Ep 57: 2023 Archery Elk Season Recap with Jon Gabrio

our Elk hunts together. But way back in the day, when Phelps was producing some video a video series called Tradition, the Traditions in your group, you had a group, you had a group name called Anger Mountain Productions. Angry Mountain Productions.

of on that side. So yeah, Jason didn't really have a lot of stuff before that for the brand itself, and then we kind of.

at his house just lowfoot man. I've been I've been elk counting for the last few days, trying to trying to kill one in overtime basically, and I'm like, you know what, it's time to talk talk shop with with John, and John I don't want to get too far ahead. So Apex Advertising is the business you own, own and operate. Tell us about that first.

meat eater thing. But yeah, so I own and operate Apex Advertising, do a ton of design work in the industry, marketing, you know, kind of all jack of all trades a little bit, you know when it comes to you know, design and web design and vehicle wraps and trade show

boosts and catalogs. I mean, we've done so much stuff with Phelps over the years, and like you know, in your Bugler brand, you know, back when you had that and like you know, everything there and worked with a bunch of companies in the industry and so that's kind of been my my bread and butter, and like Forte and like, I just absolutely love working and with all you guys and working on brands and building them and you know, it's it's a passion of mine, you know,

outside of hunting obviously, which we all share that in the whole Elk passion side of things.

winds of change blown right now. I think, personally my opinion, Montana is still got some pretty awesome opportunities Wyoming has got some pretty awesome opportunities, and I feel like i'd love to I'd love to live in Montana. I'd love to live in Wyoming. What I have going on at home,

that's probably not gonna allow it. But that's another story for another time, right Yeah, But I will say, you know, John and I work very closely together on if you've seen, if you've bought a Phelps game call, then the packaging. John does the package. He builds the artwork for the packaging. If you see the logos on the bugle tubes, on the diaphragms, John John does all that, He built all that.

There's some really really big names in the outdoor industry, and he's he would probably never tell you unless you really if you were a close friend and new him, but he does. He does a lot of artwork, t shirts, a lot of T shirt designed for a lot of people, built some websites for a lot of big names in the outdoor industry. So he's the real deal. But that

kind of overshadows sometimes. I feel like that kind of overshadows a little bit of like maybe John's hunting prowess because he's not a kind of stand at the top of the mountain to say look at me kind of guy. He just does what he does. He has a passion for elk hunting, he has a passion for mulder hunting, passion for whitetail hunting. Has been very successful at it. You know. He's one of those guys that kind of like they always say like train, but they say train

in private. You know, train quietly in private, and then just and then show up with with what you do and then and that's kind of what you do every year. It's like you're not like say look at me all the time, but damn at the end of season, you've got some pretty nice bucks and bulls to show for it.

game plan? Here because we've got some deer that are coming up, and you know, what's what are we doing?

something like that that that kind of took over. Kylie ratted me out at dinner table there to right, but did. But I mean I used to spend a lot of time in the gym too, like you know, working out and feeling like I had to do that to be

in shape to go be successful. I'm not saying that there's not you know, that level to that, you know, and still like we still got we do a lot of hiking and stuff during the summer and like we're in a pack and I feel like that very situational preparing the way that you're gonna hunt and is useful,

you know, y, Yeah, it's key. My dad always said, he's like there's no way to get in shape like hiking, and so I truly believe that, and so we kind of focus more on that now and like being very proficient with you know, a bow or a gun or like whatever it is, whatever I were hunting with. And I feel when I leave the house, I'm like, yeah, like I have no question in my mind that it's like if I'm gonna shoot it something, I'm gonna kill it,

you know. And so I don't know, but I do a lot of a lot of preparation in the off season and kind of all year, and that's just but that's one of the things that's like I'm just more of like I want to get results for myself and show that, like, you know, to myself, Like, hey, when I leave the truck come back the end of season, it's like I got a tag punched, you know. And sometimes it doesn't go smooth, you know. Sometimes you spend a lot more time than I think I should be

out there spending that time to fill that tag. But it's kind of, you know, one of those things I want to kill a nice animal and make you know, sure that I gave it my effort that I feel like I'm satisfied and then you know, have something to prove to myself. But I don't go necessarily all the time, like you know, on social media all the time. I mean, I'll post a picture, you know, and be like, hey, this is the end result. But I mean there's a lot of what you see, like videos and stuff of

animals in the meantime. You know, it's like I've seen or past or had close encounters on and like let go, and then I look back, I'm like, shoot, maybe I shouldn't have done that, and like, but you know, at the end of it, I just I mean, well, I've killed a few things. I mean, it's like you see my garage and you know, buck hanging here in the office. And I really love the white tail thing, you know. I mean for years, like eighteen years straight, Like that's

my passion. I love chasing elk, I love chasing those white tails, meal deer two everything. But I really got hooked on the white tail thing. And I think we kind of hit it off too, because you came from a neck of the woods where used to have really good white tail hunting, and then my dad hunted that country back shoot, what like the nineties, in like that time, you know, when it was used to be really good. And you grew up in that neck of the woods in that era too, when it used to be really good.

So I think we kind of shared the white tail thing in the very beginning, you know, like off the bat way back, and you know, that's always kind of been a thing. And then you know, obviously the alcoff

you know, it's been a big part too. But it's kind of cool because sit here talking white tails and being out in the West, and a lot of guys enjoy that to where they're more oh yeah, that's something that guys go do in the Midwest, you know, or the East Coast, you know, where for us it's like, no, dude, these are cool mountain bucks, Like these are special deer that we get to go chase. And so I love that and I think that's kind of a cool thing.

And then you know, like get a big old four point buck or five point.

And I'm like, well, if you're no, I've always thought we should count Muleier points. It's a it's a four by four muleier with eye guards. Well what it should be called a five point? It should be a five by five. They are total points. Yeah, when you when you when you tally like and then and the poor Mulder doesn't even get like credit for for the the iye guards when it grows them. No, but that's that

that's a jip man. They got they they got. They got kind of screwed on that deal because they grew it. Like I'm a firm believer they should get they should get credit for everything they credit, I mean everything over one inch. Yeah, fair enough, it does. It's a scorable point.

from the beginning. I'm like, I think it's just that that Washington you know, heritage that we got your thrown for a loop and you know, dang it, the rest of the world, you know, we count them different.

sit down, we got to hash this out. You guys need to like change the world because they obviously you guys screwed up on elk Antler count Now the white tail Antler Clouts skewed. We gotta get this figured out. You got to figure it out. But they're they're definitely all skewed over there. I'll tell you that now. I get I love give a giant hard time about that. Anyway. I haven't done a season recap for twenty twenty three yet elk season September boat Archery season ye, And I

don't know if you've done one yet with anyone. So tell us about your September. What was there any overall theme of September? Like you kept seeing a certain trend? Was it awesome? Was it hit and miss? Was up and down? What were you seeing like all September? Yeah? And then how did you end up with with with tags? Yeah?

take that back. There's two years. I guess I hunted the same spot in western Montana where and I think you went there one time too that I hunted like the same spot twice, Right, But I've every other hunt that I've ever done in Montana over the years, and every elk that I've killed has always been in a different unit. I've never killed elk twice in the same unit in Montana. Whoa, They've all been in different units, different mountain ranges. Wow, never the same spot.

my biggest ball I've ever killed. I wanted to go back there so bad this year, but I was nervous to go back there because I didn't want to try to have a repeat of last year and then be disappointed in the outcome if if it wasn't right the same, those are some big shoes to fill. Yeah, I mean, and that's the thing. It's like, I mean, where realistically are you going to go hunt a unit and it's like killing her three to sixty bowl like back to back, you know what I mean. Like I'm just being real,

like it's not in the cards. And so I got super nervous. And then my dad and sister kind of wanted to hunt with us too this year, and I was like, you know what, like let's go. We've hunted this other unit before and let's go back there and let's go hunt that this year and like see what it holds.

go do it again. Go back there this year, and went in the summer, scouted saw bulls, I mean kind of all over the place like we did last time, and it was like, oh, man, like we're going to be in them.

to back, you know. But then I started thinking, even in my head, I'm like, man, this isn't even I don't even know if this is like realistic, you know, like am I putting a number on something that maybe I shouldn't versus the experience and so you know it kind of I did back up, Like we had numerous discussions this summer and I was like, I don't know. I'm like, I don't know if like I want to put the number on the hunt, maybe we should just go have a good time and enjoy it.

They you may not even hear one single mew. You go to a herd of one hundred or more, and now you've got all these different voices and all these different characters saying these all these different vocalizations, and some of them are just like that sounds like a guy, Like that sounds like a hunter. Yeah, that's a really crappy somebody that don't even know how to blow an

elk call. It's making elk noises, right, and they're trying to make an elk noise and you hear it all like like I didn't even know elk made a noise, Like just like what you're saying. So the herd dynamic changes when you have a lot more individual elk talking.

dive in. But this year, I I don't know, it was like at first I had this grand thing of the number, and then I kind of backed off the number, and then it was like experience.

mean not expecting it. And then when you see a bowl like that, and it was just kind of like you screwed it up from the beginning, like you do not get out of the truck. You're not going to kill that elk And we went down after him kind

of got close. I'm marching along way too fast and there's a really solid bull standing there and Kyle's yelling at me and I didn't hear until it was too late, and you know, this bull runs off, spooked off, and I was like dang, you know, like it just kind of felt like everything kind of like sank right there, and I was like, guy, just blew the whole thing.

up up here. I'm gonna sneak back, you know, call call it in, you know, doing you know, when they're fifty sixty yards ahead of me, like you know, bawl is gonna come in, look in there and shooting distance do Like nothing went right. It was like I'd even back up trying to get more distance, and it was like the elk would just like wander off and like go the other way type of thing, and they just were not respond ontive the calls. I was trying everything.

I mean, it's like, I'm a big fan of Charlie's call.

this out there. But I mean, you know, it's just like unfortunate circumstances. You know, it wasn't like anything anyone really would have done. The first bowl was kind of a layup, but like she got excited, and you know, that's what it's about.

out by myself. My dad and sister they stayed. They went out by themself. They were pretty worn out from the morning. So I went out by myself that night, calling this six point to six yards, and I mean, like it was just like perfect god all, I mean, I got.

oh yeah, I'm getting close. So I dropped down below him and walking up this ridge and there's like an opening where I could shoot, and then there was I looked up about fifty yards ahead of me, and I seen another opening and I was like, oh, man, if I get to that tree, he's got to come down. And there's a bunch of big those like skeater type juniper bush things, and I was like, he's going to have to come down and circle under those and come

right out. Versus, if I had set up fifty yards over here, it was open, like he would have came to the edge of that and like probably looked across and been like, you know, where is he?

And uh so we hunted with Kyle for that whole week and more kind of behind the scenes, you know, like we obviously you know, but like we had some issues going on like after the fact, but like during that time, like she was pregnant and she was really struggling with the whole uh like just being tired and like didn't you know physically have it to.

gonna go. The wind's perfect, well circle, you're gonna kill this thing. I want to hear it. And I'm like, okay, fine, so I cow call a few times, dude, I mean it answered right away, but it sounded like a rag like four point bowl. At this point, I just looked at her. I'm like, do you want to kill one with your bow or not? You know, because I'm like this is I mean, it's bow hunting. Get one who cares, like,

you know, just shoot one with your boat? Do it two years in a row, like get it, get another one, under your belt with your bow, and so finally talk her into it and I'm like, well, we're gonna drive back around. We'll get hike got this ridge and the wind's perfect. It's a knife, super sharp knife ridge. And I was like, I'll get on the back side, you get up on top. I'm gonna call that bowl right up over the top.

like range and stuff. I'm like kind of looking up at her, but I see her like range and stuff, and I'm like, why are you not shooting this thing?

Well then she said he'd eat and lift his head bugle back down to eat and like look around eat Bugle didn't even care, and he'd just take a step and do that all the way up the hill, like all the way right to or to like thirty yards. And that was kind of like back to like I feel how this whole season went where the elk didn't really want to come in, they didn't want to commit.

looks at me. I'm looking at her and I'm, you know, kind of hands in the air, but I'm cow calling, you know, trying to just calm him down. And I literally look at her look back and she's like, he's down. I mean, dude, it was like seconds. Thing ran forty six yards and falls over. She double lunged.

of thing. But I'll be honest, it's like, you know, we always talk about like judging a bowl by his bugle, and it's like a lot of times I feel like you can tell when a bull has just got that raspy er bugle, like you know, he's not a young bull, but a young bull is not going to bugle like a big old bull usually, Like he just isn't going to be like a big, nasty like herd bull. But this bowl bugled like a freaking rag four point bowl,

like the whole time. I mean, never like that very first bugle I heard, I was like, yeah, that's a good bowl. But then after that everything since it was like a rag ball. So I thought the whole time maybe there was another bowl down there with cows. And I was calling in the satellite bowl. When she killed it, I was like, holy cow. I was like, that's a great bull. I was like, you know, he just didn't he wasn't that worked up. He didn't care, he didn't want to play the game.

But then there's also some folks that had a great year yeah that said, oh this is my best year. I killed a great bull. So it was one of those weird years, you know, it's just kind of a weird year.

like anything, and they just weren't doing that. So I hunted, man, well you left my house, I think, And then I stayed a couple of days, and then I left and went back and I was over there for like five or six more days, and then I finally like, so at this point, I've hunted like over three weeks, like three and a half weeks, and I was I mean, I put punched a time clock, and I mean I

was out there every day like just going hard. And I think we talked and I'm like, man, you know, it's like I had that number in my head like all season. I was like, I feel like I didn't even seen a bowl like of that caliber. I mean you know, and so I was like it just not even realistic. And then it was like boom, I seen him and I got dude. It was just like that.

should just send it and like shoot this bowl. But then I'm like that's a giant bowl. I don't want to wound him. I don't have something go wrong. That's a long shot. Could I hit it all day? But I just I don't know, like something in my mind, I just was like, I'm not going to take this shot.

not working, like it's just too open. He's out in the middle, like I couldn't get close enough, and so I just kind of wrote it off and I ended up there's a couple of guys over there that I had met when I was hunting and whatnot, and they

I was asking what they were doing. And you know, this Brady guy that you and I had talked about a little bit, and he'd kind of been struggling this year too, and he actually had a big chunk of private that he could hunt, and he was struggling with the private and there was no elk on it even and usually there, I mean there'll be you know, one hundred two hundred head that hang out like on this

like they weren't even there. And so I ended up hunt meeting up with him and hunting, and then we ended up getting together and this other guy that he knows, and we got on some milk that in the morning, it was like last day I had to hunt because we were going in for this ultrasound with Kyle on Monday, and it was just like, hey, let's just get over here.

I end up shooting stopping the thing. At fifty one, I shoot him and then he runs forward and stands there, and then he walks out at fifty seven and shoot him again, and it was just like one of those things that at that point I was just kind of like I didn't care how big it was, Like I just wanted to fill a tag with my bow before rifle.

I mean, it was even better. There was just six point, but It was just kind of like one of those things that I mean, I knew what they were going to do and we had ran back over and gotten position when I seen him kind of feeding over this other side along this ridge and this kid Cole and I and he actually works at ONYX, and we had ran over this ridge and got set up and when they started feeding, it just it was one of those like experience wise, you know that you know, you kind

of felt like looking at the situation like you knew like this is where they're going to go, you know, and so like making your best educated guests, you know in a sense, but like also kind of years of you know, just watching olk and seeing what they do. Yeah, it was just like we set up in the perfect spot and it was just like here they came.

it just was like it is what it is. And so I mean, it's like we still made the best of the rest of the day after we got my Elk taken care of, but it was just was kind of like, dude, that was like the only night really the night before, I guess, and then that that day was kind.

some more highs and lows. But I think that's what el cunning is all about. It's just that's almost like the perfect season if you to just go in there and smoke a giant on the first day or the first couple of days, like, would we appreciate like when we finally do get like like we do get that giant, mature bowl, would we appreciate it as much? I don't know.

type of thing. And I'm just like, no, like it just like sometimes how it works out. But I'm like, this year, you killed a bigger elk than me. But I'm like, dude, I was more proud of that bowl. And like when I put the horns up out here in the garage and I just was like, I am more proud of that freaking elk than the ones hanging out here that when you drive in and look at him, and I'm like, man, those are impressive. And then it's like, oh, I hang this other one over here, but I'm like, it.

In the beginning, I'd done my homework all summer. I had trail camp with some big bulls. We were just looking at them, and I had some pretty impressive trail cameras, some really big bulls. I'm like, I'm probably just gonna shoot that. I don't know if I shoot that one, but I would definitely shoot this one. But you know, maybe if I got desperate, i'd shoot this other one. But you know, that's a little collie. Anybody would give their left leg to freaking shoot either one, right, their

beautiful bulls. And so I'm hunting this new unit closer to home. My son, Austin, he he hasn't hunted much with me in the last few years. He's been working all the time, and finally he's able to get away a little bit and I'm like, well it, let's hunt a little closer to home so you can have more time to come join in, but I went on opening day. I was up there the day before opening day, put my camp up, got ready, was just poised to just just dump jump right in. I was so pumped. And

Opening day was flat, it was kind of rainy. A trail camera had a mountain lying on it where it had elk earlier. You know, it's just like I went to check my camera. It's like, oh yeah, ilk currentt rely even here now. So anyway, fast forward day two. I tried a little different spot on the other side of the mountains, like, well it was elk, where'd they go? Maybe they went on the other side of the mountain here, get over there. First thing, bam right out of the

right out of the starting gate. Get a bolt of bugle, climb up in there, and this bowl is bugling pretty good. I think I might call him in, and then he kind of starts slowing down. It's like, oh man, he's slowing down. I think he's going to bed. And he went to bed and he bedded in this reprod thicket and reprod that's reproduction. So years ago, probably twenty years ago. They logged this place and then replanted it, and it's grown back. When it grows back, it usually grows back

way thicker than the forest was when they logged it. Right, you know, there's lots of young trees, lots of fresh tree so it's thick with trees and it's thick with brush. So this bowl's up here, bedded in this thing, and I'm just trying to get close. And what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to self film myself too, because cameraman Dusty, he can't come yet. And I was like, well, I got to be here for the opener, right, I'm gonna go out for the first three days a season.

So I'm like, I'm gonna film this myself. So I've got my camera and I got my tripod and I look like a monkey trying to hump a football man. It was. It was bad. I was like, but I'm trying to get the shots, you know, and I'm getting I'm moving in on this bowl and I'm in his betting area and he moved, he leaving, so I'm getting close. And finally I thought, okay, I'm super cool. I'm within eighty yards of this thing. So I start calling again

and he answers a little bit. He answers maybe once or twice, but it's like you can tell he just he's just kind of going, just doing that moany bugle. He's not interesting. He's not coming in. So I'm like, okay, I gotta get move up. So I move up, and I move up, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna push a little more pressure and like I'm gonna move up to where I'm gonna see this thing, and he's gonna like he's gonna have to show himself. Well my error.

I made this error. It was on this north facing slope, but there was a little beam of sunlight shining down. And I've always said, you know, stay out of the side and say, stand in the shadows. You know, be a vampire, right, stay in the shadows. I walked to that beam of sunlight, and that sucker pops up up out of bed. He sees me, pops up out of bed, and I see a brief glimpse of him going away.

I think he's one of my target balls. I think he was the lesser of the lesser of the two, but still a freaking dandy, right, yeah, And he goes away, but he doesn't spook up. He didn't know what he saw. He just didn't like what he saw. So I called a bugle, cow call, and I sat down right there, and I'm just like, man, sit down here for a little bit and think about my choices in life. What have I done to myself. I'm like, I'm in a bad place. It's like nasty, yeah, and I'm sitting there.

I sit there for like thirty minutes. I'm pretty sure I hear a stick pop, I hear another stick pop, and I bugle that's him. He left, made a big circle, came back, and it beds down like fifty yards right below his for first bed. And I sit there the rest of the day with him right there. He ain't coming in, he don't care. So sit there the rest of the day. Now the day goes by. I'm ticking. I'm hours like this was like nine o'clock in the morning, eight o'clock in the morning, when I put him to bed,

he had this encounter. Fast forward to like five o'clock. I'm there. The wind had been like amazing all day, and I had an elk all around. So at five he gets up, stretches a little bit, bugles, and then he starts moving. And then I hear him bugle up here, and he can kind of switch his position. He gets in a better position for me. So I'm like, all right, here we go. I kind of went quiet too, I didn't said anything. So I get over there super close,

start calling, don't really care. But then he'll bugle, but he ain't bugling at me. And then way off in the distance, I hear this other bowl bugle, like across the drainage. Hear this other bul bugle. Person is getting closer, person is getting closer. I'm like, that bull's coming over here.

That bull comes all the way across the drange, hits the crik, climbs up our side, and now I'm in the between these two bulls, Like I need to get forward of another fifty yards and I'm gonna be on a direct b line between the two, but I'm kind of pinned down. Well, finally that bowl, that one gets up there into that position and he bugles, and the bull on the top of the hill he'd been bugling like a raghorn. Just we talked earlier about how they you know, oh yeah, it's harder to judge a bull

by bulls, I feel like they're like people. They they kind of speak to their disposition. So all day he'd just been kind of being real, very coy, just like these wimpy moany, crappy bugles. When that bowl got within one hundred yards of him and bugled, that bull gave him the biggest King Kong Godzilla, f you bugle you've ever heard. He bugles so hardy cut out at the top, at the high note, He's just like I was like, oh, oh man, this is gonna happen. They're like they're gonna fight. Yeah,

the other bull. All I heard was crash, crash, crash crash. He took off, he was gone, he left, and then the bull come off the hill. He comes boiling off the hill and it was so brushy I couldn't see him. He come boiling off the hill and went right after him and chased him. Cla Claire out of the canyon. I heard more. I heard more bugling out of the canyon. Was like, crazy, what the heck just happened? I worked, I worked all day try to say things to make

him mad, and he didn't really care. He just to give me these like whatever. For whatever reason, he hated that other bowl. I feel like elk are not too dissimilar than people, like like they have attitudes, they have egos, obviously have they have mortal enemies that they don't like. There's like, you know, there's probably those one people that just that really rub you wrong, and if they said the wrong thing, you'd probably get right in their face. Yeah, that was that bowl.

I think I walked eight miles that that that day, like in and out, and I did not I found I found a place where some bulls had fought, could have been them, but I could not buy a bugle. I was in the dark, like well, I walked for like an hour in the dark on the way back, crazy and did not hear a peep. If it wouldn't have been for the tracks, if you'd have told anybody like, yeah, I had some balls in this area, bugle, and there had been like uh huh, you're a liar, they'd have

made the biggest liar out of me. So anyway, I'm like, Labor Day weekends coming up, I'm gonna get out of the woods. A lot of people recreate. I'm like, I don't want to deal with all the four wheelers and the UTVs and the dirt bikes and all the you know, let the people have their fun after the weekend. I'll go back. So I went home, spent time with family, went back after the weekend, and all the people that

were pulling in for the weekend were still there. Times ten, I didn't know this, but this place is pop popular, like really popular. And dude, there anywhere anywhere you could possibly camp, like a place that was big enough to put a tent or a camper where there was a tent or a camper there and maybe two three four pickups. Every trailhead had had four or five pickups every every road that you could ride a four wheeler or a

quad or an ATV or a UTV urbike. It was like a swarm of bees, like you could just hear. So my son gets there, I'm like, man, I don't know what we're gonna do. So we canvassed this area, you know, not in this zone. There's several units within this zone that make up this elk hunting zone, and I we canvassed every fricking zone. And it was the same story anywhere that was like, oh, that's beautiful old country there was it was. It was loaded with folks.

So we did find some elk. We did chase around some bugles a couple of days, but then within no time at all, there was other folks, you know, found him too. So finally it's like, I'm about ready to like go somewhere else. I got this Montana tag burn a hole in my pocket. Maybe we should get over there. And Austin's like yeah, He's like, I'll go back home. I got some chores I gotta do and I to get it back to work anyway. So I'm like, all right, great, So we left. He just kind of wrote off that

Idaho tag. Unfortunately I really didn't want to, but I could. I could just see the writing on the wall. I could spend several more days there, you know, spend a bunch more gas money just trying to get find, you know, somewhere, you know, spend lots of boot leather hiking around. But we weren't going to escape the other people. So it's like, let's let's go go to plan be well. Dusty camera man, Dusty, he had a milk tag in a different part of

the state. I'm like, hey, on the way to Montana, why don't we just stop in for a few days for your tag, Dusty, And he's like, yeah, that'd be great. So we go over to his spot. And this spot, it's a where he was at. It's a cap zone. So Idaho only sells so many tags in this zone, the limit number. It's not a drawing. But but when they're gone, they're gone. Unlike some over the or the over the counter. They'll sell as many elk tags as people will buy, which is I think is what they

did in that other unit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So we went to this other unit. We did hear some bulls bugle. They'd only bugle once or twice. They didn't act right, and and we would fight a bowl and nobody would be nobody was around, and we would call a little bit to it, and I'm like, all right, let's let's get like one or two more replies from this bowl and then we'll go after it. Sure, And then the second time the bull would reply, it was a little further away, and the third time I would

reply it was further away. Yet I was like, what the heck and this is and we heard in two days, we heard twelve different bulls bugle there out there. Yeah, they didn't want anything to do with our calls. And then we trained areas two or three times, so I think we spent four days in that area, and it just like there was more and more and more people all the time. It's like you would find it a spot where some milk and then prettysume more people woul

show up. So I'm like, well, my buddies in Montana are saying they're killing bulls and they're talking, so let's go. I feel like we should have probably went to Montana first and they came and hit that Idaho on the back back end, But I mean, you don't know what you know, right, So we get up to Montana. Well, a few days before you know, guys, are you know

having some success, bulls talking, they're killing some bulls. We get up here and it's like we were like caught the back end of that little wave, like like how you talked, like it was good for a day or two and then it kind of would like collapse for a few days, like a week, and then you'd get a couple more good days and they would kind of collapse. And that's kind of like what we found. We got here with all these high hopes and it was pretty quiet.

It was a ghost town. And then finally we had we had one We had one day that was like a like a rut melee, rutfest, whatever you want to call it. We had bulls bugling all over We had this bowl bugling down over in this little can't draw below us. And it was by the shape of the

land and the geography. If you've hunded Elk much and you understand like how sound and their bugles reflect, refract, re, relay to you from different terrain features, So like if they're down in a deep draw, they get a little echoey. If they're over on an open face, or if they're on a face directly acrossroom beer. It's a lot clearer,

more clear sound. Anyway, this bull was down in this hole below us, and it sounded really muffled and kind of echoey, like we couldn't really pinpoint where he's at. And I'm looking at my on ax, I'm just like, I just don't understand, like why this sounds this way, because the map doesn't say it sure that they should sound like this. And I'm trying to figure this out, and I'm bugling, and I'm i'm I'm I'm going all out.

I am hitting, like every ten seconds, I'm ripping the meanest ass bugle, lip ball bugle you've ever heard, and then mix in with some cow calls, excited cow calls, and this bull is eating it up, eating it up, and then pretty soon it's like, oh, Dusty, he's coming. He sounds closer, let's go. So we start working down our way down the Settle ridge and it's kind of burnt, kind of burned there, and I take five steps and

I look up that bull. He's marching up the hill right to us, like he did not sound that close. It was one of those weird places where or and I don't know if he was bugling quiet or what, but I thought he was further away anyway. I look up here, that sucker is just on a on a bee line, coming right to us. And then I see him and I stop and freeze, and then he sees us, and he stops and freezing, and then we have the

stair down felt like forever. And then finally he kind of like locks his lips a little bit and kind of looks around. He's like bugles. I'm like, oh, that's a good signing. He don't he don't recognize us as people. And then he kind of looks around and there's it's a windfall jungle. It's a burnt right, it's a windfall. It's a mess. And he's like like looking this way, like like trying to decipher which way he wants to come.

And then he turns and starts to walk off. I'm like no, So he walks out of sight and I run down the hill fifty yards because he's at ninety. Whenever he catches us, I scream. He pops up, He pops back up, facing us. He immediately he runs back up the hill right to us, and then he's like looking around. He's like I don't see no elk So then he turns around and goes back out of sight, and then I just run hard as hard as I can, and then drop over the side of this liddle. It's

kind of like a little hog backridge. I drop off the side. I'm like, okay, and then he's like fifty sixty yards. I don't really want to shoot that far anyway, and then there's just way too much brush and crap. There's you know, that stupid fireweed that grows that purple flower fireweed. That stuff's like shoulder high, and there's just all sorts of just crap, and it just there wasn't a good clear shop even if I wanted to shoot that far, which I typically don't. And anyway that he

drug us down in there, we pursued him. There was other bulls in there, and we just we went. We went to every corner of this big basin, chasing bugles all day and finally some at one point I just put my tube away. I just quit colin. They were bugling so much. I'm just like almost gonna walk right up on them, and a couple of times I did. We got really close, just not close enough, you know, there sixty eighty yards out. It's pretty you got down there, it is open enough where they can pick you off.

But we chased bugles all day, awesome day. Went back the next day. There's four four pickups sparked there. Everybody else found them too, Yeah, everyone else. So I'm not, I'm not. I'm not into combat hunting. I don't. I don't want to get in there and have to compete with other people and I want to mess them up. I don't want them to mess me up. So I'm just like, well, we'll go somewhere else, we'll go find someone,

we'll get this. We'll let those guys kind of stir it up for a day or two and then we'll go back. Yeah. But every time we went back there was there was guys there. But we bounced around all over the unit, you know, all over this mountain range and tried different spots, and we found towards the end of the season, towards the end of our time that we could be there. The last three days, I think

we found some more balls. We got into them and chased them around, but it's just like they kept that magic buffer between you and it was pretty open timber, and they and we'd advance and we we'd we'd hear them bugle and I would just I wouldn't even call until I was like, okay, I'm gonna walk until I almost step on these things. And we'd walk right up on him and then call and then it just didn't

just didn't does not happen. Yeah, And the last night we had this bowl, we did we'd done that, we'd we come we in the morning, we'd heard five different bulls. Well that night I'd put marks on on X. I'm like, okay, well this this afternoon, this evening, we're gonna walk up here and we're gonna go to every single one of those marks and see if we can find that bowl. And we found every single one of those bulls, but they did not want to play. And then we'd heard

a different bowl. We didn't hear it all in the morning, this big nasty growler bowl, and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's we didn't hear him before. That's the bag, the big daddy, And it was like one of again, it's like one of those weal. Echoey is like I couldn't like,

where is that coming from? Dusty, And He's like I can't tell it was just like you would hear it, and then you when you hear a bugle, you kind of turn your head a little bit and like try to like get your your ears orientated to the direction to like pick it up. And we could not pinpoint it. So I'm just like, okay, we got a hike, hike up, so we'd already come down from this section, so my hike up, up up. We got to get hired to hear what this thing is that finally we figured out.

So we put the move on him. And this bowl was so smart, like as we'd get close and I would call to him and he'd take off and he would make it like he would make this J hook pattern, so he'd go and make a J like straight line, like on the same contour line as us, and then he would hook up and get right above us, and he would shut up, and we'd go past him, and I'm like, where did he go? And finally a bugle right above us but back, and I was just like,

finally fed up. I'm like, all right, this is it, guys, and this is the way the season ended. And then I'm kind of talking to the camera and I'm like and then he bugles one more time. Like, if I run up there right now, I think he might have enough light, we might have enough light left to shoot him. I if he just stands there, just dumb lucky, I just run up on him. So I take off charging

like a wild bowl. Right, I'm like a bowl out and I'm I'm screaming and I'm running hard as I can at this bowl because this is that, this is all the putting, all the chips on the table, the last chance, and he j hooked me again, and I'm just like, all right, well that's that's the end of the story. Yeah, I'm sorry. You know you didn't get one, guys. But I you know, in the whole season, I did

I draw my drew my bow back twice. It was it was September twenty ninth before I drew my bow for the first time of the season, so you tell like it was just a weird year. And then on that first time, I had a big I did have a beautiful six point come in. I don't want to spoil it because you're gonna watch the video at some point. But misjudge the yardage, you know, I'd ranged everything. I misjudge which tree was what. I guess I'm getting old. It's not as polished as I thought. I was shut

right over. This freaking bull's back is BEAUTI football and we had some fun, but we've really got our teeth kicked in really hard and it hurts a lot. And I'm still trying to.

followed up. But anyway, I've spent more time hunting elk this year than any year I've ever I make I spent ninety percent of September on into October archer hunting. I spent I was in the woods Elkwood's October fifth through October twentieth, and I know, and now here I am in Montana doing her again. I'm just hoping it's a deer year. Yeah, I'm just hoping, Like I'm just kind of starting I'm starting to think, starting to think. I'm like, there's always hope, but I'm starting to think, Man,

maybe it's a deer year. Maybe I'll get a nice meal to your buck, and I'll get a nice white tail buck. And it's a deer year. And I've had those before. Yeah, but you can't they all can't be diamonds, right, No, that's very true.

and like got in on them. But dude, I mean overall it was like experience wise, I feel like it was hard, you know, And so I mean, I, you know, I don't know, feel fortunate, but it's like you talk about being humbled, and I mean, I feel like this year.

Idaho was a banner year for a huckleberry. And a huckleberry if you don't know what that is, it looks like a blueberry, but there they grow in the mountains. They have three times as much potency and flavor than a blueberry does. They're amazing to make great pie, jelly wine, whatever you want to make out of them. But anyway,

this year was a banner year for huckleberries. And I always say during the year of the huckleberry, elk don't bugle for shit, And this year proved it again and what causes that you're of the huckleberry In my opinion, and this is probably true, but lots and lots of moisture. You got a really good snowpack from last winter, and then you have a wet summer. And that's true like everywhere.

Like when I was doing all my cameras this summer, there was several days on cameras where it was like wet, you know, the animals were wet, you could see the rain, or there was bushes moving on a rainstorm. I hot picked that up. And we had an abnormally wet summer in North Idaho and throughout the region, and and some some areas had some really bad winters. You look at southeast Idaho, you look at part of Utah, they had they had one hundred year winter, lots of moisture, they

had a lot of a lot of herd mortality. And then when you're heard when you start having herds, I think, and this is opinion, I don't know if this is true. I feel like whenever your your elk goes so far in the negative, like in their in their physical condition to just to stay alive, and then spring comes and they have to kind of build back from there. I don't think sometimes by September they're built back good enough, like they just don't have enough yet to just go bananas.

And Phelps did a podcast. You guys have to look this up. I don't know which podcast number it was or what the biologist name, but he did a podcast with a biologist out of Utah that talked about how cows don't come into heat every year. Sometimes they do. Sometimes a lot of the cows coming to heat, sometimes hardly any of the cows coming to heat. And it all in his opinion, from the data shows that physical condition of the cow dictates when she's going to come

into heat come into estress. Interesting, and if she doesn't achieve the proper physical fitness you know, to to to become pregnant and to carry a calf through the winter, she won't go into estress. And this year, I feel like that kind of really prove that, that idea prove that because a lot of the West, you know, had some pretty bad winners and those cows went probably in the minus yeah to have to try to like come back though we did have really wet summer, lots of feed.

But I don't know if that didn't I don't know if that helped or not to enough degree. But also back to the Year of the Huckleberry. Yeah, when you have a wet summer, you have feed everywhere. On a dry year, things dry up. On a drought year, things dry up and the good feed is concentrated in smaller areas, and elk have to go to those areas. Now there's a lot more competition for breeding rights. This year there was

food everywhere. They didn't have to congregate, they didn't have to concentrate, and there was a lot less a lot less competition for breeding per se. Like if a bull had some cows, he may not he could push those cows wherever you want and may not encounter anymore else, especially in the area with low elktons. So that's my theory on the Year of Huckleberry. I may be wrong, but I still think there's something to it. But I mean it's true, though. I tell us what you think.

You can email us at CTD at Phelps Game Calls dot com. Let us know about your the Huckleberry, let us know about what your experience. Did you have a banner year like elk the elk rutt year of your life or was it kind of like what we described really hit and miss and just kind of prey lackluster. Yeah, I'd be curious. I want to know. I want to hear from people. Yeah, well, thanks John Man. I appreciate

you coming on here. I don't think people Sometimes people they see the success of other hunters, but they don't know the homework that is put into it. And I can. I'm here to tell you. John and his wife Kylie Kyle, if you will, they put in their homework, and she's right there with him. They spend their summers, well, everybody else is out jet skiing and watersk in and doing fun stuff like that. John is grinding in the mountains.

He is sitting behind binoculars, He's sitting behind a spotting scope. He's hiking up hills, he's stashing water five miles from the truck, packing it in and the dead dead heat of summer. That way he has it in September. Myself, I do a ton of summer work, setting trail cameras, packing heavy loads all over the place, doing things that most people. I can't get anybody to help me. Nobody's gonna help me because it sucks. Everybody's like, oh, I'm going to the river. I'm going swim, I'm going to

the lake. Man, I'm I'm I don't see much river time or lake time in the summer every now and then I do. But but man, I but it's a labor of love, it is. And that's the thing.

I'm thinking about it all the time. We're researching. Heck, how many times we bounce ideas off each other like spot, yeah, exactly. And so I mean it's like I'm always learning. I'm all I feel like I'm a student of the game, like you know, like I'm always trying to figure it out and like learn and how can I do things better.

I feel like we could do a whole podcast just on like talking about you know, the scouting phase, like the stuff that we do that leads up to those successful moments, you know, and like in everything and like how I mean this year, like I felt like a struggle, but I feel like we also had a heck of

a game plan. And it's like, looking back, if I didn't have all that time scouting and knowledge and stuff that I had done in the off season, I don't know, Like I mean, probably have had a lot tougher season than it even was.

But it's like you can't control that, but at least you were in them left all on the table. Yeah, you tried, and like you gave it that effort and you moved areas like.

would I miss in this? What did I miss? And I'm like until I understand like the whole map of that little area and like topo, Google Earth, whatever, and then I like pick another spot and like I learn everything I can about that area without setting foot in it, or maybe I've set foot there and like what did I pick up there?

This where they're going to be boom. And I feel like that's just what go into like putting that much time and effort like into it, you know, And so I feel like it's aided in my success a lot over the years of just the homework.

they don't share a lot. Sometimes they share very little other than the success, but what took them to get there was usually countless hours of time studying and lots of sweat and a lot of blood and like a lot of time put in understanding the area, understanding animals and just like just doing the homework. Yeah, one hundred percent. I mean, heck yourself.

And it's like, but I love just seeing other people succeed, like you know, and like experiencing what elk cunting is because I know how much it's meant to me over the years, and to see someone else be able to could enjoy that and experience what an ELK is and what they do and like how big they are and like everything and like just go through the process and then it's like to punch your tag at the end of it, and it's like, dude, that is like it's special,

you know, And I just love seeing her get out there and enjoy it.