100 E-SCOUTING TERMS EVERY ELK AND MULE DEER HUNTER MUST KNOW | 🎙️ EP. 107

In this episode of Backbone Unlimited, Matt Hartsky breaks down one of the most important skills in Western hunting: understanding terrain, wind, thermals, and e-scouting at a functional level. Most hunters think e-scouting is dropping pins and circling basins. The hunters who consistently find elk and mule deer see something deeper. They can look at a map and immediately understand how animals move, where they bed, how wind and thermals behave, and why certain terrain consistently holds game while other areas stay empty. This episode delivers the full Backbone Unlimited Terrain and E-Scouting Glossary, covering 101 essential terrain features, wind behaviors, thermal patterns, and movement concepts that dictate where elk and mule deer live, feed, bed, and travel on Western public land. From ridges, benches, saddles, basins, and drainages to thermals, wind funnels, leeward bedding, transition zones, escape routes, and pressure-driven movement, every concept is explained through the lens of how animals actually use the landscape. Matt walks through how elk and mule deer select bedding based on wind and visibility, how feeding and transition routes change with time of day, weather, and pressure, and how subtle terrain features like micro-benches, shadow pockets, and sidehill travel routes are often the difference between finding animals and walking past them. This episode ties together terrain reading, wind strategy, and movement prediction so hunters can stop guessing and start understanding what the mountain is telling them. If you’ve ever felt like good-looking country wasn’t producing animals, or that elk and mule deer seemed to disappear the moment the season started, this episode explains why. It lays the foundation for smarter e-scouting, better in-field decisions, and more consistent encounters by teaching you how to see the terrain the same way elk and mule deer do.