EP 119: The Evolution of Elk Hunting with the Epic Outdoors Crew. In this episode of the Epic Outdoors Podcast we talk about our own personal approach to getting tags and hunting Elk in the West. Elk hunting has evolved over the years to what it is today. Equipment has changed, management practices have been modified, and hunters have learned how to hunt elk more effectively. Whether you are after an opportunity hunt or a trophy experience, this conversation will help you develop your own strategies and tactics to be more successful in reaching your elk hunting goals.

Disclaimer: this text was produced through an automated transcription service and likely contains errors. Please listen to the original audio for exact content.

00:00:02:19 –> 00:00:07:14
Gain points for everything that you think you might even have interest in. ’cause you’re gonna want ’em down the road.

00:00:08:05 –> 00:00:12:16
Those bulls drift off the top. Get off into some of the canyons a little bit more later in the year.

00:00:13:02 –> 00:00:14:11
Anything to do with Western Big Games?

00:00:17:22 –> 00:00:18:06
Welcome

00:00:18:06 –> 00:00:21:09
To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.

00:00:21:29 –> 00:00:28:04
Hey everybody. Jason Carter. Adam Bronson, John Peterson. Chris Peterson as well. Chris, did your mic work today? Yeah. Sweet. Right

00:00:28:04 –> 00:00:29:09
On. Got it going. We got a new one

00:00:29:09 –> 00:00:55:28
Today. As we get started, we wanna thank Under Armour for sponsoring this podcast. Of course, we’re gonna have a few other advertisements on this podcast as well. Outdoor Edge, m o a rifles and phone Scope. Appreciate them as well. But anyway, under Armour is a sponsor, title sponsor. I guess we thought we’d talk about elk today. We’re all, of course, we get excited about deer and sheep. And of course we, we get excited about elk too, and we don’t give ’em enough credit. We don’t talk about ’em a ton, although we’re always trying to figure out how to kill the next giant. The

00:00:55:28 –> 00:01:01:29
Next podcast, if we’re not careful, is gonna be on Antelope. Jason’s kind of wound up this week about, about them. Well,

00:01:01:29 –> 00:01:08:09
I did a little research in Idaho. Geez. We, pretty soon we got me figuring out how to apply, buy super tags, everything else for antelope.

00:01:08:11 –> 00:01:13:06
And we got Wyoming antelope and deer coming out. So we got double dose of antelope stuff coming up

00:01:13:06 –> 00:01:21:03
Here. We got Guy du smoked an 82 inch outta Idaho, and we got a story in our mag. I’m thinking I can do that. Let’s do that.

00:01:21:14 –> 00:01:25:20
So, so that’ll, you might be flying solo next week

00:01:25:20 –> 00:01:34:11
On that podcast. No, no. You guys are coming. You, you we’re all doing that. We’ve all killed antelope. We like them. We enjoy ’em. We like killing ’em. But

00:01:34:11 –> 00:01:35:20
Today we’re talking about elk, so

00:01:35:20 –> 00:01:36:18
Can’t kill enough of them.

00:01:36:26 –> 00:01:37:05
Yeah.

00:01:37:27 –> 00:01:39:04
Anyway, so we’re gonna talk about

00:01:39:04 –> 00:01:48:04
Where are we gonna go with this? How are we gonna go? I don’t wanna go state by state. That’s, I think it goes without saying we, well, I’ll speak for me first.

00:01:48:05 –> 00:01:48:28
Okay. Speak for yourself.

00:01:48:29 –> 00:02:25:20
But it’s somewhat like the rest of us. I generally hunt elk when I get a good tag. I don’t, I don’t base my whole fall plans around one or two elk or three elk tags, like I know some other people do that are more into elk than into deer. We in Utah and it’s, it’s probably born into a spread into us, whatever little bit we cut our teeth hunting, deer, elk were the novelty. They, they were reintroduced throughout much of Utah, throughout of our teenage years. That’s right. We’ll just call it that. And so we hunted General Elk growing up. Jason and I both killed Ahorns, LaSalle Mountains

00:02:26:06 –> 00:02:26:23
Colorado. Yeah.

00:02:27:02 –> 00:03:15:08
Colorado jumping over there because hey, that was, you couldn’t hunt Utah elk, you know? Yeah. If you wanted to hunt a big bull, you could hunt the generals, but man, those were overrun with people. So we’re just kind of a culture in Utah that we’re, we don’t hunt big bulls every year. Like a Montana, like a Wyoming resident and a in a Montana resident. And you know, even some of the Idaho, but we’ve used Idaho, we’ve used Colorado to supplement it. So in general, I use, I, I viewed my elk hunts as when I get a good tag, I put a bunch into it and I go hunt it hard. And then I’m somewhat fine if I don’t get one now, that’s starting to change. And the older we get, we’re talking about it every year. We got a, you know, that 400 or something that we just really wanna say, all right, I got a bowl of a lifetime. We haven’t put as much time into it as maybe sheep or deer or other

00:03:15:08 –> 00:03:58:02
Stuff. Well, and you can’t do everything justice. You gotta, you do kind of gotta pick and choose a little bit. Elk tags, let’s face it, people say a non-typical mule deer is the hardest one to put in the book. And while it may be statistics wise, numbers wise, based off of hundreds of thousands of hunters, there’s a lot more deer hunters than elk hunters. Doesn’t mean it’s easier necessarily. All those statistics would indicate otherwise go, go try to find a, a, a trophy. Let’s call ’em trophy elk tags. Go try to draw one. Go try to buy one. They’re tough. They’re tough to find. It’s tough to find a, a quality bull tag. But part of that, Adam, I wanted to talk about a little bit is remember back in the day when maybe our dads were hunting very aggressively. Were talking about Utah General Colorado. A six point was a giant Oh,

00:03:58:06 –> 00:03:58:29
I remember you just

00:03:58:29 –> 00:03:59:14
Killed a six point.

00:03:59:20 –> 00:04:36:16
I remember my dad. We were, my brother and I were kids, I dunno, eight to 10. And he killed this five by five. But it was a good five. It, it was not a first year five, it was a three or four year old bull. Yeah. But we thought it was a monster. And he, he mounted that on an antler plaque in our room going, we, we just, we hung our hats. Yes. Arrows. I mean, it was just a part of our room. Yeah. Gun rack and, and it’s, if I, if I had to go squirt now, it’s probably a two 50 bull. Yeah. Or, but I mean it was, yeah. It was just, it was like, wow. And I remember he went to Idaho and he killed one with his bow, that was like a two 80 or 300.

00:04:36:16 –> 00:04:37:13
He used the talk of the town.

00:04:37:15 –> 00:04:38:26
It was a six by won car

00:04:39:02 –> 00:04:40:22
Bow at the big bull contest. Yeah.

00:04:40:22 –> 00:04:44:06
Seriously ly. Seriously, I don’t know. But it was a big deal.

00:04:44:13 –> 00:05:26:29
Garth killed a six point outta Pagosa Springs there in Colorado, same kind of thing. And we went over there. I smoked a muzzle, little bull right in the heart. I was so proud of myself. 125 yards there in Colorado. And, and you really think you’re doing something with mule deer. There’s always been giants. So we’ve been raised with giants always wanted to kill the giants. They were getting fewer and fewer in number and tougher to come by a giant mule. So there was more emphasis. All the while we’re watching bulls get better and better across the west. That’s right. And so we, as we grew up, the bulls got bigger. Yeah. And then we learned how to score ’em. But Garth kills that 400 inch or that Janet and I had prec scouted up there in Wyoming. Unit 61. That was like 1996.

00:05:26:29 –> 00:05:27:24
Mid nineties. Yeah.

00:05:27:24 –> 00:05:43:20
Yeah. And dude, we were over there and we’re like, well, you know, and we’re trying to figure out, we thought we knew how to score and go. And he’s like, I don’t know. I think we, we, we measured the main beam. And then, and then do we measure the sixth? I’m like, no, that’s the double measurement. That’s gotta be, that’s the main be, I mean that’s

00:05:43:20 –> 00:05:44:29
4 25 if we do it

00:05:44:29 –> 00:05:48:14
That way. That’s how far we’ve come as a hunting society. Yeah.

00:05:48:25 –> 00:06:14:18
Well, and as, as like said, if you’re we’re, we’re all from Utah and so we, we, we evolve through, if it’s a legal bull, kill it. Yes. And that’s your elk coming experience in Utah to Oh, we’re gonna start reintroducing Elk San Juan. The first five tags I was there. That’s my Aunt Drew one of the first year ever. And she killed probably a three 20 bull, but it was, it might as well have been four 20. Well, oh yeah. It was unbelievable. This was the,

00:06:14:20 –> 00:06:16:06
No, you didn’t know anybody else. Early

00:06:16:06 –> 00:06:45:16
Killed, early nineties, early nineties. And the first year San was open, San Juan was open. So Yes. And then to evolve to what Utah did evolve to. And then, you know, just, you know, we each had, Jason and I, we’ve each had an opportunity to hunt out John, you’ve hunt elk once in Utah. We’ve talked about it in other podcasts. We don’t hunt out our big bulls in Utah very often, unless you can, you know, buy a tag or usually, you know, that’s the only other way landowner tag or, or draw tags just don’t, they don’t come around very often. They don’t

00:06:45:16 –> 00:07:09:28
Come around very often. I remember John McClendon in the early nineties was guiding Agnew early mid, let’s say. And he was kind of, in my mind, it was the godfather of these giant bulls. A he knew what they scored. He, he just was, he started doing the videos. And so we learned, you know, you learn a lot and you’re kind of like, okay, that’s kind of setting the sea, this seed for wanting to kill a big bull. But Arizona had ’em. We didn’t have ’em. We didn’t have

00:07:10:02 –> 00:07:13:26
At the time. No. Yeah, we didn’t. We’re just thinking about having ’em in Utah. Yeah.

00:07:13:27 –> 00:07:29:06
So that just kind of sets the stage for a little bit of background on, on us and, and the elk and, and whatever our quest to kill giant bulls. Fast forward early two thousands, you know, I was guiding a little bit, Adam, you were guiding a little bit on LaSalle Mountains. Yeah.

00:07:29:22 –> 00:07:42:02
CW U and Yeah, whatever. Go put yourself through college Utah. We’re starting to get good, get worth chasing. And that was a way to hunt bulls just like you. It’s why you started guiding some elk in southwest desert and Nevada is, well, all of

00:07:42:02 –> 00:07:43:11
Sudden it comes good. Yes.

00:07:43:11 –> 00:07:45:13
To hunt a big bull when you couldn’t get attacked. Oh, it,

00:07:45:19 –> 00:07:49:02
It, yeah. It was is landscaping money? Yeah. Let’s be honest.

00:07:50:14 –> 00:07:52:17
Diaper money. Oh, diapers food.

00:07:52:26 –> 00:08:22:23
Okay. It was food. It basically, so guiding back in the, for me personally, just for me personally, and Adam, you probably are very similar in where we were at in our, our stage of life guiding doubled my, my yearly salary. And so that was significant. And for Jana, which it helped again, and I’ve told this story before, but it helps when you have a separate checkbook for gas money that you say, Hey, I, I’m sorry, I gotta fill the truck up again, babe. You know what I mean? And so at the time you were making less than an administrative assistant.

00:08:23:02 –> 00:08:23:12
I mean, just,

00:08:23:14 –> 00:08:26:14
Right. Well, it was tight, you know. Yeah. And I have

00:08:26:14 –> 00:08:28:06
To, early nineties, mid nineties. Yeah. You’re

00:08:28:06 –> 00:09:05:24
Talking It was tight. Yes. Early 2000. We’re just out, out of college, just like every kid in the world. No different than anybody else trying to carve away, trying to figure it out. Your full energy. Trying to, trying to figure it out. And so anyway, and, and how else are you gonna put your hands on big stuff when a, you don’t have any points. You can’t afford the draw system. I mean, you’re putting everything you can on credit card and justifying anything and everything. Selling a few sheds thinking you actually can make a living doing sheds. Anyway, I don’t know. That’s kind of sets the stage. We gotta put our hands on big stuff by guiding them. And then we learned a lot as we went forward. You know, you just learn a

00:09:05:24 –> 00:09:25:19
Lot. You were talking about guiding, you put a few, I know you did a few giant bulls on the ground, you know, I mean, the goofy days. These were, these were, I don’t wanna call ’em the first because I wasn’t, you know, we didn’t work together at the time. We didn’t know each other. We weren’t together. Yeah. But for all intents and purposes, the first giant bulls you touched were these clients just,

00:09:25:20 –> 00:09:56:16
Well, yeah. Yeah. So Russ Young calls me one day and he says, Hey, I won the lottery. I didn’t really know who he was. I won the lottery. I’m like, what do you mean? He goes, well, I was, I was the number two guy in Quaker Oats and I was bought out by Pepsi. We were, and so all these years I had turned my bonus money into, I had chance for cash or for stock and, and I took the stock. So I, I’m got a load of stock. Pepsi buys me out stock, goes to the roof and I just won the lottery. I’m doing, I wanna go some, I wanna do some hunting. And I’m thinking,

00:09:57:06 –> 00:09:57:14
Okay,

00:09:57:25 –> 00:09:58:13
I want to take you.

00:10:00:12 –> 00:10:00:20
Okay.

00:10:02:07 –> 00:10:09:00
So at the time, you know, these bulls, we were kind of getting into these big bulls we’re, again, we’re full of energy. Yeah. And we, Utah

00:10:09:03 –> 00:10:20:12
Was ripening. It was perfectly, and so was the neighboring units in Nevada, because to a large extent, Utah fed some of these 2 31 and some of these others on the border. We fed

00:10:20:12 –> 00:11:14:09
It. Yes. That’s a hundred percent. That’s a hundred percent. They come to and from, and maybe summer in Nevada, Rutt and Utah, vice versa. And there was burns, if you remember all these burns creating ripe feed, which again, for those listening, we’ve never known a burn that didn’t produce something giant. So we love burns down here in the south. Fast forward we hunt. 2001 kills a 360 bull. I find a 3 77 set of sheds. I’m like, while he shoots this bull, I glass up this shit the shed and it’s thick. And I’m like, okay Russ, if we move, I’m gonna lose track of these sheds. It’s thicker than freaking crap. I’m like, so what I want you to do is guide me to the sheds and I’m gonna meet you at your bull. I’m a kid. Right. Those sheds mean as much to me as the bull does to him, probably more. And so he’s like, really? We’re gonna go to the sheds before the bull. And I’m like, yeah,

00:11:16:05 –> 00:11:18:05
I ain’t gotta win something today too. So

00:11:18:19 –> 00:11:32:02
He guides me over, I snag this pair of sheds. I’m like, you’re shiting me. These are freaking awesome. And then we meet at his bull. Everything was awesome. He’s a great client. And, and then the next year he wants to do it again. 2002. Terrible drought year. Remember? I mean,

00:11:32:02 –> 00:11:35:00
Brutal. It was one of the worst. I was a biologist at the time. I don’t think there

00:11:35:00 –> 00:11:36:08
Was a green blade of grass.

00:11:36:18 –> 00:11:45:20
The Mount Dutton burned the whole unit burned starting in April. They started prescribed burns in April. Right now, in April. I couldn’t burn cheat grass in Cedar City right now.

00:11:46:03 –> 00:11:48:03
You couldn’t, you couldn’t light a cigarette. Right now

00:11:49:01 –> 00:11:56:14
You can’t in Utah. But that year, they started in April and it smed and then it got in June. Just crushed, remember Burned.

00:11:56:14 –> 00:11:57:00
Yes. I totally

00:11:57:10 –> 00:12:09:02
Remember half the unit. 2002 there. There was no snow. They started burning earlier. And anyway, so, and then it was a dust bowl hauling water to deer all over the ponds. It was a terrible year. I don’t know how goofy did it. It was goofy.

00:12:09:07 –> 00:12:30:29
I don’t either. It was goofy that year. Yeah. So goofy. So he was in 2001, we had videoed him and I told Russ, this is when he killed the 360 and the 3 7 7 sheds. Okay. I told him, I’m like, that is gonna be a giant. We video him. It’s like three 30 big freaking thirds doubled up. You remember how the fourth and the third was almost a shared base. Like just, I mean, very bull unique.

00:12:31:01 –> 00:12:34:05
Boom. Bull Boone Crockett thought that too. Yeah. Wow. Later on. Anyway,

00:12:34:05 –> 00:13:08:11
So anyway, we passed him and I said, Russ, that’s gonna be a freaking monster. And so comes 2002. He go, that bull goes from three 30 to 4 31 year. My gosh. One year. Wow. I didn’t realize it was that quick giant fist. I have video, like I have video. The thirds are 27. When we kill him, they’re 20. They look like they’re 30. Unbelievable. Anyway, straight up six. Okay. Straight up six. Remember Adam set the stage. Utah’s just getting ripe. We didn’t have those bulls. Now we’re looking at those kind of bulls. Would’ve been number one in the state. Is this? Yeah. What

00:13:08:11 –> 00:13:13:13
Is this? That’s why when it started, really That’s right. Blew up from there. A drought in 2008. Yeah.

00:13:13:13 –> 00:14:04:07
But it was a drought in a desert unit. He lived on a green spot. Where what? Where did he Summer? Nobody knows where are his sheds. Nobody knew. Nobody still knows whatever. And so we don’t kill him. We, we freaking watch him in in Nevada. I mean, you know, we got a Utah tech. And so he lives, nobody kills him. Fast forward 2003. Good. Goodyear. Weather-wise, everything’s great. I watch goofy. Come walk into Utah, bugling by himself. September 7th, the archery hunts on, I leave, I’m outta here. If everybody, anybody sees my truck, they’ll know what I’m hunting. Da da da. Yeah. Russ’s got a landowner tag. He also has a Nevada Governor’s tag. We’re killing goofy no matter what. In the meantime found shit. Joshua shits the Nevada bull. And they were for 24 or whatever. Right. I mean, and in a unit that

00:14:04:14 –> 00:14:05:11
You were looking for deer.

00:14:05:17 –> 00:14:13:19
Yeah, I was looking for deer in a unit. Didn’t have elk. Got the unit to open, you know, went and visited with the Lincoln County Cab. Like you got

00:14:13:19 –> 00:14:18:26
Elk here, you got why Draw boundary here, lump it in with something neighboring. At least, you know. That’s right.

00:14:18:26 –> 00:14:28:22
That was premise. So they did, so they lumped it in. If you go back to those regs, they lumped it in with 2 31. 2 31. Yeah. So we can see, well, we don’t know what’s there. Yeah, you don’t know what’s there. But throw it in with 2 31, everybody will hunt. 2 31, got a few

00:14:28:22 –> 00:14:29:11
Out pioneering out.

00:14:29:11 –> 00:14:30:13
You kind A And they knew,

00:14:30:15 –> 00:14:35:07
They knew fishing, knew Alpha pioneering there. And they’re just like, yeah, lump it. The two forties in with 2 31. That’s right.

00:14:35:20 –> 00:15:09:06
Boom. It’s open. He has the governor tag. Worst case scenario, backup plan will hunt Joshua if we kill goofy on a landowner tag anytime. Anytime he bid on the Utah governor tag didn’t get it. I go back in, we gps where goofy would be. He always where his kind of his route was. You know what I mean? And we went back, camped about two miles away. And we walked from camp three hours before Daylight walked in because if you drive in, you push him to the trees and he’s gone. So we, we hike our guts out, get in there, daylight hits, other hunters are coming up the road. They push goofy. Just natural pressure. Just a natural.

00:15:10:03 –> 00:15:10:12
Yeah.

00:15:10:21 –> 00:15:39:22
You know, hunters are there and he’s pushing his cows to the trees. And we smoke goofy. He ends up being 4 30, 4 as a five by on one side, a five by eight. So those giant fifths went down to nothing. But I mean, identical. Identical. And then later that fall, we ended up smoking Joshua same year. So Russ won the Super Bowl. You know what I mean? We talk about winning the Super Bowl. I mean, while he did buy a governor’s tag and had special season dates, it still just happened with a landowner tag. Perfect.

00:15:40:02 –> 00:15:40:29
Lined up two

00:15:40:29 –> 00:15:41:22
Bulls, two yeah. In Utah,

00:15:41:22 –> 00:15:43:28
2, 4 20 plusers in the same year.

00:15:44:06 –> 00:15:56:13
Sets the stage for loving bulls. All of a sudden we’re elk hunters. Good grief. Bring nothing, you can’t do anything wrong. Let’s do this thing. Yeah. And, and then, anyway, so then Adam, I mean let’s jump on your,

00:15:56:21 –> 00:16:02:29
Did I, did you and I draw the same year? When did you draw your Southwest Desert Archery? Oh, late two thousands. I

00:16:02:29 –> 00:16:04:00
Try to forget that experience.

00:16:04:12 –> 00:16:06:11
Okay. Nevermind. Anyway, let’s talk

00:16:06:11 –> 00:16:06:16
About

00:16:06:16 –> 00:16:24:18
Your experience. Things were ripening, things were riping in Utah. I was being greedy. I was applying for the multi-season tag for years. Just because you’re seeing all these bulls and you wanted to make sure one of them came off on your back, you know? Yes. But finally, about 2008, it was starting. We were all starting to see

00:16:25:08 –> 00:16:26:11
The end was coming. Yeah.

00:16:26:11 –> 00:16:37:02
The, the giants for the, the tag tag increases were coming up on units gradually. We’re used to, basically when you drew a tag in Utah, you were all by yourself crushing three 70 bulls. And everybody was high fiving.

00:16:37:07 –> 00:16:38:07
And we were heroes for

00:16:38:07 –> 00:16:40:05
A lot of ti a lot of, for 2000. Couldn’t

00:16:40:05 –> 00:16:44:22
Do anything wrong. Utah was number one. Every state wanted to be like Utah. Yeah. 2000 when really three

00:16:44:22 –> 00:17:21:24
To seven. That’s how it was. Yes. Yes. And so I ended up pulling out from that plan and just doing the early rifle hunting the year, year before I’d seen a giant six point, which still, still probably would be the bull I would pick, you know, a 400 inch plus straight six, geez. Is just, is what, you know what I would pick over anything. And I could not turn this bull up this year. Whether he regressed, whether he moved, whether he was on another unit, you know. So all these units now don’t just come to the same place every year. They’re not like me all there. But yeah, Jason, you were there with me. You actually drew a desert sheep tag the same year. And

00:17:22:05 –> 00:17:27:28
By this time we had met, in fact, you were working at the business. Yeah. Starting to consult we’re,

00:17:27:29 –> 00:17:29:14
It’s a couple years into that. Yeah. We’re

00:17:29:14 –> 00:17:39:14
Leading the state as far as sheep transplant, sheep, biologists, all of those kinds of things. Ended up moving into the private sector with us. You end up with a nail tag. I end up with a sheep tag.

00:17:39:29 –> 00:17:46:07
I had a sheep tag in Oregon that year too. I drew Oregon, forgot. And Dutton and your escali. This is all within

00:17:46:22 –> 00:17:51:18
Weeks. Went three weeks. Yeah. We went from Beatty’s Butte to Oregon. Picked up a few trout cameras in Mariah,

00:17:52:21 –> 00:17:52:28
Go

00:17:52:28 –> 00:18:25:12
To Utah. Kill a bull. Yeah. Ended up finding this bull the week before the hunt. Several bull hunters were trying to kill him. He’s very unique. He’s got three eye guards on both sides. Gorgeous bull. Just and inline seven because of that. And, but he was in the general area that I, I was looking for that other bull from the, from the previous year. I just couldn’t turn him up. First day of the hunt. We, we had him dead. Right. And I just, I just couldn’t, couldn’t shoot him. He wasn’t my quote Dream bull. The, and I just, when you pull a trigger after I kept 15,

00:18:25:14 –> 00:18:27:22
How did points have to go down where you decided, I can’t

00:18:27:22 –> 00:18:42:01
Even remember. 15 points or so roughly. You know, so, you know, at the time, 15 points now is no man’s land. 15 points. Then I, you know, it was, it was, it was Mount Dutton. It was, you know, I couldn’t draw San Juan. I had to draw what I wanted to draw. And that was it. So and so night getting ready

00:18:42:01 –> 00:18:43:29
To pass three 80 bowl.

00:18:44:06 –> 00:19:44:22
I did, I did remember in that night, we’re back, me and you and Aaron. We looked at my dad and we’re just talking. And the reality set in is this thing’s three 80 plus, what are you doing? And he, his triple I guard bull is unique. So we went back the next night and smoked. I mean, remember that. It was awesome that we were on point, Aaron, we were on point. I think you videoed in one angle. Yeah. And Aaron did on another. Yes. And it was a crossfire, you know, from camera angles, crossfire. Oh yeah. Smoked him on video. And it was a great night coming off the mountain. And that was a, you know, upper three eighties bull. You know, he is hanging in my house today. Love it. But that’s my one Utah big bull experience that I’ve had. Yes. My, me personally, yes. Guided clients on San Juan, guided clients on Boulder. We’ll be on Boulder again this year. It’ll be, it’ll be fun. It should be a great year. But we just, we have to branch out, I guess is what we’re saying. And that’s what we’re teeing up maybe for, you know, maybe you know, Jason, you’ve drawn some awesome tags. Well you’ve drawn some tags in, in

00:19:44:22 –> 00:19:45:04
Made New Mexico,

00:19:45:07 –> 00:19:47:20
Made them that weren’t, weren’t always awesome. Yeah. They’re awesome

00:19:47:20 –> 00:19:59:23
Tags. But that’s what, and we’ve talked about New Mexico before Adam, and there were so many opportunities in New Mexico and units that you can, bulls aren’t named in New Mexico. And almost most of the units have a chance for a giant Well,

00:20:00:00 –> 00:20:00:24
Yeah. Lower.

00:20:01:04 –> 00:20:02:04
I love the low densities.

00:20:02:19 –> 00:20:09:24
I love the low densities. Said their firearm hunts are out of the ru they’re in October and they’re short five days. Yeah. They’re almost like, we dare you to kill something big.

00:20:10:14 –> 00:20:20:22
And on day five, you’re, well day four on the first one, right, Chris? Day four and then the next one, day five. Yep. Yep. You know, and both are over three 80. And it gets stressful in those last couple days. But

00:20:20:25 –> 00:20:24:26
What was yours last year, Chris? Was it day four or five? How, how many days into your hunt day One.

00:20:24:26 –> 00:20:27:18
Day one. It was, it was kind

00:20:27:18 –> 00:20:32:14
Of a, seemed like you were there a long time. ’cause we kept seeing video of the bull. So I was losing track. Chris is,

00:20:32:20 –> 00:20:45:23
I went three days early. Just, I, I wanted to be able to find a bull and kill it early. That’s what he did. It was one of those things that was a drought year. And so I pretty much, it was, if I find a, a good bull that’s a really nice bull 50 bull smoking it.

00:20:46:00 –> 00:20:54:12
I just really want to know about the, the rifle you shot Okay. Is my old lady’s gun. And it was deadly accurate.

00:20:55:12 –> 00:20:57:10
We’ve had whole podcasts on Chris’s

00:20:57:10 –> 00:21:04:29
Gun issues, if you wanna look that up. I love it. Pretty however, this gun performed flawlessly. I did. And you hadn’t shot at one time prior to killing? No,

00:21:04:29 –> 00:21:08:12
I, I, I, I shot, I shot at it a box.

00:21:09:17 –> 00:21:10:13
I’m sorry. I misstated.

00:21:10:22 –> 00:21:16:16
Yes, I target shot with it, but yeah, it was 500 yard shot. Awesome. Good. Awesome. Worked out good.

00:21:17:00 –> 00:21:25:20
Well, and it was a giant beautiful bull. Yeah. Just a stud. And that was a draw tag in a kind of one of these lower density units, you know, elk with low density.

00:21:27:12 –> 00:21:27:20
John

00:21:27:20 –> 00:21:33:02
Should, should we move to John’s story? I just wanna know, John, would you recommend CrossFit or jogging or anything?

00:21:33:13 –> 00:21:45:00
What do you think? Here’s the question. Social media these days, it’s full. Where’s Jeff when I need him? They take the, he, he wasn’t on this hunt and I, there wasn’t either. But I’ve heard you Steve. Abuse usually. But I wanna hear it again.

00:21:45:05 –> 00:21:47:13
I was, and there was supposed clout coughing of blood.

00:21:47:24 –> 00:22:07:12
Let’s, let’s move on internet today. There’s a lot of people that work out on social media. We’ll just leave it at that, that, try to tie that in to how that makes them awesome hunters. And I’m not trying to belittle being in shape and how that can transition to being a good hunter. However, do you feel physical fitness,

00:22:08:16 –> 00:22:11:08
How, how much of a part did physical fitness play does

00:22:11:13 –> 00:22:16:01
Physical can and does physical fitness ever be important on a hunt? John, take it. Take the mic

00:22:18:17 –> 00:22:19:23
There. I was. All right.

00:22:19:24 –> 00:22:20:11
For those, those of

00:22:20:11 –> 00:22:25:11
You who don’t know after a perfect lung shock. So go ahead. We’re teeing this up for you, John. Go ahead. So we had a

00:22:25:11 –> 00:22:50:26
Brutal year and I was in the office just nonstop sleeping in the office, trying to get magazines done all the time. And just, I, I didn’t get out of the office, so I was totally outta shape. I mean, it was bad like a, a gym selfie. I hadn’t seen a gym for a year. Yeah. You know, a couple years in a row that Chris and I would work out every day and all that. Well you guys just looked bad that year. I, I did

00:22:51:05 –> 00:22:55:14
Get outta it. You didn’t have hardly any time to go to Taco Bell and get one of those combo mills. I mean, it was,

00:22:56:22 –> 00:22:57:19
You didn’t, no.

00:22:58:08 –> 00:23:02:24
And that, that’s an inside joke. It’s really quite funny. But maybe another podcast. Go ahead John.

00:23:03:03 –> 00:23:13:19
Anyway, so yeah, when I got there I was just outta shape like crazy. I did have time to go out scouting, but it was like, but it’s the rut. Reach the bull. Yeah. You know, don’t scout

00:23:13:20 –> 00:23:15:00
The rutt unless you’re in

00:23:15:02 –> 00:23:23:00
The rutt. So, and I’d run some trail cameras and stuff, but man, exercise wise, oh, it was in horrible shape. So sold the experience. Yeah. So there

00:23:23:00 –> 00:23:24:25
We were, there we were almost

00:23:24:26 –> 00:23:25:26
As bad as your escal.

00:23:26:19 –> 00:23:34:05
Oh. John had a picture of his family in one hand and a goo in the other. He, how many goos did you crush to get out there and a you didn’t think you were gonna make it?

00:23:34:10 –> 00:23:37:00
No, I had like four or five was Goose. It was, yeah.

00:23:37:02 –> 00:23:37:28
Heavy caffeine.

00:23:38:04 –> 00:23:40:22
We teased John that time that if, if goo

00:23:40:27 –> 00:23:42:06
We bought him a goo flask.

00:23:42:11 –> 00:23:44:24
We did remember we did. You could squeeze. That was the joke. Goose

00:23:44:24 –> 00:23:48:06
Into a flash to make it bigger than just the little individual surf.

00:23:48:06 –> 00:23:49:04
Yeah. And it was made for

00:23:49:04 –> 00:23:51:12
Gook. It was, it was a flash. It

00:23:51:12 –> 00:23:53:29
Was, I don’t know why we found it because I don’t think Amazon

00:23:54:04 –> 00:23:56:29
Was available back. No. Was funny. It was funny stuff. Anyway, yeah. That one

00:23:56:29 –> 00:24:06:19
Was bad too though. That one was a 10 day and I packed horribly. Ended up having a 77 pound pack going in. Yeah. Mine

00:24:06:19 –> 00:24:08:00
Was 94. It was,

00:24:08:04 –> 00:24:09:13
It was, it was brutal. It

00:24:09:13 –> 00:24:11:01
Was, it was brutal. Go ahead Chris.

00:24:11:09 –> 00:24:15:24
Well, for anybody that doesn’t know Goo is an energy. The energy, little energy.

00:24:16:07 –> 00:24:20:11
Oh yeah. Gels. We need, we needed to, thanks for that clarification.

00:24:20:24 –> 00:24:22:06
They’re all, we can’t

00:24:22:06 –> 00:24:25:24
Even buy them them anymore. We’re gonna have Instagram memes and everything popping up about the goof.

00:24:26:02 –> 00:24:32:08
I haven’t seen, I haven’t seen ’em for a long time. I don’t Are they still around? They’re not as popular as, it doesn’t feel like, you know,

00:24:32:11 –> 00:24:36:19
They were a shot of energy with a lot like a monster. I think Monster replaced those.

00:24:36:27 –> 00:24:40:11
They were gel version of a monster. They were. Yeah. And about one ounce or

00:24:41:09 –> 00:24:41:19
Light.

00:24:41:29 –> 00:24:44:19
Lots of ingredients than vitamins. You can’t get other places.

00:24:44:29 –> 00:24:46:00
I’m telling you, they were great.

00:24:46:25 –> 00:24:48:08
It did it. Hey, it saved

00:24:48:10 –> 00:24:49:01
You. Oh, it saved me,

00:24:49:01 –> 00:24:55:08
Man. Your family. They got to see you again. Absolutely. It was a wonderful experience. Meeting back up experience. So anyway, anyway.

00:24:55:08 –> 00:25:00:04
So back on the deal. Elk hunt. Yeah. I mean it was a fun hunt. Get on

00:25:00:04 –> 00:25:00:17
This bull,

00:25:00:21 –> 00:25:11:05
You know. Yeah. We, we were seeing bulls, we were hearing bulls and we’re just waiting for the right one. And, and then, you know, we found it and I shot it and

00:25:11:08 –> 00:25:12:04
We videoed it. We

00:25:12:04 –> 00:25:15:12
Videoed it. Man, I thought it was dead. I saw it fall. Could

00:25:15:19 –> 00:25:17:04
Probably even find it on YouTube. Can we Boom.

00:25:17:08 –> 00:25:28:02
Yeah, I think it is on YouTube, but yep. I saw it fall, hit the ground. I thought it’s done. And then so we were hugging, hugging, high fiving. I mean it was just the greatest ever. And then Noz were

00:25:28:11 –> 00:25:28:23
Aons too.

00:25:29:01 –> 00:25:33:13
Then it was, oh shoot, he’s up. He’s up. And, and then we all had the

00:25:33:26 –> 00:25:42:18
In the headlight look like, duh. Yeah. I’m thinking don’t be shooting a cow or another bull on the run. Like it gets Helder Keller. We’ve all been in those positions. Yeah.

00:25:42:25 –> 00:25:49:05
And then it was just dead run. And, and we ran and ran, ran, ran and ran. And then we decided, okay, let’s

00:25:49:16 –> 00:25:50:01
Let him sleep.

00:25:50:03 –> 00:25:56:12
He’s bleeding out, he’s bleeding, so let’s let him sleep. And came back the next day and then he still wasn’t dead.

00:25:56:26 –> 00:26:09:02
Well we tracked him and it was hard tracking and the rocks and the blood and we track and tracking, there’s elk tracks everywhere ’cause they’re rutting and there’s cows and bulls and everything mixing and matching. And we end up walking up on him. Yeah. And he jumps up and takes off, jumps

00:26:09:02 –> 00:26:09:20
Up and we’re like,

00:26:09:20 –> 00:26:10:13
You’re correct.

00:26:10:20 –> 00:26:14:16
And it wasn’t a horrible shot. It was in the shoulder. I mean, good shot just

00:26:15:02 –> 00:26:18:24
Once in a while by chance. Deflected off a rib or something weird. It was just

00:26:18:24 –> 00:26:22:13
Weird. And then it was like a marathon run.

00:26:22:14 –> 00:26:23:05
It was a marathon

00:26:23:11 –> 00:26:23:26
Run run.

00:26:24:01 –> 00:26:26:22
He had the adrenaline of something’s trying to kill me. These guys.

00:26:26:25 –> 00:26:29:29
Yeah. We went a couple miles and I was, it was all I could do to keep up.

00:26:31:04 –> 00:26:32:14
It was. And I was Was

00:26:32:14 –> 00:26:38:02
There any room? Oh my gosh. Is there any truth to the rumor of blood in

00:26:38:10 –> 00:26:39:05
Oh, when vomit

00:26:41:01 –> 00:26:41:10
John?

00:26:42:10 –> 00:26:46:25
I heard that purported. I was not on this hunt. No, I was coughing by the end and I could taste

00:26:46:25 –> 00:26:53:23
Blood. He had a cough. Yeah, he had a coughing attack. Yeah. And I was like, I don’t know who’s gonna die first. This bowler John.

00:26:54:19 –> 00:26:55:00
It was

00:26:55:08 –> 00:27:20:29
John quartered out the gutless method wouldn’t be fucking just like, anyway, so this bull turns around and barks at us, barks with foam coming out of his mouth. Yeah. It was a bummer. You know, wasn’t John and John smoke sea and everything was great. But you don’t like it to happen that way. He didn’t deserve that. A we didn’t deserve that either. It was for making a perfect shot. Dead rest. Great bullet. Not, we’re not talking a

00:27:21:21 –> 00:27:22:08
Long range.

00:27:23:05 –> 00:27:36:00
No, I’m talking a little plastic tip, bullet that twos yard blows apart. We’re talking bonded. It wasn’t far, it wasn’t it was good. Was just, anyway. But sometimes it does that sometimes things like that happen and made the best of it. Anyway. Stud Bull John.

00:27:36:07 –> 00:27:39:26
Yeah. I was so happy when that bullet and we got that ball was

00:27:40:05 –> 00:27:41:02
It was awesome. Got him in your office.

00:27:41:12 –> 00:27:44:29
Yeah. It’s, it’s, it was a, it was a good memory too, you know. Yeah.

00:27:45:07 –> 00:27:48:02
Making memories. Yep. Well anyway, so

00:27:48:29 –> 00:27:50:01
Yeah, so now

00:27:50:18 –> 00:27:54:01
We’ve, we’ve all killed some bulls and it’s time to how you

00:27:54:01 –> 00:27:59:11
Gotta do in other states, you know, unfortunately, Jason, you’ve probably done best. I mean, you actually, you’ve,

00:27:59:11 –> 00:28:00:28
You’ve the I love Mexico. You’ve

00:28:00:28 –> 00:28:12:23
Drawn well there in a non-point state, but you’ve also through points had a couple Arizona tags. Yeah. Forced the draw like we talked about. Yeah. I had mine a couple years ago down there in 27. You’ve been to one a couple of times.

00:28:13:24 –> 00:28:32:02
Yeah. I drew an early rifle down there in an archery, archery killed on both tags, you know. Yeah. Bulls over three 50. It, I mean, you know that, that’s another story. Chris, were you on that one? Did you, you filmed that with me? Yeah. Yep. Go, go ahead. I’ll let you tee it up. That archery, that archery elk that I hit in the butt. Go ahead. That was,

00:28:32:04 –> 00:28:57:11
It was a fun hunt. It was one of those hunts that like, the bulls were just going crazy. And we got in there one morning and, and we could tell these bulls were coming together to fight. And they were just bugling all over. And we, we, we were planning on sneaking in there before they got together and started clashing. And so we just were listening to bugles and chasing bugles and we got in there really tight with them. But the problem was we were crawling under this brush to get to it. And we’re sitting there under this

00:28:57:21 –> 00:28:58:08
Super thick,

00:28:58:14 –> 00:29:06:20
Super thick stuff. But there’s a window we can see out of it. And we just see this big bull come up, come up through the opening and we can see another bull

00:29:07:29 –> 00:29:08:28
Shagging him. Yeah.

00:29:09:08 –> 00:29:17:23
Bo both these bulls are just coming through and, and they came through just in the right right area where we had a window and Jason shot through that window,

00:29:18:22 –> 00:29:37:09
40, like 40 yards. And, and I hit him in the butt and I was like, you’re shing me. Yeah. I mean, this is on film and I’m just beside myself. I’m beside myself. I’m disgusted. And, and, and he runs, he comes over, runs about 70 yards, lays down and dies in 45 seconds.

00:29:37:27 –> 00:29:38:29
It was kidding. The

00:29:38:29 –> 00:29:41:18
Fastest archery kill I had ever seen in my life.

00:29:41:28 –> 00:29:47:14
I’m like, I’m, I look at Chris and I’m like, did that, did he just die? He just died. I can’t believe he just died.

00:29:48:03 –> 00:29:48:10
You

00:29:48:10 –> 00:30:03:13
Just did his dead. You know, the whole time I’m thinking I’m gonna go over there and smell guts. I’m, you know, and I’m just, anyway, he bled out blood everywhere. And I’m like, there’s a wow. So Chris that night, he’s going through the footage and he’s like, watch this and slow mo

00:30:03:27 –> 00:30:13:04
And it, so the arrow comes out and there was one branch in that opening that we couldn’t see. And it was, it just perfectly deflected that arrow into the,

00:30:13:14 –> 00:30:16:18
And you see it going for his lungs, deflect hits him and

00:30:17:26 –> 00:30:28:12
We’re close enough. And that, that it was a close enough shot that it didn’t, you know, it still hit the bull. Yeah. And luck, luckily it hit him in like the right, into the femoral artery that sauce done.

00:30:28:22 –> 00:30:30:13
And that’s bow hunting though. And Wow. And I

00:30:30:13 –> 00:30:32:00
Think again that happens.

00:30:32:06 –> 00:30:57:12
Probably teased up. I, you know, I know you are lot the same way. I i, we prefer that if you can hunt ’em in September, you know, we got spoiled in Utah. I had a rifle hunt here. John had a rifle hunt in Utah. And those are spoiled though. We don’t, you really can’t plan on hunting rifle rutt hunts in September. No. You just don’t plan it. Very few states even give, give that opportunity. So for me, if I had a choice, it’s, it’s a bow in your hands in the rutt, however. Well,

00:30:57:13 –> 00:31:25:06
And that has changed though, back in the day when, I don’t know, I don’t wanna say bow sucked, but it didn’t feel like you had a, a real valid weapon in your hands. Okay. And so now finger, finger taps you think about it. You and I, you and I would, I mean, and then we’ve wrapped our heads around. We’ve grown as hunters. We’ve wrapped our heads around season dates mean everything. The weapon’s secondary. Yeah. Because we can use ’em all. And you go and have what kind of an archer hunt in Arizona. Yeah. I mean how long did it last?

00:31:25:06 –> 00:31:49:05
15 minuter, I mean 15. Oh. And, and there was another one like that in Montana. Remember that 10 years ago. We’re up there. This is more of an opportunity hunt. We’re up there in 700 in the Missouri breaks and we’re, we’re, we’re in the side. We’ll just cut it. This is not a remote back country hunt. This is out of the side by side. It was a little cabin, a bull, a bull trots out there stuff. And I get out there, I

00:31:49:05 –> 00:31:49:24
Was in good enough shape

00:31:49:24 –> 00:31:51:02
On that hunt. I

00:31:51:17 –> 00:31:59:12
I i we, this is an opportunity hunt. And I get out and this bull’s just staring at us like 55 yards. Remember you’re, yeah. I step out, walk out there,

00:32:00:04 –> 00:32:01:13
We watch him die. That

00:32:01:13 –> 00:32:06:06
Was just like yours. I quartered quartered him. Perfect. And he rolls over there and dies with 50. And then

00:32:06:06 –> 00:32:07:26
We look at each other and we’re like, okay,

00:32:07:27 –> 00:32:09:07
We’re done. I’m done.

00:32:09:23 –> 00:32:14:13
You’re, I don’t know what’s so hard about all this. Let’s go back to hunting deer. They’re at least a challenge.

00:32:14:29 –> 00:32:27:25
To your point. The archery revolution has been awesome. It was late nineties. I, you know, back in the time shooting compounds, releases were just kind of coming on. Yeah. I didn’t use one, one. I shot tabs, I shot finger taps and sometimes

00:32:27:26 –> 00:32:35:01
I tried to build up the calluses on bare fingers. Yeah. ’cause you might lose your tab. Yes, that’s right. Those things. So dad’s over there. You need to use bare fingers,

00:32:35:05 –> 00:32:39:06
Son. And the gold, remember the gold pins? The gold site pins? Yeah. Oh yeah. And you’d have to paint ’em white.

00:32:39:17 –> 00:32:40:20
We’d paint ’em with fingernail poles,

00:32:40:20 –> 00:32:51:00
Painted them with white. So they, they would stand out in that last 10 minutes. Not even after shooting. We’re like, sun goes down and you can’t even hunt in the legal 30 minutes after that. ’cause you can’t see your pins. My

00:32:51:05 –> 00:33:03:24
Favorite part about those pens were they weren’t in a straight line. No, IM thinking I had ones in and out, in and out. And then once in a while you’d be lucky and they’d get in a straight line, but they were on an angle. Well, what does that mean? That

00:33:03:24 –> 00:33:08:19
Means when you cited your bow in at your house, the wind was blowing and you cited in wrong

00:33:08:19 –> 00:33:09:28
Consistently for the last three months.

00:33:10:03 –> 00:33:11:26
You cited in wrong. But

00:33:11:26 –> 00:33:12:02
It

00:33:12:02 –> 00:33:13:07
Was right for the wind that night.

00:33:13:07 –> 00:33:21:29
It’s right. It’s right. That’s right. I know. A they’re tuning methods were to left a lot to be desired. Or you’re released your, your release now, there’s no level.

00:33:22:01 –> 00:33:48:28
Yeah. There’s no bubbles, levels no that Or back then, back then. So, so back to this story. I, we, I call a bull in into my freaking lap. And it’s, it’s not after hours. It, it isn’t. But I can’t see my pins and he’s close 20, 25 yards. And I’m a full draw and I’m like, I got this. And he runs away and I can see it hit him high shoulder. And I’m just disgusted because where where’s this at now? This is New Mexico. Oh, okay. The Pecos Wilderness. Oh, I’m in the

00:33:48:28 –> 00:33:49:19
Pecos. Okay.

00:33:49:22 –> 00:33:51:28
I’m packed in with my dad and the Pecos. This is

00:33:51:28 –> 00:33:53:12
The recurve right. Or the first compound.

00:33:53:17 –> 00:33:54:12
We’re getting to that story.

00:33:54:13 –> 00:33:55:02
Okay. Okay. Okay.

00:33:55:09 –> 00:34:14:22
This is my car. It’s a compound. It’s sights. I couldn’t see him. Okay. Okay. But it was the last time I was ever gonna hunt with a bow that I depended on sights because I tracked that bull till dark all the next day and was disgusted. Never found it high shoulder. We all know what an elk can do to absorb an arrow in the high shoulder, 55

00:34:14:24 –> 00:34:16:26
Pounds, big old freaking aluminum arrows,

00:34:17:01 –> 00:34:17:15
Whatever. Yeah. Whatever.

00:34:17:15 –> 00:34:19:08
That had been bent when you were practicing

00:34:19:20 –> 00:34:21:14
Whatever. Yeah. They were fairly straight, you

00:34:21:14 –> 00:34:21:16
Know,

00:34:22:29 –> 00:34:32:14
Just is what it’s, you know, you’re a poor college kid and shit. I think I was just, no, I think that was year Becky and I were getting married. That was, that was, it was 96. It was a year we

00:34:32:14 –> 00:34:34:19
Were getting married. Yeah. The game getter. 2, 2 7.

00:34:34:28 –> 00:34:52:03
No XX 75, man. XX 70 fives. I couldn’t afford the 70 eights, but I had the 75. But I, I literally, I, I told my dad, ’cause he, he’s shot instinctive his whole life. Traditional long bow. And I’m like, that’s it. I’m never gonna depend on a pin, a peep site and a pen the rest of my life. I

00:34:52:03 –> 00:34:53:25
Don’t need wheels, bells and whistles. Yep.

00:34:54:07 –> 00:35:27:15
For the next four years. I never killed anything with the be because I bought a recurving had he knew everybody made me a recurve, had a custom recurve and I could shoot the heck out of it. 10, 20, 30 yards. But I didn’t, I killed Jack. I didn’t kill Jack. I finally killed about a one 50 buck east of Monticello, Utah. With the Recurve. With the recurve. I was proud. But all right. It, it, it wasn’t getting the job done. So that’s, I think Aaron has that at some point now. And, and I’ve moved, I’ve caught up with the times again. This is years ago. It’s been 10, 12 years ago. Fast forward

00:35:27:15 –> 00:35:28:17
To your hunt in 27.

00:35:28:27 –> 00:35:34:29
That was 15 minutes. Yeah. Went down there, had a bull picked out. I thought that I was gonna hunt. I get out the wind with

00:35:34:29 –> 00:35:35:21
The new compounds.

00:35:35:21 –> 00:35:41:04
Oh yeah. But that the new compound Was that that Montana hunt? Yeah. That we talked about. We had

00:35:41:04 –> 00:35:41:22
Amazing ball.

00:35:41:25 –> 00:36:10:05
I borrowed a ball, I borrowed a ball. Oh, you remember? Who did you borrow from? A buddy. This was back. Im like, remember that now. I’m like, all right, we’re gonna go do this. I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna back. I’m gonna jump back into this, you know, or a compound game. Yeah. Boy, these are nice. Remember I was smoking You was, I was, I was like those, the, the Native Americans riding their pony, pulling stuff over, shooting buffalo, you know, on the run. I was just killed crushing it. I was ready to, I was, I let stuff go left or I killed

00:36:10:05 –> 00:36:10:10
Charlie,

00:36:12:07 –> 00:36:15:22
Remember that? Never got invited back to that place. But anyway,

00:36:16:04 –> 00:36:21:28
The town, the bucked around the big, heavy giant three by three, I can’t remember. Anyway, keep going.

00:36:22:01 –> 00:37:02:13
So that was, that was early, I don’t know mid two thousands whenever that was. But, but yeah, bow hunting’s come a long way. So anyway, fast forward just two years ago, I drew a 27 tag. I knew I was gonna get the tag simply because of the points I had. And yeah, I went down there, learned enough around the unit, went down there. Some of the guys were gonna come down the next day. But that night I get out howling, howling wind. I hear, I thought I busted a bull, thought I busted him. And I’m like, crap, what? But turns out the bull was raking. And I’m like, holy crap. So I knock up and I just start. Yeah. You know, you’re gonna crush the guy. Yeah. Because they’re consumed when they get in that mode sometimes. Well, it stops. So I paused and after a minute or two it was silent.

00:37:02:22 –> 00:37:34:29
So I let out a half-hearted bugle, boom. He hits me and I’m like, oh my gosh, the wind’s wrong where, you know where he is going. So I, as I’m loop looping to get the wind dry, I can see his legs up ahead, 80 yards coming my way. And so I get up there and I’m like, the best he’s gonna do is he is gonna flank me right here. He’s gonna win me at some point. But I let, and he stopped. And so I let a half-hearted bugle, boom, he hits me and here he is, comes. So I’m freaking get back there. I’m, and he steps out full draw 23, 24 yards. And he takes off running right towards my truck.

00:37:35:26 –> 00:37:36:11
You’re like,

00:37:36:28 –> 00:37:44:23
Please. Oh yeah. Dies a hundred yards from my truck and I’m all by myself. And I, it’s over boys 15 home.

00:37:44:29 –> 00:37:45:07
I got this.

00:37:45:16 –> 00:38:11:14
I did, I called Jeff first. I think I called my wife. Yeah. We were on our way. And I called Jeff, I said, Hey, you guys don’t come. What do you mean I’m done? You know, he’s a nice bulbs, like an eight by seven, heavy low, mid three fifties heavy short thirds, but an awesome bowl. I just couldn’t turn him down. And it was, you know, you always wonder, should I hunt there longer, blah, blah, blah. But hey, three fifty’s bow with the bow on your lap. It was pretty fun. It was a, that was just two years ago. So fun.

00:38:11:14 –> 00:39:05:23
That’s awesome. So what I want to kind of jump into just a little bit here is, you know, a lot of people talk about calling, there was a big calling fanatical era, let’s say where calls everybody was making a diaphragm. Garth Carter, my dad calls mom, big Garth Carter calls incorporated. And we, you know, he had rattling antlers, we had buck grunt calls that were electronic. He had trapping, electronic trapping lures, diaphragms cow calls, all of these things. And so back in the day, remember back in the day when, when six points were rare, you called them and it was fun. It’s like calling in turkeys. I mean, it’s just a blast. And so anyway, but when we started, when we started trophy hunting, you know, reminds me of this, this elk kind of had this muzz to hunt here in the southwest desert not too long ago, 2015 or so. I mean, I had that bull on truck camera. He came in on the 23rd or 24th. And then from there it was super thick. No, no, September. Oh,

00:39:05:27 –> 00:39:06:04
He

00:39:06:04 –> 00:39:09:16
Came into Rutt? No, the, the bull I killed with the muzzle. The muzz.

00:39:09:21 –> 00:39:10:16
Oh, I thought you were talking about

00:39:10:25 –> 00:39:50:22
Muzz bull. That 3 85 bull, the big well tails. He came in to Rutt. And I’d never known about the bull before, but he came in on trail cameras. So we’ve, we’ve evolved a little bit, I guess is kind of where I’m going with it. We can call and my dad always taught me, it doesn’t matter what you sound like, if you have you heard ’em, they’re not perfect. Okay. Elk are all different and they’re not perfect. They might be, you know, have a mouthful of water trying to be going, you know what I mean? And so anyway, to get on him, it was super thick. We were glassing and it took us a few days to find him. Like we could get him on camera, but he was rotting at night. It’s so hot out there. And then, but, but once we got on and we saw him, we heard his bugle.

00:39:50:23 –> 00:40:51:01
I could hear what he was sounding like. I did bugle a little bit just to get him going. Once we had him going in the thick trees, you know, we could follow him like by voice, by sound, by his voice. Went out on the edge of a rock and he comes out and I, and I smoke him about four shots, you know, muzz orders there. Yeah. And it was open sight here in Utah. We could use a scope of one power back then. And it was just an open site, Thompson Center with power belts, you know, and that was less than perfect. I mean, I don’t know, they act like he, you know, bou rock bounced off his side, you know what I mean? And so anyway, ended up killing him. But a lot of that wasn’t from calling. And I, and Adam, same thing with you. And, and when Chris and we were in Arizona, same thing on our archery hunt. Same thing on the archery hunt in New Mexico where we killed the 360 7. It, we used a little bit of calling to get ’em going. Yeah, but you’re not calling him in. No. Yeah. Even Michael, you have to call in if you’re gonna trophy hunt, how many bulls do you have to call in Adam to No, to your, your three 80 Dutton bull. No, we’re glassy. Yeah.

00:40:51:01 –> 00:40:52:28
If you’re just chasing bugles, you, you’re,

00:40:53:05 –> 00:40:53:26
You call in a a hundred

00:40:53:26 –> 00:41:31:23
Of them, you’re gonna waste a lot of days. Unless you’re hunting a specific specific sounding bull or something like that. Yeah. Usually just slip in the mix of them get stealth mode is, has been proven for me the best. You know, whether you’re bow hunting or whether you’re hunting with a rifle in pinon juniper or thick trees on one of these mountainous units. Yeah, just get in there and don’t announce your, don’t announce your advance. That’s probably the best way to put it. Don’t announce that if you’re in a real low elk density area, maybe you’re hunting in some of the back country of Idaho or something like that. Maybe it’s different because you gotta find e bull, you know, or

00:41:31:23 –> 00:41:33:17
Some of those. It’s nice to get ’em going, need

00:41:33:17 –> 00:41:35:13
To get ’em going sometimes to get ’em worked up and

00:41:35:13 –> 00:41:44:16
We’ll have calls for that to get ’em going. But it’s not like we’re sitting there gonna call a bull in. No, we call a lot of bulls in. Yeah. Just because, but it’s a lot of times not the main tactic. And you,

00:41:44:16 –> 00:41:59:07
You do that and you calling the little bulls and they’re in your way and then they’re busting and, and all that. So if, if you can just, I we call it tap dance in, you know, see what you’re after, back out. If it’s not what you’re after, that’s, that’s the way to do it.

00:41:59:08 –> 00:42:09:11
You gotta cover the numbers. So when they’re going, you know, it takes how long to call one in or you can when they’re bugling hard, like we’ve had some of these hunts in New Mexico, you’re going bowl to bowl to bowl to bull and, and it’s a numbers game.

00:42:09:11 –> 00:42:10:17
You got two hours until they

00:42:11:00 –> 00:42:12:19
Like deer on the winter range and you got a numbers game

00:42:12:21 –> 00:42:15:22
And you got a couple hours in the morning before they shut up a lot of times. And so, so

00:42:15:22 –> 00:42:25:17
See as many as you can and run a gun, so to speak. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And do that for as many days as you can. And eventually you’re gonna find the bull that you want to kill. Yeah. But as

00:42:25:17 –> 00:42:26:23
Far as the interaction with

00:42:26:23 –> 00:42:36:12
The bull, we’ve always taken more of a passive approach where you, you, you’re, you’re there and you, you use the call if you have to. Yeah. But it’s more, you know, passive. Yeah.

00:42:36:15 –> 00:42:36:28
Back when,

00:42:37:00 –> 00:43:09:22
A hundred percent, when elk were new or novel in Utah. I mean, we grew up on the san we just, we’d go up there and just love to get in the middle and call. Right. I mean, you know what I mean? Yes. And, and it was fun and new and neat and, and, and in low, low pressure elk hunting situations, that still exists to some extent. But, but if you’re out in public land units, even in Arizona, Archer or something like that, elk. Elk just don’t tolerate super aggressive run and do that. Right. I mean they, they learn big older bulls. I’m not talking elk, I guess I should say the, the older best bulls, that’s usually not how it’s

00:43:09:22 –> 00:43:14:04
Gonna happen. They don’t need to, they don’t need to. Maybe earlier in the season before they’ve got their, you know, hair

00:43:14:09 –> 00:43:14:29
Tied up Yeah.

00:43:15:03 –> 00:43:39:05
Tied up and everything, then, you know, they’re a little more vulnerable to being called in and things like that. But I remember as a kid, you know, and I can’t remember like, you know exactly how old I was, but I know my voice hadn’t changed. ’cause I was calling him bulls of my voice. And, and I mean, I was awesome. Garth was like, that’s beautiful, you know, keep going son. And he’s got about another year of this and that. He’s pretty, pretty soon he’s gonna be a growler.

00:43:39:19 –> 00:43:40:06
At least I hope

00:43:40:06 –> 00:43:40:29
He’s a growler.

00:43:42:12 –> 00:43:43:14
He’s never been prouder him.

00:43:44:16 –> 00:43:48:13
So anyway, I remember and he would leave me, you know, I was this human truck camera and

00:43:48:27 –> 00:43:50:23
Oh, you gotta tell that story. You got the human

00:43:50:23 –> 00:43:51:19
Truck camera? Yeah.

00:43:52:03 –> 00:43:53:19
We’ve, we’ve wanted to tell that one forever.

00:43:53:25 –> 00:43:54:20
Go ahead, tee it up.

00:43:55:04 –> 00:43:59:20
That’s funny. No, I don’t know the details, but it was before we had trail cameras. Really? Well. So

00:44:00:11 –> 00:44:15:06
Yeah, go ahead. He’d love to put tree stands in Quake and Aspen. Well, what do they do? Every, every aspen, you know, falls down. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, it’s pretty short order. So you’re up there swinging in this quake and Aspen. Of course. I’m probably a hundred pound soaking wet. I don’t know. A hundred, probably 140. How old

00:44:15:06 –> 00:44:15:19
Were you? Pretty?

00:44:16:04 –> 00:44:27:04
Oh dude, I don’t know. I started, dude that ten nine. Ten nine or 10. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and that’s what I, I mean people might call it child abuse if you didn’t,

00:44:27:08 –> 00:44:27:14
I mean,

00:44:28:17 –> 00:44:30:02
But I was, I was assigned to sit in

00:44:30:02 –> 00:44:36:20
Tree. I sat in a lot of tree stands growing up. ’cause it’s what my dad did too. And never had a rope, never had a harness.

00:44:36:25 –> 00:44:38:04
Yeah, we didn’t have that. No, no.

00:44:38:07 –> 00:44:38:23
Well you have

00:44:38:24 –> 00:44:43:18
This little, you have that, remember the cinch that was would if you fell it cinch inches tighter,

00:44:44:10 –> 00:44:45:13
Cut your air off faster

00:44:45:14 –> 00:44:52:08
Cut, cut you off, just killed you quick. And you’re up there and you’re like, well, I’m fine. I got this trap that’s about three inches thick and it’s better than last year’s strap.

00:44:53:01 –> 00:45:10:02
You know, if you had one. I mean, I, I, I remember dozing off a couple times and, and it, you have that awakened kind of like now when you’re Oh yeah. If you’re driving late at night and you, you have a quick doze off moment. Yeah. You freak out and you wake right up. I had a few of those in tree stands like, like I just about died right there

00:45:10:03 –> 00:45:36:20
Between lead paint and tree stands. How are we even alive? I mean, we ate lead paint dude. We put, we put lead pellets in our mouth and went out and hunted all day long So you’re nine years old, your dad drops you off. So I’m nine years old. He drops me off and he says, Hey, I’ll come back and get you at noon. You have a sandwich for a half hour, and you get back in the tree, stand until dark. And it happened day after day after day. And you know, that was part of it. He was a, he was a game warden. You know it, right along salt like that. Right. So to speak.

00:45:36:25 –> 00:45:39:12
He wanted to know what coming was this water hole or salt or whatever.

00:45:39:12 –> 00:45:41:05
Salt Lake. He loves Salt lake. Elk love salt.

00:45:41:05 –> 00:45:46:24
So you weren’t actually hunting, you were just Yeah. Jason couldn’t hunt for five years. Remember

00:45:47:08 –> 00:45:50:28
Trail. It was 16 years old, then it moved to 14 years old. And we were at that age when

00:45:50:28 –> 00:45:51:13
We started age.

00:45:51:19 –> 00:45:54:16
Yes. This was, and this wasn’t for me, but this is a

00:45:54:16 –> 00:45:57:23
Literal human trail camera. We’re That’s the, literally,

00:45:57:23 –> 00:46:08:28
Literally, see, literally. And I didn’t have no pistols. He didn’t really like pistols. He, he was with the law enforcement, but he, he didn’t like him. And, and I understand why. So I’m up there by myself and I had a lion. I mean, I had great

00:46:09:01 –> 00:46:09:23
Bear bears,

00:46:10:11 –> 00:46:59:08
Lions, and, you know, he’s, you know, anyway, I look at my kids nowadays and I think, you know, most, most kids are scared of the dark. So you’re in the hills, bears, lions could eat me. All these kinds of things. I’ve heard every story on Instagram where one lion stalked one person, one in the last five years. And that story has been regurgitated and reiterated and every kid knows the story. So they’re scared of the daughter, you know. And so back then I’m thinking, I’m sure a lion could eat me. I know he could. And he’s over there at a hundred yards switching his tail. And I gotta climb out of this thing at some point. A, we don’t have cell phones. B we don’t have radios back then. We don’t have nothing. It’s me and him. Yeah, that’s right. Okay. It’s me and him and I gotta get to the road. And my dad’s gonna be an hour late after dark because he’s gonna go till the very last minute of, and then take his time coming around to get me. That’s right. And I’m gonna sit there with a lion that sat under my tree for the last four hours.

00:46:59:16 –> 00:47:03:11
And a little cheap flashlight that you got out of a cereal box, come on. But

00:47:03:11 –> 00:47:13:07
The batteries dead radio vac, battery radio vac vac batteries. And freezing my guts out, up there in a freaking quake in Aspen swaying four feet side to side. That’s right on the cheapest Cabela’s tree stand the sale.

00:47:13:22 –> 00:47:14:07
That’s right.

00:47:15:00 –> 00:47:21:06
With a little strap around my waist. That’s right. I mean, how are we alive? Alive?

00:47:21:18 –> 00:47:21:22
I

00:47:21:22 –> 00:48:14:17
Dunno. And so, anyway, I remember a specific story, they’re calling elk with my voice and, and it gets dark on me. And I got bulls all around me. Hey, I think I’m gonna get gored. And, but it was kind of fun. It was one of those times when I was just like, man, I wonder if I kill a a Turkey. You’re a man. Yeah, you’re a man. Can I kill a Turkey by grabbing his head and ringing his neck? Because my dad taught me, when you shoot a Turkey run up, you run up and ring it. Okay. And it’s flopping spurs everywhere, this freaking gross head blood drip. And I snap his neck, you know? And I’m thinking, I wonder if I could snap his neck. I want, that was kind of my goal. Kill a Turkey without a weapon comes in, I snap his neck and he’s done. You know? And so he’s just, he’s raising me. Right? If I, I guess I just wanna say he taught me patience, perseverance, I mean, some amazing. Do we sit tree stands now? No, that and now if it was our tree elk, Adam, you’re running truck cameras on Boulder. You have a specific giant bulk thick bull

00:48:14:17 –> 00:48:16:10
On spring or something like that. Blinder

00:48:16:10 –> 00:48:22:05
Tree stand. That’s right. But, but what it did teach is you, I can sit for in one place for a long time. Yeah.

00:48:22:15 –> 00:48:28:26
You could have been a white tail hunter. Oh yeah. That’s what it taught. You could, could’ve been. You could’ve been. You’re not. Could you could’ve been. Could have been.

00:48:28:26 –> 00:48:29:12
That’s right. Could

00:48:29:12 –> 00:48:32:05
Have been all Well, all right. A lot of evolution. A lot of change.

00:48:32:05 –> 00:48:33:07
So what you said it reminds me of

00:48:33:14 –> 00:48:42:07
Yeah, it’s not related. So that’s another podcast. What, say it? Well, it’s too late How we’re alive. Okay. When growing up, you

00:48:42:07 –> 00:48:44:23
Mean lap belts for seat belts? Back in the 1972

00:48:44:23 –> 00:48:58:07
Chevy, I didn’t even have those. We had a 76 Blazer Chevy Blazer. And we pulled, you know, the trailers back then, they were just a, they were a bed that you founded A boneyard of a truck. Right. And that’s what we made all your wood getting trailers. I used

00:48:58:07 –> 00:49:02:23
To call Honda virus or whatever, Rhonda Honda, whatever the bad virus is for

00:49:02:25 –> 00:49:18:20
Mice. But you know, you got these old pickup beds and if the axle was still good, cut it all off and make your tongue and make it pull wood. Getting trailer out of those, right? Yeah. My dad had one of those step side. Okay. Step side bed, homemade cattle rack stuff so you can get more wood because you’re

00:49:18:20 –> 00:49:19:06
On top of it.

00:49:20:11 –> 00:49:33:26
We, my brother and I would ride off the mountain off the San Juan on the steps side of the trailer, just holding onto the rack the whole way into town. And how my mom or dad would let us do that. I wouldn’t ever, I mean, they would

00:49:33:29 –> 00:49:35:06
Be in jail for many years.

00:49:35:23 –> 00:49:49:04
Like we would, when I’m not talking just a couple miles, you’re knocking 10, 15 miles off the mountain, holding on the back of a step side trailer on the outside, just holding onto the rack with the full thing of wood. Just to hear the, just to have the wind blow through there.

00:49:49:04 –> 00:49:54:04
Yes, yes. That’s all. Yes. And were there safety chains? Probably not. It was probably just slapped to a two inch ball.

00:49:54:16 –> 00:49:54:26
Grief.

00:49:55:11 –> 00:49:58:19
It was probably a two inch hitch on a one in seven eighths ball. Who knows.

00:49:59:15 –> 00:50:31:04
Anyway, just flashed through my head at the time. You said how we lived. I don’t know. But those are, I did that over and over growing up as, no, nothing unique. We all did things like that as kids. But anyway, moving along the evolution of elk hunting it, it got us to a lot of different place to where we are now. And I guess one of the things you have, we hunt and it started off the podcast, we hunt deer maybe as many times as we can a year three to four. But we can’t all hunt ’em. We all, you can’t all hunt elk in September. You have to be able to, some states like New Mexico, hunt ’em in October. Well,

00:50:31:04 –> 00:50:31:26
What about Colorado? Or

00:50:32:02 –> 00:50:32:14
Colorado? Yeah.

00:50:32:14 –> 00:50:35:04
You killed a great bull in Colorado. Late you,

00:50:35:04 –> 00:51:02:00
If you’re gonna hunt elk multiple states, you, or try to or apply for them in multiple states, you rarely can just put in all of them. September 15 to 30th, the bow. That’s what I want. You gotta be a little more adaptive of. You may not get tags. And so yeah, that was an example. That was a couple years ago. 2016, you know, the unit I could draw heavy private land dominant up high. Yeah. Jason, you’ve been there too. Up high summering elk or on private. Very unique on a big plateau.

00:51:02:08 –> 00:51:03:14
I ate another tag there. But anyway,

00:51:04:00 –> 00:51:31:16
There was a tack and I just thought, you know, those bulls drift off the top, get off into some of the canyons a little bit more later in the year. And it actually fit my schedule better that year. If I can hunt in November, I’ll have better chance to do it myself on public land. And that’s what I did. So I adapted, even though I’d rather hunt elk in Colorado with a bow. I had like 12 points at the time, which is no man’s land in Colorado. So I drew a third season tag, ended up killing. Yeah. Last day of the hunt. 360 plus

00:51:31:17 –> 00:51:33:05
Bull. Two studs standing there. Yeah.

00:51:33:08 –> 00:51:35:19
I had to pick one of them. Yeah. 2, 3 50.

00:51:35:23 –> 00:51:56:24
And that, and that’s interesting too, is the, is the tactics change from, again, we, we love the season dates are everything, whether it’s elk, deer, elope, season dates are everything. And you’re not, they’re not bugling when you’re hunting ’em. No. You’re waiting actually for some snow to move ’em off the private Yes. And get ’em onto the winter range a little bit more. Yeah. And you get snow. It’s amazing. And there’s

00:51:56:24 –> 00:52:08:18
Examples like that in other states as well. Some of the Wyoming hunts like that. You don’t get a hunt. I mean, there’s a lot of October 1st rival hunts in Wyoming, but there’s a lot more October through November hunts. That’s right. That can be, that’s right. Can be awesome.

00:52:08:25 –> 00:52:17:23
Well remember. And it brings ’em outta Yellowstone. It brings ’em outta some of that crazy wilderness country. Remember they had that early storm 2017. Oh, Wyoming was off three

00:52:17:24 –> 00:52:20:05
Feet of snow. Or in high country. Outfitters

00:52:20:05 –> 00:52:42:13
Were calling their clients. Come early. Come early. You know what I mean? And it was, yeah, it was disgusting. Yeah. But that changes, you know, versus an archery hunt. Now we do have some of these late archery hunts in Arizona and we laughed. I mean, when they started that late archery, we were like, really? Man, wow. Wow. You guys are really trying to grab, grab some money and generate revenue off tax sales. They’re actually pretty good. We’ve learned how to hunt ’em. Yeah.

00:52:42:23 –> 00:52:56:04
It it, it’s actually a, they’re fun stock hunt. Before the early rifle, you get first crack at ’em before if you’ve been able to, the bulls are off by themselves living in a canyon, feeding them beding it, that’s all they’re doing that time of year. Yeah. And it’s like you’re hunting a mule deer. Yeah. So yeah.

00:52:56:11 –> 00:53:03:17
Yeah. Get up feed. They’re, they’re done rutting. So, you know, it’s after that early rifle, but they’re done rutting. They feed bed, feed beds,

00:53:03:17 –> 00:53:06:04
Feed bed. That’s all they’re doing. They’re tired. They’re worn out. Yeah. And so, so if

00:53:06:04 –> 00:53:11:19
You have a buddy can walk you in on something, you’re gonna, you might, you have a chance. Anyway. I’m just saying my evolve

00:53:12:05 –> 00:53:12:12
How

00:53:12:12 –> 00:53:33:18
Changes, how things have changed and how we’ve changed as hunters. And we’ve learned, when you pick up sheds, that’s where the bull winners, if there’s a late season, he might be close to the winter range. And, and so shed hunting’s becoming a, a tactic to scout. Yeah. To actually know, not just know that there’s a live bull. But where that live bull is, and I’m gonna draw t on this,

00:53:33:21 –> 00:53:41:22
Some of the biggest bulls killed in, in Utah this last year. They were killed on the late hunt because people found sheds of the bulls specifically the years before.

00:53:41:29 –> 00:53:45:01
And people had had ’em in a different unit on truck camera in the summer.

00:53:45:01 –> 00:53:46:20
In the summer, yeah. Different unit.

00:53:47:05 –> 00:54:00:26
It’s pretty interesting. And it’s, and we’re getting better again, information age, our technology, the tr we, we’ve got a book on migration routes and PE and the truck and the, and the collar studies and whatnot. And the migration patterns for Deere. And it’s pretty awesome.

00:54:01:03 –> 00:54:06:02
Yeah. So 30 days in September are awesome. However, honey elk,

00:54:06:02 –> 00:54:13:17
If you can, if you can’t adapt, kill a big mul deer. That’s a great time hunt. Big mul deer. That’s, it’s, they’re so patentable. And it’s usually muzz, Nevada. It’s made for it.

00:54:13:26 –> 00:54:15:02
But, but yeah.

00:54:15:02 –> 00:54:15:19
Let’s go back to elk.

00:54:15:20 –> 00:54:48:11
Outside of that, you’ve gotta adapt, you’ve gotta think outside the box. You gotta do some of these things that are well, that are different. And we’re, right now, we’re, I mean I would, I would dare say everybody here in the room, we’ve got some archery hunts in the, in the draws right now. Yes. We’ve got rifle, muzzle loader hunts in the draws in that are, we’re waiting on right now. Just because of that, ’cause of that simple premise. There’s, there’s only so many days in September you, you can’t, you can’t jam it all full. And you want to try to adapt, use the, you know, states to your advantage Yes. When they’re in your advantage. And then try to pull something. Don’t be afraid to fail, swing, go.

00:54:48:11 –> 00:55:44:04
That’s right. The, the failing. We’ve failed a lot. And sometimes we talk about it, sometimes we don’t. But there are over the counter tags. We were, did a lot of research on Idaho this past week. So fun. Right. Get excited about stuff. Maybe sometimes we shouldn’t be excited about because it’s barely an opportunity. However, they do have over the counter tags and non-residents on are on a first come, first serve type basis with caps, so to speak. It’s not truly over the counter, although it is. But you need to, you need to be Johnny on the spot. And Diamond Creek sells out the first day and within hours. But having said that, you can hunt 300 to 3 40, 3 50 even bulls in some of these places in Idaho. And that’s a phenomenal backup plan. I mean, keep in mind, Adam, you and I were yaking the other morning and sometimes we get to yaking, but there are times where we’re like, how many points would we give up in another state to hunt that caliber of bull that we can get on an over the counter tag? Yeah. I mean,

00:55:44:07 –> 00:55:55:07
Well, let’s just take Colorado for instance. Okay. Okay. Where are you gonna go? Hunt archery? 3 30, 3 40 bulls and Colorado. How many points do you think that’s gonna take? Yeah, let, let’s look at 61. Let, let’s look at unit 61.

00:55:55:13 –> 00:56:05:11
I don’t have it off the top of my head. Head here. 2020 plus. Okay. And same thing with 76. Yeah. Or same thing with whatever that’s, or you’re trying to hunt in and around private on 40 or something and Yeah.

00:56:05:11 –> 00:56:06:13
You’re double digits there now.

00:56:06:13 –> 00:56:27:20
Yeah. Or you can go get something over here. There’s just a few of these opportunities. And one thing we put in the magazine a few times, nothing stays the same. Well yeah, everything changes. That’s right. This will change too. It will. We’re watching some of these caps show up. 73 unlimited now has 2 240 deer for non-residents capped. That’s right. And so things are changing. That’s

00:56:27:20 –> 00:56:37:04
Right. Take advantage of some of ’em while they’re there before you know, the draw hits everywhere, you know, grab their archery. Archery on the strip. Do we need to say more

00:56:37:25 –> 00:56:43:16
Disgusted? We didn’t abuse that. It was over the counter. That’s right. And now it’s taken dang near max to get a 13

00:56:43:24 –> 00:56:44:11
Archery one.

00:56:44:11 –> 00:56:44:24
Yeah, that’s

00:56:44:24 –> 00:56:45:20
Right. One or 200

00:56:45:20 –> 00:56:50:26
Mean. And what are we doing for the cob? We’re talking six points for non-resident. Yeah. Something that was over the counter with

00:56:51:13 –> 00:56:51:23
Not that

00:56:51:23 –> 00:56:56:05
Long ago. Everybody with the bow in their hands. Right. That’s full draw. It just was. And so I think it’s

00:56:56:05 –> 00:57:25:11
A good place to plug what we do. So if you’re plug away, if you’re wanting to get into elk hunting, want to get into, into mule deer hunting or whatever, maybe you’re from the east and you haven’t done it, that’s the time to join our service. You can call us on the phone and specifically for your experience, and maybe you’ve got some points somewhere we can help you decide where to draw your tags, where to put in for, and we’re a hundred bucks a year. And you know, it’s, you can call us and get that person attention. We

00:57:25:11 –> 00:57:36:20
Were talking, talking a hundred bucks. I mean, okay, that’s less everybody, everybody’s been a non-resident hunting license, not tag, hunting license for just gaining points in one state like Nevada or like Arizona.

00:57:36:26 –> 00:57:41:22
Yeah, the one, one sheep, moose or goat point in Colorado. One

00:57:41:22 –> 00:57:41:28
Of them.

00:57:42:08 –> 00:57:42:22
One of those.

00:57:43:07 –> 00:58:16:28
Not all three. And so, I mean, come on. It’s, it’s nothing nowadays, you know, times have changed and we should actually catch up with times and increase the fees a little bit. But hey, we’re not gonna, don’t start any rumors out there. But I guess the point of this is gain points everywhere. It’s something, you know, we weren’t necessarily elk hunters, but we’ve been dang glad back in the day. You know, of course we love mule deer and we love elk too. But now we’re really wanting to put our hands on giant stuff. And you wish you had more points everywhere, gain points for everything that you think you might even have interest in. ’cause you’re gonna want ’em down the road.

00:58:17:19 –> 00:58:44:26
Well, and be willing to make something outta seemingly nothing. If you take deer and elk bulls, the last, let’s say three or four years, some of the biggest bulls and bucks that we can think of in, in Idaho, Utah, some of these units are not off the best units. No, they’re general seasoned deer. Yes. Or they’re elk off of generals or average units in Idaho or in some cases Utah.

00:58:44:29 –> 00:59:27:17
Yeah. And Idaho’s a lot like New Mexico. New Mexico. They don’t have named animals. We name our animals here. Okay. We name ’em Charlie. Charlie going down by the way, his cameras, his picture’s getting, he’s getting, he’s taking selfies in multiple units depending on what time of year it is. That’s right. You know what I’m sayings on cameras he doesn’t even know about. That’s right. So, and, and, but we don’t have that in a lot of these states like New Mexico, Idaho, some these states. So we love him and and whatnot. Course Colton had six points in Wyoming. Gained him points. I’m so glad I did. Went up there, smoked a great six point bull for him. Great family experience with me, him and Sean, my boys. And so anyway, that’s about it. Chris, John, you got anything? Save us here. It’s hot in this room, huh?

00:59:28:05 –> 00:59:31:25
No, I think we got a couple shout outs. Just a few sponsors of ours. Shout

00:59:31:25 –> 00:59:32:08
Out John.

00:59:32:14 –> 01:00:07:07
Yeah, we got phone scope. If you, I mean, a lot of what we do is we video when we’re scouting and video and, and show each other the video footage and say, Hey, what do you think? And so anyway, the phone scope is kind of revolutionized instead of, we were holding up our cameras before and this, this is just clear as day. So go to phone scope.com, that’s p h O N e ss k o p e.com. Very easy to choose your products that you need. You just put in your scope and then your phone and it tells you what to order.

01:00:07:15 –> 01:00:19:00
You know, back before phone scope. I mean, we would hold our, like you said, we’d hold that video camera up next to the scope and it was so shaky about, made a smoker outta many of us, you know what I mean? So this is actually healthier for you. So.

01:00:19:00 –> 01:00:27:04
Well, and, and the the biggest deer that I ever, you know, tried to film, they were all blurry. Where was this? You know, before? Oh, I got a couple that, whoa,

01:00:27:13 –> 01:00:27:22
Come

01:00:27:22 –> 01:00:28:07
On. You know.

01:00:28:11 –> 01:00:29:17
Whoa. That I

01:00:29:17 –> 01:00:30:19
Thought we was tight. Yeah,

01:00:30:27 –> 01:00:32:11
Well they’re too blurry to even seeing

01:00:32:27 –> 01:00:35:20
My ex brother-in-law’s coming out with dropping bombs on.

01:00:35:23 –> 01:00:40:02
There was one up on Pengu Lake that had, you know, double cheaters off both sides. Come on.

01:00:40:03 –> 01:00:40:12
Bull

01:00:40:15 –> 01:00:41:12
Big. Prove it. No,

01:00:41:12 –> 01:00:42:17
I’m serious. If you didn’t video, it didn’t

01:00:42:17 –> 01:00:51:06
Happen. I I got it. It’s just blurry. I, I saw the pictures and I’m like, I can’t tell that it’s a deer. That’s a deer. That Joan brother throwing you on the bus. I was,

01:00:51:28 –> 01:00:57:23
It was a big sun right there. I promise, you know. Well here’s the video. Well anyway, he was there. So

01:00:57:23 –> 01:01:01:16
If, if I had a phone sc at the time, John, those are tree matches man.

01:01:03:03 –> 01:01:30:19
Also wanna give a shout out to Outdoor Edge. They partnered with us. We actually have our own razor light series in the Epic Outdoors model. Great, nice replaceable blade knives with a top support backing if we’ll just call it, I don’t know what the technical term is for that, but it stops the breaking of blades. The blades are stiffer to begin with, but that top backing stops the breaking of blades. We love our outdoor edge knives. Outdoor edge.com. Don’t leave anywhere without ’em.

01:01:31:03 –> 01:01:38:24
Also, we appreciate m o a rifles. They’re a newer advertiser for us. We’re gonna have a little bit of a article from ’em in an upcoming magazine. Yeah.

01:01:38:26 –> 01:01:46:17
June issue. We’re gonna have a kind of an intro on on them. Give you a little more info. We’re also gonna have a party out there, there

01:01:46:17 –> 01:02:12:16
Have a little party. We’re gonna go out and shoot with them. We’re gonna show ’em what’s up. I know they haven’t seen Hunters, the likes of us. And so anyway, we’re gonna go and see what their guns are made of. Of course we know they’re good. We actually have really good friends. Good friend of mine, old Reed Miller, smoked a buck with me that went 200 and i 15 inches. Yeah. And that was with an m o a rifle. And they are, they’re a work of heart. So anyway, we’re gonna go out there June 6th and seventh. We’re gonna have the epic crew, at least a few of us that can make it. And

01:02:12:16 –> 01:02:13:16
We got six spots.

01:02:13:27 –> 01:02:31:16
That’s right. We got six spots. First come, first serve. You can go out there and shoot with us. Of course we’re gonna work you over and find all your hunting secrets and you can work us over as well. We’ll help you, you know, visit about hunting and whatnot, get plans for guys and then shoot guns. Have a good time for a day and a half, two days.

01:02:31:16 –> 01:02:33:17
That’s actually about the sixth and seventh, is that right?

01:02:33:26 –> 01:02:57:05
Sixth and 7th of June. And the course, from what I’ve heard, is unbelievable. You’ve got different hunting situations, you’ve got angles, you’ve got, you know, all, all different kinds of real hunting situations that, that the, the, the range is on. And so not only are you gonna learn about, you know, how to shoot better, but you’re also gonna learn about situational shots

01:02:57:12 –> 01:03:23:08
Because we’re Instagram junkies and we can’t get us off social media just like a teenager. ’cause we’re afraid a big animal might go away and we won’t be able to see it. I did see that they did the first course like yesterday or whatever. They’re right in the middle of a course right now, first time. And so anyway, you can kind of check ’em out on Instagram. M o a underscore rifles and and whatnot. They’ve got courses starting from now forever. I think the only course that has openings is ours and kind of them it for ours. All of

01:03:23:08 –> 01:03:25:06
Books except for ours. And so we’ve got our spots

01:03:25:06 –> 01:03:58:23
Open. So anyway, give ’em a holler. 5 4 1 5 2 6 18 20 m o a rifles.com. So anyway, we appreciate, appreciate them and yeah, we’ll see you there. Everybody. We just, Adam and I, Chris, John, Jeff, all hands on deck. Been crushing these next two magazines, the May and June issues, man. They’re heading almost the fritter almost. So anyway, super excited. A lot of good information in there. We’ll, the June will come out a week and a half, two weeks after that covering California and Arizona. And they’re having their commission meeting this weekend. So we’re super excited. We’ve been doing a lot of research.

01:03:59:03 –> 01:04:08:00
We’re teed up for a lot of draw results to start New Mexico. We’re, that’s probably the next one we’re all eagerly waiting on. And then when May gets here, it’s like nonstop. It’s Christmas

01:04:08:00 –> 01:04:08:11
Every

01:04:08:11 –> 01:04:08:22
Day in May.

01:04:08:25 –> 01:04:11:25
Yeah. May. It’s mayday. May, may, may, may. Gimme

01:04:11:27 –> 01:04:12:17
Tags. You know, who

01:04:12:17 –> 01:04:12:28
Knows. Gimme

01:04:12:28 –> 01:04:14:12
Tag. Maybe we draw an elk tag or two.

01:04:14:16 –> 01:04:20:29
Hey, and how about this? How about we’re gonna have another world class line of a hunts that people can apply for. Yeah.

01:04:21:02 –> 01:04:21:24
Stay tuned. Epic.

01:04:21:27 –> 01:04:23:01
Yes, we are. Stay tuned for

01:04:23:01 –> 01:04:27:28
That. Give us another week or something like that. We’ll unveil that, that, that we’re gonna put the final touches on it.

01:04:28:01 –> 01:04:38:25
But I’m gotta tell you, we’ve got a, we got deer hunt’s worth over $20,000. So anyway, just a little something, something for you look forward to. We’re gonna cover that in May and June issue. Of course, we’ll podcast about it. How about we give

01:04:39:02 –> 01:04:40:14
Half a slam of sheep away too?

01:04:40:29 –> 01:04:48:14
How about that? How about that? I can’t wait. So anyway, we’re excited Chris. We’re gonna give anything away. We’re gonna be stingy today. We did

01:04:48:14 –> 01:04:55:22
Just give away a membership yesterday. Did we? Did we that? The last podcast did do that for podcast giveaway. A guy from Vegas won it.

01:04:56:02 –> 01:05:08:20
We’ll be post. Oh really? Let’s do another one. What has Jeff got in there on the racks or what do we got? Let’s give it from Epic swagger. Do something fun. Larry, let open the window here. Jeff, you all right if we give away something? Let’s do a Gore-Tex Pro. Gore-Tex Pro. Okay. We got a Goretex Pro jacket.

01:05:08:20 –> 01:05:09:22
Ooh, that’s a good item. Those

01:05:09:22 –> 01:05:12:24
Are actually, that’s their wazoo rain series. Those

01:05:12:24 –> 01:05:14:17
Are like 500 bucks. 500 bucks. Yeah.

01:05:14:18 –> 01:05:15:29
4 99 I think. Yeah. Yeah.

01:05:16:00 –> 01:05:21:06
Okay. What’s the key word? What and how do they apply? Apply, apply. Chris, let’s do apply.

01:05:21:06 –> 01:05:21:22
Apply, apply,

01:05:22:09 –> 01:05:24:02
Apply. Let’s do one. Apply. Okay.

01:05:25:02 –> 01:05:29:24
Just apply. Apply A P P L Y. What do they enter? Go into that. All right. So to enter

01:05:30:01 –> 01:05:47:08
For that pro shell from Under Armour, you’re gonna go to our website, epic outdoors.com. And there’s a tab at the top that’s podcasts. And in that podcast tab you’ll have a place where you can put in the code, apply. And we’ll give that away one week from the release date of this podcast.

01:05:48:01 –> 01:05:49:17
Okay. Awesome. There you love it.

01:05:50:03 –> 01:05:55:14
Wow. Holy crap. We’re giving away things. It’s like crazy around here. It’s Christmas in April and me.

01:05:55:19 –> 01:06:09:08
Alright. And if you do want to get on board with us, John gave a plug for us a little bit earlier. Our phone number here at Epic Outdoors. 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. We’re here. Not 24 7, but we’re here. Feels

01:06:09:08 –> 01:06:09:19
Like it.

01:06:09:26 –> 01:06:15:11
Yeah. Some, some weeks it does, but, but let’s just put business hours Monday to Friday.

01:06:16:02 –> 01:06:19:07
Just call in, we might answer. Yeah. And go to epic outdoors.com

01:06:19:23 –> 01:06:21:16
If you wanna join online. We got planner

01:06:21:16 –> 01:06:22:13
On there. We got drawing

01:06:22:13 –> 01:06:25:23
On a lot of tools on there. So try us out and thanks for listening.