Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. This week, I want to
Speaker 1: start diving into some advanced hunting tactics for out in
Speaker 1: the field. The word a spot and stock hunting gets
Speaker 1: thrown around a lot by myself, and just like the
Speaker 1: style and type of hunting that I do, I would
Speaker 1: refer to as spot and stock hunting. But what that
Speaker 1: actually means is not just one specific tactic, but so
Speaker 1: many tactics involved in the art of being good at
Speaker 1: getting close to animals that you go out and find
Speaker 1: that day, As opposed to maybe like a lie in
Speaker 1: weight tactic, which would be setting up an ambush in
Speaker 1: a blind or tree stand. Spot and stock hunting is
Speaker 1: very fluid and it uses a combination of so many
Speaker 1: different tactics, many of them all at once and some
Speaker 1: just singular tactics that you might use once a week
Speaker 1: or once a season. But if you're waiting for that
Speaker 1: perfect opportunity that you have in your mind, if I'm
Speaker 1: going to go spot and stock hunting, and this is
Speaker 1: how it's going to play out. That opportunity probably won't happen.
Speaker 1: There's so many hunts. In order to be successful, you
Speaker 1: have to make the opportunity. So this week I want
Speaker 1: to cover a segment of spot and stock hunting and
Speaker 1: a tactic that I refer to as the cut off.
Speaker 1: There's so many stocks I believe that include and like.
Speaker 1: In order to make it work out, you have to
Speaker 1: have an advanced prediction of what the animals gonna do
Speaker 1: and then plan accordingly. I think that this cut off
Speaker 1: tactic can be one of the most widely deployed stocking
Speaker 1: tactics for a variety of big game species. What it
Speaker 1: involves is understanding where the target animal wants to be,
Speaker 1: how to use the wind, a little bit of hustle,
Speaker 1: and then the decisions to wait or move in the
Speaker 1: final moments. But before we get into that, I want
Speaker 1: to share a story of an early season archery mule
Speaker 1: deer hunt for this goofy looking lopsided buck in one
Speaker 1: of my favorite hunting spots. This hunt takes place in
Speaker 1: a remote section of central Nevada during the early August
Speaker 1: archery season for mule deer in one of my favorite spots,
Speaker 1: the place I like to call the Bowl. Now I've
Speaker 1: talked about the Bowl before and probably will many times.
Speaker 1: It's because it's a place that over the years I've
Speaker 1: hunted a lot. I really got familiar with the area
Speaker 1: by spending a lot of time there the deer habits,
Speaker 1: and became really successful hunting this particular area. And outside
Speaker 1: of that, it's just a really remote spot where very
Speaker 1: few people. We would run into and just really enjoyed
Speaker 1: the experience hunting there, so I would go back year
Speaker 1: after year. On this particular year, I happened to have
Speaker 1: an early season elk tag and my brother and I
Speaker 1: always applied as party for deer tag, so he had
Speaker 1: a tag, but I was away on an elk hunt
Speaker 1: and tagged out on my elk and then drove out
Speaker 1: there to help him on his deer hunt, and figured
Speaker 1: I would hunt as well after I helped him, because
Speaker 1: he'd been out there longer. So I got into the area,
Speaker 1: and I think my brother had two days before he
Speaker 1: had to get back to work, so I figured i'd
Speaker 1: help him out and we started off the way the
Speaker 1: terrain is in this particular spot, one of those particular
Speaker 1: spots here the bulls like this big sage flat about
Speaker 1: a thousand vertical feet below the rim of the top
Speaker 1: of this high ridge and the ridges maybe like nine
Speaker 1: feet in elevation or something like that, and then the
Speaker 1: bulls around eight thousand somewhere in there, depending on where
Speaker 1: you're at in there. And so we started out, you know,
Speaker 1: he had seen a few good bucks, he'd been chasing
Speaker 1: a few deer, but just unsuccessful so far, and I
Speaker 1: only had a couple of days left to hunt. So
Speaker 1: he decided we're gonna just like hunt together glass and
Speaker 1: then that way if we see something, you know, I
Speaker 1: can help direct him in or whatever. While we're glassing
Speaker 1: the first morning, I spot this group of deer and
Speaker 1: there's this buck in there. It's just like this three
Speaker 1: point kind of goofy, lopsided deer. It wasn't a big deer.
Speaker 1: It wasn't necessarily a young deer either. It just was
Speaker 1: like a mid age deer three points on one side,
Speaker 1: kind of like three on the other. But it kind
Speaker 1: of drooped down and made this like the antler actually
Speaker 1: kind of dropped it down past his face. And I
Speaker 1: just thought until my brother. I was like, chasing, you
Speaker 1: should go chase that buck. I think it's cool. And
Speaker 1: while there's other deer in this particular bachelor group that
Speaker 1: are really nice, typical four points, and my brother just
Speaker 1: started getting into archery hunting, but he's like, man, I
Speaker 1: want to get one of those better deer. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, whatever. I was like, man, I would chase
Speaker 1: that goofy looking buck that thinks sweet. So he ends
Speaker 1: up make, you know, play on these deer and it
Speaker 1: just doesn't work out, and the next day hunts hard
Speaker 1: and ends up not getting on any deer. Um, We're
Speaker 1: getting within arrange, not getting any shots on a deer
Speaker 1: that he wanted. So he had to pull out and
Speaker 1: go to work. And I figured, oh, I'm gonna stay
Speaker 1: a couple of days and just hunt around try to
Speaker 1: get a buck. Um. I had actually had a California
Speaker 1: archery tag that I drew. I just was one of
Speaker 1: those years where I drew a bunch of good tags
Speaker 1: and I wanted to try to hunt them all. So
Speaker 1: the California season started in a few days, so I figured, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just hunt this for a couple of days before
Speaker 1: that California season starts and then I'll head over there.
Speaker 1: And so he left like mid day, and that evening
Speaker 1: I'm up on the glassing spot. And the way that
Speaker 1: works in this this particular like Sage flat is it's
Speaker 1: timber kind of all around and then drops off the
Speaker 1: mountain below the flat, and it's just like thick mahogany
Speaker 1: juniper type country. You can't really see into it. The
Speaker 1: deer going there in bed during the day, and then
Speaker 1: they filter out into this giant like opening in the evening,
Speaker 1: and you think that they'd be super easy to see
Speaker 1: in there, but it's quite a ways away. The sage
Speaker 1: can be tall in certain places, and it's like two
Speaker 1: or three miles across, and so they pop out of
Speaker 1: the timber, but you just never know really where they're
Speaker 1: gonna pop out. Sometimes you try to watch where they
Speaker 1: go in and then plan accordingly, but sometimes they come
Speaker 1: out on the other side or whatever. It's just one
Speaker 1: of those games. Plus, the wind generally blows into the
Speaker 1: direction that they're bedded in from where they're feeding, so
Speaker 1: they feed out into the wind most evenings. So I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there glassing and I'm looking into a few of
Speaker 1: the pockets of timber on the back side, and I
Speaker 1: see that lopsided buck. I'm like, oh, sweet man, I'd
Speaker 1: love to get a chance to chase that. But the
Speaker 1: wind wasn't good, and I started thinking. I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to cut this deer off. I know
Speaker 1: where he wants to go. I know he wants to
Speaker 1: be in the sage flat. I just gotta get that
Speaker 1: sage flat. But I have to time it, because every evening,
Speaker 1: once the sun goes behind the ridge that I'm on,
Speaker 1: the thermals start to drop and this this flat sort
Speaker 1: of tapers off downhill, and then that wind shifts and
Speaker 1: starts going downhill. So as soon as he gets in there,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that he'll be feeding slow. I don't want
Speaker 1: to be out there too soon, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to be out there too late. So I just start
Speaker 1: watching him, watching him as he gets closer to the
Speaker 1: edge of where he's gonna pop out in this stage flat.
Speaker 1: It's about the right time when the shadows should start
Speaker 1: hitting and I can make my move. He pops out
Speaker 1: and starts feeding. I think this is perfect. I've got
Speaker 1: my route planned out. I literally just start running down
Speaker 1: I'm out of sight, but I'm trying to run to
Speaker 1: a place where I can cut off while he's distracted
Speaker 1: and out of sight, because there's a few undulations in
Speaker 1: this flat, So as long as I keep him behind
Speaker 1: the couple of trees that are in there, I'll be good.
Speaker 1: So I go, I use the cover that I have available,
Speaker 1: and I'm get down in there as fast as possible,
Speaker 1: because I don't want him to get out into the middle,
Speaker 1: because once he's out in the middle, there's just no
Speaker 1: way to get close. There's this one little knob in
Speaker 1: the middle of this flat, and I'm behind that and
Speaker 1: I don't see the deer, and I start creeping out
Speaker 1: and then I peek up over I think where he's
Speaker 1: going to be, and I can see him feeding, and
Speaker 1: he's maybe like a hundred and fifty yards out. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh sweet, and his head's down. So while his heads down,
Speaker 1: I've got like my bow on my back, just army
Speaker 1: crawling out through this flat, trying to get to any
Speaker 1: kind of sage cover. And as he's feeding, he's picking
Speaker 1: his head up looking. Luckily, he happened to be with
Speaker 1: the first deer in the group, and I could see
Speaker 1: some other deer further back, but I was working. He
Speaker 1: was quite a bit ahead of the other deer, so
Speaker 1: I was still paying attention to the other deer and
Speaker 1: making sure they wouldn't see me or spook, but also
Speaker 1: like trying to anticipate where this buck was going in
Speaker 1: this three mile long sage flat and try to cut
Speaker 1: him off. So as he's working towards me, I'm like
Speaker 1: moving and crawling, and then as it heads down, I'm
Speaker 1: making my moves and I finally get into this spot
Speaker 1: where the sage gets a little bit taller, and I think, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's this set ship of where he's feeding and then
Speaker 1: this section of kind of no real good feed and
Speaker 1: then feed behind me, and I think this is the spot,
Speaker 1: and so I set up and get ready and wait,
Speaker 1: and sure enough, he kind of like picks his head
Speaker 1: up once he gets to the edge of the no
Speaker 1: feeding zone like the smaller lower stuff, and kind of
Speaker 1: starts walking fairly briskly in my direction. I see that
Speaker 1: he's going to be a little bit too far out,
Speaker 1: so I kind of crawled to continue to try to
Speaker 1: cut him off because what I'm trying to do is
Speaker 1: not so he stocked him, but intersect his potential path.
Speaker 1: He gets within range and starts feeding again. Like perfect,
Speaker 1: I draw back and raise up. Unfortunately I raised up
Speaker 1: a kind of the wrong time, because he happened to
Speaker 1: put his head up just as I was at full draw,
Speaker 1: and so I knew that he didn't see me, because
Speaker 1: I was just watching his body position and scene as
Speaker 1: tail flick and feeding and looking around. He wasn't focused
Speaker 1: on me, but I was just holding back, waiting for
Speaker 1: him to move, waiting for him to put his head
Speaker 1: back down again. He put his head back down, feeding
Speaker 1: and I released the arrow. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was like the sound of the bow. It must have
Speaker 1: been the sound of the bow that the buck actually
Speaker 1: jumped to the string. Fortunately, at the time my bow
Speaker 1: wasn't very fast, the buck actually jumped to the string
Speaker 1: I could. I watched him like duck down. I thought,
Speaker 1: oh man, that's not gonna be good. But he duck
Speaker 1: to this string early enough that by the time he
Speaker 1: got back up he was at his original position. He
Speaker 1: didn't run, and the arrow hit exactly where I was aiming.
Speaker 1: Buck ran off and it's just this big white open
Speaker 1: He ran maybe twenty thirty yards and fell over I
Speaker 1: was like, that was awesome, you know, And then of
Speaker 1: course I'm thinking, oh, that was funny. My brother was
Speaker 1: out here for a week. And then that buck that
Speaker 1: I thought was really cool, the one that I saw
Speaker 1: that was ended up being the one that I got.
Speaker 1: So I go to the buck, I'd set up my camera,
Speaker 1: I took like a couple of photos, and then quartered
Speaker 1: him up, cut him up, and then packed him out.
Speaker 1: By this point, it's a pretty good climb to the
Speaker 1: top to where I need to get out from. I
Speaker 1: just loaded the whole deer in my pack and actually
Speaker 1: went down in the bottom pretty light like not a
Speaker 1: whole lot of stuff in my pack, left most of
Speaker 1: it up on the ridge. And the one thing I
Speaker 1: will always remember about this hunt wasn't necessarily the stock
Speaker 1: or how all that played out, but the pack out.
Speaker 1: It happened to be on night where there was no moon,
Speaker 1: and it was like during a huge meteor shower, and
Speaker 1: as I was walking up to the top of the ridge,
Speaker 1: I remember looking around and just in that high desert
Speaker 1: is really high altitude, and you can see there's like
Speaker 1: stars below you as you're packing out, and it's one
Speaker 1: of the most incredible meteor showers I've ever seen. So
Speaker 1: I've got the buck on my back packing him out
Speaker 1: looking down on this meteor shower is like, I've never
Speaker 1: seen anything like it, and it was just like a
Speaker 1: really cool experience that I'll never forget if I think
Speaker 1: back to like just successful hunts over the years, many
Speaker 1: of them, especially with a bow, mule, deer, elk antelope.
Speaker 1: It's hard to think of any kind of hunt, even
Speaker 1: hunts with rifle or muzzle or whatever, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 1: A lot of them involve some form of what happened
Speaker 1: in that story of the lopsided buck. Where you see
Speaker 1: the animal, you don't have an approach where they're moving,
Speaker 1: and you need to figure out where they're going to
Speaker 1: be in order to get close, to cut them off,
Speaker 1: or to make a good stock. And while it might
Speaker 1: seem like, yeah, just cut them off, there is a
Speaker 1: tactic that can make those movements and the moves that
Speaker 1: you make and the decisions that you make a lot
Speaker 1: more successful. And it starts with understanding where your target
Speaker 1: animal wants to be, Like, well, okay, they've got this whole.
Speaker 1: You know, they can go any direction, especially mules here
Speaker 1: they like to you know, you might think as soon
Speaker 1: as you think you've got to mel your pattern, he's
Speaker 1: going to do something different. But the best way to
Speaker 1: predict what an animal is gonna be is not necessarily
Speaker 1: seeing where they are right now, but where are they
Speaker 1: right now? What is going to change, and what do
Speaker 1: they need when things change? So what are they gonna
Speaker 1: want next? If you can identify what they want next,
Speaker 1: you can put yourself into a very good position to
Speaker 1: close the distance and get that shot where the animal
Speaker 1: does a lot of the moving for you. You know,
Speaker 1: spot and stock. You think of it like, oh, I
Speaker 1: spot the animal. Maybe like classic spot and stock spotting
Speaker 1: an animal, it beds down, you creep in on it.
Speaker 1: But that happens only a certain amount of the time.
Speaker 1: If you're only waiting for a certain type of scenario,
Speaker 1: you're probably gonna be waiting a long time and you're
Speaker 1: gonna be blowing a lot of potential opportunity. Those potential
Speaker 1: opportunities are going to come by just understanding what that
Speaker 1: animal wants. So let's just break it down and kind
Speaker 1: of identify the way that I look at it. If
Speaker 1: I see a mule deer in the morning and it's
Speaker 1: out feeding a big sage flat. Well, what's going to
Speaker 1: happen next? Well, the sun's gonna come up, the animal
Speaker 1: is gonna get hot, and then the animals gonna want
Speaker 1: to bed down. So what I'm gonna look for is, Okay,
Speaker 1: how much time do I have to get into position,
Speaker 1: like where is the sun in relation to or the
Speaker 1: shadow in relation to where this animal is? And how
Speaker 1: long is it going to take for it to hit
Speaker 1: this animal? And then what kind of temperature is it
Speaker 1: going to be that day before it needs to get
Speaker 1: into some cover. Then I'm going to say, from where
Speaker 1: he is right now, which way is the wind going?
Speaker 1: And where is a good potential betting spot? So where
Speaker 1: is it going to go to bed? Where it's going
Speaker 1: to have the wind in its favorite It's going to
Speaker 1: be bedded comfortably, It's going to have good shade, you know,
Speaker 1: based on the orientation of the hill where that shade
Speaker 1: is now going to be cast from that sun into
Speaker 1: a spot where it can sit but also have like
Speaker 1: an advantage wind, so it's protected and safe while it's betting.
Speaker 1: Where's that spot going to be? Once I narrow down
Speaker 1: that spot, then I can have a high likelihood of
Speaker 1: knowing where that animal is going to go from where
Speaker 1: he is now to where I predict he wants to
Speaker 1: be now. Obviously they can do other random things that
Speaker 1: you might not think about, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: those predictions play a huge role in deciding where you're
Speaker 1: gonna go to make that cut off. To make that stock,
Speaker 1: also understanding possible travel routes and habits of the animals,
Speaker 1: especially like for elk. You know, you might see the
Speaker 1: elk feeding in one place and they might have a
Speaker 1: trail where they like to go into the betting area
Speaker 1: from there or come out to feed in the evenings.
Speaker 1: Knowing their routes, knowing their habits is key to the
Speaker 1: ambush and the cut off as well. But if you're
Speaker 1: just like glassing spot deer and elk for the first
Speaker 1: time and having not necessarily an I D of its
Speaker 1: routes or habits, you can kind of analyze where that
Speaker 1: animals gonna go by understanding what they want next. The
Speaker 1: same as the reverse. You know, if you see an
Speaker 1: animal bedded in one spot and it's got shade, but
Speaker 1: you know that the sun is gonna move and it's
Speaker 1: gonna get hot at some point, and once that sun moves,
Speaker 1: it's not really gonna have shade where it's at. Well,
Speaker 1: where can that animal go to where then it can
Speaker 1: re bed and get shade. They often, like mule there especially,
Speaker 1: often will bed in the morning one spot, and then
Speaker 1: they'll move once that sun kind of hits them again
Speaker 1: and and makes them hot, they'll go to a second,
Speaker 1: more long term bedding zone. So maybe not necessarily waiting
Speaker 1: for them to bed that second time, but if you've
Speaker 1: got an advantageous wind and other things in your favor,
Speaker 1: you can kind of catch them and cut them off
Speaker 1: where they want to be. I think most of the
Speaker 1: way that the cut off tactic works is really catching
Speaker 1: animals moving to and from bedding and feeding, and that
Speaker 1: seems to be general, but it's not always the case.
Speaker 1: You know, if you think about maybe depending on the
Speaker 1: time of year you're hunting, but maybe it's a rifle hunt,
Speaker 1: archery hunt, whatever. Let's say it's a elk hunt during
Speaker 1: the rut. You see a bull out in one area,
Speaker 1: and the bulls by himself. Where's that elk want to be?
Speaker 1: He wants to be with cows probably, but you've got
Speaker 1: some cows over on this side of the hill that
Speaker 1: you know, maybe he's making his way toward that. Well,
Speaker 1: you want to cut yourself off in between that elk
Speaker 1: and those cows or a mule here during the rut,
Speaker 1: where are the doze at, where's that buck at? What's
Speaker 1: his travel route? You really have to try to get
Speaker 1: into the mind of the animal and anticipate what they
Speaker 1: want next from where they are right now. By successfully
Speaker 1: doing that, that's going to guide your path on. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's where I'm gonna go, and here's how I'm going
Speaker 1: to make my move. Once you've decided that, then it's
Speaker 1: time to make the plan. When I make the plan,
Speaker 1: one thing that I think about is wind and cover.
Speaker 1: This kind of cut off ambush tactic works really well,
Speaker 1: especially if you have an area where the thermals will
Speaker 1: change and the animals aren't necessarily in an advantageous spot
Speaker 1: for right now. So there's so many times where you
Speaker 1: see something and you go, oh, man, he's going this direction.
Speaker 1: But you know, if you go to try to cut
Speaker 1: him off right now, it's not gonna work. It would
Speaker 1: be better to be set up and have your time,
Speaker 1: and you might just say like, well, why don't I
Speaker 1: just go out and set up where they're gonna feed
Speaker 1: and wait for them to come. That might work, but
Speaker 1: it also might not because of the way the winds
Speaker 1: are going. There might not be a good spot and
Speaker 1: it might be too large of an area to accurately
Speaker 1: predict exactly where they're gonna go. And once you're down there,
Speaker 1: you might not have your vantage. So what you need
Speaker 1: to do is you gotta wait till you can see them,
Speaker 1: see what they're gonna do, anticipate, make that plan based
Speaker 1: on where they're going, the direction they're heading, and what
Speaker 1: might be over where they want to go to pinpoint
Speaker 1: where you think they're going to be headed, then you
Speaker 1: now have to think about the contours of the land
Speaker 1: and the direction of the wind. Are you going to
Speaker 1: have a route that works to get into position, and
Speaker 1: are you going to have a ever will wind when
Speaker 1: you get there. A lot of animals do like to
Speaker 1: walk with the wind in their face because then they
Speaker 1: can smell danger. Certain animals like antelope may not necessarily
Speaker 1: be is keyed into that because they use their eyes
Speaker 1: a lot better. So every species is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: Keying in on what the winds might do later though,
Speaker 1: is also like a huge factor in the ambush. Many
Speaker 1: times I use this cut off technique early in the
Speaker 1: morning or late in the evening when I know the
Speaker 1: thermals are gonna switch, so I try to time it
Speaker 1: where I can get into position to have that advantageous wind.
Speaker 1: And a few podcasts back, maybe a month ago, we
Speaker 1: talked about understanding winds and thermals and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: This is where I'm talking about. If you think about
Speaker 1: spot and stock hunting, how many different tactics are used
Speaker 1: in combination. So in order to cut off an animal,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to also think about everything talked about
Speaker 1: in that podcast with the wind, but it may play
Speaker 1: into your favor where instead of knowing, okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stalk in now, you can wait in time it to
Speaker 1: where you can stalk in with that favorable thermal or
Speaker 1: wind shift. And that's probably when I use this tactic
Speaker 1: the most, or think about it in that term of okay,
Speaker 1: now the animals on the move. I didn't have good
Speaker 1: winds before, but I know in a little bit, based
Speaker 1: on what the weather does here, normally, I'll probably get
Speaker 1: that down draft in the evening and I can go
Speaker 1: make at ambush where I'm in position the thermal shift,
Speaker 1: and then the animals start continue to move towards me.
Speaker 1: The good thing about this cut off tactic is instead
Speaker 1: of having just stalking to the animal, you know, you're
Speaker 1: you're allowing the animal to do eight of the work,
Speaker 1: and you might be doing twenty year or as far
Speaker 1: as like closing that distance to say bow range that
Speaker 1: two hundred yards to twenty yards to thirty yards. You're
Speaker 1: you're allowing them to move into position to where you are.
Speaker 1: Because they're a lot less key to into a few
Speaker 1: of the little noises and other things they're moving around.
Speaker 1: They're a little bit more distracted, probably with feeding or
Speaker 1: just travel and looking out for danger, but they might
Speaker 1: not just be like a bedded animals solely focused on
Speaker 1: danger and listening and smelling and watching. So you've got
Speaker 1: a little bit of advantage and that's probably why this
Speaker 1: tactic does work so well. But one thing you will
Speaker 1: realize is say you're sitting on a mountain, you're looking
Speaker 1: across the canyon. You see some bucks below, some big rocks.
Speaker 1: The wind's good, and you think, man if I was
Speaker 1: there right now, I would kill that deer. But how
Speaker 1: do you get there right now? That's the hard part
Speaker 1: of it, where you're always two steps behind that. Animals
Speaker 1: always moving and trying to stay ahead of danger, and
Speaker 1: you're that danger. There is a certain amount of hustle
Speaker 1: that makes this tactic much more successful. And what I
Speaker 1: mean by that is there are times where I see
Speaker 1: an elk or a deer or whatever. I've got my
Speaker 1: bow and I know, okay, it's feeding down low. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the mountain. The sun is gonna come up,
Speaker 1: and I know as soon as the sun hits that
Speaker 1: deer or elk it's gonna want to go to bed
Speaker 1: and it's probably gonna go up the mountain for that.
Speaker 1: So I look at where there's potential places. Okay, here's
Speaker 1: a saddle above where they're at. It's probably going to
Speaker 1: go through that saddle because it's easier, or you know,
Speaker 1: they go kind of near a saddle and side hill
Speaker 1: around it. That happens a lot. But I think, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I'm up there, I could cut this deer off.
Speaker 1: The trouble is will I beat the deer up there?
Speaker 1: So knowing that, okay, if I just go at a
Speaker 1: regular speed, I'm probably not gonna make it. I have
Speaker 1: to put a little pep in my step now before
Speaker 1: I do this. I like to look and make sure
Speaker 1: I I've identified other animals in the area, possible things
Speaker 1: that are gonna spook whatever. And I like to take
Speaker 1: a route that is out of sight and out of
Speaker 1: the way. So if I do spook something, okay, well
Speaker 1: I'll just chalk that up to I blew that one out.
Speaker 1: But I've got a mission and I'm going there for that.
Speaker 1: There are so many times where the success of my
Speaker 1: cutoff has been the speed that I got there. I
Speaker 1: really recognized this guiding people when I'm like, Okay, we
Speaker 1: gotta get to this point at this amount of time.
Speaker 1: If we don't get there, we're gonna be just a
Speaker 1: little bit late, and then you're gonna have to redo it.
Speaker 1: This is where a lot of that training, conditioning, and
Speaker 1: fitness comes in, because there are times where you know,
Speaker 1: you think, like, oh, it's stupid, You're like running after
Speaker 1: an animal. I'm not running after an animal in this instance,
Speaker 1: but I am running to kind of beat the clock,
Speaker 1: the buzzers going. I've got to get into position before
Speaker 1: that animal gets there, and I need time to set
Speaker 1: up and you know, make a play and make a plan.
Speaker 1: So a lot of the cutoff is actually based on timing.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna be a little bit behind, then you're
Speaker 1: almost better to not attempt it and wait for those
Speaker 1: opportunities where you have the right amount of time and
Speaker 1: you can put in the right amount of hustle to
Speaker 1: get there. Honestly, the faster is better for me. I
Speaker 1: see something, I'm generally like, Okay, I'm buzzing over there.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get there as fast as I can. And
Speaker 1: because of that, I've been very successful on many of
Speaker 1: these cut off strategies, just beating the animal to where
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna go. Now, the final challenge in
Speaker 1: the cut off is going to be that final approach.
Speaker 1: If we're talking bow hunting, it's getting within range. And
Speaker 1: the real conundrum comes around when you go, Okay, you
Speaker 1: see an animal, you you think you know where they're
Speaker 1: gonna go. When do you sit and wait and when
Speaker 1: do you move? That really is the crux of the
Speaker 1: whole success that comes with this. Because they're moving generally
Speaker 1: in your direction, they're looking out for danger in your direction,
Speaker 1: so you have to figure out a spot where you
Speaker 1: can get in close unseen, and you're it's always easier
Speaker 1: to be unseen when you're stationary sitting waiting in that
Speaker 1: lion weight ambush. So it's almost like just like you
Speaker 1: would set up a tree stand on the trail that
Speaker 1: they're going on. This tactic is obviously no tree you stand,
Speaker 1: but it's the same approach of the animals coming to
Speaker 1: you and you're waiting hiding. That is the best for
Speaker 1: not getting busted, but it's also not the best for
Speaker 1: getting into position and getting close. Sometimes if you're too timid,
Speaker 1: the animal walk just out of range. Sometimes if you're
Speaker 1: too aggressive, you spook them. So how do you know
Speaker 1: when to move when to sit still. Here's a few
Speaker 1: of the things that I think of every time I
Speaker 1: go in. So when I'm closing in, I make two assumptions.
Speaker 1: I always assume that the animal has moved, and I
Speaker 1: always assume that the animal is on its current path.
Speaker 1: And this is the same with every stock that I make,
Speaker 1: whether it's an animal that's bedded or an animal that
Speaker 1: I'm trying to cut off. So I assume that it's
Speaker 1: doing exactly what I thought, while simultaneously assuming that it
Speaker 1: is not. You know, like that makes no sense, But
Speaker 1: what that allows me to do is constantly pay attention
Speaker 1: on the lookout for other potential scenarios of where they
Speaker 1: might be going, what they might be doing, while you know,
Speaker 1: going forth with my intended plan of action. So what
Speaker 1: that allows me to do is it gives me equal
Speaker 1: attention to both options, and that really is the best
Speaker 1: way to do it, because there's times where you're gonna
Speaker 1: blow a stock by going in and thinking okay, it's
Speaker 1: especially if you have to lose sight of the enemy,
Speaker 1: think okay, it's not going to be there. I don't
Speaker 1: see it, and then you kind of go into where
Speaker 1: you think you're going to go. You're not as stealthy
Speaker 1: as you should be, and you blow the animal out
Speaker 1: and it was right where you expected it and you go, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I knew it. Or you go right where you think
Speaker 1: he is, you aren't looking around, and you blow it
Speaker 1: because they did something different. So it's being on focus
Speaker 1: to both potential scenarios. Now, the idea to wait or
Speaker 1: to continue to stock really comes down to whether you
Speaker 1: have eyes on the animal and how well you know
Speaker 1: their habits and their movements, also where the types of
Speaker 1: advantageous places are, and if you're going to have another
Speaker 1: reapproach later. So if I know that I can get
Speaker 1: into a position sit and wait, but if it gets
Speaker 1: messed up, I can probably see what's going on and
Speaker 1: then have a reapproach potentially later, like another cut off option.
Speaker 1: I'll do the sit and wait. If I know I'm
Speaker 1: not going to have another reapproach I'm not very familiar
Speaker 1: with the patterns or the predictions, then I'm going to
Speaker 1: be more on the aggressive side and plan on trying
Speaker 1: to get eyes on it, move in and do more stocking.
Speaker 1: And I would say if I was to count up
Speaker 1: the times I've done both, I would say I would
Speaker 1: probably do the more aggressive approach more often than not.
Speaker 1: For me, it works out. But I'm also very observant.
Speaker 1: When I'm moving in. I try to stay quiet, and
Speaker 1: I try to find places and move in ways that
Speaker 1: it's less likely for the animal to see me. But
Speaker 1: I am generally taking that more aggressive approach. So if
Speaker 1: you're sitting there thinking, Okay, should I sit here and
Speaker 1: wait or should I continue to move and try to
Speaker 1: figure out if the deer's here or whatever, I kind
Speaker 1: of error on the side of being a little more aggressive.
Speaker 1: But that's always personal preference and situational But it's just
Speaker 1: something to think about. As you're moving and you're thinking
Speaker 1: whether you should move or wait. Now, I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: add one more little point to the mover or weight.
Speaker 1: If you see an animal coming towards you, wait, because
Speaker 1: there's so many times that it's easy to get impatient
Speaker 1: and second guess your decisions. There's just a few things
Speaker 1: that I like to tell myself in my head while
Speaker 1: these things are going down, and helps keep me calm
Speaker 1: and make the right decisions. And I like to think
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier for him to come to me
Speaker 1: than me to go to him. And if I can
Speaker 1: make that happen, I let it, and that gives me
Speaker 1: that patience and that confidence to know it's going to
Speaker 1: work out. I think some of these tactics really get
Speaker 1: blown by indecision and just kind of second guessing and
Speaker 1: then making moves at the wrong time. And I'm guilty
Speaker 1: of it as much as anyone. But the cutoff works
Speaker 1: the best when the animal can come to you and
Speaker 1: you can get ahead of them where you can intercept
Speaker 1: their path and let them come to you more than
Speaker 1: you have to go to them. That doesn't often always
Speaker 1: work out, so there are those times you have to
Speaker 1: stock in and be more aggressive, and in those times,
Speaker 1: that's when you don't necessarily have that option. So if
Speaker 1: you get into that kind of scenario and you're thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: everything's working out, I think the deer is going to
Speaker 1: go to this particular betting area. You've moved around, You've
Speaker 1: got the wind right, you hustled, you got in there.
Speaker 1: You know, once you get on his own hillside, everything
Speaker 1: looks different. You probably don't have as good of a view,
Speaker 1: especially if you don't have somebody to help guide gian
Speaker 1: or whatever. So that's when this kind of decision making
Speaker 1: comes into play, and the decision that you make is
Speaker 1: generally the most critical out of this whole tactic. I
Speaker 1: hope this week's episode really gets you in the mindset
Speaker 1: of just trying to understand and anticipate the movements that
Speaker 1: the animals that you're hunting are gonna be making, and
Speaker 1: then how to exploit that and cut them off. You know,
Speaker 1: if I think about spot and stock hunting is a
Speaker 1: very fluid form of hunting, involving many different tactics at once.
Speaker 1: So next week I really want to kind of touch
Speaker 1: on an aspect of spot and stock hunting as far
Speaker 1: as stalking a bedded animal, and I think that that's
Speaker 1: one that with a bow, I particularly like it's a
Speaker 1: great set up. It's it can be very successful, and
Speaker 1: it kind of is the epitome of sneaking in being
Speaker 1: stealthy quiet. It's a very adrenaline charged kind of approach
Speaker 1: where the deer might be in one place and you
Speaker 1: have to very quietly get within range. That's one of
Speaker 1: the things that just really gets me most excited about
Speaker 1: early mule deer hunting with a bow or some of
Speaker 1: the early elk and archery antelope seasons is just that
Speaker 1: fact of like moving in close and and kind of
Speaker 1: kicking in those predator instincts. So I want to help
Speaker 1: you with that, like get better at that, hopefully maybe
Speaker 1: get you thinking about it in a different way. And
Speaker 1: maybe these are tactics that you do but you just
Speaker 1: don't necessarily think about all the time. So if you
Speaker 1: can really be strategic with it, and especially with like
Speaker 1: cutting things off and anticipating where they're going different animals,
Speaker 1: you can really be successful in a short amount of
Speaker 1: time by just understanding what the animal that you're looking
Speaker 1: at is gonna want next. I like to use kind
Speaker 1: of this closing section to just thank everybody for the support.
Speaker 1: I truly do mean that. I really appreciate everybody who listens,
Speaker 1: and you know, definitely get a ton of great messages
Speaker 1: on Instagram, and I really appreciate that. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of great support. We had the
Speaker 1: Q and A last week and just a lot of
Speaker 1: great questions came in. So thank you guys all for
Speaker 1: getting so involved. That means a lot to me. Hopefully
Speaker 1: everybody's staying safe. You know, I was thinking back, it's
Speaker 1: like March started talking about COVID, and you know, just
Speaker 1: in that period of not knowing and what was going on,
Speaker 1: we're thinking, oh yeah, you know at that time, you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it'll clearly be over by by hunting season. But you know,
Speaker 1: now it's not looking like that. I actually have had
Speaker 1: a cheap tag in Canada this year and it probably
Speaker 1: is not going to happen. But that's just you know,
Speaker 1: adapt and overcome. And that's like one thing that you're like,
Speaker 1: oh man, that's something that was really cool looking forward to.
Speaker 1: But you know, there's gonna be a lot of cool
Speaker 1: other things that um, I'm looking forward to as well.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be nice to get out and get
Speaker 1: into the field bow in hand. This August September whatever,
Speaker 1: or you know, hopefully everybody out there has some hunts
Speaker 1: planned or something to look forward to UM, and hopefully
Speaker 1: everybody's staying safe. So thank you guys so much. I
Speaker 1: appreciate you all and looking forward to next week. So
Speaker 1: until next week, let's um cut off some animals and
Speaker 1: cut off some jeans, might as well. Summertime. Catch you later.