Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is Cutting the Distance. This podcast is presented by
Speaker 1: Yedti Built for the Wild. Right now, I just want
Speaker 1: you to think back for a second. Think back to
Speaker 1: your very first hunt. How would you get into it? Now?
Speaker 1: While you're thinking about that, there's a very large group
Speaker 1: of people listening to this podcast right now that have
Speaker 1: never hunted. So this week on Cutting the Distance podcast,
Speaker 1: I want to give those people the nine steps to
Speaker 1: get into hunting. Now, you might be thinking yourself, Hey, Remy,
Speaker 1: I've hunted my entire life. I don't need to hear
Speaker 1: this podcast. Well, you'd be wrong, because I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you'll run into somebody that's interested to get into hunting,
Speaker 1: or there might be someone in your family maybe bringing
Speaker 1: your kid up into hunting. This will give you ways
Speaker 1: to help people get into the sport that are interested
Speaker 1: in a way that lays it out in a very
Speaker 1: formulaic plan that everybody can do. Honestly, the barrier to
Speaker 1: hunting is the fact that it's very hard to get into.
Speaker 1: I recognize that because I get so many messages daily
Speaker 1: about people exploring it. They're listening to this podcast, they're
Speaker 1: watching videos, They're trying to figure out how they themselves
Speaker 1: can be a hunter. For me, I grew up hunting.
Speaker 1: If I were to think back to my very first hunt,
Speaker 1: it's just a compilation of so many different experiences. I
Speaker 1: started out before I could even walk, going on hunts
Speaker 1: with my dad being outdoors. I just grew up into it.
Speaker 1: It was something that came natural. However, there are things
Speaker 1: later on in life, like bow hunting or duck hunting
Speaker 1: that I taught myself, but I already had the basics down.
Speaker 1: So for me to tell a story of my first
Speaker 1: hunt doesn't mean as much. But through guiding and other things,
Speaker 1: I've taken countless people on their very first hunt. To me,
Speaker 1: it's an extremely exciting shared experience because I get to
Speaker 1: see people go through the process and understand what I
Speaker 1: love about hunting, about procuring my own food, about being
Speaker 1: self sufficient. Now, I'd really like to tell you maybe
Speaker 1: some stories of my first hunt, but I think the
Speaker 1: best story is of my wife's first hunt. Throughout my life,
Speaker 1: there's been no more memorable experience as far as the
Speaker 1: first hunt goes, than when my wife took her very
Speaker 1: first year. My wife's hunting journey started long before she
Speaker 1: ever stepped foot in the field with a gun. Now,
Speaker 1: you might think, Okay, she's married to this professional hunter.
Speaker 1: Of course she would hunt. When we first started dating,
Speaker 1: she was familiar with hunting. Her dad hunted, but she'd
Speaker 1: never been hunting her self. Now, I had no intentions
Speaker 1: of turning her into a hunter. That was just something
Speaker 1: that happened based on her own decisions. The one nice
Speaker 1: thing was she loved wild game meat, and I would
Speaker 1: cook it as often as I could Over the years
Speaker 1: while we were dating, she kind of started to think, man,
Speaker 1: I love to eat this game meat. I wonder what
Speaker 1: it would be like to harvest it myself. Now, after
Speaker 1: about a year of dating, she just decided one day
Speaker 1: that she wanted to try hunting, and without talking to
Speaker 1: me or anything, she went onto the fishing game website
Speaker 1: signed up for hunter safety course. Her and actually uh
Speaker 1: friend of hers I grew up with Sarah. They decided
Speaker 1: to go take their hunter safety course together and at
Speaker 1: least that way, if she ever decided she wanted to
Speaker 1: go hunting, she would be ready. What wasn't until about
Speaker 1: three years later she decided it was time to go.
Speaker 1: Earlier that year, she'd come up to Montana and this
Speaker 1: was at the point where now we're engaged. So through
Speaker 1: our dating process she never hunted, but it was just
Speaker 1: something that was inside of her that she said, you know,
Speaker 1: I like to eat. I see the process and the
Speaker 1: respect that my husband has for the animals. But on
Speaker 1: she thought to herself, she'll never fully understand the experience
Speaker 1: unless she does it for herself. She doesn't know if
Speaker 1: she's gonna like it, she doesn't know if it's something
Speaker 1: she wants to continue to do, but she thinks at
Speaker 1: least she should try it. So in order to get
Speaker 1: her into it, I just thought, well, let's let's do
Speaker 1: a bird hunt. Now. As the big hunter that I am,
Speaker 1: I am going to guide her on a bird hunt.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm very careful of when
Speaker 1: I take a new hunter is I want the experience
Speaker 1: to be their experience. I don't want to pressure anybody
Speaker 1: into anything. I want them to kind of understand the
Speaker 1: steps that it takes to hunt. I teach them through
Speaker 1: the process, but then I let them make decisions as well.
Speaker 1: Now she got a small game license in Montana and
Speaker 1: we just decided to go for a weekend in between
Speaker 1: my guiding. Unfortunately, this year, there were no grouse anywhere
Speaker 1: we hiked. We looked, it was just bad weather conditions.
Speaker 1: She walked away from her very first hunt with me unsuccessful,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't for lack of trying. It was just
Speaker 1: that we couldn't find any animals. But throughout the weekend
Speaker 1: we were continuing. Up until that point, she practiced with
Speaker 1: her gun, she shot a shotgun, she'd shot a rifle.
Speaker 1: We went through all the process of just getting to
Speaker 1: that point going out in the field. But I actually
Speaker 1: think that that unsuccessful first trip really gave her an
Speaker 1: understanding of Wow, hunting isn't just going out and killing something.
Speaker 1: There's a whole process behind it. So we're gonna fast
Speaker 1: forward A month or two later, we found ourselves on
Speaker 1: a trip to Hawaii and we had an opportunity where
Speaker 1: we could go out and hunt access here. It was
Speaker 1: towards the end of the trip and we didn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of time, so I borrowed a rifle from
Speaker 1: a friend. We went out to this hunting area and
Speaker 1: we started the morning hiking out just looking for a deer,
Speaker 1: an access dough, or something where she could possibly be
Speaker 1: successful and have her first successful hunt. We started the
Speaker 1: morning working into the wind. There's a lot of tall
Speaker 1: grass in this area, quite a few deer, but it
Speaker 1: was just quiet. Everything was in the really thick grass.
Speaker 1: As we worked, the wind was good, but then the
Speaker 1: wind started to shift and blew out the canyon that
Speaker 1: we were planning on walking through, which is never good.
Speaker 1: It was just a bad set of circumstances. Because the
Speaker 1: wind changed. We decided to hike up and around and
Speaker 1: come out this canyon from a different direction. While doing that,
Speaker 1: a deer had walked out across the hillside. I got
Speaker 1: her set up, she got the deer in the crosshairs.
Speaker 1: He was standing broadside for just a split second and
Speaker 1: then walked off. In those few split seconds, she knew
Speaker 1: she had a shot, but she didn't take it. Not
Speaker 1: because she didn't want to, but she just didn't feel comfortable. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: she was just kicking herself. Man, why didn't I shoot?
Speaker 1: Had the great opportunity, that was probably my only chance.
Speaker 1: It didn't work. Out, and she's pretty bummed out. At
Speaker 1: that point. We'd already gone through a couple of unsuccessful hunts,
Speaker 1: but she had an opportunity and she just didn't act
Speaker 1: fast enough, which to me was fine. I preferred that
Speaker 1: she didn't rush a shot and make a bad shot
Speaker 1: on her first animal. I was very cognizant of making
Speaker 1: sure that she made a perfect shot. Well, we're about
Speaker 1: out of time. I'm glassing way down the valley and
Speaker 1: I see some deer pop out on a hillside in
Speaker 1: the tall grass. Look at each other and think, let's
Speaker 1: go after those deer. This might be our last opportunity.
Speaker 1: We work over to that spot, and that's so thick there.
Speaker 1: The grass is way taller than the deer are. We're
Speaker 1: just sitting and they were out in the open, but
Speaker 1: now there's no dear to be seen. We're sitting down
Speaker 1: like they were right here. Let's just sit and wait.
Speaker 1: So we sit. Wait. It's getting out to that point
Speaker 1: in the day where we got to turn around. So
Speaker 1: we start to walk up a little further, see if
Speaker 1: we can look down into the goalie a little bit better,
Speaker 1: and we blow out three deer, Like dang it, that sucks.
Speaker 1: They run off from across the valley. All I saw
Speaker 1: were three deer. Like, well, I'm sorry about that. We're
Speaker 1: just gonna have to go back. Daniel's like, I feel
Speaker 1: like there's another deer here. Let's just wait. It's like
Speaker 1: you sure, and I thought, you know, there's something about
Speaker 1: hunter instincts. If she feels like she wants to wait,
Speaker 1: let's wait. So we sit down and wait. We're watching
Speaker 1: the hillside and a few minutes later, antler tips across
Speaker 1: the way. It walks out in the opening. I get
Speaker 1: Daniel set up and I'm gonna stop it because I
Speaker 1: can see its antlers, but I can't see its body.
Speaker 1: It's walking to an opening about three ft wide, and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking as soon as it hits that opening, I'll
Speaker 1: try to stop it with a call and she'll get
Speaker 1: a shot. Well, the deer's walking through the grass. I'm
Speaker 1: anticipating that the sound's gonna take a little longer to
Speaker 1: get there. It's about a hundred and fifty yards, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call just before it hits the opening. I call.
Speaker 1: The buck hits the opening, but it stops with a
Speaker 1: piece of grass covering its vitals. She has no shot,
Speaker 1: but the call turned the buck toward us, and now
Speaker 1: it's facing us, so I make another mew. Call These
Speaker 1: access dear. They're fairly vocal animals, so I just make
Speaker 1: a sound at it with my voice. I don't actually
Speaker 1: have a call with me, so I just make that
Speaker 1: chirp sound that the does tend to make. And the
Speaker 1: buck puts his head down and comes right toward us.
Speaker 1: And you'll get set up on a bush and the
Speaker 1: deer pops out at thirty five yards, turns broadside. She
Speaker 1: pulls the trigger and drops the deer. She made a
Speaker 1: perfect shot. It was fast action, and she harvested her
Speaker 1: first dear. Now she went through a range of emotions
Speaker 1: because she wasn't sure how she was going to feel.
Speaker 1: This was the first thing she had ever killed, and
Speaker 1: she was crying. But when she walked up on it,
Speaker 1: she wasn't necessarily just sad, but she was also happy
Speaker 1: and excited. I could tell through the experience and how
Speaker 1: excited she was afterwards of the whole thing. She told
Speaker 1: me that she'd never had those type of emotions. She
Speaker 1: now understood what it meant to be a hunter. She
Speaker 1: understood what I go through in the field. The whole
Speaker 1: process and why I love it so much. And it
Speaker 1: was really cool for me to see somebody latch onto
Speaker 1: it the way that I did, to see someone go
Speaker 1: through the same steps of becoming a hunter. From that
Speaker 1: moment on, she was hooked. And for me, that was
Speaker 1: a really exciting day because I got to see my
Speaker 1: wife one get into hunting, but to really understand what
Speaker 1: drives me and why I love to go out there
Speaker 1: so much. You might have just listened to that story
Speaker 1: and thought to yourself, that's great, remy, I want to
Speaker 1: get into hunting, but I'm not married to a hunter.
Speaker 1: I don't know any hunters. I'm really on this, going
Speaker 1: at this on my own. Well, you're in luck because
Speaker 1: what I did was I decided to break down the
Speaker 1: steps to getting into hunting. And these are steps that
Speaker 1: no matter if you grow up hunting or you're new
Speaker 1: to it, the process and the steps are all the same. Now,
Speaker 1: you might be lacking that mentor in the beginning, but
Speaker 1: if I think about my childhood and the things that
Speaker 1: I went through to become a hunter, or the things
Speaker 1: that my wife did to become a hunter, it's all
Speaker 1: the same. So what I did was I really just
Speaker 1: analyzed even growing up as a kid, What did I
Speaker 1: have to go through to become a hunter? What did
Speaker 1: I do that pushed me in that direction, that allowed
Speaker 1: me to go out into the field to pursue hunting.
Speaker 1: So what I did to make it easy is I
Speaker 1: just broke it down into nine steps. These nine steps
Speaker 1: to becoming a hunter. Now, whether you're getting your kids
Speaker 1: into hunting and you yourself hunt, whether you're a new hunter,
Speaker 1: you've never been hunting, or whether you have a friend
Speaker 1: that's just interested in it, I think that these steps
Speaker 1: will help guide them in the direction to at least
Speaker 1: go out on their first hunt, get their feet wet,
Speaker 1: and see what it's all about. The first thing you
Speaker 1: need to do, one because it's a legal requirement, and
Speaker 1: to because it's just important to know, is you have
Speaker 1: to take a hunter safety course in order to buy
Speaker 1: a hunting license. Pretty much anywhere, hunter's safety's mandatory. Now,
Speaker 1: hunting can be dangerous as far as you're using a firearm.
Speaker 1: You need to know safety rules and procedures, and everybody
Speaker 1: who's hunting acts by those same rules and procedures. One
Speaker 1: to prevent accidents and too, so everybody else out there safe.
Speaker 1: But that's the very first step you've got to take.
Speaker 1: If you're even thinking about hunting, or someone asks you, hey,
Speaker 1: you're a lifetime hunter, how do I start hunting? The
Speaker 1: first thing you should say is go take your hunter
Speaker 1: safety course. Now, if that's you, right after this podcast,
Speaker 1: whatever state you live in, every state has a Department
Speaker 1: of Conservation of Fish and Game Office whatever it's called.
Speaker 1: It's called different things in different states. You go to
Speaker 1: their website and they will have a place where you
Speaker 1: can sign up and join a hunter safety class. Now
Speaker 1: it's pretty easy. There's just a online portion now for
Speaker 1: most of the part when I did it was a book,
Speaker 1: and then there's still a field day. In the field day,
Speaker 1: they test you, They give you a test, and then
Speaker 1: you just have to perform some basic skills, not pointing
Speaker 1: a gun in anything, unloading a firearm. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: going through the course and you need more information, there's
Speaker 1: all kinds of websites and links and other things. They
Speaker 1: can give you more information on what you're learning. It
Speaker 1: also talks about the basics of the weapons and then
Speaker 1: as well as some few just ethical ways that you hunt.
Speaker 1: Once you have your hunters Safety then you can go
Speaker 1: to step two. Step two is just gonna be planning
Speaker 1: your hunt, so you're gonna have to figure out what
Speaker 1: do you want to hunt. And just personally, if I
Speaker 1: think about how I started hunting, or if I'm going
Speaker 1: to suggest how to get into hunting to anyone else,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say start with small game. There's a few reasons. One,
Speaker 1: wide open seasons. You can generally find small game seasons
Speaker 1: close to where you live, with easier access than a
Speaker 1: lot of big game hunts. It also doesn't take as
Speaker 1: much investment of time in order to be successful. There's
Speaker 1: us a lot shorter learning curve when it comes to
Speaker 1: small game hunting, and there's a lot more opportunity because
Speaker 1: the seasons are longer and it gives you more chance
Speaker 1: to get out and try to hunt multiple days as
Speaker 1: opposed to taking one big chunk of time to focus
Speaker 1: on one animal with zero experience. So honestly, I'm going
Speaker 1: to suggest to most people small game hunting. If I
Speaker 1: think back to the way I started hunting, it was
Speaker 1: chasing rabbits, quail, ducks, pheasants, small game with my dad.
Speaker 1: As a kid, I had hunted hundreds of days before
Speaker 1: I was ever even old enough to legally hunt big
Speaker 1: game animals. Just growing up taking a shotgun into the
Speaker 1: field with my dad hunting birds, hunting rabbits, that was
Speaker 1: the best way to gain hunting experience. Now in order
Speaker 1: to plan your hunt, the second thing you need to do.
Speaker 1: Within planning your hunt is pick up your states regulations.
Speaker 1: Every hunter has to understand the rules and laws of
Speaker 1: where they're going to be hunting. The regulations are your
Speaker 1: starting point. So you're gonna pick up a set of
Speaker 1: regulations and read through them front to back as many
Speaker 1: times as it takes to really understand what are the rules,
Speaker 1: what are the laws, where do the open seasons? Where
Speaker 1: am I allowed to hunt? From there, that's how you're
Speaker 1: going to figure out where you're gonna go and start
Speaker 1: planning these hunts. The importance of understanding what is my
Speaker 1: first hunt going to be? What am I gonna do?
Speaker 1: If you choose small game, then you can go into
Speaker 1: step three, which is picking your weapon and practicing with it.
Speaker 1: If you decide you're gonna small game hunt, maybe you're
Speaker 1: gonna pick up a shotgun. Jot guns are great for birds,
Speaker 1: small game like rabbits, or maybe a small caliber rifle.
Speaker 1: Maybe you decided, well, you really want to get into
Speaker 1: bow hunting, so you're gonna have to pick up whatever
Speaker 1: weapon that you're gonna hunt with and practice with it.
Speaker 1: If I think about even just myself growing up hunting,
Speaker 1: my dad took us out skeet shooting, trap shooting. We
Speaker 1: shot b B guns, we shot small caliber rifles, we
Speaker 1: shot our bows all the time. Before we ever stepped
Speaker 1: foot in the field, we had shot thousands of rounds
Speaker 1: at targets because we wanted to be lethal and proficient
Speaker 1: before ever setting foot into the field to hunt an animal.
Speaker 1: It all goes in with the ethics of hunting. As hunters,
Speaker 1: we want to show respect to the animals were hunting,
Speaker 1: so we want to be extremely proficient and well practiced
Speaker 1: before we ever stepped foot into the field. A lot
Speaker 1: of people probably think, oh, hunters just grab a gun
Speaker 1: and go out into the woods. Well, there's a lot
Speaker 1: more that goes into the front end of it, and
Speaker 1: that I believe is why getting into hunting is so hard.
Speaker 1: People don't understand everything that goes into it. Just going
Speaker 1: on the hunt is a big endeavor, but building up
Speaker 1: to that hunt is where it all really comes down to.
Speaker 1: Being successful. Now that you've decided what weapon you're gonna
Speaker 1: hunt with, and what you're gonna hunt possibly where you're
Speaker 1: gonna go. Step number four is very simple because if
Speaker 1: you're listening to the podcast, you're probably already doing it.
Speaker 1: It's to learn. If I think about bow hunting, I
Speaker 1: didn't know any bow hunters, but I loved shooting my
Speaker 1: little recurve in the backyard, so I got books on
Speaker 1: bow hunting. Now there's so many more resources. My resources
Speaker 1: were books and magazines. I still believe that those are
Speaker 1: very strong resources, but there's also things like YouTube videos,
Speaker 1: podcast If you're listening to this podcast, this is a
Speaker 1: great hunting resource. Now if you are a new hunter
Speaker 1: going back and listening to these old podcasts, continuing to
Speaker 1: listen to future podcasts, it's going to be super helpful
Speaker 1: because even the people here they are listening that have
Speaker 1: hunted their entire lives. There's always something to learn. Even myself,
Speaker 1: I've done this professionally since I was a young adult.
Speaker 1: I still learn daily and new tips and tactics, new things.
Speaker 1: I pick up new things. It's a constant learning. But
Speaker 1: just learning from others past experiences is a great way
Speaker 1: to just get the mindset of understanding what you're doing
Speaker 1: out there now. Step five is very horton and it
Speaker 1: can be the most difficult step if you really want
Speaker 1: to get into hunting. Yes you can do it alone,
Speaker 1: but it's much easier if you have a mentor. There
Speaker 1: are plenty of hunters out there that would be willing
Speaker 1: to take new hunters. The trouble is connecting those people.
Speaker 1: So I always suggest to people that ask me, how
Speaker 1: do I get into hunting? Where do I start? If
Speaker 1: you can find someone that will just show you the
Speaker 1: ropes a little bit, get you over the hump of
Speaker 1: the learning curve of when you shoot an animal, now
Speaker 1: cleaning it and what do I do afterwards? And how
Speaker 1: do I get to that point? Just having somebody that's
Speaker 1: been there before cuts the learning curve exponentially. And this
Speaker 1: is where if you've hunted your entire life, you come
Speaker 1: in because you can be this mentor that links up
Speaker 1: with somebody that wants to get into hunting. Now. I
Speaker 1: think the best way to meet other hunters is to
Speaker 1: go to where hunters are. If you start back at
Speaker 1: step three, you're practicing with your weapon, You're gonna be
Speaker 1: at rifle ranges, trap clubs, archery ranges, you're gonna run
Speaker 1: into other people that are have the same endeavors, the
Speaker 1: same passions, because as you start to shoot and get
Speaker 1: better with your weapon, you're gonna enjoy the experience of
Speaker 1: shooting practicing, and there's other people out there that are
Speaker 1: doing the same thing. But another great way to run
Speaker 1: into hunters, to intersect with people that do this a
Speaker 1: lot and are very passionate about it is through conservation organizations,
Speaker 1: things like backcountry Hunters and Anglers, pint Nights um, volunteering
Speaker 1: for Rocky Mountain, Elk Foundation, Duck's Unlimited Wild Sheep Foundation.
Speaker 1: Become a member of a conservation organization that has conservation
Speaker 1: principles based in hunting, and then find days where they
Speaker 1: need volunteers. I mean there's everything from I've done volunteering
Speaker 1: with the Meal Dear Foundation collecting seed samples. You can
Speaker 1: do things with Sheep Foundation, building guzzlers. You can even
Speaker 1: do things where they might just be holding an event
Speaker 1: or a fundraiser. But it's a great way to interact
Speaker 1: with people who are passionate about hunting, who are passionate
Speaker 1: out conservation and have probably been hunting or their lives
Speaker 1: revolve around hunting. Now if you intersect with those people
Speaker 1: and show them how eager you are to learn and
Speaker 1: the steps that you've gone through. You have your hunter's safety,
Speaker 1: you've been practicing with a weapon. It's a great way
Speaker 1: to find a mentor. Now you can go hunting without
Speaker 1: somebody that's done it before, but it's much easier if
Speaker 1: you have somebody to show you the ropes. When I
Speaker 1: think about if I were hunting mentor if somebody came
Speaker 1: to me a new hunter, I think a lot of
Speaker 1: hunters the only reason they might be put off by,
Speaker 1: say a new hunter taking someone out, isn't because they
Speaker 1: don't want to get people into hunting and they don't
Speaker 1: want to help. It's because they probably don't want to
Speaker 1: give up their spots. It's a weird thing, but once
Speaker 1: you start hunting, you realize how hard it is to
Speaker 1: come by good spots to hunt. And I think that
Speaker 1: one of the natural barriers to entry to hunting is
Speaker 1: that other hunters don't want to give up their spots
Speaker 1: to people they don't know, because a lot goes into
Speaker 1: those spots. So I always suggest to new hunters find
Speaker 1: a spot. Okay, So number seven is find a spot
Speaker 1: because a lot of hunting is about scouting now, whether
Speaker 1: you've hunted before or you've never hunted, find an area
Speaker 1: where you can hunt. Go back and listen to podcasts
Speaker 1: understand ways to find animals. Go before the season even starts,
Speaker 1: without a weapon, Go for a hike, look for areas
Speaker 1: and find animals that you're gonna be hunting now. If
Speaker 1: you decide you're gonna go quail hunting, scout out areas
Speaker 1: where you might find quail where it's illegal to hunt.
Speaker 1: Get an onyx map app, find some public land, find
Speaker 1: some spots. Whether you've hunted before or not, you can
Speaker 1: go for a hike before the season and find areas
Speaker 1: where you think you might get into animals. Later, then
Speaker 1: when you run into somebody that's a lifelong hunter, if
Speaker 1: you're more willing to say, hey, i've never hunted, I'd
Speaker 1: really like someone to show me the ropes. I've been
Speaker 1: out a few times before the season. I've been looking
Speaker 1: at some areas. It would be cool. Why don't you
Speaker 1: come to one of these areas that I've checked out.
Speaker 1: There are a lot more apps say yeah, that sounds
Speaker 1: great because their knowledge combined with you being willing to say, look,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to hunt where you hunt. I just
Speaker 1: want to get into it, and I'm really investing into this.
Speaker 1: I'm really serious about it. They're probably more likely to
Speaker 1: be like, yeah, let's go there, I'll show you how
Speaker 1: to hunt it. Most guys just using their knowledge, it's
Speaker 1: going to be exponentially beneficial to you finding success early
Speaker 1: as well as just learning the ropes on what happens
Speaker 1: when you're shoot an animal, how you gut it, how
Speaker 1: you clean it, how you process things. So that's a
Speaker 1: great way to really get a mentor to say, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'll go out hunting with you, especially if you're investing
Speaker 1: and putting time into scouting. Now, if you put that
Speaker 1: time into scouting, you may not even need somebody to
Speaker 1: show you the ropes because you're putting in that time.
Speaker 1: You're finding the animals yourself, and you're gonna be successful
Speaker 1: by putting in the work. Now that you've got the spot,
Speaker 1: maybe you've got a mentor maybe you don't. Step eight
Speaker 1: is it's time to hunt. It really just involves taking
Speaker 1: what you've learned through your research, taking your practice shooting,
Speaker 1: and then going into the field when the seasons open
Speaker 1: with a tag or a license in your pocket and hunting.
Speaker 1: A lot of hunting. Once you start doing it, you're
Speaker 1: gonna find that it's very instinctual in some ways and
Speaker 1: very new in others. But that's the part of the process.
Speaker 1: It's a learning experience every time you go out. If
Speaker 1: you aren't successful the first time you go out, what
Speaker 1: did you do wrong? Did you not find anything? Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe you need to find another spot, or maybe you
Speaker 1: didn't find anything, but you know that you've seen animals
Speaker 1: there in the past. Maybe you go back to that spot,
Speaker 1: maybe you hunt at different time. You know, you just
Speaker 1: go out hunting and then you learn from your experiences
Speaker 1: and if you are successful or aren't successful, step nine
Speaker 1: is you repeat the hunting. A lot of hunting comes
Speaker 1: down to persistence, even for guys that are really good
Speaker 1: at it. The more persistent you are, the more likely
Speaker 1: you're going to be to find success. Now, maybe you're
Speaker 1: listening to this and you're a lifelong hunter, Well that's
Speaker 1: perfect because you're the exact type of mentor that new
Speaker 1: hunters need. I've spent my entire life hunting, and I
Speaker 1: was very fortunate that my dad got me into it.
Speaker 1: But he did it the right way. He let us
Speaker 1: decide that hunting was for us. He never pressured me
Speaker 1: into it. He always let us be a part of
Speaker 1: the hunts. He let us make decisions. He made it
Speaker 1: fun for us. He didn't push us too hard, but
Speaker 1: he let us know that this is something that's difficult.
Speaker 1: It's a task that is very serious and if you
Speaker 1: want to do it, you have to take it seriously.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, he made it fun for us. Actually,
Speaker 1: a brother in law in mine just this holiday season
Speaker 1: was like, hey, man, if I wanted to get my
Speaker 1: kids into hunting with all the other stuff out there,
Speaker 1: He's not a hunter, but he said, how how would
Speaker 1: I do that? How would I go about getting my
Speaker 1: kids into hunting? And started thinking about it was like
Speaker 1: the way that I got into his the same nine
Speaker 1: steps that I just gave. Do those steps get maybe
Speaker 1: a B begun? I started shooting a little red writer
Speaker 1: b begun at cans, And that's probably what got me
Speaker 1: into hunting the most, shooting cans with a red rider
Speaker 1: be begun in the desert with my dad, you know,
Speaker 1: because I could then visualize that going into hunting, and
Speaker 1: then going on trips with my dad, going out hunting,
Speaker 1: being a part of that experience. One thing I've noticed
Speaker 1: through guiding and just taking new hunters out is it
Speaker 1: makes me a better hunter because when you're teaching somebody
Speaker 1: something new, you really analyze the tactics that you use
Speaker 1: and verbalize them, and what that does is in your mind,
Speaker 1: that creates a deeper learning and knowledge base of what
Speaker 1: you know by just having to verbally tell someone else
Speaker 1: and take them through that experience, the best way to
Speaker 1: improve your skills is to teach someone else what you know. Honestly,
Speaker 1: when you're a guide or when you're taking a new hunter,
Speaker 1: you start thinking about all the little things because what
Speaker 1: you have to do for a new hunter is you
Speaker 1: kind of show them the ropes in a way that
Speaker 1: you make fewer miss steaks because you're not just hunting
Speaker 1: for yourself. You're taking somebody with no skills or brand
Speaker 1: new abilities and trying to make them successful. And through
Speaker 1: that process you learn a lot more. You pay attention
Speaker 1: to a little bit more, you're telling them ways and
Speaker 1: things that work for you, and as you're doing that,
Speaker 1: you're getting better as well. So if you are a
Speaker 1: lifelong hunter, if you want to up your skills, take
Speaker 1: somebody new hunting It's a great way to not only
Speaker 1: improve your skills as a hunter, but to just help
Speaker 1: hunting overall. If it's a sport you love, the more
Speaker 1: people that can get into it and understand what it's
Speaker 1: like for themselves, just like my wife did the moment
Speaker 1: that she became a hunter, that she took her first animal,
Speaker 1: she understood the emotion and what it is to me
Speaker 1: and why I go out there. You know, she really
Speaker 1: verbalized it better than anyone I know when she said
Speaker 1: it was like the most vivid experience I've ever had.
Speaker 1: It was so new, but yet felt so familiar at
Speaker 1: the same time. And that's just an experience that only
Speaker 1: a hunter knows. So if you can make somebody else
Speaker 1: experience that and be there and help them through that process,
Speaker 1: I think it's a win win for everyone. Now. I
Speaker 1: hope that whether you're a brand new hunter or you've
Speaker 1: hunted your entire life, you took something away from that podcast.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate everybody's input, you know. The messages that
Speaker 1: you send me are a lot of times the things
Speaker 1: that become podcasts. I got so many messages from people
Speaker 1: that are like the reason I'm listening to this podcasts
Speaker 1: I'm a new hunter, and I also get a lot
Speaker 1: of messages from people that have hunted their entire life
Speaker 1: and listen to this podcast. So I don't want to
Speaker 1: alienate anyone, but I also want to make sure that
Speaker 1: everybody has some kind of takeaway. You spent your valuable
Speaker 1: time listening to me, so I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you walk away with something that you deem is valuable.
Speaker 1: And I really think that today's podcast is valuable for
Speaker 1: a lot of different people. It doesn't matter if you've
Speaker 1: hunted your whole life or not. If you are kind
Speaker 1: of interested in hunting and somebody pointed you to this podcast,
Speaker 1: do yourself a huge favor. Just subscribe, keep checking back,
Speaker 1: download the new episodes, and listen to them on your
Speaker 1: own free time when you get the chance. Because just
Speaker 1: listening throughout the year, I've covered so many topics. And
Speaker 1: the way I break this podcast down is two ways.
Speaker 1: I like to tell a story because as hunters, hunting
Speaker 1: stories and that's what got me into hunting, really just
Speaker 1: hearing stories of my dad and uncle going out hunting,
Speaker 1: and then me and my friends telling hunting stories growing up,
Speaker 1: like trips that we've been on. It's a huge learning
Speaker 1: process and experience just listening to stories, but it's also
Speaker 1: entertaining and I hope that it's entertaining to you. And
Speaker 1: then I try to break down some tips for all
Speaker 1: types of hunting, and a lot of those tips should
Speaker 1: translate into other forms of hunting. Now, maybe you're listening
Speaker 1: and you live in Australia and you hunt red deer
Speaker 1: and roosa deer, but a lot of the tips from
Speaker 1: the glass ng and the mule deer hunting and the
Speaker 1: elk calling like those can trans late to so many species.
Speaker 1: So maybe I'm not covering your topic today, But overall,
Speaker 1: if you listen to everything is a collection, you're going
Speaker 1: to become a better hunter. And that's the whole point
Speaker 1: of this podcast. So I really appreciate you guys listening
Speaker 1: in and thank you very much for your time. As always,
Speaker 1: feel free to reach out, give me some input, tell
Speaker 1: me what you like, tell me what you want to hear,
Speaker 1: because those will be future podcasts going forward. So until
Speaker 1: next week, keep learning, keep hunting.