This is Jockel Podcast number 278 with Echo Charles and me, Jockel Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening.

It's a little cold outside, but it doesn't matter.

Nothing else matters right now except doing my job right.

This job, I take another step as gently as I can, as quietly as I can.

This is where it all matters. I can't let them hear me if they do. They'll be gone.

And I won't get my shot. I take another quiet step. I see my buddy Freeze. He sees them.

They must be in range. They're in a great place.

I don't know. I'm in a great place. I'm in a great place.

I take another quiet step. I see my buddy Freeze. He sees them. They must be in range.

My buddy slowly looks back at me and gives me a nod. It's go time. I prepare my weapon.

I prepare my weapon. By now, I know this weapon well, I've shot thousands of rounds through it in the last year for this moment.

Ever since I was a little kid, it's been this way.

Stalking through the woods, closing the distance, trying to see you without being seen.

My adult life was much of the same sneaking around in the woods or in the desert or in the city or in the jungle.

I take a few more steps and find some cover by a tree. This will keep me hidden.

My buddy gives me a hand signal. He's giving me the range.

Nothing else matters. I initiate the procedures.

My mind is full, but it's empty. My heart is beating, but it's steady. It all comes down to this moment.

I'm alive.

Now that may have sounded like a combat scenario, but it wasn't. It was a description of a more recent pursuit of mine.

A pursuit of mine. Bow hunting. And the buddy I reference is a real person.

A real person who's an incredible archer and amazing hunter.

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