Last 7 Days Wk2

Nate does a solo episode on Michigan Wild this week to recap his last 7 days of bowhunting. Once again this week was filled with its share of drama. Lightning struck twice, 5 days apart, on another mature buck Jake. Nate's son Henry named this deer this summer and is a deer Nate had history with last fall. By October 10th Nate had sent 2 arrows at target bucks and didn't seal the deal. To hear the story of Jake and how the story didn't have a storybook ending once again this week give it a listen. 

Check out the Sportsmen's Empire Podcast Network for more relevant outdoor content!

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Michigan wild podcast.

We're just here walking around. We're going to go set a tree stand. Don't worry. My dad's weird. He never shot a huge buck. I just shot a fricking big buck.

Get that one. Oh, you hit him. Go get that one, Henry. Right here! Wooo!

Look at the size of that deer.[00:01:00]

Alrighty, welcome to another episode of Michigan Wild. This is going to be another The Last Seven Days week two. I'm ripping on this solo because this got a little hectic in the middle of the week. And not necessarily in a good way, once again, for me. But yeah, I did The Last Week with Drew.

We both talked about how we were looking forward to the, I think, Tuesday. Which was the next day. Just wanted to go through and do these and give an update. The past, this is actually on Saturday, middle of the day Saturday. Got Michigan footballs on. Watch that on my phone while doing this, but I want to do this just to Give updates on how the hunt hunting was going for, me and maybe a couple buddies, but going into this weekend I knew it was gonna be a little hard to recap with someone I know because me and my wife actually are going north doing a little trip We got a hotel for the night and have a thing to go to on tonight Saturday night And then tomorrow [00:02:00] we're gonna drive around and usually once a fall We like to go look at colors and maybe do a little hiking and do that kind of thing so we Thank goodness she's very tolerant and being a hunter herself She understands that we try to pick bad weather days to do this and her anniversary is, the 21st of October So we always try to do something around that a couple weekends here in October, but so yeah, that's this weekend We're gonna do that So I knew I was gonna have limited time and then I had a podcast scheduled for Wednesday night Which I had to put off because of what happened Tuesday night.

So I've only hunted Tuesday night this past six days or let's say yeah six days probably and that was a day that I was, looking on the weather and looking at certain things I think I talked about a little bit last week how I hit a couple things that I was really, really happy with and checked a couple of the boxes.

So I ended up hunting the same food plot that I missed Mr. Krabs in. And my plan was to, I was going to work that day [00:03:00] but I was gonna leave early and just get it set up early in that same tree, same everything. I ended up taking a tree stand this time opposed to my platform because I ended up not really liking the way my platform hooked on this tree.

Just the way the tree was leaning and everything, it was just really difficult. Difficult thing to, a difficult tree to hunt out of. I ended up just standing on my platform like a tree stand. So I was like there's no point in using a saddle platform. I got this lightweight hang on, I'll just take with me.

So yeah, I go through like why Tuesday was. A day that I was looking forward to because it was just a nasty day. We had a front kind of push through. It was, windy and rainy, spin and we had a west wind, like a dew west wind. So like west, we've had some like southwest and some, a lot of south winds.

We haven't really had a strong west wind yet going into this season. That was a spot I really like on west winds anyways, just from years past and hunting it. So I was pretty confident. So as the day's going on, I was still able to work. It never really rained that [00:04:00] much, but there's definitely like a little system pushing through.

So plan was to get out there early and get set up in that rain and stuff. And then, hopefully just looking at the radar and seeing how it was going to work. I was like, man, this might actually stop when, it'd be good, like the last hour and a half of, light, shooting light.

As I was sitting there and get all set up perfect. I, have one spot I'm ready for these deer to come through. And I knew if they're either in a back door me. Or if they were going to come out, like they usually came out of the food plot, I was going to be good. Backdoor me just with the west wind, the way it was blowing, it was essentially the wind was blowing from the food plot to me.

With the deer coming from the south. I'm facing, due west. And then to my left is the south. That's usually where they'd come from my left and work their way into the plot. Or they could swing around and do try to backdoor the plot. And get that wind in their face through the whole, the whole plot alone to them.

And then I would be able to, I'd be sitting right there and I could get a good shot.[00:05:00] It was pretty slow deer didn't really start moving until probably 620, 615, somewhere in there. And of course seeing a bunch of does and that kind of thing, and they were all coming out of this cover and then going straight to my other food plot, which is like 250 yards away, which made sense because the wind was blowing from that plot right to them.

So they felt really safe.

I hate going back through this, but I'm, doing this kind of a thing. I've missing that deer earlier this year. I, five days later, I'm back in this plot. In my head, I've been, I've still been shooting my bow, making sure everything's good. Telling myself, Hey, make sure you aim low.

Make sure, the camera is on the deer before you pull the bow back because I'm really still trying to self film. So I have all these things going through my head and it's getting close to being dark, I'm changing the settings on the camera make sure I got good light. And, doughs are just piling out of the cover.

And it's this is such a great night. And I'm getting spit on, just a little bit of rain, but then it just stops. Which is great. [00:06:00] And right as that rain stops, it's probably, 45 minutes, 40 minutes before, shooting lights over. And sure enough the cover right where I was looking, I'm staring there, I see tines moving through and I'm like, Ooh, what deer is that?

And then it'd be an eight point that I saw in the first opening night from a distance when I was hunting with Ashley and Henry. So I saw him and I was like, okay, that's a nice deer. Like I know him, not, not shooting him by picking a bow up anyways. And he works through, hits a little scrape, and behind him is Jake.

And Jake is the buck that was with Mr. Krabs when I missed him. He's also a four year old. He's got a little bit more character, a little more mass. He's got some stuff going on, just a completely opposite deer of Mr. Krabs. He's still really big, really wide, not quite as tall at times, but he's got a lot more mass.

But they're looping a little different than they did. Like the, when Mr. Krabs came out, they went right in the middle of the food plot, 30 yards away and just eating in that food plot right away. That was a [00:07:00] little different wind, so they were a little more comfortable, I'm assuming. So this west wind they looped the edge of the food plot.

And they step out on the very edge of it, which is like 45 yards away when they bust through the cover and the tall grass and stuff, I don't know if it's really grass, it's more like weeds and all that stuff, but I I, got the camera rolling. Which is really nice because I had that going and just get that kind of the way and the eight year old, or sorry, the eight point he walks in and he goes right to the edge of the plot and starts eating the plot, which was a great.

But the other deer, Jake, he stuck out and was just eating in the, I don't know if it's like wheat that regrew or whatever kind of, cover crop from years past popped back up, maybe some rye. So he's just eating in there and he's at like 45 yards and they don't have a care in the world.

The wind is whipping. It's... 10 to 15 mile an hour winds. I'm cold. Like I've been just getting pounded since four o'clock I've been there for three hours almost and I'm staying up ready to go [00:08:00] and I'm you know, a lot of things are going through your brain, okay 45 yards is a far shot, but there's a good opportunity that they're gonna work their way Into the plot still so I'm just being patient and minutes are ticking by going there's deer still coming out of the corn You know often, you know a few hundred yards away the deer just moving, perfect night So I don't know exactly what happened But I think I either I might have made like a little bit of noise like just readjusting myself I think I might have you know ding something or I don't really know if I did or I just moved a little bit But that one buck looked over and was like, oh, what was that?

And it was like a minimal noise. And like I said, it was really windy. I don't even know if I made the noise, but I think it just something, Oh, there was a raccoon. There was a raccoon that was in the woods by me. That's what it was. And that thing was I think he walked up to the base of my tree and he didn't like.

He either looked up at me or smelled me, so he ran off. So then them, both of them, you're Oh, what was going on over there? But they didn't pay much mind, so I was like, okay. But that kept them from [00:09:00] committing to the food plot. They started walking away. Which I'm, I'm very confident shooting my bow at, far ranges in the backyard and shooting foam and doing all those things, those far, 60 to 80 yard shots.

Doing those pretty religiously, every time I try to shoot my bow, I try to, get one long shot and... As I started walking away, one of the things that went through my head was, I had walked, I did a big loop in the middle of this field, and then I cut across my plot on an angle, because with the west wind, I was afraid that the woods I was sitting in, that there would be, just does or whatever, hanging out in there and then coming out and eating acorns, because there was a bunch of acorns that had fallen from all the wind, and they were right on the one edge of my food plot.

I wanted to do a big loop out there and walk across an angle, so if anything came out of the woods, I would, at least have some time before they busted me by smelling my trail walking in, which, one of those things where it's like, it could work. It could not work. Sometimes deer, care about your, your trail that you walk in on.

Sometimes they don't, but I was just like, I'm gonna make that [00:10:00] big loop. These deer were heading right towards where I walked in the field and in my head. I was like, okay, from what I've known, none of these bigger deer have smelled where I've been in and out. Cause last time I hunted it, I got picked up by my wife in the truck.

I'd walked in once and we've had a lot of rain. So the last thing I wanted was, that to that to happen. So I went through my brain, but like I said, this deer was, from the time I saw the deer, the time I ended up taking a shot was eight minutes. So I had a lot of time to think about this. So they start doing that, they I'm like, okay, he's not committing to the plot.

And the other buck was in there, but he wasn't. So I was like, okay, if he clears this little bit of grassy stuff and it sits there brazily and starts eating. That's maybe when I'm going to pull my bow back. So I made the, at that point in time, I was like, Okay, I'm going to, I'm going to shoot the deer.

And, I'm, I'm standing good. Bow has been in my hand this whole time. And I'm feeling really confident with the shot. He does it, commits, and puts his head [00:11:00] down and starts eating. That's when I pull my bow back. And, everything's good, like I hit my anchor good, string on my nose good, I have a single pin, so I mean I was right at the yardage.

And I remember setting my pin, following his leg, and I was like, okay, I'm, there is his front leg. And I alright, don't want to shoot him in the shoulder, so I slide it over just a little bit. Bubbles good in my sight and I have that, I have a thumb release and I just broke it and it felt great.

Except when my arrow hit my apex, I could tell it was just wagging like left and right. That Luminoc was just, your Nocturnal was just going left and right. And I saw my arrow go, and it's way left. I knew it was way left. I'm talking, 12 inches left. And he didn't really react. He reacted, but I didn't really notice him react until after the arrow hit him.

And I heard it hit him, and I watched Luminaut go, through him, or disappear, and then reappear behind him. And then he took off. Nothing hard, nothing crazy, but just [00:12:00] turned fast to the cold bounds, and I can only hear him for 30 yards. Which, this is crazy.

I've sat this... Spot two times. I've only hunted seriously two times. I've hunted out of gum mines. I've went to a state land spot. I got a little presets close to the house. I just quick sneak in the last, hour of dark just to sit and to hunt and to scout while hunting.

I've put together two serious hunts with a plan, plan of attack and strategy and all this stuff. And I've had two opportunities that for two four and a half year old bucks in Michigan, which is just crazy. And I had the, this one deer was in the field when I shot the other one. So this kind of stuff has never happened to me.

So I don't know what to think. I, there's, I have a GoPro footage, that was rolling too. And I haven't looked back and watched that, but I know that I remember looking at that and saying, okay, I just shot at Jake. I hit him, but I, my arrow was not flying good. Like I just knew my arrow wasn't flying good.

I, there's adrenaline dumps, all [00:13:00] this kind of stuff, you're excited, but shot a lot of deer in my bow and, you, I think your gut usually is pretty close to being right and you can convince yourself, things, but I knew the arrow was flying wrong and I was like, what is going on?

Cause I've been shooting broadhead on my arrow for, two months, almost, almost every time I shoot my bow, I'm shooting a broadhead and the last, before season middle of summer, I'm not doing that, but I shoot my group arrows and then there's a broadhead on one of those arrows.

So I was like really confused at what happened. There's no branches in a way, nothing like that. I'm like, man, I don't know what that was, but it just seemed wrong. So call my buddy, Tony, which we were going to do a podcast, but hasn't worked yet, but he's got a tracking dog and he's been doing that for quite a few years.

Really good stuff. But he, I explained it to him, what's going on? And I, this is why I'm still in the tree. I call him because I was like, I don't know what to do. I know I hit him back, like my gut reaction was cut the deer in half, strap it down and horizontal and that's where the arrow hit la not in the ribs, but Right the last rib is what I thought.

And I thought it was maybe a little high. [00:14:00] It was not low. He's don't even go look at your arrow just sneak out of there And he's like you got the camera rolling right? I was like yep. I did so I went home and looked at the footage and Yeah, it's not what you want to see ever like watching this footage.

You know over and over again I could tell that the arrow was not, to me, I'm not as experienced as most people like watching arrows and flight like nocturnals with a camera, but you could just tell it wasn't tracking right. And, he ducks a little bit and it goes in somewhere by his back and his like back leg, like in front of his back leg, but really close.

And I was like, man what is that? Like, where did that hit him? And then, you can hear the arrow hit him in the video. and then as he finishes his duck after the arrow hits him you see the arrow just do something funky it just goes hard right and like you can see the knock so like where the arrow hits him almost by his back leg and high that frame the knock disappears the next frame you see the knock behind his shoulders [00:15:00] and then the next frame it's going past his head so it's like it like camera's to the left the arrow's tracking left hit some and then Diverts right, like right away.

It makes, you can hear it hit him. After, two hours go by and talking to Tony and talking to, everyone I know, all the buddies and stuff. It's okay, I need to go look at the arrow. Because either I hit something substantial, possibly like an artery or something high up, or...

I don't know what happened. If I glanced it off his back, maybe there'll be hair and all that kind of stuff. So I, waited and I drove my truck right to where the arrow was. It was thankfully in the field. You can do that. And sure enough, I get up to my arrow and it's actually, if I had my range finder, I would have ranged it.

But my arrow was probably 10 to 12 yards past where the deer was standing after I shot him and I'm elevated. He was down and somehow that arrow was that far past him and it was buried in the dirt, like eight inches. Like good. It looked like it just stuck straight in the dirt and it was stuck in like an [00:16:00] angle.

So I'm like, okay, he totally deflected for sure. The camera is not lying there. And then, he pulled the arrow on, granted it would have been raining all day and it went through some wet grass, but there was nothing on my arrow. Like just the littlest bit of something. Like middle of the arrow, so I like, if I had walked up on the arrow and not heard it hit him or had the video that it hit him, I'm like, yeah, I missed that deer.

It looked like it just nothing on the fletchings, absolutely nothing. So that's when, and I looked now like 20 yard, like from where he ran off to where he hit to 20 yards into the cover, I looked and there was nothing, no hair, no blood. Absolutely nothing. My, Tony, he's just he tracks a lot of deer and stuff.

He's you just need to wait. He's maybe you hit it in the guts. Maybe you hit it somewhere high abdomen and he's you need to just we'll go to work tomorrow. He's as soon as work's done, we'll go over there and start tracking. So I go home and, as a bow hunter, you're just, I'm just like, I'm having like just the craziest five days, go from missing one [00:17:00] to shooting another one and not having to go and I've never had this happen like this too big deer like this, giving me two opportunities.

Yes. I've, I've shot at deer when I was younger, miss or, wounded them. And back then I feel like a lot of that was just like tracking too soon. Or, I think some of those deer had died, but I just would push the deer, not wait or, give up on a track because, I have any blood when maybe a blood tracking dog could find the deer, like those kinds of things have happened to me or, I've tracked deer and, jumped the deer up because of a high shoulder shot.

And then see it, watch it run away and look back at, the binos. And it's that thing has just the littlest red spot on its shoulder. And then that deer ends up getting shot, and. In gun season or later that year. So I've had those kinds of things happen. But I don't ever remember hitting a deer like this far back.

Like it confirmed, it was like, man, that was not a good shot. Like I did not hit him in the rib cage or anything like that. So it was really like an odd experience for me. And I just didn't really know how to handle it. And, just feel like an epic fail, because I already did that [00:18:00] once and just really, it's 45 yards is a far shot.

I felt like I aimed low, I did all those things and you put all the time and effort and practice and it's man, something just happened. Maybe I, the arrow flew funny. Maybe I just had a terrible form. I torqued my bow, something like that, just going through and just, trying to critique myself and get better.

But anyways, go going into the next day, I was still opportunistic that maybe, when the arrow entered, it deflected really hard and went into there and got something. So go to work the next day, take care of business, do all those things. And it's still rain like all night.

So I was pretty skeptical that we'd find much blood if any at all because of the rain, but I was very confident in the tracking dog because this dog has been a lot of tracks for the past, three or four years and has found, gut shot deer and found deer with no blood, after a long time, they've been, been some really good tracks.

So I feel like just the right thing to do is just stay out of there, not, not go, blowing the place up until we have a dog. So 24 hours, not 24 hours. So it'd be like 20. [00:19:00] One, 22 hours later showed up my buddy and his tracking dog, Tony. And we just had a really good plan attack because where the deer ran and like where these deer come from, they're not, I'm not hunting like wide, vast areas of timber or cover.

Like these are pockets and there's 450 yards one way. And probably 450 yards the other way, and just do that as a big, from, from impact, do a big circle and your, your radius, let's say if it's a half circle is, 450 yards, all around. So I was like, we got the wind going one way, we can, push in and then after we, if we don't find any luck, I know where the bedding areas are, we can hit those bedding areas strategically with the wind.

I felt like we had a really good plan of attack. So we go through and start doing that and. There is nothing. Still in the daylight, no hair, nothing from Impact. And the dog, he, he's, it's really nice because now you don't have to have dogs on a leash. They can work, through [00:20:00] with a car or the collar.

So they can do like their little patrols, small circles and stuff like that. But he's just working hard, and I've seen this dog work before and he never just showed much interest the first few paths we took, so then it was like, okay, let's start, and Tony was like, he's really good at coming back to impact and keep working his dog different ways and going and going and there's just nothing.

But we didn't give up, we just kept, kept checking off the box and going to these spots and going through the cover and checking the deer trails and, finding every bed we found, which, I probably checked 15 beds probably, and no blood in any of them, had the dog going to all the entry and exit trails going through and seeing what there was, and there's just nothing, never got on anything.

You know that it was super discouraging. I think we looked for, 450 yards at 450 yards is not a huge area But we covered all of it You know me Tony and then Henry was looking too and that dude's a good blood tracker like he finds stuff and he was you Know going through areas and checking the bedding areas too with us.

We were all spread out [00:21:00] and He's been in these places before so he was pretty comfortable with it, but we're just nothing this isn't just nothing showed up So to wrap this all around You know, we looked for two and a half, two and a half hours Maybe three hours with a dog just doing loops and checking and checking and just nothing.

There's absolutely nothing no blood So I don't, as a hunter, it's like, what, what is going on with that? And it was really discouraging to just like gut check, reality check. It's man, I just, I failed, and every bigger buck I've shot at since 2017, it's died.

Comes in, I shoot it, it's just like clockwork, just do your, check off your list, compose, do all the things right, and you kill the deer. And, this two, this five day period, from October 5th to October 10th, just was like, yeah, I have the rollercoaster.

I've now, like I've never been on before. And but I didn't want to like, I hate, I don't like to blame, equipment or anything like [00:22:00] that. But that aero flight just still was stuck in my head. So I, sent some video footage of Bran Travis, which he's been, he's been watching self filming and editing hunts for a long time.

And I just sent it to him and said, Hey, I feel like his arrow was just flying funny and he watched it and he's yeah, that arrow definitely was, didn't look right. Something just looks a little off and he, we, everyone's asking, did you hit a branch? Did something with your bow funny.

And I was like, man, everything felt great. Just that knock and we had it was windy conditions, but still it was just more than I was You know used to seeing but I had that in my brain So I was like, you know what before I do anything i'm busting out paper I'm gonna shoot this bow through paper my paper tune it which rookie mistake.

I Got this new bow this year and with my older arrows from the bow before I That's how I tuned the bow was for that, those arrows. And it shot those arrows great. They're a lot heavier arrow. Big fletchings that I put on myself, bigger fletching. But, I just, in my head, I wanted to have two [00:23:00] options.

I just thought this whole year, I was like, man, it would be so nice to have, a really heavy arrow. And then maybe more like a medium weight arrow. So I'm talking like 630, 630 grains to like 530, 520, somewhere in there. So I got a completely different type of arrow. They were doing a sale, a thing, and I was like, that's just a really good deal, like a great arrow that size arrow should work for me and both my brother in law it's a very, generic kind of arrow that will work for people with, a range of bows.

So I was like, I always like to help buddies out and stuff like that. It's hey man, I got arrows it's a hobby of mine I always have stuff let's throw them on and see if they work. I, was shooting my bow with my old arrows and shooting great and I got these new ones and I was like, alright, let's see how they grew up and they grew up just awesome great sweet, this is perfect, put the different sight tape on and just shooting, shooting foam, great.

Just bam all summer shooting. I was like, man, I like some of the best groups I've shot in the last few years. Like just consistent, like the arrows are just traveling. Great throw a broadhead on there and just money still like at those [00:24:00] yardages. Like I'm just shooting good. I'm like, this is great.

Like I'm good. I don't need to do anything else. Like this thing's shooting them awesome. When I saw that aero flight with the nocturnal on there, I knew something was wrong. So my brother, which we dealt with this with him, when he was shooting his broadheads, he was having. This is, two, three years ago when he got into it, we were broadhead tuning his bow, and we were having a heck of a time getting it dialed with a certain type of broadhead.

And there was a multitude of things that were going on with him, being a new hunter, just making sure he was the right draw length and not overdrawn and these things, one of the things we noticed that at 20 yards broadheads are great, and at, 40 yards broadheads were a little bad, but not super bad, but then at 30 they were like really bad.

So it was like, by the time the arrow got to 40 yards, the fletchings corrected it enough that it still was hitting where it was aiming. And I noticed that from watching him shoot and his like, cause his groups are just so bad at 40 and he had no plan at shooting a deer at, 40, but we just like to practice farther ranges and do that kind of thing.

So what we found out was, little bit of adjustment to get [00:25:00] them to fly better. So my brother at work, cause we get to work with each other. He was like, dude, maybe when you're shooting those, 50, cause I was shooting broad heads at 35, 37 yards 50, 60. 75, like those are some of the ranges I'll shoot 20.

He's maybe you're just, your fletchings aren't correcting it in time at that range, or maybe you're just, it's hiding that and you just can't see it as much because you're shooting, during the day and and then when I would shoot low light, which I've talked about, like I like to shoot in the mornings before work or, after work, after Henry goes to bed, get a couple of arrows in the last second.

You know that kind of a thing it's like he's like maybe that's what's going on He's you know what? You're right. I'm gonna shoot this thing through paper and see but before I shot through paper I was like, I'm gonna wait and I'm gonna shoot the nocturnal at home So I threw a nocturnal on my practice arrow with a broadhead that I've been shooting all fall and 52 yards I shot and sure enough I can see that arrow just Wagging left and right bad [00:26:00] and I was like what in the world was that so I'm like yep shooting through paper and I shot in just a terrible tear like really bad with field points And I was like, okay, that's not good. Through brought it through the broadhead through there shot that wicked worst hair. I'm like, what? I'm like, now I'm just like, man, my grip messed up. What is it?

What am I doing? I'm just thinking I'm doing something wrong. And I shot, a handful of times and it's no man, like that was a perfect shot and just off. And I, sure enough, had to move my wrist like almost an eighth of an inch. I've done like the 30 seconds and sixteenth moves before, but this was like almost an eighth.

And I was like, there's no way it's that far off. So then I end up, going a little extra an eighth, and then sure enough, my tear showed up the other way. So I'm like, okay. And I moved it back to that sweet spot, and I, shot, and I was like, this is good. And I threw the broadhead, shot through, and then that night I busted lights out and I shot 45 yards and I was like, okay, I'm good.

Arrows hit where I wanted to be, and we're good. But that wasn't enough [00:27:00] for me. The next morning I shot again, and I'm like, just hyper focused now. Watching my arrow fly, and I'm like, grouping my broadheads, and I'm like, okay. I'm shootin pretty good this is good I'm shootin just as good as I was before.

After movin my, I had to move my wrest, which then in turn had to re sight my bow in. And I'm like, I'm, I'm really happy with with the group I'm shooting this is right back where we need to be. I was like, the aero flight must've just not been quite right. And then maybe because my bow was on that, that edge of, being good, if I, did torque the bow a little too much in the heat of the moment, it just made it that much more worse.

But I, I still didn't go hunting, and I was like, I'm not hunting anymore, like I gotta get this, I gotta be super confident before I go. Let's fast forward to today, Saturday, and and actually, yeah, last night is actually what started, I shot my bow a few times last night, Friday, instead of hunting, I shot my bow some more.

And we had, granted, it's been raining a lot too, so it's not something I was like a high, maybe if it was like ideal conditions, I would have just went hunting, but I'm only shooting 20 yards. Like one of those things where I was like, it's been raining nonstop, [00:28:00] I need to see what's going on.

And we had, I had wind, like 10, 15 mile an hour wind. I'm like, this is like the same conditions as before, pull back, shoot, and. I shot like really bad and I was like, okay, I just, I got to calm myself down. Like I, that was in my head, grab, walk down there, grab the arrow, come back, shoot again. Really bad.

Third time. Shoot. Bad. Like that wind was affecting the arrow so much more with the broadhead. So I was like, okay, maybe something's just going on. Throw, field points on there, cut it through the wind, no problem, just shoom. And I'm, so I was like, okay, maybe it's just this broad head. Like maybe I just can't, maybe there's something with this.

This doesn't make any sense. I've never experienced this. Once my bow was tuned and shooting good through paper, like I've never had this bad of a, thing with my arrows in the past. So to bring that full circle, I I think what's going on is that. Either with my fletching size or something with my bow it for some reason shoots [00:29:00] just awesome with field points and For some reason when I screw a fixed blade, and I've tried multiple fixed blades like I have quite a few I've shot them all and It is inconsistent.

I'll just say that. If I have calm conditions, and I shoot, great flight. I can't pick anything up, it seems right. But if, but it's not every time. To me that means that I'm right on the edge not working. So then my confidence is just gone. With that, and that arrow. To the point where today, if I didn't have to leave, I was ready to go back and switch my arrow setup, and go back to my heavier, Lincoln Logs, and shoot them things, and...

Go through the whole thing, but I just didn't have time. And it just doesn't make sense to me. Cause I shoot through paper and it's shooting through paper. Great. But just at distance and with any sort of wind and it's been, it was been windy the last three times I've shot. And they're just not grouping consistently, but my field points are.

So to me, that just says something about that blade, that way the broadheads are, that is just wrong. [00:30:00] So that means that, and I have mechanical broadheads that I've shot through this bow. I shot adult early season with one. And, that was a close range shot, but I'm very happy with the results of that.

And it comes with a practice point. So I've, last, yeah, last night and today I shot quite a bit with that practice head with my field points. And I'm laying them right in there perfect. Not seeing anything weird in the flight, not seeing that. I think overall what happened was I did not execute a perfect shot at Jake when I shot at him.

And either through torquing my bow, or, whatever, maybe I didn't follow through right. That just created the bad arrow flight, and I just messed up. I didn't make as good of a shot as I should have. That's apparent. I'm not blaming the equipment. However, after doing what I've done, my confidence is not the greatest with fixed heads on my arrow setup currently.

I'm shooting the same arrow, but I'm going to use a mechanical, which comes with a whole other thing, and, the debate. And I've never been too hard set, you have to shoot this. You have to [00:31:00] shoot that. I think it is all about aero flight. That's always that from everything I've ever taken away from like the range fears of the world or, bow shop guys and all that kind of stuff and tune bows and all those things you need to have good aero flight.

And I am on the line of not having good aero flight must be for some unbeknownst reason, I don't know why I'm flirting with that. When I throw a fixed blade on there, it shows itself. So I don't know how much time I'm going to have before I go hunting again, but. I'm gonna do it this way and then if I do find myself for the chunk of time I might end up switching back to my other arrows and just you know going through the same process again But just want to encourage anyone that's listening to the saga of me Do your due diligence and shoot through paper and do those kind of things I mean for all I know maybe my strings like I don't think my strings are stretched I mean I shoot my bow a lot, but something's different and It just could have always been there, maybe, I don't know, but, I, there's a couple things I messed up on, I should have re shot those arrows through paper, made sure it was [00:32:00] where it needed to be, that's step one.

Step two, maybe I just need to have that gut check on myself, and, maybe 45 yards is too far for me to shoot, maybe, just because I've done it in the past, just because, shoot coyotes at far range, you shoot other things and you kill foam consistently out there to 80 yards, maybe the shooting at a mature deer in a food plot at far range is just not something that I need to do right now.

So as all those things are going through my head and that I can fix, but I don't want to get too down on myself because I did put myself in position twice, two hunts to shoot two four and a half year old deer, which is a huge goal of mine and something I've worked very hard at. I haven't, this year's the first year since 2020 that I've picked my bow up in Michigan to shoot at a buck.

Like cause just not having those deer to hunt, I'm not, I wasn't going to settle for shooting a three year old, or doing those kinds of things because I'm just, hit my goal. 21, 22, the opportunity presented itself for me to shoot a four and a half year old deer. And I passed, some great three year olds to get to this position that I'm in now.[00:33:00]

And, 2023, you have those two of those bucks that you have history with and have hunted and set a game plan for and did all this work for, and they come out and I just completely screwed up. So it's a gut check. It's somewhere that I can, really, bear down and see and it's adversity and I, aversing doesn't hurt ever.

It keeps you humble. It keeps me hungry too. It keeps me like, okay, I can work on this. I have to be better. So that's my plan of attack for that. And when I'm going to stick to the plans, like I still have this plan through the year, like I talked about, like I 10 days of October this year.

And that was right. That gut feeling where the weather was shaping up, looking at the forecasted weather, it was all there where you need to be. So I'm just going to stick to that plan of just constantly looking at the weather, using my historical data and attacking these properties, being mobile and, setting up and carrying the stand or, carrying your sticks and stuff on your back and just making, calculated [00:34:00] decisions and.

And now to swing into what's going on this weekend, I'm not hunting today, Saturday, but I'm, really hoping to get out Sunday night because there's a few of those things that are checking the list for me. It's been raining nonstop for a couple of days.

And once that pushes through today, I think tomorrow could be a really good night for someone to get out there and, you see some really good deer movement. So it's not quite to the pre rut time, I've had bucks in the past are hitting scrapes right now. And looking through my history of trail cam pics, some of the bucks that I've seen in the summer, they finally come back and check some stuff out.

I think that's in the game for, deep in the, diving deep into cover and finding, those hidden scrapes that you think could be good. And I think they'll still be hitting some food source stuff, if you've kept the pressure low in some spots, you can maybe slide in and take advantage of this rain being done and have a really good hunt.

That's my plan moving forward hopefully Sunday night. I'll have another opportunity, or at least have a good hunt, and with no heartbreak. I I could really, I really would like to just go sit out there, hunt, have a great hunt, and maybe not have any heartbreak at the end of it. But [00:35:00] that's the adversity that you face as a bowhunter, and, you just gotta kinda, figure out a way how you can get through it.

And I'm going to, I've been killing foam and I've been shooting my bow a lot these few days, just getting through, getting the right mindset and just, put myself in that position and just executing good shots and, the confidence is coming back. Yeah, thanks you guys.

I really appreciate you guys listening, tuning in every week and. Giving me, the opportunity to do this. This is something that, like I said, I didn't know was going to happen Until, it just fell on my lap, and I've really embraced it and really enjoy it And I hope to help anyone out there that is listening to this that they can learn maybe one little thing and just you know take advantage of All the great things Michigan has to offer in the outdoors.

It's a really good spot to, or the state's a really good to get out there and do a lot of cool things. And sorry, I don't have another guest this week for that. The, I ended up canceling on him because I was out tracking my buck. We had a plan to do a podcast on a Wednesday night and just had to push that off because, just going through there and, tracking that deer that I just did not execute the right shot with.

Shout out to him. Hopefully he's [00:36:00] cool with it and we can hopefully get on the schedule next week and, bring you guys some great guests and just keep going after it, keep going hard. But yeah, good luck to everyone else who's out there, chasing their dream and doing these things and hunting.

It's a blessing that we get to do that. And yeah, just make sure you guys do little things. I screwed up by, having a platform that needed to be waxed, which I waxed that platform, did that thing, squeaks gone. So another thing that I should have done in the off season that I've never had experience, learning, constantly learning new things, but checking your equipment, don't take your bow for granted.

That's always going to be in tune that you can just, Oh, it's good. All arrows will work. I know better than that. I should have shot that. So that's a good learning experience. Yeah, just, but, ride that, don't get too low, don't get too high, a thing and stay consistent.

Do that and yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And then Henry, he's been like. I think he can tell because the weather is getting cooler and we got this rain and it's like fall is setting and he's Dad, how many more days until gun season? Cause he's itching. I think [00:37:00] he's going to try to shoot his first deer with a gun.

He's been threatening it so he's asking, I was like, yeah, we got a month yet, buddy. He's Oh, nice. Cause that's just a good time for the family. I look forward to that every year. Seeing the family sitting, sitting in a blind with my wife and my son. Maybe a brother, a grandpa, whatever, the opportunity may rise and just hanging out and just having great conversations and just doing, making those good memories and I, you just can't wait.

So there's a lot of good things to come. We got a few more weeks of October left. It's just going to keep getting better for hunters. Get out there. Bow camps coming up in Illinois. Looking forward to those episodes of the boys. And yeah, thanks for listening. Get outside. Enjoy creation, everyone.[00:38:00]

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