Ep. 96: Answering Your Questions, Part 19
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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 to the podcast, everybody. This week, we are heading to the fabled mail sack. I'm going to be answering your questions. I got a lot of great questions this week, a lot of interest on last week's podcast. If you missed it, it was talking about large predators in your hunting area, possible things you might encounter, possible defense strategies. So if you didn't check that out, check that out. But there's definitely a lot of awesome questions in here. So let's get to the first question.

This first question comes from Peter. He says, Hey Remy, just listened to the latest podcast on predator protection. Great stuff. Curious if you have any thoughts on how to carry wild backcountry hunting, specifically bow hunting. Do you carry your sidearm on your pack, on your bino harness, et cetera? Thanks so much, Pete from California.

That's a great question. And I think it is something that I missed or didn't cover. I've kind of played with a lot of different types of holsters, a lot of different type of stuff. For me, I think what seems to be the easiest is I generally just have a holster on my pack.

I mean, 99% of the time I've got my pack on. Then if I drop my pack to stock or move around or like I'm at camp, whatever, I just switch that holster from my pack. I just undo it off my pack and then just put it on my belt. Especially if I'm in grizz country, I keep that pretty handy. I actually have a holster that has, and I honestly don't know the make of it. I got a long time ago, but it's one that...

If I'm in like not necessarily big bear country, but I've got maybe my nine millimeter or whatever, it's the holster. I can take it off my pack and it's got like a belt clip. So if it's just like, oh, hey, I'm just, you know, wearing it around camp or something like that, or I just needed somewhere to put it, then I can switch it to my belt clip real easy. But for the most part, if I'm going to be stocking and I in like,

brown bear grizz country. I'll generally move it from my pack just to like put it on my belt so it doesn't fall off if I'm crawling around or stalking in or something like that. And that seems to work pretty well for me. This next question comes from Angelo. It says, Hey Remy, love the podcast. I have a question for you. Me and my friend are first time elk hunters in a Southwestern state. We usually just hunt mule deers, but we drew a October 9th to the 13th elk tag.

I was just wondering if we should start learning how to bugle or if we would be just fine with like a hoochie mama type call. Thanks. Also, any good pointers for hunting later part of the rut? And this is a rifle hunt. That's a great question, Angelo, especially if you're a first time elk hunter, you think, okay, well, what should I expect? That October 9th to the 13th timeframe, it actually can still have quite a bit of rutting activity, but

I would highly suggest at least learning how to blow a bugle for a couple reasons. One, you could probably use it, the call that I'd be using the most would be like a location type call. So this is going to be like a one, two or three note, just long drawn out call. And you're going to be broadcasting this into areas where that sound travels. So if you're in a little bit thicker terrain,

You can kind of like, you know, when we sit down in glass, I say, let your eyes do the walking. Well, in thick country, sometimes you can't glass in it. So let your ears do the walking. What that location bugle does is it's a way that elk are kind of communicating to the cows. So a bull will make out this long sound saying like, where are the cows in this area? Helping to draw them to him. But another bull will bugle hearing that saying, no, don't go to him, come to me.

And then at some point, then those elk kind of start talking to each other. At the very basis of it,

It's a really good call to know just to be able to locate a bull in some thicker terrain. It just adds another trick to your repertoire. Now, I will say during a rifle hunt, you know, you want to make sure you're in an area that probably doesn't have a lot of other hunters. You know, if you start hearing bugles and then you're bugling, but sometimes it can be kind of distracting in a rifle hunt because you might call in other hunters or whatever. But, you know, just be careful just because you hear a bugle doesn't necessarily mean it's an elk. It could also be another hunter.

And, you know, kind of be safe and think about it that way. But I would say that I wouldn't necessarily leave out bugling. One thing I would suggest though, is also just practicing with some other types of elk calls so you can make some other types of elk sounds. An open read call is a really good beginner elk call for making cow sounds. What that is, is just kind of like

It's got this mouthpiece and then a reed over the top. Then you kind of run your teeth and just change the pitch by applying different pressure. So the Hushimama squeeze type call is great. If you're just beginning, you want to make a quick sound, but outside of that sound, that's pretty much all it makes. Now, later in the rut, some sounds that you might want to make, maybe like some, some lost cow sounds. It depends on the type of terrain you're into, but something where you're, you can kind of change the pitch and maybe sound like a herd of elk or

Another thing you might want to think about is like learning an estrus whine, which is just this eww kind of sound. It's like a more drawn out cow sound. But if there's a bull in the area and maybe a late cow coming into estrus, it could be something that draws him out or maybe even just gets him to bugle. Now, when it comes to hunting the later part of the rut, that

October 9th to the 13th. That's pretty much the tail end of it most places, especially when you start heading further south. So you might hear a few bugles, but it's not going to be just like that all out crazy bugle rut behavior. You might hear a couple of bugles in the morning and that's kind of going to shut them down. So you're going to have to use a combination of tactics. Normally that time of the rut, that time of year, what the bulls start doing is they start to like the more mature bulls will actually start pulling away from the herds.

They might be around the herd, but they're going to be kind of off on their own, starting to bed and starting to get into that feed pattern. But they will still be responsive to maybe coming in and checking for cows that haven't been bred. You also might get a lot of activity from some younger bulls that really kind of got their butt whipped early in the rut. Now they're joining up with these groups of cows and kind of like hanging out, hoping that there's still some that might come into heat.

So one thing that I would kind of focus on is find the cows. If you're just looking for any elk, you know, you can start finding those concentrations of cows, the elk that are still active, you can, you know, definitely target. And then if you kind of want to target maybe a more mature bull, kind of find where the cows are at and then start looking for maybe some more feeding areas in secluded timber that's near where those cows are. Cause those bulls will like, they'll actually,

actually kind of be active in the morning. And then the middle of the day, they'll just start, they'll just pull off and go bed by themselves. And then they might join back up real late in the evening. So it's not like before where they're running the show is more just like they go, they hang out, then they leave. And that happens kind of toward the tail end of the rut. They're just kind of hoping to maybe catch a cow that has come out of estrus, but

or like late into it. So there still is some rutting activity and it just depends on, I would say really how the rut was where you're at. So if the rut kind of kicked off real early, you know, by that October timeframe, it might be a little late, but it never hurts to have a cow call and maybe try some location bugles, especially if you, if you get a bull fired up. I mean, I've actually bugled in elk. It,

I mean, I've used bugles as late as like November. Now I'm not saying that's a good tactic, but I've heard bugles as late as that time and actually gotten responses from bugles as well. It just gives you an idea of where the elk might be, especially even if they don't get super fired up and they're going to come to the call. It's another way to kind of pinpoint their location. Oh, as a side note, I actually did some, used to do quite a bit of guiding down the

where your hunt takes place. And one thing that I did find in that kind of rifle October season, the elk did primarily like,

beginning of October actually came in silent to like cow call set up. So if you're in an area where you're like, I know there's a bull here, but he went in the timber, I can't find him. Maybe just sit up or sit over a glassing area, throw out some cow calls like, hey, we're just a group of cows here just hanging out. And you might get some bulls to kind of come in, sneak in quiet, just check things out. So that's just another tactic to think about.

All right. Next question comes from Garrett. Looks like it's actually more of a cutting the distance testimonial. So it says, I just got a new bow after not shooting one for about 25 years. I've had it for about three weeks now, and I just stumbled upon your podcast and listened to your archery 101 and 102 podcast.

podcast series. Long story short, you got me aiming with both eyes open and I swear it's the best thing I would never have tried it had you not mentioned it. My accuracy is much better and my eye fatigue is less. Thank you so much. Love your podcast. You're a very good speaker and you deliver your message very well. Cheers.

Thanks for that Garrett. I really appreciate it. Also, I did get a lot of questions coming in about, um, things about beginning archery and getting started different ways of shooting. So if you haven't checked out these ones, I think that's a good way, a good place to start. Uh,

archery 101, 102 kind of series starts around episode 76. So if you get a chance and those were some of the questions you sent in, a lot of the questions I got this week were answered in those podcasts. So go check those out. And I think that they'll be super beneficial to you.

All right. This question comes from Larry out of New York. He says, Hey, Remy, great job with the podcast. As always, I plan on hunting Grizz country, Wyoming and Alaska over the next couple of years. If on a rifle hunt in Grizz country, would you recommend carrying a pistol as backup for bathroom trips in the tent? He said the story you told of your cousin's friend getting dragged out of her tent has really got me worried. Thanks for all the shared knowledge.

That's a good question. In the past, I've always thought, hey, I'm on a rifle hunt. I've got a rifle. Why would I need anything else? This is what I would use. If I'm in heavy grizz country, I think that even with a rifle, I probably still carry some other form of bear deterrent, whether it's bear spray or

or a pistol. I think that it's just, it's a lot faster. You have more rounds. There's more options to possibly even not even have a lethal encounter, but just to scare the bear away. I mean, maybe you see the bear at a distance. It kind of starts to bluff charge. You can get a shot off where it's still safe, where you could, you know, recover and shoot or whatever. Maybe that noise would scare it. You know, if you do that with a rifle, you're kind of limiting yourself or, you know, it's, it's sometimes hard to,

I don't necessarily like walking around with a chambered round in the rifle. Not because, I mean, you know, you just, it seems like you're putting it on your shoulder more often than not. So you've still got to get it off your shoulder. It's cumbersome. It's not as fast. I think that, you know, if I'm in an area where it's like, Hey, I'm worried about a grizzly encounter. I know there's a lot of bears here. I probably still just take something else, whether it's the bear spray or the pistol.

Pistols would be a little bit heavier and it's kind of like, maybe that's too much weight. Maybe the bear spray is just a little bit lighter and a good option because it might be something that's like, Hey, this is a lot faster to get to a quicker draw and maybe just as effective. And you've kind of got the bath, the piss or the rifle as that backup, or if you can get it off fast enough and use it, that's the first thing you reach for. You've got it. But I think that most people probably don't,

would have trouble using it. I'd say like in a quick scenario, however, if it was a charging bear, you know, and it's a, you need to shoot it. I think you'd probably be better off shooting with your rifle than you would a pistol. So there's, um, there's kind of like a, it's just up to you, like what you feel comfortable with. But I wouldn't say that. I mean, I've definitely done it where the rifle is the only thing I took, um,

And, you know, it was fine. Never had any encounters and never had any problems. But I think that maybe if I did need it, it would probably be hard in many instances. Now there's like a lot of places, Canada and other things, you can't carry a pistol around. So your option would be use the rifle or carry a shotgun. Like if you're fishing, you know, you can't have a pistol. So I think in those scenarios, you know, you're probably just best to go with the bear spray and then carry your rifle. Yeah.

All right. This question comes from Ethan. He says, Hey, Remy, just listen to the predator podcast. My wife is in the coast guard and we're getting stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, which is obviously large brown bear country. I know while hunting, I'll carry my Glock 20, but would you suggest carrying while fishing the rivers and streams? Also any other tips for fishing or safety would be greatly appreciated as well.

I mean, to be 100% honest, you're probably best carrying it while fishing. I will say like the bears, when they're on salmon streams, you're going to have more encounters with bears while fishing probably than you will hunting because they're concentrated on that food source. Now, I will also say that while they're on that food source, they kind of don't necessarily care about P.

I mean, it's not like they're, they aren't going to, you probably aren't going to incite a predatory attack, but you may incite an attack that could be territorial or, um, you know, mom protecting your cub. So absolutely. Um, I don't know, you know, whether the pistol or bear spray, I mean, you can, you can kind of go between the two when you're fishing. It seems like you're in that thicker stuff. It's kind of close quarters. I've had, um, just a couple false charges, um,

while like in a fishing scenarios, just, you know, like they come in wolfing and huffing and, and curious and scary and try to scare the crap out of you. But I definitely think that, you know, like when you live in bear country, if you look at like the bear techs that have happened this year, it's generally not hunters. It's not people hunting. Um, it's mostly just people recreating a bear country, but it could be hunters, you know, just being in places where, uh,

There are bears and doing something. The springtime happens to be a time that it happens a lot. Summertime as well. Maybe it's just more influx of people, but, you know, people out berry picking, people out shed hiking, people out scouting, whatever. There's definitely any time you're out there in bear country, you should kind of be bear aware. It's not just relegated to when you're out hunting specifically.

Other things that, you know, you think about when you're the nice thing about fishing, what you can do is you don't have to be quiet. You don't have to be stalking around. You can make noise, let bears know that you're there as you're walking, talk to your friends, joke loud. It's not like you're trying to sneak up on the fish. Um, I mean, I guess unless you're like targeting a fly fishing, sometimes I get a little sneaky, but, um,

uh, outside of that, you know, make some noise and let the bears know that you're there before you, even if you don't know that the bears are there. I mean, if you're fishing with a friend or whatever, it's okay to be, be loud talking kind of, it gives those bears, uh, an advanced warning that you're coming. Cause a lot of the

attacks that would happen are probably surprising a bear. It's like, Oh, you, you happened upon a sow and some cubs and she didn't know you were coming and you didn't know she was there. But if you're loud enough and make some noise going into those spots, it might kind of disperse them or at least just let them know, Oh, Hey, somebody's coming. You know, you can also approach areas like, Hey, I'm going to approach the salmon stream from the downwind side. So it's like, then my sense blowing into where I'm going to be fishing is

That's another kind of good tactic to think about. And then one other thing is, you know, if you're in like a salmon stream, you don't want to, uh, you know, you're, you're the noises that bears here can also be like a dinner bell. Just, um,

when you've got like a salmon on the line and it's splashing around a lot. So that kind of can draw bears in. Like if you're fighting a fish for a really long time, sometimes, you know, you kind of want to just fish, get it in and, and, and then get it back or do whatever you're going to do with it. But you also want to kind of make sure that you're being aware of your surroundings. You know, you've got a fish, Oh, you're releasing it. You aren't looking down. You want to just kind of constantly being aware of your surroundings. Cause when you bring that fish in that splashing noise,

the bears that are probably like what they'll do is they'll kind of be sleeping off in the banks in the brush. Then they'll hear that splashing of like, Oh, the runs coming. Ooh, there's some fish stuck in that channel. Sweet eats time to go chow down. And you're just kind of setting off that dinner bell for maybe bears that are in an earshot away. So when you do catch fish, you just definitely want to be aware, be bear aware and kind of be always paying attention. Next question comes from Michael. He says,

Hey Remy, just bought my first bow, a recurve, and I'm shooting it a lot with the goal of eventually bow hunting. I went into an archery shop intending to buy a 45 to 55 pound recurve, but was humbled by those bows and left with a 14 pound recurve so I could get reps in and learn to shoot. He's wondering what tips or exercises I have for increasing my draw weight with a bow. Thanks.

That's a great question. You know, if you're first getting into bow hunting, one thing it's, you know, it's like you're using muscles that you don't generally use for anything else. So one of the things that you're going to have to do is build up the strength and the muscles to get the repetition, to be able to draw that bow back smoothly, consistently, be able to hold it, especially more traditional gear.

And so what you're doing is great. Working up with a lighter poundage bow, kind of just understanding the basics, mechanics, getting your form and everything down and actually using a really light poundage bow is a great way to do that. I mean, if I think about the way that I started was on a very light, light bow as a kid, um,

I would say though, that, you know, you're going to need something that's going to, if you keep like even just building up that repetition in that form, you're going to have to kind of build up by doing. So I would say, you know, get that 45, get that 45 pound bow or whatever, 50 pound bow, whatever you're feeling. I think probably start out with a 45 pound bow.

Um, and then, you know, maybe just not having to shoot as much, but you're going to build up pretty quickly by starting to pull that. I know when my wife started shooting, um, we had a compound bow for, and that's another great way is like, there are, you know, you could even look at getting like a, a bow that's just like,

I don't know what they are like a more modular bow where you can kind of build up the draw weights to it. So it'd be like a compound bow, but you can kind of add, increase the weight. So you'll, you'll lessen the screws in the limbs there. You'll decrease the weight of that bow and then you'll start building that bow up. So you can get that form of pulling back the weight and,

and then building up your weight. When my wife started, she couldn't pull back as much. So I had kind of one of these beginner like bows that they sell and I just increased the weight. So I had it pretty light. She would start shooting and then we just start gradually increasing the weight by five, 10, whatever pounds. Then when she worked up to her hunting bow,

it couldn't go low enough, but she was able to pull it back, you know, a few times. So you want to make sure you aren't like struggling really hard, but she's able to pull it back and then she'll shoot a couple rounds and then just stop. And then you go, okay, later in the day, shoot a couple more. Um,

And over the course of even just a week, she was able to then start pulling a lot more weight. And then just by once she had that muscle memory, that way of pulling and then built up that weight, she was able to shoot a lot more poundage than even a few weeks earlier. So it's just something you can gradually get into, start practicing, building that muscle memory. But it's a great idea with that light bow to just understand the mechanics of shooting and get

like, so you don't have any bad habits. Cause as soon as you start putting extra weight, your brain starts thinking weird things like, Oh, this is heavy. I got to let go. Or you start messing with your form. So I think it's a really good idea. Just shoot that light bow a lot. So you get that form really locked down and then you can start building that. I mean, you could even just anything where it's that drawing motion. I mean, I've seen guys use like a weight machine where they've got weight and you're just doing that straight drawback. You can do that with bands. I mean, I know people that use those like

exercise bands. You just change the tension. Just don't let go and lose your eye. I've, I've heard of people losing their eye with those exercise bands. So, um, but that's a good way, just building that form, building that strength, get some heavy strength exercise bands and just start pulling back, pulling back anything where you can kind of build that muscle in that bow

Because you got it. It's got to be the muscle by doing, you know, there's, you could build strength in many ways, but you have to do it that same way of drawing straight back and in that good technique. And once you do that, I think you'll be pretty much well on your way and you'll, you'll find that you can progress pretty quickly. It's just, you're using muscles that probably haven't been used in that direction in that way in your entire life. So once you start building that form and technique, you should be good. Yeah.

All right. This next question comes from Jacob. It says, Hey, Remy started listening to the podcast last December after I had my first elk hunt. That hunt was mostly front country, tons of pressure in an opportunity unit ended up shooting a spike bull and filling the freezer.

I can't help but wonder how big of a bull I could have found had I listened to your podcast earlier. Anyway, my question today is about gauging antler size while glassing. I frequently hear you and other guys throw out numbers when you spot an animal. That's a 300 plus inch bull or 150 inch buck. For example...

What are your tips for estimating deer or elk antler size just by looking at them through the spotting scope? What parts of the antlers are you referencing on the animal? Like he's wider than his ears by X amount, so he's probably in XYZ inch range.

He says, headed out to scout new unit this weekend for whitetails and muleys for this fall's OTC hunt in Arizona. Thanks for all you do. That's a great question, Jacob. Now, when it comes to, I guess first, you know, we got to talk about like the scoring system. And when I say like, okay, that's a 180 inch mule deer, what I'm referring to is Boone and Crockett scoring system. So Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young both use this scoring system.

Now the gross score is kind of like everything. And generally I'm talking about the gross score. So the gross score is everything added up without any deductions. Now the net score is in these scoring systems kind of award for uniformity between both sides. So there's deductions on things that aren't equal. So when we talk about like a gross score, we're just talking about, okay, the number of inches of the antler and what that is, is a combination of things. So

within like antlered animals, talking elk and deer, there's these measurements. So there's the length of the main beam, there's the length of all the tines. So that's the brow tine, the back tine, like on a mule deer, it's bifurcated. So the length of each tine, and then four circumferences, one taken at the base, then one taken between the brow tine and the

which would be the next, if you're like each time going up, like from the base out, then you kind of add those as G2, G1, G2, G3, G4, and then the main beam. So what we're doing is we're talking about the inches of all those, and then the cumulative score of that, you know, like, well, that's a lot. So if you're, if you're thinking about kind of understanding score, the first thing you should do is like download a score sheet and understand how they're scored and

And then grab some antlers, whether it's like a couple of shed antlers or whatever, and start running tapes on them and understand really how to start scoring.

Because it is a really good gauge of like, it's a good way to explain what the antlers look like in an apples to apples scenario of like, okay, it's a basis of measurement. And once you start to understand what these measurements mean, then you can kind of start to build a picture of what that deer looks like. So if I say, oh, it's 180 inch buck, then in my head, I have a picture of what that deer looks like. You can say, oh, he's a...

A typical four by four got eye guards and scores about 180. So I know what that buck looks like. It's really handy when you're like looking for a certain deer or it's really handy when you're like, okay, I'm looking for really mature deer. How do I gauge it based on the other deer that I'm seeing?

So first step would be just understanding that score system. Now, when it comes to field judging, there's so many different ways to do it. And I'll just give you, I mean, I could probably do five, 10 different podcasts on just how to field judge, how to score different animals while you're glassing, while you're spotting, but I'll just give you kind of like a basic rundown now. And this might even be, if enough people are interested, a pretty solid podcast topic in the future. So

Kind of the different ways to do it would be the first way would be kind of like building out a ruler of scale of just basing things off of certain kind of known sizes of the animal. So...

You're like, okay, well, a mule deer ear is approximately eight inches in my area. Now, these do vary from area to area. So sometimes like, hey, y'all, you'll actually measure the ear of maybe some mounts of friends or people that you know that have taken deer in that area. Then you go, okay, on average, mule deer ear span is 20 to 22 inches. So you're like, okay, that's in the natural alert position.

And then you go, okay, well, the circumference of the eye is about, I mean, most years, like one, one and a half, 1.3 inches in diameter, which is like four inches of circumference. So you can kind of gauge like, okay, now I can gauge the mass, which is the circumference measurement based on the width of the eye. So is it like, is it as wide as its eye? Is it not as wide as its eye?

And then you can kind of start adding those measurements up. Now you can go, okay, well, how does that time compare to the ear length? Now, if I go look at that year and I go, okay, is it twice that? Well, maybe it's, if those are eight inch ears, then that's going to be a 16 inch time. You start writing it down and kind of building out your score. And I think that that's the best way to start. I've actually, um, you know, one thing that I kind of would do in the past is I'd put my phone up to the spotting scope, whatever, um,

take a picture and then you can zoom in and you kind of build like a ruler to scale, just using like a piece of paper or a stick. So whatever that zoom level is, you can kind of break off the stick and then kind of start measuring it out based on the pictures that you take. I'll actually, I'll try to remember to put up on my blog, on my website, remywarren.com. I'll throw up

kind of like how to do this field judging through the camera kind of thing. Because a good way to start, because it's like, okay, you've got it, you can kind of start building it out and it really gets you starting to think about numbers and the types of numbers that, you know, you're going to have to

add up while you're in the field. Now, of course, there's like ways of doing it a lot faster too. So one thing that you'll learn is like, once you start getting used to and familiar with it, you can kind of start doing what was probably the method that I use 99% of the time, which I call like rack bracketing. So I've, it's like, I try to score as many antlers, as many, put my hands on as many different deer as I can, whether it's like ones I've taken, once friends have taken and

measuring them, you know, and then you can kind of build out these mental pictures of like, just based on looking at it. And it's a more of a comparative look. So it's looking at it based on like,

the species that you're hunting, how it compares to the body size and itself. So I'll think about like a mule deer and it's like, okay, well, okay. How deep are those forks? How wide is that deer? What, like what category does that deer fit in? Is it in the 120 category? Is it like a, a small buck with not very deep forks inside the ears, fairly short? Um, or is it like a 180 category where it's got,

Outside the ear spread, it's got deep forks. It's considerably tall. All the tines are fairly uniform, fairly long length. Its main beams come out to its nose like, okay, what category is it in? And you can kind of start to tell that just by

taping antlers, building out and just like looking at a lot of deer and also really understanding that score system and like playing with it a little bit. One thing that I'll do all the time is just kind of play with the numbers. So I'll look at pictures of deer and

I'll start estimating, I'll start guessing and then writing down, filling out those score sheets. You start to build out like, oh, okay, that deer has a 10 inch front tine. It's got three inch eye guards and you can kind of start to build these like formulas and sizes in your mind and understanding like how much an inch on a certain measurement changes the overall score.

There's a lot to it. It kind of takes a lot of practice, but the best way to understand it is to really just start like picking up antlers and putting a tape measure to them and saying like, okay, this is how long that is. This is standard for this size buck. And just the more you do that, like I just continually constantly, every shed antler I find, I tape out every, you know, it's like,

a friend gets a deer, a client gets, you know, we will put a tape on it. Not necessarily because we don't know. I mean, I can guess deer pretty dang deer and elk within extremely close, but I've done it a long time, but I still always like verify it, put the tape on it and just kind of always helps me build out. Sometimes you'll go, you'll, you'll shoot a deer and you're like, wow, that deer looked really big. I thought it would score this much. And then you're like, well, it's body size is a lot smaller or is he's a, we call them mini heads. Like the

the comparisons that we're using were off. But for the most part, by just by doing it a lot, you can kind of build out that picture and really understand that score. Speaking of actually scoring stuff, there's a Pope and Young Convention in Reno, Nevada here coming up. I think it's, I'll have to look it up, it was June, sorry, July 13th, 14th, somewhere in there. I'm actually going to be at that. So if you got any questions about that kind of stuff or you're there, it's always cool to just be like, go somewhere where you can see like

different animals and then what they score. And you can look at the score sheet and look at the animal and be like, okay, I mean, these are top end, like some of the largest animals ever taken with a bow, but it gives you like a good idea of what they score. Even like, I know it's like during what COVID and all this, all the sports shows and that kind of stuff.

kind of ceased, but man, I know like I used to walk around the different kinds of sporting shows and they'd have those like displays of deer elk or whatever. Sometimes they'd have the score sheets or just being able to look at antlers saying like, okay, this is this, or even going into a sporting shop and just really like looking at the animals on the wall objectively saying like, how does it compare to itself? How does it compare to the other deer? And,

what maybe would those time links be? Because it's a really good way when you're talking with other hunters or, or maybe you've got some kind of goal in mind of like, Oh, I really want a mature bull or, or a good representative deer out of this area. I'm going to, that's going to be how I'm going to hunt or I'm going to hunt for this certain type of buck. Um, understanding that system will really help.

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Next question says, Hey, Remy. Name is Travis from Michigan. Love the podcast and have listened to every one thus far. I look forward to it every Thursday. Question for your next Q&A. I drew a first season rifle elk tag in a unit on the western border of Colorado. A portion of the unit I'll be hunting is burned last summer. Do you think I should key in on that burn or does it take a couple years of regrowth to see the benefits of a burn?

With so many fires last summer, I'm thinking others may have the same idea in mind. Thanks. That's a great question. Yeah. So first thing I would look at, when was that burn last year? I mean, it might be like if it was in what type of area was it? Is it like a lower elevation winter range? Are you hunting late in the season or early in the season? So it's going to make a little bit of a difference.

one thing that you want to think about is like, if it burned early, did it have time to get some regrowth last year before winter? And then did those animals kind of benefit from that on that winter range that year? Or was it really late in the fire season? Was it like a, a late October fire, which there were quite a few last year, or was it like an early June, July, August type fire? Um, but I would definitely say that it's pro and just as a general, like guess it's probably, uh,

good idea to check that burnout now. It's going to seem a little bit desolate, but there are going to be pockets in there where you're going to find elk. It's going to be better glassing and there should be some green up in there. Um, especially if it gets like, you know, some good, some good rains this year, or even later in the season, there's a lot of nutrients in that soil. It just depends on how hot that fire was, whether anything's gonna start popping up or not.

So I would definitely focus in on checking that burnout. I would also kind of look for areas, whether it's, the trouble is like the, you know, maps won't be updated enough to really understand it. So you're going to have to kind of get boots in the ground, but

What I would do is I would look at that burn, kind of think, okay, where are pockets where it's burned all around it, but then there's some live timber. Where are the fringes of this? Where like, did it burn down and there's this long line of timber here, but this good open burn here. And I would kind of focus on those areas because what you'll do is you'll be able to see into that burn. Like it's a good feeding area. It might give you a little bit more eyes on terrain, but it also has good heavy cover that those animals can kind of go back into. Elker

and deer as well are fringy animals. So they're going to be kind of on the fringe of that feed and that, that cover one thing like in open areas, it's, it grows a lot better feed. And in that cover, they need that to kind of feel protected and safe. So if it's just this big burn where it's like, man, everything's burnt out, there's no cover. It might be tough. I will say this though, elk that have like our resident elk, if you're hunting resident elk in an area that have kind of lived in that area their whole life, and that's how they're safe. Um,

They'll probably still be in that burn in some way, and they might even not necessarily know that they're visible. I found that like the first couple of years that they're in a burn, they kind of still see it as like we're in the trees, we're in the cover. Now, obviously, they'll go get shade and in thicker cover and everything like that. But you might have a good chance finding more animals out in that burn than you would normally.

have found them in years past. So I'd definitely check it out. And then, you know, if you're like, man, this is, I can see everything. It's burnt to a crisp. It's complete dirt. I don't see any tracks or any sign. Start picking out some of those areas where it's like, okay, where are they moving to?

So that's kind of another way is like, okay, you can eliminate the burn and say, well, this burn isn't productive yet. They've kind of moved out of this area. Well, where are some areas that they're close by where they might move to that has things that they need that wasn't affected by the burn and looking at it like that as well.

Next question comes from Ray. He says, Hey Remy, thanks for all you do to put out good info. You explain things in a way most others don't. I'm always learning a lot from your podcast. I had a question for your podcast or maybe just in general, I've been doing my best to take care of new camo. The manufacturer suggests using a hunting detergent when washing and only washing when soiled other than obviously bloody or muddy. What do you consider over soiled and what detergent could you recommend? Um,

I look for that might help keep my camo looking and functioning properly for as long as possible. That's a great question. With as much money as we put into our gear now and like as good as gear is, you definitely want it to last.

I don't get overly like concerned about how, I mean, I, I generally just like, I wear it, you know, generally on a trip. It's like I go out for a week and I don't even have an option to wash it till I come back. So it's overly soiled by that point. Um, if you're just kind of like day hunting, I don't think I would wash it every day, but maybe you're like, Hey, it's starting to stink. It's starting to smell, throw it in the wash. Um, you know,

I think that some of my stuff ends up kind of smelling worse because it's like I wear it too long and then it gets stinks and then I could have probably just prevented it by washing it. I wouldn't necessarily be afraid of over washing. What I'm really afraid of with high quality clothing is any kind of fabric softener.

So I avoid anything with fabric softener like the Plague. One washing with fabric softener will absolutely ruin your stuff, in my opinion. I mean, I've seen really good, high-quality tech gear get destroyed by...

the wrong kind of detergent or the wrong kind of thing. So, um, not just the detergent, but also, uh, dryer sheets. So when you're washing your hunting clothes, absolutely. Like I, I mean, let everybody in your family know, look, if you're using this, you can use, I mean, I just use the same stuff that I wash all my other clothes. And when I'm washing my hunting clothes, I don't worry about the scent free stuff. I generally don't get scented laundry detergent anyways, but, um,

I just use whatever Costco brand Kirkland signature or Tide or whatever stuff we have, just so long as it has no fabric softeners in it. Then when I wash that, when I dry it, absolutely no dryer sheets. And everybody in the family needs to know that because what will happen is you'll throw your stuff in,

You know, like wash someone will be like, oh i'm gonna do you a favor I'm gonna put them in the dryer for you. They throw in a couple dryer sheets like they do their normal laundry Well, the dryer sheets have fabric softener that tumbling what it does it kind of breaks down the dwr the water repellency a lot of the good qualities of high quality gear And then you've got like this bummer jacket now there are ways to refresh it. So every once in a while like If my gear seems to be getting uh, like

like it's it's not performing like it used to then there's a company uh you can get it like

or an REI or some, you know, maybe even like Bass Pros, Cabela, whatever. It's called Nikwax Tech Wash, N-I-K-W-A-X Tech Wash. You can pretty much buy that everywhere. So they've got different ones for different things. I don't use that every wash. It's kind of expensive and it seems like you'd be going crazy. But when I need like that water repellency to kind of kick back up, I'll use it a couple times a year just to kind of like reinvigorate that DWR or whatever.

it seems to work pretty good. Kind of like gets the water repellency back. And there's different, like if you're really, if you're like really worried about it, you know, I'm sure it's great for kind of any soft shell material. They got all kinds of different ones. The key is to just not get that fabric softener in there. One, one, this is like a trick I learned, uh,

long time ago after my like favorite jacket got ruined by that like somebody doing me a favor swapping it over to the dryer Accident just throwing dryer. She didn't not thinking about it I pull it out and I'm like devastated my favorite jacket just seemed messed up from that point on so what I do Is like if I'm when I wash my hunting clothing, I just get a post-it I put it right on the thing like hunting clothes do not use and

If I like, if I set it anywhere public where someone can get it, I just put notes. Do not use fabric softener. I actually don't have any in my house, but do not use fabric softener. And then like, do not use dryer sheet. I put it on the dryer door. I put it on the washer door. I put it on everything. There's just sticky notes everywhere because the, the super cheap post-it that says, don't put a dryer sheet in with this will make your gear last 10, 20 times longer. Um,

And that's like the biggest tip. And then I don't even, I don't even worry, but there's like, you know, some there's washes where it's like, Oh, it cuts down the UV and all that stuff. Um,

I don't really worry about it. You know, just make it easy, make it easy on yourself. Just wash it with something that's going to get it clean. Most of the time it's just getting the, getting the smell out of it, getting the dirt out of it. It's going to actually last longer if you keep it cleaned. I know on my rain gear, I try not to wash as often, but I've actually found that like on good Gore-Tex type stuff, you know, you do want to just launder it to whatever the manufacturer says and

you can just read the little tag on there but what it does is it cleans out and actually works better they say if you just like have good maintenance of it so you don't want to let it go too long without without washing it all right one last question here

Comes from Michael. He says, Hey, Remy, been following along with your content since 2015 when I planned for my first trip out west to archery hunt elk. He says that trip, me and a buddy got bluff charged by sow grizz. And although it was absolutely terrifying at the moment, it was a pretty cool experience afterwards. My question for you might be weird one because I,

It was strange to me and unexpected. I grew up in the Northeast and after college moved to Florida since I've had a huge passion for offshore fishing, boating, and diving. I began hunting there and was surprised to have had three awful encounters with wild pigs. Never thought they were dangerous and all the locals I talked to say they're terrified.

That's a funny question. And it's a good question too, because when you think about it, I've probably actually been charged by more pigs than anything. I was doing a hunt down in Florida one time.

and just crawling around trying to catch them barehanded which sounds like recipe for getting yourself into trouble anyways and we're filming and i was like walking back to this one spot i spotted this pig i'm like oh sweet i'm gonna stock this one and before i could that pig had just charged me like straight on luckily it was a little bastard and i was able to kind of like

push it down, get on top of it, flip it over and just like subdue it with my knee and just like hold it down and, and get on top and just like, okay, cool. Got the pig. He's like on its side at this point. And, uh, like, all right, now how am I going to let this thing go? He's pretty fired up. So I let him go and he kept like,

doing the same thing, like charging back in. Luckily it was like not a super large boar. It was like just a small ornery thing. So I ended up just like getting to a spot where I could like get up a tree and then he circled around the tree three or four times and went away. But I also had a couple of experiences down in Australia where I was bow hunting pigs and

And one pig in particular shot ran into like this swampy stuff. It was in an area where there's like, I mean, there you're kind of like, Hey, I'm also worried about crocs, but I thought it was dry enough, shallow enough. I, it was like kind of out of the fringe zone of where there was, there would be a lot of crocs. So like, sweet, I'm trailing this pig in here, blood trailing this pig.

And I thought I made a good, I made a good shot on it, but at the time there's a good blood trail. So it's going in, it's like getting thicker and thicker. And I'm like on my hands and knees and all of a sudden I hear, and then just brush coming right at me. Oh crap. So,

So I get up a tree and pigs running by and it happened to be another, like this pig had run straight into the middle and died. But I was thinking it was the wounded pig charging me. And when in fact it was just another random boar that happened to be close that just heard me coming was in that thick stuff. And its first instinct was to charge me.

Luckily, there was some stuff that I could get up out of the way. But yeah, absolutely. I know a lot of guys that have been charged by pigs and they are, it is something that you kind of don't even think about for the most part, but they can get pretty aggressive. I've seen them in Europe, the big Russian boars that get pretty ornery as well. So no, I don't think you're alone. Definitely pigs can be dangerous.

The nice part about them is they can't really climb. I've been able, the small ones, I've been able to kind of push out of the way or kick out of the way and they generally go away, but their teeth are pretty sharp. If you've ever been bit by a pig, you definitely need to try to avoid them at all costs the next time. It can be pretty gnarly. So yeah, when you're out there, everyone talks about the grizzly bears, but honestly, the pigs seem to have the worst temperament of them all. So just something to think about.

And the more I talk about it, I think I've been charged by like everything on the planet. I've actually been charged by an elk as well. So when it comes to getting charged by stuff, no stranger over here.

Well, thanks everybody for sending in your questions. I really appreciate them. This coming month, I'm going to just kind of jump into a few topics that I got some other questions about. A lot of stuff involving, okay, we drew tags. Now what? How do we get started? Some other like good summer prep stuff. Some stuff to prepare for the season. Right now it's like,

When I really start to focus and start to think about, look, hunting season, especially if you've got an early archery tag is coming up within a couple of months. I got to get ready physically. I got to get my bow ready. I go through all my gear. I just want to be so dialed when that first season rolls around that I know I'm going to find additional success because I put in the time. Now I did my e-scouting. I maybe got out and did some scouting. I shot my bow. I'm ready. I'm just ready to go.

raring to get out there and hunt a tag. I fortunately drew a couple of really awesome tags that I'm looking forward to this year. We'll be excited to kind of share the stories of those, but until that point, I want to help build everybody up, get everybody ready for the upcoming season. So until next week, keep cutting the distance. That was a suggested sign off. I could, I think I could go with that. That could be, that could be the one. All right. We'll catch you guys later. And thanks again for all the awesome, uh,

responses, all the great questions. There's so many of them this week. Just keep them coming. Generally at the end, you know, I kind of try to throw in as many as I can. And so you can keep sending those my way and we'll hopefully get to as many as we can in the next Q and a. All right. Talk to you guys later.

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