Ep. 536: Foundations - It’s Time To Start Shooting

in full swing. I know the fishing is really good right now. I know the kids are in baseball and gymnastics and a bunch of other activities. I know that dear season, even early archery season, is still you know, months away. Gun season is further away than that. Shooting doesn't seem to be a high priority right now, and honestly kind of doesn't have to be a high priority.

But target practice should at least be a low priority, because if you make it so now, you'll be well ahead of your competition this fall, and we all want that. There are different ways to look at target practice, depending on what weapon you're using and what your experience level is. Let's say the rifle hunter with forty consecutive seasons, all with filled tags. He's in a different place than the new bibow hunter who has yet to fill a single tag, let alone shoot at a deer. That rifle hunter, I

don't know. He might not need to do anything more than pull the old two seventy out of the safe a few weeks before the season, head out to the range and run a few shells through it to make sure nothing has changed since last season. If the groups are tight and the scope is on, it's back into

the safe with the gun until opening weekend. That little effort might be good enough for someone, probably not you or I. Reducing target practice down to a simple task at checking your rifle zero or making sure your bow is still on at forty yards, it's really selling the opportunity short. The stuff is just it's not about just whether a certain weapon in your hands at a perfectly chosen moment can send bullets or arrows where they're supposed

to go. No, I don't want to get shitty about this, but I'm gonna If you go to a rifle ranger of bow range right before your state's dear season opens up, you'll see plenty of examples of what not to do. I'll never forget years ago being at a gun range before Minnesota's season opened up and watching a guy introduce his son who was twelve, to a twenty gage slug gun.

Instead of setting him up on a bench to shoot where he would have a nice rest, the guy loaded a couple of slugs into that shotgun, had the kids stand and shoot off hand at a target that was twenty yards away. The first slug hit six inches to the left. The second slug hit farther to the left, but to be fair, the kid didn't have hearing protection on it was flinching like you'd probably expect him to.

After seeing the second shot, the dad took the gun and took aim himself, again off hand and with no hearing protection. The third hole in the target was I don't know, about half a foot to the left, and he said something I will never forget. He looked at his son and he said, just remember to compensate for that and aim about six inches to the right. Listen. I don't know how that kid's season went, but I

can imagine. Well, that's an extreme example. I see the bull hunter version of it every year at archery arranged by my house, and not just with you shooters either who have poor mentors. I once watched a full grown man struggle to draw his bow back and then miss an entire four ft by four ft bail type of target from fifteen yards away twice. This was three weeks before the dear season opened up. Here's the thing about target practice and getting into a shooting routine. It's just

like getting in shape or training a dog. It's not about putting in a marathon's worth of whatever right before the event. Shooting a thousand arrows in five days after not shooting for nine months does not do you any good. Just like taking a lab that hasn't seen a bumper or been given a real command all summer and suddenly trying to do a three hour session right before duck season opens up. That's a little too late, my friends.

Another example, this happens with western hunts a lot. And if you don't believe this, ask an outfitter who specializes in elk hunting if this has ever happened to him. When you plan to go elk hunting, especially if you live in the Midwest or the East, the notion that is time to get in real shape is real. It hangs over your head, and it makes you very aware

of the time between now and the trip. A lot of hunters put off getting into any kind of shape until the hunt is really close, and then they decided to run or I don't know, put a couple of sandbags in their backpack and climb the hills by the high school. They get injured, often slightly, but enough to sideline their workouts, and they show up out west and worse shape than they'd have been in if they didn't

make a hero's last attempt at getting into shape. Some of the best things we can do for ourselves involve long game approaches to fitness and to shooting. Now, everyone wants to get into shape, that's fine by me, you do you, But the shooting thing is different, because we should all be working to be the best we can with our chosen weapons. That means it's time to start now. If you're not shooting already, it's time to make a commitment to just a couple of sessions a week now.

If you're a bowl hunter, that might mean I don't know, ten or twenty arrows a session, maybe three times a week. That's a pretty light lift. But it's a cumulative effort that will add up to a real level of dedication over several months. For gun hunters, a couple of times a week is too big of an ask and most likely probably not really necessary. You know, you look at the logistics of shooting and how lately just a matter

of getting any ammo in your hands. It's a different thing, and if you can find your chosen ammo, you're gonna try to not go broke buying it. It's not not a great situation out there, but a once per month session it might be doable. Half a box of shells at a time. That's probably plenty. Season shooters could get away with less, but newbies and anyone who is an overly confident with a firearm could greatly benefit from the familiarity that comes with stacking up sessions like that as

the summer leads into fall. This is important, and not for the reason that you want to be able to just shoot tight groups. You do want that. You want that at tip shot distances and shot distances that are farther than you'd likely ever taken a deer. Accuracy is important, and the ability to use your weapon to the best of your abilities is a worthy goal. Now here's where things get tricky. I'm sure there are some folks listening to this who are saying, well, hell yeah, I'm gonna

shoot more. I've got a bull range in my backyard, or I've got the old quarry down the road to bring my three o eight two and blast away. This is easy and I'm going to do just that. No others are listening and thinking, Man, this is gonna be tough.

I gotta drive forty five minutes to the rifle range, which has gotten more expensive than ever this year, and then I've got to burn through a couple of boxes of amil that I really like, and then my gun really likes, just to get better at shooting when I'm already pretty good. Or uh, i gotta load up my block target in the back of my truck and drive out of town to some patch of public land where you're kind of really not supposed to target shoot on

sort of, but no one ever really says anything. So maybe I can swing that, but sure as hell not three times a week for mounts. Here's the thing about target practice. If it's not easy to come by, most of us won't do it very often. I know this because I live in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, a place that is not all that conducive to just

randomly firing off weapons whenever the mood strikes. I do have some nice neighbors who look the other way when I'm shooting the bone in my yard, which I do a lot, and in the years living here, I've never had anyone say anything to me or report me to the city for that, even though it is legal where I live. I'm pretty sure it would be a different story if I wanted to shoot some guns here, though, finding a place to site in my muzzleloader or shoot

one of my dear rifles, that's a different story. It sucks. In fact, it's one of the reasons I don't gun hunt as much as i'd like. I used to love muzzleoader hunting and shooting muzzleloaders and messing with guns, but it's an expensive hassle where I live. I do have options, but they're not great, and that keeps me from practicing as much as I like. It also keeps me from hunting with guns mostly, and that kind of sucks. So believe me, guys and gals who are listening to this

I get it, it's not always easy. And really, if you're looking to get better with a deer rifle or even a shotgun and some slugs, you're just on your own. You gotta find your own way to do this. With archery tackle, finding a spot to shoot can be a lot easier, fewer excuses. They're my archery loving friends. I mentioned that I have some targets on the side of my house where I can shoot, which is nice because I can reach out to about fifty yards there. That

covers me for an awful lot of practice sessions. But I've also got a few friends who also have targets at their houses who don't live too far away, and they let me shoot farther distances. And I also always, always, always have at least one portable target in my possession, often more than one, and if you ask my wife, sometimes way more than my garage can reasonably hold a portable target, one that is actually easy to throw in the back of your truck and drive to wherever. I

really think that's a necessity. I think that is the best way to go when you're trying to become a better bushe because a portable target like that with bull's eyes on it that you can set up anywhere, and then having one three D target there's a good choice to have. Now, those three D targets aren't quite as portable, that's a different thing. They're often a little more expensive, but you can do a lot with just those two targets.

But having a portable target is the most important part. Now, you can also get creative too, because it's the repetition of the shot sequence and the comfort and familiarity that goes along with it that often means the difference between totally flaming out on a buck or hitting them in the crease right behind the shoulder. Some folks practice in

their garage, others in their basement. I do this every winner, usually when I'm setting up a new bow or getting ready for turkey season and I don't want to stand outside and freeze my giblets off. Now, an eight yard shot isn't really going to make you the next Levi Morgan, but it will help you execute a shot well. If you choose a small enough aiming point, it will help you with your accuracy as well. It will also help you with your overall muscle memory, and that's really important.

That's the thing we don't talk about much, but shooting a bow requires a little bit of muscle. The problem is that most of us can draw our bows and shoot without thinking about the physical exertion. Now, if you can't do that, your bows probably set way too heavy on a straw weight. You need to lower it back down. But if you can, and you should be able to,

it doesn't really mean much. What you want to be able to do is slowly draw your bow straight back to your face, without skying your bow arm or grunting like a will to beast giving birth, or even showing just the little, slightest bit of struggle. Slow deliberate movements are the telltale signs of a functional strength. I think about it this way. One of the ways to get your heart rate up and work on your balance and

leg strength is by doing box jumps. For those of you who don't know what they are, it's when you jump up on a box or some other box like object you might find out your gym. That's a good move for folks looking to get into shape, but a really good test for your balance and your leg strength is not jumping up on a box, but slowly stepping down off a box. Anyone who can real, slowly, calmly, and deliberately step down from a box has their legs,

strength and overall balance game on point. If this sounds weird, imagine going elk hunting with sixty pounds on your back. Going up hill sucks, but it's easy to balance yourself well easier than going downhill a lot of times anyway. The fall injuries that happen in the mountains often occur not when you're busting your butt to get up hill, but when you have to go back down and don't have the leg and core strength to manage the controlled

descent of those downhill steps. In a roundabout way, this is like drawing a bow. You want strength and the control that comes with it. This results from drawing a bow consistently for months and months and years. It's the difference between making a subtle, deliberate movement when the deer closed versus tipping your hand at them by making a

herky jerky movement to get your bow back. And it's the difference between staying calm and in the aiming game when you draw but don't have to get immediately settled with your opinion release. This is a big one, my friends, how often have you had this happen or heard someone tell a story about drawing on a buck, only to have him stop for an extra minute or two. Here's the secret, that extra minute or two is probably more

like fifteen or twenty seconds. I've shot enough white Tales on film over the years to constantly be reminded of how much time gets deluded when you're trying to keep your ship together on a good one. It's amazing to me how often I'll think that an encounter lasted a minute when it was four, Or how often I thought I was at full draw for a minute or two when the real tailor the tape was telling me that

it was twenty seconds. It's always a shorter amount of time spend it full draw than I think it to be, And I bet that happens with you. Sometimes. There's also an intangible with this line of thought that involves focus. We only have so many seconds in our brain where we can do a task like aiming a bow or I'd have to guess aiming a rifle before things start to delaminate a little bit. Now, this is something that can be trained and should be trained, and the best

way to do that is you guessed it. Shoot more. Shoot to work on your accuracy, but to also develop your muscle memory. Shoot more to get your brain in the spot where it's comfortable, taking time with the process and not as likely to summon up some real panic when you least need it. Frequency and quality of practice sessions is something that we can all control that matters because we choose to engage in a passion where so much of our success and enjoyment hinges on things way

way out of our control. The other hunters out there and the decisions they make, the deer themselves and the decisions they make, the weather, the coyotes, that you name it. There's an awful lot of stuff that can conspire against your success in any given season or any given sit But you can control whether you can hit what you're aiming at and whether you feel confident about that, which

is at least as important as actually being accurate. They go hand in hand, and it's pretty hard to assign a higher value on one or the other because they all contribute to the same end goal. So here it is. Here is my final plea to you. Think about how much you shoot, if it's enough where you feel really confident going into each season. Carry on, you don't need

my help. You're doing well. But if it's not, or you find yourself feeling a little guilt as the summer progresses and you think to yourself, I better get out and fling a few more arrows or some lead, because fall will be here before I know it. Then you might want to take a long look at your practice routine and try to just bump up the frequency a little bit more. Figure out how to do that, how to make target shooting an easier proposition, and then try

to work it into just a doable routine. I promise you, even though it might feel like a pain in the ask that isn't quite necessary yet, it will absolutely, with out a doubt, feel worth it when you're heading out for your first sit, or better yet, the first time this fall, when you look down the trailer see a good buck working his way towards your setup. That's it for this week. I'm Tony Peterson. This has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you

by First Light. As always, thank you so much for listening, and if you haven't scratched the white tail itch enough this week, head on over to our wire to Hunt YouTube channel to check out our latest how to videos or visit them. Eatater dot com, slash wired to read articles from Mark myself and a host of other white tail killers