Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance. It's
Speaker 1: the beginning of August, and all I can think about
Speaker 1: all day long is Elk. I was able to take
Speaker 1: a trip out last weekend and got some trail cameras up.
Speaker 1: I've also figured out that some of these cell cams
Speaker 1: give me a lot of anxiety because if they're not
Speaker 1: producing pictures only a day or two in, I want
Speaker 1: to go back up and move them. I think. I
Speaker 1: like the idea of cameras just sitting there and then
Speaker 1: I don't. It's a surprise until I show up and
Speaker 1: check them. But anyways, got cameras out, thinking about Elk
Speaker 1: all the time, a little bit thinking about Alaska, Doll Sheep.
Speaker 1: I'll be leaving here in a couple of days. Next
Speaker 1: time i'm back on the podcast, that hunt should be
Speaker 1: about finished up, and I'll be able to share those experiences.
Speaker 1: But for me right now, all I can think about
Speaker 1: is Elk. You know, spending a ton of time on
Speaker 1: Google Earth, on on X you know, we got all
Speaker 1: of our tags in our pocket, just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out and do the best of our ability kind of
Speaker 1: lay out these hunts that that we have before us.
Speaker 1: But on today's episode, I didn't really want to do,
Speaker 1: you know, listener Q and A. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: bring a guest on. I really just wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about my personal experience again, but really mistakes and a
Speaker 1: lot of people you know, want to learn from from successes,
Speaker 1: and you can, but I feel like there's so much
Speaker 1: more that can be learned from mistakes. And take it
Speaker 1: from me, is I've failed a lot more in the
Speaker 1: Elk Woods than I've been successful as far as you know,
Speaker 1: you know, specific circumstances. I failed more of those and
Speaker 1: I've been successful, and so I really want to kind
Speaker 1: of dive into those and from my own experience kind
Speaker 1: of say, in my opinion, this is what causes a
Speaker 1: lot of people, you know, to to not not to
Speaker 1: tag throughout Elk season. So we're gonna go through. We've
Speaker 1: got ten things here I'm going to talk about. I
Speaker 1: just did my best to layout you know, ten of them.
Speaker 1: I've I've did a seminar, I've did some articles on
Speaker 1: nees for a long time. But they're good. They've got
Speaker 1: this got a good structure, it's got good backbone, and
Speaker 1: we can talk about some things that kind of offshoot
Speaker 1: from from these ten you know things. So I get
Speaker 1: to go to a lot of sportsman shows, I get
Speaker 1: a lot of emails. I get a lot of people
Speaker 1: contacting me about their failures or why did this not work,
Speaker 1: whether it's calling, whether it's setting up, And a lot
Speaker 1: of people could be like, man, this is just boring,
Speaker 1: Like I don't want to deal with this. But for me,
Speaker 1: I can take I can learn from that. Right, I
Speaker 1: only get so many hours in September, and I can't
Speaker 1: be in all of these situations all the time. And
Speaker 1: so if I can use others, you know, experiences and
Speaker 1: some of their failures and some of their decision making
Speaker 1: and try to continue to add that to my experiences
Speaker 1: and formulate better plans, it's all. It's all, it's all
Speaker 1: a win for me. I'm always learning. I don't got
Speaker 1: this completely figured out yet. You know, it's elk hunting.
Speaker 1: The only thing for certain when it comes to calling
Speaker 1: an elk is that nothing from time to time is certain.
Speaker 1: It's always new. There's always a new wrinkle the elk.
Speaker 1: You're going to react a little bit differently, and so
Speaker 1: we're always changing. Now, what I will say is when
Speaker 1: when I go in to do some of these, you know,
Speaker 1: setting up or getting close. We kind of tend to
Speaker 1: run the same prescriptive plan over and over because it
Speaker 1: has worked enough times that we know within a season
Speaker 1: it's going to probably pan out in our favor. And
Speaker 1: a quote that I like to use for my good
Speaker 1: buddy Thomas Edison, I've not failed. I've just found ten
Speaker 1: thousand ways that won't work. And what that said, when
Speaker 1: it comes to elk hunting, it might not work ten
Speaker 1: thousand times in a row, but you never know that
Speaker 1: certain elk on the ten thousand and month time that
Speaker 1: might be the thing that was going to work on them.
Speaker 1: So with that said, now that we're all confused and like,
Speaker 1: well I don't I'm not gonna trust anything that he
Speaker 1: says here because he just said anything can work in
Speaker 1: some things don't. This is the general consensus, is this.
Speaker 1: These things that we're going to talk about the biggest
Speaker 1: mistakes elk hunters can make. These are the things that
Speaker 1: the majority of time, you know, will screw things up
Speaker 1: when we get to things like wind and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Like I guarantee you that will always screw an elk
Speaker 1: cut up. So number one and this is maybe the
Speaker 1: thing that I tell people, and so of my seminars
Speaker 1: is this is probably the thing most people do, if
Speaker 1: if we could pick in one of these ten things,
Speaker 1: this is the thing that probably the majority of elk
Speaker 1: hunters that I talked to do on a call in.
Speaker 1: And so I think this is affecting the most amount
Speaker 1: of people, is calling your way into elk and not
Speaker 1: getting close enough before you call. Anybody that's listened to
Speaker 1: cutting the distance before you guys have probably heard this.
Speaker 1: You know, you got the the the idea that this
Speaker 1: bull wants to breed, he wants to stay alive. And
Speaker 1: so when another bull approaches, that sounds whether it's small
Speaker 1: or big, and we're going to get into some of that,
Speaker 1: you know, calling like a big bull or a small bull.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what bull's coming at him, his first instinct
Speaker 1: is to take his cows and leave or stay a
Speaker 1: certain distan. It's a way and you know, be able
Speaker 1: to maintain that ability to recreate and stay alive. So
Speaker 1: you know, you get a bowl of bugle, whether they're
Speaker 1: bigling on their own or you get them to bugle,
Speaker 1: and so we we call our way into it. You know,
Speaker 1: whether that's everye hundred yards, every fifty yards. We want
Speaker 1: to and it's I think it's a little bit of
Speaker 1: natural instinct on our side, is we want to keep
Speaker 1: that bowl beggling. We want to know that we're heading
Speaker 1: in the right direction, we want to know that he's
Speaker 1: still there. We want to know all of these things.
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, it's best to just be quiet,
Speaker 1: assume his position at that point, and then move your
Speaker 1: way into it. Resist resist that urge to bugle once
Speaker 1: you know his location. Instead, grab your wind checker. You know,
Speaker 1: anytime you want a bugle, replace it with a wind
Speaker 1: check and you're going to be better off until the
Speaker 1: point where you think you're really close. So if you
Speaker 1: got the wind right, you're coming in down wind of
Speaker 1: these elk I'm ideally trying to get within one hundred
Speaker 1: yards closer if possible. The vegetation the terrain allows me
Speaker 1: to I'm gonna get a little bit closer, and and
Speaker 1: I really want to. You know, when I get a
Speaker 1: bowl of beagle, I'm looking at, you know, on X maps,
Speaker 1: like where do I think this bull's at at this
Speaker 1: point in time? And I may even drop a pin
Speaker 1: if I'm not super confident before I think I'm going
Speaker 1: to get turned around if I got to get down
Speaker 1: in some timber. So I'm going to drop a pin.
Speaker 1: And then if I get the wind right and I
Speaker 1: approach those things, I should at some point, anybody that's
Speaker 1: been in the woods long enough and smelled elk knows
Speaker 1: that it's a pretty pungent. It's got some it's got
Speaker 1: some ability to travel, it's got some staying power. Right,
Speaker 1: And so if I get the wind right and I'm
Speaker 1: approaching where I think these elk are, at some point,
Speaker 1: I'm also going to start to smell these elk on
Speaker 1: my way or if they've been in this area. Let's
Speaker 1: say it's you know, late morning. We think those elk
Speaker 1: are going from bed or from feed to bed, and
Speaker 1: they've been in that area a lot, You're going to
Speaker 1: start to see where they've tore the area up even
Speaker 1: as you approach them, if you're a couple hundred yards off.
Speaker 1: But potentially, but I'm starting to, you know, smell for elk.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to look for elk. We're just gonna move
Speaker 1: in completely silently at this point. Now with that said,
Speaker 1: I'm not too worried if I you know, snap a stick.
Speaker 1: You know, ideally I want to go in quiet, but
Speaker 1: elk also make noises, so if there isn't approaching elk,
Speaker 1: it's not the end of the world, you know, as
Speaker 1: you approach. So I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get to to a tight distance before I ever ever
Speaker 1: make that call we we want, you know, I use
Speaker 1: the shock and awe a lot of times if a
Speaker 1: bull's biglan and I don't ever have to make a noise.
Speaker 1: That bowl doesn't know I exist until I'm right there,
Speaker 1: and it's it seems to be like you didn't You
Speaker 1: didn't trigger their their curiosity, like is this a real elk?
Speaker 1: Are they questioning if it's real? If you get close
Speaker 1: and tight, they've really got no no other option but
Speaker 1: to to come in, you know, and potentially check you out.
Speaker 1: At that point, they really can't round their cows up,
Speaker 1: you know, anybody had seen cow was in the timber
Speaker 1: or feeding. They're kind of just strung out, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe a certain width, a certain length. Those elk
Speaker 1: aren't all in a tidy bunch where that bull can
Speaker 1: always round them up and get out of there. So
Speaker 1: you really kind of left him with he can need
Speaker 1: to take a couple of cows and get out of there,
Speaker 1: or he's got to come check out you know, this
Speaker 1: bowl that's very very close to his cows, and and
Speaker 1: so that's that's my opinion. Do not do not bugle
Speaker 1: your way in a lot of times you're gonna get
Speaker 1: in that cat and mouse game where those elk always
Speaker 1: stay three to four hundred yards ahead of you. You
Speaker 1: never close any distance, and that's just kind of how
Speaker 1: your morning hunt will end. You're just playing cat and
Speaker 1: mouse and you never can catch up to him. You
Speaker 1: also typically kind of push them through where they wanted
Speaker 1: a bed, so now you got elk kind of out
Speaker 1: of their routine. It just gets very very difficult. I'd
Speaker 1: rather keep them comfortable in their area. And you know,
Speaker 1: so for all of those reasons, do not bugle your
Speaker 1: way into elk when you're trying to call them. In
Speaker 1: Number two, reluctance to change strategies. And this is one
Speaker 1: of the things that really kind of plagued my early
Speaker 1: What I would say, before I got smarter, I would
Speaker 1: sit in E scout, so reluctance to change strategy. I
Speaker 1: would E scout. I would sit on my computer all
Speaker 1: you know, all seat all the time leading up to season.
Speaker 1: I had you know, this is I had Plan A,
Speaker 1: I had B, C, D, and E didn't exist. I
Speaker 1: I would go in come up with a plan A.
Speaker 1: I would go scout, and sometimes scouting looked like Plan
Speaker 1: A was going to be awesome, but then the hunt
Speaker 1: would roll in. You know, there were there was more pressure,
Speaker 1: the el could move, the bulls went and found cows,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be. But I was very reluctant to
Speaker 1: change what I thought my plan was going into the hunt.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't let the hunt dictate what my hunt. You know,
Speaker 1: what my plan should be, what my strategy should be.
Speaker 1: So you know, regardless of my countless hours dissecting Google
Speaker 1: Earth and where I thought I needed to be, where
Speaker 1: my camp was, you know, I set up my my
Speaker 1: my spike tent or my wall tent perfectly. I knew
Speaker 1: where I was going to hike that first morning, where
Speaker 1: I was going to bugle from, you know, and I
Speaker 1: did all that before season even been arrived. The only
Speaker 1: problem was I would get to that spot and nothing
Speaker 1: was turning out like I wanted it to the elk
Speaker 1: court in the right spots, but I would try to
Speaker 1: force that hunt. I was trying to force a square
Speaker 1: peg in the round hole, and it just wouldn't work.
Speaker 1: And many times, you know, if we would prepack, or
Speaker 1: you know, back in the day, I would go in
Speaker 1: like the weekend before and maybe stash some of my food,
Speaker 1: I would just ride it out regardless, you know, regardless
Speaker 1: of the action, regardless of what I thought my chances
Speaker 1: were for success. We would just ride it out and
Speaker 1: try to force it. But now fast forward to where
Speaker 1: I'm at now, I'm a hunting career, not even in
Speaker 1: as good as shape as I was back when I
Speaker 1: was young. I will not hesitate to pull up spike
Speaker 1: camp and hike out to ten miles that I just
Speaker 1: hiked in that morning or that day before, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: If I've determined that I would likely won't kill an
Speaker 1: elk in this area, or if I do, it's going
Speaker 1: to be more on you know, luck than it was
Speaker 1: on skill or on being able to hunt the elk.
Speaker 1: So don't put all of your eggs in one basket.
Speaker 1: Have a plan, B, C, D, E F whatever it needs.
Speaker 1: You know, have multiple plans until you get into an
Speaker 1: area that has elk that are ready to play the game.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe doesn't have the pressure, maybe has all
Speaker 1: of these things that allow you a better chance of
Speaker 1: success and doing it, you know, in my you know,
Speaker 1: on on my terms, playing the game the way that
Speaker 1: I want to play it. You know, you cannot force
Speaker 1: elk to be where they don't want to be. You
Speaker 1: cannot force less pressure than where the pressure is. So
Speaker 1: the only way that is to move. You know, I
Speaker 1: give a spot a good twenty four hours, and if
Speaker 1: I don't see what I want to see or the
Speaker 1: amount of elk that I want to see, I'm out
Speaker 1: of there. I'm gonna go to a different trailhead. I'm
Speaker 1: going to bomb into a different area on a different
Speaker 1: day hunt and do some scouting, and all you know,
Speaker 1: I'm moving and I'm just trying to find good areas.
Speaker 1: And they in some certain areas we've hunted year after year.
Speaker 1: That changes from year to year. So you can't go
Speaker 1: into one spot planet a hunter there the whole time
Speaker 1: because you don't know if the elk are going to
Speaker 1: be a couple of drainage is over or vice versa.
Speaker 1: They may stay in that same drainage year after year.
Speaker 1: So you need to be mobile, be willing to go
Speaker 1: find the elk. It's our job to go find them.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm looking at things. If i can't find
Speaker 1: them at a certain elevation, I'm gonna go. I want
Speaker 1: one of my plans, whether it's A and D or
Speaker 1: opposite elevations. Ones in the timber bottom, ones up in
Speaker 1: the alpine, you know, ones in, ones in steep country,
Speaker 1: ones in benchie country, ones down by the main highway
Speaker 1: that goes through the unit. Ones as far away from
Speaker 1: the highway as I can get. I'm trying to look
Speaker 1: at different different you know, factors that may affect where
Speaker 1: these elk are at. And so I'm I'm you know,
Speaker 1: being very you know, contrasting in you know, an alpine
Speaker 1: area that's as you know, remote as you can get,
Speaker 1: versus a road, a piece of public that's right off
Speaker 1: of a public highway. I'm gonna to check, you know,
Speaker 1: both of those spots out. Is one you know, different
Speaker 1: than the other. Obviously yes, but is it different as
Speaker 1: far as holding elk? You know, don't get too fixated
Speaker 1: on one area, and you know, go check out different areas.
Speaker 1: It's gonna, you know, typically typically pay off. As I'm
Speaker 1: looking for these different areas, but they all need to
Speaker 1: still have food, water, and some bedding or some escapement
Speaker 1: security cover to survive. It seems simple, but some of
Speaker 1: the areas I hunt in the alpine, there's not water forever,
Speaker 1: so if you're on a dry ear, you may just
Speaker 1: not find elk. You know, if you're some of these
Speaker 1: elk in certain areas, they live in ninety percent stage,
Speaker 1: but they do have, you know, some timber pockets and
Speaker 1: some north facing slopes, whatever it may be. So you
Speaker 1: need to make sure. I like to make sure all
Speaker 1: of my spots that I want to go check out
Speaker 1: have food, water, and some sort of timber or brush
Speaker 1: or something that those elk can get to, you know,
Speaker 1: and and look at all of those things. Another thing
Speaker 1: that that I used to talk about. You know, we
Speaker 1: get a lot of questions on when your your strategy,
Speaker 1: but this has more with like planning your strategy prior
Speaker 1: to leaving and what we could vacation you're gonna take
Speaker 1: or when you're gonna hunt. Is moon phase a little bit?
Speaker 1: I yes, I will admit moon phase changes the behavior
Speaker 1: of elk during the reut I'll put that out there.
Speaker 1: With that said, I do not care about the moon
Speaker 1: phase when I'm picking when I'm gonna hunt, where I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hunt, how I'm gonna lay out my seasons, any
Speaker 1: of that, the elk are gonna regardless of what the
Speaker 1: moon phase is, I will you know, I may need
Speaker 1: to be earlier. You know, let's say we're we're going
Speaker 1: into a full moon, you know, even barely coming off
Speaker 1: of it. You know, on the backside, those elk will
Speaker 1: do a majority or they will be more active during
Speaker 1: the night, and it will it'll creep a little bit
Speaker 1: into that that next morning and it'll start maybe a
Speaker 1: little later. But you need, you need to be in
Speaker 1: your prime, your your your your number one spot early
Speaker 1: in the morning so you can kind of keep tabs
Speaker 1: on that. This I'm gonna let you guys all probably
Speaker 1: assume I'm a nerd, know that I'm a nerd by now,
Speaker 1: but I use Excel for a lot. So one time
Speaker 1: I had went through and looked at the dates I
Speaker 1: had killed a bunch of my archery bulls on you know,
Speaker 1: dating back to the early two thousand and one, two
Speaker 1: thousand and twos, when I you know, started killing roosevelts
Speaker 1: all the way up to some of my more recent
Speaker 1: bowls that I've killed around you know, in other Western states,
Speaker 1: and I added up and just went back because I
Speaker 1: didn't know what the moon phase was on those days,
Speaker 1: I wasn't paying attention. But I would go back and
Speaker 1: look at those and I realized that I had killed
Speaker 1: the majority of my bigger bulls within two or three
Speaker 1: days of a full moon. So it really didn't matter.
Speaker 1: It really didn't change the way, you know, my success.
Speaker 1: It actually was adding to my success. Now, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it wasn't a factor that that you know was a
Speaker 1: was a positive towards it, but it didn't seem to matter.
Speaker 1: You know, these other these other thing kind of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, canceled it out or just elk playing the
Speaker 1: game like we did didn't really you know, matter on
Speaker 1: the moon phase. So I wanted to throw that out there.
Speaker 1: Another way to think about, you know, reluctance to change
Speaker 1: strategy is if you go out and let's say your
Speaker 1: go to is always go out in just a normal
Speaker 1: calmu at any elk that you see out in the woods, Well,
Speaker 1: if that's not working, or if you're not killing a
Speaker 1: bowl you know, every third year, every two years, every
Speaker 1: other year, every year, maybe you should listen to And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying a person that that hunts like me.
Speaker 1: Maybe listen to a different guy that you know kills
Speaker 1: elk every year. Maybe he's nothing but a spot in
Speaker 1: stock guy, and so you're like, huh, all right, so
Speaker 1: he doesn't call all but yet he still kills bulls.
Speaker 1: Or hey, this guy over here that bugles at every
Speaker 1: bowl kills a bowl every year, like maybe, So don't
Speaker 1: be stuck in your ways that your way is the
Speaker 1: only way. Now, if you like to hunt a certain
Speaker 1: way by all means, don't change. But I'm saying if
Speaker 1: you're only your only measurement of of success is by
Speaker 1: killing a bowl, then maybe you should start to look
Speaker 1: at other ways to do it or other other options.
Speaker 1: As far as you know, calling elk or killing elk
Speaker 1: or getting to within bow range, you know there are
Speaker 1: no shortcuts, though. You can't just listen to people and
Speaker 1: go out and be able to implement that. The best
Speaker 1: way to learn is to get out there in the
Speaker 1: field and run your own system as much as possible.
Speaker 1: But if your own system gives back, you know, poor results,
Speaker 1: then maybe you should change up and be willing to change.
Speaker 1: You know that that process, So listen to successful elk hunters.
Speaker 1: Listen to as many as possible to hunt as many
Speaker 1: different ways as possible to get an idea of their
Speaker 1: strategy and tactics. Take all of those, throw them in
Speaker 1: the cauldron, boil them up, and then come up with
Speaker 1: your own system that's maybe a little different or a
Speaker 1: little better than what you're doing now. If you're not
Speaker 1: finding the success that the others are, you know, it
Speaker 1: take can take years off your learning curve if you
Speaker 1: just listen versus be stubborn and like I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: it this way all the time. Number three, the resistance
Speaker 1: to do what it takes. And when I say resistance,
Speaker 1: I fought this when I was, you know, younger. I
Speaker 1: would go in. I waited eleven months for September to
Speaker 1: roll back around, right as soon as October first hit.
Speaker 1: I had my my calendar set like I wanted September
Speaker 1: to be here, and I would go good for a
Speaker 1: day or two, maybe three. You know, maybe I wasn't
Speaker 1: as good as shape, or the elk hunting's not going
Speaker 1: as I wanted, and so I'm a little bit tired
Speaker 1: and burnout, and I would I could remember sitting on
Speaker 1: the mountain, have bowlsby going down below me at times,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe I didn't have a good plan, but
Speaker 1: somewhere in my head I allowed it to like creep in. Like, man,
Speaker 1: you can get back to home an hour and a
Speaker 1: half and you know, be eating a hot breakfast. You know,
Speaker 1: you could get back to the tent and you know,
Speaker 1: be taking a nap here in a half hour, you know,
Speaker 1: versus I think you're And then I would start to
Speaker 1: tell myself that I would go down there and screw
Speaker 1: those Oh cup any ways, I just probably leave them
Speaker 1: for this evening. Now, the more experienced, more mature me,
Speaker 1: he says that that might not be a bad ideal
Speaker 1: all the time, But back then I was letting kind
Speaker 1: of the the you know, the naysayer kind of creep
Speaker 1: in and tell me to go do something different, whether
Speaker 1: it was you know, get out of there, just just
Speaker 1: not hunt, you know. And the mental the mental part
Speaker 1: of a hunt is just as real, if not more
Speaker 1: than the physical side. You know, was I you know,
Speaker 1: how far am I from the truck? Do I need
Speaker 1: to go back? If we kill this elk? How bad
Speaker 1: is the pack out gonna be? You know? Is there
Speaker 1: a bowl closer to the road, Is there a bowl
Speaker 1: closer to home? If you're constantly asking yourself these types
Speaker 1: of questions. It's going to keep you away from opportunities
Speaker 1: that may be the one that kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: the that allows you to be successful or it gives
Speaker 1: you the opportunity. So don't be the person talking yourself
Speaker 1: out of opportunities that may prove to be your best
Speaker 1: chance of success. You know, I've been fortunate to hunt
Speaker 1: with a bunch of guys that are like minded. We
Speaker 1: make it a point to no longer ask those questions.
Speaker 1: No matter what you know you need to be. You
Speaker 1: need to kind of battle hard on yourself though, be
Speaker 1: a little bit bulletproof, and you have to become a
Speaker 1: mentally tough elk hunting an elk hunter or an elk
Speaker 1: hunting partner. You can't have partners that will kind of
Speaker 1: breed out or materialize doubt, you know, on a hunt,
Speaker 1: or also agree with you when you're down you're saying like, hey,
Speaker 1: I think we should go back. You need that partner
Speaker 1: at that time. You need to rely on him to
Speaker 1: say like, no, we're going to stay here. We got this,
Speaker 1: or vice versa. When your partner gets down, like even
Speaker 1: if you got to fake it, like no, we need
Speaker 1: to stay and that's kind of where we've got to
Speaker 1: as a group. It helps us we're in the field
Speaker 1: more when when we do have a good plan, we
Speaker 1: don't start to second guess it. We're we're kind of
Speaker 1: sitting there, you know, talking each other up or giving
Speaker 1: each other even if it's false, false hope. We're there
Speaker 1: for each other and then we're everything that we do,
Speaker 1: every effort should benefit our success. And that's my mentality.
Speaker 1: If I'm not an elk, I need to walk them
Speaker 1: mount until I find out. I'm not going to take
Speaker 1: a nap that day. I'm gonna use the afternoon downtime
Speaker 1: to explore new basins or different levels within the mountain.
Speaker 1: You know, within the basin. Everything that I do is
Speaker 1: is going towards the success of me being, you know,
Speaker 1: a successful oil hunter. And so that's kind of how
Speaker 1: I run my day. You know, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: big one at you know, after dark or whatever it
Speaker 1: may be, all those things kind of end up. You know,
Speaker 1: they're tough to do, they're not easy to do, but
Speaker 1: they will always make me a more successful oil hunter.
Speaker 1: Number four is overthinking you're calling We mentioned earlier, both
Speaker 1: were thinking about two things. Caws and five. The herd
Speaker 1: bull is focused on breeding as many cows as possible
Speaker 1: and keeping all the other bulls away. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to oversimplify all this. The satellite bulls are trying to
Speaker 1: steal as many cows away or just mining their business
Speaker 1: if they're too low in the pecking order, but always
Speaker 1: willing to go find a cow, so you know. All
Speaker 1: With that said, even the smallest rag bulls will typically
Speaker 1: come into calls. It's it's it should be pretty straightforward
Speaker 1: and simple when you think about it this way. All
Speaker 1: I try to do is feed off of what those
Speaker 1: bulls want, what they're doing at that and then what
Speaker 1: their emotions are, and I try to get those bulls
Speaker 1: fired up and into archery range. If it's a small bull,
Speaker 1: I think I want him to think he's got a
Speaker 1: chance at a cow, so I may not want to
Speaker 1: have any other beagles involved. I may want to just
Speaker 1: throw straight cow calls at him. If it's a semi mature,
Speaker 1: you know, herd bull, I may throw some semi mature
Speaker 1: bull sounds and cow sounds at him because he may
Speaker 1: have a chance to steal that cow from me. Versus
Speaker 1: a herd bull. I want to go in and let
Speaker 1: him know I'm going to try to steal cows from him,
Speaker 1: you know, And so I keep it very very simple.
Speaker 1: You know, they herd bulls are going to be reluctant
Speaker 1: to come a long distance, leave their cows and come
Speaker 1: to a call. A satellite bull is more willing to travel,
Speaker 1: you know, to a call. So you keep all of
Speaker 1: that in mind. You start to develop a strategy very quickly,
Speaker 1: just based on a few things that that I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about within the hunt. You know, people that say you
Speaker 1: shouldn't bugle. I think you should bugle a lot at
Speaker 1: least to locate bulls when and we call this just
Speaker 1: our location bugle. So I'm out there locating for ELK
Speaker 1: a lot. I don't feel that you can do a
Speaker 1: whole lot of damage there as long as they're not
Speaker 1: winding you, you know. But but don't overthink you're calling
Speaker 1: to a point where you're unwilling to make a call
Speaker 1: at all during the situation, Like I've been around people
Speaker 1: whore like I don't want to call. I don't want
Speaker 1: to mess this up. You know, the best way, and
Speaker 1: once again I had mentioned on a different topic, the
Speaker 1: best way to just get out in the field as
Speaker 1: much as possible, and try to develop your own tactics
Speaker 1: to see what the outcome is. If I cal call here,
Speaker 1: do I get a bugle? Do I get a counter respond?
Speaker 1: Do I get elk leaving? If I go out there
Speaker 1: and calf call, what do I get? If I go
Speaker 1: out there and give a big nasty bugle? If I
Speaker 1: go out there and give a small bugle, what are
Speaker 1: they all going to do? And I just used enough experience,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't like throwing numbers out there. I
Speaker 1: don't talk about how many bulls I've killed. I don't
Speaker 1: talk about how many elk I've called in. But I've
Speaker 1: been able. I will say it's been a lot. I've
Speaker 1: got a lot of bulls to bugle. I've been fortunate
Speaker 1: to elk come a whole lot in a whole lot
Speaker 1: of great areas. But everyone is different as well, right
Speaker 1: I try to you know, I locate bulls, I get
Speaker 1: in tight and sometimes I might have a herd buwl.
Speaker 1: But ten situations, he'll do ten different things regardless of
Speaker 1: you know, I can col call to him one time
Speaker 1: might be the right answer, bugle might be the right
Speaker 1: answer next time. And so you just need to develop
Speaker 1: a system that gives you the most confidence. But don't
Speaker 1: overthink you're calling get in tight, you know, make you
Speaker 1: think you're one of his cows. I then typically like
Speaker 1: to announce that I am one of those cows close
Speaker 1: to his herd, and then a challenge biagle will be
Speaker 1: right behind that cow, basically letting that bowl know that
Speaker 1: there's a bull with the cow, you know in your herd.
Speaker 1: You know, for for herd bulls satellite bowls, I'm going
Speaker 1: with lots of cow calls. I know I've oversimplified that,
Speaker 1: all right, you just gave us one cookie cutter example
Speaker 1: for bulls herd bowl and you gave us cookie cutter
Speaker 1: examples with cow calls on satellites. But I guarantee you
Speaker 1: that that right there is good enough advice to be
Speaker 1: able to call in the majority of those bulls that
Speaker 1: are out there with with pretty good certainty. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say you're gonna call every bowl in,
Speaker 1: but that strategy works a lot of the time. Tip
Speaker 1: Number or biggest mistake, or one of the biggest mistakes.
Speaker 1: Number five is calling too quiet or too small. You know,
Speaker 1: many times I'm sitting at a sportsman show or I
Speaker 1: get an email like, hey, I don't want to be
Speaker 1: a very big bull. What call? What diaphragm should I get?
Speaker 1: Or I don't want to scare them off? Which is
Speaker 1: fine if that's your strategy, maybe you found a ton
Speaker 1: of success doing that by all means, that's fine, But
Speaker 1: I also feel that it can also hurt your calling.
Speaker 1: And I'm I'm gonna give some examples. Well, I'm fortunate
Speaker 1: to hunt with some of the best callers that are
Speaker 1: out there as well, you know, and we're never we
Speaker 1: never call with the idea that we're too aggressive, we're
Speaker 1: afraid that we're going to scare elk away. We don't
Speaker 1: scare them away, we push them away for other reasons.
Speaker 1: I've said, they want to maintain cows, they want to
Speaker 1: do all of these things. Yeah. I recognize there's many
Speaker 1: ways to be successful, but are you missing out on
Speaker 1: opportunities because you aren't calling loud enough? So, you know,
Speaker 1: let's say I'm in a patch of timber, we're calling bulls.
Speaker 1: I've got one of my buddies behind me fifteen yards
Speaker 1: he's ripping on beagles, and all of a sudden, this
Speaker 1: bull starts to get closer one hundred yards. Well, guess
Speaker 1: what at one hundred yards, that real bull has got depth,
Speaker 1: he's got volume, he's got all of these things that
Speaker 1: my buddy, who's only fifteen yards behind me, blowing this
Speaker 1: call right in my ear no longer ever had. He's
Speaker 1: not as loud, he's not as thunderous, he's not as guttural.
Speaker 1: And so why why this guy's cranking, you know, fifteen
Speaker 1: yards away? And by time you start to get all
Speaker 1: of the sound to bounce off the timber and the
Speaker 1: vegetation around you, already by by default sound like a
Speaker 1: small little bowl compared to what's out there. And we've
Speaker 1: we've checked this on satellite bulls, we've called in, we've
Speaker 1: checked this on herd bulls, we've called in. No matter
Speaker 1: how hard you know, how hard you blow on a call,
Speaker 1: no matter how much air you put across it, you're
Speaker 1: just not gonna sound like, you know, like as big
Speaker 1: as a real help Reason number two for those that
Speaker 1: don't know my background, I grew up, you know, on
Speaker 1: at the base of the Willpa Hills, just outside and
Speaker 1: we don't have very big bulls here. We have big
Speaker 1: bodied bowls, and we'll say roosevelts, but we we have
Speaker 1: some you know, small horned bowls, probably a younger age class,
Speaker 1: and I would always go in with the intention of
Speaker 1: calling in a herd bull. So I'm in there ripping.
Speaker 1: I'm you know, the biggest, nastiest calls. I've got as
Speaker 1: much rasp as I can throw in. Well, guess what
Speaker 1: when you go to look at my rafters on where
Speaker 1: I keep a lot of my Roosevelt bulls, I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: you think this guy would eventually go after a herd
Speaker 1: bowl every once in a while. Guess what. I killed
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of one hundred and fifty one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy inch Roosevelt bulls. A lot of times there
Speaker 1: are four points, maybe some real small fives, But in
Speaker 1: my attempt to try, I would trust me I was
Speaker 1: trying to kill a herd bull. These dang raghorns will
Speaker 1: come in off the edge of the herd, just like
Speaker 1: they will when you're you know, trying to call in
Speaker 1: some of the biggest Rocky Mountain bulls. It just is
Speaker 1: how it works. And so I killed a lot of
Speaker 1: small bulls by calling big, and it didn't really seem
Speaker 1: to matter. So I'm like, all right, now I've got
Speaker 1: the confidence that my buddies don't sound as loud as I,
Speaker 1: you know, as a real elk, and I'm still able
Speaker 1: to call in these small bulls. Why cranking on bugles
Speaker 1: or cranking like, why would I you know, those two
Speaker 1: things out up like, I'm not going to call any
Speaker 1: less than I am now, So I'm I'm always going
Speaker 1: out there cranking. I don't think you can really screw up.
Speaker 1: And I also feel that, you know, at times, you
Speaker 1: know you're going to sound you know, smaller. You may
Speaker 1: not elicit either of these bulls to come in because
Speaker 1: a satellite bowl, you know, may not want to come
Speaker 1: check in a lesser bowl. There are times, though, where
Speaker 1: I will spike squeal a lot, you know. One of
Speaker 1: the tips I had mentioned earlier is don't call your
Speaker 1: way into a bowl. There are times where if it's
Speaker 1: a long long distance and there's been a long time
Speaker 1: in between the last time I heard a bowl bugle,
Speaker 1: I will need to maybe sound check because I don't
Speaker 1: know if they've moved or I wasn't confident that they betted.
Speaker 1: I usually give out like a small bowl kind of
Speaker 1: a mony bugle. It's a little less uh intrusive it's
Speaker 1: a little less aggressive, and so a lot of times
Speaker 1: I will throw that out, you know, as I call in.
Speaker 1: But that's about the only time I try to really
Speaker 1: crank back my calling. Other than that, it's going one
Speaker 1: hundred and ten percent, you know all the time. Some
Speaker 1: you may laugh and I will, I will allow it.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna talk about physical fitness or lack thereof.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm a guy. For those of you that
Speaker 1: know me, like, I'm a yo yo. Throughout the year,
Speaker 1: you know, hunt season gets here, I'm in great shape.
Speaker 1: The rest of the year, I'm like, I let myself
Speaker 1: go a little bit, but I know my body. I
Speaker 1: know where I need to get to, you know, to
Speaker 1: be ready for September. But one thing I want to
Speaker 1: touch on physical fitness is it will never make you
Speaker 1: a worse hunter, or it will never negatively impact your
Speaker 1: chance for success, if that makes any sense. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you may not need to be in great shape. And
Speaker 1: that's what I always tell people, Like, you can go
Speaker 1: hunt fifteen miles into wilderness and that's great, Like it
Speaker 1: gives you the ability, but hey, I could also go
Speaker 1: kill an olk a half mile off a highway. But
Speaker 1: I want to have the ability to go hunt that
Speaker 1: fifteen miles deep in the wilderness if that gives me
Speaker 1: my best chance for a certain type of bowl, or
Speaker 1: just the best chance of success in general. So you
Speaker 1: have to be able to go where they are, and
Speaker 1: you have to be able to go where they are
Speaker 1: on the last day as well as the first day.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you maybe in you know, get be able
Speaker 1: to get there on the first day, but are you
Speaker 1: going to get there on the last day. Are you
Speaker 1: going to be able to pack a bowl out from
Speaker 1: somewhere on day three and not need to take two
Speaker 1: days off when your buddy's ready to hunt. You know,
Speaker 1: hunting season isn't the time to get in shape. It
Speaker 1: isn't the time to start to question or let it
Speaker 1: start to question whether you are going to go over
Speaker 1: the next ridge. So so just be in as good
Speaker 1: as shape as possible. It's always going to be to
Speaker 1: your benefit. A lot of people, especially if you're coming
Speaker 1: out from back east, or you've never been to the mountains,
Speaker 1: or you're going to a new unit. I'm always surprised.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's because I'm getting older every year,
Speaker 1: but I show up to units that I was you know,
Speaker 1: in ten years ago or new units that I've scouted.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, everything looks bigger, nastier, and deeper than
Speaker 1: I ever remember it. And these these hills is kind
Speaker 1: of my joke, but it's like, man, the hills get
Speaker 1: steeper every year I go back, and it's it's the
Speaker 1: reality of things like Elk cutting is hard. Elk cutting
Speaker 1: in places where elk want to be, and they go
Speaker 1: to escape to live as hard work. Being as good
Speaker 1: as shape as possible. I'm not gonna spend too much
Speaker 1: time on that one, but find whatever works for If
Speaker 1: you're a crossfitter, go CrossFit. If you're a weightlifter, or
Speaker 1: go weightlift. If you're a bike rider, go bike ride.
Speaker 1: Just being as good as shape as possible and be
Speaker 1: you know, be able to go up and chase bowls
Speaker 1: wherever you need to to be successful. Number seven is
Speaker 1: the wind and playing it too perfect. I've I've talked
Speaker 1: about this before a lot of people, especially if you're
Speaker 1: unwilling or uncomfortable, which many should be on taking a
Speaker 1: frontal shot. You know, playing the wind too perfect could
Speaker 1: mess you up if you're not willing to take that shot,
Speaker 1: because if the wind's perfect, right, on my nose the
Speaker 1: whole way I'm calling. In the majority of time, that
Speaker 1: bowl isn't going to be able to go get wind
Speaker 1: on you and is going to come in head on. Happens,
Speaker 1: you know, to the point where he should be able
Speaker 1: to see where that elk is calling to him. If
Speaker 1: we let that wind get a little bit, let's say,
Speaker 1: to our right cheek, we can now predict with pretty
Speaker 1: good certainty that bowl is going to come to our left.
Speaker 1: So I like to go at the wind. You know,
Speaker 1: thirty forty five degrees is plenty. Like you, you can
Speaker 1: give them even more than that, but the chances of
Speaker 1: you not getting a shot before that goes up pretty dressed.
Speaker 1: You know you're going to get a shot typically before
Speaker 1: they can escape you or your wind circle. Now, the
Speaker 1: more wind you give them, the more comfortable they're going
Speaker 1: to be, and they will typically take that circle a
Speaker 1: little bit tighter. So let's say we you know the
Speaker 1: wind's hitting us perfectly in our right ear, that elk
Speaker 1: may come more on a straight line to you, which
Speaker 1: I will sometimes do if I'm hunting solo or calling
Speaker 1: for myself. I may give that bowl ninety degrees of wind.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm still safe. But as soon as he clawed,
Speaker 1: you know, crosses that imaginary line between my right and
Speaker 1: left ear, you know, out if you project out to
Speaker 1: my left, I'm going to need to make sure I
Speaker 1: can you know, get get that uh you know done.
Speaker 1: So give them a little more wind. They'll they'll take
Speaker 1: a tighter circle that you know, if you give them
Speaker 1: just a little but when they may start their circle
Speaker 1: out a little bit wider. But but give them a
Speaker 1: little bit of wind and typically you're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to steer them into you versus you know, having the
Speaker 1: wind perfect, you're gonna tip. You're gonna have to take
Speaker 1: a frontal shot or that bowl will be more likely
Speaker 1: to come in perfectly straight ahead. Number eight, shooting your
Speaker 1: bow or your muzzleoder and not getting bowl fever and
Speaker 1: being able to make the shot. So you know, we
Speaker 1: all get to shoot out in art. You know, for me,
Speaker 1: it's my driveway or my field, you know, all year long,
Speaker 1: all you know, all summer long. As we're getting ready.
Speaker 1: Guess what my heart rate is at a perfect seventy
Speaker 1: two or sixty eight whatever it. I don't even know what,
Speaker 1: but my heart rate is. I don't have sweat rolling
Speaker 1: down my brow, you know, into my eyes. I don't
Speaker 1: have a mosquito, you know, on my neck trying to
Speaker 1: bite me. My heart rate's not one hundred and fourteen
Speaker 1: because I just ran up a mountain to try to
Speaker 1: get this shot. I'm not or my heart rate's not excited,
Speaker 1: you know, elevated because I'm so excited. I did that
Speaker 1: a big giant bulls coming in, you know, or bulls
Speaker 1: ripping bugles off, whatever it may be. The shot that
Speaker 1: I described in my driveway is I'm just shooting at
Speaker 1: a thirty yard target versus the shot that I'm about
Speaker 1: ready to take on a real bowl. They're completely different,
Speaker 1: and none of nothing matters. Your tags don't matter, your
Speaker 1: preparation doesn't matter. You know, all of your fancy gear
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. Nothing that you'd have did to get to
Speaker 1: this point matters if you miss this shot as far
Speaker 1: as success is concerned. So I like to shoot enough
Speaker 1: throughout the off season or now I'm at a point
Speaker 1: in my life career I've shot bows enough that i
Speaker 1: don't have to spend as much time. But I've got
Speaker 1: to a point where I've become almost automatic. Everything's the
Speaker 1: same as it is always. I'm confident in my system,
Speaker 1: but you need to shoot enough where it's almost second nature.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't remember, you know, out of the last
Speaker 1: ten Archie bowls, I've killed like half of them, I
Speaker 1: almost black out and I can't remember anything about that
Speaker 1: shot process. But I did it enough. I'm I do
Speaker 1: it enough the same exact way that things are just automatic.
Speaker 1: You know, I shoot a trigger now because I had
Speaker 1: some bad habits with a risk a wrist release. I
Speaker 1: you know, I click it on, I grab it. I
Speaker 1: I get to my anchor, I centerr my pin, all right,
Speaker 1: I center my housing on my on my peep, I
Speaker 1: check my level, I you know, bring my pin up.
Speaker 1: I'm a, i'm a. I bring my pins up typically
Speaker 1: and then I I hover the pin or the area
Speaker 1: I need to and I just slowly start to squeeze. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't remember doing that on multiple bowls, and it's
Speaker 1: the only way. I just have to credit that back
Speaker 1: to doing it enough throughout the year that it was
Speaker 1: just automatic. But but yet I've sent my blacked out.
Speaker 1: So it's like I've executed perfectly without really like consciously
Speaker 1: knowing what's going on. And that's where I like to
Speaker 1: be I'm not overthinking it. It's like it's all right,
Speaker 1: it's automatic. I'm not looking at horns. I'm not doing
Speaker 1: everything is just it's you know, go up the backside
Speaker 1: of the leg, go halfway, move you know, move back
Speaker 1: three inches, you know, start to squeeze so you know,
Speaker 1: for me, and then I kind of talk to myself
Speaker 1: like anchor center and breathe, you know. I I still
Speaker 1: get a little bit excited, especially on certain bowls, and
Speaker 1: so it's just my way of breathing because I'll try
Speaker 1: to hold my breath for a minute during this whole process,
Speaker 1: and the next thing I know is I'm out of
Speaker 1: breath or I'm breathing too hard as this bull gets
Speaker 1: into range. The other thing, I want to take the
Speaker 1: time until you're in a lot of these situations, you
Speaker 1: may not know when to draw your bow. I I'm
Speaker 1: going to preface us with I'm not responsible for any
Speaker 1: boy you don't get a shot at, but I would
Speaker 1: I always err on the side of drawing my boat
Speaker 1: earlier then later. Now you need to be able to
Speaker 1: read how slowly the bull's approaching, what he's looking for,
Speaker 1: is he's stopping, is he gonna continue you to keep
Speaker 1: coming is on a mission like all of that will
Speaker 1: eventually change when I'm gonna draw my bow, but I
Speaker 1: will always draw earlier than later, because you're typically not
Speaker 1: going to get your bow drawn when that bowl is
Speaker 1: close and locked in on you. So that's another thing
Speaker 1: that kind of you know, adds to that shot has
Speaker 1: being able to get your your bow drawn early than
Speaker 1: trying to draw it late. Number nine, setting up and
Speaker 1: then capitalizing when you're in the red zone. So as
Speaker 1: I get to a setup spot, I always look where
Speaker 1: are my shooting lanes from where I expect that bowl
Speaker 1: to come in. I want to set up within shooting
Speaker 1: distance of any terrain or vegetation breaks, So I want
Speaker 1: to set up in front of brush or trees if possible,
Speaker 1: to break up your outline. I want to stand if allowed.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times the reason I make the
Speaker 1: decision to go to my knees versus stand is if
Speaker 1: I've got branches that are going to be in my way,
Speaker 1: I kind of imagine, you know, vital heights out in
Speaker 1: front me, And there are times where being on your
Speaker 1: knees allows that arrow to be you know, two feet lower.
Speaker 1: For the majority of its flight and just you know,
Speaker 1: less issues there good visibility. Can I swing my bow
Speaker 1: and get shots in most directions where the heavily used
Speaker 1: trails or good open paths my shooting lanes? Where is
Speaker 1: he gonna where? You know, what's that bowl likely gonna take?
Speaker 1: Once I pick my spot and I'm confident my setup,
Speaker 1: then I'll start my calling. But I'm looking at all
Speaker 1: of those things, like, you know, what what is the
Speaker 1: wind doing? Is it? Does it got a chance to switch?
Speaker 1: Are we in that late morning you know, nine ten
Speaker 1: o'clock in the mountains where the sun's you know, starting
Speaker 1: to hit or the opposite, you know, you're at five
Speaker 1: or six at night and the ship the shadows are
Speaker 1: starting to get long and kind of filling in your base,
Speaker 1: And like, is that wind going to potentially switch at
Speaker 1: anytime during this you know calling. I'm looking at all
Speaker 1: of those things. But the reason I add this to uh,
Speaker 1: these ten mistakes, and sometimes it may be even the
Speaker 1: biggest mistake, is I get to see a lot of videos,
Speaker 1: you know, and I always joke with people. A lot
Speaker 1: of times I get shown I'm like, oh man, this
Speaker 1: is a fifteen minute long video at a at a show,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of like, ah, but I watch a
Speaker 1: fifteen minute video and you know, you get to see
Speaker 1: a ball come in for about ten seconds in the
Speaker 1: middle of it, and then he kind of hangs up
Speaker 1: and leaves. Well, these people, I'm convinced that the majority
Speaker 1: of people or hunters can find ouk, they can call
Speaker 1: out good enough to get him to come to their direction.
Speaker 1: I'm but they aren't thinking their way through the setup.
Speaker 1: And so this is what really wanted, you know. Has
Speaker 1: me adding this to my list is because I've seen
Speaker 1: it over and over and over and over. You know,
Speaker 1: guys that maybe haven't killed bulls for five ten years,
Speaker 1: you know where they kill one bowl every ten years.
Speaker 1: They show me these videos enough times and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: you did everything right. Besides, you set up really crappy
Speaker 1: in a crappy spot with with crappy odds, and so
Speaker 1: spend more time on your setup. He is going that bowl,
Speaker 1: no matter if it's satellite or whether it's a herd bowl,
Speaker 1: is going to hang up when his eyes can see
Speaker 1: has a straight line site distance to where the elk
Speaker 1: calling to him, which is you or your buddy, whoever's
Speaker 1: calling should be So if you're in a thousand yard meadow,
Speaker 1: a giant meadow, and that bowl comes out on the
Speaker 1: opposite side. He's likely not going to walk all the
Speaker 1: way across that meadow because he sees where these elks
Speaker 1: should be. If there's none elk there, they're going to
Speaker 1: typically go back to whatever they were doing. The same
Speaker 1: thing with one hundred yard meadow in a pocket of timber, like,
Speaker 1: they will cross that, but many times they will not.
Speaker 1: Same thing goes with inside the timber. If it's wide open,
Speaker 1: old growth timber and they can see forever. A lot
Speaker 1: of times they're going to get to a spot they're
Speaker 1: going to see, they're going to hang up, and they're
Speaker 1: going to go back. So limit the shot distances on setups,
Speaker 1: you know, even if you got to wait a little bit,
Speaker 1: whether you got to push the envelope to get a
Speaker 1: little tighter, find a spot that's better to set up
Speaker 1: than than you know, a spot that you know doesn't
Speaker 1: have the train breaks or the vegetation breaks. You need
Speaker 1: to get a close archery shot. And number ten, this
Speaker 1: is my last one, and I still think that this
Speaker 1: is more important than anything that I know, anything that
Speaker 1: you know about all cunting nothing matters if you don't
Speaker 1: have the time to get out and go hunting. So
Speaker 1: time to hunt. And some people may say, well, I've
Speaker 1: only got a weekend. You know, I've only got weekends.
Speaker 1: I've only got one week of vacation. That's fine, but
Speaker 1: that week of vacation is going to be way more
Speaker 1: important to your success than than you know, being a
Speaker 1: weekend warrior or not getting any weeks. And this isn't
Speaker 1: meant to you know, say that you need to hunt
Speaker 1: every day, like you know in September, like we get
Speaker 1: to or I you know, I've got the privilege to do.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, don't. Don't expect to be successful if
Speaker 1: you've only got a limited amount of time to hunt.
Speaker 1: Always it's no matter what, no matter how good you are.
Speaker 1: I've looked at a lot of hunts, like, man, if
Speaker 1: I only got to hunt this for three or four days,
Speaker 1: I would have struck out. I wouldn't have been successful.
Speaker 1: Hunt as much as you can, but the time, the
Speaker 1: amount of time to hunt is typically going to be
Speaker 1: like the most correlating factor to your success. Now, some
Speaker 1: people will argue like, well I I have an awesome
Speaker 1: piece of private or what, Yeah, there are things that
Speaker 1: are going to add more to success. But as far
Speaker 1: as you know our general you know, general hunting or
Speaker 1: public land hunting or you know the stuff where you
Speaker 1: don't have a huge advantage that the amount of time
Speaker 1: to hunt is going to be, you know, the biggest
Speaker 1: factor towards finance success. Just because they are elk. You
Speaker 1: can't control what they do. You can't control the wind.
Speaker 1: There are times there are hunts where the wind is
Speaker 1: just all over the place, or storm systems are moving
Speaker 1: through and there's nothing you're gonna do to ever kill
Speaker 1: an elk in those situations with the bow. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna end on on time to you know, spend as
Speaker 1: much time out there. It's it's an awesome experience. I
Speaker 1: love every September. I try to spend as much time
Speaker 1: out there as I can. It's kind of my my
Speaker 1: chance from you know, all the hustle of the year's
Speaker 1: work and you know, all the call design and going
Speaker 1: to shows. I love being out there in September. Listening
Speaker 1: to bulls bugle just kind of lets me unwind. Is
Speaker 1: kind of my refresher for the year. I feel like
Speaker 1: I come back to work and ready to roll. But
Speaker 1: just go out there and enjoy elk cutting this year.
Speaker 1: Get excited, be willing, be confident, be willing to call.
Speaker 1: And I hope you guys, all, guys and gals all
Speaker 1: have a great September elk season. But yeah, avoid these
Speaker 1: ten mistakes and I feel like you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot better odds at finding success this year. Until next time,
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in to cutting the distance, dit
Speaker 1: Mot and a back TI