← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 242 | Bow Practice for the Red Zone
00:48:55
In this episode, Remi shares expert tips on bow hunting, focusing on the critical moments in the red zone, practice techniques, and how to improve success rates through stealth and muscle memory. Perfect for hunters looking to refine their skills and increase their chances of a successful hunt.
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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 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 m t n t o u g h dot 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. Now this week we're gonna dive into bow season prep. And while hitting where you're aiming is just an incredibly important portion of bow hunting, in a hunting scenario, what you do before the shot is as important, or maybe even more than the shot itself sometimes. So how getting that shot off goes really entirely depends on your movement, your draw, your anchor, and not spooking the animal at that critical stage. I like to call that the red zone. That's where most bow hunters fall apart. This is when you're within shooting distance. Now why is that? Well, it's because when you're most likely to get busted is when you've got within that zone that you're close enough to shoot with a bow. And the trouble is, most hunters have built muscle memory in that draw process with zero cares about how and when. You're just in your backyard and you're just shooting. And that teaches you to ignore everything else. You're just there focusing on the shot and hitting the target. But it's everything leading up to the shot that's really important while hunting. So this week, we're going to look at building the right habits and flow so you're not trying to figure it out in the red zone. But first, I'm going to share the story of a recent axis deer hunt and how making the right move on the draw makes all the difference. One of my favorite hunts to do, and I know I probably say that with every hunt, I'm like, is my favorite hunt. The hunt that I'm on, whenever I'm on it, is my favorite hunt. But if you've watched my videos for a long time, you'll notice that there's quite a few hunts that I just tend to do over and over and. And one of them is chasing axis deer. There's a lot of reasons behind that. One of them is the fact that it's just such a proving ground in a way where you can get a lot of reps in. In a short amount of time in some instances, because they're the places. A lot of the places that I've hunted, there's quite a few deer, but also they're just so keyed in. They jump the string a lot. They can be really hard to sneak on. There can be eyes everywhere, like, large groups, and it can be a real challenge. I. I mean, I know a lot of guys that I've taken a lot of people that have just absolutely struggled on. On axis deer. And one of the reasons that being, I think it's just often maybe, you know, they aren't there when you shoot. Like, you'll shoot and they. They duck, they jump, they whatever. I actually had a video. A video come out. You guess it was probably. Yeah, beginning of this week, More of It's just a short little video. It actually was a fairly quick hunt for this particular one, But I was taking one of our new day six XR arrows out, going like, okay, it's a fast deer. A lot of people on deer that tend to jump suggest, okay, a faster arrow, because even if they react or maybe there's. If you're off on your yardage, your range a little bit, then you know, you have less Drop and therefore more likely to hit within the kill zone. Access deer is one of those deer that more often than not they are not where they're supposed to be. When you shoot now, a lot of the times it's reacting to the bow going off. Other times you could be reacting to the arrow other. But I would say the majority of the time is there's a lot of eyes, a lot of ears around and the fact that you're, you're stalking in and you've got to be kind of like on their level for the most part, in a lot of instances and just being unseen, like being unseen on the job, being unseen on the shot, so they've got some awareness. They're a type of animal that doesn't do a second look for the most part I would say like they, they jump and then ask questions later. So for reason it can be an extreme challenge and just a great, a great proving ground, a great testing. Like the other cool thing about it is they have antlers pretty much. Some have antlers throughout the year. Like they are on. Majority of them are on a cycle. Meaning that like they, most of them rut in like that June, July, like June timeframe I guess. But then there are some that are going to be growing, some that are in velvet, some that have just shed, some that are about to shed and then you could go like a different time of year. And although the majority of them might still be growing, there will be some hard horned ones, some rutting throughout the year. Like they can actually breed throughout the year. So it makes it pretty interesting. But also more of our year round endeavor. So I've always enjoyed chasing them when I had maybe a time or nothing else going on. Another reason that I chased them a lot was my grandma lived in Hawaii for a very long time. And so it was like, hey, I could go visit grandma, I could get some family time in, I had a place to stay and I could go, you know, chase some deer. So for that reason for me is just like one of my absolute favorite things to do. And the other, the other thing is I like the fact that it's, it's different times of year. So I, you know, like if I'll go, I generally go like in that March time frame, which is not ideal. Like it's not. That's when the majority of them have shed, some are growing out, but you can get on some good bachelor duck groups and velvet and other things. But chasing them like I really like chasing them in that June period when they're, when They're a little bit more rutting when the majority of them are hard horn. They might be fighting, exhibiting some rut behavior and stuff like that. So it's fun to just be able to get in that type of hunt or whatever, especially before fall season, like knock some dust off, test out some new gear. It's a place as well that I've tested a lot of like different broadheads over the years. Mechanicals, fixed blades, whatever, different arrows, different. Different hunting setups and different, different sites, especially just to get in some reps and like, okay, on this stock, here's what went wrong. You know, before I got on maybe a hunt where I get one opportunity in a week of hunting, I could have multiple opportunities in a week of hunting access here. So for me it's an awesome like proving ground type area and just a really fun hunt. And then to top it off, some of the best meat on the planet, like an axis doe or an even an axis buck, just phenomenal. Like I think of it a lot like elk meat in a. I don't know what it is about. Like it's. It's not very strong in any particular sense, but has great flavor. It can be very tender. Like it's just phenomenal eating. So that, that part's awesome. On this particular hunt, the. The video is on. It's, you know, got into. Got into this area first morning and ended up. Wasn't sure if where I was going to find bucks. I'd hunted this particular spot, but it had been a long time since I'd hunted there. And I knew that like the. A couple of places seen deer in the past. And so go. I'm going to kind of drop in, get the wind right, go down into these gullies. It's like real jungly type terrain, but there's some open, I guess, like the ridges would be open. And I throw up my glass and I see some deer, maybe not too far away, like looks like a group of bucks. So I decided I'm going to drop down in the gully or the like it's fairly steep, little treed hillside and then move in. The wind was good, super wet. That like everything was wet. So it's kind of quiet. Drop down, move in and try to get into position. So I start to creep into position. There's a small buck that feeds out and he's looking, he doesn't really see us, but I've got two guys with me that were filming and just tagging along. So, you know, they're moving in with like by yourself is one thing. With another person's another, and then with a third person, that's just completely different. So I get into position. I'm, like, pretty close to this one buck, and he's feeding good. Like, axis deer can be super on edge. And, like, in a lot of the places you might hunt them, they probably get hunted every day of the year. So they. There are no natural predators, but there's definitely, like, human predators that get after it. So they can be pretty on edge. And this one bucks feeding pretty good. Little. Little young buck. And I've got these two, like, good, mature bucks fighting each other. So I'm just gonna wait. I'm like 35 yards from them. The. The bucks fighting, and I just don't have a shot. But as soon as they're the. The one smaller one's got his back to me. As soon as they turn, I'm gonna make a shot. Like, I ranged, and I would have had time to. To shoot if I just didn't have to range, But I was gonna make a good shot. Wanted the range. And in between this process, just about getting ready to draw back, somehow that other little buck passed me, which I thought was gonna be fine, but he picked up one of the guys behind me and blew out. And so haul the de. And now we're kind of back at square one. But it was. It was just an awesome encounter. It was like, whoa. That almost happened really quick. So we go. We. We end up hearing them. They kind of. They make like a screaming sound. Like, no, I don't want to do it full, full, full on here, because it'll just blow your speakers out. So a light version, but you can get almost sounds like a hawk, but you. You get the gist of what sounds they make. So that's. That's the stags or the. The bucks, and they make that scream sound. And then the. The females actually make more of, like, a cow elk sound. And so they're making that noise down in this goalie. We move up. I can see him working there, but just so thick. And, dude, those. Those deer can pick up anything that's a little bit out of place. Even when, like, you can barely see them, they can definitely pick you out, especially if you've got, like, a little bit of sky behind you or anything like that. They're. They're just so keyed in, and they can. They can make. It's. The funny thing is, they'll be making a ton of noise. You crack one stick, they know it's a human and not a deer. I don't know how they do it, because here you've got deer raking and fighting and breaking stuff all over, and yet you make one weird, loud footstep, and they're out, they're gone. So they were down below me. They just kind of. They blew out. I can't remember if they. What happened. They just blew out. And so I still heard one up on the next little bench and went up, popped up and. And didn't hear anything. See, Whatever. So I. I got up and started glassing. And I just see in the tall grass, antler tips. It looks like the buck's probably by himself, but the grass is so tall that it's just hard to tell. I had a good, like, draw in between me and that deer, and depending on where that deer was going to go, you know, made the difference on whether I was going to be able to move in or not. So the buck's down, feeding, and I'm like, if we make a play right now, I've got this bush that I can crawl behind, and I feel like I can get into position. So start to move up quick. It disappears in this little gully. I just crawl in, crawl to the bush, start to peek up, and here he is feeding right below me, 40 some odd yards away. Now, this is where experience kind of comes into play. Because there's so many times, and I've seen it, like, taking people hunting more often than not, where you're like, okay, a good opportunity. They draw back, right? And the deer's even distracted. They draw back, whatever. The deer's distracted feeding. But, you know, the deer catches something, they're like, standing. Cause it's like they can. You can stand and maybe get a shot off. And they're doing this entire draw, settle, whatever process the deer catches them is now either alert or blows out right at the wrong moment. So I've got this bush in front of me. The deer's feeding. I'm just waiting for him to present a shot before I draw. Then what I'm doing is I'm just tucked into this bush completely unseen, drawing straight back, anchoring, and then kind of like leaning out, getting up high and releasing that arrow on. On this deer. Because these deer do jump so often, you know, this deer was distracted and whatever, but this deer had no clue that I was there, and that makes all the difference. So I always tend to. To put that shot, like, if it's. It was slightly quartered, too. So I always kind of tend to put it, like, behind the Shoulder a little bit and like a little low. Although I probably should put it right on the shoulder. Like one thing you'll notice, every species a little bit different anatomy. Especially with deer species based on their horn structure. Axis deer, their vitals are really tucked up tight and high to that shoulder. And the reason is because they have these long, you know, up to 30 plus inch long spears on their head. Well, those spears can easily puncture vitals if their vitals are not protected really well by that shoulder. So during fighting and other things like I've noticed rusa deer, access deer, everything that has those spear, like antlers, their vitals are really packed up into that cavity, protected by the shoulder. So you're a lot better off like trying to punch their shoulder. But I aimed a little bit low and whatever and this deer did not react. And in many ways that's a really. Now whether it could have been utilizing that faster arrow, whatever. Faster arrows often are a little more loud. But also just getting in on a buck, just doing the entire sequence right where it has no clue of your presence. That's the shot that I strive for in every hunting scenario. I do not want that animal to know it's being shot at. Because when you can make that kind of shot, there's more likelihood that they're going to be where they are standing when you shoot. Which takes out that variable the majority of the time. Like if I've made a bad shot or something happened, I would say 99% of the times because the animal wasn't where I wanted it to be when the arrow got there. And so if you can take a lot of that out by choosing the right time to draw, you know, like not being seen, not being heard, not having those things happen right before the shot, that's the time when most hunts go south and sometimes people don't even notice it. It's like that little bit of movement that catches that ear that kind of makes that animal feel like something's off. And when something's off, then they react completely different than if, if nothing's wrong. And so on this particular deer, not nothing happened. You're like, okay, perfect. I ended up hitting it a little lower than maybe I would have liked. But I had to account for it just because of like, statistically that's what those deer do. Anyways, I ended up, it ran over it gave it a little bit more time just to, just to make sure I recovered the buck. And man, it was a incredible buck, like awesome buck. And I do know like I've seen it, especially when I get to take guys that maybe haven't bow hunted as much as I have or whatever. It's one of the biggest mistakes that I see during a stock is the movements and the motions and that that final process of now it's finally time to take a shot. I've spent countless days guiding people a lot of it with a bow. And on almost all of them I stock in with the hunter because I, I've just found that it's a lot higher percentage success when I can talk them through the entire process. Okay, here's what we do. Here's the. And like, here's how to move. Okay, I know how to move in on animals. And you think about like, okay, it might be harder to sneak in with two people, but I've just, I've done it so much, especially even just self filming, like sneaking in on a lot of hard to sneak on animals twice. Like setting up the camera, crawling in, leaving my stuff, crawling back, crawling back in, setting up the camera. Like, I've just had so much practice with it that I found that it's more successful. And so when I stock in with someone or whatever, I do notice that it's in that those. And even just watching, whether it's like a friend or whatever stocking in and myself included, I'm going to put myself in this category where the majority of the mistakes happen is in that draw and get ready process. It's getting spotted or making a move in haste or doing something that you haven't. And I think really it just comes down to doing something you haven't practiced. When you're in that excitement zone, when you're in the red zone, when you're close enough to shoot, there's way more margin for error. And I think it really boils down to when most guys practice shooting, they practice drawing in their backyard and never think about having to make the right kind of draw in the right instance. And that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the right kind of practice. That's one thing that I'm a big proponent of, if you listen to this podcast at all, is you don't want to be doing something for the first time drawing on an animal, especially in that like red zone where you're close enough to make that shot. That's where mistakes get made because you're doing something that's new. And when anytime you do something new, it's not fluid, it's not smooth, it's clunky, and your brain isn't trained. Your brain's just trained to do what it's done a thousand times over. For most people shooting a bow, that, that, that heavy repetition is in the backyard without a care in the world. And that's the fact of the matter. I do believe that practicing shooting your bow is very beneficial and very important for bow hunting. But I also believe that practicing shooting your bow in those like, non hunting situations creates a kind of muscle memory that is not conducive for killing animals. It's not conducive for successful hunting. And that's one thing that I stress all the time. I've hunted with a lot of guys that like get the opportunity to go out and do a lot of, a lot of bow hunting. And those guys, it's just like fluid motion, everything. There's guys that are phenomenal shots at targets and all this stuff and yet really struggle on animals. Not that they're, not that they're missing or doing anything weird, but in that red zone, they make mistakes that their muscle memory has taught them to do by shooting so many targets unaccounted for. Un, un. Like untrained for hunting specific tasks. And that's what we're going to talk about today. One thing I want to mention as we get close to the Fourth of July, American Independence Day, 250 years. It's just an awesome day to get to celebrate. I know for me, my family, we're going to definitely be celebrating. One of the companies that we work with, Montana Knife Company, an incredible supporter of this podcast. You know, they've done some awesome stuff especially for just championing and just bringing forward American manufacturing. I think one of the things that we can think about as hunters, as consumers, as, you know, people, Americans, whatever, there is a lot of stuff out there that you can, you know, you can kind of vote with your dollars in a lot of ways. And I think an incredible vote is with American Manufacturing and Montana Knife Company. They've got generational guarantee on everything that they make. It's something that you can pass down for generation to generation. They're made right here in the US In Missoula, Montana. You know, they've done a lot to expand their manufacturing and their processes and they've been continually working to get, get more products on the shelf. And you know, also they still have their drop system for certain blades and other things, but it's also something where you can go online now and check out what they've got. So if you're thinking you're looking For a new hunting knife, you want something that you can have for a long time passed down to future generations. And something that was made here in America. Montana Knife Company is an awesome choice. You can check them out@montanaknifecompany.com so one of the things that we're gonna look at that might even be more important than shooting is when to move, how to draw, when to shoot. And these are things that need to be practiced. And it like, you're probably gonna feel strange doing this stuff, but you got, you have to think in this terms, in these terms because what's going to happen, especially if you're a new bow hunter or you're like, like, man, I, you know, I struggle closing the gap or struggle getting that shot off or struggle within that red zone. This is absolutely for you because some of these little tiny details are the things that make or break a hunt. I know for me, when I'm successful, it's doing these things right. And when I'm not successful, it's messing up in one of these. And I think that for most hunters that you might have, let's say, dude, I've got a mule deer tag that I'm really excited about. Nevada mule deer tag, like it's not some crazy area or anything. It's just I love hunting early season bucks. Dude, those deer are the. I think that that's probably hands down one of the hardest hunts in North America, to be honest. Like early season Nevada meal deer, they're just so, so keyed in dry country. They see, they smell, they don't mess up very often, especially on mature bucks like big deer. It's a, it's a, it's a really hard hunt. Can be a very low success hunt in a lot of ways or any kind of unit like that. I know some places, like mule deer don't act the same as they do in Nevada. I think there's just so many like feline predator, mountain lions and dry country. And it's just a grind. Like it can be tough and you might work your butt off for that one near impossible stock. That one opportunity for a deer to mess up. And where you're going to blow it is within the zone of being within range. Something's going to happen there. That's if you can. Like getting that, getting in that close is difficult. Now you're there. Now making the right move is one of the most important things. Yes, you have to execute a good shot. Yes, you have to. But like executing a good shot and putting as long as you can kind of maintain your nerves till after that arrow launches and you put that pin where it's supposed to go. That part is fairly easy in some ways. It's getting to that point without that deer knowing you're there or making a mistake. Or maybe it does know you're there. But if you're in the process of drawing while it knows you're there, you're out of luck. If you're in the whatever process within the stage of something happening, it can go south real quick. And so I'm going to run you through the type of practice that I think about doing, the type of practice that I do to prepare for these moments when you're within the kill zone. Shooting at targets is great. It. I'm all for it. But one thing you have to think about is how are you conditioning yourself when you get into a hunting scenario. In western big game hunting, very rarely is everything perfect. It's not very controlled. Like, very rarely are you on flat terrain, standing up. Just all the time in the world to draw, anchor, and shoot. More often than not, you have very limited time to draw. You have a very small window of that animal not being to. Able. Able to see you. You have to do it in the right way. And then you're probably going to have to move from where you're drawing from to where you're going to shoot from. And so I'm going to walk you through the setup and some of the things that I practice and then how that builds the right kind of muscle memory. Because what I see all the time with new hunters is the fact that, like, we'll get into. We'll do this amazing stock. We'll get into whatever. And for a thousand arrows, these guys could shoot the. The X's out of a. You know, it's like they can shoot a 300 maybe, but the way they do it is they've got a certain draw and it's, you know, up here and then drawing down and all this stuff, right? Dude, I get more laughs out of, like, people critiquing the way that I draw. And I'm like, dude, I'm not here to win any drawing tournaments. What I am here to do is draw this bow so an animal doesn't notice. It. It. Okay. Like, that's when I'm. When I'm actually, like, in hunting scenario, I'm holding that bow, like, at the animal. I'm drawing it straight back. And the closest, fastest way to anchor, that's the way that I do it, because I'm Keeping score on in the field, I guess. Like, you know, I. I think that there's. You're gonna find that a lot of muscle memory gets built drawing bows and shooting arrows without ever thinking of the process of getting drawn, anchoring and shooting. And that becomes a muscle memory or a habit based off of backyard shooting that is not great for bow hunting. I've seen it more, more times than not, so I can't stress that enough. So what we're going to do here is we're gonna. We're gonna kind of get ourselves in the mindset of when we practice. How are we gonna. Now, like, the drawing is a very difficult portion of, like, drawing, getting settled and then being in a position where you can see the animal and shoot is. Is probably the hardest part of the entire. The entire setup. For the most part. The draw process on an animal needs to be unseen. And, and what that means is there's. There's a couple ways to do that, right? The easiest way is to draw in a spot where the animal physically can't see you. So if I've. I've crawled up and I've got some kind of COVID I draw within cover. Okay. I also in those scenarios, often, like, once you get to a level where you can see the animal and potentially shoot it, it might be able to see you. So what we need to do is we need to draw within cover. And as we come up, this is the. The small window where that animal could potentially see something going on. It's going to catch movement, it's going to catch whatever. Now sometimes, many times, the animal might catch something but not know exactly what it is. And your time, you're like shot clocks ticking down between doing some. The animal getting away, doing something drastic or whatever. You have to assess that situation in real time. So what I do is I draw within cover, I lock in my anchor and I'm looking through and centering my peep out of sight. Now at this point, I'm going to move up. So I'm like, I'm locked in. I'm going to move up. And as I move up, I'm. This is one fluid smooth motion that I've done a million times. It's like muscle memory to get to. Like, my. My level is already leveled at this point. Like, I am just focusing on getting to the spot where I can see the animal and make the shot. Now if I get spotted or whatever, sometimes I have that amount of time to. I'm already. Everything's already set. I just have to send the Arrow on its way. Now at this point, I can decide, is that animal going to react because it knows I'm here now, or is it still completely unaware? Is it still feeding, is still doing its thing? Great, I win. I've done. I've done everything right. It's about 50, 50 most time. You do everything right and they still see whatever, something. But at this point, you are at the advantage. You have a higher likelihood of making that shot happen than what happens a lot of times. Like a guy gets up to where he can see the deer, starts to draw back. He does his backyard draw. There's like all kinds of movement. Everything's like blown out of proportion. That animal runs away. He settled in and it's just like, there's not a prayer in the world that that arrow is going to hit where it's supposed to. So what I like to do is I'm going to break it down. I broke down a few of the things that I think of like as we get in and. And then some of the things that we can do in practice. So what we want to do is think about it like the moving in portion and the drawing back, getting set portion. So the first portion, this is like where a lot of things go wrong as well, is that distance between. I just need to move up a little bit. I'm within range, but maybe I gotta like, just get a little closer, get into a position where I've got less obstruction for the shot or something like that. And this is where you got to think about how you're moving your bow. Like you don't want to have your bow way up high above your head skylined or breaking cover. Like, if it's quiet and you can do it, you know you want to be moving your bow horizontal. You're going to have. You're going to maybe even move with like. I use a index release. That's like a wrist strap. I'll hook that on maybe before I need to. I might have my range finder in the hand of my release, right? And so it's like. So I can, I can be attached to the bow. I can move quiet, I can range. I can put it down or back in the thing and do what I need to do. So this is something we're going to practice. Like, okay, get your target, take it out somewhere. Take it out in the field. Do this in your backyard. I don't care. Maybe put some potted plants in the way. Whatever you want to do. Get like five yards away, move in like, like, okay, we're here we're. We got to move five yards up. Like, how am I going to do that? Like, figure out your system for doing something. How am I going to range? How am I going to be? Like, maybe I'm waiting on a deer. Create scenarios like mule deer scenario, a great one, where you're like, you're set up. You're waiting for a deer to get up. Done this a million times. Like, get set up and okay. And sometimes you're like, when that. Like the lag time between hooking my release onto the string, trying to range and doing all the stuff, I can miss a step in there. I'm not like, now I'm looking down to connect. Now that deer's up, I've already missed my opportunity, but I haven't been paying enough attention because I was looking down, doing this thing. I go to draw, the deer sees me, boom, blows out, it's all ruined. So you know that. I guess that's the nice thing about a handheld release is like, you can hook it on there when you're waiting or whatever and have it ready. But having your system for whatever, whatever you've got, have that system ready. So scoot up a little bit. Practice like ranging with the bow attached and being quiet, doing in some brush and some other stuff, like play around with it. Okay, this is my system for ranging. This is my system for hooking on and staying active and in the. In the bow ready to go. Those are all awesome things to do. You know, maybe you're. You've got to raise up and whatever. So what's the best way? Maybe the deer's, like, completely unaware. Maybe he's moving and you have less time. Like, try to. Try to create scenarios where you've got something. You can get time some that you got to act fast. What's the flow of grabbing a range finder? Ranging, hooking to your bow, Moving if you need to, like, unseen, like, staying behind the bush, staying low, moving your bow horizontal, holding your arrow so it doesn't fall off your wrist and hit the riser. Like, all those little things are the things that are going to go wrong because nobody practices. If you practiced it, It's. It's just absolutely. These are things that I never think about. It's not. It's just like muscle memory because I've done it so many times. Moving the bow and making sure the arrows, like, as I. As I move my bow, I'm holding my finger on the arrow. So if it hits something, it doesn't fling off and hit the Hit the riser. Heavy. Like, these are all things that you're going to want to practice, and nobody's talking about that. I think, like, just the act of practicing like this will change the game for a lot of hunters. Then you want to get into a scenario where you're getting set. And what I mean by getting set is, like, let's say we've crawled in on a buck. What happens is, like, people crawl in and you've got a little path that you're sneaking through, through the sage or through the grass or through whatever pines, whatever. And it's like, there's the animal there. Here's the path that you're going down. Your body's facing this way. Okay. Oh, no, he's moving. Now. I gotta. I gotta get set. I gotta shoot. So your body's facing the deer, the elk, and you draw back. And it's like, never in your life have you taken this shot where your. Your legs are squared up to the target. Like. Like, you just. You're like a ski. Like, you're pointing your skis toward the deer or elk, and now you're gonna draw and shoot. You're putting so much weird torque on your bow that way that you're probably gonna miss. And so, like, I always think of, like, when I get in, every time that I'm moving my body and getting set, I'm getting set in a position where I'm mostly, like, my knees or everything is lined up pointing the way that I would want to be shooting for the best form toward that animal. And it needs to become automatic, because naturally your body faces the animal, it moves in, and it goes in that, like, crawling position that you're already in. Most people don't ever think about it. And then they go to draw, and they. They. Their brain doesn't even register of anything that they ever just did wrong. And then the shot goes wide or high or low, and. And it's like, oh, yeah, there's a crazy amount of torque on that bow. They probably felt like they couldn't hold it where they wanted to. They're pushing and pulling it in to try to make it happen. And then the bow goes off, and it's like, damn it, that didn't work. I've seen it, like, a thousand times. So that's something that we want to think about. Like, get your body set, get into position. Get your knees set. Get your body set. And if you're waiting for an animal, get set to where you can quietly and easily move without having to, like, like, reposition. Your legs. Reposition your knees. So, like, imagine like a yardstick pointing at where you think you're going to be shooting across your knees, just like you would be shooting in your backyard. You. You know, that's the same position you're taking. It's just you're standing there and you're. You're doing it, you know, pretty easy because you aren't thinking about it. So a lot of times, most. Most shots, like, I would love, like, I love standing up and shooting if I can. It's not always very possible in a lot of scenarios, so depends on the scenario. Like, if I've got one where deer's feeding and it's like tall grass and I have to stand to shoot, great. Maybe there's one where I've got a really good bit of COVID I can stand and shoot. Maybe it's an elk, and I'm, like, standing behind a tree. I draw back. Like, elk's a good one. You can shoot a lot of elk standing, depending on the scenario. But, you know, standing is great, but a lot of times you're going to be from, like, sitting, kneeling, whatever. So that's one of the things that we want to think about is, like, practicing going from sitting to a higher position. And I'll practice multiple different positions from sitting on my rear end. And often I'm like, sitting on my rear end with my knees, like, right, So I can easily go at full draw. So I'm going to want to, like, go to full draw, get settled, and then raise up to my knees. Now, sometimes you need to go higher than your knees, which would be like a kneeling position where it's like one leg up, kneeling, so you get a little higher that way or from that to standing. So whatever I think I'm going to do, practice all these drawing unseen. Like, maybe sometimes, like, I know I need to stand, so I get into a squatting position because I've got enough room, like, cover to draw in that squatting position. Squatting, draw. Locked in. Level. My bubble. Get everything set. And now slowly stand up. We need to practice getting from the ground to a shooting position to where you can see seamlessly, quietly. So many people, like, drawback. Think about it in the moment. Like, their legs. They use the wrong leg for the wrong thing, and it's their knee hits a stick and this happens and that happens, and then it's all rushed and it all goes to hell. And I've seen that so many times. So it's because we don't practice that. That should be the thing that you practice more than anything, once your bow's sighted in and all that other stuff, okay. Like, it's good for the most part. Like, just keep verifying it. Shooting, it's fun. But what you, if you really want to practice and you're concerned about now, if you're target shooting, you know, don't worry about this. I'm not a target shooter. I'm a guy that's like, I'm out here to fill a tag and I'm gonna practice for filling tags. And this is the way that I practice. I practice these real life situations continually. Still to this day to make it, like, I don't where it's something that you can do so well, you never have to think about it. The muscle memory for you should be a draw process that happens seamlessly for, you know, being within the red zone on an animal. So that means drawing unseen, getting locked in, getting everything settled before you present your body to a part where the animal could see you, and then smoothly raising to various positions and then being able to execute that shot, getting into position and getting everything set right, like, without ever thinking about, oh, I gotta put my knees this way and, and like, how am I gonna sit on this hill? And just getting everything set up as you're moving in, these are things that are just gonna start happening because you've done it in practice. And try it where you're like, do the extreme, like, put your body toward the animal, shoot from whatever and see how it affects your shot. You're going to notice some big differences for sure in your performance. When everything isn't, you know, just right, when you've started to put a lot of this extra torque, especially when you start adding hills and valleys and ups and downs and brush and all this other stuff. So that's what we're, we're going to try to practice. Now. The unseen draw is one thing. Sometimes, like, you get into a position where that's not possible in a way, like, there isn't the right kind of COVID There isn't this, that and the other thing. So the other, the one thing that I, you know, you need to pay attention to the animal in this particular. Like, sometimes you're going to be frozen. Maybe you're like already out in the open, you're frozen, you can't move. But the animal is going to put its head behind something and give you that opportunity to move or draw back. Okay. Sometimes it's like, I, I hate to do this, like, if I, if I can help it, but sometimes There is no other option. It's like you just some like, all right, you're almost busted. Whatever. You gotta draw. How you can draw, it doesn't even matter. Sometimes, like, you're. You're gonna be partially out of sight, but your bow riser is going to be up here. You're gonna. Things are gonna be moving around. You really need to practice drawing where that bow, like, you set the bow where you want it, like, pointed toward the animal. And that bow does not move. That top limb doesn't go up or down. That all the only movement is your arm coming straight back, which is obstructed by the bow and those cams rolling over. Even when you're kind of like out of sight. Because you want to be able to practice drawing quiet and drawing with very, very, very little movement. That's not something they teach at the firing line in a bow shop. It's just not. So practice it in the backyard. Like, get your bow set to where you're, like, pointed at the animal. Maybe it's, it's. It's not paying attention. Like, this happens. So this shot draws nearly every time. Animal might be feeding him, waiting for that right opportunity. It's feeding. It doesn't know that I'm there. I'm. I'm hidden. I've got stuff behind me. I've got an opening where I can shoot. Now if I do a big draw, like a big throw my elbow back, all this stuff out of the three, like, the peripheral vision of that animal that set it, like, nearly. They can nearly see behind their head, it's going to whip its head up and know that something is wrong. And it's probably going to key in on now this dude that's trying to find his anchor and whatever. But if you can do that same draw process with very little movement where it's. You're moving, but it's like below that threshold of perception. It doesn't seem like something quick. It doesn't seem like something that's dangerous. It's just. Just all in line with what they already see. You can get away with so much, and you can. You can really draw unseen in. In sort of the open with the right draw. And so one of the things that I practice more than anything is like, you want to be able to draw that back. Figure out how to do it for yourself. You know, this is, don't blow a shoulder out or whatever. Like, but seriously, practice drawing without moving your bow. I think that it's like, if you can't do that, maybe shoot A lighter poundage because it's probably more important than having a fast arrow in some instances, like being able to draw where the animal doesn't know you're there and getting locked in and being able to take your time to aim. Now, sometimes everything gets rushed or whatever, but you're already those few seconds count within in this, this red zone, this is that you've got in range. Now you just try to not do these things that are going to send signals to get that deer, elk, whatever, to notice and blow out. And sometimes they do notice, right? They're going to notice no matter what. But if you've done it right, you have, you give yourself more time and you give yourself an advantage to get that shot off. Now, the one thing I will say too is to remember to get settled before you start making, making these big movements. What happens is guys will draw back. They're drawn, they're looking, they aren't settled. They get up and once they're in view, then that's when they try to find their peep level. Do all that before you're even in view. Do that stuff first. Get that process down and practice that at home. Practice the rise, the shoot, the getting settled, drawing back unseen, drawing back smooth, drawing back without movement. And then practice that moving in. How you're going to access your range finder and everything, everything. If you've hooked up to the bow, practice that. How you're going to put your rangefinder away, quiet. How you're going to crawl in without your arrow falling off and hitting something. How you're going to crawl in without your release, swinging and hitting something. How you're going to, you know, make those movements, do those. They don't have to be long. They don't have to be long distances. You can practice in your yard. You can take your, your, you know, on a weekend, go, go out and shoot. Doesn't even have to be a. It's like practice those kind of things as you before, before your hunt. So when it gets time to make that shot, the muscle memory kicks in. And the muscle memory isn't standing up in your backyard, drawing however you want, not thinking about, just focusing on hitting the right part of the target. Your muscle memory is focused on quiet, stealth, getting drawn, getting locked in, smooth movements and riding and shooting. And you can just focus on making a good shot. And by doing that, you're going to be a lot more successful. I will, I'll put my guarantee on it. I think that if you follow those steps and practice that you will be more successful bow hunter. And that's probably stuff that a lot of people aren't talking about. But I know for a fact in years of guiding, taking other people, and on my own personal hunts, that's the kind of stuff that makes your breaks a hunt, or especially a bow hunt within the red zone. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. I. I mean, if you can't tell by now, you can probably tell that I'm pretty passionate about bow hunting and all the little things that just make it go right. There's. There's so many of these things that, like, that's something you only learn when you get into that. That super close range, and that sometimes might be once a year for a lot of guys. So if you can take some of this to heart, practice this stuff without having to get in on an animal and just build that muscle memory for success, you're going to be a lot better off. One of the things that I wanted to mention, I have an epic giveaway for you guys. So I ended up Matthews has their 1776 bow. It's the celebrating the America 250. And they had a limited number of them. I bought one and I am going to give it away. There's nothing just like, you don't have to buy anything. You don't have to do, like, you just have to go on and like enter, you know, So I have at least some way to contact you. So. So you can go to my website, Day six website. You can go to my Instagram page. Day six Instagram page. Any of them. You can find it on there. I'm going to put it on there. There'll be a way to win it. So in combination with this, we just created like this incredible America bow setup. It's as cool as it gets. We custom did a lot of stuff on it, starting with a custom set of day six arrows. And we've actually got our America 250 arrows available. They're a red, white and blue. It's the same price as our standard arrow. And we've got a limited number of them if you're interested. They are so cool. Like, we. We did like a red and blue collar on them. We've got a special flag vein, like a stars and stripes vein. And then I guess it's just stars. And then the fletching is a red and white fletching. Like, these things look absolutely insane. They're so cool. So that's kind of like the flagship for this bow, the 1776 bow. And then we also did a Custom like white, custom white paint job on the quiver. We got one of the limited edition 1776 QAD rests and then we had a custom built dark owl archery site. This is a, an awesome, like awesome veteran owned site company. So manufactured, assembled right here in the US So I'm really excited about what we put on this bow. It's an incredible, it's an incredible package. And this is not something that you can and you can just go out and get really. I guess there, there's like both shops were given a certain number and most of them pre sold immediately. I jumped on like the day they launched it and bought one, thinking I was going to keep it for myself. And then I felt like that's a little greedy. I mean like my heart breaks a little bit that I'm giving this thing away. I should have bought two, but I don't know, it's like, hey, you know, I don't know. So I don't even know if I could have found two to buy, to be honest. I mean we, I set this thing up. It's got everything you want on it. It's so cool. And with those arrows, it's just, it's really a collector's piece. I would hunt with it probably. I don't know. It's definitely got a lot of flair and color. But the thing is, is awesome. So go check it out. I know, I mean it's going to be one of those things that I probably cry a little bit to part with because I've, I've gone back and I'm going to be honest with you guys. Like I have absolutely gone back and forth. Like I initially bought it for myself and I was like, I'm just going to build this thing out. It's going to be so badass. And then I thought, I don't know, this is just something. This is almost too cool. I should give it to someone because there's really going to be no way to get one of these things unless you already like pre ordered one and bought it. And so I don't know. As much as it pains me, I am excited to give it away. I'm going to be at the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation big game days and there's like a TAC event as well. So we'll have our day six booth there. We'll have it there on display and I think we'll probably just give it away right after that. So if you're going to be there, come check it out. If you guys are interested in those America 250 arrows or day six specialty arrows. This. We've got a limited number of them. There's not a ton of them, but if you. If you. Once you see them, you're like, it's what I'm gonna be hunting with this year. They're freaking cool. So check that out. Thank you guys so much. You know, and to those that enter and win this thing, like, I don't know, I just wanted to do some, like, a way to give back to you guys for all the support. So this is it. This. This bow that I'm gonna probably shed a tear with when it parts because I'll never have an opportunity for another one, probably. But you never know. So I'm gonna say, until next week, stay stealthy. We'll catch you guys later.