← Live Wild with Remi Warren
Live Wild with Remi Warren
Ep. 246 | Mule deer tactics and early season bucks
00:51:35
Remi shares expert tips on early season mule deer hunting, focusing on understanding deer behavior, optimal timing, gear, and tactics to increase success during the fall hunting season.
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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 Live Wild Podcast everyone. Now we just finished up this three part series on wildfire and I got a ton of great response from you guys. So I'm really glad you enjoyed that info. Starting next week, we're going to be kicking off one of my favorite times on this podcast. We call it Elk Month. So that's going to be designed to gear you up for that September elk season. And even if you aren't a bow hunter or maybe aren't planning on elk hunting this year, there's going to be a lot of tips in there about under understanding elk and elk behavior that can really help you out throughout the season. But it's probably the time of year that I get most excited about. So you're going to notice a few things of maybe some extra podcasts in there, some extra live Q&As, and even a little thing we like to call the Sweet Sounds of September where we've got some elk calls and elk calling that you can just practice calling to. So there's a lot of fun stuff coming up and that's going to be coming on starting the beginning of August. So I like to run it during August before September hits, so you can just really dive dial in those strategies and, and plans for those that are going out and maybe going to be trying to go after bull elk this September. I know I've got an elk hunt planned. I'm actually going elk hunting early this year. I'm, I'm, I'm, my hunt is going to be like the beginning of September timeframe and I'm primarily going to be helping some friends because I'm going to be taking my dad moose hunting in that prime elk rut of September. But it's going to be my dad's first moose hunt. So I'm really excited about that coming up. However, there is something about just chasing screaming bulls in the middle of September that I will miss. Now I'm going to make up for it because the beginning of October I have an elk hunt plan for myself that I'm really looking forward to. So that's going to be a lot of fun. But this Week, I'm actually gearing up for early archery mule deer. That's my first, like, fall hunt of the season, and it's one of my favorite hunts of the year. So I'm going to be doing kind of a little breakdown for surviving those early season hunts and some of the tips and tactics and ways to really increase your success. So I'm going to break it down. We're going to look at some of the things that I look for during these early hunts and then ways to plan. And I. I've got what we're going to call five tips or five early season mule deer strategies. My five best tips after we kind of dive into breaking down the hunt. So let's jump in. I'm going to break down the hunt, share a few stories with that, and we'll go over kind of my statistical breakdown of deer hunts and how the strategy that I use pertains to that. The thing that I love about early season mule deer hunting is the fact that, well, I mean, chasing mule deer and velvet is awesome, but that early season can be a lot of fun because when they're in velvet, they're out more, they're feeding. It can honestly be one of the best times to target really mature bucks because there's a little bit of vulnerability there. Really big deer, especially mature mule deer, they start to, once they shed that velvet, start to slink away. They start to go out of their summer patterns and go into that kind of October time frame when it's probably the hardest time to turn up a mature buck. That's when a lot of general seasons happen. A lot of general rifle seasons happen during that time frame. Now, there are a lot of places. There's actually kind of. There's a few places that have early seasons that are in that August time frame. And then there's a lot of places that have September mule deer seasons. And a lot of these strategies do carry over into that September season. Because what you're going to notice is deer still in that summer pattern, but. But targeting big mature bucks during the summer. There's just something for me that I love about it especially too, because some of the country you can get in, you can get into that high country if you want, but you can also find deer throughout. Like, I, I've taken a lot of good bucks up in that high country, big mountain summer range, and I've also taken them down in the valleys in some places that are just absolutely overlooked by a lot of hunters. And I, I've found deer that are unpressured and, and some great bucks. So they can be in a variety of places this time of year. But it does. One of the things that you're gonna notice is they are more keyed into feed in that summer pattern for deer, it food sources as they're growing their antlers for a buck. And I like to, to talk about the ecology of deer and how deer are. Because once you understand the species that you're hunting, you're a lot more likely to find success because you understand the moves to make based off of understanding that animal. Now, deer are primarily browsers, so they're looking for that new growth, that nutrient, that nutrient dense growth of woody shrubs. And so when you can find like you've got. Well, one thing in the summer is they actually eat more Forbes as well in the summertime, spring and summertime than they do later in the season. But that's why they, they migrate to that winter range. And you need that really good like sage habitat or, or good brush country to have that good feed. But in the summer they're growing and, and to grow those antlers takes so much energy. And at this point in the season, they're pretty much tapped out on growth. Like they aren't. They aren't really growing much. I actually, this is such a bummer. I was driving back with my son this weekend from a concert, actually. We went and saw Jordan Davis, who I got to hunt with in Hawaii, and we've done some fishing stuff and just a good friend. And so we. He was at a concert near where we live in Nevada. And so we went, said, hey, checked it out. It was a lot of fun. I'm driving back the next morning and because my son and I camped out that night and then we drove back the next day and like right in front of me, this deer got hit by a car. And it was an absolute hammer. Like a giant, like the buck of a lifetime. Well, one in a million type deer. You know, the kind of deer. I was joking and I'm. This is a little bunny trail. But I was joking with my friends. I should make a reel about this or something. Because I'm like, all right, I trained my whole life to study mule deer, right? I was like, I shoot my bow all the time. I, you know, do all the mountain tough programs. I literally like eat, breathe and sleep thinking about chasing mule deer. You know, I wait for tag draws to come out. Like, I've, I've spent my entire life in search of those giant mule deer bucks, you know, conditioning all this, all these things Just to be at that apex, to match wits with a big, mature deer. Some lady in a Honda Civic does it while texting and driving, you know, 70 miles an hour. You. What an injustice. But I don't know that it was actually a lady and it wasn't a Honda Civic, but, you know, makes sense. So we're driving like a massive jam just in front of me. A couple of guys had already pulled off, and the deer was in the middle of the road, and they're pulling the deer, so I pull over to help him, and it was pretty. They pretty much pulled it off by that time. And unfortunately, just a toad of a buck and you go, okay. At this point, you know, most years, it depends on the year. Like, we've had a mild winter and a really wet spring in a lot of places. Dry spring in some places. But that mild winter helps them kind of go into the spring, you know, depends on where you're at in the country, too. So I'm not. This isn't for everywhere I've. I've been a lot of places that it's actually been really good conditions for deer this year. There's some places that it hasn't been, but especially, like, the southwest, I'm not so sure about, but there's some northern places throughout the country that it's actually been pretty favorable for deer and antler growth and all that kind of stuff. I've been scouting in a few states and just seen some. Some good bucks this year. But, man, there is like, are they good bucks or are they just growing out earlier and they're going to start shedding their velvet sooner? I think that they will probably shed that velvet a lot sooner this year, which I think this is a little bit of a. I know sometimes these rabbit trails, you get some good tidbits, but I really do think that some of the. I think that, like, it could be a pretty good rut this year for elk. Now, knock on wood. I say that and then, you know, something. Something happened. But. But, like, if they shed their velvet and those cows are going in really good condition, if your area wasn't hit with, like, major drought or, like, serious, you know, things like that could be a good year because they could be going in with, like, good body condition. Bulls could have dropped their velvet early. I actually put trail cams out pretty early this year just to see when they start to strip and compare that to other years. That can be a pretty good indicator, in my opinion. I don't know if there's any data on that. Maybe somebody should do a research study on it. But it seems like when they strip a little bit earlier, they, they tend to. That kind of is a good indicator of when that rut might kick off for me. So. But yeah, like when you're in that early season August, they aren't putting on much antler growth then. But you think about one thing that reminded me of this is that big buck, you're like, well, if it's got 20 points on it and you grow a half an inch on every, on every point you grow an extra, you get an extra 10 inches in score. So that's the cool thing about big non typicals is man, just a little bit of growth goes a long ways. But anyways, they're so yeah, they the summer back to where I was starting, they in the summertime, you know, they need that growth to grow those antlers out. They need that forage, they need that feed, and they're in feeding patterns and they can be more predictable. Mule deer, the thing that I love about mule deer is it is an absolute chess game because it's more like 3D chess where they don't have to make the same moves all the time. And when people ask what's the hardest thing to hunt? I often refer to mule deer as that hard thing. And the reason is, is the fact that like elk, you can call in white tails are very patternable. You can like stand hunt and predict where they're going. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying that that is a thing, right? Pronghorn, you can sit water and they can be pretty consistent to it. Mule deer have a way of surviving based off of like randomness of their behavior. A mule deer could feed out in the same general area multiple times. Like maybe they feed out there every day. And yet they might not ever take the same, like the, the trails that they take, sometimes they'll go the same trail and then sometimes they'll be 100, 200 yards left or right. Like it they, they definitely have a. A way about them of doing things differently and very hard to pattern. Now there are some mule deer, right, that I've seen that are just. They can be dumb in certain places. The places I hunt them are. They're never like that. So my experience is I'm generally hunting really hard to sneak on mule deer to find a big one, it's double that. And the big ones just don't like to follow a pattern. So they're really hard to pattern. So really the way that you Take a big meal deer buck is by stocking in on them or getting lucky. Right. But by stocking in, it means, because you can't really predict. Like even if you've got a water hole, you might have to sit that water hole for so long that it can come in at night. It come in where maybe they hit that water. It's like the only water around. And yet to get a shot on a particular buck that you might be wanting can be very difficult. Now, there might be other deer in the area, and that could be a way that you can find success on a mule deer. Sure. But to target specific deer is very difficult, especially big mature bucks. And so spot and stock is the method that really works. And that's kind of the tactics that I hunt with a lot because it's a tactic that's best suited for their behavior. And it is the most difficult. Like it fully relies on. It's that true. Like pursuit the full, like you've got to become the mountain lion. You've got to sneak in, you've got to get close enough to slip this arrow in on this deer that has really good hearing, is paying a lot of attention. Beds in places that are hard to get to and loud and arid, dry country can be difficult. So I, I, I've gone through these stats before because I broke this down when I was doing one of the outdoor classes on archery, mule deer. But it's fun to, it's fun to reiterate. It's fun for, even for me to look at because I like to like, whenever we harvest something or through guiding sometimes I, I, I'll keep a few stats just to kind of run numbers and be like, let's put some data to what I'm thinking. Like, is there actually some kind of pattern here? Now this pattern can definitely be attributed to my style of hunting. Right. So of the deer, mule deer that I've taken with a bow or, or even I think probably been a part of, with a bow, 75 of them were spotted first and then either stalked or ambushed. So that means that like I spotted them and then made a move. We'll call that spot in stock. Like sometimes. Now an ambush means that you are like, trying to cut them off. Won't go into that in a little bit, but 75% were, were stocked. This isn't just early season deer. This is deer throughout the season. And then another 25% were from still hunting or like bush stocking, where you're moving through the timber and you're just moving slowly through These timbered areas. So that might be like known travel areas, bedding areas, real timbered country. Most of those honestly are probably later in the season than earlier in the season. And then I classified like I considered anything in that still hunting category when I just spotted something less than 100 yards. And that's. That seems pretty fair. And then so of the deer taken 54% of them, over half of them were stocked in their beds. And there's going to be a reason for that. And then 37% were feeding. And then the rest were just a combination of like traveling around, pushing does maybe, you know, rut, A lot of that would be like outside of that would maybe be contributed to rut hunts, which getting on rut hunts is a great time of year to hunt deer, but there's fewer opportunities to do it honestly. So it says that kind of just really breaks down the opportune time to make a play. Now betting is, is one, because when they're bedded, you really get time to get into position so you can crawl in, you can, you can wait for the right wind. You, you make the stock and it's on you. And that to me, like, that's the one where I feel like my heart's pounding in my chest the whole time. That, that to me is what gets me fired up about meal there is that. That kind of stock. But definitely trying to cut them off, ambush them would be that strategy that's probably used more when they're. They're feeding. So feeding presents like a really cool opportunity because they're just more distracted and it gives you that opportunity to move in when they're doing something else because when they're bedded, they are like, sometimes they'll fall asleep, but there's probably other deer around and they are just thinking about safety. Like every little crack of a stick, movement, wind, whatever, they're trying to position themselves. Like, I know I'm going to be a little disadvantaged, so I'm going to be paying attention. I'm going to be in a place that's harder to sneak up on me. Got the wind and all these other things in my favor, so it makes it more difficult. And then this is a, I think that this is kind of an interesting tell when it comes to early season deer. So like, of the deer that I've taken or we've taken 50%, it was like right around 50% have been during the middle of the day or after that, like initial bedding. So midday time frame. And then 35% have been in the Evening or the last few hours of the day. So when you really start to dissect that, it's probably because midday time. That's when I feel like you can really predict the thermals a little better. So sometimes if you rush in in the morning, things are changing. Like it's been cold, now it's heating up, it's heating up rapidly. The sun's moving really quick that time of day. And so what you get is you get, you know, erratic winds. You also get moving shadows, like really fast moving chassis. Deer could bed. You go to do a stock and by the time you're not in a great position, that deer's up and moved and gone or it now sees you. There's a lot of problems with that also in that first betting, initial betting, like they are more on edge because they're like, okay, I just moved out of feed. Now I'm going to kind of get settled and see if anything's following, whatever. I'm just going to hang out here and then they're going to go and find a little bit better spot. So once things start to stabilize, that's when your higher percentage opportunities come because the thermals are going to. The day's going to kind of be consistent. The sun's up above, it's as hot as it's going to be. Like it's already heated up. That shift in temperature is what causes real erratic winds, winds to change, thermals to change. And in the morning is when that shift, because you go from no sun to full sun and that full sun is hot, especially early in the season, it's hot, right? So you go from like I might be wearing a jacket pre light to now the sun is fully like starting come up and then it's heating the air up above and things are starting to change, right. So you go from no, like a long period of night with no sun to now a period of sun and it's very tumultuous. It moves the thermals around. It creates like shifting and swirly wind winds. It's not great. The evening is actually more stable because you're going from a period of consistent heat to now no sun. But it, it's, it really only affects it as the sun drops for the like final part of the, the light and then it's dark. Hunting hours are over. The, the crazy changes that are happening at dark don't necessarily affect you as much. So as it's decreasing in the sky, it is going to do some things, but it's more consistently timed because you've had like a more consistent heat going into that darkness and you're in the dark. So. So the evening is not terrible, but the morning is probably the best time to get busted. I have killed deer in the mornings. Mostly it's like moving to and from water or like ambush strategies. I try like heck to get deer in the mornings, but to be honest, like, it's more successful midday and in. In the evenings for me, maybe there's somebody else out there that's like, yeah, I'm a morning. Like depending on where you're at, maybe it. Maybe it's completely different. You could be like hunting big flats and stuff like that. Maybe it's just. Maybe you found a strategy that's different. I would say where mornings would be more successful is sitting. Like, if you're sitting water, I believe that mornings are probably a really good opportunity for you. And so, like, if you did a lot of sitting water, maybe these strategies would be different. Maybe if I was a guy that's like, yeah, I sit water. That's how I hunt, maybe my numbers would be completely different. But for the way that I like to hunt deer, that that's what it kind of works out to. In the middle of the day is great because that sun's overhead is consistent. Like it's hot and it's going to stay hot. The way that the sun travels, the shadows are moving less. The thermals are more consistent. And so what I mean by the thermals is like, it's heating up. So the heat that's hitting the, like the sun hitting the rocks and the ground below is causing the heat to rise. And that heat to rise, it can mess with the prevailing wind and cause, you know, some disturbances. But sometimes it allows your, your scent to go straight up in the air and away from the deer if you get a weird swirl. So the thermals can be our, like, best friend on a lot of stocks. So that is kind of how it's broken down when I think of early season hunting and then I'm looking for those, those high percentage stocks and things like that. One of the things that I, I really like about early season and being out there when, when they're in velvet is, you know, you're gonna see like the best time to find deer, in my opinion is the morning. Okay. So I put so much focus onto that morning glass like that I want to be in the position where I can watch. And especially if I'm in oat country, if I'm in timbered country, I'm hunting it a little Bit different. I might be moving more in the morning, honestly, like as deer moving from different feed to cover, maybe I'm like moving the edges and I don't have great visibility from one location. So I'm just continually moving till I catch those deer on their feet. They're a lot easier to spot on their feet than they are bedded. And so depending on the type of terrain that I'm hunting, my tactic will switch up and that might even be in the same unit. You know, I could be in an area that's got more open. It's got every time I'm set up glassing and then hey, there's this part of COVID where so I can't really glass it from anywhere. So maybe I'm moving more in the morning through that. But if I had my choice, I'm really going to be like locked in in the morning, doing some glassing. And then the afternoons, the way that I, I plan my hunts around, I'm going to be probably really looking into prime bedding areas and trying to glass in there, picking out shade shadows. The thing that I talk about more than anything and you know, I think that you'll probably hear this strategy repeated because from other people, because I repeated it so much, but until I started talking about it like this, I don't think I'd ever heard anyone like audibly say this is like look for those places where the wind's going downhill at a deer's back and the shade is downhill, right? Like there's, you can really limit. They like a certain area when you bump a deer that's like better you see a deer that's bedded, find those places. There's a reason they like those places because they, you know, it's like they, they bet in. They, they find the place that's most conducive to their safety. Find the places conducive to their safety for that particular day. Now places where there's not a lot of shade, you know, find places that have that shade in places where there is a lot of shade. Find the places that have that wind. So that those are, those are some strategies to think about when it comes to early season deer. So I'm going to break down five just quick hitter tips and tactics. Maybe I'll throw in. You know, there's going to be some, a little bit of tip and tactic in each one of these tips and tactics as I like to do. But before we go into that, one of the things that I wanted to let you guys know. My Northwest Territories Hunt films are have dropped the part. So I called it of bow and Boo. You might have seen part one. That did was Tuesday. Today's now Thursday. So tonight part two is dropping. That's when I get in on a giant caribou bowl with my bow. My broadhead hits my quiver and cuts like half my strings and I don't know it. I think that this series, like this two part film is probably one of my. I just, I really like, I really enjoyed putting this together. I really enjoyed that hunt. Like it was just an incredible experience. It was a mountain caribou, the last caribou that I needed for what we're going to call like a caribou slam. It was a dream of mine to kind of chase all the species of caribou in North America. And you know, somebody had told me like a long time ago, if you want a caribou, hunt them now. When I started on that path and the mountain caribou was the last one I needed and honestly the one that I was most excited about. I'd heard stories of hunting Northwest Territories in the Mackenzie Mountains and it was just everything is cracked up to be like the visuals there are phenomenal. If you haven't seen it. Part one, I encounter a wolf and get a wolf with my bow. We come across a lot like and there was so much that happened that's like not even on film, right. It's like I, I wish we could have captured everything perfectly and had a fight. Like it probably would have been a five hour video. But I think that it's an awesome hunt. If you guys want to watch a great hunt film, you know, start with the wolf one and then check out the caribou one. It's I think part one and two. You can go to my YouTube channel. If you don't subscribe to my YouTube channel, make sure you subscribe to it if you have an account. And then the other thing I was going to say, like, if you guys like it, you know, I'm going to be putting. I've got a lot more incredible hunts. So for Elk month I've got two archery elk hunts that are going to come out videos. It was probably the biggest bugle fest I've had in a very, very long time. There's. I've had some phenomenal days hunting. In some, in some of my favorite days hunting were in like general areas and just got into them so thick. And most of those really, really good days, to be honest, I was either guiding or didn't have a camera. So it's pretty epic that like, I had two hunts where it was just absolute like scream fest. And it's funny because you look at him and it's like, I'm the guy that's caught. I'm call guy. Right? You should know that about me. Like, I passed up so many bulls that I called in because it, it was a good area. It was like on fires. It was awesome. It was like the elk that I ended up taking, I. I think I was like, they were, they were one of those calling when I had to stock in late last day, which I told that story, but I think. And then there, yeah, I ended up. You gotta watch one. There's a little bit of a heartbreaker, like clipping a stick on a big bowl and some other stuff, but just I think, like, I've got some of my favorite films that I've ever done coming out, so check those out. If you guys are on there watching, feel free to like, give it a thumbs up, drop a comment, you know, an encouraging comment. And then there's also a hype thing on, on YouTube. So you can just like, everybody has so many points per day or whatever. And if you like a video, you can like hype it. Feel free to hype. Hype the video if you like it. It helps us out, you know, I mean, it's just one of those things, like, it's. It's awesome to be able to do these videos and, and do that kind of stuff. So if you guys like it, feel free to support it that way. That's just. People are always like, oh, what's. So, you know, that's. That's a great way that you can just support what we do if you enjoy it. So thank you guys for that. And then I'm just really excited. I'm really excited for some of the video. And then, man, I've got incredible mule deer hunt, like coming out with my brother. We've got some. Some great. I think this year, like this back half of the year, the films that we've got in the hopper that are ready to go or, you know, we're editing are awesome. So I think that you guys will enjoy them. But I want to mention that. And then. Oh, the other last thing that I want to mention here is I am releasing another film in Sheridan at the Weatherby Film Festival this Friday. There are still some tickets available if you get a wild hair and want to drive to Sheridan and have a great time. It was one of my favorite. It was actually. It was my favorite event that I did last year. It was so fun. We'll have a day six booth there set up in town so like they shut the street down the Yo Theater host it and it's an incredible theater, incredible place for, you know, hunting and hunting films. The film that I have this year is. I think it's just. It's so different than the one that I did last year and for a reason. I went hunting with my son Kit. We. It was like we were in New Zealand. It was just boys day out. I gave him like the 360 camera if you have kids. And I. And to be honest I'm not sure if I will. I'm going to. I'm going to just play it by your whether I actually put this one out on YouTube. Maybe I'll do like a. I don't know how to do it. Maybe I'll just do it through my email. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do on this one, you know. But it is going to be at the film festival and the thing is like if you have kids you will 100% understand because I think it just perfectly speaks to what it's like to take a kid out on a hunt. And even if you find success or not like it's so fun. It's so challenging. Like it is just such a good time. So I'm really excited about that and I don't know if it'll be your only way to watch this one. It might be. So I don't know. I probably. We'll see. Maybe I'll release it later in the year. We'll. I'll decide later but I think it's just one of those that's just. It's so cool if you get a chance. If you can make it, do it. So that's. I'll put some links on my social media for that and. And you can check that out. So that's. Those are my kind of announcements things that I was excited about. And then here's my five like early season mule deer tips. So I broke down what deer are doing the percentages of the way that I like like to hunt. If I was to pick five things that I think are really important this time of year. Number one I already mentioned but is wait for those good thermals. The wind is going to bust you now the. The proper stock. If you're. You see a deer, you watch it, you wait for it to bed. Wait and make that move once the temperature stabilize. I so there. There are times where I just attack I was like, he's in a good spot. Like, if a deer goes and goes in in beds below. Here's what I'm gonna say. If a deer goes in, like, beds below this, like, cliff with a. An absolute bullseye approach, run over there, like, get there while he's there, because that's as good as it gets. And you know, you'll probably have favorite, like, especially if you got a decent wind, even if it swirls a little bit, if it's tucked up against the cliff, you'll probably be fine, go get that buck. But if it's like bedded out on this hillside in, in this little patch of trees or whatever, wait for those thermals. You need those thermals to really stabilize. You need them to be in that spot for a while. And you really, that wind is what is going to bust you. Nine times out of ten, you're going to have to take it slow. You're going to have to have time to crawl, but you need a good wind and those thermals are going to help you out. Which leads us to number two. You have to have good shade. Pay attention, play the game. What's that sun going to do? How long is it going to take to get there? And is that deer going to be there? And do you have time to make the right approach and take it slow? If not, wait for him to bed another time. Because that good shade means, like, it's got enough shade that as that sun moves, it's not going to readjust that shade and then he's going to get up and have to leave or vacate that spot. What I like to do is, like, I've got a deer that's, that's well shaded and I see which way the shade's moving. If you don't know, like, just mark it. Like, if you got a tripod or whatever out or stick, like there's a tree, mark where the shade is, set your watch, and then mark where it is, you know, 30 minutes later as you're glassing or watching it or whatever, you'll be able to tell. And there's a part of the day where it starts. As it gets more overhead, it's casting the shade down. And there's a long period of the day where it's not moving as much. So I try to time it where the thermals are, right, they've got the good shade for me to get into position, and then I close the gap in that time that I think it's now going to start to heat up, because I don't want to be sitting there for hours in that red zone if I can help it. Sometimes I have to, like, it's just like, get close, wait for him to stand. But there's. There's many times where it's like, okay, I'm trying to time it. Where he's got good shade. It's. I think I can estimate it. Like, do that when you aren't in the stock, when you're scouting, when you're out there. Like, how much time do I think that I would have go? Just. Just practice learning that. You start to get a good feel for it. And I can go, oh, okay. I think I'm gonna have this much time. Okay. And then the sun's going to. And, man, I've got. I've got it nailed down. Sometimes where I can get there, I'm like, okay, I got to get within 30 yards this much, and I only want to be sitting there for 20 minutes. And it's like, by the time that happens, boom, the sun's on the deer. He's three or four minutes into the sun. He stands up to readjust. I'm already at full draw arrow scent. Yes, that's a perfect meal. Deer hunt number three. I like. Like, if I'm backpack hunting or whatever, early season, I go light on my gear, heavy on my optics. I probably have just as heavy of a pack, and it's in optics. I'm probably bringing a big spotter. I might have the big binos. If I got the big binos, I might adjust the size of the spotter. I'm very fortunate. I know I have lots of different sizes of spotters because I do this professionally, not only as a guide, but, you know, doing all this stuff. So I. I have access to awesome gear. And over the years, I've acquired a bunch of different great gear. But. But honestly, like, I definitely, at the bare minimum, mueller hunting, I have a spotting scope every time, and I have a pair of binoculars that are gonna go onto a tripod. If you want to maximize your weight to whatever ratio, you're gonna have a good spotter in there. And then I like 12 power binoculars that I can throw on a tripod. I'm gonna try out. I've got the. A new tricer tripod. I've been. I've been running it this spring as a tester and actually just got them up on my site, too. I like it because, though they change the center post in it so the legs come closer together, and it's a really solid base. And then I just got one of their more panhead heads, so you can check those out on my website, actually, because I. I'm pretty stoked on it. Like, I like the updates that they made to it. I'm really pumped on that. And I. I've been running it springtime and doing all my scouting, and I'm like, yeah, this is. I like the. Because most of the time I'm sitting down. So I got. I've been running the bigger tripod. There are times where I like to maybe be sitting in a chair or something like that. That's where it's like, okay, angled straight. I don't know. On spotters, sometimes nice to have the angle because you can be. Sit a little higher looking down, but acquiring the target so much faster with a straight spotter. So I don't know. That is just, you know, up to you. But that. The bigger. The taller tripod I find handy, even though it's a little heavier, for the fact that I can still use those legs when I'm sitting in that. That fatter basin leg just makes it more stable. Like, there's a lot of wind in mule deer country, so having that stable platform is nice. And then if I got to go a little bit higher over stuff or want to sit, like, sometimes, like, even on backpack hunts, I will bring like a light packable chair. But if I'm just like checking other spots, man, I've got like a chair in the side by side and I'll throw that out and start glassing. So getting steady. That's awesome. But definitely optics heavy. And then when it comes to gear, like, I've got a light shirt. I throw in a puffer jacket. If I have rain gear, it's for. It's probably just a. Like a light. I just have the flash storm first light one. It could literally fit in your pocket. You can use it as a windbreak, too. Like if it gets cold or maybe it's like windy, but you get chilled at night, but it's not. You don't need a lot of insulation. You just need to cut the wind. It's great for that. And then like super light tent, pretty much, it's like nothing. A light sleeping bag, sleeping pad, water, number step water. We'll talk about that as number four. And yeah, just rock and roll. And that brings us to number four. Because I. On a lot of these hunts, if there's not a lot of water around, I'm carrying a lot of water and I'm drinking a lot of water. And then I. I'VE mentioned this, but I. Look, actually, I'm gonna adjust number four. I'm gonna say caffeine. It's like. You know what kills a lot of mule deer for me? Caffeine. I mean, I can. I could count, Like, I should do a tally on the percentage of deer. That is like the. The energy and focus kept me in the game. It's like one of those things that whatever your caffeine du jour is. I do a lot of midday glassing, and it is mentally taxing, man. It's like to look into shadows, and sometimes I'll stare at the same spot for a long time. How do you know how long to stare when you've done it enough? You know the kind of places that just feel bucky, and you're like, okay, there's got to be deer here. You're staring, staring, and then finally you see something that you think is movement. And it turns out, I remember was a couple. Well, my mouth tab buck. That same day, like, the buck that I ended up killing, I was moving in on a different deer that was just in this hole. Like a steep hillside, shaded, Stared in there forever. Finally figured out there was a deer in there. And it was just too dark and too far to see what it was. So I'm moving closer. So I got on the ridge, move in, I get over there, and it's like a younger buck. So I was just like, well, now I have a new view of a different hill. Look down, and there's a. There's a really good 3 by 3. Exactly the type of buck that I was looking for in a perfect spot. Awesome. But, you know, that middle of the day glassing takes it out of you. Like, mentally, it's like, you might not be physical, but physically, mentally, I guess it just tears you up. Being in the sun beats you up. It does. So you need to stay hydrated. And then, like, if you're all day glassing a little bit of. A little bit of, like, caffeine boost goes a long way. If you're a type of person that can. If you're like, hey, I don't use any kind of caffeine in any way, more power to you. But some kind of energy boost has killed a lot of big meal deer. Not just for me, for a lot of people. People. So I will say that that is. That's the truth. And then that leads us to number five, shade. Like I said, the sun just. The sun just tears you up. Glassing in some kind of shade. Sometimes it's not really possible because the way that you need to be glassing, it's like the sun's beating on you. I will never go meal deer. Probably most hunts without a hooded shirt. Early season. I really like first, like Yuma base layer. It's like a synthetic, but also I, I, I go back and forth between that and just like the wick lightweight wool. It'll be real hot out, and I'll wear that light wool because sometimes you'll sweat. It'll just kind of hold your sweat a little bit, keep you cool. And then it, the way wool fabric works is when it gets hot, it just really opens up. So I, I go with both, but I will 100, always have a hood. And then I actually will when I'm glassing, like, run that hood to the end of my hat so it creates the shade. Don't forget like, like use sunscreen. The stuff just keep, keep the sun off of you. Because it's the thing that tires. Tires me out. Tires people out. That heat just tires you out. And another thing is, like, use whatever available shade you can make. Shade if you have to. I'll get a little tarp, glassing tarp. If I'm a long ways away, I'll tuck into a rock. I'll build like a little shelter in glass from that. If I'm near a vehicle, right. I'll like park the vehicle in a way that creates shade and then go sit on the shady side and, and glass from there from advantage, like constantly using shade if I can. Any way that you can effectively try to escape the heat, which isn't, it's hard to do when you're doing it right. Do it. Get like, tuck into the little shade pocket. Get yourself like a good hooded shirt. Bring like a little glassing tarp or whatever, you know, even sometimes like a glassing chair where you can kind of get off the ground a little bit helps. But just get comfortable for your glassing and, and try to shade your, your optics the best you can. That's the most important thing. Like, I'll have, I'll have sun on me, but if I can shade my lens and like, try to cover my eyes, sometimes I'll take my jacket or whatever and just throw it over me like a, Create like a dark room so I can just glass without all that extra light hitting my eyes, you get less eye fatigue. Keeps you in the game longer and keeps you glassing, like, especially those midday lulls better. So those are my kind of five tips and tactics for that early season. I think that Combined with understanding how deer move, deer behavior and then waiting for the opportune time for that stock can really be beneficial when it comes to that early season deer hunt, whether it's August or September, chasing those big mule deer while they're in their summer patterns. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. If you can tell, I get pretty fired up as it gets close to the season and it's, it's exciting for me to get out. I'm going to be doing a little bit more scouting and then hit the ground running. So I'm, I'm really looking forward to this early season mule deer hunt getting out on some, you know, September elk hunts. Like I said, Elk month is coming up, so pay attention if you got, you know, social media or whatever. I'm going to be doing a couple. I think I'm going to try to do at least two calling Q& A's some sometime next week. I'm not sure exactly when I should, I should nail them down. But sometimes it's just for me, it's like other stuff comes up with all the other things that we're doing and planning for hunts and all that good stuff. And I go, oh, geez, I need to do this. And then, and then try to find time to do it. So I do them on kind of short notice because we do the lines fill up, but I'm going to preface it with like being elk hunting questions for Elk Month. If you have a question on something else, I will absolutely answer it and it's fine. But you know, majority of it, like elk tactics and stuff like that. So I'm really looking forward to that. That's going to be fun. As a reminder, and another thing is just, I just want to say thank you guys, those of you that have been supporting day six. You know, we, we are, we're just, we're growing and going and just doing it the best way we know how. And that's what excites me about, is like we're never gonna compromise our quality for anything. So there is a little bit of a lead time on a few stuff. Like everything's handmade, everything's built by someone. It's not like we are not just pumping these out of a factory that is just can make thousands and millions of things. Like there's so much that goes into every piece of our equipment and that's why the quality is there. I really do believe that there's nothing that really comes close because nothing's made in this, in this simple similar way. And so if you guys are interested, now's the time. Like, as we get closer to the season, it's just going to get harder and harder and some things might just be sold out or, or on longer lead times. Thank you guys. For those who've been patient and ordered some stuff and it's like, guys are literally working around the clock. Like, I have to give a hand to our team. Like, these guys are workers. Like, they are as passionate about hunting and all this stuff as you and me and everyone else. And they know what it means to get this stuff out. And when you get a Day six product, it has been in the hands of a die hard hunter that just wants the best for you. And these guys are coming in like all hours of the day and night to make sure that this stuff gets done. So everybody just. Round of applause for the Day 6 crew, the Day 6 team, and a round of applause. Thank you guys. For our customers, our past customers, our new customers. Thank you for giving us a chance to be a part of your hunt and your hunt story. It's what I live for, honestly. And when we've, I've been getting like, you know, messages from people like, dude, I got these. I picked them up because I whatever wanted to support you or heard about it on the podcast and like, I'm absolutely blown away. Those are the kind of things that just fuel me every day when I get up and do what we do. You. So thank you guys. Keep those coming. Keep your success stories coming. And I love to share that kind of stuff. Like, it's just awesome for me to see. And then just the, you know, people really enjoying what we're building because we just put so much into it. And I think that, I think that it shows within our products. This is a, this is a company that is out of in some ways, like the things that we build are the things that we think are missing and we really, really want to see. And so we just put so much into that. And I think that you can really tell when, when you get something from us, that's what you're getting. And so I appreciate it. Thank you guys. If you guys, if you're like, yeah, I like that, check out our website, day6gear.com we sell arrows, broadheads, the whole gamut. I will give you a quick rundown because we do. We have been getting a lot of questions. People are like, well, which, which ones do I get? I'm going to do a quick rundown of our arrows and broadheads for those that like, I, I've talked About before but maybe you missed it. You want to know? This is like the, the elevator pitch of what we've got. The. Our arrows are going to go in three different kind of stages. Hds, those are our flagship ones. That's the one that I've used more than any other arrow that we have. That's like our tried and true. That's our bread and butter. It's a heavier grains per inch. It's really for elk hunting, western big game hunting. It's a micro diameter heavy duty, like super thick walls, heavier grain per inch. Literally bomb proof arrow. Especially for those hunts like elk hunting. Okay, now we have our XD arrow. That's our mid range arrow. That's going to be like, that's a 5 millimeter and it's kind of that balanced weight. That's like if you're like yeah, I do a lot of this, I do a lot of that. I don't really want that super heavy setup. But yeah, I go after elk a lot and I want, I still want that weight. That's your arrow. It's a very good shooting arrow. Like I always go back because I'm like man, that arrow just shoots really well for me. And maybe it's that, that balanced weight or whatever. It's kind of the dual, right? It's in between everything and it works really well. Then we have our new XR arrow. That is our lightweight yet keeping the durability factor. So we've got heavy hd. We got our midweight XD so extended. So we got our HD for heavy duty, we got our XD for extended duty and we got our XR for extended range. That's trajectory. So it's a lighter grain print. But what we did was we used special high modulus carbon. We built it in a certain way where out of a light arrow. It's the most durable light arrow out there. You know we pair it with our component system which is that's the problem with micro diameters is a lot of the component system. We solved that problem. Like our component system is out of this world. It's extremely accurate. And then we have so many options for like weight forward and stuff like that. So guys that really want to have tweak with it, that's probably going to be our most popular arrow because that's kind of the way that the market's going and that's a way that a lot of people like to use. There will be guys that hunt elk with that. You know my preference is the heavier arrow. Everybody's got you know, different strokes for different blokes, right? So I think that it's a phenomenal arrow. I, I, like, a lot of my friends are so pumped on that arrow. Some of my buddies that have been testing it kind of behind the scenes are like, dude, dude, this is. You guys knocked it out of the park with this. I've been testing it. Like, I, I'm sold on it. Like, I was a little apprehensive first. Like, I didn't want to be snakes and sparklers guy, to be honest. Like, yeah, well, we. I just like, if you've ever seen Joe Dirt, where's kicking Wayne? Just like, he just likes snakes and sparklers. But honestly, I've been so impressed with this arrow that it's an arrow that's in my quiver and I'm going to be hunting with. So. Not because I have to, because I really want, like, it's a phenomenal arrow. So if you're looking for that, like, lighter GPI micro diamond diameter arrow, that is the, that's like the Ferrari of arrows, man. It is. It is as good as it gets. And then on our broadhead side with our Evos, we have our just standard Evo. That's the one that's like, I think that's for elk. It's for longer distances. It's our best penetrating, best flying. The Evo X is really good for like stand hunting where you're like white tails, bears, you want a better blood trail and you're shooting shorter distances. That's the Evo X. I might have said XL on accident. And then our Evo xl, that's our trad bow arrow. That's if you're shooting a compound. That's not the arrow, that's not the broadhead you want. The Evo XL is our, our trad bow broadhead. Sorry, I might have said arrow getting all twisted up my words here. But that's for like long bows, recurves, heavier weight, bigger point, that kind of thing. And then we have our verses, which we're building. If you've order your verse like we are, we're. We're cranking those out. And if you're wondering about practice heads because you made it to the end of the podcast, you're like, wonder practice. They're coming. So we're building the practice heads. They're going to be very limited, but they will be limited to the people that purchased the verses. So those are coming out. We've just been cranking, man. We're going as best we can. And I thank you guys so much for the support. It means the world to me, honestly. And the other thing is cool, is I know that you guys are getting some phenomenal stuff, so it's great. It's great on both ends, I guess. So thank you guys so much. And until next week, I'm gonna say hunt them in the heat. We'll catch you guys later.