Ep. 555: Executing a Perfect Shot with Taylor Chamberlin

Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this week on the show, we are discussing everything it takes to execute a perfect shot with someone who's executed more perfect shots on deer in high pressure situations than anyone else I know, Taylor chamber All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by First Life, and we are continuing Shooting month today and we are chatting with someone who has really perfected

the act of shooting more than almost anybody else I know. Me and my buddy Tony, we're talking about this the other day, trying to think about who would be a good fit for this episode, and we are trying to think who does this successfully, who shoots perfectly, accurately, effectively, and does it more often than anybody else. There's a lot of successful hunters out there, but I do not think there's anyone else I know in my circle that

successfully does it more than Taylor Chamberlain. Taylor Chamberlain, if you don't know, he's been on the podcast in the past. He is the urban hunting dude. I went and hunted with him last year in d C. Got to see what that was all about. He runs the hunt Urban YouTube channel, and he'll explains a little bit more when

he hops on here in a second. But Taylor's whole thing is that he hunts in this area with with a super super high deer density, which requires year round management, and so he's able to hunt all year round with essentially like a it's like a nuisance dear type situation. And so he's killing so so so many more dear than any of us do because of that, and so he has had to really really get good at shooting, and he has had so many opportunities to practice and

go and live through that situation. Right, I might kill a handful of dear year. He's doing that at times fifty and he does that an incredibly tight, high pressure situations because he's hunting in neighborhoods, he's hunting in backyards,

and it's got to be perfect. This is something that really got hammered home to me when I spent time with him last fall, is that he I mean, we all want things to go well, right, but he requires them to be excellent, perfect, nothing less than that is acceptable because the margins for error in these neighborhoods are so so fine and the ramifications are so so high.

So that's why Taylor is really just a great guy to sit down and dive deep into this with, because he's really turned the volume up on every single aspect of shooting. I want to know how to dial up your bow and tunea just right, Well, Taylor has taken it to the umpteenth degree. I want to get really good developing a shot process where a practice regiment. He's got a dial Taylor is very detail oriented and as

we've just described, a perfectionist. And so today we're going to dive into everything from you know, what his early struggles were. We're gonna talk about how he thinks about his choice and bow criteria when choosing what the right setup is for him when it comes to a site, when it comes to arrows, when it comes to broadheads.

So we do talk gear for like the first half hour forty five minutes or so, really getting into, you know, at the high level, what are the things you need to be looking for when trying to get the most accurate, effective bow, Not like a sexy, fast bow, not like, Hey, what are we gonna take out to the mountains and shoot eight yards at a mule deer? You know, how do you kill a white tail so it's dead in ten seconds and lying forty ft away? That's what we're

trying to do here. So Taylor walks through that kind of set up. We talk through everything about his practice regimen. How can you simulate high pressure situations? How can you practice better? We talked through the whole shooting process, the different things he thinks about as he goes through that whole cycle, what he says, what he's physically doing, how he manages his nerves, everything like that. We have a lot of interesting conversation around, you know, in the field implications.

You know, how to read a deer's body language, how to interpret whether now is the right time to shoot or not. Where really is the best place to shoot a deer if you need that super fast and guaranteed kill. We talked through all those types of things. We get into some interesting conversations around even you know, how we might want to adjust our goals or plans when hunting to really ramp up our experience so we can become a perfect shot. Someday. So that's a conversation today. It's

a good one. Taylor's fun he's funny, he's great at what he does, and I learned stuff and I'm sure you are as well. But before we get to that, I do want to give you a quick heads up on something new that's coming down the line. I am going to be or I have already started picking out monthly gear picks of the different stuff that Mediator is

selling now these days on our website. I don't know if you have realized this or not, but Mediator not only has brands like First Lay or FHF or Phelps game Calls, but we also are now stocking all sorts of other gear, mostly gear that me and the other folks on the team have purposely asked for it to be stocked on the site because we like it, because we use it. We're becoming more and more of an online purveyor and merchandiser of you know, the stuff that

we really like. So I'm gonna start picking monthly picks a few items that I'm using that I like that I recommend to you, and we're putting them out there right now, at least for the time being. On the wired hunt homepage. So right now, this month, I've got a set of recommendations that are kind of tied into this whole shooting month, right so all about getting better at shooting. So I picked a few items that I'm using as I try to get better at being a

better shot. So you can find this at the mediator dot com slash wired dash to dash hunt a little wordy I realized, or I'm hoping you already go to the wire dune page. You can just go to the meat eator dot com and then if you hover over pursuits, you're gonna see the logo for wired to Hunt. The click that and that takes you to the homepage. You should know this already. This is where we have dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of deer hunting articles.

I'm writing, Tony Peterson's writing all sorts of folks, Tony Hansen, Alex Gilstrom, Andy May has been in there. Who else. We got a whole bunch of great people that are contributing to this, but really Beaumark Tonics another one who's been writing a lot recently. If you want to get better deer hunting and you're listening to all these podcast episodes and you want to dive deeper, the website is

a great place to go for that. You can also be seeing all this on our newsletter we share every Monday. If you're not subscribed to the wire Done weekly newsletter, that's going to help you find all this. But the point being is that I'm adding this little, quick, little gear section where each month I'm gonna pick a few things that I personally like. And this week we've got this Shooting Month selection. So what I've got feature here

you'll see this. If you go to the website, you'll see this new archery target I just got about a month ago. It's called the M one Matrix archery target. This is like a super heavy duty modular target. So it's this foam. It's this heavy duty foam, but it's in like little um. I guess it's hexagons, Is that right? Six sides one, two, three, four or five? Six? Yes? Six? Is I think hexagon? That's embarrassing if I'm wrong about that, um, But yes, that's correct. So it's a hexagon shaped target.

This comprised of a bunch of smaller hexagon foam pieces. So if you shoot out the central foam hexagon. You can just pop in a new one. You pull one out from the outside, put that one into the center. So it's a pretty nice idea. This one also has a really cool meat either branded kind of bands around the outside. I've been using it, Janice has been using it. I think Joe Rogan has been using it. Uh. And

it's handling everything we're firing at it. And it seems like the kind of target that I could sit outside and keep it out there for years and it's gonna be just fine, super super high durability. I'm digging that. So that's one of my recommendations. If you want to invest in a top end, long lasting, you know, really nice outside target, this seems like a great option. My second pick is first Lights Wick short sleeve T shirt. This is like they're super simple, lightweight wool T shirt.

I'm wearing one right now. It's basically my outfit all summer. I'm either wearing the T shirt or wearing the lightweight hoodie version of this. If I'm out fishing or something, I want to throw the hood over, but the T shirt it's what I wear when I'm out shooting outside. It's just quick drying super comfortable because of that wool, it doesn't get in key, it manages odor really well. So it's just a sweet shirt to wear all summer.

It's uh, if I were gonna want buy one piece to wear for like my offseason white tail stuff, shooting, food, plotting, scouting, this is the thing I'm gonna be wearing all the time. My third recommendation is vortexas Impact one thousand range finder. It's actually on sale starting this week on the Mediator store, so we've got a fifteen percent off discount we can give you guys on this right now. And this is

just like their simple entry line range finder. It's it's all you need in a range finder for bow hunting white tails, but nothing more, and that's what gets it a nice you know for range finders and affordable price point. I think it's one something like that. It's it's gonna work. It's small, it's lightweight, doesn't have all the fancy schmancy dancy stuff that maybe you're gonna want to want if you're shooting a thousand yards, but I'm not shooting a

white tail thousand yards. To check this one out. It just does the job. And the last thing I got through on there was Caldwell's dead Shot Combo shooting bag. This is like a front and back shooting bag. I picked this up last year, I think, and started using it because I don't have like a lead sled. I don't have one of those big fancy things to hold your gun in when you're trying to sit it in

and trying to make sure it's dead on. And as we discussed recently on the podcast, right it's time to get just as serious about really hammering in our fire or mac yourcy as it is with our archery. So it's like, well, I can at least buy some of these shooting bags so I can have a steadier platform when I'm practicing and when I'm studying with my gun. They're only bucks, but they just work. They're simple, they're not too huge and bulky, but they give you that

solid platform when you're trying to shoot. So that's an easy quick investment. If you already don't have something like that, check them out. It's pretty nice, pretty simple. So that's the feature gear for July. Check it out again. It's on the wire Ton homepage over at meat Eater and go to the meat Eater dot com slash Wired Dash two. That's t O Dash Hunt, and I'll update this once

a month with different ideas. I'm sure once we get into hunting season, I'll have some of my favorite gear that I wear during the year or tools I use, and I'll just try to think up of, you know, different useful things that I've been using in the field that you know might be helpful to some of you folks if you're in the market to so check it out. I'll keep you posted. Appreciate you tune in, appreciate checking

out everything we're doing over at meat either. Uh. You know, we're we're constantly trying to find ways to create the best content in the world, but then also fund that entire content mechanism and machine that we're building, pumping out new shows, new podcasts, lots and lots of articles, all to hopefully keep you entertained, help you become a better hunter, and have more fun out there. So that is my little news update. I think with that we should just

get into my chat with Taylor. This is a good one. We dive deep into a whole lot of good stuff. I'm ready to grab my bone and start shooting. I hope you're too. Let's get into it all right with me? Now on the show again for I think appearance number three is my buddy, Taylor Chamberlain, welcome back to Thanks for having me Mark, and you are correct, lucky number three. It's honor every time, but as we keep diving down, it becomes more of a well, hey, I appreciate you

making the time. I think this one's gonna be a really fun one because in the past we've kind of talked all about hunting in the urban environments where you spend your time, and first it was just like, how do you do it? And then the second time was how did I do it with you? And all that crazy stuff that happened, which was very eye opening. And now today, Taylor, I am pulling you into the madness of shooting month here on Wired Hunt. We're doing a

full month all about shooting. How to become a more effective, accurate hunter with a bow or a firearmor, whatever your tool of choices. And I was brainstorming me and Tony Peterson, my buddy, telling me, we're brainstorm but who the right people would be to come on the show for this month.

And you know, there's like termin archers, and there's you know, professional coaches, and there's all these different kind of categories of people who would be worth talking to, right, But we got two thinking maybe the best kind of person to talk to would be someone who has actually shot at and effectively put down, you know, a ton of animals, someone who does this thing that we want to do,

but has done it more than anyone else. Right. I maybe in a good year, maybe I kill five or six year in a year, and that's like a great year for for a lot of people, right, And I only have that many opportunities to go out there and actually practice what I've been or sorry, execute on the thing I've been practicing all year. Right, I don't get a whole ton of opportunities to actually have to go through the whole thing in real life and perform perfectly

what I've been trying to practice for months. So as we started thinking about who does this a lot more than most people, you were the first person that can't mind, Taylor. I think most people know your unique situation out there in d C. But can you give us like the really quick kind of snippet of of what you do as a hunter and how it is that you have more experience killing deer probably than almost anyone I know. Yeah, well, thank you. I'm honored that I was at the top

of a list. That's uh, normally I'm not at the top of good list. That was Yeah, there's other, there's other wedding. Yeah. So yeah, for anybody who doesn't know, I live right outside of Washington, d C. In northern Virginia, and we have an insane deer overpopulation. So where there should be ten to twelve deer per square mile, the best guests, they can't even quantify. The best guess is four and twenty U plus deer per square miles. So we have a huge overpopulation deer, which results in me

being allowed to hunt year round. So we have a year round deer season here to try and reduce the dear numbers. Um, and I hunt year round. Um. I think my wife actually likes it that I'm gone more than i'm home. Best marriage tech, Yeah exactly. I mean, what do you say, what's my best marriage had? This is your best marriage? The fact that you do this? Yeah, I mean, because in in ten years of marriage, I've only been home for two So no, but I mean, you know, I hunt anywhere from from a hundred and

seventy five plus days a year. So literally, you know, if the weather is good, there's a high probability regardless of the day, that I'm in a tree. Um In you know, the hunts are short. I'm walking. If anybody's see what I look like, it's pretty obvious I don't walk far from my truck tree. So I mean, you know we're walking short distances is and um, it's a quick hunt. But because the theory that they're or not.

But um, I'm hunting on properties as small as a quarter acre, and so I have a lot of reps, a lot of opportunities to harvest deer, a lot of successful harvest of deer. Um, it's an imperative that if I do draw my bow and put an arrow in the air, it is a requirement that that arrow hits its mark and puts the animal down as fast as possible. And you know, as sportsmen, we all try to have

deer go down as fast as possible. But for me, the difference in an animal running fifty yards and piling up versus a hundred and fifty yards and piling up is I mean is make or break? Uh? That is that's the difference between an animal getting recovered on property versus me having to go knock on doors and potentially have to pay to have a pool cleaned. Way, if I can do that again, I'm gonna have A'm gonna

need more barren tacks. My wife will be pissed about that. So, um, it's imperative that my gear is dialed and my kid is dialed and me as an archer is absolutely top shape because I can't afford to have any mishaps. So yeah, now that I've lived that experience with you, I know how important it is to not have to go knocking on doors at nine o'clock at night and bothering people in the dark happen From there, you found out firsthand what what can happen. And I mean really, you just

don't know what's behind the door. And and once you've shot a deer and it is nine o'clock at night or ten o'clock at night, like you, it's very hard to be like, I'll just come back tomorrow, right because that animal is has expired. Like you want to get it, you want to recover it, you want uh, you know, unfortunate that we have a great program here like a lot of other states do, but even more uh necessary here where we're feeding the homeless and and the needy

with um with this medicine. So like if I shoot it here, I wanted to go to use and I want to recover it. And it's you know, if you have to go knock on the door at ten o'clock at night, you're probably not getting a favorable response from the person answering the door, regardless of their stance on hunting. But you know, even more so, you just don't know what what's on the other side of the door as far as reception towards who you are and what you're

knocking on the door for. So it's very very important that that deer piles up insight. If you don't see it go down or hear it go down, man, that is like the worst feeling that I could ever imagine having. You just know that something potentially could go wrong. So you've got to execute perfectly, like like more perfectly than almost anybody else, because your margins for error with with all this other kind of halo material around the hunt is so much higher stakes than if I shot a

deer on a hunter aggre farm. So there's that but then you're hunting almost every week of the year. And would you say you're going through this shot process at least every week a year almost or something like that. I mean, this is something you're not just doing a few times. This is something you're doing a lot, right, Yes, absolutely?

And um and I will not draw my bow. And we can get into why I've gotten to this level, but I will not draw my bow and without going through the shot process that we're going to walk through, um here shortly. But I will not put my hand on the release and draw the bow back unless I walk through this process because it's that important and and it's that necessary for a successful harvest as far as

I'm concerned. All Right, So you you kill or harvest whatever, and you say you do this more often more effectively than maybe anybody else I know. But I gotta ask you this, Were you always this good? Are you just ice cold? Do you have like zero uh nerves in your body? Have you always just been built to handle this kind of stress test? Or was there time in the past where you couldn't have performed this way? Absolutely?

I wish that I could say that I was so cool and that I was just had ice water running through my veins. And I was always a star, but no, I was terrible um at archery for a while. So I mean I taught myself how to hunt. I didn't have anybody um along the way that that really showed me the ropes. I mean I listened to a lot of podcasts, I consumed every bit of hunting media possible,

um you know, reading books, magazines, etcetera. And there was a very long and steep learning curve for me to go from you know, a city boy who had never hunted before in his life and had nobody to talk to about hunting, uh, to to the level that I'm

at today. And so I mean that's actually what got me into the hunting industry was that I wanted to try and just put whatever information out there that I could two help anyone out there that was looking for help, because I just wanted to try and shorten somebody's learning curve to not make it as long and real as

mind was. So there was tons and I mean tons of steps along the way that we're learning opportunities or things that I had to learn from of whether it be blowing a hunt or screwing up a shot or miss wading deer's body language and not shooting at the right time or the right placement or um, you know, not letting that deer turn like that extra couple degrees. I mean, really entrenching myself into trying to become the

best hunter that I could be. So it was a long bumpy road with you know, some lost gear, some wounded deer, some uh, some misshots, and you know, I'm I'm proud of the journey that I've taken to get to where I am now, where I couldn't tell you the last time that I lost a gear um or didn't have a deer drop in sight. So I'm kind of proud of getting to the point of hopefully having ice water in my veins. And I mean, you know

people say that, but that's not true. It's really just developing a process that you can rely on in a high stress environment, which is what your body is going through when you're dealing with that a journal and dump of of getting ready to shoot a deer and shooting a deer and um, that's why we do it right and so um yeah, it would be great if it was if I was born this way, but I was certainly was not. It was a difficult journey to say the least. So so you gotta forgive me for forcing

you to dig up past traumas. But I gotta I gotta ask you this. Can you can you think back on some of those early days and point to any single moment maybe or experience that was most either most illustrated your struggles or maybe represented like a turning point where you said, never again, I can't keep screwing this up or I can't ever have this thing happen again. Was there any kind of single hunt or shot or situation that just kind of yes, represented that struggle? To

tell me about that, Tell what that felt like. Tell what happened. When I first started getting into urban hunting, I was out at a property with my buddy Billy, and he was hunting about a hundred yards from me. We got set up and he shot a deer within like within the hour being in the tree, and I was Jack, were like, watch the deer drop, and we're

texting back and forth, and I'm like all excited. And I was set up over um, you know, over a well hub spot, so like you know, the little pipe that comes out of the ground about eighteen inches where it's capped off. And so this particular little little well tap point was leaking. It was dripping water and the deer were coming into it and licking the water out of this little spot and it was a killer spot. Um. And so this deer comes in, I'm all jacked up.

I draw my bow back like as soon as the pin gets on her, I just punched the trigger and just crack and she takes off, and I'm like, yeah, I got one too. I mean, this was like very this might have been my third or fourth urban hunt ever. And the deer runs off, and Billy and I are texting them all excited, and that deer turned into an absolute nightmare recovery. We looked all night for it. Knocking on doors, Uh really had a couple of incredibly piste

off homeowners. One of them ended up calling the cops on me after the fact. So it's a very long story.

I won't get into the minutia of it, but um, I knocked on the door, asked for permission to track, was grand, permission went in and the next day the police are to my house and um, the guy had tried to resend permission and was trying to charge me with trespassing, and I was like, you can't do that, you know, and yeah, you can't, like give me permission and then say no, now you're tress, you know, here's your ticket. Um. But he was a powerful litigator and

was trying to pull some strings. It was just a nightmare the guys. Inevitably, what happened was Guy's wife got pissed that he gave me permission. He was trying to handle it, but that deer was a nightmare and never recovered.

The deer really caused some problems in the h O A UM that Billy had taken me to uh to hunt, and I just felt sick to my stomach on a on a multiple levels, on the fact that I didn't perform when I really wanted to um and just kind of like my own personal disappointment, but even more so than that, the level of disappointment that I felt for like screwing up my buddy's spot, getting in trouble like with the police. I mean I didn't get in trouble, but I having to deal with that, like causing that

issue learning homeowners to the presence. I mean, everything went wrong or was wrong, and I just remember thinking to myself, man, like, you can't do that again, Like you have to make sure that that you're you're hitting these deer perfectly. And I think that that was really important for me because it kind of it led me down the path of like really striving for perfection. And anyone who knows me will will you know, agree that I am super anal.

I'm very detail oriented and I'm always trying to reflect on past hunts to try and figure out how to perfect them in the future. And that's kind of like in a nutshell, why my kid is so dialed, like everything is so so perfect is because if any one little thing goes wrong, that drives me nuts because on oct and I try to fix it for the next time. And I just kind of worked through that system. And so this was like a major thing for me, Like

I lost sleepover it really upset me. And so that was in September, and um, you know, fast forward to November. It's the rut um and I had never shot a decent buck before I killed like a little six pointer. Um, like you know, outside of years, like it probably would have been a future booner like a year and a half,

all the sixth pointer with a muzzle loader. And then I had shot um one buck with my bow, I think, but these were on like farms, and I hadn't really shot like a good urban buck, and I really wanted to shoot just like a decent at the time, Like all, if I could have shot a hundred and eight pointer, I probably would have mounted it like I was. So that's just where all I wanted was an eight pointer

or better. And Um, this absolute giant hundred and forty plus eight pointer, you know, Monday man like a sticker off his rights to two. But I I didn't even pay attention. Comes kind of just trotting through in the middle of the day right under me. Um, and I was completely unprepared. I grabbed my bow and I'm like mat Matt, Like before I know it, I'm at full draw and arrows in the air and it's over his back and he's gone. And I sat on my phone.

This is funny. I had a BlackBerry at the time, and I was playing that brick Breaker game on it. Brick Breaker was the greatest tree stand time passing thing ever and those Blackberries battery life is just amazing. But I was playing brick Breaker and I almost threw my phone out of the stand, and instead of throwing my phone out of stand, I sat down and I wrote down a note and I called it Taylor's requirements to

come to full draw in the tree stand. And I wrote like a dissertation to myself of like you will, I mean like literally like in order to come to full draw, you must and you will and and um, you know those are kind of like the backbone notes that have have really kind of grown over time. But the the kind of general sense of it was like, this is not You're not gonna put in the amount of time and effort and dedication that you're doing to this to just go f it up, and you need

to like make sure that this never happens again. And that was really like the combination of that dough hunt and then missing that buck like just drove me berserk. And um, I still live by those rules today, right, Like, UM, I really make a point to I will not shoot a deer if things are not perfect, and I will not shoot a deer if if I don't go through these steps to take from from the moment that my hand touches the riser of my bow until the until

that shot breaks. You know, I have an exact um process that I go through, and you kind of got to witness some of that firsthand. So we hunted together one day and we had a pretty crazy hut, like their deer everywhere, there's chaos everywhere. Um, and you know, we had a deer come by rated you know, within legal shooting light, but towards the last like five minutes of it, I'd say, and she wasn't like twenty two yards twenty four yards. I guarantee you I put a

shot that deer and killed it. However, it was not perfect. There was a lot of stuff going on and you know, sometimes the best shot you can take is not taking a shot at all. And you know, I remember when that deer left, You're like, why why didn't you shoot it? I'm like, man, that there's too much going on here and and the way like looking at her body language and what's going on, and um, it just wasn't right.

And so but you know, that's how I've gotten to that point, is like I've screwed up along the way, and I've said these rules for myself and I'm just not gonna do it unless it's unless it's perfect, because I've just experienced the the wrong side of it enough to know what can happen. And man, you might have just said the most important thing that we'll hear all month, the very most important thing that maybe everyone needs to get right down and not forget. Is it Sometimes the

very best shot is no shot at all. I mean, how many of us have felt rushed into a shot we shouldn't have taken, or like the pressure, I can't let this moment get away. I gotta take the shot. I mean, there's so many different examples of times where I'm sure we can look back and say, man, she should have held off. You can never get that arrow back.

I mean I can point to many. Um. I mean that is so important right there, regardless of any improvements you make to your shot process, just knowing that you don't need to take the shot and sometimes you shouldn't when it's not right. I mean, that is that is so important, because the the bad stuff that comes from

a bad shot is just not worth it. It's just not And and every time, I mean, I you know, I know a lot of um you know hunters and our little urban hunting community here, and I help out a lot on um you know, times where people lose

the deer, can't find a deer, or whatever. And I would say, you know, almost a percent of the time, like percent of the time, when I meet up with somebody who's having trouble recovering a deer and I asked them, I'm like, Okay, so what happened, They're like, man, I just you know, they'll tell you their story, but it's always the same in the sense of they rushed the shot or they they felt like they had to take

a shot at that moment um. And you know, I'm I'm convinced, like we're all predators, right like we we wouldn't be here if either we are direct ancestors or

somebody down the line weren't good hunters. And we kind of have these like subconscious predatory feelings like you know what to do, and if you have to force yourself to take a shot when you're when you're everything and he is telling you like like there's a reason for that, you need to listen to it and not be like no, like I've got to shoot him down, you know, because

that's when bad stuff always will happen. And maybe it'll work out once or twice, but statistically, in for for some trouble at some point, so just don't do it all right. So, there's a lot of stuff you touched on there that I want to dive deep into. I really want to. I really want to know what Taylor Chamberlain's dissertation on when to draw the bow and and what all those perfect factors need to be are. Um. But maybe let's let's start where I think maybe this begins,

and then advance our way to that. So, since you had this kind of season from hell where you realize you had to figure this thing out, was was was your gear choice and tuning and kind of perfecting your gear set? Was that a big part of that process?

I thought? Absolutely? So. So there are a couple you know, hunting is part of what makes hunting cool is there's stuff you can control, like where you're sitting, how you got in there, what you smell, like, the time you got there, like all these things that you can control. But there's a bunch of stuff you can't control, like the deer and you know, in my in my my area, like what's going on around you. And so I tried to maximize my opportunity to harvest the deer by perfecting

what I can control. And so when I thought about it, one of the things that I can control is my bow. My bow can be as perfectly optimized as possible. My arrow can be as as perfectly built as possible. It can be designed and set up two to have the highest efficiency or the most forgiving both tune but also like weight and everything set up. And my body, me is the shooter could be optimized both mentally and physically

to shoot a deer. And so I set out to educate myself on all of those factors and then get the bow dialed, hit the You know, have an archery site that was perfected. I had an arrow rest that had the lowest probability of failure. I had a arrow that was designed and cut and and made to be perfect, you know, even down to like my bow drawing. I mean, so I'm a I'm a big guy, just like you are. Mark.

I mean, I'm you know, six to I could I can comfortably shoot a bow at a thirty one in straw length, And if I was a tournament archer, I would be shooting a bow at a thirty one in straw length. However, I mean having that having your wingspan absolutely maximized for me, and I think it's it's kind of highlighted because I have really broad shoulders. But I mean that's not where I wanted to be in a

tree stand. So I even kind of dialed down. I fluctuated from like a twenty nine and a half in straw length to where I am now, which is like just a Scotia over thirties, so like thirty and a quarters where I like around my bows at. But I

mean I went into the weeds on that. And so for anybody out there that's looking to like maximize their set up, you know, getting a bow that is is a newer age bow, so it doesn't even have to be like a you know, a brand new flagship bow, but like just the current bow technology out there, all

the brands are awesome. Just get one that has, you know, within your budget, and buying a used one that's a year or two old is a great way to go about it if you're tight on cash or if you want to kind of like get the maximum um value out of something, because they're all really good, but just get one that has a smooth draw cycle, that has maximum efficiency for uh speed, right, And that's where so you know, like the older single cam model bows were

a little slower. But what what I'm looking for now is like a newer The newer bows, the technology is so good and they're easier to tune, they hold a tune better, um and and especially with dual cams, you're

able to get more energy transferred into the era. So what I'm looking for is the most efficient bow to tune, uh, and also one that will hold its tune for the longest, because I mean, a race car is no good it if it's only firing all cylinders the second that you take the wrenches off of it, and then it kind of goes to crap after um. And then I want the most energy transferred into the arrow possible, So I want the least amount of energy loss from from my

draw cycle into the arrow. And that's where the tuning really comes in, is you're trying to perfect arrow flight because that arrow is what's absorbing the energy, which is obviously what makes it fly down range. Right. So um,

you know, any modern bow, we'll check this box. And and it's really important for people to go out and shoot the bows, like I would recommend that people don't go out and just max out, Like, you know, I have a buddy who loves to shoot an eighty pound bow because I think he just likes telling people he's shooting eighty pounds, right, I would love to see him draw his bow in February when there are nine does underneath of him and you're trying to shoot one and

you have like eight layers of clothes on because it's twelve degrees out right, Like, that's very, very difficult to do. There are times that you know, if I see a deer coming in in that same scenario, like I know that I need to draw early, and I like, I know that when I'm drawing my boat that I'm gonna have to hold my draw for I don't know, maybe like ninety seconds or so, just because by the time there's deer get into where they need to be, I'm gonna be exposed on the side of the tree and

and any movement will cause there's deer to bust. Right. So, um, having the most efficient setup that you can have might be a boat. That's fine. Like with modern technology, you're better off with something you can draw smoothly, like horizontally and easily. Then you are cranking up the weight and putting the performance setting on like on your boat, to

where it's a very harsh draw cycle. So so when you're maximizing your bow, you just want to make sure that you have something that you can draw smoothly, that you're able to practice with a lot. That's the other thing is like if you have an eighty pound bow and it hurts your shoulder to draw more than seven times, like, how many reps are you getting? Probably not a lot.

And and we'll get down the road to that. Uh. But you know, for for perfecting your equipment, you want to make sure that it's you know, a relatively efficient bow. So anything built past like two two thousand five probably fits into this box, you know. Um and and but make sure you've got new strings on it, good high quality strings, and then learn about the bow to where

you can tune it. And so the next step that I like to go through is I super tune all my bows and um for anyone who doesn't know, basically, that's trying to get the arrow to fly as perfectly as possible. And so I go through a pretty long process of bear shaft tuning uh and and getting that bow dialed as as perfect as a can to where like I can take it some bear shafts and I can shoot them at forty yards and have them just

hitting like in a softball size hole. And so that to me, I know that I could screw any broadhead on the front of that to have it fly well. But really what that's telling me is that that arrow is leaving the bow as perfect and cleanly as possible, so that when it does hit something in the event that it hits bone, it's going to be pushing through as straight as possible to really have that momentum and kinetic energy to pull it through as opposed to potentially

deflect off. And so the general theme that people will notice and all of my stuff is I'm trying to to tune or prepare for an absolute worst case scenario and have success still in that worst case scenario. So like, if you shoot a dear through the heart, it's gonna run. Well, that's a bad example because I actually have found that if you shoot deer through the heart, they run further than the lungs. But if you put one right through the through the lungs, you know they're going forty yards

and they're dying. Um, if you smash one in the knuckle, or that dear drops a little, or you catch shoulder blade that I want to punch through. That I don't want to have to be a probability or increased probability for failure in the same vein though, if that deer takes a step and I hit it through like the back of the lungs or you know, I want to make sure that I have a maximized surface area for punching it through as well, and that my gears dialed

for that. So for the bow set up, we want to make sure that that's as as optimized as possible. It's tuned. That also comes along with, you know, I like a multi pin site or the fact to know that the pin that is set up on there is exactly where it needs to be. Um, I will not shoot over twenty yards, however, I still like to know that if that, you know, something happens like I can adjust, uh and and get an arrow at thirty yards or thirty five yards or whatever. I just like having those

there's fixed things. If you're a guy that wants to a single pin because the site picture totally fine, uh, you know, just practice with it when it's set on the set yardage to then know where your holdover is to where it ends up being no different than you throw in a baseball if somebody is like standing at a certain distance and you never think, okay, that person is ft away, I need to throw this ball at you. Of my capability or whatever, you just do it. Um.

So that's what I'm looking for on site stuff. And then from there, the only other component of the bow is you, and so I try to maximize my my form. I practice a lot with my grip. I want to know that that my anchor points are perfect. So I like to anchor. I shoot a hand hold hold them less time out, last time out. I don't want to get right there yet. Before I touched a few more things on the bow because I want to go really deep into your whole anchoring and all that kind of stuff.

But but with a bow, one thing that we did I didn't hear yet. One thing I didn't hear about yet was the styles of bows. Now, there's a lot of bows that are shooting for being really fast and lightweight for like a mountain hunter, or there's some that are longer but heavier, and there's you know, different brace heights and different things like that, and when it comes to what you're trying to do, just it's quickly and effectively kill a deer and get on the ground faster

and more consistently than anything else. What about a few of those other bow factors? Do you prefer, like a longer axle to axle, which is something I hear can make you more forgiving or stable or anything on those notes when it comes to pick in the right boone, Yes, I really that kind of gets down to personal preference. I think a lot because, um, you know, I've shot

short axcellent axle boat. The current trend in archery um for the trend in archery a while ago had smaller cams on the bows, and so when you got those in actually accel burs with those small cams on it, the string angles got really, really really tight, especially for a guy like me who's got a over thirty inch drawing Like most of them couldn't even get there mathematically. Now the cams are getting bigger, which allow for a smoother draw cycle because they're getting more rounded, right, but

they also that allows for a higher string angle. So if you measured like the Matthews, you know, nine inch bow right now, out the combination of those bigger cams with that longer riser that they're able to do because these these limbs now are past parallel at rest um. It really allows you to get a much longer string

angle with a shorter a T A bow. So if you're a guy and you're gonna be white tail hunting only um and and you know you have an under thirty and strawling, there's no problem shooting a shorter a T A bow. Me personally, I like to have like a thirty thirty three T a UM with those bigger camps on it. It's just something that I prefer. I like those those longer um that's slightly wider string angle. But that being said, I was shooting Billy's bow tex

CP yesterday. I loved it so because even though it's a I think it's there's a lot more going into these string angles that allow for it to be a little deceiving when you think of just the axle to axle bo if that makes sense. So um, it's really important. And this is like the age old adage of like go to your pro shop, go shoot a bunch of bows and figure out which one that you like, Like do not have a preconcy brand notion when you're going into the pro shop as to like, oh, I'm going

to go buy or whatever. It's like figure out what you shoot well and what you like, because um, all the options out there are great. I mean, so this year I had a lot of fun and I picked up a flagship bow from every brand. So I have the po Tex, the Hoits, Um, the Elites, the Matthews, and the PC and they're all absolutely spectacular. I mean, they all have different feelings. UM, to your point, some are a little lighter. Obviously, the lighter ebo is the

more potential for vibration there is. The heavier bow, the more master is to absorb vibrations. So therefore you know it's more dead in hand. But generally, um, but just some of the technologies on the bows are spectacular. I think that the deadlock system that's on the bow tech is the coolest thing ever for tuning a bow, just from the sense of um, for anyone doesn't know, the deadlock technology is this warm drive system. So like when I'm tuning a Matthews or an Elite on Elites about

example right now, because they have some similar technology. But um, look at the new hoids. You have to shim those over, so the matthews have If you're UM trying to move the am on the axle in order to accommodate for like imperfect arrow flight, the best way to do that is to to move the cam around a little bit. And so UM, you would have to press that bow, take the cam out, take the axle out, change the bar matthews the top hats around, which slightly will move

that that cam around. UM. But the boat te technology, it's really just a set screw, and so I think that's really cool, just because I think that will help a lot more people get more comfortable with tuning their bow because a lot of people, UM are intimidated by the thought of pressing the boat, taking the axle out, and and shooting those cams around whatever. It's intimidating. I mean, UM, it took a lot for me to want to do that.

But the reason that you want to do that is once you set the center shot of your bow with the rest. So once you have that rest at like sixteenth of an inch, UM, you want to keep it there because that's the main power stroke. And so by moving those cams slightly you're still keeping that power stroke in the optimal spot. Now, once you've shimmed them around and you go out and you're you know, you're bear shaft tuning at like thirty yards, Well you're gonna make

one click on the rest. Generally that's not that big a deal. But really with this technology, you can move that that cam over I mean like six fourth or an inch and it's no problem. So I think that's really cool technology that is available now and it'll be

interesting to see how that progresses. But um, you know, that was a very long winded answer of go to your bow shop and shoot the bows and figure out what a t a length that that you want and also what what draw weight you want, because depending on the draw cycle of the bow that you pick some that are harsher, that are stiffer up front, you might want that to be a little lighter. As smoother drawing bow that gradually builds, you might be able to draw

more weight. So that's positive as well. Yeah. So so on this line of you know, tweaking and tuning your setup, one thing that we haven't touched on yet, which which is a very trendy point discussion these days, is arrows, arrow style, weight, all that kind of stuff, and then and then broadheads too. Of course, the perpetual argument over broadheat styles and all that. Where where have you settled on those? What are the criteria that you're looking for

to get that absolute most perfect, effective, fast killing tool. Yep. Um, So, arrows are obviously the most important component of your system because if, regardless of how awesome your bow is, if you're shooting a crappy arrow, then you're set up is crappy, right, So, and that includes your your broadhead as well. But um, I like a very heavy arrow. I like a uh not a super micro diameter, but the smallest diameter, like a medium kind of or medium small, I guess you

could say. So, I've been shooting the day six arrows. I absolutely love them for a couple of reasons. I find that they are very very straight, um, and I like their component system. And we can kind of get into too why I like that component system in a minute. But what I do is I take a blank arrow shaft and I will spin each arrow shaft and look at the sides. And what I'm trying to do is

cut the worst out of the arrows. So, um, you know, people probably don't know that when when you buy an arrow that's a point zero zero one arrow, well, that's only a point zero zero one inches out of rack over. I think the standard in the industry is eighteen inches of the arrow, so it could be way out outside of that. But at some point of eighteen inches within that thirty two arrow, blank is is you know, point zers or one straight? Um? I believe that the only

companies in the industry I could be. I'm probably wrong about this, and I'm sure somebody will email in practice, but I know that Black Eagle measures the whole arrow, the shaft, and I know that day six measures the whole arrow shaft UM. And so what that leads to is a straighter arrow out of the box. If you're a guy that's got a straw length straw length, it really it's less relevant for you because you're cutting six

or five inches out of that arrow. For me having a thirty inch straw length, you know, I only have two inches to play with, UM get out of that entire shaft that I'm cutting out. So I need to find the straightest shaft I can because the straighter it is from a starting point leads to a um light or finished products. So I spent them. I figure out which side. Sometimes it's both sides are a little wobbly, but I mark where I'm cutting from, and so I'll

either make one cut or two cuts. But I think a lot of guys don't take the time to build their arrows out, and they really should, because especially if you're only shooting you know, one deer that year, three year that year. I mean, like that's a lot of effort that you're putting into your deer season and you're putting all that on the shoulders of arrow or a couple of arrows, Like don't you want those to be the most perfect arrows possible? Um? I know I would.

I mean it's it's important to take the time and do it. Um. Do you want me to go into the process of how I build arrows or just why I I do it the way I do and what I use? Give us like a give us, like the short ish version of how you do the build and why? Um, because I think that's probably there's a segment of folks that would be interested in getting deep on that. So let's hear that, but let's not do an hour of it.

So so once. Once I mark where the worst is on the arrow, the part that's spinning out's wobbling, I'll mark to cut that off, and I will either cut from one side or two sides, depending on what that shaft needs. So I just have a silver sharpie. It's pretty easy to just scribble on it. Once you cut those, it's important to square birth ends of the shaft off

and then clean the carbon dust out of them. And so what I'm doing, I'm squaring them off so that you know either the knock or the broadhead that's on there is matching up perfectly. Square the knocking. It's very important obviously because if the air energy isn't getting transferred equally onto the back, then it could affect arrow flight.

And then obviously the broadhead, if it's wobbling, it's not gonna fly true, So very important to square those up, uh, and then I clean out all that carbon dust because if you have a bunch of carbon dust in there, you're not going to have good adhesion of the um glue that goes in there. So the Day six heads in particular, I like because of the fact that they have this insert outsert system. So it's an insert that goes into the carbon arrow, but the outsert collar goes

on the outside. And so what that does that I really like, it's two things. One, when I put that head together, I put a little bit of glue. It's screws together the exterior collar and the inside. So I put a little bit of glue on that and screw it together so they're bonded before they go in. And then what I'll do is when you put the glue in it and squeeze it in by using that insert part.

By going into the arrow, you're using the interior straightness of the arrow, which is easier to get straighter than the exterior, so you have a higher likelihood of that collar going on perfectly square. But then that exterior collar helps too, because not only is it protecting the arrow, it's holding the outside straight now, so what you're doing

is you're getting a much flusher mount straight. And then what's even cooler is you get this like reverse vacuum effect when you do that, So the glue that's in there ends up squirting out on the inside of that collar, and you have this amazing adhesion both on the inside and outside. So in Layman's terms, what I'm doing is I'm getting a collar that's super stuck on and very square and and it's just I'm trying to make them

as bullet proof arrow possible. So I'm shooting like a five grain arrow, um, and I'm shooting that with about an eight fo C. And I've found that to be a really really good sweet spot for me. So my bows will shoot that around two seventy five second um.

And I just find that there's not much that that, uh, that that can hit and not be just very deadly to There's not much it's not going to punch through and if anything, And and also you know what people I think don't also realize is the quieter or excuse me, the heavier your arrow is, the quieter your bow is because there's less energy that's not getting absorbed by that arrow. So uh, and it also makes an arrow fly much truer.

So um again, I'm increasing my my my probability for a harvest and trying to increase my my kind of bailout zone, if you will, by doing that. The final component then, though, to that arrow is what you screw onto the end of it. Uh. What's your criteria for the absolutely most defective broadhead for your type of hunt. So I've been through all different schools of thought and

um on broadheads I've shot for a while. I shot expandables, I shot the I shot the I like the rear deploying expandables because I think that that uses less energy than over the top expandable. Um. However, my concern with an expandable is if you hit bone to our toast generally even got blades breaking off or um, yeah, you're not gonna get penetration. So if you hit back on

an animal, then you're great. And so some guys would be like, well, I just need to make sure I'm not going to hit bone, Okay, Like I understand that school thought, but you can't ensure that that's going to happen, right, And so I don't want to have half of the animal exposed to playing defense and actually potentially winning. So I shoot a big fixed blade head. So um, when I'm looking at a fixed blade head, I really want the maximum kind of like unity on it. I wanted

to be as strong as possible. The two heads I really like. I like the Day six head a lot um. I like the way that the blade is shaped. I like that it's solid because it there aren't events there to catch wind and make a lot of noise. And part of the reason that I go through the tuning process that I do is to be able to shoot the biggest head possible. And also, I mean again, I'm

not shooting sixty yards. When I go out west on a hunt, I will shoot a different head generally than one I'm shooting in the burbs, um, because I know they're like a six yard shot ad R shot might be a possibility, um, but in the burb specifically, I like the day six head. They have a eco X It's at one point to five inch and I shoot that with a three quarter inch bleeder on it, and I mean that puts a pretty pretty gnarly hole through anything. UM. I also like the the Slick Trick heads, the Grace

Trick two's. Um. Those are an Internet quarter by an Internet quarter cut. And so what I found is that you can actually get a bigger hole with those two heads than one. An expandable would give you so more blood loss, more trauma rapidly. However, um, it will also blow through bone if you hit it, and if you happen to hit an animal back or not hit one where you want it. You have more forgiveness in your in your shop place because of that big hole. So I I really like a fixed blade head. Um. I

shot the ram cats for a little while. I like the ram cats a lot, the grains with the bigger cutting diameter, But what I did not like about those was the blades are are literally so big. They're hard to get in and out of a quiver and if you like pull back on one a little bit, the blade will will kind of kick back and then it's loose. So um, I end up pulling those those out. But the slick tricks are awesome, and the day six heads

are awesome as well. I really like the steel that's used in the Day six heads, and they are tough

as hell. I had one broad head that I wanted to see how many critters I could shoot with it last year, and I think I got into like over twentysome deer with one head before it finally broke the tip when it blew through the deer and hit a chunk of granite on the back side of the courts I mean, excuse me, on the back side of the deer, and that broadhead went into that quartz rock and split it, and when I dug it out that the tip had broken off like like just kind of slightly very impressive

for what it had done. Um, but with that setup, that allows me to actually shoot gear in the lower front pocket. And so I will literally, like knowingly, if I'm on a tight property, pop that deer through its front kind of landing gear, if you will. So it renders the front legs useless and they then kind of snowplow off kind of like when a fighter jet lands

on a aircraft carrier. Like That's what I'm going for, is like they're using their chest to stop them so they don't have their front legs to where they can run off further. Yeah. Yeah, thats uh. Last gear question. A lot of talk these days about releases. It's something I've been bouncing around out a lot recently. Is I've been trying to change things and figure stuff out and

improve my whole system. Where do you land on releases and balancing the ease of use of some versus the way some will force you nut to punch the trigger versus all the other criteria. Yeah. So, um, I love shooting a hinge, So I shoot a handheld release. I got to shooting a handheld release because I did not like having a wrist release on my wrist to where I clank around while I'm climbing up the tree um

or have a potential for noise. And I also I didn't want to get caught in a scenario where I'm playing on my phone and a gear comes in and now I have to like move my camera over, grab my bow and fishness release out of my collar or whatever. So, UM, I love shooting a hinge, but I have yet to find a way to comfortably let my hinge like rest on my de loop while I'm high. Um. And so I just previously I would just hunt with a regular thumbheld thumb button release and make sure I shot it well.

But um, like other people, I've suffered from target panic over the years and really kind of worked through that. And and we'll kind of get to that when we talked about the shooting process. But UM, I recently picked

up a couple of resistance releases. So for me, my like overall theory is if I cannot have to think about the back half of my shot process, whether that be squeezing a trigger or ray taking a release or whatever you're doing, I can just kind of like have a a macro feeling if you will, in that back half. But so uh that from my hinge, that's just kind of like slowly pulling on my ring finger and then it just breaks right. Um. With a resistance release, it's

just kind of pulling back. Whether it's up to the individual archer what they like to think about, but for me, I want like a big body movement back there. That's all I want to think about, because then I can just kind of subconsciously be doing that and aim. And so I picked up some of these newer stand resistance releases, and I absolutely love them. They clip on the bow, they have a safety mechanism, so I know they're not going to go off unless they um are told to

do so. And uh, for me, I can just focus on on my shot process and not have to. I'm eliminating the probability or the potential for punching the trigger and so that's me is a big deal. But big caveat big asters on that. If you're going to do that, you have to practice and put in the time. You cannot just roll out to the woods with a resistance

or hinge release. And and try to hunt with it, because I think like, even for me, in the first couple of times that I shot deer with it, Uh, there was this weird feeling of like, I know, I want to shoot now, but it's not shooting, and um, it can make some panics set it. So, Uh, if you're gonna do it, I highly recommend it, But it takes time and practice before you're ready to just go climate tree and hunt work them. Yeah, well let's talk

about that. Then let's talk about practice. You've got your bow tune, You've got your gear set up just perfect. Uh, next thing is is getting ready for the season and really fine tuning you the shooter. What are you doing to take that to a different level? Yep, once your years too. I will not shoot an arrow even in

practice without going through my shot process. I would rather shoot twenty arrows in a in a shooting session that are perfect and then go shoot a hundred arrows where I'm actually ingraining bad habits into my my my process because I'm just like flinging arrows, right. And so that's the most common mistake I see people make is they're just going out to shoot, but they're not shooting with

a purpose. And every time you're out practicing, your purpose should be kind of like honing your skill set or sharpening your sword, if you will, for hunting. So I go through my shot process every single time that I'm shooting an arrow, and I would highly highly recommend and suggest that anybody listening to this does the same because it will make it that much easier to kind of flip into kill mode when you're ready to do so. Um. So when I go out shooting, I'm taking my time.

I'm I'm really focusing on my form. I'm focusing on on my process and making sure that it's as perfect as possible. And I'm burying my yardages as well. And and the last thing that I'll say is like practice like you play, right. I mean, I'm a big savo hunter. I will I have a tree set up in my yard where I climb up in a tree. I'll bring like five arrows up and I'm gonna shoot five perfect errors. I'm not trying to just bring fifty arrows up there

and just fling them right. Um, And and practice your weaknesses, right. So the last thing that I want to do is have a deer come in at a certain spot when I'm in the saddle and be like, oh no, you know, I want to have a deer standard spot and be like licking my chops, like, hell yeah, I've practiced this a billion times. That guy's toast. I mean confidence is key, um in all of this, So try and kind of work through. What I do is I I figure out where I'm weakest, and I practice that the most, and

then um and then practice all around. So I'll kind of like take my saddle even if I'm only two ft off the ground, like I'm just one stick up with my platform there, I'll clip in and I'll shoot it, you know, ten o'clock, I'll shoot it. Nine o'clock, I'll drop around to eight. I'll throw a deer targeting over at like three o'clock and I'll spin around and shoot that. But I don't ever want to be in a scenario

in the woods that intimidates me. I want to have the confidence that, like, if if that dear that I'm chasing shows up, he is toast because I've put in the work and and I know that, uh, that I'm capable of being successful. It's almost practice. Do you think is enough? Taylor? Like, what's that amount to keep you a finely tuned machine. Um, well, I think that varies

by the individual. But for me, if i have a couple practice sessions a week, then I'm good and and I think that I'm kind of an anomaly because I'm shooting gear every week, right, so I don't ever have an office. Um, if I did have an off season, I would say that there's a lot of work required two kind of hone your skill set and get back to um like hunt ready form. So but the fact that I'm able to go out and and shoot a couple of geer a week, you know, I'm always kind

of at peak form. But um, people should have kind of a game plan for getting geared up for the season and you know, develop your system, figure out what your shot process is going to be. And then I'd say shooting two to three times a week at the appropriate practice level is what would be required to get to that that like peak performance special forces kind of

hunter mindset. Now what about you know practice. It's it's interesting because there's certain elements that practice is really good for, like this the generic stand in the backyard, shoot some arrows, Like there's a certain just you gotta have your muscles, you know, feeling right. They need to be getting enough reps just so that your body can do the things

that needs to do. But then there's this other side of practice, which I think is maybe a little bit more mental, which is how can you practice for the mental stress of a high pressure, real dear situation. Is there anything you do in your practice sessions UM to help you simulate and prepare for the moment of truth different than just shooting twenty I think I think shooting tournament archery is the greatest way for people to put

themselves under stressful situations and figure out how to perform. So, I mean, you know, there's no difference in trying to shoot like a perfect three five spot game or going to shoot three D with your buddies and you know, feeling that pressure and wanting to be successful. So I'll shoot a lot of three D stuff. I mean, I'm not like a I don't compete in three D tournaments. But I'll go out with my buddies and I'll bring my range finder and like I have my chest rigg

on like I would hunt with. I'm ranging targets, UM drawing, and I'm going through my shot process and we're all competing, and and that kind of stress level is fantastic to put yourself in over and over again to figure out what you do under under stress so that when the time comes, you know you're not you're not likely to do it, or at least you've practiced through what you're

kind of flaws are. So for me, when I'm in a stressful environment, I tend to get really quick, so um, whether that be in like you know, terament archery, ternament golf, whatever, like, I get very quick, and I try to like do it right. And that's where I think a lot of guys rush their shot. Um. And so I'm always just repeating stay calm, like I'm telling myself different mantras to calm myself down and and relax and kind of enjoy

the moment. And if you think about it, like we all worked our butts off all season to get to that moment. You've planted food, plots, you put in the scouting time, you woke your ass up at four o'clock on the boarding, you walked out to this spot, like you did all these things for this one split second, like enjoy it, savor it right. And it's easy to think back on that and then and listen to it. And there are a lot of guys in their car

right now or mowing their yard or whatever. They're like, yeah, yeah, well hopefully they're still listening. Uh stuff. But you know, like there you need to enjoy that moment and uh and like really kind of tell yourself that over and over again for when the time comes. You mentioned a few times during your practice that you know you're not going to shoot a single arrow unless you perfectly execute your entire shooting process. So what is that entire shooting process?

Both the actions you take, but then also like is there any specific mantras for different parts of your process? Are there any words or cues or anything like what what happens physically and mentally from the moment you decide okay, I'm going to shoot this target of this animal to the moment after the air is gone. Yep. So it all starts with your grip. So any time that I put my hand on the bow, you know, I know exactly where I want the pad of my thumb to

be in relation to that grip. So when I'm grabbing a bow, I have a kind of a feeling where I'll slide my hand a little bit left, a little bit right to just verify that the bow is exactly where I wanted to be. So hand goes on bow, my release is on, so I know kind of where I want that release in the channels of my fingers, and I'm really just locking in a feeling, right, And that's a feeling that can only be created by a

boatload of reps and knowing where you want it. But you just wanted to be in that natural, comfortable spot that you've been great. So I then will draw the bow, and again I'm I'm using a uh handheld release. So with that handheld release, my pointer finger and my middle finger create like a little V. And so I'll run that V down my jawline and I'm looking for multiple points of contact or reference points to anchor right, so

I will come to full draw. My fingers go to underneath my jaw and over my jaw and they get to a spot where, uh, you can't miss. It's where my jaw was broken because I was running my mouth to bar one night. So my finger kind of drops into that channel, my nose goes on the string, and I know that that is now absolutely perfect full draw, right, um, from that spot. I repeat the exact same thing over and over and over again, whether it be shooting an animal,

three D target, five spot target, whatever. Uh. And I always say the first thing I say is calm down, pick a spot. And so I will start repeating calm down, pick a spot from the second I see a deer starting to walk in and you feel your heart rate spiking up, right, So I just keep telling myself calm down, pick a spot, Calm down, pick a spot. And I kind of like breathing through my nose, slowly breathe out

of my mouth. I'm I'm calming myself down. Um. And I know kind of subconsciously that that also is telling myself like, do not rush this, enjoy that moment, kind of all that stuff that we just talked to. So and when I'm saying pick a spot, um, I went

through some target panic for a while. I also went through like improper shot placement or or maybe a better way to say that would be trying to perfect my shot placement and really kind of analyze like why that, what happened with that harvest, and what could have made it better? Um. And so I used to aim for the exit on the animal, and I found that that was a good way to describe it. But but what that led to for me were still some shots that

I felt like I could improve on. And so what I now focus on for the last couple of seasons that I think is really helpful is I kind of envision the deer's legs as like little chopsticks, right, and they're holding up a um like a dinner plate size beach ball, and so those are the vitals. And I literally will envision on that deer where the where the

heart is sitting. And if you kind of like look with your hands and do that right now and think about a deer um anywhere they're facing, you can kind of see that that little beach ball in between their legs, right. And so for whatever stupid reason, that visualization for me is really helpful. And so all I try to do is pop that beach ball. And so I'm saying, calm down, pick a spot, calm down, pick a spot, and I'm looking for the spot that I want to put through

to absolutely annihilate that beach ball um. And it's funny over the years, like some camera guys that have come and hunt with me, anyone that knows me. I'm like a super jervial person. I'm always kind of joking around. I'm I'm pretty um yeah, pretty boastful and just like a fun, playful person. And every time these camera guys are around when I shoot a deer, they're like, dude, you even to like kill mode, um, where like a switch is flipped and I'm I'm not joking around, And

there really shouldn't be any joking around. You're taking an animal's life and you need to do that as professionally and appropriately as possible. But like I take it extra seriously where when I'm in kill mode and um, so I kind of flipping that switch when I see a critter and I'm like, calm down, pick a spot, calm down, pick a spot. Um. And so I'm watching that beach ball, I come to full draw. I watch my um, yeah,

once I picked that spot. I think of remember back in like the late nineties, there's like golf war movies where they had the laser guided missiles and so there'd always be some like some team on the ground that was like fighting to paint the target with the laser. So I think of my my my pin as a laser guiding missile thing. And this is like the stupid way that my brain kind of associates these things. But so once I picked that spot, I do not take

my eyes off of it. I mean, I might like look around and try to read the other deer around this animal's body language. But I'm burning a hole through that spot that I have picked. And so once I pick a spot, I say to myself. Painted. And so I'm painting that spot with that laser guided missile and I'm just letting it float all around that that spot, and I'm just saying, you know, pick a spot, paint it. And I keep repeating, paint it, paint it, paint it

until it's painted. And I'm comfortable with my float. And this is all stuff that you pick up in you know, heavy practice doing this. And then I say to myself, keep it painted while you pull, pull, pull, pull, And all I'm feeling is just a very gradual pressure increase on that release as a whole. And so I know that I'm pulling and pulling and pulling and pulling, and then it just, you know, next thing, you know, that arrow hits home and it's just an absolutely perfect shot.

And so, um, what I'm really doing is I'm trying to. I'm focusing on my follow through by telling myself to keep it painted while you pull pull, pull, pull, pull, and I just repeat pull until the shot breaks to prevent myself from rushing it. Do you ever find yourself in the midst of that or leading into that and still feeling nerves or buck fever or any of that increased adrenaline? Is there anything else you do when all of a sudden like something feels different? Or have you

done this enough that it never feels different? And that process always addresses any physical aspects of excitement. So I mean, I'm the day that I shoot a deer and I feel nothing. I will never shoot another deer, um, because I feel like I'm crossed over into some there that happens, right, But like, um, you know, we're out there for the hunt, for the for the enjoyment, and the harvests are part of that hunt. Um. I feel I get butterflies, whether it's by first or you know, hundred plus dear of

the year. Like I'm I'm feeling those nerves. I'm feeling those butterflies and feel that adrenaline by repeating those mantras, I find it prevents me from letting my subconscious kind of kicking and start being like, WHOA, don't do this, don't do that, right, Like you're you're able to kind of suppress the potential negative stuff by focusing on on your actions and so um, you know, I played golf

in college. We did a lot of stuff with like sports psychologists, and they always say that focusing on the process is the best way to deal with stress and deal with high pressure environments. And so I'm immersing myself in the process of picking the spot, burning a hole through it with my eyes, painting it with my pen, and then pulling, pulling, pulling, pulling to prevent any negative or or like thoughts creeping in that I don't want to have, however, and that really helps with that buck

fever target panic. And you know, the last thing you want to do is see like some giant one six time in and be like, oh, man, like when I put him on my wall, wait to call my buddies. I'm gonna do him with a semi sneak pose like like, you need to focus on on the process at hand, immerse yourself in it, and worry about all that other crap. Later, um, you know, do not do not just um, you know, get ahead of yourself. But yeah, I mean I feel

all kinds of butterflies and jitters and and everything. And something else that I think it's really important to note is the entire time I'm going through this process, like I've had over a decade now of um of a lot of deer encounters and harvests, and I am always reading deer's body language. Even if I'm seeing deer that are maybe they're deer, they're like eight yards off, they're not going to come in. I picked the wrong tree. But I'm just watching these deer or maybe they're dear

in the field. Like I'm always looking at those deer and trying to to read their body language and analyze what they're doing because that has a lot to do with with taking a shot or where to where to

place that shot. Right, Like, so if a deer comes in and it looks really skittish or is like you know, maybe it's feeding a little and popping its head up real quick, it's it's looking like a crackhead d C deer, Like you need to be mindful of that to where when you shoot that Like first off, you cannot get away with with as much movement as you think, so

that's gonna affect you. But also like I know, I might want to tuck that arrow just a little lower in my spot picking because that deer might drop a little or maybe that deer is gonna like slightly quarter away, and I know it's been picking its head up and down, head up and down, and like when it goes down, I know now is my time to like take the shot.

It's very important to analyze the dear body behavior and and kind of like try to figure out what you're communicating by their actions, because that says a lot on how that deer is going to react at that split second when you shoot it, and you know it's that

goes into your shot placement and also selection. And that gets back full circle to the deer that we saw when we were in the tree together here in d C. I was like that that year is so skittish that there is a high probability for a marginal hit, and like we just can't risk that, yeah, with with what's going on, So I'm always kind of reading that deer's body language and trying to figure out what's going on, kind of with my subconscious And I think that the

combination of that and repeating my my mantra over and over again really helps, um like execute and and suppress any buck fever or butterflies or jitters or whatever you're feeling. Let's dvel in morns of the body language thing. Um. First off, you you do, you give me an example

of this, but can you describe for me? Are there any behaviors or indications of a deer that's gonna be too flighty where you will say, okay, based on this body language, I'm just not gonna shoot, even if the deer's in range, even if you could take the shop. Is there a situation where you're reading the deer and you're saying, man, this just seems ill advised. Is there

anything like that? Yeah? I mean I'm always looking for for that deer that's being super skinnish, right, and and I think of that as like like like a tweaker almost. You know, they're kind of like picking their head up, moving around, moving around like they're constantly they're quartering to their corey away, they're moving this way, They're they're looking

at the deer around him. Um, you know that dear to me is like already amped up and uh, you know, could could spin at the shot a little and you know, look, I've shot plenty of deer that have been that way. Like That's how I know that they might run a

little further. They might already have a little adrenaline in their system, there might be It's amazing how much a deer at fourteen yards can move from when you have that shot break to where the arrow hits like it's it's unbelievable just watching it on footage and knowing where my pin was when when I've let a shot break versus where the entrance and next hole are right and so um, you have to take that into account of

either not shooting the deer or aiming for it. But and and the reason that I've gotten to where I won't shoot that deer sometimes is for whatever reason. Sometimes there's deer that you think are going to drop, don't, and then you now get them low or somewhat low. Um. You know, I'm always looking for those tweaker deer. They're according to quartering away, bouncing around, picking their head up

real hard, watching their ears go back. And sometimes if you let that deer just just like kind of walk around and feed around. Especially you know, I'm thinking early season on an oak flat. Yeah, you as, particularly in my area. Who knows what that deer just encountered. There could have been that deer could have just run in from yards away where some some kids were walking the dog and it's kicked the deer up and they're like, well, now I'm gonna go sweet anyways because I'm already here

right um. And sometimes that deer will settle down and ends up being a perfect time to to shoot it. So you just never know, and you're better off just kind of letting it settle down, or maybe it caught your set and maybe it's gonna blow. Um. You know that's something though that you need to take an account of.

If that deer comes in and it's looking tweaker ish, but it's licking its nose and it's looking all around like that's dear that you might want to shoot right away because it probably got your sense and that body language would be different. Right, it's licking its nose, it's kind of working its ears back and forth. It knows something's wrong. Um. You know, that would be a different scenario of a deer that might fit into that quote

unquote tweaker status. Uh, that that is, you know, more likely than not an older, mature animal that you certainly

want to get out of there. So just reading that body language of looking for different cues, tail up, tail down, flicking, suck hard, tight, you know what the ears, you're doing, what they're doing with their with their mouth, if they're you know, looking there there's a bunch, or if they're kind of feeding along but popping their head up and down, those will be all signs of you know, what's this deer doing? Why is it acting that way? Um? Those

are all important things. And then on top of that, to take it one step further, we have CWD in our area. So if a deer comes in acting super weird, it's drooling around like it looks like unhealthy, messed up, that's something else I want to pay attention to because that's certainly a deer that I want to go get tested and make sure that um, there wasn't something you know, wrong with it from a disease standpoint. Yeah. Back to the tweaker deer, So we've got a deer that's on

edge in some way or form. Maybe it's picked up on us or smell. Maybe it's just uncomfortable for one of those other reasons you described. When we have that situation and we're thinking about where to aim, do we adjust? Do you recommend adjusting your shot placement at all on this deer that seems on edge, because I think the the assumption is that if we have a deer on edge, that deer is more likely to react a little bit

quicker to this shop. And so that might mean a jumping the string kind of motion, or that might mean a deer that's whirling and spinning away in some kind of way. So do you do you adjust a little

bit down like something? I know some people aim lower on a deer they think would jumped the string, or some people might even aim a little bit further off of the blade, the shoulder blade, because that deer might swirl and spin one way or another and give you more of a chance of hitting bone because of that.

Does any of that enter your equation? Absolutely, And that's where your practice comes in as well, because if you're just shooting your your three D deer target all the time like perfect right in increase um, that's great, you know, but deer in the real world you need to aim differently on depending on that body language, right, And so that kind of reverts all the way back to pick a spot, pick your target, right. And so if that deer is that, let's say that tweeting fourteen yards, she's

super sketched out. Um, I've made the decision though that even though she's on edge, I'm gonna harvest her. And so I'm gonna aim at at fourteen yards. I know she's going to dump the string a little she's gonna jump the string a little bit. I don't have to hold off body though I'm gonna hold. I'm always aiming

in that lower third to pop the balloon. I might aim like an extra couple of inches low if we were out on a farm somewhere to where I where the Yeah, if I had to take a shot at let's say thirty five yards, and and even though I don't do that in the suburbs, but let's say that in this scenario, for whatever reason, I am um, And that deer is is tweaker deer. It's it's jumpy, but it's a giant buck. And you know, this is the

deer we've been after all week in Iowa. And it's now or never right that this encounter is now or never. But he's a little skittish. I mean you might need to hold eight inches below his brisket, right, And that's where having trust in your your read on that animal as well as trusting your equipment is absolutely like essential because he's very hard to hold off bart off body

on an animal. Right. Um yeah, but dear is at like thirty five yards, I mean maybe not eight inches, but I'm gonna hold probably put my pin just below his brisket um and I'll guarantee you that he'll duck into that and and take it. Yeah, and there it's I mean, that's just something that comes with shooting a

lot of critters. I mean how many how many gear shows have you seen where they get to where they they shoot the animal and they put the little dot on where it would be perfect, and then the arrow sails over his back. Deer could dropp an entire body length body body with in a matter of seconds. And also is their head up or their head down? You know, if if they have their head positioned down, they can whip it up and use that that that effect to

drop their body even lower. Um. See kind of these are all things that you have to take into account that are very difficult to take into account in the process of shooting an animal. Um in hindsight is always but you just kind of need to to think through these these little things. And I mean, frankly, that's snare

that you just went through with Megabuck in Iowa. That's why those thirty five yard shots are not super successful on an animal um for they're harder to be successful in animal And obviously people shot your much further distances than that. It's it's not like an impossible shot, but there are a lot more probabilities for failure or things that can happen in that inditional yards between our two scenarios,

Like that's an eternity for a year. Uh So more in shop placement you mentioned in the past, you've got the legs are like chopsticks, and then you've got this dinner plate size ball that's on top of the chopsticks. Can you can you just give me a little more detail, like when you're how you get to that point, Like how do you get to that place when you're actually looking at a deer? Do you look at the legs and bring your pin up the leg and then just go off a little bit, or or how do you

pick that perfect place to put your pin? So the dinner plate is actually being held up by the chopsticks. So think of it like you're eating sushi and the sushi is you're picking up a piece of sushi, right, um, the shoulder blades this analogy, This analogy works in DC. It might not work as well in rural Iowa, but people try to follow along here Taylor's you got your

chicken nuggets, You're going into the sauce. Um So. I mean if you think about our anatomy or deer's anatomy, like your shoulder blades are our shields, right, and that breastbone, it's all protecting your vitals. And so those shoulder blades are holding up the they're protecting the heart. Really, um So, I think of those those shoulder blades as the tips of the chopsticks, if you will, that are holding that little beach ball. Um So, I kind of I look

at it in almost like a three D way. But if you're if you're thinking of it of where do you want your arrow to exit, Well, you pretty much always wanted to exit on the in like the lower third to come out through that little golden triangle or um to kind of blow out right above where the bone kind of cuts back on a fort of its shoulders. So um, I'm I'm picking a spot in that lower third, uh, kind of like rate in that in that crease exit spot.

But sometimes depending on what the way that the beer is quartered, you know, and this is where popping that that beach ball comes in really handy. Like I want to pop the low third of that beach ball, if that makes sense. Um, And it's kind of a weird analogy. I'd have to almost like draw it out of how

it works in in my head. But if you think of those like milk jug tests that people do on YouTube for broadheads when they put like red foot coloring in, like I want to, I want to put a hole in the lower part of that bear's milk jug or the beach ball to try and deflate it as fast

as possible. And because of your arrow set up and because of your broad head, you are willing to be very tight to that should or blade area because you know that that's the most effective spot to hit them as long as you can punch their bone if you have to, Is that right? Like some people will will be very cautious and aim further back and just aim for back of lungs or center of lungs because they

want to avoid the bones entirely. You're not absolutely correct, and I used to do that and that led to tow a little more issues. Now I'm not intentionally trying to shoot the gear of the shoulder. I will never tell someone to do that unless it's a tiny property. And you know, we're doing my analogy of I'm trying to take the landing gear out. But even when I try to take the landing gear out, and when I do take the landing gear out, you know, I'm not

shooting them to the shoulder. I'm hitting them in that like little void right at the top of their legs below the shoulder bone where or maybe like through the very bottom part of it, but where it's not very it's not super strong. Um. You know, I think that shoulder blade should be avoided at all costs. However, I've just put together a setup that I know can punch

through the shoulder if it has to. And I think that's really important, excuse me, really important um to to have because if I did that, if I took that shot with an expandable broad head. There is a high, high, high probability for failure there right, Like there's a there's an incredible margin for air that I'm not comfortable with, um. And that's why taking that shot with a fixed blade head that has a big cutting diameter really works well

and it has a blade designed for penetration. You know, some of these uh, fixed blade heads don't work in that regard because there you have a steep blade angle and if they hit something hard, they're probably not gonna punch through it very far. So avoid the shoulder at all cost. But I'm comfortable being tight to it because

I know that I'm practiced. I also know that it's like a twelve or fourteen yard shot and that there is a nine percent chance and I'm hitting, you know, within a couple of millimeters of the hair that I'm staring at. UH. Quartering two shots? Given everything we've talked about, will you ever take a quarter in two shots? And if you do, how do you adjust your point of aim?

So I really do not like quartering two shots. UM. You know, on a on a white tail, especially in the urban environment, you know, if you're on you're hunting from the ground and and you're you know, on your farm and Missouri or wherever. Like, if you want to shoot him in the throat, go for it. But you need to be really comfortable with the understanding of a deer's anatomy. And so that same line of thought of

the shoulders and the breastbone are protecting the vitals. Well, think about your area to slip an arrow into if that deer is staring at you, versus if that deer were quartering away, Like all the goodies are exposed. If that deer is quartering away slightly, very few areas are experiensed to slip an arrow into if it's you know,

corded towards you. Um. However, that being said, like I shot a deer in Oklahoma last year that came in that was almost at the base of our tree, and I mean I shot him almost straight down between his shoulder blades and down through his heart and he died on the spot. Um. Now, I was comfortable taking that shot because you know, one, I'm highly experienced it at

shot placement. But two, they were like twelve deer around us, and we were in this tiny little tree, myself and a camera guy, And I mean there was a a high likelihood that we were going to get busted if that dear didn't get shot right then. And so, you know, while that wasn't forcing it, you also need to know when there is an opportunity you feel comfortable in seizing it with appropriate timing. Yeah, okay, here's another example of

a tricky situation. Moving dear. You've got a buck coming through, there's a shooting lane, it's your only shooting lane, and he's gonna walk through it. Would you ever take a moving shot or is it always that you stop a deer and shooting, Like, how do you handle that? Yeah? I'm not comfortable taking a moving shot. I really prefer to have an animal stop on its own um because you know, when you shoot a deer that's like feeding through an area or kind of slowly walking through on

their own pace. They're much calmer than they are when they're slowly feeding through and they think they're all alone, and then all of a sudden, it's like, Matt, Yeah, that deer is going like what the hell? If you're in your backyard, you know, just sticking around and all of a sudden, it's somebody yells out for you, and you'd be like, whoa, like if somebody's here, what's going on? Um? Similar similar thing with the deer. So I try to

not make any noise. However, if an animal's moving and I need to stop it, I will most certainly bleat at them very softly, like a very soft like man. I've never taken a shot of the moving deer. I mean, I guess I should never say never, because who knows what the future holds. But I would strongly uh encourage people to not take a shot at a moving animal that that to me just seems like a recipe for

disaster or definitely Yeah. I think if people have made it this far in the episode, they understand that I'm like a big um probability guy, like I like to have the odds in my favor, and that seems like something where the odds are very firmly stacked against you. Is there is or any other element of in the tree preparation that leads to an accurate successful shot? I mean, is there anything maybe we need to rewind a little bit in the day, you know, we're up in the tree.

Is there anything that you do, like right when you get settled as far as where you place your bow, as far as where you I don't know, organize your setup. Does any of that help you perform in the moment of truth better or is there anything else that we're missing? Well, I think that that kind of helps you stay calm in the in the time leading up to the shot. You know, like my bow is always in the same spot, my pack is generally in the same spot. I know

where my releases. My range finder is always in the same spot. So when I climb up in the tree, my bows there, my pack set up. The first thing that I'm doing once my once everything is set up, is I'm pulling my range finder out. And what I'll do is like I like to look at a spot and I just guess how far away it is, and then I range it, and then I you know, I'm picking out kind of my twenty yard circle of death. Then I know that if a critter crosses into there

and then trouble um. And the reason that I play that little game with myself is I just find that that helps me be very accurate in guessing the yardage. But I know that where I'm like, Okay, that big white oak tree right there is is yards away. If a deer crosses inside it, you know their top penalty they're smoke um. Or I'll be like, okay, that tree over there is thirty five yards away. And I also

like to drop um milkweed. And I'm always kind of looking at where the where the wind is pulling my ascent, so I know that, like, Okay, if a deer comes in on this angle and it's working towards that wind, I need to shoot it before it catches my wind and possibly blows out of here. Or I I know that a deer is at my twelve o'clock, but I have you know, three dose working in from from like across my backside there. Well, they might catch my wind

if they're in a certain pocket. So kind of knowing your area and knowing the yardages and also what's happening around you is key. And and the other thing that leads to a lot of success is having your spots prep So I mean, I do a lot of running gun hunting. I might end up in a in a tree that I've never hunted before, I've never been in before, but I generally like to have my trees picked out

and have some shooting lanes prepared. So that I don't feel like a major rush or or panic that sets in when a deer appears, because you know, if you it's like Murphy's law, if you haven't cut shooting lanes, then you have a chance that there's deer going to like go directly to where you can't shoot them, and and uh and you know it's like Murphy's Law is always tagging along. So you need to not have that terrible, panicky feeling of like, oh no, no, I need to

shoot that deer right now. Well, if you have shooting lanes, you're like, okay, that there's toast Like he's working right towards that other shooting lane that I have prepared and perfect. You know, he has there's cover between shooting Lane A and shooting Lane B to where I can, you know, do whatever I need to do to get my bow in hand, come to full draw, get myself situated to where I can take the shot. Yeah, so here's here's

a here's uh. So, well, rather than stating my assumption, I'll I'll paint a picture, I guess of something I think that happens a lot today. And I'm curious in your thoughts about this because I think this ties directly into why you are the perfect person to talk about these things because of the world you live in and the lifestyle you've chosen. But here's scenario that I think is pretty common these days. More and more folks watch and consume and listen to media in the hunting world

with people who are targeting big old bucks. All right, they're all about holding off for a five year old or they're are holding off for a one fifty or whatever, and they hunting Iola or hunting Missourium, there's a big deer like that. But the average even great hunter and a great circumstance like that, that might lead to one

shot opportunity a year for these hunters. And then there's newer hunters coming up in the world who watched that, who listened to that, who then start thinking, well, I've got to hold out for a five year old buck, or I need to hold out for a pope and young deer, and it leads to them having very few shot opportunities maybe ever in a whole year. I've got

a I've got a number of friends like this. I've got a buddy who wanted his first buck he shot with his bow to be like a really really big buck, and so he went over a decade without shooting anything because of that. Is that a good recipe for becoming efficient and effective with your shot process and executing in primetime high pressure situations? Right? I know the answer to this,

but I want your take on that scenario. If you worry about that scenario that a lot of people probably are living in and what they're missing out on, and is there may be a different approach that could get people more effective. Yeah. I mean that's like trying to be Mark McGuire without going to batting practice, right, or or trying to be like Tom Brady and only playing in playoff games like you have to. There's no way really to replicate the stress and all of the different

factors that comes together to result in a successful hunt. Uh. You know, you have to immerse yourself in it over and ub and uber again in order to just understand what you and your body does at the moment of truth and prepare for that. And I think that's part

of what makes shooting a giant buck so special. That's what makes you want to mounted or or like European amount of whatever, is the fact that it's so hard and so rare, and I do think a lot of people sometimes get a skewed perspective of of how hard it is because of the content that we consume, right

and and what we're consuming. It's entertainment, Like you know, people aren't watching or really thinking about the amount of time and effort and hard work that the Lakowskis or the Druries are putting in, or you know, even like guys that know, like you know, our buddy and you may right, they're like, oh, man, Andy so officiated, like he kills giants, like he's just he's a grace hunter.

And he is, and he's a phenomenal hunter. But and he puts in so much time and effort during the season, but also the past decade in fifteen years that he's put in in in becoming you know, the hunter that he is today, and people don't see that and and and think about all the pieces that come together to

make that complete package. So, you know, for guys that are out there that that are listening to this, that want to be, you know, a better hunter, you just have to go through the process and put yourself in that scenario. I think two to learn where your faults might be and and then how to improve on them when you're looking at specifically just the factors that go into your form and shoot et in the deer, let alone getting in on a deer and having the opportunity

to shoot it. So you know, there's nothing wrong with challenging yourself and and just trying to you know, progress as a hunter, like getting tight on animals and figure out like how you can get closer and continue doing that. I mean, yeah, you don't even have to shoot him if you don't want to. You just come to full drawing and float your pin there and just think about it and and see what your body, Like, your body

will break out. You will get that adrenaline dump if you live us somewhere where you only have you know, one tag and you choose not to use it, like that's fine, But um, I think people need to realize, like like you need to hunt for yourself and not hunt for social media fame or like trying to keep up with the Jones or the people that the other people in the industry, because it's just that it's apples

to orangines. You're not hunting the same land, you don't have the same experience, and you need to just like go out and enjoy it for yourself and put some

food on the table. Would you? Would you say, though, that a lot of people would probably benefit from becoming a little bit more like you and simply shooting more dear So instead of thinking that you're going to hold out for one seventy every year and that's all you do, maybe there's more hunters that should consider shooting a bunch of doughs every year, or maybe lowering their standards a little bit so they can finally get good at shooting year and a half old or two and a half

year old bucks and actually really be good at that before they try to shoot for that one seventy and have a whole lot of dead time in between where they never get better at handling the moment truth? Is that something you would have? Yes? I think that, Um, you know, I don't want to tell anybody like what to set their goals for whatever, Like everybody wants to shoot. I'd love to have a typical deer sitting here on

my wall, right. I don't, Um, but I have, you know, fifteen years of pretty awesome experiences and and um, you know, confidence to know that at some point when that one ninety slob comes walking into my life. He is toast. He picked the wrong two pounds squirrel with sharp sticks

to walk in front of it. Because I know what I'm doing, and you know, I think that a lot of people would really benefit um in shooting those and becoming the most like proficient harvester and and hunter that they can be like master your world and try and and perfect it. And you know, I also think it's important to keep the mindset of of always trying to better yourself. Like I, I don't think that I'm any

expert on this stuff. I just have done it a lot, and I'm super anal and analytical to where I'm always striving to be better. But I don't I don't think I've like perfected it. I'm still trying to get my gear better. I'm still trying to continue tuning my stuff, you know, even more, see if there's a way that I can be more efficient, Like I try to never stop learning and have that mindset um, because I think once you just like I think that you've mastered it,

that's when you're beginning to regress. And nobody should ever kind of think in that manner. All right, If if there was just one thing. Let's say someone did listen to all of this, but they've got very poor short term memory, and you could pick just one single takeaway because we want, we want everyone listening to come away from this with a chance of being more accurate and effective when they shoot at a deer this coming fall. There's just one thing you want them to do. What

would that one very most important thing. It could be something we've talked about, It could be something we've forgotten to talk about. If there's one takeaway you want everyone to hammer into their brain and not forget and actually do it, what's that one thing without a doubt. Two, figure out some step process to take when they're shooting. And that could be as simple as like a one

part mantra of like squeeze, squeeze, squeeze or whatever. But create a process that you're going to go through in shooting an animal or target, Like when you put carbon in the air, have a process that you go through and slow down and go through that process every single time that you could carbon in the air, whether you're shooting a target, a yeah, whatever you're shooting at. Take that, because that, for me was the biggest leap in all of my growth as a hunter, that one made the

biggest difference. And it's hard. It's easy to say, but it's hard to be out there in the summertime right now with your bow and not playing arrows. Like you need to think through whatever process you developed, whether it's mine or Ady Mays or le By Morgan's like, and you know, in talking to all those guys, they do the same thing, right, Like when I talked to Levi about his process or Andy about his process, Like, it's funny how similar they all are. We use different words

that we're telling ourselves. And Mark, I think when you and I talked about this, you have a process that you get through as well, right, So and and um, would you say that you had a pretty drastic increase in proficiency when you started implementing that process. Well, so, I've had stages. So so first, when I first started using some kind of mantra within, I had an improvement in effectiveness. And then over a couple of the last three or four years, I've regressed and had some target

panic issues. And so now I've rebuilt that. And so I'm now dedicating myself even more to really stringently tying verbal cues to that process so that I can't get into that speeding mode where it sounds like you've had some similar issues where I will shortcut it sometimes and speed through it because I'm not locked in on each step as perfectly as I need to be. So this year, I'm trying even harder to develop ways to ingrain that so that I can't skip a step so I can't rush.

I need like speed bumps along the way to maintain control. So that's that's what I'm really trying to hammer in every more than I her before this year. Yeah, and I think that's something that you like, back to our earlier discussion of like guys that just want to go out and sit in the tree until a one seventy appears, whether that's a decade long quest or not, Like that person that does that will never know the steps in

between of improving the process. And so like while you're honing the skill set by by three years and four years of going through repeating that mantra and then going like, you know, I was saying this, but I'm gonna say this instead because that has a better result for me. Like that's the growth along the way that leads to making you a better person and that and that is a better hunter. And I think that's a really important step to take. That you don't want to skip over. Yeah,

never stop improving, Like, yeah, that's the truth. Well, my friend, I knew this would be good. It was. I've had fun, I've learned some stuff. If folks want to see more of what you're doing, where can they find that? Yeah, you can find me on YouTube as hunt Urban or on Instagram as Urban Bowmen. So check it out and

hopefully you guys enjoy. I'll also add to that, Taylor, they will also soon be able to find you on the meat Eater YouTube channel, where our first episode of my new white tail show that I filmed last fall is going to start airing in That first episode should be barrowing some kind of unforeseen change. Should be airing in early September, So we'll get to uh relive our wild urban d C hunt together here very shortly. I can't wait. I am very excited to uh to watch

that unfold. That was certainly a fun time. And uh, I'm sure that you're pretty glad that you don't have to go knock on doors and get permission in this area anymore. Right now. Yeah, man, I'm glad I did. I glad experienced it, but I'm not too keen on spend a whole another day doing it again. Soon. I don't have to worry about you coming down and poaching any properties, huh, at least not in the short term. Yeah, that's awesome, man. Thank you again for having me on.

It's always a pleasure and hopefully this helps some people out there put more critters on the ground, you know, this year or in the future. I know, well, man, Thank you all right, and that's a wrap. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this one. Make sure check out all of Taylor's content. The guy is a great dude. He does good work. He's got a lot of great content out there, so follow him wherever you can.

And just one last reminder, remember we've got those July wire Hunt gear picks over on the wire Hunt page. Check those out as well if you need something new for your summer shooting. And with that out of the way, thank you for listening, Thanks for being part of this community. We're getting close, guys and girls. Is July, that means next month is August, which means they're you're hunting seasons opening soon. People. I can't believe it. I'm getting very excited.

It's gonna be a good year. Thanks for tuning in, and until next time, stay Wired to Hunt. H