Ep. 87: Answering Your Questions, Part 17

heard yet. This is going to be the last podcast. Um. The government's gonna be shutting us down because there's reports of people listening to the podcast and being too successful outdoors, too successful hunting, so they want those success numbers to go down. Um, so we're just gonna have to close the podcast up. April fools. That is I think of a few hopefully your heart drops if your heart didn't d up and come on, man, that's happy April fools everyone.

I had to just throw that out there. That would be funny though, right, get shut down like state agency calling me up. Hey, Um, you know, in our models of success, we don't factor in that that many people are successful. We need those success rates to stay around five to ten percent. Max. You know you're doing too good of a job teaching people how to be successful. But that's the goal here, That's that's what I'm all about sharing in that success. On this week's podcast, Uh,

the rest will not be April Fools jokes. I will answer things seriously and be truthful and honest in my opinion as I head to the mail sack where your burning questions are answered. This is the part where I get interact with you guys, where you send me the things that you want. I I try to say it nearly every time, but I really want this podcast to be about helping everybody be successful and also kind of make it a thing where, um, it's focused on the

things that you guys to learn. So all the input that I get, um goes into kind of helping me build out what I talk about. And then also I like these kind of once once a month check ins with the listener questions because you know, there's a few things maybe in podcasts in the past, or kind of a sharing of success, things that people are interested in, and it allows me to kind of really tailored to those of you that listen. So I appreciate everybody that

has sent in their questions. Let's right now just dive into the questions and start with UM, got a little bit of a testimonial here, so let's jump into it. First letter, actually, UH is more of a testimonial, and I think this is pretty cool. It comes from Justin Jensen. He says, my wife teaches a pe archery class for the University of Idaho and she has used your Archery one O one and Archery one on two podcasts as part of her lessons for new students. Just thought i'd

let you know we both enjoy listening to your podcast. Thanks. That is awesome to hear. UM. I really enjoyed doing those archery podcasts. If getting into bow hunting something that you're thinking about, go back check those out. I know those have been some of the ones that have gotten a ton of response on and the reason I get a ton of responses because I had a ton of questions come in about that, and so I made the podcast for those of you that wanted that, and so

I really appreciate the feedback on that. That's awesome to UM see people getting into archery, and kudos to your wife for that archery class. UM. It's it's awesome to see people out in their community doing things to bring people into the sport of archery, whether it's and that's the cool thing about archery too. I can be a bow hunter, but there's a lot of other people out there that could just be getting into archery for the sake of archery. And that's what I love about it

because it's so fun to shoot your bow. And as we go into spring, as we go into summer, that's the time. I mean, there's no better time. Right now, I'm looking out at a beautiful day and you better believe that on my list is going to be shooting that bow. I like to shoot rain in snow, sleet, shine, but it's just a lot more fun when the sun shining and it's just that like nice weather. So thanks

for that feedback, and I'm pretty stoked on it. And for those of you that haven't caught those episodes, feel free to go back through a little library here. Nice thing about cutting the distances. There's no such thing as an old episode. There's just episodes that we've posted. Um, go back and find stuff that's topical to to what you're looking for, what you want to get into you because we're building out a pretty extensive library. This next

one comes from Eric Inness. It says pronghorn one oh one. Hi, Remy. I absolutely love the podcast and because of your tips, I had several close encounters of the elk kind last year. After spending multiple years wandering around cluelessly in the woods, I decided to spend my pronghorn preference points this year and go hunting only. I have no idea how to hunt pronghorn, what should I look for? When the Scouting one oh one episode would be awesome? I really like that.

I think, UM definitely see a full pronghorn one o one episode in the future, but I think that it's it would be cool to just jump on and answer a little bit of this right now as well. Um, when I think about any kind of scouting, doesn't matter what whether it's elk, whether it's meal, they or whatever, the first thing I think about is the type of habitat and terrain that those animals need and what makes that animal very specific to that hunting style. So when

it comes to pronghorn, their main major defense is their eyesight. Uh, they have incredible eyesight. It's like I've heard it compared to looking through a pair of eight power binoculars. So when you think of that. If your main defense mechanism is your eyes, well, what kind of habitats you need

for that? The answer is open country. Now you can find open country based on a map, like pronghorn country is relatively flat because in the flat stuff they can see further and open without a lot of timber, because then they can also see further. Um. The way that they rut, the way that they interact, the way that they survive is using their eyes and their speed. There are the fastest undulant land mammal in the world, second fastest land animal only to a cheetah, and I actually

think that their endurance would far surpass a cheetah. So I bet you if you put a race over a certain amount of distance, um, I would I would be willing to bet that the prong horn antelope would actually outpace that cheetah. I've seen cheetah's hunt. I've seen them their massive bursts of speed, but I've also seen them right after that burst of speed, they just lay down like panting and trying to catch their breath, which, of course they've been running at the speed of most automobiles.

So of course it makes sense that they build up lactic acid and need to cool down and take a break. But prong horn man, I have seen them run for miles at like a truck pace, just cruising across the flats. So one thing you want to think about is like looking on whatever you're e scouting with, uh, looking for

that that flat terrain. So what I'll do, like I can look at the different topo lines and then I can switch between like a view of like a Google Earth style image, a three D image, and just see like, Okay, what's the vegetation look like? Mostly through aerial images, you're gonna be looking for that brown, that grass, that stuff that antelope like planes type stuff, and most antalope areas have that. And then you know you're gonna want to cross reference that with public land unless you've got a

place where you can hunt private. So depending on where you cast your points in, you're gonna now say, okay, where in this area has this antelope habitat because there's a lot of areas that don't hold antalope habitat. I mean, um, I look at a lot of the areas that I've hunted antelope, and there's mountains, but you know those antelope are gonna be at that bottom end of the mountain, in the flat in the valleys, and then you might

find some antalope up in the hills too. Like it's not that they avoid those places, um, but it's got to be like less timbered, more open, and you should be right there zooming in and finding some solid places to check out when you get into there. And then the other thing is like, when you get into antelope country, do it smart. Check out as many places you can on the first day you get in there, drive around and look around. You should see antelope all day long.

The cool thing about antelope is they live out in the open. They don't necessarily go down into like thick cover to bed, so you can find antelope all day long. Now they will bed down and be out of sight, but they do move around a lot during the day. And it's probably one of the in my opinion, one of the most fun hunts out west because you're seeing stuff all day, You've got multiple opportunities. Um. It's just if you if you aren't having a lot of fun

antelope hunting, your antelope hunting wrong. And that's that's just the best way to put it. So give that a try. Check that out. And that should gets you started, and we'll go into some more antelope tips and tactics a little later on in the season as it gets a little closer. So thanks for your question, Eric. Alright, this

next question comes from Alec Alec Robbie. He says, I listened to your thoughts and situations on calling out, most of which take place during the rut September me through October. My question is, have you had success calling in the later season November through December, when the behavior has changed from rhet to post red. How would you go about calling during those later months compared to traditional rep months.

Um And he says, if you've talked about this in the past episodes of your podcast, I'd love to track it down and listen to it. Thanks. Um, that's a that's a great question. Now. I actually have answered this question multiple times on the Q and A S. But I honestly think it like bears repeating, because it's maybe I probably should just do a whole podcast on it. To be honest, elk or not super receptive to calls

later in the season. What I mean is like calling an ELK in may not be it's it's not really going to happen in those November December time frames, but it depends on the area. I'm not out there in November December ripping bugles. Um. However, there I say that, and I've actually called like only once in all my time of hunting. I think that I can remember I had a bowl like bugle at me Um November. I hear a bugle up on the hill and I'm like, that's weird, so I just like bugle back. He bug

goes back. I'm like, Okay, this is weird. And then a few seconds later like it's getting closer, and I'm like, what is going on? Hebu goes like throughout some cow calls, and ended up calling this bull right into like thirty yards and shot it with my rifle in November. But that's happened one time out of I don't even know how many probably days of elk hunting, so it's like

one in a thousand chances. You know, It's it's pretty low. UM. I will say though that I still always have a call throughout the end of the season, but what I'm using it for is cow calls, UM, And I use it in three ways. So the first, the number one reason that I use a cow call all times a year is to stop an animal. Um if I if say I spook something where they didn't win to me, or I shoot it an elk and either hit it

or need a follow up shot. It doesn't matter when I get into elk, I hit that cow call, like if they're starting to spook or start to get easy. It puts them back at ease, It makes them curious, it makes them stick around, and that could be the difference between getting a shot and not. The next way that I use a cow call is as I'm like hunting or still hunting through timber to possibly locate cows,

like as a locator. UM, I'll use that cow call as like throwing up like cow chatter where they think, oh, it's just another elk talking. I have in some instances had cows call back, especially later on in the season when it's like maybe they're grouping up from migration. The elk will start piling in areas and start creating these big groups. It's like a safety and numbers thing, and

new elk keep moving in. You will hear elk talking later in the season, mostly cows, but it's a good way to maybe identify elk in an area that's like thicker timber. And then the third way I use it is just kind of the same thing when I'm still hunting. But if I am making noise, like let's say I crash and crack a stick and I'm going into an area that I think might be a betting area, it's

just to put animals at ease. Now I won't necessarily expect to hear something called back, but maybe things will come in and investigate, or it's just giving like them an idea that that noise that they hear walking around

is another elk and not a hunter. So kind of the same as the last one, but I use it that way a lot um now, depending on the area, if you're hunting an area that has a lot of hunting pressure, I try to lay off the elk calls later in the rifle season, I don't really want other hunters knowing where I'm at, so pretty much for me, like when I'm hunting general areas, that cow calls just to stop or slow down or calm down elk that I've already encountered, And that's a good way to think

about it. Alright, this next question, I actually uh a lot of these questions will actually pull from multiple places, uh ones Remy at the meat Eater dot com. But I would say that probably the more popular one that I pull from is just my at remy war on Instagram page. So if you don't follow me on Instagram, if you got Instagram, UH, please over there, check it out, give it a follow. Um you'll see a lot of cool Like you know, I try to share most of my hunts on there. A lot of the stuff I

talked about on the podcast is on there. You know. People send in questions through that, and I just I screenshot the ones, Like if a question comes in, I screenshot it and then just kind of go through and pick some that are like other ones or or ones that I like. This one came from Instagram. Actually don't have the person's name on here, but rough country restoration.

He says, Hey, Remy, looking for some advice. You may be able to help me with myself and three buddies are looking to go on in a complete d I y in the back was l hunt this fall with our bows. But we are in a pent on An area. We should try to put ourselves into uh to do it as we all live in Maryland and West Virginia. Any advice at all or suggestions is much appreciated now. I mean in many ways that could be just a

question of hey, where should I go? But I think you know right now, first you gotta say, okay, well, what what's even available? Um, at this point in the game, your best it's gonna be Colorado. Uh, You're there's gonna be some over the counter tags and that's pretty much where you're gonna be focused. If you want to just go,

make sure that you got a tag and can hunt. Now, I would definitely go back and check out the tag application series that I did recently and kind of give you an idea of Okay, maybe some states to think about in the future. Wyoming is another great state that you can kind of build preference points to and plan

two or three years out. If you want to go this year, anybody listening, I think Colorado is going to be your best bet, maybe your only bet, because pretty much all the other draws are ending Montana's deadlines today the first um, everything else kind of wrapping up now, that's just you know, if you want to guarantee that you can make a plan and the other thing. The cool thing about that is finding an area where you know I would look at it like this, how many

times do you think you guys could go? I really suggest if you're gonna do it, do it with a couple of buddies where you can kind of share expenses of going out getting yourself out there, and then um, you know, think of us bought. Maybe you could do it two years, three years, whatever and find a place that you could reasonably get that tag multiple times. Because just like anything, that first year is gonna be a major learning curve. You should kind of think of it

like this. The first year you do it, Yeah, you want to be successful, but it's really gonna be like figuring things out. And I guarantee you that the second time you do it is going to be a lot more successful. But you kind of look at that first trip is like, hey, where can I go where I could do this maybe twice or three times or like reasonably within a five year period, do it again because you're gonna learn so much on that first trip that your second trip is gonna be a lot more successful.

And hopefully you know in there you guys will have found some success. I mean that does happen, but just knowing, like if it was me and I'm like, hey, it's a long way to go, I'm gonna pick somewhere that I think I could go. Maybe if I planned out within five years, Let's do this twice kind of thought. And I know that is a big ask, but it's gonna be probably the best for success. So finding an area that's easy to get into a couple of times would be my suggestion. In Okay, this question, I got

a lot of these questions right here. This is a good question. Comes from Griffin Uh. He says, Remy, love the podcast. It really helped me last archery elk season. My question is about side arms to carry while hunting. I carry bear spray, but I'm looking to buy a side arm as well. Any advice on why handguns, what to get and what caliber has enough stopping power but isn't going to add unnecessary bulk. That's a that's a good question. I actually literally the very next question that

came up after this was from Ryan uh. He says, Remy, just curious if you carry a backup handgun when hunting in bear country and if so, what is your preferred caliber. I know people have their opinions forty four mag, ten millimeter three fifty seven, whatever you train with, et cetera. He says, I live in California, but planned to hunt as many Western states as I can. Any information is greatly appreciated. So that was two of probably like more than a dozen questions that I got since the last

Q and A about handguns. I mean, I've I've tried a little bit everything and had to use very little, which is good. When I'm in big bear country. I personally like to carry uh forty four mag. So one one of my favorite bear protection side arms is the Model three p D Smith and Wesson. It's like an air light super light frame forty four mag. I like it because it's light. I also like it because it's a revolver. I will say this it came with a

wood grip handle. First thing I did was get rid of that because the wood started to swell with water and everything like that. The other thing I did have a major problem with it after one trip. They actually have a lock on the cylinder of the gun. Is like a safety feature that's in there. I didn't know that. I had no clue that that happened. On a trip in Alaska, Luckily it happened right after I unloaded it,

so I was in the field. I had it loaded up everything, I unload it, I close the revolver, and then I can not get it open again, and I'm like, what the heck. Thankfully I had happened to unload it was leaving and I had to actually take it to a gunsmith. I'm like, yeah, there's a lock on here.

I didn't there's no key that I knew of um to open it up, and so I actually had a gunsmith just removed that safety mechanism because I thought, man, if if they like completely in operates the firearm and if it's something that I need to pull out and shoot a bear with and it's locked up for whatever reason,

that would suck. I don't know if anybody else has had that problem with it, but if that would be my suggestions first thing, to like take it to smith and have them removed that, because I don't know if it's something that's commonly goes wrong. But I did have it that happened to me, and then I thought, man, what if I wasn't able to open it and it was still loaded, I wouldn't be able to fly with it or anything like that. But I have I have

really enjoyed that pistol. I shoot it really well as well. Um, it's got a little bit of kick. And some people like the more semi automatic pistols for bear defense because they're quite accurate, but also you can fire off a few more rounds and get a few more rounds down range. I can fletely understand that as well. So I've got a lot of friends that started carrying ten millimeters. There's been many trips in big bear country where I also

carried a ten millimeter. Unfortunately, I think I got the The ten millimeter I have isn't as light as my forty four, so I don't carry it as often, but I would. I'm kind of looking at I think the next gun that I would get would be a maybe a glock ten millimeter. Um. I think that ten millimeter would work on big bears. Um, there's a lot of evidence that says it suggests that it does. Plus you can put a few more rounds into a tight area

pretty quick. I think, like Ryan said, you know, anything that you're trained with, anything that you can shoot well, is going to be key. Um that the larger ten millimeter have. It's a sig Hunter ten. It's pretty dang heavy, but man, do I shoot that really well? Um, it's like a full frame, big pistol. It's heavy, but I mean I can put every round into where I want real fast without having to think, and that I've got to ACTU like a fiber optic site on my which

is nice. Like it's got a little bit of high high visibility and you just kind of intuitively throw up and and go. Um. You can definitely empty a clip pretty fast, and in some ways that's good. Some ways that's bad. Um, But in in most situations, you know, you you want to have it the gun ready. I think in any situation where I've ever needed a pistol, if I didn't have one in the chamber, it wasn't gonna be enough time to actually defend with it. So

that's I like the Revolver for that reason. I like, um, you know, semi auto is good for that too. I just think some summer feel a little safer than others. And then I would say, the number one that I actually carry is a nine millimeter. I know it's it's a little under kill for a lot of things, but a lot of places that I hunt where I know there's not real large bears, but I do want some kind of additional predator protection or whatever. UM. I carry

my nine millimeter a little bit more. That's all so I think it's a Smith and Wesson MP nine. It's it's a smaller frames like could be, and b a little more of a concealed carry type firearm. I like it because I shoot it super well. I know that anything you know, like black bear, Mountain lion, even the occasional place where it's like, hey, the odds of actually running into a grizz or low, but I could pretty much shoot where I'm aiming pretty quick, and it's light.

It's a lot lighter than my ten UM. I like that too. I don't know. This is a lot of rambling on just personal preference, to be honest, I think for big bears, pick a big caliber UT is even good. UM, but ten millimeter and forty four I think would be my top two choices for going into big bear country.

I think that, uh, if you like that idea, if you're familiar shooting a semi auto, you think that you know it'll hold up in weather and other things, then I would go with the ten if you like, you know, the idea of a revolver and maybe just a little less moving parts. I would go with the forty four. That's my personal preference on that and that's what I carry, So UM, take that as you will. But I think that there's a lot. I mean, there's no right or

wrong answer. I would say the rightest answer would be, make sure you get pretty solid ammo if you're shooting for bare defense, some pretty heavy bullets, some solid lead bullets, and you should be good to go. You definitely do not want to And I've seen it all the time, people putting like cheap plinking ammo in their bare defense pistol. That's a bad idea. UM. I know because I've actually had cheap plinking ammo in my bare defense pistol and had to use it on a bear um one that

had been shot. I didn't shoot it, but the client of mine shot at and he was going in and I said, here, he used this. You know, he didn't want to destroy the hid or whatever. So I handed my pistol. But I didn't realize that I had like, not very good rounds in it. And we realized real fast that those rounds didn't work very well. Uh So you ended up having to use his rifle again, which is fine, but we're trying not to damage so much meat. Um So that that's my suggestion on all that This

question comes from Eric. He says, Hey, Remy, love the podcast and all information you provide to make everyone a better hunter and help more people to enjoy the outdoors. I'll be going on my first caribou hunt in Alaska in early August. I have previously listened to your podcast on proper meatcare since I'll be bringing home the meat if successful. But one thing I haven't heard anything on

is bringing back the antlers and head. Will I need to ship this separately or will the airlines accept these as a check item along with the meat. Also, what is a good way to prep these items for travel? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Again, love the podcast, keep up the great work. Thanks Eric. That's a great question, Eric.

Um So, you know, when when you're thinking about you know, obvious sleep, the meat care is very important, but when you're talking about bring home antlers on a trip where you're flying, there is some special things that I do. Uh So, first of all, August, you know you're gonna be um hunting carib especially early August. So the first step would be you got to think about you've got velvet on the antlers, and in velvet has to be treated like meat, and it's gonna have to be treated.

So I found a product recently called velvet Lock, so it's like a antler preservative and you spray it on. I would absolutely bring a bottle of that. I had some antlers in the freezer that I just did the other day actually um this week, so uh, it works really well, and you've got to think, like, man, if you want to keep that preserved, that velvet on that caribou early August, you're definitely gonna need something for the velvet. So you can get a bottle of this and you

just spray it on super easy. I mean, like way better than injecting in my opinion, because it's more practical and you can do it right away. So it's a velvet antler preservative that's like the rety bucks for a bottle. You should definitely have that in your kit. If you're hunting velvet, you know there is the option to strip it. I hate stripping velvet, not because I mean velvet can be a pain in the butt. But when you strip it, the antlers haven't been polished up, and they aren't. They're

like super porous, so they'll never color. They just don't stain up right. Especially early August, they just don't look right. You really want to try to preserve that velvet the best you can, and it's super hard to do. Now. Unfortunately, my last caribou bull that I had, it was like all the bulls should have been stripped, and there was like maybe, you know, I think in the whole trip, we saw five bowls that were still in velvet, and I did not want to have to shoot a velvet

bowl out late, like it was just already ready. It was probably gonna come off in a day or two. And pretty much within the first three yards of packing out the bull, I could smell like the velvet underneath was rotten and it just like fell off. So I wasn't able to keep the velvet on last one. Even if I had preserved, it wouldn't mattered. But I wasn't actually planning on running into any caribou that had velvet

on their antlers still. But that's just something to think about that maybe would get overlooked, so you're gonna have to first take care of the velvet. Now we get into the situation of the airlines, So there's a couple of rules. When you're flying with antlers. Doesn't matter whether there's a caribou in Alaska, a mule deer from Colorado, and elk whatever, there are certain regulations that you have to follow. And those regulations include all the points must

be wrapped and taped over. So one thing you're gonna want to bring with you is some cardboard, some duct tape, and I bring saran wrap, um, just like plastic wrap. So what I do my system is you cardboard the tips or pretty much the entire antler. If anything is exposed, any type of point, doesn't matter whether it's in a box, whatever. If anything is exposed, they're immediately going to flag it, and you're gonna be the guy in the airport that they're like kicking out a line and it's like trying

to fix it and doesn't have all the materials. I pack extra pieces of cardboard and then I pack um some tape and some serandap. So what I do is I fold the cardboard over, I tape it and then I wrap everything in the cell of thane and that keeps it like nice and tight. I also split the antlers on my um because you gotta have a it's got to be in a box. So you gotta have some kind of box that you can build to fly

back home. And you know, maybe ahead of time, wherever you're at, if it's gonna be something big, plan on fighting somewhere where you'll be able to buy a box. And then um, I split the antlers on my skull. So the best way to split the antlers is gonna

be skull capping it. And then what I do is I do a little bit of a saw mark in the back, a little bit in the front, and then I use pressure to snap them, like to break the plate along that line, because if you just run the straight saw, you're gonna have a quarter inch gap that it won't necessarily fit back right. So I like that natural brake line where I can then later on reattach them if you're using a tax it or misst amount or whatever. They're really good at that. If you're doing

it at home, that's the best way that I've found. Now, if you just want to do like a year pan mount on the skull. What sometimes would all do is I will actually saw one of the antlers off of the pedicle and then I'll reattach it later using like a drilling method and posts and epoxies and um bondo. But the other concern that you have to have when you're shipping at home is you probably have to have the brains removed. School has to be it doesn't have to be boiled out, but it has to be somewhere

where it can't drip. So what I use is I use the saran wrap. I'll put like a garbage bag over the skull, tie it real tight, and then I will just wrap the crap out of it with that saran wrap, that cellophane and get it super tight into this like nice little tight package. Because if there's anything that can leak, they're gonna throw it out. And the last thing you want is your skull or your antlers

to get tossed. So if everything is clean and kind of dry, wrapped up and doesn't stink, you're gonna be good. So those are the considerations you want to think about with your flying with anything. And even if you're like on a deer hunt, you get a deer and you just you could Like a lot of times, I'll just throw it in my luggage if it'll fit, Like I usually carry an extra duffel bag, and then I put

the antlers in that. But the antlers inside of it need to have the tips wrapped and then the skull plate or whatever else wrapped really well so it won't drip. And so it doesn't isn't showing really anything because if they look at it and inspect it, and there's like a time that could potentially poke out of a bag, which probably will never happen. Um, it's just in their rules and regulations that it has to be covered by something, and that covered something would be UM the cardboard that's

for caribou. For things with like other points mule deer, I always carry like I've got an old garden hose, and I cut sections out of that garden hose and I put them in a zip block baggie and I travel to my hunting destination with that if I'm flying, because then what I'll do is I'll throw that garden hose over the tips of the points and then wrap electrical tape around that to secure it. That's a really easy way to cover the tips is just with that garden hose, and then you can also fold it over

and then tape it around again. And you gotta make sure you do every point. And that's a really solid way to UH to transport antlers through the airlines. Next question he comes from Brian. He asked about spring bear hunting and he says, I've seen or read some conflicting information on hunting bears in the morning. Is it largely a waste of time? Or should we be on the mountain before the sun comes up every morning? Thanks again for all you do. Appreciate the tips. Brian from Fort Worth, Texas.

That's a good question. Now here's my thoughts on it. I feel like three different things. A lot of time bear movement in the spring when it comes to spot in stock the hardest part is because bears can be nocturnal, they can be very solitary, finding the right timing where you're catching them out in the open. Now, the funny thing about bears is I've seen them in the middle of the day. Some some years it's like the middle of the day and that's when you see them, and

other times it's the mornings or evenings. I have found like over the years, I used to hunt from sun up until dark and in the springtime, if you're at a far northern latitude, those are really really long days. If you're going in ahead like for light, and then you wake up and you're glassing in the morning, it's like essentially you get two hours of sleep and you're just hunting and looking and it's just mentally draining. My clients just could not handle it, and they're like, this

is just it's too tiring, and I'm like, okay. So then I kind of switched to this, like I'll just hunt like not necessarily half day, but like go in yeah, like I have day going around noon and then huntil midnight kind of thing. You know, like you're hunting until dark and then hike out and by the time you get to the truck and drive back out, it's about midnight. And we realized we see just as many bears. But

that's not because I think it's an evening thing. What I do oftentimes is like the first part of the trip, or like if I'm going somewhere, I'll hunt kind of like i'll glass in the mornings. I'll spend a couple of days kind of hunting all day, which is the best if you got like the energy, you know, and you can always take a nap whatever. Um, I'll hunt the morning and the even because I have seen a

lot of bears in the morning. Because the other thing I realized is like if I just hunted the morning. Sometimes when I'm just like I'm hunting for myself and it's like I gotta work or whatever, I'll go out and like hunt the morning and then go to work and it's like, oh, I still see bears. So it's not that they aren't out in the mornings. I think it's just maybe where you're at and when you're concentrating. There are times too where it's you see more bears

in the morning than the evening. So the first couple of days figure out the bears pattern, what are they doing? And a lot of it, honestly, I think, is based on the moon phase that you're currently in. So are the bears like more nocturnal? Um, is that moon coming up in the middle of the night and then staying through the morning than in which case I would maybe consider like hunting mornings longer. The nice thing about mornings is they tend to stay out longer in the morning

if it's cold. It's also kind of a temperature thing. If it's real hot out um and it's hot in the evenings, they're probably gonna be moving around more in the morning when it's you've got that like cool temperature

than the evenings when it's hot. So honestly, if you can hunt as much as you can do both, I mean logistically, it can be exhausting and you might not be as mentally focused to go, you know, all day just like glassing and looking, and there's times where it's like you won't see anything and it kind of puts you off to paying attention at the peak times. Then you kind of got to gauge it based on the weather, the moon, and kind of the little bit of the

activity that's going on um in that area. I know that's it's kind of like convoluted, and some of that is just going to take a little bit of experience to know when is going to be the right time for me. You know, it's been years of kind of like understanding and being around him and kind of doing both to know, oh, this is gonna be a morning hunt or this is gonna be an evening hunt. But I think generally bears tend to be a little more active in the evening, So if you had to pick one,

I'd probably just go with the evenings. That was a long way to get to the answer of it's very dependent on many things. So this question says, hey, remy question for your last white Taiale rifle season. I had a pretty rough steep hill country here in Kansas and mostly publicly, and it's on multiple shooter bucks. Is they're running over the hill. I have very little to no access to being able to scout this place out throughout the year. Do you have any tips on how to

get on loan bucks after the rut? So that's a great question, and I think it's probably one that a lot of people encounter. Um, you know, you might not be able to to go check out these areas ahead of time. And honestly, most of my hunts are this way. I go into an area and maybe it's the first time I've been there, or maybe you get to go back to the same spot, but you don't have a chance to to scout it out ahead of time. Now I'm assuming and this really makes sense just based on

the little bit of information in here. You're hunting public land. But you're seeing these good bucks and it's like they're running away because you're blowing them out a thicker cover, or you're blowing them out of areas where they're kind of recuperating after the rut. What happens is after the rut, these bucks, these especially these mature bucks, they've they've kind of they've bred their doughs, they've spent all their energy.

Now they've got to bulk back up. So what they're gonna do is they're gonna pull into these pockets and almost go like what people would call nocturnal, but I almost think they aren't really moving much in the night either. What they're doing is that they're recuperating. Um, they will feed, but a lot of them might just be like regaining energy, because they're gonna go start going into this feeding pattern and they're going to be moving around the least amount.

So they're gonna be stuff that's thick, where they've got good cover, where they probably aren't going to be bothered, and then where they can have quick access to food and other things right there without having to move. A lot. I see this happen, especially even with our like big mountain white tails. I've I've found this to be the case. It's like you see deer, you see deer, and then they just disappear, and it's like the big bucks are

off by themselves somewhere. Um. One thing that I kind of find is there's a couple there's a couple of things. The first thing is what time of day did you blow this deer out? If if you blew the deer out in the middle of the day, I'm gonna say that this is probably that deer's preferred betting area. And I'm gonna look around, say where did that deer go? And is there anything else like this where you can go?

If there's not, I would be even focus in on that area and um and plan on hunting that other times and just being in that area to glass and check out that area, like in those crepuscular times when those loan bucks might start to move right at first light, right before dark. Um. Now, another thought too, is like just being a little more cautious as you still hunt, taking a little slower in these areas where hey, you know you're blowing out bucks, Maybe say like what's in

this particular spot? Why am I blowing out this deer. Where could I be where I might see this deer earlier? That might even be just like as you're still hunting, throwing up that glass and just using your binoculars constantly, even in thicker country, to pick out the pieces of

that deer before he sees you. Another thing is looking for sign and looking for those areas where it's like there's those places where you know, you probably know you're you're like walking whatever, especially like maybe somewhere where's a little more open, like Kansas, and you're like, Okay, this bottom definitely is gonna hold some deer, and you know it, the deer know it. You know there's deer in there. Maybe figuring out ways where it's like, okay, where would

these deer be feeding at? How can I kind of hunt this strategically, Like I already know there's gonna be a deer in there. If I walk in there, yeah, I'm gonna blow it out. So maybe I don't walk in there. Maybe I just kind of hunt the fringes and try to figure out a way make sure my winds always right, and try to figure out a way to outsmart the deer that are in there without blowing

them out. Just hunting a little bit slower and hunting a little bit more methodically, and that should be a way that you can kind of find a little more success than that. I've had to do that many times, especially late season in some in Montana and some other places. And that translates white tail, mule deer, whatever of very similar tactics because that's what the big bucks do. And in order to find those big bucks after the rut, you kind of have to figure out where are they

going to be? And that could just be I mean, you know, when you see it in many ways, it's like, yeah, there's gonna be a deer hiding in here. Um. I've hunted places in South Dakota where it's pretty open and you're like, during the right you see deer everywhere, and

then afterwards you're like where these deer go? And you go into this one draw and you're like, well, there, that's a really brushy little spot in this draw, and sure enough you walk through it and your buddy across the way says, yeah, twenty deer ran out of there. You like, I didn't see any of them. They're all

running away from me. I couldn't get a shot. Um, just knowing that those areas do hold dear, they will hold dear, and kind of focusing in maybe picking it apart a little bit harder and seeing seeing what you can turn up. All right, we got our last question here, um comes from Jeffrey. Uh. It's a little bit of a life advice question. Love these kind of questions, says Aramy've been catching up on your podcast while painting our baby room and putting together baby furniture. Our babies due

June is our first. From what I understand, you and your wife are also expecting. Just curious what your plans are for getting out hunting after the baby is born. Do you plan to take the baby with you within the first year? Has your wife expressed any concerns if you plan on being away for about a week or more hunting, he says. He goes on to say, my wife is not as outdoor active as yours. Despite a few years of trying now, I have only been able

to get her out fishing, but not hunting. So any advice on getting your partner more involved in hunting is also appreciated that Thanks Jeff from Calgary, Alberta. This is a great question and actually, um, I actually wrote an article a few issues back on in Western Hunter magazine about kind of getting your family and getting new people into hunting, especially your spouse. I'm expecting a baby in

June as well, and it's also my first. Now everybody's like, oh, things are going to change this, that and the other thing. But also people say a lot of things that they may not. You know, people said that when I would get married and other things. So we at least have like this philosophy, like we're gonna do things the way that we do things. Obviously, a baby is going to change many things, but I think it won't change a lot of things for me. I'm planning on taking the baby.

I mean, it's like babies do in June, and I'm taking her bow hunting in September, hopefully. Got a little backpack thing and you know, I'm gonna have all the stuff, and I'm gonna you know, take it easy and maybe cruise around a little bit and and look around and just play it by year. But um, I'm hoping that. Yeah, I'm definitely she's definitely gonna go out with us in the first year of life and that first fall, uh there,

there's gonna be quite a few hunts. Now it's it's awesome that my wife goes along with me and really enjoys hunting as well. Um, but you know, it was something that she never not I would say, like her dad hunted but never took her and um, and it was something that like she's kind of got into later in life, and it's something that she kind of like I never really pushed it. She was the one that kind of initiated it, but I also like provided a

series of positive hunting experiences. And those positive hunting experiences first started for our family in the kitchen. It was you know, preparing like we live off wild game, but you know, that was my lifestyle before meeting her, and then really like including her in the thing of like we're making really good food and her under standing where that food came from, and that is like really the

basis of her really being interested in hunting. Now, this could be different for a lot of people, but I also know a lot of other hunters that kind of, you know, their wives really got into it based on like seeing the way that I cared for what I ate and then also understanding that being a part of that process means something to me and then my wife, you know, kind of like got into it through fishing as well. She loves fishing. She's probably a much better

fisher person than me. When it comes to like lucky style fishing, you put a fly rod in my hand, I will dominate the water every time. But when it comes to anything else, any other strategy, whether it's ice fishing, trolling, bait fishing, don't it doesn't even matter. She just has the knack for catching the fish, which is really fun.

She will always catch the bigger fish. And now, I think one thing to think about is, so as you progress and like maybe move into bringing someone on a hunt or whatever, So let's say they decide they want to do it, uh, you know, really tailoring that that experience to them, not putting your own expectations on that trip, on that whatever. My wife came along on a lot

of hunts with me before she decided to hunt. Now, I've seen people ruined family members, kids, their wife, whatever on a hunt where they just went and it was just all hardcore, all whatever. Trust me, there's I guarantee you would be hard pressed to find another person out there that hunts as hardcore as I do. And I recognize that in myself, and I knew when I took my wife on her first trip it was not about me. It was not about me being successful. It was about

me showing her a positive hunting experience. And we ended up being successful, and that it was a backpack hunt. In the first day, it was like we were in New Zealand and I'm like, okay, we're gonna go chase tar and me I would have climbed to the top of the mountain and just like war, everybody out and probably killed the bullet oar on the first day or whatever we packed in. I brought more food than I needed to carry. I set up a bigger camp and

a nicer set up than I needed to do. Um. I made it really about like her experience and not in like in many ways catering to her comfort level, but also like explaining things like going slow and I needed to And it was like in my mind, I didn't care if I got anything, if I got something or didn't, it was just like having a good hunting experience, and that to me was one of my most memorable hunts.

I ended up shooting a young red deer like a free range red stag um and packed it out, and then you know, we went back and uh, let her be part of the process and and kind of you know, explaining the kind of like kill portion, and you know, she was sad and I'm like, that's you know, completely normal. And then you know we have like we made like an awesome meal and just kind of like bringing in

that whole experience. But also there was like the point of during the day was like we packed in, we got to the spot and me I was like, I spotted some deer. It was like, oh, okay, we could totally go after those and I'm ready to roll. Most of you would just be like, oh, let's go up there and shoot him, you know, and then instead of like I could tell that she was a little bit tired or whatever, so it was like, now let's just set up camp, let's have a big lunch, let's take

an app you know. The kind of things is like progressing along whereas like that deer will be there or won't be will make it a hunt, but also kind of cater to the person that's with you, and that's that's huge and like building those first outdoor experiences because until someone really understands it um and is into it. You know, they might not value the same things that we value, so kind of catering to the person that's

with you. Now it's like my wife drew a archery deer tag and hunted a candar or was it like sixteen consecutive days? I mean I was war out by the time it was over. And now those those hardcore experiences are just part of the things that we do that she loves because now she understands it as a hunter.

But those first steps that you take, whether it's a kid, whether it's your wife, whether it's anyone, building it out slow, progressively and maybe starting out with something that's like a small game hunt, uh, something where you can go along and just make it like a family, a family thing, um, cater to your wife, catered towards the baby, cater towards your family, and make it an outing that you guys get to do together. And I think that that will

kind of bring in the hunting and the family aspect. Now, there are some people that just maybe we'll never understand it, maybe never want to do it, and also you know, don't push it. It's something that you kind of have to want to do and really take upon yourself, because there's a lot of things that you need to learn, a lot of things that you need to do to become a hunter, and it's very hard to do if you aren't really interested in it. So that's my life

advice take on that. It's kind of funny because my buddy Chris Denham, who's the editor of Western Hunter Magazine, They've also got a podcast and some other things, and he was talking to me one day and he was like, oh, yeah, I want I want to do a podcast. And I was like, yeah, I'll do a podcast. And he's like, no, I don't want to talk to you. He's like, I want to talk to your wife. He's like, I want to know what your wife thinks when you go on

these long hunts and other things. And I actually think it would be kind of I I kind of want to know what she would say untethered the like what her perspective is on a lot of this and and where where she's coming from. Maybe that would be kind of a fun podcast in the future, but until then, until I've tried to figure that one out. Um, that's that's kind of my advice, and I hope that that

helps some people out there. And I think it's fun if you can make it a family event and um, whether it's fishing, whether it's any kind of outdoor thing, you know, cater to the people that are with you, and soon they'll kind of catch up to your level and you you'll be UM, you know, you'll have an awesome hunting partner, outdoor partner for life. Well, that concludes

our mail bag section for this week. I think I want to focus on a few things to prepare in some upcoming podcast this month, and then maybe spend a little bit of time on a spring bear tactics. In some upcoming podcasts, I think we're gonna cover some gear choices.

One of the things that I didn't read a lot of the questions of We're very similar in asking about gear stuff, and it always comes out this time of year where guys are kind of getting their mind around maybe updating their kit, maybe things to look for, and I kind of like when I do gear stuff, I really like to get to the kind of my thought

process us behind things. Um, it's it's really easy to say, oh, this is a good product, this is a good thing, this is what I use in which you know, I'll definitely include the things that I use, but also my

thought process on gear selection. I like to get kind of like behind the just the superficial stuff of there's a reason that I pick all these certain products and items, and maybe you can You could always just pick the same thing that I've got, but you could also understand why I picked that and find something that works for your hunting style or what you're looking for. I would say the top few things that I got like consistently, especially right now was boots and pack selection, and then

what to look for in optics. So I want to break those out. Maybe the next couple of podcasts will be on that. I've got some really good ideas on the way that I want to structure that and kind of make it beneficial to everyone thinking about how to match something to their hunting type or how to match something to the hunting type that they're gonna do, and the most efficient use of gear and things to get.

So that'll be coming up, and then we'll maybe jump into a little bit of spring Bear tactics in the near future. These are just some ideas that I'm thrown around based on the kind of input that I got. If you've got any more input or more questions. As always, feel free to shoot over those uh via social media at Remy Warren. So until next week, UH, keep the questions coming and I'll catch you guys all later