[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll admit to being a lot less, what would I say, fussy or picky about which part of the unit, because, and you know more about this than I ever will, I feel that in the rut, the elk are moving a lot more across the landscape, so I'm not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In rifle seasons, what I'm doing is I'm trying to eliminate as much of the unit as possible. So by the time I'm all done, my map only has a few spots left that could hold elk. Whereas in archery season,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know that I ever eliminate hardly anything off my map because you just never know where they're gonna show up when they're as transient as they are in archery season, but maybe that approach is why I don't shoot as many elk with my bow as you do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, Randy's just sending you there because he hunts the reverse pressure theory of, if all you guys go way, way back there six miles, he's only hunting a half mile from the road. I'm like, you're full of it. But, uh, the good question as I wrote it down is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just in this, for this person said that they, when they first started elk hunting, they've been at it a couple of years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said, I just heard, I got to get away from the roads. I got to get away from the crowds. And so I'd walk and walk and walk. And sometimes I'd find myself eight miles from a road, but I wasn't seeing any elk. Was I walking by a lot of elk and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the answer to that, and certainly in rifle season, is yeaah, you can walk by a lot of elk if you're just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saying, okay, how do I get furthest away from the road just for the sake of being away from the road? Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some completely unroaded area that has almost nothing to offer the elk at the time of year. So let's say they're on a feed pattern and it's nothing but rock.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not gonna hike in five miles and walk past all the really good food if the really good areas as far as satisfying their need is only a mile from a road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For me, yeaah, all things being equal, elk wanna be undisturbed. Or as least amount of disturbance as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I would way rather hunt an area a mile from the road where they can satisfy their need, cause I know elk are gonna be there, than some place four or five miles from a road that really has nothing that's gonna satisfy their need at that time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Earlier and pre-rut, peak rut periods and late and post-rut periods, there are some variabilities to that just because of what elk are looking for to satisfy their needs at that time of the year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They'll walk across that road. They'll hang out in a spot near some roads if there are cows there. It's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The biological urge is, I gotta be where the cows are to satisfy my needs in September.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the one person had an interesting, I don't know if it's, it was an observation that I've formed as a question. And he said, you know, us weekend warriors have to approach it way differently than you guys who have the luxury of hunting Monday through Friday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, I felt bad because I hadn't really thought of that that way before. Uhm, and I think he's right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know that what you just described there of that hunting pressure, I know that by Monday, the bulls are really going to be pushed hard from the weekend pressure. So on Monday, I'm going to hunt a different spot than I probably will on Thursday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By Thursday, the pressure has been gone for three or four days. The elk feel a little more comfortable staying out slightly later, uh, maybe even coming out a little bit earlier in the afternoon. So if I was a traveling hunter who this was my vacation, I'd probably try to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for me, there was a time before I started all of this and before I just got serious that I'm not working in hunting season. I'm a CPA, I work enough in the spring, I'm hunting in hunting season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would, uh, Saturday morning was when I would really get up early and be hiking for a long time in the dark because I know that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I probably saw more elk then. Maybe it's just because of the effort I gave it. Or maybe it was just that eventually I figured out how this hunting pressure affects elk and how I can put myself in a position to benefit from that other hunting pressure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those, those hunters who are able to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just consistently fill their tag every year as a weekend warrior.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They have all of my respect. That's really a tough challenge that you're putting yourself to. Just because of the reason you said. Just when you start going to school on what you learned the day before,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta go back to work. Yep. And it's like the deck was completely reshuffled Monday through Friday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you get there Saturday morning and you got, it's almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle and every time you get the outline put together, you go back to work and someone comes and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Throws your puzzle back in the box and you got to start all over again Saturday morning. It's, uh, those people who can do that consistently with success, they, they ought to be the ones hosting a podcast, Corey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that definitely tough, at least in the places I know of with a lot of pressure. Uh, I think here in Montana, I'm sure it's same in Idaho. I know when I've hunted in Colorado, the over the counter seasons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is a lot of pressure out there even during the week. But you get to the weekends and you almost gotta bring your own rock to stand on. Yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Part of the reason I like the last part of the season is there's fewer people in the woods. Uh, just some people have given up or they've filled their tag. And because the pressure is less, you, the predictability of what you learned on


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is not nearly as disrupted on the weekends towards the end of season as it is when the weekends are earlier in the season and all that pressure from the season itself


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has pushed the elk to certain pockets that are more predictable. So the elk are going to be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, less, uh, dispersed across the landscape and more concentrated. But once you find where they're at, they're going to be in greater densities. And towards the end of the season, there's less people there that's probably going to mess up, uh, what you put together as your plan or your strategy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would probably, it'd be between two different strategies. I'd either, if I had a week to hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would either go the last week and have my hunting vacation and the last night of the last day or


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would take my vacation and I would show up probably two days, with two scouting days before season opens and have an elk patterned and located opening morning and roll the dice that I'm gonna kill that thing opening morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I try to give myself at for sure one day, one full day, a morning and an evening, if possible two mornings and two evenings. And the likelihood is I'm going to find a bowl or I'm going to find some elk in a pretty predictable pattern or a predictable location.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That at least the first day I have a chance to kill that thing. And that's, I have, when I hunt the beginning of the season, I have my first day strategy and then my rest of the season strategy because once the first shots are fired,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The deck is reshuffled. You're in, you almost have to go back to scouting mode for the next couple days to just relocate. What did the elk do in response to all this pressure?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you've posed there, I think I would take the last week of the season. The hunting pressure probably has the elk concentrated in certain areas where they're going to be harder to find and harder to kill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when I do find them, there's less hunting pressure. So I probably can count on the fact that, Hey, they're in this basin or in this drainage. I just need to keep focusing on that spot and eventually my chance will come over my five day vacation. That's probably what I'd do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, you got to talking about weather there and snow coming. Kind of leads into one of the other questions or comments of, wouldn't it be nice if we could tell when the elk are actually going to start migrating to the winter range?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here, we know the migration is on, but it, it never really works that way, uh, in, in my experience. And the, you know, right now we had a bunch of snow October 5th through 8th, something like that, up high, and then it just got warm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The cows and calves will leave that once they get a bit of snow, especially if it crusts like right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've had enough of that warm stuff that up high it melts and then it freezes at night and they just don't like digging through that if they can help it. So cows, calves, spikes, maybe even some raghorns will start moving closer to the winter range.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The bulls, my experience has been, will still stay up high when we have warm weather like this. They'll find a way to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To make a living even at 9,000 feet in crusty snow as long as it doesn't get super cold and as long as it doesn't get another foot of snow or two feet of snow on top of that crusted over snow, they can still get through it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's, from my experience and having read a lot, trying to understand the answer to this same question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those bulls migrate or start their migration differently than what the cows and calves do, for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's exactly what has been my experience and we get to hunt elk from the last, usually the, I think it's the fourth Saturday in October till the Sunday after Thanksgiving here in Montana.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of times, depending on what the weather conditions are, we're deer hunting during that period that you just mentioned, where there, some years when it's mild, the migration doesn't happen until Thanksgiving, every once in a while we'll get that blizzard on Halloween and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It'll accelerate that migration, but as an example, where I'm going scouting tomorrow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I suspect I'm going to see some cows and calves from my glassing areas and I'm going to actually walk past through and above those areas.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm going to be glassing way up above where I'm seeing the cows and calves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm, I know that with enough of that snow we had in early October, it might've moved the bulls slightly below the summer range. And so that's that transition band because we have summer range, winter range, and then we have the transition area between winter range and summer range.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where that transition area is near the high summer range, that's where I'm looking for bulls in this kind of weather. It's warm, yeaah, there's a little bit of snow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's, for me, and maybe it's just the places I've picked over time, but if I get, my base camp will be at about, I don't know, 6,000, 6,500, we're hunting out a base camp next week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 8,000 to 8,500 is where my glassing locations will be. I'm gonna be glassing up to 9,000 and 9,500.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Knowing that that is the start of the transition range, anything above that is pure summer range, so I can almost use my onX to look at where are those bands of elevation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That the bulls will start staging right now, knowing that in the next month, they are going to get the snow and they are going to have to move. But until that happens, they start accumulating at the top end of the transition range, closer to the summer range. Whereas the cows tend to accumulate, my experience,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A bit of both, but I would say they moved due to cold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Montana, we've had these November storms where it gets 25 below for four or five days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even if there's not much snow, and that will get them on the move, more than six inches of fresh fluffy snow. Now you get, let's say, a foot of crusty snow, and they're already working pretty hard to get to their feed, and then you throw some ten below zero weather. Now I'm hunting bulls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think cold pushes them more than snow with, and when we say snow, I'm talking about fresh fluffy stuff. If it's two feet of wind swept hard pack, iced over snow, yeah, they gotta move because they just can't get through that. But I,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love those cold mornings. My favorite morning is after we've had 18 inches of fresh snow. It clears off after the storm leaves and the temperature drops to 10 below zero.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That might be my Scandinavian heritage where I just, I accept that as part of daily life that it's going to be cold and miserable, but one thing I do, and we'll be doing this if it, if it does start snowing and we get a, uh, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty tough wind that really chills it down. I'll get to my glassing knobs and I'll build a little fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the reason being is usually if it's too miserable for me without a fire, that's the time the elk and the bulls are up on their feet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And maybe they're feeding, maybe they are moving, maybe they're coming into a different staging area and they're just going to wait it out. Well, I don't want to be back at camp around a wood stove at that time. I want to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right there, glassing. And if that means I gotta build a little fire, I build a little fire and a lot of times when we shoot one,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's amazing what a fire does to, to both your body, keeping it warm and to your mind of letting things, uh, just not, not get discouraged, I guess. For me anyhow, a fire keeps my mind occupied and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keeps me away from thinking about how miserable I might be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a perfect example of how we usually do it is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of times the spines of these ridges, the south face is clear and the north face is dark timber. We get right up on the top of the ridge, maybe, like you said, a few yards into the darker timber, start our fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can usually glass some from the fire, but then you walk 100, 200 yards down the ridge or around the corner or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Northwest Montana, the coast of Oregon and Washington.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's more of a northern Rockies part of, of the Elk world. And you get to some of the places in Arizona, New Mexico, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even the, the lower elevation foothill country of eastern Montana.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eastern Colorado or just some of the Foothill Front Range of Colorado, some of Eastern Wyoming, you really don't have that real distinct migration from high elevation to low elevation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I've seen in Nevada, when I've helped on El Concer, when I've had a tag, it's not that the elk are moving, uh, big distances, uh, vertically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then the, the elk that migrate to lower elevations, the ones that just start dispersing and moving, oh, we're gonna move 20 miles out into the pinion juniper rather than over here in the oak brush.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I see that quite a bit. In fact, I think last weekend we were talking about that because we were seeing rubs from, it'd be late August, early September, even in the rut, uh, of mid September. We were seeing rubs down below where we were seeing the bulls last weekend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's almost like the bulls leave these high ridges sometime obviously in August, late August. They go hang out down lower where all the cows are and then once they're done with their business down there, they move back up the hill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or up the mountain and they just tough it out there until hunting season's over. Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if I want to let out my little secret to that is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's one here in Montana that I'm not going to tell anyone where they can find it, but if they're good at Google search, they'll find it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's interesting how they compared the studies back in the older days when it was not nearly the technology of GPS type radio collars, it was more telemetry collars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How different the migration patterns are in terms of when it starts and how quickly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if that's just the fact that the forests have matured and therefore the transition ranges are not nearly as productive as they used to be. So they have to go from summer range to winter range really quick. I don't know what causes it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I know when I'm looking at GPS research callers, uh, I'm gonna pay attention to that. And...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Another, the easy one to find, I will let that out, is Colorado Parks and Wildlife, their website has interactive maps where it will show you winter range and summer range in each unit and it will show you what they call migration corridors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, whether or not those are true migration corridors, uh, like Interstate 144, I don't know, but as a general rule, if they're using


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our summer and winter ranges are. When people hear me talk about transition range, what I'm talking about is the areas that's between the summer range and the winter range. And most of my hunting ends up being, at least in the post rudder late season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this question that came up in this discussion, I'm going to, I'm going to pose it to you because I think it applies as


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How do I say this? The person is a whitetail hunter and has never shot an elk, only been elk hunting a couple of years, and said, where are the bedding areas for these elk?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All archery season, I thought I had the bedding area figured out and I'd go there and wait for them to come back to the bedding area and they'd never show up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Elk are so transient that they don't have a predictable bedding area like a whitetail does.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They just bed wherever they find themselves tired that day. Is that, is that been your experience or is that a good way to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna take a little nap today and they look for maybe the same kind of places that give them the advantage of wind or noise for approaching danger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, shade, whatever, but to say I'm gonna hang a tree stand here in our tree season because I saw some, some elk were bedded here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I'm, I'm, I guess in Montana that we're lucky that we have six weeks of archery and five weeks of rifle. And it seems like I'm such a bad archery hunter that if I'm going to fill an out tag, it usually ends up being in the late season, uh, rifle hunting. So I.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's just because your son is a good hunter, not because of my advice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, one of the things that came up and, uh, I don't know if you encounter this a lot near archery hunts. I certainly encountered it in the rifle hunts that I do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We shot this deer, we pack it off the mountain, and every day we were deer hunting. Me and my camera guy, Tyler Johnerson, we'd already filled our Elktag, so we were just there looking for deer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We, we'd see these hunters and we'd say, you got an outtake? Oh yeah. Well, here's where there's a bowl. Blah, blah, blah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, oh, I, and I don't think these people, I don't know that it was, they're lazy? I think they, most of them were out-of-staters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just don't know if they're familiar with the skills needed to quarter and, and take care of an elk in the field in that manner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I, I don't know how many times I've encountered people and I've shown them elk and they haven't went after them and I often wonder is it


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I'm, I know I'll find an easier one and so that's kind of their, their...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That doesn't override my concern for what happens to the meat, therefore I'm not going to go after it. I don't know what the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where the percentage of respondents would fall across that spectrum, but it, it gets me to the point of, uh, you know, when we had Dirk on podcast number seven,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Having your equipment dialed in and knowing exactly how it works, almost a variation to that is not knowing how to handle whatever situation you find yourself in when you could have that opportunity to kill an elk. In other words,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have the knowledge and information available in your head or on your phone. You and I both do these gutless videos, uh, and they're downloadable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The number of people who said, I've downloaded your gutless video and we were standing right there replaying it on my phone. Yeah, gotta, gotta take this piece off first. And that's how you do it. And, and I tell people, even if you don't live in elk country, practice it on a whitetail at home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when your opportunity comes in the mountains, you don't walk away from it because you're worried, how am I going to take care of that elk? How am I going to keep it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It depends on temperature because here's what happens a lot of times with us is we will be in there and we'll shoot an elk and we'll quarter it, we'll get the hide off, we'll put it in our game bags and let it cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the first trip out will carry all the trim, all the backstrap, the tenderloins, the heart, the pieces that aren't on a bone. So what usually is left to hang overnight and cool or hang the rest of the day and cool is the meat that's on the bone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I find that it cools better if it stays on the bone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does not cool that well. You know, just like a whole hindquarter that's stacked in a game bag. Uh, so I will usually let


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The meat hang for either the rest of the day or even overnight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then when I come back, if it's not that far, I leave the bone in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if it's a four or five mile hike out of there, I'm, I'm bonin' out for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I like to get home, let it cool even longer, and I've just found that it's easier to keep it clean and manageable to the degree possible if I can get it out with bone in, but I'm not hauling all that extra weight of bones.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. So I gotta ask the viewers this question. I see a lot of pictures where people are hauling the whole thing out, the whole quarter out, including right down to the hoof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You see this great big gangly hoof sticking out of the top of their pack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've asked a lot of people, why are folks doing that? Do you know why they do that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I thought maybe I'm doing something wrong or missing something because I've been seeing so many pictures that look like that. I'm like, what, what? I must be out to lunch here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, struggled with it? Nah. I mean, now that I've done enough of them, it's pretty easy, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, one of the things we did last weekend, because we had the llamas with us, with the llamas, you want to get your panniers balanced within a pound of each other. So we carry these handheld scales that go to, I think, 80 pounds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, when Bo shot his elk and, and I think we're gonna do a YouTube video on this. Uh, you know, you hear people say a hind quarter weighs a hundred pounds or a hundred and twenty pounds or whatever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, people will be really interested to see what each hindquarter weighed off this elk. There's a four and a half year old bull. And, uh, I, I,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, definitely a mature elk. Uh, that hind quarter once we got the hide and the lower part of the leg off and it was, it was still bone in. Each of them were 59 pounds. On the hind, what were the fronts? The fronts were, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, and we were six miles in, so to the original Sitka, the question of the week, that far in? I would have been boning if we didn't have llamas. Yup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's awesome. Well, that was a good discussion there. I'm glad you brought that question up because it comes up very often. Uh, we want to wrap it up talking about the great work that the Rocky Mountain Oak Foundation does. And, and I just did a quick Google, Google search of Idaho. Uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Army of Rocky Mountain Oak Foundation and its partners have completed 526 conservation projects in the state of Idaho.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Through 2017, the combined value of those projects, the money RMEF put in through memberships, through fundraising and others, plus what they've leveraged with their partners. The total value is $65.9 million of projects of habitat conservation. And that's just in Idaho.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Was, uh, conserved and enhanced and enhanced might be prescribed burn, weed, uh, removal, uh, thinning, whatever it might be. There's, there's a multitude of things that go into, uh, project habitat project, uh, enhancement, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well Cory, I really appreciate the chance to get together and talk elk hunting again, uh, but I gotta go pack. I gotta get my stuff ready so I can scout for a couple days before the Gerber folks get to town.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And spend five days up in the high country of Montana praying for snow and hoping an elk wants to be a video star.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hope you do that. I hope the kids, uh, fill your freezer plum full of elk meat. And until the next time, folks, thanks for listening. Uh, if you want real answers, call Cory. If you want a line of BS, call me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Welcome to the Elk Talk Podcast with Randy Newberg and Corey Jacobson presented by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The goal is, what little you and I know about elk hunting, we share with people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Elk Talk Podcast is brought to you by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, ensuring the future of elk, other wildlife, their habitat, and our hunting heritage. To become a member, go to rmef.org.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The podcast is also brought to you by Gerber, uh, go to gerbergear.com and learn about the knives, the vital, the big game vital, the gauge premium, all the things that we use when we're out in the woods and not just knives but also some really cool multi tools that they have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Also brought to you by gohunt.com, uh, go to gohunt.com and sign up for the insider.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The insider is changing how hunts and hunting information are found. No doubt about that. Use promo code ALKTOCK and when you do, when you sign up for the insider, you're going to get $50 of store credit. Mad money in their gear shop.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's jump into it. Well Cory, thanks for letting me travel to your snowy


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[Assistant] Beautiful place here and is this considered central Idaho? Yeah, I think.


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[Assistant] At my age I've turned into kind of a fair weather elk hunter. And fair terrain it sounds like. Yeah.


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[Assistant] I mean, don't get me wrong, I would hunt here, but I'm looking at how thick it is. And archery hunting? Yes, I would hunt here. Rifle hunting? I don't know.


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[Assistant] Well, if they do, we're gonna have to go and move the camera. That's right. So that the audience really believes, because those listening, they're not gonna see them anyhow. No, we could tell them all about the Elk that are right outside the window if we wanted. We could make that story up right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've focused on for years and years is getting a tag. As fundamental as it sounds, the absolute thing you need to go Al-Kind is a tag.


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[Assistant] It's not our fault. There you go. That's our disclaimer, folks. It's not because we didn't tell you. Yep.


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[Assistant] One of the things we wanted to do though is to talk about an overall strategy and then in future podcasts backfill that with each date, how it works, why it works that way, some little tips, ideas, thoughts that


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[Assistant] And since Washington is later in the application season.


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[Assistant] You've almost filled your allowed time and budget with what I'll call more appealing states. Totally. And so, yeaah, so that leaves, let's see, we'll cover Arizona and New Mexico.


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[Assistant] I'm, I'm just moving from south to north here. Not, not by any, I guess I could go by deadline. Yeah, by deadline. It's right here. I've got it written down too. So yeah, I've got it right here with the Go Hunt Insider. So it starts with Wyoming.


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[Assistant] January 31st, this year Arizona's deadline is February 12th and then Utah is


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[Assistant] Right, yeaah. Well, we'll talk units and everything so that the audience knows where we're going to be. Right, where we're going to be. Yeaah. Maybe they'll have camps set up for us. I can tell you where we're going to be. It's going to be a general unit, somewhere outside of Bozeman. Wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Museum of the Rocky license plates, that's my wife's rig. Uh, so let's see, yeaah, we got, uh, after Montana is March 15th, then we've got New Mexico on March 20th, Colorado on April 2nd.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People will ask me, why don't you hunt Idaho much? And for me, when we're trying to put together all of our video content, I need


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, we're not going to cover all those in this podcast. We're going to talk about overall strategies and how each of these states, how budgets of time and money, how fallback options, all those


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think in this podcast, the audience probably would be interested to know, cause we're going to talk about generic strategy, but I bet you they're going to want to know.


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[Assistant] What do you do? What do you do? Cory, what do you do? So, I think when we get to that point, the context has to be given that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the home front about putting together this little kitty of money to be mailing back in the day. This was before Al Gore invented the internet. So we, we were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doing mail in applications, write out your check and pray to the good Lord that you did not overlook the application fee. Yep. Because all thrown out.


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[Assistant] I started out, I only had a couple states that I could do, and a couple species.


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[Assistant] And every year I'd save a little bit more money and I'd...


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[Assistant] What's all this money you have earmarked over here? You just don't worry about that, darling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The point of that, of that background is that I suspect it was the same for you. It's not like one day I said I'm gonna do this and all of a sudden I had this huge budget of money and time that I could throw at it. I knew that it was going to be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You've said many times the goal is that people hunt elk.


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[Assistant] Cause I think in one of the podcasts you mentioned that one of the tragedies is that people don't build up, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More rewarding. Yeah. So for me, and even back then, I started out with a short term, a midterm and a long term plan. And what would that be 25 years ago?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I did not expect Colorado to be a long term plan when I started. At the time you could draw, I think Colorado had started their point system in 88 or 89 something. Was it that long ago? Yea. And so I wasn't, I didn't feel like I was that far behind the curve. Well it took.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because of point creep, I thought this was going to be a, okay, every three years, I'm going to be burning through the Colorado system. Nope.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I didn't really. And at the time, Wyoming did not have a non-resident point system. When I started that, I think their point system came in place in 2005, something like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three, four, at the most five points. In your case, you're talking that general tag, you know, sometimes one or two points. Uh, I have this,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now I'm sitting on two points going into this year, uh, depending on what I find out in Wyoming.


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[Assistant] I might just go for one of the early rifle hunts in Colorado. Not because they're fantastic hunts, it's just lower tag numbers and so it's a higher quality experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More of a calendaring thing, so. Yeah, but the other thing that you have is you have teenagers. I don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I started out with Arizona as a long term strategy and is 10 years long term? I think 10 plus I would consider that my long term. So my 10th year in Arizona I drew and I didn't want to draw. I think I may have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've said this on podcasts before, I'm not sure if I've said it on ours, but 2005, the year you're talking about, uh, that was a year Arizona


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[Assistant] But Nevada took my L points at seven points in 2005.


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[Assistant] So Nevada, I find out in May that I've drawn.


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[Assistant] I call my buddy Jerry in Arizona and say hey.


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[Assistant] The quality and depth of information that's at our fingertips today. And Jerry, who's from Williams, Arizona says, well, apply for unit 10 late rifle or early rifle. You'll never draw that as a non-resident. You only have 10 points. So, okay. That's what I did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your long-term might become short-term or mid-term, and your short-term might become mid-term or long-term. Totally, yeaah.


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[Assistant] Tags in Arizona now has the new point guard system. It's almost like insurance for, what is it, five dollars? Yeah, five or ten. Something that if you draw and you can't make a once every five years, you can turn your tag back in and get your points restored.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's an option that is just new in the last two or three years. Uh, Nevada lets you turn your tag in right up I think until the day season


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That far. And then Colorado has this new returned license list, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, her father passed away in October and now her mom is living with us. So I've got some leverage here. I'm getting rid of that landline. But anyhow, I come in and I looked, there's a new message since I'd left the house. I click on it and it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello, this is so-and-so from Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Uh, someone has turned back their archery elk tag and you are next in line. Please call by this day or you will go to the next person. I stopped. I'm like, you're kidding me. What, what? I looked at the calendar. Boy, I got a full calendar this year.


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[Assistant] I don't care, who else is gonna draw elk?


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[Assistant] I guess the whole point of that part of the discussion is to have people thinking about, alright, what's my short term strategy for where I can go hunting every year?


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[Assistant] My midterm ones are a little bit more flexible in what and how I do it. Sometimes,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you do if your budget allows it?


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[Assistant] Pass on buying a point or acquiring a point because you'll regret it someday down the road. There's a thread out on my hunt talk forum right now. What would you do differently?


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[Assistant] If you knew today, or if 20 years ago you knew what you know today. Yeaah.


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[Assistant] They are dynamic rather than static and that's just, you have to go into it knowing that's a possibility.


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[Assistant] If I don't draw one of the permits, refund my license.


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[Assistant] And so you end up paying an application fee in a small, maybe a small transaction. Yeah, you gotta front all the money.


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[Assistant] Back to your point earlier, if you're going to apply in Idaho,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. Earlier we were talking about, before we turned on the camera, how much money we think is reasonable for someone to start out with. Kinda like if you...


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[Assistant] The reason that it's, I think, I would say a thousand is a minimum is, and I'm just gonna walk through the calendar, okay. Apply in Wyoming.


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[Assistant] And then you're going to have to, this year you're going to have to add two and a half percent for a transaction fee. So that's going to just off.


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[Assistant] Plus you're going to want to buy a point, which is the point fee, still 50 bucks. Okay. So right there's $70 of your thousand gone as a fixed cost, whether you get a refund because you didn't drop or not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. So you will know about that in...


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[Assistant] So if you want to play the Arizona game, you don't have to front all the money, but you do have to buy the non-refundable license. Yep. So...


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[Assistant] So, and I'm gonna go on the premise that I didn't draw.


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[Assistant] So alright, I didn't draw Wyoming, I get my money back. I'm gonna use that same money to apply in New Mexico.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I'd probably wait and see what happened in New Mexico. So now I've, I've built points in Arizona, I've built points in Wyoming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm going to go dig, I'm going to shake the couch upside down. Yeah, somehow I'm finding that minimal amount to at least buy a point in Colorado. That leaves out of the picture, uh, Utah and Nevada, um, and Montana and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The reason that I, if I was on a thousand dollar budget that Montana wouldn't be there is the general tag.


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[Assistant] It's over 80, sometimes 90% draw results. So building points in Montana really isn't that helpful as a non-resident.


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[Assistant] Nevada, you're paying, I think it's a $150 upfront license fee. Yep. Plus application fees. Utah, you're paying, I think a $60 license fee. $65 maybe, yeaah. Something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you're paying application fees. So those two states, if you're on a tighter budget of a thousand or two thousand dollars, those are such long-term


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Opportunities and so expensive upfront. They would be.


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[Assistant] A limited budget. So what else does that leave Oregon?


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[Assistant] To just do it for the purpose of building points. I'm.


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[Assistant] Not very price sensitive when it comes to this stuff. At this point in life, you know, when your kids are out of college, your house is paid off, all these other financial obligations are taken care of. And you live to hunt. Yeah. Your price sensitivity gets to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you could add Nevada, you could add Utah, you could, you know.


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[Assistant] They wouldn't get your personal application strategy. Exactly. Even though Brady and Chris and those folks at Girl Hunt have asked me, would you chronicle your application strategy through the year? I'm like, oh no, then people are going to know unit numbers and everything else.


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[Assistant] And Marcus, my camera guy, him and his wife in Montana on General Tag shot two bulls the first weekend. And we're scratching our heads saying,


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[Assistant] Why did we just drive 1300 miles and drag llamas down here into this hot, forbidden country? We should have stayed at home, we probably would have killed some.


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[Assistant] And I think that's your plan for this fall, right? It is my plan for this fall. I'm not leaving Montana to go somewhere else for archery elk season. If Montana is on your list, our archery elk season is the best elk hunting in Montana. Way better than the rifle hunting. You get like 70 some weeks, don't you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But eh, in New Mexico, I have a short, mid and long term strategy within my application because you get three choices. My first choice in New Mexico is, it depends on what my calendar allows for.


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[Assistant] Most years is, uh, swing for the fences. My second choice is, uh, mmm, you know.


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[Assistant] First three. And Arizona looks at your first two choices. Nevada looks at your first, you know, you get five choices in Nevada before they go on to the next one. Those are the only states I think that.


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[Assistant] If I ever lose this flash drive, it'd be as bad as losing my GPS. On here is, I brought this just worried that you might ask me to do this. It's everything, every unit I'm considering for every


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[Assistant] So I apply for some pretty difficult.


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[Assistant] Yes. And yeah, I'll go back to that and say that.


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[Assistant] Draw odds as a general rule are a function of multiple things.


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[Assistant] You take units that have big chunks of public land, easy going. Those are going to be really, really hard to draw. You take ones that have some private public problems or just nasty. Vertical. Yeaah. Those are going to be easier.


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[Assistant] Why am I saying this? This is one of my little unshared secrets prior to now. People will ask me, why did you apply in that?


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[Assistant] They know something. The locals know. Yeaah. Don't just rely, and this is another thing on my list of what can impact.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These research services and application services, they, they serve a purpose. Uhm, you see that?


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[Assistant] I am, uh, and then the first column is all the elk for each state and where we're going to apply for me, for Matthew, for uncle Larry, and then all my guest hunters down here, Bo Beatty, Eddie, Mason, Ryan, uh, Kurt, Jim.


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[Assistant] So, with the, when you, you asked me, you know, Randy, what is your strategy? And the strategy, so here, this spreadsheet has a calendar. Wow. And it's, where are all these opportunities that I have openings? Or what's already locked in? What do I have to be really careful at?


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[Assistant] And this is just for me only. Uhm, Wyoming, and I'm...


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[Assistant] And have the equation that if regular is greater than special, greater draw odds in the random, highlight that one. So I can quickly look and say, whew, but I can do that with my go hunt now also.


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[Assistant] Looking and saying, you know what? Which one of these would be a really fun hunt? I don't care if the odds are 2%. That's what I'm applying for. I know I'm, I'm not going to draw.


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[Assistant] Because I won't have enough points in the preference part of the draw and it would be...


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[Assistant] This unit takes 10 points. I know I'm not going to draw with one, but maybe I'll draw one of the random tags. So, Arizona.


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[Assistant] People ask me, why do you use, why do you spend so much time on Go Hunt? Well that year, Go Hunt had kind of buried in there, this limited opportunity hunt, and we'll get into that in Arizona. Look at that. Oh, that's an early rifle hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's only taken two to three points to be in the non-resident, the guaranteed pool. Yep. Oh, I'll try it. I drew.


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[Assistant] So in Arizona, uh, I've got three points. I've got the loyalty point, I've got the hunter head point, and I've got one point from 2018. So I'm, I'm really in a quandary there because I love the late rifle hunts, but there's a part of me


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went there scouting before the late rifle season opened and the late archery season was open. I saw a lot of bowls that I think were stockable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The elk have dispersed out there and are now competing with public land grazing with cattle and stuff and so there's pressure to keep their numbers low.


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[Assistant] And yeah, we've not shot any big whopper bowls there. Every year though, someone shoots a really nice one. And you never know if that's going to be you.


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[Assistant] I'm on the waiting list in Utah, so I don't have a strategy there, but I have a strategy for my son with his 16 elk points. I think we're going to throw in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For him, with one of those late November hunts. Because I just like late rifle hunts. To me those are...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, I don't have a Utah strategy. I think I said what my Montana strategy is. Uhm, I have three points.


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[Assistant] Much of the really good core elk area in Montana, you can hunt with that General Tag.


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[Assistant] Whoever has their ear down at the coffee shop. I did not know that you could get a PhD in wildlife management strictly by getting elected to your state legislature. Oh absolutely. I had no idea. Absolutely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here we're, we're on another tangent. So, that takes care of Nevada, or Montana, and then... New Mexico you talked about. Yep, New Mexico, I'll do...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a roll of the dice. And boy, when you hit it, it's sweet.


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[Assistant] I'm not going there because I expect to shoot a really big bull. I'm just going there because the weather is usually nicer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's still a little bit of bugling going on and because it's all limited entry draw there aren't that many people in the woods like you see in the second and third rifle seasons. So, uh, Nevada.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I've done that and the insider tells me that the best draw odds are the archery hunts that have Augustates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why? Because they all can't be. I get that. If I'm going to, and that's an expensive tag, it's a $1200 tag.


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[Assistant] So most non-residents look at Nevada and say, if I'm doing that, I want a good tag.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A tag with great dates. So I'm, if I were to luck out and draw in Nevada, it's going to be an archery hunt in August and I'm going to spot and stock them. So.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's several units that are 35 to 40% draw odds for Moose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a very good chance I could end up with a Colorado over the counter attack. I've hunted the third season, third rifle season there many times. Uh, I'm probably going to do that if I don't have any other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I could still have three El Khons even if I don't draw anything. Yep.


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[Assistant] Before, before you get to that, I gotta throw in, I always apply in Kentucky too. It's 10 bucks.


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[Assistant] Destination Elk, you guys, what'd you get through 40 days last year?


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[Assistant] I guess my, my passion for elk in Kentucky.


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[Assistant] And so I, I was, even if I didn't get to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some amazing people work there who are so passionate about elk. And who would ever think that we would have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do, but can we do this at Good Question of the Week before we do that one?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] conservation advocates for the world of elk we need more elk hunters and to have more elk hunters we need


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[Assistant] More successful elk hunters who are willing to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not willing. Because of their success and their enjoyment of being out in the elk woods, they start doing more for elk. To me, that builds a bigger pie rather than each of us trying to, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fight over a smaller piece of the pie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You probably get it. I know I get it. Why are you saying that? Like on this podcast, you know, I talked about it. I threw out a couple little tidbits out there and people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, that's all fine and dandy maybe when I was growing up, Hutton.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every year there are 200,000 adult onset hunters that take online hunter head.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hunter Ed is about firearm safety and a few other things. Nothing about hunting. So we've got 200,000 people who want to be here and support and advocate for wild places and wild things. And we say, oh, we're just, we're not going to teach them anything. Go figure it out. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I get what the person is saying, uhm, and it's a very interesting question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I at times wonder that. But the state agencies, hopefully,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does that mean that there's going to be places where the state maybe does provide more opportunity than some would like? Yea, probably.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do I think that elk are going to change their behaviors and run and hide? Well, there's not a lot of places to run and hide in today's world. Whether I like it or not. I mean, the other answer, or the other, another way to spin that question is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, do you think it's helpful that there's all this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Work out, uh, physical training, train to hunt, you know, mountain tough, all these really cool things that I think are helping people live healthier lives and enjoy their hunts more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The case could be made that that kind of stuff changes how... And I think that's included in that question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was the first hunter who decided to take advantage of technology.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the next guy was the one who said, I'm tired of throwing a spear with a sharp rock on the end. I'm going to tie a string to two ends of this pine bough and let it dry and I'm going to shoot arrows at it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know that sounds like a rationalization and maybe that's what it is, uhm, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that there's no doubt that there are some people who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if you measure the, whatever detriments you feel might be there compared to what the benefits are of having more advocates for wild places and wild things, I think the net benefits are overriding as a positive. That's my long winded answer. That's a great answer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I just wrote down, being a public land elk hunter is a lifetime commitment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is no elk hunting for dummies crash course that is instantly going to take you from no experience to 30 years experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If taking an elk is just a checklist experience for you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reach out to me. I have a list of friends who are outfitters. They'll provide you a great experience and you can check it off the list. Those people are normally one and done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fine, there's nothing, nothing wrong with that. If that's, you know, if someone just says, hey, I want to go experience it one time to see what it's all about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, great. What I'm interested in is creating people who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those are the people who are going to do that. And if we think that as a population of America that us being a shrinking smaller percentage is good for us,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those who came before us did. Think about how


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the America, American depression is still in everyone's mind, everyone's face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People who cared about hunting and conservation said we're going to impose an 11% tax on ourselves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That person didn't do that for themselves. They did that for us who are here today enjoying it. And that's a different thing than sharing information. But there's never been any generation of hunters


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We are in the good old days and it didn't happen by accident.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want to make sure that people have the knowledge to feel successful and confident so that they at least enjoy the experience.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't just give up and say, I'll never do that. And as quick as I say that, someone's saying, yeah, if they aren't that committed, let them give up. Well, that's all fine and dandy. I look at it differently. I want people to have a good time and having a little more background and knowledge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm serious about. And then there's going to be the casual person. And I think about the tips or content that I create. It's, it's content to share some concepts and ideas, but you still got to go out in the woods. You have to apply it. Yea, and apply it. Yep. And mess it up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Were they ruining, or not ruining, but were they having the same consequence that maybe some are concerned about? No, it's, every generation has communication technology advancements.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if hunters, hunters are just, we're like the rest of society. We're going to use those tools that are available to us to communicate and share information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I look at hunting, I build this, what I call the aspirational pyramid. And there's no doubt at the very peak of that itty bitty point of that pyramid are the sheep and moose and goat and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty exotic, even if they're native, they're quite exotic in the idea of ever getting a chance to do it. After that comes elk. And elk is a very aspirational animal, very aspirational.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that we in the hunting community can bring a lot of people together through elk and elk hunting that benefits so many things of public land, public access, conservation of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And getting something done that is tangible for wildlife. And those kind of things, I don't know how you measure the value of that. And I think, I'm not saying that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sharing information results in that directly, but it's helpful to that end and to that cause.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Rocky Mountain Oak Foundation has their own YouTube channel and I would suggest everybody go out there and look at it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Colorado, RMEF has completed 704 conservation and hunting heritage projects, including two. This one is in Mesa County.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Acres by conserved and enhanced, that's, uh, might be weed spraying, it might be controlled burns, it might be, it's improving the habitat.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of what the future of hunting is dependent upon. To see the elk foundation now have at our last board meeting, it said that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh wow. Well Cory, this has been a really good one. I like it when we're able to catch up and do these face to face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh wow. Alright folks, appreciate you hanging in there. We'll have some more goodies for you here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All elk. All the time. Only elk. Only elk. Well, it's us having conversations, so we usually go down some


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you look at it like, oh, that's a target rich environment. But if you're trying to single one out a solo target there is much easier to go into than a big group. We record everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uuuh, I think it's just Corey Jacobson dot Elk101.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sitka gear, right? Yea, Sitka gear. I've been putting them to the test this season for sure, including some of their new gear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm not a, I'm not a huge Marino fan for me. You know, I use a synthetic base layer, but our camera guy was freaking out. He used to wear a different camo and he wanted to match us. And so he ordered some Sitka.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he was super impressed with the apex hoodie and kind of the same thing. He said, I stink so bad after two days. I can't stand to be around myself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he wore that Apex hoodie pretty much every day for eight days. And we did 94 miles on foot in eight days. And he got done and he said, this is impressive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So does that have an Allen head adapter then to fit?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is an Elk101 Signature Series line of calls, but nothing with my name personally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On them. So now we do have, uh, two diaphragm calls that are L101 Signature Series. There's the All-Star Diaphragm and the Contender Diaphragm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's the elk 101 temptress, which is an open reed cow call. And then the elk 101, uh, extreme, bully bull, extreme bugle tube that we use all manufactured by Rocky mountain hunting calls. And, uh, basically we just helped in the design of them, kind of got the calls to our specs and, uh, put our,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Elk 101 brand name on those calls. And we have a new diaphragm that's going to be coming out in spring of 2019 that we've been, uh, kind of putting through the ringers this elk season and having some, some really good success with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They will on any call. Anything they order from Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls, uh, through their website. If they use the promo code ELKTALK, they're gonna save 15% cost.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's really good. Yeah. And if you can't get a feel for how much value there is in that in 30 days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, 30 days is enough time to get lost and make plans for the next two elk seasons. It's incredibly valuable and powerful and I can't even explain how many people have emailed in the last


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just know you can cancel anytime, but during that 30 days you don't get charged and go take advantage of it. Just take a peek in there, see what it's all about. If you don't like it, if it's not for you, you can cancel anytime. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't even, yeaah, this has been the most powerful resource for us this Elk season just because we're going to brand new places and we've never been to some of these places at all physically before and we're able to download the, uh, the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's been, for me, I don't even carry my GPS anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We just use the tracks on that. We track where we've been, uh, for tracking elk. We've had a couple of tough track jobs and we've been able to see exactly where we've gridded, where we've had last blood, be able to, you know, connect the dots of all the blood to see the line the elk's traveling in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, yeaah, just so many powerful resources within the OnX app on, uh, just on our smartphone it's been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's good. I actually have been looking forward to being home and, and having this time because it's, it's taxing. We've hunted, uh, I think 15 days so far with about a four day break in between there. Yeah. And absolutely I'm living the dream. I, I don't deny that, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, uh, it's not all glamorous and it takes its toll on the body and on the mind and it's good to have a couple days of downtime to recharge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. I don't keep track of weight, but I definitely know that I couldn't eat enough calories on our last hunt in Wyoming. And, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm definitely glad to be home eating some home cooked meals for a couple days and recharging nutrient bases that were definitely depleted.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I agree, but I have stepped up my game and researched and found some foods, some backpacking foods and dehydrated meals that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel definitely made a difference this season for us and for me. Really? Yeah. I just, you know, instead of some of those meals that have a lot of fillers and maybe aren't as, as healthy. Um, I found a couple that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That I think have made a difference. I, I felt better, I felt stronger every day. I didn't bonk as quickly. Like I mentioned, we did 94 miles in Wyoming in 8 days of hunting. And that's, you know, tracking on, on X on foot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And by the, by the eighth day, I was, I bonked. That evening, if we would have shot an elk right at dark, uhm, we may have had to find a different way to get it out, because I don't know if physically I'd have been able to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, it's, it's, uh, there's several companies, and I think dehydrated foods, freeze-dried foods have come a long way in the last, uh, couple years especially, and there's a lot of new players in that market that are more conscientious to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Peek, Peek Refuel, they're another company that's making other options that are super delicious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. Yeah, they were good. They've got a couple that were, that were really delicious, uh, off grid food company. They're making healthy, organic, you know, they've got quail and buffalo and other organic meats that they've sourced and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've got some good meals, uh, humble foods is one that hasn't come out yet that I was able to sample some of that and they're all actually gluten free.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, which, you know, I've been doing some gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free and course during hunt season. I, I let that slack a little bit and, and it's been good. I, I'm certainly, you know, I wasn't planning on doing that forever and I,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Introduce some of those again at a very minimal level and... But it's been good to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, green belly makes a meal that's one third of your caloric daily intake in, uh, this super lightweight little bar that I pack that every day in my backpack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, there's some other, uh, big sir bar that was, that was really good. So, you know, honey stinger, just, just a bunch of these different foods that I've been able to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kind of build a, a really solid food list for going on a back country type hunt for eight days and, and they're good. So it's not like I'm having to gag them down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a lot, yeaah. No, and I think it's, it's, you know, dehydrated or freeze-dried food isn't necessarily the issue. It's the, it's the ingredients they're putting into them that... Yep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, or the, or the issue. So just getting that good balance of all the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nutrients and what your body needs and, you know, for me, calories this year were, were incredible. I was eating close to 3000 calories a day and thought I'm doing good. You know, I, I typically have sugary trail mix. I typically have a Snickers bar, you know, some of these things and I cut all that out and had


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dehydrated blueberries, dehydrated cranberries, sliced almonds, some of those things for trail mix and, you know, my, my sweets came from honey stinger waffles, which are, you know, more of a natural sugar from honey rather than a,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And probably snacking on a little granola bar here and there or something to supplement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the last day, at about 4 o'clock, I had gone through all of my food in my pack. And I had packed extra food that day knowing we were going to be going steep and deep.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I turned to Dirk and Donnie and said, Hey, do you guys happen to have extra food? Did you bring anything extra? I'm starting to get a little shaky and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've eaten all my food and fortunately they had extras, but I ate another half of a green belly bar, which is probably 380 calories. And I ate another honey stinger waffle, which I think is 150 calories. Anyway, at the end of the day, I had consumed 4,000 calories and still felt weak.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we were hunting at about 84 to 8,600 feet, topping out at about 8,900 feet every day. So we had major elevation changes. We had major miles and my body needed, needed fuel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally, and I don't like change, so once I find something that works...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I get kind of stuck in that rut, but at the same time I'm always open to improving what I have and finding where that weak link is. And I think, you know, food has been a weak link without maybe acknowledging it in the past. And so it's, it's been good to get that dialed in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, OnX, again, I just, you know, this isn't a cheap solicitation for the OnX app, but it truly is a powerful tool for us out there. And so I think I mentioned, you know, blood trailing and things like that, but just being able to look at it and say, okay, we're six and a half miles in here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We need to start thinking about how we're going to get back out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what do we have between us and the, and the vehicle or the trailhead? Where should we go? Where are the north facing slopes? Where are the elk going to be right now? And to be able to just pull that up on, on X and say, Oh, right over the ridge here, there's a north facing slope that runs all the way down. We can hit this ridge system. We can walk down it, hit the bottom and walk back out to the trailhead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it just truly has replaced a GPS with so much more, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Powerful features that, that absolutely help us on our hunt. So that's been, you know, we're learning more about that. You can change colors of tracks in there so we can actually, you know, each day have a different color track so we can see where we were the day before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, if we drive somewhere and we were on a new road, we can put that in a certain color and we get out and start hiking. We can do that in a different color. So that's been definitely learning more about that and the powerful features.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now we've used, uh, our camera guy had a platypus, uh, whatever the bag is that you, you know, you roll it basically, you fill it with water like that and it's got the filter in the head and then you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's just a normal filter pump that you put in the water and pump and it pumps really fast and, and works good. But I'm actually sitting here on the computer looking at that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, but the takeaway there is you had a D and an E spot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and I think that's the key is there is no reason to stumble around for three days. If you aren't seeing sign and aren't seeing elk, you're not in the right place and they aren't going to just magically appear overnight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, bugles, yes, they might be there and they might not be bugling in the next day or two days later, they might start bugling and fire up. But if you aren't seeing that sign, fresh sign tracks and droppings and rubs, relocate immediately because you're not in the right area. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's good early because the bulls haven't heard it up yet and they're really, they're separated but they're close by so you can hit ridge after ridge and find, you know, a solo bull, a solo bull.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think it was the second day, first or second day, uh, our camera guy,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He started laughing and he's like, that has to be the best line from this season so far. And I said, what? And he said, you just said you're taking inventory of elk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we were kind of doing that. We were hitting the ridge and we're running and bugling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And getting an answer and moving on to another one and kind of doing what you're talking about, leaving elk to find elk. And I told him, you know, it's part of my strategy. I'm, I'm taking inventory to find out where these bulls are. And of course, when we came back, they weren't there, they weren't bugling there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Backfired on us a little bit as well, but I thought it was really cool that we were taking inventory and we're marking down where all these elk were. And like you said, if you get an elk bugling, there's no, no point in doing more scouting that day, go and hunt. And then if you need to scout from there, you can, you can scout the next day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's hard because we had opportunities too to pull up and move to different areas. And it's hard because you get your camp set up, you get comfortable there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you kind of get in that rut of we're going to hunt close to camp instead of branching out. And so we always carry a bivvy pack with us in the truck. So it's just a pack that's got a lightweight tent, lightweight sleeping bag, a stove, some dehydrated meals so that we can.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jump in the truck and not necessarily relocate camp, but we can go and set up a temporary camp 30 miles away and if we find elk then we can make the decision whether to camp uncomfortably or go and pull roots and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we're leaving tomorrow morning to go and participate in the hunt winner hunt that we gave away with Mountain Ops last year. So, uh, Elk101 teamed up with Mountain Ops and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to help promote the University of L. Cunningham online course, we uh, gave away a pretty sweet prize package.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, near the location we're hunting here in Idaho and then spending the next five days with him. And I think it's going to be a pretty cool story because if, uh, if I understand correctly, he's hunted elk nine or 10 times and has yet to kill one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be able to, you know, we're doing the day by day hunting series on YouTube starting in November, and so this will be part of it, but to be able to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Take somebody like that, that maybe doesn't have the, the experience, uhm, especially hunting yugling bulls during the rut and be able to share some of what we love about elk hunting and, and, uh, some of that passion and experience with him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think there's gonna be some, some definite educational components there that will be pretty valuable to those who watch the series when it comes out in November.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the elk just aren't active and you can tell in their bugles and everything. It's, it's too hot. We just, we don't want to get going yet. So I think with the temperature dropping 12 degrees tomorrow, uh, we're at about half moon going into a full moon. So we've got about a week here of, of good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Moon phase and then we've got the fall equinox that hits, I believe Friday of this week on the 21st, which usually triggers the peak rut. So all of those things coming together, I think the next seven days should be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty good from a, from a calling and running action standpoint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gosh, this is the week I would want to be out chasing elk for myself. And, and we lock us into those situations where we're, we're out hunting with someone else. And, uh, you and I have talked in the past that we're not doing any more of that, but yeah, go ahead, share with us what you have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so we're basically, we're filming, uh, what we've always done in the past has been, you know, more film style where it's a 20 or 25 minute film that shows the highlights of the season and some of the action and it usually has a theme. We don't ever.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That ends up being the theme of that film and this year we really wanted to capitalize on


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sharing the educational side of it because we had a lot of, you know, we share these films and people say, well, you know, I learned this, I learned that, but I want to hear a play by play of what you're doing. You know, even if we sit down after the hunt and go through and just do audio voiceover and explain why we did this, why we did that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those aren't, I don't feel there's as much value in those or they aren't as helpful as in the moment talking about it. So that's been our focus this year is having a camera guy. We're miked up. We're wired up with, with microphones.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've got a selfie cam for the caller who's back behind and he's talking to the camera the whole time saying the bull just responded. I'm going to cut him off. I'm raking a tree. I'm doing this and then camera over the shoulder. So the shooter is able to talk and explain what he's seeing and what's going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's going to be day by day, so it's more documentary style, you know, starting August 25th when we hunted opening day in Oregon for Roosevelt elk all the way through the first week of October when we go and hunt with the hunt of a lifetime hunter who's coming out from Pennsylvania.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we're gonna be able to take the viewers into each day of our hunt and see what we're doing in the morning, how we're getting into the areas, how we're locating elk, how we're setting up, how we're trying to call them in. You know, they're gonna see some pretty epic fails and hopefully there'll be a few successes to share along the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but they're gonna, they're gonna get to see it all and it's gonna be pretty raw and unedited and just kinda hopefully feel like they're right there with us hunting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With, uh, with outdoor TV and where it's been forever, it's always been the glorified, you know, kill shot, uhm, the grip and grin, all of that. And I think that with YouTube especially and some of the other platforms where we can share some of this media now,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People want to learn, they want to see behind the scenes, they want to be involved with more than just the pull of the trigger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, you know, hopefully there's some trigger pulling to show success and to actually put some success behind the efforts. But, uh, yeah, it'll be interesting to see, you know, how much attention we captivate. So it's going to end up being.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would guess, uh, in the neighborhood of 24 to 28 days of day by day, each day we'll launch a new day and it'll go start November 12th on the Elk101 YouTube channel and go every day until we're


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Done elk hunting, so. Cool. Yeah, if you're, if you're listening, definitely go and subscribe to the Elk 101 YouTube channel and that way you get the notification as soon as it's up and set your calendar for November 12th. Cause that's when, uh, day one launches.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but from there, you know, and we may throw in some more, uh, of the hunts that we do, but I'll be focusing more on my kids. Um, there's a spike rifle season that opens October 5th through the 14th here in Idaho that they'll be able to go out and hunt, which both of them have already said they aren't too sure if they want to shoot a spike.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just depending on how it goes, we may have another day or two of footage to be able to share from that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, no, that's, you know, and that's, I think, at least in my view, that's your strength is that late season post rut elk hunting. I know I've learned more about that timeframe and how to hunt elk from you than I've ever encountered or experienced on my own. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's hard to say, but it sounds like they had bear spray, they had a firearm, you know, all the precautions that you'd want to have with you and things just happen. I mean, they happen out there and it's, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it doesn't sound like they were actually processing. It sounds like they'd shot one the night before and went back the next day to recover it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just walking into it, two bears attacked him and the bears had it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, which, which is always a concern. You know, grizzlies, if they find an elk, they'll claim it. And obviously once a grizzly claims it, you, you have lost claim to it. But it sounds like they were either tracking or going back in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And these two grizzlies just came out of nowhere and hit them and, and it sounds like the grizzlies hadn't even touched the elk or been to the elk at that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When it happened and, and I think that's the thing, you know, we, we think we're prepared with bear spray on our, on our holster on our hip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if I see a bear at 70 yards and we have a face off and it decides to charge, I'm going to be ready. I'll have, you know, pistol drawn. I'll have whatever it is. But so many times they come out of nowhere and there's no warning. There's no advance warning. It's just, it happens and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think just, you know, having, like you said, keeping a clean camp and keeping food out of camp.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You definitely don't want to dig up to your elbows in a dehydrated food pouch and climb into your sleeping bag in the tent and set the pouch outside the tent, you know, like you might do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somewhere where there's not grizzlies, you definitely take all those precautions. You carry whatever you're comfortable with, whether it's a bear spray or a firearm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so if you do have that encounter, you're, you're prepared. Um, and I know for us when we're hunting grizzly country, our senses are just so much more heightened and we're on so much more alert, especially hiking in, in the dark in the morning or out in the dark at night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, you get in those creek bottoms where there's willows and you're going through and can't see three feet in front of your face. You're thinking more, you're stopping and listening more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think just being, being aware that you're in grizzly country, there could be a, an encounter and, and trying to minimize those encounters and being prepared at all times for them is definitely important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wish we could say that. We, uh, we shot an elk and it was right before dark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it took us till probably 9.30 or 10 o'clock to get it broken down and put in the game bags and we're prepared to haul out a pretty substantial load on the first trip, but there were still two quarters that were left.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so we packed them 200 yards down the ridge, put them along the trail there and set them down in some willows. We broke out of the willows, there was kind of an open hillside and we set them there on a log and we made the trip out and it was about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Probably 1 or 1.30 in the morning we went back in for the second trip.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Second load. And walking in there, we're tired. We've been hunting all day. It's, you know, middle of the night.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we've got our headlamps on, we come around the corner and look up, and the game bags have reflectors on them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh, bear spray was, was in hand. It's just one of those, you know, you're, you're walking up there, it's dark, it's open and all, or it's, it's brushy and all of a sudden you break out into the open and look up with your headlamp and there's two silver reflectors about eye-width apart, looking back at you from where you know the elk meat is, it, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It gets the heart racing a bit, but fortunately that was our only encounter with potential bear on the meat after we had left it and gone back to retrieve it in the dark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I don't know if we want to get too political, but I found it interesting that about the same time as the attack happened last week in Wyoming, the first grizzly bear hunt that had been slated to start in Idaho and Wyoming was blocked by the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There, there are so many grizzlies. It really, it isn't like you're seeing one track every seven days. No. We saw five grizzlies on one hillside at one time in Wyoming when we were hunting there. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Front and center, yep. Yeah, unfortunately the rest of our hunts, uh, this fall are not in grizzly country and we'll be able to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The risk versus reward. It's not like you're carelessly and recklessly going in there saying there's no other hunters. You know, I'm going to take this risk and hope it works out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but it, you know, it's something to consider as you're planning a hunt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it grizzly country and what am I going to do to make sure?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is tough because they go to bed earlier in the morning because they're able to stay out all night. And in the evening they come out of their beds later because the same reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but hunting midday can be really good on a full moon during certain times of the year if it aligns that way because the bulls especially get restless and they don't like to sit in their bed for


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It has the same effect as the full moon. It sends them to bed earlier because it gets hotter sooner in the morning and then it stays hotter later in the evening so they don't come out as much. The problem with it that we found especially in Wyoming was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was no moon it was a dark moon and they weren't talking at night either.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so midday action was, was tough because it's 84 degrees and those bowls, it's harder to get them fired up and out. So it seemed like things just weren't happening. It was hot and dry. Uh, that's the thing. We didn't have any monsoons in Wyoming, so it was.


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[Assistant] So I think, you know, for, I would rather hunt on a full moon than hunt early when it's hot and dry like that, just because you don't have that midday option a lot of times that.


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[Assistant] You'll have on the full moon and those elk are just, they're locked into their beds. So, I mean, really you have to take advantage of knowing where they are, being on them at daylight and hunting as hard as you can for that hour and knowing that the rest of the day is going to be pretty ineffective.


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[Assistant] But yep, that light switch just gets tripped and it is, it's literally overnight and it can be something as simple as cloud cover or temperature drop. Just any of those changes will trigger the L.


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[Assistant] Which is hard when you've got the monsoons and there's water sitting everywhere. It's, they just don't concentrate around water sources near as much.


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[Assistant] They were, sounds like they were a younger elk and they were probably coming in asking the question, are you my mommy? That's probably what it was.


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[Assistant] No, and for us, it was, uh, it was tough that we had to get the elk to bugle. They, you know, we didn't hear hardly any bugles on their own, which usually in Wyoming that week that we're there, it's, uh, they're bugling on their own pretty good.


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[Assistant] And it was Thursday morning, which on the calendar, I guess would have been the 13th and then Friday the 14th that they really, the light switch hit over there for them and they started talking on their own. They were bugling until.


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[Assistant] Opportunities hopefully for some more podcast content. Here we had a, a bit of a situation in Oregon, hunting Roosevelt elk that required some back country emergency first aid and, uh,


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[Assistant] Transporting a person out of the back country. Uh, I'll get hopefully an opportunity here really soon to talk with David Brinker and share that experience and some of the lessons we learned there and, and, uh, so things to do, hopefully to prevent it as well as to be prepared for it. But.


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[Assistant] Definitely some, uh, some good information there that hopefully we're able to connect sooner than later and share that and then, uh,


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[Assistant] Well, I did manage to, uh, to bring a couple of grouse back to camp while we were in Wyoming. And, uh, I'm pretty sure in the video I mentioned that they were, uh, for you and we went ahead and ate them. I didn't save them for you, but we did hunt them and shoot them for you with you in mind. So the elk season hasn't been a complete.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there's so many layers on there that I didn't even realize. In fact, I was reading the last issue of Bugle Magazine that came last month and


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[Assistant] And, uh, it mentioned something about the Onyx layer system. So I opened it up and went in there and found the property they were talking about, which I believe was in Washington in the, in the blues mountains. Um, but yeah, it's pretty cool to open that up and click on that layer and see all the properties that they've been involved in in either


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[Assistant] And so to have 28 acres doesn't seem like that big of an acquisition and doesn't do much for elk hunters. But when that 28 acres is locking up thousands and thousands of acres behind it and they can free up that


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[Assistant] That pinch point, that lock point and be able to open all of those thousands of acres behind it. It's, uh, those are huge wins for, for hunters.


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[Assistant] Awesome. Are we ready for the, uh, Sitka Gear question of the episode? Uh, yeah, I think we are. Do you have it? I do. Yup. Okay. So this comes actually, uh, for anybody who listens, who's listening, be sure and go to the Elk Talk Podcast website, which is ElkTalkPodcast.com.


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[Assistant] If you have thoughts for topics, if you have questions, and this one actually comes from, uh, from that source.


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[Assistant] When we're talking about run and gun, calling elk, which last week in Wyoming is a perfect example, we were covering


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[Assistant] We can broadcast out a bugle and we're throwing one out there trying to get a response. And so that's, that's what run and gun is. We aren't stopping. We aren't still hunting. We aren't getting into sign and slowing down. We're looking for a bugle.


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[Assistant] And the easiest way to cover country is on a ridge. And so in Wyoming, where we're hunting, we're hunting timbered country where it's heavily timbered. You know, there might be some open ridges, some south exposures that are, that are kind of open, but for the most part, we're in the timber even on a ridge. So we aren't worried about being skylined.