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. It's the middle of September.
Speaker 1: I know for many areas a lot of people have
Speaker 1: been encountering some really tough conditions this elk season, mostly
Speaker 1: due to wildfires around, low visibility, some hot weather, and
Speaker 1: then there's also been the flip side, where depending on
Speaker 1: where you're at, you've just run into some awesome hunting.
Speaker 1: For me, it was a pretty slow start. First portion
Speaker 1: was pretty smoky, pretty hot, not a lot of running activity.
Speaker 1: But as soon as that pressure system changed man as
Speaker 1: animals started firing up, we got some cooler weather in
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be awesome. Actually, recently took
Speaker 1: a bull with my longbow just this last weekend, and
Speaker 1: it made me realize some of the calling techniques. Especially
Speaker 1: when you're calling by yourself, it can be very difficult
Speaker 1: to draw a bull into your location because what they'll
Speaker 1: do is they'll hang up just out of range. So
Speaker 1: this week I want to kind of go over some
Speaker 1: of the tactics that I use and calling a bull
Speaker 1: in when you're by yourself in ways that you can
Speaker 1: use not necessarily call, but certain times you can use
Speaker 1: silence to get that bull to come in a little
Speaker 1: bit closer. This past weekend was just one of those
Speaker 1: weekends where it goes from zero to a hundred. I
Speaker 1: don't know if anybody else experienced this, but the start
Speaker 1: of my oak season was a little bit rocky only
Speaker 1: because or at least the start of my elk hunt,
Speaker 1: because the smoke was so bad. It was hot temperatures,
Speaker 1: and the animals just were not being active. I couldn't
Speaker 1: even like I just couldn't buy a bugle. It felt
Speaker 1: like I was going to some of my favorite spots,
Speaker 1: some places that I knew well that generally hold elk
Speaker 1: and just not turning anything up and I couldn't glass
Speaker 1: to find him. So it just kind of felt a
Speaker 1: little handicapped. But that all changed when the weather itself changed,
Speaker 1: so it was kind of like hot, terrible conditions. But
Speaker 1: the night before the weather shifted, I ended up going
Speaker 1: to a spot and getting one bugle, so I thought, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back into this spot, well, that pressure
Speaker 1: system kind of changed up a little bit, and that
Speaker 1: next morning, I started out early, just like most mornings,
Speaker 1: throughout a locator bugle before daylight, and heard a bowl
Speaker 1: kind of like back up on the ridge behind me.
Speaker 1: So I figured, okay, I'm gonna work into that spot.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna make any more noises now, because I
Speaker 1: wanted to get close before I let out any more sounds,
Speaker 1: and just wanted to also kind of wait until it
Speaker 1: got closer to shooting light because I didn't want to
Speaker 1: draw him in too early. So I get back in
Speaker 1: the trees on this ridge is like burnt and there's
Speaker 1: all these little pines around, and I'm in the trees
Speaker 1: shooting light now, and so I let out just a
Speaker 1: few cow calls, just testing the waters here, and then
Speaker 1: I let out a bugle. Then it's almost like the
Speaker 1: amphitheater starts a bugle across the valley, a bugle up
Speaker 1: on the ridge to my right, and then I hear
Speaker 1: not necessarily a bugle, but just like this heavy breathing
Speaker 1: behind me and stuff breaking. So I turned around, give
Speaker 1: it a big bugle, and then those other bulls fire
Speaker 1: off across the canyon I can hear whatever is behind
Speaker 1: me now has moved off, and it let out of
Speaker 1: a few little like chuckles back behind me. So I
Speaker 1: dropped down, circle around get a view, and the bullet Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm in really close to me, maybe I would say
Speaker 1: probably twenty yards or so, but just it was so
Speaker 1: thick I never actually saw him. So I get around
Speaker 1: and about a hundred and twenty yards out, I see
Speaker 1: there's a small five by five and I thought, I've
Speaker 1: got my long bow with me pretty much. If that
Speaker 1: bull came in, I would definitely have probably drawn back
Speaker 1: and shot him. But I also kind of at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season, thought I'm looking for a bull
Speaker 1: that has at least six points on one side. I
Speaker 1: don't care, it's just like, for some reason, I kind
Speaker 1: of set little goals for myself and I wanted to
Speaker 1: hunt with my long bow, and if it had six
Speaker 1: points on a side, that's what I'm looking for. So
Speaker 1: I decided to walk away from that small five point
Speaker 1: because I had two other bulls just going crazy across
Speaker 1: the canyon every time, one with bugle, the other with bugle. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is a pretty good situation. They sound like more
Speaker 1: mature bugles. This other one kind of wasn't really into
Speaker 1: what I was doing, what I was cooking, so I
Speaker 1: figured I couldn't see these other bowls. So I bugle,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna now make my way across the canyon.
Speaker 1: I figured if some other bull comes in, and I
Speaker 1: decided I want to shoot it, cool, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go see what these other ones look like first. So
Speaker 1: I start moving that direction bugling, and now at this
Speaker 1: point I'm just doing like I'm kind of matching the
Speaker 1: bulls bugles, and I finally put eyes on the bull
Speaker 1: across the canyon. I'm like, sweet, that's a good enough
Speaker 1: bull for me. It looked like it had six points.
Speaker 1: Decent looking animal, and she's pretty fired up. So I
Speaker 1: start working my way that way. I kind of break
Speaker 1: out of the pine trees like the forest part, and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to move quick to get into position because
Speaker 1: I don't know where these other elk are, but I
Speaker 1: know that that one. I could see him working over
Speaker 1: the ridge where most of the other bugles were, so
Speaker 1: I wanted to get there fast enough to try to
Speaker 1: intercept him. So you didn't go into that big herd
Speaker 1: because I could tell that or at least from what
Speaker 1: I saw, it was a loan bull, so I'm like sweet.
Speaker 1: I pretty much used my own podcast tactics of loan
Speaker 1: bull cow call party. So now I'm cow calling and
Speaker 1: that bowl is bugling to my cow calls. And when
Speaker 1: that happened, I just thought, yep, I can call this
Speaker 1: bull in like he likes that. I know what this
Speaker 1: bull likes. Like the other bulls were really bugling to
Speaker 1: the bugles, but this bull really like that sound. So
Speaker 1: I do that, and then he would bugle. So I
Speaker 1: get set up and I get myself on this ridge
Speaker 1: where I'm gonna be able to draw this bull up
Speaker 1: over a rise because he's looking for cows. So I figured, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to that rise. I'm by myself, so
Speaker 1: I can't draw like when you've got two people calling.
Speaker 1: It's completely different scenario because one guy can go ahead,
Speaker 1: the other guy can draw back. But because I'm by myself,
Speaker 1: I need this bull to kind of pop up and
Speaker 1: be looking for the cows, but not so much so
Speaker 1: that he can see everything and not have to commit
Speaker 1: all the way. Unfortunate that I can actually see a
Speaker 1: long distance, so I can can I watch this whole
Speaker 1: thing play out, which is pretty rare. Most of the
Speaker 1: time you're just hearing what's going on, but you necessarily
Speaker 1: can't see it. How where the tactic didn't really change
Speaker 1: in my mind. So the bulls across the canyon, I'm
Speaker 1: giving him the cow calls, and he's liking it. He's
Speaker 1: now coming in on a string. Like I can tell
Speaker 1: by his positioning and the way he's bugling at me,
Speaker 1: he's going to come in. I know that he's coming in,
Speaker 1: So I get set up to a point where I
Speaker 1: think that when he pops up, he won't be able
Speaker 1: to if I was too far from that ridge, he
Speaker 1: would be able to look around and understand where those
Speaker 1: elk care, because man, these elk can just pinpoint your
Speaker 1: sounds so well. So I get set up, I get
Speaker 1: my cameras set up, I set my phone up, start
Speaker 1: calling bulls, starts working in. I actually filmed the thing
Speaker 1: come in the entire way. He drops down below me.
Speaker 1: He's out of sight because I'm crouched down. Then I
Speaker 1: pop up to adjust the camera and I decide when
Speaker 1: he's over there and moving, I'm gonna call as soon
Speaker 1: as he gets out of sight. Then I know he's
Speaker 1: he's working my way. I already trust that that bull
Speaker 1: knows where I am. I'm going to go silent so
Speaker 1: I don't make any more calls. What I want him
Speaker 1: to do have to like search for me. Where's he's
Speaker 1: actively looking. But I wanted him close enough to my position.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to give away exactly where I
Speaker 1: am when he's really close, because I don't want him
Speaker 1: to hone in on me because I'm by myself. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to film all this. So he pops down, and
Speaker 1: now I see antler tips coming up the hill rise
Speaker 1: in front of me. I readjust the camera gets set
Speaker 1: up focus in. The bull stops behind this one small
Speaker 1: pine tree. It's like perfect setup. He's probably fifteen yards.
Speaker 1: Then I see him start to walk out, so I
Speaker 1: start to draw my bow back and he whips his
Speaker 1: head in my direction and I just freeze. I just wait, wait, wait,
Speaker 1: don't move. I mean elker like t Rex of the
Speaker 1: animal world. If you don't move, they don't see you.
Speaker 1: So I wait. But now based on that movement, I know, okay,
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna jump. I've always had my call in
Speaker 1: my mouth. When I'm ready. The bull then starts walking out.
Speaker 1: I let him get a few steps out into the open.
Speaker 1: He's not looking my direction. I start to draw back.
Speaker 1: He jumps. As I'm drawing back, I see him move
Speaker 1: focusing on the spot. Release the arrow, hit the bull.
Speaker 1: The bull runs off, goes over the ridge, and I
Speaker 1: got an awesome bull. Essentially called it myself, filmed it myself,
Speaker 1: and shot it obviously by myself, But it was just
Speaker 1: an awesome experience to have that kind of scenario where
Speaker 1: you can see what the elks doing. I had time
Speaker 1: to set up and just like an awesome encounter with
Speaker 1: essentially a really really cool bull. If you're anything like me,
Speaker 1: you might be going on an elk hunt or have
Speaker 1: an elk hunt, and it might just not be feasible
Speaker 1: to have somebody else with you. You might have to
Speaker 1: you might be hunting on your own. Maybe you're hunting
Speaker 1: with somebody that doesn't elk call or can't elk call.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things, you know, a lot of scenarios,
Speaker 1: but these tips that I'm gonna give you, or not
Speaker 1: just for calling alone, however, they do really increase your
Speaker 1: opportunity of getting that bull within range. But also if
Speaker 1: you're doing a set up. These are just some really
Speaker 1: good ideas on ways to set up. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you my five best tips when you're calling elk
Speaker 1: by yourself or how to set up on ELK. So
Speaker 1: the first tip is going to be to set up
Speaker 1: where they'll stop or where they can't see you. You've
Speaker 1: got to understand, like when you're calling elk, they're gonna
Speaker 1: do a lot of things. They're they're calling, you're calling,
Speaker 1: they're calling, but they're also looking out for i mean,
Speaker 1: just at natural elk behaviors. The animals gonna go to
Speaker 1: where he knows where that sound is coming from, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna look. If he doesn't see anything, he's probably
Speaker 1: gonna lose interest. That doesn't mean that he necessarily knows
Speaker 1: that you're set up is fake, but he's going to
Speaker 1: go to an area where he can look and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: sounded thirty cows over here. It's fairly open, or I'm
Speaker 1: within a potential distance that I think I could see
Speaker 1: some cows and I don't see anything I'm interested in.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna go back over here. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go do my own thing. I'm gonna go do something else.
Speaker 1: So making sure you can set up in a place
Speaker 1: where that bull is likely to stop or needs to
Speaker 1: come to to verify what's going on is a really
Speaker 1: good way to set up. So when I'm hunting by myself,
Speaker 1: I like to stop and try to get to a
Speaker 1: spot where that bull is calling, where I think that
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to peek over, and that's generally like
Speaker 1: some form of ridge, some form of change in terrain.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's open, So I'm gonna set up just in
Speaker 1: the trees somewhere where it will have to draw that
Speaker 1: bull to come get a closer look is one of
Speaker 1: the best places to set up. And that goes for
Speaker 1: if you're calling for someone having them set up at
Speaker 1: that area as well. If you're getting a lot of
Speaker 1: elk holding up just out of range, maybe you're set
Speaker 1: up and they're always sixty eight yards out. It might
Speaker 1: just be more of a factor of how you're setting
Speaker 1: up and where you're deciding to stop, then your whole
Speaker 1: calling sequence or anything like that. So picking a spot
Speaker 1: where you're gonna have a shot, but it's also a
Speaker 1: place where that bowl kind of has to get close
Speaker 1: to verify and use his eyes to see what's going
Speaker 1: on and picking those places wisely if possible, is going
Speaker 1: to really help you get that elk into position. Now,
Speaker 1: another really good tip, tip number two would be to
Speaker 1: call behind you. So using your calls directionally. As I'm
Speaker 1: moving in toward the elk, I like to throw my
Speaker 1: calls towards that animal so it knows, hey, I'm especially
Speaker 1: if I'm biggling, I'm challenging you, I'm talking to you,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm displaying, and I've got these cows here. But
Speaker 1: as I get closer, I start throwing my calls back
Speaker 1: the other direction. I really believe elk are really really
Speaker 1: good at pinpointing where you're at, but throwing it that
Speaker 1: other direction might make it seem or appear a little
Speaker 1: bit further way. Now there's this catch where you need
Speaker 1: to draw the elk to your position, but you also
Speaker 1: want to not give away exactly where you're at if
Speaker 1: you're by yourself. So I like to throw those calls
Speaker 1: in that opposite direction as I get closer to that elk,
Speaker 1: making no my general vicinity, my general direction that that
Speaker 1: bowl will need to travel, but maybe hoping that he
Speaker 1: thinks that I'm a little bit further back than I am.
Speaker 1: Then I don't have to be the guy ahead of
Speaker 1: the calling, but I'm using my sound in the other
Speaker 1: way to draw that bolt closer. Tip number three would
Speaker 1: be call soft. It's in the same vein of calling
Speaker 1: behind you, using like a diaphragm call. A lot of
Speaker 1: times I'll do these cow calls or even bugles with
Speaker 1: my mouth closed. It's kind of that same thing where
Speaker 1: that bowl really has to listen in. It doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean that he won't know where you're at. But I
Speaker 1: think one thing that people do too often is they
Speaker 1: get really loud when that animal close, but it makes
Speaker 1: them have to investigate a little bit more like, oh,
Speaker 1: I thought they were here, but it sounds further way.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go look like get curious. And those soft calls,
Speaker 1: those being quiet calls or like calls it half volume
Speaker 1: or less, can be really effective when you're by yourself.
Speaker 1: It's something that I found over the years works really well.
Speaker 1: And I learned that because there's so many times where
Speaker 1: I have a bull and he's screaming and I'm screaming,
Speaker 1: which is really good, but he just wouldn't come in
Speaker 1: that distance, and then I start doing some cow calls. Quiet,
Speaker 1: which is very similar to throwing. The direction different, but
Speaker 1: he's like, m I thought I heard him. Here is
Speaker 1: that elk pulling the close elk away and they come
Speaker 1: in that extra bit of distance. Tip number four would
Speaker 1: be call, then move. It's essentially thinking of it like
Speaker 1: it's a two man set up where one guy is
Speaker 1: behind and then you're up. As long as that bulls
Speaker 1: making noise, you can kind of gauge where he's at.
Speaker 1: So what I like to do is, I'll kind of
Speaker 1: look at an area where I've got ability to move.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's in cover, maybe there's a ridge. I'll go back,
Speaker 1: I'll call. I'll make all my calls in one area
Speaker 1: a little bit behind me, say thirty sixty yards, and
Speaker 1: then I move up and get set up. That's in
Speaker 1: hopes of drawing the bull to that last sound location,
Speaker 1: but being set up further up to intercept him when
Speaker 1: he goes into Look. Remember that bowl. He wants to
Speaker 1: check out what's going on. He might just want to
Speaker 1: test the waters a little bit. If he's not super
Speaker 1: fired up, he might not come in all the way.
Speaker 1: So he's gonna walk into Look. And that's why you
Speaker 1: want to be calling further back and then go up
Speaker 1: and set up quiet and wait for that bowl. The
Speaker 1: fifth tactic is going to be to go dark. A
Speaker 1: lot of elk calling isn't necessarily the calls you make,
Speaker 1: but it's using noise and silence and combination. What happens
Speaker 1: when you go dark. What I mean by go dark
Speaker 1: and just stop calling, make your cow sounds when you
Speaker 1: know that that bull is moving in on you or
Speaker 1: your bugles or whatever, or if it's not maybe a
Speaker 1: fired up bull, but it's a bull that you're using
Speaker 1: cow calls to call to. Going quiet can be a
Speaker 1: really good tactic because I've seen cow elk do this.
Speaker 1: They'll talk, they'll talk, they'll talk, then they'll shut up,
Speaker 1: and that bulls like where are you? Where are you?
Speaker 1: And he's going to go to that last place where
Speaker 1: he heard those elk. This is a really effective tactic
Speaker 1: when you're by yourself, especially if you've got a loan
Speaker 1: bull coming in. If you know that it's a loan bull,
Speaker 1: this is a really great tactic. If you don't, it's
Speaker 1: still a good tactic. Your pinpointing your location to that
Speaker 1: elk by saying I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.
Speaker 1: And then now he has to come in and look
Speaker 1: for those elk because he doesn't know did they move off,
Speaker 1: so he moves a little bit slower. You just have
Speaker 1: to use a lot of patients in that scenario. What
Speaker 1: I like to do is I like to create these
Speaker 1: scenarios where that bull has to seek me out because
Speaker 1: I'm by myself, because those elk might have a propensity
Speaker 1: to stop somewhere to investigate the situation, to look from
Speaker 1: a distance, just out of range or just behind stuff.
Speaker 1: I need that elk to kind of have anough curiosity
Speaker 1: to move in and move through some of that stuff
Speaker 1: where I'm set up to come into my location without
Speaker 1: giving him the exact location of where I am. When
Speaker 1: he's close, I would say, when that elks further out,
Speaker 1: he could probably pinpoint your location of calling within a
Speaker 1: fifteen yard radius. And that's what you want. When you're
Speaker 1: hunting by yourself. You want that bowl to come into
Speaker 1: that fifteen yard radius and start looking around. You don't
Speaker 1: necessarily want him pinpointed on your exact location, because if
Speaker 1: he knows exactly where you are when he's close, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be looking right there. He's gonna be honed in
Speaker 1: on it. He's gonna be expecting to see an elk.
Speaker 1: He might even stop further out when he can see
Speaker 1: that area and look. Now, if he hasn't heard anything
Speaker 1: for a little bit, he's gonna go, huh, maybe they're
Speaker 1: still in that spot because cook don't necessarily have to
Speaker 1: be talking all the time. So they'll talk, they'll talk,
Speaker 1: they'll talk, then they'll go quiet, and that bowl is
Speaker 1: gonna come in and start looking around. He's gonna be
Speaker 1: searching for those cows. But he's gonna be looking in
Speaker 1: lots of different directions, which gives you a really good
Speaker 1: opportunity to draw back, to go unnoticed, to be set
Speaker 1: up in a place where that bull will come to
Speaker 1: your location but not necessarily expect to see a hunter there,
Speaker 1: or not necessarily stop further out and try looking in.
Speaker 1: I really believe that a lot of elk hunting success
Speaker 1: comes down to your setup and how effective you are
Speaker 1: using the terrain available, using your calling to try to
Speaker 1: trick that bull to either the shooter or if you're
Speaker 1: the shooter and caller your location by really trying to
Speaker 1: trick their eyes and using their ears by using some
Speaker 1: silence as well as changing the directions of your calls.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be a lot more successful at bringing that
Speaker 1: bull into bow range. I'm super pumped on all the
Speaker 1: messages I've been getting of success of tactics people have
Speaker 1: been using from the podcast to be successful. Those are
Speaker 1: awesome to get. Really enjoy all the photos that I've
Speaker 1: been getting, all the success stories, those are huge me.
Speaker 1: I mean that just reaffirms some of the tactics and
Speaker 1: and a lot of things, knowing that it's helping you
Speaker 1: guys be successful or try something new, or or maybe
Speaker 1: if it's a new type of hunt. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have been getting out and doing something different, doing
Speaker 1: something new. So I really enjoy seeing all that success,
Speaker 1: seeing all those stories, and even just those stories of
Speaker 1: tactics that you try to where it was like so
Speaker 1: close but it didn't work out, and just and just
Speaker 1: getting that learning experience in those those cool encounters. That's
Speaker 1: what it's all about, getting out there, getting those encounters
Speaker 1: and giving it at world, giving it a try. I know,
Speaker 1: if you're a rifle hunter or you've got hunts planned
Speaker 1: later in the season, you're probably like thinking about all
Speaker 1: these archery elk stories and you're like, man, those don't
Speaker 1: really apply to me. But don't worry. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: getting into the thick of a lot of other tactics
Speaker 1: here pretty soon. And if there's certain topics that you
Speaker 1: want discussed, shoot me a message via Instagram at Remy
Speaker 1: Warren because I'm gonna be doing a Q and A
Speaker 1: next week. I've got quite a few great questions lined up.
Speaker 1: I like to try even compile some of the similar
Speaker 1: type questions and make sure that I answer some of those.
Speaker 1: One thing that has been awesome is a lot of
Speaker 1: the people that have asked questions have sent me success
Speaker 1: stories and success photos based on some of the answers
Speaker 1: they received. So if that's that could be you. If
Speaker 1: you've got some questions that might you know, they could
Speaker 1: be kind of specific, or they could be broad topic.
Speaker 1: If there's something that you aren't picking up or something
Speaker 1: that you want to know, shoot me those questions. I
Speaker 1: would be more than happy to answer them for you,
Speaker 1: or try to get to as many as I can,
Speaker 1: so that will be next week. Also, if you are
Speaker 1: so inclined and you're gonna send a whatever message or whatever,
Speaker 1: you can check out. The story that I told today
Speaker 1: was just from last weekend's hunt, but I put that
Speaker 1: I captured a lot of that on video. That's all
Speaker 1: on my instance story saved profile things. So if you
Speaker 1: want to check that, if you didn't catch it, you
Speaker 1: want to see it all go down and in semi
Speaker 1: real time, especially now knowing the backstory is it's really
Speaker 1: hard to put in you know, all the whole backstory
Speaker 1: into it. So if you want to catch that action
Speaker 1: and kind of see how it unfolded, go check that out.
Speaker 1: They'd be sweet. But otherwise, I really appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: listening tuning in. I'm pretty stoked. That's hying season. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to squeeze these podcasts in between hunts. It's like
Speaker 1: I went out this morning, I got a buddy in
Speaker 1: right now, we're el cunning, we're chasing, getting on him,
Speaker 1: and I feel bad because I sent him out on
Speaker 1: his own, so I gave him some of these tips.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, do this, do this. I've been kind
Speaker 1: of a lot of these things that I'm saying is
Speaker 1: just stuff that I'm talking about in the field while
Speaker 1: I'm out there. So I think that these fall podcasts
Speaker 1: can be really timely, really effective, especially because it's top
Speaker 1: of the mind for me, because it's just stuff I'm
Speaker 1: doing every day pretty much from now until December one,
Speaker 1: I'll be out, hunting, out guiding, doing all that good stuff.
Speaker 1: So if there's things you want to know, don't forget
Speaker 1: shoot me that message. Otherwise until next week draw mn close.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you later