Ep. 14: Answering Your Questions, Part 2
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I had such great response on the Q&A on the last one I did. So I've decided to up the amount of Q&As that we're going to do.

And just figured now's a good time. The hunting season is upon us. And I just thought it'd be cool to answer a few of the questions that I've gotten. So I had Ben O'Brien come help me. He's going to read a few of the questions. We've gotten a ton of emails. I've responded to as many things on social as I can. However, the emails, I just can't even get to all of them, especially during hunting seasons. But they do get read. And then I'm pulling out a few bits and pieces here and there. And...

putting those into this Q&A, as well as I'm taking a lot of the input and building out future podcasts, things to talk about. I think that that's extremely helpful because I want it to be

about what you guys want to learn as well. So I'll tell you what I think you need to know, but then there's some stuff I'm not even thinking of that people need to know as well. So I really appreciate all the interaction. I think that that's the best part about doing this podcast. It's what's keeping me going is just the awesome response that we've gotten so far, as well as

you know, the interaction between everybody. So many awesome success stories that I've seen so far. That's my favorite part, just seeing the success. So thank you very much. And yeah, brought Ben in today to just-

Give me a hand. Read the questions. I like the questions to be fresh, so I'm not scrolling through. I'm letting him pick the questions. Then I will read the question, or I will answer the questions. He will read the questions. And as Remy said, yeah, that works for me. And as Remy said, we're reading all your emails. So if you send an email to Remy at TheMeteor.com, we're reading them all. If you don't get a reply, we apologize. This is our reply. We are reading all these things and crafting the content.

Based on this. So we got some good ones. You ready, Remy? I'm ready. Yeah. Okay. Blaine, we'll say Blaine Anderson wrote in. He said, stoked for you. I would love to hear about advice and tactics on reading wind and how exactly it affects your decisions as well as how and when exactly thermals work. So I think the headline there is like, tell us about thermals. Yeah. Yeah.

Covered it a little bit in the mule deer podcast or the spot and stock, just planning a stock as far as you got to consider wind. But I wasn't able to really dive into wind. And I think that I'll answer it as the question, but I'll also, God, that would be a great podcast in the future is just really deep diving into the way wind works. So if you think about fluid dynamics, wind is actually...

counted like when you're when they calculate the airflow the flow of air it's the same as water it's a fluid dynamic so you also when you're looking at the landscape have to think of wind acting like water if you were to pour a bucket of water

at the mountain, how would it flow? Think about the way a river flows. When it hits a rock, what does it do? Well, if it hits a rock over the top, it creates what's a bed where it goes over the top and then jets smooth, or it makes an eddy when it hits something and swirls as it goes around the rocks on the edges. Water does the exact same motions as air. So when you're thinking about the mountain and the way the air is flowing,

Think of it like the direction of the air is pouring water and how that water would react on the features is how the wind will react as well. That's the best way to think about it. Now, thermals are interesting because they can be consistent, but they can also really...

mess you up when you're planning stock or trying to get in close. So I'll just tell you the way that I think about thermals. There's a ton of, you could go on Wikipedia and probably get the most scientific explanation of exactly what a thermal is. But think of a thermal, the way I think of it is like a hot air balloon, hot air rises. So in the mountains, it's particularly consistent in most places because there's a lot of temperature swings between night and day.

So in the morning, when the sun comes up, it starts to heat the ground. That hot air then rises. So the thermals rise in the morning. What that does is that pushes the air or the current

up into the air, as well as when you put a hill in there, it pushes it up a hill. So in the morning, the thermals rise up a hill. Now in the evening, it's the exact opposite effect with the cooling. The cool air then drops below the warm air, causing the current or the thermal to go down hill. Now here's a couple little tips that they don't tell you in the thermal textbook.

And things that I always think of is that first part of the morning when the thermals first start going, that's when they seem to be the fastest but the most inconsistent. Now, you also have to remember when you're in mountains, the thermal might be rising on the sunny side of a hill, but it's drawing down the shaded side.

So there's been a lot of times where I've planned my stock, the wind where I'm standing, where the thermals are going up toward the animal. Well, I know if I get into the shaded side, it'll be drawing down that other side of the canyon. So I play it a lot where, yes, it's rising in the morning, but you get in that shaded spot and you can actually get around animals and make a better stock by trying to stay into the shade where they're going to bed. It'll be drawing or dropping down.

So it is consistent of thermals rise in the morning and fall in the evenings. But you also have to – there's that timing issue where you can play the shade on the north faces to get the wind right or the thermal right.

Now, in the evening, that's the hard one because when the sun's out, you might be stalking from above, which is generally the best. And then it switches once that sun starts to go down. At some point, that thermal is going to drop. So, you've got a time clock ticking. What I like to do is I like to try to anticipate what that thermal is going to do and then stalk into a place where either way I'll be okay. And that's hard to do sometimes, but it's something to consider. I love it, man. That is –

It's clear and concise as I've heard, you know, wind and thermals explained. I mean, it is. I mean, understanding wind is the most important because wind is what gets you busted. A lot of people ask, oh, well, what about scent eliminate in the water?

When you're hiking and hunting, none of that stuff works. You just need to play the wind. And just by understanding the wind, I think a lot of people think that the wind swirls or is finicky and is unpredictable. But by spending a lot of time out there, I've really understood that it's not as unpredictable as you think if you know what it's doing where you're at. And a lot of that is maybe it takes a couple of days to understand what the wind's like to do in that area. And

you know, certain times of the day, midday when it's hot out and there is no wind, like the thermals are still, your scent will keep going uphill. And that's always good too because the thermals are going throughout the day.

And then you just kind of got to anticipate what's going to happen as things change as the sun moves. Yeah. And start thinking about it critically. Yeah. I mean, in the whitetail world, everybody's always scent control, scent control, scent control. But having the knowledge of where your scent is traveling and how it's traveling through a landscape is as, if not more important, as important. Yeah. In those things. All right. What else we got here? Donovan Billings.

He said, I know you were saying, and in my readings too, there's a lot of people asking about solo hunting, DIY hunting always, but solo hunting being. He said, Donovan said, I would like to hear some stuff for the first time DIY solo public land hunters out there. I'm planning my first out-of-state hunt this year. I'll be camping in a tent and most likely going at it alone. I could just use some tips on gear and anything else that may come to mind. Yeah. So,

I have a lot of experience solo hunting and there, that, and there was a lot of questions that I noticed as well about hunting alone. Yeah. Um, for those that may, maybe they found this podcast through some other means, who knows? I have done a show for the last, uh, this or in just finished our 10th season will be 11 years now, uh, called solo hunters. You can find it on Amazon prime, the newest seasons, and then older seasons on YouTube still, uh,

So if you haven't seen those, and this just happened to be a random solo hunting question, start by binge-watching those seasons because there's just... You're going to pick up a lot of stuff watching that. Especially on... What amazes me about this isn't exactly what Donovan's asking, but how you film those things. Like how you specifically capture. I know it's hard to get it done without a camera, but the best thing about solo hunter is seeing how you guys capture these hunts by yourself. Yeah, because...

It's very frustrating for the most part, but we try to leave the frustration in there, the challenge of it. But back to Donovan's question, some of the gear. Now we have such – when I started hunting alone, there was no satellite text messaging. There was sat phones that were way too expensive for anything that I could afford.

Um, there, I don't even think we had cell phones when I started hunting alone. So I think that there's a couple items that you can take with you, but then I think there's a few things that you just have to do old school. Um, you should always let somebody know where you're going and give a, I'm going to be back by this date time. This is where I am. This is what my truck looks like. This is the kind of boots I'm wearing just in case, um,

God forbid something happened. Now, with so much technology, I also highly recommend some kind of sat messaging system, like worst case scenario. They've got, I call them Delormes because mine is ancient, but I think it's Garmin now. Yeah, Garmin in reach. In reach, yeah. That's a good one. The spot ones are really good. I always thought the Garmin was, because that one can connect to your phone, right?

And then my buddy had that one on his Nevada deer hunt this year and broke his phone. So then to send a message took him years. It was just like old school texting. So I think the Spot one has its own keyboard. The inReach can go to your phone. They've got the Mini or another one. That's a great piece of equipment. And you can start and stop the service whenever, but definitely a good investment.

Now, the other thing when you're by yourself, you got to carry all your own stuff. You got to rely on yourself. I think that the best tool you can have hunting alone is being self-reliant. And what that means is just having the knowledge, being a little bit bushy, having the knowledge of if a situation arises, how to get out of that situation. And also,

You know, you're going to have less ability to carry a bunch of stuff. If you got another guy with you, you can split up tent and weight and other things. So everything in my pack I critically think about, and I make sure that everything has multiple uses. You know, if I've got a...

Let's see some, I'm trying to think of some stuff that's in my pack. Always. I just try to every trip, take out the things that I didn't use the trip before until it's about bare bones. Um,

But I try not to double up on anything. Like I know some guys will have a multi-tool and then a skinning knife and then a, all this extra stuff, you know, really cut down the weight of the extra things you take, make sure everything has a purpose. And it's like, this is what this is for. This is what that's for. And, and bring those kind of,

few items if that makes sense that does kind of jumped around a little bit there but yeah I mean the in reach is a huge and I've used that all over the place so I don't I don't go anywhere if I don't have service without it I clip it to the the shoulder strap of my pack and just leave it there and it's always there it's always charged

Don't leave home without it. Yeah. And if you're by yourself too, like just being self-reliant, you need a little bit of extra, like I always have some duct tape wrapped around my water bottle. That's always good for patching yourself up. Have some knowledge in what's in your first aid kit. Go through your first aid kit and know what's in there because...

You know, the difference between a bad situation and whatever. I mean, I'm talking about the dark side of solo hunting is just no one's there to help you if stuff goes bad. But that's everything else is just hunting.

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. This one came via email. I thought it was interesting. Just one major question. I haven't harvested a deer or bear yet, and my success is only in bird hunting. How do you deal with disappointment in the field and not allow it to carry into other hunts? Seriously hoping to be successful this year. And that's from Aaron Pearson.

Just asking about disappointment and how to deal with it. I thought that was an interesting kind of off the wall question. Oh yeah, that's, there's a huge mental aspect to hunting. You know, I've said it a million times to people that I've been guiding or friends that are on a hunt calling me, telling me how the hunt goes. I mean, one of the best things you can take on a hunt is a positive mental attitude. And the way that I approach a hunt, especially really hard hunts,

Like I've got a hunt coming up that I know is just going to be grueling. So before I go, I set my mindset of I'm here to have a good time. Now, think –

You just have to anticipate the things are going to go wrong and set your mindset that when those things go wrong, how you deal with them really determines how long you, how hard, because once you start getting down and you start, you start getting frustrated, you start making mistakes, you stop thinking clearly, you want to go home and you start carrying that into other hunts. Instead of saying it as I'm unsuccessful, see it as what did I learn this trip?

Look at it as I'm going out for the experience of the hunt and then take those experiences, keep your attitude positive and learn every time. Like it's a learning experience. You go out, you aren't successful. Well, what did you do that time that caused you not to be successful? You should be thankful that you learned that this time, you know, you should be constantly getting better and, and that should be your mindset. So it's really just a shifting of the way you're thinking of looking at things and

I know there's so many hunts that I've been on that have just been, especially when I'm by myself, grueling and every day things go wrong. It's just part of it. But yeah, it's how you react to the things that go wrong. Is it something that pushes you forward or is it something that kind of drags you down? And that honestly, like your mindset is a decision that you make when you get up every day.

And that can be taken into daily life. Yeah. You decide your attitude. That's why hunting, especially the kind of hunting you do most, the backcountry hunting is the most rewarding, at least to me, because it's constant challenge. And you're always left with, even if you're successful, you're always left with something you didn't do right or something you could have done better every single time. And that's, if you're not out there for the challenge, then

then you got the wrong mindset in the first place. Yeah, but I get it. I've had those tough hunts where you're like, nothing's going right. Is this ever going to work? This sucks. But you just have to kind of take it and say, well, this is what I learned. This is what I'm going to do different. And you might do it different and that doesn't work. But at least...

You just I mean I almost wake up every morning on a tough hunt and think this is freaking awesome Look where I am how cool is this like be stoked keep the stoke embrace the challenge yeah be intrinsically motivated Don't like the situation motivate you I like that here's one from Dan. Just says Dan A lot of people are asking these questions a lot of people writing and asking very specific questions

that I don't know that we can answer, but this is a good example of what it looks like. He said, I'm a whitetail bow hunter from Georgia who has decided on a DIY mule deer hunt in southeast Idaho for 2021, or at least putting in for general tax. Any advice you want to throw my way would be greatly appreciated. Keep up the great work and continued success. From Dan. Yeah.

Okay. I think, well, first off, the drive from Georgia to Idaho is very long. Download every podcast because by that time, it'll be like 52 of them. Oh, way more than that. And then start from the beginning and listen through again on your way out there. Because I think the whole point of the podcast is to answer those kind of questions.

I hope that when you listen to the tips and the other things, some of them might seem kind of random or maybe not in your wheelhouse. But overall, what I'm hoping it does is give you a database of things to think about when you're out there. Honestly, a lot of this hunting isn't based on the spot. You go, oh, where should I go? Where did you hunt? I want to hunt where you hunt. Like that doesn't even matter because most of the hunts I go on, it's the first time I've ever been there.

The place, honestly, is the least important thing. It's the little tactics of just pick a spot. I don't know how many hunts I've just picked a spot. I mean, you could say people could be going, oh, Idaho is going great right now. But I mean –

find any spot. A lot of times, most of the hunts I look for are places that people aren't talking about, but you just take the things that I've talked about, the little bits of scouting, some things from the stories and just kind of formulate a plan in your head, create a picture of what you should be looking for, and then just pick a random place where it's legal to hunt and you can get a tag and then start employing those tactics. I mean, if you're asking where should I go,

I think you're already at a loss. You should be asking, like, what are things that I should know that are going to make me better? And those are all the things that I'm talking about in my mind that will make you better. So I think that that's going to be the best thing. Yeah. I mean, I'm like I work on this podcast. I work here at Mediator, but I'm a fan of I mean, you talk about learning how to dog an elk. I mean, that's like 404 class level learning.

elk hunting learning, but you can know, even if you're a one-on-one guy, you can listen to this podcast and understand where you need to get to or understand like the movement of an animal. You may not be able to call like Remy, but you can understand the movement of an elk or what that elk is thinking. So you can, it'll fast track your calling to get you to that next level if you understand those things. So that's just one example, but there, in my opinion, at least there are tons of examples of that. Yeah. Yeah.

Get you there. All right, you got well, we got one more dialed up here. It's from Matt Middleton He said I'm new to hunting and I'm preparing for my first archery elk season here in eastern British Columbia That's great country over there having trouble finding hunting partners. So it will be solo I'm curious you have some tips or pointers to help a rookie adult onset hunter be successful. I

I've been scouting and spotted a few cows, but not a lot past a rut sign. I'm a little lost on what elevations I should really be targeting. I'm in the Columbia Valley region, which is very steep and rugged for the most part, with quite a bit of open grassy wetlands in the valley bottom. Again, great podcast, huge fan. Thanks for the help.

And he's elk hunting, correct? He's elk hunting. He's really, I think, asking... Kind of the elevation he should be hunting. A lot of questions, but the specific question is, if you're in this situation, how do you target elevations or do you target elevations? So I don't necessarily target elevations, but I target the type of habitat that I'd be looking for. So we're talking elk. Sounds like archery. Maybe that's a September type thing. It doesn't really matter the time of year as much.

as much. Um, I would say look for, so elk are grazers. So let's just break it down. Anytime I'm, I'm talking about a hunt first, break it down on your knowledge of the species. So, and this can go for anything. Like, let's say you've got, you're going to go mule deer hunting for the first time. Your best bet is to understand the animal that you're going after. And then once you understand that, then understand the type of area you're in,

And then break it down after the type of area you're in. Okay, how does this animal interact in this area? So based on my limited knowledge of that region, but just based on what he said, it sounds like it's probably fairly timbered. There's open meadows in the valleys, fairly steep kind of country. So elk are a herd animal and they're a grazer.

What that means is they prefer grass, whereas deer browse. They'll eat the bushes, whereas the elk eat the grass. So first thing I'd be looking for is feeding areas. Now, if it's super timbered, I'd be looking for those maybe north slopes, maybe more gentle north slope. But maybe those valleys, maybe it's not necessarily an elevation thing. So you might have above timberline and then open in the valley, and then maybe some little openings in the north slopes area.

So I'd be looking first for the food, then I'd be looking for areas that contain water in that country. There's probably water everywhere. So that could just be – you could almost dismiss that. And then cover. Well, is it all open or is there some places where they can go from food to water to cover in a short area? Yeah.

focus on those areas that have that elk habitat. Now, every area is different. I'd say a lot of elk like that top third of the mountain though, but in your area, who knows, maybe hunting those meadows is the way to go. Good way to check it out would be to scout some of that, look for sign. If you don't see any sign in those lower meadows, then yeah, the key is maybe get up higher. Also look for some of those benches and some of those finger ridges coming off the main ridge.

Elk live in some steep stuff, but they like to bed in less steep stuff. So anytime you can find a flat spot or a bench in steep country, you're going to find elk there, whether it's timbered or not. And using your topo map is a great way to do that.

Yep. And so, yeah, that's a good, so the answer really is understand the terrain and how elk use it. You don't, you're not picking numbers when you're looking at elevation. You're like, oh, the elk will be at 8,000 feet. No. That's not. But once you start finding them, um, cow, this year I had a mule deer hunt in his early season.

It's like I was up high and I saw no bucks. And then I get to 6,000 feet and start seeing bucks. And everywhere I went, they just happened to be at that elevation that time of year. So if you start seeing elk at a certain elevation, you're probably on the right track. Try to replicate that other places or deer or whatever. I mean, it's not a bad theory of, okay, they like this elevation. But also really investigate what else is here that time of year.

Because now if you're hunting that same area later, the elk will be lower. Snow and other things like winter range is lower country, more mild country, has a lot more north slopes and a lot more grass. That's what they need that time of year. So.

Yeah, I hope that helps. Good. Well, that's all we got. There's hundreds of emails here that we're reading and answering. And so I'm sure we'll do more of these, won't we? Yeah, definitely. And like I say, I try to respond to as many on my Instagram or whatever that I get as I can. I pulled a few of those questions from there. And then the...

remy at meateater.com is where you're reading a lot of these from. remy at the meateater.com is where those last couple came from and there's many, you know, the good thing or convenient thing is there's many that are similar to the ones we're reading. So we're trying to cover off on the most popular topics that we're seeing in the inbox. Perfect. Yeah, appreciate it. And,

Next week, we'll get back into some more stories, some more tips, some more tactics. But yeah, thanks for all the support and let's keep it going. Appreciate it. See you.

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