Welcome back to Cutting the Distance. Today, We're gonna have a little different feel to the show. I'm not gonna have a guest on. We're gonna jump into preparing for an el cunt. We get a lot of questions as far as I'm coming on my first l cunt or they've experienced maybe some lowland front country and they're wanting to expand they're wanting to go a little bit deeper,
they're wanting to try new areas. So we're gonna just I'm gonna go ahead and take some user questions, and then I'm just going to go over seven eight different points that I think can really help you as you prepare for your upcoming L hunt this year. So the first thing we're going to jump into, like I said,
user questions, I'm gonna go ahead and answer these. And if you have any questions of your own for us here at Cutting the Distance, either myself or our guests, feel free to email us at CTD at phelpsgame Calls dot com. We'll do our best to get those questions answered. You can also message us on social media if that's easier. So, the first question, what ELK sounds should I be able to make and how good of a caller do I
need to be before I head into the woods in September. So, in my opinion, you can go into the Elk woods with just a I mean, you can count them on one hand. I would say, first of all, you need to be able to make a location bugle without getting too deep into it. I would say, just any bugle. If you can make a location bugle or a challenge bugle, or one or the other.
That's gonna be fine.
I'll do a little bit to explain the difference between a location bugle and a challenge bogle. So a location bugle is typically a three note two to three no very high note bugle, and it's not going to have a lot of rasp to it. It's going to be very clean, and I usually keep it about two to three seconds so then I can hear to make sure that a bull is going to respond.
So if we were.
To describe a location bugle, it's two to three note, very high. We're not adding a lot of void, We're not adding the grould at the beginning. I'm just a very clean note that's intended to travel very far, you know, across the canyon down into a canyon. And I've always said that if I know I'm doing it right, when that high note is ear piercing, when it's kind of rattling my own brain, when it's kind of getting to my you know, it's a it's almost an obnoxious ring.
When we get that location bugle to that volume and that pitch is really where it seems like we get the best response from the elk. And to be honest, that's the call that we're going to use. Probably you know, over seventy five percent of time, three quarters, maybe even up to ninety percent, is your walking ridges, as you're walking trails, as you're in the woods. You're going to just be using location bugles for the majority of the time.
If if I'm on maybe you know, warm sign or I can smell elk or we've got fresh tracks, I may locate with a cow call or a loud cow call off of specific points, But most of the time we're using location bugles as we walk by. Second, of all, you need to be able to make just your typical cow call, your your meal. Yeah, that's all we're doing. You need to be able to make a clean cow call.
If you can do that, you can put a little more pressure on the read, shorten it up, and get your calf call not as important in my opinion, But if you can have that cow call, you're gonna be you know, able able to replicate that and use it where needed. Third, uh, I use estros wines a lot, and there we can argue all day amongst guys that that you know the term, what each call is and what his name should be. But in my opinion, and estress wine is when a cow is is coming into estrus,
she needs a little more attention from her bowls. So instead of the typical yeah, you know, our our typical cow sound, that's gonna be wavy. So it's gonna go high low, hilow, and we're gonna we're gonna use those estress wines to then tell that bowl to come over here. I need some attention, Come pay attention to me. So I go on with an an estress wine, and then I would say, like the fourth sound we need to be able to do is do some sort of a
challenge bugle a little more aggression. It's got some of that growl and throatiness in the beginning. You're gonna add some voice back into it. You know, using your your throat, your veil, you know, using that back of your throat to really you know, add some of that growl and real realism to the call. And then I also like to be able to either add grunts or chuckles onto the end of that bugle to add some realism. And aside from that, that's really what you need to be
able to make those four sounds. So on the bugle side, a location bugle, add a little bit of aggression and in the grunt. And then on the cow side, if we can go out with a good cow mew and then like an estriss wine, we're gonna be we're gonna be really really well off. And I would say we we throw some other stuff in like screams, bark, chuckles, you know, uh, estress buzzes.
There.
There's some other sounds that we will throw in that we will make at certain times, but for the majority of time they're not necessarily needed. And then we've answered this a lot before, but how good of a color do you need to be in? In my opinion, it's much more important to know when to call and kind of what to say and how to react to the situation than it is on how good you are. Yes, it's important. A lot of times we'll use mimicry as
some of our strategy. It makes a lot of sense to be able to mimic that animal, and it takes some skill to figure out or know what you need to do to that diaphragm to be able to make that sound.
So not as important of being a good caller.
More important as knowing when and how to react the situation, read it and know when you need to call, when to add some intensity, when to move in some of those things, And then it wasn't really in the question. You can accomplish all of this either through diaphragms through If you can't use that, you can use some of our external cal calls like the easy s just the
easy sucker. If you can't run a diaphragm through just a standard bigle tube or grunt tube, we've got the easy biggler that will then also allow you to be able to make those bagles. So there are a lot of combinations you can use to be able to make those four elk sounds that we talked about that I just mentioned. You need to be able to be able to make as you head out into the elk woods. The second question, how do I decide where to go
elk cutting? So you know, we get these questions a lot from people back east, even people around home that have only ever hunted around home. They're just trying to figure out where can you go? L count where are their opportunities? And as cliche as it sounds, you have
to have you know, that elk tag. You have to have the opportunity before you can go hunt these elk and so the first way is through most of these western states, even some of the Eastern states now that are starting to get re established herds of elk is. You'll have to have points for most states, with Idaho and New Mexico being the exception. But they also don't allow over the counter opportunities, so you have to make
sure to get into those draws. Idaho requires you to one either jump into their I would call it their waiting room lottery on December first, which has already passed us. So you're not gonna be able to get that elk tag for this year, but it's it's held pretty steady that date for the last two years. And New Mexico doesn't have points, so it's it's also already passed us. But you also have to front the money for the tag up front, so it detours a few people, I
would say, from applying. So those two states don't have points. The rest of the states across the west have points. So you're uh, your Nevada, your Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, everything requires some points. Colorado does have a lot of over the counter, which I'll also get to, but Colorado has points. And then there are these states that don't have points. So and it's it's it's this list is becoming smaller and smaller as years ago on, as people implement systems,
as they add units to the systems. So and I may be a little bit incorrect here, but but for the I would say, for conversation's sake and the majority of the opportunity, the states that you haven't over the counter opportunity in right now are Washington, and that would be west and east. But I would say when we consider over the counter in Washington, they're mainly talking about
Roosevelt's West of the Cascades. There is some decent eastern Washington opportunity, but you're going to be hunting spikes or in units that maybe don't have high densities of elk. You have the same inn organ where you now need to apply, but you can do over the counter on the west side. Colorado has a lot of over the counter opportunities, and there are a few places in Utah
where there's some over the counter opportunities. But that's really if you haven't been in the draws or don't have a tag and you're wanting to get out this year, you need to kind of focus your efforts on those three states Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and that's how you're going to have to find opportunity. Wyoming used to be a place you could go hunt maybe every two years. Looking at the dry out numbers this year, it looks like at maybe four four and a half, maybe even five
points now just to hunt general in Wyoming. Fingers crossed as a non resident that they don't implement the ninety ten split there because I feel that we would bump that number up just six seven eight years to draw a Wyoming elk tag, and Wyoming is a special place to elk hunt, really really enjoy it. But they're making some changes to potentially get their residents additional tags, which I can't fault them for but it would hurt me as a non resident.
So yeah, you either got to be in the point game.
You got a few states you can do over the counter, and that's you're going to have to figure out where to get that tag.
So that you can go go on your hunt.
Would you recommend going with a guide for your first elk hunt. I've always said the best way to learn elk hunting is to go with someone who knows what they're doing. You can cut years, five, ten, twenty years off of what it may take to get to that experience level if you go with somebody that's been there before and teach you what to do and what not to do. So you can learn by going with somebody
that knows or an outfitter or a guide. As long as they're good and reputable, they will knock off the learning curve and then you'll have that knowledge for the rest of your life. So I can only voice my opinion that if you've got the financial resources and the ability to go with a guide for your first all cunt, I think it's a great way to go about it. If you're only wanting to go on maybe one l cunt and you don't plan on going in the future, it would still be a good idea to potentially go
with a guide or outfitter. The odds for success are going to be drastically higher than if you were to do it on your own. But on the contrary, there's something special about if you were to go out do it on your own research scout, which we're going to get into here in the discussion. If you can put some of these things together and do it on your own,
there's a lot more satisfaction potentially involved. Maybe you don't care how you know how you kill an elk and so it doesn't matter, And by all means, go with a guide outfitter. Learn what they know and then you can apply that for you know, all of your future a cunts. So it's really just up to you your finances. One thing I would highly recommend is vetting your guider outfitter. Make sure they they're reputable, make sure they do things the right way, make sure they hunt hard.
And I'm not gonna lie.
I don't dog on private land hunting, but an elk with a guide an outfitter on private land where it's gonna be a lot different than a guider outfitter that takes in the mountains and you know, nothing's nothing's a gimme,
nothing's patterned. Maybe I say nothing's patterned. Nothing's patterned to the point of a lot of private land hunts and you're gonna have to hunt, You're gonna have to work, You're gonna have to you know, and that's really where you're gonna learn it and kind of start to gain that knowledge base that will pay off year after years.
So that's that's my answer for those three questions. Once again, you have questions of your own, feel free to email us at CTD at Phelps game Calls dot com, or hit us up on social media, send us a message, and we'll try to plug these into the podcast. So let's assume that we've we've got the tag going off of that that listener question. You know, you got to find the tag first. Let's assume you've got to tag.
What do you do Once you've got to tag? You either confined to a unit, you're confined too at general areas. You know, Montana's got some tags that are you know, nine hundred series that are kind of scattered all over the state. You've got Wyoming where you get a general tag and you've got kind of checkerboarded units all across the state you can hunt, you know, a Montana big game, you can hunt a lot of units aside from the
selected units. So you really just have to figure out now that you've got to tag, where are you gonna hunt? Same with Oregon, Washington. You know you've got to You've got an over the counter tag, You've got a lot of units to choose from. How are you going to zero in on a place to park your truck to camp to go out after out? So one thing we're
gonna get into is looking at success. Uh. First thing I do if I was a draw general tag is start to go through you know, whether it's it's go hunt, whether it's the fish and Wildlife website, brochures, harvest statistics, any of that. I'm going to start there and look at what I'm trying to accomplish. If you're just looking to kill any legal cows and bowls, I would go look at population densities, I would go look at hunter success.
I would also hunter success and one hundred days in the field for success are two different things as well, So you can start to look at that and if if killing any elk is what your goal is, go off of that, and then you're we're gonna talk about some other things here. You're gonna want to vet that, confirm it, and I'll give you some resources here in
a little bit. If you're if you're wanting to hunt any bowl, maybe maybe your your goal wasn't to kill a cow, but any bowl, you can then go start to look at percent by you know, harvest bisex and maybe maybe you don't care if it's a six plus you know, six point plus bowl and you're just looking at any bowl, then you can start to weed through
that information. If if I'm going to a unit that has or or if I'm looking to harvest a bowl that is, you know, six plus points are better, I'm looking for something big, mature, I'm willing to then also sacrifice hunter success and one hundred days in the field. And like my main the my priority is on percent of bulls that are taken out of the unit that
are six point or better. I typically want like lower hunter numbers, So i want a unit that has big bulls, doesn't have as many hunters, And I'm really trying to look at at some of that to to figure out what unit I'm going to hunt. And another thing that's more I would say maybe is even specific to me. There are some people that will go out there and they don't really care what they're hunting or what type of terrain they're hunting. U you know, whether it's flatlands,
whether it's rolling hills, whether it's blm. I coming from Southwest Washington, where I grew up hunting in what I would consider the jungle, you know, Devil's clubs in the bottom ferns, brush just you know, kind of that rainforest setting. When I leave Washington or or Western Washington, I don't want to go into a brushole, you know. So I'm going to avoid avoid North Idaho. I'm going to avoid some of those places that are just thick and brushy.
I'm looking for something, you know, above tree line. I want to get up in the mountains. I want to have a mix of alpine and subalpine and then you know, crick and river bottoms. So I'm also looking for something that's maybe even completely separated from the elk or the elk successes in that area. I'm looking for certain terrain and certain areas and canyon country that I want to
hunt versus say, rolling hills, you know, or something like that. Now, when I you know, I'm hunted New Mexico before, and we are, we're in you know, rolling Juniper, and you you adapt to it. You may work it's elk cunning. I still love it. But for the most part, I'm also trying to find a place that I just like
to be in. So we've looked at harvest statistics, I then look at places I want to hunt, and that kind of starts to zero me in, and then some of these other points that I'm going to get into will well.
Then further that.
The first thing I do after that, I've kind of zoned in on an area and it's going to be called a biologist. But but I don't want to call a biologist with an empty question how are the elk doing? Where should I hunt? Because when you ask that question, that biologist has given the same answer to everybody else
that calls for unit. I have a hard time believing that that biologist is like, you know what, last time I told somebody go to you know, Mountain A, and this time I'm going to tell somebody to go to Mountain B. And then the next color I'll tell to go to Mountain c You're getting a very generic answer of an area where he may know people harvest elk and people have harvested in the past, and they don't
give you very good data. And they may not have good data when you bring them specific spots, drainages or areas. But at least you're starting to ask those questions and you're not going to get the generic answer. So I would like to pick up the phone and call the biologists, get a little bit of understanding on like are these elk migrating, when do they finish their migration up into the high country, what does the herd health look like?
And then maybe some of these biologists are really good in know their unit or a lot of times if I give him areas they're not sure about, they'll give me a call back, they'll do some research, ask around. So I like to call a biologist just to get a feel for it. It may not be the best information, but at least it's it kind of adds to that portfolio for your hunt.
You know, what are they all doing.
Maybe they've got good data on where you're at, Maybe maybe they don't.
So I always call it. But I'll just get that out of the way. I then.
Like to just kind of call the outfitters and I'm upfront in the area if there is an outfitter or a guide work in the area, like, hey, I drew a tag for this unit, or I've got a tag for this unit, or I've got a tag I'm thinking about but going there, I'm just getting some information, you know, not wanting to step on your toes. We're looking to make sure we're not in the same area, you know, because a lot of them even let you know what where their camps are at, what drainages they're in, you know,
even on their websites and whatnot. So a lot of times they don't want you to necessarily be in their area anyway, so they will give you good advice on maybe what drainage to try, what the pressure is like in an area. They can, you know, they can give you some of that information without really hurting their clients hunts and whatnot. So I always like to call outfitters or guides that are in the area just to kind of see what they have. And sometimes they they'll give
you information. Sometimes they're tight lipped and they won't and then I always take what they give me a little bit with the grain of salt, because you never know if they're trying to throw you off or send you into a dead zone, any of that. So call the outfitters in the area, figure out what's going on in that area as far as heavy outfitter traffic, and then I try to avoid that and hope that they give me a good answer so I can avoid them as well.
I also like to call the owner of the property, whether it's for a service, whether it's a BLM, whether it's any of the following DNR and get their opinion on the area, how busy it is, what they see
for rigs parked at gates or trailheads. What's my access in there going to be like, because a lot of times I can see roads and whatnot on on X maybe they don't have a gate in the right spot, or there's a lot of seasonal shutdowns where RMEF or a game department has partnered with the owner and they shut a gate on a certain date September First, this gate shut well on the map, it looks like I could have drove another five or six miles or whatnot.
So I like to call the owner of the property, make sure that my access that I had planned on getting to is going to be there, and then you know, just just kind of run that by them. And then once again, I'm I'm not necessarily scared of any traffic, whether it's you know, driving for wheler, motorcycle, hiking, whatever it may be. But I don't want to just be in a very, very busy area. I'll take a moderate to light area, but I don't want to throw myself
into an area that's just packed with people. So calling the owner is great for that. I always E scout and I'll do a lot of ES scouting, probably prior to calling the biologists and the owner. I spend a ton of time E scouting, and I will I'm looking for the three things that Elk are gonna need. I'm looking for cover, I'm looking for food, and I'm looking for water, you know, and Elk.
Needs a drink.
It's very I may be saying something that's very obvious for most people, but if you always tie everything back to that, it's it's gonna it's gonna work better. So you they can't they can't sustain, they can't be there without one of those three. So I'm always looking for where's their water source? So they're gonna be able to drop to a creek. Do they got a pond, Do they have wallows? Do they have benches?
Like? Where are they gonna get their water from?
They need to have some ability to escape hunters, predators, danger, heat, whatever it may be. In September, So I'm looking for bedding areas. You know, I'm looking for stuff on the north slope, I'm looking for shade. I'm looking for, you know, spots where they can escape, be safe, not be seen. And then I'm looking for a good food source. And
that that really depends on on where you're hunting. You know, if you're in the high country of Colorado, all of their food may be green grasses and green and shrubs
above tree line. If I'm hunting here in western Washington, I'm looking for green, lush clearcuts where those elk are gonna come feed and then they're gonna go back to timber where that that example I used in Colorado, those elk are going to go up above tree line and then they're going to feed back down into the timber or into their their bedding area and then uh, you know, like that that escapement. The betting areas, you're looking for
big timber, you're looking for pockets. You know, ideally there's a spring or water at that spot. Benches, but what keep in mind that isn't always a telltale sign. I just prefer benches in an area because it it doesn't.
Guarantee, but it gives me a higher percentage. I know where they're going to be betting.
But we've seen elk bedded on fifty degree slopes and they're just fine. They you know, they've kicked out above a tree, they've got their betting there, So that that that will also know they can bedding near anywhere. But we're looking for for areas with with with all of those features. And then one thing that I really like to look for in a specific area is a good set of ridges that connect. I work pretty inefficient if I've got to drop off of a finger ridge across
a canyon to get on another one. So I really like a high ridge line running through the area where I can cover a lot of ground, or if I've got a trail towards the top of that, so one or the other, either I can walk the ridge fairly easy without being cliffed out or cut off, or I can walk a ridge trail that keeps me pretty high in elevation. And I love to be able to call down into that canyon, be able to reach above me, and be able to cover that entire canyon with my
location bagle. So I'm looking for that more canyon country where we can call across, we can glass across, which is very very important for my elk cutting successes. I want to also be able to glass, and that's where I'm drawn to some of that alpine subalpine stuff where we can get up, we can glass avalanche shoots above tree line and really kind of set up our hunt and I don't intend to get in to that, but that's something I'm looking in an area glassing, good calling, and
then be able to cover a lot of ground. And with those three things it starts to stack the odds of success in my favor. And then now that we've got all this, we've we've picked an area, we've called the biologists, we've called the property owner, we've we've you know, did all of this. The last thing that I do, and it's a brief check. It's just trying to figure out who has hunted it before and what their take is and and in order to figure that out, I
will go a cruise forums. A lot of times it will be, you know, jump on Google, you type in you know, unit X, y Z and elk in Colorado, and it will tell me, you know, a lot of times there are a forum or or something that I've talked about that, and I'll just go read like, what
you know, we're people not seeing elk. And I always take that once again with the grain of salt, because I don't know how good the elk hunter is on the other side of the keyboard, you know, whoever type that, But it just gives me a general consensus or a lot of times you'll see a guy pop up or you know, a couple of people like, oh, you weren't in the wrong spot, or you did it wrong, or you didn't hunt the right spots, and it just starts to let me know, like, all right, it's obvious that
maybe the densities are in different locations in this unit are vastly different. So it just starts to let me know, like, all right, I'm going to need to find spots. A lot of times people will talk about specific areas they went into and it was really really busy er lots and lots of rigs, or they take a picture of a of a trailhead and I start to use that data to really hone in is my idea good or do I need to go back to the drawing board
kind of redo everything we just talked about. Pick a new area, pick a new you know, go back, call a billo, just called up the property owner and kind of go through that until the forums or social media. You know, you can chearch Facebook for the same thing. You know, units I go to YouTube see if anybody's hunted it on video to get an idea, and then if all this go, you know, I like to look at the best looking spots. But then the other thing in the back of my mind, which we've talked about,
is the difficulty of getting there. If it's right off the road, it's probably gonna be busy. If it's one to two miles in, you're probably still gonna have fifty sixty percent of the guys in there. Once you start to get three to four miles off the road, I'm starting to be by myself. And then you kind of catch back up with the horse hunters. Around seven or eight, So I like to really plan my el hunts. Three to eight miles from anything seems to be kind of
that sweet spot. It's it's still close enough to the truck. We can get it out and a couple, you know, a couple of packouts. But that's what I'm looking for. And so you'll do these iterations until you go back
to the forum social media maybe. And I actually like when somebody doesn't talk about the area that I'm in or that I've picked with any unit, but if they are talking highly of an area, I try to see how many similarities are in between the area I picked and the one that they're talking highly about, Like, all right, do these trains is that going to make my spot?
Does it have all the same things, the same facing, aspect slopes, whatever it may be, And kind of put that all together to see if it's going to work out.
So we did all of this. We got a solid plan.
I know some of us like it's very difficult to get out and scout all of these places, but nothing is going to replace your boots on the ground. So you've did all this. If you can, by any means get out there and go improof this prior to season, and when you're out there some of the things that I like to look for the best telltale sign because it depending on what time you get there. You go out in July, that gives a whole lot of time.
That gives sixty, you know, anywhere from thirty to sixty days for those elk to change their pattern, and the greater distance between your scouting and your return, the greater the distance of those elk could be. I'm not saying it will be, but just remember if you were sixty to you know, I would be very nervous scouting in the in the first of July and coming back in September. Especially the more mountainous elk that are that are doing some migrating, the more nervous I would be going back.
Those cows are gonna move, those bulls are gonna move, and so the closer you can get I would be much much more confident. Of course, it's this is going to be, you know, very obvious. I'd be much more confident in my scouting the last week of August for an archery l hunt than I would the first of July. Things are just gonna move, and so take that with a grain of salt, you know, or just take that
with a consideration as you do that. When I'm out there scouting, uh anytime prior to season, one of the most important things I look for is rubs that lets me know in some way, shape or form that elk
were there during the rut. And I'm looking for concentration in rubs, like how much time did they spend there, was this a lone bowl, you know, traveling through the mountains, or was this obviously an area a betting area, you know, And if you can put the rubs together with the betting area, you've kind of got the the problem solved at that point. You know where they're going to bed, you know, they've got a lot of rubs around that. Because when you're out there, a lot of people want
to see elk. They want to see tracks, they want to see you know, scot they want to see all this stuff on the ground. But guess what, that's where the elk are at, right then if you can find rubs that kind of guarantees me they're there somewhere in September early October, and that's where they like to run. So that's my That's the number one thing I'm looking for out there. When I'm scouting, I don't really care if I see elk. I don't you know, it's always nice.
I don't care if I see tracks any of that. Number one sign I'm looking for is rubs. And when I find that, I then start to look kind of scout around there, like from here, where are they getting their food? If they're going to bed here, they've got rubs here where they get in their food, where they get in their water. And you try to put that little, you know, mini puzzle together now that you've really because we've already dialed down from having a tag. We then
selected unit. We then selected an area within the unit, and now we're down to like that macro of they they're they're betting they're eating their their feeding there, they're right here. Put that together is going to help you
kind of figure those out. One thing to remember is if you are late mid mid August, late August, and you feel like those cows are kind of done moving as far as their location, remember whatever bulls you've seen, or if you haven't seen any bulls, the majority of the time those bulls will go join up with the cows, So don't necessarily concentrate on where you've seen the bulls eating up the season, contrant on where the cows are at,
and start your hunt there. Or the other thing that could happen is they might not be in either location. They may go to a spot where they are left alone during that breeding season, and it may be different than both of those places. But I'd always focus on cows first and then branch out from there to to kind of finish finding where they're at. I'm going to cover a few pieces of gear, and I'm not the
authority on getting in shape. I've always just said I'm I'm too hard headed to ever quit, and I've been doing this for twenty five years in the mountains and know what shape I need to be in. But if you're coming out west, or you're going to a new area, or you're coming from the lowlands, the first thing you need to do is get in shape for elk hunting. It's not even a meal deer hunt. There's a lot more added in. There's a lot more meat to carry out. You know, you can hunt meal deer just as far,
if not further from the road than elk. But once you got one down, it's a whole different ballgame, especially if you're not hunting with a hunting partner or a group. I would venture to guess the majority of people are going to need to take at least four packouts, if not more, and that's going to be a pretty hefty load. So, you know, get in shape whatever means that that is. And this is where the scouting really pays off. Or
a mountain near you just go test yourself. Can I do two thousand feet of elevation gain over four miles? Can I do two thousand foot elevation gain over two miles?
You know? How long does it take?
Me?
Am? I? You know? And and just work at it, you know. And there's there's a.
Lot of ways to do this and I'm I'm not gonna get into them. You know, you can be a long distance runner, your cardio is going to be great, you can do CrossFit, you can whatever it may be. Get your feet in shape, which we're going to talk about boots here in a little bit. I can't stress out enough we talk about shape as in muscular and
cardio fitness. I've had I've seen I'd say i've had I've seen more people fall apart on a hunt because of their feet than I have because of you know, maybe their cardio or or their you know, physical physical condition. So get your feet in shape, you know, be able to pack eighty to ninety pounds over long distances or over short distances, and you really need to kind of gauge where you can kill an elk. It's easy to walk two or three miles through country when it's only
you and your backpack. It's a lot different feet when you're doing it with eighty or ninety pounds on your back, and you know you've got to do it two, three, four more times, depending on how many people are helping you pack. So I'm going to diverge a little bit, but getting the absolute best shape possible it's gonna make the hunt more enjoyable.
It's gonna let you hunt.
Farther and harder, and then uh just be able to get the animal out from from that location. Talked about getting your feet in shape, getting into the right pair of boots, and having boots that are ready for western hunting or elk hunting. And I'm not talking about your your lowland you know, your elk hunts that are down
around you know, private lowland BLM. Whatever I mean there's deep private out there, so don't don't necessarily take that out of cont you know, out of what I'm saying, But you know, there there are different boots aren't as near as important on a lowland hunter, front country hunt. You get up in the mountains, you know, and you're you're half mile mile.
Off the road.
Things get things can get pretty pretty brutal, and you're going you're gonna want to have boots that are that are kind of up to the task, one that fits your feet very well, one that are comfortable, one that you can walk six seven, eight, ten, twelve. You know, however, many miles in that don't necessarily give you hot spots.
And so getting your boots broken prior to the hunt, knowing that they're the right boot for you to you know, climb straight up a mountain, the right boot to walk on a flat trail for you know, miles after you know, mile after mile.
Make sure you got your boots dialed in.
And because it is, you know much as it may just make sense, or maybe you just have tough feet and it doesn't matter. When your feet fall apart, your hunt kind of falls apart. So make sure you got the right boots on that are that are you know, that are right for the hunt. And then last thing is maybe different than other hunts, is have a pack that's able to carry a decent load out on the first trip. Once I said, we're we're we're kind of
taxing ourselves. We're pushing ourselves a limit. And the last thing you want to do is is to kill an elk, break it down and not be able to take out a decent amount of weight or a quarter or whatever it may be on that first load. You want to be as efficient as possible. We're gonna be war out, we're gonna get tired, so make sure you have a
pack that's able to haul heavy loads. Have a pack that you know you can you know, haul the heavy load plus all of your gear that's on you at the time, and it's gonna that's gonna be able to withstand and be durable enough to make trip after trip after trip. So that's kind of uh, you know, those those are just a few key items you know you when it comes to elk cunting.
I think boots and.
Packs are are very important needed to make sure that you've got those dialed. But yeah, this is kind of the wrap on on getting ready and planning for your ILK cunt. Make sure you're you're stacking the odds in your favor, You're you're in a good area, You've got the right equipment, you're in shape, and you're ready to go out and uh kind of tackle this area. And in part two we're going to kind of expand on this. Now that we've got an area, where are we going
when we get there? I said, where were going? When we get there? How am I going to quickly break the area down? Proof what we've put together on what we've talked about. We make sure this area is gonna hold the elk they are there, how you're gonna hunt it, and then put together some put together some plans on how you're gonna attack the unit. So I really appreciate you guys listening. This was kind of my planning for
an elk count episode. And catch us on part two of this episode on cutting the distance where I'm gonna break down once you get there, proofing all this and putting a plan together and then some strategy