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. Welcome back to the podcast everyone,
Speaker 1: and happy Thanksgiving if you are enjoying it with your
Speaker 1: family or in the US it's Turkey Day. Maybe you
Speaker 1: shot at turkey this season and you're cooking it up
Speaker 1: this year. Me I personally like to go with a
Speaker 1: nice venison roast, but I would probably say most of
Speaker 1: my Thanksgiving dinners have been mountain house type peals because
Speaker 1: I'm always hunting on Thanksgiving. It's like a family tradition
Speaker 1: that we generally shoot something. Um, if we make it back,
Speaker 1: we make it back. But if not. There's been a
Speaker 1: few times where I've just been out on my own
Speaker 1: hunting and uh camping and enjoying the last part of
Speaker 1: the season, which is often cold, but it's a it's
Speaker 1: a great day to be hunting, and it's got me thinking.
Speaker 1: You know, I got a lot of questions about some
Speaker 1: late season hunts, primarily late season cow hunts, but you
Speaker 1: know any of those tags that go a little bit
Speaker 1: later into the year. So today I want to go
Speaker 1: through my three best late season elk hunting tips. But
Speaker 1: before we do that, I'm gonna share one of my
Speaker 1: favorite elk hunting stories that just so happens to be
Speaker 1: on a Thanksgiving Day quite a few years ago. This
Speaker 1: is really the story that started a great Thanksgiving tradition
Speaker 1: of essentially being successful on Thanksgiving Day, and it just
Speaker 1: so happens to be my first six point bull and
Speaker 1: one of my better public land bulls I've I've really
Speaker 1: taken in a general area that season, and I was
Speaker 1: out and hunting a lot. I spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time during the archery season, but then it was taking
Speaker 1: other people during rifle and I had that last week
Speaker 1: of Thanksgiving off to kind of hunt for myself. Now,
Speaker 1: I passed up a ton of nice bulls with my
Speaker 1: bow because I really wanted to get a good six
Speaker 1: by six. It was just kind of a goal that
Speaker 1: I had. But you know, it was now or never.
Speaker 1: It was the Thursday of Thanksgiving and I only had
Speaker 1: until Sunday to fill my tag. So my dad and
Speaker 1: I went out and we went to a place where
Speaker 1: I'd been hunting quite a bit. Started the morning early
Speaker 1: my favorite glassing spot. It was just freezing cold that day,
Speaker 1: a little bit of snow on the ground, and we
Speaker 1: glassed across the canyon and I happened to see a
Speaker 1: pretty good bull in like a larger group on this
Speaker 1: finger ridge in this burn that I've been watching kind
Speaker 1: of all years. So I knew that there was a
Speaker 1: lot of elk there. There's a long ways away from
Speaker 1: where we were glassing, but we thought, okay, let's give
Speaker 1: it everything we've got now. Of course, we did have
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving plans for dinner at a friend's house with my
Speaker 1: mom and some other family a little earlier that afternoon.
Speaker 1: We didn't make any promises that we'd be back, but
Speaker 1: we kind of hinted that we were just going out
Speaker 1: to look around and uh and go for a hunt.
Speaker 1: So we start our trek over there. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a nice bowl, and obviously we aren't going to turn
Speaker 1: away from a good bowl. So we start getting over
Speaker 1: there and it's about I don't know, maybe a six
Speaker 1: mile hike, and we've got to climb up this one
Speaker 1: mountain and then down the other side. And as we're
Speaker 1: hiking over there, or maybe a mile away. I hear
Speaker 1: a gunshot kind of in that general area. And there
Speaker 1: was a couple of groups elk, and there're one group
Speaker 1: that was a little closer to the way that we're going,
Speaker 1: had a bigger bowl. And then there's another six point
Speaker 1: in that or for at least what I could tell
Speaker 1: through the spotting scope with the distance in that other group.
Speaker 1: So I'm going down the ridge and sure enough, here's
Speaker 1: a six point that somebody else had shot. Like dang, well,
Speaker 1: it's still a ways from that other group. Let's go
Speaker 1: to that backup group and see if we can't find him.
Speaker 1: So we keep working down the ridge. We get the
Speaker 1: wind right and there's all these like finger ridges that
Speaker 1: dropped down, so we get out the elevation of where
Speaker 1: the elk are, and the sun's out now, but there's
Speaker 1: kind of clouds moving back and forth. So we just
Speaker 1: kind of figured, okay, well, the bulls will probably still
Speaker 1: be in that group stunning on that side. They've got
Speaker 1: no reason to move, you know, there's no other tracks
Speaker 1: going down there from hunters. So we started working in
Speaker 1: working in sure enough, I spot some cows like sweet
Speaker 1: So now at this point in the day, it's it's
Speaker 1: starting to get evening time. It's like maybe forty five
Speaker 1: minutes before shooting time in something like that. So they
Speaker 1: heard starts feeding out into the timber across the ridge,
Speaker 1: like all right there within range. Cow, cow, Cow. I'm
Speaker 1: just watching through my rifle scope. I'm set up my dad. Um.
Speaker 1: I knew that we had to hustle to get into position,
Speaker 1: and my dad at that time wasn't as good as
Speaker 1: shape as he is now. So I kind of just
Speaker 1: kind of left him in the dust a little bit
Speaker 1: and just to try to get into position for a shot.
Speaker 1: So I'm in position by myself and the elk are
Speaker 1: just kind of starting to filter through, filter through. We're
Speaker 1: moving up, and then they're moving through the trees, moving
Speaker 1: through the trees, and here comes to the six point.
Speaker 1: Well I see him. I'm like, okay, sweet, I see
Speaker 1: him walking walking, He's in the trees and there's like
Speaker 1: very few openings, and I think there's this one opening.
Speaker 1: So I get my call and I I'm set up,
Speaker 1: and I called and he takes a couple more steps
Speaker 1: and stops and I'm like, sweet, perfect line up the shot, shoot, boom,
Speaker 1: and all I see is the branch like between me
Speaker 1: and the elk with a pine cone on it, like
Speaker 1: a fairly large branch fall out of the sky. And
Speaker 1: I knew that i'd hit that tree and not hit
Speaker 1: the elk. I did not hear a solid thump whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm like, crap, this sucks. All the elk runoff. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty mad at myself for not noticing that tree in
Speaker 1: that trajectory. It was only maybe a three yard shot,
Speaker 1: but I just was so focused on that elk. I
Speaker 1: just I center punched that branch in that bullet flight,
Speaker 1: and it just fell could have this big pine cone
Speaker 1: and just seem like it fell forever, as in a
Speaker 1: giant ponderosa. And I'm like, damn it, this didn't work out.
Speaker 1: But I instead just started sprinting to where the elk
Speaker 1: we're running over and it was a pretty steep, slippery slope,
Speaker 1: and I just sprinted up to the ridge where they were,
Speaker 1: and there they are across the other side, filing up
Speaker 1: single file. The bull gets to the top. I locate
Speaker 1: the bull, throw the scope up over a log, throw
Speaker 1: the rifle over a log, squeeze the trigger, boom, hit
Speaker 1: the bull. He stops, turns a little bit or just
Speaker 1: kind of like stands there. Boom, one more and the
Speaker 1: bull goes down. I'm like, sweet six point bull. My
Speaker 1: dad finally he hears the shooting. He's pretty excited. He
Speaker 1: makes it up to me. We're like, oh, this is awesome. Now,
Speaker 1: the canyon where they had gone across was a pretty
Speaker 1: rugged canyon, so I'm like, all right, let's uh, let's
Speaker 1: work our way over there. And we're excited. This is
Speaker 1: like the biggest bull either of us have ever killed.
Speaker 1: It was just like an awesome, awesome day. Now, this
Speaker 1: was before we was obviously had no like cell phone service,
Speaker 1: or I don't even think I had a cell phone.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, we're expected to be back at dinner,
Speaker 1: maybe around dark or whatever. But we knew now, having
Speaker 1: just shot this bull just before dark, it was gonna
Speaker 1: be a long night. So we get up to the
Speaker 1: bull and we're kind of like, this is awesome. Okay,
Speaker 1: where are we gonna what are we How are we
Speaker 1: going to take him out? Going back up is gonna
Speaker 1: be too long, But there's a way down that's you know,
Speaker 1: if we get to the bottom of the canyon, you know,
Speaker 1: we can go out that way and then climb one
Speaker 1: last a smaller mountain out and then maybe get picked
Speaker 1: up on the highway and kind of hit your ride
Speaker 1: back back to our vehicle. And so we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: that sounds good. We thought, oh man, it might not
Speaker 1: be bad to come back in this way tomorrow and
Speaker 1: maybe in time saving. You know, we're way up here
Speaker 1: on the top, but if we could get this whole
Speaker 1: bowl down to the bottom, you know, we're gonna try
Speaker 1: to hustle back and make it back, you know, for
Speaker 1: our Thanksgiving dinner. So my dad has this idea. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty steep hill. Maybe we could just slide
Speaker 1: the bull to the bottom. Now this this point, uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's a little bit darker. Well it's actually you know,
Speaker 1: dark by this point by the time we got to it.
Speaker 1: So he's thinking, okay, we'll just slide the bull to
Speaker 1: the bottom. I'm like, okay, yeah, you know, but if
Speaker 1: it takes off, it's gonna be really difficult to control him,
Speaker 1: and who knows where he's gonna go. So my dad
Speaker 1: has this idea, you know, so we start dragging him
Speaker 1: and once we lift the head up, he goes too fast.
Speaker 1: So we kind of have to drop the head down,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to hold him, keep him from going
Speaker 1: super fast down the mountain, but also you know, within
Speaker 1: a normal range of speed to make it easier on
Speaker 1: ourselves to get him down. So my dad has this
Speaker 1: brilliant idea. He's like, Okay, hold my stuff. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just kind of like get on the back of this
Speaker 1: bull and lift his head up and try to just
Speaker 1: kind of like sled him down slow. And I think, okay,
Speaker 1: just be careful, don't kill yourself, please. He's like, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So he's got his head lamp on, he's starting to
Speaker 1: he's like behind the elk so it doesn't go over
Speaker 1: the top of him, and he's lifting the elk's head
Speaker 1: up and the elks starting to slide, and he's kind
Speaker 1: of sliding with it, and he lifts the elk's head
Speaker 1: up and starting to slide. Well, somehow in this process,
Speaker 1: the bull starts to take off. My dad is still
Speaker 1: grabbing the bulls antler, and now my dad is on
Speaker 1: the bull sledding down this like super steep pitch slope
Speaker 1: in the dark. I just yell bail off bell, like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I don't know what's going on. I'm worried
Speaker 1: that he's gonna die. And all of a sudden, now
Speaker 1: I see headlamp, no headlamp, headlamp, no headlamp, headlamp, no headlamp.
Speaker 1: As my dad is just rolling down the mountain, the
Speaker 1: flashlights just like of his head lamp is flashing back
Speaker 1: at me, and I hear just a huge crash near
Speaker 1: the bottom, and like, oh crap, is my dad dead?
Speaker 1: So I run down. I'm following the trail and there's
Speaker 1: my dad. He's like semi laughing, kind of like checking everything,
Speaker 1: make sure he's got all his arms and legs and everything.
Speaker 1: I've got his pack, my pack, both rifles, and uh
Speaker 1: We're like he's like whoa, okay, well that kind of work.
Speaker 1: That was scary. So we follow the trail down where
Speaker 1: the elk could slid down to the bottom of the mountain,
Speaker 1: and there was like these I don't know, I guess
Speaker 1: they'd be like aspen little saplings on the hill. I
Speaker 1: mean probably, I don't know, like two or three inches thick,
Speaker 1: just completely sheared off by the force of the elks
Speaker 1: sliding through them. I mean, that's how fast that thing
Speaker 1: was going. So like, okay, cool. Well, let's get to
Speaker 1: the bottom. And so we get to the bottom. Now
Speaker 1: we're like, uh, let's get the elk. We'll come back
Speaker 1: with a bunch of people tomorrow and pack him out.
Speaker 1: So we get the elk and gut him and whatever,
Speaker 1: and then leave everything, you know, leave a orange vest
Speaker 1: on him or an extra sparro orange vest on the
Speaker 1: antlers so we can see it, you know, because we're like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we weren't exactly sure where in the canyon is,
Speaker 1: so if it's just hard to spot, you can maybe
Speaker 1: spot him from up above. And then we decided to
Speaker 1: start walking out, so he followed the canyon down. The
Speaker 1: canyon was a lot more brushy than we were expecting,
Speaker 1: and we knew that there was like a very big
Speaker 1: river slash stream crossing at the bottom. So it's I
Speaker 1: don't even know how cold it is, maybe zero degrees out.
Speaker 1: We get to the bottom by this point it's pretty late.
Speaker 1: We climb up over the last rise down to the
Speaker 1: river bottom, and then we crossed the river. We've got
Speaker 1: just like we're thinking, okay, what are we gonna do.
Speaker 1: We've got like a couple of trash bags. We make
Speaker 1: like trash bag waiters were sledging across this there's ice
Speaker 1: in the river. We're like, all right, get to the road,
Speaker 1: and uh end up getting picked up and and getting
Speaker 1: a ride back to our truck really quick. We're like sweet.
Speaker 1: So then we go back and we're like, all right,
Speaker 1: that was great. You know, well, we're definitely late for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: so it's probably I don't even know, ten or eleven
Speaker 1: PM at this point. We drive back and you know,
Speaker 1: we figured everyone would have eaten and whatever, but this
Speaker 1: was before we had this tradition of killing something on
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving and always being late. And we walked in and
Speaker 1: nobody had eaten because everyone was waiting for us. So
Speaker 1: we're like like, oh crap. And then we found out
Speaker 1: that my mom actually that day earlier that morning, walked
Speaker 1: out of her cabin in her house to get something
Speaker 1: out of the car, and she was just in her
Speaker 1: pajamas or whatever, and goes back to get inside and
Speaker 1: somehow the door had locked and locked herself out at
Speaker 1: zero degrees. Luckily, she had the car keys because she's
Speaker 1: getting something out of the car, so she had to
Speaker 1: get in the car, drive to a friend's house, and
Speaker 1: then stayed there pretty much all day, we ended up
Speaker 1: showing up very late, and I think everyone was disgruntled
Speaker 1: with the way that we celebrated Thanksgiving, But to this day,
Speaker 1: that was still the best Thanksgiving I ever had. And
Speaker 1: once they saw and heard the story, and everybody was
Speaker 1: just excited for us and it was happy. And then
Speaker 1: from that moment on, Thanksgiving became just more of a
Speaker 1: tradition that we were pretty much always going to be
Speaker 1: late and we generally are going to kill something because
Speaker 1: if we have to be back by a certain time,
Speaker 1: you know that's never gonna happen. And over the years,
Speaker 1: we've kept that tradition up generally being successful with something,
Speaker 1: whether it's a dough tag, a cow elk tag, bull
Speaker 1: tag on Thanksgiving Day. So Thanksgiving to me, it's just
Speaker 1: a special day that we get to go out and
Speaker 1: hunt with our families, and it always reminds me of
Speaker 1: that one Thanksgiving that we didn't make it back, but
Speaker 1: we did bring home a pretty good bowl. I personally
Speaker 1: really enjoy hunting late season. Elk. Now, the weather kind
Speaker 1: of sucks, it can be difficult, but I think that
Speaker 1: there's some behaviors that you can key in on. They
Speaker 1: can help you be very successful. When it comes to
Speaker 1: late season hunting. If I think back of most of
Speaker 1: the elk that I've taken, a lot of them are
Speaker 1: during that last week of the season, end of November.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, there's also across the US a lot
Speaker 1: of late season cow hunts, maybe into December or later,
Speaker 1: place like New Mecca, Mexico, Utah, Montana. There's there's quite
Speaker 1: a few different hunts that go into this late season.
Speaker 1: I think for me, I probably have a lot of
Speaker 1: late season success because I generally will pass stuff up
Speaker 1: early or whatever, and then it comes down to the
Speaker 1: end of the sea season and I think, all right,
Speaker 1: time to put some meat in the freezer, and I
Speaker 1: just go out and really want to be successful and
Speaker 1: bring something home. And so these tactics are things that
Speaker 1: I've found help me find elk and will help you
Speaker 1: whether you've got a late season cow hunt, bull hunt, whatever.
Speaker 1: So these three things generally involved figuring out where the
Speaker 1: elk are and then how to exploit them using a
Speaker 1: few tactics. Let's go with the first one. The first
Speaker 1: one is to hunt the herds on their winter range,
Speaker 1: and to do that, you're gonna look for feeding areas.
Speaker 1: Now elk as you know, or probably depending on the area,
Speaker 1: is very migratory, so they might be in one area
Speaker 1: early and then move throughout the season. If you have
Speaker 1: the option to hunt a more migration area or winter range,
Speaker 1: I would say suggests looking into those areas. Now you
Speaker 1: can also intercept elk along that winter range. Maybe your
Speaker 1: area isn't a winter range, you're gonna start thinking about, Okay,
Speaker 1: where the elk maybe moving from into What you want
Speaker 1: to key into on this time of year is going
Speaker 1: to be those feeding areas. So anytime open type of
Speaker 1: open grass, south facing slope, something where the snow might
Speaker 1: burn off if there's snow or inclement weather. You know,
Speaker 1: every year is different. Some years there is no snow late,
Speaker 1: but those south facing slopes, those really grassy areas, elk
Speaker 1: are gonna want to start bulking up for the winter.
Speaker 1: The more feed they have, the better it's going to be.
Speaker 1: So pull out your on X maps, look for those
Speaker 1: those nice south slopes that are going to get the
Speaker 1: sun and burn off the snow. Look for those. If
Speaker 1: you're in a migration corridor or maybe not a winter range,
Speaker 1: look for those maybe higher areas where the wind will
Speaker 1: blow the snow off and might allow some available feed
Speaker 1: for the elk that are remaining are still traveling. Also,
Speaker 1: things like burns are a really good thing to look
Speaker 1: for in winter range, prime winter range habitat, something that
Speaker 1: can sustain the animals, has covered nearby, and then also
Speaker 1: has really good access to feed. Once you locate those areas, glossom,
Speaker 1: keep concentrating on those areas, sooner or later you're gonna
Speaker 1: find elk in one of those spots. What I like
Speaker 1: to do is I like to find multiple potential feeding
Speaker 1: areas in winter range or in those travel corridors, and
Speaker 1: then continue to hit those late seasons. So that's where
Speaker 1: my primary focus is. I'm going to focus on burns,
Speaker 1: south slopes, and any areas that might provide good forage
Speaker 1: for elk that time of year. Now, the next tactic
Speaker 1: is very very similar to that, because it's focusing on feed. Now,
Speaker 1: where's the best feed. Often the best feed late season
Speaker 1: might be in private land, in a field, in a pivot.
Speaker 1: You might be driving down in the bottoms and there's
Speaker 1: elk everywhere. A really good late season tactic can be
Speaker 1: to hunt the fringes of this private property. Now, when
Speaker 1: you think of elk hunting or you know, big country.
Speaker 1: It's really nice to be in the wilderness, to be
Speaker 1: way back there, But if the elk aren't back there,
Speaker 1: you need to hunt where the elk are. That's how
Speaker 1: you be successful. So they might be in more of
Speaker 1: these private air is what I'll do is I'll use
Speaker 1: my Onyx maps to find those little pockets where I
Speaker 1: feel like there's enough feed and I'm seeing animals down low,
Speaker 1: but areas where they might have something missing in that
Speaker 1: particular private spot, Like Okay, they're bedded out in the pivots,
Speaker 1: they're bedded out in the open, but that's only gonna
Speaker 1: last so long. They're gonna want some kind of cover.
Speaker 1: If the weather sparks up, there might move in the
Speaker 1: mornings and evenings. So I look for areas on my map.
Speaker 1: So I pull up my Onyx, I put the property
Speaker 1: layers in there, and I figure out, Okay, where are
Speaker 1: the elk at and then what's potential area for those
Speaker 1: elk to move to? Where's some cover nearby, Where's a
Speaker 1: good place that they might go, Where's a piece of
Speaker 1: public that I can access that's not easy to access.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's something that's kind of blocked off. But you
Speaker 1: gotta walk to three four miles around to get to it.
Speaker 1: I really focus in on those areas on those late
Speaker 1: season hunts. If you've got a late season cow hunt,
Speaker 1: that's a great option. Another option is to even just
Speaker 1: potentially ask landowners for per mission to hunt some of
Speaker 1: that private Most of the hunting that I do I
Speaker 1: talk about public hunting, but late season cow tags, I've
Speaker 1: I got many many questions about that in the past
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, and so I think that one thing
Speaker 1: to think about is, you know, ask for permission. A
Speaker 1: lot of people that farm and ranch and whatever, there
Speaker 1: gets to be too many elk in the winter, and
Speaker 1: that's why there are those late cow hunts, those late
Speaker 1: season hunts. So that might even be something to think about.
Speaker 1: Look for private land that's enrolled in some kind of
Speaker 1: access program for public hunting, or get some numbers, knock
Speaker 1: on some doors. If you don't want to do that,
Speaker 1: use your maps to find areas where you can hunt
Speaker 1: outside on the public, but in those areas where it's
Speaker 1: very plausible that elk will move back and forth or
Speaker 1: move to and from the private to somewhere that you
Speaker 1: can hunt. Also think about it like this. I like
Speaker 1: to think of elk in the bottoms as a magnet.
Speaker 1: And sometimes these elk magnets just start attracting more and
Speaker 1: more elk. So as the winter goes on, you'll see
Speaker 1: you might notice some elk down in some private somewhere
Speaker 1: and there's a handful of them, and then every day
Speaker 1: there just seems to be more and more and more elk.
Speaker 1: Try to extrapolate out where are these other elk coming from? Okay,
Speaker 1: what's a good plausible place where it's just funneling into,
Speaker 1: and then try to cut them off in that. Generally
Speaker 1: you'll find some public or some hunting opportunities by kind
Speaker 1: of looking a little bit wider and saying, Okay, it's
Speaker 1: probably drawing other elk in, and over the course of
Speaker 1: the winter they'll be stacked in here, but before the
Speaker 1: season ends, I might have an opportunity to intercept them
Speaker 1: on the way to this particular spot. Now, the third
Speaker 1: and probably my favorite late season tactic is to go
Speaker 1: where it sucks. That's that's because the elk are probably
Speaker 1: still there and there's gonna be a lot fewer hunters.
Speaker 1: I found over the years that if you have bad weather,
Speaker 1: the place that sucks to hunt with bad weather and
Speaker 1: lots of snow is going to be dead fall. Everybody
Speaker 1: hates dead fall. It's dangerous to walk over, it's slippery
Speaker 1: in the snow. Nobody likes it. I generally just find
Speaker 1: places with a lot of had fault and hunt those
Speaker 1: really late, because it's enough to to tur people out.
Speaker 1: The elk feel very secure past places that are difficult
Speaker 1: like that. Everybody's looking for a trail or some other
Speaker 1: way to get in somewhere. If you find those places
Speaker 1: that suck and you're physically able to do it, go
Speaker 1: to those spots because there's a lot less pressure. The
Speaker 1: elk are gonna be relaxed, they're probably gonna be out
Speaker 1: feeding longer more, and it gives you a really good
Speaker 1: chance to spot elk and potentially take one. I also
Speaker 1: tend to hunt timber a lot more late because there's
Speaker 1: generally snow later. I use that snow to cut a
Speaker 1: set of tracks and then follow tracks. One thing I
Speaker 1: always think about is if I'm walking late season and
Speaker 1: I and I come across a set of tracks, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I'm having trouble finding elk, I know that at
Speaker 1: some point this will lead me to elk and the
Speaker 1: timber can be a really hard time to hunt. You
Speaker 1: can't really hunt it outside of the rut when it's
Speaker 1: really effective because the elk are making noise, and then
Speaker 1: when there's snow, because it's effective because you can cut
Speaker 1: the tracks and follow the tracks so you know where
Speaker 1: they are and you know where they're going, and that
Speaker 1: can really help you find those elk in a good
Speaker 1: habitat that can hold a lot of animals and be
Speaker 1: very successful. But it is very difficult to hunt other
Speaker 1: parts of the year when there's no snow and you're
Speaker 1: just hunting timber, you know, you have to do a
Speaker 1: lot more still hunting, You have to cover a lot
Speaker 1: more ground and you don't know whether there's elk right
Speaker 1: there or not. So hunting those more timbered patches, those
Speaker 1: places that are hard to get into, that's a really
Speaker 1: good way. And those areas that are hard to hunt
Speaker 1: is a really good way to turn up a bowl
Speaker 1: or turn up a cow or whatever you're looking for
Speaker 1: late season because you've got that weather most of the
Speaker 1: time and you can kind of hunt in a place
Speaker 1: that other people might not be hunting, unless, of course
Speaker 1: they're listening to this podcast too and decided to go
Speaker 1: that route, then we've kind of messed up the whole algorithm.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, I really enjoy hunting timber
Speaker 1: late because it's a lot more successful than hunting at
Speaker 1: other times a year, and you're gonna start finding animals
Speaker 1: that other people may not have pressured as much, and
Speaker 1: they're acting more like ELK. I will suggest this if
Speaker 1: you are following tracks, you know, pay attention to the
Speaker 1: way the tracks are going most of the time ELK.
Speaker 1: If they're moving, it's a very straight line, it's like
Speaker 1: a very straight pattern. Then you'll see they start to
Speaker 1: swirl around, move and feed. Once you see them start
Speaker 1: making loops and wandering, that's when you want to start
Speaker 1: getting on you're ready because generally they'll go in bed
Speaker 1: most of the time. Late season, you're gonna want to
Speaker 1: look for those beds that are probably more in the shade.
Speaker 1: If it's really cold or if it's a if it's
Speaker 1: a really warm day and there's not a lot of snow,
Speaker 1: then maybe those more shaded areas. So kind of think
Speaker 1: about the terrain and the topography where you're at, and
Speaker 1: then as you're following those tracks, keep an eye out,
Speaker 1: move slow, use your optics, and try to pick those
Speaker 1: elk out before they see you. One of the really
Speaker 1: good late season tactic I would say is just have
Speaker 1: an elk call on you. Elk herd back up again
Speaker 1: in the winter. So if you think about the lifestyle
Speaker 1: cycle of elk, they heard up in the the rut,
Speaker 1: the bulls gather up these harems, they create these groups.
Speaker 1: They're very vocal, they make noise. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: noise going on. Then as the season progresses, the bulls
Speaker 1: start to split off. So they split off and they
Speaker 1: might go off on their own. They're going to recuperate
Speaker 1: and just not be annoyed, and all the bigger bulls
Speaker 1: at least and feed and regain that strength that they
Speaker 1: lost during the rut. But the cows will start grouping
Speaker 1: up again. They might disperse a little bit into smaller bands,
Speaker 1: and then as that later season comes on, they start
Speaker 1: grouping up, grouping up, grouping up. What you get with
Speaker 1: those groups is you get a little bit more vocalization.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily going to call one in, but they're used
Speaker 1: to sounds. So if you're still hunting, if you bump
Speaker 1: an elk, having that cow call on the ready, I
Speaker 1: would say most of the time, cent time, especially late,
Speaker 1: they're gonna stop. So if you're working through the timber,
Speaker 1: you spook a big bowl, hit that cow call, he's
Speaker 1: probably gonna stop and offer you a shot or give
Speaker 1: you a chance. So it's just a little tip to
Speaker 1: add in there for that. I like it all season,
Speaker 1: but actually late season it works really well to even
Speaker 1: stop those big groups. I mean, maybe you get in
Speaker 1: there's a lot more open, so you're hunting a feeding area,
Speaker 1: you've got a lot of eyes, a big group of cows,
Speaker 1: you bump them or something before you can get a
Speaker 1: shot off. Try hitting that cow call. Because I've stopped
Speaker 1: a lot of those big groups late season, maybe a
Speaker 1: hundred two hundred cows by just really wrenching on that call.
Speaker 1: Wrenching on that call, they get it distracts them. They're like,
Speaker 1: what's going on over there. They've got that herd mentality
Speaker 1: of protect the herd. Figure out what's going on with
Speaker 1: the herd, and you might be able to get a
Speaker 1: shot that you wouldn't get otherwise. I hope this helps
Speaker 1: you if you've got a late season hunt. If not, um,
Speaker 1: you know, let me know what you're thinking about, what
Speaker 1: questions you have for the types of hunts you might
Speaker 1: have coming up are things that you've heard this season
Speaker 1: or stories that you have that you've tried things and
Speaker 1: it didn't work out, But what should you do next time?
Speaker 1: Because next week I really want to do a Q
Speaker 1: and a podcast. I've got a lot of great stuff already,
Speaker 1: UM coming in the best way. Just shoot me a
Speaker 1: message on Instagram at Remy warrant um. We also have
Speaker 1: the Remy at the meat Eator dot com. UM, but
Speaker 1: because it's hunting season, it's a little bit easier for
Speaker 1: me to just kind of go through screenshots some of
Speaker 1: those questions that I get and then answer them on there.
Speaker 1: If you could, I'd love for you to put your
Speaker 1: name if you want your name in there, UM, and
Speaker 1: then where you're from, and and I try to you know,
Speaker 1: when I read the questions live, if you do put
Speaker 1: something like more information about where you're hunting or whatever,
Speaker 1: I always leave that out to protect your zone. But UM,
Speaker 1: I hope that if you've got questions, send them in.
Speaker 1: I've been really, really really enjoying all the success stuff
Speaker 1: that everybody's been sending me. I say it pretty much
Speaker 1: every week, but it's so true, Like it's just very
Speaker 1: enjoyable for me to to see all the awesome comments
Speaker 1: and feedback and everything. And that's what keeps me doing
Speaker 1: this podcast. It's not how many people are listening or
Speaker 1: anything like that. It's just me knowing that I'm helping people,
Speaker 1: especially people that are late getting into hunting, or people
Speaker 1: that have been hunting their whole life but just want
Speaker 1: to have a little more success when when I up
Speaker 1: their game. UM, I really really enjoy that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys. And we're moving into December a
Speaker 1: little bit of late season stuff. Me personally, UM, I've
Speaker 1: got a really cool late season archery deer tag and
Speaker 1: then you know when it when it becomes December, I'm focused,
Speaker 1: you know, September through November in just like big game,
Speaker 1: big game, elk, deer, antelope, all this stuff, and then
Speaker 1: December hits in my brain just switches to like small game.
Speaker 1: And I love duck hunting, I love upland hunting, I
Speaker 1: love even rabbit hunt. I just you know, switching to
Speaker 1: that like mode of in my mind, small game is
Speaker 1: really fun for me. So I've got some duck hunts planned. Um,
Speaker 1: going to be headed up to Alaska to hunt some
Speaker 1: seed ducks and some cool stuff. Maybe I'll bring you
Speaker 1: guys along on some of these adventures and and share
Speaker 1: some of the stories of some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I've got going on. So if there's any suggestions you
Speaker 1: have for the podcast, or things that you'd like to hear,
Speaker 1: especially going into this next year and whatever, or things
Speaker 1: that you really liked this year, please please please let
Speaker 1: me know, because I want it to be about you
Speaker 1: guys and and what you enjoy. So thank you guys
Speaker 1: so much. As always, don't feel bad if you missed
Speaker 1: Turkey Day, or I should say this, killing a big
Speaker 1: bull elk on Thanksgiving is a legitimate excuse to miss dinner.
Speaker 1: And if anybody gives you grief, send him my way.
Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving.