Ep. 227 | Island Feast

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 really live 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 Tuff in Yeti.

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It really is a year-round process to help you be the best you can be on the hunt.

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Well everyone, welcome back to Live Wild Podcast.

Now this week we're going to have an island feast.

As I share the story of a recent trip to the island of Hawaii where we speared and caught

some fish, including a giant ahi, then I head up the mountain to chase some feral sheep

with my buddy Justin Lee on the Reforestation project to get some meat for a cook-up for

our Uncle Rick.

I'm going to break down our backyard barbecue today and go into a little bit of the cooking

and then try to explain why you don't get side dishes when the guys are in charge of

the meal.

Then after that, I'm going to break down the mistakes I made on the short hunt.

They're definitely plenty.

But first, let's quite literally dive into the hunt.

So I say dive into the hunt because that's exactly what we got to do this past week.

I ended up doing a little bit of spearfishing and when I started thinking about it, spearfishing

something that I've enjoyed doing, I would consider myself like a beginner novice in

it.

I'm not a professional, I'm not an expert at it.

It's just recreational for me and something that I enjoy doing.

I did quite a while back do some free diving lessons and courses.

Actually, I'd done some spearfishing with three prongs and some other stuff as I guess

like a young adult with zero experience and just did some stupid, dangerous things as

I learned more knowing what I shouldn't have done.

But anyways, on this previous trip, one of the things that I wanted to do was gather

a bunch of different kinds of food, fish, and meat because my wife's uncle was having

a 70th birthday and so we've been, so we're going to throw a dinner party for him and

he always enjoys us going out, catching and hunting some food and then cooking up something

really special.

So I ended up going out with a good buddy of mine, Justin Lee and another friend Ryan

Myers.

And now if you aren't familiar with these guys, these guys are the absolute, in my opinion,

they're the goats of spearfishing.

Like they are the best world champion holders.

If you're like thinking of people that spearfishing, these are, these are the guys that represent

Team America in any international, like any international spearfishing competitions, things

like that.

These are world champion spearfishermen.

So I was definitely in good hands.

Justin lives there.

Ryan actually was just there doing some filming and other stuff and he was able to jump

in with us.

He took his GoPro and I was filming, if you do any social media or you've probably seen

some of Ryan's stuff on Facebook or YouTube, he has some awesome videos of spearfishing and

just some really cool encounters with sharks and catching octopus and shooting all kinds

of different stuff on the reef, cleaning the reef from invasive species and then shooting

food and different things.

And then Justin, I've known Justin for quite a while.

He's just an incredible human, awesome guy, you've probably seen some videos, he's got

a bunch of videos that he's done for Yeti and Dect and other companies.

So there's some really good dudes, not only that, but incredible at what they do, which

is spearfishing.

And so, you know, as me, I'm kind of like the guy, the land lover that gets to go dive

in with these dudes.

And when I was thinking about it, I'm like, man, I love to get in the water and jump

in and shoot a few fish.

But then I started thinking about it as like, man, I really haven't done any actual like

serious diving in years.

It just seems like yesterday, but really, I mean, it's been a while because I was thinking

when my daughter is born, you know, I jump in, but mostly it's just be like something

by myself.

So it'd be close and not diving down deep or anything like that.

But they brought, we took out Justin, he has like this little zodiac, the center console

zodiac thing is pretty sweet.

And we headed out just close to shore.

Cool thing about this island is like, man, it just drops off right away, like right off

a shore.

You go not that far off a shore and it's hundreds, if not hundreds of fathoms deep, I

guess, which makes it a cool fishery for some like really big sport fish, like probably

one of the best places for sure in the islands, one of the best places in the world to catch

blue marlin and big marlins.

And so, you know, our plan was just to go fish some of the reef.

And the first fish we're going to target was with the three prong.

It's called a coley or yellow-eyed coley.

It looks like, I guess it's in the Tang family, but it looks like something you'd see

in an aquarium.

You know, you don't think of it as this awesome table fair or a target fish, but they're

definitely like the beginners fish, right?

I remember the first time that I went out with some friends in Hawaii many years ago.

That's what we were targeting.

Coa and Manini and other ones, that one's kind of yellowish color with some black stripes

on it because they're sort of dumb, I guess, they're plentiful in a lot of places.

And not only that, they taste incredible.

So the way that you prepare them, you got them, you keep cook them whole, slice them, scale

them, and then just fry them, like pan fry them.

And so, we just did some of the nearest shore stuff for that.

It took me a little bit.

I felt like to just get my water wings under me, you know, like, I don't know, I kept hitting

them, but not necessarily getting them on the spear.

I shot a few, but it was good to just kind of get that feel back for the water.

And you know, just figure out what the heck was going on.

But Manini, just so much fun, like spear fishing.

It's one of those things where every time I do it, I need to do more of it.

I need more of this in my life.

Just the absolute blast.

And then we ended up, about midway through, went back and swapped out the three prong for

a spear gun.

And it was awesome to be able to watch Justin and Ryan.

Ryan was just kind of following me around acting as safety and making sure I didn't do

anything, you know, stupid and just giving me pointers.

Because Man, it's so cool to be able to learn from people that really know what they're

doing.

And I've never, I've just kind of always, yeah, recreational at best.

Like never really dove too deep into it, not no pun intended, like tactics is strategy

into the staff.

So I'm going to be like, oh, yeah, try this and you know, oh, yeah, that works.

And then getting to watch Justin, where I'm this type of person like, I can get down.

I could probably dive pretty deep.

I mean, the deepest I've ever dove was, I guess, 30 meters.

So it's close to 100 feet, but that was like on a static line in a very like controlled

environment thing, doing like a free dive assessment.

I think that was, if I remember right, that wasn't fresh, that wasn't fresh water.

But anyways, it was like a lined up, I can't remember that was that actually.

Yeah, that wasn't, it was like in a, it was in Florida somewhere.

But anyways, so like, if I want to dive deep, I guess I can, you know, I've done it before.

But for me, when I'm smearing, maybe let's say it's 30, 40 feet deep, by the time I get

down there, I got a little bit of hang time, not much.

And then it's back up to the surface.

These guys, you know, Justin, like watching a pro, it's like, they get down.

And then they're, they're legit hunting.

They're on the bottom.

They're waiting.

They've got strategy.

They've got all this stuff.

So that was really cool to see.

They're, you know, obviously really good at it.

It was cool to just pick up some tips and some pointers.

So I swapped the three prong for a spear gun.

And there's this fish on the, which is actually a species of groupers called, they call it

the rowey.

I guess that's right.

Yeah.

It's kind of like a Hawaiian grouper, right?

But it's not native.

So it was, somebody brought it over, I guess, thinking like, you know, grouper meets incredible.

Maybe just creating a fishery.

I don't know.

But what ended up happening with this fish is it just eats all the reef fish.

It's invasive.

It's eating all the native fish.

And you can't eat it because it gets cigarette, which is from, it's like bioaccumulation in

this fish.

And then if you eat that fish, you can get the cigarette, which I guess from what

my memory recalls, you get like these massive fevers and it's just a terrible, it's almost

like some kind of poisoning in your body.

So fish can't be eaten.

So one of the things that you want to do is when you see these fish, take them out because

it cleans the reef and kind of restores that hopefully, you know, do your part when you

see them shoot them.

There's quite a few.

So I picked up a spear gun, dove down and shot one of those.

And then I actually shot quite a few of them with the spear gun.

It felt like spear gun, I was, I don't know, doing a little bit better with, we fished

around.

It was just, it was a lot of fun.

It ended up shooting a parrot fish, which are good.

And then, or I guess what do you call it, like, uhu, I think.

And then right before we left, one of the, one of my favorite fish on the, on the reef

is a uku or like a gray snapper.

And there was one just out a little bit.

I don't know how deep it was, maybe like 30, 40 feet, something like that.

Wasn't crazy deep.

And so I, I saw that and Ryan pointed it out actually.

And I was like, okay, one last dive before we head back, the incredible fish to eat like

one of my favorites.

I've had them before and dove down for that and dove down and just kind of, it got a

little curious, came up to the spear, made a good shot on him and got, got the snapper.

So we had some good fish, Justin shot a lot of good fish, got a few octopus as well.

So that was going to be, you know, dinner for us for the night.

I had a bunch of friends and family there too.

So I did a little bit of a fish fry, saved a little bit for the party later on that week.

And then one of the other things that we do over there, my buddy Josh and I.

And then, so my brother and a lot, Tom and my nephew Charlie, we all went out just deep

sea fishing, standard, you know, just did like a charter, got a recommendation from Justin

from the company is called crack and fishing.

And this got the captain Cyrus is actually, he's, he actually had won the world bill fishing

tour or one or championship, whatever.

I mean, when you talk, it's awesome to talk to people like that because it's just completely

different world than what I'm used to, you know, that kind of fishing is kind of, you

know, it's one of those, when you're somewhere where you can do it.

It's cool and it's fun, but to talk to a real professional about it and just like hear

about those tournaments and the other things, it's pretty cool.

It was a cool, cool experience, got an awesome boat.

And so we went out and did that.

And it was just a slow day like we caught a, Charlie caught an amberjack drop down before

we moved.

We got some live bait drifting and those guys were just working hard to catch some fish.

And we kind of put it into overtime a little bit and it was like last past, how would

all these guys last past we're going past a buoy at the end of the day.

And just one last drift because they marked a fish and hooked onto a fish.

And so my buddy Josh got in the chair and was fighting it and we're like, we figured,

you know, some, some kind of tuna and ah, he elephant, whatever.

And so he's fighting and I'm like, he's kind of struggling and this fish is acting

funny.

But we're, I don't know what we're just thinking maybe like, you know, hoping to pick

up a small tuna or whatever before we go back in.

Turns out he landed.

It was a big yellowfin, especially for a while like it was 160, I think it was 165 pounds.

So we had a lot of ahi and that was going to be part of the, the party we were going

to make sashimi, pokey, sushi, all of the above.

So that was exciting.

That was a fun little thing to add to the mix.

And then got the opportunity as well before the party to do a little bit of a hunt with

Justin.

So he's got this really sweet like reforestation project with his family.

So they took this piece of property that had been cleared for, I guess like most, you

know, cleared for cattle and all the trees were gone.

And the one thing about an island is you need those trees to collect the water and kind

of rebuild the health of the landscape.

So they went in, they started planting a bunch of native trees like not were they iron

woods and oh, sandalwood, sorry.

And these native sandalwoods.

And so they actually have this thing where they take the, they take the dead sandalwoods

and then they turn that into like an essential oil.

And then they've got this whole process for like, reforesting and you can see just how

lush this area is compared to neighboring places that you drive through to get there is

a pretty incredible thing, pretty cool thing to see.

Now in this particular area as well, there's a bunch of feral sheep.

So as they start to rut too, I think more come on and come off.

But we're hoping to maybe turn up a ram.

No real pressure.

Just kind of going out for the morning, doing a doing like a half a day hunt kind of thing.

The real goal was to shoot a lamb or a you for a big birthday cook up.

So we went up there, you just kind of walking around, still hunting, ton of sheep running

around.

You know, my thought was like, oh, there's so many sheep was just kind of wait, there's

some use and some lambs and stuff that we had kind of shots on, wasn't being like super

aggressive with it.

It's kind of like, let's look for a ram and then on the way back, we'll shoot a lamb

or something.

And then kind of working through maybe a little bit later before the wind started to

shift, there's this kind of you and lamb together.

So I was like, oh, I'll just shoot this lamb, draw back, do my thing.

Pretty sure I arranged it.

Shoot and just shoot.

I just shot over it.

It's just straight up air ball.

And I'm like, do what the hell?

If I knew that I was like, if they knew what was the day, how the day was going to pan

out, probably would have, I don't know, I don't know, focus a little bit more on what

I have you, but I don't know if I just like, you know, I was really pulling through

a shot and maybe just, I don't really know what happened, a small target.

But I mean, that's like, not small in the targets that I'm like, not small in a dot

on a target at 30 again, 30 or 40 yards can remember what it was, just whipped it.

And so I was like, well, that sucks.

Okay.

And then just continued to hunt on, we had some other stocks that got blown and the sheep

actually just started giving us the run around.

It's one of those things where you go out and you think like, oh, this is easy hunting.

Okay.

I mean, really like a super target rich environment.

And you just keep getting school.

I don't know if it's like not taking it as seriously as you would something else.

I don't know, but I had another shot at a ram actually, like hit a tree and slowed it

down just enough to go under it.

So I was like, man, I've shot two arrows, like missed two animals, like what the hell is

going on, dude?

And it's not like things weren't off, it's just, I don't know, sucks to suck, I guess.

I guess like, what's going on?

So finally, had an opportunity at, I don't know, a you that walking back and just you popped

out.

And it might like, dude, my rain gestimation in this country was bad.

So like, somebody should get a quick chance to draw back.

You're like, yeah, that's 30 yards and it'd be like 50 yards.

So what's going on here?

So this U came out, shot it, ended up, hit it a little back.

So we just waited a little bit and moved up, found it again and put another arrow in it,

just to speed things up.

And of course, it was like an ancient U, some old mutton for the feast.

But we ended up cruising up the road and there was a U in a lamb that Justin got out

and shot.

And so we ended up with some good meat and just a lot of fun.

Honestly, I felt like that day, I don't know what it was, man, I was just struggling.

There's just times where nothing lines up there.

I felt like, okay, I'd move in on something and you'd range one animal, that one would

move off.

The ones in the back looked like they were right with it and they ended up being 10 yards

past it.

The way that this terrain was, my rain gestimation was just off like absolutely horrid.

And so I shot, I think four arrows or something like that, shut all my arrows, whatever.

I ended up with a sheep, but man, it was just a struggle bus for me that day.

I don't know.

It's just, look, like that, that happens, you know, I was thinking, man, dude, it just sucks

when it sucks.

Like, I don't know what was going on, but I was not doing great.

You know, I ended up with a sheep and that's all good.

But it had a blast.

It was like a, you know, short morning, how it came back with some meat.

Went back butchered, like, skinned and I kept the lamb whole because the plan was just

like, spatched cock that and slow cook it.

And we went back butchered up the, cut up the big ahi from the day before and then put

the, you know, the lamb wasn't going to do anything crazy with it.

Just cleaned it up and put it afridged for the party the next day.

So also, oh, Ryan and Justin went out on the day that we were on the boat.

They went out and spear fishing and shot some Ono as well.

So we had some of that.

You know, I've had cooked Ono or, you know, some people might call it Wahoo.

I don't, to me, I'm like, man, not a great fish cooked.

It's a little dry.

It's white fish.

People love it.

Some people love that dry white fish, you know, I'll, I'll say some things that might

be controversial.

I'm not like the biggest fan of halibut or cooked Wahoo or Ono.

I mean, it's just like a dry white fish.

However, have those sashimi and raw phenomenal.

Like, I've had sashimi halibut.

I've sashimied this, this is the first time I had the Ono sashimi.

And it's phenomenal.

Like, that's how that fish should be just uncooked.

That's, or making it into some pokey or something like that.

That's that, that's as good as it gets.

So we had all that stuff.

We had a lot of makings for the feast.

And so for the birthday dinner, the next day for Uncle Rick, we ended up, ended up taking

that lamb.

And I didn't do, I just did kind of like a Mediterranean style.

So I got some garlic.

This is like my favorite way to do lamb, any kind of lamb.

And I've shot a few, you know, Mufla on another wild sheep.

And I've done this even with like Venison.

One time, oh, I did this, this with a, like a shot, a real young white tailed doe.

Or even just like a white tailed doe.

I've done this with hind quarters.

It's a really great way to cook stuff.

So whether you've got lamb or sheep or wild whatever, the wild lamb's like, it's more,

I don't know, it's just phenomenal.

I think it's really good tasting.

So the plan was, I was going to, I spatched cocktail.

So that's where the whole thing is pretty much whole, and you split it so it can lay

on the grill flat.

So I did that.

And then I got garlic, olive oil, lemon, rosemary, thyme, and like salt and pepper and

Dijon mustard.

So what I do is I take like two whole, like a lot of garlic, two whole heads of garlic,

maybe four heads of garlic, whatever, and how much you got.

And strip that down, put it in a, I just put it in like a blender or food processor.

Throw in quite a bit of Dijon mustard, olive oil, and then like rosemary and thyme in

with that.

And then a bunch of lemon juice, like maybe four, three, four lemons, whatever.

Then I'll blend all that together and make like, it kind of makes like this paste marinade.

And then I coated the whole lamb with that.

And so then I take that and then just salt and pepper on the top.

And then aside from that, I also took a knife, poked some holes in in the meat, and then

slid whole pieces of garlic in there.

So this thing is, is primed, it's ready.

So I did that with the lamb and then I did a piece of the U as well, like the high

and quarter, just because I had extra room on the grill, quite a few people.

So and to just kind of compare the two.

Then I put it on like a pellet smoker.

I just smoked it on like low for probably two hours just to get that kind of smoky crust

going and then cranked it up to like 450 and put it in for another hour and a half, something

like that.

The lamb being like so tender, it essentially made it like almost like a pulled pork

texture where it just shred off the bone.

The U came apart, but it could have used more time, I think, but it was cooked enough

where you could slice it and then take those pieces.

It was just a little bit tougher, but it turned out incredible.

So for the birthday dinner, we had, we took some of that Ono and Ahi and made sashimi,

I made a couple like spicy tuna roll or spicy tuna hand rolls and some other things

like that.

Justin made an incredible poque and we put that, we had some rice and just essentially

we did bulls with the fish.

Oh, and then I think we had some of that ooku or that gray snapper as well.

So we had fish, we had the poque, we had rice and it was just like poque bulls with that

lamb and that rice.

We had some, you know, wasabi and soy sauce to add on the top, some hot sauce.

And it was just, it was phenomenal.

The one, the one thing that we never thought of because it was like myself, my buddy Josh,

Justin did the poque and then other brother and law, you know, helping out.

And it's like the dudes were in charge of dinner and the girls were like, do you guys think

of any sides?

We're like, no, we've got meat, we've got, we've got fish, we've got wild sheep.

Why would you need any sides?

When you let the dudes plan the dinner, there's never sides, man.

That's like, I think that every time I make dinner, I always start cooking the meat and

I go, oh, I probably should have maybe put those potatoes in.

Oh, maybe I should have cooked that broccoli.

Oh, I guess I could have started to salad.

But I think that's just how I, that's how I go.

We at least had the rice.

That was a, you know, that was the fourth eye because we made, we're making sushi.

So we had a plenty of rice for the bulls.

I think that was, that was plenty of topping enough.

You got the fish, you got the meat, you got the rice.

It was an incredible meal and so much fun.

It was, it was, it was really just a fun family trip and my wife was there.

The kids were there.

A lot of my wife's family was there.

So we just had a blast.

I was just kind of sure that that portion of the trip with you.

And yeah, and I think one of the other things that, you know, it was like a vacation hunt,

you know, that's one of the cool things about hunting on Hawaii or Maui or whatever is.

We've got so much around and so many ways to collect food and one of my favorite things.

Oh, there's a, the place where we're staying at, there's like a orchard back there.

So we ended up picking some fruit and like everything that we made in that meal for the

most part, the limes, the, the citrus, all the anything that we had throughout that we,

we just picked there.

So there's fruit that we can pick.

There's meat that we shot.

There's fish that we caught.

It was just a really cool way to experience it.

And we had, we had an awesome time.

That trip was a little bit of a pit stop for my family, my wife and Danielle and my kids

are in a kit because we were continuing on to New Zealand to do a little bit of fallow

to your hunting as a family.

So I'll share that story next week because there's, we got, we had some great awesome hunts,

some fun stuff.

I got to, I mean, the little guy was like dad and it was the boys went out hunting one

day.

He's only three, but dude, he, he hiked like three miles and also I'll share that story,

but it was, it was a ton of fun.

Got a good buck and it was, it was just fun.

So, but the, the Hawaii trip was incredible.

Like I, I, I mostly, because my grandma lived on Hawaii for a long time.

So, or Maui, sorry.

So most of my hunting and fishing stuff is around Maui.

So it was cool to experience another island and also get to do some hunting and fishing

and stuff there.

And especially in this like off-season time where I went, the day that I left, I was like,

I just finished plowing my driveway, like massive amounts of snow.

And then the next day you're in hot weather, spearing fish in the ocean.

So it was a lot of fun to do this time here and just a really incredible trip.

The one thing that I, I do want to, I guess, assess is like the, the point of this podcast,

I like to share stories.

I also like to share tips and tactics to help make you better hunter.

And one of the things that I am constantly trying to do is analyze things that I do right,

things that I do wrong and, and assess that.

I felt like, you know, there are days, sometimes there are seasons, sometimes there are hunts,

sometimes there are days on the hunt.

When you just feel like it's off, you're off, it's all off, like it's just, you struggle

bus, right?

I mean, I experience it, everybody experiences it.

I've hunted with guys that I know are like, these dudes are absolute legends.

And it's like, I've seen, it's like, dude, I've just sucked today and like, yeah, dude,

it happens, it happens, happens to me, happens to everyone.

There's days where you just can't, it's like, you can't put it together.

I don't know what it is, I don't know what it is.

You always fear those days.

You never want those days to be on those hunts where it's just that epic day or that once

in a lifetime tag, right?

And for me, that's what I always try to do, at least a couple hunts, if I can, that

are where you aren't, it's kind of maybe a no pressure hunt, but you're just getting

in a few reps, something like this where it's like an off season hunting wild sheet,

a feral sheep, you can do it on state side for like white tailed dose.

You can do it for ducks during the archer, like during the duck season, like hunting birds

during the season with your bow, just getting out and getting some reps in and getting those

days where it's like, cool, I made, I made some awesome, or yeah, I made some mistakes.

It happens and I think that just getting out and getting some time in helps no matter

what.

When I think about the upcoming fall and some of the tags that I've played for us, so

I actually, I ended up drawing, well, you burning my Arizona points on a late season archery

elk tag.

So it's going to be a spot and stock elk kind of, I think it's in November, it should

be a decent year for it, but like anything, you know, things can change.

But also I was like, you know, I had a lot of points, but not enough.

I accidentally, many years ago, I guess like, I probably would have had 20, 20 some

odd points for elk.

I think I have 13 when I cashed them in now.

I think when I had 10 points, I put in for an archery tag that I figured I was going

to draw back then, what did you're on?

Somehow randomly, I think when I highlighted the box, I'd scrolled with my mouse to scroll

down the page and message just put it on some random box and I burned 10 points on

a, some random archery cow tag in a unit, I was like, what?

And that was the year before they had the point guard for, so you could get your points

back.

So I accidentally drew a cow tag with my Arizona points and then I just start over, finally

got like 13 points again and decided, you know what, I'm just going to, I'm just going

to cash them in because really I'm going for random anyways on some of these tags is

like, I don't know if these points even matter, but I can use them to draw this particular

hunt, I think.

So I did that.

I actually guess it was my second choice.

So I did, I guess I drew it in the random anyways.

So I don't know, I don't even know if the points mattered.

So I ended up cashing those points for a late season.

But when you think about it, you're like, okay, I probably won't draw that tag again,

whatever.

It's a hunt.

It's coming up.

Because where, you know, I might get one opportunity, maybe, maybe I'm going to, I'm

going to scout and hopefully find a good bull.

That's going to be the goal, find the good bull.

And you want that opportunity to go out without a hitch, right?

And I think that with bow hunting, there's that thing where you can practice, you can practice

in your backyard, you can practice wherever.

But there is also that time in the field to make mistakes, to do things right and

wrong, to just go through the motions that really help when something really important

comes down the pipe.

And that really important thing might be a doe white tail, it might be a big bull elk,

it might be a once in a lifetime sheep tag, it doesn't really matter.

I've always been a big fan of just getting out with the bow.

So if it's off season, okay, this time here, yeah, you can, you can travel and you can

go places like I go to New Zealand, you know, I've done that for years and hunted with

my bow.

I go to Hawaii and I went to my bow, but that's not accessible for everyone.

But there are hunts around where you're at that are accessible, that are almost year

round.

One of the things that I used to do a lot this time year, hunt and call predators or coyotes,

foxes coyote, whatever's legal where you're at, man, to do that with a bow is fun.

It helps out the deer populations, for sure, especially in the springtime, I primarily

target predators in the springtime, go to the areas where deer drop and fawns and start

calling and hunting coyotes.

You could do it with a rifle, you could do it with a bow, you can do it with that or whatever,

but it gets you out in the field.

I feel like that there's kind of a lack of predator hunting lately, you know, maybe kind

of when I was growing up, it was a big thing and I just feel like it's maybe, maybe I'm

not paying as much attention to it, but I feel like I've been out hunting place.

We used to not see as many predators, you see a lot more deer, I don't know, call what

you will.

I believe that there's a strong correlation between the two.

So there's something you can get out and do.

Or even during the season later in the fall, when maybe you've got a big game hunt that's

later, some of the things that I do a lot is like, hey, when bird seasons open, I'll

spot and stalk ducks on the river and with my bow or on the increase, I'll go hunt quail

like with my bow, just put on like a blunt tip and go do that.

I'll hunt grouse in the mountains with my bow.

Just different things to get those repetitions built.

There's other stuff around like pig hunting in different places, you know, I live close

to California, so that would be a place that I would go do pig hunting chase pigs.

Just to get out and things is like, it's not maybe as much pressure.

It doesn't cost a crazy amount to do some of these things, even just like non-game, you

know, whatever.

I don't know.

Ground squirrels.

Dude, I've chased ground squirrels with my recurve a bit in the spring time, like just

because it's something to do, it's something you can do.

Maybe I bring my recurve or my long bow out when it is like late summer, whatever, looking

for sheds and shooting ground squirrels or pine cones or roving or whatever.

That kind of practice does a lot.

I think on this, on this past, on this hunt that I just did, you know, I think one of

the things is like you kind of take it easy, but as I was like, oh, we're just looking

for some use in whatever and grams and maybe you aren't in the same like focused head space

as you are on something else.

And that was probably a mistake, right?

Like, I get, when I'm on some other kind of hunt, it's like so focused on it.

I think you almost just got to take it all serious, really?

If you want to, I'm the type, if somebody's like, it's super easy, I will absolutely

struggle every time someone's like, this is impossible.

I will excel.

That's just like, my friends joke with me all the time, like if I tell you, it's impossible,

like I'll go do it.

Like I don't remember because I want somebody to be like, oh, there's these deer out

in this flat.

They're absolutely impossible to kill.

Like it's just too open.

Four hours later, I came back with like a big buck from this big flat.

I just crawled all day and shot one, right?

It was like, if it's impossible, I'll do it.

But I take that kind of mentality.

And I was like, oh, it's so easy, like you will do every time it's easy, I swear to

God, I struggle.

Maybe it's just the amount of focus.

So I think that there's something to be said for that.

I don't know.

The other thing is one of the things that, you know, really got me on that little sheep

hunt, the range estimation.

I feel like I do rely on pretty good range estimation, but when you go to a new place

and you're hunting a new animal, oftentimes it's like, maybe you're your perception of

how big that animal is and that particular landscape can be off.

It seemed like everything looked a lot closer, maybe because it was still hunting forested.

And then there would be like these dips in the, so like the lava rock would come down,

right?

And it would look like flat terrain, but there would be a gap of space in between.

And that's what was thrown in the office, like, oh, it would drop down and it would go

across this little canyon that I couldn't see from my eyesight.

It looked like it was just flat and straight.

And yet there's 10 yards in this little canyon draw that you can't see and the animals

on the other side of that, or there's a group split up and one's close and then one's

further back.

So I range the close one, it moves off.

Okay, I just pivot to the one that was next, looked next to it.

It's actually 10 yards behind it.

You know, that can trick you and range estimation is huge when it comes to bohunting.

So I think in one of the things that I do when I have more time as I'm walking around

in any new area, and I really wasn't doing this and I probably should have been, is when

I'm walking around in a new area, I actually have my rangefinder out before I get into animals

and I'm like guessing how far is that, how far is that, how far is that.

And I start to build that and we saw a lot of animals.

So I should have been ranging more of them and guessing, oh, that's actually see.

So then you can start to build that calculator out of like, oh, it looks 30.

It's actually 45, huh, okay, now I can kind of recalibrate and sometimes it takes a little

bit of time.

But if you're going out on a Western big game hunt, you're from somewhere else and you're

used to hunting in a tree stand or whatever.

One of the things that I always tell my hunters is like, yeah, just as you're walking around

and guess things and start ranging.

If we encounter any animals that we aren't going to shoot cow elk or something like that,

guess the yardage, range it, you know, whatever.

And if you're continually off, you know, make sure you get a good range first before shooting.

Because a lot of times when I'm hunting or whatever, I do, I always like, the range is very

important.

But sometimes things happen, especially when you're still hunting and you just need to be

ready.

When you go like, oh, it's 20 yards, that's close, like that's the top pin.

It's actually not.

It's 30 yards, it's 35 yards.

Okay, that makes a big difference.

And I do, like, I like my setup with a heavier slower arrow.

So for smaller animals, it makes a bigger difference.

I probably will, I think what I'm going to do this year is I'm going to make another

archery setup.

I'm going to make like a lighter, faster arrow for just smaller animals and for a different

style of hunting.

But yeah, I think that that's one of the like, the takeaways is building out that calculation

when you're somewhere else.

A new species, a new animal, a new terrain, really builds that out.

It doesn't matter if you're rifle hunter, bow hunter, whatever, it's a good habit to get

into.

Especially like, if you go out west for the first time, or even if you're just in an area

that's like big canyons, as I'm hiking up range across the canyon, so you can get that

depth perception.

Oh, this canyon looks 400 yards across, and it's 800 yards across, or this looks like

800 yards across.

Oh, it's 350 yards across there.

Is that drop where you have like a big canyon between you makes things look further than

they are?

And sometimes when you don't have that drop, makes things look closer.

Like I was saying on that caribou hunt that I did last year, everything looked super close

because there was, it was just like a big caribou and nothing.

You look at it, you go, oh, that's got to be 50 yards, 98 yards, 120 yards, what's going

on?

Like, there's no depth perception.

So you just start to recalibrate that guess, because it makes a big difference in scenarios

where you just have to draw back and shoot, or you've ranged something, it's moved off

and now you get a guess on that next animal that comes out.

And I think that that, like, range estimation is huge for making a shot on target where

you want it to be.

So my tip or take away, I think, from what I learned, or things that I know, and maybe

you just kind of do laxedazically, is when you're out there, as you're moving around,

do that range estimation, do that, like, guessing.

And then for bow hunters, for rifles, get out in the field, like, before your target

and go chase something, whether it's, you know, feral pigs, somewhere wild hogs, whether

it's birds during the art, like, during the season for upland game, waterfowl, later

in the season, like, before your big game hunt.

Maybe it's coyotes, you know, predators, squirrel, ground squirrel, whatever it is.

Get out and just get some repetition and move, or even, like, another thing that I do

a lot, especially with my, like, if I'm going to, when I kind of switch from, say, I'm

going to go, I've been hunting with my compound bone.

I'm like, I'm going to go on a recurve longbow hunt.

I take it out, and as I always carry, like, a practice blunt tip arrow with me, and I'll

just, for the day, even maybe it's during that hunt, whatever, I'm just walking around

shooting pine cones, guessing yarges, just flinging arrows, man, in the terrain and field

where I'm hunting, because it starts to build that muscle memory back.

So when that bull elk, or that go-white tail, or that, you know, your buck, whatever

comes out, I'm ready for it.

And there is that, that practice in the backyard makes a big difference, building that repetition,

and that's what we're going to start talking about.

As we start talking about, like, we go from tag draws and things like that, to planning

and preparation for the season, especially for our tree hunting, there's a lot of things

in ways that you can practice to build that muscle memory for the hunt.

But it goes so far, right?

I think that it's very important, and that's, like, building the basics, but if you

can get out in the field in the springtime, maybe you're shedding out your hunting, and

you can bring your bow around and shoot some pine cones, or, you know, maybe chase a few

coyotes, whatever, like, that kind of practice, that kind of repetition really builds that

skill set.

So when you've got that tag that's down the road, that once in a lifetime tag, or whatever

it may be, you're ready for it, because you've done those things already.

And I think that that's, sometimes we've got all that we put all this time into applying.

We put years and years of points in planning and preparation for the hunt, and to be realistic,

most hunters might get one opportunity a year, or one opportunity every four or five years,

right?

So how do we get more opportunities?

Well, it's chasing things in those off seasons.

It's expanding what you might be hunting.

It's getting out in the field, and just getting that, like, infield practice, rain

estimation, shooting, drawing, whatever it might be.

And that can be really valuable lessons learned for that one, we're going to call it more

important, or more rare opportunity.

So we're using repetition and other opportunity to practice for those other opportunities.

And it's a great way to just get prepared and get ready.

Because we look toward some of the spring season, some of the things that chase out there.

I know a lot of people really enjoy chasing turkeys this time here, especially depending

on where you live.

If you live in the Midwest or Eastern part of the US, it's one of the things that you get

to chase.

You know, for us out west often, spring bears gets a lot of focus, but even just chasing

turkeys can be a lot of fun.

Now as somebody that says that can be a lot of fun, it is not elk hunting, okay?

You know, everyone should know my stance on that.

But I do agree that chasing turkeys can be fun.

One of the great supporters of this podcast, Vortex Optics, they've got their Viper shotgun

enclosed microgreen dot, which is a dot site for your shotgun.

This came out, and it's a low profile.

You can also use it for wing shooting.

I'm actually going to put one on mine for duck hunting and some other stuff.

I actually just picked up, I'm finishing up my application process on it, but I picked

up one of those banish, the banish 12, it's like a horizontal suppressor for a shotgun.

I'm excited about that.

I think I'm going to throw one of these green dots on that, because I feel like it will

help me focus on that shotgun for some waterfowl hunting later on in the season.

But I think I'm going to try to get out and do a little bit of turkey hunting as well.

So I've got a little bit of time here, and I was like, you know, it's been a while since

I've seriously chased any turkeys.

I'm kind of, as much as I love bow hunting, I've got too many friends that are like, you

don't turkey hunt with a bow.

They're hardcore boners, and like turkeys are meant to be shot with shotgun.

So like, I'll, I'll adhere to that, like, I'll, I'll go hunt them with a shotgun.

It's all good.

I tried to draw my Nevada turkey tag.

I think I got more points for a turkey tag in Nevada than I did for sheep, but didn't

win unsuccessful for that.

Maybe I'll, I don't know, I'll figure something out.

I got maybe go to Montana or something and chase some turkeys there, but yeah, that's,

that's new.

And then for those of you that are maybe more like into some tactical shooting, I noticed

that they also had a new strike eagles 10 or so, it's a one to 10 by 24 first focal plane

like rifle scope.

I had a similar scope to this on like a big bore rifle, but if you're, if you're into

that tactical shooting, that looks like an awesome scope.

I haven't shot it yet, but it looks, it's set up for, you know, like an AR platform rifle

or whatever I know, a lot of people like this time of year, it's fun to get out and shoot.

And if you got, if you're looking for something new, that's new there as well, or if you're

just trying to stock up on any vortex optics, whatever this time of year, prepare for spring

bare hunting and stuff like that, feel free to check out my website, rimmyworn.com.

We've got some of that stuff in the store.

You don't have everything and there's always other, you know, any of your local retailers

or online retailers that have a lot of the stuff as well.

So thank you guys so much for all the support.

Oh, one of the things I was going to mention before we go, I've got, if you think it'd

be fun to do a little bit of an archery shoot with me, I am auctioning off through the

Nevada big horns unlimited.

So go to my website, rimmyworn.com, I'll have this information up on the main page,

link to the auction.

So for those of you joining us at the NBU dinner, banquet dinner, I'll be there and the

auction's going to go.

I did a package with my day six arrow company, so we've got a yet to be released, Broadhead,

which I'm pretty excited about.

This might give it all away.

If you want to kind of know what's coming up and what's in the works, we're going to launch

a year pretty soon, but the new Broadhead, the winner of this auction, we'll get the

new Broadhead.

We've got a brand new Matthews arc.

We've got Montana knife company knives.

We've got vortex range finder.

I've got Schnee's boots in there, like day six arrows, can get you all set up.

It's an incredible gear package, like I don't even know what the gear itself's worth,

like probably $6,000 some first light gear, like just a bunch of gear.

And then I'm going to do a private 3D shoot, I'm going to set up a bunch of 3Ds on the

mountain and do a barbecue for the winning bidders, like them in five to 10 friends.

So it should be an awesome time.

It's all that money, 100% donation going to Nevada wild sheep conservation.

So I'm excited about that.

If that's something that you might be interested in and you want to bid on it and you aren't

at the auction, you can bid online.

So that's going to be cool.

I'm excited about that.

You raise a ton of money for Nevada big horns unlimited at that auction in dinner.

And then just as another thing, if you're like sheep hunting sounds fun, NVU has a Rocky

Mountain big horn tag that they're raffling off.

So you can buy raffle tickets.

The link will be on my website as well for that.

And that's going to go, I guess it's February or sorry, April 4th.

So Friday, that'd be good for you, sort of Friday, April 3rd.

So it's coming up.

That's like essentially almost two weeks from now.

So you could have yourself a sheep hunt coming up.

So that's going, that's raffling off on the 3rd.

So if you're there or you're coming or you're not coming, you can still get a raffle

ticket for that to try to win that sheep hunt.

And then I've got that auction item going off.

So if this, if you're losing this podcast, you're like, that sounds like a cool little

experience.

And you get some cool gear as well.

That might be for you.

We're going to try to, try to raise some money for conservation.

So appreciate that.

Thank you guys so much.

And until next week, I'm just going to say, don't suck.

Sometimes you got to tell yourself, don't suck, I was telling myself that the whole day

I was chasing those silly fuzzy sheep around.

Okay.