← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 236 | Summer scouting
00:48:19
In this episode, host Remi shares his comprehensive summer scouting strategies for various big game hunts, including elk, mule deer, and moose. He discusses e-scouting techniques, on-the-ground scouting tips, and how to prepare for different seasons to maximize success.
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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 Podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. 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 toughers and coaches. This app is packed with value to help you stay ready and right now Mountain Tough is giving our LiveWild listeners a free six week trial when they sign up for the monthly plan using code livewild. To get started in the journey, go to mountaintough.com that's m t n t o u g h dot com when you're out there doing it the hard way, the right way, you need gear that shows up every time. That's why I trust Yeti. Whether it's keeping meat cold for the trip home or your coffee hot before daylight, Yeti just flat works, Built Tough, no shortcuts. Check out their full lineup@yeti.com and see why it's become a part of my system season after season. Well everyone, welcome back to Live Wild Podcast. You know, as draw results in a lot of states are starting to come out, we can start to build our hunt plans and think about scouting this summer. This week I'm going to run you through a few of my tentative scouting plans, what I'll be looking for on each hunt, and how I'm going to prepare for the hunt. So we're going to talk about the boots on the ground scouting and I'm also going to mention a few options for hunt plans involving E scouting on Onx. So let's break down summer scouting for a few different hunts and get you started on where to look and what to look for to Maximize that tag in your pocket. I just, first, before I dive into scouting, have to say thank you guys so much. The Support of our Day 6 verse has been awesome. It's been overwhelming, honestly. Like, the feedback, been incredible. People are really excited about it. They've. They've shipped out. People have been getting them in their hands and like, dude, this thing's even better in person than what I was expecting. So thank you guys so much. Like, that. That means the world to me. I'm really excited that we were able to get that out and also excited that people. People find, you know, value in what we're building and also have been saying, like, I've been waiting for something like this. I. I truly do think it's different. And, you know, the response has been incredible. We. We literally kind of. We had assembled and. And built, and we have enough materials to continue building. We just didn't know that they would go that fast. So we've switched over all our manufacturing to that, and we've currently got just like, a little bit of a lead time on them. So when you buy it, it kind of informs you, like, here's the max lead time. And then, honestly, as people are buying them, the ones that we've got, you know, made, like, it's a small. It's a small team that's working tirelessly. Everything is assembled by hand. We inspect everything, assemble everything. So, you know, quality is first and foremost with us. And so we're. We're building those as fast and best we can and then fulfilling those orders so you still can order them. If you're like, man, I. I didn't get any yet. There. There is the ability to still get some, but, I mean, at some point they are gonna. They are gonna be sold out on the site. So if you're interested in those, head over there and check that out. But thank you guys so much. Those of you that picked them up, those of you that you're like, hey, I'm a. I'm a fixed blade guy. I get it. Like, I'm a fixed blade guy too. So if you're looking for fixed blades, we still have our Evos on the site, all the blades on the Evos. So for the Evos, Evo X, and Evo cs, our main blades are all Magnacut, and we didn't change the price on those. Like, we just did what no one else has done, produced Magnacut broadheads, and we kept it the same price as before. And we're going to take, you know, we're taking the hit on that we aren't, you know, there is already an expensive broadhead, but I think, like, compared to anything else out there, it blows it out of the water. And then at the price point that it is, like you're getting the value and we want that for you guys. So thank you guys so much for the support. Now, summer scouting or scouting during the summer. A couple weeks ago, we, we dove into scouting breakdown and talking about early season spring scouting, the benefits, finding, you know, following that green wave. We talked about resident vers, migratory herds and how to scout in that early season. What we're going to do is we're going to kind of take it a step further. And I thought the best way to do it maybe just run through some of my scouting plans that I have for potential hunts that I, that I think that I know that I'm going on this season. And then that way you can kind of get an idea of the things that I'm looking for and the way that I'm utilizing this summer scouting for particular hunts. So I've got some early season hunts, I've got a late season hunt. I've got mule deer and elk, and then we'll talk about some of the other species as well. But I wanted this to be fairly comprehensive, but also real time. It's like the things that I'm thinking about. The what, like, I sometimes think is best to describe a tactic as I'm already thinking about it and doing it. This is stuff that I'll be doing this summer and throughout the, throughout the. Not just this summer, but leading up to the season itself. Now with a family, with business, with hunt plans and other things, you know, some of my scouting time is definitely diminished from maybe what I did when I was a lot younger. I mean, and also potentially what I'm looking for, changes. So I'll dive into like my goals for the hunt as well and then how I'm utilizing the scouting to kind of obtain that goal and for different tags. So let's start with elk. I think elk is, it's kind of at the top of my mind. It's one, it's one that's very exciting. I mean, I'm a, look, I'm not going to lie, Mule deer. I'm a mule deer guy. But we're going to start with elk today. So one of the hunts that I have coming up is I have got a tag for an October, early October muzzleloader elk tag. Now this particular tag, I'm expecting to hit some rutting behavior. I think this Particular area has some resident elk. It also has a lot of bulls that move in for the rut. So it's more of an area where I think the bulls are not, probably not even really in the unit outside of the rut. There are some in there, but then bulls move in for the rut and then move out after the rut. So I know the first thing that I do when I'm doing any kind of scouting is I first have to assess what kind of tag do I have. Okay, is it a rut hunt? When is the tag? What am I expecting on this hunt? Then I have to kind of start to understand the season and that particular area. This is. The knowledge of this particular is just from talking to people that have had this tag, kind of understanding the area a little bit. I've never hunted elk in this unit, so I, I've. I've been around the unit or in other areas around it during earlier season and seen bulls and whatever, you know, like resident bulls. And then I've. I've, you know, talked to people that have had the tag or whatever in the past. So for me, for this particular hunt, I know that there's going to be, you know, some, some deer hunters in there at that time. So there's going to be a little bit of traffic. There's not that many elk hunters in there for this particular tag and it is that first part of October. So I know that especially like the last few years, the rut can kick off and I know that that rut can pull in good bulls. This area, there's potential for a really great bull. I don't necessarily know if I'm targeting, you know, an ultra giant. Right? Like let's call it like 400 inch bulls. Maybe one could pop out of the woodwork, but it's not that kind of area. However, a 330 to 350 kind of bowl is definitely doable. And man, there could be the potential for that 360 type bull. So I'm going to set my sight on that. That's a. That's a giant bull, in my opinion. Anything340, like, those are all big bulls. I'd be happy with like a. You know, honestly, I'm not like happy with a 300 inch bull, but it's a decent tag. There's a potential for a. I want to put in the time to understand the area and hopefully have a good hunt and try to find the best bull possible. So the, the thing that I want to do this summer is because it is one of those areas where elk tend to move in, there's cows that live there. But a lot of the bigger bulls are in and out during the rut. And that's what I've heard from multiple people. So I've got to. I've got to keep that in mind. A couple of the things for my summer scouting are going to be really learning the area and access. There's a lot of private in there, and there's some places you can access through, some places you can get around. You know, I pull out my onyx. Like, step one for me is e scouting. I've already looked over the area. I'm trying to figure out access points. And sometimes, honestly, the hardest part can be like, okay, well, there's a road through here, but this private on both sides. When I can I drive on that road to get through it. Some roads there's easement, some roads there's not. Sometimes you just have to. To get in the field. And there's. There's ways you can turn on, like, forest service roads and all this other stuff. Right. But sometimes it's just hard to tell. So you get there. So what I really want to do is highlight a few areas. I'm going to go in there this summer and I'm going to look for a few things. I'm going to look for elk, cows primarily, and say, like, is this an area that's holding cows? Because I know that bulls will start to go to those areas. I know just from doing some research on the unit areas where a lot of bulls get taken or the majority of the bulls get taken and where some better bulls have been taken. So I know those areas that I want to look at, but I also want to look at some of the fring because sometimes those places get crowded, whatever. So I wanna find areas and learn access. This summer, my whole objective is gonna be kind of learning the area and how to get to different places. Also, I might get in to say, like, oh, this area is very easy to access. Here's another place that looks similar that might be more difficult to access. Maybe there's not as much success there because it's a little harder to get to. How can I get into? I gotta walk around a long ways through private. What are some of the options here? So I'm going to go in with that, with that mindset. A couple of the other things I'm going to look for is sign of the rut and mostly bull sign of the rut. I'm going to be looking for rubs. I'M also going to be looking for wallows. It's a little bit of a more arid type area. So I pull out my onyx for E Scouting and what I'm doing, the places I'm going to look for. I'm going to look for a few things. It's open enough where I can glass. So I'm going to be finding access points. This is E Scouting. Before I go in there, I'm going to be finding access points. I'm going to be finding, like, springs and water. I'm going to mark all these things and put pins on them and then our potential access points. And then I'm going to be finding glassing vantages. So when I hit the ground in there, maybe I only have two or three days to scout it. I'm gonna go, okay. First thing I'm gonna do, look at. Look at the access. Second thing I'm gonna do is maybe get to some of these glassing manages maybe. And while I'm doing that glass for cows, early morning, evening, I'm just gonna spend the rest of the day kind of like learning, getting a feel for the land, going to some of these water holes and saying is summer's a great time to see if it's. If it's got anything. Oh, this one's. Look, it's hot. A lot of stuff's dried up. But here's a wallow. Here's a water hole, here's a spring. These are places. Do I see any elk sign? Do I see rubs around there? Do I see red activity? Okay, this is going to kind of indicate areas where I might want to focus later on in October. Now I am going to be traveling kind of through this area to in September. And so I've got what would be two quick scouting trips planned in that September timeframe. It's like, my season's not open. The bulls will be running. There is an archery season going on. So sometimes you can run into guys. Like, I've done that before where I have a later season and run into guys. It's like, dude, no, they. They tagged out and they're willing to share information because it's like, it's not. It's not an area you can draw all the time or get all the time. So, you know, might be able to learn some information that way. But also it's a time frame in September when I can actually try to turn up and target a specific bull boots on the ground. Scouting. So, like, E Scouting helps me identify where I'm going, what I'm going to do build a hunt plan and it's super valuable, but it doesn't tell me what bulls are in that unit. That's where the boots on the ground comes in. That's where this summer scouting and even the September scouting is going to be key and crucial. Now, it's going to be early in the season that I'm in there, but it's going to tell me, okay, there's these kind of bulls with the cows. Here's where the concentrations are. Maybe I'm going to turn up a bull that like really piques my interest and might be something to be like, okay, I know that this type of bull is in here. Now when my season kicks on, I can, I can, you know, plan on trying to target that bull. My other plan is I'm also going to be in the area before opening day. So I've got summer scouting and that's taking my E scouting, which I've identified access points, water and blasting vantages. And I'm going to go in there and learn that stuff and try to maybe get some eyes on some cow elk and who knows, might find a resident bull. Like, if I see a bull in there now, I know, okay, this is a resident bull that could be a target bull and something to kind of focus on. Then I'm going to go back during the rut when they should be out and doing their thing, doing their dance, best time of year to find them. And then I'm going to go before the hunt leading up to the hunt, multiple days ahead of the hunt to try to turn up a bull before opening day. So I've got three scouting windows for this tag and this tag is kind of like in my mind my pinnacle hunt this year. Really one of my, like this. I'm really looking forward to this tag. You know, I've kind of like put other hunts on the back burner or not applied a lot of places. I just applied points this year because I, I got this tag and know that I really want to put some time and energy into it and do the best that I can. I also happen to have a moose hunt during like September time frame, so I'm taking my dad to Newfoundland moose hunting. And so I know like that's like kind of when I would normally would be chasing elk with a bow in some general area somewhere. But this year an opportunity came up. A friend had an opportunity to take one of his cancellation hunts and I'm going with my dad. So it's going to be awesome. Like, I would, I would rarely do. I want to trade September elk chasing for anything. But I think in this case, getting to go with my dad on his first moose hunt is absolutely hands down worth it. Like something I'm really looking forward to. But that's, that's my kind of scouting strategy for that particular hunt. Now I've got another. I am planning on chasing elk with some friends early season September. So early in September, like opening of the season, I am going to bow hunt elk. And I'm probably not. I'm just going to be like helping everyone. This isn't. It's like I'm taking out guys that some friends that have never killed a bull before. A couple of them have, I guess, but a couple of them haven't. So it's an area that I know well. I encourage them to try to get like a general area. So think of it like general area elk hunting, fairly easy to obtain tag area that I know fairly well. But what I want to do is my scouting is different for this than it is for that limited entry like muzzleloader tag. So on this particular hunt, I'm going to be doing some summer scout, like in July. So I'm kind of, I'm doing kind of like a scouting trip where I'm scouting that other tag and then driving. It's. They're a long ways apart, but I'm just making one road trip out of it, driving to kind of scout out for this other hunt, this preseason hunt or this early season hunt. And, and what I'm going to do on that is completely different. So it's different type of terrain, it's more timbered country, Rocky mountain west type stuff, big mountains. I know the area fairly well, so I'm not worried about finding elk. But also, you know, we've got a week to hunt. There's going to be four guys with tags. And what I really want to do is put in some time in some ways to see kind of the, like the temperature of the rut action activity and try to target early season elk. So in this particular place, trail cameras are legal for scouting. And so I'm planning on utilizing a few trail cameras to scout. I think I've got like, when I stack them all together, I mean, I've got like five to 10 cameras, something like that. I don't know how many I'm going to put out. Most years I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going to put out a lot. I always put out like two to three. What I'm going to do, my plan is Is to target wallows and water holes that I think might be productive some. I'm going to try to find a couple new places, but for the most part, I'm gonna split it up. Like, let's say I do five cameras. I'm gonna go, like, highest part of the region, Wallows and water holes. Because it's early in the rut, early September, to try to target bulls that haven't broken off to rut yet particularly. And then I'm going to kind of put a couple in that more lower range where there's a lot of cows. So in one area, I'm going to target, like, bachelor group of bulls because they still might, like, depending on the weather and how summer shakes out, they might still be in that type of terrain. And then I'm going to target kind of that lower rut area in case things kick off and we. We start to get into an earlier rut action. The reason that I'm doing that is twofold. One is, okay, we aren't like, we're just looking for legal bowls. Like, it's not. We aren't. This isn't a trophy hunt. We're trying to fill the free with some bows, get into some bowls and have a good time. It's not like, probably somewhere that I'm going to go sit this water, but it might be. It might give someone the option. If we go back after picking up the cameras before the season and going like, oh, we got a lot of activity on this particular water. What it's really going to do, though, is kind of give us a temperature check as we go into the season. How are the bulls year to year? It kind of depends. Like, a couple years ago, when my wife shot her big archery bull, there was like 30 bulls at the top of a basin, all bachelored up, no cows anywhere, no rut activity. They were still in their summer pattern beginning of September, and then, you know, like a couple years before that. Same week as September, different area, though. It was like an absolute rut fest. Bulls were down chasing cows, screaming their heads off, bugling and bulls. So that preseason scouting with the cameras, I can utilize that to get that temperature check. So when I get into the area, I can. I'm going to go pull those cameras before the season and go, here's where I think the rut stage is. That's going to help me distinguish where I want to hunt. And that works really good in an area that you kind of know where you. You kind of know the pattern of what bulls do. You've Been in there before, you know, where they might be rutting, like, as the rut progresses, where they go, you know, just having been in the unit before. So that's going to be my goal with that. It's more of a temperature check than trying to find a specific bull. Now if a bull turns up and it's like, oh, they're bachelored up. They're still going to be bachelored up. We're going to hunt this higher country. And here's this consistency of this particular elk. That's great. I've actually never, like, had that actually work for me. I've had bulls come in, but it's not ever. Most of these areas have so much water, it's not necessarily consistent. What it is is like you're catching pictures and images of different bulls that are kind of on a circuit, but it tells you what they're doing in that area. If I see the bull rolling around in there and pushing cows into the wallow and doing all this stuff, I'm like, it's major rut activity. These are kind of the areas that we're going to target. If I don't see that, then I'm going to say, like, oh, they're still bachelored up. We're going to try to get. Is it like up into the alpine. We're going to glass. We're going to, you know, do some, like, cow calling. We aren't going to be super aggressive with the bugles. We'll definitely throw out locator bugles because I absolutely love that. But we're going to know, have, like, a good idea once our boots hit the ground for the season, how to proceed. And that's from that time scouting. And, you know, while I'm at it, I always try to find a different area or maybe a little bit of a sleeper spot that I didn't know before. You never know what might turn up doing that. And it's a great way to scout. It's actually just really fun for me because I like. I utilize that knowledge more about understanding the animals in the area than targeting a specific animal. To be honest, with that tag, we aren't really targeting a specific animal. We're just out hunting. But it's fun to understand how the animals move in that area, what they might be doing, what you learn from that particular type of scouting. So on one hand, I have scouting where I'm going into a new area. I'm utilizing a lot of e scouting to figure out my plan. I'm going to try to turn up Spec like, like try to find elk, you know, and maybe hopefully turn a bull to, to chase and then in another one. I'm just trying to understand what the elk are doing in that area, trying to learn the elk so when the season kicks on I can utilize that, that week that we have to hunt to the best of our ability. And so those are, those are two completely different ways of scouting in two different types of hunts. So we're going to jump over to mule deer now. One of the, the hunts that I'm hoping for, I'm hoping to draw an early season archery mule deer tag I've got so my home state of Nevada I guess. But like tomorrow after is, is probably the results are going to be posted. Draw day was yesterday or should have been yesterday. So barring there's no like crazy things that went wrong, they generally post them like a few days later and I've got my fingers crossed for that. I'm really hoping that like that's a tag that I've been thinking about hoping for. Who knows what's going to happen. I don't know if I'm going to draw, where I'm going to draw, what have you. If I don't draw that, I'm going to try to draw somewhere else or maybe like go find an over the counter tag that I can, that I can nab somewhere, maybe chase deer in California or something like that. So that's my plan. But I really want to be hunting mule deer mid August velvet box and I have. So I'm going to just, let's say everything works out right and I draw where I want to draw. I applied in an area that I don't think is particularly like a crazy good area, you know, but I do have some previous knowledge from being in there and a friend hunting in there. The area that I'm trying to draw and seeing some good deer and like, you know, some, some good deer and having like a good like opportunity to actually get out and try to turn up like the kind of buck that I want to look for. So the, my archery mule deer scouting is going to be kind of right before the season in that August time frame. I'm going to be utilizing the scouting in there and I'm also going to make a trip to go like this is an area that I act like the place that I want to go. I've done a lot of e scouting so I've got, I've got a lot of different areas that I'll, I'll sit down, I'll Be cruising around, flying around on onyx, dropping pins. This looks freaking awesome. So I've been in certain parts of the unit, I haven't been in other parts of the unit, and I really want to explore these other parts of the unit. I don't want to do it, though, when the season's open. So I'm going to go in a little bit before the season. Just a couple days, maybe an over, you know, like, you know, whatever, overnight trip, whatever. And I'm really going to decide what the water situation is there. So in this particular hunt, it's arid I'm really going to be focused on, okay, what's the water situation and what type of hunt am I going to be doing. On the hunt, is it going to be a backpack hunt or a day hunt? Is there, like, if I hike in here 10 miles, am I going to be able to access water or is it going to be carry everything that's going to limit the amount of time I can go in there. Maybe it's still worth it if there's still deer in there. Like, honestly, some of these big mountains is nothing for a deer to go a couple miles to a water hole that they know about, that I don't know about, and then pop back up toward the top of the mountain and bed down and do their thing. Like that's, that's early season high country mule deer for sure. Like, they can definitely cover the miles better than we can. One of my favorite ways, though, to hunt them during the, like, August season is to just throw in my backpack. I've got everything in there, A lightweight tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, all my water, all my food, and just hike glass camp. Hike glass camp. Hopefully turn up a big buck and do a stock. So I'm going to go in there looking for that, but I'm also going to go in there looking for a specific buck to target. I. I think that the earlier that I go in there, the more likely I am to see them out and growing in those mornings and evenings. It's a good time to kind of COVID a lot of country and not have that pressure of I need to focus in on this spot, tear it apart and try to find a buck. Because the season's going and the clock's ticking down. I'll have a couple of days to do that, maybe a few more if I kind of ink, depending on where it's at, include it into my, like, scouting trip, my summer scouting trip. And it's going to be one of those where I, you know, completely different Than maybe scouting in the summer for a later season. Because I'm gonna have real time knowledge. You can do that too if you have like a September archery season or something like that getting in there in the summer. When those bucks are growing in their velvet, they don't really like to be like, they go in cover, but they aren't living in cover. They're actually feeding out a lot more. They're very visible. They're bachelored up. One of my favorite things about scouting mule deer in the velvet is the fact that they're bachelored up. You find one and you generally find multiples often there. You'll start to notice that they're kind of a little bit grouped up in age class in some ways. Like sometimes you'll have a. You rarely don't have like a giant old mature deer with a bunch of little two year olds, but you will have like four or five year olds and then like a big one with it. So it's easier to. To kind of look over more deer and, and find a target buck that way. Especially when they're, when you're bachelored up. I will, I will say this. I've. I've spent a lot of time in the past, like targeting specific big bucks, like just absolute giant deer. And I spent, I mean, I don't even know how many days. This is a long time ago, but like probably close to 100 days over multiple years trying to target this one particular buck. In doing that, I learned so much about the behavior of big mule deer, Especially in the summertime. One of the things that I noticed is like, those really big mature deer, like, they utilize the safety of the group. So the cool thing about me, like the cool thing about mule deer is, you know, in the, in the summertime they're bachelored up and they're using that as a defense. And it's a really good defense because when you're stocking in and you've got multiple bucks, bed and different places, you have a really good opportunity to, or they have a really good opportunity to bust you. The really big bucks will utilize those groups and they'll also be more likely to go solo. They don't. They are not as tied to the dynamic of that group. They're using the group for a specific situation. So like, what you will find is you'll find those bucks, like especially early on will. Will be in with, with the other deer when it's convenient to them. It's kind of funny because you'll find a group of bucks and it's like there might be one big buck in it when you first see it. And it's like all these other medium bucks are like always together all the time. Like, they're always buddied up. And yet you saw a big buck with that group one time and then you might not see them again, but you'll see him with this other little group and then you'll see him off on his own. So those bigger bucks definitely tend to a more solitary lifestyle, but utilize that group dynamic when it's beneficial to them. I think it's beneficial to them when it's like not great wins for betting. When it's like they're so smart. Like, they literally, you'll notice, you'll see this buck and he's like, oh, feeding over by himself here. And the shade will be on one side of the hill and they like that wind blowing down their back so they can like, overlook everything, put themselves in a place that's loud and noisy and dry, still have shade and whatever. And like, when that buck has favorable betting, he'll go better by himself. And when he doesn't have favorable bedding, he'll just go bed in the middle of all those other deer. And they know, they know how to be safe. So that's a little tangent on early season mule deer. That's what I. I love about him. Like, it's an absolute chess game. But the early season mule definitely get me fired up. But I am going to say that early season scouting, I think I got major sidetracked. But early season scouting is great because they are bachelored up, they're in groups and they're out more because they aren't living in the thick. And so you can look over a lot more deer even if you have. If you're like, I've got a tag, I want to find a really good buck, get out. In the summertime when they're in velvet, that's your best chance to actually see what's in the unit because you have more opportunity to spot them in those mornings and evenings when they're out feeding like they're. It's more like clockwork that they're out feeding. Once they shed that velvet, they do a lot more browse in cover and stay as, like September goes on, they start to be out less and less and less and separate from the group more and more and more until that rut hits. Now I've got another mule deer hunt that I'm planning on doing. It's going to be like a late October rifle mule deer Hunt, general tag, big mountain country, tough hunt. I've got a place that I want to check out. Okay. It's a. Like, a big canyon, and I gotta go, okay. I've looked at it on onyx. I've escouted it. There's potential for, like, deer in there. There could be some good deer. I want to check it out early season, because I want to go, okay, is there a good deer here? I might turn one up. I might not. But also, I'm scouting. Not necessarily the animal, but the terrain. Boots on the ground. Scouting kind of helps you decide and figure out that hunt plan. I want to get in there and say, does it look good? I mean, I can see it on the map. I've looked at thousands of maps, you know, for the most part. But I got to see, like, is this. Is this rocky terrain where it looks like there's some vegetation and habitat? Is that actually good habitat? Or is it hard to get? Like, is the pitch a little bit more? Sometimes you get in there and you go, okay, this is not great country for. For deer. The other thing I want to say is, like, how hard is it to get in here? Is this something where I should. I can. I'm planning on backpacking and want to hike in, or should I grab some horses and take horses in? That would be a fun hunt, fun way to access it. Is this a place where, man, it's. It's like hit or miss. Maybe I should take some horses in so I could be a little more mobile and get out and go up another canyon if I need to. So I'm going in there to. To learn some new area, check out some things. But in that instance, I'm actually scouting the terrain more than I am the particular animal. The other thing I want to see is, like, is there sign of mule deer, like, in here later in the season, or does it just snow and fill up and, like, cool, there's some big bucks in here in summer, but, like, they're a million miles away during the rifle, like, during the tag season, during the general season. So that's something we're going to investigate as well. I can go up there. I can. I can say, can I get eyes on bucks? Okay, well, they're in this canyon. Probably aren't gonna. It's like, well, it looks like a pretty rough canyon. They might go over other side and come down the other whatever, but they're probably in this canyon now. Can I find sign for them being in here? When I think I'm gonna be hunting the Hardest time, like in October, but as late as I can so I can maybe catch a little rut weather dependent. And then what's it gonna look like getting in there? Especially if I get some weather. Is this somewhere I want to hike in? Is this somewhere where. Or maybe I want to get some horses? Is somewhere where it's like I'm going to ask some buddies, like, let's go in, let's hike in, let's backpack in and we'll hunt together, you know, brother or someone, Brother or buddy. So those are all the, the ways that I'm going to be scouting those particular tags. Now I think the other thing that we want to look at scouting is like, what, what if you, let's say tomorrow tag draw results come out, one of those 1% chance hunts, you know, once that you. A hunt where the odds are you'll get it once every hundred years. I've put in for 300 of those right over the course of my life, you're gonna hit a few. So at some point, you know, it's the get, it's the gambler in all, all us Western big game hunters, we, we put in for these places with like 0, practically 0% chance of drawing, and we expect to draw it. So what happens if I draw one of those, those limited entries? Like, what if I pull that sheep tag? What if I pull that mountain goat tag? What if I pull a mule deer tag in a unit that I was like, dude, I was not expecting that. I'm going to have to figure something out and make this work right? What kind of scouting are we talking about for that? I think that scouting when it comes to like a general area or, or a certain kind of hunt, you can, you can utilize scouting to the best of your ability to make the most out of that tag. It really starts to pay off too though, when you have that kind of once in a lifetime type tag per se. Because the reason for that being that if I, if I draw that sheep tag, it's like I'm bagging some other stuff, maybe turning a tag back in if I can or whatever. And I'm going to utilize the time that I have to go try to turn up that big ram, find that old ram. It's like, I know what I want with that tag. I want to try to find an old ram. I'm going to need time to do it. I want to go in there before the season. I'm going to learn the area, I'm going to learn the animals, and I'm going to Try to turn something up. So that's boots on the ground scouting, where I'm actively trying to find that resident animal and continue to keep tabs on it throughout the season. The biggest stuff, I think it happens one of two ways. Somebody scouted out or got, like, super, super lucky. I've been the guy, like, my best bull. I got super lucky. I've also scouted out really good stuff and come up short. I've also scouted out really good stuff and been successful and been like, wow, all that work paid off. I've been on a lot of hunts where, you know, someone else's tag where we helped scout, and we all just, like, were a part of that tag, especially sheep tags. We were like, yeah, cool. I'm gonna go out and help you scout. We turned up around. We're just sending pictures back and forth or whatever, and comes time for the season, we. That gives us something in our mind and know what we're looking for. So. Oh, yesterday I actually released a. Or today, I guess, my friend Christie's sheep hunt. And it's one of these, like, I. It's a. It was such a great hunt. And unfortunately, I don't think the. The film captures everything and all the essence of it because there's so many people that made it just so special. And it was just such a phenomenal day. Like, terrible weather, other hunters running around, blowing stocks and stuff. There's just so much going on. But also, I was like, it was all filmed with my phone, but I think it's worth sharing because there's some stuff with my camera, but it's worth sharing because it's just. It. In some ways, I was more focused on hunting, but also, I think it's just fun to be able to share these things and. And showcase some of these hunts. But that was one where it was like. Like, we knew, like, my buddy Mike had been in there, Christie had been in there, they'd scouted, they knew some of the sheep. One of the previous archery tag holder was in there with us, and some of the. Another one that he had seen that, you know, was looked super promising. And so it's like, we know that these sheep are here. And then the day before the season, we're actually looking at the ram, thinking, it's not that ram. Then we go back through all the pictures, and we're like, that was that ram. Okay, we've got our plan now. Now, it's kind of comical in a way, but you're, like, looking at this ram going, yeah, that looks Like a great ram, but I don't think it's the ram. But what it does is, is that pre scouting gives you that benchmark of knowing what you're looking for when you go in there or what is possible. What's the potential? What's the. What's the top? And so when it's like you've got X amount of days to go, you see something pop up. And it's not the first time that you've maybe seen that ram or ram like that. You know the frequency in which you might turn those animals up. And that's with deer, elk, anything with those limited entry tags, especially in areas where. Or a specific hunt where it's more resident animals that you can spend that time picking out and identifying specific animals. And I mean, for those kind of hunts, scouting is super valuable. Now. I did, I did. And this might be something that I turned back in. I did cash in my points and draw a late archery elk tag. So it's like a November elk tag. It's in Arizona. I don't mind saying what stated is there because it's pretty hard to get tags. I had a few points and I'm like, it's been good, good water down there for the most part. Like, it's. It seemed I was going to kind of see how it panned out. I thought this might be a good antler growth year. November elk. Like, I'm not. I don't have enough. I accidentally drew like a cow tag on just like a. I think years ago, like blew all my points. Accidentally drawing a cow tag somehow messed up the application. But don't remind me about it. I would have had, like, dang near top choice of any rut unit. Now I'm like, cashing in, I don't know, 14 points for a late season archery hunt. Well, I, I should cash these points in. I want to cash these points in. This is a good opportunity. It's far away. It's not near anything else that I'm really planning on. It'd be out of the way, whatever. So I'm. I'm going to. I'm going to hunt that unless I draw something crazy and can turn it back and use my point guard. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna hunt that. And I don't think I'm gonna have time to scout it. It's. It's a late hunt, but I am gonna, like, utilize a lot of E scouting for that particular hunt. And I say for that particular hunt, I feel like my time's best Spent utilizing the time that I have in the field. So I go back and forth between what's more, what's more valuable. If you've got X amount of days getting sometimes scouting and sometime hunting all the time hunting. Once the season's open, it can be a catch 22. And it depends on the tag, where it's at and what you want out of it. I do believe that going into the unit with some previous knowledge is exponentially valuable. I don't necessarily know if you need a ton of knowledge. Like I think understanding where you want to go, looking at it with your eyes and understanding access points is like the ground floor of building out a successful hunt. Then you can continue to add on to that and up it a little bit by finding an animal to target or looking over a lot of animals. And it depends on the type of tag and in your time frame. The nice thing about scouting in the summer is it's kind of separate from that time that you might have in the field. And if you can make like some of these scouting trips that I'm talking about, like one of them, it's like I might go with my family, we might go camp for a weekend camp at a lake in the area. We're like, do some fishing in the middle of the day. I'll go out and check some glassing knobs, cruise some roads and get up on a few hikes and scout a few little areas while I'm at it and make a little weekend deal out of it. So that's like outside of that hunting season. But it's knowledge that I'm gaining that's going to be extremely valuable, especially if I've never been there if I want to see what's around. So I've got some of that stuff planned for some of these things. And that is a little bit. It's like you're utilizing time that isn't necessarily hunt time either way. It's like time that maybe you can get and do something like that and still gain knowledge in the area. But like on that late season hunt, I'm. I'm more focused on e scouting that I know some people that have hunted that area before. I've got an a general idea of where I want to go. I'm going to try to go before the season opens and get like right before the season. So I'm going to utilize some days outside of opener while I'm there to learn some roads and do some scouting. And then I'm going to just invest heavily in E scouting on My awning. Next maps. I've got like pretty much daily. I'm. I've got pins dropped. I've got suggested places from people that I know. And then outside of that, I'm cruising around, flying around in 3D mode, marking up good glassing vantages. Because it's going to be a spot and stock hunt. It's a late season spot. I'm expecting bulls to be off on their own, bedded in places where it's a little bit thicker but with some good feed and that's. It's all going to be a glassing. Yeah. With good glassing managers. So I'm marking those places and building out my hunt plan that way. So when I get in the unit, I know where I want to go, I have a plan and I can initiate that plan even without getting those boots on the ground. So I live in both worlds. I, I think that both types of scouting can be good. I do understand that not everybody or you. Sometimes it's hard to get out, find the time for that particular tag to get on the ground. And in those ways, if you have limited time, it's great to spend the time during the season. If you can get away, you're gonna. The limited time you have during the season, anything scouting is, it kind of boosts your time frame in the unit when you're. It takes the learning curve, like takes that learning curve off. When I go into an area that I've never stepped foot in, if I'm just there during the season, I haven't pre scouted it. I pretty much take the first two days of the hunt to essentially scout the area. I'm like, like cruising roads, checking trail heads, looking at vantages, whatever. I would say, like, yeah, there's potential. Like I'm going to use the mornings and evenings to really focus in on things that I like. But I'm more previewing the area and scouting like I would early in the season and then dedicating the remaining time that I have to hunting the best areas that I think hard. Because you, you spend a lot of time, like you could invest in your whole time in an area that won't be that productive. And so there is a value to scouting. There's a value to scouting while you're on your hunt even. And there's value to scouting outside of your hunt, especially in the summer, to get you prepared and get the most out of the tag that you have. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. I'm excited to get out and scout. I'm excited to make some summer trips out of this. Keep me posted on your guys success in the field this season. If you get out scouting and you're like, like man, look what I turned up. Don't send me any pins, you know. But I mean I, that, that always is awesome. And it's really cool to, you know, to go back through and be like, oh man, there's one, there's one bull that I, I took a few years ago. It was a long time ago. Actually not a few years ago. Now thinking about it, it was like a long time ago. It was just an area. It was nothing. It was like this small kind of raghorn bull in a general area. But I was, I was fairly young at the time and found this new area, found this bull in the summer. I was like, cool, I'm going to come back here beginning of the season, see if I can turn this bull up. And did. And it was like, man, I had photos and videos of that bull and then ended up taking him. And I have, you know, some others where it's like, man, I found a really good bull and hunted that good bull and didn't get that bull or whatever as a kid or a young adult that I'd scouted out during the summer. But it gave me that, like that object to chase in some ways and very beneficial for learning the area. So, so I enjoy my scouting trips. I'm looking forward to getting out and feel free to share with me your guys experiences and if you guys have any questions, we'll do a few calling Q and A's coming up as we start to get closer in the season. So if you see something while you're out scouting, you're like, I don't know how to react to this. What should I do for the season? We'll try to get some calling Q and A's and as always you guys can shoot me messages or comment and post on social media. I try to get to a lot of them. I've noticed that like a lot of stuff lately gets put in this like junk. There's so much junk, garbage out there. Like a lot of stuff that's legit. Things get buried. So if I don't see it, you can send it again. And honestly I try to get to what I can but it is difficult now because like things just don't appear to be honest but continue to reach out. And then the other thing that I want to mention, if you guys, if you, if you don't have onyx at this point, you need to get it especially with the season coming up, to do some E scouting for in the field, knowing where you're at, knowing your boundaries, getting your pins. So you can use Code livewild and you can't use it in app, so you got to go to their site. But if you use code livewild, I think you get like 20% off a membership and that's good for whatever membership you get. So that's always available to you guys. I just, they're a great supporter of this podcast. They've got a tool that I think is essentially invaluable. Like, it's. It's one of the things that I always go out with. Everything that I like when I'm out in the field, all the knowledge that I've gained e Scouting and looking over maps and other things is there with me. And it's just a great resource to have. It's also a really great resource too. When you're in the field and you're or you're scouting, you're like, man, what I looked at wasn't what I'm looking for. I don't know how many times. I like, I always download the areas so I have offline maps. I'll be in my tent at night, I'll be on, on a hunt, checking out other places to maybe check out. And I'm constantly scouting. I'm constantly looking for new places to hunt and constantly checking, verifying those places and then hunting. And that system over the years has, has given me, lended itself to so much success. So that's always an option for you guys if you don't have Onyx Code live wild. And I'm just gonna say until next week, what are we gonna say? What's our awkward goodbye for the day? It's gonna be, well, what's that? Oh, there, that's a good one for this. Fail to plan, plan to fail. There we go. That describes that send off. I'll catch you guys later. Sam.