GOHUNT: All right, guys, welcome back to the game trail podcast. Uh, going to get this episode out today. It's a sunny Wednesday afternoon here in Cedar city. Uh, we had a really good storm that came through the last few days, even snowed here in town, which is pretty bizarre to have some snow in the end of may wet, heavy snow. It looked like the mountains got quite a bit. So that was really cool to see us get some moisture. So, uh, we're hoping to keep coming. Um, you know, I've been looking, I've been seeing these El Nino, uh, things pop up in social media or in the news. Sounds like it's supposed to be a strong El Nino year. I'm hoping those continue to show up. know, if they, if we get some through June, it's going to really help. And it could be an excellent year, but ⁓ yeah, I'm super excited about the upcoming fall part of the podcast today. I want to talk about where my season's at. It's kind of starting to round out. I've got some upcoming draw results that I'm still waiting on. don't. really anticipate any of those tags coming through. I'll talk a little bit about that towards the bottom end of this, but for the most part, my season's kind of starting to round out and I'm starting to make some preparation. So I wanted to talk about that today. This will be a solo podcast. The other thing I wanted to talk about today is do some follow-up on the George Riles podcast. So I read a bunch of comments. I had quite a few people reach out. They were really interested in kind of a follow-up. on what I learned from the podcast that I did with George and then what I've been trying to do to implement into, you know, my daily practice sessions to try to help me out. And I learned a lot. I hope a lot of you guys did as well. I've gone back and listened to it once. I need to probably listen to it a couple more times because George was dropping a lot of, a lot of knowledge that I think was really helpful to me. And I think it could be helpful to a lot of you. So I appreciate people that listen to it. ⁓ I got a lot out of it and I'm going to touch on that here in a minute. But, uh, before I get going again, uh, I want to shout out Matthews Archery. Matthews is the only sponsor of the podcast and I appreciate what those guys do over there at Matthews. They make a great bow. Uh, I was talking to Rhett here that works in our office. He just got a new ARC 34. He's getting it set up and ready to rip. Uh, I got another buddy from St. George. He knows who he is. Uh, Calvin taxidermist buddy. He's trying to get into a new Matthews arc and hopefully we can get him lined out this coming week. He's got some tags that he's hoping to draw and to put that bow into use. And so it's fun time of year. It's always fun when people are getting new bows and it's fun to get out and shoot your bow. But, ⁓ I do genuinely appreciate Matthews for the support and you know, for being a great company and making a great bow. ⁓ also I want to hit you with the promo code. You guys can sign up for a Go Hunt Insider account. You can use the promo code game trail. That's just G-A-M-E-T-R-A-I-L. If you do that, you're going to get 50 bucks back in the GoHunt gear shop. That's $50 that you can use towards the purchase of any gear that you want in the shop. I got a lot of gear on my wishlist that I would probably buy. it seems like every time I'm in Vegas, I'm buying stuff. I'm sure that my bank account hates that, but yeah, it just is what it is. And the last time I was down there, I bought... a new product, which I will talk about here in a sec, but so far so good. I'm really liking it. And we were constantly getting new products coming into the shop. Seen a bunch of tents added. I've had some people asking me questions about some new tent options, some new gear from outdoor research. What else have I seen recently added? Veins. I think I saw some new veins. ⁓ Those Super Sabers or the Mini Sabers, those aren't. necessarily new. think we've had those for a minute, but I've definitely filled in some questions and people that are shooting them and loving them. Yeah. So with that, use that promo code game trail, save yourself 50 bucks or get 50 bucks back in the go hunt gear shop. And, you know, sign up for an insider account. Still a lot of upcoming opportunities to either scout for a tag or to actually get a permit and get a chance to go hunting this fall. That's one thing is I dive into this. ⁓ was thinking about, talked to a guy at the gas station today. He asked me how I did in Utah. And, ⁓ so I just drew a general season deer tag. think those guys that drew general season deer tags and we stood out front and he was kind of picking my brain a little bit about kind some of the benefits of the insider, ⁓ platform. ⁓ he's starting to buy points in some other States and man, there were really, there's so many opportunities. And I was kind of thinking about this podcast and prepping for it. ⁓ You know, I've got probably four tags, you know, and potentially I could have more. It's really going to depend. But point being is if you're kind of diligent about playing the game and you understand how the various draw systems work and you're kind of building points and stacking those up and you're kind of plucking a few of those off every single year, man, there's a lot of hunting opportunities. Like there really is no reason that you can't get one or two. you know, decent permits and get a chance to go hunting every fall. So I'd encourage you to do the research and yeah, make sure that you get a, get a chance to go hunting. ⁓ and life's life's too short. It goes too fast. ⁓ you want to make sure that you're, you're getting a chance to go out and do the things that you love every year. And one of those has been hunting for me. I just, you know, I bow hunting. So, that kind of covers promo, covers sponsorship, appreciate those guys. So let's dive into, ⁓ the podcast and kind of where I want to take it. So I wanted to devote some more time to George. I already said that, and kind of my thoughts on it. So I've been shooting a compound bow for about 25 years and I go through over those 25 years. I've gone through a couple of phases where I think it just feels like I need a reset. It's like, I need a hard reset. I need to think about the things that I've taken for granted that just seem like second nature in a lot of ways. And that can be good if you're doing it right, but it also can be bad if maybe you've developed some bad habits or maybe you've just been doing something wrong the whole time and you know, haven't really ever dove down the rabbit hole to figure it out and fix it. Whatever the case might be, I feel like I'm going through... kind of a reset, like I need a reset in regards to shooting a bow. And the reason I think that is, is because I've shot for so long and there was a time where I felt like I was making good headway and good progress and I was getting better. But it really feels like over the last few years, I really just kind of plateaued. Maybe in reality, I might've even gotten worse, which is not a fun feeling. You know, it's not fun to go up to the range and leave. every time and think, just didn't shoot as good as I'm capable of. know, that feeling that kind of nags at the back of you. It's like, I'm just not shooting as good as I think that I should or my expectations. Part of that might be unreasonable expectations. And there's also probably some, some truth in, you know, the fact that I'm just not shooting as well as I used to. So I feel like I'm, I'm at this stage where I need to kind of break things down. I need to go back and look at things that I haven't probably looked at in a really long time. And I need to kind of get back to some real basics. And so I'm thinking about things like draw length. Of course, I talked to George about that quite a bit. That was a primary focus that I wanted to talk with him about because I really do want to dial in a draw length that works and fits better for me. The other things I've been thinking about after talking to George was just simple things like stance. I'm not very good about, ⁓ you know, looking at my feet and kind of getting You know, a repeatable, comfortable stance where my feet are providing me like a good base. it's not, it's not to say that I'm not good at it. I'm just not as cognizant of about, about it. I'm not as deliberate about it as I probably need to be. ⁓ another one that I've been thinking about is just follow through. I think I know what follow through is and hopefully my follow through is decent, but the reality is, is like, I can't remember in a long time that I've just worked on follow through. you know, kind of letting that bow jump forward, you know, keeping a soft hand and letting the arrow break and go forward and, you know, not getting all crazy and wonky with my bow armor, looking to see where my arrow hit. So things like that I've been really thinking about. And, ⁓ actually before I, this is going to be a little bit all over the place, but before I go on and kind of. dive more into my thoughts about George. I wanted to let you guys know something that I did do this past weekend. And this is something that I couldn't find a ton of information about. I couldn't really find like a good resource. I went down some rabbit holes on Archery Talk and I read some things on Reddit. I even searched on YouTube for some how-tos. I couldn't really find anything that was a good resource. So the subject is a set screw and a cam like in the mod that gets stuck. Okay, so I've had I think three now at this point in a Matthews cam where I have been playing around with draw length and this relates back to my draw length discussion. Obviously I'm changing around my draw lengths, I'm changing out mods, but I have gotten mods stuff, mod screws stuck. So I've tightened those in too much. They seize up and they strip out so those screws are designed to strip out rather than the cam itself So you don't want to strip out the threads in your cam So the actual screws themselves are designed to strip out before stripping out the actual cam So I think this has happened to me like three times. Well, it happened to me recently and I couldn't find a good resource for it. So the best available knowledge that I could find online was in essence in an archery talk thread and the guy said basically what you got to do is you got to go get an extraction kit which is a little drill bit that has reverse threads so not your normal threads they're actually you know you're to put it into it and it reverses it out as you go the normal direction I'm you know I'm I'm not talking to most of the people that are hearing this know what I mean so anyway reverse bit drill bit anyway so They said basically what you got to do is you got to drill down with a normal drill bit into the set screw, kind of drill that out, then take the reverse bit, pound it in there, and then hit it with the drill and it'll kind of back that out. And that's the best available vice that I could find. So I went to my local hardware store, which is a hardware store, which is Ace Hardware up here on Main Street. And bumped into a kid there that works at the archery counter. And I was kind of explaining to him what I was trying to do. And he goes, ⁓ yeah, we, you know, we deal with this quite often. He's like, we just did one the other day on a Hoyt. He's like, we've done some Matthew ones for sure. And so he ran me over to the hardware section and what he told me to get, and it worked like a champ. So this is the reason I wanted to talk about it in case any of you out there are dealing with this issue and you need a fix for it. So you want to get a 564th drill bit. So this is the, what I used on my Matthews. Um, you want to get that and then you want to get the next size up in the extraction bit. So that's the bit with the reverse threads on it. Uh, then you, when you get home, you want to take the cam off your bow. Uh, so that you're, you know, you're not going to bend your cam. It's a whole heck of a lot easier to work on your cam if you take it off. So take the cam off your bow and then, uh, put it up against to a table. You don't want to rest it on the, uh, yolks. So You know, you don't want to put any pressure on any part of the cam. So it's going to bend it, but basically kind of put it on the edge of the table so that you got a nice flat spot with the cam sitting on it. And then you want to drill down in it with that five 60 force drill bit. And you want to get down in there deep enough that you can then take that ⁓ extraction bit and you just want to pound it in real lightly. A couple of tips go slow when you're drilling that out with the first drill bit. kind of drill it out real, real slow. You'll see that material starting to come out that screw. you started to see the material, you know, boil up out of that. keep blowing it off and then pound that reverse bit down in there a ways, ⁓ then insert it into your drill. And what I thought was going to happen was I thought the screw was just going to reverse out. Well, what ended up happened is it just breaks the screw. So it breaks the cap of the screw. And then I was able to just take my fingers and thread out the lower portion of the screw that was still in the bottom part of the cam. ⁓ And it worked so well. So I did two different cams. I had a cam that I thought was lost and I got a new cam completely. And I did the old one. I got that one out. I did this other cam that I had the issue with. ⁓ It worked awesome. So if you're struggling with that and you've got a mod screw stuck in your cam, The ticket is a 564 drill bit and then the next size up in the extraction bit and just drill that sucker out, tap it in, hit it with the reverse. It'll break that cap off. And then you just finger loosen the lower portion of that screw. Didn't ruin any of my threads. It worked awesome. ⁓ so just go slow and do it that way, but there's a tip for you. did want to include that because like I said, I couldn't really find any good resources for it until I'd ran into, ⁓ this good gentleman up at the ACE hardware. So there's a, there's a bit of info for you. Hopefully it helps somebody out. Um, if you know somebody that's experiencing that issue, them over this portion of the episode and hopefully it'll, it'll help them out or just have them DM me. can help them that way too. All right. So the things I've been working on from Georgia's podcast. So I have been lengthening out my drawing. So I went from 30 inches to 31 inches, uh, with a mod change. And I also picked up a 30 and a half inch draw mod. And what I've been doing is in the morning, I'll run up to the range, got my bow set up with the, ⁓ you know, the rest, stabilizers. got the site and I'll shoot some arrows. ⁓ you know, I've been shooting around in the lower portion, which has got variable ranges and I'll just kind of note how it's feeling, how it's aiming. But I think the real work that I'm doing is after I get home, what I've been doing is pulling off the stabilizers off my bow, both the rear bar and the front bar. So it's just got a sight and the rest on it. And anytime I got to get up to get a drink or grab a bite of lunch, use the bathroom, I'll go and shoot five or 10 arrows at the block target at about eight yards. And that's where I'm really allowing myself to just focus on feel and aim. Like how steady does the bow feel? How do I feel like it's aiming? And I'm just shooting arrows at close range. I'm just paying real particular attention to how it feels in regards to draw change. And I'm not going to change, ⁓ you know, draw lengths too quickly. What I want to do is I want to shoot one for a week or two and get a real feel for it before I make any changes. And I think right now, so I'm at 31 inches right now, it does feel a little long. It feels foreign. I do feel like I'm getting that loopy long aim that George talked about, which I've known that before, but it was sure fun to hear George talk about it. But I'm getting that long loopy aim feel and it doesn't feel that comfortable, but ⁓ I'm not going to give up on it yet. I'm going to give it probably another week or so. And then I might drop down to 30 and a half and just check and see how that feels. And I haven't really done this. Like I have not. gone away from 30 inches and so long that I haven't really put nearly as much time and effort into draw length as I think I need to. And then I think once I find the mod that works best for me, whether that's 30 and a half or 31, then I can start, you know, making a tweak here and there to maybe adjust it by like an eighth of an inch and just see if that makes a difference. And that one I expect to go a little bit quicker. I don't think I'll put nearly as much time and effort into that as I have just these massive changes, you know, anywhere from a half inch to an inch, ⁓ because I gotta get ready for season. It's creeping up on me. And I don't want to be ⁓ tinkering with, ⁓ you know, eighth inch increments of drawing changes right up until the, you know, the middle of August. I want to be able to get a bow, but I feel like aims really well. And I want to be able to shoot that all summer long and make sure that my pins are really sighted in and that I'm ready to rip once ⁓ August, I think it's the 16th, opens up here in Utah. So that's one thing I'm definitely working on is draw link. The other thing that I changed is in regards to the dent in the back of my hand. So that sore in the back of my hand that I showed George, and that's from my rest bouncing off the back of my hand. And I was shooting a QAD, the integrated rest. And if you shoot a QAD, you might know what I'm talking about, but it's got this little serrated dial, which is your windage dial for the left and right on that rest. It's, it's a little serrated, it's got teeth on it, which is great for turning it. But for whatever reason, the way I shoot my bow, the way I hold the grip, the way I just let that kind of fly forward out of my hand, it bounces off the back of my hand and it just drives a great big old divot in the back of my hand. And a bunch of you reached out with some different suggestions on, you know, different, ⁓ grips that work for you that kind of alleviate that. ⁓ I've got about six different grips sitting here on my desk that I've, I've gotten. So I've got everything from, ⁓ you know, shrewd grip. I've got several of the Matthews grips. I've got side plates. I've got, ⁓ the UV B real grip. I've got the grip that Tim Gillingham makes. ⁓ I've got a grip that Bedford Archery makes. I've got a bunch of grips and I've tried them and they work. So like they will work in regards to alleviating that bounce of the rest off the back of my hand, which is good. The bad thing is I just don't feel as consistent or as steady with any of those grips. For me the most comfortable grip the thing that I think is the most repeatable off this Matthews bow seems to be a baseball bat wrapped Handle right off the riser shooting right off the riser in essence So the only thing I'm doing is I'm getting some of this lizard tape in a 0.5 mil ⁓ Diameter which is the thickness of that tape and I'm wrapping the grip and I'm shooting it right off the riser. And for me, that just feels the best. It feels the most repeatable. I've tried those other grips and they work. Like I said, they just don't feel as repeatable. And so I've been going back to, you know, just shooting off the riser and just dealing with shooting that rest off the back of my hand and, you know, dealing with ⁓ a big divot in the back of my hand, which, you know, first few arrows I would say of every shooting session. They were pretty good, but then after that I just kind of forget about it. But I have done something. So the one thing I did rather than changing grips is I bought a Hamsky R7 rest. So I've been waiting for those to come in stock in the Go Hunt Gear shop, which they finally did. But I purchased an R7 rest and the thing, one of the things I really like about it, there's a lot to like about this rest. So far I'm really, really liking it, but One thing I like about it is that it sits a little bit further off the back of the riser. It's not as close to my hand as the QAD, so there's created like a little bit of a gap there. And I don't seem to be having that same issue where I'm bouncing the rest off the back of my hand. And I noticed that straight away. So that's been one major, you know, improvement of that rest. I think there's a lot of things to like about it. I've done an overview on our channel and I could definitely speak to. You know, kind of the more specifics of that rest now, but if you got questions, you know, don't hesitate to reach out and ask, but I'm really liking it. It's set up really, really easy. It tuned really easy. ⁓ I got to get, I do have to get some way of securing my arrow to the shelf. And in the past I've used something like this little vapor trail. ⁓ it's kind of a pyramid arrow container. think that this one right here, I've got in my hand, it's going to be too big for a small diameter arrow. I know that there are other options out there that are similar to this, but in essence, what I need is something that's going to hold my arrow in it to the point where I could even turn that bow upside down without my arrow falling out. Because in a lot of cases, when you're stocking an animal, you know, you're moving your bow in different directions. And I do want to be able to have that arrow knocked. ⁓ but I need to find something like this. that will hold the arrow, but then also allow it to smoothly come up into that rest as it rises as you're drawing the bow. So I'm on the hunt. ⁓ I believe my buddy, Dallin, sent me one and off the top of my head, I cannot remember the name of it. So Dallin Wicker, I know if you listen to this. I know you sent me a reference for a product that you said you really like, which is in essence what I'm describing. I just can't remember what it is off the top of my head. have to go back through my notes and find it, but that's what I'm looking for. Other than that though, I'm really liking the rest a lot and it has alleviated that issue of bouncing it off the back of my hand. All right, one more thing. So one more thing, ⁓ actually two more things. So one thing that George talked about, that I keep thinking about is that if you want to get better, you have to train like it means something. You do have to do the work. And I mean the mundane stuff. So the stuff that isn't that much fun. And I was thinking about when he said that he will have his, ⁓ these guys that they have a hunt, you know, like a real adventure hunt and they're prepping for this big adventure style hunt. And he'll kind of line them out, give them some ideas. And then further down the road, he will ask them how it's going and they'll say, it's going okay. But they don't really have a concrete answer for him. And that's because they haven't really been tracking it. So to that point, I've been thinking about it. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to come up with a ⁓ set round that I can shoot and that I can track at my local range. So I was thinking since that I'm a bow hunter and I shoot a five pin slider site. for hunting, especially for elk hunting. you know, that is my, that's my site. It's a five pin slider site. love having five pins. But what I was thinking I would do is that I would shoot three arrows for score at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 every day. And I would track that score. And initially I'm going to establish a baseline and then I'm going to work on some specifics as I go, as far as like my equipment setup, how it feels, how it's shooting. one day I think I might make follow through my priority. So really focus on my follow through, you know, maybe the next day, ⁓ work on my stance, really work on getting my stance exactly the same every time and looking at it or, you know, looking at my grip and making my grip the priority for that day. But I want to pick one thing, work on that one thing. And I also want to track score. So that I can kind of track this over the summer. Am I actually getting better? That's something like I haven't done in a really long time, other than, you know, shooting Vegas faces, ⁓ as I haven't really developed any kind of summer practice where I could track my score to know if any kind of changes I was making were putting me in the right direction that I wanted to. ⁓ so I was thinking that would be a simple game that I could play. I could do that. I'm not saying I'm just going to do that, but I'm going to say I'm going to make that part of everyday shooting session. So, you know, I might go shoot some arrows on the round on the 3d animals, but you know, before I leave, I'm going to shoot these three arrows at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 for score. And I'm going to track that, just put it on my phone. There's all kinds of apps that are available, but basically I just want to track that day over day and just kind of see what happens and, know, work on various pieces of my form. You know, make small tweaks throughout the summer and see if they make a difference and see if I can really fine tune, find a sweet spot for my form and my setup and really help my score improve. Cause like I said, I haven't been good at tracking that. And I think George made a really good point when he said, you know, how do know if you're getting better? If you're not really tracking it, how do you know if any changes that you're making or working, if you're not really tracking it? you know, that one really stuck with me. All right. Lastly, kind of one more piece of feedback that I got from George. ⁓ I really liked what he said about building visual connections. So before the arrows that I've been shooting, I've been taking time to look at things like my grip, looking at my grip, looking at my hand in the riser, just looking at it, seeing, you know, feeling it, getting into my normal grip and then looking at it with my eyes and just kind of taking inventory of it. ⁓ The other thing is looking at my stance, looking at my feet. Are my feet in the same position arrow to arrow? Like I already said, I haven't been good at that, but that one stuck out to me. ⁓ Looking at my release in my hand. And I have been playing the last few days with the way I'm holding the release. So I think... I was having some issues where it felt like it had a lot of tension in my hand, like my forearm would feel like it was tight, my wrist would feel tight, and then my grip would feel tight. And I just didn't feel like I could relax that forearm, relax my wrist and my hand and like pull through with my rhomboids and just break a really nice clean shot. So what I've been doing is I've been moving this release out a little bit. So if you can see my pointer finger, I'm kind of putting it right here. this middle finger, I'm kind of putting it closer out to this joint in my hand. So I don't know if you guys can see that, but it's kind of where I'm putting it. And the last few days I've been shooting it that way. What I really noticed is allowing me to relax my hand. It's allowing me to get a much straighter hand. It's allowing me to relax my fingers, relax my wrist, and I'm able to put a lot more of that holding weight in the rhomboid and I'm able to just kind of relax that hand and pull through and I'm breaking clean arrows. I've also noticed that my shot timing has got way better. back to that point that George made, before every arrow, I'm taking a second and I'm looking at my grip in my hand. I'm looking the way that the release is in my hand. And I really liked that he said that. I don't know why that's resonating so much with me. I think it's that, you know, I'm a visual person, but I'm building that visual connection between the way I hold a release, the way it fails, and then the way that it looks. ⁓ So I've been doing that. And I don't know that there's like anything tangible that I can like pull from that. But if George said I should do it and he said, it's going to help me, I believe the man. And so I'm going to do it. So I've been doing that. ⁓ And I think, I think it's going to help. So that's kind of a follow-up from my conversation with George. ⁓ I'd be interested in knowing what you guys picked up out of that podcast. Like what are the things that he said that resonated, resonated, that resonated with you? ⁓ I'd be really interested to hear what you got from that episode and what kind of things you're working on. But those are the things that I picked up. Those were like the things that I felt like I needed to hear from him talking. All right, so now I'm going to shift gears a little bit. ⁓ I'm going to talk a little bit about kind of where I'm at in the year as far as upcoming hunts. So there are a few draws that are left to come, but based on where I am with my points and what I applied for, I don't think that there's a high likelihood that I'm going to draw any of those other great permits. I would love it if Nevada elk tag came through, but I just don't think that's in the cards. I'm hoping though. But with that, ⁓ My fall is pretty well set in regards to what hunts I'm going to go on. So to lay it out for you, I drew an archery deer tag here in Utah. It's a general season deer tag, which I've had really good luck with. I know the area quite well and I'm really optimistic about that hunt. Like I think there's a real potential for me to kill a great buck. So I'm really excited about that tag. I also picked up an archery elk tag in Idaho back when that draw opened up. ⁓ I've also applied for the controlled hunts that are open right now. Again, I've I took a swing for the fences approach. I don't know that I'm going to draw, but that's ⁓ the avenue that I took. Maybe it could happen, I guess. ⁓ There is also the chance that I could draw a Colorado elk tag. And then I'm working on another elk tag, potentially. So there's a chance that I could end up with three elk tags, which is not going to work. It's not going to work with my schedule. It's not going to work with home. Ultimately, I would love it if I could get two hunts out of September with my bow, but in reality is I'm probably going to end up keeping the best tag of those and probably doing one hunt, maybe two, if I can swing it, but it's going to be tough. But I know I'm going to have a September elk hunt, at least one, maybe two. ⁓ And then above and beyond that kind of out further, ⁓ I've got white tail on the brain and As luck would have it, I drew a Kansas whitetail tag. I just got my draw results yesterday. So I'm planning and I'm getting really excited about that trip. I'm going to go out to Kansas, I think probably about the first week of November. I think I want to hunt that for, you know, as many days as it takes. I was thinking a week to 10 days. And then I would love to cruise down to Oklahoma or maybe potentially Missouri. and just see what I can come up with in maybe a week. So there'll be a couple of weeks in November where I'm planning on doing some whitetail hunting, just DIY style, go out and learn as much as I can. So that's my year and opening day for those hunts will be arriving pretty quick. I know that every year I feel like this May, June timeframe, I feel like it gets filled up pretty quickly with my kids being out of school and you know, there's summer activities that are happening. Those are all good things, but the hunting season, it sneaks up on me every single year. At least it has in the last several years. It feels like as my kids have gotten a little bit older, their activities and kind of their schedules are just so much busier, especially on weekends. And I've just felt like hunting season. creeps up on me and I find myself kind of stressed out and underprepared and just not feeling super excited about it because I just haven't done the prep that I need to. It's just caught me off guard. And so to that point, I've thought I would run through some things that I've been thinking about and I've been working on that I know I need to work on. And this is kind of my agenda for the rest of the month of May and probably those first few weeks in June. ⁓ so first, ⁓ I'm sending out feelers and I'm asking for information. So I'm, cruising forums. I'm cruising YouTube. ⁓ I'm, talking to friends and acquaintances about locations for the various tags that I have, and I'm asking them for areas that might be productive. Have they ever hunted them? Do they know anybody that's ever hunted them? ⁓ I think a lot of people. You know, they hear this and they're just like, maybe a little bit of a knot in their stomach. Like, ⁓ that feels dirty. And that's fine. If you get it, we all know those guys that jump on the rock slide forum and they say, Hey, I drew this tag. ⁓ you know, what can you tell me about it? And then you read down through the rest of replies and it's just people ripping this guy apart, which to me, I always like, I get it, but I also, you know, I hate that. It's just like, it's that old adage. If you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say nothing at all, but. I don't know how you feel about asking other people for information, but for me, I think it's a good idea. And I do believe in karma. think that the more you give out, the more Intel you're going to get back. So think if you're open with helping people, I'm not saying giving people your, all your secret spots, but I think if you've got some information to give and you don't feel like it's given up too much, ⁓ I think that kind of stuff comes back around. So I try to be really open. ⁓ with people and try to offer Intel if I can. And I think it's going to come back around and help me out. ⁓ I will say some of the best information, some of the best animals that I've ever killed, ⁓ have come from talking to people. And that's just, you know, talking to people in the field, talking to people prior to the hunt that have hunted the area. And, you know, they may not have an animal kind of figured out for you, but they can definitely help you with some areas, give you some ideas on glassing points. tell you, ⁓ you know, glass this direction instead of that direction. picked up a ton of tips from, people that have been so generous and willing to offer information. So for me, this is a point where I like it and I do it and I feel okay about it. It'd be interesting to hear if you guys feel differently, but I think it's a great way to gain Intel. And again, I'm not trying to take without giving. try to give as much as I take, but I think this is a really good step and it's been really good for me over the years. That's one thing that I'm doing. The other thing that I'm doing is I'm spending a lot of time e-scouting. ⁓ First, I'm overlaying the unit boundaries and then I'm adding layers like the public private land boundaries. I'm adding burn layers. I'm adding roads and trails. I'm adding... water and roadless layers. And I'm using tools like our slope and our aspect to identify elevation bands or aspect of slope for bedding areas. I'm looking for feeding areas. I'm looking for glassing points. And right now, I'm just really cruising the entire unit. ⁓ I'm just looking at the unit. I'm legitimately just dragging that mouse and I'm just visually assessing as I look at that unit, as I just kind of cruise around on it. I'm not getting crazy. I'm just cruising the unit and I'm getting to know it. I'm getting to know where the roads and trails are, you know, the directions, the mountain ranges run, you know, kind of elevations. I'm looking at that. I'm just really getting like this 30,000 foot view. And then as I see areas, like I might see an area, it piques my interest. At that point, I'm probably going to create just a polygon around it. And I'm not going to spend any time in it right now. I'm just going to create a quick polygon, and I'm going to keep moving, keep cruising. I want to look at all the unit. And then add a polygon here and there. Oh, that looks interesting when I add a polygon. Or, that looks like a good glassing point. I might drop a pin for a glassing point. But I'm just creating these polygons across the unit. And then I'm going to go back and I'm going to look at each individual polygon and then I'm going to like drill down on a micro level. I'm going to start looking at that area more specifically. And I'm looking for, you know, travel corridors. I'm looking for water within that little portion. I'm looking for bedding. Like where is the most likely spot for an elk to bed within this little area that worked, which really looks like it has all of the features that an elk would need, you know, food and water and bedding, ⁓ escape terrain. You know those saddles that go up and over into a drainage that they can easily, you know, avoid hunting pressure But I'm drilling down on a much more micro level and I'll probably get into that like, you know, June June July But right now I'm just doing a lot of yeast scanning and I'm doing it from like a 30,000 foot view and I'm just dropping polygons on places that I think look really interesting ⁓ In regards to white gel, I'm a complete novice So I'm doing a lot of watching on YouTube of tutorials. So any of you guys that are whitetail hunters that have done any kind of tutorial about, you know, what I should be looking for, those have been super helpful. ⁓ You know, it's, I would assume it's probably like an Eastern hunter, you know, coming out West. They don't really know what they're looking for in regards to elk habitat. Whereas, you know, I've done it so much. I can look across ⁓ an aerial map and I can have a pretty good idea of like, ⁓ yeah, that's likely to hold out. I'm sure you guys could do the same thing with white tail deer. But for me, that's so new. A lot of it looks the same. So I'm really doing a lot right now of just discovering on what I should be looking for so that I could then go back to my aerial maps and start to cruise and be like, oh yeah, I remember what's, you know, that's what this guy said. You know, travel corridor should look like or a pinch point. Like this is kind of what he was talking about. So I'm, I'm, I'm doing those steps. That's kind of what I'm doing as far as e-scouting. ⁓ the other thing I'm doing is going to kind of relate back to the, stuff I talked about George, but I am doing a lot of work on my bow to like get my bow dialed. I don't want to spend my entire summer getting my bow dialed in. I don't want to go into the middle of August having just barely felt like I landed on, you know, a draw length. I just don't want to. I want to have my bow feeling really good, at least by that first part of June so that I can continue throughout the rest of the summer to practice with the setup that I may end up taking into the field. ⁓ It's already indicated I'm focused on finding draw length. I'm definitely going to have that found and be feeling real good about it, I think, here within the next week or so. I'm focused on tuning. I'm thinking about the arrows that I want to build and I'm building them and then I'm shooting those arrows through paper and I'm knock tuning as I go. Also within this next week, I'm thinking about getting my hunting site completely set. And by that, mean, siting in precisely each individual pin and not to the yardage that the stake says at my local range, actually cited into my range finder. I'm also working on site tapes. So this precision cut archery, I don't think we've ever had it better as bow hunters to be able to tinker and play with site tapes. This precision cut, the app, you know, the program that's web-based is so handy. It's a really killer product. You know, you get the ability to play with altitude. can, you know, use his, his shot solver portion of that to tinker with wind actually see like, ⁓ if it's 10 mile or 10 mile an hour wind, like, you know, and this is my setup, how much my aero ways and how fast my, aero is going. Like this is the potential drift in that arrow. ⁓ I think up until this point, I've had a lot of, ⁓ guesswork, but I've never really had anything tangible that I could just look at on my app, on my phone and be like, yeah, I think that's about how much it's going to drift. So that's been a really cool thing to tinker with. ⁓ I would highly, highly suggest it. ⁓ the other thing I'm thinking about is getting my site really set up as well as my, my pin sighted in and my site tape built, but, but my first, my second, and my third axis, ⁓ particularly my third axis and really diving into getting it leveled and then shooting it. And so by early June, ⁓ I want to have all that kind of set. And I also want to be shooting broadheads daily. ⁓ I'm not saying every single arrow with a broadhead on it, but I am planning on shooting broadheads enough that. ⁓ One, I know that they're going to hit with my field tips. So that's, you know, some broadhead tuning. And the other thing that I also want to know ⁓ is that I want to know that when I draw that bow back with the broadhead tipped arrow on it, that I feel as confident in it as I do when I'm shooting a field tip. ⁓ I know that when I put a broadhead on the end of my arrow, there's like a different feeling. You, you, you're, your senses are heightened. You're like, ⁓ man, this one's for real. I got a broadhead on the end of it. ⁓ but when you put that broadhead on, you feel that I don't want that to be the case. I don't want it to be the case when I draw back on, ⁓ you know, a big mule deer buck in the end of August. I don't want it to feel like that. I just want to be so in that moment that I'm not really even thinking about any of that. ⁓ I just want to be confident. So part of this summer prep is shooting broadheads and shooting them often. ⁓ that's something else I want to, I want to be doing, you know, here in the next two weeks, I would say is, is definitely shooting broadheads a lot. All right. Moving down another thing, a gear list. So I've been going through my gear list and I've been pulling out my gear to make sure that I have what I need and I'm identifying holes in my system and I'm trying to accumulate and buy those early. So for example, ⁓ this is one I haven't thought about in a long time because a lot of my gear is just standard. use it year in and year out. I think you guys are probably tired of me talking about the sleeping bag that I use because it's the same sleeping bag for the most part. But, ⁓ as I went through my gear the other day, ⁓ I was thinking about trail cameras. So I have not used a trail camera in a number of years. I just haven't put any out. So I wasn't even really thinking about it when I've drawn this general season deer tag. It's not too bad to get to. It's not too far. ⁓ I started thinking, man, you know, it'd be really great. So if I got some trail cameras out this summer, and so I dove into my trail camera boxes and I found that most of them needed new batteries. found that, ⁓ over the years I've lost a number of them to, you know, the public land trail camera bandits, but they laid claim to some of my trail cameras, but I've lost some of them. But I think I got like three or four. ⁓ and as I started thinking about it, I already know three or four spots that I would love to put those cameras out. And I could think of probably another four or five that I would love to get a trail camera out. So I know I need to run up and get some new trail cameras. And I'm lucky now that, ⁓ you know, your standard trail camera, you know, that just takes photos. It's not, it's not the, ⁓ you know, the app or the phone based ones, you know, the cellular ones, this is just your standard trail camera. gotten to be relatively cost effective. What's the word I'm looking for? They're better. They're more economical. You can buy a few of them without completely draining your bank account. So there's a number of them out there. So I've identified that need. So I need to run up and get some of those. But that's just one example. That's like a piece of gear that I don't very rarely think about. But I thought, you know what? Those have definitely helped me in the past when I did run them. I might as well. get a few of them put together and make a trip over in June and put those out and see what I can come up with. the last thing I've been thinking about is, man, I hate talking about this one, but it's like this necessary evil. know that there are people that absolutely love this and like, this is their whole jam and that's awesome, but, ⁓ getting in shape. So if you guys listened to like our new year's resolution episode that we did with the big hunt guys, Uh, I talked a lot about, you know, getting in better shape and that was a big part of it for me. And I will say that there are some things in that episode that I've done really well as far as regulation goes, but like getting in top tier shape was not one of them. just have not been good at it. Um, but it's getting down to the point where it's like critical mass where, you know, we're going to be lugging a 40, 50 pound pack up and down some of the nastiest terrain in the West here within, you know, three months. So it's getting down to like crunch time. It's like, I'm starting to look and take inventory of how I feel. And I'm like, you know what? I got to get in better shape. ⁓ I've definitely got to get the legs and the lungs in better condition. So without getting into it too much further, I know that in years past, I've felt the best when I was doing three days of rucking. So that's a weighted backpack, either hiking outdoors, which is the best if you can do that, or even just an incline treadmill in my garage with a weighted pack. And I usually start with, you know, 30 to 50 pounds. I've got bags that have got sand in them. I just wrapped them up with duct tape and I throw them on a stone glacier frame on the load shelf. I just throw that pack on and I typically do like 45 to 90 minutes. And if I did that three days a week and then two days a week, I mix in a trail run, you know, it's usually five to seven miles, I would say, my just my local trail system. Um, by the end of the summer and the start of those hunts, I've been feeling pretty good. Now I certainly know that that is like probably the bottom end of what you could do to get in shape. There's definitely some people that are like, all about it. They're super fit and it's awesome. And I'm a hundred percent sure that it is a major benefit to them when they're hunting. But for me, that's probably what I can do. It's probably five days a week, 45 to 90 minutes, rocking trail running. In order to ensure that I do this, what I was thinking is I'm going to get me a calendar. I'm going to hang it here above my desk. I have to look at it every single day and I'm just going to start checking off days as I do it. And I think the shame of not being able to check that off on any given day because I didn't do my workout ⁓ is going to keep me motivated. ⁓ Outside shame, I could care less, but my own internal shame of sitting there and looking at that and thinking, ⁓ I didn't get that checked off. I think it's going to motivate me to keep it up. it's been interesting. like I got into my forties. ⁓ it used to be that like hunting season would really motivate me to like work out. And I felt like I needed to be in pretty good shape to, go and hunt well and to do it well. And then I felt like I hit kind of a stage where like my mental fortitude was like, mentally, I'm just going to do it. Like, I know I'm going to do it. I'm going to be fine. It doesn't matter if I'm. 10 pounds overweight from what I should be. ⁓ Mentally, like I'm there, I'm going to get it done. And in a lot of cases I have, right? So it's like this, it's probably arrogance that comes with maybe some age, but yeah, mentally I've just been like, ⁓ I'm going to carry it through. I'm going to get the job done based on, you know, I think I'm mentally pretty tough because I've done a lot of these hunts before. I talked a little bit about this New Zealand hunt that we just went on that you guys saw the film for. It was just released this last Sunday. ⁓ I went into that hunt last May. I wasn't in great shape, but I wasn't in the worst shape either. But I remember flying over there and thinking like, I wished I was in better shape. I know this is going to be a pretty gnarly hunt, but I wished I was in better shape. And then we get out, we throw the packs on, we head up and we're two and a half days of some of the roughest, nastiest, most most demanding backpacking that I've done. And I got up in there and I think at one point in the video I said, yeah, I'm just kind of slow. I wasn't actually that slow. I mean, I was slow in comparison to, to Monty who moves through that landscape, like, you know, like he owns it. But, um, you know, overall I got up in there and I thought, you know what, I feel pretty good actually. And that was like kind of a false sense of confidence, I think. I think it was like, you know, I didn't work out that hard. didn't get myself in the best shape of my life. And yet here I am and I'm doing pretty good. I feel pretty good. ⁓ And I'm saying this, like, I don't think it's the best thing in the world. It's probably a bad thing to be honest. It's this false sense of security, I think. But yeah, it's been kind of an interesting transition in my older ages. ⁓ So I'm going have to figure out a new way, which I brought up. I'm going to have to shame my way, I think, into ensuring that I start getting into better shape. ⁓ But that's something I'm going to do. I'm rambling, obviously, a lot about that. But yeah, it's just been on my mind. You're getting a full stream of consciousness right now. ⁓ So between now and July, I also plan to make some trips over to my deer unit and hang those cameras. July is going to be really heavy focused on glassing and spending time trying to find a target buck. My take on scouting is that if I can find one buck more would be great, but if I can find one buck and if I can just see him one time, I can feel pretty good about going into opening day of that hunt. ⁓ Certainly if you find a good buck early, a target buck is always better if you can spend more time with them so that you kind of understand how they use the lay of the land, where they like to feed, where they like to bed, kind of their entry and exit ⁓ areas into bedding. ⁓ Those are super beneficial, but... You know, in the case of time, if I can't get more time, if I can find one buck and if I can see him one time, I feel like I can put myself in a position over a 10 or 15 day hunt when the hunt actually opens to kill that buck. So that's really what I'm striving for. My goal is to find one buck. Multiple bucks would be awesome, but I want to find the buck and that can be through glassing. It can be through trail cameras, combination of both. But my goal for July is to find the buck. Which is, ⁓ is always fun. It's exciting. ⁓ so that's the podcast for today. ⁓ my apologies if it felt like it was just complete rambling. ⁓ hopefully, you know, somebody gets something out of it. ⁓ I'd be interested if you guys got any questions or thoughts about it. ⁓ these solo episodes are always interesting to me because they are not the most comfortable for me to do. They are the episodes though. When most people walk up to me and they listen to my podcast, one of the first things they typically say is like, man, I really like your solo episodes. So I appreciate those of you that have said that for me, it's like hard to believe when they say that. always think, ⁓ I don't know about that. Cause for me, they're pretty uncomfortable, but I appreciate you listening. If you got questions, if you got ⁓ topics that you think you'd like to hear me talk about, ramble on about for an hour, shoot them my way. But with that, we'll wrap up the episode for the day and we'll be back next week with a guest.