Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that will get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. Happy New Year!
I know a lot of people are going to be screaming that 2020 is over and then they're going to wake up tomorrow and realize COVID still exists. But it's been a weird year for everybody, for the entire world. I think there's something always symbolic about New Year's and you're just turning a new page or you're turning things over. Last year, I quite wildly inaccurately predicted how the year was going to go, but a
A lot of the stuff that I had planned for this year will now be rolled over to next year. And I think one of my favorite things about New Year's is it kind of resets people's focus. I really like that. I'm big on setting goals. I'm big on planning and trying to be better year in and year out. So this year, what I want to do is I've kind of outlined...
what I would consider the three important things to punching more tags. And really, it's going to come down to fitness, planning the hunt, and shooting whatever you're shooting. So this week, I'm going to recap some of my favorite moments of 2020. And then I'm going to go into the 21 tips to just make you better in the field. 365 days of awesome. Here we go.
One thing that I like at the end of the year, I can sit back and reflect on some of the experiences. Now, I was very fortunate. I had a really great, not the hunting season that I had planned, but I definitely had a great hunting season. I was able to get a couple over-the-counter type tags to fill in for some trips that got canceled. And
And I felt very fortunate about that. I had some other trips planned that didn't get canceled, which was pretty cool. I was able to hunt some caribou. I got a wolf on that caribou trip, got a great caribou bull, got an elk with my longbow. I had a little bit more time to hunt archery season myself because some of my guided hunts got canceled. So I felt very fortunate to take that time. I was like, oh, you know what? I'm going to hunt with my longbow this year for elk and was able to film that and do that. That was pretty sweet. But yeah,
But if I were to think of my favorite hunting memory from this year, you probably wouldn't guess it because it was a hunt where I didn't get to pull the trigger, but I was hunting geese.
in Alaska with my dad. Not just any goose, but an emperor goose. Now, an emperor goose is a fairly rare species of goose. It looks, I guess it's kind of like a snow goose, but very beautiful. It's like white head, black underneath, barred sides. It was in Kodiak. And
And man, is it an adventure to embark on one of these? We flew to Kodiak. We flew from there on a small plane to old Harbor, got on a boat, took the boat around the Island, like in some rough seas. And it was just an incredible adventure. And my buddy, Jeremy Rusink was with us. He, he had deer tag and he actually, he was a resident so he could hunt. And then our friend Makoto is a resident so he can hunt them. But as a non-resident, it's really hard to get these tags. So, um,
I put my dad in. He had absolutely no clue even what an emperor goose was until I put him in. And for guys that are way into waterfowl and other things, it's like this goose is like the sheep tag of goose hunting, I guess. My dad was like, oh, what? A goose? I'm going all the way to Kodiak for one goose. But we got some deer tags and it was a lot of fun deer hunting. And we actually ended up hunting the goose the last couple of days, but it was on the last day, the day before we set up and
Jeremy had seen him coming into this beach, so he figured we'd set up there. So we set up and there was just kind of too many of us, I think. The first group kind of flared as they came in, then they actually committed to our decoy setup. Jeremy and my dad got shots off, but they're kind of far and nobody hit anything.
And so we're like, dang, okay. And the morning went on and we figured, okay, that was all the geese that were going to come in. Let's just go spend our time. There's a slew behind us. We're going to go jump shoot for mallards. So we decided, okay, of course you should never do this, but not that you should never jump shoot, but you should never walk away from your decoy setup. So we're like, oh, we're just, the goose hunt's done. There's no more geese coming in. We're going to go jump shoot.
And then Makoto decided to stay and just hang out at the decoys. As we're jump shooting mallards, he shoots his emperor goose. One comes and like practically lands in the decoys. Like, okay, crap. So the next day we're going to go to a new spot. We got weathered in. So we're going to hunt the same spot again. It's pretty much our last day to goose hunt. We set up, it was just me and my dad. We set up actually where the geese landed the day before. Seemed like nothing was coming in.
We're like, okay, the tide was a little bit different that day too. So the tide's up. We set up our decoys. We're like waiting, nothing, nothing, nothing. All of a sudden these two geese like later in the morning, fly by, cruise our decoys, circle back and go land where we were sitting the day before. Oh crap. Is that it? Is it over? So we're watching them and sure enough, they start swimming our direction. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is going to happen. Then they, they must've seen the decoys and
And like knowing they were there, but they picked up off the water, flew in. My dad raised up, shot the back bird, rolled it. And it was just like, it actually went out in the ocean. I shot one more time just to secure it and ran out. I'm like, grab it. Like the waves are crashing in. It's like cold ocean. He runs out into the ocean, grabs his bird. We were just like so pumped. It was just kind of a really cool, unexpected moment.
Like I didn't think I would be that. I was just so excited for him. So excited to be a part of that experience. So unique and different for me. It was very unexpected, but it was just like a really, really cool experience. And I would say one of my favorite hunting experiences of the year. I didn't think I would say that, but yes, a goose hunt was one of my favorite hunts of the year. And I got, I had some pretty awesome hunting experiences this year. So that was pretty cool. Now, as promised,
Going into 2021, I figure I'm going to break down 365 days of just being more awesome. Things that you can do to punch more tags. You know, this is the time of year where, hey, you get a little bit of a pep talk. I say things like, fail the plan, you plan to fail. And I truly do believe that. I think that...
You know, your success strategy, if you're really into hunting and you want to be more successful and whether it's bow hunting, whether it's right, it doesn't really matter. If you just want to be more successful, your success strategy should be threefold. And that should be prepare your body, plan your hunt and shoot your shit. Whatever you got gun, bow, muzzleloader, shotgun. I don't care. Do more shooting. So what I did was since this 2021, I made 21 of the best tips out there.
for those categories, seven of each. So we're going to kick it off right now with fitness and some things that you can do thinking about going into this next year, things you can do to be more fit, to have a better experience. Honestly, a lot of the hunting that I do is very physical and I'm fortunately get to do it all the time and I'm in good shape to do it. But I understand as a guide, I see it all the time that a lot of people aren't in that shape and it's not that they can't be, it's just that they don't,
take the initiative and that they maybe don't have like the motivation or the know-how to do it. And I am by no means a fitness expert, but what I do know is that a lot of the people that I've taken out and myself included, you can get yourself to the point of making the hunt more enjoyable and more successful by physically making yourself more physically capable to do it. So we're going to start with number one, tip number one right here for 2021.
Set a goal. I'm big on this and it works for everything in life, but set a goal, write it down, something that you can't do now, and then something that you need to work up to, right? Figure out, be honest with yourself, say, where am I at? How far, how many days can I hunt hard? And then say, how many, where do I want to be? And then how am I going to get there? Writing it down and like creating goals.
a set of, this is what I'm going to do throughout the year. I don't know what it is for you. I don't know what you do, but I also am big under when it comes to preparing for hunt and
practicing or training like you're going to do. You know, you can, you definitely should be in better overall fitness. You should be able to lift more. You should be able to whatever, but you need to build your endurance and build that endurance while carrying weight in hiking shape. So there needs to be some form of whatever you're doing, more hiking, more running, more boots on the ground. I think you should just write down and say, Hey, okay, before the hunting season this year, I'm going to try to hike more.
100 miles. I'm going to try to hike 200 miles, like set a goal and then figure out a way to make that goal actionable to meet that goal. It works with everything in life, but it definitely works with fitness. And for me, I actually, you know, last year I was supposed to have a sheep tag that is now pushed to this year. Anytime I have a big hunt like that, where I think, Hey, this is a once in a lifetime, I call it once in a lifetime type deal. Like it's a really good opportunity to
I want to make sure that I make the most of it. And even me personally, I'm like, okay, what do I need to do to get into that next level of shape? Every year, I'm constantly trying to push myself to be better, to hurt less, to just be able to go further, hunt longer, harder, and be in the action of the hunt. And so...
For me, what I'm doing is I'm just kind of setting a goal of the amount of miles that I want to hike. I want to work out in those days where I'm not hitting the mountain. I'm doing some other form of fitness routine. For me, it's rowing, it's biking. I like those more endurance type things, but also, you know, some body weight training and some other things to add in for those times when I'm not hitting the mountain.
Number two for fitness, like I said, doing what you're doing is the best way to train for what you're going to do. Pack training. I say it anytime I talk about fitness, but it is integral. The thing that slows most people down is not being used to packs or boots. So what you need to do is whatever you're going to hunt in, start training with that. Wear a weighted pack. I use a sandbag in my pack, like a 40 pound salt bag works pretty good.
And that's like just getting used to wearing a heavy pack day in and day out when I'm doing any kind of workout that's involving hiking, moving, running, even just like back and forth sprint. I like to throw that pack on as often as I can. So put that into your schedule, your weighted pack, because that's really the type of stuff that's going to help boost you into preparing for your hunting season.
Number three, I'm going to say set aside four weekends for just all day grinding throughout the year. Right now, pull out your calendar, find some weekends that work in your schedule between now and hunting season. One thing that I realized is when people get into the hunting season, they work out, they do everything, they're prepped.
yet they haven't had that all day grind. Pick a Saturday where you can go somewhere. Maybe you have to, maybe you don't have it near your house. You might have to travel a little ways or maybe whatever. Pick a time, set aside, whether it's, maybe you can combine it with something else. I like to combine it with upland bird hunting, like checker hunting somewhere that's really steep and difficult. I like to combine it with looking for sheds. I like to combine it with just maybe something else that I want to do, maybe a peak or something like that.
make a trip out of it, but something where you have to be walking and hiking all day with a pack on.
That's what hunting is. You're hiking with a heavy pack on all day for days on end. There should be multiple times throughout the year where you schedule yourself some time to do that if you can. Make it a thing, make it an event, make it fun, whatever. Have some friends join you, whether it's a backpacking trip or whatever you've got, whether it's a day, whether it's two days, something where you got to have some weight on and grind for a full day, not just an hour around the neighborhood, but you actually get that
Okay, this is what it's like. This is what it feels like. And it helps build your mind in a better mental state when you actually get out in the field and encounter those hard days, actually having gone through some all day grinds before the hunting season, right?
I think that's huge. So just scheduling a couple things like that throughout the year, that's going to pay huge dividends when it comes time for hunting season. And I know a lot of people that this is your lifestyle, you're already doing that anyways. But for those of you that maybe this is new, I just think that's a great way to get in and you can kind of build some of these other skills too while you're out there doing that. Number four, I really think staying fit and like being ready and being in hunting shape, elk shape, whatever, sheep shape,
is as much eating as it is staying active. So you got to stay active. But like I told last year's story, my dad, who kind of is like my personal fitness inspiration, a guy that was overweight and just completely changed his life to be better in the field hunting so he could keep up with his kids. And I mean, that guy...
I've got a lot of friends that are half his age and he will out hike, out carry, out perform. He is just a machine. And he does it because he made a commitment to work out just 30 minutes a day and he has not missed a day in 13 years, which is incredible. And that's the kind of fitness inspiration that I have in my life. And to see it firsthand, you're like, wow, I want to be like that kind of dedication.
But also he noticed that he would work out, work out, work out. But until he started eating better, he kept on that weight. And it just is a lot easier to shed some weight on your body and then add some weight in your pack. I'd rather have the weight in my pack than on my body because it's not with me all the time.
And I think that eating is as much a part of fitness. And like when you go in your daily routine of what you eat, I'm not big on like just counting all these calories and really worrying about it. But I do try to live a healthy lifestyle. And a lot of that comes with wild game cooking at home. Obviously during this COVID thing, I think I've never been more healthy because I've been eating out less. But one thing that I did add into my regimen was just –
Within my workout and everything like that, just adding, I started to do like meal replace shakes as opposed to like eating big breakfast in the times of year where I'm not as active. And I just use my WA like meal replace shake and then do my workout. It's like, okay, it's a workout, but it's not like my all day hunting, hiking, working kind of stuff.
So for me, that's really helped, especially on a year where like last year, where I was like at home more than I've ever been in my entire life. And I think that I went into the hunting season in surprisingly good shape because
because of adding that into my regimen where normally most years for me, it's hard for me because I just do it all the time. So I'm always out in the field, whether it's guiding or doing whatever. So I'm doing it. But this year was a little bit different. I was like, okay, I'm not doing it all the time. So how do I balance the physical activity, being active? And it was just working out at home.
And then, you know, adding in stuff like the meal replacement shakes and just eating good whole foods, meats and vegetables and cooking myself something good, healthy, tasty, nutritious, that kind of stuff. Simple stuff. But it's fun to hear from somebody that's like, I only do this so I kill more elk. And that's God's honest truth. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't do any of this. Who knows? But...
Um, yeah, it does. It does make a big difference when it comes time for hunting season, especially in Western big game hunting. Number six. And this is something that I kind of try to live by. Take the harder route.
And in your training, get some vert. You know, hunting, mountain hunting is vertical. The part where people slack and the part where people struggle is the uphill. So find things where you can get the uphill. I know not everybody lives in mountains. I am...
very fortunate that I can just climb a mountain any day that I feel like at any, I can walk out right now after I finished this podcast and go climb a big mountain without having to do much, but there are other ways to get vertical and that could be stairs, um,
That could be stair machines. That could be anything where you build that lung capacity for hiking uphill. And heck, you still got your COVID mask. Maybe throw that on when you jump on the old Stairmaster. Throw your pack on and make it hard for yourself. Take the hard route. I think that you're going to find that you're going to be able to push through a lot more when you do that throughout the year. And number seven,
Do something this year that's really hard. Something that you didn't think you can do. Something that you've never done before. I don't care what it is, but something that's physical. If you've never run 10 miles, make it a goal that you're going to run 10 miles. I don't know where you're at, but make it something that you haven't done that seems hard and is going to be difficult for you. If you haven't gone a marathon distance, do that. If you haven't done a multi-day hike or something, do something like that. Do something...
find something that's hard for you to do and do it. And I think that being able to overcome things that are difficult really gets you in the good mental state when you're out there to keep pushing further, to hunt harder, to do what your body's capable of, but not talking yourself out of it. And I think that it takes some... I realize over the course of my life and interacting with a
year in and year out, I hear this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And I go, this is not, this was not a difficult hunt. Not saying this is a difficult hunt for me, but I can understand how it was a difficult for someone. So I also think that just getting into the mindset of doing something that
that's out of your comfort zone, that's difficult. And it doesn't even have to be something crazy. It just has to be something that is difficult, that is uncomfortable for you to do, that you haven't done before, that kind of gets you into that mode. I personally do something like that every year, maybe multiple times a year. I think it's one thing that's really helped build that mental toughness of, I guarantee 99, unless you have like some real serious health
thing. Most people are capable of a lot of stuff that they didn't know they were capable of, but they just can't talk themselves out of it. So those are my fitness tips. And if you take those going into this year, start building out a plan that includes those things, you're going to find yourself way more ready when it comes time to chase elk. When you see that, got to go that next ridge when you've got, when it's day five of a seven day hunt and you've hunted as hard as you can, you've got two days left to keep going.
The next section is going to be all about hunt planning. Whether you live out West, whether you want to embark on your first elk hunt this year, you know, whatever deer hunt, antelope hunt, whatever you got going. Now's the time to start planning because now you got to start applying for tags. You got to figure out what you're going to do. If you're new to it, it seems daunting. So I'm going to start you out with the seven tips on just kind of like the basic run through of where to go, what to do.
So we're gone number eight here, which is number one for hunt planning. See how I did this? So it's going to be first thing I do. This is I'm just going through my step process. So number eight, we got line out all the deadlines for the applications. What I do, I sit down, I figure out what deadlines for what states, what applications, when I need to buy tags by some have already passed. But for the most part, most of them are coming up. I figure that all out. I make a master calendar. I say, OK, now I've got a plan.
Now, from there, we're going to go to number nine. I say, pick the states you're interested in and get regulations. Once I have, okay, here's the states that are available. Okay, maybe I'm interested in, for me, I'm interested in my home state of Nevada. I'm interested in places that are close by and places that maybe have some more over-the-counter type opportunities and places that I've been applying. So, I kind of pick areas that are close to me.
you know, maybe do the same. If you live further, further East and it's, you're making a trip, maybe pick somewhere that's reasonably easy to get to, where you might be able to go out once during the summer and scout it out and then go hunt it. You always ask what's the best state to hunt. Honestly, I think it's one where you can spend some time for most people. It'll probably be Colorado because it's closer to where they live. Um,
there's a lot to be said. Now, some people are like, well, I'm already driving 20 hours. What's 40 hours? Should I go somewhere else? I don't know. It's up to you. The place doesn't necessarily matter, but what you need to do is just pick places that you're interested in that have animals that you want to hunt or an experience that you're looking for. Get the regulations and see what kind of tags are available, what it might take to get a tag and where you might be able to hunt. Now, number 10 is going to be look for your hunt.
Now that you've got those regulations, you've got, you know what you want to hunt, start looking for a tag that you can obtain or one that you can start applying for. What does it have that you like? There's also services out there. I recently this year started using the GoHunt.
I like that one because you can do your own research on it. There's a membership. I think that's been worth its weight in gold this year. Last year, I talked a lot about prepping and gave a lot of tips in the way that I do. It was pretty archaic because now there's software that essentially does all the conclusions that I came to. I was able to figure out in 30 seconds.
So stuff like that's cool. Um, one, uh, services that I use a lot as well, hunt and fool, Epic outdoors, those kinds of things are just research tools. Um,
But those are just research tools. I still think that you should do a lot of this research and find what fits for you and what you can reasonably do and how you can get a tag and just start looking for a hunt somewhere to go. That's what you need, a place to go. And then what you need to do on that look for a hunt is select somewhere that you're like, okay, maybe you apply for a few places, but find a hunt that you can go do.
And then do it. There's a lot of hidden gems out there. I think one that surprised me this year was just California over-the-counter deer tag. I think it's widely underutilized. There's some great hunting, maybe not some giant bucks, but some incredible country and some great tags. There's stuff like that all over the country. You just have to look for it.
But once you have that, then you can go into number 11, logistics of getting the unit sorted. So you figure out what you're going to do. Now is where we're going to be like, okay, how am I going to get there? Am I going to drive? Am I going to fly? Where am I going to camp? Can I get a tag? What kind of tag can I get? What are the season dates? Planning out the logistics. Now you're in the actual phase of
getting your hunt going, you're planning a hunt, you've got your date set, you know where you're gonna be, you know the unit you're gonna be, maybe not exactly where you're gonna hunt, but you've got that set out.
Then I jumped to number 12 and that's start map scouting. This is where I figure out where I'm going to hunt. I've, I've narrowed it from wide, like big, broad, don't know what I'm going to do. I'm looking at deadlines and different places to picking a state to then looking for a hunt and picking a unit to getting the logistics of the dates and the times and the seasons that I can go. Now I'm going to start scouting and I'm going to do that on my Onyx map, pull out my map and
looking for different features, topography, access points, trailheads, campsites, roads,
start planning. And this can all be done in this application season, in this time. And you can even just do a brief planning of, okay, look at the unit and say, maybe before you even buy a tag, say, is there good public land access? Is there somewhere I'm going to hunt? Look on the map, say, okay, there's a lot of public land. There's not a lot of public land. Start over, look at maybe another place, another unit.
Now, once I've decided I found a place that I can actually do, I'm going to commit to that area. Then number 13, I would say in hunt planning, listen back to a lot of these podcasts. I've got map podcasts. I've got species specific podcasts. I think there's enough information. Go back and listen to some of it as you get further into planning your trip, planning your hunt.
I think they're really valuable tools. You can zoom past the stories, listen to the tips. You can ignore the tips and listen to the stories. Some people get more information out of stories. Some people get more information out of tips. But I think that's a great resource to have. Also, you know, there's plenty of great online resources and other resources out there, magazines, Western Hunter Magazine, a lot of great just like ways to prepare yourself for the skill set that you're going to need.
And then number 14 is gear up. Throughout the year, what I like to do if I've got a hunt planned, start thinking about the things you're going to need, things that you start looking for that stuff. Maybe you need a new pack. Maybe you need a new this. Maybe you want one high quality piece of gear that you don't have. Start gearing up. Start looking for that gear. Maybe you can find some good deals, but also just kind of start mentally planning things.
okay, what logistical things am I going to need? How am I going to do my food? How am I going to, when I get something, how am I going to get it back? What am I going to bring with me? Start making a master list, like a packing list of the things you're going to need for this trip. Once you have all that buttoned down, you are well on your way to success and you've done the steps that really, I mean, it sounds like a lot, but it's really not that, that
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Now we're going to go into the third category, which is shooting. And I think shooting is huge. You've got yourself to this point. You are fit. You have hiked all week. You have finally found the elk. You have put in the time planning and preparing and spent a whole year thinking about it. Then whatever you're hunting walks out and you miss it. That sucks. I've been there. We've all been there. It sucks.
And I think the ways to mitigate that are just spending a lot more time with whatever you're shooting. And as a professional hunting guide, I can tell you most people don't spend enough time with what they're shooting. Most hunters. I would say that that is...
being fit and being not ready for when that moment arrives. And that is the easiest place to mess up because that's when the excitement should happen. That's when everything is so exciting. That's when you panic. That's when stuff goes down. That's just the easiest place to make a mistake.
And so I think that you can kind of mitigate those mistakes with practice. And I personally know from myself, I do it all the time and I still need to continually be better at it because I don't think that I'll ever get to a point where I say, oh yeah, I've had enough. I've got to that point. I just think, when are you good enough? Never.
So I always am constantly trying to change things, do things different. And that's why I've set up these tips for shooting because it's all part of punching more tags. So number 15 in this whole master list, number one of shooting would be to create a regiment with a seer bowhunter. How many arrows a week can you shoot?
Just like the fitness thing. I say, let's say it's 50 arrows, a hundred arrows. I don't know, make it something that's obtainable. It doesn't have to be crazy. I mean, even if it's 20 arrows a week, I don't care what it is. Don't just be the guy that grabs your bow right before the season. Like pick a time. It's like, okay, yep. It's 10 arrows a week. I don't care what it is, but just pick something and stick to it.
you know, yeah, maybe you're going to be out of town and you can't, whatever. But, you know, write down how many, what your goal is, and then meet that goal. Because it gets you in the habit of doing something good that's going to benefit you. And I definitely think that people that rifle hunt definitely skip this step too. For archers, it's easy because you can do it at your house, but it's getting range time is hard. So maybe you're a rifle hunter. Maybe it's just saying once a month, I'm going to shoot
10 rounds, you know, as ammo gets in short supply. It doesn't even have to be the rifle that you're shooting. Maybe you've got a lighter caliber rifle, a 22. Get out, do some shooting, create a schedule and a regiment, and it's going to make you better. Number 16. This is, I call this like the gear tuning phase. So let's think of it as like throughout the year, what I would schedule is January through April, April, April. I can't even talk today. January through April,
It's just going to be that gear tuning time. And this is something, you know, for me personally, I get a lot of new gear and then I'm trying and I'm mixing in between the season. And that's why I've got like some stuff that's older that I just stick with because it's just, I know it's, it's nailed in, like it's set, it's solid. I don't need to mess with anything. So in this beginning part, uh, winter through January, April, whatever, this
this is the time you should tune your gear not right before the season you know if you're gonna put new stuff on it change it now if you want to if you want to get new arrows um now's a good time to do it for me like last year i did it this that's what i did i i switched up my arrow setup i i tweaked a few things on my bow now maybe you're gonna try it you know obviously new stuff comes out once you get it set you can always change things later but you know mess with it now like i um i'm
I mount my rifle, my new rifle scopes. This, I try to get it this time of year where I can really make sure that everything's set level put right, like put in a little bit of time on this end. So that way, as you get closer to the hunting season, you're practicing with what you're going to hunt with and you don't have to change it later. I know. I mean, it always surprised me. I'm like archery sales are always the biggest, like the few weeks before archery season. I'm like, how is that possible? It's so difficult to really get everything set up how you want and
in that short amount of time. So now's the time you need to tune, do your broad head tuning, get your bow tuned well, get everything dialed. And for me this year, that's gonna be a huge focus of mine is just really getting back to that where I get it dialed early and then I have a lot more time to do other kinds of practice.
So number 17, it kind of brings us into this, what I call hunt minded practice. And maybe we call it like may, may slay time. Like it's just my mind switches gears from getting everything set and practicing to just going hunt focused practice. And one thing that I find very effective and you should definitely plan on doing is roving. And what that is, is walking around in the hills with whatever you're hunting with bow, long
longbow, reeker. I do it with everything. I use the rubber blunt tips. I walk around and shoot safe targets, you know, like pine cones, random stuff, whatever. 3D target shooting is good too. At different yardages, um,
to practice judging distance, to practice understanding drop compensation, to practice shooting in field type positions. My practice is focused toward hunting. I've talked about it before, but I definitely think that you need to think about that, especially coming into the new year, something to think about. It's also something you can do with a rifle. Go out, shoot rocks. Obviously, you need to make sure that one, there's no fire danger. Two, you
you've got a solid backstop and it's not dangerous. Don't be stupid, but like you can definitely go out and do that with a rifle as well. Very, I think not enough people practice with the rifle and it can be even something you go out with a 22 and do. So I've talked about all this before, but I think it bears repeating, especially this time of year. Number 18,
Practice those angles. Plan it into your practice. Whether it's a gun or a bow, practice shooting at angles. It's the weak point in the hunt, shooting uphill, shooting downhill, shooting whatever, with a rifle, with a bow. Think about it. Most rifle practice is at a range flat. Now, not everyone has the ability to do that, but it's something if you do, you should do it. Whether you got to, I've said before, like,
don't fall off your roof. But like, if you've got a balcony practice there, if you could set a tree stand up in your backyard with your bows, practice there, like figure out ways to practice some of these angles. Do what you shouldn't do is put your target on your roof and practice shooting up because that sounds dangerous. But if you can get out in the mountains for a weekend shoot or whatever, do some 3d shoots. You make sure to get those angles dialed a number 19, you know, stretch it out over the year, whatever, figure out what your effective distance is now.
and then expand your skills to shoot further. Not necessarily to hunt, shoot further, but just so you know you're capable of it. Like whatever your tight group is now at the furthest yardage, plan on practicing to a point where you maintain that same grouping at double the yardage, whether it's with a rifle, whether it's with a bow, whatever. If
If you're used to shooting at 100-yard targets range, shoot further. Practice reaching out now and get in the habit of making that your type of practice. I necessarily don't think it's great for, like, well, with a bow, you know. I like to shoot further, but I like to hunt close. It's just because it helps me fine-tune my whole setup and know that everything's flying right and everything's good to go and gives me that added skill of,
you know, just being a better shot overall. And it definitely plays a factor in rifle shooting. I think too many people go out sighted in a hundred yards. They say it's good. They got their ballistics app and they think they're going to shoot really far and they haven't actually proven it in the field or on the bench. So I think that that's a way that you should, will make yourself better.
Number 20, field position shooting and the one perfect shot. One thing that I like to do, whether it's with a rifle, whether it's with a bow, go out, set it up in a field type position and take one perfect shot. That what I call a cold bore shot. You don't get any redos, any practice shots when you're out in the field, make one perfect shot. And I think it's, it's also really good for rifle hunters and field shooting positions. Even if it's at the range, put out your target and
know that you're going to fire that gun one time and shoot off your pack, shoot off your knee, make it fast. Like,
like you're in the field. It's better if you can get out and do a field type setting and just set up and shoot and you get one shot and, and start recording those like, okay, did I hit, did I miss write it down every day and see your progression because you want to be getting better over time and see, okay, look, when I started out, I was 50% in the 10 ring and then hitting the target and missing this many times or whatever. Um,
And then over the course of the year, track your progression. I think it's really good to be able to do that, to look back and say, here's where I started, here's where I ended up, and I can see my progress. And then number 21, our final tip, I would say on the shooting category, shoot in those uncomfortable positions, but practice some offhand type shooting. If you're a rifle shooter, I mean, there are those times where you might have to make a quick close shot. People say, oh, you should never shoot offhand or whatever.
I mean, I practice most of my range time shooting, not only just for fun, it helps practice trigger control. And I mean, I shoot a lot of two to 400 yard targets offhand with my rifle because it's more fun. It's a little more challenging and you'll be surprised how much better you can get at it. Now the bow, I would say the opposite. Practice shooting from your knees. Practice shooting from a position that isn't
your standard shooting position. All it's trying to do is mix things up, get you better in whatever scenario you encounter. So when the time comes to make the perfect shot, you're going to nail it.
As you ring in the new year, I hope that you kind of take some of the stuff just into practice, into getting better, creating some goals and some things that you'd like to do and getting out there and doing it. And then tell me about your progress. That's one thing that I really love to hear. I hear it all the time. Last year, somebody that went on a trip or did something that they didn't think they could do and was successful or even just attempted. And
That's the kind of stuff that I love to hear about. So I appreciate you guys reaching out with that kind of stuff. I'm excited for this new year. I hope that there are some...
better year ahead than the last one. And whatever 2020 looked like, hopefully 2021 looks a little bit better. And at least there's some things we can do to make ourselves better. And I know that all these things that I talk about are things that I do and I'm going to be doing and constantly striving to get better at. So I don't think that there's ever a point where I, I never want to hit a point where I'm like, yeah, I'm good enough at that.
I constantly want to push myself and be better at it. And because of it, I find more success. I find more enjoyment in what I love so much. And so I hope that you guys can take that to heart. Happy New Year, everyone. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your day. Enjoy your new year. And we will catch you next time on Cutting the Distance.
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