← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 233 | Reload
00:50:12
The host (Remi Warren) explains why hunting guides almost instinctively say “reload” immediately after a shot, and why every hunter should build the same automatic habit—regardless of whether they think the first shot was perfect.Key ideasCorrect order of operations after shooting: Reload → reacquire/refind the animal → reassess → reshoot if needed. Many hunters do it backwards (“Did I hit it?” first), which wastes the small window where a follow-up shot is possible.Why it matters: Seconds lost to fumbling a reload or searching for the animal can mean:missing a clean follow-up opportunity,turning a quick recovery into a long tracking job,or losing an animal entirely.Guiding stories illustrate the point:A rifle client argues “no way I missed” instead of reloading, and loses a second shot opportunity.A bowhunter misses low, the bull stops again, and the guide has to push “reload” to get the second arrow off—this time it works and the elk is recovered.How to practice (so it becomes a...
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Foreign. I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. If you really want to utilize a lot of this information from the podcast in the field, one of the best ways to do that is to be physically ready for the hunt. And that's really why I've partnered with Mountain Tough. So if you aren't familiar with it, Mountain Tough is an online training app designed for hunters with a ton of added benefit. In addition to the fitness programs built for that backcountry hunting, you also get access to nutrition and recovery guides for on and off the mountain mental toughness training, and this really great in app community that connects you with other mountain toughers and coaches. This app is packed with value to help you stay ready and right now Mountain Tough is giving our LiveWild listeners a free six week trial when they sign up for the monthly plan using code LIVEWILD. To get started in the journey, go to mountaintough.com that's MTN T-O-U G H.com when you're out there doing it the hard way, the right way, you need gear that shows up every time. That's why I trust yeti. Whether it's keeping meat cold for the trip home or your coffee hot before daylight, Yeti just flat works. Built Tough. No shortcuts. Check out their full lineup@yeti.com and see why it's become a part of my system season after season. Welcome back to Live Wild Podcast, everyone. You know, this week I was reminded of one of the things years of guiding has conditioned me to say after the shot. If you asked nearly any professional hunting guide to just show you some phone videos from the season, inevitably it's probably probably in a bulk of them. And that's really no coincidence. It's an audible reminder of a very important post shot process. The word is reload. We're going to dive into why so many guides nearly automatically have to utter this, why it's important and how not to be a guy that needs this verbal cue. It doesn't really matter if you're on a guided hunt or solo Somewhere in the mountains. Whether you have a rifle or a bow in your hand, it's important to have this process nearly automatic. But before we do that, I want to share some guide stories where the word reload came into play with both a rifle and a bow. This past week, I was actually looking for a video clip for something. I can't remember what I was doing. Just putting together a little video or something. And I have just, like, on my hard drive, thousands of hours of hunting footage from guiding and other stuff. Most of this stuff's never even seen the light of day. I would just carry my camera with me on nearly every hunt that I guided and would record and try to get the shot on and everything like that for a couple of reasons. One, I just enjoyed doing it. It was fun. I also back then thought I would maybe have time to edit them into something and never did, but also just so I could review the shot process a lot. So most of the time, I would just set my camera up on a tripod and we set it up on tripod or have a spotting scop recording through the phone, something like that. Like, I would, I would just try to record it so I could always replay it and see what happened. And so I ended up coming across this video, and it made me laugh because so many of these videos are similar, but this one in particular just brought me back. But what ended up happening was I was guiding this guy, an older guy, you know, like most of my clients at the time, and we went into this spot and we had to hike up, like, get up into this little zone. And, and it was one of those guys that you're like, we've, we've got maybe one good hike, and it's going to take us a while. Like somebody that you kind of go, it's going to be tough to get this guy in elk. But I'd hunted with him before, always had a good time. And to be honest, like, the dude ended up always killing bulls. I don't know. It was like a combination of luck and, you know, my coercion in the matter of getting things set up. But I heard some elk down below, like some cows going off, and I, I, I think this was, like, second week. This was the second week of November. And I do remember hearing, like, this little bugle down there, and sometimes you'll get a, like a massive group of elk and a little, little feisty bull will just think, hey, maybe it's still rut time, right? So I'm like, oh, let's go down and we got to see what's going on here. Like, this seems almost too good to be true, but let's go over. So we. We dropped down the little canyon. I know, like, this is. I'm like, this is our play for the week probably. But we dropped down this. This draw, and sure enough, the elk were like, right below us. And there was this. It was like in this bottom, I guess, like a bunch of draws came together. This one spot. And they were working up the draw that we were on. So we sit down. We're well hidden. I get him a good rest. There's like this stump that I get them on. It like, seems pretty solid. Get something under his arm, like the whole deal. And elk are feeding out, like, single file. And I don't know how many had passed, but I feel like we're at the beginning of the beginning of the group. And it's uncanny how many, like, I don't know how many elk were in this group. Probably a couple hundred. Almost all cows. Like, just cow, cow. I think there's some spikes in there. And we had to shoot a legal bull, which was like a brow tine bull. And we weren't being picky on the sign. It was like any legal bull was a good bull. So they're coming out single file. And here comes, like, I catch a legal bull back in the timber. Like, this is absolutely the best. Like, this is a dream setup. Like, it does not get any better than this. The bull is coming out everything single file. Like, solid backdrop. Pretty good open lanes here. And this bull's coming out, and he's kind of like pushing, like sniffing a cow and following in line with all these other elk. I'm like, all right, dude, the bull's coming out. He get ready and follow it. And, you know, the whole deal. And. And so the bull is like, perfectly broadside. I'm like, okay, I'm going to stop him. Get ready. Here you go. You know, Cal, I even calculated. The bull stops, like, absolutely textbook perfect. Boom. He shoots. And I can see. I think I'm probably. The camera's clearly on a tripod. I'm not looking at the camera. I'm glassing with my, you know, binoculars at 110 yards. And I go reload. Like, I don't hear the gun reload. And. And to be 100 honest, if I go back through and listen to, like, nearly every guide video, the first thing I utter is reload. Whether the guy reloaded or not, I'm just so conditioned to say it. But in this particular instance, I'm like, reload. And he's like, there's no way I miss. And he's like, almost arguing with me. I remember thinking in my head, like, I. On the video, I said, no, okay, it doesn't even matter, like, if you hit the. Just reload and refind this damn bull, dude. And like, because it just went up the hill and stopped and they're all just stopped there. And the amount of time of like, not being reloaded now, I'm like, reload. Okay, you don't need to argue with me. I'm watching the bull. You missed the bull. We now got to like, you should have another opportunity at this bull to shoot this bull. But the time in between the miss and the like, function of thinking, oh, I got to reload. And everything was too much time. And then he had trouble finding the bull in the trees, and the bull got away. It was like, very unfortunate because it was a absolute slam dunk setup. And yeah, it was just a major bummer, but I just kind of had to chuckle myself because I'm like, the, the reload. And then the. The time of, like, I got him. There's no way I missed that bull. Like, yeah, well, you did. So maybe just reload and. And try to get another one off, you know? But yeah, it's one of those things. Like, I. I was. I was like going through a bunch of other videos. And it's funny because I was. It's like literally the first thing I say when I'm hunting with someone 99 of the time. And then I was watching, I was hunting with some friends that are also guides earlier or last season, I guess earlier this year. And he's show. You know, we're sharing videos and sharing a video of this meal. Dear Hunt, it's like exactly the same thing. As soon as. I mean, everybody that I know that's been around hunting a lot, it's something that you're conditioned to say to the person next to you. Like, my buddy. My buddy Cole was also. He's a bear guide and he was showing me some videos too. It's like the same exact thing. As soon as shot goes, the word reload comes out. You would be hard pressed to find a hunting guide that as soon as someone shoots, doesn't say reload. And there's an. There's 100% a reason for that. It's because there is this lag in most hunters that it's not this automatic thing. When I'm hunting, personally, I think I surprise people how fast? I mean, I'll. I can get that second shot off before you even hear the first shot. I swear, sometimes because you're just. You're just conditioned to do it. And you've seen so many instances where that reload and that thought process takes so long that it's a missed opportunity that may or may not be necessary. But you always want to be ready. There was another hunt that I was thinking of, and once I found this, I like, went down the rabbit hole. I'm like, I wonder if I have that video. And unfortunately, I really wish I could recover it, but I had this hard drive that like, got fried. And I had probably, I don't know, 200 plus hunts on it from guiding and lost like all the footage and didn't really have it backed up or anything. So I think that what I was for was on that. But there was this one hunt where we were bow hunting and this bull came in and it was like, it came in quiet. I cut a track, like a pretty fresh track, and. And so I started calling. It was mid midday. Like, I think this was probably like the second or third. It was early in the season, like second week of September. It's a long time ago, but called. And this. This bull comes in silent like a. A younger bull. You probably was not sure. I. I was just cow calling. I didn't throw out a be. I don't. Maybe I did. Bu. It's hard. It's me. I probably bugled. Like, it's hard for me not to bugle, but I think I was just cow calling. Like, we'd just been walking around cow calling. And we had some really good red action earlier in that hunt. I guess it was mid September, so. But this particular day was like hot and whatever and cow calling. And sure enough, this, like, I look up, there's a bull and he's coming in like, get ready, dude. And he. He gets ready and draws back, shoots and shoots like right below the bull. The bull runs off and then I hit that bugle and the bull gets to the timber and turns and stops. He was probably 30 yards when he shot first. And I range him, I'm like 50 yards, you know, like, I'm ready and I look and he doesn't have an arrow on. I'm like, dude, reload. Like, get. Get going. What are you. What are we doing here? Came to get a bowl, you know, I saw you. I mean, when they miss it 30 and you're like, how is he gonn? But I was like, at the range I always take people to the range and shoot. We shoot a lot. And I'm like, the guy could cut his fletchings at like 70 yards, right? This 50 yard shot on a broadside elk should be no problem. The 30 yard shot should have really been no problem. But shit happens. So, you know, and I'm like, I'm, I'm not looking at him, I'm looking at the bull. I'm ranging, I'm ready, I'm doing my job and I'm like, I'm like waiting. I don't hear anything drawback. And I'm like the get in. Like I had to like get a narrow one, let's go. Like he's 50 yards and he shot again and hit the bull and killed the bull. So it's like, yeah, you just needed that first. Get that jitters out of the way on the first one, which is fine. But it's one of those things that I think in the moment sometimes, I don't know, I think too like a lot of the people that even hunt a lot and, and a lot of it's like guys that whitetail hunt and you're in thick timber, you shoot once the animal runs off and you never see that animal again. Like there's for a follow up shot. But in western big game hunting, I mean a lot of the time you have the opportunity for a follow up shot. There's rarely times where I don't actually get a follow up shot if and and when needed. I mean by the time that arrow is on its way, I've already pretty much put another arrow on my string. And whether like my philosophy that I've always said to guys when I'm guiding is, you know, shoot them till they're on the wall. Essentially the cheapest shot is the first shot, right? Like once you connect with something you've connected, make sure that you're, what you've connected with is going to go down. There's been plenty of times where I've shot a bull, elk, perfect shot or deer or whatever. And if I can get a second arrow in, I always will get a second arrow because two arrows are better than one. I've seen times where you. It's like I say this time and time again to like clients that I'm guiding. And the only elk that a client with us has ever lost has been air quotes, a dead elk. It's one where they're like, it's dead. And we go shoot again. And it's like, nope, it dropped right away. So yeah, well, you probably either spined it or shocked it. We don't know. I don't know. Like in those instances, it's either a very good shot or maybe not. And if it's still moving and trying to get up, we say shoot again. Like put it down, put it out, make it, you know, like we don't need to wait around. Shoot it one more time. Cool. Give it some insurance. Make another good shot and we'll go recover it. Like that's the goal, right? Because it's the dead. It's the dead ones. The ones where a guy's like, no, I was great, he dropped, he's dead. I don't need to shoot again. It's like, okay. And then they roll over and run away and there's no blood, there's no nothing. And you don't find it again or with a bow or you know, you get that second shot and you know, like sometimes that first shot looks good and you, they end up running off and going wherever and having a terrible blood trail. There's so many times where like, if I can get that second arrow, I will. You know, everybody's got maybe their own little philosophies, but my philosophy is like, there's very few times, there's a few times where you're like, okay, I don't really need it in this situation. But sometimes like you just don't capture exactly what happened. Right? Every time. If I for sure 100% know exactly what happened, then I'm a little more apt to not think about it. But either way, you should be ready. And that's one of the things that I want to talk about this week. Really. Anytime that I start to recognize a pattern of something that I do, something that other people do that are in the field a lot, clearly it's something that needs to be mentioned. And as simple as why is it the guides immediately yell the word reload, or maybe not yell, but like remind. And it's a hundred percent because time and time again there's a little bit of a gap there. Whether it was a good shot, whether it was a bad shot, whether it was a missed shot, whether it was needs a follow up shot, it doesn't necessarily matter because if you aren't ready for that next shot to take place, you're going to be delayed in everything. You're going to be delayed in finding it. You might get one more opportunity to seal the deal, to secure whatever to make it. A day spent tracking versus finding it right here in this particular spot. It might be the difference between you actually missed the bull, but your follow up shot, for whatever reason, maybe that first one, you got a little antsy, you jerked the trigger, you got a little excited. That first maybe didn't work, but that second one, or you can make that correction, maybe it was like over his back, but you made a wrong correction. Now you can make that correction. So there's a lot of instances where that follow up shots needed, but it doesn't even matter whether it's needed or not. What the problem is is the fact that being ready is not automatic. And that's the thing that we want to get to. And I know that it's not automatic for a lot of people because people that do this day in and day out go on, you know, 100 hunts ever, like taking people, 100 different people a year. Out of those hundred people, 90 of them are gonna like fail in this category. I would say like, it's just 100 automatic. For a guide to say that. I would say like, just ask a guide friend if you know any guides, like, do you have to Yell Reload? Yeah, 100, 100% of them are going to say yes. It's because probably, like I said, a lot of people, majority of people, maybe whitetail hunt or whatever, and maybe there is no opportunity for a follow up. It doesn't really matter whether there's opportunity for a follow up or not. I want to make that process automatic so I'm immediately ready after the shots taken place. Now, you know, there's instances where it may or may not be needed, you know, might not be needed. Like, you know, okay, whatever, we aren't talking about those. I'm just talking about a standard protocol for the seconds after you release that arrow or pull the trigger. You should be ready to follow up no matter what. And that I, and I do stand behind that because I do know that that insurance and being ready, those few mere seconds make a big difference in everything else that plays out for that next opportunity. I have done a lot of my own personal hunting by myself, solo hunting. And in those instances, like especially early on, you'd shoot. I didn't have like a suppressor. So it was harder to hear the hit back. It was harder to see like where you hit on the animal, all these other things. So after every shot, it was kind of like a what happened. I need to reassess the situation. And in order to do that in timely and efficient manner, I had to be ready almost instantaneously. Like there had to be zero thought between my head saying Reload like it was just a hundred percent automatic function of what happened. Because now you have to reacquire the target, find the target, figure out, like, assess the situation and then things move fast and every little second counts. I can think of a few times where I've followed up, like on an elk or something. So I shoot, call immediately and then shoot again. And in my head there is this massive time in between. And then someone that this happened, like very recently. I can't. What was it? It was like, it's probably last year, a couple years ago, but someone was with me, was filming and they're like, dude, you got that second shot off so fast. And in my head it was so slow, it was like, yeah, I had all the time in the world. And it was because the function in the form of it became automatic. I didn't even have to think of it. And honestly, the follow up shot probably wasn't needed, but I was so fast at it. It was very easy to accomplish. Like it was, it was very fluid and smooth motion. And I think that that is the place that you want to get and that's the one thing that I'm going to talk about in this podcast, is how to get to that slow like that. It's almost like when you can do something so well, so smooth, you gain those seconds that you gain that perception, you gain that ability to do it really well with ease. It shouldn't be something that someone has to remind you to do. It should be something that was absolutely automatic. And that's why I wanted to talk about it this week. Because now is actually the time that you prepare for it, not when you go into the season thinking like, oh, I shoot and then I reload. It should actually be something that's a muscle memory that you don't even have to think about from doing it time and time again. And so the pattern is what a lot of professional hunters notice is most people aren't ready for that follow up shot fast enough. They have to be reminded about it. They're kind of assessing the situation in the wrong order. They shoot. Like the first question is, did I hit it? What happened? That shouldn't be the first question. You should be reloading. Be like, what happened? Did I hit it? Looking through your scope at the point where you receive the confirmation of, he's good, you're good, or maybe you're by yourself now I have to reassess the situation and see what happened. Shouldn't reassess the situation. Oh, the bull or buck's still standing there. I don't know where I hit it. Now I'm going to reload. Now I'm going to refind it. It needs to be reload, refined and if needed, reshoot. So I think that this kind of comes from being able to do this efficiently, comes from just practicing. In the off season, when you're shooting, you think about going to, we'll start with a rifle and then we'll move to a bow. Because I think that a lot of people discount the fact of a follow up shot with a bow. I think with elk, nearly the majority of the time you can get a follow up shot with your bow. Sometimes it's needed, sometimes not. Whatever. But I do feel like in a lot of instances, elk will stop because they don't really know what's going on. Deer, maybe not as much, but I have had that happen where you shoot a deer. It runs a little way, stops, looks around like, oh. What happened is generally with better shots that that happens, but I've had it happen where you hit something. You. Okay? Was that, was that a perfect shot? Wasn't. Whatever. It doesn't really matter at that point. I'm not worried about that. I'm gonna shoot another arrow. And so with a rifle, a lot of the practice you do, let's say you're at the bench, you've sighted in. Okay. You're, you're practicing and you're shooting and it's like, boom. Shoot. Okay, look through the spotting scope. Yeah, okay, I made that hit. Or listen for the report on the gong to come back and go like, cool, I made a good shot. You look over there, you go back, you reload, you get set up, you do your thing again. Okay. That's all well and good, but what you're doing is you're absolutely conditioning yourself for the same kind of response that you're gonna get in the field. Boom. What happened? Let me look. Now let me reload. Now let me shoot again. And that's the wrong order of operations. When you're in the field and split, seconds matter. So what, what you want to do is you want to practice like this. I do a lot of practicing where I try to make that follow up shot as fast and as efficient as possible. So if I'm by myself, I just, I get my spotting scope out, I pop my phone on record with the mag view and I will zoom in. I like to do this like generally not on a bench. So in a field shooting scenario, which is something that I feel like not enough hunters practice anyways, we talk about practice, practice, practice with, with archery equipment. And yet I feel like with rifles it's like yeah, the gun's sighted in, that means I can shoot. That means nothing in my opinion. Like I've, I've been around enough people that have shot at the range, sighted a gun in and then taken into the field. They encount situation where they need to get steady and they've never encountered that situation before. It's like they've never had to throw the pack on like that. They've never been trying to shoot uphill from a downhill site. Like they don't know how to get comfortable super fast. And so I really do think that these should happen. You can even do it at your range. Like I understand not everybody has access to really good places to shoot, especially in a lot of the country. So it's like maybe you're, you've got 100 yard range, you've got a 300 yard range, doesn't really matter. Get off the bench, get your pack down, get some shooting sticks, get some different shooting positions, you know, if they let you whatever most ranges do. So maybe use the post and the pole is a rest and you're standing whatever it is. Getting those more authentic shooting scenarios, maybe it's just from the bench on your backpack. I don't really care something where you aren't fully locked in. Don't do this from like a, a lead sled, you know, as great as they are for getting steady and getting things sighted in and squared up, that's great. Nothing against them, but that's not how you aren't going to have that in the field. Unless, unless you do. I don't know, I don't, you know. So I'll get like the shooting bags that I'm going to use, maybe that squeeze bag in the back, whatever. My hunting setup is in just various different positions and I'm going to shoot it at target. Like I said, if I'm by myself I just, and even if I'm with someone, I record my shots just through my phone so I can go back and review and see. Especially if I'm shooting steel, see right away. And then I can also see the timing in between. So what I'll do is I'll like take that target, I'll crank my magnification all the way up, boom, shoot and try to shoot that target again as fast as possible and then again as fast as possible. I'll do a three shot group as quickly as possible or a two shot group depending on how Much ammo I want to shoot and what I've got got going on that day, what rifle I'm using. And so there's a few reasons for that. One is we want to understand that recoil management. And the other thing that's just as important is building in that repetition of reloading fast is getting back on target. Just reloading is, is great. Getting back on target is a whole nother skill set in itself that I think needs to be practice. It should be 100% automatic where you shoot. Maybe you're zoomed in and you know like, hey, I'm off target, I've got to zoom out. So it's like reload, zoom out on target, zoom back in. And that is all one super fluid motion. And the more you do that, the more you're able to do it with ease and with speed. And it's going to take that fast flustered moment into this, like where you have, where you feel like you have a lot of thought and time in your head to continue to make those follow up shots effectively. And they end up getting faster and faster and faster. Your time on shooting, finding, zooming back in, shooting again goes down to a matter of seconds. The more you practice it, if you've never practiced it, it's this absolutely clunky operation. And I see it all the time. Like, I see it where it's like. And then I reach over, I zoom out, they go, okay, I zoom back in and we've just lost what seems like to me an eternity. Maybe it's a minute or less, but it's an operation that could have taken a mere matter of seconds. Okay. Where it's like, okay. Or if somebody's spotting for you and they go, it moved up to the group of pines just above it. Okay, well if you're still looking down trying to reload, then you're looking up, trying to find the pines. Then you're looking in your scope and now you got to zoom it out. Then you kind of can see the thing and you zoom in. It's a whole process. The other thing that I'll do on this follow up shots is practice shooting my magnification in various magnifications. So the reload is like getting, getting reloaded is one thing. Getting back on target is really the tactic that you want to accomplish. A lot of people at the range will shoot, let's say you're shooting whatever, whatever your effective range is. Say it's four whatever, I don't care. Say you're shooting five, 600 yards and you're always doing it on full magnification. I will shoot those further distances at minimum magnification or zoomed out quite well and see how I still group see how, see how well I can perform with that shot. Because there's many times where that follow up shot, I'm not zooming back in. I've got, I want that more wider field of angle view. I need to be able to assess the situation and see what else is around. Are there other animals? Is this still a safe shot to take? Is there anything in the background? Is there anything in the foreground? Okay, how do I follow it? Okay, now I've got time. I've got an opening now. I can zoom in if the times, if the time, if I've got the time. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's like, well, I need to make that follow up shot. I know you should be thinking, you might be thinking, well, you should make a really good shot on the first one. Yes, 100% every time. But if I can make two really good shots, I absolutely will, and I encourage you to as well. Now there is that thing of thinking like, well, you're gonna damage the meat. You know, it depends where you're hitting them, where you shoot them and assess all this, right? All this can be assessed if you're ready. If I go, there's plenty of times where I've shot and I go, there's no need for a follow up shot. It's a smaller animal. I don't want to damage that other shoulder. It's going down, but I don't need to. Right? Sometimes with a bigger animal like an elk, I'm like, I just don't want to have to try to figure out where this elk is. If it's in thick cover and it runs 50 yards, terminally shot, or 100 yards, it could take me a few extra hours in the heat and whatever. That might not be ideal. It might be ideal to just go over there, recover it, get it cut up, cooled down and packed out right away. So you really have to assess the situation. It can be situational, but there's no more wasted meat than an animal that was hit. You lose and never recover. That is the absolute worst thing in my opinion. Thankfully, you know, I haven't seen it that often. But also, you know, generally, like when I'm guiding and other things, we find the elk, we get those second shots, whatever we need to do. We generally, you know, it happens. But it does happen every year. There are hunters that will go out, will make A shot they think was a good shot and have trouble recovering whatever they were, whatever they hit. It's just a, it's a, it's a shitty fact of the matter. Honestly. It's the worst case scenario 100% of the time. And if you can make one good shot and make another good shot or a good follow up shot, I feel like you should do it. Especially with bigger animals. Now I'm, I'm more thinking about this in terms of elk. You know, there's other animals that, yeah, you, you'd probably be fine, right? It depends what rifle caliber you're using. Like, there's a lot of things that it depends on. But if you're ready, if you do it in the right process and you do it fluidly and smoothly and you've practiced it, you have way more time to assess the need for that follow up shot. It's like, I'm not kidding you, the time that I, I've gone through this with other guys that I've hunted with a lot and I'm like, look, look, here's what I want you to do before you come back. Not that anything, but like, I just think that this is going to benefit you so much. And then they come back and it's like that fluid motion. They're like, yeah, the first time that something happened, I shot at that elk and I was trying to refine that elk. All they remember is just this major cluster in their mind. Like this frantic, panicked, looking, searching, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. Everything in your head's like, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. And it's so hard to operate efficiently when it's super smooth and fluid because you've done the repetitions. You don't think about it, I don't think reload. It just happens. I don't think. Zoom out the scope, reacquire the animal, reassess the situation. I don't think about it ever in my life. I just do it. And without. When you aren't thinking about that, you have plenty of time to assess the other stuff. Oh, look, I can see where he's hit. Oh, look, I can, I can see where he's standing. Oh, I can pay attention to exactly where is. Oh, there's a cow behind him that I sh. I need to wait for. There's this, that and the other thing. You make a lot better decisions with clear thinking because you aren't working reactionary to panic. You're actually working out of practice and can assess the situation way better. And by doing that, you're gonna be a More efficient hunter. You're going to be more efficient with whatever you're hunting with. For me, honestly, like, you know, I do a lot of bow hunting. I've done, you know, a fair amount of rifle hunting and. And rifle handling. I haven't done a ton of muzzleloader hunting. And I remember, like, if you're gonna go muzzleloader hunting, that reload process and that reshooting is exact. It's like, I remember the first time that I had to do that, and I felt like the bumbling guy over here, like, dropping stuff, ball going here, powder with like, dude, I. What's going on? I remember when I was a kid with my dad, I was muzzleloader hunting. And. And I was actually, too. What happened? Like, I had. I shot this buck, and it was our first time. Either of us have. Either either of us have muzzleloader hunted. And what ended up happening was I think he put the. The bullet in. I handed it to my dad because I was like, you know, I'm watching the era. I was like, 13 years old maybe. It was like I could barely get the thing down the barrel. And I hit this buck and handed my dad, and the bullet went in the backwards. Like, there was no powder between the bullet. Like, he did it the opposite way on accident. And it slid down the barrel because it was, like, saboted. And then we, like, couldn't get it out. We're like, now we have to, like, hike back to the truck, take this thing apart because we really didn't practice that, like, fast reload and whatever. I just remember that being, like, clustering. And I remember, like, on my first where I was fully alone, just hunting with a muzzleloader, and, you know, and it's like, oh, here we go. And it. It just. I had reloaded the range, but I don't know if I practiced enough of that fast reload, that fast, that process. Like, I. I didn't have my process down as much. And then in subsequent years, I mean, that's all I would do. I would. Once I got it sighted in. Cool. My practice is now really just going through the motion of, like, pulling out the cap. Where are the caps on my thing, you know, reload, like pouring the powder, putting the bullet in all the steps. Patch round ball, cap, like, cap from my cap, or grabbing all the things and doing that without having to look like, where I can still be scanning the horizon, see what's going on, what's happening to that animal? Did it get up? Did it move? I'm not so Focused on operating the musket, I'm more focused on the task at hand. And operation is just a factor of having done it so many times that exact way. If the first time I did it was in the field in a panicked mode, after I just hit a bull on the mountain on a snowy day, I'm screwed. And that, and that's the fact of the matter is you need to practice these things in those rushed ways so it becomes fluid and you can make a lot better decisions. I would say, you know, with a rifle, yeah, it makes sense. With a muzzleloader, it makes sense. A lot of people don't even think about it with a bow. For me, with a bow, if I can get off one, if I can get off a second good arrow, there is absolutely nothing better than that. Now, there have been times where I've assessed and been like, where is it hit? What is this follow up shot look like? Is it worth the potential of maybe spooking it further if I try to take this follow up shot, but I'm ready, I'm at full draw and I'm making that assessment in real time with plenty of time to do it. There's been many times where I could take a follow up shot and chose not to. But it wasn't rushed. I was already locked, loaded, drawn back or thinking about it, ready, assess the situation, whatever. I had all the pieces in place. Maybe it was like arrows on the string. I'm looking through my binos, I see where it's hit, I go, man, if I shoot again in it and it spooks it, this is kind of a tricky shot through the trees. It could run off and go off into this thing. I want it to just stay where it's at, not bother it. No need for a follow up shot here. There's other times where I've shot, I don't even need to think about it. I'm reload, I'm drawn and I make that second shot and I get up to, I go, cool, two great shots, perfect. Or man, I'm glad I made that follow up shot. I. It's happened both ways. Last year on my bull, I shot a great bull and like the first shot, yeah, it was like, it didn't look great. Honestly to me, it was back and I don't know, you know, whatever happened, and I quickly, you know, was already ready again. It moved a little bit and I wanted to just get a better follow up shot because it moved up a little bit. I followed him, it turned, I shot again. The bull Ran up and expired within probably 30 yards of where that first shot took place. All because I was ready and you know, had the ability to make another, another shot. So I think that that is really important. That's the one thing like, like what I'll do in practice with my bow is all. I'll shoot at the target and then I will just do that. I will get another one on, draw back and shoot and try to shoot as good a group as I can, as fast as I can. I'll do it with five arrows. I mean I like, I don't, I'm not gonna, yeah, I will pat myself on the back with it. I can shoot pretty well, pretty fast if need be. You know, it's not, not something that you always get the opportunity to do or need to do, but, but if you're ready for it, it makes a big difference. Like, like I said, I don't know how many times I've been hunting, especially with elk, man, especially when you've called in an elk and you can stop them because they don't, it's like, hey, you did your job. They didn't know what was going on. They just heard something, something wasn't right, they ran off. Whether I've had hit bulls, fatally hit bulls, stop and, and give plenty of second, second opportunities. I've had bulls that were hit marginally give second opportunities. I've also, you know, had, had like been guiding, had seen a bull that got hit marginally and then hit marginally again. And what happened was the bull was dead in 40 yards as opposed to not ever recovered because it was like, well, two mediocre shots. But the bull was in thick timber. It left a way better blood trail. We had a lot to go off of and we gave him proper amount of time and he's expired right here, not far away, recovered bull. All because the person was ready and was able to make a follow up shot. And so when I'm practicing with my bow, practice like that, make it automatic for me. When I shoot something with my bow, there's, I don't know how that arrow gets on that string. I don't even think about it. It's there and it's ready to go. I, that's one of the reasons like that I fell in love originally with my day six arrows. And one of the reasons that I started to shoot four fletched arrows is because I could essentially put that arrow on the string in any direction and it's the same. So I could, any way that I put it, pulled it out of the quiver and put it on. I never have to look down, I never have to even think about it. It's out of the quiver. However, it's in the quiver. I put it on the string and I'm ready to rock and roll. And that's one of the reasons that I really like four fletched arrows especially. I do it with my trad bow, even where it's like, okay, I just grab it all, the quiver and put it on the string. I never look, I never think about it. It's there and I'm like, I don't even know how it gets there. I don't even have to think how it gets there. It gets there because I've practiced it a thousand times. And that's the nice thing about like our day, six arrows. And I, yeah, I'll absolutely plug them in this way because they're one of the few arrows out there that with our process, it doesn't matter how that arrow is on the string, it's going to shoot the same because we, we, we put a lot of time into making sure that those arrows are perfectly concentric. There's no high and low spots in them. And so what you get from that is I can foreflatch my arrow, I can put that thing on the string any way that I want and it's going to fly the same. And that's the reason that I like to do the four fletching as well, is if I'm shooting even mechanical broadheads or fixed broadheads, I can have that insert glued in. I can have the arrow made. I can screw in a broadhead, right? And I can go, oh, well, I want all my broad heads to kind of be horizontal plane or vertical. I like to shoot them horizontal. There's, I think it's just whatever, it doesn't matter. I don't think it makes a difference in the flight. But that's. I like them all the same. So I like them all from a starting point the same. Well, I can turn my arrow, you know, essentially four ways to line up. I try to make the fletchings do like a cross where one's toward, like the X is toward me. But I have four options to do that. If I've three fletched it, I've got one option to put it on the string. And if my broadhead's a little off, I can't really move it. So that's why I like those arrows that don't really have a weaker stiff side because I can put it on anyway. And I personally love four fletched arrows because I can put it on the string either way and it's a lot faster reload now, you know, with however you got your arrows and your quiver. That's like if you've got it three fletched and you got a broad head and it's one way, maybe it only fits in your quiver one way. So when you put it in your quiver to get the broadhead right, the fletchings might be a little bit off. And so you pull it out, put in a string, you gotta look, you got what takes time. I just pull it on my quiver, it's on my string. I've never thought about it and I'm probably at full draw before that animal has even, you know, known that it was hit and, or, you know, I mean like close enough and if it stopped and I can make a follow up shot, awesome. Or now I have time to range, assess the situation, draw back and shoot. So it gives you more added time by practicing that follow up and even maybe having a little bit different type of gear for that potential follow up. I, I like the, the fact of, hey, if I can send a second arrow downrange, that's like double bang for my buck, really? Because hey, you might get one elk tag. You hit it good once, might as well hit it good a second time if the opportunity presents itself. And I do stand by that as a, as a professional guide and outfitter, I stand by preparing yourself for a follow up shot, whether it's needed or not. It should be one fluid motion that happens without even thinking. I hope you guys really enjoyed that podcast and take that practice to heart. It's something that I think about all the time, is a skill that is so simple yet makes a really big difference when it's needed. So I encourage you to practice that. One of the things that I'm excited about if you guys are around July 16th to the 19th. RMEF is doing their big game days in Missoula, Montana this year. And what that is, it's, it's going to be an incredible event. So pretty much taking over Missoula and transforming it into a celebration for hunting conservation. And it's just going to be a big hunting base camp across Missoula for that time. So there's going to be a full draw. They're calling it the, like a total archery challenge there as well. So you can register for that, you can bring your bows, you can practice shooting some awesome mountain shots. There's going to be world calling, world elk calling, Championships. I think I might even be a judge for that this year. I got to double check that. Either way I'll be, I'll be listening in and checking that out. There's some volunteer work projects. There's all kinds of panel stuff like tips and tactics. There's going to be a bunch of booths with hunting gear and equipment, being able to connect with people. So it's going to be, you know, an awesome experience, very interactive, a lot of hands on stuff as well. At the RMEF headquarters in Missoula which will be kind of the base camp for it. I'm going to be doing a lot of different events there and other things. So it's going to be an incredible week, week for conservation. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'll be up on the mountain shooting. I'll be, I've got some donation stuff that we'll have and some different prizes that we're helping contribute to. I think it's just going to be an awesome week for conservation. So mark it in your calendars. I, I really encourage you guys to come out to check it out. It's definitely going to be something to travel to. If you've never been to Missoula in July, it's the best. Like Montana in July is one of the best times of year. I love the summers in Montana. July is an incredible time. Plan a trip with your family, go check out other places in Montana while you're there. If you're traveling for long distance, get some fishing in. Just, just enjoy hunting and conservation and celebrate it with us. It's going to be a really fun week. So I just wanted to kind of give everyone a heads up for that now early so you have time to plan. July 16th to 19th, Missoula, Montana. You can go to RMEFS website, search or search Big game days and get some more information on that. Another thing I wanted to mention as well, if you're in the market for arrows and or broadheads, I encourage you guys feel free to support our Day six Arrow company. You know we've got some incredible stuff. This is stuff built for hunters, built for by hunters and it's, it's legitimately the best stuff on the market in my opinion. And just out of field testing and knowing, comparing it to other things, we put so much into building these arrows with precision with you know that, that thought of the hunter. We've got options for heavier grains per inch in our HDS and our xds. If you want a lighter grain print, go with our XD arrows. If you're like, hey, I want a harder hitting arrow for elk and western big game hunting. HDs are our flagship. They're absolutely bomb proof, super thick walls, super durable. If you're like, hey, I would like a setup with a little less drop, a little more ballistic range, maybe it's like, hey, I want an arrow for attack event or other things. We have our XD arrows and those are lighter grains per inch. So you can look at that option as well. The thing that makes our arrows so great is our component system with them. We include our components with our arrows. And the thing about our components, they're indexed off the center as well as they have. So it's like an insert and an outset. But if you look at an x ray ver version of that, it's creating like this monolithic bond where the arrow and the outsert become one particular like solid unit because it's bonded on the inside, the outside and it's precision machined to match exactly. So all of our components, we machine ourselves in Wyoming. And what you're getting is you're getting a component that was machined for your arrow, not just a random assortment of components that go on a variety of arrows. Every spine has a different outside diameter because to get that flex is different. So we make all of our insert out certs. We call it our centric system. We make all of our centric system components for that specific arrow. Because of it we have like the, the variance in it is you don't have to shave it down or anything. The tolerance is tighter than a human hair and it slides on every time. You don't have to mess with it like you might for others. You don't have to adjust it, you don't have to like, you know, jerry rig it in any way. It's perfectly built for that arrow. And because of it you get extremely tight tolerances, extreme durability up front on the end. That's impacting the animal. And that's because we designed it for hunting, it was designed for hunters. And so you get, get unbeatable strength and incredible accuracy. And that's the one thing that we stand behind. The other thing is with our broadheads, they're 100 made in America. We use the highest grade materials. Our blades on our broadheads are, if you've heard of it, Magnacut steel. We are the only broadheads on the market that use Magnacut steel. Reason is because it's expensive and most people think like, oh, it's not. They're, they're Just willing to sell you something that's cheaper, that rusts, that isn't as good and isn't as high a quality to make a little bit extra. We want to give you the best and so we use only the best materials. Our 100 grain ferrules are actually made out of titanium and we, we everything is like you'll notice with the 100 grain and whatever is the same size. So we actually change the material from titanium to a high grade stainless for our heavier broadheads to match our weight. So, so you can get same durability but same size broadhead and just matching the weights with the different materials. So something to look into and then if you are not on our email list. I know this is a long pitch for Day six but I'm super passionate about it as the owner and as a user of the company for years before I was the owner of just a really high end product. We have some stuff coming out that everybody I think is going to turn a few things on its head. If you want to get in on the first wave of what we have coming now, you have to be on our email list. Go to day6gear.com make sure you're signed up for our email list. If you get an email, open it so you don't get like what we do is if you don't open the emails we just kick, don't necessarily kick you out. But I think the, the system kind of, you know, limits the amount of emails that you get in the future. So if you really want to know what's going on and get on the forefront of what we have coming, make sure you're on our email list. We have something coming out that I 100% know tops certain like I'm not even. I don't want to give away too much. I'm just telling you you need to see it for yourself because I'm continually blown away by what we and the team have built and I really do think that it's going to change a certain segment of bow hunting. So that's your teaser for now. I'm really excited about it but it's coming soon so make sure you're on that email list and ready for when it does hit because you're going to want to get in on it is all I know. That's what I'm going to give you for now. So until next week, I'm just going to say practice fast. Catch you guys later.