Deer Hunting – Fitness Attitude Defines The Hunt

We’ve all heard how practice makes perfect. However, Michael T. Merrill thinks practice doesn’t make perfect because it’s all about having the perfect practice. Today, we dive into why you should get that fitness attitude on as you hunt hard and go further. Chief Operating Officer at About Time Technologies, Michael illustrates what off-season preparation is and shares the wake-up call that motivated him to commit to fitness. As we touch on physical condition, persistence, consistency, and training, find out how he does visual actualization when getting a shot, and more.

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Deer Hunting – Fitness Attitude Defines The Hunt – Michael T. Merrill

We’re heading out to Salem, Utah and Mike Merrill. Mike comes from a large family. We’re going to talk about the hunting tradition, how it started. Mike, thanks for being with me. It’s going to be fun talking about, as you coin it, “If I can see it, I can get there,” or “Hunt hard, go further.” Those are your two mottos. Let’s jump right in right there and talk about Mike Merrill, why when he sees a mule deer bedded down X miles away across a couple of drainages, he knows he can get there.

I appreciate it, Bruce. The key to that mentality is preparation. As we’ve talked a little bit prior here, I’ve gotten serious about my fitness and off-season training. I love the coined phrase, “There is no off-season.” I do train year-round, shoot my bow year-round. On two feet of snow, I’m up there on the hillside shooting my bow. People look at me cross-eyed and crazy. When it comes time for the hunt, there’s absolutely no hesitation whatsoever in picking that bow up and sling arrows where I want to.

Can you talk about no off-season in the whitetail world? We’re hunting whitetails 365 days a year, that’s an open season. All the rest of the time, we’re taking care of our herds. You’re taking care of your body 365. Why did that start? What made the decision for you to say, “I’m going to be able not to chug up these mountains,” as I do but, “I’m going to be able to all bound up these mountains.”

It’s ironic. It was in 2014, I was with my father-in-law, Stan Goodrich. We were up to American Fork Canyon. They came up over the top up by the Sundance Ski Resort, Robert Redford’s place is up there. There are steep mountains and big mountains. We spotted a nice mule deer buck, probably a three-year buck. He was a 3×3 mule deer. I decided that I’m going to take this buck. We hiked up and got under 400 yards away. I’m pretty proficient at that range. I found rest and a tree to lean up against. I got the right angle. We got him where we were ready. I got my aim, pulled the trigger and the buck disappeared. I thought I hit him. I felt it was a good shot. I couldn’t see him. He didn’t seem to take off anywhere. I got a little panicky thinking, “I’ve got to hurry up there,” in case I needed to get another shot off.

We made a plan. My father-in-law was going to stay down there and keep his glasses on the area where the buck was in. I was going to hightail it up there as quick as I could get there. I went trekking up that hill as fast as I could. At the time, I probably weighed close to 250. I’m about 5’11”. I have broad shoulders and a stocky build. I carry the weight okay, but I was out of shape and was not physically fit. At 9,000 feet, 10,000 feet elevation going that fast in there, I was exhausted by the time I got up there. I got close to where this deer was and there he laid dead right in his bed. He died within seconds, which was great. I was happy about that. The second I saw that deer, it was as if somebody flipped a switch. All my energy was gone. All of a sudden, I was feeling light-headed and almost dizzy. I felt like I was going to pass out because of this adrenaline rush, thin air, no oxygen and not in good cardio shape. Even my father-in-law was sitting there calling and saying, “Did you get him? Do you see him?” I couldn’t even talk. I was so exhausted. I said, “I’ll tell you about it in a second. I’ve got to sit down.” He was laughing a little bit and hoping I was okay. I sounded like I was in rough shape and I was.

I sat down on a log. I sat there, huffing and puffing. I buried my head in my hands. I slapped myself and said, “This is so stupid.” Here I am doing what I love as much as anything in this world for my spare time. I’ve had hunting success. I’m on top of the world and yet I feel like garbage. I can’t even start taking care of this animal right now because I can’t catch my breath. I had to sit there for probably five minutes to gather myself. The terrain was steep enough. He was on the edge of a twenty-foot cliff, caught on a tree. My father-in-law was down below. I was alone up there. We had decided that I would drag that buck down. It was steep enough. We would get him down there where it was a little flatter. He would wait for me. It probably took me 25 minutes to get to him. I should have been able to do it in ten. I told him there as we took care of that animal and broke it down, this is the last season I’m going to ever be on this earth where I’m not in the physical shape that I can’t do that in my sleep. That’s where I made myself that promise and that commitment. I made a New Year’s resolution, January 2015 that I’m going to start running and get myself in shape. That’s exactly what I did. I haven’t looked back. I don’t ever want to go back.

A lot of people can go, “I’ve been there.” A lot of people don’t do what you do. You stay committed to it. You said, “This is what I’m going to do. This is how I’m going to be in shape.” By your photos, you’re bounding up those mountains. That’s the thing because we’ve all been there. I got my butt kicked. This is not going to happen next year. The next year happens and you didn’t do what you needed to do for the previous 365 days. You’re in the same shape. The older you get, the harder it is. There’s absolutely no question. There are some superstars out there. You look at guys that are crushing it, doing these ultra-marathons, great hunters and all that. That’s great for them. I’m happy for them. If we can stay consistent, that’s my thing. I was walking fast, a mile-and-a-half, two miles, three miles consistently to get my cardio up because I got enough strength. I don’t have the cardio for the mountains. When you go elk hunting, it could be five miles to get in and five miles to get out. That’s ten miles. Day after day, you can put 50 miles easy on a five-day hunt looking for elk.

There’s a phrase I love. I don’t know who coined it. It says, “The mountains don’t lie.” That is the truth.

The mountains don’t care. The mountains are there. If you choose to saddle up, get it on them and get it going, the mountains will take the best you’ve got. They’ll turn the worse you into mush. Unfortunately, that happens every year. People all pissing vinegar and hit the mountains. Within two or three days, they’re done. They’re flat done. What you’re thinking, reading and talking to people, it didn’t have to be that way. It’s a shame when that happens, but it happens every year. The season opener is August 28th to 30th, sometime in there in Colorado. We’ve got two months. I always put 100 miles on minimum at 68,000 feet before the season. I’ll take a couple of swings at the incline or some steep stuff say, “This is what it’s going to be. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to suck. You’re not going to want to do it but do it anyway,” thing. That’s my thought.

You hear the phrase, too, “Embrace the suck.” A few years ago, I was that guy sitting on the sidelines or on the couch, point my finger at armchair quarterback and stuff. Once you get to the sunny side of this stuff, you’re thinking, “What in the world have I been doing?” I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to get out and enjoy this time. I’m not prepared. In 2015, I decided I’m going to start running. I tell people all the time start by running a little bit, but you’ve got to do it consistently a few times a week. Even if it’s one to three miles, two or three times a week. Do it consistently and get to where you’re doing it three and four times a week. Now you’re going two and three, and three and four miles. What I did is I set a goal for Easter and said, “I’m going to run 250 miles by Easter. I’m not going to run it all in three weeks in the end. I’m not going to procrastinate. I’ve got to get started chipping away.” On New Year’s Day, I started running.

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My wife is a lifelong runner. She’s been running over 25 years. I’ll be 45 this year so I’m not a spring chicken anymore. I feel like I’m 25. It’s because I started running. The day before Easter 2015, I hit 256 miles. I exceeded that goal. I thought, “What am I going to do from here?” I did the math. I multiplied it out. I thought, “If I times it by four, that’s 1,000 miles. That’s my goal. I’m going to run 1,000 miles.” I went from running 0 to 1,000 miles in the very first year. I ran two marathons during that time period. The first one I ran, five-and-a-half months after I started six months. It is possible if you set a reasonable, achievable goal. It’s going to suck. It’s going to be difficult. Get over it. Make the decision and go for it. That’s what I did and still doing.

A lot of good people out there, Jeremy Koerber, Fit To Hunt. Jeremy, he’s helped me immeasurably. He helped me tremendously get ready for my last sheep hunt. You see those guys and you go, “How do they do it?” We’re all built differently. We’re all wired differently. How does he do it? He stays after it day-in-day-out. You think, “It’s his job. He does that. I’ll challenge everybody who likes to get up every single day and go to their job.” God bless you people that have a job and you crush it every day at work. You’re so alive being at your work. I work because I have a family. I’d like to do things.

I didn’t live to work. I worked to live. That’s for sure. That was a great motivator because I knew what I wanted to do and how to go. You think about that and you think about what Mike said is that he started, he set a goal. I stated my goal is 100 miles. You get 100 days. It’s a mile a day. That’s all it is. If you put 100 miles on your shoes, on your boots with a little twenty-pound pack on, put your hydrator on, put all that stuff on and walk 100 miles like that. You’re going to be amazed at how much better you’re going to be. Plus, the consistency of it. The mountains won’t break you. They’ll allow you to move through them at your pace.

The thing too is your mental state and the mental strength that you gain by tuning your body physically is indescribable. Your body wants to move. It’s built to move. It’s not built to sit and rest all the time. It doesn’t want to. Sometimes our minds tell us we do. If we don’t have a good diet, we can fool that body and our brain starts following that. My dad always said, “Mind over matter,” at such a young age. Doing hard things was something that we as Merrills did. I was blessed to have a good example of motivation. At the end of the day, you’ve got to want to do it. You’ve got to do it for you.

Like I said with running, I love sports. I was in athletics, into baseball. I had aspirations to go on to higher levels of baseball. As I got older and I got married at 21, 22 years old, I started a family. You’ve got to work. You’ve got to pay bills. You realize pretty quick you’ve got to feed the family first. Baseball wasn’t going to do that for me. I got into construction and learned how to work hard. I’ve taken that same approach into hunting. It’s led to not only hunting success. I always tell people over 99% of my joy of being out in the woods, out in nature and hunting has nothing to do with releasing an arrow, pulling a trigger. That’s the very end, a few seconds of my journey before it comes time to break an animal down and pack it out.

In my case, I love to take that game. I cut up all my own meat. I wrap it all. Label it. I do it how I want, take care of it and keep it clean. When it’s time to break out the grill or the Traeger smoker, I like to prepare that for my family. From field to table, I’ve participated in every part of that journey. I’ve got to tell you there is no satisfaction you can have on this planet than physically going yourself, bringing that to your family, providing that for them, sharing your success with them, nourishing their bodies and enjoying that together around the dinner table with family.

Hunting to me, it’s a complete journey. It’s an adventure. To travel to the places I’ve been able to travel, meet the people I’ve met, it’s all part of it. Once I pack up, and head to the airport or head east, west, north or south, that’s when my journey begins. Some of the memories I have are a late night, in a blizzard sitting in tents a gazillion miles from nowhere and candlelight, talking and having conversations. That’s what I hold true. Pulling the trigger, bringing the meat home is as important as all the rest. That’s the part that people that don’t understand hunting or have never hunted, they don’t get the other part, the part of the journey and the part of interaction with other people of other cultures.

I hunt birds. I’ve hunted waterfowl, chukars, doves, pheasants and all kinds of other game, also bears and about everything out there. I don’t shoot anything I’m not going to eat. That’s one rule I’ve got for myself and had for a long time. I enjoy that part of it. I try not to start anything that I’m not going to finish. Even that first year I started running, it was December 15th when I completed my goal of 1,000 miles that year. My wife didn’t even know this, but I ran on a Tuesday. I started at about 11:00 PM. I finished almost 2:00 AM. I ran sixteen miles on my treadmill and I stopped at 999.9 miles. I did all the math and I stopped. I thought, “If I’m going to hit this goal, I’m going crush it. I’m not going to run 1,000 miles and go on my merry way, go skipping down the yellow brick road.” My wife said, “What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know. I’ve got to think about it.”

I thought about it for the coming days. December 15th, it was a Saturday, and I got up at about 6:00 in the morning. It wasn’t quite light yet. I proceeded to plot out a path and ditch Gatorade in the bushes and granola bars in the weeds. I put food and beverage along the path that I was going to run. I ran a marathon to complete my goal. I wasn’t ten steps into this marathon. I’d already hit my 1,000 miles. I wanted to explode that goal, do it with gusto and not achieve it but kill that goal. I did. When I got done with that marathon, I still had fuel left in the tank. I felt pretty darn good for having run a marathon and hit my 1,000 miles. I thought, “This is awesome.” I was in the best shape of my life. I’d lost a bunch of weight. I was trim and fit. When I got out in the elk woods and in the high mountains, I could go and go. That’s been a few years now. I’m still doing the same stuff. I’ve got a little smarter about it. What I do is I have my bow and my target in my truck. I’ve got Quad cab Dodge or whatever, crew cab. I take that in there. I’ve got a pack usually with trail cameras or bait, buck jam, salt licks and Trophy Rock.

Sometimes I’ll pack that on and then I’ll go running up a trail. It’s about a three-and-a-half-mile loop, about 1,000 feet of gain in the first mile on this trail that I run on. I’ve got three or four trail cameras along the way. I will get out and run that mountain, swap SD card since I’m running, past my cameras. When I get back, I’m huffing and puffing a little bit, I pull that bow out and I’ll sling a couple dozen arrows or more. It seems counter-intuitive, but you’ve seen these guys. Cameron Hanes is somebody I’ve followed for a couple of years now. I’ve loved and learned a great deal about that mental toughness that I didn’t have before.

I’ve definitely used him as a pattern in some of the things that I’m doing. I can’t believe, even though it seems stupid to me at first, why in the world would I shoot my bow when I’m tired. I’m going to wait. There’s a breeze. Let me wait until the wind dies down. I’ll shoot my bow. You don’t get to do that when you’re hunting. When the breeze is there, that’s when your shot is happening. When the rain is coming down, that’s when you have your chance. If it’s raining, snowing, I get excited about those conditions. I like to run in that stuff. I want to shoot when it’s 103 degrees outside. I’ve run three or four miles in the mountains because that is hunting conditions. That is as tough as it’s going to get. If I can overcome and practice like that several times a week, all year round, and embrace that suck. When it comes time to hunting, another phrase I love is, “Train hard, hunt easy.” Hunting is sometimes a break from what I’ve been training for in some of the conditions I’ve put myself in. You can enjoy it like never before.

At the end of the day, you’ve got to want to do something and you have got to do it for yourself. Share on X

Let’s talk about a couple of your hunts. Before we do that, let’s talk about, “I wish I knew that now.” The one big thing that you know now that you wish you knew several years ago, what would that be in regards to hunting?

You like to reload. I do reloading a little bit too. One thing I do now, I flex my own arrows. I weigh stuff. I have learned to hone my craft, hone my passion here on hunting to a degree where I’m controlling all the variables that I can. If I can do that with confidence, and I’m as prepared as I could be physically, and I’ve worked my way through what my plan is mentally, when it comes time to execute, there is absolutely no hesitation. I would say that “off-season preparation,” the mental, the physical side of it, your weapon, being familiar, shooting your bow or your gun on a regular basis. Don’t pull it out the weekend before the hunt, or worse yet, I see guys that haven’t even shot their weapon since last season.

Make it something that you put into your regular routine so that year-round you are familiar with every piece of that weapon and that process that you’re going to embark upon. When the hunting season starts, those seasons are determined by the calendar and the clock. When it’s go time, it doesn’t matter if they’re rutting hard or not at all, it’s sunny, there’s sleet, hail or rain. The hunting season, like the mountains, it doesn’t care so be ready. When it comes time to execute, you won’t have to think about it. You’ll be able to react and get the job done.

What I hear you saying is be prepared, know your gear, practice and be confident, you don’t have to think about it. The muscle memory is already built in for your release on your arrow and everything. Your back muscles are strong. Everything needs to be there. You don’t have to think about it because so many times people say, “I’ve got to be this. I’ve got to do that.” If you have to think when you have game in front of you, you’re screwed. You missed the opportunity because one step and that deer is gone. One blink and that elk is gone, the bear, whatever you’re hunting. If I boil down every single close-encounter kill shot I’ve had, how many seconds that is. That’s over 52 years of hunting. How many seconds of actual kill shots?

Why in the world wouldn’t you do everything you could do to make that most you can?

Take a guy like Jim Shockey, he’s got minutes. A guy like him might have hours. Most of us have seconds. Is it 120 seconds? Is it 332 seconds? The timing we set to pull that trigger, it’s seconds in all those years of preparation. All that money comes down to seconds. Why not be the best you can be when that time comes?

You’re in control of that destiny when you prepare. Practice doesn’t make perfect. You’ve got to have perfect practice. Proper practice, get some coaching, take some video. I was amazed the first time I took a video of me shooting my bow, “Why am I doing that? That looks funny.” Get some coaching, tune your bow, get some help with your rifle. Make sure that you’re talking to people that know a little bit more than you. Get on YouTube, do some research. If you do everything you can to make sure that you are 100% prepared for that go time, as that muscle memory, not only will it happen, but it will happen without a second thought. I took an elk with my bow at long distance. I’ve got to be brutally honest. That fifteen, twenty seconds of pulling my bow up, releasing that arrow, and doing it again. I got two arrows in this elk within a few seconds of each other. It wasn’t a blur. I remembered all of it. I didn’t even give any of it a second thought. In 30 seconds, that elk was on the ground, and not long after, had expired. None of it was easy. I was amazed at how hard it wasn’t for me to execute when it came time for that opportunity.

We’ve been talking about a lot of different things here, physical condition, persistence, consistency and preparation. You mentioned something, you set a goal. Talk to me about the visual actualization. When you see a base and you need to get there because you saw a bed down and it’s going to be arduous but you don’t care. How do you see yourself there with that shot?

It might sound silly to some people. The first thing is if I find a base in a place where I want to get to. I’m going to go there beforehand. I’m going to figure out the right path. I’m going to look and see where I can safely, quickly and efficiently get to a location. With my bow, I know my yardages from this bush and that rock, this knoll or point. I’m going to have all that figured out as much as I can. When that opportunity presents itself, I don’t have to spend a whole lot of time second-guessing myself. In my case, I love hunting with buddies, my brothers and other people. I do get a great deal of satisfaction sometimes when I’m all by myself. There’s nobody to discuss, have differing opinions with or arguments. I can go get it done and not have to worry about whatever someone else is thinking.

That’s hunting by yourself. How do you visualize yourself getting that shot, going through all the arduous effort to get there? Do you do that? Do you visualize yourself taking that shot?

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I do. I have a routine when I’m shooting my bow or my rifle, how I’m breathing. I try and breathe in and hold when I get ready to shoot. I practice that with my rifle, too, at the target range. Practice those things that are realistic. When I’m setting my rifle in or when I’m shooting my bow, I like talking to people. I like having distractions going on around me while I’m executing because the mag pipeline in my view or whatever it is that’s going on is not going to take me away from what I’m focused on. I definitely visualize the entire sequence. Familiarity with the process, that muscle memory, envisioning what you’re going to do is critical. It’s like setting a goal. You’ve got to write it down. There are steps to get to it.

They’re achievable. I’m going to hike up to this point. I’m going to move over by this tree. If the deer, the elk, or whatever you’re chasing doesn’t move or if it’s bedded, you play these scenarios out in your mind beforehand so that you’ve already narrowed down your options and your choices. You can choose to move quickly when the conditions change when something isn’t what you expected. This elk, there are a few different scenarios that happened during that hunt where exactly the unexpected happened, and yet I’d already envisioned what I was going to do. It worked out perfectly in that case. I was glad that I played that out in my mind first.

How do people get a hold of you if they want to follow up? How do they reach out to you?

My Instagram is @MichaelTMerrill. Twitter is the same. Facebook is @Michaelt.Merrill.7. It’s social media mainly. My email is [email protected]. They’re all pretty much the same handle.

Are you on any Pro Staffs?

It’s not officially. I haven’t aligned myself with anything too specifically. I like certain equipment. I use those things religiously. I love supporting them. I do other stuff professionally. I haven’t done anything officially that way.

Tell us about your gear that you like?

I love my Hoyt Carbon Defiant Bow. I’m trying some new broadheads. I’m trying the Valkyrie Jagger Broadheads. Those are new for me. I’m working on some stuff there. As far as rifles, I shoot Ruger. I’ve got several different calibers. I have a Benelli Shotgun. I do like to invest. I’ve got Swarovski Optik and some Vortex scopes and different things. I do try and invest in those things so that I have the best gear and equipment that I can. I love the Under Armour mountain gear. I also have a lot of SITKA. Those things are all very high quality. They’re not cheap, so you’ve got to spend a little bit of money. I’m not buying new gear every year. A lot of it I’ve had for several years. It keeps on trekking as I do.

Good gear is critical. One thing when I first was starting out this journey, the people that I knew were down the road when they said, “Bruce, you can buy X, Y and Z, but you want the best optics you can get.” They said that’s the number one thing. First is your optics, your binoculars and your spotting scope. Get the best you can afford. Whatever that is, that’s what it is. From there, your rifle scope because a lot of rifles shoot well. I shoot Rugers and Remingtons. They’ve shot well for me. I get them tinkered. I take them to a gunsmith and do some sexy things to them. I get them as custom as I can without paying a custom price. All the rest comes.

Trial and error, you buy a pair of pants, and they last one hunting season. You throw them away because you blew $50, $60. You go buy some other stuff that costs $200, but they last five or ten years. I’ve got King of the Mountain. My wool, elk hunting clothes for cold weather. I don’t know how old they are. They’re as good as the day I bought them. It costs a lot of money. I do the same thing with my fishing and the hunting gear. That’s one thing I would throw in the mix is to get the best you can and save up, get on eBay. Find the brand and get on eBay. There are a lot of ways you can get good equipment for less than box stores prices.

Those are investments that you’re making, and I’ve been blessed to know that for a while. My father-in-law, I remember back in the ‘90s, he had Swarovski binoculars before. I didn’t know anybody who even knew what they were. He’s been running ZEISS for 35, 40 years. I learned from him, Leupold, great gear, great warranties. Even at a young age in my early twenties, I started investing in those things. I bought some Danner boots. I’ve got Crispi boots, I’ve got Kenetrek. I’ve got a Zamberlan. I’ve got some Under Armour Fat Tire boots that I absolutely love for trail running. I feel like I’m running on marshmallows. They were a couple of hundred bucks. They’ve lasted me for years. My feet are dry. They don’t get blisters. I hunt and hike hard. If you’re on a sheep hunt or something pretty rough, your feet are going to take a beating no matter what you have on probably, eventually. You’re going to help yourself a lot. You’re going to be able to hunt harder and longer if you have the proper gear. That is one place that I will not cut a corner for any reason whatsoever, all the way from broadheads to arrows to boots.

Practice doesn’t make perfect. You’ve got to have perfect practice. Share on X

I’ll give Russell Moccasins, I got introduced to them years and years ago. I probably got three pairs. They’re not cheap, but they’re handmade to my feet. I’ve been to their store and their factory in Wisconsin. Every single pair of those boots were as good as they were the day I bought them or you send them back and they rebuild them. They were an investment, but they’re good for the lifetime.

It’s like everything else. Any variable you can control, any variable you can take out of the equation. My boots are going to be good. My GORE-TEX jacket is not going to leak. My pants are not going to tear, they’re going to hold up. My feet are going to be good. My rifle is going to shoot straight. My scope is going to be on, whatever it is. My broadheads are going to stay sharp. You’re investing in those minute seconds, microseconds sometimes where it’s go time. You’ve got to make it happen and you need everything to be in the best possible situation and shape it can be. Investing and planning ahead by buying proper gear, that’s almost as important as making sure you’re in shape and that your equipment is accurate.

Mike, it has been a pleasure to have you. I think of the Wasatch Range. I used to run the Wasatch Range back when I was working. I had some great trails. They put the hurt on me. They were great trails to run. That’s when I was running trails up and down. I’d never challenged Cameron Hanes. In my own way, I did it pretty well. On behalf of hundreds of thousands of readers of Whitetail Rendezvous, thank you for being a guest on our show.

Thank you, Bruce. It’s been a pleasure. I look forward to speaking with you again in the future.

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About Michael T. Merrill

Husband-Father-Believer In Christ-Bow Hunter?-Entrepreneur-Provider-Optimist-Conservationist-Public Land Owner-Conservative!