Ep. 39: The Research that Killed a Giant Buck and How to Hunt from Home
37:10 Share

Need parts fast? O'Reilly Auto Parts has fast. Need them now? We've got now. No matter what you need, we have thousands of professional parts people doing their part to make sure you have it. We're O'Reilly Fast. Just one part that makes O'Reilly stand apart. The professional parts people. O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.

You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to land.com. They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.

Market House has the cleanest, leanest, juiciest meat and seafood shipped to your home overnight. Expect the service of a local butcher and the convenience of a large supplier. Unlike many online butchers, you can grab just one meal's worth or lock in for a subscription box. Choose from grass-fed and grass-finished beef, American Wagyu, free-range poultry, grass-fed lamb, wild-caught king crab, seafood, and more.

and more. For 15% off your first order, use code COUNTRY at checkout. Just visit markethouse.com. That's M-A-R-K-E-T-H-O-U-S-E dot com. And use the code COUNTRY.

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. Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. I hope everybody's doing good. I know some of this quarantine stuff feels like it'll never end. I know a few places they're starting to lift some restrictions.

But for most of the country, we're still just kind of in the middle of this. So I thought this week, maybe I would just touch a little bit on some of the things we can do right now from home in planning for fall season success when it comes to picking a hunt and picking a spot.

And this is something that I've just been doing a lot of lately. So I just want to go over some of the things that I'm doing right now from my house through map scouting, through tag applications, through hunt research that will help me be successful this fall. But before we get into that, I'd just like to share a story of a mule deer hunt a few years ago in a new area that I kind of stumbled upon by doing a lot of pre-season research.

By this point it was day five or six of my general area over-the-counter mule deer hunt. Now on this particular hunt I was looking for what I would consider a good mature buck, at least four by four, good scoring, big mature animal. Except up until this point I'd hardly seen any deer. I'd seen a few does and some smaller bucks but very few sightings in between.

I was hunting a state that I hadn't actually hunted for deer before, but before the season really started, I just kind of got to thinking, I was reading through some regulations for different states like I do every year. And I just thought, man, this would be a fun tag to try. I looked at the season dates and I just so happened to have it open between guiding. So I just thought, okay, I'm going to pick up that tag and give it a shot, give it a run for its money.

you know, a lot of my hunt planning started out, what I was looking for was an area that really suited the way that I like to hunt, a good back country area. I also looked for an area that had fairly low hunter success, but also fairly low hunter activity. I wanted to be in a spot where I've

really believed that I could find a mature animal and to find a mature animal, it needs age. So I thought if I pick an area that is very hard to hunt for a lot of people, if I do end up finding a deer, it's probably going to have some age to it. It's probably going to have a little bit more size, especially being an over the counter tag. You know, if I can cut down on the hunter numbers and get into areas where I'm not seeing other people, man, I might really have some success at turning up a good buck.

Once I narrowed it down to that, I kind of found an area that had fairly low success. And I knew that historically there had been good animals taken around that area there. You know, I could look through Pope and Young and Boone and Crockett, and there was a few entries in there with some just overall good genetics, but the area definitely died off over the years as some areas do. So I thought, okay, this is the area that I want to hunt.

Now from there, I started just really pouring through maps and locating some really back country basins and just places that I thought, man, that nobody would want to go there. And then I also kind of picked areas that really lended themselves to the way that I like to hunt. So I really looked for burns and some other things. There'd been a recent fire in a portion of the unit. So I thought, okay,

I'm going to go in there where the recent fire is that might maybe deter some people, but it might also have some good antler growth, track some animals. There probably won't be any other hunters in there and I can give it my best shot. Like I said, five days in, I really hadn't seen any deer yet, but I also hadn't seen any other hunters either.

So in my mind, I was on the right track. I was in a good place that potentially had good deer. I just had to find the deer and it was such a big area. And even though it had burned a lot of standing timber, it was very hard to glass, very hard to see very far. So there was just a lot of pockets in there that I knew deer could hide and

but I just wouldn't be able to see them. So I just had to put boots on the ground, find more and more glassing spots, check out the spots that I'd outlined on my map and really stick to my plan because it was going to be mentally tough. And it was at this point, mentally tough. You know, when you go four or five days without seeing an animal, you start thinking, okay, am I just wasting my time? Is this why there's low success? Because there are no animals here.

But the country looked good. Everything looked good. And on this particular day, I found myself in a basin that looked better than anything I'd seen before. I thought to myself, this is the spot where I'm going to find my big buck. It's remote. It's out of the way. There clearly have been no hunters in here for a while. And if there's a buck in here, it's going to have some age and it's going to have some size.

To get into the area, I had to work my way straight up a steep mountain and then follow this like razorback ridge up into another canyon. Once I got up at the top, there was this big burned out section there and a lot of new growth coming up. There was a south facing slope and it was just almost knee high grass. There was a lot of bare grass, which deer don't necessarily like, but there was some other green up still because it actually done in pretty early snow and

This was early October. On the edges of the snow patch, there's some late October green up growing as well as just like some good pockets of unburnt timber as well. So I thought, oh man, this spot has everything I need. It's got cover. It's got a creek in the bottom. It's got some fresh growth. This looks awesome. And as I started working up that ridge, I started seeing sets of deer tracks. So I just got on alert. I was glassing and still hunting through this burnt timber.

And I worked my way to this little rock outcropping where I could kind of overlook the largest portion of this basin. And I sat there for a good portion of time. But by the time I got up there, it just was not the ideal time to be glassing. It was kind of midday. So I thought, well, I'm going to plan on being in this spot for the rest of the day. But I also just had this urge to see what was a little bit further up.

And maybe this one little pocket just looked, it just looked so good from where I was. So I worked my way up toward that pocket. And now I'm on the ridge overlooking this big burned out basin. And I've got what now is probably my best vantage point. I sit down and I actually was filming for solo hunters and I was messing with my camera and I'm sitting down and I'm glassing.

And no sooner do I throw the glass up and it just is filled with a buck. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is a nice buck too. Is the exact kind of deer that I was looking for. And then as fast as I saw it, it disappeared behind some burnt trees. So I'm like, okay, I got to really just make sure that this is really what I'm looking at. I want to maybe throw my spotting scope on it.

Then I spot it again. I'm like, okay, I'm not going to have time to get my scope on it. So I get set up, I range and it's way too far for a shot. It's about 1200 yards away off on this other hillside. And it's kind of working its way toward the top of the ridge. So I'm like, okay, I've got a little bit of time. I'm just going to watch this deer because there's so much burnt timber in here.

I'm probably going to lose it if I just stop looking. So I get set up and I just watch this deer and he starts feeding and then he goes over out of sight. I sit there for a little bit and just kind of think, okay, what am I going to do?

All right, so there's no way if I sit where I'm at, I'm not going to be able to make a play. It's going to take me a little while because it's so steep and there's a big canyon in between us to get to where he is. Plus the wind is coming from the bottom up the mountain. So I'm going to actually have to climb up to the top and around the other side and down on him.

But I don't really know if I'm going to be able to locate that deer again. So I figured, okay, I'm just going to go to where I last saw him or thereabouts. And because it was still a pretty fresh burn, there was like ash and dark soil. And it was pretty easy to find tracks. So I thought worst case scenario, I'm going to go to that deer.

If I get over there, I can start glassing, maybe pick him back up. If not, I can try to work my way down to where I think I saw him go over and hopefully pick up a set of tracks and maybe just track him through the timber. So I make a move and I'm like thinking I want to hustle and get over there while maybe he's still standing or moving around because it'll make him a lot easier to see. Even though it's burnt out, it's just like you cannot see more than a hundred yards in this stuff.

So I get on the ridge and I start working into the wind down where I last saw him. There was one little live pine that I saw on the ridge. So I kind of used that as a marker to get, okay, that's where he kind of went over. So as I get to that, I start really going slow. And as I creep into where he disappeared, I'm glassing and I'm looking for tracks and I'd seen a few tracks on my way down. So I knew that there was some deer in the area.

And I pick up his antler tips and the bear grass is so tall and the hills so steep that all I can see are his antlers, but he may have heard me a little bit. And then he, I see his head go down. He starts feeding again. I'm like, Oh, perfect. This is perfect. But I'm like, how am I going to get a shot at this point? He's only maybe 70 yards from me.

So I'm looking around and is full standing. The most that I would ever be able to see is his head and his eyes, but I cannot see his body because of the grass and the slope of the hill.

So there's this big downed tree right in front of me that had fallen over. I think, man, if I just get up a little bit higher. So I wait for the buck. I set my pack down and just like creep up to this log and then wait for him to feed again. As his head goes down, I crawl up on the log staying low and just make sure he's not looking my direction. And then I stand up and I'm just going to have to take an offhand shot because it's the only way that I can actually see the buck above the grass.

So I get ready. I actually, I lock my arm into my body and I practice offhand shots a lot. I used to shoot offhand rifle competitions in high school. So I'm like, all right, I've done a lot of offhand shooting and he's less than a hundred yards. This is no problem. I line up the crosshairs on his shoulder, squeeze the trigger and the buck drops.

As I walk up to the buck, it was everything that I'd wanted. And it was just as exciting because it was a general area. And it was just this idea of, I planned this hunt months before, just thinking about, okay, this is the type of experience that I'm looking for. This is the type of deer I'm looking for. And to walk up on that deer, put that entire experience into reality. Like the plan that I'd made months before, the research that I'd done, all of that.

all paid off right here on the mountain. All of this lockdown and quarantining stuff does suck in a lot of ways.

There might be some silver lining to it in the fact that many of you may actually have a little bit more time to plan out and do a little bit of research for some hunts. I know it's something that I do every year, but this year I've just been spending a little bit more time trying to find some new spots and some new hunts. So what I'm going to do is just kind of walk you through my process of what I'm doing right now.

not only in applying for hunts, but maybe planning for some over-the-counter type tags as well. So I'll kind of take you through my process of how I find hunts and what I look for when I'm planning that hunt. Really, I think that I could break it down into three steps. So the first would be identifying your options, then it would be mapping it out, and then planning it out. So let's start with step one, identifying the options available.

I'm a paper and pen guy. And so for planning, it just gets really messy. And I like to write out all my options and kind of keep like this master list when I start the whole planning process.

underneath this identifying our options idea, there's going to be two options that'll eventually come out. One would be draw type tags and the other would be what we call over the counter tags or tags that you can get fairly easily. Maybe you can just purchase them before a certain date or pick them up on your way to a hunt. So we've got those two categories. Let's start with the draw category. How do I identify a hunt? What

What I do is I start with reading through all of the different states' regulations and just see which hunts are available. This gives me an idea of what kind of opportunities are out there. So I'll go online, I'll pick the states that I'm interested in. For me, I mean, I try to research almost every state. So I'll look at New Mexico, I'll look at Idaho, Montana, Nevada, California.

Right now, I've been doing a lot of research for my Nevada tags that are coming out, but that's my home state. And that's probably the one that I do the most research in. Although I apply for a lot of different units and species in Nevada, most of the ones that I apply for, I've actually never been in those units or haven't hunted. So there's a lot of this research that goes into figuring out where I want to apply and

And that all starts by reading through the state regulations, the proclamations and seeing, okay, what tags are available and really understanding each state system and what's available to me as a hunter.

From there, I then match what's available up with what I'm looking for. So as far as draw type stuff goes, those are not necessarily tags that you can count on. But what I look for is maybe a tag that might be easier to draw, that might be a little bit more predictable, but maybe is kind of being underserved or other people aren't looking for it. Other things that I might look for is just say, hey, I'm looking if I'm going to go to this state, if I'm going to go to

for an elk hunt, then I want it to be a really good elk hunt. So I'm going to research areas that I think have really good success rates, good bulls, and maybe that's what I'm looking for. So let's just start with talking about

How do I even do any research on maybe areas to apply for? Where do I start? Because especially if you're out of state or maybe you're planning your first Western big game hunt, it's going to seem very daunting. There's thousands of areas, so many units. How do you know which one's the one that you want? How do you know which one's going to be good? You don't really know just looking at it on paper, what's going to be good. So you really have to understand what options do I have and then dive into it and dissect those options.

How I like to research a draw tag is I first start by looking up almost every state like fishing game website has some kind of statistics. Most of them are pretty good, especially for limited draw tags. A lot of them have to be report like the success and harvest has to be reported. So a lot of them are really good at

you know, giving you these research items. I mean, even in like the California hunting proclamations, it has a lot of this research in it. Some of the sites you actually have to look up a little bit more in depth, but you can find it pretty much for every state that I know of.

So what I like to look for, the stats that I key on are the draw odds, the harvest success, and then harvest data. So that would be stuff like maybe they've got information on the size of animals harvested, if it's elk, maybe the number of points or the average main beam length. If it's sheep, all the sheep have to get plugged and checked out. So some states have their checkout summaries there.

where it gives you the exact sheep that were harvested that year with a score. So you can kind of compare, okay, what size sheep are they? Or at least a lot of states will do length of horn and mass of base.

So I'm going to take that information and I'm going to start looking at it. And I'm not necessarily looking for one particular thing, but what I'm looking for is a hunt that matches what I'm interested in that moment. So it could change from year to year. It could change from state to state. It could change from you're looking at Wyoming or Colorado or Idaho this year. Okay. So what kind of hunt do you want? Maybe you're thinking, ah, I've got some time. I'm

I'm going to look for a hunt that is easy to draw, but if I draw it, I might have an okay chance. If I hunt hard, I had a six point bull, or you might be thinking, I don't have a lot of time this year. So I just want to find a hunt that is

Might be hard to draw, but if I get it, it's going to be so worth it because there's big elk and a good chance of success. So that's where I kind of break this down into what am I looking for? And then I dissect those stats that line up with what I'm looking for. Like I said, I've been spending a lot of time on my home state, Nevada. And the one that I've been really researching is desert sheep. I'd love to get a desert sheep tag. And my thought is I want to do it with my bow.

So I'm kind of looking for an area that has decent success, doesn't have to be large rams, but has really good odds of drawing for myself with the amount of points that I have. And so I'm narrowing it down to units based on what I'm looking for and what my goals are.

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.

They did not have it, and the dude told me specifically where I would go down the road to find it is how nice they are. They offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. Thousands of parts and accessories in stock, in-store, or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam.

They'll test your battery for free. If you need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or quick service, they'll help you find the right part or point you to a local repair shop for help. Whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you'll find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful, best of all, friendly. These guys are your one-stop shop for all things auto, do-it-yourself,

You can find what you need in store or online. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit them at OReillyAuto.com slash meat eater. That's OReillyAuto.com slash meat eater. We've all seen plenty of gadgets and fads come and go, but here's one product that stood the test of time. Seafoam motor treatment. Lots of hunters and anglers know that seafoam helps engines run better and last longer.

It's really simple. When you pour it in your gas tank, seafoam cleans harmful fuel deposits that cause engine problems. I'm talking common stuff like hard starts, rough engine performance, or lost fuel economy. Seafoam is an easy way to prevent or overcome these problems. Just pour a can in your gas tank and let it clean your fuel system. You probably know someone who has used a can of seafoam to get their truck or boat going again. People everywhere rely on seafoam to keep their trucks, boats, and small engines running the way that they should the entire season.

Help your engine run better and last longer. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. Fishing Booker is the number one platform for booking fishing charges worldwide. Search and compare over 36,000 fishing trips at your fingertips when you download the Fishing Booker app today.

We'll be right back.

Fishing Booker will match that price by refunding you the difference. If you're a captain and want to create a listing, Fishing Booker will advertise your business on the world's largest online service for fishing trips absolutely free.

They'll write an SEO-friendly description, make sure your photos look as good as possible, and promote your business to their customers all over the world. They'll also advertise your listings on Google, Bing, Instagram, Facebook, and other online platforms to help maximize your exposure and to get you bookings. And they provide 24-7 captain support.

Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. Now let's jump into the other option, the over-the-counter route.

Now I think of over-the-counter tags as something that, I mean, it's kind of like it sounds. You can pretty much be guaranteed that tag. Now there's a lot of places that might have tags that are fairly easy to draw or maybe you have to purchase them by a certain date. I would still classify those as over-the-counter tags. And I also kind of lump in some units that might have 70% or better draw odds into this over-the-counter type area. Like it's a readily available tag. The odds are that you'll get it.

some areas that have that kind of ability to get a tag, I kind of lump into this idea of the over-the-counter route.

I do something very similar when I'm researching over-the-counter type tags. If I really think back to all the hunts that I do every year, very, very, very, very few are a limited entry tag. Most of the limited entry tags would just be in Nevada where I live because there aren't any over-the-counter big game tags.

I apply in a lot of places, but I don't draw a lot of tags. I've drawn a few good tags in Alaska, but outside of that, I mean, I've never drawn a tag in Idaho. I've never drawn a tag in Utah. I've drawn one tag in New Mexico in the however many years, but there are other options. And when I'm talking about drawing a tag, like a limited entry tag. Now, in a lot of those places, I have either picked up leftover tags, over-the-counter tags, or

Or a tag that was really easy to draw that I pretty much was sure I was going to get. So most of my hunts are that over-the-counter route or those general areas. And there's some phenomenal hunting in there. You just have to really research it, do a fair amount of map scouting, and then have some time to hunt it. But through those tags, it's a lot easier to make a plan ahead of time.

So when I'm looking at different potential over-the-counter tags, which I've been looking a lot lately and maybe trying some new places, some new areas or a state that I haven't spent a lot of time in, I'm looking for those type of tags that using similar research to the draw tags, but just kind of matching the type of hunting experience that I'm looking for. So in the story that I told about the mule deer,

I was looking for the type of experience where I could easily pick up a tag. I could hunt without running into other hunters and going into it would know that it'd be very hard to find a deer. But if I did find one, it might be a really good deer. I don't do that on every hunt. There's many over-the-counter tags like for elk where I think I love to eat elk. What I want is just a good opportunity at harvesting any bull that

So in Montana, most of the time I look for areas, I hunt a lot of general units that, you know, just have a high elk population and a good chance of success. Maybe I'll go in their archery season and think, okay, I know I'm going to be guiding later in the fall. So I'm just going to look for maybe the first legal bull I see that that's good enough for me. So every hunt's different. And I really just plan out my hunts based on

You know, there's a few antelope hunts that I try to do every year. And for those, I just look for an area where it's like, okay, I'm going to get a tag. I can go with my bow, do some spot and stalk and fly.

find an area that has maybe not the highest population, but also, you know, maybe a mix of not as many hunters because I'm going to be spotting and stalking and I don't want them chased up a bunch. So maybe finding an area that has lower populations, maybe a little less success rate, but also fewer hunters.

And so by going through the websites and just really picking out what I'm looking for. So what I'll do, I mentioned earlier, I like to write it down. So I'll just, I'll have my idea of what I'm looking for. So I'll say, okay, let's say I want antelope archery. I want to spot and stock hunt it.

And I don't necessarily want to run into a lot of hunters, but I want an average amount of success. So I'll kind of figure out that's my goal for this. Then I'm going to start looking for things that line up for that and then jot down the units within that over-the-counter or general type hunt that align with that goal in mind.

Once I have my list of open zones or other areas, then I move to step two, which is mapping it out. We'll go back to the draw real quick. The map it out section, you aren't sure you're going to get a tag, but when I'm planning on...

potential areas to draw, I will always do this little map it out process as well. So I'll be doing the same thing with a draw. I'll find an area that has statistics that really line up with what I'm looking for. I'll write down the units. Then I'll go on my Onyx Hunt app and

And I'll go to that exact unit, look at the unit boundaries. And then what I'm looking for, whether it's over the counter tag or a draw tag for me, I look for units that have good access and I look for a lot of public land. I don't want my hunt to be dependent on me asking permission. So if the area doesn't have anywhere that looks like I could hunt

on public land, I kind of just write it off. I'm not the type of person. Now, maybe you're the guy that likes to go knock on doors and ask for permission and you're good at that. That's not my strong suit. I've never been good at that. So I look for areas where I don't have to ask.

So once I narrow that down, then I go, okay, well, maybe this area is not for me or this one is, this area has got some public land or this one's half private, half public, but it looks like there's some access points where I can kind of hunt the edges and around some of the private. So I do that as my initial assessment of whether it's an area that I really want to go for or not.

When I'm looking for public land, what I'm talking about is, I'm sure most of you know this, but I'm either looking for Forest Service land, BLM land. So Forest Service is generally always green on the maps. BLM is generally yellow. And a lot of state land, it just depends on the state, could be blue or purple or something like that.

So I look for those types of lands. And then, you know, you can also look into, you might have a unit that has, you know, some kind of refuge or something like that. Those you kind of have to look up that specific refuge or that type of land and see what the hunting rules are on that.

Most forest service and BLM, just standard forest service and BLM lands are pretty wide open for hunting. You know, you can always look into each individual ranger district and whatever. Once you, if you already have a tag, if you get an over the counter tag, you can look into that a little bit more, but mostly, um, you know, that's why I like to look for the BLM and the forest service because they're all open to hunting.

So now we've got this stage where we map it out. We just give it a brief overview and I'm just looking for access. Is there actually somewhere I can hunt in this area? And does it have maybe a little bit of what I'm looking for? Like, is it a mountain type hunt? Is there some areas away from roads? Does it have kind of the things that I like? And if it passes this stage, then I green light it. I take that unit and I write that into my potential units to do my research and my planning stage.

which will bring us to step three, the plan it out. Now, this is where I kind of try to narrow it down and pick a unit. This really comes into play on general tag or an over-the-counter tag where you can hunt like half the state during certain seasons. Montana general elk tag, there's a lot of different units that you can hunt every year. And I may hunt the same unit. I may go to a different area and try to explore something else. So what I do is I like to pull out my maps and

Really, this is where I get down to the nitty gritty of the planning portion. And this is why it's nice to find some of those over-the-counter tags because

because I generally won't get to this stage in a draw tag until I've drawn a tag. But this time of year right now, a lot of draw results are coming out. Maybe you're a lucky guy that you put in for a New Mexico elk tag and drew it. Maybe some other draw results should be popping out pretty soon, Utah or who knows what, whatever you put in for. Maybe you've got a tag in your pocket now. Now you're going to jump into this planning stage.

So I use the Onyx Hunt app a lot. And then I also will jump back and forth to Google Earth just to use a little bit more 3D. I like using the Onyx because it's got so many different layers. One, it's got the unit boundaries, which are super helpful. You can go between satellite and topo. And then I can also do different layers like wildfire layers, clear cut layers, historic migration. There's just all kinds of different features that are really specific to hunters that

So that's why I do a lot of my planning on that app. And also I can do it on the computer as well, which is sometimes nice to have a little bit bigger view. But I get asked the question all the time, like there's so much land, where do I even start? And so I would say you start with habitat. And then I also get the question like, well, how do you know animals will be there? And the real answer is you don't.

That's where the exploration portion comes in. But if you think about it, every good exploration has to have a plan going into it. It's just going to be a lot more successful that way. Yeah, you could just show up and just kind of start randomly spinning your wheels. But if you have some form of a plan based loosely on an idea of,

I've already kind of scouted this in a way where I found an identified good habitat. Then when you get into the area, the exploration and execution of that plan comes into play. And now things might change, but it gives you a good baseline to start from.

So what I look for personally is I just look for similar topography and terrain that I like to hunt and for a place that resembles where I've seen animals before. Now, this might be a little difficult if you've never, like if you're, hey, I'm new to elk hunting, new to mule deer hunting. I'm from the East Coast. I've never hunted out West.

that might not be the best advice because you don't really know what you're looking for. So what I'll say is as of right now and in the future, I'll touch a lot more on some of this stuff, but you could go back to episode 12. I talk about topography a lot. I don't necessarily have the time to recap all of it right now. So go back to episode 12. That's new to you. For everybody else, I'm saying the first things I look for is just similar topography and terrain to where I like to hunt.

Now, I also, when I'm looking into areas, I know my style of hunting and I know what I like to hunt. And some of this also depends on the type of animal you're hunting. But I like to glass, so I gravitate toward that kind of country. Areas that I can cover with binoculars, optics from a good vantage point and see a lot.

Now, if you like to still hunt, maybe you grew up in the Pacific Northwest and, you know, the idea of glassing is okay, but you're just a lot better sneaking around still hunting. Then, you know, look into the areas that kind of suit your style of hunting. You know, maybe you're going to look for more south facing slopes that have good timber pockets or, or whole mountains with good timbered areas and maybe a, um, a

flat bench of topography where elk might bed. I also did a little timber topography for elk podcast. You go back and find if that's, you know, if you still hunt for deer where you're at, you want a little bit of different ideas on still hunting for elk. Maybe that's your style. Now focus in on the areas that's your style. Maybe you're coming out West and you want to stand hunt and

That's completely possible too. You know, so what you'd be looking for is something that suits your style of hunting. If you're going to hunt from a tree stand, maybe you're looking for water holes if it's an arid area or maybe potential wallow spots. Maybe you're coming to hunt whitetails. So you're going to be looking for tree stands. You're going to be looking for river bottoms.

Now, once I've got the units, hone in on places that really help the way that I like to hunt. And it could be different for everyone. So because I like to glass, I'm going to identify glassing knobs. I'm also going to switch between layers of fires, topos, satellite, the hybrid, maybe a clear cut layer. Because I know that those areas that might be more open from fire and other things, it might used to be timbered.

But now it lends itself to glassing because it's open and burned, or there's a new clear cut and I can find maybe a glassing knob into that clear cut. So I'll now take that, the app, and I'll look for areas where it looks like I can look into other areas to really help the way that I like to hunt.

So then I'll go and I talked about it before, but I'll maybe drop a pin on potential glassing knobs and then I can take that pin and go check it on Google Earth and kind of sit myself in that spot and see what I can see from there.

And then I'll mark those glassing knobs and that'll build out my plan for where I'm going to hunt when I get into the unit. So I drop pins on places that look good from afar. And then I like to kind of hone in on places that might be far from the roads, but I'll even highlight a few places that have easy access, good access that I can kind of preview. These will be spots that I look at when I preview the area. And what I mean by preview the area is my first steps when I get into a new unit for scouting and hunting. Okay.

I don't really have time to cover that this week, but that will be a future podcast. So as of right now, we're finding areas at home and then we're kind of planning out that hunt based on the ways that we like to hunt. Once we have that, then we've got our game plan. So when we get into the area, we're going to be more efficient and probably most likely more successful.

I hope that helps you guys. I know I've been spending an absolute ton of time researching hunts and I've never spent so much time deciding on units that I'm going to apply for. I actually got my Idaho sheep application in. I was thinking about doing elk deer antelope again, but I normally do sheep and I stopped for a little bit and now I'm like,

okay, I found some spots that sound good to me. So I got that application and did a lot of research. And obviously on that kind of thing, I mean, the odds are so minimal anyways, you're almost just better going for broke. But I thought, okay, let's, you know, it's fun for me to look at maps over potential areas. And while doing that, maybe discovering something that

Yeah.

potential hunts for so many different states. And when you start adding different states to the list, I've got like this messy piece of paper that has hundreds of ideas that I've already confused myself four times on. I sometimes on a lot of states wait till the last minute to apply because I just like, I'm so involved in the planning process. Once I apply, then I kind of lose that thing to look forward to of just checking more spots and new spots and keep planning out.

and obviously i've got a couple tags in my pocket for this year i haven't drawn anything the states that i have applied for i haven't drawn but i did pick up a couple general tags so i've got a general tag in montana and i'll be hunting general elk and general deer and just looking for a few new spots for potentially antelope and stuff like that so i've been having a lot of fun just going over maps finding new spots highlighting some new areas

I want to talk about maybe not next week. I do want to do a Q&A because I've been getting so many questions. So maybe next week I'll do a Q&A and then we'll jump back into like once you have that tag, what are your first steps in the unit?

So we'll take, you know, your, your, your first steps in the research we've just talked about. Now let's just go, but with a little first steps in the unit, but maybe we'll do a Q and a first next week. You know, it sounds kind of loosey goosey, but I haven't decided. We'll see which way the wind blows. I just, I know there's a lot of good questions that people ask and I do want to get to those. I don't want to let them sit too long. So, Oh, I'm hopefully going to be able to do a little bit of Turkey hunting here in the coming week.

Which would be fun. Maybe if we do a Q&A, I can talk a little bit about turkeys as well. I haven't hunted them in a long time because I've been hunting other stuff, spring bear or in New Zealand or Australia. This is the first time I haven't gone to...

Australia or New Zealand, well, New Zealand, it's been, I've hunted there fall there for the last, I think 10 or 11 years. So this is the first time I've missed a hunting season. But even if you live in New Zealand, you're missing the hunting season this year because of the lockdown. So it's just a strange time for me. I'm not actually used to

spring time. I haven't been in spring in many, many years, almost a decade because I normally go where it's fall during the spring. So it's kind of cool to maybe go chase some turkeys since I'm here this spring. I've just been waiting for some restrictions to lift. So if you got any questions or whatever, feel free to reach out via Instagram. That's pretty much where I do most of my answering messages and stuff like that.

And also, you know, feel free to, if you don't subscribe to the podcast, if you like it, subscribe, give us a comment or a like, really appreciate that. And maybe cruise through, if you, if some of this is new stuff to you, cruise through some of the past episodes. I know there's, I touch on a lot of stuff in earlier episodes and I'm always kind of afraid of repeating, but I also, I mean, half the stuff I talk about, I don't remember. So it's never bad to kind of rehash some really good tactics.

All right. Stay out there. I mean, stay in there. What? I don't even know. Gosh, this quarantine's got me all jacked up, but I've got my Onyx app up right now and I'm about to go apply for a couple deer tags. Fingers crossed. Hope I draw. Good luck to y'all.

Hey, we're going to take a little break here and talk about interstate batteries. Now, if you're like me, enjoying the great outdoors, you need gear that is as reliable as it gets. That's why I power my adventures with interstate batteries. I use interstate batteries in my boats. I use interstate batteries in my camper. Great for your truck, too. From Alaska to Montana, they're outrageously dependable.

Battery is essential. With over 150,000 dealer locations, finding one is easy. For all your vehicles, land or sea, choose Interstate. Head to InterstateBatteries.com and find your power today. You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to Land.com.

They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.