Remy Warren (0:00)

Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. A lot of the tactics I talk about here require you to be in top physical shape. So I partnered with Mountain Tough to help get you ready for the mountain with their science based hunter specific training app. You'll get in shape and mentally tough able to tackle any hunt. Because we really believe this will help you be more successful as a listener to this podcast, we're giving you six free weeks to get you started. Just use code livewild. Well everyone, welcome back to Live Wild Podcast. I hope you guys have been enjoying this little series on whitetail. You know, this week we're going to be diving into part two of Western Whitetails and we're going to be focusing on the habits and hunt strategies of river bottom bucks. Last week we covered deer that live in that mountainous terrain, but there's another major habitat type out west where whitetails really flourish and we like to call it river bottom country. This is often the preferred habitat for white tail deer and can provide some really good hunting. So this week we're going to look at what that river bottom country is and dive into tips on how to effectively hunt it from sit and wait tactics or even your standard stand tactics to spot and stock. But before we do that, I want to share the story of a buck from last season that was pretty high strung. So last year I I actually had a elk tag in Wyoming and when I got that elk tag I I knew that I had that elk tag. So I tried to pick up a deer tag in the area just in case I got done early on the elk hunt and and might be able to go chase some deer, either mule deer or whitetails in the the mule deer in the area had been hit pretty hard by harsh winter it seemed like so but the whitetails from what I could gather were kind of flourishing in there a little bit, doing quite a bit better than the mule de. So I had, I guess it was like a half a day really after the elk hunt before I was headed back to go to go chase some deer. So I ended up, going down and checking out some river bottom country. This was just kind of along creek, river bottom, just like you'd expect. Some cottonwood habitat and then also some agriculture in there. Now this particular spot had, it was probably more arid type, you know, high deserty kind of stuff, sage off the sides, breaks and kind of like you'd think of as like sandhill country, you know, breaks kind of country, that kind of stuff. So along the river bottom there was willow habitat, agriculture, brush, and then cottonwoods and stuff like that. And then up on the sides a little more deserty. So the deer would kind of utilize a little bit of both. So we just, our plan was to kind of focus on where deer were maybe going to move to agriculture and, and try to find, you know, some bucks in that riparian type area down in the bottom. And with just a little bit of time, like, you know, wasn't, wasn't a whole lot of time to really figure them out. I guess I actually had like one evening before to scout it and then that, that finally means we went out with a buddy to chase some elk in the morning. So just planned like a little bit of a half day hunt and see if we can, we can get on a good buck. And, and through the scouting we kind of figured out buddy that lives there showed us some spots of like, oh, here's where a bunch of deer are, here's where they've, they've chased deer and everything. So we definitely had a good, good idea of, of where to go, what, what to look for. And so the next evening went in there. We'd seen quite a few bucks actually. So we were, we were just kind of really going from spot to spot looking before the evening time, like maybe we can find a buck that's out feeding or you know, pick something up. My thought was to kind of glass some of that upper stuff of where they might be bedding and ended up actually bumping a few like a group of deer. And they, there was a couple good bucks in there and we watched them run and I'm thinking, well, let's see if they stop. So we, we sat down and watched them and they actually bedded up on this kind of, I guess like a little ridge kind of out in the open. And I figured they're, they're probably going to move down into the fields at night. But right now they're extremely stockable. Well, I mean stockable is something to be in kind of that open country. So it's just a matter of timing. So I made the plan There was. There was two there. I guess there was a bunch of deer, but the two. The two better bucks split off and in bed by themselves. I guess one of the thoughts was like, they could. Could get up and move at any time. In which case, I don't know how long it's going to take to get over there. I mean, they're probably a. Oh, I would say at least a mile away, you know, and it was kind of hard to see where they went because I ended up having to move around. And I actually just turned up the spotting scope because I was like, I didn't think they went out of this little. They call them like coolies in that country, this little dip in the hill. And I just cranked my spotter up to full power, started glassing and picked up the antler tip shining in the sun of one of the bucks and just assumed that the other deer was there. But I really wanted to kind of get a good vantage and see where the other buck was sneaking in, because I figured, okay, well, if we time it right there, they might move down, we might intercept them in moving back to that kind of agriculture area. Or best case scenario, we'll kind of catch them bedded, wait for them to stand up, stock them just like you would mule deer, sneak in, wait as they get up to move for the evenings, get a shot. But time is not on our side. We don't have a lot of time. The sun's gonna start to set. They're gonna start to move. We've got a long distance to travel. We gotta cross, like, a little river or whatever and get over there. So drop down, cross through the stream. It was actually pretty deep. I was like, trying to find a place to cross through, start moving in, and as we're moving in, actually spotted another buck kind of bedded off closer to the river. So thought was, well, maybe we go see. There's a good, like, break in the hill where I thought, well, maybe I could just peek up and over from this particular point and have a shot straight down. That'd be ideal. So I thought it's kind of in route to those other bucks. Even though it's going to take some time, it's worth looking into because could be an even better opportunity. I think with the. The way that the evening was coming on, the winds might start swirling and kick those other deer up out. So this might be a good opportunity. So go over there, end up popping over, and that other buck was up feeding and like, 150 yards away, with no other approach. So I just said, okay, let's bag this. Go after those. Probably shouldn't have even gone and looked for that. But, you know, at the time, from the angle, it looked like, well, maybe he's close enough to that lip of that, I guess, bluff that we could get a shot off from the top. So decided to now try to hustle to get to those other deer before they got up. So move in. And I'm just. So there was actually, like, some fence posts, and there was a gate that I'd seen in the fence. And before I went over there, I just made sure I knew where I was going, and I counted the posts between the. I guess, like, the. Where the gate was. Kind of assumed where it was just like. So I could kind of give me an idea of where to go in at. So hustling to get there to try before these deer get up and still not knowing if they're up. So moving in, looking kind of going slow but going fast. Running to. Essentially running up this draw to try to get into position, get there, drop my pack, take off my shoes, buddy. Zach's filming in behind me. And so we drop our shoes, and we're going to start creeping in. We're creeping into where it looks like the deer were moving in. The sun's starting to go down behind us, which is great. The wind's good. Everything actually seems pretty perfect for this. And as we're moving in, I'm ranging to where I want to get to, and I want to get to, like, this fence. I'm going to crawl under it and then get set up on the other side and kind of glass and see, because it should be. You know, I pulled out my onyx maps and dropped a few pins of where I thought it was and should be within range. So we're moving in, and I look up, and I catch antlers from the buck moving our direction. And it's like, son of a gun. I mean, just a few more minutes, and it. And thankfully, the buck didn't see us. We dropped down. The sun's at our back, which is in an advantage. And that buck is walking directly to us, and he's going from, like, 80 to 60 to 50. And we're kind of in the open. I mean, there's some grass around us or whatever, but not a lot. So we're practically, like, crouched down. I've got a broadhead on the. On the string, arrow on the arrow, knocked. I mean, and this buck's coming in. I'm like, all right. At some point, like, he's either gonna run over us and blow, blow this out, see us, whatever. It's just not. I'm going to wait for a good opportunity. Now, the kind of angle where I'm crouched down, I just see top of the grass and the buck. And so he's feeding and he's feeding towards. And he starts to turn and kind of corner away and kind of go broadside. I get up range him when his head's down. Perfect. He's like 30 yards. I think it was 32 yards. Something like that set my pin. And now the next moment that I get where he's not paying attention, I'm going to draw back. So he does that. I'm being super patient. I've got my bow there. I draw back. I anchor in as I'm drawing back. Like, he's now kind of looking in our direction, but he doesn't know that we're there. Like, the sun's in his eyes. Like, I think he just knows something's up. But it's like he was looking every direction, right. He's alert and everything. But maybe I do. I still think I'm like, all right, this is going to work. Like, here we go. I didn't know. I didn't think that it was the bigger buck. There actually was quite a bit bigger buck. But I saw that he was like a four by four and thought, oh, maybe that was the buck that I saw. Turns out there was a bigger buck in there. But with not a lot of time deciding things going down, I'm at full draw. I put it on. I'm like, staying low. So I essentially have brush. I know where his vitals are, but I'm staying low enough where I know I'm going to be able to shoot over the brush that I'm looking at. So, like, my line of sight, he's kind of obstructed. His, like, vitals are obstructed. So I put it where I want, you know, through. Through the brush, knowing that I'm going to clear it here because there's a little bit of a rise between us and it should drop down exactly where I want it to. I release the arrow. And I mean like that. That buck was so high strung. Like that sound. This thing with white tails, man, you got to aim low. But half the time, like, that arrow wasn't even close to where he was by the time the arrow got there. And that arrow is going quick. And then I also, like, heard like a little bit of a twang. So I think that I Clipped the fence in some way because it looked like what happened. Like, the arrow wasn't where it was supposed to be. Well, I didn't see there was a top wire of the fence that I couldn't see from my angle. Like, I actually didn't see that the fence was right there. And if I was up a little bit higher, I could have but my angle. So I think, like, even on the camera, you could see the fence better. But from where I was at, I was trying to stay down a little more. I actually didn't even see that the fence was. I knew there was a fence over there, but I didn't know it was, like, right there. So I don't know if my arrow hit the fence. Either way, it wouldn't have mattered because, like, looking back at it, the dude, the buck was gone before that arrow even got close. It looked like, like just spun around, ran off. So I ran to the. I didn't see him pop out the other side. So I ran up over to go see if I could see where they went. And the other buck jumped up from its bed another 30 yards past where this buck got up from. It was a really good buck. I thought, well, maybe they'll stop in the bottom. So I went over to the top, peeked over, but they caught me before I caught them. Unfortunately, like, I should have gone in a little slower, but I was trying to just make haste and make a play, thinking, like, oh, maybe I can make a play on some other deer. They bumped out, ran over into the next little coulee, and I never saw them come out. So I stalked in there, spent a lot of time like, okay, maybe they're just holding up. That wasn't the case. They'd probably blown out of the country and just hit the bottom and ran out the bottom or ran out the top. I have no clue which way they went or how they got out of there. But they got out of there and. And that was. It missed the buck. Whether it was the fence, I mean, I. I really don't think, like, I think I did clip the fence, but I also don't think that that made any bit of a difference. Like, that buck, that buck had a lucky rabbit's foot. I guess like a four leaf clover. It was. It was just. He was gone too. Also before that that arrow even got there. Like, I. That's a kind of a jump that you can't anticipate. I know with white tails, like, I like to aim low and similar to, like, axis deer, but, man, they can just Especially in that open country. Like they can be so high strung where they just, they hear something and they're bounded out and gone before that arrow even gets there. But ended up not getting a deer on that. It was just like a half a day little hunt. But it was a lot of fun. And you know, being able to target that river bottom country gave me a lot of opportunity to find deer and potentially find success on in a short amount of time. You know, I had an opportunity, I got in. It was a fun stock and a fun way to hunt whitetails. Similar way that I would have hunted mule deer in that country. And yeah, just a really cool little experience. That story is just one of many, many stories that I have chasing bucks in the river bottoms across the west, different states all across the west. You know, like spending summers in Montana as a kid, I would spend a lot of time cruising the river bottoms. Me and my buddies would, you know, find places where whitetails would be kind of explore bedding areas. And especially for like later in the season, we'd ask for permission to go hunt different places. The thing about a lot of river bottom is it's, it's actually locked up as private property. But that's not always the case. There's a lot of country that's, that's open, or it's that kind of riparian type area, cottonwood type area, lower elevation area, which can either be private and public, allowed to hunt through like access programs through different states, or it can just be public land as well. So there's a lot of, a lot of different opportunities. But I used to spend a lot of time, you know, finding access, getting access, and even just like scouting a lot of these areas. And some of my best bucks have come from places like that where, you know, you got permission to hunt or whatever. I can remember when I was probably like 16, this buck that I shot down on, down on river bottom, this was like eastern Montana. And man, we were chasing this like giant, absolute giant buck, like 160 plus, 165 plus type, typical, like really big buck. And we'd been hunting him for, you know, a couple different, like different days. And he was just going from like bedding feeding in the morning to like, who knows, slipping away into some more thicker country where you just never find him and, and saw him a couple times, like just quick glimpses before it started to get light. And we'd be like a ways away and then he'd just disappear. So we planned on making like this setup and ambushing where they seemed like they were funneling up through the hills and we're waiting there and a bunch of deer filtering by. It's starting to get light and then out pops this buck. It was a different buck as he had these double eye guards, like heavy buck double eye guards, mainframe 4x4. So I guess it was like eastern count and be a 12 point beautiful buck. And, and I thought man, I, we didn't, I didn't know if that bigger buck was in, in that group or not. So I decided to shoot that deer. And at the time it was my best white tail. It was just a. Still, still one of my top whitetails. Awesome buck. Just, just a lot of fun, awesome hunt. I think I, I can't remember. My dad was watching from the other side. I can't remember if the big buck was in that group or not. Probably was. You know, he probably just didn. But the buck that I got was super stoked on and yeah, I mean just like I had a lot of great hunts with a bow, with a rifle, with muzzleloader, like chasing bucks in that river bottom country. And I've literally hunted them every way from putting them to bed and stalking them. I've shot bucks in my waders, stocked them in my waders while working up river bottoms and creek bottoms. I've hung stands and hunted from stands, ground blinds between feeding areas. I've. I've gone into areas that I've never been located deer and, and then planned strategies and ambushes on them. I've scouted and done the whole thing like I've hunted them every way you can essentially in river bottoms and, and had a lot of fun doing it all different kinds of ways. Now the one thing that I think we'll kind of start off with is kind of identifying that what I'm considering what I call river bottom type habitat. And it's really what it sounds like. It's just riparian areas along creeks or rivers main, the main country type. So you'll have the mountains and then you got these valleys and between all mountains there's always valleys. And in those valleys, you know you're going to have probably some form of water source in there. And with that you get good concentrations of deer. And it really does have every type of terrain from like dense forest to river break sandhill country. You can have that more arid desert, sage, brushy stuff with some cottonwoods and things mixed in and you can even have just stuff that would look like thick forest wherever, wherever you hunt whitetails in the country. Now another Thing that is pretty predominant in this type of country is, is private land and agriculture, because that's where things grow well, where there's water. So things like alfalfa fields are more prominent and popular out west. But you can also encounter huge agriculture areas in some places that have things like corn, potatoes, I don't know, wheat, whatever. You can encounter that kind of stuff as well. But for the most part, lot of it, what you're going to find is like cattle country. The ag is going to be something for cattle, so, you know, primarily alfalfa and. And that attracts massive amounts of deer as well. Because you think about a lot of this country, it's not like stuff that you might find in like the Midwest where you've got a lot of ag, a lot of good deer habitat. Like, the deer habitat's a little bit condensed, and even like the really good food sources are a little bit condensed, but it, it really concentrates the whitetails in these certain areas. And then you've got more of that like plains type country other places. And we still kind of just call that, you know, river like stuff that's out of the mountains is more that river bottom country or that ag type property. So there's a little bit of everything in between. Everything from public land to private land, agriculture, to just, you know, breaks type country. What I mean by breaks country is like where it's like that little flatter rolling hills, more like steep banks where water flows seasonally and cuts out these areas. I mean, you see it like people call like sandhill type country, coulee country, river break country, all that kind of stuff, kind of in this river bottom habitat. But it's really good habitat for whitetails. Like they really flourish in that stuff. Some of it can be real thick cottonwood forests around major river arteries, or sometimes just streams, creeks, and even just willow thicker country, even like more. Sometimes even like marshier moose type habitat in those valleys and meadows around the mountains or surrounded by pine forests where whitetails, you know, tend to like that kind of habitat because they can hide real well, they've got good food and forage, and they can survive in there. So the river bottom type areas can be really good areas to. To target whitetails. And there can be some great hunts pretty much from. And I mean, what I'm considering west, I mean, you know, you even got like Midwest states that you can do similar hunting strategies in. But anything from Colorado west until you hit, you know, everywhere except for Nevada and California, as far as I know, has, has whitetail. So that country's all over the place and there's a lot of good habitat like that. And honestly, the strategies that you can employ there are very similar to where people hunt whitetails other places. The only difference is there's often more room to roam and the concentrations of deer more spread out, I would say. So what I mean by that is like you might have one giant river system, right? And where you can hunt, let's say, I don't know, northeast Midwest is like, okay, you can hunt this small hundred acre parcel or whatever, depending on what you've got. But here out west there might be areas where it's like miles and miles of public land or miles and miles of area with opportunity to access a lot of these places. And so there's way more room to roam. Also the deer densities are way lower now on fields and other things, agriculture, you might see a hundred deer, but outside of that, hey, they're, they're sprinkled in here and there, but a lot lower densities, however, a lot more space to go. So that, that spatial issue is kind of the thing that we focus on when it comes to western whitetails, even when it comes to river bottom bucks. Now whitetails in these kind of areas act like they do for the most part as whitetails anywhere. And the thing that I kind of concentrate on, like I'm going into a new area, there's a lot of these places you go and hey, it's a new spot. I'm going to go look for whitetails. I'm going to plan on hunting whitetails this season. What am I concentrating on? And well, the first couple of things I look for is like feed and bedding areas. Now with agriculture, there's your feed, it's easier to find. And bedding is probably going to be sometimes in a lot of this country, maybe in less supply. So we're looking for those like real thick areas where the deer can kind of get into, penetrate into and feel real safe from predators and other things and they have a lot of opportunity to escape. Sometimes though, in areas that don't have that, you know, feed might be that more brushy type stuff or you know, like some good browse, whatever they're, they're looking for. It depends on the kind of country. If you're more arid, right, feeds in less supply and you're looking at more of that like brush stuff around the water sources, where most of the feed is, things like the willows and around that kind of country, you're going to find that in different kind of terrain. Like you can find them in country where it's oak brush and stuff like that. Like I've seen them in so many different types of habitats, pine forests, you know, where they're browsing on like shoot pine trees that have fallen over and they're eating like the lichen and stuff off of it, the old man's beard and stuff like that. So the thing that though, that we're going to concentrate on is like feed embedding areas. Obviously, if you can, you can focus on agriculture as like a, is honestly like a point to pin, you know, oh, here's some agriculture. I'm gonna find deer there. And then is there some places I can hunt around or can I hunt near that or get permission there? Or is it somewhere where I can, you know, hunt nearby is a good way to at least like find concentrations of deer. Now the other thing is a lot, a lot of places that people are used to hunting, there's not as much cover in some of these areas as other places in the U.S. and so we can use that lack of COVID in some ways. As you know, it depends on like the type of place that you find, right? Like you find a place that's real thick and you'll get like along some of this river bottom stuff, you'll get like just this thick Russian olive, like real almost impenetrable type stuff. And those are often good bedding areas and things. And you can use strategies like calling and other strategies to draw deer out during the rut. But for the most part what we're going to talk about here is just kind of identifying the habitat types that they like to use and then a couple of different ways to hunt that. So now when you've got like big areas, let's say you're going into, I mean, I'm going to be bouncing around a little bit here as I talk about this, but I think for most people, most people have hunted whitetails more than anything outside of people from the West. And so they're going to understand a lot of like the, a lot of the strategy that they use. It's like, hey, we're hunting, let's say you put in a food plot and you're hunting these travel corridors between food and bedding, or hunting off the edge of food as they move to bed. Like very similar kind of strategy. Just it looks a lot different. So one of the nice added benefits of not as much cover is you can use that in places you can kind of focus on. Okay, there's not a lot of COVID The same thing that I kind of talk about with any species is what do they need and what's in the least supply. So in that more open, arid type, river bottom stuff, places where there's thicker spots, thickets that could be used for cover and bedding. Okay, you can start to highlight bedding areas. Now. If you're going into an area that you don't know, you can utilize that in two ways. Maybe this, this whole bedding area is like miles long and there's very few whitetails where you're at. Okay. How do you figure out where they like to bed? Well, you can move through there. And in some ways I've done this in a lot of times. Like I don't like to pressure deer, but sometimes I'll go into areas where I think they might be bedded, bump them out of their bedding area and know, okay, this is where they're bedding. Okay, where they may be feeding. Or is this a place that I could kind of set up and hunt. And I like to do that primarily while scouting, not necessarily while hunting, but I've done it while hunting as well. Because we're going to cover a lot more country in this type of hunt than we are somewhere else. Right. The name of the game in some of this is covered country if you've got the ability to, especially in areas where the densities are a lot lower. Now in places where it's super straightforward, there's deer on this agriculture. Here's some thick cover. They're probably moving here. You can go and find trails and other things. And sweet. We've got, we've got our zone now. We can choose how we want to hunt it. We could set up a stand like you would anywhere else. And I mean hunting the travel corridors. There's a place that I hunted in Wyoming quite a few years back. I've hunted multiple times, but it's like the place where we can hunt. It was like they would just travel through there from food to bedding. In a certain time of the day they would get off the alfalfa fields and they would move through like a herd of caribou. It would just be like a hundred deer coming by and hope that they the better bucks took your path. Right. And set up a tree stand. And here they come. And it was just like phenomenal hunt. I've also done similar things where, hey, we found an area where it's like an open meadow in cottonwood country. Or you go, okay, like from up above, you know, get up on a bluff Glassing down into the river bottoms. And like, man, we keep seeing whitetails in this little pocket of open in the evenings near this thicket. So go down there, put up a ground blind and wait for them to come out and feed. Because they can be very patternable just like they can anywhere else. Sometimes their patterns are a little bit bigger, but often in that river bottom country, like if they aren't pushed or bumped, they'll stay in their little zones. They've got their sanctuaries, their little tight little areas that they like, they've got their feeding areas and they bounce around between their feeding areas and they do the same thing and they keep going back to those little sanctuaries where they're safe and you can exploit that and say, all right, I mean, I've had a lot of hunts, like a lot of time spent where I set up a ground blind in those feeding areas. It's like just more open grass area, maybe whatever it is that they like in there, or maybe it's something that was planted a long time ago, whatever. For the most part it's more just like open little meadow areas where you see them at. Set up a ground blind and on a near good trail and sit and wait. And I've had taken bucks that way and had really good opportunities that way. But in this, in this river bottom type country, you know, I think the, the, the key is to like understand where the deer are and then what are some of their movements and patterns. Right. And a lot of that, maybe the little bit of difference between the way that I would hunt whitetails and somebody else that's got like a, a farm in Wisconsin in the way that they're hunting them. Right. They know that property probably like the back of their hand. They know where they're feeding, they know the routes and the other things. And so they're setting up on that, trying to exploit that, that weakness. They've got cameras out, they know what kind of deer moving where, what when and how. Right. If you got the time, you can, you can definitely do that on western whitetails in that river bottom country for sure. But for the most part, most people go out, they're hunting and they don't have that, that knowledge of that area. And so I utilize both stalking techniques and I guess like ambush techniques we'll call ambush technique, like still hunt, not still hunting, but like stand hunting, like tree stand and, or ground blind or even just like if you're rifling, like setting up in an area and overlooking a certain area. Right. Utilize that A lot. But the way that I hunt that might be a little bit different than other places is it's kind of in some ways like a scouting, hunting kind of trade off. So I travel around like I'm using my optics often or covering country until I figure out where the deer are. Then I watch the deer and try to develop a pattern, and then I try to move in and exploit that pattern. I think of it kind of like, I don't know, maybe people do this other places as well. Like, think about it kind of like setting up for geese, right? Like you, you move around until you find the field that the geese are hitting. And then you set up the next morning, like on the X, where you think that they're gonna be very similar strategy to western whitetails, where if you're gonna, if you're gonna do one of those reset up, you're going in, you're scouting, you're, you're hunting. Yeah. If you see something cool, you can take advantage of that. But you're really starting off first looking for deer, figuring out where are they feeding, maybe where are they bedding, and where are some places that I can get into position and set up. So the first few days or whatever, I might even just utilize to kind of learn it. Like, especially if I'm bow hunting and I gotta get close and go, okay, this is a super open country. How am I going to do this? I'm not just going to walk around and hope to get into whitetail. No, I'm going to, I'm going to be methodical about it. I'm going to, I'm going to go in, I'm going to get on this bluff. I'm going to glass all this country, see where deer at, see where they're moving, watch them for a few days and see if there's certain patterns. You go like, dude, there's a lot of deer going up this one draw. Okay. Tomorrow they're coming into this, let's say agriculture area through this draw. Sweet. I'm going to go set up a blind there or hey, there's a fence, an old fence line here. And they, they seem to be crossing through here. Okay, this is where I'm going to set up. So I'm doing a lot of scouting to kind of find the place that I'm going to set up. And then I set up with that hope of drawing the, you know, like waiting for the buck to be close enough for that bow shot. Especially in country that's like very tough for stalking and do that a Lot where it's like you're moving around, you're looking for deer, you find deer you've kind of start to exploit. What are their patterns that they're doing, where do they like to be? And then hunting there. And over the years too, you can, you can kind of figure that out if you got time to scout. Super beneficial, right? I mean, like, there's a lot of places I like to hunt and I like to scout it out and know these travel corridors. And I mean, it's like there's places that I've hunted and I've got. I hunt the same stand every year just like you would anywhere else, right? It's like, hey, the wind's good for this spot. They like to move through this particular area. This is like a little bit of a travel area. Based on the topography. This is where I'm going to hunt. And you can, you can actually be very successful in that, in that type of hunt, in that type of country. Another thing is, like, another way that we'll hunt a lot is like still hunting and spot and stock hunting. So still hunting, we'll be moving through that whitetail country. Especially if it's rifle season. You can move through that country. You can move slow, you can, you can get in openings. Watch, move, watch and just cover that. Like, I've hunted a lot of river bottom stuff that's absolute giant pine forest covered in alders and thick. Like, it's just thick. There's a few openings you aren't glassing. Long distances like you might like when you see a deer, you can probably shoot a deer kind of country. But as you do that, you're going to find areas where there's higher concentrations of deer. Just like in that. In the last episode where we talked about hunting mountain bucks. And you go, okay, here's a spot where the deer particularly like. And then as we start to find those spots that the deer like, we can spend more time in those spots. Maybe that's sitting, maybe that's putting up a stand. Maybe that's whatever. Like, there's places where I go and I'm like, I don't see any deer anywhere but this one little draw, like near this one meadow. I. I see deer all the time. And then I was like, okay, now I'm just. This is actually going to be where I hunt during the rut. I'll put up a stand, I'll do some calling. I've got a better vantage and I can overlook this area. And clearly a travel corridor for bucks and does and I can find success that way. But there's also that river bottom country, that big open, you know, cottonwood country that can be super conducive to watching deer, potentially putting them to bed and stocking in and so on. Those I do in places where I can do a lot of glassing, I still do a lot of glassing. Or even it might be as much as like driving around covering country, getting to different vantage points, glassing river bottom, river bottom, river bottom. Until you find areas where, oh, here's a, here's a good spot where the deer are and you can watch them where they go in and oh, they didn't come out of there. Okay, I can stalk in. Or even like ambush techniques where you see them. Maybe there's a bedding area you see where you know, potential feeding areas, like, hey, here's a field or something that they're moving to and you cut them off along the way. That's a, that's a strategy that we use a lot for whitetails. Like, okay, we see a whitetail, here's where I think he's going. I'm going to try to get in front of him and wait for him to kind of close the gap. To me is a, is a really successful tactic for that bigger country kind of whitetail stuff. And then another big strategy is getting up in an area where you've got a decent vantage, sitting, waiting and watching. This be like getting on a bluff above some river bottom country where they might cruise, sit there, get set up, bring a chair, whatever, like get comfortable and just sit and watch and wait and, and maybe the deer aren't. You aren't necessarily setting up. This is really more of a rifle strategy. But I do this with my bow often as well where I'm not really setting up to shoot from here. Like, it's not like stand hunting where you go, I'm going into my stand and when a deer comes by, I'm planning on shooting it. You're sitting up in country where you've got a good vantage. Might not be as like big advantage you might find in the mountains. But hey, I'm on a little bit of a bluff in the break so I can see over this like particular area. I'm just going to sit here and watch and then deer start coming out and then you make plays or stocks on those deer that are kind of materializing in front of you. Sometimes that involves like some of this river bottom country, clear cuts in that more timbered stuff. You're like, okay, I'm over this there's some river here, some thick country. I'm just going to sit here, be patient, watching, waiting. You got your binoculars out, you're glassing and then boom, a deer pops out. It's not one that you can shoot with your bow from where you're, you go, okay, now he's feeding. Now I'm going to make my stock while he's feeding. So you're, you're doing spot and stock within a certain range. You go, hey, maybe it's a half a mile zone that you can see. And as the deer start to do things, you start to make plays on those deer. Can be super effective strategy for whitetails. Like you can be mobile and you can definitely make plays in stocks. Like I said, I've. There's been, you know, multiple deer that I've been hunting, like river bottom areas. All I've had like duck hunting, waiters on and like spotted them from above, moved in, you know, watched where they kind of bedded, snuck in and shot them while wearing my waders. So there, there is like a lot of opportunity, a lot of options for hunting a lot of different ways. But I think the biggest thing is like identifying where the deer are and then watching and trying to like build out a pattern and then deciding the best course of action for however you're hunting. So it's like, hey, I'm bow hunting. Say it's early September, they're going to be tied more to like hunting the rut and hunting like early. Early I focus on food, you know, late I focus on does. So like a lot of the similar tactics you use everywhere, but just in a bigger scale and a lot more flexibility to be able to move and figure out where deer are. So I kind of, I combine a combination of patience and then action and then patience. So if I'm bow hunting, let's say it's early season, say it's September. Okay, cool. They're really tied to food, bucks especially. They're going and growing or they're done growing, but they're just like bulking up for the rut. So they're going to be tied to that food. Then they're going to be moving to bed. And I can exploit that like pattern. So I'll do a lot of moving around until I find where the deer are. A lot of essentially like scouting while hunting and then find the place that I want to set up and ambush the deer. Like this is where I think that they're going to be going through, through set up weight. That could be super effective. Another tactic that I'll do is that same where I'm like, in proximity, I'm glassing and I'm just using classic spot and stock. When I see him, oh, there's a deer. Okay, now I'm going to move in as he's moving, try to come off and get in position. And there's the other one with if the country is conducive enough to either still hunting or just pure spot and stock on a bedded deer, like, find the deer, bed them and then move in. Like in that story that I did after that elk hunt. Like, the terrain and the situation was really conducive to that. But that's not everywhere. So there's a lot of different tactics. Now if we're going into like a rifle hunt, it can be different. We'll pick up, we'll pick an area where it's more open, we can overlook. We can continually check different areas kind of glassing, try to find that buck, and then it's like move in and. And shoot or go in that thicker country. More still hunting tactics. We're removing, glassing, moving glass, and continually moving till we find the type of buck that we're looking for or the, you know, type of country in action that we're looking for. It could be an area pocket late season, where there's lots of does. Like, okay, cool, this is an area where we should sit and wait for a while and then until I find that maybe I'm moving quite a bit, glassing and looking and checking different areas until I find a spot that looks good and sit down and wait for those mornings and evenings and then kind of continue checking new spots throughout the day. I'm saying a lot of things, but what I'm saying is it really, you know, the first thing that you try to focus on is what are their patterns and movements? Where are the places that they like? And then how are we going to focus on hunting them once we identify that? Because a lot of this country is bigger and things, you know, you might be in a place that, hey, you can't even get a tag. Every year you're on an elk hunt and you have a deer tag as well. Okay, how are we going to go and figure out these whitetails in a short amount of time? And so it's really, you know, a combination of glassing essentially, like scouting, glassing, spotting, and then choosing how you're going to hunt, either stalking or ambushing or setting up like a sit and wait technique and tactic. I think the coolest thing about hunting whitetails in the west is there is that opportunity to hunt themselves so many different ways. If you're a guy that's like, I love hunting from a stand, you know, it's. It's how I enjoy hunting. I've hunted a lot of whitetails that way. You can absolutely use that tactic on western whitetails. It's just in bigger country and often have more room to roam. Right. Like, they. But in some ways, like, it can be a very effective tactic that gets, you know, used less in. In some situations than other places. The other thing is, like, it's very huntable for whatever kind of strategy you want. You're like, man, I want to do some more stalking techniques. Well, it. There's a lot of country in whitetail country that's very stalkable, where you can creep in on deer as they're feeding, as they're going to bed, as they're just moving back and forth between places. So there's a lot of different ways that you can hunt whitetails, and it can be a really fun. Hunting can be as dynamic and as big a country and very possibly, you know, more room to roam than a lot of people are used to for hunting whitetails, and more huntable in some ways than people are used to for whitetails. Because there can be that open country, and you can get into that thick country and go, okay, I really got to find trails. I got to read sign. I gotta. Oh, this looks like zone where there's a lot of tracks. This would be a good place for a stand. And I keep seeing deer here. Okay. I just got to be patient and wait them out. And you can absolutely be successful that way as well. I think that's the cool thing about it is there's often a lot of area to cover, and you can kind of find, you know, your particular hunting style or using multiple styles of hunting. Man, there's like a week of western whitetail hunting for me. Often looks like, like, sitting for a small portion of it, Because I'm like, I know this would be a really good strategy. I could kill a good buck this way. But then I get bored and then moving, like, still hunting through new area. I mean, there's been times where I've just move in glass super slow, and I'll, like, literally walk up on bedded bucks and shoot them in their beds. I mean, I've shot probably. I don't know, probably a third of the deer that I've taken have been that way, like, through kind of thicker country, moving, catching deer, moving Getting down, stalking in with a bow, with a muzzleloader, with a rifle, like, all kinds of ways. And then, you know, a few of them have been from a ground blinder tree stand. And then a few of them have been, like, straight up in more open country, spot and stock, where you're like, boom, spotted him. Okay, now I'm going to move in. And then a lot of them have been like, that ambush technique where you, like, see him move and try to cut them off. It's like, not great for stalking. It's like you can't stalk all the way in, but you can get close and hope that they take the right route to you. And that's the cool thing about it to me is there's so many different ways to hunt them, and it's really fun to try to figure out. And of course, if you're, if you live in an area where you've got whitetails, you can, you can put in more of that time. Scouting. Scouting pays a lot of dividends for whitetails. Even western whitetails, I would say more so than other species, because that patternability of them gives you the upper hand. So understanding that, like, where's their feeding, where's their bedding, where's their travel routes, you're more likely to encounter the buck that you want or a certain, you know, have a certain hunt or a certain experience because you understand that area and the deer in it. You know, I think a lot of hunts lend themselves to scouting, but I think, like, the more, you know a particular area, you just give yourself more options on the type of ways that you can hunt it. And overall, we'll probably find more success in the long run with western whitetails. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. It's always fun to dive into western whitetail strategy and tactics, and especially because there's so many different ways that you can hunt them and go about it, from that heavy glassing and spot and stock to, you know, figuring them out, scouting, ambushing, setting up a stand. Like, there's just so many different ways to hunt them. It can be a really fun hunt. There's so much to it, too. So if you guys, if you guys enjoyed these podcasts and want more tips that we could break out based on seasonality of, like, early season rut, that kind of thing, let me know we can, we can dive back into some more strategies, because I really feel like there could be essentially limitless topics to kind of go into and ways to dive into the strategies a little bit deeper, but that feedback always helps. Me. As always, guys, thank you so much for the support the podcast. Feel free to leave a comment or a rating wherever you listen. And if you aren't subscribed to my YouTube channel, make sure you go over there. Subscribe. I'm going to pop up a little bit of a video from that western white tail hunt last year. The, the High strung buck. Just a, a quick little video, a little, you know, just a little half day kind of hunt, but fun to watch if you want to watch the story play out in real time in real life if you, you know, like, yeah, the audio version's great, but now I get to see exactly what he's talking about. So go check that out. Another thing I wanted to mention, you know, awesome supporter, this podcast, Vortex Optics. Of course, they've got great optics. You know, everything from spotting scopes, tripods, rifle scopes, range finders, all the stuff we talk about and use a lot. And if you guys are looking for some of those, you can also find them on my website. Remy warren.com got all that stuff. If you're gearing up for the fall or for the spring season, there's still a lot of spring seasons to be had ahead of us. Spring bear hunting, some turkey hunts, all that kind of good stuff. If you're looking for anything like that, you can find that there. But another thing that maybe, you know, maybe you don't know that they have is their Vortex wear. They've just got some awesome lifestyle brand, you know, clothing outerwear stuff primarily just for, you know, day to day life. One of the things, every time I'm somewhere I'm like, I see a Vortex hat or Vortex shirt, I'm like, all right, these guys know what's up, you know, fellow hunters. But they've got some, they're just, today they're releasing their spring, their new spring summer stuff. So they've got everything on there from like flannels, collared shirts, you know, it's like pretty much what I wear in my day to day life outside of hunting. They've got some cool new stuff, some new hat designs coming out today. They've also got some new shirt designs, everything for that hunting, fishing, shooting lifestyle. They've also got this sweet sun slayer shirt. I'm gonna pick this one up. It's like a button up sun shirt. I'm gonna use this for, for fishing on hitting the rivers this spring and summer. It's pretty cool looking. I think it's the snap front sun shirt. I haven't seen one of those before. So that's the one I'm actually gonna get. But. But they got a lot of cool stuff that just came out today, so if you guys are familiar with it or aren't they got a lot of spring themed stuff, turkey hunting stuff, all kinds of cool stuff. So the vortex wear is there. You can find something for summer or whatever activities you're. You're headed out for, aside from just awesome optics. So go check that out. You can find that on their website, vortexoptics.com. all right, well, until next week, I'm just gonna say. I don't even know what I'm gonna. What am I gonna say? Western whitetails rule. Catch you guys later.