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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide

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Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better dear hunting, and now your

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Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the Wire to

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Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you by First Light.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host Tony Peterson, and today's episode is all

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Speaker 1: about how confidence helps you kill deer. I know, I know,

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Speaker 1: being confident helps you kill white tails. We all know

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Speaker 1: that it also helps you get the girls and make

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Speaker 1: the team and get a raise and win a fight

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Speaker 1: or a thumb wrestling match or whatever that helps in

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Speaker 1: a lot of ways. Having a little swagger is a

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Speaker 1: good thing, but it's kind of like respect. You have

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Speaker 1: to earn it. Confidence doesn't just come from some divine

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Speaker 1: finger snap and suddenly infect your being so that you're just, like,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, a stone cold killer or an unstoppable

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Speaker 1: ladies man. And this episode is all about that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: the first part, you're on your own with the second part,

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Speaker 1: and you sure as hell don't want to listen to

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Speaker 1: me if you want to become a ladies man. And

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Speaker 1: you really don't want to listen to Mark if you've

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Speaker 1: seen his mustache so you know he's not the guy.

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Speaker 1: Listen up if you want to learn about how confidence

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Speaker 1: can help you kill some bigger deer. As many of

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Speaker 1: you know, the baby making phase of my life was

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Speaker 1: short and sweet. I got a two fur out of

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Speaker 1: the deal, a deal where I saw my wife only

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Speaker 1: a couple of times during Turkey season over a decade ago.

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Speaker 1: Those little girls born in the middle of December. They

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Speaker 1: have changed my life in a lot of ways, too

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Speaker 1: many to count. And while the obvious stuff of parenthood

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Speaker 1: should be obvious, they've taught me so many things that

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Speaker 1: I did not see coming. One that really surprised me

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Speaker 1: is a lesson on confidence one of my daughters. Now

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Speaker 1: keep in mind, if you're one of my slower listeners,

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Speaker 1: that these girls are twins, so theoretically we should kind

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Speaker 1: of expect them to behave in similar ways. One of

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Speaker 1: my daughters, she's pretty self conscious. She worries too much

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Speaker 1: about what other kids will think, and that is a

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Speaker 1: factor in so many of her decisions. Her sister, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, has probably the most unearned confidence I've

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Speaker 1: ever seen in a person. She's like a ten year

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Speaker 1: old girl. Version of Kenny Powers, the main character from

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Speaker 1: the Masterpiece series that is eastbound and down. Honestly, that

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Speaker 1: daughter of mine believes in herself so deeply that I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of jealous. I think most of us harbor I

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Speaker 1: don't know a fair level of anxiety and self doubt,

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Speaker 1: and as adults we just kind of learned to hide

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Speaker 1: it better and learn to avoid situations where it will

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Speaker 1: be obvious to casual observers. Now, this girl, or my daughter,

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Speaker 1: she doesn't really operate in that world. She knows, and

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Speaker 1: I mean absolutely knows she can do things that she

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Speaker 1: literally cannot do. Imagine that she has full faith in

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Speaker 1: herself in an astounding way. This was truly evident to

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Speaker 1: me as we coach the girls in a false offtball

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Speaker 1: league recently, my not so confident twin daughter, she wouldn't

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Speaker 1: pitch in those early years of player pitch, all eyes

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Speaker 1: are on the picture and mostly they are terrible. And

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Speaker 1: it's not a great place to be if you're not confident.

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Speaker 1: And you know, honestly, all those kids are terrible, But

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Speaker 1: that doesn't make suffering through the personal experience of being

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Speaker 1: the terrible picture right now in front of everybody is

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Speaker 1: something I don't know less mortifying, I guess. So she

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Speaker 1: wouldn't pitch. Her sister, though, the confident one, was bagging

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Speaker 1: us to pitch. Even though she was mostly terrible at it,

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Speaker 1: she had some bright spots, maybe possibly because the batters,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, they couldn't hit a beach ball off

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Speaker 1: at tea if he gave them tense swings at it.

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Speaker 1: But she also got shelled a few times. And when

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Speaker 1: those girls would get into a batting groove, it often

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Speaker 1: didn't make the defense look too good. And during those times,

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Speaker 1: my daughter would walk off the field and honest to God,

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Speaker 1: she said this to me, I guess it just wasn't

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Speaker 1: my day to pitch. She shook that shipped off like

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Speaker 1: an NFL quarterback, and it made me jealous. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: imagine not mind grinding over that for at least a

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Speaker 1: couple of days, maybe a couple of weeks or months.

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Speaker 1: Her confidence in herself, it's going to be a life

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Speaker 1: changer for her. Your confidence in yourself could be too,

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Speaker 1: if you learn how to develop it properly. Around hunting,

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Speaker 1: I know this sounds easy, like maybe you should go

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Speaker 1: out and just shoot a few more big bucks and

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Speaker 1: really get your swagger on when you stop into the

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Speaker 1: local watering hole with fresh blood stains on your first

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Speaker 1: light camo and a few times periscoping their way out

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Speaker 1: of the edge of your pickup bed. But it's not

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Speaker 1: so simple because to kill a good one or I

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Speaker 1: don't know, seven or eight for that matter, you've got

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Speaker 1: to get more than lucky. You have to make a

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Speaker 1: lot of the right decisions and string them all together,

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Speaker 1: sometimes over a matter of quite a long time, and

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Speaker 1: that's just not easy. Instead, i'd take a long, honest

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Speaker 1: look at what parts of hunting caused you to have

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Speaker 1: that nagging feeling of anxiety. An easy jumping off place

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Speaker 1: here is with shooting. And I covered this quite a

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Speaker 1: bit earlier in some episodes, so I won't go down

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Speaker 1: that rabbit hole again. But I'll say this, there's really

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Speaker 1: no excuse not to be a good enough shot at say,

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Speaker 1: I don't know sub forty yard ranges. At least if

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Speaker 1: you're shooting a somewhat modern compound, there isn't that's really

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Speaker 1: on you. Now, I know, shooting foam targets is a

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Speaker 1: different deal than shooting living, breathing antler, sporting deer. If

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Speaker 1: you have all of the confidence in the world that

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Speaker 1: you can shoot spots on a target well, but you

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Speaker 1: don't really have that closer mentality when a deer walks in.

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Speaker 1: The ugly truth is that you don't have confidence in

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Speaker 1: your ability to make that kind of shot happen. Now,

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Speaker 1: your confidence extends as far as the shooting range boundaries

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Speaker 1: go in that situation, but not any farther, like into

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Speaker 1: the woods. This is a huge problem with a lot

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Speaker 1: of bow hunters, and they intentionally hamstring themselves by targeting

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Speaker 1: low odds deer and getting to go through the moment

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Speaker 1: of truth motions only maybe once or twice a season.

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Speaker 1: I've said this a lot, and I'll say it again.

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Speaker 1: You can't get good at shooting deer correctly without shooting

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Speaker 1: quite a few deer. If you go to YouTube, you

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Speaker 1: can see plenty examples of this on different platforms. Shaky arms,

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Speaker 1: poor form, and just a general sense of someone who

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Speaker 1: is about to lose his freaking mind. Now, all of

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Speaker 1: us should get excited when we shoot a deer, so

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Speaker 1: I'm not dogging on anyone for that. Hell, I do

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Speaker 1: to like an embarrassing level, but you should work to

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Speaker 1: have the confidence to make good shots, knowing full well

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Speaker 1: you'll be functioning largely off of your reptile brain, and

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Speaker 1: that's one of those moments where confident shines. Or how

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Speaker 1: about another example that sort of plays off of the

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Speaker 1: shooting thing. How confident are you shooting off of a stand?

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Speaker 1: What about a saddle? I think one of the biggest

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Speaker 1: disservices we have done to the bow hunting masses is

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Speaker 1: not talk about how long it takes to get confident

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Speaker 1: using a saddle and then not only hunting out of one,

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Speaker 1: but being mindful enough of your shooting form from one

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Speaker 1: to not send your point of impact way off when

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Speaker 1: you're taking shots from them. There are plenty of examples

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Speaker 1: of this on YouTube. Now how do you fix that? Well,

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Speaker 1: you practice from one a lot. You make it second

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Speaker 1: nature to check your form while shooting around the tree

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Speaker 1: on both sides and hanging off and shooting directly away

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Speaker 1: from the platform. Really, these rules apply to any type

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Speaker 1: of act tool hunting shot. How many hunters do you

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Speaker 1: know who have shot the side of a blind while

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Speaker 1: turkey hunting or deer hunting? I have, and I can

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Speaker 1: tell you one thing. It sucks. Not only do you

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Speaker 1: definitely not get the critter you're shooting at, you scare

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Speaker 1: the living shite out of yourself and you have a

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Speaker 1: hole in your blind. If you're really unlucky, you might

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Speaker 1: even hit a support pole and have some carbon fiber

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Speaker 1: slivers in your future. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm

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Speaker 1: a certifiable nut case, but I used to practice shooting

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Speaker 1: from blinds a lot, and I used to set up

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Speaker 1: a tree stand in my yard or shoot from my deck.

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Speaker 1: Now it's not always easy, but it's always worth it

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Speaker 1: to have a bend there done that attitude. You have

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Speaker 1: to be there and do that a lot. I guess

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Speaker 1: I'll give you another example of confidence. You can't replace

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Speaker 1: it with someone else's experience. In September, a good buddy

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Speaker 1: of mine was looking at hunting Wisconsin's deer opener. He's

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Speaker 1: an Iowa guy, born and raised in Iowa, so he's

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Speaker 1: used to two things. An October opener and having the

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Speaker 1: entire rut to bow hunt, literally the best state in

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Speaker 1: the Union. As the opener loom closer. I started getting

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Speaker 1: these anxiety ridden texts from him about the weather. It

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Speaker 1: was supposed to top out around eighty in the day,

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Speaker 1: and he was bemoaning the fact that we wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: the right weather to kill a big buck with he

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Speaker 1: had no confidence in hunting that hot weather, and he

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Speaker 1: talked himself into going fishing more than he sat on

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Speaker 1: a stand. If you've listened to me for any length

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Speaker 1: of time, you know how that probably drove me nuts.

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Speaker 1: I don't care about hot weather at all, and I

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Speaker 1: honestly don't think it kills deer movement enough to keep

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Speaker 1: me home ever, especially if I have something green to

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Speaker 1: sit over, or better, something wet to sit over, and

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Speaker 1: it happens to be the early season when the deer

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Speaker 1: are pretty accustomed to hot weather. That with my buddy

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Speaker 1: was that he just didn't have any confidence in hunting

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Speaker 1: those conditions. He's used to being able to wait for

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Speaker 1: better weather, so that's his default. But how the hell

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Speaker 1: do you think you learn to kill September white tails,

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Speaker 1: or really any month white tails if you don't hunt

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Speaker 1: them in the conditions that are thrown your way. You've

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Speaker 1: got to shoot your shop, my friends, And you know

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Speaker 1: what happens when you do and you make it well,

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Speaker 1: you get confidence. I have so much confidence in my

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Speaker 1: September abilities that it's probably bordering on kind of danger

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Speaker 1: zone territory, which is another component of confidence that we

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Speaker 1: should be aware of. Being too confident in something is

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Speaker 1: going to kill your chances. Let's say you spent your

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Speaker 1: formative years hunting a family farm in a pretty good

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Speaker 1: white tail state. You had access to controlled land, and

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Speaker 1: you had pretty good success, I don't know, rattling, grunting,

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Speaker 1: maybe running a full body decoy around Halloween. You've had

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Speaker 1: the good life for a long time, but then grandma

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Speaker 1: dies in a skydiving accident, and suddenly the farm is

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Speaker 1: up for sale, and you're out there with the rest

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Speaker 1: of us chumps knocking on doors and you get lucky in.

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Speaker 1: A farmer tells you, sure, shoot all those crop eating

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Speaker 1: rodents you can, and you think, well, I will, but

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Speaker 1: he also says, oh, you know, my grandson and my

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Speaker 1: grandson's friends hunt, and so do a couple of the neighbors.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't really matter, though. You think, I got a

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Speaker 1: wall full of big ones, and I know, dear. So

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Speaker 1: you wait for the right cold front and the right

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Speaker 1: moon phase, and you go to your best field edge

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Speaker 1: stand and you clang those antlers together and nothing comes

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Speaker 1: running in, and you think, maybe maybe my timing is off,

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Speaker 1: so you try again a few days later. You know,

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Speaker 1: maybe moving in a little deeper into the best timber,

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Speaker 1: and not only does nothing come then, but you watch

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Speaker 1: a white tail bound to away from you the moment

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Speaker 1: you hit those antlers together. This becomes sort of like

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Speaker 1: a lather, rent repeat situation, and now you're confidencing what worked.

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Speaker 1: It worked free for a long time is a liability

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Speaker 1: and not an asset. This happens to me often on

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Speaker 1: specific chunks of public land that are always changing, and

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Speaker 1: I hate it. Drives me nuts some years, and I

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Speaker 1: even fully admit this. I want an easy one. I

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Speaker 1: just want to repeat my performance from the year before,

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Speaker 1: but that so rarely rarely happens. Instead, there's always some

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Speaker 1: new program I have to figure out. I'm sure you

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Speaker 1: can relate to this for a lot of you can,

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Speaker 1: do you see how muddy this ship starts to get.

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Speaker 1: I told you to develop confidence in various aspects of hunting,

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Speaker 1: and then I told you too much confidence will kick

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Speaker 1: your square in the delegates. And now I'm going to

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Speaker 1: tell you that you have to be super confident again

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Speaker 1: when I inevitably get divorced because my bride has had enough,

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Speaker 1: this podcast will probably be used in court against my character.

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Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, Confidence has to be earned remember

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Speaker 1: when I said that earlier. Confidence doesn't come from a

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Speaker 1: one off encounter. Usually it comes from stacked experience. Confidence

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Speaker 1: that comes too easily should be questioned. If your entire

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Speaker 1: deer hunting experience consists of hunting one good property, your

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Speaker 1: confidence should be high. But it should be high only

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Speaker 1: for that one good property. If you've gone to I

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Speaker 1: don't know, seventeen different states and shot pope and young

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Speaker 1: bucks on public land and all of them, then you

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Speaker 1: should have confidence in yourself to get it done, no

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Speaker 1: matter what mother nature throws at you, and no matter

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Speaker 1: where you're hunting. And that's the biggest one. And I

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Speaker 1: know that most people will never get the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: visit seventeen different states, let alone hunting them. I get that.

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Speaker 1: So you've got to scale it down. Do you have

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Speaker 1: plenty of experience hunting from a stand and from a

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Speaker 1: blind and from a saddle and still hunting or whatever?

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Speaker 1: If not, maybe your favorite forty acre chunk isn't the

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Speaker 1: best place to still hunt, but the five thousand acres

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Speaker 1: of public land down the road could be. Do you

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Speaker 1: not have much confidence in settling your pin on a

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Speaker 1: deer's vitals because you've only killed a few Could you

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Speaker 1: hunt a few more doughs? Could you both hunt turkeys

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Speaker 1: or some other critter? Where can you get more experience?

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Speaker 1: You should ask yourself that, because it's an important question.

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Speaker 1: Do you put yourself in a position to be challenged

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Speaker 1: in new ways? I think the importance of this can't

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Speaker 1: really be overstated. One on a state trip a year

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Speaker 1: that takes you to unfamiliar territory and forces you to

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Speaker 1: figure out things on the fly. That's going to help

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Speaker 1: you build confidence in a major way that you're gonna

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Speaker 1: take home with you, especially if you go through right

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Speaker 1: to the end of that hunt, you don't give up

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Speaker 1: or phone it in. I realized this might be a

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Speaker 1: little overwhelming, and I might be out driving my headlights here.

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Speaker 1: So let's back up a second and get a little

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Speaker 1: granular with this concept. Where are the little mistakes you

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Speaker 1: make during your hunts? Are they that you didn't clear

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Speaker 1: your entrance routes very well or cut shooting lanes very well?

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Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't eat scout to the point where you

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Speaker 1: had a lot of confidence that you were going to

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Speaker 1: have real options, you know, ambush options on the various

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Speaker 1: properties you hunt. Those are kind of easiest things to

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Speaker 1: get better at. What mistakes do you make getting into

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Speaker 1: your stand? Are you always racing the clock in the morning?

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Speaker 1: Maybe you just gotta set your alarm a little earlier

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Speaker 1: and bite the bullet that you're gonna get a you know,

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Speaker 1: a few less minutes of sleep. I guess. Do you

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Speaker 1: often realize that you're climbing sticks, squeak on the tree,

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Speaker 1: or your ladder stand creeks and pops when you shift

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Speaker 1: your weight in it. Those things are going to cut

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Speaker 1: your confidence off at the knees, even if they don't

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Speaker 1: seem like that big of a deal most of the time.

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Speaker 1: Trust me, if a buck is close and you're terrified

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Speaker 1: to move for fear of making noise, that buck is

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Speaker 1: pretty damn safe. And maybe you've shot a few deer

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Speaker 1: and you've gotten poor penetration on them. There's a confidence

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Speaker 1: issue built in there that is going to come roaring

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Speaker 1: back to life when you see a deer walk in

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Speaker 1: that you want to shoot. Maybe it's a broad hit issue,

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Speaker 1: or a bow tuning issue or something else, but whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, it's also a confidence robber. Instead of thinking

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Speaker 1: I've got this, this is over. He's as good as

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Speaker 1: being in the back of my truck and tagged. You'll

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Speaker 1: be thinking, I hope I've got this, and that is bad, bad, bad.

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Speaker 1: And look at the big stuff and ask yourself where

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Speaker 1: you believe in yourself, what are your strengths, play off

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Speaker 1: of them, but also look at your weaknesses, the secret

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Speaker 1: things that make you nervous. Those are the things you

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Speaker 1: have to really figure out now. I'll never forget as

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Speaker 1: a young man chasing a bass fishing dream that went nowhere,

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Speaker 1: how nervous I'd be heading to a body of water

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Speaker 1: that was famous for a certain bite, like say a

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Speaker 1: Carolina rig by, or maybe a deep rock pile or

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Speaker 1: weed line type of bite that just wasn't my thing,

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Speaker 1: Even if I didn't fully acknowledge it, I was always

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Speaker 1: always full of nervous energy over not being able to

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Speaker 1: do the single thing I probably would need to do

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Speaker 1: to catch a limit. It forced me, in my off

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Speaker 1: time to work on those techniques and figure out how

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Speaker 1: to catch fish on them. I know that probably sounds dumb,

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Speaker 1: but it took that to give me confidence to fish

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Speaker 1: anywhere with basically any style I might have to use.

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Speaker 1: And hunting is like that, except we don't do it

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Speaker 1: for competition, thank God. And we mostly do it alone also,

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Speaker 1: thank god, but we do need to try to develop

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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different skills. It will all be

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Speaker 1: linked together. And we do need to find mental space

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Speaker 1: that fuels the flames of belief in ourselves. That says

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Speaker 1: without question, if that buck walks in within forty yards

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Speaker 1: and stops broadside or quartering away in a decent opening,

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Speaker 1: that he's going to be wearing our tag by the

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Speaker 1: into the hunt. When you get to that place, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty nice, even if the footholds and the handholds aren't

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Speaker 1: always as solid as they seem, because after all, things

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Speaker 1: can go sideways in a variety of bad ways, but

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Speaker 1: they don't have to, and they often won't unless we

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Speaker 1: allow them to, the best way to not force those

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Speaker 1: outliers situations to happen is to work on ourselves in

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Speaker 1: small doses for years to be become more confident in

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Speaker 1: our abilities to do exactly what we need to do.

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Speaker 1: Every time we enter the woods and you can get there,

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Speaker 1: I promise you that, And if you do, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: shoot it some deer, So you know what you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have to blood trail some deer. The next two episodes

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Speaker 1: are going to be all about that process, so be

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Speaker 1: sure to tune in. That's it for this week, my friends.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tony P. And this has been the Wired Hunt

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Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, brought to you by First Light. As always,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for your support, and if you

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Speaker 1: want more of a white tail fix, feel free to

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Speaker 1: check out Mark's new show on the Mediator YouTube channel,

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Speaker 1: which is called Deer Country. You can also visit the

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Speaker 1: wire to Hunt YouTube channel for how to videos and

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00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:14,840
Speaker 1: go to the mediator dot com slash wired to read

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Speaker 1: all kinds of white tail related articles