Hi and welcome to DEER IQ - where smart hunting begins. I’m Adam Lewis - 20+ year educator, 30+ year deer hunter, untastefully seasoned outdoor writer, and I’m here to help you achieve what we all hope for - to be a truly great deer hunter. We are our foundational series, part 2 of an essential look at the Top Barriers hunters face to becoming a greater hunter and having more success on whitetail deer. Today we’re continuing by looking at a tool that I believe is massive to helping make someone a greater hunter, and most have never even thought about it. What is it and how can it help you? Tag along and find out! As we start I want to challenge you to do a couple things: first, download our free journal to use with this podcast - that’s really going to help. Second, as you use that, here are the TOP “look fors” or things to look for during this episode:
Curiosity peaked yet? Ok, And I have a challenge at the end that I believe will really put this all together for you, so make sure to stay and listen for that. And now, let’s get to the podcast, and UP your DEER IQ.
Most people want to be great at something they care about or put a large amount of time into. Deer hunting is really no different. In part one of this series we looked at four factors keeping people from becoming a greater deer hunter, and if you haven’t watched that I encourage you to do so to get caught up. Now in part two of this series, we’re going to continue this foundation by looking at something I think you will find very beneficial, but most don’t take the time to even think about. What is it and how will it help you? Well in order to get where we want to go - to be a greater hunter, we need to know where we are. How deer smart are we really, how much experience do we really have? What areas can we improve on the most? These are very helpful to find out, and One simple chart I call The Deer Hunter Growth Continuum will help us do just that. Let me explain.
First we defined “great” specific to deer hunting as having a consistently high success rate on mature deer that’s better than most, and better than you used to be. I also stressed that most of us will probably never get to the ranks of the top few as far as whitetail hunting goes, but not because it’s impossible. The reason is because we have a hard ceiling we keep smacking our heads against, and it’s keeping us from rising to a higher level. The first four planks in the ceiling, or limiting factors that keep us from being a greater deer hunter are: ego, physical shape, lack of plans, and lack of systems. The Deer Hunter Growth continuum falls smack dab in the middle and combats that first plank, or limiting factor, Ego. It starkly reveals what we know, or don’t know when it comes to deer hunting, and where we’re at so we can more clearly see where we need to go and the steps to get there. Lets face it, we all can learn and get better, So let’s take a look at what I mean.
First, this graph or continuum is progressive and does not represent age, even though they are named by age or stage of life. The stages are based mostly on experience, and are only somewhat relative to years hunting. For example, you could have hunted your whole life and still be low on this continuum, or hunted just a few years and possibly be in the middle. It reflects experience, and wisdom as a hunter. I invite you to honestly take a look, and reflect on just where you may fall on it. It also may be different for different areas of hunting - for example public land hunting vs. private, or spot and stalk hunting vs. treestand hunting may all be different for you and you may be at a different expertise level or stage for each. So, I challenge you as we go through this to take a couple areas of hunting and honestly place where you feel you are on the chart.
On the far left is the “Kid” stage. In this stage a hunter has minimal knowledge, doesn’t know what they don’t know, can only learn, has little to no experiential knowledge, and what they do know is what was told to them or found out on Youtube or a podcast perhaps. If I had to put a number to it, they may be a hunter from 1-5 years experience but this may vary quite a bit. If you’re new to hunting you’re probably here, and that’s just fine. It would probably be the 1 - IQ beginner level on our content ranking system, so that should help you choose what to look for in our blogs, videos, and podcasts, even though you can definitely learn from them all. The good news about this stage is all you can do is get better.
When I was first starting to hunt I was definitely in this stage, especially in my scent control and camo games. I would routinely go hunting with my old spice deoderant on and my old green hoodie with blue jeans and think nothing of it. I just didn’t know any better. And yes, I would get snorted and picked off in the tree all the time. But, as I learned, I progressed out of this stage and now am much further along and a better hunter. It’s a natural process of maturity and growth as a hunter, so if you’re here, no sweat, you can learn a ton so that’s great.
Next is the “Teen” stage. Here a hunter knows some, but the temptation in this stage is to think they know more than they do, and may have an inflated self-assessment of their knowledge and abilities. A teen might be stuck in a mindset that isn’t very open to learning, and their knowledge is mostly theoretical not experiential. This stage is maybe a hunter of 6-10 years. This is a tough stage and one you want to move through quickly, and the key to do this is admitting you don’t know as much as you wish and being open to learn from those at a higher stage than you. This would probably match with our 5 - IQ content level, although again, anyone can learn from any level of our content. I’m sure we all know some hunters who talk a big game or overcompensate and really don’t know as much as they claim. So, don’t be that guy, if you’re here it’s another great opportunity to get better and learn.
On arrow builds I’m probably a teen, and have a lot I’d like to learn beyond just the basics. I don’t pretend to know everything though, which is the right attitude to take and so I’m looking to up my IQ and experience in that area. It’s totally ok and normal to be at different levels in different areas.
The third stage I call the “Adult” stage and is acquired from years of experience - I’d say 20+ years. A hunter here knows a lot, and also has a key trait of maturity - they also know what they don’t know. They have a humble self assessment, are open to learn, and have probably started mentoring others below them on the growth continuum. Their knowledge is at least equally theoretical and experiential, but probably tipping over to the more experiential side. They’ve seen a lot of success, and failure, and been humbled by hunting quite a bit. This is a great stage to be in and where most hunters start seeing more consistent success with less frustration or “work.” This would be a 5 to 10 on our IQ ranking system for our content.
For me, I’ve been hunting over 30 years and specifically been public land hunting extensively for about 12 years with good success. I’ve also been writing and teaching on deer hunting for the past ten years a lot. It took awhile, but I can honestly say by education and experience I feel confident I am at this level in this area. I do however, know there’s more to learn and am eager to do so. I’d like to be the guy everyone goes to to get advice because I’ve been there and done that for pretty much everything. I’m starting to get this, which is another indicator, but there is another level yet. And that’s the final stage.
The last stage is what I call the “Sage” stage. This is the culmination of probably 40+ years in the field. Sages know more than most, there’s very little they don’t know, are a humble mentor to most they meet, are still open to learn although there’s little they haven’t heard before, and their knowledge comes from experience - almost 100% of it. Many hunters never get here, it’s the top, and if you find one of these, you should really seek them out to learn from them and listen to what they have to say. This stage should be our goal as hunters, stewards, and overall sportsmen.
And there it is - simple, but a great tool to measure where you are, so as we go through this year, talk to the experts, and continue on our search for what it takes to be a greater deer hunter, you have a better idea of where you need to improve and where you want to get to. Basic, but also can be a real game- changer.
OUTRO: So, there it is - the Deer Hunter Growth continuum, and here are your High IQ takeaways and challenges.
1.Take a couple areas of hunting if you haven’t already and do what we call a self assessment - honestly place where you feel you are on the chart. (Example areas of hunting would be foodplotting, public land hunting, spotting and stalking, and saddle hunting just to name a few. Remember, I’m a “teen” in arrow building, so that’s one I need to look at.)
2.See if there is a relationship with the barriers we discussed in episode 1 of this series. There may be, and this will hopefully help all this make sense.
3.Once you’ve done this, think about someone you feel is above you in that area on the chart, and how you might ask them questions and learn from what they are doing. A good place for this may be the Deer IQ private facebook forum - check it out it will be linked in the notes.
See you on the next podcast as we reveal the last 2 barriers holding most hunters back from being a greater deer hunter, and some solutions - you won’t want to miss it. See you then!