Ep. 47: Archery Practice that Actually Translates to Success in the Field

excited for this week. We're gonna this is our third installment and kind of the last of the Summer Prep series, and what this has been is just getting you ready for the hunting season and things you can do this summer. This week, we're gonna be busting out our bows and getting into some practice that I really think makes the most sense when it comes to hunting. If I think back of over my summers, you know, while everybody else

is out at the lake and doing other things. Yeah, I do those things as well, but really my summer is spent shooting my bow and really honing my skills for that archery season coming up. And so what I want to do is is kind of give you some tips.

I've got a list of things like the types of shots and the types of practice that I do that I that I really do believe is a lot different than maybe some of the other practice tips you've heard, and this is things that I do that I know for a fact makes me better when I go into the field. Some of these tips are they're all just very hunt specific, and so I'm excited to get into those. But before we do that, let's go down to Old Mexico on Accused Deer Hunt with a Bow and Arrow.

I thought it'd be kind of fun today to just recap a story and a little bit of behind the scenes of maybe something that some of you have seen. I know a lot of you've watched them Eat Eater television show, whether it's on Netflix or you you know, back when it was on the Sportsman's Channel or what have you, wherever you watch it. But I thought, yeah, it's kind of fun to tell a little bit of behind the scenes stuff because in a hunt that's filmed,

you you only see a certain percentage of it. And while it definitely follows like the narrative of exactly what happened, there's always a few things is like if someone if I was telling that hunting story, that you may not capture in that in that TV show. So quite a few years back, Steve and I went down to Mexico.

They were filming The Meat Eater and we did a couple like a kind of a two part episode, so one that gets talked about a lot, the Eating the Coyote episode, but before that we did Cou's Dear Steve hunted with his rifle and then I went out with my bow, and then we did the Coyote and have Alina kind of after that, but on the same trip, So two different episodes but really the same trip. And it wasn't real long trip, so we didn't have a lot of time. But I just decided I love hunting

with my bow. I mean, at heart, I'm up a bow hunt. I would consider myself a bow hunter. Yes, I hunt with everything. I enjoy rifle hunting. I've actually got a new muzzleloader that I'm gonna be hunting with this year. It's actually an old muzzleloader, but new to me. It's a percussion cap muzzleloader. And I mean, honestly, shotgun, bow whatever, it doesn't matter. I just love to hunt. But my true passion is when I've got my bow

in hand and I'm out hunting. In archery season, There's been so many times where I even take my bow to a general rifle hunt might be general rifle season, but hey, I'm gonna still keep hunting with my bow because I love the pursuit with the bow. And that's how this Mexico hunt was. You could use a rifle. Hunting cous deer during the rut is a great opportunity to get a great buck with a rifle. But I just thought, yeah, it's January, this is awesome. I'm in Mexico,

and of course I'm gonna hunt with my bow. So we started out hunting. Steve was going off and hunting on his own, and I think actually Janice was filming Steve, if I rememberly, and then a friend of mine and good worked with met here for a long time, Dan

Dodie was filming me. So we went out on our own, and we really only had about three days to hunt cou's deer because the other was going to be spent hunting coyotes and have Alina, And if you know anything about cous deer hunting, three days with a bow is not a lot of time to get it done. I wasn't looking for any particular size of buck. I just wanted to get a buck with my bow and bring home some meat and yeah, have a good time. So the first couple of days we got into some deer.

I was trying a bunch of different tactics rattling, but mostly spot and stock. So I glass in the morning. If I didn't see anything I like, then I'd go into some thicker stuff try rattling. For some reason. You know, I actually had one buck running and while rattling, I think on day two, but they weren't super responsive to the calling. And I'm not patient enough really to sit all day in like travel areas, so I would just kind of do it in case I got close and

didn't think I could get in or whatever. It was just kind of another tactic that I was using, but primarily spot in stock. I did spot a couple of nice bucks that I tried stocking, but being the rut, they just by the time I got to where they were, they were already gone. They'd moved off. It wasn't really looking good for me. I didn't really have any solid opportunities.

And then the fact of adding in a bow hunt on top of hunting CU's deer, which is difficult, and then adding somebody that's filming, and so you know, we're hiking around this a new area, never been None of us have been to this particular portion of where we were hunting, on this particular place. I think Steve had been here one time before, hunting buffalo a couple of years earlier, if I remember right. So, you know, just

kind of really exploring. Now it's the last day to hunt Cou's deer and I spot this really good buck across the canyons or like, sweet, let's get over there, let's try to get that buck. We get in there, and he's like ends up chasing this dough and I'm trying to like cut him off because he was in a spot bedded where I thought, okay, it'll be great to stop, but the dough got up. Of course, he gets up, and now the whole plans ruined. At about two yards out, I see him drop down this canyon.

We rush up, get into position, and he's just kind of like chasing that dough by it a hundred miles an hour. I try to stop him. I actually got to full draw, but he just never stopped, never gave me a shot. He was pretty close. I wouldn't have had time to range, just would have had to guess the range but I thought, dang, that's my opportunity. It's now almost the end of day. I'm like, well, probably not gonna get a buck, but I'm just gonna hunt til the very bitter end. So we dropped down into

this wash and I spot this coat of mondy. I think some people call him quadies or as well. We call him coat of Mondy. Some people call him desert monkeys as well. It's like a raccoon lemur looking animal, very strange animal. When I first started hunting cou'se deer down in Arizona, my buddy John and I would always joke about the code of money's like reading your thoughts and then translate it. We just have like this whole stick that we would do about how they would read

your minds. And they're like these weird animals that would read your mind and then scare away the deer and whatever. So we'd have to wear tinfoil hats in the mountains and it was just like this big running joke that we had. It probably does not translate well at all to this podcast, but they hold a special place in my heart. And it's funny because the first cou'se deer

buck I got with my bow. In Arizona. We were sitting there glass and we've been hunting for like a week or more, and I was glassing down in the canyon and I spotted this coat of money and I'm like, dude, look at these codies here and there like sweet. So we glass them up and they walk really they're like they're like the size of a raccoon, and they've got like they walk with their tails straight up in the air and it's like this long cat like ringed tail.

Soon super cool animal. So they're walking in the bottom. I'm like, okay, cool, that was awesome. I feel like that's good luck. So later that morning, like literally after that, I decided I'm gonna go up this ridge. Look down. As I'm walking up the ridge, I spot a buck. I go. I get into position above the cliff and shoot my first cues buck with my bow. Had just seen a code of money, and so on this particular

day in Mexico, I see this code of money. I'm like, guys, this is good luck because every time I see one of these I end up getting on accused here and they're like, well, so we're trying to film these things and all of a sudden the code of Money like kind of sees us and starts moving off. And there was like I don't even know what you call it, a pack, a herd, a group, a flock, whatever, there was. I had never seen so many of these things in my life. There was a massive group. I don't know

how many of there were. They just like we're going across this kind of cliff face and this wash everywhere. Maybe thirty of them. I don't know if that's even possible. Maybe it just seemed like there was that many. We really wanted to get some good video of them. So they went around this washing. We're kind of like in this wash, chasing these codies, and it's like almost the end of the day, and I'm like, man, this would be so cool to get some like good videos and pictures.

And we go up this wash and we end up they just like disappear, like these are some mystical creatures, even more mystical than the cues deer buck. And so we're like, okay, you know, we're looking around, we don't see him. We're like, well, it's almost the end of the day, starting to get dark. We've got, you know, a little bit of light left, but probably not going to see a deer, but whatever, We're just gonna walk up this wash and hit the ridge and then work

our way back to camp in the dark. So we're walking up the wash and we hit this spot. It's like, really weird, is desert everywhere, but there's this like patch of I'm pretty sure they were oaks or almost like cotton woods. I can't remember what kind of tree. They were, like a like a bigger tree but dead in this wash. I'm like, huh, maybe there's some water here or something. It seems like maybe there's more seasonal water, like year

round water, not just run off. We kind of like creep around the corner and this is like a tight wash where it's almost like cliffs and rock on either side and like smooth bottom, so you almost have to like rock climb up a few places to get up. There's a few places where I'd like hands someone in my bow, do like a rock climb move like a three step rock climb move, reach back, grab my bow,

that whole thing like it was. It was fairly technical getting up this, but we figured we could get up and then get up on the ridge somewhere and go out and there's a spot with these trees, and I'm I'm looking and it's just something doesn't look right, and it's really thick, and we're in the bottom and out on the hillside walks this cous deer. I'm like, dude, guys, buck, Like I just knew it was a buck. And I put up my bind nose and sure enough, it's just

this little it's a little spike. But it's the last day, last evening. I'm like, oh man, this is awesome. But the trouble is there is a ton of brush, just like sticks from this tree. So we were down like what would be the base of the tree, the trees out a little ways, maybe halfway between myself and the deer, and then the deer's up on the hill, so it's

a pretty steep uphill shot. I've got branches and everything in the way, and the lighting is like, now weird because it's starting to get dark and and this deer is starting to move. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna make this shot. We've got time. The deer's really not aware that we're there, trying to get the camera on it but not be seen. I range and I'm ranging what I've started doing, is I try to get a range between like past the tree to the hill where

the deers and I get it. It's like forty something yards, and now I'm ranging the tree and the trees like twenty yards, and then there's another tree behind that. There was like thirty yards, So it's like these two trees about ten yards apart, and then the buck's back on the hill behind it, and it is just a jungle of twigs and sticks and everything. So what I do is I draw back and I'm put my pin on the deer. At the time, I think I had like a seven pin spot hog size seven deadly pins or

something like that, if I remember right. And so I'm using my forty yard pin. I think by this point in the buck is like forty two yards or something. I'm like, okay, put that forty yard pin right center of the lungs and figure to get like a two inch drop. And then I'm like, okay, I gotta make this exact. So I creep up a little bit closer, you know, without being seen. I'm like exactly forty yards from that buck. And then I've got the twenty yard tree and then the thirty yard tree, and then that

bucks ten yards passed it. So I draw back and I've got my multiple pins and I'm just angling my like kind of moving at full draw and leaning and ducking and just getting the exact right angle where my twenty yard pin on top is branch free, my thirty yard pin is branch free. And then I've got my pin on the deer, and I line all those things up, released the arrow and it's twat buck runs off and

I'm like, oh, that looked good. So we give it a few seconds, but I'm like, it was hard to see where it hit because it was lower light, but I just knew that based on the way that I threaded, the needle should be right in there. We end up going up finding the arrow and the way the buck ran right over the ridge, but it looked like he just fell right there. I find the arrow, grabbed the arrow, and we just walked to where we last saw the bucket.

Sure enough, he's laying there, maybe fifteen yards passed where I shot perfect heart shot last evening, buck was down. When I think about archery practice for me, I'm honestly I'm not concerned with hitting dots on a target. What I am concerned with is just making a perfect shot in the field. And I shoot a bow for bow hunting, like I don't really I'm not really concerned about target archery.

I'm not really concerned about whatever else. Like my entire setup, my entire When I pick up a bow, the thought in my head is this is for hunting. This is what I hunt with, and I'm going to make a really good shot on whatever I'm talking I want to make a clean, ethical kill. I'm going to be more successful that way. And I would think that most bow hunts is difficult, as bow hunting is, it comes down

to that shot. I learned really early on that the difference between being an extremely effective and efficient and successful bow hunter is what you do with those shots that you're presented. And I mean, one of my best seasons, I think I went nine animals, nine arrows. It was like perfect, And I've had seasons to where it's the opposite, where I switched bows out of bow I didn't really like and it seemed like I would get an opportunity and somehow mess it up and it was the most struggling,

worst feeling, terrible season. And what it comes down to is just having that like the guys that are consistent archery hunters, guys that are really good with their bow, are guys that can take those shots offered in the field and make a perfect shot. And the thing about that is in field shots are often very unideal. When you're practicing in your backyard, it's one thing you're training yourself.

You're getting that muscle memory, you're shooting at those dots, and you're becoming proficient doing that, But that doesn't always translate to what you're gonna encounter when you draw back on that one opportunity you're going to get that season on a meal, they're on an elk onam, maybe you've

got a sheep, dag antelope, whatever it is. So what I do is I like to practice things that really translate and create muscle memory for scenarios and situations that I'm going to encounter in the field while I'm hunting. I will say I shoot my bow quite often. I believe that arch like practicing with your boat, is very

important a key to being successful. But I also believe that when it comes down to in the moment, I probably personally, if I was to judge myself, excel at shooting at a live target or a deer in the field as opposed to just shooting at a block in the backyard. And I might seem strange, but it's because the way that I practice is building that muscle memory

for those tricky shots, those tricky scenarios. And so I want to break down the type of shots that you can do at home right now, whether you've got a long range, of short range, whatever. I kind of dissected my practice and translate that to scenarios in the field, so you can build that muscle memory so when it happens during a hunt, it's something you've done a hundred times.

And that's the whole key to practice. That's why this summer prep series is so important, is because when you developed the right muscle memory, when you encounter a scenario that might only happen one it's a stock on a deer that goes off and you're gonna get your shot, and then you draw back and it's the first time you've ever taken a shot like that. It's a lot it's going on. But if you draw back and you know, hey, all summer, I've done this, I've got the muscle memory.

I can just execute this flawlessly and don't have to think about it. I don't get that paralysis by analysis. I just go through the motion of making the good shot. You're gonna be a lot more successful. So I've outlined a whole list of things here, and I'm just gonna go through the list and give you specific tips on ways to practice. So I've titled each of these shots the first shot. We're gonna call the longhold. Now this happens, I mean this happened to me literally yesterday, where I

was actually bear hunting. I drew back at a time when the bear wasn't looking. Then he went into a position that didn't offer shot, but I did not have time to let down, so I just had to keep holding, holding, and waiting for that opportunity shot. As I'm holding, I gotta make sure I'm not moving. I gotta also be able to put that pin in the right spot, not get tired, not get shaky, and still execute a good, perfect shot. So this is something that I practice consistently

throughout the summer. And what that is is it's just mimicking those scenarios where you're drawing at the right time, but you may have to wait for a shot. It happens so often, and I'm very surprised at how many few hunters really hammer this home and practice this. So I have a couple different like when I'm shooting, I almost play games in my mind of different ways that I do this to keep it interesting. I mean, if you haven't figured it out by now, I kind of have a form of a d D where I just

gotta make it interesting. I've got to keep moving and challenging and do that stuff. So the Longhold shot is something that I do a lot. And you can start out like this, maybe pick a time thirty seconds to whatever. You get your phone, you set the timer, you draw back, and you just hold, hold, hold and holding a way where you're pretty much holding on the target, and then the timer goes off and take your time and make

a good shot. It's really good to set a baseline so you can see where you're getting, how you're progressing, because over time you're gonna be able to expand those times longer and longer and longer. By the end of the summer, you'll be able to be held at full draw for quite a while and still execute a great shot. So what you want to do. Start out, shoot just say five arrows, four arrows, whatever. Shoot a group. Doesn't even matter how far your range is. You could do

this at twenty yards or closer. Maybe you just back your practice, you only got ten yards whatever. Wherever you practice doesn't really make a difference. But shoot a group just normal, call that your baseline. You go, Okay, this is the type of group I'm shooting at this distance. Now shoot a group with that hold or thirty second hold or whatever you're gonna start with, and then compare the two. What you're trying to get is you're trying to get your long hold shots to be very similar

or the same as your baseline shots. So as time progresses, you know, maybe do that day you'll do three to five rounds at that hold. You want to make it where it's fairly difficult, where you aren't just perfect. So I like to start out, you know, for me personally, I do a lot of minute holds, and then as the summer progresses, I've done even longer than that. It

obviously depends on your draw weight and other things. I've got a bow that's fairly heavy draw weight right now, and I've realized that my holds are not as good, is not as steady, and I can't hold as well as long. So I've been practicing this a lot more to build that strength and muscle memory for when that happens, because I've I've realized when you are in a scenario where you have to hold the bow back, that tension and muscle fatigue does build up. And what that causes.

It causes a panicked shot or a rushed shot. When you get a slight opportunity, it may not be opportune. So you're in the field, you're drawn back, and if you haven't practiced this a lot, what's gonna happen is you're gonna start shaking, You're gonna start to get tired, and your brain is gonna say, I can't let down. I have to shoot. And animals gonna give you a slight shot or something, and you're gonna rush that shot. When you rush the shot, you're probably gonna mess up.

You're gonna jerk your arm, you're gonna you're gonna do something that really is not what needs to be done in that moment. But practicing it now is gonna overcome that difficulty. It's gonna tell yourself look, I've done this a thousand times. I'm just gonna hold and I'm gonna make that smooth, perfect shot like I did all summer long. And so that one is key, Like add that to your practice. The next one we're gonna call the light

and dark. So a few years ago I really noticed I like to shoot my boat at various times throughout the day. You know, I know a lot of people like they might shoot before work or after work, and it's kind of always the same sunlight wherever they're shooting. So one time I was out in my backyard and I was I think it was early morning. I was shooting kind of towards the sun shooting, and I'm like, man, I really suck at shooting and then shooting and it's

just like not good groups, not really happy. And then later on in the day I shot again, I'm like tight groups, everything's great. I'm I could not figure out why. I was like, man, maybe it's just the morning. I'm not really dialed up or what. And I started to think about it and look at it. And in the middle of the day, what I was doing is the target was in the sunlight, and I would shoot underneath the eve of the house and my sight was in

the sun. And then as I stepped back a little bit further, you know, I got into more shade, and my groups weren't as good. And then I went further back and then I was shooting really good again, Like this is making no sense, and I started to really analyze it, and what was happening was this particular sight. In the evening, the site got brighter, and as the sight got brighter, the pin was a little bit bigger, and it was almost like I didn't have is fine

night aiming point. It was like tricking my brain as to what I was seeing and how I was aiming, and it kind of messed it up a little bit. I ended up taking the fiber optics out and just dulling it down for the evenings, in the mornings and in the shade. But it also really made me realize how much light factors into the way that you see your pin, the way that you see the target, way that you see an animal. Now translate that back into

thinking about shots that I encounter in the field. Many of the shots that I encounter, it's like you're stalking in on the deer. The deer's bedded under a tree, you're in the sun, or you're in the shade the bucks in the light, or you're going in on an elk in the timber and there's just light going through

the trees and multiple different ways. I prefer to try to stay in the shades the animals can't see me, but there's even those times where you're in something real dark, hiding and the deer's out, and that difference in light really affects the way that your eye sees the pin and you perceive distance and you aim at the target. And I realized that the difference in light was causing me to shoot different. I'm not talking like for me, it was different than the groups that I was used to.

And so what I started doing was practicing in different times of light, like looking towards the sun with the sun at my back, with the sun on the site, and really understanding how to shoot an adjust for that. And once you start doing that, you're going to realize that it does make a difference in many ways, or maybe for a lot of people. I think one way that really combats that is being able to shoot with both eyes open. If you don't currently shoot with both

eyes open, what happens with the varying light. It affects the way that your I focuses on the pin and not necessarily focusing on the target, and it changes the way that you normally shoot. So by practicing shooting in different lights and different types of light, maybe take that target and go set it in a dark hole where you can't really see what you're shooting at as well, you can't make out the definit shion as much, and

getting used to focusing on that. Then do the opposite where you're in the shade and the targets in the light, because it adjust the way that your eye picks up things at different depths and allows you to kind of concentrate and work out the kinks of that focus. And that's just a huge thing that I think a lot of people don't think about. So one of the main factors to doing that is making sure you're shooting with

both eyes open. And then another factor is, you know, just practicing and understanding what kind of differences that light actually does make. Number three here is going to be our obstruction shot, and that is pretty much the shot that I was talking about in the story. There's a lot of factors going on the angle, the light, and

then the obstruction. I've been doing some of these, like little how twos on my Instagram stories, and this one a lot of people really like resonate with, because I think a lot of people don't necessarily kind of comprehend it in this way. You really want to be careful of obstructions when you're shooting, and you need to practice with some forms of obstruction. What I mean by obstruction is something that obstructs either your flight path of your arrow or your line of sight, and those two are

not necessarily the same thing. So if you think about in that story where the CU's deer was forty yards away, I had a tree that was thirty yards away and a tree that was twenty yards away. My arrow is constantly falling essentially from the time it leaves my boat. It's making an arc, but it's like where it hits at twenty yards is higher than where it hits at

forty yards. So the obstructions that I need to worry about, at least the ones in between myself and the target are the ones that are in the flight path of the arrow, not in the flight path of my line of sight. In that particular shot, on that CU's dear, I actually think that there was a in my line of sight, a stick right on his vitals. But I was aiming for that point putting my forty yard pin

right on that stick. But I knew that stick was twenty yards away, and so looking at my other pins, I could see the gap at which the arrow was falling.

When I actually practice these kind of shots, I've done this in my backyard by just even taking something like I actually used to do it with a trash can, and I'd like put some stuff in the trash can, like yard branches or whatever, even just use the like the trash can itself and kind of like put the trash can twenty yards, walk out to forty yards and have like the can maybe where the vitals are, but use my forty yard pin, which would be almost like

center punching that like right on the can where I'd see the target in the background, and then have the arrow shoot over the can into the target. But what that did was it just really allowed me to say, Okay, that arrows above where I'm shooting. Now, how do I compensate for that? If you have a multiple pin site, the easiest ways at full draw see if your pins are on any kind of obstruction between you and the target. If they are, that's where the arrow is going to

be at that yardage it's going to hit. I have seen it smoved to kind of a single pin site or slider site. Is actually I've got a double pin. It's a spot hog fast, steady xl UM. I get asked a lot what site I'm using, So that's the one. But the thing that I don't like about this. I love a lot of things about that site, but what I don't like is having those pins above my my primary pin to show me if I'm going to hit

any obstructions in the way. So what I've had to do is I've had to build out this mental kind

of picture of the flight path of my arrow. And the way that I do that is I go to a certain yardage and I'll say, like, I'll go twenty yards and I'll set my twenty yard pin, and then I'll shoot an arrow at the target at twenty and I'll take two steps back, shoot another arrow, step back a couple of steps, shoot another arrow, shoot another row out to you know, thirty whatever yards, just so we don't get low enough to where the arrow is hitting the dirt when you look at it. Now, it's kind

of hard to build this as a verbal picture. But now you're looking your target. You should use the same pin on the same target, but as you've stepped back, you've changed the distance. Now what you should see is your arrows should be in a line vertically, but they should be like further down, and it will show you the drop in your arrow from that twenty yard to that thirty yard as out of every couple of yards, like exactly how much your arrow is dropping, and then

building that out. You do that enough, you can start to build this mental picture of how your arrow is falling and how much room you need above and below. And what that helps you do is it helps you build out Now. I also, because I have two pins on the slider, I can kind of see that gap and I can like stack my pins to see visually

whether it's hitting any obstructions or not. What stacking the pins means is like, say I've got my top pins set for forty yards, and I know my next pin down is going to be fifty yards, so that's a

ten yard gap. So what I could do is if the obstructions twenty yards, so I know that it's approximately ten yards between my first and second pin, So I'm gonna set my second pin where the target is and that will give me, Okay, that's where it's gonna be ten yards this way of it, and then I'll move the bottom pin again to where the top pin is

at and see if there's any obstructions in that. It's a lot to do, it's a lot to think about, but you can do that while practicing, so you really can get a picture of how far your arrow is flying, where it's dropping, and just understanding that trajectory. There's a lot to it. But when you do it enough and really understand how your arrow is flying, it lends itself to list next type of shot that I'm gonna talk about, which would be just like off pin shooting or gap shooting.

And this is something that I practice a lot where it doesn't matter what kind of site you have, whether you've got a fixed pin site, a multipin site, whatever. Let's say you've got a fixed pin site, you've got multiple pins, you've got a forty yard pin. Practice shooting at those yardages that's in between your pins where you don't have something to aim. So what the best way to do that is just like pick a spot, imagine a pin where it should be in between your two

missing pins, and shoot for that. It's really like how many times you're out hunting you get to a yardage and it's not an exact yardage that you have a pin for. Maybe you've got a single pin or a slider site like I have. You get in, you set your pin, and the animal walks out three or four or five steps and you don't have time to readjust right. So just shooting at the target, practicing where your pin

does not represent the value that you're shooting at. So that's understanding that trajectory, but doing a lot of practice shooting off the pins or shooting in the gap between the pins, shooting maybe adjusting your holdover and really knowing that trajectory and holdover and practicing those kind of shots. I do that a lot. I'll shoot my twenty let's say twenty yard pin at twenty yards, then you walk out to I don't know, twenty four yards, twenty five yards,

thirty yards without using them. Now, if you're a single pin, you wouldn't have a thirty yard pin. Maybe you just got the first one, and then just knowing the hold over shooting and trying to hit that same arrow that you shot with the correct pin at that yardage. I hope this is all making sense. It makes sense to me because I do it a lot, but I know that it can be a lot. This is probably a lot easier to understand if you shoot your bow a lot. So if you're new to bow hunting, just keep these

things in your mind when you're practicing. It doesn't always have to be shooting a spot on a target with the pin that is associated with on flat ground, because that kind of practice is really good for doing that. When you get in and stock in on an animal, A lot of times that does not translate. It's these these things where you've got to make a quick reaction, a quick move, a quick adjustment. I have shot quite

a few animals with my bow. To say the least of those animals I have shot with my bow, very few of them were very ideal situations. I don't know if other people encounter ideal situations, and I don't. I just don't really know, but I doubt it. I think that what happens is you get in and there's some sort of cluster f that goes on. The animal moves out, there's an obstruction, the lighting is weird. There's just a

million things, a million factors. And so out of the things that I have shot with my bow, I would say maybe one percent of them are that ideal, like walk out, everything is perfect, take the shot. It just does not really happen like that is often, and by being able to practice these inopportune times, you're able to capitalize on those real life scenarios. Let's go to number four. I call this the limited or the one time shot. When you're hunting, you get one shot most of the time.

I mean, I've got stories, but my guys are called in an elk they've missed, and then like hold the elk there and they've got more shots off. But that's not always. That doesn't happen like that, So you get one shot. Maybe you don't have a lot of time to shoot through the summer. You can shoot a little bit on the weekends. You don't need a lot of time. You need to have a bow that you're familiar with

and then just making that one shot count. So maybe take a week during the summer and say, hey, when I practice I'm just shooting one shot. If you've got a three D target, that's awesome. If you've got whatever,

but pick a random yardage. Maybe you just go however your maximum distances on your phone, get a random number generator, put that in maybe between twenty and sixty yards or whatever, and go stand at that yardage and make a perfect shot, one shot and then call it a day, because that's just really gonna train you to put emphasis on that one shot. You don't get to shoot a group, you don't get a redo, you don't get a mulligan. That first shot has to be the best shot you've ever made.

And practicing that and getting that mentality is huge. So during the summer there's times where you know, maybe every other day or whatever, I'm just gonna go out and I'm gonna shoot one arrow and I'm gonna make that one arrow a perfect shot. And if I make a bad shot, I'm gonna kick myself about it, beat myself up, and I don't get a redo until tomorrow. And that's um, that's a really good way to practice and get your head right for when that shot does come down. Number five,

we've got this angle shot. Now there's a lot of people listening, they're probably tree stand hunters. If you're a Western hunter, most of the shots you're gonna make. And I've talked about this actually on the very first podcast, podcast number one, which is almost a year ago. And I don't expect everyone to listen to everything. So but if you get time to go back to that one,

uh do it. Shooting downhill is tricky. I think it's one of the more difficult shots that you can take, and it's probably the most likely shot that most people are gonna take. So if you can go out somewhere where you've got a steep decline. If you don't have that maybe I don't know, put up a tree stand in your backyard if possible. If you're gonna be shooting from a tree stand a lot, practice the way that you're gonna be hunting. The same goes for if you're

maybe your anal up hunting. You're gonna be in a ground blind. Put a chair in your backyard with the blind up or just the chair, and practice shooting like you're going a hunt. I remember the first time I got a ground blind, sat in a chair and thought, I never shot like this. This is gonna be interesting. I ended up just pushing the chair aside and shooting from my knees, and then the next year decided just

practice shooting from a chair in a ground blind. Not that it's more difficult, but it's just something you don't practice. Your body is in a different position, and you want to practice how you're gonna be hunting. That downhill shot is one that you will encounter, and there is a level of difficulty to it because a lot of factors, especially in the mountains when the hills going one way.

Gravity is pulling your bow in your body a certain way, and the air it's pulling the arrows straight down, and the line of sight might be further than the actual yardage, but the winds affecting it. There's a lot of factors that go into it. It's something you need to practice. I am fortunate I have live in a two story house, so I shoot from my balcony constantly. I don't know

if that's possible for a lot of people. I've even like suggested, you know, getting like even just a step ladder and just that act of you know, make sure you're safe, don't do anything stupid. I don't want to hear that you fell and hurt yourself, broke your arm because you fell out of a tree in your backyard, or you rolled off your roof shooting your bow obviously use some common sense, but getting to those kind of angles is is super important. Great practice Number six, you know,

shooting at a target that's realistic the hunting. I think three D target practice is awesome. If you don't have a three D target. What a three D target is you should know, but it's um like an animal shape target. They range in price from sixty dollars to six dollars. You know, find something that works for your budget. Me and friends always go in on these things, like get a couple of targets, will take them out camping, will

take them out wherever. That's the best. Like if you're going to plan a summer camping trip, bring a three D target, get some buddies and go out and set it in real life scenarios, especially in kind of terrain that you hunt a lot, or maybe bring it out camping, set up like a tree, stands target whatever out in the field. Practice is awesome. And if you can't do that, I know that's hard to do. There's like archery leagues

there's so many summer events with COVID. Yeah, it's probably put it like a damper on some of this stuff, you know. I know, um it was a Mountain Archery Fest, Total Archery Challenge. There's a lot of those, like awesome ones that take place in ski resorts and have cool shots and great targets that you don't get to shoot

out a lot at home. But even just like local three D leagues, if that's a possibility where you live, I know I've done those a lot throughout the summer, even just like weekend tournaments, like it's not you don't have to compete against anybody but yourself. One of the ways that I like to shoot is instead of keeping like the normal score, because I really don't believe that the kill zone on those three D targets is correctly placed, especially for the angle that you're shooting at. So what

I do. Actually, a good friend of mine, David Wise, he showed me this game. I don't know if it's other people do it or what, but the way that we shoot is at a three D it's like a kill, a wound or miss. So if you make a shot like and it's decided by the group yes, that's a kill shot. That's where you'd want to place the shot for the angle and this animal, you know, it's it doesn't matter where the tenoring is on this three D target. If it's a kill, like a good kill, that's a point.

If it's a wound, that's a negative point, and if it's a miss, it's a zero. So it's kind of like real life where a kill shot is the best, a wound is the worst. You can even make a wound shot negative two or whatever. Put more weight on Hey, if you make a bad shot and a and a miss is like that sucks, but it didn't wound the animal and it didn't gain you a point, so it's

a zero. And that's a fun way to play with that kind of hunting mindset of not necessarily trying to pick a point on a target that gets you a certain score, but pick a point on the target that would be an actual kill shot for the angle and

the scenario that you would be hunting. And so you know, it might be a little bit higher and in the s older if it's quartering to you and you're shooting down or the same, like maybe further back if it's quartering away so just doing that with that hunting mindset, great practice, great practice. I don't know why I repeated

that twice, but yeah, it is great practice. I'm just gonna buzz through a couple of me and I probably could have done a podcast and maybe I will do like a single podcast and all these kind of things individually. But another one that's huge. If you've got a late season hunt, practice now with your jacket on, because that bulky clothing makes a big difference when it comes to drawing, smooth aiming. Make sure that stuff doesn't hit your string.

One thing that I've found when I'm hunting, I would use a face mask, and when I practice, I wouldn't. So when I draw back and nothing felt right. So when I would like wear a face mask for a stock, pull it down and then shoot. So one thing that I do is if I'm going to hunt with face mask, practice in the backyard. Shooting with a face mask. It changes the way the string touches your face, your anchor points. So just make sure that you get everything how you're

gonna hunt, and that's key. The next one I have here, I call it the squat shot. This is the shot that I think is the most difficult. I've just identified it by like the times that I've missed. I've probably been shooting like this, and it's a standard hunting scenario. You creep up, you've got the animal out there, however far you've got it where you can draw out of sight. I never like to be insight when I draw, so I'm I'm down low, I draw back, then I raise

up and shoot. I get my bow, settle the anchor, and then I raise up and shoot. But there's those times where, like if, especially if you're shooting from above, which happens to be the way that most stocks plan out, You're gonna like skyline yourself or whatever. So you're just maybe shooting just above the cover that you're behind, and

you're in this weird like chair pose, half squat. You're fairly unbalanced and it causes you to rush or I don't know what it is, like the act of not being balanced very well, maybe not practicing it a lot. I've really focused in on that and said, look, this

is how I'm like, why did I miss that shot? Well, here's a key thing that I've noticed over time, and now that's a shot that I practice regularly and even during practice, I noticed, Hey, my groups aren't as good when I shoot like that, So that's one for me personally. I just it's something that I kept encountering in the field and didn't even recognize until maybe I missed a couple of animals with a shot like that and thought, dang,

that sucks. And now that's something I've added into my practice. I don't remember what number were on, but we'll just call it nine and you guys can correct me later. We're gonna go with like the long bomb for as long as I can remember. Well ever, since I had a modern compound bow, I'd like to just step it back and and push how far you can shoot. And that doesn't necessarily mean that's where I'm hunting from. What it does do is it allows me to focus on technique.

And I kind of feel like, if I'm shooting at seventy hundred yards whatever, ninety yards, my pins generally go as far as a hundred anymore because I have a pretty low anchor. But if I'm shooting at those further distances more regularly, and I'm fortunate that I have a long range to practice at, if I can make a good shot at that yardage, when I get up to twenty yards, it feels close. It feels easy. It's a mental thing of just saying like, dude, this is close, donner.

But it also you don't want to get too overconfidence say oh, it's so close, and just kind of rushed the shot. I've noticed that sometimes in the past, when I did a lot along practice, those close shots ended up being the more difficult shots because you would just your brain would just say it's easy, it's over and put it on hair and it's done. No, you still have to focus in and make every shot the same.

So that's the key is mixing in the long shots, but then taking what you learn at that long distance and translating that into that close distance to make the most precise shot possible. But it gives your mind that feeling of I can do this, and that's really good. The one thing that I will say about this is I have noticed that over the years people have been shooting further and they get confident at shooting at those

further distances. Then what happens is in the hunt they stalk in and they get to that max distance, they're afraid to stalk in closer because they think they're gonna mess it up, and they decided to take a shot from that further distance, and oftentimes that shot does not work out because at those further distances there's a lot that can go wrong. What I've been doing for many years now is whatever my maximum distances, I don't really care.

I say in my head, I'm going to shoot from less than forty yards, and by doing that, most of my shots are thirty yards or less, and that's spot and stock whatever. If you're gonna stop at sixty yards, that's as close as you're ever gonna get. If you got to sixty, you can probably get to thirty or forty, and you should because I've realized at that thirty yard range, very little goes wrong. I mean, maybe you might blow it, but you know that could happen either way. You could

blow it taking that further shot. I would rather blow it getting close than blow it taking a further shot. And because once I started doing that, my success rate and my like perfect shots went up. It's just having that mindset of it doesn't matter how far I can shoot. This is how far I am going to shoot, and I'm going to get to this close yardage on a cariboo. A few years ago, it was sleeping. I was snuck in on this cariboo. It was like forty yards and

I thought to myself, it's sleeping. If it gets up and I'm in the wide open and sees me, it might run. So I'm gonna get to thirty yards. And I got to thirty yards and I thought, okay, I'm gonna get to twenty yards because if something goes wrong, I want to make sure that I make the shot. And then I drew back. Maybe it was too close because it might have heard me and ran, but it was close enough where on the move I actually made a perfect shot and it fell over ten steps later

and expired. And it was because nothing was close enough, you know, just getting in and getting into that range that I know, hey, I'm already this close. I might as well get a little bit closer. Now. There are those times where you can't push it, but there are those times where you can, and I suggest you do. I got two more. These are going to be the last two. Wind is huge. There's very few days where I haven't got in on an animal. It's not some kind of wind. You want the wind in your face,

but cross winds are big in the Mountain West. Luckily I live where it's windy all the time. If it's a windy day, I hear people like, Oh, it's too windy, I'm not gonna practice. That's when you should practice. I've done many different techniques over the years. The one that I find the most efficient now and I've tried in the past, and it just is the most consistent is using my level to adjust for the wind. So and I's just like, well, what's that means? So if it's windy,

what I'll do is all lean my bow. If it's blowing left to right, I'm gonna lean the top limb of my bow with the wind. What that's gonna do is it's gonna kick my pin over into the wind, so I can hold on the bull's eye, and it's gonna put my point of impact further to the right. So I'll use the level bubble as a gauge of how far I'm canting the bow. And right now, you can practice those wind shots even without wind because you

can pick a spot on the target. You can can't the bow go full extreme where the bubble and your levels like all the way off on one side, and then like balance it out to where it's kind of incentered with the line and measure that distance of how far your point of impact is from your first shot to now how far right did it go? When you can't did your bow and then you can hold that same point of impact, but your arrow is gonna fly either further right or further left, and the wind's gonna

push it back to your point of impact. So that is like really important to understand that. Now the last one that I'm gonna say, and this is very very important I understand during the summer, you know, you're going between three d s and all this other stuff, and it's great to shoot. And as a guide, I've had people show up and they're like, which broadhead should I use? And I'm looking at them, going like the ones that you shot with your bowl all summer and they're like, no,

I haven't shot in your broadheads yet. I've just been shooting field tips. Start now, get a target. You can shoot broadheads at the Rheinhardt makes like this ball thing that I have and I've shot thousands of eras into with the thing. The block targets you can shoot broadheads into. Get some target you can shoot your broadheads into You need to shoot your broadheads. You want to be practicing

all suwhere with your broadheads. If your broadheads and your field tips, your bow is not perfectly tuned up, but your broadheads fly good in your field tips are a little bit off. Sacrifice that little bit off during you know the times that you go shoot the three D whatever, But have your bow dialed and know where your bows at with those broadheads. That's what you're gonna be hunting with.

It all comes down to the setup that you're gonna be using when you're hunting, and you want to make sure that you know where those broadheads fly it all the ranges. Your bow should be sighted in for what you're hunting with, not necessarily what you're just gonna be messing around with in the backyard. You don't have to shoot him every day, but make sure that your bow and you have shot your broad heads throughout the summer.

And if you do all those many things I don't even remember how many of our long list, you're gonna be a lot better when it comes time to draw back on an animal and make a perfect shot. Like I said, you could go out in the backyard and flat ground and just shoot at the dots on your block target all summer long, and when that elk steps out, be completely unprepared. You could shoot a thousand arrows and be completely unprepared. And a guy that shot way less

than you but did these things. When that animal steps out, when things are not really right, when everything is not lining up, but he's presented that split second shot that has some of these factors in there, that person is going to make a better shot. And that's what it comes down to, is practicing the way that you're going to hunt. I really like to actually keep these podcasts a little bit shorter because I think that it's easier

to just listen to and quick listen. This one went longer than I normally want, but I got the freedom to do it, and I probably should have broken this down into two podcasts, but I don't know. That's fine. I think people will enjoy it. I believe that there's a lot of tips, and there's a lot of other things I could have talked about. But I will start putting some of this throughout the summer, like more visual

aid on my Instagram at Ramy Warren. You can find me there, and I say that to you because next week I want to do a Q and A, so I'm probably gonna record that Q and A tomorrow. Um, So if you hear this today, I've got a lot of questions in the last couple weeks anyways. But if you think about it and you've got some questions, some burning questions, especially after hearing this one, any of the summer prep stuff, any stuff coming up for hunting, I

want to answer those questions. I've said it a million times, not a million, but a lot that I try to tailor it to those, like the feedback that I get from you guys. So shoot a question. Um, I'll probably pull from my Instagram just because I'm gonna be doing it. I've got some stuff going on this weekend and won't record next week, So do it today if you got it while you're there. Yesterday I posted a video like how to turkey Hunting. This is kind of along the

lines of this. It's tailored really toward people just getting into hunting. I know you're like, really, doesn't turkey hunt that much? But I think it's it's fun. It was like COVID and some other stuff, and I got to get out and go turkey hunting and create this video. I think you'll enjoy it, so give that a watch. It'll be on my i G t V or my YouTube.

I did that video for this the hunter call the While that's actually a video game, and they act asked me to kind of make how twos for real life hunting because they found that a lot of their players are very interested in hunting, but don't hunt. They only hunt on the game. So if you're listening to this podcast, you probably hunt or very interested in hunting and or trying to learn and figure it out. So I'm trying to create more how to type videos for that thing.

But the other cool thing is I'm actually a character in a video game now. So if you like the tips that I'm giving on cutting the distance, you want more tips, but you want to in an entertaining, like interactive way. I'm like a two D character that pops

up as a tutorial on the game. If you're interested in that, I've got a link on my bio right now while you're there if you're gonna shoot me a message for the Q and a check that out For people that listen and follow my stuff, it's like less than half price so that was a deal that I worked out with them. Is like, I'd rather extend everything to the people that support me. So if that's something that you're interested in, please check it out. I'm pretty

I'm pretty excited about it. It's just like some cool news, some good stuff in this time that I think is pretty cool. Like that's something that I never thought would happen. Somebody asked me to be a character in a video game, but it has happened, and that's pretty awesome. I'm pretty stoked on it. So if you want to check that out and until next week, shoot me your questions, shoot your targets and aims small miss small, see you guys, or just now you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna read.

Keep that in your mind, but also practice like you hunt. Oh that's good. That's good.