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 New Year. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people are gonna be screaming that over
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna wake up tomorrow and realize COVID
Speaker 1: still exists. But it's been a weird year for everybody,
Speaker 1: for the entire world. I think there's something always symbolic
Speaker 1: about New Year's and you're just turning a new page,
Speaker 1: You're you're turning things over. Last year, I quite wildly
Speaker 1: and accurately predicted how the year was going to go.
Speaker 1: But a lot of the stuff that I had planned
Speaker 1: for this year will now be rolled over to next year.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things about New Year's and is it kind of resets
Speaker 1: people's focus us. I really like that. I'm big on
Speaker 1: setting goals. I'm big on planning and and trying to
Speaker 1: be better year in and year out. So this year,
Speaker 1: what I want to do is I've kind of outlined
Speaker 1: what I would consider the three important things to punching
Speaker 1: more tags, and really it's going to come down to fitness,
Speaker 1: planning the hunt, and shooting whatever you're shooting. So this
Speaker 1: week I'm going to recap some my favorite moments of
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to go into the twenty one
Speaker 1: tips to just make you better in the field. Three
Speaker 1: sixty five days of awesome. Here we go. One thing
Speaker 1: that I like. At the end of the year, I
Speaker 1: can sit back and reflect on some of the experiences. Now,
Speaker 1: I was very fortunate. I had a really great not
Speaker 1: the hunting season that I had planned, but I definitely
Speaker 1: had a great hunting season. I was able to get
Speaker 1: a couple over the counter type tags to fill in
Speaker 1: for some trips they got canceled, and I felt very
Speaker 1: fortunate about that. I had some other trips planned that
Speaker 1: didn't get canceled, which was pretty cool. I was able
Speaker 1: to hunt some caribou. I got a wolf on that
Speaker 1: cariboo trip, got a great cariboo bowl, got an elk
Speaker 1: with my long bow. I had a little bit more
Speaker 1: time to hunt archery season myself because some of my
Speaker 1: guided hunts got canceled, So I felt very fortunate to
Speaker 1: take that time, I was like, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonnahunt with my long bow this year for Elk
Speaker 1: And I was able to film that and do that.
Speaker 1: That was pretty sweet. But if I were to think
Speaker 1: of my favorite hunting memory from this year, you probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't guess it because it was a hunt where I
Speaker 1: didn't get a pull the trigger. But I was hunting
Speaker 1: geese in Alaska with my dad. Not just any goose,
Speaker 1: but an emperor goose. Now an emperor goose is it's
Speaker 1: a fairly rare species of goose. It looks, I guess
Speaker 1: it's kind of like a snow goose, but very beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's like white head black underneath barred sides. It was
Speaker 1: in Kodiak, and man, is it an adventure to embark
Speaker 1: on one of these. We flew to Kodiak, we flew
Speaker 1: from there on a small plane to Old Harbor, got
Speaker 1: on a boat, took the boat and around the island
Speaker 1: like in some rough seas, and it was just an
Speaker 1: incredible adventure. And my buddy Jeremy rus Sink was with us.
Speaker 1: He he had deer tag and he actually he was
Speaker 1: a resident so he could hunt. And then our friend,
Speaker 1: a codo is a resident so he can hunt them.
Speaker 1: But as a non residents, really hard to get these tags.
Speaker 1: So um, I put my dad in. He had absolutely
Speaker 1: no clue even what an emperor goose was t I
Speaker 1: put him in, and um, for guys that are way
Speaker 1: into waterfowl and other things, it's like this goose is
Speaker 1: like the sheep tag of goose hunting. I guess my
Speaker 1: dad was like, oh, what a goose. I'm going all
Speaker 1: the way to Kodiak for one goose. But we got
Speaker 1: some deer tags and it was a lot of fun
Speaker 1: deer hunting, and we actually ended up hunting the goose
Speaker 1: the last couple of days. But it was on the
Speaker 1: last day, the day before we set up, and Jeremy
Speaker 1: had seen him coming into this this beach, so we
Speaker 1: figured we'd set up there. So we set up and
Speaker 1: there's just kind of too many of us. I think
Speaker 1: the first group kind of flared as they came in.
Speaker 1: Then they actually committed to our decoy set up. Jeremy
Speaker 1: and my dad got shots off, but they're kind of
Speaker 1: far and nobody hid anything, and so we're like dang, okay,
Speaker 1: And the morning went on, we figured okay that that
Speaker 1: was all the geese that were gonna come in. Let's
Speaker 1: just go spend our time. There's a slough behind us.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go jump shoot for Mallard. So we decided, okay,
Speaker 1: of course you should never do this, but not they
Speaker 1: should never jump shoot, but they should never walk away
Speaker 1: from your decoy set up. They're like, yeah, we're just
Speaker 1: the goose hunts done. There's no more geese coming in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go jump shoot. And then Macodo decided to
Speaker 1: stay and just hang out at the decoys. As we're
Speaker 1: jump shooting Mallards, he shoots his emperor goose. So when
Speaker 1: comes in like practically lands and the decoys like, okay, crap.
Speaker 1: So the next day we're gonna go to a new spot.
Speaker 1: We got weathered in. We're gonna hunt the same spot again.
Speaker 1: It's pretty much our last day to goose hunt. We
Speaker 1: set up. It's just me and my dad. We set
Speaker 1: up actually where the geese land of the day before.
Speaker 1: It seemed like nothing was coming in. We're like, the
Speaker 1: tide was a little bit different that day too, so
Speaker 1: it tides up. We set up. Our decoys were like waiting, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, these two geese like later in
Speaker 1: the morning fly by cruise. Our decoys circle back in
Speaker 1: the land where we're sitting the day before. Oh crap
Speaker 1: is that it is? It over? Start of watching them,
Speaker 1: and sure enough they start swimming our direction. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this is gonna happen. Then they must
Speaker 1: have seen the decoys and like knowing they were there.
Speaker 1: But they picked up off the water, flew in. My
Speaker 1: dad raised up shot the backbird, rolled it and it
Speaker 1: was just like it actually went out in the ocean.
Speaker 1: I shot a shot one more time just to secure
Speaker 1: it and ran out. I'm like, run grab it, like
Speaker 1: the waves are crashing in. It's just like cold ocean.
Speaker 1: He runs out into the ocean, grabs his bird, and
Speaker 1: we're just like so pumped. It's just kind of a
Speaker 1: really cool, unexpected like I didn't think I would be that.
Speaker 1: I was just so excited for him, so excited to
Speaker 1: be a part of that experience so unique and different
Speaker 1: for me. It was very unexpected, but it was just
Speaker 1: like a really really cool experience. And I would say
Speaker 1: one of my favorite hunting experiences of the year. I
Speaker 1: didn't think I would say that, but yes, a goose
Speaker 1: hunt was one of my favorite hunts of the year,
Speaker 1: and I got I had some pretty awesome hunting experiences
Speaker 1: this year, so that was pretty cool. Now, as promised,
Speaker 1: going into I figured, I'm going to break down sixty
Speaker 1: five days of just being more awesome. Things that you
Speaker 1: can do to punch more tags. You know, this is
Speaker 1: the time of year where hey, you get a little
Speaker 1: bit of a pep talk. I say things like fail
Speaker 1: to plan, you plan to fail, And I truly do
Speaker 1: believe that. I think that you know your success strategy
Speaker 1: if you're really into hunting and you want to be
Speaker 1: more successful, and whether it's bow hunting, whether it's right,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter. If you just want to be
Speaker 1: more successful, your success strategy should be threefold and that
Speaker 1: should be prepared or your body, plan your hunt, and
Speaker 1: shoot your ship, whatever you got, gun, bow, muzzleloader, shotgun.
Speaker 1: I don't care do more shooting. So what I did was,
Speaker 1: since I made twenty one of the best tips out
Speaker 1: there for those categories, seven of each. So we're gonna
Speaker 1: kick it off right now with fitness and some things
Speaker 1: that you can do thinking about going into this next year,
Speaker 1: things you can do to be more fit, to have
Speaker 1: a better experience Honestly, a lot of the hunting that
Speaker 1: I do is very physical, and unfortunately get to do
Speaker 1: it all the time, and I'm in good shape to
Speaker 1: do it. But I understand as a guide, I see
Speaker 1: it all the time that a lot of people aren't
Speaker 1: in that shape. And it's not that they can't be,
Speaker 1: it's just that they don't take the initiative and that
Speaker 1: they maybe don't have like the motivation or the know
Speaker 1: how to do it. And I am, by no means
Speaker 1: a fitness expert. But what I do know is that
Speaker 1: a lot of the people that I've taken out and
Speaker 1: myself included, you can get yourself to the point of
Speaker 1: making the hunt more enjoyable and more successful by physically
Speaker 1: making yourself more physically capable to do it. So we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with number one tip number one right here,
Speaker 1: Set a goal. I'm big on this and it works
Speaker 1: for everything in life. But set a goal. Write it
Speaker 1: down something that you can't do now, and then something
Speaker 1: that you need to work up to right figure out,
Speaker 1: Be honest with yourself, Say where am I at, how far?
Speaker 1: How many days can I hunt hard? And then say
Speaker 1: how many where do I want to be? And then
Speaker 1: how am I going to get there writing it down
Speaker 1: and like creating a set of this is what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do throughout the year. I don't know what it
Speaker 1: is for you. I don't know what you do. But
Speaker 1: I also am big under when it comes to preparing
Speaker 1: for hunt, practicing or training, like you're gonna do? You
Speaker 1: know you can? You definitely should be in better overall fitness.
Speaker 1: You should be able to lift more, You should be
Speaker 1: able to do whatever. But you need to build your
Speaker 1: endurance and build that endurance while carrying weight in hiking shape.
Speaker 1: So there needs to be some form of whatever you're
Speaker 1: doing more hiking, more running, more boots on the ground.
Speaker 1: I think you should just write down and say, hey, okay,
Speaker 1: before the hunting season this year, I'm gonna try to
Speaker 1: hike hundred miles. I'm gonna try to hike. Set a
Speaker 1: goal and then figure out a way to make that
Speaker 1: goal actionable to meet that goal. It works with everything
Speaker 1: in life, but it definitely works with fitness and for me.
Speaker 1: I actually, you know, last year I was supposed to
Speaker 1: have a sheep tag that is now pushed to this year.
Speaker 1: Anytime I have a big hunt like that where I think, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a once in a lifetime I call it
Speaker 1: once in a lifetime type deal, like it's a really
Speaker 1: good opportunity. I want to make sure that I make
Speaker 1: the most of it. And even me personally, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do I need to do to get into that
Speaker 1: next level of shape? Every year, I'm constantly trying to
Speaker 1: push myself to be better, to hurt less, to just
Speaker 1: be able to go further, hunt longer, or harder, and
Speaker 1: be in the action of the hunt. And so for me,
Speaker 1: what I'm doing is I'm just kind of setting a
Speaker 1: goal of the amount of miles that I want to hike.
Speaker 1: I want to work out. In those days where I'm
Speaker 1: not hitting them mountain, I'm doing some other form of
Speaker 1: fitness routine. For me, it's it's rowing, it's biking. Um,
Speaker 1: I like those more endurance type things, but also you know,
Speaker 1: some body weight training and some other things to add
Speaker 1: in for those times when I'm not hitting them out
Speaker 1: Number two for fitness, like I said, doing what you're
Speaker 1: doing is the best way to train for what you're
Speaker 1: gonna do. Pack training I say it anytime I talk
Speaker 1: about fitness, but it is integral. The thing that slows
Speaker 1: most people down is not being used to packs or boots.
Speaker 1: So what you need to do is whatever you're gonna
Speaker 1: hunt in, start training with that wear weighted pack. I
Speaker 1: use a sandbag in my pack, like a forty pound
Speaker 1: salt bag. Um works pretty good. And that's like just
Speaker 1: getting used to wearing a heavy pack day in and
Speaker 1: day out. When I'm doing any kind of workout that's
Speaker 1: involving hiking, moving, running, even just like back and forth sprint,
Speaker 1: I like to throw that pack on as often as
Speaker 1: I can. So put that into your schedule, your way
Speaker 1: to pack, because that's really the type of stuff that's
Speaker 1: gonna help boost you into preparing for your hunting season.
Speaker 1: Number three, I'm gonna say, set aside four weekends for
Speaker 1: just all day grinding throughout the year. Right now, pull
Speaker 1: out your calendar, find some weekends that work in your
Speaker 1: schedule between now and hunting season. One thing that I
Speaker 1: realize is when people get into the hunting season, they
Speaker 1: work out, they do everything, they're prepped, yet they haven't
Speaker 1: had that all day grind. Pick a Saturday where you
Speaker 1: can go somewhere. Maybe you have to, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: have it near your house, You might have to travel
Speaker 1: a little ways or maybe whatever. Pick a time set aside,
Speaker 1: whether it's maybe you can combine it with something else.
Speaker 1: I like to combine it with upland bird hunting, like
Speaker 1: checker hunting somewhere that's really steep and difficult. I like
Speaker 1: to combine it with looking for sheds. I like to
Speaker 1: combine it with just maybe something else that I want
Speaker 1: to do, maybe a peak or something like that. Make
Speaker 1: a trip out of it, but something where you have
Speaker 1: to be walking and hiking all day with a pack on.
Speaker 1: That's what hunting is. You're you're hiking with a heavy
Speaker 1: pack on all day for days on end. There should
Speaker 1: be multiple times throughout the year where you schedule yourself
Speaker 1: sometime to do that. If you can make it in
Speaker 1: a thing, make an event, make it fun, whatever, have
Speaker 1: some friends join you, whether it's a backpacking trip or
Speaker 1: whatever you've got, whether it's today, whether it's two days,
Speaker 1: something where you gotta have some weight on and grind
Speaker 1: for a full day, not just an hour around the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: But you actually get that, Okay, this is what it's like,
Speaker 1: this is what it feels like, and it helps build
Speaker 1: your mind in a better mental state when you actually
Speaker 1: get out in the field and encounter those hard days.
Speaker 1: Actually having gone through some all day grinds before the
Speaker 1: hunting season. I think that huge. So just scheduling a
Speaker 1: couple of things like that throughout the year, that's gonna
Speaker 1: pay huge dividends when it comes time for hunting season.
Speaker 1: And I know a lot of people that this is
Speaker 1: your lifestyle. You're already doing that anyways, But for those
Speaker 1: of you that maybe this is new, I just think
Speaker 1: that's a great way to get in and you can
Speaker 1: kind of build some of these other skills to while
Speaker 1: you're out there doing that. Number four, I really think
Speaker 1: staying fit and like being ready and being in hunting shape,
Speaker 1: elk shape, whatever sheep shape is as much eating as
Speaker 1: it is staying active. So you gotta stay active. But
Speaker 1: like I told last year's story, my dad, who kind
Speaker 1: of um is like my personal fitness inspiration, a guy
Speaker 1: that was overweight and just completely changed his life to
Speaker 1: be better in the field hunting. So you can keep
Speaker 1: up with his kids. And I mean that guy. I've
Speaker 1: got a lot of friends that are half his age,
Speaker 1: and he will out hike, out carry out perform. He
Speaker 1: is just a machine and he does it because he
Speaker 1: made a commitment to work out just thirty minutes a day,
Speaker 1: and he has not missed a day in thirteen years,
Speaker 1: which is incredible. And that's the kind of fitness inspiration
Speaker 1: that I have in my life. And to see it firsthand,
Speaker 1: you're like, wow, I want to be like that kind
Speaker 1: of dedication. But also he noticed that he would work out, workout,
Speaker 1: work out, but until he started eating better, he kept
Speaker 1: on that weight. And it just it's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to shed some weight on your body and then add
Speaker 1: some weight in your pack. I'd rather have the weight
Speaker 1: in my pack than on my body because it's not
Speaker 1: with me all the time. And I think that eating
Speaker 1: is as much part of fitness, and like when when
Speaker 1: you go in your daily routine of what you eat.
Speaker 1: I'm not big on like just counting all these calories
Speaker 1: and really worrying about it, but I do try to
Speaker 1: live a healthy lifestyle and a lot of that comes
Speaker 1: with wild game cooking at home. Obviously, during this COVID thing,
Speaker 1: I think I've never been more healthy because I've I've
Speaker 1: been eating out less. But one thing that I did
Speaker 1: add into my regiment was just um within my workout
Speaker 1: and everything like that, just adding started to do like
Speaker 1: meal replace shakes as opposed to like eating big breakfast
Speaker 1: in the times of year where I'm not as active
Speaker 1: and I just use my w a like meal replaced
Speaker 1: shake and then do my workout. It's like, Okay, it's
Speaker 1: a workout, but it's not like my all day hunting, hiking,
Speaker 1: working kind of stuff. So for me, that's really helped,
Speaker 1: especially on a year where like last year, whereas like
Speaker 1: at home more than I've ever been in my entire life,
Speaker 1: and I think that I went into the hunting season
Speaker 1: it's surprisingly good shape because of adding that into my regiment,
Speaker 1: where normally most years for me, it's hard for me
Speaker 1: because I I just do it all the time. So
Speaker 1: I'm always out in the field, whether it's guiding or
Speaker 1: doing whatever, so I'm doing it. But this year was
Speaker 1: a little bit different. I was like, Okay, I'm not
Speaker 1: doing it all the time, so how do I balance
Speaker 1: physical activity being active? And it was just working out
Speaker 1: at home and then you know, adding in stuff like
Speaker 1: the meal replacement shakes and just eating good whole foods,
Speaker 1: meats and vegetables and cooking myself something good, healthy, tasty, nutritious,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Simple stuff. But it's fun to
Speaker 1: hear from somebody that's like, I only do this so
Speaker 1: I kill more elk, And that's God's honest truth. Otherwise
Speaker 1: I probably wouldn't do any of this. Who knows, but um,
Speaker 1: yeah it does. It does make a big difference when
Speaker 1: it comes time for hunting season, especially in Western big
Speaker 1: game hunting number six And this is something that I
Speaker 1: kind of try to live by. Take the harder route
Speaker 1: and in your training, get some vert you know, hunting.
Speaker 1: Mountain hunting is vertical. The part where people slack in
Speaker 1: the part where people struggle is the uphill. So find
Speaker 1: things where you can get the uphill. I know, not
Speaker 1: everybody lives in mountains. I am very fortunate that I
Speaker 1: can just climb a mountain any day that I feel
Speaker 1: like at any I can walk out right now after
Speaker 1: I finish this podcast and go climb a big mountain
Speaker 1: without having to do much. But there are other ways
Speaker 1: to get vertical. And that could be stairs, um, that
Speaker 1: could be stair machines, that could be anything where you
Speaker 1: build that lunk capacity for hiking up hill and heck,
Speaker 1: you still got your COVID mask, might maybe throw that
Speaker 1: on when you jump on the old StairMaster, throw your
Speaker 1: pack on and make it hard for yourself. Take the
Speaker 1: hard route. I think that you're going to find that
Speaker 1: you're gonna be able to push through a lot more
Speaker 1: when you do that. Throughout the year number seven, do
Speaker 1: something this year that's really hard, something that you didn't
Speaker 1: think you can do, something that you've never done before.
Speaker 1: I don't care what it is, but something that's physical.
Speaker 1: If you've never run ten miles, make it a goal
Speaker 1: that you're gonna run ten miles. I don't it doesn't
Speaker 1: I don't know where you're at. But make it something
Speaker 1: that you haven't done seems hard and is going to
Speaker 1: be difficult for you. If you haven't gone a marathon distance,
Speaker 1: do that. If you haven't done a multi day hike
Speaker 1: or something, do something like that. Do something, Find something
Speaker 1: that's hard for you to do, and do it. And
Speaker 1: I think that being able to overcome things that are
Speaker 1: difficult really gets you in the good mental state when
Speaker 1: you're out there, to keep pushing further, to hunt harder,
Speaker 1: to do what your body is capable of, but not
Speaker 1: talking yourself out of it. And I think that it
Speaker 1: takes some I realize over my course of my life,
Speaker 1: and like interacting with a lot of people on hunts,
Speaker 1: and I mean, year in and year out of here,
Speaker 1: this is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life,
Speaker 1: and I go, this is not this was not a
Speaker 1: difficult hunt. Not not saying it's a difficult hunt for me,
Speaker 1: but I can understand how it was a difficult for someone.
Speaker 1: So I also think that just getting into the mindset
Speaker 1: of doing something that's out of your comfort zone that's difficult,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't even have to be something crazy. It
Speaker 1: just has to be something that is difficult, that is
Speaker 1: uncomfortable for you to do, that you haven't done before.
Speaker 1: That kind of gets you into that mode. I personally
Speaker 1: do something like that every year, maybe multiple times a year.
Speaker 1: I think it's one thing that's really helped build that
Speaker 1: mental toughness of your I I guarantee ninety not unless
Speaker 1: you have like some real serious health thing. Most people
Speaker 1: are capable of a lot of stuff that they didn't
Speaker 1: know they were capable of, but they just can't talk
Speaker 1: themselves out of it. So those are my fitness tips,
Speaker 1: And if you take those going into this year, start
Speaker 1: building out a plan that includes those things, you're gonna
Speaker 1: find yourself way more ready when it comes time to chase. Ok,
Speaker 1: when you see that, got to go that next ridge.
Speaker 1: When you've got when it's day five of a seven
Speaker 1: day hunt, and you hunt it as hard as you can,
Speaker 1: you've got two days left to keep going. The next
Speaker 1: section is going to be all about hunt planning. Whether
Speaker 1: you live out west, whether you want to embark on
Speaker 1: your first elk hunt this year, you know whatever, deer hunt,
Speaker 1: antelope hunt, whatever you got going. Now is the time
Speaker 1: to start planning because now you've got to start applying
Speaker 1: for tag. Yous gotta figure out what you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: If you're new to it, it seems daunting. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna start you out with the seven tips on just
Speaker 1: kind of like the basic run through of where to go,
Speaker 1: what to do. So we're gone number eight here, which
Speaker 1: is number one for hunt planning. See how I did this?
Speaker 1: Uh so it's gonna be the first thing I do.
Speaker 1: This is I'm just going through my step process. So
Speaker 1: number eight we got line out all the deadlines for
Speaker 1: the applications. What I do I sit down, I figure
Speaker 1: out what deadlines for what states, what applications. When I
Speaker 1: need to buy tags by some have already passed, but
Speaker 1: for the most part, most of them are coming up.
Speaker 1: I figured that all out. I make a master calendar.
Speaker 1: I say, okay, now i've got a plan. Now from there,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to number nine. I say, pick the
Speaker 1: states you're interested in and get regulations once I have. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the states that are available. Okay, maybe I'm interested in.
Speaker 1: For me, I'm interested in my home state of Nevada.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in places that are close by and places
Speaker 1: that maybe have some more over the counter type opportunities
Speaker 1: and places that I've been applying. So I kind of
Speaker 1: pick areas that are close to me. You know, maybe
Speaker 1: do the same. If you live further further east and
Speaker 1: it's you're making a trip, maybe pick somewhere that's reasonably
Speaker 1: easy to get to where you might be able to
Speaker 1: go out once during the summer and scout it out
Speaker 1: and then go hunt it. Who always ask what's the
Speaker 1: best state to hunt? Honestly, I think it's one where
Speaker 1: you can spend some time. For most people, it will
Speaker 1: probably be Colorado because it's closer to where they live. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a lot to be said. Now. Some people are like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm already driving twenty hours, what's forty hours? Should I
Speaker 1: go somewhere else? I don't know. It's up to you.
Speaker 1: The place doesn't necessarily matter. But what you need to
Speaker 1: do is just pick places that you're interested in, that
Speaker 1: have animals that you want to hunt, or an experience
Speaker 1: that you're looking for. Get the regulations and see what
Speaker 1: kind of tags are available, what it might take to
Speaker 1: get a tag, and where you might be able to hunt.
Speaker 1: Now number ten is going to be look for your hunt.
Speaker 1: Now that you've got those regulations, you've got you know
Speaker 1: what you want to hunt, start looking for a tag
Speaker 1: that you can obtain or one that you can start
Speaker 1: applying for. What does it have that you like? There's
Speaker 1: also services out there. Um. I recently this year started
Speaker 1: using the go hunt app. It's I like that one
Speaker 1: because you can do your own research on it. There's
Speaker 1: a membership. I think that's been worth its weight in
Speaker 1: gold this year. Last year, I talked a lot about
Speaker 1: prepping and gave a lot of tips in the way
Speaker 1: that I do. It is pretty our kick because now
Speaker 1: there's software that essentially does what I. All the conclusions
Speaker 1: that I came to I was able to figure out
Speaker 1: in thirty seconds. So stuff like that's cool. UM. One
Speaker 1: services that I use a lot as well, Hunting Fool,
Speaker 1: Epic Outdoors. Those kind of things are just research tools. Um,
Speaker 1: but those are just research tools. I still think that
Speaker 1: you should do a lot of this research and find
Speaker 1: what fits for you, uh and what you can reasonably
Speaker 1: do and how you can get a tag and just
Speaker 1: start looking for a hunt somewhere to go. That's what
Speaker 1: you need, a place to go. And then what you
Speaker 1: need to do on that look for hunt is select
Speaker 1: somewhere that you're like, okay, you maybe you apply for
Speaker 1: a few places, but find some find a hunt that
Speaker 1: you can go do and then do it. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of hidden gems out there. I think one that
Speaker 1: surprised me this year was just California over the counter
Speaker 1: your tag. I think it's widely underutilized. Um. There's some
Speaker 1: great hunting, maybe not some giant bucks, but some incredible
Speaker 1: country and some some great tags. There's stuff like that
Speaker 1: all over the country. You just have to look for it.
Speaker 1: But once you have that, then you can go into
Speaker 1: number eleven logistics of getting the unit sorted, so you
Speaker 1: figure out what you're gonna do now is where we're
Speaker 1: gonna be like, Okay, how am I gonna get there?
Speaker 1: Am I gonna drive? Am I gonna fly? Um? Where
Speaker 1: am I gonna can't? Can I get a tag? What
Speaker 1: kind of tag can I get? What are the season dates?
Speaker 1: Planning out the logistics. Now you're in the actual phase
Speaker 1: of getting your hunt going. You're planning a hunt. You've
Speaker 1: got your dates set you know where you're gonna be,
Speaker 1: you know the unit you're gonna be, Maybe not exactly
Speaker 1: where you're gonna hunt, but you've got that set out.
Speaker 1: Then I jumped to number twelve, and that's start map scouting.
Speaker 1: This is where I figure out where I'm gonna hunt.
Speaker 1: I've I've narrowed it from wide like big broad, don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna do. I'm looking at deadlines in
Speaker 1: different places, to picking a state too, then looking for
Speaker 1: a hunt and picking a unit, to getting the logistics
Speaker 1: of the dates and the times and the seasons that
Speaker 1: I can go. Now I'm going to start scouting and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that on my ONYX map. Pull out
Speaker 1: my map, looking for different features, um topography, access points, trailheads, campsites, roads,
Speaker 1: Start planning and this can all be done. At this
Speaker 1: in this application season, in this time, and you can
Speaker 1: even just do a brief planning of Okay, look at
Speaker 1: the unit and say, maybe before you even buy a tag,
Speaker 1: say is there good public land access? Is there somewhere
Speaker 1: I'm going to hunt? Look on the map, say, okay,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of public land, there's not a lot
Speaker 1: of public land. Start over, look at maybe another place,
Speaker 1: another unit. Now, once I've decided I found a place
Speaker 1: that I can actually do, I'm going to commit to
Speaker 1: that area. Then number thirteen, I would say, in hunt planning,
Speaker 1: listen back to a lot of these podcasts. I've got
Speaker 1: map podcasts, I've got species specific podcasts. I think there's
Speaker 1: enough information go back and listen to some of it
Speaker 1: as you get further into planning your trip, planning your hunt.
Speaker 1: I think they're really valuable tools. You can zoom past
Speaker 1: the stories, listen to the tips, you can ignore the
Speaker 1: tips and listen to the stories. Some people get more
Speaker 1: information out of stories, and people get more information out
Speaker 1: of tips. But I think that's a great resource to have.
Speaker 1: Um Also, you know there's plenty of great online resources
Speaker 1: and other resources out there. Magazines, Western Hunter Magazine, a
Speaker 1: lot of great just like ways to prepare yourself for
Speaker 1: the skill set that you're going to need. And then
Speaker 1: number fourteen is gear up throughout the year. What I
Speaker 1: like to do If I've got a hunt planned, um,
Speaker 1: start thinking about the things you're gonna need things that
Speaker 1: you start looking for that stuff. Maybe you need a
Speaker 1: new pack, maybe you need to new this. Maybe you
Speaker 1: want one high quality piece of gear that you don't have.
Speaker 1: Start gearing up, Start looking for that gear. Maybe you
Speaker 1: can find some good deals. But also just kind of
Speaker 1: start mentally planning. Okay, what logistical things am I gonna need?
Speaker 1: How am I going to do my food? How am
Speaker 1: I gonna when I get something? How am I going
Speaker 1: to get it back? What am I going to bring
Speaker 1: with me? Start making a master list, like a packing list,
Speaker 1: of the things you're gonna need for this trip. Once
Speaker 1: you have all that button down, you are well on
Speaker 1: your way to success and you've done the steps that
Speaker 1: really I mean, it sounds like a lot, but it's
Speaker 1: really not that that much. It's the steps that most
Speaker 1: people want to take but don't. It's how you get
Speaker 1: from sitting at home thinking about it to getting out
Speaker 1: in the field and doing it. Now we're gonna go
Speaker 1: into the third category, which is shooting, And I think
Speaker 1: shooting is huge. You've got yourself to this point, you
Speaker 1: are fit, you have hiked all week, you have finally
Speaker 1: found the elk, you have put in the time planning
Speaker 1: and preparing and spent a whole year thinking about it.
Speaker 1: Then whatever you're hunting walks out and you miss it.
Speaker 1: That sucks. I've been there, We've all been there. It sucks,
Speaker 1: and I think the ways to mitig eight that are
Speaker 1: just spending a lot more time with whatever you're shooting.
Speaker 1: And as a as a professional hunting guide, I can
Speaker 1: tell you most people don't spend enough time with what
Speaker 1: they're shooting. Most hunters, I would say that that is
Speaker 1: um being fit and being not ready for when that
Speaker 1: moment arrives. And that is the easiest place to mess up,
Speaker 1: because that's when the excitement should happen. That's when everything
Speaker 1: is so exciting. That's when you panic, that's when stuff
Speaker 1: goes down. That's just the easiest place to make a mistake.
Speaker 1: And so I think that you can kind of mitigate
Speaker 1: those mistakes with practice, and I personally know from myself.
Speaker 1: I do it all the time, and I still need
Speaker 1: to continually be better at it, because I don't think
Speaker 1: that I'll ever get to a point where I say,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I've had enough. I've I've got to that point.
Speaker 1: I just think, when are you good enough? Never? Um So,
Speaker 1: I I always am constantly trying to change things, do
Speaker 1: things different. And that's why I've set up these tips
Speaker 1: for or shooting, because it's all part of punching more tags.
Speaker 1: So number fifteen in this whole master list, Number one
Speaker 1: of shooting would be to create a regiment um with
Speaker 1: with a seer, a bow hunter. How many arrows a
Speaker 1: week can you shoot? Just like the fitness thing. I say,
Speaker 1: let's say it's fifty arrows, a hundred arrows, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Make it something that's obtainable. It doesn't have to be crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, even if it's twenty arrows a week, I
Speaker 1: don't care what it is. Don't just be the guy
Speaker 1: that grabs your bow right before the season, like pick
Speaker 1: a time. It's like okay, yep, it's ten arrows a week.
Speaker 1: I don't care what it is, but just pick something
Speaker 1: and stick to it. You know, Yeah, maybe you're gonna
Speaker 1: be out of town and you can't whatever, but you know,
Speaker 1: write down how many what your goal is, and then
Speaker 1: meet that goal because it gets you in the habit
Speaker 1: of doing something good that's gonna benefit you. And I
Speaker 1: definitely think that people that rifle hunt definitely skip this
Speaker 1: step to For archers, it's easy because you can do
Speaker 1: it at your house, but it's getting ranged time is hard.
Speaker 1: So maybe you're a rifle hunt or maybe it's just
Speaker 1: saying once a month, I'm going to shoot ten rounds.
Speaker 1: You know, as AMMO gets in short supply. It doesn't
Speaker 1: even have to be the rifle that you're shooting. Maybe
Speaker 1: you've got a lighter caliber rifle it's twenty two. Get out,
Speaker 1: do some shooting, create a schedule and a regiment, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna make you better. Number sixteen. This is I
Speaker 1: call this like the gear tuning phase. So let's think
Speaker 1: of it as like throughout the year, what I would
Speaker 1: schedule is January through April, April April. I can't even
Speaker 1: talk today. January through April, it's just gonna be that
Speaker 1: gear tuning time. And this is something you know, for
Speaker 1: me personally, I get a lot of new gear and
Speaker 1: then I'm trying and I'm mixing in between the season
Speaker 1: and that's why I've got like some stuff that's older
Speaker 1: that I just stick with because it's just I know,
Speaker 1: it's it's nailed in, like it's set, it's solid. I
Speaker 1: don't need to mess with anything. So in this beginning
Speaker 1: part winter through January, April, whatever, this is the time
Speaker 1: should tune your gear, not right before the season. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna put new stuff on it, change it
Speaker 1: now if you want to. If you want to get
Speaker 1: new arrows, um, now is a good time to do
Speaker 1: it for me, Like last year, I did it this,
Speaker 1: That's what I did. I I switched up my arrows,
Speaker 1: set up, I tweaked a few things on my bow.
Speaker 1: Now maybe you're gonna try it. You know, obviously new
Speaker 1: stuff comes out once you get it set. You can
Speaker 1: always change things later, but you know, mess with it now, like, um,
Speaker 1: I mount my rifle, my new rifle scopes. This. I
Speaker 1: try to get it this time of year where I
Speaker 1: can really make sure that everything is set level, put right,
Speaker 1: Like put in a little bit of time on this
Speaker 1: end so that way, as you get closer to the
Speaker 1: hunting season, you're practicing with what you're gonna hunt with,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to change it later. I know.
Speaker 1: I mean it always surprises me. I'm like, archery sales
Speaker 1: are always the biggest, Like the few weeks before archery season.
Speaker 1: I'm like, how is that possible. It's so difficult to
Speaker 1: really get everything set up how you want in that
Speaker 1: short amount of time. So now is the time you
Speaker 1: need to tune, do your your broad tuning, do your
Speaker 1: get your bow tuned well, get everything dialed. And for
Speaker 1: me this year, that's going to be a huge focus
Speaker 1: of mine, is just really getting back to that where
Speaker 1: I get it dialed early and then I have a
Speaker 1: lot more time to do other kinds of practice. So
Speaker 1: number seventeen, it kind of brings us into this what
Speaker 1: I call hunt minded practice, and maybe we call it
Speaker 1: like may may slay time, Like it's just my mind
Speaker 1: switches gears from getting everything set and practicing to just
Speaker 1: going hunt focused practice. And one thing that I find
Speaker 1: very effective and you should definitely plan on doing is roving.
Speaker 1: And what that is is um walking around in the
Speaker 1: hills with whatever you're hunting with bow, longbow, reeker. I
Speaker 1: do it with everything. I use the rubber blunt tips,
Speaker 1: I walk around and shoot safe targets, you know, like
Speaker 1: pine cones, random stuff, whatever. Three D target shooting is
Speaker 1: good to um at different yardages, to practice judging distance,
Speaker 1: to practice understanding drop compensation, to practice shooting in field
Speaker 1: type positions. I My practice is focused toward hunting. I've
Speaker 1: talked about it before, but I definitely think that you
Speaker 1: need to think about that, especially coming into the new year.
Speaker 1: Something to think about. UM, it's also something you do
Speaker 1: with a rifle. Uh, go out shoot rocks. Obviously you
Speaker 1: need to make sure that one there's no fire danger too.
Speaker 1: You've got a solid backstop and it's not dangerous. Don't
Speaker 1: be stupid. But like you can definitely go out and
Speaker 1: do that with a rifle as well. Very I think
Speaker 1: not enough people practice with the rifle, and it gave
Speaker 1: me even something. You go out with the twenty two
Speaker 1: and do so. UM. I've talked about all this before,
Speaker 1: but I think it bears repeating, especially this time of year.
Speaker 1: Number eighteen. Practice those angles. Plan it into your practice,
Speaker 1: whether it's a gun or about practice shooting at angles.
Speaker 1: It's the weak point in the hunt. Shooting up hill,
Speaker 1: shooting downhill, shooting whatever with a rifle, with a boat,
Speaker 1: you know, think about it. Most rifle practices at a
Speaker 1: range flat. Now, not everywhere has the ability to do that,
Speaker 1: but it's something if you if you do, you should
Speaker 1: do it, whether you gotta. I've said it before, like
Speaker 1: don't fall off your roof. But like if you've got
Speaker 1: a balcony, practice there. If you could set a tree
Speaker 1: stand up in your backyard with your bows, practice there,
Speaker 1: Like figure out ways to practice some of these angles. Do.
Speaker 1: What you shouldn't do is put your target on your
Speaker 1: roof and practice shooting up because that sounds dangerous. But
Speaker 1: if you can get out in the mountains for a
Speaker 1: weekend shoot or whatever, do some three D shoots, you
Speaker 1: make sure to get those angles dialed a number nineteen,
Speaker 1: you know, stretch it out over the year, whatever, figure
Speaker 1: out what your effective distances now, and then expand your
Speaker 1: skills to shoot further, not necessarily to hunt, shoot further,
Speaker 1: but just so you know you're capable of it. Like,
Speaker 1: whatever you're tight group is now at the furthest yardage,
Speaker 1: plan on practicing to a point where you maintain that
Speaker 1: same grouping at double the yardage. Whether it's with a rifle,
Speaker 1: whether it's with a bow, whatever. Um, if you're you're
Speaker 1: used to shooting in a hundred yard targets range, shoot further,
Speaker 1: practice reaching out now, and get in the habit of
Speaker 1: making that your type of practice. I necessarily don't think
Speaker 1: it's great for like well, with the bow. You know,
Speaker 1: I like to shoot further, but I like to hunt close. Um.
Speaker 1: It's just because it helps me fine tune my whole
Speaker 1: set up and know that everything is flying right and
Speaker 1: everything's good to go, and gives me that added skill of,
Speaker 1: you know, just being a better shot overall. And it
Speaker 1: definitely plays a factor in rifle shooting. I think too
Speaker 1: many people go out sited in a hundred yards. I
Speaker 1: say it's good, they got their ballistics app and they
Speaker 1: think they're gonna shoot really far, and they haven't actually
Speaker 1: proven it in the field or on the bench. So
Speaker 1: I think that that's a way that you should will
Speaker 1: make yourself better. Number twenty Field position shooting and the
Speaker 1: one perfect shot. One thing that I like to do,
Speaker 1: whether it's with a rifle, whether it's with a bow,
Speaker 1: go out, set it up in a field type position
Speaker 1: and take one perfect shot that what I call a
Speaker 1: cold boar shot. You don't get any redos, any practice
Speaker 1: shots when you're out in the field make one perfect shot.
Speaker 1: And I think it's it's also really good for rifle
Speaker 1: hunters and field shooting positions, even if it's at the range.
Speaker 1: Put out your target. You know that you're going to
Speaker 1: fire that gun one time, and shoot off your pack,
Speaker 1: shoot off your knee, make it fast, like like you're
Speaker 1: in the field. It's better if you can get out
Speaker 1: into a field type setting and just set up and shoot,
Speaker 1: and you get one shot and and start recording those
Speaker 1: like okay, did I hit? Did I miss? Write it
Speaker 1: down every day and see your progression, because you want
Speaker 1: to be getting better over time and see, okay, look
Speaker 1: when I started out, I was in the ten oring
Speaker 1: and then hitting the target and missing this many times
Speaker 1: or whatever, um you know, and then over the course
Speaker 1: of the year, track your progression. I think it's really
Speaker 1: good to be able to do that, to look back
Speaker 1: and say here's where I started, here's where I ended up,
Speaker 1: and I can see my progress. And then number twenty
Speaker 1: one our final tip, I would say on the shooting category,
Speaker 1: shooting those uncomfortable positions, but practice some offhand type shooting. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you're a rifle shooter, I mean there are those
Speaker 1: times where you might have to make a quick close shot.
Speaker 1: People say, oh, you should never shoot off hand or whatever. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean I I practice most of my range time
Speaker 1: shooting not only just for fun. It helps practice trigger control.
Speaker 1: And I mean I shoot a lot of two to
Speaker 1: four yard targets off hand with my rifle because it's
Speaker 1: more fun, it's a little more challenging, and you just
Speaker 1: probably will be surprised how much better you can get
Speaker 1: at it. Now the bow, I would say the opposite.
Speaker 1: Practice shooting from your knees, practice shooting from a position
Speaker 1: that isn't um your standard shooting position. All it's trying
Speaker 1: to do is is mix things up, get you better
Speaker 1: in whatever scenario you encounter. So when the time comes
Speaker 1: to make the perfect shot, you're gonna nail it. As
Speaker 1: you ring in the new year, I hope that you
Speaker 1: kind of take some of the off just into practice,
Speaker 1: into getting better, creating some goals and some things that
Speaker 1: you'd like to do, and getting out there and doing
Speaker 1: it and and then tell me you know about your progress.
Speaker 1: That's one thing that I really love to hear. I
Speaker 1: hear it all the time. Last year, somebody that went
Speaker 1: on a trip or did something that they didn't think
Speaker 1: they could do and was successful or even just attempted. Um.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of stuff that I love to hear about.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you guys reaching out with that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. I'm excited for this new year. I hope
Speaker 1: that there are some better year ahead than the last one,
Speaker 1: and whatever looked like, hopefully one looks a little bit
Speaker 1: better and at least there's some things we can do
Speaker 1: to make ourselves better. And I know that all these
Speaker 1: things that I talk about are things that I do
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be doing and constantly striving to
Speaker 1: get better at. So I don't think that there's ever
Speaker 1: a point where I I never want to hit a
Speaker 1: point where I'm like, yeah, I'm good enough at that. UM.
Speaker 1: I constantly want to push myself and be better at it,
Speaker 1: and because of it, I find more success, I find
Speaker 1: more enjoyment and what I love so much. And so
Speaker 1: I hope that you guys can take that to heart.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, everyone, enjoy your family, enjoy your day,
Speaker 1: enjoy your new year, and we will catch you next
Speaker 1: time on cutting the distance.