A MAN ON A MISSION

We talked with Taylor Philpot, founder of Revive Outdoors about his mission to raise PTSD awareness and support through hunting and one of his recent Midwest trips.

RAVIN:  Tell us about your organization, Revive Outdoors? 

I started Revive Outdoors in 2020. After I lost my daughter, I found myself going outdoors to connect with the Lord and decided that I wanted to share hunting with other people and let them experience it for the first time. Our staff is almost 30 guys that volunteer their time to take out brand new hunters. We've had over 300 people come through our mentorship program.

RAVIN: That’s great. So, what bow are you running?

I've been running my Ravin R26 since 2020. I have nerve damage in my neck and back. Using a compound, I locked up the nerve in my neck, real bad. So, I switched over to a crossbow. I did a lot of research on the fastest and lightweight crossbow out there. I came across Ravin and have been running it ever since. 

RAVIN: Tell us about the hunt. 

The day-to-day of the hunt itself was very difficult. It was my first time out of state and in the Midwest. I didn't understand that deer would actually just walk out in a wide open field where they can be shot. It was just bizarre to me because deer are so reclusive here in Alabama, and there's tons of woods, and very little agriculture land.

As each day went on I was seeing more deer because they were cutting the corn. I thought, “this is great” if I just find a good little pinch point then I'll have an opportunity to shoot one because all the corn they're hiding in will be gone. That was a big part of my success was the corn getting cut.

RAVIN: Walk us through the morning that you tagged out.

It had been pretty warm the six days I’d been there and then a cold front was coming in.  I always know that when a cold front is pushing in, usually the evening before and the morning it comes through are your best windows to be in the woods. And I knew that the corn had been cut so they're gonna be moving and traveling more than they would in the normal time.

I shot the deer within the first hour of the day. I was, thankfully, in a ladder stand that I could rest my crossbow on. Drilled the buck right through the heart at 65 yards. A perfect shot.

RAVIN: That’s a long way. 

Yeah. A lot of people are like “Man, why would you take that long of a shot?” There's got to be a lot of things going on for me to take over a 45-50 yard shot on a deer. Just because when that string pops, they're gonna flinch if they hear it.

That day the combine was cutting the last bit of corn, so there was an ambient noise there. The wind was pushing noise from my right to my left and the deer was on my right. So, I have the opportunity for the deer to hear it less. So, the sound was being pushed a little bit and my scent was good, it was just all the perfect circumstances. I settled my breath, took the safety off and let it fly.

I had practiced an exact 65 yard shot at the archery range at the start of the week before the season opened up so that I knew I was gonna make the shot. It wasn’t  like I was throwing up a Hail Mary and hoping something happens. I knew that the Ravin R26 was dialed in and would perform the way that I needed it to – and it did. 

The buck went over the hill and I didn't know where I hit him.  So I went back to the lodge and reviewed the footage and everybody's like “we're going to find that thing –  it’s dead”. So we immediately went back up to the spot, and sure enough, the deer was laying right there. 

RAVIN: Can you walk us through the moment after you shot the buck and not knowing that it was down necessarily. A lot of people describe it as buck fever. Did you experience it? What were your emotions like?

Yeah, so I'm the type of person that, with archery, unless I see it go down, I always have that little twinkling in the back of my mind. I was a little unsure, but I felt very confident because of my equipment and former military training. I saw the arrow fly through the air in the scope without pulling my head up and I watched it hit exactly where I was aiming in the scope. So it looked good to me.

I think the “Buck Fever”, so to speak, is that adrenaline dump that I got. But for me, it  wasn’t just “hey, I'm excited that I harvested this deer.”  I had a lot of grief and emotions going into the whole thing. That was my first time to get away from my family, after my daughter passed away and just have my time on my own.

It was a great ending to being in the woods all day, every day, for six or seven days straight. It was just like, man, I just want to be out here and away from everybody and away from life. And just, experience and connect with the Lord in a really special way. So when I actually had that moment take place and the deer came in front of me, it was just a lot of emotions going on there at that time.

So in my YouTube video (VIDEO LINK), if anybody goes and watches that you'll definitely see that emotion. I got really excited, but overall just really emotional.  I was almost in disbelief. I had just tagged a really nice pinpoint in Illinois to start my season, so it's really cool.