Ep. 61: Jason's Gear in 2023
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Welcome back to another episode of Cutting the Distance. On this episode, I'm just going to run through the gear I've used now that season's kind of wrapped up. I'm an Oregon archery elk hunt, my Western Washington muzzleloader elk hunt, the Montana rifle hunt for deer, as well as my Kansas archer whitetail hunt. There's going to be a lot of overlap between the gear I used on a lot of these, but I'll go into the specifics on what I used that was different from hunt to hunt, kind of what my layering system looked like, maybe what my meals looked like on these gear.

We're not going to have a guest on this episode. Just going to be me kind of rattling off the gear that I used, how it performed, and then maybe any changes I'm going to make. So we kind of cover it all from archery elk out west all the way back to an eastern whitetail hunt where your gear, clothing, all that changes drastically.

But like every episode of Cutting the Distance, I'm going to start off with a few questions. I went to the Phelps Game Calls messages that we've got and pulled these out of them. But if you have any questions for me or my guests, feel free to email them to us at ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com or like where we got these questions from, hit us up with some social media messages and we'll do our best to get them in.

So my first question was from Steve Barker and he's asking about broadheads for lower poundages. He mentions that his wife and daughter both shoot 40 to 45 pounds and for whitetails they've shot lighter 75 to 85 grain heads with great success. And he's asking what would you recommend on elk?

So I want to kind of start off with shot placement, you know, very cliche, but shot placement is, is ultimate. And you need to, uh, you know, have an arrow. If you're going to go up and wait, you need to make sure, you know, you got your, your, the right arrow, the right spine on that arrow to make sure it works. So a lot of times I ask, I would ask you like, does their 75 to 85 grain head, does it meet all the legal requirements for that Western state or the, it may not even be a Western state, but the state that you're going to elk in, uh,

Um, if they meet all of those and they shoot them very well, I would say maybe continue, um, to shoot those. Or if you're one of those on the fence about mechanical versus, um, fixed blades, um, stay with the same weight, but maybe switch to a fixed blade head as long as it meets the minimum cutting diameter and so on and so forth. Uh, I'm, I'm a big fan of continuing to use what works. Yeah. If you're starting from scratch, uh, some things I would consider, um,

on elk, regardless of whether you're shooting a big setup like me, um, you know, and my big setup comes mainly from having long arms and, and, uh, you know, full length arrows, but I would look at like a cut on contact head. Um, I'm currently using iron rules standards. Um, I like, um, the, the design of them. I like, you know, the, the tonneau point. I like how sharp they are. Uh,

I like how they fly, how they spin. But also if you maybe don't want to go spend as much on iron wheels. In the past, I've had some great success with Slick Trick's Viper Trick. It's also a cut-on contact. That blade is in the elk before the ferrule ever is. It's already cutting tissue. And it's got less resistance to some of these non-cut-on contact heads, in my opinion. Chisel Tips, they talk about breaking bone and stuff better.

I'm from, from what I've seen, I'm just going to stick to cut on contact and then get good penetration. And to get good penetration, I'm also going to

lean towards a smaller cutting diameter. I'm going to look for, you know, I still shoot, as I mentioned, the S100, which is the standard iron will. I may be wrong, but it's either 1 inch or 1 and 16th inch cutting diameter, very small. And what I really want when I shoot a bull at any angle is a hole in and a hole out. I want that arrow to drive through as deep as I can and ultimately hopefully give me, you know, two holes to blood trail. So,

I've hunted with Kelly Smith, who's my good buddy, Charlie Smith's wife. I saw her shoot elk and blow right through them, and I believe she's only shooting in the low 50s. So I think you stay away from those heavy front leg bones, heavy shoulder bones. Maybe give yourself a little more room for error behind that front leg and make sure you're still hitting square in the lungs. Don't risk it. A 40 to 45 pound setup should be fine.

Shot placement is important, but with that, cut on contact, small cutting diameter should be the trick. Jumping to the next question from Steven Adney. He's asking about overnight trips and what size pack he needs in order to stay out for three to five nights at a time.

So, Steve, you're going to probably get a whole bunch of answers from a whole bunch of different people. You know, the minimalists that try to pack, you know, I'm not bringing any extra change of socks, underwear, clothes. Yeah, I'm going to have a sleeping bag and I'm going to put a piece of Tyvek over me and that's going to be their sleeping arrangement. So it really depends on how comfortable you want to be, how many luxuries you want to pack along, what your food looks like.

But I've always been of the idea, I want as big a pack as possible. And it's not so much for what I'm going to pack in or to let me overpack on the way in. But what it does allow me to do is if I do kill something and want to get my camp back out on that trip, I've got additional room without having to daisy chain all of my camp supplies on the outside of my pack. So yeah,

you know, I'm, I'm hunting with a, uh, a pack that's anywhere from 6,500 to 7,500 cubic inches. And people may say, well, that's huge. I have yet to see my pack not compressed down to 2,000 cubic inch packs. And that's, you know, for a couple extra ounces of material. Um, it gives me the ability to, to blow that pack way up. Um, you know, you add the snow color on and so I can pack my, uh, you know, really, really kind of push my pack up, you know, as I need to, um,

I'm more of a simple guy, so I have one large compartment. I don't have this thing organized down. If I need to do any additional organization, I'll use different dry sacks to separate things. But for the most part, I stuff into the bottom. So I would say some guys, if you're very, very space conscientious and ultra light and really packing the minimum, some guys can get by on a 3,000 cubic inch pack for a three to five night stay.

You know, really all your, after you've got your sleeping system in there and it's really just adding additional food at some point, maybe a little bit of additional fuel, maybe a little bit of additional water storage. But that's really all that changes in my overnight kit. My base kit, whether it's one day or five days, looks the same. I've got some sort of shelter, whether it's an ultralight, you know, I've been using a Seek Outside Cuban fiber kit.

Um, tent floorless tent that weighs, you know, under two pounds. If I'm grabbing my Kefaro sawtooth, if it's going to be, you know, with a stove, I'm able to get it at five pounds. I've got to put those in there when I'm spiking out, I'm using a stone glacier 15 degree bag. So I get that stuffed in there, um, a sleeping pad and that's really my base. And then from there, it's really just adding on additional food, um,

On a longer trip, I may throw in an extra pair of socks, extra pair of skivvies, whatever it may be, but that's really what my system is. So you really have to kind of find out for yourself, Steve, on what you're comfortable with, what you need to have in there. But I would say anywhere from 3,000, but I would urge people to go a little bit larger. It doesn't take up much extra weight. You can compress all that extra space there.

And I'm one for, I can save the weight in minimalizing my pockets. I don't need a bunch of pockets on the outside. I don't need a bunch of organization on the inside. As long as everything can fit in there, I'm going to dump all that when I get to camp anyways and have all kinds of room. I can use some Ziploc bags or whatever to separate other stuff. And that's really my simplified system for overnight trips and

We've packed in anywhere from you know one night to ten night and I'm using that same pack for everything You know there's we'll get into it a little bit here as I as I talk about what pack I use on these hunts and why but I'm really looking for other things like You know can the suspension haul the weight comfortably? You know some of those things can I get it all in there for my pack out? But yeah

anywhere from, you know, some guys can make it even smaller than 3000, but I would say for the majority, you're going to be at that 3,000, 3,500 cubic inch all the way up to the larger, you know, expeditions style packs. But yeah, you have to just have to kind of test and find for yourself, but.

Once again, if you have questions for me or my guests, please email us at ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com or hit us up on social media. Send us a social message and we'll do our best to get those on there for myself, Dirk, or any of our guests.

So everybody nowadays seems to be doing, you know, pack dumps or gear dumps. I just really wanted to go through. I used quite a bit of new year this year. Some of the stuff's been old and I just kind of wanted to walk through my four hunts, kind of go over the gear I use, kind of start to finish stuff.

Um, you know, and maybe some things people don't talk about or things that aren't that glorified, um, but, but really just kind of go through, uh, what we use. So my first time of the year was an archery Oregon elk hunt. Um, the unit I was in wasn't really set up to spike out in, um, there were a few spots to spike in there, but I wasn't allowed to film in them. So it didn't make any sense to, to, to, you know, spike in or set up for those. So this is what I would consider like a wall tent base camp. Um,

I only have a 20 by 16 wall tent, which was set up for me and my camera guy. So there was all kinds of room we did. We weren't worried about grizzly bears or anything like that. So we had our cook system inside that same tent. We had our table inside that tent. All of our gear easily fit with our two cots inside that tent.

Since this hunt was going to take place in the middle of September, we elected not to pack the stove, which takes up a bunch of room, and we would have had to gather firewood and whatnot, we figured, with the temps.

we wouldn't need a wood stove. About day five or six when the temperature started to drop into the freezing, we were starting to wish we had a stove. And it's not so much that your sleeping bags weren't able to handle it. It was just, you know, it wasn't as fun, you know, sitting around in the wall tent in all of your puffy coats and whatnot, trying to get ready for bed or just to sit up and have conversation with

you know, about the hunts, that day's hunts or tomorrow's hunts or just conversations in general. What we use to cook on that one, so you know a lot of our hunts where we're backpacking, you see a lot of the jet boils or the MSR reactor stoves or whatever little system we use with the isobutane. On this one, knowing that we were going to have a base camp, we grabbed a five gallon bottle of propane and we just packed along a two burner Camp Chef stove to be used on this hunt.

Um, and rather than have to have a bunch of pans and cleaning them, we elected to just have the griddle insert. So this is what I use on all of my, my trips to the dunes with the family. We do a lot of cooking on this. It's easy. It's simple. Um, you know, around home we use a Blackstone, but you know, we're camping, the camp chef's a little more durable and I don't care as much about it breaks down a little bit easier. Um,

So we just throw the Camp Chef in the back of the truck. It's kind of indestructible, always reliable. So yeah, just use that Camp Chef for all of our cooking. It got a little boring. It was a lot of, you know, burgers and hot dogs and, you know,

bratwurst and then we'd go back through burgers we did have steaks one night and uh my camera guy dave's brought some brisket for the first night so we switched it up but it was a lot of uh canned vegetables um you know burgers and stuff like that which was which was plenty for us um as far as food on a normal hunt um on a normal year i eat a lot of just whatever you know

you know, the Belvita breakfast bars, um, you know, any of those, um, you know, nice bars, any kind of just glued together, um, corn syrup type bars, um, seem to kind of fill my pack this year. I went a little bit different direction. I was trying to eat a little bit more healthy, um, try to get a little bit more fat in me and a little bit less, um, quick carbs. So a

A lot of keto nut mixes, a lot of bags of nuts. We brought some like hard Parmesan cheese,

um, there were, um, some ultra fat packets. They used to be like F bomb packets, but now they're like ultra fat packets, which is like a macadamia nut mixed with some, with some coconut oil, um, you know, heavy calorie type stuff, a lot of meat sticks. So I bought a lot of, um, there's a Bavarian meats company. They make these little short lawn Yeagers, like two in a bag. Um, I throw one or two of those packages in my pack every day. And then really just kind of

boring food selection, but kind of just grinded it through the hunts with just minimal, you know, lawn Jaeger, meat sticks, nut, you know, bags of nuts. And then I was eating, I

I don't remember the exact brand, but they're like a baked protein bar, um, you know, like 16, the 30, 30 grams of protein per bar, just to, it was kind of a little treat throughout the day, a little bit, you know, satisfy that sweet tooth, but that was really all I ate through the day. And then we'd come home and have kind of a big, a big meal on the, on the camp chef. So that was kind of my eating a lot different than what you see a lot of these guys pack or what I've packed in the past where it's, you know, a bag of sour patch kids, gummy worms, you know, whatever you can find and get to, um,

Really just kind of went a different direction this year and tried to be a little more healthy throughout the hunt. I think it kind of kept my energy levels higher and more sustained. Maybe I wasn't as good on a steep incline or a quick run up a mountain, but overall, start to finish, I felt a lot better.

We mentioned our cots and sleeping bag and the wall tent. So when I'm in a wall tent, I've got my canvas cutter system. And then I've just got my Kefaro 15 degree synthetic bag kind of stuffed in that.

It's plenty warm on a hunt like this. 15 degrees is plenty. It does a good job keeping me warm. The canvas cutter is outfitted with four inches of memory foam that kind of lays in the bottom. And I just kind of keep an old pillow stuffed in there. A real, you know, I don't even know what it is, a cotton pillow or whatever the heck, you know, your old standard cheap pillows are made out of. And that system is great. I do...

I do have an old school cot. I need to upgrade to get a little bit, a bigger one. Cause it seems like I'm touching all four sides of this thing. Uh, but that's just kind of my system. I actually sleep better sometimes on this cotton sleeping bag with the foam system than I do when I get home on my bed. So real comfortable, um, and just kind of makes, gives me a good night's sleep. Um, as far as when I got to this hunt, uh,

you know, what was I going to be shooting this year? You know, in the past I've been shooting, um, some PSE options. Um, this year I went back, uh, my good buddy, Corey Miller, who's working for black Eagle arrows and Darden. Um, I went to a 3d shoot with them and, uh, Eastern Montana and, uh, got talking with them and, uh, Randy kits, the owner of Darden and black Eagle, just a great guy. And, uh, we, we talked to them and we're like, yeah, I'll go ahead. And, you know, I haven't shot a Darden forever. I've never shot a Darden, but, uh,

Let me see what you guys got. Let's make sure we like them. And so, yeah, we just kind of try something different. So I ended up shooting a Darton Veracity. I don't know if it's Veracity or Veracity 35mm.

Really liked it. It's a little bit heavier than like the PSE 34, Mach 34 that I shot last year, but I held the bow a lot better. Lighter is not always better, especially when it comes to keeping a bow on target and how much the bow is reacting, at least for me.

I felt way more confident in this bow the bow shot where where I wanted it to and one of the big bonuses It tuned up very very easy now It may have been because I had you know, Henry Bass come to my place and get it all tuned up You know a great archery

great archery shooter. We also kind of knew tuning it into where the new arrows were going to be, that there weren't going to be a lot of changes between a broadhead and we were shooting them side by side as we got them tuned. So right off the bat, we basically had our bow broadhead tuned as well as shooting field points great.

We didn't mess with paper, which is something I really liked. We just went straight to shooting broadheads and field points and got them to dial in. I really liked that system because when I switched from field points to broadheads full time, everything was just kind of dialed and ready to go.

Really, really like that bow. Um, like I say, it's a little heavier to pack around, but I will trade a little bit of, you know, in the grand scheme of it, what's a half a pound, a pound even, um, when I know I draw that bow back and in my mind's at ease because that pin just kind of sitting where I want really liked it. Shot. Great. Um, we'll get to the shot on the bowl and you can't ask for, for much more than that at the end. Um, arrows, I shot a black, black Eagle X impacts. Um,

For those of you who don't know, I've got a 32 inch draw and it's all of 32 inches. If bows would let me go farther, I could probably get another half inch, if not more out of them. So I'm shooting a two 50 spine, a very stiff arrow, and these arrows are full length. So I don't cut them. Um, thankfully the black Eagle, you know, a lot of times the imperfections come at the ends. Uh, thankfully for me, the, the black Eagle X impacts pretty straight all the way through. So we just take a full length shaft, get them prepped up. And that's what I'm, I'm shooting. Um,

We add some weight to the tip. So along with that Iron Will S100, I'm adding some weight to the tip on the insert as well as the – I'm going to get this wrong and hopefully – I'm shooting basically a half cert, I believe. We've got basically a hidden system down inside that then attaches –

you know, to that, to that arrow. And, uh, it, it's great. I can, if I need to, I don't get too hung up on tuning my broad heads or getting everything to, to match in. Um, but, but that system gives me about 220 grains, I think plus or minus in the front. So I ended up shooting about a 570 to 580 grain arrow, um, 32 inches of draw at about 72 and a half pounds. And, um, we're shooting it, you know, mid to 80. So I'm not one of those guys that just chases and,

crazy high arrow weights. Um, I build my setup backwards. So I look at the bows rated speed, um, know where it's going to be. And then I just kind of build my arrow to put me at the mid two eighties. Um, I found mid two eighties keeps my pin, my pin gaps pretty tight. Um, but also make sure that tune in broadheads isn't too much of a pain in the neck. And so just kind of sat there. Um, my rest on that, that bow was a black gold ascent pro. Um,

One thing that I do a little bit different than others is I shoot all green pins.

Um, I set up my 20, 30, 40 for an Oh one nine pin. And then I set up my 50 yard pin as an Oh nine. Um, all green. Some people are like, well, that's confusing. I just, it's easy to keep track and it keeps me honest. I just, I have to count, you know, 20, 30, 40, and then, um, trust me after a while, it just becomes second nature. You know, if you're Haman 30, you're using your second pin and so on. Um, my 50 yard pins, my slider, I don't think I ever slid my site all year aside from getting my site tape set. So, um,

It's there, but I hopefully never have to use it and I never intend on using it unless the situation requires it. But for the most part, don't like to mess with that slider. I use tight spots new five arrow quiver light. It's got the rubber hood with some cutouts on it. And then for a rest, I had the rip cord micro adjust drive cage.

and for a stabilizer I've got like a 10 inch spider with four or five ounces on the end really kind of settles my bow down for me and balances out pretty nice so that's really all I've got going on with my bow we got the dart and veracity black eagle arrows iron will broadheads gold black gold ascent pro we've got tight spot and then we got rip cord pretty simple and for me

As much as I like this bow, my ultimate goal when I get shooting this thing is to have absolute confidence at any range that I'm going to shoot an elk that I'm going to hit that thing within that kill zone. And I haven't been as confident in one of my setups since I shot my Elite 35, whatever that was, 10 years ago. This has had me very confident. I guess my Evoke 35 from PSC I was pretty confident in, but...

Got really confident in this bow, which is for me is ultimately what matters when I'm out in the field. I know I'm going to make a shot when the shot prevents itself. 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.

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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 hunt the greatest.com. So what's on my feet. Um,

for boots i usually i've had all kinds of issues with boots um over my years i've tried almost every mountain boot and then ultimately settled on crispy brick stalls um we've used they used to have the black which were like a flex level five and then they had like the brown which i believe were like a flex level three brown was non-insulated black had 200 grams insulation well

Fast forward to 23, Crispy brought out a bunch of new boots around the Brickstall series, and one that really caught my eye was the Brickstall Pro GTX. So it has a synthetic fiber on the outside, same last, same everything else is a Brickstall, same lace system.

but we had a synthetic fiber and we also had the Gore-Tex. And one thing I didn't know if I was going to like it or not, but it is a light gray boot. They added 200 grams of insulation to this boot, which for September, August, September hunts, I'm like, I didn't know if I was going to like it, but I didn't notice any issues throughout the hunt. These boots are,

We're dang near perfect. Um, we had just a little bit of separation of the rubber ran, but I also wore these boots for 60 plus days in the mountains, you know, all over, um, perform flawlessly. We, we did some, um, did some touch-ups with some Marine goop, um, cleaned them out and they're backed as good as new. Everything else on the boot held up great. Um, so I can't complain about, about those. Um,

But while I'm giving you recommendations on boots, I also need to caveat this with do not take somebody's recommendations for boots unless it's like maybe on the durability. Everybody's foot's different. Everybody's got a different last that they build their boots on. Even within the same brand, like all the boots won't fit the same. They'll put one on one last, one on a different one. So take it for durability, but I'm not saying that everybody needs to go out and try the crispy bricks dolls. But for me, a guy with a lot of foot issues, they worked great.

Maybe just as important as the boots or the socks, what you've got on between your foot and the boots. I used to be a smart wool guy. I've tried all of these different brands and ultimately ended up on darn tough full cushion socks. They have a way tighter...

you know, weave or a knit or whatever you want to call them. They're tighter. They're more comfortable. They're more durable. Um, I just don't have heel issues, blister hotspot issues with darn toughs on. And so I don't know if it's a crispies. I don't know if it's a darn toughs, but whatever it is, those two are going to go in a combo and I'm going to stick with them. So darn tough, full cushions inside the crispy brick stalls, uh, are a money system for me.

What's on your back? We talked a little bit earlier on one of the listener questions. I'm still using an old school. I've got a 44 mag from Kefaru and I've got a cavern from Kefaru, which is about a 6,500 cubic inch pack. I no longer carry a big hood. I found that I just end up stuffing it full of too much crap that I don't need. So,

so I just run a Cafaro cavern, big open, um, pack and, and it works great for me. And what I really like about the Cafaro is I've been using them since 2011. Uh, the suspension has never, ever let me down. Well, I shouldn't say never. I had one issue on my Oregon bowl in 21 where one of my load lifter, um,

straps and broke a buckle. It wasn't anything that I couldn't get taken care of with some 550 paracord. And then Kefaro took care of it right away as soon as I got out. So it's not ideal to have equipment break, but I've also in whatever it is, a 13 years now only ever had one issue. And I'm not going to say that it wasn't mine because when you switch packs around and have to reconnect everything, I may have messed something up on how I connected that load lifter. But, um,

Been super happy with the Cavaro. My packs squeak free, which is one of the things that used to drive me nuts about my old packs.

And then that one pack, I like how it's organized. I've got a spotting scope pocket on the outside. My tripod attaches very easily, very quick to get in and out of, and will pack way more than I ever will be able to. Another thing that I do when I have meat as well, a lot of people like this pack will separate away from the frame. I carry a 100 liter dry bag, and I just drop all of my meat into that dry bag until I get out, unless it's going to be a real long pack out, and then I've got to try to figure out how to get some air to it.

But, uh, packs worked great for me. Um, as far as clothing on a September hunt, I like to be able to layer and whether it's a, an archery hunt in September, whether it's a rifle deer hunt in 10 degrees, I like to try to get by on three lay, you know, three layers. I like to have like in September, it's usually going to be the wick against my skin.

If, as it gets more, uh, colder, we may move into the kiln or even into some heavier, um, you know, first light stuff, whether, you know, it's the furnace or, um, you know, some of those other ones. But usually for me, it ends up being the, the wick early season. And then we go to kiln, um, you know, after that, then I like to go with either a fleece or, uh, you know, whether it's the origin hoodie or like the Klamath over top of it.

And then from there, I go to the big coat, whether it's, you know, for me right now, it's a Chamberlain. You know, we're going into that with those three layers, depending on how I mix and match them. I should be able to get through, you know, any situation early season all the way to late season.

Um, I was able to test out first lights, new, um, pattern this year, the circa pattern, um, kind of built for new Western open environments. And I tell you what, at least on the Oregon Elka, it blended in great, um, with some of that open yellow grass, um, more open country, um, not real thick, dark timber, um, seemed to perform really, really well.

As far as my harness, another sister company, I've worked with Paul well before we ever joined up at MeatEater. I'm using their front opening bino system. On my right pocket, since I'm right-handed, I've got my rangefinder pocket. And on my left wing, I've got an E3 pocket, and I've got a little Velcro strap in there. And that allows me to hold my thumb release. So I've got my archery release on my left pocket, my rangefinder on my right, and then my binos straight down the middle.

optics I used. I use these on all my hunts, a loophole 10 by 42 binos. I used to use the BX5s. They've got some new range finding binoculars out now, the BX4 range finding binoculars. I'm still using some old prototypes that I was given three years ago, testing out the glass and I really, really like them.

So that's what I'm still continuing to use. And then for a range finder on the archery hunt, I ended up with the RX five, a full draw range finder. Um, I love that thing. It's quick. Um, it calculates my, my true horizontal distance and I can trust that thing, whether I'm shooting a hundred yards, you know, on a 3d course, um, straight downhill always seems to give me the right answer.

So once we did find some success on the hunt, uh, my knife that I use was a bench made hidden Canyon hunter. Um, I like to have a big heavy duty blade. That's that sharp. Um,

I get in there and try to do quick work. I love, you know, have lawns and stuff when you're when you're caping or around the face or the heads or but for skinning quickly, making sure you're not cutting through hide. I'd much rather take my Benchmade Hidden Canyon knife or those type of knives, you know, those five inch type fixed blades, you

that you can rip and tear and kind of get through that animal really quickly. Maintains a great edge and it's very, very easy to sharpen. I also carry in the same pocket a WorkSharp field sharpener just with a real easy to touch up that knife and get things back to the way they were to start with. And we'll talk a little bit on the mule deer hunt

when you're having some success and you're ending up on all of the processing, we had to get through five, six, seven deer with those, and that WorkSharp field sharpener just works quick. Calls, I can't go through what we use without mentioning calls. So we released that new Unleashed 2.0 this year, and while a lot of guys like it, I still –

Just love the metal bugle tube. I love the ring I love the resonance we get out of an aluminum material So I ended up sticking with our metal bugle tube this year. I threw an easy sucker on for my external I actually didn't pack a mini X I don't believe if I did I didn't use it a whole lot and then for diaphragms I ended up using a combination of the pink amp which is my signature call the green amp and then also threw in a pitch black to occasionally on that hunt and

So I don't pack a lot of calls, don't need to, but that was kind of what we had. Headlight, when things got dark, I was actually using a Ledlenser MH8.

style headlamp. I like it because I can charge it. If I get back to the truck after dark, um, I can hang it up, hook it up to my USB charger, get it charged up for the rest of the day. And if I happen to be out too long or can't, or can't, um, you know, get it charged, I can take out the, the rechargeables and dump in normal double a batteries. And we're right back to going. Um, it'll

It also comes with a case that acts as a battery pack. So when we're on, at least for the first couple of days, you know, if we're not using our headlamps a lot, I can recharge that thing, you know, three or four times, you

And without having to dip into, to, to the lithiums and get that thing recharged, you know, game bags, everybody's what game bags you use. I'm like, I use an assorted grab bag over all these years. You know, I've got some, our golly, I've got some tag bags. I've got some that loophole sent me. Um, we've just got a big mix of game bags and after washing them and having 40 different bags kind of sitting in the shop, I'd usually just grab and they've all worked fairly well. Um, and, uh,

Don't have any complaints there. Aside from that, that's really kind of the gear, the main gear that we used on this archery elk hunt. OnX was used. One thing I didn't mention, which we did use a lot of OnX, depending on whether we were next to property boundaries, needing to figure out where we're at, how to get access. So a lot of OnX was used to make sure we're staying in place.

And, uh, yeah, it was that, that was the gear that I use on that. And a lot of this is going to carry over. So then my next time of the year rolls into like a Washington rolls into my Washington muzzleloader hunt, um,

really similar temperature to that Oregon archery hunt. So a lot of the gear is going to stay the same. But one thing I do want to kind of highlight is the muzzleloader that I, I've always used the tradition and it's a Northwest edition, you know, so we used to have some stricter rules on traditional muzzleloaders. Um, a couple of years ago, they, they changed those rules. And so this year I was able to use a Remington, um, 700 ultimate muzzleloader, um,

For those of you that haven't seen it, I think it's a shortened .308 case with a Magnum rifle primer as your ignition system. And then the gun...

I need to be careful what I say. The gun doesn't say it's designed to use Blackhorn 209, but I move forward with Blackhorn 209, so I'm not endorsing it, not saying it's okay for it. I do have a new breech plug coming for it, which is set up for Blackhorn 209, but I used that original ignition system, that original breech shot Blackhorn 209,

Um, ideally you should be measuring your powder, um, by weight on a scale, but I was, uh, using 105 grains by volume, um, which I don't even want to get the math wrong. Ends up being somewhere between like 72 to 75 grains by weight, um, a fairly light load, but because I didn't have the breach correct, um, that stock Remington 700, um, ultimate breach isn't designed for Blackhorn 209. And I didn't want to gas cut, um, that breach. I kept it pretty dang light. Um,

And then I, this year, elected to use Federal Trophy Copper Borlaug 270. Very easy to load. Very, very accurate out of my gun. So with all of that being set up...

Worked very very well, and I'm actually sitting here holding one of the the mushroom bullets performance was amazing On boat first bullet from long distance. You don't quite get the expansion That bullet passed through my follow-up shot from 60 yards mushroomed out perfectly and was lodged in the opposite shoulder That that worked great and you couldn't ask for better performance on the bullet we did recover and

On this one, we, we, a little bit different style. I haven't been able to get an elk out whole in a long, long time, but this elk happened to die in some property that we had permission to get to. So on this hunt, we used a retrieval vehicle, which was, we have a Can-Am, which actually my daughter's Can-Am Trail 1000. She likes to putt around the yard and,

and go for little nature drives and whatnot. So we, we hooked that up. We're able to get to that bowl and ultimately get that bowl out whole, which is, is real nice. Um, you know, it's, it's nice to clean up when you get back to, to the, we have a meat shop with an eight by 10, um,

you know, cooler and all of that. And so got it back to home and was able to break that thing down. And the can-am came in real nice because the property owner didn't necessarily want us to take our truck out there, but didn't mind if we had a small little UTV. And so that worked out, you know, good.

But yeah, everything else aside from that was very similar. The same clothing, same boot, same pack, same everything aside from the weapon. That one was right in my backyard. So you also switched up camp and you ended up you ended up just staying at home. And it's kind of nice being able to come home, get a good night's rest and then, you know, get up an hour, hour and a half before daylight and get going.

Next hunt on my list was my Montana rifle deer hunt. This is kind of always one of those ones I look forward to every year. It's always a great fun hunt with my family. And so on this one, the weapon, we ended up using the R Brothers. It's a custom-built rifle. It used to be in Washington, then went to Utah. Now he's ultimately in Texas. But we used an R Brothers rifle.

custom built gun and seven short action ultra mag. So I had that gun kind of custom built for mountain hunts, you know, elk capable shoots really well defiance action, you know, uh, jewel trigger, uh, proof barrel. And then all three of us, uh, ended up shooting our deer with that same gun, all, uh, one shot, one kill, uh,

very, very minimal meat damage. And a lot of people are going to be surprised. A lot of people don't like the 180 burgers, but to this day with that gun, um, I've had very, very many or very, very few, uh, animals, um, make it more than 10 yards. Most of them die on impact. And, uh, if they don't, they, they pile up pretty quick. Um, so very happy with how that performed. Um, my wife shot her deer at 500 and

18 yards hit it perfectly right behind the high point on the shoulder didn't damage hardly any meat my son shot his buck at 115 yards with it and I shot mine at about 280 all one shot one kill and placed very very well

180 burgers, we reload that gun with RL-26. One thing, we actually, we reduce that load in the off season. RL-26 is an Alliant powder and it's very, it's supposed to be temperature stable, but it's as crazy as it gets at times. It doesn't like to shoot in cold, doesn't like to shoot in hot. We've had pressure signs, but it does give you ultimate performance. But we were able to kind of

curb those issues or kind of make them less of an issue by reducing that seat in the bowl a little bit farther. And that gun just shoots lights out. So yeah, we reload that one, top that gun off. That gun has my, maybe my favorite scope of all time. It's the Leupold Mark V, 5-25x56, a 35 millimeter tube. That gun has tracked perfectly.

all the time. Um, it dials up where you want it. It drops back where you want it. It's, uh,

you know, easy to get on target. It's got a great eye box, especially, you know, for me, it's maybe not as big issue, but for my wife and son that are shooting the guns that also have the cheek piece set right where it's good for me, they can always acquire their target, um, very quickly and, uh, been really happy with that scope. Um, number one, it's repeatable. Uh, number two, it's got some great glass in it and, um, never, never let me down. So I really liked that setup. Um, that hunt, uh,

I don't know if anybody have been to Montana when it's, uh, after a snow or a freeze. Um,

That hunt on a few days pushed my Raptor to everything that it had, you know, all four. And we didn't try to tear it up. We were trying to sometimes just get turned around, you know, four-wheel drive, differentials locked, and, you know, traction control off, advanced track off. That thing, without a UTV or the ability like that, got us into some areas. You know, even some of the county roads were a little bit sketchy, but that hunt ultimately dried out and it became real nice. But, yeah.

Um, yeah, I, that one, we also use the, the loophole spotter, the, and I'm going to get this wrong. The, I use all straight, I believe it's a SX four. I could be wrong. Um, yeah, SX four spotter, um, from loophole, uh, straight. Um, you know, it's great glass. Let's just sit behind it for a long time and, uh, you do all the spotting there. Um,

Trying to think if there's any other gear on that hunt that we used a little bit differently. It did start to get cold on that hunt. So, you know, you start to... I'm a big sis when it comes, you know, to...

And so I always end up, I don't know, I believe there, we weren't using the Brooks down. We were using the heavier, um, the Alpine cold weather glove on this hunt. Um, and then there's, I think I had the Alpine cold and then, um, my wife and son had the grizzly 2.0s. Um, just we, we added heavy gloves, um,

We were in our Chamberlain a lot more on that and then this is where we start to switch to the the kiln series from the wick we start to Go to a heavier mid layer and then we start to throw that Chamberlain on top Especially when you're doing long glassing sits without a lot of movement movement Really kind of seemed to be the answer trying to see anything else on that rifle hunt that we did a little bit different and

No, I think that's about it as far as different gear. You know, same thing, boots. We were still rocking the crispy brick stalls. It wasn't that 200 grams of insulation kind of knocked that edge off when it starts to get cold. Everything else is similar. Those hunts, we Airbnb it. My wife and kid are along. I want it to be enjoyable for them. And don't get me wrong. I like to have a comfortable camp and be able to shower every morning. So I kind of like those ones. And then just...

We just finished up our Kansas archery hunt.

Once again, our biggest change is our weapons kind of going back and then our clothing on this one. So I went back to the Dart and Veracity 35. Same exact arrow setup. Anybody that paid attention during whitetail week, I did a little blurb on the bow I've been using for whitetail, and I just don't change my Western setup. It's a monster out here. I don't need to shoot any faster. I don't switch my broadheads. One thing I did run into a little bit of an issue is

When I went to shoot my buck, you know, you get in these blinds, whether it's a tree stand, you've kind of got all kinds of room. You're in a blind. You've got limitations. You know, I'd always draw my bow. Sometimes my elbow would hit. And one thing that happened right when I was going to shoot my buck this year is I've got that 10 inch spider stabilizer on it.

sometimes it's hard to draw your bow you know you got your arrow kind of hanging out the windows even to get your bow drawn just so things aren't in the way and i didn't realize my 10-inch stabilizer was going to hit off of the windowsill um the inside and so next year i may look at before i go to whitetail hunt um

coming up with a different stabilizer system, you know, that maybe has more weight, but on a shorter bar, um, something to that effect to, to prevent, um, you know, any of that from happening. Um, I've never felt cold enough yet that I couldn't draw my bow back. You know, even when I do get chilly, I kind of practice, make sure I can get my bow back and haven't had any issues yet. So knock on wood, um, that, that nothing will happen there. Um,

So clothing, um, it changes up a lot when I'm not Western hunting, when I can't get up and walk and go to, to, to warm myself up or, or, you know, create some of my own heat. Um, you're stuck in a tree stand. So, um, one thing that I did this year, you know, last year it was really, really cold and I kind of barely just got by on my solitude setup. So this year, the solitude kit worked great, you know, um, in that forties, I would say forties, the thirties, um,

On that one, I would put my kiln hoodie on the base layer. I would wear my source jacket over it, and then I would play with zipping or unzipping or walking to my stand without my solitude coat on, but then I'd have my solitude bibs on for the majority of the hunt. One thing I also change up on my white-tail hunts is my boot system. Those crispy mountain boots, even at 200 grams of insulation, just aren't going to cut it. So I've got some lacrosse boots.

I can't even, I believe they're 1600 grams of insulation. And let me, I'm actually searching Google right here while I'm looking at it. I believe they're the Alpha Burley Pros that are in, yeah, Alpha Burley Pro, 1600 grams in First Light Cypher, I believe.

So wear those and I also just wear my darn tufts in those and they seem to be enough to get me through those 30 to 40 degree days. Yeah, I mean we used quite a few Summit tree stands. We used a lot of Millennium tree stands. A lot of these are already set up on the hunt. My buddy Randy that owns the property, he's also got some Redneck blinds set up. We're using Summit harnesses, safety harnesses on those hunts.

We did add a Dave Smith decoy. I don't know. It's one of the bucks. I don't know if it's like a, I don't know the exact name of it, but it worked on a couple of sites. We've had some bucks come in bristled up, but there are times where, you know, maybe some smaller deer, some does didn't necessarily like it when they kind of show up out of the blue. So it worked on the bucks that it was meant to work on, but kind of, you know, was a little suspect to some of the deer that didn't want to see that buck that close to the stands.

But yeah, Dirk had some better success with it than I did and some bucks really committed to that thing. Yeah, other than that, that's kind of the gear we used. We don't get too crazy, too fancy with our gears, kind of the same stuff year after year. There's not a lot of major changes that I want to make to my gear. I try to put more attention on the hunting better and different than I do into my gear.

So that's really what we've got. You know, the calls on that whitetail hunt, I guess we need to talk about that a little bit. I used the beta as well, but we also tested some new calls. You know, we've got some new calls coming out for 24 with some pretty cool features.

Um, you know, we also got to test our rattling bag, which seemed to at times have deer running by us. So the rattling bag worked really well. Um, but yeah, that, that was what we used in Kansas. That's kind of what we used for all of 23. Um, and if, if 24 season started tomorrow, I wouldn't hesitate.

to go right back out in the field with it. There was no gear that I used that I thought really, really failed me or that I wanted something better. So yeah, thanks for listening. Cutting the distance. That was my gear for 23. Feel free to send us an email to ctd at phelpsgamecalls.com if there's any gear you want opinions on or would like us to test out or take a look at. I'm always interested in what's new and what's out there and maybe something that we're overlooking, but appreciate you all. Good luck if you have any fall hunts left and we'll catch you on the next episode.

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