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. Welcome back to the podcast everyone.
Speaker 1: This week, I'm gonna be going over when I think
Speaker 1: are six pretty fun archery practice games to make you
Speaker 1: a better hunter. Now, with archery season just around the corner,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of start dates coming up August September,
Speaker 1: and now is the time to kind of get in
Speaker 1: the repetitions, break the bow out, and get in some
Speaker 1: practice because when it comes to bow hunting, you really
Speaker 1: need to make that one shot count. If you think
Speaker 1: about it, there's all this energy difficulty just to get
Speaker 1: within bow range, and if you don't hit what you're
Speaker 1: aiming at then it's all for not. In real hunting situation,
Speaker 1: you can encounter a ton of different obstacles, pressure, different
Speaker 1: weather during that shot. So this summer, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you six archery games that are going to kind of
Speaker 1: cover that gamut of what you might encounter. So when
Speaker 1: you draw back on a deer elk. The situation is
Speaker 1: not going to be new. While shooting dots and ten
Speaker 1: rings is fun, you know, if you're doing a league
Speaker 1: or something like that, it's really fun to just shoot
Speaker 1: for scores. But I'm gonna mix it up on the
Speaker 1: range with some of my favorite archery games. But before
Speaker 1: we do that, I figured i'd share the story of
Speaker 1: a white tail hunt and an awkward shot. I really
Speaker 1: wasn't prepared for. This one takes place in northern Wyoming.
Speaker 1: I actually had an archery tag and a friend who
Speaker 1: had a ranch kind of down there run some cattle,
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, you can come down and uh,
Speaker 1: you've got some stand set up and hunt some white tails.
Speaker 1: And I was like, sweet, I've actually this was like
Speaker 1: the first time I ever hunted out of a tree stand. Well,
Speaker 1: and I take that back. I'd hunted out of a
Speaker 1: tree stand before. I've never shot anything out of a
Speaker 1: tree stand, and I was like, okay, cool. So before
Speaker 1: I went down there, I was like, man, I better
Speaker 1: put up this ladder stand in the back are and
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I'm just gonna practice shooting from
Speaker 1: this stand because it was like it was foreign to me,
Speaker 1: and I thought I don't know. I mean just I
Speaker 1: always have this mentality of like I need to practice shooting,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna shoot. So it was like sweet. So
Speaker 1: I just put the target out there, a little three
Speaker 1: D target, went up in the ladder stand and shot
Speaker 1: quite a few rounds. It was like quite a few arrows,
Speaker 1: and I I like feeling good. I was like, sweet, Okay,
Speaker 1: I got this like pretty simple, and they're probably gonna
Speaker 1: be pretty close, so it's not really gonna be a
Speaker 1: big difference. So anyways, I'm out there and the first
Speaker 1: day I get set up, like sitting in the tree stand,
Speaker 1: and it's like this area where they move off the
Speaker 1: feeding and they're moving into bedding, so we kind of
Speaker 1: like are cutting them off in between the bedding. So
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and like alright, seeing nothing, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like the deer. Definitely, it's
Speaker 1: that time of morning, deer leaving the feed. They're moving
Speaker 1: through these thicker areas. It's like all right, dear funneling by,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of deer move by. I
Speaker 1: was like, this is pretty awesome. If this is if
Speaker 1: my tree stand hunting experiences were always like this, it's
Speaker 1: like a caribou migration. Under my stand, does small box
Speaker 1: you know, bucks moving And I'm like, okay, so this
Speaker 1: is early September, so there's no rutting action. It's not
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna be able to call him or anything.
Speaker 1: You just got to be in the right spot. And
Speaker 1: so this one buck comes out and I was like,
Speaker 1: is a nice you know what I'll do it, I'll
Speaker 1: go white tail talk lingo. It was a nice tin point.
Speaker 1: I would call it a four point. That means it
Speaker 1: has brow times and four points off the main beam.
Speaker 1: I call that a four point on both sides. Uh.
Speaker 1: But just to build a picture for everybody of the
Speaker 1: white tail hunts, it's the ten point. So he's coming
Speaker 1: like right down the same trail that some other deer
Speaker 1: didn't it. I was like, this would be the best
Speaker 1: wait till I've ever taken with a bow. And he
Speaker 1: goes off and like takes this trail on the back
Speaker 1: side of the tree and he's like going, he starts
Speaker 1: feeding like right behind I'm in this big cottonwood. I'm like,
Speaker 1: dang it, and I've got like all my stuff on.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure many white tail owners have experienced
Speaker 1: this I've got this big old cotton wood and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's behind this tree and he's on the so like
Speaker 1: I'm shoot right handed, but he's on the side where
Speaker 1: I can't really get around like the trees in the way,
Speaker 1: and me being someone that is like, yeah, he's close,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get him, but there's gonna be no opportunity
Speaker 1: once he walks past this. So like somehow like duck down,
Speaker 1: real quiet, get the harness around where I think I
Speaker 1: could draw back, and like, okay, I don't want my
Speaker 1: string to hit the safety harness that's into the tree.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna get this the things.
Speaker 1: This harness is pretty tight, so I can kind of
Speaker 1: like lean out, and I'm like in the most awkward
Speaker 1: angle and I've got to like wrench my body around
Speaker 1: this tree. And I'm thinking to myself, it didn't even
Speaker 1: cross my mind to practice this weird twisted around the
Speaker 1: tree shot angle, Like this is probably the closest I've
Speaker 1: ever shot a deer, And I'm thinking it's probably the
Speaker 1: hardest shot I've ever had to make. It like leaning out,
Speaker 1: completely off balance, twisted around the tree, aiming down. I
Speaker 1: picked the spot let the arrow go from perfect shot.
Speaker 1: I'm like, sweet. The deer like jumps, looks around and
Speaker 1: then goes back to feeding, and I was like, what
Speaker 1: is going on? Did I miss that dear? No way,
Speaker 1: I missed that deer. But I was at like such
Speaker 1: a weird angle that I was like, man, maybe I
Speaker 1: just like torqu the bow weird or something happened. And
Speaker 1: I'm like watching him, and the deer's just like nothing's wrong,
Speaker 1: like huh, and he's like looking, he looks around and
Speaker 1: he just like starts walking out and he's feeding away
Speaker 1: perfectly fine, like nothing touched him. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: what I can't see him that well because now he's
Speaker 1: like behind this. So I'm leaning out the other side.
Speaker 1: I've got my binoculars and I look and I see
Speaker 1: where the arrow hit and I'm like that's perfect. It's
Speaker 1: like what happened? I cannot figure it out? And the
Speaker 1: deer's just like, no big deal. I'm thinking at any
Speaker 1: second like that that should have been that dear should
Speaker 1: have just run off and fell over dead. And he
Speaker 1: just goes back to feeding, twitching his tail all right.
Speaker 1: So I just keep watching him, watching him, and like
Speaker 1: a few minutes later. I don't know, maybe it seemed
Speaker 1: like forever. I felt like it was forever. The deer
Speaker 1: just normal falls over stone dead, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I think what had happened was like the
Speaker 1: arrow just zipped through him. Was so close and it
Speaker 1: just zipped right through him. It didn't hit any ribs
Speaker 1: or anything. He heard the arrow hit the ground, maybe
Speaker 1: the bogo off jumped out thirty yards and then just
Speaker 1: was like it was nothing, had no clues even shot
Speaker 1: and then fell over. I went down. It was my
Speaker 1: best buck at that point. It was my best archery
Speaker 1: white tail buck. I was super stoked, and I remember
Speaker 1: thinking like, well, I definitely didn't practice that acrobatic shot
Speaker 1: trying to shoot around the tree. But I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: if I ever know, I'm gonna hunt from a tree
Speaker 1: stand again, and I'm definitely gonna set the target behind
Speaker 1: the tree that I'm sitting in, because that's probably the
Speaker 1: most likely option. I'm gonna have to shoot in a
Speaker 1: really awkward position. They never come in where you want
Speaker 1: them to. So from that point on, I kind of
Speaker 1: changed my mindset to thinking, okay, just getting up in
Speaker 1: the tree stand, but just trying to kind of change
Speaker 1: my practice to the ways that I might encounter things
Speaker 1: are a more realistic ways of things go crazy when
Speaker 1: you're hunting, and I need to practice that way as well.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite parts about summertime is really just
Speaker 1: this prepping for bow season. I mean, I definitely shoot
Speaker 1: you around, but when summer hits, it's like everything kicks
Speaker 1: into gear. I start visualizing those tags that I've got
Speaker 1: in my pocket, and I really start amping up my practice.
Speaker 1: No matter how long I've been bow hunting, hunting, whatever,
Speaker 1: there's always this kind of feeling of that awesome, excited
Speaker 1: anticipation and then that slight feeling of unpreparedness, especially and
Speaker 1: it comes like, Okay, I've got a new bow or
Speaker 1: something that I'm trying to get ready this season. You know,
Speaker 1: I've got some great tags, And there's always those times
Speaker 1: where maybe drew a limited entry tag, and it's like
Speaker 1: this is a once in a life to that that
Speaker 1: reality of like this might be the only chance I
Speaker 1: get it something like this, or even you're planning a
Speaker 1: I don't know, uh, over the counter elk archery hunt,
Speaker 1: it's like this is my chance to be successful, or
Speaker 1: this is gonna be my hunt, and of course things
Speaker 1: go wrong, things go right, but one thing I always
Speaker 1: don't want to happen is the thing that go wrong,
Speaker 1: be me having the perfect shot and doing something that
Speaker 1: messes it up, or getting into a situation where I
Speaker 1: did everything right. Now it's time to draw back and
Speaker 1: I can't get comfortable, I can't make the shot, there's
Speaker 1: I don't have enough type. Something goes wrong and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: it was maybe something that I could have fixed in
Speaker 1: my preparedness during the summer. So I really like to
Speaker 1: just kind of start shooting. I mean during the summertime,
Speaker 1: I really ramp it up, and it's fun to just
Speaker 1: kind of create ways that my shooting really mimics my
Speaker 1: hunting scenarios. This year, I've got I actually got pretty
Speaker 1: lucky and drew a tag in New Mexico for ELK.
Speaker 1: I got a deer tag in my home state in Nevada.
Speaker 1: I also kind of picked up a couple of different
Speaker 1: over the counter tags not knowing what was going to
Speaker 1: go on, but I have a general Montana tag and
Speaker 1: then ended up getting a later season Idaho General deer
Speaker 1: tag and then California General deer tag. So my my
Speaker 1: season is pretty full up. Now. If Canada opens its borders, man,
Speaker 1: I might actually be on a sheep hunt of a lifetime,
Speaker 1: and who knows if I would ever get the same
Speaker 1: kind of opportunity again. So time to put in the work,
Speaker 1: put in the practice, and do what I do every summer,
Speaker 1: just like get out there and have fun shoot my bow,
Speaker 1: but also do a lot of training that's very similar
Speaker 1: to what I might encounter in the field. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like one of those things that you can incorporate
Speaker 1: it into camping trips, you can incorporate it in to
Speaker 1: a lot of different things that you do, but also
Speaker 1: you know, just your day to day practice. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of different games and other things that I like
Speaker 1: to do, especially when it comes to like with friends
Speaker 1: or even out on the range. Maybe you've got a
Speaker 1: three D league where you live, and it's like that's
Speaker 1: your way of getting ready, getting prepared. You can shoot
Speaker 1: at some three D targets or going to one of
Speaker 1: these events, just a little bit of a different way
Speaker 1: to kind of play the score game, to to kind
Speaker 1: of mimic a more realistic hunting scenario than just shooting
Speaker 1: at foam, shooting at dots or some tactics that kind
Speaker 1: of build on that idea of there's pressure or you've
Speaker 1: got to make that one arrow count. This first game
Speaker 1: I like to call kill, wound, or miss. This is
Speaker 1: done with a three D target. So whether you've got
Speaker 1: your own, or you're shooting it like an event, or
Speaker 1: maybe you've got like a close by league that does
Speaker 1: like three D shoots every Thursday or something like that.
Speaker 1: This is a really fun game because the design of
Speaker 1: this game is the practice shooting it various three D
Speaker 1: target positions now and not shooting necessarily right behind the shoulders.
Speaker 1: So there's the tendering on a standard scoring target or whatever,
Speaker 1: but that's not always where you should be aiming. So
Speaker 1: what this game is trying to do is really gets
Speaker 1: you thinking about the body position of the animal, how
Speaker 1: you should aim in a field situation, and it's to
Speaker 1: get you to think about hunting or think about shooting
Speaker 1: for hunting. This is also a really good game to
Speaker 1: play for like angled animals. So if I've got my
Speaker 1: three D target, I can do this in my backyard
Speaker 1: or wherever to I just reposition the target in a
Speaker 1: different angle so I might have a quartering to you
Speaker 1: I might have a full broadside, I might have a
Speaker 1: quartering the way try to get angles that are very
Speaker 1: realistic to a hunting scenario, and you think like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: well I just always shoot right behind the shoulder, but
Speaker 1: that's not always the case. You got to think about
Speaker 1: the body position in the vitals of the animal. And
Speaker 1: this game really kind of benefits that thought process that
Speaker 1: gets you in that mindset of thinking hunting, thinking shooting,
Speaker 1: and practicing like you will when you're out in the field.
Speaker 1: So when that dear steps out, he's walking broadside and
Speaker 1: he takes one step to the right as he's walking away,
Speaker 1: and now he's quartering away. You had that pin right
Speaker 1: on the corner of the shoulder. Now you adjust and
Speaker 1: move back because if you shoot for that animal broadside,
Speaker 1: it's not gonna be is lethal of a shot as
Speaker 1: if you shot further back as he's quartering away. So
Speaker 1: this game is going to kind of play to that.
Speaker 1: And how it works is you get a score, so
Speaker 1: you can you can choose however you guys want to score.
Speaker 1: You can do this with friends, or if you want
Speaker 1: to just do it on your own, maybe take twenty arrows,
Speaker 1: twenty shots and then you kind of tally up your
Speaker 1: score throughout the summer, keep track and track your progress
Speaker 1: that way, just to kind of pick the whatever scoring
Speaker 1: system you want to do. But what it's supposed to
Speaker 1: do is reward a point for a kill, negative point
Speaker 1: for a wound, and you can decide whether a zero
Speaker 1: or a negative point for a miss. So kind of
Speaker 1: the thinking behind it is you're rewarded for a kill,
Speaker 1: you're penalized for wounding an animal because that's the worst
Speaker 1: possible scenario, and then you're definitely bummed about a miss.
Speaker 1: So one of the ways that'll do it is like
Speaker 1: a one score for a kill, a negative one for
Speaker 1: a wound, or zero for a miss. Another great way
Speaker 1: to do it is even add more emphasis on how
Speaker 1: bad the wound is, so you've got one point for
Speaker 1: a kill, negative two points for wound, negative one point
Speaker 1: for a miss. So if you're doing this with friends,
Speaker 1: what you'll do everyone will line up to the target.
Speaker 1: You'll shoot the target, but you'll shoot the target like
Speaker 1: you're trying to kill it, like there's a real animal,
Speaker 1: not you're you're completely ignoring where the scoring rings are
Speaker 1: on that dear. So if it's quartering away you're gonna think, okay,
Speaker 1: where is the best spot for this arrow to go
Speaker 1: through the vital. So on a quartering way shot, obviously
Speaker 1: you're gonna be aiming further back than you would wherever
Speaker 1: that ten ring is on that shot. If you're shooting
Speaker 1: from above, you know, maybe you're gonna be You've got
Speaker 1: to steep downhill angle. You just got to think about
Speaker 1: how that arrow is traveling through the vitals. Now everyone
Speaker 1: will go to the the target and then you'll analyze
Speaker 1: your shot. Some three D targets. I've got this one here.
Speaker 1: It's a it's actually pretty cheap. Is a solid deal.
Speaker 1: Um what is it a Rheinhardt backyard buck or something
Speaker 1: like that. It's like a little white tail. The thing
Speaker 1: I like about this one of those, on the back
Speaker 1: side of the vital that I shoot at, there's actually
Speaker 1: like this foam. Um. It's got like the vitals foamed
Speaker 1: out in there, so you can see like, oh, here's
Speaker 1: the heart, here's the lungs. Whatever. But now that I've
Speaker 1: shot it enough, my tips start poking through and it's
Speaker 1: sweet because you can see like, okay, here you can
Speaker 1: look at the backside and say this is the better shot.
Speaker 1: This went straight through the center of the lungs. This
Speaker 1: went through the heart, this did this, Oh, this was
Speaker 1: the liver. Whatever. But what everyone will do, you'll gather
Speaker 1: up at the target and you'll say, like, okay, you'll
Speaker 1: analyze it and say, yeah, this is the better shot.
Speaker 1: If I was shooting a deer to kill a deer,
Speaker 1: this is where I was shooting. Yeah, I was quartering too,
Speaker 1: so I put it further forward. I tried to get
Speaker 1: on the inside of that shoulder. That went straight through
Speaker 1: the vitals that way. Oh, looks like this guy shot
Speaker 1: it behind the shoulder. Yeah, still would kill it, you know,
Speaker 1: but it's not as good of a shot. It's more
Speaker 1: of like a liver shot, whereas this is the better shot.
Speaker 1: And then man, this other guy he shot way too
Speaker 1: far back or hit it high, hit it in the shoulder, whatever,
Speaker 1: that's a wound. We're gonna negate points for that, and
Speaker 1: just kind of a consensus. And it's more along the
Speaker 1: lines of just really getting your mind thinking about shot placement.
Speaker 1: So when you're out hunting, I think that's one problem
Speaker 1: that a lot of people have their practice all summer
Speaker 1: shooting at that foam target shooting three D s they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm dialed in, and they're always aiming for that spot
Speaker 1: right behind the shoulder. But that's not always the optimal spot.
Speaker 1: It will probably work in many cases, but depending on
Speaker 1: the animal position. You want to really start getting your
Speaker 1: mind thinking about, Okay, I'm shooting downhill, I'm shooting uphill,
Speaker 1: I'm shooting at a quartering downhill uphill, like I'm really
Speaker 1: trying to find the optimal, perfect shot to make a perfect, quick,
Speaker 1: clean kill on this animal, and get your mind thinking
Speaker 1: in that realm, not just the realm of Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: just shooting for that ten ring, shooting for that ten ring,
Speaker 1: because when it comes hunting time, you want that practice
Speaker 1: to be so ingrained in you that when that animal
Speaker 1: moves in a different position or whatever you're you're already
Speaker 1: triggered in your mind to thinking that's the right angle,
Speaker 1: that's the right shot, that's right aim letter rip. The
Speaker 1: next game is one that I like to call one
Speaker 1: arrow practice. So if you think about a hunting scenario,
Speaker 1: you go out there, you're hunting all week, right, You've
Speaker 1: just hiked however many miles, you've crawled over countless rocks,
Speaker 1: maybe got a couple of cactuses in your knee. Who
Speaker 1: knows what man you've just been. You've been living off
Speaker 1: dehydrated meals. You've been you've been grinding, and now you've
Speaker 1: stocked in your forty yards from a buck and you
Speaker 1: get one shot you might get. You're working your butt off,
Speaker 1: traveling thousands of miles maybe for that one shot. Now,
Speaker 1: when you go out in your backyard and you practice,
Speaker 1: you get as many shots as you want. Your first
Speaker 1: shot might be perfect, it might be a little off,
Speaker 1: and now you're gonna shoot a group, and then at
Speaker 1: the end of your shooting session, you're gonna be like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I shot great today because you shot a hundred arrows.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of really trying to account for
Speaker 1: that cold bore type shot you get a one and done.
Speaker 1: So imagine imagine archery practice where you drive out like,
Speaker 1: let's say you can't even shoot in your backyard. You
Speaker 1: gotta drive somewhere. You gotta drive out to some public land.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've got to drive to an archery range. Maybe
Speaker 1: it takes you ten fifteen minutes. Whatever, you gotta drive
Speaker 1: out there. You gotta take your target out of the truck.
Speaker 1: You gotta go set it up, and then you get
Speaker 1: one shot from whatever range you know, maybe it's a
Speaker 1: forty yard downhill shot, maybe it's a fifty yard flat
Speaker 1: broadside shot, maybe it's a slightly quartering away shot. And
Speaker 1: you can kind of incorporate the kill wound miss type
Speaker 1: strategy to this of like, Okay, I'm shooting for not
Speaker 1: necessarily the perfect place where the target says to shoot,
Speaker 1: but based on how the target set up. Now you
Speaker 1: get one shot, and after that one shot, you've got
Speaker 1: to live with the shot till tomorrow, till the next day,
Speaker 1: till the other time. You go out and you gotta
Speaker 1: pack it back up and drive back home thinking about, man,
Speaker 1: I really I killed that deer. That was perfect or
Speaker 1: that could have been better, and then you think about
Speaker 1: it and then you can go home. You can do whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, if you need more practice or what have you.
Speaker 1: But the point is being like, like you're putting an effort,
Speaker 1: you're putting in time. You want to be practicing with
Speaker 1: that one arrow mentality. It's like you're gonna get one
Speaker 1: shot and you need to make that one shot count.
Speaker 1: There's a lot more pressure on that one arrow to say, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't get to shoot a group here today, I
Speaker 1: just get to shoot one arrow at that target. I'll
Speaker 1: do that quite often. I'll pick a few days and
Speaker 1: I'll say this is my one arrow day. I'm not
Speaker 1: shooting any more than one arrow today, and I'm gonna whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna randomize that shot. I'm gonna make it very
Speaker 1: realistic to hunting scenarios what I like to do. And
Speaker 1: then I go out and I take that shot. And
Speaker 1: if that shot sucked, man, that's very indicative of a
Speaker 1: hunting scenario. That's very indicative of like, this is exactly
Speaker 1: what I'm going to encounter in the field. And so
Speaker 1: it puts a lot more pressure, a lot more practice,
Speaker 1: a lot more focus on that single arrow because I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what, There's been times where I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I carry the target all the way up the hill.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make this like off the cliff shot and
Speaker 1: I shoot and it's not where I want it to be.
Speaker 1: And then I got to think about that, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: everything in me wants to shoot one more arrow at
Speaker 1: it and be like nope, okay, I redo. But my mom,
Speaker 1: you know, because once you do that, once you correct
Speaker 1: it and redo it. Your mind's like, okay, that was good.
Speaker 1: But I like to just leave it at that one
Speaker 1: arrow and say it was either good or it was bad.
Speaker 1: You don't get any more redos, And that mentality of
Speaker 1: building your mind like that really helps you when you
Speaker 1: go into the field and you might only get one shot. Now,
Speaker 1: this third game is a game that probably everybody knows.
Speaker 1: It's a game of horse. I like to play this game,
Speaker 1: especially when shooting with friends, because what it does is
Speaker 1: it it really creates these shots where it's like very
Speaker 1: I would say, like more realistic to hunting scenarios because
Speaker 1: you're in an awkward position. You're probably shooting through or
Speaker 1: over or under something, and you're making the shot more difficult.
Speaker 1: You're trying to make the shot so difficult that somebody
Speaker 1: else isn't going to be able to shoot it as well.
Speaker 1: So the way that I play this game, just like
Speaker 1: you play a horse with basketball. First persons up, you know, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: they call the shot. Okay, it's a one knee up
Speaker 1: forty yard shot. You gotta shoot under this limb, and
Speaker 1: it's the closest one to the best kill zone. If
Speaker 1: you've got like a scoring target, you could even do
Speaker 1: it where it's like tendering type shots, so tendering twelve
Speaker 1: ring standard three D scoring, or you could even do
Speaker 1: it on a block closest one to the bull's eye. Whatever.
Speaker 1: But the point of this is to get those awkward
Speaker 1: shot positions, to kind of think on your feet and
Speaker 1: do things different, mix it up where it's not just
Speaker 1: the static backyard flat shooting a spot, shooting a spot,
Speaker 1: shooting it spots. That's great, and it's really good to
Speaker 1: have that knowledge and comfort with your bow and shooting
Speaker 1: consistently like that is good. But when you go into
Speaker 1: the field, I like to practice like I'm gonna hunt.
Speaker 1: So this game is it's fun. It's something really fun
Speaker 1: to do. You can I picture it like grilling up
Speaker 1: some elk burs in the backyard. We've got the target
Speaker 1: and now we're playing a game of archery horse where
Speaker 1: you're getting some pretty crazy shots. It's like, hey, we're
Speaker 1: our legs are here, we're leaning back out around this tree,
Speaker 1: or you're shooting through these limbs, or you're doing something
Speaker 1: and it's a really fun way to get in a
Speaker 1: lot of realistic, real life practice. Alright, So the fourth
Speaker 1: game I call this the perfect run game, and this
Speaker 1: is a good one. Like if you just have you know,
Speaker 1: spot target or whatever, a block a reinhardt, you know,
Speaker 1: just like a bag target doesn't really matter. What this
Speaker 1: is is this game is designed to kind of put
Speaker 1: emphasis on making every shot count and there's consequences if
Speaker 1: you don't make that shot count. So the way that
Speaker 1: I play, you can you can decide however many arrows
Speaker 1: you want, and this is a really fun game to play,
Speaker 1: Like if it's just in your backyard, You've got some
Speaker 1: backyard practice to kind of spice it up a bit.
Speaker 1: So it's not just shooting groups, shooting groups shooting groups.
Speaker 1: This is one that you can do alone, or you
Speaker 1: can do against someone. I kind of like the little
Speaker 1: competition aspect of it as well. Or you guys, could
Speaker 1: you know, you can call a friend up and be like, hey,
Speaker 1: uh you they can do it in their backyard, you
Speaker 1: can do it in your backyard. You can see how
Speaker 1: many tries it takes you to run it run the course.
Speaker 1: So the way this works is you either start out
Speaker 1: you can say three to five arrows. Five arrows is
Speaker 1: going to be more difficult. Three arrows is going to
Speaker 1: be a little bit easier. And what you do is
Speaker 1: you start at a close range and you pick a
Speaker 1: final distance. So let's say the final distance is gonna
Speaker 1: be fifty yards, and I'm running it with three arrows.
Speaker 1: So what I do is you start at your closest pin.
Speaker 1: Let's say it's twenty yards. So I start twenty yards,
Speaker 1: and you have to shoot the spots. So all three
Speaker 1: arrows have to be in the circle of the target.
Speaker 1: So like three different spots. I generally don't shoot at
Speaker 1: the same one. So I picked three different um spots
Speaker 1: on the target. Like imagine a block target. It's got
Speaker 1: the side that's got I don't know whatever circles on it.
Speaker 1: So I picked three circles top left, top, right, center,
Speaker 1: and every arrow has to be within the circle. At
Speaker 1: some point you can decide how you count it whatever
Speaker 1: I mean, I generally do it like scoring system. As
Speaker 1: long as it breaks the line, it's good. So if
Speaker 1: you let's say you're running three arrows, boom boom boom,
Speaker 1: perfect shot. Okay, now you run it back. So we
Speaker 1: started twenty Now we're going. Now we're at thirty. We shoot, okay, perfect,
Speaker 1: we go pick up our arrows. Now we go to
Speaker 1: thirty five. Let's say we shot one, we shot two.
Speaker 1: Now our third one is out of that that circle.
Speaker 1: Now we got to start back over. We start back
Speaker 1: at twenty yards and we try to walk our way
Speaker 1: all the way out to fifty yards running that perfect run.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that can take you. I mean, you might run
Speaker 1: it and your first chance try. And that's what you want.
Speaker 1: You want to be able to just like make every
Speaker 1: shot count and know that there's consequences. So when you
Speaker 1: get out to forty five yards and you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm almost there, I've got three more arrows, and you
Speaker 1: shoot and you miss one at forty five, Now you've
Speaker 1: got to start that course over. Um, you gotta start
Speaker 1: back at twenty. And you can do it in different increments,
Speaker 1: you know, depending on how much time you have. You
Speaker 1: can go every ten yards, you can go every five yards,
Speaker 1: you can bust it out to further distances. And it's
Speaker 1: a fun way to kind of age your progress and say, okay,
Speaker 1: well it took me, I I messed up five times,
Speaker 1: I had to redo it, or I got to this one.
Speaker 1: And it gives you a good gauge but also kind
Speaker 1: of gets you thinking of like there's that perfect run
Speaker 1: and you're just trying for that really consistent shot after shot,
Speaker 1: picking that spot and being able to make the shot.
Speaker 1: And then it also kind of adds, even when you're
Speaker 1: by yourself, a little bit of that angst of like man,
Speaker 1: something that you can kind of get in your own head,
Speaker 1: like man, I'm at fifty five yards, I've run this
Speaker 1: thing perfect, I'm almost whatever, And you can kind of
Speaker 1: start getting your own personal records and just it's a
Speaker 1: good way to record your progress. And it's a fun
Speaker 1: game to play, something that I play a lot when
Speaker 1: I'm shooting it, like spot targets or block targets, especially
Speaker 1: if I've got like a good flat area where i
Speaker 1: can go out to some distance or all I have
Speaker 1: is flat, like you don't have like a lot of
Speaker 1: other options. It's a really fun one to play. Now
Speaker 1: if you don't have as much room, maybe you can
Speaker 1: only shoot so far in your backyard. You can do
Speaker 1: the same thing, but just increase the difficulty by increasing
Speaker 1: the number arrows. Start closer and then keep moving back.
Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily matter how far you're going. It's just
Speaker 1: to try to build up consistency. And it's also a
Speaker 1: really fun game to play to just kind of be like, okay,
Speaker 1: you get so far, and you can kind of track
Speaker 1: your progress. And there's also one that you can do
Speaker 1: with friends or with friends that are in different areas,
Speaker 1: like your your buddy could live completely across the country.
Speaker 1: But every day you can say, hey, al right, here's
Speaker 1: how many here, here's how long it took me, or
Speaker 1: here's how far I got. So you set yourself up
Speaker 1: twenty minute time where I can shoot for twenty minutes. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's how far I got to walk out running it perfect,
Speaker 1: or that's my last one or whatever. Number five. This
Speaker 1: is probably my least well, I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: my least favorite game. It's a tough game, but it's
Speaker 1: the no range finder game. It's like three D targets, uh,
Speaker 1: without using the range finder. And I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people are like, well, you have your range finder hunting,
Speaker 1: and that is true, but a lot of stuff happens
Speaker 1: when you're at full draw. Animals bounce out, or there's
Speaker 1: times where a man I've I've raised up clicked on
Speaker 1: the deer. I'm like, okay, it says it's twenty yards,
Speaker 1: it looks further than that, and it was catching the
Speaker 1: brush in between. So this is a really good game
Speaker 1: to play because it's difficult and it puts a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure on not only guessing but making a good shot.
Speaker 1: The way that I can I'll do it is either
Speaker 1: at like a league or a three D kind of
Speaker 1: set up. Of course, you could just run that thing
Speaker 1: with your friends or whatever without range finders. A lot
Speaker 1: of competitions actually do it that way, but I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people now like they trust the range
Speaker 1: finders so much that people just like, I'm just not
Speaker 1: going to do that because it's a good way to
Speaker 1: break arrows. Now, another way that I do this, if
Speaker 1: I nodded a three D range or anything like that,
Speaker 1: is I've got like a you can do it either
Speaker 1: by roving, so you're just like walking through the woods
Speaker 1: if you're in an area has some softer I get
Speaker 1: like a plastic rubber blunt tip, screw that in and
Speaker 1: shoot pine cones and other stuff. Or another way that
Speaker 1: I found doing it, there's these little target balls that
Speaker 1: you can throw, So I'll throw the ball. You can
Speaker 1: throw the balls out, you can roll them down the hill,
Speaker 1: rolling targets or whatever, pick them up, or you're like
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll roll the target down the hill, um or
Speaker 1: throw it out, shoot it, pick up the arrow. Then
Speaker 1: just kind of like try not to pay attention and
Speaker 1: walk out a certain distance or pick a spot like
Speaker 1: it's always better instead of walking to the target, like
Speaker 1: pick three spots. You put the target out, then you've
Speaker 1: got like, oh, I've got this spot over here up
Speaker 1: on the hill. I've got the spot down here, So
Speaker 1: you can go to the spots before you actually go
Speaker 1: pick up your other arrows. That's another great way to
Speaker 1: do it. Or just with any target, you set out
Speaker 1: three D target and then just pick some spots ahead
Speaker 1: of time, like Okay, I'm gonna go up there, there
Speaker 1: and there, and then don't range it, don't count it,
Speaker 1: do like a walk around so you don't know how
Speaker 1: far it is, and then just let your eyes and
Speaker 1: everything kind of adjust to this is how far it is,
Speaker 1: guess it, shoot it and see if you're right. Um.
Speaker 1: It's a really it's really good practice for those kind
Speaker 1: of hunting scenarios where you're you might be moving through,
Speaker 1: especially still hunting man. You're moving through and there's a deer,
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, how far is you? Because the difference
Speaker 1: between may be putting an arrow on, ranging it, putting
Speaker 1: the rangefinder down, drawing back, settling in that animals gone.
Speaker 1: There's many times where I might be still hunting through
Speaker 1: some timber, or I'm stalking in, I've got a narrow knocked,
Speaker 1: I'm stalking in and that deer stands up and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: action time. I know that if I range it, I
Speaker 1: got to decide what what would be better. Would I
Speaker 1: rather not get a shot at this deer because I'm
Speaker 1: messing around with my range finder, or would I'd rather
Speaker 1: get a shot and potentially mis range. But the best
Speaker 1: case scenario is I would rather have been well practiced,
Speaker 1: not have to worry about it, draw back and shoot
Speaker 1: the deer and be successful. And that's what happens most
Speaker 1: of the time. So, um, that's a really that's a
Speaker 1: really good game to play. I know I do that
Speaker 1: a lot too, just just in the summertime for fun.
Speaker 1: I take my trad bow out. It's a good way
Speaker 1: to just kind of gauge, like build that confidence with
Speaker 1: more instinctive shooting. But um, it's also I think by
Speaker 1: doing that a lot more, it's helped with whatever bow
Speaker 1: I have it doesn't really matter. It's just helped my
Speaker 1: gauging the distance and letting my brain just decide, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's how far it is. I've talked about that in
Speaker 1: the past, but it's definitely a good tactic and a
Speaker 1: good skill to have to be a competent archery hunter.
Speaker 1: Um kind of picking up some of those old school
Speaker 1: skills and practicing those things that I think people don't
Speaker 1: really talk about as much anymore. So it's a it's
Speaker 1: a really good game, and it's a difficult game, but
Speaker 1: it's definitely beneficial in the long run. Now, this last game,
Speaker 1: game number six. We're gonna call this game knockout, and
Speaker 1: it's just like you might have played in Pe on
Speaker 1: the basketball court. It's a good pressure game. It's a
Speaker 1: fun one with friends, especially during the summer. Get some
Speaker 1: friends together, get your bows out and play this knockout game.
Speaker 1: It's a good game. You don't have to have a
Speaker 1: three D target, or you can't have a three D target.
Speaker 1: You're pretty much center of the bulls eye or whatever.
Speaker 1: The not center of the bulls eye, but just within
Speaker 1: whatever your target is. So maybe it's hey kill zone
Speaker 1: on a deer three D target. Maybe it's the white
Speaker 1: spot on a block target. Maybe it's the spot on
Speaker 1: a bag target. Whatever, you pick your range. You line up.
Speaker 1: The guy behind has to outshoot the guy in front
Speaker 1: of him. So it's a little bit different because you
Speaker 1: can do it a couple different ways. You can line
Speaker 1: up like side by side, and it's like, okay, maybe
Speaker 1: you get two arrows, so the first guy can shoot
Speaker 1: if he hits the bull, then the next guy shoots
Speaker 1: hits the bull whatever, and once that person misses, the
Speaker 1: person behind him has to shoot it before they shoot it.
Speaker 1: So they've got two arrows. You line up side by side,
Speaker 1: the first person shoots. After that first person shoots, the
Speaker 1: next person can then immediately shoot if they missed the
Speaker 1: center of the whatever needed to be to move on.
Speaker 1: So let's just call it like, uh, four inch circle. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're at thirty yards. We've got a four inch circle.
Speaker 1: The first person shoots, hits the four inch circle. Next
Speaker 1: person shoots, hits the four inch circle, third person shoots.
Speaker 1: You know, you kind of start rotating in positions. Next
Speaker 1: person shoots misses the four inch circle. The person that's
Speaker 1: shooting after them has to shoot that four inch circle
Speaker 1: before they get another arrow in it. Once that happens,
Speaker 1: then they're knocked out, and then you go through until
Speaker 1: there's only two guys going head to head, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like whoever can shoot the most consistent wins.
Speaker 1: It's a really fun game to play. It's awesome because
Speaker 1: it adds a little bit of pressure, a little bit
Speaker 1: of excitement. It's a good game to just kind of
Speaker 1: gather up some friends, enjoy the summer, talk about your tags,
Speaker 1: talk about your hunt plans, and all prepare to be
Speaker 1: successful and get better with your bows and build up
Speaker 1: that pressure of like, yeah, when you're in a hunting scenario,
Speaker 1: pressure happens. There's a lot more pressure obviously than backyard knockout.
Speaker 1: But it's a good way to kind of have to
Speaker 1: think fast, to kind of get under the pressure of
Speaker 1: shooting around people and building that something similar where you've
Speaker 1: got an excitement level, you're trying to do something and
Speaker 1: you've got a bow in your hand and a target
Speaker 1: that you need to be precise on. I hope this
Speaker 1: gets some people excited, get them out with their bows.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe you've got an archery tag coming up.
Speaker 1: Think about these ways of practicing that are a little
Speaker 1: bit different that kind of play towards something you might encounter.
Speaker 1: Just as kind of like a last thought, it's really
Speaker 1: good to do these as well in inclement weather, in wind,
Speaker 1: in rain, um, any of these times you can go
Speaker 1: out and practice in some kind of elements. Man, that's
Speaker 1: really good practice, and it's really good to kind of
Speaker 1: add those same types of um, you know, precision ideas
Speaker 1: and goals and whatever when there's kind of inclement weather, wind,
Speaker 1: other things unfortunate. Where I practice, it's always windy, so like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to shoot when it's calm.
Speaker 1: But um, it's really good ways to practice and get
Speaker 1: you out there. Maybe you don't have an archery tag
Speaker 1: and you're just thinking about getting into bow hunting or whatever.
Speaker 1: These are fun games to play, good ways to kind
Speaker 1: of keep archery fun and also kind of build up
Speaker 1: those skills for when you do go out in the
Speaker 1: field and hunt. I think one of the fun things
Speaker 1: about archery about bow hunting is just the fact that
Speaker 1: you can enjoy it and like go out and have
Speaker 1: fun shooting. I mean, archery is a great on its own,
Speaker 1: um it but doesn't even compare to bow hunting, but
Speaker 1: it is really fun. So you can do these kind
Speaker 1: of fun things in the summer when you're out camping,
Speaker 1: when you're hanging out with friends, or even just throughout
Speaker 1: your backyard every day or however often you can shoot
Speaker 1: just different ways to mix it up and really try
Speaker 1: to match some of the things that you might encounter
Speaker 1: into the field. Speaking of archery hunting, I actually am
Speaker 1: gonna be at the Pope and Young Club Convention. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be in Reno, Nevada this year. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of like hunting shows and other things have been
Speaker 1: canceled because of COVID, so it's been a while since
Speaker 1: any of us have been to anything. But if you
Speaker 1: want to check that out, I'll be there Wednesday, July
Speaker 1: four at the Pint Night kick off, so you can
Speaker 1: find me there. And then I've also got a live
Speaker 1: Q and A Friday the sixteenth. I think it's um
Speaker 1: it's tentative on the time, but I think it's like
Speaker 1: around three pm something like that, so it will be
Speaker 1: very similar to the Q and A S I do
Speaker 1: on this podcast. If you enjoy that or have a
Speaker 1: question and you can make it to Reno, sweet check
Speaker 1: that out. I'll be there I'm not super tick, said be,
Speaker 1: but it would be pretty cool if I could do
Speaker 1: my podcast Q and A at that life event. I
Speaker 1: don't know, that just popped in my head. Maybe I'll
Speaker 1: see if I can make that happen. That'd be cool. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I'd be stoked to talk with you guys, and uh,
Speaker 1: if you see me there, come say hi. I'm pretty relatable.
Speaker 1: Love just talking hunting and the Q and A is
Speaker 1: a really good way to kind of talk about some
Speaker 1: tactics and some other things if anybody has questions, So
Speaker 1: if you can make it to that, sweet and then
Speaker 1: on the vein of Q and A, uh start sending
Speaker 1: your questions because we're gonna be having a Q and
Speaker 1: A here coming up pretty soon. But next week I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be doing a podcast on this idea of butchering
Speaker 1: with limited space. So it's like you've you've gone out,
Speaker 1: you're successful, but maybe you who know, it's like maybe
Speaker 1: you've got very limited space at your house. Maybe I've
Speaker 1: talked to people it's like, hey man, I live in
Speaker 1: an apartment, or I've got roommates and we don't really
Speaker 1: have anywhere to hang ad or like what do I do?
Speaker 1: So just an idea of how to kind of butcher
Speaker 1: with limited space and what I do. There's been many
Speaker 1: times where I've like legitimately butchered a couple of deer
Speaker 1: in a hotel room. It's like, it sounds horrible, but
Speaker 1: it's yeah. I mean, or like at camp or in
Speaker 1: the back of my truck out and somewhere just like
Speaker 1: because I didn't have time or I didn't have like
Speaker 1: adequate space. So kind of this idea of butchering with
Speaker 1: limited space and some really good tips and tactics to
Speaker 1: help you out with that. So until next week, keep
Speaker 1: shooting and hopefully by this fall you'll be cutting the distance.
Speaker 1: Oh it's starting. It's starting to feel good, all right,
Speaker 1: See you guys,