00:00:02 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your home for deer hunting news, stories and strategies, and now your host, Mark Kenyon. Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Kenyan, and this is episode number four oh six, and today I'm joined by d i Y public Land bow hunting guru Tony Peterson to explore ten different offseason tasks that can help you on your path to your best season ever. All right, welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, brought to you by Onyx. And today it is February something, early February two one, and uh, you know, we're smack dab in the midst of the off season for most deer hunters across country. I know there's a few exceptions, but a lot of us were we're getting into the heart of the off season. And what I wanted to do today was talk through some ways we can make the best of that time. I know that there's there's kind of two ways to think about the off season. I think within the white tail world, there's there's one group who look at the off season as a total flip off the switch and they're going off and doing other things completely and then a week before hunting season, they start thinking about deer again or the week before, you know, opening day gun season. Um, that's how I grew up actually. But then there's this other half, or maybe more than half or less than half, I don't know what the number is, but there's some other portion who is thinking about deer three sixty five days a year, and they're constantly thinking about these things. So what I want to do is kind of address focus on on either side of that spectrum and share some ideas for ways that we can all add a little bit more into our off season to do list to take our hunting journey to the next level. For two. So I'm here with my buddy Tony Peterson. Uh, Tony, I think you're with me on this that that well, I don't. I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I have this constant back and forth with the off season. We're part of the time, I'm like, I just want to shut down, I just want to step away from it. And then I've got this other half of me that's saying, go, go go. There's so much you gotta get done. You need to be more prepared than ever this year. And I find myself being pulled between these two opposite voices on my shoulders. Do you ever find yourself in that situation too? Um, not as much as I used to, buddy, like I I still do, but I find myself you know, we're we're stuck in this just arctic blast right now, and it's like the worst time of year, and I just find myself missing being able to easily go out and do something dear related. So it's not you know, it's not for me. It's not necessarily stressed, like, oh, I'm not getting enough done before next season. Is just the overall anxiety of not doing anything, and I just want to be out there more. I hear you this, So I gotta tell you two stories that related to that. Number One. So that arctic blast you mentioned that's hitting us here in Michigan right now too. There's a zero degree wind chill at the moment. And I live in this old, kind of crappy farmhouse, and my my podcast editor, the guy that edits our podcast, he keeps complaining about the fact that there's some humming noise in my office when I record every once in a while, and so he's sending me like threatening emails and tell him he doesn't like me anymore and all this stuff. So finally I said, okay, fine, it's probably the heating. You know, vent turning on and off every once in a while, so I told him I would turn it off. So I've turned off the heat in our house, Tony, And I'm wearing two jackets, a puffy vest, and a hat to record this because I know it's going to be freezing any minute now. The wind blowing in our old, cruddy farmhouse leaking a little bit of heat I have. So that's that story number one. And Heyden, I know you're listening, so I hope you're happy. And and then number two, speaking of not being able to get out and do stuff, Uh, I'm so desperate to get out and do things right now. And so just I don't know, stir crazy with just everything going on, just you know, stuff being shut down still, and in the lousy weather that last night, I got done work in and we put the kids to bed and kind of just had everything settled for the evening and it's eight o'clock or something like that, and I was gonna go get milk. We're out of milk, and the snowstorm was hitting, so like there's like forty our winds and we're gonna get five or six inches of snow and this is all hitting. And I mentioned my wife. I'm like, I think I'm gonna go get milk, and she's like, really in this weather right now? And I tell her, yeah, it'll be. It'll be the I need an adventure. I need I need a reason to get the house. So I'm gonna go drive through the snow and get milk, now, was my big HERRG. She's like, that's not an adventure. If you really want to make an adventurous you should hike there. And she was saying that kiddingly, but when she said that, I was like, you're so right. So I at like eight thirty last night, I loaded up a forty pound backpack and put on winter closed and hiked a mile and a half to the closest gas station to pick up milk in the snowstorm and all the way back and it was so much fun. I was so out there, just like laughing at myself, thinking this is the life. I needed some reason to get out and do something stupid and enjoy the elements. And that was how far was that milk run. Mark just over a mile and a half there and mile a half back or just under mile and a half they're and back, so three like two miles and three quarters two. It was the best part of my week. I'm not kidding. That's I know. I say this to you every time we talk, but you know, people always ask me what what Mark Kenyon is and I'm just like, consistently, I'm like, he's just weird. It's just an odd duct. And I love hearing stories like that because people will go, yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, I can't. I have no rebuttal to that. I just am what I am telling. Yeah, that's the truth. That's too late for that. So uh so that's my winter state of mind at the moment. But um, but yeah, there there are plenty of things that we can be doing in the off season that are either important or just fun. Um, So I figured we could share some ideas today. I know that both you and I have done a lot of different things and a lot of different situations throughout the years too, you know, to help better prepare ourselves for hunting season or or recharge ourselves leaving into the hunting season. And I thought we could just go back and forth and explore some of these ideas, try to think through some things that maybe aren't as obvious. Some of these things are, you know, relatively obvious. Some of these might be little bit different. Um, but give everybody a few things to think about over the next few weeks, the next few months, especially this time of year. I don't know if I don't know if this is the same for you, but I'm not a big ice fisher. Uh So this period here January February is is definitely my slowest point of the entire year. Um. You know, once we get into March, I'm shed hunting and scouting and the ones. It's April's turkey season, and then I start fishing a lot, May Jorn, July, and then August I feel like you're right back and into really really prepping for deer. Um. So this is that one part of the year where I get a little bit of that time to sit and plan and think, Okay, yeah, I want to do this and this and and literally write some stuff down. This is my time when I do those things. So I figured it might be a good idea to get some ideas and everybody's radar if they want to do that kind of planning to So, UM, I don't know. Does that sound a good plan to you? Sounds good to me? Man? Do you really tell your buddies that I'm just weird? Is that? Is that? Really? The only custom? Mind? Is that surprise you? It's just it's lingering. Man, it's gonna be with me overnight. Well, okay, let's let's go through. Let's have this, let's revisit this at the end of this conversation. Okay, maybe you can convince me otherwise, or maybe we'll get to the end. I'll like, oh no, yeah, you're right, that's that's absolutely right. So all right, So here's what I want to do. I want to if we don't get totally sidetracked, I want to just go back and forth. I'm gonna lay out I know we we I brought to the table five different ideas, and I know you've got five ideas. So I figured I'll kick it off, kick us off of one, and then we can kind of talk it through. Um explores some ideas and then I'll pitch it to you and you can share yours and we'll just kind of bounce back and forth like that and see what it takes us. So my first off season idea for folks, My challenge for folks, and this is a challenge for myself as much as is for anybody else to is to do It's got a two part I'm cheating here, but it's to do two things. Number One, I would challenge myself and everybody to get permission on at least one more property then you think you need. So it's it's not getting permission on new property, it's get more than you need. And then secondly, go out and scout a new piece of public land, even if you're not a public land hunter. So my my challenge is to pick up one more piece of permission than you actually think you need and go find a new piece of public land, even if you don't typically hunt. I say these these things because, at least in my experience, one of the biggest challenges I've faced over the years comes down to having the right spot. So often just having being in the right place, or having a different option, or having a plan B, C. D. Those things can make or break a hunt. And so often if you've got some kind of challenge, there's some kind of issue. The easy solution is to go to Plan C, or go to Plan D, or have these different options. But I've found myself some years, having been too lazy or whatever, had circumstances where i didn't have enough of those other options, and I've always regretted it. So my what I try to do a better job of every year is making sure that doesn't happen. Um. You know, there's so many things that can go wrong when it comes to permission access where these things are fleeting. You can have permission on something and then lose it just before the season, or you might have permission somewhere and then you know, in past years, it was just you and then all of a sudden, this year there's five other guys that want to hunt it um or you know, opening day or middle of the run, all of a sudden a logging crew comes through and starts cutting down everything. You just never know. So it's it's I would say, a smart thing to always have several backup options in your pocket because there's a lot of unexpected things that happen and then the same thing goes for having a public land spot. There's another another one of your options. If you if you already hunt public land all the time. Of course, you know you needed to do that. Um, add another piece of public land to your repertoire. UM. I remember you and I were talking a few months ago, Tony. Maybe this is a I don't know if this is a your podcast or this one, but we were just talking about, you know, how hunting pressure seemed particularly high on our public land hunts this past year, and you know, more than ever, it was important to have a bunch of options because there's there's a lot more people trying to do this kind of stuff. So it's a simple thing. It's something I think a lot of us know, but executing on it is a lot harder than knowing that you should do it. The biggest thing is is actually walking that walk. UM. So that's that's my high level suggestion. UM. I think we can walk through a couple of ideas about how to do that. But what do you think about that general idea? I think it's like crazy important for white tail hunters. I mean, if you you know, you mentioned this, but if you have a place you rely on that you don't own, then you're just one day closer to potentially losing it. And you know, maybe some people haven't gone through that. But if you go through that once where you're relying on a spot and it it changes hands or gets sold or something happens, it makes you realize how important this is. And so yeah, everybody should have their radar, keep looking, and you know your point with the public land thing, and you know whether you're you know, kind of like identify as a public land hunter or not. Man, you and I have talked about this before, but there are places I hunt where even though I have access to private ground, I'll choose public because it offers me more room to roam or I think I have a better chance to go have a good hunt or run into a big buck. It's it's kind of, uh, we've we've sort of done a disservice in the in the hunting space where we've we've made private land always seem like it's so much better and it's just so situational. And so if you're kind of on the fence about that and thinking I'm not gonna go walk public land in the off season when I've got a private land place to hunt, you don't know what you're gonna find, and you are going to give yourself options, Like you said, so I'm all for that advice. Man. Yeah, you know, another thing to add on to what you just said, Well, a lot of times if if you do rely on some private spots, maybe you do have a dynamite private farm or a couple options that you can hunt that are really great. Um, even if you have that, something we talk a lot about on this podcast is trying to be smart about when you hunt certain places. So you know, maybe you don't want to go and hunt your very best rut stand ten times in a row in early October, right, you need to be smart about hunting places at the right times of year and applying that pressure when it's you know, worth applying that pressure. And at the same time, though you don't you know, if let's say you've got you know, every weekend of the month of October hunt and that's something you really want to do. You don't want to not hunt even if conditions aren't right or even if it's too early to go to your best spots. So the way to solve for that isn't to overhunt your best spot in your private farm. It's to have public spots or have other options where you can still go out and have a good time. And maybe you will get into some great hunting. Maybe you'll discover, like you just described Tony, that this public spot is just as good or better than your private. UM. But take advantage of these opportunities to keep hunting, to keep being outside, to to spread your hunting pressure across multiple places, and that that makes there's two things where it increases your chances of success because you're out there more often, and then it also keeps the pressure on any one place lower. So each time you go back, it's it's still going to be relatively fresh, and you're gonna learn a whole lot along the way too. So it's just a no lose proposition as far as I'm concerned. The more spots you've scouted, the more properties you have access to, UM, it's only going to help. So this is something that I think every single hunter, no matter if you are a public savant or even if you own ground, I would challenge you to do this too. I mean, unless you have like two thousand acres and you never need to go beyond that. UM, most average people that own land maybe have a forty or an eighty. Even if you've got that situation, I'd still encourage you to try to add a couple more places. I just don't think it can hurt you. Um, yeah no. And I want to add on something there quick too. I keep hearing from these these guys out there who you know, they'll they'll kind of like dissect last season or the last couple of seasons, and you know, how many buck tags did I have, how may have I filled? How many encounters did I have? And they're there guys who are keeping a lot better records than I am. And the question that comes up a lot is I want I want to level up. I want to get better, but I feel like I've stalled out, and really not only is is hunting more ground. Even if you're going to public from private, it's there. There's some mystery there, there's some enjoyment for having to figure it out. But I firmly believe if you want to be a better overall hunter, you put yourself in new situations. And it's easy. You know when you're on when you're on the private ground you grew up on. That's fun and it's nice to walk out to the same stands, But you can also kind of get stuck in a rut and go okay, well, the winds out of the west, I sit the corner stand or you know whatever. But if you have to walk into these new areas, or you give yourself the opportunity to walk into a new place, it's a different kind of hunt and you can you can really level up doing that for yourself. Percent agree with that. That's that's this. I don't know if it's the right word for it, but if you're looking for a hack for getting better deer hunting, that's it right there. Just throw yourself in the new situations and you'll be forced to get better and to learn fast. Yea, um, real quick, before we move onto your thing, do you have any one tip for getting permission? If if someone's listening and thinking themselves, okay, I'm going to try to do that, get some more permission. Uh deal that marks ranting about here, any one quick piece of advice there? Well, you know, we we know how to find the public, so finding private is just tap, tap your resources, tap your network. I mean, my I have twin nine year olds and occasionally they'll talk about one of their classmates, who's who's got a little hobby farm or something around here, And you know, like the next question is they have any woods do they hunt? Like just you never know what you're gonna find. And I've I've gotten permission to hunt places so randomly throughout my life. I mean it doesn't happen often, but sometimes you just meet somebody at the gym or something and they've got you know, they live on a forty and they don't hunt. Um, they're just just be open, you know, real open to any of those those keywords you know that that might come up in conversation that might get you in the right path to some more permission. Yeah, I think that's a really good idea. The I'll add that that's always my option a what you just describe. But if all that fails and you're still looking, um and you have to start doing the cold knocking on doors trying to get permission kind of thing, that's you know, it's not easy, but it's certainly can and lead to access. I will just offer we could talk for a full hour about this one thing, but I'll just give you one piece of advice. When it comes to cold knocking on doors, it's a numbers game, So you have to go into it realizing that you're going to get a lot of nose. So if you're you know, if you start the day, just remember this, it's already a no on all the properties you're planning on knocking on, right It's a no right now. So the only thing that's going to happen from here on out as you ask people is you've got a chance for it to get better. You could get a yes. So remember that, and remember it's a numbers game, and that if you have to plan, at least the way I look at it, you've got to set yourself up to get that yes by going through a bunch of people. So I put together a list of I try to have at least ten places that I'm going to ask in a given day, so that you know I can have a chance. You know, there's a there's a ten percent chance that I'll get one yes out of those ten. And I do think that that very first place you knock on the door, that's the toughest, at least for me. I don't enjoy that kind of awkward interaction. I'm relatively a hermit, so I'm not naturally wanting to go and knock on a bunch of doors and talk to random people, So that takes me out of my comfort zone. But that first door, if I can get past that first door and have that conversation, oh it's not that bad. We should chat a little bit. They said no, but they nice people. The next one is a little bit easier, and the third one is easier in the fourth one, and by the time you get going, it's a piece of cake. Once you get to the end, because you're just rolling with it, you have momentum. There's that whole snowball effect. So so that's my suggestion is playing a whole list of properties, go through it all in one fell swoop. You'll feel a lot better as you get going and and a lot of times will end up with a yes or two. So um, that's that's my quick tip on permission. Solid solid. Okay, tell me what would uh what would your next idea be for the off season. So kind of just to play off of that permission thing, I mean, I realized, probably your audience here there's probably a way higher percentage of people who travel to hunt, and then maybe the general deer hunting population. But I'm you know, for my job, I'm always researching, you know, traveling haunts, over the road hunts. I know you are too, And I always encourage people even if they don't they're not really in the traveling lifestyle. They're not, you know, super geek, to go buy nonresident tag, do some offseason research on something. Just just think about, like where would I really like to hunt. Is that Iowa white tales or maybe I want to hunt Western river bottom white tails at some point and start doing the research on that. It'll it's kind of like that you just talked about, like knocking on that first story, when you start to just get the logistics down and you go even though I'm not planning on it, I know I could get a tag there, and I know the season dates run from here to here, and there's x amount of public land in the western half of the state. It starts to give you a little bit of confidence and you kind of have I call it like a back pocket hunt. Like there's there's states every year that I don't intend to go to, but I've I've spent some time this time a year researching them because once in a while I'll go out, you know, like Minnesota is a one buck state. I might I might kill a buck opening night. It happens pretty often for me or at least opening weekend. That's that's almost off the table after that. And so I might have gone into the season thinking, well, I've got three months here to hunt, and it's over in a day. And if you have some of this research done on a potential other state or other zone or region to hunt, you at least have that option to go. You know, I could fall back on that, maybe take a long weekend or look at the schedule and say, oh, the kids are on MBA over October or whatever, and and make something like that happen, or at least be a little bit closer to experiencing that. I like that, And you're you're kind of, even if you don't have to use it this year, you're kind of working that muscle. You're getting comfortable with figuring that kind of stuff out and doing that research. And and next year when you do need to actually follow through and something like that, you're you're halfway there already. Now, would you would you see just even going so far as as scouting or eat scouting and looking at pieces of ground on the maps and mark the spots and doing all that too, even if you're not planning on doing a trip like that. Yeah, And I suggest doing it in a way. You know, you and I have talked a million times about this, but I'm I. I start a lot of my EA scouting around water looking for water and or some you know something that you that's kind of in your wheelhouse, and that step you know when you know you can get the tag and you know the season's open these days, and you start looking and you pull up on xt and you're like, oh, this is there's two thousand acres of public land that's only four hours from my house and there's a nice river running through it and you start digging in. That's what really kind of gets you over the edge. And it's maybe this isn't for everybody, but I know when I find something that really gets my spidy sense is tingling, I want to go like there's you just find some stuff where you're like I have to see that in person at some point. And that's like a it's like a re forcing system because it plays into your scouting at home too, if you're going to take our advice and go find some public down the road, and it just it feeds, it feeds the experience level a little bit more. And you know, if you even if you aren't planning, like you said, to go on those trips. If you start doing that East scouting, you know, it might not be this year. It might be two years where you just finally talk yourself into it, or you get into a different space at your job where you get a little bit more income, a little bit more p t O and you've got those layers of research to fall back on. It makes the whole process so much better. And like I always kind of look at this, dude, We're we're bow hunters primarily, you know, we're deer hunters. Were optimists at heart. Like what's more optimistic than just being like, man, someday I'm going there and I'm gonna go kill a great big buck on that lamp. Yeah. I like that. And you know something, I know you do this a lot, and it's something that might fit in a certain people's schedules. I know that you often will tie in a turkey hunt with a scouting trip. So if someone wants to do what we're discussing, even if they don't think they've got time or the money to put, you know, ten days on the calendar November for a big out of state hunt, maybe they could do a weekend turkey hunt in April, and you know, do all this research like you described for some day and then you want to get a couple of days of turkey hunting, and why not do that couple days of turkey hunting at this place where you're starting to do some scouting and thinking and then you're just slowly, little by little building this database while still having some fun too, so that whenever it is time to go out there and do the deer hunt, um, you've got you've got double the amount to kind of look back on. UM. So if you want to level up, that's another suggestion, I guess, or tie it with a shed hunt too, that's another thing. Um. It just seems like an easy way to have a good time with less of a time commitment, less of a budget commitment, and and just kind of continue what you're describing. Yeah, that's a that's like my go to method. My entire springs planned around that already this year. But I will say this, this is like if you if you're not if you're on the fence about maybe going on a deer hunt somewhere and you say, you know what, I'm gonna go out there with my buddies. We're gonna camp, We're gonna turkey hunt. This is exactly like if you're not sure, if you want to buy a puppy and you go look at a litter of puppies, you're freaking buying one. Right. So if you if you go, unless the trip just turns into a disaster, which I probably won't, but I promise you if you're like, I'm kind of you know, I want to dip my toe in the pool, I kind of want to go travel hunt a little bit. If you do that Turkey trip and see the logistics and you have a good time tent camping and running gun and birds, you're going back to deer hunt. Uh. I can see how that would be the case, No doubt about that. Ah Man. Alright, uh true, Moving number three Yeah, alright. So my next suggestion, and this doesn't apply to everybody because some people don't hunt like this, but I know you and I do at least and and more and more and more people do this. Um my suggestion is to fine tune, like absolutely perfect, double down. Become obsessive about perfecting your mobile hunting set up. So that could be either your climbing sticks and your portal, tree stand or your sticks in your saddle, set up whatever you use if you're someone who hunts public land or you know, private land, but you move around a lot and your mobile and aggressive in that kind of way. If you do that, I don't think I don't think there's there's a few things more important than getting really good at doing that up and down process, doing it quietly, doing it efficiently, doing it relatively quickly. Um And that takes a couple of things. That takes practice. So you know, making sure you know with the right process for getting up and down, and you know, having a good set of you can order of operations. I know there's a lot of people, especially new people if you're a newer hunter, and there's a lot of new hunters joining the fold right now, and they're jumping into podcasts like this, or they're jumping onto YouTube and they're seeing people using these things, and then they buy some sticks and they buy a saddle, and they head out into the woods. And if they try to do this on you know, November one, and they head out in the morning, it's dark out and they're trying to get set up in the tree for the first time, it's a disaster, like, that's a nightmare scenario. Even even doing it during the day in the afternoon of October one, that's a disaster. So and I can even tell you even like the first time I usually go like the first hunt of the season, even though I've been doing this for years and years, usually the first hunt, I'm kind of like a disaster. There's always something like, gosh, ship, I forgot this right? How did I do that? So take a little time in the off season to just fine tune your process, look at what you do and say, is there some way I could do this better? Like do I have to put both sticks on my hip and one over my shoulder? Could I actually use some different system or a different clip. Do I need to go the tree and then come back down and grab my backpack? Or could I wear my backpack or could I have a rope tied down into my backpack? Um, there's so many different ways to do it, and there are a lot of different videos out there demonstrating how each different individual does UM. So there's no storage of resources for you to go online and see how other people do it. I'd suggest that you just think about your process, think about your tools, So look at your tree stand and your sticks and your toe ropes and your bow and your backpack and all that, and think through how can I eliminate any noises? Should I put some tape on my tree stand? Should I tape the the crossbar on my tree stand or on the stick? Is there something that last year on my rut hunt I noticed like this damn stick always twitter always creaks when I get all my weight on it. Is that something you remember from last year? Well, now is the time to get rid of that squeak? Or now is the time to add that sticky um surface to the top of your stick so your foot doesn't slide off it like it did that one time and December last year. You know what I mean, There's there's all these little things we can do two make that set up more efficient and effective and quiet. And for mobile deer hunters, I think that's you know, it's it's not make or break all the time, but sometimes it could be. There could be a situation where you sneak in for a hunt and you've worked really hard to do all the scouting and to do this preparation, and you've found where this buck is and you've snuck in there in public land a mile and a half back, and you think that you know, there's probably a buck betted back in this spot, and you sneak in there and you're setting up, and you think, man, I bet you if there's if this buck's in here, or if there's some deer in here, they're probably sixties seventy yards away, and you're sneaking up in there. And then if you drop your stick, or you you know, forget something that's down at the ground, and then you have to climb all the way down your sticks and grab it again, or if you get sloppy, or if your tree stands creeky, whatever it is, sometimes those little things can come back to really nip you in the butt. So now is the time to think about those little things. If you're if you're sitting here in the house like I am, and it's really cold outside and you're so bored that you're hiking a mile and a half of the gas station, why not use that time to tape up your stand or make one of these little tweaks. Um. That's that's a thought that I have, and that's something I'm trying to do this year. A little bit better too. Um does that resonate Tony big time? And you know, I would say on that note, it's it's really cool how much information there is out there now for the mobile hunter. But I would say, especially addressing people who are new to it, you can you alluded to this at the beginning, but there is a learning curve to this stuff, Like it's there's there's no way around that. You gotta you gotta learn how to get good with it, and that's what you're talking about. But I would say that, like there isn't a one size fits all answer to this stuff. So some people are out there and they're just taking the elk hunter approach where it's like I want as little weight as possible, and they're they're doing everything they can to pare that down. You might not be going that far in or you might you might require a little bit more comfort to enjoy this stuff. And so just understand that when you're when you're taking in some of this information that what somebody else uses it might be perfect for them, but you might not need it, or you might not be comfortable or feel safe with it. Like if if it comes down to maybe carrying a couple of extra pounds of weight in there and feeling better, having a better standoff on your sticks, something like that. Go that roade, like do what's gonna make it comfortable and feel safe for you? And this is a good time to really reach research that stuff in an honest way. Yeah, that's a really good point, and it is easy. I think you could easily get lost in all the ideas out there. You could easily get overwhelmed with it, or feel pressure to do a certain way, or or just almost get paralyzed with you know, paralysis analysis kind of thing going on. So yeah, take these ideas, look at these things, but filtered through your own experience. That's that's probably the most important thing of all, big time. So what's what's what's next on your mind? So you know, kind of on that note, I mean the mobile hunting and you know, especially the public land thing, but it's it's it's relevant on private land and a lot of situations too. Is you know one thing that I noticed in my life. I've talked about this on my podcast a whole bunch of times, but you know, I quit drinking eight years ago and started working out, and the I did it for every reason, but hunting I didn't. It didn't matter to me about hunting. It didn't feel like it was going to have any effect. And it changed my my desire to hunt uh in a way that I didn't see coming. And it it changed how I looked at these mobile hunts and keeping myself in shape and then really getting into shape for elk hunting. It made me realize that a lot of these public land hunts, they functioned like a little mini lk hunt as far as like physically and mentally. And so this time of year, when you know, when we're talking about there's nothing nothing to do, man, going to the gym is huge. And if you can if you can take care of your body a little bit, your mind will come along for the ride too. And it is. I honestly think it's a single best decision I've ever made for not only becoming more successful as a public land deer hunter, but enjoying it a lot more. So you're saying I have to quit drinking. I'm not saying you have to quit drink. I'm just saying I had to. Alright, alright, good yeah, mileage berries on that one, buddy, But I have so so I'm right there with you. I think that's uh. I think I think it's something that's overlooked, or I think historically that was something got overlooked within the white tail hunting world a little bit. I think it's definitely picked up steam in recent years as people are seeing the payoffs that you can have, especially if you do this public land stuff like you described, or this mobile of hunting that's definitely a little bit more physically demanding. Um. But you said something that I think really has some truth to it, which is that if you do this physical stuff, if you work on the physical side of things, it'll bring your mind along with it. And and there's something important there. I found that having. And we're getting into the woo woo stuff, not woo, but a little bit more that some people want. Um. I had someone to leave a comment I don't really read my podcast reviews often at all. I probably haven't read them in the last year. I used to when I first started, but more recently, I've just gotten to the point where, you know, I've been doing this thing a long time. Either like it or you hate me. Someone left a comment about how I've gotten like to woo woo or into mindset stuff too much. And they're like, yeah, he's he's getting crazy or something. So maybe there's truth to that. But um but when you say the mind will come along with it, I do think there's something to be said about the discipline it takes to to get and stay physically fit Like that requires a mindset and it requires a certain ability to stick to something and to set either a goal or uh some kind of accountability for yourself. And if you do that, it strengthens your mind too, and I think that helps a lot come hunting season, that mental toughness that you have to build up if you're gonna wake up early every morning and go hit the gym or whatever it is. Um. I think those things all kind of add up as these little layers that that put you in the position you need to be come November when you're on your big rut hunt on public land and you've got to grind it out for seven days or whatever. All these things do help out. And it's hard to put up, you know, a price tag on exactly how worth it it is, but I can certainly tell you it is worth it to some degree. And these things add up. Um So, so yeah, I am trying every year to get better at that too, and and so one of my goals this year. This is something I do every for the last few years I've been trying to get I've been trying to do this in some different excuse gets in the way, and I can't make an excuse for it other than that I let something, you know, bust me off of that. But I try to have a solid morning routine where I get up, you know, at least an hour hour and a half before the family does, and then I get out and I do some kind of work out, and then I'm able to then get into my office and do a few things to organize my day. And just that simple routine, get up early, get a workout in, and then plan your day. If I can do that the whole rest of my day, it just feels like it's I don't like I have a jet fuel for the rest of the day. But if I don't do that, it just feels like I'm groggy and that I think there's something too it just I don't even know where I'm going with this, Tony, but I feel like there's something to that that helps you down the line. If you can have this kind of men tool fitness to do a physical thing like you're describing, it just sets you up so that you can handle a lot more. Come hunting season, come, whatever the thing it is that you're trying to do. Does that Does that make sense? Or to go off the deep end? No, no, no, it's you didn't. You didn't describe it very well. I'll help you out here. But what you're you're saying two things. They're like the discipline parts the easy part, right, Like it's easy to kind of equate, you know, if you're if you're disciplined enough to get yourself in shape, and you'll be more disciplined in the woods, you know. And I always look at that as like simple stuff because we've sold this message in the hunting space that you've got to be like a super badass fitness guru to kill elk or carry them out of the mountains or up the mountain or in a white tail space. You know, it's a little bit different, but it's always tied to just like the physical requirements, and what it is is like, man, can you can you you know, get up for that alarm five days in a row and sit all day? Can you go out and you know, go on that over the road hunt and stay positive when it rains on your tent for three days in a row and the hunting sucks. Like that's that's where that discipline really ties in. It's not nearly as much about being able to, you know, throw a two pound deer on your shoulders and carry it out of the Michigan swamps. There's It's it's different, um the the other thing that you're talking about there, you know, getting into the routine and taking care of your work out in the morning and feeling better all day. Dude, I really think it's that's tied to just doing something for yourself that makes you feel good. And you know, I've talked about this a lot, but like when you're when you're at a certain stage of your life and you've got little kids to take care of, and you've got you know, your job and your your spouse, and you do a lot of stuff for somebody else, Like you fill your day up doing things that you don't really want to do. What you do because you're responsible and that one, you know, our workout, whatever whatever you take for that, that's for you. Like nobody else really benefits from that. That's just purely less a little selfish thing you want to do that makes you feel good. And I think just in society right now, we've been we're kind of like we're relying on a whole bunch of stuff that's supposed to make us feel good or the illusion of happiness around it, and it doesn't make us feel good. And that just one act of doing something for yourself every day or you know, four or five times a week actually does make you feel good. It helps your your headspace. You know. I'm I'm right there with it, and thank you for articulating that better than I could. That's why I've got to hear tony. UM. Let's let's dive into my next one, which is a little bit more tactile or tactical UM, as far as something you can do in the woods that I think can help you in a lot of situations. UM. And this is more applicable for people to hunt the same places over and over, like a private land place. UM. But something I like to do as much as I can on the places I have permission on, or like the back forty that I hunted you know that we owned. UM is utilizing mock scrapes, and that's something you can do in the off season that will still benefit you come hunting season. So what I would suggest where you can, where it's you know, where you're able to do this is make a mock scrape at every one of your tree stand sites that you plan to hunt. Um. I say this not because I think that's something that's going to attract a deer magically to your tree stand. I say it because there's no downside to having a scrape within range of a tree stand. There's there's only potential upside. It's no guarantee, But I don't think there's anything bad that can come out of there being a licking branch within a range of your tree. So let me just explain why. UM. Number one, Hopefully you're in a place where, like if you're setting up in a location, hopefully you're set up in a certain location for a lot of reasons above and beyond that scrape. I I would never set in the spot just because there's a scrape. I'm hoping there's like a number of other things that lead me to believe a deer will pass through here. But sometimes every once in a while, you might have a deer that comes into an area and knows there's a scrape there and specifically wants to check it. So you've got some small percentage chance that could help. I'll take that little, small potential of a bonus. But the bigger thing I'm looking for here is that if I have a real scrape or a mock scrape within range of my tree stand, there's a chance that a buck that's passing by at forty might come an extra five yards closer because that scrapes there. Or there might be a buck that's passing through that was going to be walking full speed the entire time, but because there's that scrape or mox scrape there, he'll pause for a couple of seconds and sniff that branch. And those two things getting a buck to come a few yards closer to me or to pause for a couple of seconds, that can make all the difference when it comes to killing a buck with a bow. So it's it's a simple thing, it's not hard to do. And maybe already have a scrape near your locations and you don't need to make one. But if you've got a place where you don't know of a scrape being within range, just go out there. Make sure it's a licking branch, kick out the dirt, and deer check these things all year round. They don't kick up the dirt and make that part of the scrape in the off season. But if you've ever ran a camera on a scrape in January or June or August, you'll see many deer still stop at these scrapes and sniff and and rub their glands on that licking branch. So they're visiting it all year round. So you can make one now and deer will continue to visit it off and on. And then once you get into hunting season, if you happen to be passing by, then go ahead and kick up the dirt a little bit if it already hasn't been, and then it'll just kick start things again and you'll get that little extra added potential of a benefit. Again. It's not This isn't like some secret magic thing that's all going to sudden have bucks running to your tree. Um one time on a ten, it might make the difference, and damn it, I'd be really happy to give that one buck out of ten that I wouldn't have otherwise. So I can tell you one quick anecdote where this helped um we had a and this this is a situation where there was this is on my mind. I didn't create this mock scrape, but I did set up a tree stand within range of this old scrape because I was hoping for something like this. Um when you and I were hunting together Tony in the back forty I had set up a tree inside this area called the honey Hole, and overlooked this ridge with a bunch of tall grasses and then various little clumps of cedars. And one of the reasons why I liked this tree that I ended up choosing was because it was in range of a big seedar that had just been ripped up with scrapes. You could see all around it, and it was just a spot that I knew that year after year bucks were making scrapes under these branches. And so I thought to myself, I wasn't gonna hunt here because of that specific tree. I wasn't hunting here because oh, there's gonna be bucks flocking to this tree to make scrapes. But I didn't know that there was a lot of reasons for bucks to pass through here. And if a buck passes through here with all these scrapes, underneath the cedar tree. There's a darn good chance he's going to stop here and give it a sniff or take a you know, take a piss, and do his thing, and maybe that gets me the shot, or maybe that gets me the extra five seconds I need to get ready and lo and behold, when that droptime buck came rolling through the honey hole and I grunted to him, he turned, he came my way, and he stopped at that tree and gave me the time I needed to grab my bow get turned around. We also did cameraman, of course, so then he had to get ready. And that buck stopped and made a scrape and did the whole thing, and it gave us the time we needed to get in position and get ready figure out what was happening. And I could have taken a shot at him at that scrape if he had turned my way. He didn't end up turning my way. He walked a little bit and then I got a shot closer. But was just one recent example where a scrape within range was really helpful in that kind of way. And you can you can make those scrapes being ranged by taking some time this offseason and creating those. So, so that's an idea. I don't know, Tony, what do you do you ever think about that? I know on public land that's not something you either can or is practical to do all that often, But um, what do you think? I mean? I like it because it's I like your your strategy of first you know, harm and it's it's not going to hurt you at all to do that. And when you when you start putting stuff like that around your stand or paying attention to it or enhancing a little bit, you know, like like you said, with a scrape, we tend to focus on what they kick out, and that's that you know, big dished out truckhood size scrape gets our attention, but that licking branch is where it's at, and that that communication is so important to deer. And so those that kind of option is you know, you you might not have the ability to put in a food plot or you know, build a pond or really enhanced a property, but the odds are pretty decent. If you're running on private land, you could at least put in a mock scrape by your stand and try to at least position those deer if they come in. So yeah, I like it. Yeah, and it's it's it's it's simple. But sometimes add a bunch of little simple things together and and it becomes something substantial. UM. And I guess I should I should add for those people who are newer, maybe you don't know what I'm talking about when I say in box scrape, Um, I'll give you the quick thirty second cliff notes on what I mean here. These you know, a scrape is this communication hub like you just described Tony, where deer will come and leave a bunch of kind of chemical signals that say stuff like hey I was here, or hey who else is here? Um? And they kick up a big patch of dirt. And they always do this underneath an overhanging branch that should be, you know, leaning down at about deer head level. So let's call that three and a half to four and a half feet high off the ground maybe. Um. And and so if you want to create one of those, all you gotta do is is find a branch like that, or bend a branch down so it's at that height, and kick up some dirt underneath it. Try to do this without leaving a bunch of humans scent around. Um. And you know, There's been a lot different ideas around whether scent matters or not. But I take a leak in a scrape when I make a mox scrape. UM, I've seen research that shows that that has no negative and triggers activity just the same as a buckhead peed in it. UM. And then just make sure that licking branch, that branch overhangs. Make sure that's conspicuous from what I gather. That's one of the most important things is that it stands out from everything else. UM. If you do that and there's this little you know, snapped off twigs at the end or something, you're gonna get deer that will catch sight of that patch of dirt and that liking branch and want to check it out. And then after one deer does that, then another deer wants to come check it out out and smell that, and it builds off from there so real quick. That the the high level overview of what a scrape is and and how to make a mox scrape. Do you have anything else? Don it? No? I mean, that's that's what they are. Many that's what they are. Okay, what's what's what's next? UM? I would say, you know, kind of on, you know, to to go from that to the style that I tend to hunt. You know that that's a specific your mox scrape thing is is pretty specific to private land and actually like a great thing for small property hunters, you know, if you're if you're kind of on the other end and you've got some bigger properties to rome, or you're more of a public land hunter at least I know, the last several years, I've started to scout like trail cameras don't exist, and I still run a bunch of trail cameras where I can, but I try to sort of mitigate how important the findings are with the old school style of a lot of summertime glassing, you know, a lot of late winter covering, ground reading the terrain, looking at last year, signed doing a lot of winter scouting, and just use trail cameras as like a fun bonus that might clue me into something, but just so I like, it's kind of a self preservation thing, so I don't rely on them so much. And I realized after I started doing this that just my my overall scouting game felt like it got a lot better, and I just enjoyed it more because I wasn't just sitting there going okay, well that that camera has been soaking two weeks, I want to go check it. I had other things to do, to go glass in the evenings and just go take a walk at certain times and go look for sign and just I feel like it's a good way to go about really getting a grasp on what the deer doing. What's what's like one thing that someone listening could do this year when it comes to these scouting sessions, that would be I don't know if next level is the right word, but how do you how do you alluded to this other terms like level up? How do you level up your scouting? Because every everybody that likes the deer hunt knows you're supposed to scout, knows that you should scout, and they probably do some amount of it. Um, but what's some way we can take it up a notch or something you've found it's a little bit different that has actually helped you more than you expected anything coming on? Um, you know, I would just say that I think for me, the most valuable scouting time I spend is in March, and it's because I absolutely am willing to go walk a lot of miles and look at the woods as bare as it will ever be. And really, you know, we focus a lot on you know, last season's sign, and you know where where would you hanging a stand around these rubs, or you know, how would you sneak in and hunt them? But what it really does is give you like a clear picture of how the terrain works. And so even if you hunt you know, where where I live is relatively flat, and so you don't have a lot of traditional pinch points and funnels that are that are terrain based. But you even see these little, you know, five foot differences in elevation, and you start to see not only how the sign works, but how some of the winter travel has been. You might see the trails from last year if the snow is melted, and it just gives you this picture of how the deer used use the woods that you're going to be hunting more fully. Like it's it's just you can just read it easier, I guess. And I think I think we kind of overlook that message a lot of times. Yeah, yeah, I think it's a lot of truth to that. You know, another thing I've been trying to do um is is actively try to ask the question of why when I see something. So when I'm out there in the woods and I walk around and I see something that catches my eye, a trail or a scrape or a line of rubs or something, um, I want to in that moment take a second to think about why is the us here? And why was this made this past year? If it's if it's signed that seems to have made been made recently, I guess that's that's question number one is Okay, when was this made? When did that? What's this from? And then why was it here? It's really easy, I think, to think you're scouting just by like walking around and look at it a bunch of stuff, and then you say, well, I walked around and looked at a bunch of stuff I scouted. I think that that counts for something. But it could be a lot more effective if you scout and you learn some stuff while you're out there that really sticks. I think that's a trick. Is like figure out how to make the stuff stick. So literally putting way points on your maps, that's the way to make things stick. Writing stuff down the way to make things stick. But taking a second to look at something and then think about it. That's another way to make it stick. So sit there and you've got this rub line. Maybe let's say, man walking along, I see a big rub. I take ten more steps and see another big rub Take another ten steps, see another big rud. I'm gonna say, Okay, I just found this rub line. Why is this here? Why did this buck come through here? What were the habitat features present last year? Because it looks like these rubs are made at some point last season. They're they're fresh enough that it was sometime this past fall. All right, let me think about it. There's this corn field here to my right, that's down the bottom, all right, So it looks like this rub line was heading down towards this corn field. Okay, he was heading to deep feet on corn all right. Well, where's this coming from? Well, it looks like, you know, there's this saddle in the ridge. I wonder it kind of looks like he probably must have been up there and came down off that saddle. So he probably passed through here because there was a low point in this ridge. And why was he up on that ridge? Well, let me think about that. I know there's this thicket up there, you know, three cores the way up where there's a bunch of blowdowns and there was some cutting five years ago. I wonder if he was in there, maybe he was checking that betting air for does or maybe that's where he was betted. And and just I'm not saying any one of those things is going to be absolutely true, and you're not necessarily going to know that when you're sitting there and thinking about this, but just the taking the time to think through it and and try to ask yourself those questions and do that exercise. I guess I think that is a helpful way to get a bigger bang for your buck on those scouting hours you're putting in. Um would you agree, absolutely? And I think it it helps you just you know, once again kind of layer in that experience. And I always think about, like, you know, a good example would be if you if you like to hunt rivers or you know, hunt waterways, and you think about a bluff coming down to a river and the kind of pinch point it might create, like you can run into that in so many states, in so many different places. Something that is is like real close to that that you might run into at home, And so you head out on the road and you're like, Okay, well where am I gonna go? Where I'm gonna find deer. The more you spend looking at stuff like that or like your saddle, you know, on a kind a ridge, like you talked about, these these dower do the same thing in a lot of different places. And so the more the more you get out and you see those those really kind of unique terrain features that make them go one way or the other. They they tend to choose to go under this one or over this one, or however they use it. It applies to a lot of places you'll hunt, and it can just make you you know, you know, you can kind of get that feeling like oh, I've been there and done that, like when you see it in a new place. Yeah, well you talked about that spidy sense that you that you've got. Sometimes and there's a lot of other people who will just talk about they'll know someone a friend or I don't know someone they fall in the air, like man, that guy's just got like the field for it, or there's he has this intuition just like knows how to set up um. Oftentimes it's it's just this, it's you've seen these situations enough times, and you've thought them through enough times that your brain now just naturally recognizes these patterns. It's it's seen it enough that without even really needing to think get through all the way through, you'll be able to recognize something and say, oh, yeah, this is this is where he'd pass through. And maybe you know ten years ago that wouldn't be the case. But give it enough time, answer these questions, study these things, look for those patterns, and then it all of a sudden you'll get these lightbulb moments, even if you're in a totally different state or five years later. So so yeah, I think this stuff, it can really pay off. Um, let's move on to another one. I think, um, and this is this is a taken another turn. I've got an idea here, a suggestion here. That is just one specific example of something you can do when it comes to preparing in the off season with your bow. So, if you're a bow hunter, I think it's pretty obvious to most everybody that a big part of your off season preparations should be practice. Get a lot of practicing with your bow. Really make sure that thing is a part of you that you really come your bowl Um, we've talked in the past, telling me about various challenges that both of us have had over the years with target panic or blowing a shot, or making a mistake or something going wrong. There's there's just so many parts of bow hunting that can go wrong in those final seconds or that final minute. UM, So don't skimp on the practice in the off season. But I want to just mentioned one specific thing that maybe isn't thought about all the time. And my idea here is something that's top of mind for me because I dealt with this challenge is past year. So it's something that I'm specifically thinking about now, and that is training to get stuck at full draw. So when I say that, I mean there's many situations where you might be out there bow hunting and you draw back because you think you're about to get a shot, and then for some reason you can't get that shot. Either the deer is staring at you, or the deer stops and he's behind a tree and you can't shoot. UM, and now you're stuck holding your bow back, and you don't want to draw down again because that would make a bunch of movement or maybe noise, or maybe that buck staring at you, and you know he'll see you if you draw down. So being able to handle that moment and stay at full draw for as long as possible, but still be able to execute a successful shot when the moment comes, that's really important. Um. And it's something though, like in our typical practice routines for a lot of people, at least I think myself included, it might be something that you're not usually practicing. Four. Right, when I'm behind this house shooting, I draw back, I settle in, I shoot, grab another air drawback, I settle in, I shoot. And if I don't proactively think to train for something else, you know, it's it's really easy just to get in that pattern and have fun shooting your bow and not ever practice for this one scenario that might happen once every couple of years, but when it does happen, you'll really wish you had practiced for it. So, uh, you've been in that situation before, I'm sure, oh big yeah? Uh, I mean for me this past year, it happened, um when that bucka was after Tran We talked about this on I don't know in November when you were here hunting with me. When I was talking about how I missed him. I got in a situation where he went into the thicket, I drew back on him, and then I found one tiny, little minuscule hole that I shouldn't have tried to shoot through, but I decided I was going to try, And I was a full drop for a long time waiting for him to get to that hole, and so it was an ill advised shot to take it all. I shouldn't have taken it. We've already dove into that plenty um. But on top of that, I was also at full drop for a really, really long time, and so I was not in a good position to even execute on this tough shot given that. So it was a series of mistakes compounded on each other, um, and I blew it. So this year, I want to make sure that I'm going to be better prepared for that situation again. So there's there's two ways that that I know of to to deal of this. There's a bunch of different ways, probably, but a couple of things that I've thought of. One is something I've done in the past, and one is something that I read about and I thought it was a good idea. So one is just the simple exercise of drawing back your bow with an arrow on it, aiming at the target, ideally a three D target, but whatever, aim at the target and hold and hold it until you cannot hold any longer. So you're just drawing and holding your bow back until you just can't do anymore, and then let down and then draw back and do the same thing, and do that a few times every time you practice. In a perfect world, you would do that a lot every time you practice. If you could dedicate the last ten minutes or something of your practice session to do and stuff like that, you're really going to build up some serious um you know, I don't know if it's a significant muscle, but that will help. Um. That's what I have done in the past, and I've also the reason why I started doing that in the first place was that this is an exercise also to help with target panic. Just learning to draw back and float on a target without punching the trigger is a great exercise to just get better at feeling comfortable in those moments. So there's kind of a double benefit here, um. But real quick. One other idea I read about was something that Randy Almer wrote about once, and he had talked about the exercise of not just the holding back, but the drawing back and doing that over and over. So yeah, he was basically saying that at the end of your practice session, draw back your bow, draw back down, drawback, bring about, let it back down, drawback, let it back down, and do that as many times as you possibly can until you literally can't try your ball back anymore. So do that to failure, and that will build up so much of the important muscle um in your shoulder and back that that's another way to kind of build up the necessary um, the necessary ability to maintain that full draw for long period time. So those are two little exercises you could try to train for this um. I don't know tell any of you ever kind of thought about this in your training regiment. Is there any other suggestions you would have? Well, you know, the other way to address this is just to dial down your draw weight, you know, and and because it's it's always good to build that muscle memory and work on that, you know. I mean, whether you shoot seventy pounds or fifty doesn't matter, it's it's always good to work on that. Like you and Randy Uh kind of talked about but I would say the other aspect of this is just to be honest, if you're not going to do this, or you don't think you're gonna get yourself in a position where you know, I'm not gonna have to hold on a buck for a minute, like well maybe maybe, but maybe not. And if you're not physically ready for that, because you're drawn seventy and you'd be way more comfortable at sixty, maybe think about backing off. I mean, I really think with today's how efficient bows are today, and you know the general range we're shooting that deer um, it's kind of unnecessary to be it's absolutely unnecessary to be overbowed. But a lot of us could back off, you know, a turn or two or three and drop down you know, five to like nine pounds of of draw weight and have a much more enjoyable shooting experience and just just sort of shortcut that way to be able to hold longer. Yeah, And like you said, I think it helps in a lot of aspects of your shooting process, not just the whole stuck in draw, but I think everything becomes a lot easier the less you're holding back. And unless you probably know more about this, Is there any downside to that? Like, is there any is there if you make it so easy to hold back that you're not even having to think about it? Is there any risk of like creeping forward or something funky going on with your shot process? Um, I'm I'm just simply curious. To a first glance, I don't see him downside. But no, you know you're sacrificing a little bit of energy, right, I mean you're putting less into the arrow. So that's that's the downside. But you know it's not like, you know, we should we should probably clarify this. It's not like you're gonna go from you know, let's say, being able to really hold well for ten or fifteen seconds now all of a sudden, you're not gonna be able to just sit there for three minutes. You know, it might it might buy you another five or ten or fifteen seconds of of good comfort, but it's not gonna be you know what you're what you're gonna do with your average bow in the in the drawway window isn't gonna make it vastly different. But we'll make everything more comfortable. And you know, you talk about how you draw like you know, I whenever I practice, I always like, the one thing I always think about is drawing straight back to my face while I'm aiming at the target, like, because that's what I want to do. When I'm in the woods. I don't want to sky that bow, you know, or if I'm in a blind, I want it to come back very actually in a slow, measured draw and not any fast herky jerky movements until lowering your draw weight a little bit just makes that easier. Yeah, So just in case people don't know what you mean by that when you say sky the ball, that would be when some if your draw weight is is too high for what you're comfortable with, a lot of people will pull their put their bow hand up high in the air and then pulled down. And because it's easier to draw back a really heavy weight when it's kind of in that angle. So if you find yourself doing that, that is a clear sign you're drawn back too much. Um. Yeah, that's that's a really important reminder. Yeah, and I should say something too, you know, when you when you talked about drawing, drawing and holding on target for a long time and kind of floating that pin, like that's a real important distinction to make, like, don't don't throw out your block target and try to hold that pin for forty five seconds directly on top of a little bull's eye. You'll you'll start to develop all kinds of wonkiness between your ears. It's not a good thing. So you want to you know, if if I'm working on hold my bow for a long time, I'm not aiming, Like so, I'm I'm at full draw, but I'm not settled in. I'm my head's off, I'm not looking through my aperture, my my peep site. When when that happens, that's when I start aiming. Yeah, yep, that's that's an important reminder. All right, what do we have next? Um, I would say just on that. As far as as practice and and you know, real world, real situational type of practice. Uh. The one thing that I always tell people, especially new Newish bow hunters, is if there's any way for you to do it, get yourself a three D dear target. And and I say that because we we kind of preached this, you know, three or four or five inches behind the shoulder halfway up mentality for shots. But we're assuming a broadside deer and I've seen you bow hunters take that and go I need to aim three inches behind the shoulder, but not really considering what the deer's angle is. You know what, you know, not only quartering away, quartering too, but how high up in the tree are they if they're in a tree stand or using a saddle, And it's not a simple thing for picking. Your point of impact is always just being three inches behind the shoulders. So I take a three D deer target, and pretty much after the sight in phase, all I use is three D targets. I don't I don't shoot a lot of bulls eyes throughout the summer. But if I put one, you know, pound in one rebar steak, I can spin that that three D target around and so I can get into uh, you know, the quartering away shots or slightly quartering toward or I'm lucky I have a deck I can shoot from, so I can get that elevated practice without having to get into a tree. And what it does is that it forces your brain to go, Okay, the deer's at this position or that position or this position. Kind Like when when you are with an experienced bow hunter in a tree stand, that's all they're thinking about when that buck walks, you know, like what if he moves this way or he just turned this way. Now, I got to think about this. Now, my point of impacts three inches back. And if you spend time practicing for that as opposed to just you know, broadside at twenty yards or or shooting a bulls eyes, it just helps. It helps you get into that autopilot mindset when you want when you watch that deer walk in, that you're gonna you're gonna probably been in a better place as far as where you're gonna settle that pin. So it just blew my mind with your your idea of only putting in one piece of rebar so you can spin the target around. I don't know why I never thought of that, but that is genius. So you can get all the different angles. Well it's dumb, right, because you could just walk one way or the other. But I say that because where I shoot in in my yard, I have a pretty narrow lane, and so I can't just walk twenty yards to the right or left. I have to stay kind I have to shoot them sort of a narrow lane, and so I have to turn my target. Well, yeah, and I think there's a lot of people that would find themselves in some kind of situation like that where they've got their one elevated spot or the one spot where they've got their stuff stacked up. It just makes it easier. Um, that's that's smart. Do you know where that came from? Market? Where I had as many problems as I've had with buck fever, I've had turkey fever worse almost, And when I started bow hunting turkeys, I could not hit a turkey correctly. It it like ruined me for a while. And so I ended up buying a standing turkey target and a strutting turkey target, and I put in just because I was like, oh, I don't you know, I only need one one rebar there. Put them in and you shoot that target and it would spin naturally a little bit. And what I realized is like every time one of my arrow hits my next shot, my point of impact is different. It was like one of those dumb lightbulb moments where I'm like, oh, I could do this with any target. You know like it? So do you have a favorite three D target? I've tried a couple. Um, what's what's one or two that you'd recommended people. I like Ryan Hard a lot man. So they're more expensive than than a lot of the other targets on the market. But I've had I've had some of their targets for like six seven years out in Minnesota winters and never covered them, never taken him inside. And I can shoot him with broadheads and field points, and you know, it's kind of a buy once, cry once scenario. But they last a long time. Yeah, yeah, I'll second that that's been the one that I've stuck with the most. And and yeah, I hate the upfront cost, but I have personally seen the exact same thing lasted longer than I. That's That's what's behind my house right now is a couple of Rhineharts so or whatever that's worth. They seem to get the job done. Yep. I've got one more on my antoni. Okay, and this one is the one where you call me weird is gonna come home to roost because this one, this one isn't isn't like a hunting tip, This isn't a shooting tip. This is a uh self development tip. Um. This comes from a book I really like. It's called Atomic habits Um and it's a book about how to like how habits and how the psychology of setting habits, sticking to habits and goals and all that stuff. How that you know can be learned and placed into action in your daily life. And it's backed up by a bunch of really interesting research. And one of the things that all these different folks have have found through their studies is that a really simple way to actually follow through and achieve goals or a set of tasks like what we're talking about here, is to do something called set and implement an implementation intention. So implement Asian intention is a fancy word for writing down your goals, making them very specific and action oriented, and then putting a date on them. So rather than saying all right, I listened to Mark and Tony and they said that I should get permission on new property. So yeah, this year, I'm gonna try to get permission in new property. And that would be the way that Mark ten years ago maybe would have done things, But Mark in two thousand one would try to set an implementation intention around that. So what I would do is tonight or tomorrow morning, when i wake up early and I've got my planning time, I'm gonna say, all right, I'm gonna set three goals for the off season. These guys inspired me to to actually do a few of the things. I'm gonna pick three of them, or maybe just one of them. Let's say I'll pick one of them, and I'm going to do this get permission thing. So I'm gonna write my implementation intention. That means I'm gonna be very specific about this goal. So my specific goal is that I'm going to get permission on at least one new property this year. But to do that marks it's a numbers game. So I'm going to ask for permission on ten properties. So there's my very specific thing. I'm going to knock on ten doors for permission. The second thing you gotta do is you need to attach a deadline to it. This is really important. Actually put a time or a date when you're gonna do it, so you're right down, I'm going to knock on ten doors and I'm going to do it this weekend or you know, the first weekend in May, which will be May eleven, something like that. If you do that, if you set a specific goal with some kind of deadline attached to it, and you take the physical action of writing it down and put it somewhere you're gonna see it. The odds that you follow through on that are much much higher than if you were to just say, oh yeah, I'll do that someday. So it's a simple little exercise that actually can make it do big important things. So I know that's a nerdy, weird thing, but my suggestion is to after this podcast write a couple of implementation tensions. Maybe it's something we talked about here today that's inspired you, or maybe there's something else you've been thinking about that's on your off season to do list, Write it down, be specific, put a deadline on it. It can actually help. Am I am I weird because of that, Tony? Or is there anything there that makes you nod your head and say I can see that. Uh, that's a great strategy for a guy like you, Mark. That's the nicest way anyone's ever told me. Full of ship before, take your adder all, make your list, set your future in motion. I love it. Okay, I'm gonna have to badger you into doing some of these, Tony, what's your last off season idea? Um, I'm gonna freelance this a little bit more. I think, you know, I think I do think that social contracts and contracts with yourself are valuable. I'm kind of making funny, but I actually do think that that's that's true. I also think, I mean, this kind of ties back to some of the other stuff we talked about. But I had this moment. Uh, sometime last year, I was talking to our mutual friend and you and you know, we we typically talk about white tails, which would surprise no one, but we got off on the topic of small mouth and man, we talked about small mouth fishing for a long time. And what I realized and I realized this a lot with my little girls taking them into the woods, is we're we're looking at white tail hunting like there's there's a certain percentage of hunters out there who are just like, that's my thing. That's all I do. Every every moment I spend in the woods, I am on the you know, that focus, that mission focus, or if I'm at home and I have free time, I'm e scouting the crap out of these new spots. And you know, like that's that's perfect for some people. I think a lot of people aren't wired for that, and but they still want to get better. They just don't want to do that kind of hyper focused approach to white tails. And what I realized talking to Andy, and I've known some other people along the way who had just had what I call critter sense, like they just got out there after anything. They were just they were open to being out in the woods, hunting, fishing, doing whatever they could, and it just helped them get better at everything, which of course ties into white to hunting. So I always I always tell people, like, just spend more time out there. I mean, I talked to Zach Farrinbout about this a lot too, like just how often he says he just goes out into the woods in the summer or goes to just find some deer to look at. And it's just it's it's not really tied to becoming a better deer hunter, but it makes you a better deer hunter, you know, kind of like the Turkey trip that is loosely tied to scouting for some fall trip in the future. All of that stuff. Even you know, you get out there and go wade some of those trout streams that you like to fish, and you you see crossings, you know, and you see where where is this deer ass thing and why why did they cross here? While it's like this nice little drainage feeds down here and you start seeing stuff like that when you're out there more. And I know it's a huge leap to say, like, oh, getting better at being a trail fisherman is going to make you a better white tail hunter, but I actually think it does. Like I think the more you figure out with one thing feeds into the other, and it just it's like the rising tide lifting all ships. I think, spend more time out there, just generally. And I'll say, also, you know, I'm I'm wired differently as you alluded than you are and some other people, So I I usually go pretty hard at anything I'm gonna do. And um, but what I found, as you described, is that if you allow yourself, So if someone listening is wired like me and finds some self going like this guy as I do, I finally, for me, fly fishing has become this other thing I've become like obsessed with and have gone really hard at. But I have not attached any goals or objectives or mission or some kind of achievement. There's none of that stuff attached to it. So I can go out there and and have this It's kind of like this equal but opposite force in my mind. Like I've got this like huge obsession for deer hunting that is very focused and goal oriented, and I'm always trying to get better, and I'm trying to learn, learn and learn and do do do um, and then trout fishing for me has become this other thing that I've really come to love and become obsessed with. But I just go out there to just like be there, and it's the total opposite. I'm not stressed. Ever, I'm don't find myself throughout the year like how do I get better? How do I have ten off season tasks to get better? It's none of that. But I still love reading a book about it, and like my curiosity satiated about it, and I can get out there and just kind of be consumed with something, but something that's that's very very much lower stakes than I guess when I'm going into a deer hunting season. So for me, I I totally agree with that you're saying. For me, what that looks like is going deep into something still, but it's approaching it from a totally different mindset and approaching it with like just getting out there and really enjoying it and like just being in the moment completely. Whether I catch fish or not. While deer hunting, I'm fully immersed in. But I'm just because of who I am. I'm oriented to try to achieve some kind of goal. That's just my thing. But yeah, I think diversity in your outdoor experiences, it's just like a good healthy thing, at least for me. I found that to be the case. And and obviously, you know you've talked about We've talked about obsessive deer hunters. We kind of need a release of elve. We need something that we can still be outside and enjoying the great outdoors, but doing in a way that is not so O c D or so gung ho or so whatever it is that we are both in our we we are that way in different ways, Tony. I do it my own way. You do your own way, But we're something and we both need a way to release that while still enjoying nature and getting outside and testing our critter sense. So I think there's a lot of truth to that. Yeah, And you know it's I was I was just talking to a buddy of mine earlier today, Who's who's picking up his first bird dog. You know, he's going to get a little lab puppy this morning. And we were just talking about where we would meet up this fall, this coming fall, as far as you know, maybe maybe hunt a few wood ducks, or maybe hunting some woodcock or gross and just talking about these things. And what it makes me think about is, you know, not not only like the fly fishing example, but just everything you spend out like the more you're you're open to, the more you'll see these opportunities out there. So you might be sitting on a tree stand and see a bunch of ducks fly by, or you might be duck hunting and see a buck cruising somewhere. I have stuff like that happened to me all the time when I'm out there hunting, or you know, very obvious example is how often in the late season, when I'm pheasant hunting, I jump big bucks on public land out of patches of cover that just blow my mind. And all of that stuff just sort of gets filed away. And you know, I'm not I'm out there to hunt roosters with my dog. I'm not out there to scout deer but there's value in in these these sort of generalist pursuits in a way that just feeds everything. Yeah, makes a lot of sense to me. Well that is uh, that's our ten that's our ten offseason ideas. Um, I guess I've got one last question, Tony. If you were at the bar with your buddies and they're sandy man, what's that Mark Kenyon guy? Like? How do't you answer it? Now? He is the the coolest normalist star quarterback, the nicest guy ever. All Right, I know what smokes me and blow in my ask, don't it? All right? Man? Thank you or thanks for making the time to do this. This is uh, this is a good time and hopefully there's some helpful things here for folks. I think there are, I hope, So thanks man. All right, buddy, we'll talk to him, all right, and that's gonna do it. Thank you all for listening. Hope you enjoyed this one. Hopefully we gave you a few things to think about over the coming months and get to work on because there's a lot to do. There's a lot of good times to be had out there. But by putting in some of that extra effort on the front end, you'll be able to enjoy it even more. Come Hunting season one, or whatever season it is you're working on. Maybe it's five years from now, but I hope some of this stuff can help you out. And until with chat next time. Thank you for listening, and stay wired to

Save this episode