Speaker 1: Today's guest has a lot of irons in the fire.
Speaker 1: He is the host of Rich Outdoors podcast. He's the
Speaker 1: owner of Backcountry field Box. He's kind of started up
Speaker 1: the Rich Ideas Lab, which is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a motivational talks and ideas for entrepreneurs. But the reason
Speaker 1: I have him on the podcast today he's also a
Speaker 1: damn good elk counter, a good elk caller. I met
Speaker 1: Cody Rich at the Oregon State elk calling Championships probably
Speaker 1: ten years ago. I remember very distinctly. He walked in
Speaker 1: with a duct tape camo duct tape like hose hooked
Speaker 1: to a vague yellow whiffleball bat um and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: that guy sounds good. You know, he's not using my calls,
Speaker 1: but he sounds pretty good. Um and and to my surprise,
Speaker 1: and this isn't a dig on you like and this
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons I don't like podcast is
Speaker 1: I don't think you made the finals that first year
Speaker 1: I met you, and I was like scratching my head.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that guy was good. And so that
Speaker 1: that's when I met you. I think we we've stayed
Speaker 1: in touch ever since. You know, I've been on your podcast.
Speaker 1: We've talked el cunning, I followed your you know all
Speaker 1: everything you've been doing, so you know, it's cool to
Speaker 1: finally have you on here, and how are you doing,
Speaker 1: Cody good Man? Dude, that was kind of like the
Speaker 1: tail end of the competition stuff for me. I was
Speaker 1: actually kind of like one of the bitter moments. But
Speaker 1: back in those days, I wanted to say, like pre
Speaker 1: pre felps like that in the competition circles like that
Speaker 1: was kind of like the go to you know, the
Speaker 1: whiffleball bat with like some kind of hose attached to it,
Speaker 1: like you know, not everyone had a felps bat back then.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, good times. Uh yeah, But like again,
Speaker 1: like dude, calling competitions can be so fannicated. It's like
Speaker 1: you can think he crushed it and then it just
Speaker 1: like not even place you like whatever, Yeah, I hate
Speaker 1: him because I feel like I feel like I'm like
Speaker 1: my own biggest critic um and very honest with myself.
Speaker 1: But I also know when I feel like I did
Speaker 1: good and I've just been frustrated so many times you know,
Speaker 1: did well at them as well. But then the beats
Speaker 1: are a lot, you know, the bad beats are worse
Speaker 1: than the than the good winds, and uh, I just
Speaker 1: kind of went there and supported some of our colors
Speaker 1: and provided advice on routines and stuff. But I'm I'm
Speaker 1: kind of kind of over it. But um, yeah, it
Speaker 1: is what it is. How's everything out there in Bozeman,
Speaker 1: good Man, good Um, just getting ready for Alex season,
Speaker 1: getting pumps getting you know, just like trying to iron
Speaker 1: out all the little pieces before season. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm stoked about this year. I am a little bit
Speaker 1: sugger happy, I will say, like going into it. I
Speaker 1: think the last two years I've really tried to hold
Speaker 1: out for big bowls. Um, but you know that that
Speaker 1: itch starts to come back. So I haven't killed a
Speaker 1: bow or an oak with my bow the last two years,
Speaker 1: which as long as I've ever gone, and it's like
Speaker 1: okay now like hold sparred, I'm not holding out for
Speaker 1: anything anymore. Yeah, So that that makes Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 1: M I remember back and I think two thousand and
Speaker 1: fifteen or I think when I didn't kill a bowl
Speaker 1: and it was like the first thing you know that
Speaker 1: next year, like the monkeys getting kicked off the back
Speaker 1: early early, Like I don't even care. We can we
Speaker 1: can build from there. It's just a building point. So
Speaker 1: that's that's good. So we're gonna start this podcast really quickly,
Speaker 1: like we do all of them before we jump in
Speaker 1: the meat and potatoes of the podcast. If you have
Speaker 1: any questions out there, um from our listeners, UM, hit
Speaker 1: us up on social. You can email us at ct
Speaker 1: D at Phelps game Calls dot com. We'll take questions
Speaker 1: from past episodes, but we want to we want to
Speaker 1: do our our best to answer the questions. You know,
Speaker 1: we'll get Cody's opinion on the as well, but one
Speaker 1: of the questions we get the most. And you know,
Speaker 1: it's the middle of July. Now this will probably be airing,
Speaker 1: you know, sometime in August. But as a beginner, elk color,
Speaker 1: what call should I get? Which is kind of you know,
Speaker 1: right in our wheelhouse. And and I'll give you my explanation. Um,
Speaker 1: we have a diaphragm pack. That is we call it
Speaker 1: the beginner diaphragm pack. But I also want to put
Speaker 1: the asterix on it that it it doesn't you can't
Speaker 1: necessarily outgrow that quickly. It's just a good sample pack
Speaker 1: that will give you, um, the ability to try diaphragms
Speaker 1: that are in different spectrums of our lineup. If we
Speaker 1: were to just say, hey, go use Dirk Dirhams called
Speaker 1: the Maverick and you were a light pressure of finesse
Speaker 1: type color, you would kind of write them off that hey,
Speaker 1: these these Phelps calls won't work for us, or that
Speaker 1: you know, I just I'm just not gonna be a
Speaker 1: good diaphragm color. Have to do something else. So we
Speaker 1: try to pick calls that are gonna, you know, cater
Speaker 1: to multiple styles and then from there, once you decide
Speaker 1: what you could you like, we will make better recommendations
Speaker 1: on how to continue. But a lot of times most
Speaker 1: guys or gals will like multiple of those calls and
Speaker 1: it works works fairly well. Um. We have a brand
Speaker 1: new call we just released UM called the Easy Sucker.
Speaker 1: It really kind of cuts that learning curve down for
Speaker 1: people that don't know if they're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: use diaphragms and need to have that confidence going in
Speaker 1: the season very very quickly. And then on the beagle side,
Speaker 1: we you know, if you want a bugle um, which
Speaker 1: I highly recommend just to have in your arsenal, it's
Speaker 1: like a you know, a carpenter showing up to build
Speaker 1: a house with you know, half the tools and this
Speaker 1: tool box or half the tools in his van. It
Speaker 1: just makes it easier if you have the right tools. Um,
Speaker 1: if you become a good diaphragm caller, you know, you
Speaker 1: can pick up one of our plastic tubes if you
Speaker 1: need assistance UM on biggling. The easy bigler is there,
Speaker 1: so all you have to do is place your bottom
Speaker 1: lip on on basically the amp diaphragm that is an
Speaker 1: attachment to a bagle tube. Very easy to learning, cuts
Speaker 1: out learning curve down, but um, really there's multiple ways
Speaker 1: to do it, but I always recommend everybody try diaphragm. UM.
Speaker 1: And then we have some new you know, the easy sucker,
Speaker 1: the easy biggle that really kind of and then the
Speaker 1: easy estress that really kind of cut that learning curve
Speaker 1: down for people that may not be able to master diaphragms. UM.
Speaker 1: And then you know, whether it's even our brand or
Speaker 1: something that you just have to make sure that the
Speaker 1: fits right. There's so many different mouth shapes and styles
Speaker 1: and latex stretches, like you just need to find something
Speaker 1: that you're going to be confident with what's your recommendation
Speaker 1: for new ELK callers where to start and and try
Speaker 1: to try to cut that learning curve down as fast
Speaker 1: as possible. Cody, You know, it's funny, um Like when
Speaker 1: I started, I remember, you know, getting readson whatnot and
Speaker 1: trying to do it and then trying to help people
Speaker 1: do it. Uh. Like it's it's such a learning curve
Speaker 1: to to want you to get into the whole reads game, right,
Speaker 1: But I do think it's worth doing, It's worth practicing.
Speaker 1: I say that because you, you of all people, have
Speaker 1: like made it so easy for people to be able
Speaker 1: to call without reads that now I'm like, maybe I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe you don't even need them anymore because
Speaker 1: like you know, the new socker call, Like I I've
Speaker 1: always had either like an open read call, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: some kind of external call uh. And I like having
Speaker 1: that just like you said in Arsenal, just as it's
Speaker 1: a different call. But a lot of those is really
Speaker 1: hard to have. Hit those like soft quiet calls like
Speaker 1: you would with a read or something. They just have
Speaker 1: never historically been like great at that being quiet, right,
Speaker 1: Like we use them because I can hit that hyper
Speaker 1: level and get a bolt of bugle off a cow call. Uh,
Speaker 1: maybe he wouldn't answer another bugle. But now you have
Speaker 1: like this the socker call, which is like you can
Speaker 1: hit those I mean, it sounds so much like a read,
Speaker 1: it's crazy to me. Um and then say that the
Speaker 1: easier easy bugle ar Like I think those two like, honestly,
Speaker 1: in today's day and age, you could get away with
Speaker 1: just those two calls. Uh as a beginner. And I
Speaker 1: even struggle to be like, yeah, I think you should
Speaker 1: get good at reads. But you know, if if you
Speaker 1: just can't, don't want to, don't want to put them
Speaker 1: in the effort, Uh, then I think you can get
Speaker 1: by on those two calls. No, And I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: little bit torn, you know. There there's the idea that
Speaker 1: I had to struggle through to get really good at diagrams,
Speaker 1: and and we're cutting that learning curve. But ultimately, um,
Speaker 1: at least this is what I tell myself so I
Speaker 1: can get over that is you know, it's it's really experience,
Speaker 1: you know, It's why would I be selfish enough to
Speaker 1: you know, or selfish to the point where no, you
Speaker 1: need to struggle through and maybe just people don't have
Speaker 1: the resolve that I did to not give up or
Speaker 1: or the time. Um, so I that's my goal going
Speaker 1: into this. As we identify problems, you know, we get
Speaker 1: to listen to a lot of um where they struggle
Speaker 1: calling UM people that just aren't having the same experience
Speaker 1: out there that we are because we can run diaphragms
Speaker 1: very well. And so that's really my point going in
Speaker 1: is let's make something where they can be as good
Speaker 1: as us, you know, very very quickly without as much time.
Speaker 1: And this is my other uh, you know, this is
Speaker 1: at least what I tell myself, Um, I'd rather have
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys out there that can call good
Speaker 1: then a bunch of guys out there that are calling bad.
Speaker 1: And and you know, my reasoning for that is not
Speaker 1: educating elk, not screwing things up. And at least if
Speaker 1: you sound like an elk, um, there's not a bunch
Speaker 1: of education going on. So at least that's what I
Speaker 1: told myself. But who knows if that's right or not. Dude, one,
Speaker 1: I would rather have someone behind me, like coming in
Speaker 1: on me with with the new socker call than hitting
Speaker 1: a hoochie mama, because like how many times have we've
Speaker 1: been there where like somebody you can hear them coming
Speaker 1: down the mountain, like you know, you get a bowl.
Speaker 1: This happened. This happened to me last year. So I'm
Speaker 1: working this this bowl and I get right at daylight.
Speaker 1: I'm on him, and it's very evident that calling I
Speaker 1: don't need to call. It is pure chaos, and I
Speaker 1: just need to like stay close right, and I'm basically
Speaker 1: dogging this heard and uh, I hear it. I hear
Speaker 1: like the pretty most bugle, and then I hear the
Speaker 1: hoochie mama, and I hear the hoochie mamma come and
Speaker 1: write in and like I'll shut up, and I'm in
Speaker 1: like I'm in the herd, like I'm in the red zone.
Speaker 1: All I need is just something to go right in
Speaker 1: my situation. You know, I'm within sixty yards of cows,
Speaker 1: and here comes the hoochie mama, and like they're like
Speaker 1: heads up looking and the like, they start to move away,
Speaker 1: and then he just keeps hitting it and they'd kind
Speaker 1: of go, you know, a couple hundred yards, and I'd
Speaker 1: be right there with him, and here comes the hoochie
Speaker 1: mama again, and I'm like I would have much rather
Speaker 1: had you know, someone with a you know, a Phelps
Speaker 1: sucker call back there to or at least it sounded
Speaker 1: somewhat like an elk, you know. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: we've all been in the the the hoochie mama situation. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1: So that's that's my recommenation. I'm beginning colors. There's no
Speaker 1: there's no right answer because we don't really know what
Speaker 1: a beginner needs. You might be a high pressure, high volume,
Speaker 1: lots of air type of color, or you might be
Speaker 1: the complete opposite and finesse light, subtle sounds, and there's
Speaker 1: no real good answer it Just try a few and
Speaker 1: then we'll quickly hopefully find a solution, and then we
Speaker 1: can stick with that moving out the next The next
Speaker 1: question is more of a statement that I just wanted
Speaker 1: to elaborate on. We get a lot, I want to
Speaker 1: sound like a small bull. What diaphragm should I get?
Speaker 1: And they usually um follow that up with some scenario
Speaker 1: where they feel or tell us that, you know, sounding
Speaker 1: like a big bull is gonna scare everything off. And
Speaker 1: so I wanted to elaborate this on this um statement
Speaker 1: and kind of turn into a question and give my
Speaker 1: my two cents. Um. It came up at a seminar
Speaker 1: I was out the other day. Um, I've been very fortunate,
Speaker 1: you know, my my hunting buddies, Charlie Smith, you know, Schmidt, Tyson, Gabriel.
Speaker 1: I get to hunt with a lot of great elk
Speaker 1: colors who were on the upper end of uh you
Speaker 1: know volume, they're they're good colors. They call loud. And
Speaker 1: so I've had you know, Charlie twenty yards to my
Speaker 1: right and had a real bull coming in seventy yards
Speaker 1: you know, to my left or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: And no matter what Charlie does or what I can do,
Speaker 1: we can't match the intensity of even some of these
Speaker 1: smaller Raghorn bulls as they come in. Everything is louder,
Speaker 1: everything's deeper, everything is more intense from the real elk.
Speaker 1: And so I kind of turned that question on people,
Speaker 1: why do you want to sound like a small bull? Um?
Speaker 1: You know? And it's typically I don't want to scare
Speaker 1: the big ones away, or I don't want to scare
Speaker 1: the small ones away. Um, I don't think it's possible.
Speaker 1: And then I'm also going to go on, um, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a very loud color. I got a giant set
Speaker 1: of lungs on me. Whatever I did throughout learning to call,
Speaker 1: I figured out how to control read, and I would
Speaker 1: say I'm in the top one percent volume wise, So
Speaker 1: I I get even louder when I'm out in the woods,
Speaker 1: um than I than I do on stage and whatnot,
Speaker 1: so very very loud color. But if you if you
Speaker 1: go to look at my rafters where I grew up
Speaker 1: cutting my teeth here in my backyard, you will literally
Speaker 1: see the longest lineup of one fifty two one seventy
Speaker 1: type raghorn bulls that came in me me calling as
Speaker 1: loud as I can. So I I use two different
Speaker 1: um you know branches on this argument. That number one
Speaker 1: you can't call as out as a real elk no
Speaker 1: matter what you do. So why would you even want to,
Speaker 1: you know, tone that down, you know, or bring that back,
Speaker 1: cut that volume down a little bit. Anyways, But then
Speaker 1: the statistics, you know, the statistics and what I've been
Speaker 1: able to call in even with trying to call big
Speaker 1: herd bulls, and usually I end up calling the satellite
Speaker 1: bowling with those large beagles. Anyways, So I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: very you know, I'm a proponent I I I advocate
Speaker 1: for going out and calling as big as possible. But
Speaker 1: what's your take on that? Do you ever go out?
Speaker 1: I mean I will, in certain sense instances and situations
Speaker 1: go out there and try to you know, I will
Speaker 1: spike squeal, I will give out small rag horn beagles,
Speaker 1: but it's very very appointed and um, in very certain situations. Um.
Speaker 1: But but most time I'm out there cranking at a
Speaker 1: hundred percent. Yeah. So I would say, like, generally speaking,
Speaker 1: I get where people are coming from. They want to sound,
Speaker 1: you know, like a small ball. They think that bring
Speaker 1: that has more options. Right. Um, I would say, like
Speaker 1: you said I would, I would say most people don't
Speaker 1: have the problem that they sound too big. They just
Speaker 1: don't know how to have the right inflection. And I
Speaker 1: would say far far more people are not loud enough.
Speaker 1: That is a much much bigger issue that like you're
Speaker 1: bugling too quietly and nothing can hear you. Uh, is
Speaker 1: a far bigger issue. I've listened to a lot of
Speaker 1: people bugle. I've listened to Phelps people too, and he's
Speaker 1: ridiculously loud. Uh. And so I would say, like there's
Speaker 1: it's a far bigger issue that you can't be loud enough,
Speaker 1: then you're being too big. Like you said, like I can,
Speaker 1: I can run any call to sound. I don't even
Speaker 1: want to say small. I would say less aggressive is
Speaker 1: a better term. Um. And there's scenarios where I would
Speaker 1: use that, So like the first half a season. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, elks elk er in a timber patch and
Speaker 1: I slip in there. I know they're in this area
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna sound like a lazy bowl. I use
Speaker 1: the term lazy bowl more than I would say a
Speaker 1: small ball. Uh. And that's what the you know, like
Speaker 1: it could be a small but basically, I'm just not
Speaker 1: being super aggressive when I don't need to be. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think that's probably what people are trying to
Speaker 1: say more so than a small ball. It's like we've
Speaker 1: all heard really really big bulls give us lazy bugles,
Speaker 1: you know, bugles from their bed um, those type of things,
Speaker 1: and and it's not that they're small, it's that you
Speaker 1: know they're they're very passive aggressive in that. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what people are going for us, Like, how
Speaker 1: do I be more passive aggressive and not ridiculously aggressive?
Speaker 1: There's times to have both, right, you don't want to
Speaker 1: walk into a situation. You know, say you get into
Speaker 1: a timber patch. You know, there's smoke bedded in here,
Speaker 1: and you're probably within two hundred yards, and then you
Speaker 1: just rip off a you know, a big loud bugle
Speaker 1: and maybe these are pressured elk and so they're just
Speaker 1: gonna balance out of there or not say anything, you know,
Speaker 1: Whereas if I throw the lazy bugle at them, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe it takes you know, five or six, maybe ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen bugles over an hour period, and finally I
Speaker 1: get a response out of him. You know, I'm not
Speaker 1: pressuring that bowl, but I'm trying to figure out where
Speaker 1: he is in this, in this in this timber pact
Speaker 1: with me. Uh. And so like again I sent him
Speaker 1: it to you. Like what you said is like, I
Speaker 1: don't really try to sound small. There's just moments where
Speaker 1: I can give a less aggressive call. Uh. And I don't.
Speaker 1: To me, the read does not matter. I mean Charlie's read.
Speaker 1: I would struggle with it a little bit. I could
Speaker 1: still do it, um, you know. And so those those
Speaker 1: two those are tougher to give. The spike squeals and stuff. Uh.
Speaker 1: But I think pretty much once you can run a
Speaker 1: read you can do it with any of them for sure.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna piggyback on this real quick before we
Speaker 1: jump out of the questions Um from the listeners, is
Speaker 1: Cody mentioned um? Volume is usually attached or a yeah.
Speaker 1: It goes along with trying to sound like a small
Speaker 1: bowl versus a big bull. But you know, for for
Speaker 1: skilled colors, we can just tone it back like I
Speaker 1: can take my I call the Maverick. Tone it back
Speaker 1: and sound smaller with us volume. But you can't go
Speaker 1: the obstit direction. If I'm using a call that's lighter
Speaker 1: and latex, lighter and stretch. When I'm hunting big canyon country,
Speaker 1: you know, we might be in a three thousand foot drainage,
Speaker 1: two thousand foot drainage, big um, you know, big country.
Speaker 1: For me to get the game going, I need that
Speaker 1: call to reach as many elk as possible. So I'm
Speaker 1: taking as much volume as I can get all the time,
Speaker 1: because there are days or there are weeks where we
Speaker 1: go through where you know, these elk just aren't really
Speaker 1: biggling on their own. We have to get them kind
Speaker 1: of going or we need you know, it might be
Speaker 1: big country and it takes you a couple of hours
Speaker 1: to get there, so we kind of missed the the
Speaker 1: morning action, and we still need to get these things
Speaker 1: to crank up. And I want that loud you know,
Speaker 1: crisp diaphragm. You know that is typically associated with quote
Speaker 1: unquote a big bull read to to go in there
Speaker 1: and hammerm. And another great option which really cranks up
Speaker 1: the volume even more is that easy bugler um you know, mouthpiece.
Speaker 1: It's just extremely loud. But that's one reason I to
Speaker 1: go out armed with a bunch of different options. You know,
Speaker 1: I can you know, I do have lighter reads for
Speaker 1: real subtle cal calls, but we can do it all.
Speaker 1: But that's one reason. Another reason I like to go
Speaker 1: out there and have a big bull read or extra
Speaker 1: volume is just to reach and locate, right, I mean
Speaker 1: generally speaking, Like in the old days, it was like
Speaker 1: you had caw reads and you had big bull reads
Speaker 1: and and like you know, those those triples, you know,
Speaker 1: those heavy stretched triples. Uh, you know, they can be
Speaker 1: tough to do little soft cal calls, But at the
Speaker 1: same time, those cal reads, like you just can't get
Speaker 1: very allowed with them because when you hit that octave,
Speaker 1: that high pitch, it's just you can't have the volume
Speaker 1: and so you just can't really get the the located
Speaker 1: them as nearly as well and at least not as loud. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So well, once again, if you have any questions of
Speaker 1: your own you'd like us to try to tackle here
Speaker 1: on cutting the distance, email us at ct D at
Speaker 1: helps game Calls dot com will do our best to
Speaker 1: get them on here. So now we're gonna roll into
Speaker 1: my questions for you. Um, you had to post the
Speaker 1: other day on Twitter that seemed to gain a lot
Speaker 1: of traction and it brought up a good point and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, you know that that would be a
Speaker 1: great topic um for the podcast. So we're just gonna
Speaker 1: kind of run through these in um it. What your
Speaker 1: post was some things I wish I knew about elk
Speaker 1: hunting twenty years ago, which uh, you know there there's
Speaker 1: all kinds of you know, what we've did wrong, which
Speaker 1: we've learned from. But these are more statements that you know,
Speaker 1: a little bit of skill, a little bit of um,
Speaker 1: you know, mental um toughness, a little bit of physical toughness.
Speaker 1: So we're just gonna kind of go through elaborate on
Speaker 1: you know, how these have you know, impacted. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and and why we think these are things we wishing
Speaker 1: you twenty years ago, because it's obvious we probably made
Speaker 1: some mistakes or it's been screwed up along the way. Um,
Speaker 1: but I think most of us can look back what
Speaker 1: we did twenty years ago laugh a little bit and
Speaker 1: then um, but it was all part of figuring out
Speaker 1: our system, what works and ultimately what made us better
Speaker 1: elk hunters. So the first one that that we've got
Speaker 1: here and I Cody, I just went to your Twitter
Speaker 1: post and we just kind of stole these. But so, um,
Speaker 1: luck luck is great when it comes, but consistency is
Speaker 1: the thing that separates the lucky from the unlucky. Um,
Speaker 1: go ahead and elaborate on that. And then I've got
Speaker 1: some you know, some stories that that kind of run
Speaker 1: into that or as well. Yeah, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean like consistency is I think there's people, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people who who would go into the woods,
Speaker 1: like and they're kind of just going out there be like, man,
Speaker 1: I hope I get lucky this year, and and you know,
Speaker 1: when it comes, it comes, and like, um, I'll take
Speaker 1: those lucky strikes when they happen, like one of my
Speaker 1: one of my best bowls I ever killed. I was
Speaker 1: literally taking a nap and like almost got stepped on
Speaker 1: and you know, I had to crawl fifteen yards in
Speaker 1: my bow and it was chaos, and like I'm not
Speaker 1: too proud to be like, yeah, I'll take that luck
Speaker 1: when it comes. But you know, being consistent. I think
Speaker 1: when you look at a career over time, it's like
Speaker 1: just doing things consistent, finding your rhythm, finding like you
Speaker 1: had said, your your own system. I think we all
Speaker 1: have like, hey, here's what works for us, and we
Speaker 1: create that system. And just being super consistent, being consistent
Speaker 1: in the days you put in, like doing the work,
Speaker 1: you know, and all those things. Like that's what when
Speaker 1: you find elk hunters who have been successful, you know,
Speaker 1: year in and year out, you know they got twenty
Speaker 1: racks hanging on the wall, it's usually they're very consistent, right, Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Like there's there's the same analogy in business.
Speaker 1: It's like it's about doing the little things. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think this is true for l cunning. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, you instead of being like, oh man, that
Speaker 1: guy got lucky. Er, oh he hunts private, or he
Speaker 1: does this or whatever it's like. No, they have a
Speaker 1: really good system and they learned how to execute it right,
Speaker 1: and they they're very consistent within that system, and they're
Speaker 1: very consistent year over year. And I think you know,
Speaker 1: you find those things to be true. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: the same same as you. I'll take luck when it
Speaker 1: when it comes. You know. There have been multiple times
Speaker 1: where you know, I can remember one time we didn't
Speaker 1: end up well, we did end up later killing the bull.
Speaker 1: But in two thousand fourteen, Um, we we were struggling.
Speaker 1: UM Kelly Smith, Charlie's wife, had drawn into Cannon Tag
Speaker 1: and we were in Elk every day, but we just,
Speaker 1: for one reason or another, nothing would work out. Um.
Speaker 1: We had just screwed up on maybe our twentieth bull,
Speaker 1: you know, the hunt. And it's just like we were
Speaker 1: just sitting there kind of just frustrating, and we could
Speaker 1: hear all of a sudden a satellite bowl ripping off.
Speaker 1: We didn't move from our spot. Were like we were
Speaker 1: almost to the point where we were throwing a big
Speaker 1: pisci fit. Charlie didn't want to move, like script, I'm
Speaker 1: not even chasing that bowl. Um. We literally sat there
Speaker 1: and that bowl ran up the ridge across the little
Speaker 1: drainage and ran right back down the same ridge and
Speaker 1: ran into us. Like that's luck. Like we didn't do anything.
Speaker 1: We were literally sitting in a spot and that bowl
Speaker 1: you know, came into us. Now you know, she ended
Speaker 1: up missing, but that was that was a hunt where
Speaker 1: like no skill was ever, you know, was required. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had put ourselves in that spot, but um, we
Speaker 1: didn't know that bowl even lived at the time we
Speaker 1: went to that spot and it literally ran right into
Speaker 1: us when we made a conscious effort to we're not moving. Um.
Speaker 1: But but similar to you, I don't want to go
Speaker 1: out into the woods or out into the elk mountains,
Speaker 1: whatever you wanna call it, with only having luck on
Speaker 1: my side. I want to build consistent success year in
Speaker 1: and year out, and by being lucky, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Like I think those are the and not saying anything bad,
Speaker 1: but that's the other ten you know, the Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the hunters that kill ten of the elk, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's the it's the guys that rely on that
Speaker 1: luck for things to come into play. Um, And so
Speaker 1: I expect and one thing I just wanted to elaborate
Speaker 1: on this which you consistency. I expect to be successful
Speaker 1: every morning, every night, every afternoon. Everything I do in
Speaker 1: the Elk Woods, I've either drawn up a plan where
Speaker 1: I can honest least see the end result being me
Speaker 1: notching it to egg or standing over a dead bull
Speaker 1: or my buddy standing over a dead bull. And if
Speaker 1: I can't get to the point where I feel that
Speaker 1: my plan is that consistent, I need to change my
Speaker 1: plan right because going it, I'm not a life coach.
Speaker 1: I'm not a big motivational speaker. But we're getting a
Speaker 1: little bit there. If I can't draw up a plan
Speaker 1: or buy into a plan where I can see that
Speaker 1: as an option somewhere throughout, you know, every everything I
Speaker 1: do that day is a building block towards killing an elk.
Speaker 1: If I honestly don't believe that, and I've got to
Speaker 1: like talk myself into that or lie about it, I'm
Speaker 1: now going into that. I've been there that that situation
Speaker 1: I'm now hunting, you know, at a very low confidence
Speaker 1: and where you're just literally walking through the paces and
Speaker 1: you don't feel that everything you're doing is leading to
Speaker 1: that success. It's just not great. And so if I consistency,
Speaker 1: Like everything we do is a pointed movement appointed use
Speaker 1: of energy, and and we're we're trying to continue on that,
Speaker 1: you know, that consistent success. So um, yeah, a little
Speaker 1: off track there, but that's kind of how I go
Speaker 1: about it in my head, that everything we do is
Speaker 1: leading up to that, that consistent success. And I think
Speaker 1: it's tough when you're first starting out. You don't have
Speaker 1: a system. You don't have like you don't have gout
Speaker 1: intuition even really, um, you don't have a base of knowledge,
Speaker 1: a base of experiences that you've built to where you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I just need to keep doing this. You know, we're
Speaker 1: we're we're hitting it. We're close. Um, A great example,
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you've been here. We've all been there.
Speaker 1: You're you're going out and like sometimes like man, just
Speaker 1: yet twenty bowls, you you just haven't gotten close to
Speaker 1: you know, like something goes wrong every single time, Like, man,
Speaker 1: am I being too aggressive? Am I not being aggressive enough? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know it's like and then you start switching and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, you're going back and forth and you
Speaker 1: know what, what I've tried to do and I'm not
Speaker 1: not perfect at this bunny stretch. But like, Okay, here's
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna execute this playbook over
Speaker 1: and over and over. And I know this playbook works
Speaker 1: because it's work in the past. But if I executed
Speaker 1: enough times, I'm going to be successful versus well, maybe
Speaker 1: I should sit water. Oh maybe I should just you know,
Speaker 1: spot stuff like you're switching up and then you're like
Speaker 1: you start to have that self doubt you like, let's
Speaker 1: go over here, let's go over there, and you start
Speaker 1: bouncing around and it's like, Okay, we're not executing a
Speaker 1: system right now. It's like you can figure out your
Speaker 1: system and execute it well right and eventually it might
Speaker 1: not work out every single time, but you know, if
Speaker 1: you do the same plan, you kind of work through
Speaker 1: your system. Uh. And that sounds super boring, right, Like
Speaker 1: it sounds like, well, no, I want to just want
Speaker 1: to go out and be spontaneous. And I think when
Speaker 1: you try to just be spontaneous and go where the
Speaker 1: wind blows, that's a good recipe for like only relying
Speaker 1: on luck. Not not entirely, but I would say like
Speaker 1: it leans a lot more that way, Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: And that your your point there at the end kind
Speaker 1: of rolls into your next point is being aggressive as
Speaker 1: a skill knowing when to be patient as a skill.
Speaker 1: But the balance between those two is an art. Um
Speaker 1: and so all, I'll kind of roll into this one first.
Speaker 1: Um I'm a very very aggressive hunter and caller. Um
Speaker 1: And and being patient as a skill. I would say
Speaker 1: I've learned a lot more over the last twenty years,
Speaker 1: because I would say, you rewind twenty years ago, everything
Speaker 1: was aggressive and I wasn't able to I would say
Speaker 1: I wasn't able. I just was unwilling to roll that
Speaker 1: back ever. Um And And as you just mentioned, my
Speaker 1: calling system is very very prescriptive. We do this, you know,
Speaker 1: with within some confines, it's always gonna be a little
Speaker 1: bit different, but it's basically, we're gonna check the wind,
Speaker 1: We're gonna get as close as the terrain and vegetation
Speaker 1: allows us to. We are going to you know, take
Speaker 1: his temperature. We're going to make this call, and we're
Speaker 1: going to do that over and over and over. So
Speaker 1: I call it, you know, very prescriptive calling in a
Speaker 1: very prescriptive system, which usually the underlying theme is us
Speaker 1: being very aggressive, getting very close, not letting time pass,
Speaker 1: why why we kind of got what we have on
Speaker 1: the table. Um. But I also as I've gotten older,
Speaker 1: and one of the things it's probably I would say,
Speaker 1: have made me a better elk hunter or more successful
Speaker 1: elk hunter, is being able to be a little bit
Speaker 1: more patient. And so this I now look at it like,
Speaker 1: I have my basis, my my base system, which is
Speaker 1: very aggressive, but I will make slight changes to that
Speaker 1: based system based on how the elk are reacting, because
Speaker 1: I would be a fool to just say, you know what,
Speaker 1: these elk in this area aren't biggling quite like they
Speaker 1: were last year. They're very lacks of days of coal.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna just keep going in and hammering them
Speaker 1: and you know, seven, eight, nine, ten times in a row,
Speaker 1: just blown them out. So I'm like, I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: get close, but I'm gonna maybe change up my calling
Speaker 1: just slightly. Now. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be
Speaker 1: less aggressive, but I may, you know, so I do.
Speaker 1: I want to be aware and cognizant that that my
Speaker 1: old system that worked last year or in a different
Speaker 1: area or a different area that had different bold of
Speaker 1: cow ratios, whatever it may be. Timing of the rut
Speaker 1: um making making slight changes, but I agree, Um, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm finally getting to that point where I
Speaker 1: know how to mix skill and and add in sprinkling
Speaker 1: just enough patients to to make make myself like, you know,
Speaker 1: a more balanced hunter. UM. And you you said it's
Speaker 1: kind of an art, which is you know, yeah, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say anything about me as art, but it's just
Speaker 1: it's more of the idea that that it's kind of
Speaker 1: just like made me a better elk hunter at this
Speaker 1: point by not just going in. UM. I can remember
Speaker 1: back and I think it was oh eight or o
Speaker 1: nine and one of my buddies, um trevied he said
Speaker 1: he was gonna archery hunt for elk finally that year.
Speaker 1: And uh, I don't know if he was ready to
Speaker 1: like just loose an arrow into the back of my
Speaker 1: calf eventually. But you know, the system that I had developed,
Speaker 1: we had busted probably. You know that was back in
Speaker 1: the good old days here where not a lot of
Speaker 1: people were archery hunting, UM, and we had just been
Speaker 1: busting out. I'm like, this is the system I've used,
Speaker 1: like we've been using it, We've been successful, and you know,
Speaker 1: we'd getting close and we'd end up blowing the herd out,
Speaker 1: and he was just like, man, I'm gonna I'm going nuts,
Speaker 1: like we're about ready to I'm not hunting with you anymore,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you just gotta trust in the system,
Speaker 1: you know. But it ultimately did work out. But it
Speaker 1: was that style of I'm gonna get sixty sevent yards
Speaker 1: from these elk and then we're gonna hit him with
Speaker 1: a giant bugle. Where now if I was to rewind,
Speaker 1: like we would still get, you know, fairly close, but
Speaker 1: we would do things a little bit differently, you know.
Speaker 1: And it was just it's a difference on blowing four
Speaker 1: or five herds out versus maybe blowing one or two
Speaker 1: of those out and getting collins on the other one.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, No, I like that statement. And uh,
Speaker 1: for me, patience has only come with age because I'm
Speaker 1: a super impatient elk hunter. Uh yeah. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's you know, with with the age that
Speaker 1: we've become more patient. Yeah. I grew up, you know,
Speaker 1: same as you like, and that worked really well. I mean,
Speaker 1: we we grew up hunting Roosevelt. So that was being
Speaker 1: aggressive of this name of the game. There wasn't nearly
Speaker 1: as many hunters, and you know, not to not to
Speaker 1: pick on anyone, but it's like, I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of us cut our teeth and that super restive
Speaker 1: blow them out. I'll find more elk mentality, and it
Speaker 1: worked for a lot of years, and in my opinion,
Speaker 1: I could be wrong, but I said my opinion that
Speaker 1: dynamic has changed a little bit. And you know, I
Speaker 1: went from Okay, I knew the call game. I knew
Speaker 1: it really what I could do that I had that system,
Speaker 1: you know, much like your system. It was like, I'll
Speaker 1: just keep finding more elk and I know the system works.
Speaker 1: It just it'll have to play out, and it plays out,
Speaker 1: and now every year, you know, you'd play out. And
Speaker 1: then I went to you know, eastern Montana, and I actually,
Speaker 1: I just want to started hunting Montana. I learned from
Speaker 1: some guys that had killed giants and you know, they
Speaker 1: never touched a call and I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: want to learn this. It's it's not for me, but
Speaker 1: I want to learn it. And so I you know,
Speaker 1: I went there and I've spent now almost five years, uh,
Speaker 1: and I do a lot more glassing and spotting and stocking.
Speaker 1: I love the fact, you know, And to me, it's
Speaker 1: always been about mastering the game and not mastering one technique.
Speaker 1: And so it's like, I how many times have I
Speaker 1: put myself in a situation where it's like, man, I
Speaker 1: could go in there and and call these elk, but
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna try to learn this technique of hunting,
Speaker 1: this open country stuff, and and so now I'm at
Speaker 1: a place where I feel like I'm super dangerous whether
Speaker 1: an elk goes into a thick timber patch or whether
Speaker 1: they stay out in the wide open. You know, to me,
Speaker 1: it's always about just kind of learning mastering the game
Speaker 1: as a whole and not mastering one system. But within
Speaker 1: that that taught me a lot of patients. You know,
Speaker 1: I still one pcent believe there are times where I
Speaker 1: can go in and challenge a herd bull Uh that's
Speaker 1: in a timber patch, even in the most open country, right.
Speaker 1: I just I now know both games, whereas most people
Speaker 1: who open country would never uh never think to go
Speaker 1: in there and do that. Like, no way, I'll just
Speaker 1: wait until my opportunity comes. And so like it's that's
Speaker 1: the balance. To me, it's always been like super aggressive
Speaker 1: in my early days and during that time, those those
Speaker 1: tactics work, and then I became much more patient. And
Speaker 1: as I started hunting, like one particular bowl, like you
Speaker 1: have to be really really patient, and I think I
Speaker 1: was like too sometimes too patient there, and that that's
Speaker 1: why I always say there's an art when you balance
Speaker 1: the two of like when to be aggressive and when
Speaker 1: to be patient. And man, that takes a lot of time,
Speaker 1: a lot of app bats to figure out, but I
Speaker 1: do think there's a balance, and and to me, it's
Speaker 1: like I think it's almost a necessity. I think there's
Speaker 1: a ton of people teaching, like be super aggressive and
Speaker 1: that's what works for them. It works for them ten
Speaker 1: years ago, but like now there's twice as many elk hunters.
Speaker 1: The elk are more like they're more pressure than they've
Speaker 1: ever been. Uh, And so I you know, I feel
Speaker 1: like more now than ever, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to balance when to make that move. I'm still fine
Speaker 1: with being aggressive going in there and challenge peopling, but
Speaker 1: like it's got to be a very calculated decision because
Speaker 1: you just don't get it as many apt bats with herds,
Speaker 1: you know, And when we were you know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: let's say two thousand five to two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: like it felt like you could just go screw up
Speaker 1: or her bouncing the next one, screwup or herd bounce
Speaker 1: the next one, and there was always more elk to
Speaker 1: be messed with right where ass Today it's like you're
Speaker 1: getting less opportunities and you kind of have to be
Speaker 1: more careful. Not to say you don't be aggressive, because
Speaker 1: I don't think that's the answer, because I think you
Speaker 1: still can be aggressive in certain situations. Again, just finding
Speaker 1: that balance for sure. The next one, I don't like Cody,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: elaborate on that. Learn to be comfortable alone. It's a
Speaker 1: superpower few have, which I don't like. That would be
Speaker 1: if I was, that would be my kryptonite. Um, I've
Speaker 1: never well shoot, I mean around home. You know when
Speaker 1: I used to hunt here, I would hunt alone. You know.
Speaker 1: It was I learned by the school of what I
Speaker 1: would call heart. You know, if there was a hard
Speaker 1: Knox of hunting, it was the idea that my dad
Speaker 1: and my uncle and my grandpa and his brothers learned
Speaker 1: to hunt this way. It was I'm scared to death
Speaker 1: of big timber and they would drop us off in
Speaker 1: these big canyons here around home. You know. We would
Speaker 1: glass clear cuts the first hour and a half maybe hour,
Speaker 1: and then they would drop you off in a timber
Speaker 1: patch and they would literally say, you hunt down this canyon.
Speaker 1: There'll be a bridge at the bottom, will pick you
Speaker 1: up at five to night. Um. I'm like, I was
Speaker 1: scared to death, and and I always joke with my
Speaker 1: dad like I could maybe thank you for making me
Speaker 1: figure out how to be a great elkhun right off
Speaker 1: the bat. I learned to kill elk because I was
Speaker 1: more scared of trying to get through this big timber
Speaker 1: patch and not get lost. So if I killed an elk,
Speaker 1: I could jump on the radio and tell these guys like, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys gotta come find me now, you know, versus
Speaker 1: me happen to hunt for that, you know, next eight
Speaker 1: hours down a canyon. Um. And so I was kind
Speaker 1: of joked that it made me a better elk hunter
Speaker 1: because the quicker I could find these elk and kill him, um,
Speaker 1: the less I had to be by myself out there.
Speaker 1: But no, I I don't do well. Um and and
Speaker 1: over the last you know, I did some deer hunts
Speaker 1: this year by my self, but um, you know it's
Speaker 1: just one day or is like overnight? Really probably would
Speaker 1: you know, and it wouldn't bother me. It's just I
Speaker 1: feel confident, like I like the balance ideas, even if
Speaker 1: it's my camera guy or if it's just my buddy, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know the elker here. Do you think that you
Speaker 1: know they're that far away through that direction? Um, I
Speaker 1: don't have the superpower of being able to necessarily be alone,
Speaker 1: um overnight, multiple overnights. Um. So I can't really elaborate
Speaker 1: on that one, but I agree it is it is
Speaker 1: a great um you know, uh option to have. I
Speaker 1: I just don't know how I I guess I've never
Speaker 1: tested myself either. But UM, I don't like the idea
Speaker 1: of it, which is is probably why you should do it,
Speaker 1: um you know. And I think there's another one. I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is on the list you
Speaker 1: want to cover, but you know I do. First off,
Speaker 1: I do believe that a great hunting partner is worth
Speaker 1: three times the cost of having another tag to fill,
Speaker 1: and a bad partner is cost three times as much.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is like you're going
Speaker 1: to hunt and say I have another body, right, I've
Speaker 1: been a solo hunter for so long that, uh, it
Speaker 1: seems funny to me, like why I would take someone
Speaker 1: else hunting, because it's like, now I just get a
Speaker 1: hunt half the time, you know, give me a ten
Speaker 1: day hunt, and like now I'm trying to fill your
Speaker 1: tag for at least five but you know I'm probably
Speaker 1: more than that. And and so it's like it's always
Speaker 1: been funny to me, like why would I take someone else?
Speaker 1: I don't really need anyone else. Um, And we've all
Speaker 1: been there on a bad experience where you you take
Speaker 1: someone hunting and it's just like, oh my god, Like
Speaker 1: it's you know, they drag you down, they don't want
Speaker 1: to go places. Uh you know, they're just mentally not
Speaker 1: as strong as you, and so it drags you down
Speaker 1: as well. And so like, outside of that, I do
Speaker 1: think that hunting alone, one of the things that I've
Speaker 1: been able to do is like, once once you're at
Speaker 1: the point where you're comfortable with being alone and and
Speaker 1: kind of just operating in your own headspace, is like
Speaker 1: I don't have to rely on anyone else's decision. Uh,
Speaker 1: that's good and bad, right, But I also I never
Speaker 1: have I never not do something because is like, even
Speaker 1: if you and I were together, And maybe this is
Speaker 1: not the perfect example, but if you and I were together,
Speaker 1: it would be like, well, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: want to go down there, I don't know if Jason
Speaker 1: wants to go, I'll just we'll just stay up here.
Speaker 1: We'll just do this, you know, like you tend to
Speaker 1: take things differently, you do a different procedure. And I've
Speaker 1: just found that when I'm alone, I push myself farther
Speaker 1: than if I'm with someone. And that sounds kind of intuitive, um,
Speaker 1: but like for me, it's just like I've always pushed
Speaker 1: myself farther when I'm alone, and I'm like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: can make this decision. I can move quicker. I don't
Speaker 1: have to think about it, you know. The one downside
Speaker 1: is that, man, there's so many times where I wish
Speaker 1: I could just be like, there's a guy calling for
Speaker 1: me a hundred yards away, and this would have been
Speaker 1: a done deal, you know, but I don't know. To me,
Speaker 1: like it's just it's a great superpower because it allows
Speaker 1: me to do uh, push do more uh and not
Speaker 1: have to like run decisions, not have that like decision
Speaker 1: fatigue of like hey do you want to do this?
Speaker 1: Do you not want to do this? Overthinking things? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: We're I'm gonna have a couple of points to add
Speaker 1: to that and kind of skip four were to that
Speaker 1: good hunting partners versus bad Uh. One thing I would
Speaker 1: recommend to everybody if you don't have a die hard
Speaker 1: hunting partner, like, don't assume the guy that you get
Speaker 1: along with three fifty days out of the year is
Speaker 1: going to make a great hunting partner, because I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is about elk hunting. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: physical fatigue, mental fatigue, things not going your way. But um,
Speaker 1: a normal friendship may not work very well you know
Speaker 1: in the elk would so make sure you went scouting
Speaker 1: with this person, like you know, playing some shorter trips
Speaker 1: like two or three days scouting. Um, You're I've been fortunate. Um,
Speaker 1: but here's where my good hunting partners You don't John Nick, Charlie,
Speaker 1: you know, Dirk, these guys that I've hunted with, is
Speaker 1: that decision making um or calling? You know, I get
Speaker 1: frustrated if I'm the shooter, and the color is like
Speaker 1: not doing what I want them to do. And then
Speaker 1: you know, the first thing enters your head is like
Speaker 1: this idiot, you know, even though they're you're one of
Speaker 1: your best buddies, Like why doesn't this guy know how
Speaker 1: to call elk? You know, and you start the question, Well,
Speaker 1: then it you know, some of the battling of like, well,
Speaker 1: it's my day to hunt, I want to go here.
Speaker 1: But then I'm trying to give like very good educated
Speaker 1: you know, because we've all been there. We've all got
Speaker 1: our own experience as we pull from Like John, I
Speaker 1: don't want to cross the creek and go up the
Speaker 1: other side. I want to stay on our side of
Speaker 1: the drainage because you know, of of this, this and this,
Speaker 1: and we were there two days ago and there were
Speaker 1: multiple herd bowls in a rut fest, and but it's
Speaker 1: like it's his day to hunt, and so now I'm
Speaker 1: like pissed at John the rest of the day, you know,
Speaker 1: or whatever it may be, Like we went on the
Speaker 1: other side, it's you know, or you go over there
Speaker 1: and it sucks, and then you're kind of like told
Speaker 1: you so all day, like should just listen to my plan.
Speaker 1: I've been here, you know enough. But you know, with
Speaker 1: with respect for him, he's also been in situations enough. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a lot of that decision making where
Speaker 1: if you are solo, um, you know, you just get
Speaker 1: to do what you want to do. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's like as as you like you think about
Speaker 1: like dogging and herd. Um, I would say if you're
Speaker 1: if your go to tactic is like, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 1: fin located milk, move in and we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: call him in. Then having a pardon or really it
Speaker 1: does help. Or even those situations where like one guy
Speaker 1: stays up on the hill, keep them talking, I'll moving.
Speaker 1: Those are great for having a hunting partner when it
Speaker 1: comes to dogging or herd or like just you know
Speaker 1: moving as quietly as you can or or you know,
Speaker 1: putting a stock on our herd generally speaking, like it's
Speaker 1: not beneficial to have a second person, right, and so
Speaker 1: like there's just certain situations for me, it just I
Speaker 1: don't know, I always worked out better to be solo, yep,
Speaker 1: until you have to pack them out and then I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I wish Yeah, yeah, it's yeah, it's funny how that works.
Speaker 1: But I might have to one of these days. I'm
Speaker 1: have to plan a hunt where it's just me and
Speaker 1: see if I'm if I'm tough enough to do it.
Speaker 1: So the next one here is something you can control
Speaker 1: in a game of unknowns. A crutches, the device that
Speaker 1: someone depends on. No the difference. Um, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I can go like, what's your thought? Okay, So a
Speaker 1: lot of the stems from m I talked. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been a lot of time I talked to new
Speaker 1: hunters and whatnot, and I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: people are, oh, should I get this tent or this
Speaker 1: camo or this gear or this thing, And I don't know,
Speaker 1: since for a long time, I've kind of always said, like,
Speaker 1: by tags, not gear, and I mean by experiences and
Speaker 1: stop worrying about equipment. I was dude, dead, broke, poor,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it growing up, and we
Speaker 1: didn't have options. And so when I came in, I
Speaker 1: mean a hunted since I can remember. So gear has
Speaker 1: never really been like a thing for me. Like there's
Speaker 1: things I wish I had or wanted to have, but
Speaker 1: I've just kind of operated on this, like I just
Speaker 1: hunt with what I have, and that's a mentality. I
Speaker 1: think it's different when you come into it adult onset hunting,
Speaker 1: if you will, and you're like, Okay, what do I need?
Speaker 1: And I get the argument that you're like, okay, I
Speaker 1: want to be comfortable because then I'll stay out there longer.
Speaker 1: I understand that argument. I don't really agree with it
Speaker 1: as as much because it's like I've just done this
Speaker 1: when I was poor and had nothing, and so like,
Speaker 1: to me, it never really made sense. But I think
Speaker 1: it's like you can try to worry about what gear
Speaker 1: you have and what's going to be this and it's
Speaker 1: in a world of like, Okay, I'm gonna go into
Speaker 1: this new unit. Maybe I'm going into the wilderness, uh,
Speaker 1: and and like I just don't know what's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: I you know, all these things. I think people try
Speaker 1: to worry about what what gear they're gonna take because
Speaker 1: it's the only thing that they can tangibly controls, the
Speaker 1: only thing they can like, oh if I get the
Speaker 1: best of this, right, and I I feel like that's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a crutch for trying to maybe
Speaker 1: better understand you know, even just he scouting right or
Speaker 1: like working through scenarios or like just trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what all the game plans are. Uh. And that's
Speaker 1: a better to me, a better use of my worry
Speaker 1: than what pants I'm wearing. And I do feel like
Speaker 1: people tend to key in on that gear, uh more
Speaker 1: than I don't know, say, like, if I look at
Speaker 1: all the greatest hunters that I looked up to and
Speaker 1: respected growing up, that we're like, you know, they none
Speaker 1: of them care. They were blue jeans and flannels, you know,
Speaker 1: but they got it done and so like, to me,
Speaker 1: I just feel like there's a lot of adult onset
Speaker 1: hunters that worry about, you know, their gear too much.
Speaker 1: I get it. If you like going to like I
Speaker 1: totally disagree, blah blah blah blah blah. No, no, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm fully on board with that. Um I would say
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, Um, you know, when I didn't have
Speaker 1: great gear, I was always looking to upgrade pieces. But
Speaker 1: if you were, I don't even I get a hunt
Speaker 1: with a lot of people, and you know, some people
Speaker 1: have got like the nicest news gear and it's like
Speaker 1: organized and like and this isn't necessarily right to the idea,
Speaker 1: but it's in the nicest. You know, it's in the
Speaker 1: perfect little pocket, folded up in the perfect spot. You
Speaker 1: go to look at me, like all my stuff is
Speaker 1: just like jammed in a bag. I know that it's
Speaker 1: gonna work, you know. I grew up similar to you.
Speaker 1: You know, my dad's and my dad and my uncle's.
Speaker 1: They were the guys that hunted in white New Balance
Speaker 1: tennis shoes so they could make sure they weren't stepping
Speaker 1: on sticks and making noise. You know. That's how they
Speaker 1: were taught. You. You know, the elk don't know you live,
Speaker 1: and they hunted in sweatpants and a red flannel, you know,
Speaker 1: or their their logging jeans, depending on how hot it
Speaker 1: was and how quiet they wanted to be. Um, you know.
Speaker 1: And and so gears one of those things I don't
Speaker 1: even think about, or I don't necessarily associate with my success,
Speaker 1: similar to you, it's it's there. I want to have
Speaker 1: very nice gear. But we've all, I don't say we all.
Speaker 1: I get the fortune of seeing a lot of these guys,
Speaker 1: you know, because they're they're struggling year in a year out,
Speaker 1: and they can't seem to kind of break that barrier
Speaker 1: to success. But they've always got the newest bow, and
Speaker 1: they've always got brand new rain gear, and they've got
Speaker 1: a new pack this year, and they've got now by
Speaker 1: all means, if if that makes you feel more confident,
Speaker 1: But I agree with you, And the reason it becomes
Speaker 1: a crutch is because they feel that somehow that new
Speaker 1: gear is bridging the gap to their success, when really
Speaker 1: they probably can't shoot the new you know, two bow
Speaker 1: any better than they could one bow, or those new
Speaker 1: pants they're wearing aren't gonna get them to the next
Speaker 1: ridge back because they didn't spend the time to get
Speaker 1: in shape, you know. And so it that's where that
Speaker 1: gear becomes a crutch, Like, yeah, you've got it, and
Speaker 1: maybe in your head it's like a placebo or kind
Speaker 1: of that fall as confidence. But yeah, don't don't rely
Speaker 1: on your gear because gear is never killed an animal.
Speaker 1: It's just added to the comfort. It's added to the
Speaker 1: ability to go deeper, farthest, stay longer, um, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, but it's not going No piece
Speaker 1: of gear is going to make you a better elk hunter, um,
Speaker 1: you know, without knowing how to use it and putting
Speaker 1: it into action. And that's why I just believe it's
Speaker 1: it can be a crutch. Is if I worry that's
Speaker 1: the thing I'm worrying about or trying to improve, it
Speaker 1: means I'm taking my focus off worrying and improving something else.
Speaker 1: And I think there's far better things if you just
Speaker 1: want to be successful to improve than you know what
Speaker 1: pair of pans you were? Yep, I agree that completely.
Speaker 1: The next one. There is compounding success in doing the
Speaker 1: same thing year after year, but there comes a point
Speaker 1: when it hurts your growth. And we touched on this
Speaker 1: one a little bit earlier. Um with more of the
Speaker 1: aggressive um and then knowing when to be patient. That's
Speaker 1: probably the biggest um. You know, when we talk about
Speaker 1: the same thing you're after, you're being prescriptive, but then
Speaker 1: you know, you taking the chance and and like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna learn the spot and stock me taking the chance
Speaker 1: of not being so aggressive and learning you know, timing
Speaker 1: when to be as aggressive as I used to, but
Speaker 1: when to kick it back a notch um. There was
Speaker 1: never a situation back twenty years ago when I you know,
Speaker 1: or or farther when I started this, if I had
Speaker 1: a bowl, you know, seven twenty in the evening and
Speaker 1: it was gonna be dark by eight I was bombing
Speaker 1: over there with like every you know, last ditch effort.
Speaker 1: I had to go over there and kill that bowl.
Speaker 1: Now there may be an instance where I'm like, you
Speaker 1: know what, We're gonna sit back, make sure that bowl
Speaker 1: doesn't smell us, make sure he doesn't know that there's
Speaker 1: you know, another elk you know, also known as me
Speaker 1: trying to call him in like there's it just is
Speaker 1: gonna be a better situation if we don't mess with
Speaker 1: him until the morning or the thermals are going to
Speaker 1: be right, you know, rather than risking it. And so
Speaker 1: I'm you know, very similar to the one we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier. For me, it turns into more of an
Speaker 1: aggressive or you know, learning new styles and picking up um,
Speaker 1: you know, just recognizing um. And then there's just more
Speaker 1: experience um like you get the you know, I've been
Speaker 1: very fortunate five or six weeks a year for the
Speaker 1: last um, you know, five years elk hunting, and a
Speaker 1: lot before that. Just the more I can stack up
Speaker 1: and experience, the more I'm like, hey, I've been in
Speaker 1: this situation before. I've tried to do this twenty times
Speaker 1: the same way, and it's failed every time, let's recognize that,
Speaker 1: draw up a different plan, and let's go do that,
Speaker 1: you know. So, yeah, I agree. If if I only
Speaker 1: ever did the aggressive calling the same way every time,
Speaker 1: I wasn't becoming a better elk hunter. And even if
Speaker 1: you know what, I consider myself successful. But I'm still
Speaker 1: going out every day, every every minute out there, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to learn and just hone my skills and get better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think like the basic version of this is, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you find success in something, and there's two
Speaker 1: types of people. There's the type of person that just
Speaker 1: keeps renting and repeating until it stops working, and then
Speaker 1: there's the type of person who wants to grow. And
Speaker 1: so it's like, how how do you want to define
Speaker 1: your set success? And you can define your success is
Speaker 1: like oh, how many bulls I've killed? Right? And I
Speaker 1: think the best way to do that is to hunt
Speaker 1: the same spot, the same area and do the same things, like,
Speaker 1: because you'll get really good at that. You could, you know,
Speaker 1: shoot a five point Roosevelt every single year. At the
Speaker 1: end of your career, you'll have thirty five point Roosevelts,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And maybe a couple of
Speaker 1: you know, booners in there because you know that's what
Speaker 1: came through. You see it with fishing, right, um, fishing
Speaker 1: is actually a decent example of this is like there's
Speaker 1: people who can do this one thing really well and
Speaker 1: they can rent and repeat it um. And then there's
Speaker 1: people who like I want to go I want to
Speaker 1: master my craft and learn different techniques. I want to
Speaker 1: learn different fish, want to go to new areas and
Speaker 1: the same Like to me, like that's how you you
Speaker 1: focus on getting better. So like a great like good example,
Speaker 1: I you know, didn't kill an elk the last two years,
Speaker 1: but did I grow as an elk hunter a hundred percent?
Speaker 1: Like I've gone far better. You know, I could have
Speaker 1: just stayed hunting the September and doing the call game
Speaker 1: and probably killed elk every year, but like, you know,
Speaker 1: I took two years to kind of I wouldn't even
Speaker 1: say go backwards, but to grow and in my knowledge
Speaker 1: of the game. Right, And I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: want to you know, I want to master all these
Speaker 1: aspects of the game, and that's gonna help me grow
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, I could go back,
Speaker 1: you know, I could go back to Oregon and hunt roosevelts,
Speaker 1: and I still know that game. But what I've picked
Speaker 1: up by hunting the open country, um, you know, hunting
Speaker 1: the breaks in Montana is going to teach me a
Speaker 1: lot about you know, hunting roosevelts. You have a different thing.
Speaker 1: My patience has grown. Like the most simple version is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: my patience has grown a lot. You know, I'm way
Speaker 1: more patient on which attacks I make, which moments I
Speaker 1: you know, make those attacks, and so just like, okay,
Speaker 1: do you want to grow? And so I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's it's uh just kind of a blanket statement of like,
Speaker 1: are you trying to be successful? Ak shoot one elk?
Speaker 1: Are you trying to increase your ability as an el
Speaker 1: connor to be successful? Yeah? And that's that's where I
Speaker 1: was at UM. I had a great Idaho spot and
Speaker 1: and to this day when we walked out of it,
Speaker 1: I haven't been back since um two thousand seventeen and
Speaker 1: the place is just on fire. But we had three
Speaker 1: good years in there, and I'm like, I can can
Speaker 1: probably you know similar, I can rinse and repeat. Just
Speaker 1: like you said, I know the area, I know where
Speaker 1: the elk rat. But it wasn't satisfying anymore, and people
Speaker 1: can be like, well, and this is where, and I
Speaker 1: don't I don't dodge it at all. Sport hunting versus
Speaker 1: like filling the freezer, and I like to do both.
Speaker 1: I wanted to go fill the freezer in a different area,
Speaker 1: and you can call it sport, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: challenge myself because ultimately my goal and it can be
Speaker 1: I don't know why it's even said as a goal.
Speaker 1: I would love to be dropped into any area, whether
Speaker 1: it's the mountains, whether it's a sage brush, whether it's
Speaker 1: the arid desert of Arizona and New Mexico, whether it's
Speaker 1: the mountains of Idaho, wherever it is, and I want
Speaker 1: to be the best elk hunter possible at that point
Speaker 1: when somebody dropped me in there. Um, it's kind of
Speaker 1: a weird. It's a weird idea, but I want to
Speaker 1: be if you give me a gun, you know, late November.
Speaker 1: I want to be a smart NFL hunter. I know
Speaker 1: what those elk are doing. You know, their their outfeed
Speaker 1: and they're recuperating from the rut. They're gonna be off
Speaker 1: on their own versus you put me in you know,
Speaker 1: super pre rut in Western Washington, and I want to
Speaker 1: know what to do. I want to be that that
Speaker 1: type of elk hunter that knows it all from you know,
Speaker 1: a to z any situation any time of year. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I still haven't been back to Idaho. I
Speaker 1: literally left the place on fire with bull's biggle and
Speaker 1: like crazy and uh, it just is what it is.
Speaker 1: I wanted to see, you know, life short. We only
Speaker 1: get so many years to do this, and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to see other country and challenge myself in different ways.
Speaker 1: But um yeah, no, um, you know we should we
Speaker 1: should do this some day. I keep saying I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do this. Um. I would love to challenge myself to
Speaker 1: go to Colorado and be like, okay, how many days
Speaker 1: is the tech to killing elk um? Because I'm never
Speaker 1: hunted in Colorado. I know it's it's very high pressure,
Speaker 1: you know, like it's a totally different type of hunt.
Speaker 1: And and I would love to like just document like, okay,
Speaker 1: my test my skills is an elk gutter and go
Speaker 1: to like over the counter Colorado hunt and see if
Speaker 1: we can get it done, you know, in in like
Speaker 1: three days, and just see if it's possible. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you'd be fine. But now yeah, it's it's just challenging yourself. Um.
Speaker 1: Once you find success, um, you know, continue to build
Speaker 1: on that and and keep adding blocks to your game.
Speaker 1: You know, build build a bigger house. I guess, Um,
Speaker 1: so the next the next one. Um, you're going to
Speaker 1: think killing an Elk is a success. But when you
Speaker 1: look back, all you will see as the memory of
Speaker 1: the cool moments and in parentheses you had which you
Speaker 1: hated the most at the time. Um, I'll let you go.
Speaker 1: I I I agree and disagree with this statement, and
Speaker 1: and I'll but I'll let you take a first crack
Speaker 1: out it and I'm gonna add to it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think this like plays nicely to that last one
Speaker 1: you just talked about. It's like, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: about building those skills. And in early days when I started,
Speaker 1: you know, killing Elk was with success, right, Like I
Speaker 1: just want to kill it Olk. And you know, when
Speaker 1: I look act on my season, the moments I remember
Speaker 1: the most, the memories that make me smile. Dude, they're
Speaker 1: not even killing out. There's those moments are there, but
Speaker 1: like it's the misses, Like it's the you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know screw ups. It's the like close encounters more
Speaker 1: far more than anything. You know, it's like both screaming
Speaker 1: and you're like, man, like remember that time, and those
Speaker 1: are like the moments you're gonna remember. And I think
Speaker 1: it's easy. You know, a lot of this is talking
Speaker 1: about how to be successful, and I get that that's
Speaker 1: what we all focus on. And maybe this is to
Speaker 1: your point of you know, the hunting white people home
Speaker 1: with partners, and I get that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people like, man, I don't know to be successful hunt
Speaker 1: because I want to hang out with my dad or
Speaker 1: I want to hang out with my brother or whatever,
Speaker 1: and like those are me the moments you're gonna remember. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's it's kind of like a play on the
Speaker 1: whole be here now. And I think this is just
Speaker 1: great life advice to say, like, you know, all these
Speaker 1: moments that you're trying to strive for and push hard,
Speaker 1: and I'm a huge fan of like work your face
Speaker 1: off for it. But at the same time, don't forget
Speaker 1: to like take a glimpse into like what you're doing
Speaker 1: right now, because when I look back on on all
Speaker 1: the hunting seasons, you know, like the moments where it
Speaker 1: was just a suck fester or a pack out. Uh,
Speaker 1: those are the ones I like, I remember the most.
Speaker 1: And you just said Idaho And I can particularly remember
Speaker 1: a pack out in Idaho killed the boles solo, and
Speaker 1: it's just it's raining sideways and all this, and I
Speaker 1: was like, this is so dumb. Why did I do this?
Speaker 1: Why am I in here? Like all those things? And
Speaker 1: like in retrospect now I'm like, what a cool moment,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And like that that was
Speaker 1: a part of killing the elk, But it was just
Speaker 1: a miserable moment within that. Yeah, And I'm I'm the
Speaker 1: same way. Um, the moments you hate everything about your
Speaker 1: questioning why you're doing this. Um, you know I've I've
Speaker 1: still got elk in the freezer. I could have hunted
Speaker 1: lower on the mountain. Um. You know, when you're miserable, sweating, hurting, hungry,
Speaker 1: you look back on those times and it's like that
Speaker 1: was that was the best part of that hunt. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't know why our brains work that way. UM.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's because it's because you're you know,
Speaker 1: you're just grinding in that memory and so it just
Speaker 1: it's more vivid later. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but yeah, most of what you remember or either one
Speaker 1: the hardest times or number two the unique and chaotic times.
Speaker 1: And by chaotic I mean like good elk encounters, like
Speaker 1: you know, the rough best you get into just you know,
Speaker 1: all of your all of your senses, they're like pegged.
Speaker 1: You know, You're you're seeing elk and bowls running everywhere,
Speaker 1: You're hearing them, you're smelling them. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if if it gets that deep, but
Speaker 1: for me, it's like it literally triggered every sense that
Speaker 1: I had. Um, you know, it's just you know, that's
Speaker 1: what it's about. But I did want to peel this
Speaker 1: one back a little bit um on on killing an
Speaker 1: elk being a success. So I think there's two different
Speaker 1: ways to define success. There's the younger me and since
Speaker 1: we are talking about twenty years ago, to me, success
Speaker 1: meant that I killed an elk. I I felt back
Speaker 1: then it was a little more important. I was either
Speaker 1: establishing myself is a good elk hunter. I wanted approval
Speaker 1: from you know, my dad and uncles and grandpa that
Speaker 1: you know, hey, this guy is becoming a good elk hunter,
Speaker 1: like it was more about the killing of the elk.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to now, and I still I still needed
Speaker 1: to be a success, but it's more about accomplishing goals
Speaker 1: that I've set out for myself and a challenge that
Speaker 1: I've given myself. And so, like I said, there's a
Speaker 1: success with the the idea that I've killed an elk,
Speaker 1: but there's now the success with the idea that I
Speaker 1: set a goal for myself. I challenged myself and I
Speaker 1: met it. So that's where I said, I kind of
Speaker 1: agree with the idea that the you know that the
Speaker 1: hard times or what you remember. But then as far
Speaker 1: as the definition of success, um, I still want to
Speaker 1: be successful due to goal accomplishing. And when I look back,
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, that one was a success because
Speaker 1: we went to this unit in Wyoming with the intention
Speaker 1: of killing you know, a mature six point bull, and
Speaker 1: I did my e scouting, I had did all of
Speaker 1: my calling the biologists and whatever it may be. And
Speaker 1: because of all that, this hunt was a success as well. So, um,
Speaker 1: I still challenge myself to a point where you know,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's like militant like demanding him success
Speaker 1: to myself. But I put a lot of pressure on
Speaker 1: myself every year, and it's not because I need to
Speaker 1: kill for anybody else. It's it's because of what I
Speaker 1: expect out of myself and and just holding myself to
Speaker 1: a pretty high standard. Yeah, and that's I mean, I
Speaker 1: think we're on the same page on that. It just
Speaker 1: you know, like you and I book grew up in
Speaker 1: very successful hunting families, and so like there's always that
Speaker 1: seek of approval, like you want your you know, your dad,
Speaker 1: you want to kill el because like that's what dad did,
Speaker 1: that's what grandpa did, and and like that's who you
Speaker 1: want to become, right, and then like as you progress,
Speaker 1: the goal marker keeps moving right, And you know, like
Speaker 1: the advice I'd give myself twenty years ago is like,
Speaker 1: just pay attention to the journey, because when you look back,
Speaker 1: those minors successes all made up the journey, and the
Speaker 1: journey was kind of cool. Um. And so but within
Speaker 1: that there's micro decisions Like that was a big piece
Speaker 1: of my decision to like, Okay, I'm gonna do this
Speaker 1: stupid thing called hunting open country, Like it's not my game,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna suck at it. But that's a great piece
Speaker 1: of like going backwards to go forward, because I have
Speaker 1: to say, like, okay, you want to get better, not
Speaker 1: necessarily be successful, and I it ties right into that
Speaker 1: other one is like just from like when you're twenty,
Speaker 1: you're like journey, what journey? Like We're justout killing elk
Speaker 1: and having fun and that's fine. It's just like those
Speaker 1: micro decisions of going to new places and you did
Speaker 1: the same thing, right you were and I how you
Speaker 1: were successful, but like a party, you had this itch
Speaker 1: to go try something new and test yourself in a
Speaker 1: new environment. And you know, it's the same when I
Speaker 1: was like, I remember the first time I was nervous
Speaker 1: in a long time. I've done a lot of things
Speaker 1: that were I had been there, done that, but like
Speaker 1: going for sixteen days into the wilderness on horseback so
Speaker 1: low it was like that's you know, can I do
Speaker 1: it whatever? And I'm pushing myself and like when I
Speaker 1: look back, um, you know that was an unsuccessful hunt.
Speaker 1: I came out and end up killing a bowl, um
Speaker 1: you know, in different place, But that sixteen days was
Speaker 1: like that was a good test of your skill. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's tons of people are like I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't care about that. I just want to be successful.
Speaker 1: My advice to my myself, you know, twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: whenever it was two years ago, would be like, hey,
Speaker 1: just do new things, challenge yourself in new ways, because
Speaker 1: if you only focus on this goal of you know,
Speaker 1: killing elk uh, it'll make the journey uh less wide, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's a it's just kind of a simple journey
Speaker 1: of like, oh, yeah, you were successful in the same
Speaker 1: way and the same thing over time. So it kind
Speaker 1: of ties right back into what we're talking about, Like
Speaker 1: that's why you go to new places, why you test
Speaker 1: yourself in new ways. And I get that everyone's in
Speaker 1: a different place in their journey. And if you're listening
Speaker 1: to this and you're like, I'm just trying to kill
Speaker 1: my first elk, I get it. Like don't let me
Speaker 1: talk too big on you, because like we've all been there,
Speaker 1: and like killing your first elk is step one, right,
Speaker 1: and maybe if you have killed nelk yet, like hunt
Speaker 1: the same place, don't go try to test yourself by
Speaker 1: being in new areas, new ways, like find a system
Speaker 1: that works, and then before you go take the step
Speaker 1: to like I want to go to a new place
Speaker 1: figure that step out right, because you did the building
Speaker 1: blocks and you can't just like seek the end goal
Speaker 1: of like I want to kill an elk in every
Speaker 1: single state. Like maybe you should start with like what's
Speaker 1: block one, which is killing an elk in my home state?
Speaker 1: For sure, we're about only halfway through these, Cody. We
Speaker 1: may have to bring you back for part two because
Speaker 1: we're kind of running on time. But I did I
Speaker 1: want to give you a chance kind of maybe explain
Speaker 1: a little bit about the rich ideas, some of the
Speaker 1: stuff you've got going on, how people can you reach
Speaker 1: out to you? And then um, in closing, I'll ask
Speaker 1: for your kind of your gold nugget for all counters
Speaker 1: out there, but go ahead and give us a little
Speaker 1: bit about yourself and some of the stuff you've got
Speaker 1: going on before we close up here. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I run a podcast and we talked a lot about
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship and hunting all those things, many projects, the ideas
Speaker 1: lab um and actually I just I'm launching so I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of people probably know I have wappty Wednesday,
Speaker 1: which is like our Patreon only podcast, and we do
Speaker 1: olk podcasts every single week. Um, but on top of that,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of launching an elk to a one course uh,
Speaker 1: and it's definitely not for beginners, like these are the
Speaker 1: these are the nuggets that I've learned in five D
Speaker 1: plus podcasts. Uh. And so if you're interested in like
Speaker 1: the next level of skills, check out my elk to
Speaker 1: a one of course. Uh. It's gonna be like fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: And I think it's like this is how you become
Speaker 1: to my My goal is to double your success rate.
Speaker 1: So if you've never hunted before, like, don't worry, like,
Speaker 1: don't take this course, go take you know, the l
Speaker 1: Collective or something else. But if if you want to
Speaker 1: double your success rate, uh, and go from that a
Speaker 1: ten percent success rate to twenty or even thirty forty
Speaker 1: success rate. This is like the things you need to
Speaker 1: focus on. And a lot of the stem from having
Speaker 1: you know, hundreds of podcasts and people like, oh, what's
Speaker 1: the what's the one thing I need to listen to?
Speaker 1: What's the best advice? Like Okay, I'll just put together
Speaker 1: like a three to four hour course that's like here's
Speaker 1: what you need to know. Um, and we're actually gonna
Speaker 1: make an audio file as well, so as I know Uh,
Speaker 1: it's almost seasoned, so like trying to go watch videos,
Speaker 1: you don't have time for that. So we made an
Speaker 1: audio only file. So if you want to check that out, Uh,
Speaker 1: go to the Rish Outdoors dot net four slash two
Speaker 1: A one and we'll we'll have everything there perfect perfect Well,
Speaker 1: thank you, and um, you're one piece of advice for
Speaker 1: Newell cuners out there and maybe people struggling to find success. Um,
Speaker 1: just a one liner or something that that you think
Speaker 1: they need to know. Man, I would say, like the
Speaker 1: difference between you know, people who have success rate and
Speaker 1: ten percent sexist rate is just pure effort. I just
Speaker 1: don't think people understand how much how hard those guys
Speaker 1: are working and when they get when they show up
Speaker 1: in the field, it's not like, hey, this is my vacation.
Speaker 1: It's like we have work to do and I'm about
Speaker 1: to get it done. That's like if you could just
Speaker 1: experience what it's like to go hunting with Jason is
Speaker 1: like I remember hunted with Jason, but I know exactly
Speaker 1: how it is. It's like he's just gonna go all
Speaker 1: in and like everything is towards that goal. What and
Speaker 1: I know, like we just talked about like all this
Speaker 1: other stuff, but I think the amount of effort that
Speaker 1: goes in is like, once you show up, it's got
Speaker 1: to be game time. If you want to be successful
Speaker 1: every single year, you gotta you gotta treat it like such.
Speaker 1: Yeah I like that, Um yeah, and just elaborate on
Speaker 1: a little bit like I show up just like you
Speaker 1: do it your normal job. And I don't like to
Speaker 1: think of hunting as a job, so don't don't get
Speaker 1: that mixed up. But I show up with a this
Speaker 1: is my job and my my goal, and this is
Speaker 1: the check marks and and this is how I accomplish it.
Speaker 1: And I don't like to fail, and so no, very
Speaker 1: very systematically, and this is the effort required to do it.
Speaker 1: And I'm willing to do that. So I really appreciate
Speaker 1: having you on Cody um as a great converse Asian
Speaker 1: good luck this fall, and yeah, it's nice nice catching
Speaker 1: up with you likewise, but yeah, that's a luck. Keep
Speaker 1: crushing it, killing big bulls, making me jealous, all those things.
Speaker 1: We'll try, h