October 31, 2025 • 55 mins
Whitney Tramel... host of the Wild Strength Podcast and a strength & conditioning coach joins Ryan to trace an uncommon path into Western hunting. Named after Lake Whitney and raised on Texas catfish fries and Girl Scout campouts, Whitney didn’t pick up a bow until COVID, when ammo was scarce and the mountains of Colorado were calling. She went all-in, haunting the pro shop to learn the lingo, buying a flagship rig, and eventually selling almost everything to move to Colorado and chase elk on public land. Whitney and Ryan get honest about the steep reality of over-the-counter elk hunts, locating animals, closing distance, and choosing ethics over low-percentage shots. They trade hard-earned tips lik ehunt slow, “hunt your way in,” and using predawn locator bugles, swap close calls, and dig into why time in the mountains becomes a mental reset as much as a meat mission. Whitney ties it back to her coaching roots on how fitness, breath control, and resilience translate directly to backcountry success—and shares what’s next: a New Mexico cow elk rifle hunt, Missouri whitetails, and winter waterfowl. She closes with her mantra for new hunters and big goals alike: “Do the damn thing” stack your life to make the hunts happen, no excuses.
Key Takeaways:
- You can start late, just immerse yourself in a pro shop, ask questions, and go all-in to accelerate the learning curve.
- OTC public-land elk is brutally hard; set realistic expectations about finding animals and closing distance.
- Ethics over ego: pass low-percentage lanes and only loose an arrow when you have a clean, confident shot.
- Fitness matters... strength, breath control, and resilience directly translate to backcountry performance.
- Hunt tactics that work: move slow, “hunt your way in” never go off-duty, and use predawn locator bugles to find elk.
- Conditions and pressure shift behavior so scout early, learn draw/tag systems, and adapt when opener changes everything.
- Stack wins and meat: build confidence on small game/waterfowl and design your life to make hunts happen
- Whitney lives by the motto of “Do the damn thing.”
Follow Whitney Tramel
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitneytramel_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildstrengthpodcast
Follow Ryan Uffens:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanuffens
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanuffens
X: https://x.com/ryanuffens
Follow Hunt Stealth:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hunt.stealh
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@huntstealth\
Discount Codes:
- Caddis Sports/Blue Cooler’s - 10% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- BLK FLG 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- Muley Maniac’s 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- ECHO WATER 10% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
- Sheepfeet 20% OFF Promo Code: STEALTH
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast with Ryan
Uffins, the podcast where we dive head first into the wild,
whether you're an aspiring hunter or an adventurer seeking
the untamed. Together, we'll explore the
strategies and stories that leadto success in the great
outdoors. Welcome to another episode of
(00:21):
the Hunt Stealth Podcast. Excited to have Whitney Trammell
on the show. Today at Whitney is the host of
the Wild Strength Podcast and excited to sit down and talk a
little bit about her journey andupbringing and her love for the
outdoors. Whitney, thanks for joining me.
Yeah, thanks for having me on. Excited to talk to you, so let's
(00:42):
just dig into it. Tell me a little bit about like
your upbringing, like where did you love for the outdoors and
hunting and fishing and all of that kind of stem from?
Yeah, good question. I didn't grow up hunting.
I kind of mentioned the podcast is about like those that are
relatively newer to it, but I did grow up fishing.
(01:02):
My mom's parents had a house on a lake house actually called
Lake Whitney. And so I'm named after Lake
Whitney. And we'd go catch catfish.
We'd bring them in scale, like fry them up for dinner and we'd
have fried catfish that night every time I went fishing.
And so I was familiar with that.I was in Girl Scouts as well.
I don't think I've ever like shared that on any of the
(01:23):
podcasts that I've been on. But I was also in Girl Scouts,
which like, I think Boy Scouts are similar, where they
introduce you to a lot of outdoors things.
You go camping, you go horsebackriding, you learn just basic
outdoor skills. I wasn't in Girl Scouts like
long enough to become like superknowledgeable in the outdoors.
But I think that was outside of fishing.
(01:44):
That was really my first exposure to going camping.
And my mom hated camping. She could not be taken outdoors
to save her life. So I kind of always just had
this itch for it after doing that in Girl Scouts.
And then as I got older and was able to kind of get out on my
own, I came out to Colorado 1 summer and camped.
Did the whole thing. And this was like before
(02:06):
college. So I don't know.
I'm probably like 1718 years oldat the time and I'm like, wow,
it's amazing out here in the mountains.
So I grew up in Texas, so definitely we traveled a bit,
but once again, my mom's not like a mountain outdoors person.
We'd go to the beach if we were traveling, which is all fun and
games I guess. And.
So, yeah, no, I can relate. That's that's my, that's my
(02:27):
wife. The idea of camping is like
going to our lakeside cabin. So yeah, now totally, totally
relate. Yeah, and then that's just as
fun sometimes, too. But came to Colorado for the
first time. Got to like spend time in the
mountains. And I was like, I love this.
Like, how can I get here as soonas possible?
So did my undergrad and ended upcoming out to Colorado for my
master's degree. And then I kind of got this.
(02:49):
And actually COVID happened during my master's.
So it's kind of a blessing in disguise.
That year, I spent every day in the mountains as much as I could
because I was close to it and I had nothing else to do.
Like everything was shut down. So absolutely kind of introduced
myself to the mountains that way.
And then hunting came in. I went back to Texas for a job
(03:11):
opportunity around COVID and picked up a bow.
Mostly because I grew up shooting, but not often.
I was familiar with handguns andrifles and like ammo at the time
was very hard to find. It was hard to come across ammo
depending on what you wanted during COVID.
So kind of looked into archery and I could shoot my bow in my
(03:32):
backyard. I could reuse arrows in my yard
if I wanted to. So I did the whole like buy once
cry once thing I bought. At the time it was like the
Matthews V3 which was the flagship bow that year.
Like the short 27 inch axle was at the time I had no clue like
what axle to axle man, I had no clue.
All of these different terms that I know now and I'm someone
(03:54):
that like once I get into something, I'm going head first,
like I'm going to go all in. All in.
Yeah, I'm going to figure it out.
And so I'd go into the bow shop and I'd ask questions and I'd
just hang out in the little shopand watch them work on other
people's bows. And I'd hear the speak and hear
the different things that they're talking about.
And short like you do that long enough, you start to figure some
things out. And so, yeah, I kind of just
(04:16):
picked it up and and went all in.
And then I knew I wanted to hunt.
That was ultimately my goal withpicking up a bow.
But I spent quite a while shooting before I ever felt
comfortable, like sending an arrow at an animal.
And then, yeah, kind of. I, I think, I think that's great
advice. Just going to like a pro shop,
(04:36):
like getting in there and just kind of hanging out, listening
to the lingo. That's the, it's interesting
because I think you and I probably both got started
hunting about the same time and I decided like, hey, I'm only
going to bow hunt. And now I'm going, this is the
hardest thing in the world, likebeing able to like, close the
distance on an animal and be able to get, you know, within
(04:57):
shooting range. But just spending time at the
shop, I, I think is like an integral part of like the growth
process. Like if you're really in it.
Because once they see like, OK, like this guy's serious or this
gal's serious, like they will kind of like, they kind of take
you into their wing and like, bring you up to speed on
everything. Yeah, that's exactly what my
shop did. And and I couldn't have asked
(05:18):
for a better help. They I'd go in.
And it's funny because I this isin Texas.
And to your point of like just spending time there and getting
close to a critter, I started shooting a boat in Texas where
most people hunt from a blind and even more so are sitting at
a feeder that's 20-30 yards away.
So bow hunting seemed easy to me, right.
(05:40):
Like you go in the range and theMax you're shooting usually is
20 yards at an indoor range and you're like, oh, I can hit the
X. Like the more I shoot, the more
often I'm hitting that ex Like Icould shoot a deer, I can hit it
in the harp any day of the week,right?
And then, then I Start learning about elk hunting and mule deer
hunting and see like, oh, you got to go out West to do that.
And I once I spent one season hunting in Texas, I sold
(06:04):
everything that I owned. I packed like what would fit in
my car and I came to Colorado and was like, I'm going to
figure out how to elk hunt. Then I learned that bow hunting
is not easy. Yeah, it's, you know, the kind
of to your point, like when you would come up, gone to school
and you start getting out in themountains when you get out into
elk country, like it's a different animal and it is kind
(06:26):
of inspiring you get out there and it's so beautiful.
I mean the land that you're in. I mean, you know, you see the
memes where it's like you justify going out hunting.
And I guess at least for me, because I've yet to arrow an
animal. And but being out just in the
outdoors and just being able to like it, it is like a mental
(06:48):
reset just being out there 5-6 days, whatever it is, 3 days,
however long someone can go. But but that's, that's like when
you say you're all in, like you're not kidding.
I mean, to just sell all of yourall of your stuff and pack up
and move to Colorado. Like that's, that's commitment,
that's taking it serious. Yeah, I think 21, I'm going to
(07:09):
touch on the point that you madeabout just like I always say,
hunting has done more for me than fill my freezer.
Like, yes, that's that's always the goal, but it also, you know,
I kind of got into it in a time period in my life where like
things weren't great, like mentally for me.
And so anytime that I'm out in the woods, it's like, oh, this
(07:32):
is a nice refresher. Or like I had by myself more
often than not to. And so to be out there by
myself, it gives me a moment to just pause to just sit.
Like if I'm sit there listening for elk or whatever it is,
oftentimes I find myself like mymind starts to wander finally.
And, and I'm a victim of like the busy lifestyle, like running
(07:54):
the rat race, all that kind of stuff.
So it's the one time that I justget to sit and have thoughts.
And so that makes it takes the conversation a little bit
deeper. But to me, like hunting is more
than just the chase. And I know for for some people,
it's the exact same. I've met multiple people who
appreciate hunting for what it has done for them personally.
(08:14):
But yeah, I, like I said, I'm someone who goes all in and, and
I knew it was something I wantedto do.
And, you know, you start lookingat like, I think initially I
looked at guided hunts to see, you know, let me see if I even
like that. And guided hunts for like
$10,000. And I'm like, I don't have
$10,000 to spend on a guided elkhunt in Colorado or wherever it
(08:34):
was in any of the western states.
So the easiest thing to do was to get there.
And I'm like, OK, well then how do I get there?
And broccoli sold everything. And when I first got out here, I
was living in this like little furnished apartment, basement
apartment type thing that was like I could afford it at the
time. And it worked.
And now I've been here going on three years and I finally have a
(08:57):
house now. But I went all in and, and I had
no clue what I was doing my first season out here.
I didn't know about the draw system.
I didn't know how do I get points.
I knew nothing. But I was like I knew Colorado
had an over the counter tag, which is what I was familiar
with. In Texas, you can buy 6 deer
tags at Walmart in Texas. So coming out here, I was like,
I guess I'm just gonna figure itout.
(09:18):
And I'm still figuring out, 'cause I haven't arrowed an elk
yet. What's what's been the something
when you got started in bow hunting elk that you wish
someone would have told you? Good question.
You know what, I think I talk about this like often, I think
(09:41):
my mind goes like, I wish someone would have told me the
like reality of how hard it is because I think social media
makes it look easy. And, and not that I necessarily
had the perspective it was goingto be easy.
I know just even like carrying my bow on my hands, whether or
not I get an animal or not is going to be challenging.
(10:03):
Like you're not on a trail anymore.
You're climbing over deadfall. Like, I knew the physical part
of it was not going to be easy. But I think you look at social
media and you see these people who are posting their elk year
after year after year, not knowing that either A, they've
done it their entire lives, so they have it figured out, or B,
(10:23):
they're hunting private land, or, C, they're in an outfit and
they're not saying that they're at an outfit or they're paying
thousands of dollars for these things.
So I just, I think, yeah, for someone who's like getting into
it and like what I wish I would have known is that like public
land, over the counter elk hunting is going to be the
hardest thing probably that you've ever done.
(10:46):
I think that's 100% accurate. Yeah, it you do, you see social,
it's like, oh, you just go by a bow and then you go out to where
elk live and you shoot an elk pretty easy.
Makes it makes it look super simple, but the reality of it
is, is find locating them is onething like out here, the area
(11:10):
that I went hunting this year, like they would talk, but I mean
basically once the rifle startedis when the rut really kicked
in. And so we're up there till like
the bitter end and they're talking, but they don't they're
not they're not pissy enough to come in and check us out.
So it's like, I mean, we were doing, I don't know, 10-15 miles
(11:33):
a day trying to like, we'd hear them, they'd talk and it's like,
all right, well, let's go. And it's, it's a grind.
I, I was out. This has been, this has been a
really fun year for me. And I think my learning curve
has grown the most this year because I by far I put in the
most time since I've started. And you know, I, I was out, I
(11:59):
had a buck tag in a unit and I watched this bull blow over this
Ridge and come down. And I'm like, of course I don't
have a bull tag for this unit as.
It. Comes and he come, I'm like I, I
watched him and in my mind I'm like, he's going to come right
(12:19):
up to me. And he came over the Ridge came
down his like he was gassed. He must have been blown out of
the other candy, just like tongues wagging out of his
mouth. And he comes up and I range him
at 30 yards and I'm like, you got to be kidding me.
And then I'm like, he in my mind, I'm going, he's going to
walk right up to me. And he walked right up to me.
(12:41):
I mean, he was 10 feet from me. I was kind of tucked in this
little, like, Bush area. And finally I'm like, well, I'm
going to have my camera, my, youknow, my iPhone.
I just stand up and he turns andlooks at me and he's going, Oh,
you kind of just saw like look at his face.
He's like, you got to be kiddingme.
Like same thing. I'm, I'm thinking when I see him
(13:02):
and he's like, so anyway, so then he blows back down the
Canyon and takes off again. But it, it's a fun experience to
be out there, be able to like see them up close.
I'm just going why couldn't you have been a spiker?
A cow? That's funny.
Like I had AI. Go ahead, go ahead.
I actually had a, so I'll rewindfor a second.
(13:23):
I drew A tag this year and it was a low point unit.
I drew it with one tag or one point and it's like a zero to
one point unit here in Colorado.And mostly just because I I
wanted an opportunity, one for less pressure 2.
I knew someone who had haunted that unit before who was willing
to share a little bit of Intel, and so it was an opportunity,
(13:44):
like you said, for me to just get closer.
Possibly if I listened or like you know, was was still able to
do things to get closer and to just like experience true like
and and hunting over the counterby myself in the like past
years, I've found elk sign, I'vefound elk, I've seen elk, but
I'm it's mostly I feel like beenby happen chance.
(14:04):
Like I said, I just threw myselfinto it having no clue what I'm
doing. And so this year was I'd agree
same for like my season so far has been a big like learning
curve just getting close to themand and I laugh.
I had a cow and a calf, which I had an either sex tag so I could
have got a cow, a cow and a calfcome up and spook me.
They were like following behind me.
(14:26):
I'm like kind of by this Creek and going up a Canyon and
they're behind me and I turn around and they both like catch
me, turn around. We stare at each other and I'm
like, OK, I can't move. This is the moment.
Like if I just stay here long enough, like they'll turn around
slowly. And then the second I made like
one move, they just they were gone.
But I had to laugh. I'm like, really like, what are
the odds that an elk is going tospook me?
(14:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it happens. I mean, I, I, I will share one
bit of advice that that's been shared with me that I think was
super helpful. But I've been told go out like 3
in the morning in the in the canyons and just let a bugle go
just to locate them, right. And that that was that was kind
(15:16):
of like a turning point in beingable to start getting on them.
And yeah, like we saw so much elk sign.
Like I saw like fresh cat. We went out one morning, Dustin
and I, who I think you'd been chatting with, we go out and
we're like, hey, let's go out. It's like 330.
We get up, we get up to the spotwhere we know we've seen elk up
(15:37):
there previous years and we go out and, and the earlier,
earlier when we had got up there, we were out hunting and
we're bugling and, and one responded to us, but it was a
little bit farther up the Canyon.
So we went up to that spot and bugled and one started talking
(15:57):
to us and we're going all right,we're in business.
So we kind of hang out for about10 or 15 minutes and this bulls
like talking to us. You can hear I'm getting a
little bit closer and I'm like, all right, It was like 32°.
It had it had snowed the day before and and we're going, hey,
it's it's game on. We're like, let's go back and
(16:18):
get our bow and stuck. We were probably 200 yards from
the truck and we had turned our headlamps off and we're like,
well, let's go back and see whatwe can find.
So we're walking back like in the dark and all of a sudden we
bust another bowl. He was like, I mean, right, not
responding to us at all, but he was just hanging out right there
(16:42):
and it scared the crap out of both of us because I mean we
like literally walked up on thisthing and it was so pitch black.
Like you could smell him, you can see him.
We had seen like 2 bulls go in there, you know, the night
before and we're anyway, he stayed put.
The other one went way up the Canyon and it's just like it
(17:06):
gives you just enough. It's kind of like people that
golf, I don't golf, I hate golf,but there it's like the golf
gives you just enough to want tocome back right again.
We keep having these experiencesand I'm like, I mean, I don't
know. I'm like, should we have had our
bows with us and just hung out and I'm going maybe, maybe not.
But I mean, there was no sound, no movement, no nothing near us
(17:31):
until we walked up on him and hejumps up and takes off and we
kind of just looked at each other.
You've got to be kidding me. I mean it to to your earlier
point, it is the hardest type ofhunting there is elk.
And I even think mule deer because they're those mule deer
(17:53):
like to get close to them. Like I've gotten closer to elk
than I have mule deer I have. So, but there was an I had a
buck tag. So in Colorado, where where are
you located? I'm in Utah.
OK nice. So in Colorado you have to draw
a mule deer tag. You can't get them like over the
counter anywhere unless so maybeyou get a private land one or
whatever. So this is my first year having
(18:14):
a mule deer archery tag in Colorado.
And unfortunately I just saw it was buck only tag and I saw
probably 100 nose the whole season and and maybe $1.00 that.
I'm not a trophy hunter by any means, but I'm also, I would
rather shoot a fat dough than like a small young buck.
But I had a buck only tag so I couldn't have shot any of the
(18:36):
doughs before. But yeah, it's definitely tough
for and to your point of like kind of spooking the elk, the
I've seen more bulls through just trying to like get to a
spot and bumping them because I'm trying to get to a spot.
Not. So I guess another piece of
advice would be like hunt your way.
Like you're always hunting, right?
(18:57):
I think my perspective early on was, OK, I have this spot picked
out on Onyx or I have this spot that someone recommended, or I
have this Canyon that I want to get to or at this Ridge that I
want to get over. So I'm like OK, hunt mode off,
get there and then hunt mode turns back on and I have scooped
and seen more bulls and that in between getting to a point
(19:19):
thinking hunt mode off when I should have just been moving
slow and hunting the entire time.
Yeah, I, I think that's great advice.
That's something that I do like I don't typically go fast unless
like I know that that there's nothing like I can see that I'm
in like, you know, a Prairie or something because you never know
(19:39):
what you're going to bump into. And we've seen all sorts of
stuff. And again, it's the same thing.
It's like, OK, I've got bucks galore in the unit that I don't
have a buck tag for and I'm going, all right, well, maybe I
want to put in for that unit. But yeah, where do you guys?
Colorado has an extended. The archery is just September
(20:01):
and then like the seasons here are so weird compared to
everyone. I feel like it's just September
and then we have 4 rifle seasonsthat each run about a week
apiece and there's about a week or two in between each one all
the way through like late November and like first rifles
finishing up. Right now, I believe it's 14
October. And then the next World will
(20:21):
start at the end of October. And then there's two more in
November, which is it's, it's like not one long season.
I know like Montana and Wyoming,your archery tag can turn into a
rifle tag and then you kind of have all season to hunt, whereas
here it's not the same. And then there's muzzle loader
as well, which that runs in the middle of archery season.
It's like the week that everyonethinks is the rut, but the rut
(20:43):
can change year to year depending on whether.
But the third week, I think in September is muzzleloader
season, and that's really all you get here.
Yeah, I guess one of the blessings that I have being in
Utah is like the now the the units that you can hunt in
shrink dramatically, but but youcan still go out and yeah, I I
(21:09):
think I think one goes until like it's like January 5th.
I think they both. So I've got I'm going down on
the extended. I still going to go chase down
some some bucks and I know wherethere's some elk allegedly I've
seen them before. It's just it's just a mat.
It's I know that they've been there before.
(21:30):
That's the other thing is like where they are at one point of
the season is not where they're going to be when you're out
hunting. And it's crazy.
I swear, like elk. No, it's like, oh, archery
season started, make yourself scarce.
We've had you on. We've had, we've had, they've
had us, we've been, you know, showing ourselves on camera to
(21:51):
you guys, you know, all season long.
And it's the, it's the start when I was out on opening day
and I'm going for my buck tag anyway.
And I'm like, we had 17 bucks here for the past month.
Where in the hell did everythinggo?
I was. Glassing up elk.
On a mountainside all, like I started scouting probably like
(22:14):
early July and I'd get out as much as I can.
I think I got out four or five times before September started.
Elk were there every single time.
I glass without fail, at least every morning.
Sometimes in the evenings they wouldn't be there.
So it's definitely an area that they lived in and not one that
they're just passing through because like two or three months
are going by and I'd always see it.
Whether the herd was big or small, there's always something
there. Opening day comes around.
(22:36):
I never glassed up again. This is and I was so upset
because too, I started camping three days before the opener
because ours started on a Tuesday this year.
So I was like, I'll get out on Saturday.
I have Saturday, Sunday, Monday to just like really get a solid
plan in place and Saturday morning or Saturday evening, the
(22:57):
first evening I'm out there, I glassed up a massive 6 by 6 pool
and he was already like raking on the trees and stuff.
And I'm like, oh, this is going to be a long three days because
I already know like who I'm after, where I want to go.
And I never saw that guy again. It was the last time I saw him.
Well, I tell, I tell people thatI think elk might actually be
(23:18):
Sasquatch. Like they just like morph from
like 1 to the other and they just disappear on you.
And it's crazy. You can have them like we're
talking about the middle of the morning.
You could be right next to you and you could have no idea, but.
They're so it blows my mind there and and all critters,
honestly, the first year I was hunting out here, I had a bear
(23:38):
tag also and I'm setting this wallow kind of waiting.
I had an elk and a bear tag. I was sitting the wallow
specifically for elk, but it wasa spot that a friend had told me
about. And he's like, you know, you
might see bears in there too, you know, just kind of planned
for both. So I sit there, I range all the
trees around me, you know, as they say to do.
(24:00):
And I know that like that one's 35, this one's 15, whatever,
right? I sit it for a couple of hours.
It's like getting close to the end of the day, close to last
slide. And at that point I'm like, I'm
just slouched all the way back in my little hole that I've dug.
I don't have an arrow knocked mybows, like not even in my hand.
And this massive cinnamon bear comes in.
(24:20):
I mean, it's like I to me would have been like the bear of a
lifetime. Like, he's huge.
And I did not hear this bear come in at all.
And I'm sitting in like the thickest of timber that I've
ever been in. And I'm like, how did this huge
bear come in? And I did not hear a sound.
So of course, like that was a rookie mistake.
(24:41):
Like never again will I sit a wallow and not be ready to shoot
something like because I wasn't ready.
I spooked him just trying to getready but I'm just mind blown to
this day. Or the elk that spooked me.
How did I not hear there's twigsthat I'm stepping on trying to
like keep my sound down and I didn't hear these out coming up
behind me. How it blows my mind to this
(25:02):
day. Animals that are, you know, talk
about a bear, three, 400 lbs, elk, six, £700.
And I mean, yeah, I'm out there and it's like I go to place one
little step and it's like the smallest leaf and it just is the
loudest like crackle. And I'm like, wow, it's wild.
(25:22):
I mean, yeah, they were, they were built to, you know, be a
stealthy animal and try and avoid predators, right?
Which is one thing I'm incredibly fascinated by and and
I started to realize it more as I got more into hunting as the
like predator prey life cycle and like we as humans are
(25:45):
predators on these animals and like they learn their entire
lives to not get preyed on and so.
Yeah, it's pre built into them. For sure.
And for us too, like one thing that I really love about hunting
and like a big reason I wanted to get into it too is it's like
innate and who we are as humans,right?
(26:06):
We go back years and years ago, the only way people got food was
to hunt for food. And now we have all this
technology where we don't have to hunt for food anymore.
We can go to the grocery store. But like, I'm very interested in
that like primal lifestyle and like living how we were meant to
live. And so, yeah, thinking about
like how we're a part of that life cycle.
Like these animals are learning to not just avoid other animals,
(26:29):
but they're learning to avoid humans because they know hunters
exist, that they know when opening day comes around, they
know when hunters are out there,they're not dumb.
They've learned this their entire lives.
But like we also are learning survival instincts from other
humans too. So like that whole predator prey
life cycle I'm like extremely fascinated by.
Yeah, I've talked to several people how disconnected we are
(26:52):
from like, the food chain, Right.
Sure. And and people are like, oh,
it's, you know, I I talk to individuals and they're like, I
think hunting is so barbaric. And I'm like, do you have any
idea how that hamburger you're eating was probably raised and
how it was killed? And I'm like, you know, I don't
(27:13):
have anything in the freezer right now.
Fortunately. I've got some guys that they
feel, you know, feel sorry for me.
They're like, hey, here's some stuff for you.
But but it definitely makes you appreciate where the food comes
from. I mean, I talk all the time.
I'm like, man, it would have been amazing to like live back
like in the Mountain Man era. And I'm like, I would have
starved to death. You and me both.
(27:36):
But but it's, but The thing is, is it it we, you are kind of are
reconnecting with our roots likethat primal lifestyle, You know,
we live pretty coddled lives now.
And it's it's fun to get out there and kind of test and see
what you're made of. Because yeah, when you're out
(27:56):
there and after you're 10 miles into it and you're still
climbing over deadfall and like the cramps kick in and it's
like, what am I doing? What you know, why, why am I,
why am I doing this? And so my, my mindset is when
I'm out there, at least to keep me going, is just, I'm doing
(28:18):
this because like, I got to go feed my family, right?
Fortunately, I, you know, I havea job and I get to go to the
store and, and buy, buy the foodand, and all that fun stuff.
But it is it kind of just reconnects you with the land and
how we were kind of meant to to live.
Yeah, yeah. No, I couldn't agree more.
I think that like, you know, andI have friends too, who knew me
(28:40):
before I got into hunting. And then I get into it and they
have this just ferocious view ofwhat killing an animal is.
And they're like, oh, Whitney, like, why are you doing this?
And I'm like, you know what, let's dial it back for a second.
What'd you have to eat for dinner last night?
And it's like a steak or a burger or chicken from fast food
places or whatever. And I'm like, can I explain to
(29:01):
you where that meat came from, how that animal was raised, how
it was killed? And then let me explain to you
how the animal that I am currently eating, the life that
it lived, how it was killed and how it made it to my plate.
And oftentimes they're like, oh,shit, that so and, and honestly,
(29:21):
that's how I have to put in perspective for most people who
were like, oh, like you're killing an animal and it's not,
you know, they're not necessarily anti hunting, but
they just think the thought of killing something sounds.
Yeah, they're such majestic animals.
And they are. For sure, absolutely.
I've cried they almost every animal that I've killed.
Yeah, it's, it's not, it definitely makes you appreciate
(29:46):
it and where it, where it comes from.
Because I mean, if you, if you've trained and you've done
your job and you're good with anarrow or, or a bullet, whatever,
if you can place like a nice shot, the animal really isn't
going to suffer that bad. It's never perfect.
It's never perfect. So I'm not under the illusion
(30:08):
that it's like, oh, every shot is like a heart shot and they
drop within, you know, 30 yards.But for the most part, like
that's the other thing that I talk to people that are so
against hunting and I'm like, doyou know how these animals
typically die? They're either eaten by another
animal, they freeze to death or they starve to death.
(30:29):
Like it is not a easy way for them to go.
So yes, if someone has trained and they can place like a proper
shot on the animal, it's like the most ethical way that they
could, that you could harvest ananimal and it's organic, that
you don't have to worry about any like chemicals and things
(30:50):
being injected into it, growth hormones, all the other stuff.
So I'm like, you know, all of you organic, like, I don't know,
it's, I get, I do get it. I get that people love animals.
And, and I think that's the disconnect is there's so many
people that think that hunters don't love the animals.
And you know, I've yet to harvest anything, you know,
(31:14):
aside I, I did kill, I did harvest a forest chicken.
I got my first kill with the bow.
Nice. We were, we were walking back
and, and Dustin's like, hey, he goes, do you see that up in the
tree? And he's got his range Finder.
He's like, do you want to waste an arrow?
And I'm like, I've had these things for like 3 years now.
Like, yeah, like, let's put something through it.
(31:35):
He's like it's 41 yards. There's like a little cross
wind. And my son was with me too.
He's 20, I don't know, 25. He's like, there's no way you're
going to hit that. Smoked it like it was dead for
hit the ground. We went up, stripped the breasts
off and threw it in the Jetboil and it had been at the end of a
(31:58):
long couple days and yeah, we enjoyed it.
So in my mind, I'm going OK, if I can hit that thing.
I know that I've trained well enough.
If I get on a large animal that I'm hunting, I'm going to take
an ungulate down for sure. And that's my thoughts too, is,
is I know when I have the opportunity and, and I've gotten
(32:21):
a handful of critters with my bow, but I have not gotten
anything. Well, I've got a grouse in
Colorado and I got a squirrel inColorado.
But like as far as outside of that Colorado, I haven't shot
anything with my bow. And so I know any time that I go
out there, I can, I'm so confident in shooting.
I spend more time shooting my bow during Archer related things
than I spend in the woods hunting.
(32:42):
It just how it goes, right? And there are some people who
don't pick up their bow until the week before season and like
those are the people who are probably a little bit more
worried about whether or not they're going to have a
successful shot. But I know without a shadow of a
doubt, when I have the right shooting lane and a good
opportunity, that's a dead animal. 10 out of 10 times it's
(33:03):
just getting the right opportunity.
Like this year I had, jeez, evenjust like thinking back on it
just makes me mad. But not mad.
Just, you know, you learn lesson.
Frustrated. Yeah.
I had a cow on opening day threedifferent times within 40 yards,
but just I, it was a shooting lane.
I wasn't comfortable with in theshooting lane that I did have.
(33:25):
Maybe it was too far back on thebody.
And so you just like some peoplewould take that shot.
Some people see elk shooting lane, shoot, I see shooting
lane. It's literally basically in the
Elks. But like it's hind quarter.
I'm not taking the shot. Hopefully she steps back a
little bit. Whatever so created, like, yeah,
I'm not mad at myself or I'm madabout it.
(33:46):
Like I made a very ethical decision in those moments to not
take those shots. But it's just like, you know,
people who would take them, who might be able to get a recovery
shot. And but yeah, it's, I know
without a shadow of a doubt, Like once I get that elk in
front of me with a bow, it's a dead elk.
That that is the one thing for me when I started is I I've
(34:09):
heard of guys that'll like shoothim in the head and like, I
mean, they're like you, if you have a shot, you take it.
And I'm like, if you have an ethical shot, you take it,
correct. Yeah.
And and the very first time. What's that?
So then everyone's different. Just that's my thoughts.
Yeah, I and yeah, to each his own, right.
(34:30):
But for me, like when I got started, you know, I, I had
watched a bunch of like Donnie Vincent's films, right?
Like I was fortunate enough to have him on the podcast and, and
he is such like he's such a cooldude.
But I started watching that and,and that kind of like sent like,
like the ethical side of it for me that if like I don't have a
(34:52):
shot, like I'm not going to takeit.
And, and we had, it was the veryfirst time I'd gone out hunting
elk. And we're going down this slope
and one comes just like you said, there are times where you
can't hear him. And there's other times where it
sounds like a freight train coming in.
And I'm like, what on earth is that?
(35:14):
I'm like, there's like a monstercoming up on me.
So I kind of turn around. I'm in this little opening and
there's this like pine tree that's probably, I don't know,
30-40 feet tall. And I hear this like breaking
branches, everything snapping. And there's this, it was like
the biggest, it was a massive bowl.
(35:34):
It could have been a 5 by 5, butto me it was like the biggest
bowl that I'd ever see. I mean, it was big.
He, he had a lot of size on him,but he's coming through this
scrub oak and all I can see is from neck up and I'm watching
him watching him. And I like got my arrow in and I
had ranged that tree in the event that something comes in
and he starts moving right towards it and he gets right
(35:55):
there. So he's like under 30 yards from
me and like I draw back and nothing but scrub oak and I'm
watching him and I'm going, he'sgoing to step into an opening
that's three yards away from himand I'm going to have a shot
broadside on him. And then the breeze hit the back
of my neck, and he turns and looks and bolted.
(36:16):
But for probably like 30 seconds, I could have shot him
at anywhere from 50 to 40 yards.Shot at him, you run the risk
of, like, injuring him. And I just, I decided I wasn't
going to do it. But that was like the very first
time I'd ever gone out hunting. And like, from that moment on, I
was hooked. I'm like, I'm going to do this
for as long as my body will allow me to do this.
(36:38):
And then like the body transformation started to come
for me because I was like, this is a grind up here.
Yeah, it is. Yeah.
I think two people don't recognize the, especially those
who live out east or like don't live out West and they're coming
to elk hunt for the first time. A big thing for me is the
physical component of it. Like I've done before I got into
(36:58):
hunting like I would do fourteeners and I was big into
hiking. But you're also on a trail.
So, you know, I knew the physical component of hiking.
And then that increases quite a bit when you're, I'm a short
person. A lot of the times the dead fall
is like at my knees or my hips that I'm climbing over.
And so just knowing or train changes or anything, like I just
(37:18):
knew that physical component wasgoing to be a tough part of the
hunt. And then also like in the
instance that I was fortunate enough to shoot something, like
I said, a lot of times I'm by myself.
I need to be strong enough and physical enough to be able to
bring that out by myself too. So I definitely recognize that
part of it. And I think that's a big piece.
And maybe like another piece of advice to include is like
(37:39):
recognize that your physical fitness and like the shape that
you're in and your health and all of that play a big role into
how successful or unsuccessful you might be, especially on like
an over the counter public land type hunt.
Now, if you're doing a guided hunt, that's probably a
different story. Yeah, yeah, I mean, those are
(38:00):
those are nice, but there are times when I think of all the
time that I've spent, you know, preparing, planning to go into
it. I'm like, I wonder if I should
have just gotten like just worked harder, made more money
and just bought like a guy just by by a guided hunt.
But, but no, there's, there's some good guys that are out
there, folks that are willing toshare their information and, and
(38:23):
I'm super appreciative of that because they'll, they, I, I
think they kind of test you. Like I've become friends with,
with Tyson Hudson. He's, he's a good buddy of mine
and, and he does a lot of guiding and he'd give me some
areas to go into. And he's like, if I see other
people in there, he's like, I'm going to skin you alive.
But he kind of gave me some likerough areas.
(38:45):
I think he wanted to see what I was like made of when I say
rough, like general vicinity, right.
So I went out there and and we grinded.
I mean, we went out and we had again in this unit, I had my
buck tag and we had seen bucks for days out there leading up to
(39:06):
it. And and then he went off doing
his, he had his own hunt to go do, but but he put me in some
good areas it but it's just, it's hard.
It's hard when you're hunting like on the side of a mountain
and yeah, you've got trees and stuff like that.
But to try and close the distance on these, on these
animals is just like, I think that's the hardest part.
(39:30):
Like, I mean, yes, finding them is difficult, but once you find
them, for me the hardest part islike, how am I going to like cut
that distance and get to within shooting range?
And that's the other thing whereI'm like, I don't, it's hard to
get close. So I really have practice to
like increase my range. Like I'm kind of a whack job
(39:51):
when it comes to like shoot. I shoot my bow like, like all
the time, all the time. I've probably shot it less the
past, you know, since hunting season started.
But I got to the point where like, I feel really good letting
the arrow fly at 100 yards. Not on an animal.
Like I can hit my target at 100 yards, but at 80, like 60 to 80,
(40:12):
I would have like no hesitation letting the arrow fly at all.
And I don't know, like what distance, like what distance
have you gotten to where you feel comfortable with?
Yeah, no, I think it good question.
It definitely depends on the animal.
And you know what broadhead I'm using, I've only ever used until
this year, mechanical or expandable broadheads.
(40:34):
And then this year IA lot of times will let people get in my
head as far as like, you know, I'm like, I'm still relatively
new to this compared to a lot ofpeople that I know and talk to.
And everyone's always like, oh, you're not pulling back enough
weight to shoot a mechanical. You need to have a fixed blade
on an elk, blah, blah, blah. I'm pulling back 65 lbs.
Like there are plenty of men whoare pulling back 65 lbs killing
(40:57):
an elk with a mechanical blade. So I just, you know, sometimes I
hear that and I'm like, oh, you know, like you're right.
I don't really know what I'm talking about South.
Anyways, I had both in my quiverthis year, but I feel more
comfortable. I bring that up.
I feel more comfortable sending a mechanical broadhead farther
than a fixed blade. I just, and my experience, the
ones that I've used fly way better at further distances than
(41:20):
the fixed blades that I was using.
So I had a fixed blade in my quiver for if I was taking a
shot on an elk at like less than50 yards, at 50 yards I was off
to the right by an inch or two. So I knew I just needed to hold
a little bit differently. But beyond fifty with a fixed
blade, I was not going to do that because I didn't it wasn't
(41:43):
flying as well as I would have liked it to for a mechanical on
an elk, I still probably wouldn't shoot past 50 just
because of the impact on it. Like yeah, I have drawing back
65 lbs, but I have a 26 inch draw length.
So that significantly affects your aero speed more so than
your poundage. I feel like on an antelope,
(42:04):
though, I've I've antelope punted the last two years and
those things, I've seen em go down with the worst shots in the
world. Like people are shooting in the
butt and they're dying. So I and they're just small.
Like there's not, it doesn't take a lot to do a lot of damage
to them. So I'd send an arrow at an
antelope, probably 7080 yards. I think 90 a hundred would be
(42:25):
pushing it for me just because Ican be consistent out to that
distance. But back to the ethical
shooting. I'd rather know I can make an
ethical shot than just send it and like, hope it's an ethical
shot. Yeah.
So that's a bit, yeah, I'd say 80 for something smaller like an
antelope, maybe a deer. I'd send one that far if I had
(42:46):
like a perfect broadside shot onit.
Besides that and elk, I'm probably not shooting past 50
personally. And, and I know people who have,
but that's just me. Yeah, I, I mean 80.
Anything over 80 to me is where I can I shooting at a target is
way different than shooting at alive animal.
And like that's why I just I feel in.
(43:08):
So I'm tall, I'm 62. I've got like a 32 inch drawing.
So like my arrows are like moving.
And so I don't like, yeah, it, it's different.
And you kind of have to, I guessthere's no one-size-fits-all.
It's like you said, you kind of have to feel comfortable and get
out there and spend the time like on the range and, and go,
(43:29):
you know, shoot the outdoor courses to where you have a
little bit of wind and you kind of figure out like where like,
hey, this is, this is where I feel comfortable, like at a kill
range, right? And that's, I think, I think
that's awesome. So Whitney, what other like have
you got any other hunts coming up like for the rest of the year
(43:50):
anything if I've? Got more rifle hunts left.
I've got actually Thursday I'll be leaving for a New Mexico cow
owl hunt. It's a rifle hunt and I'm
actually I won that one like in a raffle type thing at a banquet
that I was at. Which funny story, anyone,
anyone who knows me who listens to this is just going to roll
their eyes because I, I've won so many random things like I
(44:12):
could, I could easily go on a hunt with all of the like gear
and things that I've won and like not have to pay for
anything. So I won that one.
I'm going to Missouri for the opener of the whitetail season
there and I got out last year for the first time out there and
I got a doe. So hopefully we'll get a buck,
(44:32):
but it's for the rifle season and then I might go down to
Texas years. Like I'm from Texas originally.
So it's kind of like a big alleyoop type hunt.
Like I can go down there and at the very least get a doe.
So I might do that towards the end of the year.
And then last year I got into waterfowl and I liked it.
(44:52):
It was fun. So I think come spring, come
January when that starts to openup, I'm going to try to get back
out for a waterfowl and maybe some upland hunting because I
don't know. My goal is just to spend as much
time outdoors, fill in the freezer as often as I can.
And you know, like the whole saying goes, you're not going to
kill anything sitting on your couch.
And even if it's just ducks likethat duck breast are great and
(45:16):
it's not a lot of meat, but you can kill a lot of them if you're
out there enough so. Yeah, go hit, go hit your daily
bag limit. Yeah, exactly.
And just get out there. And granted, I was not great at
it to start with, so I need to spend some time behind a shotgun
to be better at it. But it's just, yeah, I think my
ultimate goal is to just go on as many hunts as I can, get as
many tags as I can, and spend asmuch time outdoors as I can.
(45:42):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I so like, I didn't grow
up hunting. Like this whole thing is like
new to me. I mean, we grew up, we went to
the lake, we skied, we, you know, surf, we did all that fun
stuff. But like, I've lived where I I I
close to Farmington Bay, which is like a huge duck hunting like
Mecca in Davis County. Yeah, I've never gone really.
(46:06):
I've never gone. It's.
So yeah. If it's really.
Cold, I think I. Seeing birds, it sucks.
Yeah. Well, so, but here's the nice
thing for me is like I could getup and get out there and like it
would take me 30 minutes to get to the spot, right?
And then if it's freezing and there's nothing, it's like a 30
(46:26):
minute hike back and in 10 minutes I'm home.
It's like seriously 10 minutes from my house.
So that's one thing that that we're going to get out there.
Like I want to get out there anddo some duck hunting this year.
And I'm pretty sure, I think theseason just opened on Saturday
because I was out working in theyard early.
I was out early. And I started hearing is the sun
(46:49):
start coming up, start hearing awhole bunch of gunshots.
And I'm like, oh, it's on. And I can see him.
And like, I mean, I could just sit from my back porch and look
down and see the ducks flying in.
So I mean, it's, I don't know, but yeah, I just everything
about hunting and fishing and all that fun stuff.
(47:09):
Like my buddy Russ, we're going out.
We're going to go do some fly fishing.
He's like, let me take you out. He goes, we'll go do some fly
fishing. We'll he goes, we'll get some,
we'll have you catch some fish. You start feeling better about
yourself. He's like, that's why I, he's
like, that's why I fly fish so much is because it makes me feel
better about how bad of a hunterI am.
Well, that's not like like to get any opportunity that you can
(47:29):
like whether it's waterfowl, whether it's going and shooting
squirrels, like anything to justlike build your confidence
around shooting something and whether or not you that's
something that you feel like youneed.
It's just nice to be like that was good, like I sucked it out
conning, but I got this done. Like it just makes you feel a
little better about yourself. So and it's fun.
Like it's like I said, a different way to experience the
(47:51):
outdoors and different meat to have in the freezer.
So I I hope you get out because it's fun.
Yeah, yeah, I I had a shotgun, bought a shotgun, I don't know,
probably 10 years ago. I mean, and we go out shooting
and I'm pretty accurate with it.I mean, it's a shotgun as.
Accurate as it can be. Yeah, but, but yeah, I I think
(48:16):
we're going to go out and and give it a whirl.
But yeah, it's a lot of fun. So hey, Whitney, tell me as we
kind of wrap up here, tell me a little bit about your podcast,
how people can find it and also like where they can follow you
as well. Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, as you mentioned when we started, I host the Wild
(48:37):
Strength podcast. My my background is in strength
and conditioning. So I spent most of my career as
a strength coach, specifically working in the military setting.
And so kind of where I want it, like when I started, when I
moved back out West because I, because I did my masters out
here in Colorado. When I moved back out West and
(48:57):
started hunting out here, you know, I kind of realized how I
would train. And we were talking about like
the physical component of a hunt, how I would train for a
Backcountry hunt or even just like sitting a tree stand.
Like being able to control your heart rate is still an important
part of your like physical fitness.
So I realized, you know, like the way that I would train for
this is very similar to the way that I would train someone who's
(49:18):
maybe going on a combat deployment or somebody who's
leaving to go TDY for a train upor something like that.
And so then I was like, OK, well, I could either get into
like programming for people, butI don't like, I still have a
full time job outside of the podcast and everything.
So I'm like, I don't really havethe time to write programs for
people and also program like theon.
(49:42):
I'm very big. On like being able to interact.
Like face to face with people when I'm coaching them and, and
doing that online just completely removes that part of
it. So I was like, you know, I don't
really want to write programs for people online.
And I pride myself in like just being able to connect and like
hold a conversation with a wall.Like I can talk to literally
anybody. And so I'd find myself like
(50:03):
whether I was going to hunt Expos or whatever, just having
conversations with people about hunting, about training,
whatever, that I'm would leave the conversation.
Like, I wish that I recorded that conversation, if for
nothing else, for me to go back and listen to because I learned
a lot from it. So I was like, yeah, whatever.
Like I'll start a podcast. And so kind of the the theme
(50:24):
behind it, the wild strength is wild comes from like my passion
for hunting in the outdoors and strength comes from my
background and strength and conditioning.
And then, yeah, I just started having people on that I had had
like really good conversations with in the past.
And it's kind of like grown since then to, you know, like
still personally, I say it's a podcast that's for me.
Like I go back and re listen to all of my episodes because I
(50:48):
learned something and all of them.
But I always just hope that anyone who listens to it can
learn something, whether it's about your training, whether
it's about hunting or whatever can take something away from it.
Because at the root of coaching to me is being an educator.
And that's kind of what I've gotten more into now as I'm more
on the education side of things.And so yeah, it's kind of an
(51:08):
education type podcast, but I also talk about so many random
things that that's the fun part of having your own podcast.
You can talk about whatever you want.
Yeah. Yeah.
No, that's awesome. Yeah, it's that I started this
podcast just because like I wanted to learn and I've been
able to like like you said, I mean, you go, you can go down
(51:30):
some rabbit holes for sure. But but it's fun to get on there
talk. I mean, you know, fitness, diet.
I mean, I get into politics sometimes.
That's always fun. But but yeah, it's, it's a, it's
a ton of fun. Yeah.
I go back and listen to him too.And it's like, I'm like, oh,
(51:50):
like, that was really good, likeinformation.
And as I've kind of gone back and done that, like I said, it's
helped me become like a much better hunter.
I'm still determined that I'm going to punch, punch my tags
this year. So I've got some time to get it
done, but season's not over yet,no.
No, we still got some. I still got a couple.
(52:11):
Months I'm just waiting for the snow to hit to start pushing
some of the box back down to where I can access them.
But but anyway, so if if go follow it's the wild strength
podcast and on in how how do they follow you on social?
Yeah, yeah, my personal Instagram.
Is just my first and last name, Whitney Trammell.
(52:32):
And then I think there's like 2 underscores at the end of it.
The Instagram for the podcast isthe wild streak podcast and then
you can find the podcast, I believe on like all streaming
platforms just recently actually, gosh time flies in
January, the OK S Hunter podcastnetwork picked it up and so
whatever all the platforms that they stream on my podcast can be
(52:55):
found on and if you have any questions, probably my personal
Instagram is the 1 to reach out to.
I try to just be, I might not respond right away, but I try to
be really good about responding to questions, especially people
who are curious and have like legitimate questions about
hunting or training. If you're just asking me
something stupid, I probably won't respond.
(53:16):
But if you have like a genuine question, I try to respond to
all of them because I know like early on in my career, it meant
a lot to me when someone responded to my question that
knew more than I did. So I definitely try to help in
any way that I can. Perfect.
We'll make sure that. We put links in the show notes
so that people can find you to your social and your podcast as
(53:36):
well. So at Whitney at is there any
last little bit of advice that you'd like to share with people
before we part ways here? So my.
Whether we call it advice or not, my big thing or my big
quote that I always say and it'slike caught on with like a lot
of my friends is just to like todo the damn thing.
(53:57):
And, and, and what that comes from.
And what that means to me is, you know, like I talked about
early on in the end, this up in this conversation was, you know,
I, I go all in. And I think if you have a
thought that crosses your mind, if there's a hunt you want to
do, if there's a place you want to go and it crosses your mind
more than once and you continue to think about like, do the damn
(54:19):
thing, find a way to do it. I started working remotely so
that I could live wherever I wanted to live.
I you know, if you have to work an extra job to be able to
afford the guided hunt that you want to go on, spend a year
working that extra job so you can do that.
Find a job that gives you the PTO that you want to go on the
hunts that you want to do, like put yourself in positions to
meet people to help you do the things you want to do.
(54:40):
I just, I think I don't do well with excuses from people when
they always come up with like excuse after excuse And and
there's a difference between an excuse and like legitimately
like messing up and like not getting to hunt or not getting
to feel A tag or whatever, right?
But I just think if there's something that you really want
to do, I get a lot of like, Oh, I wish I could live your life
(55:02):
and I'm like, do it, Do the damnthing.
Go live the life that you want to live.
So that's my personal like advice to anybody, whether it's
hunting or just like life related.
But yeah, I get a lot of all I want to go on all these hunts
that you go on. And honestly my response is just
go on them, go do it. Yeah, no, I think that's great
advice. Whitney, I really appreciate
(55:23):
your time. You guys make sure go give
Whitney a follow. Again, we'll put links in the
show notes. And again, thank you for
listening to another episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast.
We are the fastest growing hunting podcast in the nation.
I'm going to continue to say that until it's true.
Whitney, stay safe and God bless.
Yep, thanks so much for having me on.
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast with Ryan
Uffins, the podcast where we dive head first into the wild,
whether you're an aspiring hunter or an adventurer seeking
the untamed. Together, we'll explore the
strategies and stories that leadto success in the great
outdoors. Welcome to another episode of
(00:21):
the Hunt Stealth Podcast. Excited to have Whitney Trammell
on the show. Today at Whitney is the host of
the Wild Strength Podcast and excited to sit down and talk a
little bit about her journey andupbringing and her love for the
outdoors. Whitney, thanks for joining me.
Yeah, thanks for having me on. Excited to talk to you, so let's
(00:42):
just dig into it. Tell me a little bit about like
your upbringing, like where did you love for the outdoors and
hunting and fishing and all of that kind of stem from?
Yeah, good question. I didn't grow up hunting.
I kind of mentioned the podcast is about like those that are
relatively newer to it, but I did grow up fishing.
(01:02):
My mom's parents had a house on a lake house actually called
Lake Whitney. And so I'm named after Lake
Whitney. And we'd go catch catfish.
We'd bring them in scale, like fry them up for dinner and we'd
have fried catfish that night every time I went fishing.
And so I was familiar with that.I was in Girl Scouts as well.
I don't think I've ever like shared that on any of the
(01:23):
podcasts that I've been on. But I was also in Girl Scouts,
which like, I think Boy Scouts are similar, where they
introduce you to a lot of outdoors things.
You go camping, you go horsebackriding, you learn just basic
outdoor skills. I wasn't in Girl Scouts like
long enough to become like superknowledgeable in the outdoors.
But I think that was outside of fishing.
(01:44):
That was really my first exposure to going camping.
And my mom hated camping. She could not be taken outdoors
to save her life. So I kind of always just had
this itch for it after doing that in Girl Scouts.
And then as I got older and was able to kind of get out on my
own, I came out to Colorado 1 summer and camped.
Did the whole thing. And this was like before
(02:06):
college. So I don't know.
I'm probably like 1718 years oldat the time and I'm like, wow,
it's amazing out here in the mountains.
So I grew up in Texas, so definitely we traveled a bit,
but once again, my mom's not like a mountain outdoors person.
We'd go to the beach if we were traveling, which is all fun and
games I guess. And.
So, yeah, no, I can relate. That's that's my, that's my
(02:27):
wife. The idea of camping is like
going to our lakeside cabin. So yeah, now totally, totally
relate. Yeah, and then that's just as
fun sometimes, too. But came to Colorado for the
first time. Got to like spend time in the
mountains. And I was like, I love this.
Like, how can I get here as soonas possible?
So did my undergrad and ended upcoming out to Colorado for my
master's degree. And then I kind of got this.
(02:49):
And actually COVID happened during my master's.
So it's kind of a blessing in disguise.
That year, I spent every day in the mountains as much as I could
because I was close to it and I had nothing else to do.
Like everything was shut down. So absolutely kind of introduced
myself to the mountains that way.
And then hunting came in. I went back to Texas for a job
(03:11):
opportunity around COVID and picked up a bow.
Mostly because I grew up shooting, but not often.
I was familiar with handguns andrifles and like ammo at the time
was very hard to find. It was hard to come across ammo
depending on what you wanted during COVID.
So kind of looked into archery and I could shoot my bow in my
(03:32):
backyard. I could reuse arrows in my yard
if I wanted to. So I did the whole like buy once
cry once thing I bought. At the time it was like the
Matthews V3 which was the flagship bow that year.
Like the short 27 inch axle was at the time I had no clue like
what axle to axle man, I had no clue.
All of these different terms that I know now and I'm someone
(03:54):
that like once I get into something, I'm going head first,
like I'm going to go all in. All in.
Yeah, I'm going to figure it out.
And so I'd go into the bow shop and I'd ask questions and I'd
just hang out in the little shopand watch them work on other
people's bows. And I'd hear the speak and hear
the different things that they're talking about.
And short like you do that long enough, you start to figure some
things out. And so, yeah, I kind of just
(04:16):
picked it up and and went all in.
And then I knew I wanted to hunt.
That was ultimately my goal withpicking up a bow.
But I spent quite a while shooting before I ever felt
comfortable, like sending an arrow at an animal.
And then, yeah, kind of. I, I think, I think that's great
advice. Just going to like a pro shop,
(04:36):
like getting in there and just kind of hanging out, listening
to the lingo. That's the, it's interesting
because I think you and I probably both got started
hunting about the same time and I decided like, hey, I'm only
going to bow hunt. And now I'm going, this is the
hardest thing in the world, likebeing able to like, close the
distance on an animal and be able to get, you know, within
(04:57):
shooting range. But just spending time at the
shop, I, I think is like an integral part of like the growth
process. Like if you're really in it.
Because once they see like, OK, like this guy's serious or this
gal's serious, like they will kind of like, they kind of take
you into their wing and like, bring you up to speed on
everything. Yeah, that's exactly what my
shop did. And and I couldn't have asked
(05:18):
for a better help. They I'd go in.
And it's funny because I this isin Texas.
And to your point of like just spending time there and getting
close to a critter, I started shooting a boat in Texas where
most people hunt from a blind and even more so are sitting at
a feeder that's 20-30 yards away.
So bow hunting seemed easy to me, right.
(05:40):
Like you go in the range and theMax you're shooting usually is
20 yards at an indoor range and you're like, oh, I can hit the
X. Like the more I shoot, the more
often I'm hitting that ex Like Icould shoot a deer, I can hit it
in the harp any day of the week,right?
And then, then I Start learning about elk hunting and mule deer
hunting and see like, oh, you got to go out West to do that.
And I once I spent one season hunting in Texas, I sold
(06:04):
everything that I owned. I packed like what would fit in
my car and I came to Colorado and was like, I'm going to
figure out how to elk hunt. Then I learned that bow hunting
is not easy. Yeah, it's, you know, the kind
of to your point, like when you would come up, gone to school
and you start getting out in themountains when you get out into
elk country, like it's a different animal and it is kind
(06:26):
of inspiring you get out there and it's so beautiful.
I mean the land that you're in. I mean, you know, you see the
memes where it's like you justify going out hunting.
And I guess at least for me, because I've yet to arrow an
animal. And but being out just in the
outdoors and just being able to like it, it is like a mental
(06:48):
reset just being out there 5-6 days, whatever it is, 3 days,
however long someone can go. But but that's, that's like when
you say you're all in, like you're not kidding.
I mean, to just sell all of yourall of your stuff and pack up
and move to Colorado. Like that's, that's commitment,
that's taking it serious. Yeah, I think 21, I'm going to
(07:09):
touch on the point that you madeabout just like I always say,
hunting has done more for me than fill my freezer.
Like, yes, that's that's always the goal, but it also, you know,
I kind of got into it in a time period in my life where like
things weren't great, like mentally for me.
And so anytime that I'm out in the woods, it's like, oh, this
(07:32):
is a nice refresher. Or like I had by myself more
often than not to. And so to be out there by
myself, it gives me a moment to just pause to just sit.
Like if I'm sit there listening for elk or whatever it is,
oftentimes I find myself like mymind starts to wander finally.
And, and I'm a victim of like the busy lifestyle, like running
(07:54):
the rat race, all that kind of stuff.
So it's the one time that I justget to sit and have thoughts.
And so that makes it takes the conversation a little bit
deeper. But to me, like hunting is more
than just the chase. And I know for for some people,
it's the exact same. I've met multiple people who
appreciate hunting for what it has done for them personally.
(08:14):
But yeah, I, like I said, I'm someone who goes all in and, and
I knew it was something I wantedto do.
And, you know, you start lookingat like, I think initially I
looked at guided hunts to see, you know, let me see if I even
like that. And guided hunts for like
$10,000. And I'm like, I don't have
$10,000 to spend on a guided elkhunt in Colorado or wherever it
(08:34):
was in any of the western states.
So the easiest thing to do was to get there.
And I'm like, OK, well then how do I get there?
And broccoli sold everything. And when I first got out here, I
was living in this like little furnished apartment, basement
apartment type thing that was like I could afford it at the
time. And it worked.
And now I've been here going on three years and I finally have a
(08:57):
house now. But I went all in and, and I had
no clue what I was doing my first season out here.
I didn't know about the draw system.
I didn't know how do I get points.
I knew nothing. But I was like I knew Colorado
had an over the counter tag, which is what I was familiar
with. In Texas, you can buy 6 deer
tags at Walmart in Texas. So coming out here, I was like,
I guess I'm just gonna figure itout.
(09:18):
And I'm still figuring out, 'cause I haven't arrowed an elk
yet. What's what's been the something
when you got started in bow hunting elk that you wish
someone would have told you? Good question.
You know what, I think I talk about this like often, I think
(09:41):
my mind goes like, I wish someone would have told me the
like reality of how hard it is because I think social media
makes it look easy. And, and not that I necessarily
had the perspective it was goingto be easy.
I know just even like carrying my bow on my hands, whether or
not I get an animal or not is going to be challenging.
(10:03):
Like you're not on a trail anymore.
You're climbing over deadfall. Like, I knew the physical part
of it was not going to be easy. But I think you look at social
media and you see these people who are posting their elk year
after year after year, not knowing that either A, they've
done it their entire lives, so they have it figured out, or B,
(10:23):
they're hunting private land, or, C, they're in an outfit and
they're not saying that they're at an outfit or they're paying
thousands of dollars for these things.
So I just, I think, yeah, for someone who's like getting into
it and like what I wish I would have known is that like public
land, over the counter elk hunting is going to be the
hardest thing probably that you've ever done.
(10:46):
I think that's 100% accurate. Yeah, it you do, you see social,
it's like, oh, you just go by a bow and then you go out to where
elk live and you shoot an elk pretty easy.
Makes it makes it look super simple, but the reality of it
is, is find locating them is onething like out here, the area
(11:10):
that I went hunting this year, like they would talk, but I mean
basically once the rifle startedis when the rut really kicked
in. And so we're up there till like
the bitter end and they're talking, but they don't they're
not they're not pissy enough to come in and check us out.
So it's like, I mean, we were doing, I don't know, 10-15 miles
(11:33):
a day trying to like, we'd hear them, they'd talk and it's like,
all right, well, let's go. And it's, it's a grind.
I, I was out. This has been, this has been a
really fun year for me. And I think my learning curve
has grown the most this year because I by far I put in the
most time since I've started. And you know, I, I was out, I
(11:59):
had a buck tag in a unit and I watched this bull blow over this
Ridge and come down. And I'm like, of course I don't
have a bull tag for this unit as.
It. Comes and he come, I'm like I, I
watched him and in my mind I'm like, he's going to come right
(12:19):
up to me. And he came over the Ridge came
down his like he was gassed. He must have been blown out of
the other candy, just like tongues wagging out of his
mouth. And he comes up and I range him
at 30 yards and I'm like, you got to be kidding me.
And then I'm like, he in my mind, I'm going, he's going to
walk right up to me. And he walked right up to me.
(12:41):
I mean, he was 10 feet from me. I was kind of tucked in this
little, like, Bush area. And finally I'm like, well, I'm
going to have my camera, my, youknow, my iPhone.
I just stand up and he turns andlooks at me and he's going, Oh,
you kind of just saw like look at his face.
He's like, you got to be kiddingme.
Like same thing. I'm, I'm thinking when I see him
(13:02):
and he's like, so anyway, so then he blows back down the
Canyon and takes off again. But it, it's a fun experience to
be out there, be able to like see them up close.
I'm just going why couldn't you have been a spiker?
A cow? That's funny.
Like I had AI. Go ahead, go ahead.
I actually had a, so I'll rewindfor a second.
(13:23):
I drew A tag this year and it was a low point unit.
I drew it with one tag or one point and it's like a zero to
one point unit here in Colorado.And mostly just because I I
wanted an opportunity, one for less pressure 2.
I knew someone who had haunted that unit before who was willing
to share a little bit of Intel, and so it was an opportunity,
(13:44):
like you said, for me to just get closer.
Possibly if I listened or like you know, was was still able to
do things to get closer and to just like experience true like
and and hunting over the counterby myself in the like past
years, I've found elk sign, I'vefound elk, I've seen elk, but
I'm it's mostly I feel like beenby happen chance.
(14:04):
Like I said, I just threw myselfinto it having no clue what I'm
doing. And so this year was I'd agree
same for like my season so far has been a big like learning
curve just getting close to themand and I laugh.
I had a cow and a calf, which I had an either sex tag so I could
have got a cow, a cow and a calfcome up and spook me.
They were like following behind me.
(14:26):
I'm like kind of by this Creek and going up a Canyon and
they're behind me and I turn around and they both like catch
me, turn around. We stare at each other and I'm
like, OK, I can't move. This is the moment.
Like if I just stay here long enough, like they'll turn around
slowly. And then the second I made like
one move, they just they were gone.
But I had to laugh. I'm like, really like, what are
the odds that an elk is going tospook me?
(14:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it happens. I mean, I, I, I will share one
bit of advice that that's been shared with me that I think was
super helpful. But I've been told go out like 3
in the morning in the in the canyons and just let a bugle go
just to locate them, right. And that that was that was kind
(15:16):
of like a turning point in beingable to start getting on them.
And yeah, like we saw so much elk sign.
Like I saw like fresh cat. We went out one morning, Dustin
and I, who I think you'd been chatting with, we go out and
we're like, hey, let's go out. It's like 330.
We get up, we get up to the spotwhere we know we've seen elk up
(15:37):
there previous years and we go out and, and the earlier,
earlier when we had got up there, we were out hunting and
we're bugling and, and one responded to us, but it was a
little bit farther up the Canyon.
So we went up to that spot and bugled and one started talking
(15:57):
to us and we're going all right,we're in business.
So we kind of hang out for about10 or 15 minutes and this bulls
like talking to us. You can hear I'm getting a
little bit closer and I'm like, all right, It was like 32°.
It had it had snowed the day before and and we're going, hey,
it's it's game on. We're like, let's go back and
(16:18):
get our bow and stuck. We were probably 200 yards from
the truck and we had turned our headlamps off and we're like,
well, let's go back and see whatwe can find.
So we're walking back like in the dark and all of a sudden we
bust another bowl. He was like, I mean, right, not
responding to us at all, but he was just hanging out right there
(16:42):
and it scared the crap out of both of us because I mean we
like literally walked up on thisthing and it was so pitch black.
Like you could smell him, you can see him.
We had seen like 2 bulls go in there, you know, the night
before and we're anyway, he stayed put.
The other one went way up the Canyon and it's just like it
(17:06):
gives you just enough. It's kind of like people that
golf, I don't golf, I hate golf,but there it's like the golf
gives you just enough to want tocome back right again.
We keep having these experiencesand I'm like, I mean, I don't
know. I'm like, should we have had our
bows with us and just hung out and I'm going maybe, maybe not.
But I mean, there was no sound, no movement, no nothing near us
(17:31):
until we walked up on him and hejumps up and takes off and we
kind of just looked at each other.
You've got to be kidding me. I mean it to to your earlier
point, it is the hardest type ofhunting there is elk.
And I even think mule deer because they're those mule deer
(17:53):
like to get close to them. Like I've gotten closer to elk
than I have mule deer I have. So, but there was an I had a
buck tag. So in Colorado, where where are
you located? I'm in Utah.
OK nice. So in Colorado you have to draw
a mule deer tag. You can't get them like over the
counter anywhere unless so maybeyou get a private land one or
whatever. So this is my first year having
(18:14):
a mule deer archery tag in Colorado.
And unfortunately I just saw it was buck only tag and I saw
probably 100 nose the whole season and and maybe $1.00 that.
I'm not a trophy hunter by any means, but I'm also, I would
rather shoot a fat dough than like a small young buck.
But I had a buck only tag so I couldn't have shot any of the
(18:36):
doughs before. But yeah, it's definitely tough
for and to your point of like kind of spooking the elk, the
I've seen more bulls through just trying to like get to a
spot and bumping them because I'm trying to get to a spot.
Not. So I guess another piece of
advice would be like hunt your way.
Like you're always hunting, right?
(18:57):
I think my perspective early on was, OK, I have this spot picked
out on Onyx or I have this spot that someone recommended, or I
have this Canyon that I want to get to or at this Ridge that I
want to get over. So I'm like OK, hunt mode off,
get there and then hunt mode turns back on and I have scooped
and seen more bulls and that in between getting to a point
(19:19):
thinking hunt mode off when I should have just been moving
slow and hunting the entire time.
Yeah, I, I think that's great advice.
That's something that I do like I don't typically go fast unless
like I know that that there's nothing like I can see that I'm
in like, you know, a Prairie or something because you never know
(19:39):
what you're going to bump into. And we've seen all sorts of
stuff. And again, it's the same thing.
It's like, OK, I've got bucks galore in the unit that I don't
have a buck tag for and I'm going, all right, well, maybe I
want to put in for that unit. But yeah, where do you guys?
Colorado has an extended. The archery is just September
(20:01):
and then like the seasons here are so weird compared to
everyone. I feel like it's just September
and then we have 4 rifle seasonsthat each run about a week
apiece and there's about a week or two in between each one all
the way through like late November and like first rifles
finishing up. Right now, I believe it's 14
October. And then the next World will
(20:21):
start at the end of October. And then there's two more in
November, which is it's, it's like not one long season.
I know like Montana and Wyoming,your archery tag can turn into a
rifle tag and then you kind of have all season to hunt, whereas
here it's not the same. And then there's muzzle loader
as well, which that runs in the middle of archery season.
It's like the week that everyonethinks is the rut, but the rut
(20:43):
can change year to year depending on whether.
But the third week, I think in September is muzzleloader
season, and that's really all you get here.
Yeah, I guess one of the blessings that I have being in
Utah is like the now the the units that you can hunt in
shrink dramatically, but but youcan still go out and yeah, I I
(21:09):
think I think one goes until like it's like January 5th.
I think they both. So I've got I'm going down on
the extended. I still going to go chase down
some some bucks and I know wherethere's some elk allegedly I've
seen them before. It's just it's just a mat.
It's I know that they've been there before.
(21:30):
That's the other thing is like where they are at one point of
the season is not where they're going to be when you're out
hunting. And it's crazy.
I swear, like elk. No, it's like, oh, archery
season started, make yourself scarce.
We've had you on. We've had, we've had, they've
had us, we've been, you know, showing ourselves on camera to
(21:51):
you guys, you know, all season long.
And it's the, it's the start when I was out on opening day
and I'm going for my buck tag anyway.
And I'm like, we had 17 bucks here for the past month.
Where in the hell did everythinggo?
I was. Glassing up elk.
On a mountainside all, like I started scouting probably like
(22:14):
early July and I'd get out as much as I can.
I think I got out four or five times before September started.
Elk were there every single time.
I glass without fail, at least every morning.
Sometimes in the evenings they wouldn't be there.
So it's definitely an area that they lived in and not one that
they're just passing through because like two or three months
are going by and I'd always see it.
Whether the herd was big or small, there's always something
there. Opening day comes around.
(22:36):
I never glassed up again. This is and I was so upset
because too, I started camping three days before the opener
because ours started on a Tuesday this year.
So I was like, I'll get out on Saturday.
I have Saturday, Sunday, Monday to just like really get a solid
plan in place and Saturday morning or Saturday evening, the
(22:57):
first evening I'm out there, I glassed up a massive 6 by 6 pool
and he was already like raking on the trees and stuff.
And I'm like, oh, this is going to be a long three days because
I already know like who I'm after, where I want to go.
And I never saw that guy again. It was the last time I saw him.
Well, I tell, I tell people thatI think elk might actually be
(23:18):
Sasquatch. Like they just like morph from
like 1 to the other and they just disappear on you.
And it's crazy. You can have them like we're
talking about the middle of the morning.
You could be right next to you and you could have no idea, but.
They're so it blows my mind there and and all critters,
honestly, the first year I was hunting out here, I had a bear
(23:38):
tag also and I'm setting this wallow kind of waiting.
I had an elk and a bear tag. I was sitting the wallow
specifically for elk, but it wasa spot that a friend had told me
about. And he's like, you know, you
might see bears in there too, you know, just kind of planned
for both. So I sit there, I range all the
trees around me, you know, as they say to do.
(24:00):
And I know that like that one's 35, this one's 15, whatever,
right? I sit it for a couple of hours.
It's like getting close to the end of the day, close to last
slide. And at that point I'm like, I'm
just slouched all the way back in my little hole that I've dug.
I don't have an arrow knocked mybows, like not even in my hand.
And this massive cinnamon bear comes in.
(24:20):
I mean, it's like I to me would have been like the bear of a
lifetime. Like, he's huge.
And I did not hear this bear come in at all.
And I'm sitting in like the thickest of timber that I've
ever been in. And I'm like, how did this huge
bear come in? And I did not hear a sound.
So of course, like that was a rookie mistake.
(24:41):
Like never again will I sit a wallow and not be ready to shoot
something like because I wasn't ready.
I spooked him just trying to getready but I'm just mind blown to
this day. Or the elk that spooked me.
How did I not hear there's twigsthat I'm stepping on trying to
like keep my sound down and I didn't hear these out coming up
behind me. How it blows my mind to this
(25:02):
day. Animals that are, you know, talk
about a bear, three, 400 lbs, elk, six, £700.
And I mean, yeah, I'm out there and it's like I go to place one
little step and it's like the smallest leaf and it just is the
loudest like crackle. And I'm like, wow, it's wild.
(25:22):
I mean, yeah, they were, they were built to, you know, be a
stealthy animal and try and avoid predators, right?
Which is one thing I'm incredibly fascinated by and and
I started to realize it more as I got more into hunting as the
like predator prey life cycle and like we as humans are
(25:45):
predators on these animals and like they learn their entire
lives to not get preyed on and so.
Yeah, it's pre built into them. For sure.
And for us too, like one thing that I really love about hunting
and like a big reason I wanted to get into it too is it's like
innate and who we are as humans,right?
(26:06):
We go back years and years ago, the only way people got food was
to hunt for food. And now we have all this
technology where we don't have to hunt for food anymore.
We can go to the grocery store. But like, I'm very interested in
that like primal lifestyle and like living how we were meant to
live. And so, yeah, thinking about
like how we're a part of that life cycle.
Like these animals are learning to not just avoid other animals,
(26:29):
but they're learning to avoid humans because they know hunters
exist, that they know when opening day comes around, they
know when hunters are out there,they're not dumb.
They've learned this their entire lives.
But like we also are learning survival instincts from other
humans too. So like that whole predator prey
life cycle I'm like extremely fascinated by.
Yeah, I've talked to several people how disconnected we are
(26:52):
from like, the food chain, Right.
Sure. And and people are like, oh,
it's, you know, I I talk to individuals and they're like, I
think hunting is so barbaric. And I'm like, do you have any
idea how that hamburger you're eating was probably raised and
how it was killed? And I'm like, you know, I don't
(27:13):
have anything in the freezer right now.
Fortunately. I've got some guys that they
feel, you know, feel sorry for me.
They're like, hey, here's some stuff for you.
But but it definitely makes you appreciate where the food comes
from. I mean, I talk all the time.
I'm like, man, it would have been amazing to like live back
like in the Mountain Man era. And I'm like, I would have
starved to death. You and me both.
(27:36):
But but it's, but The thing is, is it it we, you are kind of are
reconnecting with our roots likethat primal lifestyle, You know,
we live pretty coddled lives now.
And it's it's fun to get out there and kind of test and see
what you're made of. Because yeah, when you're out
(27:56):
there and after you're 10 miles into it and you're still
climbing over deadfall and like the cramps kick in and it's
like, what am I doing? What you know, why, why am I,
why am I doing this? And so my, my mindset is when
I'm out there, at least to keep me going, is just, I'm doing
(28:18):
this because like, I got to go feed my family, right?
Fortunately, I, you know, I havea job and I get to go to the
store and, and buy, buy the foodand, and all that fun stuff.
But it is it kind of just reconnects you with the land and
how we were kind of meant to to live.
Yeah, yeah. No, I couldn't agree more.
I think that like, you know, andI have friends too, who knew me
(28:40):
before I got into hunting. And then I get into it and they
have this just ferocious view ofwhat killing an animal is.
And they're like, oh, Whitney, like, why are you doing this?
And I'm like, you know what, let's dial it back for a second.
What'd you have to eat for dinner last night?
And it's like a steak or a burger or chicken from fast food
places or whatever. And I'm like, can I explain to
(29:01):
you where that meat came from, how that animal was raised, how
it was killed? And then let me explain to you
how the animal that I am currently eating, the life that
it lived, how it was killed and how it made it to my plate.
And oftentimes they're like, oh,shit, that so and, and honestly,
(29:21):
that's how I have to put in perspective for most people who
were like, oh, like you're killing an animal and it's not,
you know, they're not necessarily anti hunting, but
they just think the thought of killing something sounds.
Yeah, they're such majestic animals.
And they are. For sure, absolutely.
I've cried they almost every animal that I've killed.
Yeah, it's, it's not, it definitely makes you appreciate
(29:46):
it and where it, where it comes from.
Because I mean, if you, if you've trained and you've done
your job and you're good with anarrow or, or a bullet, whatever,
if you can place like a nice shot, the animal really isn't
going to suffer that bad. It's never perfect.
It's never perfect. So I'm not under the illusion
(30:08):
that it's like, oh, every shot is like a heart shot and they
drop within, you know, 30 yards.But for the most part, like
that's the other thing that I talk to people that are so
against hunting and I'm like, doyou know how these animals
typically die? They're either eaten by another
animal, they freeze to death or they starve to death.
(30:29):
Like it is not a easy way for them to go.
So yes, if someone has trained and they can place like a proper
shot on the animal, it's like the most ethical way that they
could, that you could harvest ananimal and it's organic, that
you don't have to worry about any like chemicals and things
(30:50):
being injected into it, growth hormones, all the other stuff.
So I'm like, you know, all of you organic, like, I don't know,
it's, I get, I do get it. I get that people love animals.
And, and I think that's the disconnect is there's so many
people that think that hunters don't love the animals.
And you know, I've yet to harvest anything, you know,
(31:14):
aside I, I did kill, I did harvest a forest chicken.
I got my first kill with the bow.
Nice. We were, we were walking back
and, and Dustin's like, hey, he goes, do you see that up in the
tree? And he's got his range Finder.
He's like, do you want to waste an arrow?
And I'm like, I've had these things for like 3 years now.
Like, yeah, like, let's put something through it.
(31:35):
He's like it's 41 yards. There's like a little cross
wind. And my son was with me too.
He's 20, I don't know, 25. He's like, there's no way you're
going to hit that. Smoked it like it was dead for
hit the ground. We went up, stripped the breasts
off and threw it in the Jetboil and it had been at the end of a
(31:58):
long couple days and yeah, we enjoyed it.
So in my mind, I'm going OK, if I can hit that thing.
I know that I've trained well enough.
If I get on a large animal that I'm hunting, I'm going to take
an ungulate down for sure. And that's my thoughts too, is,
is I know when I have the opportunity and, and I've gotten
(32:21):
a handful of critters with my bow, but I have not gotten
anything. Well, I've got a grouse in
Colorado and I got a squirrel inColorado.
But like as far as outside of that Colorado, I haven't shot
anything with my bow. And so I know any time that I go
out there, I can, I'm so confident in shooting.
I spend more time shooting my bow during Archer related things
than I spend in the woods hunting.
(32:42):
It just how it goes, right? And there are some people who
don't pick up their bow until the week before season and like
those are the people who are probably a little bit more
worried about whether or not they're going to have a
successful shot. But I know without a shadow of a
doubt, when I have the right shooting lane and a good
opportunity, that's a dead animal. 10 out of 10 times it's
(33:03):
just getting the right opportunity.
Like this year I had, jeez, evenjust like thinking back on it
just makes me mad. But not mad.
Just, you know, you learn lesson.
Frustrated. Yeah.
I had a cow on opening day threedifferent times within 40 yards,
but just I, it was a shooting lane.
I wasn't comfortable with in theshooting lane that I did have.
(33:25):
Maybe it was too far back on thebody.
And so you just like some peoplewould take that shot.
Some people see elk shooting lane, shoot, I see shooting
lane. It's literally basically in the
Elks. But like it's hind quarter.
I'm not taking the shot. Hopefully she steps back a
little bit. Whatever so created, like, yeah,
I'm not mad at myself or I'm madabout it.
(33:46):
Like I made a very ethical decision in those moments to not
take those shots. But it's just like, you know,
people who would take them, who might be able to get a recovery
shot. And but yeah, it's, I know
without a shadow of a doubt, Like once I get that elk in
front of me with a bow, it's a dead elk.
That that is the one thing for me when I started is I I've
(34:09):
heard of guys that'll like shoothim in the head and like, I
mean, they're like you, if you have a shot, you take it.
And I'm like, if you have an ethical shot, you take it,
correct. Yeah.
And and the very first time. What's that?
So then everyone's different. Just that's my thoughts.
Yeah, I and yeah, to each his own, right.
(34:30):
But for me, like when I got started, you know, I, I had
watched a bunch of like Donnie Vincent's films, right?
Like I was fortunate enough to have him on the podcast and, and
he is such like he's such a cooldude.
But I started watching that and,and that kind of like sent like,
like the ethical side of it for me that if like I don't have a
(34:52):
shot, like I'm not going to takeit.
And, and we had, it was the veryfirst time I'd gone out hunting
elk. And we're going down this slope
and one comes just like you said, there are times where you
can't hear him. And there's other times where it
sounds like a freight train coming in.
And I'm like, what on earth is that?
(35:14):
I'm like, there's like a monstercoming up on me.
So I kind of turn around. I'm in this little opening and
there's this like pine tree that's probably, I don't know,
30-40 feet tall. And I hear this like breaking
branches, everything snapping. And there's this, it was like
the biggest, it was a massive bowl.
(35:34):
It could have been a 5 by 5, butto me it was like the biggest
bowl that I'd ever see. I mean, it was big.
He, he had a lot of size on him,but he's coming through this
scrub oak and all I can see is from neck up and I'm watching
him watching him. And I like got my arrow in and I
had ranged that tree in the event that something comes in
and he starts moving right towards it and he gets right
(35:55):
there. So he's like under 30 yards from
me and like I draw back and nothing but scrub oak and I'm
watching him and I'm going, he'sgoing to step into an opening
that's three yards away from himand I'm going to have a shot
broadside on him. And then the breeze hit the back
of my neck, and he turns and looks and bolted.
(36:16):
But for probably like 30 seconds, I could have shot him
at anywhere from 50 to 40 yards.Shot at him, you run the risk
of, like, injuring him. And I just, I decided I wasn't
going to do it. But that was like the very first
time I'd ever gone out hunting. And like, from that moment on, I
was hooked. I'm like, I'm going to do this
for as long as my body will allow me to do this.
(36:38):
And then like the body transformation started to come
for me because I was like, this is a grind up here.
Yeah, it is. Yeah.
I think two people don't recognize the, especially those
who live out east or like don't live out West and they're coming
to elk hunt for the first time. A big thing for me is the
physical component of it. Like I've done before I got into
(36:58):
hunting like I would do fourteeners and I was big into
hiking. But you're also on a trail.
So, you know, I knew the physical component of hiking.
And then that increases quite a bit when you're, I'm a short
person. A lot of the times the dead fall
is like at my knees or my hips that I'm climbing over.
And so just knowing or train changes or anything, like I just
(37:18):
knew that physical component wasgoing to be a tough part of the
hunt. And then also like in the
instance that I was fortunate enough to shoot something, like
I said, a lot of times I'm by myself.
I need to be strong enough and physical enough to be able to
bring that out by myself too. So I definitely recognize that
part of it. And I think that's a big piece.
And maybe like another piece of advice to include is like
(37:39):
recognize that your physical fitness and like the shape that
you're in and your health and all of that play a big role into
how successful or unsuccessful you might be, especially on like
an over the counter public land type hunt.
Now, if you're doing a guided hunt, that's probably a
different story. Yeah, yeah, I mean, those are
(38:00):
those are nice, but there are times when I think of all the
time that I've spent, you know, preparing, planning to go into
it. I'm like, I wonder if I should
have just gotten like just worked harder, made more money
and just bought like a guy just by by a guided hunt.
But, but no, there's, there's some good guys that are out
there, folks that are willing toshare their information and, and
(38:23):
I'm super appreciative of that because they'll, they, I, I
think they kind of test you. Like I've become friends with,
with Tyson Hudson. He's, he's a good buddy of mine
and, and he does a lot of guiding and he'd give me some
areas to go into. And he's like, if I see other
people in there, he's like, I'm going to skin you alive.
But he kind of gave me some likerough areas.
(38:45):
I think he wanted to see what I was like made of when I say
rough, like general vicinity, right.
So I went out there and and we grinded.
I mean, we went out and we had again in this unit, I had my
buck tag and we had seen bucks for days out there leading up to
(39:06):
it. And and then he went off doing
his, he had his own hunt to go do, but but he put me in some
good areas it but it's just, it's hard.
It's hard when you're hunting like on the side of a mountain
and yeah, you've got trees and stuff like that.
But to try and close the distance on these, on these
animals is just like, I think that's the hardest part.
(39:30):
Like, I mean, yes, finding them is difficult, but once you find
them, for me the hardest part islike, how am I going to like cut
that distance and get to within shooting range?
And that's the other thing whereI'm like, I don't, it's hard to
get close. So I really have practice to
like increase my range. Like I'm kind of a whack job
(39:51):
when it comes to like shoot. I shoot my bow like, like all
the time, all the time. I've probably shot it less the
past, you know, since hunting season started.
But I got to the point where like, I feel really good letting
the arrow fly at 100 yards. Not on an animal.
Like I can hit my target at 100 yards, but at 80, like 60 to 80,
(40:12):
I would have like no hesitation letting the arrow fly at all.
And I don't know, like what distance, like what distance
have you gotten to where you feel comfortable with?
Yeah, no, I think it good question.
It definitely depends on the animal.
And you know what broadhead I'm using, I've only ever used until
this year, mechanical or expandable broadheads.
(40:34):
And then this year IA lot of times will let people get in my
head as far as like, you know, I'm like, I'm still relatively
new to this compared to a lot ofpeople that I know and talk to.
And everyone's always like, oh, you're not pulling back enough
weight to shoot a mechanical. You need to have a fixed blade
on an elk, blah, blah, blah. I'm pulling back 65 lbs.
Like there are plenty of men whoare pulling back 65 lbs killing
(40:57):
an elk with a mechanical blade. So I just, you know, sometimes I
hear that and I'm like, oh, you know, like you're right.
I don't really know what I'm talking about South.
Anyways, I had both in my quiverthis year, but I feel more
comfortable. I bring that up.
I feel more comfortable sending a mechanical broadhead farther
than a fixed blade. I just, and my experience, the
ones that I've used fly way better at further distances than
(41:20):
the fixed blades that I was using.
So I had a fixed blade in my quiver for if I was taking a
shot on an elk at like less than50 yards, at 50 yards I was off
to the right by an inch or two. So I knew I just needed to hold
a little bit differently. But beyond fifty with a fixed
blade, I was not going to do that because I didn't it wasn't
(41:43):
flying as well as I would have liked it to for a mechanical on
an elk, I still probably wouldn't shoot past 50 just
because of the impact on it. Like yeah, I have drawing back
65 lbs, but I have a 26 inch draw length.
So that significantly affects your aero speed more so than
your poundage. I feel like on an antelope,
(42:04):
though, I've I've antelope punted the last two years and
those things, I've seen em go down with the worst shots in the
world. Like people are shooting in the
butt and they're dying. So I and they're just small.
Like there's not, it doesn't take a lot to do a lot of damage
to them. So I'd send an arrow at an
antelope, probably 7080 yards. I think 90 a hundred would be
(42:25):
pushing it for me just because Ican be consistent out to that
distance. But back to the ethical
shooting. I'd rather know I can make an
ethical shot than just send it and like, hope it's an ethical
shot. Yeah.
So that's a bit, yeah, I'd say 80 for something smaller like an
antelope, maybe a deer. I'd send one that far if I had
(42:46):
like a perfect broadside shot onit.
Besides that and elk, I'm probably not shooting past 50
personally. And, and I know people who have,
but that's just me. Yeah, I, I mean 80.
Anything over 80 to me is where I can I shooting at a target is
way different than shooting at alive animal.
And like that's why I just I feel in.
(43:08):
So I'm tall, I'm 62. I've got like a 32 inch drawing.
So like my arrows are like moving.
And so I don't like, yeah, it, it's different.
And you kind of have to, I guessthere's no one-size-fits-all.
It's like you said, you kind of have to feel comfortable and get
out there and spend the time like on the range and, and go,
(43:29):
you know, shoot the outdoor courses to where you have a
little bit of wind and you kind of figure out like where like,
hey, this is, this is where I feel comfortable, like at a kill
range, right? And that's, I think, I think
that's awesome. So Whitney, what other like have
you got any other hunts coming up like for the rest of the year
(43:50):
anything if I've? Got more rifle hunts left.
I've got actually Thursday I'll be leaving for a New Mexico cow
owl hunt. It's a rifle hunt and I'm
actually I won that one like in a raffle type thing at a banquet
that I was at. Which funny story, anyone,
anyone who knows me who listens to this is just going to roll
their eyes because I, I've won so many random things like I
(44:12):
could, I could easily go on a hunt with all of the like gear
and things that I've won and like not have to pay for
anything. So I won that one.
I'm going to Missouri for the opener of the whitetail season
there and I got out last year for the first time out there and
I got a doe. So hopefully we'll get a buck,
(44:32):
but it's for the rifle season and then I might go down to
Texas years. Like I'm from Texas originally.
So it's kind of like a big alleyoop type hunt.
Like I can go down there and at the very least get a doe.
So I might do that towards the end of the year.
And then last year I got into waterfowl and I liked it.
(44:52):
It was fun. So I think come spring, come
January when that starts to openup, I'm going to try to get back
out for a waterfowl and maybe some upland hunting because I
don't know. My goal is just to spend as much
time outdoors, fill in the freezer as often as I can.
And you know, like the whole saying goes, you're not going to
kill anything sitting on your couch.
And even if it's just ducks likethat duck breast are great and
(45:16):
it's not a lot of meat, but you can kill a lot of them if you're
out there enough so. Yeah, go hit, go hit your daily
bag limit. Yeah, exactly.
And just get out there. And granted, I was not great at
it to start with, so I need to spend some time behind a shotgun
to be better at it. But it's just, yeah, I think my
ultimate goal is to just go on as many hunts as I can, get as
many tags as I can, and spend asmuch time outdoors as I can.
(45:42):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I so like, I didn't grow
up hunting. Like this whole thing is like
new to me. I mean, we grew up, we went to
the lake, we skied, we, you know, surf, we did all that fun
stuff. But like, I've lived where I I I
close to Farmington Bay, which is like a huge duck hunting like
Mecca in Davis County. Yeah, I've never gone really.
(46:06):
I've never gone. It's.
So yeah. If it's really.
Cold, I think I. Seeing birds, it sucks.
Yeah. Well, so, but here's the nice
thing for me is like I could getup and get out there and like it
would take me 30 minutes to get to the spot, right?
And then if it's freezing and there's nothing, it's like a 30
(46:26):
minute hike back and in 10 minutes I'm home.
It's like seriously 10 minutes from my house.
So that's one thing that that we're going to get out there.
Like I want to get out there anddo some duck hunting this year.
And I'm pretty sure, I think theseason just opened on Saturday
because I was out working in theyard early.
I was out early. And I started hearing is the sun
(46:49):
start coming up, start hearing awhole bunch of gunshots.
And I'm like, oh, it's on. And I can see him.
And like, I mean, I could just sit from my back porch and look
down and see the ducks flying in.
So I mean, it's, I don't know, but yeah, I just everything
about hunting and fishing and all that fun stuff.
(47:09):
Like my buddy Russ, we're going out.
We're going to go do some fly fishing.
He's like, let me take you out. He goes, we'll go do some fly
fishing. We'll he goes, we'll get some,
we'll have you catch some fish. You start feeling better about
yourself. He's like, that's why I, he's
like, that's why I fly fish so much is because it makes me feel
better about how bad of a hunterI am.
Well, that's not like like to get any opportunity that you can
(47:29):
like whether it's waterfowl, whether it's going and shooting
squirrels, like anything to justlike build your confidence
around shooting something and whether or not you that's
something that you feel like youneed.
It's just nice to be like that was good, like I sucked it out
conning, but I got this done. Like it just makes you feel a
little better about yourself. So and it's fun.
Like it's like I said, a different way to experience the
(47:51):
outdoors and different meat to have in the freezer.
So I I hope you get out because it's fun.
Yeah, yeah, I I had a shotgun, bought a shotgun, I don't know,
probably 10 years ago. I mean, and we go out shooting
and I'm pretty accurate with it.I mean, it's a shotgun as.
Accurate as it can be. Yeah, but, but yeah, I I think
(48:16):
we're going to go out and and give it a whirl.
But yeah, it's a lot of fun. So hey, Whitney, tell me as we
kind of wrap up here, tell me a little bit about your podcast,
how people can find it and also like where they can follow you
as well. Yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, as you mentioned when we started, I host the Wild
(48:37):
Strength podcast. My my background is in strength
and conditioning. So I spent most of my career as
a strength coach, specifically working in the military setting.
And so kind of where I want it, like when I started, when I
moved back out West because I, because I did my masters out
here in Colorado. When I moved back out West and
(48:57):
started hunting out here, you know, I kind of realized how I
would train. And we were talking about like
the physical component of a hunt, how I would train for a
Backcountry hunt or even just like sitting a tree stand.
Like being able to control your heart rate is still an important
part of your like physical fitness.
So I realized, you know, like the way that I would train for
this is very similar to the way that I would train someone who's
(49:18):
maybe going on a combat deployment or somebody who's
leaving to go TDY for a train upor something like that.
And so then I was like, OK, well, I could either get into
like programming for people, butI don't like, I still have a
full time job outside of the podcast and everything.
So I'm like, I don't really havethe time to write programs for
people and also program like theon.
(49:42):
I'm very big. On like being able to interact.
Like face to face with people when I'm coaching them and, and
doing that online just completely removes that part of
it. So I was like, you know, I don't
really want to write programs for people online.
And I pride myself in like just being able to connect and like
hold a conversation with a wall.Like I can talk to literally
anybody. And so I'd find myself like
(50:03):
whether I was going to hunt Expos or whatever, just having
conversations with people about hunting, about training,
whatever, that I'm would leave the conversation.
Like, I wish that I recorded that conversation, if for
nothing else, for me to go back and listen to because I learned
a lot from it. So I was like, yeah, whatever.
Like I'll start a podcast. And so kind of the the theme
(50:24):
behind it, the wild strength is wild comes from like my passion
for hunting in the outdoors and strength comes from my
background and strength and conditioning.
And then, yeah, I just started having people on that I had had
like really good conversations with in the past.
And it's kind of like grown since then to, you know, like
still personally, I say it's a podcast that's for me.
Like I go back and re listen to all of my episodes because I
(50:48):
learned something and all of them.
But I always just hope that anyone who listens to it can
learn something, whether it's about your training, whether
it's about hunting or whatever can take something away from it.
Because at the root of coaching to me is being an educator.
And that's kind of what I've gotten more into now as I'm more
on the education side of things.And so yeah, it's kind of an
(51:08):
education type podcast, but I also talk about so many random
things that that's the fun part of having your own podcast.
You can talk about whatever you want.
Yeah. Yeah.
No, that's awesome. Yeah, it's that I started this
podcast just because like I wanted to learn and I've been
able to like like you said, I mean, you go, you can go down
(51:30):
some rabbit holes for sure. But but it's fun to get on there
talk. I mean, you know, fitness, diet.
I mean, I get into politics sometimes.
That's always fun. But but yeah, it's, it's a, it's
a ton of fun. Yeah.
I go back and listen to him too.And it's like, I'm like, oh,
(51:50):
like, that was really good, likeinformation.
And as I've kind of gone back and done that, like I said, it's
helped me become like a much better hunter.
I'm still determined that I'm going to punch, punch my tags
this year. So I've got some time to get it
done, but season's not over yet,no.
No, we still got some. I still got a couple.
(52:11):
Months I'm just waiting for the snow to hit to start pushing
some of the box back down to where I can access them.
But but anyway, so if if go follow it's the wild strength
podcast and on in how how do they follow you on social?
Yeah, yeah, my personal Instagram.
Is just my first and last name, Whitney Trammell.
(52:32):
And then I think there's like 2 underscores at the end of it.
The Instagram for the podcast isthe wild streak podcast and then
you can find the podcast, I believe on like all streaming
platforms just recently actually, gosh time flies in
January, the OK S Hunter podcastnetwork picked it up and so
whatever all the platforms that they stream on my podcast can be
(52:55):
found on and if you have any questions, probably my personal
Instagram is the 1 to reach out to.
I try to just be, I might not respond right away, but I try to
be really good about responding to questions, especially people
who are curious and have like legitimate questions about
hunting or training. If you're just asking me
something stupid, I probably won't respond.
(53:16):
But if you have like a genuine question, I try to respond to
all of them because I know like early on in my career, it meant
a lot to me when someone responded to my question that
knew more than I did. So I definitely try to help in
any way that I can. Perfect.
We'll make sure that. We put links in the show notes
so that people can find you to your social and your podcast as
(53:36):
well. So at Whitney at is there any
last little bit of advice that you'd like to share with people
before we part ways here? So my.
Whether we call it advice or not, my big thing or my big
quote that I always say and it'slike caught on with like a lot
of my friends is just to like todo the damn thing.
(53:57):
And, and, and what that comes from.
And what that means to me is, you know, like I talked about
early on in the end, this up in this conversation was, you know,
I, I go all in. And I think if you have a
thought that crosses your mind, if there's a hunt you want to
do, if there's a place you want to go and it crosses your mind
more than once and you continue to think about like, do the damn
(54:19):
thing, find a way to do it. I started working remotely so
that I could live wherever I wanted to live.
I you know, if you have to work an extra job to be able to
afford the guided hunt that you want to go on, spend a year
working that extra job so you can do that.
Find a job that gives you the PTO that you want to go on the
hunts that you want to do, like put yourself in positions to
meet people to help you do the things you want to do.
(54:40):
I just, I think I don't do well with excuses from people when
they always come up with like excuse after excuse And and
there's a difference between an excuse and like legitimately
like messing up and like not getting to hunt or not getting
to feel A tag or whatever, right?
But I just think if there's something that you really want
to do, I get a lot of like, Oh, I wish I could live your life
(55:02):
and I'm like, do it, Do the damnthing.
Go live the life that you want to live.
So that's my personal like advice to anybody, whether it's
hunting or just like life related.
But yeah, I get a lot of all I want to go on all these hunts
that you go on. And honestly my response is just
go on them, go do it. Yeah, no, I think that's great
advice. Whitney, I really appreciate
(55:23):
your time. You guys make sure go give
Whitney a follow. Again, we'll put links in the
show notes. And again, thank you for
listening to another episode of the Hunt Stealth Podcast.
We are the fastest growing hunting podcast in the nation.
I'm going to continue to say that until it's true.
Whitney, stay safe and God bless.
Yep, thanks so much for having me on.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.