Ep. 12: Hunting Pronghorn in Virgin Country and Understanding E-Scouting
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. This podcast is presented by Yeti, built for the wild. It's hunting season. You have a tag in your pocket for a place that you've never been before. Now what? Where do you even start?

Honestly, I could probably talk about nearly any hunt I've been on for a story that coincides with this. A lot of the hunts I do, I've never stepped foot in the area. But what it comes down to is the time I spend looking over or what I would call e-scouting on, say, my Onyx Hunt app.

What I want to do on this podcast is cover where do you even start. But first we need to talk about the basics of map reading, understanding a topo map, and then understanding how to put all this satellite imagery and the stuff at your hands together while you're at home so when you get out in the field you can immediately become successful. A lot of hunt stories start opening morning or when you're in the field.

But the truth of the matter is for me, most hunting stories should start weeks beforehand when I'm in my house poring over maps. One hunt stands out in particular because it's just so fresh in my mind. This season I picked up in pretty much what would be considered an over-the-counter archery antelope tag. You had to put in for it beforehand, but everybody that put in drew.

Now, having never hunted in this state for this species, where do I begin? I just started pouring over my Onyx map. As soon as I got that tag, looking over areas, every night start going through different units that are in there, outlining places that I can hunt, and then I start looking over areas.

until I started to hone in on what I was looking for. Now, I'd actually driven through this area multiple times, so I kind of had a rough idea of places that I wanted to check out, spots that looked good to me. But at this point, I had no spot. I started marking pins and places that I'd like to check out. Now, by the time opening day rolled around, I was ready to start hunting. I found my spot. I did a little bit of a road trip, camped out,

The first afternoon that I got into the unit, the season had actually been open for a couple weeks, but when I got in there, marked camp spot, check that out. I get into that campsite. I'm looking around on the way in. I'm like, man, I don't know. It looks good, but I didn't really see any antelope where I was at. Set up camp and decided to go out for the first evening. The first spot that I'd marked was

pull my binos up, and here is a group of antelope with a decent buck in it. Oh, sweet. This is cool. All right. Well, mission accomplished. Now I've at least found what I'm looking for. That's the start. But honestly, spot and stalk antelope hunting with a bow can be extremely difficult. So the way that I hunt them is I pretty much stalk every buck that I see. Because at least then I know the more opportunities I have, the more chance I will to get into range and hopefully get a shot.

My wife is actually with me and I was just kind of taking her along. She's taking some photos and some videos and other stuff. And it was just more of a vacation because we were on our way up to a friend's wedding. Anyways, we thought this would be a sweet hunt to do on the way up.

So that first day, start stalking in on the group of antelope on the way over there. Unfortunately, it's always the ones you don't see that mess it up for you. There was a couple does and some fawns in between the group of bucks and the big group of does that had seen us, bumped off, and instead of running up the hill, they ran straight toward the other antelope, blew them out. Ended up chasing those ones for the rest of the day, and they thought, well, figured out where antelope are.

be back here first thing in the morning. Next morning, get up in there, start glassing at first light, pick up a different set of antelope with another buck in there. Do a big stalk after they bed. And unfortunately, they're moving and it doesn't work out. Now it's midday, it's hot. I'm not seeing as much. So I think, well, pull out my map, check another spot that I'd marked.

do a big drive through some country. I don't really see much, but it is the middle of the day. That evening, the other spots I had marked out, sure enough, out pops a good buck. I'm like, okay, sweet. But unfortunately, it was while I was moving and he'd just seen us as soon as we'd seen him and hightailed it out of there.

So now I guess call it day two rolls around. I decided, well, I'm going to go back to that spot where I saw the big buck last night, get in there first thing in the morning, spot a buck, try a stock on him. Unfortunately, as I get within 30 yards, I'm

The one that was closest to me happened to be a doe. He was just past the rise of the hill and I couldn't get a shot. They ran away. Oh, dang, that sucks. Well, keep going. Ended up getting up to a high vantage, glassing, and seeing that buck move off with his does and then bed in a good position. I stalk in and as you would know it, they spotted me when I was about 60 yards out. Blew out. Game over.

Pull out my map again. Okay, I've pretty much covered this country here. I know there was antelope here, but seemed pretty disturbed at this point. So I pick another spot that looked good on the map that I'd marked. So far, I'm 100% on the places that I'd already checked out while I was at home. Get into that next canyon. And sure enough, here's a buck walking right toward me. Well, that doesn't work out, but he ended up going down the mountain and congregating with a group of other bucks. Perfect.

I belly crawled down the mountain. It's probably a half a mile, mile of just belly crawling. Get into position and set up within 200 yards of this group of bucks. Now they're just chasing each other around and as luck would have it, they just start moving my direction. I put myself in between the little water source that was there and where they were bedded and they're moving single file one at a time. Now it just so happens that the best buck that I'd seen the entire time was in this group.

All the small bucks start filtering past toward that water. Big buck is the last one there. He stops to rake a bush right in front of me. Draw back. Shoot. Make a perfect shot. Antelope down in an area that I've never hunted before.

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. I honestly think the best thing out there right now that we have going for us, the best new technology for hunting is the ability to e-scout or scout from home.

I really believe that the Onyx Hunt app is the best way to get started to doing that. It's really changed the entire game of how I go about thinking about a hunt, learning about a hunt, or even just first steps in a new area because that's where I always start.

So what I want to do is I'm just going to open the app. I think it's just easier if I start that way, open the app and almost just randomly pick an area. I'll make up a species that I'm hunting and then just go through it right now with you here. And that way it's easier for me to kind of go through my process and

and then give you the best details that I might not even notice that I do. But before I do that, you first need to really understand topo maps because that's how I started map reading and scouting was just on paper maps. It was lines. There were no satellite imagery, but those lines tell more of a story often than...

a picture does. Now, it seems like it wouldn't, but what it is doing is those contour lines are telling you preferred habitats of animals and what give you a really good picture of what that looks like. Now, another tool that I use a lot is Google Earth where I can see things in a 3D format, but I first like to look for certain features in the topo.

Now, just in case you're new with map reading, there is so much technology out there. It's easy to have maps at your hand, but you may not understand the old school way of reading it. And that's the way that I relate it to everybody is talking about certain features in topo lines. So we're going to talk about a topo map, and then I'll just go through essentially my process for scouting a new area. The most basic rundown of a topo map. I'm just going to give it to you right here.

Topo map includes lines, which are contour lines. Those help create the picture of what the mountain or topography looks like on a flat surface. So contour lines, like on the Onyx app, are set 40 feet apart. Then you have your index lines, which are your darker lines. Those should have the numbers of the elevation. The way that it works is as the lines are closer together, that represents something steeper because it's over a certain amount of distance, a rapid gain in elevation.

Further apart lines are something more gradual or flatter. When you're looking at the map, anything like a line that points down to a lower elevation indicates a ridge, whereas a line that points up toward a higher elevation indicates a valley. So think of it like these U shapes that you see pointing down as a ridge, pointing up is a valley.

Now, contour lines never intersect. So one line runs the length of that entire elevation, never intersecting other lines. When you look at that, you'll see things on the map, like you'll see the top of a mountain, which would be a round circle.

And then coming down from that, you'll have your ridges. Those would be the lines that continue around pointing in almost a U-shape down toward a lower elevation. And then inside those ridges, you'll have your valleys, which would be pointing up toward those higher elevations. When you get toward the top, you have what I call head basins. These are the spots that look like little alien heads made out of topo lines, almost like a rainbow where the lines bend in an upward fashion, upward pointing valleys that make a head basin. Yeah.

head basin because it looks like a head. These are things that I really key on are head basins, but it depends on what species you're looking for. So I'm going to open up my app right now, and then I'm just going to give you a quick rundown of the things that I'm looking at. So let's say, let's go for this. We're hunting elk.

I'm going to grab a random unit in Montana, and then I'm just going to kind of look and say what I'm doing and what I'm looking for, just like I were planning out a hunt in an area that I've never been. Okay, so the cool thing about this app is it has the units, so I can start there. I've got the Onyx Hunt app open. I'm in Montana. I'm just randomly scrolling the screen so it lands on a unit. I won't tell you what unit because I'll probably end up giving someone's secret spot away.

But I've got the unit. So that's a start. Now I'm looking for public ground because that's the kind of tag I have. I don't have access where I'm going. So I'm now going to be having the layers on that show me public and private ground. I always start my map at the topo level. Okay. Because what I'm doing is I'm trying to key in on key features that really hold animals. When you think about finding, say, elk or any animal, they all need three key things. Doesn't matter if you're hunting antelope, shingles,

sheep, whatever. They need the right habitat that sustains them. And for that, they need food, water, and cover.

or some kind of, as far as antelope go, they don't really use cover, but they need open is their cover because they use their eyesight. So you kind of just have to understand the animal a little bit, but you have to find the three things that create good habitat. Now I'm looking for elk, so I'm going to find something that probably has food, water, and cover in a smaller area. Where I like to start is I like to start looking at ridges, finger ridges, and head basins. So I'll define those for you. A ridge is

It's just anywhere where we've got that descending elevation on the map. A finger ridge, let's say the ridge goes north-south from the top of a mountain down. A finger ridge would be anything that spurs down off of that. I'll explain that here in a little bit.

Because the reason I'm looking for those finger ridges and ridges is what they do is they provide multiple areas for micro habitats. Things that include food, water, and cover. No matter which way the wind's going or the direction of the sun, they have a little bit of everything as well as provide multiple escapes for the animals. So it's a really safe place for them to hang out.

So I'm going to start identifying these based on the topo lines. I'm going to pick a few areas that look really good. Another thing I'm going to look for is what I consider head basins. Head basins are a great area to really start focusing your search. Often there will be water running down the canyon, and then it offers the animals multiple bedding options based on the orientation of the hill. So think about a slope of a mountain.

you've got the north face and then you've got the south slope. So the south slope is the gentle slope. It's the one that gets the most sun. It often has the least amount of timber and often more feed. The north face is often more timbered and more shaded, which lends to good bedding. Now, if you have a head basin that includes both north and south slopes in one micro area, what that's doing is creating good habitat in a very small area. So late in the season,

When it's cold, they can get sun. And when it's warm, they can get shade. They can just choose their bedding and feeding areas based on the time of year and other things. It also has food around and it also probably most likely has water in the bottom. So they have everything they need right in this one little area.

The other thing it offers, it offers multiple options for bedding depending on which way the area is going. Because when animals bed, they generally like the wind coming downhill onto their back, bedded in a way that it's more comfortable facing downhill so then they can look for danger down below. So if you have that in your mind, you can really start to pinpoint where they might bed depending on what the wind or thermals are doing for that day.

Now that I've identified some good basins to look at, some good head basins, some good ridges and some good finger ridges, what I'm going to do is I just now switch it to the hybrid map where it's got topo and satellite imagery together.

So I picked this particular area. And just as I hoped, in this head basin, there's a nice, what I'm looking at right now is a ridge coming down on the north slope is a big grassy opening. This is just looking at the map without any imagery ahead of time.

I hit that and I have exactly what I'm looking for. A timbered north face, an open south face. It has water in the bottom and looks like prime elk country. Now from here, what I'll start doing is dropping pins and identifying spots where I believe elk will be or good spots where it looks like they might hang out.

This will just remind me to check these spots out later. Now I'm going to switch back to the topo. And now I'm looking for areas where I can glass into this spot. So I'm looking for a knob or something where I might get a visual idea of somewhere I can get to and see this area where to hunt from. A lot of times what I'll do is I'll take that same pin, go to Google Earth. Now I'm opening up my Google Earth app.

I'm putting in my coordinates and I'm flying to that spot that I've identified. Now I've got a 3D look around where I can say, okay, I'm sitting right on this knob. What's it look like? Can I see from here? Am I going to have a good vantage? While it does change a little bit, it gives me a good idea of places to go and more of a real life feel of what it looks like once I've identified the spots that the animals like using the topo lines.

From there, I go back to my Onyx app. I mark the spots that I want to glass from, hunt from, and there you have it. I have pretty much my recipe for the hunt before I even show up in the area.

Now just think for an antelope hunt, I'm looking for something different. I'm looking for more gradual terrain. I'm looking for more open. So I'm just going to go in the same unit, zoom out, go back to the topo lines. Now I'm looking for where the lines are way further apart. So I found a spot here on my app. Now I switch in between the satellite imagery. As I hoped, it's more preferred habitat. It looks like some sunflowers.

sage flats, some other things. This I can mark as well for antelope type country. So depending on what you're hunting is different things you're looking for. But just remember, look at the topo first and look for those topographical features that are really good indicators of quality habitat.

Another thing I love to do when you're out there, say you're in a unit, you're hunting deer, you've got an area where you're seeing deer, mark those deer on the map. Then when you get home, have a file of places that you've spotted animals. Switch to the topo map and see what that looks like on the map. You'll be surprised how many other places you find topographical lines that look similar in a new area and hold animals.

those lines tell a story. And if you know how to read the map, those lines will tell you a story of exactly where to go, even though you may have never stepped foot in the area. Now, map reading is a very visual thing, and I've tried to make it an audio thing today, which I understand can be a little bit tricky.

Now, I think if you take what I've said and just look at a map, pull out some topo maps and just start looking, I think you're going to start understanding what I'm talking about. But to help you out, I think what I'll do today is I'll try to post some pictures on my Instagram, my at remywarren Instagram of some of the little features that I'm talking about right now to just give you a little bit of a kickstart if you're new to this. Now, if you've read maps your whole life, I think you'll catch on real quick the types of things that I'm looking for.

Just studying those maps, using them in real time. When you see stuff, when you're out there, just start marking it and understanding when you're out there, look at that topo as well and understand what it looks like in map form. Reading a map is really just like learning to read. It takes, it's a process. You don't just pick up a book after not knowing your alphabet and go start to finish. While you're out there, get the building blocks to the story of what you're seeing on paper and

And I really think that that's going to lead you to a lot of success scouting from home. Rifle season is bearing down on us. And I hope that soon you will be bearing down on a tasty critter out there. So what I'm going to talk about next week is ways to get that rifle steady. There's a lot of little tricks to getting steady in the field. So I'm going to divulge a few of my favorite secrets.

I think that your homework this week will just be to check out these maps while this is still fresh in your head. You're probably listening while driving. So unfortunately, you're going to have to do it at work, but it's great. That's a good place to bust out your topo maps and relisten to the podcast again. Now that you've got a primer, you listened to it once, maybe listen to it again on

Honestly, loving the feedback still. Thank you very much. If you aren't a subscriber yet, subscribe wherever you can and make sure that, yeah, I think that's it. If you subscribe, I appreciate it. And till next week, keep reading those maps. By the end of the year, I think that I'll have a good sign-off that I can just use for everything. But I kind of think that at this point, my sign-off is not having a sign-off.

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