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Western Elk Dreams with East Coast Roots – Cody Covey
252 Plays10 days ago
This week on the Tricer Podcast, Drew Miles talks with Cody Covey, a dedicated elk hunter who made the leap from the hardwoods of Vermont to the high country of Colorado. With a background in whitetail and bear hunting, Cody had zero experience chasing Western big game when he made the move 15 years ago—but that didn’t stop him. Through grit, mentorship, and a whole lot of trial and error, he built the skills and mindset needed to consistently notch elk tags year after year. Cody shares what it takes to go from flatlander to seasoned elk hunter, how he made it work on a tight budget, and how he now balances blue-collar life as a construction superintendent with his deep passion for the mountains.
CODY COVEY
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/colocovey/
TRICER USA
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#Tricer #TricerTripods #WesternHunting #ElkHunting #BackcountryHunter #LongRangeHunting #HuntPodcast #PublicLandHunter #HuntingLifestyle #RifleSeason #MountainHunting #HuntTheWest #HuntingCulture #ModernOutfitter #DIYHunter #FieldToTable #HunterConservationist #WesternBigGame
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Tricer podcast, where we talk all things hunting, gear, and the great outdoors. Before we begin, let's start things out right and put God first. Lord Jesus, I thank you for Tricer, and I ask that you can use this podcast as a way to bring joy to all of our listeners.
00:00:17
Speaker
We lay Tricer and this podcast at your feet. Amen. All right. My third podcast of today. i'm excited for this one because I've got a guy on here who kind of did what most people dream about, right? He moved from Vermont to Colorado 15 years ago, learned to elk hunt, figured it out, and now this guy's killing a bull pretty much every year.
00:00:43
Speaker
He's killed the Colorado big nine with the bow except for a sheep. He's an absolute killer. And this is Cody Covey and Cody, I'm excited to have you on. I want to hear about
Cody's Move to Colorado and Early Challenges
00:00:52
Speaker
that transition into Elk Huntington, what it took, what your mistakes you made were and where you're at now.
00:00:59
Speaker
Yeah, no, thanks for having me. So yeah, like you said, i grew up in Vermont, mostly, well, pretty much all whitetail, whitetail and bear. They do. There are some moose tags back there, but I never got into it when I lived, when I lived in new England. But,
00:01:13
Speaker
I came out here in 2011, so be my 15th year I started in February this year. um and I didn't really know anything about Western game, I just wanted to hunt elk, that's kind of why I moved here, that and the skiing.
00:01:28
Speaker
but There were some forums back then. Like, Bowsite was really big in, like, 2010. There's still, like, a Bowsite still around, but I don't get on there anymore much.
00:01:39
Speaker
But there was, like, you know, YouTube, Cameron Haynes and all those guys. i was fortunate. Aaron Snyder lived close to me, was before he blew up to who he is now. So I would see him at the archery range and ask him questions. But um really it was – I was hunting with all whitetail gear, like scent lock camo. I didn't have a, I didn't have like a backpack to pack in. So I ended up, I didn't have any money either, which is another thing. So I ended up, uh, my first year. what How old are you when you move out here? Uh, 22, 22. So just, you moved out here just cause you wanted to hunt elk.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, that night I was going to move here without a job and I ended up getting a job. So it actually worked out pretty good. Nice.
Career Shift and Hunting Lifestyle Integration
00:02:21
Speaker
What do you do for a living? I'm a superintendent for a general contractor.
00:02:25
Speaker
So do what you moved out here and got a construction job, I take it? Yeah, so actually, like, they're all over the country. I work for a big GC.
00:02:34
Speaker
And I interviewed with them out of my college in Vermont, and they had a Denver division. So I was like if you're going to hire me, that's where I'm going to go regardless if I get the job or not. And it actually worked out. I've been with them now for 15 years.
00:02:46
Speaker
Oh, wow. So now you came on like a project engineer, I imagine, at first or something, and then... Yeah, they start as a field engineer is the title, and then you work your way up to super and then different levels of superintendents. So now I run some fair-sized work, I guess.
00:02:59
Speaker
Yeah, large, large... Now this is like a mechanical GC? Like, I mean, just does projects grounded ground to ceiling, just runs a bunch of subs? Yeah, ground up. So we sub everything. We don't do any self-perform here in Denver.
00:03:10
Speaker
um So just managing safety schedule, quality, all the good stuff, you know, lots of trades. like all my friends, now we're all like almost 40. So now all my friends are like in your spot. But when we first came up, they were all, we call them PEs. I hear project engineers, right? They all sorted out. And then now they're, now they're all, you know, superintendents and whatever, whatnot, you know, running these big projects. So yeah, very familiar with the job.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. It's a, it's a good gig, man. If you, you don't like mind long hours and fighting with guys all day, but dude, I, I tell you what, like no offense to you, but dude, the best thing I ever did was get out of construction. don't deal with project managers anymore.
00:03:47
Speaker
Like just like, dude, like i hear like that I was like, I, it was like, no offense to my friends and stuff. Right. But like, you're like, you're just a project manager, but dude, like it's just so hard to deal with some of these projects. and Cause we were, we were doing, you know, large commercials. So we were doing, you know, 15 large projects at a time, you know, and you got, everyone's got egos and just construction in general. And I'm like, man, like the best thing i ever did was get out of construction.
00:04:11
Speaker
i don't, I don't miss it at all. Cause I was doing, I was dealing with just year level guys, right. All the time for all these different projects and just deadlines and, everything's gotten so fast. And we used to build a building in a year. Now we build a building in three months. You know what i mean?
00:04:25
Speaker
And it's just these schedules and the, it's just, and nothing could be on the ground as it's always like just in time deliveries. Now it was just, it's tough, man. It's a, it's a tough gig. It's stressful. It is dude. And you're right. Like budgets have gotten tighter. Schedules gotten tighter. Safety's gotten more stringent. Like everything is harder. You know, you can't cowboy shit anymore. It's a,
00:04:47
Speaker
The industry as a whole, not my favorite, but it does pay. So that's kind of why I stick with it, you know? Yeah. Especially as a at a big firm like Turner, you know what i mean? It's like, you can't go three foot up a ladder without freaking tying off to something, you know what i mean? And it's like, you got enforce it. You're doing like, you got to put a face shield on a drill overhead. I mean, it's like, everything's gotten so hardcore with all the work comps, especially in California.
00:05:08
Speaker
You know, it's just, it's, it's gnarly. No, a hundred percent, man. So that's not what project, this thing's about. I'm just, I'm just kind relating to you right now. I can understand where you're coming from from. I'm coming from
Elk Hunting Strategies and Techniques
00:05:17
Speaker
the same space, right? i actually just left that space after 20 years of being in it.
00:05:21
Speaker
Um, so you come out here, you're a project engineer or field engineer. Um, and you're going learn how to hunt. and I, did the same thing, right? So I got onto, uh, I'm 39 now. I'll be 39 next week.
00:05:34
Speaker
I got onto to a local forum called ah Southern California Hunting, SCH, right? Outdoors. news a It's really small now. i mean, barely anyone's on anymore. The forum's kind of died off, but that's where i grew up kind of bird hunting.
00:05:46
Speaker
and I'd never big aimed on it. And finally in like 2014, I went out with one of foremen from University Mechanical, you know, MCOR, right? Yeah. From MCOR. And, uh, we went pig hunting and like, once I put crosshairs on an animal and pulled the trigger, it was like, I've barely bird hunting since.
00:06:05
Speaker
And, but I had to figure it out. And the way I did that was mostly through YouTube videos, podcasts, because podcasts just came out like Ronella and Randy Newberg, you know, Jay Scott, and then this hunting forum and kind of meeting people and kind of just like putting boots on the ground and just figuring it out.
00:06:19
Speaker
But man, like, you got to figure it out on elk, which is awesome. I had to figure in Diego, which our deer hunting sucks. So, uh, so man, like, yeah, I was talking about like, what does that look like? Cause most guys, they want to go elk hunting. They've never done it before.
00:06:32
Speaker
And, uh, and a lot of them are your boat, right? You're walking on quietly. You're trying to be all, you know, white tailish, you know, you're spraying yourself down with your spray and changing your clothes and you get out of the truck. And then you realize like, you know, when you go elk hunting about a hundred yards in, you smell like a freaking butthole anyways from sweating. And it doesn't matter. It's a total different game.
00:06:51
Speaker
It is, man. And ah there's so much information now. Like there is some really popular forums still. And there's so many guys on YouTube and things like that and Instagram and social media. It's just like everybody's got a different opinion. And it's tough to like navigate your way through Like what's right, what's wrong. um In my opinion, like the more things you mess up, the better you become. Yeah, it's it's good to not mess things up.
00:07:14
Speaker
ah But until you do it, you know, you don't really know what works and what doesn't. So like my first couple of seasons were, tromping around the woods with a bow i would get a leftover cow tag with a gun so as much elk hunting as i could do and it was more like i'd never problem finding elk like that was never an issue for me it just kind of was like well i'm just going to go to tree line and there's going to be some elk there and i'm going to hunt them but it was like getting in range with a bow and not knowing how to call and having to learn that not having somebody behind me calling um You know, so like kind of learning to spot and stalk as well as just not, you don't do that where I'm from.
00:07:51
Speaker
You know, yeah you sit in a tree stand or you sit on a field edge and a deer comes through and you kill it or you don't. And so the growing pains of it, I think are why I'm so successful now is because like, I'm not saying I don't still bowl and jam and mess things up, but it's pretty, it's pretty rare to, for me to make big mistakes anymore.
00:08:15
Speaker
so what were i guess starting out what were i mean were you calling are you still calling a lot in colorado because i know like when i was in colorado last year every time someone would call the elk would go the other way that's pretty much the only way that i hunt them i mean i will i will ambush them up high um early season you know if they're not talking but i pretty much just call elk in um And I just, you know, i I didn't, I hated hunting the timber when I first started because they were so quiet and they still are quiet in lot of these over the counter units, but you know, I was over calling and I didn't really know what I was saying. And I'm not saying I have it a hundred percent figured out, but I, I do pretty well now with calling just enough to either get on elk to locate them or, you know, get in tight and call them in.
00:09:03
Speaker
You call in a lot at night. No, I don't do a ton of the night stuff. Um, I have like road bugled and stuff at night and it is a good tactic just to find out where they are, but I'm usually just bombing into an area and bugling until I find one. And I don't bugle a lot, man. I know some guys will go every 10 minutes, but I cover a lot of ground, um, in between.
00:09:28
Speaker
So you're bugling like couple times an hour maybe, or you? Yeah. Yeah. A couple of times an hour, you know, it's like, Turkey hunting, like I would go every 10, 15 minutes because like, I feel like I can't hear a gobble all that far. A lot of times where I'm from, um, you know, it's thick woods and they don't echo real well, but like Colorado, I kind of feel like, you know, if you're starting soft with cow calls and then moving to a bugle, giving it a little bit of time in one spot and then moving maybe to the next drainage or the next finger Ridge, like, and it may not be, it may be once an hour, maybe three times an hour. It really just depends on the terrain, how it lays out. But, uh,
00:10:05
Speaker
I try not to go in there and and blow the horn too much because elk do get call shy. And if going hunt the same area, it's good not to smarten them up too much. So you're kind of just moving, looking for a bull that wants to play.
00:10:17
Speaker
That's pretty much how I hunt. Yeah. Okay. And are you, so once you do get a bull to call back, are you putting the bugle tube away and it's going straight to cow calf calls or you staying bugle tube calling these things in?
00:10:30
Speaker
I pretty much go to just cow sounds. i like i Yeah, once I get him to fire and if I know where he's at, um I try to cut as much distance as I can before I ever call again. I try to get there silent. I try to get set up where I think I'm close enough he'll come.
00:10:45
Speaker
And then I play it by ear. um If he won't come to the cow call, Then I might try to bugle like on top of him, try to make him mad. um If I'm going to do that, I try to cut even more distance.
00:10:55
Speaker
um But usually i think you can tell in the first five, 10 minutes what that bull wants to do or if he's going to come. And I don't I don't stand there and get in screaming matches and listen to him go 400 yards the other way for an hour or stand out there at 400 yards. And I know he's not going to come like I'll make a move in on him. I'll try to slip in.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah. You're not just calling to call. You don't, you don't, you don't care about hearing elk call back. you You can go to, you can go to a state park and do that if you wanted to, you you want to kill the bulls. hundred percent. So you're going ridge to ridge, calling, calling, um, just, you know, one or two, you know, little, some cow stuff, some bugle moving to next ridge drainage.
00:11:33
Speaker
And you might be just walking past elk, right? But yeah're just look you're you're just looking for the one that wants to play. hundred percent. Now, are you good? So like,
00:11:45
Speaker
I hunt a lot of benches. um yeah i don't think this is out of the norm. Like if I get on a ridge and there's a bunch of benches, I'll, I might go around that entire bench, you know, below tree line and cow call soft because like I've had bulls where you bugle here, you move around the other side.
00:12:03
Speaker
I'm just talking five, 600 yards and you know, there's elk in there. There's so much elk sign and you might cow call and one might fire a hundred yards below you. We killed two bulls last year that same way. Like,
00:12:15
Speaker
They either heard the rocks moving and a bull bugled or a cow called real soft on a bench and there was a bull real close and he came in. So it's, I don't know, there's no there's no one size fits all. You know how it is, elk or
First Bull Kill and Evolving Hunting Style
00:12:28
Speaker
finicky.
00:12:28
Speaker
And it's kind of like if you can just use as many of those tactics in a day, i think you'll get more opportunity. Yeah, the bench thing is money, and that's money for even for deer, but especially elk.
00:12:40
Speaker
So you can actually do it on your OnX. You can like turn the layers off. There's a thing where you could look at your yeah elevation, and you could look at a hill. So if you could find northeast-facing hill that has a flat spot on it,
00:12:52
Speaker
there's probably gonna be elk on it, especially like halfway up two thirds the way up. There's probably be elk on it. It doesn't need to be that big of an area. It could be a 50 by 50 bench, but that, that layering tool on your Onyx, you can actually look at the steepness of the terrain.
00:13:05
Speaker
I can't remember if it's yellow or purple, whatever it is, flatter. Um, it's a money way to find out. And all doing, I had something that Mark Livesey like pounded in my head a couple of years ago. And it's like, Oh wow, that really works. They love benches, especially if I benches in dark timber, they really like that on Northeast facing slope, you know?
00:13:23
Speaker
hundred percent. And it's, it's funny. Like my brother, he's, this is a, it was his third year out hunting alchemy this year. And like, by the end of this, this year, he was like picking on X apart. And he was like, i think I get it now, you know, where we were,
00:13:37
Speaker
where the areas we were going into and I was showing him like, is what I'm looking for, whatever. And then we kept consistently finding bulls there. And he's well, let's go try this. So he was really getting into it, you know, towards the end of the hunt. And he's, he's the luckiest guy. I know he's three for three on bulls with me. So.
00:13:51
Speaker
Jeez, I haven't killed one with my bow yet. I've i've been involved in like probably eight or 10 of them now and just haven't gotten with my bow close last year. This year, i have a tag in Colorado that I'm probably going to turn back because my kid drew the statewide general rifle tag during the rut in Utah.
00:14:09
Speaker
Oh man. It's September 13th through which no one, you can only hunt up until like September 4th with the bow in Utah. And so he's got the statewide tag for any general unit with a rifle. And I'm like, well, I'm probably just going to turn that tag back because I want to see Mary. I don't want to be gone all of September. He's on, it goes from that hunt from like 13th to the 23rd. Then I go to New Mexico from like the 25th to like the eighth time for another tag that he has for deer.
00:14:33
Speaker
So I'm like, I probably turned my car auto tag back. But, um, Yeah, there's
Tips and Lessons from Hunting Experiences
00:14:38
Speaker
definitely a learning curve there, right? And I'm not the best caller. And like last year when I hunted him, I definitely had wait too early. like I told myself I'm not going back unless I go back like on after the 10th because it was like they were just not moving.
00:14:50
Speaker
So what were some of the mistakes you made at first? Were just out there, tromps us through the woods? Or were you just sitting not being aggressive enough? Let's talk about the first couple of years. like What were the mistakes you were making? So... A lot of the mistakes were tromping through the woods, not stopping, not really reading the terrain, just kind of going like searching for wallows, sitting wallows. Like, you know, you read like, oh, wallows below timberline are really good. They get hit, but they're getting hit at night. So like I was, I was just trying to figure it out. I was trying to find pockets of elk and then I was always moving too fast. Like I always wanted to see what was over the next ridge. I'd never slowed down and I blew out a ton of elk, like a ton.
00:15:28
Speaker
I can't even count how many, but, i would I would slow myself down and still hunt. And then the moment I started going fast, I'd blow elk elk. And ah so ah I think really learning to slow down, pick apart the terrain and realize you don't have to get to the next ridge right away. Like if you have a plan for the day, don't put timelines on it, which I was doing. I was like, I need to get here and here and i'm back to camp at dark. um That I was calling to elk. Like if I busted an elk and then I got back on that herd,
00:15:58
Speaker
I was calling to elk too close. Like I'm not saying they could, they could see me, but they could see down through the timber I was in and know there wasn't elk there. And they're not going to come if that happens, unless it's a young dumbbell or a spike usually.
00:16:11
Speaker
Um, I was doing that. And then like when I finally thought I was going to get a crack at a bull my first year, I didn't get aggressive enough. And like I think about that hunt all the time still. And it was a really good bull over the counter.
00:16:24
Speaker
I scouted this area, finally got on this like 320, 325 class bully at a bunch of cows. I had embedded at like 55 or 60 yards. There was too much stuff to shoot.
00:16:35
Speaker
And when he took his when he got up to round his cows up go down the hill, I followed him like halfway until he went silent and I never pushed in on him. And I always wished I did um because I think I could have got a crack at him.
00:16:46
Speaker
um But yeah, like when you when you you got to seize the opportunity, um if you've got elk close like that, you've got to find a way to get narrow into him.
00:16:58
Speaker
and that's what i That's what everyone says is you just got to be more aggressive. you know you know There's times to be not aggressive, but there's times to be aggressive with them. and I don't want to say you can't be too aggressive, but They break their big giant yellow school buses. They break sticks. They're loud. If you've ever been in the woods with elk, you you can hear them way before you could see them. They're, they're making noise. They're, they're cow calling, they're breaking sticks. They're, you the five foot wide antlers going through trees, hitting things like they're just noisy animals. Like the first bull I ever shot, man, I heard them five minutes before I haven't killed them.
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They are rifle. I just haven't killed with the bow yet. i didn't need to get the bow kill. I've only hunt bow hunted them one season. I'm always, always rifle hunting or guiding my kids, you know? Yeah, no, for sure, man. And I'm jealous of that tag with your son because you're going get to see like some premier stuff and yeah it to learn, learn a lot of general, it's the general tag. So it's not like the best units in the state, but like it's during the rut.
00:17:54
Speaker
And so, so we should be able to get it done. I've got some good, good help from some guys in Utah. I'm like, where to go. And I I'm very confident with a rifle that we'll get a a bull killed, you know, very, very confident.
00:18:06
Speaker
Just got to find them. You can find them. You can hear them. We're to kill them. Right. it's one of those the rifle. If you can, if you go home during the rut, you can kill them, you know? Oh yeah, for sure. So you weren't being aggressive enough or you're being, so you're being, so you the first year you're being not aggressive enough and too aggressive.
00:18:21
Speaker
Yeah, so I was being dumb is like basically what it was. is like I was being like aggressive in the sense of like I'd marched through bedding areas, like not even thinking it was a bedding area. just not i was just I just didn't know enough. you know Ignorance is bliss kind of deal. I'm out there happy chasing elk, but you know I didn't know I'm going through bedding areas in the middle of the day.
00:18:39
Speaker
you know i'm trying to I id set camp up. I'd always hike up to a ridge. I would try to set camp as high as I could, but it made it hard to hunt in the morning because the thermals are coming down, so I always had to find a way to loop around elk.
00:18:51
Speaker
And like, I never hunted my way up. Now I do things a lot different. I still backpack hunt, but I try to set up where I think some elk are above me. I can hunt my way up to them and then I can loop in the day and drop down when the thermals change. So like things like that, i just wasn't thinking about it, you know? And I had the idea that elk were going I was going to kill an elk in a meadow.
00:19:10
Speaker
Like I think everybody does. They come out here and they're like, Oh, this meadow beautiful. I just had a conversation with somebody. Keep going. Yeah. So like, sit at the edge of the meadow and this elk's going to come through an hour, 30 minutes for a last light. And you're going to perfect ambush shoot him at 20 yards. That's just not how it works. I mean, yeah, it can work that way, but it's pretty rare.
00:19:29
Speaker
The better it looks to you, like the more Disney it looks to you, the more likely elk are not going to be there. Like elk want to be in like, I was, we were having this joke. We were in Montana hunting bears last week and there's this beautiful meadow. I mean like picturesque mountains behind it, big grassy fields. And I'm like, when I first started hunting, I would be all over this meadow.
00:19:49
Speaker
But then you realize that you want to go to the most unlikely, the last spot that you want to go physically is probably where the elk are going to be. For sure. Especially in over the counter units. Like the, the last spot you want to be in is where they're going to be.
00:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, and it's going to
Backpacking vs. Day Hunting: Pros and Cons
00:20:04
Speaker
be a blow down nasty hole, but there'll be elk in it. Yeah, it'll be elk in it. And that's pretty much where I always find them, right? I mean i could find elk. It's just they're just always in the crappiest spots, you know?
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. So now with this stuff, like when did you kill your first bull? My first bull I shot in 20... Oh, man. 2014, I
00:20:28
Speaker
oh man twenty fourteen i you three Three seasons end into it or something? Yeah, I killed a ah killed a cow my second year with a gun, and then I killed a cow my third year with a bow. So was my fourth year. So it was in 2015. Yeah, because you burnt your tag. Because you could kill either or with with either sex tag.
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah. blew your tag. So your fourth year, you finally got on a bull. Yeah, fourth year I got a bull, and then I've been – Pretty good after that. I've killed one almost every There's been a couple of years in there where it just hasn't happened or like the year I had a sheep and moose tagging in hunt elk. So like, but if I can, any opportunity I can to hunt elk, that's, that's my jam.
00:21:07
Speaker
Are you going outside of Colorado or pretty much only Colorado? I apply, ah man, I apply in four other States. Uh, I just haven't drawn them yet. Which States?
00:21:18
Speaker
Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico. Yeah. They're all freaking hard to say to draw. And that's why. I'm close in Wyoming. I've got enough points now in Wyoming. I can draw a pretty good tag. so I think next year that's what's going to happen.
00:21:30
Speaker
You can get the late season tag down in Arizona. I mean, I got some spots and get you on elk. you want to go hunt down there but on archery, test it out. Yeah. but If you want to some archery stuff, I have some spots you can go do You can draw that with, i think, four or five points. on how How many points do you have? i think i'm so six and I think I'm six in Arizona. I'm 11 in Wyoming.
00:21:50
Speaker
In Nevada, I think I'm five or six as well. Gotcha. Yeah. You're going to a ways off and in Nevada and then New Mexico, you just got to apply. We only have one and a half percent, 2% draw odds, you know, New Mexico will happen.
00:22:03
Speaker
Arizona, you're never going to draw anymore for an early season, right? For a bow hunt, but you could do like a late season and bow hunt or late season rifle hunt. Like my father-in-law, I think he had like six points. He drew a late season rifle hunt this year.
00:22:16
Speaker
And we we should build, he's 76. We're basically going to sit him on this Ridge. i know there's elk to come through there. He should get a shot at a bowl as long he's willing to sit there. It's one of those things like with hunting, you know, like we love like going ridge to ridge, but I swear if you're willing to sit in one spot, you're probably more successful every year than you were than jumping ridge to ridge sometimes. Like, you know, there's elk there, you know what I mean? Like, for sure.
00:22:36
Speaker
Like, it's just, it's just a matter of like, you don't want to do it. Right. Like I know there are some spots, like last year, my kid had a tag. He ended up actually a couple years ago and he ended up actually wounding a bull and The bull was fine. He shot in the low shoulder and we saw the bull the next day. But I swear if we were to saddle one Ridge, we would have killed that bull, you know, a couple times. We just kept trying to get around on this bull the rest week, trying to get him killed and we couldn't get him killed.
00:22:56
Speaker
Hopefully he's still alive this year. So he'll be a giant now. Oh yeah. But ah my father-in-law's got the tag this year, but yeah, there's some late season opportunities you can get down there. So you finally killed one. Now I imagine you weren't too picky at first, right?
00:23:09
Speaker
I wasn't at all. If it was legal, I was going to take a crack at it. But, uh, actually i got kind of spoiled, man. My first bowl, I killed a bow with a three 20 bowl. So really?
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We actually, uh, so a good buddy mine, Jim, he moved to Iowa. Now we deer hunt together still, and he's coming out this year at elk hunt, but, uh, me and him hunted together that season in, uh,
00:23:32
Speaker
over the counter tags. And we ended up killing a bull, I think on a Saturday, his bull, which was a really good one. I think it cracked 300 and then packed it out. And it was a piece like we were, we were deep in and it took us a couple of days to get it out.
00:23:45
Speaker
And then, uh, I had Thursday, the next Thursday through Sunday off, I went in Wednesday night after work and I ended up shooting that bull Thursday morning, uh, with another buddy, Casey, kind of the three of us always hunted together.
00:23:57
Speaker
And so we, we had a good week of hunting there, um, over the counter and, back in the day. Yeah. People should understand. So when you pack a bull out, you had kill bull on Saturday.
00:24:08
Speaker
How many days are you hurting after that? Man, my feet hurt for weeks after that because I had put so many miles on. It was brutal. And it was like, you know, it's funny because where we killed that bull um as a crow flies, like to the nearest road was only a couple of miles. But we had to skirt way, way, way side hill across the mountain and then get we're hunting public up above like private down below. And so we had to get way up around to stay on public and stay legal.
00:24:38
Speaker
And ah it ended up being like six and a half miles each direction. And we had to take a couple trips. It was a good bull. And then we had to get camp out. And I ended up leaving part of my camping because I was coming back Thursday. And so, yeah, I mean, I think like after that week, man, I was pretty whipped for a couple of weeks.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Like I've packed my fair share out now. And it's like your body's never the same. People don't understand like what it's like carrying out 120 pounds on their back, you know? Yeah. And it's just like you said, your feet, you feel like your feet.
00:25:03
Speaker
I did one. It was eight miles, 16 miles round trip. and we had to do camp whole thing and it was like i swear my feet flattened like i just it just like i feel like it just the way it was so it just gets you man and you were and so i always tell people like if you know you're doing this you're doing eight-day hunt with a buddy your buddy kills a bull day three or four your hunt's probably done like you're pretty much you're gonna take a couple days get that bull out and you're gonna be so tired you're not running the ridges the same way you were the first day you know you're gonna be beat up yeah yeah get after it and do your best but uh that's cool so we're back in there killed one now so what changed but did it change because you had somebody else with you calling behind you is that like you're i think that was part of it i think having somebody having a buddy with me to help slow me down jim was a very seasoned elk hunter as well so you know i learned some obviously learned some stuff from him um you know more about behavior i kind of at that point
00:25:57
Speaker
had a gist of what was going on and what we needed to do. But like, you know, Jim would sit in one spot for two, two and a half hours and just listen. He's very patient, more patient than I am.
00:26:08
Speaker
And we ended up killing his bull that way. We were sitting there for two and a half hours and finally a bull fired. And I was able to keep him vocal and he slipped in and put an arrow in him. um And so I think like when that happened and going back in there, realizing like you don't need to rush everything. There's a time to jam. There's a time to not. Like, I think that kind of opened my eyes a bit too.
00:26:30
Speaker
Gotcha. Now, are you... you You kind of alluded to like having someone calling behind you. Are you solo hunting still a lot are you mostly with a partner now doing the double calling?
00:26:43
Speaker
Well, it's funny. I mostly hunt with with buddies now, but I never kill a bull with buddies. They always got to come help rescue me. I kill them all solo. Really? Yeah, the last like four, I think I've killed solo.
00:26:54
Speaker
um So yeah, like I do a lot of calling for buddies when we hunt together. like last year, three or three different buddies had tagged. Well, four, actually. Mike, two. i was with him when he killed his, and then...
00:27:07
Speaker
filled two more tags, but I was behind those guys calling. Um, and like the day I killed my bull last year, I was sitting water, um, which I never do. i always wanted to kill a bull over water. We kind of ah killed Mike's bull that morning.
00:27:20
Speaker
Those guys had to get to the airport. I hiked into this area. We'd found water and it was just kind of a perfect scenario. Wind was good. I sat it and ended up shooting a bull, um, with my bow, but solo on that one. Um,
00:27:31
Speaker
but I prefer to have somebody with me that was calling behind me, but it just, it doesn't seem to line out that way. Like I tend to kill most my elk between like the sixth and the, the sixth and the 15th or the sixth and the 18th. All my bulls have been killed sometime around the seventh to the 18th.
00:27:48
Speaker
Um, and I think three of them are on the seventh, the exact day, you know? So it's like, everybody's kind of saving their vacation for the end of the season when things get fired up. But like, Those early bulls that don't have cows yet, that are fired up, that are searching for cows, like those are prime for the pick-in if you can find one early in the season like that solo.
00:28:09
Speaker
Yeah, i so I went over the last year and I hunted, I it was like the first through the eighth and it was brutal. It was hot um and they just weren't talking at all.
00:28:20
Speaker
um I got close. I ended up getting like 50 yards from a bull and then thermals shifted on me. I didn't get a chance to shoot at him. um I did have a buddy miss one over a wallow, but I have the same tag this year.
00:28:33
Speaker
used my second choice. I didn't get my first choice. And I'm probably going to turn it back, but I'm contemplating. I told myself I'm not going back until unlesss I go back like 7th or 8th. I'm not going back to the first part of the month. And now I'm like, well, I have this tag from the 13th in Utah.
00:28:46
Speaker
I'm like, man, maybe i keep this tag, drive over to Colorado on like the 30th, backpack in, just go sit a wallow and sit there for the first five days and then come home. Like I can only help like the first five days. I'm not going can't be over there until the 10th and come home. You know what I mean? And then go back over on the So like, i mean, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, should I turn the tag back or?
00:29:06
Speaker
Man, I got a hard time turning tags in, but ah I wouldn't personally. I hunt a lot. I hunt a lot. There's no but lack of tags. Yeah, if that's the case and you're you know you're pinched for time, like it might be better off to turn in and hunt it next year. But I think your idea of if you're going to hunt early, it's especially if it's hot, finding some water or wallow or getting above tree line and trying to trying to cut them off when they're headed back to bed, that's probably what I would do.
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean i know I know of like a couple of really good wallows in this area. We hunted a burn last year and it was, we ended finding a really good spot. we were seeing elk every single day. ah Some really good ones.
00:29:44
Speaker
um all The only thing with cows were raghorns. And those are the ones are really coming into the wallows, honestly, during light. They're kind of come in. And it was like, you need to be sitting there like the last 10 minutes to get bull because they only come in the last few minutes of the day.
00:29:57
Speaker
But, uh, I'd probably be solo. It's about a three mile hike down to get to the spot down and then I'm like, man, it's going be hot. You myself, I'm trying to talk myself out of it. I'm like, man, but I don't know. I think I might just go do it and drive over there and just pack in and set 10 up down there and just stay down there and hunt this wallow for, even if it's three days, five days, whatever, sit down there myself for a week and try and get it killed, get it done.
00:30:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think it'd be some it'd be some fun. You know, those it's ah the anticipation of elk season. When you get out there those first couple days, like I go on the opener every year and I know the elk hunt is not going to be good.
00:30:33
Speaker
But I'm like, man, it's been a long off season. Like I got to get in the woods and you never know what happens, man. You might find the bowl opening day comes, hits the water and you kill it I know. that's what I wish you were going to say the opposite. wish you were saying, turn it back. now you're just making me reassuring.
00:30:48
Speaker
like i got like the angel on one side saying, like be a good husband. Then like you on the other side being like, dude, there could be a 400-inch bullock is walking in in this unit here. You never know. going turn away from it. Turn it back.
00:31:00
Speaker
so um I might just go over there and hunt Even if it's three days, five days, whatever, hike in there and do it. It's a drive. i mean From San Diego to where I'm going, it's like an 18-hour drive to over there too. so It's no...
00:31:11
Speaker
you know It's like almost a two-day, typically I'll do like 12 hours, crash out in the camper, and then drive the trailer. I don't have a trailer. I just have ah you know the topper camper now, the pop-up camper. It's kind of like a go-fast, different brand-known, sleeping that thing. I don't know. I'll probably just do it. i mean, why not? What's the worst that can happen? I kill a bull?
00:31:29
Speaker
stuck Yeah, right. stuck out there packing a bull. I'll be calling. ah Mike doesn't live far. I'll be calling you guys up. I'm like, hey, man, I did something. We'll come out, man. Give us a hauler. I'll give you guys a holler and do it.
00:31:40
Speaker
So now like you're saying, cause it doesn't seem like you're really so like I had like Brian Barney on and, um, and you know, they're very selective, like trying
Gear and Equipment Preferences
00:31:50
Speaker
to find a giant and then they're not calling a lot. They're kind of tracking these things and Corey Jacobs in same way.
00:31:56
Speaker
Um, are you, Are you real selective still? are you, are you passing bowls? Cause it seems like you're kind of blind calling, right? You're not really like out there, like looking for a giant, you're doing a lot over the counter stuff. So I imagine, you know, I mean, are you shooting a five by five bowl this sweet year or no?
00:32:15
Speaker
I taper my expectations, man. I'm, I'm like, If I've got a good tag and the elk hunting really good, I might pass some bulls, but like an over-the-counter tag in the state, like I'm not too proud to shoot a raghorn. You know, I just, perfect I think that bull is as hard earned as a big six point bull is. And if he comes in and he gives you a good opportunity, I think you're crazy not to kill him.
00:32:36
Speaker
That's kind of my take on it too, is like, man, like my kid's rifle tag, we can be selective. But if it's a bow tag and a general unit, it's there's ah it's freaking tough, man. Like I watched bulls last year, like really a really good seven-by-a bull in this unit we were in.
00:32:52
Speaker
And I watched a guy call at it, and that bull looked down, turned and walked the other way. I mean, like getting opportunity, it's just, it's tough to get an opportunity in some of these bulls. And they're very skittish. They're very, they're they're call shy. They're overhunted.
00:33:03
Speaker
And they're not, a it's not for the faint of heart. That's for sure. The over-the-counter elk hunting, the reason why over-the-counter, you know. Yeah. And I think like, man, well, I've talked about this a ton with my buddies over the years, but like if you're hunting an over the counter unit and it's heavily pressured in the state of Colorado, you might get one opportunity the entire season, no matter how hard you hunt and how good you are. Like, it's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes and you got to make good on the opportunity.
00:33:30
Speaker
Um, You know, the more, the better you get elk hunting, you might expand that to two, three, four, five opportunities in a season. So you can be fussy or selective. I just, I choose not to be, I'm out there not trying to kill any records. You know, I'm trying to get elk meat and I'm trying to enjoy and love what I do. And like, if it were to take away from my hunt, not, you know, not killing that bull. And I wished I would have like, to me, it's not worth it. Like you're out there for a reason, like get it done.
00:33:59
Speaker
What does, now you're being, you're pretty successful now. Let's talk about what your setup looks like. Are you spike camping mostly or are you going back to the truck? I'm mostly going back to the truck now, these last few years.
00:34:12
Speaker
I only, I strictly backpack hunted for like the first, call it 10 years of being in Colorado. And I still think it's super effective, but I'm finding if I just get a good night's sleep and sleep in like, I've got a pop I got a truck tent as well. And we, we actually built out a enclosed trailer.
00:34:30
Speaker
And so we've got some battery power, some lights we can cook there. if I can get a good night's sleep and go hard the next day, like to me, it's no big deal to go a couple extra miles, you know? And like, if I'm in a good area and I can hunt to where I want to be in the morning, knowing that I'm going hit some elk on the way, like it's, it's just worked out really good for me. And I think like,
00:34:51
Speaker
I think that a lot of guys think you got a backpack, you got a spike camp, you got hunt with your camp on your back. You don't like there's pockets of elk that live 400 yards off of forest service roads that guys aren't harassing.
00:35:04
Speaker
And you might find an elk in there that wants to play. I find a lot of animals are in that like mid range. Now the mid country versus the deep country. Yeah. um And they're getting walked past. Now there's a lot of guys backpacking. Now a lot of guys backpack hunting,
00:35:18
Speaker
And one of my issues with backpack hunting, because I do it, I do it every year, is I pigeonhole myself. Yes. Right? So now you've brought in 60 pounds. You've hiked in six miles. You're tired because you went six miles.
00:35:32
Speaker
Now you're back there. You're kind of stuck back there for a few days and you're back out. You're going to lose a day. Well, when you do the roads... you can hike in for the day, come out, I can, for the day, come out.
00:35:43
Speaker
And like you said, maintain, you know, some sense of good sleep, sleeping in your truck and get just as much done. Yeah. And like me and Mike did it last year. Like area was cold. We wanted to check a new area. was early season. We drove like 130 mile round trip to go check an area.
00:36:00
Speaker
Went out there, hunted it for a half a day, check for sign, wanted to see if there's any elk in there, glass that evening, drove back and ended up in a different area than I before. Like, Being mobile, um I think, is where it's at.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah. So that's where, like, on this hunt, if I were to go over there do it, I probably wouldn't be mobile because I know where I want to hunt. Yeah. And you it's a it's a good trek in. I mean, it's three miles down to get in there. and it's And coming out would suck every single day. It's just not conducive to coming in and out every day.
00:36:30
Speaker
But um there's a lot of areas where you can do it do it by day and and still get any. If you're doing the calling at night, you can find some elk and go get them killed. Yeah, 100%. You're right. And like it makes sense in like different scenarios. like If you've got to drop 2,000 feet of elevation every day or climb back out of it, get to a spot, like you're going to be smoked after a couple days. you're not going to want to do that for a week straight.
00:36:51
Speaker
ah yeah I'm not Cam Haines, dude. I'm in pretty good shape and I still get smoked doing these hills. Especially September because kind of like not there. ah Get me in October, i might be a little better shape after I've done 15, 20 days in the field in September. but Those first those few first few days of that backpack on September, man, it's just ah there's nothing like it. You can try and train for all you want, but it there's nothing like it.
00:37:14
Speaker
just getting you know Getting all those stabilizer muscles and all that stuff going, it just ah it takes you a week or two to get and get into shape. and Absolutely. Yeah. I find every year it's like, you got knock the dust off, even if you're training.
00:37:26
Speaker
Oh, you even if you're training, dude, there's no training. i just got out of the gym right now and there's, you can rock. I mean, rocking is the best training for it, but mean there's no training for elk hunting or for any hunting. It's just the best thing to do is put a freaking pack on and go in the hills and do it, you know?
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, day after day after day and then in the heat, you know, off trail, there's no trails. Yeah. Right. So if you're training on trails, it's not the same as freaking going up. I was just in yeah in Montana and I feel like you're almost crawling up some of these hills. I mean, it was like doing a box step up for, you know, 2000 foot of elevation multiple times a day, you know, just like brutal, brutal. The trekking poles are all the way down to lowest positions. You can climb these freaking hills, you know.
00:38:03
Speaker
yeah you know there's just no training for that it's it's this gnarly so people love gear so what is your what does your kit look like now to go elk hunting and what we could talk bow set up we do but we can do bow first what's your bow what are you looking for about what are you doing so i've always shot a bow tech i have for if i don't forever 15 years i guess since i moved here um and i actually just got a a ah Matthews lift X, uh, given to me for writing an article for Eastman's. They sent me a bow and I'm kind of obsessed with it. So I might actually do it. shot a bow tag forever. I have an SS 34. It's brand new.
00:38:39
Speaker
I'm left-handed. You left-handed? right-handed i'm left-handed and hoyt gave me a an rx8 and i'll i can't go back it's just dude it's just so good those those those matthews list and those rx bows are just upping the level of archery right now they are man they're sweet so i'm probably gonna hunt with that this year and as far as like setup i run an option canyon pounder site i like a five pin mover um i like being i have a two-site tape i shoot lot of 3d I can flip that open, shoot it single pin. Um, I hunt with it, five pins, a bottom pin floater. And then you run in a, so like five pin, like 20 to 60, 20 to 60. And I'm a weirdo. I run all green pins. I run point.
00:39:25
Speaker
0.010 is all green um yeah i'm a three pin guy i used to have five i went to a three pin but different colors and i almost always use my top pin for most of my sliding uh until i get unless i get past like 80 yards i just don't make the mistake of pulling the wrong pin and my top pin is green uh 70 i'm running a 70 pound bow what are you running 70 pounds.
00:39:48
Speaker
Yeah. Seems like a 70 pound bow standard. You know, I I've shot some 80 pounders, not my jam. I shoot too much. I think, well, not too much. I shoot a lot and I prefer to pull 70 over 80. If I'm going to shoot 7,000 arrows a year, you know, um, I run a front stab, I run a back bar, usually just be stinger. Um, I always, I run a ham ski rest. I ran the rest forever. I think they're bomb proof.
00:40:10
Speaker
Um, and then, uh, typically, uh, I always ran a tight spot quiver. I run their two piece now. So I leave that baby bolted on from like August to the Matthews two piece or the tight spot, the tight spot.
00:40:23
Speaker
Yeah. That's the thing with Hoyt. You kind of just run Hoyt stuff. There's a need for it. Right. So it's kind of like you almost get, you almost get stuck into the Hoyt stuff. It just fits so good. So are you running micro diameter arrows? What are you running?
00:40:34
Speaker
Yeah. i shoot a, I shoot a black Eagle X impact. And I shoot a two 50 spine, but I have two 25. Five mil. they're a I think they're a 4 mil is those X-Impacts.
00:40:48
Speaker
I can't remember. Oh, you're 220. You're 250. I'm shooting Axis 300. So you're shooting like a 550-grain arrow. 517. Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm shooting like 457, 460, something like that.
00:41:01
Speaker
And, yeah, I'm running 4 mil 175 up front, just basically the insert and then the 125-grain broadhead. So you're running 517, huh? So you're getting some weights. youre what You're running that thing with like 280?
00:41:14
Speaker
Not even dude. My bows are slower than dog shit. Like my, uh, yeah. am i both Even that Matthews. No, the Matthews is good. Matthews is a two 72 with that setup. Yeah. I know i like 28 and a half inch draw too. So I don't have a super long draw. I'm 29 and a half. My, my Hoyt was like 20 feet per second faster than my Bowtech.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah. Bowtech's a Cadillac. That SS 34 was a Cadillac, but it was heavy and it was big and going to a 30 inch. What is your new Matthews? It's a 30, it's a 30 inch. I got the 33, which I shoot a longer bow better. Yeah. Okay. Do you see, I had the 34 now that I went to a 30, I never want to go back. Like just for hunting. It just like, it's so small. I'm like, it's just more mobile and just, but man, you shoot that 34 and it's like a cat. You can hold thing back all day long, smooth draw, no back. Well, that back was pretty aggressive on that. Matthews. I shot a couple of those and I was like, Oh man,
00:42:03
Speaker
you're not careful you're releasing um yeah dad actually i changed the mods on it man because i went to i came with 80 letoffs i went to 85 and it helped the valley a little bit and that that giant it's got a really short valley on it is the only thing like you know you've shot botex you know they've got a really good valley super stiff back wall and it's like you said like i think on comfort that ss34 probably like 92 let off i mean you can hold it all day Yeah, I know. i The first time I shot my buddy's Matthews, I let a couple of arrows go on accident because he was like, he came back. sort of I was like, what the hell? I didn't even, you know, I just did the back. Well, because the SS34 is like, it just sits there. It took me minute to get used that Matthews. Like that wall was just so aggressive.
00:42:45
Speaker
And I don't know what his was at. It could have been like a, you know. 75 or something you you know real heavy back wall but um yeah it's it's pretty neat so you're running 525 grain arrow 517 grain arrow heavy slower which is fine because you're not shooting these things super far what are you running for a broadhead mechanical or fixed fixed i was a huge mechanical guy until like i don't know four or five years ago i switched to iron wheels i never looked back i just think they're I just think they're their premier head. I really do. They're sharp. You can get them razor sharp, resharpen them. They're tough.
00:43:21
Speaker
And you know you hit an animal with one of those in the right spot, has no idea what just happened. Whereas like, I love expandable still, don't get me wrong, but like you hit a, especially if you're shooting white tails, you hit a white tail in expandable and they go longer ways than shooting them with something super sharp, cut on contact.
00:43:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I've been, um I've gone back, I have like this Q80 Exodus. I like those. It was like a fixed three blade, but it's over shaft three blade. I like those. I killed stuff with all, I mean, was funny. I was in Hawaii this year. I killed like six animals with like six different broadheads. It was fun.
00:43:53
Speaker
but that's good Yeah, it's good to test. Yeah, I was just shooting goats. Like I literally shot three of them in like an hour with three different broadheads. But I like those Q80s a lot for a fix. I mean, I feel like they fly kind of like a field point.
00:44:04
Speaker
um I've actually really enjoyed shooting the beast, but I don't like how they pop open. One thing, like if you're not careful with them, they'll freaking spring open on you and they scare the hell out of me. yeah If you touch your quiver wrong, like you know but they're sharp.
00:44:16
Speaker
And then I've run, obviously, the Severs. Everyone's kind of gone gone to those Severs lately, and those have been really good. They killed everything I've shot at. I even shot some of those Stinger fixed blades. know talking about? The long ones with the four-blade on there, like little saw blade on there.
00:44:28
Speaker
And those things are pretty brutal, too. I'm almost shooting goats at them, right? But ah yeah those but those um the beast broadheads, man, like the blood is just unreal. The blood's pretty unreal. Like I shot a pig with one Hawaii in August and it was like, it looked like a murder scene.
00:44:44
Speaker
Yeah. The concept seems cool and it seems like it'd be a great head. I know a lot of guys are having good luck in the pivot and the, I guess the spring action on a blade getting by ribs and going through scapulas and stuff. I just, I haven't shot, I haven't tested them personally.
00:44:57
Speaker
Yeah. My only issue with them, like I said, is like, if you go to put me in your quiver and you touch your quiver wrong, it but pops open, you know? And like, I, you know, I just, I don't know. They're a bitch. It's, I love technology. I love somebody like trying like Joshua, what he did there is no one's done that before. I mean, everyone's kind of doing like done the mechanical thing over and over and again. You know, you can only so much.
00:45:15
Speaker
I love the technology. And I've shot multiple animals with one broadhead because I'm in Hawaii, you know, just shoot another girl. Who cares? But the only thing I like is a spring open. That's where I kind of like lean towards the severs. Like if I'm elk hunting is those ones, you know.
00:45:29
Speaker
But again, I haven't killed a my bow. I've killed a lot of animals with bow, but not an elk yet. I've shot a few elk with severs. They're a great head. Yeah. I actually, yeah, I've killed a couple with their 2.0s too, the bigger head. I know a lot of guys shoot the 175s. I shoot the one, I think the one five is what I have for mine.
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so they're they're a great head. and Yeah, they do what they're supposed to do. they Like all expandables, the ship bends on them. That's the only problem is you got to replace the parts a lot. but hopefully he'll Hopefully it worked and did its job, so who cares at that point? That's right, one and done.
00:46:00
Speaker
Who cares, one and done is all you need to do is go through that thing and kill it. So that's cool. So you got your bow set up there. Now, what are we looking like for a day hunt? Are you running like a – do you keep keep sleeping back just in case you need a spike camp, are you just like you know you're going back to the truck?
00:46:16
Speaker
No, I know I'm going back to the truck. If I got to, if I got to stay out and sleep on a critter or something, um, we'll just make it work. But, uh, rain gear, food, water purifier, kill kit.
00:46:27
Speaker
What's your water purifier? you running a, uh, are you running a SteriPen? Yeah, mostly. I mostly run a Nalgene SteriPen. Um, I always pack a pump if I have uh, um, bag with me.
00:46:41
Speaker
Um, it's kind of just like a habit. I don't mind the extra couple ounces to have a SteriPen. And a bag. I kind of like, I enjoy like drinking elements or like those kinds of like drinks in my Nalgene.
00:46:52
Speaker
And if I just need a straight shot of water when I'm hiking, I'll have a pack on the back. Dude, have you tried a hard side hydration? No, is it good? Dude, hard side is the, they turn your Nalgene into a bladder.
00:47:05
Speaker
I'll never go back. you Dude, it's like 30 bucks. So it's like my favorite piece of gear I got last year and I ran it. I mean, I've been running it now for two seasons. It's like ah you can use 48 ounce or 32. I run the 48 ounce on my side of my pack. I run like the initial ascent pack.
00:47:20
Speaker
Shrap that sucker in there and now you get the best of both worlds. And I carry one extra now, Jinx. I don't like to mix in my in my water straight water. don't like to mix drinks. I carry an extra 32 just so I can do like, you know, I like doing those Celsius packs or like the hydrate from Mountain Ops or whatever you got, you know.
00:47:36
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, dude, you got to get a hard side hydration. They're bitching. I'll check that out. And you don't think you get the best of both worlds and you don't have to deal with having the bladder in your bag. just keep the, but the now on the side of my pack. I'll keep an empty one in my backpack.
00:47:50
Speaker
So if I get somewhere I can fill it up and do it. And I'm just now, like I'm going to buy a SteriPen. just used a SteriPen for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Cause I've been a really big, I love the, um,
00:48:02
Speaker
I have pills in my pack, no matter what. That's like my secondary, no matter what case something goes wrong. I used to use like the hand pump, like MSR and that thing's just total bitch, but I love the gravity filters. It's like the MSR gravity filters. I have like three, cause it's so much backpacking. I have like two, six liter drama lights and a four liter and I'll just fill up 16 liters of water and then be done for a couple of days at camp. You know what i mean?
00:48:23
Speaker
And you just, you know, middle of the day, it's freaking hot as balls anyway. So you go sit sit down next to a creek for an hour and do the water. It's nice. Yeah. So love that. I do the dromedaries as well. I just, i usually run just, I just put aqua tabs in them or drops. Cause I'm like too lazy to pump.
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah. So that's the thing that was like with the filters, like you don't get like, you have to get over, like if you're terrapin, you just need to be willing to drink
Safety and Non-Kill Stories
00:48:46
Speaker
gross stuff. Like it's just like, you're you're to see it. Like there's, you're going to drink dirt. Like you're going to drink bugs, bugs and stuff. Like you're going to get some critters in there. You got to drink. Like we did a, we only had our sterripins and, um,
00:48:59
Speaker
We were a river, but everything was flowing so heavy Montana a couple weeks ago, so we were drinking milk chocolate. It was chocolate milk, right? it was good. it was wet. It worked. It wasn't a wallow. i mean, I've drank worse enough. I've drank and of like, cow troughs that just taste like total piss because it's like – I hear San Diego, it's so hard to find water anywhere, you know? So, you know, sometimes – lot of times what we do is actually backpack water in here. i don't know if it's legal or not. We'll leave gallons of water out in the hills just so we can get there and have water when we get there, you know?
00:49:24
Speaker
So ah that's cool. What are you doing for a backpack, Kefaro? Yeah. Yeah, for Kaffari forever, but now I'm running the Stone Glacier. Now you're running the Stone, huh? Yeah, first year. So I got a couple of their packs. I'm had to do Alaska in August for Caribou. I'm going to run it up there and then all elk season and see how it lines out. I've heard really good things about initial scent. I thought about buying one of theirs. It's incredible, dude.
00:49:47
Speaker
Yeah, so they might be the next the next one I test, but we'll see. That initial scent, dude, is very, very hard to beat. It's the most comfortable pack I've ever worn. It feels like it's a part of my body.
00:49:58
Speaker
Yeah. And I run, I run a lot of them. um ah Pretty much all of them, you know, but I do love the initial set. And it could just be like, you know, it's like boots, you know, you find one that works for you. And I'm like, man, I don't know. I see myself going away from this pack for a long time.
00:50:11
Speaker
I love that pack. Awesome owners as well, but just, I really love that pack. I've never actually wore a Kefaru, but I know they have a great, great frame as well. I've, you know, I've, where my fire and all is a little bit here and there, but man, that initial ascent, it's incredible. I was running a XO for probably eight years.
00:50:29
Speaker
And I switched over the initial ascent and it's just, man, I can't get it off me. I love it. Yeah, no, it's good, man. and And I've heard that about him. Kafaru makes a, I mean, they make a great pack. Their frames are awesome and you can carry a pile of weight in them. It's just time for something new.
00:50:44
Speaker
Time for something new. Read between the lines on that one. oh Um, so running, running that pack. What else you got in there for that day trip? You got a bugle tube.
00:50:56
Speaker
Bugle tube, reeds, I keep those in my bino, my bino harness. Um, yeah, bugle tube, um, food, I think I probably already said that, kill kit, rain gear, pack cover if I know it's going to be real wet.
00:51:10
Speaker
Um, I always keep a first aid kit and a tourniquet with me, just a small one. It's a small pullout. Um, and that's pretty much it, man. I try to go as light as I can. I still carry too much stuff, but it's rather better to have it than you In case you need it.
00:51:25
Speaker
i is I won't go through my first aid kit with you. I just did this yesterday on a podcast. My first aid kit like tripled in size last year after going to some classes and just realizing like, holy crap, man. If one of my kids gets hurt, I don't have, i all I have is a bag of Band-Aids on me. I'm going to really feel like a piece of crap.
00:51:40
Speaker
so I've got i've got like a sling in there now. I've got tourniquet. I've got like some, you know what is really bitching, dude, that I love, I will mention again on this pod, is I bought these things that zip ties, like butterfly zip ties. and You put them on and you zip tie them and it'll close your wound up.
00:51:54
Speaker
I saw that. they looked They look good. They look Because, like, you ever try to use a butterfly on a cut and just things just work thick? Yeah, terrible, dude. They're pain the ass. So, like, dude, those zip ties, you're – I mean, I'm a sheet metal worker, right, before this. I mean, I've done some gnarly cuts. I've got some guys yeah really flayed open on some stainless steel, and and I'll get in there and do it.
00:52:11
Speaker
But, man, those zip tie things are bad to the bone. So get some of those in your kit because, like, you know, like I i did one on my wrist couple years ago at home doing a deer, put it right through the artery, not paying attention. I had a bunch of kids running around talking. Yeah.
00:52:23
Speaker
And I was like, man, if I was in the field, this would suck. It was yeah it would good. It would be trouble. Yeah. It would have been trouble. I mean, it was spru one of those ones where actually pumped like, you know, spraying blood. You can see the tube. You can see the white tube that I cut through, you know, there's a good one. So yeah, those zip ties are, they're pretty bitch. And so pick some of those up. That's one thing I recommend. That will do that. And then like, obviously like those, what are those like not sterile strips, but yeah, sterile strips, right. Those things are pretty cool too. I think it was better than band-aids or better than, um,
00:52:52
Speaker
butterflies butterflies just i've never found one that works good they just don't stick they don't stick yeah i've tried to use them on guys eyes and stuff and they just they're trash they're trash so cool dude that's a fun pod we always end with hunting story you want to tell us ah a duck hunting story or we an elk hunting story what do you got i see you got a duck up there behind you you big duck guy no my wife is yeah she's a good she loves a waterfowl so um i'll tell you a good one ah A good one that happened this year that that I learned from.
00:53:25
Speaker
we didn' It's not a kill story. so Perfect. Hopefully that works. It's perfect. Any story. I took a buddy into ah his unit where I killed my bull last year, and he had the same tag. and We got on this really hot bull, fired up,
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:53:39
Speaker
got in close, knew he had cows, ended up trying to close the distance on him, didn't bump him hard, but he didn't want anything to do with us.
00:53:47
Speaker
So we sat there and chilled out for a bit. This bull went. Crossed the next drainage. We assumed he was out of our life forever. An hour later, we're sitting there sleeping. He bugles from the next drainage over.
00:54:00
Speaker
And we actually can glass across the hillside. He's looking back into where we were, which was his bedding area. And he had three cows. we just sat there and watched and watched and watched. I never answered him because I'm like, he's trying to push his cows back into this bedding.
00:54:14
Speaker
And ah we ended up getting my buddy set up. where we thought he was going to cross, but that bull did. He ended up pushing those cows like two hours later back into where he just came from.
00:54:25
Speaker
And ah had we had him in the right spot, would have been a dead bull, but he was just, he zigged, we zagged and, you know, had him at 80 yards in the timber and he fed there for 15 minutes. So elk will do some, elk will do some crazy things. They're sometimes not as fussy as you think they might move from an area and they want to be right back there two hours later.
00:54:44
Speaker
Yeah, man, they ah they're animals. Minds of their own, especially during the rut when they're all they're doing is thinking with their pecker, don't get to have sex once a year. So they might want right back there. yeah And plus they're used to getting bumped, right? mean, there's so many guys out there hunting. But Cody, that was an awesome pod, man.
00:54:58
Speaker
ah Yeah, thanks for having me. want anyone to find you? Are you like a famous influencer at all, like Mike? or No, I'm not famous by any means. I've got an Instagram if you want to follow me, great. It's at colocovey.
00:55:10
Speaker
um That's about it, man. Cool. Sweet, dude. Let's do it again, huh? Yeah, absolutely, man. going bug you after we got this pod. I'll talk about my tag I got. see if I want to do it or not. Let's do it, dude. I'll stay on if you want.
00:55:22
Speaker
Yeah, let me stop this thing. Get some answers. Get some insight. Get all the dirt. Thanks, bro. Yeah, absolutely.
00:55:30
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Tricer podcast. Do us a favor and like and subscribe on whatever platform you're listening on. Give us a follow on Instagram and Facebook at Tricer USA and go and check out all of our innovative gear at www.tricerusa.com.
00:55:46
Speaker
Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.