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Foreign. I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. 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. Welcome back to the podcast everyone and Merry Christmas to you and your family. This week is my annual Live Wild Christmas special. This year we're gonna have a lot of fun. I've got some things planned for a little Yuletide and giving the gift of some hunting knowledge. Today we're gonna actually share a hunter's rendition of a classic A Christmas Story. Then we're gonna head into the kitchen for some south of the Border Navidad tradition and I'm gonna give back to a few listeners by having a little bit of a contest for some gear. I'm also gonna share possibly 12 life changing hunting outdoor tips with you. Think of it as the twelve days of Christmas and in hunting tip form. But before we do that again, I'm going to share a little season recap in Christmas verse. Twas the night before Christmas when inside the tent I thought back on my season, it was well spent. My pack was tucked into their vestibule with care in hopes that there was a big mountain caribou out there. I was in the Mackenzie's stocking a giant bull in his bed above the rise, vision of velvet antlers on his head. And while stalking in my broadhead gave the string a tap. It nearly cut through, but I could still draw the bow back when out chasing elk with a bow in hand on the very last day. A stock win as planned in a way, September flew by like a flash. I heard bugles and mews and bull's antlers clash. Then chasing mule deer in the new fallen snow, I followed some tracks to a buck below when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but 15 yards away, a bedded deer. Then in goat country that was steep and slick, we found a billy that would do the trick more rapid than eagles. Daniel's mountain goat hunt was around and she hiked to the top and got a big old billy down. Now Mikey, now Jessie, now Heather and John strapped on some packs and helped us along to the top of the mountain in the dark. Don't fall on the pack. Out. Pack out. Pack out all. As leaves in the mountain winds started to sail, we hunted with family for some little white tails. We turned up some bucks and the shots were true. The truck now loaded with meat and a Christmas tree too. And then thinking back to early spring, I chased some bears but hardly saw a thing. I headed to Spain where the ibex abound hunting with Pedro and Puerto. He got a giant down. My dad's antelope hunt was all about the kids. He wanted all the little ones there and I'm glad he did. A Thanksgiving day deer I flung on my back using my knife to make a backpack. I really had a blast hunting with my bow and helping our friend Christy chase desert sheep in the snow. 11 years of age on his head and missing all his teeth. She took a big old ram horns like a wreath. So many meals of wild game in my belly. But my favorite might have been the one with homemade elderberry jelly. Late season I turned up a one horn elk and I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself moving through the timber, one horn on his head. I saw other bulls but wanted him instead. Lots of skinning and packing, my favorite kind of strain. And filled all the game bags and enjoyed all the pain. A year of ups and downs as hunting generally goes. Chasing elk and deer, sheep, goats and does. So grab your bow or your gun, your backpack and all the gear that feels right. Hope for a tag and a big bull in your sight. Happy hunting to all and to all a good night. Since it's the season of sharing, I'm going to be sharing some of my favorite hunting Knowledge with you, I've got 12. We're going to call them hot tips or hot tail takes for hunting in the outdoors. These are just little things that I do that might even change the way that you do things. Things that I think are so ingrained in some of the stuff that I. The way that I go about things and they make a big difference. So these are some of my favorite tips and these are ones that I. Maybe you've heard some of these before, but I think these are some of the things that really came into play this season. I always like to think of things that happened this year and the things that I thought, you know, maybe I utilized a lot or the little, the little tricks that I did this season that helped me out. So we're going to dive into this 12. We're going to call it 12 Gifts of Christmas Knowledge. Christmas Hunting Knowledge. Number one, this one. I think I put this as number one because I realize it's something that I do all the time. It's not something everyone does and it makes a big difference. I use my hat to stabilize my binoculars. And what I mean by that is I always wear a ball cap hunting. I utilize this tactic so much that if I just. If I don't have a hat with a brim on, I feel like I can't hunt properly. It's that ingrained. So what I do, I put my binos to my face. Instead of just grabbing the top of the binoculars, I pinch the binoculars between my ball cap and the binoculars. So that holds it. It gives it an extra point of contact for stability and it works really well. Then, you know, combine that with sitting down, locking your body off on the ground, and you can take any pair of binoculars and be extremely stabilized. It's a, it's a great trick and a tip to use, especially if it's a little bit windy. You're hand holding. You need to look at something a little bit better. It's a great way to just get a little bit better. Better look with your binoculars. Number two. I've talked about this a little bit, but I like to. I still utilize like an index release, like a wrist strap trigger release for my bow. The release that I like is on a little flexible cord because I like to change the way that I shoot with it throughout. Maybe, you know, different bows or different things. I'll actually switch the. The way that I initiate the shot. And what I mean by that is like in some, some. Sometimes I'll use like more of a. Think of like a throat punch. Where you're, you know, you've got your fingers folded over and the release is in that second part of your joint or the triggers in the second part of that joint. You don't want to be shooting that release with the tip of your finger. Now, a lot of people use a lot of different kinds of releases. Even when I'm shooting, I've shot every kind of release practicing. But for hunting, I really like having a wrist strap and that index kind, because you can just control it a little bit more. In a way, it's always there. I don't have to think about it. I can pop it on. On the stock. But one of the tips that I'm going to tell you here is a way that I've shot for a long time and really enjoy is shooting between my first and second finger. So I actually straddle the release and use my second finger to operate the trigger. What I'm doing is I'm using it more as a back tension type release. So this might not make a lot of sense to some people, but I think you can start to figure it out. So I kind of make a circle with my thumb and first finger and then put my other fingers around the release. And then I use pressure pulling back for the release to go off. So I can still get that surprise release just like you would with a thumb button or anything else. But I'm using the index style. I can use my two knuckles on my. My jaw is an anchor point, and I really like to shoot that way. You've got to kind of find the right release that works for you for that, but for me, that. That process works really well. And I don't know why I do it. I like to switch around the way that I shoot all the time. Not all the time, but like kind of the beginning of the year, after the season, I'll shoot and I'll be like, okay, do I want to do something different? Because I think that kind of switching it around prevents you from punching the trigger or anything like that. So I've been shooting like that the last few years and really enjoy that. And I go back and forth, but that's just a little hot tip of something you might not have thought about or want to try. Tip number three, when you're stalking in, use your range finder to figure out how far your shooting spot is. And you can do that by subtraction. I've talked about this before, but I utilize that strategy all the time where, say, I'm stocking in on, I'm Planning my stock, where I'm on the stock, I'm doing math constantly where I'll range, where the animal is. Range a rock, and I subtract the 2 distance, like maybe, okay, if I get to that rock, I'm 60, you know, let's use easy numbers. If I go, okay, I range where the animal is or about where the Animal is, like 100 yards and I see this little rock over here and arrange that and it's 80 yards, okay, I know that I'm 20 yards from that or arrange something else and I can subtract and know how far I'll be when I get to that. Also in stock planning, you know, ranging how far I ranging where the animal is and then counting down as I'm moving in. So I might. Let's say there's a deer down there and I arrange it at 100 yards and I'm stalking in. As I'm moving in, I'm mentally counting down the distance as well. So just in case something happens, I can be ready if I'm. If I'm kind of counting down my paces per se. I mean, sometimes you're crawling, but you can estimate 3ft or a yard. And as I'm moving in, I'm counting down 99, 98, 97. Okay, about 50. If I don't have the ability to range again. So if something happened and I'm moving in and it's like, okay, I'm at 53 and the deer stands and something happens where I don't have time to range, I have a really good estimate of how far that animal is. Same thing as using that subtraction and kind of memorizing the distances from different points along your stock. So I can plan it out and go, okay, from there I'm about 60. From there I'm about 40. From there I'm about 30. So as I'm moving in on my stock, I already have these ranges or estimations built out, and that makes a big difference. Also, the biggest tip that I can give you is don't stalk to the animal, but stock to where you're going to shoot from. So knowing how far something is for that shot, whether it's rifle or bow, doesn't matter. Knowing where is within your range and where you need to get to makes a big difference. Planning ahead like that gets you in position for a better shot. So plan for the shot. Plan from where you're going to shoot from number four, this one. I got a couple tips here for guys that might be whitetail hunters or or whatever. I know some, some people listening. It's like primarily hunt whitetails. Like let's. Can I get some good white tail tips? Here's a really good tip. And this is for. After you've shot an animal, you got it out whole and you're going to use your hoist or put it up in a tree to skin it out. A lot of people get those gambrels where you got both legs through the hock of both legs. I've got one of those and I rarely ever use it. The reason being because, okay, once you skin it out, you know, you've got the gambrel in the way for the back legs. If you're gonna quarter up and piece out the deer to process it yourself, it's a major pain. What I do is I just hook the. The hook. Some kind of hook. Whether it's from. I've got a chain, hoist, I mean ratchet strap, whatever. I run it through the pelvis. When you run it through the pelvis, you work on all legs. There's no gambrel or metal in the way. You can take off both quarters and everything, or both hind quarters and everything still hangs. All you have to do is just hook the hook in the center in the pelvis and it. The animal hangs from it really well. I learned that early on when I was guiding from an old timer in one of the camps that I worked at and have never gone back. It's just. It's an absolute game changer. So try it next time. If you're hanging a deer, if you're hanging them, you know, upside down, not from the neck or whatever, that's a great way to hang a deer is from the pelvis number five. This is another one for possibly white tail hunters for pack out of a whole animal. Like if I just got to go a short distance. I hate dragging. I mean, it's the worst the, the dragging an animal over the ground. It's like I'm always. I always tweak my back. I always. It's like, it's difficult but also just a pain. So what I do is often I'll just make like a backpack with the deer. I did. I was hunting some whitetails and mule deer and other other animals this year with friends and family. And it was like this is just the easiest way to sometimes get something back to the truck. If you want to get it out whole, just use my knife. I. Right between like the back leg where you'd hang it below the hawk in that little. Between the tendon there, I cut a hole there. And then on the front leg, I just skin down the front leg a little bit to that first joint. And I don't skin it all the way off because I'm going to use the bone. And then I just cut off in between the first joint, slide it through the back leg, and make a little backpack. Oftentimes, you know, on smaller deer or whatever, I'll just do that and won't even gut them until I get them back to where I want to get them. But whatever, it's a little bit messy if you get them ahead of time. But on bigger deer, it's sometimes necessary. And I'll make a little backpack like that. But also, let's say you're like, I don't got to throw it on my back like that. Just making those handholds like that is a great way to. Even if you're going to drag or carry two people can grab a leg on either side. You can slide the head in between. If it's got antlers, you can slide the head in between the legs and it'll hold the head up off the ground and you can carry it like two people carrying a piece of luggage with a really nice handle. It's a. It's a pretty easy way to get stuff out and something that I utilize a lot. And I think other places they utilize that strategy a lot. Like in New Zealand, it's. That's where I learned it. It's pretty much like the standard way of packing out an animal. But around here, it doesn't get used as much, and it's so handy. So that's a. That's a major hot tip that you should check out. I've got some videos on my Instagram. Maybe I'll just put a little how to on there to show you guys a little bit. Maybe I'll put one on YouTube or something here pretty soon, just to give you a better example of it, because it's kind of hard to explain, but it's so easy once you figure it out. Number six, this is something you should always do is I definitely always keep an extra round in your pocket or somewhere that you can get to easily. I put them in my bino harness. And not just for. If you need extra, but when you go to load your rifle for the shot. Let's say I'm moving through the timber, you know, let's say I've got, you know, just rounds in the magazine. I always like to slip one over the top real quiet, like. So I always Keep one handy instead of making that big to put one in just over the top and then you've got an extra round in there. I know that's, that's pretty basic but I hunt with a lot of people. It's like they'll get into position and make like a really loud putting around in or you know, whatever. So it's always good to just load over the top. Number seven. In the cold, what you might run into, say you're, you're melting snow, you've got your jet boil, it's cold out or just it's really cold. A lot of times the fuel, even that four season fuel, it just goes slow, gets cold because as you're burning the, the fuel it just, the fuel gets cold and then it's already cold and it's probably in the snow and it's just hard to keep up and it's really hard to boil water. One of the things that I'll do is I'll just take my like I use those disposable hand warmers a lot so I'll just have those anyways. And so I'll try to put that underneath the burner or under. Sorry underneath the fuel and then put a little bit of like maybe my gloves or whatever around insulated a little bit if I can and keep that fuel a little bit warmer and it burns a lot better. Another thing you can do as if your fuel starts to slow down because it gets cold, you can take some of that warm water and pour it on the canister and then that'll warm it up enough to, to get going again and keep you cranking. But that's a little bit of a tip for that cold weather late season when you want to boil water and you're like I need to boil this a lot faster and it and it's seems to slow down or, or slow down the process. Keeping that fuel canister a little bit warmer helps. You can always throw it and you're like I actually late season use the smaller ones and I'll throw one in my like before I'm going to make some lunch or whatever. I'll take it out of my pack, pop it in a pocket of my down or what have you keep it warm and it works a lot better. Number eight, this one rang really true this year because there was some big climbs and it was just one of those things that you kind of sometimes stuff that you do all the time but you think about more when you have to do it a lot. Start hiking very cold and what I mean by that is there was days where it was 14 degrees and it's like, all right, I started out with a light like a base layer and maybe a mid layer. And you're like, you get out of the truck, you're like, I'm freezing. Put, I put my, some gloves on, I put a beanie over and I might just be hiking. I'd be hiking in my. Start hiking in my base layer or a real light layer on top. And as soon as I start to get warm, take it off. Getting sweaty and wet is terrible because not only do you get really cold, but it prevents you from really focusing and stopping and glassing when you need to. So keep your hand, you know, keep your hands warm. And once you, your hands start to warm up when you're moving, I'll just keep my gloves super handy. So I always have my gloves in a pocket or strapped on somewhere. My beanie in a pocket so I, I can throw it on and off. I like to just use like this season I used my kiln base layer more than anything. Cause it's the right weight, I feel like for starting cold, but also not getting too hot, but not being too cold. And then I can throw the hood over my ears. Just keeping the stuff that gets cold easy covered when you need to and then kind of vent yourself as you go. That makes a big difference because you want to be your head in the game, focused, especially when you stop, you don't want to stop. Get, be wet and cold and freeze and then move on too much. Which leads us to tip number nine, which is glass warm. On those hunts this year I actually, this year I just, I actually took a lot bigger jacket than I normally would or normally have in the past. And man, was it nice. It was like, all right, I over warmed for stopping. So I'd go super light while hiking and big heavy while glassing. Because a lot of the hunts that I had this year were glassing intensive. And man, when you're, when you're sitting there warm, you're, you know, you're, everything is warm. You've got a lot more focus in the glass, focus for the job at hand. You can kind of just in some ways hunt longer and harder by being warm and having the right gear. And so when it's time to glass warm up, put the warmest stuff you got on, throw on your gloves, throw on everything, throw on that hood. And that was a game changer on a lot of hunts for me this year. And I think it's one of the Things that a lot of people that maybe hunt other stuff don't think about. Because when you're whitetail hunting, right, you're always, you're always wearing your hottest stuff because you're sitting all day. And I, as a hunting guide, I see it all the time where guys start out way too hot, they sweat too much, they have nothing else to put on, or guys that are like the opposite, and I've been guilty of this in the past a lot where I just don't bring anything real warm for the conditions because I'm moving all the time. Then it's time to sit down. I get chilled, and I don't really put in a lot of time sitting in that patience part where it's thin, so you need to balance it on both sides. Tip number 10, this is one that just a little bit of a gear tip is I always whatever. If I got trekking poles or my water bottle, I wrap at least a wrap or two of duct tape around those because it's super easy to get to. And mostly that duct tape's just for bandages and other things. But having it handy when you cut yourself, not having to dig through your pack of like, where's my. Where's a bandage? Whatever. I can just. If something happens, I can just got that duct tape right there, right on my water bottle, right on my trekking pole. Or sometimes I have a lighter in my pocket. Often I have a lighter in my pocket and I put a little bit of electrical tape on it for tag or what have you, but easy to find. It's always there. A little bit of a hot tip that I've done for years. Number 11, you've talked, you've heard me talk in the past on like gear dumps and things like that. I always carry some heavy duty contractor bags. This year I used them at least, I don't know, six to 10 times, maybe 12 times, dozen times as they. Because they make great waders for crossing deeper streams. It seems like this year, I don't know if it's maybe that warmer weather, wet. It just seemed like all the creeks that I needed to cross were too deep for just gators and boots or it was real cold and that I didn't want that. You know, it was like beginning of the day starting out crossing a stream or a small river. But the contractor bags make good crossing, like makeshift crossing waiters. So I always carry two in my pack. I use them as pack liners for the pack out. But. But in the meantime, you know, often I'm using Them for maybe a crossing or two. They aren't like you aren't going to get a lot of crossing action out of them. But you can get enough. Often what I'll do is I'll tie them to my belt loop and then many times I'll just run them underneath my gator so it holds it tight against my boot and it really keeps. It's surprising how well it keeps the water out now as you want to do it right at the water's edge, because walking on rocks chews it up. You aren't going to get a ton of crossings out of it, but you're going to get enough where, hey, in a pinch it works really well. And there's been some trips where, you know, I come out a different way and got across a real deep stream or something like that where I can't cross on a log or have you. And it's cold out and it's not where like there's a couple days on a deer hunt this year where we were crossing, it was below freezing. You don't want to get soaked and then just freeze your butt up, butt off up the mountain, freeze your toes off. So just keeping that water out of your boots and everything else in that in those conditions. Contractor bags do a great job of that. And number 12 this year for being like a warm season. It was wet. It was just wet ground. There's a couple hunts that I had that a lot of snow and other things bring a pad for glassing, keep the wet off. And I just have a little, little pad. You know, everybody's got something different. My friends have the old like foldable sleeping pads that they'll use. I have like just a little tiny square pad that, that I use just to something to sit on for glassing. It makes a big difference. It's worth the extra weight in most cases. You know, I never. I often don't bring one on a backpack trip. And I was with on the caribou hunt this year, some guys and they, they had them for just an extra pad. That little extra glassing pad came in handy because my sleeping pad got a hole in it. I ended up just using his little glass like borrowing his glassing pad at night to just put on my hip because it's all the places that touch the ground make it uncomfortable. But having that glassing pad is nice just for sitting down glassing when it's wet. Sometimes I used to throw my pack down and sit on that. But just having a really good glassing pad is nice because then you can use your backpack as a backrest. You're more focused, more comfortable, you can get a good look at things. Makes a big difference. Keeps your head in the game and keeps you looking when you need to look and keeps you dry and warm if the conditions call for it. And even when it's not wet on the ground, mostly I use it to keep the wet off. But even when it's just hard ground or whatever, being able to sit there and kind of goes back to that patience game of glassing warm. Being comfortable when you're glassing does make a big difference on your focus and being able to turn up animals and have that patience of longevity for sitting. So glassing pad. Solid choice. And that rounds out our 12 gifts of knowledge for this Christmas season. Ah, there it is. My hunting spot on good old no Tellum Ridge. How could I ever forget it? And there I am with that dumb bearded face and that stupid beanie over the ball cap. But no matter. Christmas was on its way. Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas around which the entire post hunting season revolved. It began as all great tragedies do in early November. While people were thinking about family dinners and holiday lights. My mind was locked into one thing. 12 glorious day 6 HD arrows. Not 10, not 6. 12. A full quiver of destiny. I wanted them 4 fletched because 3 fletch is for people who still trust factory arrows that have a stiff and weak side that need to be noctuned. These would be perfectly straight, spine matched like they were born together in the same carbon nursery. Each arrow crowned with the titanium centric components because aluminum is for soda cans and regret. And on the business end. 100 Grain Day 6 Evo broadheads sharp enough to shave a man bald just by looking at him sideways. I began dropping hints. Boy, that deer sure jumped the string last year. I'd say casually. Or you know what really brings families together. Pass through shots. No one caught on. So I escalated. I wrote letters. Not just to Santa. Santa already understands magical flight, but to anyone who would listen. My wife, my parents, a buddy who still owes me for packing up that bull in the snowstorm of 19. Every response was the same. You'll shoot through your target. Apparently in their minds, a grown man with decades of experience, a perfectly tuned setup and a deep spiritual connection to micro diameter carbon shafts could not be trusted with such power. Christmas morning arrived. The tree was lit. Coffee was hot. The stockings were full of socks. Always socks. And the kind of survival gadgets that no hunter ever asked for. Then a long box. Not wide, not Flashy, just long. Time slowed. I peeled back the paper and there they were. 12 Day 6 HD Arrows. 4 Fletched Titanium up front Evos gleaming like tiny medieval weapons of mass destruction. The room went silent. I cradled them like newborns. Some people get jewelry, some get electronics. I got the confidence that comes from knowing that if an animal existed on this continent or any other and I did my job, physics would handle the rest of the that winter, I didn't just shoot arrows. I launched commitment. And from that day forward, every time someone tells me Christmas is about giving, I smile. Because sometimes, if you're lucky, it's about receiving exactly 12 reasons to believe in Miracles that was a lot of fun doing a hunting version of the Christmas story. Now let's kind of switch gears and head over to the kitchen. For me, right now I'm really thinking about food and food prep because all week I've been doing a lot of food prep, preparing for this Christmas party that I like to do with my friends and family. It's been something that after the season, every year I think, I mean, I don't even know how many years I've been doing this now. For as long as I can remember, for the most part, after I'd get back from guiding after the season, I would get home around Christmas time and then I would just do like a wild game Christmas party for my friends and family. And it's one of my favorite things to do every year. I love and enjoy cooking for people and cooking wild game. And so the Christmas party is kind of a fun way to just showcase different, maybe different types of meat that people haven't had or different cooking styles. One of my favorite things to make around Christmas, though, has to be tamales. And it's just something that I've done for a long time. I think what started it, I was down in Mexico hunting down there one year and there was a lady that lived on this ranch that we were hunting on, and she was probably in her 80s and we were like, teach us to make something that you love. And tamales was what she taught us to make. And really, I think before that, maybe tamales seemed hard or difficult to make and it was very easy and delicious. And from that point forward, I like to make as many tamales as I can. And often I like to do it at the end of the season. I always have this idea that I'm going to make a bunch, freeze them and save them for the year. But every time, no matter how many I make, it seems like they all get eaten Right away, they. Not very many ever make it to the freezer. So this year I've been making a lot of tamales for not only the party I was hoping. Oh, I took a lot of time to break it off into different sections. So starting with the meat, preparing the meat, and then we're going to assemble the tamales all together around Christmas time. Tamales are a pretty traditional dinner or meal to have around Christmas in Mexico. And so serving tamales and eating tamales this time of year, it's one of the things that I associate now with Christmas time is eating and cooking tamales. And because they are one of my favorite things to eat, so I eat them throughout the year. But around Christmas time, it just seems to be the time after the season when I'm most apt to make as many as possible and then somehow mow through mountains of them. So I'm going to go run you through the way that I prepare them. And honestly, it's not that difficult. I think that if you've never made them before, it's something that's a lot of fun and something that's delicious. And if you do it right and do make enough that you can save, they do save. Well, like, I'll vacuum seal them and freeze them and then take them out of the freezer and just heat them up, microwave them. It's like a fast, easy meal. I eat them for breakfast, I eat them for lunch, I eat them for dinner. I don't know, I eat them all the time. I guess it's like probably one of my favorite foods. But the way that I start is with the meat. So I like to take. Now you can use anything, any kind of game meat you have. It's. It works. I think that tamales are really, really good with deer, elk, whatever, any kind of. Any kind of wild game. So it starts with making the meat. And so there's. There's a couple of stages for it. So the first, if you. And maybe there's some people listening, like, what is even a tamale? Tamale is like meat inside of this corn masa. And it's like got corn dough around it, I would say steamed inside of a. Inside of a corn husk. And the meat's prepared with like chilies and in a. In a chili type sauce. So the first thing that I do is prepare the meat and the chili sauce. I like to cook the meat in a chili sauce. So when I make it, I often don't have a set recipe that I follow for making the meat. So I'm going to give you a couple different ways to make. Make it. Essentially, I just slow cook the meat in what would be like a. Think of it like an enchilada sauce, like a red pepper sauce. I often get dried peppers, so I'll get like a big bag of dried peppers. Whatever, you know, whatever kind you want. Mostly in like the Hispanic food section, probably like on like a smaller batch. I'll do like 10 to 15 peppers, maybe some chili California or just whatever. I get whatever kind of peppers are available, ancho peppers, whatever. So I'll do like 10 mild peppers, maybe whatever pack is 10, 12 mild peppers, maybe three hotter peppers. Just to kind of bring the spice level up or add a little bit of flavor. I seed them first. They're dry, so I just cut them open, take the seeds out, then I soak them in warm water for a little bit. Or I mean, I'm gonna do this on the stove. So often I'll do like a couple cups of beef broth and then I'll put it on the stove, put the peppers in there and let them rehydrate and kind of bring it to a boil or simmer. Before I do that, I'll like dice up an onion or half an onion, and I'll brown it, like caramelize it in some butter. I'll add like three or four cloves of garlic and maybe like a teaspoon of salt or garlic salt. I'll get that on the stove going, let it get hot. I'll even throw in some other spices, like maybe some cilantro or something like that. You can just kind of wing it. Honestly, like, it ends up turning out pretty good. So I'll do that. Once everything's boiled and started, like, broken down and soft, then I let it cool down and I put it in a blender and I blend all the peppers up and make the sauce. And then from there I'll take the meat, whatever I've got. Often I like to use like a bone in front shoulder of animals. So when I do my butchering, a lot of the times I'll just keep the front shoulder bone in, or the shanks or something like that. Anything with a lot of connective tissue. But honestly, you can use any meat. Sometimes what I do too is, like when I'm butchering, I'll actually cut stuff to grind, and I'll use my grind and just slow cook it and turn it into tamales. So instead of putting it through the grinder, I've just got it ready and then I Make tamales with it. So before I start to slow cook, I'll put some seasoning. I use my live wild taco seasoning, the carne cazador. I coat it with that. I brown it in a hot skillet with oil. I brown the meat, put it in a slow cooker. You can either use a crock pot or whatever Dutch oven style, cast iron in the oven. You can use it however you can braise it however you want. And I'll put the chili sauce in there. And then if I need more, sometimes I'll make a couple batches of chili sauce. If I need more liquid, I'll just add some beef broth in with liquid or water. You can use whatever, it doesn't really matter. And then I'll slow cook it in a slow cooker. I go about six or seven hours in the oven. I set the oven about 300 degrees and it's about four or five hours. And so I'll do that. You'll know it's done when it just falls apart really easy. You want it to just shred really easy. You don't want to go too much where it dries out, but where it falls apart pretty easy. Where you could take two forks and shred it very easily. That's when it's done. So when it's done cooking, I just pull the meat out, start to shred it. I'll take some of that sauce and I'll pour it back in to the meat and mix it around. And then you can now continue on to make the tamale. Or you can save that and do it a different day. Sometimes I'll like for this week, I made all the meat one day because I was making big batches. So I had like stuff in the oven, multiple slow cookers. I was going to town on it. I think I did like almost the whole deer. And by then I'm thinking I'm really hoping that I have some, some leftover tamales. And so shred all the meat. And then I just vacuum sealed it and froze it. So when I'm ready to make them, it's easy. But a lot of the times I'll just, you know, do that. You start early because slow cooking takes a take some time. If you need to speed up the process, you can always do it in a pressure cooker. Done that before and then it's time to make the masa. So what you do, you, it's like corn flour. I get just a go to the grocery store, get a packet of masa harena And I like, there's. There's directions on the back if you'd like. I mean, I always kind of. What you want is you don't want it too crumbly, you don't want it. It too wet. So it's like you probably have about just whatever the dry amount is. Like, let's say it's like eight cups of the flour. You probably want like seven cups of liquid. And so I'll use. I like to use chicken stock for that and chicken broth. And then. Or you can do like half chicken broth, half water, whatever. And then I'll put in some baking powder, about, I don't know, say like eight cups of flour, probably two tablespoons of baking powder. I'll put in a few teaspoons of salt. And then I also like to add some cumin seasoning into the masa itself. So mix that up. And then the big. The big. The next ingredient in it would be lard. Definitely get lard. Don't use. I've never used like shortening or whatever. I know people like Chris have used Crisco, but get the real lard. It's way better. And I'll use about two cups of that or so for like eight cups of the flour. And I'll just. I'll put it in. Not a food, like a mixer, like whip it up really, so it mixes in really good. And you can even. I mean, some people melt it. You could do whatever you want with it. You could melt it. I'll whip it up, mix it into the masa, and then you've got your corn husk. So what you'll do with that, you'll let them sit in some warm water so they're flexible and wet. And then you've got your masa. So you take a corn husk out, you'll put the moss on it, make it kind of flat. You do it on the smooth side so it falls off real easy. So you spread it on there like quarter of an inch on the bottom or so. And then you'll put a scoop of your meat in there. And then you'll fold one side, fold the other side. It'll come together. You'll see it. It'll come together. And then you'll fold the top over and fold the bottom over, and it creates a little pocket. Then you wrap it up in that corn husk and set it aside. Once you've wrapped up all your corn husks, you get some. A pot with some boiling water and put like a steaming rack in There. So nothing sits in the water. It's just going to steam. Thing that I'll do is like, I've got. I actually don't even have a great steaming rack thing. So if it doesn't fit, I'll just put some of the extra corn husks on the bottom over something in the bottom. And just to keep them out of the water, cover that, let it boil, heat for like, I don't know, 40 minutes or so. And you just steam them in that heat. You'll know when they're done because you can check them and they'll. The tamales. You just test them. So after about, I don't know, it depends. Sometimes it depends how many are in there. Like, I'll check. I check them at about 25, 30 minutes. And you don't want them to be raw. You want them to just be slightly sticky and fall. They'll just like slide out of the corn husk when they're done. Once they're done, pull them out, let them cool down, and you've got some awesome tamales to share with your family for the holidays or for the rest of the year. You know, make. Make a big batch and save some as well. They're. They're awesome. We eat them all. Like, one of my favorite ways to eat them is with. I'll make some eggs sunny side up and have some eggs with it in the mornings, put some sauce, and I'll reserve some of that chili sauce, too, like the sauce that I cooked them in and just use it as a sauce for the top. And often, if it seems a little dry, you can put some of that sauce inside with the meat as well. So that's an awesome way to prepare some wild game. If you've never tried it, I encourage you try it. It's a delicious meal and one that's a lot of fun, especially around the holidays. I just want to say Merry Christmas and thank you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. It's always fun for me to do these Christmas specials. It's that time of year where you can get to reflect back on the season. Hopefully you get to be around friends and family, and it's fun for me to, in some ways give back a little bit to you guys. So I've got my 12 days of Christmas giveaway going on. If you haven't signed up for that, there's still some awesome prizes to be had. Make sure you get in. If you already signed up, you're in for all the days. So if you sign up late you're just in for the remaining days. But we have. I've got a Matthews bow, a Bridger watch, I've got a Stone Glacier package. I've got some optics. Like, I've got some really good stuff still coming up, still in the pipe. So keep your fingers crossed for that. I know when you go and sign on, you see, like, how many entries there are and it looks like a lot, but most people do all the entries and it's like, I think do a max of 25 entries when you enter. So you know it's not as many people as it looks like entry. So I just suggest keep the odds best for you. Do all the entries if you want. That's up to you. But I will also say that if you've listened to this podcast before, you know that I have a little Christmas tradition where I like to give away something to you guys that are listening. And so it's a little bit of a game just to try to keep it to the people that are that are listening is something that I do every year. I've got four prizes this year. Anybody can enter wherever you're from. This one you can. Anybody can play. I have to always have to apologize to Canada because I do these awesome giveaways and they aren't allowed to play. And it's not really my fault. It's mostly, there's a lot of laws in Canada that prevent me from being able to do it. There are some workarounds on certain things, but we've done some in the past and it's like, man, we'll ship something and nobody will get it because it gets held up in customs. It's just a major pain in the ass. I always say, like, if you can just receive it in the US there's no problems. So just something for our Canadian listeners to consider. But this particular game, anybody can play. I've got four prizes up for grabs. I've got an Onyx Elite membership to your subscription. I've got a Mountain Tough Fitness subscription. I'm gonna be buying someone a Rocky Mountain Elk foundation membership. If you already have a membership, I'll upgrade you or I'll just donate on your behalf. Whatever you want to do. And then the final one is I've got a Yeti yonder bottle and a Yeti mug. And so I guess that's five winners. There we go. Learning to count. Here's how we play on today, Thursday. I'm going to make a post on Instagram. You got to find this post. I'm going to say something, all code words, because we don't want all the people that. You want your odds to be better. Only people that listen to the podcast should know the little secret. So I'm going to mention something or in that post, have something like a mug or say something, something that involves Cheers, cup, what have you. All you have to do, go on, make a sly post with some kind of emoji that has a cup or some kind of beverage, some kind of comment that replies to cheers or something where, you know, I'll be able to figure it out, but where people don't look at it and just start doing it because they didn't listen to the podcast and they don't know our Christmas tradition for this giveaway. So this is between me and you guys. This is our live wild podcast giveaway. I appreciate you guys and the support over the year. So that's gonna. Thursday the 18th. That post will be up. Find that one. If it's on something else, you didn't find the right place. It's a game. You gotta. You gotta play the game. Right. And I'll pick five winners for that. So that would be. I'll pick them by the Sunday or by the weekend. Pick them by. Let's go. Yeah, we'll give people a couple days to listen, so through the weekend. And then I'll pick some winners for that. And I'm just gonna say Merry Christmas. Thank you guys so much, and we'll catch you next time. Merry Christmas and happy hunting. Sam.