Ep. 46: Dirk and Jim Huntsman

On this week's episode, host Dirk Durham talks about pre-season preparation with the host of the podcast "The Western Huntsman", Jim Huntsman. They discuss everything from making sure your bow and arrows are correct for elk hunting, to not letting the idea that you have to be an elite athlete to enjoy chasing bugles in the elk woods, be a barrier.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast. I'm
your host. Dirk Durham. My guest today is going to
be one of my favorite people. He is one of
my favorite people. This guy is another host of another podcast,
the Western Huntsman Podcast. Jim and I have known each
other for a few years. He was gracious enough to
ask me to be on the very first episode of

(00:33):
his podcast back in what was that twenty nineteen?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Jim, Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
So welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on,
and we're going to talk about some cool stuff today.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Awesome, man, I appreciate you having here.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Can you tell some folks a little bit more about
yourself about your podcast and what your day job is.
I mean, I don't know if everybody knows. I mean
everybody thinks all these hunting into three people sit around
eating caviar with deer Antler's spoons right sitting on a
bear skin rug. But I feel like that's people don't

(01:11):
always know what you know behind the scenes. Looks like
for a real life hunting personality like yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yeah, man, I think I think you're exactly right. I
think that there folks kind of look at the whole
hunting industry as if it's a lot more lucrative than
it really is. So yeah, just a little bit about me.
A lifelong hunter. I grew up out west, I grew
up in Utah, in Idaho and big, big time mule

(01:42):
deer hunter and elk hunter. And now now I'm a
like kind of half psychotic bear hunter. I love bear
hunting and I started, I don't know, roughly twenty sixteen
twenty seventeen, I started getting a bit concerned about the
future of hunting and started writing for very magazines and
online articles and stuff like that, and it kind of

(02:05):
turned turned into this thing where, you know, my wife's
always like, you know, all you want to do is
talk about hunting, why don't you start one of those
hunting podcasts? And I'm like, I don't even really know
what a podcast is. I'd like, heard of Joe Rogan, right,
and so I look it up. And one of the
first podcasts I ever listened to it was you on

(02:26):
Randy Newbergh's podcast with somebody else. I can't remember who
else was on there. There was three people on there,
and it was you and Randy Newburg and somebody else
talking about elk hunting. Mistakes, and I'm like, okay, okay,
so this is what a podcast is, Like, I like
the content and whatnot. And so after the Elk season

(02:48):
twenty nineteen, I had hit this bowl elk after I
don't know, it was like it was like a three
hour bugle battle, right, you know, And finally got this
elk and he went down and fell off the front
of this rock face and tumbled and because of this,
he busted a bunch of antlers off off of him,

(03:10):
a bunch of the times off him, and because of
the way he fell, I lost his blood trail and
it took me like three days to find him, and
by then the meat was spoiled, you know. It was
it was like a major blow the bears that got
to him. But I found him and I recovered the
the antlers and he had a bunch of busted times,

(03:30):
and so it was like just this moment, I thought,
you know what, I'm going to start a podcast and
and talk about this stuff and protect this thing because
I love it so much. Even though this was devastating,
I just I just killed an elk and I couldn't
recover it in time, and you know, it was it
was even like a double whammy because the times had
broken off and and but I still just this burning

(03:52):
passion for it, you know. And so so yeah, I
started a podcast. I called you up. I'm like, hey, man,
want to want to be on my podcast? I have
no idea what I'm doing, but we came down and
recorded that first one and I released it Christmas Eve
of twenty nineteen.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah. That was awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, so, oh day job. You asked about the day job.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I'm in the commercial roofing industry and I run
around looking at big commercial roots and I do estimating
and project management and stuff like that. So but when
I'm not recording podcasts or hunting, that's what you'll find
me out there doing all over the Pacific Northwest.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
The cool thing was I never met Jim in my
entire life, and we can just kind of message. Well, no,
I take that back. We did meet at like a
sportsman show briefly, and you said, hey, my name is Jim,
this is what I do, YadA YadA. And then fast
forward a few months you contacted me and then I said, well,
let's meet at the local watering hole and grab a

(04:52):
burger and a beer. So we grabbed a burger and
a beer and shot the breeze there and immediately I
was like, this guy, he's my kind of people. Sometimes
Jim just calls me up and we'll sit there and
bs for an hour or two about just whatever is
going on, whether it be hunting or life or politics
or whatever. And that's what I love about you, man.

(05:14):
You're always You're just like you're the real deal. And
I appreciate that kind of conversation so to.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Now, I appreciate it, man, and that feelings mutual for sure.
It's you, like one of the most authentic people I know,
one of the most solid Elk hunters I've ever met
in my life, with still holding and maintaining that level
of humility and humbleness.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
And yeah, just think highly of your brother.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Wow that Yeah, you're making me blush a little bit.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
But if you ever get in trouble with your wife,
just play this back to her.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yes, I will definitely. So today I want to talk
about some stuff, you know. Here it is August seventh,
so we're less than thirty days until September first, and
I really want to record this podcast a little earlier
and get it published a little earlier. And by the
time this publishes, it'll probably be you'll have an even

(06:07):
less time to get prepped for ELK season. But I
feel like there's some stuff you need to do before preseason,
before we take off, and whether you're going to be gone,
you know, be a weekend warrior off and on through
the month of September, or if you're going to take
the whole dang month off, you know, I like to
I'm gone most of the month. I sleep in my

(06:28):
bed maybe two or three nights in September, and the
rest of the time I'm in the mountains. So it's
very critical. Preparation is very critical to make sure you
have success in the fall. It's not just all about
you know, all your other homework you're supposed to be
doing the rest of the year. You know, all your
bow shooting and all your Google ear thing and all
your on x map marking and stuff. You know, there's

(06:51):
a little more to it than that. And one thing
I like to talk about, and I'm going to preface
this with a little bit, I am definitely not a
fitness coach, and so I'm and if you look at me,
I'm not a I'm not a fitness athlete by no means.
But I guess I have a different perspective than maybe
some of the ultra fit out there. You know, some

(07:13):
of the folks that will send in questions to the podcast,
we like to share them here, and one of those is, hey,
this was off social media, Hey derk, what do you
do to get in shape for ELK season? So if
you if you see me, I'm not you know a
shape I'm kind of the shape around round is a shape.
That's kind of the shape I'm in. But this year

(07:36):
I've had an ankle injury, not an ankle injury, ankle recovery.
Had ankle surgery back in December, and I've been been
working on rehabing that all all winter and all summer.
So this last month I'm really starting to get a
little more serious about my fitness because now I can

(07:57):
push things a little bit. What kind of fitness stuff
do you do, Jim? Are you are you out running marathons?
Are you hitting the weight room every day? What are
you doing? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
No, So I I do none of that, man I
and and I I don't. I don't have like, well,
let me put it to you this way. So I
live on a homestead, and so there is always stuff
to do outside. I'm either chopping wood, or I'm building
new fencing or fixing the chicken coop, or you know,

(08:27):
hauling stuff from one side of the property to the next,
or you know, mowing. I'm I'm a pretty physical guy
that way. So it's not like I am not like
Cam Haynes, right, and I don't I think that that
is super beneficial for for for hunting, to be super
athletic like that. But I also think that there's a

(08:49):
lot of us that are that are average guys that
have you know what, whatever the case is I for.
For example, you mentioned your your ankle, I have.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
I have.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
I have super arthritic arthritic knees. That's like a tongue twister, man.
My knees are pretty arthritic from the military, and so
running is kind of out of the question for me.
And that's that's straight from the you know, a knee
surgeon's mouth, and so I don't like to put that
kind of stress on my knees. However, I do throw

(09:20):
a pretty heavy pack on and I will hike the property.
I'll do like three miles two or three times a week.
And I clocked it with my on X man. If
I walk around my entire property like three and a
half times, that's one mile.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
So that's how I clock it.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
And I'll just throw a podcast in and I do
that throughout the summer, and in the winter, I throw
the snow shoes on and I'll kind of do the
same route. I usually don't go three miles. That's a
lot harder, and I don't have a pack on during
that time.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
But no, I don't.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I don't go hit the gym and lift a bunch
of weights. I don't go running. I don't do anything
like that. I never I never know how to say
this without sounding like like some egomaniac, because I am
anything but uh.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
But but I did a lot.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
I put a lot of miles on my feet when
I was in the in the military, And there's something
about when you do that, you.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Just have this scene afterwards.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's like there was this show I watched one time
and it was like this about the Civil War, and
this this infantry guy, he's like, oh, it's the first
few thousand miles after that, yeat, a man gets limber
with his feet. And that's true. Once you've once you've
hit so many miles.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
I can just go.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
I could just hike. I'm like a mountain goat. Now,
I'm not as fast as as somebody who's been doing
a lot of cardio or or does a lot of
running of marathons and stuff like that. They're gonna get
there before me. But but I'm going to get there,
and I guess that's the I don't know that that's
a summary of my workout session, you know, it's it's

(10:55):
it's just basic stuff.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
I'm just an average dude.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
I'm not I'm not super out of shape and I'm
not super in shape, man, but I can get to
the top of the mountain when I need to.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I love it. Here's one thing, one level, one barrier
of entry, you know, for the hunting world. Let's say
you like a new hunter. They want to come and
go hunting, but they see so much stuff on social
media or videos of these elite athletes eat elite type athletes,
elk hunting or deer hunting or whatever, and it's for
the average joe like me, that's kind of like an

(11:26):
unattainable goal to be that level of physical fitness. I'm
just gonna you know, I'm not going to run a
lot of miles every day. I can't. You know, I
have an old you know, I have a bad back.
I can't run on concrete. That different doctor told me,
don't do never, never run on concrete again. So I'm
not going to get out and run a bunch of biles.
But what I've always said is if you can't walk

(11:50):
to the elk, you can't hunt el So exactly, I
think it's all foundational. You have to you have to
get out and walk and depend no matter what your
level of fitness is. Maybe maybe you can barely get
off the couch honestly, and uh, but you can start
those baby steps like okay, well I'm gonna walk walk
down the block first, and then okay tomorrow maybe I'll

(12:12):
walk a little further. Or maybe you're pretty good shape,
but you're you're you're a desk jockey. But you know,
maybe that first, that first day, it's a mile, and
then you're working on it after that, you know. So
I like to kind of let my my if I've
been kind of been lazy and been sitting around a lot,
not able to get away from the desk, I like
to check kind of get out and just like warm

(12:34):
up my muscles, wake them up a little bit. Yeah,
and that's just walking around walking, and once they kind
of wake up after a couple of days, you'll notice
a difference, like Okay, there your muscles in your in
your legs and your feet and your lower back. You're like, okay,
we're gonna start being physical again. And then you know,
I'm gonna start adding some hills in. But the goal
here is if you've especially at this point in the

(12:56):
time like here we are, middle of August, you don't
want to go out and get in injured. So now
it's not the time to join a CrossFit gym. Don't
join to CrossFit gym. And get nothing wrong with CrossFit.
I think it's it's a great exercise way to get
your work out in, but it's easy to like get
to be competitive and then like overdo it and then

(13:17):
oh man, I just torn my hamm eather, I messed
up my shoulder or whatever. You know, that's something you
want to do your CrossFit workout, like maybe start that
in January one. That way, you have plenty of time
to ease into it and you know, build and build
and build and be a superhuman by by September, but
now's the time for it.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
I think that's super solid advice because I think people
underest to me how much how easy it is, especially
you know dudes like us that you know we're we're
not We're not spring chickens anymore, you know. So, uh,
it's it's not that difficult to injure our body like
I spent. I spent the first two weeks of July
going to the chiropractor three times a week.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
And you know what I did.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
All I did was I picked my dog up so
I can get him in the back of the truck
without him jumping because he's getting old. Cost me two
weeks at the chiropractor. Man, and I'm in decent shape.
And I think a lot of it too.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
People put this.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
There's like this, what do you call that? When there's
the stigma on what kind of shape you have to
be in. Man, I'll tell you a couple of things.
First of all, most of this stuff is mental. If
you get out in the woods and you've got a
heavy pack on and it's you know, first thing in
the morning's maybe your first time out west and getting
on a mountain, don't don't underestimate how long your second

(14:40):
wind is going to take you into the into the
back country. I don't care what kind of shape you're in.
You just keep going as as in. Your body will
tell you when it's time to stop. And there's a
difference between that thought of man, this sucks, this is hard,
I'm sweating, my back hurts, my legs hurt. I need
to just stop. And that's that's not when you stop.

(15:00):
Your body will tell you when to stop. The other
part of it is what was that.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Two seasons ago?

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Man, You'll you'll get a kick out of this because
we we've talked about like Doug Flutie and stuff, like
two seasons ago.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
I'm I'm like.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
Four miles way up this drainage, and it was not
you know, North Idaho. It's it's these are North Idaho miles.
These are it's real brushed off miles. They're tough miles.
And this isn't like four miles in Kansas. And and
so I get way up there and there's this dude
back there and he's probably sixty five years old ish,

(15:39):
he's not in great shape, he's smoking cigarettes and and
he's got an elk down. And so I end up
helping this guy pack an ilkout, and and the dude
is just like I like, it was hard for me
to get up there, and he got he got up
there before me somehow, And you know, so I just
I think a lot of this I come to like,

(16:00):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
I think a lot of it is just mental.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
I think a lot of it is we we struggle
with our own minds and mental mental toughness and mental
endurance to get into places where the elk live, because
you're right, if you can't, if you can't walk into there,
you're not going to get an ilk, right.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
And I think expectation versus reality sometimes really gets people.
I always like to tell people to temper their expectations,
no matter what it is. So, yes, okay, getting up
the mountain to that bugling elk or packing out a
load of elk met what's your expectation. Well, it's we're
not going to have any of that instant gratification that

(16:37):
we get in with today's conveniences and modern easy life
that we we all enjoy, enjoy and love every day. Right.
And I find myself like, like when I'm training or
when I'm hiking or hunting, I'm just like man, I
really I wish I could get to the top quicker,
and I like my mind. It's almost like I start
tricking my mind like into feeling like a feeling of

(16:59):
failure because I'm not scaling the mountain as quickly as
I think maybe I should. And once I once, I
kind of temper that expectation, it's like, well, I'll get there,
when I'm gonna get there. It's like, I'm not a Ferrari, right,
I'm more of a I'm more of a dump truck
or maybe a bulldozer. Right, I'm just gonna bulldoze my
way up this mountain and I'm gonna Chevy.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Man, You're gonna get there.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
That's like, that's how I am. I'm not a Pinto,
but I'm not a Ferrari. I'm just like a really
good Chevy.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
I'm gonna one ton Chevy.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir. Sometimes in the winter, I look
like a suburban.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, exactly. And we have to remember, like we're out
there to have it, to enjoy it. If you push
too hard to where you push yourself past the enjoyment level,
then you're like thinking, what the heck am I doing here?
So temper your expectations of how fast you should go
up the mountain if you're if your buddy weighs seventy

(17:57):
pounds less than you and he just climbs up there
like a yeah, Well that's cool for him because that's
where he's at. But if you can get there too
and hunt effectively on your own terms, that that's a win, right,
And I found I found that for me. You know,
if I can just go at my own pace, I can.
I can go just about anywhere anybody else can.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
Oh me too, man, Yeah, just my own pace is
the key.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
And the key is you know, back to The training
is start now. If you haven't if you haven't done
any any exercises summer, start now, get out, start walking.
Then start after you do a few days of walking,
start rucking. And rucking is throwing a backpack on with
a little bit of weight, so you know, your first
couple of days, you're gonna want to put enough weight

(18:42):
in there to be what your normal day pack is,
you know, whether that's you know, fifteen pounds or so
twenty pounds totally loaded with all your gear, so water, meat, bags, knives, forkspoons,
whatever you carry in your day bag. Right, Yeah, yeah,
and then where that or you know, do some rucking
with that for about three or four days. Then throw

(19:04):
some more weight on there, throw forty pounds on it,
do some more rucking for three or four days. And
then that last few days, you know, that last week
before season, that's when you really this is where you
really want to remind your body. If you've been there before,
or maybe it's if you've never done this. This is
kind of like a wake up call for your body, like, Okay,

(19:25):
this is what we're gonna be doing here very soon.
That's when you put on an eighty pound pack and
you're gonna walk, but you're not gonna You're not gonna walk.
You know those four or five miles that you were
able to walk without a heavy pack. Let's get those
baby steps. You know. If you can pull that eighty
pound pack, you know a half mile around the neighborhood,
I mean, that's great. That's a win. Now your body's like,

(19:46):
oh wow, okay, that's what it feels like. Tomorrow, we're
gonna do it again. Tomorrow, We're gonna do it again
and see how it feels and maybe we can go
a little further. Maybe not, because we want to remember,
we don't want to injure. But but forgetting that that
feeling that last week before season, putting that eighty pound

(20:06):
pack on every day and walking with it is gonna
is gonna be not only get you in a little
better shape, it's also going to build some mental toughness
because you've your body's familiar with that heavyweight. You've packed it,
you know you can carry it, and you know, if
if you're lucky enough to have some hills by your

(20:26):
house and if you're able to walk, you know, hike
up some hills with it a little bit, you know,
maybe maybe put a mile or two on with that
heavy weight. You're gonna have so much more confidence and
so much more mental toughness going into season that you'll
have a better time. You know, you'll have that mindset
like I can do it instead of I can't do it.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, yeah, and go ahead.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
No, it just I think that that that all adds
to the your your mental endurance as well, Like you
don't want you don't want your back muscles to be
like the first time they feel that way on opening day,
because you're going to create a lot of pain and
it's so unnecessary.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
So yeah, again.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, you know, just for for average average guys, average
physique guys like like you and I, you know, uh,
just just preparing without without doing marathons and stuff. Is
is just don't it doesn't need to be over complicated.
Do what you're gonna do while you're elk hunting, Go hiking,
Go hiking a lot, and I think you'll surprise yourself

(21:29):
when you get when you get out there.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, my favorite thing to do in the summertime, you
would think would be maybe beach time or river time,

(21:53):
or you know, sitting around a campfire, which I love
all those things, sure, But my my favorite thing to
do is go put out trail cameras in the mountains
in the back country of Idaho. And I put them
out number one. I'm I'm just I don't really use
them really for hunting because usually the elk kind of
disappear about middle August off of them anyhow. But I

(22:16):
just kind of like to know, I wanted to get
inside the head of an elk, like what are they doing,
what do they look like this time of year, when
do they when are they in this area? When do
they leave? When do they come back? Just it almost
kind of gives you like like a peek behind the
curtain of of an elk's life in that in that
very spot. And what'll we'll do. I'll put salt out. Now,

(22:38):
if you check the rags, it's not illegal to put
salt out, but it is illegal to hunt over salt,
so you can't hunt over the salt, and it'll kind
of foul up that area for hunting. So but I'm
not trying to hunt here. What I'm just trying to
do is are there any elk in this country at all?
What do they look like? What are they what are
they doing? When do they leave? When do they go?
It's just I always want to understand elk moore right, so,

(23:04):
and to get to get salt into these places. It's
well number one salts heavy, you know. I get it
in the sixty pound bag. And then North Idaho is
very steep, very brushy, a lot of timber. It's not
easy miles and a lot of the places I go
are off trail. I may use use an access trail
for a ways, but then I'll go off trail just

(23:25):
because I don't want to buy messing with my cameras.
So I'll get out there and sometimes I will the
whole way. I especially once I get off trail, I
will question my sanity, like what am I doing here?
This sucks? Oh my god, what am I I'm never
coming back here. I can't ever come back here. I mean,
it gets to the point where it will test your

(23:47):
physical and your your mental fortitude to the to the
to the limit. Right, So, you know, because I got
just of salt, but I got water, I got cameras,
and I got I've got eighty pounds on my back,
and ye by the time I dumped that thing is
so like, oh my god, thank you. I got there finally,
and I set up my camera and everything. But then

(24:09):
I'm trying to do two or three of those a
day because you know, I don't have a lot of
extra time to be thrown around, so I may have
to fit this in kind of a long weekend. So
I'm just like business from from daylight to dark. As
much as I'd like to be swimming in the lake
or paddling around the river, I'm up here in the brush,
sweating and cursing, putting out these stupid trail cameras. But

(24:30):
what that does is later on, when I strap a
quarter of elk meat on my back. I know what
it feels like, and I know what I can do.
I know that this is gonna suck for a little bit.
But once I get to the better part of the trail,
or I get to some flatter ground or whatever, things
are gonna get better and I can do it. I
just I know I can do it. And then I'm

(24:50):
gonna take and I know the time it's gonna take
to get there. I'm not gonna have some weird expectation
like I should be able to Okay, I should be
able to get there in like twenty thirty minutes. It
may take me an hour or two to get to
get this meat out, you know, But I'm okay with that,
And then I don't feel defeated. Right it takes me

(25:10):
the hour to get it out, It's like, okay, cool,
I can go back and make another trip. I got
to go get another load of meat. So it's just
building that mental preparedness, I think, in some physical preparedness
around it.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
I'd love to add, you know, because I love what
you're saying and I've been doing. Actually you're I think
you're the one that taught me this whole let's go
set some trail cameras and like the most random, you know,
areas that you're thinking about hunting, because I think it's important.
It tells you so much about what the elk are doing,
the elk behavior, how they're moving. It also tells you
if there are wolves moving through there consistently. It also

(25:47):
builds your stamina and and you know, it's like the
opposite you pack in heavy and come out light because
you've dropped the salt in the camera, you know. And
so yeah, I think that's critical if you have I
understand that's going to be hard for gets coming from
back east or whatever to be able to do. But
for for the locals hunt now west, I mean, it's
a it's a great tool. It's a great scouting tool.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Yeah. In some states it's just you just can't do it.
It's illegal, you know. Yeah, And I've looked looked this
up online several times just to make sure I'm following
the letter of the law, because I don't I want
to make sure I'm I'm legal, legal, right, But in
some states you can't do it. I don't think you
can do it at Wyoming, and I think I don't
think Montana allows it either either I haven't got it
too far into it because I haven't really tried. I

(26:31):
don't really set trail cameras in those places.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
I think it's Arizona and Utah. I actually I don't know.
I'd have to look it up. I don't want to
speak at at a turn there.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yeah, yeah, look it up. If you decide you want
to do such a thing, I always say, look it up,
see if it's legal. If it's legal, go do it,
have some fun with it. And if it's not legal,
you know, maybe you're going to do some backpack trips,
maybe you've got a really great trail system or some
Really I feel like anywhere in this anywhere there's elk it'
is almost better than Idaho for like traversing the mountains, right,

(27:04):
I think, you know, the west, the west coast of
you know, Oregon and Washington's pretty bad too. But yeah,
as far as the high country man Idaho, it is
pretty pretty rough. If you want to get out there,
maybe throw a nice you know, forty to fifty pound
pack on and back backpack in wait, you know, for
a few days, and set trail cameras and maybe Colorado

(27:25):
or Wyoming wherever that would be like really a really
good test to you know, give yourself some endurance and
give yourself some confidence to know you can you can
get through those mountains during September.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, totally totally agree.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
I'd like to switch gears here. Had another message come
in to the email. It says, what kind of boots
do you guys recommend for el cunning And I don't
like to recommend a certain brand because everyone's feet are
so different. And then another thing is like a lot
of the high end boots they come with just kind
of a basic insoul that should be replaced. I've ran

(28:04):
anything for everything from Doctor shoals to those really cool
custom sheep feet that.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah, it's gonna ask you. You've run those sheep feet,
haven't you?

Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah, which they're awesome. But I'll say that even the
Doctor Shoals inserts are better than like what they put
in most shoes.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
That question is going to segue in to what the
most important piece of gear is that you need for
this fall? And I think it kind of couples with
like the most important exercise you're going to do, right, Yeah,
you have to be able to walk to the elk. Well,
if you can't walk because your shoes are garbage or
your boots are garbage, then it's going to be really
hard to get up the mountain and get to those elks.

(28:42):
So you have to, you know, I always say, by
a pretty the best quality pair of boots you can afford.
I know everybody's got a little different budget, but try
on a few, wear them around the store. You know,
buy the best ones you can afford, because high quality
boots will definitely make the difference in the back country.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
I I have said, and I feel like again, I
don't mean to sound like my grandpa always talking about
the military thing, but but I I have told people
on my show, the most critical piece of gear that
you that you go into the field with is going to.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Be your boots. And I speak from a place of authority.
I was.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
I was in the Marine Infantry and and there, and
I don't know that there's anybody that walks more than
Marine infantry do. So I have run the the lowest
quality jungle boots in foreign places, and and I I
could just speak from a place of great confidence when

(29:39):
I tell you that your boots will make or break you.
And you want to make sure whatever boots. Like Dirk said,
getting the the best boots that you can afford is critical,
and I have I have my recommendation, but like Dirk said,
everybody's feet are different, and everybody's kind of you know,
their budgets are different and and whatnot, and so like,
get the best boots that you can you can afford,

(30:02):
and and make sure those boots are broke in and
you want to make sure they're waterproof, make sure they're
they're fitting tight. If if you wear a if you
wear a size.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Ten, tenis shoes.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
Sometimes hunting boots, you're gonna want to get like a
size eleven, but you don't want to get like a
size eleven and a half because then your feet are
gonna move around and and your feet get switty, and
it's like the socks are gonna rub your blisters completely
off and you're gonna be in a world to hurt.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
And so uh, I do believe that boots.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
This is always my number one recommendation when I get
gear questions is boots are the most critical item. And
I think second to that is having a good set
of socks to go into those boots. And I don't know, man,
what's your opinion. I for for me, nothing beats a
good wolf sock. What what what say you?

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (30:51):
I agree? You know great, you know, good woll socks.
I've ran the ones from Costco, I've ran the first
light wolf socks, I've run darn toughs Rent a lot
of different wolf socks and they're all great. They're they're
all better than tube socks. Yes, if you're the socks right, right,
But I have a buddy that I mean, that guy

(31:12):
could probably put duct taper out of shoe box and
walk around the mountains because he's just tough, right, But
I feel like the rest of us are not nearly
that tough. You know, take care of your feet. High
quality socks, whether whether you're buying the ones at Costco
or you know some really nice wolf socks from a
reputable company, that will that will save your bacon.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
It will.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, you may not notice on day one and two,
but if you're on an extended hunt, if you're on
day nine and ten, that's when all these little things
really come to play. You know, if your feet are
still going good, feeling good, your boots are still comfortable,
they're dry, they're not you know, here's a funny story.
I got a buddy, his dad. Him and his dad

(31:54):
went hunting and like on the second or third day
of season, his dad's soul of his boot letely fell off.
Oh no, and luckily I always had some yeah, he
luckily he had some duct tape wrapped around his Nalgene bottle.
There's a pro tip. Always wrap some uh some duct
tape around your Nalgen bottle. I like the grilla tape best,

(32:18):
but wrap that around your your Nalgene bottle because it's
it's it's lightweight, it doesn't take it up any more
space in your pack. And you have tape because you
never know when you're kneeding tape maybe to tape your
solo your boot back on.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Yeah, man like, yeah, yeah, it's it's critical to have that.
I that's that's actually a great idea. I've never done
it around the Nalgen bottle. I've actually I've actually taken
like a toilet paper roll and and run like I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Of a duct tape roll around that and pack in
my pack.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah that works too.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, that's a great idea.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
I have an anecdotal story about high quality boots. So
his rifle season Idaho, and I had a camp set up.
My good and my good high quality boots were out
of camp, but my son had a football game. So
it's like, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna stay in town tonight,
watch the football game, and just get up super early
in the morning to hit opening day. Well I've got

(33:15):
like a two and a half three hour drive, you know,
So I get up at I'm supposed to get up
at three. Well I get up at three thirty. So
now I'm late. So I'm hurrying around. I get up
there and I'm like, well, I throw in these other
boots I had, and they were some Walmart specials. They
were Herman Survivors or some Wolverines or something, and you know,

(33:36):
for walking around flat country, they weren't bad. But I'm like, well,
I'll just wear these because I don't want to take
the time to go thirty minutes out of the way
over to my camp and back to get my good boots.
Because I don't want to be late. I want to
be in the spot on opening morning at first light.
So I get there, I got my crappy boots on.

(33:56):
I hike down in this hole and I'm like, all right,
it's just getting light. I start calling well, I start
calling those too soon, and a bull comes in and anyway,
I can see him, but I don't think it's safe
or maybe even legal quite yet to take the shot,
so I don't take the shot, and he he ski
daddles on out of there and anyway, but there's a
big bowl down in the bottom of the cannon. I

(34:16):
can just hear him rip in big bugle just so
I start making my way down, like I start, you know,
going further and further and further down, and then and
then it starts getting really steep, and it gets to
the point where every step I take my sole on
my foot on my boot is rolling up over the
side of my foot and over the top and now

(34:37):
the bottom of my foot is just on the side
of the boot, like if you can imagine that. So
at this point I can't go any further because the
boots will not stay on my feet. I've I've laced
him up as absolutely tight as they possibly go, and
they still are just rolling up over the side of
my foot. So I'm like, well, I'm gonna call that
thing over to me. So I sat there all day

(35:00):
and that bowl bugled all day long, and we went
back and forth, and I sat there trying to call
him across and he never would come in. But if
i'd have been smart, yeah, and hindsight's twenty twenty, right,
if I'd have been smart, I would have hiked out
of there. I would have drove over to my camp,
grabbed my other boots, hike back down there, and shot him.
But you don't think of it. Sometimes you get kind

(35:22):
of caught in the mode and you're like, you don't
think of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
But hell man, those are the supreme lessons learned. Brother,
I love it. I think one thing that I do
for foot care, I pack, and I don't care if
I'm well. Most often I don't do a lot of
backcountry stuff where I'm spending a night in the back country.
You know, most often i'm day dripping, and I still

(35:49):
pack a pair of flip flops in the pack. And
what I do is I'll go out at first light,
and you know that time, there's like this hour for me,
and maybe you know you're between the two of us,
you are the pro man, so you tell me if
I'm off base. But I feel like there's this this
hour between like nine ten o'clockish, where where I just

(36:13):
don't have any luck calling bowls in I don't I
don't get any responses, or maybe they're responding, but they're moving.
And so I'll sit down, I'll take my boots and
my socks off, and I'll just I'll just kind of
relax for like an hour, and then then I go
into this midday madnessing, which is again of something I
really picked up on from you, and it happens to

(36:35):
be the most I don't know, it's the best time
for me, that that midday and right before sundown, and
then you know, you get through that and then you
have that that kind of late afternoon timeframe where there's
not a lot of things going on, and again, I'll
take my I'll take my boots off, I'll take my
socks off, let the socks kind of dry out. They've
been feet have been sweating, and I'll just I'll just
mill around for a minute.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
But I've got my flip flops out there.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
It doesn't really weigh much to add a pair of
cheap flip flop in there, and it just the only
the only bummer part is I did have a bowl
pipe off one time when I was sitting there in
my flip flops and my my pants are rolled up,
you know, and I look like a total dork, and
I had I was like doing one of those peak
refuels or something like that in the in the jet boil.

(37:18):
And this bull starts bugling to my left. But he's
just trucking. He's like sidehill and trucking like I don't know,
fifty yards in front of me. I couldn't get up
fast enough to even respond with I couldn't find my
my bugle tube. It was under my pack, and so
I couldn't go after him because I did have my
flip flops on. But I do do that, and it
goes a long way to help dry your feet out.

(37:40):
And keeping your feet dry is critical, and that's that's
why waterproof boots are super important. But also after you've
been sweating for a while, man, try those socks out
and keep an extra pair of socks in your pack,
and it just it goes a long way to helping
your feet out.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
I agree, one hundred percent. Another thing a guy needs
to take a look at, or gal needs to take
a look at, is your bow right. You need to
make sure your strings are good. You need to make
sure your your cams are still straight in a line,
make sure it's still tuned. If you don't know how to,
you know, take a look at that stuff. Take it
to your local pro shop and let them go give

(38:16):
it a once over. I know guys that'll take their
bow in every year and have it gone through, whether
they take a take apart the wheels and the axles
and and clean them and grease them and and they
tune them. They make sure they make sure the drop
away rest is running right. Those drop away rests, I mean,

(38:37):
they're amazing, but they and they can take a lot
of abuse no matter what brand you have. But I've
found that my mind can get dirty and that can
start causing little quirky things with them. So you know,
whether you do it yourself, you know you need to
make me. Need to take it apart, clean it, put
it back together. Just make sure your bow is shooting darts,

(38:57):
just shooting perfect holes through paper and tuned right. Because
that way, I'm a segue right into broadheads. That way
your broadheads fly right. If your arrows flying fish flopping
through the air with your broad heads on something mat right,
you need to get your bow tuned, and then make
sure all your broadheads and all your arrows are all
the same weight. Jim and I had a funny conversation

(39:18):
the other day about about, you know, arrows and stuff.
But I have a buddy that he drew once in
a lifetime moose tag and long story short, he got
close to the moose and he pulls back and he
shoots every single arrow he has at the bowl and
he doesn't touch it. Oh no, And he's in the
bowl finally wanderings off and I'm like, what the heck.

(39:39):
He's like, well, I don't know what could it be.
And he's like, I've been shooting my bow all summer
and it's just shooting great with field points. And I said, well,
did you ever target practice with your broadheads? Well? No,
I didn't want to dole them up, he says. I'm like, well,
what kind are they? He's like, well, I got a
couple of these, and a couple of those, and two
or three of these. And the buddy gave me some
of these arrows that had something on him. I didn't

(40:00):
even know what the brand was. It turns out he
had a hodge podge of arrows and broadheads. None of
them were match matching weight, matching, spine matching broad head.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
I'm guilty of that man from like ten twelve years ago.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yet, Like yeah Eastman's arrow mixed with a Walmart arrol.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Oh yeah, you just it's just so critical for you
to hit your target and then do a good job
to make sure all your components are are the right ones,
right yep. And then elk calls you know, you know,
of course I'm in the elk call business. But make
sure you have you know, a handful of them in

(40:43):
your pocket. I liked, I don't. I don't like to
put in my pocket. What I like to do is
keep them in a little call pouch. It hangs around
my neck, keeps some organized, keeps them dry. Then I
put a couple on my pack, and then I have
a couple back at camp because that way, no matter
what if I if I and I've done this, I've forgotten.
I've taken my uh my little little pouch off at

(41:05):
the truck or whatever and left it, you know, yeah
or whatever, and you get over, you know, two or
three miles from the truck and you're like, oh, where's
my ouk calls. Well, I've got some on my pack,
or let's say you've lost something, or maybe your buddy's
lost his his calls. You've got some of your pack,
or you've got some in your truck. You know you've
you're always prepared. So and trust me, a lot of

(41:29):
these places where I've hunted out, you can sometimes be
eighty or one hundred miles from the local, the nearest
town that would even sell anything that looked like an
out call, and it may or may not be the
type or brand that you'd like to use. So you
may get desperate and by something that just doesn't work right.
So I want to make sure you got it.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
You know what I found, man, is so I'll keep.
I'll keep, like I'm I'm a big fan of these Mavericks,
and oh yeah, I'll keep.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
I'll keep. I've got that pouch.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Actually I need to check and make sure I didn't
burn that sucker down in.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
That truck fire I had last year. But I keep
like three or four in there.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
And then what I do you know, I'm like you,
I've got a couple in the pack, a couple in
my truck. You know, I've always got a bunch but
what I do is I'll use I'll use one of
those reads all morning and then I'll put it back
in the pouch and let it dry and grab another one.
And I found that, like you get this perfect stretch

(42:26):
instead of just using one until you wear it out,
You get a lot of life out of these reads
by just kind of rotating them through the day. I'll
have three or four of them in that pouch, and
I'll probably use all three or four of them throughout
the day, and and that it just kind of I
don't know, they tend to sound better, like you have
more control over them.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, I do the same thing. Yeah, because when you
take you take all you take. Let's say you have
three of them in there. You take three brand new diaphragms,
and if you slowly use them throughout the day, trade
spots with them, your break all of them in at
the same right right and when they get to that
sweet spot, which they usually don's very reliable. And then

(43:08):
a dry diaphragm is always going to perform better than
a wet, soggy one. So by doing that, you're you're
keeping your diaphragms crisp and dry and they're gonna last
longer and and they're gonna sound better. So no, you're
you're right your spot on there.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Okay, yeah, well I I've you know, it's funny. I've
been meaning to ask you about that for like two seasons.
But that's what I've been doing. And I that sweet
spot that you finally get to after after you know,
using it for a little bit. Man, what once you
do hit that sweet spot, you can maintain it by
keeping that thing dry and swapping them out like all September,
and they sound terrific.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yep, they sound better, last better.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
For sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
So one thing I see people still using these things
and I'm like, man, you gotta do something different is
meat bags. So the cheese cloth type, you know, the
ones that are super cheap you get you can get
four or five of them for like twelve bucks or
whatever they are. Gosh, do yourself a favor and do

(44:27):
not use those kind of meatbags. I've had to actually
flies blow right through those things. Get some. You know,
there's lots of brands out there of the synthetic high
quality game bags. The cloth is Antrai microbial and they
were usable. You know, they're kind of expensive, you know,
I've you can spend anywhere from forty bucks to eighty

(44:48):
bucks for a set of these high quality synthetic meatbags.
But if you take care of them, you know, make
sure you clean them up after the hunt. I just
machine wash mine, you know, bleach and some of that
stuff that Willie May's or Billy Mays used to advertise,
what is that stuff? Oh oxy clean?

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Oh yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, I was totally
drawn a blank.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
But anyway, I wash them with that stuff and I've
used them for multiple years, so so and then your
your meat stays clean, it stays delicious. And that's the
number one thing we don't want to We don't want
our meat to go bad.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 3 (45:24):
I think I think sixty bucks on a set of
game bags is kind of that sweet spot. And make
like I have a set in my my pack right now.
I've had two bears and a and a big white
tail in that particular set, and they've been washed each
time and they're still in the bag ready to go.
And then I have a backup set the same pair.
I think they're the ones I got from the Elk Collective.

(45:44):
Guys and and and those those ones, I just wash
them and man, they're they're good as new. Uh, they
keep like you said those Have you ever have you
ever like dropped a meat bag, those old cheese cloth
ones and it falls in the dirt and like you
can never get that dirt off.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Oh yeah, yeah, pine needles.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
And next thing you know, you're you're getting home and
you're like having to cut some of that meat out
because it's all dirty. Doesn't happen with these higher end meatbags.
I think, I think that's that's a good point you
bring it up. I didn't even think to talk about meatbags.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
Yep. Absolutely. And as far as gear, you know, the
last thing I'd like to talk about is as a
medkit or a first aid kit. Everybody says, well, make
sure you get a medkit, and but nobody really tells
you what to put in a medkit, right, yeah, Well
what if you buy If you just go buy one
off the shelf somewhere, most of the time, it's going

(46:41):
to have some aspirin in it, some antiseptic salve, and
a couple of band aids, and you know it's just
some you know, basic things like that if you cut
your finger at home. But this is life or death
type situation stuff, so it's good to know what's in
those things. And I met a guy at Elks Camp
a few years ago. His name is Jimmy Greenwalt. Oh yeah,

(47:04):
and I call him Jimmy Kits because he builds these
little medkits. And Jimmy, you've had him on your podcast.
He's he's the real deal, you know, he's he was
a combat medic and.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
His Special Forces combat medic multiple tours. Like the dude
knows how to patch people up.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Yeah, he's seen it all from as bad as it
can get. He's seen it and and cope and dealt
with it and saved lives. And he said his number
one thing to put in the bed. I'm just gonna
read off the things that he puts in his medkit
and then I recommend you should have in years too.
Number one thing he says is a tourniquet. And you

(47:44):
hear a lot of bad press about tourniquets, right, people like, oh, yeah,
never use a tournique unless you really really have to,
because you'll probably lose your limb if you apply the tourniquet.
But he's like, I've put lots of tourniquets on a
lot of people and they didn't loser limb. He's like,
but you have to. He's like, number one, you have
to stop that massive blood loss immediately. So a tourniquet.

(48:09):
That's his number one thing in the kit.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I think his kids come with like two or three
different types of tourniquets too, So yeah, yeah, or sizes.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Right, yeah, I think you can pick. Then he's got
a you know, compression gauze, a vented chest seal pack.
I say, you, you know you puncture a hole in
your your chest. I mean you're gonna need to seal
that thing up, elastic bandage wrapped to keep that compression
gaus on better, A sam splint, so you break a bone, broke,

(48:38):
break fingers, break something, You'll need that splint to help
keep it, you know, things back in place. And then
reinforcement tape. You know that tape you can wrap it
around that splint or wrap it around other things, other wounds,
to help keep your bandages in place. Mole skin of course,
just for your basic injury to your feet. Remember what
we talked about your feet. You have to be able
to walk right well, some of us even with high

(49:02):
quality boots. Someone's just got weird feet and you're gonna
get some blisters during elk season. So if you got
that mole skin, you put that on your on your feet.
But yeah, he sells all these kids online for about
one hundred and fifty bucks if you don't want to
access them yourself, but you can go and you can
go piecemeal these things together very easily yourself on Amazon

(49:22):
or your local pharmacy. A lot of these things, I
don't know if you can get a tourniquet on there,
probably not. You have to probably get that online somewhere.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
But yeah, the key is you don't you don't want
thirty five different band aids. You don't need, you know,
all these different types of medications unless you're specifically for
some you know, you know, if you if you've.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Got these prescribed here or whatever.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
That why I like those Jimmy kits is because they're
super light and they're super functional, and those are the
things you think in trauma. You don't need a sea callar,
you don't need you don't need all these goofy things
that I've seen a lot of these kids come with.
You just need to, Like I took emt school Now
this is like almost twenty years ago, so bear with me.

(50:04):
But it's like, you know, stop the bleeding, start the breathing,
and call for help. That that's kind of what you
want to have in your mind when you're when you're
packing for the back countries. You want to be able
to stop the breathing, start the breathing.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Did I say that?

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Did I say that the right way, start the breathing,
stop the bleeding, Because in the Marines it was the opposite.
You know, you stop or you start the bleeding and
you stop the breathing. But then when you're when you
when you're talking about this EMS stuff and the EMT
kit or first aid kit, it's just, you know, simplicity
is best. You want to stop that bleeding and start
the breathing. And you know, I was throwing like eyberprofen

(50:39):
or something like that, but uh, nothing nothing else really sure.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
Yeah, but really the things are going to save your
life you really want to have.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Yeah, And I think I don't know if this falls
in line, but some kind of satellite emergency phone or
or GPS that that connects I have one of those
Zolio things just bluetooth off my phone, so I could
text people yes and and that kind of stuff. You know,
that way they'll have your exact location if you do

(51:08):
fall down a cliff face, break both your legs and
you need help getting.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Out of there. I think that's that's a critical piece
of gear.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Oh absolutely, And it gives you, know, your family at home,
you know, a peace of mind to know that you're okay,
and a lot of times that gives you some staying power.
In the back country, you get to miss in your family,
and if you have to contact them, then you start
worrying about them and stuff. But if you if you're
able to, you know, send messages back and forth, and
then your family knows you're safe, and you know they're

(51:39):
good doing good and and they can give you know,
you know, they can root for you from the other side.
You know, a lot of times my wife will will
give me that little extra encourage. Sometimes I'll get kind
of kind of poudy on a hunt a little bench.
She'll be, oh, yeah, this is what always happens, right,
You're always going to have the lowest of lows, and
then you know, you get that little pep talk, you know,
and then before the high to heist come you have

(52:01):
to have those lows and you know, so she'll give
me a little pep pops sometimes if I'm feeling poopy.
And but those those things make all the difference, you know.
Or maybe you need a phone a friend, Maybe you
need a text a buddy and have some help. Last fall,
I killed a bowl and messaged a good buddy in
mine and and he was in the area and he's like, oh,

(52:22):
I'll come help you pack. So and I would have
been happy to pack my bully by myself, but you know,
why do it if if you have another if you
have a friend that'll come help. So yeah, man, we
made short work of that bowl and and it was
so so much appreciated so well. I wor the squeeze there.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
I had messaged you at one point because I hit
a bowl like and it was a bad shot, and
I was trying to get your opinion on what I
was seeing with the blood trail and and I had
missaged you, and you helped me kind of determine, you know,
whether or not I was going to find that bowl
and so stuff like that. You know, it's just it's
just always good to have that communication. Like I said,
keep in touch with the family, emergencies, friends, help and

(53:04):
packing you know whatever.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Yeah, and you really should, you know, go to your
hunt planning for You should plan for success, but you
should plan for you know, disaster too. So that's where
your tuck comes in, right. Your truck a lot of
times is your lifeline out of the back country, so
you gotta make sure that thing's in tip top shape.
You know, don't don't don't go to the back country
with a bunch of lights blinking on the dash. You know,

(53:28):
let's say, if you're a long waist from home and
maybe somewhere where somebody can't help you out. Tires, I mean, boy, howdie,
do I know what I'm Last year?

Speaker 2 (53:38):
I had all that issues with last year with tires.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Yeah, and I usually try to try to keep really
good tires on my my stuff. But you know, even
with good tires, you can have issues. So make sure
you got the appropriate tires, you know, heavy duty to
imply tires. Make sure your battery is clean and strong,
and you don't want to have battery issues and have
to be walking back to camp. I've been there with

(54:01):
a friend and it's in. It sucks the like hike
all day and hunt all day, your guts out, and
then get to the truck and the truck won't start,
and then you have to hike another four to six
miles back to camp. That's no good. Yeah, chains, chains
for your tires. Last fall, Phelps had this tag for Washington,
the Blue Mountains of Washington, and to come a big

(54:22):
snow and geez when we were trying to get out there,
he had to chain up all four tires on his truck.
Oh geez, he wouldn't. If he wouldn't have had those chains,
we wouldn't have got out of there.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
It was just that the snow and on the road
was just the right temperature. It was just like snot.
It was. Yeah, it was like this most slickest snow
like snot. Just like you said. And yeah, the chains
made all the difference. It wasn't like we were bucking
snow drifts. We were just trying to stay on the road.
So and then make sure your spare tires got air

(54:54):
in it, you know, toe straps if you suck at
driving and slide off the road a lot, or do
you want to be a good Samaritan and pull somebody
else out.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
It's always the ones that suck at driving, that need
to need to get pulled out, that don't have a
toe strap on them too.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Man, everybody needs.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Right, Yeah, everybody needs one, not just not just the
guys that are good or bad. Everybody needs And then
here's something I'd like to talk about. So let's say
you're traveling from from You're gonna hunt out of town,
somewhere out of state maybe or long long ways from home,
so you have to transport meat from a long from
a long distance. And this was a question from Instagram.

(55:33):
How soon do I need to get my elk meat
out and then do a cooler and then how do
I get it home? So well, first off, the first
number one thing is is you want to get your
elk skinned out right away, right as soon as you
as soon as you recover it, you get your pictures
and stuff, get to work skin in that thing. You
don't want to let it sit out on a hot

(55:53):
hill side with the height on it. Right. I saw
a YouTube video the other day have a very popular YouTuber.
He was he was cutting the quarters off and leaving
the hair on them. But it was September. I wouldn't
recommend that. I would I would recommend make sure you
get the hide off those quarters because that height is
very and hair is very insulating to that meat. You

(56:15):
want it to build it cool really quickly, so get
the hide off, then cut the quarters off, put them
in your bags, get it hanging. If you can't hang
it in a tree, maybe prop it up on some
logs with some other little sticks so that you can
get airflow underneath of it and on top of it.
I just want to get that stuff off the animal
and in the shade as quick as you can. And

(56:35):
sometimes that means, you know, maybe you're on a open, dry,
hot hillside and you're going to have to pack the
help meet the opposite direction downhill down into a wet
drawer or a cool shaded draw. That's what you may
have to do, just because you want to make sure
that meat doesn't go bad. You can't let it sit
out on that hot hillside in the blazing sun. Get

(56:58):
it down the draw, that cool area in the draw,
and the shade cool your meat. Last year, for instance,
I killed my bowl. It was pretty much in the
middle of the day, and it's New Mexico and it's hot,
right it's probably eighty degrees in the middle of the day,
and so Dustiny I go to work. We get this
thing boned out, or not boned out, but quartered up,

(57:21):
and it's still hot out. But luckily we had like
the only shady spot and on this big hill, on
this big flat top of a hill. So we have
this thing hanging in the shade. And I told Dusty,
I'm like, you know what I think. I think we'll
just keep this stuff in the shade with the air
blowing on it. You know, it's not cool air, but
it's better than being out in the hot, blazing sun.

(57:42):
And if we were to start packing now we get
back to the truck, there's not good shade at the truck.
Maybe I don't have my coolers with me with that
are pretty cool with ice. Then I put my warm
meat into a hot cooler or I have to leave
it in the sun by the truck. We're better off
to just let it cool. We'll take a break after
we've you know, after you break down an elk, you

(58:03):
need a break. Anyway, Let's just wait till this evening. Once,
once things cool off a little bit and the sun
goes down, then we'll start packing. And that's just what
we did. And man I'll tell you it makes it
so much easier to pack elk once it's once the
sun's kind of gone down, it's not so hot for you,
and it's not so hot for the elk meat, and

(58:24):
your your meat's had a good chance to have air
circulate around it for you know, most of the day,
and then packing at night. You can pack elk meat
at nighttime, which is which is awesome if you have
a head lamp and a flashlight, if you're prepared, it
can be really fun because bugs aren't an issue, unless
you got mosquitoes around. But bugs aren't an issue. It's

(58:45):
usually a lot cooler, and then you're not burning daylight, right,
you can get that bull packed out in the dark,
and then you can get up early the next day
if you're tough like Jim, and go hunt the next
day for your buddy.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Wrong, Jim, you're the wrong.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
You're taking the next day off.

Speaker 2 (59:04):
Depends on how far it was.

Speaker 3 (59:05):
But yeah, that's a great idea, actually that because there's
you know, how you pack meat back to the truck
kind of thing, and it's still like midday or late
afterno or early afternoon or whatever, and there's that that
stress in your gut that that that feeling that you have. Man,
I am just worried about this meat, and and it
just alleviates that. And and I just I like worry

(59:28):
about meat a lot, a lot more than probably I should.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
But uh, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (59:33):
I was listening to some somebody talk, some meat scientists
talking about how long he lets his meat hang and whatnot,
and I just that's not my thing.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
I I for for me, I need that meat cooled.
I need it. I need it in the shade. I
need it gone, uh into into the cooler.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
And I like to get at home as fast as
I can so I can process it or or drop
it off at a process or you know, whichever way
I'm going there, because I I just stress about it.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
Oh. I know it's so so important to make sure
that you get the meat out, and I always stress
about it too. Mm hmm, Well, Jim, do you have
any last words? I think we need to wrap this
thing up. Do you have any last words?

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
The one thing that I always like to have people
come away with these episodes, these types of episodes with
like just key takeaways, you know what I mean, just
key takeaways where if you you don't have to be
some high performance athlete, but you do need to work

(01:00:35):
at it. Don't don't sit on the couch all year
and then get up on August thirty first and hit
expecting to go ten miles into the back country in
Colorado or something. You know, be realistic with with what
your expectations are.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
And but also be gritty. Elk hunting is is freaking hard.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Like, be gritty when you think you're wore out and
you're tired, you know, maybe take five minutes, but get
back after it. Get get after those elk if they're
if they're if they're moving further, then you think what
is possible for you to move after them with You
might surprise yourself go after them. Just just keep at it,
be gritty, get out there and work towards it. Because

(01:01:17):
this is I think we live in a society where
we have this this high level of comfort around us.
You know, we can we can call an Uber eats
or whatever if you live in town, I can't, but
you can call a pizza delivery and have food delivered
in fifteen minutes or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
It's free.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
And we have this mentality where things can just come
naturally and easily and that's just not elk hunting. And
elk hunting is for people that like that self reliance
and that grittiness and that toughness and and that challenge
to go out and get something done. And uh, you know,
I think that that that mentality, having that mentality with
the level of difficulty and understanding how hard it is,

(01:01:54):
that's those are the people that get in front of elk.
And and I think that that's important for everybody to understand.
Whether you're you live out west or you're coming out
west to hunt elk, I don't know. I think that's
that's my biggest message might takeaway for folks.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Yeah, I agree, that's that's very good, you know. And
I'll be the first to say, you know, the better
shape you're in to go hunt elk, the funner it's
going to be, right if if you're if you can
move a quicker, you know, through the mountains with with
relatively a lot more ease, it's going to be a
fun funner hunt, you know, definitely, definitely. So I'm not
going to say, you know, you shouldn't have a good

(01:02:33):
level of physical fitness to hunt elk, but I will
also say, you know, you should also not let that
hold you back, like if you don't, if you're not
some elite athlete, get in good walking shape, get to
where you can lift you know, a heavy load, you know,
an elk quarter, an average out quarters on a five
to small spicks six point boos. But bowl is about

(01:02:53):
sixty five pounds, so fifty five pounds plus your pack,
you're looking about eighty pound pack. Be able to pick
that off the ground and put it on the tailgate
of your truck, you know, you know, whether you don't
have a fancy gym to go to, maybe that heavy
pack you were you were packing earlier, you know, pick
it up off the ground, set it on your truck,
back and forth a few times. You know. Don't overdo it,

(01:03:14):
don't kill yourself, but build some build some muscle that
way too, build some strength in the last days before
you're hunt.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
But but probably my biggest takeaway is like being prepared,
you know, and and getting organized will help you have
a successful hunt. So make a list, check it three
times everything that you could possibly need for your hunt,
and you'll probably have your panic pack moment like me,
Like you'll have all your stuff and then the last

(01:03:43):
few hours before you leave to go hunting. You'll be
running around the house like a like a chicken, whether
your head chopped off, throw it like, oh I need
some of this. Oh better grab one of those. Oh crap,
there's an extra charger. Oh but you know, just all
this stupid random stuff that you probably will never use
once you get there.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
Dude, I have bins of hunting here that I just
throw in the back on my truck and I never
even touch them.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
But if I needed them, man, they're there, right. So yeah,
it's it's good stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
And and uh, you know, I I think I think
you nailed it when you said, you know, the more
fun you have, the more you're gonna get out of
elk hunting.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
And and and that's the key.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
You go out there and have fun, enjoy, enjoy this
experience with with these wild things that are gigantic with
giant horns on their head and screaming at you. You know,
it's nothing will connect you to nature like communicating with
a with a big elk, you know. And and so
uh yeah, it's it's it's it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
Yeah, that's awesome. And I'd like to remind the listeners
if you have a question that you'd like us to
answer on here, you can send an email to C T.
D at Phelps Game Calls dot com. We'll read your
question on air and answered the best we can. And
if you really want to take things to the next level,

(01:04:58):
I have a Google Voice phone number you can call,
and by calling that number, you can call in and
leave a message, and make sure your message is three
minutes or less or it'll get cut off and I
will play your message on air and then I will
answer your message the best of my ability. So that

(01:05:18):
phone number, the super secret phone number, is two zero
eight two one nine seven to seven zero one. And
uh yeah, I'll look forward to your calls. I've done
this before with my old podcast, and I've got some
goofy messages and I've got some really good questions. So
we're always always looking to have a good time here.
So please do a call in or send us an

(01:05:40):
email with your questions, and uh you know, just remember
monsters are coming and I think that'll be about it.
Thanks a lot, Jim, appreciate you coming on the podcast.
Then we should do this again sometime soon.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Yeah, for sure, man, thanks for having me on. Thanks everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
Maybe I can get on your sometime.

Speaker 2 (01:05:58):
You should. You should for like the tenth time.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
I'd love to have you back, brother, I'd never get
sick of it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
It's always my plaguer. Thanks Jim,