Ep. 41: Answering Your Questions, Part 6
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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. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast. This week is our Q&A, so the topics come from you guys. And I

Man, this is actually one of my favorite portions of the podcast when we get to do this, answer some of the questions. Because I've said it a million times, I'll probably say it a million and one more. I really want this podcast to be about making everybody more successful in the field and making it tailored to the things that you want to know. So the Q&As really help me outline, well, I mean, answer specific questions, but also kind of I take some of those questions.

responses that I get and build out other episodes of the podcast because I want it to be tailored toward the things that you guys want to know and

And in these Q&As, I mean, maybe I might be reading one question, but most of them I've gotten a pile of questions on the similar topics, similar veins. Some tend to be more popular than others. So those are the things that I try to key in on. And it really helps me identify the stuff that people want to learn about. Because some of the stuff might just go over my head, stuff that I not go over my head, but things that I might not think about or deem important, but people are interested in understanding some things that I take for granted.

Because it's maybe something that I've just done forever and don't even think, oh yeah, that might be something that somebody wants to know.

So I really appreciate all the input and things that we've got. I pull a lot of the questions from Instagram, at Remy Warren, as well as the email that I throw out at the end of most of the podcast. So appreciate it. We got a lot for this one. I can't get through all of them, but maybe some of them will continue on. Probably because I was kind of promoting the Q&A for about three weeks, but I kind of got into it.

some of the stuff we talked a little bit about scouting from home how to pick spots from home like figuring out areas to apply for and then a little bit jumping into in the field scouting I like jumping into those topics because it's just a little timely for a lot of people being quarantined maybe you're thinking a lot about future hunts and planning and prepping and maybe having a little extra time to do a little bit extra research and maybe try to figure something out so

So I know these are crazy times for everyone. I really hope everybody's doing well. And, you know, I'm sure that some people's hunt plans have changed. Things are a little bit crazy right now, but hopefully these podcasts help kind of, you know, prep you and get you excited for the future and what's in store. So let's jump into a couple questions here. This first one was one of the ones that I'm like, I would have never thought to talk about that, but I got so many questions. We're going to talk a little bit about snakes. So

Brady says, I appreciate all the content you're putting out there. I try not to miss any of it. This is a question probably for your podcast along the lines of the tick podcast. This time of year, I have an area I've run into multiple rattlesnakes and glassing points in the mornings. I've done some research on what to do to avoid them and how to respond when bitten, but thought maybe this would be another bit of info for your podcast. Thanks and good luck this spring.

Okay, so if I'm going to talk about snakes, I have to at least talk about my strange love of snakes.

It's maybe like a... I don't know if it's a hobby, something that I'm into, maybe something that people don't really know about me, don't really discuss. But I love reptiles. I mean, I think reptiles are some of the coolest animals on the planet. And it's just been something that I've always been fascinated with them. So snakes, lizards, even some amphibians and stuff, turtles, whatever. As a kid, I would go out. I loved going out and just like trying to find different reptiles. I'd catch all kinds of different lizards, snakes, whatever, keep them as pets. And then...

As an adult, one of the things that I like to do in the spring is whether I'm shed, you know, like in combination with shed hunting or even just going out, I call it herping around. I'm just going out looking for various reptiles. I just catch them and let them go. But it's cool to just see the different types of reptiles. I kind of

It's like, I feel like I'm a strange in that strange birdwatcher category. I probably don't talk about it too much because everyone's like, what a weirdo likes to go out and catch reptiles, but it's just fun to be able to kind of figure out what reptiles live where, you know, identify different habitats and see if you can kind of catch them, like grab them. It's kind of cool. It's difficult. I don't know. It's my thing, whatever. It's a hobby. Um, and I've seen some really cool, just like different species of snakes and other things around while doing that. So, um,

I do really enjoy looking for reptiles and rattlesnakes is one that I actually enjoy looking for. Now, I think it probably runs in my family though, because my grandpa, I've talked about him quite a bit on this podcast and some others, but he was just like a wild man. And I don't know if I was told this story here or not. I can't remember, but I've told it other places. It's just worth talking about.

He used to be a professional fighter. And I don't know what he would... He just liked... He would catch rattlesnakes, which, I mean, I get. It's kind of cool, but I don't suggest doing that. And he's been bitten. I don't know how many times he's been... I think he was bitten at least four times by rattlesnakes. Most of them... I would say three of them were him just dicking around with them. And then one of them was just a pure accident. He was the kind of guy that would wear cowboy boots, cowboy hat, and jeans every day of his life. And then, I don't know, he was...

A little bit older. Someone bought him some sandals. They might have even been Birkenstocks. I'm not really sure. So he was out mowing his lawn in Montana. And he felt something. He's like, oh crap. And looks down and sees this coiled up rattlesnake. He's like, oh shit, I got bit. So he walks into the house. Gets his wife. And they call the ambulance and start driving to the hospital. He gets to the hospital. They give him the antivenom.

And, you know, clearly a snake bite there. He's not really reacting right to it. And he's just like having trouble breathing and it's just getting worse. So they inspect the bite and they see inside the snake bite is a bee sting. And he's actually really allergic to bees, like deathly allergic to bees as well.

So, now they have to like stabilize the bee sting. They give him epinephrine, like an EpiPen shot kind of thing. It was like epinephrine and I think adrenaline goes with it to kind of pump it through your system. I'm not sure how they did it with the snake bite because you don't want to pump the venom through your system faster.

But they ended up being all right from it. But it was just like a random crazy coincidence that he got stung by a bee and bit by a snake at the exact same time. That might have been the first day he ever wore sandals. And I think it was the last day he ever wore sandals in his life. It was pretty funny. But yeah, another time he got bit. This is just like the kind of crazy things that he would do. I don't know what he was doing. I think he was...

I've heard many stories from different people, but he was probably just like showing everybody how fast he was when he was boxing. Like I'm faster than a rattlesnake kind of thing. And he was outside of town a ways, I think on a job site or on, on a military base. And he was kind of messing with the snake that he'd caught and had in a bucket and a rattlesnake. And so he gets bit by the thing. And he,

He decides he's just going to drive himself to the hospital. So as he's driving into the hospital, he's not feeling so good. He gets into town and I think it was just not like things weren't going right. So he was going to pull into this gas station, convenience station to get help. But on the way in to go into the convenience store, blacks out and drives his truck through the front of the convenience store.

And then the owner runs out, who I've actually heard the story from him. He runs out. He says he opened the door and my grandpa falls out of the vehicle, like clutching a live rattlesnake in his hand. So they knew what bit him. And he survived. He survived that one as well. So I just say that to say most people that get bit by snakes are actually messing with them. So I highly, highly, highly suggest nobody...

try picking up or messing with a rattlesnake. Most venomous snakes, you got to understand like a way venomous snakes, their venom is for acquiring food. So you've got constrictors, which, you know, the grab, whatever their prey is, they wrap around it, suffocate it, and then swallow it. Rattlesnakes don't do that. They don't have

that hunting skill. So, when something comes by, they bite it, they inject it with poison, venom, and then as that animal will then die, expire, and then they slither over and swallow it, need it. So, for rattlesnake, it needs its venom for survival to eat. And it generally does not want to use its venom on something very large in a defensive way. So, in a defensive manner, rattlesnake

they've got their rattles. They're warning you. They're like, hey, dude, I'm right here. Get away. Now it seems aggressive and menacing and kind of scary, but think about other, there's way more dangerous snake species in the world that do not give warning and are a lot more aggressive. So I kind of see like the rattlesnake is the mountain lion of the

snake world. They're very timid. They don't want to attack. They aren't like a leopard of the cat world where it's like, yeah, you mess with a leopard, you're probably going to die. Rattlesnakes are a little bit different. They warn you. They give this audible, really loud, like, dude, I'm right here. I'm not going to try to bite you, but don't mess with me. I'm going to look real mean and pissed off and try to scare you before I have to strike. And even when I do strike, they might just bite defensively and not inject venom

Smaller, younger snakes don't necessarily have the same control as older snakes, but that's just what they're going on. So if one's rattling, seriously, just stop.

identify where it is and then just slowly walk away get out of its striking zone they can strike about half their body length so you just want to get away from them and move and also identify areas that they like you know springtime they're going to be coming out the sunning a little bit more and you know you say you might find them in the mornings and these rock piles and other things so just identify and be aware where they might be and try to avoid the snakes themselves

avoiding things is always the best method now if you do get bit there's so much information and misinformation and this that and the other thing out there so i'll just tell you some of the things that i've been taught a lot of it you know being in hunting in places in australia where it's super remote and there's i mean i've seen brown snakes coastal taipans i actually almost stepped on a coastal taipan last year it's like you get bit by one of those you're probably dead

But there are things that you can do because you're just so remote, so far away. You know, one thing you'd never want to do on a snake bite and you hear this, and I think there's enough information out there that people don't try this anymore, but you don't suck the venom out. I think if you think about most snake bites, one, they're probably, it's most of them are on your legs or

or on your hands. People get bit in the hands or generally like messing with them or maybe reaching into a bush for something or whatever, sitting down, putting their hand down and get struck there. So it's normally on your appendages somewhere, arms and legs. One thing you got to realize is so the venom, it's kind of got like these, I would almost refer to it as like a half-life where you're

As time goes on, the venom gets less strong. But what you don't want to do is you don't want that venom to reach your heart or your brain, your central nervous system. And so by trying to suck the venom out, you're just getting in your mouth and getting in your bloodstream faster. It's very dangerous. There are snake bite kits which have like some form of suction. You don't want to cut the bite.

Um, that can cause complications and infections and other things. But, uh, you know, sucking the venom out with a snake bite kit. I don't know. I've never used one. I used to carry one and then I just, I don't really know how well they work or what that is. But, um, one thing you do want to do, I know is slow the venom to your heart. So the key is like, let's say you got bit by a rattlesnake or a more deadly snake somewhere else.

First thing you want to do, and it just might as hard as it might be, well, first identify the type of snake that it is because that's going to make a big difference if you can.

you know, maybe real fast, identify where the snake is and try not to get bit again, because there's a good likelihood that the first strike might not have injected any venom as well. But you don't know. So you treat every venomous snake bite like it, like it has. Then what you'll do is you'll wrap, like whether you use like a bandage or a cut t-shirt or something or belt, you know, you're going to start wrapping around and tying off. Not so tight, like not, I'm not talking tourniquet tight. You still want your blood to flow. You don't want to

to cause any more damage than necessary. So you're just going to kind of slow the blood almost like where it'd be...

I don't know how tight, like a good snug, not necessarily make your foot fall asleep, but maybe in that foot fall asleep zone, definitely don't get it real tight. So you'll wrap going down and then you can wrap going back up to kind of double wrap it. So starting or even starting down around the bite low and then coming up around your leg, all the way up your leg or up your arm, whatever you can do. And then you're going to try to keep that bite lower than your heart and

And you relax, calm down, don't run to the truck. I've heard stories of Aboriginals in Australia that have been bitten by things like a brown snake or a taipan. And they'll do that. And then they just slow your heart rate. They'll lay down, take a nap by a tree. They'll either wake up or they won't. And it's just allowing that venom the time to...

break down and not be as potent. Now I've heard of people getting bitten by some very poisonous snakes and doing that similar thing, lowering their heart rate, getting to the hospital. And then at that point, they have time to administer the antivenom. They undo it. Once those ties get undone, then that blood can rush to your heart and it can be very fast acting. So you don't want to run. You don't want to freak out. You don't want to sprint. You don't want to stab yourself with an EpiPen, which has adrenaline. It's going to pump it through your heart. And

I know some people have done that and it hasn't turned out so well. So you just got to keep your heart rate down. And then if you've got some way of notifying medical, maybe an in-reach or a phone call and get medical help from there.

That's the best method. And if you got to hike out or get out or whatever, you know, don't get your heart rate up. Don't exert yourself an extreme manner of a way that'll pump that venom through your blood right away. The worst thing you could do is get hammered and just like try sprinting back to the car because you probably will die halfway between there and the car. Not rattlesnakes necessarily, but there are a lot of snakes that are a lot more poisonous in the world. And if you get bit by one of those, it could be bad.

Anyways, let's jump to the next question. Ooh, a little turkey hunting question. Here we go. It says, Ashley from Idaho says, I'm hoping you might have some advice for me. I shot a turkey this weekend and want to do a tail mount, and my husband is planning on keeping the wings for fletchings. Only problem is the turkey has fleas. We live in an apartment, so I'm a bit nervous about bringing the feathers inside and spreading the fleas and hatched eggs into pets in the carpet. Any advice on how to kill the eggs and fleas still on the feathers?

So I would suggest doing the same thing that a lot of people do if they hunt coyotes and collect the pelts or furs. Coyotes have a lot of fleas. So take a black trash bag and I use, I use like the raid spray. So I just call it like a flea bomb. You put whatever you has the fleas in the bag, the feathers in the bag, and you just spray that raid flea spray that will kill any live ticks, any eggs, everything. You tie it off and just let it sit for a while.

That should work. Now, there are other things you can do. There's like flea powders and other stuff, but I think that that raid spray works pretty well. Do that and you shouldn't have any problems. And you can bring the feathers inside. They're still all workable. It won't affect the feathers. You can do the turkey fan mount. When you do that mount, lay it out on a piece of cardboard. I use 20 meal team borax to try to take out all the meat and everything and then just use borax to

preserve the meaty part of the tail before I do that. I'm sure there's other things you can use. I've just used borax forever, so that works really well. And then, yeah, I'm actually fletching some arrows with the turkey I got, so it'd be cool. It's a good, it's a fun thing to do, and you should be flea-free using that method. Andrew Hermanet, strangest thing you've encountered in the woods? Or the most scared you've been, the coolest thing you've seen, something along those lines?

Yeah, you know, okay, this isn't, I wasn't scared or anything like that, but it's just kind of like a really cool encounter. I was hunting in Arizona, coos deer archery season, and I'm walking through this wash back, it was like a few miles back into this area, and I'm walking back out, middle of the day, and I see this drag mark across the wash, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, what is this?

And I'm like, look at it, analyze the tracks. And I'm like, oh, sweet. A mountain lion had just killed something. It looked pretty large. So there's some cattle around. So I was assuming that it was a beef calf. And I see the lion tracks where it drug it.

So I'm bent over in my backpack, like getting out my camera because I'm going to just film the tracks and the drag mark and everything. And it was pretty cool. So I'm bent down, like getting into my backpack and I look up in literally five feet away in the tall grass. This cat just crouched staring at me.

Like, oh crap. So then I, instead of taking my camera out, I take my pistol out just in case and slowly start backing away. And as I'm backing away, the cat just kind of like slinks out and then it gets about 10 yards or so, looks back at me. I'm just like, cool. And I grab my camera now and get some video of it. And then just like slips off into the bushes.

Like, whoa, that was crazy. So now I started investigating and it actually, there was like this log over, um, like a fallen camera or kind of like maybe like a cottonwood and some tall grass. And it had drug that calf that it killed up underneath that and buried it with dirt. And it had already taken the liver out of the calf and it was just sitting there crouched like unburied.

Had I not stopped to get my camera, I probably would have just walked right past it. I mean, it was just like arms. I could have just slapped the thing in the face if I had one lunge and slapped it. It's just crazy how well it blended in. And I just had no clue it was there. And even when it walked away that close, it was just so quiet. Pretty crazy, pretty cool encounter. I didn't have a mountain lion tag or anything at the time. So I just watched it and got some video of it and stuff. And it was pretty crazy encounter.

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All right, this question comes from Adam. He says,

That's a great question. And it's actually a question that I get asked a lot. And one thing that I do consider, I do quite a few hunts that are at really high elevations and it's something that you have to take seriously. I honestly think maybe this is actually a really good topic that I could probably do a whole podcast on and might in the future. Maybe, you know, if more people want it, send in some stuff, but I'll just give you a preliminary thing of some of the things that I do. It's really important to kind of understand altitude sickness. So what happens is as you go up

in altitude, there's less oxygen per density. So it's like if you start at sea level and grab a bag of chips and take it up to 13,000 feet, that bag is just going to be super expanded rock hard. Well, there's the same amount of oxygen in that bag, but it's taking up more space. So each breath takes in less oxygen. And

Now, as you're exerting yourself in the mountains, your muscles need oxygen to work. So your body as it acclimates, so the acclimation process does some crazy things with red blood cells and delivery. It's like a transport system of oxygen to your muscles.

And that takes weeks of time sometimes at certain elevations, depending on where you live and other things to get acclimated. So it's not necessarily something you can do at home, but there are... I found some kind of cheat codes, if you will, to that altitude sickness. There's a few factors, I would say. And I really keep... The more I talk about this, the more I'm like, yeah, this needs to be a full podcast. But one product that I use, I've found regularly between...

using it and not using it that works well for me is a wilderness athlete altitude advantage. I think I've talked about it before on here, but I take it like a week or two beforehand and then I bring it into the field with me on those high Alpine hunts. And honestly, like just as personal use using it, I feel the effects of altitude way less. I just think it helps the blood flow to the muscles to help transport that oxygen in a way. There's other things that you can do as well. One thing that altitude does to people is, um,

As you go up in elevation, it can actually increase your metabolism, but in some ways it decreases your appetite.

So making sure that while you're at these altitudes, you're eating and properly fueling your body. If you've, I mean, there's so many times where you'll pack in, as you get up in that altitude, you're like, you eat a granola bar, you're like, I'm full. And then you don't really think about eating anymore. But trying to just force that food of knowing you're burning a lot of calories, you need to keep your body functioning at its peak and its prime.

Another thing is as huge as that dehydration factor. As you go up in altitude, you can get that dehydration and you aren't drinking. So I always bring a drink mix where I'm replenishing fluids. I make sure to drink extra water at altitude. I had some friends come over from a sea level last year, hunt in one of the areas that I hunt deer a lot. It's, it's 12,000 type 11, 12,000 type feet. And I was like, man, you guys just, just no matter what, just constantly be drinking water. If their water is available, drink, drink, drink.

And they're surprised how much water they went through and still felt dehydrated. But keeping hydrated and minimizing some of the other problems can really help you just stay functioning.

And then it's just some factors of if it might be hard to acclimate for you or you might be slow at acclimating. So you might just get it even with some of that stuff. So I think using those measures, I've used those measures and seen a lot better results in the mountains at altitude. So it's worth looking at. Now, there are some like altitudes. You can actually die from certain types of altitude sickness. Brain swelling can happen, pulmonary edema where your lungs fill up.

with liquid and some of that kind of stuff. It's super dangerous. If you do get altitude sickness, uh, some things you can take while you've got it. Cause you might, you start getting a headache, fatigue, take some aspirin, some ibuprofen, keep that stuff in your pack with you. Super important. And then, yeah, if you get it, you got to go back down to elevation. Another thing is if you get into an area, you know, you could try to start acclimating, um,

a little bit, maybe get in and not just go straight up, but start hunting some of the lower stuff. Get your body a little used to it. I know it takes longer to create those red blood cells, but within combination of some of the other things,

you might not overdo it as much right away. I found that it can happen to anybody. Sometimes I've been on trips with the guys in the best shape, got altitude sickness and the guys that were a little bit overweight and whatever, they didn't get it. So you think, oh, I'm in the best shape ever. I'm not going to get it. And that's, those are the guys that it hits probably because they keep pushing. Whereas the other guys kind of slow down, react to their body. They don't just force it.

Those are some things to think about. There are some drugs like Diamox that you can get prescriptions for that are made for altitude sickness, but...

honestly, I've used that altitude advantage stuff for a long time. And I kind of, you can start to feel the effects. I think about 8,000 feet. I luckily live at 6,000 feet. So whatever elevation you live, if you live at sea level and you're going to 13,000 foot hunt, you really want to factor in altitude, um, doing everything you can, something like that, making sure you're hydrated food. And then another thing that I have done in the past, I got one of those

Well, shoot, everybody's got face masks now. Go for... They've got those... They call them the training masks where it limits the amount of oxygen as you're training. Try some of that. It kind of helps your lungs get used to a little bit less oxygen. I don't know how long you'd have to use it. I know that it's not feasible for everybody to sleep in one of those altitude chambers. So...

It's just something you can kind of think about if you want to wear a mask and try to work out. Be careful. Don't overdo it the first time. Don't black out. But that's all a few things that just off the top of my head that I think will help you out. And then, like I say, if you get it, you know, go down to elevation, drop down to a level where you start feeling better. Maybe you just have to continue hunting there. But altitude sickness is serious. It's ruined a lot of elk hunts for a lot of guys at first time elk hunts.

They get out, they get at high altitude. Yeah, it sucks. You don't want that. Okay. Danny says, I'm a longtime listener of your podcast. Me and a hunting buddy are in college paying off student debt. We're using all the in quotes, spare money we have to apply for tags out West and make progress after listening to your episode on the topic to get to the question. Is there any good place to look for budget equipment? Where is the best place to find you slash budget gear?

Yeah. I've been there and I like your plan, you know, using some of that money to put in for tags. I mean, I remember going through college and just being like, pretty much not going out, not eating anything, but top ramen for the however long and whatever game meat I have. And then, you know, saving all my money to apply for tags and then needing some gear as well. So

you know, this is not an endorsement of any type, just some places that I've found some stuff. And some of this stuff, you know, it was just from back in the day. So I don't know how relevant it is now, but one of the places that I probably bought in most of my hunting gear was a Sierra trading post. It's kind of like a,

What would it be like a Marshall's for like outdoor equipment where they kind of get overstock stuff last year stuff and just like super good discounts. We actually had one where, where I live, uh, an outpost, but they kind of went online quite a few years back, finding some of those online discount places. I always had a lot of friends get some sweet deals on camo fire, uh,

Not sure if that's still around. I don't know. That was like, they would do like daily deals and it was just like overstock stuff. And you could get some really good stuff, but like, yeah, seer training posts. I probably pretty much bought all my sleeping bags, tents, some backpacks, like some hunting gear. Shoot. I even see like optics pop up in there every once in a while. There's plenty of sites, you know, with the internet, it makes it so much easier. A lot of that stuff was like,

not a lot of information out there. You know, I'd get that sportsman's cat guide catalog every once in a while, find some good deals on stuff there. But you know, the one thing too is if you can find a good deal on high quality equipment, that's great. I mean, Craigslist, you could always go that route or eBay. I sometimes, I just, maybe I'm just too distrusting for some of that, but even just, you know, knowing friends and you'll run into guys that, um, on message boards and stuff like that, that, you know,

Maybe there's a lot of guys that like to buy new bows every year. So equipment like that, you can sometimes get good deals on. Just find stuff that fits you. Look online. I think that's a great place to start. And then I was always of the fact that it's like, all right, if I find a good deal on something or whatever, that's great. And then I'm going to try to find gear that I don't have to buy a bunch of times. I would rather just...

you know, maybe buy one thing and have it for quite a few years. You're going to kind of save and then each year plan some, a new piece of kit that you can add in there and not try to do it all at once. But those are some of my suggestions and good luck on some of those tags guys. Joe asks, always enjoyed watching you on TV and now really, really like your podcasts. I'd like to hear your take on filming and self-filming hunt more specifically on camera gear.

And this is actually, you know, I've got a lot of questions on this as well. Probably will be the self-filming thing might be a full podcast in the future. But I think it's good to just talk about a little bit of camera gear. You know, these Q&As, I would say 90% of the questions are all about gear. So it's good to take a little bit of time to talk about gear.

What I use and what I recommend are two completely different things for self-filming because when I film Solo Hunter, it's a television type show. I've been doing it for years. I'm very comfortable with cameras and equipment. The camera that I use, I would never suggest anybody else try to self-film with it because it's a very difficult camera to use, but I chose it off of quality and a little bit of like the highest quality with the lighter weight.

but I also carry a lot of extra lenses and things. So I use a Sony a7S II, which my own personal stuff, I upgrade every couple of years to try to keep up with it.

What I suggest if you want to get into filming is find a handy cam, like a handy cam would just be like that camcorder style camera. So I use a DSLR camera, which is because I take a lot of photos as well. It fits into my style. There are some great DSL cameras. Canon Red Bulls are great ones to get into. Sony makes some like smaller, lighter weight DSLR or mirrorless type cameras. My camera is actually mirrorless. But a handy cam would be like

more of that camcorder style. If you're purely interested in filming, go that route. It's got great zoom. It's got ease of use, some autofocus features, get yourself a mount for your tripod. So the same tripod you use your spotting scope on, you could throw that on when you're filming someone else or yourself. That tripod helps out a lot. And my thing is when you buy a camera,

You don't have to get the best camera in the world. What you need is you need a camera that you can afford and don't mind keeping out all the time. So we're starting out. I was like, okay, I need the best camera I can get. And I was on a budget and I bought this expensive camera and because I didn't want the camera to get damaged, it would just always be in my backpack and I never got anything. And then I went and got this cheap little handy cam thing and I filmed way more.

Like if you watch solo hunter, whatever, I keep my camera strapped on the outside of me all the time. I'm either carrying it in my hand on a tripod or carrying it around my body. So the best camera is a camera that you don't mind keeping out pretty much all the time because the footage that you capture, the ease of use of pulling something out of your pocket, uh, something around your neck is just right there to use.

that's the best footage, the footage that you actually get. If you have to stop and get into your pack and film, it's just not going to happen. I've tried it. It's not good. So the best camera is one that is a decent price that you don't mind getting dirty, beaten up, dragging through the mud, tromping around the mountains with. And the one that's easy to use, because if it's easy to use,

You can always progress from there, but you're going to capture some cool stuff. It'll be handy. You'll get some really awesome content. And that's the way that I suggest starting. So I like Sony stuff right now. I think they make some great stuff. I have a Sony like 4K Handycam. I think it's the AX series. Those are great. There's three different versions of it.

you know, some other things to look about is just like a digital camera that does some good filming and has just like a lens built in that zooms. Those can be awesome. I know some guys have really good zooms on those handy cams and they'll use them in the back country and replace of a spotting scope in a lot of ways where they can just take that, get a good enough view of where it might got a 60 X zoom and they can zoom in on something and just get an idea of what they're looking for. And they don't even need to carry a spotting scope. So that's something to think about.

closing it out here pretty soon. Dave from Michigan says, I'm looking at getting into bow hunting. I'm right-handed, but left eye dominant. What bow should I get? I got that question a lot in a lot of different ways and actually address some of it on social media, but I, I think it's worth talking about here is

You need to shoot to your dominant eye. Honestly, I think that we should start a movement right now to change the name of shotguns and bows from left-handed and right-handed to left eye and right eye. You really want to shoot with your dominant eye. So if you don't know what that is, you need to put your hands on like a triangle where you've got a hole in the middle and look at an object in the distance, then close your left eye. If the object is still there,

then your right eye dominant. Close your left eye and it moves, then your left eye dominant. So you want to shoot toward your dominant eye. That's the eye that's sending the most accurate picture in line to your brain. Because we have binocular vision, in order to

for our brains not to get confused by looking at both eyes we meld the picture into one so one eye is taking over and showing you all your depth perception where things are that's your dominant eye that's the eye that you want to be aiming with now a rifle you know it's just better to just switch to everything but a rifle you're probably closing one eye and looking through scope so it's not as important but i actually shoot a rifle with both eyes open i think if you learn to shoot with both eyes open you're going to be a much better shot in the long run

especially when it comes to archery because you're focusing on a site, the archery site, and then you've got the target. So you want to be using your dominant eye and let your non-dominant eye kind of pick up some things on the side. So that way you're lining up your site picture with what's in the distance and you can focus on the right thing without racking this weird focus and getting this weird view or having to close one eye.

What I'm saying is, if you're starting out, especially with a bow, get a bow that goes to your dominant eye or you're drawing to your dominant eye. I mean, especially if you're starting, what's it matter what hand you're drawing with and what hand you're pointing with? I mean, it's kind of weird that if you're right-handed, you would pull the bow back with your right hand. It's not like it's more strength or anything. You can push and pull at the same time. You can draw the same with...

whatever muscles you build. I mean, it might actually be better to be cross dominant where you're holding the bow with your dominant hand and drawing to your dominant eye. So it's kind of a win-win in some instances. You shouldn't think of it as left-handed or right-handed, but just left eye, right eye. And that will really help you out, especially when you're getting started. If you've already started down the wrong path and it's time to get a new bow, it's going to be hard to switch over, but it might just be worth it. Take the time.

I've shot left-handed bows plenty, sighting in my dad's bow when he got started helping him out. He's left-handed and left-eye dominant. So, you know, it can be done. You can get used to it. A lot of bow shop guys shoot both ways. So it's definitely, you can get used to it and overcome the awkwardness if you already started wrong. All right, we'll do this last question here, kind of running out of time. So many more I wanted to get to, but there'll be more Q&As in the future. So,

Says, Hey Remy, I've been binge listening to your podcast all week at work. I have already learned a ton. In one of your early podcasts, you mentioned Cashmere by Led Zeppelin was your killing song. You worded it a little better than that. And I think that people want to know what else is on Remy's killer playlist. Keep up the great work, Rocky.

Okay. So in an earlier podcast, I was talking about me and my buddies kind of have this song that comes on. It's just like a good luck song. If it randomly comes on the radio, we cash me or by Led Zeppelin. That was, there's a whole backstory to it of the fact that I don't know, one of the first hunting videos I made for my outfitting business, that song was on there. Then my buddy happened to hear it on the way to his hunt one time and he got something good. And then I shot the best buck of my life before hearing that song. So yeah,

So it's just this thing that we've got. Great song, by the way, too. So if you got that on your going hunting playlist, I'll give you my top five. Now, I like all kinds of music, but these are just happen to be maybe my top five going out hunting good luck songs. We'll start with number five. We'll go Hank Williams Jr., Country Boy Can't Survive. I mean, that's just...

That's just a classic outdoorsman anthem. I mean, that just gets you pumped up right there. If you haven't listened to it, do yourself a favor, go for it. Number four, I'm going to go with Steppenwolf, Born to be Wild. I had a hunting video that I made a long time ago and I put that song on there. Just, I felt like that song just embodies, I mean, half the time when I'm walking through the woods, that song just is, is blaring as an anthem. Um,

Number three, this is a good song to send your buddies. Me and my hunting friends, we do this. It's like there's times when you know you've got a friend out on a hunt or you're on a hunt and it's coming down to the wire. We've all been there. Five-day hunt, 10-day hunt, whatever. It's getting close to the end of the season, maybe a couple days left. Maybe it's the last day, last evening of the hunt. A little pick me up, a little pet me up.

Final countdown by Europe. You just, you got to have that saved on your download Spotify on that last day. Just blast that as your anthem last year, mule deer hunting, um, came down to the wire. I was, uh, had a Nevada archery tag and it's like,

four in the morning and I just take that song and crank it volume up in my tent. The final countdown. This is it. Got to give it your all today. Number two, it's got to be Kashmir, the good luck song. And then number one, this might surprise you.

but the Indiana Jones theme song. Now that one, you don't have to download that one. You can just hum. That is my theme song to life. So ever since I was a youngster out by myself, anytime I get into a hairy situation, anytime I was just feeling like I was really getting after it, I think probably 99% of the time while I'm hiking, I'm humming or thinking about

the Indiana Jones theme song. So that's something to leave you with until next week. Probably get sued for copyright infringement, but that's all right. See you guys.

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