March 13, 2025 • 58 mins
Jason sits down with Bryant Sentman and Cory Toombs of Tall Timber productions. They talk about their most memorable day in the field, who they would hunt with if they had a chance, amongst a bunch of others. They then dive into the elk obsession project , how it originated and where it's going from here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance. Today,
I'm joined by my good buddies with cul Timber Productions,
Bryant Sentmon and Corey Toombs. Welcome to the show, guys.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks Jeb absolutely yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And I don't know how far back, you know, our
relationship goes. I think it was probably at the Pacific
Northwest Sportsman Show, you know, us in our booth, you
guys walking by, and I think you know about that,
you know, I don't know what was it seven eight
years ago you guys started. Is that correct? Is that
timeline correct about when you guys started it is?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, I think when we started this you were one
of the first partners we started speaking with and that
was twenty seventeen. So we had started talking to you
a couple of years before that, hunting around the Pacific
Northwest here. But in terms of Haul Timber origination, around
twenty seventeen is when we started.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yep, yep. And you know, I like to say I've
got a knack for when you talk to somebody, you
know who they are. They're good guys, they're good hunters,
and so like I was, you know, drawn to you guys,
wanted to work with you, and you know, fast forward
to twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, you guys, you know,
a successful Elk Obsession project which we've been able to
(01:19):
be a part of and collab on that, which we're
going to get to more more later. But yeah, you
guys do it right. You guys are successful and like
you know, I can't wait to kind of explain the
Elk Obsession story and where the project came from and
what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, well, thank you. And I think a nice thing
is having in common with you hunting here in the
Pacific Northwest. It seems like when you cut your teeth here,
you know, you can find success kind of wherever you go.
At least that's what we like to tell ourselves.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So yeah, yeah, it's true. And in every I've got
to imagine more of our listeners aren't from Washington and Oregon,
So I'm probably gonna make more people upset than I am. Like,
agree with me, but we've seen it a lot right
where guys from here. If you're a if you're a
quote unquote killer around home, you're gonna be good wherever
you go. Now, we've taken lots of guys that, you know,
(02:10):
celebrity hunters or very successful hunters show up here on
the coast and they're like, oh, we didn't have any success.
I'm not saying it's true, not saying it always works
that way, but I'm I'm pretty confident that a coastal
Roosevelt elk killer can go anywhere in the world and
be good.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You understand the struggle.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yep, yep, Yeah, it's it's uh when you cut your
teeth here, they're they're razor sharp. I guess when you
when you go out to the rest of the world
the elk hunt.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I would agree. I mean, when it comes to
pressure and thick country and places that people don't want
to elk elk hunt, and quiet elk on top of that,
you know, you find ways to be consistently successful in
that environment. Yeah. The eye openers when you start going
somewhere else where you can see elk and they view
a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So yeah, yeah, and uh Now I feel like though
you know, we got I feel like I grew up
in the heydays maybe or like just right on the
edge of the heyday's kind of declining, where it was
like it was as good as it got like I
don't want to say it was easy, but even for Roosevelt,
like it was some of the spots we hunted were
pretty dang easy. Now it's you know, it's like video
games when you're a kid, Like you could beat the
(03:15):
game on like beginner level, right, but then you crank
it up the expert and you can't get Like now,
it's like hunting on level expert around home, Like if
you're consistently killing elk, like I I trust you can
kill elk, you know, even more so anywhere because we
just don't have near the elk we did just you know,
fifteen to twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah. I think one thing to note is Brian and
I really got into elk hunting and jumped deep in
the deep end probably ten maybe twelve years ago. So
we don't know what the heyday was, so we don't
know any better. Yeah, like we just we just this
is going to be the struggle. This is what it takes,
and we weren't spoiled. So in that regard, it sounds like,
but yeah, we don't we don't know what that heyday
(03:58):
look like, and uh, spin time in the woods and
make it happen.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yep, yeah, and you could. I think most hunters, if
you get after, you're gonna have opportunities. Still, yeah, it's
not as many opportunities as we did. You might not
get four or five shot opportunities, but you're probably gonna
get your one or two if you hunt hard and
and and do it right. So yeah, that's uh, we're
gonna roll in. So usually we do like two to
three like hand fed questions here, but we're gonna start
off with some just absolutely random questions. And I'm curious
(04:24):
to see your guys's reasoning. And I didn't give these
guys these questions before. So you have to think on
the fly. If you had to pick one animal that
was your hunting guide for a season, what animal would
that be? And why?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I know, I'm I'm picking a pack of wolves because
they do the most damage on elk, right, So yeah,
I think that's gonna be my pick.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
All Uh, it was gonna be wolves or a mountain lion,
So I'll take a mountain non.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, that's right. When my head was out when I
first read the question, I'm like, what would what would
I I pick? But it's got to be wolves, right,
The most efficient you know, killer out in the mountains,
and if you're a cougar hunting by yourself, you might
be just aspective as a wolf. So I think those
are probably the top two.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and if you like to call in bulls, you
know you want to be vocal. We're not going to
sneak around like a mountain lion.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, you can howl and like direct
the pack and be a little bit of a strategist
if you're.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
A wolf, that's right.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Uh, what's the weirdest or most unexpected things you guys
have ever found in the woods or saw in the woods?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Hmmm.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Brian and I were on the coast one year and uh,
we you have to remind me on the music, but
we were sleeping in the back of the truck, just
wanted to be there bright and early and uh, hunting roosevelts.
I think Bryant had the tag. And it's probably two
in the morning and we're in the middle of nowhere
(05:53):
and all of a sudden, this truck comes flying in
like speakers blaring.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It was like metal right, yeah, total tweaker status for sure, and.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
We were like, are we gonna have to get out?
And like we got the handguns there, like what's going on?
And they were like shouting and yelling and screaming at
each other and we're like what, Like I thought I
got away from the city. But yeah, it was definitely
a surprise right before opening day with the at two
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Just somebody miss going to party in the woods or
pretty much.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, picking the same dead end road we did.
And yeah, and as hard as it is to sleep,
you know, prior to like going out El Cunning, you're
all amped up, you're excited, you're crammed into the back
of a truck, and then you have that going on
for four hours in the middle of the night. It
really really was awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah, really helped makes you make sure you're
your best on an opening day there. That's right mine,
I'll share mine a little bit. And I'm like anti alien,
like anti all of this stuff. Right now. I was
hunt down by Riodoso, which is close to you know,
quote unquote Alien country. All the weird stuff that down
there and uh still unidentified, like red and orange glowing
(07:04):
thing above me that would like light up the ground
almost like a lightning bolt. As I was walking out
at night, I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there.
I still don't necessarily know what it was, if it
was a drone or like more of like a military
type drone, but something I have no idea what it was,
and it was. It kind of freaked me out, and
I just stopped looking at it and thought if I
didn't look at it, that it wasn't there. But it
(07:25):
made you know those little like ground flower fireworks that
like they sit and make those little triangles on the ground.
It had a noise like that as well. So that's
when I first spotted it. And then as I was walking,
it like lightning flashes of light, you know, I didn't
catch them, but then when you'd look up, it was
like six to eight like green or orange lights, and
I'm just like, man, that's I don't like this stuff.
(07:46):
I don't believe in that sort of like I don't
I'm not necessarily you know, but it definitely bothered me
the rest of the walk out.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So, uh, yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want
to stare at that. Then you might they might have
to do the men in Black thing where they put
the pen out. Yeah, and then you can't remember what
you saw.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I guess Roswell was the talent. Let's so you like
between Riodoso and Roswell, right, and so it's like the
area that supposedly has most of that activity in the
light work.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
There's got any chances? Yeah, what are What are the
chances though, that all the sightings happen in that same area?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You know?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
That's something funny?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, all right. If you guys could swap lives with
any historical hunting figure for a week, who would it be?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
WHOA Uh, I'm gonna go with Jim Shockey. I think
that's just one that growing up watching the Outdoor Channel
and just thinking about all the adventures and everything that
he's seen, like culture and places and different animals, and
I mean all the way down to all the food
(08:47):
that he tries, and I think, uh just I mean
even just to sit down with him and listen to
stories would be a kick. So I think that's one
that came to mind for me.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yep, Yeah, that's a good one. Let's see, man, I'm
not much of a history buff, so, but I think
he's a few years older than me. I might have
to just go with Remy. You know, Remy's a guy
that's been in the Elkwood's probably more than anyone I
(09:21):
can think of, and the variety of being able to
guide hunters go out get it done with a traditional bow,
a compound. Yeah, that's that's probably you know, someone that
I would like to spend a few hunting seasons in
their shoes.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah. Yeah. I thought about this question as I was
getting it all laid out, and I'm like Gordon Eastman
was one because he kind of started the whole camera
thing and got to hunt some really cool stuff, you know,
stone sheep, doll sheep, all of that. And then like
of course Fred Behar, you know, he kind of got
to hunt in the heydays. So it's like I was
taking like one of those two, like turn it back
a little bit more, Yeah, just to see what it
(10:01):
was like back then. I really like Gordon Eastman's story
of like he started this whole like filming the hunt,
you know, way back in the day where he had
to carry the thirty pound camera round and I can
only imagine like battery management and stuff that we have
to deal with now, Like how does he deal with
that on a on a true wilderness type hunt.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
We're complaining about a handheld camquarder that weighs like two pounds,
and these little batteries and they had a big old
tripod and a probably twenty pound camera.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yep, yeah, yeah, it's uh yeah, first world problems I
guess that we've got now.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, you're right, Fred Bear with the you know, traditional
archery story would be pretty awesome too.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, I know what your guys answer to this one.
I think I know what your answer is. If you
can only hunt one species for the rest of your life,
what would it be?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, that's a lock.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yep, it would be elk for me, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah. I did notice that Corey does have a deer
tag in his pocket this year, which we'll talk a
little bit more about. I love elk. I would still
pick elk, but meal deer is a close second for me.
I just I love it. I know you can't call
him in, I know you don't get to interact with him,
but I love like it's a different chess match, right,
we always call elk hunting and calling a chess match
(11:16):
where meal deer is just different. It's a different game.
And yeah, I love I love meal deer hunting as well.
But if I had to pick, it would be olk
if you had to pick, if you had if you
two had to trade each other out for a different
hunting partner, a nowadays celebrity hunting partner, who would it be?
And why.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
We won't pick you or Dirk to make it even okay?
So uh, I mean I'm probably gonna steal Bryant. Uh
that he just mentioned. Remy is someone I also admire
just everything that Bryant highlighted. I think as a guide
(11:57):
as a d I y solo hunting and getting it
on camera like all the above, and then across the
board on weapon choices. So I think it would just
be uh. And he seems to even though he's very serious,
he seems to be take it easy and have fun
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So yeah, and I would probably have to go with
Ryan Lampers. Yeah, although my wife might wonder why I
disappeared for three weeks when I told her I'd be
back in two. But yeah, just the the skill set
of being able to stick it out and have a
target animal in mind, you know, it's just to yeah,
(12:39):
and have the willingness to look over an area and
really find that mature animal that you want and put
all your eggs in that basket. I think is a
skill set that not a lot of people have, and
it would be neat to see that play out.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, his patience is like next level. And I've I've
been fortunate to hunt with Ryan and yeah, he's he's
got the skill set. And what I've like about both
the guys you mentioned is like, I this is gonna
I'm very confident in my skill set, right, but I
always feel that there are guys that are better. And
I think if you're not, if you stop learning, like
you you know anything we do, like you should always
be learning. Well, it's like these guys are maybe doing
(13:16):
it at a higher clip or a different clip or
you know. It's like we always joke about Ryan like
you'd be scared to be the biggest elk or meal
deer in that unit when he shows up and it's like, well,
why what does he do? And it's it's nice to
get some confirmation on like he does ninety percent the
same as I do, but he you know that ten
percent is he's more patient, or he might not run in,
or he may he might not risk the wind as
much as I would. He's going to do a two
(13:36):
mile loop around. And so for that reason, like I
like guys that I feel like have a technical skill
that maybe I overlook or don't put as much emphasis on,
and and so I like both of those choices by
you guys for that reason, like I always want to
get better or just see what they're doing versus what
we do. Yeah, great answers.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Very well rounded skill sets, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeap. Yeah. Put a bow on their hand, put a
rifle in their hand, put them in the rut, put
them out of the rut, like they just they're hunters,
you know, and they got it figured out. So personal
record for the most brutal packout, what's it looked like,
you guys, I'm sure you guys remember that one.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Well, that's got to be Alaska, right.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, I think it's got to be Alaska Cariboo.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yep, that was brutal. There was a we were seeing
fifteen to twenty black bears a day, it seemed like,
and we were just like, no way, like, we're not
even gonna touch these because how far we were into
the area with two caribou tags even though there were
four of us, we knew we didn't want to come
(14:43):
back in if we had to. And yeah, that was
that was brutal. We took out two cariboo between the
four of us. I don't remember, Ryan, you have to
correct me. I don't know. Seven eight miles.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, we were seven and a half miles in on foot. Yeah,
after being boted across a lake. So it was it
was quite the adventure to get up in there. And
we had eight days worth of camp on our backs
to get up in there.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So and we were done on day two, so we
had all the food for those remaining days in our packs.
I was like out there dumping all my trail mix
out every little ounce I could. And yeah, we were
we were up above tree line. So then even though
it's seven and a half miles, we'll call it. You
quickly got down into the brush and you're fighting the
(15:35):
alders as you've experienced them in Alaska and the racks
that are hitting everything on the way down. And yeah,
well over one hundred pounds of pack.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So yeah, I was actually able to weigh my pack
on that one when we got done. And because we
had camera gear split, camp gear split, you know, a stove,
we kind of had the full the full repertoire there
and I was out a hundred and twenty four pounds
on the way out for seven and a half miles, miserable.
And then the best part of that was I actually
(16:06):
sat on a bee's nest.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I was just gonna say, you gotta we got.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
We got down below tree line and we're trying to
find our trail. And when we say trail, there was
a section there that I mean, the only thing it
was was maybe a crease in the willows to kind
of fight your way through. And I said, I ended
up sitting down on a bee's nest and had to
bail and kind of drag my pack because I knew
I didn't want to come back to that spot to
(16:31):
get my pack. And yeah, that that really topped things off.
I think I got stung three times. That's a great,
great way to uh yeah, that's a great way to
split up a seven and a half mile pack out
with one hundred and twenty four pound pack.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Next question, if you could relive one day as it's
happened in the wood, which day would you guys pick?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
What was that?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
If you could relive like one day in the Elk Woods,
like you know, Ordiar woods, like your best day hunting,
which would it be in the story behind it?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Oh, I think I'll start off here. So I actually
just looked back at the date twenty twenty two. I
took my dad out archery l cunting. My dad's turning
sixty this year, and he shoots a traditional traditional longbow
and called in a nice five point herd bull Roosevelt
(17:30):
and he took that bull at fourteen yards on the
Oregon coast. So yeah, that was you know, that was
actually the first branch antler bull he had taken with
a long bow under twenty yards and it was a
bow that was built by my grandfather. So that was
just kind of full circle. One of the best archer
(17:51):
l cunting days. The only thing Corey wasn't there to
help us pack it out, But outside of that, it
was one of the best days.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
So awesome.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, I think Brian and I get to hunt a
lot together and with Kyle and Alex as well, and
we love those days. But that those times where you
can help a loved one reach something for the first time.
Like you'll see the connection here. I would tie it
back to Missy, my wife, when she killed her first
(18:21):
bowl with a bow on the organ or Washington Coast,
being able to be there with her and call that
bull in nice and tight and see her emotion and
her shaking after she released the arrow and knew it
was true, and just going through all of that with
her for the first time and then walking up on
the bull, like those are moments that you'll definitely remember
(18:42):
for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, well, you guys are gonna make me feel like
I'm like self serving because I'm going to go to
like my twenty twelve bowl the big Bull. But my
family I was able to get a phone call out thankfully,
and they got to come and help pack it out.
So it was kind of cool sharing that with them.
But it was that one not just because it's the
biggest bull ever killed and did it kind of you know,
the di y over the counter way Annie was substantial,
(19:05):
but it was just it was kind of all intertwined
with like the call company just getting started. Like you
kill a ball like that, get to share it with
your family, you know, all the laughs we had on
the pack out and the pack in. You know, my
my uncles are all aging and so you know, guys
that used to be able to get after it, like
struggled to get in. They're they're moaning and complaining about
why do you kill it so far from the truck,
(19:26):
and then like they're moaning and complaint on the way out,
and then when you finally get to the tailgate, then
it's all like high fives and you know everybody's stoked.
But uh, that yeah, that was That's probably that one.
And then you know, my wife did kill her first,
you know, a good six point bowl on a on
a draw tag, and that was fun. You know, we
had had a like when you draw special tags, you know,
big groups show up right and they're in and out.
(19:47):
But we had went a little too long into the hunt.
Everybody had to go home. So it was cool for
like it to be me and my wife on the mountain,
you know, kill it and then call those people back
to help pack. So it was it was cool to
do that as well.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
That's awesome. Yeah, and getting the big group together, I'm
sure was a blast on those you know, it sounds
like you're twenty twelve BWL, especially to have a whole
group to celebrate something like that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
What's your one piece of advice you'd give to your
younger self before you started this whole journey.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
H Well, I know when it comes to tall timber
and trying to film our archery l hunts, it would
be just kiss some of those bulls goodbye when you
got a camera in your hand, because you're gonna screw
some things up, that's for sure. So yeah, that's as
you know, there's definitely some of those scenarios that just
(20:45):
trying to run a camera and a tripod, and especially
in those early days, you're just gonna blow some things up.
And I would just tell myself enjoy the journey. You know,
if you stick with it, there's gonna be even more
of those in their place.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's something male echo would be enjoying the journey.
I think early on you're enjoying the journey, and then
everyone's kind of guilty of this would be you look
at social media and you see all these bulls dying
and different age classes, and you start trying to compare,
and you get you can get lost in the in
(21:20):
the end result and only the end result. And I
think when you lose track of the journey and growing
as an individual, growing as a hunter, becoming well rounded,
that's an important thing and don't lose loose track of that,
because that's when you're truly having fun and enjoying the
outdoors and joy enjoying the hunt and joining your your
hunting partner in the camp. So that would be something
(21:43):
that I would share with my myself.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Gotcha, good good advice if you had to go on
a on a one month hunting trip, so back to
the lamper's style, He's going to be out in the
woods for a month and not have to check back in.
But you can only bring one food eye them to
eat the whole time. What would it be.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I feel like I'm cheating here, but I would just
be like peaks. I could. I could survive on on
peaks easy, but that's a whole meal, so I don't
know if that counts.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But yeah, just you're just screwing dehydrated the whole time.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, I could survive. I mean, my my hunting partner
whoever I'm with, might not might not like that after
a while.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
But yeah, let's see, I'd probably have to go more
of the jerky route. Yeah, jerky or pepperoni. I feel
like just some solid protein can can keep me going,
you know, and I can't eat too much sugar too
often when I'm out there, it just messes me up.
(22:44):
So sticking with jerky might get me by Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I was thinking about it too, and I think I
would probably you know, have to have to like lean
towards like a Loan Dieger, you know, something that's like
temperature stable, but you could eat meat the whole time
and you know, me eventually's gonna turn out there. But
like Lon Dieger, I think is like built for just
you know, the entire ride, and it would be something
you know, maybe Pemmican, which is I'm not a huge
(23:11):
fan of the flavor at times, but it's like, you know,
that's what the the old timers used to eat on
the long journeys, and it's like you could probably make
do with that. But you know, similar to you Briant,
like I don't. I don't. I try to stay away
from sugar at times, but then when I do, it's
like then you're just living off a sour patch kids
as you hike up and down the trails, and it's
just like it's either all in or all out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, Corey should have plenty of suggestions because that's he
does more eating than hunting. Out there usually. So yeah,
I feel like when I get into hunt mode, I
just I know you have to force yourself to eat sometimes,
but it's I struggle to just pack down a lot
of calories and I'll find myself running at a pretty
big deficit for five six days in a row. Yeah.
(23:53):
But yeah, Corey, he does more eating than hunting usually.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah. See, I'm not built like you guys. I'm a
little thicker, so like my body can take the five
to six days. You guys don't have a whole lot
of days of reserve built up.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, it's it would usually drop ten or fifteen pounds
after a hunting the season, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, Okay, this one, I don't I'm curious to hear
your answer on this one. Dold you rather fight one
elk size the squirrel or ten squirrel sized elk.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think I'm going ten squirrel sized elk for that one.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, start stifling on them versus Yeah, squirrels. Squirrels are
mean anyways. And now if it's that big and then
big old teeth like I'm and if they're as quick
as they still are, like you'd be in trouble.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, And they're always like disease ridden. You get one
scratch on yourself and you're you know, you're gonna just
start deteriorating out in the woods or something.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So all right, excellent. If you were in charge of
renaming one big game animal that's inappropriately named in your opinion,
what would you call it?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
You might have you might have stumped me here, might
have got you game animal inappropriately named.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
See, I'll give you I'm gonna answer, and then I'll
give you guys some time. So I always, I always
pitch a little you know, crap towards white tail deer, right,
and so like they're always down on the low land,
and so we I just always like they should be
called like the swamp rat, Like they just they're down there,
they're overtaking mill deer country. They're they're you know, they
they can live wherever. And I'm like, I just feel
(25:28):
like whitetails should have been renamed like something to do
with a rat.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, that's a good one. Let's see when you guys
can pass it.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
We don't have to get held up unless you can
think of something.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know, you're kind of sending me down that same path.
I'm pretty avid. Blacktail deer hunter, you know, and you
hear blacktails called a timber ghost for a reason, especially
a mature black tail buck and a few of the
mature blacktail bucks that I've killed and just have those
jet dark chocolate antlers, and you can tell they they
don't see the sunlight often, which you know, definitely puts
(26:05):
right in line with that that timber ghost name for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah. Yeah, we we always said like if deer were
you know, if vampires were deer, they'd be the blacktail
because the same thing. They just they're scared of the light.
They just will not you know, back the day when
I was younger, we would always run around and we
would spotlight a lot, you know, off season, just just
to see what was around. And you're like, oh, there's
big bucks all over. You come out for an entire season,
(26:29):
you can't find anything, and it's just like these things, Yeah,
they just they hate daylight. And yeah, I've always you know,
everybody gets into the white tail hunting and like, oh
these deer, these big bucks never showed, but they'll be
on camera. I'm like, well, guess what, there's a deer
that does it even better than that, Like come out
to the coast and come out blacktails. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, there, they'll give you a run for your money
for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah. I swear I wasn't running cameras on the Washington coast,
so I wouldn't know about any any bucks that were
bigger than a four.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yep, yep. Yeah. They get to what three and a half,
four and a half, and they just like something snaps
in their mind and they know how to survive, they
know how to do They just they live without daylighting
for the most part.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
All right, So here's my last question, and don't throw
anything at me because it might not be like a
straightforward answer. But let's say aliens are somebody that had
no idea what we do here on Earth, and you
had to try to explain hunting to them, like how
do you draw that picture?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that
explaining it to an alien can't be much different than
explaining it to an anti So there you go. I
would have to say, it's just one of the most
challenging and fulfilling ways to harvest your own meat and food.
And that's you know, the biggest thing for me is
(27:52):
providing for my family, and we're gone so much in
the fall with what we do and then your family
being able to live out off that for the rest
of the year. But yeah, I feel like I've had
that conversation with a few antis over the years or aliens.
I mean, so that's uh, yeah, I think there would
be some similarities there.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, I don't know why I went to I'm gonna
have to like draw a picture, like I don't know,
I'm not gonna be able to communicate with them. I
took it so literally.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
You're trying to go to like hieroglyphics and like.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yeah, rong, Like I'm gonna have to go verbal cues
like pull a bow back, like the act of it,
like show eating. Yeah, but no, I think on Bryant's
point would just be to add to it, would just
be explaining to them the understanding of where your food
comes from. Yep, Like that is the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah. And so whether it's aliens or just you know,
being able to justify what we do, it's like, yeah,
there's no lineage, you know, even these I'm gonna go
on a little rant here, even these antis or vegans
or people that disagree with hunting, like you wouldn't be here,
like your lineage has meat in it somewhere, there's no
way you got here, and so like, yeah, fast forward
(29:07):
to today where there's options, but back in the day,
there weren't options. And so like we continue to carry
on their traditions the ways. Call me, you know, polish,
my tinfoil hat up, call me crazy, But it's like
I like the idea that I eat a lot of
beef too, So I'm being a little hypocritical, but I
do like the idea that the majority of the red
meat I eat, like it doesn't have any antibiotics. It
(29:29):
doesn't have if it gets sick, it dies, if it lives,
and I get to kill it, then I get to
eat it. Like it's just and and you know, being
raised on it, I think it's more healthy. And I
would be lying to say that I the hunting is
something that like one keeps me in shapey around, keeps
me like sharpened as a as a person. It you know,
being competitive and and school sports, like it allows me
(29:52):
to continue to be competitive, whether it's against myself or
with the you know, the animals we take. And so
like it's and and I'm involved like my like Bryant said,
I'm involved in where my food comes from, Like the
blood's not anybody's else's hand, Like I understand what it
took to get that on the plate. Hopefully I can
pass that on to my kids. And so yeah, I
(30:12):
think you know, Ronella said it before, like not hunting
is like the weirdest thing he's ever seen, Like it's
the opposite, Like why we looked at as the is
the wrong ones. I'm like it, you go back two generations,
maybe three generations, Like it would be unheard of for
somebody to question while you're out there hunting. Where now
you fast forward sixty seventy eighty years and all of
a sudden, we're you know, we're we're you know, crazy,
(30:36):
sadistic murderers, blood thirsty, whatever you want to call it. Like, no,
this is this is normal, normal for every for ninety
nine point five percent of like time on the earth.
This is how people lived and survived.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
It's a way of life. I mean, the whole year
is how how you go about your life. It revolves
around that. If you're fishing or hunting, or being outdoors,
or your families going on these trips, you're introducing your
kids to it. It's just a way of life, and
it gives you something you're passionate about, it gives you
(31:12):
a why, It just all the above. Yeah, And so
I think it's just that if you again, it's the
personal take and a little bit of a ramp myself
with just if you share camp or share a room,
or have conversations with like minded people hunters, anglers, you'll
quickly realize we all. I mean they're kind, they're generous,
(31:34):
they're wealth and knowledge. They'll give you their shirt off
their back. And so when you are in share a
passion like that, you know you're in the right crowd.
There's no doubt about it. And then the I mean
all the way to you walk out to your freezer
and you got meat for the whole year, if it's
(31:54):
seafood or if it's red and meat, I mean not
having to go to the store for those things. It's
it's priceless.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
So yeah, yeah, it's a I mean there's people that train,
you know, all year long for like an iron man
or a triathlon, and and to me, elk hunting is
the ultimate iron man, right. And then on top of that,
you're accomplishing, you know, this extremely physical feat and you're
(32:23):
coming home with hundreds of pounds of meat to share
with with family members, and there's just not there's nothing
else out there like it where it's it's so rewarding
physically mentally draining and then rewarding and then you're ending
up with that end result.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yep, yep. I have a quick question. I'm gonna throw
another one just before we and it's more to do
with what you know, we talk about meat and that's
one thing that like has been very important, even you know,
I remember growing up Grandpa like stacking the freezer like
horns didn't matter, antler size, this or that, like it
was it was what we did, Like we lived off
of red meat. Have you guys, because I'm starting to
(33:00):
struggle with a little bit, like you know, you walking
You mentioned walking out to your freezer and so I
can pull sheet meat, but I'm like, don't really say
like we're filling the freezer with sheet meat because it's
very expensive, right or you know, we do get you
guys talked about hunting, no call over, and it's like
the travel to get there, the this or that becomes
like very expensive. How are you guys like justifying that
(33:21):
that whole idea now that you know it is becoming
more expensive, but at least you do get the meat.
You know, you do get that, and so it's that's
one of those things I've been struggling with a little bit.
Is you know some of these bucket lists hunts or
or some of these things where you know the cost
per pound is definitely going up now that I don't
hunt around home. But the reality is I still get
to feed the family. You know, wild game, you know,
(33:42):
for ninety percent of the meals.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Well, I mean I'll start with if I wasn't hunting,
I would be doing something else, So that could be
I mean sometimes I get out and my golf. I'd
give you golfing more. I mean, there's so many other
things that you'd be doing. Joke is, my wife loves
happy hour. I'm not a huge happy hour person, like
go get drinks. Like I'm doing something that's healthy, I'm
(34:08):
staying active. I most likely would be spending similar amount
of money if I was going and doing other things
throughout the year. And then also like yeah, you ultimately,
if you have a successful year, you got you got
an ELK or two, potentially three ELK. Now I'm able
to feed not only my family, but my extended family,
(34:31):
my friends, I can share meat with them, might introduce
them to elk meat or deer meat, even bear meat.
I'm sure we're I live right outside Portland. I used
to travel into Portland for a corporate job and to
bring some summer sausage into for the Christmas party, and
to tell them it was bear meat was a crack up.
(34:51):
And then they loved it and they've never eaten eaten
bear meat before. And to be able to introduce people
to things like that, I just all of those things
can line really is what does it for me and
justifies it on my end?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
And there's no other like time where actual meat from
the grocery store is as expensive as it's ever been, right,
and when you start actually calculating it per pound, and
then you start looking at a you know, a thousand
dollars out of state tag and you add in the fuel,
and you add in you know, the food, and then
it actually went on a successful hunt, your bottom line
(35:27):
is actually doing pretty well.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
So you know, and and not every hunt are we successful.
But that's one unique thing and nice thing about our
group of four guys is we share meat with each
other from successful hunts if needed at the very end,
to make sure you know, we've all got some to
help out. But yeah, there's no when you go look
(35:51):
at the price of a good steak in the grocery store,
you find out real quick that a hunting tag is
not a bad deal.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's still pencils out, you know,
as long as it isn't a sheep or something of
that nature. But you know, you know, deer and elk
still you know, maybe not deer, but it's still it's
still out. You know, there's other things besides the money.
You're still probably you know, right there with with store
bought and uh you know, but but you got the adventure.
And like I say, I I never shy away from
(36:19):
there is something like deep inside that that adventure is
worth something entertainment value, whether you know, whether I'm going
to a concert or this or that, like you said,
happy hour, like it's my way and what I want
to spend my money on as well.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
So yeah, yeah, that's why I limit myself on those
extreme adventure hunts because I know the more often I
do it, the more I'm gonna be digging into my savings.
Account because it's uh yeah, it's like a drug, and
once you get a taste of it, you're just gonna
want more and more of those type type of hunts.
And I think you're right in the thick of it.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, I am, and and I gotta I gotta soften
soften the wife up with these like repeat discussions like
are you sure we don't want to like work an
extra five years and retire a little bit later so
I can go on another sheep hunt or do the
slam or no, it's probably not going to happen, but yeah, yeah,
So thank you guys for entertaining us on those quick questions.
(37:15):
So let's jump into why we brought you guys here,
the Elk Obsession project. Give us a little background on
Tall Timber productions to begin with, and kind of how
you guys got here.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah, two thousand and seventeen, early twenty eighteen. Brian and I,
like I mentioned earlier, we dove into the deep end
for elk hunting previously, so a couple of years before that,
and we were just talking about, Hey, let's pick up
a camera and document some of these adventures. We were
(37:47):
going into new places, learning things for the first time
experiencing things for the first time, and it'd be really
cool to look back at those adventures or even just
share them with your family. And from there just started
to grow. Both of us were college college athletes, and
when we enjoy something and we we commit, we're all
(38:11):
in and we want to learn everything about it. And
so we kind of we ultimately got that same bug
for for elk hunting. And so as the video piece
start growing more and more legs, our good friends Kyle
Gomez and Alex Zurbach, we talked about expanding the group
and now there's four of us for the last five
(38:33):
six years that have been a part of Tall Timber
production and growing that platform and that brand. And uh,
about two years ago, we we decided, Hey, what we're
really passionate about elk honey, let's look at doing an
elk specific project where we go on as many elk
hunts as as we can in the fall that our
(38:54):
wives will allow, and uh document those and all the
trial and air. And I think one thing that that
we experienced was just growth out of out of that
project and it's been a joy.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, So I know you guys have talked to you
know you you liked elk hunting. What made Are you
guys still filming other hunts aside from the elk hunts?
Do you guys have like videos you released separate from
the Elk Obsession?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, so we we have. We're working on our second
season of Elk Obsession now, and then we just have
some tall timber hunts as well, and that that mule
deer hunts, blacktail hunts, some trips with other family members
and so yeah, we we definitely you know, Corey's caribou
hunt in Alaska, so we we have done some different
(39:48):
adventure type hunts into different areas. Yeah, it's just the
passion and the time spent is focused around Elk Obsession.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Would have been like the biggest challenges in bringing this
whole vision to life, you know, from the start to now.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
I think ultimately would just be time. Right. The four
of us have full time, full time careers, We have
growing families, little kiddos. I think Blakely, my daughter's the
oldest out of all of them, and she's about to
turn eight, so you can imagine the households and so
being able to leave. We joked earlier about lampers and
(40:44):
thirty days in the field and it takes time, right
to make this happen, and you're away from home and
you're traveling, and so just the logistics of it all
and making sure that on certain hunts you have a
designated cameraman. On on say, rifle hunts, maybe you don't
need a designated cameraman, maybe both people have tags. Just
(41:05):
all of those things to make sure that you're capturing
content at a high quality.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, and we've definitely had challenges with archery L cunting specifically,
you know, trying in the beginning, Corey and I would
try to to video archer L cunts with just the
two of us, and a lot of times we would
kill a bull and well you couldn't see the bull
in the frame, you know, shooter caller set up. So
we had some challenges there. But fortunately now with the
(41:31):
four of us, we've all been very unselfish and that's
helped our group work well together. Our group have success,
you know, and there's times where we've taken an opportunity
maybe on a smaller bull, because it frees up some
time for the next guy, and that's that's been a
huge step in keeping our group cohesive. Is we have
(41:53):
to be unselfish for each other, and everyone has to
get some opportunities in you know, trying to keep keep
our personal endeavors aside in the success of the group. Yeah,
the main focus.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Yeah, that that chemistry between the team members is always important.
You know, It's like you could be the best of friends,
but you get out there and somebody like doesn't necessarily
like the decision that was made or it's cutting into
my time, and and we've wrestled with that as well.
But for the most part, you know, everybody that we
you know, we hunt with is on the same page,
like and we just talk about it, like what are
you doing in this situation? Or if you don't then
I will or I'm gonna get it time, and so
(42:28):
we just make sure that we we we lay all
that out ahead of time. One of the major challenges
that I'm we're dealing with, I'm sure you guys are
gonna start dealing with. You guys have been fairly successful
in the draws lately, but getting a tag in the
near future to to put a project like you you
guys are doing, is going to become challenging. Or you're
(42:48):
going to see a bunch of like coastal Washington and
Oregon stuff on a yearly basis, Like you know, Dirk
is lucky that he lives in Idaho, you know, but
living in Washington, I'm like, well, I guess if I
have too, I could hunt Roosevelts again as my you know,
my standard, but like nothing anymore as a guarantee.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, it is a challenge. I think. The nice thing
is we do a good job, the four of us
communicating early in the year through the tag draw process
and planning of like, hey, you know, we've got so
many points here. We've got so many points here, you
guys can cool together. We've got this plan. So we
try to have a b C D down the line
of plans that can come together and keep that three
(43:30):
to five year approach of being able to kind of
bounce from each area. And that's one thing you know,
we haven't drawn up most recently, we've drawn a couple
of pretty good tags, but up until that, it's we're
trying to really make do with these tags that you
can get either OTC or every two to four years,
(43:50):
and that keeps a rotation going. And as you know,
that is that is changing. So we're navigating it just
like everyone else. But yeah, so far we can we
can cycle around and still get some stuff done and
have some backup plans. But Corey's probably got a deep
backup of making a move to Montana.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
It's it's on. It's definitely on the list of things
to do is get out of the state to guarantee
that hunt. But yeah, like you mentioned that, if you've
got a decent rotation between Montana Wyoming and then like
my plan is between those two, I can rotate those
if I have to throw Washington, and I can you know,
maybe pick up an Idaho tag here or there, and
(44:31):
then if I'm rotating through on Colorado, Nevada, you know,
Colorado is a little easier, but then like Nevada, Utah, Arizona,
New Mexico. You just kind of swing for the fences
every year, like eventually based on percentages, and as long
as you're not a plan for the absolute hardest tags,
like you will probably end up with an ELK tag,
you know, every year. And when you do get a
group of four, you can be a little more strategic
(44:53):
and you know, groups and rounding up and here and there,
like there's a way to probably have an Okay, ELK
take outside of our state every year?
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Still, yeah, very much so, and we count we shouldn't be,
but we count on someone out of the four drawing
something they quote unquote shouldn't on a yearly basis, and
we've been pretty lucky in that regard. But like Bryant
mentioned it, you're sacrificing those those coveted tags, like that
(45:22):
deep investment in ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty five years to
draw a coveted tag, and really we're looking at that
short term two to five years we want to tag
in some of these states where people are holding out
for those a higher end tags and trophy qualities. So
just getting out and essentially doing as much outcunting as
(45:43):
you can, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
So with the Elk obsession, like, how did you guys
like go into that, Like whether you got a vision
or a mission statement for that, Like how did you
want that project to maybe differentiate itself from other hunting
films or series that are out there?
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah? I think ultimately we we were looking at hey,
we're we're filming our hunts, but it's it's what what's
our identity? What what do we like to do? What's
our passion, and really what it came down to was
we we our passion is elkhunting, And yeah, you do
have elk projects that are out there that are elk specific,
but we, by no means are experts. We're growing, we're
(46:23):
we're learning as we go, and that's what we wanted
to showcase was, Hey, we're we love elk hunting, We're
passionate about it. We're newer in the grand scheme of
things to elk hunting, like watch along and learn from
some of our mistakes and enjoy joy some of us,
laugh at some of our mistakes if you'd like, and
and then some of our successes as well as we
(46:43):
go along and we make those decisions about hey, do
we take this bowl, do we hold out to the end,
all of those things. So I think for us, it
was just showcasing the rawness of it, as Hey, someone
that's in the first decade of Hugh of elk hunting
and diving into the deep end, here's what to expect
(47:05):
as as we're going through that journey as well.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, and then you know, I kind of mentioned it earlier,
but the uniqueness of our four person group and really
trying to fill an ELK tag for every all four
of us, and that's you know, taking that unselfish approach,
and we're you'll probably see us lean into that a
little bit more. But it's just I might have one
(47:30):
of the guys that helps me pack out a bull
I killed during archery season. So say we go to
another state and it's rifle season there first up, you know,
and I think capturing that and just showing the you know,
cohesiveness of hunting in a group. And there's other groups
out there that you know, document these these sorts of projects.
(47:51):
But I think you'll see us lean into that a
little bit more and just kind of show that, you know,
because that's something that happens behind the scenes that makes
it all work.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yep, that's awesome. So right now, you know this is
gonna air on the thirteenth. You guys have released two episodes,
and I believe on the sixteenth you said New Mexico
Elk will be releasing, and then on the twenty third,
the Idaho one where we kind of did the collab
with Phelps and Tall Timber will release on the twenty third.
(48:21):
What was the most memorable moment in your guys' opinion
from and you may let the cat out of the
bag or spill the beans a little bit here. But like,
what was the most memorable moment for you guys putting
ELK Obsession together this year?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Well, I think it would have to be the Wyoming episode,
which is already out. Uh So first episode we tried
to come out with a bang this year, and and
that was my tag in Wyoming. Corey came along with me,
and then actually we invited I invited a family friend
to run camera and help us out as well. But yeah,
(48:52):
first episode Wyoming under twenty yard six point bowl, you know,
on film on an our triolch the iy public land Hunt,
and that's you know, as you know, that's such a
hard thing to capture. Yeah, and it was a special moment,
a super tough pack out out of a beautiful remote area.
(49:13):
So it just kind of had everything together. And that's
that's one of those instances I was mentioning too, is uh.
That happened on day two and a half, basically our
third day there. I would have loved to held out forever,
but that freed up Corey to get to Montana earlier,
me to get back to the Oregon coast and so
you know that that was a That was a good
(49:34):
one for sure.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah. I've I climbed out of there without an elk
on my back and didn't appreciate the climb out of
that canyon. So I can only imagine with an elk
on three guys's back, it wasn't that much fun.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, but that was that was a special one for us.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yep, how about you, Corey.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
I was thinking about that while Brian was talking, and
I don't know if it's necessarily one moment, it's just
looking back at the entire project. So we even spent
time on the Oregon coast. Some of that stuff we
didn't document it document So going from the Oregon Coast
and then I was at we had five stops. I
was at four of them, to be in five different
(50:15):
states from September to November hunting elk and just going
from the coast and the jungle to Wyoming and having
that experience with Brian, and then going to Montana and
there's no vegetation to be seen. It's like the desert
to me. And then jumping to Idaho and the high
country and chasing critters with you, and then going to Arizona.
(50:37):
It was just a whirlwind looking back at it, and
all the different strategies and different ways of approaching getting
close on critters, all that combined was pretty cool. Most
people don't even experience that. And a ten day span,
let alone a three month span or ten year span,
let alone three months.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
So the entire culmination of the project, which is you
know where I'm at, It's tough to pick out one
when you know the entire season is kind of what
what I remember? So where does elk Obsession go from here?
Are you guys playing it like year by year? You
guys just plan on keeping running an elk obsession until
something else changes, or like where's it? Where's what's the
(51:16):
future of elk Obsession?
Speaker 3 (51:19):
Well, I mean we the first season was last year
and the feedback we got from everybody was was amazing,
and hence why we rolled it back for for season
two here in twenty twenty five. And some people joke,
do you ever get burnt out? Go into all these
(51:39):
I'm nowhere, they're burnt out on Elk cutting. So I enjoyed.
I love it, and so I think we we ultimately
collectively will need to have those tags like you mentioned
that are going to be hard to come by year
to year. But our goal right now, rough draft, would
be to do it again here in the fall of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
So yeah, yeah, and we are playing it year by
year in the fact of trying to keep things unique
and exciting, keep keep ourselves engaged because I think you know,
as you know, you do the same thing for a
couple of years, it gets a little stale. But I think, yeah,
like I mentioned, leaning in more to the story of
(52:20):
our group of four and working working hard for each other.
You know, I think it is something you'll you'll see
in the future here, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
So work in the audience, support and follow Tall Timber.
Where can they go watch the yelk obsession videos the series.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
So we Instagram Tall Timber Productions. We are YouTube channel
same thing, Tall Timber Productions. We just released episode three
last night, so that's the second episode out of Montana,
and then as you mentioned, New Mexico will come this
Sunday and then also on Facebook for Tall Timber Production
(52:58):
Productions as well.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Gotcha. Any closing thoughts, what's one piece of advice you
would leave with with new Elk Hunters or Elk Hunters
that maybe aren't a successful every year.
Speaker 3 (53:08):
I would just go back to enjoy, enjoy the struggle.
It's going to be a struggle, and enjoy the journey.
And as long as you go in with a growth mindset,
it's it's everything that's cracked up to be yep.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
And I would say find a mentor for sure, because
one thing about this community that we have together is
people are willing to help. And I think sometimes, you know,
newer hunters are afraid to ask questions. I know when
I was just getting into it, you you kind of
put some people up on a pedestal. You're afraid to
ask for advice, and all of us are willing to help.
(53:43):
So find a mentor someone that can help you. And
I think you'd be surprised how how much that can
cut down the learning curve.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Yep, yep. It's you know, even if you've got to
go be a packer, aren't for somebody like offered whatever.
Like it's if you can cut that learning curve down,
it's huge. And then just time in the field is
always important and you can read whatever you want. But
like that's why the mentor thing like reading on the internet,
you know, watching YouTube video doesn't like put you in
(54:13):
the position to make decisions, and why are these decisions
being made? So it's important to get out there. And
the other thing I tell people is like it's maybe
a tougher pill to swallow is you watch these videos.
You guys get to see the best thirty minutes of
my entire ELK Hunt right when we edit. We all
edit because people are going to tune out if you
got to see the three days of us getting our
(54:34):
butts kicked, and so like it's it's not reality what
you watch any of us do on YouTube. You're getting
to see the best of that entire hunt in a
thirty minute package. You fail, You're going to fail. I fail.
You guys fail. Everybody fails, even the best you know,
Lampers fails. He talks about like you know, Brian Barney,
(54:56):
all of these guys, whether you make mistakes or not,
they're olk they're not they're not reading the same script
you are. And so I've always just like to keep
people's confidence. You know, I've seen people after a year
or two like I'm just okay, I'm never gonna it's
never gonna work. And I'm like, well, most of these
guys producing videos on YouTube are ten plus years experience.
They've got a system. They've got it figured out, like
(55:17):
don't don't measure your expectation against like what what you
know some of these video projects do. It's not not
maybe the norm, it's a little bit of the exception.
And so I just try to like stay engaged and then,
like you guys have mentioned multiple times, I'm gonna kind
of roll into that, like fall in love with the
(55:39):
journey of becoming that person that kills an elk every
other year, every third year, or you know, the journey
to your first elk, whatever it is. And don't you
know put that undue pressure on you, like you have
to be successful. It's gonna take time for sure.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yeah, and you know, finding that mentor you learn that
this is a year round it's a year round a
journey and that that's uh. People talk about confidence being
so important, and it is. Once you get that confidence
in those scenarios when you especially when you have animals
in close, you start to you know, punch tags more often.
But it's the reps in the off season with the
(56:16):
bow and it's the training to get physically fit, and
it's the researching tags and areas and practicing your calling.
And once you're putting in all that effort throughout the year,
that gives you the confidence in the fall. You know,
it's it's it takes a long time to develop confidence.
If you're only expecting your two three weeks of vacation
(56:37):
and time in the fall. Actually out hunting is the
time you're going to gain that. You have to be
putting that in, you know, in the other nine months
out of the year.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah, and it takes a little bit of like that
old school thought. You know, we live in a world
where instant gratification is such a real thing, like everything
needs to be quick, it needs to be instant. And
I'm like, man, this is more of an old school thing,
like you better, you better be in for the long
haul because it's not going to be that. It's going
to take a while. It's going to take year round.
You know, people think we're crazy, Like you guys think
(57:04):
about this year round to spend one week out in
the Elk Woods. It's like, yeah, it's that important to us,
and it's what it's what you do to ensure that
you have success or a chance at success. And even then,
like you could do all that and still maybe not
you get your chance in a week, you know, And
so it's like people just need to realize it. It's
not it's not going to happen in an instant. It's
(57:25):
going to take it.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Yeah, and the neat thing is there's these small wins
along the way, right that we know of. Right, you
put in for tags and you draw a tag, so
you get that instant a little bit of that gratification,
and you're working on your calling and you've been trying
to get this you know, clean high note in your locator,
and all of a sudden it's happening, right, so that
you get these little wins throughout the year shooting the
(57:48):
bow and now you're hitting the kill zone at fifty
yards when you only could at thirty before. So there's
these little wins if you look for them, that keep
you going and get you ready.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Yeah. Well, I really appreciate having you guys on here.
Look forward to the rest of the elk Obsession project,
and yeah, good luck and all your your tag draws
and hopefully you guys can fill up the all your
all your time slots. Everybody gets a tag, and look
forward to seeing what elk Obsession three turns out to.
Speaker 3 (58:16):
Be appreciate you, Jason.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
Yeah, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (58:19):
YEP, Take care, guys,
Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance. Today,
I'm joined by my good buddies with cul Timber Productions,
Bryant Sentmon and Corey Toombs. Welcome to the show, guys.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks Jeb absolutely yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And I don't know how far back, you know, our
relationship goes. I think it was probably at the Pacific
Northwest Sportsman Show, you know, us in our booth, you
guys walking by, and I think you know about that,
you know, I don't know what was it seven eight
years ago you guys started. Is that correct? Is that
timeline correct about when you guys started it is?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, I think when we started this you were one
of the first partners we started speaking with and that
was twenty seventeen. So we had started talking to you
a couple of years before that, hunting around the Pacific
Northwest here. But in terms of Haul Timber origination, around
twenty seventeen is when we started.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yep, yep. And you know, I like to say I've
got a knack for when you talk to somebody, you
know who they are. They're good guys, they're good hunters,
and so like I was, you know, drawn to you guys,
wanted to work with you, and you know, fast forward
to twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, you guys, you know,
a successful Elk Obsession project which we've been able to
(01:19):
be a part of and collab on that, which we're
going to get to more more later. But yeah, you
guys do it right. You guys are successful and like
you know, I can't wait to kind of explain the
Elk Obsession story and where the project came from and
what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, well, thank you. And I think a nice thing
is having in common with you hunting here in the
Pacific Northwest. It seems like when you cut your teeth here,
you know, you can find success kind of wherever you go.
At least that's what we like to tell ourselves.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So yeah, yeah, it's true. And in every I've got
to imagine more of our listeners aren't from Washington and Oregon,
So I'm probably gonna make more people upset than I am. Like,
agree with me, but we've seen it a lot right
where guys from here. If you're a if you're a
quote unquote killer around home, you're gonna be good wherever
you go. Now, we've taken lots of guys that, you know,
(02:10):
celebrity hunters or very successful hunters show up here on
the coast and they're like, oh, we didn't have any success.
I'm not saying it's true, not saying it always works
that way, but I'm I'm pretty confident that a coastal
Roosevelt elk killer can go anywhere in the world and
be good.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You understand the struggle.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yep, yep, Yeah, it's it's uh when you cut your
teeth here, they're they're razor sharp. I guess when you
when you go out to the rest of the world
the elk hunt.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I would agree. I mean, when it comes to
pressure and thick country and places that people don't want
to elk elk hunt, and quiet elk on top of that,
you know, you find ways to be consistently successful in
that environment. Yeah. The eye openers when you start going
somewhere else where you can see elk and they view
a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So yeah, yeah, and uh Now I feel like though
you know, we got I feel like I grew up
in the heydays maybe or like just right on the
edge of the heyday's kind of declining, where it was
like it was as good as it got like I
don't want to say it was easy, but even for Roosevelt,
like it was some of the spots we hunted were
pretty dang easy. Now it's you know, it's like video
games when you're a kid, Like you could beat the
(03:15):
game on like beginner level, right, but then you crank
it up the expert and you can't get Like now,
it's like hunting on level expert around home, Like if
you're consistently killing elk, like I I trust you can
kill elk, you know, even more so anywhere because we
just don't have near the elk we did just you know,
fifteen to twenty years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Yeah. I think one thing to note is Brian and
I really got into elk hunting and jumped deep in
the deep end probably ten maybe twelve years ago. So
we don't know what the heyday was, so we don't
know any better. Yeah, like we just we just this
is going to be the struggle. This is what it takes,
and we weren't spoiled. So in that regard, it sounds like,
but yeah, we don't we don't know what that heyday
(03:58):
look like, and uh, spin time in the woods and
make it happen.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yep, yeah, and you could. I think most hunters, if
you get after, you're gonna have opportunities. Still, yeah, it's
not as many opportunities as we did. You might not
get four or five shot opportunities, but you're probably gonna
get your one or two if you hunt hard and
and and do it right. So yeah, that's uh, we're
gonna roll in. So usually we do like two to
three like hand fed questions here, but we're gonna start
off with some just absolutely random questions. And I'm curious
(04:24):
to see your guys's reasoning. And I didn't give these
guys these questions before. So you have to think on
the fly. If you had to pick one animal that
was your hunting guide for a season, what animal would
that be? And why?
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:41):
I know, I'm I'm picking a pack of wolves because
they do the most damage on elk, right, So yeah,
I think that's gonna be my pick.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
All Uh, it was gonna be wolves or a mountain lion,
So I'll take a mountain non.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah, that's right. When my head was out when I
first read the question, I'm like, what would what would
I I pick? But it's got to be wolves, right,
The most efficient you know, killer out in the mountains,
and if you're a cougar hunting by yourself, you might
be just aspective as a wolf. So I think those
are probably the top two.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, and if you like to call in bulls, you
know you want to be vocal. We're not going to
sneak around like a mountain lion.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, you can howl and like direct
the pack and be a little bit of a strategist
if you're.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
A wolf, that's right.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Uh, what's the weirdest or most unexpected things you guys
have ever found in the woods or saw in the woods?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Hmmm.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Brian and I were on the coast one year and uh,
we you have to remind me on the music, but
we were sleeping in the back of the truck, just
wanted to be there bright and early and uh, hunting roosevelts.
I think Bryant had the tag. And it's probably two
in the morning and we're in the middle of nowhere
(05:53):
and all of a sudden, this truck comes flying in
like speakers blaring.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It was like metal right, yeah, total tweaker status for sure, and.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
We were like, are we gonna have to get out?
And like we got the handguns there, like what's going on?
And they were like shouting and yelling and screaming at
each other and we're like what, Like I thought I
got away from the city. But yeah, it was definitely
a surprise right before opening day with the at two
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Just somebody miss going to party in the woods or
pretty much.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, yeah, picking the same dead end road we did.
And yeah, and as hard as it is to sleep,
you know, prior to like going out El Cunning, you're
all amped up, you're excited, you're crammed into the back
of a truck, and then you have that going on
for four hours in the middle of the night. It
really really was awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah, really helped makes you make sure you're
your best on an opening day there. That's right mine,
I'll share mine a little bit. And I'm like anti alien,
like anti all of this stuff. Right now. I was
hunt down by Riodoso, which is close to you know,
quote unquote Alien country. All the weird stuff that down
there and uh still unidentified, like red and orange glowing
(07:04):
thing above me that would like light up the ground
almost like a lightning bolt. As I was walking out
at night, I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there.
I still don't necessarily know what it was, if it
was a drone or like more of like a military
type drone, but something I have no idea what it was,
and it was. It kind of freaked me out, and
I just stopped looking at it and thought if I
didn't look at it, that it wasn't there. But it
(07:25):
made you know those little like ground flower fireworks that
like they sit and make those little triangles on the ground.
It had a noise like that as well. So that's
when I first spotted it. And then as I was walking,
it like lightning flashes of light, you know, I didn't
catch them, but then when you'd look up, it was
like six to eight like green or orange lights, and
I'm just like, man, that's I don't like this stuff.
(07:46):
I don't believe in that sort of like I don't
I'm not necessarily you know, but it definitely bothered me
the rest of the walk out.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
So, uh, yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want
to stare at that. Then you might they might have
to do the men in Black thing where they put
the pen out. Yeah, and then you can't remember what
you saw.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I guess Roswell was the talent. Let's so you like
between Riodoso and Roswell, right, and so it's like the
area that supposedly has most of that activity in the
light work.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
There's got any chances? Yeah, what are What are the
chances though, that all the sightings happen in that same area?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You know?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
That's something funny?
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, all right. If you guys could swap lives with
any historical hunting figure for a week, who would it be?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
WHOA Uh, I'm gonna go with Jim Shockey. I think
that's just one that growing up watching the Outdoor Channel
and just thinking about all the adventures and everything that
he's seen, like culture and places and different animals, and
I mean all the way down to all the food
(08:47):
that he tries, and I think, uh just I mean
even just to sit down with him and listen to
stories would be a kick. So I think that's one
that came to mind for me.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yep, Yeah, that's a good one. Let's see, man, I'm
not much of a history buff, so, but I think
he's a few years older than me. I might have
to just go with Remy. You know, Remy's a guy
that's been in the Elkwood's probably more than anyone I
(09:21):
can think of, and the variety of being able to
guide hunters go out get it done with a traditional bow,
a compound. Yeah, that's that's probably you know, someone that
I would like to spend a few hunting seasons in
their shoes.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah. Yeah. I thought about this question as I was
getting it all laid out, and I'm like Gordon Eastman
was one because he kind of started the whole camera
thing and got to hunt some really cool stuff, you know,
stone sheep, doll sheep, all of that. And then like
of course Fred Behar, you know, he kind of got
to hunt in the heydays. So it's like I was
taking like one of those two, like turn it back
a little bit more, Yeah, just to see what it
(10:01):
was like back then. I really like Gordon Eastman's story
of like he started this whole like filming the hunt,
you know, way back in the day where he had
to carry the thirty pound camera round and I can
only imagine like battery management and stuff that we have
to deal with now, Like how does he deal with
that on a on a true wilderness type hunt.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
We're complaining about a handheld camquarder that weighs like two pounds,
and these little batteries and they had a big old
tripod and a probably twenty pound camera.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yep, yeah, yeah, it's uh yeah, first world problems I
guess that we've got now.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, you're right, Fred Bear with the you know, traditional
archery story would be pretty awesome too.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, yeah, I know what your guys answer to this one.
I think I know what your answer is. If you
can only hunt one species for the rest of your life,
what would it be?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, that's a lock.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yep, it would be elk for me, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah. I did notice that Corey does have a deer
tag in his pocket this year, which we'll talk a
little bit more about. I love elk. I would still
pick elk, but meal deer is a close second for me.
I just I love it. I know you can't call
him in, I know you don't get to interact with him,
but I love like it's a different chess match, right,
we always call elk hunting and calling a chess match
(11:16):
where meal deer is just different. It's a different game.
And yeah, I love I love meal deer hunting as well.
But if I had to pick, it would be olk
if you had to pick, if you had if you
two had to trade each other out for a different
hunting partner, a nowadays celebrity hunting partner, who would it be?
And why.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
We won't pick you or Dirk to make it even okay?
So uh, I mean I'm probably gonna steal Bryant. Uh
that he just mentioned. Remy is someone I also admire
just everything that Bryant highlighted. I think as a guide
(11:57):
as a d I y solo hunting and getting it
on camera like all the above, and then across the
board on weapon choices. So I think it would just
be uh. And he seems to even though he's very serious,
he seems to be take it easy and have fun
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So yeah, and I would probably have to go with
Ryan Lampers. Yeah, although my wife might wonder why I
disappeared for three weeks when I told her I'd be
back in two. But yeah, just the the skill set
of being able to stick it out and have a
target animal in mind, you know, it's just to yeah,
(12:39):
and have the willingness to look over an area and
really find that mature animal that you want and put
all your eggs in that basket. I think is a
skill set that not a lot of people have, and
it would be neat to see that play out.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, his patience is like next level. And I've I've
been fortunate to hunt with Ryan and yeah, he's he's
got the skill set. And what I've like about both
the guys you mentioned is like, I this is gonna
I'm very confident in my skill set, right, but I
always feel that there are guys that are better. And
I think if you're not, if you stop learning, like
you you know anything we do, like you should always
be learning. Well, it's like these guys are maybe doing
(13:16):
it at a higher clip or a different clip or
you know. It's like we always joke about Ryan like
you'd be scared to be the biggest elk or meal
deer in that unit when he shows up and it's like, well,
why what does he do? And it's it's nice to
get some confirmation on like he does ninety percent the
same as I do, but he you know that ten
percent is he's more patient, or he might not run in,
or he may he might not risk the wind as
much as I would. He's going to do a two
(13:36):
mile loop around. And so for that reason, like I
like guys that I feel like have a technical skill
that maybe I overlook or don't put as much emphasis on,
and and so I like both of those choices by
you guys for that reason, like I always want to
get better or just see what they're doing versus what
we do. Yeah, great answers.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Very well rounded skill sets, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeap. Yeah. Put a bow on their hand, put a
rifle in their hand, put them in the rut, put
them out of the rut, like they just they're hunters,
you know, and they got it figured out. So personal
record for the most brutal packout, what's it looked like,
you guys, I'm sure you guys remember that one.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Well, that's got to be Alaska, right.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, I think it's got to be Alaska Cariboo.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Yep, that was brutal. There was a we were seeing
fifteen to twenty black bears a day, it seemed like,
and we were just like, no way, like, we're not
even gonna touch these because how far we were into
the area with two caribou tags even though there were
four of us, we knew we didn't want to come
(14:43):
back in if we had to. And yeah, that was
that was brutal. We took out two cariboo between the
four of us. I don't remember, Ryan, you have to
correct me. I don't know. Seven eight miles.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, we were seven and a half miles in on foot. Yeah,
after being boted across a lake. So it was it
was quite the adventure to get up in there. And
we had eight days worth of camp on our backs
to get up in there.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
So and we were done on day two, so we
had all the food for those remaining days in our packs.
I was like out there dumping all my trail mix
out every little ounce I could. And yeah, we were
we were up above tree line. So then even though
it's seven and a half miles, we'll call it. You
quickly got down into the brush and you're fighting the
(15:35):
alders as you've experienced them in Alaska and the racks
that are hitting everything on the way down. And yeah,
well over one hundred pounds of pack.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
So yeah, I was actually able to weigh my pack
on that one when we got done. And because we
had camera gear split, camp gear split, you know, a stove,
we kind of had the full the full repertoire there
and I was out a hundred and twenty four pounds
on the way out for seven and a half miles, miserable.
And then the best part of that was I actually
(16:06):
sat on a bee's nest.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
I was just gonna say, you gotta we got.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
We got down below tree line and we're trying to
find our trail. And when we say trail, there was
a section there that I mean, the only thing it
was was maybe a crease in the willows to kind
of fight your way through. And I said, I ended
up sitting down on a bee's nest and had to
bail and kind of drag my pack because I knew
I didn't want to come back to that spot to
(16:31):
get my pack. And yeah, that that really topped things off.
I think I got stung three times. That's a great,
great way to uh yeah, that's a great way to
split up a seven and a half mile pack out
with one hundred and twenty four pound pack.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Next question, if you could relive one day as it's
happened in the wood, which day would you guys pick?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
What was that?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
If you could relive like one day in the Elk Woods,
like you know, Ordiar woods, like your best day hunting,
which would it be in the story behind it?
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Oh, I think I'll start off here. So I actually
just looked back at the date twenty twenty two. I
took my dad out archery l cunting. My dad's turning
sixty this year, and he shoots a traditional traditional longbow
and called in a nice five point herd bull Roosevelt
(17:30):
and he took that bull at fourteen yards on the
Oregon coast. So yeah, that was you know, that was
actually the first branch antler bull he had taken with
a long bow under twenty yards and it was a
bow that was built by my grandfather. So that was
just kind of full circle. One of the best archer
(17:51):
l cunting days. The only thing Corey wasn't there to
help us pack it out, But outside of that, it
was one of the best days.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
So awesome.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Yeah, I think Brian and I get to hunt a
lot together and with Kyle and Alex as well, and
we love those days. But that those times where you
can help a loved one reach something for the first time.
Like you'll see the connection here. I would tie it
back to Missy, my wife, when she killed her first
(18:21):
bowl with a bow on the organ or Washington Coast,
being able to be there with her and call that
bull in nice and tight and see her emotion and
her shaking after she released the arrow and knew it
was true, and just going through all of that with
her for the first time and then walking up on
the bull, like those are moments that you'll definitely remember
(18:42):
for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, well, you guys are gonna make me feel like
I'm like self serving because I'm going to go to
like my twenty twelve bowl the big Bull. But my
family I was able to get a phone call out thankfully,
and they got to come and help pack it out.
So it was kind of cool sharing that with them.
But it was that one not just because it's the
biggest bull ever killed and did it kind of you know,
the di y over the counter way Annie was substantial,
(19:05):
but it was just it was kind of all intertwined
with like the call company just getting started. Like you
kill a ball like that, get to share it with
your family, you know, all the laughs we had on
the pack out and the pack in. You know, my
my uncles are all aging and so you know, guys
that used to be able to get after it, like
struggled to get in. They're they're moaning and complaining about
why do you kill it so far from the truck,
(19:26):
and then like they're moaning and complaint on the way out,
and then when you finally get to the tailgate, then
it's all like high fives and you know everybody's stoked.
But uh, that yeah, that was That's probably that one.
And then you know, my wife did kill her first,
you know, a good six point bowl on a on
a draw tag, and that was fun. You know, we
had had a like when you draw special tags, you know,
big groups show up right and they're in and out.
(19:47):
But we had went a little too long into the hunt.
Everybody had to go home. So it was cool for
like it to be me and my wife on the mountain,
you know, kill it and then call those people back
to help pack. So it was it was cool to
do that as well.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
That's awesome. Yeah, and getting the big group together, I'm
sure was a blast on those you know, it sounds
like you're twenty twelve BWL, especially to have a whole
group to celebrate something like that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
What's your one piece of advice you'd give to your
younger self before you started this whole journey.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
H Well, I know when it comes to tall timber
and trying to film our archery l hunts, it would
be just kiss some of those bulls goodbye when you
got a camera in your hand, because you're gonna screw
some things up, that's for sure. So yeah, that's as
you know, there's definitely some of those scenarios that just
(20:45):
trying to run a camera and a tripod, and especially
in those early days, you're just gonna blow some things up.
And I would just tell myself enjoy the journey. You know,
if you stick with it, there's gonna be even more
of those in their place.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's something male echo would be enjoying the journey.
I think early on you're enjoying the journey, and then
everyone's kind of guilty of this would be you look
at social media and you see all these bulls dying
and different age classes, and you start trying to compare,
and you get you can get lost in the in
(21:20):
the end result and only the end result. And I
think when you lose track of the journey and growing
as an individual, growing as a hunter, becoming well rounded,
that's an important thing and don't lose loose track of that,
because that's when you're truly having fun and enjoying the
outdoors and joy enjoying the hunt and joining your your
hunting partner in the camp. So that would be something
(21:43):
that I would share with my myself.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Gotcha, good good advice if you had to go on
a on a one month hunting trip, so back to
the lamper's style, He's going to be out in the
woods for a month and not have to check back in.
But you can only bring one food eye them to
eat the whole time. What would it be.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I feel like I'm cheating here, but I would just
be like peaks. I could. I could survive on on
peaks easy, but that's a whole meal, so I don't
know if that counts.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
But yeah, just you're just screwing dehydrated the whole time.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, I could survive. I mean, my my hunting partner
whoever I'm with, might not might not like that after
a while.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
But yeah, let's see, I'd probably have to go more
of the jerky route. Yeah, jerky or pepperoni. I feel
like just some solid protein can can keep me going,
you know, and I can't eat too much sugar too
often when I'm out there, it just messes me up.
(22:44):
So sticking with jerky might get me by Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I was thinking about it too, and I think I
would probably you know, have to have to like lean
towards like a Loan Dieger, you know, something that's like
temperature stable, but you could eat meat the whole time
and you know, me eventually's gonna turn out there. But
like Lon Dieger, I think is like built for just
you know, the entire ride, and it would be something
you know, maybe Pemmican, which is I'm not a huge
(23:11):
fan of the flavor at times, but it's like, you know,
that's what the the old timers used to eat on
the long journeys, and it's like you could probably make
do with that. But you know, similar to you Briant,
like I don't. I don't. I try to stay away
from sugar at times, but then when I do, it's
like then you're just living off a sour patch kids
as you hike up and down the trails, and it's
just like it's either all in or all out. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah, Corey should have plenty of suggestions because that's he
does more eating than hunting. Out there usually. So yeah,
I feel like when I get into hunt mode, I
just I know you have to force yourself to eat sometimes,
but it's I struggle to just pack down a lot
of calories and I'll find myself running at a pretty
big deficit for five six days in a row. Yeah.
(23:53):
But yeah, Corey, he does more eating than hunting usually.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah. See, I'm not built like you guys. I'm a
little thicker, so like my body can take the five
to six days. You guys don't have a whole lot
of days of reserve built up.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, it's it would usually drop ten or fifteen pounds
after a hunting the season, Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Yeah, Okay, this one, I don't I'm curious to hear
your answer on this one. Dold you rather fight one
elk size the squirrel or ten squirrel sized elk.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I think I'm going ten squirrel sized elk for that one.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, start stifling on them versus Yeah, squirrels. Squirrels are
mean anyways. And now if it's that big and then
big old teeth like I'm and if they're as quick
as they still are, like you'd be in trouble.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, And they're always like disease ridden. You get one
scratch on yourself and you're you know, you're gonna just
start deteriorating out in the woods or something.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So all right, excellent. If you were in charge of
renaming one big game animal that's inappropriately named in your opinion,
what would you call it?
Speaker 3 (24:58):
You might have you might have stumped me here, might
have got you game animal inappropriately named.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
See, I'll give you I'm gonna answer, and then I'll
give you guys some time. So I always, I always
pitch a little you know, crap towards white tail deer, right,
and so like they're always down on the low land,
and so we I just always like they should be
called like the swamp rat, Like they just they're down there,
they're overtaking mill deer country. They're they're you know, they
they can live wherever. And I'm like, I just feel
(25:28):
like whitetails should have been renamed like something to do
with a rat.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, that's a good one. Let's see when you guys
can pass it.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
We don't have to get held up unless you can
think of something.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know, you're kind of sending me down that same path.
I'm pretty avid. Blacktail deer hunter, you know, and you
hear blacktails called a timber ghost for a reason, especially
a mature black tail buck and a few of the
mature blacktail bucks that I've killed and just have those
jet dark chocolate antlers, and you can tell they they
don't see the sunlight often, which you know, definitely puts
(26:05):
right in line with that that timber ghost name for sure.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Yeah. Yeah, we we always said like if deer were
you know, if vampires were deer, they'd be the blacktail
because the same thing. They just they're scared of the light.
They just will not you know, back the day when
I was younger, we would always run around and we
would spotlight a lot, you know, off season, just just
to see what was around. And you're like, oh, there's
big bucks all over. You come out for an entire season,
(26:29):
you can't find anything, and it's just like these things, Yeah,
they just they hate daylight. And yeah, I've always you know,
everybody gets into the white tail hunting and like, oh
these deer, these big bucks never showed, but they'll be
on camera. I'm like, well, guess what, there's a deer
that does it even better than that, Like come out
to the coast and come out blacktails. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, there, they'll give you a run for your money
for sure.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yeah. I swear I wasn't running cameras on the Washington coast,
so I wouldn't know about any any bucks that were
bigger than a four.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yep, yep. Yeah. They get to what three and a half,
four and a half, and they just like something snaps
in their mind and they know how to survive, they
know how to do They just they live without daylighting
for the most part.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
All right, So here's my last question, and don't throw
anything at me because it might not be like a
straightforward answer. But let's say aliens are somebody that had
no idea what we do here on Earth, and you
had to try to explain hunting to them, like how
do you draw that picture?
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that
explaining it to an alien can't be much different than
explaining it to an anti So there you go. I
would have to say, it's just one of the most
challenging and fulfilling ways to harvest your own meat and food.
And that's you know, the biggest thing for me is
(27:52):
providing for my family, and we're gone so much in
the fall with what we do and then your family
being able to live out off that for the rest
of the year. But yeah, I feel like I've had
that conversation with a few antis over the years or aliens.
I mean, so that's uh, yeah, I think there would
be some similarities there.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
Yeah, I don't know why I went to I'm gonna
have to like draw a picture, like I don't know,
I'm not gonna be able to communicate with them. I
took it so literally.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
You're trying to go to like hieroglyphics and like.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yeah, rong, Like I'm gonna have to go verbal cues
like pull a bow back, like the act of it,
like show eating. Yeah, but no, I think on Bryant's
point would just be to add to it, would just
be explaining to them the understanding of where your food
comes from. Yep, Like that is the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah. And so whether it's aliens or just you know,
being able to justify what we do, it's like, yeah,
there's no lineage, you know, even these I'm gonna go
on a little rant here, even these antis or vegans
or people that disagree with hunting, like you wouldn't be here,
like your lineage has meat in it somewhere, there's no
way you got here, and so like, yeah, fast forward
(29:07):
to today where there's options, but back in the day,
there weren't options. And so like we continue to carry
on their traditions the ways. Call me, you know, polish,
my tinfoil hat up, call me crazy, But it's like
I like the idea that I eat a lot of
beef too, So I'm being a little hypocritical, but I
do like the idea that the majority of the red
meat I eat, like it doesn't have any antibiotics. It
(29:29):
doesn't have if it gets sick, it dies, if it lives,
and I get to kill it, then I get to
eat it. Like it's just and and you know, being
raised on it, I think it's more healthy. And I
would be lying to say that I the hunting is
something that like one keeps me in shapey around, keeps
me like sharpened as a as a person. It you know,
being competitive and and school sports, like it allows me
(29:52):
to continue to be competitive, whether it's against myself or
with the you know, the animals we take. And so
like it's and and I'm involved like my like Bryant said,
I'm involved in where my food comes from, Like the
blood's not anybody's else's hand, Like I understand what it
took to get that on the plate. Hopefully I can
pass that on to my kids. And so yeah, I
(30:12):
think you know, Ronella said it before, like not hunting
is like the weirdest thing he's ever seen, Like it's
the opposite, Like why we looked at as the is
the wrong ones. I'm like it, you go back two generations,
maybe three generations, Like it would be unheard of for
somebody to question while you're out there hunting. Where now
you fast forward sixty seventy eighty years and all of
a sudden, we're you know, we're we're you know, crazy,
(30:36):
sadistic murderers, blood thirsty, whatever you want to call it. Like, no,
this is this is normal, normal for every for ninety
nine point five percent of like time on the earth.
This is how people lived and survived.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
It's a way of life. I mean, the whole year
is how how you go about your life. It revolves
around that. If you're fishing or hunting, or being outdoors,
or your families going on these trips, you're introducing your
kids to it. It's just a way of life, and
it gives you something you're passionate about, it gives you
(31:12):
a why, It just all the above. Yeah, And so
I think it's just that if you again, it's the
personal take and a little bit of a ramp myself
with just if you share camp or share a room,
or have conversations with like minded people hunters, anglers, you'll
quickly realize we all. I mean they're kind, they're generous,
(31:34):
they're wealth and knowledge. They'll give you their shirt off
their back. And so when you are in share a
passion like that, you know you're in the right crowd.
There's no doubt about it. And then the I mean
all the way to you walk out to your freezer
and you got meat for the whole year, if it's
(31:54):
seafood or if it's red and meat, I mean not
having to go to the store for those things. It's
it's priceless.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
So yeah, yeah, it's a I mean there's people that train,
you know, all year long for like an iron man
or a triathlon, and and to me, elk hunting is
the ultimate iron man, right. And then on top of that,
you're accomplishing, you know, this extremely physical feat and you're
(32:23):
coming home with hundreds of pounds of meat to share
with with family members, and there's just not there's nothing
else out there like it where it's it's so rewarding
physically mentally draining and then rewarding and then you're ending
up with that end result.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yep, yep. I have a quick question. I'm gonna throw
another one just before we and it's more to do
with what you know, we talk about meat and that's
one thing that like has been very important, even you know,
I remember growing up Grandpa like stacking the freezer like
horns didn't matter, antler size, this or that, like it
was it was what we did, Like we lived off
of red meat. Have you guys, because I'm starting to
(33:00):
struggle with a little bit, like you know, you walking
You mentioned walking out to your freezer and so I
can pull sheet meat, but I'm like, don't really say
like we're filling the freezer with sheet meat because it's
very expensive, right or you know, we do get you
guys talked about hunting, no call over, and it's like
the travel to get there, the this or that becomes
like very expensive. How are you guys like justifying that
(33:21):
that whole idea now that you know it is becoming
more expensive, but at least you do get the meat.
You know, you do get that, and so it's that's
one of those things I've been struggling with a little bit.
Is you know some of these bucket lists hunts or
or some of these things where you know the cost
per pound is definitely going up now that I don't
hunt around home. But the reality is I still get
to feed the family. You know, wild game, you know,
(33:42):
for ninety percent of the meals.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Well, I mean I'll start with if I wasn't hunting,
I would be doing something else, So that could be
I mean sometimes I get out and my golf. I'd
give you golfing more. I mean, there's so many other
things that you'd be doing. Joke is, my wife loves
happy hour. I'm not a huge happy hour person, like
go get drinks. Like I'm doing something that's healthy, I'm
(34:08):
staying active. I most likely would be spending similar amount
of money if I was going and doing other things
throughout the year. And then also like yeah, you ultimately,
if you have a successful year, you got you got
an ELK or two, potentially three ELK. Now I'm able
to feed not only my family, but my extended family,
(34:31):
my friends, I can share meat with them, might introduce
them to elk meat or deer meat, even bear meat.
I'm sure we're I live right outside Portland. I used
to travel into Portland for a corporate job and to
bring some summer sausage into for the Christmas party, and
to tell them it was bear meat was a crack up.
(34:51):
And then they loved it and they've never eaten eaten
bear meat before. And to be able to introduce people
to things like that, I just all of those things
can line really is what does it for me and
justifies it on my end?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
And there's no other like time where actual meat from
the grocery store is as expensive as it's ever been, right,
and when you start actually calculating it per pound, and
then you start looking at a you know, a thousand
dollars out of state tag and you add in the fuel,
and you add in you know, the food, and then
it actually went on a successful hunt, your bottom line
(35:27):
is actually doing pretty well.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
So you know, and and not every hunt are we successful.
But that's one unique thing and nice thing about our
group of four guys is we share meat with each
other from successful hunts if needed at the very end,
to make sure you know, we've all got some to
help out. But yeah, there's no when you go look
(35:51):
at the price of a good steak in the grocery store,
you find out real quick that a hunting tag is
not a bad deal.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, yeah, it's not. It's still pencils out, you know,
as long as it isn't a sheep or something of
that nature. But you know, you know, deer and elk
still you know, maybe not deer, but it's still it's
still out. You know, there's other things besides the money.
You're still probably you know, right there with with store
bought and uh you know, but but you got the adventure.
And like I say, I I never shy away from
(36:19):
there is something like deep inside that that adventure is
worth something entertainment value, whether you know, whether I'm going
to a concert or this or that, like you said,
happy hour, like it's my way and what I want
to spend my money on as well.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
So yeah, yeah, that's why I limit myself on those
extreme adventure hunts because I know the more often I
do it, the more I'm gonna be digging into my savings.
Account because it's uh yeah, it's like a drug, and
once you get a taste of it, you're just gonna
want more and more of those type type of hunts.
And I think you're right in the thick of it.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Yeah, I am, and and I gotta I gotta soften
soften the wife up with these like repeat discussions like
are you sure we don't want to like work an
extra five years and retire a little bit later so
I can go on another sheep hunt or do the
slam or no, it's probably not going to happen, but yeah, yeah,
So thank you guys for entertaining us on those quick questions.
(37:15):
So let's jump into why we brought you guys here,
the Elk Obsession project. Give us a little background on
Tall Timber productions to begin with, and kind of how
you guys got here.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah, two thousand and seventeen, early twenty eighteen. Brian and I,
like I mentioned earlier, we dove into the deep end
for elk hunting previously, so a couple of years before that,
and we were just talking about, Hey, let's pick up
a camera and document some of these adventures. We were
(37:47):
going into new places, learning things for the first time
experiencing things for the first time, and it'd be really
cool to look back at those adventures or even just
share them with your family. And from there just started
to grow. Both of us were college college athletes, and
when we enjoy something and we we commit, we're all
(38:11):
in and we want to learn everything about it. And
so we kind of we ultimately got that same bug
for for elk hunting. And so as the video piece
start growing more and more legs, our good friends Kyle
Gomez and Alex Zurbach, we talked about expanding the group
and now there's four of us for the last five
(38:33):
six years that have been a part of Tall Timber
production and growing that platform and that brand. And uh,
about two years ago, we we decided, Hey, what we're
really passionate about elk honey, let's look at doing an
elk specific project where we go on as many elk
hunts as as we can in the fall that our
(38:54):
wives will allow, and uh document those and all the
trial and air. And I think one thing that that
we experienced was just growth out of out of that
project and it's been a joy.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, So I know you guys have talked to you
know you you liked elk hunting. What made Are you
guys still filming other hunts aside from the elk hunts?
Do you guys have like videos you released separate from
the Elk Obsession?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Yeah, so we we have. We're working on our second
season of Elk Obsession now, and then we just have
some tall timber hunts as well, and that that mule
deer hunts, blacktail hunts, some trips with other family members
and so yeah, we we definitely you know, Corey's caribou
hunt in Alaska, so we we have done some different
(39:48):
adventure type hunts into different areas. Yeah, it's just the
passion and the time spent is focused around Elk Obsession.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Gotcha?
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Would have been like the biggest challenges in bringing this
whole vision to life, you know, from the start to now.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
I think ultimately would just be time. Right. The four
of us have full time, full time careers, We have
growing families, little kiddos. I think Blakely, my daughter's the
oldest out of all of them, and she's about to
turn eight, so you can imagine the households and so
being able to leave. We joked earlier about lampers and
(40:44):
thirty days in the field and it takes time, right
to make this happen, and you're away from home and
you're traveling, and so just the logistics of it all
and making sure that on certain hunts you have a
designated cameraman. On on say, rifle hunts, maybe you don't
need a designated cameraman, maybe both people have tags. Just
(41:05):
all of those things to make sure that you're capturing
content at a high quality.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, and we've definitely had challenges with archery L cunting specifically,
you know, trying in the beginning, Corey and I would
try to to video archer L cunts with just the
two of us, and a lot of times we would
kill a bull and well you couldn't see the bull
in the frame, you know, shooter caller set up. So
we had some challenges there. But fortunately now with the
(41:31):
four of us, we've all been very unselfish and that's
helped our group work well together. Our group have success,
you know, and there's times where we've taken an opportunity
maybe on a smaller bull, because it frees up some
time for the next guy, and that's that's been a
huge step in keeping our group cohesive. Is we have
(41:53):
to be unselfish for each other, and everyone has to
get some opportunities in you know, trying to keep keep
our personal endeavors aside in the success of the group. Yeah,
the main focus.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Yeah, that that chemistry between the team members is always important.
You know, It's like you could be the best of friends,
but you get out there and somebody like doesn't necessarily
like the decision that was made or it's cutting into
my time, and and we've wrestled with that as well.
But for the most part, you know, everybody that we
you know, we hunt with is on the same page,
like and we just talk about it, like what are
you doing in this situation? Or if you don't then
I will or I'm gonna get it time, and so
(42:28):
we just make sure that we we we lay all
that out ahead of time. One of the major challenges
that I'm we're dealing with, I'm sure you guys are
gonna start dealing with. You guys have been fairly successful
in the draws lately, but getting a tag in the
near future to to put a project like you you
guys are doing, is going to become challenging. Or you're
(42:48):
going to see a bunch of like coastal Washington and
Oregon stuff on a yearly basis, Like you know, Dirk
is lucky that he lives in Idaho, you know, but
living in Washington, I'm like, well, I guess if I
have too, I could hunt Roosevelts again as my you know,
my standard, but like nothing anymore as a guarantee.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Yeah, it is a challenge. I think. The nice thing
is we do a good job, the four of us
communicating early in the year through the tag draw process
and planning of like, hey, you know, we've got so
many points here. We've got so many points here, you
guys can cool together. We've got this plan. So we
try to have a b C D down the line
of plans that can come together and keep that three
(43:30):
to five year approach of being able to kind of
bounce from each area. And that's one thing you know,
we haven't drawn up most recently, we've drawn a couple
of pretty good tags, but up until that, it's we're
trying to really make do with these tags that you
can get either OTC or every two to four years,
(43:50):
and that keeps a rotation going. And as you know,
that is that is changing. So we're navigating it just
like everyone else. But yeah, so far we can we
can cycle around and still get some stuff done and
have some backup plans. But Corey's probably got a deep
backup of making a move to Montana.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
It's it's on. It's definitely on the list of things
to do is get out of the state to guarantee
that hunt. But yeah, like you mentioned that, if you've
got a decent rotation between Montana Wyoming and then like
my plan is between those two, I can rotate those
if I have to throw Washington, and I can you know,
maybe pick up an Idaho tag here or there, and
(44:31):
then if I'm rotating through on Colorado, Nevada, you know,
Colorado is a little easier, but then like Nevada, Utah, Arizona,
New Mexico. You just kind of swing for the fences
every year, like eventually based on percentages, and as long
as you're not a plan for the absolute hardest tags,
like you will probably end up with an ELK tag,
you know, every year. And when you do get a
group of four, you can be a little more strategic
(44:53):
and you know, groups and rounding up and here and there,
like there's a way to probably have an Okay, ELK
take outside of our state every year?
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Still, yeah, very much so, and we count we shouldn't be,
but we count on someone out of the four drawing
something they quote unquote shouldn't on a yearly basis, and
we've been pretty lucky in that regard. But like Bryant
mentioned it, you're sacrificing those those coveted tags, like that
(45:22):
deep investment in ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty five years to
draw a coveted tag, and really we're looking at that
short term two to five years we want to tag
in some of these states where people are holding out
for those a higher end tags and trophy qualities. So
just getting out and essentially doing as much outcunting as
(45:43):
you can, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
So with the Elk obsession, like, how did you guys
like go into that, Like whether you got a vision
or a mission statement for that, Like how did you
want that project to maybe differentiate itself from other hunting
films or series that are out there?
Speaker 3 (46:00):
Yeah? I think ultimately we we were looking at hey,
we're we're filming our hunts, but it's it's what what's
our identity? What what do we like to do? What's
our passion, and really what it came down to was
we we our passion is elkhunting, And yeah, you do
have elk projects that are out there that are elk specific,
but we, by no means are experts. We're growing, we're
(46:23):
we're learning as we go, and that's what we wanted
to showcase was, Hey, we're we love elk hunting, We're
passionate about it. We're newer in the grand scheme of
things to elk hunting, like watch along and learn from
some of our mistakes and enjoy joy some of us,
laugh at some of our mistakes if you'd like, and
and then some of our successes as well as we
(46:43):
go along and we make those decisions about hey, do
we take this bowl, do we hold out to the end,
all of those things. So I think for us, it
was just showcasing the rawness of it, as Hey, someone
that's in the first decade of Hugh of elk hunting
and diving into the deep end, here's what to expect
(47:05):
as as we're going through that journey as well.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, and then you know, I kind of mentioned it earlier,
but the uniqueness of our four person group and really
trying to fill an ELK tag for every all four
of us, and that's you know, taking that unselfish approach,
and we're you'll probably see us lean into that a
little bit more. But it's just I might have one
(47:30):
of the guys that helps me pack out a bull
I killed during archery season. So say we go to
another state and it's rifle season there first up, you know,
and I think capturing that and just showing the you know,
cohesiveness of hunting in a group. And there's other groups
out there that you know, document these these sorts of projects.
(47:51):
But I think you'll see us lean into that a
little bit more and just kind of show that, you know,
because that's something that happens behind the scenes that makes
it all work.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Yep, that's awesome. So right now, you know this is
gonna air on the thirteenth. You guys have released two episodes,
and I believe on the sixteenth you said New Mexico
Elk will be releasing, and then on the twenty third,
the Idaho one where we kind of did the collab
with Phelps and Tall Timber will release on the twenty third.
(48:21):
What was the most memorable moment in your guys' opinion
from and you may let the cat out of the
bag or spill the beans a little bit here. But like,
what was the most memorable moment for you guys putting
ELK Obsession together this year?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Well, I think it would have to be the Wyoming episode,
which is already out. Uh So first episode we tried
to come out with a bang this year, and and
that was my tag in Wyoming. Corey came along with me,
and then actually we invited I invited a family friend
to run camera and help us out as well. But yeah,
(48:52):
first episode Wyoming under twenty yard six point bowl, you know,
on film on an our triolch the iy public land Hunt,
and that's you know, as you know, that's such a
hard thing to capture. Yeah, and it was a special moment,
a super tough pack out out of a beautiful remote area.
(49:13):
So it just kind of had everything together. And that's
that's one of those instances I was mentioning too, is uh.
That happened on day two and a half, basically our
third day there. I would have loved to held out forever,
but that freed up Corey to get to Montana earlier,
me to get back to the Oregon coast and so
you know that that was a That was a good
(49:34):
one for sure.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah. I've I climbed out of there without an elk
on my back and didn't appreciate the climb out of
that canyon. So I can only imagine with an elk
on three guys's back, it wasn't that much fun.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
Yeah, but that was that was a special one for us.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yep, how about you, Corey.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
I was thinking about that while Brian was talking, and
I don't know if it's necessarily one moment, it's just
looking back at the entire project. So we even spent
time on the Oregon coast. Some of that stuff we
didn't document it document So going from the Oregon Coast
and then I was at we had five stops. I
was at four of them, to be in five different
(50:15):
states from September to November hunting elk and just going
from the coast and the jungle to Wyoming and having
that experience with Brian, and then going to Montana and
there's no vegetation to be seen. It's like the desert
to me. And then jumping to Idaho and the high
country and chasing critters with you, and then going to Arizona.
(50:37):
It was just a whirlwind looking back at it, and
all the different strategies and different ways of approaching getting
close on critters, all that combined was pretty cool. Most
people don't even experience that. And a ten day span,
let alone a three month span or ten year span,
let alone three months.
Speaker 1 (50:54):
So the entire culmination of the project, which is you
know where I'm at, It's tough to pick out one
when you know the entire season is kind of what
what I remember? So where does elk Obsession go from here?
Are you guys playing it like year by year? You
guys just plan on keeping running an elk obsession until
something else changes, or like where's it? Where's what's the
(51:16):
future of elk Obsession?
Speaker 3 (51:19):
Well, I mean we the first season was last year
and the feedback we got from everybody was was amazing,
and hence why we rolled it back for for season
two here in twenty twenty five. And some people joke,
do you ever get burnt out? Go into all these
(51:39):
I'm nowhere, they're burnt out on Elk cutting. So I enjoyed.
I love it, and so I think we we ultimately
collectively will need to have those tags like you mentioned
that are going to be hard to come by year
to year. But our goal right now, rough draft, would
be to do it again here in the fall of
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
So yeah, yeah, and we are playing it year by
year in the fact of trying to keep things unique
and exciting, keep keep ourselves engaged because I think you know,
as you know, you do the same thing for a
couple of years, it gets a little stale. But I think, yeah,
like I mentioned, leaning in more to the story of
(52:20):
our group of four and working working hard for each other.
You know, I think it is something you'll you'll see
in the future here, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
So work in the audience, support and follow Tall Timber.
Where can they go watch the yelk obsession videos the series.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
So we Instagram Tall Timber Productions. We are YouTube channel
same thing, Tall Timber Productions. We just released episode three
last night, so that's the second episode out of Montana,
and then as you mentioned, New Mexico will come this
Sunday and then also on Facebook for Tall Timber Production
(52:58):
Productions as well.
Speaker 1 (52:59):
Gotcha. Any closing thoughts, what's one piece of advice you
would leave with with new Elk Hunters or Elk Hunters
that maybe aren't a successful every year.
Speaker 3 (53:08):
I would just go back to enjoy, enjoy the struggle.
It's going to be a struggle, and enjoy the journey.
And as long as you go in with a growth mindset,
it's it's everything that's cracked up to be yep.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
And I would say find a mentor for sure, because
one thing about this community that we have together is
people are willing to help. And I think sometimes, you know,
newer hunters are afraid to ask questions. I know when
I was just getting into it, you you kind of
put some people up on a pedestal. You're afraid to
ask for advice, and all of us are willing to help.
(53:43):
So find a mentor someone that can help you. And
I think you'd be surprised how how much that can
cut down the learning curve.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Yep, yep. It's you know, even if you've got to
go be a packer, aren't for somebody like offered whatever.
Like it's if you can cut that learning curve down,
it's huge. And then just time in the field is
always important and you can read whatever you want. But
like that's why the mentor thing like reading on the internet,
you know, watching YouTube video doesn't like put you in
(54:13):
the position to make decisions, and why are these decisions
being made? So it's important to get out there. And
the other thing I tell people is like it's maybe
a tougher pill to swallow is you watch these videos.
You guys get to see the best thirty minutes of
my entire ELK Hunt right when we edit. We all
edit because people are going to tune out if you
got to see the three days of us getting our
(54:34):
butts kicked, and so like it's it's not reality what
you watch any of us do on YouTube. You're getting
to see the best of that entire hunt in a
thirty minute package. You fail, You're going to fail. I fail.
You guys fail. Everybody fails, even the best you know,
Lampers fails. He talks about like you know, Brian Barney,
(54:56):
all of these guys, whether you make mistakes or not,
they're olk they're not they're not reading the same script
you are. And so I've always just like to keep
people's confidence. You know, I've seen people after a year
or two like I'm just okay, I'm never gonna it's
never gonna work. And I'm like, well, most of these
guys producing videos on YouTube are ten plus years experience.
They've got a system. They've got it figured out, like
(55:17):
don't don't measure your expectation against like what what you
know some of these video projects do. It's not not
maybe the norm, it's a little bit of the exception.
And so I just try to like stay engaged and then,
like you guys have mentioned multiple times, I'm gonna kind
of roll into that, like fall in love with the
(55:39):
journey of becoming that person that kills an elk every
other year, every third year, or you know, the journey
to your first elk, whatever it is. And don't you
know put that undue pressure on you, like you have
to be successful. It's gonna take time for sure.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yeah, and you know, finding that mentor you learn that
this is a year round it's a year round a
journey and that that's uh. People talk about confidence being
so important, and it is. Once you get that confidence
in those scenarios when you especially when you have animals
in close, you start to you know, punch tags more often.
But it's the reps in the off season with the
(56:16):
bow and it's the training to get physically fit, and
it's the researching tags and areas and practicing your calling.
And once you're putting in all that effort throughout the year,
that gives you the confidence in the fall. You know,
it's it's it takes a long time to develop confidence.
If you're only expecting your two three weeks of vacation
(56:37):
and time in the fall. Actually out hunting is the
time you're going to gain that. You have to be
putting that in, you know, in the other nine months
out of the year.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah, and it takes a little bit of like that
old school thought. You know, we live in a world
where instant gratification is such a real thing, like everything
needs to be quick, it needs to be instant. And
I'm like, man, this is more of an old school thing,
like you better, you better be in for the long
haul because it's not going to be that. It's going
to take a while. It's going to take year round.
You know, people think we're crazy, Like you guys think
(57:04):
about this year round to spend one week out in
the Elk Woods. It's like, yeah, it's that important to us,
and it's what it's what you do to ensure that
you have success or a chance at success. And even then,
like you could do all that and still maybe not
you get your chance in a week, you know, And
so it's like people just need to realize it. It's
not it's not going to happen in an instant. It's
(57:25):
going to take it.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Yeah, and the neat thing is there's these small wins
along the way, right that we know of. Right, you
put in for tags and you draw a tag, so
you get that instant a little bit of that gratification,
and you're working on your calling and you've been trying
to get this you know, clean high note in your locator,
and all of a sudden it's happening, right, so that
you get these little wins throughout the year shooting the
(57:48):
bow and now you're hitting the kill zone at fifty
yards when you only could at thirty before. So there's
these little wins if you look for them, that keep
you going and get you ready.
Speaker 1 (57:57):
Yeah. Well, I really appreciate having you guys on here.
Look forward to the rest of the elk Obsession project,
and yeah, good luck and all your your tag draws
and hopefully you guys can fill up the all your
all your time slots. Everybody gets a tag, and look
forward to seeing what elk Obsession three turns out to.
Speaker 3 (58:16):
Be appreciate you, Jason.
Speaker 2 (58:17):
Yeah, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (58:19):
YEP, Take care, guys,
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