Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics. They'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is Cutting the Distance. What's up, everybody, Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I hope you're enjoying this series that
Speaker 1: we have Becoming a bow Hunter. This is Becoming a
Speaker 1: Bow Hunter one oh two. Last week we talked about
Speaker 1: gear getting set up. This week, we're gonna be kicking
Speaker 1: it up a notch in the knowledge department and covering
Speaker 1: all things shooting. So we're gonna be discussing and breaking
Speaker 1: down the shot process, what it takes to be accurate
Speaker 1: and precise, how to obtain repeatable consistency. I'm also going
Speaker 1: to cover my theory on practice and what it means
Speaker 1: to have a bow in tune. We also have our
Speaker 1: first ever surprise guest lecturer on Cutting the Distance podcast.
Speaker 1: So grab your release, grab your bow, gather up your
Speaker 1: arrows because hunting school is now in session now. When
Speaker 1: it comes to shooting, I am of the thought that
Speaker 1: you should shoot all year. I I personally shoot constantly.
Speaker 1: I always have. There's quite a few reasons for that. One.
Speaker 1: I don't think that there's such thing as too much
Speaker 1: practice and too I just love the act of shooting
Speaker 1: my bow. So as I got more and more into archery,
Speaker 1: I would shoot more and more. You know. Growing up,
Speaker 1: it was pretty much my entire summer was spent shooting
Speaker 1: a bow in my parents backyard. I remember my brother
Speaker 1: or whatever, he would always be at the lakes, water skiing, wakeboarding, whatever,
Speaker 1: And I've just always been a very singularly focused individual.
Speaker 1: Hunting has always been my thing, and bow hunting especially,
Speaker 1: so as soon as school ended, it was like in
Speaker 1: the backyard shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, And then every
Speaker 1: Tuesday or Thursday I would go do a summer three
Speaker 1: D league, shooting three D targets at different ranges, often
Speaker 1: as I could take my targets out somewhere else, get
Speaker 1: a little bit different angle practice or whatever, but just
Speaker 1: obsessed with shooting as much as I could, as often
Speaker 1: as I could, and because of it, I got really
Speaker 1: good at shooting. I actually, um, it wasn't something that
Speaker 1: I ever thought I would do tournament type shooting because
Speaker 1: I thought it was ridiculous that archery tournaments went during
Speaker 1: hunting season. My my sole reason for shooting a bow
Speaker 1: was hunting, but I really enjoyed the aspect of shooting.
Speaker 1: I actually did shoot a couple of tournaments just for
Speaker 1: fun in the winter, uh kind of in the off season.
Speaker 1: I did pretty well when I started. I mean I
Speaker 1: got first or second place in most little local tournaments.
Speaker 1: I never traveled for anything, but just just for fun,
Speaker 1: just to see how I would do, see how I
Speaker 1: would stack up. In many of those tournaments. I shot
Speaker 1: a lot different than most of the people because I
Speaker 1: was very self taught, but I did pretty well. Now
Speaker 1: if I was thinking about what was my best shot ever,
Speaker 1: you know, spending all summer practicing, and my friends would
Speaker 1: come out, we would shoot, and I'll never forget this
Speaker 1: one day. My buddy Brett and I would pretty much
Speaker 1: spend most of our summer shooting our bows, and I
Speaker 1: kind of got him into archery. So we spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time together, not just hunting, but also practicing
Speaker 1: as well in the off season. And we had the
Speaker 1: target set up and I've been just on fire. So
Speaker 1: we kept moving back and moving back, and it was
Speaker 1: about thirty yards and I had I like to place
Speaker 1: a golf tea on my target. Like my thought was
Speaker 1: aimed small, miss small. So I put a golf tea
Speaker 1: out on the target and then try to, you know,
Speaker 1: hit the golf tea. And I could hit it pretty
Speaker 1: much a hundred percent of the time at varying ranges.
Speaker 1: So I was telling him that, you know, I've been
Speaker 1: practicing it further ranges. This was a lot kind of
Speaker 1: before people really started shooting at further distances. But I
Speaker 1: shot the golf teeth. I think it was fifty yards.
Speaker 1: So I just drew back shot the golf team like
Speaker 1: Center punched this golf team. He's like, oh wow, crap,
Speaker 1: that was a really good shot. I was just feeling cocky.
Speaker 1: I was just feeling good. And so I was like,
Speaker 1: he's like, I bet you can't do that again. And
Speaker 1: I said, I bet I can hit my own arrow.
Speaker 1: He's like, no way, no way. Fifty yards. He's like,
Speaker 1: I put twenty bucks on that. So I drew back
Speaker 1: in a full confidence let the arrow fly, and no joke.
Speaker 1: Robin Hood. Robin Hood had my same arrow. I still
Speaker 1: have those arrows in my cabin. I've got a deer
Speaker 1: skull and above the bed there, and I still have
Speaker 1: that arrow right above that. I mean, I played it
Speaker 1: off like it was a percent I mean I called
Speaker 1: the shot. I was like, I bet you twenty bucks
Speaker 1: I could do it. Um, probably a one in a
Speaker 1: million shot. You know, I could probably never do it
Speaker 1: again if I tried. That was the last time I
Speaker 1: tried to robin hood and arrow at fifty yards. But
Speaker 1: it gave me a lot of confidence going into the
Speaker 1: hunting season, and we'll forever go down to my memory,
Speaker 1: is the best shot I've ever made. As we jump
Speaker 1: into this one or two portion of becoming a bow hunter,
Speaker 1: really shooting is one of the more important fundamentals that
Speaker 1: you need to be a successful bow hunter, because the
Speaker 1: art and skill of being able to successfully harvest game
Speaker 1: with a bow and arrow takes a lot of practice.
Speaker 1: It takes knowing your bow very well and being able
Speaker 1: to put that arrow where you want it to go.
Speaker 1: No matter the kind of bow us, whether it's a
Speaker 1: traditional gear or a compound bow, it's practice, practice, practice,
Speaker 1: And for me, I think that's one of the fun
Speaker 1: things about getting into our tree is the fact that
Speaker 1: it becomes a almost a year round endeavor. Where you
Speaker 1: grow your skills by going out to the range, by
Speaker 1: shooting your bow, and you get better and better. Hoh,
Speaker 1: hopefully you get better and better over time. So when
Speaker 1: you go out into the field, when you are presented
Speaker 1: with that maybe one opportunity in a season, that really
Speaker 1: hard earned opportunity, you make that one shot count. Now.
Speaker 1: Growing up I was, I guess aside from hunting, the
Speaker 1: other thing that I was very into was martial arts.
Speaker 1: I obtained my black belt in taekwondo, and I think
Speaker 1: one thing that always stuck with me, aside from a
Speaker 1: lot of the other lessons you learned, was that one
Speaker 1: saying that we would always have perfect Practice makes perfect
Speaker 1: and I kind of carried that same philosophy into archery.
Speaker 1: And it's so true because if you're making bad habits,
Speaker 1: doing bad things, then you're gonna make bad shots. And
Speaker 1: if you keep practicing that every single time you shoot,
Speaker 1: then you're gonna develop bad habits and you aren't gonna
Speaker 1: be as efficient as you can be. So I think
Speaker 1: what I want to talk about today is really the
Speaker 1: shooting basics and what it means to be a good shot.
Speaker 1: I think when it comes for any kind of bow shooting.
Speaker 1: What you're striving for, or what I like to think of,
Speaker 1: is I'm striving for repeat a consistency, because with that
Speaker 1: repeatable consistency, I'm gonna be both accurate and precise. And
Speaker 1: we'll get into the details of that a little bit later.
Speaker 1: What I want to start with is really just starting
Speaker 1: through the basics and explaining a shot process. Let's say
Speaker 1: you've never shot a bow, or you've shot a bow
Speaker 1: your whole life, it doesn't really matter. I'm gonna break
Speaker 1: down the practice of shooting a bow into this process,
Speaker 1: and I guess it's really uh for me. I I
Speaker 1: see it as a five step process. Maybe people have
Speaker 1: other processes, but it goes like this, draw, anchor, aim, release,
Speaker 1: and then the final one would be again. I like
Speaker 1: to think of it like the Karate Kid, you know,
Speaker 1: Mr Miyagi going again, again again, dene. You know, just
Speaker 1: like repeating the motions to build that muscle memory to
Speaker 1: allow yourself to be able to shoot no matter the situation,
Speaker 1: no matter the pressure, no matter what's in front of you.
Speaker 1: Build think that same shot going through the draw, anchor,
Speaker 1: aim release in a correct way that then you can
Speaker 1: repeat it again and again and again. And you build
Speaker 1: that muscle memory, you build that comfortability with it through practice.
Speaker 1: So just like last week, we went through and talked
Speaker 1: about the gear you need. I mean, some of the
Speaker 1: things you need to be an archer would be a
Speaker 1: range somewhere. A lot of people set up ranges in
Speaker 1: their backyard. And I'm not even saying just starting out,
Speaker 1: you don't need to be shooting sixty seventy yards. You
Speaker 1: could be shooting five ft as long as it's a
Speaker 1: safe direction. You aren't going to shoot through a wall
Speaker 1: or something like that. You've got a target that can
Speaker 1: stop an arrow. You just need to be able to
Speaker 1: go through this process of shooting the boat. So we're
Speaker 1: kind of taking it from the basics and then building
Speaker 1: that out. So it's tips that pretty much anybody can use,
Speaker 1: but especially those starting out. So let's go through the
Speaker 1: first step, the draw. So the draw is the point
Speaker 1: where you've got your arrow knocked on the string and
Speaker 1: you're pulling the bow back back. Why does the draw
Speaker 1: come into this process is because when you think of
Speaker 1: it like hunting, there's a proper way to draw your bow,
Speaker 1: and there's an improper way to draw your boat. And
Speaker 1: if you draw your boat improperly over and over and over.
Speaker 1: Your muscle memory is going to draw your bow improperly
Speaker 1: over and over. When I think about hunting, the little
Speaker 1: things are what leads to success. So if you have
Speaker 1: to hold your bow up high, what I call sky drawing,
Speaker 1: where you're your bows in there and you struggle to
Speaker 1: pull it back and then you ar get down. Is
Speaker 1: this big motion and then you're at full draw. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of things wrong with that. The first is
Speaker 1: in a hunting situation, it can cause attention to the shooter,
Speaker 1: which can cause the animal to jump, which can spook
Speaker 1: the animal, which could lose your opportunity at success by
Speaker 1: the way that you draw. What I like to do
Speaker 1: is draw in a fashion where I could hold the
Speaker 1: boat out where it's gonna be for my shot and
Speaker 1: draw straight back. It also, and I believe does other
Speaker 1: things because it helps you with your anchor. So that
Speaker 1: whole process of developing muscle. Where your bow is already
Speaker 1: almost on target and you draw straight back to your
Speaker 1: anchor point, then you have less movement. You're more likely
Speaker 1: to settle that pin where you need it in a
Speaker 1: quicker amount of time. You're less likely to be moving
Speaker 1: a lot and get a lot of motion in your bow.
Speaker 1: You're already in position to make a good shot. So
Speaker 1: I think that the draw is the first portion of
Speaker 1: this entire process that needs to be done right. So
Speaker 1: I like to practice in a way where I can
Speaker 1: draw straight back in a smooth, fluid motion and get
Speaker 1: to full draw. So that's when the bows drawn fully back. Now,
Speaker 1: the second point is going to be your anchor. So
Speaker 1: the anchor is where you're gonna build consistency. Um. I
Speaker 1: think that, like we said, we want to build repeatable consistency.
Speaker 1: So that repeatable consistency means doing the same thing over
Speaker 1: and over. If you think about a rifle or a
Speaker 1: bow or any anything you shoot shotgun doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: You need to have everything in line correctly. Now, when
Speaker 1: you're looking through a rifle scope, the stocks up, your
Speaker 1: hands on the stock, you know, your finger would be
Speaker 1: on the trigger when you're ready to shoot, your cheeks
Speaker 1: on the stock, you're looking down the rifle scope, and
Speaker 1: it's got a cross hair that you can put on
Speaker 1: the animal. I think of a bow more like open sites,
Speaker 1: where you say, a traditional open site where you've got
Speaker 1: to beat at the front, maybe a little v notch
Speaker 1: in the back and you have to line those two
Speaker 1: things up. But it's a lot easier in a rifle
Speaker 1: because you have the stock and something as a point
Speaker 1: of reference that touches your face, touches your body, touches
Speaker 1: your shoulders stationary. If you think about the sight of
Speaker 1: a bow, you've got it way out on your front arm,
Speaker 1: and you have to make sure that you're looking through
Speaker 1: it at the same exact place because a single point
Speaker 1: you can put your finger up with an eye closed,
Speaker 1: and you could move your head and all over the place,
Speaker 1: and that single point might not line up with where
Speaker 1: that arrow is going to go. So your anchor is
Speaker 1: probably the most important thing when it comes to building consistency. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're shooting compound bow, you're gonna have a peep
Speaker 1: site which allows you to kind of peep through the string,
Speaker 1: and when you anchor, you're gonna want your hand, your string,
Speaker 1: your eye, everything in the same place every time. So
Speaker 1: in order to do that, you need to find something
Speaker 1: that's comfortable where you can remember where you can lock in.
Speaker 1: And it's the same for me. I actually use multiple
Speaker 1: different anchor points, so I use on my hand where
Speaker 1: my releases I locked my thumb into a certain place
Speaker 1: below my ear. I've got the string touching my nose
Speaker 1: in a certain place. I used to always anchor with
Speaker 1: the arrow fletching in the corner of my mouth. I
Speaker 1: think I just developed a habit of that when I
Speaker 1: was shooting traditional and then just continued it with compound bows.
Speaker 1: But now I've adjusted that so I get a little
Speaker 1: bit more site traveled out of my boat. But you're
Speaker 1: gonna want something where it's it's in the same place
Speaker 1: every time, and then you're gonna be looking through your
Speaker 1: peep at the same time. And then I center through
Speaker 1: can centric circles my site housing. I like around site
Speaker 1: housing personally. You know obviously all the peeps around, so
Speaker 1: I can line up those concentric circles so I know
Speaker 1: everything is exactly the same every time. My hands in
Speaker 1: the same place, my eyes in the same place, the
Speaker 1: peep is in the same place. I'm looking through that
Speaker 1: site in the same place, the string is in the
Speaker 1: same place. Now I'm ready to go. I'm gonna build consistency.
Speaker 1: One thing. If you're getting started, when you try to
Speaker 1: find that anchor point, you know you can mess around
Speaker 1: a little bit with what feels comfortable. I like it
Speaker 1: where my head can be in a natural position, and
Speaker 1: then I'm also looking for that arrow to be and
Speaker 1: what I consider the cradle of my face where there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of pressure on the string hard against
Speaker 1: your face. So that's something that I think some people
Speaker 1: do because they've got like this great anchor point way
Speaker 1: back here in the bow might not fit them right
Speaker 1: in the string cutting through their cheek real hard. Well,
Speaker 1: that puts pressure on the string and you can never
Speaker 1: consistently put that pressure the same So you don't want
Speaker 1: that pressure on your string, So you're gonna try to
Speaker 1: find a place where the arrow does not touch any
Speaker 1: part of your face, like it's in that cradle between
Speaker 1: your nose and your chin. Maybe. And everybody's face is
Speaker 1: a little bit different. Longer faces, maybe they're anchored a
Speaker 1: little bit lower, shorter faces a little bit higher. But
Speaker 1: what feels good to you when you'ren't putting a lot
Speaker 1: of string pressure, and then you can make it repeatable
Speaker 1: and that repetition and consistency is going to make your
Speaker 1: shots a lot more consistent. So now the third stage
Speaker 1: of the shot is going to be aiming. I didn't
Speaker 1: cover some of this last week because I thought I'd
Speaker 1: talked about it this week. But when you're if you're
Speaker 1: new to archery, I really believe that you're gonna be
Speaker 1: best shooting with both eyes open. And there's a reason
Speaker 1: for that because you can you can simultaneously see the
Speaker 1: target and focus on your pin and it's going to
Speaker 1: make you more accurate in the long run. It also
Speaker 1: I feel like relaxes you. Um, when you're squinting and looking,
Speaker 1: you're you're really trying to hone in on something. But
Speaker 1: it kind of tess for me at least, especially when
Speaker 1: I'm rifle shooting or whatever. I notice if I shoot
Speaker 1: with both eyes open, I'm more relaxed, I'm a better shot,
Speaker 1: I'm more aware, and I just am able to focus
Speaker 1: on the target and my sight at the same time.
Speaker 1: So in order to do that, you need to actually
Speaker 1: choose a bow for your dominant eye as opposed to
Speaker 1: your dominant hand. This is especially if you're getting started
Speaker 1: for the first time. So how do you do that?
Speaker 1: What you're gonna do if you put your hands in
Speaker 1: like a together out in front of you, stretch both
Speaker 1: arms out, make a hole in your hands where you
Speaker 1: could see through it and then focus on an object
Speaker 1: in the distance. Close one eye, so like say, close
Speaker 1: your left eye, and if the object stays there, then
Speaker 1: the eye that's with the eye that's open, then that's
Speaker 1: your dominant eye. So right now I'm right eye dominant.
Speaker 1: I know that, but I've got my arms stretched out.
Speaker 1: I'm looking through the little hole in my hands between
Speaker 1: my so I got like my index finger and thumbs
Speaker 1: kind of together making a hole in my hands. I
Speaker 1: close my left eye. The object that I'm looking at there,
Speaker 1: I close my right eye. The object moves, so my
Speaker 1: right eye is my dominant eye. If your left eye dominant,
Speaker 1: then when you close your right eye, when you're looking
Speaker 1: through your left eye, the object will stay there. And
Speaker 1: when you close your you close the other idle move.
Speaker 1: So you want to make sure that you're in order
Speaker 1: to shoot with both eyes open, you're going to be
Speaker 1: having to shoot a bow that's designed for that dominant eye.
Speaker 1: So a little side note, and I will get back
Speaker 1: to aiming. So when I'm aiming, aiming is a very
Speaker 1: very important process. What it is is that's putting the
Speaker 1: pin where you want the arrow to go, but it's
Speaker 1: also figuring out a couple other things. So am I
Speaker 1: in my consistent spot? Is my peep centered with my
Speaker 1: sight housing? Is my bubble level? And then is the
Speaker 1: pin on the spot I want to shoot. Once all
Speaker 1: those things check out, then we're ready to shoot. So
Speaker 1: I'll kind of break down the things that I think
Speaker 1: of when I draw back. So I'm in my backyard,
Speaker 1: I'm practicing, or I'm shooting at a deer or an
Speaker 1: elk or whatever. I put my bow out to where
Speaker 1: I'm gonna draw back. I draw back in a smooth,
Speaker 1: fluid fashion. I find my anchor point I anchor, and
Speaker 1: then I what I call settle in. I look through
Speaker 1: the site. Everything's lined up. I level my bow, make
Speaker 1: sure that So almost every site has a level in there.
Speaker 1: And the reason for that is as you go out
Speaker 1: to distance, if your bows canted in one way or another,
Speaker 1: that moves those pins in in a different direction and
Speaker 1: it will change the point of impact, making it left
Speaker 1: or right. You would think, oh, I can tell if
Speaker 1: my bows level, But when you're on un leveled terrain
Speaker 1: like a hillside slope other things, or shooting downhill or
Speaker 1: shooting up hill, it's very hard to decipher whether that
Speaker 1: bow's level because what feels level may not actually be level.
Speaker 1: So it's very important to have that bow level, especially
Speaker 1: as you move back. Maybe if you're shooting real close,
Speaker 1: it might not make as big of a difference or
Speaker 1: not as drastic movements, but it does make a difference.
Speaker 1: So I draw back, I anchor, I level, and then
Speaker 1: I focus in. And the way that I focus in
Speaker 1: is I pick a spot on the target. I focus
Speaker 1: on that spot, and I kind of let my brain
Speaker 1: do the rest. That's the part where the actual aiming portion,
Speaker 1: instead of focusing so much on the pin and where
Speaker 1: it's at, I just look at the spot that I
Speaker 1: want to shoot. I let that pin hover in that spot,
Speaker 1: and then I hope that the bow goes off while
Speaker 1: it's in that spot. And that's the release portion. So
Speaker 1: when a release a perfect archery shot, the bow goes
Speaker 1: off as you aim in almost a subconscious release. So
Speaker 1: you might hear people talking about a surprise release. That's
Speaker 1: the best if you drew back and you're just focusing
Speaker 1: on the point and then the bow goes off when
Speaker 1: it's there. Oh it's surprised you. That's great. So I
Speaker 1: kind of pulled through my shot, so I'm I'm focused
Speaker 1: in I'm aiming, and as I'm aiming, things are happening
Speaker 1: in the background where that release then goes off while
Speaker 1: that pin is on the point that I wanted to
Speaker 1: go off, and it just somehow happens by itself. I
Speaker 1: know that sounds really strange, and like, well, how do
Speaker 1: I practice that? You know, you you'll, you'll as you
Speaker 1: start to figure that out, you'll start to practice. I
Speaker 1: think one thing that's really important whether it no matter
Speaker 1: what kind of release you have. So there's a lot
Speaker 1: of as we talked about before, back tension style releases.
Speaker 1: I use a trigger release, but I shoot it in
Speaker 1: a back tension way. So what back tension is. As
Speaker 1: I'm pulling through my shot, I'm allowing that boat to
Speaker 1: go off and I'm just trying to hold the pin
Speaker 1: where I know it needs to be. So I like
Speaker 1: to center whatever it is. I think sometimes we get
Speaker 1: two wrapped up on putting our pin on the target.
Speaker 1: I just kind of whatever I'm shooting at, and this
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons I use a single pin,
Speaker 1: but I like to center whatever I'm shooting at in
Speaker 1: the center of the sight housing so I can just
Speaker 1: make like many many concentric circles. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: it's a deer or whatever. Deer is not a circle.
Speaker 1: But I've got my peep, then I've got my sight,
Speaker 1: and then I just put whatever i'm shooting at straight
Speaker 1: in the middle or where I want to hit straight
Speaker 1: in the middle, because that's going to center my pin
Speaker 1: where I wanted to hit, and it's all good things
Speaker 1: from there. I don't have to try to push up
Speaker 1: and pick a different pin or whatever. It's just a
Speaker 1: little bit easier, a little bit smoother. If you're just
Speaker 1: a beginner, that's not going to really make any sense.
Speaker 1: But if you shoot a lot, that should make a
Speaker 1: little bit more sense to you. Now. The release portion
Speaker 1: is something that I think you can definitely practice without
Speaker 1: even using your bow. What I do sometimes is if
Speaker 1: I get a new release or I'm gonna maybe I'm
Speaker 1: like shooting really bad one day and it's okay, it's
Speaker 1: because I'm punching my trigger. I'm I'm getting too excited.
Speaker 1: I'm instead of subconsciously letting that bow go off as
Speaker 1: I pulled through the shot, I'm just, uh, I'm letting
Speaker 1: that bow. I'm just telling that bow win to go.
Speaker 1: And when I do that, I'm not as accurate. So
Speaker 1: what I'll do is I grab some parachord, like a
Speaker 1: length of parachord, I tie a loop like so it's
Speaker 1: a loop of parachord enough to where it would be
Speaker 1: like full draw position, and I just loop it in
Speaker 1: my thumb and I go where it's tight, and then
Speaker 1: I got my release on, and I just find my
Speaker 1: anchor point and I just keep pulling. So I just
Speaker 1: essentially stretch my shoulder blades together. It's kind of the
Speaker 1: way I have learned to do it. Um keep pulling
Speaker 1: straight back, straight back, focusing on whatever is ahead, and
Speaker 1: that release will go off, and then reset the parachord.
Speaker 1: Keep doing the same thing, practicing that release. So each
Speaker 1: one of these, I would say stages of shooting has
Speaker 1: its own little nuances and things you need to learn
Speaker 1: to make that perfect shot when you're just getting started
Speaker 1: bow hunting, or it doesn't matter guys that are really
Speaker 1: good bow hunters, really good archers. I think what you're
Speaker 1: looking for is both high accuracy and high precision, and
Speaker 1: I think it's important to kind of talk about the
Speaker 1: accuracy verse precisions. So accuracy is the measurement of closeness
Speaker 1: of a specific value. So it's like accuracy would be
Speaker 1: hitting the bulls eye, and then precision would be the
Speaker 1: closeness of measurements to each other. So a good group,
Speaker 1: so you could be very precise. So like low accuracy
Speaker 1: and high precision would be let's say, let's just picture
Speaker 1: a standard circular target. You got the bull's eye in
Speaker 1: the center, and then you've got another ring outside and
Speaker 1: another ring outside. So low accuracy high precision would be
Speaker 1: like a really tight group, say top left corner. That
Speaker 1: means it's not in the bull's eye, but all your
Speaker 1: shots are together. Now, low accuracy and low precision would
Speaker 1: be you're looking at the bull's eye and there's just
Speaker 1: it's spray and pray. There's one in the bulls eye,
Speaker 1: there's one up high, there's one right, there's one low,
Speaker 1: there's one left. There's just all over the place. Then
Speaker 1: you could have maybe something like high accuracy low precision
Speaker 1: where that's all the shots are kind of around the
Speaker 1: bull's eye, but it's a it's a spread out group.
Speaker 1: It's some guys. This is one thing that I've seen
Speaker 1: over the years is oh, I can hit a pipe
Speaker 1: plate at thirty yards. That's the the pipe plate mentality
Speaker 1: like I'm just trying to hit the pipe plate, you know,
Speaker 1: I put them all within the pipe plate at whatever range,
Speaker 1: and that's good enough. Yeah, I mean maybe, but I
Speaker 1: kind of like the idea of not necessarily hitting that
Speaker 1: pipe light, but saying, okay, I'm at that the certain yardage.
Speaker 1: I want high accuracy, high precisions. So that's all my
Speaker 1: shots in a tight group in the bull's eye. And
Speaker 1: by being able to do that, you're going to be
Speaker 1: a lot more successful in the field or even just
Speaker 1: on the range. So I think that the goal is
Speaker 1: to become both accurate and precise. But if you're just
Speaker 1: starting out a new bow hunter, you're you're you're the
Speaker 1: first time you're starting to shoot. I think that we
Speaker 1: start with precision first, and I might seem strange, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not hitting the bulls eye, but that's not necessarily
Speaker 1: the point. We want to first build out precision, and
Speaker 1: I think that that is you know, getting those tight groups,
Speaker 1: because you're getting the tight group by doing the same
Speaker 1: thing over and over, and it comes down to I'll
Speaker 1: just say the same thing three times, form, form and form.
Speaker 1: It also comes down to a bow that she straight,
Speaker 1: but precision comes from making something repeatable. So you first
Speaker 1: want before you do anything else, you want to work
Speaker 1: on your form. And form is everything. It is your grip,
Speaker 1: your stance, your anchor point, your draw cycle, and the
Speaker 1: way that you release. If you can do everything the
Speaker 1: same every time, you're gonna have more precision. And those
Speaker 1: are the things that you want to work on starting out.
Speaker 1: And those are the things that I work on as
Speaker 1: a lifelong bow hunter pretty much every day. If I'm
Speaker 1: not in the field, I'm shooting, and I've actually noticed
Speaker 1: the more that I shoot, sometimes you think the better
Speaker 1: you get, but sometimes you start to develop bad habits
Speaker 1: and other things. So then you've got to go back
Speaker 1: and say, what my form is? The is the weak link?
Speaker 1: What am I missing? What am I not doing the same?
Speaker 1: Where am I maybe pulling the shot? Where am I
Speaker 1: maybe hitting the trigger too soon? Where am I maybe
Speaker 1: thinking too much and not aiming and following through with
Speaker 1: my shot? Where is the part of my form that's
Speaker 1: causing my precision to a grade? And working on your
Speaker 1: precision doesn't have to happen at any certain yardage because
Speaker 1: we're just working on building out that form, building out
Speaker 1: the same thing over and over So we're gonna set
Speaker 1: our stant just this is backyard practice, but it does
Speaker 1: translate into hunting in many ways. So we're setting our stance.
Speaker 1: We've got our grip. You want to make sure your
Speaker 1: grip is the same every time, so um, some people
Speaker 1: grab that. You don't want to grab the bow tight.
Speaker 1: You want a loose grip. I like to let it
Speaker 1: cradle between my thumb and index finger and then I
Speaker 1: kind of put the tips of all my fingers on
Speaker 1: the riser of the bow. I feel like that's a
Speaker 1: shot that I can reproduce with heavy gloves, because, like
Speaker 1: I said, everything I do is built for hunting. So
Speaker 1: I try to find a grip that even with gloves,
Speaker 1: I can try to make it consistent. I would say
Speaker 1: probably in the long run. The grip is the thing
Speaker 1: that adjusts, like messes up your shot more than anything.
Speaker 1: The grip and then the release, um, not the physical release,
Speaker 1: but the way you release. Then you know, make sure
Speaker 1: I've got a good anchor, I've got the stance, I've
Speaker 1: got my draw cycle down, I've got my shot process,
Speaker 1: and then I release and building that that could happen
Speaker 1: at four ft, that could happen at whatever. Just getting
Speaker 1: that form down and shooting the same every time. So
Speaker 1: that's our precision. Now we're gonna work on our accuracy.
Speaker 1: And the reason I say accuracy second is because accuracy
Speaker 1: could come in as Okay, maybe my bow is not
Speaker 1: shooting um, like, my site isn't right. So now we're
Speaker 1: gonna sight in our bow. We're gonna we're gonna move
Speaker 1: our bow. If you're new to bow hunting, you kind
Speaker 1: of you follow your arrow. So if I'm aiming at
Speaker 1: the target, I've got a pin out there, I shoot
Speaker 1: and my arrow hits low and right. Originally, when I
Speaker 1: had nobody to tell me how to do this, I
Speaker 1: did not understand this concept. But you follow your arrow.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna now move my sight housing down and
Speaker 1: to the right, because what I'm doing is I'm trying
Speaker 1: to match my pin to where my arrow actually is
Speaker 1: because I'm not going to be moving the rest to
Speaker 1: match my arrow to where my sight is. I hope
Speaker 1: that makes sense. So once we've got that, then we
Speaker 1: can start to build our accurate. See. Now, the other
Speaker 1: thing that might affect accuracy would be the way that
Speaker 1: you're looking at the target, maybe not holding in the
Speaker 1: right spot. So once you've got your both sighted in.
Speaker 1: Everything is hitting where it's supposed to. We walk out
Speaker 1: our different ranges. Everything's right now. It's one other thing
Speaker 1: that it affects accuracy, and that is holding steady, holding
Speaker 1: on target and then releasing and not I mean, I've
Speaker 1: been guilty of this many times in the past, where
Speaker 1: they call it target panic. You almost your your body
Speaker 1: almost instinctively jerks in one direction or another before releasing
Speaker 1: the air, trying to will it into the spot. And
Speaker 1: you might you might find this where you draw back
Speaker 1: and it's like your pin is just nestling low on
Speaker 1: the target and it's no matter what you do, you
Speaker 1: cannot will that pin high enough into the spot. So
Speaker 1: right before you shoot, you just slap the trigger and
Speaker 1: move your hand up and get it in there. That's
Speaker 1: a bad way to shoot. And that's actually how I
Speaker 1: started shooting. Um I was very very efficient with it though,
Speaker 1: and I know and then somebody pointed out that I
Speaker 1: was shooting bad that way, and then I developed a
Speaker 1: bad habit trying to fix my bad habits. Now I
Speaker 1: don't shoot like that, but um, I would say, getting started,
Speaker 1: it's it's a really bad way to learn to shoot.
Speaker 1: So what you want to do is you want to
Speaker 1: be settled in. Now, if you have some kind of
Speaker 1: problem where you're you aren't able to settle that pin,
Speaker 1: don't even focus on the pin, but focus on the
Speaker 1: spot of the target and let your pin naturally be
Speaker 1: in there. You don't have to get so precise with it.
Speaker 1: That's why if you actually move your site housing closer
Speaker 1: to your bow, it's if you move it out, it's
Speaker 1: a little more precise because you can see exactly where
Speaker 1: the pin is. But I think most people shoot better,
Speaker 1: especially beginners, when that site is close to the riser
Speaker 1: of the bow, because it's more blurred, it's in your
Speaker 1: peripheral vision and you're just getting the color of that
Speaker 1: pin on where you're looking on the target, and when
Speaker 1: that bow goes off, that arrow magically goes there. That's,
Speaker 1: in my opinions, what you want, especially for hunting. Now
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about accuracy, we talked a
Speaker 1: little bit about precision. I think one thing that really
Speaker 1: lends itself into having a precise bow, especially when it
Speaker 1: comes to hunting, is is the bow itself and whether
Speaker 1: that bow is in tune. Now, that's some terminology that
Speaker 1: you'll definitely hear. If you're a new bow hunter, you
Speaker 1: might not understand, well, what's what's in tune and what
Speaker 1: that means is that's the straightness of which your arrow
Speaker 1: flies through the air. So as we go from our
Speaker 1: shooting set up our practice, we're probably using field tips,
Speaker 1: which is just essentially a tip that is the diameter
Speaker 1: of the arrow. It's pointed, and your arrow flies very
Speaker 1: true like that. Now, to go from a practice set
Speaker 1: up to a hunting setup, we're gonna have to put
Speaker 1: on a broadhead. A broadhead could be a fixed blade.
Speaker 1: It could be a mechanical blade. It could be a
Speaker 1: two blade fixed blade, a three blade blade fixed blade,
Speaker 1: a four blade fixed blade, a replaceable blade fixed blade,
Speaker 1: a expandable blade with three blades, two blades, whatever it's,
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. Is it going to change the aerodynamics
Speaker 1: of that arrow, So your arrow might fly different than
Speaker 1: your field tip. What really affects how that arrow flies
Speaker 1: different than your few tip is gonna be the straightness
Speaker 1: at which that arrow is leaving your bow. And the
Speaker 1: straightness of which that arrow is leaving your bow has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with a lot of factors. The cams,
Speaker 1: the timing of your cams, the way your your rest
Speaker 1: is set up on your bow, the way that the
Speaker 1: string is touching any points in your draw cycle, and
Speaker 1: also the way that you're holding or gripping the bow.
Speaker 1: So what we're gonna want to do is we want
Speaker 1: that arrow to be flying out of the bow straight,
Speaker 1: and in order to do that, there's ways to check
Speaker 1: the tune of the bow. And so if the bows
Speaker 1: in tune, many times your broadheads like might fly the
Speaker 1: same as your field tips, or in in very well
Speaker 1: tuned bow, that is often the case. I have bows
Speaker 1: that I can shoot any tip and they pretty much
Speaker 1: fly the same place, aside from minor changes in drag
Speaker 1: curve you know, like might be a little bit slower
Speaker 1: or whatever, but for the most part they're flying in
Speaker 1: the same place for all intents and purposes, or at
Speaker 1: least for my ability to tell based on my skill level.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot that goes into tuning a bow.
Speaker 1: So I figured this week I might as well bring
Speaker 1: in a guest lecture a really good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Tim Burnett. He's he's done Solo Hunters with He's the
Speaker 1: other guy on Solo Hunters, but He also owns an
Speaker 1: online bow shop. He tunes a lot. I don't think
Speaker 1: I know anyone that's tuned more of the same bow
Speaker 1: that I shoot than Tim. So he's got a lot
Speaker 1: of experience tuning, and I thought it would be cool
Speaker 1: to bring someone else in here here a little bit
Speaker 1: of different voice on my podcast and talk about different
Speaker 1: kinds of tuning and how to know if your bows
Speaker 1: in tune when you when you first get your bow,
Speaker 1: despite no matter how it came from the shop, the
Speaker 1: tech at the shop is going to shoot the bow
Speaker 1: one way, but ultimately the bow has to perform the
Speaker 1: best in your hands. So when you get a bow home,
Speaker 1: you really should shoot it through paper. You should set
Speaker 1: up paper at five yards, shoot a fletched arrow through it,
Speaker 1: and see how that arrow reacts as it's going through
Speaker 1: the paper. You'll be able to know from the direction
Speaker 1: of where the fletchings versus where the tip of the
Speaker 1: arrow hits. So, for example, if you shoot the arrow
Speaker 1: through the paper and you can see the impact of
Speaker 1: the field tip on the left and the fletchings are
Speaker 1: on the right, then you've got to adjust your rest accordingly,
Speaker 1: and the same thing would go as if you're fletching
Speaker 1: was high, you have to adjust your rest accordingly. The
Speaker 1: next step I like to do is I like to
Speaker 1: bear shaft tune that. And in order to do that,
Speaker 1: to make sure that your arrow is gonna fly like
Speaker 1: your fletched arrow is is I act I put wraps
Speaker 1: on the back of the arrow so that the arrow
Speaker 1: is waited exactly the same. A fletched arrow is going
Speaker 1: to weigh the exact same as a bear shaft arrow. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then you shoot and get a good bowl with the
Speaker 1: bear shaft. Again by the same manipulations, you can tell
Speaker 1: through the paper if the butt end of the arrow,
Speaker 1: the knock of the arrow is hitting to the right
Speaker 1: or to the left, And you make those adjustments accordingly
Speaker 1: until you get a perfect arrow flight. Then when you
Speaker 1: go out into the field, you want to have. A
Speaker 1: fletched arrow with a field tip is not going to
Speaker 1: fly the same as a fletched arrow with a broadhead.
Speaker 1: So end goal is to get your broad heads to
Speaker 1: fly perfectly out of your bow and to hit exactly
Speaker 1: where you're aiming. Right. So, technically, in theory, if you
Speaker 1: were to paper tune with a broadhead, air on your
Speaker 1: arrow and tune your bow to a broadhead and then
Speaker 1: side it into the broadhead. That's really kind of what
Speaker 1: your end goal is. But by the time you get
Speaker 1: to that point, you've chewed your target to pieces and
Speaker 1: maybe gone through a bunch of different broadheads. So a
Speaker 1: good way to do that is through a series of
Speaker 1: tuning with a bear shaft, flat shaft and manipulation on
Speaker 1: your rest or you're knocking point and getting those to
Speaker 1: fly true. If in theory and all this is in theory,
Speaker 1: because there's still the component of the shooter. Right. If
Speaker 1: you have a bear shaft that can fly through the
Speaker 1: air perfectly and fly through paper perfectly at five yards
Speaker 1: and then hit you know, the target in a straight angle,
Speaker 1: then in theory your bows and tunes so a broadhead
Speaker 1: should fly correctly, but it doesn't. It's not always the case.
Speaker 1: You still have to validate it right. You can't just
Speaker 1: print your dope chart off the internet and then slap
Speaker 1: it to your rifle and go and expect it all
Speaker 1: that works. You have to validate everything. Um. The way
Speaker 1: I do it is I go out once. Once I've
Speaker 1: paper tuned with a bear shaft, I'm out shooting at
Speaker 1: twenty yards and I'll shoot a flat drow and then
Speaker 1: I'll shoot a bear shaft arrow, and then I'll and
Speaker 1: I'll shoot them both the same spot, and I'll look
Speaker 1: at those and I want those to be perfectly parallel
Speaker 1: coming out of the target. So if it's not, if
Speaker 1: the bear shaft arrow would say that the knock end
Speaker 1: is kicked to the right, then I know that my
Speaker 1: bow is not perfectly in tune. Even though at five
Speaker 1: yards I may shoot bullet holes with both of those arrows.
Speaker 1: At twenty yards, that shaft could be off just a
Speaker 1: little bit. So that's just a micro tune adjustment on
Speaker 1: that rest. Until I can shoot at twenty or thirty
Speaker 1: yards a bear shaft and a fletch shaft and they're
Speaker 1: hitting perfectly parallel vertically and perfectly parallel horizontally into that target,
Speaker 1: then I know that my bow is is into Then
Speaker 1: more times than not, when I screw a broadhead onto
Speaker 1: that arrow and I shoot a field tip and a
Speaker 1: broad head, they're gonna almost perfectly. Thanks Tim, I think
Speaker 1: that that was something that was needed, especially for people
Speaker 1: understanding and and some of that's even more advanced, So
Speaker 1: I think that's really good that we can take some
Speaker 1: of that tuning stuff that you and I do and
Speaker 1: give it to guys that are just starting out because
Speaker 1: you know, okay, this is how far I can take this,
Speaker 1: and guys that there's a lot of guys that have
Speaker 1: shot their whole life and they go to the bow
Speaker 1: shop and they don't understand that once you get out
Speaker 1: and start shooting further distances yards to get those broadheads
Speaker 1: to fly right, to get that pinpoint accuracy, especially when
Speaker 1: you're talking about practicing day in, day out and you're
Speaker 1: in your backyard shooting your field tip. Now it's hunting season.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to screw on what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hunt with and know that that bow is exactly
Speaker 1: where I've been shooting the entire season. So thanks for that,
Speaker 1: you are you will forever go down in history as
Speaker 1: cutting the distance first guest lecturer. And if you guys
Speaker 1: want to find more information about Tim, I mean he's
Speaker 1: got the online bow shop. It's called hunting house dot com.
Speaker 1: He's els older model bows discounted prices, so it's the
Speaker 1: as a new model comes in, he gets the old
Speaker 1: models that sells them. So it's a it's a really
Speaker 1: good entry point to get into archery with a high
Speaker 1: performance bow at a lower price. He's got everything he needs.
Speaker 1: And then there's also options where you can have a
Speaker 1: pro tun done on it, where Tim will take the
Speaker 1: bow and actually do what he's just talking about here,
Speaker 1: someone will do that, take that bow and get it
Speaker 1: all tuned up. And then still, you know, like we
Speaker 1: talked about, every bow is custom specific to the individual shooters,
Speaker 1: so you'll still have to take it, but it will
Speaker 1: put it at that point where it's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to understand and get to that point than um if
Speaker 1: you were to just start from scratch. I hope you
Speaker 1: guys really enjoy this series so far. I actually don't
Speaker 1: think there's any way that I can cram more pertinent
Speaker 1: facts into this amount of time. It's like this is
Speaker 1: concentrated orange juice. I'm just like squeezing knowledge into a
Speaker 1: jar and then you're just getting it very concentrated. So
Speaker 1: it might be something that if you're new, go back
Speaker 1: and listen to a couple of times and get that
Speaker 1: bow out, start to start to get some practice and
Speaker 1: some stuff in the field. I think if you shot
Speaker 1: a lot a lot of these things, maybe something Maybe
Speaker 1: you're like me and you didn't have a teacher or
Speaker 1: you didn't have somebody that kind of led you through
Speaker 1: this process. So I think it's good stuff to hear,
Speaker 1: and I also think it's good stuff to kind of
Speaker 1: start researching and thinking about as you develop into archery
Speaker 1: and just understanding kind of the process of shooting, what
Speaker 1: it means to practice practice, practice, how to make perfect practice,
Speaker 1: and how to be repeatably consistent. And I think once
Speaker 1: you figured those things out, and once you start doing it,
Speaker 1: these things are gonna start like light bulbs are gonna
Speaker 1: be going off in your head. You're gonna be going like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what he means, this is what he means,
Speaker 1: and that really is going to play a huge factor
Speaker 1: and when when we get into the field, So that
Speaker 1: is gonna be episode three of this. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be becoming a successful bow hunter. So we're gonna take
Speaker 1: what we learned at the range. You know, starting out,
Speaker 1: we're even just a new hunter starting out getting ah
Speaker 1: getting to the range. Now becoming repeatably consistent, increasing our
Speaker 1: precision and our accuracy, and now we're gonna go into
Speaker 1: read like everybody's graduated, We're going into the two oh
Speaker 1: one portion of becoming a successful bow hunter. So next
Speaker 1: week I'm going to jump into the things of what
Speaker 1: it takes to actually put an arrow on target and
Speaker 1: get close to an animal. So we're gonna be covering
Speaker 1: things like getting close shots on game, picking the right spot,
Speaker 1: drawing unnoticed, all the little nuances to becoming a successful
Speaker 1: bow hunter. Because I don't want you to just be
Speaker 1: a good at shooting targets in the backyard. I want
Speaker 1: you to take that into the field and find success.
Speaker 1: So until next week, aims small miss, Small guys,