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 they'll get you closer to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is cutting the Distance. This podcast is presented by Yetti Built for the Wild. If you've been hunting with a buddy, Let's say you both have tags for elk general area. You're out there, you're hunting, you run into
a group of bulls. There's four bulls in there. Now, the scenario is, and I know I've encountered this many times, why don't we both try to get one? Because that is the best case scenario in this situation, we call it a double. Now, if you've ever tried to get a double, you might have realized that it's a little harder than expected. Now there's a saying a bird in hand is better than two in the bush. Well, that might be true. I honestly believe two birds in two hands,
no bushes, that's the best scenario. Now, over the years, especially while guiding, I've tried some things, seen a lot of things that do not work that well. That you have probably tried. So what I'm gonna do is tell you the method that works the best, and how next time you're presented with the chance for a double, you can come out two birds, two hands. If I think about it, I've had many times where I've had the
opportunity to be a participant in a double. If I'm thinking of just stories that I was going to tell doll sheep with my dad in Alaska that worked out, I can think of a time that didn't work out, our dad with my buddy Brennan in New Mexico. And then I can think of an accidental double. Now you gotta stay with the story because that might sound bad, like what happened? How was it an accident? So I was hunting in Montana General area, me and my buddy
Brett going out. I actually had a deer tag as well, so we thought, I'll go look to this spot for deer and then maybe head out for elk, kind of hunting both at the same time. Whatever, And then my two brothers and dad went out hunting that day too, but we kind of split up my head, my own plans. They were doing their thing. So me and Brett get to a spot mid morning, got a group of cows came out below us or glass and no bulls, spikes in there, no legal bulls. Didn't see really any meal there.
So I thought, let's go to this other areas of ways away. But man, it's Thanksgiving day. We're kind of gonna maybe be back for Thanksgiving that day. But we decided let's just go hunt the evening in this other spot. Just check it out, see what happens. So we get to that new spot, we start glassing and it's just dead over there. It's like nothing's going on. I'm glassing one direction and I hear a shot off from the distance. Sounded like offrom the distance. Uh huh, it's a big
burn right there. Let's go see what's going on. Just head up there, you know, who knows, maybe we'll see something coming our way. Me and Brett walk up that direction, start going up the ridge, and here comes alone bull elk trotting across the hill. Do you doing around? As I like to call it, looking back trotten? Now at this point, he's coming towards me. So I set up. There's a dead tree in the burn that's fallen over. I get my rifle set up and I'm just gonna wait,
and he's not. He's definitely going away from where that shot came from, but not really paying a lot of attention. The bull was working across the hillside. I just followed him with my rifle and he just stops in the open. I've got a clear backdrop, I can see everything. I put the cross hair right where it's supposed to be, squeezed the trigger, and the bull drops, boom, snowy. He hits the ground and just slides down a little ways into the canyon. I'm thinking, sweet, that was awesome. That
worked out great. And walk up to the bull and go take care of it. And I see some guys across the canyon in their hunter's orange. I pull up my binoculars and I look like, no way, that's crazy. The guy that shot the other bowl happened to be my brother, who I had no clue was even hunting up there, but he shot out a bull. And then the bowl that I ended up shooting was the other bowl that was with his bull just walking away after he shot his bull, kind of looking back and distracted
by them. I was like, sweet, I yelled across the canyon, Hey, j he looks up. He sees me in his vind and he's like, this is awesome. We end up getting our bulls down to the road below hole and Thanksgiving Day, we're supposed to be back to Thanksgiving dinner at uh I don't know, right around dark. It's midnight. By this point, we've got two whole bull elk in the back of the truck, just happy it can be. The whole family missed Thanksgiving dinner. There was no service, so no one
really knew that we were going to miss Thanksgiving. I feel like this is a very timely story because Thanksgivings just right around the corner. It's a great day to be out hunting in. A great excuse to miss dinner is having to bull elk down on what I would consider an accidental double. I've got three double scenarios. We're gonna call it worst, better best. Now, as a hunting guide, I've got this thing. It's called two on one hunt,
so it's two hunters per one guide. Most of the times I've been guiding have been that, and most of the times that you get an opportunity, you also have another opportunity or the potential for another opportunity. Over the years, I've learned that the scenario that pops into most people's head on how to make this happen is the worst scenario. Okay, that's what I like to call the one to three. That's where you try to shoot at the same time
at two animals. Here's the problem with that, And the reason I got to lay out all these scenarios is to kind of change your thinking of what works and what doesn't, just based on experience. So the one to three, here's the problem with it. What you need to make a perfect shot is the animal to be in the perfect position so you can make an ethical shot. Now, if you're one to three, First off, the count is
often off. Second, it's really hard to line up two animals with two people and coordinate in that three seconds, meaning oftentimes one will be out, the other, one will be just slightly away, one will be broadside, one will be quartered in. To get both animals broadside and then say one to three and both people shoot at the same time, there's a lot of organizing going on. And I don't know about you, but I can't even organize a closet. So to get two guys to shoot an
animal perfectly and ethically at the same time. There's a lot of things need to go right for that scenario to work. One person in that scenario will end up having to rush a shot or not have a good shot, or both people will be trying to shoot at the same time, and instead of getting two birds in two hands, you're gonna get no birds and no hands. Back to
that analogy that we all know. Because you get too distracted, things don't go right, both people mess up, you end up getting nothing, or someone ends up making a bad shot, or somebody doesn't get a shot, and then nobody gets a shot. I've seen that play out more times than not. It's just through experience. I know for a fact that's the worst scenario. So that was worst. Now let's talk
about the better scenario. The better scenario is essentially the modified one to three because the one to three you don't have the right timing. So the modified one to three is a system where you start counting down from ten out loud, ten nine, eight, seven, six, and when you hit five, you both start counting in your head four. So now this parts in my head and you're gonna
hear it. It's five four three two one, But you're keeping the same cadence because you have a rhythm going for the first five, the second five you have going. I will say this, When you do that, generally both rifles go off at the same time, which is what you want. However, I also think in that scenario you have to have one designated shooter and the other person
that if they don't have a shot, just has to stop. Now, if both animals present an ethical shot and you can start this ten countdown, it's a lot better because both rifles go off at the same time, but you aren't worried or rushing each other to try to make the shot. Now, while that might be better than the one to three, I still do not recommend that there's a lot of room for error. So now we're going to talk about best the best way to get a successful double two birds,
two hands, and probably the most ethical way. I call it the shoot on report, but the shoot on report to be successful. What that is is you have a first shooter and a second shooter. This works nearly every time if the first shooter does their job right. What does that mean if the first shooter drops the animal that they're shooting at. Generally, animals that are associated with a herd, especially the male animals. It works really well
with sheep. Rams are extremely susceptible to this. It works great with elk, and it also works great with mule Here, especially later in the season, if you drop the first animal, the others will often stand around and look or watch that animal. Now, it involves as the first person making a perfect shot, and that's what you want in any hunting scenario. Anyways, this will give the second shooter time
to line up and have a shot before they run off. Now, it's often a small window, but what it does is it gives the first person the bird in hand and the second person an opportunity. If the first person misses or doesn't drop the animal right away, then you probably won't have that second opportunity. If the animal just drops, I would say in my experience of the time, the second shooter will get a good shot. Now, how do
you make the setup work? Step one, get into position and close enough where you can both communicate, but you also the second shooter needs to be either wearing your
protection or hopefully away from the muzzle blast enough. Because the times I've run into trouble is when somebody has a muzzle break next to you, they pull the trigger at the first one, and the sound and concussion from that rifle essentially disorients the person next to them, and if you're can avoid that, this method tends to work. I've had it worked personally on many accounts. I've also wild guiding, set it up for this scenario and said this is what we're gonna do, and it's worked out
more times than not. We've all had these scenarios. If you hunt with people a lot, you're gonna run into this possibility where you could both be successful. But a lot of times people aren't successful because they try the one two three method. So I think we're gonna do it.
We're gonna call it a modified shoot on report. It's where the first person drops the animal and the second person will get a shot because the animals are distracted seeing one that's there having just dropped, trying to figure out what's going on, and not necessarily knowing where that sounds coming from. This is the most successful way to pull off an intentional double. Unlike my accidental doublech happened
to be this same method, just unaware of it. Now, with anything, I can give you these tips, but you also have to consider the ethics involved, and everything is situational. What you don't want is the two birds in the bush scenario. So if you're the second person shooting, you always have to consider whether you have time to make
a perfect lethal shot or not. It's better to let the first person shoot and focus on making that one perfect shot than you rushing them and trying to get a shot off, or vice versa, both people rushing and trying to get a shot off. Like I said, the bird in hand is always the best scenario. My setup for the double is getting that bird in hand, a good shooter making a good shot, and then the second person taking a good ethical shot based on that animal
being distracted by the first animal that dropped. I think that that's the most ethical and easiest way to get a double. Now it's great because you're both successful, but you also have to consider the fact of now you have two animals to pack out with elk. That can be difficult. If you've got horses, you're in luck because you can bring them in once and take them both out. It's pretty cool to be able to celebrate with your hunting buddy at the same time. So if the opportunity
presents itself for this modified shoot on report. Give it a try. I think that you'll find is the most successful and most ethical way for you both to have success on the same day. Next week, I want to talk about a tactic that I think gets overlooked by mulear hunters. It's gonna be covered calling and rattling in bucks. Now. If you're a sage white tail hunter, you know this tactic works extremely well during the run, but I think
a lot of Western hunters definitely overlook it. I want to tell you a story of a time that I used it with great success, and then I want to go into a few of the tactics that I use for rattling deer and calling deer, and it also can translate to white tails as well, So I think you want to tune into that until next week. Don't one, two, three, We'll be right here. Catch you later. M