Spring Bear Hunting Gear List

American wilderness better. We'll talk about tactics, gear, conservation who will also bring you into some of the wildest country on the planet. Chasing battery. Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. We're at the Global headquarters today and we're gonna be talking about our here list for going on a spring do it yourself hunt in Montana. Okay, so this podcast is gonna be a pretty technical in terms

of the gear that we use. What we're gonna be we're just going through a list and basically we're going through my personal packing list for going out west and uh so that's what we're gonna be doing. I've got with me in the office Colby moorehead I introduced Colby a couple of podcasts ago, but Colby works for Bear Hunting Magazine now full time. So Colby is uh, Colby is doing all kinds of stuff for us. Um he's Ryan Grab named him the Bear Hunting magazine bear tech.

I call him my tech nerd W. How would you describe your how how would you describe your job here? Colby? You've been here for two months almost two months? Two months? Uh? See you need feeling need you need feeling need yep, yep. I don't know that you could put it in a title. Maybe bear tech is the best thing. Yeah, like bear tech, I mean pretty much. The goal of Bear Hunting Magazine is to promote conservation and bear hunting and best practices

inside of bear hunting. So that's pretty much what you you support, all under laying foundational things inside of doing that. Yeah. Yeah. So what's interesting though, is just today Colby Moorehead learned that he's going to Montana with me. Oh man, my legs aren't even Arkansas already yet, no doubt, no doubt. Man. Really, I threw a ranch at Kobe this morning. But I have to give a little bit of background before we start into the skier list. I've been to Montana on

a do it yourself hunt two different times. I believe twenty and I went to Montana. The first Montana hunt that I did was I took my wife with me and we did a backpack hunt. We back we packed back in, and so we were only using gear that we could carry on our packs. My pack was about fifty five to sixty pounds, her pack was about forty pounds. And we hiked back in about five miles and stayed

for five days. Okay, never came out. That was pretty That was our first big step into Western back country hunting. The second hunt that I did was in twenty seventeen, I believe, and I went with gym sessions of Best of the West rifles and husk and my optics, and we used his mules and horses to pack in, and so each of us had uh an animal that we rode, and each of us had an animal that carried all our gear, and so we got to carry a lot

more gear. Typically an equine animal that you're packing can carry between I mean as much as two hundred pounds of gear. Usually more like a hundred and fifty pounds of gear and so all of a sudden, your limitations for what you could bring become a little bit more luxurious when you've got equoin animals. So I want I'm getting around to why you're going with me, Kobe the So I've been planning this hunt in my mind for a long time, and I needed I wanted somebody to film.

I mean, I want to make a film for the YouTube channel. I also want somebody that's able to take photography, you know, take photos and do stuff for the magazine obviously, Um, but uh, the main thing is that I didn't know exactly when I was gonna go. I mean, I just kind of refused to just like pick an arbitrary date on the calendar and just go, I'm gonna go this week.

And most normal people that have normal jobs that you want to go hunting with you have to have some pretty significant prep time and I just couldn't do that because it was weather dependent and there was a many other variables on the business side of it that I didn't know when I was gonna leave, right, And so Colby Morehead works for me now, So, uh, Colby was Mr Flexible inside of this deal, and uh, and Colby and I have hunted together before, but this will be

the first big do it yourself Western deal. And um, so that's a primary reason Colby may end up with a bear tag. I mean, we're gonna get up there and assess the situation. When Missy and I went up there in both of us bought tags, you know, three or fifty dollar tags, and we in need of one of us ever had a shot out of bear. So Colby is going with me. I'm gonna have a tag. Um, if we get into some bears and feel like success is probable, you know, we may go back into town

get him a tag. We realize he's gotta wait twenty four hours before he can hunt, but we'll see what to see. Um, the the way that I'm hunting is and I wanted to talk about this I've and I mentioned this on my podcast the other day, is that I've got two buddies up in Montana that have kind of helped me find some areas and have kind of given me a leg up a little bit on finding locations. Well not a little bit, I mean they pretty much said, hey, this is the region you go in, and uh, there

their locals and they're having success on bear. They are killing bears pretty regularly themselves or people that are up there around them, um by walking roads and just glass and clear cuts and being mobile. Okay, so they're not doing this back country deal where they're going way back in. I mean, they're pretty much driving around in the evenings and glass and cuts and going you know, hopping around to a lot of different locations trying to find a bear.

The last time that I went, I kind of fell in love with the style of hunting that we did, which was an equine based back country hunt, and that is what I want to do. That is that's the way that I want to kill a bear in Montana. So last year we went up there and we didn't kill a bear. We hunted for six days and and never had opportunity at a bear for the second time in a row. And so my buddies are like, Clui,

you're doing this wrong. If you stayed in a hotel and drove around in your truck, you could probably kill a bear a lot easier. And uh, I'm not putting that I'm not above that in any way. But I've also I just the older I get, the more I want to do things in a certain way and to me, a back country do it yourself hunt using these these mules that I've got, these animals, to me would be really significant. And uh so I've kind of made vision

that's the way I want to do it. And and uh, you know because to me, the West is so iconic of using equine animals for hunting. And uh actually, when I first got Izzy, the mule that I've currently got that I'll be writing. You know, I trained her from scratch in the whole idea. You know, when I got her, I envisioned taking her to Montana. And obviously I used her mostly here in Arkansas, but I envisioned taking her to Montana. And uh and that vision has not died.

Some things evaporate, some dreams evaporate, and some do not. That dream has not evaporated. And uh so we're going to Montana and we're we're borrowing a mule from my buddy, Trey Autrey. Now you've have you ever met Trey? He was on the podcast, but you weren't here when he was here. He's a squirrel hunter, so smoky. So if you if you watched our our killer squirrel hunting video called hundred Dollar Squirrel, Trey Autrey is, uh, he rides

a mule named Smokey Colby. You will be riding Smokey. Yeah, yeah, trial by fire. I get on the mule the first time we're going up a mountain. Man, you're perfect, You're you're you don't have a family. Yeah, right, okay, you know so it's kind of like, you know, indispensable. I guess is that the right word. Is that the word I'm looking for? I don't know about that. It's kind of like it doesn't matter if he comes home or not. No,

I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Now. The reason we we put you on Smokey and I've been I've been negotiating with Trey all morning, not negotiating. He was like, hey, yeah, you can take him, but we gotta get him shot before next week. There's a few things, but Smokey is super safe. It's like fifteen years old, pretty short. Um. Colby is not the tallest guy in the room, and I'm not very tall either, So if that tells you anything,

I don't have to duck a whole lot. Yeah. So Smokey is like probably hands thirteen and a half hands, and he's kind of a dead head. And so we don't need speed out there, we just need we need surefootedness and just forward movement. Yeah, sou and Smoking Easy have have traveled quite a bit together, so they'll do good.

So um well, and and the the other reason that you had to be pulled into this so quickly was my buddy Brent was gonna go with me, okay, And just in the last forty eight hours there's been another bear hunt planned this spring that Brent is gonna go with me on. Okay. So it's like, all of a sudden, this Montana trip had a hole in it. I needed somebody. So it's like, Kobe, let's go. Yeah, because this was the flexible trip to Yeah, yeah, this was a flexible trip.

So it's gonna be super fun. We got a lot of work to do between now and when we leave. But uh but this podcast is gonna actually help us as we think about planning. Um it seems natural. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I want to start off by saying that I am not a gear head. Kolbe kind of is. Yeah, all right,

I ventured into it. Yeah, I mean you're you're pretty technically, I mean like you enjoy like searching out the gear and looking at different products and really yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of podcasts, yeah, a lot of YouTube and see, I'm the exact opposite of that, Like, uh, I'm a

minimalist at heart. But at the same time, I think I've been pretty effective with the gear that I use on these back not just back country like these two do it yourself deals, but I mean I've I'm hunting a lot, traveling and hunted a lot in the last five years and back country hunted here in Arkansas. And you don't want to be limited by your gear. I think that's that's the thing, and that's what I live by, is I as I never want my gear to be

a reason for not being successful. So even though I don't enjoy the technical side of gear stuff, I mean I I can navigate my way through it, and typically what I do is just by the absolute best stuff possible. I mean, that's that's just a good, good way to go. But I do believe it's a lot simpler than people make it sometimes. I think sometimes people enjoy it, like you, Kolbe enjoy gear stuff, and so you talk a lot about it, and to somebody who doesn't enjoy gear stuff,

then it becomes like stressful. It's like, well, I had no idea that there were so many options for freeze dried meals. I'm happy with what I've got, you know. So so I think sometimes it can be confusing for somebody who doesn't like gear to listen to a podcast where they just dissect like two different types of gear for three hours. It's just like, hey, man, tell me which is the best one, and I'll get through it. And so there's kind of a rugged mentality of being

a minimalist that I inc is good. But also there's something really good to be said for somebody that's really good at planning and strategizing and getting the best gear, and so, uh, you know, I don't think either one of those positions is superior to the other, you know. Um, but so what we're gonna what we're gonna talk about.

We've got a list here of stuff. And I told Colby before we started this that I didn't want us to just like make a gear list for a spring Bear hunt, just like off the internet, just like read and saying this would be a good idea, Like I really went through and thought about the things that I bring, and um, and because I've never gotten out in the woods and wished I had something different. I really haven't, or or or got out there and realized that there

was some massive hole in my gear list. Let me put it that way. Um So that being said, this gear list would be this could easily be put into a back backpack hunt. I mean, like, you don't have to have mules to do what we're gonna do. Honestly, when we pack up our mule, we will probably we're just packing with one equine animal. The other one will

be ridden. Basically, what we're gonna do is we gonna have two animals and uh, both of them are gonna have riding saddles on, but one is gonna have a paniard, and the one that we pack on will probably have a hundred and fifty pounds of gear. So let's just say seventy five pounds of gear between the two of us, and all you'd have to do to get that down to that fifty to sixty pound range would be just shed a few things that were kind of extracurricular, which

will probably end up being food and drink. Okay, so we'll have the liberty to probably bring you know, some sodas or some gatorade or something if we wanted to, you know, and didn't want to like mix powder. I mean, we'll have a little bit more liberally. But I'm saying that to say that this all this stuff is still the same stuff that I would take if I was carry stuff on my back. Yeah, that makes sense. But we will have some liberty to take more stuff if

we if we want to. Um, So one of us will be walking and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna say that again one of us. Now we can switch off. But where we're the one place where planning to go, it's about five miles back in and uh, we can easily switch off, like somebody will be leading the mule, somebody to be walking, but you won't necessarily have a big heavy pack on while you're walking, you know. Um,

and we're also carrying camera gear. We're carrying forty pounds of extra camera gear that most people wouldn't be taken. So does that make sense? Yep? Is that fairy? Okay? Well, um, let's start right here. At the top of my list is weaponry, and I want to talk about what the kind of gun then I'm gonna be taken in Montana. I've had some people interested in that. And what we're gonna carry just one gun, even if both of us are hunting, I mean, even if Kolbe buys a tag,

We'll just have this one gun. And what I'm shooting right now is UH Best of the West Hunter Elite three wind MAAG. Okay, this is UH with with a with a husk the baw two by twenty by fifty scope. This to me is a super good bear gun for black bear or brown bear. Three in a wind maag. It's probably on the on the smaller side of the scale for what you would want to use for brown bear, but is fully capable and has the ballistics and has

has everything it needs for brown bear hunting. So it's it's a gun that would spam the span a pretty wide swath of North American big game. Okay, But if you were going to if you're going to Kodiak and we're gonna be you know, hunting ten ft brown bears and gonna have shots on a hundred yards, I mean maybe you would take get different big bore, shorter range gun, but thrown wind mag would do it all right. Um, Now, have you ever seen my best of the West Hunter Elite.

Not in person. Not in person. I need to go get it, show it to you. Um, I want to talk a little bit about this gun I'm shooting. Uh. Well, the gun is nine point to five pounds. It's a has a fluted stainless steel barrel with a Sarah Coat finish, So the barrel is actually black, but it's stainless underneath that, so it has a Sarah Coote finish. UM has the Best of the West seven style action with a Timney trigger. So these guns are built in Cody, wy Woman. Every

pretty much every component is built in Cody Woman. I'm not sure if they if they build their their stocks there, but they have them built four Best of the West. They build the actions there, they build the barrels there, they build everything there. Um and uh they now like a Timney trigger that is a custom long range, high end trigger, like you could go if you were gonna trick out one of your guns, you can put a Timney trigger on it. And there's several really good triggers.

Jewel and Timney are two of them. Um, you can get it. You can get a Jewel trigger on some of the Huska guns, but this one has the Timney trigger, which basically the Hunter Elite is. Let me talk about the best of the West system is that you purchased this gun from them and it is out of the box a absolute sniper rifle. They've they've sighted the gun in, they've broke the gun in, it's been shot, it's been uh, the scope has been I mean it's totally been sighted in.

And a custom turret built on the husk Mos scope. So I mean you could literally get it in the mail and pick it up and it's this gun is guaranteed accurate out to seven hundred yards. So the beautiful thing about husk Moth scopes is I'm not a gun guy, I'm not a technical gun guy. I've learned my way around a little bit the last several years, but most scopes are well, first of all, do you know what a custom tour it is? Tell us what a custom

tour it is. That's where they calibrate it so that you can dial in like your yardage and yeah everything, um, yeah, yeah, So it's so it's what it is. Is. It's like typically inside of scopes, if you're you would you would zero in the scope at tuoundred yards that means the tundred yards that's hitting dead on. Well, if you're shooting a three hundred yards, you have to calculate the hold over. Yeah,

four hundred yards, you calculate the hold over. I mean by the time you get to six hundred yards, you might have a four in holdover. And so that's where the error comes in. The human error involved in holdover. Hold over is a limon, aided by having accustomed turret because you dial the turret to the yardage of the target and you put the cross hairs directly on it,

so there's no hold over. Last year, I borrowed a gun in Manitoba and it was a gun that did not have a husky moscope on it, and it was my father and I was gun his muzzloader, and he had a little chart taped onto the side of his gun that had holdover, you know at three hundred yards

eight inch holder, four hundred yards sixteen inch holdover. And man, I mean, if you practiced, you could get fairly proficient, but you guessing how far, you know, at six hundred yards, and this muzzleloader was accurate out to that far ridiculously high precision muzzloader. But I mean think about holding over four ft at six hundred yards. You're guessing what four ft looks like at a target six hundred yards away. I mean massive probability of human so accustomed turret takes

that away. The reason huskmall is different is that its turret is the only turret that has yardage rather than m o A, so a minute of angle. Yeah, so like any any uh, they have it patented because so on my custom turret it has yardage. I mean, you you range find a bear and he's at four hundred yards, you dial it to four hundred. Typically what you would do is you would range it to four hundred yards and then you would have to calculate the m o

A and dial to it. And I've never had a scope like that, so somebody may correct me, but basically, scopes are m o A and you you understand, you understand how much a minute of angle is and you calculate it. Basically, Yeah, you're other rifle that you already had, didn't you put a huskmall on it? Yeah? Well, I've got a big board gun, a four fifty seven magnum, and I put the husk male one by six uh

tactical cope on it. It's a it's a six power and um it uh, let's see, yeah, it's a it's a it's a six power the little bit tactical scope into it's It's what you do is you gather data. So if you so like my Hunter Elite came fully ready to roll, okay, But if you want to take one of the guns that you have and put a huskam My scope on it with a custom tourret, all

you do is gather ballistics data. So basically, you go to the range with a chronograph, you shoot the top of you you have to have an already decided what top of bullet you want to shoot. You shoot it through the chronograph, and then you measure the drop at three different distances. Basically, so you like say and you tell them this, You say, the gun is zero to a hundred yards and it dropped eight inches at two hundred, and it dropped six, you know, eighteen inches at three hundred.

And basically they do all the physics of bullet drop and from those three things and barometric pressure and temperature, and I mean they take a bunch of things that just fine tune this calibration. But those are the three main things is that how fast is that bullet flying and how much drop does it have at two different distances? And from that data they build a customed turret that's built for your gun. It's pretty cool. It's it's super cool.

So that's the gun that I'm gonna be using. Um My that three hundred wind maag's I'm shooting a tuner twenty excuse me two twelve grain? Hornerty yelled the ex bullet okay, which, uh it's shooting out of that gun When we cronoed it, I think it was mainly in the ft per second range, but the Internet says it should be shooting about hundred feet per second. I think when you it's interesting. I wouldn't have known this except for several guns that now I've gathered data for Huska

ball for my guns. Um, well, I take that back, I take that back. No, we didn't gather data for this one. We gathered data for a different gun. This gun should be shooting per second. Yeah, yeah, that's smoking for a tune or twelve bullet smoking? So good bear gun? Um and do you have any questions on that or or comments? No, it's a heavy bullet Hey, and there's no way around at the best of west guns are I mean, I think that hunter let starts at around

five thousand dollars. But man, that's a lot of money. But it's also an incredible weapon that you know, unless you have a lot of technical skill, a lot of time, and you're gonna have a hard time building a gun that good, you know. Um, okay, weaponry to other things that I'm gonna categorize and weaponry, kolbe I carry a glock ten millimeter is a side arm? Um, A ten millimeter has quite a bit of knockdown power for a smaller handgun. I don't want to carry a monster handgun.

Um So I carry a glock ten millimeter. Isn't that what a lot of police carry? Well, it's it's got more knockdown power than a forty cow and a nine millimeter. And it's a pretty hefty bullet, you know, bigger than the three fifty seven or more, more more power. Um So that's what I carry. What are you gonna carry? You're gonna have to carry a side arm too. Yeah, I'm not sure. You just learned about this trip like

an hour ago. Yeah, he had it out yet. Well, I've got a I might just take a Revolver just for simplicity. It's just a three seven. That's that's all you need if I want to carry a pistol. I we got a forty that that I keep sometimes. Yeah, but I think revolver. I lost them. Uh. I lost the magazine one time, Uh, whenever I was hog hunting in a pistol and something a little nervous about losing another A little nervous about losing another magazine from my

from either one would be good. Where we're gonna be hunting is grizzly country, but it's not the big time grizzly country like you hear of in in southwest Montana. Um So. But the other thing that I'm gonna classifying or weaponry is bear spray, and both of us will will have bear spray and pistol. And that's pretty much my philosophy is that bear spray and pistol um both

of them. And I took a lot of flak on a YouTube video that I posted where I said I did not chamber around in my glock as I carried it. A lot of people were just like, that's crazy, that's that's stupid. It's not even worth carrying because typically bear attacks, if they happen, happens so quick you don't have a lot of time. Um, I probably will chamber around. I've just always I've just never been quite comfortable enough, especially riding mules and stuff, having a round chambered. Um. But

I'm probably just gonna go for it. And this is what I've always done, and I may maybe somebody has some feedback for me on this. I usually keep the bear spray tucked away, not not far away, but a way because my first defense is going to be that pistol. UM. But if you're in a situation where let's let's say we're out there and we're glassing, and all of a sudden we see a gris out there at eighty yards and it's just standing there on its hind legs looking

at us, I would meet. I would have seconds to get in and get the bear spray. For me, the bear spray is not like an immediate attack, like where you come around a bush and there's a bear ten feet away that's charging you. Like that's when I'm just gonna trust the pistol that I can get it out and shoot and hopefully the sound of the gun. I mean, it's gonna deter that animal from fully charging you. But if it does hit you, at least you've got you've

got some rounds to put in him. Um. So, to me, bear spray is more like the response that you use if you have more than fifteen or twenty seconds, because that's all it would take. I mean, I would carry it with me all the time, it but it'll be my pack. And so if I was down in super duper grizz country, I'm sure that I would wear it. But where we're at, the odd grizz might be in there, but it would be cool to see one. Um, but it's it's not it's not the norm. So that's my weaponry.

Threw in the wind mag ten minut meter gawk and bear spray comments. Uh, I guess if you carry the right pistol, it might not be you know, as big of a deal to keep one in the chamber, you know, like a glock doesn't have built in safety. Is like a springfield, you know, like a springfield, you have that

that one that makes sure you're holding it. That beaver tail, I think it's what it's called on the back, and then you have the trigger and the trigger, like you have a few more things, and I think was it glock? Does it have the like a trigger that's just no safety. Yeah, so I mean but ultimately, I mean you're not gonna I mean, the the actual trigger would be covered by your Yeah, I mean it's it's deep in a sheath. It's deep in a sheath. It's well buckled. I mean

it's it's pretty safe. Yeah, but still it's just a mental thing of you know, I grew up bow hunting so much that my dad put the fear of God in that's about guns, which is good. Yeah. Um, but I agree up the guns in the corner. Yeah. Well, and we did too, but it was just a you know, I mean we just we didn't We didn't recreate with guns that much. Other shooting skied and were hunting stuff, but I mean we weren't shooters and just put it

that way. Yeah, you know, I grew up on a more of a farm and so it was just like, you know, if something was coming up, getting after something, yeah, you could take care of it. Always had a loaded weapon close yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's go into the back country camping gear, all right, And I'm just gonna go down this list and perhaps we'll put this

list up. I I don't know if I want to be so bold as to put our list up, because there's there there's certain things that probably we're gonna end up taking that aren't on this list. But these are the main things. Tent. Yeah, tent I have. I have gotten through everything that I've ever done with a fifteen year old cell tech too man tent. Yeah. I believe it's called Celtic sounds right. Um, you know, back fifteen years ago, it was like a pretty high quality, lightweight

mountaineering tent. Yeah, nothing, nothing special, but a pretty good one. And I've carried it to Montana, I've carried it in Arkansas, and I've used it quite a bit. What kind of tent do you have? It's some off brand one I think that I got on Amazon. You're supposed to be the gearhead. Yeah, well you told me. He told me an hour ago. He's like, yeah, I got a two

man tent. I figured he'd like to be able to tell the weight of it and you no, No, It's like, you know, at some point we need to get does it have any cartoon characters on it? Like Snoopy. I don't know. I bought it for a click trip last year and I never used it, so I haven't even got it up and put it up. Okay, well it's probably got like Snoopy or like Barbie dolls on it. The little kids tents. Yeah, Pink is gonna be animated.

It's supposed to be an army green kind of you know. Well, but we need to get on those Nemo ones at First Light. Yeah with them, Yes, just kind of ran out of time. Yeah, first Light doesn't have him. I contacted uh Bridget at First Light the other day and they don't have them in the office yet. Yeah. But yeah, so Nemo and First Light have have started doing some branded branded content, branded content, branded merchandise for Backer. They've got some sleeping bags and tents and a bunch of stuff.

We will certainly have some of those in the future. Yeah. The other thing that we talked about that we should have for this hunt, and we may figure out a way to get one, is a Kafaru. Yeah, that'd be great. Um. You know, I've done pretty good with my little tent, but I would like to I would like to upgrade. Um, and that would be one that would be good. The Kafaro or the first light Nemo stuff. Yeah, yeah, they

all packed down pretty small. I think the main thing that we need to that we need to do on this trip before we go is pull this tent out and reseal it. Yeah, you know, just to make sure that if we get in a massive thunderstorm up there, it stays dry. I will also take with me a eight by ten to ten by ten tarp that I will put over the top of that if it rains.

When we were back country hunting in Arkansas over Christmas break, we were in a horrendous thunderstorm one night, but we had a tarp stretched over the tent, so we had the tent underneath the tarp that was tied with para cord and uh, the tent kept water out. But still we need to we need to make sure that that thing don't leak. But so I will take a B ten tarp with us, which is not on my list here. But so there's obviously a lot more we can talk

about when it comes to wilderness shelters. That's the main thing. So for two of us, we're probably just gonna take one tent and we're gonna take his colby snoopy tent um maybe for gear. Uh, we're gonna have it because it's it's pretty small. Okay, Um, so let's talk about betting. Yeah, every I've traveled in spring and fall the last several years, and I have found the sweet spot when you're hunting and temperatures between sixty five and twenty degrees fahrenheit to

be a thirty degree bag. Okay, it's uh, the bag isn't too huge, but it's it's also not too small. And I've found that I, um, every time I hunt, I usually sleep in the clothes that I'm wearing, and if it's my first light gear, like I'm wearing like my bass layers, and then probably a puffy puffy jacket in a in a toboggan or beanie, and uh, stay pretty warm. I find that a thirty degree bag doesn't

actually actually keep me warm at thirty degrees. I don't know if have you ever experienced if you can't much, Yeah, I think that they they design them to where you can still survive at thirty Yeah, well in that case, and yeah, I've heard that before. Actually now that you say it, and that's been my experience, is that like, if you were just thirty degrees, you know, just sleeping

without much many clothes on, you'd be uncomfortable. But the temperatures when we're gonna be a Montana are gonna be from sixty five to thirty degrees. Potentially up with a little bit of elevation will be colder, So we're gonna have thirty degree sleeping bags. I've got some Cabella's I believe they're called Invader. It's a Cabella's branded sleeping bag and it's uh, it's pretty good, pretty good bag. I like that. Um. I like to take a blow up

therm arrest. I actually used. I've got one straight up therm arrest. But also have a Cabella's branded you know air mattress type deal that rolls up really small. Yeah, and it's pretty thick. It takes quite a bit of effort and energy to blow it up, but it's pretty good on a back country hunt. I also almost always take a full sized pillow. And now that is a luxury. I think it's worth it. Yeah, Well, that's a luxury that if you're riding a mule you can take. If

you were backpacking in you probably wouldn't do it. You'd be you'd be taking a little camping pillow. I've also just slept on my clothes before as a as a yeah, as a pillow. I've used the my puffy first light jacket like it folds up into its home pocket. I've used that before, for sure. I've I've done the same thing, all those fold up in the little football shapes. Um. But if you're gonna be back there for four or five days and you've got the room on a mule,

I will probably bring one full sized pillow. Now, you the cameraman won't be able to coby. Yeah, you're you're on your You're on your own. You'll test test out all these other ways to pillow. Yeah, just ki, Yeah, you just I'm gonna use the cameras as my pillow, just to make sure that they're protected. Hey, you know what, James Lawrence, my old buddy, James Lawrence man when they camped back in the nineteen seventies. I mean literally they were just camping in these little army tents and he

used his saddle as his pillow. Interesting, he was, He's the one that I kind of mirrored my back country hunting off of. And uh, he was just looking for something elevated to lay his head on, so his head didn't lay back flat on the ground. So he slept on that leather saddle as his pillow. Yeah, so you'll be you'll be fine toughing it out. We've got two sets used. Yeah, we got you. You will have two saddles to sleep on. Um, so I take a real pillow, uh,

sleeping bag, mattress, pillow. That's it for sleeping. That's all. That's all we'll have. Um. Okay, let's talk about food. I use a jet boil that what's what's the other brand that's so good? It? That's probably better? Oh man, it just escaped you said it a minute ago. Jet boil is the one that like will pop into your head. I can find out once you find out what it is. Yeah we should, we should know this, but they jet boil like contraption that burns the ice. Approprial fuel is

what you've gotta have. And uh, I've heard people say that jet boil is not supportive of modern conservation brilliant hunters like us MSR. Yeah. MSR is probably a better a better buy for for people. I currently do have to admit that I have a jet boil, and uh so we will we will be if this will be a freeze dried food based backcountry hunt. Um, we'll take a jet boil, will take multiple extra canisters of ice propate fuel. Those things burn forever though you get a

big one. I mean they burn forever, but you don't want to run out. Um, we'll use that. We'll use that jet boil or that that earner to make coffee. Usually just bring some instant coffee, either the crystals or the packs, the little little like tea pouch type coffee deals. I'm new to the coffee world, okay. Yeah, Colby Kobe, Yeah he's new. He dodn't really drink coffee that much. You will in the back country. You will appreciate it. Uh I. Now, this is a mule man's luxury right here.

I bring real half and half with me wherever I go. If I'm in Alaska, if I'm in Montana, if I'm in back country of Arkansas, I will have about twenty five of those little little creamers. Okay, call me a sissy, it's okay. I'm okay with it. I gotta have my good half and half with my coffee, okay. Um, So The main experience that I have with freeze dried food

has been with Mountain House. And there's a whole podcasts that talk about the different options for food, but Mountain House is probably the most popular, most readily available, most commercialized of the freeze dried foods, and I've had great experiences with them. They've got a lot of sodium in them. They they any of the freeze dried food does for the most part. Uh, That's the one thing I've heard

is that they do have a lot of sodium. So if you're eating them for six seven days in a row, you know you have a tendency to kind of feel bloated, very a lot of calories. I think they taste great. I do not get tired of them. I really don't. I mean I could eat them. I could eat one for lunch right now and just feel like I'd gone

out the dinner. I like them. Um, what I have done on hunts where I've been with multiple people, as I've calculated to per day, I mean, you really don't want to eat more than two per day, even though it seems like a small amount of food, it's a lot of food, and uh, but what happens is if for some reason you're really hungry and eat three in a day. I don't know that I've ever eaten end the day, but you could because you average it out.

Like so if two of us are going and we're planning to be back in there for five days, I mean, you take two per day per person, so you take right. And they're pretty expensive. It costs like cheapest you can get them as about seven eight dollars each, even when you buy him in bulk, and that's what I do. I buy him in bulk in these like twenty pack buckets, and um, there's a wide variety of options, but it's

all good. Then I do bring an assortment of other just non perishable goods, pretty much whatever I can fit in there that I think might be good. I mean, I got might go to the grocery store and buy some some raisins and some peanuts and some cliff bars, um, you know, just just things that you can kind of stash around that you can snack on throughout the day.

And then I also have on my list here I usually bring some type of candy, I mean, just straight up sugary candy for those moments, Kobe, when you're just you just need a boost of something. It pairs well with bear yep. Yeah, for like drawing in a bear. Oh, I don't know, I was talking about more. Actually we get one okay, okay, got you got Okay, So we would use this celebratory Okay, I thought you were talking about baiting the bears. No, no, I don't know if

Montana would look Nope, can't do that. I can't do that. Kobe Kobe out there baiting them with like sweet tarts on the ground, like making little trails back to our camp camp. Um. No, let's see coffee creamer, small amount of candy, cliff bars, planning for two mountain houses per day. I mean, that's that's pretty much it. That. One of the limiting factors though, if you're doing a longer hunt in the back country is food. Yeah. That's what we found when we when we were carrying stuff in was

was food. Now when I went with Gym Sessions, Jim is a veteran back country hunter that would bust the trends of all these younger guys that are hunting. Jim has been hunting. Jim's I don't know how old Jim is, his fifties, like maybe even late fifties. And he's been hunting Wyoming by himself on mules and horses his whole life basically. And he brings a lot of fresh food school he really does. His wife cooks a bunch of stuff and uh, I mean we were eating I'm trying

to even remember how this was possible. It was pretty cool when we were hunting and his wife made a bunch of breakfast burritos that they just wrapped up and foil. We ate for probably three days. My cousin did that when we went to Colorado. Yeah, now we're all back country hunting. We were so yeah, well ice chest, yeah yeah, well, and that's what we did. We we carried all this stuff in ice chest and then once we went back in, I mean, you know, it was pretty it was pretty cool.

So the stuff stayed cool, but you'd be surprised how long cooked food will stay good if it's staying pretty cool. And so we did that. We carried he carried some sausage and eggs and he likes to carry a full cooking kit. Now, so we were cooking fresh food for the most part. Yeah, and he was he was kind of in charge of the logistics of our hunt at

that time. Um, so I wouldn't be opposed to bring in a couple of days worth, you know, bringing a We'll probably bring a skillet and some you know, some bacon and some eggs or something just to kind of for fun for a day or two then, but that's probably what we'll do. So can you I guess? Uh, I mean that's pretty we're just kind of hitting the high points. This is a generic list here. That's my main thing for food. Yeah. The other part of that

would be water. Pretty much on a mule based time, we could bring some water, and we may bring a few bottles of water, but water will not be the limiting factor because we'll be able to get to the creek. And what I have used before is this, Uh I've got it written down here. Yeah, it's the Catatin base Camp Pro ten leader water filter. That's what it's called. It's k A T A D Y in base Camp Pro and so it's this hanging back. It holds ten leads.

So you go down the creek try to get some fast running water that's uh, you know, in full of mud. But even if it was, this thing would filter it. Um and you you set it up and it drips, so you unhinched this little cord and you put your container down. There will bring some like now gene bottles something like that, and you know it'll take it three or four minutes to fill up your water container. Gravity filter, yep, gravity filter. So we'll bring one of the those. But

we'll also bring a LifeStraw. Yeah, I've got one of those. Two. Yeah, those are handy, just just to have in your pack, stick in the mud hole and drink if you had to. Um. Where we're gonna be hunting is gonna be up above where there's much water. There might be some snow banks around that we'd be able to gather a little bit of water to boil down if we wanted to for mountain houses and stuff. But we will have to carry

some water up. Now, we could easily go down two thousand feet and get water and come back up on a mule, which wouldn't be that big of a deal if you're on foot, it would be Yeah, you know, that's the thing. Where we're gonna be camping is well, it all depends on where the snow line's at. I don't know if I ideally would be camping at six thousand feet. Now we may we have not got into the nitty gritty of it's six thousand feet even there right now might be a under four feet of snow.

In that case we'll be camping lower than that. But but anyway, that's what we'll that's what we'll take. Um, here's a couple of just different things will be. You know, you you take your personal toiletries and whatever. You you know, you take a toothbrush and toothpaste, you know for sure. Um, wet wipes. Yeah, I'm big wet white man. Yeah, yep, wet wipes. They're good for all kinds of stuff, even

just cleaning your hands. You know, at the end of the day, if you've if you've been messing with the mules, or you know, you just or just kind of taking a small just like wipe down bath with one of them, you just feel refreshed. So I like taking wet wipes. Um primethrin. When we were in Montana the first year, it was ridiculous how many ticks there were and we were totally unprepared. I'm prepared. I mean I didn't even have any off. Um, we will spray down our clothes

with with this. Uh, how do you say it? Yeah, permethrin and and that I'll that'll keep that'll keep the ticks at bay pretty good. Yeah, that's something for sure. We bring garment in reach for navigation. Both of us have garment in reaches for If you don't know what a garment end reach, I mean most guys in the honey world probably would. But it's a it's a it's a GPS and a satellite text messaging device. It costs

about foreigner bucks. You pay about eleven dollars a month the lowest possible plan and basically you get ten free text messages per month and you've got an s O S button. So if we get back in there and something happens, we could hit s O S and it alerts the local authorities that somebody's in trouble and they need to send help. Basically up. Yeah, so you don't want to hit that button on accident. Now Here, they actually message you. They try to message you to like

say what's going on? Yeah, you know, so potentially if you hit it on accident, you could go my bad. But no guarantees on that, um, but uh, it does make you feel just a little bit better to know that if something crazy happened that you could hit that button and you know, you couldn't count somebody getting there fast. But yeah, it'd be difficult to hit that s OS on accident on accident. They've got to get it pre protected. They and actually when you hit it, it gives you

accuse you again. It says are you sure you want to do this? I mean, it says something like that, and so then you hit yes, and it's uh and you're good. She okay, we gotta we got firm the plothhound in here. She's getting a little restless, so that'll be how we navigate. Will also have our on X on our phones will download these sections so you'll be able to kind of look at some because the garment these en reached garments. If you're using the stuff that

the maps that come with them, they're not great maps. Yeah, I mean they're not. I don't want to dog them. They're there, but they're not like highly detailed maps, and it's certainly not satellite imagery or as user friendly. Yeah, yeahs on it. Yeah, it's kind of like a just a last resort type deal. Um, okay, here's a little tech tip for you that country camping tip. Yeah, I have a pair of croc like shoes. I do as well. Okay, I carry those with me everywhere I go. Let your

feet dry out at night. It's so nice to be even in the back, and they're super light. Yeah. Do you wear multiple pairs of socks? No? Yeah, I saw where guys will have like a where two pairs of socks will be like a liner layer of some Marino sock, and then they'll put their like first light socks like on top of that, and then it wicks the moisture a way from your foot. It's supposed to help. Yeah, that's what sissies do. Okay, uh oh no, No, that's

probably a good idea. You know, I just wear a variety. I think I have every possible pair of first light socks. They've got, you know, these crew socks that comped about halfway on your calf, which are lightweight, athletic Marino wool and spandex, And they've got these ones that come up to me, they come up actually almost over my kneecap, super tall. But then I've got some of the thicker warmer weather socks. But I man marino wool socks to me, or a non negotiable. Yeah, you can wear the same

pair of socks an entire seven day hunt. I might do it. I've done it. You know, you gotta let them dry out at and I mean, you know it's nice to take them off. And I mean if you get them like soaking wet and you gotta take them off and let him dry. But they dry quick and you can pick them up the next day and they don't smell terrible, and you can wear them again. They say you can put stuff that's damp in the sleeping bag with you in your body heat dries it. Oh yeah,

I've never done that. Um, So here we go. Knife yep. I like to carry a Barracuda. Um, have a lone, have a line, but I love him the big ones. And I carry four or five extra blades in case we had to skin a bear too. But you can skin a bear on one easily. Yeah, one have lin blade. But I'll also take a standard knife and I my father in law has a Steve Schultz custom knives. I'll carry a pack rap. He's got a little skeleton knife with no uh no handle on it. It's just the

handle has been wrapped in para cord. You got one, don't you. Ye've got one of those two? Yeah, super awesome knife has a what's what's the sheath made out of on those things, so it's lightweight, clips on your belt, has a little little clip on it. You can orientate it different ways, which which helps to like I have mine on like my backpack on the sleeve of it where I can just like pull it out real quick

if I need it for whatever. Yeah, guys, y'all could uh, y'all could do y'all could do us a favorite by going and checking out Steve Schultz Custom Knives. Yeah, and I think it's about a d twenty dollars for that pack rap, but it's really high grade steel. It's a totally custom handmade knife, and you can have all kinds of different colors on the on the para cord that's wrapped around the handle. But it's a great back country

knife light and just it's just fail proof. I mean, there's just just a it's just a super strong, good knife. I think the my favorite knife as far as like like one that's produced a lot. We could just go buy it, like I could Bella's or something would probably be like the bench made like the steep country. Yeah, it held such a great edge. Like you know, I've used custom knives for so long, I'm totally out of the knife world except for the half n which I

would love, absolutely love. Yeah. But um, all right, so these are kind of our camping are camping this is our camping list. We talked about tents, We talked about therm arrest pillows, heating devices for jet boils and whatnot. We talked about food, we talked about crocs, we talked about uh permithin um, we talked about sleeping bags, toletries, knives. So that's kind of our back country camping gear list. What I don't want to talk about now is optics.

This is a pretty big deal for any back country hunter, and it's something that I've been in Arkansas hunter kind of had to get used to because I've in Arkansas. You can't see more than about forty yards in any direction, and so having really good optics has never been really a limiting factor. But uh, what kind what kind of optics tell us about your like us, because that's mainly what we're gonna be using. Yeah, they're the like I think they're called the gelvid thinking a tim by fifty.

But they have a built in range finder, just really good glass. They're just they're the clearest pair of binoclers I've I've looked through. I'm not gonna say they're the best, but they're up there with like the Swarowskis and yeah, those those other high end So in the range on that one, it'll range out to a thousand yards, is that right? I think it might even be a little further than that. Really, See this is this is what

maybe further than you'll shoot. But you've never had a hunter elape best of the web, kid, No, So that is an issue when you have a long range rifle or even not even I mean anymore. A long range shot is or shots that are people are taken are longer than previous decades. Let's just say that. And uh like, I've got a cheap uh I think it's a six hour uh M, just like four hundred yard range finder.

I mean, it's just kind of like an archery range finder really, And you get out to Montana and all of a sudden you realize that thing is pretty much worthless because you can't range across these canyons that five, six, eight hundred yards and not that you're gonna take an eight hundred yards shop, but it sure helps to know the distance, you know, and when you do have a gun that's capable of shooting that far and you have practiced with it and really feel capable. Which man, I've

spent seven days hunting with Jim two years ago. I mean, super good long range shooter. We talked and talked, and I looked at how he how he how he did his setups when he would shoot. They do a lot of dry firing. Like if let's say you're shooting to bear at six hundred yards, you're gonna have some time. It's not like he's gonna be running and you're gonna be shooting him in that far. If you're shooting a

long distance, you do have time. So he sets the gun on up and he carries his little tripod with him within sandbags. He actually carries it in the back country. Yeah, and uh, you get set up and you unchambered around and dry fire it. Put it right on, just like you want to breathe and squeeze and see what happens to the crosshairs when you dry fire. Are you shooting,

are you shooting prone or yep? Prone. Yeah, prone, I mean, like that's all he wanted to shoot's prone, and so he you would dry fire, and you would gain confidence based upon what you saw when you dry fired, or potentially you'd realize you need to wait, you know, because if that if that cross air drops off of that animal or moves that much comes out of the kill zone, then you've got no business shooting. And then you know,

finally you chamber your live round. You're having somebody with a spot and scope and you you shoot, and so it's it's much more calculated than somebody might think who had never been in that situation and just like, oh man, you're just slinging lead at six hundred yards and an animal.

That's unethical. I mean, we could have a long, long debate about whether it's ethnical to shoot at something at seven hundred yards when you've practiced, have the equipment, and have done everything, versus taking a thirty five yard shot at a deer with your bow. I mean, it's all the ethics of it depend upon the person that's behind

the trigger or behind the bow, you know. I mean, because there's lots of people I know, including me, at different times, that have no business shooting at an animal at thirty five yards with a bow. Yeah, but it's a lot easier to pick on a guy that's long range shooting because it seems so it seems so far, you know, And maybe you don't have a gun that can shoot that far. Maybe you're not capable of shooting

that far. But I can tell you, and I'm not claiming to be a great shot, but I have shot my gun out to eleven hundred yards and hit U eighteen by eighteen still played at eleven hundred yards. Ranted. It took me a while. We didn't have the right distance. I mean, there was some many variables, but I'm confident that I could go back and uh easily even shoot

that far with this current gun that I've got. And uh, and then when I was in BC last year, we're shooting, uh, we're shooting two letter coke bottles at eight hundred yards, and um, you know, I was. I was consistently hitting a spot as big as a beach ball at a hundred yards every shot. And I can't tell you that I hit the two letter bottle the first shot. The gun was that doing that, But my and I was also had to rest on a stump. I mean it was like it was kind of like a real hunting situation.

We're just like we when we did know the exact range and we set up and I got a good rest on the stump and would have hit a beach ball sized spot every single shot for like five or six shots at a hundred yards. And I mean it's pretty good shooting, um, because first of all, I'm probably not gonna take an eight hundred yards shot, but you know, a black bear's vitals are in the range of that size. Good size black bear would be you could describe it as, yeah,

about the size of a beach ball, you know. So ethics all depends upon what you're capable of, you know. But uh, okay, so that I also want to say that I've carried the husk the mall ten by forty two s for several years. Super small and lightweight. That's what I like about them. Clear Glass. Did they sell that anymore? Is it on their website? I haven't been able to find it for Yeah, I don't know that those are still in production because they sell like on

their long range s tour. Really okay, they may quit selling those, but that's that's what I have carried for several years, and I do like them because they're so light and they are clear. Um, oh are they up there? Yeah? I guess they got another run of them. They're expected August of nine. Okay, so they sold them out and now they're getting more in in August. I see. Okay, all right. Then the last section here that we want

to talk about is clothing. This is probably the hardest one because there's so many, so many variables, and guys that have not hunted much out on a hunt like this often take away too much stuff, which that's what I learned about myself. I took way too much gear. Um. I'm gonna tell you what I pack and what I'm familiar with, and that's first Light Gear. I've been wearing first Light Gear since and I've pretty much exclusively worn

first Light Gear. So I cannot speak really objectively from experience with any of the other high end clothing companies Sitka Coo you. I've just not worn them, But I have warned first Light for all these years and know the product line fairly well. I don't know the the new twenty nineteen gear as well. I do have one of the one of their Uh. I think it's called the Brooks. Uh they're they call a sweater. But I

do have one of their new jackets that nobody's got yet. Um. But so I'm just gonna go through First Light gear. But you this could be translated to other things. But I've had great success with First Light. I like them as a company, and that's that's all I wear. All right, I'm gonna start off with tops. Okay, this is what I will bring when we hunt is I will have two pairs of Marino Wool underwear that uh, what's it? Once you get on the first Light side. So I'm

not so the names I'm saying are accord. I believe they call them. They're like, what do they call it? I want to say red dirt underwear, but I don't think that's what it's called. Um, but I'll have two pairs of the Marino Will underwear. When I first heard about this, I thought, man, that's kind of over the top to have Marino Will underwear. But Marino wool truly

is a magical fabric to have on skin. So if you're wearing cotton underwear or some type of spans that spandex synthetic underwear that will be the limiting factor, that's that of chafing and holding moisture and not drying out. And so it makes a ton of sense actually to have some Marino wool boxers. Okay um, I think they changed the name of them. They've got several different names. Go ahead, what are they? One was Dobson okay uh,

I think the other one was Lynn Brook. Okay, Well, two pairs of those I'll take, and then I'll take a one basse layer pant bass layer of marino wool, which what I have is the Alleghany. But I didn't see that they've got some a new one called the Fuse Long John, which, if you've not heard me talk about marino wool before, I was not a believer there for a while, or just was inexperienced and and and

was like a marino will probably not anything special. But when I hunt, use marino wool on skin for any type of any type of hunting, from super cold hunting like in Canada that I do all the way to hunting here in Arkansas when it's eighty degrees. A lot of people wouldn't understand marino wool when it's hot, but it's actually exactly what you want to be wearing when it's hot, because it works moresh your way from skin.

It dries out very quickly. The example I always give is if you've got a cotton T shirt that you've been outside working in and it gets damp and sweaty, that and you watered up and throw it down the floor. The next day, that thing will still be damp and when you pick it up it just has that smell. Well, Marino will dries out much quicker than cotton, and when it dries out, it does not hold near as much

older odor. Uh. You know, at different times I've said it's almost odor free, but if you wear it for like seven days straight, it will have odor um but not near as much as caught. I mean, like almost exponentially less than cotton. And uh, it doesn't affect the bacteria.

So like if you go saying to some fast food restaurant with it, it'll smell like that, but as far as like the sweat and stuff from you like, it attacks that it's like anti microbule or something like that where it you know, I'm not sure the science behind the marino will. I do know that from in terms of temperature regulation. And I think we maybe we talked about this, not another one. Marino wooll. Marino sheep are grown in places where it gets very very hot and

also very very cold. So these cheaper living in places that have these huge temperature swings, and so it might be cold one day and hot the next, and so their wool is capable of insulating when it's cold, but also uh regulated, you know, letting heat out when it's hot. I mean, that's the why I understood it. And uh and so that's what you want to happen inside of inside of your hunting gear. But the main thing is is that when wool gets wet, it's still insulates. That's

that's the tried and true. It's not just marino will that does that will. If you get wet, if you get wet when you're wearing cotton, you're in trouble. You are going to get cold, chilled to the bone. And obviously, depending upon how cold it's gonna get, whether it's life threatening or whether it's just uncomfortable for the day. Okay, Marino wool is much different than that. Um. But the key thing about marino wools it's soft. Most guys think of like the old wool ool stuff that people used

to wear. It would be like scratchy and kind of stickery. You know. Marino wool a soft wool, and so it feels like cotton, so it's comfortable like cotton. First Light also has some synthetic blends. So they've got this Marino wool stuff that's blended with synthetic stuff, so it kind of has an athletic feel. But that's good stuff too. The arrow wool believe it's what it's called. But okay, so I'll Marino wool boxers of Fuse Long John. The shirts might go to First Light shirts right now, or

the Furnace Henley and the Men's Furnace Quarters up. I love the Henley. Do you which one? Do you have? What pattern? You got? Fusion Fusion? Yeah, yeah, me too. I've got some cipher. But so there's lots of different options and shirts and you really can't go wrong. But those are the two that I'm wearing a lot right now. Okay, and Kobe, I will take two shirts. Let's just say we're going into the back country planning for five days.

Even though we're planning to be gone, we're planning a hunt for seven But when we go in the back country, I will I will take two shirts, okay, alright, you with me? The other shirt, well, bass layer on skin Marino wool shirts, and I'll alternate days usually probably what that's my theory, alternate did I probably won't do that. Um, listen to this story. When I was with Gym Sessions in Montana, I wore the same day clothes for six days straight and never took him off. For real. Uh

were my alleghany bass layer pants? And I can't remember what kind of marino wool bass layer shirt it was. Uh was there? Uh? Shoot, I forgot, I forgot what I mean. It was just there there, midweight, just standard first Light shirt. It escaped me what it was called. But wore him every single day, never took him off. And I and I I was wearing at the time, the North Branch soft shell pant with the Marino will underneath them. That soft shell pant. They don't make them anymore.

I've i've, I've talked with the first Light they they wouldn't hear my plea continue on with the North Branch soft shell. I loved it, um, and then and then on top I would come in and out of a of a un Kapa gray puffy jacket with the hood with the hood and I slept in it for six days. Um. But going back to shirts, so those are the two Marino I'll have two Marino wool basse layer shirts. But then what I will take with me this year is a Klamath hoodie. Ye. The Klamath has a more athletic

fit than the than the former. My other favorite first light gear was the the the quarters zip sweater that they had that isn't Marino wool. But the Klamath hoodie isn't Marino wool. It's like a it's like a it's just like a hoodie, you know. Has um But I like the athletic fit and I like the hood. I end up pulling that hood over. Those are the three shirts that I'll bring. Yeah, so too, Marino wool and the Klamath, the Klamath hoodie jackets. Moving right on to jackets.

I have traveled all over North America chasing Barris with an Ukampa gray puffy jacket. I love them. I mean to this day, when I pull it out, I like feel like warm, fuzzy feelings all down on the inside because it is such a awesome jacket. It's lightweight, it's not made for beating the brush. I've I've tore some holes in them. There's no you can't get around that. I mean, it's not like a car heart jacket, you know that's designed to just like beat the brush. But

there are a lot more durable than you think. Um. And I find that when I layer like with a with a let's say I've got that quarters at Marino wool on Klamath hoodie unka pargrey vest man, you can stay warm or in compagrey jacket. The other jacket quote unquote that will bring will be Unca pagree vest. I love Unca paragrey vest with the Unca pagree puffy jacket. Okay, super lightweight, but then you get that layering of two

pretty significant layers. And I find that you can stay pretty warm in temperatures down into the thirties with that with basically two puffy puffy vest puffy jacket I called the puffy I think most of them do too. Um. I will I do have their new catalyst system, and I will probably bring both the top end bottom of their catalyst system, which is just their soft shell. So it's it's a it's a soft shell, soft shell, like

the puffy wouldn't be soft shell. The puffy is that lightweight, you know, kind of scratchy material that like a bow hunter and a tree stand wouldn't want to wear. Yeah, but the soft shell is a soft to touch, non marino wool uh outer layer that's just a thin just a thin jacket. And the pants are the same. They're a little bit insulated there. They're like two layered, like there's a layer inside and layer outside. But that's their

catalyst system. The jackets the same. I will also bring a sawtooth hybrid jacket that I will layer with based upon the weather. So so on this hunt with temperatures from sixty six to let's say thirty five degrees, that's what the forecast says right now, my maximum layer in capacity would be two marino wool shirts Klamath hoodie, uncapagrey vest, uncapa gray well under that would be a sawtooth hybrid

vest and then a puffy full puffy. So that would be like that's the way I like to think about it. I'd like to think about could you put everything that you have on and stay warm in the most difficult circumstances possible. And if the answer is no, then you don't have enough because you're preparing for the worst. But you're also not wanting to bring way overkill, so you kind of want to be like Teeter, right on that edge. And let's say it got down to twenty five degrees

and was windy. I think I would stay at least warm enough with what I've got for in this in this situation. Does that make sense? Yep? I think that's a good rule of thumb. Think about putting every single thing you've got on and would that keep you warm? And if it would keep you way too warm, then probably you're bringing too much stuff, Like it would be

way overkill. Like if I had you know, six mid mid legs, you know, mid level shirts, and you'll be like, Okay, I put six shirts on this, this, this, this, this, this, this, You're like, man, that's way overkill. You're probably bringing too much stuff. Okay, let's talk about pants. Pants. I'll bring two kinds of pants. Well, potentially, I've got to make a decision. I'll bring the Catalyst soft shell pant they're kind of a thicker pant, and I'll wear the alleghanty

bottoms underneath them. I bet of this hunt, but I'm gonna make a decision on whether i bring the Corget God pants or the Obsidian Marino pants. So the first like Corget goide pants are like an athletic fit, like stretchy um, kind of feel like almost like spandex like material, really comfortable, breathable, lightweight um. But they're more for hot weather stuff. The other one is the Marino will pant the Obsidian, and I really like those. They would be

a little bit better for for weather stuff. They'd be a little bit better for colder weather because potentially you would if you got wet, that marino wool would keep you warm. Okay, all right. Rain gear Seek, I've got all the Seek gear the South It's it's it's an acronym for Southeast Alaska. But the First Light seat gear, I've yet to get wet in it, and I've used it in Saskatchewan and pounding rain and boats and have

used it a lot um. I didn't have as good luck with the storm tight stuff from First Light, but they've massively improved it since five years ago when they come up with a storm side stuff. The Seek stuff is the real deal. I've got Seek pants on top, You've got a Seek jacket, the storm top bottoms. If you're not sitting in something, those storm top bottoms will keep you dry. If you're sitting in a boat seat for four hours, that's getting you're just sitting in water.

I've seen them leak. Yeah, they leaked on me a little bit. But I I ripped them on something. To you. Yeah, well that that's they're kind of like lower. It's really lightweight. I mean it's not really made for just like setting the pounding rain. Yeah. I did great for a while. I think I was. I was hunting the rain, and eventually, like after a couple of hours, it was the SEQ wouldn't do that to you, Okay, Um, head gear, I think the best piece of gear that First Light makes.

And this is gonna surprise you. This is this is Clay Nuke a most valuable player. Yeah. First Light gear goes to drum roll goes to the brimmed Marino Beanie. Yeah no, no, no, no no, no no, no. I was reading. I never had a list. I've got a list today. Not that it's the tag cuff beanie. Yeah, man, I like mine that thing when I was in Idaho hunting and it was it was two. It was like negative two degrees and we were riding snowmobiles twenty five miles.

Two of those two tag cuff beanies and then pulling up a uh, pulling up stuff, you know, a hoodie over your head with whatever you're wearing underneath. Super warm, man, that thing gets wet, you stay warm. It's I've carried them all over and I usually carry two with me. I get pretty cold pretty easy. And man, if you can keep your head warm, so good. Um. The other thing that I like to wear is that brim brim Marino beanie. I like it. I like the short brim.

I like the way it feels like the lightweightness of it. I like it when people think it looks funny. Um, you need you need one of them. You've got one you were do they think you look funny? I think you look funny at him comments, I'm speech all right, last thing on the list and then we're gonna close down, Kobe. Um. Gloves, I am not a glove man. I mean, if it's like freezing cold outside, you know, four out of five people have gloves on, and I won't have gloves on.

I just like to be able to touch stuff, like usually i've got camera gear I'm bow hunting or um for even when I'm riding the mule, I like to be able to feel the reins. I don't know why. I think it's just a personal deal, but but I will carry the first light arrow wool liner glove, super thin, and and it just it takes the it just takes the edge off the cold. But still you get that touch. You know. They're not made, they're not durable, they're not made for working, and you'll pop a hold on them

pretty quick. But just for cool mornings when you just want to take the take the sting and the edge off the cold on your hands. I really like them. The only costs like seven teen bucks, so it's a cheap little glove, and it's Marino wool so if it gets wet, it'll dry out quick. Um. I like them. Sometimes I have a hard time find them in a bag. Yep. They're so small, yep, in the midst of all the

rest of the fusion. Yes, yes, uh, the other thing that I that I carry, and I don't know if I carried on this trip or not, but I'll have them in the bag at least in the truck and we'll make a decision based upon the weather and stuff. Is the soft shell shooting glove, it's there. It's they're kind of like it almost feels like it's neopreme. It's not, but and it goes way up on your wrists and vel crow's pretty hype on your wrist, probably two inches

above your hand yea. And I mean they're pretty solid gloves that you could use for I mean, you could shoot in them. Uh well they're a shooting glove, but you could. Uh they're they're tougher. You know, you could move around logs at camp and I mean, you know, they're kind of made for doing stuff like that at looks. That's been my experience. And those are the ones that have to cut up for your like archery relation. Yeah, that's what it is. That's what it is. Those Okay,

well I will carry those also had their uh scree gloves. Yeah, I believe they got one called screw they're used to. It's just kind of a standard, just like smaller glove, but a notch up and turn is a protection from their errol liner their errow wol excuse me. They came out with quite a few gloves this year. They've got a bunch of new ones. I haven't really looked at them yet. Yeah, we've got a bunch of new ones. Well, hey, we've gone, We've gone long enough. Here, this is the

this is our list. I guess it's been fairly exhaustive. But I would feel confident today using this list and going. Now there's gonna be something like, you know, I didn't put like a lighter on here, Like, yeah, you should take I carry a lighter with me every time I get out of the truck in the back country. Yeah, I like starting fires, or like a good pair of boots. Well, we didn't talk about boots. Yeah, yeah, I mean these are I guess there's some things that are just like

givings that we didn't talk about. Let's talk about boots. Though I've been using the Cambella's Denali for several years. My boots are so war out there on their last leg. They don't deserve to go back to Montana. But those of the kangaroo ones, like no, no, that's what I wore when I was in Montana last time, and I got y. They don't repel, they're not gortex on the inside. So they But what tell us what kind of boots you have? You have some good ones? Yeah, I got

some kind of trucks. Um, I'm not sure. I know they're uninsulated, so like the only insulation would be like the sock. Um, they come up, you know, a little above my ankle. But yeah, they're really like you when you put them on. At first they feel really tight, but then all of a sudden, they just they feel great. Uh. So this would be my first back country hunt wearing them though. Yeah, but uh yeah, they're they've been great so far. Well you see, yeah I didn't. I didn't

put boots on. I mean, is there anything else that probably would be on the I mean lighter boots. I mean not other than just like the normal normal things. Everybody's gonna have their own little pleasantries. They might bring like half and half. Yeah, and we really I don't think we really got into like different types of packs or anything like frank picks. But in that one with mules, you know that. And that's a good one that I didn't And again me not being a gear head, guys

could flip out over packs. Hey, you're gonna go ahead and say this and if there's a there's somebody, there's a fine company out there that would like to sponsor this trip. I have for three years used a thirty dollar Walmart pack field Line Baby, the field Line. Actually I'm sponsored by field Line a year. Right. That pack is awesome. I mean it won't it's not gonna last forever, and it's starting to tear into place or two. But

now we need some good packs. And we're looking at some exo mountain gear stuff in the stuff, and and I have a I have a couple of like standard issue fifteen year old uh uh solid frame packs you know that are just nothing special. But I have yet the nerd out on backpacks. Yeah, I think the load shelf is a little little low, one of those older ones. I think that's one of the things that yeah, yeah,

uh yeah, it's it's been good. I haven't used it a whole lot, you know, but uh yeah, just any of these newer packs or are going to be really good. But it sounds like you have to get the measurements right, like you know, so like not it's not one pack fits all you have to measure I think it's from like your Eliot Crest thinking factors that in like you're going from the top of your hip bones basically to like I think the warrior back would bend a little bit.

But there's there's good stuff out there on the online to figure out how to measure right for the pack, or if you go to any of these like shows and they bring the packs out, you can try one like. That's why I went with with qu was because they came to show close to my house and I could try it on and see what fit me at the time. Yeah, yeah, good. Well, there's certainly a lot of stuff like that that is not on this but in terms of just like this

is the basics. This is the basics, And we went through a few specifics of stuff that we're that we're using. But but we are going we are going to Montana here sometime quite soon. Hey, I do want to say too on this podcast. I'm not sure if we'll be making another one right away, but one of one of our films was selected to be in the back Country

Hunters and Anglers Anglers Film Festival, The Rendezvous. The Rendezvous. Yeah, we made ah, we made a film about squirrel hunting on mules that made the cut, and you may have seen the film on YouTube. Um, but this is a this is a special back Country Hunters and Anglers version. That hunt took place on public land. And uh, they told me that there were multiple upwards of a dozen squirrel hunting on mule videos submitted, but ours was the best. And so that guy actually from b h A actually

said that to me and I believed him. I was like reading this email in slow motion. I was just like, you're kidding me. A dozen people submitted videos on scrown with the mules. This is ridiculous. And then he put a little smiley face and I realized he was kidding. But so our film will be in that I'm looking forward to that. The mules will be making a reappearance. Yeah. So if you watch that Smokey, I mean, smoke is

pretty old. So assuming that he he lives through the departure, I mean, you know, like, if Tray didn't call me like tomorrow, go man, Smokey passed away cold people to be driving Smokey in Montana. Yeah. If not, I'll be yeah, yeah, I don't know. We'll have to figure out what you're gonna be doing. I'll be on one mountain filming you on the other Mountain. Yeah me and Isy yeah yeah. Well all right guys, that's that will That will conclude this.

And if you have some suggestion for us, you know, somehow contact us, let us know and how you do us a favor, give us a review on iTunes. Yeah, I think it helps get those five star, four star, hopefully not much less than three. We get some reviews, and we really appreciate you listening, and hey, keep you wild places wild. That's where embarrass leave