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Best BSing Hunting Podcast Ever! - Steve Raudenbush – MTN2Coast Outdoors
243 Plays19 days ago
This week on the Tricer Podcast, Drew has Steve Raudenbush from MTN2Coast Outdoors. These guys have one of the best hunting discussions on a podcast in a long time. They start off talking about MTN2Coast Outdoors and how it was created and that leads to rabbit holes about backpack hunting and making hunting films. As the discussion goes on Drew and Steve talk about training and how they prepare for their seasons. They also dive deep into their archery equipment and rifle set ups. Listening to these guys talk will get you fired up for the upcoming season, from spring bear to late season elk.
MTN2COAST OUTDOORS - STEVE RAUDENBUSH
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mtn2coast_outdoors/
Website - https://www.mtn2coastoutdoors.com
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@mtn2coast_outdoors/videos
TRICER USA
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Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tricerusa/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tricerusa/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@tricer6985
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Transcript
Introduction to Tricer Podcast
00:00:01
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.
Guest Introduction: Steve Roddenbush
00:00:22
Speaker
All right. Another Tracer podcast. I am smoked. I actually just got home from Western Hong Expo and I passed out for three hours. And thank goodness this podcast with Mountain to Coast, Steve Roddenbush, got the name right.
00:00:36
Speaker
you know Is it 5.45 PM? So got a few hours of sleep today before I did this pod, but ah Steve, dude, how you doing? Good, man. Happy to be on. I know we've ah tried to connect a few different times and finally did it. So I appreciate your time, man.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard, dude, because now like I don't really have
Steve's Professional and Personal Life
00:00:54
Speaker
a job. mean, I'm just do tricer, so I get to like do podcasts the middle of the day. And you're like still grinding. like You're doing a whole job, like running and doing it. You're a civil engineer writer and a project manager and estimator. And then you're going and doing all these hunt films. That's hardcore, dude.
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm not a civil engineer just for the audience to be clear, but I do work in civil construction. So we do underground utilities, build roads, you know traffic signals, sidewalk, curb, stuff like that. I am a project manager estimator for a contractor I've worked for my whole career pretty much.
00:01:25
Speaker
A little background about me just for the audience. Started when I was 18, joined the laborers union as a general laborer. And from that point, I just slowly pretty much worked my way up into the office now for the last five or six years. So But yeah, ah busy life for sure. I've got two kids, wife, ah just got two rescue puppies, three llamas that I just got about six weeks ago.
00:01:48
Speaker
I'm trying to do the Instagram, YouTube podcast thing. So ah yeah, dude, just super busy, man. But that's how I like it. Oh, I can hear your new puppies in the background, the rescue puppies.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. You guys are go to have some background noise. My wife's gone, so I don't have anyone to help keep the kids down and stuff. Oh, whatever, dude. I'm used to it. People don't like it. Like, whatever. Turn it off. Stop listening right now. Do some good give do some nuggets on this one. You want to hear the whole thing.
The Role of Llamas in Hunting
00:02:15
Speaker
Dude, so I'm curious on the llamas. We're going to get into what Mountain Ghost does. but want to like I just did a podcast. I used should listen to was like last week, I think came out about pack burrows. And I had this guy on from New Mexico. And did you know that you can get a pack burrow the So the government catches burrows, wild burrows.
00:02:33
Speaker
This is how great our government is. And they pay someone $1,000 to break that barr burrow, to lease train it, harness train it and trailer train it, $1,000. ah thousand dollars You can now go buy that said burrow for $125. Wow.
00:02:49
Speaker
Or you can get two for $200 or three for like $250. Wow. How much for your llamas? You know, I probably shouldn't say because... ah not for money reasons, but I got them pretty cheap and they're actually, uh, papered carers. So they're, they're quote unquote, like high end pack llamas.
00:03:07
Speaker
Um, but my buddy found a guy, uh, he might kill me if I give too much information away. i guess it so Put it that way. Put it that way. You got a good deal. you So you didn't pay $20,000 for these llamas each. I did. No dude. Um, llamas I thought were out of my reach financially.
00:03:24
Speaker
Um, and Until my good buddy found a guy who's, he's big in the llama world. He's, you know, he knows Bo Beatty and he's been to his place and does all that screened his llamas and all that kind of stuff. So this dude's legit.
00:03:36
Speaker
um But he's like, he's a really older dude and he, he's not in it for the money, man. If you're, if you're going to pack with them and and use them for what they were bred for, he's like, He's all about it. And his, his list is small and he doesn't care how much money you have. It's just, if you kind of click with him, he'll hook you up.
00:03:52
Speaker
If you don't, then you kind of like pound sand. So I got lucky, brought my kids over, told them what I was all about. The rescue puppies, the kids, it was probably raining on them out there. Just like looking at them like poor sir. Yeah, exactly. love us Exactly.
00:04:08
Speaker
So, uh, I got three males. Um, He named them. He had them for about seven months and he he harnessed, trained them. I mean, Halter trained them and put them on a lead. And he already had them kind of walking on trail and whatnot. So now I have them at my house, came up, brought an excavator home last spring, cleared about a half acre area, fenced it off, built a little shelter. And now they're out in the front or I guess the side yard.
00:04:34
Speaker
um And I'm ah on the llama journey now trying to figure it out. Nice. Yeah, no, I can't believe, because like I'm good friends with Livesey, and dude, some of these llamas that him and Bo are turning out, some of these like super llamas, it's wild what they're worth. Wild.
00:04:54
Speaker
i have So my three males are half of Dewey, which is one of bo's um llamas who has over 5,000 trail miles. So I got, I got a good, I got three good males in my side yard right now. So I'm, I'm pumped.
00:05:09
Speaker
Nice. Nice. He usually hit up. Let me say to what
Inspiration from Hunting Films
00:05:11
Speaker
some, I have some questions. Like he's full of answers on that stuff. Like he's got like, don't even know, like 20 llamas right now or something wild. He's super into them.
00:05:19
Speaker
Definitely. One thing he told me we were talking about, um, last weekend, ah is you need to make sure you like put like permethronin on your llamas or inject them because if you don't, he's had one die.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yep. Like from ticks. like He's like, you put permethronin on and they're fine. If you forget to do it, like you can be in big trouble with those things. So that was ah something that could know nugget he gave me. Yeah, i talked to mark I've been talking to Mark for probably a good four or five years now. um Ever since he released his Treeline Pursuits Academy course, I took it yeah when it when it first dropped. and um Him and I have stayed in touch ever since. He's been on my podcast a few times. We've chatted on social a ton.
00:05:55
Speaker
He's been a ton of help. but That's the cool thing about the hunting community is most guys you reach out to are more than willing to help. and yeah so I've talked to him, and I've talked to Bo. I've talked to the Mountain to Mountain media guys who have their own little herd.
00:06:08
Speaker
There's a lot of guys out there with them. Yeah. It's been helpful. Mark's an awesome dude. I was with them last weekend Idaho. going to be with them again this weekend in Texas. We're doing this like a peaks tricer bear elk tour thing.
00:06:20
Speaker
So somehow I'm, I'm going to Texas this week and then we're going to go home Buffalo. They're going to go on pigs afterwards. I'm going to go home Buffalo afterwards. My father-in-law, I'm just going to be the cameraman on that one. And, and filming filming the hunt dude that'll kind of segue us into this here where we're going so what is mountain to coast dude because you guys film bunch of stuff i see you guys it's not even you guys like everyone in my opinion like i want to talk you thinks you guys are a crew of people i've until this conversation thought you guys were a crew of people and it's not it's just steve busting out these things so what is it what are you trying to do here
00:06:52
Speaker
Well, so it all started back when the first land of the free dropped the born of the bro guys. And, um, I was at work in the parking lot, uh, on a job site and one of my buddies pulls up and he's like, Hey man, have you ever heard of born and raised outdoors? And I'm like, no, you know, I didn't have social media back then at all. I didn't, I didn't have it in high school. Didn't have it, you know, until I started this.
00:07:16
Speaker
So I hopped on YouTube and I watched the, their first land of the free. And I was just like, super amped on it, pumped. you know Guys from Oregon, which is really close to me, I'm two hours from Oregon, hunting Roosevelt bulls, which is something I you know i i did until I started hunting out of state. and For some reason, I just got the itch to start filming.
00:07:36
Speaker
i don't know I don't really know why, I just watched what they did and it just really inspired me. and Then, of course, from there, I I started finding crews like Hush, ah obviously Gritty, putting out some incredible stuff, Lampers, just the the list goes on and on. I started you know doing a lot of research and searching YouTube. And the more I watched, the more I got inspired. And yeah, I just started filming, man. And it's just been a journey ever since.
00:08:00
Speaker
And finally figured out the camera four years later. feel like I finally know how to use the damn thing. And here we are. Yeah, it's hard, man. I actually just met the Born and Raised guys.
Future Collaboration Plans
00:08:11
Speaker
They're going to come on board. We're going set them up to start selling our stuff on their site and stuff.
00:08:14
Speaker
I just met the whole crew at Western Hunt. And I had no idea who they were. I kind of heard a little bit about them, but super good dudes, super cool guys and just crew dudes. They're just filming hunts and and doing it. It sounds like they're doing it right and got a good following. And ah definitely some guys, and they're up in Washington so or Oregon. I know my kid is moving to Oregon now.
00:08:35
Speaker
This fall, he's going to go to college up there. He's on a missionary thing right now. He's going come back and go to college this fall. And he's real close where they are. So I'm trying to pick their brains on the little black tail thing. And you can't have a gun on campus. I got to figure this out. So maybe I can like ship a gun to the born and raised guy's house for him.
00:08:52
Speaker
And then he can like have that connection there. You don't go get a gun to go hunting or something this fall. Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. Oregon has a great elk herd and a great black tail, you know, good black tail opportunity. So, and steelhead fishing is phenomenal in Oregon. So I would definitely ah recommend him getting out and doing some outdoor activities in Oregon for sure.
00:09:11
Speaker
I know it gets like crapped on in like the tag space, but like I put in for Oregon every year, especially for my kids. Cause you can put a kid in there starting at nine. You kind of just a little cheat code and get him in like if they're going to turn 10 that year.
00:09:22
Speaker
So you can start applying and it's like 15 bucks a year for all the points for your kids. yep So like, dude, I've been stacking my boys every year up in Oregon. so like, dude, they've got like nine, nine points each in Oregon now.
00:09:32
Speaker
Like he's moving to Oregon and he's going to be a resi. And so he's going to be able to draw some sick tags. So I'm going to have to like, I just got to figure out like how college works. i'm pretty sure you can't just take off for a week. I don't know. So we'll see how this works He's going have some sick points. So I'm wondering if he can get some really good tags and we can like manipulate a hunt. Maybe we'll get like a hunting professor or something. I don't know. Figure something out.
00:09:53
Speaker
I'll get some tripods. I have a model to buy professors with tripods and get them out. Cause as a resi, I wanted him to do Arizona. Like I've got a lot of goals for my kids. Like one of them is that they marry like an Indian.
00:10:05
Speaker
Or they marry like a Mexican ranch owner's daughter, like thousands of acres in Mexico. Yeah. But the other one is that one of them moves to Arizona for at least a year. So I can get their lifetime license for them. Cause they both got points stacked up in the States. And it's like that lifetime lessons with the points they have right now, they could draw some dope tags.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, man. It sounds like we have this, a similar plan. My daughter, she just got old enough to start buying points for her. So I applied her for Oregon spring bear. I applied her in Arizona. She's got points in Montana.
00:10:35
Speaker
So i'm I'm just getting into that rabbit hole, but um yeah, I can't wait to get, that was kind of like one of the main reasons why I got to llamas. Well, at least it was a good selling point to my wife was I want to make, i want to still be able to hunt the back country because that's what I love to do. And I want to make it as comfortable for my, my daughter as possible back there. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it, man.
00:10:54
Speaker
So that's different. Cause I like to make my boys suffer as much as possible. Right. So like, like you, like my boys now, like we used Western hunting expo, my kid's 16 and he was just like running circles around our salesman. Right. Like not run circle running right with them at 16 years old, like a fully competent man at 16.
00:11:10
Speaker
Right. Like those kids are super tough, but I've been making them suffer since they were younger. It's pretty funny. Cause like now that I'm getting older and Trisha's getting bigger, like I'm getting a lot of crap from them because like, like i'm taking my 11 year old africa this may for like a hunting competition with like a bunch of brands my boys are like are you kidding me like i got to hunt cruise gear in arizona but still a sick life mean the boys killed a bunch of stuff but like my 11 year old and then my five year old is gonna just get get the best of it right totally they're gonna do is they're gonna do some these wild adventures can i bring them along and that's what always done like we're doing this competition in africa and
00:11:44
Speaker
We're going do bunch of missionary stuff down there. We do go to Africa every year to missions anyways, so it's kind of cool We're going to twice this year now. We're partnering up with a bunch of brands like Mountain Off. I think Gohan might be in um King's Camo, a Marsupial. I'm butchering this right now. There's ton of us are going together.
00:12:01
Speaker
But I was like, yeah, I'll go, but I have to bring my 11-year-old with me, right? Because want to be able to go and go with me. So I'm going to get them dialed That would be a killer experience, man. Yeah, he's got a little, like, I'm getting him dialed in with a Seekins right now, like a folding chassis, like Seekins rifle.
00:12:17
Speaker
And then I got him a little scope from Burris this weekend, like has a digital rangefinder it so you can like turn it up, you know? Yeah. Again, like cheat code from other boys. The other boys are just shooting Ruger Americans, you know? This one's shooting like a $5,000 rig.
00:12:29
Speaker
But I mean, you get, I get a little, there's a little couple perks being tricer now um with rifles and stuff because we just do a lot of trading for gear and stuff and run our tripods in their booths. But yeah. So I'm planning to bring him with me and just bring him along, you know, on most of these hunts, you know, every year I bring my kids somewhere. So like Arizona, we used to hunt it every single year, bro. It was like the best state.
00:12:49
Speaker
And then, uh, like COVID hit and now it's point creeping on kids. And so honestly, like this year I might just put in for adult tags yeah because the, the adult tags are easier draw than the kids tags. And we just have not been able to draw.
00:13:02
Speaker
So like my, I think my boys drew last year or two years ago. ah My big boys, but the young one didn't. So he's going to have three points now or two points going into this year. and hopefully he could draw a tag, but I might just do it like the youth hunt and then put like an adult hunt second.
00:13:18
Speaker
Oh, he does draw. Cause it's a super fun hunt and you can go hunt over there. Like we were, we would do every year, like Thanksgiving week. It's like a perfect timeframe, like outside of all the other hunts. And both my boys have killed a few coups to reach over there and The tags are good for any antler deer, so it's good for a coos deer or a mule deer.
00:13:37
Speaker
mean, they've definitely shot some dinks too. like
Hunting Opportunities and Education
00:13:39
Speaker
Both of them shot one-year-old Spike, one of those little forky the first year out there. But at 10 years old, you would thought they shot a 400-inch bull. you know Yeah, totally. like So the struggle is real. Every hunt is different, but it's a super fun hunt. And you with Arizona, you can also get what's called a companion tag where you pull up to fish and game when you show up, and you give them $30, and they give you a javelina tag on top of it.
00:14:00
Speaker
ah one So then you can like treat a javelina as well with that tag. So and it's not, it's not either, or it's like a bonus tag. So basically doubling the opportunities, especially some of these desert units where there's this freaking pigs everywhere.
00:14:12
Speaker
They can smoke a javelina as well. Well, that's good to know. Yeah, I ended up swinging for the fences on my daughter's application in Arizona because I did look at the draw odds on GoHunt. And it looked like the draw odds were decent for like a cow tag.
00:14:25
Speaker
But um yeah I just figured, you know what, screw it. I'm going to swing for the fences, put her in for a late rifle elk tag and see what happens. ah Yeah. Well, not, don't tell me the unit on air, but I have some good late rifle units down there. I'm kind of having an idea of what you put her in for.
00:14:38
Speaker
um so I can give you some dope on that. If you do draw, um we're going to hunt a late rifle tag. My father-in-law is going to draw a bull tag this year, late rifle. So we're going rent a house over there. It's going to be like the week after Thanksgiving.
00:14:50
Speaker
And so we'll run a house with the whole family over for that one and take him out. He's 76 years old. I got a couple spots where I can just, if he's willing to sit there for a week behind the new tricer X tripod. and mean, when we were at Mexico last week and he smoked a deer, like 300 yards standing up. This new tripod is just insane.
00:15:04
Speaker
He can't get prone anymore. so I was like, we'll just go. We'll freaking bring the chairs, bring a little tent or something to sit up there in a blind on the hill and rain or snow, who cares? We'll sit there and eventually one's going to step out. And long as he can connect, I mean, he'll be shooting 30 nozzlers so we can stretch him out a little bit. And,
00:15:21
Speaker
you know, get it done. That'll be an awesome hunt, man. Sounds like you've got a lot of stuff going on. Oh dude, we have so much stuff going on. I've got a lot of hunts coming up. Um, we're going to do, we are to do the cow, cow, cow. So I think my kids are like 50% chance to draw draw odds on that one on the cow hunt.
00:15:37
Speaker
That's a super fun hunt. I mean, you're hunting them like during the rut and the units that are available are like, you can go on unit nine or unit eight unit 10. So some of the units that we're never going to draw us on residents, You can go hunt those during the rut with a rifle with kids and hunt cows. So I'm hoping we draw that tag this year. That's like an early October hunt.
00:15:55
Speaker
I can talk about it now because the draw is already done. No one's going to steal my tags, but the word we put in for some some good cow hunts over there with the boys this year. I just figured it'd be a great way. One thing I recommend with kids is just get them killing stuff.
00:16:08
Speaker
Like freaking shoot does, shoot cows, shoot spikes, whatever it is. Like just get them trigger time and help them have fun. Like make it fun. Like don't make it miserable. and I know I joke around with making my boys miserable, but like try and make it fun. Like if there's a kudamundi, shoot it. There's a coyote, shoot it.
00:16:23
Speaker
You know, it's not like, oh, you can't like just let them freaking kill stuff, whether it be rabbits or what, just trigger time and killing things. And eventually they're going to be like my 16 year old who won't pull the trigger on anything smaller than a giant, you know?
00:16:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's the goal. She's all about it. She loves to just to get out and hike with me. um My buddy shot a bull. We went out. She came with me to go look for it with with my buddy. We met him out there.
00:16:47
Speaker
um When I come home with an elk or deer, she's in the garage with me helping me process it and clean it up and get it you know put away in the freezer. So um I can't wait. It's going to be real fun when the time comes.
00:16:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's the best part, dude. So now when we kill an animal, like I don't do anything. like They process it. They bring it home. They set the whole thing up in my office. They process the whole deer for us, grinder the whole nine. They normally make a freaking big mess, but um they they do the whole thing now. So it's pretty nice to get to learn how to do that, you know make them do it when they're young and then...
00:17:16
Speaker
when they get older is cause that deer doesn't get in the freezer, but it's you know, kind of like one those things where, you know, we can afford to go get a process, but it's like, it's nice to do it yourself. I enjoy doing it myself and making the boys do it really kind of like brings them back to, you know, the whole circle, right?
00:17:32
Speaker
They, they killed, they hunted for it. They killed it. They process it, you make some respect to a lot more. I think it's important for them to learn how to do that and know how to do that. Yeah. We, we love to do it ourselves as well, just cause you know, it's super clean. We're getting our meat back.
00:17:44
Speaker
you know We can make breakfast sausage, burger, pepperoni sticks, steaks, the whole nine. So it's nice to be able to kind of just pick and choose what you want to do and try new stuff. And yeah, it's a good experience for sure.
00:17:56
Speaker
Do you do a lot of flavored stuff? Because like only time i do flavor stuff is like on some of the pig and stuff cause i don't really like the taste of it. But other than that, i kind of leave it all plain and I season it as go. Do you like to do like the breakfast sausage and the Italian stuff or...
00:18:09
Speaker
I like to do the breakfast sausage for like breakfast burritos. I usually make some for work for the week. And then I do like to make brats. Brats are really easy to make. Brats are good. Yeah. I don't really do pepperoni myself, but I do the brats a lot because you can just stuff the casing, put them in like a pack of four, vacuum seal them. then when you pull them out of the freezer, you grill them and they're the freaking killer. I like the, I think it's called the Italian garlic flavor.
00:18:32
Speaker
um I love that one. So that's kind of my go-to. What do you, are you cutting those like 50, 50 pork and deer? No, I'm doing like, I actually just add little bit of regular beef burger to my meat, like small amount. That's it. Really? That's it?
00:18:47
Speaker
Yeah. I do them in like, let me say the same way, like a ton of pork in there. No, my wife doesn't like the elk meat like that. She says it smells like bacon when she's making like lasagna or spaghetti. So i just do I just go to the store and I buy like the tubes of a higher fat burger.
00:19:02
Speaker
and i make say The big chub thing, a 10-pound chub? Yep. i just get I try to do about 10% and I just add that into my elk meat so it's really lean. And um that's how we do it. That's how everyone in our family likes it. So that's just what i stick with.
00:19:16
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. That's like a different for me for sure. Cause I'm just like, literally I think I'm a fat and make it. I'm like, Ooh, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So what, uh, what hunt you guys go on this year?
00:19:28
Speaker
So started, I always spring
Spring Bear and Elk Hunts
00:19:30
Speaker
bear hunt. So I, so I hunted, uh, Idaho for spring bear and then I hunted Oregon for spring bear. And then didn't get a bear, right? Yeah. So, uh, buddy, remember that yeah, Joseph and I, uh, did a bear hunt in Idaho and I shot a bear on day two and Joseph shot a a bear on day three. So we tagged out pretty early this year on bears in Idaho.
00:19:51
Speaker
And then we came back home and we went out to Oregon um later in the season, hunted for a week. And we saw a handful of bears, but we did not fill a tag. We could have shot a couple of small boars, decided to pass um just because we already killed bears in Idaho.
00:20:08
Speaker
And to be honest with you, like bear to me, um i don't really care about the size of them. To me, it's a predator and I just you know want to take them off the mountain. So um the only reason why we passed, honestly, was because we already killed two. so But Oregon was fun.
00:20:22
Speaker
And then after Oregon, I normally- But that's a fall season, right? They don't have a spring season in Oregon, right? No, no. They have a spring season and it's awesome. Oh, they have a spring season? Yeah. Really? It's a draw. um Oh, that's where it is. Okay.
00:20:34
Speaker
Yeah. It's not hard to draw though. And Oregon has a ton of bears and you can hunt logging country or you can hunt the wilderness. It depends on what kind of hunt you want to, you want to do. I've hunted both. um I prefer the more wilderness areas personally, just because it's like a big backpack hunt, but the logging areas have a ton of bears as well. So it's a fun time for sure.
00:20:53
Speaker
Might have to bug you when that comes along now. Cause I guess you were like, maybe like if it falls and I think it's after, what does it open those like after April or cause whenever spring break is, if you don't, we'll take him out for that. Cause he'll be up there. and You know?
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's I want to say it starts April 15th, and it goes all the way through the end of Memorial Day weekend. So it's a pretty long season. i Don't quote me on that, but you have quite a bit of time.
00:21:18
Speaker
Well, see, by this point, he's been being in San Diego his whole life. I imagine he's probably going to fly to San Diego for spring break after being in the winter of Oregon. But if not, that'd be kind of fun to go up there for that. And if it's it coincides with spring break, take him bear hunting, you know?
00:21:33
Speaker
Well, yeah, and you can also look for bucks and you can also look for elk. So it's a good time. If you're going to hunt Oregon for elk or deer, it's a great time to get out and learn the country. We hunted for deer. Oh, to be honest, sorry.
00:21:43
Speaker
Western hunt, dude, crush me. he hired him We hunted them for deer back in, I don't know, like 2021 or something, or for elk, I'm sorry. And we got our butt kicked, man. we We made some big mistakes. there's only five The problem with Oregon the seasons are so short.
00:21:58
Speaker
So it's like a five-day season. So if you make a mistake or pigeonhole yourself, like your season is done. So by the time we got into bulls, it was like the last day and a half and we just couldn't get it finished. Couldn't close it out. Yeah. I hear you there. I haven't had an Oregon yet for elk or for deer, but I, it's definitely, it's kind of like my backup plan. Cause the tags are over the counter for elk and deer. So, and I'm close.
00:22:18
Speaker
If I don't draw a tag or if I don't pick up an OTC tag in Idaho or wherever, then Oregon's kind of my backup plan. And luckily, um I've been able to get my tag so far, so I haven't done it. But it's going to happen here soon, I'm pretty sure.
00:22:30
Speaker
And you, it's over the counter for archery, right? Yes. Yeah, not rifle, a rifle over the counter as well. Yeah, I don't know it as well as I should as far as weapons and whatnot. But i for for archery hunting, you can buy an an over-the-counter elk tag.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah. I know it from longer that my friends have done that a couple times. Yeah. So cool. So you went and did bear two States, killed some bears. yeah film that's That film is out, right? Yeah. So, uh, I dropped it shortly after we got home, uh, the Idaho hunt because it was early in the season.
00:23:01
Speaker
And, uh, Yeah, the the spring bear hunt Oregon's out as well. That one didn't do as well, but we didn't kill anything. So that kind of seems to be the case. If you don't you don't punch your tag, then people don't seem to watch. so I've been staggering. i've been Yeah, the bigger the animal too. Kill a big bull, you'll get a ton of views.
00:23:17
Speaker
Elk or king. um Yeah, I've been staggering my like kills with non-kill videos each month. so like I think this month is a non-kill video. yeah ah Next month would be a kill video. Nice. gotta do like that cause it's stagggeral cause I have a few. I have...
00:23:31
Speaker
two non-kill videos this season that overhunt so i put those out yeah it's interesting because i have had one i had a blacktail deer hunt video do pretty good and i didn't kill anything um but for the most part the ones that i don't kill stuff and they don't do as well so is what it is i still like creating the videos and sharing them with people gotcha so you got through that and then obviously went through summer what what hunts you this fall So I skipped a fall bear in Washington because I was super busy trying to get my llama, my llama stuff built fence and all this stuff finished. So when I got back from fall, it was, didn't have to deal with it.
00:24:06
Speaker
Um, so I ended up drawing the general combo and Montana, uh, applied as a group with Joseph, my buddy, we both drew and, uh, we went and hunted Montana for archery elk.
00:24:19
Speaker
We were there for 12 We hunted our freaking butts off and and we ended up killing, I shot a small six point on day six um of the trip.
00:24:30
Speaker
We started, we spent the first four days in a different unit we saw a ton of bulls, but they weren't talking, they weren't playing the game at all. And there was a ton of pressure, ton of road access. So I ended up, we ended up leaving and we moved into another area, another unit that was way more heavily timbered, a lot less roads. And on our second day in there, we we killed the bull.
00:24:49
Speaker
got that bull packed out and then we spent the last four or five days of the hunt trying to fill Joseph's tag. We had some opportunities, but we didn't fill it. So anyway, we got that bull killed there for archery. And then, uh, my brother and I both had rifle elk and rifle deer tags in Idaho, just general OTC tags. What are you shooting for? I'm just curious on the, on the, go back to the bull. So you're doing, you're kind of more of a heavy call guy.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah. I love to call elk. Um, as I've gotten older and as I've started to like learn and realize that it seems like a lot of the guys that are killing the kind of upper age class bulls are not calling much at all.
00:25:26
Speaker
So I've, I've started to kind of think about maybe trying to get away from calling so much to, to maybe take that next step and try to kill some bigger bulls. But I have a hard time not calling cause I just love it, man. I love calling bulls in, um, raghorns or whatever comes in. It's still, it's still fun. So I have a hard time leaving the bugle tube behind, but yeah, we'll see what happens in the future. And then you're shooting, what are you shooting for arrows?
00:25:50
Speaker
What kind of bow you shoot? We're talking about stuff. People like that stuff. Okay. So I've have, I have the Hoyt, uh, venom 33. It's, uh, think three or four years old now. Okay. And then I have a five pin slider on it.
00:26:02
Speaker
Um, shooting the 80 pound limbs, but I've got it back down to like 76 pounds or something like that. And then I'm shooting a thumb button. Um, it's just a stand thumb button release. And then, um,
00:26:14
Speaker
I'm shooting the East and long range axis. what I'm shooting the four mils, the four mils. Yeah. shooting the same ones. Those things are freaking phenomenal. Yep. And then I make them myself. So I got, I kind of messed with the fletching configuration from time to time, but that this year I was shooting the three fletch and then the 95 grain stainless steel, like half outs.
00:26:34
Speaker
and then the Sever 1.5 hybrid broadheads. and They were very similar. yeah I'm shooting a three-fletch axis, but I'm shooting the one-and-a-half Severs and the Beast and going back and forwards.
00:26:49
Speaker
They're using the aluminum half-outs. My arrow comes in at like 465 right now. and so like They sent me a bunch of titanium ones. They were like 95 or something. yeah and it was just like It would have thrown everything off, and I was like, i'm not going to make the change.
00:27:01
Speaker
yeah i make the change i I haven't bent one of the aluminum ones. honest The new ones are pretty nice. They don't bend. yeah i haven't really had any problems with them. Honestly, if I'm bending, I'm probably the last arrow anyways, so it doesn't really matter. That's true. and but um but yeah so I like that setup a lot.
00:27:15
Speaker
and then you said What were you saying? and um
00:27:19
Speaker
76 pounds a lot of weight. yes so yeah luckyily Lucky for me, I'm tall and kind of lanky, so I have a long draw. up My draw is 30 inches. Okay. so I can get away with a heavier arrow. I think my arrow comes in at like 510 or 515 if I recall correctly. Yep.
00:27:35
Speaker
So I'm still getting good speed, great penetration. So I don't really, I like shooting a heavy arrow and I don't know, man, like, um, the Hoyt, the Hoyt limbs, like I have a, my backup bow is a ah Matthews vertex.
00:27:46
Speaker
Um, and I both great. It's a phenomenal shooting bow, but in my opinion, Uh, the Hoyt limb or the Hoyt, the Hoyt draw cycle is, is just butter smooth, like pulling 76 pounds on that bow honestly feels similar to pulling 70 on my, my Matthews bow, in my opinion. So that's, that's why I shoot the weight. Cause it, it's, it's not, it doesn't feel that hard to pull back to be honest.
00:28:08
Speaker
Yeah. I draw 70. I'm shooting the RX eight. Um, I'm shooting it pretty quick. I mean like 295 or something. it does everything I need to do. Um, but very similar setup.
00:28:20
Speaker
um I am shooting. I was shooting a 33 inch bow. Now I'm in 30 inch bow. I kind of like that more, the more compact bow. Yeah. Um, just feel like it kind of fits the pack better. It's easier for me to manipulate when I'm in certain situations. Yeah. Very similar setup.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah. I got, I went with a longer bow. Like my, my, uh, vertex, I think is a 31 axle to axle or 30. I don't recall exactly. It's been a while since I bought it, but, um, With my my draw length being so long, the string angle pretty steep on those shorter bows from axle to axle. So I want the longer one just to have a you know not such a drastic angle on that ah string angle.
00:28:54
Speaker
Yeah, I have a 29.5 inch straw. My friend, Cade from Mad Huns, that guy's got like a 33 inch straw. It's wicked. Like his freaking bow is just ripping. Yeah, that's insane.
00:29:05
Speaker
but He's on this like whole like dumb kick. I don't agree. I hope he's listening to right now where he wants to like go to like super light arrows. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't understand what you're trying to do here, but he wants to go like shoot these things like 500 feet per second or something. i don't his goal is.
00:29:17
Speaker
Guys like shooting a 22 over here. but Yeah. There's no point. He's got that. He's got that long draw, man. He's just freaking his arrows are so much. I'm i'm envious about fastest arrows. He has to shoot a 33 because he can't get the draw length out of 30, you know?
00:29:29
Speaker
Yeah, totally. So cool. You got the bow. You did that whole thing. and These are all backpack style hunts. Yeah. so usually what we do is we'll throw camp in our pack, um, three or four days of food, try not to like overcommit to an area, but make sure if we do get into good hunting that we have enough to stay back there for a few days. so And, I just kind of like make these big loops and try to try to avoid trails and roads as much as possible where I killed my bull. Uh, we literally just parked on the side of a gravel road and it was just a big black, dark timber hole with three huge drainages and,
00:30:03
Speaker
Yeah, we just bombed in and just made a big circle and ended up paying off. Nice. yeah kind of I'm kind of similar to that now like I really do feel like if you kind of commit to a spot... You really need to know that you're committing to it. and you can't like So I like the three to four day thing.
00:30:17
Speaker
like being mobile. actually just put a camper on my truck. I was in the canvas cutters a lot this season on like three hunts where i just canvas cutted it. So I move around. But um I like the idea of being like for three or four days. Then you come out and move. It's not working out. It sucks because if it's really good and you have to stay in there, then you don't have the food. But it's just lighter getting in as well. And I feel like most of the time, if you're you're going to know within that three day window if it's worth it or not.
00:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, you'll know. I feel like you'll know for sure. You'll see the sign. You'll see the rubs. ah You're going to hear elk. You're going to see deer. or Whatever you're hunting, you're goingnna you're going to know probably if it's worth going back. And the nice thing is, yeah, you might have to come out to get more food, but you can leave your camp. You can leave a lot of your gear behind. You can exactly bomb out super fast and you can get back in there pretty quick. so it's yeah you know I have an iCamper on top of my F-350, an older long bed.
00:31:05
Speaker
canopy on it, iCamper on top, can can literally have that thing set up in like two minutes, have it broken down in two minutes, and we can move quick. So it's a pretty good mobile setup for us.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah. I'm very similar now. I want quick and easy. Like I, like I did not run the wall 10 out once this year. Yeah. It was like truck camping, canvas cutter camping, and then backpacking. And it made it a lot easier. It's kind of like Corey Jacobson kind of put that in me this last summer and I kind of like stuck with me and and it worked out really well for me.
00:31:33
Speaker
Um, so cool. So then you got that done. Then you drew the rifle general combo tag, which is, that's a deer and an elk tag, correct? Yeah. So we drew the the general combo in Montana. So we had a deer and elk tag. So we,
00:31:46
Speaker
We got home from the Montana elk hunt and my brother and i went to Idaho on OTC rifle deer and rifle elk tags. So we slotted out like 14 days.
00:31:57
Speaker
We got to Idaho before the elk season started, but deer season was open. So my personal goal um for the last couple of years is I've really wanted to have like a two bowl year.
00:32:08
Speaker
Um, so when we got there, the plan was like, don't be super picky on bucks. Try to get a couple of decent bucks killed early in the hunt so we could spend like the last, you know, however many days really trying to kill a couple of bulls.
00:32:20
Speaker
And luckily it worked out that way. We ended up shooting. My brother shot a really nice buck on day two, like first thing in the morning. We were, we hiked into an area, set up camp that night, glassed until dark, didn't see anything. We saw it except for we saw a cougar and we heard an elk bugle, but we didn't see any bucks. Um,
00:32:37
Speaker
Went back to camp that night. The next morning we woke up and hiked up over a saddle and on our way through that saddle right at daylight, a couple bucks were in that saddle. And ah the one he shot had a, we could see a nice frame on it. So he knocked that thing down like 730 in the morning or something like that.
00:32:53
Speaker
um Got that buck packed out. We actually brought a trailer on that trip, a little utility
Practical Hunting Tips
00:32:59
Speaker
trailer. And we had a freezer, a little chest freezer. So we ended up freezing the deer meat, which was awesome.
00:33:06
Speaker
I do that a lot too. I have a little chest freezer in Albregan Jenny. Yeah. And it like it helps a ton when you got these long hunts. If you can freeze the meat and throw the cooler, it's a cheat code. Craigslist, 75 bucks or something. It's going to be it sits is literally sitting in my driveway right now. It's getting rained on.
00:33:22
Speaker
yeah It looks like crap, but it works. Yeah. if We got a little chest freezer and same thing, little Honda generator. And it was, it was a game changer, not having to leave the mountains to go deal with the animal, not wasting time. So we got his buck packed out that night. And then we went back in the following morning.
00:33:39
Speaker
I had, so I had glass to four point that day. My brother shot his buck and we went back in on that four point that following morning and he wasn't there, but I ended up picking up another pretty good buck across this Canyon.
00:33:50
Speaker
And he was on his feet till like 10 30 or 11, which I was shocked at how late he was on his feet feeding. But we ended up bedding that buck. We dropped down crossed a couple of drainages and came up on the other side and ended up relocating him in his bed at like 280 yards. And I ended up smoking him one shot.
00:34:07
Speaker
And we had both of our buck tags filled on day three. What are you shooting? So I'm shooting a seven PRC. It's in an XLR chassis, a foldable stock. Those XLRs are bitch. And I talked to the owners this weekend. Yeah. get them on the podcast.
00:34:23
Speaker
I like them because they're innovative. And they have one stock that's left and right-handed. Yeah. So you just move a little tab. It's like, why is no one else doing this? it's ah It's an amazing setup. i've yeah I've been working with those guys for about a year now.
00:34:35
Speaker
And I don't know who you talk to, but I've been talking with Matt. And ah anyway, i like i I would use it regardless. I mean, I bought it with my own money. It wasn't sent to me for free. It's a phenomenal chassis. We had one of their rifles in our... well We had an arrowhead rifle on an XLR chassis in our booth.
00:34:51
Speaker
Does yours have that like skeletonized carbon fiber handle? Yes. yeah Dude, it's freaking wicked. Gun's sick. ah Like, I don't have a chassis gun yet other than my PRS guns. And I was like, I'm in this like old Woodstock 30-06 kick right now. But I'm like, that's a pretty cool gun. going to admit that's a pretty sick gun.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah, and then and then the bottom of the chassis is machined um Arca Swiss already, right? so Yeah, it's already there, ready to go. yeah My brother actually shot his buck off of your tripod with that chassis. so ho and Yeah, because like that we were in this burn area and there was a bunch of downed trees, right? So he needed to get some elevation to shoot. and So he wasn't shooting freehand. We set the tripod up and he could rest the the tripod right on the pan head and just one shot just smoked him. I mean, it's Yeah.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, it works out, man. We've killed a lot of animals, man. And the new shooting stuff, the new bipod is like a cheat code for hunting. Yeah, I saw that. So the new bipod dude is like, we'll to get you one when they come out. But we've sold over a thousand in the first week of pre-orders.
00:35:54
Speaker
Holy cow. It will be the best-selling bipod the country. they Guns America is like the new articles. like Everyone's like, It's unreal how good that bipod is. it's The heaviest, it goes from 11 to 15 ounces.
00:36:07
Speaker
It comes with a pick head and arc head, long legs, short legs, rubber feet, spike feet, and a swivel set to pick adapter for $299. Oh, wow. No joke. I could sell it for $450, but i like the $299 price point because everyone's just like, yes, give it to me.
00:36:22
Speaker
Totally. and i mean I don't want to be cocky, but everyone knows I am It smokes everything else that's out there. I believe it. Smokes dude. and like You could go... like so like in those situations, you're shooting across the hill, you can sit on your butt, deploy the front legs and be you know sitting and shooting that animal. animal You know what i mean? like yeah It's made for hunting. like it's not like I feel like every bipod now is like made for bench rest.
00:36:43
Speaker
And they're trying to make a work in the field. And this thing was made in the field for hunting specifically by me. yeah And we killed a pile of animals off that thing this year.
00:36:54
Speaker
It's going to be like, like i get like no I love people telling me they love my stuff for glassing. When they tell me they shot an animal, like i really there's something about that I really like. yeah Dude, we are going to be responsible for the highest body count this year. It's going to be so sick, dude. That bipod is like a total game changer for hunting.
00:37:11
Speaker
Oh, I can't wait to see you one, man. it's It's wild. Like we were at Western Hut in the worst location of the show through the first year there. And we were, our booth was 10% people deep the whole time. Just trying to look at this one bipod that I have.
00:37:23
Speaker
i And everyone who holds it is bicep, bicep, bicep. It's wild. Oh, that's good for business, man. That's awesome. It is good for business. And doing the whole shooting tripod thing now as well. Right. Cause like everyone wants to show off the tripod. So we have like the DZ head.
00:37:36
Speaker
um don't know if you have one of those or not. I do. Yeah. You do have this. That's that's phenomenal. Did you shoot off that head or is that that you got the one later, huh? Yeah. He shot off the BP head. The BP head. Yeah. It came out. DZ came later. Um, but we killed, but we killed,
00:37:49
Speaker
four elk off the BP head last year. you know what mean? I killed my deer off the BP head last January. Like same difference. is You just can't level your rifle out as good without doing the legs of the tripod. But um yeah, dude, the whole shooting tripod thing is like, which where it's at right now, everyone's going to this and we're fully embracing it at Tracer, right? Like we're making these tripods now that'll, you know, we have this new tripod called the HK. It comes out with, it comes with a shooting head, aluminum shooting head, a GC gun clamp and a tripod for 519 bucks.
00:38:18
Speaker
Wow. It's a steal of the all. And it's like, it's literally like an entry-level NRL gut, like NRL tripod. You could use it all day long for NRL competitions, super lights, like 40 ounces. What a lot of guys are doing is running that with like an LP on top of it. So our all stuff's Arca now.
00:38:33
Speaker
So you clamp your BP or your LP right onto it and then glass off that. So everyone's excited for that just to shoot off of it. And I'm not the biggest tripod shooter. Um, but everyone is like, it's like where the industry is going. So we're fully embracing that with some of these new designs and it's, it's going to be ah there's going to be lot of dead stuff coming. Thanks to these new tracer products. I'm excited for for it.
00:38:54
Speaker
Yeah. I'm sure, man, your, your stuff's already going freaking crazy, but yeah, I haven't shot off a tripod either, but my brother, that situation, the way it worked out was just like, it was perfect for it. We, we deployed the tripod, put the gun right on And he dropped down to one knee.
00:39:08
Speaker
So he was still elevated pretty high and was able to just, loosen the pan head up and lean back a little bit. And he had a perfect solid rest and one shot and animals down. Yeah, man. I mean, there's certain times where he just calls for it right? like I had that DZ head over in Hawaii this year and I was on an a d and I'm in like, the no joke. The grass is like four or five foot tall.
00:39:27
Speaker
Like it was just like wild grass. had this bucket turn 54 yards. I stood up standing and shot this bucket turn 54 yards and talked to him in his tracks right there. And it was like, wow, if I didn't have a tripod that was capable of doing this, I couldn't kill this animal.
00:39:40
Speaker
yeah So I'm definitely for shooting off a tripod. It's just for me, it's like,
00:39:47
Speaker
I'm not going to do it and unless I have to. Does that make sense? Totally. Right? So like this year, like we were in Colorado this year. i just, I just say that because I do like, i should doing this competitive stuff now and I'm doing a lot shooting and I've done, you know, of killed piles of animals now. And I just know like a tripod isn't always the most stable way to kill an animal if there's something else available. Right. It's like we were in Colorado this year my opening day, there's a buck at 120 yards and starts running away from us.
00:40:11
Speaker
And my kid's like, well, use your tripod. I was like, no use that tree right there. And he's like, well, what do you mean? i want to film more filming. I'm like, I don't care. like That tree's attached to the ground. yeah like and it's you know It's super wide. It's like a 12-inch log. so He like gets down on his knees and shoots puts his ground on this tree and smog his bucket 200 yards, drops him in his tracks.
00:40:28
Speaker
um so like I am for the tripod shooting. I'm also for... like finding a rock or a backpack you know what i mean or a fence post like i think a lot of us lot people get caught up in it like have to shoot off my tripod or i half shoot off the bipod and like in the field you need to take whatever is the best suited position available and a lot of times that's laying across a rock or across a tree versus like setting up a tripod at five foot tall and trying to get your gun on there at once one point you know what i mean Yeah.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. I definitely like to lay down and shoot prone if I can for sure. But I think it's all situational depending on where you, where you find the animal, how steep is the ridge you're on? What's around, you know, just look at your surroundings and figure out what, what's going work the best for you for sure.
00:41:11
Speaker
Well, I mean, if getting a tripod, you're probably definitely going to Tricer because it's definitely going to do the best. But here here I am, the tripod guy, and I'm telling people to shut off my tripods. No, you should shut off. I mean, my whole point is like it's situational. Exactly. And that's why I made the bipod because now you could quickly deploy 30 inches within five seconds, yeah sit down, and use your tripod for a rear tripod support. right like i highly recommend everyone learn how to use a tripod for a rear tripod support.
00:41:37
Speaker
or your or your pack in the back. You can throw your whole pack back there. If you put your butt, you if you put those 30-inch legs out on the tripod on a hill, like your brother, I know your situation, brother, that's why I made this bipod. He's sitting down, the the ground's going away from him, blow him.
00:41:50
Speaker
You put that tripod out 30 inches, he's level. Take your, whatever backpack you're running, shove it in the backpack there, and now you are essentially three points rock solid. Yep.
00:42:01
Speaker
Dead deer every time. Like, we were out the range shooting 300 yards like that the other day. Um, and it was just a game changer. um and I do recommend too, like we'll go do obviously with the NRL and the PRS stuff we're doing now, we're doing a lot of really fun positions, but like when I go out my kids, like I'm always putting them awkward positions. Like I'm having them shoot.
00:42:19
Speaker
said, if they're doing bench rest shooting, I'll kick the chair out and say, no, stand up and show off this bench. Right. Or I'll make them lay prone I'll put them on a tripod and say, Hey, shoot 200 yards and see how good you are. and they're like well, the gun's circling. Okay, exactly.
00:42:31
Speaker
How do we rear? How do we get that stiff in the rear? Like I have to recommend everyone listening. to not just go shoot your indoor range off a bench, off a sled, right? Or off a bipod. Like, take up take get stand up in that thing and lean up against the wall of the of the range you shoot off of that.
00:42:47
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like, there's just just fine, awkward positions, right? Take a ladder with you and shoot off the rungs the ladder. Like, there's just other things you could do that will make you a much better shooter.
00:42:58
Speaker
But when you get to the field and there's not a concrete bench sitting there for you to shoot off of when this bucks, like you said, you know, 300 yards away and you're on this weird, steep angle, your brother's able to make it happen by utilizing the tripod and get a rear supporting it done.
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good tip. I think just trying to, you know, create awkward situations that you're going to be up against in the field. You're not going to be shooting on some perfectly flat prone position every time. That's like one out of 10 opportunities. Probably it's going to be, you know,
00:43:26
Speaker
ah perfectly flat spot you're going shooting off some crazy angle your head way below your feet or you know your head way above your feet whatever so that's a good idea for sure dude my kids first deer like on this steep downhill angle and we're prone and she's three it was doe 300 yards away and we were getting eaten alive by red ants i had welts all over my body like your feet are up like it was like the small little kicked out spot i'm trying to dial them in And he ended up touching one off before I can even get the dial. And blew my my, my, my left ear is still messed up since five years ago. Now, or maybe more than that.
00:44:00
Speaker
Gosh, six or seven, gosh, he's old six or seven years ago. I shot this butt deer and my ears still messed up from it. Like he touched it off. i was doing the down. He touches around off over the back of the deer. We're just getting bitten alive. But I always use that example as like, when you shoot in the field, you might be on a hill getting eaten by ants.
00:44:14
Speaker
Like you can't really prepare for that. That's your friend to like kick you the nuts when you shoot. But like, um but like the point is, is that there's no such thing as a, as a bench rest table in the field. Right. Unless you're sitting blind over a feeder in Texas, you're going to be shooting out some weird positions. And I highly recommend trying, like if you're out shooting the hills, your buddies, grab a tree, shoot off a tree, grab a fence post.
00:44:35
Speaker
We shot a buck in Mexico this year. And I was like, grab that fence post. grabs a T-post, puts it up against it, shoots the deer, right? Like I could think of so many situations where I've killed animals like that or off a tree or off a rock.
00:44:48
Speaker
Um, just cause in the moment, like you just have configure it out and it's better to practice beforehand than when you get there, have your first time ever shooting like that. Be when you're shooting at, you know, your 320 inch bull or whatever it is, you know, 180 inch mule deer. Yeah. And then you're just trying to force it because you're starting to panic and you the animals move. Dude, if your rifle's doing in that 18 inch circle and you're just trying to,
00:45:09
Speaker
Time it. Time it. Like it's just, that's, there's nothing worse than that. There's nothing worse than that. And you can learn that, right? Like, like I've gotten a lot better shooting off a tripod. I've been taking courses and doing another shooting course here in a couple of weeks, like just learning how to position your body, how to like square your body
Improving Hunting Skills
00:45:26
Speaker
up. Like, you know what I mean? You shouldn't be like along the gun. should be in square. So you're like, basically like one thing I've learned is like when you should even prone, you're You want to pretend that when you shoot that gun, it's like if you're to step on a beer can and squash it straight down, the recoil goes straight through the whole body, not crooked.
00:45:40
Speaker
Right. Right. So like, there's so many ways to get more stable. Like I highly recommend, just had a conversation with Livesey. Like i highly recommend taking more treeline pursuits class.
00:45:51
Speaker
I highly recommend going to, you know, Western hunting summit or like Dan Staten's doing a bunch of elk hunting stuff. Like highly recommend doing that rather than buying $8,000 rifle. Oh yeah. Like you would be so much better off going and spending. Like I'm doing these shooting courses here in San Diego and they cost me 500 bucks a pop, um, for two day course, but I'm pretty $800 rifle.
00:46:15
Speaker
Right. I mean, I have the expensive ones, but like, my point is like for hunting ranges, any gun will work. Like, honestly, like and I have to try every deer I shot this year is under 300 yards.
00:46:27
Speaker
um, every single deer. And I think I shot seven deer or antelope this year. I mean, total, um, you have to almost try to get to seven or 800 yards. Oh yeah. You can definitely close the distance. You can close the distance. And a lot of times the distance is already closed for you.
00:46:43
Speaker
Um, you know what I mean? Like you just, it's, it's, it's a lot. I mean, there are situations like of the stuff I hunt in like Arizona or Mexico where it's just big Canyon stuff, right? Or there's some big Canyon stuff in Idaho, but lot the times like you're within range, right? Or you can get within range and even 500 yards and in for most factor rifles isn't hard now.
00:47:03
Speaker
you're much better off spending the money on courses and learning than you are buying a $10,000 Gunworks rifle and then getting out there and just trying to dial and figure it out.
00:47:14
Speaker
Yeah, totally. i mean, I'm a huge, I agree completely. I took the Treeline Pursuits Academy course for the same reason. To me, it was it was a no-brainer. I think the course was like $100 at the time and you had two years to go through it. And just the amount of knowledge you can learn from people that have been doing this for so many years. And a lot of people specialize in certain things. So you can you can pick up good points and tips from everybody out there. So I totally agree. I mean, you can buy the fanciest stuff out there, but it's not going to kill for you. You got to learn how to use it.
00:47:42
Speaker
I mean, honestly, every rifle is more accurate than us. Yeah. And an accurate rifle shot wrong is going to be accurately off. If that makes any sense. So if you pull the trigger, it's going to go exactly where you pulled the trigger. Yeah. It means it's going to hit the animal. So like learning how to like, you can't stay, but I shouldn't say you can't stabilize it.
00:48:00
Speaker
I mean, there's some guns that are going to stabilize better than other guns, but like, whether it's a $700 Savage it's, or a five thousand dollars custom rifle it's going to stabilize the same.
00:48:12
Speaker
It's going be eight pound gun or seven pound gun. It's going stabilize the same off your pack. Learn how to shoot it. yeah Absolutely. for For trying to hit a pie plate, which we're trying to do. I know people hate hearing that.
00:48:23
Speaker
Trying to hit a pie plate at 300 yards, all the guns can do it just gotta learn how to do it better by taking some courses or something. i Dude, it's just, yeah knowledge is so powerful. Um, like I spent, like, I can't tell you like how much I've learned this year to spending so much time in the field, right? Like I'm really blessed. Like I get to hunt all the time. I'm going to Hawaii in like two weeks three weeks for a month to go bow. Like, you what i mean? Like, like, so my point with that is these guys that, you know, you'll get to do it for one week a year.
00:48:53
Speaker
Someone like Livesey or Lamprish who are putting these courses on who spend 100 days in the field a year, their knowledge is so much further than what you have. like Go get that knowledge from them is my point. like but and i'm just saying the reason like I'm not bragging on what I'm doing. I'm just saying like i'm getting so by being in the field too much, I'm realizing like how bad of hunter I was how much better I can be.
00:49:13
Speaker
And i wish I'd been taking courses earlier. Right. yeah and like I've done, I did Western hunting summit. I did trail on trail on Academy. I did the I'm doing the bear tour with these guys. So I'm actually taking, I'm doing the bear and the elk one just to learn. Right.
00:49:26
Speaker
I'm listening to podcasts, like try, I'm taking shooting courses, right. There's so much more that can make you so much smarter than just, mean, it's just like business, right. You can go start a business, you're probably much better off reading some business books first and taking some courses before you go and do that.
00:49:39
Speaker
learning it for somebody who's done it, right? Learning the mistakes of Livesey, who's in the, those guys are in the field 120 days a year, 130 days a year. Like get that knowledge from them in these courses. It's so valuable.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah. i couldn't agree more. I mean, I feel the same way, honestly. That's why I've done it myself. And it's just, it's a no brainer to me. So yeah. Yeah, dude. So you got that done. You guys are shooting a seven PRC, which is the cool boy caliber right now. Everyone's liking that thing. I like the seven mil mission horned. He's to the LDX is.
00:50:09
Speaker
Yes. Yep. Oh, dude, you're just doing the whole bro'd out 7PRC experience. Yeah. It's a rat caliber. I had a 300 Win Mag, which I still have it, but I do a lot of backpack hunting, like I said earlier. So I was trying to go something a little bit lighter and the caliber had nothing to do with that. But the gun I had prior to the 7PRC was like, you know, 11 pounds or 10 and a half pounds. Oh, wow. What's his PRC weigh in like seven a half, seven pounds? Yeah, I'm just under eight pounds.
00:50:39
Speaker
And so that's a good, that's a good range. I like for me, like I like an eight to nine pound rifle right in there. So like you're right around eight pounds and it's a good rifle weight. yeah I think we try and get into these like five pound rifles. Like again, go try and shoot it a little bit. Then tell me how much you like it.
00:50:55
Speaker
Right. And go and go do the awkward positions. You know I mean? Like I was telling you guys, yeah I think eight pounds will settle. You want your rifle to settle down. And, ah if that makes any sense, like you want to put it, you want to settle and with a light gun, they won't settle, you know, especially on a pack or a tree or something, you know?
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah. so I didn't want to go like super, super crazy light, but I definitely wanted to, you know, shave some weight. Cause I am packing the camera lenses, batteries, a lot of extra weight in my pack already. So I was like, if I can trim a couple pounds. And at the time when I, when I bought this seven PRC, um,
00:51:26
Speaker
I don't know just seemed like I wanted to try it. So I went for it, but now I'm bitching, bitching caliber. It really is. I mean, I've shot a lot of animals with it now. I've killed several bears, several elk, not several elk, but a handful of elk, ton of bucks. And it's done the, it's done the job. So I can't complain.
00:51:42
Speaker
Yeah. I really like, um, that seven millimeter and, you know, 30 caliber. yeah bullets i'm kind of a big fan of that um i am probably with my kid my kitchen is six five cream or right now probably have shoot that i'll probably just count with it this year yeah um but i do like having the boys shoot like 308s and stuff but at 11 years old it just 308 is a little bit too much um for him you know yeah six fives do get a little bit less for you you know but uh are you running a can you run a can up in washington or no um you know i don't know i don't have one so i'm not sure you just run like a 24 inch barrel or what are you running on that thing
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, a 24-inch barrel with a muzzle brake. With a muzzle brake, yeah. So it was a Christensen Arms rifle. Oh, a kitchen. I just pulled it out of the the stock it came with and dropped it right in that chassis from XLR.
00:52:27
Speaker
And then um back to the Creedmoor, I bought my daughter the same thing. So i was I was kind of going back and forth on caliber, but I didn't want to get something that was going to I don't want her to be afraid to shoot it. So I bought her a Creedmoor Savage 110 Ultralight.
00:52:38
Speaker
And I have to, dude, I have to admit we've shot that thing quite a bit now. That thing's a freaking tack driver. I mean, shooting hole through hole. That's what I'm saying, dude. These factory rifles, everyone's getting so caught up in these like custom builds and stuff right now.
00:52:52
Speaker
And all my custom build funders, you friends are going to be like Oh, what are doing? Guns, dude, they shoot good enough, man. Yeah, I got her gun for $800, brand new.
00:53:02
Speaker
Yeah, and you're you're styling. Dude, put a Leopold scope on it a little 3x15 scope, and I'm telling you that thing's a tack driver. For the price, it'd be hard to beat it.
00:53:14
Speaker
Yeah. i mean And honestly, like I said, for the ranges, you're probably going have her shoot. It's more than enough. Which is probably, like for me, like my kids have never killed something. Well, I can't say that. They've killed stuff over 400, but kind of that 400 yards and end range, which is, i tell people all the time, 420 yards is a quarter mile. Like, it it sounds a lot further when you say that. Like, keep that mind.
00:53:32
Speaker
So, like, keep your kids under 400 yards, 300 yards. You get a dial in there. you know, you get... In that range, you don't have to worry too much about ballistic, about wind, right? Not too much unless it's really windy.
00:53:43
Speaker
You're probably theyre going to drift. Sure, that pipeline very achievable at that range with any gun on the market right now. Yeah, my plan is to keep her 300 or less until she proves to me that she's ready to go past that. So um she's shooting steel at 300 yards, but she hasn't shot an animal yet. So it's totally different when there's something standing there.
00:53:58
Speaker
Well, the trick is, dude, you just don't tell them how far it is. yeah So like you're going to have, I've had, I've had one when he was real little smoke a buck at like 385. And I was like, Oh didn't even that far. And I just dialed him.
00:54:11
Speaker
Yeah. Dialed him later. And then at this point they were already shooting 600 yards stuff all the time, but I didn't want tell him where, how far it was. And now this year his buck was 384. Um, and he knew how far it was, but he's, you know, he's much more proficient shot, but when they're that young, you just don't tell him, you just kind of dial him in and set him up and let him, let him rip.
00:54:28
Speaker
That's a good idea. I'll have to keep that in the memory bank. Because sometimes that buck's out there and you're like, you know, 350. I'm not going to break that limit, but I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to tell you it's 230. I only 230 yards. No problem.
00:54:39
Speaker
yeah They can't tell the difference in the moment. They're breathing hard and doing it. Yeah. Full of adrenaline. So yeah, that's a good idea. have to keep that. Definitely keep that in mind. Dude, so back to it. You're shooting seven PRCs. You smoke two bucks in two days.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah, so we get ah those those two bucks packed out, and then we pretty much got our asses kicked by the elk for like six or
The Idaho Elk Hunt Adventure
00:54:59
Speaker
seven days, man. We hiked a ton of miles. We moved drainages, and we finally we finally found some elk.
00:55:06
Speaker
um We saw one bull and a huge a huge group of cows probably – I don't know, 30 or 40 cows with this boat this bull. But as the crow flies, he was like two, three miles away.
00:55:16
Speaker
couple of drainages over. so he's like six, seven miles away. Yeah, a long way. It's like two main drainages away. So we ended up, we we hiked out that night, back to the truck, drove all night back around, pulled into the bottom of that drainage that elk was in at like 10, 11 o'clock. When, you know crashed, woke up in the morning, reloaded the packs real quick, bombed in up the bottom.
00:55:40
Speaker
Long story short, the elk weren't there in the morning. They weren't there at all. They ended up moving quite a ways away and it took us ah the rest of that day. We ended up finding them that evening finally and um slept on the mountain that night.
00:55:54
Speaker
The next morning we relocated them again, or not the morning, it was actually the afternoon when we found them again and ended up making a play. We bombed all the way around, dropped down this ridge, this little finger ridge, and there was like one little pocket of trees And we're making our way down to these pocket of trees and we hear, we can hear some cows mewing and we heard a bull bugle. So we got to that little, that little pocket of trees and there was a huge basin right there.
00:56:19
Speaker
And as soon as we crested that, that little spot, we saw all the elk. Right. And there was just one small ragnhorn five point bull there, but any branch bull was kind of all we were, we were hoping for at the time. Oh dude, give him the business.
00:56:31
Speaker
My brother lays down, range him, smokes the bull, hits him perfect right behind the shoulder. And, All the elk are just kind of like, you know, what the hell was that? Freaking out a little bit, but they didn't leave. They were just kind of like, you know, milling around and that bull just stood there and ended up turning away, facing away from us.
00:56:49
Speaker
And it was like kind of doing the wobble, ah like about to tip over. And then in between that and all the, all the hectic going on, we heard another bull bugle a little bit further down the drainage.
00:57:00
Speaker
So my brother, Jack's another shell. The bull finally turns back broadside. The cows get out of the way. He shoots again, hits it right behind the shoulder. Bull's about to fall over. And I looked over to my right and a six point bull had came out of the timber, the one that bugled and was in this little draw off to the right.
00:57:18
Speaker
So i went I grabbed the rifle, run over like 50 yards into that draw so I can see down it And that six point bull is just standing there, ranged him real quick, adjusted the um MOA, shoot, hit him a little high, but he hit the ground and rolled down the hill.
00:57:34
Speaker
He gets back up. I put another shell on him. We had two bulls down after seven days of just cruising country glass and not seeing nothing. And it just happened like that. So pretty, pretty incredible.
00:57:46
Speaker
You have to, uh, you have to make your luck when you hunt. Yes. And like you said, like, I know that feeling when you got to the truck at 11 o'clock at night, I guarantee you didn't want wake up, but you got up at probably 4.30 on you know five hours of sleep on day seven of doing this yeah and hiked in.
00:58:03
Speaker
And that's differences like you were willing to do and other guys aren't. And that's how you kill those bulls, right? Like you make your own luck in the field and it's like, how much are you willing to suffer when you hunt elk? Cause those things just throw like diesel trucks, bro. Like you said, they were there one day and they're gone the next. Like,
00:58:18
Speaker
Dude, I watched a bull walk out of my life this year and it was, if I had would have dead, but it was bow hunting. And like, dude, those, those things, even though they're giant school buses can motor up a hill, like nothing.
00:58:30
Speaker
Yeah. they did And when an elk's moving, they just don't stop moving. Right. They just cover ground. Right. Yeah. They can cover so much ground so fast. And yeah I totally agree with you. I mean, you make your luck in the field. I feel like, you know, that's a huge part of it. And by that time we were on day 10, right? We killed those bucks ah day two and day three, but we spent the next seven days after that looking for bulls. Look, just cut.
00:58:51
Speaker
We had well over a hundred miles hiked on foot, several thousands of feet of elevation, you know, weathered some snow storms and all that crap. And no, we didn't want to get up at four o'clock in the morning, but that that next morning we were up early.
00:59:03
Speaker
We were up, hiked all the way up on the ridge at daylight, like it was still too early to glass. And, uh, yeah, I just feel like you kind of get out of it what you put into it. you know what i mean?
Creating and Sharing Hunting Films
00:59:12
Speaker
So how'd you do draw all that in a 15 minute film?
00:59:15
Speaker
ah Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So did you put, we'll kind of, we'll go, we'll go to the ending with that. But, uh, so you, this film's out now, I take it right. Two bucks and two bowls. That's pretty impressive. This film's out.
00:59:27
Speaker
Yeah. So I broke it into two films. So the, the rifle hunt for the deer is a 15 minute film. And then the rifle hunt that we doubled on bulls is also like, it's like a 25 minute film.
00:59:38
Speaker
You should have made it like a 30 second short. Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Done. Done. So that's 30 minute elk films. That's good. And the elk film for you, I assume crushes the deer film.
00:59:51
Speaker
it It is a ahead of the deer film. Yes. Um, which honestly, for me, it's usually opposite. My, my mule deer films typically do better. I think, ah um, I've debated with some of my buddies about this, but I think more people can relate to shooting deer with a rifle.
01:00:05
Speaker
That's my theory anyway. So people for
Promoting Mountain to Coast Outdoors and Farewell
01:00:07
Speaker
me anyway, they, they watch my hunting, my deer hunting films more. Um, so I just released my Montana deer film yesterday and it got more views in 24 hours than most my videos get in,
01:00:19
Speaker
three or four days. So it's just weird how it works. I don't understand how it works. Freaking. don't know. Zuckerberg's been pretty cool right now. Like we're running ads with guns in them for right by a pause, not getting shut down, but YouTube still hates us. I only have like 1100 followers on YouTube and like, have like 500 videos out. I don't understand the algorithm of YouTube at all.
01:00:38
Speaker
It could been mustache. It just scares people. away I don't know. But, um, yeah, dude. So you got, you got the, the what's your channel on YouTube? It's just mountain to coast outdoors. Mountain of Coast Outdoors. And where are you on Same thing on you on Instagram, right? Mountain of Coast Outdoors?
01:00:52
Speaker
Yeah, same. It's all the same across all the platforms. Are you guys selling some swag too? Yeah, so we got shirts and hats. I say we, but yeah, shirts and hats and t-shirts. And yeah, we got a little website. We've got kind of like ah a landing page with our story.
01:01:07
Speaker
And then I've got the shop page. And then I've got another page that has some links to our like current most you know most current YouTube videos from the year. So lots of pictures and stuff people can check out. Awesome, dude. I am a fan Mountain to Coast Outdoors. Guys, go help Steve out. Give him follow.
01:01:24
Speaker
Watch his videos. Like, subscribe. The whole nine. And then, dude, i hope you crush some more deer this year, more elk, some bears. Yeah, it's going to be a big year for us. We should draw Wyoming. um I already have elk and deer tags in Idaho.
01:01:36
Speaker
I put in for Oregon spring bear again. Should draw. Go into Idaho for spring bear. um Yeah, we got usually do five or six big trips a year, so it should be a good year. That's awesome, dude. ah ah Let's do it again.
01:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Thanks, bro. 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.
01:02:07
Speaker
Until next time, shoot straight, have fun, and always put God first.