The Blacktail Coach Podcast
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The Blacktail Coach Podcast
Plan Your Blacktail Season From Scouting To Shot Day
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Most hunting problems don’t start in the timber. They start when we try to skip steps, rush a “perfect” setup, and then wonder why the season feels stressful. We break down a clean, repeatable way to plan your season around five questions: find your area, find your spot, decide what to do with your spot, choose when you’re hunting, and make sure you’re actually ready to hunt. If you can answer those in order, your season gets simpler fast.
We dig into how hunt style should match habitat, especially for blacktail deer hunting. Thick reprod and tight cover demand a different approach than clear-cuts, burns, or open hillsides where glassing and optics shine. We talk e-scouting with tools like OnX, HuntStand, and Google Earth, then how boots-on-the-ground confirms what the map can’t. From there, we narrow into “your spot,” including what we call the bedroom door, and how wind, entry and exit routes, stand or ground blind choice, and trail cameras fit into a real plan.
Timing is where good spots get ruined, so we also cover how we pick days using five factors: rut phase, moon phase, temperature drops, barometric pressure, and weather fronts including micro weather systems that trigger movement. We close with readiness: weapon practice, mental reps, visualization, and a practical gear checklist so opening day doesn’t sneak up on you.
If this helps, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more hunters can find it. What part of season planning do you want us to go deeper on next?
The Five-Step Season Framework
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to the Black Dale Coach Podcast. I'm Aaron.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Dave.
SPEAKER_02All right. So this week we're going to talk about planning out your season. And this came up because we're always working on with the classes, trying to improve them so that the retention gets better. Right. It's why we included the field days, created the field days, because we needed to be able to share a better version of when you're talking about thick stuff.
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh. Yeah. For lack of a, I don't want to say go more in depth, but I don't think that's it. I just I just think it's it's trying to make it more comprehensible.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00Is there is there a better way? Is there a way that we can improve on making this more easily understood, more comprehensive, more retainable, yada yada yada, so that the average guy is going to be able to look at this and say, okay, I can relate, I can apply that, I see how it's applicable to my hunts, and it's not something that seems out of reach for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So as I was sitting around and with my background education and Osha's, I was Osha and I are always, and actually, and you too. So we're always trying to figure out how to convey this in a better way. And as I was thinking about how you proceeded through, and this was at the cross the divide event that we did for those guys up in Paulsbo, trying to think of how you were progressing through the content, the curriculum. And I came down to like what it is is it's finding your area, finding your spot. What do you do with your spot? When am I hunting? And am I ready to hunt? Those are all you answer those five questions with your system through all that. So I thought this would be a good episode. We're just going to walk through, and this is kind of the prep on getting ready for when this works because as I was writing out the script for this episode, I was thinking this works for if you're going to glass, if you're going to spot and stock. There's always that you got to find your area.
SPEAKER_00Right, right.
SPEAKER_02So it's, you know, what type of hunt are you doing? You know, we do set hunting,
Choose An Area That Fits
SPEAKER_02but how's that gonna look different if somebody is gonna glass or if somebody's going to spot and stock?
SPEAKER_00Right, right.
SPEAKER_02You still gotta find the area you're gonna. So what's needed if if you're gonna glass, what what do you need as far as habitat?
SPEAKER_00I think I think that's that's a good point that you make there, Aaron, because uh there's different areas that have different habitat. Uh and it it seems how we're on deer. So let's go deeper with deer. So we say black tail. Well, the farther north you go, the more rugged the country is, the less you're gonna see, the thicker the foliage, you know what I mean? Yeah, the farther south you go, the more open country that you're gonna be in. It's a different habitat in that it's a lot of scrub oak, so you don't have the big, tall timber as much as you would, say, northern Washington, British Columbia, that kind of area. So your tactic or the way that you approach your hunt is going to be different. So how you hunt, when you say what type of hunting are you doing? Yeah, I I think that's really good for a guy to stop and examine for the very reason of is you may be in an area where right now you you have the ability to glass a long way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And now you're gonna go hunt an area where you don't have that ability. Yeah, how is that gonna change your mindset and how are you going to approach that in a way that you walk into it going, I think I can still be successful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but the whole idea is you need, does this area meet my criteria?
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02With set hunting or even with spot and stock. Well, maybe not with spot and stock, I don't know, because it's not something that I've typically done, but I know that's more high cascade, some high cascade stuff compared to other other types of black tail bucks that it seemed like, and thinking of watching Nathan Endicott, he's walking through a lot of big timber, it looks like.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02So you gotta find that area that meets your criteria. Right. We have to find, you know, we're looking for that reprod, what we call Jack for John Fur.
SPEAKER_00The real thick, heavy stuff where you're not gonna see more than 20 yards.
SPEAKER_02Lot of units.
SPEAKER_00Nathan Endicott's able, I mean, it's really open, but it's a different style of hunting. And you're right, it's what what's gonna meet your criteria. And like up there, there's there's just not us, you're not gonna find the thick, heavy foliage that you're gonna find down here, yeah. Uh on a consistent basis.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02And so, and also thinking about if you're glassing, which a lot of places, northern California, southern Oregon, it's more open hillsides, or if there's been a lot of fires or something, you can glass, or if you're gonna do clear cuts, is it a realistic yeah? As I'm thinking about this, well, you need to find areas with clear cuts. Right. And decent size clear cuts, because we've seen, you know, there might be something that's six, eight, ten acres, so you have a a lot of area to look over, which seems like it would make more sense than finding a half acre or an acre patch that's clear cut, you know, really small patch. Uh-huh. I having not really done the clear cut or the clean, like I I would think that there's a certain size or certain area, or maybe it's there's smaller patches, and correct me if I'm wrong, but at least an area where you can jump from clear cut to clear cut to clear cut throughout the day.
SPEAKER_00Right. And I I think it's more not the size as much as it's does it offer a vantage point where you have the ability to use the glass. I think of the my style of hunting w with set hunting, like I do, for black tail, I won't say that that optics are wasted on that because I always think optics are important, but optics don't play the huge role where I'm at that they do with someone who say is clear-cut hunting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? And so there's something else that replaces that optic, you know, i i in the sense of my hunt. It feels uh that optic fills a different role, and something that wouldn't be as important, say on clear-cut hunting, has now filled that spot where optic hunting would be for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I it I've actually the couple of times that we've gone out, we went out road hunting one time. You were just yeah, let's go out and do that. And I I'm like, okay. My first year, okay, that made perfect sense to bring those, but then there was the time you came and sat up in my ladder stand with me.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02Because I have one of those double white, and you brought your binos with you, and I was wondering what for.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And there's a certain point you can see, and then you can't see anymore.
SPEAKER_00Right, right. And like I said, you know, when you start doing set hunting like we do, yeah, the optic isn't it's important, but it isn't as important. Yeah. It doesn't play the same role. And so what you're saying, what type of hunting are you doing? Recognizing that, you realize, okay, there are certain things that are gonna weigh more, and certain things are gonna weigh less in in not necessarily the success of my hunt, but in the process of my hunt as it transpires. And so I need to weigh whether or not I want to take or spend the money on something that you know, if I was only doing blacktail, if I wasn't doing whitetail, say in Kansas or going east of the mountains for elk or mule deer or anything like that, yeah, I probably wouldn't purchase a high dollar set of optics for the style of hunting that I do for blacktail.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? So it was like, well, no, I could put that money elsewhere.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and that makes sense with the the amount of out-of-state hunting that you've ended up doing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. But I mean that all goes back to knowing what type of hunting you're gonna do. Yeah. Are you gonna steal stock? Are you gonna do set hunting? Are you gonna eat glass clear cuts? Are you gonna go east of the mountains and and rolling hills for mule deer or whatever? It when you start determining what type of hunting you're gonna do, the style and which you want to do it in, that will determine the gear that you really want to focus on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and so that and that falls under the category of finding your area, the locating. So this is when you're doing your e-scouting, and then that that initial boots on the ground, did I see on Onyx or Hunt Stand or whatever, whichever you're using, Google Earth, does it match up? Great. It matches up, I can come back, and then it's then it starts getting into dialing it down. So finding your spot. So with us, it's we call it finding the bedroom door. It's that that core area that the blacktails because a
Find Your Spot Within It
SPEAKER_02five percent of their life is spent in 30% of their range.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so we're trying to find that, but I got to thinking about it's different for glassing because you have to take into account, not that we don't have to take into account wind, but that vantage point that you already mentioned. Right. You want to find that, you want to find a spot that's advantageous with the winds and and everything. What else if it's if you're glassing, what else are you trying to think about? Well, I I'm almost finding that that spot within your area.
SPEAKER_00Right. And I'll use binos for locating in the sense that I am looking for a particular habitat.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00A specific habitat. And I when I see you you when you know what to look for as far as when you know what it looks like on on when you're e-scouting, and then you've gone out there at say February or March, and you've seen the hillsides, you're like, oh, okay, that's exactly where I want to be. Because I know what that habitat looks like at that time of year. And then I go back to Trent and Noah from Born and Raised when we at Hunter's Gathering here last year, and they talked about how they're always on onyx. And they're not just looking at it as a whole, they are looking for a specific characteristic, an onyx, to call down into, yeah, or to call out over, and they're looking for a habitat. And I think that if you talk to any successful hunter, you're gonna find that there are certain things that they're looking for in their style of hunting. It's a habitat, it's a feed, it's a bedding area, but there's something about that that they're looking for a specific, I keep saying habitat, but I can't think of anything else, but a specific habitat that they're trying to hone in on.
SPEAKER_02Well, habitat, because when you talk about especially blacktail, the three things drive them the safety, the opportunity to breed, and food. So the habitat covers safety and habitat covers food. Yep. And if those two are met, there's probably going to be the opportunity to breed as well. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00They're not the only ones that are sitting in that habitat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and so that's the make or break is finding the habitat that that you need. So that is going back again to the class as I was as I was thinking this through, that it becomes a second part of the scouting.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02And so going back, a lot of what made me think about this is we have people who have taken the classes and who are part of our Patreon. And it was wanting to, okay, but where am I going to put my kill spot? Where am I going to do this? And asking those questions and getting stressed out about it. And it's like, wait, wait, wait, we gotta do we gotta do A first, and then we gotta do B, and then we'll get to C.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a process.
SPEAKER_02And so it was that okay, which isn't a them thing at all. And and it's been and it's been a lot of people who have responded in this way. It's not just been one, but several people, and that's tells us, oh, this is something we need to look at the way we're put we're we're putting that out there, we're rolling out this curriculum.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's just not being conveyed in a way that they're able to grasp.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and and that's no fault of theirs, you know. Uh I I look at myself, you know, and point the finger at me more than anyone.
SPEAKER_02But that's to us observing those things is the really great feedback. That was the okay, people aren't getting the thick, and they're doing a lot better at understanding thick areas now of the habitat that they learn about in the class. That okay, we saw that as an issue because people weren't quite understanding what you were talking about. Now they understand it. So this is a kind of a the uh to me a systematic approach.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02All I gotta do is remember five steps. Find my area, find my spot. What do I do with my spot? When am I hunting? And am I ready to hunt? If I answer those five, I'm good to go. So next one we'll move along here is okay, you found where you want to sit in glass. You found where the bedroom door is, as we refer to it. Or you found that area, that travel corridor if you're high cascade hunting, or you're gonna do spot and stock, you know where your path is gonna be. Okay. So you found your area. You found your area and you found your spot. You've dialed it in just a little bit more. This is where I'm gonna be this season. Okay. So now it's deciding what do I need to do with this spot uh come season. So with us, it's we create a kill spot.
SPEAKER_00Right, right.
Build The Spot Without Panic
SPEAKER_00And I I you know, I want to say something here, Aaron. I think some guys expect too much too fast.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? And what I've said this before, and I I've read this on a couple different occasions. The average hunter puts in three years, three seasons on a mature buck before he finally bags him.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00Okay? So so that being said, we got guys that come into the class and they and they take it and their first season out, they go out and they kill the biggest buck of their lives. And that's great. I wish that happened every single time. But the reality is, guys, and I want to reiterate this the average guy puts in three seasons on one buck.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So we get so much pressure on ourselves, we start overthinking this. And you and I have both seen this in in you know, the coaching classes and the regular classes and stuff that we do. Guys just wanna they overthink it. It's like it's almost too easy. It can't be this easy. I've got to make it difficult. When you find your area, you find your spot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Don't overthink it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Give yourself the cushion to say that I've got three seasons to figure this spot out to kill this buck.
SPEAKER_02And I've got all summer, and especially if you start in February, you've got you got all year, you got months to figure out your spot in your area. And I'm thinking about because I'm going back to my where I hunted my first year, because there's potentially a buck there that I've been waiting to get to the point where he's mature. And I'm patting myself on the back. I was actually able to wait on this buck until because I could tell he was something special even at a year and a half. So imagine I'm a million times Anakin. This is the year for Anakin, but it was one of those. Okay, so I know I'm gonna go in there and hunt. I already have my area, and now I've gone out twice to dial in my spot to figure out my spot, and I'll probably go one more time, and then that will tell me one or two more times, that'll tell me where my spot is, and then then I gotta decide what I'm gonna do with it. So, how am I gonna run drags? Because we do sense. Where am I where's my kill spot gonna be? How am I gonna set it up to where it's gonna give me my best shot?
SPEAKER_00Where you're gonna hang your drippers, where you know the whole shooting the wind and figuring everything else out.
SPEAKER_02What are those? So thinking about that is once you have okay, this is where I'm gonna hunt this year, once you've made that decision, thinking about like glassing, because I know what I do with your particular system, the black cup coat system, but thinking about glassing or spot and stock, what are some things that are coming to mind that what are you gonna do with that spot now that you know that well?
SPEAKER_00So now that I've got this spot, again, I go back to what I just said. I'm gonna give myself cushion. It may take me three years to learn that spot on how that deer approaches that spot, yeah, on how they exit that spot, on how the wind plays in that spot. Because the winds during the summertime aren't gonna be the same as the winds during the wintertime.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00We got the summer pattern that the deer are on, and then we've got the fall winter pattern that the deer are on. So look, and you've heard me say this too. If I hang a camera, I don't put a lot of stock in that at that particular time of year.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_00Because those deer are in the summer pattern, they may not summer in that area, they may only come through there once or twice throughout the entire summer.
SPEAKER_02But where you hang your cameras could be a factor if you're going to do early season archery.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. So it's just a matter of okay, giving myself, I don't want to say the leniency to fail, giving myself the cushion to learn.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because every buck has a personality, and I'm learning that buck. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Because there may be two bucks in there, and one, he's going to love this trail and it's going to make him feel safe. The other one, he could care less about that trail. He's always going to come on this one over here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Heather talks a lot about that with bears.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You've got to figure out the personality of your buck. And some are going to be a little bit more careless than others. And so they're going to be easier to get. But then age starts playing a difference in it too. The older that buck gets, the less interested he gets, and you know, when he gets past seven and a half, eight and a half, he's going to get less and less interested in that rut.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so he's going to make fewer mistakes. So once I find my spot, a lot of guys will be, well, I need the perfect tree, or I need to do this, I need to do that. I'm not so much hooked on that. I'm just going to do the first thing I always want to do is what the wind allows me to do. So that's my first and number
Wind Entry Exit And Setup
SPEAKER_00one thing is where's my prevailing wind? How can I get in here and out of here without getting busted? I've got to be able to get and stand, and I use an ozonics, as do you, but still, your entries and your exits, I gotta slip in there without him knowing I'm there. I gotta slip out of there without him knowing I was there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? So a lot of that I'm always thinking about the wind on that, even with the nozonix, because that ozonyx isn't running until I get and stand.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So that means I'm I'm suspect, I'm vulnerable until I get in stand and that thing starts running. So I've got to be able to get in and out. I've got to know that my wind is going to be good. I gotta know where it's coming from 90% of the time. So that because that's just it. You can ruin an entire hunt with a bad wind. You can ruin an entire season by getting caught in your stand or in your blind with a bad wind.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. They just because like you've said, they come in and they're looking right at that spot.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah right. So fortunately, I haven't busted myself in the stand yet. Or a blind, which I'm kind of amazed that they could be that close to a blind and not have a clue that it's the if it's if it's brushed in, yeah, you're gonna have so much more success.
SPEAKER_00It's yeah.
SPEAKER_02I've had deer back when we could dip bait, deer chewing on apples nine yards from me, just staring at me, and they couldn't see me inside the blind, which I shot I shot one buck with my daughter in the snow out of a blind at six feet. It's just no idea. So, you know, you gotta figure out what you're gonna do with your spot. You gotta have that plan in place, all ready to go, you know, where you're putting their your trail cams and things like that, because you do want to have an idea of like are you in a morning spot or are you in an afternoon spot? Things like that.
SPEAKER_00You gotta do a tree stand, yeah, or do is it just a ground blind? You know, it I mean there's a lot of things to consider, but yeah, get know your spot. Yeah, see what it affords you, what is gonna give you the greatest percentage of success as far as getting a shot opportunity.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So then after you've okay, you've got all that figured out, you gotta decide when am I hunting? And kind of the big picture early season versus first rut versus late season, second rut, and we talk about that, and I'll
Pick Days Using Five Factors
SPEAKER_02probably replay that episode. And so I've mentioned this before. We are going to replay what we consider the best episodes for black tail hunting that we've previously done. We're gonna do this every August, top four to six episodes to to prep everybody who's going into season for new listeners so that they don't have to search right through our catalog, which is now we just passed a hundred total episodes, or we almost did a hundred episodes, really close to a hundred episodes.
SPEAKER_00I can't even believe it's been that many.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I know.
SPEAKER_00Thank you everybody for listening. I I never thought that anyone would want to hear me talk about deer.
SPEAKER_02Huge thank you. But we want to have that where it's a little easy, a little more easy to access. But yeah, when am I hunting? Early season versus that first rut. So are you know modern? You're gonna do muzzle loader, you're gonna do late muzzle loader, late archery, early archery. You know, there's all of those. factors of when am I going to hunt, therefore what do I need to what do we need to prep? And we'll we'll talk about how to get ready, but then there's also the five factors.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Which is part of that what what phase of the rut is one of the five factors that you talk about. We have a whole episode on the five factors which we're going to replay but which is our number one episode. It's and it's probably I would say it's like kind of a a real kind of key episode.
SPEAKER_00I I would say looking at it in the sense that you can spend all summer getting your spot ready and I mean prepping it getting your stand or your blind or whatever doing your your sands, pheromones, getting everything hung and and put exactly where you think it needs to be and then make a poor decision to go in on a bad day and and ruin that spot. Yeah I I mean the five factors is huge as far as and again it it's the five things that I look for to say that this day is going to be better than the next.
SPEAKER_02On days that I don't have it's the days that you make sure you're hunting.
SPEAKER_00That's exactly right. But it's the one where I can look at and say okay a month out I need to be here here and here. These are the days that I've definitely got to be in stand or in the blind and yeah when you can stop and do that you start realizing how important these patterns are that these deer are on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So real quick recap it's phase of the rut which is that determines a lot of you know when you might be taking time off when you're going to be out there. It is ahead of time and then it's a moon phase. Yep. Which I know there's a camp that says no camp that says yes we are moon phase people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You look hard enough you're going to find a lot of people that say it doesn't matter and again like you said you flip the page and you're going to find a lot of people that say that it absolutely doesn't studies that support both sides.
SPEAKER_02Yep. So the I think that just gets back to how knowing how to read those studies and understanding the scientific process but that tells us oh this is a red moon week I want to make sure that I'm out there and hunting that week that weekend if I'm going to take time off that'll be when I take time off. So phase of the rut and moon phase are two that you can look months ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00Months ahead of time.
SPEAKER_02So that can help you plot out like when am I going to hunt? Then there's barometric pressure and temperature swing. Temperature swing to the cold right 20 degree swing to the cold which is usually an early season September thing that you see that it's harder to see that when the temperature is 50 degrees out and the next day it's 20 or 30 degrees out.
SPEAKER_00Right. It does happen here late season we get a lot of a lot of 10 to 15 degree swings.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But if you can get that that that's definitely going to be higher amount of deer activity. Like you said early season September we start getting that first cold front that first weather system comes in and brings rain we've been in the 80s nineties and all of a sudden it drops down to the 60s you're going to see a tremendous amount of deer activity.
SPEAKER_02And when Chris got Bambino that was a plus degree drop from one day to the next and a red moon and a red moon and I think he had probably the barometric oh no the barometric pressure was probably dropping. It was dropping yeah yeah but still good though still good still good and he he was still early enough where he was still in that summer pattern too right yep so but he knew all of these things going into it.
SPEAKER_00And he did hunt in front of and behind our micro weather systems or front yeah so he was in front of the front and just I mean it was it hadn't even started sprinkling yet. Yeah and he managed to get Bambino on the ground.
SPEAKER_02And those barometric pressures when we see those or when we hear about those on the news if we're watching the weather report those are just telling a change in if it's drastic a change of weather's coming if it's dropping bad weather's coming if it's going up good weather's coming and dry weather dry weather dry weather yeah and so yeah if deer know that bad weather's coming they might get up and even though it's dropping start moving around things like that. So five factors did I cover all of them phase of the rut moon phase drop in temperature you got this phase of the rut phase of the rut moon phase drop in temperature 20 degree drop barnetic pressure and the weather yep yeah in we have like I said weather weather fronts in front over behind. Yeah those and which can be small rain showers. Yes yeah we have a and in in in my seminars I kind of go over that we have a lot of micro weather systems yeah here in the northwest and I like looking at those instead of a day that it's steady rain all day I like looking at those days it's really good on those days where it's uh like a rain shower blows through then it stops and a rain shower blows through then it stops. Yep. In between those showers those deer will get up and feed yeah and I've heard that as sitting there with my game ears on you hear them if you're close enough to that bedding area get up and start moving around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And it's I thought that was really cool at one because it was one particular day where it was that it was a 15 to 30 minute rain shower comes through and it stops for 15 to 30 minutes hear them all get up and start moving around. Yep. And then unfortunately they wouldn't they didn't necessarily leave the bedding area that particular day but or move from one core area down to another core area because I was on a travel corridor but it was still it for learning that area I thought that was pretty cool. So yeah these are all those factors that you're going to be doing for when am I going to hunt so I found my area and I'm going to keep repeating these because that's how to get that point across. Find my area I found my spot I knew what to do with my spot once once I had it come season I knew when I was going to go out hunting and then wrapping it up am I ready to hunt and then this because this is you know are you prepping during the it's well this is the mindset game part of it. It's did I prepare with my with my weapon so you're you're out in the yard shooting your bow I try almost every day.
SPEAKER_00I tried
Practice Mindset And Readiness
SPEAKER_00a year round and I thought the older I get the more time I'd have to do that. And that hasn't panned out at all for me. But I do try and shoot year round whether it's indoor league or 3D shoots or stuff like that I'm always trying to stay somewhat prepped. But and it's good that we bring this up because season always seems to sneak up it there never seems to be enough time. You know so I I know guys are saying well I'm always ready or what no I'm sorry we're not everybody's gone through opening day you know screw ups where oh I forgot this or somehow this didn't make it into my day pack or yeah you know there's there's always something you forgot or you just don't feel confident with your weapon because you didn't practice as much as you were trying to yeah you know I thought I'd have more time here ended up getting late I didn't have time to go out and shoot whether it's my rifle, my muzzle load or whatever, you didn't get enough practice in where you don't feel confident. So that's always something that that we as adults are always going to battle with.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just because in the day and times in which we live the cost of living is going up so we're working longer hours to maintain our standard of living that we like and something's got to give and typically it's our time to do this other fun stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So not only prepping with your weapon we've talked a lot about that but that kind of thinking through and I'm sure you do this and whether you want to call it visualization or whatever your term you want to use or how you want to think about it. But I find myself thinking okay here's the scenarios that could play out they could come from here at this time and they could be coming from this direction I'm always going over those what am I going to do if they he comes from this area? What if I'm what am I going to do if he comes from this direction? Absolutely what if he walks up right next to my ground blind what am I going to do? Am I going to be ready for that? Yeah. And it's being ready for all those thinking through your shot because that you talk about buck fever but also just not thinking through the idiosyncrasies of your weapon and thinking too much of or not thinking of everything. And that's what got me for why I missed that two by three my first year I didn't think through all of the shot right I thought through half of it and I was putting a lot of emphasis on thinking about okay so Dave said that I gotta listen to which direction he runs off so I'm thinking about that and therefore I'm not thinking about my shot.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Right. And you know so it's that whole process of sitting and thinking about okay what am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do over and over and over again to where you know that once you get in that moment and steady is fast.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And and I'm constantly playing scenarios over in my head. And it every time I sit, I may sit in that stand I may have 30 sits before the season's over in that one particular stand. And I promise you every sit I have gone over as many scenarios in my mind as I possibly can imagining that buck coming in from every direction from him surprising me from me being able to see him way off all of that just so that I'm ready for every possible situation that can come up with that buck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And still I've still always been because I can't the way my ground blind's been brushed in I'm still always surprised when a buck just because all of a sudden they're there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah and they're in your lap and they're not like he's 60 70 yards off he's less than 20.
SPEAKER_02Yeah and thinking about whatever you're doing all of a sudden there's that buck. You're glassing a clear cut or you're glassing hillsides and all okay all of a sudden there he is.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02And I'm am I ready for this particular scenario? And I'm also thinking like through my day okay what do I need to do if I get this buck down where's he gonna go am I going to go in and I got to go retrieve him probably from down in the bottom of this ravine or that's pretty much a given there's there's all of these things that you have to yeah be thinking about but just even thinking about the day of like okay I'm going in at this time I'm going to do this and every 30 minutes I'm going to do some rattling or some calling or 20 minutes or you know I've got that whole day played out in my head of when I need to be doing everything. And waiting for that okay at this time is when I know I can leave it's it's going to be too dark and so that's when I can sneak out but I need to also be paying attention that there's nothing I'm not going to jump anything when I I'm trying to sneak out yeah there's a lot to am I ready to hunt do I have all my gear and thinking about that we use scents the people in Oregon if you're baiting do you have your bait all lined up that you're going to you know are you you might be going down to tractor supply and just buying bags of wet cob but like we were doing apples which meant driving out to Yakima to pick up a couple of apples but there's that do I have all my scents have I purchased them so that I'm not rushed trying to get all this stuff at the last minute because like you said it sneaks up on you and all of a sudden oh I didn't order these products I sure hope I can everybody's out of stock yeah yeah yeah uh and and that's funny because I used to man I've told guys this at seminars and everything like that when I start the season back when I I could use ambush joe or moccasin joe however you you want to call it I would go in and buy like 20 bott 20 bottles.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I would start off with just the dough and estrus and then 10 to 12 bottles of the buck urine. And I mean that's what I would start off with. I would go in and clean a place out. Yeah per near you know what I mean and then I did that probably two sometimes three times a season.
SPEAKER_02Yeah especially when you because you were running five six sets right you and your whole family and everything. So yeah it's thinking those things through that's why for our coaching they get the gear guide so that they learn to do this process of uh because it's got the hunt planner with it and then our Patreon guys the the master hunters get this as well.
SPEAKER_00I've got my hunt planner so I know what day I'm going to be doing these particular things and you plan that out two months in advance and then you've got your gear guide which is the reminder oh I need to order this I need to have all this stuff ready because and it it sounds tedious and it sounds almost I don't know like we're treat treating guys like childs, children, you know but it it's like no until you've done this until you've put a season in in this particular method and whatever method you're going to use whatever that may be yeah because every method is going to require something that needs to be purchased well I need to I wore out you know my good socks last year I need marine wool because cotton soaks up water and and or you know my gloves they took a they took a dump on me out there I need to get a new set you need to start thinking this stuff through long before season gets here. Yeah you don't want to be tied down with little micromanaging little stuff that will take away from the time that you could be using to scout to practice whatever you know yeah it's just that whole thinking ahead although you say tedious but it really it gets us in the mood to go out hunting. Oh I I love it every year.
SPEAKER_02I'm because now I'm thinking about it and oh yeah I need to I need to order my my scents yeah that just means I'm really close. Actually I I just realized they do have some I'm trying out a new company which I if they work out well I will talk about them but trying some new things with some different right so the interdigital gland which is to create trails so that bucks think oh there's a deer this is a safe trail because other deer are using it. Maybe but this is also the thing when you start thinking ahead and you have this all planned out you can start thinking about these little tweaks that you want to do.
SPEAKER_00Oh absolutely months in advance.
SPEAKER_02Yeah and so and I think Chris is really good about this that he's thinking about these things and trying these little well I'm gonna try this this year and see if you know a little bit of a change but but he's got his plan in place you know he has his spot I don't think he ever stops thinking about deer hunting.
SPEAKER_00No probably I actually think he thinks about it more than I do.
SPEAKER_02That wouldn't surprise me. But he's got Bambino to show for it. So there you go.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely don't and he's gonna get Willie Willy he's got a buck right now that's every bit as impressive as his Bambino.
SPEAKER_02He has so many bucks I was going to do so it's been a trend on Instagram now to do the with the doc Netflix documentary music and where you sit down and you attach a a microphone to your shirt like they're gonna interview you.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02It's this trend on Instagram and I was going to get I wanted to have Chris come in attach one of the lapel mics onto himself sit down and then run through all of the bucks he has coming in because he's got he's got like six he and Bud could use several episodes that way. I just thought that would be a funny one get some traction going on on on Instagram there you go there you go with some things. But I think that kind of wraps it up so just remember find your area find your spot know what you're gonna do with your spot once you found it know when you're gonna
Recap Plus Events And Classes
SPEAKER_02go out hunting and are you ready to hunt? Do you have everything you need do you have the mindset to go in there absolutely that's how we approach our season so want to give a quick reminder turkey tactics with Alex he is doing those classes next year. If you want to learn from a guy who's done the Washington slam 10 times took out Bo Brooks Bo Brooks this last season yeah and help Bo get his first Eastern over here mentored Zach to get his first Washington slam and this is after a couple of years. So if you if turkey hunting is of interest to you get signed up go to the blacktailcoach com that he's linked on there he's on one of the pages there for signing up for classes the hunters gathering we already have guys signing up get signed up get your deposit in for that it's going to be great this year. So it is official and I don't think I've mentioned this yet Casey from Hushin is going to be teaching with Trent Fisher born and raised from born and raised they're gonna co-teach the elk portion so we've got Jim Myers he is going to be teaching cougar we've got Tom Ryles going to come out and teach about calling and rattling black tail john nicholson's going to be there cameras we've got Heather coming back to teach about bear again Dave's going to be teaching black tail alex will be there teaching turkey tactics there's going to be a lot of learning and you're gonna be able to pick this year so it's gonna be a menu of who you want which species you want to want to learn and that's the process going forward is different offerings every year so that you can learn different styles of hunting different hunting different species yeah we just want to keep blowing this thing up and so get signed up it's capped at 100 it's gonna be incredible already we had the night we came back we had our first sign up for next year and so yeah we've already got people signing up for next year which is great it's just a great event and best part sitting around the fire at the end of the night with everybody and just talking talking hunting for four days so great event and hey you can't make that we're gonna keep doing that but if you want to come out to the classes come out to the the black tail coach classes absolutely field days we're adding a new field day next year advanced locating so this is not just finding your area this is about finding your spot we do still have some openings for establishing a set on August 8th of this year you can jump in the price on that goes up next year so if you're thinking about it this is the year it's actually much cheaper this year. I think it's $150 this year and next year it bumps up to $250 but yeah jump in get signed up for that it's gonna be a a busy year. It is a lot going on keep in mind if you are a listener and you've taken the class or if you went to the hunters gathering last year and you have harvested any of the species that you learned about reach out to us because we not only want to share in your celebration but we want you on the podcast. We want to have you record your success story.
SPEAKER_00So send us your picks.
SPEAKER_02Yes love to see those guys love to see those so anyway if you could go on like subscribe share this podcast with your friends get them listening do all of those things that would be great and we will talk to you next week
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