Ep. 629: Hunting With The Armless Archer

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Yeah? Did he have arms? He did? Yeah, So tell us what happened, Chili?

Oh, this fella named Lincoln Macaraby, Olympic gold medalist wrestler, came to South Dakota and put on at wrestling clinic, and like you know, we got he'd always pull up someone to demonstrate a move or whatever, and he was explaining to us that like a lot of the technique and power comes from your legs. And so he actually put his arms behind his back and he was he did like a little leg sweep of my leg with his right leg, and I did like a backflip.

So he literally was also like twelve arms tied behind his back.

Yeah, there's a chance for me to wrestle. I might be able to wrestle. Let me meet this guy. But yeah, it was just tough.

It's my first first lesson.

Wait, you were twelve. How old was this guy?

Oh, he's like thirty five forty somewhere in there.

Yeah, and he's I mean that wrest.

You don't need to be an Olympic wrestler to beat up a twelve year old, right.

No, but he sure was.

Uh, it's gold medals heavy.

Yeah, I'm a little jealous because I've never actually held it yet, but I'll take you. I'll take your word for it.

Once again.

I think it always like a pound.

And joined today by Matt stuts from the twenty twenty four Stuntsman. I'm doing that right, right yep? Stutsman, twenty twenty four Paris Paralympics Gold Medal archer and bowhunter. Uh zero arms.

For those of you listening, I knew a lot of hands. I talk with my hands, which is weird, dude.

When I was watching watching you shoot one, when when you won the gold medal, you're shooting again, I don't know. I don't want to be it. I don't want to be you're you're How do I put this? Your opponent had both his arms.

Yeah, so it's actually uh, I just want to be the best in the world. So I was just like you take it, yeah, bring it on. I don't care. And then if I lose, I have an excuse. He had arms.

No, it was you know my favorite. Your your form, Your your form is so polished to the point where I don't know if you know this, to the point where when you when you're at full draw, the corner of your mouth does the same thing every time. The other corner of your mouth. H like it's incredible. You know what. My favorite part of your form is though the flinch. No, my favorite part of your form is that your when you shoot, your release winds up over your shoulder.

It actually taps me on the back, says a good job on. That s.

Your move. Your move that flops your the move that flops your release back to the front is polished.

I've been practicing that one.

It's like a little flick of your shoulder and also that release comes back around. That's my favorite part of the shot. It's the between shot part of the shot that's good.

I uh wish I could tell people there's there was times during the shot process where the announcers would say I was flinching.

I know, I got it.

What was he talking about, Well, like you would see me jerk or something like that. But if you notice I had so much control over my shot. You know, it's that moment where your brain's like shooting now, and then you just have a mental freak out and you just shoot.

Well.

Usually usually people shoot when that happens and the arrow goes wide or goes every I'm able to control it and so when it's not right, but my body, my body says, shoot, but I'm not ready to shoot. I can I can flinch and control the shot and not actually shoot the shot and then reset mentally to make it work again without letting down.

Yeah, I have a thing where Yeah, I'm real. I wasn't. I don't want to hack on him. I wasn't impressed with the announcing.

Uh the guy that was announcing his name was John Stubbs. And probably because he's never beaten me in twelve years of competition and he's not retired. I felt like I got a little bit a little bit of stuff coming because of that.

Yeah, uh, we're gonna we're gonna dig into all this in your whole bio and and everything. But what when they're calling no shots on the tens, they're calling them as a what's French for ten?

I don't know, it might be dose Deutsch, It's decent.

That's right, ten ten. Oh. So we're gonna get all that. We gotta do a couple things real quick. You can chime in though, Krin and I are everybody a huge apology policy. What's the word I'm saying? Apology? Krin and I, oh, listener is a huge apology. But just to help it make it better. I want you to know that we lost out too.

Yeah, we both did.

We both gave our money away accidentally as well. On going way back October eleventh, So going back a month ago, we were we were pimping a Arizona Big Game super raffle m okay to remind, to remind listeners, Arizona's game had voted away to get had voted to move away from what's called governor's tags, and they're hoping to do raffle tags to allocate these permits in a more democratic fashion for an inexpensive raffle ticket. And so we're talking

The revenues produced by auction auction.

So they used to auction the Governor's tags off in Arizona and it raised the whole boatload of money. They're moving away from that, and they're going to raffles, raffles versus auctions, and it's projected that the money coming in will shrink now because raffles aren't as profitable as auctions have been. To help with this budget shortfall or financial shortfall. We were promoting to people, Hey, go on and buy

I'm just gonna make one correct and then stamp contest episode. If anyone is searching the duck.

Stamp, no, no, no, no, no, no, that was not when we did that.

It's in my notes.

I just checked it, Karen. I don't care what you know would say. That was not when we had the duck stamp painter in here.

Okay, anyway, sorry, it just wasn't it was.

I will bet you, I will bet you five dollars. Is it hot here?

Yeah?

Six eleven the duck stamp champ. It is in the show notes, the Arizona Raffle, So that's in there.

Wrong.

We didn't. We talked about when I It's just not right either way, either way, I'm right, I'm cry whether I'm right or wrong. The problem is for all you people that went out and did this, this is almost like how they allow you to do it when you can't do it. I don't know, but you have to be present in Arizona. Yeah, do it.

Of purchasing, because it's complicated with.

With well, it should have a thing that says, hey, are you sure you're there? Because they sure, they like that's fine, I can have my Hunter box, my kids will my kids will still eat. But why would they allow you to make such a mistake. You can't buy not you can't just go buy licenses a.

Couple of things. I accept full responsibility for not reading instructions. Thank you to the podcast listener who did and then send in the correction. But it's it's very complicated for them to prevent that when they're actually looking at when they're drawing, they will be able to identify based on IP address, where the person where the computer was at purchase at the time of purchase. But but they have graciously offered to return the money of any podcast listener

Uh you know, I'm only out ninety five because I'm going I just won five in a bet congratulations related related to this.

I have to play that podcast back.

Crim's out one fifty five, I'm out ninety five. I'm gonna I'm gonna let them just I'm putting it in my mind that it was a donation, which I kind of felt like it was when I put in for the thing. Anyways, our chick id never win that kind of stuff.

Do they cap the raffles?

No, that's a whole No.

They could be a million tickets and.

You're not gonna win. Everyone wins. Everyone's gonna win.

Well, they also have like other prizes and stuff too, like you know, Shields card Saskis, And.

We do want to encourage everyone in Arizona or everyone visiting in Arizona to continue to buy Raffle tickets. And I think it's until Christmas Day.

I think so you're saying, I gotta fly to Arizona, buy the ticket in Arizona, then I could fly home and then and then I could use.

It if you're stop over the Phoenix Airport.

That's but in all seriousness, if you did that, in all seriousness, apologies, and uh I you know, we take a lot of the blame. But I also just just throwing it out there. If you go to buy, like if I was going to go right now and buy a resident hunting license in Arizona. There's all manner of things that would prevent me from doing that, right. I feel like it should be like on a little alert

You can lie on that.

I know, but if it just said it should pop up be like, hey, are you sure you're in Arizona?

Mm hmmm.

Right. But also if you are, if you are out money because of us, because of me, feel free to write meat Eater and she'll send you the money and we'll get it.

Sort of, well, who's who's to say that someone just reaches out to you that didn't listen to podcast and you're like, well, I want my money back.

She's gonna tell them how to go apply for pain.

And sorry conservation first USA. I definitely don't want to give them more work, but it's like I address search.

You might just think of it if you, if you, if you're in a position to do it, you might just think of it as a good donation to You might just think of it as a good donation to it's a wildlife conservation in Arizona. Done with that. Right For the next thing, Matt, absolutely, you being from Iowa,

Yeah.

I sent this to Ya Vong and he was like, dude, it is.

Now illegal to eat a nuisance beaver in Minnesota. And see the Minnesota is Star Tribune. They're trying to be cutesy with it, and they're using all these little puns in the article like it's a gnawing question. They're trying to be cute and they're acting like no one knows why. I think I have it solved, Like I might have solved it for you, Minnesota Star Tribune. I don't know,

It's like a DLP killing in Alaska, yep.

If you if a bear breaks into your house and you kill the bear, you don't keep the bear. For instance, if I we have a bear lurking around our neighborhood right now'm getting everybody's trash. If I came out and the bear was standing in my garage, I can kill the bear. I don't then also get to sell the hide and eat the meat. They come and take the bear because it's sort of like did you kill it because you wanted it or did you kill it because it was causing a problem. So they're making a big

I assume it applies to the the.

Fur as well. No, well, why I don't know that?

I don't. I don't know if you can't market.

It, you know, because how many people are really like love eating bee?

I don't know, but I'm saying I think that that's I don't know what the rule is on selling it. But if you trap it during season, you can eat it. You just can't eat it under depredation.

Mm hmm.

Also, I have a feeling I don't give legal advice, you know, all that kind of stuff. I'm not giving legal advice.

How to have, just financial advice.

I have a feeling that if you're in Minnesota and you've been eating a lot of the beavers you catch on your depredation permit. I just have a feeling that if you were to continue to cut a hammy off those one of those beavers now and then and keep eating it, I just don't feel that you're gonna wind up in a bunch of trouble. Yep.

Have you ever eaten beaver?

Yes, it's a good piles of it. One time me and my buddy staff made fifty four pounds of beaver sausage.

What that's a lot?

Yeah? You know what? You know what I mixed in there with it. It's a little bit of red fox. So I know this isn't a hint of red fox.

I know this isn't Minnesota, but and Iowa. My brother makes a living getting animals out of people's houses. Sure, good for him, So like trapping beavers out of ponds and and all that stuff. But I'm gonna have to.

Ask he's in the ad C business, Yeah, not eat.

C eight eighty C. I'm gonna have to ask him why he doesn't try to eat any of that stuff. But probably because they can't, I'm guessing.

So taking gets a little sick of looking.

Yeah, there's we've.

Got beaver recipes in our books. Yeah, he's like roast the whole tail.

And yeah, yep, I'm gonna have to try beaver soon.

So yeah, if you're trapping under a depredation permit and like, and you catch one and you kind of look up and down the road and there's no one looking and you're down in the bushes and you decide to get a hammy or a little bit of tail, I don't know. So what if you run, they're gonna spring out and bust you.

What if you hit it with the vehicle because I ran over a beaver like last year, And.

You're okay as long as your state allows you to keep rolling.

If I wonder, like, if you uh, they're just reminded me of a story last last winter. A lady in her had hit a deer. A friend of ours had hit a deer with the car on the interstate and we called the d n R and got a tag so I could keep the meat. So I'm out there, it's probably ten ten o'clock in the evening and it's dark and this I'm skinning it out.

You are you You can skim with your feet?

Oh yeah, absolutely, hold the knife. Yeah I know that. So I'm in the middle of the road there or in the ditch there, pull the guts out. It's with my feet, you know. You know those bags that you use that go all the way up to your armpit, Like I just put them on my shoes waiters. Yeah, but they don't make them. They don't make anything for feet like that. So I have to make it work.

You full lad How many? Where are they for?

Poor old ladies? And they go, are.

They is anybody here against their will in this car?

I think the funny part about it was that when they pull up and they asked if I was okay, And I stand up and I have blood from from my knees down, and then my my buddy stands up holding a knife. Of course, they can't see the deer in the ditch, and all they hear is go, go go. It took about ten minutes and the cop showed up. So like this guy without arms fright, thought I was getting all cut up and stuff. But anyway, that was what that was what I was thinking, what I was

It stayed by state. Yeah, like for a long time you couldn't hear now you can. In fact, there was a whole like a whole series of states that that that overturned prohibitions keeping. Yeah, I got trendy for a bit good. That's a good kind of trend. That's a good cond trend. Black Friday sales, So when's this kicking? Oh now, from now as you're sitting here listening to this through Monday, December second stock up on products at

Get that too.

Yeah, all year long, every month you can look at a fucked up shitter on a calendar.

Sounds like a great gift, I mean great stocking stuff. You don't have to look at the fund up shitters. Your your family, your friends, your coworkers, anyone you think might enjoy it.

You know what came to me in a in a I like wake up in the middle of the night off and and then I think for a long time before I fall back a sleep. Uh their day. I was thinking of of an ad for those ship that fucked up old shiitter calendar that involves Santa Claus need and to let's do it needing to take a deuce like in the middle of his frantic his the one night a year when he really works.

We can make that happen. We've got the most talented production team out there.

But do we have Santa suit I'm sure we can it's in the budget.

That's budget look under s Brent Reeve can play Santa, great Santa, because Santa is definitely like a Yankee.

Yeah, definitely, Santa's a Yankee. Stick he's from the North Pole. Dude.

Oh yeah, right there.

Yeah, I mean, unless you went so far south that you came back off the other side and back around on top. I mean that's more of the geology, not a geology. That's like a geography question.

Randall, you'd make a great Santa.

That's it. Before anyone loves state that has ice fishing. You can't be from the south if people ice fish in your state. That's how you know if you're in the South or not. And people ice fish up that way toward the pole. Well towards the pole is that everything.

Kids Podcast out now today.

Kids Podcast is out now. So we did meetiator kids. We kind of made it provisional. We told everybody like, we're doing this, but we don't know if we're going to keep doing it. We don't know how much people like it and how much people will listen. Well, they liked it and they listened. So now we're doing another run of the Kids podcast, and again it's for your kids, and the kids podcast works is like three acts. There's

The cut I did last time, but we won't give away season twesday.

No, because sea lions make crazy noises. It sounds like, uh.

That was a fan favorite quip.

The And then the third act is when we bring actual, real live kids. This might be a I think we could figure out so we don't have to deal with any kids anymore. Oh wow, interesting. We bring actual definitely in the spirit of the project. We bring in actual, real live kids to play trivia, but the way we do it with the kids in the spirit in the American spirit of destroying America's competitive sense, you know, like making it that that America no longer has its competitive edge.

Yes, yeah, this is for me.

Okay, and I'll have you know, last trivia I did pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, Chili's h.

Up and comer.

That would be a huge show. It'd be like where Chili comes in and gets whooped by kids at true.

Steve, you're not the first person.

And how old are you? So like, okay, Mabel you're twelve? How old are you? Chili thirty? This is stupid. I don't like to never playing trivia again. That's all joke, you know, Chilia, chiliad win. You know, it's not too comfident. He'd have as much of a chance as anybody who winning that.

My six year olds pumped about more episodes, though. Every time we're in the car going somewhere more than ten minutes, he's asking, are there.

More eat her Kids trivia episodes? Great?

Good, Matt, you ready you should do one about what does the fox say? M I think Steve's heard that song.

Yeah, no, I know that song. It's a classic. Yeah, I don't think we're gonna do that.

My kids wanted a dog, said, memorize the words of that song. I don't have a dog yet. It is a popular song. And I still don't know what a fox says. He says it's like ming ming ming or something like that.

Matt stutsman. You know, how comfortable are you talking about super you were adopted? I'll talk about that story man. Yeah, so like your parents got overwhelmed.

You know, it's funny because I don't remember any of this because I was still little. But when I was born, they there was a surprise that I had no arms, like my mom never did ultrasounds or anything like that. So they're like, oh, my goodness, here's a kid without any arms. What do we do? And the doctor told them that it was going to cost millions of dollars to raise me and that I would never be able to do anything on my own ever, so My parents were just.

Like, have you ever found that daughter had a chat?

You know, I was thinking, like if I ever could punch, but I'd have to get real close. No, I've never met the doctor. But because of that guidance, it actually was huge for my life because where I ended up and the family who adopted me like taught me how to adapt to the world and taught me to think like I can do anything and then I don't need no one's help to do it. And so I'm glad

And are you are you in touch now with your biological parents?

Ironically, they came got in touch with me after all. This happened with the uh no, yeah, no, legit in twenty twelve when I won my silver my first game's ever, I won a silver medal, they just all came out of the woodwork. Hey, I'm your cousin from your mom's side, do whatever. And then hey, I was you know, I gave birth to you, and hey, I'm the dad, I'm your dad. I'm like, what is happening?

Are you serious?

Yeah?

Yeah?

But to me, I like, it didn't bother me any because I knew who my parents are and you know these are you know, no hard feelings to them. What's so? You know they had me and that was pretty much the end of it how I look at it. Yeah, cow man, had I've had a good life. You know, I know that I do a lot of motivational speaking and they want you to come in and talk about

Yeah, I was watching that that profile piece they did that you don't have. You don't have a modified car and your parents. Your parents made a decision kind of early on that they were going to modify anything in the house.

Nothing. They were actually offered by the insurance company like five hundred bucks a month, and back in nineteen eighty two, that was a lot of money. But they had to spend it on me, and they had to spend it to modify the house for me, and they're like nope, nope,

Wow, what was the first time you ever laid eyes on a piece of archery equipment?

My brother had a bow when I was younger, and he couldn't shoot it. With a crap.

What were his intentions with the bo I don't even know.

He just lost arrows. But I remember, I tell the story where I first got into archery in twenty ten. But the story that nobody knows.

You're sorry, but you're how old are you in twenty ten?

Oh shoot, I'm forty two now, so I would have been twenty eight maybe. But the little story that nobody knows is that I tried archery when I was probably thirteen or fourteen, and the technology of the and stuff back then wasn't that great. So every time I would try to draw the bow back there would always fall off because rest, yeah, or like one of those like uh steel prongs with the little you know, where the the odd feather would go between it, you know, like

And that was one of the obstacles keeping the arrow on though.

Yeah, I missed a huge buck because of it. So I was like, ah, you know, like if I had a gun, it could It's sure, you know, it'd been better. But for me then it was in twenty ten where for me archer really kicked off. But I think a lot of it the technology then, you know, in twenty ten when I said, hey, I'm gonna shoot a bow, they had a whisker biscuit, right, So they put a whisker biscuit on the boat and I could do what I could throw the ball on the ground and it

For people who haven't watched you shoot, can you just put that up? Can you deride what your your process is?

Like, I could do you one better? So, well, there's gonna be listeners what not. But he can walk? Oh I see, yeah, I think you should ask because because people that are just listening will help. But if I don't feel was intending to pull this up anyway.

So and I'm curious too, like how you got there? If there were other other.

Oh check this this is a good This is a good video.

This is a good video, but not the one. These are the ones.

I only have the hunting ones prepared.

I only only sent him hunting ones because they're in the dark.

Ass pot.

We can't show the broadcast broadcast video, like we can't show like Paralympic, Like, we can't show that to our audience.

All right, so you just oh, it gets better, it gets better, wait for it, wait for it. No, oh it comes back. Oh what are you doing, hey, buddy? I think I would like to eat you too. Bye bye.

Wow n doubled up.

Yeah, he didn't go very far either, but so that didn't show really how I shoot.

Yeah.

Ironically, in twenty ten, I googled how to teach an armlest guy how to shoot a bow because there was nothing. I couldn't find nothing, so everything self taught.

I'm gonna tell you quick thing though. When I was in archery league as a kid, we had a guy that was very, very good, a one arm shooter.

And then it's like the and he held it in his mouth.

He had a mouthpiece.

What was his name?

You know? I never I could find out. I could ask around.

He had a he had a from aire Zona.

Nope, Michigan, Michigan. Yeah, I can't remember how his release worked. But it was like he'd bite down and it was like a string release where his.

Teeth like a mouth tab yep thing.

And he would just relax his jaw, would relax his jaw and used to he used to dominate in the league.

Yeah, I have a buddy. His name is Eric Bennett. He's been to five games actually, and for the first three or four he shot with a mouth tab. He's pretty good at it, and he only he only has one arm.

Two.

But when I this is before I met all those guys, right, so I didn't know what I was doing, and I know, I just the reality is the reason why I needed to get a bow in twenty ten is because I couldn't get a job. I would like people would have me come in like I would apply, like, yeah, you're perfect on paper, and then I would come in and then they would look at me and they'd be like, do you have prosthetics? Like I would hire you if he had prosthetics. I'm like, well, last time I had prosthetics.

Yeah, but we didn't have a we didn't have it was on we didn't have a network, or we didn't have an armless archer on it.

No, it was a regular gentleman out hunting with a bow. And I saw that and I was like, that's how I'm going to provide for a family. So I googled how to teach a guy with that arms how to shoot a bow, and nothing came up. But I went and came up. Nothing came up, And I went to my local archery store and I said, I want to buy that boat right there, and he said, how are you going to shoot it? And I said, I don't know.

You bought a bowl off the shelf, off the shelf, But what did they set for the drawling?

They had no idea what they were doing, and I didn't know what I was doing.

I did.

I literally said, just give this to me, and then I just went home like I didn't like let them like figure it out with me because I had no idea. So I go home and there were there wasn't even a D loop on it, so I was just grabbing the string of my teeth and then my buddy had a release aid. He's like, you need to wear one of these. I'm like those, it's a wrist strap. What

Wow.

Yeah, that's the video we have.

That's no, this is a lot further along in my career.

But you have a personal video showing in daylight how you shoot?

Uh you mean like how I besides the video you just seen, I.

Feel if we put that up someone would actually we would actually get like really get in trouble.

No, those Olympic broadcast stuff is really really Yeah, it's.

Tough, Okay, So I wish I wish you could go on to my social media because I have a ton of stuff that I own the rights too. We can, So why why do you pull up on my videos?

Keep telling ye keep telling the story. They'll work on it.

Okay, So, oh what the hell you were?

What that were you asking about? Randall?

How I shot?

I know we got Yeah, I mean so, but you're was it just instinctual? I mean you use your feet for everything, like you were just like, of course, I'll pick this up between my toes and yeah.

So the guy, the guy that I saw on TV held the ball with his right arm, so I would I grab the bell with my right foot. And then once I figured out the release aid, I learned that it needed to be on my right shoulder for string alignment. I don't know why I figured that out, but it needed to be on the right side. Plus I was right eye dominant, so that kind of made sense. And then that's pretty much it, Like it didn't really, you know,

And your releases around your torso your.

Neck, the releases around my chest. So I've got some Instagram stuff pulled up here. I don't have a lot on Instagram. Okay, right there, now go down show down right there here. That the sushi shot the target? Yeah, yeah, I do that one cool. What kind of role is that? The sushi roll? This is a hundred, one hundred and one yard sushi shot, now, yeah, one hundred and one yard sushi shot. Matt?

Is that your account? Because I also see armless archer.

It's one of my Yeah, apparently I have several, but that is definitely. My video way down there. I think this was like I shot this right before Tokyo right there. Can you pause that video?

Hm?

So if you look like I'm holding the both my right foot and then I have a release aid around my chest over my right.

So that's a back tension release.

Yeah, that's one that I designed. It's called the Fingerless. I'm not going to make millions of dollars off of it because I think there's like eight arms start one day, you'd be one in the world now, but uh yeah, so that's how and then I activated with the back pressure.

Now when you one thing I couldn't figure out when you touch off, what are how are you not dropping the bow? Do you got that good of a grip on it with your toes?

Yeah? Sure, yeah, I got some pretty So a lot of it has to do with the angle of how I'm shooting it too. I figured out, like I'm leaning back, so the weight of the bow is actually kind of more over my torso.

Wow, damn.

There's even a little breeze too.

He hit a sushi roll.

Yeah, so I've noticed that, like you know, like as we all shoot a bow, like we hold it with our left hand, release, so like it's.

Kind of opposite.

Yeah, but it's it's the same side, like it's the right leg and then the release is on your right shoulder. And that was just like you just naturally that's how you did it.

Yeah, that just kind of something that was just natural for me because I was trying to figure out, uh, when I would switch to the left side and then try to like the string alignment was bad, right, So for me, Here's here's something that's interesting. If you watch when I'm shooting, everything is like like I'm facing my bow right like most people shoot boths kind of there they stand at an angle sideways in the boat left

How many uh, how many pounds because you're using your leg, how many pounds could you pull with your leg you're pushing up pulling how many pounds. Can you push the It's.

Kind of like a leg press motion.

It is like a leg press. To be honest, I had Hoy build me a custom bow not too long ago, and it was ninety It was with the turbocams. Is like ninety three pounds.

That's what you're pushing.

I don't do that anymore because I realized I was down in Arkansas, Bentonville, Arkansas, and we were doing where there was a bunch of deer in town that they needed to get out, get rid of. So they brought me down to kind of thin out the herd for them. So I wanted to see if I could shoot through

It was just like Arkansas pounding the table swamp.

Box might be a little yeah, they're they're not that, they're.

Not that big saying and they're skinny in Arkansas that are just like what.

So I come from Iowa, so unfortunately, but I don't pull that much poundage anymore, just because it's a little overkill. The technology on the bows nowadays are so good and the way you can build them with speed and you know, kinetic energy and all that kind of stuff. With the arrows.

What's your target bowl coming.

At sixty pounds? And that's the max that you're allowed to shoot in competition, And because I if I can, so we shoot distance fifty meters right, Well, if I can shoot ninety pounds all day long because I'm using my feet and I'm shooting against you, I mean that's a big difference when it comes to getting the arrow faster, you know, getting there the arrow to the target faster without being deflected by wind or anything like that. Well, at that point it now becomes an advantage to me.

So tell that story bringing that first bow home and trying to get that thing figured out. So I bring it up and why didn't you go why why didn't you ask the why didn't you say, hey, man, can you help me get this figured out?

Because I figured, like, if I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail in the quietness of my garage, right like I didn't want you know, this was something that I knew I wanted to do. I just didn't want someone to see me fail at it because I felt like I knew I didn't know what I was doing. And I and to be honest, if I walked up to you at a boat at a bow store and ask you to help me out, you wouldn't know what you're doing either, you know what I mean?

Like someone guy, but a person that knows a lot about bows they were at me, it would be more equipped to be like, uh, let me think here a minute, Yeah, maybe I have some ideas. Then a person has no idea about.

Both, and that is true. I think it was a I just didn't want people to see me if if it backfired. Once I figured out how to shoot the bow. Then when I go into the archery the archery range was fin and feather in Ia City. They like, I was like, okay, help me out. Now I know how to shoot the bow? How do we figure out spine? How do we figure out this? Uh? And then they kind of guided me after that. What's your drawing thirty two and a half? And I usually run like an inch d loop.

When you went back to the archery store after buying that bow and walking out of there for the first time, what was when you went back the second time?

What was their reaction?

So they're just like, we were waiting to see what happened with this.

So I remember going back. The guy that was helping me, his name is Chris Mobley, and I was like, dude, I could shoot a bow. He's like, let me see. So I showed him and we immediately made a video. He's like, dude, we're making a video. And we made a video and that thing went viral. Is like the like the only guy in the world with that arm shooting a bow. Yeah, And even then, even like I remember doing that a week or so after learning, two weeks after figuring it all out, I was hitting a

And those guys probably feel pretty invested in at that point they're probably like, oh, yeah, they want to see this work.

Yeah, at that point they're like, okay, let's figure out, you know, how to get you some uh, you know, better equipment, like better stuff, you know. And and for me, it was all just because I wanted to go out in the woods and put food on the table. And I remember when I shot that deer. I remember being like, like I got emotional because I'm like, this is the time I could put food on the table for my family. No one's telling me I can't do it, you know,

I gotta keep I don't even to keep asking the same question. Hey, it's okay, can you hang a deer in a tree by yourself?

Oh? Absolutely? You know I can climb tree stands.

We got a video of that.

Oh yeah.

You know.

People ask me all the time, like when you go hunting, do you hunt on the ground or blinds like tree stands are my favorite.

Let's make a deal. If we encounter a thing where you just can't do it yourself, you just let me know that you couldn't do that yourself.

Okay, I'm not saying that otherwise, well, I'm not saying this is the safest thing because I don't have any safety stuff on. Oh no, shit, man, But that's a twenty think. I was a twenty one footer.

Wow, got it. That's gonna be. My next question is with your form? Can you shoot it? Can you shoot a downward angle? Pretty good? Yeah?

Watched it? Beautiful buck that was fifty yards.

Oh dude, he started. He had a little get up and go before it got there.

I had to lead him a little bit.

He was a little late to the game though.

But so this this moment that we're having right now, he went down right there. This is why this moment for me is really awesome. So I grew up in a that's so cool. So this is the you guys are getting like this the good footage right now. And I want to tell you why. So when I got into archery, yes, it was you know, hunting, and I grew up hunting and I never posted any of this

Thought your sponsors would be like put off and it'd give you a bunch of financial trouble if you were well like post and hunting stuff.

There was times like when I, yeah, like I would you know, I would sign a big deal with you know, BP or whatever, and they would be like, hey, we know you hunt and stuff like that. But you know, Kim, we're just gonna politely ask you to just kind of keep that stuff, like if you want to show a picture of you.

Knows you've never done anything that would harm anything. But it was, you know, I we might have bagged a couple with that oil spill we had, but.

You know, I uh, it's one of those things where it was like, I respect the fact that they were they were giving me.

I'm not hacking out. It's just it's just funny for thatspective.

It is funny. But I am happy that I can now share that stuff. And I don't care, you know what I mean, Like that's who I am. Anyway, that's me. I am now to the point now where since I'm retiring from the Team USA, I will always shoot my bow.

But could you stay in Team USA?

I could stay on Team USA, But I'm like, I don't know how to top that.

Yeah, no, I don't know.

If they've come over with them, you know, you can't top gold.

Plus gold plus.

So here's what's interesting about the gold medal match too, is that I shot a world record. I shot one point off perfect, which means if I would have took that score into an able body tournament. I would have won it.

That's what I was going to ask. Yeah, it's like that's one of the questions in the back of my head is like, what are the Olympic rules? Like, are the rules such that you couldn't go to what do you call the we.

Call the regular Olympics?

Again, what could you shoot the regular Olympics or can't you shoot the gear that they have to shoot?

So yeah, I would have to switch. I would have to switch to the recurves. But a lot of it comes down to they don't want I mean, the reality is they the reality is it is equipment. But I already get like protests that already and able body competitions for what.

So ready, So you get guys bitching about the regular competition.

Oh yeah, So I only shoot against the pair of the Paralympic people or people with physical disabilities when it's at like the Paralympic Games or like World Championships. All

Who's that person?

Yeah, the reality is if I were if you were standing beside me and I was in my chair, i'd only been like maybe two feet foot and a half lower. The two feet lower, So.

I don't know enough. I don't know enough about it to like tell whether that's legitimate. I mean, the wind thing feels fishy, but I don't know enough about the whole thing to have like to have.

A wind blows everywhere. It was one of those things where when I first got into archery, was.

There must have been something else. But he wasn't talking about the wind. No, that's literally what was on the paperwork. No, No, But was that what was in his head? Probably not.

He was just mad that I beat him.

Yeah, Like the wind seems like it seems like a red herring. To like an equipment advantage. Yeah, whatever the hell.

Yeah. When I first started, it was cool because I had no arms, right, you're the guy without arms that shoots a bow. And then I started doing well and they're like wow, Like let's say I won my first event, like wow, congrats you won. And then I started really winning and then they're like, wait a minute, you have an unfair advantage. And then it turned into you know how so.

If I gave you arms right now, like what you got arms, You're not gonna change your shooting for him.

I'd probably find a surgeon to remove them.

I'm curious like that, Like his form is like in those competitions, is form regulated? No, right, because like that's when I think about it. I think that's what really struck me watching you. It was like you put a target out there, here's a guy, here's a bow, here's an arrow. Arrow goes in the target. If I were doing this, if I were competing against you, I'd have

That's a rule, you know, there actually is a rule, Like that's like that where before I, before I got into archery, they said you gotta have one foot in front of the line and one foot behind the line. Oh oh, And I was like, well, I sit in a chair, so they made an exception for me. You just put the legs of the chair above the line and the two back. Yeah, I have to have the

Right.

If you take archery in the Paralympic space, it's one of the only events in all of Paralympics that we that we could take our scores and put it with able by scores and we would have beat them or

Turn the machine off? And what uh? When I was watching that profile piece on you you can change a tire on a car, I said, I was done talking about bomb back end. You can change a tire on a car, But okay, can you what about installing components on a bow? When you get like little teeny little screws. What do you do?

Ready for this? I do all my own stuff, I said, they send me the bottle. I set it up by myself.

If you want to take an Alan key, you want to take an Alan screw, and you want to wed the Allen key and the Allan screw, and then you want to put that in a little teeny hole and line up those threads and go.

Righty tidy boom. I can do it. I believe. I believe in our tree. You gotta have confidence in your equipment. And the only way that I'm gonna have confidence in my stuff is if I am the only one that puts my feet on it.

I think you could have everybody in this room work on your boat and you'd be the only person who.

Puts That's true, That's true. Just a side note, real quick. I actually am a professional drag racer.

Now.

I have a professional drag racing license, and I raise a pro mode car with like a you know, several thousand horse powered car, and I drive it with my feet, and I work on it with my feet, and I do all this stuff with it on my feet, you know, with my feet. And I joke all the time that I'm probably the only person in the world that kind of footpen foot pound to a car. But I've always been I've always been gifted to use my feet like hands. Yeah, so you know one of the things that my dad,

Do you when you were trying to You're talking about applying for jobs and people wouldn't give you a chance. But what sorts of jobs are you applying for? Manufacturing?

Or No?

Definitely not fast food?

No?

Why is there a toe print my burger? A lot of it. The ones I remember specifically were like just driving jobs, Like I was just going to be like, let's say, an O'Reilly's delivery driver, drive and deliver parts, you know, AutoZone things, you know, stuff like that that I could do, you know, easily. I remember one of them was I even did tell marketing for a little bit, but then I got fired because I couldn't type faster than twenty one words per minute. You know, I type twenty.

Really, yeah, I imagine you're a pioneer for other armless archers. You mentioned there might be a few or out there that are using your release.

Yes, I'm actually excited about it. Actually, in Paris there was four armless archers wow, that all had And and how you get into the games is you have to set shoot elite scores and you have to like go through a trials process. It's not like you can just show up. They always want the best at these games. And all of these archers I've helped get there.

Wow.

And in fact, for La there'll probably be eight of them and they're shooting like legit goodscor girls. Yeah, so it's it's the number one ranked women archer right now is a girl from India who's seventeen with no worms. I saw, Yes, she actually wanted bronze at this games and team rounds. And it's crazy because the joke is kind of like every country is getting theirselves an armless archer because they all understand the benefits of having an

What do they call the what do they call whatever happened in development that it would cause you to be born without arms?

Probably drinking. Really no, I don't I really, I really don't know. They did some tests on my mom, but they didn't find any.

So it's not a known there's not like a known name of a syndrome or something that wouldn't No.

Back in nineteen eighty two, there was a bunch of stuff that like not drugs, but like over the counter drugs that people were taking that were causing birth effects, but supposedly that was not what happened with me.

And then do most do you hang out with just like your normal buddies from hanging out? Do you mostly hang out with just total able bodied dudes that you just have always known? Or have you become buddies with a lot of disabled shooters.

And I am buddies with a lot of disabled shooters and people like that, But I spend ninety nine percent of my time hanging out people that have arms.

Yeah, just like dudes.

You know, dudes, I know, you know, people like to hunt and fish and drive cars and have fires.

You know.

You you mentioned.

Earlier shooting at twenty two at a squirrel.

How do you shoot a rifle or long gun or whatever.

Yeah, Actually, if I would if I were to have known this now what happened back then. But before I got into archery, I was probably twelve years old. I got my first twin is a Marlin ten twenty two, and I could hit pennies at fifty yards and I just thought, like everybody could do that, Like I just have that gift of being able to like hit things, Like I'm a really good aim and I think it comes down to my mental process and like how I mentally process.

It, But same, how do you shoot? Yeah?

Yeah, So when it comes to handguns in my book, they're called foot guns, but I can actually hold them between my toes. My left foot holds like kind of like the grip, and then my right foot I kind of reach around and you can use one of my toes to activate the shot. I have videos. I should have sent you all these videos. But when it comes to a rifle, I usually sit. I have to sit down on the ground and a gentleman. Let a gentleman

There. Yeah, man, I.

Figured it out. I don't know. I've just been this guy who's always been able to figure everything out and wanted to hunt and do all that stuff.

Yeah, when you were little, did you ever have like you're so optimistic and capable now and like not intimidated by shit, But did you ever have any kind of crises when you were a kid about do you know you always had this attitude or did you arrive at this attitude.

I definitely had the attitude when I was younger. But then my dad would just be like, get your shit together, you know, Like the reality is is that you're not

And what an incredible dad.

Yeah, that's why I'm saying, like when I talk about being adopted, like, I'm perfectly fine with the fact that I got adopted into a family who was like that.

Yeah, what's he think? Now?

Oh?

He won?

He Uh. This was a pretty special moment for me because in Paris, I got hat my family there for the first time and we we've called it the Memory Games for a long time, and they were in the stands when I won, and I actually brought him down and we walked out onto the podium together from the first person to be able to do that, which is really cool. And we're on the podium and my dad goes, how do you how come we didn't shoot a perfect score?

Yeah, what what what's the walk me through what the Olympics is like in general? Like how long did you go for?

I was there for three weeks O my family came over for seven days. I ended up when they got there staying in Airbnb with them. I didn't even stay in the Olympic village during that time. Yes, there was cardboard beds at the village, means well.

That was a big media story.

It was like all over Yeah, you always had all these Like I remember a guy with a BMX bike showing you how crazy these beds work. But the whole the whole bed is made out of cardboard so they can recycle it environmentally friendly and he was like doing.

Friendly than just a bed.

Yeah.

Basically, the Olympics have kind of overcorrected on not leaving a crazy footprint, Yeah, like a physical footprint after the games are done, and so they went with cardboard beds.

Cardboard beds here. However, it was a problem, Well for a lot Yeah, it was not for me because I like hunting and living on a you know the ground, right, So for me, I was like, hey, what are you guys complaining about? But there was a lot of people complaining about the fact that there was a cardboard We're at the Olympics and it's a cardboard.

So it's a big thick sheet of cardboard lay on.

Well, it's basically imagine your bed frame being called cardboard and then there's a little thin mattress on there.

So what were they griping about?

Just think, yeah, a lot of athletes that felt that trained their whole life for this moment and then they were gonna maybe not get the best night's sleep before their competition on a cardboard bed.

When you're sleeping, how do you know what the legs of the better mate?

I'm just relaying what I was told.

To me. To me, it doesn't make any sense. Like I was like, perfectly fine with it, but you are right. There was a lot of people that were.

Complaining, like I've been through. I've been through more challenges in situation.

I don't care about a cardboard cardboard bed, you know, like.

I got you, I think they have.

Lebron James made a big stink about it.

Well, they actually spent like thirty million dollars and went to their own private hotel and lived in luxury. But which is fine, you know, But as far as the games are concerned, it is. It is awesome because I will tell you that it's kind of for me. Every four years when I've gone, it's that two week period of time or three week period of time where nobody hates anybody.

Oh is that right?

Like everybody's getting along. You literally are like if there's a war going on, you're sitting beside the people who like you literally have the two countries that are at war sitting beside each other, talking, sharing food and laughing.

Hum.

It is one of the coolest things.

Yeah, I wouldn't have guessed that. I guess.

Yeah, I'm not like I've seen it, you know, even in the field, like in the field of play and they're like, let's say basketball, volleyball, whatever. Afterwards, they're very friendly, they're you know, you know hugging it out like it is a very like they're all understand whether they're for and it's just to have sport, and they forget about

When you're when you shot for the Olympics, the how many like how often you actually shooting to arrive at like all through all the eliminations, you know what I'm saying, Like how how many arrows are you shooting?

Quite a bit fifteen arrows per elimination round and you go through what five five elimination rounds.

And that plays out over what period of time?

One day?

Well the first so all of a sudden it's like here we go.

Yeah, well for us, it was we had one match like the first day, but it was raining and the way they did the schedule, so then next day we had four matches just bam bam, bam, bam bam.

So that's what it comes.

Down yeah, it's one and up.

I thought it being more like milked out.

No, no, and we only get one metal, Like when we go we get a shot at one metal.

Gotcha, you can't.

It's not like if I don't now I can get it. Yeah right, I could go after another one tomorrow, but that's not how it is.

It's just that one shot yep.

And if you make a fist right now, that's the bulls eye that we have to hit at fifty meters, so it's like a three inch circle.

So when you get a deer at fifty you're like, you just flung somewhererow at three hundred rights three and ten. Yeah, tell you what that's all about.

Yeah, Like I that was actually the world record. So ironically, there's all these videos right now with these guys shooting, like there's a guy, uh dude, perfect just did like a half a mile shot with a bow, and there's all these you shoot like five hundred yards. But what they don't know. I still have the record, and this

Nop.

Like you know they're out there all day shooting to hit half a mile and then like we got the record.

Well, and they're rigging up an aim point.

There's lots of stuff. Yeah, you don't get any of that stuff. You literally like, so I wanted to set that record just to you know, have an able bodied record.

I guess really, so with your like competitions that you said that you got a lot of backlash from winning all these competitions, did you get a lot of backlash from like for holding this record, Like a lot of guys reaching out and saying, lol, I shot five hundred yards or no.

I mean I did have some people that would send me messages like I could shoot farther than that, and I just I don't give them the I bet you can't. But that doesn't sound like the Internet. This is why I don't feed into the internet much. They're the comments on that shot will be like, well, you know, because he draws the bow back further than us. Because he uses his legs, the arrow goes further. Like I mean, yes,

It's so funny that there's an impulse to put the armless guy in his place.

Yeah, I remember when I posted that I had just got my age deal.

That's no arm him down a road door with a silver spoon.

I listen. I can tell you right now that those people who comment that I laughed it makes my day, I like, because none of it makes When I got my professional driver's license for my NHR or my my drag racing license to be certified to legally drag race, and I posted the picture and it went viral because I'm the only armless guy who have done this, right, the amount of people that were like going on there and being like, how did he even sign his name?

Uh?

You know this is fake because he eat of them arms. He couldn't even sign the name on the on the paper. And and then the one guy goes, I would never line up against him because what if we're doing one hundred miles an hour and the axle breaks and then he's going to wreck into me. I'm like, like, if the askle breaks were all done anyway, Like like I just want to go there and just comment, but I

But I don't know, have you ever heard of that fellow named Shakespeare? But uh, what heavy is the head? The wars the crown? Is that Shakespeare? I believe so isn't it. I think so either way, heavy is the head that where's the crown?

I don't wear a crown, So.

You got that big ass gold thing.

Yeah, you could make a crown. So heavy is the heavy is the foot that carries the gold, that carries that carries the gold. You know, just something I wanted to just say real quick is China.

I knew I was going to win that match. And it's the first time in my professional career that I knew I was going to win.

So how do you know?

Because when when he was shooting a good game, Oh he was rolling, he was good. So as the higher ranked archer, you get to decide if you get a shoot first or second, and it is in your advantage to shoot first because then you set the tone.

And I can't just nod, nact like I know what that means? What does that mean?

So let's say you and I are shooting in an event and based on qualification.

Round, no, no, what setting the tone?

So if you, let's say you get decided to shoot first or second, you shoot first, right, Yeah, you shoot a ten? Now I shoot because you alternately, Oh that's the tone. Now oh I just saw you shoot a ten. I got to hang with it, I see, and a lot of people can't do that.

I got you.

But because I was a lower ranked archer the entire games, I shot second, the entire all of it. So when I went into the gold medal match, right before we went out, he goes, you're shooting first, and I was like, oh, he's done. He's done. And the reason is because he was more concerned about getting into my head about my game than he was about his own game. Because he was trying to mentally throw me off. He didn't realize

I'm sure it's spent the unfairness. Yeah whoa.

So yeah, I'm out hunting and it's like I'm saving my tag because I have one that I'm watching and it's like the last day and this buck comes out, I think, is I don't I don't even know if we had it named, but it was a deer that we knew we had to take out of the herd. Right, it was the antlers on the right were deformed, and he kind of walked with a limp or whatever, and I just knew we needed to get him out. And I was like, well, I don't want to just waste a tag, so he's good to eat, and I'll just

But what's more nerve wracking the gold medal shot or shooting that buck?

Oh? I don't know.

Composure, which yeah, really good.

The deer the deer honestly none, I don't know. I just have this gift so the adrenaline all that stuff doesn't happen to laughterwards. Yeah, that's huge. I'd love some of that.

Hopefully I could do that in triviat adrenaline.

You're like fever, trivia fever.

Your arms are shaking like this.

No, I just get into a room where I'm like, all these these guys know a bunch of to me useless information that I don't know.

And I wanted I wanted to ask.

I saw something that I'm actually more jealous of than the gold medal.

You got to meet Jackie Chan.

Oh, yes, you got to meet jackiet So can you walk me through that? Like, well, how'd that come to be?

Oh? I should probably, I bet I couldn't show some clips. The vice president of the Olympics was like, sent me a message the day before and he's like, I think Jackie Chan wants to meet you, and I'm like, so, I was like, come on, Jackie Chan. Ever know what everybody says they want to meet me, and then it

I'm like, when you look at that one nine you got, uh, do you know what happened? Oh?

Yeah, yeah, it just wasn't it was. It was a little bit to the I think it was high or something like that.

Did you know did you know like as you were letting it go?

Yeah, yeah, it just wasn't correct. In fact, if you watch the video, you actually see me tell the crowd it's okay. Like as soon as the shoot I got new and I'm like, it's okay, it's fine, Like I just knew, like like, this.

Isn't me falling apart. Yeah, this is the one.

Time I knew exactly I drifted a little bit when the shot broke and it went right there.

And you didn't let it. You didn't let it melt you down.

No, you know, one of the one of the cool things. And I talk about this quite a bit as far as people want to know if I'll over coach someone to be the best at something, but the to the to the measures that I had to take to be the best in the mental space, to handle all of that, like the ways I had to trick my body and mentally. So one of the things is I didn't shoot my bow for like three months going before I went to the games.

No shit, Yeah, how's that helpful?

Yeah, I'm gonna tell you why. So when you in the previous games, like I've shot shot shot, I knew it was the best. I knew I could win, and then I would get there and something were happened, something happened and it was out of my control. Like in Rio, a knock broke and put me out right. I put so much pressure on myself that I've trained for this moment for four years I need to win. That kind of mentality can come back and bite you because then

When you started that break though, When you started that, when you set the bow down, you set the bow down in a position of perfection.

Yeah, I knew it was fine.

No, I mean, like not on me the bow, but you yeah, yeah, yeah, like when you called it, you were there, yeah, yep. And if you weren't there, then you couldn't take the break. But you just got there and you knew you were there. Yep.

I knew it.

And then the next era you shot wasn't for competition. See when you got there, you shot a little bit right, Yeah.

Just a little bit like ten fifteen arrows, and then I just rolled right into it.

Were you feeling good?

Oh yeah, I knew it was over. I knew there was. There was a moment in time during qualification round where I was having a problem with my release and I took it apart and I cleaned it up and I went back to shooting, and it was like crisp and clean, and my arrows just instantly went to like the grouping of a you know, a three inch circle, and I was just like, oh, the last time I release broke, I was in sixty fourth place and I came back to win the World Championship in Dubai, and I was like, oh,

I just did that for the first time, and holy cow, it's a blast. Well yeah, I mean, you're like you're in an altered.

Sea because I it doesn't help me.

I just felt like you're in an altered statement.

Yeah, man, but your heart gets it naturally, creates adrenaline and you start pumping. I always thought it'd be cool to jump out of a plane up in Alaska for a grizzly bear hunt and then like land close to one and then shoot a grizzly bear.

It can't hunt the same day fly I know, so it won't.

Work, but anyway, so I would. I would do that kind of stuff.

And before I get to land and sit there to land, sit there for a day.

At eleven fifty eight pm.

You able to do that. But those are the kind of extents of the training that I took. There was a shot that right before I took the three the three month break, I opened the doors of my house and I take my drag, my pro mod car, and I put it out at one hundred yards and then on the back side of it, I put a target with a balloon, and then I take my Olympic medal that I won in London and I wrap it around the balloon, so I have an eight inch balloon at one hundred yards and then I go on the backside

You know, we're working on this deal. Me and Randall are finishing up this history of the Mountain Men that we're working on. We did one on We did one called the Long hunters, and it was about the deer white tailed deer skin tray Daniel Boone and them. Now we're doing one about the Beaver Market, so Jim Bridge or Jeed Smith, and there's a story that's in there. There's these two guys that used to have a drinking trick where they would shoot cups off each other's.

Heads with bows or sling shows guns.

They'd shoot cups off each other's heads. Is like just like a party trick they would do. They get the big fight over woman, right.

I forget what it was, but they had a quarrel.

Yeah, they get in a big fight. They eventually pat shut up and to demonstrate just how good they are with each other, how cool they are now, they go to do their drinking trick and he smokes the guy.

Oh no, he might not have totally gotten over that.

He probably definitely not over that argument.

Kills the guy, and then another guy kills that guy because he knew because he knew it was a mistake, and he drowned, and that guy drowned.

So the moral of the story is, don't shoot anybody.

Yeah, he'd be careful with your party tricks.

The amount of people that die in this thing is unbelievable.

Is that a story online? I can read read about you have to listen.

It's audio, original audio.

I'm not to listen to it, and we'll tell you the whole damn story either way.

When people think, who's the writer that hit somebody with a bow? Burrows? Right? I don't know. Yeah, didn't Burrows? Tuck that up? I thought Burrows shot? U? I think didn't didn't Burrows kill?

He tried to William tell somebody?

Yeah, killed somebody, didn't he? Williams Burrows typing Burrows Apple, Robin Hood.

It was Burrows, thanks, Phil killed her?

Right? Yes?

And also heavy heavy us the head? That where's the crown? That was Henry the fourth? That was Shakespeare as well. So you're just on a you're on a.

Tear today, damn man. And I got Burrows right? Tropical answered tropical, apricorn Burrows?

How far was the shot on the William tell? Do you think considering the technology is true? Yeah? Is that story true? I feel Joanne vol think it's apocryphal.

According to Wikipedia, he killed her?

Yeah? Was it a bow or gun? He didn't get in a hell of a out of trouble.

In nineteen fifty one burrows killed Volmer. It was a drunken attempt at playing. William Tell doesn't say how far it was.

You know when she was drunk too.

When you missed, you away, missed miss low. How about you never hear about the guy that misses high at the top of the apple.

I actually know why. I always know why they missed low. Tell me so when you when you're hunting, do you come from the target down or do you go from the target up?

Do you want to know the truth?

I come from the left, okay, I mean that works.

Like a shot arrow in my life. I don't. I come from the left.

So which way is it? Your pins are? Are they facing the right on your on your.

Shoot left handed?

Okay?

And I come in from the left. My pin comes in from the left horizontal.

So you follow the pin in so you can see basically the.

Bow goes across the target like if I drew back right now, and I'm gonna shoot randall right in the of his nose right probably imaginary apple. Yeah, but I'm okay, I'm gonna come the draw. Okay, Yeah, I'm shooting like how it did when I was a kid. I'm gonna come the draw and I'm gonna go pop right in the head.

So you move you so you so you move to the right because you're sight pin is on the left side, so you if you're moving to the right, you can see what you're coming into this sho Yeah.

Well I can't when I shoot just like instinctive with no pins, I don't I don't remember what I did. I've been shooting pin so long. That's how I do it.

I mean, I wouldn't change it. It's working.

I don't know that. I wouldn't know. I don't works like sometimes a lot of the time, not all the time.

A lot of a lot of archers, a lot of beginners. For even people that are not beginners, they usually start below the target and come up, which is not bad. I mean, it's it's bad to do that, but that's probably why they always hit low. They start low and come up. I always start above the target, and then I relax my legs to let the so you're more at a relaxed state if you're if you're you got to use muscles to lift it into place. But if you're above it, you can relax to come down.

Like what are you doing? Like when you're breathing. I hold my breath. Actually, you know it's talking about your Your form is so straight. You you kind of like you like you adjust your mouth a little bit every time. The left side of your mouth just just it's got a quiver to it.

It's a little bit, just.

Something you do. I was watching. It's like the same, like you got it. You got your form. Your form is like when you shoot, it's like how you shoot. You don't like add, you'll add new little things.

And I spent eight hours a day when I first started shooting, for basically ten or eleven years, just eight hours, Like that was my life.

Differ blow a shot on a deer.

It's been a long time, I think in the last twelve years, maybe two. And it wasn't because I blew it completely.

I was.

It turned or it jumped, you know, and it just was bad shot.

Like that Buck showed us he was he was like I should probably get going.

Yeah, he knew was coming. But I led that one. I was like, he is an open field and I knew. I took the gamble because I was hoping he would go forward versus duck it. But the gamble was good on that one.

Do you have any dream hunts elk? I don't know other other.

Critters, elk and grizzly bear. I want to shoot a grizzly bear. And I want to be like on the ground too. I don't want to be up in the tree stand. I can hunt really good off the ground. So with the short axle axle bows, I can just I don't need a chair nothing. I can just sit around the ground and and and I like that. I like the adventures of that and mm hmmm. So someday, someday I missed. I've had several people offer me grizzly bear hunts in exchange for like some promotional things, but

This is probably a stupid question, But I mean, when you're hunting, what percentage of the time are you wearing You're obviously when you're in a shot situation, you're not wearing shoes like on a grizzly bear hunt or something like that. Or you know, like when you're hiking in are you hunting in bare feet a lot? Or are you taking your shoes off before you shoot? Like what's the what's the strategy there?

The joke that I always tell everybody is, especially if you're hunting when it's cold out in the stand in Iowa, it really takes a lot. It takes a good deal for me to want to take off my socket shoes in.

Three degree wat you get like a boot you just slip on when you to keep warm.

Yeah, I got like a quick, a quick boot. But now but now I have they make toe socks, yeah, and they actually have toe shoes.

Yeah.

So and I have the dex sterity that I can still use those. Yeah.

Okay, yeah, well you know you should. It's good that this is a good platform to bring up that you'd like to go elk and grizzly hunting. Tell people how to find you.

Okay, So where do I begin Uh. Facebook is kind of like my main platform, so if you under the armless Archer, you can always send me messages there. I do have Instagram and Twitter that I'm working on building, and I believe they are armist Archer, and then I might have armless Matt as well on one of them's there.

I also think that someone should be able to make you some gutton gloves, so and it'd be like you'd prefer it to be like a thumbless minten.

Basically, yeah, as long as I have a dex sterity. So if you if you on my big toe in the.

Pocket for your big toe coming off the side of that.

Sucker, yeah, absolutely.

I don't know if anybody and I don't know if anybody listening deals in that kind of stuff.

So when I when I got into the racing side of things, ironically, one of the things that kept me from going two hundred miles an hour was the fact that I didn't have the proper foot gloves as far as safety fireproof. So last year a company stand twenty one made me full on custom like the highest fireproof rated sock foot gloves on the market, and so now I now this year, coming into this next year, I'll be able to do two hundred miles an hour, I legally without getting in trouble.

You got fire retired and footlow.

Fire retired and foot gloves, So I know there's a way. I know there's a way to make these gloves work. You know, for even even if there was a better glove that I could wear for hunting, right like that was warmer than a skinny shoe or something like that.

You know what you might try out, man, I think it might be a good product for you to look into. Is there's a company called Wiggis. Wiggis, Yeah, w I G G y okay Wiggis, And he makes a he makes like a overboot, a muckluck overboot that's like unbelievable. It's meant to be that you can put it over your height. You can put it over your boot. But a lot of like stand sitters in super cold areas, you can just go to your stand and your freaking

So here here's a question for them then, because I had you, can you just buy one right foot?

So is anyone of the ones that go in.

You know, I did have a deer get spooked one time when I took off my sock and I was like, I know, I washed my feet, but walking in if you're sweating, you know, so like that's one of the things I tried to not over Like it's okay to have a little bit colder, you know, it's okay to freeze it a little bit. Yeah, because walking in, if you're sweating in your foot and you have to take off your shoot to shoot, then you get a little bit of that odor going.

Dude, what I'll tell you what I would do, Man, if I didn't have any arms, I'd take one of those boots I'm talking about, and I'd hot glued at some bitch to a little piece of plywood. So it's sitting there, oh yeah, and I would just very gingerly coming out of there because it's hot glued to a board, hot glue to some bitch right to my stand you you have to do it.

I would need like thirty thirty gloves stands everywhere. So there is full of snow spots to me, thirty of.

Them when I leave. When I leave, if I didn't have any arms, I take a five gown bucket. Yeah, and I set it right over that boot. The rain and snow out.

He's thought this all through.

All your problems are solved.

So you need a bunch of boots and some five gallon buckets. You need a bucket, You need a bucket spunster that I mean, that would work, you know. I think a lot of it though, is I play the wind. I have to think about the foot thing quite a bit. So I just play the wind.

And I like to be somewhat mobileish, you know.

So, so don't glue, don't.

Go your yeah done. I one time, on accident, I stayed at a buddy's place and he had a log fire to how heat his hunting cabin. And I remember going out in the woods that night or that morning and I'm like, oh, all my stuff, I forgot. Everything smells like smoke, just reeks of like wood fire.

Yeah, I had.

That was like one of my most successful weeks. I've ever had. I was sitting by a tree. It was still dark out, and I had a dough just walk like, you know, from here to the camera, just and I smell my clothes and then walked off. I'm like, what there is something to the smoke.

We're we'ren't wired to hunt territory now, But yeah, man, like there's a lot there's a lot of opinion out there about there's a lot of opinion out there about how a lot of opinion about how ungulates regard the smell of smoke, like how omnipresent it is. And then also when you have smoke on you, is it covering it or is it that there's the smell of smoke, which is there, but also there's the smell of you, right, And it's just like it's not that one overrides the other.

Mm hmm.

You know, I mean like, oh, it's smoky, yeah, and there's a dude, but yeah, I don't know, you know it. It'd be great. I'd like to have a show if I ever do another podcast, it's gonna be where I interview game animals. Gotta have a big buck in okay, and I'd be like, like during the rut, man, you're kind of out. You're out a lot, you know, Yeah, you're out walking around a lot during the rock Like, are you nervous?

I've been run over by deer before. I've been run over by a deer. Huh it was hit No, I was. I was sitting on the ground. I was laid into

My old man got hit by a buck, and uh, he got injured, but he got injured by his own arrow when he got run over. He got run over by a buck and cut it cut his hand pretty good with his own arrow knocked. He had an arrow knocked and somehow the arrow got like blown right off. The broadhead came around and got him. That was the only injury he got from getting hit by a buck.

Well, sure, I speak a lot about the broadheads.

You know, this is back and I don't know if you remember, like this is back in the days when you remember those.

Uh they're made out of rock, No, like those steel like delta's.

Remember those green those green like kind of riveted delta points and they you know, you had you take your wooden arrow and bevele that wooden arrow down to a point. And that delta point came with a cone. It was like built on a cone and you'd get that hot you know that that heat adhesive and put them on there. It was back in those days.

I'm nodding like I remember.

You gotta appreciate how old I am, Like it's getting No, well, here's the deal. I'm getting up there enough where I now am I now have like recollections about stuff that that people are like what I'm like, I'm telling you, man, yeah, I'm like, I'm telling you, dude, that was like a thing, man, you know, trying to call the cops and the like couldn't find the phone.

Or have you seen the video of the kids. They didn't know how to run one of those phones.

Oh no, yeah, they have no My kids would have no idea. What do you see? They need to change the icon. The phone icon still has like the phone with the curly cord hooked to it. I remember like deliberately thinking like I wonder if some day I remember getting cell phone and being like I wonder someday you could just get rid of a landline and having like a revolutionary thought, you.

Know, I should have pattened it.

I should have. And then I remember a lot of old bone arrow stuff.

Man.

I remember when flipper rest came out and that was a big deal because everybody shot off the shelf things. I remember.

I've lost ear to flipper rests actually not not working properly or whatever.

Yeah, technology, you remember Ben Pearson Pierson Archery.

Uh No, I know, I know, I know, I know of Pierson Archery, Yes, but I don't I never met him.

Oh no, I don't know. I don't know that I know Ben Pearson. I got to meet uh when I was a little kid. I got to meet I had. I remember Fred Baar bought me dinner one time. Oh that was a good joke. It was I ate, I ate lunch on time on Fred Bear's dime.

Wow. When I was was he pretty cool? Was he pretty cool?

Dude? Dude? I was so young. I was with Meloman, who was my dad. Was very big into the like early bow hunting, like fifties, like trying to get bow seasons and all that. You know, he was really big into archery in the fifties, like when he come home from World War Two, he got an archery so he was like very involved in that early stage archery stuff. And I remember we were at a thing. Fred Bear was there. I was with Meloman. Fred Baar paid for lunch.

Wow, you think that dude played baseball.

No, no, you know, I just remembered his last name. My dad was Buddies when his last name was, his name was Babe Johnson. And my old man had a thing. He had a big sash, you know, you know, like a girl scout sashes. This is the goofiest thing. He belonged to this club where if you could kill something with a bow, you'd get a patch like a merit badge. Yeah.

The technology definitely has come along ways, though from wooden wooden bows and wooden arrows and broadhead that you gotta glue and make.

But uh, the mental game hasn't changed, all right, No, mental there's still a lot of people. There's a lot of people to panic.

A lot of people. I had a I don't really want to call him out, but I have a buddy. I have a buddy who's a muscle He's a he's like a in a muscle building. So he's this big, huge muscle guy and he loves the hunt. And I was shooting turkeys with him.

I think a handful of me too.

So but when every time he would every time he would shoot and if he would hit something, he would like, mm hm you gotta gagging.

M you gag?

Yeah, Like I don't know. I think just from all the adrenaline or something.

I got the body that pukes after he gets stuff.

Yeah, it just just gets all this.

I've seen it hyped out.

He gets so hyped up. It's it's kind of funny. He always like, shut the camera off and I just keep it going.

Yeah that's weird, man. Yeah, there's one buddy I got. I've seen him do it. He'll get something then puke, then he's fine.

Yeah, yep, just find right away afterwards. M I don't know, maybe just the excitement and the adrenaline just goes nuts. They don't know how to control it. Maybe maybe they should shoot more target. I will say though, that hunting has helped me be a better target archer. And target archer has made me a better hunter as far as not hunting, but as far as shot placement and just being able to make the best decisions while I was out in the woods.

I imagine the competitive learning how to deal with the competition. Yeah, just learning how to deal with because you know, there's a thing man like part of what you mess up is that you want it so bad and you can't deal with the emotion. Yeah, and you just shot and there's so much pressure so many times that a little pressure is not unusual to you. Yep.

And I get hungry still with an animal. It's you know, you don't get lots of children. Usually it's like a one and done. You know, you sit there all day for one shot and you have you got to make it count, right like you. For me, I've always I always thought like shooting in under pressure has helped me in that scenario to just I've actually missed Bucks because I've took too long to do my process, not missed them, they just went out of range. You missed the chance.

Yeah, well, man, thanks for coming on the show. Dude.

Hey, thanks for having me.

This just happened quick too, because someone sent to something and I'm like, I told Chris said, man, let's get that guy, or she said we should get this guy or whatever, and here we are listen.

I I definitely appreciate it because first of all, I've seen your episodes and then I, uh uh, my agent, Scott, I think you were in top touch touch with them. He he was telling me, like just everybody that you've had on the podcast. I was like, this guy's this guy is not just a hunter and all this other stuff. He's like really good at podcasting, Like he's like a legitimate good No. I mean, he just it's an honor that you wanted me to be a part of it, and I thought it was like this perfect way to

That, but you can use wherever you want, Matt.

I definitely appreciate it. You guys having me on here for just it's been awesome.

Yeah, we'll plug it. Where do people go to look at it?

Uh, the urmost archer. Yeah, on the same stafe, the same stuff.

Yeah, excellent, Thanks so much, Matt, appreciate it. Congratulations on all those successes. Thanks on the gold medal. On the retirement, is that ever retired? No, I don't know.

I don't know, because I think I'm just retiring from the competition side. That's it. I'm still gonna shoot my bows now. Now I'm gonna, you know, get to walk around and enjoy adventures in the woods and mountains and back. When I opened my window this morning, I looked up and saw the mountain, and then I was like, I probably should have stayed a couple of days and spent a day up there hiking there. Yeah, go hiking. That stuff is run that.

Whole You can run that whole, rich, run the whole rich.

I just want to come running down with people watching him, be like there's a bears.

All right man. Thanks again, Yeah, thank you, thank you.

I called him my cousin Joy City song. Good one day standing on the old side of the Hay barn and the bo. Please he's brib bed that big ole seed.

Be always souls.

Coubulldos in the morning.

Bay he's back.

Maybe I'll go slip down there, see what I can see my take dancel thirty thirty, be like he's back here with me on on bun Onunday man Ick in haldyway, so always second Saturday day. In the movie Bird, it's my favorite time. Ain't just a bath on Sunday making mamies at and gone lights ray. It's just dies in on the cake. If a bit big wal walks my away on open on day and man Bety always makes breakfast.

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