← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 228 | A buck for the boys
00:51:41
Remi Warren shares his hunting adventures, strategies for success, and tips for hunting with handicaps, emphasizing patience, planning, and family involvement.
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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. If you really want to utilize a lot of this information from the podcast in the field, one of the best ways to do that is to be physically ready for the hunt. And that's really why I've partnered with Mountain Tough. So if you aren't familiar with it, Mountain Tough is an online training app designed for hunters with a ton of added benefit. In addition to the fitness programs built for that backcountry hunting, you also get access to nutrition and recovery guides for on and off the mountain mental toughness training, and this really great in app community that connects you with other Mountain Tuft toughers and coaches. This app is packed with value. To help you stay ready to get started in the journey, go to mountaintuff.com that's mt n t o u g h dot com. Welcome Back to the LiveWell podcast everyone. Now this week we're going to break down the strategy and the importance of the right approach, especially if you find yourself handicapped in any way. I I'm going to share the story of a recent fallow deer hunt I did in New Zealand with my 3 year old son. It was one of those days full of close encounters, an epic stalk, often loud stalks, and a lot of cool sticks found along the way. In my opinion, honestly, hunting with a toddler might be one of the most challenging but definitely extremely rewarding forms of hunting. On this particular day, mom and sister stayed back and it was just the boys out in search of a good fallow deer buck. So I actually just got back from a recent trip to New Zealand, went with the whole family. So my wife daughter who's four and a half and my son who just turned three and then myself and for me fallow deer hunting is just one of those hunts that I really enjoy. I really love hunting deer species. I think that the fallow deer in particular the country that I hunt them in kind of reminds me of hunting mule deer in Nevada where I grew up hunting. So there's something familiar about it. I also just love the way that their antler configuration is the way that they kind of all grow different, but you can definitely see that growth in the palms and the width. And I don't know, there's just something about antlers. Horned animals are really cool, but antlers are just special. And I. And I love chasing deer. So it's a really fun hunt for me, and it's one in this particular place where I hunt and is something that I could do with the family. So the plan was to kind of go out. We. We weren't necessarily. No goals, just kind of have a fun family hunt together, maybe shoot some spikes or does early on for some meat. If I happened upon a good buck, yeah, we would chase it. I had my bow, I had my rifle. Kind of doing a little bit of everything, just out chasing deer, having a good time. So I guess it was a. A couple, maybe three days in, we. We'd been traveling for already, I guess almost two weeks or something like that, because we. We stopped off in Hawaii, which was halfway, did some hunting and fishing and stuff there, celebrated my wife's uncle's birthday, and then continued on to New Zealand. We figured we're halfway there, we might as well jump on a flight and. And go do a little bit of hunting and then take the long trip back. My daughter had been. And. And one of the other things that we wanted to do is just visit friends that were. Were there as well. So my daughter had been. We took her when she was like about 10 months old, and we thought it'd be fun to go back. We'd never taken our son over there and just see some friends, do some hunting, bring my daughter back. She was excited to go back to, you know, now that she could actually remember the trip and. And just go out and do some hunting as a family. So it was probably, I don't know, maybe day three, day four, something like that. It had been a long, long trip. And my daughter was like, I just kind of want to sleep in today. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. Why don't. Why don't you guys stay back? And me and Kit, my. He really still. He was like, I want to go chase a follow here. And he got this little plastic toy fallow deer buck. He's like, let's go find a big buck, dad. So I was like, all right, buddy. So we went out just. Just the boys this day. And I was like, this is going to be the day that. That we get. Get the deer. So me and Kit went out and we're. We're actually driving up the road and. And I figured with. With hunting with a. I Don't know. I guess like hunting with my daughter when she was 10 months old. Way easier than hunting with toddlers because they just have that mind of their own. You can't just throw them in the backpack, right? They got to get there on their own two feet. There's that challenge of like keeping it interesting, keeping. Keeping it entertaining. I'm very lucky. Like, my kids have been on a lot of hunts and still enjoy going out and hunting with dad. But I also am very cognizant of keeping it fun, keeping it enjoyable, not pushing them too hard, just. Just making it about what they want to do and having a good time. So we're going up this. It's like two track dirt road, and I look over and I was just going to go. I was planning on going up to this spot where I'd seen a good buck a few days before and maybe just get tabs on him or who knows? Or maybe try to get a spike or a doe or whatever. So I'm going up and I pop over this, like, part of the hill and I look over to the left and there's like this good buck on the skyline. I'm like, dang it, this. This kind of sucks. Like, it's at that zone where it's close enough. It wasn't that close, but it was probably like 6, 800 yards away and it saw the vehicle and boom, out of there. So I'm like thinking, that sucks. Like that. It looked like a good buck going over the skyline as they all do. So I decide, I'm like, well, that's pretty much done right? Maybe I keep driving up this road glass back and see him. Odds are I probably won't. Probably just kept running. So I drive up and I. I go around. Well, it somehow decided to run up and then back toward the track. So I drive up and blow him out again. Just the other direction, I'm like, all right, this is. This sucks. Like, he was there. I. He kind of ran back toward where he was before. I'm not going to make that same mistake twice. So I was like, hey, buddy, let's go. That was a. That looked like a good buck. Let's go see if we can find that buck. So we go back down and go around and actually I'm glassing and there's like this rock pile there. And I see a buck, bedded or sorry, standing right up at the skyline. Can see his antlers. I'm like, oh, that, that's that buck. And he's. At this point, I don't know. 450 yards away. So a little bit further than I would like to shoot. And just where he's at, like, he's skyline. I'm like, I'm not gonna just shoot a skyline buck. So let's see what happens. And it's wide open. So we're there. And I'm like, all right, bud. Like, I gave. I had a little bag of. I think it was like, probably fruit Loops or something like that. I'm like, okay, you eat your snacks. I'm filming through the. The mag view through the spotting scope. And I. I'm like, all right. I think that we can crawl up. I'd like to get, like 350. Is like, if we could just maybe crawl up 100 more yards, this might work out. And so I'm looking at. And the sun's right behind him. Like, it's a bad glare. I have no rest, really, from where I'm at, I don't really think that they see us. But, you know, the sun's shining on us. The sun's in our eyes. It's not ideal. And it's just. I just see the one buck. So I'm like, well, I'm deciding, okay, I'm gonna try to get a. Get a shot on this buck. So I. I start to move up a little bit, and the buck kind of. I don't. I'm, like, messing with something. I still got the. The spotting scope rolling, and the buck just, like, pops over the hill and disappears. So I. It was while I was messing with some gear. So I'm like, I don't know if it caught the flash or something. I don't. I don't really know, but it. I didn't really know if they just ran off or what happened. So I'm like, I don't know how many chances you get at these deer, right? Generally, in my experience, it's not a lot. So this is already more chances than I probably deserved. And so I. I look back in the video, and there happened to be another good buck bedded with this buck that I actually absolutely couldn't see. But I saw it when it ran over, and I can see it in the video, Just the outline of. It's. It's bedded in the shadow. So this. The one buck ended up bedding down, and he's in the shadow, and it takes off. So I don't know if that buck saw us. Whatever. The way that they got out of there wasn't necessarily like they were crazy spooked. So I thought, well, I'm like, hey Kit, let's. We're going to go for a little walk. He's like, all right, cool. So I'm like, you can be the camera guy. So I had a little 360cam and I'm like, maybe I can just get around. We can climb up over where they popped over. And they might have just popped over and stopped in this little basin back there. And I figured I was like, well, this is going to be our, our hunt for the day. You know, I got the youngster with me. He's probably got. I think I can keep him motivated for a little bit, but I might have to carry him at some points, see what happens, right? So we start walking and the nice part was one of the things that I didn't really think about being a kid and he's low to the ground, the dry grass. I, you know, kids hunting gears, like especially, there's no hunting gear, real good gear for three year olds. So it's just like what they got. He's got some like, I don't. His boots are more like slip on. Think of them like a muck type boot, right. And I didn't, you know, his pants are, I don't even know, almost just like khaki pants and shirt. Whatever. Nothing, nothing crazy. But what kept happening was the, you know, like dry grass, the, the pieces to the grass would poke through his pants or fall down in his boots and then poke him through the socks and be like, ow. And start taking his boots off. And we'd have to pick all the, the prickles out and all that stuff. I was like, that was the one thing I probably, I, I didn't really foresee with those kind of boots and whatever if he's just wearing socks. Like, I don't know, just. It's. That's, that's actually one of the hardest parts is not having gear designed for, for little kids like that. And obviously rightfully so. Like not many people, like, I don't think there's a big market for it. But one of the things I think about is like all the, the stickers from all the, the bush, like all the dried grass. Well, this particular spot was super clean because it, I don't know, just whatever. It's just really low grass, really eaten down. And so I was like, we could probably cruise in this. And so we started up the hill. He's doing great. And of course like right off he finds like a little stick. He's like, oh, I got my stick gun. It's like a perfectly shaped rifle stick. So yeah, I've got the, I've got my rifle. He's got his rifle and his stick rifle, you know, obviously not a real rifle. And. And then he keeps going and he finds like another stick that's now going to be his tripod. So I'm trying to make pretty decent time, but we're collecting quite a few sticks along the way and we're just, we're just having a good time. So we work up to this one spot and it actually was this place that I'd been before I knew this particular canyon. And I actually had a friend come in and he shot a buck in this particular canyon. I'm like, man, I wonder if it took the same. Like I found a buck bedded in here in the morning time a couple years ago. Like, maybe they just like to bed right in here. So I, I start slowly peeking over the rise and I'm looking and here comes this, this doe. And mind you, I was actually thinking like, I've got my cameras, I might as well film everything. It turns out I had some these really cool and fun encounters. Somehow my camera, instead of being on the, like the video mode, was set on the slow motion mode where it doesn't record any sound, records everything in slow motion. So I have a lot of epic, like awesome footage of very slow motion, but it's neither here nor there. And so I peek up over and I see the ears of this doe coming our direction. I'm like, buddy, there's a, there's a doe right here. And he gets all excited. And so the doe like worked up past us and went over the hill. So I'm thinking, like, let's just go check maybe the, maybe the bucks there. And we pop up over and this entire herd of does is like 20 to 60 yards and we aren't. I don't know what it. Like, every other time I would have tried to move in on does. Like if I had my bow just trying to shoot a doe or whatever, this would never happen. And of course we're like right there. And he's like, he's got his little stick gun and the deer move past him. He's like, pew, got him, dad. Again, let's get one of these deer. And I would have definitely shot one of those, those does. I was like, man, we just had a really good buck here and let's see if we can get this buck today. Normally I would have been like, yeah, he's. He doesn't. This would be cool. Like, let's. Let's take one of these does right here. It's a perfect scenario and setup. We're already here. I've got him pretty close. Like, I could just shoot one of these. But I knew that there was a buck here, and I'm like, I think that we can maybe turn this buck up. Let's just try. Like, we can go find a doe later on today. And I'm like, let's go find that big buck. He's like, okay, let's go find that bug buck. And so I told him. I was like, man, because just the boys today. If we get this. If we. If we get the big buck, you can put it in your room. Okay, buddy? And he's like, yeah, cool. I get it in my room. Because his sister has an axis deer that. That her mom shot, and she's got, like, the rug on her floor and then the antlers hanging in her room. So if. If we get this buck, he gets to. He gets to put it in his room. So he's. Now that was the motivation he needed to. To climb the big mountain. So we've already climbed, like, a pretty good ways, and I. I'm glassing back, and the. The buck isn't in there. So I'm like, all right, it's the motivation. I'm like, let's keep going. Let's just keep going to the next ridge. Just continually trying to motivate him a little bit. And then there's some real. We. We went through the short grass. Now we're in the real tall pokey grass. That's about head high for him. So I've got, like, the camera. I've got the rifle slung under. Over my back, and I'm just carrying him and through the tall grass. And we're going up the hill, and we get up. I'm like, let's just peek over this next one. We can look into this big basin. Okay. You know, a lot of. A lot of little motivating tricks here. And we peek over the top and don't see the deer. I'm like, well, I don't know. And then I realized my camera was in slow motion. So I'm like, oh, let's just. Let's work our way back to the truck, bud. And he was getting pretty tired. He's like, it's so far. Where's the big deer? I'm like, I know at this point, we've hiked pretty. We've gone up pretty good mountain. I mean, for his little legs, like, this is that was a good hike. And so we're hiking up and we got to go up to the top because I think it'll be like, let's just get up to the top, get on a little ridge, get up to the top and then we can walk down to the truck. And I, I don't know, I mean at this point it's probably like maybe a mile, you know, and we've got like a mile downhill back. So I'm like, he's good for it. When we're, when we go on our walks and stuff, he, he does, he goes quite a ways so he's good for it. And I was like, worst case scenario, I can just carry him. So, so we get to the top and I start glassing and there's like this, this one canyon, it's a ways away, probably like, I don't know, another mile. It was like maybe a thousand yards away, something like that. And I spot what I think is buck. I don't have the spotting scope and I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's the buck. So, so I'm like, well there's the buck. There's this ridge that we could get into halfway between and arrange that. And I'm like from there we would, we would be able to shoot across but the wind is not great. You know, walking with a three year old isn't the most quiet like you know, we're having. I'm trying to keep it fun, not try to be on him too much for being quiet. Whatever. We're just, we're just out hunting. And I'm like, man, but if we get on that ridge above them, the wind would be better. There's this ridge that I think would be 300 yards, 275, something like that that we could pop up. We'd be completely unseen and it would just be a lot better option. So we, we're kind of like exactly equidistance from the truck and the buck. So I'm like, we're going to go back to the truck. We're going to drive around, get closer and then work our way in from there. So we walk back to the truck, we re snack, we refuel. I'm like, all right bud, I think we can do this. All we have to do is get into that ridge and we can get that deer. So I load up with more snacks in the pack and we drive around, get on that ridge. And now it's like, it's actually more of like a level walk this way. It's actually A way better. Way better route. And it happened to be the best for what we were trying to do, a way better approach. So we. We start working our way in. And it was like, I'm ranging. The deer come. Like, I saw the. The buck was still there, and it looked like they were. One was up, but I think I figured one was bedded. So I just got. We got out of sight. We start walking in, and I'm like, you know, I'm like, we're just. We just got to get to this hill. We just got to get to this hill. And we could shoot him. Okay. And, you know, just motivating him. And. And so we get pretty close, and I ended up carrying him for a little bit on, like, the steeper stuff. He's trying to make good time while they're there. So we start, and I'm like, okay. We get to the spot. I'm like, okay. You know, I had to distract him with something like, here's here. You can use the. I gave him a little 360 cam. He's like, cool. I'm the cameraman. He's like, yeah, he loved that, you know, and he could see himself in the camera. And so I'm like, okay, you know, let's crawl up here. And so we. I'm like, we gotta crawl, buddy. So we crawl up to the thing, and I peek over, and the bucks there. I'm like, all right. So I have him sit back on the rock here, and I crawl up and get into position, and I've got the two bucks there. They're like 275 yards, like, absolutely perfect. And they're both. They're both bedded. And so I was like, all right, bud, you just wait here. He's like, just right at my feet there behind me. But because I didn't want to. I didn't want to go up too much because he'd be skylined. There's a few rocks around, and trying to use those as a little bit of COVID And so. So I'm like, all right. So I get set up and get everything set up, and there's two bucks. One was like a. Like, the coat would be called, like, a mental color where it's like a real, like, Hungarian type bloodline where it's. It's like brown, kind of ginger white spots on the back, like, really cool. Really cool coat. And he actually had this toy followed here that was that exact color. And I knew that he would be super pumped on that one. And then there was, like, a bigger buck that was like bigger antlers all black. And I figured I was like, man, I gotta. I was like, this buck's for kit. He. He's really gonna want that metal one. And he's gonna want a little rug just like his sister has. A little spotty rug like his sister has in their room. So get lined up and they're bedded, and then they end up, like, seeing something and standing up, both of them standing, kind of looking our way. And thankfully, the buck was quartered to, like, broadside, slightly quartered to. So I just put it top of the shoulder, squeezed the trigger, boom. The buck, you know, hit him good. I was using like a 7.7rem mag, just shooting, like, terminal ascent ammo. I had my live wild weatherby there, so suppressor on it, everything. And just hit the buck. Great buck. Kind of like did a little loop down, stood there for a second, fell over dead. Perfect shot. And when I watched the little video back, like the 360 camera I had set up, he was, like, sitting there for a while and just started to get curious. He started like, walk. And that's what. Exactly. When that happened, like, the bucks stood up and they see him on the skyline. It worked out perfect, actually, because I was going to just shoot. He was bedded in a good angle. I probably could have shot him bedded. But it worked out perfect that he got him up and we got the buck. And so I'm like, dude, buddy, we got the deer. And he was just so excited. And so we. We walked around the ridge and down to the buck and. And I let him help me find it. And, man, just like, just how proud he was. He's like, we got the deer. The boys got the buck. You know, he's like, I get to put it in my room. Can we eat him for dinner? And he was just so pumped, and it was just so fun. Like, just such a. You know, I've done a lot of hunting, and as I get into this different stage of life as a dad and my kids getting a little bit older, you know, just being able to bring them on and just see their excitement, you know. Got a picture. And he's like, can we. Can I get a picture to send to mom? And I'm like, yeah, of course, buddy. Let's get some pictures. So I took some pictures and just. He's got his chest puffed out, and he's just so excited and so proud. Like, this is his buck. This was him. And dad went out on a hunt and got a good buck, you know, and he was. He was so excited. And so, you know, it was one of those. It was super cool. And so I got my knives out and. Or my knife out to cut him up, because I'm like, I might now. I'm kind of thinking like, okay, now what? Right? Like, pack. I got to take care of this buck. Pack him out. You got to figure out maybe it's like, maybe I'll leave some of the stuff here. Go back to the truck. Like, get the truck. Try driving closer. And I'm like, I think. I think he's good to go. I think we can get it all in one trip. So I'll. I'll cut it up, start hanging the meat, and. But I wanted to do it in a way where I could keep the whole back skin for a rug to have tan. So. So I'm cutting him up, and he's just sitting on the rock, you know, like, watching. He's been around, you know, other hunts. Like, he is. Since before he can remember. He's been on hunting trips and. And just because it's part of our lifestyle, and it's kind of just what we have to do. So he's been on trips before, but this was really the first time. There's just dad in him. And so he's just sitting there, and he's just, like, watching the whole process, you know? And so I start. I start. He was doing so good, actually. So, like, I start. I cut the hind quarter off, and it's good. And then I kind of. I start skinning up for the rug and undo that side and then cut the front quarter off. And he starts to. He's like. He starts crying. Like, I. I want to show. Like, he thought, like, you know, because I'm breaking it down to pack it out. And he's like, we gotta bring it back to show mom and Ren or you gotta show Sissy, you know? So he was all worried that we weren't. Like, he wasn't gonna get the back. And I was like, nobody. We gotta. I gotta carry it out like this, you know, we gotta. We gotta cut it up. We got all the steak, and then we'll take the hide and everything. And so. So he finally calmed down. Okay. You know, like, he was all worried that they weren't going to get to see the deer, too, so he really wanted to share that. So I ended up cutting up the. But, like, getting. Getting all the snacks out, like, being, like, here, free for all, dude. Have. Have at it while I do the work. You. You eat whatever you Want, you know, eat all the bars, eat all the whatever. It's all for you. Did whatever you want. Make some room in dad's pack. So he thought that was pretty cool. And so I just cut it up, started, you know, hanging the quarters, got everything loaded in my pack, strapped everything to the pack, so if I needed to carry him, I could. And I'm like, all right, we got it. We're going to go back up to the truck. We got to hike uphill. And. And he did great. Just one step at a time. And he had a pile of sticks at this point that he wanted to bring back. He had two really good stick guns that he just wanted to keep. So I was like, all right, we'll make sure that we can keep these. And we. We made it back. We made it to the top of the ridge, and I'm, like, thinking about dropping a pack, but he was doing good. So we just kept hiking to the truck and got back there, and he's just so. He was so excited, so proud. You know, he's like, talking about his. He was really. He was not only proud of his buck, but about. Of his sticks that he found, too. So we got some trophy sticks. He called one of them his Weatherby. He's like, this is my Weatherby. And he was so pumped. So it was just a really fun hunt and one of those memories. You know, I think, like, as a. As a. As a parent, there's. There's a lot of parenting is. Is tough no matter what. It's like, all right, we're gonna take our kids on this international hunting trip, I guess. You know, I don't know what, like, you what? We just. We just love doing things as a family, and. And, yeah, of course, there's, like, hard moments in it and other things, but I don't know that. It was just one of those highlight days for me, and I think it's going to be a core memory for him. Like, it's. It was one of those really fun. Just everything worked out in the end. I think he hiked probably, like, three miles, and he was pumped. He was like, I'm tired. He's like. And then we actually went back, hung up the deer, took care of the meat, showed mom and sis, and then ended up going in. He's like, they wanted to go. And he's like, can we play at the park? I was like, yeah. So we packed up the car and drove into town and played at the park for the rest of the afternoon. I figured he was just gonna pass Out. But man, he. He kept going and just telling the hunting story to mom and sister, and it was. It was such a fun, incredible day. And. And I really think of those kind of memories and those kind of moments is some of my favorite. You know, I've got to do a lot of awesome backcountry hunts, solo hunts, bow hunts, self film trips, guide trip, you know, guiding people, some incredible adventures. And for me, in this chapter in my life, getting hunt with my family and raising them in this lifestyle means as much or more to me than all those other hunts. And so it's cool. He gets to put the antlers on his wall and look at those and keep that memory alive. You know, he's definitely, you know, he's fairly young. He just turned three years old, but he's a pretty smart kid. And, you know, his memory is so good, especially just looking at those antlers and reliving that memory back at home. I think that it's going to be one of those core memories of him, maybe is his first real memories of hunting. And so it's just fun to be a part of that and do that as a family and get to do those kind of things. It was just really cool. One of the things that I really wanted to talk about as far as the tips and tactics portion, was looking at a hunt, especially on something where you might be a little bit handicapped. And that handicap could be anything. It could be, hey, you're hunting with a bow. Hey, you, you're tired. It's day seven, and you, you, you gotta, you gotta make the right play. It could be the handicap. Could be, look, we're in a tough area, and this might be the only animal we see this entire trip. It goes back to my number one philosophy and motto. If you learn anything from me ever, go the best way, not the easy way. And going the best way sometimes means that you have to go an easier way because of the circumstances that it is. Or maybe sometimes the easy way and the best way line up. But mostly we're talking about selecting your stock and your process based on what is going to yield the most success. You know, really looking at it, it would have been easy for me. Like, okay, we got to go back to the truck, or we can just go straight at this deer. It's the same distance. I might as well go straight at the deer. Even though the wind isn't as great and the approach isn't as great, we can get there faster. But instead I was like, no, we're going to go to the Vehicle. We're going to go drive around the mountain and move in on the better option, which is going to give us a fully concealed approach. The wind's going to be actually solid and we can be a little louder, we can move a little like, be a little more free in our movements. It's not going to be as, as difficult of a stock and it's just a lot better option because I was handicapped in the fact that I've got a three year old with me. They aren't fast, they aren't stealthy. We're constantly taking shoes off, picking stickers out. We're constantly like going between whispering and yelling or constantly finding new sticks and carrying a lot of stuff. There's a lot going on. And so to take that better approach, knowing that yeah, he loves to hike and walk like we do it all the time. It's not too far, it's definitely doable and it's a much better approach. That's the approach we're going to take. And so for me, whenever I'm on a hunt where I've got scenarios, if you're ever thinking like what would Remy do? Remy would think about going the best way, not the easy way. That's the motto that I tell myself on every stalk, on every day, on every hunt, thinking about the best way for success. And sometimes it's not always apparent, but a few of the key factors here are going to be what's the wind doing and what's my best approach for the wind? What's the way that I'm going to remain the most concealed and what's a way that is going to put me within range when I'm planning my stock. I know that this is, it's kind of just repeating the, the fundamentals of successful hunting. A lot of time people spend planning a stock to where the animal is, not to where they have the best shot from. Before I even made that route or planned that particular stock, I knew the exact rock pile that I was planning on crawling to and shooting from. From where I was at, I was able to arrange the animals range, that rock and kind of estimate, you know, I was actually looking into it and could see across, but I could range a couple of things in between me and the deer. Know. Okay, that's approximately that. Yeah, you know, I've gotten pretty good about guessing distances across. Another tool that I use a ton is I'll pull out my onyx maps and I'll just use the, the measure distance tool. Okay, I'm going to get to this Rock pile. Here's the rock pile the deer at. Oh, it's 265 yards. Or it's 400, 500 yards. Okay, now I know. Okay, that's further than I want to shoot or whatever. Let's find a spot. That's where I want to get to. Too many hunts are blown by just trying to go in on the animal and not having a really good execution plan of where you're trying to get to. Whether it's a rifle, a bow, a muzzleloader, doesn't matter. You're planning it the same way. Where am I getting to where I can make a shot from? Where is going to be my best approach to stay concealed? And where can I shoot to? Because what happens is people go in, they're like, oh, the deer's there. Like, I'm going to go in this way with the wind. Okay, that. That's great. But did you plan on, like, are you going to be able to see the deer from that point? Are you? Or you're going to get there and then you're going to have to wing it? Oh, I'm 600 yards. Darn it. I wanted to be 300. And then there's no real clear approach. So guys will just do what ends up being a dumb move. Like, I'll just crawl over here and try to get closer and the inside of the animal, or, oh, I'm going to try to restock, and it takes too much time. So it's like, maybe if I get from this other side and they've just kind of missed the good opportunity. This is especially important when it comes to bow hunting, where you go, okay, if I. I've got cover from here to here, how far is it going to be when I get to where that deer might be bedded? Oh, it's 90 yards. Okay, well, maybe if I get there, that that's not going to be the right approach. Maybe I have to come in and move along this way to. To. To get within range, or I'm going to get there and know that, hey, maybe this is a play where I got to wait for that animal to move into a better position and picking the right approach, going the best way. Oftentimes we'll look at a stalker, an approach or something like that and just be like, oh, the easiest way to get there and fastest way is this sometime route. But most of the time, if we're. I. I try to never factor in ease based on the stock. Like, oh, this is the easiest approach. The easiest approach can be the best Approach. But it isn't always the best approach. Sometimes you just gotta, you gotta think of it as like, what's the best way and least likely for me to get busted? Where am I getting to? Which way is the wind going? What is my scenario? Or like getting into position? What's the absolute best way? Is it going in unseen up this canyon? Where am I? If I do this approach, is there a chance that I'm going to be seen? Okay, how are the animals bedded and where is it most likely for me to, to get busted? In this particular stock, I knew that the best chance for me getting busted was going to be at the final shot. If I came up too soon or at the wrong spot, I'm going to be Skyline. So when I move in, then I know those potential dangers. So outlining those potential dange ahead of time and then picking that route that's best for that particular scenario. Now going the best way, not the easy way, sometimes involves more legwork. Also though, sometimes the person or the situation you're hunting with, you might have handicapped yourself in some way. As a hunting guide, I've learned that, you know, I've hunted with definitely a lot of people that I knew this was going to be their one and only stock. They might make it. They aren't going to be as fast as me. They've got some health problems, they got some trouble. It's a long, it's been a long hunt. Their feet are tore up and they're just going to do what they can do and they're probably going to do their best, but they aren't going to be able to get there like I would get there. Right. Same goes for hunting with the kids, hunting with a toddler, hunting with your spouse, hunting with anybody that might not have the same skills and abilities, physical attributes, this, that and the other thing. So how do we plan our approach and our stock for the best way, including, you know, those potential handicaps. And so like for me it was going okay. If I was just me, I probably could have just gone straight at those deer, dropped down the canyon, popped up, the wind wouldn't have been great, but hey, I would have had a 300 yard shot across this one canyon. Probably could have got a shot off before they, you know, winded me because it was, it was okay. It wasn't great and killed the deer probably. Yeah. But with a toddler in tow, that wasn't going to happen because it was going to take a lot longer than I thought. More variables in the wind, more other things. There's going to be a spot that'd probably have to crawl to stay out of sight. Okay, well, that's kind of hard because he might want to stand up. That might be the time that he wants to be loud. With the wind traveling that direction, his sound would go that way as well, so. Okay, no, we gotta. We gotta completely rethink this. What way can I go in where it's okay to be a little bit louder? Well, on the other side of a ridge, where the wind's going that way. Yep. Okay. And then time it where I'm just popping over a little bit, dropping down in this one canyon completely unseen and popping up to that rock pile. What are some of the downfalls this. Well, I can't keep eyes on them as well. Yeah. So I just gotta maybe be more patient, let him bed, hold back. And. And I did know that the way that the sun was there was going to be good bedding there. Like, you know, all that. So just being a little more patient, not rushing in, waiting for that right opportunity. Now the thermals are cranking. We've got good wind. We've got a good approach. The deer still there. They're now betting everything's right for this. This stock. And, hey, if he's going to be a little bit loud, it's okay, because we've got a better approach for that. The only thing is going to be getting into position and not getting skylined. Okay, well, let's. Let's move in right where these rock piles are so we can use these rocks as other cover. And. And by just thinking about the stock in those ways, we're able to make a better approach, kind of play toward our handicaps in some ways and get in on the deer. One of the things I've learned guiding is, you know, patience can be key. You know, making the play based on a higher percentage and giving yourself the right amount of time. A lot of my own hunts, like, I see the play and I move right now because I know if I get there now, I'll be in position. So when I'm hunting for myself, a lot of the times I go, okay, it's a. It's a timing issue. I got to be there before xyz. I gotta. I gotta go around the back, jump up to the top before those deer get there. When I'm hunting with a client that might not have that ability, I go, okay, that's not gonna happen. What do I have to do? Well, I gotta sit back. I gotta let that deer do something. I gotta Continue to be patient and wait for that play. That's going to be. Allow me the time for that particular handicap. So sometimes you could. You can have all the fitness, whatever in the world, but you're. You're bow hunting, and the handicap is I got to get close. It's like, okay, there's the animals, There's a good approach. The wind's good. I got to get there. But it might not give you enough time to. To be quiet in closing that distance. So. So in order to play to that handicap, patience is a huge factor in waiting for that right opportunity. One of the ways, like through guiding that, I've killed 99 of the elk that we take is we find them essentially in the morning, we bed them, and we take all day to get into position to wait for that evening hunt. Most of the elk we've taken have been in the evening because it's an easier strategy than just trying to bust up there, get. Try to beat them to where they're going, get in position and make a shot. If it was just me hunting, probably that would probably be my play. I'd be like, yeah, I'm just gonna go up there right now. I think I got time. Okay, that's. That might be the best move for me. But if that's not okay, well, now we. Now we gotta use patience and wait for a better opportunity. We gotta wait for that. That right opportunity where it allows us to take the time that we need in a bow hunt. Maybe it allows us to take the time we need to be quiet, or it allows us to wait for those winds and thermals to change, or it allows us to know exactly where that deer is because we waited for him to make his first bed. Now we're going to wait and watch him until he makes that permanent bed in way better shade, and then we're going to make our play and our move. So you're continually balancing the best way by the time that it takes to get there and utilizing patience to wait for that right opportunity. So you can kind of match it to whatever handicaps you might have. Now, the other thing is, in certain instances, this pertains more to, like when I'm thinking about hunting with my kids or taking out somebody that is older or in. Not in good a shape or can't shoot great, right? Like, doesn't have a good setup or whatever. It's like, okay, well, some handicaps are this person's hunting with a rifle and 100 yards is going to be. That's going to be a poke we're going to, we're going to try to get within 100 yards, you know, 150 yards or less, whatever, right? There's all these things and sometimes you can go like, that's me. I, you know, I, Dude, I don't, I'm. I got to get close. I want to make sure that that shot's good or whatever. For me personally, I just like shooting. Like, I like to shoot them as close as possible. It's fun. Like that's the fun parts. Getting close and stalking in, you know, I'd prefer to shoot them 150 yards. 100 yards, like that's fun for me. You know, in this particular instance with the 3 year old, I think it was like 250, 275, something like that. I'm like, yep, that'll work. Like, that's, that's close enough for, for this particular scenario. But where was I? Oh yeah, I, I was just saying like there, there can be all kinds of, of handicaps in that, finding success. When I hunt with my kids, right. I hunt completely different than I do when I'm hunting by myself. Like a way more successful way to hunt, especially where I was hunting, is like getting out of the truck, hiking into little pockets, glassing, looking. And I can do that, you know, Like I pretty much park the truck in the morning, come back at the end of the day. I have a lot of opportunities, this, that and the other thing. But with the kids, that's not, not really feasible. Like they get tired. You might have one or two good hikes or stocks in. So often I'll just utilize that time to, to drive maybe to a good glass advantage. Sit in glass, find something that's like in a good position, close to maybe a road or something like that, where it's like, oh, here's an easier way to get in. That's a doable way to get in. So I'm kind of hunting to the ability of the person that I'm hunting with. A lot of times when I'm guiding, I'm like, hey, we aren't going to find an easy elk per se, but maybe we can find one. Like I'm going to pick spots where I can find one that when we do find one, we have a better opportunity, like a manageable opportunity. Picking the location that you're hunting based off of, you know, the hunter that's with you. One of the things that I learned guiding for sure was I used to just like start out like from the gate first morning, just mobbing up the Mountains, like, we're just gonna hunt hard every single. And it's like by day two, they were done. It was like, this. This is tough. And then when I finally find the elk or whatever, they had no gas left in the tank. So what I started doing is being like, okay, maybe I've got one good push. One. Like, everybody's got that one big push in them, especially when, you know. So I would wait, I'd be more patient. Might take more days to find that right opportunity. But I was looking for a certain opportunity where I could do one big push and push those odds in my favor. And that might be a way that I even hunt for myself of going, like, okay, I'm looking for a certain kind of elk. I'm going to move around more. I'm going to spend more time glassing and whatever. Then when I find what I'm looking for, I'm going to be patient because I might only get that one opportunity, and I'm going to make that one opportunity worth more. It's really high percentage that it's going to work out. And so by planning it that way, where you're looking at it, you're saying, okay, I've. I've got whatever kind of handicap. I'm not saying you're handicapped. I'm just saying, like, whatever the situation, that's against you. And then planning the best way to approach that hunt based on the circumstances involved. Sometimes I've. I've been hunting in areas where we'll call it. The handicap is animals are few and far between. Like, we might not even see a deer in this unit. And it's like, oh, there I saw a deer. Well, maybe patience isn't the virtue here. Maybe it is. I gotta. I gotta put everything I have into getting there now, because I might not find this deer, elk, whatever, tomorrow. And there's been a lot of hunts that I've been on like that, where it's like, you find something, this is your opportunity. You need to capitalize. You better have the gas in the tank to go make it work. And there's a lot of those hunter ones where, dude, I've been grinding day in, day out. And I go, the best approach right now in this particular situation is I have to keep eyes on this deer, not lose it and get into position now. And that happens a lot, right? So there's this balance of patience, there's this balance of, hey, what are the things that are making this hunt difficult or potentially limiting the success? And then trying to find those pitfalls and Find the best approach for your current situation or hunt. I hope you guys enjoyed that story of that hunt and it's fun for me to be able to bring you guys along on this new chapter in my hunting career and in my life. You know, bringing my family into it and getting to do a lot of these things with, with the kids, with my wife especially, you know, in some ways, before they even get older, I kind of feel like for me, it's just important to, to introduce them to the outdoors. And I know everybody's different. You know, some people, you know, there, there could be that effect of driving them away from it, going too hard, too fast, too right. But I think, like, for us and our family, it works. It's just what we do and, and we don't really know any different. So for us, it's been a lot of fun and it's fun to kind of share these stories and bring you guys along on the journey. There's definitely difficult times. Like in some ways in the stories it's like, oh, yeah, it sounds like a cakewalk, but there's a lot of crying, there's a lot of tears, there's a lot of, I need some more snacks, I'm tired. You know, there's all these things and we try to accommodate and there's a lot of times we're like, here, guys, here's your tablets. Watch some shows while dad glasses. Like, honestly, there's all those things involved and it's not just like, it's very dangerous, very dynamic way of hunting, but it's so much fun too, to get. Do those kind of things and make those kind of memories and a family. And it is fun to be able to, to share this with you guys. So I hope you guys appreciate the story. One of the things that I wanted to mention, it's springtime. In many places across the west, it feels like summertime. I don't know about the rest of the country, but now is that time where we, we can start gearing up. And it's always fun for me to just think about practicing and gearing up and those potential tags that I might have and planning on the season. As the owner of Day 6 Arrows and Broadheads, if you guys don't know, I'm the owner of Day six Archery. We manufacture, in my opinion, the absolute best, highest quality arrows on the market. Like the tightest tolerances, the, the most accurate, especially like the most durable, especially if you're talking like the HDs. And then we also make some incredibly high quality broadheads. Our Evo broadheads, some of the highest grade materials out there. Magnacut blades, titanium ferrules, extremely tight tolerances like they fly extremely well. It's what I've used for a very long time and now get to essentially be the person that's, that's, you know, owning the company and in making these, these products for you guys. So if you guys are in the market for, now's a great time to restock for arrows or even think about getting your broadheads going, getting them dialed in, make sure your bow is tuned. Time to start flinging arrows. And we're currently still. I'm gonna, I'm extending our free shipping on all orders 100 or more. So if you need arrows, if you're thinking about switching arrows, now's a great time. We've got everything in stock, every, A lot of inventory in right now. We've just been hammering away on the building in this kind of slower season and really trying to gear up for hunting season. I will say, like we, everybody has been working around the clock trying to make sure that we'll have enough. But you know, we, we got, this is all like we're forecasting. We got to try to build what we can. And some of these things take a long time to build. When you're building extremely precise pieces of hunting equipment, you can only. We're limited by what we can actually make. So at some point there might be, you know, we're trying our, we're going to try our best. But as we get into the hunting season, there might be times where you might not be able to get it. You can get it now so that if you're thinking of switching or anything like that, honestly, now's the time. That way you can for sure make sure that you have enough for the season and you have plenty of time to, to, to get dialed in. I will say like we are, we will be working around the clock for the most part, making sure we don't run out of stuff as we get closer to crunch time. But it is one of those things where you're going to want to, you're going to want to start with it now, so you have plenty of time to get what you want, get it all dialed in and get going. So we've got our free shipping right now. They'll probably be ending fairly soon, so that's going on. And then we also have a ton of our new apparel. Sun shirts, hats, T shirts, some great sweatshirts. You can check those out. Day 6 gear.com d a y s I x G-E-A-R.com and then another thing I want to mention, an incredible support of this podcast, Stone Glacier. This is another one of those, like, if you're looking for really high quality gear, some of my favorite packs out there. There's also, you know, a lot of awesome opportunities in the spring where you can get to utilize this stuff. I always say now's a great time to really start breaking in that gear and working out, figuring out how to make the uncomfortable days more comfortable, getting into your pack, going, looking for sheds, putting some weight in it, doing your workouts, just building performance around that piece of gear that you're going to use. Now's the time to start thinking about that because it does make a really big difference when you get onto your hunt later on, you know, just making sure, like, look, I've got the sizing figured out. I've got all this. You don't want to be figuring that out on your, on your hunt. So now is a great time to get into a new pack. If you're looking for new sleeping bags or tents, there's still some of those available. You can check that out Stone Glacier's website or we've also got some of the stuff in stock on my store, Remy Warren.com so you can check those out there. And I think for now you can still use code livewild on free shipping on Stone Glacier. That's going to be ending soon, so you might have about one more week or so to utilize that code and then that might be going away. So you can get free shipping on stoneglaciergear.com or you can check out some of the stuff on our site. And then the last thing that I want to mention, Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, this is our little Better Conservation plug. Talked about it last week, but they've got a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep tag that's raffling off this weekend, April 3rd, I think it is. So I guess, yeah, Friday night, if you're listening to this podcast tomorrow you can go on, get a raffle ticket for that. And then there is a auction. I'm gonna as soon as it comes live. I talked about it last week, but the link wasn't live yet. So you can bid online if you want. I'm. I've got a gear package somewhere. Get day six arrows, broadheads. I got a Matthews bow. Thousands of dollars worth of gear. I think it's like over $6,000 in gear and I'm going to be doing a just like a private 3D archery shoot and cooking up a little bit of barbecue for the winter. So you can bring like some of your friends. Five to. I don't. We'll figure it out. Five or more friends to do this like, barbecue cookout thing like that. A little bit of archery shooting. Get ready for the season. So if you're interested in bidding in that, 100 of the proceeds are going to putting and keeping sheep on the mountain. Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, like, it's all 100 donation. So if you're interested in donating and getting to do something like that, getting some gear, it's a, it's a, it's an option that you can bid on that just to kind of, you know, give you guys an idea. I will put the link on my website as soon as I have it. So you just go to Remy warren.com in the main page there. There will be links to that stuff there. So if you're interested in that until next week, I'm just gonna say this one's for the boys. I'll catch you guys later. It.