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. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. A little
Speaker 1: turkey gobble there for you Thanksgiving. A lot of people
Speaker 1: call it Turkey Day as well. I think because we
Speaker 1: need a lot of turkey that day, and since everyone's
Speaker 1: so focused on the bird, I figured I might as
Speaker 1: well do a podcast to set the record straight. This week,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be talking about how elk hunting is absolutely
Speaker 1: not like turkey hunting. Well, there might be similarities in
Speaker 1: calling the physical hunting of them is very different. As
Speaker 1: a guide, I find that most of the hunters who
Speaker 1: have not hunted elk are they're pretty much indoctrinated to
Speaker 1: think that the two are nearly the same, and those
Speaker 1: hunters come completely unprepared in my mind, So I'm going
Speaker 1: to honor the turkey today by saying they're very fun
Speaker 1: to hunt, but the hunt is different than elk hunting.
Speaker 1: All kinds of hunting has crossover tactics. I'm going to
Speaker 1: break down the things that every new or veteran hunter
Speaker 1: needs to know about chasing the elusive bull elk. But
Speaker 1: before we do that, I want to tell a funny
Speaker 1: story of the ball cap turkey. When I first started
Speaker 1: guiding elk hunters, a very popular theme that I didn't
Speaker 1: really realize was the thing. It's like a lot of
Speaker 1: guys would show up and they did never elk kund
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, elk hunting is just like turkey hunting,
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, where is the where is
Speaker 1: eyone getting this? But at the time, it seemed like
Speaker 1: nearly every article was relating turkeys and elk tactics, so
Speaker 1: it's like, if you turkey hunt, these are tactics that
Speaker 1: you use for elk. And what they neglected to talk
Speaker 1: about was the major differences as well. So it's like
Speaker 1: people would show up and in their mind elk hunting
Speaker 1: and turkey hunting were nearly identical, like, you do the
Speaker 1: same thing that you would do turkey hunting to chase elk,
Speaker 1: and about in the first fifteen minutes of elk hunting,
Speaker 1: people are like, wow, this is completely different. This is
Speaker 1: nothing like turkey hunting. And the major factor in there
Speaker 1: is inserting large mountains and large distances to go over. Yes,
Speaker 1: turkeys call, yes, elk call. But outside of that very
Speaker 1: few similarities. The actual hunt, the actual physical physicality of
Speaker 1: chasing elk is so much different than most people. By
Speaker 1: the midday of the first day, we're like, this is
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing like turkey hunting. And I think that that
Speaker 1: statement is very true. So in this particular week, I
Speaker 1: had a guy that was he was a die hard
Speaker 1: turkey hunterer, done the turkey slam amn thing, trying to
Speaker 1: shoot turkeys all over the place, and this was his
Speaker 1: first eltcome. He's just you know, everything, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: we all have those certain things that we love to hunt.
Speaker 1: We grew up hunting, obsessed about hunting. I would say,
Speaker 1: this guy was a turkey nut to the fullest. And
Speaker 1: so he's like, yeah, you know, I really want to
Speaker 1: lk hunt because it's just like turkey hunting. I love
Speaker 1: turkey hunting all this stuff. And I'm like, yep, you know.
Speaker 1: I was like all right, and then I'm thinking to myself, man,
Speaker 1: this guy is in for a rude awakening. So we
Speaker 1: go out the first day and it's just like bull bugles, bugle,
Speaker 1: bull bugles, I'm like, it's like turkey in, you know,
Speaker 1: at this point it is, it's like gobble, gobble, here
Speaker 1: we go, right, And then it was one of those
Speaker 1: scenarios where the bull starts pushing the cows away and
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, here we go. This is where
Speaker 1: it changes. And now it's like we gotta dog this bull.
Speaker 1: We gotta get here, we gotta try to cut them
Speaker 1: off because calling the bull to us isn't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: We've got a million miles of public land. We can
Speaker 1: go anywhere we want, and we're gonna go everywhere those
Speaker 1: out go and the chases on so moving, trying to call,
Speaker 1: trying to get the bull in, going up the mountain,
Speaker 1: and it's just like one of those dogging all day chase. Move.
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, move, gets set up and then
Speaker 1: we get get the bull coming in. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: yourself set up, you know, And then maybe there's some
Speaker 1: cows around just getting too timid, and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: you gotta get set up better, like getting behind the
Speaker 1: brush and getting in front of brush and all this stuff. Right,
Speaker 1: just a few little mistakes here and there. Had the
Speaker 1: bull come in a couple of times, and then chase again,
Speaker 1: moving moving, and then you know, completely exhausted by about
Speaker 1: half day, and then we pretty much keep keep hiking,
Speaker 1: keep hunting. Um. Then about mid day kind of switched
Speaker 1: tactics over spot and stock kind of stuff. By the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the guy is like, this is
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing like Turkey inning, especially because it's just so physical,
Speaker 1: so um, not really expecting that portion of the mountains. Yes,
Speaker 1: they're calling, but the physical aspect of it, the having
Speaker 1: to go where the elk are going, completely just kind
Speaker 1: of blindsided. I'm like, yeah, I've seen that happen many times.
Speaker 1: So we're going and we end up the next day
Speaker 1: getting on some bulls uh doing like a spotting stock
Speaker 1: kind of thing, and then ended up going back. I
Speaker 1: think we had to grab something, you know, from we're
Speaker 1: staying and at the time I was guiding out of
Speaker 1: this like, um, kind of like a motel sort of
Speaker 1: sad like a motel and restaurant and bar thing all connected.
Speaker 1: It's pretty much middle and nowhere in Montana. And so
Speaker 1: we're going back there and before we pull in, you know,
Speaker 1: we're talking about Turkey unting. The guy's laughing like, oh man,
Speaker 1: this is nothing like turkey hunting. And he's like do
Speaker 1: you you know He's curiously like, oh, do you turkey hunt?
Speaker 1: And I was like, around here, we don't really turkey hunt,
Speaker 1: um not, because like there's just other things chase chase
Speaker 1: bearers and whatever, nothing like turkey hunting or whatever. I
Speaker 1: was like, I could see it being more appealing to
Speaker 1: me other places, Like I've gone other places hunting turkeys,
Speaker 1: but around here it's just like it's pretty easy hunting,
Speaker 1: you know. It's like turkeys are pretty dumb. And he's like,
Speaker 1: no way, no way, turkeys are dumb. He's like he's like,
Speaker 1: I I just can't agree with that, Like the turkey
Speaker 1: is the smartest animal out there. And I was like okay,
Speaker 1: and like literally he just said that, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'll show you at turkey And he's like, so you
Speaker 1: pull up in the park. Uh. And he steps out
Speaker 1: and there's been like this flock of turkey's living behind
Speaker 1: the bar. So I get out and as soon as
Speaker 1: I get out, I just give it a gobble, like
Speaker 1: and from up on the hill behind the bar there's
Speaker 1: like turkey gobbles. So all right, here we go giving
Speaker 1: it some mouth puts, and here comes the flock, like
Speaker 1: the entire flock of turkeys in this formation, just running
Speaker 1: as fast as they can write to us. And as
Speaker 1: the turkey gets close to the truck, I popped my
Speaker 1: hat off and throw it and ring it right around
Speaker 1: the front turkey's head, and that turkey just goes listic,
Speaker 1: just like it kind of like the hat got stuck
Speaker 1: on its head and it's it's flopping around and it's
Speaker 1: flapping its wings and shaking its head and doing the
Speaker 1: whole dance. And I am just rolling laughing because here
Speaker 1: we were just talking about how difficult the turkeys are,
Speaker 1: and I was telling him around here, they aren't that
Speaker 1: that hard. And then you can pretty much kill him
Speaker 1: with attack hammer and then do a perfect ringer uh
Speaker 1: first call set up of the day, essentially right around
Speaker 1: the turkey's head with the hat. And I called it
Speaker 1: the ball cap turkey. All week we're just joking around
Speaker 1: about there's butterball turkeys and then there's ball cap turkeys.
Speaker 1: And in this part where we were at a lot
Speaker 1: of ball cap turkeys. Now, I don't want anyone to
Speaker 1: think that I don't enjoy turkey ending, but I like
Speaker 1: to tell those kind of stories. It's fun because I
Speaker 1: like to think of l hunting much like elk hunting,
Speaker 1: and there's a few tactics and a lot of differences
Speaker 1: that if you understand the differences and hunt elk like elk,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a lot more successful. So I thought
Speaker 1: it'd be fun to just kind of do a play
Speaker 1: on the elk hunting is like turkey hunting and talk
Speaker 1: about some of the major differences and then how to
Speaker 1: exploit elk and use those tactics there are specific to
Speaker 1: elk hunting. I think whether you're a veteran hunter, whether
Speaker 1: you're a new hunter, whether you want to hunt elk
Speaker 1: because you love hunting turkeys, which is absolutely the truth
Speaker 1: of if you enjoy that interaction of calling animals, September
Speaker 1: elk hunting and spring turkey hunting has that same kind
Speaker 1: of excitement level of we're calling something in we're conversing
Speaker 1: with the animal. Those similarities are very true. But I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the differences and how to exploit
Speaker 1: those differences for elk. So the first thing that is
Speaker 1: different between elk and turkeys is elk don't roost in trees.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they bed, sometimes they feed but understanding what an
Speaker 1: elk is doing at night can help you make your
Speaker 1: play during the daytime. And I think that's a tactic
Speaker 1: that is often overlooked by elk hunters or hunters in general.
Speaker 1: What I mean by that is, you know, think about this,
Speaker 1: like what elk generally do in the mornings and evenings
Speaker 1: is they are they're in a feed pattern, and that's
Speaker 1: probably the easiest way to exploit or or pinpoint elk
Speaker 1: during the day is going from that feed area because
Speaker 1: that feeding area is going to be more open. Whether
Speaker 1: like even if you're in thick cover. If you think
Speaker 1: of hunting elk like mornings and evenings they're feeding, then
Speaker 1: it can kind of help you narrow down your search, um,
Speaker 1: even if it's in the timber or whatever. It kind
Speaker 1: of lets you know like what they're doing, but what
Speaker 1: they're doing. So, like, let's say you find a group
Speaker 1: of elk that's feeding out in the evening. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, there's some milk. Let's say you're in
Speaker 1: call it New Mexico, big like flat areas and then
Speaker 1: it's like thick timber around and you've got this perfect
Speaker 1: beautiful like meadow park Okay, So and you see you
Speaker 1: see some elk feeding out there, and you're like, sweet,
Speaker 1: maybe see it from a distance, whatever you like, Sweet,
Speaker 1: what am I going to do next? I don't have
Speaker 1: time to make a play tomorrow, or maybe it's the
Speaker 1: rut and you're like, okay, am I going to start
Speaker 1: out hunting from here? What am I gonna do? So
Speaker 1: what's your next play? Well, you're gonna have to make
Speaker 1: a play for the morning, and you need to know
Speaker 1: what the like, how those elk are going to act
Speaker 1: from where you last saw them the night before. So
Speaker 1: what I like to do is decide whether the elk
Speaker 1: are going to be feeding all night or whether they
Speaker 1: are essentially going to be in the timber early the
Speaker 1: next day or moving, like maybe they'll be in a
Speaker 1: different spot. Do am I gonna be able to expect
Speaker 1: those elk in the same place? Or am I going
Speaker 1: to probably expect them somewhere different? So knowing what play
Speaker 1: to make the next day, and here's a few of
Speaker 1: the factors. So when it elk comes out and feeds
Speaker 1: in the evening, a lot of times what they'll do
Speaker 1: is they'll feed and then they'll just bed essentially in
Speaker 1: the feed and then they'll wake up, they'll continue to feed,
Speaker 1: and they'll move off into cover. There are times though,
Speaker 1: where the elk will feed and then they'll continue to
Speaker 1: travel or go to a different spot, or they'll feed,
Speaker 1: they'll move into the timber after dark, and then in
Speaker 1: the mornings they'll come back out and feed. So these
Speaker 1: are a lot of options. And here's how I kind
Speaker 1: of decipher what potentially those elk are gonna do, when
Speaker 1: they're going to move, and how to kind of proceed
Speaker 1: the next day, just playing that chess game of trying
Speaker 1: to think, okay, a few steps ahead, what are the
Speaker 1: elk are doing? Because when a turkey goes to bed,
Speaker 1: is sitting in the tree and then be in that
Speaker 1: tree the next morning? I would say probably of the time.
Speaker 1: You know, there's always of the possibility of hurricane could
Speaker 1: bloat out of a tree and go into the next
Speaker 1: tree down down the way, But for the most part,
Speaker 1: they're gonna stay in that roost. Elk don't always stay
Speaker 1: where we last see them, but it's nice to be
Speaker 1: able to decide whether they will be there or where
Speaker 1: where they might go. And I think the major factors
Speaker 1: are light of the moon and weather during the night.
Speaker 1: So if I see some elk feeding in a certain
Speaker 1: area and they come out evening time and then I
Speaker 1: know that there's gonna be no moon and no crazy weather,
Speaker 1: then generally those elk I find I found, like just
Speaker 1: through pure observation of being out thousands of days watching elk,
Speaker 1: most of the time, they're gonna just bed in that
Speaker 1: meadow and be or right on the edge and be
Speaker 1: there in the morning. Now, if there's a lot of
Speaker 1: moon and a lot of light, now that means that
Speaker 1: it's not cloudy, it's it's not essentially the moon itself, like, oh,
Speaker 1: the moon's out and it's affecting the way these animals
Speaker 1: are moving. It's more factor of the amount of light,
Speaker 1: the visibility, and how safe they see. Often what happens
Speaker 1: is they'll be feeding throughout the night because they can see,
Speaker 1: and then before daylight they start to move into the
Speaker 1: cover earlier, whereas if there wasn't a lot of light,
Speaker 1: they might feed, bed, wake up, feed going to cover.
Speaker 1: So if it's going to be a lot of light,
Speaker 1: then I expect those elk possibly to be nearby, because
Speaker 1: I think that they're still going to feed. They're gonna
Speaker 1: use that meadow all night, and then they're going to
Speaker 1: feed nearby, and they'll be in kind of some cover.
Speaker 1: So I might adapt my tactic a little bit more.
Speaker 1: I might go kind of start a little bit earlier
Speaker 1: in those bedding areas or those areas that I think
Speaker 1: that they would move to later in the day if
Speaker 1: it's bright out at night, or potentially saying that they
Speaker 1: might move or travel to another area. So I'm not
Speaker 1: necessarily expecting to see those elk the next morning. Now,
Speaker 1: if it's like, um, major wind, major storms something like
Speaker 1: that over the course of the night, then I expect
Speaker 1: the animals to kind of be bedded up, like go
Speaker 1: into the cover of something where they're out of the wind,
Speaker 1: something where they aren't going to be is blasted by
Speaker 1: that weather, and then move out and feed. Often eaters,
Speaker 1: so I know that that will probably be a good
Speaker 1: day to also hunt the feed because they're going to
Speaker 1: be probably out feeding a little bit later if they've
Speaker 1: got this storm. Sometimes it might even be waiting until
Speaker 1: something clears, especially if the temperature is dropping. Um. So
Speaker 1: those are those are just factors to think about when
Speaker 1: you see elk in the evening feeding and then how
Speaker 1: to make kind of an assessment, guess the next day
Speaker 1: what they might be doing. Second major factor in understanding
Speaker 1: elk and elk hunting, especially when it comes to calling elk,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it can be stressed enough, but
Speaker 1: the setups are not often very close. When it comes
Speaker 1: to elk hunting, you just have to have in your
Speaker 1: mind that you're probably going to have to walk a lot,
Speaker 1: even if I mean, there has been so many hunts
Speaker 1: where I have got let's say I've got a bold
Speaker 1: bugled from the road or the truck. Most of the time,
Speaker 1: in order to call in and elk you have to
Speaker 1: own form chase them down. They cover a lot of ground.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of ground to be had um and
Speaker 1: because of that, you know there's a lot of footwork
Speaker 1: in between. When you think about elk hunting, you need
Speaker 1: to think about elk hunting in the frame of reference.
Speaker 1: Like if you change your mindset from like thinking about like,
Speaker 1: oh it's uh, they're calling and the calling makes it easier,
Speaker 1: you need to think about the calling makes them maybe
Speaker 1: easier to find and susceptible to getting close, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to cover a considerable amount of ground. When
Speaker 1: we are doing art. Like when I'm archery hunting, whether
Speaker 1: it's my myself guiding clients, the days are longer one
Speaker 1: and this lends to it, but also the animals are
Speaker 1: moving more. We cover a lot more ground during the
Speaker 1: archery season than we do the rifle season. The elk
Speaker 1: aren't moving as much. During rifle season, you might have
Speaker 1: to go further and get further away from roads and
Speaker 1: other things. But over the course of that amount of
Speaker 1: daylight during archery season, when elk are making noise, you're
Speaker 1: chasing them a lot further. And I think that you
Speaker 1: really need to be prepared for the factor of elk
Speaker 1: is a physical deal. If you think of elk hunting
Speaker 1: more like a sheep hunt, where it's like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: going on when a guy goes on a sheep, I
Speaker 1: it's like I got to get in sheep shape. I
Speaker 1: gotta get prepared, and I prepare physically and mentally. They're
Speaker 1: they're getting prepared now. I know that in recent years
Speaker 1: has been more of a topic, like people are understanding
Speaker 1: that elk hunting is a very physical endeavor. But even
Speaker 1: when like you get what I would consider an easy elk,
Speaker 1: most of the time you have to put in some
Speaker 1: serious footwork, and preparing for that footwork is probably one
Speaker 1: of the leading factors in success. I always say, like,
Speaker 1: if somebody can keep up, if you can hike, if
Speaker 1: you can hunt hard, you just you just guarantee your
Speaker 1: success in many ways, because the ability to go day
Speaker 1: and day out is what leads to a lot of
Speaker 1: elk being taken, especially if you're new at it. You
Speaker 1: can kind of compensate for lack of knowledge by just
Speaker 1: lack of grit and determination by being able to when
Speaker 1: you find the elk, keep up, keep going, and keep
Speaker 1: after it. So what that means is in the off season,
Speaker 1: in the time off, it's preparing physically for those long,
Speaker 1: all day hikes and preparing mentally knowing that, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: getting myself into something that's very physical. And that's the
Speaker 1: difference when I'm every time I've been turkey hunting, well,
Speaker 1: I take that back, I've done some mountain turkey and
Speaker 1: so I'm like, Okay, I had to put in quite
Speaker 1: a few miles. But for the most part, you know,
Speaker 1: preparing and knowing that before sun up you're gonna be hiking.
Speaker 1: When you hear the elk bugle, you're gonna be hiking
Speaker 1: in order to call an elk, and you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: have to chase them down and cover a lot of
Speaker 1: ground and go to them, even because you hear one
Speaker 1: bugle over there. I would say every ten elk may
Speaker 1: I don't know. Let's say we call at a hundred
Speaker 1: elk two might come to us over considerable distance. Out
Speaker 1: of a hundred that you get going most of them,
Speaker 1: you gotta go cut a distance, get close, and then
Speaker 1: throw out those call tactics to bring that bolt to
Speaker 1: your location. Now, whether it's now let's to turn that
Speaker 1: into like late season rifle hunting or whatever, You're still
Speaker 1: gonna have to cover a considerable amount of ground. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of footwork needed to be consistently successful in elk,
Speaker 1: and knowing that preparing for that in the off season
Speaker 1: is just gonna give you more success. So, whether you
Speaker 1: got kind of your whole life or or new to it,
Speaker 1: knowing that you're gonna have to put in some time hiking,
Speaker 1: being prepared to cover some terrain in the mountains is
Speaker 1: gonna make you more successful. So some of the things
Speaker 1: that I like to do in the off season is
Speaker 1: like just I've talked about it before, and whether you
Speaker 1: live in mountains or not, getting in your mindset of preparing,
Speaker 1: Like I've got to prepare for an elk hunt, and
Speaker 1: I've got to be physically ready for it, So putting
Speaker 1: on that weighted pack, covering ground during the off season, hiking,
Speaker 1: you know, like running, getting physically fit and physically active.
Speaker 1: The more, I would say, the better shape you're in,
Speaker 1: the better your successory it's going to be. And that's
Speaker 1: just across the board when it comes to elk hunting.
Speaker 1: And the third tactic that is different than turkey hunting
Speaker 1: and they can be exploited to find success is the
Speaker 1: fact that elk are a lot harder to carry than turkey.
Speaker 1: And what I mean is you're gonna have to pack
Speaker 1: it out and you need to plan accordingly. But also
Speaker 1: when I was I would say, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: was about maybe eighteen or nineteen, you know, like growing
Speaker 1: up kind of like this philosophy, Like you would see
Speaker 1: elk or like you know, hunting with my dad when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, or like with my grandpa when
Speaker 1: I was a kid. Um, we're like just you know,
Speaker 1: going out with random people elk hunting and they'd be like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, like there's probably elk there, but man, you
Speaker 1: don't have to carry it out of there. That's along,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, just like worried about the
Speaker 1: pack out portion, and a lot of people are like,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean there's there, obviously there's exception, Like
Speaker 1: some stuff is just really difficult. You I want to
Speaker 1: get yourself into that scenario. Maybe. But one thing that
Speaker 1: I started doing was like, I'm gonna think about the
Speaker 1: places that are just horrible to carry an elk out,
Speaker 1: and those are the going to be the places that
Speaker 1: I go hunt. And I started finding like a lot
Speaker 1: easier success. I'd be like, wow, I went in there,
Speaker 1: I killed an elk on day one, day two, and
Speaker 1: I spent the next three days packing it out. But hey,
Speaker 1: I was it was either that or I was going
Speaker 1: to spend the week um potentially chasing elk and not
Speaker 1: getting anything and putting in the same amount of hard work.
Speaker 1: Is just going into the place that a lot of
Speaker 1: people shunned because it would be difficult to get the
Speaker 1: elk out and then just taking my time packing it out,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously making sure the conditions are right where
Speaker 1: I could hang the meat and get it out all okay,
Speaker 1: but flipping my mindset of being like they are harder
Speaker 1: to carry, they are hard to carry, they can be
Speaker 1: difficult to pack out, and then pinpointing those places of like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't really want to pack an elk out of
Speaker 1: here hunting that because it's it's a way to kind
Speaker 1: of like find elk the other people don't want to chase.
Speaker 1: Now as the third difference of elk hunting and turkey
Speaker 1: hunting is, I think turkeys actually have a lot better
Speaker 1: eyes sight than elk. And it's one thing that you
Speaker 1: want to think about. I've said it before, but I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of people don't realize like what
Speaker 1: you can get away with with elk in many in
Speaker 1: many ways, not that they don't see you, but the
Speaker 1: elk is kind of like the t rex if you've
Speaker 1: seen Jurassic Park of the animal world. If you freeze
Speaker 1: and don't move, they don't see you most of the
Speaker 1: time as long as their eyes are obstructed. Like if
Speaker 1: you're in Timber and there's a herd of elk, you
Speaker 1: can move and get away with a lot because they're
Speaker 1: used to movement. Another things, especially if you're mixing and
Speaker 1: calling and other stuff. Now you can't do something blatantly stupid.
Speaker 1: You don't want to to spook the animals, but you
Speaker 1: also don't need to, Like like I would say, if
Speaker 1: if a flock of turkeys came in and there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of hands and whatever, you probably aren't gonna get
Speaker 1: away with a lot of sneaking around because they're gonna
Speaker 1: catch that movement and they're gonna be gone. They have
Speaker 1: incredible eyes sight, whereas elk, they're kind of more mellow
Speaker 1: about that movement there. They aren't as finicky about where
Speaker 1: you set up. Like you can set up in front
Speaker 1: of a you can almost set up in in places
Speaker 1: where it's like not that I wouldn't say, like moose
Speaker 1: setups where you're like, okay, I'm like standing out in
Speaker 1: the open um and calling and just not moving, but um,
Speaker 1: you can get into positions where you need to get
Speaker 1: set up to make that shot. When it comes to elk,
Speaker 1: kind of like being able to set up correctly when
Speaker 1: a bull might be coming in is huge, And I
Speaker 1: think what happens is a lot of people get timid
Speaker 1: because there's like a cow ninety yards over here feeding
Speaker 1: and she's not really paying attention, but they see that
Speaker 1: other animal, like I can't move, Um, they freeze and
Speaker 1: in like instead of getting in a good position or
Speaker 1: worried about spooking that cow, that might catch a little
Speaker 1: bit of movement in the timber. And the odds are
Speaker 1: if you watch the eyes of the elk, if you
Speaker 1: put their eyes behind something, you've got enough cover and
Speaker 1: you can move kind of like do that undetected movement
Speaker 1: if they can't. If you can't see their eye, they
Speaker 1: can't see you, and kind of edging on did I
Speaker 1: would say, edging on the level of dangerous just to
Speaker 1: get into a good position. Go for it. If I know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to I could potentially like um, maybe you know,
Speaker 1: like spook a cow or something, but I need to
Speaker 1: get into this better position. I opt for going for
Speaker 1: that better position because I found that a lot of success,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to calling elk or whatever, is
Speaker 1: just being in the right position. And sometimes you have
Speaker 1: to move around and get into that position. And you
Speaker 1: can do that by observing the eyes of the animals,
Speaker 1: and then you can get away with a little bit
Speaker 1: more knowing that their eyesight is good, but it's probably
Speaker 1: not their best defense. Now, if you're out in the
Speaker 1: wide open and you're just doing something stupid. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: going to see you and run away. That is a
Speaker 1: very likely scenario. But for the most part, I try
Speaker 1: to kind of like hedge my bets. I say what's
Speaker 1: better to blow them out or to not be in position?
Speaker 1: And sometimes you might say, oh, I don't want to
Speaker 1: blow them out, But I try to find those scenarios
Speaker 1: where it's like, I'm not gonna blow them out. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be able to move and get into the right spot.
Speaker 1: But also when that bowl comes in, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be in the good spot to make that shot. And
Speaker 1: I found a lot of success doing that. Well. I
Speaker 1: hope everybody enjoyed that podcast. I just want to say
Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving again. Hopefully you're enjoying your family today. Maybe
Speaker 1: you're going out hunting. I know for my family, it's
Speaker 1: a big tradition to go hunting, And another big tradition
Speaker 1: is cooking wild game during Thanksgiving. So as a extra
Speaker 1: little bonus, I uploaded a video one of my favorite
Speaker 1: ways to prepare venison. Could be white tail, could be elk,
Speaker 1: could be access to here, it doesn't matter what you've got,
Speaker 1: could be wild pig. One of my favorite ways to
Speaker 1: prepare it, especially around the holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like the stuffed loin. So on my remy
Speaker 1: worn YouTube channel, I got a new video up there,
Speaker 1: my stuff to loin recipe. It's definitely a crowd pleaser
Speaker 1: one that every but he really enjoys. So if you
Speaker 1: get some time, want to check that out or want
Speaker 1: to find a cool way to make some venison this
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving added in spice it up a little bit. Uh,
Speaker 1: definitely go check that out. I appreciate you all listening.
Speaker 1: Next week, we're gonna be doing one of my favorite
Speaker 1: kind of episodes, which is the Q and A. So
Speaker 1: make sure to get your questions in. Um, because I've
Speaker 1: been in and out of service a lot lately hunting seasons,
Speaker 1: still kind of rolling around, still guiding them, Like I
Speaker 1: find that the message has kind of been getting buried
Speaker 1: the way that I've been doing it. I used to
Speaker 1: just say, send me a message on Instagram. Then when
Speaker 1: I see one pop up, I screenshot it, but I
Speaker 1: have trouble refinding them again. So UM, We're gonna do
Speaker 1: it a little bit different this week. It's I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put a post up today on just like ask your question,
Speaker 1: then you can ask your question in that post, so
Speaker 1: I can just find it there on Instagram. Still, I
Speaker 1: know there's it's not the most perfect way to do it,
Speaker 1: but I'll do it that way. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: if you don't feel like asking a question, but there's
Speaker 1: a question on there that you see that you want,
Speaker 1: like it because then I can rank it like top comments,
Speaker 1: and then I can do those ones, and then maybe
Speaker 1: I'll scroll through and find something that I just find
Speaker 1: enjoyable as well or really want to answer, and also
Speaker 1: feel free to ask. Like it doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: a lengthy question. It could just be a short question
Speaker 1: of like a quick answer if you if you've got
Speaker 1: any like you know, maybe we can get some quick
Speaker 1: hitters in there as well, if you just rapid fire
Speaker 1: question type of things. And oh also I would say
Speaker 1: if you are leaving a question on there, because it
Speaker 1: is kind of you know, anybody can see those leave
Speaker 1: out your units or whatever. I I never want to
Speaker 1: put somebody's spot on blast. I know some people don't
Speaker 1: really think of it like that, but there is enough
Speaker 1: people that read it maybe say, oh, I was hunting
Speaker 1: in this unit in New Mexico saw a lot of
Speaker 1: good bulls. I was like, I always leave that out
Speaker 1: of the direct message questions, So um, just leave it
Speaker 1: out and then we don't have to worry about putting
Speaker 1: somebody's spot on blast. Whether it's somewhere you hunt a
Speaker 1: lot or somewhere you hunting for the first time, just
Speaker 1: ask the question regardless of the unit, because it's a
Speaker 1: little bit um. The tactic will be the same. I
Speaker 1: don't need to know exactly where you're at, and I
Speaker 1: think that would be good. I appreciate you all for listening,
Speaker 1: checking in, tuning in sending the questions, looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: This will be definitely the last Q and A of
Speaker 1: the year, maybe the last Q and A, so we
Speaker 1: need to make sure that if you want, if you've
Speaker 1: got any burning questions, get them in on this one.
Speaker 1: I appreciate everyone. Happy Thanksgiving, and I'm just gonna end
Speaker 1: it with