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. Foreign welcome back to Live Wild podcast. This week we're going to be focusing on that final prep before your inseason action. You know, it's just crazy for me to think that the season's almost here in in many places, archery seasons are starting off across the west. They're about to kick off. There's some archery pronghorn tags starting some August deer seasons. A lot of sheep hunts might be starting in August. Caribou seasons up north and then even a few elk seasons down here start to fire up around August. So while most hunters probably don't hit the mountains and or woods until maybe September later, now is the time for those just last minute preparations. We're talking about going through gear, packing up, dialing the setup all before heading out into the mountains. It seems like every year, at least for me, it seems like, okay, these hunts that you're planning about thinking of tag draws, all this stuff, it just kind of seems so far out and then all of a sudden they're here and it just seems like there's always a ton of last minute stuff that kind of maybe slip through the cracks before you feel ready. So this week we're going to dive into the few of the things to check now, things to think about and dial in on some stuff right now so when it comes opening day you're ready to go. So this week I'm going to share a few of my little last minute prep and packing hacks. We're going to look at ways to practice with your bow to benefit you for that last minute things like maybe you haven't shot all summer. Or maybe you have shot all summer, some of the like last minute practice that's efficient. And then we're going to talk about a few of the other hunts that I have coming up because I want to talk about the, the style of hunt and how I'm planning for different trips and how that looks different in this preparation, this time of year. So let's gear up for the upcoming season and we're going to dive in and we're going to talk about how to prepare for your hunts. Before we get too far in today's podcast, I wanted to do a little bit of a public service announcement because I know that there's quite a few people that listen to this podcast on Thursdays when it comes out. And the nice thing about Thursdays is it's also the day that Montana Knife company does their drops. And this week is special because they are dropping our the knife that I helped them design and they collaborated with me on. The Elkhorn is dropping tonight at 6:00pm Pacific Time. So I guess 7:00pm Mountain Time. And then you can calculate it out 8:00pm Central, I guess. And would that be 9:00pm East Coast? This is good. Just go from west to east. Keep adding an hour in Arizona time. I'm not sure what time you guys are on right now. Maybe Pacific, I don't know. You can go on their website. They've got a little countdown timer. But the Elkhorn is dropping. Now for those of you that sign up for my email list, you had early access to the knife, which is awesome. That's one of the things that is cool that they let us work out is because people are always like, well, I didn't get one. But we, we had early access on our email list. Now if you missed that and you want to try to get one in the drop, they're available tonight. Just if you've never done it before, you go, you kind of wait for that time the cart opens, you put it in your cart. It's like, it's literally like buying tags over the computer. OTC elk tag, where it's like the time turns on and you got to be there right away. Certain ones will sell out. So the, the cool thing about this one, this is a stoned wash blade. So the other ones have been mirrored in the past. So these are the Stonewash blades. And this is going to be the last Elkhorn drop that I know of for this year. There might be, you know, a couple here or there, but this is, this is going to be your last chance to get one season. So if you didn't get one, you. I know we. We had a lot of people reach out asking about, how do we get those Montana knives? And like, it's on the drops. You got to pay attention to those. This is the one. So set your alarms, whatever you got to do. If you want to get on that. I just thought I'd let people know early because that's, you know, something you're going to want to prepare about. Maybe somebody's sitting here listening and it's about that time of day and they want one. Go ahead and jump on it and check it out. Another thing that we. I've got going on tomorrow, which would be Friday, I'm doing a Weatherby Film Festival in Sheridan, Wyoming. I don't know if there's. I'm assuming there's a few tickets left. The YO Theater, there's. There's some tickets for that. I'm just premiering a film. And then if you miss that, you can't go or you aren't within the area, I'll be there. We're going to. The cool thing about that film we're going to be doing. There's a pretty sweet giveaway. I'm not going to say exactly what it is, but there's a lot of stuff happening this week. So a lot of cool, exciting news. I mean, I announced last, you know, a couple weeks ago about, you know, I'm kind of the shift in what I'm doing and taking over owning Day Six Arrow Company. And then we've got some just other exciting things with the partners that we work with Weatherby being one of them. So there's some exciting news on the Weatherby front. And for those that are at that film premiere, there's going to be something cool. We're doing this pretty sweet giveaway. I'm just going to say that. So if you got it, if you can get tickets, they're not sold out, get them and get yourself there. If you're the one that wins, you'll be pretty stoked. And if nothing else, you get to see some cool films. Weatherby's got a couple films. I think some of the. One of the Hush guys has a. Some. There's like a Hush film as well. My film. So there's some cool stuff going on. That's Friday. And that's like all my. That's all my announcements for things this weekend. I figure it's kind of fun, though, to keep people in the loop what's going on. And because not everybody has social media. I get that a lot of people just listen to the podcast. So some of these things that other people are like, oh, I saw that this week. You know, it's hard for, I mean, it's hard to keep up on stuff. There's so much stuff going on these days. You know, it's like we're, you know, then people are always like, oh, I didn't know about that. So that's now, you know, we're just starting it off. I'm doing, doing the announcements earlier in the podcast. So this is kind of a fun little way to look at what we're going to be talking about today because I think like, we've got some, some really cool stuff coming up for the podcast as far as tips and tactics for elk and other things. But I'm actually, you know, what I've been doing this week is I've been like, literally just kind of packing and planning for some hunts and a couple of different hunts that I have coming up. I've got a pretty cool caribou hunt that I'm really excited about, backpack hunt in, in that north country. You know, I'm actually going to the Northwest Territories for it, hunting mountain caribou. And you know, it's like, drop off by airplane, load up your backpack, mountain hunt, hiking through the mountains, everything on your back, pure backpack hunt. Then another hunt that I have this, this fall is, is an archery mule deer hunt, which something that I, I always enjoy. And that's in like high country, high desert, Nevada. I'm gonna be like planning on backpack hunting that, but I have a lot less time. So my caribou hunt's gonna be like a 10 day backpack trip. My Nevada deer hunt or my Nevada deer hunt's gonna be like a four day backpack trip. And then I've got like, you know, later in the season, an elk hunt which will be really truck based. And I'll be going back to like base camp every night. That'll be kind of my base camp. So when I think about those hunts and we've been talking on the podcast a lot about preseason prep, scouting, modes of transportation, all the, all this kind of stuff to kind of lead us into the season. And this kind of like, no matter how much we listen or think about it or what, so you actually get to the nitty gritty of putting stuff in the pack, it becomes, you know, that that plan becomes now concrete. So this caribou hunt, for example, I've been thinking about for, shoot, I don't know, a long time Right. And now it's like, you think I. And this happens to me all the time, every season, no matter. I try to get ahead on stuff. Like, I try to be as prepared as possible, but things pop up, right? It's like you got kids in a family and jobs and, and now an aero company and all this stuff. And so much, you know, so much time doing a lot of things. And then it comes time to like prepare for that hunt. You go like, okay, am I ready? Yeah, I feel ready. Like, okay. I mean, I kind of know, you know, I've done it a lot. Like the packing and the prep is, is part of it, but it's still something to this day that I hate doing because there's that kind of like that tinkering that I do with it, you know, especially when you're going somewhere new or on a different kind of hunt or maybe you're, you're a guy that's like, I'm going on my first elk hunt. The, the preparation and the like gearing up it, like, I don't know what. It's just like there's always things that you like, okay, should I bring this? Should I bring that? What? How do I decide? And so I'm just going to go through because like I like to do on this podcast things that I'm doing in the time because it's relevant for probably the season and probably relevant for a lot of other people. But as I prepare, there's. There's a few of the ways that I look at it and what I do. A couple little packing hacks of the way that I kind of prepare for my hunt. Because what I'll try to do is I'll try to, if not mentally, like almost physically sort out the things that there's certain things that I'll take on some trips I won't take on others. Some things that I'll need that I won't. Right. On my truck, based on my truck based elk hunt, I don't really need. I'm. I'm. I'll say on my truck based elk hunt, I'm gonna have. I've got like this jet boil Genesis stove that I got a couple years ago and it's awesome for like back, like for the back of the truck, cooking for a base camp, for whatever. It's like a. It just. I used to use one of those old Coleman ones and they're just kind of garbage, man. They just rattle around like, this thing's like very well designed and works awesome. I'm not gonna Carry that on my back country meal. I'm gonna use like my backpacking jet. Boil pot. Right. So there's a couple of things that will be different, but what I like to do, like, I'm kind of thinking about all my major hunts this year and, and then I start to organize things like, okay, there's gonna be stuff that, like, I take from one hunt to another. Like, I might use. I'll probably use the same backpack on all. I will use the same backpack on all three of those hunts. Okay. But the way that I'm packing, I'm going to be day hunting with it on one of the hunts. I'm going to be going 10 days on another hunt and I'm going to be going four days on another. So I'm trying to think about, you know, it's, it's obviously different for me if, or maybe somebody's got multiple hunts planned, whatever. But whatever you've got, maybe it's a, an all kind of deer hunt. Maybe it's close, maybe it's far. It's kind of that last minute packing and prep that seems to be, in some ways, like once you've got it done, you feel more ready. And then there's also some stuff like when it comes to practicing last minute and a couple little gear hacks that I've got that I'll talk about. So what I'm going to do on this podcast is I'm just going to kind of break down. I'm not necessarily going to go through a gear list, but I am going to talk about the way that I think about packing and preparing for a hunt. So on one end you have your kind of, your gear list, all the things that you need to bring. Okay? So it includes, you know, your pack, your clothes, your boots, whatever. And here's what happened. This is why I want to talk about this now is because there's that last minute, like, prep where you're like, okay, I need my boots, I need my pack. I mean, whatever. And then you look at your boots and you go, geez, okay. As you're really packing, you're like, man, I don't know, these are, I got a pretty big mountain hunt or I've got a, you know, whatever. And these boots are on their last leg. Well, the time to think about getting boots was two months ago. And that's just plain and simple. So that's why I'm like, if we can start thinking about these things and say this happens. As a guide and outfitter, I see it every year, like Almost everybody that shows up. There's like something where it's like, oh, I didn't realize that this was wore out. Or oh, I didn't realize that, you know, I was gonna get this, but I ended up couldn't get it because it was last minute. Whatever. This is that time. If you've got a hunt a month out or whatever, think about really going through your gear. Think about really analyzing the stuff that you need. Dude, we, we see it all the time. Is like arrows is a big one, right? If you like bow shop owners know people get their bows set up right when they don't have time to do it. Like that's the busiest time for a bow shop is right now you're listening to this podcast. You're like, am I already too late? Maybe. You know, but the nice thing is is like you're thinking about it. You can, you can start to get dialed, you can have what you need, you know, preseason. So the first thing that I do when I'm thinking about it is I, I like to, I just get out my phone and I, I jot down my gear list and I kind of keep those gear lists for, you know, reference in the future because it's really, honestly between most hunts, it doesn't, it's just adding or subtracting a few things. You've got, you know, your boots and whatever you're hunting with bow, rifle, what have you. You've got your backpack, then you've got some kind of shelter. So you know, on a truck based hunt, it's going to be my, I've got like rooftop GFC camper topper thing. So I use that for my truck based hunts. But I always, I always have like a backup tent or overnight tent just in case I want to spike out from there. On my backpack hunts, it's, you know, a one person tent or it's like I'm going on a hunt with my wife, like backpack hunt. I'll probably swap to like the, so the two person tent. But that soulless one person stone glacier is nice for all intents and purposes. Like I, I've taken it on sheep hunts. You know, I've taken it a little later season. If I know I'm going like pure late season, I go with a skyscraper, two person. And the reason for that is, is because there's just more room, it's a little heavier. But season allows you to kind of spread some stuff out, dry some stuff out. I, you know, currently I like to, I guess it'd be called like cold Camping. I know there's, you know, like for base camps or whatever. Like a lot of people like to hot tent it. I see the appeal. But also, I don't know, just like a lot of my style currently is, is backpack in, in that kind of style of like tent camping. Not saying I wouldn't change that in the future. I don't know, you kind of just get stuck in your ways a little bit too. Like you know what works and you just keep going with it. So I think like, okay, your shelter is another thing. And then outside of that there's just like your hunt gear. So it's like optics, tripod, essentials, like, you know, if you're overnighting or whatever. Toothbrush, toothpaste. That's pretty much the only kind of toiletries I take. I have my first aid kit in my pack at all times. It kind of never really changes. Even when I go on like a, between a day hunter and multi day, it's the same first aid kit has, you know, all the stuff that you need for bad emergencies. Plus it has stuff, just kind of nice stuff to have. Like I'll actually put like an extra wilderness athlete, like a couple of those in there just so they're always there. So I have like backups if I forget some, you know, like hydration stuff or whatever. I have one of those emergency there was it like emergency hydration kind of stuff. I'll have like Advil, that kind of stuff. Just stuff to make life a little more comfortable. And then like a tourniquet and things like that. So that kind of never changes for me, that part. And then my clothing or my layering system really kind of depends on the, the season. And when it is early, I obviously don't need as much. So I'll wear a lighter pair of boots. I'll wear lighter clothes. As I, as I progress into the season, I just like add layers. So I'll just add thermals. I'll add a heavier jacket or an insulation layer and I'll add like a heavy outer layer. And then I kind of always have rain gear, whether it's, you know, lighter rain gear or more heavy duty rain gear. I'm very now I'm very fortunate because I have access to a lot of different gear and so I kind of have different setups for like most extreme cases like let's say Alaska, Canada, Mountain, 10 Day Backpacking Expedition to like lightweight stuff that you could use early season. Like I have two, I generally I just run two pairs of boots. So I've got a Late season pair of boots and an early season pair of boots. And I understand that that's like not, not everyone can have that. If you can work toward that, great. But you know, like some people, it's just you pick what's kind of middle of the road and then you can kind of add or subtract a few extra pieces of kit, depending on that. When it comes to preparing for the hunt itself, like right now I'm looking around like I've got, I'm literally just packing this bag for this caribou hunt and I got to think about 10 days of food. I got to think about, you know, water filtration. I got to think about, you know, what the weather might be like. And the weather could be very unpredictable. So I'll just kind of go through for that hunt. I'm just going to kind of, I will do a little bit of a pack time. I might forget a few things because I'm literally looking at it. I don't have it like written down right here. But so I've got, and this is, I might get some of the numbers and stuff wrong off of this because I don't know, sometimes I don't know the exact model or whatever. But. So my standard pack is the Stone Glacier. It's the Sky Tower 6900. For this hunt, I've got the lid on top of it because that adds that additional storage a little bit. And I'm going to use probably every piece of space on this 10 day hunt. You know, would I like, should I probably have a little bit bigger pack? Like they make a Sky Talus. Yeah, they make a 7900 which is like, has more room. But I like the layout of the 6900 and I just like the, the side access pockets. I kind of like how that the front zips a little bit higher up. You know, I mostly just access everything because I like, I'll strap my bow to it and then I want to be able to get to those side pockets too. And so the way that I like load this pack for like a backcountry hunt is I try to put like stuff that I need access to in those side pockets on the outside. But sometimes it's just like more about managing storage. When you're doing a 10 day backpack hunt starting out, most your space is in like food. It's just I, I use one of their bags to just put all my food in. And then if I had to, I could, I could pull the frame away and put it in the load Shelf, which I do sometimes. Mostly I do that once it gets a little bit lighter or I'll do like half the food in the load shelf, cinch the pack back up and then pack everything else back in the bag. So on my outside pouches, you know, normally when I'm packing up it's like rain gear because I want to get access to that quick. If there's a storm I got, I'll put, I've got some like, they're called wiggy waiters. They're like little like great glacier crossing, river crossing, little weight waiter kind of things. I put those on the outside too so I have a place for them because they're probably going to be wet and I don't want that in the main bag. And then I have like a rain cover. So like rain stuff's in one easy access pouch because that's something that I'm going to encounter on a backpack. I just like to be able to get it quick. I don't have to like open up my bag and dig to the bottom and get my tent and sleeping bag soaked. The other thing that I often have on the outside, like in a pouch, but on the outside is my tent because it is like fairly water resistant, waterproof. And then like I said, I've got the, the sky solis one person tent and then all on the inside, like I'll have any extra clothes which I put in a like a stuff sack. It'll be a down, like some, one of the. Depending on where I'm hunting, it'll be like a down. First light down could be or like a synthetic version. So like either Chamberlain or Brooks or just depends on, you know, how cold it's going to be. And then I'll often have thermals that I, you know, whether it's hot or cold, I might be wearing them, I might not. And then I'll have like one other mid layer, you know, right now I've been using the subsource hoodie or the navigator, sorry, navigator hoodie from first light, I think that's what they call it. But just like a warmer layer that I can wear, you know, that's kind of like more my hiking layer. Some people rock. Like a jacket could do that, you know, like a good outer layer jacket. On backpack hunts though, I'm more about layering. So if I've got like a insulation layer, I've got my rain layer for the outside and then I can just kind of layer up underneath it. I kind of feel like carrying an extra jacket unless it's you're unless it's cold out. Like if it's cold and I'm always going to be wearing that jacket I use. I bring a jacket sometimes though earlier season I don't. So that's kind of how I think about is okay, you know, how am I going to layer and then I've got you know one layer pants, rain pants and then thermals and often times it's really wet. I just wear my thermals and my rain pants. If it's not then I or I need like extra warmth. I just throw those rain pants over the top. You know, I've got my boots that will be on my feet and then I've got my sleeping bag in the backpack I've got a flashlight, toilet paper, medkit, navig, like electronic stuff. So I, I bring a charger from my phone, I bring a, like a spare battery for my phone. I bring, I have camera stuff which I don't need to talk about because it's just extra stuff that most people probably aren't carrying. Like you can bring a camera but most people just use your phone. And then on top of that then I also have like a communication which would be my Garmin inreach which I have. And on like this big, this big trip I actually have a sat phone which I have had for years. I don't use it very often but like on a really big trip something I'll probably take it. It's extra weight and stuff and I got like a, you get like a little SIM card and pay for them. It's kind of expensive so I don't, I haven't used it in a while but I've got that and I try to keep it, you know, with that kind of stuff. And then there's some paracord and some other like little stuff like that trekking pole, duct tape and I've got the little, the baby razor spotter and I'm taking the vortex tripod. They're like summit one because it's just the lightest tripod out there. It's like if I don't have to carry extra stuff, I won't. And then I've got my kill kit which is like game bags, two contractor grade garbage bags which I'll use for waterproofing of my gear if I gotta leave it outside the tent, it's raining and stuff or and just as a pack liner once it's time to pack out. Then I've got my live wild game bags and a knife sharpener and I'm probably forgetting. Oh and then water filtration. I got this like catadine. I think that's how you pronounce it. It's like a squeeze bag. I know Sawyer makes one too. I, I've had a couple of them. I just got one for that Spain trip because I've been using the stereo pen a lot. It's. The squeeze bag's great. And I just fill my, my yonder. My yeti hard sided yonder bottle that'll be on my belt, hip belt. I'll fill that with that. And then, and then when it comes to food, you know I'll have a meal like a peak meal or a mountain house or I got, I had so freeze dried meals, dehydrated meals if I prefer the freeze dried. And then you know I'll have a camp cup in there, camp spoon. I got my jet. Oh this is another my stove. I've got just the jet boil the flash 1 liter. You know like the jet boils. Got like some more lighter weight versions. This one has the pot on it but just like the cup pot for boiling water. So I've got that. And then I'll, you know you can't fly with fuel so I'll fly up there and get fuel when I get there for the caribou hunt. On my other trips if I'm driving I'll just bring it with me. And that's like, you know, that's my, that's my caribou kit. And to be honest like just the gear kind of fills the pack up. Especially once you throw food in there. Starts to fill up pretty quick. I think I'm going to throw in an extra pair of socks which I like to have. Just like a creature of comfort. I've got this little argali pillow that I'm going to try out because sleep's important and if I just have. I normally just stuff my puffer in there. But sometimes you want to wear your puffer and I'm using a 15 degree stone glacier sleeping bag. We could run into cold temperatures for sure. And it's always like especially when it's. You get that humidity and it's cold and windy. It really cuts through you. But 15 degree bags, what I like to run and then I just like I can throw on some extra layers if I need to or whatever. Then I'll throw a few hand warmers in my pack just for like in case it gets cold or I need for my boots. But that, that's what like that's what it looks Like I've got right now, you know, I guess I wasn't going to do a pack dump, but it was just easier to do a pack dump, I think. And I think people are kind of interested in, you know, why I'm taking what I'm taking. Now when I'm packing for a trip, the other thing that I do is I kind of separate out, like this is going in my pack and I pack up my pack for a backcountry trip, I'll pack it up before I leave. And now when I'm traveling, I might unpack it, put it in like a yeti panga bag or whatever. Especially if I'm flying or traveling. I don't, I don't like to use my backpack bag as the bag that goes underneath the plane because like there's too many straps and get caught. Either carry your, your hunting pack on as a carry on or put it in a luggage bag because it just, I just have too many stories of people that have sent it and it gets caught, things rip off. Like, it's just not the way to do it. You could put it in a bag, but I don't know, I wouldn't do that, do it that way. But I'm also saying that to say, like, if you're doing a backpack hunt, especially if you're flying somewhere, so you're flying in Alaska or something like that, you'd be surprised how many people are doing a backpack hunt and they have all their stuff and they haven't even put it in their pack yet. They don't know how their spacing is going to work out. These are kind of the last minute things. I'm like, think about now because sometimes you have to reorganize your gear. Like I had like, I loaded my pack up and was like, dude, I don't have enough room for food. And then if we kill something, where am I going to? Like, it's just going to be a mess. I can use my load shelf. But I ended up going through and kind of being like, okay, I'm going to, I had an extra jacket, maybe I'll throw it in my bag in case I get there and like the weather changed and it's really cold, but I may not plan on going in with that. Right. Like you can make those calls like last minute. So you can always bring something a little bit warmer, like a warmer pair of pants or a warmer whatever, and then decide, okay, is this the pair of pants that I'm going to be wearing for 10 days or not? If You've got that right. But I think the best way is like lighter outside and just having the option for those layers. And then you've got those layers with you. You can add them, you can subtract them, you can move them around in your pack to make space and make room and that's, that's a good way to pack. Now on the flip side, like a, a similar hunt but a backpack hunt. I'm using the same pack for like a mule deer early season hunt. But I'm going super lightweight because on this hunt it's high desert, I'm going to probably carry majority of the weight in water. I'm not, I don't have that much time for the hunt. So I'm going like three, four days, like three nights maybe. So food's not going to take up a ton of space. I'm going to carry a ton of water so I don't have to drop down. Like I'm gonna have. I probably have 20 pounds of water in my pack to be honest, based on like, you know, whatever. Oh and that. And also I get like I have like a little bag of some kind like a water storage that's lightweight. So like I use my yonder bottle to drink out of and then if I on a backpack hunter, whatever I've got like a platypus bottle, like something collapses or a, you know, other brands make them you can just throw in and fill up so you can have like two extra liters of water either for camp water or whatever. Now on that more desert hunt, I'm going to be carrying a lot of water so I need the big backpack still. I'm probably going to be packing out. I'm going to carry in a bunch of water. So I don't. Not that there isn't water there, there's just water. But I might be on the ridge and the water's 2, 000 vertical feet down. The deer have no problem doing that. And I might be glassing from like a high ridge and not knowing where water might be. Like it changes all the time. I just want to know that I go in okay. I have enough water for my three days. We'll be good. And then I've got, I'm going to have more weight in optics so I'm going to have a big spotter, probably the 80 mil objective spotter. I'm going to have the Peak 44 tripod with just the more pan head kind of thing. I'm going to be self like you know, hunting alone. So I Might have like camera or something like that if I want to film or what have you. And then for the tent and sleeping bag on that, I'm going to have my sleeping pad. I'm going to have like just the stone glacier Chilkoot quilt. I'm going to have their sky ult. It's just like a super lightweight tent. And I'm going to use my peak 44 tripod legs as the poles for the tent because I probably won't bring trekking poles. And then I'll have my bow and arrows and binos and you know, an adapter to hook my 12 power binos to the tripod for glassing. And then you know, lightweight clothing. Like first like trace pants, probably the like Yuma shirt, a jacket, like, probably a lighter down because it does get cold. And then like super light rain gear, like the flash storm rain jacket and probably no rain pants. So I'm going light and fast on that one. Like the majority of my pack is a, is a four day backpack hunt. But even if it was 10 days, just the food would change. Everything's super lightweight. I'm putting more weight in the optics and I'm caring for that particular hunt. A lot of water. I did a early season archery hunt in California a few years back and ran out of water. And like, dude, it was rough. Like I, I had to climb. I climbed up to the top of the mountain thinking that there was gonna be these springs and I, because I could see where it looked like springs up there and I was down in the valley and I climbed like 3 or 4,000 vertical feet to the zone and I realized that the last water was way at the bottom, like just where it popped back out. And so I decided to hunt through the day and next night. And man, I was so dehydrated. I put myself in a pretty bad situation, to be honest. Like, I shouldn't have been that dehydrated. Coming out, I was just dying of thirst and I bombed back off the other side of the mountain into an area where I thought I'd find water and had trouble finding water. It was, it was a mess. Like I, I know better. But so in those arid hunts, I'm just like make sure that I don't go anywhere without enough water. It seems to be like I have a lot of stories like that. Like it's, I'm doing this podcast right now with no water and my mouth's already dry. But just thinking about it, I'm thirsty. But those are, those are some of the things I Think about now. Like I said when I. When you're gearing up and packing, one of the things you want to think about if you've got a hunt coming up in the future, like say September elk hunt, think about the things that maybe take some time to do, which would be breaking in boots. Check a few pieces of gear to make sure that you have them or anything that has. Like if you're going on a bow hunt, the first thing that I get dialed is my boots and my bow. If I'm going on a rifle hunt, the first thing that I get dialed is my rifle and my boots. Because those are things that you want to have a little time with. To be honest, I've got a pair of boots that are like on their last leg and I just didn't. This year, I just didn't think about breaking in another pair because I'm like, well, I can get another bit out of these, which I like to do. Like, I love a good broken pair of boots. And I'm like, you know, and I've got, you know, my late season boots which are transition into pretty early. I'm like, dang, you know, I probably should have thought about this months ago, not weeks before or something like that. And the reason that I talk about like the bow and the rifle is because if something, if you got to get something dialed or you need to tinker with something, those are things that take time and sometimes the stuff that you need might not be readily available. Like, hey, check your, if you, if you're a rifle shooter, you shoot factory ammo. Make sure you got ammo. Like, do it now. This should be like the wake up call. Like, I've got a hunt in November. What are the things that I need to think about now? Ammo right there. Like whatever you shoot, think about it now as an outfitter, as a guide, as a friend to a lot of people. Things like, the season's here, I'm all sighted in, I need, I don't have enough ammo for the hunt and I can't find it because everybody's going and buying it. When hunting season starts, it's the phenomenon of hunters is like you think about it almost just before too late. Same with bow. Like if you're bow hunting now, later, whatever, arrows is a big one. Broadheads is a big one. Whatever you're going to use, get dialed with it and then think about getting those things. Now that's going to be like in your prep for a hunt, thinking about those things. Like a few key things early Makes a big difference. All the other stuff you can kind of get by with and you can get by and make do with whatever you got. But when it comes to like gear, the boots and then whatever you're shooting is pretty important. And then with a bow, you know, obviously you should be shooting it, should be practicing with it. There's some people's like, hey, I'm dusting it off. We're going to fling a few arrows. Is everything gold with it? Oh, well, now I notice I need a new string, right? It's like, dang it. I try to wear my, I run my strings till they're dirty and dirty and dry. But last thing I want to be doing before hunt is like worrying about getting a new string or something like that. So those are all the things that you're going to want to think about now as you prepare for any upcoming hunt. Now, one of the things for our bow hunters I'll I'll mention is a couple little practice things that I like to do kind of last minute or like those last bits of practice. And those are very hunt specific in a way. But also, you know, it depends how you've been practicing. One of the things that I always say is like, I practice for hunting, but I think that there is something to practicing. Like you've got your backyard, you've got your target, however you shoot, maybe you go somewhere, whatever it is, maybe you're shooting on flat, level terrain. What I really start doing as it gets close to the season is mixing in those hunting style shots. Uphill, downhill, hard angle, you know, really shoot your broadheads. Like from this point on, I, I, my broadheads and field tips are really well tuned. But I always have, you know, some practice with the broadheads and continually shoot a broadhead and then maybe follow it up with field points and then shoot a broadhead and follow it up with field points. Shoot the broadhead first. So you know, splice your fletchings. As a guy, as a guy that now sells arrows. Yeah, go ahead and shoot your, shoot your field tips and then throw some broadheads into the mix. It's a good way to up your sales. But I don't do that. You, you know, you want to conserve your arrows and, and often, like I generally don't try to shoot groups. I just try to shoot different spots because I don't want to like start hitting arrows and breaking arrows. But let's say we're getting close to the season now I'm starting to think about, I actually dial back like the just Repetitive shooting, shooting, shooting. And I might say like whatever it is, like one shot or one shot and pull. One shot and pull. What I like to do is really not have that consistent aim point I like to shoot. I've got like a couple of different 3D targets that I shoot at. But even if I don't, I've got like a, I just got one of those 365 blocks from one of the archery shops. And I like that too. Like I'll shoot at the bigger circle, but I, I generally just do like single arrow where I have to pick a spot where I have to concentrate where I don't have those other arrows to aim at. It's really awesome on 3D targets where you're just taking that, that first shot is a clean shot. You don't have that reference point. And so as we get into the season, most of my practice starts going from, you know, practicing the shots and working on, you know, the shots and the distance and getting comfortable and all that stuff that's already happened for me. Now as we get closer to the season, I kind of just maintain in that like hunting mindset. So I've got the bow and I'm just shooting like a single arrow. It might even be a single arrow. In a day like today. I haven't shot my bow, but I, I'll probably grab it right before the evening. I'll be in that like low light. Like last night. I shot it about what would be toward the tail end of legal light. Okay. Because it changes the way that your peep sees like shooting in different light. If I've got a, let's say I've got an early season meal deer hunt. The shot that I'm going to take is I try to go out in the middle of the day. Probably that's very similar to the time because I mostly like bed the deer stock in and get my shot. It's like in the direct sun in the harsh light, probably a downhill shot. And I'm going to practice one of those on a target with not a lot of reference point, like no arrow in it, nothing like that. I'm doing that one like it's my one shot at the deer. I'm probably going to try to put myself in an awkward position. I'm going to make that shot. And now I, I might like. Okay, I might redo that or practice it depending on how much time I have. But really as I get into the season, I'm really thinking about a one arrow shot. You don't get second Chances on a deer, an elk or whatever. Sometimes you do, but that's not very often. You're gonna see a. You're gonna see a video come out pretty soon of my second chance. Like, I missed a really big bull last year and ended up killing that bull two hours later, which. Or three hours later, something like that. Like, missed the bowl. I don't even know if he knew that I was there and then found him bedded by himself, snuck in and shot him, which was. That doesn't ha. Like, that just doesn't happen. But it did happen. So that was awesome. But I really like, practice for that, that one shot, that one uncomfortable shot, that one rush shot. And give yourself something to think about on this shot. Like, maybe you. Maybe it's a shot where it's like, you gotta go quick. Make you make that shot quick. Make that shot. Okay, take your time. Make that shot angled. Make that shot a weird body position. Even if you're just in your backyard and you don't have a lot of range or whatever, it doesn't matter. Do something a little bit different and make it that one shot count and it's going to make a big difference when it comes time to hunt. And then the other thing that I kind of throw in my gear is like, when I'm traveling for a hunt or anything, I always have. I should. I'm going to find the ones that I use, but some kind of like, blunt tip, judo tip, something like that. I use a rubber blunt tip and I always keep some in my pack because when I get into the field, I screw that on. Just make sure everything's, like, dialed. Like, I. I bring a target to camp and if I'm in, like, if I'm. Let's say I come back to camp or whatever, it's the middle of the day, I shoot my bow. And I've seen people, like, have a. When I get into an area, I shoot my bow and I've had videos or whatever, and people leave comments like, you should be practicing at home, not in the field. And I'm like, you're an idiot. This is the dumbest. Tell me you know nothing about bow hunting without telling me nothing about bow hunting. Stuff changes. Like, I try to shoot as often as possible in the field to make sure that nothing's off. I have had that. I've shot at my target. Like, okay, I keep one. If I've got, like, I got that Kawasaki Ridge, like, side by side, and I've got a target in the back of it. And when I'M hunting, that target's in the back of it. And if I get back early and whatever, I'll throw it out there. 30 yards and I've got a practice arrow and you know, and I'll shoot because riding around, things change. Like the heat and other things, things change. If you have the opportunity to shoot in the field, absolutely do it. I carry like a rubber blunt tip in my bow and I'll like shoot pine cones. If it's like a dead time and there's like a good backstop and I know I'm gonna get my arrow back, I'll take my broadhead off, I'll put that on, I'll shoot it. I shoot that before I leave. So I know if it's like at far distances it's off, but for like 30 yards and in it's the same. And so like I'll shoot that to know, make sure everything's on. There's been times where like I'm going on a big important stock and I will put that rubber blunt on. I will shoot a clot of dirt at 30, 40 yards and then I will put my broad head back on and go do my stock and, and whatever. Make sure everything pulls back right. Make sure, you know, and even sometimes just get the little bit of like that first shot jitter out, you know, get, get right in your head before you do a big stock. There's nothing wrong with that. Like, it just makes you a more proficient, better bow hunter. And so that's the one thing I like about like a truck based camp is I can bring my target. And if I have time, it's not like, it's not like I'm, I'm going back to practice or whatever. I'm not like wasting hunting time. But if I'm in the field and I can, I can shoot a couple arrows, absolutely do it. Like it'd be silly not to. And the people that I just don't, I don't get those people, man. Like people just know nothing about nothing apparently. But they just got to tell you about it. Like it's just, that's always the best. But every time, I swear every time I do a, a video or something where it's like you're in camp and you've got a target, there's the people. It's like you should have practiced way before. This isn't the time to learn your gear. It's like you aren't learning your gear. You're making sure things are going to be ready and deadly. But I put so much emphasis on the one arrow. Like, I find a lot of success in bow hunting not because, you know, like, I am very persistent and not because of that. But when you're a bow hunter, the very, like, guys that I know that are just these consistently successful bow hunters, the difference between them and maybe somebody else that's pretty unsuccessful is often the fact that when they get an opportunity, they connect in the right way. You, like, you think about it. I mean, I think about it in the past, there's been seasons where it's like, man, if I would have just hit what I shot at, it would have been a different story. And so I put a lot of emphasis on that, and I. And I make sure that, like, throughout the season. And I can. There's things you can control and things you can't. Stuff gets off, stuff gets rattled around this, that and the other thing, like, if you can mitigate that in the field, you're going to do a lot better. And then also, you know, there is that, like, I probably should mess with it a little bit more, you know, like. But, you know, some people actually change their sight tapes for different elevations and things. But I, like, if I go. If you're. If you sight it in at sea level and you're going to hunt at 10,000ft, your arrow is going to fly different. Or it's actually even. It's almost like eyesight. Like, where I hunt or practice is like 5 or 6,000ft. And so when I go down to sea level, that. That arrow is. Is. Flies quite a bit different. It's quite a bit lower. Just like, thicker air. I don't know, lower elevation slows it down. But, you know, that's just something to think about and go, okay, well, in this. In this, where I'm at, you know, first thing I do when I get out of the vehicle, whatever after traveling is shooting that bow and shooting that rifle and getting dialed for that particular place, making sure everything's on having you. The same thing with my rifle. Like, if I'm in an area where, you know, it's been like four or five days of hunting, I'm in an area where it's like, I'm not going to be in this area again or whatever. It doesn't really. It's not going to affect anything. I'll shoot a rock across the canyon. Just make sure everything's dialed, like, it doesn't hurt. Because if you. That opportunity, you know, obviously I'm making sure it's like, safe shot. But if the opportunity presents itself, I want to make sure that if I do everything right, something doesn't go wrong. And that's like the worst when you do everything right and something goes wrong that it's like you could have controlled but you didn't. So that's my, that's my take on prep. That's my take on thinking about, you know, like throwing a blunt tip or a judo tip or something so you can maybe take a shot with your bow in the field. Bring a target. That's the one thing I got to think about like you know, going in on a back country hunt and maybe sometimes flying. You don't have access to like a, a target, archery target. But using those like judo tips or whatever helps me decide if something's on. But like, especially after a lot of travel, it's good to know like you get out of a bush plane, you want to know that that bows on you're. You've come a long ways, you want to make sure that it hits where you're aiming and anything can happen. But it's just some of my tips as I'm like prepping and preparing for the season. Some of the things that I'm thinking about, the ways that I think about it and kind of a little bit of what a lot of, a lot of people like to hear is those just pack dumps of like here's what I'm bringing on this 10 day backpack hunt. So I hope that helps you guys and as you start to figure out your hunts and think about the gear that you're bringing, the type of weather you might run into, what you need, look at your gear list and if you've got hunts further out, it's a good time now to think about the things that are pretty essential and take a little bit more time. Think about your boots, think about your arrows and your bullets, your ammunition and think about like, you know, your broadheads, the things that, and even just like especially a boat, make sure your bow is ready now, especially if you got a later hunt before it comes like right to time. Now obviously things happen last minute, it's happened to me before. But look at those things now and then start thinking about, you know, how you're preparing for the hunt and some of the things that you're going to need that you might need to kind of collect over time and, or kind of think about to get ready for the upcoming for whatever tag that you have coming up. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. Now next week we are going to be kicking off one of my favorite times of year, we're going to be diving into Elk Month. We've talked a lot about prep for all kinds of seasons over the past, you know, couple months as we kind of gear into this, like, going toward the season. What I like to do, you know, is August, I like to talk about archery, primarily archery, elk tactics. But we're going to talk about kind of all elk tactics as well. A lot of stuff that you can use throughout the season. I'm going to do some call in Q and as some other stuff, but we're going to be, we're going to be really focusing on elk in the upcoming elk season. This is one of my favorite blocks on the podcast, and I think, you know, a lot of listeners really, really dive into it, especially those that have elk tags. It's. These should be things that you could kind of listen to time after time again as the elk season goes, as you prepare. So I'm going to go through some of my favorite tactics, some tried and true, some kind of nuance, some new stuff. We'll talk about all the kind of things that you can encounter from stalking to calling. We're going to really dive in and go all things elk over the next month. Really, there should probably just, you know, I might even throw in some bonus podcasts, especially if we start doing some calling, Q&As and stuff like that, because I know how much you guys enjoy these. So thank you guys for the support on those. We're gonna, we're gonna talk about tactics, behavior, just all things elk. We'll get into the nitty gritty of it. That's just, man, I, I just love talking elk stuff, especially as we get close to the season because, of course, we talk about elk throughout the year in the podcast. But this really dives into that kind of like strategy and, and in a lot of awesome tips and tactics when it comes to archery, elk hunting especially. So for those of you out there scouting and stuff like that, keep after it. Keep me posted. I'm excited for the season as we kind of, you know, start to kick off Elk Month. If you are not a member of the Rocky Mountain Elk foundation, think about getting a membership. If you are a member, upgrade your membership. If you got, if you're going year to year, get like a three year. If you think you can swing it, get a life membership. You know, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's awesome, awesome supporter of hunting, conservation and elk, of course. But so many other animals benefit and I really like what they do because they, they kind of bridge the gap between a lot of land management and access issues. By jumping in and, like, either purchasing the land and then figuring out, assigning it to, you know, they can kind of be the middleman in some of these deals. They can actually hold the land and. And create habitat. They're. They're instrumental in a lot of studies, a lot of conservation and elk populations in other states where it's like they started releasing elk and improving habitat and all this stuff. It's an awesome organization. And so when we talk about elk, which we talk about a lot in this podcast, I think it's just we got to also talk about the conservation aspect, and that's a way that people can just get involved. Be involved, is to be a member of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. And then it's like, you know, there's always ways to help out. There's always ways to. Whether it's with your time, whether it's with, you know, resources, money, whatever, donations, even just like, attending an event. These are all ways that we give back to the wildlife that we love to hunt. So, you know, as we get into elk season, think about it, if you have an elk tag, if you want to elk hunt, you should at least have a membership to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. I think it's like, it's. It's important for every elk hunter to have, and I think most. Most do, but, you know, if you don't, you heard it here. Go sign up. So we're gonna kick off elk month, and I'm just gonna say until next week. Let's get ready. We'll catch you guys later.