Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the Distance. This podcast is presented by
Speaker 1: Yetti Built for the While. You've hunted hard and waited
Speaker 1: all season for this one opportunity. Here's your chance. A
Speaker 1: buck is now walking down a trail towards you. He's
Speaker 1: within bone range as you come to full draw. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you're set up across a canyon with your cross
Speaker 1: hairs on a bowl elk that's starting to walk away
Speaker 1: and then stops. Everything's right, You just need to release
Speaker 1: the arrow or pull the trigger. But there's one important thing.
Speaker 1: Where do you aim? This week on the podcast, I
Speaker 1: want to cover advanced shot placement. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the major mistakes that I see with shot placement
Speaker 1: and how to pick an aim point for a lethal
Speaker 1: shot every time. As hunters, making a clean, ethical kill
Speaker 1: is one of the most important skills to have and
Speaker 1: to know, so I want to cover the basics of
Speaker 1: anatomy and animals body position and angle. When you're taking
Speaker 1: a shot, and then ways to read an animal's body
Speaker 1: language to make sure that you're taking a shot at
Speaker 1: the right time. But first, I want to tell you
Speaker 1: of one of my favorite bow hunts for fallow dear
Speaker 1: down in New Zealand. There's really just something I love
Speaker 1: about chasing fallow deer, especially during the rut. New Zealand
Speaker 1: has some great opportunities for fallo dear, and I'm really
Speaker 1: fortunate that I have permission to hunt a really good
Speaker 1: piece of property that reminds me a lot of where
Speaker 1: I hunt in northern Nevada or central Idaho. It's kind
Speaker 1: of canyon country, lots of rocks, big open lots of glassing,
Speaker 1: and it's just an incredible spot for spot and stock
Speaker 1: fallow deer. On this particular hunt, I was hunting with
Speaker 1: a good friend of mine, Shane Dorian. Now Shane's pretty
Speaker 1: much a legend. I think it'd be fair to call
Speaker 1: him a legend in the big wave surfing world. But
Speaker 1: what you might not know about Shane is he's also
Speaker 1: an incredible bow hunter and he loves bow hunting. So
Speaker 1: it was awesome to get the opportunity to hunt with him,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to take him to this place
Speaker 1: to hunt fallow deer because one, it's just an incredible hunt,
Speaker 1: and too you get some awesome stocks. It's just a
Speaker 1: really good time and there's some really great bucks there.
Speaker 1: So the first day we went out, we were walking
Speaker 1: in this ridge where i'd actually seen some pretty good
Speaker 1: deer the year prior, figured we'd start there. Is during
Speaker 1: the fallow deer rush, fallow deer croak, they make like
Speaker 1: a I'll do it with my voice. It's more of
Speaker 1: like a frog pig, so down there and that's croaking,
Speaker 1: and then they croak on their pads. So they clear
Speaker 1: out this area and it's like a rut pad and
Speaker 1: they stand there and they'll croak in the pads to track.
Speaker 1: The females assert their dominance, kind of like elk bugling,
Speaker 1: but they make this croak noise, very vocal animals. So
Speaker 1: we're sitting up on the ridge first thing in the
Speaker 1: morning and I hear some down in the canyon and
Speaker 1: it's just echoing because we're on this point and there's
Speaker 1: three or four finger canyons that come around. Now we
Speaker 1: can't see down in the bottom of these canyons, but
Speaker 1: I can tell this this one just sounds he's going
Speaker 1: off pretty good. So I worked down the draw get
Speaker 1: to a point where we're trying to look up into
Speaker 1: this these draws, and I end up seeing this buck
Speaker 1: and it was a pretty good buck. He had everything
Speaker 1: you look for, big palms, good fronts, he was just
Speaker 1: a solid deer. We thought, okay, I think we can
Speaker 1: make a play on this buck. So he's got a
Speaker 1: group of of does, and in this country it's so
Speaker 1: open the dear ceu and they just they start running
Speaker 1: from sometimes a mile two miles away, so you have
Speaker 1: to make really long stalks around stuff to get into position.
Speaker 1: The other thing that's working against you is there's just
Speaker 1: a lot of deer, so you spook one deer and
Speaker 1: they just start running for miles. So these ones happen
Speaker 1: to be below the good ledge, so I thought, let's
Speaker 1: get in there. Maybe hopefully they'll stay in There's it
Speaker 1: looked like that buck was croaking on this path that
Speaker 1: he maybe he'll stay there a little bit longer. And
Speaker 1: he's got those does down below the cliffs, so if
Speaker 1: we get up above him, the wind was good, might
Speaker 1: be able to get a shot. We end up working
Speaker 1: in crawling up the face of this pretty steep cliff
Speaker 1: working down to this ledge, and we don't see the deer,
Speaker 1: but I can still hear him down there croaking. Well,
Speaker 1: sure enough, we look down and these fallow does start
Speaker 1: funneling below our feet, like right below us, underneath us,
Speaker 1: and now here comes the buck. We can see him,
Speaker 1: just his antler tips before we can see his body.
Speaker 1: Shane draws back and the angle is so steep. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's literally got the buck right below him, and he's
Speaker 1: pretty much shooting straight down. It's like one of the
Speaker 1: most steepest angled shots I've ever seen taken. It was
Speaker 1: pretty awesome. So he shoots the buck. Worked out great.
Speaker 1: We end up getting this buck. It's it's a really
Speaker 1: good deer and it was just an awesome hunt. So
Speaker 1: now it's my turn to hunt. Because I've shot deer there,
Speaker 1: I wanted to make sure he got a good buck first,
Speaker 1: so I pick up my bow and the next day
Speaker 1: we go out. I'd spotted the buck the day before,
Speaker 1: so we kind of had seen a couple other deer
Speaker 1: that looked pretty good while we're packing that buck out,
Speaker 1: So we kind of went back to the same area
Speaker 1: I was glassing one way Shane was glassing another It's
Speaker 1: about mid morning. At this point. We've seen a few goats,
Speaker 1: wild feral goats, and some smaller bucks, but nothing I
Speaker 1: really wanted. And then we come around this rock point.
Speaker 1: Shane looks up and he spots this deer bedded in
Speaker 1: the canyon below us. So I'm like, get down, take
Speaker 1: a look, like that's that's a nice buck. He didn't
Speaker 1: have the didn't have the big palms like his did,
Speaker 1: but it was just an old mature buck, like heavy
Speaker 1: and probably regressing. They get really heavy, their their paddles
Speaker 1: get really wide and one side kind of started to
Speaker 1: look uneven from the other. It was just an old
Speaker 1: mature buck, and I thought, yeah, that's I would take
Speaker 1: that buck for sure. And the cool thing about it
Speaker 1: was he was bedded in a spot by himself, and
Speaker 1: it looked like a pretty good approach. The trouble was
Speaker 1: going to be that I would have to shoot cross canyon,
Speaker 1: so if I made any mistakes, he might be able
Speaker 1: to see me drawing and shooting. But there was enough
Speaker 1: cliffs and contour that I think I could get a
Speaker 1: shot at him, and that's the only way for the
Speaker 1: wind as well, So I waited. I watched the buck
Speaker 1: fell asleep, so I was like, perfect, this is my
Speaker 1: time to make a move. I make my move in
Speaker 1: and get set up. Unfortunately, I would have taken a
Speaker 1: shot where he was laying but he just was at
Speaker 1: a wrong at the wrong angle. I kept trying to
Speaker 1: look with my binoculars and think about how I could
Speaker 1: get maybe a quartering away shot, but the way he
Speaker 1: was laying down, his shoulder blade was right over his
Speaker 1: vitals and it is more of a quartering two shots.
Speaker 1: So I just thought, okay, I'm just gonna sit here,
Speaker 1: be patient. Wait. He has no clue I'm here. I've
Speaker 1: got a good, bigger, bolder kind of covering my outline.
Speaker 1: But I can see him, so if he gets up,
Speaker 1: I'll be able to make a move, and he shouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to see me. So I arranged the deer
Speaker 1: and think okay. But I'm looking at the deer and
Speaker 1: I think, man, this deer is really close. So I
Speaker 1: take my range finder out. I've got plenty of time
Speaker 1: and I range it. It's like fifty yards, like shoot
Speaker 1: it's a little It's about as far as I would
Speaker 1: want to shoot, you know. I want to make sure
Speaker 1: everything's right for this, but I'm just thinking to myself, God,
Speaker 1: this looks really really close. Maybe it's just because it's
Speaker 1: a big body buck in the open. He just looks big,
Speaker 1: so I don't think anything of it. And I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there waiting for him to stand up. Well, he finally
Speaker 1: stands up. I come to full draw. He's like looking around,
Speaker 1: feeding takes maybe one step. I wait for the perfect shot,
Speaker 1: set all my fifth year pin where it should go.
Speaker 1: Release the arrow. The hero sails over his back a
Speaker 1: ways and sticks into the ground above him. He like
Speaker 1: ducks down and looks and starts staring at the arrow.
Speaker 1: I thought, oh my gosh, and it's it's fairly The
Speaker 1: wind was in my face, so I don't think that
Speaker 1: he heard my shot go off. But all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: there's this arrow in the dirt above him. I'm like,
Speaker 1: how did I miss by that much over his back?
Speaker 1: So I was like, man, it just looks closer. I
Speaker 1: maybe something was wrong, Maybe I misranged him. I don't know, Like,
Speaker 1: how often do you get two shots at the same deer.
Speaker 1: I mean, this should be a story where I just
Speaker 1: flat out missed in this buck got away, And yet
Speaker 1: I think because it went over his back and stuck
Speaker 1: in the dirt. It didn't hit any rocks or anything.
Speaker 1: He just was kind of confused and now looking at
Speaker 1: this arrow, he maybe jumped a few jumps, but wasn't
Speaker 1: much further. And I could actually see the deer in
Speaker 1: the arrow at full draw, so I put my fifty
Speaker 1: yard pin on him again because this so I thought
Speaker 1: the range was And then I just saw the arrow
Speaker 1: in the dirt over there and moved my bow at
Speaker 1: the same level he was. It was right on my
Speaker 1: thirty yard pin. So I thought, God that just I
Speaker 1: felt like the shot was good. Something was wrong. He
Speaker 1: looks close. I'm just gonna shoot for what that Because
Speaker 1: my thought was all right, if that's where the arrow hit,
Speaker 1: and I used my fifty yard pin, wherever that arrow
Speaker 1: hit should be the distance that it was if my
Speaker 1: first shot was good. So I readjusted shot him for
Speaker 1: thirty I put it right in the crease what I
Speaker 1: like to call the perfect triangle, right in the shoulder,
Speaker 1: but not in the blade of the shoulder. And I'll
Speaker 1: talk about that later, but I said all the thirty
Speaker 1: yard pin released the arrow perfect pass through buck runs
Speaker 1: maybe ten twenty yards and just tips over. So what
Speaker 1: it ended up happening was somehow my range finder was broken.
Speaker 1: I don't really know what was wrong with it, but
Speaker 1: I tried ranging other things, and everything I ranged said
Speaker 1: fifty yards, fifty yards, fifty yards. I should have trusted
Speaker 1: my instinct on saying, oh, he's actually thirty yards, but
Speaker 1: he looked close, and I just figured about I had
Speaker 1: time to range him, might as well range him. Turned
Speaker 1: out he was only thirty yards. But it was pretty
Speaker 1: awesome to walk up on that buck and know that
Speaker 1: I got one a very rare secon and chance, and
Speaker 1: two was able to adjust and make a perfect shot
Speaker 1: and it all worked out. But I just we just
Speaker 1: had to laugh afterwards because I was like, what is
Speaker 1: going on here? I thought I'd missed the buck, Then
Speaker 1: he's staring at the arrow. Then I get another shot,
Speaker 1: and it was a pretty awesome, pretty awesome trip, pretty
Speaker 1: awesome experience. Shane came down, we got some photos, cut
Speaker 1: him up, pushing him up, and then packed him out.
Speaker 1: I can't really talk about shot placement without covering the
Speaker 1: four things that I think are the most important when
Speaker 1: it comes to shooting an animal that includes anatomy body position,
Speaker 1: body angle, and reading the animal. So I'm talking about that.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the body position of the animal, the
Speaker 1: body angle of the animal, and then just understanding what
Speaker 1: movements it might make, how it's acting, how it might
Speaker 1: react to your arrow, to your shot, whether it's moving,
Speaker 1: whether it's stopped, all that kind of stuff. So I
Speaker 1: to cover that, but I first want to talk about
Speaker 1: a few of the mistakes I've seen through guiding and
Speaker 1: what is probably the most common mistake of new hunters
Speaker 1: and even guys that have been doing it for a while,
Speaker 1: you know, guiding in New Zealand, guiding in Montana, and
Speaker 1: just hunting a lot of other places. I've tend to
Speaker 1: find that most people shoot animals too far back. I
Speaker 1: think it comes down to a couple of things. First off,
Speaker 1: white tail actually have larger lungs than a lot of
Speaker 1: other animals. You could shoot a white tail mid body
Speaker 1: and still clip lung. But when you start hunting other
Speaker 1: species or other animals, that's not always the case. It
Speaker 1: tends to be that everybody has the idea of you're
Speaker 1: supposed to aim behind the shoulder. Now, while that is
Speaker 1: true in many cases, in many instances, it's not always
Speaker 1: true saying aim behind the shoulder in many scenarios maybe
Speaker 1: too far back, or it's just not the right part
Speaker 1: of the shoulder. I think people get confus used on
Speaker 1: what the shoulder actually is. So I tend to find
Speaker 1: a lot of animals get shot in the liver or
Speaker 1: even further back accidentally, or that's just where they aimed
Speaker 1: and thought it was going to be a good shot.
Speaker 1: Very few when I'm guiding our shot perfectly, and I
Speaker 1: think it's because people have the misconception of where to aim,
Speaker 1: and where to aim is not always the same. So
Speaker 1: if it's quartering towards you quartering away, we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about all that where your aim points should be.
Speaker 1: I think the first thing to talk about in understanding
Speaker 1: shot placement is going to be the anatomy. So if
Speaker 1: you're looking at, say the anatomy of a caribou versus
Speaker 1: a American bison versus a bear, versus a havilina versus
Speaker 1: a white tail versus an antelope, they're all very similar,
Speaker 1: but they're all very different in some ways as well.
Speaker 1: Things like wild pigs have a larger shoulder and vitals
Speaker 1: tucked further up in their bodies. Whereas a white tail
Speaker 1: has their lungs further extending further back. I think if
Speaker 1: we're just gonna give you a rundown of basic anatomy,
Speaker 1: it's something that's gonna be hard to talk about for
Speaker 1: every species. So there's one thing that I suggest is,
Speaker 1: whatever you're hunting, study some anatomy diagrams. There's plenty of
Speaker 1: them online. You should really understand where the vitals are
Speaker 1: in every animal you're hunting. But I also want to
Speaker 1: talk about where's the perfect place to take a shot. Now,
Speaker 1: you have to consider a few things when you're talking
Speaker 1: about the perfect shot placement. One, you want the most
Speaker 1: room for error, so you want a large center mass
Speaker 1: where if you make a mistake up, down, left, right
Speaker 1: by a small margin, you're still going to make a
Speaker 1: perfect shot. The other thing is knowing how and when
Speaker 1: to shoot so that when you do aim at that
Speaker 1: perfect spot, you're gonna hit it and the animal won't
Speaker 1: react or something won't be in the way. Because you
Speaker 1: can name it one spot, and depending on the position
Speaker 1: of the leg or the way the animals facing, that
Speaker 1: might not be the right spot. So let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the things that are true in almost
Speaker 1: all the species that we hunt, as far as anatomy
Speaker 1: goes and involves with I'm gonna break down the philosophy
Speaker 1: of aim behind the shoulder, and then I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you where to aim and base that off anatomy. So
Speaker 1: when you think about a shoulder, when you're looking at
Speaker 1: a deer and elk, we'll just go with the deer.
Speaker 1: The shoulder is obviously in the front leg. But what
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't realize is the way the
Speaker 1: bone structure runs in the shoulder. So you unjealous, you
Speaker 1: have the scapula, which would be like our shoulder blade.
Speaker 1: Their shoulder blade is attached to the humorous it like
Speaker 1: a knuckle joint, but it's almost at a forty five angle.
Speaker 1: So if you if you put your arms straight up
Speaker 1: and out and then you moved your hand at a
Speaker 1: forty five degree angle, that is the shape of what
Speaker 1: I would consider the shoulder. So there's this area I
Speaker 1: like to call it there. It's like a triangle area,
Speaker 1: and if you look at some anatomy diagrams you'll you'll
Speaker 1: really start to understand this better. But that that triangle
Speaker 1: air you out within the shoulder right behind that houses
Speaker 1: there's ribs, but then there's the heart and lungs. Now,
Speaker 1: I tend to find that the best place meant for
Speaker 1: a shot is in that triangle. So you aren't hitting
Speaker 1: any bone in the scapula in the humorous you're going
Speaker 1: right through. And so in order to even hit the heart,
Speaker 1: you have to hit the lungs as well, because it's
Speaker 1: set up inside the lungs. So you hit the heart lungs.
Speaker 1: If you're a little high, you hit the lungs. If
Speaker 1: you're a little low, you hit more heart. But that
Speaker 1: is the most effective shot placement to take an animal. Now,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be people, so you gotta just wait because
Speaker 1: there's probably people chomping at bit saying no, that's bad
Speaker 1: because if you're high, you'll hit the scapula. That's a
Speaker 1: bad shot. You should aim further back. Yes, and no,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that to give you the idea of
Speaker 1: the anatomy. I prefer to shoot things more in the shoulder.
Speaker 1: But I'm also very careful where I aim, and I
Speaker 1: understand the anatomy completely. Yes, if you make a mistake
Speaker 1: a little far forward, a little far back, you might
Speaker 1: make a bad shot. Now that's an area in the shoulder.
Speaker 1: So if you're looking at the animal, it looks like
Speaker 1: it's all part of the shoulder. Then you've got the
Speaker 1: crease back behind, and that crease would be the back
Speaker 1: of the shoulder that you see where the muscle is,
Speaker 1: and that crease is still within the lungs and still
Speaker 1: a great spot to shoot. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people when they say behind the shoulder, talking about that
Speaker 1: crease in the shoulder, and for most animals, if you
Speaker 1: aim there, that's great. Now where I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people make the mistake is they say behind the shoulder,
Speaker 1: and they put it two or three inches behind that crease,
Speaker 1: and now they're aiming at the liver. Especially depending on
Speaker 1: the angle of the animal, they're already putting it in
Speaker 1: a spot where it might be too far back. Me personally,
Speaker 1: I prefer to aim a little bit tighter into the shoulder.
Speaker 1: And we'll kind of talk about that here in a
Speaker 1: little bit. So once you understand the anatomy, the most
Speaker 1: important thing before taking any shot, to take an ethical
Speaker 1: shot is going to be first the body position of
Speaker 1: the animal. Now some of this might sound basic, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into some more advanced stuff. In a
Speaker 1: little bit. So you just track with me. Here's the
Speaker 1: basic positions that an animal could be in. So broadside,
Speaker 1: that's gonna just be completely side onto you. It's completely
Speaker 1: perpendicular to your view, to your point of impact, whether
Speaker 1: it's your air, whatever your arrow is, where you're shooting
Speaker 1: that animal standing completely perpendicular to you. Now you have
Speaker 1: quartering away. That's where it's front is a little bit
Speaker 1: more at an angle away from you, and its rear
Speaker 1: end is towards you. Then you have quartering to you.
Speaker 1: That's where it's front shoulders are towards you, it's rear
Speaker 1: ends more away from you. Then you have frontal shot
Speaker 1: facing you and then facing away from you. So I'll
Speaker 1: just be like, all you've got is this back end.
Speaker 1: So out of that quartering too, broadside, quartering away facing you,
Speaker 1: facing away. The best shot, in my opinion, is always
Speaker 1: quartering away or slightly quartered away and broadside. Now, I
Speaker 1: think a shot that's very difficult to make ethically, but
Speaker 1: if you understand it properly you can still make a
Speaker 1: great shot is quartering to you. Because the trouble is
Speaker 1: is the shoulder, the front of the shoulder. There's a
Speaker 1: point in the shoulder. I didn't talk about where the
Speaker 1: scapula meets the humorous and I call it the knuckle.
Speaker 1: It's the lower part, it's the furthest forward point of
Speaker 1: the shoulder bone structure. If you hit that, most likely
Speaker 1: you won't get into the vitals. If your bow huntling,
Speaker 1: your arrow will stop there. If your rifle hunting, you'll
Speaker 1: probably blow the shoulder up, but it won't kill the
Speaker 1: animals you have. Let's take a follow up shot. It's
Speaker 1: not a good shot. It's not a good place to hit.
Speaker 1: And when an animal's quartering to you, that knuckle is
Speaker 1: really protecting the vitals. And then you've got the scapula
Speaker 1: as well, so you've got a lot of things working
Speaker 1: against you. Also, if you then go okay, I'll aim
Speaker 1: behind the shoulder at that quartering to you. Angle putting
Speaker 1: an arrow or a bullet behind the shoulder is now
Speaker 1: having your trajectory going through non vital areas or areas
Speaker 1: that aren't as quick and clean ling like the lungs
Speaker 1: and heart. You might hit in that scenario the liver
Speaker 1: or intestines. So that's not a great position. Now, a
Speaker 1: lot of guys ask about body position. Elk facing you.
Speaker 1: That can be a good shot if you know what
Speaker 1: you're doing, but also there's a lot of room for error,
Speaker 1: and then facing away never a good shot. Yes, there
Speaker 1: are guys that have intentionally shot them. They call it
Speaker 1: Texas heart shot. The trouble with that is it's not
Speaker 1: a very clean kill. There's a lot of margin for air,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna kind of taint the meat because you're
Speaker 1: hitting the intestines. So the two shots that you want
Speaker 1: to look for quartering away broadside. So now we all
Speaker 1: also have to talk about the body angle. Where is
Speaker 1: that front shoulder on the animal? Is their leg back?
Speaker 1: Is there leg forward? Is he quartering two with his
Speaker 1: leg forward? Is he quartering too with his leg back?
Speaker 1: Is the animal quartering away with his onside leg back?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's even bedded. What's its body position there? What's
Speaker 1: that shoulder blade doing, what's that scapula doing? Where is
Speaker 1: it position in relationship to where your point of aim
Speaker 1: should be. So if it's legs, the best shot is
Speaker 1: always when it's on site legs forward, because that generally
Speaker 1: pulls the opens up the vitals to the shooter. So
Speaker 1: that way your first point of impact, especially with a bow,
Speaker 1: is in the vitals without obstruction from bone, from possibly
Speaker 1: hitting something you don't want to hit, and it stretches
Speaker 1: out that key area of lungs, center of the lungs
Speaker 1: where you should be aiming for. So if you were
Speaker 1: to ask me, where is the best place to aim,
Speaker 1: I always think of it like this. What I wanna
Speaker 1: do is I want to send a BOWLO and arrow
Speaker 1: whatever through the center of the lungs. If you hit
Speaker 1: through both lungs, that animal will expire extremely quick. Also,
Speaker 1: if you go through the lungs and the heart, that's
Speaker 1: also a great option. But you want the least amount
Speaker 1: of room for error. So what I do is I
Speaker 1: kind of think of wherever I'm aiming. I want the
Speaker 1: arrow to exit through the triangle that I talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: in between below the scapula, above the humorous behind that
Speaker 1: point somewhere in that triangle of the opposite shoulder. So
Speaker 1: I'm always aiming for the opposite shoulders. So if it's
Speaker 1: perfectly broadside, I'll aim just inside the crease. I follow
Speaker 1: the onside leg up and I put it right in
Speaker 1: that triangle there. Because I know that I've practiced with
Speaker 1: my weapon and I'm going to make that shot effectively,
Speaker 1: that's where I aim. Now, if you're maybe a little
Speaker 1: bit newer and you feel a little uncomfortable with that,
Speaker 1: then I would go just right back at the back
Speaker 1: widest point of that triangle and aim right there, so
Speaker 1: like right in the crease, dead center center mass of
Speaker 1: the animal there, because then you have margin of air
Speaker 1: up and down, a little bit left and right. But
Speaker 1: I'm aiming for that arrow or bow bullet or whatever
Speaker 1: to exit through the center of that opposite shoulder. So
Speaker 1: if you think about it, now, let's imagine how this works.
Speaker 1: Is if you have a dear turn quartering away, what
Speaker 1: I do is I find the opposite leg, I follow
Speaker 1: up the opposite leg, and then where that intersects with
Speaker 1: the center of the body, that's where I shoot, because
Speaker 1: that's going to be the point that the straight path
Speaker 1: travels through. So I'm always aiming for the opposite side
Speaker 1: of the shoulder. Now, if you're shooting down from say
Speaker 1: a tree stand, it's a little bit different, but you're
Speaker 1: also going to think, okay, I'm aiming for the center
Speaker 1: or slightly lower shooting through. So you always visualize whatever
Speaker 1: you're shooting to go completely through and you want to
Speaker 1: know where it's going to go completely through the center
Speaker 1: of both lungs. So I'm still aiming for that center point,
Speaker 1: but i'd be aiming higher because I'm shooting down to
Speaker 1: get through the center point of the opposite side shoulder.
Speaker 1: Now where it gets a little confusing, is okay, Well,
Speaker 1: what if it's quartering to A lot of people think, well,
Speaker 1: the shoulders they're on a quartering two shot, I do
Speaker 1: the same thing. I'm aiming for the center of the
Speaker 1: opposite shoulder, so I would track up from the one
Speaker 1: leg from the opposite leg, depending on how their legs are,
Speaker 1: I guess, But where is that arrow gonna exit? How
Speaker 1: is it gonna exit through the other side shoulder? And
Speaker 1: most of the time on a quartering two shot, I'm
Speaker 1: shooting inside the shoulder, so I'm shooting on the inside
Speaker 1: of the shoulder blade, which would be like more towards
Speaker 1: the neck, so it exits through the other side because
Speaker 1: I know that there's bone another thing in the way
Speaker 1: when it's quartering two. But like I said, whatever the
Speaker 1: shot angle is, I'm aiming for the opposite side of
Speaker 1: the shoulder. And I can't say that enough. But once
Speaker 1: you kind of start to think in that realm, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have more effective shots and you're gonna know where
Speaker 1: to place your cross airs. I always tell people as well,
Speaker 1: if it's broad side, start by following the leg up
Speaker 1: and then the center of that. You can go back
Speaker 1: an inch or two. But if you do that and
Speaker 1: you realize that looking through the scope now that cross
Speaker 1: has lined up with further back and not going out
Speaker 1: through the shoulder, then you're probably gonna have to adjust.
Speaker 1: So quartering away shots are the best shots. You really
Speaker 1: can't go wrong with quartering away because you're shooting toward everything.
Speaker 1: Everything's open up, you don't have the ribs. That's why
Speaker 1: a slight quartering away shot, in my opinion, is the
Speaker 1: best shot. Then followed by broadside, especially if the front
Speaker 1: legs forward really opens up the vitals to you, gives
Speaker 1: you a good, clean, ethical shot. Now, one thing that
Speaker 1: you have to consider is the movement of the animal
Speaker 1: and understanding really just being able to read the animal.
Speaker 1: So a few things that I always look for, and
Speaker 1: by looking for these things really calms me down in
Speaker 1: the moment and lets me pay attention to what's going on.
Speaker 1: So the first thing about reading an animal is are
Speaker 1: they alert to your position? Are they alert to you
Speaker 1: and understanding? What are they doing? So? Is the animal moving?
Speaker 1: Are they stopped? Are they stopped and alert? Are they feeding?
Speaker 1: What are they doing? Understand? What's that dear doing and
Speaker 1: what's he gonna do next? Based on his body language,
Speaker 1: based on his temperament, based on the scenario that you're in.
Speaker 1: Because one thing you have to consider, especially with deer
Speaker 1: that are more used to surviving and living in thicker cover,
Speaker 1: is they use a lot of reaction based on sound
Speaker 1: and quick movement and sight at close range, so they're
Speaker 1: more likely to jump the string. Things like white tails
Speaker 1: access dear. You know, I actually even find antelope do
Speaker 1: jump the string quite a bit when hunt, taking it
Speaker 1: a water hole, but not out in the open. And
Speaker 1: what's jumping the string or whatever is if your bow
Speaker 1: hunting right when you release the arrow, does the animal
Speaker 1: jump and react? Now, if it's aware of your presence
Speaker 1: and knows you're there, it's probably more likely to react.
Speaker 1: That might include ducking or or moving down. So if
Speaker 1: you aim at the right spot that animal moves, well,
Speaker 1: now you had it at the center and you hit
Speaker 1: high in an area that's not vital, not lethal, or
Speaker 1: it jumps forward and you end up not hitting it
Speaker 1: where you want. That's why understanding or reading the most
Speaker 1: so important because it lets you anticipate where you may
Speaker 1: have to aim based on certain species and other things.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about walking first. Generally, I would say
Speaker 1: you should only shoot at animals that are stopped, and
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways to stop an animal. I
Speaker 1: mostly use a grunt or whistle, depending on what type
Speaker 1: of species it is, and the reason you do that
Speaker 1: is because it's better to have a stop shot now
Speaker 1: a lot of time, when you make a grunt or whistle,
Speaker 1: that immediately lets the animal know that there's something there.
Speaker 1: They might look over at you. Hopefully you're already on
Speaker 1: them when you stop them, and you can take a
Speaker 1: shot before they really realize what's going on. So I
Speaker 1: grunt and shoot almost simultaneously. A second it stops. Shoot. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to time that to where it's gonna hear
Speaker 1: the sound as it's foots back and moving forward, so
Speaker 1: it stops with its leg and looks over if I can.
Speaker 1: It's especially important with rifle shots too, because an animal
Speaker 1: might be moving across the hillside if you can stop it,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have a better shot. Now, there are times
Speaker 1: on a walking animal where I will take a shot,
Speaker 1: but I have practiced those moving shots, and I know
Speaker 1: the right amount of lead for that, and in those instances,
Speaker 1: I'm generally aiming further forward in that triangle so that
Speaker 1: if they do continue to move, that arrow will still
Speaker 1: hit the vital area. One thing that I see a lot,
Speaker 1: and probably another reason that I a lot of people
Speaker 1: when they do make a bad shot, happens to be back,
Speaker 1: is because they'll be shooting at a stopped animal. But
Speaker 1: as they shoot, whether it's a boat or a rifle,
Speaker 1: that animal will then begin to walk. So as they're shooting,
Speaker 1: their brain doesn't really register that the animals about to move.
Speaker 1: As they squeeze off they were a at one point,
Speaker 1: and that animals already in the process of moving or
Speaker 1: going to move, in which case, as they move forward,
Speaker 1: that might make the shooters point of impact, depending on
Speaker 1: how far it is an inch to four inches further back.
Speaker 1: One thing that I always consider is if I'm watching
Speaker 1: for someone else, it's a lot easier if you're the shooter.
Speaker 1: You're focusing in on the animals, so it's not as
Speaker 1: easy to watch their body positions and their movements. But
Speaker 1: some things to look for is a lot of deer,
Speaker 1: especially white tail meal there you'll see if they aren't
Speaker 1: moving a lot, they're just kind of grazing, moving around.
Speaker 1: They flick their tail a few times before they take
Speaker 1: a step, so it's tail flick step, tail flick step.
Speaker 1: Other animals their ears twitch or move, they move their
Speaker 1: head before their body, so you'll notice Just watching for
Speaker 1: those kind of movements and what the deer or elk
Speaker 1: or other animals doing might lead you to believe whether
Speaker 1: they're going to take a step or not. So if
Speaker 1: I'm spotting for someone that's about to take a shot,
Speaker 1: say a rifle shot, if I see that tail flick,
Speaker 1: I say, way, he's going to take a step. Then
Speaker 1: as soon as he takes a step when he stops,
Speaker 1: shoot You're better off shooting at the beginning of a stop,
Speaker 1: then at the end of a stop and waiting for
Speaker 1: a long time. So if the animal has no clue
Speaker 1: that you're there, what I'm talking about is say you're
Speaker 1: set up with a rifle and the deer's stopped. He's
Speaker 1: not alert to your position. He's not focused on anything.
Speaker 1: He's just kind of browsing, so his head's down, he's feeding.
Speaker 1: Put the crossers there and wait, he might get a
Speaker 1: tail flick. Okay, he takes one more step as he
Speaker 1: steps and stops with that leg forward. Boom. That's when
Speaker 1: I shoot, and I make it instantaneous on that stop,
Speaker 1: so I know that I'm not going to catch him
Speaker 1: in another step. Another thing too, if you're say rifle hunting,
Speaker 1: having somebody make a noise to stop him, that deers alert.
Speaker 1: But by that point they're stopped. They're looking in your direction,
Speaker 1: especially if it's to yards out. Maybe they're walking. You've
Speaker 1: stopped him. Now they're looking towards the shooter, but they're
Speaker 1: stopped in a position where you can make a shot.
Speaker 1: One thing you always have to remember is just really
Speaker 1: analyzing the animal's body position. Are they truly broadside or
Speaker 1: are they slightly quartering too? Are they slightly quartering away?
Speaker 1: And then taking that knowledge of how their body position
Speaker 1: is and focusing in on where you should shoot. Picking
Speaker 1: the right spot to shoot really does make you more successful,
Speaker 1: makes a track job easier. Is an ethical, clean keel.
Speaker 1: That's what we strive for. I know, like with bow shooting.
Speaker 1: I shoot a lot of three D targets and really
Speaker 1: don't base where you should aim on a three D target.
Speaker 1: A lot of the anatomy on those targets is pretty wrong.
Speaker 1: A lot of the ten rings on three D film
Speaker 1: targets is quite a bit further back, and maybe that
Speaker 1: leads to guys shooting a little bit further back on
Speaker 1: most species as well. You know, just remember, pay attention
Speaker 1: and do a little bit of research. If you're hunting
Speaker 1: a new species you're you're new to hunting, really study
Speaker 1: the anatomy of the animals you're going after. Understand where
Speaker 1: that shoulder blade is and where everything is in relation
Speaker 1: to each other. Another thing you should think about is
Speaker 1: after you get an animal down successfully, as you're skinning
Speaker 1: it out, move the leg forward and back, feel where
Speaker 1: the bones are and how that relates to the anatomy
Speaker 1: and where you should be shoot. The more you can
Speaker 1: study that, the better off you're gonna be. I I
Speaker 1: really truly believe that the difference between the most successful hunters,
Speaker 1: the guys that come back successful all the time, and
Speaker 1: the guys that come back with, oh man, I made
Speaker 1: a bad shot or I missed I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: shoot him in the right place. We had to track
Speaker 1: for a long time. We ended up getting him the differences,
Speaker 1: paying attention to how the animals reacting, and really just
Speaker 1: picking the right point, whether it's understanding, if it's quartering
Speaker 1: to you, quartering away. All that is just key in
Speaker 1: the follow up. So making a good shot is the
Speaker 1: most important thing in my opinion, But the next portion
Speaker 1: to that would be tracking and how you react and
Speaker 1: what you do after you take a shot, and maybe
Speaker 1: what you do after you make a not so good shot.
Speaker 1: Things do happen. We try to do everything in our
Speaker 1: power to make that perfect shot every time, but no
Speaker 1: matter how good you are, there might be those times
Speaker 1: where you made a bad shot. Something happened, something unexpected happened,
Speaker 1: You didn't anticipate the right on a movement, and something
Speaker 1: went wrong. So next week I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the next step to this, which would be trailing and
Speaker 1: reactions after a shot. Last week I did some questions
Speaker 1: and answers. I really appreciate those coming back in. I've
Speaker 1: got already quite a few this week, so we'll get
Speaker 1: back to some of those questions here in a few episodes.
Speaker 1: But We're gonna talk about this for now and then
Speaker 1: anything else you guys would like to hear. As always,
Speaker 1: feel free to shoot me the email Remy at the
Speaker 1: meat Eater dot com or on social media at Remy
Speaker 1: Warren mostly on Instagram. Everything else is just populated from Instagram,
Speaker 1: so that's kind of the only one that I use.
Speaker 1: This week's homework, everybody needs to go online for shot
Speaker 1: placement and anatomy of animals. That's really what you want
Speaker 1: to do is just study the anatomy of whatever you're
Speaker 1: gonna be hunting, and even get a couple of different
Speaker 1: species side by side and look how those compared to
Speaker 1: each other. So your homework this week research some anatomy
Speaker 1: so that way when you're in the field, you can
Speaker 1: make sure you always make a perfect ethical shot. How
Speaker 1: would I even end to this one? Shoots straight? I
Speaker 1: guess alright, yeah, until next week shoots straight. Everyone