I’m not a neuroscientist or a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve observed hunters that are consistent on great whitetails just think differently. Picture the guy you know, and probably secretly hate, that gets it done every year on a big buck. Fact is we all want to be them, but it’s usually hard to pinpoint just why they get “lucky” so often. Being consistent isn’t about luck though, and really boils down to two basic things: how you hunt (actions and habits), and how you think (cognition and decision making). If we know how big buck killers do these, we can replicate them, and therefore have similar success. Most articles get into the “how to” or actions part of this equation, but few dig into the thought processes or what’s going on in the brain. So let’s try.
Basic Brain Science:
The Brain and Energy: Let’s start with how the brain works, then get into hunting applications. Most people think the main function of our brain is to think, which is wrong. It’s actually not to think. About 20% of our energy is used by the brain, but our body wants to conserve energy and be more efficient – that’s the actual goal. So our brain accomplishes this by thinking less and establishing automatic functions, called automaticity. This is our brain’s autopilot feature and includes habits and unconscious behaviors that are learned and then repeated without thought. We’ve all been driving to a place we know well and suddenly arrive, unable to remember what took place the last twenty minutes or all the turns it took to get there – that’s automaticity. Other examples of this are tying your shoe once you’ve learned, riding a bike, shooting a bow or gun, shooting a basketball with good form, and a whole list of coordinations that were once hard but became automatic over time.
Parts of the Brain: Energy is burned by the brain mostly in the frontal cortex, or frontal lobe. This is where conscious thought, analysis, and problem solving occur. It occurs only about 5% of the time with a normal person (I know seems very low), but is due to the tremendous amount of work and energy “thinking” requires. When your brain is constantly analyzing problems or you are thrown into an unfamiliar situation or crisis, the frontal lobe works overtime, and at the end of the day you are exhausted. This is why we typically avoid challenging situations, and why your brain is always attempting to reach automaticity.
The Basal Ganglia, which we’ll call “mid-brain,” is the portion of the brain responsible for unconscious thought or our autopilot functions. This is a good thing, as life is easier without having to think about everything all the time. The frontal cortex solves a problem, and pushes it back to the ganglia to become an unconscious and easy habit over time. It’s interesting to note, that as we grow older, time seems to go faster. It is theorized this is because as a child we are always in frontal lobe thinking (the world is all brand new and there’s a lot to figure out), and as we age this naturally decreases and we transition to more mid-brain automated behaviors. Our perception of time goes by much quicker because we aren’t thinking about it. Trend toward automatic, it’s what our brain is designed to do, but this can be both good and bad.
Years ago I went on vacation up north and was with a couple of big runners. They decided to go on a 3 mile jog on a wooded trail each day that week, so I joined them. Not knowing the path, and not being a big runner, I primarily just focused on following them through all the twists and curves. My brain was shut off. At the end of the week they decided to do a timed run and leave me in the dust. No big deal, as I had run this course several times. But part way through the run I came to a path I didn’t remember, which caused my frontal lobe to engage. “Have I taken a wrong turn” I thought. I wound up taking a different path and going the long way around – 7 whole miles. It turns out I was on the right path and had passed that trail every day, just never noticed it due to being on autopilot. So sometimes it’s great our brain tends toward autopilot, but other times it’s not.
The Brain and Hunting:
We see this many times in whitetail hunting with passed down tactics or phrases that we just accept without critical thought, and then just push into mid-brain behaviors. Phrases like “just play the wind,” and “go with your gut” come to mind. The reason this happens is because it’s typically easier to let someone else think for us – we basically subcontract thought. The problem is, if these tactics, habits, or phrases we adopt are incorrect and produce bad results, then we will continue to make bad hunting decisions. And with incorrect autopilot habits, we are destined to have “bad luck” on whitetail – continuously. But this is where a big buck killer’s brain is different.
A Buck Killer’s Brain:
There are three things I’ve observed from others, and myself, that make a huge difference for those who get it done on good bucks year after year.
1. They are Self-Taught
Although never true 100 % of the time, these individuals often carve their own habits from critical thinking, not hand-me-downs. When you don’t have a mentor, father, or grandpa to teach you, this forces understanding to happen through experience, and usually eliminates wives tales and myths being adopted. Every practice has to go through the frontal lobe processor for analysis before it becomes habit, and therefore has a better chance to be accurate. When I was a young hunter I only hunted a few private land locations that required minimal hunting decisions. I didn’t have to do much thinking and went with the flow of those I was with. But when I transitioned to public land hunting, all the sudden I had to start thinking about every hunting decision I made. This challenged old habits, and carved new ways of doing things only possible through struggle and self-teaching. Because of this, I became a much better hunter.
2. They Engage the Frontal Lobe Often
Once hunting habits, systems, and practices are established it’s easy to coast. Not so with a consistent big buck killer. This takes concerted effort, continually challenging prevailing paradigms, and pulling back from mid-brain autopilot to force frontal lobe critical thought. Two great practices that engage the frontal lobe are writing and teaching, and many of the top hunters do both. You’ll find these hunters have written books, articles, have taught seminars, and even taught complete courses of their own making. If you can write about it or teach it, you’ve verified its validity and comprehend it at a high level. Journaling is another great tool for engaging the front brain. Using the simple prompt “why” as you think about a hunt will really get the wheels turning and pen moving. These practices continually challenge the brain and hone highly effective hunting habits. Besides venturing into public lands, I credit much of my growth to the writing I’ve done over the years. It’s a great reason to grab a pen and journal and do some writing of your own.
3. They Purposefully Program Automaticity
Once these facts are understood, a hunter can double down on this process and become ultra efficient. Big buck killers understand the power of feeding the unconscious purposefully, not accidentally. The most powerful way to do this is by setting systems in place that go to work for you. It is in effect creating the software that operates efficiently, then letting it go to work automatically once created. The effort is on the front end, but once in place turns into autopilot of a highly effective method. Examples of this in hunting are scent control regimens that become an easy checklist once established, and shot prep systems that are a set of steps that produce a smooth shot every time once integrated to muscle memory.
The great thing is anyone can choose this path. If you are willing to retrain your brain, you too can have the brain of a big buck killer.
