Trail K: All right, guys, welcome back to the Game Trail Podcast. It is Tuesday morning in southern Utah. It's a sunny day here. It's been awful warm. ⁓ hope you guys had a happy July 4th. ⁓ obviously, I missed last week, but ⁓ I got a podcast for you today. ⁓ it's gonna be based on something I've been thinking about a lot lately. ⁓ I've asked some questions of previous guests that I've had, including George and Paige Pierce. And I'm doing a bunch of ⁓ work to get my own bow completely dialed in and set up. I've been doing a bunch of shooting and ⁓ shooting angles has been something I've been really thinking about. ⁓ I wrote an article which I turned into Brady. Brady has that and he will publish that on the the big hunt or excuse me, the the Go Hunt website here shortly. And ⁓ it'll it'll kind of cover a lot of what I talk about today. But for people that like listening rather than reading, seems like most people like to listen something ⁓ anymore rather than read. ⁓ even though when I do read something, it feels like I retain it a little bit better. But for those of you that might not want to do the full read, ⁓ you know, you can listen and hopefully pick up on a lot of what ⁓ I put into that article. So I'm gonna talk about shooting angles uphill and downhill. ⁓ I'm gonna dive into that here in a minute. Before that, I'll do some housekeeping. So I want to hit you guys with the promo coded ⁓ game trail. You can use that if you sign up for a Go Hunt Insider account. And you're going to get 50 bucks back in the Go Hunt Gear Shop. If you do that, you can use that towards the purchase of any gear that you want in the shop. ⁓ you know, I'll be back down in Vegas next week. See, I've I've always said this, but it feels like I'm always buying arrows. ⁓ I just bought a dozen, what, two weeks ago? And my local club, they've got ⁓ 3D targets on pretty much every butt. And you know, when you're up there, you you can't not shoot at a 3D target, you got to. And You know, if you're up there by yourself, maybe I got the dog with me, I start getting creative, you know, maybe kind of threading a gap here and there when I'm up there all by myself. And ⁓ you know, every once in a while I glance one off and I'll lose an arrow, or I'll hit somebody else's insert and the target and I'll end up bending bending my insert. but yeah, I've lost a few. Not a big deal. I'm sure you guys have lost some arrows too, but I do need to get some new arrows. Make sure that I've got plenty for the upcoming season because I do have ⁓ a fair number of hunts planned this year. So ⁓ use that promo code GameTrow. Sign up for an insider account and you know buy yourself some new arrows or some new gear. ⁓ also shout out to Matthews Archery is the sponsor of the podcast. ⁓ Brady is back into bow hunting. We did a podcast about it on the Big Hunt guys maybe a week ago, ⁓ when I was down there. we set up a new Arc 34 for him, got her tuned up. ⁓ it's been fun to kind of watch him get excited about bow hunting and you know shooting a bow and arrow again. And ⁓ they make a great bow. ⁓ you know, Brady's getting three hundred and twenty-one feet per second out of a four hundred and forty grain arrow at his thirty two inch draw length. So yeah, it's zipping arrows along, seems to be shooting good, he seems to be having fun. And ⁓ yeah, shout out to Matthews. They make a great bow. ⁓ I was talking to Brady, I think, that day, speculating. You know, what's Matthews gonna come out with in 2027? And man, I never really know. ⁓ I would I would guess, and they wouldn't tell me even if I asked, but ⁓ I would guess maybe added maybe some new tunability features, maybe. ⁓ the limbshift tech in these arcs works great. ⁓ you know, I wonder if maybe there's some sort of adjustment to cam sync. It would make that easier so you didn't have to press the bow and put twists or ⁓ you know, twisting the cables or, you know, in the string or you know, the old trick of adding a piece of D loop between your control cable to take up that little credit card size ⁓ gap if your draw stops aren't hitting exactly. But yeah, it'd be really interesting. My guess is that they're probably not gonna come out with a longer axle to axle bow. Seems like when they come out with a long axle to axle bow like the Arc thirty four, it feels like maybe the years following they kinda go back to, you know, some shorter models. So if they do do two models, maybe it's gonna be, you know, a twenty nine and a thirty two. I don't know. I'm just speculating. But it's fun. you know, I have been lucky, extremely lucky. ⁓ you know, I've been a I've been an archery fan for a long time. you know, fan of Matthews bow is my very first compound bow that that I got, I've talked about was a Matthews Q2. but man, to be, you know, to be a part of kind of what they're doing in a very small way. I've had a chance to ⁓ test some of their prototype bows when they've come out the last several years. ⁓ I typically get mine, I want to say about the last week in August or the first week in September. And you know, to pull that new bow out of a box, I mean it it's kind of like you know, a a moment where you're like, man, That's like something I dreamed about, you know. I just loved it so much. And then now I I actually get the opportunity to do it, which is really cool. ⁓ but yeah, I'm I'm excited to see what they come out with. And ⁓ be interesting to see if I get a new bow before then and and what that process looks like. I know I've told people before, you know, they've asked me, ⁓ that's so cool that you get a new bow. And it is. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna deny it's really, really cool to get a new bow to play with. ⁓ it is also a little bit stressful. So to get a new bow. you know, the first week of September and you got maybe six or seven days to set that thing up and tune it and cite it in and, you know, feel confident in it and then take it out on an L comp. It's it's a little stressful. I know that's a first world problem. ⁓ and I'm definitely not complaining. But it ⁓ yeah, it's a challenge every single year and it's kind of the fun in it too. But ⁓ I'm rambling. But yeah, I'm super extok super excited, super stoked to see what Matthews comes out with and I really appreciate what those guys have have done for me and and for sponsoring the podcast. ⁓ a few other things I was gonna talk about. this one's probably not exciting and most people aren't gonna care. But if you guys been watching the World Cup, I love it. I just I don't think there's a greater sporting event in the world and people can say what they want, but I know there's there's a lot of people that hate soccer. You know, whatever. But I don't think there's there is not a better sporting event on the planet. It comes around every four years. You know, to watch the ⁓ the various countries and all the side stories that come along with that has been so fun. It's the best. If you're not watching it, you're you're missing out. although it may not even be worth it. I watched I watched the ⁓ the Egypt Argentina game and it feels like maybe feels like maybe FIFA just wants Messi to win another one. ⁓ What an atrocious, atrocious thing V A R has been in soccer. And to call that goal back from Egypt, ⁓ absolute kick in the cherries. ⁓ I don't get it, but I hope you're watching it. I hope you're enjoying it. ⁓ I just had to throw that in because it was fresh on my mind. I just just saw that not that long ago. summer scouting. So I went out July fourth. ⁓ I wanted to give you an update on kind of what I was seeing and what I thought the conditions were like. ⁓ So I went out all day July fourth to scout for deer ⁓ on a tag that I've got here in southern Utah. ⁓ I got up early, like three in the morning, and drove to my unit. And I spent that entire morning, probably four hours, glassing. It was really good in that I saw, I think I saw 13 bucks that morning ⁓ from a gl from one single glassing point, which is really cool to see. I did not see anything that really tripped my trigger that I thought was gonna be anything bigger than maybe You know, like one sixty, one seventy class. ⁓ still holding out hope that I'll find something, you know, that really gets me excited and and gets me going. And I think I will. I've got a few more weekends left before that hunt starts and I've got plans to be out, you know, Friday, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday of at least several of those weekends. So I'm really hoping to find something, but it was really fun to see some some bucks. ⁓ I had somebody ask me, does it does it feel like a good growth here? ⁓ so based on what I saw, ⁓ I would say it's probably pretty average. I didn't see anything that looked like it was above and beyond phenomenal. ⁓ it does feel like a lot of the bucks that I saw were perhaps further along in their development than what I would have thought. And I think that might be just because maybe maybe it was an a year where they they shed earlier, and that might have to do with body condition. Maybe they just weren't in as good, you know, good condition. And maybe that ⁓ you know that layer. between the ⁓ pedicle and and the base of their antler kind of deteriorated and shed off earlier. I don't know. That's just speculation. Does seem like they're ahead of schedule in my opinion. So I don't know that it's like really a great growth year other than it seems like maybe a bunch of those bucks shed early and put a lot of their growth on early. That might be a good thing because you know if they did some growing maybe during those winter months, even though they were dry, maybe the vegetation was a little bit better. ⁓ the mountain was extremely dry. I mean like bone dry. ⁓ I think I checked six different water sources throughout that entire day after I'd I'd done my glassing in the morning. ⁓ did some glassing at night, saw some other bugs, but I did check a bunch of water sources and few of those that I had checked in previous years that had water in them were dry, one of them being a guzzler, ⁓ which is a you know a water catchment for wildlife and That was bone dry, which it had water in it last year, which was also not the you know, the best water year for us. But that was a little bit depressing to see. It does feel like there's not as much water on the landscape. I also thought it was interesting. I saw some elk, so I saw some cows and calves. They weren't that far from a water source, so I know that they're probably camped out on it. ⁓ I also saw some bulls as I was you know, covering country and they were out low. I mean, like out in people's agricultural fields. And, you know, it's not uncommon because elk love ag. I get that. Deer love agriculture because there's, you know, alfalfa and there's good growth there to eat. But unusual, I felt like this time of year. Usually those elk and those deer up in elevation, you know, they're chasing that green up at the highest. And, you know, they got cool temperatures up there. But I was a little surprised to see ⁓ and I gotta think that it's probably largely due to, you know, water being in the river. So I think I think water's gonna be critical. So if we don't get any, you know, monsoon rains, I'm really hoping those kick in. I keep hearing that it's ⁓ El Nino year and that we're gonna have a great July and and August and it's gonna be wet. But if we don't get those, if those don't really come through and start to fill up some of these water sources, ⁓ I think your your deer and elk are gonna be a lot more dependent on on water sources. I don't think there's as much water in the vegetation. There just isn't as much growth. A lot of those grasses are kind of starting to cure out already, especially at those like mid elevations and the lower stuff for sure. ⁓ even up at ⁓ higher elevations, it felt like that stuff was starting to dry out and cure a little bit. So I think I think water is gonna be real critical. So I think if you got a tag in your pocket, you're out doing some scouting, especially right now, between now and August, ⁓ I would say, you know, figure out where you're your water sources are where those annual water sources that are there consistently, those seeps, those springs, those ponds, whatever it might be that are gonna hold water, I would I would probably give those a hard look and I would figure out the areas in close proximity to those. That's kind of my plan. But ⁓ yeah, just kind of a scattering report. ⁓ I did see a lot of different trail cameras out on the landscape. ⁓ I put one out myself. hopefully you know, something pops up on it. It wasn't an area where I suspected I might get something based on, you know, the year last year, but we'll see. I gotta run over and and get that. I'll probably put a couple more up and then ultimately I've got to have them out by ⁓ August 31st here in Utah. So that ⁓ or July thirty first, I should say. August first, I gotta have those cameras off. ⁓ don't want to mis misspeak. ⁓ I gotta get those cameras out. so yeah, good good weekend, good scouting trip. Good first ⁓ first go at it and ⁓ the ⁓ the grind continues. ⁓ I think I was telling Brady when I got back, I love mule deer. I love mule deer hunting. But I think the thing I love about it really is when it comes together. It's like that ⁓ that satisfaction that you feel when you know you've done something because it is so it's so hard. Most of those hunts are not fun, in my opinion. Especially if you're looking for a big buck. It just feels like they're so hard to find. And then when you do find them, you know, maybe they they don't appear all that often. And you think about the actual number of stocks that you might get on a target buck, pretty low. And as I was glassing the other day and talking to Brady, I was telling him, Man, I'm kind of gearing up mentally for what's probably gonna pretty be it's gonna be kind of a grind, to be honest. I think there's so many days when you're gonna glass you know, six or eight hours a day, and you're not gonna get a stock. You're basically gonna go from your tent to your glassing points. You're gonna cover that country. Hopefully you see him. Hopefully he puts himself in a position that you can execute a s a stock. and, you know, actually, you know, maybe get close, but those those opportunities are just rare. They don't come up all that often. So you're gonna hunt your your absolute tail off. For maybe a few stocks over a 10 or 15 day hunt. And then, you know, you hope you do everything right and it works out and you get a shot and you actually get that buck killed. And then, you know, the feeling that follows is the best feeling in the world. You know, don't get me wrong. But man, mule deer hunting for big buck is hard, which is, I guess, what makes it so great when it works out. But ⁓ just kind of a a catch up. ⁓ okay, moving in. Let's let's talk meat and potatoes of the podcast. So ⁓ shooting angles uphill and downhill. ⁓ other than maybe shooting a pronghorn buck out of a blind, ⁓ I can't really remember having taken a shot on an animal where I was not shooting uphill or downhill. ⁓ one of the more memo memorable shots that I remember was a couple years ago. I shot my biggest buck with my bow. And he's about he's about 206. I'm sitting here looking at him. He's got a little kicker off the one side. ⁓ but I watched that buck ⁓ one night and he was with the smaller buck. I watched him all the way till dark. And then the next morning I went right back to that glassing point. I picked him up first thing in the morning. He was all by himself. I watched him kind of work along the face of this ⁓ you know big slope, and then he worked up and underneath these ledges. And he went over and he kind of bedded down and I watched him for probably another, you know, 35-40 minutes, and he got up again, fed for probably another 45 minutes to an hour and then worked his way back towards his original bed. He didn't bed in the exact same bed, but he bedded, you know, within probably 15 yards of it. And he ended up bedding underneath this big dead, you know, standing dug fur, which was great because it was it was a landmark that you could pick out. ⁓ you could, it was consistent. Like I could make my ⁓ my stalk over there and I could keep that ⁓ big dead tree ⁓ in the field of view for a lot of it. And ⁓ you know, the first part of that stock I would say I ran most of it. ⁓ you know, light jog. I made made hay where the when the sun was shining, ⁓ covered as much ground as I possibly could where I was out of sight. And then when I I got within proximity, I really slowed down and took my time and I came in above him and I kind of ⁓ you know, I crept down through the ledges, kind of snuck my way along. down above him and I could see the top end of this big dead tree that he was bedded underneath. And I got to a ledge that was maybe, you know, three or four feet wide. And I kinda edged over and I looked down and I could just see his big right side and I could see his body. He was bedded there right below me. And ⁓ you know, after I kind of got my heart rate down a little bit, I grabbed my rangefinder, I leaned over and I ranged him. And I don't know if this is exact, but this what's This is what sticks out at me. I remember it being like 37 yards line of sight. And I remember with the angle compensation, it was about 26 yards. So that 26 yards is what I remember aiming for when I actually executed the shot. And the arrow, ⁓ I waited for him to stand. The arrow entered ⁓ just, you know, maybe just an inch or two ⁓ below his back strap on the one side, and it exited kind of in his armpit on the other side, and I've got some video somewhere on my phone. How to see if I can find it. But basically it's you know, some video of the arrow ⁓ in the dirt, like pegged in the dirt ⁓ on the other side after it blown through him. And after ⁓ it hit him, he just jumped out of his bed. I mean, exploded out of his bed. He took off, he was standing, but he just jumped, exploded down the hill. He probably jumped. It felt like you know, fifteen, twenty feet down the hill and he went down through a little patch of trees and kind of rounded the edge of the next slope and and tipped over dead and I ended up finding him. But ⁓ you know, that that is probably the ⁓ the best example that I can remember from hunting where I had to be like really dialed in on shooting downhill, such a steep angle. ⁓ I don't know what the angle was, but I would bet it was probably forty five, fifty degrees maybe. ⁓ you know, it was like I remember it being like a eight, nine yard cut from actual line of sight with the compensation, steep downhill shot. And ⁓ you know, I'm really grateful, looking back on it, that I'd I'd done my homework and that I had my equipment set up in a way and I'd shot some practice arrows over the summer where you know I felt confident in making that shot. And, you know, the the outcome was ⁓ was perfect. It was perfect. And, you know, I got a A great buck that I can sit here and look at and a lot of good memories and and fun stories to tell. But that was ⁓ that was my example. And and so, you know, you you really do have to have your equipment set up and you know, maybe there's some tips and tricks that I can offer that I've learned over the last week or so on, you know, shooting uphill and downhill. ⁓ so the first thing I want to really talk about was leveling your site because there's so much of shooting uphill and downhill. that has to do with having your site set up where it's leveled out. so I'm gonna talk later on I'll talk about you know, kind of the, you know, the tips, like I said, like ⁓ your stance. you know, it'll be interesting to kind of run through that. Sorry, I'm getting some text messages. I think Troy from Over to SIG is messaging me. He's just distracting me out of my left eye. ⁓ So let's let's talk about accesses. Let's talk about levels, right? So most modern ⁓ bow sites, and I've got one right here, ⁓ have got a first, a second, and a third access level. So to define those, that's probably a great starting point, is to define what those levels are. So your first access is leveling out this site ⁓ rail. So this is what I'm gonna call a site rail. So the rail is actually Kind of the geared ⁓ portion of your site, which your slider site, your housing moves up and down on, right? So as you're dialing, that is moving up and down the sight rail. ⁓ then you've got the sight bar, which is the actual piece of the site that attaches to your bow. If you're shooting at Matthews, you're gonna slide that through the riser, that bridge lock. So that's your sight bar, and then you've got your sight rail. So your first access. Axis is leveling your sight bar with the sight rail. So you want both of those sitting perfectly vertical, like in relation to each other, right? You want those perfectly vertical and leveled out. So in order to do that, what you would do, and you can do it before you put your bow on your your site on your bow, or you can do it once you've put it in, you know, in your bow and you can level out your bow and then you know level your access to that, your first access to that. But You can also do it just before you even bolt it to your bow because this site bar is going to sit flush or level in your bow to your bow. So basically, what you do, you take a level, you put it on the site bar, level that out. Then you would take another level and level your site rail right here, and you would level that to your site bar. You want both of those perfectly level with the bubble sitting in the middle. ⁓ you know, these little Hamski third axis leveling tools. They're really handy for leveling out your site because you can put that directly onto your site rail here and you can level that to your site bar. So that's your first axis. ⁓ leveling your bar to your rail. That's your first axis. ⁓ if you have to make adjustments to that, you've got these set screws that go from your site bar to your site rail. And if you loosen those two, you've got a little bit of play where you can twist this rail kind of back and forth. And you can get those two leveled out and tighten those two screws in. ⁓ you know, just take your time, get them precisely, and get those two leveled out to each other. ⁓ so that's how you're going to level your first axis. Your second axis is going to be the actual level in your bubble. And you would level that out perpendicular or horizontal to your sight rail and your sight bar. So what you would do. ⁓ you got your bow, you can you can put it in a bow vise, which makes the best sense. ⁓ you can even do it. I've I've taken stabilizers and stuck them like in a crack of a couch and leveled it up to where it was sitting perfectly level, ⁓ you know, with the the riser. And then I've double checked the sight rail, make sure it's still level, which is your first access. And then I'm looking at the bubble in my housing to see if it's level. And if that's not level, you can tilt. your site housing either up or down, ⁓ you know, kind of perpendicular, if you will, and not horizontal plane ⁓ to your first axis. And basically what you would do is you would make that adjustment to your second axis and you would get it to where the bubble is dead level. So ideally when you've got your first and your second axis on your site leveled out, you're gonna have your site bar, your site rail, And your housing all with the bubble sitting directly in the middle. it helps if you're working on your own equipment to have some level sitting around. ⁓ and I'm an advocate, I like that little third access tool from Hamski, works really nice. If you got one of those, if you got the bubble in your site housing, and then you've got another one that you can put on the site bar or you know the riser of your bow, ⁓ you've got a triple check there. You can just make sure that all three of those are leveled. So that's your second axis. So ideally when you're setting up your site, you set up your first axis, level that, you set up your second axis, which is the bubble in your housing, level that, and then you would move on to your third axis. Now your third axis is critical, full critical when you're shooting uphill and downhill. ⁓ it's it's the thing where you've got to have that in the middle. And when you execute a shot, you're gonna make sure that your bubble is in the level. You wanna check it. And then you know you're gonna aim and you're gonna execute a shot. And if if that is set up correctly, you're gonna hit behind the pin. If it's set up incorrectly, that bubble, as you level it, it's essentially lying to you. And you would be canting your bow either one way or the other. And as you shoot, that arrow is going to drift to the left or to the right, depending on you know which direction your your bubble is lying to you. So it's really important that you have your third axis set, especially for shooting uphill and downhill angles. So when you're at home, ⁓ I'm gonna talk a little bit about shooting your third axis in, but but when you're home, there's a pretty simple check that you can do to work on your third axis. So what I've done in the past is I level my first axis, level my second axis, then I'm gonna move to my third. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take a vertical line. So like a door jam works pretty good because it's vertical. You can Double check it with a long level, just throw it up against your door jam and see if it's straight up and down. ⁓ another great way to do it is to take a weight and hang it from a rope or you know, like a plumb bob if you got one sitting around, hang that from a beam or you know, hang it from your ceiling. You get a nice vertical line straight up and down. What you're gonna do is you're gonna come to full draw, and your third axis has to be leveled at at full draw, because as you come to full draw, you've got your grip. ⁓ you've got the torque and the risers, you come to full draw. You want to level that third access at full draw. So come to full draw, line up your pins. So like me, I'm shooting a five pin side if you can see it right here. I'm gonna line up that row of pins with my vertical line, like my plumb bob or my door jam. And I'm going to aim downhill at as steep of an angle as I possibly can. So I'm going to rotate over my hips or whatever. And I'm going to aim downhill at that vertical line is my reference. I'm going to keep my pins in alignment and I'm going to watch my bubble. And if my bubble drifts out to the left or to the right, I know I've got an issue with my third axis. And your third axis, it works like a ⁓ like a door hinge, if you will. So I For those of you that might be watching the video, you can see I've got my my sight right here. It works like a hinge on a door, either swinging inward or outward away from me. So that's your third axis, swinging inward or outward, right? So as you do this exercise, you're aiming downhill in your house and you got your pins lined up with this vertical line. If that bubble is moving one way or the other, you need to either swing that in or move that housing out away from you. So make those adjustments. Check it as you go, you know, go slow. And it it might just be like real minute movements. I mean, just micro adjustments, tighten things in, recheck it. Once you get that to where that bubble stays in the middle as you're aiming downhill and you're maintaining your references, that bubble stays right in the middle. ⁓ I like to go back and double check it by doing the same thing by aiming uphill. So I'll get down on my knees. Come to fold draw, I'll line my pins up with my vertical reference. I will aim uphill as steep of an angle as I can, keeping that alignment with the pins. And ⁓ I'll check to see where my bubble lands. And ideally, your bubble is gonna sit middle, whether you're aiming uphill or downhill. And that's a great way to kind of a starting point, I would say. It's a good reference, and it's gonna get you most of the way there with your third axis leveling. And that's something that you can do in home. ⁓ I think when you're setting up a new site, that's a great thing to do. Just level the thing out first, second, and third. hopefully that kind of lined it out in layman's terms. That's understandable. If you got questions, you can certainly reach out and ask me. I think additionally, besides the old plumb bob or the door jam method for leveling your third access, ⁓ I think you should shoot your third access in. Because nothing gives you the confidence that you really need to go into the field and shoot an arrow at an animal, like actually shooting in your third axis. So, in order to do that, ⁓ I would suggest you go out to your local range and you shoot as steep an angle and as far as you're capable of. ⁓ the steeper the slope, the longer the distance, the more critical your third axis becomes. So as you do that, shooting uphill or downhill, ⁓ you know, ideally I just like to shoot, start out shooting downhill because it feels like it's at least for me, it's a little bit easier to make a good shot, I think, downhill. ⁓ I'll talk about that here in a second. But I start out shooting downhill, again, steep and as far as you can get, because that it's really going to tell you how precise your your third axis is is set. ⁓ So, as you're doing that, let's say you're a right-handed shooter, you're shooting downhill, steep angle, shooting far. If your impact points are moving out to the right, what you would want to do is swing that housing in toward you. So your that hinge, that third axis, you would want to swing that in. So again, if you're hitting right as a right handed shooter, you want to swing that in towards you. If you're hitting left, you want to swing that out. Away from you. Okay. And well, I'm not left-handed, but I'm told it's opposite for a left-hander. Now, when I say that, ⁓ this is where I came into a bunch of conflicting information that I found on the internet, and I spent the larger part of a day reading tons of threads, watching lots of videos, and ⁓ some people say the exact opposite. So there's a video online, and I would assume that it's probably been reference because it was done by an inv individual that's is about as good as it gets in archery. ⁓ what I kind of determined is I think he misspoke. I I think he said the opposite and I think he misspoke. ⁓ some other references that ⁓ I listened to Dan McCarthy was one that suggested the same thing I just told you. ⁓ Randy Ulmer also wrote an article He's suggesting the same thing I told you, which is that if you're hitting to the right as a right-handed shooter, you're gonna swing that hinge closer to you. If you're missing to the left, swing that back to the left, out away from you. ⁓ but yeah, I read a lot. I read so many forums, and you know, you got to go back and forth in between. And then ideally, you just gotta go out and do it yourself, right? And and proof it, prove it to yourself. So that's a fix for you. And again, here's the thing: if you go out there, And you make those adjustments to your third axis and it's not giving you the results that you want. You can see that arrow moving further away. Do the opposite. ⁓ but but at least for now, you know, I think that's a good starting point and hopefully it helps somebody else ⁓ out. ⁓ after I've done mine, I've I've leveled it out. And a a good way to do this is you know, you can you can shoot downhill. It's a great option to put like a target in the middle of a slope and you know, hike down, shoot your arrows, pull your arrows, hike downhill, shoot up on it. That's a good option. ⁓ you know, my local range, what I'll do often is I will set my third axis shooting downhill. I'll get that to where it's hitting the groups are all hitting middle as I'm shooting downhill. And then, you know, I'll find a target or I'll pack my block target up to a top of a you know, top of a ridge and I will do the exact same thing and I'll repeat the process shooting uphill. And You know, when you get that third axis set dead nuts where it needs to be, you're gonna hit be hitting behind the pin whether you're shooting uphill or downhill. And this is a it's a worthwhile exercise to do. ⁓ you know, I talked a little bit earlier about how hard it is to get a shot at a big mule deer buck. ⁓ you don't want to get into that moment and then miss the shot of a lifetime just because you didn't take the necessary steps to level out your site. So that's kind of a run through on site leveling. ⁓ before I move on to some other things, I actually did think it was interesting. I wanted to talk a little bit about ⁓ another way that ⁓ I picked up on recently. So Paige Pierce, she's been talking about it. And this is an interesting method that I haven't really I haven't tried yet, but it makes good sense to me. So I titled it in the article, There might be more with more than one way to skin a cat. So Paige makes the argument. And I think it makes a lot of sense that your second access is critical. Your first access, as long as it's slaved to your second access, as long as those are married together, ⁓ is less critical, and that you can actually move your first access into a position that is still making your second access level, but is Is ⁓ accounting for your form. everyone has a natural position, right? So everybody has a position where they draw the bow back ⁓ and where that wants to settle at full draw with your grip and your form, right? ⁓ everybody kind of has that. ⁓ And there's a of people, myself included. I sat my side up to where it's level before I ever, you know, really go out and start shooting it, right? My first and second, and ⁓ You know, I might find out that when I get out there and I start shooting, it's like to in order to get my bubble to level out, it feels like I have to fight my bubble a little bit. Like I have to adjust my form, right? Or I have to adjust my stabilizers in order to get my ⁓ bubble to level out. She makes the argument that you shouldn't be adjusting your form from like the most comfortable, stable platform that you have to fight your bubble, to get your bubble level, right? What what she's saying is that. You should be able to adjust your first access to accommodate your form and and the way you grip the bow and make it work for you. And I think this is a really it's a really interesting idea and it's something that like I want to try. ⁓ so in order to do that, the way I understand it is that you would start with your second axis. So we you would level your second access, and after you do that. You would get into the bow, come to full draw, find your form, find that most comfortable, you know, form, open your eyes, and then look at your bubble. And if your bubble is not level, at that point, what you could do is you could make an adjustment to your first axis. So you could change this angle of the sight bar to the sight rail in order to get your bubble back level. And I don't know as I'm talking this through. I don't know if it's going to make sense to everybody. To me, it does, and I hope that it does to you. But in essence, what she's saying, set your second axis first. Get into the bow. Get comfortable with it. Come to full draw. Get super stable. Feel fill your form. Just feel super cozy and comfortable. Your best aim. You got your bars in the position where that bowl holds the very best. Then check your level. Is it level? If it's not. Don't make changes to your second access. Make changes to your first axis. Make this tilt on your site bar or your site rail to get your bubble level. Hopefully that makes sense. If it doesn't, you can read the article, you can go back and listen to it. But I think this is a really cool idea because what I think it does is it allows you to have the best form, the most comfortable form. It allows you to not fight your bubble anymore where that bow naturally wants to sit for you, but still use your equipment to adjust it to where it is level. So ⁓ give that a go. And then your third axis, if you if you follow that method, you would adjust your third ax axis the exact same way. ⁓ that's what I one I want to try. I think I'm gonna try it. I might try it this weekend if I got a moment, but ⁓ give that a go. Hopefully it made sense. ⁓ I'm gonna I'm gonna move down and talk about a couple other things. So form. this is like something that jumped out at me when I talked to George. So George, ⁓ when I talked to him about shooting uphill and downhill, ⁓ The old adage, like everybody always says, you know, if you're shooting uphill or you're shooting downhill, what you want to do is you want to come to full draw and you wanna get that perfect T formation, and then you wanna bend over at the waist, either up or down, and then you wanna follow it down or follow it up and find your intended point of impact and execute your shot. And that's been the advice that everybody's ever given me about shooting uphill or downhill. I'm sure that I've I've handed that same advice over. You know, a bunch of different times. The problem is, is it doesn't always work. And I noticed the other day as I was shooting, I'm like, you know, if I'm shooting downhill, that seems easy enough because I can draw level, I can kind of rotate over at the waist and I can come down onto my intended point of impact and I can aim and let my pen flow and execute a shot. That feels pretty comfortable. But when I'm shooting uphill, it doesn't really work that way, right? Because I'm going to draw. Below my target, which is foreign to me. That's not how I execute a shot. I almost always come to full draw slightly above my target, let my pin settle down onto my point of impact, you know, pull into the shot, relax, execute a shot, right? Well, if I do that on an uphill, I can't really follow that same pattern. Like I can't follow the same process because I'm drawing level, then I'm trying to tilt back. Trying to lean back at the waist and I'm trying to get my pen to hold up onto the dot and I'm trying to execute a shot, it just does not feel as stable. So I was thinking the other day about George and what he told me, and basically he said what he suggests is that you set your angle of your shoulders to your target, whether you're shooting uphill or downhill. And as he said that, and as I was shooting the other day, it made total it makes total sense to me, right? So if I'm shooting uphill. I'm gonna set my shoulders uphill. I'm gonna set the angle of that uphill. And he also suggested you you should widen your stance out. Like to if you're shooting uphill or downhill, you know, get a base that helps you accommodate being able to align your shoulders uphill or downhill to your target. Get a wider base if you need it. And since I've been doing that, ⁓ it's helped out so much. It feels like I can. Hold steadier, it feels like it allows me to maintain you know, the same pattern of aiming where I'm able to put ⁓ my pin above slightly above my in point, my my intended point of impact and let my pin settle down onto it. That's if I'm shooting uphill or downhill. And that has helped so much. so I would say try that. Like if you're struggling on those uphill shots. ⁓ try that. Try widening your base. Try drawing with your shoulders parallel to the angle that your intended point of impact is. And I think it'll help you out a ton. I know it certainly has has me. It's just funny. It's like one of those things where somebody tells you something, makes sense, I guess, logically, and it just reverberates through everybody. Everybody's it everybody repeats it. Everybody does it the exact same way. Even though, you know, in every situation it may not work. And it just hasn't really ever worked for me, especially shooting uphill. So I would say give that a go. okay, there's one more thing I wanted to talk about. ⁓ so range finders. So pretty much every range finder now has an angle compensation where if you're shooting uphill or downhill, a rangefinder is going to give you probably it's gonna give you the true line of sight, it's probably gonna give you the ⁓ yardage that is compensated with the algorithm built within that range finder. Which is the actual range that you should aim for with your pin and execute a shot. And then a lot of range finders actually give you the angle, right? So back in the day, ⁓ what you would have to do is if you're shooting uphill or downhill, you would have to know the true line of sight distance. You would have to have an inclinometer. So you would have to know the actual angle. And then you'd have to do the math, right? Figure out what is the horizontal distance that I should actually aim for. And then that would help me you know, know what pin I should use. ⁓ so with the advancement of these modern rangefinders, it'll do most of that for you. I would say, except for in like really extreme situations where you're aiming uphill or downhill at a steep angle at a far distance, for the most part, your rangefinders are going to do that math for you. And it's pretty accurate. Accurate enough that you're going to be able to ⁓ execute a shot in the field and kill the animal for in most cases. ⁓ Most range finders have it. I would say, you know, if you're looking to get a new range finder, ⁓ I would suggest ⁓ you know, the sig. So the sig kilo range finders work great for that. You can actually put those in bow mode, which allows you to input the feet per second that your bow is shooting in into that. And then they have ⁓ you know, an algorithm built into their range finder where it's going to give you the adjusted range that you should aim for. ⁓ You the Lua pulled full draw five, I think, is probably the the best as far as you know doing that. ⁓ it'll also do that. Another cool thing about that rangefinder is it'll give you like the maximum height of your arrow. So it'll it'll give you the ability to kind of evaluate, you know, if an overhanging tree or or bush or something is gonna impact your arrow as you shoot. But both of those will do it. ⁓ in the past, I've always I've really liked Leica products. I've used Leica products. ⁓ the little Leica Range Master has been great, but I did miss a bull one time because the angle compensation you would range and you would it would give you the true range and then you would have to wait like a half a second and that would give you the adjusted range for shooting uphill or downhill. And ⁓ the heat of the moment, I just took a range. I didn't wait. I didn't remember that I needed to wait for that adjusted range, and I just aimed for my first range and I shot over the top of this this bull in Arizona. ⁓ but it will do it. I don't know that they've adjusted that as of ⁓ yet it used to be that there was that lag in it. I would hope that they've addressed that. But ⁓ most rangefinders now, you know, Vortex, those will all give you angle compensation. ⁓ and I I I would suggest like if you're a bow hunter, you want to bow hunt, ⁓ get get a range finder that'll do angle compensation. I would say it's paramount that you do so. Above and beyond that, so you're going to have possibly shot situations where these Algorithms, these formulas that are built into these range finders won't account because the angle's too steep, the distance is too far. Like they might not be exactly perfect. and there's a there's a really cool program. So you've heard me talk about precision cut archery before in the past. ⁓ Tristan over at Precision Cut, he's got this site built out where you can input all the different specs of your bow. ⁓ you know the distance of your peep to your pin, the height of your peep from the center of your arrow, your foot per second, you know, of your of your bow. And if you can do that a couple of different distances, it gives you even better sight tape. ⁓ you can put in the density, the altitude, ⁓ altitude density, I should say, of of your, your area where you're either sighting in or where you're gonna end up hunting. And ⁓ it's gonna help you develop a perfect sight tape for your setup. ⁓ which is really cool. It's cool that you can build this sight tape for, you know, where I'm siting my bow in here in Cedar City at 5,700 feet, or I can build one that goes up to, you know, 11,000 foot where I might be hunting deer. really, really cool program. But above and beyond that, beyond printing site tapes, if you visit your account when you sign up for a subscription, he has cut charts. So you can look at cut charts. And he also has an app on that you can download onto your phone and it has cut charts built into that. So once you have all your specifications entered into his program, you can look at the cut charts. And your cut charts are awesome because you can look at the degree of the slope, you can look at the yardage, and it's gonna give you the exact distance that you should aim for. So when you're out in the field, and I, you know, when when I talked to Trist and I had him on my podcast, I was trying to think through, you know, like the app or like a cut chart, like when when would this be applicable? I could foresee situations where I was hunting mule deer, like I was that year, two years ago. And I had probably twenty five or thirty minutes before that but buck stood up and and ⁓ you know, gave me a shot opportunity. ⁓ I had that time frame where I could have ranged that buck. I could have acquired the angle of the shot, the true line of sight, and I could have looked at a cut chart on my phone and I could have compared that with the ⁓ calculated range that my range finder was just would was giving me. Like that's just an added step that I had the time to do in that situation where it would have given me even more confidence to execute that shot. ⁓ guys that are going on adventure hunts, like if you're going to New Zealand to hunt tar, I mean we were hunting some incredibly steep country. ⁓ you know, those cut charts on that app could have come in handy. I could have seen a situation where that really would have helped me. It might have helped me, who knows? ⁓ you know, you're hunting mountain goat you're hunting sheep, those cut charts and you know, a cut chart, you can build yourself a cut chart, you can keep that with you, you know, and a piece of laminated paper. You can print that off. With ⁓ you know, degrees uphill and downhill in five degree increments with the distance for your setup. You can keep that with you. And if you had a 10 minutes, you know, 35, 40 minutes, whatever it might be, when you're waiting for an animal to stand up and execute a shot, that's a great secondary check against your angle compensation in your range finder that's just going to give you that much more added confidence to execute that shot. So I wanted to talk about that. I think that's another tool that. I'm going to add to ⁓ you know, my my tool belt ⁓ to just make me that much more confident in the field. And like I said, I don't know if it's gonna work for every single shot situation. You may not have the time. You might just have to go with your angle compensation range compensated range in your range finder, but pretty cool that you can do that now. so with that, I think that kind of covers everything I wanted to talk about and that I learned. again, make sure that your site's leveled out. First, second, and third access, shoot your third access in. I think it's interesting if you want to explore setting up your levels the way Paige suggested, where you find your best form, the most stable platform, set your second access and then use your first access to level that to your, you know, your form. ⁓ I think that's super interesting to explore. I would like to do it, like I said, maybe this week. ⁓ make sure it's leveled. Make sure that you shoot it in. ⁓ You know, adjust your stance, level your shoulders to your target on the angle, and I think you'd be a lot more comfortable shooting that way. That's something I've been working on. And then lastly, I think a cut chart is a great thing to have. You never know when, you know, your batteries are gonna bite the dust in your range finder. And you might be able to guesstimate the line of sight range. But if you had a cut chart and kind of had an idea of the angle, you might be able to to figure that out. So ⁓ those are some tips and tricks that I picked up this week. Like I said, there's an article that you can read on our Go Hunt website. ⁓ hopefully you found it interesting. ⁓ inevitably when I do one of these solo and I get rambling and I get going off, it feels like I misspeak. I might also explain things in a way that don't quite track in the best way. ⁓ if that's the case, you can certainly reach out to me. But ⁓ that's the episode for the week. ⁓ man, we are getting down. We're we're getting down into like crunch time to where, you know, it's gonna be go time and You don't want to get into ⁓ that moment of truth and be questioning your equipment and your ability to make a shot. So now's the time to do it. ⁓ so that's the episode for the week. ⁓ I'll be back next week with another one.