Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: your host. Dirk Durham. My guest today is going to
Speaker 1: be one of my favorite people. He is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite people. This guy is another host of another podcast,
Speaker 1: the Western Huntsman Podcast. Jim and I have known each
Speaker 1: other for a few years. He was gracious enough to
Speaker 1: ask me to be on the very first episode of
Speaker 1: his podcast back in what was that twenty nineteen?
Speaker 2: Jim, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on,
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about some cool stuff today.
Speaker 3: Awesome, man, I appreciate you having here.
Speaker 1: Can you tell some folks a little bit more about
Speaker 1: yourself about your podcast and what your day job is.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if everybody knows. I mean
Speaker 1: everybody thinks all these hunting into three people sit around
Speaker 1: eating caviar with deer Antler's spoons right sitting on a
Speaker 1: bear skin rug. But I feel like that's people don't
Speaker 1: always know what you know behind the scenes. Looks like
Speaker 1: for a real life hunting personality like yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I think I think you're exactly right. I
Speaker 3: think that there folks kind of look at the whole
Speaker 3: hunting industry as if it's a lot more lucrative than
Speaker 3: it really is. So yeah, just a little bit about me.
Speaker 3: A lifelong hunter. I grew up out west, I grew
Speaker 3: up in Utah, in Idaho and big, big time mule
Speaker 3: deer hunter and elk hunter. And now now I'm a
Speaker 3: like kind of half psychotic bear hunter. I love bear
Speaker 3: hunting and I started, I don't know, roughly twenty sixteen
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen, I started getting a bit concerned about the
Speaker 3: future of hunting and started writing for very magazines and
Speaker 3: online articles and stuff like that, and it kind of
Speaker 3: turned turned into this thing where, you know, my wife's
Speaker 3: always like, you know, all you want to do is
Speaker 3: talk about hunting, why don't you start one of those
Speaker 3: hunting podcasts? And I'm like, I don't even really know
Speaker 3: what a podcast is. I'd like, heard of Joe Rogan, right,
Speaker 3: and so I look it up. And one of the
Speaker 3: first podcasts I ever listened to it was you on
Speaker 3: Randy Newbergh's podcast with somebody else. I can't remember who
Speaker 3: else was on there. There was three people on there,
Speaker 3: and it was you and Randy Newburg and somebody else
Speaker 3: talking about elk hunting. Mistakes, and I'm like, okay, okay,
Speaker 3: so this is what a podcast is, Like, I like
Speaker 3: the content and whatnot. And so after the Elk season
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, I had hit this bowl elk after I
Speaker 3: don't know, it was like it was like a three
Speaker 3: hour bugle battle, right, you know, And finally got this
Speaker 3: elk and he went down and fell off the front
Speaker 3: of this rock face and tumbled and because of this,
Speaker 3: he busted a bunch of antlers off off of him,
Speaker 3: a bunch of the times off him, and because of
Speaker 3: the way he fell, I lost his blood trail and
Speaker 3: it took me like three days to find him, and
Speaker 3: by then the meat was spoiled, you know. It was
Speaker 3: it was like a major blow the bears that got
Speaker 3: to him. But I found him and I recovered the
Speaker 3: the antlers and he had a bunch of busted times,
Speaker 3: and so it was like just this moment, I thought,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm going to start a podcast and
Speaker 3: and talk about this stuff and protect this thing because
Speaker 3: I love it so much. Even though this was devastating,
Speaker 3: I just I just killed an elk and I couldn't
Speaker 3: recover it in time, and you know, it was it
Speaker 3: was even like a double whammy because the times had
Speaker 3: broken off and and but I still just this burning
Speaker 3: passion for it, you know. And so so yeah, I
Speaker 3: started a podcast. I called you up. I'm like, hey, man,
Speaker 3: want to want to be on my podcast? I have
Speaker 3: no idea what I'm doing, but we came down and
Speaker 3: recorded that first one and I released it Christmas Eve
Speaker 3: of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That was awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, oh day job. You asked about the day job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in the commercial roofing industry and I run
Speaker 3: around looking at big commercial roots and I do estimating
Speaker 3: and project management and stuff like that. So but when
Speaker 3: I'm not recording podcasts or hunting, that's what you'll find
Speaker 3: me out there doing all over the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The cool thing was I never met Jim in my
Speaker 1: entire life, and we can just kind of message. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I take that back. We did meet at like a
Speaker 1: sportsman show briefly, and you said, hey, my name is Jim,
Speaker 1: this is what I do, YadA YadA. And then fast
Speaker 1: forward a few months you contacted me and then I said, well,
Speaker 1: let's meet at the local watering hole and grab a
Speaker 1: burger and a beer. So we grabbed a burger and
Speaker 1: a beer and shot the breeze there and immediately I
Speaker 1: was like, this guy, he's my kind of people. Sometimes
Speaker 1: Jim just calls me up and we'll sit there and
Speaker 1: bs for an hour or two about just whatever is
Speaker 1: going on, whether it be hunting or life or politics
Speaker 1: or whatever. And that's what I love about you, man.
Speaker 1: You're always You're just like you're the real deal. And
Speaker 1: I appreciate that kind of conversation so to.
Speaker 3: Now, I appreciate it, man, and that feelings mutual for sure.
Speaker 3: It's you, like one of the most authentic people I know,
Speaker 3: one of the most solid Elk hunters I've ever met
Speaker 3: in my life, with still holding and maintaining that level
Speaker 3: of humility and humbleness.
Speaker 2: And yeah, just think highly of your brother.
Speaker 1: Wow that Yeah, you're making me blush a little bit.
Speaker 3: But if you ever get in trouble with your wife,
Speaker 3: just play this back to her.
Speaker 1: Yes, I will definitely. So today I want to talk
Speaker 1: about some stuff, you know. Here it is August seventh,
Speaker 1: so we're less than thirty days until September first, and
Speaker 1: I really want to record this podcast a little earlier
Speaker 1: and get it published a little earlier. And by the
Speaker 1: time this publishes, it'll probably be you'll have an even
Speaker 1: less time to get prepped for ELK season. But I
Speaker 1: feel like there's some stuff you need to do before preseason,
Speaker 1: before we take off, and whether you're going to be gone,
Speaker 1: you know, be a weekend warrior off and on through
Speaker 1: the month of September, or if you're going to take
Speaker 1: the whole dang month off, you know, I like to
Speaker 1: I'm gone most of the month. I sleep in my
Speaker 1: bed maybe two or three nights in September, and the
Speaker 1: rest of the time I'm in the mountains. So it's
Speaker 1: very critical. Preparation is very critical to make sure you
Speaker 1: have success in the fall. It's not just all about
Speaker 1: you know, all your other homework you're supposed to be
Speaker 1: doing the rest of the year. You know, all your
Speaker 1: bow shooting and all your Google ear thing and all
Speaker 1: your on x map marking and stuff. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a little more to it than that. And one thing
Speaker 1: I like to talk about, and I'm going to preface
Speaker 1: this with a little bit, I am definitely not a
Speaker 1: fitness coach, and so I'm and if you look at me,
Speaker 1: I'm not a I'm not a fitness athlete by no means.
Speaker 1: But I guess I have a different perspective than maybe
Speaker 1: some of the ultra fit out there. You know, some
Speaker 1: of the folks that will send in questions to the podcast,
Speaker 1: we like to share them here, and one of those is, hey,
Speaker 1: this was off social media, Hey derk, what do you
Speaker 1: do to get in shape for ELK season? So if
Speaker 1: you if you see me, I'm not you know a
Speaker 1: shape I'm kind of the shape around round is a shape.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the shape I'm in. But this year
Speaker 1: I've had an ankle injury, not an ankle injury, ankle recovery.
Speaker 1: Had ankle surgery back in December, and I've been been
Speaker 1: working on rehabing that all all winter and all summer.
Speaker 1: So this last month I'm really starting to get a
Speaker 1: little more serious about my fitness because now I can
Speaker 1: push things a little bit. What kind of fitness stuff
Speaker 1: do you do, Jim? Are you are you out running marathons?
Speaker 1: Are you hitting the weight room every day? What are
Speaker 1: you doing? Yeah?
Speaker 3: No, So I I do none of that, man I
Speaker 3: and and I I don't. I don't have like, well,
Speaker 3: let me put it to you this way. So I
Speaker 3: live on a homestead, and so there is always stuff
Speaker 3: to do outside. I'm either chopping wood, or I'm building
Speaker 3: new fencing or fixing the chicken coop, or you know,
Speaker 3: hauling stuff from one side of the property to the next,
Speaker 3: or you know, mowing. I'm I'm a pretty physical guy
Speaker 3: that way. So it's not like I am not like
Speaker 3: Cam Haynes, right, and I don't I think that that
Speaker 3: is super beneficial for for for hunting, to be super
Speaker 3: athletic like that. But I also think that there's a
Speaker 3: lot of us that are that are average guys that
Speaker 3: have you know what, whatever the case is I for.
Speaker 3: For example, you mentioned your your ankle, I have.
Speaker 2: I have.
Speaker 3: I have super arthritic arthritic knees. That's like a tongue twister, man.
Speaker 3: My knees are pretty arthritic from the military, and so
Speaker 3: running is kind of out of the question for me.
Speaker 3: And that's that's straight from the you know, a knee
Speaker 3: surgeon's mouth, and so I don't like to put that
Speaker 3: kind of stress on my knees. However, I do throw
Speaker 3: a pretty heavy pack on and I will hike the property.
Speaker 3: I'll do like three miles two or three times a week.
Speaker 3: And I clocked it with my on X man. If
Speaker 3: I walk around my entire property like three and a
Speaker 3: half times, that's one mile.
Speaker 2: So that's how I clock it.
Speaker 3: And I'll just throw a podcast in and I do
Speaker 3: that throughout the summer, and in the winter, I throw
Speaker 3: the snow shoes on and I'll kind of do the
Speaker 3: same route. I usually don't go three miles. That's a
Speaker 3: lot harder, and I don't have a pack on during
Speaker 3: that time.
Speaker 2: But no, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't go hit the gym and lift a bunch
Speaker 3: of weights. I don't go running. I don't do anything
Speaker 3: like that. I never I never know how to say
Speaker 3: this without sounding like like some egomaniac, because I am
Speaker 3: anything but uh.
Speaker 2: But but I did a lot.
Speaker 3: I put a lot of miles on my feet when
Speaker 3: I was in the in the military, And there's something
Speaker 3: about when you do that, you.
Speaker 2: Just have this scene afterwards.
Speaker 3: It's like there was this show I watched one time
Speaker 3: and it was like this about the Civil War, and
Speaker 3: this this infantry guy, he's like, oh, it's the first
Speaker 3: few thousand miles after that, yeat, a man gets limber
Speaker 3: with his feet. And that's true. Once you've once you've
Speaker 3: hit so many miles.
Speaker 2: I can just go.
Speaker 3: I could just hike. I'm like a mountain goat. Now,
Speaker 3: I'm not as fast as as somebody who's been doing
Speaker 3: a lot of cardio or or does a lot of
Speaker 3: running of marathons and stuff like that. They're gonna get
Speaker 3: there before me. But but I'm going to get there,
Speaker 3: and I guess that's the I don't know that that's
Speaker 3: a summary of my workout session, you know, it's it's
Speaker 3: it's just basic stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm just an average dude.
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not super out of shape and I'm
Speaker 3: not super in shape, man, but I can get to
Speaker 3: the top of the mountain when I need to.
Speaker 1: I love it. Here's one thing, one level, one barrier
Speaker 1: of entry, you know, for the hunting world. Let's say
Speaker 1: you like a new hunter. They want to come and
Speaker 1: go hunting, but they see so much stuff on social
Speaker 1: media or videos of these elite athletes eat elite type athletes,
Speaker 1: elk hunting or deer hunting or whatever, and it's for
Speaker 1: the average joe like me, that's kind of like an
Speaker 1: unattainable goal to be that level of physical fitness. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna you know, I'm not going to run a
Speaker 1: lot of miles every day. I can't. You know, I
Speaker 1: have an old you know, I have a bad back.
Speaker 1: I can't run on concrete. That different doctor told me,
Speaker 1: don't do never, never run on concrete again. So I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get out and run a bunch of biles.
Speaker 1: But what I've always said is if you can't walk
Speaker 1: to the elk, you can't hunt el So exactly, I
Speaker 1: think it's all foundational. You have to you have to
Speaker 1: get out and walk and depend no matter what your
Speaker 1: level of fitness is. Maybe maybe you can barely get
Speaker 1: off the couch honestly, and uh, but you can start
Speaker 1: those baby steps like okay, well I'm gonna walk walk
Speaker 1: down the block first, and then okay tomorrow maybe I'll
Speaker 1: walk a little further. Or maybe you're pretty good shape,
Speaker 1: but you're you're you're a desk jockey. But you know,
Speaker 1: maybe that first, that first day, it's a mile, and
Speaker 1: then you're working on it after that, you know. So
Speaker 1: I like to kind of let my my if I've
Speaker 1: been kind of been lazy and been sitting around a lot,
Speaker 1: not able to get away from the desk, I like
Speaker 1: to check kind of get out and just like warm
Speaker 1: up my muscles, wake them up a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's just walking around walking, and once they kind
Speaker 1: of wake up after a couple of days, you'll notice
Speaker 1: a difference, like Okay, there your muscles in your in
Speaker 1: your legs and your feet and your lower back. You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start being physical again. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start adding some hills in. But the goal
Speaker 1: here is if you've especially at this point in the
Speaker 1: time like here we are, middle of August, you don't
Speaker 1: want to go out and get in injured. So now
Speaker 1: it's not the time to join a CrossFit gym. Don't
Speaker 1: join to CrossFit gym. And get nothing wrong with CrossFit.
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a great exercise way to get
Speaker 1: your work out in, but it's easy to like get
Speaker 1: to be competitive and then like overdo it and then
Speaker 1: oh man, I just torn my hamm eather, I messed
Speaker 1: up my shoulder or whatever. You know, that's something you
Speaker 1: want to do your CrossFit workout, like maybe start that
Speaker 1: in January one. That way, you have plenty of time
Speaker 1: to ease into it and you know, build and build
Speaker 1: and build and be a superhuman by by September, but
Speaker 1: now's the time for it.
Speaker 3: I think that's super solid advice because I think people
Speaker 3: underest to me how much how easy it is, especially
Speaker 3: you know dudes like us that you know we're we're
Speaker 3: not We're not spring chickens anymore, you know. So, uh,
Speaker 3: it's it's not that difficult to injure our body like
Speaker 3: I spent. I spent the first two weeks of July
Speaker 3: going to the chiropractor three times a week.
Speaker 2: And you know what I did.
Speaker 3: All I did was I picked my dog up so
Speaker 3: I can get him in the back of the truck
Speaker 3: without him jumping because he's getting old. Cost me two
Speaker 3: weeks at the chiropractor. Man, and I'm in decent shape.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of it too.
Speaker 2: People put this.
Speaker 3: There's like this, what do you call that? When there's
Speaker 3: the stigma on what kind of shape you have to
Speaker 3: be in. Man, I'll tell you a couple of things.
Speaker 3: First of all, most of this stuff is mental. If
Speaker 3: you get out in the woods and you've got a
Speaker 3: heavy pack on and it's you know, first thing in
Speaker 3: the morning's maybe your first time out west and getting
Speaker 3: on a mountain, don't don't underestimate how long your second
Speaker 3: wind is going to take you into the into the
Speaker 3: back country. I don't care what kind of shape you're in.
Speaker 3: You just keep going as as in. Your body will
Speaker 3: tell you when it's time to stop. And there's a
Speaker 3: difference between that thought of man, this sucks, this is hard,
Speaker 3: I'm sweating, my back hurts, my legs hurt. I need
Speaker 3: to just stop. And that's that's not when you stop.
Speaker 3: Your body will tell you when to stop. The other
Speaker 3: part of it is what was that.
Speaker 2: Two seasons ago?
Speaker 3: Man, You'll you'll get a kick out of this because
Speaker 3: we we've talked about like Doug Flutie and stuff, like
Speaker 3: two seasons ago.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm like.
Speaker 3: Four miles way up this drainage, and it was not
Speaker 3: you know, North Idaho. It's it's these are North Idaho miles.
Speaker 3: These are it's real brushed off miles. They're tough miles.
Speaker 3: And this isn't like four miles in Kansas. And and
Speaker 3: so I get way up there and there's this dude
Speaker 3: back there and he's probably sixty five years old ish,
Speaker 3: he's not in great shape, he's smoking cigarettes and and
Speaker 3: he's got an elk down. And so I end up
Speaker 3: helping this guy pack an ilkout, and and the dude
Speaker 3: is just like I like, it was hard for me
Speaker 3: to get up there, and he got he got up
Speaker 3: there before me somehow, And you know, so I just
Speaker 3: I think a lot of this I come to like,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of it is just mental.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of it is we we struggle
Speaker 3: with our own minds and mental mental toughness and mental
Speaker 3: endurance to get into places where the elk live, because
Speaker 3: you're right, if you can't, if you can't walk into there,
Speaker 3: you're not going to get an ilk, right.
Speaker 1: And I think expectation versus reality sometimes really gets people.
Speaker 1: I always like to tell people to temper their expectations,
Speaker 1: no matter what it is. So, yes, okay, getting up
Speaker 1: the mountain to that bugling elk or packing out a
Speaker 1: load of elk met what's your expectation. Well, it's we're
Speaker 1: not going to have any of that instant gratification that
Speaker 1: we get in with today's conveniences and modern easy life
Speaker 1: that we we all enjoy, enjoy and love every day. Right.
Speaker 1: And I find myself like, like when I'm training or
Speaker 1: when I'm hiking or hunting, I'm just like man, I
Speaker 1: really I wish I could get to the top quicker,
Speaker 1: and I like my mind. It's almost like I start
Speaker 1: tricking my mind like into feeling like a feeling of
Speaker 1: failure because I'm not scaling the mountain as quickly as
Speaker 1: I think maybe I should. And once I once, I
Speaker 1: kind of temper that expectation, it's like, well, I'll get there,
Speaker 1: when I'm gonna get there. It's like, I'm not a Ferrari, right,
Speaker 1: I'm more of a I'm more of a dump truck
Speaker 1: or maybe a bulldozer. Right, I'm just gonna bulldoze my
Speaker 1: way up this mountain and I'm gonna Chevy.
Speaker 2: Man, You're gonna get there.
Speaker 3: That's like, that's how I am. I'm not a Pinto,
Speaker 3: but I'm not a Ferrari. I'm just like a really
Speaker 3: good Chevy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna one ton Chevy.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, Yes, sir. Sometimes in the winter, I look
Speaker 2: like a suburban.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. And we have to remember, like we're out
Speaker 1: there to have it, to enjoy it. If you push
Speaker 1: too hard to where you push yourself past the enjoyment level,
Speaker 1: then you're like thinking, what the heck am I doing here?
Speaker 1: So temper your expectations of how fast you should go
Speaker 1: up the mountain if you're if your buddy weighs seventy
Speaker 1: pounds less than you and he just climbs up there
Speaker 1: like a yeah, Well that's cool for him because that's
Speaker 1: where he's at. But if you can get there too
Speaker 1: and hunt effectively on your own terms, that that's a win, right,
Speaker 1: And I found I found that for me. You know,
Speaker 1: if I can just go at my own pace, I can.
Speaker 1: I can go just about anywhere anybody else can.
Speaker 2: Oh me too, man, Yeah, just my own pace is
Speaker 2: the key.
Speaker 1: And the key is you know, back to The training
Speaker 1: is start now. If you haven't if you haven't done
Speaker 1: any any exercises summer, start now, get out, start walking.
Speaker 1: Then start after you do a few days of walking,
Speaker 1: start rucking. And rucking is throwing a backpack on with
Speaker 1: a little bit of weight, so you know, your first
Speaker 1: couple of days, you're gonna want to put enough weight
Speaker 1: in there to be what your normal day pack is,
Speaker 1: you know, whether that's you know, fifteen pounds or so
Speaker 1: twenty pounds totally loaded with all your gear, so water, meat, bags, knives, forkspoons,
Speaker 1: whatever you carry in your day bag. Right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then where that or you know, do some rucking
Speaker 1: with that for about three or four days. Then throw
Speaker 1: some more weight on there, throw forty pounds on it,
Speaker 1: do some more rucking for three or four days. And
Speaker 1: then that last few days, you know, that last week
Speaker 1: before season, that's when you really this is where you
Speaker 1: really want to remind your body. If you've been there before,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's if you've never done this. This is
Speaker 1: kind of like a wake up call for your body, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what we're gonna be doing here very soon.
Speaker 1: That's when you put on an eighty pound pack and
Speaker 1: you're gonna walk, but you're not gonna You're not gonna walk.
Speaker 1: You know those four or five miles that you were
Speaker 1: able to walk without a heavy pack. Let's get those
Speaker 1: baby steps. You know. If you can pull that eighty
Speaker 1: pound pack, you know a half mile around the neighborhood,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's great. That's a win. Now your body's like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, okay, that's what it feels like. Tomorrow, we're
Speaker 1: gonna do it again. Tomorrow, We're gonna do it again
Speaker 1: and see how it feels and maybe we can go
Speaker 1: a little further. Maybe not, because we want to remember,
Speaker 1: we don't want to injure. But but forgetting that that
Speaker 1: feeling that last week before season, putting that eighty pound
Speaker 1: pack on every day and walking with it is gonna
Speaker 1: is gonna be not only get you in a little
Speaker 1: better shape, it's also going to build some mental toughness
Speaker 1: because you've your body's familiar with that heavyweight. You've packed it,
Speaker 1: you know you can carry it, and you know, if
Speaker 1: if you're lucky enough to have some hills by your
Speaker 1: house and if you're able to walk, you know, hike
Speaker 1: up some hills with it a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe put a mile or two on with that
Speaker 1: heavy weight. You're gonna have so much more confidence and
Speaker 1: so much more mental toughness going into season that you'll
Speaker 1: have a better time. You know, you'll have that mindset
Speaker 1: like I can do it instead of I can't do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, it just I think that that that all adds
Speaker 3: to the your your mental endurance as well, Like you
Speaker 3: don't want you don't want your back muscles to be
Speaker 3: like the first time they feel that way on opening day,
Speaker 3: because you're going to create a lot of pain and
Speaker 3: it's so unnecessary.
Speaker 2: So yeah, again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, just for for average average guys, average
Speaker 3: physique guys like like you and I, you know, uh,
Speaker 3: just just preparing without without doing marathons and stuff. Is
Speaker 3: is just don't it doesn't need to be over complicated.
Speaker 3: Do what you're gonna do while you're elk hunting, Go hiking,
Speaker 3: Go hiking a lot, and I think you'll surprise yourself
Speaker 3: when you get when you get out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my favorite thing to do in the summertime, you
Speaker 1: would think would be maybe beach time or river time,
Speaker 1: or you know, sitting around a campfire, which I love
Speaker 1: all those things, sure, But my my favorite thing to
Speaker 1: do is go put out trail cameras in the mountains
Speaker 1: in the back country of Idaho. And I put them
Speaker 1: out number one. I'm I'm just I don't really use
Speaker 1: them really for hunting because usually the elk kind of
Speaker 1: disappear about middle August off of them anyhow. But I
Speaker 1: just kind of like to know, I wanted to get
Speaker 1: inside the head of an elk, like what are they doing,
Speaker 1: what do they look like this time of year, when
Speaker 1: do they when are they in this area? When do
Speaker 1: they leave? When do they come back? Just it almost
Speaker 1: kind of gives you like like a peek behind the
Speaker 1: curtain of of an elk's life in that in that
Speaker 1: very spot. And what'll we'll do. I'll put salt out. Now,
Speaker 1: if you check the rags, it's not illegal to put
Speaker 1: salt out, but it is illegal to hunt over salt,
Speaker 1: so you can't hunt over the salt, and it'll kind
Speaker 1: of foul up that area for hunting. So but I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to hunt here. What I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: do is are there any elk in this country at all?
Speaker 1: What do they look like? What are they what are
Speaker 1: they doing? When do they leave? When do they go?
Speaker 1: It's just I always want to understand elk moore right, so,
Speaker 1: and to get to get salt into these places. It's
Speaker 1: well number one salts heavy, you know. I get it
Speaker 1: in the sixty pound bag. And then North Idaho is
Speaker 1: very steep, very brushy, a lot of timber. It's not
Speaker 1: easy miles and a lot of the places I go
Speaker 1: are off trail. I may use use an access trail
Speaker 1: for a ways, but then I'll go off trail just
Speaker 1: because I don't want to buy messing with my cameras.
Speaker 1: So I'll get out there and sometimes I will the
Speaker 1: whole way. I especially once I get off trail, I
Speaker 1: will question my sanity, like what am I doing here?
Speaker 1: This sucks? Oh my god, what am I I'm never
Speaker 1: coming back here. I can't ever come back here. I mean,
Speaker 1: it gets to the point where it will test your
Speaker 1: physical and your your mental fortitude to the to the
Speaker 1: to the limit. Right, So, you know, because I got
Speaker 1: just of salt, but I got water, I got cameras,
Speaker 1: and I got I've got eighty pounds on my back,
Speaker 1: and ye by the time I dumped that thing is
Speaker 1: so like, oh my god, thank you. I got there finally,
Speaker 1: and I set up my camera and everything. But then
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do two or three of those a
Speaker 1: day because you know, I don't have a lot of
Speaker 1: extra time to be thrown around, so I may have
Speaker 1: to fit this in kind of a long weekend. So
Speaker 1: I'm just like business from from daylight to dark. As
Speaker 1: much as I'd like to be swimming in the lake
Speaker 1: or paddling around the river, I'm up here in the brush,
Speaker 1: sweating and cursing, putting out these stupid trail cameras. But
Speaker 1: what that does is later on, when I strap a
Speaker 1: quarter of elk meat on my back. I know what
Speaker 1: it feels like, and I know what I can do.
Speaker 1: I know that this is gonna suck for a little bit.
Speaker 1: But once I get to the better part of the trail,
Speaker 1: or I get to some flatter ground or whatever, things
Speaker 1: are gonna get better and I can do it. I
Speaker 1: just I know I can do it. And then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take and I know the time it's gonna take
Speaker 1: to get there. I'm not gonna have some weird expectation
Speaker 1: like I should be able to Okay, I should be
Speaker 1: able to get there in like twenty thirty minutes. It
Speaker 1: may take me an hour or two to get to
Speaker 1: get this meat out, you know, But I'm okay with that,
Speaker 1: And then I don't feel defeated. Right it takes me
Speaker 1: the hour to get it out, It's like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: I can go back and make another trip. I got
Speaker 1: to go get another load of meat. So it's just
Speaker 1: building that mental preparedness, I think, in some physical preparedness
Speaker 1: around it.
Speaker 3: I'd love to add, you know, because I love what
Speaker 3: you're saying and I've been doing. Actually you're I think
Speaker 3: you're the one that taught me this whole let's go
Speaker 3: set some trail cameras and like the most random, you know,
Speaker 3: areas that you're thinking about hunting, because I think it's important.
Speaker 3: It tells you so much about what the elk are doing,
Speaker 3: the elk behavior, how they're moving. It also tells you
Speaker 3: if there are wolves moving through there consistently. It also
Speaker 3: builds your stamina and and you know, it's like the
Speaker 3: opposite you pack in heavy and come out light because
Speaker 3: you've dropped the salt in the camera, you know. And
Speaker 3: so yeah, I think that's critical if you have I
Speaker 3: understand that's going to be hard for gets coming from
Speaker 3: back east or whatever to be able to do. But
Speaker 3: for for the locals hunt now west, I mean, it's
Speaker 3: a it's a great tool. It's a great scouting tool.
Speaker 1: Yeah. In some states it's just you just can't do it.
Speaker 1: It's illegal, you know. Yeah, And I've looked looked this
Speaker 1: up online several times just to make sure I'm following
Speaker 1: the letter of the law, because I don't I want
Speaker 1: to make sure I'm I'm legal, legal, right, But in
Speaker 1: some states you can't do it. I don't think you
Speaker 1: can do it at Wyoming, and I think I don't
Speaker 1: think Montana allows it either either I haven't got it
Speaker 1: too far into it because I haven't really tried. I
Speaker 1: don't really set trail cameras in those places.
Speaker 3: I think it's Arizona and Utah. I actually I don't know.
Speaker 3: I'd have to look it up. I don't want to
Speaker 3: speak at at a turn there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, look it up. If you decide you want
Speaker 1: to do such a thing, I always say, look it up,
Speaker 1: see if it's legal. If it's legal, go do it,
Speaker 1: have some fun with it. And if it's not legal,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you're going to do some backpack trips,
Speaker 1: maybe you've got a really great trail system or some
Speaker 1: Really I feel like anywhere in this anywhere there's elk it'
Speaker 1: is almost better than Idaho for like traversing the mountains, right,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, the west, the west coast of
Speaker 1: you know, Oregon and Washington's pretty bad too. But yeah,
Speaker 1: as far as the high country man Idaho, it is
Speaker 1: pretty pretty rough. If you want to get out there,
Speaker 1: maybe throw a nice you know, forty to fifty pound
Speaker 1: pack on and back backpack in wait, you know, for
Speaker 1: a few days, and set trail cameras and maybe Colorado
Speaker 1: or Wyoming wherever that would be like really a really
Speaker 1: good test to you know, give yourself some endurance and
Speaker 1: give yourself some confidence to know you can you can
Speaker 1: get through those mountains during September.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally totally agree.
Speaker 1: I'd like to switch gears here. Had another message come
Speaker 1: in to the email. It says, what kind of boots
Speaker 1: do you guys recommend for el cunning And I don't
Speaker 1: like to recommend a certain brand because everyone's feet are
Speaker 1: so different. And then another thing is like a lot
Speaker 1: of the high end boots they come with just kind
Speaker 1: of a basic insoul that should be replaced. I've ran
Speaker 1: anything for everything from Doctor shoals to those really cool
Speaker 1: custom sheep feet that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna ask you. You've run those sheep feet,
Speaker 3: haven't you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, which they're awesome. But I'll say that even the
Speaker 1: Doctor Shoals inserts are better than like what they put
Speaker 1: in most shoes.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That question is going to segue in to what the
Speaker 1: most important piece of gear is that you need for
Speaker 1: this fall? And I think it kind of couples with
Speaker 1: like the most important exercise you're going to do, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to be able to walk to the elk. Well,
Speaker 1: if you can't walk because your shoes are garbage or
Speaker 1: your boots are garbage, then it's going to be really
Speaker 1: hard to get up the mountain and get to those elks.
Speaker 1: So you have to, you know, I always say, by
Speaker 1: a pretty the best quality pair of boots you can afford.
Speaker 1: I know everybody's got a little different budget, but try
Speaker 1: on a few, wear them around the store. You know,
Speaker 1: buy the best ones you can afford, because high quality
Speaker 1: boots will definitely make the difference in the back country.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: I I have said, and I feel like again, I
Speaker 3: don't mean to sound like my grandpa always talking about
Speaker 3: the military thing, but but I I have told people
Speaker 3: on my show, the most critical piece of gear that
Speaker 3: you that you go into the field with is going to.
Speaker 2: Be your boots. And I speak from a place of authority.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was in the Marine Infantry and and there, and
Speaker 3: I don't know that there's anybody that walks more than
Speaker 3: Marine infantry do. So I have run the the lowest
Speaker 3: quality jungle boots in foreign places, and and I I
Speaker 3: could just speak from a place of great confidence when
Speaker 3: I tell you that your boots will make or break you.
Speaker 3: And you want to make sure whatever boots. Like Dirk said,
Speaker 3: getting the the best boots that you can afford is critical,
Speaker 3: and I have I have my recommendation, but like Dirk said,
Speaker 3: everybody's feet are different, and everybody's kind of you know,
Speaker 3: their budgets are different and and whatnot, and so like,
Speaker 3: get the best boots that you can you can afford,
Speaker 3: and and make sure those boots are broke in and
Speaker 3: you want to make sure they're waterproof, make sure they're
Speaker 3: they're fitting tight. If if you wear a if you
Speaker 3: wear a size.
Speaker 2: Ten, tenis shoes.
Speaker 3: Sometimes hunting boots, you're gonna want to get like a
Speaker 3: size eleven, but you don't want to get like a
Speaker 3: size eleven and a half because then your feet are
Speaker 3: gonna move around and and your feet get switty, and
Speaker 3: it's like the socks are gonna rub your blisters completely
Speaker 3: off and you're gonna be in a world to hurt.
Speaker 2: And so uh, I do believe that boots.
Speaker 3: This is always my number one recommendation when I get
Speaker 3: gear questions is boots are the most critical item. And
Speaker 3: I think second to that is having a good set
Speaker 3: of socks to go into those boots. And I don't know, man,
Speaker 3: what's your opinion. I for for me, nothing beats a
Speaker 3: good wolf sock. What what what say you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I agree? You know great, you know, good woll socks.
Speaker 1: I've ran the ones from Costco, I've ran the first
Speaker 1: light wolf socks, I've run darn toughs Rent a lot
Speaker 1: of different wolf socks and they're all great. They're they're
Speaker 1: all better than tube socks. Yes, if you're the socks right, right,
Speaker 1: But I have a buddy that I mean, that guy
Speaker 1: could probably put duct taper out of shoe box and
Speaker 1: walk around the mountains because he's just tough, right, But
Speaker 1: I feel like the rest of us are not nearly
Speaker 1: that tough. You know, take care of your feet. High
Speaker 1: quality socks, whether whether you're buying the ones at Costco
Speaker 1: or you know some really nice wolf socks from a
Speaker 1: reputable company, that will that will save your bacon.
Speaker 2: It will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you may not notice on day one and two,
Speaker 1: but if you're on an extended hunt, if you're on
Speaker 1: day nine and ten, that's when all these little things
Speaker 1: really come to play. You know, if your feet are
Speaker 1: still going good, feeling good, your boots are still comfortable,
Speaker 1: they're dry, they're not you know, here's a funny story.
Speaker 1: I got a buddy, his dad. Him and his dad
Speaker 1: went hunting and like on the second or third day
Speaker 1: of season, his dad's soul of his boot letely fell off.
Speaker 1: Oh no, and luckily I always had some yeah, he
Speaker 1: luckily he had some duct tape wrapped around his Nalgene bottle.
Speaker 1: There's a pro tip. Always wrap some uh some duct
Speaker 1: tape around your Nalgen bottle. I like the grilla tape best,
Speaker 1: but wrap that around your your Nalgene bottle because it's
Speaker 1: it's it's lightweight, it doesn't take it up any more
Speaker 1: space in your pack. And you have tape because you
Speaker 1: never know when you're kneeding tape maybe to tape your
Speaker 1: solo your boot back on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, man like, yeah, yeah, it's it's critical to have that.
Speaker 3: I that's that's actually a great idea. I've never done
Speaker 3: it around the Nalgen bottle. I've actually I've actually taken
Speaker 3: like a toilet paper roll and and run like I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 2: Of a duct tape roll around that and pack in
Speaker 2: my pack.
Speaker 1: Yeah that works too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great idea.
Speaker 1: I have an anecdotal story about high quality boots. So
Speaker 1: his rifle season Idaho, and I had a camp set up.
Speaker 1: My good and my good high quality boots were out
Speaker 1: of camp, but my son had a football game. So
Speaker 1: it's like, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna stay in town tonight,
Speaker 1: watch the football game, and just get up super early
Speaker 1: in the morning to hit opening day. Well I've got
Speaker 1: like a two and a half three hour drive, you know,
Speaker 1: So I get up at I'm supposed to get up
Speaker 1: at three. Well I get up at three thirty. So
Speaker 1: now I'm late. So I'm hurrying around. I get up
Speaker 1: there and I'm like, well, I throw in these other
Speaker 1: boots I had, and they were some Walmart specials. They
Speaker 1: were Herman Survivors or some Wolverines or something, and you know,
Speaker 1: for walking around flat country, they weren't bad. But I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I'll just wear these because I don't want to take
Speaker 1: the time to go thirty minutes out of the way
Speaker 1: over to my camp and back to get my good boots.
Speaker 1: Because I don't want to be late. I want to
Speaker 1: be in the spot on opening morning at first light.
Speaker 1: So I get there, I got my crappy boots on.
Speaker 1: I hike down in this hole and I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: it's just getting light. I start calling well, I start
Speaker 1: calling those too soon, and a bull comes in and anyway,
Speaker 1: I can see him, but I don't think it's safe
Speaker 1: or maybe even legal quite yet to take the shot,
Speaker 1: so I don't take the shot, and he he ski
Speaker 1: daddles on out of there and anyway, but there's a
Speaker 1: big bowl down in the bottom of the cannon. I
Speaker 1: can just hear him rip in big bugle just so
Speaker 1: I start making my way down, like I start, you know,
Speaker 1: going further and further and further down, and then and
Speaker 1: then it starts getting really steep, and it gets to
Speaker 1: the point where every step I take my sole on
Speaker 1: my foot on my boot is rolling up over the
Speaker 1: side of my foot and over the top and now
Speaker 1: the bottom of my foot is just on the side
Speaker 1: of the boot, like if you can imagine that. So
Speaker 1: at this point I can't go any further because the
Speaker 1: boots will not stay on my feet. I've I've laced
Speaker 1: him up as absolutely tight as they possibly go, and
Speaker 1: they still are just rolling up over the side of
Speaker 1: my foot. So I'm like, well, I'm gonna call that
Speaker 1: thing over to me. So I sat there all day
Speaker 1: and that bowl bugled all day long, and we went
Speaker 1: back and forth, and I sat there trying to call
Speaker 1: him across and he never would come in. But if
Speaker 1: i'd have been smart, yeah, and hindsight's twenty twenty, right,
Speaker 1: if I'd have been smart, I would have hiked out
Speaker 1: of there. I would have drove over to my camp,
Speaker 1: grabbed my other boots, hike back down there, and shot him.
Speaker 1: But you don't think of it. Sometimes you get kind
Speaker 1: of caught in the mode and you're like, you don't
Speaker 1: think of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But hell man, those are the supreme lessons learned. Brother,
Speaker 3: I love it. I think one thing that I do
Speaker 3: for foot care, I pack, and I don't care if
Speaker 3: I'm well. Most often I don't do a lot of
Speaker 3: backcountry stuff where I'm spending a night in the back country.
Speaker 3: You know, most often i'm day dripping, and I still
Speaker 3: pack a pair of flip flops in the pack. And
Speaker 3: what I do is I'll go out at first light,
Speaker 3: and you know that time, there's like this hour for me,
Speaker 3: and maybe you know you're between the two of us,
Speaker 3: you are the pro man, so you tell me if
Speaker 3: I'm off base. But I feel like there's this this
Speaker 3: hour between like nine ten o'clockish, where where I just
Speaker 3: don't have any luck calling bowls in I don't I
Speaker 3: don't get any responses, or maybe they're responding, but they're moving.
Speaker 3: And so I'll sit down, I'll take my boots and
Speaker 3: my socks off, and I'll just I'll just kind of
Speaker 3: relax for like an hour, and then then I go
Speaker 3: into this midday madnessing, which is again of something I
Speaker 3: really picked up on from you, and it happens to
Speaker 3: be the most I don't know, it's the best time
Speaker 3: for me, that that midday and right before sundown, and
Speaker 3: then you know, you get through that and then you
Speaker 3: have that that kind of late afternoon timeframe where there's
Speaker 3: not a lot of things going on, and again, I'll
Speaker 3: take my I'll take my boots off, I'll take my
Speaker 3: socks off, let the socks kind of dry out. They've
Speaker 3: been feet have been sweating, and I'll just I'll just
Speaker 3: mill around for a minute.
Speaker 2: But I've got my flip flops out there.
Speaker 3: It doesn't really weigh much to add a pair of
Speaker 3: cheap flip flop in there, and it just the only
Speaker 3: the only bummer part is I did have a bowl
Speaker 3: pipe off one time when I was sitting there in
Speaker 3: my flip flops and my my pants are rolled up,
Speaker 3: you know, and I look like a total dork, and
Speaker 3: I had I was like doing one of those peak
Speaker 3: refuels or something like that in the in the jet boil.
Speaker 3: And this bull starts bugling to my left. But he's
Speaker 3: just trucking. He's like sidehill and trucking like I don't know,
Speaker 3: fifty yards in front of me. I couldn't get up
Speaker 3: fast enough to even respond with I couldn't find my
Speaker 3: my bugle tube. It was under my pack, and so
Speaker 3: I couldn't go after him because I did have my
Speaker 3: flip flops on. But I do do that, and it
Speaker 3: goes a long way to help dry your feet out.
Speaker 3: And keeping your feet dry is critical, and that's that's
Speaker 3: why waterproof boots are super important. But also after you've
Speaker 3: been sweating for a while, man, try those socks out
Speaker 3: and keep an extra pair of socks in your pack,
Speaker 3: and it just it goes a long way to helping
Speaker 3: your feet out.
Speaker 1: I agree, one hundred percent. Another thing a guy needs
Speaker 1: to take a look at, or gal needs to take
Speaker 1: a look at, is your bow right. You need to
Speaker 1: make sure your strings are good. You need to make
Speaker 1: sure your your cams are still straight in a line,
Speaker 1: make sure it's still tuned. If you don't know how to,
Speaker 1: you know, take a look at that stuff. Take it
Speaker 1: to your local pro shop and let them go give
Speaker 1: it a once over. I know guys that'll take their
Speaker 1: bow in every year and have it gone through, whether
Speaker 1: they take a take apart the wheels and the axles
Speaker 1: and and clean them and grease them and and they
Speaker 1: tune them. They make sure they make sure the drop
Speaker 1: away rest is running right. Those drop away rests, I mean,
Speaker 1: they're amazing, but they and they can take a lot
Speaker 1: of abuse no matter what brand you have. But I've
Speaker 1: found that my mind can get dirty and that can
Speaker 1: start causing little quirky things with them. So you know,
Speaker 1: whether you do it yourself, you know you need to
Speaker 1: make me. Need to take it apart, clean it, put
Speaker 1: it back together. Just make sure your bow is shooting darts,
Speaker 1: just shooting perfect holes through paper and tuned right. Because
Speaker 1: that way, I'm a segue right into broadheads. That way
Speaker 1: your broadheads fly right. If your arrows flying fish flopping
Speaker 1: through the air with your broad heads on something mat right,
Speaker 1: you need to get your bow tuned, and then make
Speaker 1: sure all your broadheads and all your arrows are all
Speaker 1: the same weight. Jim and I had a funny conversation
Speaker 1: the other day about about, you know, arrows and stuff.
Speaker 1: But I have a buddy that he drew once in
Speaker 1: a lifetime moose tag and long story short, he got
Speaker 1: close to the moose and he pulls back and he
Speaker 1: shoots every single arrow he has at the bowl and
Speaker 1: he doesn't touch it. Oh no, And he's in the
Speaker 1: bowl finally wanderings off and I'm like, what the heck.
Speaker 1: He's like, well, I don't know what could it be.
Speaker 1: And he's like, I've been shooting my bow all summer
Speaker 1: and it's just shooting great with field points. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: did you ever target practice with your broadheads? Well? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to dole them up, he says. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what kind are they? He's like, well, I got a
Speaker 1: couple of these, and a couple of those, and two
Speaker 1: or three of these. And the buddy gave me some
Speaker 1: of these arrows that had something on him. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know what the brand was. It turns out he
Speaker 1: had a hodge podge of arrows and broadheads. None of
Speaker 1: them were match matching weight, matching, spine matching broad head.
Speaker 3: I'm guilty of that man from like ten twelve years ago.
Speaker 2: I'm not even kidding.
Speaker 3: Yet, Like yeah Eastman's arrow mixed with a Walmart arrol.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you just it's just so critical for you
Speaker 1: to hit your target and then do a good job
Speaker 1: to make sure all your components are are the right ones,
Speaker 1: right yep. And then elk calls you know, you know,
Speaker 1: of course I'm in the elk call business. But make
Speaker 1: sure you have you know, a handful of them in
Speaker 1: your pocket. I liked, I don't. I don't like to
Speaker 1: put in my pocket. What I like to do is
Speaker 1: keep them in a little call pouch. It hangs around
Speaker 1: my neck, keeps some organized, keeps them dry. Then I
Speaker 1: put a couple on my pack, and then I have
Speaker 1: a couple back at camp because that way, no matter
Speaker 1: what if I if I and I've done this, I've forgotten.
Speaker 1: I've taken my uh my little little pouch off at
Speaker 1: the truck or whatever and left it, you know, yeah
Speaker 1: or whatever, and you get over, you know, two or
Speaker 1: three miles from the truck and you're like, oh, where's
Speaker 1: my ouk calls. Well, I've got some on my pack,
Speaker 1: or let's say you've lost something, or maybe your buddy's
Speaker 1: lost his his calls. You've got some of your pack,
Speaker 1: or you've got some in your truck. You know you've
Speaker 1: you're always prepared. So and trust me, a lot of
Speaker 1: these places where I've hunted out, you can sometimes be
Speaker 1: eighty or one hundred miles from the local, the nearest
Speaker 1: town that would even sell anything that looked like an
Speaker 1: out call, and it may or may not be the
Speaker 1: type or brand that you'd like to use. So you
Speaker 1: may get desperate and by something that just doesn't work right.
Speaker 1: So I want to make sure you got it.
Speaker 3: You know what I found, man, is so I'll keep.
Speaker 3: I'll keep, like I'm I'm a big fan of these Mavericks,
Speaker 3: and oh yeah, I'll keep.
Speaker 2: I'll keep. I've got that pouch.
Speaker 3: Actually I need to check and make sure I didn't
Speaker 3: burn that sucker down in.
Speaker 2: That truck fire I had last year. But I keep
Speaker 2: like three or four in there.
Speaker 3: And then what I do you know, I'm like you,
Speaker 3: I've got a couple in the pack, a couple in
Speaker 3: my truck. You know, I've always got a bunch but
Speaker 3: what I do is I'll use I'll use one of
Speaker 3: those reads all morning and then I'll put it back
Speaker 3: in the pouch and let it dry and grab another one.
Speaker 3: And I found that, like you get this perfect stretch
Speaker 3: instead of just using one until you wear it out,
Speaker 3: You get a lot of life out of these reads
Speaker 3: by just kind of rotating them through the day. I'll
Speaker 3: have three or four of them in that pouch, and
Speaker 3: I'll probably use all three or four of them throughout
Speaker 3: the day, and and that it just kind of I
Speaker 3: don't know, they tend to sound better, like you have
Speaker 3: more control over them.
Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do the same thing. Yeah, because when you
Speaker 1: take you take all you take. Let's say you have
Speaker 1: three of them in there. You take three brand new diaphragms,
Speaker 1: and if you slowly use them throughout the day, trade
Speaker 1: spots with them, your break all of them in at
Speaker 1: the same right right and when they get to that
Speaker 1: sweet spot, which they usually don's very reliable. And then
Speaker 1: a dry diaphragm is always going to perform better than
Speaker 1: a wet, soggy one. So by doing that, you're you're
Speaker 1: keeping your diaphragms crisp and dry and they're gonna last
Speaker 1: longer and and they're gonna sound better. So no, you're
Speaker 1: you're right your spot on there.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, well I I've you know, it's funny. I've
Speaker 3: been meaning to ask you about that for like two seasons.
Speaker 3: But that's what I've been doing. And I that sweet
Speaker 3: spot that you finally get to after after you know,
Speaker 3: using it for a little bit. Man, what once you
Speaker 3: do hit that sweet spot, you can maintain it by
Speaker 3: keeping that thing dry and swapping them out like all September,
Speaker 3: and they sound terrific.
Speaker 1: Yep, they sound better, last better.
Speaker 2: For sure, for sure.
Speaker 1: So one thing I see people still using these things
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, you gotta do something different is
Speaker 1: meat bags. So the cheese cloth type, you know, the
Speaker 1: ones that are super cheap you get you can get
Speaker 1: four or five of them for like twelve bucks or
Speaker 1: whatever they are. Gosh, do yourself a favor and do
Speaker 1: not use those kind of meatbags. I've had to actually
Speaker 1: flies blow right through those things. Get some. You know,
Speaker 1: there's lots of brands out there of the synthetic high
Speaker 1: quality game bags. The cloth is Antrai microbial and they
Speaker 1: were usable. You know, they're kind of expensive, you know,
Speaker 1: I've you can spend anywhere from forty bucks to eighty
Speaker 1: bucks for a set of these high quality synthetic meatbags.
Speaker 1: But if you take care of them, you know, make
Speaker 1: sure you clean them up after the hunt. I just
Speaker 1: machine wash mine, you know, bleach and some of that
Speaker 1: stuff that Willie May's or Billy Mays used to advertise,
Speaker 1: what is that stuff? Oh oxy clean?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, I was totally
Speaker 2: drawn a blank.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I wash them with that stuff and I've
Speaker 1: used them for multiple years, so so and then your
Speaker 1: your meat stays clean, it stays delicious. And that's the
Speaker 1: number one thing we don't want to We don't want
Speaker 1: our meat to go bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 3: I think I think sixty bucks on a set of
Speaker 3: game bags is kind of that sweet spot. And make
Speaker 3: like I have a set in my my pack right now.
Speaker 3: I've had two bears and a and a big white
Speaker 3: tail in that particular set, and they've been washed each
Speaker 3: time and they're still in the bag ready to go.
Speaker 3: And then I have a backup set the same pair.
Speaker 3: I think they're the ones I got from the Elk Collective.
Speaker 3: Guys and and and those those ones, I just wash
Speaker 3: them and man, they're they're good as new. Uh, they
Speaker 3: keep like you said those Have you ever have you
Speaker 3: ever like dropped a meat bag, those old cheese cloth
Speaker 3: ones and it falls in the dirt and like you
Speaker 3: can never get that dirt off.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, pine needles.
Speaker 3: And next thing you know, you're you're getting home and
Speaker 3: you're like having to cut some of that meat out
Speaker 3: because it's all dirty. Doesn't happen with these higher end meatbags.
Speaker 3: I think, I think that's that's a good point you
Speaker 3: bring it up. I didn't even think to talk about meatbags.
Speaker 1: Yep. Absolutely. And as far as gear, you know, the
Speaker 1: last thing I'd like to talk about is as a
Speaker 1: medkit or a first aid kit. Everybody says, well, make
Speaker 1: sure you get a medkit, and but nobody really tells
Speaker 1: you what to put in a medkit, right, yeah, Well
Speaker 1: what if you buy If you just go buy one
Speaker 1: off the shelf somewhere, most of the time, it's going
Speaker 1: to have some aspirin in it, some antiseptic salve, and
Speaker 1: a couple of band aids, and you know it's just
Speaker 1: some you know, basic things like that if you cut
Speaker 1: your finger at home. But this is life or death
Speaker 1: type situation stuff, so it's good to know what's in
Speaker 1: those things. And I met a guy at Elks Camp
Speaker 1: a few years ago. His name is Jimmy Greenwalt. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: and I call him Jimmy Kits because he builds these
Speaker 1: little medkits. And Jimmy, you've had him on your podcast.
Speaker 1: He's he's the real deal, you know, he's he was
Speaker 1: a combat medic and.
Speaker 3: His Special Forces combat medic multiple tours. Like the dude
Speaker 3: knows how to patch people up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's seen it all from as bad as it
Speaker 1: can get. He's seen it and and cope and dealt
Speaker 1: with it and saved lives. And he said his number
Speaker 1: one thing to put in the bed. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: read off the things that he puts in his medkit
Speaker 1: and then I recommend you should have in years too.
Speaker 1: Number one thing he says is a tourniquet. And you
Speaker 1: hear a lot of bad press about tourniquets, right, people like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: never use a tournique unless you really really have to,
Speaker 1: because you'll probably lose your limb if you apply the tourniquet.
Speaker 1: But he's like, I've put lots of tourniquets on a
Speaker 1: lot of people and they didn't loser limb. He's like,
Speaker 1: but you have to. He's like, number one, you have
Speaker 1: to stop that massive blood loss immediately. So a tourniquet.
Speaker 1: That's his number one thing in the kit.
Speaker 2: I think his kids come with like two or three
Speaker 2: different types of tourniquets too, So yeah, yeah, or sizes.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, I think you can pick. Then he's got
Speaker 1: a you know, compression gauze, a vented chest seal pack.
Speaker 1: I say, you, you know you puncture a hole in
Speaker 1: your your chest. I mean you're gonna need to seal
Speaker 1: that thing up, elastic bandage wrapped to keep that compression
Speaker 1: gaus on better, A sam splint, so you break a bone, broke,
Speaker 1: break fingers, break something, You'll need that splint to help
Speaker 1: keep it, you know, things back in place. And then
Speaker 1: reinforcement tape. You know that tape you can wrap it
Speaker 1: around that splint or wrap it around other things, other wounds,
Speaker 1: to help keep your bandages in place. Mole skin of course,
Speaker 1: just for your basic injury to your feet. Remember what
Speaker 1: we talked about your feet. You have to be able
Speaker 1: to walk right well, some of us even with high
Speaker 1: quality boots. Someone's just got weird feet and you're gonna
Speaker 1: get some blisters during elk season. So if you got
Speaker 1: that mole skin, you put that on your on your feet.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he sells all these kids online for about
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty bucks if you don't want to
Speaker 1: access them yourself, but you can go and you can
Speaker 1: go piecemeal these things together very easily yourself on Amazon
Speaker 1: or your local pharmacy. A lot of these things, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you can get a tourniquet on there,
Speaker 1: probably not. You have to probably get that online somewhere.
Speaker 3: But yeah, the key is you don't you don't want
Speaker 3: thirty five different band aids. You don't need, you know,
Speaker 3: all these different types of medications unless you're specifically for
Speaker 3: some you know, you know, if you if you've.
Speaker 2: Got these prescribed here or whatever.
Speaker 3: That why I like those Jimmy kits is because they're
Speaker 3: super light and they're super functional, and those are the
Speaker 3: things you think in trauma. You don't need a sea callar,
Speaker 3: you don't need you don't need all these goofy things
Speaker 3: that I've seen a lot of these kids come with.
Speaker 3: You just need to, Like I took emt school Now
Speaker 3: this is like almost twenty years ago, so bear with me.
Speaker 3: But it's like, you know, stop the bleeding, start the breathing,
Speaker 3: and call for help. That that's kind of what you
Speaker 3: want to have in your mind when you're when you're
Speaker 3: packing for the back countries. You want to be able
Speaker 3: to stop the breathing, start the breathing.
Speaker 2: Did I say that?
Speaker 3: Did I say that the right way, start the breathing,
Speaker 3: stop the bleeding, Because in the Marines it was the opposite.
Speaker 3: You know, you stop or you start the bleeding and
Speaker 3: you stop the breathing. But then when you're when you
Speaker 3: when you're talking about this EMS stuff and the EMT
Speaker 3: kit or first aid kit, it's just, you know, simplicity
Speaker 3: is best. You want to stop that bleeding and start
Speaker 3: the breathing. And you know, I was throwing like eyberprofen
Speaker 3: or something like that, but uh, nothing nothing else really sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but really the things are going to save your
Speaker 1: life you really want to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think I don't know if this falls
Speaker 3: in line, but some kind of satellite emergency phone or
Speaker 3: or GPS that that connects I have one of those
Speaker 3: Zolio things just bluetooth off my phone, so I could
Speaker 3: text people yes and and that kind of stuff. You know,
Speaker 3: that way they'll have your exact location if you do
Speaker 3: fall down a cliff face, break both your legs and
Speaker 3: you need help getting.
Speaker 2: Out of there. I think that's that's a critical piece
Speaker 2: of gear.
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, And it gives you, know, your family at home,
Speaker 1: you know, a peace of mind to know that you're okay,
Speaker 1: and a lot of times that gives you some staying power.
Speaker 1: In the back country, you get to miss in your family,
Speaker 1: and if you have to contact them, then you start
Speaker 1: worrying about them and stuff. But if you if you're
Speaker 1: able to, you know, send messages back and forth, and
Speaker 1: then your family knows you're safe, and you know they're
Speaker 1: good doing good and and they can give you know,
Speaker 1: you know, they can root for you from the other side.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of times my wife will will
Speaker 1: give me that little extra encourage. Sometimes I'll get kind
Speaker 1: of kind of poudy on a hunt a little bench.
Speaker 1: She'll be, oh, yeah, this is what always happens, right,
Speaker 1: You're always going to have the lowest of lows, and
Speaker 1: then you know, you get that little pep talk, you know,
Speaker 1: and then before the high to heist come you have
Speaker 1: to have those lows and you know, so she'll give
Speaker 1: me a little pep pops sometimes if I'm feeling poopy.
Speaker 1: And but those those things make all the difference, you know.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you need a phone a friend, Maybe you
Speaker 1: need a text a buddy and have some help. Last fall,
Speaker 1: I killed a bowl and messaged a good buddy in
Speaker 1: mine and and he was in the area and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll come help you pack. So and I would have
Speaker 1: been happy to pack my bully by myself, but you know,
Speaker 1: why do it if if you have another if you
Speaker 1: have a friend that'll come help. So yeah, man, we
Speaker 1: made short work of that bowl and and it was
Speaker 1: so so much appreciated so well. I wor the squeeze there.
Speaker 3: I had messaged you at one point because I hit
Speaker 3: a bowl like and it was a bad shot, and
Speaker 3: I was trying to get your opinion on what I
Speaker 3: was seeing with the blood trail and and I had
Speaker 3: missaged you, and you helped me kind of determine, you know,
Speaker 3: whether or not I was going to find that bowl
Speaker 3: and so stuff like that. You know, it's just it's
Speaker 3: just always good to have that communication. Like I said,
Speaker 3: keep in touch with the family, emergencies, friends, help and
Speaker 3: packing you know whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you really should, you know, go to your
Speaker 1: hunt planning for You should plan for success, but you
Speaker 1: should plan for you know, disaster too. So that's where
Speaker 1: your tuck comes in, right. Your truck a lot of
Speaker 1: times is your lifeline out of the back country, so
Speaker 1: you gotta make sure that thing's in tip top shape.
Speaker 1: You know, don't don't don't go to the back country
Speaker 1: with a bunch of lights blinking on the dash. You know,
Speaker 1: let's say, if you're a long waist from home and
Speaker 1: maybe somewhere where somebody can't help you out. Tires, I mean, boy, howdie,
Speaker 1: do I know what I'm Last year?
Speaker 2: I had all that issues with last year with tires.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I usually try to try to keep really
Speaker 1: good tires on my my stuff. But you know, even
Speaker 1: with good tires, you can have issues. So make sure
Speaker 1: you got the appropriate tires, you know, heavy duty to
Speaker 1: imply tires. Make sure your battery is clean and strong,
Speaker 1: and you don't want to have battery issues and have
Speaker 1: to be walking back to camp. I've been there with
Speaker 1: a friend and it's in. It sucks the like hike
Speaker 1: all day and hunt all day, your guts out, and
Speaker 1: then get to the truck and the truck won't start,
Speaker 1: and then you have to hike another four to six
Speaker 1: miles back to camp. That's no good. Yeah, chains, chains
Speaker 1: for your tires. Last fall, Phelps had this tag for Washington,
Speaker 1: the Blue Mountains of Washington, and to come a big
Speaker 1: snow and geez when we were trying to get out there,
Speaker 1: he had to chain up all four tires on his truck.
Speaker 1: Oh geez, he wouldn't. If he wouldn't have had those chains,
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have got out of there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was just that the snow and on the road
Speaker 1: was just the right temperature. It was just like snot.
Speaker 1: It was. Yeah, it was like this most slickest snow
Speaker 1: like snot. Just like you said. And yeah, the chains
Speaker 1: made all the difference. It wasn't like we were bucking
Speaker 1: snow drifts. We were just trying to stay on the road.
Speaker 1: So and then make sure your spare tires got air
Speaker 1: in it, you know, toe straps if you suck at
Speaker 1: driving and slide off the road a lot, or do
Speaker 1: you want to be a good Samaritan and pull somebody
Speaker 1: else out.
Speaker 3: It's always the ones that suck at driving, that need
Speaker 3: to need to get pulled out, that don't have a
Speaker 3: toe strap on them too.
Speaker 2: Man, everybody needs.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, everybody needs one, not just not just the
Speaker 1: guys that are good or bad. Everybody needs And then
Speaker 1: here's something I'd like to talk about. So let's say
Speaker 1: you're traveling from from You're gonna hunt out of town,
Speaker 1: somewhere out of state maybe or long long ways from home,
Speaker 1: so you have to transport meat from a long from
Speaker 1: a long distance. And this was a question from Instagram.
Speaker 1: How soon do I need to get my elk meat
Speaker 1: out and then do a cooler and then how do
Speaker 1: I get it home? So well, first off, the first
Speaker 1: number one thing is is you want to get your
Speaker 1: elk skinned out right away, right as soon as you
Speaker 1: as soon as you recover it, you get your pictures
Speaker 1: and stuff, get to work skin in that thing. You
Speaker 1: don't want to let it sit out on a hot
Speaker 1: hill side with the height on it. Right. I saw
Speaker 1: a YouTube video the other day have a very popular YouTuber.
Speaker 1: He was he was cutting the quarters off and leaving
Speaker 1: the hair on them. But it was September. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: recommend that. I would I would recommend make sure you
Speaker 1: get the hide off those quarters because that height is
Speaker 1: very and hair is very insulating to that meat. You
Speaker 1: want it to build it cool really quickly, so get
Speaker 1: the hide off, then cut the quarters off, put them
Speaker 1: in your bags, get it hanging. If you can't hang
Speaker 1: it in a tree, maybe prop it up on some
Speaker 1: logs with some other little sticks so that you can
Speaker 1: get airflow underneath of it and on top of it.
Speaker 1: I just want to get that stuff off the animal
Speaker 1: and in the shade as quick as you can. And
Speaker 1: sometimes that means, you know, maybe you're on a open, dry,
Speaker 1: hot hillside and you're going to have to pack the
Speaker 1: help meet the opposite direction downhill down into a wet
Speaker 1: drawer or a cool shaded draw. That's what you may
Speaker 1: have to do, just because you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that meat doesn't go bad. You can't let it sit
Speaker 1: out on that hot hillside in the blazing sun. Get
Speaker 1: it down the draw, that cool area in the draw,
Speaker 1: and the shade cool your meat. Last year, for instance,
Speaker 1: I killed my bowl. It was pretty much in the
Speaker 1: middle of the day, and it's New Mexico and it's hot,
Speaker 1: right it's probably eighty degrees in the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: and so Dustiny I go to work. We get this
Speaker 1: thing boned out, or not boned out, but quartered up,
Speaker 1: and it's still hot out. But luckily we had like
Speaker 1: the only shady spot and on this big hill, on
Speaker 1: this big flat top of a hill. So we have
Speaker 1: this thing hanging in the shade. And I told Dusty,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know what I think. I think we'll
Speaker 1: just keep this stuff in the shade with the air
Speaker 1: blowing on it. You know, it's not cool air, but
Speaker 1: it's better than being out in the hot, blazing sun.
Speaker 1: And if we were to start packing now we get
Speaker 1: back to the truck, there's not good shade at the truck.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't have my coolers with me with that
Speaker 1: are pretty cool with ice. Then I put my warm
Speaker 1: meat into a hot cooler or I have to leave
Speaker 1: it in the sun by the truck. We're better off
Speaker 1: to just let it cool. We'll take a break after
Speaker 1: we've you know, after you break down an elk, you
Speaker 1: need a break. Anyway, Let's just wait till this evening. Once,
Speaker 1: once things cool off a little bit and the sun
Speaker 1: goes down, then we'll start packing. And that's just what
Speaker 1: we did. And man I'll tell you it makes it
Speaker 1: so much easier to pack elk once it's once the
Speaker 1: sun's kind of gone down, it's not so hot for you,
Speaker 1: and it's not so hot for the elk meat, and
Speaker 1: your your meat's had a good chance to have air
Speaker 1: circulate around it for you know, most of the day,
Speaker 1: and then packing at night. You can pack elk meat
Speaker 1: at nighttime, which is which is awesome if you have
Speaker 1: a head lamp and a flashlight, if you're prepared, it
Speaker 1: can be really fun because bugs aren't an issue, unless
Speaker 1: you got mosquitoes around. But bugs aren't an issue. It's
Speaker 1: usually a lot cooler, and then you're not burning daylight, right,
Speaker 1: you can get that bull packed out in the dark,
Speaker 1: and then you can get up early the next day
Speaker 1: if you're tough like Jim, and go hunt the next
Speaker 1: day for your buddy.
Speaker 2: Wrong, Jim, you're the wrong.
Speaker 1: You're taking the next day off.
Speaker 2: Depends on how far it was.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's a great idea, actually that because there's
Speaker 3: you know, how you pack meat back to the truck
Speaker 3: kind of thing, and it's still like midday or late
Speaker 3: afterno or early afternoon or whatever, and there's that that
Speaker 3: stress in your gut that that that feeling that you have. Man,
Speaker 3: I am just worried about this meat, and and it
Speaker 3: just alleviates that. And and I just I like worry
Speaker 3: about meat a lot, a lot more than probably I should.
Speaker 2: But uh, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I was listening to some somebody talk, some meat scientists
Speaker 3: talking about how long he lets his meat hang and whatnot,
Speaker 3: and I just that's not my thing.
Speaker 2: I I for for me, I need that meat cooled.
Speaker 2: I need it. I need it in the shade. I
Speaker 2: need it gone, uh into into the cooler.
Speaker 3: And I like to get at home as fast as
Speaker 3: I can so I can process it or or drop
Speaker 3: it off at a process or you know, whichever way
Speaker 3: I'm going there, because I I just stress about it.
Speaker 1: Oh. I know it's so so important to make sure
Speaker 1: that you get the meat out, and I always stress
Speaker 1: about it too. Mm hmm, Well, Jim, do you have
Speaker 1: any last words? I think we need to wrap this
Speaker 1: thing up. Do you have any last words?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: The one thing that I always like to have people
Speaker 3: come away with these episodes, these types of episodes with
Speaker 3: like just key takeaways, you know what I mean, just
Speaker 3: key takeaways where if you you don't have to be
Speaker 3: some high performance athlete, but you do need to work
Speaker 3: at it. Don't don't sit on the couch all year
Speaker 3: and then get up on August thirty first and hit
Speaker 3: expecting to go ten miles into the back country in
Speaker 3: Colorado or something. You know, be realistic with with what
Speaker 3: your expectations are.
Speaker 2: And but also be gritty. Elk hunting is is freaking hard.
Speaker 3: Like, be gritty when you think you're wore out and
Speaker 3: you're tired, you know, maybe take five minutes, but get
Speaker 3: back after it. Get get after those elk if they're
Speaker 3: if they're if they're moving further, then you think what
Speaker 3: is possible for you to move after them with You
Speaker 3: might surprise yourself go after them. Just just keep at it,
Speaker 3: be gritty, get out there and work towards it. Because
Speaker 3: this is I think we live in a society where
Speaker 3: we have this this high level of comfort around us.
Speaker 3: You know, we can we can call an Uber eats
Speaker 3: or whatever if you live in town, I can't, but
Speaker 3: you can call a pizza delivery and have food delivered
Speaker 3: in fifteen minutes or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's free.
Speaker 3: And we have this mentality where things can just come
Speaker 3: naturally and easily and that's just not elk hunting. And
Speaker 3: elk hunting is for people that like that self reliance
Speaker 3: and that grittiness and that toughness and and that challenge
Speaker 3: to go out and get something done. And uh, you know,
Speaker 3: I think that that that mentality, having that mentality with
Speaker 3: the level of difficulty and understanding how hard it is,
Speaker 3: that's those are the people that get in front of elk.
Speaker 3: And and I think that that's important for everybody to understand.
Speaker 3: Whether you're you live out west or you're coming out
Speaker 3: west to hunt elk, I don't know. I think that's
Speaker 3: that's my biggest message might takeaway for folks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, that's that's very good, you know. And
Speaker 1: I'll be the first to say, you know, the better
Speaker 1: shape you're in to go hunt elk, the funner it's
Speaker 1: going to be, right if if you're if you can
Speaker 1: move a quicker, you know, through the mountains with with
Speaker 1: relatively a lot more ease, it's going to be a
Speaker 1: fun funner hunt, you know, definitely, definitely. So I'm not
Speaker 1: going to say, you know, you shouldn't have a good
Speaker 1: level of physical fitness to hunt elk, but I will
Speaker 1: also say, you know, you should also not let that
Speaker 1: hold you back, like if you don't, if you're not
Speaker 1: some elite athlete, get in good walking shape, get to
Speaker 1: where you can lift you know, a heavy load, you know,
Speaker 1: an elk quarter, an average out quarters on a five
Speaker 1: to small spicks six point boos. But bowl is about
Speaker 1: sixty five pounds, so fifty five pounds plus your pack,
Speaker 1: you're looking about eighty pound pack. Be able to pick
Speaker 1: that off the ground and put it on the tailgate
Speaker 1: of your truck, you know, you know, whether you don't
Speaker 1: have a fancy gym to go to, maybe that heavy
Speaker 1: pack you were you were packing earlier, you know, pick
Speaker 1: it up off the ground, set it on your truck,
Speaker 1: back and forth a few times. You know. Don't overdo it,
Speaker 1: don't kill yourself, but build some build some muscle that
Speaker 1: way too, build some strength in the last days before
Speaker 1: you're hunt.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But but probably my biggest takeaway is like being prepared,
Speaker 1: you know, and and getting organized will help you have
Speaker 1: a successful hunt. So make a list, check it three
Speaker 1: times everything that you could possibly need for your hunt,
Speaker 1: and you'll probably have your panic pack moment like me,
Speaker 1: Like you'll have all your stuff and then the last
Speaker 1: few hours before you leave to go hunting. You'll be
Speaker 1: running around the house like a like a chicken, whether
Speaker 1: your head chopped off, throw it like, oh I need
Speaker 1: some of this. Oh better grab one of those. Oh crap,
Speaker 1: there's an extra charger. Oh but you know, just all
Speaker 1: this stupid random stuff that you probably will never use
Speaker 1: once you get there.
Speaker 3: Dude, I have bins of hunting here that I just
Speaker 3: throw in the back on my truck and I never
Speaker 3: even touch them.
Speaker 2: But if I needed them, man, they're there, right. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's good stuff.
Speaker 3: And and uh, you know, I I think I think
Speaker 3: you nailed it when you said, you know, the more
Speaker 3: fun you have, the more you're gonna get out of
Speaker 3: elk hunting.
Speaker 2: And and and that's the key.
Speaker 3: You go out there and have fun, enjoy, enjoy this
Speaker 3: experience with with these wild things that are gigantic with
Speaker 3: giant horns on their head and screaming at you. You know,
Speaker 3: it's nothing will connect you to nature like communicating with
Speaker 3: a with a big elk, you know. And and so
Speaker 3: uh yeah, it's it's it's it's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome. And I'd like to remind the listeners
Speaker 1: if you have a question that you'd like us to
Speaker 1: answer on here, you can send an email to C T.
Speaker 1: D at Phelps Game Calls dot com. We'll read your
Speaker 1: question on air and answered the best we can. And
Speaker 1: if you really want to take things to the next level,
Speaker 1: I have a Google Voice phone number you can call,
Speaker 1: and by calling that number, you can call in and
Speaker 1: leave a message, and make sure your message is three
Speaker 1: minutes or less or it'll get cut off and I
Speaker 1: will play your message on air and then I will
Speaker 1: answer your message the best of my ability. So that
Speaker 1: phone number, the super secret phone number, is two zero
Speaker 1: eight two one nine seven to seven zero one. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I'll look forward to your calls. I've done
Speaker 1: this before with my old podcast, and I've got some
Speaker 1: goofy messages and I've got some really good questions. So
Speaker 1: we're always always looking to have a good time here.
Speaker 1: So please do a call in or send us an
Speaker 1: email with your questions, and uh you know, just remember
Speaker 1: monsters are coming and I think that'll be about it.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Jim, appreciate you coming on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Then we should do this again sometime soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, man, thanks for having me on. Thanks everybody.
Speaker 1: Maybe I can get on your sometime.
Speaker 2: You should. You should for like the tenth time.
Speaker 3: I'd love to have you back, brother, I'd never get
Speaker 3: sick of it.
Speaker 1: It's always my plaguer. Thanks Jim,