Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Wired To Hunt Podcast #93: Mastering the Moment of Truth

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Wired To Hunt Podcast #93: Mastering the Moment of Truth · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired 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 Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: your host, Mark Kenyan, and this episode number tay. In
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the show, we're discussing the final most important moments of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the hunt, the moment of truth, the shot. All right,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: by Sick of Gear, and today we're talking about the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: moment of truth, those final moments leading up to a shot,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in those simple you seconds that sometimes I can feel
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: like an eternity leading up to you pulling that trigger
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: or releasing an arrow, and that's the shot. Today we're
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: going to be talking about the challenges that Dan and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I have had when it comes to handling these moments.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about ways that we have
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: and others can try to become a better shot. We're
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: gonna talk about buck fever and a whole lot more.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: And frankly, I think this is going to be an
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: interesting discussion because it's something that you know, both I
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: think I've struggled with at times. I think Dan maybe
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: have struggled with this at times, and I can almost
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: guarantee that everybody listening to everybody's listening to this today
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: probably has struggled with some aspect of this too. And
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: you know, regardless of of all the tactics, all the tips,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: all the new strategies that we've talked about in this show,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: you know, whether you have a great stand location or
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: dynamite food plot or trail camera pictures of a buck
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: for for ten years, none of that matters if you
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: can't master the final moment of truth. So that, my friends,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: is where we're headed today. But before we get into
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: all that, Dan, Mr co host, we missed you like
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: this week? What's new? Yeah? I had to Uh, I
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: had to text Ben and tell him I was sorry
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: that I wasn't able to attend the podcast. But um,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna answer that question by asking you a question.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Al Right, So this is where the editing started. Okay, No,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: but um, every once in a while, you you like
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: babysit your what your sister in law's kids? Right? Yeah? Right? So, um,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: how how young is the youngest one? Uh? She's a
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: little over one year old. Okay, still in diapers? Oh yeah? Okay,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: So have you ever witnessed a blowout on that on
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that girl. So not on that girl, but the second
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to youngest when she was that age, was once sitting
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in my lap. Oh yeah, and she had to blow out. Okay,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So speaking of blowouts, last week, my my son had
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a bug. He had a fever
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: at rain really high and we got him to the
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: doctor and he had some kind of I don't know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: sickness or some bug and they gave him some medicine.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: He seems to be doing better now, but every time
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: he would crap, it was in the mass quantities I mean, like,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I mean just like blowing out the sides he had it.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: He was laying down smiling and then I go to
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: pick him up and it's all the way up his
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: back into the back of his head like and I'm
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: just like, there's no other thing to do except to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: put him in the bathtub. It's like full close, disrobe
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: him right there. There's nothing else you can do except
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: give him a bath. I can't even I don't know
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: how you deal with that. Five straight days of that,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Holy smokes, it was gross, But in a way, as
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a dad, I'm kind of proud. You know what, if
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: there were to be if I had to like look
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: at a lineup of kids, like a bunch of babies,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: and I had to point at one child in that
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  Speaker 1: lineup of who would have the most blowouts. If I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: saw Matt, your son, I say, that's a blowout kid
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: right there. That kid, that kid blows out diapers. It
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: takes big dumps for sure. You seriously your Mac is like,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: here's there's no kid I've ever seen that looks more
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: like it should be your child than Mac. He just
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: seems like he's gonna be a big dumping, huge dude
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: who's gonna be crazy. That's your son. You know what, kid,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you got talent. I think you're gonna be a huge
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: dumper when you grow up. Oh man, but I love you.
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  Speaker 1: Posted a picture on Facebook or Instagram or something the
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: other day where he's like pressed up against the glass
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: door like licking it or something. I'm like, wow, my kid,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: that's a kid. That's pretty funny. So it sounds like
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: parenting is still going well, oh yeah, it's uh, it's
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: definitely a learning experience something every it's different every day,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you know. Oh yeah, I I I don't know how
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you do it. Like you said, sometimes a babysit my
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: nieces and nephew and there's four of them. Um, one
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: is like a little bit over one. I think one's
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: a little bit over to one is five, and then
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the other just turned twelve. Um, but a lots of
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: times we have all four. It's just like I just
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: kind of stand in the corner with white eyes and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, I don't know what to do. It's
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: just you should get like a squirt gun and every
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: time you they you know, you see them do something
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: that you don't want them to do, you just say
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: no and you squirt them with it like a cat
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: get out of the plants. Squired them all right, that
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: could make parenting fun. A gonna try that. I'm sure
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: it's a I don't see anything too wrong with that, right,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: A little water in the face never hurt anyone. Yeah, okay,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So so what else? What else happened? Well, since we
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: last chatted, we both want to shed hunting. A couple
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: of times. I I in the last episode alluded to
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the fact that you went shed hunting before last tweeks episode,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: but I didn't really give the listeners any details. So
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: should we should? We were a gal the audience with
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: our shed hunting exploits as of late. Should I tell
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a yarn please do, please do yarnway? Well, first, first,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep the last not this weekend, but last weekend. Okay,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: last weekend I went shed hunting. Found three sheds. I'm
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: gonna keep this part short. Found three sheds. Um. One
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  Speaker 1: was to a buck that I have been chasing for
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: like four years. I named him Ryan Iberg after one
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: of my buddies. Nothing gigantic, like, he's not a huge
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: scoring buck, but he's really wide and he's I think
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: this year he's gonna if he survived, I think he's
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: gonna be if my math is right, probably eight years old,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: an eight year old buck. But he wasn't looking too good.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: So I'm happy I matched up I found last one
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: year ago from the day I found it. Basically, I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: found his other side, so I have a match set
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: from two thousand fourteen. That's crazy how that works. So yep,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: now that's not that's not really the issue, al right,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I mean that's great, But this weekend right took the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: entire family shed hunting. I saw that that looked like
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: a chore. Yeah, I mean it was. It was fun
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: it was nice out, got the kids outside, so you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: you you think, hey, let's walk. I'm gonna walk him
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: through the thickest, nastiest stuff to see if they really
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: like it. You know, that sounds like a good idea, right,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and and it was. But this, this whole thing backfired
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: on me because now and I love my wife to death,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: but now she's like, oh my gosh, this this is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: kind of fun. Let's do that again this weekend. No mark, no,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I guess how many sheds we found this weekend or
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: this week when I took him out. Zero zero, that's right,
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  Speaker 1: zero sheds. Now. I love my family and I dedicate
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of time to my family, but like you know,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Daddy wants a little shed hunting time and he wants
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: to go out and haul as solo hunting. Yes, it's
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: solo shed hunting. You know where I can actually find
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the sheds and not walk like in the middle of
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: a field edge and have to pick a kid up
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: every time. She's oh, Daddy, it's muddy. Okay, Well, hey,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: get used to it, because if you're gonna hang around
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: with me, you're gonna be dirty that you know that
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Now, my wife like shed hunting. So
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: what's your strategy. I think I'm gonna have to like
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: hire somebody to like release some dogs, like some really
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: mean dogs on her and like scare her so she'll
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: never want to go shed hunting again. Well, that is
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: one way to go about it. You know. Here's the deal.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I think my wife I would love to go with
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: me when it's just the two of us. So I'm
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: gonna have to try to find a babysitter and that
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: way I can show her really what shed hunting is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: all about. It's not it's not just a casual for me.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: It's not just like a really casual walk through the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: through the timber, you know, looking at the birds and
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: the bees and all that stuff. It's you got one
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: one goal and it's defined bone. Yeah, yeah, I agree.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: It's uh, it's fun to be out there, but at
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the same time, you've gotta be focused on the task
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: at hand, that's for sure. Hey, you sounds like you
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: had a good weekend. Yeah, yeah, I've been. I've been
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: putting some serious miles on the boots since we last
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: talked um two weekends ago. I didn't talk too much
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: about this on the last episode two weekends ago was
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: shed hunting with some friends here in Michigan. Had my
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: best day in Michigan. I ever found four including two
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: sheds which were my two biggests. That was that was sweet. Um.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: You know, they're not massive sheds, but they're you know,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: both like between forty and fifty inches probably so for
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: a Michigan shed, that's that's a nice piece of bone.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Uh So that was cool. Um. And then yeah, this
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: past weekend I went to Iowa. We were all bummed
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: that you couldn't join us. Um, but yeah, blowouts, that'll
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: do it. Um. But yeah, I had a blast. I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: went out Thursday night with Corey and then we met
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: my buddies Ross Well Ross Ross Hass from episode number
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: nine and Peter and Ross's wife Kendall. And so the
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: five of us did a lot of walking over We
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: walked the farm that I hunted last year and the
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: farm that Corey hunts, and a couple different spots um
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: from the other guys. And total between the group of us,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: we found I think fifteen sheds um. Corey found seven
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: of those. I found five of them. So the two
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: of us from Michigan, we we came out with twelve
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: so it wasn't a bad chirp. Wasn't our best trip
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to Iowa as far as sheds, but it was. It
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: was a pretty decent one. Um, And it was a
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. Just it was it was great to
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: be with the with a group of guys out there
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, a lot of laughs, a lot
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: of miles and some sheds to boot. So coy um,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: you know, he sort of did. I thought that was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: just kinda gonna be a joke. No, no, But this
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: is the thing that's really funny about it is and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and and I kid, I mean, I don't, I don't
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: call him like he's not really poached shed, but he
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: sort of did. But now he's feeling guilty about it.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: So this is pretty funny. So we're we're shed hunting
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: this ridge and somehow, you know, as it goes. It
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: was a bunch of people, there's four of us. You
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: kind of get separated. You're trying to space out, and
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: we're trying to work this ridge kind of uniformly. But
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: we got kind of spaced out and lost track of
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: each other. But I'm gonna tangle of briers and cedars
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and crap as and and I'm pushing through it, and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I'm just about to get out of the cedars and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: then I hear Corey got one, and I'm like, oh nice.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: And then he's like, as soon as he's got one,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: like the word one like trailed off and it was
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: kind of like got one, and he's like although, And
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I pop out of the cedars and he's right there
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, all the what and he's like, well,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: it was right in your line. You were about to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: step on. You're about to see it. He's like, sorry, man,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: like you and your wandering eyes. He's gonna get a
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: complex from us giving him shit about this, you know,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I know. I had to tell him, we're just kidding, Corey,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: it's okay. It was funny, it was. It was a
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: cool antler. It was just a three point side, but
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: like a nice, big heavy like he had been a
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: nice six pointerer probably like a just a really good
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: two year old probably, but a cool buck for a
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: six point And if he, you know, if he kept
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: that basic six point frame, like I would love to
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: kill a big heavy six pointer, um, you know, like
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: like that buck six shooter I killed a few years ago,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the first year I hunted him. He was just a
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: big like Hudy hundred eighteen inch six pointer and that
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: was sweet cool big frame. So yeah, so we we
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: found some sheds and nothing giant. Um Corey found on
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: my farm or the farm I hunt. He found all
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the nice ones in my farm. Um, like a bunch
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of like in those like mid forties to low fifties
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: type sheds. I just found a lot of dinks this weekend. Um,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: but it was still cool. Um there were some bucks
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: still holding. We saw a few deer throughout the weekend
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that we're still holding. So I don't know if there's
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: still some antlers yet to hit the ground that we
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: weren't able to find obviously. So it was a good
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: trip though and what not this weekend. But next weekend
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: going down to southern Ohio and that one, that one
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited about because those are where the bucks
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: I really know are at so perfect. Yeah, it should
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: be some exciting stuff that comes to a lot of
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: shed hunting left to do. Yeah, yeah, lots of Are
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: you gonna be able to get up much more? I
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: think I'm gonna go this weekend maybe Saturday, and then
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the following weekend is my and I have a feeling
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that I'm just gonna find a lot of chewed up sheds.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: But the following weekend is my Friday night, all day Saturday,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning shed hunt, so I'll be walking the entire weekend. Nice.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I don't think you're gonna be able to do that.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I saw somewhere you said that you might only get
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: like one full day or something, so I'm glad to
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: hear you'll get a big one. Now. Yeah, I weaseled
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: my I'm basically helping my wife at some kind of
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: fabric trade show, and in you know, for trade, I
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: get the shed hunting weekend. Nice, that's legit. Speaking of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: your wife's fabric, my wife bought a blanket from your wife.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Did you know that? Did not? When did she buy it?
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Like a month ago or something? But um, we got
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: it for a friend's baby shower. Um, so yeah, we
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: just got that. That was pretty cool. I just was
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: reminded of it. So perfect. She's doing good work. Man. Well,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm proud of her. You should be. Now. She's
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: she's got like we need more whitetail themed clothing and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: blankets and stuff that there's like elk handlers and stuff.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: But I want to see some more like sevent whitetail
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: shed blankets. Where's that? Okay? Can you request that? You know?
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I tell you what, There is a there is a
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: website that you can go on and you can create
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: your own fabric with any type of you know. Basically,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: you can make a pattern and they will print it
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and send it to you. So if you have an idea,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: let us know and I can create whatever fabric you
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: want and then my wife can make a blanket or
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: a shirt out of it. Alright, well, I want a
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: wired Hunt logo blank it okay for your baby, for
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: your future baby, like what eight months from now? I
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: hope not. Well, I don't know. Although although maybe this
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: is too much, this is probably we're just gonna stop.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: We're gonna move on. Hey, moment of truth, moment of truth.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: This is a different kind of moment of truth than
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: we're just talking about. So before we do get into that, though,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I do want to really quickly pause for a word
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: from our partners at Sick of Gear, and then we'll
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: get into a discussion about the moment of truth and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the shop. Alright, so, as we do every week, we're
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: talking to Sick of Product category leader Dennis's Uck today.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: I wanted to hear from him about what's in store
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: for sick in the future. You know, last year's Sick
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Of launched an entire new line of white tail gear,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So what more could possibly be coming? Yeah, that's that's
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the secrets in the sauce, right. But I think if
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: you look at what we're you know, we're coming out with,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: i mean almost seventy new pieces, you know, you think, well,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: what are you going to do past that? You know?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And as we A funny part of that response is that,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: you know, when we look at some of the some
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of the markets, you know, whether you know it's warmer
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: or colder or you know whatever. Um, there's so many
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: products that don't exist today that that we have in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the in the runs for seventeen that we can't wait
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to get out the folks. But we want to make
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: sure that we're continuing to brain, you know, profound thought
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to whether it's you know, if I'm hunting in Louisiana
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: or if I'm hunting in you know, Colorado. You know.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: So we we have some interesting new concepts. We we
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: believe we've only kind of broke the surface with so
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: you're telling us to be excited for a few more
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: years from now to This isn't all to expect. This
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: isn't all to expect. It's there's uh, there's lots of
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: great ideas that we're already excited about. Believe me, I
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: wish I could just throw them out there. Now I can't.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: We'll be waiting with data breath. So if you are
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: interested in learning more about sick of Gear and that
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: whole new line of white tail gear that I mentioned,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you can visit sick of Gear dot com um. And
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: now let's get back to the show. Alright. So Dan,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: as you know today, I wanted our conversation and it's
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: just doing me so we can kind of have some
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: fun with us and kind of share some of our
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: our own personal things. Were not necessarily grilling anyone about this,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: but I wanted us to kind of explore this topic
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: of the moment of truth, about the shot, the moments
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: leading up to the shot, after the shot, all the
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: preparation and work that goes into getting to that moment
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: um and this whole idea canned me over this past weekend,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: like we've been talking about, I was in Iowa with
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: my buddies, and we got talking about this idea of
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: like the killer instinct um, and then that got us
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: into this whole idea of you know, some people are
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: kind of clutching the moment. Some people are just like
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: they can just do it. They just it's just stone cold,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: no issues at all with the shot. They just smoked
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: the dear perfect every time. They don't get worked up
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: at all. And then some people get really nervous and
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: issues with it. Other people, like I know, like my
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: one of my buddies I was with there, his his
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: self admittedly said he doesn't really have the killer instinct
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: um and and I kind of want to talk to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: you about what that might mean, might or might not
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: mean um, But he kind of spoke to the fact that,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you know, he doesn't really always want to kill a deer.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Like he loves to hunt, he loves the process of hunting,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: but he doesn't necessarily always love the final action of
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: shooting and killing an animal, which in some weird ways
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I can kind of relate to as well. I mean,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I don't view myself as as a killer of any
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: in any sorts kind of a it's a means to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: an end um, but it raises all sorts of questions
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and it's an interesting conversation in itself. UM, but that's
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: kind of how I got to this idea. UM. So
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I guess to kick it off, I kind of want
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to talk about this whole killer instinct idea, UM and
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: how maybe some people have it, some people don't have it, um,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: and thoughts there and to this example, to my friend,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: he loves hunting, he loves being out there, he you know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: loves the strategy, all these things, but he doesn't shoot
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of deer. Um. He passes on a lot
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: of deer. He passes on a lot of deer that
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: maybe he should shoot maybe if you were like hunt,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: if you want to be a serious deer hunter and
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to build up experience. He's never killed the deer
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: with his bow before. UM. So you know, lots of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: times we're like, you know, why didn't you shoot that buck?
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: You know, you've never shot a buck with your bobbo
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: for even their shot any deer, why don't you shoot it?
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: And there's always kind of an excuse, you know, G
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: two is weren't so nice or you know, it just
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: wasn't quite sure as the buck house after and we
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: got to kind of talking this weekend that you know,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: part of it is just he sometimes feels like he's
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: kind of making excuses for why he doesn't want to shoot.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: He does want to shoot the occasional deer, and he
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: has with his gun, and I'm sure he will with
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: the bow um. But I don't know. Do you think
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: there's some people that they have that that killer instinct?
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And I that word sounds bad When I say killer instant,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I don't mean like someone who's like a blood thirsty
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: killer that just wants to kill animals and it has
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: some nasty, vicious, you know, psychopath mentality. That's not what
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I mean. What I mean is like the ability to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in the end, have the clutch, ability to to close
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the deal in those final seconds. Do you know what
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I mean? Is this making sense at all? Or I
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: rambling being crazy? It makes perfect sense. You explain yourself perfectly,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: And I don't think on this show you need to
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: explain yourself when you say killer instinct, because I really
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: feel that everybody knows what you're talking about. I have
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I have buddies who one guy in particular, you'll never
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: see him post a Facebook pick of you know of
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the bucks that he kills. But this past year he
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: killed the two five inch. Previous year he dropped a
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: hundred seventy inch, and the previous year another hundred seventy inch.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: So what this guy does is he kills big bucks.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And he's the kind of guy who it's not like
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: if you were to talk to him and to hang
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: out with him while he hunted, he it would probably
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: come off like he's not enjoyed himself, like it's more
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: work than it is fun. But this guy closes the deal.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Every year he will find a big buck and he
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: will kill it every year. And there's just some people
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: that seem to have it's like it's like I don't
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: know if it's a knack or like it's just like
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: they just do it, like there's just no question about it,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and they have no It's like it's not a question
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of if, it's a question of when, and they don't.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: They don't screw up. It's just like stone cold, you know, right,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: that whole thing about act like you've been there before.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Now I'm I that's one question I should ask this
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: guy is did you ever get any type of target
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: panic or buck fever in the in the past. But
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: this guy has killed so many big deer or passed
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: so many big deer to get these dear to be
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: absolute giants that he that he he when a when
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a big deer makes a president's or an entrance, he
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: knows exactly what to do. He's not he he is
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: focused like it is the four, you know, the four
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: at the buck he's ever killed, which I don't know,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that's probably impossible, but you know what I mean, he's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: he's focused, and he's not focused like autopilot focused. He's
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: focused like you know, like sometimes when a big buck
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: steps out and you get and it's just when you
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: when you try to think back and replay what happened
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: in your in your head, it kind of it's patchy. Yep,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: definitely Yep. That doesn't happen with this guy. Yeah, he is.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: He is on it. And I think something you said
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: probably and I think it's a good question. You know,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: are you born that way or is that a learned
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: you know, mental state? Is that just that there's still
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: after you get so experienced you just have it. I
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: don't know. I mean you and me both like I've
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: been hunting my whole life. You've been hunting your whole life.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm still not acent there. I'm definitely getting better. UM.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: But I wonder if some of these people, if there's
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: just some type of genetic predisposition to just be in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the moment fully and completely and and not get shaken up,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: not have nerves, not have any issues with focus. Um,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Or if maybe it's just simply you've hunted for so long,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: you've killed so many deer, you've been through that moment
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: so many times that now it's just it's just flawless.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I've definitely seen myself in a second.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about each r of our what
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the moment of truth looks like for you? Um. I
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: was kind of talking about that. This was my friends
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: this weekend. UM, And I'm getting you know, I'm seeing
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: progress in how I react during the moment of truth definitely, UM.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: But I'm definitely not, you know, like that guy. UM.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: So it's it's an interesting conversation, that's for sure. UM.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And you know another thing, I'm I'm kind of bouncing
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: around here, but do you how do you feel about
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: out kill? I want to touch on this killer instinct
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: one one time, one other one other thing here. Um,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: And I think, like you mentioned, maybe I don't need
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: to explain this to people. Maybe maybe everybody's like this.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know, um, but I don't. I don't even
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: know where I'm going. I'm having a hard time putting
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: words to how I'm feeling about this. But I guess
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: we'll move on. How do you let's I think I
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: know what you're trying to say. It's when this, dear,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: are you talking about bucks in particular, or killing any
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: deer that might be any any animal even see? For me,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: this is this is how I'll be. I'll be honest
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: with you. When I was a kid, my uh, you know,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I I was raised on a farm, Okay, so death
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: was part of life. I mean my I would watch
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: my grandpa cut the heads off chickens, you know. I
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: would watch my uh grandpa butcher a cow or a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: hog right in front of me, blood and guts and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. And it's it's just a part of life.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: So and I don't know if I think a lot
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: of it has to do with how you're raised, because
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: for me, I don't. I really don't think twice about
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: like I appreciate the life of an animal I mean,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm an animal lover. I love dogs and you know,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: pets and birds, and I love watching nature. But when
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: it comes to taking the life of like a dough,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I know for a fact that I'm going to get
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the job done, or that's my goal anyway, and I
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: really can't think twice about it. And I think to
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: tie in this killer instinct to maybe a little bit
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: of buck fever or target panic or something like that,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I think that that has if if that's in the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: back of your head when you're drawing back your bow
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and you're thinking about the I don't know, maybe the ethics.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's necessarily the word, but thinking
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: about how this animal is going to feel it could
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: it could cause a problem. Yeah, no, definitely. So the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: way I look at it is it's it's more binary
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: for me. It's this deer or animal will be getting
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: an arrow or it will not be getting an arrow.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Yeah, I know it does. Um
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: And I think that kind of ties into what I
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: where I was trying to go to. I think for me,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: you know, it's it's weird and maybe maybe everybody goes
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: through this, maybe not, I don't know. But we know
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: when I was a kid, like you don't necessarily even
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: though I was raised to have a very real appreciation
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: for life and death and and all these types of things.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, when I was younger, when I
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: was ten or twelve or thirteen or whatever, I got
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: my first BB gun or I got my first twenty two,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: and I was shooting away at you know, anything was
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: moving right that. I think most little kids are kind
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: of like that. If you're raised in in the outdoors
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: and you want to try to shoot a raccoon, you
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: want to try to shoot a squirrel, you want to
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: shoot the little tweet bird on the bird feeder, and
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: you're learning all this kind of stuff. Um, And as
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I've progressed as a hunter, I become much more serious
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: about a hunter. And I've as a hunter, I've become
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: much more serious about my endeavors. Or I'm hunting all
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: sorts of different types of species. I'm going other places
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I hunt even more. But on the other side of things,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I am very much more thoughtful and concerned about taking
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a life. And and by that I mean I and
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna look down anyone else for what they do,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever everyone has their own thing. But I
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: have gotten to the point I do not feel comfortable
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: shooting and killing any kind of animal unless I'm eating it,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Unless it there has to be a real damn good
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: reason for me to shoot and kill that animal. So
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: for that reason, I don't trap. I don't do other
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: things like that. Nothing against any anyone that does, nothing
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: against people that want to shoot coyotes or other things,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: because it's plenty of good reasons to do all these
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: different things. But just for me personally, my own personal situation,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: I have a hard time justifying taking a life in
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: less at least for me, ingesting that animal, eating that animal,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: putting it to good use to feed my family in
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: some way. That's how I can kind of internally balance
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the scales in my head. And so you know that's
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: where I'm at right now. Um, But that does, I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: think to your point, and then in the moment of truth,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: because I feel very I feel I feel solid in
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: my knowledge of the reason I'm taking that shot and
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: taking that animal's life, and I'm comfortable with that and
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: have kind of terms with that. So I don't have
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: that issue like you mentioned. But there's certainly are times
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: like we're even even in my case, I kill a
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: lot of deer. I do a lot of hunting. I
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: even do still have times where I pause, like like
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a female dough with a couple of young deer, a
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: couple you know, yearlings with her. I've had times where
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: I've I've been out there to shoot a dough, was
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: gonna shoot a dough and I just saw her out
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: there with the two little doughs, with her frocking around,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: was like, I just don't want to kill that deer.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I just in the moment. You know, I've taken female
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: adult does with young before and other times I'm like,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: you know what, I just I don't want to do that.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: It just doesn't feel right. Um, And I don't know,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: maybe we all have different thoughts on that and at
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: different times, and it's a it's an interesting conversation. I'm
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: not sure there's right there's no right answer to any
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: of it, and I'm not sure where we're going with this.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: But these are my thoughts on this, and I don't
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: it's the kind of things that, like you said, it
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: kind of does tie into it because if you're having
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of these thoughts in the moment, it certainly
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: could impact your ability to bring that shot process to fulfillment, right,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I don't There's a lot of times where and this
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: sounds this may sound crazy, but you you have to
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: think like a predator at certain times, and if your
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: goal is to kill an animal for meat, you have
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: to think like a mountain lion or a wolf or
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: a bobcat. Do you think that wolf cares what that
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: DearS thinking. Do you think that wolf or whatever animal
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that predator cares if that dough has fawns. You know,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: nature works itself out, and unfortunately, hunters are part of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the food chain. So um, you know, I've I've been
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: in that same boat with you where I'm sitting and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: I watched a dough come through, and maybe that maybe
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: that that fawn or that yearling is still maybe nursing
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a little bit. I won't shoot that dough. But if
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I see that that that that fawn is independent and
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: is eating the grass or the corn or the um,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: the acorns or whatever, that good chance that mature dough
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: is probably going to get, you know, get get an arrow.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Depending on what time of year, obviously, yeah, yeah, And
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I think to all this, right, we're all at a
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: different place. You know, we all have different thoughts on this,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: and you know, different ways of justifying why we hunt
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: and kill an animal. Um. But I think maybe the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: most important thing, and we've alluded to this on other
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: episode when we talk through some of these things, but
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I think, if anything, I just think it's important that
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: we as hunters take the time to to have some
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: actual thoughts on this, to think about it, right, you know,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I think you know, when I was you know, when
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: I was younger, right, I just hunted because of what
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: we always did. I never thought about it. I just
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: hunted and I killed, and that was it just was.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't actually take take time to think about it,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: to think about why and how and what it means
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and the ramifications and without you know, getting too deep
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and floaty with us. I think it's just worthwhile for
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: everyone to to take some time to think about that, because, right,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: this is a very serious thing we're doing. When you
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: take a life as something not to be taken, you know,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: trite lee, it's not something that's uh fun and games.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: I hate I don't like the term sport hunting or
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: the term when we when we talk about saying this
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: as a sport because I feel like it's it's way
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: more serious than that, right, I mean, this isn't tossing
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: a ball around. This is putting a razor sharp arrow
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: through an animal, through its heart, through its lungs, and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: it's gonna die. And so that's it's a really serious thing.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: And so I personally, and again maybe this is maybe
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I'm on my on the you know, the high Mountain
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: talking down everyone. I don't mean to be like that, um,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: but I just think it's important that we all realize
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the serious of seriousness of it, think about it, keep
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: that in mind, um, and approach hunting in a serious,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: respectful manner and not lightly, not like we're just going
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: out there toss the ball around, um, but understanding the
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: gravity of the situation. So I'm done, I'm done with
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: my that that's a good I mean, you make a
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: valid point, because, um, who's the guy we had on
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: the show who talked to like this, Shane mohoney, Shane mohon,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Shane mohoney, and he and he said it perfectly, until
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the day that deer met you, it had lived a
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: free existence, and it had lived an awesome life of freedom,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: and you know, and then you took it and you
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: consumed it. What's the difference between you and a wolf
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: or a bobcat or getting a disease and dying at
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: some point? You know, a life is lineal. Yeah, and
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: it's it's a it's uh, it's a very natural and
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I think a privilege. It's a natural thing and a
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: privilege to be able to be part of that cycle.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty special thing. I think. You know, non
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: hunters obviously can't relate, and sometimes they, you know, look
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: down on us or get angry about what we do.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: But I think, um, obviously we that are part of
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: it know that there's something pretty special going on there
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that when you do, uh, participate in that, it's uh,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I think we all sometimes struggle to put
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: words to it. But it's a powerful thing. It's powerful.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: That's That's one thing I think we can all agree with.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So um so that all aside. I guess we work
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: as we do. We're kind of going off on hand.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: It's sort of sort of related to the main conversation here,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: but a little bit off. Now, let's talk about that
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: moment when it happens. I want to share how how
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: I function in the moment. I'm curious about how you
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: do you are? Let's you're in the tree standards November five,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: A shooter buck hunter, four year old shooter buck for
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: you in Iowa, steps out comes towards you. Walk me
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: through what your mental process looks like, what's your physical
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: process looks like? How do you handle that moment? I'm
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: curious about how your mind handles it? What are your struggles?
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: And I've got something I can share on that from
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: my INTWO. So you know, I wish I could answer
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that question really easy. But is it okay with you
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: if I kind of go talk about my past a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: little bit, That's a that's a great place to start. Okay.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: So the first two deer that I consider mature bucks
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: that I killed with my bow. We're bucks that I
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: had ever seen before. Okay. I wasn't running trail cameras
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: back then, um or or a lot of them. I
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: didn't have any history with these deer, so I didn't
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: know who they were. I looked at him, I said, mature,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: it's a shooter. Okay. So back back when I first
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: started bow hunting, I my first buck came out of
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: the timber that I knew it was gonna I knew
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I was going to shoot. It looked around me. I'm like, okay,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: this is a shooter. I draw back, and there was
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: really no thought about. There wasn't any extra thought. I
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: knew I had to find my anchor, put the site
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: where it needed to be, and release the arrow. That
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: was That was my first two deer that I ever shot.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: We're just like that because I had no history with him,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: and I think this this was kind of part of
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the problem with my encounter with shipwreck that deer. I
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: had five years of history with this buck. I found
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: sheds off him. I was completely obsessed with him. I
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: thought about this buck every day I had in previous
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: encounters with him, and when he came through, all this
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: stuff started flashing in my head. I had you know,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: they say, act like you've been there before. Well, with
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: a buck of that caliber, I had never been there before.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: So I admittedly got buck fever. All the stuff that
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: was coming, all the all the thoughts in the past
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: was coming in my brain and and I was thinking
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: about some of those things when I should have been
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: thinking on on the shot. And I admittedly got buck fever.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: And that's not the very first buck that I've ever
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: had buck fever on I missed. When you say buck fever,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: what does that look like feel like? For you? To me?
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: It is a fog almost where you look, you identify
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: the buck as a shooter, and you know that Like
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: for me, I I've I've known these deer through trail
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: camera picks and they I've targeted their their targets because
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I know going into the season that if they make
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: an appearance, they're they're a shooter and it becomes an autopilot.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: But it's a foggy autopilot, if that makes sense. So
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: it's like, if you asked me to describe in detail
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: what happened, I really couldn't. I really couldn't do that.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: You know. I remember settling the pin and then shooting there,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: but I don't remember standing up. I don't remember grabbing
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: my bow. I don't remember waiting until he got into
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: a shooting lane. I can't tell you that kind of
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: detail that I could. Like. So, up until that shipwreck moment,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: I was I target some can call it target panic.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I I was not focused. I had never been there before,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: so I had to learn that feeling and then I
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: could learn how to how to beat it all. Right.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: So I don't know how many years. I think it
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: was the next year or the year after when I
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: shot my I think it was two thousand and twelve.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: When I shot my buck, I identified it was a shooter.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: I saw it, you know, I had it. I had
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: watched it for maybe thirty minutes before I even shot it,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: so I had time for my for myself to settle down.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: In the past, if I watched the deer for a
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: long time, I would get more nervous and more nervous
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and more nervous. Two thousand twelve comes by, I knew
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: how to beat those feelings. I started taking deep breaths,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I started talking to myself, Hey man, you got this,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: you got this, you got this, you know. But came
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: up and I killed it, all right. And it's one
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: of those things where I can remember standing up, I
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: can remember waiting for him to turn broadside. When he
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: turned broadside in this particular instance, he was head on.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: I remember drawing back, I remember settling my pin, and
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: I remember pulling the trigger, and I remember impact, and
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: I remember all those things. So I know that there
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: that I was focused enough to have I I feel
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: have beat that target panic and that you know that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: that buck fever. I guess no, sorry saying you haven't
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: had it since and and I don't. I honestly don't
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: think that you know I've had I've had some buck fever,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: and I even get it a little bit when I
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I'm drawing back on does you know when I'm like
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: my first deer of the year like this this year,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the first two does that I killed this year were
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: We're the first two deer that I had killed in
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: two years. I hadn't killed a deer in two years,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: so so so I was jacked. I was excited. I
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: was happy. I don't think I would call it I
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: had target panic because I drilled them both. But the
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: buck that I missed this year was was not I
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: don't feel it was target panic. I feel it was
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: just me making an error in range. Yeah, because I
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: can tell you exactly what happened. I stood up, grab
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: my bow, you know, waited for him to get into
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: the opening, drew back, and all that stuff. I can
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: tell you in detail. There was there's no fog. I
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: made an error in range. Yeah. Yeah, I think I
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: think I can relate to a lot of what you
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: said there. Um, you know, for me. When I first
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: started bow hunting. The first few deer I shot, it
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: was like it was like I blacked out. It was
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: like this deer. I saw a deer coming, all right,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna shoot it. And then the next thing I know,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I shot the arrow and the deer is running off,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and I was like, holy smokes, what the heck just happened? Um?
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think that has changed, definitely has
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: changed with with practice and with with experience. UM. But
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: I did worry, you know, that was back when I
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: was shooting you know, any deer. And then I eventually,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: you know, made the switch to Okay, I'm gonna shoot
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: a maturity or now. And then I started worried, worrying,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: you know, how am I going to react in the
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: moment with a big buck, with the mature buck. And
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: then I started encountering those situations and I got better
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: at it. Um. And now I've killed you a number
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: of different mature bucks, and I still have I still have,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: you know, certain aspects of this and then certain aspects
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: I've gotten better at. UM. But I think to to
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: what you mentioned, I can definitely relate to that foggy
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: autopilot mode. If if I still have a challenge now,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and I'm a lot better than I used to be,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: but I am by far. I'm far from being perfect. Um.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: My challenge now is that I get into that foggy
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: autopilot and I rush a little bit on occasion. So
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: what happens for me last times is my autopilot mode
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: is pretty good. Now I don't get nervous. I used
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: to get nervous, like shaky nervous, like holy smokes, this
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: is gonna happen. Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. Um,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Like early on, I'm like, I'm it's like business for
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: me now when I'm out there, when I when I
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: see a mature buck, I talked to myself in the head.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: In my head, let's I see a shooter buck. And
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: I almost every single time now in my head, I say,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: here we go. As soon as I I acquire the target,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: I registered that's a shooter. And then and then like
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: my autopilot mode turns on and I say, here we go,
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: and I reached grabbed that boat. And it's just like
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: a carefully choreographed sequence of events that I've done enough
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: times now that I don't even have to think about it.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Just happens um, but I'm not necessarily thinking through it.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: It's good that I'm not thinking about that. I'm not
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: getting nervous as a big box coming in. I haven't
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: issues like getting the shakes or overventilating or anything like
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: that anymore. My issue now has been that in the
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: final moment when I draw back, when I put a
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: pin on the deer, what I have done on occasion
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: still is that that trigger goes off without thinking. So
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: when that pin settles for the first time where I
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: want it to, the finger polls automatically and there it goes,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: you know, one second before I should have or a
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: second before I should have taken another extra second and
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and really focused in. So I've had that happened a
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: couple of times, you know. For example, this year, opening
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: day of archery season here in Michigan, I had a
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: buck come out from underneath me without me knowing he
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: was there, and he was walking away, and he was
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: walking out of shooting range. So I was like, holy crap,
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: I gotta get on fast before he walks out of
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: shooting range. And as soon as that error, as soon
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: as that pin got on him, I didn't take the
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: extra time. I released and because of that, I was
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: just a little bit low shot underneath him. The same
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: thing happened. A similar thing happened, um two years before
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: that with Jawbreaker, Right, We've talked about that story numerous times,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: where he was walking through my shooting lane, almost got
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: outside my shooting lane by the time I was able
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: to get my my bow drawn. And again he was
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: almost out of the lane, and as soon as I
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: got the pin on him, I released. But because I
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: didn't take that extra second to settle in and calm
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: down for one more second, I didn't see the fact
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: that there was a little bit of a limb sticking
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: out in the way and I hit that. So that
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: is where my that's my area of improvement. I still
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: need to be able to be in that. I think
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: there's there's something we said about being an autopilot mode,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: you know, where you're not overthinking things that just happened,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, you need to be mindful
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: enough in the moment to take that extra second to
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: compose and make sure you are spot on ready. UM.
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: I can do that a lot of the time, but
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: just being completely honest, I don't get a percent right
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: every single time. Um. So, so that's that's my challenge
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: where I'm at. But I think people have all sorts
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: of different variations on that. Like you mentioned, you you've
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: shared where you've struggled. That's that's kind of my thing
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: right now. Um, but I think, you know, if I'm
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: thinking about all the different ways that people struggle with this,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: and I'm curious if you can think of any others.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: But right, I think there's some people that think too much. Right,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: They overthink every single thing. So because of it, they're
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: they're not able to be in the moment. They're thinking, Okay,
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: how do I do this? When do I do this?
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Is the buck ready? Is he not gonna be in range?
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: In my d range? You know, going through all these
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: things frantically in their head. Um. I think there's some
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: people that just haven't practiced enough and aren't prepared so
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: that you know, a lot of this this process should
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: be second nature to you, right, it should be something
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: that innately you can do because you've practiced so much.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Some people don't do that. So because of that, maybe
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: that lea neads to people thinking too much at the
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: moment um. I think there's just nerves, right, people get
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: actively nervous, like shaking, like they can't aim and accurately
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: shoot you because they're actually physically shaking, or they're actively
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: hyperventilating or breathing too heavy or things like that. I
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: mean that happens. People have physical reactions in that way. Um.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, to my friends point, um, my
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: friends issue, you know, maybe not having that killer instinct,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: not knowing when to just shoot, like they'll just actually
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: committing the final act of pulling the trigger. Sometimes people,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: you know, keep waiting for a better shot, or keep
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: waiting for an easier shot, or keep waiting for something
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: else when sometimes you just need to shoot. Um. On
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the other hand, some people maybe shoot when they shouldn't.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: They're not waiting for the right shot. Uh. Maybe then
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: there's like we could talk target panic, where I think
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: that's a little bit of what happens to me is
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: as I pull the trigger on occasion before I'm completely
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: settled in for the shot. And I think that's kind
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: of a form of target panic in a way, and
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: some people are are I think much struggle with that
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: to a much greater degree than me. Um. But I
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: think then there's rushing, right, which which I've mentioned. I
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: sometimes deal with rushing the shot a little bit. I'm
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: sure some people probably deal with that, maybe even in
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: more extreme examples. Um, but there's the point of me
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: listening all these things, I think is that there's a
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: lot of there's a lot of challenges when it comes
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: to actually being able to pull off a shot like this, right,
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, am I missing any of the other different
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: forms of buck fever forms of this issue? You know?
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that everybody has their own battles that they
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: have to deal with. I can only speak from my experience,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: But you mentioned about maybe pulling the trigger two early.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: For me, what I've battled with is always questioning when
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: to pull the trigger, not just knowing when to pull
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the trigger. So I have caught myself before tapping the trigger,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: but like going what, well not yet, yeah, you know,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and and and then pulling it. So it's always second
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: guessing and not knowing when to actually pull the trigger.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of that has to do
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: with experience and just shooting and shooting and shooting and
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: shooting and shooting, and um knowing you're you know, you
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: shoot so much that it goes on autopilot. I know
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: that this this past summer, my goal was to become
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: a better archer and shoot way more because I wanted
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: to make sure that if I had the encounter with
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: an elk I was going I could confidently at least say, hey, yeah,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: this isn't gonna be an issue. But you know, you
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: can practice all you want, you can have, you know,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: I feel that that does help in the autopilot situations
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: where you know, your form takes over and your muscle
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: memory takes over. But there's something about a white tail
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: buck that you can be as focused you can be.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: It can make a calculated person an anal retentive person
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: lose their ship. Yeah, and that you cannot I mean,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: unless you have experience with big bucks. There's a good
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: chance that the first time you do encounter a big
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: buck that you're gonna you're gonna have some form of
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: buck fever. Yeah. I think you make it. You make
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a good point. I think, you know, if we if
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: we're kind of shifting out, how do we deal with this?
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: I think number one is practicing a lot, you know,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: like you said, like you did, you know, making sure
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: that you practice as much as you possibly can, because
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: it does help, right, it definitely does help if you know,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: if you're really confidently. A lot of it comes down
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: to confidence, right, If you're very confident in the fact
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: that you can make the shot because you've made that
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: shot ten thousand times over the course of the summer,
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: that helps. But like you said, it's a different story
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: when it's a when it's a real animal, you know,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: whether it's a big buck, which is at a whole
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: another level, or if it's a dough. Even with a dough,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's still a totally different thing than a target. Obviously.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Um So, I think first and four most if I'm
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: trying to, you know, get better at handling the moment,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: the truth, I'm practicing a ton, you know, during the summer,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: during the spring, during the fall. But then also I
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: think there really is something to be said about gaining
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: experience actually hunting and killing deer. And you know, there's
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: some guy I think one thing that people struggle with.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: And I'm not sure what your thoughts are on this, Dan,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: but I think it's a mistake for someone to start
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: hunting right away. Let's say a new bone hunter and
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: they watch TV and they listen to this podcast, they
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: read magazines and they hear about everybody's shooting mature bucks,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: hold out for mature bucks, hold up for a big buck.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: So this guy or girl who's never hunted, never killed
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a deer before, goes into it thinking they have to
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: wait for a forty four year old, and then because
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: of that, they don't shoot any deer for the first year,
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: for two years, three years, or whatever. And then if
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: the first time they do see that four year old,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: they've never had an experience in that situation before, and
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: they completely break down. I really think it's me personally.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: I think it's a better idea to to take steps,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: to take baby steps, to to hunt and kill a
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: deer first, you know, have lots of experience killing does
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: or young bucks, whatever it is, to to learn how
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: to handle that situation, to become comfortable in that situation,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: and then you know, if you want to move from there. Um.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: But I think there's there's really something to be said about,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: you know, gaining experience actually shooting and killing a deer. Um,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: that's that's the best way to improve on all this,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: I think is just actually being in the real moment
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: and handling it. And so you know, sometimes that means
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: shooting does or whatever. Um, So for me, you know,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: I like to I like to do hunt because we
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: eat a ton of venison. Um, So I have, you know,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoyed that because I know every time I'm out
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: there hunting a dough and have that shot in that encounter,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: I know that I'm going through a process that will
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: help me with all the other goals I have to
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: It's every time I shoot a deer, I'm practicing that
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: moment of truth. I'm trying to handle it better. I'm
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: trying to take one more step in the right direction.
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: So I'd incur a people if you're not already and
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: you struggle with this shoot some doughs, get some experience
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: in the field. There's nothing that can replicate you know,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: a target can never replicate a real animal. So can
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: I Can I share a crazy idea? I love you too, alright,
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: I'd love it if you did. I don't know, I
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: don't know what I'm saying. Yes, please, do you love
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: you love me? Maybe that's what I'm trying to saying. Okay,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: So in the past, when it comes to deer hunting
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: season and my diet, I am uh sugar fat, you know,
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: basically junk food, fried food completely. You know a lot
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: of the times when I you know, I'll either stuff
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: my I won't eat anything in the morning, but then
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: in the afternoons I'll stuff my face at lunch to
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: the point where I'm full and maybe it's not the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: best food, And then go sit in a tree stand
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and you get that full feeling. I don't know if
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: that you ever have that? And do I ever get full? Well? No,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, like, you know, like it's it's deer season,
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: You're you're pounding apple pies from the gas station and
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: mountain dews. You know, you do you remember that picture
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I posted on my rut food last year and all
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the criticism I got, because yeah, and I know what
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: our I know what our diet was on the way
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: to and from Idaho, so relate. So and you get that,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: you get that kind of you're you're climbing up your
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: tree stand, you're completely full, and you get those heavy heartbeats,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: if that makes sense. You ever get that where it's
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: kind of like your heart's beating through your stomach because
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: you're so full, and it's and it's not you're just
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: you're almost out of breath because you ate so much.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Then you went and walked in the woods. I guess
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know that one. I've been out of breath before,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: but I guess not the heavy heart thing, but right,
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: And I'm not saying it's like I'm gonna have a
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: heart attack, but I hope not. But you know, you're
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: I feel that diet may have a little bit to play.
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: So this year, I the main reason I didn't drink
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: coffee before I went into the tree stand every morning
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: was because I was afraid that I would I would
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: have to go number two. You don't want to blow out.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: You don't want to blow out, right, I don't want
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: to have to get down to my stand at the
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: perfect time. So I don't drink coffee. And you know,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: after or before my morning hunts. So I noticed that
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I was more like I was more not awake, but
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: less I don't know what, like more focused, less jittery.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Uh I wasn't you know, I just I felt like
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: I was supposed to, like I was meant to be
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: in the tree stand. I don't know, this is weird. Yeah.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: And then I also my snacks this year for deer
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: season consisted of like apples and carrots, and I did
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: not eat until I was full to go in before
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: I went in for my afternoon hunt, and I noticed
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: a world of difference. I noticed that I wasn't you know,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: I was more with it mentally and physically when I
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: had my encounters this year. And I don't know, I
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: think I feel that diet plays a role in that
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: moment of truth where your heartbeat starts pumping and there's
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: not a ton of sugar in there and there's not
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: a ton of fat, you know, slowan, I don't know
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: how really how the body works. I'm not a not
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: a human biologist, but I just know that I from
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: my personal experience, I feel that with a better what
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: you're in taking can affect how you act in that
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: high when your body goes into that adrenaline dump and
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: that high that you may not call it a stressful situation,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: but your body is putting you into a moment of
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: anxiety and stress. Yeah, I think I agree with you.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: I think you're absolutely right. Um and not just your diet,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: but I think in general just your overall physical health. UM,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: so also your exercise level. I mean, you know, having
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: having a relatively fit body and physical level of physical fitness,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: I think absolutely will help you in these situations. UM.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: And that's something you know I've I've definitely tried to
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: work on, you know, given the Western hunting and stuff
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: we do, but I can certainly improve there too. UM.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: And actually one of these podcasts coming up, we are
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: working on getting someone who can help us have this
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: discussion about you know, the importance of physical health. You know,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: not just the guys that are out west pounded mountains
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: and everything, but even for us white tail guys, because
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: the situation is exactly like what you just mentioned in UM,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: I think they're there definitely is something to that. You know,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: our body is a tool, and we need to have
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: that body that tool fine tuned and working as best
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: as possible to handle, like you said, these very stressful situations. UM.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: So that's a great point, I think. Um, I think, well, yeah,
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I think I think you're a spot on. UM. I
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: want to take a step back to practicing if if
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: we're talking about dealing with this situation. So I guess
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: what we talked about. We've talked about, you know, having
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: experienced in the field shooting deer. We've talked about fine
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: tuning your body, trying to be healthy. UM. I want
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: to take a step back to the practice element. So
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: when it comes to actually practicing during the summer or
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: in the off season or whatever. UM, I wanted to
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: walk through a couple of different things I've learned that
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: have helped me be practice better. UM and Dan, I'm
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: sure you have some thoughts on this too, But here
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: are a couple of things that I've found and heard
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: from others that they've done have helped them become a
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: better practice er. Because I think, you know, first and foremost, yeah,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: shoot a lot, practice a lot, practice consistently. I think
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: trying to do it, you know, not just you know,
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: everyone once a month shooting, but consistently getting out there
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: and practicing, you know, either every day or a couple
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: times a week, or some type of pattern of use
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: where your body, excuse me, where your body and mind
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: is actively engage in the act of shooting, you know,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: on a consistent basis, so that's just part of your
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: day life or whatever it might be. UM. I also think,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: you know, and everyone's different on this. Some people don't
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: start shooting them just before the season. UM. I would
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: encourage people. At least for me, it has been helpful
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: to to be shooting for much longer than that. I
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: don't shoot all year round, but pretty much once it
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: gets warm outside, I'm shooting for those you know, four
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: or five, six months or whatever before the deer season,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: and I do think that helps. Um, that's one thing
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: I would I would mention, UM. But then you know,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: when you're actually out there shooting, don't just spend all
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: your time shooting in a normal, comfortable position from the
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: same distance all the time. Try different things. So I'd say,
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: you know, practice from different positions. So sometimes be sitting.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you have to take shots while you're
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: sitting in a tree stand, or maybe you hunt from
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: a ground line. So practice sitting, Practice kneeling, practice standing
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: from a small platform. Practice from a high angle. So
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: go up on your deck, or stand on type of
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: your roof, if that's a safe thing to do. Or
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: or put a tree up or put a tree stand
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: up in a tree in your yard and shoot from that.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: Practice from different angles, in different types of you know,
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: you've got a tree stand, you're standing on a narrow platform.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: That changes how you shoot. So practice in those situations. UM,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: Practice turning and shooting behind you, you know, I mean
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: right now, when you're actually shooting a deer. It's never
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: as simple and easy and straightforward as it is when
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: there's a target right in front of you, right, I
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: mean not so. I think that's an important thing to
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: try to prepare for those situations. Um another way that
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: I think to deal with this type of high pressure
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: situation of actually shooting a live animal, I think trying
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: to up the stakes in your practice in some way,
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: you know, make that shooting make there has to be
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: some type of ramification, some type of pressure on your
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: practice sometimes. So sometimes that might be going out there
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: with other people, so you know, go shoot with a
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: bunch of friends. And if you don't think there's a
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: little more pressure any when five guys are all watching
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: you shoot, I think there will definitely be a different
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: level of pressure on you. And that's going to help
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: you get better on those pressure situations. Or shoot with
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: a buddy in place a bet on every shot. You know,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: if I don't get this shot in the twelve ring,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: I owe you twenty bucks or I owe ten bucks
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: or whatever. Just by doing something like that, again, Adds,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: I'm serious, I'd be broke away, really fat. It just
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: it ups the annie. And I think anytime you can
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: up the antie on a shot. It forces you to
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: operate in a slightly higher stress situation. And every time
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: you can do that, you're getting a little bit closer
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: to that you know, in the field situation. Right, Um?
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: What else? Shoot at long distances? Right? I think that
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: if you are going to do lots of US deer hunters,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: most of our shots are within thirty yards. I think
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: fifteen yards, twenty yards, thirty yards, those are typically a
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: lot of the shots we get. But if you practice
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: at fifty yards and sixty yards are further out, if
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: you can get good in the yard shooting at those distances,
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: those twenty yards shots in a real life deer are
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: gonna be a lot easier. Um. So what else? Do
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: you have any other tips for actually practicing day when
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: it comes to you know, better practice that will translate
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: to better shooting in the field. You know one thing?
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if this actually helped me or not.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Maybe it did, maybe it didn't, But what I would
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: there there were times where I would draw back with
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: arrow in hand, it picked up full, you know, ready
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: to go. I would draw back, settle my pen like
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: I like I was gonna shoot. But then I would
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: let down and and not shoot, and then I would
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: draw back again and get settled up and then shoot.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: So I don't know why I did it. Maybe it's
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: because I read somewhere that that's what another person did.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: But I did that for a while. And I'll be
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: honest this year, and it could be a combination of
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: everything that I did this summer. I would the first
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: thing I did was I shot way more this summer
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: than I ever have. Second was I did sometimes and
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: it would be like the very first five or six
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: arrows that I shot, where I would pull back, settle in,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: let down, and then pull back again and shoot. Um.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: There there were times where I would jog to pull
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: my arrows out and then jog back to where I
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: was going to shoot, and then my heart rate would
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: be you know, it wasn't a sprint, but um, because
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: knowing me, I would trip and put a broadhead through
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: my heart. But but no like that, And then what
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: was the other thing that I did? Um? There were
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: times where some days where I would only shoot one
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: arrow and it forced me two really focus because I
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: wouldn't want to walk all the way from seventy yards
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: too or you know, sixty yards to the target on
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: a shitty shot, because I would be pissed, and then
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: I would go back and I would focus even harder
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: on trying to get to where I you know, I did.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Oh and one last thing that I felt probably helped
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: me the most of anything, And it's kind of a
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: combination of two things, but one was don't overshoot, because
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: I knew that if I would continue to shoot and
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: shoot and shoot, I'd get frustrated and I would, you know,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: you're get so tired from shooting your because your muscle
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: there is fatigue, and my accuracy would go away and
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: I'd be mad, and then I would have to And
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: then I always said end on a good note. So
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: even if I was even if I was at you know,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: doing crappy at thirty or forty yards, I would always
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: end on a good note. And that meant if I
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: had to, I would walk up to twenty yards and
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: I would pop a couple at twenty yards right in
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the bull's eye and then end on it. And I
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: ended on a good note. Yeah, I do. I do
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: something very similar to that, um And it's kind of
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: like there's a I can't remember what the technical term
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: is I'm not any kind of Jim jockey. UM. There's
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: some type of weightlifting methodology UM where you'll do UM,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: you know, certain number of reps at a certain weight,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: and then you continue to go down in weight, but
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: increase the number of reps you do because it's it's
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: harder to do the heavy weight, so you just reduce
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: the weight, but you keep doing it so you're able
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: to continue practicing. You're able to continue lifting weights, but
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: you're just reducing the weight. UM. But it's still a challenge.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of like what I do. I do
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: with something similar with my shooting. I'll start out a
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: very long range and I'll be practicing and then, as
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: you mentioned, muscle fatigue starts setting in so that I
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: come in ten yards closer, So ten yards closer I
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: can shoot. I can still shoot fine. And it's it's
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: a similar challenge on so when you once you get
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: down to thirty yards and then twenty yards, you've been
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: shooting the longest, but even though you have that muscle fatigue,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: you can still nail out at twenty yards, So you're
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: you're able to do exactly like what you said and
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: done a good note. While you know working your way
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: out from a challenge to now at twenty or thirty yards,
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: you're you're so tired that it's somewhat of a challenge
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: to so. UM. I think your idea of jogging was
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: a really good one. I do something similar. I would
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: do like a sprint around the barn, and then I
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: come back shoot one arrow, do a sprint around the barn,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: shoot um again, to do exactly what you said, Try
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: to replicate that increased heart rate. UM. I like your
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: idea of drawing and then letting down, because right, that's
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a situation that a lot of us have to deal
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: with in the tree. Sometimes you have to draw back
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: and then you have to let down, and you have
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: to draw back let down. UM. Something I do that's
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: kind of similar is I will have certain lengths of
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: time that I forced myself to hold the bow back
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: before I shoot. So I'll draw and force myself to
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: hold it for thirty seconds before I'm allowed to shoot. UM.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: Just trying to build up that that strength and being
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: able to hold and keep my composure for that full
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: time until I can finally shoot. Because I don't know
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: about you, but I've had a couple of situations where
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: I've been stuck at full draw for a crazy long
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: period of time. Um, like my Ohio buck in two
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen. Uh, not jabbreaker, but the doppelganger that buck.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: I was a full draw for over a minute and
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: a half. It was crazy and I don't know how
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: I managed to do it, because I probably couldn't do
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: it today and get as good a shot as it
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: did in that deer. But it was a long time
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: and I think practicing for that probably helped a little bit.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: So that's something I would do. Um. Gosh, there was
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: one of the things that you mentioned that I liked,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: um that I had. Oh you know what, practice not
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: just in like a T shirt and shorts in the summer,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: but sometimes try practicing with your hunting gear on, um,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: because that will change how your shot. You know, if
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: you've got a big puffy jacket on or something, that
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: might change your shot. So that's something to try to do.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: And I think my final thought on practice is don't
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: stop practicing during hunting season. I think a lot of
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: people practice in the summer or a month before, two
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: months before, but once deer season starts, they start hunting,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: but then they don't shoot their bowe anymore. I think
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: that's a big mistake. Um, So so I try to
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: keep what I struggle with that, Like, it's easy for
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: me to get lazy and not want to go outside
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: and shoot once I'm super busy during the season and
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: traveling and all that. So I've tried to get better
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: at that by making my boat easily us well by
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: hanging my door by the bow of the barn, so
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: whenever I'm going by there, it's just there's the bow,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: there's an arrow. It's not like I to take it
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: out of the case unstrapped, find the arrows, get all
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: that crap. I just make everything as convenient as possible.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: So it's just at one point, I used to keep
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: my boa my bow hung up next to my back
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: door so that I would just step out the door
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: and I keep a target outside the front door. Back
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: door said open the back door and there's a target,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: And I had grabbed my bow off hook and I
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: could shoot right there. Um just to you know, like
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: you said, take one shot and have that pressure of
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: making that one shot count. I think that's a smart
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: thing to do. If you at least do that during
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: the season, that's going to help you tremendously. I think
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: I agree. So those are some practice ideas. Um, what
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: about dealing with buck fever, dealing with the moment of truth? Actually,
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: in the moment of the truth, is there anything that
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: you've done? Is there anything you do in those moments
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: now to help you clear your head or to help
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: you better perform in that moment? Well, you know, if
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: there's a rack and it's big, then I will first
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: I I you have to look at the rack, because
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: for me, that identifies if it's a shooter or not,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: I mean part of it, if or if it's a
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: deer that I know, because not necessary, you can't always
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: really tell a body size, you know, mature level, if
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: the deer is looking head on at you. Um. But
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: one thing that I do is if I know it's
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: a deer that I want to shoot, I will identify
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: where it's at and then I will try to focus
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: on its tail or its back legs and just be
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: completely try to keep stay away from its head, you
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: know what I mean. And then or if I know
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: it's coming at me, I'll I will look at my
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: bows site. So I will I will just always be
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: on that site. So when I draw back I'm not
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: looking at the target. I'm looking at my site. So
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: when I draw back, i'm my eyes are my eyes are?
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: My eyes are following my site to the target, and
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: not me trying to focus on the target and bring
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: my sight to it. So I am. I don't. I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: don't know why I do it, but it just it
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: helps me stay away from the rack and and focus
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: on the the act of shooting and not the the
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: goal or the target. I guess, yeah, I think that's
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: a good point. I definitely do something similar, especially if
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: it's with a you know, a big buck. You know,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the more you look at that rack, the greater chances
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: that might be of you getting more worked off about it,
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: more excited about it. So so I do the same
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: thing I try once I identify you as a buck,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: I know, look at the body or whatever it might be,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: to determine whether it's a shooter. Once I term it's
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: a buck, I'm gonna shoot, I do the same thing
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: as you. I don't look at the head anymore. I
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: look at the body, the back of the body, anything
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: you can do to look at that rack. But it's
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: funny because of that, you know, this past year when
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: I shot Glenn. I did not look at his antlers.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I just I looked at I saw a glimpse of them,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: and looked at his body, and in a split second
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: I sapt shooter. And I never paid any attention to
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: you know, his antlers and his identifying characteristics at all
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: after that. So even though I had Glenn standing at
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: twenty yards for you know, a handful of seconds, enough
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: time that I had time to grab my bow, drawback
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: and shoot him, I had no idea. I just shot
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: a buck that I've been obsessively watching and studying for
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: three years. Had no idea because I just refused to
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: look at the head. And so in that case that
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: you know worked out really well. Um So I think
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: it does make a big difference if you can keep
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: yourself focused on a less anxiety inducing part of the deer,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: that makes a difference. Another thing that might work, And
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: I did that. I did it this year on the
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: buck that I couldn't end up stopping. You know, I
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: told you that encounter with that buck that was dogging
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: a doe real hard, and uh, I couldn't get him
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: to stop. So instead of turning your body and following
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: the deer, you should you should go to where you
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: think the deer is going to be shot, like, because
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: you're not. You're not going to shoot the deer when
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: you first see him at you know, seventy yards through
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: the timber. You're going to wait till he gets into
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: one of your shooting lanes and then you're gonna draw
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: back and shoot him. So or you know, you draw
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: back prior to him entering that shooting lane. So what
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: I what I did this year was I knew that
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: this buck was on a trail, the dough already came through.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: He was going to walk right through this shooting lane.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: So I got to the point where I am. I
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: am my body is positioned for the encounter at the
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: shooting lane. So I'm not I'm not having my arrow
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: point or my bow pointed at him the entire time,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: and I'm not turning with him. I'm motionless and I'm
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: ready for that particular shot, and I'm I'm looking in
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: my shooting lane. I'm not following that buck. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: I do the exact same thing. As soon as I
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: see that there's a shooter, I positioned myself for the
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: shot where I think it's going to happen. Um. So
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: that you said, so you don't need to be moving
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: around when he's close. You put yourself position as quickly
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: as possible, and you are silent ready waiting. Um. And
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: that seems like a no brainer. But I find myself always,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: you know, there's times where if a deer comes in
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: behind me or for you know, the position, I always
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: try to have my tree stands, you know, where I
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: would i'm sitting, I would be if I'm sitting down,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: I'm facing away from where I think the action is.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: So if there is an encounter, I can I feel
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: like I can get away with a little bit more
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: movement because there is a tree between me and the
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: shooting lane, if that makes sense. So so I always
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: try to position myself that way. And there's times where
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: if a deer comes in to the side of me,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: I'm I catch myself not focusing on where I need
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: to shoot him, but just following him the until he
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: gets to that point. Yeah, yeah, I can't shoot him,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: you can. I mean, if there's branches or treason way,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: you can't shoot him anyway. It's tempting them to want
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: to be facing the deer and watching it. But I
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: think it's a it's a really good idea to just
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: situate yourself right away and wait um and to to
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: that point, something I do that has made a big
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: difference for me is as soon as I get into
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: a tree, I get in there, I get set up,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: I get strapped and hooked into my harns and everything.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: I practice drawing back my bow in every different shooting
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: lane that I might shoot a deer in so that
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: I make sure I can get drawn back without hitting
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: the back of my tree or without my harness trap
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: getting tangled up, or whatever it is. I practice. So
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: I've drawn me back my bow back three four different
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: times every time I climb into that tree to just
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: make sure, you know, no matter what, I know that
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: I can get my bow drawn and I can get
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: a shot off, you know, because sometimes there might be
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: a limb that's too close and that if you didn't practice,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't know that I'll shoot. When I tried to
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: draw my bow back, my arrow will knock that limb,
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: or this trunk will my elbow will get stuck on
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: that different things like that I've had that happened in
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: the past. So so now I prep every time, and
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: that's made a huge difference because there's been a couple
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: of times where, you know, if I hadn't done that,
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: I would have totally screwed up on a deer. But
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: but instead I knew that I would be able to,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: you know, maneuver into this position because I'd already practiced
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: it and have resulted and you know, me being able
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: to pull off a shot that I wouldn't have before.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: Um Or in the other case, I've had times where
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: I thought I'd be okay, and then I tried to
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: practice it and I realized, no, this limb or whatever
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: is gonna be in the way, and then I was
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: able to saw it out of the way or fix
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: something so that I didn't have that issue. So I
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: think that's a big one. UM. So right, we're we're
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: talking practicing drawing back, prep preparing to maneuver your body
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: into position. Another thing that I do, um once a
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: deer comes into range or once a deer appears that
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to shoot. Um we kind of talked about,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: but I start having like a mental dialogue with myself
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: a little bit, so, like I said, here we go.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: As soon as that kind of here we go, and
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: then my automo autopilot mode sort of starts operating. Um
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: but I but I do try to keep talking myself
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, keeping myself in the moment
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: a little bit, because I think there's a difference between
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: going into autopilot mode versus blacking out. So for me,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: it's like finding that line in between. I want to
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: be I want to be like second nature, but I
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: also want to be present still. So for me, I've
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: sort of developed a mantra that helps me kind of
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: lock back in at the end. And I'm not saying
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: I do this perfectly, um, but for example, two years ago,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: when you know the job breaker debacle happened, I hit
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: that dear didn't recover him, and part of that I
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: blamed on the fact that I rushed shot. So to
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: try to improve on that, I tried to refocus myself
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: with the mantra that would just help remind me to
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: to become more present in that moment. And I just
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: said you from then on, when I practiced that year before,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: every time I was getting ready to take a shot,
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: I would just say, jawbreaker, jawbreaker, jawbreaker. And that was
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: like this way of reminding myself take an extra second. Focus,
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: stay present, And so that's what I did every time
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: I practiced that after that shot, you know, after the
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: jowbreaker thing, when I practiced, when I said my mantra,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: it just kind of brought me back into the moment.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: And I did that, and that helped me with my shot,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: you know, two and a half weeks later, when I
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: killed that Ohio buck. I've also used a mantra. You know,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: just when I say montra, I just mean like some
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: type of phrase that you can say to yourself to
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: just remind yourself to to to get you back into it.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: So another one for me has been focused on form,
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: because if I can remind myself to focus on form,
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: that's going to remind me to go through my steps,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: to go through my shot sequence and not just blast
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: through an all of a sudden shoot the bow. But remember,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: have you right, make sure your anchor point it's good,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: make sure your arms would needs to be, make sure
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: you've checked the level on your site. If I can
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: remind myself just just for a split second to stay
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: in the moment, that makes a big difference for me.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: So having some kind of mantra um I know, it's
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: helped me a little bit, and I've heard from a
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: number of other much better archers who use something similar
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: to to just again, refocus you get you back in there,
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: because I think again, I think the key is to
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: make it second nature, beyond autopilot, but not blacked out,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: not unfocused. So I don't does that make sense? Do
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: you do anything at all like that? Dan, I'll be
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: honest with you. I talked to myself all the time
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: when I'm when I'm getting ready to shoot a bow
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: and to be not sound weird, but I do it
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: all the time, like when I'm walking into the woods
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: where you're just like make sure you're quiet, you know,
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: Like I don't know why I do it. It's it's
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: almost like, yeah, I probably do too. I'm motivating myself
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: and it might not be out loud, but I'm motivating
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: myself to be the best hunter that I can be.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: And I was like, okay. Or when I'm setting up
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: a tree stand where it's like no no metal metal, no,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: no metal to metal contact. You know. It's just things
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: like that. And my mantra when I shoot my bow
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: is in. I used to play rugby in college, and
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: whenever there was a scrum, the ref the sir or
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: the ref would say touch, pause, engage, and that's when
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: the two sides would come together and they throw the
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: ball under in the scrum. And that's what I say
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: when I when I shoot my bow, and it has
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: nothing to do with the actual action of there. But
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: as I draw my bow back, I say touch, and
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: I touched my kisser to the corner of my lip. Pause,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: and I hold my breath to settle. I take that,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: you know that, Engage, and then I pulled the trigger.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: So it's touch, pause, engage, and it's just three steps
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: that I use too, I guess, get on the target.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: I like that, And I think that that ties in
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: perfectly to another aspect of of being a a good
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: archer and also being able to shoot well in the
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: field is having some kind of shot sequence, you know,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: knowing having a series of steps that you follow from drawing, back, anchoring,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: getting the target into your site picture, and releasing. Having
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: some type of consistent sequence every single time you shoot.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: Being able to have that sequence, nail it, make it
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: second nature, and then be able to perform that in
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: the actual field will allow you to stay consistent. Because
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: the key to archery accuracy is doing the same thing
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: exactly the same way, over and over and over. Um.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: I mean that's how you accurately shoot a bowl. So
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: if you can implement some kind of sequence of actions
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: and make it second nature and then you don't have
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: to think about it, that is going to allow you
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: to to to shoot better when it's actually a deer
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: as well. So having a monitor that that walks you
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: through that, whether it be you know, touch, engauge pat
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: whatever you said, um, whatever it is, or focus on
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: form like me, um, I think that's a that's a
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: good idea. And you mentioned breathing, taking a deep breath
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: before the shot. That reminded me a really important thing
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: for me to, especially when I was struggling earlier on
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: in my hunting, to like calm down when a deer
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: was coming in. Whenever you do start having those nerves
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: and and sometimes I still do. Um, if you do
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: have nerves deers walking in or you see a big
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: buck off the distance and you get pumped up, just slow, steady,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: full breathing, you know, consistent heavy deep breathing. Deep breathing
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: exercises can really actually make a physical difference with you.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: So for me, it's take a full, deep breath in
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: all the way, fill my lungs, pause for a beat,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: release the whole thing out. And so if I have
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: a long encounter where there's a deer that like, for example,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: with the very first time I saw a jobreaker, this
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: is three years ago or four years ago, whatever, the
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: very first hunt I saw him. I watched him for
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: like an hour and forty five minutes, hour and a
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: half something like that. He was at the other end
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: of the field, and for an hour and a half
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: he slowly made his way down to me. So like
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: for the first minutes, I was cool to cucumber, and
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: then like for whatever reason, like forty five minutes into
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: it or something, all of a sudden, like the nerves
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: got to me and all of a sudden, just started
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: shaking like crazy, and I was like, whoa, you gotta
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: chill out. So I just did this deep breathing exercise
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: over and over again, and it just kind of I
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: don't know why, but it just calms your body. You know.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: That's something I used to do when I get nervous before,
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: like a job interview or anything like that. Deep breathing
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: helps me um. And from what I understand, I think
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: it's just something that helps most people in general. So
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: that's something if you do have issues with nerves or
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: physically getting worked up, try that slow, deep breathing and that,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: I think is something that can just bring your body
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: down and notch again and allows you to just be
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: in a little more of a of a level place
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: when you do get that shot. So that's something. Um.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: What else we talked about mantra shot sequence, breathing. Um,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: you know, here's one. If you know that you struggle
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: with this with the moment of truth, if you struggle
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: with buck fever self, limit yourself, realize that you have
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: a challenge here, and limit yourself to a effective distance.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: Don't get crazy and try to shoot long distance shots
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: if you know that this is something you consistently struggle with,
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: because obviously a third or fourty yard shot is difficult
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: on its own, let alone if you are hyperventilating or
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: can't focus. So if you know this is something you're
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: struggling with, have the um the mental realize that you
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: need to bring it in because a fifteen yard shot
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: or twenty yard shot is going to be a lot
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: easier to handle when you're all worked up than a
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: fourty yard shot. So I would just say, be realistic
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: about what your effective ranges and realize how buck fever
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: can impact that. I mean, do you think that's fair, Dan,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: I do. I don't, to be honest with you, I
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: don't even if I have a forty yard shot in
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: the timber. It's purely on accident. I all my shooting
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: lanes at most go you know, maybe third little out
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: thirty yards. I don't. I try to. I try to
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: do exactly what you said and limit my shooting lanes too,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: somewhere around thirty yards and in the timber. I mean,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: that's still a poke when you when you think about
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: thirty yards from a tree stand, that's still a decent shot.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: And uh, the areas that I hunt anyway, if I
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: wanted to cut a forty yards shooting lane, I'd be
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: there all day long shoot cutting that one lane. Yeah,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: some of these spots will be pretty tough. I think.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes people can shoot great behind the house,
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: right they say, oh, I shoot awesome at fifty yards
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: and sixty yards and seventy yards and put it right
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: in the ten ring every time, and they assume that
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: will translate when you're actually out there with a deer,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: and so because of that, they take these crazy long
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: shots that I think in a lot of situations you
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: really shouldn't be given the fact that you are operating
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: in a totally different type of situation when there's a
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: deer in front of you. Um, So I would encourage
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: people to take a real hard look really how you
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: can perform out there in the field versus behind the house,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: and and don't take a risk. Don't risk wounding a
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: deer or missing a deer, or the worst thing being
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: wounding a deer. Um, don't do that just because you
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: think you might be able to pull off the shot,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: just because you do in the in the backyard all
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: the time. I think it's much it's the responsible thing
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: to do, I personally believe, and it's a much smarter
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: thing to do as a deer hunter to to to
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: limit yourself be a little bit more conservative when it
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: comes to actually shooting a deer in the field. Right. So,
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know, those are kind of the thoughts I
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: had as I've been thinking through this. You know, how
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: to deal with the moment of truth, how to prepare
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: for it beforehand, how to deal with it in the
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: actual moment, Um, is there anything else you had mentioned? Dan,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: anything else we missed? I mean, we could get crazy
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: here for a second and you know, have your friend
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: throw throw fake punches at you, you know, and try
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: to get you to flinch while you're drawing back your bow.
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: You know. Don't don't try this at home. I guess
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: I should have said first, or have like someone shoot
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: roman handle that, yeah, and just get so crazy that
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: you're you're you won't black out from uh, you know,
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: because a deer walk in through the woods is safe
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: as opposed to maybe some guy trying to hit you
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: with a hammer or trying to, you know, throw firecrackers
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: at you. I'm not gonna recommend anything Dan just said there,
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: but it's probably it's probably the best you have a
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: you have a legal team, right, Yeah, We're gonna need
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: to to bring them on board for this because there's
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: gonna be people saying, wow, my buddy shot a Roman
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: candle into my face while shooting. Why don't you guys
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: recommend that? No, in all seriousness, I know what you mean.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like again trying to replicate the stress
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: and the anxiety and the pressure of a deer. If
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: you can replicate some type of stress or distraction or
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: whatever it might be, that's that's gonna help you. Or
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: you know, shooting a bow while your wife or girlfriend
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: takes a pregnancy test. Good luck with that. Do you
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: have experience of that day? Okay, Well, on that note,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: I think I think we covered it. I will say
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: one thing I don't and Dan, I'm speaking for you here,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: but you tell me if I'm wrong. But I don't
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: think Dan or I, either of us, would claim to
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: be the end all be all expert on this. We
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: both have work to do. We both can get better.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: So we've both we've both had our struggles. I think
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: we've both improved, we're learning, we're getting better, but I
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: think we both still have room to get there. Um,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: and that's probably true for most people listening. But if
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: you have other ideas, if you have other suggestions, we'd
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: love to hear from you. Um. If you think something
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: we said is crazy, you can tell us that too,
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: So feel free to hit us up on Twitter, Facebook,
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: or leave a comment on this blog post. Because because
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: I think we all can learn about this, um, and
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: we all, i'm sure can relate in different ways to
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: this challenge. So with that all being said, I think
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: we'll wrap it up. So if you have not yet, gosh,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: it would be awesome if you could leave a rating
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: or review on iTunes for this podcast. That is a
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: huge help, so thank you in advance for doing that.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: If you haven't yet checked out The white Tail Q
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: and A podcast that's the other show that I produce,
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: definitely search for that on iTunes or wherever you get
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: your podcasts. And Dan has a great podcast to the
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: Non Finger Chronicles, so check that out. You should have
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: plenty of deer hunting audio content to keep you busy
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: throughout the week if you follow those three, So thanks
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: in advance for checking that out. And then finally, we
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: do need to thank our partners who helped keep this
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: podcast running. So big thanks has to go out to
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: Sick of Gear, Trophy Ridge Bear Archery, Redneck Blinds, Hunt
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: ra Maps, Ozonics, Carbon Express, Lacrosse Boots, and the White
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: Tail Institute of North America. And finally, most importantly, thank
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: you all for joining us today. We appreciate it. Until
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: next time, stay wired to hunting, Stop