← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 245 | Wildfires Part 3 Burnt out
00:58:15
In this episode, Remi Warren shares expert tactics for hunting during wildfire season, including how to adapt your plans, utilize terrain, and stay safe when fires impact your hunting area.
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Foreign. I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and yeti. 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 MTN T-O-U G H.com One of the things that I really like about Yeti is the fact that they just design their products to really withstand anything that you're going to encounter out in the field. I've actually been able to go to their facility and see see some of this testing process that this gear goes through and even got to test some stuff out in the field and I just know how durable it is and that it's really built for the wild. Things like their roadie or their tundra coolers, they're just unmatched in that toughness and that cold holding power. So whether I'm on a hunt or going for multiple days, they have everything in sizes to hold meat from pheasants or small game all the way up to a moose. They literally have you covered with for hunting and in the field and then as we get into this time of year we start to plan and prep for the season coming up. One of my favorites of theirs is those loadout Go boxes. They're just gear cases that are extremely durable. They keep the water out, they keep the dust out. I Pack all my gear in them, throw them in the back of the truck, and I know that I'm set for the hunt. This is the time of year that I'm really planning on packing up for the trip. And their go box gear cases are my choice because I know that my gear is going to be safe in them. You can check out all this stuff and more@yeti.com foreign. Welcome back to the podcast. Now this week we're going to be jumping into what is part three of our wildfire series. Now, last week we looked at that post fire planning as well as how to monitor wildfires before and during your season. So this week we're going to look at tactics during the season and what to do when you're burnt out or smoked out during your hunt. So I'm going to break it down into two categories. So first, we're going to look at that during the hunt, maybe there's a fire in your area. For this, we're going to be focusing on changing your plans and understanding the options available. Then second, we're going to examine effects of surrounding fires that might be affecting your hunt. So then we're going to focus on how to change up the hunt tactics during the hunt when nearby fires create things like poor visibility or closures and the options available. So let's dive in. Talk wildfire during your season. So over the past couple weeks, we covered fire in a lot of different ways. So we talked about what do animals do during wildfires, how do they use the landscape? Then we looked at, okay, well, how do we monitor wildfires? How do we know if one's going on in our unit? How do we understand if there's the potential of fire or fires burning now or maybe during the season if there's fire going on or smoke in the area? So we covered that stuff. We also covered some tactics post fire, how hunting a fire or a burn can be really good after, especially a couple years down the road. So now we're gonna, we're gonna switch gears a little bit and we're gonna say, well, what happens if there's a fire during my season and on dry years or years where even sometimes it was really wet, spring, you get a lot of grass and then it dries out real quick. You can encounter fires during a lot of seasons, especially those earlier seasons. I've seen it even in seasons in October, depending on where you are in the country. But for the most part, especially if you have like early archery seasons, August can be a timeframe where this happens. A lot. And I would say that the primary timeframe that people are affected is probably in September. You've had a lot of dry and then sometimes things don't start to cool down. So you'll get those late August fires when it's really hot, really dry, and then they go on through that first part of September when a lot of people might be hunting things like archery, elk, some archery, deer seasons, even a few rifle seasons will be going on then. So I would say the, the most detrimental time for a fire for hunters is during the season. Now the reason for that is it's something that you have to contend with in your unit where they're actively trying to put the fire out. There's going to be closures and other things in your particular area. And so it completely alters that tag that you thought you had in your hand. And this is not just a once in a while problem. This is a, a thing that happens quite often. I've actually had a friend that drew a, a limited tag in a particular area for mule deer. We scouted it during the summer. It was even. I think it started in later in the season and then there was like a, or later in the year, I guess. I think it was a October hunt. I could be wrong on that. But anyways, you know, he had the tag. We, we. I'd had the area years prior and was planning on helping him out and wildfire started and they just closed down that whole national forest. And he's just looking at it going like, okay, when can I hunt? When can I hunt? What's going on? And unfortunately, like, there's very little public or, sorry, there's very little private land in this area is all pretty much 100% public land. And there was nowhere for him to hunt. And his season, you know, essentially ended without him even being able to hunt. That's not what you think when you've got this great tag in your hand. Fortunately, he was able to get his points back and, and continue applying for that tag. But that isn't always the case. Sometimes, you know, things change and there is part of the season that can be salvaged in other things. So, you know, when you, when a fire happens during your hunt, it really changes things. Now that can be the extreme case and we're going to look at some of the options of like, okay, there is a fire. What do I need to be looking at? What are things that I can consider and, and ways that I can alter my hunt plan to make the most out of this situation? It can be A tough situation. You know the old saying, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I don't know how many tags I've had where there's been fires around. I've had a lot of tags where there's been fires in my unit. It's all part of it. It's all part of kind of that western landscape and culture. As a hunting guide for 20 some odd years, elk hunting guide out west for 20 some odd years, you'd be hard pressed to find a year where I wasn't hunting somewhere where there was a. It was aff fires in some way. And that's just kind of goes with the territory, goes with the turf. But understanding how to navigate that can really help you flip these maybe, you know, fairly unopportune situations into salvaging what you can out of the hunt. So the first thing that we need to do, let's say there's a fire going on in your area. You really need to be on it and monitoring what's going on. Where are the closures? Where are the active closures? Because like I said last week, the last thing we want to do. I am not in any way promoting, like, get out there and just, you know, toe the line and, and get as close as, like, that's not what I'm going to be talking about. Because we really need to let the people that are assisting in putting the fire out do their job. You absolutely need to pay attention to closures. There's some times where like, the fire goes out and you're like, dude, why is this still closed? Like, this is stupid. I've thought that many times, but I'm still not gonna, like, there's reasons for that because a big win could kick up, the thing can start back up. You could be packed in there somewhere. And now instead of putting efforts and money and everything into stopping this fire and, and fighting this fire, they're worried on getting you out, getting, doing a rescue effort more v. Or maybe it's like, can't get a dozer up because somebody's trucks parked or in the way or whatever. So we aren't in that realm in any sense of the situation, you know, and that's why we need to monitor these areas and say, like, okay, where are the closures? Be familiar with the boundaries. And then where is this fire going? Like, which way is the wind? Which way is this fire growing and understanding, like, okay, if I get into this area, this could close while I'm out hunting. We don't want to deal with any of that. So it's like, if there is that potential, we're in an area where, hey, this might end up eventually closing. We need to be, you know, and you're like, oh, well, I'm planning on packing in. Well, maybe this isn't the year for that. Maybe you can hunt this. This. Not even. Maybe it's not even that close to where the active fire is. But, like, there's the potential that that could go that way. Well, then you're going to need to have enough service to monitor these kind of things, right? So maybe you go, like, well, I'm just gonna day hunt it and see what happens and see how things change. That's definitely an option. But you need to be able to monitor these closures in real time. Another thing that you're going to want to look at, like, let's say you're living across the country, you've got an elk tag in Colorado, right? You live in Wisconsin. And you're like, okay, I've got this unit. There's a fire going on in there. Well, how do I know where the fire. Like, that's, that's what we talked about last week of monitoring that on your apps. Like, I mean, the Onyx apps, what I like to use, because it just shows that that and you can easily access different information. Also throwing on those smoke layers and saying, like, what's the smoke look like in here? Doing that in kind of real time is really going to help prepare you for making these changes. Sometimes, like, I've had it happen where I've showed up to an area, I'm like, whoa, it's smoky. And then you just see, like, fire crews parked off the side of the roads and base camps and helicopters, and you go, oh, okay, well, there's a fire here, clearly. And how is this going to affect my hunt? So understanding the closures is one thing because now we're going to say, well, where can we go? I think that one of the things to consider too is if there's a fire still raging in your area, it's probably indicative that I could assume a couple of things, that it's probably hot, it's probably going to be smoky, and the conditions actually probably suck for hunting. That's like nearly every time that's what you're going to encounter. So it's good to, like, have that frame of reference because as we start to, like, salvage the situation, we're knowing that there's a lot of things that might be working against us and we're going to kind of Use those things in the tactics portion in. In part two of this. This podcast today. So let's say. Let's just say that there's a fire in your area. You show up more. You. You can see, you're from across the country and you see, like, hey, it's. It's raging. There's a fire, there's some closures. Here's the steps that I'm taking and some of the things that I'm looking at as we start to build out and formulate this plan to salvage what we can. So we're gonna look at the options. First, we're gonna say, what tag do we have? That. That right there is gonna be a big indicator of some of our potential options to. To make a new plan. We're also going to say, like, what's the season? You know, what time of year is it? And then, like, where is the fire? What's the fire lines? What are the closures? We have to have all this information. And now once we have that, we can say, okay, well, what are the places that are open within this tag availability? One of my favorite things about general type tags, at least general tags in the past is, like, some states, you could hunt multiple units. A lot of this has changed, but in the past, it was like you could hunt multiple units with your general elk tag or general deer tag. And with a. With a draw tag, you might be restricted to one unit. One thing that saved me on a lot of hunts is having a more general type tag, where often those general tags have more area to hunt. Like, they encompass a lot of ground. There's often more hunters in those areas, but you can hunt multiple different units. I don't know how many times I've been my hunt's been saved by, like, oh, there's a fire and smoke and everything in this area, but I can hunt one of these other areas that is probably in better shape. And I've done that so many times. Where I've showed up to an area like, before, there was all this ability to monitor things so well. You just kind of had to show up and find out and go, oh, yikes. These conditions suck. Okay, well, I can drive 200 miles that way. Which way is the wind blowing? Okay, I'm going to drive 200 miles into the wind and find a new spot to hunt. That's really one of the best benefits of tags, where it's like, large area or more general tag. Now, maybe you aren't in that situation. So we're going to say, okay, well, what's what's the season for this tag? Because a couple of the things that you can consider is the, the major thing that's probably going to stop this fire is although there's a lot of people on the ground fighting the fires, they're just trying to slow it down, contain it, and they're trying to slow it down and wait for. The one thing that generally puts out most bigger fires is Mother Nature, the weather. So we're going to, we're going to add, we're monitoring the fire and the closure and all those things. We're going to add monitoring potential future forecasts into this equation as well, because that can be the, the game changer. In one day. A big snow or a big rain can absolutely flip the script when it comes to wildfires. Like one day of snow or rain can change the entire game. It can extinguish a massive fire in a very little amount of time. It can clear up the smoke and it can do a lot of things with just like a change in weather, even temperatures dropping and humidity rising, where it just makes everything wet, things start to burn slower. Fire crews are able to get ahead of stuff and then you might get that colder season. So what's that tag and what are your seasons? Maybe you've got a tag that's like, yeah, I got a tag. I was planning on hunting beginning of September. There's a fire going on right now. When's that tag go til? Does it go into October, beginning of October? Well, a lot of the time, if you're flexible enough and can be flexible enough, I will often just change my dates to accommodate for that potential of the fire getting put out by weather at push it later toward that time where mother nature naturally puts these things out. That, that's definitely one option. Now you could wait and wait and wait and things don't change or things get worse. That is definitely a possibility, but that's something to consider. And that's kind of one of the first things that I'm looking at. I go, okay, I was planning on hunting this time, whatever. A lot of the time, dates and seasons and everything's locked in, like not very flexible, whether it's your work schedule, whether it's time that you've, you know, you've got other things going on, or it's just the season and tag itself, sometimes that's not flexible. But what I'll do is I'll look and be like, okay, can I hunt this? Or is it a type of tag where you can hunt multiple seasons and you go, well, instead of hunting, I really, really wanted to hunt this time frame, but I can push it back and maybe hunt a different time frame. Definitely something to consider. These are all things that we're going to consider when we're looking at what's going on in the area right now. Now the other thing that we're going to talk about is okay, let's say it's not possible. Like no. So I'm going to monitor the weather and I go 10 day forecast. I'm like, you're just praying for anything like, okay, is there any rain? Is there a temperature drop? What do we got coming? If we've got something coming, you know that like we can, we can kind of start to plan out and say like, okay, this looks like it's going to be better here just based off of weather. Also if that fire is going on, it's probably not ideal weather conditions either. But what happens if we can't. When you are limited, right, you cannot change things. You've got a limited area, limited season, there's a fire in this portion, maybe half the units closed or what have you, which happens now. What do we do? How do we change our plans based off of that? So some of the things that you're going to encounter when that happens is you're going to probably have more hunter congestion, right? You're in the same boat as probably a lot of people. Now there are people that are going to say, hey, maybe they live nearby, they get the tag all the time. It's like, yeah, I'm just gonna bag it this year, whatever, there are those people. But the, the amount of places you can go, as those places decrease, hunter congestion increases. So one of the things that I like to do is I like to start to change my tactics a bit and maybe change some of the places that I'm gonna focus on. You're gonna notice that like, yeah, there's a lot of congestion near the roads. There's a lot of congestion in a lot of places. So I'm gonna pull out my maps, I'm gonn to look for, I'll probably even turn on those layers of like places furthest from roads. Right? For me, I can hike. I don't mind hiking. I'm going to try to find places where maybe hunter congestion is less. I might even find places where it doesn't look as ideal, but there's not really anyone in it. I've done that many times on hunts where areas been kind of limited. Okay, everybody's kind of in this one particular zone. And I go, all right, this is definitely the best area for the. The conditions at hand. Right. There's a mountain area. And you got. You get in there and you go, wow. Everyone else had the same idea. This is definitely the best habitat, but there's just people everywhere. Sometimes I'll back out and be like, where's some marginal habitat? Some stuff that probably doesn't hold as many animals but doesn't have as many people? Because for me, I'm like, well, it's kind of a toss up in some ways. Yeah, this area has more animals. There's a lot of people running around there. Okay. Based on that and what's going on, I might be better off going to a place that has way lower densities. Way, like, less likely that I'm going to find something. But when I do, there's no one else looking for it because it's like, yeah, that's a dumb spot to look. I've done that many times and had some phenomenal hunts. I've also done that and not seen anything. Right. And then you go, okay, well, maybe that was just in the interim. And then you can go try that other stuff. Like, yeah, maybe you're there on a weekend and the weekend was crazy, but midweek isn't so bad. And so you can go back to those other, maybe more potentially productive areas. The other thing is, I'm just going to find those isolated pockets where it's a little harder to get into that might lend itself to my particular hunting style and try to just get away from crowds. I'm also gonna, you know, jump back in. Maybe it's. Maybe it's limited. And there's a place that I've scouted that is in this particular area or it's not. Let's say you've scouted. You've got a plan, a hunt plan in place. And it's not even in the burn area. You're over here. You're doing great. What can happen is those areas that you were planning on hunting now are going to see more people. So it adjusts maybe some of your tactics. And that's the one thing that I want to start focusing on. So there's a lot of ways that your particular area can be affected by wildfire, and it doesn't necessarily have to be fire in your immediate zone. This can happen a lot with just poor visibility from smoke from surrounding fires. Like I talked last week, I've probably had more hunts affected by California organ fires in, like, places that are a long ways away than Fires that are effect like than hunts that were affected by fires within the area maybe because as that smoke starts to stack in, you lose visibility. It could still be hot. It affects like the way that you can hunt. Now maybe you've got a hunt and there is a fire in your area and you know the visibility is still definitely going to be poor because there's, there's smoke pouring in. So you've got limited area and now limited visibility. But let's talk about some of the factors that you're probably also experiencing during these scenarios. The heat is going to definitely be a factor if fires are going on. It's probably dry, it's probably hot. And that is something that kind of seems consistent with that type of year. So we're going to play to this. We're going to start focusing whether, whether you're narrowed down to a limited area or you're in an area that's affected by visibility. We're going to start focusing on those cooler parts of the unit, the north slopes, the places that are going to stay shaded a lot longer. Anything that's dark, anything that's wet, even those places where it's like got steeper terrain can often block that sun out longer or that thicker cover. Maybe you're in an area that's not like super mountainous, but there's certain draws with a lot thicker cover or places that get a little more breeze plus cover. So shade and wind that really cools animals down. So we're going to start focusing on those places where, okay, it's going to be hot. Let's start identifying. I'm going to actually just like pull out my Onyx E, scout it, start marking places like this. Now maybe we're however you need to do it, whether it's just based off the conditions or it's based off of your, you got to check out a new area because of fire closures. Where are some of these cooler places that we can focus on? Another thing that animals need when it's hot and dry is water. And during like fires or real smoky conditions, switching up my tactics and possibly even sitting water, I found a lot of success. There's been quite a few hunts where I, I completely change my tactics because of the conditions of the fire. I remember one particular elk hunt. There was actually a fire in the area that I was hunting and surrounding. It was just like smoked out there. The, the unit that I was hunting, kind of limited for the most part. Like the place that I really wanted to hunt couldn't hunt closures. So, so What I did was I just started to identify, like, water sources and wallows. And instead of, you know, like I did, I. I did a mix of calling and other things. It seemed like there's a lot of people in some of these areas. Some. Some of the places I could get away from people. The elk just seemed like they weren't making noise. And it probably had nothing to do with like, necessarily the fire itself, but the conditions involved, right? It was hot, it was dry. Like, not a lot of red activity. Like, the nights were hot. It was just terrible, terrible conditions. So instead of going and just like, competing and trying to get into the zones, I just tried to find a spot that was out of the way where I could just sit water. And it was successful. Like, I had. I had elk coming in. I had animals. You know, I was spotting animals. I'm like, this is not something I normally like to be doing, but hey, in this particular instance is working. I also had an antelope tag. I don't know, probably. Probably a while ago now. It seemed like yesterday, but probably like seven, eight years ago. I don't know. And there was. That was another one. Was like California organ fires in the air. That's in the surrounding zones, I guess, pushing smoke. And my plan was to actually spot and stalk antelope. Well, if you're going to spot and stock antelope, you need to be able to spot them. And the smoke was so bad that it was very difficult to see. Also very hot, very dry conditions. So I ended up just setting up a blind on a water hole and took a really good buck. Probably one of my. One of my better archery bucks. You know, I think I just wanted to spot in stocks just because that's the way that I like to hunt, but ended up getting. Getting a buck came into water to now. Like, it was funny because I was looking through the mesh that day of the. The blind, and with the sun and the smoke, I could not see, like, that buck just appeared. It was like, oh, there's a deer or antelope on the water. I think I actually saw it coming in, but this is a big flat. And I. From where I could actually see through the, like the. The way that the lighting was and then the mesh of the blind and the smoke involved, it was just like right there. Okay, it's already coming in. And ended up taking that buck. But focusing on water can be a really good tactic, and if you've got the patience for it. But, you know, if there's maybe more people running around this that and the other thing, it might be a place where the animals aren't like, let's say you're elk hunting. You know, maybe they're vocal here and they're vocal there, but by the time they hit this wallow, they've kind of. They're already kind of quiet. It's hot. They might just be cruising. There might be people moving around, bumping stuff or whatever. But sitting in that water can be effective because you can, you can find animals that are just still doing their natural thing, but you've concentrated on something that they really need, that water. And I would almost consider it more of a water source than a wallow source in a lot of ways because they're probably just going in there in those, those hot times for that, that water. I've checked like a lot of trail cameras in that, you know, summer time frame or even like September timeframe. And it's like, okay, it's smoky, it's hot. Yeah. Elk are hitting it. It's mostly like cow groups. And then the occasional bull will come in, drink. It's not like he's really getting crazy, ruddy not. Maybe he'll roll around for a little bit and then cruise on out. So it's a good place to focus on. Can also be a great place to focus on for other animals like, like mule deer and stuff like that, where you're like, hey, I'm a little limited in places I can go. I'm a little limited in my visibility, but based off these conditions of what I'm getting, this isn't a terrible tactic. And then the other tactic that I really like to try, his like, let's say that smoke hits, that fire hits. You know, we've identified maybe some of those north faces, those cooler places. I change a lot of my tactics from glassing, like heavy glassing tactic to still hunting. Now, it depends on the sit the. The species. Right. So if it's like archery elk, maybe they aren't calling that much. It's like hot. They aren't making a lot of noise. I'll still throw out bugles here and there if I get one to reply. Awesome. But a lot of times in that conditions, like, they aren't real apt to want to commit. I'm still throwing out calls like it's going out of style probably. But if I don't have the option to glass and so I'll pick those areas that it's not even conducive to glassing. It's like I'll pick those areas where it's thicker country that probably gets hunted less in the general scheme of things, when all things are considered equal. And it's clear out, you can see, you can. Whatever. I'll actually start to change the areas that I'm hunting, especially with mule deer. Like, let's say I've got a September mule deer tag and I'm smoked out. There's fire somewhere. Doesn't matter where it is. And I can't really see. My visibility sucks. Okay, well, there's places that mule deer live within that area, within that unit. Especially if you've got like a mountain west hunt, you know, Idaho, Montana, a lot of Wyoming, that kind of thing. That there's places that mule deer live in that country that I would never go hunt mule deer in when it's good conditions. Why? Because it's harder to find them. You can't really glass. You're limited a little bit. And it's not the best country in the world for it, but they do exist there. Like, a few years ago, my buddy had a. He drew a tag. We actually had. He actually had a com. He had like an elk tag and a deer tag. And so we were primarily hunting elk. And it was just like. It was tough. It. You couldn't see far. We were getting bugles, like morning and evening. We were getting calls from elk. We didn't really have many commit to the calls. It was just kind of slow. It was like slow elk hunting. It wasn't that we weren't finding them. It was just hard to find them. Because if they weren't calling and you couldn't glass, then we started. We just kind of switched to betting areas. We moved around, we got on a few. I got a few opportunities, I would say, but nothing. Nothing crazy, nothing to write home about. But he did have a mule deer tag. And I was like, let's. Let's just switch it up now. Let's go hunt mule deer. And let's go. It's like, well, how are we gonna mud there? We aren't glassing for them. I'm like, let's go to a spot on a. North. On a north face somewhere that is real wet. Like, it's wet. It's cool. Like, where that wet? Because I'm thinking, okay, it's hot, maybe somewhere that's drawing the deer in for water. And then we're just gonna still hunt it. So I picked a spot in an older burn that had like a creek running through the draw. Because I'm like, well, if it's a little. And it Just overgrown essentially. Like that, like thicker willow think of like, I guess, yeah. What's growing back? Like little aspens, willows, all that kind of stuff. Just like real thick cover because it provides really good shade. And then you've got that water there. And I'm like, let, let's still hunt this. And so we start still hunting. It probably couldn't see more than a couple hundred yards. I would say we're moving up through there and sure enough, I spot a buck in there. It's like a good solid four point buck. And so by the time we spot him, we're already within that kind of zone probably. I don't know, maybe it was like 150, I can't remember, 100 and some odd yards that I spotted him. And from that point it's like, all right, most of the work is done. Now we just have to close the gap. So we circled around him and, and he got a shot, shot the buck. And it was, it's awesome. Like, I think to this day it still is his best meal deer. Like a, a good solid mature mule deer buck. And that's all, you know. I don't know, we would have never hunted. I don't think I would have really focused on that area per se. Like there was a lot of timber around, there was some old burn in there and then just really thick and overgrown. But I'm like, you can't see that far anyways. We might as well hunt stuff that we can still hunt. Where it still has like that water source that maybe is drawing animals and then moving slow through there and it, and it paid off. So when we've got that smoke and we've got that fire, I really like to think about, okay, how can I hunt an area or like make in the area that I'm hunting now equal with the, the lack of visibility and still hunting is like a great tactic for that. So depending on the species, depending on the terrain, there's a lot of places that we can hunt where we can now utilize this technique. And so what I mean by still hunting is the, the first thing, the first and foremost is getting the wind right now. Like when it's, when it's smoky, you know, it's like you can like everything smells like fire, I guess. But you absolutely have to have the wind right as you're moving through these areas. Now I'm going to identify areas that I think animals are most likely going to concentrate into and places that are convenient for travel. So let's say it's going to Change all the time. But you also want a place where the animals will be there when you're there. So I'm thinking about like the cycle of the way that whatever animal I'm hunting it is. Let's. Let's go. I'll just break it apart right now because I think elk and deer are probably the two primary ones that get affected by fire season. So elk and mule deer. Elk. Right. The majority of their day is going to be spent in bedding zones. Okay. If I'm still hunting, I'm going to want to pick the areas where they're most likely going to be during the time they're going to be there. So I'm probably going to like. They're probably going to be kind of tight to those cooler areas and those potential bedding zones. Now in the early mornings, late evenings they're probably going to be moving to feed. So in the morning, let's say I don't have great visibility. I'm going to probably pick a feeding area that I can't glass from anywhere else it'd be like this. Maybe it's a south facing timbered ridge. Right. It's got like hard to see into. It's got better grass because it's on that south face and it's timbered. So it's not like somewhere that we can glass or whatever. Really the most effective way to hunt this is going to be to be in it and moving through it. And the fact that the smokes may be limiting your visibility to a few hundred yards, that's all you can see in the timber anyways. You've just kind of equalized yourself within the unit because you've got something working against you. But you're choosing a hunting tactic that is equal to the ability and visibility that you have now. Cell cutting maybe, maybe you could be throwing some calls because they're likely to be in the those areas and maybe you'll get some responses, maybe you won't. So we're going to just move through this. We're going to get the wind right and we're just going to start kind of meandering through it. I have my binoculars at the ready and I'm continually glassing through the timber looking for that animal, especially when it's smoky. I think there is this misconception that because the visibility is bad, like you don't get spotted as well there. I. Yes and no. Okay. Because what does happen is you'll notice like this skylining effect within a certain range. You don't get spotted as Far. But when you are close, the things in the smoke almost kind of like if it's potentially skylined or backlit or highlighted, it amplifies that in a way. So one of the things you want to make sure you aren't doing is like putting yourself in a position to be skyline because it actually kind of amplifies in the smoke. It sounds weird, but just when you're out there and looking, you'll notice it. You go, oh, that stands out. Now it's within a closer range. So it's like you're going to, you're going to be closer when you can see and when the animals can see you. But within that range in certain situations, the way that you're, you know, backlit and other things, it almost amplifies it, like your vision close or makes it look like, oh, geez, they're, they're really close. Sometimes they appear really close and they're actually a little bit further away. But I just wanted to mention that because I know sometimes people try stuff that's like, oh, I can get away with it. The visibility is real bad. Like, don't, don't risk it. Like, do the proper moves, go the best way, not the easy way. And just consider that like it's still, you can still definitely be spotted. But I say that to also say it is harder to see things in the smoke. So I'm continually using my binoculars to try to look through, through and past and into stuff for any indication of an animal. Now, the other thing that we're going to be doing is we're going to be moving through a lot of bedding areas potentially. And the way that I do that is like, you got, you've got to find a quiet way to walk. So say I'm walking around, I'm walking a ridge. I'm going to find the path of least resistance. And then let's say I find a game trail. I'm going to kind of go game trail to game trail to game show the ways that I can move and kind of be quiet, be stealthy, have the wind right and have, you know, the best approach as I'm moving through these areas that like, I'll highlight these areas off my E scouting and you can go back and look at like timber topography. When I'm talking about elk. How do you know where they're going to bed? Well, they're probably going to be on elk, like to bed in places that are a little more gentle, but maybe on that south side. So like a bench within a steep face Anywhere that maybe like at the top of a head basin on the north side where they've got good wind or swirly winds, like they bed in multiple places or on the bench of a ridge or a finger ridge coming down the mountain, that's where elk like to bed. Because they. They're big animals, they like to be comfortable, but they also need multiple escape routes, places where all the elk can be looking, different directions, and then they need that shade to cool down and. And hopefully a breeze. So we're gonna. We're gonna be working into those areas, and often I'm just looking for, like, a game trail or something to follow. As I'm doing that, I'm looking for tracks and other sign. Like, if I can find a game trail, it's got fresh tracks and sign I can smell. I'm like, okay, we're in the money now. We're really going to slow down. And as you hit these areas that are going to be that preferred betting, like, isolate and highlight those on your map on the mountain so you know when to really slow down. And then you're going to really just darn near creep through there like you're stalking. I'm, like, glassing, looking head up, looking around. If you break something or make some noise, hit that cow out, call. Like, it's okay to throw out a few calls here and that. You know what I mean? Like, smash the big stick. Okay, smash another big stick, right? Maybe there's some dead fall kind of. You got to get through, because a lot of times they're going to do that where it's like, oh, yeah, they've got this and a lot of noise cover that they can kind of put themselves in. I don't know how many times I've, like, got to a spot, hit the crappy deadfall part. I'm, like, busting through it to get through. And that's where all the elk blow out of, right? It's because they can hear. They can. They're comfortable. They've got everything they need and a little alarm system. So we're just going through there like we're stalking. Grabbing your binoculars, glassing, rolling that focus, looking through the timber, and then continuing to move on. And the wind starts to shift or things start to change. Then I start to change my approach, like, find another trail, find another way in. I'm kind of meandering in a way, but you're really focusing on those potential betting areas. And then during archery season, I'm definitely throwing out calls in this. Like, there's been A lot of times that I've hit a cow call and then had a. If. If you're moving through timber bedding area, you hit a cow call, a bull bugles in reply, you're probably. There's a likely chance that you're going to end up killing that bull or calling that bull in with the right move. So it can be very effective. Like there can be bulls and he could be bedded and maybe just bugling to his cows. A lot of times it could be a bull that's like, especially early in the season, he's just hanging out, here's a cow coming, he might be by himself. He's like, I'll check it out. Do, do. So really pay attention with that. And if you're calling, definitely keep your head on a swivel, Pay attention and slowly move through those areas like you're stalking. Now, let's say we're going to flip a script. We're going to talk mule deer. I've said this, so I hope that people are like, this is a broken record. Because sometimes you have to keep saying things over and over for it to click in a bunch of different scenarios. And even just so it doesn't get glazed over. But say I'm still hunting for mule. I'm going to be doing a lot of this similar kind of stuff, traveling ridges, that kind of thing. You know, mule deer, they're going to want that shaded side of the mountain and they really like that wind going down their back, right. Because they like to use their ears, their eyes, checking their, their back trails. So I'll probably be. If I'm going to still hunt bedding areas, that's probably what I'm going to be doing. Or you know, maybe even just like still hunting, feeding areas where it's, it's open, it's sage or whatever. They got a lot of good browse. That might be something. Another thing that I might think about with deer is early mornings and late evenings focusing on those kind of wetter areas where they're drawn to that water, especially if it's more arid country. And then the other kind of pockets that I'm going to think about is that impenetrable thick, the real thick stuff. Like let's say we're in more sage country, more high desert. Some of my favorite. That's my favorite kind of mule deer habitat. That and just like big mountain. So we're in sage country right now. Like big mountain and sage country. Cool. We got it all. Like there's, there's a lot of probably feed in that kind of country. And then you're going to find these just thick patches for bedding. Could be aspen, could be mahogany, juniper, whatever. And those are places that are very hard done. And I'm not going to go in there like normally, like these are. A lot of these tactics are not. Oh well, let's just do that no matter what. No, if the conditions are fine, you don't need to do these tactics. I mean you can, right? But there's other more successful ways to chase these animals. But we're limited to the like places we can go and our visibility and all these other things. We're kind of limited in the tactics that we can employ. So we're now choosing tactics that are the most successful for the conditions. And because of that, you know, it's a. It gives us the possibility, but also it puts us in areas that we might not normally go into. So now is this. You can definitely use these tactics and not saying that they're, you know, depending on the situation might be right. But for the most part it's like if I could see fine, I'm going to sit back and watch those feeding areas for mule deer and then go see where they bed. But if I can't see those feeding areas or I can't glass very well, then I'm probably going to move through these like places of COVID And these places of COVID are loud. They're hard to get through. Mule deer use their ears. But you can start to find like. And a lot. Some places like I've found even just cattle trails that go through. And I remember, oh, this is a while ago but like a mule deer hunt. Nevada is kind of fairly high country stuff. Smoked out for the first part of the hunt, Cleared up later in the hunt and just moving through like it was like all this real thick, kind of wet, Just exactly what you want for cool. And in places that I probably wouldn't go through. And I was trying to walk up the draw, it wasn't ideal. It was like loud and I knew that, you know, nothing was going to happen that way. But I ended up cutting like a cattle trail and I could move through this like aspen patch. Pretty quiet. And then there was places where it opened up. So I started doing that and just still hunting that. And sure enough like got on a. A really good four point buck. I missed the buck, dude. I was just. It was a year that I was just struggling, man. I there, look, I have a lot of success stories. I also have a lot of stories where I'VE just, you know, done not so well. But this buck stood. I was moving in. I don't know. I think I. I'm trying to think what even. Probably did something dumb, but the buck got up and it, like, moved off. I got it to stop. I drew back. It was like 45, 50 or something like that. I shot, and that deer. I. I'm. That deer was not there by the time. By the time that arrow got there, like, I had a really loud bow that year, and it just jumped the string. I even have video from the same hunt, like, doing. I was still hunting through this. This was after it. I don't think it was a smoky at this point, but I was still hunting through this patch of what we call pj, like, pinion juniper. And I was on a trail, and I see this buck coming. It was like, the point in the hunt where I was ready to. Ready to fill a tag. I think it was like a 3x4 or something like that. It was a younger buck, too, but I think I'd had. I'd already missed, like, two nice bucks. So it's walking and it's 20, 30 yards. Like, it's moving kind of quick. I'm at full draw. I give it the old grunt ski, Stop it, shoot. And, like, miss that deer. And I had. I'm like, how the heck did I miss that deer? And I watched the video back, and where my arrow was, like, that deer was still. Its back was three inches below where. Where I was aiming. So that does happen. But, you know, finding those quiet places, like those cattle trails and other things that you can move through some of this cover, more quiet. And then when I hit that cover, I'm literally taking it. Like, I'm like, I know you have to say in your head, there's a deer here, there's an elk here. And you have to look like you know for a fact it's there. Because if you move without that intent, you. You're going to move too fast. You're going to. You're going to make too much noise. You're going to make the wrong moves and be seen before you see what you're going after. So you really have to slow it down in this. In this scenario and, you know, slow it down and say in your head, I know there's a big buck right here. There's a big buck bedded in the zone. This is his betting area. He's bedded. He's going to be hard to find. I just need to creep through here. And by taking that approach, I found a lot of deer in their beds that a lot of people probably would have just blazed through or blown out so many times where you're just like. I've even been hunting with people where it's like we're walking through and yep, you're just, you're. You're maybe even just cruising to a new area then animals popping out. Man, if you saw those deer or elk or whatever before that happened, you went from not having a hunt to it being game time and having an opportunity or a chance just by the speed and level of attention that you're paying while moving through it. And so that when it comes to hunting tactics and still hunting. Yeah, we have a lot of things that can affect our hunt. Wildfires and other stuff. Right. It affects it. Now if we have other tactics that we can use effectively that kind of match those conditions and give us an opportunity or maybe put us in a place that maybe we normally wouldn't be hunting, but we've changed the tactics and now we're in there. You can turn up a lot of animals there. I have a lot of, I mean, I'm looking around my little office here and I'm looking at quite a few different racks of different bucks and thinking like, oh yeah, there, there was a fire going on, like when I took that or this bowl here, that, that it was burning. And you know, I was, you know, kind of concentrated on water sources and end up getting this bugle in the middle of the day and called this bullet. Right. So you can't have any success if you aren't out there. Conditions might not be optimal, but there are things that we can do to kind of shift the odds in our favor a little bit. And even hunting in areas that you normally wouldn't hunt, just changing up your tactics, it gives you an excuse to go into some of these places. One of my best, like public land, general area mule deer came from still hunting. An area that I would have never been caught dead in probably. But I just didn't really have any other options and was moving up this, this ridge, I spotted this buck and then it was like shot the buck. Oh, cool. Awesome. Big 4x4. Sweet. And it was just because I, you know, where I wanted to hunt, I was actually, I think I've probably switched areas because where I wanted to hunt I couldn't get into and visibility was crap. So I was just kind of still hunting. And it's more that kind of country anyways, like timbered country. So it happens, right? You can, you can find success and kind of make lemonade out of lemons just by changing your tactics, really, you know, altering your, maybe the places that you're going to hunt. And then when you've got adverse conditions of like, things shutting down in your area or other things, think about, you know, where can I go that I can still hunt? Can I hunt later in the season? What's the incoming weather look like? Because look, if you're, if you've got fire restrictions and things in your area and there's a big storm coming in seven to 10 days later, plan your hunt after that. That's a good, that's a good strategy. And now maybe you might, you, you might say, well, now everybody's gonna be out in the field. Yes, that some, some people will. But some people might have planned for a different part of the season or other things. So fire definitely changes your hunt plans. It changes, you know, how effective you can be. But if you change as well, you're gonna find a lot more success. So I've got some awesome stuff coming up next week. I've got probably what I think is the couple of the best hunting videos I've ever probably put out. And then we're gonna follow it up next month with some of my, I think some of the best elk hunting action I've ever experienced. Especially I would say, I would actually know. I can say this unequivocally. I have probably two of the best bow hunting as far as action goes, elk hunt films I've ever had. Like, I had two. I hunted two places and just kind of like hit the epicenter of bugling and elk fests. And it's just so cool to see that on camera. I end up taking two great bulls on, on those films. But next week I have, I'm dropping my Northwest territories films on YouTube. So if you are not on the go on there, you know, I'm gonna, so I'm gonna drop the wolf. I'm doing it as a two part. So it's. I'm calling it a bow and boo. And I ended up taking a wolf with my bow early on in the hunt. Kind of more random than anything. This thing like saw us and cruised on in and made a great shot and, and got a wolf. Then I end up like, I mean, I'm not. No spoiler alerts I got. I ended up getting a good care book. But this is the one where I'm stalking in on this. And then part two is, is taking the caribou and I'm stocking in on this giant caribou bowl. And I'm like, repositioning and I, I slice like one of the yolks of my bow cable, like halfway through. I mean, millimeters more, and my hunt would have been over. It's just like. And I'm. And now I'm sitting there going like, okay, what do I do? I've got this bull. Like, is the bow going to shoot great? Is it? Whatever. So I stock in, I make a shot. I. And you can watch this whole thing unfold. Like, it's a. It's a. It's an awesome hunt film, in my opinion. I think it's. It's one of the best that. Probably one of the best series that I've had. And then we're gonna follow that up in Elk Month, what I'm calling Elk Month. We're going Elk Month in August on the podcast all month, all elk, all the time. So we're gonna kick that off and there's some, you know, on my YouTube channel, some awesome films that are going to come out for that also, if you just want, like, you know, elk hunting tips and tactics, that's going to be here on the podcast and I'll throw a bunch of that stuff too, on social media and other things. So really gearing up. I want to do it before elk season and get you all fired up and all that good stuff. So. So that stuff's coming out. Another thing that I wanted to mention, you know, pay attention to if you, if you're on my Instagram, you know, maybe just get notified of alerts or whatever because I will be doing some calling Q and A's here pretty soon. I've got some, some Montana knife company knives to. To give away during that. Some other cool stuff to give away. Probably give away some day six gear and some other stuff like that. So those are coming up. Another thing that I want to mention before we go on my Remy Warren. So you can go to Remy Warren dot com. I've got my gear store on there. We've got a ton of great gear and I also have like a lot of our Live Wild brand stuff. Hats, shirts, beanies, all that good stuff. There's a lot of stuff that just has maybe mismatched sizes or things that we've had for a little while. Maybe I just like bought way too much inventory of something. I am absolutely clearing house. So all the, like, logo wear, LiveWild branded gear, almost all of it is severely discounted right now. Like, you know, great deals on it. So if you're interested. You're like, hey, I want to snag a livewild hat. Or maybe there's one that you really liked. You're like, I really like that mule deer tea. Or I like this that you had it. And you're like, I need another one. I'm clearing house, I'm clearing shop. I'm going to start adding things back in. But right now I'm just, we're clearing it out. So if there's something that you want, go check it out. Because a lot of that stuff, there's maybe only a few sizes and other things. I'm just trying to consolidate, refresh everything and start over. Because there's like one size of this and that. So go check it out. You can go on my, my site, shop the logo where shop our live wild gear. I'm blowing it out right now and it'll probably be gone pretty quick. So if you're interested in that, I appreciate it. Thank you guys that love those designs and other things. Well, you know, if there's one that like yeah, we, there are some that people really liked, we can bring those back. But I just want to clear out and get rid of, you know, what's in there right now. Maybe I should do this. Maybe I shouldn't. We have some sun shirts that are awesome fishing shirts, some live wild ones. I think that we will probably. I'll probably put those on discount too. I shouldn't because now's the time that those sell and I think they're an incredible shirt. But for a limited time I'll throw those on a discount as well. So we've got some great stuff in there. Check it out. Remy warren.com and then also if you're looking for any other gear for the season, we've got a ton of great stuff in there. Some of the top products, packs, clothing, optics, we've got. There's going to be. I'm dropping well in my store and First Light's dropping a new piece of gear next week that I know about that I got to test and it is an absolute. I think it's a must buy. It's something that their kit. It's a piece of gear in their kit that I think was missing and they solved the problem and it's been in my pack for a little over a year now like through the testing phases and stuff. One of my favorite things that they have right now and it's coming out next week as well. So you check that out. I'll have it on my site if you guys want to support that and I've got some coming into my site. So thank you guys so much for all the support. I appreciate it. You know, I couldn't do this without you guys. The listeners of this podcast, the people that are like, yeah, man, I needed a new tripod. You know, I'm looking for a tricer tripod. Let's go to Remy's shop. I'm looking for a, you know, battery bank. Let's go to Remy shop, whatever. That stuff helps me a lot. So thank you guys and thank you guys so much too for all the support on the day six side. You know, right now it's like we're cranking toward the season. If you need arrows, if you need broadheads, check it out. Day6gear.com also for those that the verse, I need to say that. So like we did the, the pre sale of versus those have started to ship already. I we had a July 17 ship date or something like that. So those have been shipping out. So if you did the pre order, those are shipping. We are trying to build up stock to do more drops and we will have some more coming out also. Practice heads will be here pretty soon. So we've just been like cranking away. The guys have been working 247 it seems like so it's been awesome. But I thank you guys for your patience and your support. That verse has been phenomenal. Like people that have been using them, the reviews are out and it, it's an absolute home run for a mechanical type product. There still is going to be opportunity to get them. You just have to go on the site, go like you're going to purchase the verse and say click notify me when available. Because what's based off of the demand on it, what's going to happen is as soon as we get like a good stock of them up, we're going to, we're going to kick it on and we're going to sell those and we're going to build up a stock again. And if we do any pre sale we'll know, okay, we can build this many, this much and they'll ship, you know, this date. So if it's a more of a pre sale kind of thing, we'll let you know about it. You'll get it in the email when you buy but definitely be on that email because if not they're probably going to sell to those people that are in there and notified. I'm assuming that they're going to go quick and then, you know, we're gearing up our manufacturing. So next year it'll be full, full supply of all this stuff. But, you know, just thank you guys for the support and helping push this thing along. We're really excited about it. I'm really excited to build the best stuff out there, and I'm excited there's people that want the best stuff out there. Also. We have, you know, we have our evos. We built up a ton of our evos with our Magnacut steel, titanium, ferals. Those broadheads are phenomenal. That's what I've shot nearly everything with. And people are like, well, okay, now you've got the Versus. Now you've got the evos. What are you going to shoot? And I was like, depends on the hunt, man. I mean, evos fly phenomenal. They penetrate great. They're. I've shot nearly everything you can hunt with it and had a ton of success. So that. That broadhead, to me, is probably the one that's in my quiver on a lot of hunts. But I'll probably still always have a couple mechanicals in there as well. You know, it depends like mixed quiver, but should actually probably talk about the mixed quiver on a podcast. So excited for elk month. I might even kick it off a little early. We'll see what next week's what next week holds. But hunt films on YouTube sale on my website. Awesome. Day six gear and some stuff coming back in stock. And then. Yeah. And then elk month coming up. So we're fired up about it. I'm excited about it. And until next week, I'm going to say don't get burnt out. Hunting season's just around the corner. Catch you later, Sam.