Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics. They'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the Distance. Welcome back to the podcast everybody.
Speaker 1: This week we are heading to the fabled mail sack.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be answering your questions. I got a lot
Speaker 1: of great questions this week, a lot of interest. On
Speaker 1: last week's podcast, if you missed it, it was talking
Speaker 1: about large predators in your hunting area, possible things you
Speaker 1: might encounter, possible defense strategies. So if you didn't check
Speaker 1: that out, check that out. But there's definitely a lot
Speaker 1: of awesome questions in here. So let's uh, let's get
Speaker 1: to the first question. This first question comes from Peter.
Speaker 1: He says, Hey, Reby, just listen to the latest podcast
Speaker 1: on predator protection. Great stuff. Curious if you have any
Speaker 1: thoughts on how to carry while backcountry hunting, specifically bow hunting.
Speaker 1: Do you carry your side arm, on your pack, on
Speaker 1: your by, no harness, etcetera. Thanks so much, Pete from California.
Speaker 1: That's a great question, and I think it is something
Speaker 1: that I missed or didn't cover. Um, I've kind of
Speaker 1: played with a lot of different types of holsters, a
Speaker 1: lot of different type of stuff. For me, I think
Speaker 1: what seems to be the easiest is I generally just
Speaker 1: have a holster on my pack. I mean nine percent
Speaker 1: of the time I've got my pack on. Then if
Speaker 1: I dropped my pack to stock or move around or
Speaker 1: like I'm at camp, whatever, I just switched that holster
Speaker 1: from my pack. I just undo it off my pack
Speaker 1: and then just put it on my my belt. Especially
Speaker 1: if I'm in grizz country. I keep that pretty handy.
Speaker 1: I actually have a holster that has and I honestly
Speaker 1: don't know the make of it. I got a long
Speaker 1: time ago, but it's one that if I'm in like
Speaker 1: not necessarily big Bear country, but I've got maybe my
Speaker 1: nine millimeter or whatever, it's um the whole story. I
Speaker 1: can take it off my pack and it's got like
Speaker 1: a belt clip. So if it's just like, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, wearing it around camp or something
Speaker 1: like that, or I just needed somewhere to put it, UM,
Speaker 1: then I can switch it to my belt clip really easy.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, if I'm gonna be stocking
Speaker 1: and I in like brown Bear grizz country, I'll generally
Speaker 1: move it from my pack just to like put it
Speaker 1: on my belt so it doesn't fall off if I'm
Speaker 1: crawling around or stocking in or something like that, And
Speaker 1: that seems to work pretty well for me. This next
Speaker 1: question comes from Angelo. It says, Hey, Remy love the podcast.
Speaker 1: I have a question for you. Me and my friend
Speaker 1: our first time elk hunters in a southwestern state. We
Speaker 1: usually just hunt mule deers, but we drew a October
Speaker 1: ninth to the thirteenth elk tag. I was just wondering
Speaker 1: if we should start learning how to bugle or if
Speaker 1: we would be just fine with like a hoochie mama
Speaker 1: type call. Thanks. Also, any good pointers for hunting later
Speaker 1: part of the rut and this is a rifle hunt.
Speaker 1: That's a great question, Angelo, especially if your first time
Speaker 1: elk country. You think, Okay, well, what should I expect
Speaker 1: that October nine to the thirteen timeframe? Um? It actually
Speaker 1: can still have quite a bit of running activity. UM
Speaker 1: I would I would highly suggest at least learning how
Speaker 1: to blow a bugle. For a couple of reasons, one, Um,
Speaker 1: you're gonna you could probably use it. The call that
Speaker 1: I'd be using the most would be like a location
Speaker 1: type call. So this is gonna be like a one,
Speaker 1: two or three note, just long drawn out call, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna be broadcasting this into areas where that sound travels.
Speaker 1: So if you're in a little bit thicker terrain, you
Speaker 1: can kind of like you know, when when we sit
Speaker 1: down and glass, I say, let your eyes do the walking. Well,
Speaker 1: in thick country sometimes you can't glass in it, so
Speaker 1: let your ears do the walking. What that location bugle
Speaker 1: does is it's it's a way that elk are kind
Speaker 1: of communicating to the cows. So a bowl will make
Speaker 1: out this this long sound saying like where are the
Speaker 1: cows in this this area, helping to draw them to him,
Speaker 1: But another bowl will bugle hearing that, saying no, don't
Speaker 1: go to him, come to me, um, And then at
Speaker 1: some point then those elk kind of start talking to
Speaker 1: each other. At the very basis of it, it's a
Speaker 1: really good call to know. Just to be able to
Speaker 1: locate a bowl in some thicker training just adds another
Speaker 1: UM trick to your your repertoire. Now I will say
Speaker 1: during a rifle hunt, you know, you want to make
Speaker 1: sure you're in an area that probably doesn't have um
Speaker 1: a lot of other hunters, you know, if you start
Speaker 1: hearing beagles and then you're bugling. But sometimes, like it
Speaker 1: can be kind of distracting in a rifle hunt because
Speaker 1: you might call in other hunters or whatever. But you know,
Speaker 1: just be careful. Just because you hear a bugle doesn't
Speaker 1: certainly mean it's an elk. Could also be another hunter, UM,
Speaker 1: and you know, kind of be safe and think about
Speaker 1: it that way. But I would say that UM, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily leave out bugling. One thing I would suggest though,
Speaker 1: is also just practicing with some other types of elk call,
Speaker 1: so you can make some other types of elk sounds.
Speaker 1: UH and open read calls a really good beginner elk
Speaker 1: call for making cow sounds. What that is is just
Speaker 1: kind of like it's got this mouthpiece and then read
Speaker 1: over the top. Then you kind of run your teeth
Speaker 1: and just change the pitch by applying different pressure. So
Speaker 1: the hushi ama squeeze type calls great if you're just
Speaker 1: beginning you want to make it a quick sound. But
Speaker 1: outside of that sound, that's pretty much all it makes
Speaker 1: now later in the rut, some sounds that you might
Speaker 1: want to make, maybe like um, some some lost cow sounds.
Speaker 1: It depends on the type of terrain you're into, but
Speaker 1: something where you can kind of change the pitch and
Speaker 1: maybe sound like a herd of elk. Another thing you
Speaker 1: might want to think about is like learning an estrus wine,
Speaker 1: which is just this you kind of sound. It's like
Speaker 1: a more drawn out cow sound. But if there's a
Speaker 1: bowl in the area and maybe a late cow coming
Speaker 1: into estrus, it could be something that draws him out
Speaker 1: or maybe even just gets him to bugle. Now, when
Speaker 1: it comes to hunting, the later part of the rut,
Speaker 1: that October nine to the thirteenth, that's pretty much the
Speaker 1: tail end of it most places, especially when you start
Speaker 1: heading for yourself. So you might hear a few bugles,
Speaker 1: but it's not going to be just like that all
Speaker 1: out crazy bugle rut behavior. You might hear a couple
Speaker 1: of bugles in the morning, and that's kind of gonna
Speaker 1: shut them down, So you're gonna have to use a
Speaker 1: combination of tactics. Normally that time of the rut, that
Speaker 1: time of year, what the bulls start doing is they
Speaker 1: start to, like the more mature bulls will actually start
Speaker 1: pulling away from the herds. They might be around the herd,
Speaker 1: but they're going to be kind of off on their own,
Speaker 1: starting to bed and starting to get into that feed pattern.
Speaker 1: But they will still be responsive to maybe coming in
Speaker 1: and checking for cows that haven't been bred. You also
Speaker 1: might get a lot of activity from some younger bulls
Speaker 1: that really kind of got their butt whipped early in
Speaker 1: the rut and now they're joining up with these groups
Speaker 1: of cows and kind of like hanging out hoping that
Speaker 1: there's still some that might come into heat. So one
Speaker 1: thing that I would kind of focus on is find
Speaker 1: the cows. If you're just looking for any elk, you know,
Speaker 1: you can start finding those concentrations of cows the elk
Speaker 1: they're still active. You can ease, you know, funy target,
Speaker 1: and then if you kind of want to target maybe
Speaker 1: a more mature bull, kind of fine where the cows
Speaker 1: are at and then start looking for maybe some more
Speaker 1: feeding areas in secluded timber that's near where those cows are.
Speaker 1: Because those bulls will like they'll actually kind of be
Speaker 1: active in the morning and then the middle of the
Speaker 1: day they'll just start. They'll just pull off and go
Speaker 1: bed by themselves, and then they might join back up
Speaker 1: real late in the evening. So it's not like before
Speaker 1: where they're running the show is more just like they go,
Speaker 1: they hang out, then they leave, and that happens kind
Speaker 1: of towards the tail end of the rut. They're just
Speaker 1: kind of hoping to maybe catch a cow that has
Speaker 1: come out of estrus, but or like late into it,
Speaker 1: so there still is some rutting activity and it just
Speaker 1: depends on I would say, really how the rut was
Speaker 1: where you're at. So if the rut kind of kicked
Speaker 1: off real early, you know, by that October time frame,
Speaker 1: it might be a little late. But it never hurts
Speaker 1: to have a cow call and maybe try some location bugles,
Speaker 1: especially if you if you get a bull fired up.
Speaker 1: I mean I've actually bugled in elk it. I mean
Speaker 1: I've used bugles as late is like November, and I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that's a good tactic, but I've heard bugles
Speaker 1: as late as that time and actually gotten responses from
Speaker 1: bugles as well. It just gives you an idea of
Speaker 1: where the elk might be, especially even if they don't
Speaker 1: get super fired up and they're going to come to
Speaker 1: the call. It's another way to kind of pinpoint their location. Oh.
Speaker 1: As a side note, um, I actually did some used
Speaker 1: to do quite a bit of guiding down where your
Speaker 1: hunt takes place. And one thing that I did find
Speaker 1: in that kind of rifle October season, the elk did
Speaker 1: primarily like the beginning of October, actually came in silent
Speaker 1: to like cow call set up. So if you're in
Speaker 1: an area where, like I know there's a bull here,
Speaker 1: but he went in the timber, I can't find him,
Speaker 1: maybe just sit up or sit over a glassing area
Speaker 1: throughout some cow calls, like hey, we're just a group
Speaker 1: of cows here just hanging out, and you might get
Speaker 1: some bulls to kind of come in sneak and quiet
Speaker 1: just check things out. So that's just another tactic to
Speaker 1: think about, all right. Next question comes from Garrett. Looks
Speaker 1: like it's actually more of a cutting the distance testimonial.
Speaker 1: So it says I just got a new bow after
Speaker 1: not shooting one for about twenty five years. I've had
Speaker 1: it for about three weeks now, and I just stumbled
Speaker 1: upon your podcast and listen to your archery one oh
Speaker 1: one and one oh two podcast series. Long story short,
Speaker 1: you got me aiming with both eyes open, and I
Speaker 1: swear it's the best thing. I would never have tried
Speaker 1: it had you not mentioned it. My accuracy is much
Speaker 1: better and my eye fatigue is less. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Love your podcast. You're a very good speaker and you
Speaker 1: deliver your message very well. Cheers. Thanks for that, Garrett,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. Also, I did get a lot
Speaker 1: of questions coming in about um things about beginning archery
Speaker 1: and getting started different ways of shooting. So if you
Speaker 1: haven't checked out these ones, I think it's a good way,
Speaker 1: a good place to start. The archery one O one
Speaker 1: one oh two kind of series starts around episode seventy six,
Speaker 1: so if you get a chance, And those were some
Speaker 1: of the questions you sent in. A lot of the
Speaker 1: questions I got this week, we're answered in those podcasts,
Speaker 1: So go check those out, and I think that they'll
Speaker 1: be super beneficial to you. All right. This question comes
Speaker 1: from Larry out of New York. He says, Hey, Ramy,
Speaker 1: great job with the podcast. Is always I plan on
Speaker 1: hunting grizz Country Wyoming in Alaska over the next couple
Speaker 1: of years. If on a rifle hunting grizz country, would
Speaker 1: you recommend carrying a pistol as backup for bathroom trips
Speaker 1: in the tent? He said. The story you told of
Speaker 1: your cousin's friend getting dragged out of her tent has
Speaker 1: really got me worried. Thanks for all the shared knowledge.
Speaker 1: That's that's a good question. In the past, I've always thought, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm on a rifle hunt. I've got a rifle. Why
Speaker 1: would I need anything else? This is what I would use.
Speaker 1: Um if I'm in heavy grizz country. I think that
Speaker 1: even with a rifle, I probably still carry some other
Speaker 1: form of barried to trent, whether it's bear spray or
Speaker 1: a pistol. UM. I think that it's just it's a
Speaker 1: lot faster, you have more rounds, there's more options to
Speaker 1: possibly even not even have a lethal encounter, but just
Speaker 1: to scare the bear away. I mean, maybe you see
Speaker 1: the bear at a distance, it kind of starts the
Speaker 1: bluff charge. You can get a shot off um where
Speaker 1: it's still safe, where you could you know, recover and
Speaker 1: shoot or whatever. Maybe that noise would scare it um.
Speaker 1: You know, if you do that with a rifle, you're
Speaker 1: kind of limiting yourself, um or you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: sometimes hard. I don't necessarily like walking around with a
Speaker 1: chambered round in the rifle, not because I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you just it seems like if you're putting it on
Speaker 1: your shoulder, and more often than not, so you've still
Speaker 1: got to get it off your shoulder. It's comversome. It's
Speaker 1: not as fast. I think that, you know, if I'm
Speaker 1: in an area where it's like, hey, I'm worried about
Speaker 1: a grizzly encounter, I know there's a lot of bears here,
Speaker 1: I probably still just take something else, whether it's the
Speaker 1: bear spray or the pistol. Um pistol would be a
Speaker 1: little bit heavier, and it's kind of like, maybe that's
Speaker 1: too much weight. Maybe the bear spray is just a
Speaker 1: little bit lighter and a good option because it might
Speaker 1: be something that's like, hey, this is a lot faster
Speaker 1: to get to a quicker draw and um, maybe just
Speaker 1: as effective and you've kind of got the back the
Speaker 1: pistol or the rifle as that backup, or if you
Speaker 1: can get it off fast enough and use it that's
Speaker 1: the first thing you reach for, you've got it. But
Speaker 1: I think that most people probably, Um, I would have
Speaker 1: trouble using it. I'd say, like in a quick scenario, however,
Speaker 1: if it's a charging bear, you know, and it's a
Speaker 1: you need to shoot it, I think you probably better
Speaker 1: off shooting with your rifle than you would have pistol.
Speaker 1: So there's um, there's kind of like a it's just
Speaker 1: up to you, like what you feel comfortable with. But
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that. I mean, I've definitely done it
Speaker 1: where the rifle was the only thing I took, and
Speaker 1: you know, it was fine and never had any encounters
Speaker 1: and never had any problems. But I think that maybe
Speaker 1: if I did need it, it would probably be hard
Speaker 1: in many instances. Now there's like a lot of places
Speaker 1: Canada another thing you can't carry a pistol around, so
Speaker 1: your option would be used the rifle or carry a shotgun.
Speaker 1: And like if you're fishing, you know you can't have
Speaker 1: a pistol. So, um, I think in those scenarios, you know,
Speaker 1: you're probably just best to go with the bear spray
Speaker 1: and then carry your rifle. Alright. This question comes from Ethan.
Speaker 1: He says, Hey, Ramy, just listen to the Predator podcast.
Speaker 1: My wife is in the Coast Guard and we're getting
Speaker 1: stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, which is obviously large brown bear country.
Speaker 1: I know while hunting, I'll carry my glock twenty, but
Speaker 1: would you suggest carrying while fishing the rivers and streams? Also,
Speaker 1: any other tips for fishing or safety would be greatly
Speaker 1: appreciated as well. I mean, to be a hundred percent honest,
Speaker 1: you're probably the best carrying and while fishing. Um. I
Speaker 1: will say, like the bears when they're on salmon streams,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have more encounters with bears while fishing probably
Speaker 1: than you will hunting because they're concentrated on that food source. Now,
Speaker 1: I will also say that while they're on that food source,
Speaker 1: they kind of don't necessarily care about people. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's not like they're they aren't gonna you probably aren't
Speaker 1: gonna incite a predatory attack, but you may incite an
Speaker 1: attack that could be territorial or um, you know, a
Speaker 1: mom protecting your cubs. So absolutely, UM, I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know whether the pistol or bear spray. I mean
Speaker 1: you can you can kind of go between the two. Um,
Speaker 1: when you're fishing, it seems like you're in that thicker stuff.
Speaker 1: It's kind of close cores. I've had, um, just a
Speaker 1: couple of false charges while like in fishing scenarios, just
Speaker 1: you know, like they come in wolfing and huffing and
Speaker 1: curious and scary and try to scare the crap out
Speaker 1: of you. But I definitely think that you know, like
Speaker 1: when you live in bear country, if you look at
Speaker 1: like the bear techs that have happened this year, it's
Speaker 1: generally not hunters. It's not people hunting. Um, it's mostly
Speaker 1: just people recreating a bear country. But it could be hunters,
Speaker 1: you know, just being in places where there are bears
Speaker 1: and and doing something. The springtime happens to be a
Speaker 1: time that it happens a lot summertime as well. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's just more influx of people, but um, you know,
Speaker 1: people out berry picking, people out shed hiking, people out
Speaker 1: scouting whatever. There's definitely any time you're out there in
Speaker 1: bear country you should kind of be bear aware. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not just relegated to when you're out hunting. Uh,
Speaker 1: other things that you know you think about when you're
Speaker 1: the nice thing about fishing, what you can do is
Speaker 1: you don't have to be quiet, you don't have to
Speaker 1: be stalking around you can make noise, let bears know
Speaker 1: that you're there as you're walking, talk to your friends,
Speaker 1: joke loud. It's not like you're trying to sneak up
Speaker 1: on the fish. I mean, I guess unless you're like
Speaker 1: targeting and fly fishing, sometimes I get a little sneaky.
Speaker 1: But outside of that, you know, make some noise and
Speaker 1: let the bears know that you're there before you even
Speaker 1: if you don't know that the bears are there. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're fishing with a friend or whatever, it's okay
Speaker 1: to be be loud talking kind of it gives those
Speaker 1: bears an advanced warning that you're coming, because a lot
Speaker 1: of the attacks that would happen are probably surprising a bear.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, you, you happened upon a sound some
Speaker 1: cubs and she didn't know you were coming, and you
Speaker 1: didn't know she was there. But if you're loud enough
Speaker 1: and make some noise going into those spots, it might
Speaker 1: kind of disperse them or at least just let them know, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: somebody's coming. You know. You can also approach areas like hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna approach the Sammon stream from the uh down
Speaker 1: wind side, So it's like then my sense blowing into
Speaker 1: where I'm going to be fishing. That's another kind of
Speaker 1: good tactic to think about. And then one other thing is,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're in like a salmon stream, you
Speaker 1: don't want to uh, you know, you're The noises that
Speaker 1: bears here can also be like a dinner bell, just um,
Speaker 1: when you've got like a salmon on the line and
Speaker 1: it's splashing around a lot, so that kind of can
Speaker 1: draw bears in. Like if you're fighting a fish for
Speaker 1: a really long time, sometimes you know you kind of
Speaker 1: want to just fish, get it in and and and
Speaker 1: then get it back or do whatever you're gonna do
Speaker 1: with it, but you also want to kind of make
Speaker 1: sure that you're being aware of your surroundings. You know,
Speaker 1: you've got a fish, Oh you're releasing it, You aren't
Speaker 1: looking down. You want to just kind of constantly being
Speaker 1: aware of your surrounding because when you bring that fish
Speaker 1: in that splashing noise, the bears that are probably like
Speaker 1: what they'll do is they'll kind of be sleeping off
Speaker 1: in the banks in the brush. Then they'll hear that
Speaker 1: splashing of like, oh the runs coming. Oh there's some
Speaker 1: fish stuck in that channel. Sweet eats time to go
Speaker 1: show down, and you're just kind of setting off that
Speaker 1: dinner bell for maybe bears that are in an ear
Speaker 1: shot away. Um, so when you do catch fish, you
Speaker 1: just definitely want to be aware of be bear aware,
Speaker 1: and kind of be always paying attention. Next question comes
Speaker 1: from Michael. He says, hey, Remy, uh, just brought my
Speaker 1: first bow, a recurve, and I'm shooting it a lot
Speaker 1: with the goal eventually bow hunting. I went into an
Speaker 1: archery shop intending to buy a forty five to fifty
Speaker 1: pound recurve, but was humbled by those bows and left
Speaker 1: with a fourteen pound recurs so I could get reps
Speaker 1: in and learn to shoot. He's wondering what tips or
Speaker 1: exercises I have for increasing my draw weight with a bow. Thanks,
Speaker 1: that's a great question. You know, if you're first getting
Speaker 1: into bow hunting, one thing, it's you know, it's like
Speaker 1: you're using muscles that you don't generally use for anything else.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: do is build up the strength and the muscles to
Speaker 1: get the repetition, to be able to draw that bow
Speaker 1: back smoothly, consistently, be able to hold it especially more
Speaker 1: traditional gear, and so what you're doing is great working
Speaker 1: up with a lighter poundage bow. Kind of just understanding
Speaker 1: the basics mechanics, getting your form and everything down and
Speaker 1: actually using a really light poundage bow is a great
Speaker 1: way to do that. I mean, if I think about
Speaker 1: the way that I started was on a very light,
Speaker 1: light bow as a kid UM. I would say though
Speaker 1: that you know, you're gonna need something that's gonna if
Speaker 1: you keep like even just building up that repetition in
Speaker 1: that form, you're gonna have to kind of build up
Speaker 1: by doing so. I would say, you know, get that
Speaker 1: forty five get that forty five pound bow or whatever,
Speaker 1: fifty pound bow, whatever you're feeling. I think, probably start
Speaker 1: out with a forty five pound bow, UM, and then
Speaker 1: you know, maybe just not having to shoot as much,
Speaker 1: but you're gonna build up pretty quickly by starting to
Speaker 1: pull that. I know, and my wife started shooting, UM,
Speaker 1: we had a compound bow for and that's another great
Speaker 1: ways like there are you know, you could even look
Speaker 1: at getting like a bow that's just like um, I
Speaker 1: don't know what they are, like a more modular bow
Speaker 1: where you can kind of build up the draw weights
Speaker 1: to it. It would be like a compound bow, but
Speaker 1: you can kind of add increase the weight, so you'll
Speaker 1: you'll lessen the screws and the limbs there, you'll decrease
Speaker 1: the weight of that boat, and then you'll start building
Speaker 1: that bow up, so you can get that form of
Speaker 1: pulling back the weight and then building up your weight.
Speaker 1: On my when my wife started, she couldn't pull back
Speaker 1: as much. So I had kind of one of these
Speaker 1: beginner like bows that they sell, and I just increased
Speaker 1: the weight so I had a pretty light she start shooting,
Speaker 1: and then we just start gradually increasing the weight by five, ten,
Speaker 1: whatever pounds. Then when she worked up to her hunting bow,
Speaker 1: it couldn't go low enough, but she was able to
Speaker 1: pull it back, you know, a few times, so you
Speaker 1: want to make sure you aren't like struggling really hard.
Speaker 1: But she's able to pull it back, and then she
Speaker 1: shoot a couple rounds and then just stop, and then
Speaker 1: you go okay, later in the day, shoot a couple more,
Speaker 1: and over the course of even just a week, she
Speaker 1: was able to then start pulling a lot more weight,
Speaker 1: and then just by once she had that muscle memory
Speaker 1: that way of pulling and then alt up that weight,
Speaker 1: she was able to shoot a lot more poundage than
Speaker 1: even a few weeks earlier. So it's just something you
Speaker 1: can gradually get into you start practicing building that muscle memory.
Speaker 1: But it's a great idea with that light bow to
Speaker 1: just understand the mechanics of shooting and get like so
Speaker 1: you don't have any bad habits because as soon as
Speaker 1: you start putting extra weight, your brain starts thinking weird
Speaker 1: things like oh this is heavy, I gotta let go,
Speaker 1: or you start messing with your form. So I think
Speaker 1: it's a really good idea. Just shoot that light bow
Speaker 1: a lot til you get that form really locked down,
Speaker 1: and then you can start building that. I mean, you
Speaker 1: could even just anything where it's that drawing motion. I
Speaker 1: mean I've seen guys use like a weight machine where
Speaker 1: they've got weight and you're just doing that straight drawback.
Speaker 1: You can do that with bands. I mean I know
Speaker 1: people that use those like um exercise bands. You just
Speaker 1: change the tension, just don't let go and lose your eye.
Speaker 1: Have I've heard of people losing their eye with the
Speaker 1: exercise man so um. But that's a good way just
Speaker 1: building that form, building that strength. Get some heavy strength
Speaker 1: exercise bands. And just start pulling back, pulling back anything
Speaker 1: where you can kind of build that muscle in that
Speaker 1: boat form, because you gotta it's got to be the
Speaker 1: muscle by doing you know, there's you could build strength
Speaker 1: of many ways, but you have to do it that
Speaker 1: same way of drawing straight back and in that good technique.
Speaker 1: And once you do that, I think you'll be pretty
Speaker 1: much well on your way and you'll you'll find that
Speaker 1: you can progress pretty quickly. It's just you're using muscles
Speaker 1: that probably haven't been used in that direction in that
Speaker 1: way in your entire life. So once you start building
Speaker 1: that form and technique, you should be good. Alright. This
Speaker 1: next question comes from Jacob says. Aramy started listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast last December after I had my first elk hunt.
Speaker 1: That hunt was mostly front country, tons of pressure in
Speaker 1: an opportunity unit ended up shooting a spike a bowl
Speaker 1: and filling the freezer. I can't help but wonder how
Speaker 1: big of a bowl I could have found had I
Speaker 1: listened to your podcast earlier. Anyway, my question today is
Speaker 1: about gauging antler size while glassing. I frequently hear you
Speaker 1: and other guys throughout numbers when you spot an animal
Speaker 1: that's a three plus inch bowl or a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty buck for example, what are your tips for estimating
Speaker 1: deer or elk antler size just by looking at them
Speaker 1: through the spotting scope? What parts of the antlers are
Speaker 1: you referencing on the animal? Like, he's wider than his
Speaker 1: years by x amounts, so he's probably in x y
Speaker 1: z inch range. Uh, he says, headed out to scout
Speaker 1: new unit this weekend for white tails and mealies for
Speaker 1: this falls ot C hunt in Arizona. Thanks for all
Speaker 1: you do. That's a great question, Jacob. Now, Um, when
Speaker 1: it when it comes to I guess first, you know,
Speaker 1: we got to talk about like the scoring system. And
Speaker 1: when I say like, okay, that's a meal here, what
Speaker 1: I'm referring to is Boone and Crockett scoring system. So
Speaker 1: Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young both use the
Speaker 1: scoring system. Um. Now, the gross score is kind of
Speaker 1: like everything, and generally I'm talking about the gross score.
Speaker 1: So the gross scores everything added up without any deductions. Now,
Speaker 1: the net scores um in scoring systems kind of award
Speaker 1: for uniformity between both sides, So there's deductions on things
Speaker 1: that aren't equal um. So when we talked about like
Speaker 1: a gross score, we're just talking about, okay, the number
Speaker 1: of inches of the antler. And what that is is
Speaker 1: a combination of things. So within like antlered animals, talking
Speaker 1: elk and deer um it, there's these measurements. So there's
Speaker 1: the length of the main beam. There's the length of
Speaker 1: all the time, so that's the brow time, the back
Speaker 1: time like on a meal. There's bifurcated, so the length
Speaker 1: of each time, and then four circumferences, one taken at
Speaker 1: the base, then one taken between the brow tyn and
Speaker 1: the U G two, which would be the next If
Speaker 1: you're like each time going up like from the base out,
Speaker 1: then you kind of add those to G two G
Speaker 1: G one, G two, G three, G four and then
Speaker 1: the main beam. So what we're doing is we're talking
Speaker 1: about the inches of all those and then the commulative
Speaker 1: score of that. You're like, well that's a lot um.
Speaker 1: So if you're if you're thinking about kind of understanding score,
Speaker 1: the first thing you should do is like download a
Speaker 1: score sheet and understand how they're scored um and then
Speaker 1: grab some antlers, whether it's like a couple of shed
Speaker 1: antlers or whatever and start running tapes on them and
Speaker 1: understand really how to start scoring um, because it's it
Speaker 1: is a really good gauge of like it's a good
Speaker 1: way to explain what the antlers look like in an
Speaker 1: Apple's the Apples scenario of like, Okay, it's a basis
Speaker 1: of measurement. And once you start to understand what these
Speaker 1: measurements mean, then you can kind of start to build
Speaker 1: a picture of what that deer looks like. So if
Speaker 1: I say, oh, it's buck, then in my head I
Speaker 1: have a picture of what that deer looks like. You
Speaker 1: can say, oh, he's a a typical four by four,
Speaker 1: got eye guards and scores about one eight. So I
Speaker 1: know what that buck looks like. It's really handy when
Speaker 1: you're like looking for a certain deer, or it's really
Speaker 1: handy when you're like, Okay, I'm looking for really mature dear.
Speaker 1: How do I gauge it based on the other deer
Speaker 1: that I'm see? Um? So first step would be just
Speaker 1: understanding that score system. Now when it comes to feel judging,
Speaker 1: there's so many different ways to do it, um, And
Speaker 1: I'll just give you I mean, I could probably do
Speaker 1: five ten different podcasts on just how to feel judge,
Speaker 1: how to score um different animals while you're glassing, while
Speaker 1: you're spotting. But I'll just give you kind of like
Speaker 1: a basic rundown now, and this might even be if
Speaker 1: if enough people are interested in a pretty solid um
Speaker 1: podcast topic in the future. So kind of the different
Speaker 1: ways to do it would be. The first way would
Speaker 1: be kind of like building out a ruler of scale
Speaker 1: of just basing things off of certain kind of known
Speaker 1: sizes of the animal. So and you're like, okay, well
Speaker 1: a muled your ear is approximately eight inches in my area. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: these do vary from area to area, so sometimes like hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: you'll actually measure the ear of maybe some amounts of
Speaker 1: friends or people that you know that have taken and
Speaker 1: deer in that area. UM. Then you go okay, on average,
Speaker 1: meal dear ear span is twenty to two inches UM.
Speaker 1: So you're like, okay, that's in the natural alert position.
Speaker 1: And then you go, okay, Well, the circumference of the
Speaker 1: eye is about I mean most years like h one
Speaker 1: one and a hat one point three inches in diameter,
Speaker 1: which is like four inches of circumference, so you can
Speaker 1: kind of gauge like okay, now, I can gauge the mass,
Speaker 1: which is the circumference measurement, based on the width of
Speaker 1: the eye. So is it like, is it as wide
Speaker 1: as its eye? Is it um not as wide as
Speaker 1: its eye? And then you can kind of start adding
Speaker 1: those measurements up. Now you can go, okay, well, how
Speaker 1: does that time compared to the ear length? Now if
Speaker 1: I go look at that ear and I go, okay,
Speaker 1: is it twice that? Well, maybe it's if those are
Speaker 1: eight inch ears, then that's going to be a sixteen
Speaker 1: inch time. You start writing it down and kind of
Speaker 1: building out your score, and I think that's the best
Speaker 1: way to start. I've actually, um, you know one thing
Speaker 1: that I kind of would do in the past, as
Speaker 1: I put my phone up to the spotting scope whatever,
Speaker 1: take a picture, and then you can zoom in and
Speaker 1: you kind of build like a ruler to scale, just
Speaker 1: using like a piece of paper or stick. So whatever
Speaker 1: that zoom level is, you can kind of break off
Speaker 1: the stick and then you kind of start measuring it
Speaker 1: out based on the pictures that you take. I'll actually, um,
Speaker 1: I'll try to remember to put up on my blog
Speaker 1: on my website Remy Warren dot com. I'll throw up
Speaker 1: a little uh kind of like how to do this
Speaker 1: field judging through the camera kind of thing, because a
Speaker 1: good way to start, because it's like, Okay, you've got it.
Speaker 1: You can start building it out and it really gets
Speaker 1: you starting to think about numbers and the types of
Speaker 1: numbers that you know you're going to have to add
Speaker 1: up while you're in the field. Now, of course there's
Speaker 1: like ways of doing it a lot faster to so um.
Speaker 1: One thing that you'll learn is like once you start
Speaker 1: getting used to and familiar with it, you can kind
Speaker 1: of start doing what was probably the method that I
Speaker 1: use of the time, which I call like rack bracketing.
Speaker 1: So I've it's like I try to score as many
Speaker 1: any antlers, as many put my hands on as many
Speaker 1: different deer as I can. Whether it's like once I've taken,
Speaker 1: once friends have taken, measuring them, you know, and then
Speaker 1: you can kind of build out these mental pictures of
Speaker 1: like just based on looking at it, and it's more
Speaker 1: of a comparative look, So it's looking at it based
Speaker 1: on like the species that you're hunting, how it compares
Speaker 1: to the body size and itself. So I'll think about
Speaker 1: like a mule deer and it's like okay, well, okay,
Speaker 1: how deeper those forks? How why is that dear? What?
Speaker 1: Like what category does that dear fit in? Is it
Speaker 1: in the one twenty category? Is it like a small
Speaker 1: buck with not very deep forks inside the ears? Fairly
Speaker 1: short um? Or is it like a one eighty category
Speaker 1: where it's got outside the ear spread, it's got deep forks,
Speaker 1: it's considerably tall um. All the times are fairly uniform,
Speaker 1: fairly long length, Its main beams come out to its nose. Like, okay,
Speaker 1: what category is it in? And you can kind of
Speaker 1: start to tell that just by taping antlers, building out
Speaker 1: and just like looking at a lot of deer and
Speaker 1: also really understanding that score system and like playing with
Speaker 1: it a little bit. One thing that I'll do all
Speaker 1: the time is just kind of play with the numbers.
Speaker 1: So I'll look at pictures of deer, I'll start estimating,
Speaker 1: I'll start guessing, and then writing down filling out those
Speaker 1: score sheets. You start to build out like oh, okay,
Speaker 1: that deer has a ten inch front tie and it's
Speaker 1: got three inch eye guards. And you can kind of
Speaker 1: start to build these like formulas and sizes in your
Speaker 1: mind and understanding like how much an inch on a
Speaker 1: certain measurement changes the overall score. There's a lot to it.
Speaker 1: It kind of takes a lot of practice, but the
Speaker 1: best way to understand it is to really just start
Speaker 1: like picking up antlers and putting a tape measure to
Speaker 1: them and saying like, Okay, this is how long that is,
Speaker 1: this is standard for this size buck. And just the
Speaker 1: more you do that, like I just continually constantly every
Speaker 1: ship anler I find, I tape out every you know,
Speaker 1: it's like a friend gets a deer, client gets you know,
Speaker 1: we will at a tape on it. Not necessarily because
Speaker 1: we don't know. I mean, I can guess dear pretty
Speaker 1: dang deer and elk within extremely close. But I've done
Speaker 1: it a long time, but I still always like verify it,
Speaker 1: put the tape on it, and just kind of always
Speaker 1: helps me build out. Sometimes you'll go, You'll you'll shoot
Speaker 1: a deer and you're like, wow, that deer looked really big.
Speaker 1: I thought it would score this much. And then you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: well it's body size is a lot smaller, or is
Speaker 1: he's we call him mini heads. Like the comparisons that
Speaker 1: we're using were off. But for the most part by
Speaker 1: just by doing it a lot, you can kind of
Speaker 1: build out that picture and really understand that score. Speaking
Speaker 1: of actually scoring stuff, there's a Pope and Young convention
Speaker 1: in Reno, Nevada here coming up. I think it's to
Speaker 1: look it up as June, sorry, July fourteen somewhere in there.
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna be at that. So if you've got
Speaker 1: any questions about that kind of stuff where you're there
Speaker 1: that it's always cool to just be like, go somewhere
Speaker 1: where you can see like different animals and then what
Speaker 1: they score, and you can can look at the or
Speaker 1: sheet and look at the animal and be like, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean these are the top end, like some of
Speaker 1: the largest animals ever taken with a bow. But it
Speaker 1: gives you like a good idea of what they score.
Speaker 1: Even like you know, it's like during what COVID and
Speaker 1: all this, all the sports shows and that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff kind of ceased, but man, I know, like I
Speaker 1: used to walk around the different kind of sporting shows
Speaker 1: and they'd have those like displays of deer, elk or whatever.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they have the score sheets or just being able
Speaker 1: to look at antlers saying like okay, this is this
Speaker 1: or even going into sporting his shop and just really
Speaker 1: like looking at the animals on the wall objectively saying like,
Speaker 1: how does it compared to itself? How does it compared
Speaker 1: to the other deer? What maybe would those time links
Speaker 1: be because it's a really good way when you're talking
Speaker 1: with other hunters, or or maybe you've got some kind
Speaker 1: of goal in mind of like, oh, I really want
Speaker 1: to mature bull or are a good representative deer out
Speaker 1: of this area. I'm gonna that's gonna be how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hunt, or I'm gonna hunt for this certain type
Speaker 1: of buck um. Understanding that system will really help. Next
Speaker 1: question says Hey, remmy name is Travis from Michigan. Love
Speaker 1: the podcast and have listened to everyone thus far. I
Speaker 1: look forward to it every Thursday. Question for your next
Speaker 1: Q and A. I drew a first season rifle elk
Speaker 1: tag in a unit on the western border of Colorado.
Speaker 1: A portion of the unit I'll be hunting is burned
Speaker 1: last summer. Do you think I should key in on
Speaker 1: that burn or does it take a couple of years
Speaker 1: of regrowth to see the benefits of a burn. With
Speaker 1: so many fires last summer, I'm thinking others may have
Speaker 1: the same idea in mind. Thanks, that's a great question. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the first thing I would look at when was
Speaker 1: that burned last year? I mean it might be like
Speaker 1: if it was in what type of area was it?
Speaker 1: Is it like a lower elevation winter range. Are you
Speaker 1: hunting late in the season or early in the season.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna make a little bit of a difference. Um,
Speaker 1: one thing that you want to think about is like
Speaker 1: if it burned early, did it have time to get
Speaker 1: some regrowth last year before winter and then did those
Speaker 1: animals kind of benefit from that on that winter range
Speaker 1: that year? Or was it really late in the fire season.
Speaker 1: Was it like a late October fire, which there were
Speaker 1: quite a few last year, or was it like an
Speaker 1: early June, July, August type fire. But I would definitely
Speaker 1: say that it's and just as a general like guess
Speaker 1: it's probably a good idea to check that burnout. Now,
Speaker 1: it's gonna seem a little bit desolate, but there are
Speaker 1: gonna be pockets in there where you're gonna find elk.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be better glassing, and there should be some
Speaker 1: green up in there, especially if it gets to like
Speaker 1: you know, some good some good rains this year or
Speaker 1: even later in the season. There's a lot of nutrients
Speaker 1: in that soil. It just depends on how hot that
Speaker 1: fire was, whether there anything's gonna start popping up or not.
Speaker 1: So I would I would definitely focus in on checking
Speaker 1: that burnout. I would also kind of look for areas
Speaker 1: whether it's it's the trouble is like the you know,
Speaker 1: maps won't be updated enough to really understand it. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have to kind of get boots in the ground.
Speaker 1: But what I would do is I would look at
Speaker 1: that burn kind of think, Okay, we're pockets where it's
Speaker 1: burned all around it, but then there's some life timber
Speaker 1: where the fringes of this We're like, did it burn down?
Speaker 1: And there's this long line of timber here, but this
Speaker 1: good open burn here, And I would kind of focus
Speaker 1: on those areas because what you'll do is you'll be
Speaker 1: able to see into that burn like it's a good
Speaker 1: feeding area. It might give you a little bit more
Speaker 1: eyes on terrain, but it also has good heavy cover
Speaker 1: that those animals can kind of go back into. Elker
Speaker 1: and deer as well or fringe animals, so they're gonna
Speaker 1: be kind of on the fringe of that feed and
Speaker 1: that that cover one thing, Like in open areas, it
Speaker 1: grows a lot better feed and in that cover they
Speaker 1: need that to kind of feel protected and safe. So
Speaker 1: it's just this big burn where it's like, man, everything's
Speaker 1: burnt out, there's no cover. It might be tough. I
Speaker 1: will say this though, elk that have like a resident elk,
Speaker 1: if you're hunting resident elk in an area that have
Speaker 1: kind of lived in that area their whole life and
Speaker 1: that's how they're safe, they'll probably still be in that
Speaker 1: burn in some way, and they might even not necessarily
Speaker 1: know that they're visible. Um. I found that, like the
Speaker 1: first couple of years that they're in a burn, they
Speaker 1: kind of still see it as like we're in the trees.
Speaker 1: Were in the cover now obviously, and they'll go get
Speaker 1: shade in thicker cover and everything like that. But you
Speaker 1: might have a good chance finding more animals out in
Speaker 1: that burn than you would have found them in years past.
Speaker 1: So I definitely check it out, um. And then you know,
Speaker 1: if you're like, man, this is I can see everything.
Speaker 1: It's burnt to a crisp. It's complete dirt. I don't
Speaker 1: see any tracks or any signed start picking out some
Speaker 1: of those areas where it's like, okay, where are they
Speaker 1: moving to? So that's kind of another way. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can eliminate the burn and say, well, this burn
Speaker 1: isn't productive yet they've kind of moved out of this area. Well,
Speaker 1: we're some areas that they're close by where they might
Speaker 1: move to that has things that they need that wasn't
Speaker 1: affected by the burn, and looking at it like that
Speaker 1: as well. Next question comes from Ray. He says, hey, Remy,
Speaker 1: thanks for all you do to put out good info.
Speaker 1: You explain things in a way most others don't. I'm
Speaker 1: always learning a lot from your podcast. I had a
Speaker 1: question for your podcast, or maybe just in general. I've
Speaker 1: been doing my best to take care of new camera.
Speaker 1: The manufacturers suggests using a hunting detergent when washing, and
Speaker 1: only washing when soiled other than obviously bloody or mudey.
Speaker 1: What do you consider over soiled and what detergent could
Speaker 1: you recommend um I look for that might help keep
Speaker 1: my camera looking and functioning properly for as long as possible.
Speaker 1: That's a great question. With as much money as we
Speaker 1: put into our gear now and like as good as
Speaker 1: gear is you definitely want it to last. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't get overly like concerned about how I mean, I
Speaker 1: I generally just like I wear it, you know, generally
Speaker 1: on a trip. It's like I go out for a
Speaker 1: week and I don't even have an option to wash
Speaker 1: it until I come back, So it's overly soiled by
Speaker 1: that point. Um, if you're just kind of like day hunting,
Speaker 1: I don't think I would wash it every day, but
Speaker 1: maybe you're like, hey, it's starting to stink, it's starting
Speaker 1: to smell, throw in the wash. Um. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that some of my stuff ends up kind of
Speaker 1: smelling worse because it's like I wear it too long
Speaker 1: and then it gets stinks, and then I could have
Speaker 1: probably just prevented it by washing it. I wouldn't necessarily
Speaker 1: be afraid of over washing. What I'm really afraid of
Speaker 1: with high quality clothing is any kind of fabric softener.
Speaker 1: So I avoid anything with fabric softener, like the plague one.
Speaker 1: Washing with fabric softener will absolutely ruin your stuff in
Speaker 1: my opinion. I mean, I've seen really good, high quality
Speaker 1: tech gear get destroyed by um, the wrong kind of
Speaker 1: detergent or the wrong kind of thing. So um, not
Speaker 1: just the detergent, but also uh dryer sheets. So when
Speaker 1: you're washing your hunting clothes, absolutely, like I I mean,
Speaker 1: let everybody in your family know. Look, if you're using this,
Speaker 1: you can use. I mean, I just use the same
Speaker 1: stuff that I washed all my other clothes. And when
Speaker 1: I'm washing hunting clothes, I don't worry about the scent
Speaker 1: free stuff. I generally don't get sent to laundry to
Speaker 1: church in anyways. But um, I just use whatever Costco brand,
Speaker 1: Kirkland signature or tied or whatever stuff we have, just
Speaker 1: as long as there's no fabric softeners in it. And
Speaker 1: then when I wash that, when I dry it, absolutely
Speaker 1: no dryer sheets. And everybody in the family needs to
Speaker 1: know that, because what happen is you'll throw your stuff in,
Speaker 1: you know, like wash. Someone will be like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do you a favor. I'm gonna put him in
Speaker 1: the dryer for you. They throw in a couple of
Speaker 1: dryer sheets like they do their normal laundry. Well, the
Speaker 1: dryer sheets have fabric softener. That tumbling what it does,
Speaker 1: it kind of breaks down the d w R, the
Speaker 1: water repellency. A lot of the good qualities of high
Speaker 1: quality gear and then you've got like this bummer jacket.
Speaker 1: Now there are ways to refresh it. So every once
Speaker 1: in a while, like, um, if my gear seems to
Speaker 1: be getting uh like like it's it's not performing like
Speaker 1: it used to, then there's a company you can get it,
Speaker 1: like online or an r e I or some you know,
Speaker 1: maybe in Bess prose about whatever. It's called nick Wax
Speaker 1: Tech Wash and I k w a X tech wash.
Speaker 1: You can pretty much buy that everywhere. So they've got
Speaker 1: different ones for different things. I don't use that every
Speaker 1: every wash. It's kind of expensive and it seems like
Speaker 1: you'd be going crazy. But when I need like that
Speaker 1: water repellency to kind of kick back up, I'll use
Speaker 1: it a couple of times a year just just to
Speaker 1: kind of like reinvigorate that d w R or whatever.
Speaker 1: It seems to work pretty good, kind of like gets
Speaker 1: the water repellency back. And there's different like if you're
Speaker 1: really I feel like really worried about it, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's great for kind of any soft shell material.
Speaker 1: They got all kinds of different ones. The key is
Speaker 1: to just not get that fabric softener in there. One
Speaker 1: one this is like a trick I learned a long
Speaker 1: time ago after my like favorite jacket got ruined by that,
Speaker 1: like somebody doing me a favorite swapping it over to
Speaker 1: the dryer accidentally just throwing dryer sheet and not thinking
Speaker 1: about it. I pull it out and I'm like devastated.
Speaker 1: My favorite jacket just seemed messed up from that point on.
Speaker 1: So what I do UM is like if I'm when
Speaker 1: I wash my hunting clothing, I just get to post it.
Speaker 1: I put it right on the thing, like hunting clothes.
Speaker 1: Do not use UM. If I like, if I said
Speaker 1: it anywhere public where someone can get it, I just
Speaker 1: put notes do not use fabric softener. I actually don't
Speaker 1: have any in my house, but UM, do not use
Speaker 1: fabric softener. And then like, do not use dryer sheet.
Speaker 1: I put it on the dryer door. I put it
Speaker 1: on the washer door. I put it on everything. There's
Speaker 1: just sticky notes everywhere because the super cheap post it
Speaker 1: that says don't put a dryer sheet in with this
Speaker 1: will make your gear last ten twenty times longer. And
Speaker 1: that's like the biggest tip. And then I don't even
Speaker 1: I don't even worry. But there's like, you know, some
Speaker 1: there's washes where it's like, oh it cuts down the
Speaker 1: UV and all that stuff. I don't really worry about it,
Speaker 1: you know, just make it easy, make it easy on yourself. Um,
Speaker 1: just wash it with something that's going to get it clean.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, it's just getting the getting the
Speaker 1: smell out of it, getting the dirt out of it.
Speaker 1: It's gonna actually last longer if you keep it cleaned.
Speaker 1: I know on my rain gear, I try not to
Speaker 1: wash is often, but I've actually found that, like on
Speaker 1: good gortex type stuff, you know, you do want to
Speaker 1: just launder it to whatever the manufacturer says. Um, you
Speaker 1: can just read the little tag on there. But what
Speaker 1: it does is it cleans out and actually works better
Speaker 1: they say, if you just like have good maintenance of it,
Speaker 1: so you don't want to let it go too long
Speaker 1: without um, without washing it all right. One last question
Speaker 1: here comes from Michael. He says, Hey, remmy've been following
Speaker 1: along with your content since two thousand and fifteen when
Speaker 1: I planned for my first trip out west to Archery
Speaker 1: hunt Elk. He says that trip uh me and a
Speaker 1: buddy got bluff charged by sal grizz and although it
Speaker 1: was absolutely terrifying at the moment, it was a pretty
Speaker 1: cool experience. Afterwards, my question for you might be weird
Speaker 1: one because it was strange to me and I expected.
Speaker 1: I grew up in the Northeast. After college moved to Florida.
Speaker 1: Since I've had a huge passion for offshore fishing, boating,
Speaker 1: and diving, I began hunting there and it was surprised
Speaker 1: to have had three awful encounters with wild pigs. Never
Speaker 1: thought they were dangerous, and all the locals I talked
Speaker 1: to say they're terrified of people and always around the
Speaker 1: other direction. I've been treated by two pigs and had
Speaker 1: to shoot one in self defense already. Curious if you've
Speaker 1: ever had any dangerous run ins with ferrell pigs or
Speaker 1: am I the only one on this planet that's horrible
Speaker 1: luck with them? Thanks? That's that's a funny question, and
Speaker 1: it's a good question too, because when you think about it,
Speaker 1: I've probably actually been charged by more pigs than anything. Um.
Speaker 1: I was doing a hunt down in Florida one time
Speaker 1: and crawling around trying to catch them bare handed, which
Speaker 1: sounds um like recipe for getting yourself into trouble anyways,
Speaker 1: and for filming, and I was like walking back to
Speaker 1: this one spot I spotted this pig. I'm like, oh sweet,
Speaker 1: talk this one. And before I could, that pig had
Speaker 1: just charged me like straight on. Luckily it was a
Speaker 1: little bastard, and I was able to go into like
Speaker 1: push it down, get on top of it, flip it
Speaker 1: over and just like subdue it with my knee and
Speaker 1: just like hold it down and get on top and
Speaker 1: just like okay, cool. Got the pig. He's like on
Speaker 1: its side at this point, and uh like all right now,
Speaker 1: how I'm gonna let this thing go. He's pretty fired up.
Speaker 1: So I let him go and he kept like doing
Speaker 1: the same thing, like charging back in. Luckily as like
Speaker 1: not a super large bore. It's just like it's just
Speaker 1: a small honorary thing. So I ended up just like
Speaker 1: getting to a spot wherecord like get up a tree
Speaker 1: and then he circled around the tree three or four
Speaker 1: times and went away. But I also had a couple
Speaker 1: of experiences down in Australia where I was bow hunting
Speaker 1: pigs and one pig in particular shot ran into like
Speaker 1: this swampy stuff. It was in an area where there's
Speaker 1: like I mean there, you're kind of like, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: also worried about crocs. But I thought it was it
Speaker 1: was dry enough, shallow. If I it was like kind
Speaker 1: of out of the fringe zone of where there was
Speaker 1: there would be a lot of crocs. So like sweet
Speaker 1: trailing this pig in here, blood trailing this pig, and
Speaker 1: I thought I made I made a good shot on it.
Speaker 1: But at the time there's a good blood trail. So
Speaker 1: it's going in. It's like getting thicker and thicker, and
Speaker 1: I'm like all my hands and knees all of a
Speaker 1: sudden here and then just brush coming right at me. Crap.
Speaker 1: So I get up a tree and pigs running by,
Speaker 1: and it happened to be another like this pig had
Speaker 1: run straight into the middle and died. But I was
Speaker 1: thinking it was the wounded pig charging me, and when
Speaker 1: in fact, it was just another random bore that happened
Speaker 1: to be close that just heard me coming, was in
Speaker 1: that thick stuff and its first instinct was to charge.
Speaker 1: Luckily there was some stuff that I could get up
Speaker 1: out of the way. But yeah, absolutely, I know a
Speaker 1: lot of guys um that have been charged by pigs,
Speaker 1: and they are It is something that you kind of
Speaker 1: don't even think about for the most part, but they
Speaker 1: can't get pretty aggressive. I've seen them in Europe, the
Speaker 1: big Russian boars that get pretty honorary as well, So no,
Speaker 1: I don't think you're alone. Definitely, pigs can be dangerous. Um.
Speaker 1: The nice part about him is they can't really climb. Um.
Speaker 1: I've been able the small ones. I've been able to
Speaker 1: kind of push out of the way or kick out
Speaker 1: of the way and they generally go away. But their
Speaker 1: teeth are pretty sharp. If you ever been bit by
Speaker 1: a pig, you're definitely going to try to avoid them
Speaker 1: at all costs the next time. They can be pretty
Speaker 1: pretty gnarly. So yeah, when you're out there, everyone talks
Speaker 1: about the grizzly bears, but honestly, the pigs seem to
Speaker 1: have the worst temperament of them all. So just something
Speaker 1: to think about. And the more I talk about it,
Speaker 1: I think I've been charged by like everything on the planet,
Speaker 1: I've actually been charged by an elk as well. So
Speaker 1: when it comes to getting charged by stuff, no stranger
Speaker 1: over here. Well, thanks everybody for sending in your questions.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate him. Um. This this coming month, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just kind of jump into a few topics that
Speaker 1: I got some other questions about a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: involving Okay, we drew tags, now what how do we
Speaker 1: get star? Did uh? Some other like good summer prep stuff,
Speaker 1: some stuff to prepare for the season. Right now, it's
Speaker 1: like when I really start to focus and start to
Speaker 1: think about look hunting season, especially if you've got an
Speaker 1: early archery tag is coming up within a couple of months.
Speaker 1: I gotta get ready physically. I gotta get my bow ready,
Speaker 1: I go through all my gear. I just want to
Speaker 1: be so dialed when that first season rolls around that
Speaker 1: I know I'm going to find additional success because I
Speaker 1: put in the time. Now, I did my EA scouting
Speaker 1: and maybe got out and did some scouting. I shot
Speaker 1: my bow. I'm ready. I'm just ready to go rare
Speaker 1: and to get out there and hunt a tag. I
Speaker 1: I fortunately drew a couple of really awesome tags, and
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to this year. I'll be excited to
Speaker 1: kind of share the stories of those. But until that point,
Speaker 1: I want to help build everybody up, get everybody ready
Speaker 1: for the upcoming season. So until next week, keep cutting
Speaker 1: the distance. That was a suggested sign off. I could
Speaker 1: I think I could go with that. That could be
Speaker 1: that could be the one. All Right, we'll catch you
Speaker 1: guys later, and thanks again for all the awesome UH responses,
Speaker 1: all the great questions. There's so many of them this week.
Speaker 1: Just keep them coming UM generally at the end, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of try to throw in as many as
Speaker 1: I can, and so you can keep sending those my
Speaker 1: way and we'll hopefully get to as many as we
Speaker 1: can UM in the next Q and A. All right,
Speaker 1: talk to you guys later.