Dialed Before Day One - Building Confidence Through Prep

What separates a confident day in the field from one filled with preventable problems? How much of success is decided before the hunt even begins?

In this episode of Built to Last, Tim and Jude sit down again with Kevin Estela, owner of Kevin Estela, LLC. Kevin breaks down the preparation that builds confidence before day one, from knowing your equipment and testing your systems to sharpening the skills you will rely on when conditions get difficult.

The conversation explores why owning capable gear is not the same as being capable with it, how realistic practice exposes weaknesses, and why small details deserve attention before the stakes are high. Kevin also shares a practical mindset for building dependable routines, making thoughtful adjustments, and reducing uncertainty through experience.

Whether you are preparing for a hunt, a training course, or your next outdoor challenge, this episode offers a clear reminder: confidence is not something you pack at the last minute. It is earned through preparation.

This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Please speak to a qualified firearm professional for any industry-related questions or decisions. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the host and guests and do not reflect the official policy or position of any company. This content is intended for audiences 21 years or older. Viewer discretion is advised. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Welcome to another episode of Built to Last with Brown Elves. I'm your host Tim, alongside our co-host Jude, recording in the Ram Room at Brown Els. Returning to the show is Kevin Estella, outdoorsman, survival instructor, author, and one of the industry's leading voices on preparedness and capability in the field. Kevin has spent decades teaching hunters, shooters, and outdoorsmen how to bridge the gap between owning equipment and knowing how to use it when conditions are less than ideal. His work spans wilderness survival, bushcraft, practical rifle craft, and the mindset required to solve problems outdoors. Today we're talking about something every hunter needs to think about, but not everyone prepares for: building that confidence through preparation. From physical fitness and gear selection to optics training in realistic shooting positions, we're breaking down the habits that make the opening day feel familiar instead of overwhelming. Kevin, welcome back to Built to Last.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Gentlemen, thank you so much for having me on. And listeners, thank you for your time. I hope you'll find this pretty entertaining as well as educational.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Perfect. Well, you know, most hunters spend time preparing their rifles and buying gear, but confidence comes from preparation that exceeds beyond the bench. It's like that old saying goes, preparation creates opportunity. So hunters that spend a lot of time focusing on gear upgrades, what parts of preparation actually build confidence in the field?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

You know, I think one of the ways that we build confidence is we use ourselves as our own metric. So, you know, right now it's July. It is in the middle of a heat wave, uh, where I am here in North Carolina, and I just started running again. I hate running. I'll tell you this much. Um, you know, I don't train to retreat. Um, but I'll say this. Like when I first started, I could say, man, I really was sucking wind. And I can look back on, you know, my first couple miles that I ran, being like, man, that really was terrible. But if you continuously push yourself and then you check back in with yourself, you can say, you know what? I know that I can cover X number of miles in this amount of time. I know that I can drag that deer if you're on the East Coast, or you can pack it out on the West Coast because you've done all the kettlebell workouts and you're like, I've lifted 80 pounds before. I know I can throw my weight around and animal's weight around. So I think one of the best ways that you can build confidence in the field is starting by building that confidence with yourself by proving it to yourself compared to the old version of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Using yourself as that as the baseline instead of comparing yourself to others.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Oh, dude, listen, there are guys out there like Cam Haynes. You know, the guy's gonna run a marathon and then he's gonna lace a deer at 110 yards with a compound. I am going to maybe drive a marathon to my hunting location, and I'm not gonna shoot anywhere near as good as him. So the old expression is comparison is the thief of joy. And it's a true statement. You know, if you compare yourself to the top-tier athletes out there, top tier hunters, top-tier outdoorsmen, it can be overwhelming. But if you look at yourself and you strive for that little bit of improvement every single day, then guess what? You are going to build that confidence in yourself. And you're gonna say, look, I came so far and I didn't just come this far to only go so far.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

What's the biggest mistakes that you typically see people make before going out to that first hunt?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

All right. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna preface this one by saying I I feel like I'm like a like an old silver fox, right? Like I was just teaching a class this past weekend, talking with my friends who are my guest instructors, and we were like, yeah, 20 years ago. And then we looked at each other like, damn, we are old. So a lot of what I'm about to say comes from my own personal experience or friends' experiences over two decades. And probably the most the most common, common mistake that guys make is that they don't inspect their gear from season to season. They put away their flashlights, their trail cameras, whatever they have, and they don't take the batteries out or they don't change the batteries and they expect the batteries to work from one year to the next, right? There's that idea of the press check, right? When you're you're shooting a firearm, you press check to understand the status of the firearm. Well, we have to press check our gear too. We have to see if the batteries work. We have to see if our you know boots are still laminated or if the sole is starting to come undone, right? We have to check our knives to see if we put them away, you know, with little bits of animals on them, or if they're fully cleaned, sharpened, and ready to go. So I feel like that's the most common mistake is when guys just assume, oh, everything is the way that I left it. It's probably not. And there's no harm in double checking your kit before you get out into the field.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Kind of that out of sight, out of mind type thing you throw it into the safe or the closet after the season's over. And yeah, it was it was fine.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Hey, we're all guilty of going right from hunting season into fishing season, or right from hunting season into the holidays, or whatever it may be. So yeah, it definitely becomes that out of sight, out of mind. And you know, our mind plays tricks on us, you know. And how many times have you heard someone say, Oh man, I thought I put this away in a better condition, or I thought I I thought I had this at the end of the season and I don't, you know. Oh, pretty much every time. So don't trust yourself.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Uh how early should hunters begin preparing physically, not just physically, but also mentally for the the season coming up?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Well, I think this is a philosophical question. I mean, there are people that say the hunting season never ends. You know, and if you think of it as like a year-round endeavor, what are you doing in the quote unquote off season? You're you're scouting locations. If you are you know building a microfood plot, you're preparing for the hunting season, or if you want to look at it, the shooting season or killing season or whatever it may be, you know, during the the winter months, you might still continue to ruck around your neighborhood or you know, hit the weight room to build that muscle that you'll use during hunting season. And then you have all these amazing uh summer and spring and early fall months to you know tune in your rifle or your bow when like the weather's nice and you can go to the range in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. So like I don't know. I don't think the hunting season ever ends. And and and God only knows, I watch YouTube videos year round. And I'm like, I'm getting like psyched every single night when I throw on a video and I'm like, man, I've watched this video like seven times before. I don't see any issue watching it an eighth time, um, because it keeps that fire in me going and it just wants me to get out there and be better.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

So really you're you're never stopping the the hunting mentality, you're always kind of just transitioning from one portion of it uh to another.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Oh, I don't think I'm alone. I think there are guys listening right now that are like, this dude's spot on. And if there's any ladies that are listening right now, uh, or any husbands, you know, and you've got huntress wives that are listening, and you can relate, you know, watching your significant other do stuff when you should be probably doing yard work or whatever. Yeah, yeah, I think there are other people out there that are like, it never ends. It's a passion, it just doesn't go away.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

So, what separates someone who feels ready from someone just who hopes that they're ready for the hunt?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Okay, so you said the key word right there. Hope is not a plan. Right? Hope hope is something that you know you might as well just say dreaming. If you have a goal, right, or if you have an end state that you're trying to get to, but no roadmap to get there, all you have is hope. So I think what separates the people is a logical plan of like, all right, I need to be able to carry 120 pounds on my back out of the mountains without twisting an ankle, spraining a knee or whatever. Well, how do you get there? You don't immediately go from walking your neighborhood to a hundred twenty-pound pack. You might say, Listen, I'm gonna do over 10 weeks, I'm gonna increase 10% or whatever it may be. You may even consult with a uh, you know, sports medicine guy who can tell you, listen, your joints can only do X amount. So instead of going with 120 pounds, maybe you should be shooting for 90 pounds in your pack and doing two trips instead of one or whatever that math comes out to be. You can tell I was a history teacher and not a math teacher because I just said 180 pounds instead of 120. But uh, I think that's really what separates people. Like we all have to be realistic. Like, I mean, like I said earlier, I'm getting older. I know that I can't do the same things that I used to do when I was 23. I'm twice that age now. So I have to be very realistic with my plan to get ready for hunting season, just like all of us do. And, you know, I have to, you know, actually be able to demonstrate what I can do as opposed to assume what I can do. Um, so I think that's really what separates people is the difference between hope and having a plan is one of them is gonna get you to your goal, and the other one is just gonna be like, I don't know, just taking a wild shot in the dark or through the woods. We'll just wing it. Yeah, let's not do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I can't imagine very many successful hunts uh were successful because they're like, ah, we'll just do it live, we'll just wing it and just figure it out as we go along, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Well, you know, that's the funny part. I bet there are people out there that are like, you know, I've I've just gone out there and I've had you know a trophy buck, and I bet no one believes you. Like they probably they probably think that you poached that buck, right? Like you shot it off your back porch, you know, after feeding it all year. Um, because sometimes the the cards, I mean, listen, luck happens. There's no doubt about it. But I know that I'm not that lucky. I know that if I were that lucky, I'd go out and buy a lottery ticket right now. Um I just don't have that luck. So I would rather prepare for it than just fall back on hope.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So, what skills tend to matter most that hunters maybe overlook commonly?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

So I think navigation is way up there. Oh, yeah. Um, but not necessarily from like a perspective of getting lost. I mean, we all get turned around in the woods, and there's no shame in getting lost as long as you're willing to recognize that you're lost and either huddle, you know, down, hunker down for the night, get out in the morning safely, or find your way out using proper equipment. But what I think hunters overlook is they're not looking at the terrain features that they're hunting in, either using uh Onex or Gaia or using uh Spartan Forge, you know, satellite imagery and LIDAR. Like you can also use just old school USGS topographical maps to look at where are the low areas that deer might be creeping into the into a hunting area, where are the transition zones where you have a wide open field and you have a woodline? Uh, where are the water sources that might draw animals into them in the evening hours, that type of thing. So I think guys overlook hunting when it comes to land navigation by doing that map reconnaissance ahead of time and just winging it, saying, Hey, I feel I have a feeling, right? That's another great expression. I've got a feeling there's deer that are gonna come through here. Well, before you trust that feeling, take a look on a map and see if that terrain matches your feeling. And if it does, go after it, man, right? But if it doesn't, be a little bit more logical and say, well, what are some of the, what are some of the bits of advice that the proven hunters have talked about for years, right? Like where are the areas that deer can creep in through the low areas? Where can they uh hide on, say like the military crest instead of silhouetting themselves against like a like a ridgeline, right? So like you you wanna you wanna like follow that type of information. So I think that's one skill. Um, I think another skill that hunters overlook is shooting from awkward positions. And and this is one that I really harp on because I I I'm just like every other guy. I grew up shooting from a bench with a 22, and I had a beautiful little rifle rest, and I had a rear bag, and and I mean it was fun plinking, and it's a very comfortable position to shoot from because we can breathe normally. It's not like we have our weight pressing down on our chest, shooting from prone. You know, we have the rifle fully supported, we we don't even have to hold it. But if we're shooting from a tree stand or shooting from off of a tripod or using our backpack or or coming up with some type of unique firing solution that is not prone, well, that's where hunters kind of have an issue. And that's because they're not used to supporting the weight of their rifle, weight of their rifle with a suppressor, um, and then hunting while or taking a shot while gassed, because they might have spotted an animal after climbing a hilltop. And the shot is now. It's not five and a half minutes from now when you're you know fully caught up on your on your wind. So I think shooting from those awkward positions, that's something that we can practice in the in the offseason. And you can make a game of it with your hunting buddies and play a game of horse, saying, like, okay, I'm gonna shoot with this branch assisted standing shot on that piece of steel, 75 yards, you know, and then let your buddy try to do it. And then he's gonna call the next shot. And you can really get some good practice because you never know what that shot's gonna look like in the field. I almost guarantee it's not gonna be prone. If it is, go for it. But uh there's a lot of tall grass in the Midwest, and there's a lot of rocks, and there's a lot of awkward terrain that just doesn't make prone very conducive for you know putting meat on the table.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

What positions would you say every hunter should be comfortable shooting from?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

I think one of the most common positions is seated, and seated in a few different ways. Number one, seated with your legs extended where you're actually down slope and you've got your legs extended and you've got your your arms resting on your thighs. That I think is a very practical position because you might be on the side of a hill and there is absolutely no tree uh with a branch in sight to rest off of. You may find it difficult to uh to stand, or maybe you don't want to stand because your profile is now much greater and the animal might spot you. Um, from that seated position, you might have your backpack off, and you might have your rifle resting on the frame of your backpack, like that spot in between the internal stays on the backpack. You may even have your hunting buddy putting a knee in your back to help you from you know toppling back over to give you a little extra support while he's you know spotting with a pair of binoculars. Um, I think seated is one way to go uh with the legs extended, seated with your legs crossed, right? Crisscross applesauce or Indian style, whatever you want to call it, that's another. Um a seated is so important. And then another one is shooting off of a vertical pole. And what I mean by that is uh if you have a very skinny sapling, uh maybe a sapling that's been stripped, or you do have a tree branch that you can, you know, post up against to uh up against, you can C clamp that branch with your with your support hand and rest the rifle on your thumb, almost like you're taking a pool shot playing a game of pool. Um, I feel like that shot comes up frequently where you're in the timber and you see the animal, and maybe you can't take a crouching shot or a seated shot because you have debris in the way. Um, but you can if you are slightly standing or you have a tree to hide behind. So I feel like those are the two that are the most common. Um, but of course, I'm not gonna tell you not to practice shooting from the prone, shooting from a kneeling position, shooting from standing. Um, but definitely practice seated and practice shooting from uh a position where you're using a vertical pole with your rifle that's positioned perpendicular to it.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Interesting. I like the way that you incorporate doing the drills with your buddy, uh, like having your hunting buddy out there and playing a game of horse for different shooting positions or shooting targets. Um, we were talking before about how you can train your eyes as well. And you walked me through an optics exercise where someone has to locate an object with binoculars or spotting scope. Can you uh run our listeners and Jew through that as well? Because I thought that was really interesting and super helpful.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Yeah, so big shout out to my friend Kevin Owens. Uh Kevin Owens and I used to work at the same company together. He's here in North Carolina, former uh winner of the Carlos Hathcock Sniper Award, former International Sniper Competition Award winner. Kevin Owens is the man. And I learned a lot of long distance shooting from sitting through classes with Kevin Owens and listening to that man because he has forgotten more about long-range shooting than I will ever learn. And one of the activities that he runs classes through is what's referred to as a Kim's game. Um, the Kim's game stands for keep in memory system. And how it's done, you have a table of, say, like 12 objects that you let students take a look at. So hypothetically, we can say like blaze orange hunting vest, surefire 6p flashlight, benchmade hunting knife, right? Like you throw all these different items on a table. And then you tell the students, like, okay, you have uh 30 seconds to look at these objects on the table. Now turn around, and the same objects, like a duplicate object, is behind you in the field with uh left and right and far limits indicated by well, we use the VS17 panel, but you could put flagging tape up and say, it's as far to the left as you can see the flagging tape, it's as far to the right and as far back as you can see the flagging tape. Now use your binoculars and look through them and find those 12 items. Now, here's the best part some of those items are in plain view, they're the easy items to spot because they're not hidden in shadows, they're not hidden where you have leaves covering them, right? Breaking up their silhouette. But some of the items are literally one foot in front of the students, and they're forgetting that sometimes what you're looking for is literally in front of your face. Look down, don't get sucked into the terrain, be observant of all the terrain. And that's a lesson that needs to be taught because we could be there with our binoculars and a real hunting scenario where we're looking across the field for you know the animal that we we've targeted in on, the one that we want, the one that we've watched on trail cameras, but it might only be five feet away from us, right? Or five yards away from us, just bed down. And, you know, we're too focused on looking at the far terrain. Well, that Kim's game is one that teaches you how to use your optics because a lot of guys will use optics on the highest magnification setting. And when they use it on the highest magnification setting, that makes your field of view the absolute smallest. So it's very easy to, you know, get sucked into the terrain. Well, maybe crank that magnification back. Maybe change your focus and let that focus change, the shift in your focus and your binoculars. Let it do what's called burning through vegetation, where you're burning through the vegetation as the near objects are going out of focus and the far objects are coming in. Well, that Kim's game is a super easy game to play as long as you have duplicate objects and you and your buddy take the time to do it, and you can, you know, create on a piece of paper like a map, like, all right, I found that benchmate knife at the base of a tree, in the crook of a tree, you know, right there. And you know, and you can have an arrow pointing to where it is, you know, next to a rock or whatever. And then you can say, I found that hunter's vest, um, you know, partially obscured behind a log. You know, and it's just a great way to train your eyes and to actually use your resources before hunting season, you know, rolls around.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

And I thought it was really cool that to use the field of focus uh to burn through either the the near objects or the far objects, depending on what you're focusing on, to get that next or that uh more in-depth clarity or to drive into that uh Yeah, that is super interesting.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

So you're using it as like a scanning device. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Okay. And Tim, the first time that you try it, like you should probably leave the podcast studio right now, grab a pair of binoculars and go out into the field and like go look at a tree. And it's crazy. The first time you do it, you're like, I can't believe I was today years old when I learned that this actually works. Like, and it it's changed my game because you start noticing things, like you notice by by doing that, you notice the tops of uh tines of like a deer's rack coming through the woods or coming up like a uh like a hidden uh ravine, like where you just see the tops of the rack, you're like, Oh my god, oh my god, there's something coming. That is absolutely a game changer, and it's something if if you guys listening, that's nothing not if you learn nothing else from today, burn through vegetation with your focus, focus on your binoculars. Thank me later. I can give you my Venmo. Um, I accept forms of tips in all different ways, including brown hell's gift cards. Um, so yeah, there you go, guys. That's that's one of my favorite uh ways of improving your vision.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

I do really like that. I've never thought about that before. So like as you're as you're adjusting your focus, you're basically taking like the entire scenery in your optic one slice at a time. Yes. And that's cool. So yeah, it just like you said with the with like the antlers, that you can you're it's easier to pick them up, like go into the brush, but it's the same thing with like different ranges uh when you're about to take that shot because you'll see the tops of a tree at a certain distance or like the tops of a bush, and that'll kind of give you that this is halfway kind of marker, or at least at least I think it will, just in in my head. I am gonna go try that after this. Tim, apparently you have to get out of here and go do that right now. Kevin said I had to, so I can't say no.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Are there any other drills or ways to train that hunters can do with their optics before hunting season starts or during the off season?

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Yeah, so I I think you know, right now there are a lot of optics that are out there that are super high tech with Christmas tree reticles or, you know, with various um sub. Tension reticles, you know, and you can learn, okay, at the highest magnification at 100 yards, what does that reticle mean for your particular ammunition that you're using when you push it out to say 200 or 300? So typically, like whenever you have like a bullet drop compensator reticle, it's usually for a very specific load coming out at a very specific rate of twist rifle with a very specific bullet in mind. But you might not have that exact combination. So if you have, say like Vortex has uh has a reticle that has just a couple subtentions on the lower vertical stadia. And if you learn where your bullet will impact in relation to those, you can create like a cheat sheet for your rifle. And let's say that you range an animal at 400 yards, right? Or you range it at 250. And let's say that you're an East Coast hunter and you have a 50-yard zero. Well, now you can learn where does your bullet actually impact? Do it now before you take the shot at the animal and you whip that bullet directly underneath them, under their belly or over their over their shoulder. So I think that's an important skill too, is like learn your rifle inside and out, like like become absolutely compulsive with understanding where your bullet that you're going to train with and you're going to hunt with. Don't practice with one and train and hunt with another, but learn where that bullet impacts at every perceivable range. And what does that look like in relation to your reticle? And if you don't have those little subtentions, maybe you've got the heavy duplex and you're like, okay, at a hundred yards halfway up the heavy duplex on the highest magnification, my bullet impacts here, right? Like understand your rifle inside and out. Like, like be married to that rifle.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

If someone only had a few weekends before opening day to prepare, how should they prioritize that preparation?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

I think the first thing that you do is you do a complete dry run of a hunting, uh, a day of hunting. Like, if you feel like hunting season is three weeks away, you need to go out 21 days before hunting season, grab your pack, everything you think you need, but go to the range and you need to prepare for a cold boar shot. So before you um, you know, you take that shot, you wake up early, you see if you can shoulder your pack, you check out your boots, you do everything in a scenario. But when you get to the range, you're going to take that first shot, and uh you need to let that first shot register with you. If it's a hit, then guess what? You don't have to worry about the shooting component. If it's a far miss, you need to dial that in. If leading up to that scenario, you can't locate your rain gear, or you find that the mice have found their way into your attic or your garage or you know, your your shed and they've torn through whatever. Well, you need to repair your kit by going through and doing a no BS assessment, like a full scenario, it will help you identify the weak points that you can then reinforce before hunting season. And then you have say two and a half, three weeks to get ready. Well, you can definitely, definitely see an improvement in yourself in that amount of time, but you have to know where to start. You have to be aware of the deficiencies before you can address them. So I would say like that's the first step. And then after that, come up with that realistic plan. Uh, don't, you know, try to do everything all at once. It's gonna become overwhelming, but you know, really, really uh strive for a little bit of improvement each day. Um, and at the end of the three-week period, you're gonna see a massive improvement overall.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

That would give you like a uh killer confidence boost, too, if you did that dry run and everything went well. Or even it would probably give you a confidence boost either way, even if you had problems, because then you're like, okay, I know I gotta work on this, you go work on it, and then you're like, okay, I'm good. Because, like you said, with the with like the mice thing, let's say you're gonna have to camp out somewhere and you pull out your sleeping bag, and it's like that's when you're gonna find out when you're already out there and you need it. It's like, okay, it looks like me and these mice are are sleeping together tonight.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Oh man, mice and squirrels, they don't use zippers, do they? No, they don't. Yeah, so it's like I I'll tell you one thing. Like, I I love all gods' creatures. I'm an animal lover, even though I'm a hunter, right? It's a strange, you know, thing that we are. You know, people say, like, how can you love animals if you're a hunter? But if I find that there's vermin that destroy my gear, I get bloodthirsty. It's like I'm gonna set up 20 traps for that one mouse. I will get that guy.

SPEAKER_03 26:37

That's a declaration of war. Oh, absolutely. The house is in full war mode, too.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

That's when you see Jude walking around with a BB gun and his quad nods. Uh which preparedness skills, since you do a lot of bushcraft and uh survival and emergency preparation, which of those skills carry over into most of the hunting styles?

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Uh I would definitely say knots right off the bat. Okay. Um, you know, fire starting's easy. You know, fire starting with modern equipment is easy, especially if you have Tinder. But where I see guys struggle is with knots. And the old expression is if you can't tie knots, you tie lots, but you don't want to be there with like your the all on your Swiss Army knife or you know, on your leatherman, like trying to take knots apart. If you know how to tie a proper knot, you can easily untie it and you can get your cord back. Um, you know, I just taught a butchering class with a buddy of mine uh not too far from Fort Bragg over here, and we built like a bushcraft gambrel to get the animals that were butchering up into the air. And I watched a couple soldiers struggle, and I'm like, yeah, just you know, tie a bowl in there and then you know, wrap it around the tree branch, rolling, rolling hitch, two half hitches, you're good to go. And they looked at me like, what? I'm like, here, watch. And they're like, Oh, that's what that knot's called. I'm like, Yeah, dude, like it's super easy. Watch. And then, you know, I've seen people struggle with with basic knots. So I would say the bushcraft community, uh community and the hunting community, they both need knots. And before the world was held together with screws and bolts and nails, it was held together with cordage, right? So, I mean, that's one of those important skill sets that I mean you never know where it's gonna come into play.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Yeah, I mean, because you you could utilize knots with packing your gear in to if you run into have a malfunction with clothing or uh hiking gear or something like that, you know, you can use knots to help fix that so you're back in the hunt. And then afterwards, after you harvest that animal, you got to get it out and back to your garage or like wherever you're taking it. Um, and having that vast knowledge of knots to use and when to use which one can make your life so much easier.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

Yeah, here's here's a perfect example of that one. So a couple buddies of mine a few years back, Tom and Bill, they did this event called the Ultimate Sniper Challenge. It was like out in uh Montana, I believe. And you know, this is gonna require one guy to carry a bolt gun, one guy to carry a gas gun. And, you know, I taught Tom at like training up to it. I was like, look, this is how you tie a tripod. And I was teaching him how you can, you know, cut some branches, you can make a makeshift tripod, and you can get a very stable shot off of a old school camp tripod. Well, that skill came into play, right? And these guys were making um shooting sticks into more of like a bipod using old school lashing. So you never know where these skills will come into play. Like you could you could lose your tripod, you could you know, have a leg fall off when it's uh strapped to the outside of your pack, or you could have a an issue where you lose the ball head or like the the saddle that the tripod uses. Well, you can bushcraft your own if you know how to, you know. So like I just tell people like the more you know, the less you carry. And like it's really cool knowing how to be resourceful with limited resources. So, you know, I'm just here to help people become better, more capable versions of themselves and super successful. And if they pick up one little skill along the way, then guess what? Like their hunt has a better chance of being successful.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Is there any one skill that you found gives hunters the biggest return on investment?

SPEAKER_00 30:10

I think butchering your own. Okay. Um, and I and I've been thinking about that one a little bit, and like maybe just because I I did so much of it last week, like we butchered a lot of animals. But uh, you know, I I don't like the idea of giving my meat to someone to process. I like knowing that all of that animal that I put down is going to be used. And I know that I am not going to grind any of the lymph nodes or anything that I don't want in the meat that's gonna give it like a funky flavor. I feel like if you are going to spend all of this money, and let's say that you're a meat hunter, you're not a trophy hunter, if you're spending all this money on this animal, um, you know, getting this animal down on the ground, well then spend the time to make sure that it is cut exactly the way that it should be. And here's the other thing that I always worry about, and there are cases of this all over. You never know if you're gonna hand your animal into a butcher and they're gonna do a trade where they say, hey, we'll we'll give you this sausage for the animal. And it's like, how old is that sausage? Who brought in the meat before? Was it left out to get spoiled like take care of that on your own? And like only you can be responsible for that. So I feel like to get the most return on your investment, you got to follow that animal from start to finish. The minute it goes down to the minute that you put it on your plate, how it's been butchered, how it's been refrigerated and packed and so forth, like all that, I feel that's really where the biggest return comes in. Like all these other skills, I feel like you can, you know, you can improve a little bit. But if we're thinking about the ultimate goal of feeding our families and ourselves and staying in this game a long time, let's make sure that we put the best possible version of protein in our bodies as opposed to something that might be suspect.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

That's really well said. I I've never thought of it that way because I've always, when I've deer hunted, you you shoot the deer, you field dress it, you know, hang it for a while, and then you take it to the locker and have it processed. But yeah, if that if you don't know that locker personally, what's to stop them from maybe switching out a different deer or coming up and be like, oh yeah, we can if you want to do the sausage instead of you know the the venison, we can throw that in there. Well, never thought about how long they've been holding on to that sausage or where it came from or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

Well, it's like every time, every time that uh I go deer hunting and you take it to a locker, like they'll have you drive around back and throw it in there, and you just see this pile of cards with tags on it and stuff. It's like you try it, try and ask those guys which one was mine, like in 30 minutes, and they're like uh right.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Yeah, and listen, I'm not I'm not knocking these guys. Like to watch one of them take apart part of an animal is amazing, but you know, every once in a while there's a bad one in the bunch, and I like I said, I don't have that luck, you know, I don't have hope on my side, so I just want to do things on my own. Plus, it's it's pretty damn rewarding when like you can cut up a nice backstrap or you can you know remove tenderloins intact without nicking them, and then you serve it to your friends or serve it to your neighbors, and they're like, Where'd this come from? You're like, I did this. They're like, No, it's too like this is this came from a butcher. It's like, yeah, I was the butcher, you know, like like there's something really rewarding about that that I truly enjoy.

SPEAKER_02 33:25

And it just builds your confidence again for the next one.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Oh, yeah, it makes you want to get out there and do more.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

Right. So if listeners finished today's episode and they committed to improving just one aspect of their preparation before hunting season, where would you tell them to start?

SPEAKER_00 33:40

I I would say right now, get your health in line. You know, I hate hearing these stories every single year of hunters who have heart attacks. That's the leading cause of death in this country. Absolutely hate hearing these stories of hunters having heart attacks because let's face it, we're probably not hunting alone. And, you know, it breaks my heart to think that there are kids that watch their dads have a heart attack or their grandfathers. So I would say the first step is to get your health in check because we only get one chance in our lifetime to take care of our meat suit. And if we are hurting our body every day by putting in bad stuff, then by the time hunting season comes around, right, there's going to be a tax to pay. And sometimes that tax can bankrupt you. In other words, flatline you.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

And I would say that, like, you know, you don't want to wait until hunting season to find out that you're physically incapable of doing something. It's like, take care of yourself now. And there's no shame in saying, you know, I'm 65, I'm 85 years old, I can't do this anymore. You've earned your place and you have hopefully grandkids or someone you're mentoring that can help you drag that deer or pack out that deer, but don't stop hunting. You know, like I that's what I love about this community is that if I were to call a buddy right now and be like, Jerry or Mike or George or Dave, dude, I need a hand. They would drop everything and be like, I got you. Nice because they know I would do the same thing. You know, like we're all in this crazy war party to go hunt and put animals down and eat well. Like it's what we do. So get your health in line, man. That's that's my best advice for people right now. Uh eat less, walk more, spend less time, you know, sitting behind a blue screen, like get out in nature and just stay healthy so you can get after it longer.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Training is more than just hitting the range and making sure you can take the shot. It's making sure you can actually do the hike and enjoy yourself while you're out there, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Yeah, you said it, man.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Kevin, thanks for bringing your experience and perspective to the Ram room. Where can people interact with you or find more information about what you do?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

Yeah, sure thing. So Kevin Estella.com is my website, and I usually put up a lot of information there. Estella Wild ed, uh, E S T E L A W I L D E D. That's my handle on Instagram and Twitter. And then if folks are looking for anything that I sell, whether it's books or knives or whatever, it's Estellarready.com. That's my Shopify store. So I always say this, guys, like if you're listening, if you have a question, hit me up. I answer every single question. Um, my job is to make you guys more educated, more capable, and I love doing it. So do not hesitate to reach out to me.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

Fantastic. Awesome. Well, if you enjoyed today's episode, share built to last with someone who understands that confidence in the field starts long before opening day and that preparation beats luck every time. As always, ready, aim, fire your comments or questions to built to last at brownells.com and rate and comment wherever you stream this podcast from. Remember, if it's worth building, ensure it's built to last.