Ep. 44: New Host and New Mexico Bulls with Dirk Durham
48:00 Share

Check engine light on? Take the guesswork out of your check engine light with O'Reilly Veriscan. It's free and provides a report with solutions based on over 650 million vehicle scans verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we can recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.

There's nothing like snook hook sets at dawn or catching a tarpon in the moonlight. Find your next fishing trip made easy on fishingbooker.com and experience the magic of the Sunshine State or any other destination on your fishing bucket list. Book a blue water adventure in search of sailfish or go snapper fishing with the kids. With over 6,000 captains and trips to choose from, planning your next one just got a whole lot easier. Download the Fishing Booker app

on the Google Play or App Store or visit them online at fishingbooker.com to book your trip today. You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to land.com.

They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.

Welcome back to Cutting the Distance. Today I'm joined by Dirk Durham, better known as The Bugler. He's been the Phelps Game Calls Marketing Manager for three plus years. We've been working with him for five plus years. He does more than just marketing though. He's marketing. He's kind of our community manager. Great elk caller, great elk hunter. I'm proud to call him a buddy, but got Dirk here. Except for his roles are changing. I'm going to be talking about his role in the game.

Sad to see him go as the Phelps marketing guy, but he's going to be transitioning into a content creator for the MeatEater content team. But it's still going to have a very heavy focus on Phelps Game Call's brand and making sure that we've got good quality content. And another exciting announcement as part of this new position is you're going to be the co-host of Cutting the Distance. So the way it's going to work

I'll have an episode every other week. Dirk will have an episode in between those. And so we're excited to be bringing twice as many cutting distance episodes to all of you. So with that said, I'm now going to take the guest seat and Dirk is going to host cutting distance here.

Oh, hey there. I got some big shoes to fill. Only literally because I'm size 14. That's what I meant. You're size 14. I'm a size 11 and a half wide. Wide shoes. How many people do you know that has to wear a wide shoe? Not me. I got a bit...

but they're normal. Well, I'm one of them. So I just found out. But anyway, yeah, man, I'm happy to be here. Super excited taking on this new role. If I didn't have a dream job before, I feel like this is even more of a dream job. So yeah,

I don't know all the details yet. This is kind of a rapidly moving transition change, but everything that's kind of been set forth seems to be pretty awesome. So it should be pretty fun. I'm a little jealous of your duties, your position. But I mean, don't get me wrong. There's a lot of work there. A lot of, I mean, editing is sometimes painstaking and planning all of our content and travel to the shoots and whatnot. But

um, seems to be pretty dang cool. Yeah. Especially if I have to edit like a mule deer film, right? If it was an elk film, it'd be exciting, but mule deer is like watching paint. Trying not to put them asleep. Is that right? No, it's no, it should be good. I'm, I'm excited because I know my strengths and weaknesses on a podcast, like very, I mean, anybody that listens to cutting the distance, tactical, technical, and, uh, Dirk brings a different level of excitement. So I think it'll be a great compare contrast, um,

We'll have similar ideas, but then you're going to get more entertainment from Dirk and more technical from me, probably. So I'm excited to see the podcast evolve into a little bit of a jackpot.

or whatever you want to call it. Just pretty contrasting, I think from week to week and it'll be a good mix up. Yeah. I'll have a lot of them on my own podcast, but really I would, my goal is I really want to continue to like touch base with you and do some collab podcasts too, because number one, I like to give you a hard time in front of everybody. Thanks. I appreciate it. Take you out of your comfort zone a little bit. Make funny, you know, kind of what I do best. Yeah.

those are the things that we both love and everybody else does. So, um, so, but that, that's the reason why I'm over here, you know, to cut this podcast with you. And then, uh, also spoiler alert. Um, we may or may not be, uh, working on some new cool stuff for a bugle tube, but, uh, you know, filming Jason, you know, he dressed up like a nerd and,

I tried to, you know, explain, explain what is airflow and whatnot to the lay person, you know, dummies like me. So I don't know. I, I just kind of glossed over and just kept running the camera while you were talking, but I,

I try not to laugh because you're the nerd glasses. Oh, yeah. That's why I love when Dirk has a great idea is it involves me dressing up into something that's uncomfortable for me, talking in a voice that's uncomfortable for me, and then trying to get through what I have to. But no, I think it's good. More to come later, but we're working on a new tube that we hope to have out pretty soon. Yeah. Don't talk about it. Okay. Yeah.

Hey, and as always, if you guys have listener questions, um, you can email those to C T D at thumbs, Phelps game calls.com. Um, and then I want to do something really cool where, um, I have listeners call in, we're going to get a phone number set up here real soon, but I want listeners to call in. If they have a question, call in, leave a message. I won't probably pick up the phone, you know, especially if you call it two in the morning. Hello. But, uh,

call in with your question. I will play your question on the air and then I will do my best to answer it. Um, so I think that that would be really fun and, uh, in a better way to kind of get your, your question across. But if you don't feel like calling in and feel weird about leaving a message, then by all means, please, please send an email because, um, I feel like there's lots of questions out there that sometimes, you know, being experienced hunters, we, we kind of

take for granted, but, but if you're a new hunter or maybe you're an experienced hunter, but you're seeing something weird every year, you just, you're like, Hey, I just, Hey, do you have any feedback on this? Then we'd love to hear those kinds of questions. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's tough at times to, to, you know,

think about everything that we think about out in the woods, right? Sometimes it just kind of comes natural and we don't think about it, but some of you out there may still have questions on, and it's always great for me. Like I love any question at any level, um, because it gets me to think it gets me to like boil back, you know, situations that I've had to think about that. And yeah, every, any question, every question, um, will be accepted and we're, we're excited to get those from you. Yeah. And it's so weird. Sometimes folks will ask me a question and immediately, um,

I'm just like, I don't know what I, why I do what I do. And so it takes a kind of a minute to kind of mull it over sometimes to like break down that process in my head. Cause you know, once you've, you've hunted for a long time, sometimes you just kind of go with your gut real quick and you don't even think about the real, the

the real reason why you do something until somebody actually asked that question and it really breaks it down. And so, so those questions are great. Um, so some of the stuff, like you said, that we don't even think about, it's great to get those questions and then have us, you know, break it down and, and make it, uh, some usable, some usable content. Well, hopefully I don't know. Maybe you'll be thinking that dirt guy. He's a real dummy. Yeah.

Anyway, kind of want to talk about elk season plans a little bit. Um, you know, it seems like that's part of the fun of elk hunting is, and, and any kind of deer and deer hunting and any kind of hunting is making your plans to go. And, uh, I always look forward to the plans of like, okay, where are we going to apply for tags? Um, okay.

Okay. Now I got my tag now, uh, scouting, you know, hitting e-scouting and that's super fun, you know, getting on, on, uh, on your, on your computer and doing all your e-scouting and then, you know, talking to your buddies and making plans. So Phillips, where did you get an elk tag? Did you get like a bunch of elk tags or like you got one elk tag? What do you got?

So your beautiful state of Idaho decided to keep me locked out. I don't know if you set that up, if you have some insight. That is a beautiful thing. When this Jason Phelps guy gets on here, make sure he doesn't get in the waiting room. They've been listening to my emails like, don't let Phelps get attacked for Idaho. We got too many non-residential. So I didn't get Idaho. Kind of was like, oh, this is looking real bleak, right? And I ended up in Colorado. Really interesting.

didn't, you know, some of the points game is all random luck. I didn't feel like quite burning Utah or Colorado points. And so I'm like, dang, what am I going to do? So I had an opportunity again to get an Oregon tag. So I was able to gather that one up and

Sometimes good decisions come because they're forced. The last few years, I've been very fortunate, blessed to have multiple tags in multiple states across the West, which is a blessing and a curse, right? You can't... You spend...

Six, seven, eight days traveling between these hunts, which is, in my opinion, we've said it time and time again, time on the ground is the most important thing to find in success. Well, I'm losing two, three days between each hunt trying to get there, figure things out, change crews, move around. So this year, only having one tag in my pocket, I'm like, this is actually maybe a better thing. Let's just focus on

on that tag all September. So I've got an Oregon elk tag. Um, I plan to be there for 20 plus days or whatever it takes or shoot, maybe get it done in a day or two. You just never know. But on, on the, on the schedule, I plan to be there, you know, between 20 days, 18 to 20 days. Um, and then put all of my energy and effort into that tag. And,

The other thing that I've found by dancing all over the country is sometimes we show up in new units and you just start getting comfortable on day three, four, five. It takes us a while to figure out these elk and where they want to go and just the general...

general patterns and, and whatnot, and you have to take off. So I'm excited to just go find an elk, you know, go find elk, sit on them, learn them, figure out what's going on in an area, start to take all those details. So, uh, yeah. And then I'm going to, I got to just going to hunt. I haven't hunted my home state of Washington for elk. No, I,

we should back up i did draw a special tag last year in washington so i did help at washington elk but i haven't hunted over-the-counter elk um in washington since 2013. um so i'm going to come back with a muzzleloader it's been a 10-year break so

As confident as I'd like to be, it is Western Washington elk hunting and it's going to be a tough one. There's no guarantees in Western Washington. So it'll be a good challenge, but it'll be nice to be able to hunt from home and hunt some old familiar grounds and see if I can still figure out how to kill a raghorn around here.

Yeah. That's awesome. Be able to hunt some of that old ground. It's, it's like, uh, Oh, you were kind of rekindle an old love or something. It's, Oh man, I love this, this little viewpoint here. Oh, I bet there's some elk down in this little basin or whatever. And then, then, then you don't hear anything and you get heartbroken again. Or, or you remember how much you love the devil's club in the bottom of this Canyon and you, the Blackberry briars and this can't, yeah, it's a,

Now, I do a lot of hunting because of the brush and the understory nowadays. Coming from Western Washington, like I grew up just in a jungle. And so, yeah, I won't necessarily enjoy that coming home. But, yeah, it will be fun to come back and go explore the haunts that used to hold elk all the time and see what's still around. Yeah. And to your point, back to having that one September tag is, like you said, you know, you lose a lot of time to travel into. But, you know, if...

if you haven't had two or three elk tags in your pocket each fall and you try to hit your, I try to hit timing just right. Um, there's, there's been times where you go to a unit and, uh, there's elk there, but they're just not talking or they're talking, but they're not coming to

calls. I mean, every stage of the rut, every, every day is a little different, man. If you're not there in the right days and the timeframe, you can have a really tough hunt, you know, or maybe it's inclement weather. Um, you know, it's hot and dry and you know, the day you leave, it starts raining a little bit and things get freshened up and bam Elk are on fire. So that's, that's tough. Yeah. And so by being in one place, you can take advantages of the highs and lows, but you've

Versus you may miss, you may be in a low the entire time if you only have six or seven days in an area. And we've all been there where it's like, is this even the same unit? Is this the same elk? You know, it's like somebody just flipped the light switch on that morning and it's nuts versus you've been hunting it for 10 days prior to that and just been lackluster. Yeah.

So I'm excited to be able to catch that. The other big change in Oregon this year is they've always started the, I'm going to probably get this wrong, but it'll be mostly right. Like the last Saturday in August was always their start or some form of that. They always would start that season in late August, but typically the Oregon seasons would close up 21st, 22nd. And this year they moved that ahead a week.

So it will now, I'll be able to hunt into the very end of September, which I'm excited about because I'm one of those guys that really likes the peak of the rut. I don't necessarily need to be like, well, you might have more success on the front end or the back end. Like I want bulls bugling, ripping their heads off more so than what my percentage is of killing them. And I've always had great success, you know, from the 13th on. So it's like, I'd rather just be in that more peak of the rut than outside of it.

Yeah. Even if, you know, let's say the, the bulls are cowed up and they're not coming to calls real good. It's still just fun. You know, you're doing it. You're out, you're out participating in the rut. Right. Whereas if they're not talking at all, you're just like, Oh my God, does this Google even work anymore? I don't know what I'm doing. Uh, it's not a fun hunt compared to like, at least if you get to see them interact and interact with them. Um, that's a lot funner. I've never, well,

2019 Idaho, hot as heck. Everything was dry up top. And I had never been more defeated on an elk hunt than that one because we were looking at bulls every day. There's a bull, there's a herd in that Canyon and you'd be glad I'm nothing.

You'd walk up the net. There's elk. You'd bugle at them. Nothing. I'm like, there's nothing more defeating before you start. Like these are the ones I can see. They're not making a peep. Like, I don't even know if I'm bugling the like big timber. And it was just like, you're just, you're worthless out there. Like if they're not going to bugle. Yeah. We can go stock, you know, spot and stock these elk. Cause we know they're there and nothing else is talking, but it just really defeating to. So yeah, I'd much give me bugling bulls all day. And I'll take that over.

you know, maybe more elk or elk that aren't bugling. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like last year in New Mexico, for instance, um, we, we had the opportunity to hunt the same unit, but you were, we were hunting two different seasons. You were first season. I was second season. Um, and you kind of saw a little different, different performance of the rut than I did. Um,

talk about that a little bit yeah so when we showed up um and we actually even have better more data than that because me and um ranella got to hunt the unit the year before prior so we got these and and me and steve hunted first season you hunted second season but within that first season it's a 15 day season so me and steve hunted the last six days me and cal hunted the first seven days or whatever it was and it was it was a lot different and there were still elk there um

don't get me wrong, there were elk, but you could tell that they weren't quite settled in to where they wanted to be for September. We were watching the same bulls days apart. One time one would have cows, one times he wouldn't, one time he would have a few cows. And you could just tell that the pecking order was being established and these bulls really didn't want to play the game the way we wanted to.

But the year before, I'm like, man, we ran the same system. We did the same thing like we normally did. And we had bulls, you know, these big bulls just going crazy, coming into calls, you

Um, last year was very, you almost felt like you're walking on eggshells in the, in the mountains with the call in your mouth, right? You were just as much as we always preach the hammer at them, locate them, move in aggressively. You were like, this isn't working right. You knew on day one or two, you tried to run that system and things were going the other way and you didn't get winded. So it was just very, um,

You had to play very reserved and very similar to the Idaho scenario I was just talking about where you knew there were elk everywhere. You get up in the morning, elk feeding out above, but you move in tight, try cow calls, nothing. You just couldn't work these bulls. And I think it had to do with the timing. They just weren't receptive to kind of some of those systems. But yet...

So the other question in my mind is like, well, you know, if your bugling is not working, let's go run cow calls. Let's change. But it wasn't working. I think we were in this time where they had, they were, you know, breaking down the hierarchy. They were establishing herds. They were going through this process and they didn't really care about this cow elk that they couldn't see. And so I almost felt helpless. There was nothing we could do to really get things going very well. Multiple call-ins where things would kind of half-ass commit.

Um, and then they would lose interest halfway on a call and where before you could almost hang your hat on this call and like, Oh, this bull's committed. You know, you can see it when they break and, you know, they might have to go under a little rise or, and you're like, where did that go? But, um, just,

a lot different than when you were there just the 10 days after we left. Right. And didn't you say the bulls that you seen with the cows were like younger bulls, like a younger five points, like two and a half, three and a half year old bulls. Yeah. For the most part, as we got like, we're hunting the first of the eighth or something like that. Um, early in the hunt, there were a lot of small bulls. Um, and the bigger bulls seem to be running, you know, by themselves kind of checking on these herds, checking these cows, um,

you know, doing what they do prior to, you know, estrus or whatever they're waiting on. Um, they, they leave those younger, more immature bulls to run the herds and they just kind of spot check. And then towards the end, you started to see the bigger bulls picking up cows, um, you know, or groups of cows, smaller groups. Yeah. I think it was, it was just timing. We were ahead. Right. For sure. So then fast forward to whenever Dusty and I showed up,

Um, it was a little, it was quite a bit different scenario. You know, there were, the bulls were very vocal, um, big bulls now taking cows, but those, those younger bulls were kind of, you know, playing the satellite bull, um, role. And, um,

It was, it was still like with those bulls being cowed up so much, they seem to kind of still want to want to keep those cows. So you start calling to them and they're like, yeah, I don't think so. And then they'd move off and they'd move off. And it seemed like, um, they were moving over to an area, uh,

away from where we were at like it almost seemed like all the elk where i was hunting was kind of moving over to this other area you know um and i don't know if we should even say it but it was right next to this we were hunting the kind of a line of a border line of a of another unit so they were moving over into their their rutting mecca which was on the other side of the line though so we're kind of like you're helpless you're like standing at the fence line which is the border you're like

Man, I wish I could go over there. I mean, like just over the rise, I could just hear chaos. It sounded like something off, off of some of those old, old Primo's videos, you know, just, just 25 different bulls screaming their guts out. It's like, Oh my God, I wish I could even see into it just to witness what's going on over there.

but, um, and it seemed like every day we got like less elk on my side and they were moving into that other unit. And we were just about ready to like, okay, we're going to completely move in the unit because the unit is fairly good size. We're going to move areas here. But on the third day then, um, and it was the same thing. Like if I bugled a lot, it seemed like, um, we're going to, we're going to leave, you know, the, the big bulls would move off. And then the satellite bulls, they didn't seem to be want, want much confrontation, but, uh,

The satellite bulls weren't super vocal, though. It seemed like the big bulls were more. And then the satellites would kind of come in quiet. So I started kind of doing some cow and calf calls. And we were just about ready to leave this area. I'm like, you know what, Dusty, let's...

let's wrap it up here let's hike back to the truck let's grab our camp and we're gonna just move move our camp i like to i like to kind of travel light you know i don't set up a big elaborate camp let's move our camp over the other part of the unit and try it over there and but there was this one bull that just kept on like laying it sounded like he was laying his bed and he did this really crappy moany bugle he sounded like a moo cow and there was a bunch of moo cows in the area too you know um

um, moon around. I'm like, man, that stupid thing sounds like a beef cow moving in its bed over there, but it's an elk. So I'm like, let's go. It's on the way to the truck. Let's go on the way to the truck. Let's go over there and just kill that bull. And we'll just go home. You know, I kind of said that, you know, kind of being funny, like there's no way in heck we're going to kill this bull, but,

Anyway, we get over there super close and get danger close. I thought, okay, if I take one more step, this bull is going to...

see us or detect us. So that's how close we want to get. So I stopped and I'm, I let out the most quiet little calf call you've ever heard. And the bull answers and I'm like, and I can either see movement and we're like 60, 80 yards from this bull. I can see antlers through the trees. He's laying there. And I gave a few more and he stands up.

And then over the next five, 10 minutes, he just kind of slowly feeds over to us. And they did give this real weird moany bugle every little bit.

It was a, well, you'll be able to watch the video. The video is going to drop here pretty soon. But, uh, anyway, he came over, um, came in close enough. I was able to shoot him, you know, and I don't want to give too much away, but anyway, it was an interesting, it was a, it definitely an interesting hunt, um, from what Phelps had described. And then the biggest, the biggest, uh, the biggest grind I actually have with New Mexico and Jason Phelps is that's dirty sucker. Didn't tell me about chiggers. Yeah.

Like on day two, I woke up and I've got this weird rash all over the inside of my elbow. Is that like the ween? No, the weenus is the actual, the loose skin on your elbow. This is like the elbow pit. Inside weenus. Inside weenus, your elbow pit. I was like, oh my God, a spider must have just...

Ate me up last night. So I'm like checking my sleeping bag for spiders. I'm checking the tent for spiders. I'm like, Dusty, look at these spider bites. And the next morning, the third day, I wake up and I've got them on both sides and then up on my chest. I'm like, what is going on?

And then we get this elk killed and then we're driving home. And as we drive, they're getting worse. Like we hadn't showered, of course. And I'm like, it looks like somebody shot me with birdshot. I've got them so bad. I'm like, oh my God. And they itch so bad. And it was a different kind of itch that I'd ever experienced. It was like, it was like a mosquito bite times a hundred and you couldn't quit itching. And every time you'd itch, it was so satisfying the way it felt.

But then it made it itch more. Yeah. It was horrible. And I was like, Phelps. And I sent him a picture. I'm like, what's something, something got me. And he's like, oh yeah, those are chiggers. I'm like, what? To the best of my knowledge. Cause I,

the year before me and Steve both got lit up and then I forgot to tell you just 10 days prior to you being there Cal got it worse than anybody I'd ever seen like along your belt line um your armpits uh neckline like they anywhere they could just get in and there they it hurt it's it's weird like the center point feels like there's some sort of stinger or something you still so when you itch him it actually hurts a little bit um

Yeah, they're nasty. To the best, if you know what they are, let us know. But to the best of what we could check is they were like some sort of chigger on steroids. Well, when we got home, Dusty took a piece of tape. He started reading about it, and he's like, okay, he thinks they could be chiggers. And so he got a piece of like duct tape and put on one of the bites and then peeled it off. And then he's got a microscope, right? You guys have probably hit it off real good. You guys get nerd out about nerd stuff. It's science. Yeah, basically science.

You could probably explain it, but we wouldn't understand it. Yeah, I get it. I get it. But so he looks at it through a microscope and then takes a picture and sends it to me. And literally, it's a chigger. It's just like the picture online. Yeah.

and they're nasty. Like they, they burrow in, they don't, they lay eggs or something. Well, that little thing grows and you have basically feasts on you until it's ready to get gone. Yeah. And then they weep out. It's disgusting. Yeah. It was, it was horrible. I like literally I, and I was at dusty. Didn't get it as bad as I did. I think my,

my body makeup, you know, fat guy. I got a lot of good stuff coming through my pores, evidently, you know, Krispy Kreme donut grease. I don't know what else. But they loved me. And literally two months later, I was still scratching them things like a crackhead. I mean, it was bad. Yeah.

O'Reilly Auto Parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day I went into an O'Reilly Auto Parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there, you know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.

They did not have it, and the dude told me specifically where I would go down the road to find it is how nice they are. They offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. Thousands of parts and accessories in stock, in-store, or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam.

They'll test your battery for free. If you need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or quick service, they'll help you find the right part or point you to a local repair shop for help. Whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you'll find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful, best of all, friendly. These guys are your one-stop shop for all things auto, do-it-yourself,

You can find what you need in-store or online. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit them at OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. That's OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. We've all seen plenty of gadgets and fads come and go, but here's one product that stood the test of time. Seafoam Motor Treatment. Lots of hunters and anglers know that seafoam helps engines run better and last longer.

It's really simple. When you pour it in your gas tank, sea foam cleans harmful fuel deposits that cause engine problems. I'm talking common stuff like hard starts, rough engine performance, or lost fuel economy. Sea foam is an easy way to prevent or overcome these problems. Just pour a can in your gas tank and let it clean your fuel system. You probably know someone who has used a can of sea foam to get their truck or boat going again. People everywhere rely on sea foam to keep their trucks, boats, and small engines running the way that they should the entire season.

Help your engine run better and last longer. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more.

This is Brent Reeves from This Country Life. What makes South Dakota the greatest for pheasant hunting? With over 1.2 million pheasants harvested last year, South Dakota boasts the highest population of pheasants in the nation. In fact, you'd have to add up the total harvest from neighboring states just to get that many birds.

There's also millions of wide open acres chock full of different landscapes, meaning the hunt in one county is often completely different from just a few counties over. But what really makes South Dakota the greatest goes way beyond just hunting a colorful bird. It's the pursuit of something more like the camaraderie that awaits all kinds of hunters from all walks of life and partaking in South Dakota tradition over 100 years in the making.

It's about taking the greatest shots and watching your dog work the greatest fields in the greatest lands, carrying on the greatest heritage and making the greatest memories. So what are you waiting for? From the rush of the flush to the stories at the end of the day, experience a thrill like no other. Learn how at HuntTheGreatest.com.

I did want to rewind just a little bit since we did have that first experience. You know, me not being able to make hardly any calls, you not necessarily being able to make aggressive bugles. But like when me and Steve were there, we were actually there before you. And this may be just a layout that you can expect different things on different years in the same spots. We were there five, six days ahead of you. And it was really good because I had pre-scouted prior to Steve and the team getting there.

Um, we could not, not make the right call. I could get tight bugle. I could get tight cow call. And we had bulls just like running the rut fest, you know, 500. It's like, it's like they were on a poker run. They needed to come check out this bull. They need to go check out that bull. And every bull was like making this crazy loop. And it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Um,

So, yeah, it's just weird from, you know, three, three different trips to the same unit, anywhere from about 15, 16 days apart. And the elk acted completely different at different times. Yeah. And, you know, honestly, if you, if you hunt elk for very long, you kind of, you notice that like, it's not every year, you know, every year is not a 10. Um, there's,

There's a lot of fives out there, you know, and every day is not a 10, definitely within your, your, a lot of time, you know, whether you're a weekend warrior in it, which, you know, I used to do that a lot back in the day. Or, you know, if it's five, 10 days, whatever you got to hunt in year to year, it's just, there's.

Some years just line up good and they hit and some they don't. And I think that's year to year, the ruts more intense or less intense in certain areas. I mean, you look at New Mexico when we hunted before in another area, you know, we hunted there two years in a row and it was a little lackluster until that one day. And it was like a flip of a switch, man, and big nasty bugles. If I blew a big nasty bugle, man, it really got the bulls going. You know, they didn't care about calc.

calls. Um, whereas, you know, uh, the next year when we went there with, with Lampers, then man, I don't know that I ever got, I had one day that was maybe half as good as the previous year, but we still didn't go at those big rut fest that, that we loved, but in the area had hardly any cows. So if there's hardly any cows in my mind, and there are quite a bit of bulls, like the bull cow ratio is pretty tight in

in my mind, like blow a cow call and them things are going to beat your door down. Yeah. But they didn't really care about cow calls much either. There's just, I don't know. I think there's a lot that go along with the timing, um,

And I'll, you know, we don't know what happened the first season. We weren't there the first season. Maybe they were running around like crazy, you know, coming to bugles and cow calls. And there, I mean, you hunted that flat country quite a bit. I just feel like that other area that we hunted first was they were just more nomadic, right? There was no pattern to them. Those elk may have came from three miles away and joined up or it's just,

seemed like lots of movement it wasn't so much like local elk and and yeah it was it's like one day on fire one day nothing it was just they were it's just weird right yeah

versus a normal mountain unit. It's like, well, they're going to bed in this batch of timber. They're going to feed in this. And like, you get that same action. Um, but yeah, New Mexico is interesting, you know, not where we grew up hunting elk. And so I, I still feel like I'm trying to figure it out or apply what I think I know. And, and, uh, that, that spot where, um, you know, we hunted first, uh, yeah, it was just like a light switch. I, I,

My gut tells me, cause there were bulls we'd never seen before all of a sudden just show up. And then, um, some, there were some guys hunting the same unit that ended up killing the bull later that we had seen four miles, uh,

three miles away that had crossed two roads and crossed the big ridgeline. And they ended up killing it. So these elk are just, and he had heard of what seven, eight cows and that bull traveled a long, long ways. So I, it's like, man, I don't know if we can like necessarily figure out these things, or if you're trying to hunt a specific boy, you better stay with them every day and, you know, and try to figure them out. Cause they were just moving so much. Yeah. Yeah.

They would never bed in the same place, and they wouldn't bed long, too. Typically, in the Northwest, you bed down some milk. It's like, okay, they went to bed right over there. They're going to stay there for most of the day until the shadows get long in the evening and things cool off and the thermals change, and it's like, okay, it's time to get up and eat. Typically, you're like, okay, I'm going to close the gap and get over there, sit on them a while, and start calling once about the middle of the day, about 12, 1 o'clock.

But New Mexico, I don't know how many times I did that. It was like Houdini. You'd get over there, get super close. And then it's like, okay, they ought to be settled. Let's start calling it. Nothing. And then you like slowly creep in. Those elk are gone. Yep. They would lay there for like an hour or something and they'd get up and leave. But,

In my mind, it's because there's so damn much rocks and pokey stuff. I mean, and then there's not a lot of good shade. You know, there's not a lot of tall trees. It was kind of that low shade. The sun would move, and they'd probably get hot, and maybe they're laying on a rock in the wrong spot. So I guess, or maybe they just, like, they don't want to stay in one spot and let another bull come along and mess it up for them. But, yeah, so anyway, but...

Back to the podcast. I'll be hosting a lot of these on my own type podcasts. Love to have Jason on from time to time. I'm going to start a series here leading up to September. We're going to talk about preparations of what you can do to prepare for September. You know, all the things that go through my mind, whether we're talking about fitness, you know, since I'm a fitness model.

That's not, not, not at all in that, but, uh, we're gonna talk about fitness. We're gonna talk about gear. We're going to talk about getting prepared, um, scout East scouting. We're going to talk about, uh, and then once September hits, we're gonna talk about, you know, all the, all those tactics and, and things to, to use and to do once you get to your spot, you know, and maybe you're hunting out of state, maybe you're, maybe you're hunting your local area, but,

we're going to talk about all the stuff that it's going to take to put together an elk hunt for this fall and, uh, hopefully, uh, get you better prepared. Um, I know, I know every year, you know, I've been doing this elk hunting with archery elk hunting for 34 years and, uh,

I'm like, okay, I got this figured out. And then the next year I just totally get schooled again. Right. So that, and that's the great part about elk hunting. It's fun. It feels like it's, it's a craft that you can never master. And I feel like that's what the fun part is. Yeah. And I think that's why I love archery elk hunting so much is that,

that I'm one of those guys that just wired it. If I'm going to do something, I want to be the best at it or feel like I'm the best at it or have full control. And so by never truly mastering any of it and feeling like I'm always trying to hone that or get to that accomplishment or that goal of having this dialed. But I think the reality is it's just there's so many...

so many variables and the elk were so unpredictable that I think the fun thing is I'm never going to have it figured out completely. You're going to have a pretty good idea and you're going to do some things that work a lot of the time, but every year is a new learning experience. I go in with an open mind, try to figure out what's working and just add it to my

my experience, you know, all my experiences go into a bag and then you try to pull those out and hopefully it works. And there's times where, you know, things can work perfectly 10 times in a row. You think you got a slam dunk set up and then you'd go to run it the next time. And it fails right off the bat. Um, you just never know. And that's what I love about it. Yeah. And like, you know, I feel like a lot of people think, Oh man, you, if I had that tag, Oh, I'd probably just kill this or that. And, um,

No matter what, how good a tag is from what I've found, whether it's been on my own experience, I've had a couple of decent tags. I've been along with other people that have some really good tags. You still have to show up and you still have to work hard every day. Just because you got a really good tag doesn't mean there's three 50 bulls under every bush. I mean, you still got to get up and do it and try hard. And, and sometimes some of the better tags I've had,

I've had to try as hard, if not harder than just good old over the counter units that I've had, uh, you know, luck in before. So, um, that's some, some, something that, you know, you always had to kind of keep in mind, um, in this fall. So I've got a tag for, um, Montana and I've got it all. I'll have a tag for Idaho for sure. But whether it's over the counter, but I'm in for a draw for a good unit. So I'm probably more likely to get struck by lightning and draw this tag. Um,

but who knows somebody's got to drop. There's always a chance. So, but Montana, I mean, Montana, I mean, it's a, it's a great place to hunt elk. It's a Mecca. There's, there's a lot of elk. There's some big bulls. There's some, it kind of checks every box, whether you want to hunt flat country or back country or mountains or whatever. Um, but there's a definitely a learning curve and, and I haven't cracked the code on Montana yet. Um, so again, like,

I got to dig in on my e-scouting and I'm going to make a trip here in a few weeks over and just kind of learn that like an air go to an area that I kind of really want to check out and just go get boots on the ground and check it out and see, um,

in the past i've i've just got my butt kicked in montana um so i'm kind of looking forward to this year like maybe i'll i'll build it like i'll figure it out right oh i got these montana elk figured out and then if i get a tag again it'll probably be a completely different game i know where we left some really big bulls last time me and you were in montana yeah i want to get back there i just i haven't had an elk tag in my pocket for montana lately but um i i

I find myself, if I get bored at work or if I just need to check out from the mind-numbing designs and stuff that I'm doing, I find myself floating back to that area. One of the biggest bowls I've ever seen on the hoof, I think, was on that trip. I think that area can be good if you figure it out. Yeah.

Well, what I've been doing if, uh, to, to, so I could go hunt that area again, I've been working on my track and field skills. I've been running hurdles. Um, limbo and hurdles. Yeah. I've never been to such a place with so many blowdowns in my entire life. Oh yeah. You could, you could, we'd spent 10 minutes at a time, never putting foot like on dirt.

You were on a tree, over a tree, walking this tree to get to the next tree. Because if you were to put your foot on dirt, it was going to take you 10 times longer. It's just an incredible blowdown patch. I'd like to say that was a fun hunt, but I can't really say that. I mean, it was a tough hunt. The camaraderie was awesome. Hunted with you and Giannis. And the camera guys were great. I mean, we had a lot of laughs and a good time. But, dude, it was brutal. Yeah.

we'd hear bulls bugling across these canyons and they weren't deep, nasty canyons. They're like, oh, we'll be over there in 15, 20 minutes. No. Like two hours, three hours later, we finally get over there. Well, the elk are gone or done bugling for the day. It was so challenging. I like, I mean, I'm going to tell on you a little bit. I think there was a point, and I'd like to say we would have killed this bull if Dirk had to go do some paperwork in the mountains and forgot his release. Yeah.

he didn't realize he had forgot his release until we had i mean in the size of the bull doesn't matter but in this case just to throw more at dirk like a very very healthy bull mature bull we've been watching all day was coming down the pipeline or down a meadow bottom adam and at that time when i what was he 150 yards away when dirk realized that his release should probably like make contact with his string he realized he didn't have a release on his wrist and uh

We had to tie when we called time, the elk didn't risk. They didn't respect our timeout that we had called. No. And then they, then he moved to a position of, you know, he had the advantage over us, but just, you know, here's a pro tip. If you didn't go do some paperwork, um, don't take your, your lease off and set it on the log, you know, put it in your pocket or in your pack, at least that way you can like dig in your pocket and get it. Um,

Man, how frustrating. You chuckle now, but in the moment you're like, oh, man. That Dirk's a real idiot. No, no, no. I wouldn't say that. That bull was big. It would have been your best bull ever probably. By far, yeah. And just to have the stint of bad luck that your release wasn't with you. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's really hard to time out those, that paperwork time. I mean, especially when you're eating weird food, you know, you're eating, you know, dehydrated meals and, and high fiber stuff. And you're always, yeah. I look back to that one. I'm like, man, we, we did everything right. That was one of those days where you just sit all day waiting for the wind to switch and, and for those elk to get out of their beds and wake up. And it's like, everything was right. But it was, it was still good, but.

One of these days, I look forward to coming back to Montana. I've got five or six points there looking to draw a tag the next time we draw a big game combo. But yeah, I'm excited to see how you do there in Montana. And then Idaho, you're going back to your...

stomping grounds or? Well, um, I don't know. I'm, I'm torn, you know, my old stomping grounds, the elk density is so low, um, that you can spend a lot of days. Like last year, I spent a bunch of days with hardly any bugling, any calling. And it's such that country. It's like, well, people are like, well, I want to just, you know, glass them up and spot and stuff. Well, there's very few areas you could actually spot an elk, um,

in the open and you could probably spend two weeks looking at that opening and maybe never see a bird, let alone an elk. Um, it's just lower densities. And then,

So the elk have to bugle if you really want to play the game with them. So it was pretty tough, but every now and then you'll turn up a giant, which I did on the last day. I had to leave early. My wife got appendicitis and I had to head home, but I'm like, okay, we can hunt until 12 o'clock and then we got to go and turn up just a monster and then go.

you know, didn't come together for me. But, but that, I guess that's kind of the thing that kind of keeps you going back. You kind of fall in love with the country a little bit, the whole experience. And then, you know, every now and then, you know, you, you turn up a pretty nice bowl and sometimes you can capitalize on it or not, but I'm not, I don't know if I'll go back.

to that spot this year, I'm thinking maybe trying something a little more, uh, local to where I live. Um, less, less hours of drive time instead of drive, you know, spending all my time driving. Maybe I can, um, check out some areas that are a little closer to me to where I can have less drive time and maybe spend more time actually boots on the ground scouting. Yeah.

Yeah. I think that spot you're looking at is pretty good. I just have a hunch. Yeah. Well, if you wouldn't have been a dummy and didn't get an elk tag, you know, do I need to call the governor and say, Hey, get my buddy Jason an elk tag. You know, he likes to hunt elk. Yeah. I think you have continued to, I've been going back and looking at the leftovers just to see, and I think you still have control over me.

There you go. Like, Hey, if this Jason Phelps guy logs in, signed in, like there are no leftover tags or no turnbacks. The Idaho fishing game is shadow banning you. Yeah. You, you, I think they're, you're going to have to call them back and tell them to take that off of my account. Okay. Well, there is a chance. I mean, cause I,

as much as i want to really focus on one hunt we could do a little early early september run over there and we've had some great success in that area early september yeah yeah especially if i can get in there this summer and put some boots on the ground and see you know if the elk are still where you left them you know the last time you guys hunted there um be like yeah there's still a bunch of elk in here or is it just wolf scat yeah you never know yeah yeah you never know but

Well, that's fun, man. I'm, um, I'm glad, uh, I'm glad to join the team here, um, on the, uh, cutting the distance podcast and the media group. Um, like I say, you know, I'm, I'm not sure, um,

where it's all going to head and look like, you know, on my day to day, it's, we're still figuring that stuff out, but, but I know it's going to be a good time. And, um, and if you guys want to watch that elk film that we talked about last, uh, 2022, uh, New Mexico elk film of mine, um, that'll be playing on the Phelps channel here pretty soon. So, um,

Um, keep an eye out, check us out on social media, Instagram, Philips game calls, and, uh, you'll, when we'll keep you abreast on what's going on in our film launches. So, and then you've got some films coming out too. Yeah. Uh, I've got my old cunts from last year coming out on the meat eater YouTube channel. Um, my, my quality Washington bull, I think is going to come out late August, early September on the loophole channel.

And I think that's all I got. Those two, I believe.

Oh, one other thing. One thing we forgot about some tags we didn't talk about are deer. I mean, we got so wrapped up in the most supreme species of animal on planet Earth. We forgot about the second best, mule deer and whitetail. Third best, whitetail. Third best, whitetail. Now, that's pretty debatable. I mean, that's a fist fight amongst deer-loving people. Oh, I know. I know.

We all know whitetails are smarter than mule deer. Yeah. Adaptable. I wouldn't say smarter. I'd say more adaptable. I love it. No, yeah, we've got a couple of good deer tags in our pockets too for November tags. So we'll get to chase some Montana mule deer around and then some Kansas whitetail around.

Man, I'm going to love that. I love the Montana mule. It's like, usually you get over there and it's like a blizzard. It's cold and it's nasty. And sometimes you can't even see because your eyes are watering from all the wind and ice chunks blowing into your eyeballs. But man, mule deer are so fun to hunt over there. And then last year we did that, that whitetail hunt with our good buddy, Randy Milligan and we,

he's got a beautiful piece of property. It's the setup. Yeah. He, yeah. He asked us to come over and hunt. And it was like, I mean,

How lucky are we? How do all the locals say, he's got the hole? He's got the hole. So everything that's a good deer spots the hole. But you talk to anybody that maybe we're brushing by, or you tell them you're hunting Randy's or you're hunting with Randy, and that's all you get. Yeah, he's got the hole. Oh, yeah. He's got a hole. All right. Which I'm taking, that's a good thing. Yeah, it's a good thing. He's got the buck hole.

The deer hole. I mean, it was, it was a fun hunt. It's super different than what we're used to. Um, you know, I've hunted whitetails for years, um, in North Idaho. It's a different game. You know, I didn't ever set a tree stand, you know, and it's more of a ground game, but, uh, we sat in tree stands and ground blinds and I'm going to be honest with you. I was scared to death.

in the tree stand. Oh, I was going to ask you, or have we been doing like, uh, have you been training? Cause it sounds like Randy's going to have us race up a tree hook in and then race back out. Randy couldn't get over. You couldn't put two guys in a more awkward position. I don't think to start with is, Hey, get up this tree and clip yourself in. I'm like,

Randy, couldn't we have did this in the daylight to start with? Like it's pitch black. I've never been up a tree in my life. And here I am like with a lifeline and trying to get my thing all hooked in. And yeah, I,

I like, we should have probably did this in the day daylight. It's like trust falls really. I mean, it's like, because you weren't trusting that he put that, those tree ladder steps strapped on tight and good with good, good straps. They aren't going to break. Yeah. Yeah. You used to get climbing up. You're like, this one's real faded. Is it still good? Yeah. They don't care. Yeah. It creaked a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. And then, then, then you try to get in the stand and I look like,

he, he laughed. He, he started laughing when I was getting the stand, trying to get in the stand. Cause he didn't put his ladder to where you could like climb up a little above the stand and then just kind of step over your stands. The next step, the last step was like where I needed to be standing on to step into the, so I had to like kind of hump the tree.

to get my feet on that, that last step. And then he's like, just swing your leg over. Just, you're doing it wrong. Just swing your leg over. I'm like, I can't. So then I'm like, I'm scared. I'm like, I swung the leg over and I'm trying to crawl in. And he was dying laughing at, I wish somebody had been there to film it. Cause, but then once I got in this town, it's like, okay, I'm not. And we got, we got our harnesses on. We're safe. You know, nothing would have happened if we had a fell out.

But then I get sitting there and I'm like, I don't think I can draw my bow without being freaked out. So I'm like, okay, okay. I'm going to build up some confidence or stand up. I'm like trying to draw my bow. I was like, oh my God, I feel like I'm just going to follow the tree stump backwards. Okay. Okay. Lean forward. Shift weight a little bit. Okay. Oh my God. I'm going to fall out frontwards now. I was confused.

It was not good. I'm like, I hope a big buck don't come by because I'm totally screwed right now. I'm not ready yet. I like the ground blind. It was a way better deal. You just have to shoot through these little tiny narrow slats. Yeah. Watch your stabilizer. Watch your arrow. Watch your wheel, your limb. It'll be fun. I'm looking forward to that one. We were hoping that Steve was going to go with us, but fortune have it, he didn't draw. So it'd just be more deer for us this way. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. We'll scout it out for him. Cause you know, Steve would get the best stands and we'd get second rate stands. This'll work out better for it. Right. Right. Well this way too, we can like scout out the places they have the smaller bucks and we can turn them onto those. Yeah. This is the, this is the hole over here. You're going to want to be there.

We should have a great fall. Looking forward to it. Yeah, stoked to have you. You've co-hosted a few times for me. Usually when I'm running to the mountains and I don't have an episode that's ready for this week. Hey, Dirk, so you've covered for me before, but this is going to be a permanent full-time gig. So we're excited to have you here on Cutting the Distance. I think you'll bring an exciting, new, entertaining feel to the show. We're excited for our guests to be able to get that.

Yeah. Yeah. And guys, like I said, guys and gals, please do send in those questions. That way we got plenty of material. You know, sometimes you kind of get embedded into this stuff and it's like, man, what do we even talk about? Cause you take for granted, like you say, you know, of, of all the things, but there's a world of questions and a world of topics we can cover, whether it's elk hunting, deer hunting, crappie fishing. No, just kidding. I don't crappie fish. I like to eat crappie. They're delicious. I wish we had crappie where I live, but they,

They don't. Well, maybe they do. And I don't even know. Right. It goes, how smart, what, what a fisherman I am. But anyway, yeah. Yeah. Please do call in or, and we'll get that number on my next podcast and episode and, or, you know, email ctd at philipsingagamecalls.com. So.

Until next time, thanks for listening. And, man, I wish I had a really cool tagline. Get them close. Cut the distance. You're going to have to come up with one. Monsters are dumb. There you go. All right, thanks, everybody. Thanks, everybody.

Hey, we're going to take a little break here and talk about interstate batteries. Now, if you're like me, enjoying the great outdoors, you need gear that is as reliable as it gets. That's why I power my adventures with interstate batteries. I use interstate batteries in my boats. I use interstate batteries in my camper. Great for your truck, too. From Alaska to Montana, they're outrageously dependable.

Battery is essential. With over 150,000 dealer locations, finding one is easy. For all your vehicles, land or sea, choose Interstate. Head to InterstateBatteries.com and find your power today. You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to Land.com.

They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.