Several years ago, I sat down to dinner at a high-end restaurant in Indianapolis while attending the Archery Trade Association Show. Seated next to me was a fellow who has made a name for himself as a hardcore, backcountry western hunter. He has earned his reputation, and then some, so I thought it would be an interesting conversation.
It was, until we got on the topic of whitetails. Almost as soon as our chat drifted from the mountains to middle America, he said that he didn’t think we needed anyone filming whitetail hunts because they were all the same, and they were all boring. To his credit, at that time in the industry, the managing deer thing was coming on way strong, and a lot of the shows did follow a similar formula. Either show up at an outfitter’s place to be put on a deer, or set up on a food plot to hunt a buck with a name and a history.
I couldn’t fault him for his opinion on the content front, but he went further and mentioned that the deer game just didn’t require the skill or the physicality of western hunting. The skill thing is highly debatable, but the physicality aspect really isn’t. The belief that no one has to burn a single calorie to kill a deer is wrong, and it’s pervasive. It’s also holding a hell of a lot of whitetail hunters back because many of us believe that whitetail success is totally disconnected from individual fitness.
Effortless Bucks
The variance in situations between deer hunters is as large as it is for western hunters. While someone looking for an elk might carry their camp and food on their back deep into a national forest to hang out for five or six days, another will pay 25-grand for a premium ranch tag that all but ensures unpressured bulls that can be (and are) accessed by side-by-sides.
The whitetail geek who has a large farm, tractors, four-wheelers, and a series of food plots punctuated by box blinds is a far cry from the mobile hunter with a saddle and sticks who wades into public land on a daily basis to scout sign and set up over fresh scenery. There are a lot of folks stuck between those two extremes, and the idea that because they are whitetail hunters, they don’t need to do any real work is not only wrong, but detrimental to their success.
Scouting, at least beyond the deployment of trail cameras, requires effort. Hanging stands, setting blinds, cutting shooting lanes, and a host of other deer duties come at the cost of some sweat equity. Shooting a deer and then getting it out to the truck, at least for a lot of hunters, also involves a real buy-in as far as effort is concerned.
For example, I shot a buck in South Dakota several years ago on public land that chased a doe past me while I sat over a pond at the bottom of a draw along the Missouri River. It was Halloween, and I knew if I got him packed out quick enough, I could make the seven-hour drive home to trick-or-treat with my daughters.
It was a brutal, solo mission and certainly didn’t feel like I was taking the easy way out. A few years after that, I killed my first bull elk in an over-the-counter unit in Colorado. Packing that bull out was easier than packing that buck out, because it was all downhill, and he just happened to die in a really convenient spot. My last bull was a much different story, and about 25 times as difficult to pack out as that South Dakota buck. That’s how hunting goes, but in both styles, there is a rule that I believe to be true no matter what.
The Myth That Needs to Die
You don’t need to be in shape to kill whitetails. You don’t need to be in shape to kill elk or mule deer, either. But you will be a better hunter for deer and western critters if you are. Western hunters know this because their style requires them to do more on a general basis. There are plenty of out-of-shape western hunters, but they don’t fill a lot of tags deep in the wilderness.
There are plenty of out-of-shape whitetail hunters, too. Depending on their ground and experience level, they kill plenty of bucks. But a lot of hunters don’t, and almost all of them would benefit from getting in better shape. I know that sucks to hear, but it’s true.
This revelation hit me hard a few years after I sobered up and started running and hitting the gym. I found myself wanting to scout new areas. I wasn’t bothered by stand hanging missions, and didn’t feel the need to cut them short when a good-enough amount of work was accomplished. I had the energy to keep going, and when I traveled for whitetails and slept in a tent for a week at a time, I felt more rested and ready to go than I ever had.
It honestly was like hunting with a cheat code enabled, which only became more evident when me or my daughters had a deer down. I realize that hunters are sick of hearing fitness influencers talk about this, but it’s fundamentally true. The better shape you’re in, the more tags you’ll fill and the more you’ll enjoy your hunts. On paper, it’s simple. To put it into practice, is not.
Do Something
There is a general disconnect between folks who give fitness advice and the folks who really need to hear it. There are fad diets, fitness trends, and a whole lot of people who profit off of the general public’s desire to look better naked and feel better clothed. What I learned as I went from functioning alcoholic with almost zero fitness base, to someone who ran 1000 miles the year he turned 40 is this—you just have to do something.
Half an hour on an elliptical three days a week is better than nothing. Walking and jogging your way through a 5K is a million times better than not doing anything. Lifting weights, whether at a gym or at home if you have them, is never fun at the beginning.
However, a few months of consistency, and that view will change drastically. You don’t have to work toward six-pack abs or a sub-two-hour half-marathon. You don’t have to work toward losing X amount of pounds. Just work toward feeling better, and with enough days in the rearview mirror, you will.
The benefits of just doing something are incredible, and they stretch way beyond the whitetail woods. But they will also follow you to your stand, and they will make you more lethal out there. That might not be the best reason to take fitness more seriously, but it’s certainly a welcome sidekick to the journey.
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