← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
EP. 222 | 2026 Season Outlook Pt. 1 - Using predictions and planning success
01:09:22
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign. I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live Wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. A lot of the tactics I talk about here require you to be in top physical shape. So I partnered with Mountain Tough to help get you ready for the mountain with their science based hunter specific training app. You'll get in shape and mentally tough able to tackle any hunt. Because we really believe this will help you be more successful as a listener to this podcast, we're giving you six free weeks to get you started. Just use code livewild Foreign welcome back to Live Wild Podcast everyone. Now today we're going to be starting a two part series on predictions for the 2026 season. We're going to look at things to look at now while planning a hunt and considerations for that hunt timing including water, weather, moon and other factors that really might shape up later in the year. We're going to take that tactical approach and later on we're going to break it down state by state and I'm going to give you predict for this planning process. But first I'm going to dive into my hunt last week south of the border for coos deer in the Sonoran Desert with really tough conditions. We hunted hard to try to turn up a good buck and we had a lot of things going against us including rut timing, full moon, abnormal heat, and then wet conditions leading up to the hunt. So I'm going to use the benefit of hindsight to break down that hunt and also use that same logic to highlight factors to consider during this application time for hunts and hunt planning this year. Then next week we're going to do a little bit of a deeper dive into that 2026, looking at current conditions for water, moon phase and break out some of the highlights and things to consider when preparing for this year's hunt. But first, let's head south of the border in search of the gray ghost. So I just got back yesterday from a hunt down south of the border. We're hunting coos deer. Uh, we were hunting in the Sonoran Desert area of I guess they call it northern Mexico, obviously Sonora, and we went down with a group of guys. I was down there with Adam Weatherby, another guy that works for Weatherby, Luke Thorkelson, and then another guy from Weatherby, JD Ponciano, and then another friend from Peterson's Hunting magazine, Colton Hayward. So we all went down there, and I think that the timing of this hunt was kind of this thought of, hey, we're all going to be at sheep show, or, you know, a lot of us were going to be at sheep show. And then we had Western Hunt Expo coming up, which I'll be exhibiting at. Some of the Weatherby guys will be there as well. And we're like, what about planning this hunt kind of in between these two shows. It's a good time of year. The season goes through that. So let's plan a hunt in that time of year. We can cruise down there, do a hunt, and, you know, maybe catch some tail end of the rut. But for the most part, the timing of that hunt just seemed to be kind of this. This good time frame when all of us could get together and make it, because it was kind of between a couple of things. So that was the plan, and that was the intention with going into this particular hunt. Now coos deer, if you're familiar with them, they can be difficult to spot. No matter the conditions, they can be difficult to spot. Often called the gray ghost for a reason. I feel like that term's overused. But then when you're hunting them, you go, yes, they absolutely disappear every time you spot them. You could be watching this hillside. Boom. One pops up, and if you blink or look away, you might not ever see that deer again. It's just wild how well they blend in. There's a couple of times on the hunt where we had a deer, I don't know, 300 yards away and on a hillside that you look, think you've looked over and could see anything. And it's just perfectly blended in to that background, that landscape just hanging out, going, wow, that deer is there the whole time. And then you take your eyes off of it and you struggle to find it again, or it just goes behind, something tucks in and disappears. So no matter the time of year, often it can be difficult. But like any species, if you can hit it during the rut, one of the things that that does is it causes the deer to be moving around more. When they're moving around, they're getting themselves into positions and places where you can see them easier, which is ideal if you're familiar with hunting. Coos deer in, like, Arizona Say a lot of the rut action happens in that January timeframe, but it can spill over into February. And sometimes as you go further south, that. That rut can actually peak a little bit later. But for the most part, I kind of feel like the rut is kind of mid to end of January is really that key timeframe. And you can even see, you know, some. Some of those draw coos deer rifle hunts are or like end of December or December timeframe, and you start to see deer cruising and coming out more. So that can be a good time as well. But we're. We're hunting this particular, like last week beginning part of February. And you know, it was just kind of more or less the timing that we could go down there. So we all, we all went down. I drove. It was a long drive, man. It's like, I don't know, three days of driving for the most part. You got a border crossing in there, a couple days to get to the border. You know, you cross the border, that takes all day. It's like 6am to year in camp at 6 or 7pm So a lot of windshield time. I kept joking around that the world was moving around me, yet I had not moved in three days. But we got down to camp and we ended up being in a place that as far as we knew, had never been hunted before. And so that was really exciting of. We showed up, we met with the landowner and he actually had a bunch of his family there and other things. They're really excited to kind of host some hunters at their ranch. And it was. It was cool to be a part of that. They were, they were pretty excited for. It's like the. The first, I guess the first hunt on this particular ranch. And so they were all prepared and the owner actually, which we later found out because it was incredible cooking. I was like, I had check like the Google Translate on my phone and ended up getting to spend some time with him and, you know, conversing back and forth with using the translator and learned a lot of cool stuff. Which one of the nights had some incredible. Well, every night was some incredible meals. I'm like, dude, you're really good at cooking. And he's like, yeah, I actually have three degrees in international cuisine. I said, that explains that any, you know, works in the food industry as well. So I was like, oh, okay. That explains why some of these meals are just so good. But going down there, you know, you have high expectations for. I think partially it is the land of giants. Like, there are good deer there and part of that is because a lot of people are able to. You can hunt that prime rut time. And then also you might be on a place that, like, we were, that really hasn't been hunted. So with all that, you know, high expectations and going into the hunt now, we had a few things that were definitely going to work against us. Primarily, the things that were working against us were the timing of the hunt was when we could go. But also there was a few factors that I think maybe we're going to make it tough this week. One of them being it was a full moon that week. And when that full moon's out and it's bright, and even if it's rut or not rut, the deer can do a lot of the activities they might be doing in the daytime at night, therefore, they're bedded during the day. And now they might move around, but it might be in cover, which doesn't help if you're a guy glassing. Or they move around at weird parts of the day when it actually makes it more difficult to spot them. Or you. You just aren't maybe as tuned into those times when they're moving. Mornings and evenings, you know, oh, it's more. It's like the sun's coming up. Things should be moving. We're really focusing. We're really glassing nothing. You aren't doing that throughout the day. But the days get long, and. And if it's like noon, like 12 to 12, 15 is going to be their moving time. You might be walking, you might have changed spots, you. Whatever, you know, it's just. It's part of that that you kind of got to factor in. It makes it difficult. And then a couple other things that were a little bit working against us was it had been really wet prior to us showing up. So there was kind of water everywhere. Every draw, every little. Anything that could hold water had water. So in a desert environment where a species might be more tied to annual water, this water that was just from recent rains and storms was everywhere. So the deer really could be pretty secretive about getting things that they need, like water. And then I also think the rut timing was a little bit post rut. So what we were running into is, okay, we could encounter bucks that are done rutting. They aren't moving around much, and they're just recuperating. They're tucked in a hole. Or maybe it's still rut, but they're. They're in a lockdown phase with a doe. A few hard things going against Us, which at the time when you're all amped up and you're ready to rock and roll like these. Yeah, they're factors, but it might be okay. And so we get in there, we start out the first day. The plan was we're gonna split up a little bit into three groups and just try to cover the place. And what I like to do when I get into anywhere new, doesn't matter if it's Mexico, New Zealand, somewhere in the US Some limited entry tag, general area tag, doesn't matter. I like to spend a little bit of time getting a lay of the land and just getting those feelers out there, understanding the landscape and kind of learning the unit in a way. And I always kind of think of that first day as really gaining knowledge more than maybe necessarily trying to. It's always great to try to find out, but I really want to understand the area. So if we can all split up, look in different areas, maybe we start to find a pocket. The thing about coos deer that I've realized, or in at least in the times that I've hunted them, is you might find an area that holds them. Once you find where they're at, they. That's kind of your zone. Especially in the mature bucks. They don't range as much as other deer, it seems. So if you can find that pocket where they're at, or there's a pocket where there's hot dose or heavy activity, this could be your zone. And that could be the zone where everybody ends up being successful. So we gotta, we gotta split up and find that zone. So we took the lead from the rancher, the landowner, and then there was a couple, he had a couple cowboys that worked there that were just gonna kind of help us out because they were really excited to have hunters there. They wanted to be like, show us around a little bit. And this terrain was very mountainous, very thick in a lot of places, hard to get around. So I think that it was good to maybe have a little bit of guidance on like, yeah, maybe you can access this area from through, through here or around there. So first morning we decided there's this like, I'll call it a. Like a damned water, water source, like a little pond. And that was going to be our jump off point halfway up the mountain. And I've got like a longer bed truck. And so we decided to take two trucks up there. This road was, this road was very tight, very steep. There was a couple of spots where I was like, I'm not sure that I'm gonna Make this turn and I'm checking my back tire. It's like rutted out, straight drop off. I don't know what the elevation was where we started, but maybe the tops of the mountains are at that like 6,568, almost 7,000ft. So big, steep mountains, really loose rock, rough terrain, hard to get around. Then you got all the pokey stuff. And there's only one road on this place and it is a very, I would say, not a great road. And so I actually asked the guy. I was like, yeah, so do you guys drive up here? They're like, no, we don't drive up here. We either take horses or walk. And I don't know where in translation it got lost that we wanted to drive up. I don't. We. We didn't want to drive up there, but apparently we're driving up here and I don't know, it was a. It was a. For a. If you had like a Tacoma or a Jeep or something like a side by side, that would have been perfect for this. This was not a full size long bed truck road. Like I thought I was gonna lose my truck in this thing. And we get to the top, I was like, all right. That was about all the stress I can handle for the day. Let's get to. Let's get to looking. So we split up and go our separate ways. Adam and Colton went one way, I went another way. And then Luke and JD Were at a kind of a different part of the ranch. Start glassing. Great looking country, everything. So about mid morning, I've noticed, especially when it's a full moon, coos deer seem to move at that like 10:00am to 11:45 time. Like it's. I don't know if it's just they get up, move around, they kind of change beds, whatever about the sun moving. I don't know why, but seems to be a good time to catch them. The morning was pretty slow. I think we saw maybe a doe between all of us. But we split up and I wanted to check. It was super windy, so I just wanted to check this backside and see if there was anything in there. So I we. Zach, who's with me filming, we drop down, circle around, climbing this mountain, picking our way through the cliffs and all that stuff and end up as I'm moving up, spot a buck first morning. My God. You know, might be good get the scope on it. So I don't know. Ears wide, three by three. What I call a three by three, probably a guy. Guards think maybe it had A broken tine or something. So an eight point point and Texas eight point. And it's like not. Not a first day buck, maybe not even a last day buck, but a nice buck. I called it schmedium. It's like small, medium, something there. Now for me on this hunt, I was looking for a tank, you know, like a big, mature buck because I know that they exist there. And so Adam and Colton are glassing and they ended up turning up. They ended up spotting a doe that same kind of like time frame. Come out and watch the buck move out in a big, like shooter buck. Big mature buck. Started actually breeding that doe. So we're thinking, hey, first day, this could be. This could be good. Like there's some red activity. And they watch. They ended up watching that deer and trying to guide the other two guys into that position where they might be able to get eyes on him. They ended up seeing two other good shooter bucks. There's three shooter bucks in this one little zone. Now we know a zone that there's shooter bucks in. So somebody's going to have to watch this area if one doesn't get taken out here because we know that that's an area that there's. There's good deer. And these deer can be very difficult to turn up. And they were probably a mile away at this point. So the other guys moved in, didn't work out. Deer moved off. I ended up Zach and I ended up just doing what I like to do, Cruising country, checking it out. Went on. The backside of the mountain is a big day. I don't know how much elevation. Probably like 10 miles and 3,000 vertical feet in some real slippery stuff. Ended up planning on like walking out. And one of the things I didn't want to really have to do, but we ended up way far back there is just try to navigate out of this. Some of this stuff in the dark. You could just kind of have to. Right. And not knowing the country, it was tricky, man. We got cliffed up a couple of times. Some of the stuff was super steep, slick, like you're sliding. I fell on my scope. I'm going to actually shoot my rifle. Make sure that it's. I wonder if that impact did. Did do anything but check my skill, you know, like fell a lot. It was just. When you get back, you go, okay. That was a. That was a long day, I think just trying to stay on the mountain where it's like. It felt like you were walking on concrete, like near vertical concrete covered in marbles. It was just Sketchy. But we made it back in the dark and drove down. Okay, we are not going to. We aren't gonna take trucks up there again. And so I guess the next day we decided to check out some different country. And I really liked that top spot where we were at. We wanted to look at it from a different angle. So Zach and I made a big hike in the dark to start out. Another monster hike through some rough country to get into a position for the evening for good glassing of that top spot. I did spot three deer way off on this little plateau. But I wasn't sure it was so far out. I wasn't sure the boundaries of the ranch and everything. So I needed to confer with the ranch owner when I, when we got back to see if that was in our zone. And that was pretty much the only deer that we saw that day. Like I'm talking hard hunting, lots of glassing between everybody in the group. Not pretty much didn't turn anything up. I'm pretty sure there was a. Well, there was a buck in the group that I saw along. There's like two or three miles away. Just happened to catch him in that yellow colored grass. And it was good, good easy spotting in that. But that was pretty much all we saw. We were at the height of the full moon at this point. It was hot. Oh yeah. Like I'm sure a lot of people in the west experience. This is like my wife sent me pictures of my kids playing with the hose in the backyard in February. We have, I mean, we should be skiing in the backyard in February and they're like in their swimsuits playing in the backyard in February. It was wild and it was hot. The evenings were cool, but hot temperatures. So just a lot working against us. And now, you know, everyone was focused on those deer that they'd seen, hadn't seen anything. Day three, making a new play. Decided to take horses up to kind of where we took the trucks, maybe save a little bit of time. So we got some of the ranch horses loaded up. J.D. and Luke came with us, rode the horses to where we could, then hiked from there, climbed up to the top glass that backside. Ended up turning up one of the bucks that we'd seen the first day. And that was pretty much it. Just slow, like just, just struggling to find deer really to find bucks. Saw maybe one doe, one buck and just. Yeah, tough conditions. So then, you know, day three, that's day three. Day four. I can't even now they're all running together. What it, what it amounted to was a lot of glassing, a lot of looking. Oh, yeah. So day four, I decide where those deer that I saw day. Day three, that it turned out they were on the. On the property that we could hunt. And the rancher went with us to kind of show us all the boundaries. So. So I was like, okay, we're getting a really good lay of the land here. We've got a lot of country we can cover. And those other guys kind of focused on. Because at some point, we know there's shooter bucks there. Somebody's going to turn one up. So they focused on those deer. We went to this new spot, found this rock that we could get up on and just overlook his value. It looked like something out of the scene, like, completely different terrain than we were in before. Look like something straight out of lion king. We called it the Serengeti. So we're sitting there. I decided to bring some rattles and some, like, a rattle, like this rattling box for rattling antlers. And some calls. And I'm calling and. And I don't know whether it was from the calls or what, but over to our right, 20, 30 yards away, we see some deer moving around. And at this point, we weren't up on the big rock yet. And so there. There's does. I'm like, I can still hear something down below us. There might be a buck, but I don't know. So we. We end up. I call some more, sitting around, glassing, and sure enough, I spot a buck. I'm like, ooh. With my naked eye down in the bottom. He's moving. I'm like, that could be a shooter. I get set up. He pops out, turns broadside 200 yards away. We're halfway through the hunt at this point, and it's got two points on one side with an eyeguard and three, plus an eye guard on the other or something like that. Heavy. Probably an older, more regressed buck, but just not really what I was looking for. So gave him the hard pass. And anytime you pass something, you're like, you know that I phone well, knowing full well that could be the last buck that I get, set my sights on. So give him the pass and get up on that rock. Spend the rest of the day glassing. That buck comes out, Gives us one more opportunity in the evening. Pass him and head back. That was, I think, maybe the only buck spotted that day. And we did see some does in there as well, so. So saw some stuff. Saw some javelinas and some other things. Next day, go back to the Old Serengeti do not turn up. A couple of does in a one horn buck, new buck two days in a row. That night, that afternoon, I guess Adam and Colton were still hunting that spot where that big buck was. A buck turned up. They weren't sure what buck it was or if, you know, a deer turned up in there. They moved in, got into position, Colton shot it, and turned out to be a giant buck. So one. So we've got five tag holders filled. One tag, five days in on a good deer. The kind of deer that you would want to fill a tag on. So in some ways, it's like, yes, okay, that. That plan worked. In other ways, we're like, we have seen very few deer. It's been. We've just been struggling. I mean, the amount of man hours and glassing and hiking and hunting hard was astounding. For kind of what we were turning up, we were all struggling pretty hard. It was good to get that lifeblood of like a. It can happen at any moment. That deer, that next deer that pops out could be that giant buck. And it was for those, you know, so Colton got a good, good buck, which was awesome. And, you know, you start to think about it, that one horn buck could have been I spotted embedded in this little pocket. I'm like, that could have been our big buck. We just. It just wasn't right. So the next day, now it's our day, I guess. Day six, last day of the hunt. We all decide we're going to kind of surround this area where those big bucks were seen the first day. Because we know that somewhere in there, like these deer from what they found, that buck came out of a bed that he literally had to belly crawl on to get in and get underneath. These bucks are just tucked in tight. The rut's pretty much over. The moon's probably keeping them or it's. The daytime activity is so low, it's negligible. And we're just struggling. Like, it's not that they aren't there, it's just that you can't find them. And no matter how hard you glass, they probably aren't even visible. It would be interesting to know it's one of those where if you could just remove all the brush and everything and whatever for 30 seconds, you'd probably be surprised at how many deer and how many big bucks are around. But if you can't turn them up, you can't see them, they aren't coming out, and you're kind of just spinning your wheels and it's like a lot long hot days, a lot of hard glassing, a lot of hard hiking, especially in the dark, trying to navigate this big mountain. It was tough, man. It was one of the tougher, more mentally kind of frustrating hunts that I've been on in a long time. Because you go, we know they're here, Everything's working against us. Just keep grinding. So we all go back to that same kind of part of the mountain, essentially circle the zone. Guys glassing from behind, guys glassing over, Staying in radio communication just to know, like, you see anything moving, like, are we doing something? What's going on over here? And for safety, of course. So I will say this. I brought these new radios that I got. I got them probably into last season and I've used a bunch of different radios. This is kind of a little bit of a plug of something that, you know, surprised me. Anytime I get a piece of gear that is way better than I was expecting, I'm pretty stoked on it. And I got these rocky talkies and I brought enough for everyone to use. Dude, the quality, the call quality, the battery life. Like, everyone left that trip saying, I'm going to buy some of these. Like I was. That was the first trip that I've used it on with multiple people in multiple places. And I'm pretty sure. And now there was a there probably we didn't even use a repeater channel, but there was a repeater up on the top of the mountain that we probably could have used to get even better service, but we didn't even need it from the backside like we were. I had the longer antennas on them and we were able to communicate really well. Like, really good call call quality. Which just kind of added that peace of mind when you're in new country and you've got a group of guys and just saying, like, even just checking in, like, anybody seeing anything? And you aren't seeing anything. They're like, okay, we just saw a deer move. All right, now it's time to focus or radio. Hey, I got a deer moving. Pay attention. Maybe now's the key timeframe when things are moving. And it did actually pan out sometimes it was nice just to just a BS with the guy across the way saying, like, what are you seeing? I'm not seeing anything. They bite. It's kind of like fishing. Like, they biting over there. Nope, they are. Aren't okay. But yeah, that's my little plug for those because, dude, they worked really well. They sent me some to try out last year and at first I Was a little apprehensive because I was like, I've tried radios before. I've got some radios. Mostly. I was like, man, these things are legit. Like, they actually really work. That's my. I don't mind plugging that because they. Dude, they worked really well. Just a little sidebar. But anyway, so we're out there. We're all circling this area. And last day, fingers crossed, prayers sent up, Spotted2 does between all of us for the whole day. And that was it. Hunt over. Or so we think. I'm the type of person, like, I can't give up the ghost that easy, right? So we had to. We had to cross the border the next day. And this is a timing issue, But I thought, okay, got back. We hiked out, got back to camp. I was like, I'm gonna load up my stuff tonight. And I think that, like, there's a spot that I can hunt on the way out. I'll meet you guys there. I pretty much packed up my stuff till midnight. Got the truck already rolled out super early. I think I left it, like, I don't know. I don't got up at 4. And whatever got Got into position, Hiked into the spot. I'm like, I got one or two hours of this last bit of, like, on the way out. Maybe I can make it happen. I'm just that, like, I don't know. I just. I can't. If I can even hunt 10 minutes extra, I'll do it. So get up on this glassing vantage, get set up. I'm like, it's an area where I think I'm within striking zone. Like, I know that I've got very, very limited time because can't hold everyone up for this border crossing. Otherwise, we're going to be stuck for a couple days, and it could just be a mess. So get up on this thing. Sun starts to come up, and it feels good. The moon wasn't as bright. Everything feels right. It's a little bit colder, glassing. And I turn up a doe, like, right at first. Like, all right, here we go. And then up on the mountain, start turning up more does. And then out walks the buck that I passed three days earlier. Like, okay, okay. I still was like, well, I'm glad I'm not gonna shoot that buck. He's a ways away. So keep watching. Keep watching. Morning's getting a little bit later. You know, 20, 30 minutes has gone by, and those does are still out. And he's acting ruddy. He's like, pushing him around and I check again, and I look, and now there's a better buck. Ears wide, like, shooter, buck. Not a giant, but a shooter. Okay. Last morning, last day. I'm a thousand yards out. There's a rock pile about halfway in between. I range it, like, okay, if I get to that, I can see, I'll be about 400 yards. That's pretty solid. If I can see him from there, I could probably shoot from there. If not, I can move in, make the executive decision. I have very limited time. Time to move. I drop down, I'm hustling. I'm like, I can get there as quick as possible. I'm getting to that spot. Once I get down and start crossing the canyon, I lose sight of the deer. I don't know if they're still there because I'm now lower. And so as I start to move up, I don't see him. I don't have time to sit here and wait. I got to get into position so I can get to that rise right where they're at. And I know I'm going to be close. I move up the ridge, pop over. The deer gone. I start working around the backside. Some two does ran out to the left. No bucks with them. Watch that for a second. Go around the backside, go up to the top, spot another doe. No bucks. And now it's time to work back. I mean, I thought for sure it was gonna happen, and it didn't happen. It was a. It was one of those where you're like, hey, at least I got, like, some action. That last morning of chasing, trying to get in position. Didn't give up. Ended up walking back to the truck just as the other guys pretty much pulled up, shared some story, and we loaded up and headed out. Honestly, looking back, very difficult hunt. Had a blast. I mean, the. The ranch that we were hunting on was awesome. It was fun. It was like, rough country, no roads, lots of hard hiking, Got to ride some horses, got to do the whole thing right. The guy I got to there was a couple of days where the ranch owner came with us just because he's like, he never hunted or anything and was just really interested in the process, and I think just really wanted us to find some deer. You know, he's probably like, dude, we see these things all the time when we're riding around. Like, yeah, it's a little bit different. You can't just, you know, I guess you could, but we don't want to, like, blow. Like, if you. Even if you blew them out, maybe at least you'd know where they're at. But in all the miles that we put on, we really didn't bump any deer, like, maybe one. I think they were just tucked in so tight and just recuperating from the rut. It was just a little bit bad timing, and because of it, really tough conditions. I do believe, like, he was sharing stories of, like, hey, last week there was deer here and deer there. And I do believe that he was telling the truth. Like, you could tell that there were good deer there and that there were deer around. It's just we missed it by. It's like, that should have been here last week kind of thing. And I. And I really do think that it's true. But it also made me think of so many hunts where the condition on the hunt kind of can dictate a little bit in some ways, the success or difficulty that you're going to encounter during that time frame. And as I look at it through the lens of this application, season, timing and other things, when I start to plan out my hunts, I go, these are things to consider. A lot of this stuff, you can't control. Some of it you can. So we control the things that we can, and then it makes maybe that potential time maybe more valuable or more successful. A lot of the hunts that I go on, just the conditions, you can't get around it. But some hunts you can, and some hunts you can go, like, okay, well, maybe I've not locked into this particular area. As we start to think about applying and putting in for other places, planning out our season, trying to draw one tag, trying to get a tag. If you're the type of person that plays the game in multiple states or you're coming from out of state, okay, what might be a good year to do it or a good timing to do it? What season might be good? So we're going to look at all those factors because really, I do think if this hunt, if we had planned it a little bit different, might have been a completely different hunt. Now, I don't blame the planning of it because it was the time that we could go. It was when it worked, we had tags, and we did have the potential to be successful. It easily could have been completely different had maybe it been cloudy and the moon not so bright or a hot doe running through the area or other days that were like that first day. Those things you can't control. Those things you can't consider, you know, away. But in hindsight, go, few things moved around different. Might have been a completely different hunt. And so when it comes to the planning portion, planning phase of a hunt, this time of year especially, we can look at these factors and maybe utilize a few tips and tactics to swing the odds into our favor. And we're going to dive into those things. So this week we're going to look at a few of the factors of this upcoming 2026 hunting season. So we're going to look at what to consider, what dates and seasons might give you that edge and what this might mean to, to your hunt strategy. So we're going to break it down first into three categories. We're going to look at regulations. We're going to look at environmental factors prior to the hunt. These are things you can't control, but we're going to look at them the things prior to the hunt. And then we're going to look at those environmental factors during the hunt. And these are also things you can't control, but maybe some things you can plan around. And then we're going to look at how all three of these things correlate and what it means for planning and strategy. So factors that affect the hunt. I'm going to just like lay it out as in broad terms and then we're going to go break it down into different sections here. But let's actually, actually let's do this. Let's start with regulations. Okay, so one of the first things that potentially we can look at and this can be in some of these things, kind of change is the regulation factors for this particular hunt. And generally what I'm talking about here is season dates and timing. Okay, Every, some states have set season dates where every year it's the same date, starts on, let's just starts on September 1st and September 30th. Archery Elk, that's the archery elk season every year. Some might even have a smaller window of being like it's a two week season and it starts on September 15th and goes to September 30th. Okay, so it's the tail end of the season. And maybe they got a first season that's September 1st, ends on the 14th and then the next one's the 15th to the 30th, whatever it is, okay, Those season dates, some, some states are fixed. Some states they actually change because they're more off of a calendar. A calendar, not a calendar number, but like the, the, the way that the calendar lies. So like Montana, for instance, goes, starts his archery season the first Saturday in September. Well, sometimes that could be September 1st. Some years that could be, you know, quite a bit later. I guess like September 7th or, or even later than that, I guess. Whenever, Whenever. The first Saturday might fall. So some years, like the rifle season might. And in like it always ends the Sunday after Thanksgiving, which some years that's like December 1st, maybe even I've seen as late as December 2nd. I can't remember December 1st. And sometimes it's like November 20th, something. But it, it starts earlier. Right. So some, some states have those where it's just based off of not necessarily a calendar date, but maybe a certain time of year. So it rotates. So some years it's a later season, some years it's an earlier season. Some years there's those ones, it's just a calendar date. First to the 15th, 15th to the 30th, those kind of dates. So how do those regulations affect our planning? Well, one of the things that we can factor in now when we're looking at it, is that timing of the full moon. There's a lot of, or I'm going to do air quotes here, conspiracy theories or theories on what the moon phase means. So one of the things that season dates do dictate is hunting during the rut is always going to be ideal as we can get closer to the rut or maybe in some instances further away from the rut because you might be catching that like summer feeding time frame or whatever. We're looking at season dates as far as season dates can dictate the type of hunt it is and the difficulty to find those animals. We talked about that a few weeks ago where timing might be a factor. Right. You're going to find fewer elk later in the year as you get further away from November, October time frame for mule deer, after they've shed their velvet, they start to go into this like hidey hole phase before the rut. There's a lot of seasons that are during that time phase that don't get into the rut. Now, as you get into the rut, the increased ability of seeing animals, animal movement, all those kind of things increases. As you get post rut, those things start to decrease. Elk, deer, antelope, whatever. You know, pronghorn are a little bit different. They're out all the time. But when they're rutting around, they're running around, they're moving around, you know, it makes a difference. So hunts where you're targeting the rut specifically are preferred if you've got the ability to, let's say it's one of those moving date seasons where, hey, now, the dates are closer to that for mule Deer closer to that rut phase. Like it used to end. Last year it ended just. I'm just throwing. These are hypotheticals, but based off of real life situations. Used to end October 22nd. This year it ends October 30th. Okay. It's closer to the rut. Or hey, maybe that later season pushes into November a little more. Cool. Now we're. Now we're getting a little bit more into the rut. Or hey, the season ends up bumping later into November for elk or deer. But we might be getting a little more migration for this particular unit. It's state specific, unit specific, all these things. Or you get maybe that time frame where it's a little bit more into the elk route a little further in September, you get a little bit later, whatever. So we can look at those season dates and those regulations can start to affect the timing of the hunt. And I'm not saying it's a guarantee, but it gives you maybe a little bit better chance of finding success because the season dates become a little more preferable or a little less preferable. Maybe something you applied for for four or five years. Now this year has season dates that are further out of the rut or closer to it. So that's a way that we can look at this and start planning some things. Those things change, and they're things that we want to pay attention to now in states where those. They don't change, like the season is just locked on a numerical day of the calendar. Doesn't matter if it starts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever. It's always September 1st, September 15th, or what have you. Well, what are some factors, environmental factors that we can look at now that might affect that moon phase is one of them. I jumped around a little bit, but yes, there is a lot of theories on moon whatever that we will be like, hey, there's studies. And when there's a full moon, they still move the same amount during the day. As a professional hunting guy who spent nearly every day of the season out, we have been successful in periods of no moon and periods of full moon. However, by and large, when the moon is out and it's casting light, especially during those rut periods, I would say it's more difficult to turn up deer during daylight hours. Doesn't matter if they're moving around more and you can't see them. With our method of spot and stock hunting and generally doing a lot of glassing, it can be more difficult to turn up animals. You add in other environmental factors and that increases heat bad, like abnormally Hot, slow kind of rut activity in general, whatever other factors might be added into that. Now you compound the problem and you. The hunt becomes exponentially more difficult. It's not to say you can't have success. It is to say it might be more difficult. There is also a factor of that moon does start to kick off the rut more. And I've had phenomenal hunting days during those full moon days. Okay, it's not that it can't. Can't be that sometimes during that full moon, it really starts to kick things off, get things fired up and you can catch it just right and have some phenomenal hunting days. There are some, like, going back. There are some weeks that I can think of that were full moon weeks and some of the best weeks of elk and deer hunting I've ever had. But if the conditions aren't right, you can also, you know, make it difficult for yourself during those time phases. So one of the things that we can look at is like, where does the full moon land within the season that we're hunting? And do we want to hunt? The growing or waxing or waning, do we want to hunt? No moon, new moon, where do these land? Like, I always like when the new. When there's no moon within that, like what I would consider the peak rut dates. I always seasons with that. I tend to find more success or like easier success in a way. Maybe have overall air quotes, a better hunt. But there's so many other factors. So that's not just one factor. That's one of the things that we're going to look at as we start to consider all of this stuff as these, as we look at these, these three categories of regulations, environmental factors prior to the hunt, and environmental factors during the hunt. Some of these we can predict, some of them we can't. Some of them we can just go off of data and see how the year turns out. But what we're doing, when we're talking about predicting a season, we start to look at, okay, what's the season shaping up? Like what. What are some of the things that maybe we can expect? There will be things out of that where you will be wrong. It's like the weatherman, right? I'm. I'm gonna be elk, deer hunting season, weatherman. It changes in every little micro environment. It changes in every. A little different area you might be hunting. But overall, we're going to just kind of look at some of these factors. Then when you start to build out your hunt plan, your application strategy, you can look at. And next week we're going to really dive into each state and what some of this data shows, we're going to dive into that next week. But I'm kind of setting the basis here. You're going to need to understand the things that we're looking at. So when we start to dive into the data, it clicks and you go, okay, these are things that I can look at for this particular area that I want to apply for this particular state. I'm not going to be giving you like, this unit's the unit next year. It's not, that's not my intent, teaching you how to fish, not giving you fish. So I'm going to tell you what I look at and how I build out what I would consider my predictions. And the caveat to all this is you're going to be 100% unsuccessful if you aren't out there with a tag. So in some ways, some of this is all just bullshit and doesn't really matter because you just need to be out in the field. There will be people every year they go, like, I got a general tag, it was full moon and they shot the biggest animal they'll ever get, or they were successful. That's absolutely 100% possible. I've been in that category, all those things, right? I've had everything working against me and had some of the best hunts in my life. It happens. But what we are going to talk about is building out predictions and what this season might look like based off of these things. Some of this stuff we can tell now, some is just going to be found out on the hunt and things that you can't control. So, and then there will be, as we go on through the year of these podcasts, we can highlight the tips and tactics that we use for these rough conditions or for rough conditions and then still eke out that success by adjusting our plan based on the conditions. So during application season, we're taking, we're making predictions. Essentially, you're looking at the odds going, hey, this might increase my odds x amount of percentage or even maybe it may increase my odds of drawing a tag in this percentage. Hey, the conditions are tougher, like we talked about a few weeks ago. Find tough conditions, maybe find a little bit of a edge to actually obtain the tag because in today's day and age, sometimes that is the majority of the battle. So now we're going to look at the environmental factors prior to the hunt. So these are going to be things that you're out of your, out of your control. But they're the factors that we're going to consider. So prior to the hunt we can obviously look at the moon phase, correlate that to regulations and also traditional rut timing. What's the moon phase doing during those times that we consider peak? Ruth? For mule deer, I consider peak rut, I don't know, second week in November to end of November, depending on where you're at in the country. Elk, I always think of kind of the middle of September is prime time. Like 15th to 25th is always kind of a great time. Just depends where you're at. And some of these other factors going in now, factors prior to the hunt that are going to help build out our predictions of certain areas are going to be primarily based off of winter weather and water. I guess we got winter weather, water, water, three W's. So winter and the severity of winter harsh winters lead to diminished body condition. They lead to potentially lower populations and die offs. Animals can struggle during a harsh winter. Now a mild winter can lead to drought. It can also lead to not as optimal antler growth and can lead to higher severity of fire season. So there's like this give and take this year across the west. Probably not a surprise to many people, mild winter that is great for increasing populations. Especially when, you know, I guess it's about four years ago now, three, four years ago we had a pretty severe winter. Knocked down some populations, made some animals struggle. But the rebound process was amazing. Amazing. Like forage and green up really good water supply. A lot of those like benefits after the fact. So bad harsh conditions lost some animals going back into it. A rebound phase. Now we've had some actually a few stacked up mild winters back to back. Really good for population growth. Can actually be really good for antler growth if we have a wet spring or water during the antler growing season. Because what that's going to do is a. As you get those mild winters, you're still going to get green up and new growth. Highest nutrient dense growth is that new growth. And if you continually keep having that going, going, going, going, antler growth can be great. So in arid environments, water holding water is key. And a lot of like arid places, some places in Utah, almost all of Arizona, a lot of New Mexico, a lot of Nevada, certain parts of Wyoming, other places where it might be more arid, you're gonna be animals are gonna be really tied to water. And potentially their success might be tied their antler growth success might be tied to snowpack. So if you've got below average snowpack, what that Means is that the area that's holding water, that water is gonna dry it faster. The summer range might not have as much water. And that like later in the season, mid season range might not have as much water. So animals are going to be more tied to water. They're going to be in locations where there is more water. The antler growth might be diminished because there's not as good a green up. There's, you know, the summer range runs out of snow and water and things start to dry out faster. Springs start to dry up, animals start to be more condensed for fewer resources. They're, they're pushed into areas around water and there might not be as much food and other things. So antler growth can suffer for those things. And the other problem is things dry out faster. Therefore you have a long, a lot longer fire season. Fire season might be a factor of pushing the hunt and making the hunt plan not as successful. Let's say you've got in early September archery hunt, let's call it September 1st to the 15th. Those are your dates. You're like sweet, this is good, but it's a real dry year and not a wet spring. You've got a fire season that could be very long, which could affect antler growth, displace animals, or increase the chance that you have a fire during your hunt, which decreases visibility, makes animals a little bit more slower. It's probably hotter conditions and honestly it's real tough to hunt in those conditions. Like some of the most unsuccessful weeks I have are when that area is just choked down with smoke. It can be tough. Like it does affect the rutting behavior of elk or at least your ability to find them and the tools that you can use. And often if a fire is going, it means that it's hot and there's not rain and other weather going on. So there's multiple factors. So mild winter can be a good thing, mild winter can be a bad thing. Time will tell. Now what can be a good thing is, let's say you had a mild winter, a mild winter mixed with a wet spring during that growing season. That's actually great. And we've had a few of those recently and we've had some really good antler growth in some places and some, some really good opportunities and, and some good hunts based off of that. I, I've benefited from it in a few of the places that I hunt. And you, fingers crossed, you're hoping that that's going to be the case this year. This year was a really wet winter, but not holding Snow. So what you get is you get water in places. But that holding process of the water and things that might hold and run year round, like streams, creeks, sometimes even springs, those things start to dry up a lot faster. So if you have water but it's not water that's holding, then where the water holds, animals will be more concentrated. Use those resources more affects antler growth and some other things. So sometimes it can provide tough conditions, especially in like the Southwest, where you might see swings in 20 plus percent antler growth based on the water. Now, one thing that does provide is maybe an opportunity of like, hey, here's a population where there's really good animals. Generally it's considered an area where trophy quality exists. And there might be, it might be really hard to get tagged because trophy quality is so good. There's guys with top end points waiting for those tags. What happens on a drought year? Well, man, those, those guys have waited their whole life for that tag. They might be cashing in a tag with really poor potential for antler growth. So they might just be like, I'm not really gonna. Some people might hold back and say like, this is a top end unit. I don't want to waste. Waste. I don't like using that word. But I don't want to burn all my points for this when I could wait a year and it might be a better year. I've had buddies that have drawn some of the best tags in the world in drought years in the southwest because top end guys aren't applying. I had two friends back to back drought years in Arizona pick up mule deer tags for the strip. Did they kill, you know, the biggest mule deer in the world? No. Did they get bucks that were a lot better than they would have got and they pretty much had no chance of drawing because they weren't even close to max points drawing this trip. Yes. They both shot really good deer that you would take anywhere. And it was back to back years and it wasn't top end producing years. But because they had fewer points and not, you know, some tags weren't going to max points, guys, they were able to capitalize and get a random draw, which, hey, man, sometimes that's all you can hope for, right? That might be my only chance to hunt the strip would be maybe a similar situation like that, to be honest, or being extremely, extremely lucky. So. And I think there's both of those factors are involved at all times. But those are the kind of things that we're going to consider when we're looking at these applications. So what's the snowpack look like? Snow levels, Was it a mild winter, was it a harsh winter, was it a wet winter? And then some of these factors as we start to continue through spring we're going to want to monitor is are we getting good precipitation? A lot of places had above average, over 100% rainfall and below average snowpack. So they were getting water, getting green up. Mild winter with warm conditions, there's plenty of feed throughout the winter. Their bodies are actually going into spring and growing in better condition. I think that although you'll see a lot of fawn survival rates, I think this is really good for a lot of our populations. Now time's going to tell what it ends up. If we have holding water, if we have a wet spring, how this particular season is going to shape up, especially in those arid areas where water is the key to life in a lot of those areas. But we're going to look at some of those factors and those are going to be things that are moving all the time. So as we get, you know, some applications have already been due, some are coming up. We can continue to monitor that and we're going to talk state by state next week. Now, we also have factors that are out of your control, but are things to consider during the hunt. Okay, so these are going to be rut and rut, timing, weather. That moon cycle is coming up again because it's something that's during the hunt and then fire. So as we're, as we're building out our hunt strategy or hunt plan, we can always look at kind of that historical data of often earlier in September is hotter. You have a more likely chance of hitting that hot weather in September than you do later in September. It's just statistical. It's like you're rolling the dice. You roll the dice and you're like, I, it's a 1 in 6 chance, but some years, you know, it's just a little bit weighted as you get statistically earlier versus later. Same thing like you're hunting, let's say you've got a tag for a migration area. Often if you can hunt later, you have a higher probability of getting that weather that you need to move things in or, or move things around because you just can't predict it. So you're trying to find that during the hunt piece that gives you the best opportunity for whatever you're looking for. Now on the flip side, you could say, hey, I, you know, the things that I can't control during that, is it going to be a potentially Bad fire season? We don't know yet. Time will tell probably in a lot of places. Honestly, some years you just get lucky. Like some years it just rains all summer. That's ideal. That was last year. In a couple of the places I hunted. It was like, man, great. No fires. This is awesome. Lots of green. It was green everywhere. Spreads the animals out, disperses them a bit. But hey, I mean, that was better than having, you know, other conditions. Other places that I hunted dry, hot and yet had some phenomenal hunting even during a full moon last year. Just because, I don't know, it's just whatever the factor was that the cows went in like mild winter, their body condition was really good and they, I, it was like a strong rut for elk in a couple of the places that I was hunting. So you, you hit those factors and it can kind of shift the hunt one way or the other. You might have it in an area where you've got a combination of drought. You had not good green up and not good growth during that growing season. So antler growth is diminished. But also what that affects is the body condition of the female animals does or cows in that area or which increases the survival rate and potential breedability of that particular doe. When conditions are bad, things don't take as well. So yeah, I don't know if they maybe just don't cycle into estrus. It depends on how bad the conditions are. I believe that that would be the case. Therefore that could affect the rut as well. So as if they go in with really good body condition, you know, it's a healthier herd, there's going to be probably or potentially more opportunity to catch an animal that's active and therefore might, might get lend itself to like higher success hunt or more action during the hunt. So these are all the things that we're going to consider and probably not consider them individually, but as a whole. So what we want to look at is as we start to go through our applications and if you're like a guy that's like, hey, I've been applying multiple places, I've got some points that I could probably strike in on, or maybe you don't have any, but you go, and I'm going to try for some random draws here or there and plan my hunt. When and where should I plan my hunt? So what we're gonna first look at is when are these, these moon phases that might be ideal for us? What's the season shaping up like good antler growth, not good antler growth. Maybe it's like, hey, maybe there's certain areas in certain pockets that it is good antler growth. Diving through the data myself, there are some areas that I didn't even realize I was like, oh, this they're doing good right now. I'll keep that to myself. I'll let you find it yourself. No, I'll tell you how to find it, but I won't tell you what it is. Like, thanks thanks for this podcast of all this detail where you talk about all these things and don't give me the exact specifics because if I give it to you and give it to everyone, it's no longer a benefit for the people that figure it out. And also you can always find things that other people don't find by looking at it just a little bit different way. Some people, like myself particularly sometimes I chase the stuff that doesn't look good for the fact of believing that it might be easier to obtain a tag. And I've done that for many years. Areas where I'm like, lower density, lower success, a little bit of a drought, tough conditions, full moon. That's going to be my hunt because I'll have a tag in my pocket and I'll have the opportunity to go out. This year I've got, I don't have the world's most points in Arizona, but I have quite a few and I put my choices ones like late season arch like I'm like, I can probably draw it now with the points that I have because it's kind of crap. Might be crap conditions for it. And hey, maybe I might go, yeah, it's going to be so bad that like the way that the moon falls during that hunt, the season dates this year, I don't know. I got, well, I got my point guard and I can throw it back in the hat and try again another time, but it's time will tell. So you know, sometimes I chase those areas as like it's I think fewer people are going to apply because it is tough conditions. Or sometimes I go, oh, it's really good conditions here. I might try for that as opposed to this other place and let those conditions improve. You know, I'm sitting on some points for some mule deer in a particular two particular states that I think are going to be really good next year and the year after based off of the bad winter. This year's conditions, I don't know, could wait, get a harsh winter next year and just start over again. Right? So you can always be chasing something. What one person finds might be ideal for their situation set up and not for another person. So we're looking at all these factors, and then what we're doing is we're attributing those factors to what we're looking for. I'm a guy that's like, hey, I just want to tag in the opportunity to hunt. If I have a tag, I have an opportunity, I have a chance. I don't care if the conditions are perfect. I just want a better chance of actually drawing. So I might look for those particular areas. Okay, where's. Where's a season that the moon's going to be kind of bad? Maybe it's in slight drought or maybe it's, you know, maybe it had a harsh winter. I don't know. We're going to look at those things. Well, maybe an area that's like an earlier season with higher fire danger, and maybe some people will turn in their tags or potentially not apply for that area because they're sitting on more points or what have you. So what we can do is we can look at all these factors together, we can look at our goals and desires for this upcoming season, and we can use these predictions to build it out. So one, a couple of the factors that we're going to want to keep an eye on is going to be spring water, the spring rains and antler growth timeframe, like during the growing season, what kind of water we're going to get. We can look at past data of snowpack in certain places. We're going to look at some of the moon phases during the seasons, during the rut seasons primarily, and even the moon phases during the non rut season. So those times of year where it's like, hey, sometimes you got those tags where there's a lot of tags, early October or what have you, because it's a hard time to find deer, mule deer. Some years those tags line up with the full moon. So you've got a time of year when mule deer aren't moving much and they can move at night if they want to move. Tough conditions. But some years that moon is now during those rat hunts and those earlier, easier to obtain tags might be more ideal for that particular moon phase. So you can see how we can start to build this out. And you go, okay, well, maybe combine that with a wet spring and lighter snowpack, a milder winter, we might have the makings for a good general season. Easier to get tagged. You're out in the field and things are going to work out for you. Or same thing of like, hey, maybe it's a bad moon phase for the rut we've got. We go into the year with more drought conditions, but hey, looks like might be able to obtain that rut tag easier now because it's not as prime conditions for it. You still might be able to hunt the rut and things could work out. You could have real cloudy bad weather that particular week and it just starts things off. You've got darker nights, good cold weather for it, deer moving and you have the hunt of a lifetime. So we can use some of these predictions, find the strategy that works best for us, and then capitalize on it for this upcoming season. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. I know as we start to build out these predictions, understand the things that we're looking at, we can help find that hunt for this year. Whether it's obtaining a tag or just having those expectations of what to look for going into the hunt based on these predictions and build out our hunt strategy that way. So we've got our predictions, we can build out our hunt strategy and I think that it's going to allow for more consistent success. So next week we're going to dive into breaking it down state by state. We're going to look at a lot of this current data and really kind of dive in that next level a little bit deeper. And I think that that's really going to help everybody out. Another thing that I want to mention, so if you guys I'll be at the Hunt Expo this week. So it's going to be this podcast is coming out Thursday. I'll be there Thursday through Sunday. So if you're Friday, Saturday, Sunday, whatever day you're in there, you should be able to find me. I'm going to try to stick around the booth as much as possible, but I've also got a few seminars going around. So I've got a seminar. I do these Q and A's. They're a lot of fun. You've probably heard them on this podcast. Always do a little bit of giveaway at those. So Friday 10am to 11am I've got a seminar and then Sunday 12:30 to 1:30 I have a seminar. So I've got those two seminars. Really looking forward to that. Now another thing that I want to mention on I'll be in booth 5374. We've got Remy Warren live wild stuff. We've got our day six archery stuff. We're going to be giving we last year we did this. It was a lot of fun. Daily prize giveaways, a daily Drawing. So every day must be present to win. Swing by, check those out because we've got some incredible prizes. Some great companies like Montana Knife Company, some of our day six stuff, some of our live wild stuff. We've got a lot of awesome stuff. So one of my favorite things is to be able to do those giveaways, give some stuff away, swing by the booth. Another thing to think about is if you are planning on, you're like, hey, I want to switch to day six arrows and. Or try the broadheads. Now's a great. And you're going to be at Hunt Expo anyways. Come by, check us out because we don't really do any discounts throughout the year except for at Sheepshow a couple weeks ago and here at Western Hunt. So there's a little bit of a discount just for people that are showing up at the show. And I don't know, it's just kind of our way of being able to do that. And the other thing that I'm going to say is, like, if you're thinking about it, if you can come with your draw length, draw weight, we can help get you set up with an arrow. There's plenty of guys, well, plenty of guys there that know what they're talking about, know how to help you get set up for your particular setup, your particular bow. So if you know your bow, draw length and draw weight, we can help make sure that we get an arrow that matches that. Or even if you had, I guess you could if you know what arrow you're currently shooting or what have you. But I think it'd be best just to. To start over because sometimes what we found out is like a lot of guys might be actually having problems and they've been set up with the wrong arrow the whole time where they've changed the point weight and now things are off. So we can help you in person build the perfect setup and get it built out for you so that, that just if you, if you're like, I'm going to be there, I'm going to see these guys. Seek us out, bring that information, grab one of us. We'll help you get set up. We're really excited about being able to do this in person and meet with you guys because we know that I really think that if you haven't shot our stuff, you're really going to enjoy it. If you already shoot our stuff, swing by anyways, come say hi, pick up another set of arrows and broadheads. We really appreciate it. Another thing that we will have there if you want to check it out is the vortex relay system. So I talked about that a couple weeks ago when it just came out. I got to use it again on this koozie hunt. Unfortunately, I didn't get to use it for the actual shot, but it was awesome. I had the ACE out and I was just getting wind readings and when I was shooting, swapping over from my suppressor to my muzzle brake, you know, I set up my little Garmin Chrono, changed a few things, just getting it dialed out to range. It's an awesome system we've got right now. They're currently sold out. So we've got like a, on our, on our site, we've got a little bit of a waiting list for that. But as soon as they come back in stock, if you're interested in that, check it out. We're gonna, we're gonna let that go live now and we will have the availability to kind of order some ahead of time. So when they come back in stock, we can get those out to you guys. I think that it's, it's a pretty sweet system and I know that a lot of places have been sold out of it and so some more inventory is coming in. We're getting a small inventory in and we can just put your name on it or whatever and make sure that you guys get that if it's something that you want. And of course always you can go check out other sporting goods stores. It might have some on hand, but it's a new system, especially with those Talon 10ks. They come in 10 power or 12 power. I had somebody reach out and ask, like I'm running the tens. I think the 12s would be ideal if you do a lot of long range shooting. I like the tens just for the standard hunting and what I use it for, but I, I think it honestly could be a toss up. If you do a lot of long range shooting. The 12s would be great I think for like the workhorse aspect of it. Tens are perfect and then you've got that ACE system that runs the weather or you could combine that Ace. So you got the weather with either the Talons or if you already have a, like a, the handheld, was it GB4000 geo ballistic 4000 rangefinder, it works with that as well. So it's a really sweet system to get all that. It's so like, so seamless, so cohesive. When all those pieces are working together or multiple pieces are working together, you can, you can really customize that. So if you want to check that stuff out we'll have it at the booth I know Vortex is going to be there as well exhibiting so you can check that out there we'll have some the availability to order it on our website and if you guys have any questions and you're at the show swing on by or jump into those Q and A's those are always a lot of fun a lot of opportunity to win some stuff at the Q&As at our daily giveaways come check it out if you aren't going to be there I don't know that's all good keep continue listening to the podcast and I appreciate your guys support from near and from afar I'm gonna say until next week just plan it out predict it I guess we could be like we can call this I should name this hunting poly market that's what we should do should create a poly market on the elk season and place our bets I'll catch you guys later. Sa.