Ep. 556: Foundations - The Sound of Settling

somewhat regularly, you should be back in the spring. I dropped a couple of episodes on target shooting with some wisdom on how to make the most of your sessions, and I really kind of hope he started shooting back there in the spring. But if you didn't, you better get to the range now. And you should also pay attention into your gear, whether you're a bow hunter or a gun hunter both, because there are a million different ways we settle that can cost us when the actual

season opens up and it's time to go hunting. One of the things I love about elk hunting it's just the downtime throughout the day. I know that sounds weird, but since I've never done anything but public land over the counter elk hunts. I've never gotten into one of those dreamy situations where the elk are just bugling all day and going absolutely nuts. My hunts and probably yours, if you've ever been lucky enough to elk hunt, they

just contain a lot of dead hours. And even if you hunt the last week of the season when temperature should be cooler, this is almost a guarantee you're gonna hit those dry spells. And if you're hunting with a partner like I, usually you tend to shrug off your pack somewhere in the shade, pull out your pocket rocket to boil some water for coffee, and you just shoot the ship while waiting for something to happen. During one of these sessions in my elk hunting partner, Tyler started

telling me stories about his first hunts. He told me about bear encounters, his lack of skills, and an elk he missed because he was using three different weights of arrows. He didn't know any better at the time, so he filled his quiver up with whatever arrows he could get his hands on, and he just went hunting. Now, considering he's one of the most gear obsessed bow hunters. I know now it's safe to say he learned from his mistakes,

but not before it cost him some opportunities. Maybe it's different today with all the information available, but I also remember those older days pretty well. I hunted for years with arrows that were probably not spined correctly. They're probably not the right length, and they're probably tipped with broadheads of different weights. While any of those things alone might, and I do mean might, cost you an animal, certainly not a guarantee. Bow Hunting is a game of little details,

and to an extent, so is gun hunting. If you don't show up everything that is within your power, you'll have deer slip right through your fingers. And those losses sting the most, at least in my mind, they do because they're preventable, and there is no better time than now to address some of those things, long before the summer shooting sessions are over and the actual season is upon us. So let's take archery ammo our arrows as a first example, at least before we get into bullets.

For all you bow hunters, ask yourself, are you shooting a properly spined arrow? I hope so, because if not, you're in trouble. An improperly spined arrow is either going to be too stiff or not stiff enough for your setup, and it's going to wreak havoc on your accuracy. You might not notice if you only practice at twenty yards with a paper plate tacked to your target, but if

you try for any level of precision, you might. And if you try to shoot broadheads, even mechanicals, you'll probably notice. If you shoot fixed blade heads you almost definitely will. Now i'd argue, although I could lose this argument, the proper spine is more important than your individual arrow brand choice.

What I mean by that is, if you spend big money to buy the new, greatest, I don't know, micro diameter arrows, you can, but they aren't spined for your setup, You'd be better off with a dozen that costs a quarter of the high end AMMO, but is spine correctly. Now, what you tip your arrows with matters too. I'm not going to dive into front of center and some of the more technical stuff here, but I'll say the grain

scale is a pretty good investment cheap two. Understanding why you might need it, it's important I like knowing exactly how much my arrows way, and I like knowing that my field points way exactly or damn near exactly the same as my broadheads. You pull out a handful of field points that range from five grains to your arrows won't behave all that different, uh probably, but it will give you a skewed view of your point of impact, especially if you only shoot a hundred grain heads, which

is by far the most common weight these days. Also, as a life pro tip, if you do have an archery tackle box with a bunch of broadheads in it, always close it up and keep it out of reach. I had an open tackle box with a bunch of broadheads in my office one time, and I was leaning back in my office chair talking on the phone when that chair flat out exploded on me. I instinctively put my hand out to catch myself, and it went right into a box with like seventies three different broadheads in it.

It was an absolute miracle that I didn't need stitches or surgery, but it also made me think about a little kid tripping over it and made me realize I should probably be a little safer with that stuff anyway. Consistency in your gear is a very good thing, because we strive to be as consistent as possible with our shooting form and shot execution for these reasons. Now, if your practice heads weighs three different weights but your broadheads don't,

you've got some inconsistency there. It might not treat you very well. When the buck of ten lifetime stops at forty two yards and you think I can thread the needle and get this one, and your gun hunters, you're not off the hook either. I don't know how many times a relative or some other acquaintance has told me

about buying a box of shells right before the deer opener. Sure, they'll say they sighted in their rifle at the old quarry a few weeks ago, but they used old Ammo and wanted to make sure they had some heavy hitting stuff for those big Northwoods bucks or whatever off those bucks happened to cruise by it Like fifty yards, switching from a hundred forty grain bullets to hundred eighty grain bullets might not matter a whole lot, But what about when he's two fifty yards out in a clear cut

trying to sniff a doze butt and now you drop is ten inches instead of six. We might feel the need to settle for whatever we can get our hands on in the current AMMO market. But if you do hunt with what you practice with, please, whether you're gun hunter bow hunt, I also think it's imperative to use

a range finder as religiously as possible. Now. I know there are sometimes in the woods where the action happens real fast and you don't have time to pop a reading, but most of the time you have more time than you think. Bow Hunters out west are probably the most consistent with this, and white tail bow hunters through at the Midwest in the East probably pretty consistent. But if that's a crutch you use to know exactly where to aim,

then you should lean on it a lot. This is one of the reasons why I don't like going to shooting ranges too often. Many often have targets set up in exactly ten yard increments, or if they have a walk through course, there will be a sign with specific yardage. Now, there's nothing wrong with shooting at these courses, but it's also a good idea to shoot where you don't know the range and you have to use your range funter to tell you every time you knock an arrow. This

does two things. It gets in the habit of always using it, and it helps you estimate range better when you don't have the chance to use it. Don't settle for guessing when you don't need to. And this goes for rifle hunting too, And I honestly think a range finder is a hell of a lot more important to shotgun, rifle and muzzle or hunters than we give it credit for. Now. I know that the margin of error is a little smaller when you're working with controlled explosions and lead spinning

its way through rifle barrels. But think about every rifle range you've ever been to. There will be shaded benches with targets at a hundred yards, two hundred yards, maybe three hundred yards, might be some in the middle distances at fifty yard increments as well. Maybe you hold your two seventy dead on at a hundred yards and it hits I don't know, four inches low at two hundred, maybe it hits ten or twelve inches low at three hundred.

So you shoot half a box of shells and you think to yourself, I don't know, if he's within three football fields, he's dead. Then you go out to your favorite ladder stand on the power line on opening morning. At first, ladies ups out nervously and you think to yourself, I don't know, he can't be more than a fifty yards. You hold a smidge high and you let her rip, But then you see belly hair blow up and he

runs off. When you get down to look for blood, you realize he was big, bigger than you've ever seen while hunting, and he was a hell of a lot farther away than you guessed. This type of thing happens all the time because we settle for good enough when we could just use some of the tools at our disposal to be far more accurate and confident in our shooting out in the field. And we do this a lot of other ways, too, in ways that transcend bow

or gun hunting to just the general hunting experience. Take comfort. For example, when we are shopping for new camel or even a seat cushion, we often think about price. First. I get that, I really do, but then we also think camel patterns. We think a lot of things about ourselves, like I don't know, well, this mid layer jacket is way cheaper than the heavy duty cold weather one, and I'm pretty tough, so I can handle a lot of cold.

So I think, let's go with it, or you think, hell, I'm a super tough guy who doesn't get too miserable anywhere. I don't need an extra layer of padding on that old ladder stand. I can sit all day on metal and not have to worry about it. You know. Then

November rolls around, and it's with it. The temperatures drop and the wind picks up out of the north, and it might be perfect rut weather, but it's also not great weather for being seventeen feet up in a tree for hours on end while the cold wind blows right in your face and that mid layer jacket, or not having a good seat cushion. You know, that's a different kind of thing there. It's not so much fun, not

so comfortable. Now. I'm not saying you need to drop serious coinage for high end camera to kill deer, but when it comes to settling for good enough, sometimes mother Nature says not on my watch. And when you're moving around him miserable and prone to calling a hunt hours before you have to, you're gonna kill fewer deer. You're gonna have us fun. This is kind of like pain tolerance. Ask anyone who works in the medical profession what the average person rates their pain tolerance on in the one

to tend scale. Most people respond with a really high number, quickly followed by the disclaimer that I have a really high threshold for pain. But they don't understand the assignment because they aren't doubled over bawling their eyes out and praying to a merciful God to take them from this earth and relieve them of their agony. They are sitting there calm as a cucumber, overestimating their ability to handle pain.

They're not out of ten. This is just like what we often do when we think about deer hunting conditions, and we're not actually out in those deer hunting conditions.

And I know this might sound a little crazy too, but I think if we settle on the little stuff like inconsistent weights of our bullets or field points, we'll start to settle in other ways, like I don't know how many cameras we run, or whether we go glass for white tails once a week or once per month, or whether we put up three stands in the preseason instead of six. In that way, I think all of this stuff, like most of the things in life, is

a good, slow, gradual progression towards being better. If you make the decision to weigh your field points and screw them into arrows that are spine correctly, you're gonna be better off and you're gonna have more fun shooting. Then you might not settle for a few practice sessions throughout the summer, but instead get a little more disciplined on

the quality and quantity of your sessions. And if you do that, you'll be looking forward to that first bucket of the season walking right into your shooting lane because you're gonna believe that you're gonna kill him instead of looking forward to the encounter because it's cool to have a buck that close, but also being somewhere in the range of a little nervous you'll screw up to being totally afraid of having to take the shot, because what if you do screw up and then you have to

tell your buddies again that you whift big or worse. It's time to talk some fresh batteries into the flashlights and go on another wild goose chase, blood trailing adventure that it will always end with the predictable platitudes like I don't know, who knows, maybe he'll make it, or the coyotes have to eat too, or some other way we make ourselves feel better while masking the truth with

great a bullshite. Maybe if you don't settle at this time of year when you're at the range, you won't settle for a good enough shooting lane or a good enough entrance route when you know damn well you're engaged in a fun game of self sabotage where you'll make way too much noise on the way in opening morning, or you'll watch the woods wake up with the rising sun, only to realize that you have one so so shooting lane. Now,

there in times in life where settling is okay. Just for an example, the other day, we went out to eat and I asked for a diet coke and they brought me a doctor pepper instead, and I thought, what the hell, it's pretty delicious, more delicious than a diet coke actually, And even though I settled for a full gr soda like a I don't know, real housewife of somewhere I guess or something, I'm really not that big of a prima donna. I could have said something, but

I didn't. I don't care that much. You can settle in other ways too. Some people settle for a spouse because they think the viable mate market is mostly tapped out for them. I don't really recommend that because that's kind of a big one and reminds me of something

I read the other day. It was a story about dad jokes, I think, but anyway, the author said that his father always referred to his mother as his first wife, even though they are currently married and have no plans to serve her the papers and look for a second one. I've been using that on my wife too, and she hates it, but I think it's hilarious. You don't want to settle for a spouse or a pediatrist when you

really need an optometrist. And you don't want to settle for too many little things in your pursuit to become a better hunter. If you can control it, you should try to control it. A good way to look at this is to think about summer shooting sessions. What are the ways to encourage better accuracy? How do they change from the range to the field. Is there a way to bridge that gap or ensure that they won't change when you go from the backyard to the tree tops

in your new saddle. Is there a way where you can be a little more disciplined so you know exactly what range you're shooting at, no matter whether you're just punching paper or trying to deflate lungs. What are the little ways you cannot settle for good enough, but instead up for exactly what you need or exactly what you should be doing. Now, if you start to flush some of those things out, they're gonna snowball in a positive direction.

If you don't believe that, just pay attention to some of the best hunters out there, those public land hunters who just get it done wherever they go. They're not settling a whole lot. They don't settle when they're e scouting, hanging stands, shooting in the summer, choosing when to take

a shot, you name it. They don't settle for good enough, Because when you're dealing with a game of infinite variables in the most important of tiny details, one little thing that isn't up to park and set off cascading failures that ultimately ends up with a buck living another day and not them taking grip and grin photos. So, my friends, be careful what you settle for, because good enough in the white tailed woods isn't usually that good. That's it

for this week, my white tail loving friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast,

which is brought to you by First Light. If you haven't gotten enough white tail goodness your your white tail fixed on this podcast and the regular wire to Hunt podcast, please head on over to our Wired to Hunt YouTube channel and check out our how to videos or visit them meat eater dot com slash wired to read all the latest and greatest articles that we dropped every week from myself market a whole bunch of white tail slayers, and as always, thank you, thank you, thank you so

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