WEBVTT - Ep. 1041: Learning from our Top 6 Whitetail Failures

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to

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<v Speaker 1>the whitetail woods, presented by first Light, creating proven versatile

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<v Speaker 1>hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First Light

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<v Speaker 1>Go Farther, Stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.

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<v Speaker 2>Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on

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<v Speaker 2>the show, I'm joined by Tony Peterson to discuss our

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<v Speaker 2>top six failures in the deer hunting woods and the

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<v Speaker 2>lessons that we and you can learn from them. All Right,

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<v Speaker 2>welcome back to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to

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<v Speaker 2>you by Moultrie. This week on the show, we're talking failure.

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<v Speaker 2>We are talking about what we all can learn from

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<v Speaker 2>the inevitable failures, challenges, speed bumps that we're all going

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<v Speaker 2>to face as whitetail deer hunters. It's gonna happen. It's

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<v Speaker 2>going to happen most of the time, right. I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>if you hunt, I don't know, a week, two weeks,

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<v Speaker 2>three weeks, a year, you might get one successful hunt,

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<v Speaker 2>one hunt where it all comes together. All the rest

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<v Speaker 2>might be you know, quote unquote failures. So what can

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<v Speaker 2>we learn from those days when things don't go right?

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<v Speaker 2>What can we learn from those moments when we make

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<v Speaker 2>the wrong decision or somehow things just go wrong. That's

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<v Speaker 2>what we're going to discuss here today. My guest is,

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<v Speaker 2>you know co host extraordinary Tony Peterson. The two of

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<v Speaker 2>us are going to get on here shortly and walk

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<v Speaker 2>through each of our top three failures over the course

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<v Speaker 2>of our recent deer hunting history. And we're going to

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<v Speaker 2>talk through what happened, what went wrong, and then what

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<v Speaker 2>we learn from it and how we grew as deer

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<v Speaker 2>hunters and how I think hopefully all of you can

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<v Speaker 2>learn from our mistakes and maybe take some of these

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<v Speaker 2>examples we share and apply them to your own deer

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<v Speaker 2>hunting experience. Is so that you can not only learn

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<v Speaker 2>from these experiences, but also you know, be able to

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<v Speaker 2>process failures in your own hunts in a way that

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<v Speaker 2>can lead to success down the road. So that's the

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<v Speaker 2>game plan. This is a lighthearted, fun conversation as much

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<v Speaker 2>fun as I guess you can have while talking about

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<v Speaker 2>deer hunting failure. So thanks for being here and without

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<v Speaker 2>any further ado on conversation on failure with Tony Peterson.

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<v Speaker 2>All right, joining me now, mister Tony Peterson, welcome back

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<v Speaker 2>to the show.

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<v Speaker 3>Thanks for having me, buddy.

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<v Speaker 2>We uh it's I guess I shouldn't really say welcome

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<v Speaker 2>back to the show because you're on the show every week,

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<v Speaker 2>but just in a different version of the show. But

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<v Speaker 2>it's it's been a little while since you and I

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<v Speaker 2>have got on here together and talked, so I'm glad

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<v Speaker 2>we're doing it. And I got to give you credit

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<v Speaker 2>because what we're going to talk about here today is

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<v Speaker 2>something you have brought up in conversations between the two

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<v Speaker 2>of us, like for a number of I don't know,

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<v Speaker 2>for a year or two, we've kind of talked about

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<v Speaker 2>this idea of someday doing like a full deep dive

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<v Speaker 2>into failure and different examples we have from our lives.

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<v Speaker 2>And I'm actually planning on talking to some other people

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<v Speaker 2>about this too, and I think it's useful and I

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<v Speaker 2>want to hear your thoughts on this, Tony. But I

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<v Speaker 2>think that today we are being flooded on social media

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<v Speaker 2>and on YouTube and on TV, and I guess this

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<v Speaker 2>isn't unique to today because we've been flooded with this

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<v Speaker 2>kind of stuff in the past, but now it just

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<v Speaker 2>seems like the amount of media that we just get

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<v Speaker 2>jammed on our throats is at another level, we're just

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<v Speaker 2>constantly barraged by success and how good everybody else is

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<v Speaker 2>and how great everybody else else's lives are and hunting

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<v Speaker 2>seasons are, you know, and it can become easy to

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<v Speaker 2>assume that everyone else is just knocking out of the

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<v Speaker 2>park and that I am horrible. But the reality is

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<v Speaker 2>that everybody's failing most of the time, right.

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<v Speaker 4>I mean, the numbers don't lie, buddy, like me, I

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<v Speaker 4>think about I think about that a lot, like what

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<v Speaker 4>you just talked about, how how easy it is to

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<v Speaker 4>sort of internalize everybody else's success and just wonder what

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<v Speaker 4>the hell's going on with ourselves. And one of the

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<v Speaker 4>things that one of the things that like frames that

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<v Speaker 4>up for me. So my tournament partner, my fishing partner,

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<v Speaker 4>tournament partner, he's like very plugged into kind of the

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<v Speaker 4>local regional scene, and so when we fish together, I

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<v Speaker 4>don't I don't pay attention to that stuff anymore.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm just not into it like I was. And so like,

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<v Speaker 3>I don't know who.

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<v Speaker 4>Won this tournament last week and what they were using

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<v Speaker 4>that kind of stuff, I don't care. But when I

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<v Speaker 4>go fishing with him, he has all of that stuff

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<v Speaker 4>rattling around in his brain. He pays attention to that

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<v Speaker 4>a lot. And so if we're out there and you

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<v Speaker 4>know whatever, we're throwing frogs for large mouths in the

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<v Speaker 4>summer in a tournament, he'll think, well, this guy won

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<v Speaker 4>throwing chatterbaits on a sand drop over here on pool

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<v Speaker 4>nine and we're on pool eight throwing frogs, and like

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<v Speaker 4>he has that going in and there. I mean, there

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<v Speaker 4>could be an argument that that is beneficial in some way,

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<v Speaker 4>if you're like, well, this guy won doing this, maybe

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<v Speaker 4>we should try this. But I think mostly it's just

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<v Speaker 4>like a distraction, and I think it's I think it

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<v Speaker 4>mostly just sort of bogs us down mentally, and when

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<v Speaker 4>I go I don't have that stuff, and so I'm

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<v Speaker 4>just like, what are they showing? What are the fish

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<v Speaker 4>showing me? Now I'm not catching them this way, then

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<v Speaker 4>I'll try to catch them this way or whatever. And

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<v Speaker 4>I think in hunting we do that a lot, like

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<v Speaker 4>we are affecting so much like, well, this guy's style,

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<v Speaker 4>he's killed four big bucks this year doing this, and

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<v Speaker 4>this guy and whatever, and it's like you kind of

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<v Speaker 4>just got to run your own race. And that's like

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<v Speaker 4>a hard thing to do because you feel like, you know,

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<v Speaker 4>the hunting industry is sort of predicated on the you know,

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<v Speaker 4>us giving you the answer or Zach Ferrenbau giving you

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<v Speaker 4>that whoever, it's like, man, the only one who's going

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<v Speaker 4>to find the answer for how for you to be

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<v Speaker 4>really successful out there and enjoy it.

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<v Speaker 3>It's just you.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, and not only that, but sometimes the answer that

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<v Speaker 2>has helped me the most during a tough hunting season

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<v Speaker 2>is when I talk to someone like you or Andy

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<v Speaker 2>or Zach or anyone else about what I'm struggling with,

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<v Speaker 2>and then they say, oh, yeah, I'm struggling with the

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<v Speaker 2>same thing, or oh yeah, I had the same thing

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<v Speaker 2>happened to me last year or last week, or oh yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>I've screwed it up in that kind of way too, right.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes I don't want the answer. I just want to

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<v Speaker 2>know that somebody else got the problem wrong too, and

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<v Speaker 2>that that sometimes just alleviates the concern enough for you

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<v Speaker 2>to refocus on doing what you just said when you're

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<v Speaker 2>not so mixed up in this Oh gosh, I'm the

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<v Speaker 2>only one in the world who can't get this thing done.

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<v Speaker 2>So just having that partner in the boat with you, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>somebody who can ride along with you, or who you

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<v Speaker 2>can relate to, or who can say like, yes, I've

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<v Speaker 2>been there before and I got through it, or I

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<v Speaker 2>figured it out or I got better. That is h

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<v Speaker 2>That's no small thing. And I think that's kind of

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<v Speaker 2>what I'm hoping we can help with here today is

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<v Speaker 2>a little bit of not just that reassurance, but also

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<v Speaker 2>also provide a pathway out of the thicket, right, if

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<v Speaker 2>that makes any sense, Because I think I've found myself

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<v Speaker 2>lost in the thicket many times and have been able

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<v Speaker 2>to navigate myself out a time or two, but it's

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<v Speaker 2>it's not always been easy. And so I thought maybe

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<v Speaker 2>the two of us could walk through a handful of

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<v Speaker 2>our greatest failures, like our most just disastrous, foot in mouth,

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<v Speaker 2>screw the pooch, mess it all up, experiences from our

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<v Speaker 2>deer hunting lives, and talk through, you know, what we

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<v Speaker 2>did wrong, how it all happened, what we learned from it,

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<v Speaker 2>and then maybe how we've tried to, you know, take

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<v Speaker 2>something from that or change based on that, or kind

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<v Speaker 2>of navigate things differently in the future. And I'm hoping

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<v Speaker 2>that you know, someone's going to listen to this now

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<v Speaker 2>and and you know when they have something get messed

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<v Speaker 2>up in September or October or November, they will remember

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<v Speaker 2>this conversation and remember that, oh, yeah, Tony did the

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<v Speaker 2>same thing, or Mark struggled with that same thing. I

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<v Speaker 2>can get through this, or I can figure this out,

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<v Speaker 2>or I can not make the same mistake that Mark man.

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<v Speaker 2>That is my big hope for all of this is

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<v Speaker 2>that the many times that you and I have screwed

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<v Speaker 2>up can somehow help somebody else.

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<v Speaker 4>That's an important I mean, it will. And you brought

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<v Speaker 4>up a really good point. You know, like if you

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<v Speaker 4>talk to Andy May during the hunting season, he's not like, yep,

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<v Speaker 4>I'm out.

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<v Speaker 3>There crushing it, killed another giant.

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<v Speaker 4>He's always like, I struggled with this, or I'm looking

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<v Speaker 4>for this right I don't have him here. But it's

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<v Speaker 4>not like it's not like he's dwelling on his failures.

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<v Speaker 4>He's just like, I just have to work through these

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<v Speaker 4>problems I have right now, these new set of conditions

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<v Speaker 4>and variables that were handed to me in this season

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<v Speaker 4>and this weather and this hunting pressure and on and on,

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<v Speaker 4>and I have to figure it out. And so he's

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<v Speaker 4>when you know, you talk to him, he's like mostly

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<v Speaker 4>working on problems.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know, which is like in a weird.

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<v Speaker 4>Way, is like if anybody could be focusing on their wins,

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<v Speaker 4>it's him, But he's not. And the reason he gets

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<v Speaker 4>those wins is because he's fixing those problems, like he's

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<v Speaker 4>actively trying to find a solve for them. And that

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<v Speaker 4>is like that I know that seems like intuitive to people,

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<v Speaker 4>but it's generally not. Okay, well I'm not seeing deer

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<v Speaker 4>off this field head stands, so I pick up my

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<v Speaker 4>rattling antlers, and now I solve the problem. Like it's

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<v Speaker 4>generally like a bigger solve than that, right, And that's

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<v Speaker 4>that's what those guys do.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So when I when I throw out the word

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<v Speaker 2>failure for you, what is the first experience that came

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<v Speaker 2>to your mind when I when I pitched this idea

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<v Speaker 2>to you and you had to start thinking about your

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<v Speaker 2>top failures? What uh? What came to the top of

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<v Speaker 2>the list.

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<v Speaker 4>So I think I think about a lot of my

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<v Speaker 4>hunting success and failure in like whole seasons now instead

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<v Speaker 4>of just being like that time that I missed two

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<v Speaker 4>Giant Bucks in a row or something like that, Like

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<v Speaker 4>those those failures are I've come to accept that I

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<v Speaker 4>am going to fail that way enough where it's just

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<v Speaker 4>like going to be a part of my journey. But

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<v Speaker 4>the things that I learned from So the first thing

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<v Speaker 4>I thought of when you brought this up when you

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<v Speaker 4>texted me, is how in twenty eighteen, I had a

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<v Speaker 4>good season. I didn't kill any really big bucks, but

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<v Speaker 4>I killed a bunch of deer in different states, killed

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<v Speaker 4>some public land ones. Like had an okay season, but

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<v Speaker 4>I felt like I was like scrambling, Like I felt

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<v Speaker 4>like I was always kind of redlining, then like pushing it,

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<v Speaker 4>like gott to find new deer, Gotta find this, Gotta

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<v Speaker 4>find that, not being patient. And I went into twenty

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<v Speaker 4>nineteen and I'm like, I have to you have to

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<v Speaker 4>be more patient, like do the deer work and then

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<v Speaker 4>let the deer, let it breathe, let it happen for you.

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<v Speaker 4>And that season, I had a really good season like

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<v Speaker 4>I had. I killed big bucks in a couple of

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<v Speaker 4>different states on public land, killed them at home, killed

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<v Speaker 4>an elk like I had.

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<v Speaker 3>I had one of.

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<v Speaker 4>Those seasons where you're like this is awesome. You know,

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<v Speaker 4>three or four Pope and young Bucks like that kind

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<v Speaker 4>of thing. But what really struck me was I got

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<v Speaker 4>laid into October of that year and like, these these

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<v Speaker 4>lessons that I take like, I'm like, I always have

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<v Speaker 4>to remind myself of them, like I forget them pretty quickly.

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<v Speaker 2>It's incredible how quickly we forget them.

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<v Speaker 3>Dude, totally.

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<v Speaker 4>And I went into I had had a Wisconsin buck

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<v Speaker 4>tag and I had a North Dakota tag left that

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<v Speaker 4>I had. I had driven all the way to western

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<v Speaker 4>North Dakota. My truck broke down. I didn't get to hunt,

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<v Speaker 4>so I was just sitting on this tag, but it

0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.280
<v Speaker 4>was like, I'm not going back out there, so it

0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:41.959
<v Speaker 4>was kind of just like one of those lost tags.

0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:42.959
<v Speaker 3>Well.

0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.160
<v Speaker 4>I had found this spot in Wisconsin that I was like,

0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:47.480
<v Speaker 4>if you put your time in, I think you'll kill

0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.520
<v Speaker 4>a good one here, and I ended up doing that.

0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:52.520
<v Speaker 4>I ended up sitting on this little funnel I found

0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:53.520
<v Speaker 4>between these swamps and.

0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.679
<v Speaker 3>I killed a good buck, saw a really good buck.

0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.160
<v Speaker 4>And then I had that North Dakota tag left and

0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:00.560
<v Speaker 4>I was like, you know what, I'm gonna to that

0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:02.960
<v Speaker 4>eastern side of North Dakota. I'm just gonna find something.

0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.800
<v Speaker 4>And because of the timing, I'm gonna go find a

0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.400
<v Speaker 4>couple of good pinch points that I think I can

0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:09.959
<v Speaker 4>kind of identify and walk in there, and I'm just

0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:11.520
<v Speaker 4>gonna ride it up because I only had like four

0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:16.280
<v Speaker 4>days and I saw almost no deer every day except

0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:18.360
<v Speaker 4>maybe one good buck. I saw a buck every day,

0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:20.680
<v Speaker 4>and then on the fourth day, I killed a good buck,

0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.760
<v Speaker 4>and it was just like a sort of one of

0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:29.040
<v Speaker 4>those moments where you're like you know the recipe, like

0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.120
<v Speaker 4>like you know how to do this, but it's so

0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.040
<v Speaker 4>easy for that second guessing to come in, especially when

0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:36.839
<v Speaker 4>you know how it is. When you're gonna go, I'm

0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.840
<v Speaker 4>gonna go do all day sits on a chunk of

0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.800
<v Speaker 4>public land I've never seen before, and cross my fingers.

0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.559
<v Speaker 4>The second guessing by like ten o'clock in the morning,

0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.880
<v Speaker 4>especially because it's cold and windy, because it's always cold

0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.319
<v Speaker 4>and windy out there, is like all of those voices

0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.720
<v Speaker 4>are like get out, go find it, Go find something else,

0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.960
<v Speaker 4>go do something else. But it's like a self preservation

0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.000
<v Speaker 4>thing because you're like, I don't have what it takes

0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.559
<v Speaker 4>to sit here dark to dark, But if you can

0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.200
<v Speaker 4>find that and tap into that, if you've done that

0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.600
<v Speaker 4>work leading up to it, I just think that's what's

0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:10.960
<v Speaker 4>that's what kills big deer or just you know, like

0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.040
<v Speaker 4>puts you in a good spot to have good encounters.

0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:14.560
<v Speaker 3>And that year.

0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:15.800
<v Speaker 4>Going from a year where I felt like I was

0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.280
<v Speaker 4>scrambling to one where I was forcing myself to wait,

0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.400
<v Speaker 4>like when I found something good, like put in your

0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:22.680
<v Speaker 4>time and then you see the results, You're like, that's

0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.040
<v Speaker 4>like a reinforcement. They're like a reinforcing thing big time.

0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.040
<v Speaker 2>So so hold on the I feel like you've skipped

0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.480
<v Speaker 2>over the failure part pretty quickly and just really focused

0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:33.480
<v Speaker 2>on how great your twenty nineteen was.

0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.720
<v Speaker 4>No so because I felt like I was failing the

0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.280
<v Speaker 4>whole time in twenty eighteen and I didn't. I mean,

0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.920
<v Speaker 4>I killed deer and I had an okay season, but

0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.320
<v Speaker 4>I just like personally felt like I didn't do it

0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:46.720
<v Speaker 4>right because I was scrambling.

0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:47.200
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.600
<v Speaker 2>So that's what I want to better understand though, is

0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.000
<v Speaker 2>what led to that feeling like this idea of scrambling,

0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.000
<v Speaker 2>What does that look like? What does that actually mean?

0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.439
<v Speaker 2>Because I think understanding that is probably the best way

0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:01.920
<v Speaker 2>any of us could ever hoped to have a twenty

0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:03.839
<v Speaker 2>nineteen like you had, right, so that we'd learned not

0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:05.640
<v Speaker 2>to do what twenty eighteen was? So what do you mean?

0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.800
<v Speaker 4>So everything I'm going to talk about today, all of

0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.679
<v Speaker 4>my failures are basically me fighting my own nature, like

0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:18.200
<v Speaker 4>basically me what I want to do versus what I

0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.960
<v Speaker 4>know I need to do to have success. And so

0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:27.400
<v Speaker 4>I felt, and you know, you kind of like go

0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.320
<v Speaker 4>through different stages when you're hunting. But I felt like,

0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:32.520
<v Speaker 4>for a while, like I got this thing all figured

0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.800
<v Speaker 4>it out. I cover a ton of ground, I find

0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.440
<v Speaker 4>good spots, I drop pins, I go in there and

0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:37.960
<v Speaker 4>I hunt, and I move, and I move and I move.

0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.320
<v Speaker 4>That works sometimes, but once you start dealing with more

0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.040
<v Speaker 4>hunting pressure, a little bit cagy or deer, once you

0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:50.520
<v Speaker 4>start dealing with a wider variety of weather, seasonal timing,

0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.520
<v Speaker 4>it's like you you can't just walk them down, right.

0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:57.320
<v Speaker 4>And so I was forcing something to happen because I

0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.200
<v Speaker 4>wanted to hunt that way. And I'm like, di, I

0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.000
<v Speaker 4>believe this right. So it's to me that's no different.

0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.840
<v Speaker 4>Where that played out for me was on a whole

0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.320
<v Speaker 4>bunch of different properties public private, in a bunch of

0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:12.720
<v Speaker 4>different states. For the For most hunters, the closest parallel

0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.600
<v Speaker 4>would probably be like I have my three stands, and

0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:17.960
<v Speaker 4>I want to kill one out of this field edge

0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.680
<v Speaker 4>stand because I know, like I believe that they're going

0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:22.920
<v Speaker 4>to come out here eventually instead of going and doing

0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.000
<v Speaker 4>the mobile thing or whatever. And so what you want

0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:26.720
<v Speaker 4>to do is you want to take that route that's

0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:31.720
<v Speaker 4>comfortable and like easy for you, right, but really you

0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.600
<v Speaker 4>have to probably if that doesn't work, you probably have

0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.120
<v Speaker 4>to do the thing that you don't really want to do.

0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:39.840
<v Speaker 4>Like I would rather go in season scout with a

0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.880
<v Speaker 4>stand or a saddle and find some fresh sign and

0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.840
<v Speaker 4>post up on it versus putting three dark to dark

0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.240
<v Speaker 4>sits in a row on a pinch point that has

0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:51.320
<v Speaker 4>very low activity. And recognizing the difference between those two

0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:55.360
<v Speaker 4>is super important. So for me, it's like this kind

0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.760
<v Speaker 4>of thing being patient is no different than almost every

0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.520
<v Speaker 4>part of my life that's good for me, Like I

0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:01.680
<v Speaker 4>have to for myself to do it like I because

0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:03.200
<v Speaker 4>I don't want to. I don't want to go for

0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.280
<v Speaker 4>a run, I don't want to sit dark to dark

0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:09.520
<v Speaker 4>for a week, Like that's not fun generally, but it's

0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:11.760
<v Speaker 4>often the thing that I'm like I have if I

0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:13.680
<v Speaker 4>want to aerow a big one or I want to

0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:16.160
<v Speaker 4>see deer doing what I expect them to do. I

0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.280
<v Speaker 4>have to do that part and that's hard.

0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:25.760
<v Speaker 2>When you got to that twenty nineteen season, were you

0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.560
<v Speaker 2>did you have like a clear was it like a

0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.680
<v Speaker 2>clear shift you had to make, like you could you

0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:35.880
<v Speaker 2>see this at that point? Could you look back at

0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.480
<v Speaker 2>that moment and say, Okay, twenty eighteen, I was forcing

0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.720
<v Speaker 2>the issue, trying to bounce around too much. In twenty nineteen,

0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.160
<v Speaker 2>I am going to be patient and stick with it

0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:46.400
<v Speaker 2>and stuff. Was that like did you know it at

0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.000
<v Speaker 2>that moment or did you go through the year and

0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.600
<v Speaker 2>kind of figure this out and have that aha moment

0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:52.600
<v Speaker 2>as it went along?

0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.200
<v Speaker 4>I mean I went into it intentionally trying to do

0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.000
<v Speaker 4>better that way and it But so what I hate

0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:01.760
<v Speaker 4>about this kind of stuff is it makes it sound

0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.399
<v Speaker 4>like I figured it out. I struggle with this all

0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.920
<v Speaker 4>the time, you know, I mean I really do, and

0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.560
<v Speaker 4>you can go so this is this is the other

0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.920
<v Speaker 4>problem too, is I say this now?

0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:13.399
<v Speaker 3>And that was the answer for me.

0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.280
<v Speaker 4>Then last year in Wisconsin, I was like, I'm going

0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:19.960
<v Speaker 4>to go ride out this spot that I know deer

0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:21.560
<v Speaker 4>are going to go through, and I've got a camera

0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:23.080
<v Speaker 4>in there and bucks are cruising through there and if

0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:24.600
<v Speaker 4>I put in my time, I will kill one. And

0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:25.960
<v Speaker 4>I wrote it out for three and a half days

0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.120
<v Speaker 4>and never saw a deer, and so I went too

0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.400
<v Speaker 4>far the other way and ended up going to kill

0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.560
<v Speaker 4>one in a different way. Like that I totally didn't expect.

0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:38.040
<v Speaker 4>But it's like you're always trying to find that balance, right,

0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:40.639
<v Speaker 4>And to me, that's like put in the work to

0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.600
<v Speaker 4>find that spot, and then your backup spot for the

0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.360
<v Speaker 4>next wind or the next conditions or whatever, and then

0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.320
<v Speaker 4>put your faith in that, you know, as long as

0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:51.280
<v Speaker 4>you can stand it. And if they finally show you

0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.480
<v Speaker 4>that you're being too patient in a place that's just dead,

0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.480
<v Speaker 4>you got to restart the whole thing again. So it's

0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.320
<v Speaker 4>like it's a it's such a moving target. But it's

0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:03.120
<v Speaker 4>like I think that if you looked at our hardwiring,

0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.520
<v Speaker 4>like for most of us is to be less patient

0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.960
<v Speaker 4>is to allow, you know, the second guessing to talk

0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.280
<v Speaker 4>us into leaving at ten o'clock in the morning and

0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.240
<v Speaker 4>going to check this camera or moving to this stand

0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.359
<v Speaker 4>or whatever, instead of putting our faith in something and

0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:19.800
<v Speaker 4>being really patient with it.

0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:25.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And it is, though, so difficult to know what

0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.639
<v Speaker 2>the right call is in the moment, you know, as

0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.080
<v Speaker 2>you talked about, like, sometimes the right answer is the move,

0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.840
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes the right answer is the stick it out. And

0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.840
<v Speaker 2>for a lot of years I would find myself asking

0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:42.480
<v Speaker 2>those same questions and not having enough of my own

0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.879
<v Speaker 2>personal lived experience to answer it from my gut, and

0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:50.119
<v Speaker 2>instead I was thinking like, Okay, what would John Eberhart

0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.520
<v Speaker 2>say I should do here? And what did I read

0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.920
<v Speaker 2>in this one book or in this one magazine about

0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.040
<v Speaker 2>how to handle this situation? And you know, you drive

0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.600
<v Speaker 2>yourself crazy trying to think about what the right answers

0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.440
<v Speaker 2>you know, quote unquote right answers are for any one

0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.639
<v Speaker 2>of these situations. The only way I've been able to

0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.359
<v Speaker 2>work myself out of that over the years has just

0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.240
<v Speaker 2>been trying all these things in all the different ways,

0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.680
<v Speaker 2>over and over and over again, over years and years

0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.640
<v Speaker 2>and years and years, until there's finally that real lived

0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:24.119
<v Speaker 2>experience that leads to you know, having that gut feeling

0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.840
<v Speaker 2>that you can trust, or that intuition that you can trust,

0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.919
<v Speaker 2>or just knowing like, Okay, I've been down this path before,

0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.000
<v Speaker 2>I've seen how it goes. This is when I need

0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:34.800
<v Speaker 2>to shift or this is when I need to start

0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.440
<v Speaker 2>listening to that voice that says do the uncomfortable thing.

0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.400
<v Speaker 2>And so there's I guess what I'm getting at here

0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:46.120
<v Speaker 2>is that some folks listening should not feel bad if

0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.959
<v Speaker 2>they find themselves in the tree stand this fall and

0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:51.639
<v Speaker 2>are like, I don't know, I don't know if I

0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.199
<v Speaker 2>should do the thing Tony said in twenty eighteen or

0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.200
<v Speaker 2>in twenty nineteen, Like that is part of the struggle,

0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.920
<v Speaker 2>is that you have to go through ten, fifteen, twenty

0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.720
<v Speaker 2>years of riding this out and making the wrong choices

0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.320
<v Speaker 2>most of the time, occasionally getting it right and learning

0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.240
<v Speaker 2>what worked that time, and then having go the complete

0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.040
<v Speaker 2>opposite way a year or two later. And that is

0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:16.760
<v Speaker 2>just part of this process and that and this isn't

0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:19.480
<v Speaker 2>what this isn't a failure I was planning on talking about.

0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:23.760
<v Speaker 2>But I think just you have to repeatedly fail in

0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.119
<v Speaker 2>all these different ways, over and over and over and

0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:28.200
<v Speaker 2>over and over again to ever get to the point

0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.760
<v Speaker 2>where you can occasionally make the right decision on purpose

0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.440
<v Speaker 2>and feel like, oh, yeah, I kind of knew what

0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:37.320
<v Speaker 2>I was doing here. That is just part of this.

0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:40.560
<v Speaker 2>Like maybe the most important part of deer hunting is

0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:45.199
<v Speaker 2>just failing in all of these different ways repeatedly so

0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.359
<v Speaker 2>many times. That's the only way to truly get to

0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.320
<v Speaker 2>a point where you can ever make decisions.

0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:53.640
<v Speaker 4>Like you talked about well, right, and I mean when

0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:59.040
<v Speaker 4>you talk about the indecision like that, everybody has that, right,

0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.600
<v Speaker 4>Like I think about and I'll talk about this later,

0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.000
<v Speaker 4>but I think about how often I'm like, this is

0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:06.960
<v Speaker 4>just going to be it. I have it figured out,

0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.080
<v Speaker 4>and I go and I don't. I don't see deer.

0:21:09.080 --> 0:21:12.600
<v Speaker 4>I don't see the deer. I want to whatever. But

0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.600
<v Speaker 4>I think I think the lesson for me anyway, is

0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.359
<v Speaker 4>like everybody deals with the second guessing, everybody deals with

0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:20.720
<v Speaker 4>the indecision. But if you can err on the side

0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.080
<v Speaker 4>of being patient, right, So let's say it's nine o'clock

0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.359
<v Speaker 4>in the morning and you're like, they just they didn't

0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.199
<v Speaker 4>come through. They're not going to come through. It's like

0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:29.960
<v Speaker 4>I was going to sit all day, but now I'm

0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.439
<v Speaker 4>thinking it's probably better on the other valley or the

0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:36.440
<v Speaker 4>other bench point or whatever. And it's like, now you're

0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:38.840
<v Speaker 4>talking yourself out of doing the thing that you felt

0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.840
<v Speaker 4>was the best decision originally, and you're going to go

0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:45.560
<v Speaker 4>make a bigger impact. Right if you if you walk

0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.040
<v Speaker 4>into that stand in the morning to sit all day,

0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:50.639
<v Speaker 4>and at ten o'clock in the morning, you're like, I'm

0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:53.560
<v Speaker 4>going to move now. You have twice the impact on

0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.959
<v Speaker 4>that land at least, right, and so you've you've already

0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:01.199
<v Speaker 4>cut your odds down there. And it's like when you

0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:02.840
<v Speaker 4>can learn and I talk about this all the time,

0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.240
<v Speaker 4>but like when you can learn to be like, I'm

0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.080
<v Speaker 4>going to just quiet that voice down a little bit.

0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:08.600
<v Speaker 4>I'm going to give it another hour, or I'm going

0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:10.040
<v Speaker 4>to give it till noon, or I'm going to do

0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:12.520
<v Speaker 4>I'm just I'm going to condition myself for this.

0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:12.760
<v Speaker 3>Right.

0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:15.480
<v Speaker 4>It's like, you know, Yannie's going to run a hundred

0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:16.800
<v Speaker 4>mile or here in a little bit, but he didn't

0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.879
<v Speaker 4>start out running one hundred mile marathons, right, you got it.

0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:21.720
<v Speaker 4>You have to start somewhere and you have to condition

0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:23.359
<v Speaker 4>yourself to make that a little bit harder of a

0:22:23.440 --> 0:22:26.359
<v Speaker 4>choice and just tamp down that and go, yeah, Like

0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.480
<v Speaker 4>we make the wrong decisions all the time, but you

0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:30.800
<v Speaker 4>have to trust it, like you have to. You have

0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.199
<v Speaker 4>to just trust yourself and go I felt like this

0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:36.880
<v Speaker 4>was the best decision. You know, the wind switches or something, mate,

0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:39.399
<v Speaker 4>you know, that might make the decision for you. But

0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.360
<v Speaker 4>are you looking for that excuse? That's there's the difference there,

0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:44.960
<v Speaker 4>you know, or are you just taking it and going man,

0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:46.919
<v Speaker 4>supposed to be out of south all day and now

0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:49.120
<v Speaker 4>it's blown straight out of the north. Well there there

0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.280
<v Speaker 4>you go, Like, that's that's beyond your control and you

0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.240
<v Speaker 4>just have to take that. But if it's just you going, man,

0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:56.800
<v Speaker 4>I thought they were going to be cruising all over

0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.000
<v Speaker 4>him here and they're not. It's like, oh, it's only

0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:02.199
<v Speaker 4>been light for three hours or whatever, you know, like

0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:03.800
<v Speaker 4>just let it breathe a little bit.

0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:07.439
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's a really good point, And I feel like

0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:09.960
<v Speaker 2>that's that's a pretty good transition to one of my

0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:15.440
<v Speaker 2>failure stories. This was a a hunt that was a

0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:19.119
<v Speaker 2>multi year hunt that definitely taught me a lot, and

0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.760
<v Speaker 2>it's a deer that I never ended up getting. It

0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.200
<v Speaker 2>was this buck that I was chasing in southern Michigan,

0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:29.359
<v Speaker 2>called him Holy Field, and I learned a lot about

0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:33.200
<v Speaker 2>this deer because it was a buck that was relatively

0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:35.960
<v Speaker 2>like in the earlier ish years of my kind of

0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:39.800
<v Speaker 2>pursuit of trying to kill mature bucks, and I was

0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:42.920
<v Speaker 2>still at that phase where I was definitely living off

0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.440
<v Speaker 2>of what other people said you should be doing right

0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:49.119
<v Speaker 2>that I kind of alluded to earlier. And I was

0:23:49.119 --> 0:23:51.560
<v Speaker 2>in that phase of my hunting life where I was

0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:56.399
<v Speaker 2>afraid to make mistakes, where I was constantly worried about

0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.240
<v Speaker 2>not screwing it up. If I do that, I'll blow

0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.840
<v Speaker 2>it up. I do that, it's probably my only I'll

0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:03.679
<v Speaker 2>probably make one mistake and then he'll be gone. If

0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:06.119
<v Speaker 2>I go over that line, it's probably gonna screw stuff up.

0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:08.240
<v Speaker 2>If I pushed too far in here, it's definitely gonna

0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:10.840
<v Speaker 2>be you know, it's too risky. And so I was

0:24:10.880 --> 0:24:14.159
<v Speaker 2>incredibly risk averse while hunting that deer, and so for

0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:17.159
<v Speaker 2>that reason, I saw him a lot, but it was

0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:21.359
<v Speaker 2>always out of range. So one of the biggest mistakes

0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:26.720
<v Speaker 2>in that hunt was simply treading too lightly, never being

0:24:26.760 --> 0:24:28.960
<v Speaker 2>willing to take a swing a true swing. I was

0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:32.680
<v Speaker 2>hunting to see deer, not hunting to kill a mature buck,

0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:36.639
<v Speaker 2>and I was trusting things I had read and heard

0:24:36.760 --> 0:24:43.320
<v Speaker 2>and not trusting my own eyes enough. Secondly, another thing

0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:46.040
<v Speaker 2>within that hunt is a lot of times that I

0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:48.119
<v Speaker 2>was seeing this buck. I was seeing him on a

0:24:48.160 --> 0:24:53.320
<v Speaker 2>neighboring property, and I just kept lamenting to myself like, oh, man,

0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:55.240
<v Speaker 2>if only I could hunt there, if only I could

0:24:55.280 --> 0:24:57.920
<v Speaker 2>hunt there, I could kill this buck. But I never

0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:00.879
<v Speaker 2>did anything about it because I was I don't know,

0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:04.480
<v Speaker 2>too nervous to ask permission, too lazy, or like didn't

0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:07.160
<v Speaker 2>want to get uncomfortable and go bother this other person

0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:09.840
<v Speaker 2>to see if I could ever hunt there. And so

0:25:10.200 --> 0:25:12.399
<v Speaker 2>not only was I not aggressive enough on the places

0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:14.679
<v Speaker 2>that I could hunt, but then also a lot of

0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:18.200
<v Speaker 2>the time where I watched this deer, I never even

0:25:18.480 --> 0:25:21.720
<v Speaker 2>tried to explore the possibility of getting to hunt there.

0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:26.520
<v Speaker 2>And later, though I would, I would learn from that mistake,

0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:28.840
<v Speaker 2>and I did ask permission, and I got permission, and

0:25:28.880 --> 0:25:30.920
<v Speaker 2>then ended up being able to hunt that whole area

0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:34.280
<v Speaker 2>for years later. And if I had gotten permission, I

0:25:34.359 --> 0:25:36.840
<v Speaker 2>probably could have maybe could have killed this buck if

0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:38.680
<v Speaker 2>I was hunting in this zone where he was at

0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:54.119
<v Speaker 2>all the time. So that was another big mistake. The

0:25:54.240 --> 0:25:57.640
<v Speaker 2>third big mistake I made on this buck was that

0:25:57.680 --> 0:26:02.760
<v Speaker 2>despite doing all those things, despite being incredibly passive, despite

0:26:03.080 --> 0:26:06.080
<v Speaker 2>not doing the little extra uncomfortable work to get permission

0:26:06.080 --> 0:26:09.120
<v Speaker 2>to hunt him where he really lived, despite all of that,

0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:11.560
<v Speaker 2>I still did put in a ton of time on

0:26:11.640 --> 0:26:14.800
<v Speaker 2>the edges, waiting and trying and doing everything I thought

0:26:14.800 --> 0:26:17.919
<v Speaker 2>I could do. And I was hunting all day in

0:26:18.000 --> 0:26:20.040
<v Speaker 2>the rut, doing what you were talking about. I was

0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:21.960
<v Speaker 2>telling myself, you got to put in a little bit

0:26:22.000 --> 0:26:25.400
<v Speaker 2>more time, you got to stick it out. So I'm

0:26:25.400 --> 0:26:28.760
<v Speaker 2>sitting there at like eleven thirty on maybe first week

0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:32.520
<v Speaker 2>of November give or take, in that ballpark, and I'm

0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:34.600
<v Speaker 2>sitting on the edge of what should be some pretty

0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:37.439
<v Speaker 2>good stuff. And I'd had high hopes in the morning.

0:26:37.680 --> 0:26:39.840
<v Speaker 2>But then you know, as it gets to that, you know,

0:26:40.080 --> 0:26:43.760
<v Speaker 2>late morning early afternoon time period, when nothing's been going

0:26:43.760 --> 0:26:47.359
<v Speaker 2>on for three four hours, you start to lose some

0:26:47.480 --> 0:26:50.680
<v Speaker 2>of that focus, You lose some faith. You start thinking like, ah,

0:26:50.880 --> 0:26:54.320
<v Speaker 2>probably nothing's going to happen. And I had my phone

0:26:54.320 --> 0:26:59.040
<v Speaker 2>out and I eventually was reading a book on my phone.

0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:01.800
<v Speaker 2>So I had been hunting this year for three years.

0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:03.280
<v Speaker 2>I think this is the third year I've been trying

0:27:03.280 --> 0:27:06.639
<v Speaker 2>to get this one buck. I'd you know, been struggling

0:27:06.640 --> 0:27:10.360
<v Speaker 2>for all these years, seeing him never can close the distance.

0:27:10.840 --> 0:27:14.760
<v Speaker 2>I'm out there like eleven to thirty. All of that

0:27:14.880 --> 0:27:18.520
<v Speaker 2>led to this moment I hear like a snap, I

0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:20.920
<v Speaker 2>look up for my phone, look over my left shoulder,

0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:23.600
<v Speaker 2>and this buck I've been chasing for all this time

0:27:23.880 --> 0:27:27.840
<v Speaker 2>is standing twenty yards away, looking right up at me,

0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:30.720
<v Speaker 2>because I had spun and looked to look back at him,

0:27:30.800 --> 0:27:32.720
<v Speaker 2>and so he's looking at me at twenty yards and

0:27:32.760 --> 0:27:37.919
<v Speaker 2>I'm holding my phone reading some stupid novel. And I

0:27:37.960 --> 0:27:41.000
<v Speaker 2>mean we've all been in some version of that scenario,

0:27:42.000 --> 0:27:45.480
<v Speaker 2>just the worst, the worst, feeling felt like such an idiot.

0:27:45.520 --> 0:27:49.600
<v Speaker 2>And then of course he spun and ran, and you know,

0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:52.440
<v Speaker 2>I finally had him in range. And I didn't even

0:27:52.480 --> 0:27:54.800
<v Speaker 2>know it because I had not been able to keep

0:27:54.840 --> 0:27:58.640
<v Speaker 2>the faith and keep the focus and keep my eye

0:27:58.680 --> 0:28:00.840
<v Speaker 2>on the prize during that period of times. So like

0:28:00.880 --> 0:28:02.600
<v Speaker 2>I came so close, I did a lot of the

0:28:02.640 --> 0:28:04.240
<v Speaker 2>right things. I was in the right place, I was

0:28:04.280 --> 0:28:06.520
<v Speaker 2>in the right I stuck it out to the right

0:28:06.680 --> 0:28:09.959
<v Speaker 2>part of the day, and just was not mentally there.

0:28:09.960 --> 0:28:13.560
<v Speaker 2>I was physically there, but not mentally there. And eventually

0:28:13.600 --> 0:28:18.120
<v Speaker 2>that deer disappeared. Never saw them again. And I don't

0:28:18.160 --> 0:28:20.760
<v Speaker 2>know what happened, but I know that three or four

0:28:20.840 --> 0:28:23.560
<v Speaker 2>years of my hunting life in Michigan had been devoted

0:28:23.600 --> 0:28:25.760
<v Speaker 2>to trying to figure out this Buck, and for all

0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:28.080
<v Speaker 2>of those reasons, I never pulled it off. And so

0:28:29.480 --> 0:28:34.280
<v Speaker 2>in the subsequent season after that one, like I mentioned,

0:28:34.720 --> 0:28:37.040
<v Speaker 2>I knocked on that door eventually and did get permission

0:28:37.119 --> 0:28:40.800
<v Speaker 2>and have had success in there. I learned that you

0:28:40.840 --> 0:28:44.120
<v Speaker 2>can't always be so risk averse. You can't always just

0:28:44.200 --> 0:28:46.200
<v Speaker 2>live life on the edges like they do on the

0:28:46.240 --> 0:28:51.360
<v Speaker 2>Outdoor Channel and expect to have success in kind of

0:28:51.440 --> 0:28:54.800
<v Speaker 2>real world pressured situations. Sometimes you really do need to

0:28:55.000 --> 0:28:57.040
<v Speaker 2>rip off the band aid and swing for the fences.

0:28:57.280 --> 0:28:59.160
<v Speaker 2>If you ever want to get one of these pressure bucks,

0:28:59.160 --> 0:29:01.080
<v Speaker 2>you can't just watch them. You actually have to go

0:29:01.120 --> 0:29:06.880
<v Speaker 2>try to kill them. And then finally, yes, it's important

0:29:06.920 --> 0:29:08.680
<v Speaker 2>to be there, but you have to be there both

0:29:09.360 --> 0:29:12.360
<v Speaker 2>mentally and physically. You can't just be like checking the

0:29:12.360 --> 0:29:15.960
<v Speaker 2>box of being out there and then not actually be

0:29:16.080 --> 0:29:18.440
<v Speaker 2>a part of the moment when it's when it's presented

0:29:18.480 --> 0:29:22.000
<v Speaker 2>to you. So that one, that whole multi year saga

0:29:22.080 --> 0:29:25.320
<v Speaker 2>with that Buck, it's uh, it's it's one of the

0:29:25.320 --> 0:29:30.400
<v Speaker 2>most that that whole story sticks with me more than

0:29:30.440 --> 0:29:32.760
<v Speaker 2>most other Bucks because of the fact that he did

0:29:32.800 --> 0:29:34.640
<v Speaker 2>get away, and he didn't get away just because of

0:29:34.720 --> 0:29:37.360
<v Speaker 2>some random thing he got away because of all of

0:29:37.360 --> 0:29:41.960
<v Speaker 2>these different things I did wrong over many years. I've

0:29:42.000 --> 0:29:43.920
<v Speaker 2>got one of the shed antlers, and every time I

0:29:43.960 --> 0:29:46.960
<v Speaker 2>see that shit antler, I'm reminded of one of those things.

0:29:47.360 --> 0:29:51.120
<v Speaker 4>Do you think that you at that point in your

0:29:51.120 --> 0:29:52.880
<v Speaker 4>life for giving Big Bucks too much credit?

0:29:54.560 --> 0:29:54.960
<v Speaker 3>For sure?

0:29:55.000 --> 0:29:55.320
<v Speaker 2>One?

0:29:56.520 --> 0:29:58.200
<v Speaker 3>So, dude, I think that.

0:29:59.120 --> 0:30:02.280
<v Speaker 4>I think the two worst things that the Outdoor Channel

0:30:02.320 --> 0:30:05.520
<v Speaker 4>type of content did to us was convinced everyone they

0:30:05.560 --> 0:30:07.200
<v Speaker 4>could just look at a deer an agent no matter what.

0:30:07.760 --> 0:30:13.440
<v Speaker 4>And it made them seem like it made Big Bucks

0:30:13.480 --> 0:30:14.880
<v Speaker 4>seem like they were just.

0:30:16.280 --> 0:30:18.920
<v Speaker 3>Unreachable most of the time.

0:30:19.360 --> 0:30:21.320
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, And I mean part of that is a symptom

0:30:21.360 --> 0:30:23.600
<v Speaker 4>because people who are hunting in Candyland want you to

0:30:23.600 --> 0:30:26.520
<v Speaker 4>think they're hunting hard deer, so everybody paints their hunting

0:30:26.520 --> 0:30:29.600
<v Speaker 4>as harder than it really is. But it's just they're

0:30:29.640 --> 0:30:34.080
<v Speaker 4>actually more forgiving than you think, Like I think anyway.

0:30:34.160 --> 0:30:37.920
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, And it's like it's not insane that that's

0:30:37.960 --> 0:30:40.240
<v Speaker 2>not saying it's easy to kill mature bucks, right, I mean,

0:30:40.640 --> 0:30:43.000
<v Speaker 2>ninety nine percent of the time you still fail, right,

0:30:43.880 --> 0:30:46.400
<v Speaker 2>But there's somewhere, like the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

0:30:46.440 --> 0:30:49.320
<v Speaker 2>You can hunt in Wisconsin or Minnesota or Michigan where

0:30:49.320 --> 0:30:52.040
<v Speaker 2>there's tons of hunters and these bucks are very highly

0:30:52.160 --> 0:30:57.320
<v Speaker 2>educated and pressured and it's very challenging. But that does

0:30:57.360 --> 0:31:01.720
<v Speaker 2>not mean that make one mistake and that buck's gonna

0:31:01.760 --> 0:31:03.560
<v Speaker 2>move ten miles down the road and you're never gonna

0:31:03.560 --> 0:31:05.960
<v Speaker 2>see him again. I think that's what I worried about

0:31:05.960 --> 0:31:08.320
<v Speaker 2>a lot. I was like, if this buck ever smells

0:31:08.360 --> 0:31:11.080
<v Speaker 2>me one time, or if this buck crossed my path

0:31:11.160 --> 0:31:14.480
<v Speaker 2>and walks across my footprints and I didn't perfectly have

0:31:14.600 --> 0:31:16.560
<v Speaker 2>my scen you know, taking care of her whatever, like

0:31:17.080 --> 0:31:19.320
<v Speaker 2>one thing is going to be the end, and that

0:31:19.360 --> 0:31:21.200
<v Speaker 2>buck will be gone. I'm never gonna see him again.

0:31:21.200 --> 0:31:25.000
<v Speaker 2>I lived and breathed that way of hunting for a

0:31:25.080 --> 0:31:27.440
<v Speaker 2>good like five to eight years. Maybe I don't know

0:31:27.520 --> 0:31:30.040
<v Speaker 2>something like that. Where I was, I was walking on

0:31:30.120 --> 0:31:33.400
<v Speaker 2>eggshells at all times, and that did two things. Number One,

0:31:34.360 --> 0:31:37.120
<v Speaker 2>that kept me from doing the aggressive things that I

0:31:37.200 --> 0:31:39.680
<v Speaker 2>need to do to actually get a chance of these bucks.

0:31:39.720 --> 0:31:42.760
<v Speaker 2>More often than not, I was like, just like as

0:31:42.760 --> 0:31:47.360
<v Speaker 2>I described, But then number two, it made every time

0:31:47.480 --> 0:31:51.840
<v Speaker 2>I did screw up feel so devastating. I felt like,

0:31:51.880 --> 0:31:54.719
<v Speaker 2>oh my, I'm done, Like I just screwed it up.

0:31:54.760 --> 0:31:57.760
<v Speaker 2>I all this time, I put in this year out

0:31:57.800 --> 0:32:01.520
<v Speaker 2>the window. You know, it just made every little thing

0:32:01.760 --> 0:32:04.760
<v Speaker 2>so nerve wracking. It made like walking into the tree stand,

0:32:04.800 --> 0:32:07.240
<v Speaker 2>it made like every time that the wind swirled, it

0:32:07.320 --> 0:32:09.200
<v Speaker 2>felt like such a big deal, like, oh my god,

0:32:09.240 --> 0:32:10.720
<v Speaker 2>this is it, this is going to be the end,

0:32:11.200 --> 0:32:13.680
<v Speaker 2>and what's supposed to be a fun and enjoyable experience

0:32:13.760 --> 0:32:19.840
<v Speaker 2>instead felt like mentally just like rot with stress, because

0:32:20.200 --> 0:32:22.680
<v Speaker 2>it just seemed like everything was riding on this little

0:32:22.720 --> 0:32:25.720
<v Speaker 2>tiny edge that you had to walk and it was

0:32:25.760 --> 0:32:27.840
<v Speaker 2>going to be all tumbling down if you made one

0:32:27.880 --> 0:32:30.360
<v Speaker 2>tiny little mistake. And to your point, it's just not

0:32:30.480 --> 0:32:33.560
<v Speaker 2>the case most of the time, right.

0:32:34.240 --> 0:32:37.320
<v Speaker 4>Right, I mean, I think you think about how many

0:32:37.360 --> 0:32:39.640
<v Speaker 4>times you've been out there and had you know, that

0:32:39.720 --> 0:32:42.040
<v Speaker 4>dough wind you and bust out of there and snort

0:32:42.080 --> 0:32:44.320
<v Speaker 4>a million times, and then ten minutes later somebody else

0:32:44.360 --> 0:32:49.000
<v Speaker 4>walks in and resets the scene. We I think that

0:32:49.520 --> 0:32:53.239
<v Speaker 4>generally we default to way too cautious. And you know,

0:32:53.280 --> 0:32:55.840
<v Speaker 4>like there's a difference, right because you know, if you

0:32:55.960 --> 0:32:58.360
<v Speaker 4>if you're in a state where crossbows are legal, for example,

0:32:58.640 --> 0:33:00.840
<v Speaker 4>and you hunt public land enough, you see dudes walking

0:33:00.840 --> 0:33:02.400
<v Speaker 4>around with crossbows trying to shoot one.

0:33:02.400 --> 0:33:05.240
<v Speaker 3>Like the rifle hunting. You know, that's not what I'm.

0:33:05.120 --> 0:33:08.120
<v Speaker 4>Talking about here, And to be fair, you see vertical

0:33:08.160 --> 0:33:10.400
<v Speaker 4>bull hunters do that too, Like you see hunters try that,

0:33:10.440 --> 0:33:13.760
<v Speaker 4>and it's just a it's a rough strategy, right, big impact,

0:33:13.800 --> 0:33:18.480
<v Speaker 4>low odds. But if you're doing if you're if you're

0:33:18.640 --> 0:33:21.120
<v Speaker 4>trying to do things you know you're trying to be

0:33:21.160 --> 0:33:24.000
<v Speaker 4>smart about it, you're still going to get busted. You're

0:33:24.000 --> 0:33:25.720
<v Speaker 4>gonna walk in and you're gonna have deer snort at you.

0:33:25.760 --> 0:33:27.320
<v Speaker 4>They're gonna be eating the acorns when you get there

0:33:27.320 --> 0:33:31.360
<v Speaker 4>in the morning whatever. Like that stuff isn't as it's

0:33:31.400 --> 0:33:33.760
<v Speaker 4>not as big of an impact in the moment it

0:33:33.800 --> 0:33:37.200
<v Speaker 4>feels huge, but overall it's not as big of an

0:33:37.200 --> 0:33:39.960
<v Speaker 4>impact as we often think. And we've been so conditioned

0:33:39.960 --> 0:33:41.920
<v Speaker 4>to be cautious over and over and over again. And

0:33:41.920 --> 0:33:44.280
<v Speaker 4>it's like like we talked about with the patient's thing

0:33:44.400 --> 0:33:48.280
<v Speaker 4>versus going nuts, like there's always a balance, right, But

0:33:48.360 --> 0:33:52.000
<v Speaker 4>the lesson with you there, I think that's like most

0:33:52.040 --> 0:33:55.560
<v Speaker 4>important is if you start giving big bucks that much credit,

0:33:56.240 --> 0:33:59.440
<v Speaker 4>you're in trouble because you're just they're just going to

0:33:59.440 --> 0:34:02.840
<v Speaker 4>be this un attainable thing, and you're going to you're

0:34:02.840 --> 0:34:06.160
<v Speaker 4>not going to hunt correctly if you're neurotic and you're

0:34:06.200 --> 0:34:08.319
<v Speaker 4>and you're pissed at yourself because you're making all these

0:34:08.320 --> 0:34:11.239
<v Speaker 4>little mistakes that really don't matter that much and that

0:34:11.440 --> 0:34:13.799
<v Speaker 4>everyone makes because nobody walks into the woods in the

0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:17.080
<v Speaker 4>dark and makes no noise. Yeah, you know, like nobody

0:34:17.080 --> 0:34:19.120
<v Speaker 4>goes and hunts a whole season and doesn't get winded

0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:20.239
<v Speaker 4>by somebody at some point.

0:34:20.560 --> 0:34:21.400
<v Speaker 3>It just happens.

0:34:21.960 --> 0:34:25.160
<v Speaker 2>It happens, and so yeah, to your point, it's it's

0:34:25.239 --> 0:34:29.799
<v Speaker 2>number one, you can't keep yourself from making the right

0:34:29.840 --> 0:34:32.560
<v Speaker 2>moves because you're so worried about making the wrong moves.

0:34:32.600 --> 0:34:35.880
<v Speaker 2>And then secondly, you got to give yourself some grace,

0:34:35.960 --> 0:34:38.720
<v Speaker 2>like forgive yourself because it's not the end of the world.

0:34:39.120 --> 0:34:41.760
<v Speaker 2>We're not saving lives out here. We're not rocket scientists.

0:34:41.800 --> 0:34:44.080
<v Speaker 2>We're just trying to you know, as you say, kill

0:34:44.080 --> 0:34:49.040
<v Speaker 2>a rabbit with antlers, So chill the f out right,

0:34:49.600 --> 0:34:51.480
<v Speaker 2>So what's your what's your next example?

0:34:52.040 --> 0:34:56.279
<v Speaker 4>So this is something, this is another thing that I

0:34:56.360 --> 0:34:59.760
<v Speaker 4>am just reminded of every single season of my life,

0:35:00.000 --> 0:35:01.719
<v Speaker 4>and I have to like work at it.

0:35:02.120 --> 0:35:04.239
<v Speaker 3>But it's sort of a two parter.

0:35:04.280 --> 0:35:07.799
<v Speaker 4>It's hunting on memories and not listening to what the

0:35:07.800 --> 0:35:11.839
<v Speaker 4>deer are telling me right now. So I can come

0:35:11.920 --> 0:35:15.560
<v Speaker 4>up with elaborate scenarios in my head of how I'm

0:35:15.560 --> 0:35:17.600
<v Speaker 4>going to drive to South Dakota or North Dakota, or

0:35:17.719 --> 0:35:20.879
<v Speaker 4>hunt somewhere in Minnesota or wherever draw that tag in Iowa,

0:35:20.920 --> 0:35:22.480
<v Speaker 4>and this is how I'm gonna kill a deer, And

0:35:22.520 --> 0:35:24.799
<v Speaker 4>in my head, I will think about that over and

0:35:24.840 --> 0:35:26.640
<v Speaker 4>over and over again. I'll be like, Oh, we'll convince

0:35:26.680 --> 0:35:28.919
<v Speaker 4>myself that's what's going to happen, you know, because last

0:35:28.960 --> 0:35:31.040
<v Speaker 4>year I went there and I threw a decoy out

0:35:31.080 --> 0:35:32.560
<v Speaker 4>and they came in and I killed one or whatever.

0:35:33.680 --> 0:35:36.920
<v Speaker 4>I never go back to places like that and have

0:35:37.000 --> 0:35:41.359
<v Speaker 4>the same hunt ever. I mean, it's just even even

0:35:41.400 --> 0:35:45.640
<v Speaker 4>on my private stuff in Wisconsin and Minnesota, unless it's

0:35:45.640 --> 0:35:50.280
<v Speaker 4>like a pond or something, I very rarely kill deer

0:35:50.360 --> 0:35:52.160
<v Speaker 4>doing the same thing two years in a row. And

0:35:52.200 --> 0:35:53.799
<v Speaker 4>I know that's a little bit different from a lot

0:35:53.800 --> 0:35:55.000
<v Speaker 4>of people in there, you know, if you got a

0:35:55.080 --> 0:36:00.279
<v Speaker 4>lease or permission ground or whatever. But even then when

0:36:00.320 --> 0:36:02.200
<v Speaker 4>you go in and you're like it's going to happen

0:36:02.239 --> 0:36:04.279
<v Speaker 4>like it did last year, or like it did two

0:36:04.320 --> 0:36:05.919
<v Speaker 4>years ago when I killed that big one.

0:36:05.960 --> 0:36:07.279
<v Speaker 3>It probably won't.

0:36:07.600 --> 0:36:12.279
<v Speaker 4>Because of all of those things that have just changed, Right,

0:36:12.360 --> 0:36:15.640
<v Speaker 4>Like you might have killed that buck three seasons ago

0:36:15.800 --> 0:36:18.960
<v Speaker 4>because one of the oak trees in the area was dropping,

0:36:19.239 --> 0:36:22.000
<v Speaker 4>or a doe came in a little bit early, or

0:36:22.360 --> 0:36:25.920
<v Speaker 4>some kind of outlier thing. Right, maybe the neighbors had

0:36:25.960 --> 0:36:29.120
<v Speaker 4>beans instead of corn. Maybe the neighbors let somebody hunt

0:36:29.120 --> 0:36:30.799
<v Speaker 4>who hunted every day and you didn't know it because

0:36:30.800 --> 0:36:32.600
<v Speaker 4>it was a high school kid or something, and that

0:36:32.640 --> 0:36:35.279
<v Speaker 4>pushed the deer onto your side. Like you have to

0:36:35.360 --> 0:36:38.440
<v Speaker 4>kind of go in with that blueprint, like, yeah, this

0:36:38.480 --> 0:36:42.000
<v Speaker 4>could happen just like it always has, but it probably won't.

0:36:42.160 --> 0:36:44.319
<v Speaker 4>Like you still have to factor in what the deer

0:36:44.400 --> 0:36:46.000
<v Speaker 4>is showing you and what the sign is showing, and

0:36:46.040 --> 0:36:50.240
<v Speaker 4>we and we really like to find that confirmation bias stuff.

0:36:50.640 --> 0:36:52.160
<v Speaker 4>They're like, well, I had a camera in the same

0:36:52.200 --> 0:36:54.080
<v Speaker 4>spot and the big one's going through once a week.

0:36:54.239 --> 0:36:56.480
<v Speaker 4>Or I walked out here and here's those that scrape

0:36:56.520 --> 0:36:58.640
<v Speaker 4>line again on the field edge, Like duh, of course

0:36:58.640 --> 0:37:01.600
<v Speaker 4>they're going to be doing this. But it's like if

0:37:01.600 --> 0:37:04.200
<v Speaker 4>they're not really showing you that, Like if you're like,

0:37:04.360 --> 0:37:06.240
<v Speaker 4>I'm forcing this thing and I want this to happen,

0:37:06.280 --> 0:37:09.080
<v Speaker 4>but the deer aren't showing you that there's a problem there.

0:37:09.160 --> 0:37:11.840
<v Speaker 4>And for me, I mean, the easiest example for me

0:37:11.880 --> 0:37:14.680
<v Speaker 4>on this one is I go back to those river

0:37:14.719 --> 0:37:18.000
<v Speaker 4>bottoms in North Dakota, and I can sit up there

0:37:18.000 --> 0:37:19.600
<v Speaker 4>on a glassing now, but I can go I kill

0:37:19.640 --> 0:37:21.239
<v Speaker 4>the buck out of that tree. I killed the buck

0:37:21.280 --> 0:37:22.640
<v Speaker 4>out of that tree. I killed the buck on the

0:37:22.680 --> 0:37:26.520
<v Speaker 4>ground over there. And it's never the same tree, you know,

0:37:26.680 --> 0:37:29.239
<v Speaker 4>like it's just not It's never the same ground blind,

0:37:29.239 --> 0:37:31.920
<v Speaker 4>it's never the same crossing for some reason. It's always

0:37:31.920 --> 0:37:34.320
<v Speaker 4>a little bit different, even in a scenario that shouldn't

0:37:34.400 --> 0:37:35.520
<v Speaker 4>really change that much.

0:37:36.000 --> 0:37:39.239
<v Speaker 3>And so many times I'll go.

0:37:39.160 --> 0:37:42.200
<v Speaker 4>Into a hunt and think like, I'm gonna run this

0:37:42.320 --> 0:37:46.480
<v Speaker 4>play again because it worked. And I will, you know,

0:37:46.600 --> 0:37:48.640
<v Speaker 4>be walking out to a pond or a water tank

0:37:48.719 --> 0:37:51.839
<v Speaker 4>or a crossing or something and see a whole bunch

0:37:51.880 --> 0:37:55.319
<v Speaker 4>of rubs or see this, you know, banging scrape or

0:37:55.320 --> 0:37:57.800
<v Speaker 4>something and be like, huh, I should probably pay attention

0:37:57.840 --> 0:37:59.359
<v Speaker 4>to that. But I know what my plan is going

0:37:59.400 --> 0:38:01.080
<v Speaker 4>to be, and I know it's going to work. And

0:38:01.640 --> 0:38:04.600
<v Speaker 4>almost inevitably I end up having to come back to

0:38:04.680 --> 0:38:07.279
<v Speaker 4>that sign and work deer in a way that I

0:38:07.360 --> 0:38:10.560
<v Speaker 4>just didn't expect. And so it's like this is one

0:38:10.560 --> 0:38:12.680
<v Speaker 4>of those like gray area things again, because you want

0:38:12.719 --> 0:38:15.640
<v Speaker 4>to go in and run something you know worked, right,

0:38:15.719 --> 0:38:16.279
<v Speaker 4>we all do.

0:38:16.640 --> 0:38:18.799
<v Speaker 3>But how long do you give it?

0:38:18.960 --> 0:38:22.359
<v Speaker 4>Like how long do you ignore that you're seeing deer

0:38:22.440 --> 0:38:25.400
<v Speaker 4>do something that you just usually don't or you didn't expect,

0:38:25.400 --> 0:38:27.080
<v Speaker 4>Like why are they over there? Why are they running

0:38:27.120 --> 0:38:28.879
<v Speaker 4>that fence line now and not just coming straight down

0:38:28.920 --> 0:38:31.080
<v Speaker 4>through here, through the past or whatever. And for me,

0:38:32.560 --> 0:38:35.400
<v Speaker 4>just like really keeping an open mind, and if the

0:38:35.440 --> 0:38:38.440
<v Speaker 4>deer tell me something, listening to it is like me

0:38:38.680 --> 0:38:42.480
<v Speaker 4>fighting my nature of just wanting to run something that

0:38:42.520 --> 0:38:43.880
<v Speaker 4>has produced for me in the past.

0:38:44.880 --> 0:38:50.040
<v Speaker 2>Have you ever ran an old program all the way

0:38:50.080 --> 0:38:52.399
<v Speaker 2>to the end and failed because of Have you ever

0:38:52.440 --> 0:38:55.360
<v Speaker 2>had one that you refuse to pivot on that doomed you?

0:38:56.440 --> 0:39:03.040
<v Speaker 4>I probably had tons of those. I have definitely, I've

0:39:03.120 --> 0:39:05.879
<v Speaker 4>definitely done that on the road. And in fact, when

0:39:05.920 --> 0:39:09.880
<v Speaker 4>I think about situations like in Nebraska or South Dakota

0:39:09.960 --> 0:39:11.560
<v Speaker 4>or North Dakota where I went out and didn't fill

0:39:11.560 --> 0:39:14.400
<v Speaker 4>a tag, it was because I did that generally, you know,

0:39:14.600 --> 0:39:16.360
<v Speaker 4>And the times that I did fill a tag was

0:39:16.400 --> 0:39:19.920
<v Speaker 4>almost always even if I ran an old program for

0:39:19.960 --> 0:39:22.320
<v Speaker 4>three days and just pivoted on it or four days,

0:39:23.120 --> 0:39:26.279
<v Speaker 4>find something different and kill. So yeah, I've definitely done that,

0:39:26.320 --> 0:39:29.480
<v Speaker 4>and I've done it. The thing that stings the most

0:39:30.080 --> 0:39:31.920
<v Speaker 4>is when I do it here in Minnesota. I do

0:39:31.960 --> 0:39:35.000
<v Speaker 4>it in Wisconsin, especially if I'm hunting private land, and

0:39:35.040 --> 0:39:35.319
<v Speaker 4>I'm like.

0:39:35.320 --> 0:39:36.719
<v Speaker 3>How hard can this freaking be?

0:39:37.480 --> 0:39:39.759
<v Speaker 4>And then I do you know, You're like, oh, it's

0:39:39.760 --> 0:39:41.560
<v Speaker 4>going to be the last week of October. They're going

0:39:41.600 --> 0:39:43.360
<v Speaker 4>to be community scrape here and they're going to be

0:39:43.360 --> 0:39:46.560
<v Speaker 4>coming through here. And then you know, for whatever reason,

0:39:46.920 --> 0:39:49.080
<v Speaker 4>things have changed, and I don't go do what I

0:39:49.120 --> 0:39:51.040
<v Speaker 4>need to to figure them out. I do what I

0:39:51.080 --> 0:39:52.279
<v Speaker 4>want to because I think it's.

0:39:52.200 --> 0:39:52.680
<v Speaker 3>Going to work.

0:39:54.560 --> 0:39:57.759
<v Speaker 2>Now. I know, every situation is different, every hunt has

0:39:57.800 --> 0:40:01.280
<v Speaker 2>its own unique circumstances. But let's just for the sake

0:40:01.360 --> 0:40:04.680
<v Speaker 2>of someone trying to get a rough idea. If we

0:40:04.680 --> 0:40:06.759
<v Speaker 2>were to look at like a ten day hunt, just

0:40:06.800 --> 0:40:09.399
<v Speaker 2>because tends an easy number to look at, and if

0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:11.440
<v Speaker 2>you were to go into a ten day hunt and

0:40:11.480 --> 0:40:15.240
<v Speaker 2>you have like one main set of strategies that's your program.

0:40:15.440 --> 0:40:17.120
<v Speaker 2>It's how you really think you're gonna get it done.

0:40:17.880 --> 0:40:21.080
<v Speaker 2>If you had to generalize and give me like a

0:40:21.239 --> 0:40:24.440
<v Speaker 2>drop dead moment through your ten day hunt, at what

0:40:24.560 --> 0:40:26.759
<v Speaker 2>point would you be, you know, everything else being equal?

0:40:26.800 --> 0:40:29.719
<v Speaker 2>Would you say, like, buy, you know, sixty percent of

0:40:29.719 --> 0:40:31.680
<v Speaker 2>the way through you got to pull the emergency cord

0:40:31.719 --> 0:40:33.600
<v Speaker 2>and do something different or is it fifty percent or

0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:36.520
<v Speaker 2>is it eighty percent or ninety? Like how much time

0:40:37.320 --> 0:40:40.320
<v Speaker 2>would you recommend giving someone in order to pull the

0:40:40.480 --> 0:40:43.680
<v Speaker 2>more emergency cord but then also have time to make

0:40:43.719 --> 0:40:45.000
<v Speaker 2>something of it? You know what I mean?

0:40:45.760 --> 0:40:49.839
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, I mean that it it's variable on what they're

0:40:49.840 --> 0:40:50.360
<v Speaker 4>showing me.

0:40:50.760 --> 0:40:52.560
<v Speaker 3>You know. I would like my default would be five

0:40:52.640 --> 0:40:53.000
<v Speaker 3>days through.

0:40:53.040 --> 0:40:54.680
<v Speaker 4>If I don't have something going on, I better figure

0:40:54.680 --> 0:40:58.640
<v Speaker 4>something else right halfway through that. On a four day hunt,

0:40:58.640 --> 0:41:00.880
<v Speaker 4>I'd probably look at it the same way like if

0:41:00.880 --> 0:41:02.480
<v Speaker 4>I'm two days in, I don't have something going on,

0:41:02.520 --> 0:41:05.160
<v Speaker 4>but it it really depends on what I'm seeing, right,

0:41:05.200 --> 0:41:07.000
<v Speaker 4>because sometimes you know how it is, like sometimes you're

0:41:07.040 --> 0:41:10.000
<v Speaker 4>like you're just you're close enough where you're like, I'm

0:41:10.040 --> 0:41:11.960
<v Speaker 4>not gonna move, Like it feels like they're just gonna

0:41:11.960 --> 0:41:14.560
<v Speaker 4>get here, right, and that river bottom stuff out west

0:41:14.640 --> 0:41:17.359
<v Speaker 4>is a prime example, Like you always see them, so

0:41:17.400 --> 0:41:19.600
<v Speaker 4>you're like, oh, they crossed there again, but they probably

0:41:19.640 --> 0:41:22.880
<v Speaker 4>get here. So that's an easy program to hold on to.

0:41:23.800 --> 0:41:27.000
<v Speaker 4>The hard ones are when you go into like a

0:41:27.040 --> 0:41:30.040
<v Speaker 4>low deer densy thing like that big woods Wisconsin stuff

0:41:30.040 --> 0:41:32.319
<v Speaker 4>where you're just not going to see very many and

0:41:32.320 --> 0:41:35.400
<v Speaker 4>you're like, well, I killed one on this crossing, you know,

0:41:35.440 --> 0:41:37.360
<v Speaker 4>two years ago, Like how much time do I give it?

0:41:37.400 --> 0:41:39.960
<v Speaker 4>And in those situations I probably tend to give it

0:41:40.000 --> 0:41:44.640
<v Speaker 4>too much time before I pivot, just because it's like,

0:41:46.160 --> 0:41:48.200
<v Speaker 4>I know, the task of going out and finding a

0:41:48.200 --> 0:41:51.840
<v Speaker 4>concentration of deer might take me longer than I have left.

0:41:52.320 --> 0:41:54.839
<v Speaker 4>But at the same time, the thing that the thing

0:41:54.880 --> 0:41:57.919
<v Speaker 4>that happens to me almost every single season that kind

0:41:57.920 --> 0:42:00.840
<v Speaker 4>of reinforces this whole idea of you don't want to

0:42:00.920 --> 0:42:03.200
<v Speaker 4>hunt on memories solely, or you don't want to lean

0:42:03.280 --> 0:42:06.520
<v Speaker 4>too heavily on that is how often I go somewhere

0:42:06.680 --> 0:42:09.600
<v Speaker 4>with that idea in my head and they just blatantly

0:42:09.640 --> 0:42:13.160
<v Speaker 4>show me they're using something else, or they you know,

0:42:13.400 --> 0:42:15.880
<v Speaker 4>blatantly show me that they're laying down a ton of

0:42:16.000 --> 0:42:18.520
<v Speaker 4>sign here for a reason, you know, or you walk

0:42:18.560 --> 0:42:20.359
<v Speaker 4>into a spot and you're like you jumped a bunch

0:42:20.360 --> 0:42:22.680
<v Speaker 4>of deer and you're like, okay, you've got to factor

0:42:22.719 --> 0:42:25.160
<v Speaker 4>that in pretty quickly, right, Like if you know how

0:42:25.160 --> 0:42:27.800
<v Speaker 4>it is, like if you go out and you find

0:42:27.880 --> 0:42:31.439
<v Speaker 4>the right concentration to sign that's just humming, and you're like, well,

0:42:31.440 --> 0:42:33.840
<v Speaker 4>I was going to go another three quarters of a

0:42:33.880 --> 0:42:37.040
<v Speaker 4>mile down here, but I probably should check that out.

0:42:37.080 --> 0:42:39.520
<v Speaker 4>You probably should check it out, you should probably hunt it.

0:42:39.560 --> 0:42:41.960
<v Speaker 4>And that's we have a hard time with that. So

0:42:42.000 --> 0:42:44.000
<v Speaker 4>we try to, like I think a lot of hunters

0:42:44.040 --> 0:42:47.000
<v Speaker 4>look at it and go I have my plan and

0:42:47.320 --> 0:42:49.160
<v Speaker 4>if it's not working, I'm going to spruce it up

0:42:49.200 --> 0:42:51.120
<v Speaker 4>with the decoys and the calls and whatever else. And

0:42:51.160 --> 0:42:53.200
<v Speaker 4>I'm because I believe in what I want to do

0:42:53.320 --> 0:42:56.319
<v Speaker 4>there instead of going to look. But there's so many

0:42:56.320 --> 0:42:58.880
<v Speaker 4>times when you're out there where I think about this

0:42:58.920 --> 0:43:02.400
<v Speaker 4>a lot. Where you know, people access tree stands often

0:43:02.440 --> 0:43:04.520
<v Speaker 4>on field edges. Right, So you're walking along and you

0:43:04.560 --> 0:43:08.000
<v Speaker 4>see that field edge sign, which is like encouraging, but

0:43:08.040 --> 0:43:10.680
<v Speaker 4>who cares kind of you know, like it's cool, but

0:43:10.840 --> 0:43:12.560
<v Speaker 4>generally like, yeah, I expect to see some rubs and

0:43:12.560 --> 0:43:13.080
<v Speaker 4>scrapes on.

0:43:13.000 --> 0:43:14.560
<v Speaker 3>A field edge where there's lots of deer.

0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:19.960
<v Speaker 4>But think about how often, Let's say it's like October

0:43:20.000 --> 0:43:22.600
<v Speaker 4>twentieth and you're walking along and you're gonna go sit

0:43:22.640 --> 0:43:24.719
<v Speaker 4>that cut cornfield and you see that rub on the

0:43:24.800 --> 0:43:26.600
<v Speaker 4>edge and you're like, dang, that's a nice rub. And

0:43:26.640 --> 0:43:28.040
<v Speaker 4>then you look down in the woods and you see

0:43:28.040 --> 0:43:31.400
<v Speaker 4>another one, and it's like, most people aren't gonna peel

0:43:31.440 --> 0:43:33.840
<v Speaker 4>off and go check that out. But that is a

0:43:34.200 --> 0:43:38.719
<v Speaker 4>huge sign, right like that that's telling you something that

0:43:39.160 --> 0:43:41.480
<v Speaker 4>not only was he up here what you expect, but

0:43:41.520 --> 0:43:43.880
<v Speaker 4>now I know he walked down there and did it

0:43:44.000 --> 0:43:46.399
<v Speaker 4>or somebody did who I'm really interested in? And what's

0:43:46.440 --> 0:43:49.279
<v Speaker 4>the next one look like? Or why why that way?

0:43:49.400 --> 0:43:50.040
<v Speaker 4>What's down there?

0:43:50.600 --> 0:43:50.839
<v Speaker 3>You know?

0:43:51.560 --> 0:43:56.080
<v Speaker 4>And I think again, it's sort of that indecisiveness, the

0:43:56.120 --> 0:43:58.520
<v Speaker 4>second guessing thing where you're like, well, if I walk

0:43:58.600 --> 0:44:00.840
<v Speaker 4>down in there, I'll probably blow them, or I don't

0:44:00.840 --> 0:44:03.839
<v Speaker 4>have like a I don't have a good plan for that,

0:44:04.120 --> 0:44:05.799
<v Speaker 4>So I'm just gonna take it. I'm gonna be safe,

0:44:05.800 --> 0:44:08.160
<v Speaker 4>and I'm gonna go to that tree stand that I

0:44:08.160 --> 0:44:09.640
<v Speaker 4>wanted to go to anyway, but I'm gonna put that

0:44:09.640 --> 0:44:11.680
<v Speaker 4>big buck decoy out because if this dude comes out here,

0:44:12.160 --> 0:44:14.439
<v Speaker 4>he might see it. But you already walk through there.

0:44:14.520 --> 0:44:18.200
<v Speaker 4>You know, Like it's hard to do. But I think

0:44:18.239 --> 0:44:21.120
<v Speaker 4>that when you when you learn that it's okay to

0:44:21.200 --> 0:44:23.080
<v Speaker 4>try that stuff, and I think that, I think that's

0:44:23.120 --> 0:44:26.480
<v Speaker 4>what like a lot of the hang and bang public

0:44:26.560 --> 0:44:29.160
<v Speaker 4>land hunts teach you, is like it's just okay to

0:44:29.200 --> 0:44:31.440
<v Speaker 4>try stuff like you have to, like you have to

0:44:31.440 --> 0:44:33.839
<v Speaker 4>get your ass in a tree somewhere and just try

0:44:33.880 --> 0:44:35.640
<v Speaker 4>something out. So you're generally gonna do that in a

0:44:35.640 --> 0:44:37.480
<v Speaker 4>place where you're like there's enough sign here to get

0:44:37.480 --> 0:44:38.200
<v Speaker 4>me to commit to this.

0:44:38.880 --> 0:44:41.239
<v Speaker 3>When you're on a piece of private ground and you have.

0:44:41.239 --> 0:44:44.200
<v Speaker 4>Your stands hung since you know the end of July,

0:44:44.440 --> 0:44:46.239
<v Speaker 4>and you have your whole plan out, and you're like,

0:44:46.520 --> 0:44:49.760
<v Speaker 4>I'm not gonna I'm gonna be very light on my presence.

0:44:49.800 --> 0:44:51.759
<v Speaker 4>I'm gonna tread lightly, and then I'm gonna hit this

0:44:51.840 --> 0:44:54.640
<v Speaker 4>hard during my rut caation. It's like that's fine, that

0:44:54.760 --> 0:44:57.319
<v Speaker 4>works a lot, But it's also like if you're walking

0:44:57.360 --> 0:44:59.279
<v Speaker 4>out there for that fun hunt on October fifteenth, and

0:44:59.320 --> 0:45:01.360
<v Speaker 4>you might want to shoot it dough or whatever, and

0:45:01.400 --> 0:45:04.160
<v Speaker 4>then you see that bang and rub line, you have

0:45:04.239 --> 0:45:07.400
<v Speaker 4>the opportunity to go figure that out, and it's a

0:45:07.440 --> 0:45:08.960
<v Speaker 4>hard thing to do, but it's important.

0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:10.879
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:45:11.200 --> 0:45:17.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's that's actually really good, really good lead into

0:45:17.120 --> 0:45:22.719
<v Speaker 2>another one of my failures, which kind of piggybacks not

0:45:22.760 --> 0:45:24.520
<v Speaker 2>only off what you were just sharing, but also my

0:45:24.600 --> 0:45:27.400
<v Speaker 2>first failure in which you know, I talked about for

0:45:27.440 --> 0:45:30.040
<v Speaker 2>a long time. I failed repeatedly because I was living

0:45:30.080 --> 0:45:33.080
<v Speaker 2>off of other people's rules and other people's best practices.

0:45:33.200 --> 0:45:33.399
<v Speaker 3>Right.

0:45:35.320 --> 0:45:39.480
<v Speaker 2>Well, I got a hunting spot in Ohio back in

0:45:39.600 --> 0:45:44.200
<v Speaker 2>like twenty fourteen, maybe somewhere on that ball twenty thirteen fourteen,

0:45:44.239 --> 0:45:48.960
<v Speaker 2>give or take, and this was the best zone I'd

0:45:48.960 --> 0:45:55.040
<v Speaker 2>ever had permission to hunt. And first hunt ever there,

0:45:55.239 --> 0:45:58.160
<v Speaker 2>I saw the biggest bucke't ever you know, laid eyes

0:45:58.239 --> 0:45:59.640
<v Speaker 2>on while I had a bow in my hand, like

0:45:59.680 --> 0:46:02.880
<v Speaker 2>a true one, you know, sixty kind of buck, just

0:46:02.920 --> 0:46:05.960
<v Speaker 2>like a giant Ohio buck that was, you know, coming

0:46:06.040 --> 0:46:11.560
<v Speaker 2>my way, very exciting, like just like a real deal buck.

0:46:12.360 --> 0:46:16.279
<v Speaker 2>And I hunted that buck that season, never got a

0:46:16.320 --> 0:46:18.480
<v Speaker 2>crack at him, saw him another time or two. But

0:46:18.600 --> 0:46:21.880
<v Speaker 2>the next year I came back and I told myself

0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:23.880
<v Speaker 2>I was gonna do things differently. I was going to

0:46:24.040 --> 0:46:26.680
<v Speaker 2>be more aggressive. I was going to try to like

0:46:26.760 --> 0:46:29.520
<v Speaker 2>get into his zone. I wasn't going to just hunt

0:46:29.600 --> 0:46:31.719
<v Speaker 2>him on the edges. We're safe, kind of all the

0:46:31.719 --> 0:46:34.640
<v Speaker 2>stuff I talked about with that other deer. And so

0:46:34.680 --> 0:46:37.000
<v Speaker 2>I did a bunch of scouting. I found what I

0:46:37.040 --> 0:46:40.000
<v Speaker 2>thought were like the spots that man, this buck probably

0:46:40.000 --> 0:46:41.960
<v Speaker 2>lives in here, Like this could be like one of

0:46:41.960 --> 0:46:44.920
<v Speaker 2>his bedrooms, you know. I found some beds. I found

0:46:44.960 --> 0:46:47.239
<v Speaker 2>like where I thought one of his safe places was.

0:46:48.360 --> 0:46:50.440
<v Speaker 2>Got it kind of dialed in, was feeling really good

0:46:50.480 --> 0:46:53.360
<v Speaker 2>about things, and really this is a story full of

0:46:53.400 --> 0:46:56.759
<v Speaker 2>a lot of getting things right. I'll preface this by

0:46:57.200 --> 0:47:00.200
<v Speaker 2>and then getting the wrong answer at the very end.

0:47:01.040 --> 0:47:04.040
<v Speaker 2>So I so I get all of that knowledge, I'm

0:47:04.320 --> 0:47:06.359
<v Speaker 2>feeling very excited. I go in do the early season

0:47:06.480 --> 0:47:08.880
<v Speaker 2>hunts doesn't pan out. I remember thinking to myself that

0:47:08.920 --> 0:47:10.600
<v Speaker 2>I wasn't going to go back to hunt till like

0:47:10.680 --> 0:47:13.520
<v Speaker 2>late October. I was gonna wait till that pre red

0:47:13.520 --> 0:47:18.319
<v Speaker 2>stuff was really kicking in. And then I think it

0:47:18.400 --> 0:47:23.240
<v Speaker 2>was mid October, right in that window when a cold

0:47:23.280 --> 0:47:26.680
<v Speaker 2>front moved through, A rainy cold front kind of day

0:47:26.760 --> 0:47:30.800
<v Speaker 2>moved through in mid October, and I just remember thinking,

0:47:32.160 --> 0:47:33.920
<v Speaker 2>and I can't remember all of the different things that

0:47:33.960 --> 0:47:35.920
<v Speaker 2>were lining up, but for some reason, there was a

0:47:35.920 --> 0:47:37.680
<v Speaker 2>whole series of things that were lining up. I think

0:47:37.680 --> 0:47:41.239
<v Speaker 2>it was the rain, it was the wind direction, and

0:47:41.320 --> 0:47:42.839
<v Speaker 2>it was the fact that I thought I knew one

0:47:42.880 --> 0:47:45.359
<v Speaker 2>of these spots where this buck was bedded, and all

0:47:45.400 --> 0:47:47.640
<v Speaker 2>of that. On one morning, I remember like sitting at

0:47:47.680 --> 0:47:50.360
<v Speaker 2>my computer looking at all these conditions. I wasn't planning

0:47:50.360 --> 0:47:52.439
<v Speaker 2>on going down to Ohio to hunt, but I'm looking

0:47:52.440 --> 0:47:54.200
<v Speaker 2>at all this stuff and I'm thinking, like, man, this

0:47:54.440 --> 0:47:57.120
<v Speaker 2>all would set up so perfectly to get really close

0:47:57.160 --> 0:47:59.960
<v Speaker 2>to that bed. You know, I could sneak in through

0:48:00.120 --> 0:48:03.280
<v Speaker 2>the standing cornfield, which would be really hard to do quietly,

0:48:03.480 --> 0:48:07.080
<v Speaker 2>except for on a windy, rainy day, and except for

0:48:07.320 --> 0:48:09.680
<v Speaker 2>like on a day when I really knew exactly where

0:48:09.680 --> 0:48:11.319
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to get to, I could probably sneak through

0:48:11.360 --> 0:48:14.520
<v Speaker 2>that cornfield and get like just above this zone. I

0:48:14.600 --> 0:48:16.959
<v Speaker 2>bet you, with this wind direction, it would make sense

0:48:16.960 --> 0:48:19.000
<v Speaker 2>for him to actually be betting there and using this

0:48:19.040 --> 0:48:22.799
<v Speaker 2>particular location on that kind of day. So I was like,

0:48:22.840 --> 0:48:25.040
<v Speaker 2>you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna go for it.

0:48:25.040 --> 0:48:28.200
<v Speaker 2>So I like just like bailed on work for the

0:48:28.200 --> 0:48:29.520
<v Speaker 2>rest of the day. I left in the middle of

0:48:29.560 --> 0:48:32.640
<v Speaker 2>the day, bombed down to southern Ohio, drove like four

0:48:32.640 --> 0:48:34.680
<v Speaker 2>and a half hours, got there just in time to

0:48:35.360 --> 0:48:39.560
<v Speaker 2>sneak in do the whole thing, very high anticipation, Like

0:48:39.640 --> 0:48:42.240
<v Speaker 2>I thought, like, man, I'm doing the thing. I'm making

0:48:42.320 --> 0:48:45.680
<v Speaker 2>this plunge right into the heart of this buck's territory

0:48:45.680 --> 0:48:48.000
<v Speaker 2>because I had this like feeling and everything's lined up

0:48:48.040 --> 0:48:50.480
<v Speaker 2>and YadA, YadA, YadA, and I do the hunt and

0:48:50.520 --> 0:48:53.640
<v Speaker 2>it's all perfect, and then I don't see him nothing crickets,

0:48:53.840 --> 0:48:56.799
<v Speaker 2>don't see a single deer, And I just remember thinking like, ah,

0:48:56.880 --> 0:48:58.520
<v Speaker 2>what an idiot like you came in here the middle

0:48:58.560 --> 0:49:01.560
<v Speaker 2>of October. It's the lull. You know, you probably just

0:49:01.600 --> 0:49:03.520
<v Speaker 2>screwed it up. He wasn't gonna be moving all that

0:49:03.600 --> 0:49:09.280
<v Speaker 2>much anyways, What an idiot. The next morning, I started

0:49:09.320 --> 0:49:14.080
<v Speaker 2>to drive home, and then on my drive home, I'm

0:49:14.160 --> 0:49:16.360
<v Speaker 2>going through all this indecision like we've been talking about,

0:49:16.400 --> 0:49:18.400
<v Speaker 2>and now I'm like arguing with myself, Well, you know,

0:49:18.520 --> 0:49:21.279
<v Speaker 2>you came all the way down here. You did everything right.

0:49:21.360 --> 0:49:24.520
<v Speaker 2>Your execution seemed really good, your wind was really good.

0:49:24.920 --> 0:49:27.200
<v Speaker 2>You didn't bump anything that you know of. You know,

0:49:27.400 --> 0:49:29.800
<v Speaker 2>maybe he just didn't happen to you know, you couldn't

0:49:29.840 --> 0:49:31.320
<v Speaker 2>quite see down to the bed, so he could have

0:49:31.320 --> 0:49:32.840
<v Speaker 2>been there, or we could have embedded off one of

0:49:32.880 --> 0:49:36.000
<v Speaker 2>these other points. You know, you weren't necessarily completely wrong.

0:49:36.400 --> 0:49:38.160
<v Speaker 2>You got to give it another chance. So I get

0:49:38.200 --> 0:49:40.680
<v Speaker 2>part way home and then decide to turn around and

0:49:40.800 --> 0:49:44.640
<v Speaker 2>drive back for one more hunt. And this time like,

0:49:44.640 --> 0:49:47.120
<v Speaker 2>all right, I'm just gonna I'm gonna hunt a slightly

0:49:47.160 --> 0:49:49.040
<v Speaker 2>different I think, if I remember correctly, the wind is

0:49:49.040 --> 0:49:50.840
<v Speaker 2>shifted a little bit, so I wasn't gonna hunt that

0:49:50.880 --> 0:49:53.480
<v Speaker 2>same spot. But I had another zone prepped where I

0:49:53.480 --> 0:49:55.920
<v Speaker 2>could hunt on just kind of the other side of

0:49:55.960 --> 0:49:58.760
<v Speaker 2>this betting area, in a place that I still thought

0:49:58.840 --> 0:50:01.000
<v Speaker 2>was one of this possible kind of exit routes to

0:50:01.040 --> 0:50:04.719
<v Speaker 2>a food source. And I slip in there. It still

0:50:04.719 --> 0:50:07.520
<v Speaker 2>had stuff, was still wet, still nice kind of windy day,

0:50:07.560 --> 0:50:09.600
<v Speaker 2>so I could sneak into this zone close. I was

0:50:09.640 --> 0:50:12.600
<v Speaker 2>being a lot more aggressive than I had in the past,

0:50:12.760 --> 0:50:16.200
<v Speaker 2>and get set up, sit in the tree, feeling good

0:50:16.200 --> 0:50:18.239
<v Speaker 2>about it. You know, I've had this whole thing worked

0:50:18.239 --> 0:50:20.799
<v Speaker 2>out in my head. Gets to the last I don't know,

0:50:21.040 --> 0:50:24.120
<v Speaker 2>ten to fifteen minutes of daylight, and I hear a

0:50:24.200 --> 0:50:26.520
<v Speaker 2>twig snap and I look in this direction and then

0:50:26.520 --> 0:50:42.640
<v Speaker 2>the holy shit, there he is. He did the thing

0:50:43.040 --> 0:50:46.360
<v Speaker 2>like it worked out exactly how I thought it was.

0:50:46.400 --> 0:50:50.400
<v Speaker 2>And here's a one sixty class, just a mammoth of

0:50:50.480 --> 0:50:55.120
<v Speaker 2>a bodied buck, you know, at thirty yards something like that,

0:50:55.160 --> 0:51:00.520
<v Speaker 2>thirty five yards, just the closest I've ever into a

0:51:00.560 --> 0:51:02.279
<v Speaker 2>buck like that that I can get a shot at

0:51:02.280 --> 0:51:05.640
<v Speaker 2>at this point in my hunting career. And it's here,

0:51:05.760 --> 0:51:09.120
<v Speaker 2>like everything worked out. I did it all right, He's

0:51:09.200 --> 0:51:11.600
<v Speaker 2>right there. And then in that moment, it was like,

0:51:12.200 --> 0:51:14.399
<v Speaker 2>holy shit, now I need to pull off the last thing.

0:51:14.480 --> 0:51:16.120
<v Speaker 2>I did everything right, but now I actually have to

0:51:16.120 --> 0:51:19.400
<v Speaker 2>pull off a shot. And I was also though, trying

0:51:19.440 --> 0:51:24.040
<v Speaker 2>to self film it, and so now I'm scurrying to

0:51:24.080 --> 0:51:26.680
<v Speaker 2>try to get a camera spun her arm, and I'm

0:51:26.719 --> 0:51:29.120
<v Speaker 2>trying to spin around the tree and moving the camera

0:51:29.239 --> 0:51:31.400
<v Speaker 2>to be a film while I could also get a shot.

0:51:31.440 --> 0:51:34.360
<v Speaker 2>And this whole time that's happening, the buck is moving

0:51:34.400 --> 0:51:38.040
<v Speaker 2>across the one opening that I had, and I just

0:51:38.080 --> 0:51:40.760
<v Speaker 2>remember in this moment finally getting spun around the camera

0:51:40.800 --> 0:51:42.319
<v Speaker 2>on the target and I can see the buck, and

0:51:42.320 --> 0:51:44.920
<v Speaker 2>I remember thinking, oh, no, you're not going to get

0:51:44.920 --> 0:51:49.520
<v Speaker 2>a shot. Like he's moving, he's not stopping, he's moving across,

0:51:50.200 --> 0:51:53.440
<v Speaker 2>and this is your one chance, after all of these years,

0:51:53.520 --> 0:51:56.000
<v Speaker 2>after doing all of these things, right, I remember in

0:51:56.040 --> 0:51:58.879
<v Speaker 2>my mind just thinking like, you have to get a shot.

0:51:59.160 --> 0:52:02.880
<v Speaker 2>And he's moving, and he's moving kind of in towards

0:52:02.880 --> 0:52:05.279
<v Speaker 2>a down tree. I remember there's like a downtree and

0:52:05.320 --> 0:52:08.160
<v Speaker 2>branches extending out, and he's gonna be behind that downtree soon.

0:52:08.760 --> 0:52:14.200
<v Speaker 2>And so what did I do? I just shot. I

0:52:14.400 --> 0:52:16.480
<v Speaker 2>just got a shot off before I couldn't get a

0:52:16.520 --> 0:52:20.799
<v Speaker 2>shot off right, and that shot hit the buck, but

0:52:20.880 --> 0:52:24.000
<v Speaker 2>it hit him back. And you know later in reviewing

0:52:24.040 --> 0:52:25.839
<v Speaker 2>the footage of it, I did get footage of it.

0:52:25.880 --> 0:52:29.960
<v Speaker 2>You know, it hit he was behind those tree branches,

0:52:30.160 --> 0:52:33.759
<v Speaker 2>and I honestly can't remember if I glanced off a

0:52:33.760 --> 0:52:37.400
<v Speaker 2>branch or just hit back, but it was in that zone.

0:52:37.520 --> 0:52:40.560
<v Speaker 2>And to make a long story short, couldn't find him

0:52:40.600 --> 0:52:43.600
<v Speaker 2>that night, searched for him the whole next day, brought

0:52:43.600 --> 0:52:45.839
<v Speaker 2>out a dog, couldn't find him the whole next day.

0:52:46.400 --> 0:52:48.839
<v Speaker 2>Day three had a different friend who had a dog

0:52:48.960 --> 0:52:52.959
<v Speaker 2>come down searched all that day, could not find the buck.

0:52:53.800 --> 0:52:56.640
<v Speaker 2>And you know, that was the first time that I'd

0:52:56.719 --> 0:52:59.640
<v Speaker 2>hit a buck and not found it, and you know,

0:52:59.800 --> 0:53:03.000
<v Speaker 2>just devastating for that reason. Devastating for like what felt

0:53:03.040 --> 0:53:05.400
<v Speaker 2>like making so much great progress and then to not

0:53:05.480 --> 0:53:07.520
<v Speaker 2>be able to finally get that thing to come together

0:53:07.520 --> 0:53:11.719
<v Speaker 2>in the end, devastating, you know, for all of these

0:53:11.760 --> 0:53:16.719
<v Speaker 2>reasons and many more. And then couldn't find the deer.

0:53:17.360 --> 0:53:20.080
<v Speaker 2>Fast forward two months, three months something like that. I

0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:24.200
<v Speaker 2>come back during shed season and I find him right

0:53:24.560 --> 0:53:27.280
<v Speaker 2>in the zone that I swear we walked all around

0:53:27.360 --> 0:53:30.640
<v Speaker 2>when we were out there searching with dogs. So did

0:53:30.640 --> 0:53:33.400
<v Speaker 2>we just miss him and he'd been dead there all along? Maybe,

0:53:33.800 --> 0:53:35.879
<v Speaker 2>or maybe he just took longer and then came back

0:53:35.880 --> 0:53:38.799
<v Speaker 2>to his bedroom and debt. I do not know, But

0:53:38.880 --> 0:53:41.960
<v Speaker 2>that was like my first major what felt like a

0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:45.120
<v Speaker 2>major success but ended up being a major failure and

0:53:45.200 --> 0:53:49.839
<v Speaker 2>like massive heartbreaking situation. And what I learned from that,

0:53:50.640 --> 0:53:53.040
<v Speaker 2>among many many different things, was like I learned a

0:53:53.040 --> 0:53:55.960
<v Speaker 2>lot of confirming things, like Okay, it paid off to

0:53:56.040 --> 0:53:58.120
<v Speaker 2>like do that scouting and find out where the bedroom

0:53:58.280 --> 0:54:00.520
<v Speaker 2>was and find some of those things that off. It

0:54:00.560 --> 0:54:02.839
<v Speaker 2>paid off to trust my gut to go in and

0:54:02.840 --> 0:54:04.759
<v Speaker 2>do a hunt, even though it was mid October and

0:54:04.800 --> 0:54:07.320
<v Speaker 2>the rules said don't hunt in the middle of October

0:54:07.360 --> 0:54:10.640
<v Speaker 2>because they don't move as much. But actually, as we

0:54:10.680 --> 0:54:13.560
<v Speaker 2>all know, that's not necessarily the case. So that was

0:54:13.560 --> 0:54:16.080
<v Speaker 2>something that was confirmed to me, like I stuck with

0:54:16.200 --> 0:54:18.000
<v Speaker 2>the thing, even though the first hunt didn't worked out.

0:54:18.040 --> 0:54:21.359
<v Speaker 2>I pivoted and adjusted, so all those things confirmed, like, Okay,

0:54:21.400 --> 0:54:24.319
<v Speaker 2>I'm making progress, I'm figuring these things out. But then

0:54:24.400 --> 0:54:29.200
<v Speaker 2>ultimately an end, I put so much pressure on myself

0:54:29.239 --> 0:54:33.160
<v Speaker 2>to get the shot. I put so much into that,

0:54:33.239 --> 0:54:35.480
<v Speaker 2>like that the most important thing was to get a shot.

0:54:35.840 --> 0:54:37.560
<v Speaker 2>That I took a shot that I probably shouldn't have

0:54:37.719 --> 0:54:40.520
<v Speaker 2>first and foremost, you know, I forced a shot. I

0:54:40.600 --> 0:54:44.240
<v Speaker 2>rushed a shot that really, you know, with him moving

0:54:44.360 --> 0:54:46.320
<v Speaker 2>and with me trying to fiddle with all that other stuff,

0:54:46.360 --> 0:54:48.760
<v Speaker 2>I did not put myself in a position to get

0:54:49.160 --> 0:54:54.120
<v Speaker 2>the right shot, and I was not experienced enough or

0:54:56.680 --> 0:54:58.279
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure what the right words other than that,

0:54:58.400 --> 0:55:00.920
<v Speaker 2>but I didn't make the right decision moment, and that

0:55:01.000 --> 0:55:03.640
<v Speaker 2>was a massive failure that I have continued to struggle

0:55:03.680 --> 0:55:06.200
<v Speaker 2>with in all the years since. As we've all talked about, right,

0:55:06.239 --> 0:55:09.080
<v Speaker 2>those things never end up, you know, not being a

0:55:09.160 --> 0:55:11.520
<v Speaker 2>challenge in one way or another. But that was the

0:55:11.560 --> 0:55:14.480
<v Speaker 2>first big one on many of those different fronts. The

0:55:14.560 --> 0:55:17.200
<v Speaker 2>still sticks with me to this point.

0:55:17.920 --> 0:55:20.360
<v Speaker 4>I mean, if you are gonna if you were going

0:55:20.440 --> 0:55:23.279
<v Speaker 4>to make a top ten or top five list of

0:55:23.360 --> 0:55:27.279
<v Speaker 4>ways in which deer hunters, particularly bow hunters, screw up

0:55:27.440 --> 0:55:31.120
<v Speaker 4>rushing the shot would be like always up there.

0:55:31.640 --> 0:55:33.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, it is just this.

0:55:33.920 --> 0:55:36.719
<v Speaker 4>One of the hardest things to do is pump the

0:55:36.719 --> 0:55:39.200
<v Speaker 4>brakes when you're like, there's the one I'm going to

0:55:39.239 --> 0:55:41.359
<v Speaker 4>shoot at, Like I have to get a shot because

0:55:41.360 --> 0:55:45.160
<v Speaker 4>they're so rare, the encounters are so rare and they

0:55:45.239 --> 0:55:48.279
<v Speaker 4>get within range of you. It is very hard when

0:55:48.280 --> 0:55:51.320
<v Speaker 4>you switch over to that I'm taking a shot to

0:55:51.360 --> 0:55:54.400
<v Speaker 4>not take it if the whole thing falls apart.

0:55:54.560 --> 0:55:58.920
<v Speaker 2>So like there's like like some other force, like something

0:55:59.000 --> 0:56:01.640
<v Speaker 2>takes control and it's like like a tractor being sucking

0:56:01.680 --> 0:56:05.759
<v Speaker 2>you in, Like you lose autonomy in some way, and

0:56:05.800 --> 0:56:07.640
<v Speaker 2>like it's like a ball rolling down a hill. Like

0:56:07.719 --> 0:56:11.160
<v Speaker 2>once that gravity takes over, it's really hard to stop

0:56:11.200 --> 0:56:12.040
<v Speaker 2>that thing once it's.

0:56:11.920 --> 0:56:17.040
<v Speaker 3>Rolling, real hard. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I

0:56:17.040 --> 0:56:18.120
<v Speaker 3>mean I don't even know.

0:56:18.880 --> 0:56:21.640
<v Speaker 4>You get better about that stuff, but it's not like

0:56:21.719 --> 0:56:24.360
<v Speaker 4>that thing ever goes away. No, you know, like that

0:56:24.640 --> 0:56:29.799
<v Speaker 4>that is always a possibility and it's so rarely works out.

0:56:30.400 --> 0:56:33.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I mean you and I have have spent

0:56:33.360 --> 0:56:36.040
<v Speaker 2>years and years talking on this podcast about the many

0:56:36.120 --> 0:56:38.480
<v Speaker 2>examples of ways that you and I have had that

0:56:38.520 --> 0:56:42.400
<v Speaker 2>situation happen, and ways we've gotten better at it, ways

0:56:42.400 --> 0:56:45.160
<v Speaker 2>we've tried to deal with it, ways we've I think

0:56:45.160 --> 0:56:48.200
<v Speaker 2>the most effective things for me has been like recognizing

0:56:48.480 --> 0:56:54.680
<v Speaker 2>my shortcomings and like just recognizing, Okay, like there's some

0:56:54.719 --> 0:56:56.319
<v Speaker 2>things you can do to get better, and then there's

0:56:56.320 --> 0:56:58.279
<v Speaker 2>some things you just need to recognize that you're not

0:56:58.320 --> 0:57:00.480
<v Speaker 2>good at some of these things, and you need to

0:57:00.560 --> 0:57:03.840
<v Speaker 2>account for that ahead of time. So like, for example,

0:57:03.920 --> 0:57:06.360
<v Speaker 2>I'm not going to take long shots anymore because I

0:57:06.400 --> 0:57:10.239
<v Speaker 2>just know, like I'm too susceptible to making some tiny air,

0:57:10.320 --> 0:57:13.120
<v Speaker 2>I'm too susceptible too rushing the shots. So I'm going

0:57:13.200 --> 0:57:16.439
<v Speaker 2>to know that ahead of time and just say, hey, Mark,

0:57:16.480 --> 0:57:17.680
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to be the guy that gets to

0:57:17.680 --> 0:57:21.040
<v Speaker 2>shoot deer at fifty yards. You're just not because for me,

0:57:21.280 --> 0:57:24.840
<v Speaker 2>I'm not willing to risk all the bad things happening.

0:57:25.000 --> 0:57:28.480
<v Speaker 2>I would much rather have fewer shot opportunities, but fewer

0:57:28.560 --> 0:57:31.800
<v Speaker 2>bad things happen wounded deer, miss deer. So I've pulled

0:57:31.840 --> 0:57:34.280
<v Speaker 2>in my shooting range. That's probably been like some of

0:57:34.280 --> 0:57:37.600
<v Speaker 2>the best things. I've dumbed down my gear. I've decreased

0:57:37.680 --> 0:57:40.560
<v Speaker 2>my range. I have, you know, tried to find ways

0:57:40.800 --> 0:57:43.160
<v Speaker 2>in how I set up shots and how I prepare

0:57:43.240 --> 0:57:46.480
<v Speaker 2>and how I set up locations to minimize those errors,

0:57:47.480 --> 0:57:49.880
<v Speaker 2>knowing full well that like this very well might be

0:57:49.920 --> 0:57:51.840
<v Speaker 2>the number one way that people fail. Like once you

0:57:51.880 --> 0:57:53.480
<v Speaker 2>get to a certain point where you're pretty good at

0:57:53.480 --> 0:57:55.480
<v Speaker 2>deer hunting and you know how to get within a

0:57:55.560 --> 0:58:00.600
<v Speaker 2>range of deer, I gotta believe that most hunters at

0:58:00.600 --> 0:58:02.400
<v Speaker 2>that point I have a whole lot of deer that

0:58:02.400 --> 0:58:05.760
<v Speaker 2>they screwed up on that. Yeah, that's the number of reason,

0:58:05.880 --> 0:58:06.800
<v Speaker 2>number one reason.

0:58:06.600 --> 0:58:08.720
<v Speaker 3>Why I have done the same thing.

0:58:08.800 --> 0:58:13.000
<v Speaker 4>Man, I want them at like twenty yards looking away

0:58:13.040 --> 0:58:15.880
<v Speaker 4>from me, I mean, like already kind of pass me.

0:58:16.040 --> 0:58:18.640
<v Speaker 4>I'm the same way, Like I don't I don't need

0:58:18.640 --> 0:58:21.160
<v Speaker 4>to be shooting deer forty fifty yards away. I want

0:58:21.160 --> 0:58:24.920
<v Speaker 4>them close. And I did the same thing, like I

0:58:24.920 --> 0:58:27.280
<v Speaker 4>need to work with myself. I dumb that shit down,

0:58:27.320 --> 0:58:30.160
<v Speaker 4>and I try to give myself really high odd shots

0:58:30.200 --> 0:58:31.880
<v Speaker 4>because it's so easy to screw up.

0:58:32.960 --> 0:58:35.800
<v Speaker 2>And and you know, I don't I could be wrong.

0:58:36.880 --> 0:58:40.280
<v Speaker 2>I don't think we're unique in that, and I do

0:58:40.360 --> 0:58:42.160
<v Speaker 2>think and you can tell me if you think I'm

0:58:42.160 --> 0:58:47.560
<v Speaker 2>wrong here, Tony. But I think that our industry, the community,

0:58:48.240 --> 0:58:53.640
<v Speaker 2>the marketing machine of the hunting world tries to tell

0:58:53.720 --> 0:58:56.560
<v Speaker 2>hunters that, oh no, all you need is a better

0:58:56.600 --> 0:59:00.240
<v Speaker 2>bow or a better arrow, or more practice or this

0:59:00.320 --> 0:59:04.520
<v Speaker 2>new technique or this shooting style or this answer, and

0:59:04.600 --> 0:59:06.400
<v Speaker 2>all of those things can help, and you should do

0:59:06.480 --> 0:59:08.320
<v Speaker 2>all of the stuff you possibly can to get better

0:59:08.360 --> 0:59:11.480
<v Speaker 2>and more effective. I'm not saying you shouldn't do those things,

0:59:11.560 --> 0:59:14.800
<v Speaker 2>but it is much more unpopular to do what we're

0:59:14.800 --> 0:59:20.120
<v Speaker 2>talking about. Why don't we hear more about restraint, Well,

0:59:20.160 --> 0:59:21.560
<v Speaker 2>because it's not worth any money.

0:59:22.640 --> 0:59:26.400
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know, the marketing budgets don't. That's not that's

0:59:26.440 --> 0:59:27.360
<v Speaker 3>not what they're going for.

0:59:27.720 --> 0:59:32.200
<v Speaker 4>But I mean, you know, I remember I don't remember

0:59:32.240 --> 0:59:35.080
<v Speaker 4>what show this was, but I remember watching a bow

0:59:35.160 --> 0:59:37.680
<v Speaker 4>hunting show one time, and it was like a twelve

0:59:37.720 --> 0:59:41.760
<v Speaker 4>year old kid that I think that kid missed a

0:59:41.960 --> 0:59:46.520
<v Speaker 4>giant and then killed a giant in the same show,

0:59:46.560 --> 0:59:49.160
<v Speaker 4>And it was like one of those things where I

0:59:49.200 --> 0:59:53.880
<v Speaker 4>remember being like I would fall apart on those deer

0:59:54.800 --> 0:59:59.080
<v Speaker 4>every time, and then realizing, well, that kid where he's

0:59:59.160 --> 1:00:01.520
<v Speaker 4>hunting expects on another giant to come down the trail.

1:00:02.560 --> 1:00:06.919
<v Speaker 4>You know, we watch people hunting in scenarios where it's

1:00:06.960 --> 1:00:11.080
<v Speaker 4>not the dude on public land in Pennsylvania. You know

1:00:11.600 --> 1:00:13.880
<v Speaker 4>that deer that comes along that one sixty in Ohio.

1:00:13.960 --> 1:00:17.240
<v Speaker 4>That deer is not coming along very often, so it's

1:00:17.280 --> 1:00:19.240
<v Speaker 4>easy to lose your shit. But we watch people all

1:00:19.240 --> 1:00:22.120
<v Speaker 4>the time who are like, if I don't kill this one,

1:00:22.480 --> 1:00:25.360
<v Speaker 4>like they'll be more'll be another one, And most of

1:00:25.440 --> 1:00:27.960
<v Speaker 4>us aren't. Most of the time people aren't hunting that scenario.

1:00:27.960 --> 1:00:30.440
<v Speaker 4>So that's that's when that ego that takes over where

1:00:30.440 --> 1:00:33.760
<v Speaker 4>you're like, I gotta possess that thing, like I need

1:00:34.080 --> 1:00:36.120
<v Speaker 4>to possess that deer because this is not going to

1:00:36.160 --> 1:00:37.200
<v Speaker 4>come around again for me.

1:00:37.320 --> 1:00:42.240
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that shit's tough, man, Yeah it's tough. And when

1:00:42.240 --> 1:00:45.080
<v Speaker 2>I get to my last story, it relates to this too.

1:00:45.120 --> 1:00:47.320
<v Speaker 2>But I think a really important thing to remember, and

1:00:47.360 --> 1:00:50.240
<v Speaker 2>that has been a big part of most of my failures.

1:00:50.920 --> 1:00:53.439
<v Speaker 2>And it goes back to my second and first story.

1:00:53.480 --> 1:00:56.800
<v Speaker 2>Really it's it's in the end, like this stuff doesn't

1:00:56.840 --> 1:00:59.720
<v Speaker 2>matter that much, like whether or not you get a

1:00:59.760 --> 1:01:02.600
<v Speaker 2>buck this year. You've said this. I think it was

1:01:02.600 --> 1:01:04.600
<v Speaker 2>you who said this to me years ago, and it

1:01:04.640 --> 1:01:06.440
<v Speaker 2>stuck with me, and I try to remind myself of this,

1:01:06.520 --> 1:01:10.520
<v Speaker 2>like nobody cares. For so long, I've thought like it

1:01:10.560 --> 1:01:13.240
<v Speaker 2>was important to me, it was important to other people.

1:01:13.320 --> 1:01:16.000
<v Speaker 2>People were judging me based on this stuff. But in

1:01:16.000 --> 1:01:19.080
<v Speaker 2>the end, nobody really cares. Nobody's really paying attention, and

1:01:19.120 --> 1:01:22.120
<v Speaker 2>it really shouldn't matter what other people think anyways. And

1:01:22.200 --> 1:01:26.680
<v Speaker 2>so we put all this pressure on ourselves that really

1:01:26.720 --> 1:01:28.720
<v Speaker 2>does not need to be there, and that just gets

1:01:28.720 --> 1:01:31.240
<v Speaker 2>in the way of us enjoying ourselves and the experience.

1:01:31.480 --> 1:01:34.720
<v Speaker 2>I would say the only pressure that really should be

1:01:34.760 --> 1:01:37.640
<v Speaker 2>there is simply the pressure to execute the shot in

1:01:37.680 --> 1:01:39.560
<v Speaker 2>a way that leads to an ethical kill, Like that

1:01:39.920 --> 1:01:43.120
<v Speaker 2>is warranted, very important pressure that we should recognize and

1:01:43.160 --> 1:01:47.560
<v Speaker 2>I recognize. But the rest of the outside noise that

1:01:47.720 --> 1:01:49.880
<v Speaker 2>just gets in the way and sometimes makes.

1:01:49.680 --> 1:01:52.240
<v Speaker 3>Things worse for sure, for sure.

1:01:52.480 --> 1:01:54.440
<v Speaker 4>I mean, and kind of what we're talking about here

1:01:55.240 --> 1:01:59.440
<v Speaker 4>is really really leads into my last thing. I mean,

1:01:59.480 --> 1:02:02.680
<v Speaker 4>one of the things that I go through these cycles

1:02:02.680 --> 1:02:08.720
<v Speaker 4>in my hunting that bothers me the most is when

1:02:08.760 --> 1:02:11.040
<v Speaker 4>I go on like a big buck.

1:02:10.880 --> 1:02:14.200
<v Speaker 3>Here, or I'm like, I'm only hunting big ones.

1:02:14.840 --> 1:02:21.040
<v Speaker 4>And it because not necessarily because I don't mind hunting

1:02:21.120 --> 1:02:24.400
<v Speaker 4>big deer, but what I feel like I have to

1:02:24.440 --> 1:02:26.200
<v Speaker 4>do to hunt big deer is in as fun for

1:02:26.240 --> 1:02:27.600
<v Speaker 4>me is if I go out and do what I

1:02:27.640 --> 1:02:32.000
<v Speaker 4>actually really enjoy. And so my point with this is

1:02:32.040 --> 1:02:35.120
<v Speaker 4>not it's not a failure to focus on big deer,

1:02:35.600 --> 1:02:38.360
<v Speaker 4>it's a failure to focus on some kind of end

1:02:38.360 --> 1:02:40.640
<v Speaker 4>result that doesn't.

1:02:40.200 --> 1:02:42.200
<v Speaker 3>Give you what you need out of the process.

1:02:42.680 --> 1:02:45.400
<v Speaker 4>And for me, I don't know why I'm wired this way,

1:02:46.040 --> 1:02:48.720
<v Speaker 4>but the most enjoyable hunting I have is when I

1:02:48.760 --> 1:02:50.720
<v Speaker 4>go someplace new and try to figure it out.

1:02:50.920 --> 1:02:52.120
<v Speaker 3>That's just what works for me.

1:02:52.280 --> 1:02:54.920
<v Speaker 4>And it's private, public whatever, Like I just like showing

1:02:55.000 --> 1:02:57.320
<v Speaker 4>up and being like where do I find them?

1:02:57.320 --> 1:02:58.280
<v Speaker 3>How do I get on them?

1:02:58.440 --> 1:03:03.000
<v Speaker 4>But that's not always conducive to holding out for one fifties, right, Like,

1:03:03.080 --> 1:03:05.120
<v Speaker 4>sometimes you just have to recognize what you're dealing with

1:03:05.160 --> 1:03:07.440
<v Speaker 4>and be like, I'm just hunting deer right now or whatever.

1:03:07.840 --> 1:03:10.920
<v Speaker 4>But to me, I enjoy that more than defaulting to

1:03:11.080 --> 1:03:13.640
<v Speaker 4>a situation where I have a higher odds chance of

1:03:13.680 --> 1:03:16.400
<v Speaker 4>killing a big one. But I don't necessarily have to

1:03:16.400 --> 1:03:20.600
<v Speaker 4>figure anything out. And what I don't know what that

1:03:20.760 --> 1:03:23.760
<v Speaker 4>means for like the average hunter listening to this, But

1:03:24.680 --> 1:03:26.920
<v Speaker 4>there are ways to hunt, and there are things you

1:03:26.960 --> 1:03:30.520
<v Speaker 4>can do that you'll just enjoy it more, you know,

1:03:30.720 --> 1:03:33.760
<v Speaker 4>And it's not necessarily going to be that blueprint for

1:03:33.880 --> 1:03:36.680
<v Speaker 4>killing big bucks that you've been fed by the hunting industry,

1:03:36.880 --> 1:03:39.120
<v Speaker 4>you know, like the you know, I talk about this

1:03:39.160 --> 1:03:42.000
<v Speaker 4>all the time, but like the not hunting during the

1:03:42.040 --> 1:03:44.160
<v Speaker 4>lull and then not hunting during heat waves and not

1:03:44.240 --> 1:03:46.080
<v Speaker 4>hunting during this and not to hunting during that. I'm like,

1:03:46.840 --> 1:03:48.800
<v Speaker 4>that may be a good way to kill a big

1:03:48.840 --> 1:03:51.920
<v Speaker 4>buck in November, but it might be a really good

1:03:51.960 --> 1:03:53.680
<v Speaker 4>way to also have a shitty season where you don't

1:03:53.760 --> 1:03:54.439
<v Speaker 4>hunt very much.

1:03:54.800 --> 1:03:57.040
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know, And if if you.

1:03:57.000 --> 1:04:00.680
<v Speaker 4>Don't like being on a tree stand in early October

1:04:00.720 --> 1:04:03.520
<v Speaker 4>when the weather's nice and the leaves are coming down, like,

1:04:03.600 --> 1:04:05.760
<v Speaker 4>I don't know, man, Like it's it's fun to be

1:04:05.840 --> 1:04:08.200
<v Speaker 4>out there and it's fun to figure this stuff out

1:04:08.240 --> 1:04:10.840
<v Speaker 4>and I'm at the stage now I see a lot

1:04:10.880 --> 1:04:13.520
<v Speaker 4>of a lot of my buddies have really good hunting

1:04:13.520 --> 1:04:16.640
<v Speaker 4>spots now, like really good like they own land or

1:04:16.680 --> 1:04:19.040
<v Speaker 4>they lease good land, and they have you know, the

1:04:19.080 --> 1:04:21.360
<v Speaker 4>box blinds and the food pots, and they are just

1:04:21.520 --> 1:04:24.920
<v Speaker 4>losing their fire and you can see it because it's

1:04:24.960 --> 1:04:27.720
<v Speaker 4>like they know how they're going to kill them. There's

1:04:27.920 --> 1:04:30.480
<v Speaker 4>there's not really any mystery left. There's not anything that

1:04:30.480 --> 1:04:33.040
<v Speaker 4>they have to figure out. It's like those cell cameras

1:04:33.080 --> 1:04:34.840
<v Speaker 4>are going to feed you enough intel so you know

1:04:34.880 --> 1:04:36.920
<v Speaker 4>when he's moving and you're going to go in there

1:04:36.920 --> 1:04:38.400
<v Speaker 4>and you're gonna do it, and it's going to be

1:04:39.320 --> 1:04:41.840
<v Speaker 4>you know, can be really fun and some people love it,

1:04:42.160 --> 1:04:44.240
<v Speaker 4>but I can see I can see it in some

1:04:44.280 --> 1:04:47.800
<v Speaker 4>of my buddies where they're like they're struggling with the

1:04:47.920 --> 1:04:51.000
<v Speaker 4>easiest way to kill a big one versus how they

1:04:51.040 --> 1:04:54.439
<v Speaker 4>really kind of need to hunt to get fulfilled by it. Yeah,

1:04:54.440 --> 1:04:56.120
<v Speaker 4>which is which is one of those things that I

1:04:56.160 --> 1:04:58.960
<v Speaker 4>preach a lot where I'm like, go someplace different, don't

1:04:59.040 --> 1:05:01.080
<v Speaker 4>just have one spot to hunt. You don't have to

1:05:01.120 --> 1:05:03.400
<v Speaker 4>leave your state, you know, you like, you don't have

1:05:03.440 --> 1:05:08.040
<v Speaker 4>to travel that far but when you try something new

1:05:08.040 --> 1:05:10.080
<v Speaker 4>in a new environment, it just kind of lights the

1:05:10.080 --> 1:05:12.400
<v Speaker 4>fire again. And it's so easy to not do that

1:05:12.440 --> 1:05:14.120
<v Speaker 4>because that is not a very good way to kill

1:05:14.120 --> 1:05:16.680
<v Speaker 4>big bucks for most people, but it's a good way

1:05:16.720 --> 1:05:19.280
<v Speaker 4>to enjoy deer hunting and sort of find yourself again.

1:05:19.320 --> 1:05:21.920
<v Speaker 4>And I deal with that all the time, Like, you know,

1:05:21.960 --> 1:05:24.240
<v Speaker 4>we we have pressure to kill big ones, right, Like

1:05:24.760 --> 1:05:26.720
<v Speaker 4>if we go five years and don't kill a big one,

1:05:26.720 --> 1:05:30.080
<v Speaker 4>we are not we probably aren't doing this anymore, right

1:05:30.240 --> 1:05:32.480
<v Speaker 4>because just the truth of the matter, And so there's

1:05:32.520 --> 1:05:35.240
<v Speaker 4>always that sort of pressure, and you know that's that

1:05:35.280 --> 1:05:37.080
<v Speaker 4>happens to everybody too, Like everybody wants.

1:05:36.880 --> 1:05:37.560
<v Speaker 3>To kill a big one.

1:05:38.280 --> 1:05:42.200
<v Speaker 4>But when that when that becomes too much, or like

1:05:42.240 --> 1:05:45.000
<v Speaker 4>when that becomes the thing that's the focus, you often

1:05:45.080 --> 1:05:46.840
<v Speaker 4>sacrifice what you actually really.

1:05:46.680 --> 1:05:47.560
<v Speaker 3>Want to get out of it.

1:05:48.280 --> 1:05:51.320
<v Speaker 4>And that's tough, man Like, It's it's a constant sort

1:05:51.320 --> 1:05:53.400
<v Speaker 4>of push pull thing that I deal with all the time.

1:05:53.400 --> 1:05:55.520
<v Speaker 4>And I feel like I'm getting better, partially because I'm

1:05:55.560 --> 1:05:57.280
<v Speaker 4>taking my daughter's hunting so much, so I sort of

1:05:57.280 --> 1:06:00.880
<v Speaker 4>get that hunt any deer fixed through them. But it's

1:06:00.880 --> 1:06:03.360
<v Speaker 4>still something for me where I'm like if I'm kind

1:06:03.400 --> 1:06:06.920
<v Speaker 4>of bumming on a deer season. Usually the answer for

1:06:07.000 --> 1:06:09.120
<v Speaker 4>me is, I'm just gonna go for a long weekend.

1:06:09.160 --> 1:06:12.480
<v Speaker 4>I'm gonna hunt somewhere else and just like blank, slate

1:06:12.560 --> 1:06:15.000
<v Speaker 4>this thing and just figure something out. And then, you know,

1:06:15.000 --> 1:06:16.920
<v Speaker 4>a lot of times I don't kill, but a lot

1:06:16.960 --> 1:06:18.800
<v Speaker 4>of times I'll come back and be like, Okay, that's

1:06:18.840 --> 1:06:19.880
<v Speaker 4>just what I needed, you know.

1:06:21.040 --> 1:06:25.000
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And that's that theme is the same theme of

1:06:25.040 --> 1:06:28.880
<v Speaker 2>my last failure too. And I think it all comes

1:06:28.920 --> 1:06:36.240
<v Speaker 2>down to knowing yourself, right, figuring out what that enjoyable,

1:06:36.760 --> 1:06:41.560
<v Speaker 2>how you define enjoyable or fun or satisfying. Like, every

1:06:41.560 --> 1:06:44.680
<v Speaker 2>one of us has a different version, right, And there

1:06:44.680 --> 1:06:46.880
<v Speaker 2>can be multiple answers for each of us too, Right,

1:06:47.000 --> 1:06:49.320
<v Speaker 2>Like I can enjoy going and traveling and figuring it out,

1:06:49.360 --> 1:06:52.480
<v Speaker 2>but then I can also enjoy sometimes doing the behind

1:06:52.520 --> 1:06:54.920
<v Speaker 2>the house easy hunt or whatever the thing is. Right,

1:06:54.920 --> 1:06:56.640
<v Speaker 2>We're all going to have our own different versions, and

1:06:56.640 --> 1:06:59.560
<v Speaker 2>maybe there's multiple. But the biggest thing I've learned is

1:06:59.640 --> 1:07:06.200
<v Speaker 2>like recognizing when you were hunting for yourself versus when

1:07:06.200 --> 1:07:09.880
<v Speaker 2>you were hunting for some outside expectation or goal that

1:07:09.920 --> 1:07:12.440
<v Speaker 2>you are driving towards because you think you should, or

1:07:12.520 --> 1:07:16.120
<v Speaker 2>because you know, the pressure or social media or peer

1:07:16.160 --> 1:07:18.920
<v Speaker 2>pressure or whatever the thing is that's making you hunt

1:07:19.000 --> 1:07:23.200
<v Speaker 2>for not your own satisfying reasons. So you know, my

1:07:23.720 --> 1:07:26.800
<v Speaker 2>story that I'll share briefly is one I've told many times,

1:07:26.800 --> 1:07:28.240
<v Speaker 2>so I won't get into all the details. But the

1:07:28.240 --> 1:07:30.120
<v Speaker 2>one that really hammered this home for me was that

1:07:30.200 --> 1:07:33.080
<v Speaker 2>Iowa trip. You know, I don't know, five years ago

1:07:33.200 --> 1:07:35.920
<v Speaker 2>or whatever it was. When I was there with a

1:07:35.920 --> 1:07:38.880
<v Speaker 2>bunch of buddies in town. Everyone's having a good time

1:07:38.960 --> 1:07:41.840
<v Speaker 2>going out, you know, going out for like a late breakfast,

1:07:41.920 --> 1:07:46.400
<v Speaker 2>lunch together, shooting the breeze, having fun evenings, dinners together.

1:07:47.200 --> 1:07:51.480
<v Speaker 2>If somebody shot, when everyone would go help them track it, hunting,

1:07:51.520 --> 1:07:54.720
<v Speaker 2>some of the share properties with each other, not taking

1:07:54.800 --> 1:07:58.160
<v Speaker 2>it too terribly serious, and enjoying it. It's Iowa, It's

1:07:58.240 --> 1:08:01.160
<v Speaker 2>fun and exciting. But they were focused on enjoying the experience.

1:08:01.760 --> 1:08:04.600
<v Speaker 2>I meanwhile, I had so much of an expectation built

1:08:04.680 --> 1:08:06.600
<v Speaker 2>up in my head that I had to choose. I

1:08:06.640 --> 1:08:08.840
<v Speaker 2>had to shoot a giant. I had to do it

1:08:08.840 --> 1:08:12.520
<v Speaker 2>in the most hardcore di way, running gun mobile hunting,

1:08:12.560 --> 1:08:15.320
<v Speaker 2>badass kind of way. So I wasn't gonna hunt anything

1:08:15.440 --> 1:08:18.040
<v Speaker 2>other than like my own saddle, set up my own way,

1:08:19.560 --> 1:08:23.040
<v Speaker 2>and so because of that, I did everything quote unquote right.

1:08:23.520 --> 1:08:26.720
<v Speaker 2>I hunted, you know, from dawn till dusk, every single day,

1:08:26.760 --> 1:08:31.520
<v Speaker 2>all day, and the result was that I was mostly miserable.

1:08:31.920 --> 1:08:34.200
<v Speaker 2>I did not kill a buck, and I didn't spend

1:08:34.360 --> 1:08:36.720
<v Speaker 2>any time with my hunting buddies, who all had a

1:08:36.760 --> 1:08:40.800
<v Speaker 2>great week together enjoying camaraderie and hunting, while I just

1:08:40.880 --> 1:08:44.240
<v Speaker 2>suffer fested in the tree, beating myself up for not

1:08:44.400 --> 1:08:47.000
<v Speaker 2>having been a good enough hunter. While all the rest

1:08:47.000 --> 1:08:50.120
<v Speaker 2>of them didn't necessarily they weren't necessarily any better or

1:08:50.120 --> 1:08:51.840
<v Speaker 2>any worse than me, or have any more or less

1:08:51.840 --> 1:08:53.640
<v Speaker 2>success than me. But they had a great week right,

1:08:53.760 --> 1:08:56.320
<v Speaker 2>and I instead had a miserable one. I thought after

1:08:56.400 --> 1:08:58.920
<v Speaker 2>all of that, driving home, like what am I doing?

1:08:59.760 --> 1:09:02.080
<v Speaker 2>I This is not why I got into honey. I

1:09:02.080 --> 1:09:03.800
<v Speaker 2>got into honey because yes, I love being out there

1:09:03.840 --> 1:09:06.040
<v Speaker 2>in the field. Yes I love all the things actually

1:09:06.120 --> 1:09:10.640
<v Speaker 2>involved with hunting. But I also enjoyed my friends and

1:09:10.680 --> 1:09:12.640
<v Speaker 2>family while I was out there. I enjoyed the camaraderie.

1:09:12.680 --> 1:09:17.240
<v Speaker 2>I enjoyed all the tradition and ritual around it. I

1:09:17.360 --> 1:09:22.040
<v Speaker 2>enjoyed you know, this isn't like a war. You don't

1:09:22.080 --> 1:09:24.000
<v Speaker 2>have to win the war. You're supposed to be having

1:09:24.040 --> 1:09:29.000
<v Speaker 2>an enjoyable experience. And coming out of that, I realized

1:09:29.280 --> 1:09:32.360
<v Speaker 2>that what you talked about, like finding what your thing is,

1:09:32.479 --> 1:09:37.439
<v Speaker 2>finding the ways to keep the joy, that's what really matters.

1:09:37.520 --> 1:09:39.559
<v Speaker 2>And so for me, in the years since, I've learned

1:09:39.920 --> 1:09:42.120
<v Speaker 2>things that matter to me are the people I'm with.

1:09:42.640 --> 1:09:46.480
<v Speaker 2>It is the places that I'm at, the experiences, the process,

1:09:47.840 --> 1:09:51.320
<v Speaker 2>being out there with my friends and family, teaching learning.

1:09:52.280 --> 1:09:54.280
<v Speaker 2>Sometimes that means I'm going to be hunting balls to

1:09:54.320 --> 1:09:56.760
<v Speaker 2>the wall all day, and sometimes that means I'm going

1:09:56.840 --> 1:09:59.760
<v Speaker 2>to come in and get lunch with my friends, or

1:09:59.800 --> 1:10:02.960
<v Speaker 2>take my son out, or spend a core part of

1:10:02.960 --> 1:10:05.080
<v Speaker 2>the rut when I should be hunting in a great

1:10:05.120 --> 1:10:07.760
<v Speaker 2>state for big deer and instead be hunting with my

1:10:07.880 --> 1:10:10.120
<v Speaker 2>kids and my dad up north where we're going to

1:10:10.160 --> 1:10:12.599
<v Speaker 2>see a couple spikes. I've learned that that's the stuff

1:10:12.640 --> 1:10:17.400
<v Speaker 2>that really matters. Having balance, having diversity, having camaraderie, enjoying

1:10:17.439 --> 1:10:21.200
<v Speaker 2>all of that is what makes a hunting season successful

1:10:21.360 --> 1:10:25.280
<v Speaker 2>for me today, and I'm a happier hunter because of it.

1:10:25.920 --> 1:10:28.800
<v Speaker 2>And I think I'm going to be just as successful

1:10:28.920 --> 1:10:32.280
<v Speaker 2>quote unquote a hunter too, because I'm going into a

1:10:32.320 --> 1:10:36.560
<v Speaker 2>season and any particular hunt with like a greater reservoir

1:10:36.720 --> 1:10:41.439
<v Speaker 2>of energy and creativity and excitement. And I think when

1:10:41.439 --> 1:10:43.479
<v Speaker 2>you have that, you're going to end up making better

1:10:43.479 --> 1:10:46.839
<v Speaker 2>decisions and performing better out there too, totally.

1:10:47.200 --> 1:10:50.880
<v Speaker 4>I mean, if you really want to fail at deer hunting,

1:10:50.920 --> 1:10:53.679
<v Speaker 4>take it too seriously. Yeah, there are parts you should

1:10:53.720 --> 1:10:56.479
<v Speaker 4>take very seriously. But if you take the whole thing

1:10:57.479 --> 1:11:00.400
<v Speaker 4>so seriously all the time that the fun evaporates, you're

1:11:00.439 --> 1:11:03.479
<v Speaker 4>gonna you're gonna make terrible decisions, yeah, because you're not

1:11:03.520 --> 1:11:05.639
<v Speaker 4>going to be operating from the right place, and it's

1:11:05.640 --> 1:11:08.880
<v Speaker 4>just not going to be enjoyable. It's just it is

1:11:08.920 --> 1:11:14.120
<v Speaker 4>so easy. It's so easy to cross that line. And

1:11:14.200 --> 1:11:16.519
<v Speaker 4>I mean it's sort of again, this is sort of

1:11:16.520 --> 1:11:18.720
<v Speaker 4>an industry standard thing where you sort of paint that

1:11:19.360 --> 1:11:22.160
<v Speaker 4>as the you know, the m O, right, like that's

1:11:22.200 --> 1:11:23.960
<v Speaker 4>that's how you should be, That's how you have to

1:11:23.960 --> 1:11:25.559
<v Speaker 4>be to kill a big public land box. It's like,

1:11:25.720 --> 1:11:28.000
<v Speaker 4>you don't have to do that, thank you don't. And

1:11:28.040 --> 1:11:30.920
<v Speaker 4>if you and if you're not having fun with it,

1:11:31.240 --> 1:11:34.160
<v Speaker 4>you will just not hunt as well. Like it's the

1:11:34.160 --> 1:11:36.599
<v Speaker 4>same thing. It's like confidence too. If you're not confident,

1:11:36.640 --> 1:11:39.040
<v Speaker 4>you're just you're in trouble, you know. And you can

1:11:39.080 --> 1:11:41.240
<v Speaker 4>only get to these places by doing the wrong thing

1:11:41.240 --> 1:11:43.280
<v Speaker 4>a whole bunch and realizing what you need out of it.

1:11:43.880 --> 1:11:49.519
<v Speaker 2>Yep, yeah, yeah, it's it's having those experiences, failing a lot,

1:11:50.120 --> 1:11:55.519
<v Speaker 2>recognizing that's okay, forgiving yourself, trying again, learning and carrying

1:11:55.520 --> 1:11:58.240
<v Speaker 2>on on and on and on, trying to get better,

1:11:58.280 --> 1:12:01.200
<v Speaker 2>but also recognizing this the end of the world. We're

1:12:01.200 --> 1:12:04.120
<v Speaker 2>not you know, we're not solving world peace here. We're

1:12:04.439 --> 1:12:07.400
<v Speaker 2>trying to have a fun and enjoyable experience in nature,

1:12:07.760 --> 1:12:11.080
<v Speaker 2>trying to put some food on the table. Whether or

1:12:11.120 --> 1:12:13.920
<v Speaker 2>not you kill a big buck really doesn't matter. So

1:12:14.000 --> 1:12:17.719
<v Speaker 2>don't stress too much, you know, do the work. If

1:12:17.800 --> 1:12:20.280
<v Speaker 2>your goal is if you have a hard goal, great

1:12:20.479 --> 1:12:24.639
<v Speaker 2>chase that goal, pursue hard things, grow, push yourself, all

1:12:24.680 --> 1:12:28.360
<v Speaker 2>of that. But with that balance, with that understanding that

1:12:29.080 --> 1:12:31.160
<v Speaker 2>it's really easy to go too far, or to do

1:12:31.240 --> 1:12:33.240
<v Speaker 2>things for the wrong reason, or to get in over

1:12:33.280 --> 1:12:35.439
<v Speaker 2>your head, and so it's like you need these little

1:12:35.479 --> 1:12:37.439
<v Speaker 2>reality checks. Ever once in a while, I don't know,

1:12:37.640 --> 1:12:40.639
<v Speaker 2>I haven't quite yet figured out the way to plan

1:12:40.760 --> 1:12:42.719
<v Speaker 2>for that ahead of time. Usually it just like hits

1:12:42.760 --> 1:12:44.760
<v Speaker 2>me in the moment, maybe there's something I should do to,

1:12:44.920 --> 1:12:48.200
<v Speaker 2>Like have an alarm clock set for November fifth every

1:12:48.280 --> 1:12:51.040
<v Speaker 2>year that just says, hey, wake up, idiot, chill out,

1:12:51.160 --> 1:12:54.519
<v Speaker 2>something like that. I need these little reminders, like take

1:12:54.520 --> 1:12:58.519
<v Speaker 2>a deep breath, remember, like there's more to life than

1:12:58.600 --> 1:13:00.559
<v Speaker 2>killing a five and a half year old buck. You'll

1:13:00.560 --> 1:13:05.080
<v Speaker 2>be okay, go get lunch with your dad or whatever.

1:13:05.280 --> 1:13:07.840
<v Speaker 2>Like those kinds of things are just a little bit

1:13:07.880 --> 1:13:12.000
<v Speaker 2>of a shake you out of your craziness that sometimes

1:13:12.040 --> 1:13:12.639
<v Speaker 2>will be helpful.

1:13:13.040 --> 1:13:14.639
<v Speaker 3>Well, I mean totally.

1:13:14.680 --> 1:13:19.280
<v Speaker 4>And you when you talk about drawing, drawing that Iowa tag,

1:13:20.479 --> 1:13:25.800
<v Speaker 4>you're just like absolutely creating a situation where you're very

1:13:25.960 --> 1:13:27.200
<v Speaker 4>ripe to take it too seriously.

1:13:27.640 --> 1:13:28.880
<v Speaker 3>And that's that's a big problem.

1:13:28.920 --> 1:13:30.080
<v Speaker 4>I mean, there are a lot of people out there

1:13:30.120 --> 1:13:31.759
<v Speaker 4>sitting on a lot of Iowa points who are scared

1:13:31.760 --> 1:13:34.360
<v Speaker 4>to draw because they don't want to. They don't I mean,

1:13:34.400 --> 1:13:36.880
<v Speaker 4>it's true, they don't want to burn that tag and

1:13:37.120 --> 1:13:38.840
<v Speaker 4>they know that there's going to be pressure on that

1:13:38.880 --> 1:13:40.800
<v Speaker 4>to go kill a big one. And so again, you

1:13:40.840 --> 1:13:43.840
<v Speaker 4>can kind of condition yourself to this stuff like if

1:13:43.880 --> 1:13:47.599
<v Speaker 4>you go, you know, wherever you live, if you travel

1:13:47.680 --> 1:13:49.400
<v Speaker 4>in state to some part of the state you don't

1:13:49.439 --> 1:13:54.200
<v Speaker 4>hunt very much, it's a way easier situation to allow

1:13:54.240 --> 1:13:57.000
<v Speaker 4>yourself to not kill in right, or if you end

1:13:57.080 --> 1:14:02.000
<v Speaker 4>up going somewhere that isn't no for producing booners left

1:14:02.040 --> 1:14:04.599
<v Speaker 4>and right, you know, like put yourself into a hard

1:14:04.680 --> 1:14:08.040
<v Speaker 4>environment where killing any deer would be great. Now, all

1:14:08.040 --> 1:14:10.360
<v Speaker 4>of a sudden, you have a different focus, right because

1:14:10.360 --> 1:14:13.599
<v Speaker 4>that big buck thing you see that happen so often,

1:14:13.720 --> 1:14:17.320
<v Speaker 4>especially with traveling hunts or the thing with trail cameras

1:14:17.360 --> 1:14:19.519
<v Speaker 4>now is you know, if there's a one to eighty

1:14:19.560 --> 1:14:22.680
<v Speaker 4>in your section and everybody's getting videos of it, it

1:14:22.680 --> 1:14:24.960
<v Speaker 4>can do the same thing on your home ground hunt,

1:14:24.960 --> 1:14:28.040
<v Speaker 4>where like it's that deer bust and it's like, man,

1:14:28.080 --> 1:14:30.840
<v Speaker 4>you just sometimes you have to, like we talked about

1:14:30.840 --> 1:14:33.880
<v Speaker 4>before with like reining in your shooting range. Sometimes you

1:14:33.880 --> 1:14:35.840
<v Speaker 4>have to just work with yourself and go like, man,

1:14:35.920 --> 1:14:39.839
<v Speaker 4>if I know that I've never traveled to hunt anywhere,

1:14:40.560 --> 1:14:43.040
<v Speaker 4>and if the first tag I draw is an Iowa

1:14:43.120 --> 1:14:45.360
<v Speaker 4>tag that I'm only gonna I'm gonna put six seven

1:14:45.439 --> 1:14:49.120
<v Speaker 4>years into it or whatever, I know me, I'm gonna

1:14:49.160 --> 1:14:51.200
<v Speaker 4>spin out and lose my shit.

1:14:51.560 --> 1:14:53.599
<v Speaker 3>But if I just drove up north.

1:14:53.439 --> 1:14:55.760
<v Speaker 4>For a long weekend and hunted the national forest up there,

1:14:55.800 --> 1:14:57.639
<v Speaker 4>maybe try to kill a couple of grouse during launch

1:14:57.720 --> 1:15:00.559
<v Speaker 4>or whatever, there's like a stepping star there.

1:15:00.920 --> 1:15:01.839
<v Speaker 3>Without the pressure.

1:15:02.000 --> 1:15:04.840
<v Speaker 4>You're still doing the process, You're still you're still putting

1:15:04.840 --> 1:15:07.040
<v Speaker 4>yourself in an unfamiliar environment, but you don't have that

1:15:07.120 --> 1:15:09.640
<v Speaker 4>pressure of that seven hundred dollars dear tag that you

1:15:09.720 --> 1:15:12.160
<v Speaker 4>waited six years to draw and everybody's expecting you to

1:15:12.240 --> 1:15:14.120
<v Speaker 4>kill a big one. You have to kind of think

1:15:14.120 --> 1:15:16.559
<v Speaker 4>about that stuff because if you just jump into that,

1:15:16.600 --> 1:15:18.160
<v Speaker 4>people do that all the time with an elk tag,

1:15:18.240 --> 1:15:22.560
<v Speaker 4>right first time elk hunters almost always get totally overwhelmed,

1:15:22.880 --> 1:15:26.400
<v Speaker 4>almost always get their asses handed to them, and almost

1:15:26.560 --> 1:15:29.640
<v Speaker 4>always go out with too high of expectation, you know,

1:15:30.040 --> 1:15:32.719
<v Speaker 4>just because it's I'm only going to do one elk hunt.

1:15:32.720 --> 1:15:34.920
<v Speaker 4>I want to kill a three hundred inch bowl and

1:15:35.040 --> 1:15:37.040
<v Speaker 4>it's like, brother, you better be looking for a calf,

1:15:37.400 --> 1:15:40.640
<v Speaker 4>like yeah, you know, because that's just what's going to

1:15:40.640 --> 1:15:41.479
<v Speaker 4>be delivered to you.

1:15:41.560 --> 1:15:43.479
<v Speaker 3>Maybe if you work really hard.

1:15:44.400 --> 1:15:46.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, speaking of failure, I've got an elk tag for

1:15:46.800 --> 1:15:49.400
<v Speaker 2>the first time in like eight years. And uh, and yeah,

1:15:49.439 --> 1:15:52.680
<v Speaker 2>I'm probably gonna be that guy who's going to be

1:15:52.720 --> 1:15:54.679
<v Speaker 2>really excited if I just happen to see a calf

1:15:54.680 --> 1:15:57.800
<v Speaker 2>because it's gonna be a little bit of a readjustment period.

1:15:57.840 --> 1:16:00.719
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure it'll be fun, but but it will be fun.

1:16:00.760 --> 1:16:03.160
<v Speaker 2>And I think that's the important thing to remember, is

1:16:03.840 --> 1:16:07.800
<v Speaker 2>keeping it fun, keep learning, know yourself, know when to

1:16:07.840 --> 1:16:10.680
<v Speaker 2>push it, no one to step back, know when to

1:16:11.120 --> 1:16:15.120
<v Speaker 2>shake yourself out of the madness, and keep your eye

1:16:15.120 --> 1:16:17.679
<v Speaker 2>on the prize. And I can tell you one thing.

1:16:18.520 --> 1:16:21.479
<v Speaker 2>I know I'm going to fail this season most of

1:16:21.479 --> 1:16:25.160
<v Speaker 2>the time. But if you keep on trucking and you

1:16:25.280 --> 1:16:28.400
<v Speaker 2>focus on the fun, focus on the process, it's all

1:16:28.400 --> 1:16:29.440
<v Speaker 2>worth it.

1:16:29.439 --> 1:16:30.240
<v Speaker 3>It absolutely is.

1:16:30.280 --> 1:16:34.000
<v Speaker 2>Buddy well Tony, thanks for joining me for this one.

1:16:34.120 --> 1:16:35.280
<v Speaker 3>Thanks for having me man.

1:16:36.120 --> 1:16:38.840
<v Speaker 2>And to all of you listening, thanks for being here.

1:16:39.080 --> 1:16:42.719
<v Speaker 2>And until next time, stay wired to hunt.