Being too confident in something is
- 10:45Speaker 1: going to kill your chances. Let's say you spent your
- 10:48Speaker 1: formative years hunting a family farm in a pretty good
- 10:52Speaker 1: white tail state. You had access to controlled land, and
- 10:56Speaker 1: you had pretty good success, I don't know, rattling, grunting,
- 11:00Speaker 1: maybe running a full body decoy around Halloween. You've had
- 11:05Speaker 1: the good life for a long time, but then grandma
- 11:08Speaker 1: dies in a skydiving accident, and suddenly the farm is
- 11:11Speaker 1: up for sale, and you're out there with the rest
- 11:13Speaker 1: of us chumps knocking on doors and you get lucky in.
- 11:17Speaker 1: A farmer tells you, sure, shoot all those crop eating
- 11:20Speaker 1: rodents you can, and you think, well, I will, but
- 11:24Speaker 1: he also says, oh, you know, my grandson and my
- 11:26Speaker 1: grandson's friends hunt, and so do a couple of the neighbors.
- 11:29Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter, though. You think, I got a
- 11:32Speaker 1: wall full of big ones, and I know, dear. So
- 11:36Speaker 1: you wait for the right cold front and the right
- 11:38Speaker 1: moon phase, and you go to your best field edge
- 11:41Speaker 1: stand and you clang those antlers together and nothing comes
- 11:45Speaker 1: running in, and you think, maybe maybe my timing is off,
- 11:50Speaker 1: so you try again a few days later. You know,
- 11:53Speaker 1: maybe moving in a little deeper into the best timber,
- 11:56Speaker 1: and not only does nothing come then, but you watch
- 11:59Speaker 1: a white tail bound to away from you the moment
- 12:01Speaker 1: you hit those antlers together. This becomes sort of like
- 12:05Speaker 1: a lather, rent repeat situation, and now you're confidencing what worked.
- 12:11Speaker 1: It worked free for a long time is a liability
- 12:14Speaker 1: and not an asset. This happens to me often on
- 12:19Speaker 1: specific chunks of public land that are always changing, and
- 12:23Speaker 1: I hate it. Drives me nuts some years, and I
- 12:27Speaker 1: even fully admit this. I want an easy one. I
- 12:29Speaker 1: just want to repeat my performance from the year before,
- 12:31Speaker 1: but that so rarely rarely happens. Instead, there's always some
- 12:37Speaker 1: new program I have to figure out. I'm sure you
- 12:39Speaker 1: can relate to this for a lot of you can,
- 12:42Speaker 1: do you see how muddy this ship starts to get.
- 12:45Speaker 1: I told you to develop confidence in various aspects of hunting,
- 12:49Speaker 1: and then I told you too much confidence will kick
- 12:51Speaker 1: your square in the delegates. And now I'm going to
- 12:53Speaker 1: tell you that you have to be super confident again
- 12:57Speaker 1: when I inevitably get divorced because my bride has had enough,
- 13:00Speaker 1: this podcast will probably be used in court against my character.
- 13:03Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, Confidence has to be earned remember
- 13:07Speaker 1: when I said that earlier. Confidence doesn't come from a
- 13:10Speaker 1: one off encounter. Usually it comes from stacked experience. Confidence
- 13:16Speaker 1: that comes too easily should be questioned. If your entire
- 13:20Speaker 1: deer hunting experience consists of hunting one good property, your
- 13:24Speaker 1: confidence should be high. But it should be high only
- 13:28Speaker 1: for that one good property. If you've gone to I
- 13:31Speaker 1: don't know, seventeen different states and shot pope and young
- 13:34Speaker 1: bucks on public land and all of them, then you
- 13:36Speaker 1: should have confidence in yourself to get it done, no
- 13:38Speaker 1: matter what mother nature throws at you, and no matter
- 13:41Speaker 1: where you're hunting. And that's the biggest one. And I
- 13:46Speaker 1: know that most people will never get the opportunity to
- 13:48Speaker 1: visit seventeen different states, let alone hunting them. I get that.
- 13:51Speaker 1: So you've got to scale it down. Do you have
- 13:55Speaker 1: plenty of experience hunting from a stand and from a
- 13:58Speaker 1: blind and from a saddle and still hunting or whatever?
- 14:01Speaker 1: If not, maybe your favorite forty acre chunk isn't the
- 14:04Speaker 1: best place to still hunt, but the five thousand acres
- 14:07Speaker 1: of public land down the road could be. Do you
- 14:10Speaker 1: not have much confidence in settling your pin on a
- 14:12Speaker 1: deer's vitals because you've only killed a few Could you
- 14:15Speaker 1: hunt a few more doughs? Could you both hunt turkeys
- 14:18Speaker 1: or some other critter? Where can you get more experience?
- 14:21Speaker 1: You should ask yourself that, because it's an important question.
- 14:27Speaker 1: Do you put yourself in a position to be challenged
- 14:29Speaker 1: in new ways? I think the importance of this can't
- 14:32Speaker 1: really be overstated. One on a state trip a year
- 14:36Speaker 1: that takes you to unfamiliar territory and forces you to
- 14:38Speaker 1: figure out things on the fly. That's going to help
- 14:41Speaker 1: you build confidence in a major way that you're gonna
- 14:43Speaker 1: take home with you, especially if you go through right
- 14:47Speaker 1: to the end of that hunt, you don't give up
- 14:49Speaker 1: or phone it in. I realized this might be a
- 14:52Speaker 1: little overwhelming, and I might be out driving my headlights here.
- 14:56Speaker 1: So let's back up a second and get a little
- 14:58Speaker 1: granular with this concept. Where are the little mistakes you
- 15:02Speaker 1: make during your hunts? Are they that you didn't clear
- 15:07Speaker 1: your entrance routes very well or cut shooting lanes very well?
- 15:11Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't eat scout to the point where you
- 15:14Speaker 1: had a lot of confidence that you were going to
- 15:16Speaker 1: have real options, you know, ambush options on the various
- 15:20Speaker 1: properties you hunt. Those are kind of easiest things to
- 15:24Speaker 1: get better at. What mistakes do you make getting into
- 15:27Speaker 1: your stand? Are you always racing the clock in the morning?
- 15:32Speaker 1: Maybe you just gotta set your alarm a little earlier
- 15:34Speaker 1: and bite the bullet that you're gonna get a you know,
- 15:37Speaker 1: a few less minutes of sleep. I guess. Do you
- 15:40Speaker 1: often realize that you're climbing sticks, squeak on the tree,
- 15:44Speaker 1: or your ladder stand creeks and pops when you shift
- 15:46Speaker 1: your weight in it. Those things are going to cut
- 15:48Speaker 1: your confidence off at the knees, even if they don't
- 15:51Speaker 1: seem like that big of a deal most of the time.
- 15:55Speaker 1: Trust me, if a buck is close and you're terrified
- 15:58Speaker 1: to move for fear of making noise, that buck is
- 16:00Speaker 1: pretty damn safe. And maybe you've shot a few deer
- 16:04Speaker 1: and you've gotten poor penetration on them. There's a confidence
- 16:08Speaker 1: issue built in there that is going to come roaring
- 16:10Speaker 1: back to life when you see a deer walk in
- 16:12Speaker 1: that you want to shoot. Maybe it's a broad hit issue,
- 16:15Speaker 1: or a bow tuning issue or something else, but whatever
- 16:18Speaker 1: it is, it's also a confidence robber. Instead of thinking
- 16:23Speaker 1: I've got this, this is over. He's as good as
- 16:26Speaker 1: being in the back of my truck and tagged. You'll
- 16:28Speaker 1: be thinking, I hope I've got this, and that is bad, bad, bad.
- 16:34Speaker 1: And look at the big stuff and ask yourself where
- 16:37Speaker 1: you believe in yourself, what are your strengths, play off
- 16:41Speaker 1: of them, but also look at your weaknesses, the secret
- 16:44Speaker 1: things that make you nervous. Those are the things you
- 16:47Speaker 1: have to really figure out now. I'll never forget as
- 16:50Speaker 1: a young man chasing a bass fishing dream that went nowhere,
- 16:53Speaker 1: how nervous I'd be heading to a body of water
- 16:56Speaker 1: that was famous for a certain bite, like say a
- 16:59Speaker 1: Carolina rig by, or maybe a deep rock pile or
- 17:02Speaker 1: weed line type of bite that just wasn't my thing,
- 17:06Speaker 1: Even if I didn't fully acknowledge it, I was always
- 17:10Speaker 1: always full of nervous energy over not being able to
- 17:13Speaker 1: do the single thing I probably would need to do
- 17:16Speaker 1: to catch a limit. It forced me, in my off
- 17:19Speaker 1: time to work on those techniques and figure out how
- 17:22Speaker 1: to catch fish on them. I know that probably sounds dumb,
- 17:25Speaker 1: but it took that to give me confidence to fish
- 17:27Speaker 1: anywhere with basically any style I might have to use.
- 17:31Speaker 1: And hunting is like that, except we don't do it
- 17:34Speaker 1: for competition, thank God. And we mostly do it alone also,
- 17:39Speaker 1: thank god, but we do need to try to develop
- 17:42Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different skills. It will all be
- 17:44Speaker 1: linked together. And we do need to find mental space
- 17:47Speaker 1: that fuels the flames of belief in ourselves. That says
- 17:52Speaker 1: without question, if that buck walks in within forty yards
- 17:55Speaker 1: and stops broadside or quartering away in a decent opening,
- 17:58Speaker 1: that he's going to be wearing our tag by the
- 18:00Speaker 1: into the hunt. When you get to that place, it's
- 18:03Speaker 1: pretty nice, even if the footholds and the handholds aren't
- 18:07Speaker 1: always as solid as they seem, because after all, things
- 18:10Speaker 1: can go sideways in a variety of bad ways, but
- 18:13Speaker 1: they don't have to, and they often won't unless we
- 18:17Speaker 1: allow them to, the best way to not force those
- 18:20Speaker 1: outliers situations to happen is to work on ourselves in
- 18:24Speaker 1: small doses for years to be become more confident in
- 18:28Speaker 1: our abilities to do exactly what we need to do.
- 18:32Speaker 1: Every time we enter the woods and you can get there,
- 18:36Speaker 1: I promise you that, And if you do, you're gonna
- 18:39Speaker 1: shoot it some deer, So you know what you're gonna
- 18:42Speaker 1: have to blood trail some deer. The next two episodes
- 18:45Speaker 1: are going to be all about that process, so be
- 18:49Speaker 1: sure to tune in. That's it for this week, my friends.
- 18:53Speaker 1: I'm Tony P. And this has been the Wired Hunt
- 18:55Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, brought to you by First Light. As always,
- 18:58Speaker 1: thank you so much for your support, and if you
- 19:00Speaker 1: want more of a white tail fix, feel free to
- 19:03Speaker 1: check out Mark's new show on the Mediator YouTube channel,
- 19:06Speaker 1: which is called Deer Country. You can also visit the
- 19:09Speaker 1: wire to Hunt YouTube channel for how to videos and
- 19:11Speaker 1: go to the mediator dot com slash wired to read
- 19:14Speaker 1: all kinds of white tail related articles