← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 197 | Live Q & A
00:54:48
In this episode of the LiveWild Podcast, Remi Warren shares his extensive knowledge on elk hunting, focusing on various aspects such as the importance of physical and mental preparation, understanding elk behavior through trail cameras, and strategies for hunting in different seasons. The conversation also touches on the dynamics of hunting solo versus with a partner, and the significance of adapting to changing conditions in the wild. Listeners gain insights into the elk rut, effective calling techniques, and the value of persistence in finding and hunting elk successfully.
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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.
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Welcome back to the Live Wild Live Call in podcast. This is one of my favorite podcasts because I get to talk with people and really get to answer hunting questions. Some of the questions that get brought up are things that, you know, probably a lot of people have questions on and maybe it's something that I didn't think about covering in the podcast. Another thing that I enjoy about the Live Wild Live Collins is we like to give some stuff away old school radio style. Today I've got some awesome prizes from Jetboil. So I've got their flash 1.0 which is like your standard top of the line backpacking. It comes with the cup on it for fast boiling water, but you can also get some other accessories and put pots or whatever you want on it. Just it's like the backcountry workhorse when it comes to stoves. And then I also scored for you guys something that I was pretty excited about. This was like my was it last year. Two years ago this was my Christmas present from my wife. I got the, the Genesis stove for you guys as well. So the Jetboil Genesis, I use that as my base camp stove. It like lives in my deck drawer in my truck and it's like it's. They solved the problem. I mean I think like backcountry, you know, set up for the jet boil. Like they nailed that. But there was always this kind of, I think like for camping even during the summer camping, hunting, base camp, whether you're packing in or like using your truck based or whatever that like a stove that actually works really well. Packs up nice. Like, it's just probably one of my favorite pieces of gear that I've got in the last few years. Everything about it's just like, the design of it, the way, like, the durability, the way that it just packs up in the truck, and then the way that the pots and everything fit in together. Every time I bust it out, people are like, dude, this is great. I mean, I'm just like everybody else. I probably ran a old, crappy Coleman one forever and it worked. But, like, every time I use it, I was just kind of pissed off about it, you know? And this one, this is going to be the same. Like, I'll run this thing forever. And I'm. I'm excited to give one away to someone. I'm pretty stoked on it because I. It was one of those that I. I just enjoyed it so much, I thought, let's get one for someone else. So we've got that. And so we're going to go in. We're going to. This is elk month now. So we. I like pre September. I like to go in every year, and we start to do what I call Elk month. So I'm going to be answering questions. If you got an elk hunting question. If you don't have an elk hunting question, that's okay. If I get to you, you can ask your question. But we're really primarily trying to focus on elk hunting questions today. And all month, we're gonna be just really diving in to elk hunting tactics. And for those of you. So if this is your first time calling, here's what we'd like to do. Just give me your name, where you're from, and then we'll jump right into your question and we'll go from there. And then also, I got a little. For those of you that don't win anything, or maybe you're listening, you're like, dang it, I missed out on the Jetboil. I did a. I worked out a pretty sweet deal with them. So for those of you that listen to this podcast on their website, you can use code LIVEWILD and get 20% off a stove if you are in need of a new stove. So that's a pretty sweet score, especially on that, like, Genesis setup. So we're going to dive in. We're going to talk to our first caller here. Let's talk some hunting. Hey, welcome to Live well Podcast. Who am I talking to?
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Hi, my name's Bridger. I'm from northwest Montana.
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Bridger, how's it going, man?
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Oh, not too bad. How are you doing?
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Yeah, good. What's your. What's your question?
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So I've been following along on your E. Scouting and everything on your podcast, and I went out and hung out some trail cameras, and I've got six different bulls on camera now, and none of them are consistent, though. So I was just curious what your next move would be. What. What. What would be your next step?
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Yeah. So are the six bulls hitting the same. Is it, like. Is it set up on water, or is it on a travel corridor?
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It's on a. Like a wallow pretty much, if there's water in it, but it's not really flowing that much.
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Yep. Okay, cool. And then is it like you've got six bulls on that same one, or you've got multiple cameras in multiple places and they're kind of inconsistent?
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Well, I've got multiple cameras in there, but I've had. But they ain't going to those other cameras. They've just been going to this one. I've had six on the same camera. Yeah.
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Are they. Are they generally together, or are they kind of, like, separate and spread out?
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The bigger ones are always alone, and then there's two little ones that are always together.
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Yeah. So, like, what you're getting. I mean, and this. This happens all the time. Right. I think in some ways, I get real fired. Like, I love using trail cameras, and I like what I learned from them. But then sometimes in my hunt planning, I'm like, what do I do with this knowledge? Often there's probably other water sources that they're hitting. Right. Like, there's a creek nearby, but for some reason, they like that wallow. One thing that I try to do in that scenario is I also try to see if there's other wallows in that same area. Like, maybe there's two or three that are real close together, and you could. You can kind of see, okay, are they hitting these other ones that are close together? Because if so, that's going to be an area that they're utilizing. Now, the thing about that. That wallow, though, is like. Like elk in particular, they often have, like, circuits that they'll do. So they might hit this one day, and it might be a week again before you see them. And sometimes you'll. You'll catch bulls on camera, and that's the one time that they're there. And then I'll go back in September and find that bull in that area. So I primarily use that camera intel as, you know, understanding what elk are in that area. Like, what's potentially possible when it comes to targeting those specific elk? You know, you're going to have to think about, like, things are going to change between now and September. Like when the season opens the beginning of September, you could probably hit it where they're still using it as that water source. And you know, you, you could, it might increase as it gets closer as things start to dry up, maybe over the next, you know, little bit, like we're getting pretty close, but there's still still a month left that some stuff could dry out maybe depending on the area where you're at. And they could start to, you know, they're going to start to strip that velvet off and their habits are going to start to change as the season progresses. That wallow can now shift from a water wallow spot to an actual, like, perfume station rut zone. So that could happen there, it could happen somewhere else. That, that, like, that's the hard part about this time of year. Scouting is like understanding, you know, with one year of intel on it, how they're going to start to use that and which wallows they use from year to year can change, but it's always good. The ones that start seeing early action are often ones that are in their travel route and they're kind of the ones that get frequented pretty early. So I would definitely keep an eye on those as the season starts to kick up and as the rut starts to change. The way that they utilize kind of the wallow and the landscape is going to kind of like the closer it gets, the more you're going to be able to kind of pinpoint those. I would use it as a jump off spot though, for sure to start targeting those elk, especially the first week of the season, because they might not be in that like, rut zone yet. They're just be bachelored up. They're going to be thinking about it. You can maybe go in there and do some cow calling, some glassing and try to turn those bulls up again is the way that I would kind of approach it.
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Okay. Sweet. Yeah, that's. That sounds exactly what I was thinking of doing. That's awesome. Thank you.
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Yeah, awesome. Well, I appreciate the call and definitely keep me posted. One of the things that gets me more fired up than anything is just elk hunting, thinking about the season and then, you know, especially someone like yourself, that Scott, you've put in a little bit of time, you found some elk, and then seeing how that that whole game pans out and plays out is cool. So keep me posted on how how it ends up going for you for the season.
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Okay, Will do.
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Appreciate it.
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Thank you.
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All right, we're going to jump to our next caller here. Hey, welcome to Live Wild Podcast.
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Hey, this is Ryan from North Dakota.
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Hey, Ryan, how's it going, man?
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Good. How are you?
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Yeah, doing great. What's your. What's your question?
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So, roughly when should the peak elk rut kind of kick off in Montana, and should I be going as high up as possible, committing to one spot or staying mobile and camping at the pickup?
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That's a great question. So it depends on when. So there's a lot of factors that influence that rut. You know, I think, like, it's probably something that I. I'm going to go through a little bit in detail, but every year, like, even the best expert at it, like, is wrong 50% time. It's like predicting the elk rut is like the weatherman, right? It's like you have all the things lined up for the forecast and it still rains. All a couple of the things. Like, with the elk rut, it depends. It's not the bulls that choose the rut necessarily. It's more or less the cows. And when they come into estrus, I like to gauge, like, I really feel like, you know, the full moon starts to kick the cows into estrus because it's often like once that full moon hits, it's more not. It's not necessarily the moon itself, like the physicality of the moon. But in my opinion, this is what I the I'm going off of what I've observed being out in the field, it seems like they can the. The act of chasing and going into estrus, it creates a lot of movement and action for them. So it's kind of more in some ways weather dependent. But the full moon plays into that for the fact that if it provides light at night, it's a lot cooler in the night, especially in the mountains. And therefore, like, they can actually start that rut activity in that, like, cool time of day. So I'm saying that to say that also. So, like, if that full moon's early, sometimes I like to kind of hunt a little bit earlier, but just after it. But also the weather can be a super determining factor in, like, when things really kick off or how like daytime red activity it works for those elk. Because if it's like you see those hot years, you know, sometimes it's just the rut seems slow and it's like you got full moon bad timing, like, middle of where it's like, okay, They've got opportunity. They're doing it at night. Daytime, they're kind of slowed down. But up high, often you run into cooler weather. So if you have a higher elevation unit, generally the rut kind of kicks off sooner in those higher elevation areas with the cooler temperatures and the. Everything starts to change earlier there. The fall starts to hit, the leaves start to change. Everything happens higher up because of the temperature and the weather and then starts moving down. And the rut kind of does the same thing in some ways, and that's the same across the country. Like, few years back, I had a tag in New Mexico. It was like northern New Mexico. It was early season, first week of September, high elevation. They'd had a lot of cold weather before, and the rut was, like, fired off. And then that same week in Montana, it was hot at a lower elevation area, and the rut didn't fire, like, start to really pick up until September 15th the same year. So that I'm saying that to say there's a lot of factors involved. Early season, though, I like to think of it as like, okay, if you catch. I actually like to hunt early a lot because you're catching those bulls before they're grouped up in that, like big harems. It's better for big bulls early and late sometimes. And they're kind of like the last caller was saying, you know, they're going to be in these bachelor patterns, but they're also curious about cow. So sometimes they can be a little more susceptible to calling when they're by themselves and not committed to a specific group of elk. But some of that just depends on the weather. And, you know, like, the moon right now, this. This year is actually, I think it. It that full moon hits pretty early this year, so it might kick. I'm kind of predicting that, like, last year was pretty slow in a way. My prediction is that the rut's going to, like, spark off a little bit earlier this year than in years past. And that's just like my. My basic prediction. Like, I always feel like mid September's prime, but, you know, last few years, it's been a little bit later. I feel like if I'm just throwing numbers at the wall, like, I feel like it's going to start ramping up around the 13th, maybe even like the 10th to 18th in there. This year is my kind of prediction.
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Okay, sweet. No, I really appreciate that. That was a lot of.
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That was a lot of words for a simple question. But, you know, there's a lot that goes into it and it's. It can be regional. It can be, like, depending on your unit. You know, there's. There's units that are. The valley floor is 7000ft and the mountains are over 10. And there's units where the valley floor is 2500ft and the mountains are. Top of the mountains are eight, you know, and depending on the weather and stuff, might depend on kind of the, I don't know, intensity of the rut for that particular season.
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Sure. Okay. That makes sense.
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Yeah. Well, man, I hope it works out for you. I hope you get into some rutting bulls because, like, there's just nothing better. And. Yeah, best of luck to you.
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I'm excited. I just got done cooking some backstraps with your citrus pepper, so I can't wait to get some more.
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Awesome. Now we're talking, man.
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Yeah. Great.
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Well, thank you so much and appreciate it. Keep me posted.
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Perfect. Thank you.
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Yep. Catch you later. All right, we're gonna go to our next caller here. Hey, welcome to Live Wild Podcast. Who am I talking to?
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This is Josh Ramirez from Puff, Washington.
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Hey, Josh, how's it going?
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Pretty good. How are you, man?
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Doing great. Especially better that you only have, like, one more month until elk season starts, so.
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Yeah, I'm excited.
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It's always a good time, you know. What's your. What's your question?
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So just a quick backstory to lead up to my question. I shot my First Elk on Friday 13th last year as a 309 inch Rose Belt, and.
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Oh, wow.
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Yeah, I'm. I'm ruined for life. My question is, is I've been setting up trail cams in the exact same area as last year, and I still have cows coming in. I'm not sure whether to hunt the same area because I've had. I've seen multiple bulls there, and I know there's still elk coming, so they're not spooked away. I just don't know if I should even bother moving to a new area when I know there's still elk there almost year round.
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Yeah, you can go to find elk somewhere else, but you've already found elk. It's. Elk can be pretty predictable in a way. Like, if you. If they're there, sometimes you run into elk and it's kind of a fluke. If you've found a spot where there's elk and the elk are holding, I would absolutely stick with it until. Until there's a reason to move. Right. So it's like if you're in there and you're hunting, you're like, man, I'm not getting in Del. Well, then they aren't there. They've moved. It's time for you to move. But as long as you're on elk, I kind of stay on elk. And I was actually going to talk about that in a full podcast. So people listening to this Q A will be like, that guy should have listened to podcast last week. Because it really kind of talks about this, you know, when this one airs. But really kind of the gist of it is, you know, looking at, like, once you find elk, what do you do? And the answer is, you found you did the hard part. Like, a lot of people that are unsuccessful elk hunting struggle to find the elk. And so they keep hunting and they're hunting and they're in all these areas that look great. They aren't in elk, and they're like, man, that sucked. I didn't get on any elk.
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And.
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Or they'll. They'll be in an area and they'll say it looks great, and they keep hunting it and never get any encounters. And it's because, well, maybe. And this is if there's like, no elk in that particular area. So they kind of lacked in the finding the elk. Once you found those elk. Absolutely. You know, stay on that and continue to hunt that. You know, it never hurts to go find a backup area or two. Right. Because it's like things change things. You know, whatever another guy might be in there, you know, stuff gets blown out, you might lose them. They might be quiet in that particular area, but you go to another spot and they're a little more vocal. So, like, the goal is to find a spot like that that's like your primary honey hole. And then you. You have backup places that are a little bit, maybe the same, maybe a little bit different to continue to have places to continue to hunt just in case something doesn't work out. But there's been places where, I mean, season after season, I find myself kind of doing almost the same thing. Because elk can be. Elk can be in. In that way, like whitetails, where they can be fairly predictable some years, you know, and sometimes it's just hard to understand what the predictability is. Like, sometimes they're very predictable. But it's. It's not off of timing. It's off of like we were talking about earlier, maybe weather pattern. Maybe it's when the cows start to come into estrus. Like, there's. There's bulls that I've seen where you never see. I don't know where they come from, but as soon as the rut picks up, ma', am, they pop out in places where I've been watching this area all season or whatever, and it's like they come in and they, they pick up the cows late, late in the rut and it happens every year and those same bulls show up. It's like clockwork. So I would definitely like. Sounds like you've got a good spot. It's worked out for you in the past. You also have a little bit of knowledge on those elk and how to hunt them. So I would definitely like consider, you know, I would, I wouldn't move away from it personally.
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A
Okay, perfect. Thank you, man.
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B
Yeah, we'll appreciate the call. And you happen to be our, our lucky caller that's going to receive our first jetboil prize today. So. Yeah, I'll let you pick if you, you can either do the, the backpacking version the Flash, or you can do the base camp Genesis.
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A
I'm gonna have to go to the base camp Genesis. Man. That sounds awesome.
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B
Awesome. Yep. I think that's a good choice. Although the Flash is great for the, the backpack and I even just, I take that like lightweight one with me whether I'm backpack hunting or not. I just have it so I can make. I'm a avid coffee drinker like you. I'm right now, this time of year, I'm like at five to six cups a day. So when it comes hunting season, I'm like, I, I know, dude. It's like, it's bad. So I, I like when I'm hunting, I'm like, I go when there's a time to stop. I'll do a little bit of coffee in the middle of the day too. So I think you'll enjoy that, man. It's, it's sweet. I got, we'll reach out to you from this number that you called in on, if that's cool. Yeah, and we'll keep an eye out for that and we'll get that sent your way.
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A
Awesome. Thank you so much, Remy.
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B
Yep. Appreciate it. Thanks for the call and keep me posted, man. If you, if you, if you turn up, if you end up with another 300 inch Roosevelt this year, make sure you do not tell anyone about that area. I would if I had a zone like that. Yeah. I was like, dude, I would be hunting alone and I would be packing out alone. I'll just suffer fest so I have a good spot for the next 10 years.
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A
You know, it took me eight hours and I, I'll do it again.
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B
There you go, man. Right on. Well, sounds like you're on the right track and best of luck to you.
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A
Thank you.
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B
All right, we're going to jump to our next caller here. Hey, welcome to Live Wild Podcast.
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Hi, this is Annie from Idaho.
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B
Annie, how's it going?
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Pretty good. And yourself?
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B
Yeah, doing great. What's your. What's your question?
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A
Yeah, so I am hunting in an area that has very high grizzly density. And so my strategy this year is to try and hunt from a tree stand. And I was wondering if you had any tips for calling from a tree stand and also if you had any preferences about, like, where to set a tree stand, whether it's near feeding or bedding or watering areas or what your thoughts were there?
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B
Yeah, that's a great question. So if I was to stand hunt, and I've done it a lot, like for clients and other stuff over the years, just guiding the majority of the stands that I. That are productive for, especially archery. Are you're going to be archery hunting, I'm assuming? Yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I would set it up. Oh, if you can find a good wallow, that's going to be the, the ticket for concentrating the elk. But in a few podcasts back, we talked about travel corridors. I have also had success setting it up in those, like, saddles and kind of pinch points, especially if you can run some recon of like trail cams and other things while they're, while they're still legal. It's like, might as well use it, right? I would set up some trail cams in those, like, travel corridors because you'll get that you're better off in some ways catching them from feed to bedding if you've got a good, like, pinch point. I really like the idea of hunting wallows, though, because it's the one thing that isolates the bulls. Essentially. My dad shot like a, his best bull. It wasn't out of a tree stand. It was out of a ground blind off of a wallow. It was like a 350 inch bull that came in. In grizzly country, though, I'd say yeah, I like the idea of the tree stand. Um, but yeah, I mean, the wallows is going to be a good setup. I often, you know, you just got to think about the wind. A couple of the calling strategies that I do, it depends on, you know, I like, like, I'm the type of person that does like to call one because I feel like I'm doing something if you have, especially in an area maybe where there's like, I know a lot of that stuff in that kind of country that you're probably in has. It can be a little bit. It can be some dense stuff and can be some wet stuff in some places. And so there might be like a good wallow, but there will be three or four good wallows within four or five hundred yards of each other, right?
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A
Yeah.
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And it's hard to identify which one. You know, generally the one that smells the strongest is the one that they hit. They kind of pick one and that becomes the thing, the calling that I do. So there's a couple of things. I used to do this a lot. If I had clients in a stands, like, I would. I would get up and I would actually like splash in that wallow. So like if you look around, whatever I would like splash and make noise in that wallow. Like if you brought some rocks up.
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A
Into the tree stand with you.
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B
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know, like a little bit of noise that way. You know, you don't. You don't. You want to make sure you're looking around, like they can't see anything within that. But even just that splashing sound. I'll throw out some bugles because like, think about a bull that's wallowing. He often is rolling around, he lets out a few bugles, he even bugles in the wallow. And then the other thing that I do kind of like while somebody might be sitting or whatever is just kind of throwing out cow mews here and there.
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A
Okay.
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B
But the thing about it too is it can also. There's like a give take, right. Because it can also alert elk to your location where if they were going to come wallow naturally anyways, it might not be necessary. So often I would do that like earlier in the mornings. Because what you might find is if you start to find a pattern of. Here's what I would expect. Like sometimes happens or generally happens is like the herd bull. Isn't that first? Like sometimes he'll. He'll go wallow before he goes and interacts with cows. So it might be early in the morning, but sometimes that's before daylight or whatever. He goes in, he rounds up the cows, he riles them up, they're doing their thing, they're moving off, they move off to bed, and then he goes and re. Wallows before the evening. So like kind of that mid morning or midday, he'll. He'll push off and do that. In those times, I'd probably either stay quiet or try to catch them. Like if you are in a spot where you see the elk out at distance or hear him off in the distance. That's a good time to do it where you're like, okay, I do this. And then you kind of shut up and he comes and investigates. Which it can be fun, you know, to, to be in that scenario where you're close, the shots are close, and the elk doesn't know you're there. It's a. It's a cool way to hunt. So best of luck to you.
- [25:24]
A
All right, well, thank you so much for your advice.
- [25:26]
B
Yeah, thanks for calling in. Appreciate it. And keep me posted on how the season goes.
- [25:30]
A
Will do. Thank you.
- [25:32]
B
Yep, have a good one.
- [25:33]
A
You too.
- [25:36]
B
All right, we're gonna jump into another caller here. Hey, welcome to Live Wild podcast. Who am I talking with?
- [25:44]
A
This is Scott from Arizona.
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B
Scott, thanks for calling in, man. What's your question?
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A
So I. My son is the one that actually drew the tag. We're both pretty inexperienced hunters and this will be a late kind of northern Arizona late season hunt. My question is, what kind of calling should we be doing? Late season? And. And then the follow up is, what kind of calls would you recommend? We're both new to elk hunting, so.
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B
So by late season, is this like a December elk hunt or an October archery tag?
- [26:24]
A
It's. It's a. The day after Thanksgiving is when it opens and it's a rifle tag, but it is.
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B
Okay, so it's a rifle hunt.
- [26:33]
A
In that unit there is an early rifle.
- [26:36]
B
So. So that time of year I do have a call, but my call is not necessarily to bringable in. It's just stoppable. I always have my elk calls when I'm. When I'm out elk hunting. But you know that time of year you might get the random. Like, I actually was hunting late season, actually got a video coming out this weekend and I was sitting there like, oh, it was like the week of Thanksgiving, I guess the week right before. And I hear a be like a bugle. I'm like, what the hell is going on? It's November, right? Like they shouldn't be bugling, but there's a little bull messing with the cows. That's pretty rare. But I do have a call and generally, you know, like a cow call that you can get access quick. Like I have that call when I'm stalking, going through thick country that calls like dang near in my mouth, if not in my mouth. Cause I use a, like a diaphragm type call. But if you aren't familiar with those kind of calls, like probably the easiest type of call Is like, called like a bite and blow type call, which is a cow call. Or even honestly, you know, like, or an open read type call is good if you can get one of those. Practice with one of those. Worst case scenario, get like a push button call even. I. How old's your son?
- [27:45]
A
He's 32.
- [27:47]
B
Okay. Yeah. And like, I would say like, just get, get, you know, some kind of call that you can make a cow call with quick. Because let's say you're moving through an area, you bump a bull or you bump a herd, an elk. First thing I do, hit that call. If they didn't win you, if it's they saw one elk, saw something, whatever. Oftentimes almost, I would say 90% of the time, you can stop an elk. And it often gives you, especially with a rifle tag, an opportunity to get a shot. The other thing is, you know, you can use it to stop elk that are moving through that. Like some of that northern New Mexico stuff can be pretty thick. It depends where you're at, I guess there can be some real open and there can be some pretty thick stuff in that thicker stuff. You know, sometimes elk might not be moving a lot, but when they are moving, it's like they're gonna be feeding first thing in the morning, probably last light, they'll be moving through more timber country. And so you see an elk, sometimes you just need the, the extra few seconds to stop them where you can get a shot or stop them where you can get a view or whatever. So we just hit that call to kind of direct that elk to stop and stop moving. And I mean, that's been the difference of success on a lot of hunts for me that I've guided or been my own hunts. You know, sometimes I'm just moving through a new area to glassing spots, bump some elk, hit that call. It calms them down just long enough to make a decision or to get into a position where they come out the other side and you hit the call again and you can get them to stop. Sometimes I'll even throw out bugles late season to get bulls to stop just because it catches their attention and travels a little bit further. But it's not necessarily something where I'm carrying like a bugle tube or anything. I just make it on my, you know, just like a long, you know, I'll even do it with like an open read cow call. Just something to just really get their attention. But I got. Here, let me grab. I'll show you a little example of a couple cow Calls that, Let me see. I, I don't actually have my calls on my thing, but I recorded some calls last year on this thing. So let me see a find. But I'll just do it with my voice. But sometimes, like to get their attention quick. Like, I try to make it loud. So be it. This is just with my voice, but I go like. And even if you just do that with your voice, when that elk, like, moves or you need to stop, it catches their attention. Like they think it's that lead cow of the herd or something. And they kind of stop and look and say, like, well, why were you running? And that can be a, that can be a game changer for you. Okay, awesome. I hope that answers your question. And thanks for calling in, man. Keep me posted because that can be a fun hunt. Late season can be tough, but it can also be awesome. Like, I really enjoy hunting elk late because the one thing that you kind of want to focus on that time of year is feed. They're, they're, they're bulking back up. They're kind of in those patterns of like, feed to bed, feed to bed. So focus on those areas and, you know, have that call handy in case you need to stop something. If things are going right and you need to stop them or things went wrong and you need to stop them, it works the majority of the time.
- [30:42]
A
Okay, we'll do, we'll keep you posted.
- [30:44]
B
All right, perfect. Appreciate it. Have a good one.
- [30:47]
A
All right, thanks, Remy.
- [30:48]
B
Yep. All right, we're gonna go to our next caller here. Welcome to the Live Wild podcast. Who am I talking with?
- [30:56]
A
Hey, Remy, it's Jamie in Colorado.
- [30:59]
B
Jamie, how's it going, man?
- [31:00]
A
Going good, thank you. How are you?
- [31:02]
B
Yeah, doing really good.
- [31:03]
A
Hey, so I've been archery elk hunting solo for years, for the most part, and I was wondering if you. And lately I've been thinking about maybe trying to find a partner to hunt with. And I was wondering if you can kind of go over the pros and cons of hunting solo versus with a partner and then how you go about finding somebody that's gonna put in the work preseason, you know, shoot their bow, do some scouting, set some trail cam, was it, whatever. And then not just find your spots and blow up your spots afterwards.
- [31:35]
B
That's a great question. I think that's like the age old question, right? I will say, like, if you can hunt, if you have somebody that you can bow hunt with your success, especially in area. Well, you know what, even in areas where you aren't calling it's it's easier to find success. Like it's a, it's a more successful Elk hunting is really designed primarily for two people. I do most of my elk hunting alone, but I'm always like the caller for other people oftentimes. Last year I, I got to hunt with some buddies on a couple of different elk hunts. And it's, it's nice. Even though we weren't even calling last year, it was just like have somebody keep an eye on the elk as you're away and do hand signals from across the valley. Right. It just, it increases your ability to get in and make a shot. It really comes in handy when you're calling elk. The downside is, you know, not everybody's at the same level. Finding a good hunting partner is tough and like you said, you know, you might have a lot of good spots and you put in a lot of time and then you got, you take someone in there and they just don't understand the value of those spots. You know, I think like the, the ultimate thing would be to like have a good buddy that doesn't want to hunt but wants to learn how to like elk call. That's like, you know, that would be the ideal. But then they often are pretty loose lipped about where they went because they just don't understand the value of like, you know, the time that it takes to find the places to go. Yeah, I know for me, like the majority of, you know, my hunting buddies are the guys that I hunt with are people that I've hunted with for a long time. I, my brother, I hunt with him a lot. Friends that I, you know, grew up with. But that, that is the hard part, I guess, you know, is just figuring out, you know, somebody that's your spend. It's like you've got a limited amount time of who do you want to spend that with? Finding a hunting buddy is probably harder than finding like a good hunting buddy is probably harder than finding anything. Probably harder than finding elk. That's just the way it always is. You know, some of it though too. You know, it's like, hey, maybe we, you got some spots, I've got some spots. Let's, let's, you know, kind of go to some different places or you both say, hey, let's go find a new spot and we'll both go learn it, scout it, let's go, you know, go on the scouting mission together, do that whole thing as a team. And then that's kind of everybody's area is the way that I've Done it in the past. Like, you know, I've owned some spots with some friends, and it's like, hey, we go in here and like, okay, I know where some elk are in some other areas. And what I've done in the past is like, okay, I've got a good spot, but maybe this year I got somebody to help me. And so what I did, I did this, you know, I was like, hey, I've got some spots, but let's go out. Let's both go find some new spots that neither of us have hunted. And then we've got backup spots after that, which actually gets you to learn some. Some other good stuff as well. But, you know, it's like, once you've got a. Like that collar before, that's like, hey, I found it. It seems like I found a honey hole. It's hard to. Hard to want to take someone in there. I was like, you know, if you don't want it blown out, you probably just want to hunt it yourself. And that's. Yeah. Unless you got friends and family.
- [34:35]
A
I've got a spot where. I've got a spot where I've had shots at 16, 11, and 8 yards three years in a row, so it's kind of tough to pull someone in there, you know?
- [34:45]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's like. That's the hard part. But you also know sometimes, too, it's like, it's nice to have, you know, my buddy Mike, one of my best friends. I shot a bull back in someplace. I was by myself, and I called him. He's working in that area, and he's like, you know, it's cool to be a. A solo hunter, but it's. It's always good to be a team packer. I was like, yeah, absolutely, you know, yeah, for sure. It's always good when it comes time to pack something out, to have people to help you out, especially if it's hot and whatever. It's good to just be able to get stuff off the mountain. So, yeah, that's a. That's kind of the. The give and take about it, you know, but that's the other thing is, like, thinking about expanding those spots and finding people that, you know, you start to start to hunt with somebody a lot, and then you start to kind of build that. Okay. Like, this person's solid. We got the same style of hunting. It's a good. It's a good way to go, and I don't know, it's definitely worth it because with elk, out of any animal, I feel like elk is suited for two hunters. I mean, I don't know how many times I've been the caller and had. They'll close to me. You know, it's like anything can happen at any point. So there is a definite benefit, especially when it comes to calling, to have two people.
- [35:56]
A
Cool. All right, well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
- [35:59]
B
Yep. Thanks for the call, and best of luck to you.
- [36:01]
A
Thank you.
- [36:04]
B
All right, we're going to jump to another caller here. Welcome to Live Wild Podcast. Who am I talking with?
- [36:10]
A
This is Larry from Indiana. How are you, Remy?
- [36:13]
B
Pretty good. How's it going, Larry?
- [36:14]
A
Oh, pretty good.
- [36:16]
B
What's your. What's your question?
- [36:18]
A
I had a question a couple years ago, we were in Idaho, and we had an elk about midday just bugle on his own across the head basin. And I bugled back because we wasn't sure if we actually heard him. And he kind of immediately started getting aggressive with us. So we went silent, went the two and a half miles around the head base, and then couldn't find him again. Come to find out, he had switched on the east side and we went around the west side of the head base. And was we wrong in going after him or should we have just stayed there and chances are he would have came to us.
- [36:56]
B
Yeah, that's. I. I think that every time I blow a bugle and go, okay, you know, the odds of an elk moving a long distance to you are pretty rare. He may have even just gone that way because that's the way that, like, you know, he was going. That's the hard part. Right. Sometimes you need to stay long enough to figure it out.
- [37:14]
A
Yeah.
- [37:15]
B
A lot of times what I like to do is like we talked about with two callers, if you got. If you're at distance and you've got a bull cranking off and you've got another person with you, sometimes it's best to just leave one person at the distance calling and let one person move in.
- [37:33]
A
I got.
- [37:34]
B
And then, craziest scenario, that bull. Now, it is nice, too, to move in as a team and be able to call in position and do that same thing at a closer proximity. But there is a little bit of. Sometimes when you're across the canyon, you can kind of keep that sound moving and keep that bull worked up so the person moving in can kind of keep tabs on them. Right. So I got you. You could. You could hear it moving, and then you can kind of intercept and you can make a play from there. I've had it happen, you know, On. On me multiple times where I had it happen one time where, you know, it's not very often you get a bull to drop off a mountain for you. And I'm calling it. This bull, he's like, hung up on the top. We move in. As we move in. It's like that bull just decided to come down at the same damn time and ran face to face at 20 yards, going. Well, wasn't planning on that. You know, like, sometimes it just happens. I. Like, if it was me, I probably would have moved in, you know, And I don't know, you know, which way the wind was going or how that basin was set up. There are some times where you can kind of anticipate, like, which way they might go, which would help. But I think, like, that's probably the right move. That's how I would have played it. And then you go, well, shit, it just didn't work out that time.
- [38:46]
A
Yeah.
- [38:46]
B
Which does happen.
- [38:48]
A
We started calling and he started working across that base at his ridge, east and west. So I. I kind of had the idea. I was like, we'll just be quiet and we're gonna gun it over there as fast as we can. And I just didn't know if that was the right choice.
- [39:04]
B
Yeah, like, you went to a place where you thought he was going to cut him off is kind of what the play was. Or he was moving, you know, like, if I got a bull that's moving, I can tell he's clearly moving in my direction. I will stay. But if I've got a bull that's like, hung up or moving away, I would definitely move and try to, like, intercept that bull.
- [39:23]
A
Again, weird part, because he was just like going back and forth just over the crest of that ridge. You know, he's just following the ridge back and forth, back and forth, not really giving us a definite direction.
- [39:36]
B
That makes sense. Yeah. And it'd be interesting to know, too. Like, my guess, like, often what bulls will do on that. Like, when it's a ridge situation, it's hard to tell sometimes, but many times they have other. Like, there's cows on the other side. And so what they'll be doing their thing. They're like, I'm over here. I'm doing. I'm showing my dominance. And then those cows move off and they went off, whatever the backside of that. And then he ended up just following them.
- [40:01]
A
I got.
- [40:01]
B
Now, if you know for. For a fact, it's a lone bull, a lone bull situation is very different because they, you know, like, if you got A lone bull fired up and he's responding to things or you throw out a cow call and that bull bugles back. There's a. And you know that he's by himself. There's a very good chance that he will travel a long distance to come to you. So I would kind of go direct path with the right wind to get into position to just call him in straight away.
- [40:25]
A
All right. Yeah, we, we, you know, we've been thinking back on that for two years now. That was two years ago. We did that and still kicking ourselves.
- [40:35]
B
So it sounds like we did the right chance. Yeah, hopefully you get another chance. You know, I mean, that's the thing about elk hunting. You can do the right thing and the elk do the wrong thing. And that doesn't mean that you did anything wrong. Sometimes you just have to play like the best play available. And I'm more of the fact of like I've lost out on probably more elk by being too hesitant than being aggressive. So there's that, there's that kind of give and take that, that balance between that.
- [41:03]
A
Well, I thank you a lot. I appreciate it.
- [41:06]
B
Yeah, well, I appreciate the call. And you are going to be the winner of our next Jetboil prize. So you got The Jetboil Flash 1.0.
- [41:17]
A
Oh, thank you. I really appreciate that.
- [41:20]
B
I think, I think I feel like I've talked to you before. Did you call in a few years ago about boots or something?
- [41:25]
A
Yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, I remember it's bad when you're recognizable in it.
- [41:30]
B
Yeah, exactly. Got to keep that anonymity. That's the hard part. I think now at this point I've, I've bugled so much, people will be like, I heard that bugle and thought it might have been you. Damn it. Can't get away from it. But yeah, we'll appreciate it. We'll, we'll reach out and we'll get you, we'll get you that jet boil sent your way. So thanks for calling and best of luck to you.
- [41:51]
A
Thanks, Remy, you too.
- [41:53]
B
Yep. All right, well, we'll go to a couple more callers here before we end. Hey, welcome to Live Wild Podcast. Who am I talking with? Matt, how's it going?
- [42:05]
A
Good, how are you?
- [42:06]
B
Yeah, doing really good.
- [42:08]
A
Good. I'm excited to get to talk to you. I'm a new elk hunter. I'm going for my first trip this fall. I'm going in Montana second week of September and I'm going with a guide and I guess I have a two part question. The first is when I think about, let's just say, the physical part of actually shooting my bow, being ready for that, any advice you have there. And then on the flip side of that, just even on the mental side of things that I should be thinking about to try and get myself prepared for the hunt.
- [42:38]
B
Yeah, I think there's a. There's a couple of things. The first, like, the. The physical aspect is huge, you know, like, as a guide myself, like, if you've got a good. I can't. I don't know the quality guide you're going to get. I hope it's a good one. You know, a good. A good guide is gonna probably push you, because what. What's going to happen on an archery elkon is like, killing a bull is just a matter of timing, right? He's not trying to walk you into the ground. He's probably just trying to get there in the right amount of time to make it happen. Okay. But at the. On the flip side, you know, you're gonna have to go at, like, whatever your pace is. So you don't want to burn yourself out. You want to stop, but you might need to push yourself at certain times. So kind of gauging that is important because, you know, what I see happen, too, is, like, there's guys that are physically capable. The guy that's going to be walking in front of you in most cases, like, in a guided situation, not always, but most cases, like, depending on the type of terrain, everything and how physical that particular hunt might be, like, you. He. He's just walking at his pace, which is he can go forever and can go pretty fast, right? And that, like, people be like, well, I got to keep up with them.
- [43:43]
A
And.
- [43:44]
B
And then they burn out. And then they're continuing to struggle to, like, catch up. And then the entire rest of the trip, they can't give it the gas they need at the right time. And so, you know, like, what I tell my guys, like, when I'm guiding, I'm like, look, I'm going to walk at my pace. You walk at your pace. When you need to stop, you stop. And then I will stop, right? Because I just don't know, as long as someone's following me, I don't know if they need a break. But if you stop, then I'll stop, you know, so that's kind of like. I'm like, I'll keep going. I'll stop. If I don't, you know, whatever. I'll wait, and then we'll catch back up. So there's certain times where you're going to need to maybe push it. And I like to tell people that, but not everybody's a good communicator. Like I'm like, hey look, we got, I want to do this, we're going to do this. We're going to have to go fast. Here's where we're going to push it. Not everybody communicates good like that, but just understanding like, you know, be in the best shape that you can for the hunt because it's really going to help you keep up, move when you need to move. But then also too, you know, like in some ways you need to conserve your energy for what you've got. So you have the gas in the tank when it's absolutely necessary. You know, it's like, you know, like in the dark trying to get to a glass knob. It's like, how long is it if you've got a 30 minute walk and then it's, you know, in an hour to do it, which is great, you know, you don't need to make it up there in 15 minutes if it's like, you know, we're getting up there to call or glass or whatever. You know, maybe you do, maybe you don't, but you know, you kind of want to just gauge, you know, your energy levels and that kind of thing. Definitely. The other thing is with the shooting, you know, you want to be in position and, and kind of like just, you know, be teachable, be coachable in a way. Like hopefully the person that you're with is like I've, I've seen it on like ends of both ends of the spectrum. Good guides are very good at like giving clear direction. Some guides aren't. And that's just, I mean that's the fact of the matter. Some people are like not good at giving direction. Right. I've seen you see it like with whatever, fishing, hunting, doesn't matter. Right? Yeah, but I think that like, you know, the more that you can kind of understand what's going on and try to adapt, the better you're going to be. One thing I will say is like if you're left to your own devices of like, maybe he's, he's behind calling, you're up ahead. Get yourself in a position where it makes logical sense of where the bull is going to move. And there might be times where you need to move and adjust and there's times that you, you don't need to move and adjust but get yourself in a position where you can draw back, you know, kind of Unseen, but maybe not obstructed. So, like, I like to set up, you know, be still, like, treat the elk like it's a T. Rex from Jurassic Park. Don't move when it can see you and move at the right times. You know, be drawn when he's like, behind and wait for that shot when it opens up. And, you know, just by doing a few simple things like that, practicing your shots and that kind of thing, because all that's on you. So I just definitely practice that and then think about, you know, your setup and other things and talk with the guy, you know, ask questions Sometimes. Sometimes, like, you know, everybody's got a million questions or whatever, but you don't, you don't know what you don't know. So I think it's a good, you know, it should be a good experience. Yeah, I mean, the best thing you can do, though, is, like, be ready physically and be ready with your, with whatever you're shooting.
- [46:58]
A
And when you say, like, when I think about, like, one of the things I'm just definitely thinking about is just being mentally prepared, you know, if things are happening, I don't know. Do you have any recommendations about how. I mean, I've seen people, like, do some kind of training to throw themselves off before they shoot or, I mean, is there worth that or is that not really a thing?
- [47:18]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Like, I, I. One of the things that I talk about a lot is just like, shooting like a hunting scenario. You're. You're probably not going to get a shot at an elk that's like, standing there with a lot of time and, and, you know, like, you do in your, maybe your backyard. One of the shots that I like to practice a lot is, like, through a lot of heavier brush and trees and stuff like that. If you got the ability to do that with, like, most elk that come in, there's a lot of in the way and understanding the arc of your arrow and how you can shoot through that is a big, is a game changer. Most elk, they get missed is because the arrow hits something in flight. So understanding, like, really understanding that what, like, if an elk's at 30 yards, how can I make this shot? With branches and other things, can I make the shot? I'm actually. This is one of the podcast topics that I'm going to talk about this month, so.
- [48:07]
A
Cool.
- [48:08]
B
Tune in for that. This, this, this live one might air after that podcast. So it's one of those things that I'm going to reference it now is like, go back a couple podcasts and listen on how to get that shot because that's going to be one of the things that I'm talking about. But I think that like, you know, practicing those things is going to be key, like understanding the arc of the arrow, understanding that another shot that you're going to want to practice a lot is like set your pin it. I don't know. Do you have a multi pin site? A single pin site?
- [48:37]
A
Multi pin, 20, 30, 40 is what I have a set right now.
- [48:40]
B
Okay. So yeah, so I would know, I would absolutely know where that 40 yard pin hits it. 50, 55.
- [48:48]
A
Okay.
- [48:48]
B
You know, like shoot at target that way. I would also really practice sub 20 and I would practice like those off distances, like you know, like something through that and then understand like maybe do that in cover and other things. That's going to be key. And then the other thing that I practice a lot with elk is holding back for a long time. So like I'll go out and just work up that like strength of holding the boat full draw for as long as possible. Like, okay, you know, see how, how long you can get that held back. And then the other thing is like tweaking your body at weird positions. So face your feet one way and then like imaginable walking and he's walked way out of your like comfort zone. So you're twisted all weird. You have to lean out a little bit. Yeah, let's go try that. Because it puts weird torque on the boat and you're going to realize like, wow, whatever. My group was standing there with a great everything. Right. Is this with the torque on the bow and these other things. It's this.
- [49:40]
A
Yeah.
- [49:41]
B
So practicing all those kind of shots for in the field hunting scenarios, that's going to be. You don't want your first time to do a shot like that to be at an elk. You want it to be at your target in your backyard that you've done a hundred times.
- [49:52]
A
Perfect. Great. That's great. Thanks a lot.
- [49:54]
B
Yeah, well, appreciate the call. Best of luck to you.
- [49:57]
A
Great, thanks.
- [50:00]
B
All right, well, that's all our time for today. I thank you guys so much for calling in. You know, it's, it's always awesome to be able to talk to people about hunting about especially elk hunting. This is one of my, I guess favorite blocks of, of things that we do on the podcast is what I call like to call elk month because start to dive into those archery, elk tactics, tactics for elk for kind of any season. But I'm really excited about the upcoming season and hearing From a lot of you that have talked to or listen to the podcast, your, your success on that. I'll also say, you know, for those of you that listen to the podcast, prepping for elk hunts. I've got a bunch of awesome elk videos that are, you know, are actually just kind of. I've got some. I've got a ibex hunt that I did with my buddy Pedro that's going up on my YouTube channel. I had a late rifle elk hunt that will have gone a couple weeks ago from when this airs. And then I've got, I guess it'd probably be essentially maybe the same week as this, an incredible archery elk hunt from last year. I ended up taking a really good bull and I called the film Cashing in because I had, I had a bunch of points and ended up cashing them in for an area. And I mean, I, I'll give you, you know, it's not going to. Not going to be spoiler alert. I might have even told the story before I ended up missing a bull and then killing it three hours later, which is unheard of, right? It was, it was just a great way that, that, that hunt worked out. But it's a fun hunt. And then got some other stuff on there, so if you aren't subscribed to the YouTube channel, go check that out. Also, I want to just thank everybody that's been supporting our, our move with day six and, and my family and I kind of, you know, now owning that arrow and Broadhead company. Thank you guys so much that we're getting all those orders out. It's been awesome. You know, everybody that's placed that order, we just value it so much. And, and I definitely think, like, if you're looking for an elk set up for this year, next year, we absolutely have what you need for that. I mean, I think that we make hands down the absolute best elk hunting setup out there. So something to think about. And then it just another, you know, great supporter of this podcast. Stone Glacier Pack Company. I don't know, man. I went on their website today and I saw they were sold out. I picked up their new Sky Archer Pack. Just a little bit of redesign on it. I'm stoked to get that going. But we've got those on our website if they're available, if they aren't sold out, or stoneglacier.com as always, you guys can use code livewild and get free shipping on that. Anything on Stone Glacier's website. And then also, you know, if you're looking for A really good, like running gun, elk hunting. If I'm day hunting, I do like, I go back and forth. I like. I like a lighter pack, you know, smaller pack so I can move kind of freely. But then I also want that extra room for throwing an elk in. The nice thing about Stone Glacier is it's got that load shelf on the pack so it pulls away. You can fit some elk quarters in there. They also are super light and super small when you don't have a ton of stuff in there. So you can cinch it down for that running around, chasing elk through. Whether the front country, the back country, whatever. They've got some awesome stuff. So something to think about if you. If you're looking for some new gear in that department. And then special thanks to. To Jetboil for giving everyone that. That discount code that you guys can use. It's just code livewild for 20 off their website on Jetboil stuff. I think. I don't think it works for anything that might be on sale or anything. But for most of the stuff, like the things that we got for the prizes today, works on all that stuff, so that's cool. That was. That's. That's always fun to be able to do that for you guys. That's kind of one of the things like was I try to get prizes and. And we. We work with some incredible companies. Being able to do that for the listeners is something that I always try to push because, you know, a little bit goes a long ways. So. And they make some great stuff. So if you're in the need for a new stove or anything like that, check that out. I don't know how long that code will last, but it's definitely worth looking into. Like I said, their genesis stove systems, like for a base camp stove, if you need to upgrade yours, it's badass. I mean, it's something that I've been. It was like my. It was on the top of my wish list once I saw. I saw it when I was shopping at Shields a couple years. I guess it was like last season was the first season that I got to use it because I got it at the end of the year, I guess, two Christmases ago. And man, I just. It's like, it's been awesome. Like, love the thing. It's one of my favorite things. I pull out and everyone's like, whoa, what is this? Like, it's. It's rad. So something to check out. They definitely knocked it out of the park with that one. Until next week. I'M just gonna say live wild. We'll catch you guys later.