Ep. 26: My First Archery Columbia Blacktail and Mastering the Art of Still Hunting
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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.

What happens when you get to your hunt area and it's heavily timbered? Or maybe the place that you hunt has a lot of broken topography that just doesn't lend itself to a good vantage point for glassing. This week's podcast, we're going to cover the tactic of still hunting. What that is, is slow and deliberate hunting while moving through an area on the ground. Although the word says still, it's a tactic of hunting while moving.

A successful hunt really involves a cluster of so many individual tactics. If I talk one episode about spot and stock hunting, that doesn't mean that even in a single given day, that's the only tactic that I use. Really, if I think back to my most successful hunts, a tactic that stands out above the rest is effective still hunting. Today, I want to cover the art of still hunting and point out the three main components. Moving, looking, and stealth.

I've taken most species that I've hunted using these tactics. Includes mule deer, black-tailed deer, white tails, elk, as well as axis deer, fallow deer, red stag, and some alpine species like tar, just to name a few. If you can master the art, you will give yourself more opportunity and more success over a wide range of species. While I have piles of successful stories, I want to share the story of the first Columbia black-tail I took with my bow.

The reason I want to tell a story about hunting Columbia blacktails is really twofold. First, it's because the habitat they live in really lends themselves to still hunting tactics. And second, I honestly think they're underrated as a big game species. Now, a Columbia blacktail is a deer species that's pretty much a coastal woodland deer. They live on the coast from California up through Oregon and Washington. They live on the coast of California up through Oregon and Washington.

Now for, say, Pope and Young or Boone and Crockett classification, what separates them from mule deer as opposed to being labeled as a black tail, anything west of I-5 in the state of California is considered a black tail. Now black tail really like heavily timbered forests.

Now, if you're talking up even further north in Oregon and Washington, they're in some extremely dense, ferned out temperate rainforests along the coast. In California, in a lot of the areas, it might be more pine forests, but they still stick to the heavier cover as opposed to the more wide open that mule deer prefer. Because of that, hunting black tails is more like hunting white tails than mule deer in some aspects.

They have a lot tighter home range, they travel in cover more often, and they're extremely reclusive animals. A lot of the areas that you hunt might have quite a few deer, but actually seeing those deer in daylight hours can be difficult. This particular hunt, it was the beginning of the archery season. It was a hot August day in the California B-Zone.

i think the temperatures that day were 103 degrees it just almost hurt to breathe now the terrain where i was hunting is mountainous but heavily timbered a lot of pine and then the openings that were available choked out with manzanita underneath the pine a lot of brush a lot of poison oak a lot of just other manzanita shrubs within the trees

Now this particular hunt, we decided to drive in and I was hunting with a buddy. We set up a base camp where we parked. And then our plan was we were just going to hike out from our trucks each day and kind of still hunt through the areas, through the timber in hopes of first off going in a couple of days early and scouting it out a little bit. And then during the hunt, we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and we were going to go out and

maybe just moving along those areas where we'd identified or spotted deer earlier and just still hunt through those areas hoping to get lucky find some deer now a couple days before the season i struck out looking for sign moving along the logging roads and ridges

And I was actually kind of focusing on the north faces, which are a little more open. I really didn't see any deer that day. I saw a couple does, but very minimal. I did, however, see this one manzanita bush just shaking. And I snuck up to it, got about 20 yards away, and I see this head of a black bear pop up and then go back down.

What the bear was doing is he was actually knocking the manzanita berries off the bush and laying there on the ground, reaching his arms out and then compiling them into this big pile. When he got a pretty good size pile, he would then just start eating the pile and then knocking more berries off and just eating. He was eating in the laziest way you could see a bear eating, just hitting the berries off, laying there, scooping them up and eating them. I actually snuck in pretty close and

Got some really good pictures of the bear. I think that day I saw three bears and two deer. So now I decided, well, their habits for black tail, they like thicker country. I prefer to hunt more open country, but I'm going to change and adjust my tactics. I'm going to now focus on the more south facing slopes.

So opening day, I decide to check out the other side of the mountain where we were at. So I hike down and before daylight drop off below camp, hit a logging road, and then work around to the south facing slope that I know is a lot more timbered. I pick a ridge with a good trail and I'm seeing a lot of sign. Now these deer are so reclusive and they live in cover. So part of the tactic too is just moving around till I could figure out where these deer are living.

This game trail was a good sign. It led me into a really brushed out canyon, really dense forest. So I followed that finger ridge up. The wind was coming down at that point, so it was perfect. I worked up all the way to this logging road, hit the logging road and decided, well, I'm just going to keep the wind in my face. And this logging road's a great way to just stay quiet. So I started walking that logging road out. A few miles later, I heard something in the brush.

I look over and I see a few of the bushes moving and I can hear something walking around back there. So I just sit down and wait. And I was just going as slow as possible on this trail, glassing, looking, listening, glassing, moving, glassing, listening. Going that mile took me the majority of the day because I was just moving at a really slow pace. I knew that I'd seen enough sign where this was a good spot for the deer to be. Everything was pointing to there's going to be deer here.

Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of a buck just off the trail that I was walking, maybe 30 yards away. It was so thick, though, I didn't have a shot. So I dropped down and circled around the direction he was feeding and got set up. He had no clue I was there. He kept feeding, going through the brush, and there was one opening.

As soon as he took a couple steps into the opening, I had already drawn back when I saw the brush moving. He stepped out and just as he stepped out, I grunted. He stopped, looked my way, but by that point, it was too late. The arrow was on his way, hit right through his shoulder, and he ran off into the ravine down below.

I saw the bucket dropped off into the canyon and I knew based upon the shot, he wasn't going to go far. I gave him about 15, 20 minutes and started my way down the steep embankment. It was super steep. And as soon as I got to the bottom, there he was lying in the ravine. My first Columbia black tail. It was an awesome buck just about an ears wide or past his ears two by two.

But I hunted hard for that deer. This year I got it on the first day of the season, but I'd hunted a couple seasons in the past unsuccessfully. So to walk up on that buck was just extremely exciting.

While still hunting might kind of seem like you're just walking around and you have to get lucky, it can be extremely effective if done right. And there really is an art that involves three main components. The first is moving, the second looking, and the third being stealthy.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to break it down into those three parts and just give you some tips that I use that help me be consistent and successful while still hunting. So I think the word still in still hunting really throws people off. They think, oh, that means I'm sitting or not moving. Really, we should change the name of it. But for right now, I want to first kind of dive into what still hunting is.

And it's the methodical part of moving slow through the woods that makes it a technique and tactic that you can use regularly. You're moving and it works great in cover or in areas where you can't glass well.

A lot of hunts, there's so much varying terrain and a lot of habitat and a lot of species live in cover. But still hunting can also be done in the open when you can't see everything at one vantage or one glassing point. I would also go so far as to say that oftentimes the act of stalking is also still hunting, except for the fact that you know where or have a pretty good idea of where the animal is that you're going after.

So let's go into the first aspect, moving. The number one thing is the methodical walking. When you're moving, the most important thing to remember is you have to keep the wind right. So whenever I plan out a still hunt or an area where I'm going to move slowly through, I first have to understand which way is the wind going and where do I want to hunt it from.

It's not necessarily by accident. There might be an area of the mountain where I think, okay, this is a bedding area. This canyon and this topography I can't see from anywhere else. This area holds good habitat. So I'm going to go through that good habitat. I'm going to go through that area. But I first have to get the wind right. There's been so many times where I've gone into an area and thought, okay, this is where I want to get to. But the wind changes. I always follow the wind or walk into the wind.

Because when you're still hunting, most of the time, the animals that you encounter are going to be in close proximity to you, possibly already within bow range. It's great for bow hunting because yeah, when you see them, you can almost get a shot or you're within that initial distance to now creep in.

But if you have the wind wrong, you're going to see nothing and you're going to be unsuccessful. So you really have to plan it to a certain extent, but your plan should be to walk into the wind. That gives you the most option for encountering animals that aren't going to already know you're there or blow out before you can see them. Now, topography is a key when it comes to planning your still hunt.

What I like to do is I like to work high traffic areas where I'm most likely to run into whatever I'm hunting. So it's going to be very species based, but there's some things that just kind of always ring true. A lot of the areas that I like to work are ridges, bedding areas, as well as bottoms. If I'm going to walk a mountain, it seems like the top third of a mountain is the most productive.

What I mean by that is if you were to separate the mountain into thirds, right where that top of the third line meets before it hits the top, that range just tends to hold more animals than anywhere else on the mountain. But it also depends on the species you're hunting and the time of day you're hunting. Most mice still hunting, if I'm going to plan out a hunt, say a day where I'm hunting mule deer, I'll probably start my day sitting on a vantage glassing early in the morning.

Now, once the day heats up and things are bedding, if I haven't seen something I'm going to stalk, that's the time that I'm probably going to get antsy, start moving around. And I'm going to use that, those happy feet that I have to be effective by sneaking through bedding areas or areas that I couldn't see from any vantage point. A lot of times that might mean a draw where it drops off and has bluffs around it. I'll get into the bottom of that a lot of times.

or hunt the top of that ridge, or maybe just cruise like the top third of a hillside that I couldn't see from another area that's covered, timbered, where I know animals might be on their feet later because there's more shade in the middle of the day.

Also, if I'm in an area where, I mean, this happens so many times, think about hunt where it might be a full moon at night, hot during the day, and animals are probably just moving more at night because they have better visibility due to the light of the moon, as well as it's cooler. So during the day, where are they going to be? They're going to be in the cover. You might sit there in glass and see no animals, or you might be in an area that just doesn't lend itself to glassing,

But by slowly moving through that area, you extend your hunting time and the effectiveness of where and what you're targeting. When I talk about moving, still hunting involves a certain type of movement.

I like to think of it as the walk, stop, look. Walk, stop, look. Now the speed that I move in walking, stopping, and looking depends on the thickness of where I'm at. Now if it's more open, it's easier to see. I can scan faster. So sometimes that might just be a standard walking pace. If I get into what I call the thicks or really dense cover, it might be moving inches in minutes. I mean, I

half of a step, getting down, crouching, looking under every brush, looking in every direction. Then when I'm positive, nothing is within view, taking another small step, maybe even going a couple hundred yards over the course of an hour. I've done that so many times with so many different animals creeping through bedding areas. That really works well as well with white-tailed deer and

and mule deer in thicker cover. There's just so many species that where they like to live when they aren't out in the open is the really thick stuff. And you can still effectively hunt that thick stuff, but you just have to go so slow like you were stalking in there. Now, the walk-stop look...

involves looking so that's our second piece to effective still hunting o'reilly auto parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road i love o'reilly in fact the other day i'm not kidding you the other day i went into an o'reilly auto parts looking for a part i needed a different thing that wasn't really in there you know only like tangentially related to what they carry

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Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. I'm going to break down the right way to look. I've probably said this before, but if I go out hunting with somebody that I've never hunted with before, within about the first 10 minutes, I can tell how good of a hunter that person is before they ever spot an animal, before we ever do anything just by walking with them.

And it's because of the way that they walk. And it's not the way that the person walks, but the way that they look. A person that hunts a lot and is successful probably has one thing in common with other hunters that are also extremely successful hunters.

It's that they walk with their head up. They're looking, they aren't looking at the ground. There's been so many times and I get the experience from guiding as well, watching people walk through the woods and they're looking down at the ground. They're watching their feet. Yes, you need to be quiet. And we're going to talk about stealth in a little bit, but walking with your head up is more important than looking at what's at the ground.

When you walk with your head up, you're going to catch things before they catch you. Think about the way a deer moves, feeds, and acts. Prey animals, they might be eating and distracted, but not for very long. They're always looking out for danger. Other predators, their heads are up, they're moving, they're looking. You've walked your entire life.

it's more successful to let your feet feel the ground and look with your eyes for animals than it is to be looking at the ground and trying to remain quiet. Now, you definitely got to think about staying quiet, but if your head's up on a swivel looking around, you're going to catch things that you might miss by that glance, the two steps looking down. So as I'm moving, I'm always looking around. My head's up, I'm alert, and just that small little act will make you so much more successful over time.

But it's not just looking around. When I'm still hunting, I might be in close cover or not have a really good view very far, but I'm still using my binoculars. And I know I've talked about that before, but it's so key. What I do is if you have a, let's say eight power binoculars are great if you hunt a lot of thick cover, but even my higher magnification binoculars, I still use in thick cover. What I do is I put them to my face. So I first look with my eyes and

then my next look is with the binoculars and i'll scan through the cover and i'll roll that focus to varying depths what you'll notice when you're doing that is you're able to see things at say 15 feet and then look past 15 feet as i roll the focus to 30 feet to 60 feet to 100 feet to whatever distance you can see but rolling that really gets out a lot of the distraction of the brush

Because in thicker cover, you're only looking for a very small part of the animal. It might be the lateral line of a back. It might be the curvature of an ear. It might be just a piece of hair. You aren't looking for the whole animal. And a lot of times it's obstructed by brush.

Even with your natural eye, you might say, oh, well, I can see over there. And you take two more steps and something jumps up, runs off, and your hunt's blown. You're going to be a lot more successful by just using your optics in the cover, rolling that focus, and looking past the distractions of all the brush that's in front of you. I would say that that's one of the most successful tactics I have when still hunting is using my binoculars in that cover.

Now, another tactic I use for looking is what I call scrolling. If I'm hunting open country or more mountainous type terrain, what scrolling is, is as I walk, I uncover the new terrain below me. So it generally happens when you're on a ridge walking downhill or uphill or over into a new valley, especially in more open country.

Now, as I scroll what I do, if I'm coming up over a rise or over a ridge into new country, I take a step or two and then I kind of read each new piece of land as it's presented to me. So I take a step as the new ground comes into view below me.

I look with my binoculars left to right, right to left, take one more step, look in every direction and just scroll like I'm reading a book. As I move forward, I'm reading that book that's now presented in front of me looking for an animal before it spots me. It's super effective tactic as you're moving in on a stock. But also if you're just an open country, every time I walk over a new ridge, I'm

That's how I walk and that's how I look. I scroll, I take a step, I look at the new country, I take a step, I look at the new stuff. I don't just pop over because so many times you're gonna get busted on that skyline or that ridge line before you see what's hidden below you. Now the third tactic to still hunting is stealth. You gotta remember when you're still hunting, you're mostly moving through thicker cover or you're gonna be in an area where there's limited visibility so what you do see will be fairly close.

I've learned a lot about still hunting by hunting in New Zealand and hunting with a lot of guys that hunt red deer and some other stuff in the more jungle type beach forests. That style of hunting, mixing that with a combination of being extremely quiet is really successful because when you see the animals, they're unalerted to your presence. And most of the time you're already within range. Now all you have to do is make slight moves and adjustments, a slight play to get a chance or to get a shot.

It's really good for bow hunting, but can be extremely effective for rifle hunting as well. Just because you have a rifle doesn't mean that all the shots need to be far. A rifle is extremely handy in still hunting scenarios because you can get the gun up a little smoother and a little easier to take your shot. Now, as far as stealth goes, I kind of talked about it when we were talking about looking, keeping your head up, but feel the ground. Before you take a step, walk light on your feet. Your steps should be soft and quiet.

But also as you're picking where you're going to walk, if you can walk through really thick, noisy brush, or you can take a game trail, I always opt to take the game trail. I use trails when possible. I use logging roads when possible. I try to walk on ridges or other places where it's going to be more quiet for me to walk through.

That all comes down to the way that I move and choosing where I'm going to walk through. So if I can find a place where I can get the wind right, I can try to stick to a trail when possible, like a game trail or something that doesn't have as much brush, isn't as loud, it's going to be a lot better. Another thing to consider is walking in the shadows, even in a forest or whatever. If I'm walking in front, let's say I'm just walking up a hundred yards and

As I'm still hunting and moving, I'm going to try to get behind the shadow of each tree that I come to and then use those bigger trees or bigger obstacles to kind of block my form for that movement in the direction that I'm going. A lot of people don't account for the actual shadows cast in the forest and how that can block your human outline and not make you stand out.

Even though you're walking through the trees, the light that's hitting through, I like to just pick my route based on what's going to be quiet, what's going to be stealthy, how am I going to be least visible. So I'm almost walking and stalking at the same time. I'm imagining everywhere that I'm going, there might be an animal. So I'm trying to keep myself as obstructed and as unseen as possible. When I'm thinking about gear, as far as what I'm wearing,

If I hunt an area that's extremely timbered or I know that I'll probably be still hunting, a lot of times I lighten up. I try not to take a big pack. Although me personally, if I'm filming or whatever, I have a lot of stuff with me.

A pack is super loud in the thicker stuff. So if that's the kind of hunting you're going to be doing more often than not, a smaller, lighter pack is a lot better. You can get under brush better, even like a fanny pack or just going light, maybe using your maps, Onyx map or whatever, marking your pack and then saying, okay, I'm going to still hunt through this 400 yard wide patch of cover. That's probably a good bedding area.

Leave your pack, hunt through it, then go back, grab your pack, and then even maybe still hunt through another part of it before you continue on. But it's just way easier to go light, to wear silent clothes. Maybe even think about going back to the shoes off situation podcast. There's so many times where I've put my stocking socks on and literally crept through potential bedding areas looking for animals.

just already in that stealth mode, already in the silent mode because when you see something in thick cover, it's gonna be within range and you have to get in there unnoticed, undetected by sight, sound and smell. The last thing to talk about as far as successful still hunting would be what you do when you see the animal or are in position for a shot. A lot of the time as I'm stalking, I'm pretty much ready.

A lot of quick movements are what's going to get you busted. So even if you see something within bow range, you got to think slow, fluid, steady. If your bow is already ready, that's great. But if it's not, what I do when I take an arrow off, I try to get out of sight if I can, either by slowly crouching down, getting low or slowly moving to behind cover or letting the animal pass. It's always good to just keep an eye out for where's that animal's eye and

And if you can't see their eye or it's obstructed, they probably can't see you. Just keep in mind that most animals have a larger range of peripheral vision than us. So just because they're heads away doesn't mean necessarily that they can't see you. So make sure that their eye is obstructed by something and then make a slow movement to get out of sight so you can get in position. When you go to put an arrow on your bow,

It should be a slow movement, especially if they're maybe not looking at you, but maybe they saw something that was, no, that was something that didn't look right. You can get away with a lot by moving slow. I think a lot of people's initial reaction is just throw something on real quick, drop down real quick, do something real quick. Oh, they're right there. I need to move quick.

If you have that quick mindset, quick mentality, you're doing it wrong. You're going to create almost an attitude of panic for yourself because you're so close to the animal or you have to do something now and they're going to catch that. They're going to pick up on that. Whereas before maybe they noticed you, but they weren't threatened by you. So everything I do at this point is very slow, very fluid, very methodical, but I also don't waste a lot of time.

When you're hunting in cover, your opportunities for open, clear shots are few and far between. Sometimes you just have to take a shot when you get it. So I like to be ready, but also slow, fluid movements. Now with a rifle, the other thing is, you know, it's one of those where you bring the rifle up slow. Don't throw the rifle up. Bring it up slow. Do everything calm. If you think calm, you're going to get busted fewer times than you do if you think, oh, he's right there. I got to go fast.

slow and steady is much more effective than fast and rushed. I really hope that you found some of that still hunting tactics effective. I really think that if you use a lot of those tactics, you're going to be more successful. And over time, it's not going to be so much just walking quiet through the woods, but you'll begin to understand where animals are in that thicker cover, how to move, and how to just be consistent still hunting.

Really, if I think about it, most of my hunts, most of my successful hunts, especially for new species, involve some form of still hunting tactic throughout the day. So it's extremely important tactic to use, to practice, and to get good at. Because the guys that are really good at it are often successful more than other people that don't employ that tactic.

Before we get out of here, I want to read a couple emails that I got sent and answer a question from someone. I think I'm going to try to add a couple of those every now and then to the end of the podcast. Also, before I forget, I wanted to announce the winners from the Christmas special. If you listened to our Christmas special, we had a couple sneaky giveaways, one for some Yeti products, another for some binoculars. I've

I've actually contacted those winners a while back, but just keep forgetting to announce them here. So I want to announce them that way everyone knows that if you're listening to that episode now and then you catch up to this episode, it's too late for you to win. They've already been given away. So the V-Series cooler was claimed by Adam Dancy. We did rock, paper, scissors. If I remember right, he chose paper over, I might get this name pronounced wrong, but Kion Samonte.

But Keone actually is getting something as well. I think a Yeti cup, some Yeti drinkware. And then I also had the Looking Ahead Vortex photo contest. All this was through my Instagram page. Steve Smith won that. His photo was of his kid with a Red Ryder BB gun looking ahead, talking about taking her out into the field. I thought that was pretty sweet. Cool

Cool concept for the looking ahead. So good work, everybody that applied. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to do that. That was fun for me to give that stuff away. So here I'm going to read what we got. We've got... I'm actually just going to read it. Let's call it like a testimonial. If we were selling a product, this is the testimonial for Cutting the Distance podcast. So this comes from Dustin Lind. He wrote...

I first wanted to drop a quick note and thank you for doing the Cutting the Distance podcast. The insights you share are excellent and actionable. I had spent the last six hunting seasons coming up empty on my elk tags in Montana with a lot of frustration and wasted energy. A good portion of this was bad luck and even bigger portion was my own stupidity. But each season ended with no elk in my freezer.

I spend the entire spring and summer out of the state for work, so scouting has been impossible for the last few years. But I was able to take info from your e-scouting podcast to find solid areas to glass. I took your advice by getting better optics and glassed the hell out of those spots.

And lo and behold, found a herd of elk. My brother and I had both listened to your podcast where you advised to take the best route for stalking, not the easiest route. And after an ass kicker of a sprint of the backside of the mountain, found ourselves in a pretty good spot to make shots. The timber was too thick to see much of anything. So we took your advice from the shoes off situation.

ditched the boots and moved into the timber. We poked our head around some trees and spotted the herd 30 yards away, where my brother touched off a shot and dropped an elk. In the ensuing mayhem, I was able to single out a cow that stopped to look around and dropped her at 30 yards, filling my special draw tag.

This is a situation that I have blown dozens of times in the previous seasons by doing stupid things that spooked elk. But thanks to the info I got from your podcast, I was able to finally fill tags and close the deal. Thanks again for all the info.

Man, that's awesome. Now, if you haven't listened to some of those podcasts, you referred to a few of my favorite ones that I think have some of the best info in them. I get a bunch of those emails and please continue to send those emails in. You can always reach me at remyatthemeateater.com or message me on social media on Instagram. I pretty much read almost all of them that I can.

try to reply to as many as I can. I just wanted to read one here and maybe I'll read a couple more of your guys' testimonials in the future. That's the whole reason that I'm doing this podcast. To read that makes me still sit down every week, the

strap on the headphones and give you some of my secrets. Now I might be making an army of extremely skilled hunters. So next time I go into the woods, I'm competing against a lot of people that have a higher set of skills. So there's more competition for me, but reading these things makes it worth it, makes it worth the time. So I really appreciate that.

Also, if you do listen to the podcast, you enjoy it, don't forget to subscribe. There's probably a lot of you that listen, have to go in and find it every week. Hit the subscribe button. It just makes it easier for you, and it just makes sure that you can get the info that we're putting out there. So just reminding everybody to subscribe if they don't already. Now I'm going to answer a question as well. This question comes from Adam Waddington of Australia.

He says, do you clean the copper fouling out of your barrel and have a possible POI or point of impact for shift next time you shoot? Or do you leave it fouled up and just keep it dry and clean out any of the other stuff by running through dry patches?

That's a really good question. So my personal philosophy with this, and I know if you talk to a lot of old timers, they're always, they shoot the gun, then they clean the gun. I've even had people show up in our hunting camps and they shoot the rifle on the bench. And then before we go out hunting, clean the rifle with solvents and everything.

I don't do that. I would rather hunt with a dirty rifle. And here's why. I will clean the mechanisms that are moving, say the bolt, the trigger, keep things loose, make sure everything's moving right. But as far as the barrel goes, I clean it. But after I clean it, I always shoot it a couple times because I don't want that point of impact changing from where it's sighted on paper.

because of, yeah, most of the time after you clean through, you run copper solutions through, your point of impact isn't going to change the first shot or couple shots. So I personally don't clean my gun very often. If I'm shooting a lot, I'll clean my rifle afterwards. I'll take a few shots and then I'll put it away. What I will do is, like you mentioned, I will run one of those boar snakes down there quite often. It's like a

one of those rope cleaners, just to brush it out, make sure that there's nothing in there that's gonna affect it. But I like to shoot and then make sure it's right where I left it and then put it away. And that's just my personal way that I've done it forever. I've had no problems.

Now, if the gun's dirty enough where it's affecting accuracy, like you're getting severe copper fouling, yeah, definitely clean the gun. Then shoot it again to make sure you've got the correct point of impact and then keep it that way for a while. Most of the time when you're hunting, you aren't burning through that many rounds. So if I'm going to go to the range and shoot a lot, like when I practice, I might shoot two to four boxes in a weekend, who knows, maybe even more.

I'll clean it a lot during that just so I don't build up extra fouling and other things. But when I'm hunting, I don't do like a clean right before hunting. I like to know exactly where the point of impact is. So I hope that answers the question. So thank you guys very much for listening in. I appreciate everyone. Until next week, keep your rifles dirty. All right. See ya.

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