Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host,
Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to Hunt
Speaker 1: Foundations podcast, which is brought to you my first Light.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson. In today's episode is all
Speaker 1: about how to structure target practice sessions so that you'll
Speaker 1: improve as much as possible before deer season. I know
Speaker 1: last week I begged and I pleaded with you, find
Speaker 1: folks to get your start shooting this year. I made
Speaker 1: the case that you should do it now, even if
Speaker 1: the season seems like it's really far away and there
Speaker 1: are so many other things worth doing right now. I
Speaker 1: hope you listened and you're at least kicking around the
Speaker 1: idea of shooting a few airs each week or making
Speaker 1: a monthly trip to the rifle range. Because that's good
Speaker 1: and it put you ahead of your competition this season,
Speaker 1: but it's not enough. There's still room for improvement in
Speaker 1: time for implementation of a long game plan. I know
Speaker 1: this isn't as exciting as sweet scouting tactics or I
Speaker 1: don't know something that promises big dead bucks, but think
Speaker 1: of it this way. The right shooting routine is as
Speaker 1: good as any tactic I can tell you about. Actually,
Speaker 1: it's honestly probably way more likely to put a buck
Speaker 1: on your wall than any of that other stuff. For me,
Speaker 1: it's not such a grind to get into the groove
Speaker 1: of shooting all while thinking about white tails. This is
Speaker 1: because I get most of my procrastination out of the
Speaker 1: way when turkey season draws closer. Living in Minnesota, it's
Speaker 1: just not much fun to go outside in February to
Speaker 1: fling some arrows. I hate it. In fact, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I must be just getting old because I hate and
Speaker 1: cold unless there's a really really good reason to be cold,
Speaker 1: like I don't know, the chance of a buck walking by,
Speaker 1: or maybe the promise that a couple of roosters will
Speaker 1: get up in front of my dogs. But talking myself
Speaker 1: into going out into the yard to bust through snow
Speaker 1: to shoot cold targets with cold fingers, that's hard. But
Speaker 1: as February gives way to March and then April threatens
Speaker 1: to show up, I forced myself to do it. Hitting
Speaker 1: turkeys with a bow is a special skill that I
Speaker 1: seem to only possess at random times, and in random seasons.
Speaker 1: Some years, I'll go for for four on gobblers with
Speaker 1: archery tackle and I'll be flying real high. Other seasons,
Speaker 1: I'll go over four by the time I should start
Speaker 1: breaking into my coffee and snacks on opening morning. I
Speaker 1: guess you could say I'm consistently inconsistent, but I don't
Speaker 1: want to be, so I force my happy ass to
Speaker 1: go outside and get all the procrastination as the way
Speaker 1: before turkey season. And now when turkey season ends and
Speaker 1: I really want to focus on fishing for a while
Speaker 1: instead of shooting targets and anticipation of the bow season,
Speaker 1: I'm already kind of in the swing of things, so
Speaker 1: it's not that hard. It's easy to get into a
Speaker 1: couple of sessions a week when it really becomes a habit.
Speaker 1: So that's what I do. But what about you? Did
Speaker 1: you bow hunt turkeys this spring and force yourself to
Speaker 1: get into some level of shooting routine. If not, did
Speaker 1: I convince you last week to blow the dust off
Speaker 1: your bow and get out there? I hope so. But
Speaker 1: if not, listen again, listen to that episode, then come
Speaker 1: back to this show, A show dedicated to shooting smarter
Speaker 1: with each practice session so okay, we aren't going to
Speaker 1: advance that fast because I'm not that good and probably
Speaker 1: neither are you. Instead, let's think about a few things
Speaker 1: that we can do to make us better. We can
Speaker 1: work on now and in the weeks coming up by
Speaker 1: focusing on first what we often do wrong with our
Speaker 1: shooting sessions. Now, to do this, I'm going to assume
Speaker 1: that your weapon is already sighted in. If it isn't,
Speaker 1: do that first. Do it with your bow, Do it
Speaker 1: with your rifle, your slug barrel, shotgun, your muzzleloader, whatever
Speaker 1: you use to shoot deer. Take the time to make
Speaker 1: sure that it is truly sighted in and not just
Speaker 1: in a good enough category. Take care of that by
Speaker 1: shooting dots, bulls eyes, bright orange stickers on your targets,
Speaker 1: or whatever you have to in order to dial in
Speaker 1: and understand where your accuracy is really at. Square that
Speaker 1: away at short distances first, and then think about what
Speaker 1: is next. And what's next should be mixed of shooting
Speaker 1: bulls eyes and shooting targets that don't have bulls eyes
Speaker 1: on them, while thinking about gradually increasing your shooting distance.
Speaker 1: The first point is one that I really believe in
Speaker 1: and I know I've said this a lot, and I've
Speaker 1: written about it a whole bunch, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: say it again. You need to own two targets for
Speaker 1: archery practice. I said this last week. It's important gotta
Speaker 1: have one with spots or diamonds or bulls eyes of
Speaker 1: some kind, and you've gotta have one that looks like
Speaker 1: a deer. This is because it's nice to shoot tight
Speaker 1: groups on bulls eyes, and it's easy to shoot type
Speaker 1: groups on bulls eyes, especially if you're stretching out your
Speaker 1: effective shooting range. But dear don't have bulls eyes on
Speaker 1: their sides. They just have hair and the vague definition
Speaker 1: of muscles and bones and skeletal structure underneath. You want
Speaker 1: to be able to aim at them as well as
Speaker 1: you aim at a high contrast target face with super
Speaker 1: visible aiming points. And this goes for all you gun
Speaker 1: hunters out there as well. While your margin for error
Speaker 1: is pretty big with a three away, bigger than it
Speaker 1: is with a bow anyway, you still want to hit
Speaker 1: deer in this sweet spot. Shooting paper targets that allow
Speaker 1: you to center your cross hairs on a series of
Speaker 1: concentric rings is great for seeing just how tight your
Speaker 1: groups can get but even when you have a rifle
Speaker 1: in your hands and you head out into the woods,
Speaker 1: the deer won't have bulls eyes on them. Remember this
Speaker 1: might seem like an exaggeration or that I'm collecting secret
Speaker 1: payments from target companies, but I'm not. If you don't
Speaker 1: believe that, do this for me. Take your chosen weapon
Speaker 1: and just figure out how to shoot at one target
Speaker 1: face that has nice colorful bulls eyes and that in
Speaker 1: find a way to shoot at a three D target
Speaker 1: of a deer or a photo realistic print of a
Speaker 1: deer design for firearms. Shoot them at easy ranges, and
Speaker 1: then start to back up. Pay attention to your groups
Speaker 1: on the deer targets as you stretch out the distance
Speaker 1: a little, Do they stay as tight as they do
Speaker 1: on the bull's eyes? Okay, well, keep putting on a
Speaker 1: little more distance. Eventually you'll get to a range you
Speaker 1: might consider shooting at an animal at or maybe not,
Speaker 1: but that your groups are different between the two targets.
Speaker 1: This might not seem like much, but you also have
Speaker 1: to remember that there's going to be some performance attrition
Speaker 1: when you've got an actual buck out there in the
Speaker 1: woods and the light is fading, and there's some twigs
Speaker 1: hanging in your shooting lane, and it's the biggest buck
Speaker 1: you've ever seen all season or all year, all your life.
Speaker 1: And you'd really like to show your co workers a
Speaker 1: photo of that trophy buck in your hands, that buck
Speaker 1: you've been droning on and on and on about while
Speaker 1: they pretended to care. This is the shot you're preparing for,
Speaker 1: not the one that occurs at noon with tons of
Speaker 1: sunlight while you're standing flat footed in your yard, or
Speaker 1: snuggle up on a shooting bench with all the time
Speaker 1: in the world and no pressure. Now, you can't really
Speaker 1: simulate the real thing. You just can't, but you can
Speaker 1: get a kind of close closer anyway in anticipation of
Speaker 1: the real thing, so that if you do experience a
Speaker 1: little bit of attrition in your cool headedness and accuracy,
Speaker 1: you'll still do your job correctly and get to celebrate
Speaker 1: a quick kill. This is what a couple of weekly
Speaker 1: archery sessions or a monthly range session with your rifle
Speaker 1: can help you do. Provided use the right targets. You
Speaker 1: should also consider shooting in different conditions while using everything
Speaker 1: you might use during the hunt. Now, I say that
Speaker 1: with a great big asterisk attached to it, because I
Speaker 1: know that you're not likely to suit up in your
Speaker 1: full camel. Then hang a stand in your yard to
Speaker 1: shoot from. Very few people actually do this, especially when
Speaker 1: it's like eighty degrees out, but if you do at
Speaker 1: any point of the year, you have my respect on
Speaker 1: pure commitment alone. But we don't need to go that nuts.
Speaker 1: You should shoot at different times of the day and
Speaker 1: in different weather conditions, though. The easiest way to make
Speaker 1: a practice session a little more valuable is to shoot
Speaker 1: in low light when the mosquitoes are out. This is
Speaker 1: one of those times when you realize how big of
Speaker 1: a difference there is between aiming at a bright orange
Speaker 1: dot versus aiming at a bunch of brown that represents
Speaker 1: a dear side. Low light shooting will help you diagnose
Speaker 1: a few issues with your gear as well. For bow hunters,
Speaker 1: this might be a peep site that is too small
Speaker 1: or doesn't come back to the eye perfectly square. It
Speaker 1: also might just be that your side pins suck and
Speaker 1: don't gather as much ambient light at the times when
Speaker 1: deer should be moving as you really need them to,
Speaker 1: or maybe just see that your rifle scope is a
Speaker 1: bit of a cheapie, and it really doesn't gather the
Speaker 1: needed light for a clear shot in the gloaming. Maybe
Speaker 1: your scope isn't a cheapie, but it's adjustable, and you
Speaker 1: realize that while you might like to keep it set
Speaker 1: at say, I don't know six power for most hunts,
Speaker 1: when you practice in low light, you shoot better with
Speaker 1: it backed all the way out to three. This is
Speaker 1: really good stuff to figure out before a monster. Once
Speaker 1: in a lifetime, Buck steps out with five minutes of
Speaker 1: shooting light left. Low Light shooting is also a great
Speaker 1: way to figure out where your effective range really is.
Speaker 1: But it's not just impending darkness that should get you
Speaker 1: out to shoot, because you should shoot in different weather
Speaker 1: as well. I've never really had a problem hitting during
Speaker 1: the rain, and I hunt in the rain a lot.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's the condition I like the most in
Speaker 1: the early the mid season, which will be a topic
Speaker 1: for a later podcast. But it's also not a bad
Speaker 1: idea to throw on a rain jacket and shoot when
Speaker 1: no one else will as the skies open up. I
Speaker 1: do this a couple of times each summer, and while
Speaker 1: I feel like an idiot and I'm probably regarded as such,
Speaker 1: by my neighbors. It makes me feel like I'm putting
Speaker 1: in real effort. It also makes me keenly aware of
Speaker 1: what rain does to my site, my peep site, so
Speaker 1: that when I'm out hunting, I know I'll be fine.
Speaker 1: I want to know that, because, as I just mentioned,
Speaker 1: I really really like hunting in the rain. In the
Speaker 1: wind is another story. I can tell I'm getting old
Speaker 1: because I get mad at the window a lot. I
Speaker 1: curse under my breath at it, and I feel a
Speaker 1: deep revulsion build up whenever I check the weather and
Speaker 1: see that the wind will be blowing past like I
Speaker 1: don't know fifteen miles truly long rifle shots bring the
Speaker 1: wind into focus real fast, but even normally acceptable shot
Speaker 1: distances can be affected by wind. Part of this comes
Speaker 1: from what you'd expect as far as projectiles and the
Speaker 1: influence of cross wind, but part of it comes from
Speaker 1: just taking you out of the game mentally a little
Speaker 1: bit during the shot. This is something worth learning about yourself,
Speaker 1: because if you rifle hunt enough, you'll spend time out
Speaker 1: there in the wind even better. If you use shooting
Speaker 1: sticks or a tripod, you get bonus points for shooting
Speaker 1: with your actual system in the wind. That's often a
Speaker 1: telling experience for bow hunters. Practice in the wind is
Speaker 1: a must. This is patently obvious to Western hunters who
Speaker 1: target meal deer antelope on the prairie, where the wind
Speaker 1: is always hocking and the shots are often far as
Speaker 1: or than the ones we take in the white til woods.
Speaker 1: But even at close range, wind can be trouble. It
Speaker 1: might not blow your arrow off course for a twenty
Speaker 1: yard shot, but it might blow your bow around while
Speaker 1: you're aiming. Uh not forget that it will blow your
Speaker 1: bow around while you're aiming. I'll never forget. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and ten, sitting on a stand as a nasty
Speaker 1: weather front blew through northern Wisconsin, I was watching a
Speaker 1: melanistic dough, the only one I've ever seen, and one
Speaker 1: that I thought was a bear at first. When I
Speaker 1: glanced to my right and so a decent eight pointer
Speaker 1: haad in my way. I switched gears from that black
Speaker 1: dough to focus on the buck, and when he got
Speaker 1: within range, I drew. But as the wind blew me
Speaker 1: and my tree and the bow around, I watched my
Speaker 1: pin go from his ass to his nose and back.
Speaker 1: I let down and panic, thinking I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: get a shot, so I drew again. He walked a
Speaker 1: little closer, and I aimed as best as I could
Speaker 1: until I hit just a moment where everything settled down
Speaker 1: so that I could shoot. I'm sure that window was
Speaker 1: only maybe like a couple of seconds, but it was
Speaker 1: all I needed. That encounter went my way, but it
Speaker 1: easily could have gone in a lot of undesirable directions.
Speaker 1: Wind sucks, but it's just something you have to live with,
Speaker 1: so practice in it. Shoot with your quiver on and
Speaker 1: your quiver off. Like I talked about a few episodes ago,
Speaker 1: shoot close, and definitely shoot far. Shoot with your bow
Speaker 1: or your rifle or your spear or probably your air
Speaker 1: gun or whatever. But make sure you practice in the
Speaker 1: right conditions. I also think you should practice by standing, sitting,
Speaker 1: and kneeling at least with a bow. Don't shoot off
Speaker 1: hand at deer with a gun if you can help it, please.
Speaker 1: Arrest is one of the main components to firearm accuracy,
Speaker 1: and they are easy to have with you no matter what.
Speaker 1: But bow hunters, on the other hand, should know how
Speaker 1: well they shoot while standing, sitting, and kneeling. This is
Speaker 1: easy to do during practice sessions and something that's worth
Speaker 1: building into your routine. I tend to mix it up
Speaker 1: with some practice sessions all spent just standing flat footed
Speaker 1: and shooting for bull's eyes, but other times I sit
Speaker 1: on a chair or I kneel down and it changes
Speaker 1: the session. It also helps you figure out how to
Speaker 1: shoot better in the positions you'll probably shoot from in
Speaker 1: the field at some point. Repetition and familiarity lead to confidence,
Speaker 1: and you really want as much shooting confidence as you
Speaker 1: can get. It's also, regardless of weapon, important to think
Speaker 1: about distance as a long game thing. Shooting long ranges
Speaker 1: all the rage and it can be good, but there
Speaker 1: are a lot of considerations to be made. The first
Speaker 1: is that it takes time. This is just like training
Speaker 1: a hunting dog. If you don't spend a year or two,
Speaker 1: which is a significant portion of a dog's life, on
Speaker 1: obedience and foundation work, you're not going to get that
Speaker 1: dog to the next level hunting wise. They need the
Speaker 1: basics down before we get to the sexy stuff. Yet
Speaker 1: we consistently try to move them to triple blind retrees
Speaker 1: and advance hand signals as fast as possible because it's
Speaker 1: more fun. It's also generally a really bad move, and
Speaker 1: we'll come back to bite in the ass when you're
Speaker 1: hunting and you have no control over your dog, or
Speaker 1: you figure out that your hot prospect doesn't really like
Speaker 1: dummies anymore because he's had too much early exposure to
Speaker 1: bird wings. Take your time and don't start with a
Speaker 1: hard stop on distance. You should make rules about how
Speaker 1: far you would shoot in the field, but not when
Speaker 1: you're practicing. In fact, I think everyone should try to
Speaker 1: expand their distance at the range through consistent sessions. Shooting
Speaker 1: a boy at like eighty yards it's pretty fun, and
Speaker 1: he'll tell you a hell of a lot about your
Speaker 1: setup and your form and your shot execution. The same
Speaker 1: goes for pushing the limits of your rifle out I
Speaker 1: don't know, four hundred, five hundred yards or more. The
Speaker 1: process of getting really good close and then incrementally shooting
Speaker 1: farther in a variety of conditions will make you a
Speaker 1: well rounded killer. It will show you what your weapon
Speaker 1: is absolutely capable of and what you are absolutely capable of.
Speaker 1: It will tell you, in no one certain terms that
Speaker 1: you could shoot super far but shouldn't when you're dealing
Speaker 1: with an actual animal. And it will also make those
Speaker 1: close shots so much easier. But again, this stuff takes time.
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted you to start shooting last week,
Speaker 1: and why I really want you to think about how
Speaker 1: you'll increase your skills by the week or by the
Speaker 1: month from here on out. So shooting highlight and shooting
Speaker 1: low light, shooting all kinds of weather conditions, shoot close,
Speaker 1: shoot far, and shoot all the distances in between. In fact,
Speaker 1: that's something worth wrapping this episode up on. I know
Speaker 1: you've heard it before, but do you actually practice that
Speaker 1: distances that are always in increments of ten yards with
Speaker 1: your bow or fifty yards with your gun. For bow hunters,
Speaker 1: those middle distance shots, they're going to happen on the field,
Speaker 1: and practicing for them matters. As I've mentioned, I'm a
Speaker 1: single pin mover kind of guy, so I tend to
Speaker 1: just walk to different spots, take a range, reading dial
Speaker 1: in my sight, and then shoot. This gets me into
Speaker 1: the mindset of having to think about exact distances and
Speaker 1: then dialing into them before every shot. The multi pins
Speaker 1: shooters should absolutely do this as well. If you don't
Speaker 1: practice gap or holding your forty yard pin high or
Speaker 1: your thirty yard pin low or whatever you're not preparing
Speaker 1: very well for the shots you'll actually get in the field.
Speaker 1: And for the rifle hunter, these shots help understand hold
Speaker 1: and drop. They also get you thinking about aiming top
Speaker 1: heart or bottom lungs or whatever precision stuff, picking a
Speaker 1: spot type of stuff. They forced all of us to
Speaker 1: get into the headspace where we need to be thinking
Speaker 1: about distance, point of impact, and what we need to
Speaker 1: do to make perfect shots. And that's really the goal
Speaker 1: with all of this stuff, and it is a good one.
Speaker 1: All right, my friends. We got through a bunch of
Speaker 1: gear and shooting episodes, and next week I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: about something more fun, taking inventory, or more importantly, I
Speaker 1: guess I should say, taking summer deer inventory by using
Speaker 1: mineral salt, blocks, cameras or whatever you have available to
Speaker 1: you and what's legal. I'm gonna cover a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of that stuff next week, so please tune in. Well,
Speaker 1: that's all for this week, my white tail obsessed friends.
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wire to
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light.
Speaker 1: As always, thank you so much for listening and for
Speaker 1: supporting us. And if you want to get more white
Speaker 1: tail content. Head on over to the meat Eator dot
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Speaker 1: our wire to Hunt YouTube channel to see our weekly
Speaker 1: how to videos.