Ep. 78: Archery 201

a bow hunter. We've so far covered what you need to know, like getting into equipment, as well as the fundamentals of making a good shot and what it takes to put arrows on the target. But now we're going to take that a step further and translate it into the basics of shooting on game. So I think that we've all graduated from that hundred level, we're gonna be going into the two oh one level of this archery instruction. It will be all about what's needed to make that

shot that counts. So if you're a new bow hunter, I'm going to tell you right now that shooting it a deer is absolutely nothing like shooting at a target in the backyard. There's no bulls eye, there's rarely a perfect setup, and you don't get to go shoot a

big group and then take the best arrow. So this week we're gonna go through the basics of a field shot on game, including how and when did draw back and anchor at the right time, as well as picking a spot when aiming and executing a perfect shot when really excited. But before we go there, I want to share a story of a hunt we're picking a spot was more literal than figurative. This hunt takes place on one of the islands of Hawaii, and it was my

first hunt for access to here. Now, if you aren't familiar with access to hear there a species of deer. They've got a bunch of white spots against this really red coat. They grow about three times, so they've got brow times and they come up and split at the top with their splits kind of inside their main beam, So they look sort of like a miniature elk, I would say in the antler department, growing straight up out

of their head. They can be as tall as thirty inches long or longer in the main beam length of their antlers. They're an incredible looking deer, but they're also an extremely delicious tasting deer. Now they're non native to why so they're introduced in eighteen sixty seven. I think it was as a gift to King Kamehameha, and they've really started to expand across the island. I wanted to hunt access dear for a long time, seeing pictures and photos of them and hearing stories and just how cool

of an animal they were. And then I finally got an opportunity and found a place that I can hunt through a connection with some friends and decided to go out and give it a try with my bow. I've heard a lot of stories of how difficult they are and how spooky they are, so I knew that it could be a challenging hunt, but I was definitely looking forward to this challenge. So so as my first morning started out, I left my tent I was camping up

on this mountain. I kind of started walking through this this jungle bit to a place where I could glass. As the sun started to come up and I was glassing the ridges and I spotted my first access dear. A couple of doughs had popped out in this green opening, and I was like, Wow, these are really cool deer. I really hope I find a buck, so I keep glass and glass ng sure enough, a buck comes out of the brush, and I'm like, yes, it's on. I'm

pretty excited at this point. I'm gonna go get in there because it looks like they're moving up the hill. If I can cut them off, I actually might be able to get a shot on these right now. So I take off, I start moving and I'm trying to self film this. So I've got my bow in one hand, my camera and the other and I'm just doing like I would do if it was an elk or a

mule deer moving to an advantageous position. The wind was good, they were a long ways away, and I needed to get there now before I lost them in the jungle stuff below. So I figured they'd feed for a while in the direction they're moving, I thought, okay, perfect set up for an ambush. So I am like hauling going down the hill. The grass is probably, i don't know,

knee high in this pretty steep hill. And then I got my first taste of what people like to call the lava roll, the little lava rocks on the steep slope. It's like big marbles. I planted my foot over, My foot rolled over the rock, got caught in another rock. My body went one way and having no hands to catch myself, I heard a huge pop and just like crack, oh crap, and all the hiking, all the things that

I do. I've been in many, many dangerous situations, some life threatening situations, but this is the first time that I've like seriously injured myself on a stock and I'm like, oh man, this sucks. I knew that it was not going to be good, but I also knew that I didn't want to stop hunting, so I did not take my boot off. I got my boot and I just tightened it as tight as I could possibly get it. I got some duct tape out and just duct taped

around my boot so the laces wouldn't come out. I mean it was it's I just like to go because I knew the second that I undid that boot to look at it, my ankle was going to swell back up, and I didn't know what was going to happen. So I'm like, all right, now it's time to hunt. So I've got this jacktep ankle and those dear I knew at this point I'm not going to make it there far enough, so I continue to keep hiking and I'm

like all right. I was thinking to myself, I might not be able to move around much tomorrow, but as of right now, it hurts, it sucks. I think I dug out a couple of ivy prof and something that kind of slow the swelling, and uh, and then you just keep hunting. And I didn't have a whole lot of water, so I was gonna be fairly dehydrated. That might have helped in like decreasing the swelling too, but it was pretty painful. So I continue to hike and there's a lot up to where I want to get

and keep going checking these ridges. I'm seeing some does and some other things. That's These deer actually can be in velvet and hard horned at the same time. Like they aren't particularly cyclical, like they don't have a specific breeding season and shedding season growing season. But in in Hawaii they tend to kind of be in velvet in that March February March, and then they start to shed and they seem to run more in like June July. So I was fairly early in the season. A lot

of velvet deer, mostly velvet deer. There's a few hard horning ones around, but so now it's getting later in the day and the deer are no longer out in

the open, so I'm working through some thicker stands. I had seen a couple other deer, but just no plays, and so I worked my way over to this big lava field where I think, okay, I can probably find it's a little more open here and I might be able to find some bed And so I'm glassing into these lava shoots coming off the mountain, and I a distant see some antler tips on the ridge where nice breezes coming. Oh sweet, this is it, because there's a

couple of bucks here. Perfect, So I planned my stock. I start creeping in and a buck actually stands up and starts moving like okay, is he gonna see me? So I just get down, wait, be patient, and then he goes in rebeds. But I only saw one leave, so I decided to just keep stalking to where I had seen the other bucks bedding. Sure enough, I get into position, I'm looking, I don't see him, and then I see antler tips stick up above the grass. He's bedded. Perfect.

So I get set and I just go through my thing. I put an arrow on. I've actually got the camera rolling. I'm waiting, waiting and just being like quiet patient thinking about my shot. Every animal I sneak in with my bow, I just go through my same process. It calms me. It makes me focus on the task at hand. Like I'm pretty excited because it's a new species, it's something that I wanted to get, and this is a pretty nice buck from what I can tell. So he's there.

He stands up, and I think to myself as I draw back, as he puts his head back down, I'm in position. I aim and focus in and I always tell myself pick a spot, pick a spot, but I didn't really think of it at the time, but the access do your have spots? So there's a white spot looks perfect in the zone. He's thirty three yards away. I'm set up. I aim on that spot, shot breaks and goes off. The buck runs down the hill, and

I'm like, oh sweet, I got him. So I was just like replaying the whole experience in my head and just like it was so cool to be able to just find one white spot right behind the shoulder where I wanted to hit him on that spot and shoot. And I get up to the buck and I look and I remember the spot that I was aiming at, and sure enough, there's the three broadhead blades right through

that exact spot. Whereas aiming and I thought that was pretty cool to be hunting my entire life telling myself to pick a spot and this one time I actually get to pick a real spot and center punch that real spot, and because of it, found success on my first access to here in Hawaii. I think that target archery and bow hunting are two completely different things, but you can't really have bow hunting without that target portion.

In many aspects. You have to be able to have that shot and know the basics and have somewhere to practice, because you can't be hunting every single day. I mean, we're very few people can be. So with that said, I think that it bears noting that with your new getting into it, shooting at targets, shooting in the backyard, practicing a lot. Being a good bowshot on paper is still completely different than being a good shot while hunting.

And there's there's people who are great shots on paper, but it really can fall apart fast when it comes to taking a shot in an animal. So I'm just gonna cover the key steps to a bowshot on game by breaking it down into the same things that we did in that backyard process, the draw, the aim in the shot. Now, let's start first with the draw. You know, bow hunting is really about going unnoticed, and it takes

a lot to get close. Now, once you finally get close, you get within range and you're able to present yourself to make that shot. I think that that's where a lot of people actually fall apart. You know, the difference between target archery and or backyard shooting, just shooting a bow and shooting a bow at an animal is there's a lot of real life things happening that aren't happening in your backyard. Your your heart is beating out of

your chest. It may have taken you days and a lot of time and a lot of physical effort and stealth and a lot of things to get to that point to even release that one arrow. In the field, you're generally in a very strange position. You've got limited time, and what you're shooting at doesn't stay in place, it doesn't have a center bulls eye. It's a very different experience. But when it comes down to it, we can definitely break it down into these three kind of portions of

the process. So let's let's start with the draw cycle. And I think that, like I said before, this is where a lot of people um the for thing that falls apart, because what happens is they get within range, they're like, they see the animal, They're like, oh, I'm x amount of yards, say thirty yards, and then it's like this freak out portion where your brain doesn't even

compute what happened. You were just being super quiet, super stealthy crawling in because as you're crawling, you're just thinking, be quiet, be quiet, don't get seen, don't spook them. Now you're in position. And I've seen it happen more times than I can count. People just like stand up,

draw back and try to shoot. They just completely broke their whole essence of stealth by then going into that backyard shooting mentality of Okay, I'm gonna stand here, i'm gonna get comfortable, I'm gonna draw back, and they do this big drawing motion and they're standing up first and well, the hunt's over. They don't even get to take that shot, or the animals alerted to their position and now is going to jump the string gonna duck the arrow, gonna move,

or put themselves in a bad position. Now, sometimes it works out, but I don't think that's a good way to start out. So let's talk about the draw when we're getting into game, and I'll just go through my process of when I get in I think to myself, Okay, draw unnoticed if I can. That's what I do. Now. Every scenario can be a little bit different, but I always like to draw unnoticed anchor get comfortable and then put myself in position for that shot. So what that

means is maybe I'm I'm down. I'm gonna first go through my process of the same thing I would do in kind of like backyard practice, but doing it close, quiet and unseen. So I'm gonna figure out where my feet are going to go in position or if I'm gonna I'm gonna decide at this point how am I going to draw and where am I going to draw? You know, I have to have a clear shot, but I also don't want to stand up first make big movements.

Maybe the animals looking at me. You know, you really have the time you're drawing, when you're gonna draw, and how you're gonna draw, So when I sneak in, I generally like to draw what I call in cover unseen, so behind something that I can easily step up or step out of, or draw low where I'm down below a rise. I then draw back quiet, not making a lot of motion or movement, hoping that, you know, looking at that animal, and hoping that animals looking away or

not paying attention. And then at that point I'll anchor, I'll get my everything right where I'm looking through the peep I'm ready to shoot for the most part, without you know, having to aim yet. And then I slowly stand up and now I'm in position for that shot, but I've done everything to get ready for that before I'm in a view of the animal. Now there might be scenarios where that doesn't work, Like the deer is kind of maybe he's coming down a trail you've called

there's something. I mean, there's a lot of different hunting scenarios, or maybe he's seen you, but he isn't sure what you are and you don't have a lot of time and you might have to draw back. So, like we talked about in that practice of drawing, I like to draw straight back, so my bow will already be up and pointed at that animal, very slow movements, not a lot of movement, hopefully when their eyes are obstructed or whatever. Then that's when I tied my draw to draw straight

back into my anchor position. And anchor you have to do that, that draw cycle before you can start your aim. And I think that that's where a lot of people get freaked out, and that's where that anticipation, that panic starts to set in because there's an animal that they want to shoot, but you have to go through the process of drawing the bow back and getting settled before

you can put your pin on it. And one of the mistakes I see, especially with new bow hunters, is they kind of rush that whole thought process of They don't have a thought that the draw is a process

in getting close in making a good shot. They just think of it as I crawled in, put the pin on the animal, and I shoot, and they think they forget about kind of adding in this process of the draw, which is probably the most important point of that consistency, that finding that right anchor point, getting your body set right. The first thing I do when I sneak in is I go okay, like I don't draw with my body straight on facing the animal the way that I crawled in.

I get my like I would if I was shooting at my target at home. I'm going to have my legs or my knees set in a way where I'm where if you were drawing a line from my tips of my toes, it would be perpendicular to the animal that I'm shooting. You know, you're you're setting your feet in that traditional boastance. I wouldn't be facing him square on and then trying to draw back. And I see so many people try to do that. They crawl in. You're crawling in. It's an easy position to call in.

It's like, okay, time to draw back. Now your body is at a very weird angle where your entire shot and everything else is going to be messed up because you didn't take the time to set your feet, to set your knees, to get your body in the right position to make the right shot. So we're gonna think about the draw process first. So we're gonna crawl in. Like I said before, what I like to do is

draw under cover. So that might be um if there's like a tree that I'm by or a bush where I'm by where I got into position that I can now draw back and then slowly raise myself up. I set everything so it's like I draw, I anchor, I set, and all this can be unseen, so the animal doesn't know that I'm there, and then in one fluid slow motion I can raise up on my knees a little higher.

I can, you know, go into a standing position. Everything set ahead of time, I'm in my anchor point, so when I get ready in view of that animal, everything's ready, everything is consistent, and the beginning process of making a good shot is already there. So now it's time to aim. And this is something that I was told or had heard when I got into bow hunting about shooting at an animal and somebody, you know, I was shooting at targets.

I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna go and hunt. And I read somewhere that how different shooting at an animal is than a target. And I really didn't understand it until the first time I went to shoot at an animal and thought, yeah, it is different. It is. You really do have to pick a spot. And this is something that I tell myself pretty much every hunt I've ever been on, and men to tell myself to pick a spot, because what happens is your brain sees a deer, you

feel really close, You've got this far. Now I'm going to shoot it. And you know what happens is you shoot at the deer and you know where you hit anywhere but the deer or the butt of the deer. I mean, just like you, you don't hit what you're aiming at because you aren't technically aiming at anything. You're looking at a deer, you're thinking you're close, You're thinking you're gonna hit it, and you kind of your brain

just forgets to really focus in an aim. And what happens is that builds a lot more buck fever, a lot more excitement, a lot more panic, and that makes you shoot at the deer and not at a spot on the deer. So part of my process, when I get in, I do everything. I get the draw, I'm nestled in, I've got my anchor point. Now it's time

to aim, and I tell myself pick a spot. I look at the animal, and I find where I want that arrow to go, and I only look at that place and I actually put my pen on the spat on the animal. Well, I mean, in the point of the access to here, it was a white spot. But anything else you're hunting, you're picking one hair and maybe there isn't an imperfection or anything in the animal, but you're picking that one hair on the animal where you

want to hit. If you do that, that is where you will hit the whole saying aim small, miss small, you're picking one spot. You're picking a specific spot. And I think it's it's a really bad thing to get into the habit of uh. Someone says where do I shoot a deer? And you aim, and you say I aimed right behind the shoulder. Don't aim right behind the shoulder.

There's a lot of right behind the shoulder. Pick a specific spot behind the shoulder that you want to hit, and by telling yourself pick a spot, you really will focus in on that tiny spot every time that I pick a spot, unless something like the animal jumps or whatever, that's where my arrow goes. And you will find more

consistency and you will find success by doing that. If you're so used to all your practices in the backyard at a target, and I actually nine percent of my target practice is actually like a three D target that doesn't necessarily have that defined white circle or that peg or that thing that I'm pointing at, because I've always been told deer don't have spots. Aside from the story that I told you know, but you know generally there

isn't something definitive to aim at. But you need to create something where you can focus your eye and focus that that's where I'm going to shoot. And as the animal moves, that spot might move. That's the other thing you have to think about is that spot may not be if it takes a slight step where it's quartering away. Now you've got to move and adjusted. And now I'm gonna shoot at that spot. Maybe moves and turns more broadside. Okay, now I'm gonna shoot at the spot we started a

quarter two. Now I'm going to shoot at that spot. But by getting specific, by aiming small, you're gonna be a lot less likely to make a wild shot to shoot somewhere that you didn't intend because you're narrowing in your focus and you're picking the exact place you want to hit. Now, the third thing is gonna just be executing that shot, and that's really just going through the same shot process that you have in your backyard. So you've picked your spot, you know where you want to aim.

You know you're picking small spot, and now we're going to go through that shot process of Okay, leveling the boat, make sure the bows level, think about the things that you need, and also focus on the shot. But don't rush the shot. I think one thing for pretty much most archers is is very very exciting. You're very very close and things are happening what seemed very fast. I know I've talked about it many times before in different podcasts about just being slow and smooth and that kind

of becomes fast. Don't rush the shot because you're panicked. Tell yourself go through that same shot process. Level my boat. There's things you need to do to make that shot, and it might seem like you don't have the time, but you will. I'm not saying that these things need to take a long time, but you need to execute the shot just as you would in the back yard,

just as you would to target anywhere else. You need to execute that same shot on an animal, and you need to just tell yourself in the moment, in the excitement, to calm those things down. In a good way to do that is to pick that spot to focus in on one thing and then go through that same shot process. Level all right, pull through my shot, focus on the spot, the bow goes off, and the arrow will go where

it's intended to go. And then after that, that's when you can let all those emotions of excitement and freaking out and all that stuff to rush back in. You know. I got a lot of questions from people that I saw just asking how do you get over the nerves, And especially I think it's good to talk to new bow hunters about it, because those nerves and excitement are what makes bow hunting so fun, but they're also what

make bow hunting more unsuccessful in many ways. So I think if you feel your nerves getting the best of you, you really just have to calm down. Focus. Sometimes I tell myself, like, I've had so many times where I've just my brain just starts thinking like the pin just does not want to go where I wanted to go, And I get this thought in my mind like good enough, good enough, and I have to say, no, remy, it's not good enough. Focus and you really have to kind

of talk yourself through it. But not necessarily. I don't like that paralysis by analysis where you're you're thinking so much that you don't let your brain do the work that it needs to do. So you need to focus, to go through your shot process and let your brain take the shot without thinking about it. One thing that I've suggested to people in the past guys that have bow hunted before and say that every time they get to the point of shooting, it's like they break down

and it's that excitement level. It's a lot of other things, but I think one thing that you could do maybe to help cure that, because it's exciting for sure, is to just tell yourself focus, stay calm, and then one thing that you might want to do is just like count on the target. So draw back, pick your spot and hold that pin there and think to yourself, Okay, before you you go to shoot, just tell yourself, look, I would rather have the animal run away than rush

and make a bad shot. Like I'd rather have him run than me make a bad shot or him run because I'm messing up this shot because I'm already here. I just need to take the fraction of a second of a time. And I'm not saying that this is a minute in length, this is maybe one two seconds in time of thinking through and getting everything right. And one thing that I'll do sometimes like, Okay, I'm freaking out, it's a big buck. I really got to focus in.

I'll just pick my spot. I'll focus on that spot and I'll say hold the pin there for two seconds, one in some or three seconds, and somewhere in there, my brain knows that that pins on there, and that bow goes off and I have a dead deer or dead elk or dead whatever at the end of the blood and trail, because instead of focusing on the panic and the things that can go wrong and rushing and I need to get it and that's good enough, I just focused on the things that I needed to make

that shot right, very similar to the way that I would do it in the backyard, but on an animal, making my own point of aim, and then going through that entire shot sequence in a way that calms me down and makes me take a perfect shot, or let's that arrow at least fly to where I intended to go. To be consistently successful. There are so many variables with

a boat that need to be expertly accounted for. You've got things like the wind angles, alertness of the animal, noise that you're making or your bows making, and then anticipation of what the animal may do based on all these other factors, how alert the animal is reading that animal so really in getting it done time and time again, there's a lot of things that we need to consider.

This is a more advanced level of bow hunting, but something that I think whether you're getting just started or have been doing this your entire life, if you want to be consistently success uful, these are things you need

to account for. So next week we're gonna be going into level two O two and we've been covering all the things of becoming a bow hunter that are very technical, very specific, but something very important that you should kind of consider in taking these shots and getting close to game. So that will be next week. Also, guys, don't forget

to send in your questions. We're gonna be doing some q and a's and I've I've been getting a lot of questions, so you can send those Remy at the meat Eator dot com or preferred would be at Remy Warren on Instagram. Send me a direct message, Please include your name maybe if you want what the information that you wouldn't mind me saying, so like name, maybe where you're from, because sometimes it's just like you know, a screen name or whatever, So add your name in there.

And then what I do is I as those come in, I screen shot a lot of the ones that I like, and then I try to pick the ones that you know, answer broad questions of some things that a lot of people are asking, but also you know, some very specific questions. So I think that's a great time that we get to converse back and forth. So please send those in.

I really appreciate everybody that's sending questions, and if you send a question in the past and it hasn't been answered or asked or whatever on a podcast, feel free to send them again because sometimes I get a lot of stuff coming through and I, you know, I can't keep track of everything, so it never hurts to just refresh that in that in that mailbox. Once again, I appreciate you guys for checking out the podcast, sharing it with friends, and giving us some great ratings and comments.

I appreciate that if wherever you listen, you know, feel free to boost the star level up, drop a good comment in there, share it, uh, tag me. And I've been appreciating that when you guys are listening and enjoying it, tagging me on social media on Thursdays, I want to try to share a few more of those just things that people are saying and stuff if it works out. Sometimes I'm out of service a lot. I'm out of service a lot, but um, I try to get to that when I can. And so until next week, don't

forget to pick a spot. Catch you guys later there, Round and hand