Ep.118 Ryan Bennett Explains How To Get Good At Archery, And Much More!

A perfect round sounds impressive until you learn what “perfect” actually means in tournament archery. We’re joined by Ryan  Bennett, a young Elite-sponsored shooter who’s already stacking wins, plus Lane Lewis and Darren Matthews to keep the conversation honest, funny, and grounded in real hunting life. 

We get into how Ryan started with zero archery background, what changed when he finally got a proper bow tune, and why 3D tournaments feel like golf with adrenaline. Ryan breaks down competitive archery in plain language: indoor target scoring, outdoor variables, hunter class limitations, K50 rules, rangefinders, stabilizers, lenses, and why the top level becomes a brutal game of “you cannot miss.” We also talk big stages like the Las Vegas Shoot and the Lancaster Archery Classic, including what makes each event different for pressure, format, and nerves. 

Ken also shares a tough personal story from black bear hunting: a shot that looked right, heavy blood, and still no recovery. That leads into a serious talk about ethical shots, realistic bowhunting distances, string jumping, and why tournament reps can sharpen decision-making when a real animal steps in. Ryan adds stories from traveling to France to shoot and explore hunting culture, plus the strange reality of Vegas off the shooting line. 

If you care about bowhunting, competitive archery, 3D archery, target archery training, and the mindset that holds up under pressure, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a shooting buddy, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Check us out on Facebook  Hunts On Outfitting, or myself Ken Marr. Reach out and  Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Preview

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hunts on this is Huntson Outfitting Podcast. I'm your host and rookie guide, Ken Mare. I love everything hunting, the outdoors, and all things associated with it. From stories to how-tos, you'll find it here. Welcome to the podcast. Hey, yes, I'm super excited and pumped up to have you guys listening. I was excited to record this podcast, and I'm even more excited to put it out. This was recorded uh about a month or two ago now. We are talking with Ryan Bow Madness Bennett. Ryan is a very talented young archery shooter who's incredibly humble. The dude's very humble. You'll learn that on the podcast. Ryan was a lot of fun to chat with. We talk all about uh his shooting career thus far. We talk a little bit about some outfitting that he and his family do. We talk about when he went to Vegas shooting and uh a little bit of what stuff's like in Vegas. We talk about when he went to France shooting and what it was like there, different culture and stuff. We have some laughs. We're joined by fellow hoop crew member Lane Lewis and also friend Darren Matthews. Darren shoots alongside with Ryan. Uh Ryan, this is his first ever podcast, but you'd swear he's been doing it longer than me. Great, natural on the mic. So it's a lot of fun. You guys are gonna enjoy this. Ryan is a great shooter, and uh you know, uh when you need to do high performance stuff and shoot at a good level and all that, you want

Dog Food Sponsor Break

SPEAKER_02 2:09

the best. And there's always debate what the best is. But I'll tell you where the debate and what feeding your dog there's no debate. The best is a Nookshuk dog food. My dogs are great proof of it, all six of them. They look great, perform great, uh, and they feel great. You can tell by the way they run around and move and everything. And Nookshok dog food's gonna help your dog the same way. Whether it's you have a really active dog, a young dog, an old dog, or just a medium level energy dog, and nookshuk's gonna blend for you with all the different ones that they do have. So just uh just to let you guys know. Also, um I figured I'd share this because uh we're gonna be talking about archery on this podcast.

Losing A Wounded Bear

SPEAKER_02 2:50

And the unfortunate thing is that if you've been hunting big game long enough or hunt you know, hunting long enough, either this has either happened to you or will happen to you. If it hasn't, unfortunately it's coming, or you say it hasn't, somebody might be lying. But uh wounding an animal and not being able to find it. Unfortunately, it's a part of big game hunting that really, really sucks. It has never happened to me before uh until this past Friday. I was out and uh had a great big tank of a black bear come in. This thing was pushing 400 pounds plus just an absolute monster of a bear. He came in, I was about 13, 14 yards and a ground blind. It was pretty incredible seeing an animal, a beast of that size come in so close to me. I pulled back, shot, felt pretty good about the shot. Hit him, he took off. Uh we ended up recover. I was with some friends, we ended up recovering the arrow, clean pass through, the blood all through the arrow, good clean pass through. So then I looked down, found blood. We were seeing lots of blood. It was all the right colors of blood, too. It was like that nice, dark, thick blood. Like we're good to go. Started tracking him. Um we tracked later into the night. We hadn't heard anything more from the bear. We heard him at first, almost sounded like he was coughing, never heard anything again. Was able to track for about seven, eight hundred yards, pretty good blood. Uh couldn't find him. Came back the next morning, looked all over, couldn't find him. Uh, and then on Sunday, uh, we looked all day and crisscrossed and went into thick big woods, but could not find them. Uh, first time that's happened to me. If you're listening to this, chances are maybe it's happened to you. And it's amazing how many people come out of the woodwork, um, you know, friends and family and stuff, and tell you, like, yeah, actually I've got a story a bit like that too. And like I said, just uh being a big game hunter, uh, if you do it long enough, it's gonna happen eventually. It's unfortunate, but uh we do our best to try to recover the animal and look as hard as we possibly can and make good ethical shots. Uh, but sometimes it just doesn't uh doesn't work out, so it sucks. But I thought I'd share that because chances are there's a few of you listening that maybe that's happened to as well. And we're not alone. We are not alone. Um so there's that.

How To Reach The Show

SPEAKER_02 5:20

But on a happier note, we're gonna talk to Ryan and the boys. It's a lot of fun. Oh, and if you were looking to get a hold of us to maybe come on the podcast or suggest somebody for it, or just reach out to me, you can email me, hunts on outfitting at gmail.com, or you can find us on Facebook, Hunts on Outfitting, or find myself on there, Ken Meyer. Feel free to reach out. Some of you guys have been. It's been great talking with you from all over. All right, boys, I'm fired up. Happy

Meet Ryan Lane And Darren

SPEAKER_02 5:51

to have you here. Ryan Badass Bennett in the house. I've heard lots of stuff about you, so I'm excited to uh to have you here. So we'll get to you in a sec. Then we've got uh regular hoop crew member, Lane Lewis, and Darren. This is your second time on Darren Matthews. Yes, sir. But he shoots Elite. Right? You shoot Elite. I do, yes. Yeah, it'd be cool if you shot Matthews. What else would I shoot? Well, my last name spelled differently. Yeah, and then you guys just came back, so this weekend we all are attending the our local uh outdoor boat and sportsman show. So I'll be giving two seminars this weekend or attempting to. I've never done that before. Uh when this podcast comes out, the show will be long over with. So hopefully uh it goes well. And uh so Ryan, you and Darren were setting up for Archery, New Brunswick.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Uh uh yeah, Archery New Brunswick and Archery New Brunswick Bow Hunters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Right. And Lane, you helped with that a bit, and you're doing your guys' big game club. You're gonna be scoring. Yep. What do you think you'd be scoring most of, Deer?

SPEAKER_04 6:46

I I'm guessing Deer is normally too.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

You know, people are getting a little more bear.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

Any show we've been doing is often uh little like next to no bears being scored.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Well, what are the uh what's the minimum to get in for a bear first with a bow, then with a rifle?

SPEAKER_04 7:02

For archery, it's 17 inches and open class is 19.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Okay. Yeah, that's not bad. I mean, that's a pretty good sized bear, but not uh there's a lot of bears around here, 17 inches heads on them. So um Ryan, I'm excited to talk to you. There's a lot to talk about. Yes, you're very uh well I'll let you tell about yourself because I don't really know much about you, but I know that you're hardcore into uh the bow world. Yes, but you guys also have some outfitting and all that. Let's you take it away, Ryan.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Yeah, so um mostly I guess um I mean I'm big in archery, tournament archery, competitive archery. I also do guiding for uh I own an outfitting business with my father and another friend. Um that's like what most of my time goes to besides just hunting, but uh archery takes a lot of time, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah. Uh you want to just sit in a little bit. Um you're good. Uh so Ryan, so how did you get into archery?

Ryan Starts Archery From Scratch

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Because I mean, I've heard before, Darren was talking on here before that when you go to an archery tournament, it's everyone's just kind of competing for second. It's called beat. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, so how how did you get into that?

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Where's where did the archery come from? So I remember growing up, I mean, I remember watching hunting shows growing up, everybody did, and you know, seeing the bow hunters on there, and it looked really cool. So uh I remember asking for a bow for Christmas when I was like 13 or 12 or something.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

So no one else ran you did it.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

No, no, my dad didn't grow up. It was they're all gun hunters, right? For the most part. Um, I don't even know anybody, I guess, that was in my family that ever even shot Archery or anything like that. So um got a bow for Christmas one year, bear cruiser. Uh I dry fired it within a week, and then we went back to uh the Cabela's when we used to have one. I ended up getting a different bow that fit me better than one I used to get.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Did it wreck?

SPEAKER_03 8:48

No, no, I was uh I remember it was boxing day. It was boxing day. I got it on Christmas and I dry fired it on boxing day. So um I was super excited, had this bow, was shooting it a little bit, and then we were up at my uh grandparents' house, and they're like, Oh, look, he got this new bow, so I go set up the target, right? And they're all gonna go watch me shoot. And then I pull back, and my dad says, Oh, he's got no arrow, and he must just be like just I don't know, just lining her up or something. Anyways, I let her go and it just derailed right away. And I was like, Oh my god, what happened? So we took it in the house.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Took it into the house, and my dad was able to press it with his hands, and we were able to get the string back on it, and then um I only had that bow for another couple weeks, and then I ended up getting a different bow. Oh, really? It was a bear cruiser. I was growing, I was 12.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Yeah. And thanks, but no thanks for the Christmas present.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

Yeah, so I ended up changing it out for something that fit me a little better. It was, I remember it was a Cabela's branded uh Cabela's Instigator. It was a single cam. Remember, it had gold cams.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Did they have like Redhead series?

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Uh maybe.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

It was made by that was back when they were separate, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

It was made by Diamond. Cabela's doesn't actually make the bow, it was made by Diamond, rebranded for Cabela's. So, anyways, I ran that for a while, and um, you know, I shot it in the garage a little bit and didn't really do much of it, didn't shoot hardly at all. And then I remember uh we go to Graham and Anne every year to hunt the Aunt Lulas deer. You get a bonus tag if you shoot an Aunt Lulas deer during bow season with a bow.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:19

So we started doing that, and I remember taking my bow there, and honestly, I had never got it tuned. I remember setting a pin up, like I had a 20-yard pin, and then I'm trying to set all my pins like the week before I go. I'm like putting no effort into it, and I remember going there and I remember being nervous before we went. I was like, oh man, I don't feel very confident with this thing, right? So we go there and I get a deer in and I played out missed it. Oh, wait completely missed it. Miss the deer, and I look down at my bow and I'm like, I need to, I'm gonna I need a new bow. I need an yeah, I need to take this a little more seriously because I owe it to the animal, like to not make a bad shot. Like, who knows where I could have hit that thing? It's a good thing I missed it, honestly. I could have hit it anywhere. So um I decided to look into getting to know my bow a little better and understanding a little better.

First Bow Tune And First 3D

SPEAKER_03 11:10

So uh I remember buying a bow from a bow shop and I wanted to get it tuned, and I remember finding this nice little shop in Memrimcook. Um JMZ Archery. Um big plug there. Shout out to March. Yeah, Darren's wearing a JMZ hat. Um I'd seen that recently.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah, Darren's head.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

Yeah. So uh I didn't know him. I set up an appointment. I said I like to get my bow tuned, and he didn't know me, but I went into his shop and he was bow was that? That was um that was right after COVID, probably 2021. 2020, 21, I think. Yeah, 2021. Um, I go and I get it tuned, and he was great. Like he was a guy that wasn't just doing it just to make a little money on the side, he just loves art. Yeah, big time, yeah. Best best guy. Like you go in there and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna get my bow tuned, and he's like showing you everything. I learned so much from just like an hour there, anyways.

SPEAKER_05 12:03

So don't leave until he's happy.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

No, exactly, right? So um I go there, I get my bow tuned, and he starts talking about you know the archery world and stuff, and he he talks about 3D tournaments, and I was like, oh, that sounds sounds fun. So, anyways, I joined the Facebook groups. I find there's a there's a shoot coming up. It was called uh they called it the Hunter Classic. And it was a it was a weird shoot. You're only allowed bow hunter equipment. Oh yeah, and uh it was a for fun shoot. There wasn't actually any scoring. There was a couple like there was a long-range one or shoot like closest to the middle, and then there was another, I can't remember what the other one was, but you had to pay to I think it was brackets or something, and you shot off for the prize and it was money prize, whatever half of what people put in. So I remember going there and I didn't really know what to expect. This is like April or something, and I thought we were gonna show up to a field and there's gonna be a whole bunch of targets on the field. Anyways, that is not what happened. I showed up in sneakers.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

A bunch of balloons to like aim at something.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Showed up in sneakers. Marcel said, first rule of 3D is you do not show up in sneakers. It was muddy. I got ruined my sneakers that day. But, anyways, you kind of like go through the course. It's almost like I I imagine it's kind of like golf a little bit, you know what I mean? Like a course. That's kind of what I'm gonna do. I think it'd be more fun than golf. Way more fun, way more fun than golf. Okay. Golf, but I get to shoot something.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Right?

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Yeah, absolutely. So, anyways, I had a blast. It was the best, best time I ever had. And then we had a long shot turn uh shoot. We had to shoot, uh, I think they had a 90 yards or 80 yards or something. Anyways, closest to the middle, one. And you won that? I did, yes. First time I had a shoot. Anyways, I was pretty happy. Won a door prize.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

You just you just got into this kind of recently, then. Yeah, I thought you've been doing it for a while there. Everyone's been talking and stuff.

SPEAKER_05 13:48

No, he's 16.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

You've been what's that?

SPEAKER_05 13:50

He's only 16. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Because you for the sales, but you've been dominating, but you just got into this around COVID.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was honestly when I started was probably when the clubs were kind of getting back to going. Because it was still there was still a lot of COVID restrictions, I think. I can't remember if we were still wearing masks then or not. But, anyways, shot at this tournament. The next one I went to, Memrum Cook, it was great. Had a lot of lot of fun there. Uh, went to my first provincials event after that. It was fun. Uh, I was shooting the hunter class at that point, shot that for a while, and uh kind of just progressed from there, started to win a few tournaments and all of them. A few? No, I didn't win my first, didn't win my first. So um my second one would have been prevent provincials. Okay, did win that.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

So you've been doing it a while, but not like a you've been shooting bow for a little while, but you haven't been shooting the you know, competition for long at all.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Pre-COVID. So I probably hadn't shot a bow past 30 yards ever. So really, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Wow. So you you're in you got you're sponsored by Elite, are you?

Winning Early And Getting Sponsored

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Okay, so how'd that how'd that come about?

SPEAKER_03 14:54

So um I remember going to one of the shoes. Darren was there. I remember I was scared of him at that time. Is it a beard? Uh what's that? Darren's got a big beard. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Um you don't know him, it looks kind of freaky. You'd be like, what's he hiding in that beard?

SPEAKER_03 15:10

You'd be surprised. Um I remember going to, it was a big shoot. They didn't have it last year, they're bringing it back, but it was the East Coast Crown. Oh, yeah. And I remember going there and I was shooting an elite bow. I bought an elite bow target bow from Marcel. Bought his old Target bow. Uh, but I didn't have any elite merch, so I just wore my Hoyt stuff. Oh, anyways, I go there and I won the tournament. And then Marcel said, I gotta you gotta get an elite shirt. So then he offered to put me onto his little shop staff uh deal. So I shot for him for about a year.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Because he he'll fix anything, Willie, but he he specializes in elite.

SPEAKER_03 15:45

Yeah, so he's like uh a main elite dealer, he can get anything. Yeah, uh, but that's like his his brand. He's sponsored by Elite and he's his he runs a shop. He's like an elite dealer, really. But he can get anything.

SPEAKER_05 15:55

Yeah, because that was a thing. Like when I said I'm a Matthews, he's like, I can get you a Matthews, but I'll be able to cover like if there's an issue, I'll be able to take care of you better with the Matthews.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

I'm not even talking about both right now. I'm not Darren, Darren Matthews. I'm just introducing myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

Yeah, so uh shot for him for a while. I remember going to a bunch more provincials, Atlantics, and then um went to nationals in Sydney, indoor nationals, and then um destroyed everybody. I guess. Not not quite, I wouldn't say that. No, no, but we'll say it for you. You did a comfortable comfortable. I had a comfortable lead going into day two. Actually, uh it was we shot two rounds on day one, I think. I think and then one more on day two. I like was not shooting well, and like there was a guy who was like, it should have been a comfortable lead, and then I shot really bad, and then I shot a five. I thought it was a five. Yeah. And I was like, oh my god, I just lost. I just lost first place. Anyways, it wasn't a five.

SPEAKER_05 16:54

It was taking count, Ryan's really bad is about above average for sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

His bad would be my wow, I did really good today, essentially.

SPEAKER_05 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

So um, and then after nationals, won nationals, and then we went to um, I think that was the same year that they had the ECC tournament where they had the special. I think so, and uh Nationals and Fredericton as well. Yeah, Nationals Fredericton uh did not win nationals. Get out. Um and then uh yep, shot well at the ECC. I think nationals capped off the season. And then after the season, uh through Marcel, I kind of got into contact with some elite guys and um They saw how you were doing.

SPEAKER_05 17:35

Yeah, they they put together bragging bit that's that's why you're here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

It's the only reason you're here. No, it's kidding. You can brag a bit. Um, like you're not allowed to brag.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

But um, so got in contact with Elite, you know, worked out a contract and shoot for them a little bit, and you know, it's a partnership. I you don't wear your Hoyt clothing anymore. I do not. I don't think they would appreciate that, probably not. But uh what is nice about Elite Um is that I shot it before. So it's not like not a big change. No, and it's not like I'm picking up a company because they're offering a sponsorship. Like I already know before they did, like I like this stuff, like you know, it was dependable stuff, so that really helps a lot with that. You don't have to feel like you're I won't say lying, but you know, yeah, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

But here well, here's a little question

Modern Bows And Easy Tuning

SPEAKER_02 18:26

about this. I don't know if you can answer this, but uh all the modern bows now, yeah, are they pretty similar?

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Yeah, pretty well now.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Like what would be a huge or a uh not maybe not huge, but a decent size of difference you could tell between you don't gotta say the brands but elite and hoyt and even bear and what's it diamond and all that? I mean, what what's a big thing that you notice that would be the difference? Technology catches up competitive.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah, recently they've been coming out with some new technologies. I mean, at the point now, per for performance when it comes to a bow, I mean, they're really they've pretty much milked pretty much all that they can. Like they can't really make them any smoother and faster, you know what I mean? Like it's we say that now, but they probably said that five years ago. I guess it's very marginal increase every year. In fact, that's not usually what the companies are really chasing right now. Um, there's a lot more technology that they're coming through. Like over the last few years, uh they've come up with new ways of tuning your bow and timing it and stuff, so you don't need a press. Yeah, make it better for the consumer. And and and companies kind of catch up, like you know, like uh like I remember BoTech came out with uh it was called the deadlock cam system, they still use it today, and it was it was really cool because you could move your cam without a bow press. And Elite came out with their own version of it like pretty well at the same time. And uh like everybody's gonna catch up, but they gotta kind of work their way around the patents and stuff. So yeah, nowadays, like I don't know much about all of the brands, but like Matthews, Hoyt and Elite and Botech, they all have I think they all have a tuning system that you don't need to press anymore. Uh Elite and Botec, and there's probably still a couple more that do this. Uh, are the only ones that I know of that allow you to time your bow. Like Elite's got a yoke system. Um, and they all they all kind of do the same thing, but they work different ways. Like Botec, they you move the it's a drive, the the cam moves left and right on uh the elite bows, you're pivoting the uh limb pocket, and that's how you're like changing your lean and you're tuning it so that you don't have to like I mean because you can move your rest a little bit to tune, but that's like not the you know, there's different ways of doing it, I suppose. But um makes it really nice on Elite, like you can really fine-tune it, yeah. Super, super nitpicky, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Elite's obviously like the best, too. Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, and then I mean some of them too that just start off at better price points for your person getting into it. Because remember this one bow company I was looking up, I was like, maybe I'll buy a bow from them. We won't say the name, like holy shit, they're pricey.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

Yeah, so a lot of brands will have their own little like other brands. Like you mentioned Diamond earlier. Yeah, Diamond is owned by Botech. Okay, Botech is their flagship, yeah. And then they might have like a mid-level bow, and then anything that's entry level will go under Diamond. Uh Elite, they they just keep the same name for all of their bows. They have entry-level bows, mid-level bows, um, and then flagship bows.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

A shoot obsession. My bow's quite old now, but I mean it works, does the trick. Yeah, yeah. But you don't see a lot of them around.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

Not not so much anymore. There was a dealer here, but I don't know if he's still uh around or selling it.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

That's another story. But um I know you mean. Uh I I like my obsession, but uh they just they don't seem like a real popular bow. It's a great bow. I like it a lot, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Yeah, I mean there's definitely your big uh big three or four. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

So Ryan, I'm curious. Growing up, were you playing sports? Were you competitive?

SPEAKER_03 21:43

Yeah, I I grew up playing a little bit of hockey, not like super competitive, but I grew up playing hockey.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Um 'cause where did this like with the the obsession with the bow and like getting so good in in a short amount of time and stuff? I mean, you've got some discipline and drive for it, obviously. So just wonder if you're really big into sports. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:02

I mean I know for myself, and you can tell me if you're right. When I joined, I was better than what I expected. Yes. And then when you are when you're coming home with a medal, it drives you. It makes you want to keep going to more tournaments, which therefore is making you better. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:20

You know, honestly, if I went if I went to that first tournament and I sailed like half my arrows over the backs, I don't know. Maybe I wouldn't have stuck around with that.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

We wouldn't be sitting here right now. That's why I haven't been back to one.

SPEAKER_05 22:30

Speaking of sailing arrows. I thought you were out cheerleading.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Yeah. Lane's just trying to keep the arrow companies in business.

SPEAKER_04 22:39

Yeah, that's that's an important job. I showed up with three arrows and I left with three arrows.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Well, they just weren't mine.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

No, they just didn't hit where I wanted to. They weren't usable anymore. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:50

So uh explain to me the different types of like explain to me the world of competitive archery.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

Yeah. So um there's different like types of archery, obviously, and different levels and all that. Um I'll go with I'll I'll start with the ones that I know the least amount, I guess. Or even just field the less. Yeah. Yeah, I yeah, I mean there's local, but as far as like types of archery, um, there's there's field archery. Uh I've actually never shot field yet. It's not popular in New Brunswick, and every time they have a tournament, it's too usually it's just hard because it's it's a lot of setup and uh there's just not a lot of crowd that really want to shoot it. So I mean I don't blame them for not wanting to set up a target if they're gonna have five people come shoot, right? So what so field is it's uh if it would be a mix of what 3D and target is. So um it might be better off to start with target, I guess.

Target Archery And Vegas Rules

SPEAKER_03 23:38

Target would be the most simple. So target is what everybody thinks of when they think of archery, probably, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Just shooting a target.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

A circle, and you gotta shoot the middle of the circle, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:46

That um that's what I figured it was, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Indoor and outdoor. So um indoor, we usually shoot, typically we shoot 18 meters, 20 yards. Um, and we're shooting a a circle, basically. Um if you're compound, you're usually shooting three of them so that you're not hitting your arrows against each other. But it's it's really as simple as the rings have different scoring values depending on the tournament you're at.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

It's like darts.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Yeah, essentially. Um, so uh for example, Lancaster scoring is is an easy one. The very center circle is worth 11, 10, 9, and so on, and you go from there. And you're basically uh indoor archery is basically a game of you cannot miss. You cannot afford to miss at the pro level, you cannot miss. So um, like last week I was in Vegas and uh there was an indoor archery. Shout out. Yes. Um and Bodie Turner shot 90 X's, and we're talking a two-centimeter circle at 20 yards.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Really?

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Never missed 90 of them in a row.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

And then you're like step back, all right. That guy's a little above you. That's impressive.

SPEAKER_04 24:51

Wow. First one in 60 years to ever do it.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

What's uh what's he what's he shoot?

SPEAKER_03 24:56

At Vegas.

SPEAKER_04 24:57

At Vegas, yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

It's been done in other tournaments. What's he shoot? Uh different brand. Yeah, different brand. Does he? Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:04

It's a Matthews.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

It is a Matthews. But um, but at the top level though, yeah. You'll see. I mean, there's lots of different brands up there. Like you go look at the podium pictures, yeah. There's there's Hoyt up there, there's Matthews up there, there's uh Elite up there, Botec up there, like everybody's represented. I was curious.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

I know we're talking, they're they're kind of similar.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Yeah. Um so that's Target. Target's pretty simple. Um outdoor targets, basically the same thing. Bigger target, further away. Uh more variables. There's wind and weather and all that. Um but essentially the same thing. You just, you know, as high a score as you can. Um, some tournaments will have uh match play where you shoot a qualifier, you get ranked, and then you shoot one-on-one against someone, and then you move on from there. Some tournaments like Vegas, you have to shoot a perfect 900. If you don't, you're not in. If you are, you guys keep shooting till there's one winner, basically the last one to miss.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Really? Yes. So you guys could be there a while.

SPEAKER_03 26:00

Yes, actually, it's been so bad that they had to change the targets this year, and after a certain amount of area uh arrows, they changed the X-ring to make it smaller.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

I think it was seven rounds this year, they changed it.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Yes, this year they didn't make it to the smallest one they had. But normally, um, like we'll say at Vegas, after round one or two, I think, they go to X scoring. So basically how it works is say you got seven guys up there. Um X counts as ten. Highest score sets the benchmark. So if everybody shot 29s, everybody would move on. But that's not gonna happen. So uh basically, if you miss, you get eliminated, and then you keep going and you keep going until you get to one person. And then this year, because it's been so good, they've been going so long on the rounds that they they made the two centimeter circle, they added a 1.5 and then a one. And that is a small thing.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

I'd be cranking up the uh the draw weight to like 90, like, all right, let's see what the boys got. You know, we'll see how much longer you keep shooting.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

So what what are your draw weights? Is there a minimum?

SPEAKER_03 27:01

Uh there's a maximum in uh world archery, it's 60 pounds. That's maximum. Yeah, maximum. Uh as far as target archery goes, like draw weight doesn't really help you that much. I mean, it's a set set range. So uh I shoot 60. I shoot like 58, 60. I don't really want to wear my shoulders out shooting target. Right. Um in uh some other tournaments they have uh speed limits. You can't go over a certain speed.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:24

Um as far as New Brunswick, I think there's no real limit. I mean, I wouldn't go to a tournament shooting 80 pounds, but uh I mean I guess you could if you wanted to, if you're not shooting world archery.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

So there's maximum. I was just curious if there's like kind of a is that like sort of the standard though? It's 60. A lot of guys can play on that.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Anything that's world archery is 60. A lot of the private events don't really care. Yeah. Um like Vegas, I don't think there's I'm sure there's a maximum, but I don't know what it is. It's not hot, nobody's at it. No. Yeah. Um, yeah. And then there's different rules on arrow sizes depending on where you go as well. But uh, but for the most part, that's that's pretty much target. Target's pretty simple. Yep.

3D Classes Gear And Rangefinders

SPEAKER_03 28:02

Um 3D is I'm sure all of our favorites here, right? Um 3D is a lot of fun. It's it would be lanes if you could hit it. Uh basically we're shooting foam animal targets with rings on them. And depending on where the ring is or and how small it gets, the the scores get higher and and so on. Um it's different kinds of scoring, I suppose. Um a typical 3D target, like tournament, I guess, like an outdoor one, you'd shoot uh around a 20, any different targets, have a break, and then depending on if it's a bigger shoot or not, you might shoot at another 20 of the same ones or two, it depends on where you go. Um, and in that there's different classes, which for compound. Um so we all shoot known classes, I believe. If you shoot known.

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Yeah, uh, so let's because some you can take a rangefinder to some you can't, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Traditionally, uh, may not be known. Like it used to all be unknown. Yeah. In the states, there's still a lot of unknown. And out west, I believe there's still a lot of unknown. New Brunswick's pretty much all known except for like the old guys. Yeah. So known known to rangefinder. So there's there's two main known core uh classes besides like I think all of the under 21 classes are now known, which they never used to be, but I think they are now. Uh the two big classes for known would be K50 and Hunter. K50 basically means known 50. So known 50 yards, no limits on just uh equipment as far as like on stuff that you're actually not allowed for anywhere. I guess like a you're not allowed to have an automatic release or some weird stuff, but basically no limits, anything that's readily available. Yeah. Um, and then the hunter class, which you guys shoot, I believe still. Um, it's max 40 yards and outdoor. Outdoor. Indoor is different because they can't move the stake. So like outdoor, we shoot at a stake.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Uh so I would shoot typically uh ours would be the red stake, but changes in New Brunswick, it's the red stake, and that's max 50. And then if you're shooting Hunter, you'd go up to the green stake. It might be 10 yards closer, might be five, it changes. Okay. Um, so they can do that, but indoor, there's like one shooting line. Like you can't have people standing in front of the line, it's people behind the line, so it's max fifty for for them. Um uh anyways, so max 40 outdoors, and they're not allowed um a lens. Not allowed stabilizers over 12 inches. I don't know if they've changed that. Uh they keep talking about it, but I don't think it's official. Some places change have changed it to a little bit longer. Uh for a long time you weren't allowed a back bar. That changed recently. Uh, and you had to have screw and arrow tips, that's no longer a thing. Um but uh basically you're not allowed the long stabilizers and you're not allowed a lens. And it makes a big difference. What the lens is the you have it's basically like essentially like it's a magnification glass in your site. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

People have that. I have not been told about it. Um people don't really.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

No, typically, I mean it's not good to hunt with, like, because it's not like a rifle scope where they got all those different coded pieces of glass where like like my loophole scope, if I get w rain on the end of it, I can still see through it.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

You've got you've got a loophole scope, what, on your rifle? On my right, okay, but on your bow?

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Not on my bow. My bow has a C V E scope and uh sight. But the piece of glass is in there, the piece of glass is in there, it's just a single piece of glass. So like if you get rain or dirt on that, it's you're not gonna be able to see that through your body.

SPEAKER_04 31:28

You'll see it tomorrow. He's got it at the show.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

Yeah, yeah, you can see it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Then typically I've never heard of that.

SPEAKER_05 31:35

A scope or a lens in your scope, you need to have a clarifier in your peep. So a little tiny piece of glass in your peep.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

And that's that gets water on it. So that's the killer there. Yeah. If you get water in that, it sucks. Really? Yeah. So I have people with little like blowers or something.

SPEAKER_02 31:51

So if you're looking to sabotage somebody, just like sneeze on it accidentally.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

What's good like that? In Hunter, you are allowed glass in the back.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

I was wondering that because dad had trouble shooting with his glasses. Okay. He just put a clarifier in his peep and he said it made a world of difference shooting. Yeah, yeah. Night and day.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Yeah. So you're allowed a clarifier, a verifier, whatever you want in the back. You're not allowed any magnification. Any I don't even think you're allowed any glass in the front. I don't think it matters if it's magnification or not. But because I remember a guy, he had no nothing, but he just had like a reticle, and that's why he liked it. Oh, really? But they wouldn't let him have it.

SPEAKER_02 32:25

So and then the stabilizers are those great big old sword-looking things that you guys have in the non-hunter.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

Yeah, so you'll see in their class they're only allowed 12 inches, so they're just you know what you see on a normal hunting bow. Mine, I run a 30-inch on the front and a 15 on the back.

SPEAKER_02 32:38

Holy target a lot.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Yeah, I run a lot of weight on them too. Like, you know what I'm hunt with my bow. It would suck. I would get terror woods. It would it would suck.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Be all set up for a sword fight after the event.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

Yeah, it would. Lee, he's got a big spike on the end of his. I figure he's got that to jab somebody when they give a an arrow call to the big thing.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Given the old shock putt. Um, because I know you see that, and these guys have like a freaking ruler on the end of it there. Like, holy.

SPEAKER_03 33:03

Yeah, no, it it could be pretty crazy. I've seen there's a guy, uh, Tim Gilling and he runs like it looks like a they call it his cane because he's he's got like two on each side and two out the back, and they're both like super long. Like, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Does it help that much?

SPEAKER_03 33:19

Yeah, I mean, think of it as like what basically what it's doing is if you imagine like a tightrope walker and they got that long pole that's stabilizing you, that's basically what it is. So, I mean, if you can handle it, um, yeah, it would keep you steady, right? That's the thing though, like you put weight out that far. Like the first time I shot a stabilizer, I really or a really long one, I really didn't like it because it was really weird. It was really oddly heavy, and you had to really get used to it. Like and like the whip almost after you let the arrow go, yeah, is what it's different.

SPEAKER_05 33:50

It's different.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

I use I had problems you well, it's just a vibration coming out of it, right? Um even getting back to full draw, like if you hit that back wall too hard, like your your stabilizer shakes around and it will get really stable, but it takes a minute, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

But um, it does help a lot, like it'll stabilize your setup a lot.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

So that's in the hunter class, though, it's 12 inches.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

12 inches, not allowed that, which is your standard stabilizer. Yeah, yeah. It's a little shorter than a lot of people have, honestly, nowadays. People are running longer stabilizers on their hunting setups now.

SPEAKER_04 34:23

Because I get on mine's 10, but I get the quick tatch on it, so it's actually rate at 12. Yeah, you what's my quick tatch on it?

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Yeah, if you have a if you have a quick disconnect, you or any weights at all, you can't run an actual 12-inch stabilizer. You have to buy a 10 or an 11 or whatever. Yeah, but um, so 3D, that's in New Brunswick. That's our main two classes. Uh, there is judging classes, which is fun. Um, but in New Brunswick, it's really a dying class. There's nobody that shoots unknown, honestly. Besides the old guys, they still do.

SPEAKER_05 34:54

Which I guess even this year was talked about, like they were kind of getting opinions from those specific guys and asking them if they would want to use a rangefinder. And uh I I think they said no majority.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Yeah, so basically everyone wants to use a rangefinder.

SPEAKER_03 35:09

Yeah, uh yeah. Um, in the States is still big that they non-rangefinder.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Yeah, unknown.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's adding a whole new skill to it. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it is a completely different skill.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

So the old guys are pretty good at guessing yards.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, honestly, as far as unknown archer goes, you have to be equally as good at shooting as you have to be at because you you go up to a target and you make a perfect shot and you guessed it two yards uh shy. Man, you're not you're not catching the ring that you were open. So it's a big difference. Yeah. Um I suck at judging, so I shoot known.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

So yeah, so then what do you so that's uh that's a hunter division. So then what do you shoot at?

SPEAKER_03 35:45

I shoot in the known fifty division. Okay. So that's like the that's like the open division, I guess. The biggest division. That's the one that the people are usually in the longest go in. Um I mean, people stay in Hunter forever, but um if you want to progress, yeah, if you want to progress, you've got to shoot in the archery, you need to be that's where you should be, right?

SPEAKER_05 36:02

Yeah, so is there still Hunter class in like Lancaster and Vegas?

SPEAKER_03 36:07

There is, there is. Um Lancaster last year, there was a I shot the Hunter uh division in the Target Target uh tournament in Lancaster. Um came eighth, I believe, out of I think there's 160 people there. Wow. Um didn't shoot very good in qualifiers or yeah, in qualification, but I shot well in the matches and kind of made up for it. But um yeah, it's and it's getting bigger, honestly. It's getting bigger here, it's getting bigger there. People uh it's it's a good class for people to not feel intimidated, we'll say. Like you show up to a shoot, like with your hunting bow, and you see see me show up with my 38-inch bow with 30 inch stabilizers, and I got a magnifying glass, and I got a light on there, and I got all this your elite jersey on, and you're like I'm going home. You're like, yeah, I don't know. Very intimidating. So uh the hunter class is nice where it is a lot more inviting, we'll say. Still intimidating. Still intimidating, yeah, but uh more inviting for sure. Um and then it's known, so well your hunter class is for your average Joes, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Yeah. Kind of thing. Yeah, yeah. Your weekend warriors.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

That's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_03 37:15

A lot of people start out at Hunter and they kind of like progress through it, I guess. Um but uh and and it's also known, so like a lot of guys probably who don't ever judge um don't really want to show up to a shoot judging and like miss a bunch of targets and lose a bunch of arrows. I mean, we know arrows are expensive, right? Yeah, so that's the other thing, I guess, is known is more inviting for people who are just starting as well.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

Yeah, but um and when you're just starting, like typically if you're in a K-50 class, you have a hunting bow as well.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Yes, and yeah, typically people have two. Oh sometimes. Um people have two in the hunter division too, though. But um yeah, typically it's it's guys that are been at it longer, a little more serious, we'll say, than than the Hunter Division. But uh but the the competition in the Hunter Division can be fierce. Oh yeah. Oh for sure. Oh yeah. I mean I've seen Hunter scores come out that beat the K50 scores.

SPEAKER_05 38:11

So or even something I've noticed is that with age, people will move to K50 because their eyesights are going getting worse. So they want that magnification just to help themselves see what they're voting.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

It's quite different going from no net none to like a two or three power even, like I shoot a six, it's quite a difference. Like I don't know how it's gonna be. No, this oh it's high tech. It's yeah, there's a lot of money in these bows, I'll tell you that much. I believe you.

Practice Volume Injury And Mindset

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah, so how how often do you practice? Because uh to get to the skill level that you're at right now, I mean, how often are you shooting, Ryan?

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Uh lately.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

I'm just really good.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

No, lately I've not been shooting very much. Um I have a shoulder injury at the moment that I'm still working on, um and I can't put a lot of reps in right now without hurting it. It's actually worse uh the longer I shoot, but it's working on I'm going on to physio and stuff to help.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

But uh But you got it from shooting?

SPEAKER_03 39:13

I don't know. I think I've had it for a while and it's just kind of it's a weird, it's it's in my wrist. Um I think I developed it uh from hockey, and I think archery has just become more just irritated, I guess. I don't know, it's it's weird. Um but if I shoot too much, my wrist goes practically numb and my shoulder hurts a lot. And uh that's a pain. Yeah, it is a pain. I just kind of just suffer and just shoot anyway. But does the ibuprofen? Yeah, uh, I'm sure that's not what you're supposed to do. So recently, that's kind of what I was doing. I was just kind of just shooting. I was like, oh, I can't have a shoulder injury. So uh recently I've been slowing down a lot and trying to like figure out like okay, I should probably fix this before it gets irreversible. Uh if so, but um last year uh when I was training a lot, um I would shoot every night probably.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Um how many arrows do you think?

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Oh, some nights I would shoot. Um I went through two sets of strings in a month once. So which is wild. Yeah, I was shooting a lot of things. No, I wasn't. I knock on wood, I have not dry fired since that one time. I believe you do it right now.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

Knock on wood.

SPEAKER_03 40:23

But um uh yeah, I was probably shooting, geez, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

I mean rough estimate.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

I wouldn't have a clue. I can tell you how long I was shooting. I was shooting from about five or six o'clock, and then sometimes I would go home at midnight.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

Um I mean you're a couple hundred plus. Yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

Yeah, when I was really practicing.

SPEAKER_02 40:48

Oh, it's maybe it's from hockey. I think I know what it's from. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

I who knows.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

But um shooting a few hundred at night, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:55

Yeah, but that's just like it's right before a tournament kind of deal, right? Like throughout the year, like uh the time of year I shoot the least is hunting season. I don't shoot at all during hunting season. We're busy, busy hunting. I'm actually I got my bow more than ever, I just never shoot it. But yeah, winter, you know, if not a whole lot going on, then I'll I'll shoot a lot. But uh depends kind of just depends on what's coming up, if there's tournaments coming up or not. But um, you know, uh if you want to be competitive at the highest level, I mean you gotta shoot a lot. But um, you know, a couple times a week would definitely do you some good, at least. Um try to shoot everything.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

And then so I I've heard, and it might have came from someone in this room, but that at tournaments you can kind of come off as a bit of a dick, but that's because that you're so laser focused.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Oh, that could be that could be it was me. Oh, I didn't say that. It was me. It wasn't I I I believe you.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

But but uh what's your mindset when you do get to these tournaments? You you're just laser focused. And what do you what are you picturing? What are you visualizing? You wish you visualizing you winning or I am honestly.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Uh I mean it depends on the tournament. I have different expectations for different tournaments. Um whenever I went wreckston, I'm like, I gotta shoot a perfect score. I gotta shoot a perfect score. That's it's where I saw you. Yes, yeah, I was Rexton, and I did not shoot a perfect score.

SPEAKER_04 42:14

And we were because we shot the round before you, and then we were kind of talking. I'm like, told Darren during the break, like, oh, he was kind of a dick. Like, really? He didn't really want to talk to me, and he was short with me. And Darren's like, no, he was just in the zone. He doesn't want to distract you and he wants to shoot.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

Right before I will uh I will be to people. And then after I shoot a good round, I'm super chatty, and I'm like, great, but um yeah, if I shoot a bad round, I'm going home.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

You're we're shooting the shit for like 45 minutes after. I'm like, okay, he was definitely just in the zone.

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Yeah, no, I get in the zone sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

Oh, that's that's okay, that's good, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

It depends on the tournament, but um Right, because like mental game, there's a difference between what you shoot here and when you go to Vegas and when you go to Lancaster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

Yeah, well let's talk about a bit of your

France Trip Culture Food And Hunting

SPEAKER_02 43:10

traveling. So you were in Paris?

SPEAKER_03 43:12

No, I was in uh Nimes, which is in France, but like the opposite side of France.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Let's just call it Paris.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

Okay, I was in Paris.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

Uh I'm not studying up my geography, but you were in France. Yes. So how did that come about?

SPEAKER_03 43:24

Um, I was just kind of looking at like tournaments that were kind of doable.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

And um it was uh it was honestly not like as far as like flights and stuff goes, it wasn't a terrible like it was a it was a doable tournament, I guess. It was just kind of something different. I wanted to go.

SPEAKER_02 43:42

Oh, yeah, be different.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

Um I wanted to go and kind of see that part of the world anyway. So I was like, you know what, I could do it and shoot at the same time. Like, you know. Um I didn't really go there. What did you see? Oh, tell me.

SPEAKER_02 43:55

Tell me about France, but I've never been there. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_03 43:58

It was uh it was different. It was uh we started out in southern France in Nimes and a lot of like Roman stuff, Coliseums and all that. It was cool. And then um we drove, I went there with my mom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Um Was everyone drunk there off wine?

SPEAKER_03 44:13

No, there wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Um everyone's like got like a slightly real good buzz off wine all day. That's that's what I think of.

SPEAKER_03 44:21

But yeah, I there was definitely lots of wine places there, but uh croissants. Yeah, it was cool. Um, like southern France was a little bit more mild and like almost subtropical. And then uh what I was more interested in is once we were done the tournament in Nimes, um, I wanted to go up into the Alps and uh went and saw the mountains up there. That's cool. Went off trail, found some deer sign up there. Oh, yeah. Couldn't help myself, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Uh where's my bow? Yeah, my first international church.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

Yeah, he was looking at tracks, red deer tracks there. I was like, oh, that's it. Wouldn't it be cool to shoot? And then I'm like sitting at a restaurant in in the Alps and I'm like, wonder what they can hunt. I wonder how much guided hunts are. I wonder when they do them. But um, no, it was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Is there much hunting in France? There was a little bit there.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

What's that?

SPEAKER_02 45:08

I said, is there mus much hunting in France? And can you use bow there? Because some European places you can't. France you can, okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:15

Because I know like bow hunting uh road deer is a big thing over there. Yeah, if you can. Okay. Because I know some European uh countries you can't.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

Yeah. France you can. All right.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Where we were specifically, uh, there was a lot of uh chamois hunting. Oh, um, and then red deer. Uh I don't think they had a lot of road deer right there. Was uh not a whole lot of farm area, which I think is where they usually want the road deer. But um I mean, I'd love to go for a red deer hunting.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

Oh, yeah, that'd be cool. What was like the culture like and stuff compared to Canada? Um a lot more French.

SPEAKER_03 45:46

Yes, yes. It was very French. Um it was completely different, honestly, from the Alps to southern France. The Alps almost kind of reminded me of like Western Canada, like ski town. It was it was all ski villages, right? It was all skiing there, right? Uh really cool little places. Um, the food was different, um, a lot heavier.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Uh a lot of pastries.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

Yeah, a lot of pastries, and uh I remember I had a burger there. It was honestly the best burger I've ever had.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Did you have a real croissant?

SPEAKER_03 46:13

I did. I had a real all the breakfast is there or not? Probably not like the stuff that you in the superstore. No, everything's so fresh there. Um pastries and stuff and cheese, very well known for the cheeses, right? But I had a burger there, it was uh I think it was fallow deer or roe deer. And they put liver on the burger and they put a big piece of liver on the burger, it was super rich. I'm a big fan of liver, I thought that was the best thing ever. But um very the food was very, yeah, very heavy and uh but um it was good, it was very good.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

Um probably healthy, like is there a lot of father?

SPEAKER_03 46:49

I don't think there's a lot of there's a lot of fat, but not a lot of like processed stuff, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

No, but if there's a lot of fat people in France, no, okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:56

See you. I was keeping count, honestly. I was I at the end of the trip, I said to somebody said four fat the only person I saw that was like really fat was in the airport, and I think she was American, so yeah, that that tracks. But uh no, actually kind of shocking. Like they're all they're not.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

Yeah, well, that's what I thought. Which is they're pretty healthy there, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

But like the food was really like fatty, honestly, like very fatty, like but uh just an active bunch, and they don't I don't think they eat as much of it, maybe, or I don't know. Not as much processed sugars, I don't think. I think that's a big one.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

So I think a lot of the European countries they're they're pretty healthy for the most part.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

I even I even got a bag of Skittles there, and uh everyone's like judging you probably. Oh um the sour Skittles. I don't know if you've ever had the sour Skittles, but basically like the ones Skittles the ones we have here, it's basically a Skittle, like covered in like just doused and sour uh sugar. Anyways, their sour Skittles were completely different kind of Skittle. They were way less sour, way less sugar in them. Like they have like I think they have like different regulations.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

Doast and liver, yeah, they probably do.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

Doasted liver. I brought back some uh foie gois, actually. What'd you call them? Foie gois. What is that?

SPEAKER_02 48:04

That is uh I think he called us a name.

SPEAKER_03 48:06

Uh that is fattened uh goose or duck liver, like like super fatty liver. Like it's almost pure fat.

SPEAKER_04 48:13

That's it if you need it. You can keep it.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Yeah, it was. What do you use it for? Just eat it? Yeah, you eat it. Uh bath soap. It was uh one of the best things I've ever eaten, honestly. But it was really good. Anyways, I bought a can of it though, and I didn't realize it was like the I had some in a restaurant which was fresh, and they grilled it, and it was like super good. And then I had some in a can later, and I didn't realize it was a pate and you're supposed to eat it cold. And honestly, it kind of tastes like uh what I imagine cat food tasted like. It was not nearly as good. I did not eat the whole can. I wasn't eating it. It was expensive. I was like, oh, this wasn't really worth it, but but uh no, France was cool, it was it was a great place to go experience uh some archery and are all the same big hitters going to France, or is there different?

SPEAKER_05 48:52

There's less.

SPEAKER_02 48:52

Are the French good at shooting? Yeah, archery.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of European um shooters that are really good.

SPEAKER_05 48:59

So not the same people in the Vegas.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

No, honestly, there's there's not a whole lot that go over there. Um but yeah, a lot of your big guys would go. Um, like Kyle Douglas and Curtis Broadnacks, big guys there. They they went. Um Body Turner didn't, but um he's still I think he's still in high school, honestly, or just where's he from? He is from Washington, I think. I thought it was Colorado.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

And then who's that kid? There's a kid in Canada that's like an incredible shooter. Ryan.

SPEAKER_04 49:30

Yeah, Ryan Bat. No, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

He's sitting right across from me, dumbass.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

Um uh yeah I can't remember his name.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

He was on Ryan Kohler had him on something to do with wild TV, and he's like this guy.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

Austin Taylor?

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Maybe he was shooting in Vegas too.

SPEAKER_03 49:45

Yeah, Austin Taylor would shoot Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 49:46

Uh might have been him.

SPEAKER_03 49:47

There's a couple names.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Um, like I don't know, he's 16 or something.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Oh, I I might have heard of him, but I I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

Not good enough for me to hear all of it.

SPEAKER_03 49:57

No, no, I think I heard about his name recently. Um I don't really keep up with a whole lot of the Western Canadian target shooters, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

But yeah, he was in Vegas, I know that, but I can't. If he's younger, he probably would have been in uh probably.

SPEAKER_03 50:11

Yeah, there's different young adult, I think. Young adult 17 and under. Yeah, I don't know what the cut up is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

So um Well, let's get into Vegas

Vegas Stories And Why It Works

SPEAKER_02 50:20

a bit. Well, I've heard Vegas. I've never been there. I know some people that have. Uh they say it smells like piss.

SPEAKER_03 50:25

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

Does it?

SPEAKER_03 50:27

Yeah, I mean, it's uh it's a different kind of place. I'll tell you that was. No, yeah, it was uh it's different. Um the the the strip like the streets are are it's interesting. Like if you want to people watch, that's the place to go. Uh I saw some very interesting people there. Um did you shoot it any or no, no, I didn't. No. I try to avoid them though, to be honest a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 50:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

Um but it no, it's cool though. It's it's a cool place to go.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

You recommend Sin City, old Vegas.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

Yeah, I mean it depends on what you like. Uh would I ever go there for anything other than Archery? No, I would not, but I'm not really into the Vegas kind of lifestyle. So but it's nothing to hunt there, right? No, I did go fishing though. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, so yeah, that'd be cool. Yeah, um state surrounded, there's lots of hunting. I mean, there's hunting in the Vod. Um it's a cool place. Um yeah, it's just a big city, a lot of shows. If you're into shows, it's a great place. It's a good spot to have an archery event like that because there's so much to do, like, when you're not there. Like you don't like the city never sleeps. Yeah, like there's there's just endless amounts of things you can do there, right? Um, and the the setup's really nice. Like the the tournament's held right inside of the main three uh three big hotels on the strip. And there's like like you couldn't you don't even have to leave the hotels. There's just so much stuff. There's like malls, and it's it's a it's a cool spot for sure. Um great place to have the tournament.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

Um well, how'd you get set up going there to shoot?

SPEAKER_03 52:05

Get set up. Yeah, uh how'd that come about? Um, I mean it's the biggest tournament, so that's the one that people want to go. I did go last year. Uh last year's my first year, and I figured I'd go again to this year. Um going to these international tournaments. I mean, um like you can go there with whatever expectations you want. Like um, but uh it's it's really good for someone who comes from a place like we do where you know we don't have a lot of huge shoots, like there's not a lot here, really. Like um, it's just it's a different atmosphere.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

You have to qualify so much to you don't get to bed.

SPEAKER_03 52:39

No, you just gotta pay your registration fee and you can go. I mean you can shoot whatever class you want as long as you pay the fee.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

The guys pretty good though that are there.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

Uh yeah. Yeah. So the best. That is the that is they call it the super bowl of arts.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

You might call it the elite. Yes. Um, so when I hit if I was shooting Vegas, my idea of it would be like when I hit the target, like slot machines would open, rippers would come out. Yeah, yeah. Like the whole Vegas feel. Yeah. A white tiger like rides to get your arrows.

SPEAKER_03 53:07

There's some showmanship there for sure. Uh I don't think they can have the strippers. There's a lot of kids there, so um, I don't think they would get away with that. They're in Vegas, they're good kids and stuff. It is different. Like, I I mean, just walking around the strip, I mean like Yeah, what do you see? Tell us. Oh man, it's just us here. You want to hear a funny, you want to hear a funny, a funny uh okay. So don't say it. I'm walking down uh the strip and I it's like nine o'clock in the morning, and there's there's uh everyone's drunk. Yes, pretty much. So um there's uh we'll call them street performers, we'll say, okay. So there's like, for example. No, not prostitutes. Not prostitutes too early in the morning for that. What were they wearing? That's after dark. Well, I mean, well, I'll bet you if you paid them enough, maybe. But um so I remember uh Buskers, they call them buskers, isn't that like the property that makes sense? Is that I think so. I don't know. What call is that? We'll call them that. Yeah, buskers.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

I think it is, yeah. They're street performers, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

So um they're like, for example, there's uh two groups of girls that go, uh groups of two, and they're dressed up the same. I think they have a big like feather tail or something on the right behind. I don't know. They're all dressed up, and what they're doing is they're trying to go up to people and they're like, come take a picture with me, and then they expect a tip, right? Or some money for taking a picture with you. Like I saw Mario and Luigi on the strip doing the same thing, right? Anyways, there's the Mario and Luigi. Yeah, the Mario and Luigi and Yoshi was there too, I believe. Um, and then I went back the next day and only Mario was there, so I don't know what happened to the other two, but they uh they didn't fare so well. So uh then the second day, or no, I think it was the first morning, was there? Second morning. I'm going out there as nine o'clock in the morning, and there's a street performer there. And um What was her name? I don't know. I didn't want to get anywhere near her. Correct. Uh so she's dressed up as a a cowgirl. That's cool. Not a whole lot of dressing up, to be honest, a lot of dressing down, but uh she was wearing she was not wearing very much, okay? Yep. Um let's just say up here there was nothing but stickers. Perfect. Anyways, so she's cat calling a bunch of people, trying to get them to get their pictures, and she's got a bowl whip in her hand. Did it work? And she every dude that walks by, she's she's spanking them.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

So you're like, I'm going back to get my bow.

SPEAKER_03 55:20

Yeah, I'm going, so I'm going for my hotel trying to go into the shooting area. Without getting your butt tanned. Yeah, I'm I'm watching her, and every dude that goes by, she says something to him and she gives him a whack. And usually it's couples. Like there's a girl and a dude, and he's he slaps the dude. No, I think she was only going for the dude, I think on purpose. Anyways, I almost got run over trying to get around her. I was trying to get to the street. I did not, that was not how I want to start my nut. I want nothing to do with that. Anyways, um, that was the probably the strangest thing I saw um on the stream. I was not expecting that, especially at nine o'clock in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

That's the strangest thing he saw. He got off easy.

SPEAKER_03 56:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

Um does anyone still dress up as Alan for the hangover? Because I had uh my cousin went there with her husband probably four years ago, and they said when they were there they saw a bunch of people still dressing up like Alan from the hangover.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

Really? I'll I'll have to shoot you straight. I've I have nothing. You didn't see that? No. I got I got in trouble for that the other day. Someone was giving me giving me lip for never watching it. So it's on the to-do list, I guess. It's kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 56:24

Yeah, I'll say I won't give you any more lip because we're on the podcast right now, but I'm gonna ditch out a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:30

Um yeah. Um what were people what else were people dressed up as?

SPEAKER_03 56:34

Uh I saw Mario, I saw a lot of um a lot of girls dressed up as different things.

SPEAKER_02 56:39

Uh dressed down as different things.

SPEAKER_03 56:41

Yeah, dressed down as different things. Uh some people dressed up as you know, honestly, about 85% were girls dressed up as we'll say um less modest versions of whatever they were supposed to be, like cops. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 56:56

She's a teacher, kinda. She's a dentist. Yeah. Sort of. Uh yeah. She's a cow girl that's never been around a cow, you know.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

Yeah, yeah. Um and uh it's I find this funny, but at so nine o'clock in the morning, that the strip is pretty tame, except for that lady that's slapping all the dudes. But uh other than that, it's it's a little more tame. Yeah, um, I remember uh at uh pretty much when the sun goes down is when all the guys come out with the cards and uh they're handing out cards. Yeah, um and I'm I'm sure you girls' names on phone numbers, yeah. And there's I took a picture of it and I sent it to my my cousin because he thought it would be funny. But uh there's a truck that just drives up and down the strip, and the only purpose is he's got a big billboard on the back that says escorts direct to you, and it's got a phone number on it. That's the only purpose. He just drives up and down the strip after dark, only after dark. And uh in the morning, it's kind of funny. You'll you'll go out and they keep the strip very clean.

SPEAKER_02 57:53

Really?

SPEAKER_03 57:53

Like they yeah, they click they keep it pretty clean. I mean, it looks fairly clean, and it should be really messy with how many people are walking there, right? Yeah, but first thing in the morning they haven't necessarily had time to like clean everything up, and uh those people handing out the cards, people don't know what they're handing out, so they'll just take one and they'll look at it and they'll throw it on the ground. So in the morning, the ground is just covered in their cards everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

I've heard people like if it's raining, then like slipping on the cards. Oh that's because there's so many. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

Uh they keep the strip very clean. Anything off the strip, not so much. That's what I've heard. That's what it smells like.

SPEAKER_02 58:24

Piss.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

We stayed off, we stayed at the Rio last year, and I walked one day to the strip, never ever again. I was it was not a not a fun walk. The sidewalk was like super narrow. It was like practically walking in the traffic, and there was garbage everywhere, and needles everywhere, and it was yeah, uh one walk was enough for me. I took a cab the rest of the time, so it wasn't worth the the $20 or $30 to do this for a cab every time after that. But um but just stayed on the strip this time. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Uh but staying on the strip this year was way nicer.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

There's just needles everywhere. I thought they didn't have free health care.

SPEAKER_03 59:03

Yeah. Off the strip, yeah. Um, but on the strip they keep it real clean. And uh there's still people there that are, you know, in rough shape, but um different life choices?

SPEAKER_02 59:14

Like, have you considered the world of competitive archery?

SPEAKER_03 59:17

Yeah, yeah. I hope you don't expect to be paid very much or at all. Um as far as that goes, like it's like if you're trying to make a living in competitive archery, there's there's not very many people.

SPEAKER_02 59:29

Well, who's that big one that everyone knows of, but I can't think of his name right now. The big bow shooter is not Morgan.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

Levi Levi Morgan.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

He's a 3D shooter. But he's the one that mostly I mean, I I forgot his name, but I knew who he was. Like he's the big big name.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

I mean, he's he's he's made his money from you know, he's the best 3D archer ever. He won shooter of the year, I don't even know how many times in a row. He's like, you know, he's the best.

SPEAKER_02 59:55

Does he have his eye like because remember, was it Tiger Woods' eyesight is like altered a bit, and that's helped make him a better golfer? You think Levi's like that? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:03

Yeah, but it's like that. Uh kind of robotic eyeball. Uh do you? Yeah. I uh well, kinda I have very, very poor vision of one eye, actually. My left eye, I uh if if I close it right now and Darren holds up like fingers, I probably couldn't I can I know that finger. I don't even need to I don't even need to see it. I could have guessed that with my eyes closed. That was very predictable on that one. That was that was that was too predictable. But uh yeah, I was I was born with a uh with a lazy eye. So that helped make you better shooting? Well, uh my vision in my right eye is a lot better uh because of it. Um so maybe because I don't use this eye when I'm shooting, but it it hurts me in judging because I have really poor depth perception.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:46

So I I don't judge well. So uh, you know, pros and cons, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:50

Yeah, well, that's cool. It's like um, yeah, well, like Tiger Woods, like he's got that thing with his eyes where you know they're really good and he can judge better and all that for golfing. And then um, what is it, Bo Brooks, the uh animal encyclopedia. The I'm a big fan of him, the collars. His teeth, he's got big fat teeth, and he's like, I don't know if it makes me better caller, he said, but I'm not getting them fixed.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:11

Man, that that guy is crazy. I just ordered some of his turkey calls, but they're good. I like them. Yeah, I haven't tried them out, I guess. But yeah, that guy

Turkey Plans And Bowhunting Distance

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

can make some. Because you got your turkey licenses. I did, yes. Make up my turkey license. You got yours? Yeah, you're in the same zone as my buddy, I think. 15? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:27

You're gonna use bow? I'd hope so.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:30

I did last year, and I missed one. What? Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:33

Um I'm using my bow, so yeah, I think you should. Maybe you shouldn't if you're gonna. I bought some turkey low, just in case, honestly. Yeah, I'm not even ready to go.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:41

I shoot foam targets, man. I don't shoot animals. I try, I do, I try. Um but uh last year I did get a turkey tag. I stalked a turkey with the bow to 30 yards. And uh I not very good at judging, and I decided to judge it. Uh and he got a little closer than I thought he did, and uh, I should have shot a little lower, and I shot too high.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:06

Yeah, I did that with the deer once.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:07

Yeah, yeah, not fun. And then believe it or not, he never got he never uh like he kind of let me get that close. I don't think he really knew what I was. Like, because typically you don't stalk within range of a turkey, so I I don't think he really knew what I was. He would not let me get anywhere near him after that. I think he learned his lessons. So uh this year I'm hunting a different zone, hopefully uneducated turkeys. And uh I will hunt with a bow. At least it's three weeks now, so I got more time. Uh last year was tough. I we had hunters uh the week after it ended.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:37

So we were doing a lot of like Yeah, well, let's

Bear Guiding And Outfitting Life

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

transition to that. So your your guys' guiding how that tell me about that, how that can be.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:45

So uh, I mean, I've grown up hunting. Uh my dad's always hunted, my grandfather's always hunted. Uh my dad went to school with a guy named Paul. He has always hunted with us as well, kind of our hunting buddy. Um uh back in the 80s uh and 90s, uh my dad used to guide for uh uh headpond outfitters and uh guy named Vaughn Scriver, he had it for I don't know, he might must have been guiding for 30 years or so. He's in his late 70s now, mid-70s. Uh so he used to guide for him a little bit. And then uh when he was done guiding for him, I ski uh I started skinning bears for him. And uh he sold us his business. Um he doesn't really have anybody around here, like his family's all um elsewhere mostly. Uh so we didn't really have anybody to like kind of continue with it there uh here. So uh we decided to buy it from him uh just two years ago. Last year was our first spring. Uh so we do mostly mostly bear hunts. Uh we have uh allocated bear licenses. Uh we do a little bit of fishing uh as we get progressed. Um it's a side thing right now, right? Small. Um I'd like to do some deer and some moose, probably, uh turkey, maybe a little bit. Yeah some fishing. Enjoying the fishing now. I'm getting getting much more into fishing than I have been the last few years, doing tournaments for that and stuff, and it's really fun. Fabian, yeah. Yeah, it's it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

Yeah, I don't like fishing, I like catching.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:08

Yeah, yeah. No, yeah. Yeah, I've uh last year, honestly. Last year was the first year I fished really in a long time, and I did a lot of it. We went and caught some sturgeon. We were gonna go on Friday.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:21

Sturgeon, like the they're the dinosaurs.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:23

Oh, they're so cool. Yeah, they're terrible fighters. Like they're like the most boring thing to actually reel in, but they look so cool. Yeah, no, they're like deadweight.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:31

They're bottom feeders, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:32

Yeah, they're they're not much of a fight. Actually, I had a guy we were fishing with last year, and he's like, I think I caught a log. And he reeled it in. No, I guess it was a sturgeon. He's just dead weight, nothing. Uh, they can fight a little bit, they'll jump a little bit every once in a while. Um, and uh there's lots of them in the river now. Like the St. John River is a good spot for short-nosed sturgeon. We have a little bit of Atlantic Sturgeon as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:52

Atlantic's the big one.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:53

Yeah, they're the big ones, but uh, I know they're there in the St. John, but nobody catches them, and I don't think they're feeding when they're in the river. I mean they're spawning and stuff, right? So I just I I hear tee you hear people talk about the big ones jumping, and I heard of Diver who saw a real big one and they caught some in nets. But I don't know anybody who's actually hooked a big Atlantic sturgeon and reeled it in, I guess. So maybe I don't know. I'd really, really like to, because it'd be really cool. But for the most part, we're catching smaller I mean it's smaller. I mean, there's still you know 40 to 50 inches, um short nosed sturgeon. But uh the Atlantics get huge.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, that'd be cool. The uh that's 40 50, yeah, that's a pretty big.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:33

That's a big yeah, it's a big fish. Yeah, it's a big fish. Um that's uh and that's an easier kind of guiding to do because it's it's a pretty simple fish and it's just and it's cool. Yeah, it's like Google doesn't want to catch one. It's just beat fish.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:47

Yeah, so how do you have you guided much yourself?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

For fishing?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:50

Well, no, for hunting.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:51

Yeah, I mean, yeah, just mostly bears. I do a little bit of a guided me for my bear. Yeah, did he? Yeah, Darren shot a bear with me. Yeah, there's a moose standing in the background of the camera. Shot video. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_05 1:06:01

Yeah, cool. I watched the video.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:02

It was it was pretty neat. Um, and yeah, that what did that take us? We only had one night.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:07

Oh, I think we're in the stairs for like 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

Something like that. The bear walked in.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:12

Yeah, no. Well, he sent me the picture after of the bear at the barrel. I'm like, oh, that's cool. He's like, no, look closer. And I'm like, Yeah. That was it's a bear. He's like, no, look closer. And I'm some like, oh shit, there's a moose standing back there.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:28

It was crazy when it walked in. We didn't know what it was. We were like, we were hoping it was a bigger bear coming in.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:35

Well, that bear's got some long legs on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:37

Yeah, and then I remember saying I'm like, it's a moose. There's a moose walking in. And then we were kind of almost a little interested to see how they would like interact. The bear looked over at him and the moose. I'm sure they knew they knew they were there. They both knew about each other.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:51

They weren't that far apart.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:52

And uh no, the the moose didn't care. The bear didn't care, and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:56

Because a bear was at like 19 yards, yeah. And the moose probably 50, yeah. I was gonna say max 50.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:04

You could have let them line up a little bit, you could have got them both. I was gonna change my sight a little bit there. I'd rather come home with moose, but yeah. But uh people might ask questions in June. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:17

But uh yeah, we had you a bear in 45 minutes. Um had some some bear hunters. We had a good success rate last year. Um most of the guys got a bear, a couple guys got one guy got two, I think. Um it was a fun hunt. Uh lots of guys, everybody saw a bear, had a shot at one at least. Yep. Um, and then I did a little bit of I did do a little bit of deer guiding just for a buddy. You know, offer it. I I I want to wait. Like, if I'm gonna like offer a hunt for guiding, I want to make sure that I'm you know it's hard to offer deer guiding.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:49

It's really hard to offer deer hunting in New Brunswick, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:52

It's really so I had a buddy, he was um he was not having great luck at his spots. He he he all his bucks disappeared and he wasn't getting great, I guess, uh pictures and stuff. And uh he just kind of got into hunting. It was his first year hunting deer. So I said, Oh, come over, I'll let you sit on my stand for a morning. And uh he sat on the stand for an hour and shot an eight point, so tagged out.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:16

Good guiding.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:17

Yeah, I guess so. I said, You post that everywhere, you tell them where that came from. Yeah, uh, but no, that was fun. And honestly, like I didn't get a deer last year, but uh previous years where I don't get a deer and I hunt really hard, I'm a little disappointed out of the season. I'm like, oh man, I didn't get one. But honestly, that made my season just him and shooting a deer, and you know and you could have.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:34

You passed up some small.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:36

Yeah, I passed up uh I passed up a decent eight point. Which was pretty nice. Yeah, you're selective, was your I had a 13 pointer at 100 yards, and I did not have the rifle. I had my bow with me.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:46

So I'm gonna have to get the sights out.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:48

Yeah, I thought about getting down trying to get over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:50

Oh my god, I was just send one out there for a poke and how far do you shoot how far are you comfortable shooting?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:57

An animal bow.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Well, say with a target.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:59

See, yeah, animal and target are to be a little bit more than a little bit. They're completely different.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

I'm gonna ask with a target.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:04

Like a target? How far am I comfortable hitting the 10 ring? Like consistently? Yeah. I'd say 60 to 60, 70 yards, probably. And 10 ring, like for people that don't know. It's about the size of uh a little bigger than a grapefruit, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

You're comfortable at seven.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:18

Five to six inches. Yes, yeah. Probably sixty to seven yards. I'm like that. I'll say like seventy-five percent of them are gonna go in there at least. Um 50 yards, yeah. Um animal. Depends what I really don't want to shoot much further than 30 yards.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:32

I was gonna guess 30. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:34

What if it's a moose?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:35

Yeah, it depends on what it is. You know, it depends on the situation and how comfortable I feel with my equipment. Like, if I feel like my setup's dialed in and the wind's good, then maybe I'll, and depending on the the deer or two, like how it's acting and stuff, but oh man, at 30 yards, any further than that, like uh I will tell uh a little bit of an embarrassing story, honestly. Uh you know this story. Uh I don't tell a lot of people this, but you know what? I think it's gonna listen to it. I'm gonna tell everybody. No one's listening to this.

Grand Manan Deer And String Jump

SPEAKER_03 1:10:00

I uh I hunt in Graham and Ann every year. I mentioned that earlier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:04

And uh for those listening from ways away, which there is some Graham and Ann describe it quick. It's an island.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:11

It's an island off of New Brunswick. It's about an hour and a half ferry ride. Um, and they have deer there. They have nothing but deer. They don't have coyotes, they don't have moose, nothing. Uh they have uh they might have skunks. They have raccoons. I know they have raccoons. Um they don't have any any birds really. I mean grouse. Um, they have rabbits, I believe. Uh, but anyways, the main focus over there is deer. There's a lot of deer. Uh very weird though, they have island dwarfism over there. So they're very, very small. Like a big deer over there is 80 pounds. Like if you get a an 80-pound doe, that's a big doe over there, right? Yeah, so that's crazy. Um basically the the way it works is we apply for that zone. Just like you're applying for a dough tag in any other zone. You know, there's a drop. It's pretty decent odds. It's a hundred percent odds. Uh there's good odds. So far, unless there's like a whole bunch of people apply, but basically, like I don't know now. Yeah. Uh I don't know what the draw rate or what the draw numbers were last year, but we'll say, like, say they gave out 400 tags, like 300 people would apply. So there's usually like 50 to 100 tags that just don't get used. So you're 100% draw rate for now. Um, and you get your antlerless deer tag, and if you go there during bow season, uh and you shoot one with archery equipment, which counts, crossbow counts, uh, as well as uh regular compound bow uh and recurve traditional stuff. Um if you shoot a doe, no, an antlerless deer during the bow season, you are allowed to buy a second tag for a buck like you normally would if you were just going to buy a tag for any other zone, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:48

Um so the the goal is to not shoot a buck over there because if you shoot a buck, you're done.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:52

And the the bucks are not worth shooting over there, to be honest with you. So yeah, I couldn't get away from them. I could not get away from they're all like three points. Well, let's just say the first buck I saw uh the first buck I saw might have been a spike. And uh I remember sitting there in the morning and a deer walked in and it's early, and I I'm looking at them and I'm being real careful because some of them are so small, like they have very, very little antler. And I'm watching this deer for like it must have been 15 minutes on putting the binoculars up, and finally it's daylight enough that I can like put the binoculars up and have a good look of them. He had like an inch of antler on each side, like didn't know it was a buck until then. Like you gotta be careful because if I had a shot at him, I'd be done, which would have sucked. So, anyways, uh I could not get a doe to come in. It's like they know, like it's like the bucks know they're safe or something, but um so didn't didn't get any bucks come in. But but Grandan's kind of cool where we hunt, we hunt on a little island called Ross Island off of Graham. You can only get there when the tide's low. Yeah, um, there's a lot of fields there, and there's a lot of open woods. The woods are like southern New Brunswick is a lot different as far as the woods go, uh, especially those islands too, like in the Bay Fundy. Like it's it's a lot more open, I find, and you can like you can walk through the woods a lot easier than I can where where I deer hunt. So I've always wanted to spot and stalk a deer. Yeah. So it's really hard, and Brunson, it's practically impossible with a bow, but it's doable. Uh so I remember going and I I was I had this uh field that I had picked out that I knew that there was deer in, and I knew if I had approached it from a certain angle, and when the wind was good, that they were probably bedding in there. So I go up there, it took me about 45 minutes of creeping into this area, and I finally got on top of a hill, and there was a doe standing like I'm like looking down a cliff practically, and she's about 30 yards away. And I'm like, oh, this is great, and she's looking at me. So I kind of wait until she's not looking at me, and uh, I'm sure you've heard of jumping the string.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:47

Well, um I didn't know this. Um I should have. Uh when their head is down, it's actually worse for jumping the string because their their center of gravity is already low, so they like when they're jumping the string, they're kind of like loading up on their legs to sprint away. Like they're not actually ducking, like they don't know enough to duck. It's just because they're loading their legs, right? Well, if their head's already down, they drop way faster. So, anyways, I draw back on her about 36 yards, we'll say, I think that's what what it was. And I shot, and I remember watching the air, and I'm like, oh, it looks good. And she heard it, and man, she dropped like crazy, completely dodged it. And little did I know that she had fawns, and there was a hill behind her that kind of dropped down, anyways. I hit her fawn, killed her fawn instead. Not my proudest bow kill, but uh didn't uh like a good shot on it. Yeah, I mean she didn't go anywhere, but uh uh yeah. So, anyways, go down there and uh I remember I didn't even gut it, it was so small. I mean the deer are small anyway, like a yeah, it was a yearling, right? It was this that year's fawn. Like, what wouldn't a fawn weigh in here? Like 60 to 70 pounds. 60 to 70 pounds, yeah. This thing might have weighed 25, 30. Really? I picked it up and put it on my shoulder. Yeah, pretty much. I remember walking back to camp, and everybody nobody else was hunting because it's the middle of the day. I just went for a walk. I remember walking back to camp with a deer on my uh shoulders, like, oh, this is cool. I'm going back to camp with a deer. Um put it in your back pocket. Yeah, we held it up like a rabbit to gut it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:20

So anyways. So you were aiming for her mist and like nailed her kid and drilled. Wow, that's a good shot, kind of, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

Yeah, well, yeah. Well, not you should you should know your target and be on, honestly. Um it it looked like it was just kind of flat, and it like I could see behind her, but there was a dip in the hill. So the way my arrow, because I was so high up on a hill, the trajectory of my arrow kind of went down into this little pit. She was basically in a hole. It was like uh basically a five-foot hole below this little knoll. And just the way that the trajector uh the trajectory went, it it caught something that I couldn't even see. Like I had no idea she was down there. But uh, anyways, yeah, I didn't didn't burn my tag at least. So it's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:06

Better hitting that than the neighbor. Well, I got Margaret. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:09

So it really sucked in his little button back. Yeah, no, that would have sucked. I would have been mad. I would have been really mad. That was crazy. You couldn't do that if you tried. Oh man, it was like yeah, all three bites were pretty much two years before my dad shot one that was smaller. So smaller, yeah, it was smaller, it was smaller.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:28

Um you guys over there shooting rats.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:30

Yeah, his hit it was the same kind of deal where he was way up on a hill, and he had no he hadn't seen any other deer. Like it was a fawn that had lost its mother, I think, or something. So it didn't have a doe to compare to. So he really didn't know how big he thought it looked pretty decent size. It was a little, it's a little uh it's really weird. Like uh, I remember stalking up on a deer, and I like kind of guessed how far it was and then range finded it, and it was way further than I thought it was because it just you're just so used to knowing what a deer looks like for size, it kind of doesn't really because they look the same. Yeah, so um they're just smaller. Uh yeah, his was so small that we when we butchered it, how small? No, yeah, we butchered it, we put it in a big kitchen uh bowl, and that was all the meat. And it never got froze. We ate it in a week.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:17

So Ken shot raccoons bigger than the deer you got. Yes, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:21

My dog's bigger than the deer I shot. I don't remember big dogs. How big?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

48. Yeah, that's the biggest we made it. It's like 48.6.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:31

Yes. Yeah. So so I would never go over there just to shoot a deer to fill the freezer, though. Like I said, like it's a bonus tag, so that's the only reason. And it's funny. And there's some duck hunting over there, some decent duck hunting over there. So we we make like a trip out of it. So um, you know, you shoot your deer early, you get to go do some duck hunting. So it's a fun trip. Um, you know, stay in a camp. Like I said, sometimes we don't even bring back meat because it's can get consumed. Camp meat, right? Yeah. Um, I I took one of the fine quarters or the shoulders, and I I kept it. It's all still intact. I'm just gonna cook it whole, like a giant turkey leg. Oh, yeah, yeah. Tender though. Oh man. Pale, pale meat, like very light colored.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:11

What are they eating mainly?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:13

Uh there's a lot of grasses over there. Um I think they they do forage a little bit on the on the seaweed? Yeah, a little bit on the tide there. I know that they will eat uh I can't remember the plant, but there's a little plant that they they will scavenge on. But um, I don't think it's high in nutrition compared to like what's they're only getting that big, yeah. Yeah, so um it's a cool place though. Really cool place to hunt. Like if if you ever, you know, it's like I said, it's a bonus tag, it's a cool little trip you can make over there. It's a couple guides over there, but uh well, I love it. I'll go every year. Um so but uh because I typically don't want to shoot a dome in my area anyway, so I'll bar burn my list tag for over there. But um yeah, it's a good spot, but um yeah, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:56

Um so uh what's next for you? Try to get over this injury and shooting.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:01

Um yeah, I'm gonna try that. Uh I got some stuff planned this summer. Uh I like 3D a lot more than Target, to be honest with you. Target makes you better. Um, but uh 3D is more fun. There is a 3D on Saturday, but um kind of committed to working the booth a little bit, and I've been so uh tied up with Target that I actually haven't even really done much with my uh 3D setup. So like uh the tournament on Saturday is like max 50 yards, and we haven't had any uh I missed the last one. I was doing first aid training uh too, but uh I haven't shot past uh Rexton, which is 27. You really don't need to do much for sight tape. So these bows that I have, I got them in the fall, so I haven't made tapes for them and stuff. So I I just really have not had time to make a tape. So uh and I I enjoy working the booth at the

Growing The Sport And Youth Outreach

SPEAKER_03 1:19:50

show.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:50

So yeah, so what are your goals for that? Get more people.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:52

Yeah, I yeah, try to get more people in our train into the bow hunter thing. Um I think it could should grow. Like we need to grow a little bit. It's been better. Um, but uh you know, if you don't have people out there like encouraging people to try this, then you well let's let's do a little role play, shall we?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:09

Um you'll you're Ryan worked in the booth, and I'm I'm I'm I'm not Kent. I'm I'm freaking Bruce. Just walk I'm just Bruce, never shot a bow. I'm like going by and like I'm going by. You see me. What are you saying? I'm like doo-doo doo.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:22

Yeah, well, uh first of all, I'll ask you if you're a bow hunter, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:25

I'm married, thank you. No um I'm I'm not. No.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:30

You're not. So um Bruce isn't do you hunt or whatever? Like um, you know, have you ever thought about trying archery? It's a it's a fun sport. A lot of people enjoy like bow hunting or just shooting for fun. It's it's a lot more um I find it more entertaining than maybe shooting a rifle. Like you can do it just in your backyard or whatever. It's a lot of fun. There's tournaments, there's a good community that does it. Um it's a good way to get into into bow hunting is through archery like tournaments and stuff, or vice versa, getting into tournaments from the bow hunting. A lot of people come from that area, though they'll start bow hunting and they'll get into it. Like, I don't know, how did you get into archery?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:07

Like well, same as you. I started with my bear cruiser and then I met Walter who's hunting. Yeah, and then Walter brought me to Marcel's. I bought a big bow and then I spent a bunch of money. You're welcome. Uh I spent a bunch of money on bow, so I figured why just leave it in the closet for what 10, 11 months of the year.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:25

And then start shooting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:28

And you discover that's that's a lot of fun you could have with this.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:30

And the big thing is to go out to take your rifles out. Yeah, it's a pay shoot. I hate shooting my rifle. And nowadays everyone entails a box. A box of 20 is a hundred bucks.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:41

When you can go buy $150 for a dozen arrows.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:44

You buy once you're set up with treachery, you can shoot all day for nothing unless you're missing. Unless you're missing your doing stuff. That's on you.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:51

I broke lots of rifle like you do from like five till midnight. It costs you a thousand dollars a day. Yeah, it'd be crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:57

So, do you ever try to make the pitch to people like in most areas, not just New Brunswick, but places in the States and all that, there's the archery seasons extended. You get more time. You do get more time.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:08

You do um there's a little bit of uh like our archery seasons are extended, but um not like there's an easier way of getting into it now to shoot your archery. So I don't really I mean, yeah, you can get into the archery season early, but a lot of people who want to shoot the archery season early and don't necessarily want to get into because let's be honest, it's it's not plug and play. Like you don't you don't pick up a bow and expect to shoot good, you gotta get it set up and all that. Um so a lot of people go crossbow route for that. But um anyways, um yeah, there's an extended season. Uh you know, it's challenging, it's fun, you know, good to challenge yourself a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:47

You enjoy being close to the end, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:49

You just get a better um yeah, it's just different. It's just it's not for the faint of heart, we'll say, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:56

Who's Wayne's favorite quote?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:57

Rifles what is it? What? Where uh Wayne doesn't know his favorite quote. Oh, that's it. Bow hunting starts where a rifle season ends.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:04

Yeah, a bow hunt starts where a rifle hunt would end.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:08

Because I mean with a rifle, if you can see it for the most part, you could shoot. Shoot or eat. Yeah. Well, not everyone. You gotta get a lot closer.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:15

Yeah. But I had a guy on this podcast hasn't released yet with Hooligan Archer, and he was saying, like, with bow hunting, there's almost like a romanticized thing with it, right? You said that people say and there is, you know. It's more personal, it's more primitive. Yes, and the reward is bigger, I think, because not anyone can do it. Not just anyone can do it, you know. Anyone can just put up a gun with a scope, you know, rest bang, shoot it's dead with the bow. Yeah. There's more to it, so I find the rewards bigger.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:41

Yeah, you know, I've talked about a lot of big animals. When I had a bow in my hand, I'm like, if I had a gun in my hand right now, I'd be done.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:49

But you'd be doing something that your average Joe could do, right? So you're doing something that not everyone can, and it just I think it adds to the to it when you do have success.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:57

And everything's gotta go right with a bow hunt. Like, yeah. Getting getting an animal into range is one thing, but getting to full draw, settling in, and getting a good sh ethical shot off's two different things.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:10

Yeah, I'm sure you guys have rifle hunted before. You know, when you click off that safety and the uh and you're close and the deer goes, you know. Well, imagine like trying to do that, but you're like, you're not even settled in. Like, there's a lot more noise and movement. My deer this year. Yeah, he said he looked right up at you.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:24

It was dead quiet, and I was at half draw. Yeah. And he just looks right up at me, like, well, I gotta keep going. Yep. No.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:31

Um so as far as the my character Bruce going by the booth and he's I'm I'm in. I'm in. Yeah, he could good sell.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:38

Another, another big thing is we're trying to get a lot of uh kids into it. Yep, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:42

Like well, it's like smoking, right? That's what all the cigarette companies used to get to get the kids younger because they knew if they could get them between I think it was like 16 and 25, they'd have them for life. Yeah, yeah, right. You gotta take the smoker companies, the big tobacco companies approach to it, and you gotta get it hooked at a good young age, and then chances are they'll stick with it throughout life. Yeah, you know, and that's the thing. But that's the thing too, even doing this podcast and talking about like say my hands and this and that. I don't I don't want everyone to hunt, but I just don't want people to be against it. Right? Yeah, just be educated in it. You don't have to do it, just don't be against it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:15

Yes, that's that's a big thing. Uneducated hate of it, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:21

And archery, I mean, I was talking to an outfitter last night at a podcast, but this one still hasn't come out yet either. And he was saying that he loot he loses less animals with his archery hunters than he does his rifle hunters because he says you hear the archery guys waiting for that perfect shot and all that where the rifle hunters just bang. Yeah, you have to be more knowledgeable for sure. Like you got to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:39

Oh, there's a lot of gun hunters that they don't touch their rifle all year. Oh season starting. Yeah, they don't even check my gun. They're like, oh, it's good last year, it should be good now. Only dropped it once, it should be.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:00

Once you set up, it doesn't cost too much to shoot. Yes. And the price of ammo with your rifle is shooting, fight them in and then fucking park them because they're gonna be able to get it. Every dollar three dollars.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:09

Yeah, but I mean archery is as expensive as you want it to be. If you want to do it, it's a little price to have a battery, right? If you want to go in and buy a ready-to-hunt package, you can do it pretty cheap. And I mean, yeah, then you want to get into a little more expensive gear upgrade, and yeah, you can get some pretty pricey setups. Some fancy stuff for sure. Yeah, yeah, you can make it as you want. That's the same with anything. If it no matter what you're doing, you can make it expensive as you want.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:36

But it's fun, I think there's a good reward to it. And if you don't if you don't want to get into the hunting part of it, competitive archeries.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:43

I know there's there's there is people that go from competitive archery into hunting too. Right, because they're very closely uh related worlds, right? Like you go, you go look at the pros, we'll say, in in archery, and uh you name me five five of the top five pros, and I guarantee four of them hunt. Guarantee it. If not all five. Oh, wait. Bodhi hunts, Kyle Hunts, like they all, you know, it's similar worlds, I guess. But um yeah, we try to get a lot of kids into it because that's you know, your sport needs to need some younger. We don't have honestly, it's getting better, but uh, you know, our our classes are kind of aging out a little bit. Oh, for sure. Um so we gotta get some kids into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:22

We're gonna have a a range at the saw that you guys have yeah, there's like a foam.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:27

Yeah, we've basically just got targets for kids to come try it. That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:30

Yeah, so it's like a big it looks like a big like foam pit looking thing, like a bouncy castle. Yeah, yeah, it's like almost like a tunnel in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:37

So uh we'll have uh some bows for people to try there and you know, stop by the booth and have a look. I know Tracy's bringing his bow hunting stuff. Uh I'm gonna have my uh target bow on display if you want to see what that kind of looks like. Um we'll have lots of other cool things. We've got some cool stuff at the booth, so you know, stop by if you're around. But um yeah, trying to get some more kids into it for sure. And you know, everybody and um you get the kids involved and sometimes the parents, you know, kind of interested in it. Like we have a lot of I used to shoot at a club that had a lot of kids, and um, you know, the kids would get into it, and then the uh you know the adults like, you know, I actually wouldn't mind doing this as something that's gonna get into. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:18

I started shooting with my bow, and then my dad ended up getting into it.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:21

Yeah, my dad's the same way. He he he didn't have a bow until after I had one.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:24

So um, where's what's next for you with traveling? You've been to Vegas, you've been to France.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:31

I'm gonna tone it down a little bit. Uh probably just I gotta go to Ontario at least once a summer. I might go to nationals, depending on how busy I am.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:38

Um but there's any like world traveling places you'd like to shoot at.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:43

I would, but I'll be honest with you, I think things are gonna settle down a little bit for me. I won't be traveling nearly as much. Um, I currently work for my my father who owns a uh auto parts company. Yeah, and I work for him there. Um, and I am leaving to go to

School Plans Sponsor Code And Travel

SPEAKER_03 1:28:57

school. So I probably won't have nearly as much.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:59

Does dad know this? Is he gonna find it? No, he knows. He does know.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:03

No, no, he knows. Uh it's already set, I've already been accepted into the school and stuff. So what are you taking? I will be taking forestry. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. MC of team Frederic. Nice. Uh yeah, so I'm really excited for that. I've not really been one for uh for books and stuff, but this school seems more up my alley. It seems like I'll actually enjoy it. So uh I've been thinking about it for a while. So um, yeah, it'll be tough. Um having the time like to balance it because like um, I mean, like I said, like you have to be so ridiculously good at it to ever like actually make it in any like even a lot of pros don't necessarily have that as their only thing. A lot of them own shops or do those.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:45

At the Vegas shoot, like four of the top ten, where there's only four of them that shoot for a living. Yeah. All the other guys have regular jobs. Yeah, I can see that.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:56

Yeah, yeah. So it's like any anything. Yeah, and like, yeah, I mean, like, for example, like if we're talking like straight pros that are like top of the pros in the States, like I can only think of one Canadian that's actually like up there right now. For now, yeah. Tell you to get there. Yeah, well, don't think that will happen. Mark my words podium. But um, yeah, so uh I'd like to go to more tournaments, but um, you know, kind of just depends on what my schedule looks like next year. Like, I'm not gonna I can't afford to miss a whole bunch of time. So uh but I'll still go to some. I'll probably still go to Lancaster next year. Um that's a little easier to do, it's drivable. Um, and I can I can squeeze that into uh a shorter amount of time, but uh we'll see, I guess, you know, see what's coming up.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:39

But uh Ontario this summer will go up to um Oh hey, just something quick to tell you guys if you were interested in really top quality broadheads at an affordable price for hunters bought made by a hunter, check out Hooligan Archery products and use code HUNTSON2026, all caps, all one word, and you're gonna save yourself ten percent at the check.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:03

Um uh uh Porcupine Hollow for sure. Uh like that tournament, it's a fun tournament. Um very good one. Um, very well run, it's great. Um, some good name, big names go there even from Canada. Chris Perkins will be there. Uh I would like to go to Perkins shoot, but I I I gotta look at the dates. I I don't know. Three trips to Ontario is a lot for one summer uh for me. Um because the Nationals is in Ontario this year, right? And we'll see. That's kind of like I might go to that, um, but we'll see. Um it's a little further, I think, than Carl's. Uh Carl's is a 12-hour drive for us.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:41

Yeah, but which is the closest one because they were doing that triple crown this year. Yeah, Perkins isn't a whole lot further. Perkins, Perkins is very close to Carl's, I think. Oh, it is?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:48

Yeah, he's not that far from Carl's. Okay. Uh Rogues Hollow is coming up. Uh, I will not be going to that. Um committed to a fishing tournament that weekend, and it's just uh it's just a lot of travel. Just got back from a bunch of trips. So um, yeah. But uh no, some trips. Uh provincials and Atlantics, I'll definitely be at all of those, and um some local ones for sure. Um schedule looks pretty good. Last year was pretty pretty bad. Uh, I think I only went to three shoots last summer. There was like nothing on the schedule. I went to Provincials, Atlantics, and Porcupine.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:23

I was in the same boat, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:24

And I think there was maybe two shoots that I could have gone to, and but they were like up in like up north, Campbellton. I think there was one. I uh I don't know. I it's a far drive for a club shoot, to be honest with you. So uh but this year I Frederton's got some again, and uh Rexton's got a bunch more, so probably a lot more busy this summer with it. But um and Bathurst has a good one up uh sounds like they're gonna do uh the attack of the I think that's uh Nigadoo's doing that, I believe. Yeah, I haven't looked to see uh that might be conflicting with something that I've already got. Oh, really? Yeah, I'll have to see the end of August. What does suck this year? Actually, I think we're missing provincials.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:07

Yeah, because Porcupine Hollow and Provincial is the same weekend. Yeah. And initially the East Coast Crown was the same weekend. Yeah. So I don't know So I don't know what's going on there. Yeah, I heard that provincials changed their dates. Oh, provincials did? I yeah. Really? I did hear that. I didn't see that. East Coast Crown. I don't know if that's still up in the air where they didn't get the ship together last year.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:27

Yeah, uh we'll see if that one's what's what's going on with that. I mean, uh hope to hear from them soon. I mean, it's not that far away. It's got some planning involved in that kind of thing. It's not a small task.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:37

You can't just come home at night and you gotta stay somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:40

Yeah, so um yeah, we'll see. Uh last year kind of sucked because there was no UCC, so we didn't go to Nova Scotia. That's a good one to get. Yeah, that's a really good one. Yeah, that's a good shoot. Yeah, that's it. Um that's the ASA style, which is really fun. I like that. But um, yeah. Well, not a whole lot on the go, but you know, a few things, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:57

Just plugging

Lancaster Vs Vegas And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_05 1:33:59

away. Which one out of Vegas, Lancaster, and which one if you were to pick one to go to? Yeah. Other than Lancaster being closer, like just the tournament style itself.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:14

If your first time ever going to a tournament, I would definitely say Lancaster. Lancaster. Lancaster is my go-to.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:20

Yeah. Um good setup, well run. Uh and there's it's less confusing, I guess. Like Lancaster's pretty cut and dry as far as the classes go. Like there's pro, amateur, um, hunter, and then uh I'm talking compound classes here. Uh, and then there's like age classes too. Uh whereas uh so there's just basically one for each, really, essentially. And then there's a shoot up, and the shoot-up's really cool to watch and all that. Um Vegas is a little different because there's like there's championship divisions and then there's flights, and the flights are really weird where uh like they all shoot. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I've never shot the flights, but basically, you guys all shoot on one day, and then they kind of separate you into different groups depending on how you score the first day. And then you are no longer competing against everybody. There's a you can win flights one, flights two, flights three. So uh it's a little different, I guess. Um, whereas Lancaster is just the open class, like it's kind of cut and dry. Um and Lancaster scoring is different. So Lancaster, we do 11 scoring, 11, 10, 9. Uh Vegas, if you're shooting the championship class, it's X 10, 9, so on. And if you plan on making the shootoff in the championship class, you have to shoot a perfect 900. You have to shoot 90 tens in a row. We cannot miss one. So that's the other thing about uh Vegas is um if you're shooting the championship division, anyways, the flights. I mean, you're not gonna win the flights if you're shooting below like 899, probably. But um, I mean your tournament can be done if you're gonna be able to do it. Which is one shot. I should I missed on the third arrow. I missed on the third arrow this year. Yeah, bounced off the back wall and shot a bad arrow. So um then you're just kind of there for the rest of it. Like you know you're not gonna, you're you're just kind of hanging out. Whereas Lancaster, you know, you could start off slow and you can you can make up ground, right? So um I would say Lancaster is the best for if you're going to a target tournament. Right. But um it's different for sure, like stepping up on the line and in Lancaster. But it's not just a line of like 30. And you don't know everybody, right? Like you know nobody. So yeah, it's different. It's different. Uh honestly, going to these big tournaments, you get super nervous, and then you used to get nervous at the local ones, and you come back to the local ones and they're not as bad. The nerves are nowhere near as bad. So that helps a lot.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:42

Even if you don't necessarily do well there, it's it's valuable to because for local tournaments, the most nervous you really get are the shoot-offs at ECC or lead or the nationals or yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:57

Um yeah, we really don't have a lot of like and 3D is a little easier because you're in only like small groups, so you're not like on the line with everybody.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:06

So until the shootoff when there's a hundred people watching you with binoculars and you've been to quite a few one of five people on a shootoffs.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:13

How many shootoffs have you been to, Darren? You've been quite a few, right? ECC once or twice, once Porcupine and Porcupine.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:22

Yeah, so it's nerve-wracking.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:24

Oh, for sure. It's different. Well, that's the best way to practice for a big buck stepping in front of you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:30

You know, that's the whole point. That's the whole point of it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Get the heart pumping and let her fly.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:35

That's why most people do it. It's a practice for for for a hundred. A lot of I mean, I don't say most lot of people, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:42

Um well, I was gonna say on that's good. On that note, I was gonna I was gonna put a I was gonna put an arrow in it for now. Uh because uh we all do have a big day tomorrow. Yes, 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. So um on that note, yeah, Ryan, thanks so much for coming out. Thanks for having me on having you on. Yes, yeah. No, I've been looking forward to this. Yeah, Lane, Darren, thanks for helping out with questions and all that, and uh, I'll see you guys all tomorrow.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:08

Yes. Cool.