Ep. 96: Answering Your Questions, Part 19

of great questions this week, a lot of interest. On last week's podcast, if you missed it, it was talking about large predators in your hunting area, possible things you might encounter, possible defense strategies. So if you didn't check that out, check that out. But there's definitely a lot of awesome questions in here. So let's uh, let's get to the first question. This first question comes from Peter. He says, Hey, Reby, just listen to the latest podcast

on predator protection. Great stuff. Curious if you have any thoughts on how to carry while backcountry hunting, specifically bow hunting. Do you carry your side arm, on your pack, on your by, no harness, etcetera. Thanks so much, Pete from California. That's a great question, and I think it is something that I missed or didn't cover. Um, I've kind of played with a lot of different types of holsters, a

lot of different type of stuff. For me, I think what seems to be the easiest is I generally just have a holster on my pack. I mean nine percent of the time I've got my pack on. Then if I dropped my pack to stock or move around or like I'm at camp, whatever, I just switched that holster from my pack. I just undo it off my pack and then just put it on my my belt. Especially if I'm in grizz country. I keep that pretty handy. I actually have a holster that has and I honestly

don't know the make of it. I got a long time ago, but it's one that if I'm in like not necessarily big Bear country, but I've got maybe my nine millimeter or whatever, it's um the whole story. I can take it off my pack and it's got like a belt clip. So if it's just like, oh, hey, I'm just you know, wearing it around camp or something like that, or I just needed somewhere to put it, UM, then I can switch it to my belt clip really easy.

But for the most part, if I'm gonna be stocking and I in like brown Bear grizz country, I'll generally move it from my pack just to like put it on my belt so it doesn't fall off if I'm crawling around or stocking in or something like that, And that seems to work pretty well for me. This next question comes from Angelo. It says, Hey, Remy love the podcast. I have a question for you. Me and my friend

our first time elk hunters in a southwestern state. We usually just hunt mule deers, but we drew a October ninth to the thirteenth elk tag. I was just wondering if we should start learning how to bugle or if we would be just fine with like a hoochie mama type call. Thanks. Also, any good pointers for hunting later part of the rut and this is a rifle hunt. That's a great question, Angelo, especially if your first time elk country. You think, Okay, well, what should I expect

that October nine to the thirteen timeframe? Um? It actually can still have quite a bit of running activity. UM I would I would highly suggest at least learning how to blow a bugle. For a couple of reasons, one, Um, you're gonna you could probably use it. The call that I'd be using the most would be like a location type call. So this is gonna be like a one, two or three note, just long drawn out call, and you're gonna be broadcasting this into areas where that sound travels.

So if you're in a little bit thicker terrain, you can kind of like you know, when when we sit down and glass, I say, let your eyes do the walking. Well, in thick country sometimes you can't glass in it, so let your ears do the walking. What that location bugle does is it's it's a way that elk are kind

of communicating to the cows. So a bowl will make out this this long sound saying like where are the cows in this this area, helping to draw them to him, But another bowl will bugle hearing that, saying no, don't go to him, come to me, um, And then at some point then those elk kind of start talking to each other. At the very basis of it, it's a really good call to know. Just to be able to locate a bowl in some thicker training just adds another

UM trick to your your repertoire. Now I will say during a rifle hunt, you know, you want to make sure you're in an area that probably doesn't have um a lot of other hunters, you know, if you start hearing beagles and then you're bugling. But sometimes, like it can be kind of distracting in a rifle hunt because you might call in other hunters or whatever. But you know, just be careful. Just because you hear a bugle doesn't

certainly mean it's an elk. Could also be another hunter, UM, and you know, kind of be safe and think about it that way. But I would say that UM, I wouldn't necessarily leave out bugling. One thing I would suggest though, is also just practicing with some other types of elk call, so you can make some other types of elk sounds. UH and open read calls a really good beginner elk call for making cow sounds. What that is is just kind of like it's got this mouthpiece and then read

over the top. Then you kind of run your teeth and just change the pitch by applying different pressure. So the hushi ama squeeze type calls great if you're just beginning you want to make it a quick sound. But outside of that sound, that's pretty much all it makes now later in the rut, some sounds that you might want to make, maybe like um, some some lost cow sounds. It depends on the type of terrain you're into, but something where you can kind of change the pitch and

maybe sound like a herd of elk. Another thing you might want to think about is like learning an estrus wine, which is just this you kind of sound. It's like a more drawn out cow sound. But if there's a bowl in the area and maybe a late cow coming into estrus, it could be something that draws him out

or maybe even just gets him to bugle. Now, when it comes to hunting, the later part of the rut, that October nine to the thirteenth, that's pretty much the tail end of it most places, especially when you start heading for yourself. So you might hear a few bugles, but it's not going to be just like that all out crazy bugle rut behavior. You might hear a couple of bugles in the morning, and that's kind of gonna shut them down, So you're gonna have to use a

combination of tactics. Normally that time of the rut, that time of year, what the bulls start doing is they start to, like the more mature bulls will actually start pulling away from the herds. They might be around the herd, but they're going to be kind of off on their own, starting to bed and starting to get into that feed pattern. But they will still be responsive to maybe coming in

and checking for cows that haven't been bred. You also might get a lot of activity from some younger bulls that really kind of got their butt whipped early in the rut and now they're joining up with these groups of cows and kind of like hanging out hoping that there's still some that might come into heat. So one thing that I would kind of focus on is find the cows. If you're just looking for any elk, you know, you can start finding those concentrations of cows the elk

they're still active. You can ease, you know, funy target, and then if you kind of want to target maybe a more mature bull, kind of fine where the cows are at and then start looking for maybe some more feeding areas in secluded timber that's near where those cows are. Because those bulls will like they'll actually kind of be active in the morning and then the middle of the day they'll just start. They'll just pull off and go bed by themselves, and then they might join back up

real late in the evening. So it's not like before where they're running the show is more just like they go, they hang out, then they leave, and that happens kind of towards the tail end of the rut. They're just kind of hoping to maybe catch a cow that has come out of estrus, but or like late into it, so there still is some rutting activity and it just depends on I would say, really how the rut was where you're at. So if the rut kind of kicked off real early, you know, by that October time frame,

it might be a little late. But it never hurts to have a cow call and maybe try some location bugles, especially if you if you get a bull fired up. I mean I've actually bugled in elk it. I mean I've used bugles as late is like November, and I'm not saying that's a good tactic, but I've heard bugles as late as that time and actually gotten responses from

bugles as well. It just gives you an idea of where the elk might be, especially even if they don't get super fired up and they're going to come to the call. It's another way to kind of pinpoint their location. Oh. As a side note, um, I actually did some used to do quite a bit of guiding down where your hunt takes place. And one thing that I did find in that kind of rifle October season, the elk did primarily like the beginning of October, actually came in silent

to like cow call set up. So if you're in an area where, like I know there's a bull here, but he went in the timber, I can't find him, maybe just sit up or sit over a glassing area throughout some cow calls, like hey, we're just a group of cows here just hanging out, and you might get some bulls to kind of come in sneak and quiet just check things out. So that's just another tactic to

think about, all right. Next question comes from Garrett. Looks like it's actually more of a cutting the distance testimonial. So it says I just got a new bow after not shooting one for about twenty five years. I've had it for about three weeks now, and I just stumbled upon your podcast and listen to your archery one oh one and one oh two podcast series. Long story short, you got me aiming with both eyes open, and I swear it's the best thing. I would never have tried

it had you not mentioned it. My accuracy is much better and my eye fatigue is less. Thank you so much. Love your podcast. You're a very good speaker and you deliver your message very well. Cheers. Thanks for that, Garrett, I really appreciate it. Also, I did get a lot of questions coming in about um things about beginning archery and getting started different ways of shooting. So if you haven't checked out these ones, I think it's a good way,

a good place to start. The archery one O one one oh two kind of series starts around episode seventy six, so if you get a chance, And those were some of the questions you sent in. A lot of the questions I got this week, we're answered in those podcasts, So go check those out, and I think that they'll be super beneficial to you. All right. This question comes from Larry out of New York. He says, Hey, Ramy,

great job with the podcast. Is always I plan on hunting grizz Country Wyoming in Alaska over the next couple of years. If on a rifle hunting grizz country, would you recommend carrying a pistol as backup for bathroom trips in the tent? He said. The story you told of your cousin's friend getting dragged out of her tent has really got me worried. Thanks for all the shared knowledge. That's that's a good question. In the past, I've always thought, Hey, I'm on a rifle hunt. I've got a rifle. Why

would I need anything else? This is what I would use. Um if I'm in heavy grizz country. I think that even with a rifle, I probably still carry some other form of barried to trent, whether it's bear spray or a pistol. UM. I think that it's just it's a lot faster, you have more rounds, there's more options to possibly even not even have a lethal encounter, but just to scare the bear away. I mean, maybe you see the bear at a distance, it kind of starts the

bluff charge. You can get a shot off um where it's still safe, where you could you know, recover and shoot or whatever. Maybe that noise would scare it um. You know, if you do that with a rifle, you're kind of limiting yourself, um or you know, it's it's sometimes hard. I don't necessarily like walking around with a chambered round in the rifle, not because I mean, you know, you just it seems like if you're putting it on your shoulder, and more often than not, so you've still

got to get it off your shoulder. It's comversome. It's not as fast. I think that, you know, if I'm in an area where it's like, hey, I'm worried about a grizzly encounter, I know there's a lot of bears here, I probably still just take something else, whether it's the bear spray or the pistol. Um pistol would be a little bit heavier, and it's kind of like, maybe that's

too much weight. Maybe the bear spray is just a little bit lighter and a good option because it might be something that's like, hey, this is a lot faster to get to a quicker draw and um, maybe just as effective and you've kind of got the back the pistol or the rifle as that backup, or if you can get it off fast enough and use it that's the first thing you reach for, you've got it. But I think that most people probably, Um, I would have

trouble using it. I'd say, like in a quick scenario, however, if it's a charging bear, you know, and it's a you need to shoot it, I think you probably better off shooting with your rifle than you would have pistol. So there's um, there's kind of like a it's just up to you, like what you feel comfortable with. But I wouldn't say that. I mean, I've definitely done it where the rifle was the only thing I took, and you know, it was fine and never had any encounters

and never had any problems. But I think that maybe if I did need it, it would probably be hard in many instances. Now there's like a lot of places Canada another thing you can't carry a pistol around, so your option would be used the rifle or carry a shotgun. And like if you're fishing, you know you can't have a pistol. So, um, I think in those scenarios, you know, you're probably just best to go with the bear spray and then carry your rifle. Alright. This question comes from Ethan.

He says, Hey, Ramy, just listen to the Predator podcast. My wife is in the Coast Guard and we're getting stationed in Kodiak, Alaska, which is obviously large brown bear country. I know while hunting, I'll carry my glock twenty, but would you suggest carrying while fishing the rivers and streams? Also, any other tips for fishing or safety would be greatly appreciated as well. I mean, to be a hundred percent honest,

you're probably the best carrying and while fishing. Um. I will say, like the bears when they're on salmon streams, you're gonna have more encounters with bears while fishing probably than you will hunting because they're concentrated on that food source. Now, I will also say that while they're on that food source,

they kind of don't necessarily care about people. I mean, it's not like they're they aren't gonna you probably aren't gonna incite a predatory attack, but you may incite an attack that could be territorial or um, you know, a mom protecting your cubs. So absolutely, UM, I don't know, you know whether the pistol or bear spray. I mean you can you can kind of go between the two. Um, when you're fishing, it seems like you're in that thicker stuff.

It's kind of close cores. I've had, um, just a couple of false charges while like in fishing scenarios, just you know, like they come in wolfing and huffing and curious and scary and try to scare the crap out of you. But I definitely think that you know, like when you live in bear country, if you look at like the bear techs that have happened this year, it's generally not hunters. It's not people hunting. Um, it's mostly

just people recreating a bear country. But it could be hunters, you know, just being in places where there are bears and and doing something. The springtime happens to be a time that it happens a lot summertime as well. Maybe it's just more influx of people, but um, you know, people out berry picking, people out shed hiking, people out scouting whatever. There's definitely any time you're out there in bear country you should kind of be bear aware. Um,

it's not just relegated to when you're out hunting. Uh, other things that you know you think about when you're the nice thing about fishing, what you can do is you don't have to be quiet, you don't have to be stalking around you can make noise, let bears know that you're there as you're walking, talk to your friends, joke loud. It's not like you're trying to sneak up on the fish. I mean, I guess unless you're like targeting and fly fishing, sometimes I get a little sneaky.

But outside of that, you know, make some noise and let the bears know that you're there before you even if you don't know that the bears are there. I mean, if you're fishing with a friend or whatever, it's okay to be be loud talking kind of it gives those bears an advanced warning that you're coming, because a lot of the attacks that would happen are probably surprising a bear. It's like, oh, you, you happened upon a sound some cubs and she didn't know you were coming, and you

didn't know she was there. But if you're loud enough and make some noise going into those spots, it might kind of disperse them or at least just let them know, oh, hey, somebody's coming. You know. You can also approach areas like hey, I'm gonna approach the Sammon stream from the uh down wind side, So it's like then my sense blowing into where I'm going to be fishing. That's another kind of

good tactic to think about. And then one other thing is, you know, if you're in like a salmon stream, you don't want to uh, you know, you're The noises that bears here can also be like a dinner bell, just um, when you've got like a salmon on the line and it's splashing around a lot, so that kind of can

draw bears in. Like if you're fighting a fish for a really long time, sometimes you know you kind of want to just fish, get it in and and and then get it back or do whatever you're gonna do with it, but you also want to kind of make sure that you're being aware of your surroundings. You know, you've got a fish, Oh you're releasing it, You aren't

looking down. You want to just kind of constantly being aware of your surrounding because when you bring that fish in that splashing noise, the bears that are probably like what they'll do is they'll kind of be sleeping off in the banks in the brush. Then they'll hear that splashing of like, oh the runs coming. Oh there's some fish stuck in that channel. Sweet eats time to go show down, and you're just kind of setting off that dinner bell for maybe bears that are in an ear

shot away. Um, so when you do catch fish, you just definitely want to be aware of be bear aware, and kind of be always paying attention. Next question comes from Michael. He says, hey, Remy, uh, just brought my first bow, a recurve, and I'm shooting it a lot with the goal eventually bow hunting. I went into an archery shop intending to buy a forty five to fifty pound recurve, but was humbled by those bows and left with a fourteen pound recurs so I could get reps

in and learn to shoot. He's wondering what tips or exercises I have for increasing my draw weight with a bow. Thanks, that's a great question. You know, if you're first getting into bow hunting, one thing, it's you know, it's like you're using muscles that you don't generally use for anything else.

So one of the things that you're gonna have to do is build up the strength and the muscles to get the repetition, to be able to draw that bow back smoothly, consistently, be able to hold it especially more traditional gear, and so what you're doing is great working up with a lighter poundage bow. Kind of just understanding the basics mechanics, getting your form and everything down and actually using a really light poundage bow is a great

way to do that. I mean, if I think about the way that I started was on a very light, light bow as a kid UM. I would say though that you know, you're gonna need something that's gonna if you keep like even just building up that repetition in that form, you're gonna have to kind of build up by doing so. I would say, you know, get that forty five get that forty five pound bow or whatever,

fifty pound bow, whatever you're feeling. I think, probably start out with a forty five pound bow, UM, and then you know, maybe just not having to shoot as much, but you're gonna build up pretty quickly by starting to

pull that. I know, and my wife started shooting, UM, we had a compound bow for and that's another great ways like there are you know, you could even look at getting like a bow that's just like um, I don't know what they are, like a more modular bow where you can kind of build up the draw weights

to it. It would be like a compound bow, but you can kind of add increase the weight, so you'll you'll lessen the screws and the limbs there, you'll decrease the weight of that boat, and then you'll start building that bow up, so you can get that form of pulling back the weight and then building up your weight. On my when my wife started, she couldn't pull back

as much. So I had kind of one of these beginner like bows that they sell, and I just increased the weight so I had a pretty light she start shooting, and then we just start gradually increasing the weight by five, ten, whatever pounds. Then when she worked up to her hunting bow, it couldn't go low enough, but she was able to pull it back, you know, a few times, so you want to make sure you aren't like struggling really hard.

But she's able to pull it back, and then she shoot a couple rounds and then just stop, and then you go okay, later in the day, shoot a couple more, and over the course of even just a week, she was able to then start pulling a lot more weight, and then just by once she had that muscle memory that way of pulling and then alt up that weight, she was able to shoot a lot more poundage than

even a few weeks earlier. So it's just something you can gradually get into you start practicing building that muscle memory. But it's a great idea with that light bow to just understand the mechanics of shooting and get like so you don't have any bad habits because as soon as you start putting extra weight, your brain starts thinking weird things like oh this is heavy, I gotta let go, or you start messing with your form. So I think

it's a really good idea. Just shoot that light bow a lot til you get that form really locked down, and then you can start building that. I mean, you could even just anything where it's that drawing motion. I mean I've seen guys use like a weight machine where they've got weight and you're just doing that straight drawback. You can do that with bands. I mean I know people that use those like um exercise bands. You just change the tension, just don't let go and lose your eye.

Have I've heard of people losing their eye with the exercise man so um. But that's a good way just building that form, building that strength. Get some heavy strength exercise bands. And just start pulling back, pulling back anything where you can kind of build that muscle in that boat form, because you gotta it's got to be the muscle by doing you know, there's you could build strength of many ways, but you have to do it that same way of drawing straight back and in that good technique.

And once you do that, I think you'll be pretty much well on your way and you'll you'll find that you can progress pretty quickly. It's just you're using muscles that probably haven't been used in that direction in that way in your entire life. So once you start building that form and technique, you should be good. Alright. This next question comes from Jacob says. Aramy started listening to the podcast last December after I had my first elk hunt.

That hunt was mostly front country, tons of pressure in an opportunity unit ended up shooting a spike a bowl and filling the freezer. I can't help but wonder how big of a bowl I could have found had I listened to your podcast earlier. Anyway, my question today is

about gauging antler size while glassing. I frequently hear you and other guys throughout numbers when you spot an animal that's a three plus inch bowl or a hundred and fifty buck for example, what are your tips for estimating deer or elk antler size just by looking at them through the spotting scope? What parts of the antlers are you referencing on the animal? Like, he's wider than his years by x amounts, so he's probably in x y

z inch range. Uh, he says, headed out to scout new unit this weekend for white tails and mealies for this falls ot C hunt in Arizona. Thanks for all you do. That's a great question, Jacob. Now, Um, when it when it comes to I guess first, you know, we got to talk about like the scoring system. And when I say like, okay, that's a meal here, what I'm referring to is Boone and Crockett scoring system. So Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young both use the

scoring system. Um. Now, the gross score is kind of like everything, and generally I'm talking about the gross score. So the gross scores everything added up without any deductions. Now, the net scores um in scoring systems kind of award for uniformity between both sides, So there's deductions on things that aren't equal um. So when we talked about like a gross score, we're just talking about, okay, the number of inches of the antler. And what that is is

a combination of things. So within like antlered animals, talking elk and deer um it, there's these measurements. So there's the length of the main beam. There's the length of all the time, so that's the brow time, the back

time like on a meal. There's bifurcated, so the length of each time, and then four circumferences, one taken at the base, then one taken between the brow tyn and the U G two, which would be the next If you're like each time going up like from the base out, then you kind of add those to G two G G one, G two, G three, G four and then the main beam. So what we're doing is we're talking about the inches of all those and then the commulative score of that. You're like, well that's a lot um.

So if you're if you're thinking about kind of understanding score, the first thing you should do is like download a score sheet and understand how they're scored um and then grab some antlers, whether it's like a couple of shed antlers or whatever and start running tapes on them and understand really how to start scoring um, because it's it is a really good gauge of like it's a good way to explain what the antlers look like in an Apple's the Apples scenario of like, Okay, it's a basis

of measurement. And once you start to understand what these measurements mean, then you can kind of start to build a picture of what that deer looks like. So if I say, oh, it's buck, then in my head I have a picture of what that deer looks like. You can say, oh, he's a a typical four by four, got eye guards and scores about one eight. So I

know what that buck looks like. It's really handy when you're like looking for a certain deer, or it's really handy when you're like, Okay, I'm looking for really mature dear. How do I gauge it based on the other deer that I'm see? Um? So first step would be just

understanding that score system. Now when it comes to feel judging, there's so many different ways to do it, um, And I'll just give you I mean, I could probably do five ten different podcasts on just how to feel judge, how to score um different animals while you're glassing, while you're spotting. But I'll just give you kind of like a basic rundown now, and this might even be if if enough people are interested in a pretty solid um podcast topic in the future. So kind of the different

ways to do it would be. The first way would be kind of like building out a ruler of scale of just basing things off of certain kind of known sizes of the animal. So and you're like, okay, well a muled your ear is approximately eight inches in my area. UM. Now, these do vary from area to area, so sometimes like hey, y'all, you'll actually measure the ear of maybe some amounts of friends or people that you know that have taken and

deer in that area. UM. Then you go okay, on average, meal dear ear span is twenty to two inches UM. So you're like, okay, that's in the natural alert position. And then you go, okay, Well, the circumference of the eye is about I mean most years like h one one and a hat one point three inches in diameter, which is like four inches of circumference, so you can kind of gauge like okay, now, I can gauge the mass, which is the circumference measurement, based on the width of

the eye. So is it like, is it as wide as its eye? Is it um not as wide as its eye? And then you can kind of start adding those measurements up. Now you can go, okay, well, how does that time compared to the ear length? Now if I go look at that ear and I go, okay, is it twice that? Well, maybe it's if those are eight inch ears, then that's going to be a sixteen inch time. You start writing it down and kind of building out your score, and I think that's the best

way to start. I've actually, um, you know one thing that I kind of would do in the past, as I put my phone up to the spotting scope whatever, take a picture, and then you can zoom in and you kind of build like a ruler to scale, just using like a piece of paper or stick. So whatever that zoom level is, you can kind of break off the stick and then you kind of start measuring it out based on the pictures that you take. I'll actually, um, I'll try to remember to put up on my blog

on my website Remy Warren dot com. I'll throw up a little uh kind of like how to do this field judging through the camera kind of thing, because a good way to start, because it's like, Okay, you've got it. You can start building it out and it really gets you starting to think about numbers and the types of numbers that you know you're going to have to add up while you're in the field. Now, of course there's like ways of doing it a lot faster to so um.

One thing that you'll learn is like once you start getting used to and familiar with it, you can kind of start doing what was probably the method that I use of the time, which I call like rack bracketing. So I've it's like I try to score as many any antlers, as many put my hands on as many

different deer as I can. Whether it's like once I've taken, once friends have taken, measuring them, you know, and then you can kind of build out these mental pictures of like just based on looking at it, and it's more of a comparative look, So it's looking at it based on like the species that you're hunting, how it compares to the body size and itself. So I'll think about like a mule deer and it's like okay, well, okay, how deeper those forks? How why is that dear? What?

Like what category does that dear fit in? Is it in the one twenty category? Is it like a small buck with not very deep forks inside the ears? Fairly short um? Or is it like a one eighty category where it's got outside the ear spread, it's got deep forks, it's considerably tall um. All the times are fairly uniform, fairly long length, Its main beams come out to its nose. Like, okay,

what category is it in? And you can kind of start to tell that just by taping antlers, building out and just like looking at a lot of deer and also really understanding that score system and like playing with it a little bit. One thing that I'll do all the time is just kind of play with the numbers. So I'll look at pictures of deer, I'll start estimating, I'll start guessing, and then writing down filling out those

score sheets. You start to build out like oh, okay, that deer has a ten inch front tie and it's got three inch eye guards. And you can kind of start to build these like formulas and sizes in your mind and understanding like how much an inch on a certain measurement changes the overall score. There's a lot to it.

It kind of takes a lot of practice, but the best way to understand it is to really just start like picking up antlers and putting a tape measure to them and saying like, Okay, this is how long that is, this is standard for this size buck. And just the more you do that, like I just continually constantly every ship anler I find, I tape out every you know, it's like a friend gets a deer, client gets you know, we will at a tape on it. Not necessarily because

we don't know. I mean, I can guess dear pretty dang deer and elk within extremely close. But I've done it a long time, but I still always like verify it, put the tape on it, and just kind of always helps me build out. Sometimes you'll go, You'll you'll shoot a deer and you're like, wow, that deer looked really big. I thought it would score this much. And then you're like, oh, well it's body size is a lot smaller, or is he's we call him mini heads. Like the comparisons that

we're using were off. But for the most part by just by doing it a lot, you can kind of build out that picture and really understand that score. Speaking of actually scoring stuff, there's a Pope and Young convention in Reno, Nevada here coming up. I think it's to look it up as June, sorry, July fourteen somewhere in there.

I'm actually gonna be at that. So if you've got any questions about that kind of stuff where you're there that it's always cool to just be like, go somewhere where you can see like different animals and then what they score, and you can can look at the or sheet and look at the animal and be like, okay, I mean these are the top end, like some of the largest animals ever taken with a bow. But it gives you like a good idea of what they score.

Even like you know, it's like during what COVID and all this, all the sports shows and that kind of stuff kind of ceased, but man, I know, like I used to walk around the different kind of sporting shows and they'd have those like displays of deer, elk or whatever. Sometimes they have the score sheets or just being able to look at antlers saying like okay, this is this or even going into sporting his shop and just really like looking at the animals on the wall objectively saying like,

how does it compared to itself? How does it compared to the other deer? What maybe would those time links be because it's a really good way when you're talking with other hunters, or or maybe you've got some kind of goal in mind of like, oh, I really want to mature bull or are a good representative deer out of this area. I'm gonna that's gonna be how I'm gonna hunt, or I'm gonna hunt for this certain type of buck um. Understanding that system will really help. Next

question says Hey, remmy name is Travis from Michigan. Love the podcast and have listened to everyone thus far. I look forward to it every Thursday. Question for your next Q and A. I drew a first season rifle elk tag in a unit on the western border of Colorado. A portion of the unit I'll be hunting is burned last summer. Do you think I should key in on that burn or does it take a couple of years

of regrowth to see the benefits of a burn. With so many fires last summer, I'm thinking others may have the same idea in mind. Thanks, that's a great question. Yeah. So the first thing I would look at when was that burned last year? I mean it might be like if it was in what type of area was it? Is it like a lower elevation winter range. Are you hunting late in the season or early in the season.

So it's gonna make a little bit of a difference. Um, one thing that you want to think about is like if it burned early, did it have time to get some regrowth last year before winter and then did those animals kind of benefit from that on that winter range that year? Or was it really late in the fire season. Was it like a late October fire, which there were quite a few last year, or was it like an

early June, July, August type fire. But I would definitely say that it's and just as a general like guess it's probably a good idea to check that burnout. Now, it's gonna seem a little bit desolate, but there are gonna be pockets in there where you're gonna find elk. It's gonna be better glassing, and there should be some green up in there, especially if it gets to like you know, some good some good rains this year or even later in the season. There's a lot of nutrients

in that soil. It just depends on how hot that fire was, whether there anything's gonna start popping up or not. So I would I would definitely focus in on checking that burnout. I would also kind of look for areas whether it's it's the trouble is like the you know, maps won't be updated enough to really understand it. You're gonna have to kind of get boots in the ground.

But what I would do is I would look at that burn kind of think, Okay, we're pockets where it's burned all around it, but then there's some life timber where the fringes of this We're like, did it burn down? And there's this long line of timber here, but this good open burn here, And I would kind of focus on those areas because what you'll do is you'll be able to see into that burn like it's a good feeding area. It might give you a little bit more eyes on terrain, but it also has good heavy cover

that those animals can kind of go back into. Elker and deer as well or fringe animals, so they're gonna be kind of on the fringe of that feed and that that cover one thing, Like in open areas, it grows a lot better feed and in that cover they need that to kind of feel protected and safe. So it's just this big burn where it's like, man, everything's

burnt out, there's no cover. It might be tough. I will say this though, elk that have like a resident elk, if you're hunting resident elk in an area that have kind of lived in that area their whole life and that's how they're safe, they'll probably still be in that burn in some way, and they might even not necessarily know that they're visible. Um. I found that, like the first couple of years that they're in a burn, they kind of still see it as like we're in the trees.

Were in the cover now obviously, and they'll go get shade in thicker cover and everything like that. But you might have a good chance finding more animals out in that burn than you would have found them in years past. So I definitely check it out, um. And then you know, if you're like, man, this is I can see everything. It's burnt to a crisp. It's complete dirt. I don't see any tracks or any signed start picking out some of those areas where it's like, okay, where are they

moving to? So that's kind of another way. It's like, Okay, you can eliminate the burn and say, well, this burn isn't productive yet they've kind of moved out of this area. Well, we're some areas that they're close by where they might move to that has things that they need that wasn't affected by the burn, and looking at it like that as well. Next question comes from Ray. He says, hey, Remy, thanks for all you do to put out good info. You explain things in a way most others don't. I'm

always learning a lot from your podcast. I had a question for your podcast, or maybe just in general. I've been doing my best to take care of new camera. The manufacturers suggests using a hunting detergent when washing, and only washing when soiled other than obviously bloody or mudey. What do you consider over soiled and what detergent could you recommend um I look for that might help keep my camera looking and functioning properly for as long as possible.

That's a great question. With as much money as we put into our gear now and like as good as gear is you definitely want it to last. Um, I don't get overly like concerned about how I mean, I I generally just like I wear it, you know, generally on a trip. It's like I go out for a week and I don't even have an option to wash it until I come back, So it's overly soiled by

that point. Um, if you're just kind of like day hunting, I don't think I would wash it every day, but maybe you're like, hey, it's starting to stink, it's starting to smell, throw in the wash. Um. You know, I think that some of my stuff ends up kind of smelling worse because it's like I wear it too long and then it gets stinks, and then I could have probably just prevented it by washing it. I wouldn't necessarily

be afraid of over washing. What I'm really afraid of with high quality clothing is any kind of fabric softener. So I avoid anything with fabric softener, like the plague one. Washing with fabric softener will absolutely ruin your stuff in my opinion. I mean, I've seen really good, high quality tech gear get destroyed by um, the wrong kind of detergent or the wrong kind of thing. So um, not

just the detergent, but also uh dryer sheets. So when you're washing your hunting clothes, absolutely, like I I mean, let everybody in your family know. Look, if you're using this, you can use. I mean, I just use the same stuff that I washed all my other clothes. And when I'm washing hunting clothes, I don't worry about the scent free stuff. I generally don't get sent to laundry to

church in anyways. But um, I just use whatever Costco brand, Kirkland signature or tied or whatever stuff we have, just as long as there's no fabric softeners in it. And then when I wash that, when I dry it, absolutely no dryer sheets. And everybody in the family needs to know that, because what happen is you'll throw your stuff in, you know, like wash. Someone will be like, oh, I'm gonna do you a favor. I'm gonna put him in the dryer for you. They throw in a couple of

dryer sheets like they do their normal laundry. Well, the dryer sheets have fabric softener. That tumbling what it does, it kind of breaks down the d w R, the water repellency. A lot of the good qualities of high quality gear and then you've got like this bummer jacket.

Now there are ways to refresh it. So every once in a while, like, um, if my gear seems to be getting uh like like it's it's not performing like it used to, then there's a company you can get it, like online or an r e I or some you know, maybe in Bess prose about whatever. It's called nick Wax Tech Wash and I k w a X tech wash. You can pretty much buy that everywhere. So they've got different ones for different things. I don't use that every every wash. It's kind of expensive and it seems like

you'd be going crazy. But when I need like that water repellency to kind of kick back up, I'll use it a couple of times a year just just to kind of like reinvigorate that d w R or whatever. It seems to work pretty good, kind of like gets the water repellency back. And there's different like if you're really I feel like really worried about it, you know, I'm sure it's great for kind of any soft shell material. They got all kinds of different ones. The key is

to just not get that fabric softener in there. One one this is like a trick I learned a long time ago after my like favorite jacket got ruined by that, like somebody doing me a favorite swapping it over to the dryer accidentally just throwing dryer sheet and not thinking about it. I pull it out and I'm like devastated. My favorite jacket just seemed messed up from that point on. So what I do UM is like if I'm when I wash my hunting clothing, I just get to post it.

I put it right on the thing, like hunting clothes. Do not use UM. If I like, if I said it anywhere public where someone can get it, I just put notes do not use fabric softener. I actually don't have any in my house, but UM, do not use fabric softener. And then like, do not use dryer sheet. I put it on the dryer door. I put it on the washer door. I put it on everything. There's just sticky notes everywhere because the super cheap post it that says don't put a dryer sheet in with this

will make your gear last ten twenty times longer. And that's like the biggest tip. And then I don't even I don't even worry. But there's like, you know, some there's washes where it's like, oh it cuts down the UV and all that stuff. I don't really worry about it, you know, just make it easy, make it easy on yourself. Um, just wash it with something that's going to get it clean. Most of the time, it's just getting the getting the smell out of it, getting the dirt out of it.

It's gonna actually last longer if you keep it cleaned. I know on my rain gear, I try not to wash is often, but I've actually found that, like on good gortex type stuff, you know, you do want to just launder it to whatever the manufacturer says. Um, you can just read the little tag on there. But what it does is it cleans out and actually works better they say, if you just like have good maintenance of it, so you don't want to let it go too long

without um, without washing it all right. One last question here comes from Michael. He says, Hey, remmy've been following along with your content since two thousand and fifteen when I planned for my first trip out west to Archery hunt Elk. He says that trip uh me and a buddy got bluff charged by sal grizz and although it was absolutely terrifying at the moment, it was a pretty cool experience. Afterwards, my question for you might be weird one because it was strange to me and I expected.

I grew up in the Northeast. After college moved to Florida. Since I've had a huge passion for offshore fishing, boating, and diving, I began hunting there and it was surprised to have had three awful encounters with wild pigs. Never thought they were dangerous, and all the locals I talked to say they're terrified of people and always around the other direction. I've been treated by two pigs and had

to shoot one in self defense already. Curious if you've ever had any dangerous run ins with ferrell pigs or am I the only one on this planet that's horrible luck with them? Thanks? That's that's a funny question, and it's a good question too, because when you think about it,

I've probably actually been charged by more pigs than anything. Um. I was doing a hunt down in Florida one time and crawling around trying to catch them bare handed, which sounds um like recipe for getting yourself into trouble anyways, and for filming, and I was like walking back to this one spot I spotted this pig. I'm like, oh sweet, talk this one. And before I could, that pig had

just charged me like straight on. Luckily it was a little bastard, and I was able to go into like push it down, get on top of it, flip it over and just like subdue it with my knee and just like hold it down and get on top and just like okay, cool. Got the pig. He's like on its side at this point, and uh like all right now, how I'm gonna let this thing go. He's pretty fired up. So I let him go and he kept like doing the same thing, like charging back in. Luckily as like

not a super large bore. It's just like it's just a small honorary thing. So I ended up just like getting to a spot wherecord like get up a tree and then he circled around the tree three or four times and went away. But I also had a couple of experiences down in Australia where I was bow hunting pigs and one pig in particular shot ran into like this swampy stuff. It was in an area where there's like I mean there, you're kind of like, hey, I'm also worried about crocs. But I thought it was it

was dry enough, shallow. If I it was like kind of out of the fringe zone of where there was there would be a lot of crocs. So like sweet trailing this pig in here, blood trailing this pig, and I thought I made I made a good shot on it. But at the time there's a good blood trail. So it's going in. It's like getting thicker and thicker, and I'm like all my hands and knees all of a sudden here and then just brush coming right at me. Crap.

So I get up a tree and pigs running by, and it happened to be another like this pig had run straight into the middle and died. But I was thinking it was the wounded pig charging me, and when in fact, it was just another random bore that happened to be close that just heard me coming, was in that thick stuff and its first instinct was to charge. Luckily there was some stuff that I could get up

out of the way. But yeah, absolutely, I know a lot of guys um that have been charged by pigs, and they are It is something that you kind of don't even think about for the most part, but they can't get pretty aggressive. I've seen them in Europe, the big Russian boars that get pretty honorary as well, So no, I don't think you're alone. Definitely, pigs can be dangerous. Um. The nice part about him is they can't really climb. Um.

I've been able the small ones. I've been able to kind of push out of the way or kick out of the way and they generally go away. But their teeth are pretty sharp. If you ever been bit by a pig, you're definitely going to try to avoid them at all costs the next time. They can be pretty pretty gnarly. So yeah, when you're out there, everyone talks about the grizzly bears, but honestly, the pigs seem to have the worst temperament of them all. So just something

to think about. And the more I talk about it, I think I've been charged by like everything on the planet, I've actually been charged by an elk as well. So when it comes to getting charged by stuff, no stranger over here. Well, thanks everybody for sending in your questions. I really appreciate him. Um. This this coming month, I'm gonna just kind of jump into a few topics that I got some other questions about a lot of stuff involving Okay, we drew tags, now what how do we

get star? Did uh? Some other like good summer prep stuff, some stuff to prepare for the season. Right now, it's like when I really start to focus and start to think about look hunting season, especially if you've got an early archery tag is coming up within a couple of months. I gotta get ready physically. I gotta get my bow ready, I go through all my gear. I just want to be so dialed when that first season rolls around that I know I'm going to find additional success because I

put in the time. Now, I did my EA scouting and maybe got out and did some scouting. I shot my bow. I'm ready. I'm just ready to go rare and to get out there and hunt a tag. I I fortunately drew a couple of really awesome tags, and I'm looking forward to this year. I'll be excited to kind of share the stories of those. But until that point, I want to help build everybody up, get everybody ready for the upcoming season. So until next week, keep cutting

the distance. That was a suggested sign off. I could I think I could go with that. That could be that could be the one. All Right, we'll catch you guys later, and thanks again for all the awesome UH responses, all the great questions. There's so many of them this week.

Just keep them coming UM generally at the end, you know, I kind of try to throw in as many as I can, and so you can keep sending those my way and we'll hopefully get to as many as we can UM in the next Q and A. All right, talk to you guys later.