00:00:07 Speaker 1: As a guide an hunter. I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is cutting the Distance. Welcome back to the podcast. It's awesome that summer is in full effect because what that means is hunting season is just around the corner. Maybe you've got an early season archery tag coming up. Some seasons are starting in a month or less. Actually, there's already some blacktail seasons, archery seasons in California that have started already. Opening weekend was last weekend, So there's a lot of things coming up. And maybe you don't have an early archery season, but hey, we're on that second half of the year where things are gonna start picking up in those seasons are gonna start popping around. Best part of the year fall has come now. One thing I really like to focus on is summer scouting because I can pay huge dividends when it comes to understanding the potential animals in the area you're hunting. It can also help you find good pockets to start an early season hunt and help you understand the animals in the unit you're hunting, Not to mention it's a great way to get a good lay of the land and a new unit that we might be planning on hunting later this fall. So this week I'm gonna be covering the five key advantages the summer scouting, including what I like to call the velvet advantage, and ways to use summer scouting intel to find success during the season. But first I want to share the story of a summer trip where we discovered a place I like to call the Bull, which is hands down my most productive big buck hunting spot over the years. It was early two thousand's and my buddy Brett had drawn a tag in the unit that we'd never hunted before. And it wasn't particularly like a real great trophy, and it wasn't anything. It was just a place that was easy to draw a tag, and it was probably towards the end of his choices, and he drew the tag and we're like, okay, well we always hunt together, Um, this is awesome. We're gonna go check out a new place. We It wasn't one of the areas that we normally hunted it was a little bit further a drive, but hey, we're gonna go check it out. So we did a little bit of like talking to a few people, a little bit of looking at some maps, and we did what we like to do. We we went out and put in a good scouting trip. Was myself, his dad Art, so the three of us we just kind of like loaded up the truck went out go check some places off the map. We got out there the first day and started you know, like looking doing just kind of checking out the area, checking roads, checking access points. This is way before we did a lot of EA scouting, so it was kind of like as much exploring as anything. It's like, okay, we're going into a new place we've never been. It's a big area. We have our map book, we got a few spots marked, and we're gonna check it out. So we get up some glassing vantages. We're tearing apart the country and you know, we we'd seen some deer, but nothing crazy, no big bucks. Just kind of getting an idea of like, okay, here's some some bucks. We've seen some forking ore and some other deer. You know, a couple of figuring out where the water sources were this, that, and the other thing. So when the season rolled around, we weren't gonna go and blind, but we also wanted to kind of think like, is this a good spot to hunt? So we were scouting and had this whole plan of where we're gonna look, and some people have told us that it's a good spot, and we were just like looking at it glassing and we just couldn't turn up very much, like, man, this is gonna be tough. And then we just thought, well, let's go somewhere else. Let's just go look at as many other places we can. So we start checking some other places and we end up at the end of the day kind of driving up this one road that ended and sort of like, all right, we'll just camp here and then we'll check out this area. This whole completely different area over here. I was looking on the map. I'm like, man, this looks pretty sweet. You know, we've seen it in the distance. We're like, let's just go look at this and see what we can find. So we get there, we park, you know, we just have like our cots or I think I was just sleeping on the ground. But summertime, that's the best part about summertimes you can just no tent, you don't need anything, you just sleep where you are. It's so nice. Um. So we're sleeping there under the stars actually a pretty bright moon. And next morning we wake up and we pop over the rim kind of like right where it's a pretty steep hill where we're camping. We did, we did. We definitely just like would go until we'd find somewhere to stop. Stop glass, go to sleep, wake up, keep going. So next morning, pop over the rim of where we're at and lo and behold just glassing this big stage flat and it's like it seems like there's nothing. And then all of a sudden like boom box and it's a massive bachelor heard I don't know, probably twenty bucks, and there's some studs in there. Like we're just like look at we all like each other. We're just like getting excited. Like now we've got the spotting scopes out and we're picking a party truck. Oh this buck, look at the cheater on that buck. Oh man, that's a big three by three over there, Like, dude, did you see that buck? And then like now we're starting to pick apart some others places in this zone. Um, we got the spotting scopes out and everything. Now we're picking out more and more bucks. We're like, this is the zone, this big base in this big bull and this is where the bucks want to be. We checked a hundred different places throughout the course of the time that we had to scout, and for some reason, this particular pocket was holding bucks and not just any bucks, like some mature bucks, some really good bucks. So we're like, okay, this is gonna be our zone. So later on that season we go back in there. We couldn't hunt until October, like late October, and you know, obviously it was a different time of year, so we didn't necessarily see the deer, but we kind of started to learn that little bit of an area a little better. We ended up Brendon up shooting a nice four by four. There's another kidbit attack. You shot a deer, and we're like, okay, sweet, But that that image of just all those bachelor bucks was in my mind, so I'm like, all right, they're there. Early, we got to figure this place out, Like we know that there's a big deer there. We just didn't have a lot of time during the season to put in bread at school, so It's like I'm like, all right, we're gonna go back here. I'm going back here. I'm getting an archery tag here next year, and I'm gonna go for it. That next year, I got an archery tag and ended up chasing the biggest buck that I've ever seen in my life. Um, still to this day, the biggest deer I've seen. And I've seen some pretty good deer. I don't mean to be like pound myself on the back. I've seen all the big deer. But this is not just a big buck story. I know for sure would have been a new archery world record if I was able to sink an arrow in it. Of course I didn't. Um, things went wrong, and you can listen to that whole story on episode one of this podcast. But over the years that this particular spot, um, we've taken multiple big deer, multiple nice deer, seeing multiple great deer, not necessarily just in that particular right in that same canyon, but um, you know, using that as a jumping off point, really understanding and learning the habits of the deer in this area. And over the years, I had spent hundreds of days in this particular area. Now, when I say a particular area for me, that's a very large area, but in this particular area of the unit understanding the deer and because of it, really gaining a lot of success and a lot of knowledge of those deer. But I don't think I ever would have found this spot had I not been for summer scouting. And there's quite a few reasons that during the summer the deer doing different things, but it makes them super susceptible to being spotted, which gives you a really good indication of the types of bucks in the area or types of animals in the area, and then you can use some different tactics to exploit that later on. There's been so many hunts that I've done where I've gone out in the summer, I've done my scouting, and that summer scouting has led to the success that I have later on in that season, even in areas that might be a little more difficult once that season kicks up, once that pressure kicks in. What I wanted to do is just kind of outline what I think are five key reasons that summer scouting can really pay those huge dividends when it comes time to hunting the season. Now, of course, if you're talking about maybe you've got an early archery tag. Summer scouting is the most accurate scouting to what you're gonna see when that season rolls around, but it's not necessarily the only time that this scouting is gonna pay off. What I mean by that is like, there's been many times I've had an elk tag that's say a November elk tag. I'll get out in the season, I'll find end group of bulls, and then later on in the year I will use that knowledge of what I found to be successful later on. It's also really good for understanding maybe you've got a limited entry tag. You're saying, like I don't know what type of deer, what type of elk, what type of antelope, what type of sheep, whatever, I should be shooting, Like if I see it, should I shoot it? Um? But some are scouting is a great way to understand the breadth of what's in the area you're hunting. So let's talk about the things that make some are scouting so beneficial. And the first, and actually quite a few of these goes off of this idea of many articles on this, but I call it the velvet advantage and This is because as deer or growing their antlers, or elk are growing these antlers. This particularly pertains the elk and deer or anything that grows antlers. There's there's certain aspects of them having that velvet and them needing enter g to grow that velvet that can be exploited that lends them to being more susceptible to being spotted. So the first I like to call the bachelor party, and what that is early in the season. It doesn't just really have to do with the velvet, but it has to do with the way that herds of animals kind of congregate during different times of year. So mule, deer, white tailed deer, elk, even even I've seen moose even do this. It's pretty rare for moose. They're a little more solitary. But what happens is the bucks or bulls separate off from the cows or does and they bachelor up. They do this early in the season, and then they also do this again in the winter after the ruts. So they're all friends, they're all hanging out, they're all in safety by numbers mentality, and they're grouped up in groups of bucks. How this helps the hunter is it makes it a lot easier to understand what type of bucks are in an area because they're together. It also gives you a good barometer of being able to compare bucks together. Now, this first idea is what I like to call the birds of feathers. So you know you heard that saying birds of feather flock together. I always think of that when I'm out looking at bachelor groups of bucks, because I always think I kind of have that like saying in my mind, because what you'll notice is a lot of times age classes of bucks will start to flock together. You might be in an area and you're like glassing and you're turning up bachelor group of buck, bachelor group of buck, and you'll notice that they're like little too two by twos, two by threes, two to three year old bucks, and there might be one big buck in there or whatever, but for the most part, it's like these younger deer of all grouped up, and you're like, okay, I see this group of deer, and okay, you're seeing lots of deer. You might be seeing these different groups of bachelor bucks. But then it's like you find this one group of bucks and they're all mature bucks six to eight years old, heavy antlers what you're and you're like, wow, okay, that's different than these other ones you're seeing. But what that is is it shows you the pockets of better age class. And this is easier to find during the summer because one the deer grouped up and it kind of gives you this idea of where do those mature deer like to live. There's a reason that those mature deer in a certain area, and it's because they've lived long enough they know places where they're safe, and they're kind of grouped together in this because they're kind of like they've all got the same mentality. They've they've survived, they've seen it all, and they're starting to group up based on deer that are very compatible to them. Now, there is always like the caveat to that is, sometimes you'll see a big buck in with you know, a bunch of smaller deer around it or whatever. There's sometimes, like I've noticed after I've spent way too much time watching meal deer, even during the hunting season, one day when you're getting even like literally just spent thirty days one year out there watching meal deer, not shooting anything, just seeing what these deer do. And what I learned was like they have certain groups that they like, and you'll find like certain deer will stick together and then there's like ones that rove and move, but you oh, like, overwhelmingly, if you're to graph it out statistically, certain age class dear tend to hang with certain age class dear And that's really helped me narrow down areas to focus on any time of the season because you can kind of discount this is if you're looking for a certain type buck or more mature deer, you can start to discount what you might think of as a nursery. Um those areas, like especially if it's an early season tag where you're like, I'm seeing so many deer here, but they're all just like this young deer. They're all two year old deer there or whatever. So that's like a nursery. Now, it's great if you're just looking for a success or maybe that's what you're looking for, it doesn't, that's cool, then you found what you're looking for. But if you've got the time, you've got the time of the summer, these deer are gonna be out. They're going to be more active, they're gonna be grouped up together. You can start looking for those pockets that are holding those better age class dear, because what that's gonna tell all you is there's something about this area that provides enough safety to allow these deer and enough like the right food, the right amount of safety to allow these deer to get to a certain age. And there's something in this area where they're at that they tend to contregate toward. And so during the season, you can focus your attention towards those areas because you know that they're gonna probably hold those better age class dear. So the next next one, number two, the one thing that some are scouting does because as that velvet, So this kind of goes back to that velvet advantage. And what it is is as those deer are growing their antlers elk or dear, they're expending so much energy. In order for a buck or bull to grow antlers, it's pretty much like a cow or dough growing upon like it takes that same amount of food, it takes that same amount of energy. So they're gonna be feeding a lot, and what that means is they're going to be out where the food is, and it allows you to concentrate your look when you're scouting. So as opposed to going out. Let's say you've got a November dear season and you're like, hey, well I've got some time to scout. I'll go out in October. That's the worst time to try to look for deer because they aren't out in the open, they aren't feeding there in a completely different pattern during the summer. During the spring, deer and elk are in their feeding patterns. And this this pertains to a lot of other species. This pertains to sheep, This pertains to can pertain to prong horn um not so much as other things, Like but the spring time is really good. I would say springs a little bit better for prong horn. It's kind of a rabbit trail. We can talk about prong horns on a different episode. But uh, what you need you to think about is like, so they're growing season a spring, and yeah, they're they're stacking it on as as that spring, good nutrition starts coming out there. Growing. They're growing, but you can't really tell what they're antlers are fully like because they aren't quite developed yet. So as you start going into summer, some of that good spring nutrition shirts starts shrinking up and you're limiting the number of areas where there's like still really good food sources. And you've got the advantage of the deer, elk or whatever antlers are growing, and you can kind of tell what they're gonna look like, or you can tell exactly what they're what they look like. But because they're needing that feeds so much, they're very tied to food sources. And what that does is it kind of puts them one in a more patternable patterns so you can find them easier. But it also allows you to concentrate where to look and allows them to be out in these areas more predictably in the mornings and evenings. They're more concentrated on food than cover, so it allows them to be out and it's really good for glassing, really good for finding. It's a really good time to take advantage of them being out in a place where it's easy to look because it's more open and generally for feeding areas, and allows you to find the animals that you're looking for a lot easier. Combine that with the bachelor group factor, and you're already steps ahead compared to other times a year. The third factor and the other two kind of let into this is they're out more, which is true because they've got to feed. They also are out a little bit more, or I consider out a little bit more. Um, if I've heard this many times and I don't necessarily know that it's true, but maybe it is. It's just it kind of like it seems to work. They say, oh, dear elk when they're growing their antlers, they're sensitive, which they probably are, and so they're out in more open areas, And that is true. You will tend to find deer elk out more. Now here's the there's the catch to that. It's hot in the summer and they're gonna need to bet a lot, and they aren't gonna want to be out in that heat. So they're gonna be feeding in the morning, they're feeding in the evening, but they aren't gonna be out in the middle of the day. However, I say out more because you can. Actually it's easier to spot than midday based on betting spots, because they're gonna pick betting spots where they've got shade, they've got possibly a breeze, they've got a good defensive position, but they aren't like necessarily buried into the thickest patch they that you can find on the mountain. So it really lends itself to good midday glassing. When I'm out summer scouting, I'm putting a lot of time in the glass looking for those shady spots that I can actually see into that I think will be good betting areas for elk for deer, but also not messed with that sensitive at where they got to go bury themselves in like this really really thick dense brush, which they do when it comes October time. I've seen deer. I've bumped deer out of some stuff that I'm like, you look at it, you go, there's nothing in there, and then a buck runs out of it, and you're like, okay, there was something in there, and you don't tend to see that like you do when they're in the velvet in the summertime, they go pick those more wind blown areas where it's like, okay, they've got a nice breeze, keep the flies off them. They're up high, they're in the shade. They've got this good little pocket where they're safe, they're cool. They've got that nice wind. They've got a good wind like defensive position where the winds coming down their back, they're looking down over the valley and you know, their antlers aren't stuffed into a bunch of brush. And because of that, it makes it a lot easier for you to utilize the full day, even though it's hot, to be able to pinpoint those locations midday to kind of figure out where these animals are and maybe what's in your unit. So it's a really good use of time because you do end up seeing a little bit more um depending on the type of unit and what you're hunting, but you see a little bit more throughout the day even if they aren't moving. It allows you to spot midday a little bit easier. Now. Number four for summer scouting would be there's less pressure. So the animals throughout the spring, like there's no big game hunting seasons aside from bear season, Like, there's nothing hunting elk and deer during the spring and through in the summer. They just don't have that hunting pressure. And because of that lack of hunting pressure, there are a lot more patternable What I really enjoy about finding deer in the summers, you can find them and you can go, okay, going back to the other good advantages. They need to feed a lot, they're growing the antlers out. They don't really like to be in that thick brush, so they're going to find those betting areas. And what you'll start to find is the deer with less pressure have these patterns where they go out to a certain feeding area, then they go to this water, then they go to this betting area or the safety zone this cover right And now even though their antlers are maybe soft, they definitely still go into timber. They still go into two places you can't see into, especially if it's a more timbered area. Now, this is where you can utilize your summer scouting for later in the season. And I don't I haven't heard a lot of people talk about this, but this is definitely something that I've noticed over the years is when I'm scouting in the summer, what I really like to pay attention to is what I call their safety zones. So they aren't pressured, they don't necessarily have they aren't changing their patterns every day, or holding up and going nocturnal, or or getting into a pocket of cover where they feel safe and not moving from it aside from dark, because the hunters are out all day, bumping them, moving them whatever. You can watch these deer during the summer, elk, whatever, doesn't matter what species, with a lot less pressure, so they're just animals being animals without the added pressure of hunters in the area. So how to use that to your advantage. You're gonna pay attention to what their safety zones are. So they've got this pattern. And most animals are creatures of habit especially this is especially true when it comes to elk hunting. Elk have like a certain that's why they're herd animals, and they follow a lead cow. It's like that cow knows the safety zones. That cow has like a good pattern of keeping that herd safe and are moving and they're using all their eyes and ears and everybody combined to stay safe. But they're also falling into patterns. And I would say out of all the species meal they're probably the least patternable, but they still have a general pattern. So what you can do is you can watch them so that you're watching them in the summer. It's like here they're feeding out in this open then they're moving to this like nice safe betting zone. But after that, like second their second betting, they're disappearing into this patcheck timber. And you'll notice over time there's gonna be certain particular places where they go to more than others, and those are their safety zones. Now, when deers start to disappear, when elks start to disappear later in the season, you're like, where did they go? They were all here during the summer, they were doing this, they were doing that, um, but you don't see them. Did they move off? Not always, It depends on whether it's a migratory area or there the resident animals. But if they're resident animals, they've got their safety zones that they know really well. And so what they're probably doing is they're probably hitting those feeding areas more a dark when they that pressure goes, and then they're holding up in those safety zones. So you can kind of figure out they've got a preferred betting area, preferred area where they stay safe. But you can figure it out a lot easier based on watching them in a pattern when there's no pressure. So you'll pay attention, okayither you watch the deer in this particular area like the bowl where I'm talking For example, we've hunted deer there from the beginning of archery season all the way through October and even into the rut. We've taken giant deer in August in the archery when they're on their summer patterns, and we've taken big deer in October, which is the hardest time to find them. But what we've noticed is during the August season they were going into generally they would feed, they would do their regular bed where they're out in the open, and then we go into this thick patch of mahoganies off this backside, and that was their safety zone. And when they disappeared in October, you know where they were just hold up in those safety zones, waiting for that rut to hit, saving up the energy. And by still hunting some of those safety zones, we were able to be a lot more successful on some of the really big bucks in the area that would never show their face during the light of day out in the open. So paying attention to those safety zones is a really good way to kind of key in later in the season. That's really true, especially for elk when you've got the herd and you can see what they're doing with no pressure and then kind of figure out the preferred areas where they like to go, where they feel safe in the timber No. Number five kind of one of the advantages the summer scouting is it's hot and animals are are a lot more tied closely to water. The water can be often more concentrated during the summer, and they're going to need that water more often. So it's a really good another concentrated spot to kind of pay attention to figure out where animals are or the type of animals that are in your area. Now, when you think about it, um, this is this could be if it's legal or and you want to do it, this is a good time to use some trail cams. You can do some trail cam work around water holes, around other things. Um. You know. The way that I think about trail cams that I like to understand what the animals are doing. Sometimes I use them. Sometimes even when they're legal, I don't use them. It's just, uh, I think some people have you know, everybody's got their own opinions on different things hunting, but it can be a great tactic to be able to understand what animals are in the area. What water they're using, and what particular places hold game animals. Now you're like, well, how does that translate to later on in the season. In the summer. Let's say you've got all this water in an area. In the summer, a lot of that water dries up, so the animals are going to get kind of concentrated to certain water holes or certain areas where there's water. Some more animals using fewer number of places. What that does those It helps you in a big area. You can see it's a new place that you've never hunted before. You know, like, how where do I even start During the summer? Where I start is finding water? Because then what you can do is you can say, okay, maybe during the fall, all the creeks are running, so it's gonna it's gonna spread them back out. But you can narrow down the areas in a large area like a big unit, narrowed down to small waters and say which area is having the most tracks, the most signed, the most activity in these water holes or in the water that's available, And then you can say, okay, during the season, when there's more water, I'm still going to focus in this general area. Now the animals I know are going to be more spread out, but it narrows down a large area into a smaller portion of the unit where you've got higher densities of animals. And then I'll hunt in those particular spots as the regular season comes on, even though I know they're going to be maybe more spread out like later in the fall, but I know that these particular spots tend to hold more animals. Those animals are coming from a wider area, but they're coming right down to this little spot as the water gets small, and then as there's more water they spread back out. But I want to be in that general area when that water spread back out, because I know with the concentrations of animals in that area when it comes down to it, really finding those exploitable weaknesses during the summer and then using that strategically to hunt during the fall can be an extremely successful way to find that honeyhole, to find that spot. Really good spots are often not found by accident. They're found by persistence and looking during the best time of year to look, So the time of year where you have the highest chance of finding what you're looking for, and then that kind of gives you like, okay, here's the area I can go to, and then as that season narrows down, as it gets to whatever season you're hunting, then you can focus in on that spot and hunt it and start picking it apart and find your success. So I hope that helps you, guys. I know that for a lot of people, if you have the time, if you've got some a weekend or whatever, get out do some summer scouting because I think it will pay huge dividends to you later in the season. This this week actually so tomorrow. Um just as like a note, if you're in the area or if you can make it, it'll be tomorrow, will be Friday. So if you're listening to this podcast on Thursday when it goes up live, then you've got till tomorrow. If you're listening to it after that, then it probably doesn't pertain to you. But I will be doing a live Q and A. I've talked about it here before, but a live Q and A at the Poping Young Convention in Reno, Nevada. I've got a one hour slated for two to three pm and I'm doing I'm doing back to back, so two to three pm and then three thirty I'm starting another one for an hour. So if it's the first one is four. If there's other ones, whatever, or your question you can answer and you want to stay. I'm gonna be doing two back to back live Q and as Poping Young Club Convention Reno, Nevada this Friday, So that is Friday. If you can make it, that would be awesome. I'd love to see you guys there. I'm gonna try to say try because if something goes horribly wrong, I don't want people go like what happen to the live Q and A think you're gonna do on the podcast, But I'm gonna try to record it for this podcast because I think it'll be fun to have other people, um, other people live questions asked and answered and I really enjoy that like question and answer format. So bring your hunting questions if you're coming, and I'll look forward to chatting with you all there. I'm pretty stoked about that. There's also I think I've got I think it will still work, um like a discount on day passes go on my Instagram. That will be a scroll back there's a post. I think it's like Warren, you'll get half off the day pass if you decided to come anyways. Uh yeah, So I hope that helps everybody. I know, I got a lot of questions about summer scouting, people like getting excited, get namped up about it. So I thought that i'd throw out some of those, well kind of a more or less why you should summer scout, and then ways to kind of turn that summer scouting into success later and in season. So if you guys have some success, I always is love to see those success photos, share those stories. I've got a lot of great stories coming in already. Have people found success in some of those early seasons in California already? Blacktails a zone. Good job guys, um So yeah, until then, get out and go find some fuzzy. I'm talking about Velvin Nilers. I don't know what you're talking about, but go find that fuzz all right. Talk to you guys later or see you on Friday.