Ep. 12: Hunting Pronghorn in Virgin Country and Understanding E-Scouting

never been before. Now, what where do you even start? Honestly, I could probably talk about nearly any hunt I've been on for a story that coincides with this. A lot of the hunts I do I've never stepped foot in the area. But what it comes down to is the time I spend looking over or what I would call e scouting on say my on X hunt app. What I want to do on this podcast is cover where

do you even start? But first we need to talk about the basics of map reading, understanding a topo map, and then understanding how to put all this satellite imagery and the stuff at your hands together while you're at home so when you get out in the field you can immediately become successful. A lot of hunt stories start opening morning or when you're in the field. But the truth of the matter is, for me, most hunting stories should start weeks beforehand, when I'm in my house pouring

over maps. One hunt stands out in particular because it's just so fresh in my mind. This season, I picked up and pretty much what would be considered over the counter archery antelope tag. You had to put in for it beforehand, but everybody that put in drew now, having never hunted in this state for this species, where do

I begin? I just started pouring over my on X map as soon as I got that tag, looking over areas every night, start going through different units that are in their outlining places that I can hunt, until I started to hone in on what I was looking for. Now. It actually driven through this area multiple times, so I kind of had a rough idea of places that I wanted to check out, spots that look good to me, but at this point I had no spot. I started marking pins and places that I like to check out.

Now by the time opening day rolled around, I was ready to start hunting. I found my spot. I did a little bit of a road trip, camped out the first afternoon that I got into the unit. The season had actually been open for a couple of weeks. But when I got in there marked camp spot check that out. I get into that campsite, I'm looking around on the

way in, I'm like, man, I don't know. It looks good, but I didn't really see any antelope where I was at set up camp, and I decided to go out for the first evening the first spot that I had marked. Pull my bioners up and here is a group of antelope with a decent buck in it. Oh sweet, this is cool. All right, Well, mission accomplished. Now I've at least found what I'm looking for. That's the start. But honestly, spot and stock antelope. Hunting with a bow can be

extremely difficult. So the way that I hunt him is I pretty much stock every buck that I see, because at least then I know the more opportunities I have, the more chance I will to get into range and hopefully get a shot. My wife is actually with me, and I was just kind of taking her along. She's taking some photos and some videos and other stuff, and it was just more of a vacation because we're on

our way up to a friend's wedding. Anyways, we thought this would be a sweet hunt to do on the way up, so that first day, start stalking in on the group of antelope on the way over there. Unfortunately, it's always the ones you don't see that mess it up for you. There was a couple of does and some fauns in between the group of bucks and the big group of dos that had seen us bumped off and instead of running up the hill, they ran straight

toward the other antalope blew them out. Ended up chasing those ones for the rest of the day, and I thought, well, figured out where antelope are, be back here first thing in the morning. Next morning, get up in there, start glassing at first light, pick up a different set of antelope with another buck in there, do a big stock after they bed, and unfortunately they're moving and it doesn't

work out. Now it's midday, it's hot, I'm not seeing as much, so I think, well, pull out my map, check another spot that I had marked, do a big drive through some country they don't really see much. But it is the middle of the day that evening the other spots I had marked out. Sure enough, out pops a good buck. Okay, sweet, but unfortunately it was while I was moving and he'd just seen us as soon as we had seen him, and high tailed it out of there. So now I guess call it Day two.

Rolls around, decide, well, I'm gonna go back to that spot where I saw the big buck last night. Get in there first thing in the morning. Spot a buck, try a stock on him. Unfortunately, as I get within thirty yards the one that was closest to me what happened to be a dough. He was just past the rise of the hill and I couldn't get a shot.

They ran away. Dang that sucks. Well, keep going, end up getting up to a high vantage glassing and seeing that buck move off with his dose, and then bed in a good position stock in, and as you know it, they spotted me when I was about sixty yards out. Blew out. Game over, pull out my map again and okay, I've pretty much covered this country here. I know there was antle up here, but it seemed pretty uh, pretty

disturbed at this point. So I picked another spot that looked good on the map that I had marked so far. I'm on the places that I had already checked out while I was at home. Get into that next canyon, and sure enough, here's a buck walking right toward me. Well, that doesn't work out, But he ended up going down the mountain and congregating with a group of other bucks.

Perfect I belly crawled down the mountain. Is probably a half a mile mile of just belly crawling, get into position and set up within two yards of this group of bucks. Now they're just chasing each other around, and his luck would have it, they just start moving my direction. I put myself in between the little water source that was there and where they were bedded, and they're moving single file, one at a time. Now it just so happens that the best buck that I'd seen the entire

time was in this group. All the small bucks start filtering past towards that water. Big buck is the last one there. He stops to rake a bush right in front of me, drawback, shoot, make a perfect shot antelope down in an area that I've never hunted before for and all the spots that I encountered animals I had found before I even stepped foot in the unit. I honestly think the best thing out there right now that

we have going for us. The best new technology for hunting is the ability to eat scout or scout from home. I really believe that the Onyx Hunt app is the best way to get started to doing that. It's really changed the entire game of how I go about thinking about a hunt, learning about a hunt, or even just first steps in a new area, because that's where I always start. So what I want to do is I'm just gonna open the app. I think it's just easier if I start that way, open the app and almost

just randomly pick an area. I'll make up a species that I'm hunting, and then just go through it right now with you here. And that way it's easier for me to kind of go through my process and then give you the best details that I might not even notice that I do. But before I do that, you first need to really understand topo maps, because that's how I started map reading and scouting was just on paper maps.

It was lines. There were no satellite imagery. But those lines tell more of a story often than a picture does. Now seems like it wouldn't, but what it is doing is those contour lines are telling you preferred habitats of animals and what give you a really good picture of what that looks like. Now, another tool that I use a lot is Google Earth, where I can see things in a three D format, but I first like to

look for certain features in the topo. Now, just in case you're new with map reading, there is so much technology out there, it's easy to have maps at your hand, but you may not understand the old school way of reading it. And that's the way that I relate it to. Everybody is talking about certain features in topo lines. So we're gonna talk about a topo map, and then I'll just go through essentially my process for scouting a new area. The most basic rundown of a topo map. I'm just

gonna give it to you right here. Topomap includes lines, which are contour lines. Those helped create the picture of what the mountain or topography looks like on a flat surface. So contour lines like on the onyx app or set forty ft apart. Then you have your index lines, which are your darker lines. Those should have the numbers of

the elevation. The way that it works is as the lines are closer together, that represents something steeper because it's over a certain amount of distance, a rapid gain in elevation. Further apart lines are something more gradual or flatter. When you're looking at the map, anything like a line that points down to a lower elevation indicates a ridge, whereas a line that points up towards a higher elevation indicates a valley. So think of it like these U shapes

that you see pointing down as a ridge. Pointing up is a valley. Now, contour lines never intersect, so one line runs the length of that entire elevation shin never intersecting other lines. When you look at that, you'll see things on the map like you'll see the top of the mountain, which would be a round circle, and then coming down from that, you'll have your ridges. Those would be the lines that continue around, pointing in almost a

U shaped down towards a lower elevation. And then inside those ridges, you'll have your valleys which would be pointing up toward those higher elevations. When you get toward the top, you of what I call head basins. These are the spots that look like little alien heads made out of tobo lines, almost like a rainbow, where the lines bend in the upward fashion, upward pointing valleys that make a head basin. Head basin because it looks like a head.

These are things that I really key on our head basins. But it depends on what species you're looking for. So I'm gonna open up my app right now and then I'm just gonna give you a quick rundown of the things that I'm looking at. So let's say, let's go for this. We're hunting ELK. I'm gonna grab a random unit in Montana, and then I'm just gonna kind of look and say what I'm doing and what I'm looking for, just like I were planning out a hunt in an

area that I've never been. Okay, so the cool thing about this app is it has the unit, so I can start there. I've got the Onyx Hunt app open. I'm in Montana. I'm just randomly scrolling the screen so it lands on a unit. I won't tell you what unit because I'll probably end up giving someone's secret spot away, but I've got the unit, so that's a start. Now I'm looking for public ground because that's the kind of

tag I have. I don't have access where I'm going, so I'm now going to be having the layers on that show me public and private ground. I always start my map at the topo level, okay, because what I'm doing is I'm trying to key in on key features that really hold animals. When you think about finding say elk or any animal, they all need three key things. Doesn't matter if you're hunting antelope, sheep, whatever, they need

the right habitat that sustains them. And for that they need food, water, and cover or some kind of As far as antelope go, they don't really use over, but they need open is their cover because they use their eyesight. So you kind of just have to understand the animal a little bit, but you have to find the three things that create good habitat. Now I'm looking for elks, so I'm going to find something that probably has food, water,

and cover in a smaller area. Where I like to start is I like to start looking at ridges, finger ridges, and head basins. So I'll define those for you. A ridge is just anywhere where we've got that descending elevation on the map. A finger ridge, let's say the ridge goes north south from the top of a mountain down. A finger ridge would be anything that spurs down off of that. I'll explain that here in a little bit because the reason I'm looking for those finger ridges and ridges.

Is what they do is they provide multiple areas for micro habitats, things that include food, water, and cover. No matter which way the wind's going or the direction of the sun, they have a little bit of everything as well as provide multiple escapes for the animals, so it's a really safe place for them to hang out. So I'm gonna start identifying these based on the topo lines. I'm gonna pick a few areas that look really good. Another thing I'm gonna look for is what I consider

head basins. Head basins are a great area to really start focusing your search. Often there will be water running down the canyon and then it offers the animals multiple bedding options based on the orientation of the hills. So think about a slope of a mountain. You've got the north face and then you've got the south slope. So the south slope is the gentle slope. It's the one that gets the most sun. It often has the least

amount of timber and often more feed. The north face is often more timbered and more shaded, which lends to good bedding. Now, if you have a head basin that includes both north and south slopes in one micro area. What that's doing is creating good habitat in a very small area. So late in the season, when it's cold, they can get sun, and when it's warm they can get shade. They can just choose their bedding and eating areas based on the time of year and other things.

It also has food around, and it also probably most likely has water in the bottom, so they have everything they need right in this one little area. The other thing it offers it offers multiple options for bedding depending on which we the area is going. Because when animals bed, they generally like the wind coming downhill onto their back bedded in a way that it's more comfortable facing downhill,

so then they can look for danger down below. So if you have that in your mind, you can really start to pinpoint where they might bed depending on what the wind or thermals are doing for that day. Now that I've identified some good basins to look at, some good head basins, some good ridges, and some good finger ridges, what I'm gonna do is I just now switch it to the hybrid map where it's got topo and satellite imagery together. So I'm I picked this particular area and

just as I hoped. In this head basin, there's a nice What I'm looking at right now is a ridge coming down on the north slope is a big grassy This is just looking at the map without any imagery ahead of time. I hit that and I have exactly what I'm looking for, a timbered north face and open south face. It has water in the bottom and looks like prime out country. Now from here, what I'll start doing is dropping pins and identifying spots where I believe elk will be or good spots where it looks like

they might hang out. This will just remind me to check these spots out later. Now I'm gonna switch back to the topo, and now I'm looking for areas where I can glass into this spot. So I'm looking for a knob or something where I might get a visual idea of somewhere I can get to and see this area where to hunt from a lot of times, what I'll do is I'll take that same pin, go to Google Earth and I'm opening up my Google Earth app. I'm putting in my coordinates, and I'm flying to that

spot that I've identified. Now I've got a three D look around where I can say, okay, I'm sitting right on this knob. What's it look like? Can I see from here? Am I going to have a good vantage? While it does change a little bit, it gives me a good idea of places to and more of a real life feel of what it looks like. Once I've identified the spots that the animals like using the topo lines. From there, I go back to my on x app, I mark the spots that I want to glass from,

hunt from, and there you have it. I have a pretty much my recipe for the hunt before I even show up in the area. Now, just think for an antelope hunt, I'm looking for something different. I'm looking for more gradual terrain. I'm looking for more open So I'm just gonna go in the same unit, zoom out, go back to the topo lines. I'm looking for where the lines are way further apart. So I found a spot here on my app. Now I switched in between the

satellite imagery as I hope it's more preferred habitat. It looks like some sage flats some other things. This I can mark as well for antelope type country. So depending on what you're hunting is different things you're looking for. But just remember, look at the topo first and look for those topographical features that are really good indicators of quality habitat Another thing I love to do when you're out there, say you're in a unit, you're hunting deer.

You've got an area where you're seeing deer. Mark those deer on the map. Then when you get home, have a file of places that you've spotted animals. Switch to the topo map and see what that looks like on the map. You'll be surprised how many other places you find topographical lines that look similar in a new area and hold animals. Those lines tell a story, and if you know how to read the map, those lines will tell you a story of exactly where to go, even

though you may have never stepped foot in the area. Now, map reading is a very visual thing, and I've tried to make it an audio thing today, which I understand can be a little bit tricky. Now, I think if you take what I've said and just look at a map, pull out some topo map and just start looking, I

think you're gonna start understanding what I'm talking about. But to help you out, I think what I'll do today is I'll try to post some pictures on my instagram my at Remy Warre on Instagram some of the little features that I'm talking about right now, to just give you a little bit of a kickstart. If you're new to this now, if you've read maps your whole life, I think you'll catch on real quick the types of things that I'm looking for just studying those maps, using

them in real time. When you see stuff when you're out there, just start marking it and understanding when you're out there, look at that topo as well, and understand what it looks like in map form. Reading a map is really just like learning to read. It takes It's a process. You don't just pick up a book after not knowing your alphabet and go start to finish while

you're out there. Get the building box to the story of what you're seeing on paper, and I really think that that's going to lead you to a lot of success scouting from home. Rifle season is bearing down on us, and I hope that soon you will be bearing down on a tasty critter out there. So what I'm going to talk about next week is ways to get that rifle steady. There's a lot of little tricks to getting steady in the field. So I'm going to divulge a

few of my favorite secrets. I think that your homework this week will just be to check out these maps while this is still fresh in your head. You're probably listening while driving, so unfortunately you're gonna have to do it at work. But it's great. That's a good place to bust out your topo maps and re listen to the podcast again. Now that you've got a primer, you listen to it once, maybe listen to it again. Honestly

loving the feedback. Still, thank you very much. If you aren't a subscriber yet, subscribe wherever you can and make sure that uh yeah, I think that's it. If you subscribe, I appreciate it, and until next week, keep reading those maps. By the end of the year, I think they'll have a good sign off that I can just use for everything. But I kind of think that at this point my sign off is not having a sign off