Saturday, June 6, 2020
Teaser theHunter: Call of the Wild Remi Warren collaboration
Announcing a collaboration with theHunter: Call of the Wild. Professional hunter Remi Warren and the leading outdoor immersive hunting game have joined forces. Here is a sneak peak at what they are cooking up!
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
How to debone a hind quarter- Advanced Backcountry Butchering Techniques
The best way to de-bone a deer or elk. This how to is the advanced version. If your boned out meat does not look like this, it should. Watch, learn, and share. less waste, more convenient,easy for butchering back home.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
A little look into my world
Here is a quick video I put together about what I do. I edited this video in the car on the way out to scout for a fiends antelope hunt and do some backcountry fishing for tiger trout in Nevada.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Life Below the Equator
"Sportsmans Paradise" sums up what it is like on the South Island of New Zealand. So far all of our hunters have been 100% success on everything they have been hunting. Internet is sparse to upload videos but we have harvested 7 stag, 5 Tahr, 4 Wild Sheep, 1 Fallow, and 5 Pigs most of it on video. Here is a quick scouting video of some free range stag.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A Season by the Numbers
Now that the main part of my season has winded down I really want to take a moment to reflect on the events and the time put in this year. I decided to put some of my season into a form of numbers. I have also put together a couple of videos to share in this post. Enjoy!
I think of it like this. How many people are lucky enough to go on a 96 day hunting trip? Actually how many people could survive a 96 day hunting trip - no break? I am not talking about walking to a whitetail blind every day either, although that was done on some days. Most of the time was spent pushing it in steep mountainous country. I don’t care who is with me, if you tell me you want to kill an elk I will push you to do what it takes to get one.
I made some amazing memories this season outside of the harvest. Every trip I took was a blast and for me the experience of the trip is what counts. If you plan on hunting 100’s of days a year you better be in it for the experience, otherwise you will end up miserable.
The coolest thing I filmed would have to be when I captured a Dall sheep ram and a Wolverine in the same frame. That was the first Wolverine I have seen in the wild. I also captured a grizzly bear which was cool. Some of my favorite shots actually came from the GoPro. I am not just saying this because I sell them on my site. I am saying it because you can get some crazy shots. I filmed my brother Jason and myself inflating a raft and carrying it to the Missouri river where we paddled across so he could try to hammer a Monster bull elk. It turned out cool. Here are a few shots to tide you over. This is not even a fraction of the footage I got this year but it has a little of everything.
To me I actually enjoy a torturous pack out. It is what makes western hunting truly unique. It makes the kill of the animal just the beginning of the adventure. Call me nuts but some of my best memories are when I am packing meat and hides off the mountain.
I will say that one of my favorite pieces of gear for tracking my elevation is my Sunnto watch. It tells me the elevation and I can even log my elevation. I wanted to keep track of my elevation on my Alaska hunt but forgot to stop the log when we got on the bush plane to change camps in the middle of the hunt. I am notorious for that. Oh well. I got a good idea of how far I went each day by watching my altimeter.
Fires in the area I like to hunt elk in Western Montana only magnified the heat. We still had a great archery week during peak rut. The bulls need to breed no matter the weather. I think people often forget this. Just because it is hot does not mean the rut won’t happen. It just means the time it is going off change. If there is a full moon you can count on the rut happening at night. I really like years like this year when the peak rut coincided with no moon.
All in all, another season down and I guess it all adds up.
200
Since this time last year I have put in around 200 days in the field between hunting and scouting. That only left 165 days for fishing. 96
My longest straight go was 96 consecutive days of hunting – No Breaks just straight hunting! Actually it would be 122 days but there were a few travel days in there that broke up the consecutive hunt before the 96 days.I think of it like this. How many people are lucky enough to go on a 96 day hunting trip? Actually how many people could survive a 96 day hunting trip - no break? I am not talking about walking to a whitetail blind every day either, although that was done on some days. Most of the time was spent pushing it in steep mountainous country. I don’t care who is with me, if you tell me you want to kill an elk I will push you to do what it takes to get one.
7
I held 7 big game tags this year including- Nevada Mule deer, Montana Whitetail, Montana Elk, Montana Antelope, Montana Wolf, Idaho Bear and Alaska Dall sheep. Out of the seven tags I held I filled 4. For me this was one of my harder seasons but that is how it goes sometimes. I had two bad archery misses that will haunt me for a while but it happens. The way I see it is things, can and will go wrong, but when the dust settled and I look back on the season everything worked out. This year I had my share of trials in the field but I also had some great tribulations that will forever trump the rest. I made some amazing memories this season outside of the harvest. Every trip I took was a blast and for me the experience of the trip is what counts. If you plan on hunting 100’s of days a year you better be in it for the experience, otherwise you will end up miserable.
12
I took my video camera on every hunt. I used my Canon HF S200 and my GoPro. I was able to capture 12 kills on video as well as quite a few misses and tons of other animals.The coolest thing I filmed would have to be when I captured a Dall sheep ram and a Wolverine in the same frame. That was the first Wolverine I have seen in the wild. I also captured a grizzly bear which was cool. Some of my favorite shots actually came from the GoPro. I am not just saying this because I sell them on my site. I am saying it because you can get some crazy shots. I filmed my brother Jason and myself inflating a raft and carrying it to the Missouri river where we paddled across so he could try to hammer a Monster bull elk. It turned out cool. Here are a few shots to tide you over. This is not even a fraction of the footage I got this year but it has a little of everything.
20
Since the beginning of my fall season to the end I lost 20 lbs. This is fairly typical of a season for me. When you burn more calories than you can physically take in, you lose weight, period. I was not out of shape before the season but there is nothing like hard work 24/7. I actually got sick of eating about week five. I eat healthy, no crap food, because I feel that good food builds a good foundation. I will be spending the off-season (if there is such a thing) trying to bulk up for my next go. I still eat healthy, run every day, and lift weights. It is important to build my strength back up before the major mountain hunting starts again in March.3
The most elk I skinned and quartered in one day was three. We actually got my first triple- three guys and three bulls out of the same herd! It was cool, but it was way back in with well over 2000 ft. elevation gain to the spot. The day we killed the elk the winds were gusting over 60 mph and it was near zero degrees. Cold and miserable does not even begin to explain the circumstances. If you have ever killed an elk in a nasty place and had that feeling that this is going to be some serious work, imagine that feeling with three elk on the ground.15
Fifteen was the most wolves I called in during a single day. I actually was surrounded by them while trying to get one with my bow. It was the largest pack I have ever seen. I actually think two packs had converged and I was caught in the middle. I howled in a group of six black Wolves. Then there were another six in a different pack below us. The lower pack started to howl and the two packs converged as I tried to cut them off. I got 30 yards to a few but could not get a shot with my bow. Later on more single wolves moved in as I barked and howled getting all the wolves to go crazy. I chased the wolves for about three hours straight howling back and forth. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced to be in the middle of wolves like that with a tag in my pocket and a bow in my hand. I know I will probably get the most response for this part of the post, with people saying, “Why didn’t you shoot them with a rifle?” This was actually during the wolf archery only season. If the rifle season had been open I could have taken my pick of the pack. 178
The heaviest pack I carried was 178 lbs. It was actually the day of the triple. My brother Jason and I each packed a whole elk in one trip. We both loaded up our frames with half a boned out elk. We had the other bull hanging in a tree bone in to get out later (the third elk was split between three other guys with packs). The weather was so nasty as we started to leave, Jason and I figured why not try to get some of the hanging elk a little way out if we can. We put the other straps in our pack, lashed the bone-in hind quarter to the outside of our packs and drug the other bone-in front shoulder behind. We both had an entire elk each. Half was boned-out the other half bone-in. Like a couple of idiots who wanted to prove how tough we were, we each carried the whole elk out in one trip to the truck over two miles away. Keep in mind that my body weight at that point was about 156 lbs. When I got to the truck I was really glad I did not have to go back for another elk, even though my whole body ached.To me I actually enjoy a torturous pack out. It is what makes western hunting truly unique. It makes the kill of the animal just the beginning of the adventure. Call me nuts but some of my best memories are when I am packing meat and hides off the mountain.
465,000
That is my vertical elevation gain while hiking and training. 465,000 vertical feet up! This stat does not include the down. I could have summited Everest 16 times over the course of the fall season. I had to do an estimate but I kept it conservative. I though back to all the hunts and tried to add up my elevation gain for each day. I use a gps some weeks just to gather stats but not every week, it is too much of a pain in the butt. I do however have a pretty good gauge of how far I can go in a week with each client. I also know about how far I can go on my own. My best elevation gain on a personal hunt in one day was just over 8,300 feet. It was the day I missed my Nevada Mule deer. I was whipped, especially since I ran from where I spotted the buck to the cliff above him before he feed off. Without training hard this feat would not have been possible. This stat is just elevation gain and does not include the miles upon miles put into hike that elevation. I wore the Schnee's Granite boots and they really held up. I would bet that I put more miles on a single pair of boots in one season than most people would in a lifetime. Some of the mountaineering style boots are pricey but a pair of every day hunting boots just won't hold up. I will say that one of my favorite pieces of gear for tracking my elevation is my Sunnto watch. It tells me the elevation and I can even log my elevation. I wanted to keep track of my elevation on my Alaska hunt but forgot to stop the log when we got on the bush plane to change camps in the middle of the hunt. I am notorious for that. Oh well. I got a good idea of how far I went each day by watching my altimeter.
100
The hottest I ever saw the temperature get while elk hunting in the end of September. It actually hit 100 degrees in the breaks while we were on my brother’s elk hunt. We still found a giant bull but 100 degrees is insane for peak rut. The bulls screamed all night and slept all day (aside from early morning activity). I think this year was the hottest peak rut I have ever seen.Fires in the area I like to hunt elk in Western Montana only magnified the heat. We still had a great archery week during peak rut. The bulls need to breed no matter the weather. I think people often forget this. Just because it is hot does not mean the rut won’t happen. It just means the time it is going off change. If there is a full moon you can count on the rut happening at night. I really like years like this year when the peak rut coincided with no moon.
All in all, another season down and I guess it all adds up.
200+96+7+12+20+3+15+178+465,000+100=One Great Year in the Field
If you have not subscribed to Follow the Hunt please do! I have some great stuff planned for this next year that will coincide with episodes of Solo Hunters TV as well as with articles for Western Hunter Magazine and Elk Hunter Magazine.
If you enjoy this blog feel free to friend me on Facebook.
Thanks,
Remi Warren
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Front-country Hunting
Backcountry hunting, there has been a lot published about it in recent years and many of us live for it. It separates the men from the boys. Packing into a road-less wilderness area with everything you need either on a horse or on your back. But let’s be serious for a second, if the wilderness is considered the backcountry then what is everything else?
What is hunting that is near a system of roads either remote or near town. Hunting where your base camp is next to your truck but you are miles from civilization. Hunting where you don’t have to pack in your camp but there are plenty of big mountains, lots of game, and lots of places to get away from the crowds. I call it the front-country. It is the place that most hunters spend their fall and most record book animals are taken. A place, that can be just as physically challenging and rewarding as the backcountry, but far more accessible to the majority of hunters. The truth is that the majority of trophy animals across the west are not taken in backcountry wilderness areas.
I am not trying to discount the effectiveness of backcountry hunting or the experience of getting away in the wilderness. I am a huge proponent of backcountry hunts and find the experience unrivaled in the hunting world. Personally, I go on many backcountry hunts every year with great success and have taken the majority of my Pope and Young mule deer in wilderness areas. I am however, willing to offer up tips for being successful on hunts that don’t quite reach the backcountry areas, hunts that take place in the front-country.
Becoming a successful front-country hunter
The key to successful front-country hunting is a combination of hunting hard and hunting smart. This means doing what it takes to get away from the crowds while using the tools at your disposal. Just because you are not in a wilderness area does not mean that the hunt will be physically easy. Often a modest effort to leave the road will give you the space you need to get away from other hunters.
Please don’t confuse what I am calling front-country hunting with road hunting. The area may be accessed by a road but the most productive hunting is on foot. Frequently you will be hiking as hard and as far as you would on any backcountry hunt, but by basing your camp somewhere you don’t have to pack-in, you are able to use road systems to access a larger potential hunting area.
Where to Look
Aside from looking for the usual: food, water, and cover. I look for pockets that are generally between roads with no road going through the pocket. I look for places that require a lot of uphill hiking to get to them, followed by a steep down hill to hunt in them. What this amounts to is starting uphill from the truck then hiking uphill in order to get back to the truck. The uphill both ways seems to eliminate 95% of hunters. I look for places that could be nicknamed “the hole”, “hell”, or “a mother something” by anyone who has ventured there. I find that areas like these often have some of the best numbers of game as well as provide havens for trophy animals to reach maturity. Even in high pressure areas, pockets that are hard to reach, even if not a long distance from a road can be a honey-hole for trophy hunters.
The first 200 inch mule deer I was a part of harvesting was when I took a friend into a place I called “the hole”. It was infamous because in order to hunt “the hole” we had to start by hiking straight up from the truck. We then hunted into the bowl which was over 2,300 vertical feet down before continuing up the other side where the deer generally were. This meant that in order to hunt it there was a lot of uphill to get in and back out. The spot was nestled in-between two roads but invisible to the casual road hunter who did not want to work that hard. Of course we ended up taking the monster buck in one of the hardest places to get to in that drainage. This made for a long but rewarding uphill pack back to the top before we could drop down to the truck.
Trophy animals where people work the land
The adage “big deer are where you find them” is especially true in areas where humans share and alter the landscape. Many times we think of trophies hiding out in the most remote reaches of an area when in fact this is not always the case. When looking for trophy animals don’t discount benefits to habitat that people have created. Ranching, agriculture, and even some development can provide benefits to game animals that may not otherwise have been provided.
In the southwest, cattle ranchers have created water sources for their cattle in otherwise water sparse landscapes. This provides a place for not only stock to drink but game animals as well. In most of the free-range states you will find man-made water sources in extremely remote areas. Along with these man-made water sources comes road access so they can be maintained. Looking for areas with more interactions by people such as cattle ranches may actually be a better place to concentrate on hunting than an area completely void of human contact.
Crops and planted fields such as alfalfa can offer excellent food sources for game animals not found in wilderness conditions. Some of the largest trophy animals I have taken have been in the mountains on public land above alfalfa fields. Great feed in combination with great genetics grows great animals. If you are hunting in an area with good genetics, odds are the best deer or elk will grow near agriculture. It is because they have a high protein and nutrient rich diet easily available. A good diet is essential to helping game animals reach their maximum potential.
Today there are many maps available that can be downloaded onto a GPS that show property ownership. One of the best out there is from Montana Mapping Company www.huntinggpsmaps.com. The property ownership maps can be helpful in places like Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah where there is public land and private land intermixed. The GPS property maps can help you find access to areas you may not have known about as well as help assure you are hunting where you should be.
Using mobility to your benefit
The main benefit of front-country hunting is the ability to be mobile. If you are not seeing what you want where you are hunting, you can easily move. A road system may be one of the best tools for staying mobile and getting to where the animals are. You may have the ability to hunt several different ranges in a single day if needed. Camping and hunting in the front-country allows you access to a greater potential hunting area with less effort than if you were in a backcountry situation. There have been times when I have packed myself into the backcountry only to find that the animals were not there. This makes it a lot tougher to pick-up and move spots when you put in so much work to get there. When setting up a front-country camp keep mobility in mind and find a spot that allows you easy access to several different areas.
The caveat to being mobile is to not fall into the rut of driving around and considering it hunting. When hunting the front-country I hunt all day on foot, using a vehicle only to drive to access points. Just because you are driving through good country does not mean you are effectively hunting the country. Of course you may see game while traveling in a vehicle, but I wouldn’t make that my main source of attempting to find game. The more your boots are on the ground, the greater likelihood you have of finding a trophy.
Hiking allows you the best views of the land as well as promotes more active and quality glassing. Quality glassing in my opinion is the number one thing to consistently taking trophy animals.
Just because there is a road does not mean you have to drive on it. Throughout the west there are many areas littered with rough four-wheeler roads or even gated logging roads that are open to four-wheelers certain times of the year. When hunting I choose to walk these roads even if it may be legal to drive them. It is a hundred times more effective to walk the area and truly hunt it than it is to drive through it. Vehicles can ruin a lot of great opportunity. When hunters get in the habit of driving everywhere they limit their own success.
Last year my brother and I were archery hunting in a remote area of central Nevada. We were walking out after stalking a nice buck when we ran into a guy on a quad. We had seen him numerous times over the past few days driving around and assumed he was chasing the same bucks we were. When we asked how he was doing, he said that he had driven all over the area for three days and only seen a few does and a small buck. After a few minutes of talking it was very apparent he was not feeding us a line, he really had only seen a few deer. My brother and I just smiled and nodded because in the same area he was hunting we were seeing 30+ mature bucks a day. What’s the difference? We were out actively hunting and he was just taking his bow for a four-wheeler ride hoping to get lucky.
Every single year I run into hunters that hunt the same areas I do with completely opposite results. Just because you are not in the backcountry does not mean that you have to drive around and hope to stumble on to something. If you put forth the effort you can become consistently successful wherever you hunt.
The front-country can be one of the best places to take a trophy big game animal in the west. Hunting hard, staying mobile and sometimes actually getting closer to people and agriculture may be your key to being successful. Of course the backcountry has its appeal but there is plenty of great hunting to be had before you even reach the wilderness boundary.
If you would like to comment on the idea of front-country hunting or have found tactics that work for you, please feel free to post them on my blog www.followthehunt.com and on the Western Hunter Facebook page.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Mule Deer Bow Hunt- Video Blog #1
Here is a glimpse of my Nevada backcountry bow hunt. This is the biggest buck that I spotted this trip. I have definitely seen better years for trophy bucks but still had a great time. I had passed up a few smaller bucks on the hunt as well. Although I did not end up killing a deer I had a great time. In the video, if you look close on the clip where I shoot with the Go-pro helmet cam on you can actually see the big buck I missed. For the full hunt be sure to catch it on Season Three of Solo Hunters on the Sportsman's Channel.
Some seasons are just plain tough and this has been shaping up to be the roughest season I have ever had mentally. With my first miss of the year under my belt I thought I got it all out of the way early. Hunting with my new bow I have still yet to get a kill on it (big game). The bad luck streak continued into my sheep hunt in Alaska. Stay posted for more to come.
The Montana archery season starts this weekend so I will be trying to break the new bow in on an elk. If I have another colossal miss there may be a free bow up for grabs shortly.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Nevada Desert Bighorn Sheep Hunt on Solo Hunters
Here is the video of my brother Ryan's desert bighorn hunt that aired on Solo hunters on the Sportsman's Channel. I had posted my own video preview earlier in the year and now here is the full hunt. He takes a Booner ram after drawing the Nevada PIW tag which allowed him to hunt any open unit in the state! In my opinion it is the best sheep tag in the country you can draw. You are able to hunt state wide in Nevada for desert bighorns.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Mule Deer Hunt on Solo Hunters
Just incase you missed the episode here is the full version of my 218 inch Montana Archery Buck.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Up-dates: The Season is Here
Okay, I have been slacking! I have yet to catch up from last season or even post up-dates from this season. I have already bear hunted in Idaho , scouted desert sheep in southern Nevada , and accompanied a friend on his northern Nevada antelope hunt. I am currently gearing up for the rest of the season!
Good Luck
-Remi
I will be headed out this weekend for my Mule deer hunt followed by Dall Sheep in Alaska in a little over a week. After that it is antelope, elk, and deer in Montana , deer and bear in Idaho , and deer in Arizona . Not to mention three months of guiding which I am really excited for!!!
The postings may be sparse but I plan to put in an effort to catch up- sometime! If you subscribe by email you will get the new posst without missing a beat!
I am sure you are all out hunting now or gearing up anyways!
If you have a story or photo start posting them as comments or email them to me to post on the Blog. I would love to have other hunters share in their success!
Good Luck
-Remi
Friday, July 15, 2011
Solo Hunters
Solo Hunters Television
I am happy to announce that many of my hunts will be airing on Solo Hunters on the Sportsman’s Channel. I am really excited about this and would love if everyone checked it out and sent me their feed back. I believe it is a really high quality show that does a great job of portraying the true nature of the hunt.
Some hunts to look forward to on Solo Hunters this season include my 218 inch Montana Archery buck, my 380 velvet bull, my brothers B&C desert sheep, an archery antelope hunt, my 180 inch Montana rifle mule deer, my Wyoming Archery whitetail and much more.
The show airs Sundays 11:00 pm EST, Thursday 8:30 am EST, and Friday 10:00 am EST on the Sportsman’s Channel.
Check out the website at www.solohunterstv.com
I will be posting previews and updates here for the show.
Going in to the 2011 hunting season I will be filming my hunts for the third season of Solo Hunters. Up-dates on the hunts with exclusive sneak peaks of the video will be posted here at Follow the Hunt.
I hope you all enjoy the show I know this will be a great season and it will only get better.
The Hunters Paradox: making the best out of less than ideal situations
“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times,” a phrase from Charles Dickens’, A Tale of Two Cities, all too often describes many of our own hunts. As hunters the difference between the best hunt and a hunt gone bad, is how well we can adapt and make less than ideal conditions work in our favor.
Let’s face it; hunting conditions are not always optimal. If you have hunted enough you know there are thousands of factors on every hunt that can turn against you. You may have a great mule deer rut tag, but the week you are hunting a storm could limit your visibility. You may have a great waterhole picked out for an archery antelope hunt, but right before your hunt it starts to rain. You may be dying to chase elk this season but all you hear is how much damage the wolves have done on the populations. Fires in your area, hot weather when it should be winter, increased hunting pressure; we have all seen these common occurrences wreak havoc on hunts. However, your success as a hunter is not always how well you do during optimal conditions, but how well you can adapt to poor conditions and still come out on top.
I have taken some of the most common problems hunters often encounter and figured out how to still make the season a success. By slightly switching your tactics you can make the best of times, during the worst of times. The point is to show you that with a little strategic thinking, you can make non-ideal situations work in your favor, and oftentimes even provide you with an advantage.
The Hunt: Elk
The Worst of Times: Rising wolf populations negatively affecting elk populations.
The Best of Times: Of course wolves have damaged elk populations. Harm is being done in many areas across the west but this does not always spell doom and gloom like most people think. Now may actually be your best chance at harvesting an elk. My suggestion is to pick up a bow and head into the wolf infested woods! This may sound ludicrous and contrary to common belief, but there is some logic to the madness.
As wolf populations expand, elk populations have been on the decline. Many of the areas that have seen the highest rise in wolves previously had some of the highest elk populations. Now that the cow/ calf populations have dropped significantly nature must try to find a way to bolster this population.
As cow populations decrease, the bull to cow ratio increases. This may be obvious but it also has huge implications toward elk rutting activity. The harder it is for a bull to obtain cows, the more susceptible he is to being called into bow range. Both mature bulls and younger bulls will have a harder time acquiring cows and may be easily tricked by cow calls and bugles.
As fewer cows become available to breed, overtime, bulls will start to chase the cows earlier, trying to get a jump on the competition by rounding up a harem early. As more cows loose their calves to predators, like the wolves, they will again come into heat making more available cows to be breed. With a higher percentage of the available cows in a harem coming into heat than in the past, the duration of the rut lengthens and competition for fewer cows increases.
In the past few years I have personally seen the elk start bugling earlier and the rut stretch out over a longer period of time in many of the wolf infested areas of Idaho and Montana. Of course dwindling elk populations is not a good thing and you can’t call in elk that don’t exist, but despite this, there is still some great hunting to be had.
Even if you have never bow hunted before, this season could possibly be one of the best times to chase rutting elk across the west. It may sound crazy but it is true. There may be fewer elk in the woods but the ones that are around can be more susceptible to bugling and cow calls than in the past.
The Hunt: Mule deer during the rut
The Worst of Times: Late season fog or bad weather has cut down your visibility making it hard to effectively glass for deer.
The Best of Times: Rut hunts for mule deer can be one of the most productive and exciting hunts in the west. The only trouble is the time of year the hunt happens. In late November you want some weather but you never want to loose visibility. Unfortunately this is the time of year when hunters seem to see the most storms. I have experienced and heard stories from many other hunters who have been on late deer hunts where visibility is sparse for a whole week.
The solution? Try calling. Believe it or not, mule deer can be just as susceptible to rattling and grunting as whitetail deer. If glassing is not an option then setup and start calling. I like to use a combination of rattling, grunts, bleats, and even snort wheezes to entice big bucks to my location.
I have successfully called in countless big bucks when visibility has been limited. Most hunters don’t even think about trying to rattle in mule deer but it works.
A few years ago I was guiding the Montana mule deer super tag winner. Unfortunately the entire week he was hunting visibility was minimal and glassing was a rare occurrence so I decided to call to a good buck we knew was in the area. This turned out to be a good idea as the big buck came charging in and the hunter took him at point blank range.
Calling deer can also be effective at coaxing a big buck off of private property to a neighboring place where you can hunt. Just last season I called a monster buck in for a friend by rattling and grunting. The buck would not leave private property all week but when he heard a fight in his vicinity he was all too eager to jump the fence and stroll to a place where we could take him.
The Hunt: Archery Antelope
The Worst of Times: It is raining and now there is water everywhere for the animals to drink.
The Best of Times: Rain during an archery antelope hunt where you planned to sit on a waterhole can be devastating. You spent time setting up your blind and scouting good waterholes, but now the antelope have the option to drink out of hundreds of new puddles.
In this instance decoys can make the difference between getting a buck and going home disappointed. Antelope are curious and social by nature. If you are hunting early August outside of the rut, a few decoys at your waterhole may help entice the real animals to come drink where they normally do.
If the animals still won’t come in, try going to them. Spot and stalk in assistance with the decoy can be extremely effective. Try moving in as close as you can unseen, then set up the decoy so the antelope you are stalking can see it. This is often enough to draw the antelope you are hunting into bow range. I have in some cases even covered open terrain during the stalk while hidden behind the decoy. Although the decoys work best during the antelope rut they can be useful anytime of year.
If there are cattle in the area you are hunting, Montana Decoy Company (www.montanadecoy.com) makes a walk behind cattle silhouette they call the Moo Cow. This can help you stalk in over open expanses and may give you the edge you need. The Moo Cow can also be great at helping rifle hunters close the distance on weary antelope bucks out in the open.
The Hunt: Any big game animal.
The Worst of Times: A portion of your hunting area burns to the ground.
The Best of Times: Out west, wild fires are a force we have to live with. Any wildfire is a shame, and it is sad to see an area that you know well become ash. However, after the sting of the land’s smoldering past beauty wears away it should put a small smile on your face. Burns can be a great place to hunt and a great place for wildlife to flourish.
When looking at areas to hunt, I generally gravitate toward burns. The new forage fosters antler growth and the burn can add visibility to many heavily timbered areas. When hunting in a burn I like to look for pockets of unburned area surrounded by a burn. This could be a stand of timber in a canyon that for some reason did not get touched, or a sage and mahogany covered knob or ridgeline that was surrounded by the fire. These types of areas provide animals with needed cover while giving them quick access to the new grasses and abundant food that is a byproduct of the surrounding fire. Plus these types of areas can provide great glassing for hunters, making it easier to find your game.
The Hunt: Any big game animal.
The Worst of Times: It is abnormally hot for the time of year you are hunting.
The Best of Times: We have all at one point or another had a hunt where we were expecting winter-like conditions and ended up sweating all week in t-shirt weather. During times like this, game can seem almost non-existent. This is because most of the animals have already grown their winter coats and the unexpected heat has them hotter than they would like.
It is times like these when hunters who have spent time scouting during the summer can score big. Think back to the patterns and places you saw game during the summer and hunt accordingly. Summer scouting can play huge dividends during unexpected heat waves as the animals revert back to their summer behavior to beat the heat. If the conditions seem too hot for you, imagine wearing a heavy fur coat. Prolonged unexpected heat can sometimes be enough to send animals into thicker and higher country.
It is important to remember that just like us; animals consume more water when over- heated. Movement may be restricted to early morning and late evenings, but the animals are still somewhere during the day. Look for areas that contain shade and water in a close proximity. Adjusting your tactics may be necessary to be successful. If you normally glass, spend your time glassing potential bedding areas, or better yet, try still hunting through heavier cover than you would normally hunt.
The Hunt: Any game animal.
The Worst of Times: Hunters are crawling all over your hunting area.
The Best of Times: Whether it is regulation changes, popularity of an area because of hunting publications, or just bad timing, some places can all of the sudden get hammered with hunting pressure. However, other hunters do not have to be a bad thing if you can place yourself somewhere where their presence is at your advantage.
For some reason a place that I always archery hunt for mule deer in Nevada was the hot ticket item for the year. I had spent hundreds of days hunting the area in the past and never saw a single hunter. For some reason that year “my spot” was littered with people. At first it just flat out pissed me off. I decided that instead of battling for hunting grounds I would just have to hunt harder and deeper into the wilderness. It had appeared that the deer had the same plan as I found myself smack dab in the middle of where the deer wanted to be. If the pressure is enough to bother you, it will probably bother the animals as well. Look at the area critically and try to find a spot where the animals might go to also avoid the pressure. Sometimes this just means hunting harder than everyone else but the reward is always worth the extra effort.
Unfortunately I can’t list every problem hunters may face in the woods, but if you hunt smart you can always find an upside to the situation. As the law of nature goes, every action creates a reaction, by figuring out the reaction to less than perfect situations you can turn any circumstance around in your favor. Slightly adjusting your tactics can be a great way to actually take advantage of less than ideal conditions.
If you can think of more “worst of times” situations and need help turning it into an advantage, or have other solutions that have worked for you, post it to the Western Hunter Magazine Facebook Page.
For more hunting tips, hunting videos, or hunting articles visit me at www.remiwarren.com and follow the hunt.
Let’s face it; hunting conditions are not always optimal. If you have hunted enough you know there are thousands of factors on every hunt that can turn against you. You may have a great mule deer rut tag, but the week you are hunting a storm could limit your visibility. You may have a great waterhole picked out for an archery antelope hunt, but right before your hunt it starts to rain. You may be dying to chase elk this season but all you hear is how much damage the wolves have done on the populations. Fires in your area, hot weather when it should be winter, increased hunting pressure; we have all seen these common occurrences wreak havoc on hunts. However, your success as a hunter is not always how well you do during optimal conditions, but how well you can adapt to poor conditions and still come out on top.
I have taken some of the most common problems hunters often encounter and figured out how to still make the season a success. By slightly switching your tactics you can make the best of times, during the worst of times. The point is to show you that with a little strategic thinking, you can make non-ideal situations work in your favor, and oftentimes even provide you with an advantage.
The Hunt: Elk
The Worst of Times: Rising wolf populations negatively affecting elk populations.
The Best of Times: Of course wolves have damaged elk populations. Harm is being done in many areas across the west but this does not always spell doom and gloom like most people think. Now may actually be your best chance at harvesting an elk. My suggestion is to pick up a bow and head into the wolf infested woods! This may sound ludicrous and contrary to common belief, but there is some logic to the madness.
As wolf populations expand, elk populations have been on the decline. Many of the areas that have seen the highest rise in wolves previously had some of the highest elk populations. Now that the cow/ calf populations have dropped significantly nature must try to find a way to bolster this population.
As cow populations decrease, the bull to cow ratio increases. This may be obvious but it also has huge implications toward elk rutting activity. The harder it is for a bull to obtain cows, the more susceptible he is to being called into bow range. Both mature bulls and younger bulls will have a harder time acquiring cows and may be easily tricked by cow calls and bugles.
As fewer cows become available to breed, overtime, bulls will start to chase the cows earlier, trying to get a jump on the competition by rounding up a harem early. As more cows loose their calves to predators, like the wolves, they will again come into heat making more available cows to be breed. With a higher percentage of the available cows in a harem coming into heat than in the past, the duration of the rut lengthens and competition for fewer cows increases.
In the past few years I have personally seen the elk start bugling earlier and the rut stretch out over a longer period of time in many of the wolf infested areas of Idaho and Montana. Of course dwindling elk populations is not a good thing and you can’t call in elk that don’t exist, but despite this, there is still some great hunting to be had.
Even if you have never bow hunted before, this season could possibly be one of the best times to chase rutting elk across the west. It may sound crazy but it is true. There may be fewer elk in the woods but the ones that are around can be more susceptible to bugling and cow calls than in the past.
The Hunt: Mule deer during the rut
The Worst of Times: Late season fog or bad weather has cut down your visibility making it hard to effectively glass for deer.
The Best of Times: Rut hunts for mule deer can be one of the most productive and exciting hunts in the west. The only trouble is the time of year the hunt happens. In late November you want some weather but you never want to loose visibility. Unfortunately this is the time of year when hunters seem to see the most storms. I have experienced and heard stories from many other hunters who have been on late deer hunts where visibility is sparse for a whole week.
The solution? Try calling. Believe it or not, mule deer can be just as susceptible to rattling and grunting as whitetail deer. If glassing is not an option then setup and start calling. I like to use a combination of rattling, grunts, bleats, and even snort wheezes to entice big bucks to my location.
I have successfully called in countless big bucks when visibility has been limited. Most hunters don’t even think about trying to rattle in mule deer but it works.
A few years ago I was guiding the Montana mule deer super tag winner. Unfortunately the entire week he was hunting visibility was minimal and glassing was a rare occurrence so I decided to call to a good buck we knew was in the area. This turned out to be a good idea as the big buck came charging in and the hunter took him at point blank range.
Calling deer can also be effective at coaxing a big buck off of private property to a neighboring place where you can hunt. Just last season I called a monster buck in for a friend by rattling and grunting. The buck would not leave private property all week but when he heard a fight in his vicinity he was all too eager to jump the fence and stroll to a place where we could take him.
The Hunt: Archery Antelope
The Worst of Times: It is raining and now there is water everywhere for the animals to drink.
The Best of Times: Rain during an archery antelope hunt where you planned to sit on a waterhole can be devastating. You spent time setting up your blind and scouting good waterholes, but now the antelope have the option to drink out of hundreds of new puddles.
In this instance decoys can make the difference between getting a buck and going home disappointed. Antelope are curious and social by nature. If you are hunting early August outside of the rut, a few decoys at your waterhole may help entice the real animals to come drink where they normally do.
If the animals still won’t come in, try going to them. Spot and stalk in assistance with the decoy can be extremely effective. Try moving in as close as you can unseen, then set up the decoy so the antelope you are stalking can see it. This is often enough to draw the antelope you are hunting into bow range. I have in some cases even covered open terrain during the stalk while hidden behind the decoy. Although the decoys work best during the antelope rut they can be useful anytime of year.
If there are cattle in the area you are hunting, Montana Decoy Company (www.montanadecoy.com) makes a walk behind cattle silhouette they call the Moo Cow. This can help you stalk in over open expanses and may give you the edge you need. The Moo Cow can also be great at helping rifle hunters close the distance on weary antelope bucks out in the open.
The Hunt: Any big game animal.
The Worst of Times: A portion of your hunting area burns to the ground.
The Best of Times: Out west, wild fires are a force we have to live with. Any wildfire is a shame, and it is sad to see an area that you know well become ash. However, after the sting of the land’s smoldering past beauty wears away it should put a small smile on your face. Burns can be a great place to hunt and a great place for wildlife to flourish.
When looking at areas to hunt, I generally gravitate toward burns. The new forage fosters antler growth and the burn can add visibility to many heavily timbered areas. When hunting in a burn I like to look for pockets of unburned area surrounded by a burn. This could be a stand of timber in a canyon that for some reason did not get touched, or a sage and mahogany covered knob or ridgeline that was surrounded by the fire. These types of areas provide animals with needed cover while giving them quick access to the new grasses and abundant food that is a byproduct of the surrounding fire. Plus these types of areas can provide great glassing for hunters, making it easier to find your game.
The Hunt: Any big game animal.
The Worst of Times: It is abnormally hot for the time of year you are hunting.
The Best of Times: We have all at one point or another had a hunt where we were expecting winter-like conditions and ended up sweating all week in t-shirt weather. During times like this, game can seem almost non-existent. This is because most of the animals have already grown their winter coats and the unexpected heat has them hotter than they would like.
It is times like these when hunters who have spent time scouting during the summer can score big. Think back to the patterns and places you saw game during the summer and hunt accordingly. Summer scouting can play huge dividends during unexpected heat waves as the animals revert back to their summer behavior to beat the heat. If the conditions seem too hot for you, imagine wearing a heavy fur coat. Prolonged unexpected heat can sometimes be enough to send animals into thicker and higher country.
It is important to remember that just like us; animals consume more water when over- heated. Movement may be restricted to early morning and late evenings, but the animals are still somewhere during the day. Look for areas that contain shade and water in a close proximity. Adjusting your tactics may be necessary to be successful. If you normally glass, spend your time glassing potential bedding areas, or better yet, try still hunting through heavier cover than you would normally hunt.
The Hunt: Any game animal.
The Worst of Times: Hunters are crawling all over your hunting area.
The Best of Times: Whether it is regulation changes, popularity of an area because of hunting publications, or just bad timing, some places can all of the sudden get hammered with hunting pressure. However, other hunters do not have to be a bad thing if you can place yourself somewhere where their presence is at your advantage.
For some reason a place that I always archery hunt for mule deer in Nevada was the hot ticket item for the year. I had spent hundreds of days hunting the area in the past and never saw a single hunter. For some reason that year “my spot” was littered with people. At first it just flat out pissed me off. I decided that instead of battling for hunting grounds I would just have to hunt harder and deeper into the wilderness. It had appeared that the deer had the same plan as I found myself smack dab in the middle of where the deer wanted to be. If the pressure is enough to bother you, it will probably bother the animals as well. Look at the area critically and try to find a spot where the animals might go to also avoid the pressure. Sometimes this just means hunting harder than everyone else but the reward is always worth the extra effort.
Unfortunately I can’t list every problem hunters may face in the woods, but if you hunt smart you can always find an upside to the situation. As the law of nature goes, every action creates a reaction, by figuring out the reaction to less than perfect situations you can turn any circumstance around in your favor. Slightly adjusting your tactics can be a great way to actually take advantage of less than ideal conditions.
If you can think of more “worst of times” situations and need help turning it into an advantage, or have other solutions that have worked for you, post it to the Western Hunter Magazine Facebook Page.
For more hunting tips, hunting videos, or hunting articles visit me at www.remiwarren.com and follow the hunt.
Monday, March 21, 2011
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