Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance Today.
Speaker 1: I'm here with Ryan Lampers. He's back. I think he's
Speaker 1: the first guest to be on three times, but I
Speaker 1: always enjoy our conversations. And we're gonna go back. We're
Speaker 1: gonna look at some q and a's from some of
Speaker 1: you out there. We're gonna go back look at his
Speaker 1: twenty three season kind of anything that it was different,
Speaker 1: kind of what he had to do, or like any
Speaker 1: little nuggets he can pull out of those hunts for us,
Speaker 1: and then dive into what worked and what then, and
Speaker 1: then also jump into some health and fitness topics and
Speaker 1: then his recent wolfund that he was just on, and
Speaker 1: then what he has coming up moving into next year.
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure to have you on the show.
Speaker 2: Ryan, Welcome, Thank you, Jason much appreciate it. Excited to
Speaker 2: be back. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were trying to record this yesterday and you
Speaker 1: were on a on a wolf hunt and kind of
Speaker 1: pushed us back. So I'm glad to be able to
Speaker 1: to have you jump on and get on the podcast today,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna I'm gonna save some of my questions
Speaker 1: for you on the wolf hunt as we get into
Speaker 1: the podcast on some of your your food choices you
Speaker 1: made on the wolf hunt kind of your strategy and
Speaker 1: you know, to to kind of double up on you know,
Speaker 1: is it winter range deer scouting and trying to get
Speaker 1: a wolf hunt like kind of you know, making sure
Speaker 1: each trip has multiple reasons and meanings. So we'll jump
Speaker 1: into that in a little bit, But first we're gonna
Speaker 1: jump right into listener Q and A. Once again, if
Speaker 1: you have questions for me or my guests, please email
Speaker 1: them to us at CTD at phelpsgame Calls dot com,
Speaker 1: or social media messaging, emails, you know, any of that,
Speaker 1: and we'll do our best to get them on here.
Speaker 1: So the first question comes. It was pretty much the
Speaker 1: same question from both Jonathan you'r st hopefully I didn't
Speaker 1: butcher butcher his name too bad? And Lucas Johnson. What
Speaker 1: does your off season look like as far as workouts,
Speaker 1: your season prep, scouting, and nutrition.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess we're an off season, right, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know that there's an off season.
Speaker 1: There's not the Yeah, I was gonna say, our off
Speaker 1: season used to be like November to about July and August,
Speaker 1: but now it seems like we've figured out a way
Speaker 1: to fill those fill those in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's a few gaps, and we're in
Speaker 2: the gap right now. I'd say, yeah, good question. I think, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I've been asked us a lot, and I
Speaker 2: don't have really anything exciting to talk about when it
Speaker 2: comes to exercise and all that kind of thing. You know,
Speaker 2: I've got a home gym downstairs. I try to keep
Speaker 2: up with my wife. She gets down there early every morning.
Speaker 2: You know, this time of year when I'm not hunting,
Speaker 2: I spend a good amount of time down there. You know,
Speaker 2: we've got a rower, all kinds of equipment that we
Speaker 2: can get after it on. But my number one, and
Speaker 2: I think it always will be, always has been routine,
Speaker 2: is just hiking. Hiking with weight. You know where I
Speaker 2: live out here in the country, so we've got all
Speaker 2: kinds of space to just roam, and we've got a
Speaker 2: little loop here. We can take it a mile and
Speaker 2: three quarters with a weighted backpack, or we can take
Speaker 2: the longer route or go up on the hill behind
Speaker 2: us and put in a good handful of miles. And
Speaker 2: you know, that is and always will be I think
Speaker 2: my most effective way of preparing for the next hunt,
Speaker 2: you know, the future future hunts that I have. It's
Speaker 2: it's just what you do in the mountains. It's the
Speaker 2: most important. And you get a lot out of hiking
Speaker 2: with weight. You know, I think just going out and
Speaker 2: putting a ton of miles on without weight is good.
Speaker 2: But I'm just throwing you know, anywhere from just twenty
Speaker 2: five to sometimes go up to sixty pounds on the
Speaker 2: back and going for it, and so that that really
Speaker 2: helps me out. I think it keeps your core strong,
Speaker 2: just keeps those muscles tuned in. Those are the ones
Speaker 2: that you really need to function well on the mountain.
Speaker 1: So there's like no secret. You're not like getting up
Speaker 1: every morning, you slamming down you know your pre workout.
Speaker 1: You're not working out for an hour and a half
Speaker 1: in the gym and then you know, doing cardio. It's
Speaker 1: just it's what you need to do to be There's
Speaker 1: no secret workouts or you're not you know, crossfitting every day.
Speaker 1: It's just doing the functional what you're going to be
Speaker 1: doing in the mountains is it is workouts.
Speaker 2: You get up early and we put some time in downstairs.
Speaker 2: You know, I love the rower. We've just got a
Speaker 2: cheap old rower downstairs, and I like getting on that
Speaker 2: thing and just crushing it for forty minutes. It really
Speaker 2: gets your art right up and it puts the screws
Speaker 2: to you. So I love that. But then just throwing around,
Speaker 2: you know, pushing and pulling heavy things. That really helps
Speaker 2: in the off season as well. You know, I definitely
Speaker 2: don't lift like I used to. Used to do a
Speaker 2: lot more in the gym and things like that, but
Speaker 2: I'm not a CrossFit guy. I don't. I don't have
Speaker 2: any secrets there, you know. I just try to stay
Speaker 2: in as good a shape as I can, and most
Speaker 2: of that comes from, like we said, there's not a
Speaker 2: lot of off season now, so we're always spending time
Speaker 2: in the mountains. We're always having weight on our backs.
Speaker 2: Now I'm cheating a little bit these days, you know.
Speaker 2: I turned fifty this year, and last few years we've
Speaker 2: started using pack animals a little bit more. You know,
Speaker 2: We've used things like a lamas, which gets a lot
Speaker 2: of the weight off your back. Now I'm into the
Speaker 2: goats and I'm using those a ton. I'll go. When
Speaker 2: I do my walks, I just take the ghats and
Speaker 2: they come with me. And just to keep them in shape,
Speaker 2: because now a big part of my off season is
Speaker 2: making sure my animals are in shape to keep up
Speaker 2: with me. And so that's been a lot of fun,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of a new thing that I'm doing now.
Speaker 2: But as far as nutrition, you know, it's always the
Speaker 2: same again, nothing real secret. We just try to eat
Speaker 2: clean throughout the year, you know, during the haunts. Outside
Speaker 2: of the haunts, my wife keeps me on track with that,
Speaker 2: trying not to pound, you know, too much sugar. We
Speaker 2: weren't out like one hundred percent off all sugar. We've
Speaker 2: got kids, you know, we don't We don't do it
Speaker 2: to the extreme. But I think eating clean to the
Speaker 2: best of your abilities really helps and it definitely keep
Speaker 2: the inflammation down. And you know, we've talked about inflammation
Speaker 2: almost too exhaustion these days, me and my wife. But
Speaker 2: it's important and I feel like that's what's really helped
Speaker 2: me in these later years. I feel better now than
Speaker 2: I felt in my twenties by a mile. You know.
Speaker 2: When I go out and do ten days and we're
Speaker 2: crushing miles, double digit miles every day, I don't come
Speaker 2: back sore anymore. And a lot of that is some
Speaker 2: of the supplements I take. You know, I do a
Speaker 2: lot of turmeric and CBD and stuff like that. No
Speaker 2: secrets there. But then I'm not pounding all this this
Speaker 2: extra sugar during the hunks, so I'm trying to keep
Speaker 2: from inflaming my joints to where I just don't feel good.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, just clean eating in the off season
Speaker 2: and things like that, So no secrets there. Really I
Speaker 2: like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, I'm the yoyo where I eat
Speaker 1: bad and then eat really like the extreme. And yeah,
Speaker 1: mental clarity like your inflammation, your knees, your joints, your hips,
Speaker 1: like everything goes away and you feel better and then
Speaker 1: you always wonder why you relapse back into that. But yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely clean eating. And then for me, it's it's just
Speaker 1: as much of a mental game when you're eating clean
Speaker 1: there there's no fog a you know, clear mind.
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, you have to talk a little bit
Speaker 2: with some of your things too. You've talked, you've probably
Speaker 2: talked in the podcast about doing carnivore every once in
Speaker 2: a while and kind of mixing it up and things
Speaker 2: like that. That's always been really interesting to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, and I I now, I I've i've you know,
Speaker 1: working with your wife. She's she's now my doctor had
Speaker 1: some you know. I don't beat the drum. I don't
Speaker 1: think I've even talked on the podcast about like testosterone,
Speaker 1: Like we talked and I'm, man, why the hell am
Speaker 1: I wanting to go to bed at seven thirty? Like
Speaker 1: when we were running the business early on, Like there
Speaker 1: were days you'd go to bed at twelve or one,
Speaker 1: just when your work was done. You were done, right,
Speaker 1: and like, what is going on? And got with got
Speaker 1: with doctor Hill and yeah, testosterone like in the high
Speaker 1: two hundreds for a forty year old guy, and it's
Speaker 1: like what and uh of change my life?
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: And I don't know whether it's a tribute to eating
Speaker 1: well or it's probably both. You know, got on some
Speaker 1: testosterone and feel amazing, and then that helped with the
Speaker 1: inflammation in itself, like just getting the hormones balanced and
Speaker 1: you know, and then I I kind of she thought
Speaker 1: I should change my diet a little bit where I
Speaker 1: was eating real heavy carnivore. And there's a lot of unknowns,
Speaker 1: right if you're doing carnivore, like can you have elevated
Speaker 1: treglisserides and elevated LDLs and is it still safe? And
Speaker 1: she just got real worried because what without really knowing,
Speaker 1: She's like, well, maybe we should not eat so much
Speaker 1: fatty meat. And so we've we've made some changes. But
Speaker 1: I feel amazing doing it. I just don't want to
Speaker 1: like feel amazing but then kick over of a heart
Speaker 1: attack because I got some numbers way out in left field.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's that combination. The last six months has
Speaker 1: been amazing, like just getting hormones balanced back out eating,
Speaker 1: you know, and everybody says, well, what are you eating?
Speaker 1: Because I've lost about sixty pounds in the last you know,
Speaker 1: six months. And it's just like I think of it,
Speaker 1: there's no specific diet. It's just like close to the earth, right,
Speaker 1: like it comes out of the ground, if it lives
Speaker 1: on the ground, like it checks all the boxes and
Speaker 1: that it's just like clean eating. I'm not afraid to
Speaker 1: have a few blueberries or strawberries here, I'm not afraid
Speaker 1: to eat sweet potatoes, but like if the rice has
Speaker 1: got to go through a factory and get stripped of
Speaker 1: its husks and stuff like, and now I'm very extreme
Speaker 1: because it's easy for me to relapse and go back.
Speaker 1: And you know, if it lives on the ground, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of deer and elk. But just I
Speaker 1: feel amazing right now.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's and that's something to talk about too.
Speaker 2: I didn't even think about it when you mentioned like
Speaker 2: your regimen, but you know, finding a good doctor I
Speaker 2: think is really important, especially when you get up there
Speaker 2: in age. You know a lot of dudes, guys and gals.
Speaker 2: Hormones are a big, big thing. And you know a
Speaker 2: lady like my wife who does a lot of blood
Speaker 2: work and test people's hormones and tries to regulate them
Speaker 2: and get them dialed in. It's really important. Like it's
Speaker 2: amazing how you can go from like you said, I
Speaker 2: want to go to bed, really just waking up up
Speaker 2: without that drive, without that just that winning drive to go.
Speaker 2: You know, all all that changes when you dial in
Speaker 2: your hormones a little bit, whether it's the stops around
Speaker 2: or mestrigon for ladies. So we're very blessed to know
Speaker 2: Doc Hill because she gets us to that perfect point
Speaker 2: where you just crush it, you feel like crushing it,
Speaker 2: You wake up feeling good. You've got that winning hormone drive.
Speaker 2: And today it's shocking how many guys out there have
Speaker 2: low test you know, it's it's just like unbelievable, even
Speaker 2: guys in their twenties, you know, twenties, thirties. It's not
Speaker 2: like it used to be. Guys are just whatever. If
Speaker 2: it's environmental, who knows, you know, the verdict isn't in
Speaker 2: yet on what's causing this, but a lot of guys
Speaker 2: are suffering from lack tesk.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, my cousin, you know, very athletic, very active,
Speaker 1: lifts weights all the time, that he was at similar
Speaker 1: numbers to me at like mid thirties, and it's just
Speaker 1: why and how come? But uh yeah, I feel great,
Speaker 1: you know. With the changes, it's it's all kind of
Speaker 1: dialed in, and like you know, Hillary asks you these
Speaker 1: lists of questions like before and after kind of gauge,
Speaker 1: and I said, it was weird, like you didn't realize
Speaker 1: how bad it was until you got to see like
Speaker 1: the instant change on it. And like my my best
Speaker 1: analogy was like before my weekend looked like well I
Speaker 1: might accomplish these one or two things, and I want
Speaker 1: to sit and watch like hunting on YouTube or or
Speaker 1: sit around the rest of day. Now it's like, put
Speaker 1: twenty things on my list and make sure they're checked
Speaker 1: off before the end of the day. Like this motivation,
Speaker 1: this drive that I used to always have is like
Speaker 1: back versus you know, kind of being a lazy ass
Speaker 1: around home on the weekends. It's like you've got this
Speaker 1: drive again to just crank, crank through and get things done.
Speaker 1: So it's mental as well as you know, the physical changes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Closter, it's the winning hormone for us, guys.
Speaker 2: We need it and it needs to be at a
Speaker 2: certain level for us to just crush it in life.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's very important. So if anybody gets
Speaker 2: anything out of this podcast, it's like, man, you know
Speaker 2: you're feeling rotten and you're off season. You know, you're
Speaker 2: just like you said, you're just wanting to sit down
Speaker 2: end of the day, just watch movies and eat junk
Speaker 2: food and not motivated to go crush it in the mornings.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe go find yourself a really good doctor
Speaker 2: who take your blood through it. Look at your panels,
Speaker 2: see what's missing.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep. The next question comes from my financial advisor,
Speaker 1: Jeff Bloomquist. He put what are your top three things
Speaker 1: that you attribute to your consistent success of killing more
Speaker 1: mature animals. And it doesn't have to be three, just
Speaker 1: kind of what are your top approaches And and I'm
Speaker 1: very careful, like we all do this for different and
Speaker 1: and maybe I shouldn't even have to explain this, but
Speaker 1: we all we're all out there, like if your goal
Speaker 1: is just to put a spike in the freezer, we're
Speaker 1: we're not saying that's not the goal. But Ryan, any
Speaker 1: of you, you know, any of you do or don't
Speaker 1: know it, Like, it's very easy to look at what
Speaker 1: he does and realize, like, all right, that that top
Speaker 1: level animal, and that's what you're out there for. You're
Speaker 1: pursuing that challenge. And so this is geared towards when
Speaker 1: you get to the level of having all these other
Speaker 1: accomplishments or abilities below you, like when you target mature animals.
Speaker 1: And I would say there's different levels to that, right
Speaker 1: where some guy might be like I want a four
Speaker 1: and a half year old dear that scores this, Like
Speaker 1: Ryan goes out there with an expectation or a challenge
Speaker 1: to kill, you know, very a top five percenter kind
Speaker 1: of what what what what do you attribute that success
Speaker 1: to at that level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think I think it's different for everybody.
Speaker 2: I think for me, I just know that I have
Speaker 2: a drive that might be a little bit more intense
Speaker 2: than some of the folks around me, you know, some
Speaker 2: of the other folks that I've hunted with. Even I
Speaker 2: don't really want to settle, and so my drive is
Speaker 2: just a competition with myself too really do whatever it takes. Literally,
Speaker 2: however far it takes to hike, however many days it takes,
Speaker 2: that's always kind of on the table, and I try
Speaker 2: to set these hunts up for that. I always try
Speaker 2: to do tending trips so that I've got the time
Speaker 2: to make this thing happen. And you know, while you're
Speaker 2: in the field, is I think, the willingness to put
Speaker 2: my body through whatever, go wherever. I'm not afraid to
Speaker 2: go down to the bottom, you know, twenty five hundred
Speaker 2: feet down and then right back up to the top.
Speaker 2: It means I might have a slight opportunity to seal
Speaker 2: the deal on a mature animal. So I think drive
Speaker 2: is the one thing that's really hard to explain. My
Speaker 2: drive is just very intense when I'm out there. This
Speaker 2: is My favorite thing to do in life, you know,
Speaker 2: is to do this thing, and that's target mature animals
Speaker 2: out through the mountains. And then a lot of it
Speaker 2: is also, you know, just all the time that you
Speaker 2: put into the off season. You know, whether it's your
Speaker 2: map work, you're scouting, you're dialing into meals that you're
Speaker 2: going to take with you, the gear that you take
Speaker 2: with you, all these different things just kind of all
Speaker 2: add up to being well prepared out there, and you know,
Speaker 2: in the end, you're not getting pulled out of the
Speaker 2: mountains prior to you sealing the deal or something trivial.
Speaker 2: You know something. I'm also very lucky, and I love
Speaker 2: to like prop my wife up as much as I can,
Speaker 2: but the reality of it is, I wouldn't be able
Speaker 2: to do any of this if I didn't have an
Speaker 2: amazing wife who literally can She's so independent if she
Speaker 2: needs to be, she can take care of anything when
Speaker 2: I'm out there. So there's really no problems that I
Speaker 2: have to deal with when I'm in the mountains. I'm
Speaker 2: not out there worried about much. You know, if there
Speaker 2: is an issue, I'm lucky if she even tells me
Speaker 2: about it. On my en reach you know, she just
Speaker 2: takes care of it. So you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: the success comes from just having a partner that is
Speaker 2: at that level, you know, and then having the drive
Speaker 2: and all the preparedness around that. I think really has
Speaker 2: helped me in this in this thing.
Speaker 1: So let me let me see if I can get
Speaker 1: to the inside of your head. So this drive that
Speaker 1: you talk about, this competition maybe with yourself or not
Speaker 1: wanting to let yourself down. So I mean, is there
Speaker 1: ever a time is during a hunt where you even
Speaker 1: have to like, come on, don't let yourself down, you know,
Speaker 1: or is it just not even a question anymore where
Speaker 1: you're just this is what needs to be done, We're
Speaker 1: going you don't even have that conversation with yourself anymore.
Speaker 1: Or is there some like thought like is that really
Speaker 1: the best play? Or you just like we're gonna go
Speaker 1: over there and see what happens, and yeah, how does
Speaker 1: that conversation you know, because that's I think if somebody's
Speaker 1: not at your level, that's a lot of what pops up.
Speaker 1: Right there's like, well, I really don't know if climbing
Speaker 1: down in that three thousand feet really gives me a
Speaker 1: better opportunity or a chance, you know, until you'll talk
Speaker 1: yourself out of it.
Speaker 2: And I think I don't think there's any twenty year
Speaker 2: old that is going to have that because they don't
Speaker 2: have the experiences built up. You know, as you as
Speaker 2: you do more hunts and you have these things happen
Speaker 2: like I can't tell you how many times, and you've
Speaker 2: had the same thing happen many, many, many times as well.
Speaker 2: It's just you keep working at it. It can happen
Speaker 2: so fast, and with elk hunting, it's it's like to
Speaker 2: the utmost degree, it just happens in a matter of
Speaker 2: like thirty seconds. You go from this low like man,
Speaker 2: this is this ever really going to happen, and you're
Speaker 2: just fighting with yourself like I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe these next four days are there just kind of
Speaker 2: a waste because we haven't had any luck. And then
Speaker 2: about three minutes from that point, you just arrowed a
Speaker 2: bull and he's down. And it's it happens like that
Speaker 2: so often. And I think once it's happened to you
Speaker 2: a few times or a couple dozen times, you just
Speaker 2: it's always there. You just know, like success can happen
Speaker 2: at any point out there, even when it's the slowest
Speaker 2: of slow, and you know, the weather's been junkie, and
Speaker 2: your bulls aren't talking, and there's people everywhere. You know,
Speaker 2: all it takes is just a few minutes and things
Speaker 2: turn on a dime. And when you had that experience,
Speaker 2: I think that just gets ingrained into you, like you
Speaker 2: don't get down as much because you know, like one
Speaker 2: more ridge, you know, next Cooley, you can go last
Speaker 2: across and pick up that one buck and that's all
Speaker 2: it took. And so it's hard to explain to people,
Speaker 2: but I think, you know, we've just been doing this
Speaker 2: a very long time, so I don't have the mental
Speaker 2: that I had that I have now. I didn't have
Speaker 2: that back in my twenties. You know, I was more
Speaker 2: willing to give up and just get down, like this
Speaker 2: hunt is not worth being out here, you know, I
Speaker 2: might as well go somewhere else. But now as you've
Speaker 2: got gained all this experience, you just you just know
Speaker 2: it can turn on a dime. So yeah, that's a
Speaker 2: big part of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think one of the tough you mentioned, like
Speaker 1: the slow you know, the slow times and there I
Speaker 1: think it's different, like if you're on a hunt that
Speaker 1: is just on fire the whole time, but just opportunities
Speaker 1: not coming like that will keep people more involved. But
Speaker 1: in the end, those super slow hunts that you finally
Speaker 1: find your first elk on the eighth day and you
Speaker 1: still kill it. Like, the results still the same. Right,
Speaker 1: we went there, We accomplished what we wanted to, but
Speaker 1: the hunt ahead of time was different. I think that's
Speaker 1: what you know, what you had mentioned kind of kind
Speaker 1: of resonates with me, is that I'm still able on
Speaker 1: you know, six or seven days. Yeah, you get down
Speaker 1: a little bit, but you keep kind of grinding, and
Speaker 1: you know that in the end there's the possibility this
Speaker 1: is still going to end up in the same spot
Speaker 1: of the very action packed hunt or the it's the
Speaker 1: same result. And and we've proven that we had twenty
Speaker 1: chances throughout the hunt, but none of them you're able
Speaker 1: to capitalize on where you capitalize on the one it
Speaker 1: it Yeah, it works into your mental game and then
Speaker 1: in future hunts you're like, well this, I've been here before.
Speaker 1: I don't need to quit, Like we've been in this
Speaker 1: exact situation and know how it's going to play out
Speaker 1: or can play out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think and this is so cliche to say,
Speaker 2: but you know, I think if you find yourself throughout
Speaker 2: the day on a hunt just continually saying things like
Speaker 2: how this sucks, Like, man, this is never going to happen.
Speaker 2: You know, this is brutal. You're just you're you're screwing
Speaker 2: with your head. And you know that's one thing that
Speaker 2: I found now, you trying to stay positive is very important.
Speaker 2: Just knowing that it could happen, and just expecting it
Speaker 2: could happen at any point. It's all on your head.
Speaker 2: But if you do, if you are out there and
Speaker 2: you have a hunt partner that's just so down and
Speaker 2: sour and always like looking for a reason why it
Speaker 2: sucks to be out there and throughout the day, it's
Speaker 2: just a lot of negativity. That is a surefire recipe
Speaker 2: to have a hunt fail and either pull you out
Speaker 2: of the mountains early or you're just not doing what
Speaker 2: you should be doing. You know, you should be positive
Speaker 2: and you should be willing to just know that, man,
Speaker 2: it's just could be that ridge, it could be one
Speaker 2: more hole, it could be tomorrow, weather could turn. I mean,
Speaker 2: you should be out there expecting it to happen and
Speaker 2: waking up and again cliche, but waking up and just
Speaker 2: this is the day that it's going to happen. And
Speaker 2: with that comes success for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we take it to the point where it's
Speaker 1: like overly positive, overly optimistic. You might not see a
Speaker 1: deer in your area for the last seven days, but
Speaker 1: you wake up tell your buddy like, hey, this is
Speaker 1: a day we kill a big you know, we both
Speaker 1: we double up or we kill big bucks. And it's like,
Speaker 1: I won't to say it's a little fake, but you're
Speaker 1: just like you're you're just reminding yourself like this is
Speaker 1: a day we're going to get up, like you know,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe pick everybody up and keep them going. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the positive mental and we've we've talked about a ton
Speaker 1: on here is having good hunting partners where if one
Speaker 1: guy does get down, the other guy won't let him
Speaker 1: get two down, and you're able to feed off of
Speaker 1: each other. And and it's it's definitely worked in the
Speaker 1: past to kind of keep somebody going or not want to.
Speaker 1: And you know, the worst thing you'd want of somebody.
Speaker 1: You're trying to talk somebody to quit and they say, oh,
Speaker 1: let's go, like it's over. But if that guy is
Speaker 1: you know, mentally strong at that time. It's It definitely helps.
Speaker 2: People over the years. I'm sure you have as well
Speaker 2: that are just negative people. Right. It may be fun
Speaker 2: at times, but they're just negative people. That's the last
Speaker 2: guy I want my hunting camp. I just I just
Speaker 2: walk away from that. I'll always love you, know, I have.
Speaker 2: I have a very small list of guys that I
Speaker 2: hunt with today. I still love hunting by myself. I
Speaker 2: really love enjoy hunting with my daughter, but I've got
Speaker 2: a small group that I hunt with. And the guys
Speaker 2: that I hunt with now, you know, some of their
Speaker 2: skills are just that they never quit. They never give up.
Speaker 2: They're not ones to say, I'm I just want to
Speaker 2: give up and go back, let's just get out of here.
Speaker 2: These these guys that I hunt with now, they don't
Speaker 2: do that. They will go that extra mile and they
Speaker 2: will go wherever it takes to make success happen. So
Speaker 2: I think that's extremely important, and it's a hard thing
Speaker 2: to kind of weed out those guys that could be
Speaker 2: just too negative. But success is determined by having a
Speaker 2: really good hunt partner sometimes for sure.
Speaker 1: Next question comes from sentiment out of Tall Timber productions.
Speaker 1: Have your tactics evolved or change over the last decade
Speaker 1: or so, Archie L Hunting. Have you found yourself changing
Speaker 1: the way you did it or is it still pretty
Speaker 1: consistent how you started?
Speaker 2: Do you really want me to talk about this Felks
Speaker 2: Felks game calls you.
Speaker 1: I know you're we're going to talk up a little
Speaker 1: bit about Raken and a little bit more spot and stocking.
Speaker 3: But let's yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it has changed. It has changed a lot, and
Speaker 2: a lot of the change has come from where I
Speaker 2: am now versus where I used to be. You know,
Speaker 2: I came from your neck of the woods. You know,
Speaker 2: we were Washington guys and uh thick country hunt rosies and
Speaker 2: in timber and very much a calling game, you know,
Speaker 2: very much a calling game. And so I was. I
Speaker 2: was basically taught like the best way to get big
Speaker 2: bulls in was to pick a fight, you know, leaving
Speaker 2: the cow calls to the other guys and going in
Speaker 2: with just these threatening bugles and picking fights with the
Speaker 2: with the herb bal And I learned that in Washington.
Speaker 2: I learned it in the north country of Idaho, where
Speaker 2: it's just absolutely so thick that that's that's the best
Speaker 2: method for getting these big bulls in. Now, since then,
Speaker 2: I have changed, you know, I've moved over here to Montana,
Speaker 2: and even when I was still a Washingtonian, I I
Speaker 2: started hunting areas that were a little more open and
Speaker 2: where I was able to glass more. And you know,
Speaker 2: these days, I find myself seeking out those type places.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not hunting the thick, thick country as
Speaker 2: much anymore. I'm looking for states. I'm looking for opportunity
Speaker 2: hunts where I can go try to glass up more
Speaker 2: bulls or even just you know, I can still be
Speaker 2: out there, and I'm you know, I chuck a lot
Speaker 2: of location bugles out just to get an idea where
Speaker 2: the bulls are, find the herd, you know, find the
Speaker 2: best bull and then I put a lot of work
Speaker 2: into glassing and trying to figure out a strategy on
Speaker 2: how I can either get in between, you know, or
Speaker 2: just figure out a to get an arrow in that
Speaker 2: bowl in more open country. So I really enjoy this
Speaker 2: time where I'm chasing you know, her bulls in open country.
Speaker 2: I'm not calling as much, not even close. I'm still
Speaker 2: doing a lot of location googles just to find them
Speaker 2: because they're always there's always pockets timber, and you know
Speaker 2: they they love being in that timber. But I don't
Speaker 2: try to work bullth in as much as I used to,
Speaker 2: for sure, and I think that's been probably the biggest
Speaker 2: change for me, especially with the bigger hurtles. But I
Speaker 2: really do enjoy calling, calling elkin. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: But man, the spot and stole game for me right
Speaker 2: now is kind of where I'm at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, and I'm I'm in the same boat where
Speaker 1: you know, growing up hunting almost exclusively Southwest Washington, we
Speaker 1: called everything in and it seemed I don't want to
Speaker 1: say easy, but it almost seemed easy. At times you'd
Speaker 1: located and got in tight and you could eventually get
Speaker 1: him to close the distance. As times went on, it
Speaker 1: seems like you're trying to force us. We're pegging around
Speaker 1: hole at times. Now we've still got them cranked up.
Speaker 1: We've killed a lot of great bulls, but it's just
Speaker 1: not even when we started hunting out of state, and
Speaker 1: you know, over the West, it seemed easier just ten
Speaker 1: years ago. And I don't know if it's if we're
Speaker 1: to blame pressure the calling industry everybody out there calling,
Speaker 1: you know, whether you got a tag or not, Like
Speaker 1: I don't. I'll shoulder some of it. But the elk
Speaker 1: aren't as callable as they used to be.
Speaker 2: You've turned a lot of into pretty dang good callers.
Speaker 2: There's a lot more better, like really good callers out
Speaker 2: there in the woods these days. He'll fool yeah, for sure,
Speaker 2: there's some really good deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And as much as it hurts, we've turned into
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a I ten years ago
Speaker 1: out of never question should I bugle right now, or
Speaker 1: should I col call or should I go silent? And
Speaker 1: now that's like my common routine, Like do I really
Speaker 1: want to be agle here? Because it hasn't worked the
Speaker 1: last sure four or five times, and things are privy
Speaker 1: to it and heading the other way. And you know,
Speaker 1: like this year is the first year ever I located
Speaker 1: a bowl, went completely silent and snuck into forty yards.
Speaker 1: It's like, as much as it hurts me to say
Speaker 1: I knew as a hunter, like I've got this skill set,
Speaker 1: maybe not near as good as you were. Barn here
Speaker 1: guys a spot in stock all the time, but it's
Speaker 1: just it's an animal that I just can't let see
Speaker 1: here or smell me right, Like, it's a very simple equation.
Speaker 1: Don't let him see you here, You're smell you. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be all right, and just put a you know, put
Speaker 1: the sneak on him, put a you know, put his
Speaker 1: head behind a log or a standing tree that was
Speaker 1: big enough for me to hide behind and walk into
Speaker 1: forty yards. And it is getting different. I would say,
Speaker 1: I'm in the same boat as much. I still try
Speaker 1: to at least force it early in a hunt, like
Speaker 1: I'm going to call these things in.
Speaker 2: But you know, like this, it's important to have all
Speaker 2: the tools in your toolbox, right sure, I think you
Speaker 2: know you want to be really competent in your in
Speaker 2: your calling. You know, this year's bull just happened to
Speaker 2: be a bull that it was in much more open
Speaker 2: country still September. But you know I got in between
Speaker 2: him and his betting area and I was able to
Speaker 2: get an arrow in this bowl. Last year. You know,
Speaker 2: I went in trying to be silent, silent. I just
Speaker 2: wasn't able to get in to where this bull was betted.
Speaker 2: And uh, and I called that bull in. You know,
Speaker 2: I got in tight, just like the old days. That
Speaker 2: worked so well, I got in tight, made just an
Speaker 2: absolute uh you know, monster threatening mule at him, and
Speaker 2: he came tearing in, ready to ready to kill me,
Speaker 2: and that worked in that situation. So, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't want to eliminate any of the strategies. I think.
Speaker 2: I think having them all in your toolbox is really important.
Speaker 2: And you know, there's going to be times in the
Speaker 2: future where I calf call a bull in uh that's
Speaker 2: what's going to work that day. And so I think
Speaker 2: just you know, not putting anything aside. Everything's got to
Speaker 2: be on the table. But I'm trying, definitely trying to
Speaker 2: do less calling in a lot of the areas that
Speaker 2: I'm on now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think being you know, being a skilled
Speaker 1: hunter in that situation is recognizing like what you should
Speaker 1: maybe do, like are they in a good stockable spot,
Speaker 1: and recognizing that, like that's more important than being a
Speaker 1: good caller having all these tools that you're not you're
Speaker 1: not you know, leaning on your caring primarily, or you're
Speaker 1: not just leaning on your spot in stock like at
Speaker 1: any time if that situation, you know it dictates you
Speaker 1: should be doing this or should try this, you know,
Speaker 1: being able to do that or execute it. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, if you have all those tools and don't
Speaker 1: limit yourself to one style of elkonny.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you know, I look forward to one of
Speaker 2: these years, I'm going to get back to the to
Speaker 2: the old haunts that I used to hunt. And I
Speaker 2: don't know about Washington, but Idaho, you know some of
Speaker 2: the thick country, and and I guarantee there's going to
Speaker 2: be times where I want to pick a fight, or
Speaker 2: at least pick a fight with you know, a limb
Speaker 2: and start raking. I really like rake and too. It
Speaker 2: works so well for so many years back in the day.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it works as well now in
Speaker 2: those places in Washington we're raking in a bull. I
Speaker 2: think a lot more guys are doing it, but you know,
Speaker 2: they may be keyed into a little bit more than
Speaker 2: they used to be. But yeah, all the tools, I
Speaker 2: think they're important to have and and no one situation
Speaker 2: is always going to be the same.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, we had you on back on episode thirty
Speaker 1: five what we did the spring Bear episode. So this
Speaker 1: question may have the answer in there, I'm sure, but
Speaker 1: maybe you can give like a real quick cliff note version.
Speaker 1: How do you go about locating spring bears early in
Speaker 1: the season. This comes from Parker Batista.
Speaker 2: Yeah, early season. I love that very very front end
Speaker 2: because it's just my opinion, but I feel like that
Speaker 2: is your absolute best time to locate those older bores.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the science shows, I don't know
Speaker 2: what the professionals say, but it feels like and maybe
Speaker 2: maybe you got some data this, Jason, but I am
Speaker 2: fine in the biggest bores, Like the biggest ones on
Speaker 2: the mountain are the first ones I see, and after that,
Speaker 2: you know, come to mediums and then the thousand cubs
Speaker 2: are kind of the last to show. Has that been
Speaker 2: a case for you, because it sure has for me.
Speaker 2: I always feel like that it's always going to be
Speaker 2: one of the days in April where we just, you know,
Speaker 2: we lay eyes on that first bear. He's usually a monster.
Speaker 2: And you know where I like to focus my efforts
Speaker 2: is in you know, big drainages with a lot of water.
Speaker 2: I like to be there just ahead of green up
Speaker 2: and those big bores. Man, I've found in the places
Speaker 2: that I've hunted them, they just they really it almost
Speaker 2: is like they're on that green line where the green
Speaker 2: is just coming up. Sometimes even above it a little
Speaker 2: bit like you don't even know what they're doing up
Speaker 2: there eating, you know, avalanche lilies and things like that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wish I had as much spring bear experience,
Speaker 1: but I've hunted five times. It's all been in Washington,
Speaker 1: down in the Blues, and we get to such a
Speaker 1: late start May. Fifteenth year, I drew it was the
Speaker 1: COVID year where they didn't even evidently they thought we
Speaker 1: were gonna get COVID out in the woods, and then
Speaker 1: we didn't want to give it to the bears, so
Speaker 1: they made us start really late. And so all of
Speaker 1: our experience has been more that mid May with still
Speaker 1: kind of fighting that snow line, you know, pretty low
Speaker 1: at least the one year we did have early, I
Speaker 1: think those bigger bores we've seen them earlier in the trips,
Speaker 1: and then as we went back trip after trip and
Speaker 1: tried to make it happened, I think the bears were
Speaker 1: getting smaller. So I would agree with that. I just
Speaker 1: don't have as near as much experience, like into that
Speaker 1: early April early May time frame where we're typically if
Speaker 1: we're starting right off the bat, it's middle of the May,
Speaker 1: and usually we elect to wait a little bit because
Speaker 1: there is so much snow where the access is so hard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think you know where
Speaker 2: I really like to focus my efforts for big bores
Speaker 2: early season. I love that April timeframe, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to be too late in the season, like May
Speaker 2: is great too, and then into June. Some guys love
Speaker 2: hunting the rut. I just like being on the front end,
Speaker 2: you know, just best opportunity. You don't see as many bears.
Speaker 2: But I really like that time where almost everything is brown,
Speaker 2: it's just a little bit of green, just barely starting
Speaker 2: to show up. I just that's that's the time frame
Speaker 2: for me where I feel like I'm going to have
Speaker 2: my best luck at the biggest bear on the mountain.
Speaker 1: So, okay, gotcha. Last question. I'm not privy, do it.
Speaker 1: Maybe you are tell us more about the trekking pole
Speaker 1: glassing method. Maybe go Hunt had just talked about it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's a specific method or something
Speaker 1: different than than typical, but enlighten me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know either.
Speaker 1: That came from That came from Nate Stevens.
Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know. I'm not sure what what they
Speaker 2: talked about. Over at go hunt, Yeah, trek and pull
Speaker 2: glassing thing. I'm assuming it's just running your nyls on
Speaker 2: top of the trekker, right, I do.
Speaker 1: It all the time, I would think, yeah, yeah, or
Speaker 1: on top of your bowcam or whatever you've got, you
Speaker 1: can lean into the ground.
Speaker 2: It's a real quick way to just like get solid
Speaker 2: real fast and not have to pull the tripod out
Speaker 2: and get your binos on the tripod. So no, I
Speaker 2: use it all the time. And uh no, I mean
Speaker 2: it's almost just as good as a tripod in many cases.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but does your do the peak design? Do the
Speaker 1: sissy sticks have a thread in the top yet like
Speaker 1: the old Eastern trekking poles did, where you can like
Speaker 1: thread them on and use it. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's patented, but something you guys should look into for sure.
Speaker 1: They had that like five eight stud that would like
Speaker 1: you have a cap that would go over your trekking
Speaker 1: poll and then you could just dread your your holder
Speaker 1: on when you didn't want to use them, that cap
Speaker 1: would come back down. Just throw that out for you guys.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if you guys did, or I knew
Speaker 1: an old set of Easton's I had did have those,
Speaker 1: but it made it slick back when I had my
Speaker 1: binos hooked up and you could just thread them on
Speaker 1: real quick and then you don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: like holding on or you know, you could if you're
Speaker 1: going to set up for a little bit longer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: I'll pass that on. I don't know if you're going
Speaker 1: to answer these questions or not. It was a pretty
Speaker 1: popular question. But now that you're not in Washington, are
Speaker 1: you willing to give up your meal deer and Roosevelt
Speaker 1: elk hunting spots?
Speaker 2: Yeah, surprising how many people have reached out with that one, Jason.
Speaker 2: But it was more like right after I left Washington,
Speaker 2: there was a lot of guys like really thinking that
Speaker 2: I would just give them the spots. So you know,
Speaker 2: my best hunting buddy who I've hunted with more than anybody,
Speaker 2: and that's Joey Pyron, he's still over there in Washington.
Speaker 2: He he knows all the spots. We used to hunt
Speaker 2: these spots together and for years I I told him,
Speaker 2: I was like, because he kind of he got into
Speaker 2: this waterfowl thing. He does a lot of fishing. Now
Speaker 2: he doesn't do the big game hunting that we used
Speaker 2: to do. It's gonna hate me airing this out there
Speaker 2: for him, but it's true. He needs to hunt big
Speaker 2: game more. But I told him, like, look, there's a
Speaker 2: little window here. You better keep getting after these spots.
Speaker 2: You know, we have some really good old hunts that
Speaker 2: we used to hunt. Otherwise I'm gonna have to give
Speaker 2: him up. So he's got a little bit more time.
Speaker 2: If he doesn't start taking advantage of his time over
Speaker 2: there into these places where he used we used to
Speaker 2: kill big bucks, I might start having to give these
Speaker 2: spots up. But yeah, at this point, you know, I
Speaker 2: have plans, like I really will. I will come back
Speaker 2: to Washington one of these years. I want to just
Speaker 2: come back and hunt some of the older you know,
Speaker 2: in late October there like we used to. And I
Speaker 2: really want to go back and see if anybody has
Speaker 2: found these air there is you know it, really I'm
Speaker 2: really curious about that. I've heard there's a lot more
Speaker 2: hunters over there stomping around in the mountains these days
Speaker 2: than there used to be. So yeah, you know, it
Speaker 2: really intrigues me to see how things have changed and
Speaker 2: if there are still some big old bucks and these
Speaker 2: really secluded places, but no, selfishly, those those areas are
Speaker 2: probably going to be just for us folks that have
Speaker 2: been there before.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, I don't blame. And then somebody else wanted
Speaker 1: to know about your hair held routine on ten day
Speaker 1: backpack trips.
Speaker 2: But if you've seen the videos, you know there is
Speaker 2: no routine. It's it drives my wife crazy, Like the
Speaker 2: dreadlocks I have to rip out at the end of
Speaker 2: the trip, just drives you crazy. My daughter's trying to
Speaker 2: get me to pack a hair brush. It's just it's
Speaker 2: just nonsense. It embarrasses them, but it's kind of why
Speaker 2: I do it. So no, no routine, no brushing.
Speaker 1: And say, if your daughter starts, is your daughter starts
Speaker 1: to backpack with you more and more, she'll have to
Speaker 1: pack the brush and you can just take advantage of just.
Speaker 2: Tried to get that brush in my hair. She definitely
Speaker 2: packs her brush on the trips that we take, so yeah,
Speaker 2: I just keep it out of my hair.
Speaker 1: All right. Well, I appreciate answering all those questions. Ryan
Speaker 1: a little longer version of our typical question and answer
Speaker 1: for our guests, but we went out specifically looking for these.
Speaker 1: Once again, you have questions for me or my guests,
Speaker 1: please feel free to email them to us at CTD
Speaker 1: at Phelps game Calls dot Com, or hit us up
Speaker 1: on social media, send us a message and we'll we'll
Speaker 1: do our best to get those thrown in. Stole a
Speaker 1: little bit of my thunder there with some of their questions.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about health and fitness. You know,
Speaker 1: your training, diet, but we really covered that, and so
Speaker 1: we're just gonna kind of jump into kind of your
Speaker 1: season recap twenty three. You know, I think we go
Speaker 1: all the way back. We were both on Mexico kus
Speaker 1: deer hunts. I don't think on the episode thirty five
Speaker 1: on the Bear Hunt we even really got into that.
Speaker 1: So have you start with like your CU's Whitetail trip,
Speaker 1: your spring bear season, and then we kind of fast
Speaker 1: forward to it our old season used to be our
Speaker 1: fall seasons where you went Alaska, Moose, Alaska, Blacktail, Montana,
Speaker 1: elk and deer, and just kind of give us a
Speaker 1: rundown of those six hunts and if there was any
Speaker 1: anything technical or tactical that you did specific to those
Speaker 1: hunts or maybe change in you know, elk behavior or
Speaker 1: deer behavior moose that kind of you had to adapt
Speaker 1: to and change to it. That kind of maybe helped
Speaker 1: you out on those hunts.
Speaker 2: So we're going back to Mexico. Is that where we're
Speaker 2: going to start.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we'll start. Yeah, we'll start in Mexico. I
Speaker 1: don't think we ever talked about that here on cutting
Speaker 1: the distance. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So, you know, it was my first year down there,
Speaker 2: you know, acrossing the border. I've hunted queues on the
Speaker 2: north side of it for a few years, handful of years,
Speaker 2: and just had an absolute blast. This is the first
Speaker 2: opportunity that I've ever had to get across the order
Speaker 2: and go down and chase cues, and we had a blast.
Speaker 2: You know, this was a place where, you know, I
Speaker 2: didn't really know what to expect. There were four of us, myself, Brian,
Speaker 2: Brad and Hunter went down and it just felt like
Speaker 2: a wilderness where we were. It was so wild and
Speaker 2: there's just nothing around, you know, getting way back into
Speaker 2: this country, that felt like just nobody's looking at this
Speaker 2: these places and not many people have seen it. And
Speaker 2: so you know, came down to glass and honestly, and
Speaker 2: for most cues deer hunters, I think they degree you know,
Speaker 2: just spending time behind the glass can't be stated, you
Speaker 2: know enough, because uh, really good glass. I always run
Speaker 2: the higher power by knows when I'm down there, a
Speaker 2: little bit more power spot or when I'm down there,
Speaker 2: you've got to be so diligent with Cou's deer. You know,
Speaker 2: every time I end a cues deer hunt, it's the
Speaker 2: same thing. I walk away thinking, Man, it was all
Speaker 2: about the time spent behind the glass, because those the
Speaker 2: little buggers just disappear on you. I mean, you could
Speaker 2: be literally staring at a at a great buck, take
Speaker 2: your eyes out of the glass, go back, and he's
Speaker 2: going forever and you just have no idea where he
Speaker 2: vanished to. But I think being being very patient is
Speaker 2: a big virtue in Inku's deer hunting. If you don't
Speaker 2: have a lot of patients, might be a tough, tough
Speaker 2: trip for you. So the particular trip that I went
Speaker 2: down on this was not a high density area. I
Speaker 2: saw very few deer, very few bucks overall, which was
Speaker 2: a little bit shocking, but it was cool anyway. We
Speaker 2: were still finding good mature bucks, just not many deer
Speaker 2: in general. Now, I don't know if it was because
Speaker 2: it was it was a very wet year last year.
Speaker 2: There was water everywhere, and so you know, obviously kind
Speaker 2: of makes sense that they'd be spread out a little
Speaker 2: bit more. They're not so focused on these certain drainages.
Speaker 2: I don't know, we'll see because we're going to the
Speaker 2: same place this year and we're going to check it out.
Speaker 2: But I think with Cou's deer, I always come away with, Uh,
Speaker 2: it's all about the time spent behind the glass. And
Speaker 2: if you're not a very diligent glasser, if you're not
Speaker 2: willing to just keep those things you know, slammed onto
Speaker 2: your head like just all day long, willing to do that,
Speaker 2: you're probably not going to see the deer.
Speaker 3: And uh yep.
Speaker 2: You know, we've hunted with those guys that don't see
Speaker 2: many and they just end up letting you do all
Speaker 2: the work and find them.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm in the same boat like I've.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm three times as good a glasser
Speaker 1: now that I've qu's deer hunted. When I come back
Speaker 1: to meal, your hunt like this is easy now at
Speaker 1: this point because of the strategies we put together down there.
Speaker 1: You know, you're either always in your biyos and I
Speaker 1: love setting up spots where if I climb up the mountain,
Speaker 1: I've got some good shoot shooting lanes five hundred. But
Speaker 1: then my glassing kind of goes across canyons, right, so
Speaker 1: I'm able to have a hunt that morning or that night,
Speaker 1: but then my glassing goes from a wolf or not here.
Speaker 1: Now I'm glassing for the for a stalk, and I
Speaker 1: usually go from tens. I didn't bring like twelves or
Speaker 1: fifteens or eighteens. I went from tens right into my spotter.
Speaker 1: And so my my glassing requires me to be in
Speaker 1: that spotting scope all day and just sit and walk
Speaker 1: and walk the spotter. And similar to what you said,
Speaker 1: there were times where I would spot a deer try
Speaker 1: to like get somebody on them. So I'm looking for
Speaker 1: landmarks and trying, and then I would look back in there,
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn it, it left, but it hadn't left.
Speaker 1: I just couldn't respot the deer or was just stand
Speaker 1: it like you just couldn't pick it up, or you know,
Speaker 1: last year a buck was pushing a dough and so
Speaker 1: then you're kind of really fastly tracking them around the
Speaker 1: clear cut and you'd lose them at times. And or
Speaker 1: what we found on that time was we've been glassing
Speaker 1: this clearcut only seven hundre dards a way not too
Speaker 1: extremely far with the spotting scope, and that buck went
Speaker 1: and found all these five or six dos for us
Speaker 1: on the hillside. We had never seen a deer on
Speaker 1: and it was just it's it's glassing at a different level.
Speaker 1: But I love it because I I it makes me
Speaker 1: better glass. It lets me know that you're looking for ears,
Speaker 1: you're looking for horns, you're looking for a leg kicked
Speaker 1: out in a bed like it just it prepares you
Speaker 1: for when I come home black till hunting or meal deer.
Speaker 1: Like it's nothing for me to just sit in my
Speaker 1: spotter for an hour compared to five hours at a
Speaker 1: time down there. And yeah, it definitely makes you a better,
Speaker 1: better glasser.
Speaker 2: I mean, those little ghosts, they could just be standing
Speaker 2: all over hillside and if you're not really tuned in,
Speaker 2: you'll just run your bionos right over them. What I
Speaker 2: what I find unique is you know, they're so similar
Speaker 2: to a mal deer. I hate that they're white tailing,
Speaker 2: just but they're so similar because you know how and
Speaker 2: for whatever reason. Some some of the biggest bucks that
Speaker 2: we've seen, they will statue for so long, Jason, Like,
Speaker 2: you can watch a buck statue up for forty five
Speaker 2: minutes and he doesn't move a muscle and he's just
Speaker 2: he's just there. He's in the in the you know,
Speaker 2: in the oak brush or whatever. And if you're looking
Speaker 2: for movement or if you're looking for the backside of
Speaker 2: the deer things that are obvious, you're going to go
Speaker 2: right over that buck. So you really got to slow
Speaker 2: it down, really got to pay attention to the details
Speaker 2: with coos deer. And they're so tiny, yeah, so tiny.
Speaker 1: Yep, Yeah, we see the same thing. Like even though
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of the rut, like some of
Speaker 1: those bigger bucks, they just yeah, they just sit and
Speaker 1: I'm like, why aren't you chasing? Why aren't you moving?
Speaker 1: But they'll sit there for for twenty twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: and just look or you know, pay attention to what's
Speaker 1: going on the hillside.
Speaker 2: And yeah, and when they get in those okts, like
Speaker 2: some of the biggest bucks we found have just been
Speaker 2: in thek t is for whatever reason. They love it
Speaker 2: and you're just looking for something a little bit unique
Speaker 2: you know, you know those everything is up, you know, vertical,
Speaker 2: and then you're just looking for an antler off to
Speaker 2: the side and they will just statue in that stuff.
Speaker 2: And like you said, the doz, I mean they just disappear,
Speaker 2: they lay down and you're looking for years go and
Speaker 2: that's about it.
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, I'm excited. We're going to a new a
Speaker 1: new ranch this year that not we have. We were
Speaker 1: at a ranch that had maybe a higher density it
Speaker 1: sounds like, but maybe not the up end of Bucks.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna we're gonna mix it up this year,
Speaker 1: go try a little different area and see if we
Speaker 1: can't maybe find some bigger, bigger Bucks. And I'm excited.
Speaker 1: It sounds like. The nice thing about Mexico is private
Speaker 1: land public like compared to up here north of the border.
Speaker 1: You know, there's always a chance somebody else's hunted it, right,
Speaker 1: It's like if you have a general tag, you can
Speaker 1: go hunt somebody's private or if it's public any like
Speaker 1: Mexico's nice because if you don't have one of the
Speaker 1: four tags, that's good for that ranch, Like nobody can
Speaker 1: dare hunt that the rest of the year, like it's
Speaker 1: left alone and we're going to spot. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's been hunted for like six years anyways. And then
Speaker 1: so we're gonna see. We'll see what it.
Speaker 3: We'll see what it's.
Speaker 2: It's Uh, it's kind of a slower hunt. It's a
Speaker 2: great time to go down to, right, it's kind of
Speaker 2: the off season. Yep, it's always a little bit warmer.
Speaker 2: It's usually in the minus temps here in Montana at
Speaker 2: that time. So just a fun time to get down there.
Speaker 2: You know, I never, handfully, years ago, I never expected
Speaker 2: that I'd ever even hunt Mexico. Always wanted to, always
Speaker 2: thought about, you know, opportunity to go hunts an oora
Speaker 2: or whatever. But last year was my first opportunity to
Speaker 2: do it, and I'm I'm addicted. I absolutely love it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. And so from Cou's Deer you rolled into
Speaker 1: spring Bear, which coming into this year, real low snow
Speaker 1: packed pretty deep. Howd that pan out for it? And
Speaker 1: did it change a hunt at all?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a tough year, honestly. You know, the crew
Speaker 2: had a real rough go. You know, on the front end,
Speaker 2: you say the snow was wanky. We ended up we struggled.
Speaker 2: Like the first bear I took, I think I was gosh,
Speaker 2: I want to say, I was like sixteen days into
Speaker 2: it before I took that first bear, and I took
Speaker 2: a one of the best bears I've ever taken, just
Speaker 2: an absolute stud. But I had to spend a lot
Speaker 2: of time, and we had bears that would spot and
Speaker 2: they just disappear on us, you know how it goes.
Speaker 2: And they were moving off of those south facers so fast.
Speaker 2: They just weren't putting in the time. They weren't giving
Speaker 2: us time to get to them before they just move off.
Speaker 2: They were traveling. It was kind of just a weird
Speaker 2: year like that. I hadn't seen that for a while.
Speaker 2: But in the end, Yeah, I took a couple of
Speaker 2: good bears, had a good season overall. I ended up
Speaker 2: with the wolf on the first trip and a cat
Speaker 2: at the same time, So I think we talked about that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, that was that was a heck of
Speaker 2: a trip. It really it really like it forced us
Speaker 2: to be diligent on that one because it was it
Speaker 2: was a tough go. Yeah, we had to put in
Speaker 2: a lot of effort, a lot of work to fill
Speaker 2: those tags.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so now you're you get to our fall seasons. Alaska.
Speaker 1: Moose was first on the on the dark Heads.
Speaker 2: Actually we went up and did a little black tail
Speaker 2: trip up in Alaska with my daughter before them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so that was an August trip. So we went up
Speaker 2: there in August and uh, kind of a first for me,
Speaker 2: something I wanted to do, but went up there. Good crew,
Speaker 2: a guy, as you know, I met a couple we
Speaker 2: had met up in Fairbanks the prior year when we
Speaker 2: were at mooseh Dalton and his wife Tabitha, and we
Speaker 2: hooked up for a hunt and went out not really
Speaker 2: knowing what to expect, just kind of located a pothole
Speaker 2: and went after it. Landed on a pothole in some
Speaker 2: alpine country in southeast and and we had a heck
Speaker 2: of a trip. My daughter absolutely loved it. You know.
Speaker 2: I prepared her for the worst, you know, weatherwise, just
Speaker 2: made sure I let her know, like this could be
Speaker 2: a trip or we don't see the sun for a
Speaker 2: while and it's going to be slippery, it's going to
Speaker 2: be steep, you know, just just be ready for that.
Speaker 2: And Jason, we got there and we had five straight
Speaker 2: days of sunshine and beautiful weather. It was fairly warm,
Speaker 2: and we had deer on the mountain. They were shining
Speaker 2: like diamonds. They were red coated. She took She filled
Speaker 2: both her tags. I filled both mine. We all feel
Speaker 2: our tags that we had ended up with seven bucks
Speaker 2: and had one of the funnest trips you could possibly have.
Speaker 2: And my daughter just absolutely loved that trip. And you know,
Speaker 2: it's funny. I was talking to Delton the other day
Speaker 2: and he's like, Hey, you want to do that trip again?
Speaker 2: And I was like, no, I don't. I don't ever
Speaker 2: want to be that trip again because we're going to
Speaker 2: go back and it's going to be a letdown. We
Speaker 2: had the best we could possibly have on this trip,
Speaker 2: Like it could not have gone any better. We're going
Speaker 2: to go back and we're going to be a little
Speaker 2: bummed out because the weather's going to be sour and
Speaker 2: we're not going to see the quality bucks that we
Speaker 2: saw on that trip. So I was like, you know, Dulton,
Speaker 2: it's one of those hunts that it went so well,
Speaker 2: I just I'll go somewhere else. I'm just going to
Speaker 2: leave it. Yeah, yep, I'm going to leave it. And
Speaker 2: I think that was that was really like a quality
Speaker 2: hunt with my daughter because we had a country with Steve,
Speaker 2: but we didn't have to put the miles on. That
Speaker 2: absolutely just crushed her soul. And we had, you know,
Speaker 2: opportunities to get fairly close on these bucks. We went
Speaker 2: in with rifles and and you know, it was just
Speaker 2: a good opportunity for her to get behind the glass
Speaker 2: and her to pick up these bucks on our own
Speaker 2: and made good shots and and have just a heck
Speaker 2: of an experience. And we got it all on that one.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: And then came home, reloaded.
Speaker 2: Road went for moose and that was a trip with
Speaker 2: Brady Miller, myself and Brian Call and we went up.
Speaker 2: This was year two in a row, totally different location,
Speaker 2: new area, and uh again we had a heck of
Speaker 2: a trip. It was a lot tougher area than the
Speaker 2: area we'd hunted in the past, much more open, but
Speaker 2: this place was thick. We found some bulls, not many.
Speaker 2: We ended up getting a great bowl. Brady took a
Speaker 2: great bowl. It took us quite a bit of work
Speaker 2: to get this bull out. It was miles in and
Speaker 2: you know, I know, the smart thing to do is
Speaker 2: not kill a bull moose too far from your pickup
Speaker 2: or your boat or but we did and we were
Speaker 2: just like, we're going to do whatever it takes to
Speaker 2: get this bull out and we did. You know, we
Speaker 2: got it out of there. We had some bear issues, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: our first load out was taken from us. Went back
Speaker 2: with load two and yeah, a bear got on and
Speaker 2: took three of the bags and buried it. As we
Speaker 2: got close back to the first drop, we kind of
Speaker 2: hit a meadow that we had across through before we
Speaker 2: got to where we dropped the meat, and yeah, we
Speaker 2: had a bear that there was one piece of meat
Speaker 2: just out in the middle, like out in the middle
Speaker 2: of this meadow. That were like, how we didn't that
Speaker 2: didn't fall out of our pack, Like how did that
Speaker 2: get there? It started kind of looping around and looking.
Speaker 2: I saw this area within the meadow that was just
Speaker 2: all shredded and he had buried all that meat in there.
Speaker 2: So we had to make a new pickup point for
Speaker 2: the plane and all that. But it's quite an experience,
Speaker 2: had a heck of a go I learned a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, totally new country from where we'd hunted prior.
Speaker 2: So already looking forward, to next year. Every year, I'm
Speaker 2: trying to figure out the cheapest way to do these
Speaker 2: mouse hunts and uh and that's been a challenge. They're
Speaker 2: not you know there, they cost you a little bit,
Speaker 2: but uh man, they are a lot of fun, a
Speaker 2: lot of work. Though a lot of work. There's nothing
Speaker 2: easy about a moose hunt. So I would I would
Speaker 2: recommend it to anybody who you know, is getting up
Speaker 2: there in years and thinks they're going to do it
Speaker 2: when they get, you know, into their sixties, it probably
Speaker 2: ain't gonna happen. Moving moose meat is not easy, So
Speaker 2: I want to get it in while I can body
Speaker 2: is still to do it.
Speaker 1: And then you normal fall season rules around. You've got
Speaker 1: your Montana, elk and deer tags right, yeah, yep, yep,
Speaker 1: And so you come home, uh September and roll right
Speaker 1: into your elk.
Speaker 2: Hunt, right into the elk hunt. Yeah. I went and
Speaker 2: did that. Had had a ton of phone, put a
Speaker 2: lot of days into my archery elk season and found
Speaker 2: a really quality bull that I wanted. And it was
Speaker 2: sixteen days that I went after this thing and I
Speaker 2: finally see the deal on this just absolute heavy horned
Speaker 2: stud of an old bull that I wanted, and that
Speaker 2: trick couldn't have gone any better I had it. It
Speaker 2: was all to myself, Jason. There was no film crew,
Speaker 2: There was no camera guys, you know, there was none
Speaker 2: of that. There was no hunting partners. It was just
Speaker 2: me and I really enjoyed that. It was a lot
Speaker 2: of fun.
Speaker 1: That's awesome in that sixteen days. So if I didn't know, you're, like,
Speaker 1: what took so long? Or if people did it was
Speaker 1: it was it a balance of like getting him in
Speaker 1: the right spot or just failed attempts or just shadowing
Speaker 1: not to screw it up, or was he moving major
Speaker 1: distance between days? Like what happened within that sixteen days.
Speaker 2: So within that sixteen days, Like I didn't find this
Speaker 2: bull right away. Now, this was a bull that we
Speaker 2: think we may have seen in the summer but in
Speaker 2: some of our scouting, but we're not one hundred percent sure.
Speaker 2: You never know. I think the front end of that,
Speaker 2: I wanted to just see as many bulls as I
Speaker 2: possibly could. So I was very non willing to commit
Speaker 2: to a bull, you know. I wanted to put in
Speaker 2: a week, a week's worth of glassing and just looking
Speaker 2: around and scouting because I had the time, So I
Speaker 2: didn't want I just didn't want to hunt to end
Speaker 2: too early. And so a lot of that sixteen days
Speaker 2: was just me trying to find the right bull, in
Speaker 2: the right scenario, in the right situation. And you know,
Speaker 2: this was a this was a battle of public and private.
Speaker 2: You know, we were you'd see bulls out on private
Speaker 2: like you always do, and and I usually don't hunt
Speaker 2: too close to private, but this time I was, and
Speaker 2: I wanted to. I wanted that challenge. And yeah, there
Speaker 2: were some times when I finally found this bull, I
Speaker 2: was about ten days in and and at that point,
Speaker 2: this bull was literally traveling, traveling five miles from where
Speaker 2: he would bed to where he would feed, and he
Speaker 2: would run all night. And so there's this huge distance
Speaker 2: between between that and you know, he would some days
Speaker 2: he'd call a lot, some days he wouldn't call hardly
Speaker 2: at all in his travel from uh feed area to
Speaker 2: betting area. And there was a lot of different It
Speaker 2: was a maze of koolies that he would travel. He
Speaker 2: wasn't always doing the same one twice. I find it
Speaker 2: funny when people say that Ali, He's going to go
Speaker 2: through this one spot every single time. Man I've never
Speaker 2: found that to be the case. I I they always
Speaker 2: do something a little bit differently, especially when you're trying
Speaker 2: to get him with a boat. So you know, sometimes
Speaker 2: I just picked the wrong candy, you know, trying to
Speaker 2: get in front of him. And I did not feel
Speaker 2: like this was a bull that I was ever going
Speaker 2: to be able to call in. It was fairly open country,
Speaker 2: he had a lot of cows with him, and the
Speaker 2: way he's cool, he's laid out. I had a really
Speaker 2: good opportunity if I picked the right one that I
Speaker 2: would get a nice close shot. So I played that
Speaker 2: game over and over and over, and I screwed it
Speaker 2: up more times than I succeeded. But in the end
Speaker 2: I finally got it right. I picked the right one
Speaker 2: and it was a day that he was just fired
Speaker 2: up because there was another big old studhurd bull with
Speaker 2: his cows not too far away. It just kept him
Speaker 2: going the whole time. And I stealed the deal that day.
Speaker 2: But yeah, just a great bull stud bowl. But I
Speaker 2: really wasn't willing to settle at that point. Once I
Speaker 2: found that bull man, it was it was like I
Speaker 2: was going to do whatever it took to to go
Speaker 2: after him so.
Speaker 1: And that in that six days where you actually were
Speaker 1: hunting him, Like, do you go at it aggressively or
Speaker 1: are you playing the long play? Like my goals not
Speaker 1: to let him see me, not to ever bump them,
Speaker 1: not to let him smell me, Like you're staying. You're
Speaker 1: making sure that you're not going to screw it up
Speaker 1: for that time or in the future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I play it extremely slow and extremely patient.
Speaker 2: You know. I know there's times to be aggressive, but
Speaker 2: I am very, very lucky. I know how lucky I
Speaker 2: am to have the time to spend out there, and
Speaker 2: the last thing I want to do is screw up
Speaker 2: an opportunity on a big bull or buck, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: So I play the slow game frustratingly probably to others,
Speaker 2: But I am really, really, really conservative, especially on the
Speaker 2: spot and stock stuff. You know, a little bit more
Speaker 2: aggressive when it comes to calling, but when I'm just
Speaker 2: doing the spot in stock thing, I really want to
Speaker 2: make sure that I'm not blowing this bull out, really
Speaker 2: focused on keeping the wind right. If it's fifty to fifty,
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it, you know. And all that changes
Speaker 2: if my time is more limited, you know, if I
Speaker 2: only have a weekend. Man, I'm going to be the
Speaker 2: most aggressive guy in the woods that day. But when
Speaker 2: you have the time, and I did, Man, I was
Speaker 2: taken all the precautions. So there was times where my
Speaker 2: day would be over as soon as he got to
Speaker 2: his betting area, because this is a bull that would
Speaker 2: not make a peep. He wouldn't moan, he wouldn't do
Speaker 2: anything once he hit that bed, just wouldn't say anything,
Speaker 2: give me no opportunities to sneak into him. And he
Speaker 2: had a huge group of cows, so there.
Speaker 1: Was Yeah, that was a problem as well, and he
Speaker 1: wouldn't come out of the betting area till late. Until
Speaker 1: he was just late over the wind would be wrong.
Speaker 2: And they were practically run. They'd get up about three
Speaker 2: point thirty and they would basically, I mean they would
Speaker 2: just fly to back to that feed zone and they
Speaker 2: would go from public back onto private. Once they go
Speaker 2: onto the private, it's game over. And the other direction
Speaker 2: as well, I had to wait for them to get
Speaker 2: onto the public. So it was Yeah, it was a
Speaker 2: chess game for sure.
Speaker 1: A lot of fun, gotcha. And and the other thing
Speaker 1: that probably weighs in your decision is that you were
Speaker 1: in a spot where there weren't people, right, if there
Speaker 1: are other people around, you may had to be more
Speaker 1: aggressive or tried to capitalize on their screw ups or
Speaker 1: then messing things up. So that's another bonus. So being
Speaker 1: able to go deeper, get into these areas it's not
Speaker 1: comfortable to be in or survive in for for a
Speaker 1: long time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good at luxury good factor.
Speaker 2: I mean the fact that if there were people there
Speaker 2: and I felt like this bull is in jeopardy of
Speaker 2: getting arrowed by somebody else, Yeah, your aggression is going
Speaker 2: to go up one hundred percent. I would have I
Speaker 2: would have went out it a lot differently, but I
Speaker 2: had nobody in the area. There was nobody in there,
Speaker 2: and it just felt like my best opportunity is to
Speaker 2: play the slow game. So that's what I did on
Speaker 2: that bowl and could have been very different. If there were,
Speaker 2: you know, another group of guys chasing that same bowl.
Speaker 2: I probably would have been a lot more aggressive, for sure.
Speaker 2: But all those factors kind of weigh in on how
Speaker 2: you approach each and every you know, mature bowl that
Speaker 2: you're going for. It's it's always a little bit different.
Speaker 2: But that's why I hunt nonethelested animals and these these
Speaker 2: somewhat remote places. This one, this area was pretty remote,
Speaker 2: but you know it was only it was only a
Speaker 2: few miles in and and then it took me, you know,
Speaker 2: seven eight miles in, but you know, it was it
Speaker 2: was pretty remote. It just wasn't anybody there.
Speaker 1: So gotcha, gotcha, And then you got to Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you did early October, but then I
Speaker 1: know you and Paley went back out for you guys's
Speaker 1: Montana deer hunt. It was that. Was there anything in between?
Speaker 1: There was it. We had a bit of a rest there.
Speaker 2: She had drawn a buck analog tax, so we went out.
Speaker 2: We had one day to do it. We went out there.
Speaker 2: We had we had a busy schedule. So yeah, we
Speaker 2: went out there for a day, not too far from
Speaker 2: the house here, and and got her her first buck. Antelope.
Speaker 2: That was a ton of fun. You know, antelope are
Speaker 2: you are just different? You know, it's not like the
Speaker 2: biggest challenge in the world. But when you're hunting with
Speaker 2: your kid and you get to go through all the things,
Speaker 2: you know, crawling in on a buck, trying to get
Speaker 2: as tidy as you can, and just playing the patience, game,
Speaker 2: playing the wind. All those things just ends up being
Speaker 2: one of the funnest hunts of the year, even though
Speaker 2: it just lasted the day, And so we got her
Speaker 2: a really nice buck and you know, being last day
Speaker 2: it was November, I want to say twelve. There's something
Speaker 2: like that. You know, those sheets come off pretty easy
Speaker 2: at that time of the year. And he was already
Speaker 2: missing one of his sheets. Uh, and then pale when
Speaker 2: we got up to it. She went to move it
Speaker 2: and she grabbed that one sheath and she tried to
Speaker 2: move a little bit and popped right off. And we
Speaker 2: got to talk about that and when they lose those
Speaker 2: things and how they regrow and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 2: So fun experience. And then yeah, after that, we went
Speaker 2: you know November we always hunt here in our home state,
Speaker 2: and we had a great trip, you know, Me and Uh,
Speaker 2: this was our maiden voyage with our new goats this year.
Speaker 2: I'd been putting a lot of time in hiking them
Speaker 2: out around the house here on trails and getting them
Speaker 2: in shape, and this was a trip that we got
Speaker 2: to take them out. It took all six and me,
Speaker 2: Kim and Paley went out and had three deer tags,
Speaker 2: filled them all. I had a ton of fun. My
Speaker 2: daughter impressed me even more than she did the last time.
Speaker 2: You know, she made a perfect shot on a buck
Speaker 2: that she glassed up herself, and she actually passed on
Speaker 2: it because it was the first day when she first
Speaker 2: found it, which is pretty good. Kind of warms your heart,
Speaker 2: you know, a fourteen year old she's passing on bucks,
Speaker 2: pretty good bucks, just wanting to see what's over the
Speaker 2: next bridge, you know. So we spent the whole next
Speaker 2: day out there looking at quite a few bucks, probably
Speaker 2: another dozen deer that day, and by the end of
Speaker 2: the day she determined, you know what that buck that
Speaker 2: I passed on was was one that she was pretty
Speaker 2: excited about. So we went back and we relocated it,
Speaker 2: had him bet it up, and I let her take
Speaker 2: betted buck shots. Now she's such a good shooter that, yeah,
Speaker 2: this thing never even never even got up again, two
Speaker 2: in a row for her on betted bucks. But had
Speaker 2: a heck of a time, and you know, we were again,
Speaker 2: We're very lucky on the weather this year, Jason. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't remember a November in Montana where we were
Speaker 2: dealing with weather in the upper forties and in the
Speaker 2: fifties right now, we were still getting the ruddy bucks.
Speaker 2: But man, you're expecting like wind. We had no wind ever,
Speaker 2: and like we had one little snowstorm come through, but
Speaker 2: for the most part, it was sunny. It was warm,
Speaker 2: unseasonably warm for November, and it was almost too easy,
Speaker 2: and we had a heck of a heck of a
Speaker 2: fun time. But glassed up a ton of deer and
Speaker 2: you know, just another hunt that I got to spend
Speaker 2: time with Payley and just try to teach her everything
Speaker 2: that I possibly can about glassing a deer, where to look,
Speaker 2: what to do when we see him, like asking her
Speaker 2: questions about how do you think we should approach this buck,
Speaker 2: things like that, and it's just ends up being a
Speaker 2: good learning experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's my That's one of my favorite things,
Speaker 1: you know, taking my son hunted. You know, he's fourteen,
Speaker 1: and you know, like asking him, like, there's a deer here,
Speaker 1: we want to go shoot that one light and then
Speaker 1: you might pick the wrong route or maybe pick the
Speaker 1: right route. And then is just throughout the week he's
Speaker 1: starting to pick like better outs. So I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: there so he can't see me the whole way and
Speaker 1: then I'm like, well, how do you know you're going
Speaker 1: to be close enough? He's like, let me see your
Speaker 1: range finder, you know, and so he can like shoot
Speaker 1: the two spots. He's like, well, it's not a straight line,
Speaker 1: but it should be about here, you know. Or he's like, well,
Speaker 1: if I had on X, I'd be able to just
Speaker 1: look how far that ridge is to where I think
Speaker 1: he's at, you know, And so it's cool to like
Speaker 1: see it start to click in his head versus just
Speaker 1: doing what Dad says. He's like, all right, I'm going
Speaker 1: to start figuring. I'm going to start giving you my
Speaker 1: answers and then confirm it her or give me some
Speaker 1: other advice. And for him, you know, same with my wife,
Speaker 1: she shoots a lot of bedded bucks because for me,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely easier if that thing's not moving to just
Speaker 1: get the gun, you know, dialed in like you're you're
Speaker 1: such a good shot. But that's one thing I found
Speaker 1: with my son we need to work on. It is
Speaker 1: like target acquisition, you know, where it's like us, we've
Speaker 1: did it so many times, like it very quickly. If
Speaker 1: a deer takes off one hundred yards, I'll have it
Speaker 1: in the scope very quickly and at least have a
Speaker 1: chance where we had a white tail zipping around like
Speaker 1: Hunter couldn't get on it. It's like that's like that
Speaker 1: was a weak link and the game where yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: maybe we shouldn't be making it such a hurry, but
Speaker 1: at times, if it's the right animal and that's your
Speaker 1: only opportunity, you need to try to capitalize. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's target acquisition is our big down for right now.
Speaker 1: You do everything else right right to that time, and
Speaker 1: then you can't get the gun on them when they're
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 2: That's tough. Yeah, that's that's the same with Paley. You know,
Speaker 2: target acquisition. You know, you know, you and I are
Speaker 2: really good at I mean, you could have it at
Speaker 2: ten power and get your rifle you know, immediately on
Speaker 2: that that deer at whatever one hundred yards, two hundred yards.
Speaker 2: But you know, Paley's really good about backing that thing
Speaker 2: all the way back out to four and then finding
Speaker 2: it and then just swilling it in and she's gotten
Speaker 2: really good at that, so she's figured it out. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I love I love having that opportunity to just ask
Speaker 2: her questions, like, so, what's your gut tell you we
Speaker 2: should do right here, like where do you think that
Speaker 2: buck went? You know, in these places that we've already
Speaker 2: been to, and she's getting pretty good starting to figure
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: Awesome. Yeah, that kind of wraps up, wrap up your
Speaker 1: season some of the the you know how to's or
Speaker 1: what mattered on these specific hunts and what's next. So
Speaker 1: I know we'll I probably won't get to see this
Speaker 1: year at the Western Hunt because these show promoters decided
Speaker 1: to put everything on the same exact week this year,
Speaker 1: So I don't know if I do the short straw off.
Speaker 1: It's just because I live Fortunately, that's really an unfortunately
Speaker 1: on Western Washington. I'm gonna get stuck at the Portland show.
Speaker 1: Derek's gonna be out there, but you'll probably be at
Speaker 1: the at the Western Hunt. And then you've got some
Speaker 1: pretty exciting stuff coming up on the Bear.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're doing a little bear instructional.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's kind of something different than than I never
Speaker 2: wanted to do this. Let me put that out of
Speaker 2: there right now.
Speaker 3: This is not my thing.
Speaker 2: I don't like it in front of people. I don't
Speaker 2: like eyeballs on me. But somehow the fella's talking me
Speaker 2: into this. So we're doing a little Western Bear Tour
Speaker 2: involves three states, so we're doing one in Missoula, we're
Speaker 2: doing one in Boise, and we're doing one down in
Speaker 2: Salt Lake City. And these are all in the month
Speaker 2: of March. They are two day events and we're gonna
Speaker 2: have a lot of fun with it. This is kind
Speaker 2: of a total immersion into bear hunting. You know, we're
Speaker 2: gonna talk about everything, and you know, for for guys
Speaker 2: interested in I don't need to go through all the
Speaker 2: details of it, but you know, go to Tree Lane
Speaker 2: Academy dot net and you can kind of see what
Speaker 2: the Western Bear Tour encompasses. It's very detailed on everything
Speaker 2: that we're going to talk about, you know, everything from
Speaker 2: just having Q and a's to very very detailed discussions
Speaker 2: on everything bear. And that's gonna involve me, Mark Livessey,
Speaker 2: Brian Call, and Brad Hunt. And yeah, we're gonna have
Speaker 2: fun with this. It's gonna be I mean, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: be nervous as heck just getting in front of that
Speaker 2: many folks talking about stuff, but I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna, i guess, get out of my comfort zone
Speaker 2: and do this thing.
Speaker 1: So Yeah, that'll be fun and different. It seems like
Speaker 1: bear hunting is a topic of a lot of it's
Speaker 1: either picking up steam or and what I am going
Speaker 1: to sign you guys up for, what you don't know
Speaker 1: is I'm gonna sign you guys up to come talk
Speaker 1: with the WDFW commissioners when you're done with your little
Speaker 1: bear tour and you can like summarize what you found
Speaker 1: about bear hunters and people wanting to get into it
Speaker 1: for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we should do that, right man, guys over in Washington.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think I think overall we're gonna have
Speaker 2: a lot of fun with this. I think anybody who attends,
Speaker 2: they're going to get a lot out of it. We're
Speaker 2: gonna have a little movie night in there too. Brian's
Speaker 2: put putting together some some films that'll be seen there.
Speaker 2: And yeah, two day kind of all immersion into bear
Speaker 2: be things.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and a guy being lucky enough to attend
Speaker 1: three of your hunt summits now I believe maybe two.
Speaker 1: If it's anything like your guys's Western hunt summits, like
Speaker 1: this thing, should you guys knock it out of the park,
Speaker 1: it'll be well worth the time. So head over to
Speaker 1: the what's the link again, Ryan, It's for people to
Speaker 1: check out and find out some more information.
Speaker 2: So if you go to Tree Lane Academy dot net,
Speaker 2: there's a link there that takes it to the Western
Speaker 2: Bear Tour page there and all the sign all the
Speaker 2: information is there for it, and there's different passes that
Speaker 2: you can kind of look at as far as what
Speaker 2: you're looking for, but a lot of information.
Speaker 1: Nice. Nice. I was lucky enough I was gonna guarantee
Speaker 1: I was gonna do some idahospring bear hunting this year.
Speaker 1: But I was lucky enough to draw one of the
Speaker 1: state wide houndhunter permits, So I'm stoked to go over there.
Speaker 1: I'll get to chase some cats really, and then I
Speaker 1: might just end up running behind some you know, following
Speaker 1: the dogs around on that bear season as well. While
Speaker 1: I got my like one year past to hunt Idaho.
Speaker 1: That's so cool animals behind a hound.
Speaker 2: So I can't wait to hear about it.
Speaker 3: And I'm excited, yea excited excited for that.
Speaker 1: Well, we all know how much Ryan loves to talk
Speaker 1: to people. So if you're at Western Hunt, you guys
Speaker 1: can go find him, probably in the peak booth and
Speaker 1: if you don't see him around there, you can probably
Speaker 1: check one of the tants. He likes to hang out
Speaker 1: there and get away from people in the in the
Speaker 1: tents and then go out go check out his his
Speaker 1: bear summit that they're going to do in those three locations.
Speaker 1: And and if you want to learn more about deer Elk,
Speaker 1: he's got the Western Hunt summits. I believe both deer
Speaker 1: elk are mixed or archery. I don't remember how they're
Speaker 1: all broken up now. Usually just go to the Elk one,
Speaker 1: but yeah, there are lots of ways to get there Ryan,
Speaker 1: And don't let him fool you. He he loves to
Speaker 1: He loves to talk to you guys, just more on
Speaker 1: a one on one, not so much in in a
Speaker 1: group setting.
Speaker 2: That's it. Yeah, I can handle it when it's just
Speaker 2: like a one on one and we're talking. That's why
Speaker 2: you know. I do these summits and and they're a
Speaker 2: ton of fun. But I don't like differn presentations. I
Speaker 2: do like having conversations in the backdrop though. Yeah. Western
Speaker 2: Hunt Expo is is kind of next and uh, that's
Speaker 2: the that's the show that we're going to be doing.
Speaker 2: And we always have a ton of fun down there.
Speaker 2: You my wife go down with the kids and we
Speaker 2: will be hanging at the Peaks Booth this.
Speaker 1: Year, so yep, yep, And unfortunately I will be in No.
Speaker 1: I always have a great time at Portland as well.
Speaker 1: It's just sometimes it kind of sucks. The Western Hunt's
Speaker 1: such a good show. But but well, we'll have to
Speaker 1: catch you on the next Western Hunt show. Hopefully the
Speaker 1: promoters get their stuff together and not over schedule on
Speaker 1: top of each other. But as always, Ryan really appreciate
Speaker 1: having you on. Great, great answers on all those questions,
Speaker 1: and then it's always nice to kind of relive your season,
Speaker 1: so appreciate it and good luck on everything coming forward.
Speaker 1: And twenty four.
Speaker 2: Yep, thanks Jason, you as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah bye here