THE RUT REPORT Issue #7
Welcome in
A thank you to everybody new this week
I want to start this week just by saying thank you.
We picked up a pile of new subscribers, and I don't take that lightly. You put your trust in me, and you landed somewhere you can actually speak freely. Nobody's getting canceled here. We talk hunting, we talk fishing, we talk about this great country of ours, and we have a good time doing it.
That's the whole thing. That's all I ever wanted this to be.
It gets a little better every week, and that's because of you. So if you like what we're doing, tell a buddy. Let's keep building something they can't take from us.
— Dwayne
CARRY REPORT
Dry firing
The Marine Corps drill that makes anybody shoot straight
Let's talk about the thing everybody hates. Dry firing.
If you don't know what that is, it's practicing the whole motion — drawing your weapon, coming up on target, squeezing the trigger — with nothing in the chamber. No round. Just the reps. And I know, folks hate it. It feels like you're doing nothing. Let me tell you why it's the most important thing you'll ever do with that gun.
When I went through boot camp in the Marine Corps, we spent a whole week before we ever touched the range doing something called snapping in. Eight hours a day. You'd lie out there in the prone, legs crossed, every position you'd shoot on the range, aimed at a little white barrel with a tiny target painted on it, and you'd just dry fire. All day. I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life.
Then we went to the range.
And every one of us could shoot. That's why Marines shoot the way they do — not because we're special, but because that week of doing nothing built the muscle memory, and when it counted, the muscle memory took over. Same reason the competition shooters I've been around dry fire constantly. They're not wasting rounds to get good. They're building the groove.
Self-defense is no different. You don't have to burn live ammo every time you want to get better. Draw, get on target, squeeze. And here's the piece most people never learn — that shot should surprise you. When you squeeze it right, you shouldn't know the exact instant it breaks. You don't punch the trigger. You don't jerk it. You press it straight back and let it go off while you're on target.
We'll get deep into trigger control down the road. Stick with me long enough and I'll have you putting a nine millimeter round up a mosquito's hind end at a hundred yards.
Practice the boring thing. It's the boring thing that saves you.
ON THE WATER
When they won't hit anything else
A dirty-water rig for when they've quit biting
Me and Kelly are out here on the water this week, and it's a tough one. The river's up. The water's dirty. On a day like this most guys go home.
Here's what keeps me catching.
Core Tackle makes a thing called a hover rig. I put a four-inch Yamamoto Senko on it and rig it just like you would on a worm hook. Push the hook through, turn it, bring the point back out so it sits flat, and skim it just under the surface. You want that bait laying flat. I know the paddle tail's riding up, and that's fine, that's the way they want it when the water's like this.
Then I just throw it out and drag it across the bottom.
That's it. That's the whole trick. When the water's muddy and they won't touch a thing you throw, put that hover rig on the bottom and crawl it back to you. It was the only thing they'd eat today, and I still caught fish on a day that should've skunked me.
Dirty water doesn't mean go home. It means change what you're dragging.
THE RUT REPORT
New ground
Hanging cameras on a fresh lease in Ohio
We're still in the dog days. It's hot, it's miserable, and I love it anyway.
Went out yesterday and got to do one of my favorite things there is — we picked up a new lease in Ohio, and I got out there and hung some cameras and cleaned up a few spots. Already pulling good pictures off it. There's nothing quite like reading fresh ground for the first time.
Let me tell you how I run my cameras, because it matters more than people think.
I use the cellular ones, the kind that send the picture straight to your phone. They cost a little more, I won't lie to you. But they're worth every dollar, because you hang it once and you walk away. You're not tromping in and out every week pulling SD cards, stinking the place up, teaching every deer in the county that you're there. You set it and you leave it alone. I put a little solar panel on each one so the battery runs all season and I never touch it again.
Couple tips when you hang them. Trim the brush out in front of the lens — leaves and grass blowing in the wind will trip that camera a thousand times and eat your battery. And learn the sensitivity setting. Most of them let you dial it, and getting it right is the difference between good pictures and a card full of waving branches.
Now I'll be honest with you about the real danger here. It's addictive. More addictive than hunting, I think. I get hooked on seeing what's going to show up on those cameras — big buck, bobcat, whatever wanders through. It's your camera and your woods, so whatever you're into, it's a great tool.
Do the work now, in the heat, when nobody feels like it. That's the picture you're building for November.
BOOTS ON THE GROUND
Today we are honoring the great men and women who died in 9-11.
Canada announced it will no longer recognize that tragedy as a terror attack, so they deserve our extra attention.
We see you. Thank you.
THE LAST LAUGH
You've been warned
I know my true Full Rut fans. And I know how much y'all love watching folks take a tumble.
So here you go.
Fair warning — if that's not your kind of humor, scroll on by. But if it is, well, you're welcome.
Wear the brand
Full Rut hats and shirts — $25 at fullrutnation.com
NEXT WEEK
We go deeper on trigger control, more from the water, and I'll show you what's been walking through that new Ohio lease.
Fishing dirty water this week? Hit reply and tell me how the hover rig treated you. I read every one.
See you Friday.
— Dwayne
The Rut Report