A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending and filming a LIVE educational event hosted by Rocky Mountain Archery in Fort Collins, Colorado. Trevon Stoltzfus of Outback Outdoors, gave the attendees some great insight from a survey he conducted with some of the top hunters in America asking the question, “How to be a 10 Percenter?”

90% of the Game are Killed by 10% of Hunters

Regardless of the industry you’re in, typically the 80/20 or 90/10 rule comes into play. Also known as the Pareto principle, it basically means that the top percent account for most of the results. Knowing this, how does one join this elite group?

After interviewing many folks who were consistently killing deer, he came up with 5 key characteristics that 10 Percenters share:

1. Visualization
2. Preparedness
3. Persistence
4. Motivation
5. Aggressive adapability

Take a look at each one and see what characteristics you share. There are many other variables that come into play as well, especially when it comes to killing big deer, or any deer consistently for that matter.

A couple of the most important, in my opinion being:

1. You have to actually be hunting where big deer or any deer actually exist. Many places simply do not have the # of deer per square mile for someone to be consistently killing a deer – e.g. Adirondack mountains of New York.
2. You have to put in the time. It’s unrealistic to expect to kill a deer or even a monster buck just by walking into the woods. Many times, we need to spend hours, days and weeks just to see a deer.

Needless to say, it was awesome hearing some of the stats and feedback Trevon received from his survey. It really helps me focus on what I’ll need to be doing in the future on my hunts.

Thanks again to the folks at Rocky Mountain Archery for allowing me to film and to Trevon for his insight.