Ep. 83: Answering Your Questions, Part 16

this relate to where I hunt? All those great questions will soon be answered as we dip into the mail sack. I know the last couple of podcasts, if you missed them, um, you should go back and listen, because we covered how to get a tag. We covered a lot of stuff about the draw process, where to apply, how to apply, and then did kind of a state I state breakdown. And I think that that was very helpful for a lot of people. I know here at the Cutting the

Distance mail room, I just made that up. We don't have a mail room, but I got a lot of questions regarding that topic. Um, and that's great. That's awesome because a lot of people are interested. They're starting to plan things out and they want a little more knowledge, so we'll cover a lot of that today. I also got a lot of questions on archery stuff from the archery series we did prior to that, and then, as always,

a lot of general hunt knowledge stuff. So let's dive into it and we'll head to the mail sack and start firing through a lot of these questions. The first question comes from Nelson. He says, hey, mmy, thank you for the wealth of information you provide each week. Ben a fan of the show since episode one. As hunters, we put hours and miles when scouting and hunting year round. Recently, I had a spot on public land completely advertised by

an outdoors media page. Not only did they throw the name and location of the area, uh like the trailhead, but went as far as putting the GPS coordinates. I understand it's public land, but surely this has to be too much info to just give out. No, I'd love to hear your opinion on this. I don't believe I've heard the topic of spot burning discussed on this level of detail in your podcast. Thanks again, keep up the

great work. That is a great question, Nelson. I think it's a good one to start with two, especially after we did um a little tag draw episode, and I think that, UM, I'm with you. I'm not a big fan of not only necessarily giving people's spots, but large I mean, so much information is out there. UM. I think some information needs but I think there's there's too much information given out. Nothing worse than having your spot burned.

I've had my spot burned by magazines many times. UM. And I've kind of always been the type that as a hunter, I feel like I put in a lot of effort to figure out where I want to hunt, or not even necessarily for me, but just for other people that might hunt the areas that I like to hunt. I'd hate to blow it up. I know many years back, one spot in particular I had. It was just a place that I deer hunted and it was incredible deer hunting. I mean, I think some of the bestest mule deer

hunting you could ever encounter. And a friend of mine was like, Wow, this spot is really good. There's lots of there's lots of bucks. Why is this spot not in the certain At the time of the Hunting Fool magazine as like one of their spots so we called them talk to him about the area, and then of course the next year that area was the number one pick um in hunting fool. And since that point we used to be able to draw that tag every year, and since that point it's become a point zero percent

chance of drawing. Now, is that particularly the sole reason that it was that absolutely not More people started figuring out about the area, and over time it just becomes more popular. That happened, but also you kind of feel like, oh, man, something that I really enjoyed, or an area that was kind of under the radar got put on blast. And

those things happen all the time. I know. Actually, when I put last week's podcast out, I promised giving away a great elk hunting spot and somebody said, oh, you're gonna piss a lot of people off that you didn't actually give a spot, and I and my thought was, I'm actually gonna get props from a lot of people saying, oh, he didn't blow up a spot, because you know, that's the thing about hunting. One place in particular isn't necessarily

better than others. It's just it's a place that maybe people overlook, maybe it doesn't have all the focus on it, so it ends up being a place that you enjoy hunting or whatever. When you start to really pinpoint one place, I think it just misguides people into saying, oh, here's a good place to hunt. More people show up there, and it actually decreases the hunting experience and becomes not a very good place to hunt. So it's kind of

a catch twenty two. You put something out there like that and then uh, you see a wrap a rapid decline in the quality and the type of hunt that that can be. So I absolutely don't like when somebody burns a spot. I don't like when somebody burns my own spots. I try to never burn spots. I know there's there's states that I hunt, um or places that I hunt. Many times, I won't even share the state of the hunt place that I'm hunting or uh you know.

I tried to keep out like exact locations on things that I think are kind of sensitive and and could really blow up real fast. But that's part of it too. I think that there's got to be a balance between sharing but not giving super specific things. So that's too bad they did that. Um, it's very unfortunate. I don't know where it is, and I don't really um probably

wouldn't want to draw attention to it anyways. Also, when people send in their questions, I try to keep places that people say, like oh, I live here or I hunt this particular area, actually keep that out of the questions intentionally even though people put them in the questions, because I don't want somebody else to get their spot burned or just have a lot of traffic just because

it seems to get a lot of attention. And honestly, you know, doing what I do the podcast and helping people get out there, I feel in some ways responsible for additional hunters in places where people hunt, and that

weighs on me in many ways though. You know, It's one of those things where I kind of think, like drawing attention to certain types of hunts over the counter l hunting, mule deer hunting, even just like hunting certain seasons and other things that I show on my videos a lot or on social media, and I see those become more and more popular. Things like hunting access to here I've seen become more popular. D I y New Zealand hunts until things got shut down with COVID becoming

more popular. All those things becoming more popular, you know, in some ways is a good thing. In some ways it's a bad thing. So I think that that's my stance on it. You know. I think that it's nice to be able to share things for people to be able to get out and feel like they can they can do it. And I think that there's you know, a balance between sharing enough information but not seraly giving away an exact location. That's in my opinion, not good, not cool man, not cool. That that was a long

answer for something, but I care. I care about that a lot. So I thought that was a good question because yeah, all right, let's go to the next question. The question says, Hey, I'm looking at getting a South Dakota archery deer tag with the season not starting until October one, what would be your tactics for spot and stock comule dear in that October time frame? On the

Great Planes. Thanks Ryan, Okay, that's a great question, and I would say that that is um a good question, not just for wherever South Dakota or whatever, but it's a good question for a lot of deer seasons because as October dear seasons are going to be the hardest time to find meal dear. There's a reason that there's a lot of different over the counter tags that time of year, um and it's because dear are hard to find. So what I like to do is I like to

focus on, well, where are the deer? They they were out earlier, now they've kind of disappeared, they're gearing up before the rut. Where are they? What are they doing? Let's just start in the mountains. And for the most part, in the mountains, those deer I feel like they move about feet in elevation lower than where they were before. Now this is not necessarily particular to this question, but the reason they do that is most of the time, if they're living in the alpine in the summer, they're

bachelord up. They've kind of got their scraped their velvet, and now they're gonna start dropping down into more timbered country, thicker country. It doesn't necessarily matter if they're in the mountains or in the plains. What those deer doing is there they're being more nocturnal, they're saving up a lot of energy, and they're kind of holding to the brush. They're in thick areas and they're going to kind of concentrate in those areas to save up that energy for

the rut. Then the ret hits and you see just bucks everywhere. So what I like to do is I

like to focus on those safety zones, those sanctuaries. UM. Like I say, in the mountains oftentimes where you see them in the summer, it's it's about fred feet in elevation lower if they're in the alp line, if they're already in that thicker cover, they might just be picking those draws or those slopes where they've got food, water, and cover all in a in a small micro area where they don't necessarily have to travel a lot, but

they can also stay fairly well hidden. You know. You kind of think of mule deer as this animal that enjoys being out in the open, and they do, but that October time frame, they get brushed up, they get timbered up, and they can be very difficult to find. So I would focus first on you know, draws, thicker draws areas especially, um, you know, if you're in eastern Colorado,

eastern Montana, anywhere where any type of planes area. UM. A lot of places in Wyoming, Dakota's whatever, Um you're gonna kind of focus on those like draws that will have that cover in those kind of micro habitats in there, and that's where they're gonna be hanging out. That's when they're going to be hiding out. You might start seeing

some younger deer around dose. So if you find pockets of dosy and you aren't really specific on like I don't really care what size buck I get, I just I'm looking for a buck, then you can focus on those dough groups because you will get younger deer kind of bumping into them early. But for the bigger, more mature bucks, you're gonna want to find those spots where they're gonna be off on their own, probably rolland solo.

Right now. Those bucks will be by themselves in areas where they might be moving real early in the morning and right before dark at night and then kind of timbered up or brushed up and just secluded during the daytime, so they aren't gonna be very visible. So you're gonna want to hunt those areas. I do a lot of still hunting, glassing into pockets and then just finding anywhere where it has that where you can kind of focus on those good areas. Look for sign and you'll start

picking out more bucks more dear. This question says, Hey, Remy Mike from Long Island, New York. Here, thanks for the great archery shows. I'm wondering how I could determine my effective rage At thirty yards, I could shoot ten arrows and all will be within the size of a salad plate. Six or seven will be closer to the center, but there is usually a couple on the outer circle. At forty yards, I only get a bit better than fifty into the dinner plate sized circle. I had turkeys

and white tails. I feel like forty yards is out of my range? Would you agree, thanks, Mike, Yeah, Mike, I definitely think. You know, when when you're talking about your effective range, I like to think of it as at what range am I a hundred percent confident that era will hit where I'm aiming? And I like to say I don't know, Like it within rifle shooting, you know, you've got kind of like this minute of angle idea where it's one inch at a hundred yards and that's

like a sufficient group. I think with archery, I kind of keep that like three inch circle as my primary Like this is what I'm aiming for within that three inch circle. It's most of those block targets, Ryanhart targets, whatever those circles or what I try to keep my arrow in. But you know, you gotta you gotta understand, well, what am I hunting and what's the size of the vital and how am I going to know that when I release that arrow, I'm gonna make an ethical clean shot.

I would I would definitely agree with you. I think at forty yards, if you're only getting in what would be that vital zone, that that's too far. Um So what you want to do is you want to start practicing if you want to get out to that forty yards, you know, start tightening that group up at thirty where you can get you know, I think I'm assuming like a salad plates like six inches that's still within the kill zone of a deer, you know, for shooting traditional gear,

and like that's a great group. If you're shooting like a modern compound, you could definitely tighten that up a bit. And that might just be with some tweaks in your form, some tweaks in your grip, maybe just some tweaks and just practicing a little bit more. But I think that, Yeah, the forty yards, I would say, is a little far out of your range, just based on the type of groupings that you're getting. So that's just something to keep in mind. And I think that's that's a great question

for anybody getting into it. You're like, hey, how far can I shoot? And a lot of it has to depend two on oh the how comfortable is the animal you're shooting at? How comfortable are you when you're drawn back?

I mean there might be that instance where a deer walks out at third yards and you you're shaking like crazy, it's freezing out, and now you go, Okay, there's no way I can make this shot practice all throughout the year in different times, different temperatures, and just really understand, Okay, what are my groups looking like? And I can I effectively hit exactly what I'm aiming at? Will it be an ethical lethal kill? And go from there and when? And that's all on you when you're out in the field.

So that's a great question. I like that. Okay, it was a little bit longer question, but I like the content of it here. So it says, hello, Remy, I recently listened to your applications season Part one podcast, and I enjoyed the state breakdowns as well as what your thoughts were on how one could look at each state depending on what they are looking for in a hunt.

My question is about how someone who is coming from back east and only having ten days to hunt, but also would like to hunt two species if possible, how should one go about applying for such a hunt and then executing a plan for said hunt. For example, I have been wanting to do wyoming mule deer and pronghorn combo rifle hunt for a couple of years. Now by the time that I will apply, I would have three points for each species. I'm aware that deer's by region

and pronghorn is by unit. Should I get a region tag as close to my prong horn unit as possible? And two in the second question would be would it to be best to hunt pronghorn first and get camp meat or hunt hard for deer then used the last couple of days to hunt for the prong horn just to make sure I have meat to take home. Three is the most units that he would draw, and he says, at my point level, I have less than thirty percent

public land or checkerboard with BLM private. How would I e scout that as well as access it when I get there? Thanks? Always enjoy your podcasts, including so much useful information and tactics from them. Happy hunting. That question came from Andrew. That's a great question, Andrew. Um, so I'm gonna gonna break it down from the start here. So he's wondering about adding a combo hunt. You're coming

a long ways. You've got ten days to hunt, and make sense to hunt two animals, and I highly suggested a lot of trips that I take. It's awesome to be able to do a couple of different species or maybe a couple of different tags all in one. Before I get into the logistics of it, I will say this, I've noticed that, um, if you focus on hunting two different things, then you're sometimes strapping yourself and you kind

of end up with nothing. I kind of. I wrote an article quite a few years back about the art of the combo hunt. One of my lines in there was put first things first. So whatever you are more interested in hunting, I would spend the majority of the time hunting that what I like to do on any kind of combo hunt. And sometimes people go okay, well, I'm gonna go I've got an elk and a deer tag, so I'm gonna go hunt where I can find elk

and deer. I think you're gonna be a lot more successful finding a spot where you can find elk and then going like, hunt the best spot for elk and then hunt the best spot for deer. So the same is gonna go for here. You're going a long ways. I would say, pick a good spot for deer and

pick a good spot for antelope. If they are right next to each other, that's gonna make it a little easier, especially pong horn and deer, because prong horn are kind of out all the time in the middle of the day, so you can kind of hunt them in the middle of the day, but you might be cutting your deer hunt, like not doing your deer hunt enough justice by doing that. So I would definitely separate them out if it were up to me, because prong horn can be an easier hunt.

I would pick an area where it's like, hey, good numbers of public land, good numbers of access, good numbers of antelope, and then I would just dedicate, like you say, a few days to that. I would probably do that. Um maybe at the beginning of the trip or at the end of the trip, it doesn't really matter. One thing you got to think of is if you get an antelope, you're probably gonna get an antelope, so you

can get it early. You know, you've got to deal with the meat throughout that time, but you will have some camp meat to eat while you're there. If it was me, I think I would probably go after the antalope first and then uh and then hunt the deer, only because I know that I would kind of be in that mindset that I'm going to be successful, and then that way you can spend the rest of the time looking for a good deer or taking that harder

hunt and then putting it till the very end. I think that I would probably get into that position where I was hunting deer, hunting deer, hunting deer and thinking about the antelope, like, oh, maybe I should go hunt antelope and kind of be distracted, or maybe go cruise over and look for antalope and then go back and hunt deer, or get down to the wire. Maybe need

some more days hunting deer. You feel like you just gotta figured out and then have this conundrum was like, well, should I go antelope hunting and start over from zero? So personally, I would just go, um, find a good area for antalope, find a good area for deer. I mean, even if it's a four or five hour drive apart, it doesn't really matter. If you've got more publicly and more access and going to have more opportunity. If you can find a unit where they're together or very close together,

bonus to you. But I would probably hunt the antalope first and then to spend the rest of my time on deer. You know, have a couple of days. I know that you're gonna go home successful, have a great hunt. And honestly, pronghorn hunting is extremely fun and a very fun hunt. So um, you might get out there and be like, well this is I want to do more of this and look for a bigger buck or whatever. Um, But that's what I would do. So the second part to that question, how would I e scout um the access?

What I do is I go on my onyx maps and I turn on the layer. There's a layer for if it's national forest. It sounds like this is checkerboarded with a bunch of private and other things. But UM, you can check the road access especially on the national forest. Some things you might have to do is change the layers to like a forest map, or there's like different layers for roads. There's also different layers for maps. You

can see some of the accesses on those roads. UM. Other ways would be like contacting the Bureau of Land Management in the area saying like, hey, do you have a map or a recommended map that will show me legal road accesses because not all roads that go through private or or public access as public easements to that public land unfortunately, so uh, you know. One way to do it obviously look on your you know I used on X A lot shows you which roads you can use.

In most instances, it shows it really well with Forest service, but it doesn't necessarily show it really well with BLM. It'll have like a highlighted layer where you can see, Okay, this road goes all the way from a public road and this is clearly a public road. But if it shows it where it's private and then starts beyond it, maybe you don't have access. So the best way would be to contact like the land agency in that area of the field office and ask them about certain accesses.

Or just like which maps show the accesses and a lot of that you can also find online through like BLM website or the Forest Service website. So that's a great question, and it can be some of that's just you know, knowledge of boots on the ground, where the

accesses are, where it's gated off, where it's not. But that's one way to kind of figure out where can I access and get access When I'm so far away looking at it on a map, you may not be able to tell right away, so you might have to just kind of find those areas and then dig a little bit deeper. This question comes from Brandon. He says, Hey, man, big fan of your podcast, I have a question on elevation for elk. I live in Montana and was wondering what elevations do you find most of your elk in

each season? Uh, if you got time, be sweet to see what your experiences. Thanks, that's a that's a good question. Um, if that's it just really depends it depends on the time of year, depends on the type of herd um, depends on the temperature, the weather, what the previous winter did. Honestly, at any time of year, elk can be from the top of the mountain to the valley floor. Generally you find them in those two spots to the top or

the bottom, but you know, as the season progresses. I mean the top third for any animal, really the top third of the mountain. If you broke a mountain into thirds, the top third is generally where most animals live. Um. I think it's because they have of like, good access to water cover, there's good habitat, and it's also generally harder to get to for hunters. You know, you've got to do some uphill climbing. There might not be roads

and other things. So if I was just to give a blanket statement of what elevation, I generally cut the mountain into thirds and that like if I so, yeah, like looking at a mountain making into thirds, that third below the top is generally where I find most big game animals. And that's kind of like where I start. But it also depends on the time of year. Earlier in the year, I start up higher, later in the

year I start lower. Um, if the snows are really high, you know they're getting pushed out of that higher country. They're gonna be a lot lower. Now. Big bulls will stay the longest. So if you want a tough hunt, but a good option to hunt big bulls, you will go find them in chest deep snow for an elk um, sometimes still up high until they're just forced out of that stuff. They just plow through and finally come down.

Last last winter, on a late season deer hunt, I found a lot of big deer just up in snow that you're like, how are they even surviving there? And they're just there by themselves, hanging out and then plowing down and going down with the larger groups kind of like the last ones in. But I would say generally early, look high, late, look lower, and you know, like if you're late season hunt, you're probably looking at the bottom third of the mountain. That's where the best winter ranges.

And then just like anything, find where that good habitat, that prime habitat is going to be in focus in on that. Hey, I'm listening to your latest podcasts and something that I've tried to search for. He recently sent Montana Fishing Game for information on is where can a Canadian resident put in the draw for sheep and is there any states that this is a thing. Being a Saskatchewan resident, my chances of hunting sheep are based on me winning the lottery, which is slim to none. Nathan. Well,

I've got good news and bad news, Nathan. So the good news is as a Canadian resident, we are very nice to Canadians when Canadians are not very nice to us. I know Canadians like to think that they're very nice, but they don't allow um non resident non alien hunters. Uh. If you're from the US, hunting in Canada alone without a guide UM generally is not Uh, you aren't able to do that. Fortunately for you guys, we let Canadian.

Almost every state allows Canadians to hunt on their own without the use of a guide as far as I know. Outside of Alaska, the fee is a little bit higher, but yes, you can apply for sheep in pretty much every state. You just do the same thing as a nonresident would do that lives in the states. UM. Now,

you know, getting a firearm and all that stuff. That's all I know, none of that because I've never um traveled from Canada to the US and being uh non resident aliens, so UM, I don't know the rules and specifics on that. I know with a bow you wouldn't have any problems, but I'm not sure about a fire in the US. I don't think it's too hard, just

kind of fill out some forms. From what I've had other people do from other parts of the world coming into the U s it's fairly easy for them to bring in a firearm, just like any other travel You just gotta fill out some forms and and find those kind of things. But the application process to draw sheep tag, unfortunately, you're in the same boat as the rest of us, which is it's going to be like winning the lottery,

maybe even more so here than up there. Unfortunately, you know, and that's you're in the same pool as me applying in Montana as a nonresident, as if you live in Canada or anywhere. Um. Same with like if you apply for sheep and Nevada, you would be just considered a nonresident and you can apply and draw a tag and whatever. But the odds are very slim, so you just got to do the same thing the rest of us do

play that point game and hope that you get lucky. Now, I will say other options for drawing sheep tags would be raffle type tags. There's those available. It's just it is at some point kind of feels like a lottery, but you know if you don't if you don't enter, you can't win. Um, I've drawn multiple sheep tags. It seems like long odds, and I think, well, the chances of me drawing sheep tag in my lifetime are very slim. But hey, I mean multiple states and multiple draws, they've

got steep odds. But I keep applying and keep trying to increase the odds in my favor over time, and sooner or later I'm gonna hit the jackpot and get the tag that I want. So it might be something to think about just applying, like the rest of us, in more places where it's not just where you live. You know, you can kind of spread that out over other states in the US and hopefully give you a good opportunity to one day hunt sheep. That's the dream.

The next question says, I just got into archery, and I really enjoy your podcasts and your archery one on one to two oh two. I really appreciate all your help and knowledge. So anyway, I've seemed to be really shaky when shooting a gun or bow. I'm not great at off hands shooting, and i'd really try hard to not shoot an animal off hand unless I'm bird hunting. So anyways, when I'm shooting my bow, I draw back, level the bow and slowly dropped to the target and

release when I get on target. Is there anything I can do to help this? I'm practicing every day rain or shineun til archery deer starts here in Washington State. Thanks for everything, Mike. That's a good question, Mike. I mean, I guess the question we first have say like why are you shaky? Um? And I mean I think that, uh, you know, some people naturally, it might be nerves, it might be another reason. But one thing you got to

think about is you can't focus on the movement. Um. I think too many people get wrapped up on that, like I'm so unsteady. It's moving, it's moving, it's moving, and then that kind of creates a form of target panic in a lot of ways. Um. One thing that I think you should try to do, based on, you know, just this brief description of the shot, I think what you should try to do is just focus on putting that pin and holding that pin on the bulls eye for a certain amount of time. I mean maybe it's

five seconds, maybe it's ten seconds. Hold back, stare down that pin and just stare down that target and just like look at it, put the thing on it and shoot and don't fake focus so much on the wobble, focus on the target. You will be surprised how many of those arrows go in the bull's eye. You know, your brain is a supercomputer, and what you're doing is you're focusing on the input that doesn't really necessarily make any sense to performing that operation when you're at full draw,

focusing on that target. Let your pin hover over that target and just let it be on that target for as long as you can. Let your shot go off, and you're probably gonna find that that arrow is very close to where you want it. Um, I would just say focus less on the shaking and more on the target.

Everybody moves. Shooting with movement is great, but I think based on the way you're describing your shooting, your drawing back your anchor and you're pulling it down and then you're letting it go off, and what that doing is you're anticipating and trying to shoot faster than holding it on the target because you're afraid that the shake is going to affect the shot where what's actually gonna happen is you're going to develop a bad habit and you're

probably gonna um, you know, that anticipatory shot is going to in the long run probably play against you in many ways. So what I would do is not worry about being shaky, but just like focus in on the target. Practice building up that strength to hold back on target, and practice holding on target, and not worry about the movement, but just focus in and let that shot go off, and you're gonna find that you're probably extremely accurate. It's kind of like if you hunt birds, you know, shooting

birds flying. I know, for me, when I think about shooting a bird and I'm aiming and I'm trying to do all this stuff, I generally missed the target. But when I throw the gun up and shoot and let my brain just do the rest of it, um, I'm not thinking about the lead and calcul leading all the things that essentially slow me down. I'm just letting that shot process go through. The gun go off, and the bird always falls. And so to make it more natural, I would just say kind of focus on that and

not the shake, and you'll be solid. And that's great info. For pretty much anybody, any any facet of hunting being a better shot. Thanks, question says good morning, Roomy. First, I appreciate all info and insight you take from being out on all your hunts. It helps a lot. As a US Coast Guard member, I'm going to be stationed and anchorage starting in July, and I'm only going to have the next three years to make any dream hunt happen. I should be able to fly into remote, inaccessible locations.

Is there anything you would recommend as a research for future hunts. Cariboan sheep are high on the list, but definitely not too educated on what game are the best for eating and open to hear what you prefer. Any info you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I'll keep using you as a character in hunter Call of the Wild while hunting in Yukon. That's from Brandon. That's a great question, Brandon. You know, I think anything like that. Alaska is an awesome place for hunting. There's a lot

of opportunity. Um, there's a lot of different species to hunt, you know. I would say between caribou and sheep, both are are good tasting. Cariboo a lot better early once they get kind of on the rut. I don't necessarily like the meat as much. I think cariboos. Cariboo kind of has its own taste. It's like, I think of it as like the lamb of the North. It's got like this lamb esque quality to it. UM where sheep is actually more I think actually between the two, probably

sheep is better tasting. Sheep hunting, obviously, is is a lot about a lot about the the the journey. It's very difficult. You have to get a legal ram, which can be you know, difficult to find. It's gotta be full curl. In Alaska almost almost all areas. UM. I would say if you're if you're just looking for a really good tasting um animal black tails are good in the southeast. UM. You can hunt them from Prince of Wales on the southeast coast all the way up through Kodiak,

Sitka Um all over. So that that's a really good hunt. That's a that's a fun hunt. If you just kind of like want to get your feet wet a little bit without having a lot of that cost involved with flying in and other things, that's something to look into. UM. You know, outside of that moose hunting is also awesome. Moose meat is great. It's a lot to carry, but finding maybe some areas where you could hunt a cow or even a bull if you if you're just looking

for some great meat. And then but if it's up to me, if I live in Alaska, I'm gonna go for the sheep hunt and go for broke because it's not a hunt that you can do everywhere just on it over the counter tag, So take advantage of that as a resident, and I think that'll be pretty cool. Good luck and let me know how you do. Oh and thanks for playing my character. For those that don't know, I've I've got a character on The Hunter called the Wild video game, So if you want to play as

Remy Warren, you can go there and do that. That's pretty cool. Thank you guys. This question says, Hey, I mean David from Michigan here the last two podcasts. It is super helpful. Thanks for all that you've shared. I'm eighteen and looking to build up some points for some Western hunts in the future, and I feel like I'm about twenty years late. I'm hoping to do a sheep or goat hunt down the road with point creep hunter demand and limited tag ability? Am I wasting my money

applying for those type of hunts? Thanks and love the podcast. That's a good question. Um, you know, I think anybody looking at it, you go, I've got a lot of points in a lot of states, and still the odds are very low for those very limited tags for sheep and goats, moose, things like that, or even top end elk and deer hunts. Um, you know, just getting started

in it. There are strategies that I would take to apply, and I would say that you wouldn't be wasting your money because you be kind of on the same plane as everyone else. States that don't have points, like um, New Mexico or Idaho would be great places to look into all so I would stay away from preference point states. But any state that has bonus points, you know, you actually have an opportunity to draw a while the odds may say that you would never draw in your lifetime,

if you apply, there's a chance. Another thought to think about is like raffles for those type of hunts. I know, Wild Cheap Foundation always has a few, the Less than One Club, the Wild Chief Foundation, It's probably got better odds than almost every state draw and it's only available for people that are members of the Wild Chief Foundation, have never shot a wild cheap and go to some of those you have to be present to win. Some you don't. But like, actually just doing that, you probably

have the better odds than some of these other things. Um. Also there's just you know, you see some other raffles through organizations. I mean, it's it's a crapshoot, but you actually have a chance, and it's a lot cheaper than some states where you have to put up a lot of money. Now Montana, on the other hand, applying for sheep and goat, it's a lot cheaper than other places. But the odds are so slim that it's statistically improbable with that anyone will draw, but people do. Somebody has

to draw the tags. I say that to also say it really depends on how much you're willing to spend, how much you want to wait. I have friends that have taken the approach and and I've kind of done a combo of this approach, and I started this about when I was your age eighteen. I've always been a person that's really good at saving money, especially for things that I want or whatever I like to save up.

I like to plan. Anytime i'd get a paycheck, I pull a lot of it out, some of it out and immediately put it into a savings account that I just never see. Um. I mean, this is just good life advice. I started saving for retirement when I was eighteen, but I also simultaneously started saving for awesome hunts and

kind of like a hunt budget. Um, those dream hunts, and it's you know, you put a little bit away every month, every year or whatever, and over time you're gonna have enough to buy a doll sheep hunt or possibly a mountain goat hunt. In places like Alaska, Canada, the price of those are definitely going up, and it might take twenty or thirty years, but you're like, hey, at least that route you're guaranteed, and it might be the same price as applying in some of these states.

I've got friends that are like, hey, this application thing is getting expensive. I'm just gonna take the money that I would apply, put it in an account, and after X amount of years, go buy a hunt somewhere where I know I'll be guaranteed a deer tag, or maybe save up for a land owner tag or some kind of tag where um, yeah, the price tag is gonna be big on it, but I've saved up over twenty or thirty years and I know that I'll be able

to go on it. You know, that's another option as well, Or you could do that simultaneously to applying I like, I like the luck route as well. I mean, um, I've personally drawn four sheep tags, two in a raffle and two through state draws. It is pawle. It seems impossible. The more you do it, You're like, wow, that's pretty crazy. But I've been on the lucky end of a lot

of those things. But I also know that in order to win, you have to play, and so I think that, um, you really can't go wrong in some of those where everybody's playing that game and that's pretty much the only way to get it. So I hope that that helps and maybe gives a little insight into that. So I don't think it's too late, but I think that if it's something you want to do, you know, you got to think about it, think about other options as well, or join the coast Guard, moved to Alaska and get

a sheep tag. Like our last question, that's a that's another option as well. Okay, this question says remy just getting interested in archery and have a pass down forty pound longbow from the nineteen fifties. It's a York woulden bow. The question is knocking the arrow. I see recommendations to have the white vein vertical when you knock. This makes one of the colored veins hit the bow and causes the arrow to wobble a bit before it straightens out.

Do you knock a long bow differently than a compound If so, why? Um, that's a good question. Yeah, I mean, yes, you do knock traad bow arrow a little bit different. Um. There's a lot of reasons why people might knock them. I always put the it's called like the cock vein, the off vein out, so what would be the bottom vein would touch the shelf, but there's none touching the riser. Now, a lot of the positioning of that arrow might just be a tuning factor of having the wrong kind of

flex in your arrow, so you're your bow. That bow may not be in tune some people. I've actually got one bow where the arrows I'm currently shooting. If I put the cock vein out and I shoot that it hits a little left even with I'm canted, so I turned it and put it like in more And for some reason with that spine of arrow, I think so like, I think it's actually a little overspined. That arrow now

like hits right. Um. So it might be something about tuning it, or some people have problems with the veins hitting their hands or whatever because of their grip. But for the most part, I think it's pretty standard to put that that vein out and then you know, with a compound bow, you don't want it touching anything, um because you have a rest on there. So you know, if you've got a stationary rest, not a drop away the rest, then you're you want those veins to go

through the rest and not hit the rest. UM. So that would be yes. I mean most of the time your vein would either be up or down on a compound bow, so you're off colored one would be either up or down on a compound bow just for the use of the rest. But a lot of dropaway rests, like you got clearance up or down, so it doesn't necessarily make a difference on that um. But for the most part, yeah, you would knock you're a little bit different.

Next one comes from Drake. A sent in a picture of a giant bowl elk and you said, killed my first elk this season. It's a big six Bay six. Thanks for the great show. It's the best part of my week. That is a great testimonial. Thanks for setting that in love getting those that's always that always keeps me pumped up. Now. The last question comes from Ian. He says, Amy, I have a question for your podcast. We're going on our first d I Y public Land I'll come this fall and are not sure what camp

style is right for us. Should we make a base camp and hike in five plus miles every day, or should we camp in the back country every night, or a mixture of both. We will either be going to Montana or Colorado, depending on the Montana draw. Thank you Ian from Tomo, Wisconsin. That's a good question, Ian, Um. You know, it just depends on the type of unit

and you know where you're at. I mean, if I was to just like make a generalization, I would probably say a combination of both, Um, and depends how many days you have. But I think the nice thing about the base camp and then going in multiple distances is if you go back there and you don't see what you're looking for. You're like, man, there's no elk back here. I haven't seen any elk um and went back here two days in a row and didn't really see anything.

Now you can easily move without being super invested. Another option is, you know, you could you could go back for a few days if you aren't seeing anything, say okay, I'm gonna go find a new spot. I like the idea of being mobile, but I also like the idea, especially in a lot of those places, of getting away from people. So um, you know it is it is kind of a a toss up, a combination of you know, making a plan to hike in, but then saying, hey, if it doesn't work out, we can go check out

another spot is a good idea as well. Um you know, it's really fun. A back country hunt is the way that I love to hunt. Getting in past people is great. But I also know that kind of day hunting or back country day hunting you can cover you actually cover probably a lot more ground than just purely hiking in and setting up camp. Because you're light your mobile, you can cover more country um in in and out and whatever.

But if you find those areas back there where hey, this is a good spot, then you're gonna want to your pack in, set up your camp, and then hunt it from there, because you're gonna be more effective hunting that kind of area once you've honed in on where the animals are at. So I think a combination of both is great. But it also just depends on the type of unit you're in, um how much you know

pressure it might receive. Where if there's like good wilderness and trails, if there's good places to get away from people, or if it's an area where, hey, those elk might be a little more migratory, it might be more seasonal seasonality of the unit where the elk are going to be, you might need a few days to figure out where the heck are these things. Try a couple of different spots and then kind of hone in and then target in on those animals, pack in and make your hunt.

I just want to thank everybody again for all the questions that came in. There's a lot that I didn't get to you. I I try to kind of pick and I've probably got twenty of them here that I didn't hit. But you know, feel free to keep writing in the best way is always um at remy warrant on Instagram send me a direct message on there. I mean I get a lot of messages, so and I see good ones, I kind of like screenshot and put

them in a special folder. Unfortunately we don't have a real mail bag or a real mail room, but I like to visualize like a fake mail room similar to the scene from elf UM. I think that would be like an awesome mail room situation. But other than that, keeps sending those in. So the next couple of episodes, I'm gonna be going on kind of this theme of train.

So I want to talk about two of the best things that you can prepare, and i'd be getting your body ready for any kind of grueling mountain hunt or western hunt. And then another thing you can train is your eyes and glassing. So I'm going to cover those and then and then I want to do kind of like this countdown of some of my favorite spring hunts as we start to get into that spring season. So maybe some stuff you thought about, maybe some stuff you didn't.

I'll sprinkle in a few little hunting tips and tactics as well, so you won't want to miss those, make sure you keep circling back each Thursday and until then, hunt hard and keep the questions coming. Catch you guys later. The und