Ep. 101: Answering Your Questions, Part 20

we head to the mail sack. This is where I answer your guys as questions Q and A style, a little bit of rapid fire going through and kind of taking a bunch of the top questions that I see throughout between the last podcast or last Q and as and trying to answer those. And these q and as are always kind of what build out some of the future episodes as well. Things that get asked a lot. We kind of build out specific episodes on that, so

I appreciate everybody sending those in. This Q and A is a little different because this is the first Cutting the Distance Q and A that I have been doing as a father. I just had a baby this last weekend, our first child. My wife and I baby girl. Everybody's healthy, everybody's stoked. Um, it's it's a pretty awesome time and I'm uh, and I'm used to not getting very much sleep because I'm a hunter. I get up early, go to bed late, and I have long days. So um,

it's not too bad. Adjustments pretty sweet. Um, But we'll jump here into the first question and get this thing rolling, all right. This first question comes from Tyson. He says, thanks for remy. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get time off to attend to the Pope and Young Live Q and A this year. But I wanted to ask if you believe in using cover sense in western big game. I live in Washington and hunt mostly on the northwestern side of the state. I haven't heard much about using

them in your professional opinion. Are they worth the try for deer Bear or even ILK? If so, do you have any brands you trust or is it just better to go without? Thanks for your time. That's a really good question. Um, here's here's my thought on cover sense. I kind of have this Uh. I wouldn't even say I love hate relationship with him. I just essentially don't use them. But I say that with a little bit of a caveat because I do rub down or like use natural things just to kind of mask my odor.

A little bit. If I know that I'm like hiking up a hill, I'm gonna be getting into the go zone, I'll grab something rub down with it, maybe like pine bows, sage, whatever. I don't think that it necessarily Maybe it's more of a mental thing like wow, I smell really bad. Maybe I can kind of mask that smell. Um, But there's all the different kinds of cover since there's elk deer. You know, I've I've hunted with people that they'll like be elk hunting and they'll put on like an elk

cover sent which is it smells like in elk. Well, here's my thoughts on that. The first thought is, and here's what just like take it or leave it. Some people use them, they love them, they whereby them great. And I'll tell you where the situations would work for a cover scent or probably be a little bit better hiking around. Um, let's say you're el hunting, You've got an elk cover scent. Maybe it's like an elk estra smell, right,

So which is good? It is? It can be an attractive and maybe the thought is like, oh, it's gonna mask my scent if the wind swirls or whatever. Here's my thought on it. I wouldn't walk around with it because I use my nose hunting as much as anything else. I Am constantly breathing through my nose. I'm sensing the world around me with my nose. When I'm elk hunting. There's been probably I don't even know, a very very large portion of elk they get killed. I smell before

I see, before I hear, before anything else. It caused me to slow down. It causes me to make the right moves. And because of scenting that elk first, I find success. So to add in ascent where it's gonna inhibit me from doing that because I'm smelling it all the time, Um, one year, you become desensitized to it and to like you just keep getting these like false positives in your brain just slowly shuts it out. So

for that reason, I'm I'm definitely against it for elk hunting. Also, my other thought is this, like, if you're thinking about a cover cent, well, you're just using elk scent to cover or some kind of scent to cover up your scent. But if I heard of elk comes in when the same theory happened, like the elk that's two feet away from the other elk block the scent of your scent, and that's just not how it works. So I haven't

really found a lot of success with it. Um. I will say that there are some scent masking techniques, things that just like neutralized or killed the human odor that I think would be better, But as soon as you start walking around, those essentially become ineffective. So the only time that covers sense other sense maybe I would say would be effective is if you're sitting in a stand

or um stationary in a blind, something like that. I know for sure, like I've seen it work hunting antelope prong horns from a from a ground blind over water hole. Guys back in the day used to just use like skunk scent for prong horns. Definitely like mask the scent. But the downside is like when a skunk sprays, it indicates danger and therefore the animals the pronghorn will already be alerted like, oh there might be some danger, So

I prefer to just forego it. This last year, I was actually um last was it ye last season hunting prong horn, and in the I was kind of like stalking into this water hole and there was this skunk and this badger fighting. A skunk kept spraying and I was like, oh, a natural cover scent. And the wind wasn't great, like it was blowing kind of in a bad direction, and I think it did mask my scent

for the antelope. But I will also say that the antelope are super heightened all over because of that skunk spray, Like even a long ways away they were. They were definitely more keyed in and more cautious when coming in, and it may have even affected a closer opportunity. So

it's kind of a catch twenty two. But I would say if you did use a cover scent, the time to use it would be when you're stationary, maybe like more of an earth center, a pine or something like that would probably be better if I were to use something,

But honestly, I couldn't recommend anything. And I did talk about this before on A Q and A. But just like covering up using um putting like we used to do this meal you're hunting, but like putting sage and other stuff in a bag with our hunting clothes before we went out, just to kind of get that whatever sense might be on it. And um kind of cover us up with natural scent. Oh. Also for those of you uh interested, he mentioned the Pope and Young Club Live Q and A so Rena in Reno, Nevada on July.

Let's see, it's Friday. I gotta pull up my counter actually should have memories. Sorry. Friday July two pm, two to three I'll be doing a live Q and A at the Pope and Young Club convention in Reno, Nevada. So if you're around, you can make it swing out there. I love to see you guys, love to answer your questions. Say hey, um, I also uh for our solo Hunter bow shop we opened in Reno. We're gonna be having

a little booth there. I don't know with the new baby how much I'll be in and out of the booth, but um, you might be able to catch me actually at the show as well, so check that out. Um sweet. All right, let's move on to the next question. This question comes from Carter. He lives in Minnesota. He says, Hey, Remy, just finished up listening to your Hunter podcast. I'm proud to say I've been listening since episode one. I appreciate that. Thank you, Uh, he says, I can say it has

helped me immensely in the woods. You spoke briefly about not wanting to overcall to ELK. What system or strategy do you use to not overcall for ELK besides taking your nap in the woods once every century. Thanks for making a great podcast, Carter. That's that's a good question. You know, when it comes to UM overcalling, you know, I think that that term gets thrown around a lot. Like you read an Elcoming magazine. They're like, don't don't overcall,

don't overcall, And I think that UM. For me personally, I do call a lot, but it is very situational, so it depends on the situation. In that particular situation, what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to quote unquote overcall, and what that would have been is UM, I'd like to match the tempo and the temperament of the calling to what's going on around me in that particular scenario, in that particular week. And this happens a lot. You'll encounter this all the time when you're out cutting.

You might be out there and you're like, dude, these the woods are quiet and the mountains are not really on fire. So what I don't want to do is I don't want to do a lot of bugling, a lot of like estraus whining, a lot of like this fired up stuff when the rut hasn't actually escalated to that point yet, when the animals in that area just aren't to that particular stage. So when I do any calling sequences, I like to match the rut. Now, this particular week, it was like it was was fairly dead.

I knew there was elk around, but it was mostly lone bulls kind of checking things out, not a lot of crazy activity. But what I did want to do is I wanted to say, hey to the bulls that are out there, there's some milk here. It's something you want to check out. And so I wanted to kind of match the tempo of this is just a normal word of elk maybe doing their thing, maybe feeding in the morning, So kind of like recreating what the elk there that are just out there doing their thing are doing.

And maybe it's a group of cows, let's say a group of cows with five or six cows, some calfs and whatever, and what they're do, what are they gonna do? They get up in the morning, they go out into a meadow or a grassy area. They start feeding. Then they kind of as they feed, their heads are down, they're moving their spacing out, um, you know there they might be there's probably a lead cow that's kind of

like giving them direction. They they kind of followed one elk out there, and then they're gonna follow that one elk back to bed and what are they gonna do in the meantime, We might be talking back and forth to each other, might a few muse, a few soft cow calls, a few calf calls, and just kind of something that's like, yeah, they're just communicating in that like easy going elk talk, and it's matching what the other

elk are doing in that area at that time. But with the hopes in that scenario of drawing a bull into too checking out those cows, especially right around those like that. It was like an early morning kind of mid morning time frame when it's like they went out feeding. Now they might be moving to the bedding. So hey, here's an bowl that's cruising and he here's that key's in on it and moves in. But what I don't want to do is is do it too often. I

don't want to blow the illusion. So one thing that I have done in the past, because I get a lancey as, I will just like use my watch, call me IMUMU, hit a little timer just to kind of get that like actual grasp of how long it's been, because I've there's been so many times where've I've let out a cow call like wow, okay, time to call again, you know, and I realized that I'm doing it every like minute, two minutes, you know, maybe something where it's like, hey,

this is you know, I might call every three, four or five minutes. Um, it's time. Just you know, it's one of those things like when you're sitting waiting for something to happen, it seems like like, wow, it's been thirty minutes since I called last thing. You look at your watch, it's been like two minutes and thirty seconds.

So um. In those scenarios like I'll just you know, use my watch to kind of actually gauge how far apart I'm calling, and I don't of a set specific time, I just kind of whatever feels right in the moment and how active the elk are. Um. Also, I try to think about, okay, you know, if there's an elk with an earshot, how often do I need to call for him to potentially hear it? So it depends on the type of area that I'm in. If I'm in an area where that sounds traveling really well, I'll call

more spaced out. If I'm in an area where it's like that sound I know is not going very far, maybe two yards, you can increase the frequency in which you're calling because the elk has to be within a certain radius to hear it. And that's something to think about as well. This question comes from Eric. He says, jumping the string? How do you accommodate for the deer jumping the string? My bow seems loud compared to others I've shot, but it's also the lightest and best shooting one.

It seems that I can only quiet it down so much. At fifty yards, the deer has MT say point three seven seconds to react. They could be long gone by that time. I talked to a few guys last year that had the deer duck under the arrow. Is there a way to predict this? Do you ever anticipate this and shoot under the deer a certain amount? Thanks again for all the help you provided the hunting community. Congrats

on your growing family. By the way, that's a that's a great question because when it comes to getting into bow range, you know, maybe everything's right. You you snuck in, you you did everything right. You draw back, you release that arrow, and that deer is not where it was when that arrow released. The animal jumps, it reacts to the sound of the bow going off her accident, sound of the arrow, it reacts to seeing your reacts to something and is long gone, or jumps in and creates

a bad hit. I would say ninety five percent of the time that a stock or something doesn't work out where I release an arrow, I would say the excuse would be the animal move like it ducked the string and I was anticipating it wrong, or wasn't anticipating it and it didn't do something or did do something. So um, it's it's a serious problem. But I will say that it can be in many ways anticipated. So the first the first thing is, um, the type of animal. There's

certain animals that are just super jumpy. I know, for like access to your one thing is like they tend to jump the string because they're just they're kind of they're really fast and they seem to be more reactive to that close range sound. So there's other animals like pronghorn antelope, which when they're kind of standing spot and stock style, they tend to not jump as much, but when they are drinking, they're more on edge um and

they do tend to jump more. I used to hear when I first started hunting, I heard people say, oh, mule deer don't jump the string, and that I just have to call bullshit on because I think mule deer jumped the string more than anything. Elk don't necessarily jump the string um as often, but they will um. But I will say, like you know, white sales, they definitely jump the string. Uh. So you know, it's like definitely something that you can expect every animal has the capacity

to do. Now, the first things I look for are like the alertness in the body position of the animal. Is that animal keyed into me or does it know that I'm there in any way? So that's that's the first thing. If it's like if let's say you stocked in, maybe you roll the rock, maybe you drew back and that animal whipped its head up, you know that animal knows your presence is there. And if you shoot, it's

probably going to react. In that case, I would either aim low or even like forward and low um potentially anticipating like a duck and a jump, depending on how far I am. I've said this another podcast, but one way to combat bad string jumping is to try to get closer. You're like, okay, I think this animal is gonna jump the string. I'm at fifty yards. I need to get to thirty because there's a less time for reaction I have. I have shot at a deer meal here.

It was like thirty something yards. Uh yeah, probably it was thirty three yards or no, is it twenty three yards? I can't remember. Anyways, stocked in on this deer. It was like it was movie. I was sucking in. This buck was like working towards me, like I was trying to cut it off, doing like a moving ambush thing. He walks out. I see it. The anilor tips. I draw back. I stand up. I don't know if it like it must have caught me, like looked over at me, and I'm like too late to let the arrow go.

And the deer runs off and I missed. I see my like arrow flight through the stage brush like behind it, and I'm thinking, damn it, dude, how the hell did I miss that? And I was I was self filming, and so I watched the video and I'm like, I missed, I missed, I miss I went I was back and then I'm like, okay, well, I want to see where my arrow hit, you know, just like how far I missed. So I put it in slow motion and I'm doing the slow motion and I'm watching like that, frame by

frame by frame, just clicking through. I see the arrow. It's like exactly where I was aiming, and the deer is no longer there at twenty something yards, completely duck to the arrow, and it was so fast my naked eye could not perceive that the animal had jumped that much. So it does happen. One thing that I do is I generally aim a little bit lower. I kind of always aim for that heart shot, anticipating some kind of little bit of movement, and if I don't, then it's

like it's a clean kill either way. Um. I know a lot of people will aim center mass or whatever, but like the center of the lungs, which is gives you a little more margin of error. But I almost tend to aim a little bit lower, so it's like, if it doesn't jump, I hit the heart. If it does, then I probably catch the top of the lungs and

we're good to go. Another thought on the reaction is one thing I've also noticed is in many ways, I kind of find you would think, like, okay, an animal feeding, so you're like, oh, I'll wait for them to feed. Their distracted, but dear, I feel like, well, many animals and this is I don't I haven't actually heard anybody else talking about this, but this is just like from my experience, I find that animals that are let's say, let's say it's like a deer that's feed and his

heads down, you think, okay, that's the perfect time. I found that more animals when their heads are down end up jumping. And it makes a lot a lot of sense because if you think about it, when their heads down, right, they're kind of defenses are down. But they're only good defense is there ears. So if they hear that slightest movement, they aren't going to be able to react. They're just gonna they're gonna be kind of like caught off guard in an in a bad position, and they're gonna jump.

So generally what I'll do is like I'll do my I love to you know, you want to do all your movement and all that when their heads down, and then I kind of wait for them to just like in the natural position where their head lifts up and they look a different direction or something like that, because I found that instead of jumping often they'll swing their head to look. If their heads obstructed their heads down, they don't have that option to look. It's not like

just picking their head up. They do it all at once. Where they duck down, they probably pick their head up, they jump, and then they would look. But by that point the arrow is on its way. You've made the motion, You've spooked him out. Um, So that's something you just think about. You wanna you want to shoot an animal that's super relaxed. But I'm just kind of a little food for thought that sometimes when their heads down, I find that they tend to jump more often. All right,

This question comes from Freeman. He says, Remy, what's going on? Man? Love the podcast. Thanks for all the incredible info. He also says, if this message makes it onto your Q and A, you got to give a shout out. To my hunting partner Ryan, he loses marble. So Ryan, thanks for listening. Uh, he says. So. I drew a great first season bull tag in my home state of Colorado this year, and I need to make sure I'm as dialed as possible for this hunt, which is why I'm

asking this question. You talked a lot about doing your stock the right way, not the easy way. This can mean putting in some serious work trying to get to the creator that you glassed up. How long can you expect an unweary elk slash deer to hang around in an area if they aren't bedded but unaware of your presence? How close can we expect them to be to the

last place we spotted them through the glass? Thanks for an info, man, I would love to grab you a beer if you come to through denver Um next time in Denver. Might take you up on that. Uh. Let's that's a really good question because when I do talk about it's like you want to go the right way, not the easy way. And one thing that I've found through guiding through my own personal hunts through other things, success can be so much a game of timing For

me when I see something somewhere. You immediately have this thought like, if I were there right now, it would be successful. But I have to factor in the time that it takes to get there and kind of what those animals are doing. So let's say it's it's morning time, right, You're you're glass and you're on a glassing knob and you see this elk out in this it's like full timber,

and you see this elk out in the meadow. It's the sun hasn't even cracked over the skyline yet, right, You got that elk in your glass, and you're like, sweet, that elk's there, But it's like three miles away, and you go, well, it's gonna take me. Let's say it's gonna take you an hour. Just make it easy. You kind of have to play this chess game of what's the next move, because that's gonna anticipate, like predicting how long that animal is going to be there, if that

makes sense. So in the morning, when I see it, you might think, well, Okay, it's gonna take me an hour or maybe longer to get to this particular elk, but it's a big bull and I can get there. So you start hiking and then you get there and you don't see anything. You're like, well, where did he go? You start chomping through the timber, and then you blow it out right. But let's say now it's evening time.

It's uh an hour before sunset. You're watching that same meadow and on the edge out pops an elk and you're like, well, i've got two hours till shooting time ends. Um, it's gonna take me an hour and a half to get there. Absolutely, go go right now, because you will make it there in time to shoot that bull. But in the morning you probably won't. And why is that Because in the morning that animals feeding and then going

to bed. In the evening, that animals leaving from cover and coming out to feed and will probably feed till dark. So you kind of have to anticipate what that animals doing, and that's going to tell you how long you have or how long you can expect that animal to hang around. Now, another thing is like forethought thinking okay, what do they

need next and where are they going? And also saying okay, if I see now it's the morning time and I see an elk out in the meadow, and I go, okay, I can I can hump it, I can sprint there, I can run, I can get there in fifteen minutes. Then it's like, yeah, you're gonna do it. You're gonna take that chance, because um, you're gonna use the hard

way might be also you gotta go fast. Sometimes it's not necessarily the further or a long way around, but you just go I see an animal here, now, I gotta make my move now, and I gotta beat it to that spot. There's been many times where I've mule your hunting, glassing across the ridge, the winds good, whatever. I see this deer pop up, and I see this band of rocks, and I say, if I can get to that rock where the animals going before it gets there,

I'm going to be successful. And that might mean damn near sprinting up the mountain. And I've done that more times than not when I'm guiding, when I'm hunting, there's a lot of these times where it's like, I see the animals, We got to make a move, and the hard way is not. The easy way is going fast in some in many instances, but there's also that time of going like, hey, sometimes the hard way is just being patient saying, like, why am I going to go

right now? When I know that I get over there, it's gonna be gone when I could anticipate um and make a better play for another time. So I see the elk out in there, it's feeding, it's morning, and I'm too far away to get there within that amount of time that I think you're gonna stay there. So what should I do? Well, I can keep hunting around, looking around, and then tonight I'm just gonna go being a closer position where I can still glass that. But when it comes out, I'm gonna be able to make

a move. And that's something to think about, or say, it's a meal here and you go, hey, I'm gonna just instead try to watch and wait until he beds or gets into a good place where I think he's gonna hang out long enough for me to get there and make my stock. This next sun comes from Nick. He says, Remy, during a fire band, what's your favorite way to cook trout out in the back country. That's

a really good question. When you can't have an open fire, Uh, whether you've got like a stove or a jet boil or whatever. I like to bring a little packet of um, it's like coconut oil. It's like in a little single serve cocon oil pack, So I'll throw that in there. I used to this, This little recipe is grown over the years because they used to not have like single

serve packs like that. What I used to do is I used to go to KFC and ask for a bunch of those butter packs, those like mayonnaise style butter packs, and then I would use that little butter pack that they gave with their biscuits for my back country trout. So I'd like save those up over the years, every time I go somewhere where there's like a KFC, like, hey, can I get a handful of the butter packs, And that's just like I'd save those for backcountry trout cooking.

But um, use my stove. I'll often bring a little fry pan. Now, even if you let's say you're backpacking with a setup that's got you got like a jet boil, right, and you go like, well you've got the pot, I'll bring a little fry pan. Now, you can't set the fry pan on top of that jet boil or your your little stove thing if it's not designed for that so I'll build like a little rock shelf to hold the pan high enough above that so it doesn't sit right on it and melt my uh back country cooker.

I figured that out because I've actually caught a jet boil on fire, and that was the last time I used a jet boil, and then I really understood why it happened. Um, that was kind of when they first came out. But um, just something to think about. So you use your stove, a little bit of oil in there, get it hot. I then use just a little bit of lemon, pepper, garlic, salt, season the fish, and then quick fry it in that oil. And that's an incredible

way to have some back country treat some back country trout. Alright. This next question comes from Mitch says, Hey, Remmy, I was hoping you could take some time to answer a couple of questions I had about meat care and hide care, or point me in the direction of some content you might have discussing the topic. To set the scene, my brother and I are doing a two week float hunt for caribou in Inland, Alaska next year during August. We will each have pack rafts and dry bags, but no coolers.

Or anything like that. For meat, how do you recommend preserving the meat in the cape if we kill one early in the trip. Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks for your time. That's a really good question. When it comes to meet care and uh a long amount of time, you know you're you're gonna be playing this very delicate balancing game. And when you add in water and rafts, it kind of multiplies or or makes the

problem more complex. So I would say there's a few things you have to worry about and consider when you're doing a float type hunt like this, even now, especially in August. So August it's gonna be a little bit warmer, you might get those lower temperatures, but um, you know, you kind of are gonna have to play it by your It might be a thing where if you shoot a caribou early in the trip, you might kind of have to You're gonna be up against the clock, is

what I'm saying. And that's just the realistic expectation of it. I don't think you can expect the to go shoot it on the first day of a two week trip and everything be kosher. By the end. The meat will probably taste a little rank and mainten spoil. But it depends on the temperatures out there. So if it's cool temperatures, um, everything is gonna be fine. You know. You you could definitely go those you could go ten days or whatever. Um. But I will say, you know, you might have to

play things by your there. There's gonna be a point where you go, hey, it's getting hot. We gotta get this meat back. Um. We might just have to speed up the trip and get out sooner. That's the just the reality of it, um. But I will say there's also a few considerations when it comes to a float hunt. So remember the same with all you know. I've said this multiple times, but with meat, carrots, you gotta keep it cool, you gotta keep it dry, you gotta keep

it clean. That can compound when you're in a raft because you're there's water everywhere. So what you want you got to do. Even if it's cool out, you have to constantly get air around that meat to cool down. So let's say you're you know, the temperatures are great, it's it's refrigerated temperatures out you don't have to worry about the meat getting too warm over a long period

of time. But while you're floating, you're gonna have to put the meat in a dry bag to kind of keep the water from soaking the meat because in those pack rafts or whatever, there's the potential for water to get in there. Now, when you stop or whatever, you're then going to have to take the meat out of those dry bags and hang to get air around it, circulate move the meat around in the game bags so it doesn't even if it's cold out, like even in the winter time. Um, this happens on trips where guys

have a floating the river with a moose. They just put the meat in the in the raft. They're like, oh, it's cold out, and then things go bad because it's getting wet and the meat is not being moved around and getting air circulation on it. So I will I'll say, it's just you've got to go through the work, and the work is gonna be you have to continually keep that meat clean, So I use dry bags. Um, once you stop every day or whatever, you'll hang that meat

up in a tree. You're gonna want to keep it out of reach of bears, and you're gonna want to make sure that it can cool down. Now, if you don't have that. You know, maybe you gotta make a meat pull. If there's like it's just completely flat, tender and no trees or anything like that, you might have to make some form of meat pull to hang the meat where it gets off the ground. One way to do that, UM I've used like if you're using a paddle kayak paddle, I mean, if it's carbon fiber, you

want to make sure that they can hold all the weight. UM. Cut some sticks along the way, some boughs, make a tripod with some like a pair of cord or whatever, and then just make a meat rack where you can hang that meat so it gets off the ground. You're gonna hang it every night and during the day while you're not floating, and then the only time the meat should be in the bags and in the raft is

when you're you're moving. UM. So that's something to think about, and then you know, you just got to kind of keep an on it. There are some areas where you can't actually debone the quarters, and I actually would I personally, like floating like this, I would probably keep the meat bone in because it's just gonna be easier to kind of manage and move because you're gonna be moving it a lot, and it's not gonna be stuffed down into a bag. Um, it'll kind of keep it easier for

the air to get around everything. Um. Now, if it's starting, if it's like really warm, maybe you could think about de boning it, but I think that probably keeping it the quarter's whole will be the easiest way to handle everything. Keep it clean and move it easily, hang it, and keep the meat kind of spaced out and dry out. Now, something else to think about, the back straps or any

loose meat, neck, meat, ribs, whatever. Bring a lot of game bags where you can kind of um separate everything out because even the meat and the bags, it's going to be hard to kind of keep uh that air circulation around it. So that's something else to think about. And then you know, you just have to play it by ear. If it's if it's warm temperatures and you go, man, uh, it's warm temperatures, We've got X amount of days to

float out. You really got to just kind of take the responsibility of, Okay, well, when we get something, Um, we've got this many days, we've we set a time clock, and this is how long that meat is gonna last for us to get out and get everything um home without a spoiling And that's just something else to think about. But there's always a few extra considerations when you're doing a float hunt. It's a great way to hunt. It's an incredible experience and you guys are gonna have a

lot of fun. So uh, think about that. Think about when you stop, you know, building those meat rack. And this is whether you're floating in, flying in, hiking and horsing in, doesn't really matter. Getting that meat up off the ground, getting it cool and dry. And then also, um, you know, over course of time, there's a lot of things that can affect how well that meets stays. So one thing you're definitely gonna want to pack is a

big tarp. So I build like, so you get your Caryboo down, I build some kind of meat rack to hang it, and then I tarp over it. The tarp works for two things. One, it keeps the rain off the meat, because in in two weeks of Alaska hunting, it's going to rain. And too, it keeps the sun off the meat because in August it's sunny a lot, so even if it's cool out, that sun will kind of keep meat shaded and that will help you too.

So by doing all those little things, you're gonna extend to the time that you have to be able to get that meat back safely. The next question comes from Travis. He says, Hey, man, I've been listening to your podcast. I think it's great you're kicking ask My wife has been wanting to get into hunting with me and I was just listening to how your wife got started. Would it be a good idea to take her on small game hunt before she jumps into the September LK hunt

with me? Any of your suggestions would be great. Thank you and have a great rest of your day. Yeah, that's a great question, Travis and I and I always say this, um get any getting anybody into hunting. I think it's always good to start small. Uh. There's there's nothing wrong with starting with something. It's like, it's easier to manage. Is the day trip, it's it's getting out,

it's the process of it, it's getting into hunting. Uh. A lot of us that are avid, hardcore hunters today started with small game, and I think it's a really good way to kind of build that foundation for hunting.

Take care of some of the things like safegun handling, take care of some of the things of like working on a few of the things that help make you a more successful hunter when it comes the big game, walking quietly, being observant, looking around, and also that like just getting into that excitement maybe a little bit quicker without these big expedition a giant hiking up the mountain

not seeing anything for a week kind of deal. So um, with small game, it's a really good way to get people into hunting, and I definitely suggest kind of getting started and taking around on a few small game hunts before you go on that September hunt, if possible. This question comes from Brandon. He says, Hey, Remmy, my brother and I live in New York State and planning our first elk hunt colorade of this fall. We drew a muzzloator to agg on one point. From our scouting, it

looks like it could be a pretty busy unit. One question I have is how do you tell a real elk bugle from another hunter? Or is that possible? It is possible, Um, there's a few ways that I kind of can tell. The first is I mean, to be honest, A lot of hunters don't sound that great employing a bugle, So a really really bad bugle, um one that sounds

like flutes going off generally a hunter. I say generally because there I in my time hunting, there have been a lot of elk that I'm like, God, that sounds like a hunter and it's actually an elk. Another thing I would say is like the immediate responsiveness to like if everything is super quiet right and all of a sudden, it's like this elk bugles that every cow call I make and every bugle I make, and it's just like constantly and then you kind of hear that mix of

cow calls bugles. Generally, it's like a call sequence that a hunter is doing. But you don't want to blow your chance at an elk by saying like, oh, that's a hunter. So what I do is I always simult like if I in question, I always simultaneously assume it's a elk and assume it's a hunter. So meaning I proceed with caution. I I think, okay, if this is a hunter, um, you know, am I Is there a way that I can look into there and maybe see

the elk? Can I get down wind and smell the elk, but I also assume that it is an elk, so I don't blow it in case it is an elk um if and that's in those times where you might be questioning it. There will be a lot of times you're like, was that an elk? Was that a hunter?

You just kind of have to go situationally, go off what you feel, and worst case scenario, chase down every lead because if you aren't hearing a lot of action or maybe there's um now maybe you're an area, it's like bugles all over the place and you chase the wrong one. That happens many times you'll hear a hunter and real elk um. I've had up where it's like, okay, you're calling and elks calling and what you didn't know was a hunter is calling, and you all kind of

converge the same spot. But if you kind of take that approach of simultaneously assuming like if if you're in question, okay, is that an elk or is that not an elk, assume that it is and it isn't. Simultaneously where you're like taking the necessary precaution that this might be a hunter, you kind of you try to glass in there and try to eliminate some possibilities, like if you just like, let's say you're at a trailhead and there's four other

trucks parked there and whatever. You know, you can say well again kind of determine the size of the area and say, well, okay, this is one basin and I'm hearing these calls. Yeah, it's probably a hunter. It sounds like it might be a guy calling. There's kind of like this these cow calls that go with it. Um, you know, and the elk haven't been super active lately. Uh, then then yeah, the odds are that it might be hunter. So you kind of get to play, play the game

and and figure it out. But once you're out there, um, you know, you're you're gonna be fool the few times, especially if you run into a guy that's a really good caller. And then you're also going to have somewhere you're like, oh, that's definitely a person. And then you're gonna have somewhere you're like, that's definitely a person and it turns out to be an elk. That's just how elk cunning is when they're bugling. All right. This next

question comes from Dan. He says, Hey, Remy, I'm still a learning hunter and your podcast is a single most useful tool I found. Keep up the great work. He says, I first found a great water hole and got several photos of a shot worthy bull. The problem is there's a lot of other game in the same water hole, multiple moose, a dozen elk, other elk, deer, et cetera. Seems there's a lot of opportunities to get spotted by

a lot of watchful eyes preparing for the worst. What's your plan B or c for a hole like this if your cover is blown, would you go elsewhere to relieve pressure if your target elk or other animals spots me? Or would you stick it out? So that's a great question. You know, hunting a water hole can be super effective, especially for many places right now that might be in

drought or whatever. But if you've got a productive place where animals are watering, I'm assuming that you're you're getting like photos from a trail camera set up over this water hole. Um, you know, if you've you've got a productive place, then that's great. That's a great place to hunt, a great place to hone in on either target animal or you know, never know what what might stroll in there.

I will say this, so when you're hunting, when you're when you're doing an ambush style hunt where you're waiting for the animals to come to you, whether it's a trail, whether it's a water hole, whether it's over a food source, whatever, the number one goal is to not be detected. So you want those animals should be coming into your setup unaware of your presence and whether it's the animal you're chasing or another animal, because if they're spooking away, then

you've set up wrong. So the key is, no matter what comes in, it should come in water, do its thing ing, and then leave unaware whether you're gonna shoot at it or not. Because if it's if it's alert and you're in a position where you might spook it, and then you're gonna run into some problems. So the things that I would do is, first, you know, kind of figure out a couple of strategies for um not

going not getting detected. That could be a ground blind and setting that ground blind up early enough where you know you can sit in there. Um you're set up, you know, when an animal like say a moose or non target animal comes in you're just gonna be still. You're gonna be quiet. You're gonna let them do their thing and move on. When another animal comes in, you know,

maybe it's one that you want to shoot. Uh, you know you should hopefully let it get comfortable enough and have and then get your opportunity and take your shots. So you shouldn't really be spooking anything. Another option maybe a tree stand, um, and when you when you set these up, obviously the thing you're gonna want to think about most is the wind direction for that day and where you're at. So you could even think about maybe

the winds. If figure out the predominant wind direction in your area, and you could go a ground Like you said you want to sit on the ground, you could put a ground blind at one end and then maybe a tree stand on the other end if the winds are different, so you could kind of choose two different locations depending on the wind and maybe the direction that the animals come in from. Now that being said, yes

things might wind you. You might spook something, um, but if it's that productive of a water hole, I would just stick it out, especially it sounds like maybe it's something if they're consistent, if it's in a water hole that they're going to consistently and they don't have a lot of other options. Absolutely stick it out now. If it's something where you sit it and um, the animals kind of like spooked off and change their pattern, you

don't see them again. Then it's something where you can start finding maybe where else are they going, or kind of go to plan B, which might be maybe more spot and stock technique or tactic, or checking out other areas or other water holes. I will say, like patterning things on water, it seems super easy at first, we're like, oh, these animals are coming in water, but you also have to factor out Okay, I have to cut out everything that's coming in at night. I need these animal is

to come in during the daylight during hunting hours. And then as the seasons change, their water uses the amount of water in other places changes as well. So um, you have to be aware of those factors. Just because they're coming in and hitting water during the summer doesn't mean that when the season starts it's going to be that regular. So and a water hole that might be really productive in the summer comes September, maybe you'll get in early snow, maybe you'll get something that will change

the patterns and the habits of those animals. So you want to kind of continually monitor the patterns and the habits and also maybe find some water in other areas. So you might have one or two productive waters where

these animals are using. Like I say, you've got a target elk and it's like okay, he's watering here every three to five days, um, But you might have some other waters that they're hitting and going okay, well, this is why he's creating a circuit, and then you can kind of plan on hunting that animal based on that circuit that you're trying to decipher this pattern, So if something happens on the one spot, you can then go

or check out another spot as well. Well. That concludes our Q and A. Don't forget that I'm gonna be doing that live question and answer in Reno, Nevada the Pope and Young Club Convention on the Friday, uh two pm. I think I might even add a second session in there right after so to get a few more questions, and then it'd be great to meet you guys. Anybody that that shows up, would be awesome to just say hey, um, yeah,

I'm looking forward to it. Also, Uh, that last question talking about the water kind of got me thinking about some of the first seasons to start off. Prong horn antelope an incredibly fun hunt. It can be a very challenging spot and stock archery hunt, but also just probably one of the more enjoyable hunts out west. I think it's a very underrated animal, and I've been getting a lot of questions about prong horn hunting, so I would like to add in a little bit of a series

on some prong horn analytic techniques and tactics. So we'll look for that in the future. We'll have some of those live Q and A s running in some future podcasts, And if there's things that you guys want to know about as always, feel free to reach out to me via social media at Remy Warren on Instagram. Generally, I

go through the messages. When I see a good question, I screenshot it and I keep it in a file, and when it's male sack time, I open those up and scroll through and start answering some of those questions. But I also try to keep track of the things that people are asking a lot of to build out some of our other episodes. I say that a lot, but I really appreciate all the feedback, all the ratings, all that kind of stuff. Also as a reminder, I'm starting to do a lot more videos on my YouTube channel.

So I just put up some good stuff about three or four videos on processing big Game that I think will be really helpful for you guys. And then also like a full length caribou hunt with some that I did last season. We've got some other awesome huntsome. I mean, I've actually got like probably a hundred or more film

hunts that I've never used, never shown anyone. So I guess start going through and editing some of those some really cool stuff, some record book desert sheeps, um, some awesome antelope footage, just some really cool hunts that have never I've never really used for anything that I just get got so busy. Uh well I'm are, yeah, still really busy. But I was like, man, I've got hundreds and hundreds of hunts that I've never shown anyone, never seen fully filmed that I'm like, man, we should do

something with some of this old stuff. So a few like awesome flashback hunts as well coming up, So make sure to go over there. Check it out, subscribe if you can, and yeah, thank you guys so much for all the support, all the messages and we will catch you later until next time. You know, you guys all thought I was going to have the best sign off dialed and that's not true. Because until next time, keep those questions coming in See you guys.