FFN 085： Activate the Hunt ｜ Collin Cottrell
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Summary
In this episode, you get to hear an on-the-spot conversation between Ryan and his good friend, Colin Cottrell, where they talk about their first hunting experience together. Colin is the founder of the organization, "Activate the Hunt" which is dedicated to helping new hunters learn the skills and tools required to make their hunting endeavors a success.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart
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your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who
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you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
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you can call yourself a man. Guys, what is going on today? My name is Ryan
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Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast, The Order of Man. This is a show
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about being a better man, and I want to welcome you, whether you are new to the show or you've
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been a long-time listener. Guys, this one's a little different for you today. Normally,
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on Friday, you get to listen to me talk about some things that have been bouncing around in my brain,
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but today, you get to listen to an on-the-spot conversation between me and my good friend,
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Colin Cottrell. Colin and I went on a hunt together in Texas about a month ago as of the release of
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this podcast. It was my very first hunt ever, and I thought you'd enjoy hearing about it and the
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lessons I learned along the way. So, I asked Colin, again, my friend, and he's also the founder of
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Activate the Hunt, which is an organization and company dedicated to helping new hunters learn the
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skills and the tool sets required to make their hunting endeavors a success. So, again, he interviewed
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me on the spot, and of course, I also, being a podcast interviewer, interviewed him about what goes
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into a successful hunt and why he does exactly what he does. So, without any further hesitation,
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we're just going to jump right into the conversation between me and Colin.
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Colin, what's up, man? Thanks for joining me on the show today.
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Glad to join you, Ryan, man. This has been a great week, good time, excited to be on the show for the
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And let's talk hunting, huh? Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, we're actually,
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this is a little different than we normally do. I'm not in my studio, which you can probably hear.
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And, uh, I've been out here for about five days or so. Just completed my successful first hunt.
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And, Colin, you were out here. We're out here with Clay with, uh, Prone Outfitters. And, uh,
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he's going to be on here in a little bit to talk about some of that stuff. But,
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Colin, I appreciate you, man. This has been a really cool adventure and something that I've
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been looking forward to for a long time. And to be able to come out here and participate in my
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very first hunt was an exciting thing. So, I think we could talk about the hunt. I think we
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could talk about how the hunt went. And, and you and I just have a conversation about this thing.
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Yeah, man. I'm really excited to have you just share your journey as a new hunter and the different
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aspects of hunting that people don't realize. You know, people that aren't hunters don't realize
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how much goes into a hunt and how much you can truly learn from a hunt. So, I think that's
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a big part of what we're going to talk about today.
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For sure. Yeah, it was, it was pretty exciting. Uh, you know,
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quite honestly, I didn't have a whole lot of expectations coming into this thing. I did that
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by design. I didn't want to come with a, with a false sense of what was actually going to
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transpire here over the past couple of days. But I've been pleasantly surprised and I know I'm a
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better man, uh, leaving, leaving for it. So, how long have you been hunting yourself? I mean,
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you, based on our conversations, you've been hunting with your dad since you were little.
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I grew up in a family that hunted. So, you know, that it was a big part of our life growing up.
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You know, we, we did it to eat, you know, we, you know, and a big part of it was to eat,
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but a big part of it was camaraderie as well. You know, it was, we went out to the woods and,
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and for me, it wasn't bow hunting at the start. It was a rifle deer season. So we'd have two weeks
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every year in the fall or in November, you know, and we'd go out to, uh, our hunting camp and we'd
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spend time there and I look forward to forward to it every year. And we'd spend time out there with
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my uncles, my aunts, my cousins, uh, my grandpa, my grandma, you know, it was just a big get together
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and we'd have a good time and eat good food and have a good times, you know, out hunting. So,
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uh, that was my start to it. And my, my uncles and my dad played a big part of that. And from there,
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it just, you know, the passion grew and, uh, I got into bow hunting after that. And from there,
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Cause you're primarily at this point, primarily a bow hunter, right? I mean, you don't do much
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I would consider myself more of a bow hunter. I started out shooting a rifle and shooting,
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uh, iron sights at, you know, at, and deer. And that was primarily what we hunted was deer. So,
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and then from there I started shooting a bow and, and we went after Turkey and, you know,
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I went up after antelope and elk and, and meal deer as well. So, you know, I've, I've hunted all
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kinds of different animals, but primarily the last 10, about 10 years I've hunted primarily with a bow.
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Now the last couple of years, now that I'm married and I've had a family, I don't have
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quite as much time to spend, you know, out hunting like I've had in the past. I've really
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taken my time using a rifle and just because it's a little bit easier. And that's just the
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honest truth. It's a little bit easier. You don't have to spend as much time preparing and,
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and all that good stuff. But, uh, you know, it's given me an opportunity to come on a hunt like
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this with clay and, you know, spend five days and, and put some meat in the freezer,
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which is really important for me right now. That's not why I hunt, but that's a big part of why I hunt.
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Why? So why, if I were to ask you why you hunt, what would you say?
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Why, why do I hunt? It's not just, like I said, it's not just about the meat because I can go to
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the super store or Walmart and get meat at the store if I want to, you know? Uh, yes, I love
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organic meat and I love, you know, knowing that I have the connection with that animal that I killed
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that animal. I, I did the work myself. I gutted that animal out. I took the time to, uh, process that
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animal and that is important. Don't get me wrong. And I think the majority of hunters hunt because of
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that process. But for me, I hunt because of the experiences around it. There's so many different
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life lessons and things you can learn from hunting, whether it's a patience, character, friendship,
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camaraderie, just all the different things that you can learn from hunting. Uh, I love that part
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of it. I mean, I love teaching, you know, this is a good example this week, just me being the
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hunter and teaching you about hunting. I'm not some pro hunter or some guy who knows everything
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about hunting, but I could, I got to take the things that I know about hunting and teach you
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about those things and about the aspects. And I can kind of swing this back to you. What did you
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learn this week because of this hunt? Yeah. I don't even know where to start. Like I've learned
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so much. Obviously we talked a lot about patience and I told the guys, you know, how I lacked that
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at times. So having that patience was a big benefit, uh, to being out here, but definitely the disconnect
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that we see in society between where our food comes from and us actually eating and consuming that
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food. Uh, so for me, my whole goal was to come out here and really bridge that gap,
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you know, to, to try to bridge the gap between where our food is actually coming from out in
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the wild to, okay, now we're consuming this. It's pretty amazing to see the ignorance in society
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among where our food comes from. And some of the comments that I've received from people who know
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that I've been out on this hunt, uh, is, is absolutely mind blowing to me. You know, people
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that have complained that I'm harming innocent animals or that I'm whatever. And yet they're
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chowing down on a burger. It's like, yeah, you do understand that you're eating meat as well,
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right. Or wearing leather shoes or boots or something like that. You know, it's, it's crazy
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to think about that. We've lost that connect. You know, we, we are so disconnected from that
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in some places that, you know, they don't even realize that. And it, it almost hurts me. You
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know, it, I started a project called activate the hunt. And a big part of that reason was
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because I want to see that connection come back. I want people to realize whether, whether
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you're from the big city or you're from a small town and maybe you didn't grow up around
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the hunting, I want people to understand the connect between the different things you can
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learn from the whole experience. It's not just about going out to a blind with a rifle
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and shooting a deer and that's it. You know, there's so much more. And I think this week
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you really, truly got to learn about the whole aspect of hunting before it, during it and after
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it. It's huge. And it's, it's, you know, kind of swinging this back to you, Ryan, about becoming
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a better man. I mean, just tell the, tell the viewers about how much better of a man
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you can become because of the things you learn from the hunt.
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It's a good point. And, and I, and I do want to make the distinction is that I don't believe
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that you quote unquote need to be a hunter in order to be a man. I think that's important
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Does it make you a better man? Yeah, I think so. I don't think there's any doubt about that.
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I think anybody who has a wider range of skill sets can definitely perform under different
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set of circumstances. And that's one of the unintended benefits of me being on this hunt.
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Yes, it was to put food on the table and again, bridge that gap between where our food comes
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from and how we consume it, all of those things. But also we talked about this throughout the
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last couple of days is for me really understanding that the skills that we need to develop in order
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to complete a successful hunt, patience, discipline, dedication, commitment, all that goes into what
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we've done over the past five days. And of course, uh, with clay here at prone outfitters
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leading up to this for months and years, uh, is, is what makes this a successful hunt,
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but it also makes us successful in other areas of life, right? Within our relationships, within
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our business, uh, our finances, our health journey. If we can be more patient, more committed,
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more disciplined, uh, if we can look at the little things as when, if we can find a way to enjoy
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the process rather than the actual, uh, result itself only, uh, these are all ways to develop
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and grow. We can't make decisions in a vacuum. If you make a good decision over here on the hunt,
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for example, cause that's where we are, you're, you're more apt to make good decisions within
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your family and good decisions within your business and community and every, every other
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facet of your life. So it's been good, man. It's been, it's been an exciting, uh, an exciting
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ride. And I certainly appreciate you. Should we talk about the hunt itself? I think these guys
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are probably going to want to talk a little bit. Let's dig into that a little bit. You know,
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let's, let's talk about that. Let's talk about, you know, maybe your preparation for the hunt,
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you know, and your expectations before the hunt even started. I kind of, I want, I want people
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to really hear, you know, you know, those, those little things. I think they're important.
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Yeah, sure. Yeah. So for me, I mean, obviously there's a big physical component to it. I didn't
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really, and this wasn't a very physically taxing or demanding hunt. We've talked a little bit about
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that, but I think physically just being prepared, whether it's for the hunt or whether it's for a
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natural disaster or an emergency or whatever. And so, you know, I stay active five days a week where I'm
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working out and we're adventurous and we're outside and we're camping, we're hiking,
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we're doing all those things. We also talked about the expectations that I had coming into
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this thing. I think it'd be very easy for me to come in and think that I'm going to shoot a big
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trophy deer and that it's going to be, you know, Instagram worthy, which is what you see, right? You
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see so many people posting all their big bucks on, on Instagram. And while I applaud anybody who's
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done, done that work to, to achieve that, that's not what it's all about, you know? And so
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minimizing, I don't want to say minimizing. I want to say neutralizing my expectations that
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I'm coming out here to learn a new skillset. I'm going to have fun. I'm going to walk away
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with something that I just didn't have before, whether that's a deer or whether that's an
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experience. I'm going to walk away with something I didn't have before.
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So that was, that was really important to me. And then, yeah, I mean, that's, that's really at the
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end of the day, prepare. The other thing I did to prepare was of course, understand a little bit
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about the industry, understand a little bit about the legalities. Of course, that was important
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and the ethics behind hunting and then going out and actually using my firearm and preparing that
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way and researching, which was just as fun as actually being out there. It was learning this
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stuff. And then of course, being able to apply it was pretty powerful.
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And emotionally, I think that's another part we, I want to touch on is, you know, preparing to make
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that shot and make that kill. You know, there's nothing you can really do to prepare for that. But
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when it does happen, you know, kind of the emotions run over you and you're like, man,
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I just killed a living animal. And, and, you know, you, you kind of pointed out and we did my
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podcast is, you know, you didn't really feel bad, but that you, you did what you wanted to do to be,
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you know, to fulfill the experience. And I think that was, every person has a different feeling
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after it, whether it's remorse or, or hurt or pain or just excitement. Everybody's different.
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Nobody has the right answer to that. I think everybody has their own set way that they're going to,
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you know, react to the situation of a hunt emotionally, whether you kill an
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I mean, let's be real. That's, that's what you're doing, right? You're killing an animal.
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Like you're, yeah, you're killing, there's no other way to sugarcoat that. You are killing an animal.
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And so I think from an emotional perspective, I was actually a little nervous. I was wondering how
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I would handle that, how it would feel, how, how I would personally react. And would there be guilt?
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Would there be remorse? But there isn't because for me, I felt like I did it the right way.
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We're out here with an outfitter in Texas who, who very high ethics and just in my limited
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interaction with clay and with prone outfitters is like, these guys are top notch. I mean,
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they're doing some incredible things and I've learned a lot, which we can get into what I've
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learned. Yeah, it was important. It was important for me to make a good clean shot. It was important
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for me to put the animal down quickly. And that's what we did. We were fortunate. I know it doesn't
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always turn out that way, but I actually felt really good because I knew exactly what I was doing
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and I had a good reason in my mind for doing it. And there's, those two things are in alignment.
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What I feel and what I did were in alignment. And you took, you took your time and, and, you know,
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we're patient with the whole situation. I think that was an important part of it. You know, you
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knew what you wanted to do, but you wanted to give the animal due diligence. You wanted to make
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sure that you made the best shot possible. You were as calm as could be. Obviously it's in that
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situation where you're not calm at all, but you know, you, you, you slow down, you take a couple
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deep breaths. You know, just like I said, you just take your time, be patient. You got plenty
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of time. Don't rush your shot. You know, that's important in life. And, uh, you did a good job with
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that. Now, I also wanted to mention that you put, you put the time in when you practice before this
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hunt, you prepared for this hunt and you took your time to shoot and shoot your bow and shoot your
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gun. And, and that's another part of it. You know, you, you mentally got prepared, but you also got
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prepared with your weapon. And that's, that's important. And that just shows how much we care
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about this animal. We, it's not like we're just going out there to slaughter these animals and
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take shots left and right. We're really bearing down and taking our time. Yeah. I think it's,
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I think it's critical that you do that. I have seen too many men, not just in hunting, but just life
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in general, who just show up to the party and think because they showed up that they're owed something
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right. Or that they can do it. Uh, and the reality paints an entirely different picture that
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what we see as the final result, whether it's through this podcast or, uh, an Instagram post
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and somebody with a six pack abs and the, you know, the perfect relationship or the perfect hunt
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or whatever is a result of months and years and decades of dedication to that craft. I think we
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do ourselves a disservice when we look at what people are doing and we look at the results of what
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people have achieved. And we think that it was, it was luck or that they just stumbled upon it.
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And in my experience, the most successful men, whether that's hunters or, or business owners
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or in their marriage or their, their being a father, they've put in a lot of time, a lot of
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dedication, a lot of commitment, a lot of sacrifice to get them to where they're actually
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experiencing those results. I think we need to be realistic about that. Otherwise we do
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ourselves again, a disservice. We think it's easier than it really is. I agree. Yeah. Totally agree.
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So, yeah. So I, so I shot the deer. Uh, what, what would you say? Probably what? 65 yards. We
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figured 60, 65 yards, somewhere in there on the shot, on the shot itself. Yeah. It was about 65,
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70 yards. I'd say. Yeah. Uh, I know that as we, I knew that I was going to take that shot. Um,
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my heart started to beat really fast. It got a little jittery. I've been shooting forever,
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20 years, you know, I've been shooting. Well, with me by your side too, I knew that was going to
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happen. I was, I was kind of ready for that to happen. I was kind of excited to see this all
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come, you know, play out. And you got it on video, which is cool. Yeah, I did. I did. And we'll,
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and we'll put that out there too. Yeah, we definitely will. And, and it was, it was just
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cool for everything just to like, you started to get nervous. You dropped your phone and you were
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like, you know, not only did I drop my phone, I kneeled on it. And right before I was going to take
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the shot, Siri came on and she's like, I, I do not understand the question. Can you please say
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it or whatever she said? I'm like, I got it. I got it. I shut it off.
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Fortunately, we didn't, we didn't scare the deer, which actually was surprising,
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but I guess we were far enough. Then you got that gun up there though. And then,
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you know, I just said, just slow down, take your time, be patient. I could tell all of a sudden
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things changed. Then you were like, okay, we got time. This is, we got plenty of time. We watched
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that deer. He was eating, you know, he was going back and forth. He was eating and, and you know,
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you got in the right position, you got comfortable, you bared down. And I said, are you ready?
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You said, I'm ready. And you took that shot. I remember actually saying, I think I said this,
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we'll have to look at the video. I think I said, are you ready? Actually, I think you're right.
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But I think I was saying that more to me than I was actually saying that to you.
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Kind of reminding yourself that, am I ready? Am I ready to do this? So I took that shot.
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And quite honestly, when, when I did, it felt really good. I had, I had them right in my sight.
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It felt good. I went through the motions that I, that I'd practiced and trained for.
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It felt good. And you even did some things that I was surprised by
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watching that deer and following it as it, after you shot it, you did a great job at doing that.
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A lot of hunters don't do that. You know, they just get excited right away and don't really
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realize like, Hey, that deer's still out there running away. We got to watch where it goes and
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see where we're going to pick up that blood trail. Yeah. So I took the shot and then I didn't,
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I didn't know because this is my first hunt. I didn't know what he would do. And he ran off.
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So I thought, I thought I had missed, I thought I'd missed right or behind him.
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And he ran off and I was like, we had this conversation. You, you saw some cues in the
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deer that made you believe I hit him. I being a new hunter did not see those cues. And I was like,
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Um, but we, we, we waited. That was, that was a big thing that you taught me is, Hey,
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just, just wait for a second. Um, let, let the thing play out. Let's figure out what's
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going on. We kind of had to settle down too. Cause we were, you know, you were excited.
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You got excited right away, you know, not like right away, but you were like, Hey, I just,
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you know, I did it, you know? So we, it wasn't like we were jumping for joy or anything like
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that, but got a little excited. Then we have to settle down and just kind of regain our composure
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a little bit. I think that's an important, important thing. And then I said, okay,
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we got to give it some time. Then we're going to go look for a blood trail. And then from there we
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can see where that deer is at. So, so we walked over there, uh, to where I took the shot. I didn't
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see any blood. So that just confirmed to me what I thought that I missed him. Um, fortunately,
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like you said, we followed the trip. We followed, followed the deer after I had taken the shot and
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we knew exactly where he, he took off. And so we followed that trail. It was probably about what,
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30 yards or so, maybe 30, 35 yards. Uh, we found, you know, not, not a big blood trail,
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but a decent little blood splatter, I guess, a pile of blood. And, um, and I pointed out
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at that out to you and looked up maybe 20 yards away. And there he was right there. And I,
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and I was like, I was about ready to run over. I'm like, there he is. And I like ran over
00:18:36.780
and you're like, hold on, hold on a second. So we settled down for a second, figured out
00:18:40.000
what we needed to do. And by the time we got there, he, he was dead. Yeah. He was, um,
00:18:43.520
I shot him, uh, behind the heart. So double lung shot, like in and out. You made a great
00:18:47.540
shot. Yeah. So that felt good. And, uh, yeah, it was exciting, man. Then the excitement
00:18:52.280
came up. That, that was when it was because then I knew I'm like, okay, good. You did what
00:18:55.980
you actually set out to do. It's kind of a sense of relief too. You're like, okay, good. We,
00:18:59.800
we found them, you know, we got them for sure. You know, and you just, well, the other side too
00:19:03.500
is my, so my wife hunts and she's hunted for a long time. Last three years, she's, she shot three
00:19:08.060
deer and she's, she's shot three deer with three bullets. So every shot she's taken, she's, she's
00:19:14.560
hit. And so I was even thinking to myself in my head, I'm like, dude, if I miss this deer,
00:19:19.400
you're like, I will not live this down from my wife. Fortunately I did. And I'm sure there'll
00:19:23.860
come a point in time because I do plan on hunting more that there will come a point in time where
00:19:27.080
I miss, I think that's just the reality. Sometimes in fact, just last night. So two days later,
00:19:32.500
I took a shot at a hog and it was a bad shot. I knew it. And right as I shot, I'm like, I missed
00:19:38.440
him. And sure enough, I missed him and he ran off and missed an opportunity. It's just, I think
00:19:42.220
there's little things. There's little, it's just like us shooting the bow out here, you know,
00:19:46.660
earlier, you know, there's little things I could see you were doing wrong or you needed
00:19:50.380
to change to just get those arrows into a little bit tighter group, you know, just little
00:19:54.640
simple things. And I think that's just a testament to life. The little things in life make a huge
00:19:59.240
difference in the end, actually, you know what I mean? You got to change those little cues,
00:20:02.740
those little things. And when you do that, things tighten up, you know, and, you know, as
00:20:07.980
a man, you become a better man or whatever, you know? And I think that was an important
00:20:11.980
part of the hunt is you learned little things here and there and you brought it all together
00:20:16.140
and it, it turned out, you know, with your shot the other night, it might've been just
00:20:20.080
as simple as you kind of pulling up a little bit at, you know, on your follow through or
00:20:23.440
whatever. And that air, you know, or that, uh, shot just went high a little bit or whatever.
00:20:27.280
You just didn't bear down all the way on the, in your scope or whatever. Just those little
00:20:31.180
things can make a big difference. Let's talk about what you do because I can talk about
00:20:35.860
this experience more. And I'm sure some of the guys have seen pictures and some of the
00:20:38.780
things I've shared, but let's talk about what you do. You know, you, you and I met about
00:20:43.420
what is about a year ago now. And since then you started a podcast and an organization that
00:20:49.420
essentially helps new hunters, which is exactly what you helped me with. Tell me what you do.
00:20:52.800
Yep. So I actually, it was kind of your inspiration that got me, you know, into this is I had a,
00:20:58.820
I've been in the outdoor industry for about 10 years and I've done, you know, everything from
00:21:03.400
marketing to social media, marketing, building websites, different things, advertising, sales,
00:21:07.520
a lot of different areas. And I've met a lot of different people and worked with a lot of different
00:21:11.340
companies over the years. So I've been ingrained in this industry for 10, 11 years now. And it's
00:21:16.500
just, it's been, it's a passion of mine. You know, I just, I love everything about the industry.
00:21:20.800
I love the people in the industry, you know, so I wanted to do something. I'm at this point in my
00:21:25.580
life, I'm 30 years old now. I'm not old, but I'm, you know, I'm not young anymore. I'm not a young
00:21:29.720
kid anymore. I'm married. I've got a couple of kids and I want to do something. I wanted to do
00:21:34.520
something that would potentially leave a legacy in the end. And I think that's important. And
00:21:38.360
hunting is something that's important to me and it teaches me a lot of life lessons and
00:21:42.740
it's a heritage that's been passed down from my family to me. And I want to pass that on to others.
00:21:47.800
So I got the idea to start a website and a podcast and just a community of people that could learn how
00:21:55.660
to hunt or become better hunters, master the skill of hunting essentially. And it's called
00:21:59.820
Activate the Hunt. And basically it's a, it's a podcast where, you know, that's the main part of it
00:22:03.980
right now and the community part of it, it's still growing and just getting started. But yeah,
00:22:09.060
six months, five, six months ago, I started that podcast and, and you'll be on my, you know, on
00:22:14.580
episode number nine coming up. And I, you know, I'm not that many episodes in, but I've really found
00:22:20.600
that podcasting and that whole medium of media has become a awesome thing. You know, I can, I can
00:22:26.520
reach out to my great network of people that I've worked with over the years, people I'm friends with
00:22:31.320
and are way better hunters and outdoorsmen than I am. I'm still learning from them all the time.
00:22:35.620
And I think that's a big part of what I'm doing too, is I'm not just in this to try to act like
00:22:40.300
I know it all, you know, just like what you do with Order of Man, you don't know it all. You know,
00:22:43.900
you're taking your journey and you're taking what others are teaching you and sharing that with
00:22:48.620
people and giving them value and helping them. And that's essentially what I'm doing with Activate
00:22:52.360
the Hunt is I'm reaching out to my network and I'm asking them to come on the show and share their
00:22:56.920
different tips, techniques, and, you know, just different things about, you know, aspects of
00:23:00.880
hunting to help us all learn about hunting, but also to be able to use that in our life and learn
00:23:06.100
about life. So. What would you say to somebody who's considering getting into hunting or going
00:23:12.000
on a hunt for their first time? Maybe they've been on a hunt or two and they're just getting started.
00:23:16.460
What would you say to a novice hunter? Yeah. I'd say that you definitely need to get around people who
00:23:22.940
like to do that, whether it's hunting or whatever it is, you know, you need to get around people that
00:23:27.140
understand hunting and the outdoors and spend some time in the outdoors. It doesn't even have to be
00:23:31.900
hunting, you know, just spend time in nature and the outdoors and have respect for it and
00:23:36.100
hike trails and just get out there and spend time out there. And then from there, you can kind of
00:23:41.340
advance that, get around, you know, other hunters and hang out in the bow shop. If you want to be a bow
00:23:45.740
hunter, you know, hang around people who shoot guns a lot that if you want to be a gun hunter,
00:23:49.260
depending on whatever you want to be and take time, you know, obviously purchase a weapon or
00:23:53.800
get a weapon. And then from there you can start to learn. And I think a big part of learning is,
00:23:59.860
yeah, you can learn a bunch on your own and that's great. And you can watch YouTube videos
00:24:02.980
and all that stuff. And actually, I think you can learn a lot by connecting with other people online.
00:24:07.420
I've learned a lot from connecting with people online, but you really need to have someone to
00:24:11.120
mentor you. You know, you need to have a little bit of a relationship with somebody and it's really
00:24:15.540
going to help you. I think that's the best part of us being here this week together is
00:24:19.060
I was able to mentor you in a different way than I could mentor you, you know, just over the phone
00:24:23.860
or over a text or over a video or whatever, you know, we, we could actually talk in person. So
00:24:28.800
definitely get around people that, uh, that hunt and spend time in the outdoors and learn from them.
00:24:35.420
What do you think some of the pitfalls that most new hunters make, uh, maybe even what you
00:24:41.160
recognized in me where you thought, Oh, Ryan can definitely improve in this area. What, what would you
00:24:46.560
say that is that, uh, that new hunters should focus on?
00:24:50.960
Don't, don't act like, you know, at all, whether you've been hunting, you know, one time or you've
00:24:55.180
been hunting for years. I've been hunting since I was 12 years old and I hunted with my, my uncles
00:25:00.920
and my dad even before that and tagged along, you know? So, you know, I don't know everything and I
00:25:06.420
don't claim to know everything. And I think that's a big part of hunting is not having the pride where
00:25:11.460
you think, you know, everything about it. Just take time to learn from other people and, and have
00:25:16.520
an open mind, be coachable. Um, I think that's, I think that just kills everything that opens up
00:25:22.320
everything right there. If you, if you have the open mind to it, you know, you're going to learn
00:25:25.880
from every single thing you see, everything, every single thing you hear, every video you watch,
00:25:30.860
but well, big, a big thing I see in that, you know, people fall into is watching hunting on TV.
00:25:37.680
And, and I have nothing, I've worked with a lot of these guys over the years that have hunting shows
00:25:42.340
and it's really easy to go on, turn on the TV and see these guys killing these big deer,
00:25:47.060
killing these big animals and, and hooping and hollering and whatever, you know? And, and yeah,
00:25:52.260
that's, that's part of the hunt or that's a, that's a short time in the hunt or whatever,
00:25:56.600
but there's so much more to the hunt than that. You know, there's the, like we talked about before,
00:26:01.660
the beginning, the middle and the end. And that guy goes out to that tree stand and he's
00:26:06.240
maybe put in, you know, seven, eight days of the hunt. And sometimes they don't show that on TV
00:26:11.560
and you don't, I never, I never show. Yeah. Yeah. You don't, and you don't realize that
00:26:15.300
how, how much time it really takes to, to have, you know, I've been on hunts where I didn't kill
00:26:21.180
anything and five, six, actually I had a hunt just a couple of years ago. I was bow hunting in Kansas
00:26:26.940
and I hunted for 14 straight days from, uh, I woke up at five o'clock every morning and was out to my
00:26:34.640
stand before dark, brought a sandwich and food and drinks out to the stand with me.
00:26:39.020
And I sat in that stand, that deer stand all day long and at dark came back in and did it all over
00:26:46.020
again for 14 days, 14 straight days. And I never killed anything. I actually, on day 10, I missed
00:26:51.580
a nice buck at 25 yards and I still, it still hurts. Honestly, just thinking about it, but killing is
00:26:58.700
not what hunting is about. It's everything else that it involves. And if it was just about killing,
00:27:04.440
I would have just stopped hunting after that. You know what I mean? I can't kill anything,
00:27:07.900
but no, I strive to want to kill something obviously. So, you know, I strive to get better
00:27:13.900
and better and improve my skills and do everything I have to do to become a better hunter. That's a big
00:27:18.680
part for new hunters. You know, don't, don't try to emulate what you see on TV, learn from your own
00:27:23.420
mistakes, learn from the people around you and go out there and just get out there and do it.
00:27:27.480
Right on, man. I know this has been a really, really cool adventure for me that I've been
00:27:32.120
able to partake of in the last five days or so. And I'm actually looking forward to continuing to
00:27:37.820
becoming a better hunter, to learning and honing my skills, us going out again, hopefully in the
00:27:43.220
near future. And man, I just got to tell you, I appreciate the opportunity that you presented
00:27:48.020
with me, you know, to be able to come on this hunt, spend some time together and do this thing.
00:27:51.420
No, happy to take you out, Ryan. And thankful for Clay over here with Prone Outfitters,
00:27:56.020
who's been a good friend of mine for the last couple of years. And we just built a great
00:28:00.240
friendship and because of him, we could go out hunting too together. I don't have any land that
00:28:04.820
I own here in Texas and there's not a ton of public land like there is out West. So, you know,
00:28:08.720
being able to come here and, you know, learn from this hunt and learn from Clay and just learn from
00:28:14.060
each other. I think that's a huge part of this. And I, you know, I'm just as much thankful as you
00:28:17.920
coming on this hunt because I was able to share what I've learned from others to you now.
00:28:23.260
Right. And now you get to spread this onto your own kids.
00:28:26.120
Right. I want to ask you a couple of questions because I ask these of all my guests and you know
00:28:30.500
this because you listen to the podcast, but I didn't prepare you for this. So, I'm just putting
00:28:34.520
you on the spot, but I think you can handle it. I think you can handle it. The first question is,
00:28:37.660
what does it mean to be a man? Yeah. For me, this has been something that's been a big journey
00:28:42.180
for me, especially the last couple of years. I got married a year and a half ago and really
00:28:47.900
changed my life. And a big part of that journey has become is just learning to be a leader and to
00:28:55.260
not just try to tell people how to do things or whatever, but to actually lead them and do it
00:29:00.920
yourself. And I think that's a big part of becoming a man is being that leader to the people around you,
00:29:06.180
not just your wife or your kids, but everybody around you. You have an opportunity to be a leader,
00:29:09.780
whether it's me being a leader to Clay or to one of the guides or me being a leader to you.
00:29:14.600
So, I can lead by example by doing instead of just saying things. So, for me, that's probably
00:29:21.500
been the biggest change I've made is I've had to really lead by example to my wife, my kids,
00:29:27.040
my family, my friends, my parents, the people in church, whatever. And that's what I think it
00:29:33.620
means to be a man is to be a leader. Right on that powerful stuff. How do we connect with you? How
00:29:37.780
do we learn more about what you're doing and get some more information? Yeah. You can follow me on
00:29:42.400
all the social media channels, activate the hunt and you can follow me personally, Colin,
00:29:47.980
C-O-L-L-I-N, Cottrell, C-O-T-T-R-E-L-L. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, a little bit of Twitter
00:29:54.700
stuff. And then you can follow my podcast, obviously subscribe on iTunes or, or any of the
00:30:00.100
podcasting platforms, activate the hunt with Colin Cottrell. Right on. I know a lot of the guys,
00:30:04.300
as we've made some posts over this past week, a lot of the guys have asked, you know, where,
00:30:07.600
where should men turn if they're, if they want to hunt for the first time and yours is a great
00:30:11.440
resource. So I'd encourage anybody to check that out. Colin, I appreciate you, man.
00:30:15.640
Appreciate our friendship. We met what, about a year ago we had talked about earlier and,
00:30:19.580
and you led with value, which I was really, really impressed with. We talked about that
00:30:23.540
earlier as well. We've got to spend some time together, get to know each other. I appreciate
00:30:27.280
you spending some time in the stand with me this weekend and coaching me through some things that,
00:30:31.580
that were exciting for me and honored to have you as a part of that for me.
00:30:37.020
There it is guys, a conversation between me and my friend, Colin Cottrell. If you are
00:30:42.980
new to the hunting world or just getting into the hunting world, I'd encourage you to check out what
00:30:47.960
Colin is up to with activate the hunt. You will not be disappointed and you will learn a ton as I
00:30:53.040
have from him and the lessons that he shared with me. If you want to know how to connect with Colin,
00:30:57.220
head to order of man.com slash FFN is in Friday field notes. So it's FFN 085 to get the show notes for this
00:31:05.120
show and the links that he had talked about with regards to how to connect with him.
00:31:09.260
Now, a couple of quick reminders today, which I did not talk about earlier. We've got a live
00:31:13.120
meetup being held January 26th and 27th, 2018 in Nashville, which you can get the details at and
00:31:19.960
register for at order of man.com slash Nashville. And of course, we've also got our exclusive
00:31:25.900
brotherhood where you'll band together with 300 other men who are on a journey to become a better
00:31:30.880
man in their own lives. And you can learn more and join us there at order of man.com slash iron
00:31:36.180
council. I hope to see you at both until next week, gentlemen, take action and become the man you are
00:31:41.960
meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your
00:31:46.920
life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.