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 right now. I just want
Speaker 1: you to picture this. You pulled off the perfect stock
Speaker 1: on a giant mule, your buck that's bedded only thirty
Speaker 1: yards away. But now what as you move in on
Speaker 1: the stock? Getting within range is difficult. But just because
Speaker 1: you're close to a bedded animal with your bow does
Speaker 1: not mean that you should be visualizing fresh cookback straps
Speaker 1: are patting yourself on the back. Just yet, it's not
Speaker 1: the time to take out your friend and text everybody
Speaker 1: you've been successful, because in my opinion, you're really only
Speaker 1: half way there at this point. A lot goes wrong
Speaker 1: when you're in close, especially that close, And while some
Speaker 1: of it can be controlled, and there's things that you
Speaker 1: can do to put the odds in your favor, there's
Speaker 1: a lot that can still go wrong then maybe out
Speaker 1: of your control. So this week I'm going to cover
Speaker 1: tips on moves you can make in that red zone.
Speaker 1: But before we do. I want to share the story
Speaker 1: of two perfectly executed stocks and what happened next. The
Speaker 1: first stock I'm going to talk about happened in the
Speaker 1: southern Alps of New Zealand. I was hunting tar. I
Speaker 1: had my bow with me, and I had spotted this
Speaker 1: really good bull that had just come off the cliffs
Speaker 1: before the evening and fed down into the tustic. Now
Speaker 1: the tustic is like this, really tall, kind of like
Speaker 1: yellow grass as their primary food source, so they hang
Speaker 1: up in the cliffs in the daytime. And then I
Speaker 1: watched him walk down through the cliffs and move down
Speaker 1: to where he'd been feeding. He got in there and
Speaker 1: then just bedded down. But he moved down really late
Speaker 1: that day, so I figured I'll do my stock while
Speaker 1: he's bedded and then he'll get up before it gets
Speaker 1: too late and I can get a shot. I worked
Speaker 1: my way down, crawling and sliding, just keeping the hill
Speaker 1: where he couldn't see me. Now, this tustic is like
Speaker 1: I would say, almost knee probably knee high, maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit taller, so I couldn't even actually see him
Speaker 1: while he was bedded. As I stalked in, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just had to make good landmarks of where I
Speaker 1: thought he was, because I'm essentially stalking in this big
Speaker 1: open mountain side of grass and I couldn't actually put
Speaker 1: eyes on the bowl where he was bedded. So I
Speaker 1: get in and then I see horn tips sticking up
Speaker 1: above the tustic. I'm like, sweet, I range, it's within range,
Speaker 1: in that thirty five yard range something like that. Set
Speaker 1: my pin, get ready and wait, and I'm just waiting, waiting, waiting.
Speaker 1: But as I'm waiting, I'm above him, and I know
Speaker 1: that pretty soon the thermals are gonna shift and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get winded, and that's gonna be it. Also, it's
Speaker 1: fairly open, and once he stands up, if he looks
Speaker 1: my way, he might see me. But how tall the
Speaker 1: grass is and the slope of the hill, I might
Speaker 1: need to draw back and stand up, and I might
Speaker 1: be in the open to do that. So maybe if
Speaker 1: I could do something to get him to look the
Speaker 1: other direction, I'm within range. I've pulled off a perfect stock.
Speaker 1: I'm almost thinking in my head, man, this is a
Speaker 1: done deal. This is this bull is so close, this
Speaker 1: is this is gonna be awesome. He's probably one of
Speaker 1: the better ones I've been on with my bow. So
Speaker 1: I think, well, they aren't necessarily afraid of noise as
Speaker 1: much as some other animals because they live in the mountains,
Speaker 1: rocks and other things are constantly falling. So I decided
Speaker 1: I'm going to take a rock and chuck it past
Speaker 1: him and hoping that when it hits the ground below him,
Speaker 1: he'll stand up and kind of look down that way,
Speaker 1: giving me time to draw back, anchor in and release.
Speaker 1: So I find a small rock and I give it
Speaker 1: a huck, and I'm trying to be as quiet as
Speaker 1: possible so he doesn't hear me behind him doing this,
Speaker 1: and the rock lands maybe I don't know, ten yards
Speaker 1: past him in the tussock and doesn't make a lot
Speaker 1: of noise, and the bull doesn't do anything. He doesn't
Speaker 1: even react to it. Okay, So like grabbing another rock,
Speaker 1: a little bit bigger and give it a huck, and
Speaker 1: it lands, and as soon as I throw, I my
Speaker 1: releases on my bow, and I'm ready. As soon as
Speaker 1: that bull stands, I'm going to draw back and this
Speaker 1: is gonna be perfect, thinking, Okay, nothing happened. So I
Speaker 1: grab a little bit bigger rock, give that rock a huck.
Speaker 1: As soon as that rock hits the ground, that bull
Speaker 1: bolted out of there faster than you could even blink.
Speaker 1: It did not work at all. Now, I've done that
Speaker 1: rock technique before and had success. This time, I thought
Speaker 1: that was my best option. I figured it would work,
Speaker 1: and it absolutely didn't. Now I'm going to share the
Speaker 1: story of a mule deer hunt. I had spotted this
Speaker 1: good buck in this This is early season Nevada archery
Speaker 1: hunt deer in Velvet. I'm glassing for a particular deer
Speaker 1: and on this hillside across from me, I spot a
Speaker 1: really nice buck, like a high one seventy class four
Speaker 1: by four with a big cheater coming off one side,
Speaker 1: and he's by himself. I'm thinking this is perfect a
Speaker 1: solo deer that I've got a pretty good advantage. So
Speaker 1: I just sit there for most of the morning and
Speaker 1: watch him the bucks feeding. He goes and beds, and
Speaker 1: I look at and analyze the situation. I think, all right,
Speaker 1: it's still early. You know, there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: cover there. The sun's behind me. At this point, You're
Speaker 1: gonna get hot and move. Sure enough, but gets up,
Speaker 1: moves and he goes a long way. So I was
Speaker 1: glad that I stayed in that position and didn't stalk it.
Speaker 1: So he moves and he beds again in the spot.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it, and I'm like, man, the winds
Speaker 1: are kind of shifty. I'm just gonna wait and watch
Speaker 1: this deer. I've got a great view. I've got all day.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make this play. Right about an hour and
Speaker 1: a half after watching him bed, he gets up and
Speaker 1: walks to the next canyon over. He kind of drops
Speaker 1: down a little bit and there's I'm just looking at
Speaker 1: where he could be going, and there's this one big
Speaker 1: juniper tree. And the juniper trees are nice because they're
Speaker 1: the leaves are really dense and close together, and it
Speaker 1: just provides this really dark shade. And it was good
Speaker 1: because it was kind of on this point where he'd
Speaker 1: be getting wind. And I looked at him like, man,
Speaker 1: please bed there, Please bed there. And sure enough that
Speaker 1: buck walks right to there and plops down in the shadows.
Speaker 1: It was perfect because there's some like rim rock cliffs
Speaker 1: behind it and like a good area to stock down.
Speaker 1: I could use some of the rocks and made some
Speaker 1: markings of where I was going to stock to and
Speaker 1: this is maybe a mile or so away, so he
Speaker 1: was the ways out there, maybe even further than that.
Speaker 1: Actually decided all right. Now, it's like mid morning, eleven o'clock.
Speaker 1: The day is heating up, the winds perfect. There's like
Speaker 1: a good thermal that day, just especially how hot it
Speaker 1: was was going from high desert get these huge temperature
Speaker 1: swings where it might be a forty degree temperature swing,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that picks up in that early morning,
Speaker 1: and so you get these huge thermals that just rush
Speaker 1: up the mountain like perfect, this is gonna be great.
Speaker 1: I get above him, start stalking down and I was
Speaker 1: actually self filming, so I had to stock this buck twice.
Speaker 1: I'm like, one, it's a really good, mature, high quality deer.
Speaker 1: I've got to stock in. But I had to stock in.
Speaker 1: And so what I was doing because it was just
Speaker 1: really loud, rocky, almost like this volcanic type rock where
Speaker 1: you'd step on it was kind of like loose marbles
Speaker 1: a little bit, so kind of loud, and there's a
Speaker 1: few places where I just wanted to be extra quiet
Speaker 1: and had to stay low because the way that the
Speaker 1: cliffs came down, I couldn't go that direction, So I
Speaker 1: kind of had to pop out in a place where
Speaker 1: I thought there's a potential he could see me. So
Speaker 1: I'm crawling in and I would leave the camera. I'd
Speaker 1: crawl up maybe forty fift yards at a time, drop
Speaker 1: my bow, crawl back, get my camera, crawl back up,
Speaker 1: stock with the bow. So I end up creeping in,
Speaker 1: getting my bow to thirty three yards and that buck's
Speaker 1: betted there. I can see his antler tips coming out
Speaker 1: from either side like a little bit of sage, and
Speaker 1: it's just perfect, Like, okay, do not stand up while
Speaker 1: I'm going to get the camera. Crawled back, get the camera,
Speaker 1: crawl back up, and I get set up. I'm now
Speaker 1: within thirty three yards of this buck that I've stocked twice.
Speaker 1: It was the perfect stock on a bedded buck. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just couldn't ask for more. I positioned myself and
Speaker 1: I do a little bit of investigating, you know, just
Speaker 1: to make sure that I can see if I can
Speaker 1: get a shot like sneak and arrow in there somewhere,
Speaker 1: and I can't. I can just pretty much see his
Speaker 1: head and his antlers. So I put myself in a
Speaker 1: position where when he stands up, I'll have a shot.
Speaker 1: I can see where his antlers are at, and I
Speaker 1: kind of anticipate, okay, when he stands there. His head
Speaker 1: is actually gonna be blocked when he stands, but his
Speaker 1: body is going to be in this one opening. I mean,
Speaker 1: you cannot get a better scenario. It's a great buck.
Speaker 1: So I get set up and I'm just waiting, waiting, waiting.
Speaker 1: Hour goes by. The sun is just beating down on me.
Speaker 1: I've got my face mask on. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: stay not melting in the sun, just focusing on this deer,
Speaker 1: kind of just in a relaxed position. Another hour goes by,
Speaker 1: like all right, sooner or later, the sun's gonna move
Speaker 1: enough where he's gonna get hot and need to stand up.
Speaker 1: And I thought of every scenario. I thought, oh, maybe
Speaker 1: I could get a shot while he's betted. Maybe I
Speaker 1: should toss a little rock. But I've had that work.
Speaker 1: I've had that not work. My preference is to not
Speaker 1: ever have to do that. Just wait for them, be
Speaker 1: unaware of your presence, and not try to mess it
Speaker 1: up myself. You know, everything's really good. All I need
Speaker 1: this buck to do is stand and it's a field tag.
Speaker 1: I think I actually even I was like thirty yards.
Speaker 1: You know, I had plenty of time taking pictures, texting
Speaker 1: my friend Joe like, dude, I'm with it. I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I'm right here, man, thirty yards, just waiting, been there
Speaker 1: for hours. Then I'm sitting there and I feel something,
Speaker 1: a slight tickle of wind on the back of my neck,
Speaker 1: and that dear blew out faster than that tar blew out.
Speaker 1: I waited there all day. Everything was perfect, by every
Speaker 1: measure of success, I've done everything right, and something that
Speaker 1: I couldn't control happened and that buck ran out. I
Speaker 1: share those two stories to say there's a lot of
Speaker 1: different options, a lot of different things you can do,
Speaker 1: and a lot of things that go wrong. So the
Speaker 1: tips that I'm going to share today are ways that
Speaker 1: when you get into range, how to just kind of
Speaker 1: swing the odds in your favor, because even on the
Speaker 1: perfect stock, there's a lot to manage and a lot
Speaker 1: to think about when you're in that close proximity to
Speaker 1: whatever you're stalking. I think a major misconception about stalking
Speaker 1: and on bedded animal is that that's the time that
Speaker 1: they're very vulnerable. Now, it's a time that they're stationary,
Speaker 1: but it is not necessarily that they're vulnerable. They're betted
Speaker 1: there because they have a certain net of safety. And
Speaker 1: that's why when you get within that what I call
Speaker 1: the red zone, that range where you're close enough to shoot,
Speaker 1: but you're also close enough that a lot of things
Speaker 1: can go wrong and you may not have a shot
Speaker 1: at that time, so you're gonna have to wait. And
Speaker 1: by waiting, you know, you're putting yourself at the mercy
Speaker 1: of natural elements that can change very quickly. But there's
Speaker 1: also things, you know, having stocked many animals in the bed,
Speaker 1: I've been very successful doing it, and I found that
Speaker 1: in that crunch time, there's a few things that you
Speaker 1: can do outside of those things you can't control that
Speaker 1: really helps swing the odds of success into your favor. Now,
Speaker 1: before I even go too much further my philosophy, when
Speaker 1: I stalk in on something betted is my first thought
Speaker 1: is I don't want to have to wait. Part of
Speaker 1: that is because I'm slightly impatient, but the other part
Speaker 1: is I've had things like that scenario where the wind
Speaker 1: shifts and the animal runs away. Now, I think there's
Speaker 1: probably people that will tell you, oh, if shooting at
Speaker 1: a bedded animal is unethical for whatever reasons, I disagree
Speaker 1: with that, and I think that maybe the main reason
Speaker 1: that people say that or that's a misconception, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is because they don't understand the vitals of the animal
Speaker 1: and they think that maybe the way that the animals
Speaker 1: bedded or other things doesn't offer a good shot. I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about taking marginal shots on bedded animals that
Speaker 1: don't offer good shots, but what I'm looking for. The
Speaker 1: first thing I do when I stalking on a bedded
Speaker 1: animal is see if I have a shot. And what
Speaker 1: I mean by that is, I'm only going to shoot
Speaker 1: at a bedded animal if I have a shot that
Speaker 1: has is higher percentage of vital and success that I
Speaker 1: know when I release that arrow for on, that animal
Speaker 1: will die quickly, and that is that is doable. It's
Speaker 1: actually in my like when I think about it, I
Speaker 1: prefer taking that betted shot if it's a good one.
Speaker 1: Because of the animals stationary, I have time, I'm not rushed,
Speaker 1: there's not other factors in the way. I can take
Speaker 1: my time to analyze all the factors and then decide
Speaker 1: whether I'm going to shoot or wait, so it's this.
Speaker 1: As soon as I get in, I always make the
Speaker 1: shoot or weight assessment. Most of the time it ends
Speaker 1: up being weight, but there are those few times where
Speaker 1: everything's lined up just right where it can be shoot.
Speaker 1: So when you get in the first thing you want
Speaker 1: to do is kind of analyze the situation and decide
Speaker 1: whether there's a shoot opportunity to do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: i might be at thirty yards, but I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: my time and really scrutinize how the animals betted, being
Speaker 1: very honest with myself and saying, this is a very
Speaker 1: big decision, so everything has to be a pent right.
Speaker 1: Is the animal betted slightly quartered? To me? If it is,
Speaker 1: that's not a shot I'm going to take on a
Speaker 1: bedded animal, That shoulder blade is going to be in
Speaker 1: the way. The vitals are going to be in an
Speaker 1: awkward position because of the way that they're laying, and
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna I'm gonna pass. Is it bedded slightly
Speaker 1: quartering away? That might make a difference. Is it really
Speaker 1: steep downhill or is it more flat? Am I shooting up?
Speaker 1: Or am I shooting down? So I'm gonna factor in
Speaker 1: all these things. I'm also going to use my binoculars
Speaker 1: and really focus in on the animal, and I can
Speaker 1: start to pick apart. Okay, here's where the muscles are.
Speaker 1: How is it laying on the hill, like, is it
Speaker 1: laying kind of back where its lungs and heart might
Speaker 1: be rolled up? And really understanding the position of the animal,
Speaker 1: where the vitals are, and just looking up close, even
Speaker 1: at that close range, saying Okay, here's where the vitals are,
Speaker 1: Here's where the bones are. Okay, I have a shot
Speaker 1: or I don't have a shot. That's the first thing
Speaker 1: that I generally do. Now. A couple of tips on
Speaker 1: that when you're within range, when you're in that red
Speaker 1: zone on a bedded animal. One of the tips that
Speaker 1: I always think about, because I've had this blow my
Speaker 1: stock many times, is being careful to shield your optic
Speaker 1: from reflection. A lot of the time, maybe the sun's
Speaker 1: out there, it's high in the sky. Every time you
Speaker 1: raise up your range finder or binoculars, you run the
Speaker 1: risk of the sun hitting the lens and then throwing
Speaker 1: out almost like a signaling near flash that can go
Speaker 1: into the dark shadows of where it's bedded or somewhere else,
Speaker 1: and catch the eye of the animal. So every time
Speaker 1: I raise my optics up and make sure that they're shielded,
Speaker 1: they're covered with shade and nothing's gonna reflect off that lens,
Speaker 1: because even if the animal can't see you, that flash
Speaker 1: can travel for I mean, airplanes can see that flash
Speaker 1: from ten thousand feet above, So it's it's not unexpected
Speaker 1: for a deer to catch that in the peripheral vision.
Speaker 1: That's something that you just definitely want to be careful
Speaker 1: of when you're in that red zone. So let's say
Speaker 1: we've got a clear shot. Everything looks good, awesome, that
Speaker 1: that's a great scenario. I'm going to take that shot.
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen very often because I do scrutinize those
Speaker 1: shots so much, and you should too. But so now
Speaker 1: the options. Let's say now we can't take a shot,
Speaker 1: we gotta wait. What you're waiting for is you're waiting
Speaker 1: for that opportunity, and that opportunity normally arises when the
Speaker 1: animal stands up. So right now, I'm just gonna run
Speaker 1: through my process. When I get within range on a
Speaker 1: wait scenario. The first thing I gotta tell myself is
Speaker 1: I gotta be patient. I need to be patient enough
Speaker 1: to give that animal time to naturally stand and give
Speaker 1: me a shot. And I go in with the mindset
Speaker 1: that the sun might be beating down on me, I
Speaker 1: might be there for hours, but I'm already this far
Speaker 1: and this is how I'm going to be successful. So
Speaker 1: you just have to get your mindset of be ready
Speaker 1: to wait. And when I'm stalking in on a bedded animal,
Speaker 1: I go in with that mindset every time. Hey, I
Speaker 1: gotta be ready to wait. You're gonna stalk in and
Speaker 1: then you're gonna be patient. As soon as I get
Speaker 1: within that range of where I'm going to shoot from
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna sit and wait, I probably won't be
Speaker 1: able to stand up. So I'm gonna set my body
Speaker 1: in a position where my knees are perpendicular to the
Speaker 1: line of the deer. So it's like, to describe it
Speaker 1: a little bit better. Think about yourself shooting at a target.
Speaker 1: Your your legs are like if you drew a line
Speaker 1: from your toe tips, they should be pointing toward the target.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do that same thing with my knees
Speaker 1: while I wait. So there's not a lot of movement,
Speaker 1: not a lot of shuffling around, I've seen so many
Speaker 1: times or had instances where I'm just sitting comfortably in
Speaker 1: like a different position. The deer gets up and now
Speaker 1: I'm just squared off with it, and I draw back.
Speaker 1: But my body positions awkward. I don't have as much
Speaker 1: mobility to move, and it's really hard to make a
Speaker 1: good shot or impossible to get, you know, a good
Speaker 1: shot off. So the first thing I do is I
Speaker 1: set my knees. And what I like to do is
Speaker 1: I kind of sit in away where one side of
Speaker 1: my body's on the ground, and then I've got kind
Speaker 1: of my knees stacked on top of each other. So
Speaker 1: I'm sitting comfortably because I might be there for a
Speaker 1: long time, but I can easily move into a sitting
Speaker 1: shooting position already ready already, if that makes sense. Now,
Speaker 1: the other thing that I do is I always obviously
Speaker 1: have my bow ready arrow. No, it's ready, you know,
Speaker 1: have the release ready, whether it's if you use like
Speaker 1: a back tension style or thumb release, it's already hooked
Speaker 1: on the de loop, or you know, sometimes I'll just
Speaker 1: sit there with my release. I use a wrist release
Speaker 1: just hooked onto the de loop. For the most part,
Speaker 1: you know, on those long waits, you gotta make yourself comfortable.
Speaker 1: But you also want to make sure that wherever you
Speaker 1: set your bow, you can raise it up without making
Speaker 1: a lot of movement, without making a lot of sound,
Speaker 1: because you might not have a lot of time and
Speaker 1: you might have to, you know, be from zero to
Speaker 1: a hundred in a very short amount of time without
Speaker 1: making a lot of noise. So make sure that that
Speaker 1: bow is ready, that bows like in a way that
Speaker 1: you can easily get it up and drawback without having
Speaker 1: to do too much. I'm also going to pre range
Speaker 1: the deer as well as other things around the deer
Speaker 1: or whatever I'm stalking in on. So I'm gonna range
Speaker 1: where they're at. I'm gonna know exactly where that deer is,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna set my pin for that, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to range stuff that's like, okay, how that next tree? What?
Speaker 1: What's just understanding the distances around because you may not
Speaker 1: have time to rerange. So there's so many times where
Speaker 1: you might draw back right when he stands up, the
Speaker 1: buck stands up, you don't have a shot. He walks
Speaker 1: off towards this other bush to go bed down, and
Speaker 1: you're kind of guessing, but you've had the time to
Speaker 1: understand and just really know that area where you're at,
Speaker 1: know all possible scenarios before they happen. One thing that
Speaker 1: I think is huge is anticipating where the deer is
Speaker 1: going to be when they stand and understanding whether you
Speaker 1: have a shot or not. What that's gonna do is
Speaker 1: that's going to give you a good indicator of when
Speaker 1: you're going to draw. I think this is like a
Speaker 1: major novice mistake. You stalk in on the buck it's bedded,
Speaker 1: and that buck stands up, and as it stands, you
Speaker 1: draw and you have no shot, and you're holding, holding, holding, holding,
Speaker 1: You're holding for a point where now you can't hold
Speaker 1: any longer. You have to let down, and you're at
Speaker 1: a very vulnerable position where you're probably gonna risk spooking
Speaker 1: that deer by letting down at some point. So what
Speaker 1: I like to do is anticipate when I'm going to
Speaker 1: get my shot before I even think about drawing back.
Speaker 1: So one thing that I use is a good indicator,
Speaker 1: especially is like mule deer, you can use their antlers
Speaker 1: and just see, okay, where's its head and neck, where
Speaker 1: the top of its head is if it's sitting up right,
Speaker 1: is generally kind of where it's body like the bottom
Speaker 1: of its body line is going to be, depending on
Speaker 1: the hill and other things. So I'm gonna anticipate, Okay,
Speaker 1: when it stands up, Am I gonna have a clear shot?
Speaker 1: Or is it gonna stand up and I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: branches in my way? Am I going to have an
Speaker 1: obstructed shot above the animal? Or am I going to
Speaker 1: have a clear shot? Because understanding what's going to happen
Speaker 1: next when it stands will help me make a better
Speaker 1: decision of when to draw. Now, as you're sitting there,
Speaker 1: you want to anticipate when that animal is going to
Speaker 1: stand up, because that's when you can get ready. I've
Speaker 1: noticed like mule deer, and every animal kind of makes
Speaker 1: its own little move before it gets up, and so
Speaker 1: you're just gonna watch them mule here, often you'll see
Speaker 1: like this crazy ear flick and then they start to
Speaker 1: stand up. Elk kind of like to rock their antlers
Speaker 1: back and forth before standing up. So every time I
Speaker 1: see those movements, I'm like at the ready in that
Speaker 1: draw position. My bow should already be vertical, my release
Speaker 1: on and I'm ready to pull back. Now, there's times
Speaker 1: where they do those moves and they don't get up
Speaker 1: or whatever. But every time you see it in uh
Speaker 1: stand up indicator, you want your boat already up and
Speaker 1: ready so you don't have to make those movements later.
Speaker 1: Because the time that that animals betted is if you've
Speaker 1: been sitting there for a while, you already know it
Speaker 1: doesn't see you. You know that's the time to get
Speaker 1: set up. You don't know what's going to happen after
Speaker 1: it stands, so you really need to be ready in
Speaker 1: those moments and anticipate that standing up beforehand. My preferred
Speaker 1: option is if I know when the animal stands up,
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a shot. I like to draw
Speaker 1: back while that dear standing. I can think of so
Speaker 1: many times where, especially with Muler, I've been successful. As
Speaker 1: that dear stands, I see those ears flick, I see
Speaker 1: him start to go and as he's standing up, you
Speaker 1: know his heads now probably facing downhill. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: hard for him to look uphill and stand if. If
Speaker 1: that's the position that he's in, you know, I try
Speaker 1: to anticipate that. But as he's standing, I'm drawing. So
Speaker 1: as soon as he's stopped, I'm already settled in and
Speaker 1: can release that era before he goes takes a step
Speaker 1: anything like that, before he's too distracted or too focused
Speaker 1: in on anything like While he's distracted standing up, I'm
Speaker 1: generally drawing if I know that I'm going to have
Speaker 1: a shot when he's fully standing. If I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm going to have that shot, I'll wait now. Often animals,
Speaker 1: when they stand from the bed, they're gonna be thinking
Speaker 1: about a couple of things, and you want to try
Speaker 1: to anticipate this. Are they going to just be moving
Speaker 1: a little bit too to re bed? If you see
Speaker 1: that the sun's just beating on him, now, you're gonna think, Okay,
Speaker 1: he's gonna go towards the shade. So which shade is
Speaker 1: he going to go to the same tree or is
Speaker 1: there some other spot around that you've already pre ranged
Speaker 1: where you think he might walk to. A lot of
Speaker 1: times they'll stand up, they'll stretch a little bit, they'll
Speaker 1: walk out a little ways and start feet. That's a
Speaker 1: big one. That's where pre ranging comes in. And if
Speaker 1: that's the case, you aren't gonna have a shot. What
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to do is as soon as that
Speaker 1: animal starts to make a move and look away, that's
Speaker 1: when you're gonna draw and be ready to take your shot.
Speaker 1: As I'm sitting there, you know, you've got time, You've
Speaker 1: got a lot of things to think about. So when
Speaker 1: I stalk in on a bedded animal, one thing that's
Speaker 1: going through my mind is just my shot process. What
Speaker 1: that shot is gonna look like, What I'm gonna do,
Speaker 1: you know, think about picking a spot on the animal.
Speaker 1: Think about calming your nerves. You've been within range of
Speaker 1: this animal for long enough. If you start to get
Speaker 1: that crazy amount of you know, excitement, that's when you
Speaker 1: start to rush things. So allow that time when you're
Speaker 1: within range of this animal to just kind of meld
Speaker 1: into the surroundings. And it really does make a difference
Speaker 1: if you think about it. There's times where I've stalked
Speaker 1: in on deer that I know I'm not going to shoot,
Speaker 1: and it's it's almost like they just never leave, Like
Speaker 1: you have opportunity after opportunity. When you're in on a
Speaker 1: deer that you're trying to kill, you get this rush
Speaker 1: of adrenaline, and that rush of the adrenaline causes you
Speaker 1: to rush things and by rushing things in many ways
Speaker 1: causes different outcomes. You know. Now, it may not be
Speaker 1: that the animal necessarily senses that, but it it may
Speaker 1: sense you doing movements at times you shouldn't so one thing.
Speaker 1: While I'm there, I kind of think through this process
Speaker 1: of Okay, I'm gonna wait for my opportunity shot. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna draw back. I'm going to focus in on that spot.
Speaker 1: Like you've had time to look at the deer. You
Speaker 1: don't need to look at the antlers. You just think
Speaker 1: about making a perfect shot and whatever your process is
Speaker 1: for going through that shot. You know, me personally, I
Speaker 1: just kind of think about picking a spot on that animal.
Speaker 1: I like to find one one hair, Like I think
Speaker 1: about aiming for one hair, and I think about where
Speaker 1: that's going to be and what I'm going to visualize
Speaker 1: and pick a spot focus in, and then I don't
Speaker 1: even think about the rest. I just shoot, and that
Speaker 1: for me has been very successful. Now, the thing you
Speaker 1: don't want to think about, because I've done this and
Speaker 1: every time I do it doesn't work out, is that
Speaker 1: those thoughts of oh, it's I'm I'm so close, this
Speaker 1: is such a done deal. The times you're just counting
Speaker 1: your success before it happens. Every time you do that,
Speaker 1: you literally shoot yourself in the foot, because there's this
Speaker 1: psychological thing of when you think something's easy, you don't
Speaker 1: take all the precautions that you need to take. You
Speaker 1: get lax, you sit funny you, and then things go
Speaker 1: wrong and they go wrong really fast. So if I
Speaker 1: keep that mindset of is still difficult, I'm not there yet.
Speaker 1: I need to like follow through, think about the plans
Speaker 1: and the execution, not how close I am and when
Speaker 1: that deer stands up, Oh, this is just such a
Speaker 1: done deal. Backstraps tonight, baby. That's like every time I
Speaker 1: start thinking about that, thinking about how I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a field photo or who I'm gonna text first,
Speaker 1: I know it's not going to work out at that point.
Speaker 1: But it's because in my mind, I get lax, and
Speaker 1: you just end up doing things that that aren't focused
Speaker 1: in on the exact task at hand. There are so
Speaker 1: many facets to spot and stock hunting, and there's so
Speaker 1: many difference in areas. But just having this type of information,
Speaker 1: I think is really going to help you if you
Speaker 1: encounter maybe a new situation that you haven't seen, or
Speaker 1: maybe you've done this a million times, But just kind
Speaker 1: of thinking through a few of these things that I
Speaker 1: go through every stock, I found that as I got
Speaker 1: better at understanding the things that went wrong, I became
Speaker 1: a lot better in making things go right. And that's
Speaker 1: just time in the field and understanding what to do
Speaker 1: in certain scenarios. And I'm really thankful for that, having
Speaker 1: that opportunity. You know, there are a lot of stocks
Speaker 1: that don't work out or things go wrong that you
Speaker 1: can't control. But I try to limit the things that
Speaker 1: I can control from going wrong. You've already got so
Speaker 1: much stacked against you doing something like not being ready
Speaker 1: for when the animal stands up, not having your body
Speaker 1: in the right position, you know, not accounting for this
Speaker 1: or that in crunch time. Just one little mistake there
Speaker 1: could mean, you know, the difference between getting a shot
Speaker 1: and not. So I try to control all those little things.
Speaker 1: And I think by just kind of understand ending some
Speaker 1: of the little nuances like that, even just shielding your
Speaker 1: optics from the sun and stuff like that, you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot more successful in the long run. And
Speaker 1: you're just you're you're minimizing your chance to mess something
Speaker 1: up and That's that's what this is all about. I
Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed a little bit of the this kind
Speaker 1: of I guess it would be like a three week
Speaker 1: thing on spot and stock tactics. So if you missed
Speaker 1: any of the other two we talked about cutting off,
Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, planning your stock on a
Speaker 1: bedded animal, and then now obviously getting within range and
Speaker 1: what to do when you're in the red zone. So
Speaker 1: if you missed any of those, you know, feel free
Speaker 1: to go back. If you've got friends or whatever you
Speaker 1: think you enjoy this podcast, please I appreciate the support
Speaker 1: from everyone you know share it, and I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Next week, I want to talk about a little bit
Speaker 1: of summer scouting and maybe some stuff to plan for
Speaker 1: that fall season. So if you get a little bit
Speaker 1: of time to go out and pre scout some tips
Speaker 1: on that, I think that will be huge for your
Speaker 1: success as well. So I'm really excited about that. Also,
Speaker 1: as a reminder, I talked about it last week, but
Speaker 1: I've got a massive gear giveaway. I want to just
Speaker 1: support you guys for supporting me, So I'm going to
Speaker 1: give away a package of gear that is essentially everything
Speaker 1: you need to hunt from now until forever. It's like
Speaker 1: it's just an awesome package of great gear, high quality
Speaker 1: gear that's gonna last a long time. So if you're
Speaker 1: interested in that, you can go over to my Instagram page.
Speaker 1: I'll just leave that link in my bio there so
Speaker 1: you can find it easily. And yeah, I'm super excited
Speaker 1: for this season coming up. I'm excited for you guys
Speaker 1: to share your success with me. There's I know some
Speaker 1: people in California've already been chasing some black tails in
Speaker 1: the A zone, and there's gonna be some antelope seasons
Speaker 1: starting in a couple of weeks, you know, depending on
Speaker 1: tag draws, and then early mule deer seasons August mule
Speaker 1: deer season. So I'm excited you know, as always, feel
Speaker 1: free to share your success or your stories. I've I've
Speaker 1: got a lot already from people black tail hunting in
Speaker 1: some good spring bearer stories, so I appreciate it. Until
Speaker 1: next week, get within range and don't count your eggs
Speaker 1: until they're hatched.