← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 213 | How to play that elk hunting chess game and my 12 days of Christmas giveaway
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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. Now for those that don't know, Mountain Tough is an online based training app that's designed for hunters to train you both mentally and physically for the mountains so you can go on. And there's programs designed with workouts that are specifically made to get you ready for the things you're going to encounter out there in the wild. And while a lot of you probably know that their programs are designed to get you ready, they also have programs designed to keep you ready during the season. It really is a year round process to help you be the best you can be on the hunt. If you're looking for a great gift this holiday season, Yeti has you covered with their Rambler drinkware. It's a leak fruit, stackable, ton of different colors and everything for drinking water, coffee, wine or beer. They even have shot glasses and flasks. They're great stocking stuffers and an awesome gift to give this holiday season.
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Welcome back to LiveWell podcast everyone. I'm excited because right now if you followed me for any amount of time or you've listened to this podcast for a while, you probably have realized that I like to go big around Christmas and what I mean by that is my annual 12 Days of Christmas giveaway is back. It's one of the things that I just look forward to throughout the year because it's just exciting for me to be able to give back to you guys for all the support not just of the podcast, but of the YouTube channel, of even my website and just making purchases and things off of that and even supporting my day six Arrow company It means a lot to me, but I also think that this is just a fun way that I get to give back to you guys. I've got thousands of dollars worth of gear that I get to give away every year and it's, it's a lot of fun for me to do. It's actually kind of funny because you know, whether when I'm out someplace or I get like, whether it's a sporting show or this One time I. I even met somebody in a gas station or. I was actually at a. I know I was at. I was at a sporting goods store buying some elk calls and ran into this guy that was elk hunting, and he's like, hey, man, don't mean to bother you, but I just want to tell you thanks. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, for what? And he's like, the bow I'm hunting with you, I won it from you. I was like, really? It was just, like, awesome to be able to meet somebody that won something. And I. I've met quite a few people that have won something from us over the years. One of the things that, I mean, I. I probably don't talk. I guess. I don't know. It's not something I need to talk about. But I try to do as many giveaways as possible. Like, people that are on my email list know that darn near a lot of the emails. I do a giveaway, and then I do a couple different giveaways throughout the year. And this Christmas one's a big one with a ton of different, like, ton of different gear in there. And so it's fun to just even run into people. They're like, man, I got this pack from you, or I got this bow from you, or whatever. That's always a lot of fun. But it's just fun for me to be able to do this. So it's back. If you haven't done it before, you aren't familiar with it, it's pretty easy. You can just go on my website, enter. You just put in your email and phone number. So I have a way to call, contact you. Because we. I used to do it just like, enter by commenting on something and then just people were getting scammed left and right. So we've got like a system now, which is. Feels pretty good. So we've got a system for the giveaway. You just enter, and then there's like a. A way that you can get more chances, but you only have to enter one time, and then you're in for all 12 days. And each day I draw a different winner, different prize package. You can follow along on my Instagram of what's going to be there each day. And at the end of this podcast, I'll just go through some of the prizes and some of the stuff that we got coming out for the 12 days of Christmas. But just wanted to inform everyone that that is, it's live and I want to talk about it first thing. Because if you haven't entered Jump on. Enter. It's kicking off Saturday, so get in there if you're listening. Thursday the 11th, Saturday the 13th is going to be our first day. You don't want to miss a day, right? Because it can just give you a better chance of pulling something good, right? So that's going to go on and that's always fun for me when it comes to hunting. And as far as this week's episode, we're going to be looking at finding late season elk hunting success. And maybe the season is closed, but it's something that you can think about for next year or maybe you've got one of those late tags and this is something that can come into play. But I think what we're going to talk about today is definitely a tactic that is a core tactic to successful L C hunting. Because I think of like late season November, even say maybe October, November, even December, January, any season in there. L C hunting can become this like chess game where each piece moves a certain way, but the goal is really to try to outmaneuver the other one. You see what they're doing and you go a step ahead and mastering. This is what late season elk hunting is about for me. Positioning yourself for success. So as the bulls are either in a feeding pattern or, or maybe you're in a, in a migration area, but it can change over, over the year or whatever. But there's this tactic of covering country and then finding the bulls and then preparing an ambush. And this is just this checkmate combo. So this week we're going to go into this sure tactic. But first I want to share the story of my last elk hunt this season. It was a few weeks ago and I was able to put it all together and outmaneuver old one horn.
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My last elk hunt of the season was a general area rifle like late season elk tag. And it's one of those hunts where I mean, you can find good bulls, right? But it's more about getting out elk hunting size to me on, on this particular hunt isn't like, it isn't even in my thought process, to be honest. Like, I, I think that it's one of those areas where you, you're just trying to kind of outmaneuver the elk and find a place where other hunters aren't and, and harvest a bull and, and find some success. And it's honestly like the hunt that I, the hunt type that I grew up on, the hunt type that I really cut my teeth on. And for me it's just as fun as drawing A great archery elk tag and a good unit chasing big bulls. Like, there's just something about hunting one of these kind of units. It's the tag that probably 90% of elk hunters have experience hunting in. So if it's like, yeah, this sounds familiar, this is the kind of hunt like, that's actually probably the hunt that I enjoy the most every year. And I like to go to different places and different hunts for this, this type of hunt, but it's a lot of fun. And some years, you know, I come out, I go and I end up with a really good bull, like a better bull than I probably should. In some years, all you see is small 5 points or what have you. And that's the hunt. And it's, it's fun to just get in there, find bulls and find success. And there's a lot of tactic to it. It might be, I mean, to be 100 honest, I've, I've gone on hunts where, you know, I've had a good tag and it's archery season and the bulls are screaming and you can kind of, you can pass up what you want and find a good, mature six point bull. And, and honestly, sometimes these hunts where is a general over the counter type area and just killing any bull is more difficult than killing a big bull with your bow and some of these other units. And maybe that's what I just love about it. Like there's that, there's that element of, you know, there's a lot of things kind of going against you and, and for me it just makes that hunt so fun and something that I really enjoy. And so on this particular hunt this year was, I would say, not ideal for late season elk hunting. Like I really love. One of the things I love to do is hunt elk when the weather's just snows. Like the snow's bad, it's freezing cold. I know, I don't know what it is in my brain that makes me love this, but like that to me is just late season elk hunting. I think a lot of hunters are like avoiding that time of year and I'm, I'm, I'm gunning for it. This year it wasn't like that. It was, it was fairly warm and, and for that it kind of makes conditions difficult. When it gets real cold, I get those temperatures, I get those snows. That's when I can turn up or, you know, I've had in the past success turning up those really good bulls. And that's what I was hoping for. You know, it's what Everybody hopes for, right? Like, oh yeah, the perfect conditions and everything's right. When the perfect conditions aren't there, you just kind of go with the hand that you're dealt. Warm season, a lot of hunting pressure because everybody can get around. There's no people kind of staying home because it's hard to get into a spot this, that or the other thing. But on the flip side, it just adds to that kind of chess game piece of trying to outmaneuver and find a bull and take a bull. So.
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Not really knowing where the elk we're going to be, you know, if this area, like elk would migrate in. But also there's a lot of resident elk. And I kind of just decided, okay, day one is just going to be scouting day. Got a glass and find a bowl. So I started off on a good glassing vantage overlooking a lot of country. There's a lot of timber, it's a very timbered area. But there was a few little openings that I could see. First thing in the morning, I'm glassing and I'm like, I'm glassing a long ways away. I've got my 18 power binoculars out. Just really, I mean it's. I would say it was too early to glass, but I figured as warm as it is, I gotta try to turn something up super early because I imagine that by before the sun comes up, that 30 minutes pre sun up dawn, they're going to be in the timber. So I'm just trying to look for any opening I can see and see if there's anything that looks out of place or is slightly moving. And. And I'm looking like, I don't know, seven or eight miles away in that just real dark light. And I can see what looks like a, like a little white speck. I think that that's a bull, but it is too dark to tell. So I keep glassing around and looking. I'm like, I think it's actually three elk, but it's just too hard to tell. So I look in another spot and I look and I go, okay, that is actually smelling a little bit closer. Spot looked like maybe some cows, maybe a bull in there. But I was kind of maybe expecting that bull to be a spike. And so it started to get a little bit lighter. I got the spotting scope out and sure enough, that first morning, boom, spotted an elk. And I could tell by the dark neck and the blonde body it's a bull. It looks like there's at least two bulls, maybe a third bull. There's definitely three Elk, and they are a long ways away the top of this mountain. And I don't know what. What kind of bull, but I'm also not super concerned about what kind of bull. So kind of first morning, first day, lights on, got a bull. In this particular opening, there's some bigger meadows with. There was a group elk, and I did see that there was a bull. I couldn't tell what it was, but there's a bull with some cows in a little bit closer spot. But that closer spot, there was just a lot of places that they could feed. This upper area was pretty tight. It was like one little opening in the timber.
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A little opening, had some good grass, but there was nowhere to get across to view it. And my idea was, okay, I think that those elk are going to come back into that spot. They're bulls. They're probably going to go around onto the north face. They're going to bed. There's snow up there, is, like, pretty high elevation. It was a long ways away from where I was at, but there wasn't a lot of great places to feed them. I'm just assuming that they're in a feeding pattern of, like, feeding bedding. Feeding bedding. And they probably aren't going far between the two. So I thought it's. It's a not ideal setup, but maybe there's a spot that I could get to where I could look into there a little bit. But realistically, I kind of figured it's a place that I have to just be at. I. I'm like, looking at it going, it's a long ways away. It's a terrible setup because I'm probably going to be shooting these elk at like 30 to 80 yards max. And I wish I could get across canyon, maybe look at them at 300 yards and see the whole hill. But that's just not going to be the thing. So I decided, though, like, I found a bull, why I could go. I could keep looking around for more bulls, or I could just go make a play on this bull. So the plan is I'm going to spend the entire day hiking in there, which I don't know if that's a good, good idea or bad idea. I'm like, the entire time I'm going, I'm like, thinking this is really low odds, but I at least have a bull. And you never know. It's a long ways. Like, I could run into something along the way. Gonna go into that spot, see if I can glass into where they're bedding, which sometimes has worked for Me in the past and then if not I'm gonna go set up where they're feeding. So I make my way up there, just kind of a long trudge. Ended up actually I did have a deer tag in my pocket. Whitetail came running down like the mountain toward me, but it wasn't one that I wanted to take. And I was already far enough that I'm like I'm going for this elk or nothing. So I end up keeping going, climb up to the top, go around the backside of the mountain and make it there with probably an hour before dark. I would say it's like took me almost the whole day to get there and it was all uphill the whole way so getting out would be probably half the time. But moving in there took me a little while. So I get, get there and as I'm moving it's one of those where I'm just practically still hunting and stalking to the spot where there was this rock that I dropped a pin on on my onyx like a rock and a fallen tree that I could see the elk were near. And then I kind of did like a measure to him. It was like in that opening as far as I could see, it was probably 60 yards. So I get to that rock, I'm just going slow, glassing, the wind's good. And sure enough I spot an elk. Like oh yeah, here we go. And I get down, it's only 90 yards away or probably 80, 90 yards away below me. And turns out to be a spike. So the spike's feeding. It's like an hour before, probably an hour and a half before shooting time went in. So I just kind of sneak in and get set up and just wait because I'm thinking I can't see very far and I'm just hoping that the bull that I saw was like a legal bull or a. Because this area I couldn't shoot spikes so I just had to be a brow tine bull. And so I'm just hoping that maybe there's a brow tying bull with it. I, I thought I saw at least two bulls, three elk. I don't know what the other one was. I couldn't confirm. It was like it was light colored but didn't have that. Maybe it was just like, maybe this was the one that I thought wasn't like, didn't know if it was a bull or not. So I just sit up and wait. I'm waiting, waiting, waiting. And I can't really see this, this spike. I can see him for a little bit and Then I can't see him. I'm looking where I can see where the elk I thought would have gone into bed, where I watched him disappear into the timber. And so I'm just sitting there, and that's like 55 yards. If they come out, they're gonna be 55 yards away. So I'm trying to get my outline kind of blocked. I've got my buddy Zach with me. He's filming. And so we're set up. We're just sitting there. And here comes the spike. And he feeds out to like 35 yards. Maybe it's 45 yards, something like that. It's like this is bow range. And I figured that when I went, I was thinking I should have just brought my bow. And so that spikes feeding and.
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He appears to be alone. And then it's now about.
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Let'S say it's probably sunset. So you have like, you can hunt till 30 minutes after sunset. It's probably like five minutes before sunset, something like that. And down below, that spike kind of whips his head back and is staring. So I'm staring where he's staring, and I see an elk move through the opening. I get my gun up, and it turns out to be a cow. And then I see a bull move behind the cow. Or we're in business. This is going to happen. Day one. Here we go. And so I get. I. I get set up on that spot, but he. He moves through the timber, and now he's behind some trees, and the spike is still right here, like 30, 40 yards. And he's kind of on edge. Every little move you make, he kind of whips his head up, is looking around. You just feel like he's been there for a while, but you feel like he can feel your heartbeat. So I'm watching, and the cow comes up and she's in a good spot. And the. The shooter bowl isn't there. It was like a smaller 5x5. And I. I've decided if I can get a shot on this bull, I'm going to take it. It's like, this is a gift. It's hot weather and things. I mean, I spotted him first morning. Yeah, I'd like to look around, but also, it could be a tough week. So I'm fixed on that spot. And he's just behind a tree for me and Zach, who's just like, we're sitting right next to each other, but I've got this tree blocking where that bull is. And he's like, man, if you just scoot over, you could probably get a shot. But I've got this spike right here, right below me, and if I just move a little bit and he sees me, game over, right? And the elk are feeding up. They're feeding up to this little tiny grass patch that they were feeding in this morning. So I'm just. I decide I'm just going to wait because he's moving up. I just need him to take five to 10 steps in the direction that the other elk went, and it'll be absolutely perfect. So we're debating on whether I should scoot over a little bit or not, just to get around this tree. And I just decided to wait for a minute, and he starts to walk. And Zach's like, okay, he's coming up. And I can see. I could see him through the tree, but I just didn't have a shot. So I get. I get ready. We're talking. He's like. He's probably like 80 yards. And then I got the spike. It's like 30, 40 yards. And as he walks up, the spike walks kind of parallel with him, and I've got the bull behind him and the spike completely covering the bull. And then it's just that point where I'm assuming the thermal just shifted. It was like a flick of a switch. And within the seconds that he's in my lane, I can't shoot because the spike's there. It's like they catch something and blow out. Don't see us just blow out. They stop behind the trees. I probably could have taken the shot just as he, like, slowed down and stopped, but it was too rushed, and it just wasn't a good option. And then they. Then I heard him crashing down the mountain. It was a little bit of a heartbreaker. Where you go, man, we did everything right. It was a very kind of low percentage chance, but just playing that chess game of thinking where they're going to come out again, nailing the spot actually exact from such a far distance away, and then having the bull come out and just like bodyguard Spike not giving me a shot or just if I was just in a little bit different position, swap positions, or just a one little different thing would have been a success.
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So the next morning, end up kind of trying to repeat and see if I could pick those elk back up, glassing from the same vantage, end up seeing that lower group elk. And then I see two bulls, which I was thinking maybe were the bulls from that. That evening before, and a little bit higher up meadow, kind of the direction that they ran. So I was Thinking maybe that was them. Of course, it was a long ways away, so I decided, all right, we're going to do the same thing, but this. This time, it's just a little bit different. They have more options, so they could go out to where the lower elk or there's some lower elk as well. And just deciding where to set up. It looked like a perfect ambush spot where I could kind of see a little bit better as a better ambush spot than the morning. But it just wasn't like something was a little off about it. But I decided it was worth the gamble. So I hike back in there. Long, long hike. And we hike back in there, get set up, wait for the evening. Nothing shows. And honestly, like, sitting there, I go, this is just absolutely too perfect. I had a perfect rest. Everything was perfect. I had a good view. I was like, it's just too perfect. The night before was very imperfect. I think that that's why it worked out. Tonight was just too perfect. Like, if it would have. If they would have come out, it would have just been too easy, I guess. So another big hike. A long hike back in the dark. Luckily, it's like late season, so the days end early, and you can, by the time you get, you can hike a long ways between dark and 10pm you know, so the next morning go, okay, we're gonna. We're gonna go kind of try to do the same thing the next day. Because why. Why leave elk to find elk? We've. We've got on, I guess, two days in a row, so now we're gonna go try to do that again. So we go back to the glassing spot that we were at, or it's kind of like finding different little glassing knobs that kind of look into the same area.
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And this particular morning, it was just absolutely socked in. I couldn't see.
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10Ft. It was like, maybe I could see 10ft. But, I mean, driving it was just seemed dizzying. Trying to glass would be impossible. You couldn't see at all. And then it started to snow. This is. This could be good. So the. The day was kind of a bust. Like, I really. I didn't. I'm. Didn't see. I was just going. I was like, okay, let's just go to a spot where we can maybe still hunt, do something like that.
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Didn't. Didn't turn anything up. Didn't cut any fresh tracks. It was coming down pretty good. Couldn't see very well. But I figured if the next morning was going to clear, it might be good. But I also thought that we could be fogged in and not be able to see. So I made the decision the next day. I didn't want to have the same kind of fogged in, no visibility, because I'm just running out of time at this point. Once you hit like the halfway point of your hunt, you go, okay, we're burning daylight here. So my plan was to go as high as I could and try to get above it, above the, the fog. If I get high enough, maybe it'll be clear on the mountain and I'll be able to glass and see elk. So I did. I climbed up top of the mountain in the dark and sun comes up and it worked. I mean, I was however many thousand feet I climbed and I was just above the fog line and I could see a pretty good ways. However, I didn't see any elk. Like it was just typical, typical day. Right. It was hot week before and I'm spotting elk or the days before. And as soon as you get the conditions that I think should be good, I see no elk. So the day was, was kind of a bust. So I end up hunting the whole day, hiking to the. The fog and clouds burn off. That started it was. Got sunny enough where it's like the snow just kind of melted. And I got to a glassing vantage and start glassing for the evening. It was a pretty slow day, hadn't seen any elk. And I'm just picking apart some pretty thick timber spots where it's like just real timbery, big timber. And there's a few openings here and there. And I'm talking like little open, not a lot of opening, but somewhere where I think it'd be a good feeding area for a bull, like a late season bull to just hide out, be hard to find. So I'm glassing and right before dark, I see that blonde body long ways away, I don't know, five, six miles away. I'm looking at it, staring through the spotter and yep, it's a bull. I'm pretty sure. I mean, based on the color, it's a bull. And it just moves into this little hole. So I pull out my onyx. Okay, I know where that's at. There's a spot across from it. We gotta. The game now is to just get there. I think that that's a place that that bull's feeding. Just basically was feeding pretty hard in there. I think he's gonna be somewhere in there in the morning. Whether he's a little bit over, whatever, whether I can see it through the timber. I don't know, but I can get across from it and, and look there, but I need to be there in the dark. So I get up super early the next morning and hike in to the spot. Took a while to get it, a little while to get in there, hike in, and the timing is perfect. It's just about to be daylight and I, and I get to the spot where I want to be like right across from where that bull was. And I could see where the bull was. That little spot was about 250 yards from where the bull was. But I kind of figured he was, he was moving to the left when I was glassing and there was a couple other spots that he might pop out. So I, I just decide I'm gonna get everything set up just in case he pops out. And I'm gonna have one glimpse in the, of him in the timber. Just, it's like now, I don't know, five, ten minutes, probably ten minutes into shooting light, something like that. And I'm looking, I'm just scanning through little patches of the timber and I see this spot that catches my eye. I was actually. Zach was filming something. I was talking to him and I'm like, yeah, you know, the plan is then. Oh, I, I see something I think, is that an elk? It's like I gotta, I pull my binos up. Sure enough, it's a bowl. Oh, bowl shooter. And so I, I get set up and I see the bull and I look and I see in the timber there's another bowl. I might as well just see what, what kind of. Because I only saw one the night before, but it easily could have been. It was just such a small little window so far away. Oh, there's another bull. And the first bull kind of steps out. It's a, you know, like what I'd consider a rag horn five point bull. And then the, the next bull is like a better bull a little bit, or actually the, the next bull comes out and I can see one side. He's like walking through timber. I go, that's a good, that's a good, big, mature, five point. That's a nice bull. I'm going to shoot that bull. And he turns his head and he's only got one horn. And most people would be like, I'm not going to shoot that bull. And to me I thought, that's even cooler. I don't know what's wrong with me. And then behind that was like another bull. A little bigger than the first bull, but just the younger bull and so I get set up. I've got my pick of the three bulls, all, I guess, five points. One's a, one's a true five point. The others are double five points. But I mean the one five, the one horn bull is just like a nice bull. And there's been times where I've seen or been guiding people and we find these one horn bulls and they got like a club or something. But I didn't really analyze the bull that much. I just thought I was like, actually I like that one horn bull. He's just. I don't know what it was about it. I thought it was cool, just me, you know, most people would be like, nah, I'm not going to shoot that bull. I said, I want to shoot, I'm going to shoot the one horn bull. I think Zach, he was filming and he's thinking, I was like, okay, when the bull comes out, I'm going to shoot him. And he didn't know which one I was talking about. He's like, surely he's not going to shoot the one horn one. And I told him, I said, I'm going to shoot the one horn one. I like that one the best. So the bulls came out. I let the first one pass, waiting for the, the one horn one to give me. I'm on the scope, I'm just range. I do my, adjust my scope. I've got a dead rest on a rock like bipod out. It's perfect. Squeeze the trigger, hit the bull right where I want. He runs a little bit, I can tell he's going to fall over. But I shoot him one more time anyways because that's my policy with elk is if they're on their feet, shoot them again if you can get a second shot. Kind of talked about that last week, but yeah, with a, with a rifle, with a bow, whatever. If I can get a second shot on a bull, I'm going to do it. Bulls down. And it was, it was cool because for me, that is late season elk hunting. That is kind of figuring out that chess game and trying to outmaneuver the elk. The plan the night before after seeing that bull was I'm gonna get into position and I'm gonna shoot that bullet at darn near daybreak. And when a plan comes together, it feels really good. It was awesome for that, for that to work out. And it was cool. So we got up, I got up to the bull and it ended up the bullet busted off. Because I've seen bulls that just don't only Grow one antler and bulls that have, you know, club thing or whatever. But it had just busted off at the pedicle, so it been, you know, probably busted off in September. So it gives me something to go look for. It's definitely the widest bull I've ever shot because if you consider width, it's the distance between the two main beams. That main beam's probably up in some summer range somewhere, some rutten grounds sitting on the ground. So who I, I, it's one of those things where you, you think that that would be awesome to go turn that other antler up. I don't know. I know some people. Zach was, he was just messing with me. He's like, dude, in the white tail world, I would never shoot a buck with one antler. And I'm like, I've, I've actually shot one other one horn bull and it was the other side. So I just was matching him up. I was like, perfect. That's great. Because honestly, you know, I think for me it was more just.
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One of those hunts where.
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It was a fun hunt. It was enjoyable. That bull was a little bit different and I liked the way he looked. And you know, I think that that's the thing about hunting. Right. I'm doing it for me and myself. Yeah, I film it and other things, but, you know, when I pull the trigger, it's for what I want and to have fun and to enjoy the process and to bring home some awesome meat. And so for me, that was the bowl that I wanted and I was stoked on it. And it was hunt and a great success. And so we just, you know, and, and then it, the work began. It was, it's a pretty big bodied bull. We were joking. I was like, there's two smaller bodied bulls and I got to go shoot the big, big old fat boy on the mountain. But we got him cut up and got him packed out, made a couple trips and it was all, you know, majority, a lot of uphill climbing, get out of that hole. But it worked out. It was fun and, and it was an awesome way to kind of cap off with, with success and, and taking the old one horn bull. And honestly, it's a lot easier to pack out one a one horn bull than two horn bull. I, I've learned, I learned that this, this year. So that was fun. But yeah, it was a good elk hunt and, and a great way to kind of end the elk season and, and, and bring home some, some.
- [32:24]
So the thing that I like about hunting bulls post rut is exploiting this feeding pattern that they get into. And I've noticed it pretty much everywhere. Yuhon elk. It's like after the rut, they're gonna need to recuperate to survive the winter. And maybe that's why elk rut so early, because they rut so hard, they expend so much energy, and then they've got big bodies that they gotta survive through a winter season. I mean, obviously it's because of the gestation of the. The calves as well. But I think to give a bull time to. To refeed and rebuild for that wintertime, rutting in September is. Is actually optimal for them. And they go into these. These feeding patterns. And what it is is that they feed and bed and they do it within a smaller general area. Whereas during other times a year, they might have bigger patterns. As it starts to get later, they kind of start to tighten that pattern up. Now there is. There's a movement that happens with elk during the migration where they move from areas to. From like, areas where they can't winter to winter range. But I think in some instances, once they get into that winter range, then they really start diving into the feeding pattern. But also along the way, they aren't necessarily moving like one straight line. Sometimes they do, and it's like, okay, snow's deep and I'm getting to winter range, I'm moving, and just light switch turns on and they go. But other times, they get to an area where it's like, oh, I've got food cover, food cover, feel pretty safe. I'm going to hang out here until I got to bump to the next spot or the next spot. And so they're still within those feeding patterns. Whether they're moving or they're in that feeding pattern, in one centralized location, they're in a feeding pattern. I've even noticed this with, like, red red deer, red stag at Post Roar in New Zealand, where they do the same thing. They're in those little pockets and they pop out into the to feed, and then they pop back in to the COVID It's mostly morning and evening movement, feeding a lot at night. But what this does is it allows you as a hunter to kind of play that chess game where you can use cover ground using your optics and then figure out the pattern that might be going on and then exploit that pattern by getting into position and ambushing them when they come back out. And there's a few little tricks to this. And one of the tricks is, you know, that they're feeding. That's that's what we're looking for. So in the place that I was just hunting, I know sometimes people go, oh, my area's really timbered. And in some instances, having those more timbered areas makes this tactic even more successful because there's limited areas where they're out and feeding. Now, in some really timbered areas, they're going to have to feed somewhere they might be feeding in the timber. Thing about elk is they're grazers. They like that grass, that fescue, that other, you know, that more grass, graze as opposed to browse. So places where they can get that is optimal. It could be as simple as a little place where the trees burnt, died off, maybe a logged area, maybe a little opening, what have you. Maybe it's an area that was previously logged and it's grown back. But there's, you know, fringes of this. And those areas are going to have maybe it's an old log, I mean, old logging road even, or a ridge. Sometimes ridges catch sun a little bit better where they might be feeding. And these little bit more open areas are places where they're going to feed. Now, sometimes it's as big as a meadow or a park, and sometimes it's as small as a. A small little opening in the timber. But having that feeding area kind of helps pinpoint where the elk are potentially going to be. And the other thing about it is it's actually maybe just a factor of, oh, you can actually see there. So, oh, you end up catching elk in that. I've caught elk in some pretty small areas or sparser parts of the mountain where you can look into the timber a little bit, and those can be feeding areas as well. Now, in that kind of country, the area is a little bit limited, so they can be more patternable on that area and have less options to feed other places. So, like that first night, that little pocket at the top of the mountain wasn't ideal for setting up on. But there wasn't as much feed around, so it was more likely that they'd go there the next night. There was a lot of options. They could have gone from one, gone into the timber and popped out another and been feeding and changed it up a little bit or caught something else along along the way, started feeding there. Not as patternable. The bull that I killed was in that real small patch of whatever pattern bowl. But then there was another group elk that I don't know if it had a bull and what have you. I mean, I had a bull, I think it was maybe a Spike or something. But it could have easily been a bull or what, you know, legal bull, whatever, and they were doing the same thing every day. And then there's other times where you think they're doing the same thing every day. You get there and then they end up doing something different. But the goal is to kind of look over the feeding areas, find where they're at, assess the quality of the feeding area and the odds that they're going to be back either the next evening or the next morning. Oftentimes I would rather.
- [37:48]
Spot in the morning, set up in the evening, and I think that the consistency is more successful that way. And here's what I mean by that, because often when they're moving to the evening into an area to feed in the evening, they're feeding essentially through dark, potentially through the night, and they can move in the night. And then in the morning they're at a certain point, they are feeding, it starts to get light, and then they move into bed and they're probably bedding in close proximity to where they were last feeding. And then they'll probably pop back out where they were last feeding and continue to feed through the night, maybe be somewhere kind of new in morning. So for me, I like to glass the mornings ambush in the evenings. However, if it's a, the situation can dictate it. Oftentimes you can do the reverse and you can see them in the evening and anticipate where they're going to be. Because maybe it's cloudy, maybe there's not as much of a moon, maybe that's a more isolated pocket. They'll be in that area in the morning and you catch them first thing moving back the way that they kind of came in in reverse fashion in, in the morning, going back to where they're, they're going to bed. And this strategy is, is to me the one that really screams elk hunting. Like that's, that's iconic elk, I think, like mule deer hunting that put a buck to bed, stock in. That's classic Mueller hunting. For me, classic elk hunting is spottable. Try to understand their pattern or analyze why they're doing what they're doing and then try to think of the next play of set up to intercept that bull in that kind of chink and armor, which would be moving from bedding to feed.
- [39:38]
Now, of course, there's a lot of different ways to hunt elk, right? You can, you can still hunt, you can glass and move in, you can glass areas where you could hopefully pick up bedded bulls. I've Done all of the above. But I find that for me, this, this particular tactic is the one that I. I think I enjoy the most because it's. It's really understanding elk, looking at elk and saying, okay, I see what they're doing. I'm looking at the area. And it's. It's really nice too, to have, like, onyx where you can pull up map, say, in an area that you haven't been, say, oh, here's where they are, here's what else is around. Here's some of the other options. Here's where they moved into bed. Which way do I think the wind's going? Okay, now I can decide where I think they're going to bed. Which way do I think the wind's going to be blowing in the evening? Because they're probably going to be walking into the wind to get into their feeding area. Think they're going to come back to this spot, yes or no? If the answer is yes, then my plan is to spend the day getting into position, sitting, waiting, and essentially waiting until shooting light ends. And that's one of the things with this tactic that I find is a must for success, is you have to wait until the very end. The first night, the bowl that I wanted to shoot didn't come out until pretty late. A lot of hunters I've hunted with guys where it's like, you're there, you're set up, it starts to get late, it's like, okay, let's start walking back because they want to be getting on the trail. And I'm like, I used to have this saying, I tell people all the time, dark is dark, right? Once it gets dark, it's already dark. What's it matter? You're gonna be like, if you leave now, 15 minutes before shooting time ends. I know it sounds crazy, but. But I mean, the majority of people that I've hunted with leave earlier than I would. I wait until shooting times over, and then I move because I. I've set up, I've committed to that spot. It's like, go longer or like, you just gotta. You just gotta wait till shooting time's over. It's not that hard because once you're. Once it's dark, it's dark. You turn on your headlamp and you hike out, right? You're already hiking out in the dark. What's a little bit longer in the dark? And I understand you don't want to do something that's not safe. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm Talking about, if you're going to do this plan and play, you've got to be there pre light, set up for that first light and you got to be there chill, dark. If you're going in the morning, get there super early and wait for the lights to turn on. If you're going for the evening, wait for the lights to turn off, have your alarm set for when shooting time ends and sit until that point. And maybe even just, you know, sometimes I'll just wait until after shooting light so in case something moves out, I don't like bump it and just turn my headlamp on to once it gets really dark and hike out. So that's something that you gotta think about is for this tactic to work, you have to, you have to play it on both ends right at that, that first 15 minutes, last 15 minutes of legal shooting time.
- [42:44]
And then sometimes, obviously like it can happen. Last year I, I told the story of my dad's hunt and we, we caught the bull actually moving to his bedding spot. So we went in, we didn't catch him where he's feeding, but we started glassing in the sparse timber where he was moving into bed and caught him in route to that bedding area. Because I just had a, had an idea of where they came from the day before and where they might be moving back into. And he ended up killing a really nice six point bull. So this, this strategy definitely works, but you have to give it time on both ends. You have to, you have to do the hard work before daylight and do a lot of hard work after daylight. You know that that week, last week or that week of hunting, it was a lot of hiking in the dark, whether it was before or after. But if you're, if you're set up on a glassing knob, you're planning on the morning, you're glassing the day, you're walking in the night, you're walking out or walking out. You can, if you're camping with the camp on your back, then I'm generally trying to walk and camp or a spot where I can be glassing in the morning is what I like to do. So that's the strategy and it really becomes this chess game of saying, okay, what are the elk doing? What do I think their next move is? And then figuring out where their next move is and setting up for the ambush for them to come out and put yourself in a position for success.
- [44:12]
I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. It's always fun to talk about elk hunting and that strategy and that Game of anticipating their move and trying to just outmaneuver them. If you can be one step, maybe not even a step ahead, but a step in the same direction at the same time, that's where you find your success. And sometimes it's just on this. On that particular hunt, I ended up spotting the bull early in the hunt. But sometimes you. You spend some time trying to even find the bull, and then when you find the bull, that's when you got to make that move, and you only get that one opportunity. I kind of felt like that first day, I was like, well, that could have been my opportunity for the week. On those kind of hunts, sometimes that's the way it works. You get one opportunity to bowl, and when it doesn't work out, darn it, right? That sucks. Like, you really, really want to make sure that those. That you do the best with those opportunities. You don't want to set up somewhere dumb where the wind's blowing the wrong way, or you've got, you know, you. You've got. You get in there and don't stay long enough for when they actually might pop out. So when you play the strategy, you got to commit to the strategy and. And hopefully it works out. I will say one of the things that I want to talk about before we go as we get into Christmas season, a company, an awesome supporter of this podcast, Stone Glacier. They make the best packs that I've ever used. They make incredible tents and sleeping bags as well. You know, I think some of the. If you're like, I am in the market for a pack, it's like, you're gonna throw that on the Christmas list. Buy it for yourself. Ask someone to buy it for you. Whatever. Whatever's going on. I think one of, like the. The. The do all bag, The Sky Talus 6900 is probably the one that I use more than anything. I use it on long hunts. They make a little bit bigger one, the 7900. I just like the pocket configuration of the 6900, to be honest. I like the two side pockets with the zippers, and then it's got like a zip down the middle to access the internals. I like the design of that one. The Sky 5900 and the Sky 7900 have like, a different kind of. And it's like my brother uses the 7900. He likes that a little bit extra room, and he likes configuration of that pocket. Everybody's a little bit different. Another great pack that I, you know, I like the idea of and I've used quite a bit is the Sky Archer 6400 that came out. That's a pretty new one. But I like that because your bow mounts to the back of it. If you're like, I'm bow hunting a lot, that's the pack for you. Because the bow mounts to the back of it really easy because it's flush and don't have to worry about that zippered pocket. You can still access the pack from the sides and. And then a really good just like day pack. Probably one of my favorite packs they make as well is the approach 2800. The approach is awesome because it's small and you don't have to reconfigure anything to use the load shelf. You just pop the straps off, throw stuff in, put it back on. My buddy Zach, that was with me on that hunt, he had that. And I mean we. The first trip we decided to do this, we're like, we're going to go heavy trip one. So we went. We threw in a front quarter and a hind quarter bone in because I don't know, I just. It's just easier sometimes. And we each did that on the first trip. And then the second trip we left a lot of our gear. I just. I have like a dry bag kind of thing. I just hung it up with the meat. So I left a lot of gear. And then the second trip came back and did gear and the loose meat in the antlers. And that was. So the second trip was a lot lighter, but that worked really good. I mean he had the approach 2800 fit a front shoulder in a hindquarter in the load shelf. I threw mine in the bag itself because I had the 69, the Sky Talus and that works really good. Both carried the same amount. His pack was smaller and lighter going in my pack. You know, you can always make a pack smaller. So I don't know. Those are some good options. Another really good option is the Cole 4800. That's a great just kind of all around pack, but still has that side pouch thing there for your spotter and what you need and you can stuff stuff in that. So. And then use that load shelf. So it's a good day pack. A little bit more room in that day pack, but then also has the option for the load shelf as well. So a lot of great options there. I figured I'd mention that. And as always, you guys can use code livewild, sorry, free shipping on from Stone Glacier or you can find Stone Glacier gear. I carry it on my website, Remy warren.com if you're just like, I like the podcast and I'm buying it anyways, I'll just get it from your guys site. That always helps out support the podcast and you're getting some great gear as well. So I don't mind throwing that out there then. Also as a reminder, I'm giving away a pretty sweet you're like, I like the Stone Glacier stuff but it's not in the cards for me right now. You can try to win it from me because one of the days I've got a Stone Glacier Cole 4800, I've got the two person tent. I've got a Chilkoot 15 degree sleeping bag that day I'm also giving away a Mountain Tough membership and I've got six Live Wild half a dozen, sorry, half a dozen day six arrows of your choice and a three pack of my Evo broadheads. So that's a. That's one heck of a day. That's toward the end there. You know what I'll do? I'll actually go. We got a little bit of time here if you guys don't mind and want to hear what, what's going down. We've got. I'll run through the list of prizes and stuff for the giveaway because there's some pretty good stuff in there. So kicking it off, I've got a Montana Knife Co. Elkhorn Skinner. Going to be your last chance to get one this year. If you missed it and didn't get one, the only way you're going to get one, I guess is winning it through the 12 days of Christmas giveaway. Then on day I also have some of my day six Evo broadheads and one of the day six hats. Every day I've got some day six logo wear going on and then I've got a peak 44 tripod and a live Wild rifle cover. I've got a first Light Therma grid hoodie. I've got some Onyx subscriptions in there. I've got. Oh this is. This wasn't a fun day. I don't know what day I'm going to do this yet, but we're going to call it like the, the prep package. It's got your choice of Roka sunglasses. This is one winner gets this for a particular day. Roka Sunglasses Goruck Weight Vest Mountain Tough subscription Day six hat Yeti, the new Yeti Shaker bottle, which is pretty awesome. They don't, you know, there's no little ball and it's Got that like HELA mix design. So you just shake it up, mixes your stuff and a Yeti125 cooler which is the perfect size for you know, transporting elk, deer. I love, I love that size. I use the 125 primarily for everything. And then you know, got a, got a couple days in here with some day six arrows broadheads, a set of rocky talkie radios. I've got Schnee's pack boots which, those are awesome. Onyx. Another Onyx subscription wilderness athlete pack with some might live wild flavors in there for hydrate, recover energy and focus. You know what else I'm going to do? I'm going to buy somebody if the winner that day. I'm going to buy them a RMEF membership, do a little bit of give back to conservation. And if you already have a membership, I'll upgrade your membership and if you already have an upgraded membership, I'll just donate on your behalf. So that's something I want to do. I've got a decked system for your truck. I've got a razor spotting scope hd, the baby razor with a tripod. I've also got some meat processing stuff. Meet your maker. Half horsepower grinder. And they're new, they've got a new mixer that can hook to that half horsepower grinder. Then some of my live wild spices. And that winner of that day is also going to get a Jetboil Flash and the Jetboil Genesis base camp. That Genesis system was one that was on my Christmas list like a few years ago. I ended up getting myself one. Love that thing. It was, it was awesome. I, I finally was like, I saw it because I used the, that just like a shitty Coleman one for years just in my base camp. I'm like, dude, the thing, it's probably one of the coolest things I've ever bought, to be honest. I love that thing. I use it constantly throughout the season. I mean I've got my truck set up where I practically live in. I've got my deck drawers. That thing lives in a deck drawer, that Genesis burner. And if you guys want, I worked out a deal with them. I was like, I like this thing so much. I want to, I'm going to talk about it on my podcast. Can I at least get a promo code for, for the listeners? And they're like, sure. So you, if you use. I'm pretty sure it's code livewild, you can get a, like you just go on jetboil.com and you can get a discount. I think it's like 10 or 15% off Jetboil systems. Don't quote me on that. But yeah, it's. You plug it in, see what it is. If you're like, I just want one of those. Those or even just the flashing using on any of the JetBlue stuff. Not the fuel, but I know you can use it on their hard. Good stuff. So that was something I was like, well that's the nice thing about this podcast. Sometimes you can get a few extra free things to give away and I can get some promo codes for the people to listen to the podcast of stuff that I really like. So something to want to look at. And then we got the Stone Glacier pack. And then the final day, big day. I'm going to. I'm throwing out a new Matthews Ark bow. And to top it off, the winner of that day is also going to get one of the new Bridger watches. And so the Bridger watch is not out yet. I've been working with Cody Rich behind the scenes. He's been like developing an actual really badass watch. Like think of it like a smartwatch that you can take into the mountains. It's designed for hunting and it's designed around maps. You can go check them out. They're doing a pre order actually right now. The winner of that day is going to get one of the first ones ever made. So you're going to be in that first block of people to get that watch. It's awesome. I've got one right now. I've been running prototypes. I've got to see it throughout the entire process. Like the behind the scenes. It's really cool to see somebody taking, take an idea of like we could totally make this better and just take on that task and, and really achieve it. So I'm really excited about that. I'm excited for those guys that are doing it too because they're, they're really doing a great job with it and it's been cool to kind of be behind the scenes. One of the things that I talk about on this podcast all the time is just really loving that behind the scenes gear and just development process and you know, to be able to see this watch come to fruition and see it from like a ca. Like essentially the way that they build these things that started in a case like a big. I mean the first version was on is all start building the software and then the hardware and then this thing's huge and then it starts to shrink down into the size of a watch and then it becomes this workable product and it's awesome. So they've got pre order, check it out, check out their social or follow along but it's a Bridger watch is what it's called and think about a smartwatch. But that's got everything that you would want as a hunter on it where it's absolutely designed with the hunter in mind. Nobody's done that. There's been watches that have features that hunters use but it's not designed for hunters and it's game changing. I think that they're gonna kill it with it. So somehow we scored one for our 12 days of Christmas giveaway and it's gonna be like one of the first ones, very low serial number on this one. So I've got it here. I'm looking, I'm looking at it right now. So that's gonna be awesome. So make sure you guys are in because I, I want to be able to give back to you guys and this is the way that I get to do it. So thank you guys so much for all the support over the year, over the years and best of luck. You can go to my, go to my website, RemyMorren.com you can find the way to enter there. And best of luck. Merry Christmas and sign off. I'm just going to say checkmate. Catch you guys later.