Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, home of the
Speaker 1: modern white tail hunter, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Mark Kenyan, and this week on the show, we are
Speaker 1: discussing everything it takes to execute a perfect shot with
Speaker 1: someone who's executed more perfect shots on deer in high
Speaker 1: pressure situations than anyone else I know, Taylor chamber All right,
Speaker 1: welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you
Speaker 1: by First Life, and we are continuing Shooting month today
Speaker 1: and we are chatting with someone who has really perfected
Speaker 1: the act of shooting more than almost anybody else I know.
Speaker 1: Me and my buddy Tony, we're talking about this the
Speaker 1: other day, trying to think about who would be a
Speaker 1: good fit for this episode, and we are trying to
Speaker 1: think who does this successfully, who shoots perfectly, accurately, effectively,
Speaker 1: and does it more often than anybody else. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of successful hunters out there, but I do not
Speaker 1: think there's anyone else I know in my circle that
Speaker 1: successfully does it more than Taylor Chamberlain. Taylor Chamberlain, if
Speaker 1: you don't know, he's been on the podcast in the past.
Speaker 1: He is the urban hunting dude. I went and hunted
Speaker 1: with him last year in d C. Got to see
Speaker 1: what that was all about. He runs the hunt Urban
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, and he'll explains a little bit more when
Speaker 1: he hops on here in a second. But Taylor's whole
Speaker 1: thing is that he hunts in this area with with
Speaker 1: a super super high deer density, which requires year round management,
Speaker 1: and so he's able to hunt all year round with
Speaker 1: essentially like a it's like a nuisance dear type situation.
Speaker 1: And so he's killing so so so many more dear
Speaker 1: than any of us do because of that, and so
Speaker 1: he has had to really really get good at shooting,
Speaker 1: and he has had so many opportunities to practice and
Speaker 1: go and live through that situation. Right, I might kill
Speaker 1: a handful of dear year. He's doing that at times
Speaker 1: fifty and he does that an incredibly tight, high pressure
Speaker 1: situations because he's hunting in neighborhoods, he's hunting in backyards,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be perfect. This is something that
Speaker 1: really got hammered home to me when I spent time
Speaker 1: with him last fall, is that he I mean, we
Speaker 1: all want things to go well, right, but he requires
Speaker 1: them to be excellent, perfect, nothing less than that is
Speaker 1: acceptable because the margins for error in these neighborhoods are
Speaker 1: so so fine and the ramifications are so so high.
Speaker 1: So that's why Taylor is really just a great guy
Speaker 1: to sit down and dive deep into this with, because
Speaker 1: he's really turned the volume up on every single aspect
Speaker 1: of shooting. I want to know how to dial up
Speaker 1: your bow and tunea just right, Well, Taylor has taken
Speaker 1: it to the umpteenth degree. I want to get really
Speaker 1: good developing a shot process where a practice regiment. He's
Speaker 1: got a dial Taylor is very detail oriented and as
Speaker 1: we've just described, a perfectionist. And so today we're going
Speaker 1: to dive into everything from you know, what his early
Speaker 1: struggles were. We're gonna talk about how he thinks about
Speaker 1: his choice and bow criteria when choosing what the right
Speaker 1: setup is for him when it comes to a site,
Speaker 1: when it comes to arrows, when it comes to broadheads.
Speaker 1: So we do talk gear for like the first half
Speaker 1: hour forty five minutes or so, really getting into, you know,
Speaker 1: at the high level, what are the things you need
Speaker 1: to be looking for when trying to get the most accurate,
Speaker 1: effective bow, Not like a sexy, fast bow, not like, Hey,
Speaker 1: what are we gonna take out to the mountains and
Speaker 1: shoot eight yards at a mule deer? You know, how
Speaker 1: do you kill a white tail so it's dead in
Speaker 1: ten seconds and lying forty ft away? That's what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do here. So Taylor walks through that kind
Speaker 1: of set up. We talk through everything about his practice regimen.
Speaker 1: How can you simulate high pressure situations? How can you
Speaker 1: practice better? We talked through the whole shooting process, the
Speaker 1: different things he thinks about as he goes through that
Speaker 1: whole cycle, what he says, what he's physically doing, how
Speaker 1: he manages his nerves, everything like that. We have a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting conversation around, you know, in the field implications.
Speaker 1: You know, how to read a deer's body language, how
Speaker 1: to interpret whether now is the right time to shoot
Speaker 1: or not. Where really is the best place to shoot
Speaker 1: a deer if you need that super fast and guaranteed kill.
Speaker 1: We talked through all those types of things. We get
Speaker 1: into some interesting conversations around even you know, how we
Speaker 1: might want to adjust our goals or plans when hunting
Speaker 1: to really ramp up our experience so we can become
Speaker 1: a perfect shot. Someday. So that's a conversation today. It's
Speaker 1: a good one. Taylor's fun he's funny, he's great at
Speaker 1: what he does, and I learned stuff and I'm sure
Speaker 1: you are as well. But before we get to that,
Speaker 1: I do want to give you a quick heads up
Speaker 1: on something new that's coming down the line. I am
Speaker 1: going to be or I have already started picking out
Speaker 1: monthly gear picks of the different stuff that Mediator is
Speaker 1: selling now these days on our website. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you have realized this or not, but Mediator not
Speaker 1: only has brands like First Lay or FHF or Phelps
Speaker 1: game Calls, but we also are now stocking all sorts
Speaker 1: of other gear, mostly gear that me and the other
Speaker 1: folks on the team have purposely asked for it to
Speaker 1: be stocked on the site because we like it, because
Speaker 1: we use it. We're becoming more and more of an
Speaker 1: online purveyor and merchandiser of you know, the stuff that
Speaker 1: we really like. So I'm gonna start picking monthly picks
Speaker 1: a few items that I'm using that I like that
Speaker 1: I recommend to you, and we're putting them out there
Speaker 1: right now, at least for the time being. On the
Speaker 1: wired hunt homepage. So right now, this month, I've got
Speaker 1: a set of recommendations that are kind of tied into
Speaker 1: this whole shooting month, right so all about getting better
Speaker 1: at shooting. So I picked a few items that I'm
Speaker 1: using as I try to get better at being a
Speaker 1: better shot. So you can find this at the mediator
Speaker 1: dot com slash wired dash to dash hunt a little
Speaker 1: wordy I realized, or I'm hoping you already go to
Speaker 1: the wire dune page. You can just go to the
Speaker 1: meat eator dot com and then if you hover over pursuits,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see the logo for wired to Hunt. The
Speaker 1: click that and that takes you to the homepage. You
Speaker 1: should know this already. This is where we have dozens
Speaker 1: and dozens and dozens and dozens of deer hunting articles.
Speaker 1: I'm writing, Tony Peterson's writing all sorts of folks, Tony Hansen,
Speaker 1: Alex Gilstrom, Andy May has been in there. Who else.
Speaker 1: We got a whole bunch of great people that are
Speaker 1: contributing to this, but really Beaumark Tonics another one who's
Speaker 1: been writing a lot recently. If you want to get
Speaker 1: better deer hunting and you're listening to all these podcast
Speaker 1: episodes and you want to dive deeper, the website is
Speaker 1: a great place to go for that. You can also
Speaker 1: be seeing all this on our newsletter we share every Monday.
Speaker 1: If you're not subscribed to the wire Done weekly newsletter,
Speaker 1: that's going to help you find all this. But the
Speaker 1: point being is that I'm adding this little, quick, little
Speaker 1: gear section where each month I'm gonna pick a few
Speaker 1: things that I personally like. And this week we've got
Speaker 1: this Shooting Month selection. So what I've got feature here
Speaker 1: you'll see this. If you go to the website, you'll
Speaker 1: see this new archery target I just got about a
Speaker 1: month ago. It's called the M one Matrix archery target.
Speaker 1: This is like a super heavy duty modular target. So
Speaker 1: it's this foam. It's this heavy duty foam, but it's
Speaker 1: in like little um. I guess it's hexagons, Is that right?
Speaker 1: Six sides one, two, three, four or five? Six? Yes? Six?
Speaker 1: Is I think hexagon? That's embarrassing if I'm wrong about that, um,
Speaker 1: But yes, that's correct. So it's a hexagon shaped target.
Speaker 1: This comprised of a bunch of smaller hexagon foam pieces.
Speaker 1: So if you shoot out the central foam hexagon. You
Speaker 1: can just pop in a new one. You pull one
Speaker 1: out from the outside, put that one into the center.
Speaker 1: So it's a pretty nice idea. This one also has
Speaker 1: a really cool meat either branded kind of bands around
Speaker 1: the outside. I've been using it, Janice has been using it.
Speaker 1: I think Joe Rogan has been using it. Uh. And
Speaker 1: it's handling everything we're firing at it. And it seems
Speaker 1: like the kind of target that I could sit outside
Speaker 1: and keep it out there for years and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be just fine, super super high durability. I'm digging that.
Speaker 1: So that's one of my recommendations. If you want to
Speaker 1: invest in a top end, long lasting, you know, really
Speaker 1: nice outside target, this seems like a great option. My
Speaker 1: second pick is first Lights Wick short sleeve T shirt.
Speaker 1: This is like they're super simple, lightweight wool T shirt.
Speaker 1: I'm wearing one right now. It's basically my outfit all summer.
Speaker 1: I'm either wearing the T shirt or wearing the lightweight
Speaker 1: hoodie version of this. If I'm out fishing or something,
Speaker 1: I want to throw the hood over, but the T
Speaker 1: shirt it's what I wear when I'm out shooting outside.
Speaker 1: It's just quick drying super comfortable because of that wool,
Speaker 1: it doesn't get in key, it manages odor really well.
Speaker 1: So it's just a sweet shirt to wear all summer.
Speaker 1: It's uh, if I were gonna want buy one piece
Speaker 1: to wear for like my offseason white tail stuff, shooting, food, plotting, scouting,
Speaker 1: this is the thing I'm gonna be wearing all the time.
Speaker 1: My third recommendation is vortexas Impact one thousand range finder.
Speaker 1: It's actually on sale starting this week on the Mediator store,
Speaker 1: so we've got a fifteen percent off discount we can
Speaker 1: give you guys on this right now. And this is
Speaker 1: just like their simple entry line range finder. It's it's
Speaker 1: all you need in a range finder for bow hunting
Speaker 1: white tails, but nothing more, and that's what gets it
Speaker 1: a nice you know for range finders and affordable price point.
Speaker 1: I think it's one something like that. It's it's gonna work.
Speaker 1: It's small, it's lightweight, doesn't have all the fancy schmancy
Speaker 1: dancy stuff that maybe you're gonna want to want if
Speaker 1: you're shooting a thousand yards, but I'm not shooting a
Speaker 1: white tail thousand yards. To check this one out. It
Speaker 1: just does the job. And the last thing I got
Speaker 1: through on there was Caldwell's dead Shot Combo shooting bag.
Speaker 1: This is like a front and back shooting bag. I
Speaker 1: picked this up last year, I think, and started using
Speaker 1: it because I don't have like a lead sled. I
Speaker 1: don't have one of those big fancy things to hold
Speaker 1: your gun in when you're trying to sit it in
Speaker 1: and trying to make sure it's dead on. And as
Speaker 1: we discussed recently on the podcast, right it's time to
Speaker 1: get just as serious about really hammering in our fire
Speaker 1: or mac yourcy as it is with our archery. So
Speaker 1: it's like, well, I can at least buy some of
Speaker 1: these shooting bags so I can have a steadier platform
Speaker 1: when I'm practicing and when I'm studying with my gun.
Speaker 1: They're only bucks, but they just work. They're simple, they're
Speaker 1: not too huge and bulky, but they give you that
Speaker 1: solid platform when you're trying to shoot. So that's an
Speaker 1: easy quick investment. If you already don't have something like that,
Speaker 1: check them out. It's pretty nice, pretty simple. So that's
Speaker 1: the feature gear for July. Check it out again. It's
Speaker 1: on the wire Ton homepage over at meat Eater and
Speaker 1: go to the meat Eater dot com slash Wired Dash two.
Speaker 1: That's t O Dash Hunt, and I'll update this once
Speaker 1: a month with different ideas. I'm sure once we get
Speaker 1: into hunting season, I'll have some of my favorite gear
Speaker 1: that I wear during the year or tools I use,
Speaker 1: and I'll just try to think up of, you know,
Speaker 1: different useful things that I've been using in the field
Speaker 1: that you know might be helpful to some of you
Speaker 1: folks if you're in the market to so check it out.
Speaker 1: I'll keep you posted. Appreciate you tune in, appreciate checking
Speaker 1: out everything we're doing over at meat either. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: we're we're constantly trying to find ways to create the
Speaker 1: best content in the world, but then also fund that
Speaker 1: entire content mechanism and machine that we're building, pumping out
Speaker 1: new shows, new podcasts, lots and lots of articles, all
Speaker 1: to hopefully keep you entertained, help you become a better hunter,
Speaker 1: and have more fun out there. So that is my
Speaker 1: little news update. I think with that we should just
Speaker 1: get into my chat with Taylor. This is a good one.
Speaker 1: We dive deep into a whole lot of good stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to grab my bone and start shooting. I
Speaker 1: hope you're too. Let's get into it all right with me?
Speaker 1: Now on the show again for I think appearance number
Speaker 1: three is my buddy, Taylor Chamberlain, welcome back to Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me Mark, and you are correct, lucky number three.
Speaker 1: It's honor every time, but as we keep diving down,
Speaker 1: it becomes more of a well, hey, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: making the time. I think this one's gonna be a
Speaker 1: really fun one because in the past we've kind of
Speaker 1: talked all about hunting in the urban environments where you
Speaker 1: spend your time, and first it was just like, how
Speaker 1: do you do it? And then the second time was
Speaker 1: how did I do it with you? And all that
Speaker 1: crazy stuff that happened, which was very eye opening. And
Speaker 1: now today, Taylor, I am pulling you into the madness
Speaker 1: of shooting month here on Wired Hunt. We're doing a
Speaker 1: full month all about shooting. How to become a more effective,
Speaker 1: accurate hunter with a bow or a firearmor, whatever your
Speaker 1: tool of choices. And I was brainstorming me and Tony Peterson,
Speaker 1: my buddy, telling me, we're brainstorm but who the right
Speaker 1: people would be to come on the show for this month.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's like termin archers, and there's you know,
Speaker 1: professional coaches, and there's all these different kind of categories
Speaker 1: of people who would be worth talking to, right, But
Speaker 1: we got two thinking maybe the best kind of person
Speaker 1: to talk to would be someone who has actually shot
Speaker 1: at and effectively put down, you know, a ton of animals,
Speaker 1: someone who does this thing that we want to do,
Speaker 1: but has done it more than anyone else. Right. I
Speaker 1: maybe in a good year, maybe I kill five or
Speaker 1: six year in a year, and that's like a great
Speaker 1: year for for a lot of people, right, And I
Speaker 1: only have that many opportunities to go out there and
Speaker 1: actually practice what I've been or sorry, execute on the
Speaker 1: thing I've been practicing all year. Right, I don't get
Speaker 1: a whole ton of opportunities to actually have to go
Speaker 1: through the whole thing in real life and perform perfectly
Speaker 1: what I've been trying to practice for months. So as
Speaker 1: we started thinking about who does this a lot more
Speaker 1: than most people, you were the first person that can't mind, Taylor.
Speaker 1: I think most people know your unique situation out there
Speaker 1: in d C. But can you give us like the
Speaker 1: really quick kind of snippet of of what you do
Speaker 1: as a hunter and how it is that you have
Speaker 1: more experience killing deer probably than almost anyone I know. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm honored that I was at the top
Speaker 1: of a list. That's uh, normally I'm not at the
Speaker 1: top of good list. That was Yeah, there's other, there's
Speaker 1: other wedding. Yeah. So yeah, for anybody who doesn't know,
Speaker 1: I live right outside of Washington, d C. In northern Virginia,
Speaker 1: and we have an insane deer overpopulation. So where there
Speaker 1: should be ten to twelve deer per square mile, the
Speaker 1: best guests, they can't even quantify. The best guess is
Speaker 1: four and twenty U plus deer per square miles. So
Speaker 1: we have a huge overpopulation deer, which results in me
Speaker 1: being allowed to hunt year round. So we have a
Speaker 1: year round deer season here to try and reduce the
Speaker 1: dear numbers. Um, and I hunt year round. Um. I
Speaker 1: think my wife actually likes it that I'm gone more
Speaker 1: than i'm home. Best marriage tech, Yeah exactly. I mean,
Speaker 1: what do you say, what's my best marriage had? This
Speaker 1: is your best marriage? The fact that you do this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, because in in ten years of marriage, I've
Speaker 1: only been home for two So no, but I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, I hunt anywhere from from a hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy five plus days a year. So literally, you know,
Speaker 1: if the weather is good, there's a high probability regardless
Speaker 1: of the day, that I'm in a tree. Um In
Speaker 1: you know, the hunts are short. I'm walking. If anybody's
Speaker 1: see what I look like, it's pretty obvious I don't
Speaker 1: walk far from my truck tree. So I mean, you
Speaker 1: know we're walking short distances is and um, it's a
Speaker 1: quick hunt. But because the theory that they're or not.
Speaker 1: But um, I'm hunting on properties as small as a
Speaker 1: quarter acre, and so I have a lot of reps,
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities to harvest deer, a lot of
Speaker 1: successful harvest of deer. Um, it's an imperative that if
Speaker 1: I do draw my bow and put an arrow in
Speaker 1: the air, it is a requirement that that arrow hits
Speaker 1: its mark and puts the animal down as fast as possible.
Speaker 1: And you know, as sportsmen, we all try to have
Speaker 1: deer go down as fast as possible. But for me,
Speaker 1: the difference in an animal running fifty yards and piling
Speaker 1: up versus a hundred and fifty yards and piling up
Speaker 1: is I mean is make or break? Uh? That is
Speaker 1: that's the difference between an animal getting recovered on property
Speaker 1: versus me having to go knock on doors and potentially
Speaker 1: have to pay to have a pool cleaned. Way, if
Speaker 1: I can do that again, I'm gonna have A'm gonna
Speaker 1: need more barren tacks. My wife will be pissed about that. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's imperative that my gear is dialed and my kid
Speaker 1: is dialed and me as an archer is absolutely top
Speaker 1: shape because I can't afford to have any mishaps. So yeah,
Speaker 1: now that I've lived that experience with you, I know
Speaker 1: how important it is to not have to go knocking
Speaker 1: on doors at nine o'clock at night and bothering people
Speaker 1: in the dark happen From there, you found out firsthand
Speaker 1: what what can happen. And I mean really, you just
Speaker 1: don't know what's behind the door. And and once you've
Speaker 1: shot a deer and it is nine o'clock at night
Speaker 1: or ten o'clock at night, like you, it's very hard
Speaker 1: to be like, I'll just come back tomorrow, right because
Speaker 1: that animal is has expired. Like you want to get it,
Speaker 1: you want to recover it, you want uh, you know,
Speaker 1: unfortunate that we have a great program here like a
Speaker 1: lot of other states do, but even more uh necessary
Speaker 1: here where we're feeding the homeless and and the needy
Speaker 1: with um with this medicine. So like if I shoot
Speaker 1: it here, I wanted to go to use and I
Speaker 1: want to recover it. And it's you know, if you
Speaker 1: have to go knock on the door at ten o'clock
Speaker 1: at night, you're probably not getting a favorable response from
Speaker 1: the person answering the door, regardless of their stance on hunting.
Speaker 1: But you know, even more so, you just don't know
Speaker 1: what what's on the other side of the door as
Speaker 1: far as reception towards who you are and what you're
Speaker 1: knocking on the door for. So it's very very important
Speaker 1: that that deer piles up insight. If you don't see
Speaker 1: it go down or hear it go down, man, that
Speaker 1: is like the worst feeling that I could ever imagine having.
Speaker 1: You just know that something potentially could go wrong. So
Speaker 1: you've got to execute perfectly, like like more perfectly than
Speaker 1: almost anybody else, because your margins for error with with
Speaker 1: all this other kind of halo material around the hunt
Speaker 1: is so much higher stakes than if I shot a
Speaker 1: deer on a hunter aggre farm. So there's that but
Speaker 1: then you're hunting almost every week of the year. And
Speaker 1: would you say you're going through this shot process at
Speaker 1: least every week a year almost or something like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is something you're not just doing a
Speaker 1: few times. This is something you're doing a lot, right, Yes, absolutely?
Speaker 1: And um and I will not draw my bow. And
Speaker 1: we can get into why I've gotten to this level,
Speaker 1: but I will not draw my bow and without going
Speaker 1: through the shot process that we're going to walk through,
Speaker 1: um here shortly. But I will not put my hand
Speaker 1: on the release and draw the bow back unless I
Speaker 1: walk through this process because it's that important and and
Speaker 1: it's that necessary for a successful harvest as far as
Speaker 1: I'm concerned. All Right, So you you kill or harvest whatever,
Speaker 1: and you say you do this more often more effectively
Speaker 1: than maybe anybody else I know. But I gotta ask
Speaker 1: you this, Were you always this good? Are you just
Speaker 1: ice cold? Do you have like zero uh nerves in
Speaker 1: your body? Have you always just been built to handle
Speaker 1: this kind of stress test? Or was there time in
Speaker 1: the past where you couldn't have performed this way? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: I wish that I could say that I was so
Speaker 1: cool and that I was just had ice water running
Speaker 1: through my veins. And I was always a star, but no,
Speaker 1: I was terrible um at archery for a while. So
Speaker 1: I mean I taught myself how to hunt. I didn't
Speaker 1: have anybody um along the way that that really showed
Speaker 1: me the ropes. I mean I listened to a lot
Speaker 1: of podcasts, I consumed every bit of hunting media possible,
Speaker 1: um you know, reading books, magazines, etcetera. And there was
Speaker 1: a very long and steep learning curve for me to
Speaker 1: go from you know, a city boy who had never
Speaker 1: hunted before in his life and had nobody to talk
Speaker 1: to about hunting, uh, to to the level that I'm
Speaker 1: at today. And so I mean that's actually what got
Speaker 1: me into the hunting industry was that I wanted to
Speaker 1: try and just put whatever information out there that I
Speaker 1: could two help anyone out there that was looking for help,
Speaker 1: because I just wanted to try and shorten somebody's learning
Speaker 1: curve to not make it as long and real as
Speaker 1: mind was. So there was tons and I mean tons
Speaker 1: of steps along the way that we're learning opportunities or
Speaker 1: things that I had to learn from of whether it
Speaker 1: be blowing a hunt or screwing up a shot or
Speaker 1: miss wading deer's body language and not shooting at the
Speaker 1: right time or the right placement or um, you know,
Speaker 1: not letting that deer turn like that extra couple degrees.
Speaker 1: I mean, really entrenching myself into trying to become the
Speaker 1: best hunter that I could be. So it was a
Speaker 1: long bumpy road with you know, some lost gear, some
Speaker 1: wounded deer, some uh, some misshots, and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm proud of the journey that I've taken to get
Speaker 1: to where I am now, where I couldn't tell you
Speaker 1: the last time that I lost a gear um or
Speaker 1: didn't have a deer drop in sight. So I'm kind
Speaker 1: of proud of getting to the point of hopefully having
Speaker 1: ice water in my veins. And I mean, you know
Speaker 1: people say that, but that's not true. It's really just
Speaker 1: developing a process that you can rely on in a
Speaker 1: high stress environment, which is what your body is going
Speaker 1: through when you're dealing with that a journal and dump
Speaker 1: of of getting ready to shoot a deer and shooting
Speaker 1: a deer and um, that's why we do it right
Speaker 1: and so um yeah, it would be great if it
Speaker 1: was if I was born this way, but I was
Speaker 1: certainly was not. It was a difficult journey to say
Speaker 1: the least. So so you gotta forgive me for forcing
Speaker 1: you to dig up past traumas. But I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta ask you this. Can you can you think back
Speaker 1: on some of those early days and point to any
Speaker 1: single moment maybe or experience that was most either most
Speaker 1: illustrated your struggles or maybe represented like a turning point
Speaker 1: where you said, never again, I can't keep screwing this
Speaker 1: up or I can't ever have this thing happen again.
Speaker 1: Was there any kind of single hunt or shot or
Speaker 1: situation that just kind of yes, represented that struggle? To
Speaker 1: tell me about that, Tell what that felt like. Tell
Speaker 1: what happened. When I first started getting into urban hunting,
Speaker 1: I was out at a property with my buddy Billy,
Speaker 1: and he was hunting about a hundred yards from me.
Speaker 1: We got set up and he shot a deer within
Speaker 1: like within the hour being in the tree, and I
Speaker 1: was Jack, were like, watch the deer drop, and we're
Speaker 1: texting back and forth, and I'm like all excited. And
Speaker 1: I was set up over um, you know, over a
Speaker 1: well hub spot, so like you know, the little pipe
Speaker 1: that comes out of the ground about eighteen inches where
Speaker 1: it's capped off. And so this particular little little well
Speaker 1: tap point was leaking. It was dripping water and the
Speaker 1: deer were coming into it and licking the water out
Speaker 1: of this little spot and it was a killer spot. Um.
Speaker 1: And so this deer comes in, I'm all jacked up.
Speaker 1: I draw my bow back like as soon as the
Speaker 1: pin gets on her, I just punched the trigger and
Speaker 1: just crack and she takes off, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got one too. I mean, this was like very
Speaker 1: this might have been my third or fourth urban hunt ever.
Speaker 1: And the deer runs off, and Billy and I are
Speaker 1: texting them all excited, and that deer turned into an
Speaker 1: absolute nightmare recovery. We looked all night for it. Knocking
Speaker 1: on doors, Uh really had a couple of incredibly piste
Speaker 1: off homeowners. One of them ended up calling the cops
Speaker 1: on me after the fact. So it's a very long story.
Speaker 1: I won't get into the minutia of it, but um,
Speaker 1: I knocked on the door, asked for permission to track,
Speaker 1: was grand, permission went in and the next day the
Speaker 1: police are to my house and um, the guy had
Speaker 1: tried to resend permission and was trying to charge me
Speaker 1: with trespassing, and I was like, you can't do that,
Speaker 1: you know, and yeah, you can't, like give me permission
Speaker 1: and then say no, now you're tress, you know, here's
Speaker 1: your ticket. Um. But he was a powerful litigator and
Speaker 1: was trying to pull some strings. It was just a
Speaker 1: nightmare the guys. Inevitably, what happened was Guy's wife got
Speaker 1: pissed that he gave me permission. He was trying to
Speaker 1: handle it, but that deer was a nightmare and never recovered.
Speaker 1: The deer really caused some problems in the h O
Speaker 1: A UM that Billy had taken me to uh to hunt,
Speaker 1: and I just felt sick to my stomach on a
Speaker 1: on a multiple levels, on the fact that I didn't
Speaker 1: perform when I really wanted to um and just kind
Speaker 1: of like my own personal disappointment, but even more so
Speaker 1: than that, the level of disappointment that I felt for
Speaker 1: like screwing up my buddy's spot, getting in trouble like
Speaker 1: with the police. I mean I didn't get in trouble,
Speaker 1: but I having to deal with that, like causing that
Speaker 1: issue learning homeowners to the presence. I mean, everything went
Speaker 1: wrong or was wrong, and I just remember thinking to myself, man, like,
Speaker 1: you can't do that again, Like you have to make
Speaker 1: sure that that you're you're hitting these deer perfectly. And
Speaker 1: I think that that was really important for me because
Speaker 1: it kind of it led me down the path of
Speaker 1: like really striving for perfection. And anyone who knows me
Speaker 1: will will you know, agree that I am super anal.
Speaker 1: I'm very detail oriented and I'm always trying to reflect
Speaker 1: on past hunts to try and figure out how to
Speaker 1: perfect them in the future. And that's kind of like
Speaker 1: in a nutshell, why my kid is so dialed, like
Speaker 1: everything is so so perfect is because if any one
Speaker 1: little thing goes wrong, that drives me nuts because on
Speaker 1: oct and I try to fix it for the next time.
Speaker 1: And I just kind of worked through that system. And
Speaker 1: so this was like a major thing for me, Like
Speaker 1: I lost sleepover it really upset me. And so that
Speaker 1: was in September, and um, you know, fast forward to November.
Speaker 1: It's the rut um and I had never shot a
Speaker 1: decent buck before I killed like a little six pointer. Um,
Speaker 1: like you know, outside of years, like it probably would
Speaker 1: have been a future booner like a year and a half,
Speaker 1: all the sixth pointer with a muzzle loader. And then
Speaker 1: I had shot um one buck with my bow, I think,
Speaker 1: but these were on like farms, and I hadn't really
Speaker 1: shot like a good urban buck, and I really wanted
Speaker 1: to shoot just like a decent at the time, Like all,
Speaker 1: if I could have shot a hundred and eight pointer,
Speaker 1: I probably would have mounted it like I was. So
Speaker 1: that's just where all I wanted was an eight pointer
Speaker 1: or better. And Um, this absolute giant hundred and forty
Speaker 1: plus eight pointer, you know, Monday man like a sticker
Speaker 1: off his rights to two. But I I didn't even
Speaker 1: pay attention. Comes kind of just trotting through in the
Speaker 1: middle of the day right under me. Um, and I
Speaker 1: was completely unprepared. I grabbed my bow and I'm like
Speaker 1: mat Matt, Like before I know it, I'm at full
Speaker 1: draw and arrows in the air and it's over his
Speaker 1: back and he's gone. And I sat on my phone.
Speaker 1: This is funny. I had a BlackBerry at the time,
Speaker 1: and I was playing that brick Breaker game on it.
Speaker 1: Brick Breaker was the greatest tree stand time passing thing
Speaker 1: ever and those Blackberries battery life is just amazing. But
Speaker 1: I was playing brick Breaker and I almost threw my
Speaker 1: phone out of the stand, and instead of throwing my
Speaker 1: phone out of stand, I sat down and I wrote
Speaker 1: down a note and I called it Taylor's requirements to
Speaker 1: come to full draw in the tree stand. And I
Speaker 1: wrote like a dissertation to myself of like you will,
Speaker 1: I mean like literally like in order to come to
Speaker 1: full draw, you must and you will and and um,
Speaker 1: you know those are kind of like the backbone notes
Speaker 1: that have have really kind of grown over time. But
Speaker 1: the the kind of general sense of it was like,
Speaker 1: this is not You're not gonna put in the amount
Speaker 1: of time and effort and dedication that you're doing to
Speaker 1: this to just go f it up, and you need
Speaker 1: to like make sure that this never happens again. And
Speaker 1: that was really like the combination of that dough hunt
Speaker 1: and then missing that buck like just drove me berserk.
Speaker 1: And um, I still live by those rules today, right, Like, UM,
Speaker 1: I really make a point to I will not shoot
Speaker 1: a deer if things are not perfect, and I will
Speaker 1: not shoot a deer if if I don't go through
Speaker 1: these steps to take from from the moment that my
Speaker 1: hand touches the riser of my bow until the until
Speaker 1: that shot breaks. You know, I have an exact um
Speaker 1: process that I go through, and you kind of got
Speaker 1: to witness some of that firsthand. So we hunted together
Speaker 1: one day and we had a pretty crazy hut, like
Speaker 1: their deer everywhere, there's chaos everywhere. Um, and you know,
Speaker 1: we had a deer come by rated you know, within
Speaker 1: legal shooting light, but towards the last like five minutes
Speaker 1: of it, I'd say, and she wasn't like twenty two
Speaker 1: yards twenty four yards. I guarantee you I put a
Speaker 1: shot that deer and killed it. However, it was not perfect.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of stuff going on and you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes the best shot you can take is not taking
Speaker 1: a shot at all. And you know, I remember when
Speaker 1: that deer left, You're like, why why didn't you shoot it?
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that there's too much going on here
Speaker 1: and and the way like looking at her body language
Speaker 1: and what's going on, and um, it just wasn't right.
Speaker 1: And so but you know, that's how I've gotten to
Speaker 1: that point, is like I've screwed up along the way,
Speaker 1: and I've said these rules for myself and I'm just
Speaker 1: not gonna do it unless it's unless it's perfect, because
Speaker 1: I've just experienced the the wrong side of it enough
Speaker 1: to know what can happen. And man, you might have
Speaker 1: just said the most important thing that we'll hear all month,
Speaker 1: the very most important thing that maybe everyone needs to
Speaker 1: get right down and not forget. Is it Sometimes the
Speaker 1: very best shot is no shot at all. I mean,
Speaker 1: how many of us have felt rushed into a shot
Speaker 1: we shouldn't have taken, or like the pressure, I can't
Speaker 1: let this moment get away. I gotta take the shot.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many different examples of times where
Speaker 1: I'm sure we can look back and say, man, she
Speaker 1: should have held off. You can never get that arrow back.
Speaker 1: I mean I can point to many. Um. I mean
Speaker 1: that is so important right there, regardless of any improvements
Speaker 1: you make to your shot process, just knowing that you
Speaker 1: don't need to take the shot and sometimes you shouldn't
Speaker 1: when it's not right. I mean, that is that is
Speaker 1: so important, because the the bad stuff that comes from
Speaker 1: a bad shot is just not worth it. It's just
Speaker 1: not And and every time, I mean, I you know,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of um you know hunters and
Speaker 1: our little urban hunting community here, and I help out
Speaker 1: a lot on um you know, times where people lose
Speaker 1: the deer, can't find a deer, or whatever. And I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, almost a percent of the time,
Speaker 1: like percent of the time, when I meet up with
Speaker 1: somebody who's having trouble recovering a deer and I asked them,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, so what happened, They're like, man, I
Speaker 1: just you know, they'll tell you their story, but it's
Speaker 1: always the same in the sense of they rushed the
Speaker 1: shot or they they felt like they had to take
Speaker 1: a shot at that moment um. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm convinced, like we're all predators, right like we we
Speaker 1: wouldn't be here if either we are direct ancestors or
Speaker 1: somebody down the line weren't good hunters. And we kind
Speaker 1: of have these like subconscious predatory feelings like you know
Speaker 1: what to do, and if you have to force yourself
Speaker 1: to take a shot when you're when you're everything and
Speaker 1: he is telling you like like there's a reason for that,
Speaker 1: you need to listen to it and not be like no,
Speaker 1: like I've got to shoot him down, you know, because
Speaker 1: that's when bad stuff always will happen. And maybe it'll
Speaker 1: work out once or twice, but statistically, in for for
Speaker 1: some trouble at some point, so just don't do it
Speaker 1: all right. So, there's a lot of stuff you touched
Speaker 1: on there that I want to dive deep into. I
Speaker 1: really want to. I really want to know what Taylor
Speaker 1: Chamberlain's dissertation on when to draw the bow and and
Speaker 1: what all those perfect factors need to be are. Um.
Speaker 1: But maybe let's let's start where I think maybe this begins,
Speaker 1: and then advance our way to that. So, since you
Speaker 1: had this kind of season from hell where you realize
Speaker 1: you had to figure this thing out, was was was
Speaker 1: your gear choice and tuning and kind of perfecting your
Speaker 1: gear set? Was that a big part of that process?
Speaker 1: I thought? Absolutely? So. So there are a couple you know,
Speaker 1: hunting is part of what makes hunting cool is there's
Speaker 1: stuff you can control, like where you're sitting, how you
Speaker 1: got in there, what you smell, like, the time you
Speaker 1: got there, like all these things that you can control.
Speaker 1: But there's a bunch of stuff you can't control, like
Speaker 1: the deer and you know, in my in my my area,
Speaker 1: like what's going on around you. And so I tried
Speaker 1: to maximize my opportunity to harvest the deer by perfecting
Speaker 1: what I can control. And so when I thought about it,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I can control is my bow.
Speaker 1: My bow can be as perfectly optimized as possible. My
Speaker 1: arrow can be as as perfectly built as possible. It
Speaker 1: can be designed and set up two to have the
Speaker 1: highest efficiency or the most forgiving both tune but also
Speaker 1: like weight and everything set up. And my body, me
Speaker 1: is the shooter could be optimized both mentally and physically
Speaker 1: to shoot a deer. And so I set out to
Speaker 1: educate myself on all of those factors and then get
Speaker 1: the bow dialed, hit the You know, have an archery
Speaker 1: site that was perfected. I had an arrow rest that
Speaker 1: had the lowest probability of failure. I had a arrow
Speaker 1: that was designed and cut and and made to be perfect,
Speaker 1: you know, even down to like my bow drawing. I mean,
Speaker 1: so I'm a I'm a big guy, just like you are. Mark.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm you know, six to I could I
Speaker 1: can comfortably shoot a bow at a thirty one in
Speaker 1: straw length, And if I was a tournament archer, I
Speaker 1: would be shooting a bow at a thirty one in
Speaker 1: straw length. However, I mean having that having your wingspan
Speaker 1: absolutely maximized for me, and I think it's it's kind
Speaker 1: of highlighted because I have really broad shoulders. But I
Speaker 1: mean that's not where I wanted to be in a
Speaker 1: tree stand. So I even kind of dialed down. I
Speaker 1: fluctuated from like a twenty nine and a half in
Speaker 1: straw length to where I am now, which is like
Speaker 1: just a Scotia over thirties, so like thirty and a
Speaker 1: quarters where I like around my bows at. But I
Speaker 1: mean I went into the weeds on that. And so
Speaker 1: for anybody out there that's looking to like maximize their
Speaker 1: set up, you know, getting a bow that is is
Speaker 1: a newer age bow, so it doesn't even have to
Speaker 1: be like a you know, a brand new flagship bow,
Speaker 1: but like just the current bow technology out there, all
Speaker 1: the brands are awesome. Just get one that has, you know,
Speaker 1: within your budget, and buying a used one that's a
Speaker 1: year or two old is a great way to go
Speaker 1: about it if you're tight on cash or if you
Speaker 1: want to kind of like get the maximum um value
Speaker 1: out of something, because they're all really good, but just
Speaker 1: get one that has a smooth draw cycle, that has
Speaker 1: maximum efficiency for uh speed, right, And that's where so
Speaker 1: you know, like the older single cam model bows were
Speaker 1: a little slower. But what what I'm looking for now
Speaker 1: is like a newer The newer bows, the technology is
Speaker 1: so good and they're easier to tune, they hold a
Speaker 1: tune better, um and and especially with dual cams, you're
Speaker 1: able to get more energy transferred into the era. So
Speaker 1: what I'm looking for is the most efficient bow to tune, uh,
Speaker 1: and also one that will hold its tune for the longest,
Speaker 1: because I mean, a race car is no good it
Speaker 1: if it's only firing all cylinders the second that you
Speaker 1: take the wrenches off of it, and then it kind
Speaker 1: of goes to crap after um. And then I want
Speaker 1: the most energy transferred into the arrow possible, So I
Speaker 1: want the least amount of energy loss from from my
Speaker 1: draw cycle into the arrow. And that's where the tuning
Speaker 1: really comes in, is you're trying to perfect arrow flight
Speaker 1: because that arrow is what's absorbing the energy, which is
Speaker 1: obviously what makes it fly down range. Right. So um,
Speaker 1: you know, any modern bow, we'll check this box. And
Speaker 1: and it's really important for people to go out and
Speaker 1: shoot the bows, like I would recommend that people don't
Speaker 1: go out and just max out, Like, you know, I
Speaker 1: have a buddy who loves to shoot an eighty pound
Speaker 1: bow because I think he just likes telling people he's
Speaker 1: shooting eighty pounds, right, I would love to see him
Speaker 1: draw his bow in February when there are nine does
Speaker 1: underneath of him and you're trying to shoot one and
Speaker 1: you have like eight layers of clothes on because it's
Speaker 1: twelve degrees out right, Like, that's very, very difficult to do.
Speaker 1: There are times that you know, if I see a
Speaker 1: deer coming in in that same scenario, like I know
Speaker 1: that I need to draw early, and I like, I
Speaker 1: know that when I'm drawing my boat that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to hold my draw for I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: like ninety seconds or so, just because by the time
Speaker 1: there's deer get into where they need to be, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be exposed on the side of the tree and
Speaker 1: and any movement will cause there's deer to bust. Right. So, um,
Speaker 1: having the most efficient setup that you can have might
Speaker 1: be a boat. That's fine. Like with modern technology, you're
Speaker 1: better off with something you can draw smoothly, like horizontally
Speaker 1: and easily. Then you are cranking up the weight and
Speaker 1: putting the performance setting on like on your boat, to
Speaker 1: where it's a very harsh draw cycle. So so when
Speaker 1: you're maximizing your bow, you just want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you have something that you can draw smoothly, that
Speaker 1: you're able to practice with a lot. That's the other
Speaker 1: thing is like if you have an eighty pound bow
Speaker 1: and it hurts your shoulder to draw more than seven times, like,
Speaker 1: how many reps are you getting? Probably not a lot.
Speaker 1: And and we'll get down the road to that. Uh.
Speaker 1: But you know, for for perfecting your equipment, you want
Speaker 1: to make sure that it's you know, a relatively efficient bow.
Speaker 1: So anything built past like two two thousand five probably
Speaker 1: fits into this box, you know. Um and and but
Speaker 1: make sure you've got new strings on it, good high
Speaker 1: quality strings, and then learn about the bow to where
Speaker 1: you can tune it. And so the next step that
Speaker 1: I like to go through is I super tune all
Speaker 1: my bows and um for anyone who doesn't know, basically,
Speaker 1: that's trying to get the arrow to fly as perfectly
Speaker 1: as possible. And so I go through a pretty long
Speaker 1: process of bear shaft tuning uh and and getting that
Speaker 1: bow dialed as as perfect as a can to where
Speaker 1: like I can take it some bear shafts and I
Speaker 1: can shoot them at forty yards and have them just
Speaker 1: hitting like in a softball size hole. And so that
Speaker 1: to me, I know that I could screw any broadhead
Speaker 1: on the front of that to have it fly well.
Speaker 1: But really what that's telling me is that that arrow
Speaker 1: is leaving the bow as perfect and cleanly as possible,
Speaker 1: so that when it does hit something in the event
Speaker 1: that it hits bone, it's going to be pushing through
Speaker 1: as straight as possible to really have that momentum and
Speaker 1: kinetic energy to pull it through as opposed to potentially
Speaker 1: deflect off. And so the general theme that people will
Speaker 1: notice and all of my stuff is I'm trying to
Speaker 1: to tune or prepare for an absolute worst case scenario
Speaker 1: and have success still in that worst case scenario. So like,
Speaker 1: if you shoot a dear through the heart, it's gonna run. Well,
Speaker 1: that's a bad example because I actually have found that
Speaker 1: if you shoot deer through the heart, they run further
Speaker 1: than the lungs. But if you put one right through
Speaker 1: the through the lungs, you know they're going forty yards
Speaker 1: and they're dying. Um, if you smash one in the knuckle,
Speaker 1: or that dear drops a little, or you catch shoulder
Speaker 1: blade that I want to punch through. That I don't
Speaker 1: want to have to be a probability or increased probability
Speaker 1: for failure in the same vein though, if that deer
Speaker 1: takes a step and I hit it through like the
Speaker 1: back of the lungs or you know, I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that I have a maximized surface area for
Speaker 1: punching it through as well, and that my gears dialed
Speaker 1: for that. So for the bow set up, we want
Speaker 1: to make sure that that's as as optimized as possible.
Speaker 1: It's tuned. That also comes along with, you know, I
Speaker 1: like a multi pin site or the fact to know
Speaker 1: that the pin that is set up on there is
Speaker 1: exactly where it needs to be. Um, I will not
Speaker 1: shoot over twenty yards, however, I still like to know
Speaker 1: that if that, you know, something happens like I can adjust,
Speaker 1: uh and and get an arrow at thirty yards or
Speaker 1: thirty five yards or whatever. I just like having those
Speaker 1: there's fixed things. If you're a guy that wants to
Speaker 1: a single pin because the site picture totally fine, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, just practice with it when it's set on
Speaker 1: the set yardage to then know where your holdover is
Speaker 1: to where it ends up being no different than you
Speaker 1: throw in a baseball if somebody is like standing at
Speaker 1: a certain distance and you never think, okay, that person
Speaker 1: is ft away, I need to throw this ball at you.
Speaker 1: Of my capability or whatever, you just do it. Um.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm looking for on site stuff. And
Speaker 1: then from there, the only other component of the bow
Speaker 1: is you, and so I try to maximize my my form.
Speaker 1: I practice a lot with my grip. I want to
Speaker 1: know that that my anchor points are perfect. So I
Speaker 1: like to anchor. I shoot a hand hold hold them
Speaker 1: less time out, last time out. I don't want to
Speaker 1: get right there yet. Before I touched a few more
Speaker 1: things on the bow because I want to go really
Speaker 1: deep into your whole anchoring and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But but with a bow, one thing that we did
Speaker 1: I didn't hear yet. One thing I didn't hear about
Speaker 1: yet was the styles of bows. Now, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of bows that are shooting for being really fast and
Speaker 1: lightweight for like a mountain hunter, or there's some that
Speaker 1: are longer but heavier, and there's you know, different brace
Speaker 1: heights and different things like that, and when it comes
Speaker 1: to what you're trying to do, just it's quickly and
Speaker 1: effectively kill a deer and get on the ground faster
Speaker 1: and more consistently than anything else. What about a few
Speaker 1: of those other bow factors? Do you prefer, like a
Speaker 1: longer axle to axle, which is something I hear can
Speaker 1: make you more forgiving or stable or anything on those
Speaker 1: notes when it comes to pick in the right boone, Yes,
Speaker 1: I really that kind of gets down to personal preference.
Speaker 1: I think a lot because, um, you know, I've shot
Speaker 1: short axcellent axle boat. The current trend in archery um
Speaker 1: for the trend in archery a while ago had smaller
Speaker 1: cams on the bows, and so when you got those
Speaker 1: in actually accel burs with those small cams on it,
Speaker 1: the string angles got really, really really tight, especially for
Speaker 1: a guy like me who's got a over thirty inch
Speaker 1: drawing Like most of them couldn't even get there mathematically.
Speaker 1: Now the cams are getting bigger, which allow for a
Speaker 1: smoother draw cycle because they're getting more rounded, right, but
Speaker 1: they also that allows for a higher string angle. So
Speaker 1: if you measured like the Matthews, you know, nine inch
Speaker 1: bow right now, out the combination of those bigger cams
Speaker 1: with that longer riser that they're able to do because
Speaker 1: these these limbs now are past parallel at rest um.
Speaker 1: It really allows you to get a much longer string
Speaker 1: angle with a shorter a T A bow. So if
Speaker 1: you're a guy and you're gonna be white tail hunting
Speaker 1: only um and and you know you have an under
Speaker 1: thirty and strawling, there's no problem shooting a shorter a
Speaker 1: T A bow. Me personally, I like to have like
Speaker 1: a thirty thirty three T a UM with those bigger
Speaker 1: camps on it. It's just something that I prefer. I
Speaker 1: like those those longer um that's slightly wider string angle.
Speaker 1: But that being said, I was shooting Billy's bow tex
Speaker 1: CP yesterday. I loved it so because even though it's
Speaker 1: a I think it's there's a lot more going into
Speaker 1: these string angles that allow for it to be a
Speaker 1: little deceiving when you think of just the axle to
Speaker 1: axle bo if that makes sense. So um, it's really important.
Speaker 1: And this is like the age old adage of like
Speaker 1: go to your pro shop, go shoot a bunch of
Speaker 1: bows and figure out which one that you like, Like
Speaker 1: do not have a preconcy brand notion when you're going
Speaker 1: into the pro shop as to like, oh, I'm going
Speaker 1: to go buy or whatever. It's like figure out what
Speaker 1: you shoot well and what you like, because um, all
Speaker 1: the options out there are great. I mean, so this
Speaker 1: year I had a lot of fun and I picked
Speaker 1: up a flagship bow from every brand. So I have
Speaker 1: the po Tex, the Hoits, Um, the Elites, the Matthews,
Speaker 1: and the PC and they're all absolutely spectacular. I mean,
Speaker 1: they all have different feelings. UM, to your point, some
Speaker 1: are a little lighter. Obviously, the lighter ebo is the
Speaker 1: more potential for vibration there is. The heavier bow, the
Speaker 1: more master is to absorb vibrations. So therefore you know
Speaker 1: it's more dead in hand. But generally, um, but just
Speaker 1: some of the technologies on the bows are spectacular. I
Speaker 1: think that the deadlock system that's on the bow tech
Speaker 1: is the coolest thing ever for tuning a bow, just
Speaker 1: from the sense of um, for anyone doesn't know, the
Speaker 1: deadlock technology is this warm drive system. So like when
Speaker 1: I'm tuning a Matthews or an Elite on Elites about
Speaker 1: example right now, because they have some similar technology. But um,
Speaker 1: look at the new hoids. You have to shim those over,
Speaker 1: so the matthews have If you're UM trying to move
Speaker 1: the am on the axle in order to accommodate for
Speaker 1: like imperfect arrow flight, the best way to do that
Speaker 1: is to to move the cam around a little bit.
Speaker 1: And so UM, you would have to press that bow,
Speaker 1: take the cam out, take the axle out, change the
Speaker 1: bar matthews the top hats around, which slightly will move
Speaker 1: that that cam around. UM. But the boat te technology,
Speaker 1: it's really just a set screw, and so I think
Speaker 1: that's really cool, just because I think that will help
Speaker 1: a lot more people get more comfortable with tuning their
Speaker 1: bow because a lot of people, UM are intimidated by
Speaker 1: the thought of pressing the boat, taking the axle out,
Speaker 1: and and shooting those cams around whatever. It's intimidating. I mean, UM,
Speaker 1: it took a lot for me to want to do that.
Speaker 1: But the reason that you want to do that is
Speaker 1: once you set the center shot of your bow with
Speaker 1: the rest. So once you have that rest at like
Speaker 1: sixteenth of an inch, UM, you want to keep it
Speaker 1: there because that's the main power stroke. And so by
Speaker 1: moving those cams slightly you're still keeping that power stroke
Speaker 1: in the optimal spot. Now, once you've shimmed them around
Speaker 1: and you go out and you're you know, you're bear
Speaker 1: shaft tuning at like thirty yards, Well you're gonna make
Speaker 1: one click on the rest. Generally that's not that big
Speaker 1: a deal. But really with this technology, you can move
Speaker 1: that that cam over I mean like six fourth or
Speaker 1: an inch and it's no problem. So I think that's
Speaker 1: really cool technology that is available now and it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see how that progresses. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: that was a very long winded answer of go to
Speaker 1: your bow shop and shoot the bows and figure out
Speaker 1: what a t a length that that you want and
Speaker 1: also what what draw weight you want, because depending on
Speaker 1: the draw cycle of the bow that you pick some
Speaker 1: that are harsher, that are stiffer up front, you might
Speaker 1: want that to be a little lighter. As smoother drawing
Speaker 1: bow that gradually builds, you might be able to draw
Speaker 1: more weight. So that's positive as well. Yeah. So so
Speaker 1: on this line of you know, tweaking and tuning your setup,
Speaker 1: one thing that we haven't touched on yet, which which
Speaker 1: is a very trendy point discussion these days, is arrows,
Speaker 1: arrow style, weight, all that kind of stuff, and then
Speaker 1: and then broadheads too. Of course, the perpetual argument over
Speaker 1: broadheat styles and all that. Where where have you settled
Speaker 1: on those? What are the criteria that you're looking for
Speaker 1: to get that absolute most perfect, effective, fast killing tool. Yep. Um, So,
Speaker 1: arrows are obviously the most important component of your system
Speaker 1: because if, regardless of how awesome your bow is, if
Speaker 1: you're shooting a crappy arrow, then you're set up is crappy, right, So,
Speaker 1: and that includes your your broadhead as well. But um,
Speaker 1: I like a very heavy arrow. I like a uh
Speaker 1: not a super micro diameter, but the smallest diameter, like
Speaker 1: a medium kind of or medium small, I guess you
Speaker 1: could say. So, I've been shooting the day six arrows.
Speaker 1: I absolutely love them for a couple of reasons. I
Speaker 1: find that they are very very straight, um, and I
Speaker 1: like their component system. And we can kind of get
Speaker 1: into too why I like that component system in a minute.
Speaker 1: But what I do is I take a blank arrow
Speaker 1: shaft and I will spin each arrow shaft and look
Speaker 1: at the sides. And what I'm trying to do is
Speaker 1: cut the worst out of the arrows. So, um, you know,
Speaker 1: people probably don't know that when when you buy an
Speaker 1: arrow that's a point zero zero one arrow, well, that's
Speaker 1: only a point zero zero one inches out of rack over.
Speaker 1: I think the standard in the industry is eighteen inches
Speaker 1: of the arrow, so it could be way out outside
Speaker 1: of that. But at some point of eighteen inches within
Speaker 1: that thirty two arrow, blank is is you know, point
Speaker 1: zers or one straight? Um? I believe that the only
Speaker 1: companies in the industry I could be. I'm probably wrong
Speaker 1: about this, and I'm sure somebody will email in practice,
Speaker 1: but I know that Black Eagle measures the whole arrow,
Speaker 1: the shaft, and I know that day six measures the
Speaker 1: whole arrow shaft UM. And so what that leads to
Speaker 1: is a straighter arrow out of the box. If you're
Speaker 1: a guy that's got a straw length straw length, it
Speaker 1: really it's less relevant for you because you're cutting six
Speaker 1: or five inches out of that arrow. For me having
Speaker 1: a thirty inch straw length, you know, I only have
Speaker 1: two inches to play with, UM get out of that
Speaker 1: entire shaft that I'm cutting out. So I need to
Speaker 1: find the straightest shaft I can because the straighter it
Speaker 1: is from a starting point leads to a um light
Speaker 1: or finished products. So I spent them. I figure out
Speaker 1: which side. Sometimes it's both sides are a little wobbly,
Speaker 1: but I mark where I'm cutting from, and so I'll
Speaker 1: either make one cut or two cuts. But I think
Speaker 1: a lot of guys don't take the time to build
Speaker 1: their arrows out, and they really should, because especially if
Speaker 1: you're only shooting you know, one deer that year, three
Speaker 1: year that year. I mean, like that's a lot of
Speaker 1: effort that you're putting into your deer season and you're
Speaker 1: putting all that on the shoulders of arrow or a
Speaker 1: couple of arrows, Like don't you want those to be
Speaker 1: the most perfect arrows possible? Um? I know I would.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's important to take the time and
Speaker 1: do it. Um. Do you want me to go into
Speaker 1: the process of how I build arrows or just why
Speaker 1: I I do it the way I do and what
Speaker 1: I use? Give us like a give us, like the
Speaker 1: short ish version of how you do the build and why? Um,
Speaker 1: because I think that's probably there's a segment of folks
Speaker 1: that would be interested in getting deep on that. So
Speaker 1: let's hear that, but let's not do an hour of it.
Speaker 1: So so once. Once I mark where the worst is
Speaker 1: on the arrow, the part that's spinning out's wobbling, I'll
Speaker 1: mark to cut that off, and I will either cut
Speaker 1: from one side or two sides, depending on what that
Speaker 1: shaft needs. So I just have a silver sharpie. It's
Speaker 1: pretty easy to just scribble on it. Once you cut those,
Speaker 1: it's important to square birth ends of the shaft off
Speaker 1: and then clean the carbon dust out of them. And
Speaker 1: so what I'm doing, I'm squaring them off so that
Speaker 1: you know either the knock or the broadhead that's on
Speaker 1: there is matching up perfectly. Square the knocking. It's very
Speaker 1: important obviously because if the air energy isn't getting transferred
Speaker 1: equally onto the back, then it could affect arrow flight.
Speaker 1: And then obviously the broadhead, if it's wobbling, it's not
Speaker 1: gonna fly true, So very important to square those up, uh,
Speaker 1: and then I clean out all that carbon dust because
Speaker 1: if you have a bunch of carbon dust in there,
Speaker 1: you're not going to have good adhesion of the um
Speaker 1: glue that goes in there. So the Day six heads
Speaker 1: in particular, I like because of the fact that they
Speaker 1: have this insert outsert system. So it's an insert that
Speaker 1: goes into the carbon arrow, but the outsert collar goes
Speaker 1: on the outside. And so what that does that I
Speaker 1: really like, it's two things. One, when I put that
Speaker 1: head together, I put a little bit of glue. It's
Speaker 1: screws together the exterior collar and the inside. So I
Speaker 1: put a little bit of glue on that and screw
Speaker 1: it together so they're bonded before they go in. And
Speaker 1: then what I'll do is when you put the glue
Speaker 1: in it and squeeze it in by using that insert part.
Speaker 1: By going into the arrow, you're using the interior straightness
Speaker 1: of the arrow, which is easier to get straighter than
Speaker 1: the exterior, so you have a higher likelihood of that
Speaker 1: collar going on perfectly square. But then that exterior collar
Speaker 1: helps too, because not only is it protecting the arrow,
Speaker 1: it's holding the outside straight now, so what you're doing
Speaker 1: is you're getting a much flusher mount straight. And then
Speaker 1: what's even cooler is you get this like reverse vacuum
Speaker 1: effect when you do that, So the glue that's in
Speaker 1: there ends up squirting out on the inside of that collar,
Speaker 1: and you have this amazing adhesion both on the inside
Speaker 1: and outside. So in Layman's terms, what I'm doing is
Speaker 1: I'm getting a collar that's super stuck on and very
Speaker 1: square and and it's just I'm trying to make them
Speaker 1: as bullet proof arrow possible. So I'm shooting like a
Speaker 1: five grain arrow, um, and I'm shooting that with about
Speaker 1: an eight fo C. And I've found that to be
Speaker 1: a really really good sweet spot for me. So my
Speaker 1: bows will shoot that around two seventy five second um.
Speaker 1: And I just find that there's not much that that, uh,
Speaker 1: that that can hit and not be just very deadly
Speaker 1: to There's not much it's not going to punch through
Speaker 1: and if anything, And and also you know what people
Speaker 1: I think don't also realize is the quieter or excuse me,
Speaker 1: the heavier your arrow is, the quieter your bow is
Speaker 1: because there's less energy that's not getting absorbed by that arrow.
Speaker 1: So uh, and it also makes an arrow fly much truer.
Speaker 1: So um again, I'm increasing my my my probability for
Speaker 1: a harvest and trying to increase my my kind of
Speaker 1: bailout zone, if you will, by doing that. The final
Speaker 1: component then, though, to that arrow is what you screw
Speaker 1: onto the end of it. Uh. What's your criteria for
Speaker 1: the absolutely most defective broadhead for your type of hunt.
Speaker 1: So I've been through all different schools of thought and
Speaker 1: um on broadheads I've shot for a while. I shot expandables,
Speaker 1: I shot the I shot the I like the rear
Speaker 1: deploying expandables because I think that that uses less energy
Speaker 1: than over the top expandable. Um. However, my concern with
Speaker 1: an expandable is if you hit bone to our toast
Speaker 1: generally even got blades breaking off or um, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get penetration. So if you hit back on
Speaker 1: an animal, then you're great. And so some guys would
Speaker 1: be like, well, I just need to make sure I'm
Speaker 1: not going to hit bone, Okay, Like I understand that
Speaker 1: school thought, but you can't ensure that that's going to happen, right,
Speaker 1: And so I don't want to have half of the
Speaker 1: animal exposed to playing defense and actually potentially winning. So
Speaker 1: I shoot a big fixed blade head. So um, when
Speaker 1: I'm looking at a fixed blade head, I really want
Speaker 1: the maximum kind of like unity on it. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be as strong as possible. The two heads I
Speaker 1: really like. I like the Day six head a lot um.
Speaker 1: I like the way that the blade is shaped. I
Speaker 1: like that it's solid because it there aren't events there
Speaker 1: to catch wind and make a lot of noise. And
Speaker 1: part of the reason that I go through the tuning
Speaker 1: process that I do is to be able to shoot
Speaker 1: the biggest head possible. And also, I mean again, I'm
Speaker 1: not shooting sixty yards. When I go out west on
Speaker 1: a hunt, I will shoot a different head generally than
Speaker 1: one I'm shooting in the burbs, um, because I know
Speaker 1: they're like a six yard shot ad R shot might
Speaker 1: be a possibility, um, but in the burb specifically, I
Speaker 1: like the day six head. They have a eco X
Speaker 1: It's at one point to five inch and I shoot
Speaker 1: that with a three quarter inch bleeder on it, and
Speaker 1: I mean that puts a pretty pretty gnarly hole through anything. UM.
Speaker 1: I also like the the Slick Trick heads, the Grace
Speaker 1: Trick two's. Um. Those are an Internet quarter by an
Speaker 1: Internet quarter cut. And so what I found is that
Speaker 1: you can actually get a bigger hole with those two
Speaker 1: heads than one. An expandable would give you so more
Speaker 1: blood loss, more trauma rapidly. However, um, it will also
Speaker 1: blow through bone if you hit it, and if you
Speaker 1: happen to hit an animal back or not hit one
Speaker 1: where you want it. You have more forgiveness in your
Speaker 1: in your shop place because of that big hole. So
Speaker 1: I I really like a fixed blade head. Um. I
Speaker 1: shot the ram cats for a little while. I like
Speaker 1: the ram cats a lot, the grains with the bigger
Speaker 1: cutting diameter, But what I did not like about those
Speaker 1: was the blades are are literally so big. They're hard
Speaker 1: to get in and out of a quiver and if
Speaker 1: you like pull back on one a little bit, the
Speaker 1: blade will will kind of kick back and then it's loose.
Speaker 1: So um, I end up pulling those those out. But
Speaker 1: the slick tricks are awesome, and the day six heads
Speaker 1: are awesome as well. I really like the steel that's
Speaker 1: used in the Day six heads, and they are tough
Speaker 1: as hell. I had one broad head that I wanted
Speaker 1: to see how many critters I could shoot with it
Speaker 1: last year, and I think I got into like over
Speaker 1: twentysome deer with one head before it finally broke the
Speaker 1: tip when it blew through the deer and hit a
Speaker 1: chunk of granite on the back side of the courts
Speaker 1: I mean, excuse me, on the back side of the deer,
Speaker 1: and that broadhead went into that quartz rock and split it,
Speaker 1: and when I dug it out that the tip had
Speaker 1: broken off like like just kind of slightly very impressive
Speaker 1: for what it had done. Um, but with that setup,
Speaker 1: that allows me to actually shoot gear in the lower
Speaker 1: front pocket. And so I will literally, like knowingly, if
Speaker 1: I'm on a tight property, pop that deer through its
Speaker 1: front kind of landing gear, if you will. So it
Speaker 1: renders the front legs useless and they then kind of
Speaker 1: snowplow off kind of like when a fighter jet lands
Speaker 1: on a aircraft carrier. Like That's what I'm going for,
Speaker 1: is like they're using their chest to stop them so
Speaker 1: they don't have their front legs to where they can
Speaker 1: run off further. Yeah. Yeah, thats uh. Last gear question.
Speaker 1: A lot of talk these days about releases. It's something
Speaker 1: I've been bouncing around out a lot recently. Is I've
Speaker 1: been trying to change things and figure stuff out and
Speaker 1: improve my whole system. Where do you land on releases
Speaker 1: and balancing the ease of use of some versus the
Speaker 1: way some will force you nut to punch the trigger
Speaker 1: versus all the other criteria. Yeah. So, um, I love
Speaker 1: shooting a hinge, So I shoot a handheld release. I
Speaker 1: got to shooting a handheld release because I did not
Speaker 1: like having a wrist release on my wrist to where
Speaker 1: I clank around while I'm climbing up the tree um
Speaker 1: or have a potential for noise. And I also I
Speaker 1: didn't want to get caught in a scenario where I'm
Speaker 1: playing on my phone and a gear comes in and
Speaker 1: now I have to like move my camera over, grab
Speaker 1: my bow and fishness release out of my collar or whatever. So, UM,
Speaker 1: I love shooting a hinge, but I have yet to
Speaker 1: find a way to comfortably let my hinge like rest
Speaker 1: on my de loop while I'm high. Um. And so
Speaker 1: I just previously I would just hunt with a regular
Speaker 1: thumbheld thumb button release and make sure I shot it well.
Speaker 1: But um, like other people, I've suffered from target panic
Speaker 1: over the years and really kind of worked through that.
Speaker 1: And and we'll kind of get to that when we
Speaker 1: talked about the shooting process. But UM, I recently picked
Speaker 1: up a couple of resistance releases. So for me, my
Speaker 1: like overall theory is if I cannot have to think
Speaker 1: about the back half of my shot process, whether that
Speaker 1: be squeezing a trigger or ray taking a release or
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, I can just kind of like have
Speaker 1: a a macro feeling if you will, in that back half.
Speaker 1: But so uh that from my hinge, that's just kind
Speaker 1: of like slowly pulling on my ring finger and then
Speaker 1: it just breaks right. Um. With a resistance release, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of pulling back. Whether it's up to the
Speaker 1: individual archer what they like to think about, but for me,
Speaker 1: I want like a big body movement back there. That's
Speaker 1: all I want to think about, because then I can
Speaker 1: just kind of subconsciously be doing that and aim. And
Speaker 1: so I picked up some of these newer stand resistance releases,
Speaker 1: and I absolutely love them. They clip on the bow,
Speaker 1: they have a safety mechanism, so I know they're not
Speaker 1: going to go off unless they um are told to
Speaker 1: do so. And uh, for me, I can just focus
Speaker 1: on on my shot process and not have to. I'm
Speaker 1: eliminating the probability or the potential for punching the trigger
Speaker 1: and so that's me is a big deal. But big
Speaker 1: caveat big asters on that. If you're going to do that,
Speaker 1: you have to practice and put in the time. You
Speaker 1: cannot just roll out to the woods with a resistance
Speaker 1: or hinge release. And and try to hunt with it,
Speaker 1: because I think like, even for me, in the first
Speaker 1: couple of times that I shot deer with it, Uh,
Speaker 1: there was this weird feeling of like, I know, I
Speaker 1: want to shoot now, but it's not shooting, and um,
Speaker 1: it can make some panics set it. So, Uh, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna do it, I highly recommend it, But it
Speaker 1: takes time and practice before you're ready to just go
Speaker 1: climate tree and hunt work them. Yeah, well let's talk
Speaker 1: about that. Then let's talk about practice. You've got your
Speaker 1: bow tune, You've got your gear set up just perfect. Uh,
Speaker 1: next thing is is getting ready for the season and
Speaker 1: really fine tuning you the shooter. What are you doing
Speaker 1: to take that to a different level? Yep, once your
Speaker 1: years too. I will not shoot an arrow even in
Speaker 1: practice without going through my shot process. I would rather
Speaker 1: shoot twenty arrows in a in a shooting session that
Speaker 1: are perfect and then go shoot a hundred arrows where
Speaker 1: I'm actually ingraining bad habits into my my my process
Speaker 1: because I'm just like flinging arrows, right. And so that's
Speaker 1: the most common mistake I see people make is they're
Speaker 1: just going out to shoot, but they're not shooting with
Speaker 1: a purpose. And every time you're out practicing, your purpose
Speaker 1: should be kind of like honing your skill set or
Speaker 1: sharpening your sword, if you will, for hunting. So I
Speaker 1: go through my shot process every single time that I'm
Speaker 1: shooting an arrow, and I would highly highly recommend and
Speaker 1: suggest that anybody listening to this does the same because
Speaker 1: it will make it that much easier to kind of
Speaker 1: flip into kill mode when you're ready to do so. Um.
Speaker 1: So when I go out shooting, I'm taking my time.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm really focusing on my form. I'm focusing on
Speaker 1: on my process and making sure that it's as perfect
Speaker 1: as possible. And I'm burying my yardages as well. And
Speaker 1: and the last thing that I'll say is like practice
Speaker 1: like you play, right. I mean, I'm a big savo hunter.
Speaker 1: I will I have a tree set up in my
Speaker 1: yard where I climb up in a tree. I'll bring
Speaker 1: like five arrows up and I'm gonna shoot five perfect errors.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to just bring fifty arrows up there
Speaker 1: and just fling them right. Um, And and practice your weaknesses, right.
Speaker 1: So the last thing that I want to do is
Speaker 1: have a deer come in at a certain spot when
Speaker 1: I'm in the saddle and be like, oh no, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to have a deer standard spot and be
Speaker 1: like licking my chops, like, hell yeah, I've practiced this
Speaker 1: a billion times. That guy's toast. I mean confidence is key,
Speaker 1: um in all of this, So try and kind of
Speaker 1: work through. What I do is I I figure out
Speaker 1: where I'm weakest, and I practice that the most, and
Speaker 1: then um and then practice all around. So I'll kind
Speaker 1: of like take my saddle even if I'm only two
Speaker 1: ft off the ground, like I'm just one stick up
Speaker 1: with my platform there, I'll clip in and I'll shoot it,
Speaker 1: you know, ten o'clock, I'll shoot it. Nine o'clock, I'll
Speaker 1: drop around to eight. I'll throw a deer targeting over
Speaker 1: at like three o'clock and I'll spin around and shoot that.
Speaker 1: But I don't ever want to be in a scenario
Speaker 1: in the woods that intimidates me. I want to have
Speaker 1: the confidence that, like, if if that dear that I'm
Speaker 1: chasing shows up, he is toast because I've put in
Speaker 1: the work and and I know that, uh, that I'm
Speaker 1: capable of being successful. It's almost practice. Do you think
Speaker 1: is enough? Taylor? Like, what's that amount to keep you
Speaker 1: a finely tuned machine. Um, well, I think that varies
Speaker 1: by the individual. But for me, if i have a
Speaker 1: couple practice sessions a week, then I'm good and and
Speaker 1: I think that I'm kind of an anomaly because I'm
Speaker 1: shooting gear every week, right, so I don't ever have
Speaker 1: an office. Um, if I did have an off season,
Speaker 1: I would say that there's a lot of work required
Speaker 1: two kind of hone your skill set and get back
Speaker 1: to um like hunt ready form. So but the fact
Speaker 1: that I'm able to go out and and shoot a
Speaker 1: couple of geer a week, you know, I'm always kind
Speaker 1: of at peak form. But um, people should have kind
Speaker 1: of a game plan for getting geared up for the
Speaker 1: season and you know, develop your system, figure out what
Speaker 1: your shot process is going to be. And then I'd
Speaker 1: say shooting two to three times a week at the
Speaker 1: appropriate practice level is what would be required to get
Speaker 1: to that that like peak performance special forces kind of
Speaker 1: hunter mindset. Now what about you know practice. It's it's
Speaker 1: interesting because there's certain elements that practice is really good for,
Speaker 1: like this the generic stand in the backyard, shoot some arrows,
Speaker 1: Like there's a certain just you gotta have your muscles,
Speaker 1: you know, feeling right. They need to be getting enough
Speaker 1: reps just so that your body can do the things
Speaker 1: that needs to do. But then there's this other side
Speaker 1: of practice, which I think is maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: more mental, which is how can you practice for the
Speaker 1: mental stress of a high pressure, real dear situation. Is
Speaker 1: there anything you do in your practice sessions UM to
Speaker 1: help you simulate and prepare for the moment of truth
Speaker 1: different than just shooting twenty I think I think shooting
Speaker 1: tournament archery is the greatest way for people to put
Speaker 1: themselves under stressful situations and figure out how to perform. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, there's no difference in trying to
Speaker 1: shoot like a perfect three five spot game or going
Speaker 1: to shoot three D with your buddies and you know,
Speaker 1: feeling that pressure and wanting to be successful. So I'll
Speaker 1: shoot a lot of three D stuff. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not like a I don't compete in three D tournaments.
Speaker 1: But I'll go out with my buddies and I'll bring
Speaker 1: my range finder and like I have my chest rigg
Speaker 1: on like I would hunt with. I'm ranging targets, UM drawing,
Speaker 1: and I'm going through my shot process and we're all competing,
Speaker 1: and and that kind of stress level is fantastic to
Speaker 1: put yourself in over and over again to figure out
Speaker 1: what you do under under stress so that when the
Speaker 1: time comes, you know you're not you're not likely to
Speaker 1: do it, or at least you've practiced through what you're
Speaker 1: kind of flaws are. So for me, when I'm in
Speaker 1: a stressful environment, I tend to get really quick, so um,
Speaker 1: whether that be in like you know, terament archery, ternament golf, whatever, like,
Speaker 1: I get very quick, and I try to like do
Speaker 1: it right. And that's where I think a lot of
Speaker 1: guys rush their shot. Um. And so I'm always just
Speaker 1: repeating stay calm, like I'm telling myself different mantras to
Speaker 1: calm myself down and and relax and kind of enjoy
Speaker 1: the moment. And if you think about it, like we
Speaker 1: all worked our butts off all season to get to
Speaker 1: that moment. You've planted food, plots, you put in the
Speaker 1: scouting time, you woke your ass up at four o'clock
Speaker 1: on the boarding, you walked out to this spot, like
Speaker 1: you did all these things for this one split second,
Speaker 1: like enjoy it, savor it right. And it's easy to
Speaker 1: think back on that and then and listen to it.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of guys in their car
Speaker 1: right now or mowing their yard or whatever. They're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well hopefully they're still listening. Uh stuff. But you know,
Speaker 1: like there you need to enjoy that moment and uh
Speaker 1: and like really kind of tell yourself that over and
Speaker 1: over again for when the time comes. You mentioned a
Speaker 1: few times during your practice that you know you're not
Speaker 1: going to shoot a single arrow unless you perfectly execute
Speaker 1: your entire shooting process. So what is that entire shooting process?
Speaker 1: Both the actions you take, but then also like is
Speaker 1: there any specific mantras for different parts of your process?
Speaker 1: Are there any words or cues or anything like what
Speaker 1: what happens physically and mentally from the moment you decide okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to shoot this target of this animal to
Speaker 1: the moment after the air is gone. Yep. So it
Speaker 1: all starts with your grip. So any time that I
Speaker 1: put my hand on the bow, you know, I know
Speaker 1: exactly where I want the pad of my thumb to
Speaker 1: be in relation to that grip. So when I'm grabbing
Speaker 1: a bow, I have a kind of a feeling where
Speaker 1: I'll slide my hand a little bit left, a little
Speaker 1: bit right to just verify that the bow is exactly
Speaker 1: where I wanted to be. So hand goes on bow,
Speaker 1: my release is on, so I know kind of where
Speaker 1: I want that release in the channels of my fingers,
Speaker 1: and I'm really just locking in a feeling, right, And
Speaker 1: that's a feeling that can only be created by a
Speaker 1: boatload of reps and knowing where you want it. But
Speaker 1: you just wanted to be in that natural, comfortable spot
Speaker 1: that you've been great. So I then will draw the bow,
Speaker 1: and again I'm I'm using a uh handheld release. So
Speaker 1: with that handheld release, my pointer finger and my middle
Speaker 1: finger create like a little V. And so I'll run
Speaker 1: that V down my jawline and I'm looking for multiple
Speaker 1: points of contact or reference points to anchor right, so
Speaker 1: I will come to full draw. My fingers go to
Speaker 1: underneath my jaw and over my jaw and they get
Speaker 1: to a spot where, uh, you can't miss. It's where
Speaker 1: my jaw was broken because I was running my mouth
Speaker 1: to bar one night. So my finger kind of drops
Speaker 1: into that channel, my nose goes on the string, and
Speaker 1: I know that that is now absolutely perfect full draw, right, um,
Speaker 1: from that spot. I repeat the exact same thing over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, whether it be shooting an animal,
Speaker 1: three D target, five spot target, whatever. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: always say the first thing I say is calm down,
Speaker 1: pick a spot. And so I will start repeating calm down,
Speaker 1: pick a spot from the second I see a deer
Speaker 1: starting to walk in and you feel your heart rate
Speaker 1: spiking up, right, So I just keep telling myself calm down,
Speaker 1: pick a spot, Calm down, pick a spot. And I
Speaker 1: kind of like breathing through my nose, slowly breathe out
Speaker 1: of my mouth. I'm I'm calming myself down. Um. And
Speaker 1: I know kind of subconsciously that that also is telling
Speaker 1: myself like, do not rush this, enjoy that moment, kind
Speaker 1: of all that stuff that we just talked to. So
Speaker 1: and when I'm saying pick a spot, um, I went
Speaker 1: through some target panic for a while. I also went
Speaker 1: through like improper shot placement or or maybe a better
Speaker 1: way to say that would be trying to perfect my
Speaker 1: shot placement and really kind of analyze like why that,
Speaker 1: what happened with that harvest, and what could have made
Speaker 1: it better? Um. And so I used to aim for
Speaker 1: the exit on the animal, and I found that that
Speaker 1: was a good way to describe it. But but what
Speaker 1: that led to for me were still some shots that
Speaker 1: I felt like I could improve on. And so what
Speaker 1: I now focus on for the last couple of seasons
Speaker 1: that I think is really helpful is I kind of
Speaker 1: envision the deer's legs as like little chopsticks, right, and
Speaker 1: they're holding up a um like a dinner plate size
Speaker 1: beach ball, and so those are the vitals. And I
Speaker 1: literally will envision on that deer where the where the
Speaker 1: heart is sitting. And if you kind of like look
Speaker 1: with your hands and do that right now and think
Speaker 1: about a deer um anywhere they're facing, you can kind
Speaker 1: of see that that little beach ball in between their legs, right.
Speaker 1: And so for whatever stupid reason, that visualization for me
Speaker 1: is really helpful. And so all I try to do
Speaker 1: is pop that beach ball. And so I'm saying, calm down,
Speaker 1: pick a spot, calm down, pick a spot, and I'm
Speaker 1: looking for the spot that I want to put through
Speaker 1: to absolutely annihilate that beach ball um. And it's funny
Speaker 1: over the years, like some camera guys that have come
Speaker 1: and hunt with me, anyone that knows me. I'm like
Speaker 1: a super jervial person. I'm always kind of joking around.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm pretty um yeah, pretty boastful and just like
Speaker 1: a fun, playful person. And every time these camera guys
Speaker 1: are around when I shoot a deer, they're like, dude,
Speaker 1: you even to like kill mode, um, where like a
Speaker 1: switch is flipped and I'm I'm not joking around, And
Speaker 1: there really shouldn't be any joking around. You're taking an
Speaker 1: animal's life and you need to do that as professionally
Speaker 1: and appropriately as possible. But like I take it extra
Speaker 1: seriously where when I'm in kill mode and um, so
Speaker 1: I kind of flipping that switch when I see a
Speaker 1: critter and I'm like, calm down, pick a spot, calm down,
Speaker 1: pick a spot. Um. And so I'm watching that beach ball,
Speaker 1: I come to full draw. I watch my um, yeah,
Speaker 1: once I picked that spot. I think of remember back
Speaker 1: in like the late nineties, there's like golf war movies
Speaker 1: where they had the laser guided missiles and so there'd
Speaker 1: always be some like some team on the ground that
Speaker 1: was like fighting to paint the target with the laser.
Speaker 1: So I think of my my my pin as a
Speaker 1: laser guiding missile thing. And this is like the stupid
Speaker 1: way that my brain kind of associates these things. But
Speaker 1: so once I picked that spot, I do not take
Speaker 1: my eyes off of it. I mean, I might like
Speaker 1: look around and try to read the other deer around
Speaker 1: this animal's body language. But I'm burning a hole through
Speaker 1: that spot that I have picked. And so once I
Speaker 1: pick a spot, I say to myself. Painted. And so
Speaker 1: I'm painting that spot with that laser guided missile and
Speaker 1: I'm just letting it float all around that that spot,
Speaker 1: and I'm just saying, you know, pick a spot, paint it.
Speaker 1: And I keep repeating, paint it, paint it, paint it
Speaker 1: until it's painted. And I'm comfortable with my float. And
Speaker 1: this is all stuff that you pick up in you know,
Speaker 1: heavy practice doing this. And then I say to myself,
Speaker 1: keep it painted while you pull, pull, pull, pull, And
Speaker 1: all I'm feeling is just a very gradual pressure increase
Speaker 1: on that release as a whole. And so I know
Speaker 1: that I'm pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling, and
Speaker 1: then it just, you know, next thing, you know, that
Speaker 1: arrow hits home and it's just an absolutely perfect shot.
Speaker 1: And so, um, what I'm really doing is I'm trying to.
Speaker 1: I'm focusing on my follow through by telling myself to
Speaker 1: keep it painted while you pull pull, pull, pull, pull,
Speaker 1: and I just repeat pull until the shot breaks to
Speaker 1: prevent myself from rushing it. Do you ever find yourself
Speaker 1: in the midst of that or leading into that and
Speaker 1: still feeling nerves or buck fever or any of that
Speaker 1: increased adrenaline? Is there anything else you do when all
Speaker 1: of a sudden like something feels different? Or have you
Speaker 1: done this enough that it never feels different? And that
Speaker 1: process always addresses any physical aspects of excitement. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm the day that I shoot a deer and I
Speaker 1: feel nothing. I will never shoot another deer, um, because
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm crossed over into some there that happens, right,
Speaker 1: But like, um, you know, we're out there for the hunt,
Speaker 1: for the for the enjoyment, and the harvests are part
Speaker 1: of that hunt. Um. I feel I get butterflies, whether
Speaker 1: it's by first or you know, hundred plus dear of
Speaker 1: the year. Like I'm I'm feeling those nerves. I'm feeling
Speaker 1: those butterflies and feel that adrenaline by repeating those mantras,
Speaker 1: I find it prevents me from letting my subconscious kind
Speaker 1: of kicking and start being like, WHOA, don't do this,
Speaker 1: don't do that, right, Like you're you're able to kind
Speaker 1: of suppress the potential negative stuff by focusing on on
Speaker 1: your actions and so um, you know, I played golf
Speaker 1: in college. We did a lot of stuff with like
Speaker 1: sports psychologists, and they always say that focusing on the
Speaker 1: process is the best way to deal with stress and
Speaker 1: deal with high pressure environments. And so I'm immersing myself
Speaker 1: in the process of picking the spot, burning a hole
Speaker 1: through it with my eyes, painting it with my pen,
Speaker 1: and then pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling to prevent any negative
Speaker 1: or or like thoughts creeping in that I don't want
Speaker 1: to have, however, and that really helps with that buck
Speaker 1: fever target panic. And you know, the last thing you
Speaker 1: want to do is see like some giant one six
Speaker 1: time in and be like, oh, man, like when I
Speaker 1: put him on my wall, wait to call my buddies.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do him with a semi sneak pose like like,
Speaker 1: you need to focus on on the process at hand,
Speaker 1: immerse yourself in it, and worry about all that other crap. Later, um,
Speaker 1: you know, do not do not just um, you know,
Speaker 1: get ahead of yourself. But yeah, I mean I feel
Speaker 1: all kinds of butterflies and jitters and and everything. And
Speaker 1: something else that I think it's really important to note
Speaker 1: is the entire time I'm going through this process, like
Speaker 1: I've had over a decade now of um of a
Speaker 1: lot of deer encounters and harvests, and I am always
Speaker 1: reading deer's body language. Even if I'm seeing deer that
Speaker 1: are maybe they're deer, they're like eight yards off, they're
Speaker 1: not going to come in. I picked the wrong tree.
Speaker 1: But I'm just watching these deer or maybe they're dear
Speaker 1: in the field. Like I'm always looking at those deer
Speaker 1: and trying to to read their body language and analyze
Speaker 1: what they're doing because that has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with with taking a shot or where to where to
Speaker 1: place that shot. Right, Like, so if a deer comes
Speaker 1: in and it looks really skittish or is like you know,
Speaker 1: maybe it's feeding a little and popping its head up
Speaker 1: real quick, it's it's looking like a crackhead d C deer,
Speaker 1: Like you need to be mindful of that to where
Speaker 1: when you shoot that Like first off, you cannot get
Speaker 1: away with with as much movement as you think, so
Speaker 1: that's gonna affect you. But also like I know, I
Speaker 1: might want to tuck that arrow just a little lower
Speaker 1: in my spot picking because that deer might drop a
Speaker 1: little or maybe that deer is gonna like slightly quarter away,
Speaker 1: and I know it's been picking its head up and down,
Speaker 1: head up and down, and like when it goes down,
Speaker 1: I know now is my time to like take the shot.
Speaker 1: It's very important to analyze the dear body behavior and
Speaker 1: and kind of like try to figure out what you're
Speaker 1: communicating by their actions, because that says a lot on
Speaker 1: how that deer is going to react at that split
Speaker 1: second when you shoot it, and you know it's that
Speaker 1: goes into your shot placement and also selection. And that
Speaker 1: gets back full circle to the deer that we saw
Speaker 1: when we were in the tree together here in d C.
Speaker 1: I was like that that year is so skittish that
Speaker 1: there is a high probability for a marginal hit, and
Speaker 1: like we just can't risk that, yeah, with with what's
Speaker 1: going on, So I'm always kind of reading that deer's
Speaker 1: body language and trying to figure out what's going on,
Speaker 1: kind of with my subconscious And I think that the
Speaker 1: combination of that and repeating my my mantra over and
Speaker 1: over again really helps, um like execute and and suppress
Speaker 1: any buck fever or butterflies or jitters or whatever you're feeling.
Speaker 1: Let's dvel in morns of the body language thing. Um.
Speaker 1: First off, you you do, you give me an example
Speaker 1: of this, but can you describe for me? Are there
Speaker 1: any behaviors or indications of a deer that's gonna be
Speaker 1: too flighty where you will say, okay, based on this
Speaker 1: body language, I'm just not gonna shoot, even if the
Speaker 1: deer's in range, even if you could take the shop.
Speaker 1: Is there a situation where you're reading the deer and
Speaker 1: you're saying, man, this just seems ill advised. Is there
Speaker 1: anything like that? Yeah? I mean I'm always looking for
Speaker 1: for that deer that's being super skinnish, right, and and
Speaker 1: I think of that as like like like a tweaker almost.
Speaker 1: You know, they're kind of like picking their head up,
Speaker 1: moving around, moving around like they're constantly they're quartering to
Speaker 1: their corey away, they're moving this way, They're they're looking
Speaker 1: at the deer around him. Um, you know that dear
Speaker 1: to me is like already amped up and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: could could spin at the shot a little and you know, look,
Speaker 1: I've shot plenty of deer that have been that way.
Speaker 1: Like That's how I know that they might run a
Speaker 1: little further. They might already have a little adrenaline in
Speaker 1: their system, there might be It's amazing how much a
Speaker 1: deer at fourteen yards can move from when you have
Speaker 1: that shot break to where the arrow hits like it's
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable just watching it on footage and knowing where
Speaker 1: my pin was when when I've let a shot break
Speaker 1: versus where the entrance and next hole are right and
Speaker 1: so um, you have to take that into account of
Speaker 1: either not shooting the deer or aiming for it. But
Speaker 1: and and the reason that I've gotten to where I
Speaker 1: won't shoot that deer sometimes is for whatever reason. Sometimes
Speaker 1: there's deer that you think are going to drop, don't,
Speaker 1: and then you now get them low or somewhat low. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm always looking for those tweaker deer. They're
Speaker 1: according to quartering away, bouncing around, picking their head up
Speaker 1: real hard, watching their ears go back. And sometimes if
Speaker 1: you let that deer just just like kind of walk
Speaker 1: around and feed around. Especially you know, I'm thinking early
Speaker 1: season on an oak flat. Yeah, you as, particularly in
Speaker 1: my area. Who knows what that deer just encountered. There
Speaker 1: could have been that deer could have just run in
Speaker 1: from yards away where some some kids were walking the
Speaker 1: dog and it's kicked the deer up and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: now I'm gonna go sweet anyways because I'm already here
Speaker 1: right um. And sometimes that deer will settle down and
Speaker 1: ends up being a perfect time to to shoot it.
Speaker 1: So you just never know, and you're better off just
Speaker 1: kind of letting it settle down, or maybe it caught
Speaker 1: your set and maybe it's gonna blow. Um. You know
Speaker 1: that's something though that you need to take an account of.
Speaker 1: If that deer comes in and it's looking tweaker ish,
Speaker 1: but it's licking its nose and it's looking all around
Speaker 1: like that's dear that you might want to shoot right
Speaker 1: away because it probably got your sense and that body
Speaker 1: language would be different. Right, it's licking its nose, it's
Speaker 1: kind of working its ears back and forth. It knows
Speaker 1: something's wrong. Um. You know, that would be a different
Speaker 1: scenario of a deer that might fit into that quote
Speaker 1: unquote tweaker status. Uh, that that is, you know, more
Speaker 1: likely than not an older, mature animal that you certainly
Speaker 1: want to get out of there. So just reading that
Speaker 1: body language of looking for different cues, tail up, tail down, flicking,
Speaker 1: suck hard, tight, you know what the ears, you're doing,
Speaker 1: what they're doing with their with their mouth, if they're
Speaker 1: you know, looking there there's a bunch, or if they're
Speaker 1: kind of feeding along but popping their head up and down,
Speaker 1: those will be all signs of you know, what's this
Speaker 1: deer doing? Why is it acting that way? Um? Those
Speaker 1: are all important things. And then on top of that,
Speaker 1: to take it one step further, we have CWD in
Speaker 1: our area. So if a deer comes in acting super weird,
Speaker 1: it's drooling around like it looks like unhealthy, messed up,
Speaker 1: that's something else I want to pay attention to because
Speaker 1: that's certainly a deer that I want to go get
Speaker 1: tested and make sure that um, there wasn't something you know,
Speaker 1: wrong with it from a disease standpoint. Yeah. Back to
Speaker 1: the tweaker deer, So we've got a deer that's on
Speaker 1: edge in some way or form. Maybe it's picked up
Speaker 1: on us or smell. Maybe it's just uncomfortable for one
Speaker 1: of those other reasons you described. When we have that
Speaker 1: situation and we're thinking about where to aim, do we adjust?
Speaker 1: Do you recommend adjusting your shot placement at all on
Speaker 1: this deer that seems on edge, because I think the
Speaker 1: the assumption is that if we have a deer on edge,
Speaker 1: that deer is more likely to react a little bit
Speaker 1: quicker to this shop. And so that might mean a
Speaker 1: jumping the string kind of motion, or that might mean
Speaker 1: a deer that's whirling and spinning away in some kind
Speaker 1: of way. So do you do you adjust a little
Speaker 1: bit down like something? I know some people aim lower
Speaker 1: on a deer they think would jumped the string, or
Speaker 1: some people might even aim a little bit further off
Speaker 1: of the blade, the shoulder blade, because that deer might
Speaker 1: swirl and spin one way or another and give you
Speaker 1: more of a chance of hitting bone because of that.
Speaker 1: Does any of that enter your equation? Absolutely, And that's
Speaker 1: where your practice comes in as well, because if you're
Speaker 1: just shooting your your three D deer target all the
Speaker 1: time like perfect right in increase um, that's great, you know,
Speaker 1: but deer in the real world you need to aim
Speaker 1: differently on depending on that body language, right, And so
Speaker 1: that kind of reverts all the way back to pick
Speaker 1: a spot, pick your target, right. And so if that
Speaker 1: deer is that, let's say that tweeting fourteen yards, she's
Speaker 1: super sketched out. Um, I've made the decision though that
Speaker 1: even though she's on edge, I'm gonna harvest her. And
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna aim at at fourteen yards. I know
Speaker 1: she's going to dump the string a little she's gonna
Speaker 1: jump the string a little bit. I don't have to
Speaker 1: hold off body though I'm gonna hold. I'm always aiming
Speaker 1: in that lower third to pop the balloon. I might
Speaker 1: aim like an extra couple of inches low if we
Speaker 1: were out on a farm somewhere to where I where
Speaker 1: the Yeah, if I had to take a shot at
Speaker 1: let's say thirty five yards, and and even though I
Speaker 1: don't do that in the suburbs, but let's say that
Speaker 1: in this scenario, for whatever reason, I am um, And
Speaker 1: that deer is is tweaker deer. It's it's jumpy, but
Speaker 1: it's a giant buck. And you know, this is the
Speaker 1: deer we've been after all week in Iowa. And it's
Speaker 1: now or never right that this encounter is now or never.
Speaker 1: But he's a little skittish. I mean you might need
Speaker 1: to hold eight inches below his brisket, right, And that's
Speaker 1: where having trust in your your read on that animal
Speaker 1: as well as trusting your equipment is absolutely like essential
Speaker 1: because he's very hard to hold off bart off body
Speaker 1: on an animal. Right. Um yeah, but dear is at
Speaker 1: like thirty five yards, I mean maybe not eight inches,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna hold probably put my pin just below
Speaker 1: his brisket um and I'll guarantee you that he'll duck
Speaker 1: into that and and take it. Yeah, and there it's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just something that comes with shooting a
Speaker 1: lot of critters. I mean how many how many gear
Speaker 1: shows have you seen where they get to where they
Speaker 1: they shoot the animal and they put the little dot
Speaker 1: on where it would be perfect, and then the arrow
Speaker 1: sails over his back. Deer could dropp an entire body
Speaker 1: length body body with in a matter of seconds. And
Speaker 1: also is their head up or their head down? You know,
Speaker 1: if if they have their head positioned down, they can
Speaker 1: whip it up and use that that that effect to
Speaker 1: drop their body even lower. Um. See kind of these
Speaker 1: are all things that you have to take into account
Speaker 1: that are very difficult to take into account in the
Speaker 1: process of shooting an animal. Um in hindsight is always
Speaker 1: but you just kind of need to to think through
Speaker 1: these these little things. And I mean, frankly, that's snare
Speaker 1: that you just went through with Megabuck in Iowa. That's
Speaker 1: why those thirty five yard shots are not super successful
Speaker 1: on an animal um for they're harder to be successful
Speaker 1: in animal And obviously people shot your much further distances
Speaker 1: than that. It's it's not like an impossible shot, but
Speaker 1: there are a lot more probabilities for failure or things
Speaker 1: that can happen in that inditional yards between our two scenarios,
Speaker 1: Like that's an eternity for a year. Uh So more
Speaker 1: in shop placement you mentioned in the past, you've got
Speaker 1: the legs are like chopsticks, and then you've got this
Speaker 1: dinner plate size ball that's on top of the chopsticks.
Speaker 1: Can you can you just give me a little more detail,
Speaker 1: like when you're how you get to that point, Like
Speaker 1: how do you get to that place when you're actually
Speaker 1: looking at a deer? Do you look at the legs
Speaker 1: and bring your pin up the leg and then just
Speaker 1: go off a little bit, or or how do you
Speaker 1: pick that perfect place to put your pin? So the
Speaker 1: dinner plate is actually being held up by the chopsticks.
Speaker 1: So think of it like you're eating sushi and the
Speaker 1: sushi is you're picking up a piece of sushi, right, um,
Speaker 1: the shoulder blades this analogy, This analogy works in DC.
Speaker 1: It might not work as well in rural Iowa, but
Speaker 1: people try to follow along here Taylor's you got your
Speaker 1: chicken nuggets, You're going into the sauce. Um So. I
Speaker 1: mean if you think about our anatomy or deer's anatomy,
Speaker 1: like your shoulder blades are our shields, right, and that breastbone,
Speaker 1: it's all protecting your vitals. And so those shoulder blades
Speaker 1: are holding up the they're protecting the heart. Really, um So,
Speaker 1: I think of those those shoulder blades as the tips
Speaker 1: of the chopsticks, if you will, that are holding that
Speaker 1: little beach ball. Um So, I kind of I look
Speaker 1: at it in almost like a three D way. But
Speaker 1: if you're if you're thinking of it of where do
Speaker 1: you want your arrow to exit, Well, you pretty much
Speaker 1: always wanted to exit on the in like the lower
Speaker 1: third to come out through that little golden triangle or
Speaker 1: um to kind of blow out right above where the
Speaker 1: bone kind of cuts back on a fort of its shoulders.
Speaker 1: So um, I'm I'm picking a spot in that lower third, uh,
Speaker 1: kind of like rate in that in that crease exit spot.
Speaker 1: But sometimes depending on what the way that the beer
Speaker 1: is quartered, you know, and this is where popping that
Speaker 1: that beach ball comes in really handy. Like I want
Speaker 1: to pop the low third of that beach ball, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Um, And it's kind of a weird analogy.
Speaker 1: I'd have to almost like draw it out of how
Speaker 1: it works in in my head. But if you think
Speaker 1: of those like milk jug tests that people do on
Speaker 1: YouTube for broadheads when they put like red foot coloring in,
Speaker 1: like I want to, I want to put a hole
Speaker 1: in the lower part of that bear's milk jug or
Speaker 1: the beach ball to try and deflate it as fast
Speaker 1: as possible. And because of your arrow set up and
Speaker 1: because of your broad head, you are willing to be
Speaker 1: very tight to that should or blade area because you
Speaker 1: know that that's the most effective spot to hit them
Speaker 1: as long as you can punch their bone if you
Speaker 1: have to, Is that right? Like some people will will
Speaker 1: be very cautious and aim further back and just aim
Speaker 1: for back of lungs or center of lungs because they
Speaker 1: want to avoid the bones entirely. You're not absolutely correct,
Speaker 1: and I used to do that and that led to
Speaker 1: tow a little more issues. Now I'm not intentionally trying
Speaker 1: to shoot the gear of the shoulder. I will never
Speaker 1: tell someone to do that unless it's a tiny property.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're doing my analogy of I'm trying
Speaker 1: to take the landing gear out. But even when I
Speaker 1: try to take the landing gear out, and when I
Speaker 1: do take the landing gear out, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: shooting them to the shoulder. I'm hitting them in that
Speaker 1: like little void right at the top of their legs
Speaker 1: below the shoulder bone where or maybe like through the
Speaker 1: very bottom part of it, but where it's not very
Speaker 1: it's not super strong. Um. You know, I think that
Speaker 1: shoulder blade should be avoided at all costs. However, I've
Speaker 1: just put together a setup that I know can punch
Speaker 1: through the shoulder if it has to. And I think
Speaker 1: that's really important, excuse me, really important um to to
Speaker 1: have because if I did that, if I took that
Speaker 1: shot with an expandable broad head. There is a high, high,
Speaker 1: high probability for failure there right, Like there's a there's
Speaker 1: an incredible margin for air that I'm not comfortable with, um.
Speaker 1: And that's why taking that shot with a fixed blade
Speaker 1: head that has a big cutting diameter really works well
Speaker 1: and it has a blade designed for penetration. You know,
Speaker 1: some of these uh, fixed blade heads don't work in
Speaker 1: that regard because there you have a steep blade angle
Speaker 1: and if they hit something hard, they're probably not gonna
Speaker 1: punch through it very far. So avoid the shoulder at
Speaker 1: all cost. But I'm comfortable being tight to it because
Speaker 1: I know that I'm practiced. I also know that it's
Speaker 1: like a twelve or fourteen yard shot and that there
Speaker 1: is a nine percent chance and I'm hitting, you know,
Speaker 1: within a couple of millimeters of the hair that I'm
Speaker 1: staring at. UH. Quartering two shots? Given everything we've talked about,
Speaker 1: will you ever take a quarter in two shots? And
Speaker 1: if you do, how do you adjust your point of aim?
Speaker 1: So I really do not like quartering two shots. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, on a on a white tail, especially in
Speaker 1: the urban environment, you know, if you're on you're hunting
Speaker 1: from the ground and and you're you know, on your
Speaker 1: farm and Missouri or wherever. Like, if you want to
Speaker 1: shoot him in the throat, go for it. But you
Speaker 1: need to be really comfortable with the understanding of a
Speaker 1: deer's anatomy. And so that same line of thought of
Speaker 1: the shoulders and the breastbone are protecting the vitals. Well,
Speaker 1: think about your area to slip an arrow into if
Speaker 1: that deer is staring at you, versus if that deer
Speaker 1: were quartering away, Like all the goodies are exposed. If
Speaker 1: that deer is quartering away slightly, very few areas are
Speaker 1: experiensed to slip an arrow into if it's you know,
Speaker 1: corded towards you. Um. However, that being said, like I
Speaker 1: shot a deer in Oklahoma last year that came in
Speaker 1: that was almost at the base of our tree, and
Speaker 1: I mean I shot him almost straight down between his
Speaker 1: shoulder blades and down through his heart and he died
Speaker 1: on the spot. Um. Now, I was comfortable taking that
Speaker 1: shot because you know, one, I'm highly experienced it at
Speaker 1: shot placement. But two, they were like twelve deer around us,
Speaker 1: and we were in this tiny little tree, myself and
Speaker 1: a camera guy, And I mean there was a a
Speaker 1: high likelihood that we were going to get busted if
Speaker 1: that dear didn't get shot right then. And so, you know,
Speaker 1: while that wasn't forcing it, you also need to know
Speaker 1: when there is an opportunity you feel comfortable in seizing
Speaker 1: it with appropriate timing. Yeah, okay, here's another example of
Speaker 1: a tricky situation. Moving dear. You've got a buck coming through,
Speaker 1: there's a shooting lane, it's your only shooting lane, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna walk through it. Would you ever take a
Speaker 1: moving shot or is it always that you stop a
Speaker 1: deer and shooting, Like, how do you handle that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I'm not comfortable taking a moving shot. I really prefer
Speaker 1: to have an animal stop on its own um because
Speaker 1: you know, when you shoot a deer that's like feeding
Speaker 1: through an area or kind of slowly walking through on
Speaker 1: their own pace. They're much calmer than they are when
Speaker 1: they're slowly feeding through and they think they're all alone,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, it's like, Matt, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that deer is going like what the hell? If you're
Speaker 1: in your backyard, you know, just sticking around and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's somebody yells out for you, and
Speaker 1: you'd be like, whoa, like if somebody's here, what's going on? Um?
Speaker 1: Similar similar thing with the deer. So I try to
Speaker 1: not make any noise. However, if an animal's moving and
Speaker 1: I need to stop it, I will most certainly bleat
Speaker 1: at them very softly, like a very soft like man.
Speaker 1: I've never taken a shot of the moving deer. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess I should never say never, because who knows
Speaker 1: what the future holds. But I would strongly uh encourage
Speaker 1: people to not take a shot at a moving animal
Speaker 1: that that to me just seems like a recipe for
Speaker 1: disaster or definitely Yeah. I think if people have made
Speaker 1: it this far in the episode, they understand that I'm
Speaker 1: like a big um probability guy, like I like to
Speaker 1: have the odds in my favor, and that seems like
Speaker 1: something where the odds are very firmly stacked against you.
Speaker 1: Is there is or any other element of in the
Speaker 1: tree preparation that leads to an accurate successful shot? I mean,
Speaker 1: is there anything maybe we need to rewind a little
Speaker 1: bit in the day, you know, we're up in the tree.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you do, like right when you
Speaker 1: get settled as far as where you place your bow,
Speaker 1: as far as where you I don't know, organize your setup.
Speaker 1: Does any of that help you perform in the moment
Speaker 1: of truth better or is there anything else that we're missing? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that that kind of helps you stay calm
Speaker 1: in the in the time leading up to the shot.
Speaker 1: You know, like my bow is always in the same spot,
Speaker 1: my pack is generally in the same spot. I know
Speaker 1: where my releases. My range finder is always in the
Speaker 1: same spot. So when I climb up in the tree,
Speaker 1: my bows there, my pack set up. The first thing
Speaker 1: that I'm doing once my once everything is set up,
Speaker 1: is I'm pulling my range finder out. And what I'll
Speaker 1: do is like I like to look at a spot
Speaker 1: and I just guess how far away it is, and
Speaker 1: then I range it, and then I you know, I'm
Speaker 1: picking out kind of my twenty yard circle of death.
Speaker 1: Then I know that if a critter crosses into there
Speaker 1: and then trouble um. And the reason that I play
Speaker 1: that little game with myself is I just find that
Speaker 1: that helps me be very accurate in guessing the yardage.
Speaker 1: But I know that where I'm like, Okay, that big
Speaker 1: white oak tree right there is is yards away. If
Speaker 1: a deer crosses inside it, you know their top penalty
Speaker 1: they're smoke um. Or I'll be like, okay, that tree
Speaker 1: over there is thirty five yards away. And I also
Speaker 1: like to drop um milkweed. And I'm always kind of
Speaker 1: looking at where the where the wind is pulling my ascent,
Speaker 1: so I know that, like, Okay, if a deer comes
Speaker 1: in on this angle and it's working towards that wind,
Speaker 1: I need to shoot it before it catches my wind
Speaker 1: and possibly blows out of here. Or I I know
Speaker 1: that a deer is at my twelve o'clock, but I
Speaker 1: have you know, three dose working in from from like
Speaker 1: across my backside there. Well, they might catch my wind
Speaker 1: if they're in a certain pocket. So kind of knowing
Speaker 1: your area and knowing the yardages and also what's happening
Speaker 1: around you is key. And and the other thing that
Speaker 1: leads to a lot of success is having your spots
Speaker 1: prep So I mean, I do a lot of running
Speaker 1: gun hunting. I might end up in a in a
Speaker 1: tree that I've never hunted before, I've never been in before,
Speaker 1: but I generally like to have my trees picked out
Speaker 1: and have some shooting lanes prepared. So that I don't
Speaker 1: feel like a major rush or or panic that sets
Speaker 1: in when a deer appears, because you know, if you
Speaker 1: it's like Murphy's law, if you haven't cut shooting lanes,
Speaker 1: then you have a chance that there's deer going to
Speaker 1: like go directly to where you can't shoot them, and
Speaker 1: and uh and you know it's like Murphy's Law is
Speaker 1: always tagging along. So you need to not have that terrible,
Speaker 1: panicky feeling of like, oh no, no, I need to
Speaker 1: shoot that deer right now. Well, if you have shooting lanes,
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, that there's toast Like he's working right
Speaker 1: towards that other shooting lane that I have prepared and perfect.
Speaker 1: You know, he has there's cover between shooting Lane A
Speaker 1: and shooting Lane B to where I can, you know,
Speaker 1: do whatever I need to do to get my bow
Speaker 1: in hand, come to full draw, get myself situated to
Speaker 1: where I can take the shot. Yeah, so here's here's
Speaker 1: a here's uh. So, well, rather than stating my assumption,
Speaker 1: I'll I'll paint a picture, I guess of something I
Speaker 1: think that happens a lot today. And I'm curious in
Speaker 1: your thoughts about this because I think this ties directly
Speaker 1: into why you are the perfect person to talk about
Speaker 1: these things because of the world you live in and
Speaker 1: the lifestyle you've chosen. But here's scenario that I think
Speaker 1: is pretty common these days. More and more folks watch
Speaker 1: and consume and listen to media in the hunting world
Speaker 1: with people who are targeting big old bucks. All right,
Speaker 1: they're all about holding off for a five year old
Speaker 1: or they're are holding off for a one fifty or whatever,
Speaker 1: and they hunting Iola or hunting Missourium, there's a big
Speaker 1: deer like that. But the average even great hunter and
Speaker 1: a great circumstance like that, that might lead to one
Speaker 1: shot opportunity a year for these hunters. And then there's
Speaker 1: newer hunters coming up in the world who watched that,
Speaker 1: who listened to that, who then start thinking, well, I've
Speaker 1: got to hold out for a five year old buck,
Speaker 1: or I need to hold out for a pope and
Speaker 1: young deer, and it leads to them having very few
Speaker 1: shot opportunities maybe ever in a whole year. I've got
Speaker 1: a I've got a number of friends like this. I've
Speaker 1: got a buddy who wanted his first buck he shot
Speaker 1: with his bow to be like a really really big buck,
Speaker 1: and so he went over a decade without shooting anything
Speaker 1: because of that. Is that a good recipe for becoming
Speaker 1: efficient and effective with your shot process and executing in
Speaker 1: primetime high pressure situations? Right? I know the answer to this,
Speaker 1: but I want your take on that scenario. If you
Speaker 1: worry about that scenario that a lot of people probably
Speaker 1: are living in and what they're missing out on, and
Speaker 1: is there may be a different approach that could get
Speaker 1: people more effective. Yeah. I mean that's like trying to
Speaker 1: be Mark McGuire without going to batting practice, right, or
Speaker 1: or trying to be like Tom Brady and only playing
Speaker 1: in playoff games like you have to. There's no way
Speaker 1: really to replicate the stress and all of the different
Speaker 1: factors that comes together to result in a successful hunt. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to immerse yourself in it over
Speaker 1: and ub and uber again in order to just understand
Speaker 1: what you and your body does at the moment of
Speaker 1: truth and prepare for that. And I think that's part
Speaker 1: of what makes shooting a giant buck so special. That's
Speaker 1: what makes you want to mounted or or like European
Speaker 1: amount of whatever, is the fact that it's so hard
Speaker 1: and so rare, and I do think a lot of
Speaker 1: people sometimes get a skewed perspective of of how hard
Speaker 1: it is because of the content that we consume, right
Speaker 1: and and what we're consuming. It's entertainment, Like you know,
Speaker 1: people aren't watching or really thinking about the amount of
Speaker 1: time and effort and hard work that the Lakowskis or
Speaker 1: the Druries are putting in, or you know, even like
Speaker 1: guys that know, like you know, our buddy and you
Speaker 1: may right, they're like, oh, man, Andy so officiated, like
Speaker 1: he kills giants, like he's just he's a grace hunter.
Speaker 1: And he is, and he's a phenomenal hunter. But and
Speaker 1: he puts in so much time and effort during the season,
Speaker 1: but also the past decade in fifteen years that he's
Speaker 1: put in in in becoming you know, the hunter that
Speaker 1: he is today, and people don't see that and and
Speaker 1: and think about all the pieces that come together to
Speaker 1: make that complete package. So, you know, for guys that
Speaker 1: are out there that that are listening to this, that
Speaker 1: want to be, you know, a better hunter, you just
Speaker 1: have to go through the process and put yourself in
Speaker 1: that scenario. I think two to learn where your faults
Speaker 1: might be and and then how to improve on them
Speaker 1: when you're looking at specifically just the factors that go
Speaker 1: into your form and shoot et in the deer, let
Speaker 1: alone getting in on a deer and having the opportunity
Speaker 1: to shoot it. So you know, there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: challenging yourself and and just trying to you know, progress
Speaker 1: as a hunter, like getting tight on animals and figure
Speaker 1: out like how you can get closer and continue doing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you don't even have to shoot him
Speaker 1: if you don't want to. You just come to full
Speaker 1: drawing and float your pin there and just think about
Speaker 1: it and and see what your body, Like, your body
Speaker 1: will break out. You will get that adrenaline dump if
Speaker 1: you live us somewhere where you only have you know,
Speaker 1: one tag and you choose not to use it, like
Speaker 1: that's fine, But um, I think people need to realize,
Speaker 1: like like you need to hunt for yourself and not
Speaker 1: hunt for social media fame or like trying to keep
Speaker 1: up with the Jones or the people that the other
Speaker 1: people in the industry, because it's just that it's apples
Speaker 1: to orangines. You're not hunting the same land, you don't
Speaker 1: have the same experience, and you need to just like
Speaker 1: go out and enjoy it for yourself and put some
Speaker 1: food on the table. Would you? Would you say, though,
Speaker 1: that a lot of people would probably benefit from becoming
Speaker 1: a little bit more like you and simply shooting more
Speaker 1: dear So instead of thinking that you're going to hold
Speaker 1: out for one seventy every year and that's all you do,
Speaker 1: maybe there's more hunters that should consider shooting a bunch
Speaker 1: of doughs every year, or maybe lowering their standards a
Speaker 1: little bit so they can finally get good at shooting
Speaker 1: year and a half old or two and a half
Speaker 1: year old bucks and actually really be good at that
Speaker 1: before they try to shoot for that one seventy and
Speaker 1: have a whole lot of dead time in between where
Speaker 1: they never get better at handling the moment truth? Is
Speaker 1: that something you would have? Yes? I think that, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to tell anybody like what
Speaker 1: to set their goals for whatever, Like everybody wants to shoot.
Speaker 1: I'd love to have a typical deer sitting here on
Speaker 1: my wall, right. I don't, Um, but I have, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen years of pretty awesome experiences and and um, you know,
Speaker 1: confidence to know that at some point when that one
Speaker 1: ninety slob comes walking into my life. He is toast.
Speaker 1: He picked the wrong two pounds squirrel with sharp sticks
Speaker 1: to walk in front of it. Because I know what
Speaker 1: I'm doing, and you know, I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of people would really benefit um in shooting those and
Speaker 1: becoming the most like proficient harvester and and hunter that
Speaker 1: they can be like master your world and try and
Speaker 1: and perfect it. And you know, I also think it's
Speaker 1: important to keep the mindset of of always trying to
Speaker 1: better yourself. Like I, I don't think that I'm any
Speaker 1: expert on this stuff. I just have done it a lot,
Speaker 1: and I'm super anal and analytical to where I'm always
Speaker 1: striving to be better. But I don't I don't think
Speaker 1: I've like perfected it. I'm still trying to get my
Speaker 1: gear better. I'm still trying to continue tuning my stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, even more, see if there's a way that
Speaker 1: I can be more efficient, Like I try to never
Speaker 1: stop learning and have that mindset um, because I think
Speaker 1: once you just like I think that you've mastered it,
Speaker 1: that's when you're beginning to regress. And nobody should ever
Speaker 1: kind of think in that manner. All right, If if
Speaker 1: there was just one thing. Let's say someone did listen
Speaker 1: to all of this, but they've got very poor short
Speaker 1: term memory, and you could pick just one single takeaway
Speaker 1: because we want, we want everyone listening to come away
Speaker 1: from this with a chance of being more accurate and
Speaker 1: effective when they shoot at a deer this coming fall.
Speaker 1: There's just one thing you want them to do. What
Speaker 1: would that one very most important thing. It could be
Speaker 1: something we've talked about, It could be something we've forgotten
Speaker 1: to talk about. If there's one takeaway you want everyone
Speaker 1: to hammer into their brain and not forget and actually
Speaker 1: do it, what's that one thing without a doubt. Two,
Speaker 1: figure out some step process to take when they're shooting.
Speaker 1: And that could be as simple as like a one
Speaker 1: part mantra of like squeeze, squeeze, squeeze or whatever. But
Speaker 1: create a process that you're going to go through in
Speaker 1: shooting an animal or target, Like when you put carbon
Speaker 1: in the air, have a process that you go through
Speaker 1: and slow down and go through that process every single
Speaker 1: time that you could carbon in the air, whether you're
Speaker 1: shooting a target, a yeah, whatever you're shooting at. Take that,
Speaker 1: because that, for me was the biggest leap in all
Speaker 1: of my growth as a hunter, that one made the
Speaker 1: biggest difference. And it's hard. It's easy to say, but
Speaker 1: it's hard to be out there in the summertime right
Speaker 1: now with your bow and not playing arrows. Like you
Speaker 1: need to think through whatever process you developed, whether it's
Speaker 1: mine or Ady Mays or le By Morgan's like, and
Speaker 1: you know, in talking to all those guys, they do
Speaker 1: the same thing, right, Like when I talked to Levi
Speaker 1: about his process or Andy about his process, Like, it's
Speaker 1: funny how similar they all are. We use different words
Speaker 1: that we're telling ourselves. And Mark, I think when you
Speaker 1: and I talked about this, you have a process that
Speaker 1: you get through as well, right, So and and um,
Speaker 1: would you say that you had a pretty drastic increase
Speaker 1: in proficiency when you started implementing that process. Well, so,
Speaker 1: I've had stages. So so first, when I first started
Speaker 1: using some kind of mantra within, I had an improvement
Speaker 1: in effectiveness. And then over a couple of the last
Speaker 1: three or four years, I've regressed and had some target
Speaker 1: panic issues. And so now I've rebuilt that. And so
Speaker 1: I'm now dedicating myself even more to really stringently tying
Speaker 1: verbal cues to that process so that I can't get
Speaker 1: into that speeding mode where it sounds like you've had
Speaker 1: some similar issues where I will shortcut it sometimes and
Speaker 1: speed through it because I'm not locked in on each
Speaker 1: step as perfectly as I need to be. So this year,
Speaker 1: I'm trying even harder to develop ways to ingrain that
Speaker 1: so that I can't skip a step so I can't rush.
Speaker 1: I need like speed bumps along the way to maintain control.
Speaker 1: So that's that's what I'm really trying to hammer in
Speaker 1: every more than I her before this year. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think that's something that you like, back to our
Speaker 1: earlier discussion of like guys that just want to go
Speaker 1: out and sit in the tree until a one seventy appears,
Speaker 1: whether that's a decade long quest or not, Like that
Speaker 1: person that does that will never know the steps in
Speaker 1: between of improving the process. And so like while you're
Speaker 1: honing the skill set by by three years and four
Speaker 1: years of going through repeating that mantra and then going like,
Speaker 1: you know, I was saying this, but I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: this instead because that has a better result for me.
Speaker 1: Like that's the growth along the way that leads to
Speaker 1: making you a better person and that and that is
Speaker 1: a better hunter. And I think that's a really important
Speaker 1: step to take. That you don't want to skip over. Yeah,
Speaker 1: never stop improving, Like, yeah, that's the truth. Well, my friend,
Speaker 1: I knew this would be good. It was. I've had fun,
Speaker 1: I've learned some stuff. If folks want to see more
Speaker 1: of what you're doing, where can they find that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can find me on YouTube as hunt Urban or
Speaker 1: on Instagram as Urban Bowmen. So check it out and
Speaker 1: hopefully you guys enjoy. I'll also add to that, Taylor,
Speaker 1: they will also soon be able to find you on
Speaker 1: the meat Eater YouTube channel, where our first episode of
Speaker 1: my new white tail show that I filmed last fall
Speaker 1: is going to start airing in That first episode should
Speaker 1: be barrowing some kind of unforeseen change. Should be airing
Speaker 1: in early September, So we'll get to uh relive our
Speaker 1: wild urban d C hunt together here very shortly. I
Speaker 1: can't wait. I am very excited to uh to watch
Speaker 1: that unfold. That was certainly a fun time. And uh,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that you're pretty glad that you don't have
Speaker 1: to go knock on doors and get permission in this
Speaker 1: area anymore. Right now. Yeah, man, I'm glad I did.
Speaker 1: I glad experienced it, but I'm not too keen on
Speaker 1: spend a whole another day doing it again. Soon. I
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about you coming down and poaching
Speaker 1: any properties, huh, at least not in the short term. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome, man. Thank you again for having me on.
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure and hopefully this helps some people
Speaker 1: out there put more critters on the ground, you know,
Speaker 1: this year or in the future. I know, well, man,
Speaker 1: Thank you all right, and that's a wrap. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. I hope you enjoyed this one. Make sure
Speaker 1: check out all of Taylor's content. The guy is a
Speaker 1: great dude. He does good work. He's got a lot
Speaker 1: of great content out there, so follow him wherever you can.
Speaker 1: And just one last reminder, remember we've got those July
Speaker 1: wire Hunt gear picks over on the wire Hunt page.
Speaker 1: Check those out as well if you need something new
Speaker 1: for your summer shooting. And with that out of the way,
Speaker 1: thank you for listening, Thanks for being part of this community.
Speaker 1: We're getting close, guys and girls. Is July, that means
Speaker 1: next month is August, which means they're you're hunting seasons
Speaker 1: opening soon. People. I can't believe it. I'm getting very excited.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a good year. Thanks for tuning in,
Speaker 1: and until next time, stay Wired to Hunt. H